The Forgotten Revenge for Pearl Harbor - Lae-Salamaua 1942
On the 10 March 1942, the United States Navy struck the Japanese landing site in New Guinea at Lae-Salamaua. Little did they know what an impact they would have!
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⚜ Sources ⚜
J. Lundstrom, The First Team
J. Lundstrom, Black Shoe Carrier Admiral
H.P. Willmott, The Barrier and the Javelin
Office of Naval Intelligence Combat Narrative, The Aleutians Campaign, June 1942 - August 1943
Willem Remmelink, The Operations of the Navy in the Dutch East Indies and the Bay of Bengal
⚜ Visuals ⚜
World of Warships
IL-2 1946 (+mods)
⚜ Music and Audio ⚜
Voice actor: SideStrafe.
KZhead: / sidestrafe
Soundcloud: / sidestrafe
Music and Sfx from Epidemic Sound
⚜ DISCLAIMER ⚜
The Naval Institute Press has sent me complimentary copies of Lundstrom’s The First Team used in this video, and Wenger’s et al. ‘This Is No Drill’ and Wildenberg’s ‘Billy Mitchell’s War with the Navy’ shown in the studio background.
#Pacific #PearlHarbour #ww2
My uncle, who passed away a few years ago, at the age of 90, was a U.S. Navy Lt. j.g., who flew a Corsair fighter off the U.S.S. Hornet (CV-12). When the war was over, he flew a plane to the Navy base in Mt. Clemens, Michigan, climbed out of the plane and was greeted by his parents, his sister and my father, waiting for him. Fair winds and following seas, uncle Keith.
Nice story....fair winds indeed to your uncle!
God Bless him. Thank you for his service and post. USN, (retired)
Jack pine Savage that man deserves to be in heaven and just how thankful the American people should be and are so grateful. 😊
Jack pine Savage Thanks you to your uncle.What a great man,I hope he had a good life after the war.
The Corsair was not the easiest plane to fly. It was a hotrod, and so must have been your uncle. Thanks for his service and the years of his life he gave to prolong our nation. Keep sharing his story, he deserves it.
The eloquence of this GERMAN man in a secondary language is at astonishing. He speaks better, almost perfect English with such incredible articulation that it puts the majority of people i know at home in England to shame. Good job squire.
That’s the difference between learning a language in a formal setting and learning it colloquially. Second language speakers are always more formal than natives, they don’t know any better
@@jb76489 And also that he's, probably, writting a script so he can think long and hard about all the outlandish words and phrases he can put into it.
Wonderful video! As Bismarck notes, the strategic focus of the Japanese at this point in the war was on the Southern Resources Area. The blow at Lae-Salamaua may appear "small" at first glance, but it had massive strategic implications. Inoue Shigeyoshi had been effectively recycling the same tiny handful of ships, supporting elements, and troops to expand the Japanese defensive perimeter eastward. It may be bizarre to hear, but the areas closest to the Americans were strategic backwaters for the Japanese at this point in the war. With the loss of ships in this strike, the "shoestring" that Inoue had been operating on broke. He was forced to call for carrier support, which brought the period of easy eastward expansion to a close and set the table for Operation MO, resulting in the Battle of the Coral Sea.
kool beans
Very good point!
Thank you for the additional information!
Which took away critical carriers for the Japanese attack on mid way which was prompted because of the dolittle raid.
As with the attack on Tokyo by Doolittle, these raids tied up a lot of resources that would have been pressed like a knife into the belly of the American navy. The Japanese had to put more effort into their defenses else they would be subject to surprise attacks on their assets and fouling any operational plans (can't move troops if the transports your counting on are under water).
at 16:29 that's my grandfather in the gunner seat of 6-T-4. The photo was taken during training runs out of Pearl Harbor.
Holy shit, that’s awesome!
And my Grandad Robbie was on the ground during that air attack cheering them on from directly below! He was on patrol with the New Guinea Volunteer Rifles, an Australian unit who witnessed the landing to their north at Lae and their south at Salamaua and then get to watch as the Japanese were attacked...
The Australian 6th, 7th, and 9th infantry divisions made up the bulk of ground forces during the battle of Lae-Salamaua . Milne Bay and along the Huon Peninsula, Finschhafen, the Markham and Ramu Valleys and through the Owen Stanley ranges in the Finisterre mountains. The US 5th air force did a brilliant job during the New Guinea Campaign and had air superiority. well before Lae-Salamaua begun. Well done, great research :)
Somehow this action eluded me, very glad for the info. My late father served on the Lexington in the early 1930's, and a family friend flew "Buffalo's" with landing gear prone to collapse on hard landings from her. Thank you.
I have met and interviewed both Thatch and Sherman for the U.S. Navy film on the history of the aircraft carrier. Very interesting men and heroes of the Second World War...
Where can the film be viewed?
In brain
“They noticed the presence of some very strange looking aircraft which they didn’t recognise.” It was flying upside down.
Yes, dispite being made upside up until it was given to the aussies.
@@bluefoxy6478 lol
Literally send the thing that you will know that will be turned upside down by the aussies, upside down, so when they get it, it will be upside up!
@@bluefoxy6478 The Hudson looked upside down when it rolled out of the factory.
@@bluefoxy6478 What do you expect from people who walk on their heads??
Thanks for sharing this. My Dad was a Pearl Harbor attack survivor having served aboard USS Raleigh CL7, she was one of the first ships hit that day. An uncle of mine few in Navy aircraft in the Solomon Islands around the time of this battle. He passed away in 1982 and had suffered from shrapnel wounds the rest of his life after air combat.
Commendations both to Mensch1066 for choosing such an intriguing historical episode for the topic, and to you Bismarck for your overall excellent summary of this regrettably obscure event. Some of us marginally-educated warbird enthusiasts, now have a bit better perspective on a neglected but pivotal sector of the War. And that "First Team" book also sounds like a valuable recommendation in its own right. Good work all around. Even your video-game aircraft visual aids, were far more enjoyably compelling than I would have expected.
1066: battle of Hastings, England. 😬🚬
"The First Team" is the complete story of U.S. Naval aviation from December 7th thru August of 1942 and is an incredible read.
@@CorsetGrace The followup is right behind it on Bismarck's bookshelf, "First Team at Guadalcanal".
While serving in HMAS Moresby in 1967 on a surveying and bottom plotting mission we lost one Kiowa helicopter which flew into a cloud containing a mountain, it took the crew three days to hike back to Wewak. Day four the captain went flying and sight-seeing over the local airfield. He never made it, while gaining altitude the pilot banked right and the captain felt himself in danger of falling so he jammed his foot to brace himself resulting in a gyro landing right alongside, scratch two Kiowas. No life like it, LEM Tripp R48618 because some folk weren't there.
Great video! Thanks! And thanks for explaining the design flaw of the Lexington class carriers with ONE elevator leading to logistics problem when launching a strike. Launching the readied fighters to circle around until all attack aircraft were launched and land those fighters - refuel them and launch them again. What a logistics problem!! I learned something. Thanks again!
You're welcome! The one working elevator was a surprising issue I didn't know about either before researching this. The second one not working was a kick in the teeth.
The US Navy still does deck shuffles like that to this day according to some carrier docos I have watched. The wisdom of doing so is for you to decide.
Even today, the launch sequence is heavily influenced by the "deck spotting", where you park the planes after the previous recovery. In this case, the F4Fs were spotted last (ready to be first to launch) in order to be scrambled in the event the Task Force was discovered and attacked en route. Today's angled deck carriers have more deck space, providing more maneuvering room for shuffling the aircraft.
It's worth noting that switching the torpedos for bombs might not have been that much of a loss of damage potential, considering that the notorious unrelyability of the Mark 13.
Horrible for the torpedo bomber pilots who risked their lives many times for no reason at all. I don’t know for sure but have heard that this torpedo failed as much as 80% of the time.
@@kevintucker3354 There is a great video by the YT channel Drachinifel on the Mark 14 torpedo (which the Mark 13 was derived from) detailing all the problems in development. Appropriately titled "Failure is like Onions". Well worth a watch (and generally a recommendeable channel).
Wonderfully narrated, with such a lot of great detail, and expertly composed video! Thank you, I truly enjoyed this!
I haven't seen Il 2 1946 for a while. Perfect video as always!
Outstanding video! Enjoyed the detail of your analysis (judged with my limited knowledge). Keep up the great work! I'll be back for more.
The sound effects that you put on really bring the photographs to life. Great video ;)
Interesting, I had never heard of this mission. Thanks Bismarck, great presentation.
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it
Military Aviation History It’s kind of weird. This seems like a fairly big attack to have never heard of.
Your careful research with broad perspectives is greatly appreciated. The manner in which you intertwine graphs and videos is excellent.
Never heard of this attack. But fantastically explained, the top notch educational content I am happy to be a patreon for.
Thanks for the support, very much appreciated
An old neighbour of mine was part of recon team on the ground he part of special z force group. He explained the shock on the Japanese knocked them about pretty bad. He also was part raiding party he said. To Frank, you were amazing!
The Hudson was American-built, but it was never used by the US armed forces. It was an early war (‘39-‘40) stopgap adaptation of a commercial airliner exclusively for the British / Commonwealth market. A random US naval pilot in 1942 could very easily never have seen one before.
Yes that was also my hypothesis however I need to look more into the ID training the pilots received at this point. Theoretically they should have known the Hudson
We Americans, we're VERY myopic at the early stages of the war. The usarmy air Force shuffled as many aircraft to everywhere else than "here". Not to mention the Aussies were desperate for anything they could fly against the Japanese... period.
I did a little reading, and discovered that in 1941 the USAAF *did* actually take a fair number of Hudsons (like 400 operational) for a short while before they were phased out for better types. They were used almost exclusively for costal defense. The Hudson didn’t have the range for Pacific work, so the US used their Hudsons much like the British, focused on anti-U-boat work in the Atlantic / Gulf of Mexico. Which would explain why the PTO Navy pilots had never seen them before.
Contributing factor could have been that the RAAF still used the standard RAF roundel with the red centre which could have been confused with the Japanese "Meatball". US aircraft (Navy and Army) insignia at the time still had the red circle within the white star, and only did away with this a month or two after this encounter. As a consequence maybe?
It wasn't just the Hudsons. The Australians built 400 Bristol Beaufighter light bombers during the war and used them extensively against the Japanese. Apparently there were many cases of them being fired on by Americans who were unfamiliar with non American aircraft. I'm not sure if this was due to poor training or loss of concentration in battle?
Brilliant production Biz. I really like the sound effects and visuals from 1946. Your presenting is getting good
Thanks!
Using an excerpt from the actual battle planning is genius! Great job. Cant wait to see the evolution of this channel.
Great video, Bis. Wonderfully done. Thanks a bunch!
Outstanding video. Your presentation skills have come a long way.
Video quality is improving release after release, great job !
Greatly researched episode. Thank you.
I thought you did a fantastic job on telling the story of that attack on the Japanese in Lae-Salamaua. I remember studying that back in the day, and I had no idea that anyone else would have done so either. That was an attack that was pretty much buried in the pages of the history of battle of WWII. Thanks for bringing such an important story to light for others to take in.
And my Grandad Robbie was standing right there on the beach and watching and cheering as it happened! I was really pleased to find this video after I had researched about my Grandad Robbie and learned about this event in WWII.
Very interesting presentation about a little known part of WW2. In addition, the narrator did an excellent job. He covered the issues in what I thought to be a complete manner with out droning on so much that I wanted to hit the next video. Nice job, my friend. Well done.
Stumbled into you're channel quite by accident and thoroughly enjoyed this video. More than happy to subscribe and looking forward to viewing more.
Great presentation about a significant battle I hadn't heard of. Thanks!
wow! fantastic presentation! im hooked and now subscribed. YOU know your stuff : )
Totally exceeded my expectations. I enjoy learning of WWII events that normally excape mention.
I love the visuals, and the map information!
Love the IL-2 footage! Really gives a new visual dimension to the battle! Gotta give props to those Japanese pilots who dared to fight the American planes with recon biplanes hahaha - that must have took balls
Great video, I remember hearing about this attack years ago but never really knew that much about it, thanks for the history lesson.
As always, a very enjoyable video Bismarck. Your presentation style is very easy to follow and quite animated, which is often lacking in so many video contributors. Kudos and I'll always look forward to your output.
Thanks for this wonderfully detailed video. Patreon subbing now. I am putting together the pieces of my great uncle’s service as Lieutenant D.S.Hicks in the Australian 2/5 Independent Company (subsequently renamed Commandos) in the area around Lae/ Salamaua in 1942. The 2/5 took part in a famous night raid, in conjunction with the New Guinea Volunteer Rifles, on an enemy base at Salamaua on 28 June 1942. Armed only with Bren guns, sticky bombs, a 3” mortar and their wits, they killed 120 enemy for 3 injured allies. They also shot an enemy pilot, running for his plane in pouring rain and pitch black night, who was carrying a briefcase of sensitive documents containing vital strategic information. The documents were run over the mountains and through the jungle by foot and resulted in an allied change of Naval strategy. There is an excellent rare book called “Commando, Double Black” by Andy Pirie for anyone interested in their little recognised efforts.
Thanks for what You do. Please keep up the great work.
Very well done and thanks for covering such an obscure engagement.
The New Guinea campaign is unfortunately largely ignored, despite its massive strategic implications. From diverting resources from Guadalcanal, setting the stage for the Battle of the Coral Sea, to later providing air bases to support operations in the islands of the south west Pacific and even the Philippines. On a related note, the Battle of the Bismarck Sea would be an interesting topic to cover.
I have to mention that I appreciate your videos. I had an uncle who arrived later in the Pacific war as a mechanic on the B-29's.
Really enjoyed watching this with my standard issue MkI eyeballs!
Very good presentation. My dad served in New Guinea as a hospital ship medic part of an 8 enlisted and one officer platoon. They picked up wounded at Milne Bay, Buna and Finschhafen and also served in station hospitals as needed two trips out and back from San Fransico.
fantastic video, enjoyed it very much. it was chock full of facts that I didn't know about. Thanks for the great research!
Marvelous piece. You did a fantastic job here. Thank you
Thanks, very well explained and informative. I never heard of this battle.
Great research and presentation , Well done ,Thanks 👍🏻👍🏻
Thanks !
Excellent, as always. Thank you.
Excellent analysis and presentation. I subscribed!
Most excellent video, as always! 👍🏻👌🏻👏🏻 The First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign books are indeed great books, have those myself!
Very informative, well researched video. Many thanks.
Top notch presentation and analysis. Many thanks.
Great job, nicely done, lots of detail.
I interviewed Jimmy Thatch for a Navy historical film on the aircraft carrier. He was one of themost interesting men I have ever met. He explained his famous "Thatch Weave" on film!
That move changed air to air combat. He left a big footprint.
THACH , not "Thatch".
You are so talented! Love your stories! Will support you. Love to see a story on how different countries handled self-sealing fuel tanks. Greetings from Austin!
Well done! Loved the video. Got my subscription!
I believe Jimmy Thatch invented the thatch weave tactic which was how the wildcats flew together as two to take on the zeros. Until hellcats came on the scene. He really had an impact early on.
no...that was his brother George Thatch.
Actually, It was a John Thatch who developed the tactic which, was originally called the "Beam Defense" and, later named the Thatch weave. The principle of this maneuver has been used by the Navy ever since and, during my time, was called "Combat spread" or, Loose Deux.
John "Jimmy" Thatch conceived the tactic as the war broke out. In fact, he tested it over Hawaii by having Army P-40s try to attack his two plane formation. In a two plane formation each flies perpendicular to each other about 200 to 300 yards apart and each pilots scans the sky in front and behind his wingman. When an enemy tries to swoop in on an element, the other pilot would see this and immediately turn towards his wingman. Since the wingman would see this turn because he was always looking in that direction, he would then turn in as well. If the enemy pilot attempted to follow his target he would suddenly find himself head on with a guns blazing Wildcat coming at him from in front and slightly below. The Army Air Corps pilots accused Thatch of cheating. Thatch and his squadron used this tactic to their advantage in Midway not only shooting a few Zeros down but confusing the Japanese pilots who chased after Thatch's pilots trying to get kills when they should have been defending their fleet.
@@CorsetGrace Correct, John Thatch's nickname was "Jimmy".
Excellent video and information. depth of the information is really something.
Marvelous exposition. Thanks
Good presentation, thanks for the effort.
I just subscribed, I enjoy your delivery, Thank you.
I've read about the air war in the Pacific for decades... and I've never heard of this. Thanks Doc.
In didn't know about this! Thank you for sharing this video!
wow ty! ive been doing a lot of research on the war and theres ALWAYS more to learn. you are correct about not knowing of this attack.
I only knew about this attack because my Grandad Robbie, Lieutenant Gilbert Stuart Tasma Robertson of the New Guinea Volunteer Rifles (NGVR) was on the beach watching it happen! He was on patrol for the Australian NGVR at the mouth of the Buang River, between Lae and Salamaua, and cheered on the attack from their spot on the beach! I have researched and written his WWII service history so that's how I knew about this event...
Appreciate the, to the point information. Makes studying easier. Thank you ! 😊
Great video and information about a raid I had never heard of before.
Thanks, Learned something I did not know. Well worth the support.
Amazing vid, Glad to see!!!
Thank you . This was fascinating. Minor tech for your info, Lae is one syllable, pronounced just like lay. And Guinea is 2 syllables. My heart is always in Lae. I was born there and lived there until I was 14.
Very well spoken. It sounds like you know your info and deliver it very well.
Enjoyed your video very much. I was not aware of this operation and your report of it was very well done. In 1966 I was a patrol officer stationed in Lae and made patrols down the coast to Salamaua and saw a lot of the effects of the the war - bomb craters and rusting army equipment. Later I was stationed in Garaina and walked over the Owen Stanleys to Tapini. A few years later I was in charge of Woitape patrol post and during a search for a missing aircraft we came acros the remains of a Dakota that crashed during the war.
Good informative video! Nice job!
This was a great analysis , very interesting ... thank you !
Thanks for your well researched documentary of this engagement and our first revenge following Pearl Harbor. My dad was aboard USS Raleigh CL-7 in Pearl Harbor during the attack where she took a torpedo hit and an aerial bomb an hour later. This event occurred about the same time as our breaking of the Japanese Naval code JN-25. This represented the maximum expansion of Japanese forces with the Battle of the Coral Sea and Guadalcanal soon to follow. One of my uncles took shrapnel during this battle which he had until his death. By June of 1942 the US would score a major victory at Midway in the north Pacific.
The old Lae airstrip is still there, albeit with a traffic roundabout in the middle of it. As for the Owen Stanleys you have only a handful of routes between the Gulf of Papua and the Morobe region. Light aircraft often stop flying these ranges around noon and the hills are still littered with wrecks.
Isn't Lae now a small local airport? Also fun fact, Lae airfield was the base for Saburo Sakai and his squadron for awhile. His squadron consisted of mostly aces, kind of like the WW1 Flying Circus, except its in this tiny bare-bones airstrip with not a lot of planes and personnel. There was one incident where Sakai, Ota nad Nishizawa did several loops over an enemy airfield as a stunt after a bombing raid. They didn't get fired upon. An American bomber the next night dropped a note as a response to their stunt. They got in trouble to say the least.
@@neurofiedyamato8763 Lae airstrip started as a mining support strip before the war and shut down fixed wing operations around 1987. All fixed wing operations moved to Nadzab airport further up the Markham Valley. There is still a small memorial to Amelia Earhart on the northern side of Lae airstrip but the airport itself has now been reduced to a road and garden plots. Nadzab is just as interesting as it designed for RAAF Mirage fighters but was only used by light Army, RAAF and PNGDF aircraft before becoming a civilian airport.
@@Theogenerang Nadzab was built during WW2 - it is also the final resting place of the only Piper Cubs ever operated by the RAAF (they were destroyed by a grass fire).
I was in Sulawesi, quite a ways west of New Guinea. During the rainy season, the evaporated water would come off the sea and hit the mountains and unload on the windward side. The updrafts and windshear was treacherous. Light planes needed usually about 10,000 feet to be sure to avoid the drafts from the mountains. It wasn't fun on the stomach.
Watched horse races there in the 70 s
"The First Team" is an excellent book. I concur with your recommendation.
Nice one - well done - nice delivery
Damn! This is a great video! Fan of World of Warships here! So much detail into a single mission, I am really impressed! Subscribed. Lol you even included a blooper.
Outstanding video and presentation.
Great information, learned something today.
Sad how many young lives were lost and wasted early in the war due to defects with the Mk 13 torpedoes. Torpedo missions were hazardous enough already; those were some very brave aircrews (on both sides). Such losses in personnel and materiel would be considered scandalous today. And yes, "First Team" is an excellent book, probably the favorite in my entire collection.
Depends on which flag you serve under I suppose...
The Mk 13 was aerial, the Mk 14 for ships and Subs. They both had the same problem with the firing pins.
Well, if the torpedoes had worked they would have killed even more people.
A most brilliant very informative great job
Excellent documentary and video.
They flew with what they had. The American pilots were told that the planes could be replaced, they could not. The overall naval aviation system had experienced pilots share tactics and experiences learned with new pilots and with the training system. But these were the men who held the line.
Most people don't know how important the experienced enlisted Naval Aviators were early in the war. Congress had not approved enough money to recruit and train commissioned Naval Aviators, so the USN trained enlisted.
I love the use of IL2 to recreate specific scenarios. Well done, inventive idea. Prost!
Credit where credit is due. The Japanese Nakajima E8N pilots had guts. Really enjoyed the video. Refreshing to see something historically relevant on Facebook.
but we took them out
Facebook?
That is a great asortment of books there on the table! Good to see any content on the SW Pacific theater
Excellent narrating, great photographs and I also enjoyed the recreations. I was reaching for a joystick to direct fire on the biplane. Thanks for the video...
Thanks. I wasn't aware of that operation. Fire in the Sky is one of my favorite books. I've read it like 7-8 times and wore out my first copy. Touched by Fire is on the ground actions and is also very good. The author decided not to do a volume on the naval war as he thought that had been well enough covered. .
Just found this channel! Awesome stuff
VERY well researched and presented. You are to this subject what Drachinifel is to warships.
An outstanding presentation! Great research and story line and narrative! I had never heard of this battle! My Dad, 2 years later, had set up an Air-Sea Rescue Group and was operating out of airfields along the coast near Port Moresby and later, others. I wonder if they ever used captured airfields.
Thank you, this was very interesting.
Great episode!
great video, well done, 2 thumbs up, please make more.
I am really happy you are using IL 2 for the visuals again. In my opinion it looks much better than war thuder.
Very interesting and informative. Thanks.
Excellent analysis !