Page 155 - Micronesia

n early February, United States Marine naval losses were also significant. Some and merchant ships, would be anchored
of the ships were destroyed in anchorage, in Truk Lagoon. Some 365 military aircraft,
I Corps B-24 reconnaissance aircraft ap- while most others were intercepted by mostly fighters and bombers, were parked
American vessels that enveloped the area. on the airstrips. War materiel was stacked
peared above Truk, and it confirmed the A total of 191,000 tons of shipping, which high in dozens of warehouses. Thousands
American intention to strike to the Japanese. included three light cruisers (Agano, Katori, of Japanese troops were stationed on the
A small group of Japanese aircraft struck and Naka), six destroyers (Oite, Fumizuki, islands, which were so far inside the sur-
first on the 16th of February. With the Maikaze, Hagio, Isogu, and Tachikaze), three rounding barrier reef that they could be at-
exception of a bomb hit on the starboard smaller warships, two submarines, and 32 tacked only by air. Beginning late in August
bow of battleship Iowa (which caused only transports and merchant ships, were de- 1942, Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto,
light damage), the Japanese fighters were stroyed. American losses were comparably commander-in-chief of the Combined
fought off with relative ease with anti- minimal. During the main strike, 21 Ameri- Fleet, located his headquarters on board
aircraft fire. A night time torpedo bomber can aircraft were lost to anti-aircraft fire. the battleship Yamato in Truk Lagoon. In
attack damaged the carrier Intrepid, killing February 1943, Yamamoto transferred his
11, and sending her to Pearl Harbor and B y the time Japan launched her sneak headquarters and the flag of the fleet to
San Francisco for repair for the next four attack on Pearl Harbour, she had four Yamato’s sister ship, Musashi, also anchored
months. Between 17 and 18 of February, military airstrips operational, extensive in the lagoon. Yamato and Musashi, the two
aerial strikes, surface engagements, and fortifications and major naval installations largest and most powerful battleships ever
submarine attacks rained devastation upon at Truk. In July 1942, Truk became head- built, led an impressive array of Japanese
anything Japanese on and near Truk. The quarters for the Imperial Japanese Navy’s warships — carriers, battleships, cruisers,
most damaging aspect was the loss of 270 Combined Fleet, which included the First, destroyers — based at Truk.
aircraft. The importance of this function for Second, and Third Fleets, and the Sixth Sub-
Truk was reaffirmed on 20 February, two marine Fleet. On any given day, upwards of
days after the Truk strike, when Admiral Mi- 50 or 60 Japanese vessels, both warships
neichi Koga ordered naval aircraft from Pa-
lau and Rabaul to transfer to Truk. Japanese