Today in WWII History
World War II History for August 24
08.24.1942 – U.S. forces sank the Japanese aircraft carrier Ryujo in the Battle of the East Solomon Islands. During this battle the “coastwatchers,” volunteers that reported on Japanese ship and aircraft movement, were a key to American success.
*Edit: The carrier sunk is the Ryujo, not the Ryuho
Video Clip: WWII In Color – Aircraft Carriers in the Pacific
Table of WWII Aircraft Carriers
| Fleet Carriers | ||||||||||
| ID | Name | Commission | Tons | Fleet | Lost | |||||
| CV -1 | Langley (AV-3) | redesignated | 19,360 | 542 | Java | |||||
| CV -2 | Lexington | 12/14/2027 | 33,000 | 910 | Coral Sea | |||||
| CV -3 | Saratoga | 11/16/2027 | 33,000 | 910 | ||||||
| CV -4 | Ranger | 6/4/1934 | 14,500 | 769 | ||||||
| CV -5 | Yorktown | 9/30/1937 | 19,800 | 827 | Midway | |||||
| CV -6 | Enterprise | 5/12/1938 | 19,800 | 827 | ||||||
| CV -7 | Wasp | 4/25/1940 | 14,700 | 739 | Guadalcanal | |||||
| CV -8 | Hornet | 10/20/1941 | 20,000 | 809 | Santa Cruz | |||||
| CV -9 | Essex | 12/31/1942 | 27,100 | 874 | ||||||
| CV-10 | Yorktown II | 4/15/1943 | 27,100 | 874 | ||||||
| CV-11 | Intrepid | 8/16/1943 | 27,100 | 874 | ||||||
| CV-12 | Hornet II | 11/29/1943 | 27,100 | 874 | ||||||
| CV-13 | Franklin | 1/31/1944 | 27,100 | 874 | ||||||
| CV-14 | Ticonderoga | 5/8/1944 | 27,100 | 885 | ||||||
| CV-15 | Randolph | 10/9/1944 | 27,100 | 885 | ||||||
| CV-16 | Lexington II | 2/17/1943 | 27,100 | 874 | ||||||
| CV-17 | Bunker Hill | 5/24/1943 | 27,100 | 874 | ||||||
| CV-18 | Wasp II | 11/24/1943 | 27,100 | 874 | ||||||
| CV-19 | Hancock | 4/15/1944 | 27,100 | 885 | ||||||
| CV-20 | Bennington | 8/6/1944 | 27,100 | 874 | ||||||
| CVL-22 | Independence | 1/14/1943 | 11,000 | 619 | ||||||
| CVL-23 | Princeton | 2/25/1943 | 11,000 | 619 | ||||||
| CVL-24 | Belleau Wood | 3/31/1943 | 11,000 | 622 | ||||||
| CVL-25 | Cowpens | 5/28/1943 | 11,000 | 622 | ||||||
| CVL-26 | Monterey | 6/17/1943 | 11,000 | 622 | ||||||
| CVL-27 | Langley II | 8/31/1943 | 11,000 | 619 | ||||||
| CVL-28 | Cabot | 7/24/1943 | 11,000 | 622 | ||||||
| CVL-29 | Bataan | 11/17/1943 | 11,000 | 619 | ||||||
| CVL-30 | San Jacinto | 12/15/1943 | 11,000 | 622 | ||||||
| CV -31 | BonHommeRichard | 11/26/1944 | 27,100 | 874 | ||||||
| CV -38 | Shangri-La | 9/15/1944 | 27,100 | 885 | ||||||
Today in WWII History
World War II History for June 19
19 June 1942 - British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrived in Washington, DC, to discuss the invasion of North Africa with U.S. President Roosevelt.
19 June 1944 - The U.S. won the battle of the Philippine Sea against the Imperial Japanese fleet.
In what would become known as the “Marianas Turkey Shoot,” U.S. carrier-based fighters decimate the Japanese Fleet with only a minimum of losses in the Battle of the Philippine Sea.
The security of the Marianas Islands, in the western Pacific, were vital to Japan, which had air bases on Saipan, Tinian, and Guam. U.S. troops were already battling the Japanese on Saipan, having landed there on the 15th. Any further intrusion would leave the Philippine Islands, and Japan itself, vulnerable to U.S. attack. The U.S. Fifth Fleet, commanded by Admiral Raymond Spruance, was on its way west from the Marshall Islands as backup for the invasion of Saipan and the rest of the Marianas.
Mobilized to repel the Allied invasions the Japanese launched Operation ‘A’ sending two task forces into the Marianas area. But Japanese Admiral Ozawa Jisaburo decided to challenge the American fleet, ordering 430 of his planes, launched from aircraft carriers, to attack. In what became the greatest carrier battle of the war, the United States, having already picked up the Japanese craft on radar, proceeded to shoot down more than 300 aircraft and sink two Japanese aircraft carriers, losing only 29 of their own planes in the process. It was a described in the aftermath as a “turkey shoot.”
Admiral Ozawa, believing his missing planes had landed at their Guam air base, maintained his position in the Philippine Sea, allowing for a second attack of U.S. carrier-based fighter planes, this time commanded by Admiral Mitscher, to shoot down an additional 65 Japanese planes and sink another carrier. In total, the Japanese lost 480 aircraft, three-quarters of its total, not to mention most of its crews. American domination of the Marianas was now a foregone conclusion.
Not long after this battle at sea, U.S. Marine divisions penetrated farther into the island of Saipan. Two Japanese commanders on the island, Admiral Nagumo and General Saito, both committed suicide in an attempt to rally the remaining Japanese forces. It succeeded: Those forces also committed a virtual suicide as they attacked the Americans’ lines, losing 26,000 men compared with 3,500 lost by the United States. Within another month, the islands of Tinian and Guam were also captured by the United States.
The Japanese government of Premier Hideki Tojo resigned in disgrace at this stunning defeat, in what many have described as the turning point of the war in the Pacific.[1]
[1] “United States scores major victory against Japanese in Battle of the Philippine Sea,” The History Channel website, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=6491 (accessed Jun 19, 2009).
Today in WWII History
World War II History for June 15
15 June 1940 - The French fortress of Verdun was captured by Germans.
15 June 1942- On the carrier IJN Zuikaku Captain Yokokawa was relieved by Captain Tameteru Notomo.
IJN Zuikaku 1941
IJN Zuikaku in the Battle of the Philippine Sea 1944
15 June 1943 - Paul Blobel, an SS colonel, was given the assignment of destroying the evidence of the systematic extermination of European Jews.
15 June 1944 - American forces began their successful invasion of Saipan during World War II. U.S. 2nd and 4th Marine land on Saipan against heavy resistance.
Today in WW II History
World War II History for December 5
1941 – American carrier Lexington heads to Midway
On this day, the Lexington, one of the two largest aircraft carriers employed by the United States during World War II, makes its way across the Pacific in order to carry a squadron of dive bombers to defend Midway Island from an anticipated Japanese attack.
Negotiations between the United States and Japan had been ongoing for months. Japan wanted an end to U.S. economic sanctions. The Americans wanted Japan out of China and Southeast Asia and Japan to repudiate the Tripartite “Axis” Pact with Germany and Italy before those sanctions could be lifted. Neither side was budging. President Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull were anticipating a Japanese strike as retaliation-they just didn’t know where. The Philippines, Wake Island, Midway Island-all were possibilities. American intelligence reports had sighted the Japanese fleet movement out from Formosa (Taiwan), apparently headed for Indochina.
The U.S. State Department demanded from Japanese envoys explanations for the fleet movement across the South China Sea. The envoys claimed ignorance. Army intelligence reassured the president that, despite fears, Japan was most likely headed for Thailand-not the United States.
The Lexington never made it to Midway Island; when it learned that the Japanese fleet had, in fact, attacked Pearl Harbor, it turned back-never encountering a Japanese warship en route or employing a single aircraft in its defense. By the time it reached Hawaii, it was December 13.
1944 - During World War II, Allied troops took Ravenna, Italy.
1945 - Aircraft squadron lost in the Bermuda Triangle
At 2:10 p.m., five U.S. Navy Avenger torpedo-bombers comprising Flight 19 take off from the Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station in Florida on a routine three-hour training mission. Flight 19 was scheduled to take them due east for 120 miles, north for 73 miles, and then back over a final 120-mile leg that would return them to the naval base. They never returned.
Two hours after the flight began, the leader of the squadron, who had been flying in the area for more than six months, reported that his compass and back-up compass had failed and that his position was unknown. The other planes experienced similar instrument malfunctions. Radio facilities on land were contacted to find the location of the lost squadron, but none were successful. After two more hours of confused messages from the fliers, a distorted radio transmission from the squadron leader was heard at 6:20 p.m., apparently calling for his men to prepare to ditch their aircraft simultaneously because of lack of fuel.
By this time, several land radar stations finally determined that Flight 19 was somewhere north of the Bahamas and east of the Florida coast, and at 7:27 p.m. a search and rescue Mariner aircraft took off with a 13-man crew. Three minutes later, the Mariner aircraft radioed to its home base that its mission was underway. The Mariner was never heard from again. Later, there was a report from a tanker cruising off the coast of Florida of a visible explosion seen at 7:50 p.m.
The disappearance of the 14 men of Flight 19 and the 13 men of the Mariner led to one of the largest air and seas searches to that date, and hundreds of ships and aircraft combed thousands of square miles of the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and remote locations within the interior of Florida. No trace of the bodies or aircraft was ever found.
Although naval officials maintained that the remains of the six aircraft and 27 men were not found because stormy weather destroyed the evidence, the story of the “Lost Squadron” helped cement the legend of the Bermuda Triangle, an area of the Atlantic Ocean where ships and aircraft are said to disappear without a trace. The Bermuda Triangle is said to stretch from the southern U.S. coast across to Bermuda and down to the Atlantic coast of Cuba and Santo Domingo.
“American carrier Lexington heads to Midway,” The History Channel website, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=6401 (accessed Dec 5, 2008).
“Aircraft squadron lost in the Bermuda Triangle,” The History Channel website, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=5575 (accessed Dec 5, 2008).
The Battle of Midway
June 4-8, 1942
The Battle of Midway island during World War II is one of the biggest victories for the United States against Japan. The battle itself lasted 4 days, beginning on June 4, 1942.
It was this battle which marked the turning point in the war for the allies in the Pacific. For six months prior to Midway the Japanese army and navy had conquered lands throughout the Pacific including the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and the Dutch East Indies. With the strengthening of the United States in rebuilding its fleet after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the Japanese had started to become more wary of the threat.
Japanese Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto was the mastermind behind the scheme to attack Midway, planning to destroy the rebuilt and remaining strength of the US Navy in one blow, the way it was planned to do at Pearl Harbor. Unbeknown to him, the US Intelligence had broken the Japanese naval code and had ample forewarning of the attack.
In anticipation of the attack the two US fleets stationed 200 miles northeast of Midway where the Japanese did not expect them to be, a position from where the US carriers could launch its aircraft and be in striking range of the Japanese fleet coming from the northwest. After spotting the Japanese fleet the US carriers launched their attack catching the Japanese by surprise, destroying three heavy carriers and one heavy cruiser. The Japanese retaliated with their one remaining carrier Hiryu, who’s aircraft attacked and crippled the USS Yorktown. The USS Enterprise returned the favor however, launching its dive bombers which mortally damaged the Hiryu, later scuttled the next day.
When the Battle of Midway ended, Japan had lost four carriers, a cruiser and 292 aircraft, and suffered an estimated 2,500 casualties. The U.S. lost the Yorktown, the destroyer USS Hammann, 145 aircraft and suffered approximately 300 casualties.
The Battle of Midway has been immortalized in books, full length feature films, and even games.
Read more about the Battle of Midway in our WWII articles.
Technorati Tags: WWII, WWarII, Midway, Battle, Carrier, Enterprise, Yorktown, Hiryu
Today in WWII History
World War II History for March 19
1940 - The French government of Daladier fell.
1945 - About 800 people were killed as Japanese kamikaze planes attacked the U.S. carrier Franklin off Japan.
1945 - Adolf Hitler issued his “Nero Decree” which ordered the destruction of German facilities that could fall into Allied hands as German forces were retreating.
Technorati Tags: WWII, Daladier, kamikaze, Carrier, Hitler, WWarII
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