Insult & Injury

Even the provocation of the bold, unprecedented strikes by Admiral William F. Halsey's Third Fleet against northern Honshu and Hokkaido had failed to lure out the remnants of the Japanese air force. The weather over Hokkaido was foul; the low overcast blocked the efforts of flyers from Vice Admiral John S. McCain's flagship Shangri-La (and her many sister carriers) to find the fields where the Jap planes were supposed to be skulking. Not a single Kamikaze roared over the fleet.

So with measured daring and high hopes, Halsey turned south (see map) with the greatest naval force ever assembled to jab at the enemy's heart. On the way his massive force was magnified. He was joined by the British Pacific Fleet (operating in strength equivalent to a U.S. task group, with probably four carriers, two or more battleships and a dozen to a score of cruisers and destroyers). Its commander: fair-haired, grey-eyed Vice Admiral Sir Henry Bernard Rawlings.*

McCain's carrier-group commanders and Vice Admiral Sir Philip ("Cossack") Vian, non-flying commander of the British flattops, sent their flyers off to swoop out of a blustery dawn onto the airfields around Tokyo. In the bad weather, the aviators had poor hunting. The Americans, on the southern flank of the attack, could find only nine seaplanes, all sitting ducks, of which four were burned and five damaged. They also smashed two hangars, sank three small craft and damaged ten others. The British, farther north, destroyed a hangar and 13 planes. Both groups shot up locomotives and hit factories and barracks.

Shots in the Dark. Halsey selected that night for his most defiant gesture. His battleships steamed within ten miles of the coast of Honshu, northeast of Tokyo. As they bore south, each trained the 67-ft. barrels of its nine 16-inch rifles over the starboard beam.

The night was pitch black, patched with fog and laced with rain which rattled like beans on the seamen's battle helmets. From the second ship in column, the lead ship Iowa was invisible. Japanese snooper planes appeared only as "blips" on the radar screen, then vanished, having failed to detect the fleet. The enemy coast was invisible to all but the magic eye of the gun directors. In another group, following, were British battleships such as the King George V, with ten 14-inch guns.

The bombardment had been scheduled to start at 11 p.m. but the force was late in reaching the firing course. It was 11:14 when the Iowa belched the flame of a full, nine-gun broadside which threw her several feet crabwise through the black water. Then her sister ships and the British joined in: broadside after broadside of 2,100-and 1,560-lb. shells screeched through the wet air.

Perpetual Gloom. The first target was an arms factory at Takahagi. Then, in quick succession as the battleships (with cruisers closer inshore adding their quota) headed south at better than 20 knots, came engineering works at Hitachi, a copper refinery at Shibauchi and a complex of munitions plants and steel mills at Mito.

Only for a few minutes during the run had the fog lifted enough to disclose a ruddy glow over the Jap coast to Allied gunners. Spotting-plane pilots over the targets reported mostly "Visibility lousy," but where the cloud cover broke, near Mito, the spotter radioed: "Keep it up, gang--we're doing beautifully."

Not a Jap--airborne, waterborne or submarine--had come near the fleet; not a bomb had been dropped, not a coastal gun fired.

After 52 minutes (and 2,000 tons of ammunition) Halsey turned away from the coast and next morning the airmen went in again. The weather: worse. Targets for the U.S. flyers: warships at the great Yokosuka navy yard in Tokyo Bay, only 30 miles from the Imperial Palace.

There the enemy put up a fight. Antiaircraft fire was heavy and accurate; the bombardiers of Helldivers and Avengers could see nothing of what they hit.

That night, Halsey made yet another defiant gesture: covered by destroyers, U.S. light cruisers steamed up and bombarded coastal installations around Cape Nojima, at the mouth of Tokyo Bay. One big explosion was seen; the rest was shrouded in the soup.

*Always known as Sir Bernard, to avoid confusion with older cousin Rear Admiral Henry Clive Rawlings, recently in service as a convoy commodore.

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