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Hidden History: The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot [1]

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Date: 2023-10-10  

The carrier battle known as the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot in 1944 ended the combat effectiveness of the Imperial Japanese Navy.

"Hidden History" is a diary series that explores forgotten and little-known areas of history.

Japanese carrier Zuikaku under attack photo from WikiCommons

By the summer of 1944 the Pacific War had taken a decisive turn. The US had inflicted a devastating defeat on the Japanese Navy at the Battle of Midway, had secured Guadalcanal and the Solomon Islands, and had begun a strategic offensive of island-hopping across the Pacific, culminating in the capture of the Marshall Islands in March. The Japanese knew that the next American target would likely be the Marianas Islands--and they knew that American airfields on Saipan, Tinian and Guam, 1200 miles from Tokyo, would put the Japanese homeland within range of the new American B-29 Superfortress bombers.

Japanese Admiral Soemu Toyoda, who was in command of the Imperial Navy's Combined Fleet, knew that his only hope lay in concentrating all of his available forces and stopping the Americans in one decisive battle in the Marianas. The plan was dubbed "Operation A-Go". At this time, the Imperial Navy had nine aircraft carriers (five fleet carriers and four light carriers), with around 440 aircraft--a larger force than the one that had attacked Pearl Harbor.

But this force was not of the caliber of the "Kido Butai" fleet that had struck Hawaii. After the disastrous Battle of Midway and the campaigns in the Solomons, the Japanese Navy had lost the vast majority of their experienced pilots, and their replacements were hastily and poorly trained. In addition, the Japanese supply network had been disrupted by American submarines who were sinking Japan's oil tankers and cargo ships at a horrendous rate, leaving the Imperial Navy desperately short of fuel. It was likely, Toyoda knew, that "A-Go" would be the last large-scale naval operation that the Japanese would be capable of carrying out.

Nevertheless, it was all Japan had left, and so Vice Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa, who was placed in command of Operation A-Go, did what he could with what he had available. His plan was to meet any American move into the Marianas with a single concentrated fleet containing seven aircraft carriers. The plan also depended heavily on the 170 land-based aircraft from airfields on Japanese-held Saipan, Guam and Tinian. With this combined air force, Ozawa hoped to engage the US carriers and defeat them. Then, once the American carriers had been put out of action, Ozawa would use his five battleships and seven cruisers to attack the rest of the fleet, including the troop transports, and cripple any further American advances in the Pacific.

Meanwhile, the Americans were making their own plans—and because they had captured a copy of the Japanese plans in a crashed airplane, they already knew what the Japanese were going to do. "Operation Forager" would seize the Marianas with an American force of 535 naval vessels and auxiliary ships, including fifteen aircraft carriers (seven fleet carriers and eight light carriers) and over 900 aircraft, commanded by Admiral Raymond Spruance. The landing force consisted of over 127,000 Army and Marine troops, which would be landed within days of each other on Saipan, Guam and Tinian to capture the all-important airfields. The invasion was scheduled to begin on June 15.

The US Navy reached the Marianas on June 11, and began with an intensive bombing campaign to both soften up the landing beaches and to knock out as many of the land-based Japanese aircraft as possible. There were also carriers dispatched to hit the Japanese-held Iwo Jima and Chichi Jima, from which the Japanese could possibly launch air strikes. Marine began landing on Saipan on the morning of June 15. Within three days the US had 50,000 troops on the island. It would be one of the most bitter land battles of the war.

Ozawa's naval force left its base at Tawitawi, near the Philippines, on June 13. It was picked up by a screen of American submarines who then reported its position. Spruance in turn sent his carrier force to attack the Japanese fleet. They met in the Philippine Sea, about 180 miles west of Saipan, on June 19.

An American search plane found the Japanese fleet early that morning, but communications problems prevented them from making a report. Ozawa was therefore able to attack first, sending four waves of Mitsubishi Zero fighters, Yokosuka "Judy" dive bombers, and Nakajima "Jill" torpedo bombers to the American fleet. He had also counted on a force of land-based bombers launching a simultaneous strike, but the Americans had already destroyed most of those on the ground. Only two small groups of land-based planes from Japanese bases at Truk and Yap were able to reach the fight.

When Ozawa's aircraft reached the US fleet, they were intercepted by a screen of Grumman F6F Hellcat fighters, and the better-trained American pilots in their superior aircraft cut the Japanese to pieces. Only a few of the inexperienced Japanese managed to get through, and they scored hits on the battleships South Dakota and Indiana and near-misses on the carriers Wasp and Bunker Hill, but 243 of the 373 attacking Japanese Navy aircraft were shot down or crashed on the way back, along with another 30 or 40 land-based planes. Some American fighter pilots shot down as many as six planes on their own. The US had lost only 29 planes. It became known as the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot".

Meanwhile, American submarines had found the Japanese. The sub Albacore launched a spread of six torpedoes at the fleet carrier Taiho, Ozawa's flagship. Four of these missed and one was destroyed by a Japanese pilot who intentionally dove his Zero fighter into it, but the sixth torpedo hit the Taiho, sparking off fires and explosions. The inexperienced crew was not able to contain the fire, and the Taiho sank later that day. Ozawa survived, and abandoned the Taiho for the carrier Zuikaku.

Then, early that same afternoon, the American submarine Cavalla found the Japanese fleet carrier Shokaku, a veteran of the Pearl Harbor raid, and hit her with a spread of four torpedoes. Once again the fires raged out of control, and the carrier suffered a massive explosion in her ammunition magazine. She sank three hours later.

When the surviving Japanese pilots returned from the disastrous raid on the American fleet, however, they gave wildly inaccurate reports of their success, claiming to have left a large number of American carriers burning and to have destroyed a large number of Hellcat fighters. Ozawa, seeing an opportunity to avenge his own losses, decided to spend the night refueling his ships, then sail towards Guam the next morning to recover the Japanese aircraft that he believed had landed safely there before launching another attack on the US fleet. He also believed that air reinforcements had arrived from Iwo Jima. He would use all of these air forces to attack the Americans.

The approaching Japanese were not detected by the Americans until the afternoon of June 20, when they were 275 miles away from the US carriers. This was beyond the maximum range of the American dive bombers, but the carrier force commander Admiral Marc Mitscher elected to launch an attack wave anyway, intending to race his ships towards them and recover them in the dark. Ozawa, meanwhile, had intercepted the American transmission reporting that he had been spotted, and he turned to attempt to get out of range. Mitscher, hearing that the Japanese were now further away, canceled a planned second-wave attack but did not recall the first wave.

In all, 216 American planes were launched. Ozawa had only 75 Zero fighters available to meet them, and 65 of these were shot down by the escorting Hellcats. The bombers swarmed over the Japanese fleet, sinking the light carrier Hiyo and damaging the fleet carrier Zuikaku and light carriers Junyo and Chiyoda, along with a battleship and cruiser. Only 20 American planes were lost in the fighting, but another 18 crashed while attempting to land on the US carriers at night and an additional 50 or so ran out of fuel and ditched in the ocean.

Ozawa, meanwhile, retreated to Okinawa. He had lost two fleet carriers and a light carrier, and over 250 aircraft and 3,000 men, including most of his pilots. Another fleet carrier, Zuikaku, had lost so many of her aircraft and pilots that she was put out of action for months until they could be replaced.

After the "Turkey Shoot", the Japanese Navy was no longer an effective carrier force, and was never again able to muster a strategic offensive. The US Navy now owned the Pacific.

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