Interesting information on war in the Pacific

The "Flying Tigers" were actually fairly short lived. Once the US entered the war they were asorbed into the USAAF in China and were no longer a seperate orgainzation.

 

Check the Japanese Nakajima J1N1-S Gekko upward cannons....Interesting...Who was first, Schräge Musik, I guess?!



Interesting, more info:

In the spring of 1943 , Commander Yasuna Kozono of the 251st Kokutai based at Rabaul suggested that the J1N1-C might make a good night fighter that would be effective against the long-ranging nocturnal B-24 Liberators that were constantly raiding Japanese installations in the East Indies. Ground crews at Rabaul removed all the equipment from the observer's cockpit and faired over most of the transparency that covered his position. In place of the observer, they mounted two fixed 20-mm cannon firing obliquely upward at an angle of 30 degrees above the forward direction. Two similar cannon were installed in the ventral fuselage behind the wing firing 30 degrees downward. The observer was no longer needed, since his position was now occupied with guns, so the crew was reduced to two. The modified aircraft was designated J1N1-C KAI.

http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~pettypi/elevon/baugher_other/j1n1s.html

[ 16. February 2004, 09:40 AM: Message edited by: Kai-Petri ]

 

Problems with starting bombing Japan...(?)

http://www.acepilots.com/planes/b29.html

The diminishing number of bombers at each stage of the mission illustrates the problems inherent in Operation Matterhorn ( June 14-15 1944 ):

92 bombers left India.
79 reached the staging bases in China.
75 took off from the bases.
68 left China, the others aborted after take-off.
47 reached the target at Yawata.
15 bombed visually; 32 bombed by radar due to the weather.
One bomb hit the target!

 

Over 1/4 of the Medals of Honor awarded to marines in World War II were given for conduct in the invasion of Iwo Jima.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Iwo_Jima

 

27th November 1944 the Archerfish (sub ) sinks the carrier Shimano (a giant battleship of the type of the Yamato transformed into a carrier of 65 000 tons with a 300m bridge) 22h after its first exit from the dry docks at Tokyo.

Some kinda record as well I guess!

http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/3758/siege.htm

 

Try this site as well: www.combindedfleet.com Operation history on all major ships ie. Yamato etc.

 

The Pacific Fleet first arrived at Pearl Harbor naval base on April 2, 1940, and were scheduled to return to the United States mainland around May 9, 1940. This plan was drastically changed because of the increasing activity of Italy in Europe and Japan's attempt at expansion in Southeast Asia. President Roosevelt felt that the presence of the Pacific Fleet in Hawaii would retard any Japanese attempt at a strike on the United States. Admiral James O. Richardson of the Pacific Fleet was in full opposition to the long stay at Pearl Harbor. He felt that the facilities were inadequate to maintain the ships or crews. Admiral Harold R. Stark, Chief of Naval Operations, was the one who originally made the decision to extend the crew's stay in Hawaii; and, in spite of Admiral Richardson's complaints, he maintained that the Pacific Fleet must stay there to keep the Japanese from entering the East Indies. Richardson felt that the Japanese would realize the military disadvantages of being stationed at Pearl Harbor, and would be quick to act on the situation. All of Richardson's objections, in meetings with both the Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox and the President, got him nothing but a dismissal shortly thereafter.

http://web.tampabay.rr.com/mspusf/pearlharbor.html

 

The site's correct adress is www.combinedfleet.com

And it is not as good as I initially thought. It helped me a lot in knowing a detailed account of how many and which ships the Japanese had. But after looking among the aircraft carriers I found that the Shoho and Zuiho were not there. That makes me doubt...

 

Couple of corrections...

Saburo Sakai...not Samuro

Shinano...not Shimano. A 300 meter bridge!! Shinano was nearly 300 meters long. The bridge/island was considerably smaller.

I highly recommend reading "Shinano!" by Captain Joseph F. Enright with James W. Ryan. (Enright was skipper of the Archerfish.) The book is a fascinating telling of the events leading up to and including the sinking of the Shinano. The story is told using first-hand accounts from both sides. An excellent read!

While on the subject of books, "Samurai" by Sakai with Martin Caidin is an excellent wartime memoir.

From my personal collection, an signed photo of Saburo Sakai...

 

It's good to know that you're interested in the Pacific too, Ivan!

(Well, anyone interested in naval WWII warfare must be interested in the PTO...)

Ivan, I can recommend you one of the most amazing books about the Kamikazes ever written —perhaps the best, I don't know...

I mentioned it above, "The Divine Wind" by Rober Pineau —Navy vet—, Rikihei Inoguchi and Tadashi Nakajima —both former officers and pilots of the IJN who were in charge of selecting, training and conducting the men for 'Special Attacks'. It's awesome!

 

Friedrich...

My first interest was in the Pacific War. I had a long interest in US Navy's submarine campaign against Japan (which led me to the U-boat wars of WW1 and WW2 ) as well as WW2 naval aviation.

I have read "The Divine Wind" many times. It has an honored place on my bookshelf. A fantastic book!

 

Interesting to see that perhaps not everyone agreed with Mr Roosevelt´s policy (??!)




http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/pers-us/uspers-r/j-richdn.htm


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http://www.usna.com/classes/1942/UDT4.htm

“Admiral Richardson Was a True Texas Gentleman”



--- an article written by Rear Admiral Eugene H. Farrell USN (Ret) and published in “The Paris News” of Paris, Texas in the “Guest Column”



A reader of your newspaper, Mr. Desmel Rannals of Honey Grove, sent me a copy of Lee Somerville's column. "Our dead war Heroes not well cared for." In it Mr. Somerville mentioned a native son of Paris and distinguished naval officer, the late James Otto Richardson, and lamented that Paris has apparently forgotten this heroic officer and his family.



Although I am many years junior to Admiral Richardson, I had the privilege of knowing this fellow-Texan and brother officer, as well as his wife, May. Thus, I can confirm much of what Mr. Somerville wrote about him.



Some additional information may be of interest to you and your readers.



Admiral Richardson was born in Texas Sept. 18, 1878, presumably in Paris, though I cannot verify the exact place of birth. He died in his 96th year at Bethesda, MD, Naval Hospital May 2, 1974. He entered the U.S. Naval Academy in 1898 and graduated 5th in the class of 1902. His service to his country and the U.S. Navy had spanned nearly five decades when he retired from active duty January 2, 1947.





In 1939, as the ominous war clouds of Europe darkened our eastern horizon and those of Asia loomed across the Pacific to the west, Franklin D. Roosevelt, then nearing the end of his second term as President, picked two-star Rear Admiral Richardson to be the next Commander-in-chief of the U.S. Fleet, a four-star billet with the rank of Admiral. This extraordinary decision by Roosevelt must have reflected great faith in Richardson's qualifications to assume the highest Fleet command in the Navy, because in doing so he passed over all eligible three- and four-star Flag Officers. He took command January 6, 1940.



As Mr. Somerville indicated, Richardson's tour as CINCUS (acronym for the Commander-in-Chief U.S. Fleet) was short-lived. He was ordered to base the Fleet at Pearl Harbor, vice California, ostensibly as a deterrent to Japanese strategic ambitions in Southeast Asia. The Fleet lacked ammunition, fuel, material supplies and personnel to fight...to be a deterrent in fact. Richardson knew this and he knew that the Japanese knew it.





Besides being a non-deterrent, he reasoned, the Fleet was geographically vulnerable, 2,000 miles closer to the potential enemy. Throughout 1940, he sent numerous letters and dispatches to Washington pointing out the flaws in Fleet combat readiness and requesting the resources to rectify them. He emphasized them all to Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox during the latter's visit to Hawaii....all to no avail.



Then he made two trips to Washington to apprise President Roosevelt of the situation and seek his intercession to bring the fleet up to fighting trim or, failing that, return it to its West Coast, less vulnerable bases. Roosevelt did neither.



Political considerations dominated Roosevelt’s thinking. He clung to the illusion that keeping the Fleet in Hawaii would discourage Japanese aggression. Moreover, it was election year and he was more interested in his political image as a peace guarantor than in preparing the nation for self defense.



When his second eye-to-eye appeal to Roosevelt was rebuffed, Oct. 7, 1940, Richardson tried to shock the president by telling him bluntly that the senior officers of the Navy did not have the trust and confidence in their civilian leadership for the successful prosecution of a war in the Pacific. Roosevelt was shocked all right, but he did not change his policies. Instead, he changed the command of the Fleet to a new incumbent, Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, and history recorded the results.

 

Soviet Tu-4
In late 1944, three B-29's had to land in Vladivostok. At the time the Soviet Union was not at war with Japan. The crews were briefly interned, and then permitted to "escape." But the B-29's stayed behind.

In 1947, at a parade in Moscow, the Tu-4 flew over; it was an exact replica of the B-29. In the early years of the Cold War, the Tu-4 gave the American military planners fits, because it was the first Soviet airplane with the capability to drop nuclear bombs on the Unied States.

http://www.acepilots.com/planes/b29.html



http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/russia/bomber/tu-4.htm

 

Facts on bombing Japan 1945:

On the night of March 13/14, eight square miles of Osaka went up in flames. On March 16/17, three square miles of Kobe were destroyed, and on March 19/20 in a return visit to Nagoya, three more square miles were destroyed. This destructive week had killed over 120,000 Japanese civilians at the cost of only 20 B-29s lost.

On April 7, 153 B-29s struck the aircraft engine complex at Nagoya, destroying about 90 percent of that facility. Five days later, 93 B-29s destroyed the Nakajima factory at Musashi. The Japanese aircraft engine industry essentially ceased to exist after this time.

On June 5, the B-29s attacked Kobe with such effectiveness that the city was crossed off the target list as not worth revisiting.

In late March of 1945, the 313th Bombardment Wing began a series of mining operations against Japanese ports. Nearly 13,000 acoustic and magnetic mines were placed in the western approaches to the narrow Shimonoseki strait and the Inland Sea as well as in the harbors of Hiroshima, Kure, Tokyo, Nagoya, Tokuyama, Aki, and Noda. The mining operation was extremely successful and brought Japanese coastal shipping to a standstill by April. In May, merchant vessels were ordered to break through the line of mines, and 85 of them were sunk. These mining efforts were so effective that the postwar Strategic Bombing Survey credited the B-29 with 9.3 percent of the total Japanese shipping losses during the war.

By mid-June the B-29 raids were essentially unopposed by Japanese fighters. In late June, B-29 crews felt sufficiently confident that they began to drop leaflets warning the population of forthcoming attacks, followed three days later by a raid in which the specified urban area was devastated.

http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~pettypi/elevon/baugher_us/b029-10.html

 

On the morning of the 13th the former Yangtse river steamer Li Wo, skippered by Lieutenant T.S. Wilkinson, RNR, whose ship was part of the general exodus of small craft from Singapore ran into the Palembang invasion force. Li Wo armed with a 4 inch gun and two machineguns fired at the Japanese transports setting one on fire and damaging several others. All the while the Li Wo was under fire from the escorting Japanese cruisers. This action continued for an hour and a half until the Li Wo ran out of ammunition. Wilkinson then rammed the nearest damaged enemy transport before his small ship was destroyed. Wilkinson received a posthumous Victoria Cross, the only VC awarded in the Netherlands East Indies Campaign.

http://www.info-indo.com/indonesia/history/eastindies12.htm

 

The ritual of Seppuku

Seppuku was usually carried out in a secluded courtyard or garden. The soon-to-be-dead samurai would usually be kitted out in a nice, white kimono (to symbolize purity, and perhaps enhance the drama of the act). Before him would be a wooden tray (which would have been crafted for this specific occasion, and later would be destroyed) upon which is a sheaf of washi paper, ink, a cup of sake, and a short knife called a tanto. To start the ceremony, he would drink the sake, preferably in two gulps. One gulp was considered gauche, and three was considered to be miserly. Two gulps showed the correct combination of contemplation and determination. Next, the samurai would take the paper and ink and compose a fitting poem, typically in the waka style (a waka is a 31 syllable, 5 line poem in a 5-7-5-7-7-7 structure.) After composing the poem, he would then procede to the main event.


The samurai would open his kimono, sometimes removing the top portion entirely, thus exposing his belly. He would then take the tanto knife, its handle wrapped in clean white rice-paper, and place it against the left side of his lower abdomen. When ready, the samurai would insert the dagger into his belly and quickly slice across, from left to right, thus opening his abdomen. The cutting of the abdomen was considered significant, because in Buddhist tradition, the lower abdomen (called the hara in Buddhism) is the center of a person's consciousness. It was believed that cutting the hara would end a person's life quicker. After the initial cut, truly badass samurai would re-insert the tanto in their midsection and make a second cut, this time upwards, towards the sternum, creating a cross in their lower torso. This second cut was considered an act of the most sheer bravery, not only because it required an insane amount of stamina and strength, but because it allowed your innards to spill out. This more extreme form of seppuku was called jumonji giri.

Assisting the doomed would be a person known as the kaishakunin ('The Officer of Death'). It was the job of the kaishakunin to lop off the samurai's head after he had opened himself up.



http://www.destroy-all-monsters.com/seppuku.shtml

 

General Herbert Lumsden was liked and respected by Winston Churchill and in 1944 he was sent to join the staff of General Douglas MacArthur. On 6th January 1945 Lumsden was observing the bombardment of Lingayen Gulf on board New Mexico when it was hit by a kamikaze pilot. Herbert Lumsden died from his injuries and was buried at sea.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWlumsden.htm

 

Erich, happen to know if the Japs got any help with their night fighters from the Germans?






A bit different system than the Germans had?!

 

How do you say Schrägemusik in Japanese?

 

Japan and oil

http://www.star-games.com/exhibits/shortfuse/shortfuse.html

Japan's crude oil production within her border for 1931 was 291,000 kiloliters; 1933 was 330,000 kl, 1935 was 268,000 kl, and 1937 was 335,000 kl. These amounts represented roughly less than 0.1% of US production, 0.5% of Russia, and 1.6% of the Netherlands from the Dutch East Indies (1).


Japan's dependency on America for its oil and oil products was a predominant 67% of total oil imports in 1935 (2,310,000 kl), 74% in 1937 (3,530,000 kl), and 90% less than two years before the Pacific War broke out in 1939 (4,450,000 kl) (2) !

In November 1938, Japan's Prime Minister at the time, Fumimaro Konoe, issued a statement that Japan was going to establish a new order in Greater East Asia. This angered the US, especially President Roosevelt to no end. After a long and thorough consideration, on 26 July 1939, the 1911 US-Japan Treaty of Commerce and Navigation was unilaterally abrogated, to take effect six months later. This was a clear signal of United States intentions to continue applying economic pressures on Japan in retaliation against Japan's insatiable advances in the Far East.

This action by the United States shocked many Japanese leaders, one of them being then Finance Minister Sotaro Ishiwata. On 5 August 1939 he reported to the Emperor his opinion regarding the effects of the abrogation of the treaty :

"It is a great blow to our access to scrap iron and oil. Although there is room for further imports during the next six months, what happens after that? There will be great difficulties Japan will have to face. Unless the strength of the Army and Navy is reduced to one third of its present size, there is no way Japan can keep going."

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