Bismarck Sea is the 41st Casablanca class escort aircraft carrier in the United States, built by the Caesar Shipyard in Washington State, usa, construction began on January 30, 1944, launched on April 17, 1944, completed and commissioned on May 20, 1944, in the original naval contract, the ship should be called "Alikula Bay", but on May 16, in order to commemorate the Battle of the Bismarck Sea in March 1943, it was renamed "Bismarck Sea", on the day of service, Colonel Pratt became the ship's first and last captain.
After entering service, the ship first underwent initial training at sea, escorted the transport fleet between San Diego and the Marshall Islands in California in July and August, and then adjusted to the problems that arose, enriched the tactical training content, and then sailed to Urisi Atoll to join the 7th Fleet, from November 14 to 23, he was assigned to the 4th Group of the 77th Task Force, participated in the support operation on Leyte Island, and on December 27, the "Bismarck" officially joined the 4th Group of the 77th Task Force. On the 30th, it received 16 Wildcat fighters and 12 Avenger torpedo aircraft, and in January of the following year, she went north to participate in the Battle of Luzon, supporting the landing operations in Rengain Bay and Subic Bay.
Bismarck Sea released the aircraft
After completing the task of supporting the landing of the army, the "Bismarck Sea" left the Philippine coast with the formation on January 31, returned to Ulisi Atoll to regroup, and returned to Ulisi Atoll for a few days to rest, and the "Bismarck Sea" received orders on February 10 to join the 2nd Group of Task Force 52 of Rear Admiral Calvin Durkin, together with the escort aircraft carriers "Makin Island" and "Cape Longa" and 3 destroyers, under the 2nd Detachment under Durkin's personal command, and the formation left Urisi Atoll on the same day. On the 12th, it was stationed at the Saipan Forward Base.
On 14 February, the 1st and 2nd detachments of the 2nd Group, under the command of Major General Durkin, left Saipan, their mission this time was to participate in the Battle of Iwo Jima, on the evening of February 15, the formation reached the designated sea area, and on the 16th, just after dawn, rear admiral William Brandi, commander of Task Force 52, issued an order for all the escort carriers under its command to send a flying team to form an anti-air warning circle and a submarine patrol circle with fighters and attack aircraft to cover the shelling of Iwo Jima by an artillery fleet of 6 battleships and 5 cruisers. With the cooperation of some fighters and attack aircraft with the artillery fleet, the impact point observation and bombing of The Japanese targets that have been discovered were carried out to reduce the obstacles encountered during the landing.
A U.S. ship is firing on Iwo Jima
On 19 February, the landing operation officially began, and the fighters and attack aircraft of bismarck and friendly ships directly provided landing fire support. Due to the fiasco at the Battle of Leyte Gulf and the loss of a large number of capital ships, coupled with the loss of the Philippines, which led to the cutting off of oil transportation lines, the Japanese were no longer able to send surface fleets to seize sea supremacy, but this did not mean that they would abandon Iwo Jima.
In order to be able to support their own forces isolated on Iwo Jima and attack the U.S. ground forces, the Japanese army drew aircraft from the Navy's 752nd Air Force stationed at Kisarazu Air Base to form a ground attack team, and in addition, Vice Admiral Teira Keihei, commander of the Navy's 3rd Air Fleet, also transferred aircraft and pilots from the Navy's 601st Air Force at Katori Base in Chiba Prefecture on February 16 to form the 2nd Kamikaze Special Attack Team, which was specifically responsible for launching suicide attacks on enemy ships.
A land-based attack aircraft at Kisarazu Base
The ground attack team consisted of six Type I land attack aircraft of the 740th Attack Group under the 752nd Air Force, and the captains of these six aircraft were Lieutenant Hoshio Kawakawa, Lieutenant Masazo Okosaki, Lieutenant Keiichiro Katago, Lieutenant Kosei Matsushita, Lieutenant Jiro Shinohara, and Lieutenant Shizuo Iwasaki, who received the task on the night of February 20 to carry out a single-aircraft bombing of the US ground forces on Iwo Jima, and they were somewhat disappointed. Because they wanted to participate in the torpedo attack on the U.S. fleet off Iwo Jima, and they were very skilled in torpedo attacks.
However, for the fanatical young people, it is better to have a task to perform than to stay in the base boring training, the superior ordered them to leave in the afternoon of the 21st, at 6:10, a type I land attack aircraft set off, to conduct climate reconnaissance of Iwo Jima, from 11:45 to 13:13, the chasing base near the Kisarazu base has taken off 4 type I land attack aircraft, these are specially modified electronic warfare aircraft, the purpose is to interfere with the judgment of the US commander, after everything is ready, At 13:24 the ground attack team officially departed, each aircraft carrying 12 60 kg bombs, and at 14:10 the last one took off, they scattered and ran to Iwo Jima.
A type of land-based attack aircraft that conducts torpedo attacks
Before the ground attack team set out, the Kamikaze Special Attack 2nd Mitsuru team had already set off, it consisted of 12 comet dive bombers, 8 Tianshan torpedo aircraft, 12 Zero fighters, Lieutenant Murakawa Hiroshi was in charge of the command, of which the Zero fighter served as a cover mission, the Comet dive bomber carried 2 250 kg bombs, the Tianshan torpedo aircraft carried torpedoes or 800 kg bombs, these special attack team members were much crazier than the friendly forces of the ground attack team, early on the morning of the 21st, They transferred from the Katori base to the Hachijojima forward base to refuel (due to bad weather, only 25 successfully took off).
At 12:00 and 14:00 on the same day, the 2nd Mitsuki Team, which had refueled at the Hachijojima base, took off in two batches and plunged directly into the waters of Iwo Jima, with the pilots leaving their hair and nails before taking off, while Hiroshi Murakawa, who led the team, used a song as a last word, and they were ready to fight to the death.
On the 21st, the 2nd Detachment of the Bismarck Sea continued to carry out the task of covering the landing, and in the afternoon, the aircraft of the 2nd Imperial Fleet were detected by the US radar (due to weather conditions, only 21 flew to the target sea, including 10 comets, 6 Tianshan, 5 Zeros), at 17:00, 40 nautical miles east of Iwo Jima, 4 US F6F fighters intercepted the suicide aircraft, but there were still several aircraft that broke through the defense of the US aircraft, of which the 2nd Attack Team of the 2nd Imperial Fleet (No. 2 of the 2nd Attack Team of the 2nd Imperial Wing) ( The aircraft was a comet-type dive bomber, piloted by Tatsuo Mizuhata, and reconnaissance by Chiyo Hiraru Shimomura, approaching the Bismarck Sea.
At the same time, the plane piloted by Lieutenant Shinohara of the ground attack team was also heading towardSwo Jima, and when flying over the island, Shinohara found two planes of unknown origin, and for the sake of prudence, he decided to hide his whereabouts, used mobile evasion, turned in a large circle, delayed for 15 minutes, and by about 18:00 he came to the sky over the US fleet, because it was dark at 16:32 that day, and the sky was still raining lightly, the visibility was extremely poor, and Shinohara, who was on the battlefield for the first time, thought that in such weather he should not be discovered by the US army.
Japanese planes came to attack
But he did not know that the FIRE control radar of the US military had long locked on his aircraft, at 6:12 the anti-aircraft fire of the US army began to fire at it fiercely, 8 minutes later, a shell hit the center of the aircraft fuselage, the aircraft lost control, fell to the sea, in order to change the fate of the fall, Shinohara ordered to lower the flaps and landing gear, open the bomb hatch, in order to increase the resistance, Shinohara desperately pulled the joystick backwards, swooped down at a speed of 60 meters per second, and finally when it was about to fall into the sea, the aircraft returned to balance, at this time, Shinohara found himself crashing into a large transport ship, and he had to pull desperately, and the plane flew dangerously over the bow and flew high into the air.
When Shinoda returned to a safe altitude, he closed the bomb hatch door, when he found that due to the huge centripetal force when pulled up, 4 60 kg bombs were missing, which meant that the attack power of the aircraft was suddenly reduced by 1/3, and he and the crew were annoyed, but what he did not know was that it was these 4 bombs that eventually caused the sinking of the Bismarck Sea. It turned out that the large transport ship that Shinohara thought was actually the "Bismarck Sea", and because of his lack of combat experience, Shinohara could not distinguish between these two kinds of ships that were very similar.
Frontal view of the Bismarck Sea
Just when Shinohara was desperately divering when it was hit by artillery fire, the lookout post on the "Bismarck Sea" found that at about six or seven meters to the starboard side, there was an aircraft approaching at a high speed, and the anti-aircraft fire of the warship immediately opened fire, but it was too late, and before the shells of the anti-aircraft gun could be fired, the comet that pounced in had already penetrated into the formation, and he approached the starboard side of the "Bismarck Sea" with the stern of the "Cape Longa", and then suddenly turned to the left. With 2 250 kg bombs, it crashed into the center of the ship's starboard elevator, and under the action of huge inertia, the suicide aircraft rushed all the way to the hangar deck and exploded, causing a raging fire.
Just 4 seconds before the Comet collided with the Bismarck Sea, the crew on the ship's flight deck noticed that on the starboard side there was a twin-engine aircraft pulling up, which was the One land attack aircraft piloted by Shinohara, which quickly disappeared without a trace in the night, and then after the comet hit, the lift position on the flight deck was attacked by an object falling from the air, which caused an explosion on the hangar deck, which was the 60 kg bomb dropped by Shinohara's plane due to the huge centripetal force Bismarck Sea also accepted aircraft from other carriers at this time, and torpedoes and bombs were stacked on the hangar deck, causing a series of successive explosions that made the fire uncontrollable.
There was a big explosion on the Bismarck Sea
Bismarck, which was attacked twice, soon ushered in its final moments, although the 8th Group of the US 50th Task Force urgently sent the tugboat "Uti" to assist the 2nd Group of Task Force 52 to rescue, as far as possible all the crew under the command of Captain Pratt to rescue the warship, but the fire soon spread to the bottom of the torpedo depot, causing another big explosion, and finally Pratt announced the abandonment of the ship, at 20:08 p.m., the "Bismarck Sea" bowed its head and sank to the bottom of the sea in a very short time A total of 318 officers and men were killed on the ship.
The tugboat "Ooty"
The "Bismarck Sea" was the last aircraft carrier sunk by the US military in World War II, and for a long time, the US military believed that the big explosion caused by the comet suicide plane was the culprit that caused the sinking of the "Bismarck Sea", until after the post-war Shinohara diary was made public, everyone found that he also had a responsibility for the sinking of the "Bismarck", and how many of the 4 bombs missing in Shinohara fell on the "Bismarck", it is impossible to verify.
It is worth mentioning that after Shinohara flew over Iwo Jima Island, although only one bomb dropped hit the target, it rushed left and right in the dense anti-aircraft fire network of the US army, tossed for a long time, and finally flew back safely, so the morale of the Japanese officers and men who were fighting Iwo Jima was greatly boosted, so the Japanese island defense unit also issued a letter of thanks to the country in the name of the commander, Lieutenant General Kuribayashi, and Shinohara finally returned to the Toyohashi base at 23:45.