OPERATION “HAILSTORM”

Truk (now Chuuk) along with Yap, Pohnpei, and Korsae, comprise the Federated States of Micronesia in the South Pacific.  An encircling reef forms Chuuk’s outer perimeter, creating a large, sheltered lagoon 40 miles in diameter that is peppered with a dozen islands.  During WWII this ideal natural harbor was used by the Japanese as their main forward naval base, much as Pearl Harbor was to our Navy.  When the Allied island-hopping campaign gained momentum in 1943-44, Truk represented a key target.

Three carrier groups of RADM Marc A. Mitscher’s Task Force 58, and a group from Task Force 50, all part of ADM Raymond A. Spruance’s FIFTH FLEET, staged a surprise attack on the facility 82 years ago this week.  Torpedo planes, dive bombers, and fighters from nine fleet carriers and four light carries conducted a two-day “hailstorm” attack involving 1250 sorties.  Truk’s ship repair docks, supply depots, 265 aircraft, and four airfields were destroyed.  The attack caught many Japanese ships in the lagoon and over 30 supply ships (140,000 tons) and several destroyers were sunk.  None of the Japanese battleships were in port at the time, and in a curious parallel to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, neither were any enemy carriers.  The attack was so successful in isolating the base however, that surviving Japanese personnel became marooned on the island until the end of the war.

Losses sustained by US forces were limited to 30 aircraft and damage to USS INTREPID (CV-11).  A Nakajima B5N “Kate” torpedo-bomber from Truk’s Param airfield hit INTREPID with a single torpedo, striking her 15 feet below the waterline on the starboard quarter.  Though the crew was able to contain the damage, her rudder jammed hard aport.  CAPT Thomas L. Sprague turned back toward Hawaii and was able to make headway by racing the port engine and idling the starboard.  But two days later strong winds began buffeting the ship.  The breeze pushed her onto a westward heading, toward Tokyo.  Not wishing to go that direction, the crew jury-rigged a “sail” of sewn-together hatch covers and spare canvas.  Steerage was thus regained and on February 24^th, still “under sail,” INTREPID stood in to Pearl.

The Japanese stranded on Truk as a result of this raid forbade the locals from salvaging the sunken ships.  In an unparalleled stroke of good fortune, the ban on salvage activity continues to this day.  As a result, Chuuk today is a sport diver’s paradise.  Trucks, airplanes, tanks, and other military equipment can still be seen on the decks of these sunken ships, and the holds still contain munitions, spare parts, crew artifacts, and in some cases, even crew remains.  As such, the utmost respect is demanded of visitors.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  25 FEB 26

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 3 “G-K”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1977, pp. 446-47.

Morison, Samuel Eliot.  History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol 7  Aleutians, Gilberts and Marshalls.  Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1951, pp. 315-32.

Parzymieso, Michael.  “Truk Diary.”  Sea Classics, Vol 49 (7), July 2016, pp. 10-14, 56-58.

Rems, Alan P.  “Two Birds with One Hailstone.”  Naval History, Vol 28 (1), February 2014, pp. 16-21.

Site visit, Chuuk Lagoon, Federated States of Micronesia, November 1988.

Stewart, William H.  Ghost Fleet of the Truk Lagoon, Japanese Mandated Islands.  Missoula, MT: Pictorial Histories Pub Co., 1985, pp. 17-46.

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                                            BOMBSHIP INTREPID

One of the first missions assigned to our fledgling Navy around the turn of the 19^th century was the protection of US merchant shipping from the piracy of the southern Mediterranean Barbary States of Tripoli, Algeria, and Morocco.  In October of 1803, CAPT William Bainbridge in the frigate USS PHILADELPHIA, 36, ran aground while chasing a corsair near Tripoli.  His ship and crew were captured; the Tripolitans anchored the frigate in that city’s harbor, under the guns of the fort.

When CDORE Edward Preble, in command of President Jefferson’s Mediterranean Squadron, learned of PHILADELPHIA’s capture he set out for Tripoli with the rest of his Squadron.  On the way, Preble encountered the Tripolitan ketch Mastico, one of the vessels that had participated in the capture of PHILADELPHIA.  Preble seized the ketch and on 23 December 1803, assumed her into the US Navy under the new name INTREPID.  Her Mediterranean rigging allowed INTREPID to blend unnoticed with the local sea traffic, a virtue that was to prove invaluable to Preble.  Unable to negotiate the release of the frigate, Preble sent LT Stephen Decatur on a daring raid to destroy her.  On the evening of 16 February 1804 Decatur dressed his crew in Arab garb and used INTREPID to slip into the harbor unobserved.  Here his crew massed upon PHILADELPHIA and set her ablaze.  She burned to the waterline.

Throughout the Summer of 1804 Preble made other efforts to force the release of Bainbridge, including several naval bombardments of Tripoli.  The Pasha, however, proved unrelenting, and with the approaching end of the good weather season, Preble approved one more daring plan.  INTREPID was packed to the gunwales with five tons of gunpowder, converting her to a floating bomb.  She would once again slip into the harbor after nightfall, where her crew would light the fuses and escape.  Her detonation would potentially breach the seaside wall of the Pasha’s fortification.  Ten volunteers led by Master Commandant Richard Somers, LT Henry Wadsworth and Midshipman Joseph Israel quietly sailed INTREPID toward the harbor on the evening of September 3^rd.

We will never know for certain what happened, but something went seriously amiss.  Before she had gained the inner harbor, INTREPID ignited prematurely in a fantastic blast.  All her hands were lost.  Her demise may have been accidental, or historians have suggested the crew may have intentionally detonated the ship when her capture seemed evident, an obvious act of selfless sacrifice.  The gallant memory of this brave ship and her 13 sailors has been perpetuated with the naming of five US Navy warships, most recently the planned Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, DDG-145

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  9 SEP 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Beach, Edward L.  The United States Navy:  200 Years.  New York, NY: Henry Holt Co., 1986, p. 47-48.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 6 “R-S”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1976, p. 548.

Maclay, Edgar Stanton.  A History of the United States Navy:  From 1775-1893, Vol I.  New York, NY: D. Appleton and Co., 1893, pp. 286-93.

Miller, Nathan.  The U.S. Navy:  An Illustrated History.  Annapolis, MD: American Heritage and USNI Press, 1977, p. 60.

Potter, E.B. and Chester W. Nimitz.  Sea Power:  A Naval History.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1960, pp. 202-03.

Sweetman, Jack.  American Naval History: An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 2^nd ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1991, pp. 22-23.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Somers was the author of the bombship scheme.  A Decatur protégé, at the time Somers was commanding the schooner NAUTILUS, 12.  His conduct earlier in the Tripolitan campaign earned him the promotion from Lieutenant to Master Commandant in May of 1804.  The heroism of the 13 men lost with INTREPID has been a continuing source of honor within the US Navy.  A total of six Navy warships have borne the name SOMERS, most recently the Hull-class destroyer DD-947, who saw significant action in the Vietnam War.

About this same time, Henry Wadsworth’s sister, Zilpah, married Stephen Longfellow of what is now Portland, Maine.  Their second child of eight, born in 1807, was named for his uncle—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Ironically the INTREPID ploy backfired.  Nothing in the harbor of consequence was damaged, and loss of the ketch weakened Preble’s blockading fleet.  No less damaging, the failed attempt caused Preble to lose “face” with the Pasha, who hardened his position and upped the ransom demand for Bainbridge’s release.

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