Battle in the Bismarcksee

Battle in the Bismarcksee

Part of: World War II , Pacific War

date	March 2. bis 4. March 1943
place	Bismarck Sea , Pacific
output	allied victory

Parties to the conflict
United States Australia	Japan
Commander
Ennis Whitehead George Kenney Joe Hewitt	Kimura Masatomi
Troop strength
29 heavy bombers , 41 medium bombers, 34 light bombers, 54 combat aircraft	8 destroyers , 8 troop transports , 100 combat aircraft
losses
2 bombers, 3 fighter planes	4 destroyers, 8 troop carriers, 20 fighter planes

Overview - Pacific War

Burning Japanese ship during the attack

The Battle of the Bismarck Sea ( Japanese ビ ス マ ル ク 海海 戦 Bisumaruku-kai kaisen ) took place in World War II during the Pacific War from March 2-4, 1943. Aircraft of the United States Army Air Forces and the Royal Australian Air Force fought a convoy of Japanese destroyers and troop carriers .

background

On December 23, 1942, the Japanese High Command decided to use Operation No. 81 To bring 100,000 men of the Japanese army from China and Japan to Lae in New Guinea in order to strengthen the troops there. This would enable the Japanese to withdraw from the island after losing the battle for Guadalcanal . She was supposed to be evacuated the following week. The troops were needed in the vicinity of Lae, where an Allied offensive was expected. This movement of troops was very extensive, which put a great strain on the Japanese transport capacities, but the high command considered it urgent.

At the end of February, the 20th and 41st Divisions were safely brought to Wewak with the Fukuei Maru . The ship, which had an additional 600 barrels of aviation fuel and other supplies, was sighted and attacked by an American B-24 Liberator northeast of Cape Gloucester in New Britain on February 18 , but reached its destination the following day despite a fire on board.

Next, the 51st Division was to be brought from the port of Rabaul to Lae. This project was very dangerous because the Allied air forces were very strong, especially in Vitiaz Street , which the ships had to pass. The convoy consisted of eight destroyers and eight troop carriers and was accompanied by approximately 100 aircraft when it left Rabaul on February 28.

The commanding officer of the 51st Division, Lieutenant General Nakano Hidemitsu , was on board the destroyer Yukikaze . Rear Admiral Kimura Masatomi , the commander in command during the operation, was on a troop carrier.

The battle

Although strong tropical storms swept across the Solomon Islands and the Bismarck Sea from February 27 to March 1, the convoy , which was traveling at a top speed of 7 knots , was defeated by the crew of a patrolling B-24 Liberator at 3 p.m. on May 1. Discovered March north of Cape Hollman . However, the heavy bombers that were then sent could not find the convoy.

The convoy was found again the next morning at 10:00 a.m. and the clear weather allowed several attacks with B-17 bombers , whereby the Kyokusei Maru was sunk. A B-17 was shot down by a Zero fighter .

Of the 1500 men who were transported with the Kyokusei Maru , 800 were rescued by the destroyers Yukikaze and Asagumo . These two ships went on to Lae to bring the survivors ashore and to rejoin the convoy the next day.

The convoy was attacked again in the evening, and a troop transport was slightly damaged. Catalina flying boats chased the convoy and occasionally bombed it during the night. When the convoy came within range of the base on Milne Bay , Beaufort torpedo bombers rose, but because of the bad weather only two of them found the convoy and could not get any hits.

The convoy was now driving around the Huon Peninsula to regroup. 90 Allied planes took off from Port Moresby and headed for Cape Ward Hunt . At the same time, 22 A-20 Bostons took off to attack the Lae Air Force Base and reduce air support for the convoy. The base was attacked throughout the day.

Attack on a Japanese transporter

At 10:00 a.m., 13 B-17s reached the convoy and bombed it from medium height, which caused the ships to disperse and thus delay the journey. Then 13 Bristol Beaufighters approached at low altitude to give the appearance of a torpedo attack. The ships turned in the direction of the attacking aircraft, which gave the machines the opportunity to inflict maximum damage with their 20 mm machine cannons and machine guns .

Immediately afterwards, 13 B-25s bombed Mitchells from 2,000 to 3,000 feet. Then attacked 13 specially converted B-25 bombers with the new technology of "skip bombing" (jumping bombs). They only flew just above the sea, which enabled them to make the bombs jump over the water like stones. They scored 17 hits.

At this point half of the transport ships had already sunk. When the Beauforts and Mitchells ran out of ammunition, some A-20s continued the attack. Five more hits could be achieved by B-17 from a great height.

During the attack, 28 American P-38 Lightnings covered the airspace, and in the event of their own loss of 3 aircraft they were able to shoot down 20 Japanese aircraft.

Further attacks with Mitchells and Bostons followed.

All seven remaining troop carriers and the destroyers Shirayuki , Arashio and Tokitsukaze sank about 100 km southeast of Finschhafen . Four of the destroyers took as many survivors on board as possible and drove back to Rabaul. The fifth destroyer, the Asagumo , was sunk in a minor battle while taking in Arashio survivors .

Attacks on castaways

Based on orders from senior officers, Allied PT speedboats and planes attacked Japanese rescue ships and the survivors of the sunken ships in their life jackets. These attacks clearly contradicted the Geneva Conventions . The American side tried to put this into perspective by the fact that Japan itself had not signed this convention and there were many reports that the Japanese proceeded in the same way against civilians and Allied soldiers.

aftermath

The battle was a disaster for the Japanese, as only 800 of the 6,900 men who were urgently needed in New Guinea could be brought to Lae. An Australian memorial says that 2,890 Japanese soldiers and sailors were killed.

General Douglas MacArthur used this victory to call in 5 divisions and 1,800 aircraft to prepare for landing operations in northern New Guinea.

Game theory

The battle is used in game theory as an example of iterative dominance and an example of a so-called zero - sum game . The focus of this analysis is the decision between two conceivable routes (north route (short) and south route (long)) for the Japanese ships and. Using a payout bimatrix with the strategies north route and south route for the generals of both parties, it can be seen that none of the generals has a dominant strategy. By means of iterative elimination of strictly dominated strategies , exactly one pair of strategies, the so-called iterated dominant solution, can be found. The theoretical predicted game theory solution would be the tuple . Historically , what happened in the South Pacific in 1943 actually was (both parties choose the northern route). ${\displaystyle N}$ ${\displaystyle S}$ ${\displaystyle (N,N)}$ ${\displaystyle (N,N)}$

literature

• Gregory P. Gilbert: The Battle of the Bismarck Sea. March 1943. Air Power Development Center. Office of Air Force History, Canberra 2013, ISBN 978-1-920800-77-2 .

Web links

Commons : Battle in the Bismarcksee  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ TULUVU'S AIR WAR - Chapter II: The Battle of the Bismarck Sea ; Retrieved September 7, 2006
2. ↑ Nathan Miller: War at Sea. A Naval History of World War II . Oxford University Press, New York et al. 1996, ISBN 0-19-511038-2 , p. 369.
3. ↑ Behnke, Joachim: Decision and game theory. Baden-Baden: Nomos 2013, p. 72f.
4. ↑ Wolfgang Leininger and Erwin Amann: Introduction to game theory. , P. 18 ff.

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Kimura is the family name, Masatomi the first name.