69 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?

Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū and Hiryū all went down, along with many irreplaceable veteran pilots.

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

The ruse was 'A fake message that the atoll's water plant had failed', broadcast so Japanese listeners would pick it up; soon a Japanese signal reported that 'AF' was short of water, confirming Midway as the target.

Which US carrier was lost at Midway, only weeks after being patched up in three days 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.

Who commanded the Japanese carrier strike force at both Pearl Harbor and Midway?

Chūichi Nagumo led the Kidō Butai, the carrier striking force, at both Pearl Harbor and Midway; Yamamoto, who planned both operations, never sailed with the carriers.

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

The raid came on December 7, 1941, a Sunday; the first wave struck shortly before 8 a.m. Hawaiian time, and 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.

The 353 Japanese aircraft that struck Pearl Harbor flew from how many carriers?

All 6 carriers of the Kidō Butai — Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū, Hiryū, Shōkaku and Zuikaku — took part, launching two waves from a position roughly 200 miles north of Oahu.

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

USS Arizona, shattered by a magazine explosion that killed 1,177 of her crew, was never raised; her wreck lies beneath the memorial dedicated in 1962.

How many Americans were killed in the Pearl Harbor attack?

The toll was 2,403 Americans killed, most of them sailors, with a further 1,178 wounded and 188 aircraft destroyed, nearly all of them on the ground.

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 only about 108 aircraft between them, 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 of USS Johnston' turned alone toward the Japanese line at flank speed, laying smoke and torpedoing the heavy cruiser Kumano; he went down with his ship and received a posthumous Medal of Honor.

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.

Yamato's one-way sortie toward Okinawa in April 1945 is best known as which operation?

Yamato and five escorts were sunk by carrier aircraft before reaching Okinawa, for the loss of ten American planes.

Which vice admiral commanded Yamato's final sortie despite believing the plan futile and wasteful?

Seiichi Itō, commanding the Second Fleet, objected that the sortie would achieve nothing until Kusaka flew in to persuade him; he went down with Yamato when she capsized on 7 April 1945.

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

HMS Ark Royal's Swordfish, flying from Force H out of Gibraltar, scored the torpedo hit that jammed Bismarck's rudders; King George V and Rodney finished her with gunfire the next morning.

How many Bismarck survivors did British warships rescue before a U-boat scare ended the effort?

Dorsetshire and the destroyer Maori took 110 men aboard before a suspected U-boat sighting forced them away; U-74 and the weather ship Sachsenwald found a handful more, and over 2,000 of Bismarck's crew died.

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 reached Hood's aft magazines and she sank in about three minutes, taking 1,415 of her crew.

In which strait did Bismarck sink HMS Hood?

The Denmark Strait, between Greenland and Iceland, was the route Bismarck and Prinz Eugen took toward the Atlantic convoy lanes; Hood blew up there on 24 May 1941 after a shell reached her magazines.

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; after Taranto he wrote that the Fleet Air Arm had shown itself 'the Navy's most devastating weapon', and at Matapan his battleships destroyed a squadron of Italian heavy cruisers at night.

Whose 1941 break into Italian naval Enigma gave warning of the Matapan sortie?

Mavis Batey, then Mavis Lever, worked out in March 1941 the break that yielded 'Today's the day minus three'; a reconnaissance plane was then sent up so the Italians would not suspect codebreaking.

Before Matapan, the British admiral staged a departure from which Alexandria venue to fool the Japanese consul?

The venue was 'A golf club': the admiral arrived with a suitcase as if staying the night, played a round in full view of the Japanese consul, then slipped away after dark to his flagship Warspite.

Which crippled Italian heavy cruiser drew her sisters Zara and Fiume into the night ambush at Matapan?

Pola, stopped by an aerial torpedo hit, was the ship Zara and Fiume came back for; the battleships blew those two apart at point-blank range, and British destroyers torpedoed the drifting Pola shortly after 04:00.

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, between Guadalcanal, Savo Island and Florida Island, holds the wrecks of dozens of ships from the 1942–43 fighting; the New Georgia Sound that Japanese reinforcements ran down was, by contrast, 'The Slot'.

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

'Daniel Callaghan and Norman Scott' both died on the night of 12–13 November 1942: Scott on the bridge of the light cruiser Atlanta, Callaghan on the bridge of San Francisco, in a point-blank melee off Guadalcanal.

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 on a supply run sink the cruiser Northampton and cripple Minneapolis, New Orleans and Pensacola on 30 November 1942.

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 'Tokyo Express' had been reduced to pushing sealed drums of rice and supplies over the side for troops to haul ashore.

What set the August 1943 Battle of Vella Gulf apart from earlier Solomons night actions?

'US destroyers first fought without cruiser support' in the Solomons here: a division under Frederick Moosbrugger closed undetected by radar and torpedoed the Japanese destroyers Hagikaze, Arashi and Kawakaze without taking a hit.

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.

Which escort commander won the Victoria Cross for holding off German heavy ships at the Barents Sea?

Robert Sherbrooke, in the destroyer HMS Onslow, kept the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper off convoy JW 51B on 31 December 1942 and went on directing the action after a splinter wound cost him the sight of an eye.

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.

On what date was the Scharnhorst sunk off Norway's North Cape?

Scharnhorst, sunk on 26 December 1943, had sailed from Altafjord on Christmas evening to attack convoy JW 55B; she was caught in the polar darkness, slowed by battleship shells and sent down by torpedoes.

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 Tirpitz was at sea, ordered the escort withdrawn and the convoy scattered on 4 July 1942; Tirpitz never reached it, but aircraft and U-boats picked off the lone merchantmen.

Of the 35 merchant ships in Convoy PQ 17, how many reached the Soviet Union?

Only 11 of the 35 reached Archangel or Murmansk; the rest were sunk by aircraft and U-boats after the scatter order, along with hundreds of tanks and aircraft meant for the Red Army.

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.

Who commanded Force Z, and kept radio silence until an hour after the first Japanese attack?

Tom Phillips went down with Prince of Wales; he never called for fighters, and 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.

How many aircraft carriers were involved in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, history's largest carrier battle?

24 carriers took part — 15 American and 9 Japanese — with roughly 1,350 carrier aircraft between them; the new proximity fuze helped American anti-aircraft gunners.

How many carrier-versus-carrier battles were fought between the US and Japanese navies in World War II?

Coral Sea, Midway, Eastern Solomons, Santa Cruz and the Philippine Sea; the last of them ended Japan's carrier arm as a force.

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 abandoned after bomb, torpedo and crashing-aircraft hits on 26 October 1942 and finished off by Japanese destroyers; Enterprise was damaged too, leaving no undamaged US carrier in the Pacific.

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 lashed between the destroyers Penn and Ledbury to be towed into Grand Harbour on 15 August 1942; her fuel let Malta's aircraft and submarines keep fighting.

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

HMS Eagle was hit by a salvo of torpedoes from U-73 on 11 August 1942 and sank within minutes, with the loss of more than 130 men; the convoy's other carriers sailed on toward Malta.

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.

In which year was 'Black May', when German U-boat wolf packs lost their advantage for good?

Black May came in 1943: some 40 U-boats were lost that month as escort carriers, very-long-range Liberators, centimetric radar and codebreaking came together, and Dönitz pulled the wolf packs out of the North Atlantic.

How many U-boats were lost in the Battle of the Atlantic?

783 U-boats were lost, along with nearly 30,000 of the roughly 40,000 men who served in them; the Allies lost about 3,500 merchant ships and 175 warships in the war's longest continuous campaign.

Britain needed more than how much imported material per week to survive and fight in WWII?

Britain needed more than 'A million tons' of imports a week to keep fighting, which is why the U-boat campaign against the Atlantic convoys threatened the country's survival and rationing aimed to cut demand for shipping space.

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.

The March 1943 Battle of the Komandorski Islands was unusual for what?

It was 'A daylight gun duel with no aircraft involved', fought over several 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 Judy dive bomber on 24 October 1944; 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 on 25 October 1944, when Special Attack Unit pilots crashed into Taffy 3's escort carriers off Samar and sank St. Lo.