Interesting information on war in the Pacific

Hello Bill. Happy new year. Just got a book titled The Stragglers. About Japanese left on variouc Islands after war was over. Written by E.J. Kahn Jr 1962. Haven't read it yet, but thought it might be of interest.

 

Thanks for the info Chrome, looks like it might be of interest. If I remember correctly, there was a Japanese soldier who was located still holding out in the Philippines in the mid to late 70's. I have also read about rumors that another was still around the Vella Lavella area in the late 80's but never heard whether that rumor was resolved or not. There was also a story in an Austrailian newspaper last year around this time stating that the Japanese were sending another team back to the Philippines based on the rumors of a group of holdouts that were living in the mountains outside of Manila. But again never heard anything regarding the story afterwards.

 

Wow. Yes I did read about the cat who held out til 74. Amazing. One Japanese mentioned that after his 16 yrs on Guam, he could remain calm about anything. It is easy to raise ones standard of living, but much harder to lower it said he. He & another survivor had their bodies checked over rather vigorously. Their teeth were in surprisingly good shape, better than average Japanese civilian of same age. Their back pay for 16 yrs of service worked out to about 100 dollars! A movie was made about them in Japan. They were hired as advisors.

 

The loss of the destroyer Hayate was the first loss of a Japanese warship in World War II (at Wake island).

The Hayate charged the island only to suffer a hit in her ammuntion magazine that split the ship in two "like a folding jackknife"....

http://www.epinions.com/content_168364445316

 

1942

Japan began construction of the 5,223-ton I-400 class of submarine aircraft carrier, each of which carried three dive-bomber seaplanes. Designed for attacks against the Panama Canal and the West Coast of the United States. Twelve were planned; only two were built, and did not see any useful service.


1942

On September 13, in what may be the most spectacular – albeit unplanned – submarine event of all time, the Japanese I-19 launched a spread of six torpedoes at the aircraft carrier "Wasp." Three hit, sinking the ship. The others continued running for twelve miles, into another task group, where one caused fatal damage to the destroyer "O'Brien" and other send the battleship "North Carolina" to the shipyard for two months. The sixth cruised on, into the unknown.

1944
The largest ship ever sunk by a submarine: the brand-new aircraft carrier "Shinano," 71,890 tons, November 28, by the U. S. submarine "Archerfish."

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Japanese submarines scored a few important victories – the carriers "Yorktown" and "Wasp," and the last American surface warship sunk, the cruiser "Indianapolis" in late July, 1945; overall, however, they sank only about one-fifth as many ships as did the American submarine force.

On the last day of the Pacific war, Japan had only 33 submarines in commission (excluding midgets), seven of which were in the training command. Except for the midgets, the submarine force had become irrelevant.

http://www.submarine-history.com/NOVAfour.htm

 

P-61 bags a Superfort

( Splash one Dreamboat )

http://www.flightjournal.com/articles/dreamboat/splash1.asp

INTERVIEW WITH MAJ. ARTHUR C. SHEPHERD
PILOT: 548TH NIGHT FIGHTER SQUADRON
MARCH 24, 1976

"Concerning our famous June 1, 1945, ‘kill' of a B-29 Superfortress off Iwo Jima: on days when the B-29s were returning from their raids on Japan, we would fly out and give whatever assistance we could. If we saw one ditch, we would call in a Dumbo Sea Rescue plane and direct it to the downed crewmen. While on one of these missions, my R/O, Al Schulenberger, picked up an emergency IFF and directed us in on it. I pulled up on the right wing and tucked in real close. I could not see anything wrong with the aircraft, but the crew was all at the windows waving like mad. At first, we thought they were being friendly, so we peeled off and moved away; but Al continued to receive the IFF, so he directed me to pull in close again.

"This time, I moved in on the left wing and looked down on the nose of the aircraft. The hole in the nose was big enough to drop a piano through! A 90mm had gone right through the pilot's seat, killing him and injuring the copilot. We led them to Iwo. Over the island at 4,000 feet, on autopilot, the crew bailed out without incident. I was just about to ask if I could shoot it down when I was directed to do so. It didn't seem like much of a contest with a ‘sitting duck' flying straight away and me right behind it with four .50-caliber machine guns and four 20mm cannon that were loaded with armor-piercing and incendiary rounds!

"I did not realize that the bomber still had its full load of ordnance, as the first burst from my guns blew the bomb bay doors open. I don't remember how many rounds we pumped into that old bird, but it didn't want to go down. The 20mm shells were ripping big holes in the fuselage and wings. At last, the left wing dropped a little and it started turning back toward Iwo, losing altitude all the time. At that time, I decided to concentrate my fire on the two left engines. When I scored hits on both, the aircraft began a tight left spiral into the ocean. I actually felt sorry for it and wished that the copilot had been able to bring it in. What a magnificent aircraft it was."

—Warren Thompson

 

Fighting Squadron 17 was selected to fly the new Vought F4U-1 Corsair, a gull-winged fighter built around a powerful Pratt-Witney 18 cylinder radial engine. Initially, VF-17 was assigned to the carrier Bunker Hill (CV-17), but problems with visibility and landing gear bounce caused the Navy to question the Corsair's carrier-worthiness. The Jolly Rogers worked closely with engineers at Vought to modify the F4U rather than switching to the F6F Hellcat, which they believed to be an inferior fighter. Lt(jg) Butch Davenport of VF-17 helped develop an airflow spoiler on the right wing of the F4U which helped keep the wings level in a low-speed stall; this modification became standard in all later models of the Corsair.

http://www2.hawaii.edu/~clumpkin/jrhistory.html

 

According to Thomas&Witts "Enola Gay" the Japanese divers took the radar equipment from the sunken ships Prince of Wales and Repulse and the radar equipment was used to create the Japanese version of proximity fuse by Dr Tsunesaburo Akada.

 

The weather information from China was sent to the US troops by Mao Tse-Tung (!) at least in the later phase of war according to Thomas&Witts "Enola Gay". The information was needed for the US bombers so that they would know when it was possible to fly over Japan.

 

In November, 1941, the Admiral in charge of the 11th Koku Kantai, tasked with hitting the Philippines, send home two small aircraft carriers and their escort, since he could carry out his mission with just his Tainan-based bombers and Zeros - creating a Japanese fleet with no ships.

http://world.std.com/~Ted7/minorafp.htm#Japan

 

The Japanese "Long Lance" torpedo (a nickname attributed to Samuel E. Morison, a historian who spent much of the war in the Pacific theater)

This oxygen-powered weapon could deliver a 1,000lb warhead at 49 knots over almost 11 miles.


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

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

 

Submarines in the Pacific War

200 U.S. subs sank 201 Jap warships & 1113 merchant ships

total Japan loss of 4.7m tons - 55% total ships

U.S. would lose 52 subs with 3503 crew


http://history.acusd.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/subpac.html

 

Submarines in the Pacific War

200 U.S. subs sank 201 Jap warships & 1113 merchant ships

total Japan loss of 4.7m tons - 55% total ships

U.S. would lose 52 subs with 3503 crew


http://history.acusd.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/subpac.html

 

On 11 December 1941 USS GUDGEON, in company with USS PLUNGER (SS179), sailed from Pearl Harbor on her, and America's, first submarine offensive patrol of World War II. When she returned some 51 days later, GUDGEON had contributed two more impressive "firsts" to the Pacific submarine fleet. She was the first American sub marine to patrol along the Japanese coast itself, as her area took her off Kyushu in the home islands. And on 27 January 1942 GUDGEON became the first U.S. Navy submarine to sink an enemy warship in World War II, submarine I-173.

http://www.subnet.com/fleet/ss211.htm

 

Corsair was one of the greatest American fighters of World War II is obvious from its record. In 64,051 missions, 9,581 carrier-based, the Corsair was credited with 2,140 aerial victories for a loss of only 189 planes, giving it a kill-to-loss ratio of 11.3:1.

http://rwebs.net/dispatch/output.asp?ArticleID=16

 

2nd Guadalcanal:

..on South Dakota, crews were patching minor holes from 5-inch hits by Ayanami when at 11:33 the chief engineer tied down her circuit breakers, violating safety procedures. The system instantly went into series, and the big ship lost electrical power. Radar, fire control, turret motors, ammunition hoists, radios--everything went out, with her guns locked in train. Captain Gatch wrote later: "The psychological effect on the officers and crew was most depressing. The absence of this gear gave all hands a feeling of being blindfolded." It was worse than that. South Dakota was facing 14 ships scattered across a 12-mile box on a dark night, amid spurious reports of enemy batteries on Savo and motor torpedo boats.

Washington was now the only intact ship left in the force. In fact, at that moment Washington was the entire U.S. Pacific Fleet.

More:

http://history1900s.about.com/library/prm/blforkintheroad5.htm

 

Japanese aircraft carrier Taiho

She was laid down on 10 July 1941 and launched almost two years later, on 7 April 1943, and was finally completed eleven months afterwards on 7 March 1944.

On 19 June 1944, after approximately three months of service, she blew up due to the ignition of gasoline vapors after being torpedoed by the US submarine Albacore in the Battle of the Philippine Sea.

What made Taiho special was the newly introduced heavy armored flight deck, analogous to the Royal Navy's Illustrious class. She was also the first Japanese carrier to incorporate a closed hurricane bow.

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

 

Australia's 'invasion' of Portuguese East Timor (now Timor Luru Sae) on December 16, 1941, was the first time in history that Australia violated another country's neutrality. Aussie troops (Sparrow Force) invaded Dutch West Timor and the 2/2nd Independent Company landed on the shore near Dili, the capital of Portuguese East Timor and so pre-empt a Japanese takeover. They proceeded immediately to surround the airport. Well armed, and expecting to do battle with the Portuguese military, they approached the administration building, guns at the ready.

Suddenly the main door opened and out stepped a civilian Portuguese official who tipped his hat and in perfect English said "Good afternoon". Dumbfounded, the troops stared at each other in disbelief. Not a shot had been fired. Unknown to Sparrow Force , the Australian and Portuguese governments had previously agreed to a peaceful 'invasion' of the island to help protect the inhabitants from a possible Japanese invasion which did in fact take place two months later, on February 20, 1942.

http://members.iinet.net.au/~gduncan/1941.html

 

British "Chariots" (swimmer vehicles)
Human torpedoes or manned torpedoes were secret naval weapons of World War II. The name is most commonly used to refer to the weapons that Italy and later Britain deployed in the Mediterranean and used to attack ships in enemy harbours. See also frogman.

These were electrically propelled torpedoes with two crewmen equipped with diving suits riding astride. They steered the torpedo at slow speed to the enemy ship. The detachable warhead was then used as a limpet mine. They then rode the torpedo away.

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