67 Fun Facts About Naval Battles of World War II

Which October 1944 engagement was the largest naval battle of World War II?

Leyte Gulf, fought 23–26 October 1944 in the waters around the Philippines, was the largest naval battle of the war by ships and men engaged, and it broke the Imperial Japanese Navy as a fighting fleet.

Which May 1942 battle was the first in which the opposing fleets never sighted or fired on one another?

Coral Sea, fought 4–8 May 1942, was the first carrier-versus-carrier battle; every blow was struck by aircraft, and the Japanese seaborne push toward Port Moresby was turned back.

How many Japanese fleet carriers were sunk at the Battle of Midway in June 1942?

4 carriers went down, Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū and Hiryū, against a single American carrier lost; all four had taken part in the raid on Pearl Harbor.

How did US codebreakers confirm that the Japanese target 'AF' was Midway?

A fake water-shortage report was broadcast from Midway at the codebreakers' suggestion; soon afterwards a Japanese message noted that 'AF' was short of water.

Which US carrier was lost at Midway, days after being rushed through repairs at Pearl Harbor?

USS Yorktown, damaged in the May carrier battle, was patched in about 72 hours at Pearl Harbor and reached Midway in time; crippled by Hiryū's aircraft and torpedoed by submarine I-168, she sank on 7 June 1942.

Yamamoto planned Pearl Harbor and Midway, but which admiral led the carrier strike force in both?

Chūichi Nagumo led the Kidō Butai in both battles; Yamamoto, who planned them, was never with the carriers, and at Midway he stayed far astern aboard the battleship Yamato, out of the fight.

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor took place on what date?

The raid came on December 7, 1941, a Sunday morning in Hawaii, though across the date line in Japan it was already December 8; the United States declared war on Japan the following day.

Which battleship got under way during the Pearl Harbor attack and was deliberately beached?

USS Nevada was the only battleship to get under way that morning; bombed as she headed for the sea, she was run aground near Hospital Point so she would not block the channel.

Which US warships were all away from Pearl Harbor when Japan attacked?

The aircraft carriers, all three of the Pacific Fleet's, were absent that morning; untouched, they fought the carrier battles of 1942 while the sunken battleships were still being raised.

Along with the target ship USS Utah, which battleship sunk at Pearl Harbor was never refloated?

USS Arizona was left where she sank after a magazine explosion killed 1,177 of her crew; decades later, survivors of that crew could choose to have their ashes placed inside the wreck beside their shipmates.

Which Japanese craft tried to enter Pearl Harbor before the raid?

Midget submarines, five two-man craft, went in ahead of the planes; the destroyer Ward sank one more than an hour before the first bombs, but her report was still being checked when the raid began.

Which October 1944 Philippines engagement was history's last battleship-versus-battleship action?

Surigao Strait, on the night of 24–25 October 1944, saw Oldendorf's old battleships cross the T of Nishimura's force; Fusō had already been torpedoed, and Yamashiro was sunk by gunfire and torpedoes.

In October 1944, Halsey took the Third Fleet north after a decoy carrier force led by which Japanese admiral?

Jisaburō Ozawa's Northern Force, carriers with few aircraft or trained crews left, was bait; the Third Fleet chased it north, leaving the San Bernardino Strait unguarded for Kurita's Centre Force.

Who commanded the escort carrier group Taffy 3 during its desperate stand off Samar on 25 October 1944?

Clifton Sprague's Taffy 3, a handful of escort carriers with a thin screen of destroyers and destroyer escorts, held off Kurita's battleships and cruisers off Samar, losing the carrier Gambier Bay and several of its escorts.

Off Samar, Kurita mistook Taffy 3's escort carriers for what?

Kurita took the ships for 'Halsey's main fleet' of fast fleet carriers and, fearing air attack, broke off after a confused running fight, sparing the vulnerable landing force on Leyte.

Which destroyer captain charged Kurita's fleet off Samar and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor?

Ernest Evans turned USS Johnston alone toward the Japanese line, laying smoke, and a torpedo blew the bow off the heavy cruiser Kumano; badly wounded, he ordered abandon ship and was never seen again.

Which battleship, Yamato's sister ship, was sunk by carrier aircraft in the Sibuyan Sea in October 1944?

Musashi, Yamato's sister, absorbed more than a dozen torpedo hits on 24 October 1944 as carrier aircraft concentrated on her; Kurita's other heavy ships came through the Sibuyan Sea largely intact.

The battleship Yamato was sunk in April 1945 on a one-way mission to which island?

Okinawa was the goal of Operation Ten-Go: Yamato was to beach herself there and fight on as a shore battery, but carrier aircraft sank her long before she reached the island.

Five brothers who died together when the cruiser USS Juneau was sunk off Guadalcanal in 1942 shared which surname?

Sullivan: the five brothers from Waterloo, Iowa had enlisted on condition that they serve together; Hollywood filmed their story in 1944, and the Navy has named two destroyers The Sullivans.

Swordfish from which British carrier jammed Bismarck's rudders on 26 May 1941?

HMS Ark Royal's Swordfish first attacked the British cruiser Sheffield by mistake; their faulty magnetic detonators spared her, so the crews switched to contact fuses for the strike that jammed Bismarck's rudders.

Why did British warships break off the rescue of Bismarck's survivors?

A suspected U-boat sighting sent the cruiser Dorsetshire and the destroyer Maori racing away with the rest still in the water; a U-boat and a German weather ship later found just five more men alive.

How many of HMS Hood's crew survived her destruction on 24 May 1941?

Only 3 men, Ted Briggs, Bob Tilburn and Bill Dundas, survived; a shell from Bismarck is thought to have reached Hood's aft magazines, and she sank in about three minutes with 1,415 of her crew.

The May 1941 breakout of Bismarck and Prinz Eugen was code-named what?

Operation Rheinübung sent Bismarck and Prinz Eugen into the Atlantic in May 1941 to raid the convoys supplying Britain; the sortie ended within ten days when Bismarck was sunk on 27 May.

After the December 1939 Battle of the River Plate, Admiral Graf Spee was scuttled off which neutral port?

Montevideo, in neutral Uruguay, allowed Graf Spee 72 hours; her captain, convinced a far stronger British force waited outside the estuary, scuttled her on 17 December 1939.

Which cruiser in the River Plate squadron was serving with the Royal Navy's New Zealand Division?

Achilles, a Leander-class light cruiser manned largely by New Zealanders, fought alongside her sister Ajax and the heavy cruiser Exeter, which was badly mauled by Graf Spee's heavy guns.

The November 1940 raid on Taranto used 21 Swordfish flying from which carrier?

HMS Illustrious launched the 21 Swordfish on the night of 11–12 November 1940; their torpedoes and bombs put half the Italian battle fleet out of action in the first all-aircraft ship-to-ship attack in history.

Why did Japanese planners study the Taranto raid while preparing the Pearl Harbor attack?

'Both targets were shallow harbours': Taranto showed aerial torpedoes could run in water only about 12 metres deep, and Japan fitted wooden fins to its Type 91 torpedoes so they would work in Pearl Harbor's shallows.

Which British admiral commanded at both Taranto and Cape Matapan?

Andrew Cunningham led the Mediterranean Fleet through both: Taranto, he wrote, proved the Fleet Air Arm was the Navy's most devastating weapon, and at Matapan his fleet sank three Italian heavy cruisers in one night.

In April 1942, sixteen Army B-25 bombers flew from a US carrier's deck on the Doolittle Raid against which city?

Tokyo was the main target, with Yokohama, Kobe and Nagoya also hit; the plan was never to return to the ship, and fifteen of the sixteen bombers came down in China or off its coast.

Before Matapan, the British fleet commander made a show of visiting which Alexandria venue to fool the Japanese consul?

The venue was 'A golf club': he arrived with a suitcase as if staying the night and spent time on the course in view of the Japanese consul, then slipped away after dark to his flagship Warspite.

At Cape Matapan in 1941, what let British battleships surprise Italian cruisers at point-blank range in the dark?

Radar let the fleet close unseen on Zara and Fiume as they came back for the crippled Pola; the Italian ships had none, and with their main guns unready all three cruisers were lost that night.

Allied Guadalcanal veterans gave the August 1942 Battle of Savo Island what nickname?

'The Five Sitting Ducks' were the Allied heavy cruisers caught unawares on 9 August 1942; Quincy, Vincennes, Astoria and Canberra were sunk and Chicago damaged, one of the worst defeats in US naval history.

Which Japanese vice admiral led the cruiser force that routed the Allies at Savo Island?

Gunichi Mikawa brought seven cruisers and a destroyer down from Rabaul; fearing carrier strikes at daylight he withdrew without attacking the transports, a choice that arguably saved the landings.

The waters off Guadalcanal where so many warships sank became known as what?

Ironbottom Sound claimed four Allied cruisers in one battle off Savo Island in August 1942, and warships of both navies were still going down there at Tassafaronga in November.

Which two US rear admirals were killed at the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in November 1942?

'Daniel Callaghan and Norman Scott' died in the same point-blank night melee: Scott on Atlanta's bridge, apparently under misdirected fire from San Francisco, and Callaghan on San Francisco's own bridge.

The Japanese Type 93 torpedo that wrecked a US cruiser force at Tassafaronga was nicknamed what?

The 'Long Lance' (Type 93), oxygen-fuelled with a range and warhead far beyond American torpedoes, let eight destroyers sink the cruiser Northampton and cripple Minneapolis, New Orleans and Pensacola in one night.

At Tassafaronga, what were Tanaka's destroyers trying to deliver to Japanese troops on Guadalcanal?

Food was the cargo: by late 1942 the Guadalcanal garrison was starving, and the fast night destroyer runs had been reduced to pushing sealed drums of rice and supplies over the side for troops to haul ashore.

In July 1940 the Royal Navy opened fire on the fleet of which recent ally at Mers-el-Kébir to keep it from Germany?

France had just signed an armistice with Germany; when its admiral would not accept British terms for his ships, Force H opened fire and the battleship Bretagne blew up.

Hitler's fury over the botched Barents Sea attack of December 1942 forced which Kriegsmarine chief to resign?

Erich Raeder, Grand Admiral and head of the German navy since 1928, resigned weeks after the battle when Hitler raged that the big ships were useless and should be scrapped; Dönitz succeeded him and steered strategy toward the U-boats.

Robert Sherbrooke kept directing his destroyers at the Barents Sea in 1942 despite a severe face wound, earning which medal?

The Victoria Cross went to Sherbrooke, whose destroyers kept the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper off convoy JW 51B on 31 December 1942; all fourteen merchant ships reached the Soviet Union.

Which British battleship sank the Scharnhorst at the Battle of the North Cape?

HMS Duke of York, Admiral Fraser's flagship, crippled Scharnhorst with 14-inch gunfire, and torpedoes from cruisers and destroyers finished her; it was the last battle between British and German big-gun capital ships.

Scharnhorst was sunk off Norway's North Cape in December 1943 while hunting what?

An Arctic convoy bound for the Soviet Union drew Scharnhorst out; she sent her destroyers off to search, was caught alone in the polar dark, and only 36 of her 1,968 men survived.

What was the German code name for the February 1942 Channel Dash of Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen?

Operation Cerberus ran the three ships from Brest up the Channel on 11–13 February 1942 under heavy Luftwaffe cover; Hitler wanted them home against a feared British landing in Norway, and the surprise worked.

Which First Sea Lord ordered Convoy PQ 17 to scatter in July 1942, with disastrous results?

Dudley Pound, fearing German heavy ships were closing in, ordered the cruisers withdrawn and the convoy scattered on 4 July 1942; the surface attack never came, but aircraft and U-boats picked off the lone merchantmen.

Fear of which German battleship led the Admiralty to scatter Convoy PQ 17 in July 1942?

Tirpitz was thought to be closing in, so the convoy was told to scatter; her sortie was called off the day she sailed, yet only 11 of the 35 merchant ships reached Soviet ports.

What sank HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse off Malaya on 10 December 1941?

'Land-based Japanese bombers' — G3M and G4M aircraft flying from Indochina — sank both ships with torpedoes and bombs; Force Z had no air cover, and the loss showed even the heaviest ships were helpless without it.

Which admiral commanded Force Z and went down with HMS Prince of Wales off Malaya in December 1941?

Tom Phillips kept radio silence and never called for fighter cover; the first alert to reach Singapore came from Repulse's captain, William Tennant, about an hour into the attack.

Which Dutch rear admiral led the Allied force at the 1942 Battle of the Java Sea and died when his flagship sank?

Karel Doorman flew his flag in the light cruiser De Ruyter; late on 27 February 1942 torpedoes from the heavy cruisers Haguro and Nachi sank both De Ruyter and Java, and Doorman went down with his ship.

Which Australian cruiser was sunk alongside USS Houston in the Sunda Strait in 1942?

HMAS Perth, a light cruiser, was torpedoed and sunk with USS Houston in the early hours of 1 March 1942 after the pair ran into the Japanese invasion fleet off Bantam Bay, Java.

American aviators nicknamed the air battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944 what?

'The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot' cost Japan roughly 300 carrier aircraft on 19 June 1944 for a few dozen American losses; US submarines also sank the carriers Taihō and Shōkaku that day.

The Battle of the Philippine Sea was fought when Japan's fleet tried to stop the American invasion of which island?

Saipan was invaded on 15 June 1944 and Japan's carriers sailed to break the landing; the island's fall put B-29 bombers within range of Japan and brought down Prime Minister Tojo.

Which US fleet carrier was lost at the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands in October 1942?

USS Hornet, the carrier that had launched the Doolittle raid, was left dead in the water by bombs, torpedoes and crashing aircraft; American destroyers failed to scuttle her, and Japanese destroyers finished the job.

The vital tanker that reached Malta at the end of Operation Pedestal in August 1942 was named what?

Ohio, an American-built tanker with a British crew, was bombed, torpedoed and left with a broken back, then brought into Grand Harbour lashed between two destroyers; her fuel kept Malta's aircraft and submarines fighting.

Which aircraft carrier was torpedoed and sunk by U-73 on the first day of Operation Pedestal?

HMS Eagle took four torpedoes from U-73 on 11 August 1942 and sank within minutes; the convoy pressed on, losing nine of its fourteen merchant ships, yet the five that arrived kept Malta in the war.

Which U-boat commander penetrated Scapa Flow in October 1939 and sank HMS Royal Oak?

Günther Prien took U-47 through the blockships into Scapa Flow on the night of 13–14 October 1939 and torpedoed Royal Oak, killing more than 800 men; he returned to a hero's welcome in Germany.

Which very-long-range bomber helped close the mid-Atlantic air gap by 'Black May' of 1943?

B-24 Liberator patrols reached the mid-ocean gap where U-boats had hunted beyond air cover; with escort carriers they made May 1943 so costly that Dönitz pulled his wolf packs out of the North Atlantic.

Which campaign began with a liner torpedoed hours after Britain declared war in 1939?

The Battle of the Atlantic opened when a U-boat sank the liner Athenia on 3 September 1939; Churchill later wrote that the U-boat peril was the only thing that ever really frightened him during the war.

Which future US president commanded PT-109, the torpedo boat cut in two by a Japanese destroyer in the Solomons in 1943?

John F. Kennedy's boat was sliced apart by the destroyer Amagiri; he towed a badly burned crewman for miles with a life-jacket strap clenched in his teeth, and the survivors were rescued days later.

Which British aircraft carrier was sunk by U-29 in September 1939, in the first weeks of the war?

HMS Courageous was torpedoed by U-29 on 17 September 1939 while hunting U-boats off Ireland, with the loss of more than 500 men; the Admiralty quickly stopped using fleet carriers on anti-submarine patrol.

The 1940 naval battles at Narvik were fought over a port that shipped what resource from Sweden?

Iron ore from Sweden's Kiruna mines was railed to Narvik, the ice-free outlet for it in winter; both sides wanted to control that flow, which is why the April 1940 destroyer battles were fought there.

Which March 1943 battle was a daylight gun duel decided without air or submarine attack?

The Komandorski Islands fight ran for hours in the North Pacific; McMorris's outnumbered cruisers and destroyers got away when Hosogaya's Japanese force broke off, fearing air attack.

The Battle of Empress Augusta Bay in November 1943 covered Allied landings on which island?

Bougainville was the target: Marines landed at Cape Torokina on 1 November 1943, and that night Merrill's cruisers and destroyers turned back Ōmori's force from Rabaul, sinking the light cruiser Sendai and a destroyer.

What was the Japanese code name for Yamamoto's plan to take Midway?

Operation MI was the plan to seize Midway and draw out the US carriers; it spread Yamamoto's forces across hundreds of miles of ocean in separate groups that could not support one another.

What did American codebreakers call the main Japanese naval code they partly broke before Midway?

JN-25 was the Japanese navy's main operational code; Station Hypo in Hawaii under Joseph Rochefort had read enough of it by May 1942 to reveal Midway as the target and the approximate date of the attack.

Japan's June 1942 landings on Attu and Kiska were in which island chain?

The Aleutians: Japanese troops landed on Attu and Kiska on 6–7 June 1942 under Operation AL, which drew off ships that might otherwise have joined the Midway strike force.

Which light carrier was the largest American ship lost in the battles around Leyte Gulf?

USS Princeton, a light carrier, was hit by a single bomb from a lone Judy dive bomber; fires reached her torpedo stowage, the blast ravaged the cruiser Birmingham alongside, and she had to be scuttled.

Leyte Gulf was the first battle in which Japanese aircraft carried out organized attacks of what kind?

Kamikaze attacks were flown in organised form for the first time during the battle, when Special Attack Unit pilots crashed into Taffy 3's escort carriers off Samar and sank St. Lo.