Battle of the Komandorski islands

The Bataille of the islands Komandorski is a naval battle of the Second world war opposing the US Navy to the Japanese imperial Marine in the Northern Pacific to broad of the islands Komandorski. It was one of the naval engagements most unusual of this war.

It take place the March 27th 1943 in the Northern Pacific. The American forces were informed of a convoy of provisioning of the Japanese garrisons of the Aleutian Islands. The US Navy then sent a naval force ordered by the rear-admiral Charles McMorris to intercept the convoy. The fleet of McMorris consisted of 4 Destroyer S, a light Croiseur and a heavy cruiser. The Japanese, which ignored the Americans, chose to escort their convoy with 2 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers and 4 destroyers, ordered by the vice-admiral Boshiro Hosogaya. The morning of the 27, the Japanese convoy was intercepted by the American ships which blocked the road to him and the combat started. Because of the distance of the site of the battle and this fortuitous meeting on the open ocean, none of the two fleets profited from an underwater or air support, limiting this battle to a strict engagement of buildings of surface. It was the only case of this kind in the Campagnes of the Pacific and the pure last naval artillery battle of the history.

From a tactical point of view, engagement was not conclusive. The two parts underwent damage, the Americans not undergoing the higher firepower of the Japanese as they could have done it. The Japanese forces could have gained the victory but the admiral Hosogaya, not carrying out the severe damage that its ships had inflicted with USED Salt Lake City and fearing that an American air support is not on the way, chooses to withdraw himself before to have carried the death-blow. This withdrawal led to a strategic defeat of the Japanese who gave up réapprovionnement their Aleutian Islands garrisons by boats and did not make it after by submarines.

The admiral Hosogaya was withdrawn from the active service after this battle.

NOTE : The date of the March 26th is often donnéee for this battle. That is due to the fact that the American ships used the Honolulu time which were on the other side of the Date-line. However the local date in the Komandorski islands was on March 27th.

Books

Andrieu D' Albas, 1965, Death off have Navy: Naval Japanese Action in World War II , Soothsayer-Adair Publications, ISBN 081595302X
Paul S. Dull, 1978, has Battle History off the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1941-1945 , ISBN 0-87021-097-1
Eric Lacroix, 1997, Japanese Cruisers off the Pacific War , Naval Institute Close, ISBN 0870213113
John A. Lorelli, 1984, The Battle off the Komandorski Islands, March 1943 , Naval Institute Close, ISBN 0870210939
Samuel Eliot Morison, 1951 (rééditition in 2001), Aleutians, Gilberts and Marshalls, June 1942-April 1944, vol. 7 of the History off United States Naval Operations in World War II, University off Illinois Near, Champaign, Illinois, the USA, ISBN 0-316-58305-7

External bonds

Battle off Komandorski Island: March 26,1943
USN Fights Narrative: The Aleutions Campaign Chapter 9: The Battle off the Komandorskis

Random links: