On April 18, 1943, over the Pacific Ocean, the plane of Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Combined Fleet of the Japanese Navy, suddenly encountered a U.S. aircraft. During the battle, Yamamoto fifty-six crashed and died. This is the Japanese interpretation of that year. When the United States released this news that year, it also used words such as "encounter" and "chance".
Is6 Yamamoto
After World War II, the United States announced the truth about the killing of Isoroku Yamamoto, and it turned out that the US military intercepted the Japanese telegram, and successfully deciphered the contents of the telegram, took the form of an ambush, and killed The culprit Yamamoto Isoroku who planned the attack on Pearl Harbor in one fell swoop.
Pearl Harbor, April 14, 1943. Just after 8 a.m., Lieutenant Colonel Edwin Leiden, intelligence staff officer of the U.S. Pacific Fleet Command, walked quickly into the office of Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander of the U.S. Pacific Theater and Commander of the Pacific Fleet, with a document in Layton's hand, a classified Japanese telegram that had just been intercepted and deciphered by the Pacific Fleet's Radio Intelligence Unit in the early morning: The Combined Fleet Commander scheduled to visit Barral, Shortland, and Bouyn on April 18: At 8:00, Escorted by six fighter jets, a Type I land attack aircraft took off from Rabaul; at 10:00, it arrived in Barral and changed to a hunting submarine to go to Shortland; at 12:30, it returned to Balar by a submarine hunting submarine; at 14:30, it departed Barar by a land-attack aircraft; at 14:30, arrived in Bouin for lunch at the headquarters of the First Base; took off from Buin at 16:00 and returned to Rabaul; at 17:40, returned to Rabaul; and in case of bad weather, the inspection schedule was postponed by one day.
Commander of the Pacific Fleet, Nimitz
This was the schedule of inspections by Commander Isoroku Yamamoto of the Combined Fleet of the Japanese Navy, which was jointly sent by the Commander of the Japanese Southeast Fleet and the Commander of the Eighth Fleet to the commanders of the bases, air forces and garrisons in Barral, Shortland and Bouin at 20:00 on April 13.
Nimitz
Nimitz read the telegram and looked up at Layton with a slight smile, "Your opinion, kill Yamamoto Fifty-Six?" Layton nodded, according to the arrangement Yamamoto Fifty-Six will enter the combat radius of the fighter takeoff from Guadalcanal Airfield, which is the perfect opportunity to kill him.
As a strategist who strategizes the overall situation, Nimitz's first consideration is whether the Japanese Navy will have a better general than him to replace him if Yamamoto Isoroku is killed. Nimitz immediately asked Layton about this. As an intelligence staff officer of the Pacific Fleet, Layton was well aware of all the admiral-level generals of the Japanese Navy, and immediately listed them to Nimitz one by one, analyzing each person's qualifications, experience, ability and courage, and finally Layton said: "In the Japanese Navy, Yamamoto Fifty-Six is the most outstanding, and because of his superb command in the attack on Pearl Harbor, he has become the most admired figure among the military and the people outside the emperor, and if he is killed, it will deal a heavy blow to the morale and hearts of the Japanese army!" ”
Although Nimitz was very eager to kill Yamamoto Fifty-Six, killing Yamamoto Fifty-Six was not only a military operation, but also involved many political factors, so Nimitz, who had always been cautious, still did not dare to make a decision easily, so he asked Washington for instructions.
Nimitz's telegram of instructions soon passed into the hands of President Roosevelt. At this time, Roosevelt was having lunch with Secretary of the Navy Knox and Admiral King, the Secretary of Naval Operations, and Roosevelt listened to the report and did not immediately take a position, because there is an unwritten practice in the Western world that kings and commanders of the opposing sides are not allowed to assassinate each other in war, which seems to be quite chivalrous.
But in fact, in the Second World War, both Germany and Britain organized the assassination of the enemy's head and commander,But the Americans still insisted on this practice, so President Roosevelt was a little hesitant. However, Admiral Kim's analysis reminded him that the place Yamamoto was going to was the front line, and that an admiral was a legitimate target in the combat area, just like an ordinary soldier! Moreover, Yamamoto Isoroku was still the culprit of the untrustworthy attack on Pearl Harbor, and had long lost the protection of international law.
President Roosevelt
Secretary of the Navy Knox also asked the accompanying bishop about the morality of intercepting the enemy commander, and after receiving a positive answer, he also agreed.
Roosevelt then made up his mind to kill Yamamoto Fifty-Six. The Americans gave the operation the most apt name — "Operation Revenge."
Nimitz received instructions from President Roosevelt and immediately began to develop an action plan.
In order to have absolute certainty in combat, they asked fighter experts, carefully compared the performance of various aircraft, and finally decided to choose the P-38 "Lightning" fighter as a combat aircraft.
U.S. P-38 Lightning fighter
P-38 Lightning fighter is the first twin-engine fighter of the US army, developed by Lockheed, the maximum speed of 732 kilometers per hour, the maximum range of 3600 kilometers, equipped with 1 20 mm cannon and 4 12.7 mm machine guns, machine gun ammunition 120 rounds, each machine gun with 500 rounds, firepower is quite strong, all comprehensive indicators are better than the main Japanese fighter "Zero". The Japanese were intimidated by the excellent P-38 Lightning fighter, calling it the "twin-engine demon".
After the model was chosen, Nimitz said to Layton: "Great, there is now a squadron of 339 fighters equipped with such aircraft at Henderson Airfield in Guadalcanal!" Just came in handy. ”
The 339th Fighter Squadron was attached to the South Pacific Fleet and was under the command of Halsey. Nimitz gave the order to Halsey on 15 April, and upon receiving the order, immediately informed Rear Admiral Mark Mitchell, commander of the Solomon Islands Air Force, of Yamamoto's schedule and ordered him to dispatch P-38 fighter jets and do whatever it took to kill Yamamoto Fifty-Six. The order concludes with a specific note that "President Roosevelt attached great importance to the battle, and the end of the battle was reported to Washington." This telegram shall not be copied and preserved, and shall be destroyed immediately! ”
In the preparation of the battle plan, it was initially planned to carry out an attack on the way from Barral to Shortland by Isoroku Yamamoto, but it was soon disputed that the local Japanese army had many hunting submarines, and it was impossible to determine which one Yamamoto Fifty-six was riding, and it was difficult to guarantee that even if yamamoto Fifty-six's hunting submarine was sunk, it would be difficult to guarantee that it would be killed.
The discussion came and went, and finally it was decided that only the method of intercepting the landline aircraft by air was the best solution. But this requires a high level of interception airspace, time, and the speed of flight on both sides, and the slightest mistake will miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It has been suggested that Yamamoto is known for punctuality in the Japanese Navy, which adds some certainty to the success of the interception operation. In the end, everyone felt that this plan was feasible, so they began to implement it step by step.
Sunday, April 18. As with the weather forecast, the sky is clear.
At 7:30, the P-38 fighter engine rumbled and the pilots boarded the plane in turn.
At 7:35, the aircraft took off in formation. In order not to be detected by the Japanese radar, the fleet maintained strict radio silence, using only compass and airspeed meter navigation, and maintained an ultra-low altitude of about 10 meters.
At this time, 800 kilometers away in Rabaul, Yamamoto Fifty-Six got up early to prepare for packing, because yamamoto fifty-six usually wore a white military uniform too conspicuous, the adjutant reminded him to change into a green military uniform for safety reasons, Yamamoto fifty-six also thought of bougainville island there are many army, in order to show respect for the officers and men of the army, he listened to the advice of the adjutant and changed into a grass green uniform.
Yamamoto boarded two Mitsubishi One land attack aircraft, as well as six Zero fighters.
Japanese Zero fighter
At 9:34, after more than two hours of flight, the U.S. fighter group had reached the vicinity of Bougainville Island, and according to the plan, in 11 minutes it would encounter Yamamoto Fifty-Six, and the P-38 fighter group circled up, pulled the pitch and began to search.
At 9:45, there was still a minute before the planned time, there was no movement in the air, and the American pilots began to feel anxious in their hearts, where was Yamamoto Isoroku? Suddenly a pilot broke the radio silence and shouted excitedly: "Find the target!" Discover the target! Left Ahead at 10 o'clock! "Yamamoto Isoroku, with his usual punctual style, came to this death covenant on time!
At this time, Yamamoto's Fifty-six planes were preparing to lower their altitude to land, when suddenly, a Zero fighter came out of the line and turned sharply to the right—more than 10 P-38 fighters in the distance were flying north. Immediately 6 "Zero" fighters climbed at great speed and fought with the US military cover group, while the US attack group pounced on the two attack planes of the Japanese army, the two attack planes saw that the situation was not good, fell sharply, and tried to get rid of the attack at an ultra-low altitude, and the US attack group was willing to let go, at this time the high-altitude "Zero" fighter realized that it was deceived, there were three "Zero" fighters desperately dive down, but it was too late, Yamamoto Fifty-Six's landplane had been hit, ignited a fire, and turned into a ball of fire in the blink of an eye. Fall into the dense jungle of Bougainville Island.
Japanese Zero fighter
After yamamoto fifty-six planes were shot down, the Japanese garrison on Bougainville Island immediately went out to search, two days later, the search team commanded by army lieutenant Hamasa Hideei found the body of Yamamoto Fifty-six, the scene only saw the fuselage of the aircraft was pierced by countless bullet holes, full of holes, scattered around the parts of the aircraft and 11 corpses, one of which sat on the aircraft cushion, holding a saber, the posture was quite majestic, the chest wore a ribbon of medals, and the epaulettes were the rank of 3 gold cherry blossoms, without looking at the notebook in his pocket. The absence of two fingers from the left hand alone proves unmistakably that this is Yamamoto Fifty-Six.
The medical staff who arrived later examined the body of Yamamoto Isoroku and determined that two bullets hit Yamamoto Fifty-Six, one from the cheekbones and out of the temple, the other from the back through the left chest, Yamamoto Fifty-Six died before the plane crashed, and the reason why he still maintained a majestic posture was that the only survivor after the plane crashed, Takada Military Doctor, who eventually died of serious injuries and no one to help.
The Japanese army listed the death of Yamamoto Fifty-six as a "Class A incident" and began to investigate, and the Japanese army once suspected that the code had been deciphered, so it deliberately sent a telegram from one of Lieutenant General Kusaka's inspections to the front line as a test. However, the US military saw through the japanese tactics, and there was not a single US military plane on the time and route mentioned in the cable. Therefore, the Japanese army believed that the code was absolutely reliable, and Yamamoto's death was purely accidental.
The death of Isoroku Yamamoto was an extremely heavy blow to the Japanese Navy. This victory for the U.S. military was the result of the combined efforts of radio decipherers, command staff officers, and fighter units, and a perfect run in military history.