Attack on Yokosuka
Encyclopedia
The attack on Yokosuka was an air raid conducted by the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

 on 18 July 1945 during the Pacific War
Pacific War
The Pacific War, also sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War refers broadly to the parts of World War II that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia, then called the Far East...

. The Japanese battleship Nagato
Japanese battleship Nagato
Nagato was a battleship of the Imperial Japanese Navy; the lead ship of her class. She was the first battleship in the world to mount 16 inch guns, her armour protection and speed made her one of the most powerful capital ships at the time of her commissioning.She was the flagship of Admiral...

 was the raid's main target, though anti-aircraft positions and other warships at Yokosuka Naval Arsenal
Yokosuka Naval Arsenal
was one of four principal naval shipyards owned and operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy, and was located at Yokosuka city, Kanagawa prefecture on Tokyo Bay, south of Yokohama...

 were also attacked. Other U.S. Navy and Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 aircraft also struck airfields in the Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

 area. While Nagato was only lightly damaged, the American aircraft sank a destroyer
Destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...

, a submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...

 and two escort vessels and damaged another five small vessels. The Allied pilots also claimed to have destroyed 43 Japanese aircraft and damaged another 77 along with the destruction of several locomotive
Locomotive
A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...

s. Japanese anti-aircraft guns shot down twelve American and two British aircraft during the attacks.

Background

During July 1945 the U.S Third Fleet, which was led by Admiral William Halsey
William Halsey, Jr.
Fleet Admiral William Frederick Halsey, Jr., United States Navy, , was a U.S. Naval officer. He commanded the South Pacific Area during the early stages of the Pacific War against Japan...

, conducted a series of air raids
Air raids on Japan
During World War II the Allied forces conducted many air raids on Japan which caused extensive destruction to the country's cities and killed over 300,000 people. These attacks began with the Doolittle Raid in mid-April 1942, but did not resume until June 1944 when United States Army Air Forces ...

 and naval bombardments
Allied naval bombardments of Japan during World War II
During the last weeks of World War II, warships of the United States Navy, Britain's Royal Navy and the Royal New Zealand Navy bombarded several cities and industrial facilities in Japan. These bombardments caused heavy damage to several of the factories targeted, as well as nearby civilian areas...

 against targets in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. These attacks were made by the Third Fleet's striking force, Task Force 38
Fast Carrier Task Force
The Fast Carrier Task Force was the main striking force of the United States Navy in the Pacific Ocean theatre of World War II.The Fast Carrier Task Force was known under two designations. The Navy made use of two sets of upper command structures for planning the upcoming operations...

 (TF 38), which was commanded by Vice Admiral John S. McCain
John S. McCain, Sr.
John Sidney "Slew" McCain Sr. was a U.S. Navy admiral. He held several command assignments during the Pacific campaign of World War II....

 and included nine fleet carriers, six light carriers and their escorts. Almost one thousand aircraft were embarked on board these carriers. On 10 July TF 38's aircraft struck airfields around Tokyo and claimed to have destroyed 340 Japanese aircraft on the ground and two in the air. No Japanese aircraft responded to this attack as they were being held in reserve to be used in a large-scale suicide attack on the Allied fleet during the expected invasion
Operation Downfall
Operation Downfall was the Allied plan for the invasion of Japan near the end of World War II. The operation was cancelled when Japan surrendered after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Soviet Union's declaration of war against Japan. The operation had two parts: Operation...

 of the country later in 1945. Following this raid, the Third Fleet conducted raids on Hokkaido and northern Honshu on 14 and 15 July which sank large numbers of ships and destroyed 25 aircraft on the ground. The American warships then sailed south and on 16 July were joined by the British Pacific Fleet's
British Pacific Fleet
The British Pacific Fleet was a British Commonwealth naval force which saw action against Japan during World War II. The fleet was composed of British Commonwealth naval vessels. The BPF formally came into being on 22 November 1944...

 (BPF's) main striking force, which was designated Task Force 37
Task Force 37
Task Force 37 was a US Navy task force active during World War II. Task Force numbers were in constant use, and there were several incarnations of TF 37 during World War II. The British Pacific Fleet was allocated as TF 37 in 1945....

 (TF 37) and comprised three aircraft carriers and their escorts.
By July 1945 all of the Imperial Japanese Navy's
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1869 until 1947, when it was dissolved following Japan's constitutional renunciation of the use of force as a means of settling international disputes...

 (IJN's) remaining large warships were unable to put to sea due to shortages of fuel and the dangers of attack from Allied aircraft and submarines. While most of these warships were anchored near the major naval base at Kure
Kure
Kure can refer to:*KURE, a radio station in Ames, Iowa*Kure Software Koubou, Japanese video game development company*Kure, Hiroshima , a city in Hiroshima prefecture, Japan**Kure Line, a rail line in the city...

 or elsewhere in the Seto Inland Sea, Nagato and several smaller warships were stationed at Yokosuka Naval Arsenal
Yokosuka Naval Arsenal
was one of four principal naval shipyards owned and operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy, and was located at Yokosuka city, Kanagawa prefecture on Tokyo Bay, south of Yokohama...

 in Tokyo Bay
Tokyo Bay
is a bay in the southern Kantō region of Japan. Its old name was .-Geography:Tokyo Bay is surrounded by the Bōsō Peninsula to the east and the Miura Peninsula to the west. In a narrow sense, Tokyo Bay is the area north of the straight line formed by the on the Miura Peninsula on one end and on...

. At this time the battleship was moored alongside a pier facing northwest and covered in camouflage
Ship camouflage
‎Ship camouflage is a form of military deception in which a ship is painted in one or more colors in order to obscure or confuse an enemy's visual observation...

 that was intended to make her difficult for aircraft to spot. All of Nagatos secondary armament
Battleship secondary armament
The secondary armament of a capital ship are smaller, faster-firing weapons that are typically effective at a shorter range than the main weapons...

 and about half her anti-aircraft guns
Anti-aircraft warfare
NATO defines air defence as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action." They include ground and air based weapon systems, associated sensor systems, command and control arrangements and passive measures. It may be to protect naval, ground and air forces...

 had been removed and emplaced on nearby hills from where they could provide protection to the naval base. Although the battleship's boiler
Boiler
A boiler is a closed vessel in which water or other fluid is heated. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications.-Materials:...

s were not lit, she received steam and power from the submarine chaser
Submarine chaser
A submarine chaser is a small and fast naval vessel specially intended for anti-submarine warfare. Although similar vessels were designed and used by many nations, this designation was most famously used by ships built by the United States of America...

 Fukugawa Maru No. 7 and an auxiliary boiler located on the pier. The destroyer Ushio was also docked nearby in a position where she was able to protect the battleship with her 25 mm anti-aircraft guns.

Nagatos presence at Yokosuka was revealed to the Allies by photographs taken during the 10 July raid on the Tokyo area. On 16 July Admiral Halsey and Vice Admiral Bernard Rawlings
Bernard Rawlings (Royal Navy officer)
Admiral Sir Bernard Rawlings GBE KCB was a Royal Navy officer who went on to be Flag Officer, Eastern Mediterranean during World War II.-Naval career:...

, the commander of TF 37, met to plan raids on the Tokyo area. Halsey was determined to sink the remnants of the IJN, and placed a particularly strong emphasis on attacking Nagato as she had been Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's
Isoroku Yamamoto
was a Japanese Naval Marshal General and the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet during World War II, a graduate of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy and a student of Harvard University ....

 flagship during the attack on Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...

 in December 1941. Due to the battleship's position within a well defended harbor, the Third Fleet's planners assessed that aircraft which attempted the straight and level flight needed to launch torpedo
Torpedo
The modern torpedo is a self-propelled missile weapon with an explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact with it or in proximity to it.The term torpedo was originally employed for...

es against her would suffer heavy losses, and so decided to use dive bombing
Dive bomber
A dive bomber is a bomber aircraft that dives directly at its targets in order to provide greater accuracy for the bomb it drops. Diving towards the target reduces the distance the bomb has to fall, which is the primary factor in determining the accuracy of the drop...

 tactics instead. As the landward side of the naval base was mountainous, the approaches which could be used by dive bombers were limited, however.

Attack

On 17 July the American and British fleet attempted to strike the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal and other targets in the Tokyo area. While two waves of aircraft were dispatched, the attack was frustrated by heavy cloud over the region and further attacks were canceled. The aircraft which reached their targets struck airfields north of Tokyo and caused little damage. While the naval base was not attacked, it was overflown by an American fighter
Fighter aircraft
A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat with other aircraft, as opposed to a bomber, which is designed primarily to attack ground targets...

 and its defenders were readied to respond to attacks. On the night of 17–18 July American and British warships bombarded the city of Hitachi
Hitachi, Ibaraki
is a city located on the Pacific Ocean in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. Its name could be directly translated as "sunrise", but probably more appropriately adapted to "prosperous wealth" .-Demographics:...

.

The next day the Allied fleet sailed south looking for better weather to conduct flight operations. Conditions improved during the morning, and at 11:30 am the day's air strikes began to be launched. The British aircraft of TF 37 were dispatched against airfields in the Tokyo area, though the size of this attack was considerably reduced; the fuel system on board had become contaminated with water and the carrier could only launch six Vought F4U Corsair fighters. TF 38's main effort was directed against Yokosuka Naval Arsenal, with Nagato being designated the raid's main target, though other American aircraft were dispatched against air fields.

The attack on Yokosuka began at about 3:30 pm. The first wave of American aircraft attacked the anti-aircraft batteries around the naval base, and succeeded in neutralizing them. Following this, the aircraft of VF-88 attacked Nagato with bombs. A 500 pound general-purpose bomb
General-purpose bomb
A general-purpose bomb is an air-dropped bomb intended as a compromise between blast damage, penetration, and fragmentation in explosive effect.-Characteristics:...

 struck the ship's bridge, killing the ship's commanding officer, Rear Admiral Otsuka Miki, her executive officer
Executive officer
An executive officer is generally a person responsible for running an organization, although the exact nature of the role varies depending on the organization.-Administrative law:...

 and at least twelve other men. Another 500 pound bomb later struck Nagato and detonated near her officer's mess
Mess
A mess is the place where military personnel socialise, eat, and live. In some societies this military usage has extended to other disciplined services eateries such as civilian fire fighting and police forces. The root of mess is the Old French mes, "portion of food" A mess (also called a...

, killing about 22 sailors and knocking out four 25 mm guns. The only other direct hit on the ship was made by a 5 inches (127 mm) rocket which did not explode. In addition, 60 bombs landed in the harbor near Nagato, causing breaches to her double hull
Double hull
A double hull is a ship hull design and construction method invented by Leonardo da Vinci where the bottom and sides of the ship have two complete layers of watertight hull surface: one outer layer forming the normal hull of the ship, and a second inner hull which is some distance inboard,...

 which let 2,000 tons of water into the ship. By the time the attack concluded at 4:10 pm, 35 of the battleship's 967 officers and men had been killed. The overall damage to the ship was later assessed as being light.

The American aircraft also attacked several other ships docked at Yokosuka. The unfinished Matsu class destroyer
Matsu class destroyer
The were a class of destroyer built for the Imperial Japanese Navy , who referred to them as .-Design basis:The Matsu class were built late in World War II, and they were intended to be more cost-effective in response to the changing character of naval warfare at that time...

 Yaezakura broke in two and sank after being bombed and the submarine I-372 was destroyed by another bomb; at the time the submarine's crew was ashore and did not suffer any fatalities. Two escort vessels and a torpedo boat were also sunk. In addition to these losses, five other ships, including the obsolete destroyer Yakaze
Japanese destroyer Yakaze
was a destroyer, built for the Imperial Japanese Navy immediately following World War I. Advanced for their time, these ships served as first-line destroyers through the 1930s, but were considered obsolescent by the start of the Pacific War.-History:...

 and training ships Fuji
Japanese battleship Fuji
-External links:*...

 and Kasuga
Japanese cruiser Kasuga
was the lead ship of the armored cruisers of the Imperial Japanese Navy, designed and built by Ansaldo Yards, Genoa, Italy, where the type was known as the...

 were damaged. Despite their proximity to Nagato, Fukugawa Maru No. 7 and Ushio were not damaged. The British and United States aircraft dispatched against airfields claimed to have destroyed 43 Japanese aircraft and damaged another 77 as well as destroying several railway locomotives. Allied losses in the attacks on 18 July were 12 U.S. Navy aircraft, two Royal Navy aircraft and 18 aircrew. The Allied pilots were unhappy with the results of the attack on Yokosuka.

Aftermath

Following its attacks on the Tokyo Bay area on 18 July, the Allied fleet sailed away from Japan to be refueled. Its next attacks were conducted against the main body of the IJN in Kure and the Inland Sea on 24, 25 and 28 July
Bombing of Kure (July 1945)
The bombing of Kure and surrounding areas by United States and British naval aircraft in late July 1945 led to the sinking of most of the surviving large warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy . The United States Third Fleet's attacks on Kure Naval Arsenal and nearby ports on 24, 25, and 28 July...

. These raids sank three battleships, an aircraft carrier and several other warships but cost the Allies 133 aircraft and 102 aircrew killed. The Third Fleet and elements of the BPF continued strikes against targets in Japan until the end of the war on 15 August 1945.

After the attack on Yokosuka, the Nagatos crew removed the casualties from the ship and conducted limited repairs. Some of the ship's ballast tank
Ballast tank
A ballast tank is a compartment within a boat, ship or other floating structure that holds water.-History:The basic concept behind the ballast tank can be seen in many forms of aquatic life, such as the blowfish or argonaut octopus, and the concept has been invented and reinvented many times by...

s were also flooded to give the impression that she had been sunk. During the early hours of 2 August Nagato was ordered to put to sea to intercept an Allied force, but this sortie was canceled before she had completed preparations to leave port as the report of Allied ships was determined to be false. On 30 August the ship was surrendered to the U.S. Navy. She was one of the target ships for the two atomic bomb tests conducted at Bikini Atoll
Bikini Atoll
Bikini Atoll is an atoll, listed as a World Heritage Site, in the Micronesian Islands of the Pacific Ocean, part of Republic of the Marshall Islands....

 on 1 and 28 July 1946 during Operation Crossroads
Operation Crossroads
Operation Crossroads was a series of nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in mid-1946. It was the first test of a nuclear weapon after the Trinity nuclear test in July 1945...

, and sank there during the night of 29–30 July.
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