Bismarck Sea, Battle of the
Publié le 22/02/2012
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Thanks to U.S. Navy Ultra decrypts, Allied forces
learned well in advance of the movement on February
28, 1943, of 7,000 Japanese reinforcements to
Lae and Salmaua on New Guinea's northeastern
coast. Fully alerted, the Americans moved large
numbers of aircraft into forward positions, and, on
March 2, fighters and bombers of the Fifth U.S. Air
Force attacked the Japanese troop convoy. One Japanese
transport was sunk, and two more were
severely damaged. At dawn on March 3, Australian
aircraft and more U.S. bombers attacked again.
Some of the planes had been equipped for skip
bombing, a special antiship technique by which
bombs, dropped at low altitude over the water, skip
over the surface, making contact with the target vessel
below the waterline. Other of the attacking aircraft
concentrated on strafing. The skip bombing
proved devastatingly effective. Of 37 500-pound
bombs dropped in the first wave of the March 3
attack, 28 hit their targets. The disabled ships were
then vulnerable to successive waves of attack from
the air throughout the day. With nightfall, U.S. PT
boats were deployed, so that by daybreak on March
4, only six destroyers had escaped destruction. U.S.
bombers sank two of these. Of the 7,000 troops in
the convoy, only 950 reached Lae. Many others were
fished out of the water by the surviving destroyers.
Total Japanese fatalities numbered 3,660.
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