YAMATO’S DESPERATION SORTIE

A second offshore phase of operation “Ten-Go” involved the Imperial Navy.  Its warships were to sally forth and blast what remained of the Allied invasion fleet after the April 6^th kikusui raid.  But by this date, the once proud Imperial Navy was but a shadow of its former might.  From war-worn bases in the Inland Sea, Combined Fleet Commander ADM Jisaburo Ozawa could muster only a small “Special Surface Attack Force” of a light cruiser, eight destroyers, and the super-battleship YAMATO.  This 863-foot, 68,000-ton leviathan sported nine 18.1 inch guns that could hurl a 3200-pound shell 22 ¹/₂ miles.  On this last-gasp mission, no air cover could be provided, and YAMATO could be spared only enough fuel for a one-way trip.  Most realized YAMATO would probably not survive what amounted to a suicide mission.  According to historian Russell Spurr, it was the Japanese naval command’s intent that the battleship ravage the American flotilla, then beach herself.  Her guns would form a defensive battery, and her surviving crew would scurry ashore to augment the Japanese land forces.  Under the overall command of VADM Seiichi Ito, the force got underway from Tokuyama at 1520 on the 6^th.  They were spotted at 1745 by THREADFIN (SS-410) in the Inland Sea, and three hours later by HACKLEBACK (SS-295), but neither sub could position for an attack.

VADM Marc Mitscher’s airstrike against YAMATO launched at 1000 this morning, and at 1230 BENNINGTON’s (CV-20) pilots bloodied YAMATO’s nose with two bombs near the mainmast.  For the next two hours the battleship endured near continuous attack.  Her inexperienced anti-aircraft gunners were unable to hit much at all.  In the first hour, YAMATO took five torpedo hits to the port boiler rooms and began to list.  Skipper RADM Kosaka Ariga ordered the starboard boiler rooms counter-flooded before several hundred sailors could be evacuated.  YAMATO now had but one turning screw.  The fourth attack wave brought more portside torpedoes and ten more bomb hits.  YAMATO’s deck plates cracked and crumpled, her list rendered her guns inoperable, the water-tight radio shack flooded, and a blast to sick bay killed the medical officer and corpsmen.  TBM Avengers now made runs so low and measured that LTJG William T. Delaney’s caught fire from his torpedo’s blast.  The last wave struck at 1400.  Communications aboard YAMATO went out, and she rolled onto her beam ends.  Loose shells crashed about, exploding, and at 1423 a giant mushroom cloud signaled the end.

In the enemy’s last naval sortie of WWII, 2498 battleship sailors died, including admirals Ito and Ariga.  The cruiser and four destroyers were sunk as well.  Taken to be revenge for the loss of USS ARIZONA (BB-39) at Pearl Harbor, only 10 US planes were downed.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  13 APR 26

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Dull, Paul S.  A Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy (1941-1945).  USNI Press, Annapolis, MD, pp. 333-35, 1978.

Mitsuru, Yoshida.  Requiem for Battleship Yamato.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1985.

Morison, Samuel Eliot.  History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol 14  Victory in the Pacific.  Little, Brown and Co., Boston, MA, pp. 199-209, 1960.

Rohwer, Jurgen and Gerhard Hummelchen.  Chronology of the War at Sea  1939-1945.  USNI Press, Annapolis, MD, p. 346, 1992.

Spurr, Russell.  A Glorious Way to Die:  The Kamikaze Mission of the Battleship Yamato, April 1945.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1981.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Historians argue today whether YAMATO’s sortie was indeed a suicide mission.  Nevertheless, the sortie is often described as the last “banzai charge” of the Imperial Navy.  Four destroyers survived, FUYUTSUKIi, HATSUSHIMO, YUKIKAZE, and SUZUTSUKI, the latter creeping back to Sasebo stern-first after American bombers blew off her bow.  These and a handful of submarines constituted all the remained of the Imperial Japanese bluewater Navy.  Never to be a threat for the remainder of the war, the above destroyers were sunk at their moorings by American aircraft a month later.

LTJG Delaney crashed into the water in the midst of the Japanese fleet and hid under his inflatable life raft as the battle raged.  He was spotted by one of the last departing US planes, who radioed a PBM Mariner circling out of range.  He was picked up, literally, amongst the bobbing heads of hundreds of Japanese sailors.

The wreck of YAMATO was located in 1984.  She lies in two pieces under 1100 feet of water, 180 miles southwest of Kyushu.  Plans to raise the battleship, at Japanese government expense, to recover the remains of her crew never came to fruition.

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                                 “FLOATING CHRYSANTHEMUMS”

The Japanese plan for defense of Okinawa was known by the language characters “Ten-Go.”  While defenders on land waged a battle of attrition, Japanese air and naval forces would engage the American invasion fleet.  But the Japanese air forces were flagging.  Most of their planes and skilled pilots had been lost, the technology of their remaining aircraft was out-classed by the American Hellcat and Corsair, and their reserves of fuel were nearly spent.  This desperate situation bred a desperate response.

Kamikazes first appeared at the battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944.  They attacked in small groups, usually under fighter escort.  The first kamikaze pilots came from the ranks of veterans and could fly the ideal approach–a near vertical plunge from above the anti-aircraft barrage that was aimed amidships, at the base of the bridge structure.  Such a flight profile required evasion of enemy combat air patrols and proper timing of the push-over.  But as attrition claimed experienced pilots, the remaining resorted to a simpler, shallow, glide-in approach with its devastating exposure to anti-aircraft fire.  By Okinawa, kamikaze tactics had matured.  They appeared at dusk, out of the setting sun, sometimes approaching “on the deck,” below radar.  Planes were sent in mass flights, kikusui’s (“floating chrysanthemums”), 50 or more at a time, striking from all directions at once.  The target of choice was the aircraft carrier or battleship, but to the eyes of inexperienced pilots, destroyers appeared equally tempting.  One advanced variation, the baka, was a 500-knot rocket-propelled glide bomb, manned by a suicide pilot, and launched from the belly of a larger plane.

The terror of kamikazes cannot be overstated.  Initially American sailors were aghast that pilots would willfully sacrifice themselves in such a manner.  As we had never imagined such a weapon, our defenses were not up to the task.  Ultimately, radar pickets, interception sorties, raids on home airfields, and robust anti-air defenses insured that the majority of the hundreds of kamikazes thrown at the Allies off Okinawa failed in their attempt to glorify the Emperor.  Nevertheless, those who succeeded wrought death and destruction beyond description.  On this date, the first in a series of ten kikusui raids claimed the destroyers BUSH (DD-529) and COLHOUN (DD-801), the minesweeper EMMONS (DMS-22), an LST and the cargo ships Hobbs Victory and Logan Victory.  Twelve more were damaged including four crippled beyond repair; MORRIS (DD-417), LEUTZE (DD-481), NEWCOMB (DD-586), and WITTER (DE-636).

Kamikazes proved to be Japan’s most effective weapon against our Navy in WWII, sinking more ships and killing more sailors than any other weapon system.  Off Okinawa, they claimed most of the 34 ships sunk and 368 damaged and were responsible for most of the 4907 sailors killed. 

Continued tomorrow…

Astor, Gerald.  Operation Iceberg:  The Invasion and Conquest of Okinawa in World War II–An Oral History.  New York, NY: Donald I. Fine, Inc., 1995.

Belote, James H. and William M. Belote.  Typhoon of Steel:  The Battle for Okinawa.  New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1970.

Hoyt, Edwin P.  The Kamikazes.  New York, NY: Arbor House, 1983.

Inoguchi, Rikihei and Tadashi Nakajima.  The Divine Wind:  Japan’s Kamikaze Force in World War II.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1958.

Morison, Samuel Eliot.  History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol 14  Victory in the Pacific.  Little, Brown and Co., Boston, MA, pp. 181-282, 1960.

Poolman, Kenneth.  Allied Escort Carriers of World War Two in Action.  USNI Press, Annapolis, MD, p. 225, 1988.

Rohwer, Jurgen and Gerhard Hummelchen.  Chronology of the War at Sea  1939-1945.  USNI Press, Annapolis, MD, pp. 345-46, 1992.

Silverstone, Paul H.  “Naval Intelligence”.  Sea Classics, Vol 28 (4), pp. 6, 70, April 1995.

Yahara, Hiromichi.  The Battle for Okinawa.  New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1995.

Zimmerman, Robert.  “Okinawa:  A Last Step on the Bloodstained Road to Japan”.  San Diego Union-Tribune, p. A16, 1 Apr 1995.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  In the 3^rd kikusui raid on April 16^th LAFFEY (DD-724) was crashed by four bombs and six kamikazes (17 others missed or were shot down), killing or horribly burning 103 crewmen.  Though every gun aboard was disabled, she is remembered today as the US Navy warship to endure the single most intense enemy attack and remain afloat.

A surviving example of the baka can be seen at Navy Museum of the Washington Navy Yard.

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                                                  USS HALLIGAN

The bloody and bitter fight for Iwo Jima had barely begun to quiet before the next target on the relentless march toward Japan was determined–Okinawa.  Here the Marines expected yet another tenacious fight to the death by entrenched defenders loyal to their Emperor.  D-Day was set for April 1^st, and the last weeks of March saw the pre-invasion bombardment of the Okinawa landing zones.  Accompanying this “softening-up” force was the Fletcher-class destroyer HALLIGAN (DD-584).  A veteran of the campaigns for the Marshalls, Saipan, the Philippines, and Iwo Jima, her skipper, LCDR Edward T. Grace, had been allowed only a few days to refit in Ulithi before getting underway for Okinawa.  This morning found HALLIGAN patrolling between Okinawa and Kerama Retto, protecting minesweepers who were preparing an area known to be heavily mined.

Around 1830 this day, FN1c Eddie S. Strine stood in the chow line aboard the destroyer-minesweeper AARON WARD (DM-34) steaming a couple miles starboard of HALLIGAN.  Out the port passageway hatch he watched the strong silhouette of the destroyer calmly coursing in shoal water three miles southeast of Maye Shima.  Then suddenly a silent flash enveloped the destroyer, and a massive column of black smoke mushroomed from HALLIGAN.  Seconds later the concussion struck WARD and sent her sailors to General Quarters.

HALLIGAN was wrenched in two in the explosion, only a handful of sailors forward of the bridge escaped in the seconds it took for the bow section to flood and sink.  LCDR Grace and all but two of the wardroom officers were killed instantly.  ENS R.L. Gardner, who happened to be in the after 5″ gun mount, leapt back to his feet uninjured, and quickly ran forward.  Recognizing himself to be the only officer left aboard, he began organizing fire-fighting, damage control, and rescue operations.  The explosion had detonated the forward magazines and nothing forward of the No. 1 stack remained.  PC-1128 and LSM-194 pulled alongside to assist, but it soon became apparent that there was little left to save.  Gardner ordered the remaining crew to abandon ship and made one last sweep through the spaces.  Luckily one sailor was found still alive below decks, pinned under wreckage.  A handy torch quickly freed the man.  In all, 153 sailors perished with HALLIGAN, most instantly when the Japanese mine detonated beneath the destroyer’skeel.  She was the first US warship lost in the Okinawa campaign, without having fired a shot in her own defense.

HALLIGAN’s after section drifted 12 miles before running aground on the Okinawan shore.  Her rusting hulk remained aground until 1958, when it was donated to the Okinawans for scrap.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  31 MAR 25

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. 216-17.

Lott, Arnold S.  Brave Ship Brave Men.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1964, p. 139.

Morison, Samuel Eliot.  History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol XIV  Victory in the Pacific.  Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1960, pp. 115-16.

Parkin, Robert Sinclair.  Blood on the Sea:  American Destroyers Lost in World War II.  New York, NY: Sarpedon, 1995, pp. 285-87.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  HALLIGAN was named for RADM John HALLIGAN, a veteran of the Spanish-American War and WWI, who later served as Chief of the Bureau of Engineering, Assistant CNO, and Commander of the 13^th Naval District.

Sailors feared mines as much as any other casualty, as ships striking mines were often doomed.  Sailors tread lightly on the decks in mine-infested waters, as a detonation would throw the decks up so violently that one would often suffer the fracture of both legs and be thrown overboard.

LCDR Edward Thomas Grace was awarded the Sliver Star for his actions this day.

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                                  USS MANNERT L. ABELE (DD-733)

WWII generated a boom in warship construction such that the 23 April 1944 launch of the 42^nd Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer from the Bath Iron Works in Maine hardly attracted unusual attention.  She was commissioned USS MANNERT L. ABELE (DD-733), remembering the heroic skipper of the submarine GRUNION (SS-216), lost off Kiska Island in 1942.  Today’s date found ABELE 70 miles northwest of Okinawa at radar picket station No. 14, standing watch for incoming enemy aircraft.  The dreaded Japanese kamikazes had been striking US ships since the battle for the Philippines, and of late they had become organized into mass “kikisui” raids of hundreds of planes at once.

The first of this day’s attacks came about 1345 when three “Val” bombers dove for the destroyer.  Sailors sprang to their guns and threw up a wall of metal.  Two of the attackers turned away, but the third caught fire and streaked across the sky toward another ship, an LSM(R).  ABELE’s gunners drove her into the sea however, before she could do any damage.

For the next few nervous minutes the skies quieted.

But the radar shack had been tracking a large shadow to the north.  Fifteen minutes had not passed before 20-25 planes appeared on the horizon and began circling station 14’s ships.  Except for a lone bomber that was held at bay by ABELE’s gunners, the formation remained out of range until 1440.  Three suicide “Zeros” then broke formation and dove for ABELE.  One was driven off, another shot down two miles out, but despite a curtain of steel thrown up from the destroyer, the third kamikaze crashed ablaze into her starboard side, penetrating to the after engine room before exploding.  Not a minute later, hardly enough time for bowled-over sailors to regain their feet, a strange and evil missile came screaming in at 400 MPH.  It was a rocket-powered suicide glide bomb–a “baka.”  Its massive 2600-pound warhead exploded at the starboard waterline abreast of the forward fireroom.  The destroyer’s midsection disintegrated in a fireball as sailors were cast into the roiling water.  The suicide attacks broke ABELE’s keel.  The bridge lost power as did the guns and the directors.  The bow and stern sank immediately, 82 of the 336-man crew did not escape.  Nearby LSM(R)’s-189 and 190 fended off strafing enemy fighters until ABELE’s sailors could be rescued.

MANNERT L. ABELE is the only US warship sunk by the infamous “baka” rocket-bomb, a human-guided precursor to our modern anti-ship missiles.  “Bakas” came too late in the war to affect its outcome.  Several “bakas” were captured after the war, one of which is displayed today at the Washington Navy Yard museum.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  19 APR 24

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 4 “L-M”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1969, p. 222-23.

“Johnson Air Base, Japan.”  AT: http://users.ev1/net/~vmitchell/ JAB.htm, retrieved 6 October 2006.

Morison, Samuel Eliot.  History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol XIV  Victory in the Pacific.  Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1960, pp. 223-24.

Parkin, Robert Sinclair.  Blood on the Sea:  American Destroyers Lost in World War II.  New York, NY: Sarpedon, 1995, pp. 296-99.

Roscoe, Theodore.  United States Destroyer Operations in World War II.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1953, pp. 476-77.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  One of four captured “bakas” stood in front of the 41^st Air Division Headquarters at Johnson Air Base in Japan (the former Japanese Toyo-oka training base).  “Baka” was an American nickname taken from the Japanese word for “fool.”  The Japanese called the device “Okha,” meaning “cherry blossom.”  The missile was carried beneath a twin-engine bomber with the pilot locked in the cockpit.  Near the target the missile would be released, and a 30 second rocket burn would propel it to 405 MPH while the suicide pilot guided it to impact.

The LSM(R), Landing Ship Medium (Rocket), was a general-purpose amphibious landing ship specially modified to fire barrages of surface-to-surface rockets in support of shore operations.  Twelve were commissioned during the last months of WWII, each was 200 feet long and carried a crew of 80.  All saw their first combat in March 1945 off Okinawa.

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