Local Yokel
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Joined: 2/4/2007
From: Somerset, U.K.
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Still going forward slowly - real life has been holding back both of us, but this seems an opportune moment to record what happened after the initial exchange off Farallon de Pajaros.
The Battle of Farallon de Pajaros - Aftermath, 6 to 14 June 1943
Two thousand four hundred miles distant from the nearest friendly airfield is a perilous place in which to find yourself if you’re part of a naval force that has just been stripped of its carrier air cover. Thoughts such as these must go through the mind of many a US sailor as they watch USS Princeton disappear beneath the waves following the Japanese strikes on 6 June 1943.
Loss of Princeton is not the only source of Allied woe. Unsurprisingly, destroyer Stanly sinks immediately from the three torpedo strikes she receives, whilst from anti-aircraft cruiser San Juan a dirty brown column of smoke rises to stain the vivid blue Pacific sky, marking the damage she received from two bomb hits delivered by Japanese carrier dive bombers. Captain James Maher blinkers to the TG commander that his vessel is good for no better than 10 knots; San Juan will have to fend for herself as she trails the remainder of the force, progressively falling further astern as her undamaged consorts depart the scene.
Zuikaku, largely the author of this mischief, bears rapidly away on a south-westerly course towards Koror in the Palaus following her successful strike, for Combined Fleet is determined not to hazard the precious carrier in torpedo water, confident that US submarines will immediately be vectored into the area.
The Allied survivors take up a course of 120 degrees, attempting to edge their way out of range of further strikes by the Japanese torpedo bombers based on Chichijima. This, however, brings them significantly closer to Japanese aerodromes in the Southern Marianas, where they are awaited eagerly by Shinzan four-engined bombers of the 1st and Takao Kokutai. By daybreak on 7 June they have advanced only three hundred miles towards safe haven and are beset by a series of further air attacks originating from Saipan and Guam.
In the first of these, the low flying Shinzan obtain two hits on heavy cruiser Minneapolis, but it is during the second attack that the Japanese deliver a mortal blow. Five more 250 kilo armour piercing bombs strike the vessel, and one slices its way deep into its vitals, touching off a magazine explosion that is the ship’s death warrant.
In the afternoon the Shinzan return. Ten of them find the destroyers that had been escorting Minneapolis. Despite the escorts’ violent evasive manoeuvres, the bombers succeed in hitting Radford and Saufley with one bomb apiece. Meanwhile, 60 miles astern, San Juan is located by two shotai of the big bombers. Her capacity to evade already compromised by the damage sustained in the initial carrier strike, the cruiser takes three more hits, yet even this does not suffice to sink her, though her speed is now reduced to little more than four knots.
For reasons that do not become apparent until later the American commander has detached destroyer Strong, which is proceeding ahead of the main body and has achieved a position 60 miles east of the site of Minneapolis’ destruction. Nine Shinzan find Strong on 7 June, but on this day she nimbly evades all bombs dropped against her.
By the following day, 8 June, damaged Radford and Saufley have advanced another 240 miles but are still well within Shinzan range. However, a raid of 5 aircraft attack Saufley without success, for now the Japanese aircrew are suffering from the fatigue of repeated missions. This same day a Chichijima-based Type 1 bomber locates the still undamaged destroyer Strong. Significantly, this ship is on a diverging track from the remnants of the main force: whilst it appears that the two damaged destroyers will take their chances in the big gap between Brown Island and Minamitori Shima, Strong seems now to be making for refuge in the Aleutians.
Now it is the turn of Ugaki Matome’s Dai-yon Kido Butai to lend a hand. Despatched from their Karafuto anchorage immediately the American striking group was detected on 5 June, Ugaki’s three light carriers have been hurrying south to the attack, and although Strong evades all air searches on 9 June, the Japanese are confident they can effect an interception based upon her observed rate of advance. To assist in this Cdr Koizumi’s Kinagawa Maru, with eight Type 0 Reconnaissance Seaplanes embarked, heads north at maximum speed from south of Minamitori Shima to a search position 350 miles NE of that island.
The Japanese calculations are in error! Destroyer Strong has altered again to an ESE heading, and one of Koizumi’s aircraft locates her on the morning of 10 June just 60 miles west of his ship and on a converging course! But Dai-yon Kido Butai is now within strike range, and a frantic exchange of signals leads to the urgent launch of two waves, each composed of 11 torpedo armed Tenzan (how the Japanese would have relished such a real-life capability!) The SuiTei that spotted Strong has remained in contact and the Japanese strike groups are homed inexorably upon the US ship. The first wave’s strike suffices: Strong is hit by three torpedoes and sinks immediately. When the second wave arrives all that remains is a knot of survivors clinging to a pair of rafts, surrounded by debris bobbing sluggishly on swells heavily fouled by fuel oil from the destroyer’s shattered bunkers.
Meanwhile, Maher’s San Juan has been limping slowly eastwards, weathering further air attacks each day. On 8 June she is attacked by a lone Shinzan, on the 9th by a further three – in both cases the Japanese bombers miss, observing on the second occasion that the cruiser’s fires have now been extinguished. But her luck cannot hold. On 10 June San Juan receives a further mass attack by 37 refreshed Rikkos operating from Chichijima. Almost immediately she is struck by two torpedoes. It is more than enough; the majority of the bombers circle with weapons still within their bomb bays as the cruiser leans tiredly onto her beam ends and slips beneath the surface.
So far, the Japanese bombers have been unable to administer the coup-de-grace to destroyers Radford and Saufley, but the two surviving US ships are still far from refuge. On 9 June Saufley again comes under attack from Saipan’s Shinzan bombers, who succeed in scoring a single hit upon her, though apparently with little effect, as later events are to demonstrate.
By 10 June the Saipan bombers’ bolt is shot. Still on an ESE course, the surviving US destroyers remain free from attack this day, but they are unable to evade the Japanese search effort. One of the big flying boats, a 2-shiki Taitei operating from Minamitori Shima, finds them in the forenoon watch and spends several hours orbiting just outside the range of the small formation’s guns as it ploughs eastward under leaden skies. On the following day the pattern is repeated, with the sole difference that this time it is one of Minamitori Shima’s SuiTei that first makes contact.
The Japanese note the US ships’ steady course and rate of advance, and direct their search effort accordingly. On 12 June the destroyers are again located without difficulty, but now the Japanese observe with interest that they have parted company, with Saufley drawing away from wounded sister Radford. Surprisingly it seems that both vessels are making directly for Wake Island – it is possible they have news of Strong’s demise at the hands of Ugaki’s carrier aircraft and hope their more southerly course will take them clear of Japanese clutches.
It is not to be. Wake Island’s facilities have been improved, and in anticipation of the fleeing ships’ arrival the Japanese have flown in a search contingent from the Bihoro Ku and the full strength of the Chitose Ku’s 1st detachment, all equipped with torpedo-carrying land attack aircraft. The bombers do not launch until 13 June, by which time the US destroyers are within the 200 miles ring. Saufley, apparently little damaged, has sprinted past Wake in the darkness and is found more than 150 miles east of the island. Eleven Rikkos go in to the attack on her, securing four torpedo hits; more than enough to ensure her destruction. Radford is luckier: although she is moving more slowly the six aircraft despatched against her make only one successful drop, but this inflicts additional damage sufficient to ensure her loss. One day later and she has made it past Wake, successfully evading a picket line of surface and submarine units, but on 14 June the Rikkos return. This time there are twenty-four of them, an exercise in overkill, for the damaged destroyer is already in no state to evade their attacks, and, as with San Juan, the majority find they are left with no target as four Type 91’s from the early arrivals find their mark.
And so, seven days after the US force was initially seen to approach the gap between the Northern Marianas and the Kazan-rettô, every one of its seven detected ships now lies on the floor of the Pacific, for a gain of just three Japanese strike aircraft and their crews. At Combined Fleet’s post-mortem the staff shake their head in puzzlement. What did the Americans hope to achieve? Was this a raid intended to spread confusion and alarm on the Empire’s trade routes? With no more than a dozen strike aircraft, surely not. A probe, perhaps, to examine the efficacy of the Japanese air search net – if so it seems to have been a test passed with distinction.
“It is as if the Americans considered themselves under an obligation to seek out their own death, in the way of the warrior,” reflects Cpt Watanabe Yasuji. “But that is our way, rather than the way of the gaijin.”
“The time may yet come when our own ships must face such fearful odds,” responds a sombre Yamamoto. “But mark this: the Americans sought to penetrate a gap in our defences no wider than six hundred miles. From Midway to the Aleutians the gap is greater than fourteen hundred miles. You could readily slip the whole of the Imperial Navy through such a gulf and not a single American would know. And beyond would lie exposed the entire western seaboard of the United States. Geography does not always work against us.”
 Attachment (1)
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RE: Nanshin! or the ramblings of Local Yokel: May 1943 - 
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