Leandros
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Sitrap March 20th 1943 - afternoon
This has been an eventful week. It has become clear now that the enemy’s persistent use of heavy naval units up the Malacca Strait has been for the purpose of reinforcing his air forces in Burma. In this he has succeeded to the extent that our advance down from Prome towards Rangoon had to be halted as it was impossible to insert ground personnel for our fighter units transferred to Prome. They are now grounded and our army units on their way to Rangoon have been withdrawn to Prome, awaiting reinforcements from north and the opportunity to have air force ground personnel flown in. The situation around Mandalay has settled down to a siege awaiting more, mainly Chinese reinforcements, arriving from north and east. The enemy is seemingly very strong. However, no more enemy air units are flying from Mandalay, sparing our air defense of Chittagong and Akyab. He is now mainly flying from Rangoon, but in large numbers. Dozens of Oscar and Nate fighters are escorting every little bomber mission.
But, the reinforcement of his Burma forces has also cost him. Singapore port is full of more or less damaged warships to the extent that he obviously has tried to send some back to Japan via the roundabout track around Australia. It has been discovered that the battleship Kirishima, in spite of claims of its earlier sinking, actually went down in the Indian ocean, north-west of Exmouth, without any action on our side, obviously due to earlier battle damage. Other sightings also indicate that he is trying that route again after we ended our blockade between Tasmania and NZ.
The British and Commonwealth navies have also had some heavy losses during these days. A task force led by the Australian cruiser Shropshire set out from Sabanga on the 15th to engage an enemy destroyer unit reported in Georgetown. Problem was there were some heavy units there, too. Shropshire, light cruiser Emerald and destroyer Paladin were sunk but damage was inflicted on the enemy ships, as well, six hits were claimed on Yamato. Battleship Hiei and heavy cruiser Tone were also reported to have participated in the debacle.
The sorry state of the Japanese fleet in and around Singapore very much facilitated the US Navy’s answer to the British cry for help. A four-carrier task force, plus two escort carriers, with heavy battleship and cruiser support, has been operating east of Singapore for some days. At the same time the six escort carriers that participated in the Tasmania-NZ blockade moved north, via Carnarvon, and took up position on the west coast of Sumatra on the height of Singapore. These carrier forces have executed some heavy bombing missions against enemy shipping in and near Singapore. Some claims from our dive-bomber and torpedo units:
At the same day as Shropshire and her partners were sunk the first attack on Singapore port went in from the CVE force operating west of Sumatra:
21 Avengers attacked with bombs and claimed several hits on enemy capital ships.
BB Fuso, Bomb hits 3
BB Yamashiro, Bomb hits 3 - on fire
BB Nagato, Bomb hits 1
Five TBF-1 Avenger were damaged - 1 destroyed by flak
A little later came the first attack from the four-carrier task force in the South China Sea, consisting of:
14 F4F-4 Wildcat, 115 SBD-3 Dauntless and 18 TBF-1 Avenger. Again, seemingly good results based on the following
claims.
BB Ise, Bomb hits 14 - heavy fires
BB Nagato, Bomb hits 9 - on fire
BB Fuso, Bomb hits 3
BB Yamashiro, Bomb hits 6 - on fire
Damage was inflicted on 19 SBD’s and four Avengers.
The attacks were repeated on the 16th, 54 SBD’s attacked in the morning. This report was filed:
CA Mikuma, Bomb hits 2 - heavy fires
CA Kumano, Bomb hits 2 - on fire
CA Atago, Bomb hits 4 - heavy fires
DD Okikaze, Bomb hits 2 - heavy fires, heavy damage
On this day an SBD scout from USS Saratoga also discovered an enemy troop convoy sneaking along the south-western (western) corner of Borneo. It was attacked in the afternoon by 15 SBD’s:
xAK Taiko Maru, Bomb hits 2 - heavy fires, heavy damage
xAKL Kennichi Maru, Bomb hits 2 - heavy fires
xAKL Nittatsu Maru, Bomb hits 2 - heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Sydney Maru #2, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
Several of these were bombed again, and confirmed sunk, the day after.
Another mission was flown by the CVE force – 12 Avengers claimed two hits on heavy cruisers Kumano and Mikuma. This was followed up by a second raid of six Avengers with more hits reported.
Then an afternoon raid by the main carrier force – 78 SBD’s, 15 Avenger and eight Devastators:
DD Harukaze, Bomb hits 1 - on fire, heavy damage
BB Yamashiro, Bomb hits 4 - on fire
BB Nagato, Bomb hits 2
BB Ise, Bomb hits 5
SC CHa-40, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk.
Damage on 17 planes but all returned to their ships.
On the 17th 74 SBD’s attacked Singapore in the morning, now without escort as no fighter resistance was experienced on the two first days:
BB Yamato, Bomb hits 7 - on fire
BB Hiei
CL Kiso, Bomb hits 1
CA Tone (reported sunk on an earlier occasion)
DD Minekaze
The CVE’s joined in later and claimed one hit on Yamato. Then the day was finished off with a raid from the main carrier force – 36 SBD’s, 15 Avengers.:
BB Yamato, Bomb hits 7 - on fire
BB Nagato, Bomb hits 4 - on fire
CA Mikuma, Bomb hits 1
DD Arare, Bomb hits 1 - on fire
BB Ise, Bomb hits 1
CL Kiso
BB Hiei, Bomb hits 1
As can be seen it’s almost like the whole enemy battleship force was present in the area. The bombing attacks continued till today- the 20th. The four carriers are now withdrawing somewhat towards north-east to refuel from three tankers that have been kept well back. The bombing raids shall continue till most of the ordnance is used up. The tanker accompanying the CVE force west of Sumatra is now starting north to join up with the others there. Those CVE’s are supposed to support a British landing near Alor Star on the western side of the Malaccan peninsula in a week’s time.
However, while all this has been going on the battlewagon guys have been pestering the force commander to let them have a go at the allegedly heavily damaged enemy “heavies” in and outside Singapore. Available for such a mission were two new and two old battleships and several heavy cruisers. This was approved last night and they went in in three separate waves. First, a destroyer squadron to scout and hopefully get in some torpedo hits, then one consisting of more destroyers and cruisers and finally the battleships with ample support of cruisers and destroyers. The main objective was to destroy the port and wharf installations but if any of the reduced enemy ships should chose to take up the fight they were welcome to it.
It started out quite well, much damage was done to the airfield, a couple of dozen planes damaged or destroyed. Then the “damaged” enemy popped up – battleships Haruna and Kongo and cruisers Chikuma, Natori and Yubari, with three destroyers. While the Japanese ships suffered some more, the US ships got the worst of it. Battleship South Dakota sank while retreating, Washington was heavily damaged and AA cruisers Juneau went down. She shouldn’t have been there in first place. Destroyer Kennison went down, too.
The carrier planes gave back a little in the afternoon, 78 SBD’s and six Devastators attacked battleships Haruna and Kongo, claiming eight hits on Haruna. Kongo was reported to be on fire. Avengers flying from the CVE task force claimed three hits on Kongo a little later.
USS Washington is now fighting to keep afloat, withdrawing to get under cover of the carriers. Strangely enough, the two old battlewagons fared best but they were happy to have the back-seat. Should they try again? Escort carrier Long Island has received some bomb damage and is sent back to the wharf in Penghu.
Hard to believe that after all the efforts the only confirmed enemy battleships sunk are Haruna and Musashi. The latter had withdrawn over to Palembang, Sumatra, but was found there by our bombers. She obviously suffered from some damage received earlier up in the Strait, too.
Fred
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< Message edited by Leandros -- 9/15/2016 9:40:54 PM >
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