Battle of the Bismarck Sea
Feeling that IGH were dismissive of intelligence reports, Sugita formed an informal group to devise strategy. During the Battle of the Bismarck Sea (2–4 March 1943), Colonel Sugita, as part the plan to establish a headquarters staff in Lae, was traveling with a Japanese convoy of sixteen ships aboard the destroyer Tokitsukaze, which was hit by an Allied air attack. Sugita and other survivors transferred to the destroyer Yukikaze and returned to Rabaul.