WW II in the Pacific

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US Destroyers Raid Japanese Invasion Fleet - Battle of Balikpapan Documentary

See - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwY2uATMDe4 - LFT

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A portion of the British Pacific Fleet in 1945.

At the time, the core of the fleet was made up of six fleet carriers. Five of those fleet carriers are seen in this photo. The carriers are HMS Indomitable, HMS Indefatigable, HMS Illustrious, HMS Victorious, and HMS Formidable (HMS Implacable was the missing sixth fleet carrier). The carriers are joined by HMS Unicorn, a light carrier that served as an aircraft maintenance ship.
The British Pacific Fleet was the mightiest fleet ever assembled by the Royal Navy. In addition to the six fleet carriers at the core, it also had four light carriers, nine escort carriers, five battleships, two aircraft maintenance ships, eleven cruisers, four support cruisers, and numerous escort vessels in addition to the fleet train.

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Last letters from young kamikaze pilots provide rare insights into Japan’s feared special attack unit


Think of a kamikaze pilot and the image that comes to mind is probably a screaming face obscured by goggles embarking on a death plunge.

Or perhaps no face at all and just a fighter plane plowing into a warship.

It’s probably not a teenager weeping in a dank, half-underground bunker with his bedsheets pulled up over his head.

The youngest kamikaze pilot was Yasuo Tanaka, just 16. He flew an Okha – essentially a bomb with wings but no wheels dropped from a mother aircraft. He died on May 11, 1945. You can see his photograph at the Kanoya museum, on the grounds of a current Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force base.

Continues, including quality photos at - https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/travel/japan-ka ... index.html - LFT

Personal comment from Tim:

"Back in the 1980s I worked extensively in Indonesia, I had a friend whose family were hotel owners and tourism operators in Sulawesi. Through them I met a charming old Japanese chap who represented a tour company in Tokyo. In 1945 he had been nominated as a teenage kamikaze pilot, he finished his training and was imminently due for his one-way flight when the war ended. One weekend he suggested we all go for a picnic on one of the outlying islands not far from Jakarta, how to get there, I can rent a Cessna and fly us there he said, we didn’t know he was a pilot which is when he told us his story. We didnt go, no plane I think, but meeting him told me that these young lads were not just ciphers, they were actually someone’s son, brother, relative caught up in the madness of a war long since lost."

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The Destroyer Used as a Shield to Prevent a Colossal Defeat

On December 10, 1942, mere days after Pearl Harbor, the Pacific had quickly become the newest battleground of World War 2, where the Allies faced a new enemy: The Empire of Japan.

That day, Force Z, a British naval squadron in the South China Sea, aimed to deter Japanese expansion in the Far East. The group had a key player in their mix: HMS Electra. This E-class destroyer, led by Lieutenant Commander Cecil Wakeford May, quickly gained a reputation from Norway to Russia to the Pacific islands. Her lucky streak as a successful convoy escort earned her the nickname “Lucky ‘lectra.”

Without air cover despite their superior’s pleas, the Z group provided escort and anti-submarine defense. The Allies underestimated Japan's military capabilities at the time, assuming their longest-range torpedoes were ineffective.

Their mistake was quickly made evident when nearly 100 land-based and torpedo bombers of the Imperial Japanese Navy surrounded the entire Z Force.

The stage was set for Lucky ‘Lectra to prove it still deserved that name …. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZpaCQkv0sI LFT

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Sir Humphrey
A fantastic thread on a little known part of immediate post WW2 history.

William Reynolds
With the 15th August coming round again, we are now at our 79th anniversary of VJ Day, marking the end of the War in the Pacific and the end of the Second World in its totality. However, it was not end for British Commonwealth forces interactions with Japan. 1/
See https://x.com/war_student/status/1824065828842561669

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3 shipwrecks from 'forgotten battle' of World War II discovered off remote Alaskan island

This is the first time that wrecks from the almost-overlooked conflict in WWII have been studied scientifically.

Underwater archaeologists have located the wrecks of three military ships involved in Japan's invasion of Alaska's remote Aleutian Islands in World War II — an almost-overlooked conflict sometimes called the "forgotten battle" by historians.

The wrecks of the vessels — two Japanese freighters and the American cable ship SS Dellwood, which laid undersea cables during the war — were discovered last month during an expedition to Attu Island, at the westernmost tip of the Aleutians.

The Japanese ships were sunk by bombs from American aircraft after Japanese troops invaded the island in June 1942, roughly six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the American ship sank about a month after the Japanese invasion had been defeated almost a year later, during efforts to reinforce the island's defenses.

Continues https://www.livescience.com/archaeology ... kan-island LFT

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‘Take her down!’ WWII submarine skipper sacrificed with final order

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your ... nal-order/ LFT

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A World War II Veteran Recalls the Adventure of Patrolling the Pacific Aboard Flying Boats

This 100-year-old Navy veteran flew PBYs in World War II

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/ai ... lack-cats/ LFT