num_pages: 262
description: On 3 March 1943 the balance of power in the South West Pacific war theater was changed in 30 minutes by an air attack by US and Australian aircraft on a Japanese convoy of seven transports and eight destroyers. All seven transports and four of the battle-experienced destroyers were sunk. Another transport had been sunk the day before.This devastating attack halted the Japanese and gave the US and Australian armies time to prepare for the next phases of the battles for New Guinea. Never again would a Japanese convoy set off from the major base at Rabaul for New Guinea.Since July 1942 the Japanese had run convoys out of Rabaul with little loss and delivered entire Army divisions to New Guinea. In January 1943 yet another convoy had arrived successfully and more troops and supplies went ashore. Something had to be done.Finally the advice of an Australian air force officer was heeded and a mass attack from all directions and different heights overwhelmed the experienced Japanese ships crews. Never before had such a disaster been inflicted on the Japanese. This book describes the situation before the March convoy and the lack of success of the air attacks on ships then the idea for success the training and the use of a new weapon: mast-height bombing from heavily armed bombers with up to eight machineguns in the nose.Each ship is identified with detail of cargo and military passengers and the damage inflicted by the air attack.Allied flight crew reports with Japanese reports allow some individual strikes on particular ships to be identified.Contributions from US Australian and Japanese veterans with official reports diaries and letters add the personal feel to this account of the battle.A US B-17 was shot down and the crew parachuted but Japanese fighters machinegunned each man; none survived. A terrible retribution was taken.After the ships were sunk thousands of Japanese troops were afloat in the battle area but they could not be allowed to reach shore and go into battle against Allied ground forces. Aircraft went out to strafe them. Men volunteered to fly again and to go as gunners to avenge the murdered B-17 crewmen.Eight appendices give the detail of airfields and Allied unit commanders individual squadron crews ship details Japanese unit commanders and men and equipment aboard ship sighting reports during the battle and statistics of sorties flown and ordnance expended.This is the complete account of a battle that was crucial to Allied victory in the South West Pacific: a land battle fought at sea won by air power.
language: English
title: The Battle of the Bismarck Sea: 3 March 1943
publisher: Banner Books