Operation Hailstone

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Operation Hailstone

A Japanese freighter in Truk Atoll is hit by a torpedo dropped from a TBF Avenger from USS Enterprise during Operation Hailstone, February 17, 1944.

Date	17 February 1944 – 18 February 1944
Location	Truk, Carolina Islands
Result	Allied (U.S.) victory

Combatants

Commanders

Strength

9 carriers,
45 other warships,
10 submarines,
589 planes

3 cruisers,
8 destroyers,
5 other warships,
50 merchant ships,
350 planes

Casualties

1 carrier damaged,
25 planes destroyed
40 killed^[1]

3 cruisers sunk,
6 destroyers sunk,
3 other warships sunk,
32 merchant ships sunk,
250 planes destroyed

Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign
Makin Raid – Tarawa – Makin – Kwajalein – Truk – Eniwetok

Operation Hailstone was a massive naval air and surface attack launched on 17 February and 18 February 1944, during World War II by the United States Navy against the Japanese naval and air base at Truk in the Carolina Islands, a pre-war Japanese territory. Truk was a major Japanese logistical base as well as the operating "home" base for the Imperial Japanese Navy's Combined Fleet. The atoll was the only major Japanese airbase within range of the Marshall Islands and was a significant source of support for Japanese garrisons located on islands and atolls throughout the central and south Pacific.

1 Background
2 Attack
3 Aftermath
4 References

[edit] Background

To ensure air and naval superiority for the upcoming invasion of Eniwetok Admiral Raymond Spruance ordered an attack on Truk. Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher's Task Force 58 had five fleet carriers (Enterprise, Yorktown, Essex, Intrepid, and Bunker Hill) and four light carriers (Belleau Wood, Cabot, Monterey, and Cowpens), embarking more than 500 planes. Supporting the carriers was a large fleet of seven battleships, and numerous cruisers, destroyers, submarines, and other support ships. (Morison, 1961)

Fearing that the base was becoming too vulnerable, the Japanese had relocated the aircraft carriers, battleships, and heavy cruisers of the combined fleet to Palau a week earlier. However, numerous smaller warships and merchant ships remained in and around the anchorage.

[edit] Attack

The U.S. attack involved a combination of airstrikes, surface ship actions, and submarine attacks over two days and appeared to take the Japanese completely by surprise. Several daylight, along with nighttime airstrikes, employed fighters, dive bombers, and torpedo aircraft in attacks on Japanese airfields, aircraft, shore installations, and ships in and around the Truk anchorage. A force of U.S. surface ships and submarines guarded possible exit routes from the island's anchorage to attack any Japanese ships that tried to escape from the airstrikes.

In total the attack sank three Japanese light cruisers (Agano, Katori, and Naka), six destroyers (Oite, Fumizuki, Maikaze, Hagio, Isogu, and Tachikaze), three other smaller warships, and 32 merchant ships. Some of the ships were destroyed in the anchorage and some in the area surrounding Truk lagoon. Many of the merchant ships were loaded with reinforcements and supplies for Japanese garrisons in the central Pacific area. Very few of the troops aboard the sunken ships survived and little of their cargos were recovered. (Lindeman, 2005)

Maikaze, along with several support ships, was sunk by U.S. surface ships while trying to escape from the Truk anchorage. The survivors of the sunken Japanese ships reportedly refused rescue efforts by the U.S. ships. (Morison, 1961) Agano, which was already en-route to Japan when the attack began, was sunk by a U.S. submarine, the Skate. Oite rescued survivors from the Agano and returned to Truk lagoon to assist in its defense with her anti-aircraft guns. She was sunk soon after by air attack with the Agano survivors still on board, killing all of them and all but 20 of the Oite's crew. (See Agano)

Over 250 Japanese aircraft were destroyed, mostly on the ground. Many of the aircraft were in various states of assembly, having just arrived from Japan in disassembled form aboard cargo ships. Very few of the assembled aircraft were able to take off in response to the U.S. attack. Several Japanese aircraft that did take off were claimed destroyed by U.S. fighters or gunners on the U.S. bombers and torpedo planes.

The U.S. lost twenty-five aircraft, mainly due to the intense anti-aircraft fire from Truk's defenses. About 16 U.S aircrew were rescued by submarine or amphibious aircraft.^[2] A nighttime torpedo attack by a Japanese aircraft from either Rabaul or Saipan damaged the Intrepid and killed 11 of her crew, forcing her to return to Pearl Harbor and later, San Francisco for repairs. She returned to duty in June, 1944. Another Japanese air attack slightly damaged the battleship Iowa with a bomb hit. (Morison, 1961)

[edit] Aftermath

The attacks for the most part ended Truk as a major threat to Allied operations in the central Pacific. Thus, the Japanese garrison on Eniwetok was denied any realistic hope of reinforcement and support during the invasion that began on February 18, 1944, greatly assisting U.S. forces in their conquest of that island.

The Japanese later relocated about 100 of their remaining aircraft from Rabaul to Truk. But, these aircraft were attacked by U.S. carrier forces in another attack on 29 and 30 April, 1944, destroying most of them. The April, 1944 strikes found no shipping in Truk's lagoon and were the last major attacks on Truk during the war.

Truk was isolated by Allied (primarily U.S.) forces as they continued their advance towards Japan by invading other Pacific islands such as Guam, Saipan, Palau, and Iwo Jima. Cut off, the Japanese forces on Truk and other central Pacific islands ran low on food and faced starvation before Japan surrendered in August, 1945. (Stewart, 1986)

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[edit] References

[edit] Notes

^ Morison, Aleutians, Gilberts and Marshalls, p. 330. Deaths included 29 aircrew plus 11 crewmen on Intrepid. Aircraft losses included 12 fighters, 7 torpedo-bombers, and 6 dive-bombers.
^ Morison, Aleutians, Gilberts and Marshalls, p. 330. Number derived by summing the total crews of the 25 aircraft lost and subtracting the number (29) listed as killed.

[edit] Books

Bailey, Dan E. (1992). World War II: Wrecks of the Kwajalein and Truk Lagoons. North Valley Diver Publications. ISBN 0-911615-05-9.
Brown, David (1990). Warship Losses of World War Two. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-914-X.
Brown, Herbert C. (2000). Hell at Tassafaronga. Ancient Mariners Pr. ISBN 0-9700721-4-7.-Firsthand account of Operation Hailstone by a crewmember of USS New Orleans.
D'Albas, Andrieu (1965). Death of a Navy: Japanese Naval Action in World War II. Devin-Adair Pub. ISBN 0-8159-5302-X.
Lacroix, Eric, Linton Wells (1997). Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-311-3.
Lindemann, Klaus (2005). Hailstorm Over Truk Lagoon: Operations Against Truk by Carrier Task Force 58, 17 and 18 February 1944, and the Shipwrecks of World War II. Oregon, USA: Resource Publications. ISBN 1-59752-347-X.

Morison, Samuel Eliot (1961). Aleutians, Gilberts and Marshalls, June 1942-April 1944, History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. ASIN B0007FBB8I.

Stafford, Edward P., Paul Stillwell (Introduction) (2002 (reissue)). The Big E: The Story of the USS Enterprise. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-998-0.

Stewart, William Herman (1986). Ghost Fleet of the Truk Lagoon: An Account of "Operation Hailstone", February, 1944. Pictorial Histories. ISBN 0-933126-66-2.