Drake's Drum 03 Currents of Fate by Nicholas Sumner

Author:Nicholas Sumner [Sumner, Nicholas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sea Lion Press
Published: 2021-09-28T00:00:00+00:00

Seven American divisions, four Army and three Marine Corps, were landed on Okinawa during the second week of February 1948. The main landing took place on Saturday the 14th. The powerful Super Typhoon Karen had put back the Americans’ plans by two weeks. It was the first storm ever to be characterised as a ‘Super Typhoon’ and had traversed the Philippine Sea from January 11th to the 19th. It struck the Carolines and the Marianas, and caused the Ulithi anchorage (which could hold 700 vessels and was a vital Pacific staging post) to be evacuated. [102]

The American fleet was vast. The core of it was composed of thirty-four battleships, five of them British; there were also fourteen fleet carriers and twenty escort carriers, supported by thirty-five cruisers and more than 130 destroyers. The carriers had a total of 2,136 aircraft. In addition to this, the Royal Navy, operating independently, committed another three battle cruisers, eight fleet carriers, six light carriers, sixteen cruisers and twenty-nine destroyers in a supporting role. The British Pacific Fleet (referred to by the Americans as Task Forces 41 to 45) was commanded by Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten and was given the job of suppressing airfields on Formosa and the southernmost Ryukyu Islands, Ishigaki and Miyakojima. The entire Allied armada consisted of more than 1,000 ships. To put that in perspective, both fleets together at the Battle of Jutland amounted to just over 250 ships.

The loan of five powerful Royal Navy battleships to Task Force 52 was at the request of the Americans who, aware that the Japanese still had many battleships afloat, wanted to concentrate the Allied battle fleet. While the USN wished to show its pre-eminence in the Pacific, the British battleships, which were under the command of Rear Admiral John Leach, were to prove extremely useful in the action to come. Relations between the fighting fleets and their sea commanders were genial. Although Admiral Kimmel had stipulated that the BPF should be wholly self-sufficient, in practice, material assistance was freely given between the two forces. (The most popular ship in the Allied armada was almost certainly HMS Menestheus, the Royal Navy’s floating brewery. British beer did not travel well in tropical climates, but the crews of the King’s ships received a ration of freshly made beer as often as possible from Menestheus’ on-board brewing plant. Although contrary to regulations, the captains of a few of the USN’s vessels let their crews partake of the RN’s bounty.) It was now fifteen months since the Battle of the Macassar Strait and eighteen months since the Battle of Tanimbar. The IJN’s strategy to conserve its strength for the decisive battle meant that there had been no major engagements in the Pacific in that time. The Japanese plan was named ‘Ju Ni-Go’ (Operation Twelve). It envisioned a pincer movement by two fleets from the north and east to draw off the Allies’ heavy ships while a western force interdicted the landings themselves. The resulting battle was meant to entail the decisive use of torpedo armed cruisers and destroyers.

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