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Battle of Philippine Sea

Excerpt from Wikipedia Encyclopedia:

The Battle of the Philippine Sea was an air-sea battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II fought between the US Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy on June 19 and June 20, 1944, off the Mariana Islands. The action was a disaster for the Japanese forces, who lost almost all of their carrier-borne aircraft and a third of the carriers involved in the battle. It was so one-sided that American pilots nicknamed it The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot, and after the battle the aircraft carrier force of the IJN was no longer militarily effective.

In September 1943 IJN Headquarters decided that the time was right to go back on the offensive in the Pacific. Losses from the battle of Midway had been largely replaced in terms of numbers of carriers, and since the US was attacking Japanese-held islands on their "island hopping campaign", the lack of planes themselves could be addressed with the addition of strong land-based forces. The result was Operation A-Go, which would take place some time in early 1944, attacking the US Pacific fleet while it launched its next major offensive. On 3 May orders for A-Go were sent out, and the waiting began.

The Japanese fleet, commanded by Vice Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa, consisted of six fleet carriers (Taiho, Shokaku, Zuikaku, Junyo, Ryuho, and Hiyo), three light carriers (Chitose, Chiyoda, and Zuiho), five battleships (Yamato, Musashi, Kongo, Haruna, and Nagato) and supporting cruisers, destroyers, and oilers.

On 11 June US carrier-borne forces started a series of small strikes on the Marianas, convincing Admiral Toyoda Soemu, Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet, that the US was preparing to invade. This came as something of a surprise, as they had expected the next US target to be further to the south, at either the Carolines or the Palaus, and therefore the Marianas were protected with a weak force of only 50 aircraft.


The Japanese forces had been sighted on 15 June by American submarines, and by the next day Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, commander of the U.S. 5th Fleet, was convinced a major battle was about to start. By the afternoon of 18 June Admiral Marc A. Mitscher's Task Force 58 (the Fast Carrier Task Force) was formed up near Saipan to meet the Japanese attack.

TF 58 consisted of five major groups. In front (to the west) was Admiral Willis A. Lee's Task Group 58.7 (TG 58.7), the Battle Line, consisting of seven fast battleships (Washington, North Carolina, Indiana, Iowa, New Jersey, South Dakota, and Alabama). Just north of them was the weakest of the carrier groups, Rear Admiral William K. Harrill's TG 58.4 of three carriers (Essex, Langley, and Cowpens). To the east came three groups of four carriers each in a line running north-south: Rear Admiral Joseph J. Clark's TG 58.1 (Hornet, Yorktown, Belleau Wood, and Bataan); Rear Admiral Alfred E. Montgomery's TG 58.2 (Bunker Hill, Wasp, Cabot, and Monterey); and Rear Admiral John W. Reeves's TG 58.3 (Enterprise, Lexington, San Jacinto, and Princeton). The big ships were supported by 8 heavy cruisers, 13 light cruisers, 58 destroyers, and 28 submarines.

Shortly before midnight on the 18th Admiral Chester Nimitz sent Spruance a message from Pacific Fleet Headquarters indicating that the Japanese flagship was approximately 350 miles (560 km) to the west-south-west of Task Force 58. Shortly afterwards Mitscher asked for permission to head west during the night to an ideal launch position for an all-out attack on the enemy force at dawn.

However, Spruance refused. Throughout the run-up to the battle he had been concerned that the Japanese would try to draw his main fleet away from the landing area using a diversionary force, and would then make an attack around the flank of the US carrier force—an "end run"—hitting the invasion shipping off Saipan. Instead he placed TF 58 on a purely defensive footing, leaving it to the Japanese to set the pace of the battle.

Spruance was heavily criticised by many officers after the battle, and continues to be to this day, but it is instructive to compare Spruance's caution with Admiral William Halsey, Jr.'s impetuous pursuit of a diversionary force of Japanese carriers at the battle of Leyte Gulf.

At 05:30 TF 58 turned north-east into the wind and started to launch their air patrols. At about the same time a number of the 50 aircraft on Guam started up on search missions. At 05:50 one of these, a Mitsubishi Zero, found TF 58. After radioing in its position, he attacked one of the destroyers on picket duty and was shot down.


The recall had been ordered after a number of ships in TF 58 saw a number of radar contacts 150 miles (240 km) to the west at about 10:00. This was the first of the raids from the Japanese carrier forces, with 68 aircraft. TF 58 started launching every fighter they could, and by the time they were up the Japanese had closed to 70 miles (110 km). However they then made a fatal mistake, and started circling in order to re-group their formations for the attack. This ten-minute delay proved critical, and the first group of Hellcats met the raid, still at 70 miles, at 10:36. They were quickly joined by additional groups, and within minutes 25 Japanese planes had been shot down for the loss of only one US aircraft.

The Japanese planes which survived were met by other fighters and 16 more were shot down. Of the remainder some made attacks on the picket destroyers Yarnall and Stockham, but caused no damage. Three or four bombers broke through to the battleship group, and one made a direct hit on South Dakota (BB-57) which caused many casualties but failed to disable her. Not one aircraft of Ozawa's first wave got through to the American carriers.

At 11:07 radar detected another and much larger attack. This second wave consisted of 109 aircraft. They were met while still 60 miles (100 km) out, and no less than 70 of these aircraft were shot down before reaching the ships. Six attacked Rear Admiral Montgomery's group, making near-misses which caused casualties on two of the carriers. Four of the six were shot down. A small group of torpedo aircraft attacked Enterprise, launching a torpedo which exploded in the wake of the ship. Three other torpedo-planes attacked the light carrier Princeton, but were shot down. In all, 97 of the 107 attacking aircraft were shot down.


The fourth raid was launched between 11:00 and 11:30, but had been given an incorrect location for the Americans and couldn't find the fleet. They then broke into two loose groups and turned to Guam and Rota to refuel. One group of aircraft flying towards Rota stumbled upon Mongomery's task group. Eighteen aircraft joined battle with American fighters and lost half its number. A smaller group of nine Japanese dive bombers of the this force evaded U.S. planes and made attacks on Wasp and Bunker Hill, but failed to make any hits. Eight of these aircraft were shot down in the process. The larger group of Japanese planes had flown to Guam and were intercepted over Orote Field by 27 Hellcats while landing. 30 of the 49 Japanese planes were shot down, and the rest were damaged beyond repair.

At 08:16 the US submarine Albacore had sighted Ozawa's own carrier group, and began an attack on the easiest carrier to reach. This happened to be the Taiho, Ozawa's flagship. As they were about to fire her fire-control computer failed, and the torpedoes had to be fired "by eye".

Taiho had just launched 42 aircraft as a part of the second raid. Four of Albacore's torpedoes were off-target. Sakio Komatsu, the pilot of one of the recently-launched aircraft, sighted one of the two which were heading for Taiho and crashed his aircraft on it, but the last torpedo struck the carrier on her starboard side near her aviation-fuel tanks. At first the damage did not appear to be very serious.

Another submarine, the Cavalla, was able to maneuver to an attack position on Shokaku by about noon. Three torpedoes hit Shokaku, setting her on fire. At 15:00 the fire reached the bomb magazine, blowing the ship apart.



Ozawa had transferred to the destroyer Wakatsuki after Taiho had been hit, but the radio gear onboard was not capable of sending the number of messages needed, so he transferred again, to Zuikaku, at 13:00. It was then that he learned of the disastrous missions of the day before, and that he had only 100 or so aircraft left. Nevertheless he decided to continue the attacks, thinking that there were hundreds of planes on Guam and Rota, and started planning new raids to be launched on the 21st.

American searches failed to locate the Japanese fleet until 15:40. However the report made was so garbled that Mitscher did not know what had been sighted, or where. At 16:05 another report was received that was clearer, and Mitscher decided to launch a full-out strike even though there was only 75 minutes to sunset. The attack went in at 18:30.

Ozawa had been able to put up very few fighters to intercept—no more than 35 according to later estimates, but these few were skilfully handled, and the Japanese ships' anti-aircraft fire was intense. The US raid, however, contained 216 planes, and the majority were able to press the attack.


At 20:45 the first US planes began to return to TF 58. Mitscher took the decision to fully illuminate the carriers, despite the risk of attack from submarines and night-flying aircraft, and the picket destroyers fired starshells to help the planes find the task groups. Despite this 80 of the returning aircraft were lost, some crashing on flight decks, the majority going into the sea. Many of the crews were nevertheless rescued over the next few days.

That night Ozawa received orders from Toyoda to withdraw from the Philippine Sea. US forces gave chase, but the battle was over.

The four Japanese attacks used 373 carrier aircraft, of which 130 returned to the carriers, and several more were destroyed onboard the two carriers destroyed on the first day. After the second day the totals were three carriers and 395 aircraft. Losses on the US side on the first day were only 23, and on the second 100, most due to night landings. The losses to the Japanese were irreplaceable. In the battle of Leyte Gulf a few months later, their carriers were used solely as a decoy due to the lack of aircraft, and aircrews to fly them.

Wikipedia Encyclopedia, "Battle of Philippine Sea,"