Attack on Dutch Harbor
Columns of smoke from burning buildings over Dutch Harbor on June 3rd
| date | 3. bis 4. June 1942 |
|---|---|
| place | Dutch Harbor , Aleutian Islands |
| output | draw |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
|
Robert Alfred Theobald |
|
| Troop strength | |
| 2 aircraft carriers 2 cruisers 3 destroyers 59 carrier aircraft approx. 8 reconnaissance aircraft |
approx. 30,000 soldiers approx. 60 aircraft 9 destroyers 6 submarines transport ships |
| losses | |
|
12 planes |
11 aircraft |
The attack on Dutch Harbor was a series of two air strikes by Japanese carrier aircraft in the Pacific War , which hit American troops and facilities on the Aleutian island of Unalaska in early June 1942 and marked the start of the battle for the Aleutians . The attackers achieved their tactical goals, but the strategic objective, namely to convince the Americans that Japanese forces were planning a large-scale offensive in the area, was not achieved.
prehistory
Admiral Yamamoto , Commander in Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy , planned the conquest of the Midway Islands , which were occupied by American troops . To conceal his intentions, a few days before the planned invasion of Operation AL, two aircraft carriers were to carry out an air strike on American installations in Dutch Harbor on the island of Unalaska , in order to lure possible American naval formations northwards from the area around Midway.
By deciphering Japanese radio messages, the American General Staff was informed of the Japanese plans to invade Midway and a diversionary attack against the Aleutians was also expected. In order to make the best possible use of the information gathered, the available core units of the American fleet, three aircraft carriers, were assigned to defend against the Japanese main force at Midway. In contrast, land-based aircraft, destroyers and submarines were mainly pulled together to intercept the Japanese units near the Aleutians.
Starting position
American units
The Commander in Chief of the US Navy in the Northern Sector, Rear Admiral Robert A. Theobald , had neither aircraft carriers nor battleships . His fleet consisted of two heavy cruisers , three light cruisers , ten destroyers , six submarines and small outpost boats . He himself commanded the light cruiser USS Nashville .
Admiral Theobald mistrusted the information that the radio reconnaissance had determined about the plans of the Japanese and decided to position the core of his fleet with the heavy cruisers very far east, near Kodiak Island , so that they ultimately too far from Dutch Harbor were removed to play a part in the argument that followed. To make matters worse, the admiral was unable to communicate by radio with his units in and around Dutch Harbor due to atmospheric disturbances and the radio silence ordered .
In the area of Dutch Harbor he left only nine destroyers anchored in Makushin Bay. There were also five smaller boats of the United States Coast Guard , which were used to Dutch Harbor as patrol boats and also the Navy had assumed.
The six submarines were stationed in three groups of two north and south of Umnak and near Cold Bay.
The 11th Fighter Squadron (11th FS) of the US Air Force with seventeen P-40E Warhawk- - fighters was a Japanese attack on the Fort Glenn airfield at Otter Point on in anticipation of the May 1, 1942 Umnak stationed. Also on Umnak was a group of six B-26 - bombers and B-17 bombers. Brigadier General William O. Buttler was in command .
The Air Force's 18th Fighter Squadron (18th FS) with sixteen P-40E aircraft was stationed in Cold Bay east of Dutch Harbor. There were also twelve B-26 bombers, two B-17 bombers and two LB-30 bombers.
The fourth Marineflieger- Squadron (Fleet Air Wing 4) under the command of Captain Leslie E. Gehres had several PBY Catalina - reconnaissance aircraft stationed at Dutch Harbor and Cold Bay, eight of them already with radar equipped machines.
An American ground forces were in Dutch Harbor, the 206th Artillery - Regiment , equipped with 3-inch- aircraft guns and machine guns , the 37th Infantry regiment and part of the 151st Engineers . There were also civilian employees of the US military who were busy with the expansion of the base. The command of the ground forces lay with the command of the defense of Alaska , Major General Simon Bolivar Buckner . In anticipation of a Japanese attack, the troops had placed all anti-aircraft weapons in fortified positions and dug trenches and cover holes for the ground forces.
Japanese units
The Japanese fleet had departed from atominato and consisted of the aircraft carriers Jun'yō and Ryūjō , accompanied by the cruisers Takao and Maya and three destroyers. Rear Admiral Kakuji Kakuta took command of the fleet from the Ryūjō .
In order to be able to rescue naval aviators whose machines should not make the way back to the carriers due to damage, a submarine was dispatched, which was waiting near the intended emergency landing position on the island of Akutan .
On June 2, 1942, a PBY Catalina reconnaissance aircraft discovered part of the Japanese fleet and warned the American authorities. The seaplane tender Gillis , which was equipped with radar , therefore ran out of Dutch Harbor and began to search for enemy aircraft.
attack
In the early morning of June 3, 1942, at 02:43 a.m. ( Arctic summer ), two attack formations with a total of 35 aircraft took off from the aircraft carriers Jun'yō and Ryūjō . Six Mitsubishi A6M- "Zero" -Jagdflugzeuge and twelve Aichi D3A- "Val" - dive bombers took off from the Japanese aircraft carrier Jun'yō , from Ryujo raised six other Mitsubishi A6M and eleven Nakajima B5N- "Kate" bombers from. The destination was Dutch Harbor, about 165 miles away.
Orientation was difficult due to bad weather and poor visibility and the Jun'yō's fighter planes were also involved in a fight with American PBY flying boats, so that the entire association of "Val" bombers and "Zero" fighters broke off the mission. without attacking Dutch Harbor . They could only find their way back to their aircraft carrier with the aid of radio direction finding.
The radar of the American tender Gillis spotted the Japanese aircraft of the carrier Ryūjō at 05:40. Alarmed by radio, interceptors took off from the distant base at Cold Bay, but were too far to arrive in time. Other fighters of the 11th US Air Force stationed on the neighboring island of Umnak could not be reached by radio due to atmospheric disturbances .
Eleven B5N bombers, each armed with a 250 kg bomb and up to six 60 kg bombs, and three fighters eventually attacked targets in and around Dutch Harbor for 20 minutes.
Some bombs fell harmlessly into the harbor basin, but two hit crew quarters in the Fort Mears barracks , which housed soldiers who had only arrived the day before and did not leave the barracks quickly enough . 23 soldiers were killed and 25 others wounded.
On their return flight, Japanese pilots discovered some of the American destroyers anchored in Makushin Bay and reported their observation. Rear Admiral Kakuta ordered an attack on the ships, but again bad weather and low cloud cover prevented the pilots from finding their target. The four reconnaissance aircraft of the two heavy cruisers used to command the attack force were intercepted by American fighters and two destroyed.
A PBY flying boat was shot down by hunting safety of the Japanese fleet Association on the evening of June 3, the surviving three of the seven crew members were from the Japanese prisoner taken.
An American assault force composed of six torpedo -armed B-26 bombers attempted to attack the Japanese aircraft carriers on June 4, but missed its target because the PBY reconnaissance aircraft that had maintained contact with the Japanese fleet had been pushed away by fighter aircraft. Only a B-26 bomber found the target, but could not carry out a successful attack due to heavy seas. Two B-17 bombers tried to hit the ships with bombs a little later while flying low, but also missed the target and one bomber was lost to the fire of Japanese anti-aircraft cannons.
At 4:00 p.m. on June 4, Rear Admiral Kakuta ordered more aircraft to be launched for another attack on Dutch Harbor. Eleven D3A dive bombers, six B5N bombers and 15 A6M fighters took off from both carriers and were located by American radars at 17:40.
The steamship Northwestern , which was used to supply power to the port facilities , was hit by a 225 kg aerial bomb from a D3A bomber, wooden barracks and four storage tanks with 100 tons of fuel each and a storage tank with 240 tons of diesel fuel were also destroyed. Two American anti-aircraft guns, a warehouse and an ammunition bunker were also destroyed by bombs.
On the return flight, the Jun'yō aircraft gathered at the westernmost point of Unalaska, which brought them within sight of the newly created American runway at Otter Point, from where their formation was attacked by P-40E fighters, which resulted in two losses of their own also shot down two A6M fighters.
Rear Admiral Kakuta broke off the attacks after the return of his planes and withdrew to the west, from where his unit could take over cover for the Japanese landing operations on Attu and Kiska .
losses
The Americans lost one B-17 bomber, two B-26 bombers, two P40E "Warhawk" fighter planes and six PBY flying boats. 39 pilots and crew members were killed, ten were missing, four were wounded and three were captured by the Japanese.
33 soldiers and 10 civilians were killed on the ground and around 50 others were wounded.
The Japanese lost a total of ten carrier aircraft through accidents and enemy action: three Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters, four Aichi D3A “Val” dive bombers and three Nakajima B5N “Kate” bombers, but only seven pilots of these aircraft were killed Life. There were also two reconnaissance planes that had taken off from the heavy cruisers. A total of 15 pilots and crew members were killed.
consequences
The diversion intended by the Japanese from their main target, the Midway Islands , was not achieved because the American radio reconnaissance had already learned about the Japanese plan in advance. During the last attack on Dutch Harbor , Admiral Nagumo's Japanese aircraft carrier fleet was destroyed by American aircraft carrier formations at the Battle of Midway . Some historians even believe that if the attack at Dutch Harbor had not been carried out , the two Japanese aircraft carriers could have decided the Battle of Midway in favor of the Japanese.
The American naval units and air forces, despite their information advantage, did not succeed in destroying Rear Admiral Kakuta's attack force or in preventing the subsequent landings of Japanese ground troops on Attu and Kiska .
The Akutan-Zero
The emergency landing of a Japanese Zero fighter on Akutan after the attack on June 3 turned out to have serious consequences, since the Americans were able to recover, repair and study the machine. In this way, they were able to teach their pilots suitable flight maneuvers against the Zero and design new types of aircraft, such as the F6F Hellcat , especially to combat the Japanese standard fighter.
Evidence and references
Remarks
- ↑ Figures based on Alaska at War, 1941-1945 , other sources assume 14 aircraft, such as War on our doorstep: the unknown campaign on North America's west coast
- ↑ The number of 35 dead and 28 wounded soldiers is given in Alaska at War, 1941-1945 on p. 394 by Fern Chandonnet.
literature
- Alaska at War, 1941-1945: The Forgotten War Remembered , Fern Chandonnet, University of Alaska Press, 2007, ISBN 1602230137 .
- War on our doorstep: the unknown campaign on North America's west coast , Brendan Coyle, Heritage House Publishing Co. Ltd., 2002, ISBN 1894384466 .
- The Williwaw War: the Arkansas National Guard in the Aleutians in World War II , Donald M. Goldstein, Katherine V. Dillon, University of Arkansas Press, 1992, ISBN 1557282420 .
- The thousand-mile was: World War II in Alaska and the Aleutians , Brian Garfield, University of Alaska Press, 1995, ISBN 091200682X .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Alaska at War, 1941-1945: The Forgotten War Remembered , p. 79.
- ↑ The United States and world sea power, Elmer B. Potter and John R. Fredland, Prentice-Hall, 1955, p. 688.
- ↑ The United States Coast Guard in World War II: A History of Domestic and Overseas Actions, Thomas P. Ostrom, Mcfarland & Co Inc., 2009, ISBN 0786442565 , p. 138.
- ↑ Zero Fighter, Akira Yoshimura, Praeger Frederick, 1996, ISBN 0275953556 , pp. 148-149.
- ↑ PBY: the Catalina flying boat, Roscoe Creed, US Naval Institute Press, 1999, ISBN 0870215264 , p. 124.
- ↑ Masatake Okumiya, Jirō Horikoshi : Zero !: the story of the Japanese Navy Air Force 1937-1945 , London: Cassell, 1957, p. 126.
- ↑ Jim Rearden: Koga's Zero: the fighter that changed World War II , Pictorial Histories, 1996, ISBN 0-929521-56-0 , p. 31 and following.
- ^ Dallas W. Isom: Midway inquest: why the Japanese lost the Battle of Midway , Indiana University Press, 2007, ISBN 0-253-34904-4 , p. 238.
- ↑ Roscoe Creed: PBY: the Catalina flying boat , US Naval Institute Press, 1999, ISBN 0-87021-526-4 , p. 122 ff.
- ^ Roscoe Creed: PBY: the Catalina flying boat , US Naval Institute Press, 1999, ISBN 0-87021-526-4 , p. 126.
- ^ Roscoe Creed: PBY: the Catalina flying boat , US Naval Institute Press, 1999, ISBN 0-87021-526-4 , p. 127.
- ^ Congressional Record, Proceedings and Debates of the 107th Congress, Second Session, 8833
- ^ Dallas W. Isom: Midway inquest: why the Japanese lost the Battle of Midway , Indiana University Press, 2007, ISBN 0253349044 , p. 383.
- ↑ Takao usage history in tabular form , at combinedfleet.com, viewed on August 22, 2010
- ^ Brendan Coyle: War on our doorstep: the unknown campaign on North America's west coast , p. 108.
- ^ The Williwaw War: the Arkansas National Guard in the Aleutians in World War II , p. 186.
Coordinates: 53 ° 53 ′ N , 166 ° 33 ′ W