War Stories II (83 page)

The Japanese government approves Admiral Yamamoto's War Plan, and decides to implement the plan by December. Yamamoto's primary strategy lists the priorities of attacks: the First Air Fleet is to attack Pearl Harbor; the Second Air Fleet is to attack the Philippines, Malaya, and the East Indies; the Fourth Air Fleet is to attack the island of Guam. The Northern Force is to stay behind in Japanese waters to guard their national interests, along with the Main Force. U.S. Ambassador Joseph Grew says that war between the U.S. and Japan is not only likely but imminent.

In a tone that departs from the usual British diplomacy of appeasement, Churchill warns Japan that a war with the United States will also mean war with Great Britain.

Japan's impending attack of Pearl Harbor is made official and attack orders are issued, but military commanders are told to wait until diplomatic negotiations are completed before these orders are carried out.

The Japanese First Air Fleet sets sail from the north coast of Japan with an armada of six aircraft carriers carrying 423 aircraft, twenty-eight submarines (including six SPS “midget” subs), eleven destroyers, two battleships, and two cruisers. The fleet is ordered to maintain strict radio silence. The next day, Secretary of War Henry Stimson sends a “hostile action possible” warning to U.S. Pacific bases. Pearl Harbor issues only sabotage alert; no anti-torpedo nets, ammo for AA guns, etc. It seems no one is seriously concerned about what the Japanese might do.

The Japanese set 7 December as the date to attack Pearl Harbor. Their diplomats are told not to end negotiations so the Americans won't get suspicious.

Pearl Harbor is attacked by two waves of Japanese dive-bombers and torpedo bombers led by Mitsuo Fuchida. The air attack on Pearl Harbor devastated the American fleet and killed 2,388, and 1,200 were wounded. Of the ninety-six ships in the harbor, eighteen are sunk, including the
Arizona
and
Oklahoma
,
or suffer serious damage. Of 394 aircraft at Hickam, Wheeler, and Bellows airfields, the air attack destroys 188 and damages 159.

The Japanese Combined Fleet Order No. 1 also includes the invasion of Malaya. This invasion began twenty-five minutes before the first wave hit Pearl Harbor. An attack on Hong Kong begins six hours after Pearl Harbor. Another air attack, on the Philippine Islands, six hours after Pearl Harbor, destroys all the P-40s at Clark Field and pits 108 Japanese bombers and 84 Zeros against 107 P-40s and 35 B-17s, but most U.S. planes were caught on the ground and destroyed.

The U.S. and Allies (except Soviets) declare war on Japan. Japan promptly declares war on the U.S. and Britain; a Japanese air attack hits Wake Island. On tiny Wake Island, a small U.S. Marine detachment commanded by Major James Devereaux heroically fends off the aggressors and gives the only real opposition that the Japanese run into during their substantial attacks.

General Masaharu Homma lands Japanese troops on Luzon and quickly moves south to Manila. Guam surrenders. On 22 December Homma will bring in another 43,000 troops, landing at Lingayen Bay.

Nazi Germany declares war on U.S. The U.S. declares war against Germany and Italy.

U.S. troops evacuate Manila and then fall back to Bataan. Japanese troops also take the American possession of Wake Island, which then surrenders.

General MacArthur moves his headquarters to Corregidor, leaving General Jonathan Wainwright to defend Bataan.

Enemy troops enter Manila, while nearly 80,000 U.S. and Filipino troops try to defend Luzon despite critical food and supply shortages and crippling diseases.

After a month-long swing through the South Pacific, the Japanese invade the Solomon Islands, after having captured the Dutch East Indies and Rabaul in New Britain. They also cause the American and Filipino armies to retreat into the Bataan Peninsula on Luzon, and capture the Manila naval base.

The British possession is lost, due in part to improper dispersion of forces by the British army.

Executive Order 9066 signed by FDR orders internment of all Japanese-Americans. U.S. locks up 110,000 Japanese-Americans, mostly in California.

President Roosevelt orders General MacArthur to leave the Philippines and set up his command headquarters in Australia.

A Japanese submarine shells Ellwood Beach, twelve miles west of Santa Barbara. The sixteen shells fired by the sub cause no injuries and only $500 damage along Goleta Beach, yet the appearance of the enemy so near creates fear.

The USS
Lexington
tries to raid the Japanese supply port of Rabaul, but is driven off. Admiral Halsey and USS
Enterprise
raid Wake and Marcus Islands with only minimal success.

Results in the loss of USS
Houston
and HMS
Perth
.

The British close the Burma Road, giving way to the fear that invading Japanese troops may result in the Brits “losing India.”

Japan begins final bombardment of Bataan. A Japanese offensive breaks through U.S. and Filipino lines on 9 April. General Ernest King surrenders Bataan against MacArthur's orders. Two thousand escape in small boats, and 78,000 (66,000 Filipinos and 12,000 U.S.) troops surrender. It is the largest contingent of U.S. Army troops ever to surrender in history.

This horrible ordeal of atrocities is kept secret until 28 January 1944. Of the 80,000 Filipino and U.S. troops, along with 26,000 civilians who had surrendered, there are thousands who die during the Death March, and then 5,000 more Americans die in POW camps. Japan is not a signatory of 1929 Geneva agreement on treatment of POWs.

Admiral Chiuchi Nagumo's First Air Fleet attacks twenty-nine British warships, sinking seven, including two cruisers. Japanese plane losses are high. British are able to keep Japanese navy out of the Indian Ocean.

Eighty American fliers in sixteen B-25 two-engine bombers from USS
Hornet
, led by Colonel Jimmy Doolittle, fly over 700 miles to Tokyo in a daring bombing raid designed to create fear in the Japanese. The B-25s take off from a 470-foot carrier deck, drop their bombs in broad daylight, then escape to the coast of China. The mission's success lifts Americans' spirits when most war news is bad.

Lt. Commander Joseph Rochefort puts together “Station Hypo” code-breaking operation to break Japanese codes before the war. Rochefort and colleague Commander Edwin Layton work night and day on the codes, and in particular on a code called “JN-25.” The men ingeniously find a way to test their results in breaking the code and successfully learn intelligence about the Battle of Midway in time to give Americans an edge going in.

Imperial Japanese General HQ Order No. 18 expands their defensive perimeter to Midway and Samoa, forcing a decisive battle with the U.S. fleet. Japan is overconfident as they've had no losses of any of their eleven battleships, ten carriers, eighteen heavy cruisers, and twenty light cruisers. Their plan is to entice the U.S. fleet to areas near Midway where the ships and carriers can be picked off.

General Jonathan Wainwright and 15,000 troops have no choice but surrender after heavy Japanese bombardment and invasion that overwhelms the garrison on Corregidor.

This is the first naval battle fought without either party seeing the other. The enemy was beyond gun and torpedo range—but not beyond aircraft range. Admiral Nimitz sends the carriers
Lexington
and
Yorktown
under Admiral Jack Fletcher for the first naval action fought entirely with aircraft. U.S. loses thirty-three planes but shoots down forty-three Japanese planes. The
Lexington
sinks 8 May when an overheated motor ignites gasoline.

President Roosevelt signs a bill creating WACs. The bill, opposed by the military, leads to WAVEs, WASPs, SPARs, and Women Marines. Some 300,000 women will eventually serve in the military during World War II.

On 6 December 1941 the government approved $2 billion for the Manhattan Project to build a secret bomb. J. Robert Oppenheimer's physicists and scientists have spent much of this fund by this date.

At a site in Peenemünde, the Nazis are working to test their V-2 rocket to be used as a “flying bomb” by giving it a payload of explosives. The first fire test on 13 June fails, but the Germans will perfect the rockets to be used to rain terror bombs over London.

This is a turning point of the Pacific war. Before Midway, Japan's legendary First Air Fleet was considered the strongest air unit in the world. After Midway the core carriers of the First Air Fleet are sunk and Japan's offensive capabilities are severely weakened. Many American planes miss their targets completely, but enough are successful that in less than five minutes they sink three Japanese carriers (
Akagi
,
Kaga
,
Soryu
). U.S. bombers also sink a fourth carrier,
Hiryu
. However, Japanese planes sink the
Yorktown
in a counterstrike. U.S. loses 147 planes and 307 men while Japan loses 322 planes and 3,500 men—many are their best pilots. Japan failed to entice the U.S. Navy to engage them. The U.S. didn't take the bait, and Japan never recovers from loss of its carriers and pilots at Midway.

The 1st Marine Division and Allied units go ashore from eighty ships and are mainly unopposed on the beaches, but the U.S. Navy ships providing cover are routed by the Imperial Navy. Fierce fighting will be a sign of the overall Battle of Guadalcanal. Americans killed number 1,600 while 25,000 Japanese lose their lives. The Japanese also lose two dozen ships and 600 aircraft. The Japanese defeat at Guadalcanal marks the end of their efforts to take New Guinea.

The U.S., unable to stop the Tokyo Express—troop transports making nightly trips through “the slot” between the islands—prompts Americans to attack and destroy two Japanese ships. U.S. loses two of its own ships by friendly fire. It was a victory for the Americans, but a bittersweet win. FDR is determined to hold Guadalcanal—the first “toehold in the South Pacific.”

Americans use new weapons—the flame-thrower and Garand M1 rifle—for the first time at Guadalcanal. Outgunned and outnumbered, the Americans hold their own in a Japanese suicide charge, where the enemy loses a fifth of their troops against Marines at the line protecting Henderson Field.

The two great naval forces meet near the 165° latitude near Santa Cruz Island and engage each other in another sea battle. It was fought south of the New Hebrides, 1,000 miles from Guadalcanal. U.S. carriers
Hornet
and
Enterprise
, along with their escort ships, take on the Japanese. The battle ends in a draw, but the Americans damage two Japanese carriers, two battleships, and three cruisers. They also shoot down a hundred enemy aircraft.

This is actually a series of five naval battles in which the U.S. loses nine ships, but prevents Japanese reinforcements from getting through, guaranteeing America's eventual triumph in the battle for the island. New radar warns Americans of enemy approach fifteen minutes before they arrive, proving the worth of radar.