AmiralLaurent
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11 July 1943
Northern Pacific
The three surface TF sent east of PJ during the night were far less successful than hoped. The CA Chokai and the 3 DD sent respectively 180 and 120 miles east of the base found no target. The third TF had a bad start when the SS USS Seahorse attacked it 120 miles W of PJ and torpedoed the CL Kuma, setting her on fire, then evading the depth charges launched by her only escort, the DD Makinami, that scored only a near miss. These two ships anyway continued to the planned area and there met a DD of four American DD. The Allied crews curious to see what this burning ship was were surprised when it began firing at them but the battle was deceiptive for both sides. In two separate actions between the two small Tf, the DD Makinami was hit by 3 shells and set on fire, while several shells bounced on the Kuma without doing much damage. On the US side, the DD Foote was hit twice and set on fire, the DD La Valette and Braine were hit once each and not heavily damaged.
Both sides then retired. The same US DD TF met in the morning the SS I-19 360 miles WSW of PJ and chased it. The only intact DD, the USS Sims, scored two hits and 5 near misses with Mk 9 depth charges on the Japanese submarine, heavily damaging her (51/75/0) (by the way I forgot to say yesterday that the I-6, heavily damaged some days ago north of Amchitka Island by two Allied aircraft, had sunk south of the Aleutians). The three Japanese raiding TF met no more Allied submarines but didn’t run as fast as planned and were in range of Allied aircraft at dawn… but Allied airmen had something else to do.
Because today at last weather was good on the whole area and the CV of both sides were only 120 miles apart. The Kido Butai was 120 miles north of Paramushiro Jima, the main Allied CV fleet 60 miles east of it and the CVE TF just of the beachhead. Only the latter reacted and moved NW (probably to have more maneuver room). Patrols of both sides continued to identify enemy ships and to suffer heavy losses to enemy CAP.
It is difficult to give precise figures as the losses in the CV battle today were very high for both sides, but my estimation was that Allied CAP scored 15 victories against patrol aircraft (5 Pete, 3 Val, 2 Jill, 2 Dave, 1 Betty, 1 Dinah and 1 Glen) and lost a Wildcat V in an accident. Another Val was shot down by AA fire during a patrol but other identified two new CVL not yet reported, the Cowpens and the Independence. The Japanese CAP was better and shot down 19 patrol aircraft (6 SDB, 6 Kingfisher, 2 TBF, 2 Mariner, 1 Barracuda, 1 Walrus and 1 Seagull) and lost an A6M3a in an accident. Another Kingfisher was shot down by AA fire when it flew too close of a Japanese ship.
And then the CV battle started…. the first since August 1942.
In the morning the Allied CV TF managed to send a well coordinated raid and all units arrived at the same time near the Kido Butai, concentrating on one CV TF. 103 SBD, 70 TBF, 27 Barracuda and 16 TBM flew this raid under escort by 65 F4F-4, 12 Wildcat V and 6 F6F. They were intercepted by a CAP of 176 A6M3a and 28 A6M5 that performed very well. Better aircraft (expect the handful of F6F), better experience and less fatigue really helped the Japanese pilots that suffered 28 losses in this first attack (27 A6M3a and 1 A6M5) but shot down 210 Allied aircraft (64 F4F-4, 56 TBF, 36 SBD, 22 Barracuda, 14 TBM, 12 Wildcat V and 6 F6F)! Tens of Allied bomber crews turned back under the fierce attacks of the Zeroes and finally only 15 (8 TBF, 5 Barracuda and 2 TBM) reached the Japanese ships and attacked several CVs but scored no hit, losing one more TBF to AA fire.
The Japanese airmen attacked two Allied CV TF in the morning and one of the two raids get split in two. What saved them from a major disaster was that the first raid to reach the target was the biggest and was very well escorted. I had also hesitated a lot as putting my CAP level at 60 or 70% and finally decided for 60, and this probably did the difference between a slaughter for Japanese airmen and what happened (that you will maybe call a slaughter too, but it could have been worse).
This first raid targeted a TF built around the CV USS Lexington II and HMS Indomitable and the CVL USS Independence. It was flown by 79 Val and 34 Kates escorted by 85 A6M3a and 20 A6M5 and met a CAP flown by 141 F4F-4, 23 Wildcat V and 14 Hellcats. The Japanese fighters sacrificed themselves to open a way for the bombers to reach the enemy ships but also decimated the Allied fighters. Losses between fighters were roughly even: 86 for Japan (72 A6M3a and 14 A6M5) and 89 for the Allied (82 F4F-4, 5 F6F and 2 Wildcat V) but the exhausted Allied pilots stopped less than half of the Japanese bombers. 40 Vals and 10 Kates were shot down by the Allied CAP, but respectively 39 and 24 got trough and attacked the big warships in the center of the TF. They met a murderous AA fire that shot down 16 Vals and 11 Kates, but scored the first hits of the battle. The Lexington was hit by a torpedo and 2 bombs and set on fire, the Indomitable was hit by a bomb that didn’t pierce the armoured bridge but destroyed an AA gun position and the CVL Independence and two BB (Indiana and Massachusetts) were attacked but missed.
A small part of this Japanese attack group arrived late with 18 Val and 15 Kates escorted by 11 A6M3a. What remained of the Allied CAP (59 F4F-4, 21 Wildcat V and 9 F6F) was unable to stop them even if it shot down 18 Japanese aircraft (7 A6M3a, 7 Kate and 4 Val) for the loss of 9 F4F-4. AA fire then shot down exactly half of the remaining aircraft, 7 of the 14 Val and 4 of the 8 Kates, but the Lexington was hit again by a bomb and was now reported as being heavily damaged. Two more bombs hit the Massachusetts but without doing much damage, and the Indomitable dodged the torpedoes fired against her.
A smaller Japanese group attacked another Allied CV TF with 12 Kate and 7 Val escorted by 14 A6M3a. The CAP was now flown by 48 F4F-4, 21 Wildcat V and 9 F6F that shot down 7 A6M3a, 6 Kate and 2 Val but lost 8 F4F-4 and 3 Wildcat V. Once again more than half of the Japanese fighters reached the ships. They attacked the CV Essex and the CL Denver with torpedoes and the CVL Monterey with bombs, but scored no hit and lost 3 Val and 2 Kate to AA fire.
At midday Admiral Nagumo, the commander of Kido Butai, was well confident that the battle had been won, and in fact probably become far too much overconfident because he sent 24 A6M3a on LRCAP over Paramushiro Jima on dubious reports of Allied air acivity. All that saw these pilots were some Allied recon aircraft.
And the battle was not yet over. Once again, the Allied air assault was well coordinated in the afternoon with all aircraft attacking the same Japanese CV group. A first raid came from the CVE TF with 11 TBF escorted by 12 F4F-4. The Japanese CAP had been reduced by losses, Japanese raids launched at the same time requiring escort, and stupid orders to 61 A6M3a and 17 A6M5. They shot down all 12 F4F-4 for the loss of 3 A6M3a but then destroyed only 7 of the TBF. The four that get trough attacked the CV Junyo and the BB Musashi but scored no hit and two were shot down by AA fire.
Then arrived the airmen from the main CV TF: 43 SBD, 2 TBF and 2 TBM escorted by 8 F4F-4, 3 Wildcat V and 2 F6F. Japanese CAP shot down with ease all 13 Allied fighters (only losing an A6M3a in this fight) and then attacked the Allied bombers, concentrating on the Dauntless flying at high level. 11 were shot down and the 31 survivors turned back, as in the morning. Of the four torpedo bombers only one TBF was shot down by the CAP and the 3 other attacked the CV Kaga and Junyo but again missed. AA shot down a TBM.
And that was the end of the Allied air attacks against the Kido Butai with no damage done to any ship. But it was not the end of the battle, as it was now the turn of Japanese airmen to strike enemy ships.
The Allied CAP was now reduced to 20 F4F-4, 9 Wildcat V and 6 F6F and even if Japanese attacks that arrived in scattered order they were powerful enough to overwhelm the Allied CAP.
Four waves of Japanese aircraft attacked an Allied CV TF built around the CV USS Yorktown and HMS Illustrious and the CVL Cowpens. The first wave was made of 31 Kat, 17 Judy, 9 Jill and 4 Val escorted by 46 A6M3a and 13 A6M5 and swept most of the CAP. The next waves were made of 25 Kates escorted by 2 A6M3a, 12 Vals escorted by 4 A6M3a, and finally 18 unescorted Kates. In air battles, 19 Japanese aircraft (12 A6M3a, 2 A6M5, 2 Val, 1 Kate, 1 Judy and 1 Jill) and 26 Allied (14 F4F-4, 7 Wildcat and 5 F6F) were shot down. So 113 Japanese attack aircraft reached the TF… and were decimated by AA fire that shot down 42 Kate, 6 Jill, 5 Val and 3 Judy around this TF alone. But all three Allied CV were hit. The CVL Cowpens was heavily damaged by two torpedoes, the Illustrious was set on fire by two torpedoes (and also was hit by two other that didn’t explode) and the Yorktown took a torpedo and two bombs but still seemed not seriously damaged when she was last seen.
Two other small raids attacked other CV groups with 15 Vals escorted by 4 A6M3a and then 9 Kates. The few remaining Allieds fighters didn’t managed to intercept them and two more F4F-4 were bounced and shot down by the Zeroes. AA fire continued to shot down about half of the attacking Japanese aircraft, in this case 10 Val and 5 Kate, but the CVL Monterey was damaged by a bomb and two near-misses (hits not penetrating the belt armor), and the CV Essex and the CVL Princeton were each hit by a torpedo.
And so this day of CV battle ended with a Japanese costly but real success:
_ Allied losses were 421 aircraft (in this battle, 433 overall for the day), including 415 A2A, 5 AA and 1 ops. Lost were 201 F4F-4, 71 TBF, 53 SBD, 28 Wildcat V, 23 Barracuda, 18 F6F, 16 TBM, 7 Kingfisher, 2 Mariner, 1 Seagull and 1 Walrus. The CV Lexington II and CVL Cowpens were heavily damaged, while the CV Essex, Illustrious and Yorktown II and the CVL Princeton were maybe hit seriously enough to be out of the battle and probably out of the war for some months, and the CVL Monterey and Indomitable were hit but remained operational. At least five other Allied CV were still intact: the CV Hornet and Enterprise II, an unidentified British CV (the Victorious?) and the CVL Independence and Belleau Woord. To that may be added at least two CVE, the Chenango and Suwanee.
_ Japanese losses were 345 aircraft (again in this battle, excluding losses suffered during LBA strikes off PJ described below, 353 overall for the day), including 235 A2A, 106 AA and 4 ops. Lost were 130 A6M3a, 95 Val, 80 Kate, 17 A6M5, 7 Jill, 5 Pete, 4 Judy, 2 Jake, 2 Dave, 1 Betty, 1 Dinah II and 1 Glen. No Japanese CV was hit.
Despite the two CV forces were each in range of enemy LBA, no land-based units took part in the battle. Allied heavy bombers flew only naval search and one bombed and hit the SS I-38 300 miles east of Attu, doing medium damage (25/5/0).
On the Japanese side Toyohara-based bombers attacked ships off PJ that had been left as usual without CAP by the reacting CVE TF. A group of 21 Betties and 15 Nells escorted by 39 Oscar II attacked a convoy and scored 7 torpedo hits, sinking the LST-335 (2 hits), heavily damaging two other LST and the AP President Gardfield (hit twice) and setting on fire the CL Richmond. AA fire shot down 3 Betties and a Nell, while another Betty and an Oscar were lost operationally. A smaller group of 3 Betties escorted by 6 Oscar tried to attack the BB New Mexico but missed and 2 of the 3 bombers were shot down by AA fire.
By the way landing operation had continued during the night and the day on Paramushiro Jima. Japanese coastal defenses only fired 13 shells and hit no ship. Allied landing losses were 552 men. During the night, four British cruisers (2 CA and 2 CL) and 6 DD bombarded the base, doing 506 casualties, disabling 3 guns and scoring 5 hits on the airbase, 5 on supplies, 73 on the runways, and 1 on a fuel dump. In the morning the AP John Glenn, critically damaged by mines on the first day of the landing, sank SE of the island.
On the ground, Japanese artillery fired at Allied troops but hit nothing, while Allied didn’t attack any more. The evening report in PJ reported damage of 67/99/90 (airbase/runways/port), 182 available engineer squads and 466 AV while the Allied forces were reported as 65305 men, 593 guns and 154 vehicles (AV 1075). Japanese transport aircraft continued to bring men of the 14th Div to the base (or maybe did not fly due to the runway state, I didn’t check it this turn) and another Chutai (of 8 Topsies) arrived in the evening in Toyohara and will bring parts of the regiment of the 14th Div based here.
At sunset, the Kido Butai commander was faced with a crucial question: what to do next. His ships were intact, but he had lost half of his aircraft during the day and now only had 227 fighters (215 available) (this included the 27 Zeroes of a 58 exp operational training unit arriving in the evening from Ominato), 80 dive-bombers (62) and 78 torpedo bombers (66). The opposing side had also lost half of his aircraft, including a big part of its CV fighters, and had about half of its CV damaged enough to be out of order, but with ports size 4-5 available in Attu and Kiska, most if not all damaged CV could be saved. On the other hand, the remaining Allied CV probably had enough aircraft left to still be a threat, and the heavy bombers based in Attu may get trough the weakened Japanese CAP. So pursuing the retreating Allied ships under the umbrella of Allied LBA was not an option.
It was decided that BB and submarines will be the ones that will try to sink the damaged CV before they escaped. All Japanese CV were gathered into two CV TF (one with 190 AC and the other with 162) and the two “freed” admirals, Yamaguchi and Yamada, will each lead a TF with all available BB east of PJ to try to chase the damaged CV during the night. Today reports showed that retiring Allied ships sailed not only to Attu but also to Kiska and Amchitka and so the 6 remaining Japanese submarines were deployed on a line stretching 180 miles from north to south to cover ll these lanes. Both BB TF will sweep waters respectively 120 miles east and ESE of PJ, and retire at dawn towards Etorofu Jima. The CA Chokai will also return to these waters and sail 60 miles SE of PJ.
The KB airmen will prefer prudence rather than being reckless. Both CV TF will sail just SE of PJ. Zeroes will fly 90% CAP and attack aircraft will fly to range 3. So they may attack the most damaged and slow damaged CV, or the Allied convoys. The heavy CAP will protect the CV against the remaining SBD and the Attu-based heavy bombers. At this place, the KB will be out of range of the P-38 and with their range of 3 Japanese attack aircraft will meet no P-38 on LRCAP.
Land-based bombers in Toyohara received more aggressive orders. 81 bombers remained here, and 53 were available in the evening. All units received orders to fly naval attack to range 15, while flying 20% naval search. By the way the local engineers received the orders to expand the AF (currently size 4) to size 6.
The four Japanese ships hit today (CL Abukuma, DD Makinami and SS I-19 and I-38) all received orders to sail to various Japanese ports.
In Toyohara, the Mutsu TF was scattered. The BB herself will sail to Sapporo with an APD that happened to be here escorting two AK, while the other ships (2 CA, 4 CL and 4 DD) will sail east towards PJ under command of Adm Nishimura.
A convoy loaded 48k fuel in Takamatsu and will bring them to Ominato, where the KB will refuel after the battle.
Southern Pacific
Japanese engineers expanded the airfield of Tarawa to size 6.
New Guinea-New Britain- Solomon Islands
In the morning 8 PB4Y from PM attacked Kavieng and scored 1 hit on supplies and 6 on the runways. Rabaul was attacked in the afternoon by 32 B-25J from Gili Gili that disabled 32 men and 2 guns and scored 5 hits on the airbase, 5 on supplies and 18 on the runways for one operational loss. This base reported in the evening damage of 2/0 (airbase/runways), while Kavieng was fully repaired.
The surface raiding TF (a CA, 3 DD) sent from Truk reached its planned patrol position north of Bougainville… and as usual received orders to wait as the weather forecast for tomorrow was for clear weather. Everytime Japanese surface ships were in the area for the 3 next weeks it had been the case. Frustating…. especially because the weather was almost always rainy or stormy when they were not in position.
The three transport aircraft Chutai based in Hollandia will start tomorrow to ferry men of the 43rd Div to Wewak.
In Lunga, the Japanese engineers had almost finished to build fortifications (level 8, 98%) and a convoy of 14 AP and 6 escorts left Truk for this base. It will pick up all construction troops and bring them to other bases.
Timor-DEI-Australia
In the afternoon, Lautem was bombed by 25 B-24D from Darwin escorted by 13 P-40N that scored 1 hit on the airbase, 1 on supplies and 9 on the runway, did 46 casualties and disabled one gun. The only Allied loss was a Mariner shot down by AA fire over Kendari.
The evening report for this area gave the airfield status as: Maumere 39/0 (system/runway), Dili 6/0, Lautem 49/10/11, other bases undamaged. The garrison of Koepang had started again to build fortifications (level 6, 5%).
SRA
An ASW group was formed in Manila and left this base to patrol north of Luzon and chase the numerous Allied submarines still reported by air patrols in this area..
Burma
Allied air activity raised again to its usual level after two quiet days. Myitkyina was attacked by 6 B-25J from Ledo and 28 B-24D from Imphal escorted by 22 P-40N and 18 P-40E and reported 11 casualties, 7 hits on the airbase, 5 on supplies and 41 on the runways, and an Allied LRCAP of two Beaufighter VIC. Four units of the garrison (33rd and 104th Div, 21st and 23rd Mixed Bde) were bombed by 58 Liberator VI, 50 Beaufighter VIC, 38 Vengeance I, 29 B-17E, 29 Beaufighter Mk 21, 22 B-25J and 8 Blenheim IV from Imphal, Dacca, Kohima and Ledo escorted by 38 P-40n and 24 P-40E and lost 298 men and 14 guns. In the jungle more west, the 12th NLF was attacked and missed by 50 Hurricane II from Imphal escorted by 3 Spitfire Vb SE of this base, while 20 Lysander I from Kohima escorted by 7 Spitfire Vb attacked the 12th NLF SW of their base and hit 23 men. Allied losses during the day were 1 F-5A, 1 Beaufighter Mk 21 and 1 VIC shot down by AA fire, and one B-24D, a B-25J and a Vengeance I lost in accidents.
Japanese aircraft still reported a convoy off Chandpur. The planned raiding force was constituted in Victoria Point with 2 CA, 1 CL and 3 DD and sailed north in the evening. Tomorrow it will be 180 miles NW of Rangoon, ready to strike the next night. It will be LRCAPed by 20 A6M3a and 17 Oscar II from Rangoon but the forecast bad weather was hoped to hide them from Allied patrols (that should be reduced as most Allied bombers were used to bomb troops). By the way the same forecast of thunderstorms was the reason for another postponement of the Kohima raid by Japanese airmen. A sentai of 36 Oscar II arrived in the evening in Rangoon from Georgetown where it was protecting the warships that will raid Chandpur.
The evening report gave the airfield status as: Mandalay 40/27 (system/runway), Myitkyina 25/15, other bases undamaged. Three Allied transport aircraft (2 Dakota I, one C-47) were lost today, probably while bringing supplies to troops in Burma. The Oscar II Chutai based in Lashio reported nothing today 120 miles W of Myitkyina and will test tomorrow the Chinese Corps SE of this city. It was judged probable that Allied airmen dropped supplies to troops near Myitkyina but there were too many Allied fighters in this area to fly LRCAP.
China
The attack of the troops of the Southern China Army 120 miles east of Kweiyang (5.33 Div, 1 Tk Rgt, 2 ART, 2 HQ) didn’t receive the planned air support because of bad weather. Only 12 Oscar II from Nanchang reached the battlefield and bombed a Chinese Corps, hitting 21 men. Then Japanese troops attacked the 9 Chinese units facing them (5 Corps, 2 HQ, 2 Div) and achieved a 2 to 1 ratio (2139 AV vs 1731, adjusted to 1289 vs 451). The Chinese line was nevertheless not broken because only the two divisions were defeated and retreated eastwards, all other Chinese troops had enough fortifications to keep their positions. Japanese losses were 1226 men, 31 guns and 3 tanks, while the Chinese lost 2416 killed and wounded, around 800 prisoners (5-6 troop points) and 13 guns. The attack will continue tomorrow to defeat the remaining Chinese troops.
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RE: 8 July 1943: Japanese land was invaded !!! - 
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