Battle of the Bismarck Sea
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| Battle of the Bismarck Sea | |||||||||||||||||
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| Conflict | World War II, Pacific War | ||||||||||||||||
| Date | March 2, 1943 – March 4, 1943 | ||||||||||||||||
| Place | Bismarck Sea, in the vicinity of Lae | ||||||||||||||||
| Result | Decisive Allied victory | ||||||||||||||||
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The Battle of the Bismarck Sea was a battle in the Pacific Campaign of World War II, between planes of the US Fifth Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force, and a Japanese convoy carrying troops to Lae. The task force was destroyed in detail, and the Japanese troops losses were extremely high.
Background
On December 23, 1942, the Japanese high command decided to transfer about 100,000 troops from China and Japan to Lae in New Guinea to reinforce their forces there. This would allow the Japanese to fall back from their defeat at the Battle of Guadalcanal, which they ordered evacuated the next week. The troops were needed near Lae, where an Allied offensive was expected.
The move was not a small one — it was a heavy burden on Japanese shipping capability, but the high command thought it was necessary. By late February, the 20th and 41st divisions had been safely transported to Wewak. Next, the 51st Division was to be transported from the fortress port of Rabaul to Lae. This was very dangerous — Allied air power in the area was very strong, especially in the Dampier Strait, through which the ships would have to pass.
The convoy assembled had eight destroyers, eight troop transports, and was escorted by approximately 100 planes when it departed from Simpson Harbour in Rabaul on February 28, 1943. The commander officer of the 51st Division, Lieutenant General Hidemitsu Nakano, was aboard the destroyer Yukikaze, while Rear Admiral Kimura Masatomi, the head of the operation, was on a troop transport, Desron 3.
Battle
The convoy, moving at a top speed of seven knots, was spotted by a bomber crew on March 1 north of Cape Hollman. The next day, just after 08:00, ten B-17 bombers of the Fifth Air Force attacked and the Kyokusei Maru was sunk.
Of the 1,500 troops on board, 800 were rescued out of the water by the destroyers Yukikaze and Asagumo. These two ships then proceeded to Lae to disembark the survivors, and then rejoined the convoy the next day. The convoy, without the troop transport and two destroyers, was attacked again that evening, with minor damage sustained to one troop transport.
The next day, at 08:00, forty B-17s and sixty other aircraft attacked the convoy. They used a new bombing technique called "skip bombing" — flying only a few dozen feet above the water. This allowed the bombs, when released, to "skip" across the water like a stone. The Japanese fighters, flying at high altitude, were taken completely by surprise. After about an hour, all seven of the remaining transports were sunk about 100 km southeast of Finschafen, along with the destroyers Shirayuki, Arashio, and Tokitsukaze.
Four of the destroyers picked up as many survivors as possible, and then retired back to Rabaul. The fifth destroyer, Asagumo, was sunk in a subsequent strike as it was picking up survivors from the Arashio.
Aftermath
The battle was a disaster for the Japanese. Out of 6,900 troops — badly needed in New Guinea — some 3,664 were killed; and 2,427 were back to where they departed on Rabaul. Only some 800 made it to Lae.
"A merciful providence guarded us in this great victory," said Douglas MacArthur in one of his communiques. He used the victory to request five divisions and 1,800 aircraft in preparation for his landings in northern New Guinea.
External link
Brad Manera, Military Historian, Australian War Memorial, 2003, Battle of the Bismarck Sea, 2-4 March 1943 (http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/remembering1942/bismark/)