In early 1944, the name Truk was undoubtedly a bad omen for the pilots of the Japanese Navy. Truk Atoll, located in the Caroline Islands, was the main anchorage of the Japanese Navy outside the mainland during World War II, and played a pivotal role in Japan's strategic planning, even known as "Gibraltar in the Pacific".
Truk Island itself is part of the Truk Islands, the largest roundabout in the entire archipelago, with a central lagoon 40 nautical miles in diameter and six channels for large ships to enter and exit. While the open lagoon was scattered with many small islands, the Japanese used the lagoon as a fleet anchorage, but also transformed these small islands into fortresses, built large airfields and countless anti-aircraft bunkers and anti-aircraft artillery positions.
The overall layout of the Japanese Truk Berth
Commensurate with its strategic position is the unique level of secrecy, which was strictly forbidden to be approached by any foreigner during the more than 20 years of Japanese rule. Even the U.S. Navy's Command of the Airstrikes, Mark W. Bush, was in charge of the airstrikes. Rear Admiral A. Mitchell also admitted that all he knew about Truk before the war was from National Geographic.
At 4 p.m. on February 4, 1944, the U.S. Navy announced the capture of Kwajalein Island, the "hardest bone" of the Japanese fortifications in the Marshall Islands. The Marshall Islands were a Japanese outpost in the Pacific, and in order to knock out this stumbling block for the Allied counterattack in the Pacific Theater, the U.S. Navy set up a special TF58 task force. This naval force, known as the "Annihilation Fleet", incorporated 6 large fleet aircraft carriers, 6 light aircraft carriers, 6 escort aircraft carriers, and a total of more than 700 carrier-based aircraft. In addition, the task force has 15 battleships, 9 heavy cruisers, 6 light cruisers and 50 destroyers, as well as countless auxiliary ships such as transport ships, cargo ships, oil tanker landing ships and supply ships.
The TF58 fleet moored at Majuro Atoll is photographed close by the Independence-class carrier San Jacinto, the Right Rear is the Enterprise, the Right Front is a South Dakota-class battleship, in the distance are two Iowa-class battleships, and in the far center are four Essex-class carriers
At the same time that the "Annihilation Fleet" took Kwajalein Island in an overwhelming manner, the U.S. military also captured Roy Island, Namur Island and Majuro Atoll in Kwajalein Atoll. After ending the battle on Kwajalein Island, the TF58 fleet marched into Majuro Atoll for repairs, ready to smash the iron fist at their next target, Truk, the most important Japanese forward base in the Pacific.
But as mentioned earlier, Truk Berth has always been under the tight control of the Japanese army, and there is no information for the U.S. military to make a battle plan, and the fleet commander, Major General Mitchell, is also at a loss.
On February 14, 1944, two PB4Y Liberator bombers took off from the U.S. Marine Corps airfield in the Solomon Islands, and the two bombers conducted a one-way, 850-nautical-mile ultra-long reconnaissance operation against Truk, taking as many photographs of Truk Island as possible in cloudy weather.
Aerial reconnaissance photographed of the Truk Berth
Although some real-time information about Truk was obtained, according to the photos, the six main islands and reefs of Truk Atoll were reefs, and it was difficult for the naval guns to effectively cover them, so they could only strike by carrier-based aircraft.
However, the Japanese fighters on the island were not vegetarians, and according to earlier intelligence, Truk Berth assumed the function of transiting aircraft to the Solomon Islands, so it is likely that there were more than 300 combat aircraft at this time, coupled with the fixed anti-aircraft fire on the island, if the air raid was carried out, the US army would have to be prepared for heavy casualties.
At 6:35 a.m. on February 16, 1944, the TF58 fleet arrived at a preset attack point just 90 nautical miles from Truk, and neither Spruance nor Mitchell, who was in charge of the operation, saw a look of relief on their faces. Fourteen minutes later, the First Attack Team's Hellcat fighters left the deck of their respective motherships at 6:49 a.m. and headed straight for Truk Island.
Photographs taken at the time of the air raid after the modern technology coloring
However, when the American pilots arrived over Truk Island, they were surprised to find that there were no Japanese capital ships in the berth as they expected, only some small warships and auxiliary ships scattered in the lagoon. Later, according to Japanese records, when the U.S. army began to attack the Marshall Islands, koga Fengyi, the commander of the combined fleet at the time, had a premonition that the war was unfavorable and transferred the main force of the combined fleet away from the Truk Anchorage in advance, so that it could avoid this fatal blow.
Although the Japanese capital ships were not in port, the Japanese fighters on the island did not all withdraw, and immediately after the arrival of the American troops, they took off to intercept. But now, after all, it is 1944, the Japanese Navy has long been weakened, and the once invincible Sea Vultures are now no longer at the level of the time when they attacked Pearl Harbor, not only the performance of fighters is generally behind that of the US F6F Hellcats, but the quality of pilots is far inferior to their American counterparts.
A Japanese attack aircraft sinking in the waters off Truk
U.S. Navy pilots in this area in 1944 were generally selected students from high schools and colleges, and they were recruited to enter aviation schools for initial training in military subjects, aviation physiology, judo, breaststroke, and snorkeling. After one year, the qualified cadets will go to the Junior Flight Training Center for 3 months of flying subjects, after which the qualified students will undergo 14 weeks of intermediate flight training, and finally pass a more stringent examination to select 30% of the elite to become naval pilots.
And these 30% are only the threshold for entering the Navy, these people are still only cadets, they also need to receive training in tactics, support amphibious operations and ground attacks, and are divided into land-based pilots and ship-based pilots according to their performance and performance. In addition, there is a dedicated Naval Pilot Training Centre near Lake Middlewest, where pilots are trained in advanced subjects such as bombing, torpedoing and depth charges, and more than 2,000 educational films are available for regular study.
In addition, during this period, the U.S. government called on young people across the country to make about 500,000 aircraft models for pilots, and each training center would show these models with some aircraft photos at a speed of one-tenth of a second or even seventy-fiveth of a second to the trainees, so that they could distinguish them, and even this training was often organized on the ship until the pilot graduated and served on the warship.
Such rigorous training produced a large number of highly qualified carrier-based aircraft pilots for the U.S. Navy, and the air raid on Truk Anchorage on February 16, 1944, was a perfect demonstration of their strength. In less than 50 minutes of air combat, 127 Japanese takeoff interceptions were shot down, and another 60 were destroyed on the runway before they could even take off.
These F6F-3s, the Enterprise carrier-based aircraft that returned after completing the air raid on the morning of the 16th, are being folded by the crew and guided to the maintenance area after folding the wings
By the afternoon, the Japanese fighter jets were almost extinct over Truk, paving the way for more than 200 attack aircraft that would subsequently take off from the five carriers of the TF58 fleet, allowing the bomb couriers to blow up Truk, the "Gibraltar of the Pacific."
In the entire air raid operation, the most eye-catching warship of the TF58 was none other than our old friend, the Enterprise known as the Gray Ghost. In the early morning of February 17, the Enterprise released a fleet of TBF Avengers attack aircraft at night for the first time, and the 12 TBFs of this squadron were all equipped with radar detection equipment, thus becoming the first night attack aircraft ever used by an aircraft carrier in actual combat.
A TBF attack aircraft loaded with radar
In the early hours of February 17, the TBF attack aircraft took off from the Enterprise without cover and returned to the skies over The Truk. They first flew at an altitude of 200 meters, lowered to an altitude of 60 meters when they reached the atoll, and relied on radar instructions to carry out a surprise bombardment of the intended Japanese targets on the island. Because the US military had just carried out high-intensity bombing during the day, although the Japanese army had left combat-ready anti-aircraft firepower, it did not dare to imagine that the US bombers could actually make another surprise attack in the dark.
When the Japanese flares lifted off and the anti-aircraft guns opened fire, the Japanese anti-aircraft gunners were even more shocked to drop their jaws, they thought that the US military would take the form of high-altitude bombing to blindly bomb the pre-calibrated position during the day, so the shooting elements of the anti-aircraft guns were set as high-altitude target data. But when the flares illuminated the sky, they found that the dazzling five stars under the Wings of the American Army were whizzing at an altitude of less than 60 meters above their heads. By the time the gunners saw the flames emanating from the engines of the American aircraft and shook the muzzles low, the TBFs had already thrown the bombs and slipped away.
According to the survey and evaluation after the battle, the effect of the enterprise's surprise attack in the early morning of the 17th was even better than that of the wave bombing of the daytime attack aircraft group.
The U.S. air raids on the Truk Anchorage sank a total of 9 Japanese warships (a total tonnage of 24,000 tons), 3 ad hoc ships (22,000 tons), 31 transport ships (191,000 tons), and shot down and destroyed 270 Japanese aircraft, one-third of which were the results of the Enterprise, while the U.S. military only lost a mere 25 aircraft.
At the Truk Berth photographed in April, you can see the holes that have been blown up
This bombing caused almost complete destruction of Truk, the most important Japanese base in the Pacific, and with the continuous bombardment in the following months, the Japanese finally abandoned this berth, and there was no longer a Japanese integrated support base in the entire central Pacific. The U.S. military also succeeded in taking control of the Pacific, paving the way for a Allied counterattack in the Pacific theater.
Truk is now a famous diving destination and a valuable research area for World War II enthusiasts.