Author: steve

On the morning of June 20, both Japanese and American commanders launched search planes trying to find each other’s whereabouts. Throughout the day, search missions proved fruitless.   Japanese Admiral Ozawa, whose flagship carrier was sunk the day before, still planned to implement A-GO on June 21.   He had been forced to abandon ship and hoist his flag on a cruiser, but by noontime he transferred to another carrier, better equipped for communication.   He soon learned the truth and extent of the destruction.

American search planes finally spotted his fleet at 1615 hours (4:15).   Admiral Mitscher ordered all carriers to unleash their fighters.   The enemy was more than two hundred miles away.

Mitscher knew that it was too late in the day to launch this strike, that the pilots would barely have enough gas to reach the Japanese fleet and return to their carriers. But he also knew that he had a golden opportunity to devastate the enemy fleet — which now had less than 100 planes to protect it.   Not an easy decision — but the right one   –     he knew he would lose planes and pilots in this attack.

The carrier pilots located the enemy fleet just before dark (1845 hrs (6:45)).   They attacked and sank the carrier Hiyo, heavily damaged two other carriers, two cruisers, and several oilers and tankers.

By 2045 hours, the first returning planes were picked up by the picket ships’ radar.   In the pitch darkness of a moonless Pacific night, Admiral Mitscher ordered all ships to turn their spotlights towards the nearest carrier and flip the switches.   Returning planes sputtered out of gas and crashed into the sea.   Others struggled to land on the nearest carrier in the dark   –   only a few of the pilots were trained in night landings   –   and there was chaos as some planes crashed on or near the carriers.   About one hundred planes never made it back that night.

On June 21, the ships continue their pursuit of the Japanese fleet, all the while searching for downed airmen.   By day’s end, about one hundred fifty pilots and crewmen are fished out of the water.

The Battle of the Philippine Sea and the A-GO plan was a complete disaster for the Japanese Navy.   By the time they were able to escape beyond the reach of Task Force 58’s ships on June 21, they had lost one third of their carriers and all but 36 of their aircraft.

The two fleets would tangle again four months later once again in the Philippine Sea.

The A-GO plan for defeating America in a decisive naval battle required a combination of successful attacks on US ships from carrier planes launched from the west and from land-based planes in Guam and Truk and the Bonins hitting the ships from the east.   Unfortunately for Japan, Task Force 58 raids throughout May and early June had reduced available enemy aircraft to a fraction of their strength.   Task Group 58.1 (Boston) and 58.4 had just destroyed 100 planes on the Bonins two days before   –   planes to be used in A-Go.   When the Japanese Carrier forces launched their attacks on June 19, they expected 500 fighter planes to hit the Americans from the backside while their planes attacked from the West.   Unknown to them, less than 100 total planes were left on the Marianas.   American fighter groups reduced what was left all day long in constant sweeps over airfields on Guam, Tinian and Saipan.

The Japanese carriers were too far away from the Americans (more than 350 miles) for their pilots to attack and return to refuel, so the plan was for planes to bomb American ships, land on Guam, refuel, and drop more bombs on their return.   Throughout the morning, wave after wave of Japanese Zeroes approached the Americans.   They were met with experienced and organized carrier pilot Combat Patrol groups that engaged them in spectacular dogfights.   All day long, the men aboard the Task Force ships watched planes and pieces of planes drop, twist and burn into the sea around them.   Most Zeroes never got near the ships, but those that did evade the dogfights were met with curtains of steel thrown up by the ships.   The few lucky ones to make it past the ships were out of gas and headed for Guam   –   only to encounter fighter groups sweeping the airfields.

By the time the sun set, the Japanese Navy had lost   265 planes and pilots. The day quickly came to be known as the Marianas Turkey Shoot.   US losses were 27 pilots and crewmembers.   An additional 50 or so land-based planes were destroyed on the ground on Guam.

Other losses for the day: 27 sailors and 4 officers died or were wounded on American ships.   3,000 Japanese sailors and two aircraft carriers perished after being torpedoed by American submarines that had detected the movement of the Japanese Fleet earlier that morning.

After four   days of steaming west toward the Mariana Islands, the ships of Task Force 58 finally came into carrier plane range of Guam. On June 11 and 12, they launched wave after wave of fighter and bomber planes, hitting targets up and down the island.   Attacks against enemy bases on Saipan and Tinian on June 13 triggered the implementation by the Japanese of their defensive strategy A-GO, the unleashing of the bulk of their warships in an all-out attack on the American Fleet.

On June 14, while the Boston and the ships of task groups 58.1 and 58.4 steamed north to raid the airbases on Iwo and Chichi Jima,   The Japanese Combined Fleet began steaming north and east into the Philippines en route to engage the Americans off the Marianas.

After attacking the Jimas in bad weather on the 15^th and 16^th, the Americans were ordered to meet up with the rest of the fleet east of Saipan and Tinian. On the morning of June 18, all four task groups, and an additional “Battle Line” group of battleships and cruisers, formed up into a large Battle Formation. The Japanese Fleet was headed their way!

On June 19, at first light began the three-day naval battle known as the Battle of the Philippine Sea.   When the sun set on the 21^st, the balance of power in the Pacific had flipped from Japanese Supremacy to American Naval Superiority.

I will spend a little time ASAP talking about the action of June 19-21.   It is an incredible story, and it includes the Marianas Turkey Shoot and the reduction of one third of the Japanese Fleet.

1943: More men arrive daily as the construction of the ship nears completion.   The men are barracked in the Fargo Building in South Boston and work as able hands on the ship as her commissioning day approaches.

1944: After two weeks anchored in Majuro, the ships of Task Force 58 begin to leave the lagoon at first light on June 6, for the beginning of Operation Forager –   the invasion of strategic islands in the Marianas — and the retaking of Guam from the enemy. The Japanese had strategic airfields on Tinian and Saipan, and had captured the fine airstrip at Orote Field when they invaded Guam on Dec. 8, 1941.

The Boston formed up with Jocko Clark’s Task Group 58.1.   The group consisted of   four aircraft carriers of Carrier Division 5 and the cruisers of Cruiser Division 10 (Boston was the flagship). The four carriers and six cruisers were flanked and screened by fourteen destroyers (DesRon6 and DesRon46).   This impressive flotilla began steaming west towards the Marianas, accompanying three other task groups similarly equipped.

1945: The Boston raises anchor on June 1^st and departs California.   She steams to Hawaii to Pearl Harbor, which she enters on June 7, and remains there until July 2^nd, preparing to re-enter the fray in the lead-up to the planned Invasion of Japan.

1944: On May 5, the ships pull into Majuro, the southernmost deep lagoon anchorage in the Marshall Islands.   The fleet is regrouping and preparing for the upcoming campaign to capture the Mariana Islands.   On May 19, the Boston regroups outside of the lagoon into a new Task Group, 58.6, with the heavy carriers Wasp, Hornet, Essex and Franklin and the light carrier San Jacinto.   The Boston is joined by two sister cruisers of the Baltimore class; Baltimore and Canberra, as well as light cruisers Reno and San Diego. This formidable Task Group, screened by 14 destroyers, steams north for Operation Persecution — a quick and deadly raid on the Japanese stronghold islands of Wake and Marcus. By midday on May 24, the raiders are back in Majuro.   The men on the Boston stay in the lagoon until June 6 – the beginning of Operation Forager –   the opening act of the heaviest 6 months of naval combat action of the Pacific War.

1945: The Boston is moored in San Pedro still; undergoing upgrades and repairs in preparation for the final push against Japan and the planned massive invasions of the Home Islands.   The second half of crewmembers have returned from leave and are onboard by May 7. May 8 is V.E. Day   –   great news for the soldiers and sailors fighting in the Atlantic Theatre, but a grim reminder for the men on the Boston who are preparing to re-embark and sail to Japanese waters.   The news from Okinawa is gut-wrenching; wave after wave of massive kamikaze attacks are reducing American ships to melting fireballs and twisted wreckage.   The sailors know this: the folks back home do not.   Military censors kept a very tight wrap on this horrific story.

The Boston remains in San Pedro until June 1, when she heads west and sails to Pearl Harbor.