December 28th - The Day of Infamy, Part XX

The Last Command

Some 400 USN aircraft, a quarter of them damaged to some degree, now attempted to locate their fleet and land in the dark. Halsey had authorized all carriers to turn on their deck lights when the strike returned, but gave no explicit authorization of any other breaches of normal light discipline. Admiral Mitscher, commanding TG 51.3, ordered his carriers to turn on not only their deck lights and running lights but also searchlights to provide a visual beacon for the returning planes. This was so successful that many aircraft from TG 51.1 and TG 51.2 wound up landing on Mitscher’s carriers. Even so, a hundred and fifty American planes were lost at sea or crash-landed. Almost all of the pilots and crews were recovered over the next several days.

Once the strike was recovered, Halsey continued west. Members of his staff protested yet again, reminding him of the disastrous night action at Midway. Halsey set half his destroyers out as a long-range radar screen, but otherwise ignored these warnings. TF 55 followed slightly behind TF 51.

Yamamoto’s Battle Force, for its part, continued east towards the Americans. It is notable that this was due not to any order on Yamamoto’s part but simply a lack of orders to change course, even as the messages detailing the destruction of the Carrier Force came in. Yamamoto knew that only a miracle would bring him within gun range of the US fleet at dawn, and that no other outcome could bring any result except destruction for his force. Still, he also knew that with his fleet carriers and their irreplaceable trained cadres of pilots and crews gone no other fleet action could be expected to yield any better result.

Yamamoto very nearly got his miracle. Halsey’s aggressive course brought his picket destroyers within 100 miles of the IJN Battle Force at dawn. Both sides sighted each other almost immediately, and across three thousand square miles of ocean a hundred ships went to flank speed.

May 20th, 1944, would be the last large-scale naval action of the war.

The Japanese drew first blood as an F1M off CVS Nisshin shot down an OS2U from USS New Jersey in one of the few floatplane vs. floatplane duels of the war. It would not be the last oddity of the day’s action.

Halsey’s carriers raced east as they frantically spotted their strike aircraft, then turned west at 0900 and began to launch. Just spotting the strikes had been a challenge; the disruptions of the night landing piled on top of the previous day’s fighting had left no carrier with all its remaining planes on board, and most had aircraft from multiple ships. The USS Ticonderoga CV16 had aircraft from eight different ships including the lost Yorktown and two CVLs on board, from all three task groups.

Fighters from the dawn CAP were already engaging the Japanese as the strikes launched, and each task group was directed to attack on its own. With so little time for briefing and planning, and so little cohesiveness in the strike groups, a virtue was made of necessity and most carrier’s groups were directed to attack at will; a lamed Japanese ship at this point could easily be finished off later.

The result was a chaotic death dance played out around and above the Japanese Battle Force as it steered towards TF 51.

At dawn on the 20th the IJN Battle Force had three carriers, two seaplane carriers, seven battleships, one battlecruiser, eight heavy cruisers, one torpedo cruiser, nine light cruisers, and seventeen destroyers. Yamamoto had detached CL Kiso and three destroyers to screen his aviation ships. This group was attacked by most of the aircraft launched by TG51.3; well over half the US aircraft launched that morning. By noon six of the nine ships were sunk and the rest sinking.

Aircraft from TG51.2 spread their attacks across the rest of the IJN force. They sank cruisers Myoko, Furutaka, Naka, and Yubari along with five destroyers and damaged many other ships.

Admiral Sherman, commanding the battered TG51.1, kept the aircraft lifting from his remaining carriers under much tighter control. He wanted to kill a battleship, and Commander Dixon of the USS Lexington, his senior pilot, was determined to oblige him. Sixty-eight strike aircraft, just over half of them TBF Avengers, converged on Fuso and scored five bomb and an incredible eight torpedo hits. Fuso capsized half an hour later.

By noon the sky was empty of Japanese aircraft. The US fleet’s Hellcats began strafing the dwindling ranks of the Japanese fleet. Their Browning .50cal machineguns couldn’t sink ships, but they could rip up exposed equipment on deck and kill unprotected crewmen. A TBF from CVE Sangamon was the last aircraft to attack before the battle lines engaged, hitting Shinano with a bomb that jammed her “B” turret pointed forward.

TF55, meanwhile, had split in two, Spruance leading his six fast battleships, four light cruisers, and 27 destroyers forward. At 1130 they linked up with TG51.4 – the two Iowa-class battleships and their screen – along with half a dozen cruisers detached from the carrier groups, and steered towards the Japanese. In all Spruance had eight fast battleships, four brand-new heavy cruisers, eight light cruisers, and three dozen destroyers, none of them damaged.

Yamamoto still had six battleships, one battlecruiser, thirteen cruisers and nine destroyers, almost all of them damaged to some extent. His battle line actually had a greater displacement than the US battleships and he had more heavy cruisers, but Yamamoto must have been well aware he was heavily outmatched. His battle-line formed north-to-south, the three massive Yamato-class BBs in the lead and Kirishima in the rear with the old Nagato, Ise, and Hyuga in between, and sent his cruisers and destroyers forward in two groups north and south of his line to engage the enemy now visible on the horizon.

The USN battleships were in four columns of two sailing west; North Carolina leading Washington furthest to the south, then Alabama leading Massachusetts, South Dakota leading Indiana, and finally New Jersey leading Iowa at the northern end. The battlewagons were flanked by cruisers and destroyers to the north and south, just like the Japanese. Spruance sent his own screen forward to engage the Japanese while his battleships closed the distance, scouting planes already circling overhead to report.

OrBat, Final Phase:

Battle Force (Yamamoto)
BB Yamato, Musashi, Shinano, Nagato, Ise, Hyuga
BC Kirishima
CA Mogami, Kumano, Haguro, Aoba, Kinugasa, Kako
CLTT Oi
CL Agano, Jintsu, Yahagi, Oyodo, Yura, Noshiro
9 DD

TF55.1/TF51.4, Fast Battle Force (Spruance)
BB Iowa, New Jersey, South Dakota, Indiana, Massachusetts, Alabama, North Carolina, Washington
CA Baltimore, Boston, Houston CA70, Quincy
CL Columbia, Mobile, Wichita CL81, Miami, Philadelphia, Phoenix, St. Louis, Helena
36 DD

At 1241 Yamamoto, inspired by history on the eve of what he seems to have realized would be his last battle, ordered a message sent, explicitly via flag signal, to the rest of his force:

The Emperor expects that every man will do his duty.