Posted on 05/05/2011 2:11:32 PM PDT by FoxPro
To boost morale following the defeat at Guadalcanal, Yamamoto decided to make an inspection tour throughout the South Pacific. On 14 April 1943, the US naval intelligence effort, code-named "Magic", intercepted and decrypted a message containing specific details regarding Yamamoto's tour, including arrival and departure times and locations, as well as the number and types of planes that would transport and accompany him on the journey. Yamamoto, the itinerary revealed, would be flying from Rabaul to Ballalae Airfield, on an island near Bougainville in the Solomon Islands, on the morning of 18 April 1943.
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox to "Get Yamamoto." Knox instructed Admiral Chester W. Nimitz of Roosevelt's wishes. Admiral Nimitz consulted Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr., Commander, South Pacific, then authorized a mission on 17 April to intercept Yamamoto's flight en route and shoot it down.
A squadron of P-38 Lightning aircraft were assigned the task as only they possessed the range to intercept and engage. Eighteen hand-picked pilots from three units were informed that they were intercepting an "important high officer" with no specific name given. Yamamoto's last photo alive (April 18, 1943)
On the morning of 18 April, despite urgings by local commanders to cancel the trip for fear of ambush, Yamamoto's two Mitsubishi G4M fast transport aircraft left Rabaul as scheduled for the 315 mi (507 km) trip. Shortly after, 18 P-38s with long-range drop tanks took off from Guadalcanal. Sixteen arrived after wave-hopping most of the 430 mi (690 km) to the rendezvous point, maintaining radio silence throughout. At 09:34 Tokyo time, the two flights met and a dogfight ensued between the P-38s and the six escorting A6M Zeroes.
First Lieutenant Rex T. Barber engaged the first of the two Japanese transports which turned out to be Yamamoto's plane. He targeted the aircraft with gunfire until it began to spew smoke from its left engine. Barber turned away to attack the other transport as Yamamoto's plane crashed into the jungle.
The crash site and body of Yamamoto were found the next day in the jungle north of the then-coastal site of the former Australian patrol post of Buin by a Japanese search and rescue party, led by army engineer, Lieutenant Hamasuna. According to Hamasuna, Yamamoto had been thrown clear of the plane's wreckage, his white-gloved hand grasping the hilt of his katana, still upright in his seat under a tree. Hamasuna said Yamamoto was instantly recognizable, head dipped down as if deep in thought. A post-mortem of the body disclosed that Yamamoto had received two gunshot wounds, one to the back of his left shoulder and another to his left lower jaw that exited above his right eye.
To cover up the fact that the Allies were reading Japanese code, American news agencies were told that civilian coast-watchers in the Solomon Islands saw Yamamoto boarding a bomber in the area. They did not publicize the names of most of the pilots that attacked Yamamoto's plane because one of them had a brother who was a prisoner of the Japanese, and U.S. military officials feared for his safety. State Funeral for Yamamoto in Tokyo
This proved to be the longest fighter-intercept mission of the war. In Japan, it became known as the "Navy A Incident" (ja:海軍甲事件 Kaigun kō-jiken). It raised morale in the United States, and shocked the Japanese who were officially told about the incident only on 21 May 1943. The death of Yamamoto was a major psychological blow for the Japanese nation which had been told of victory after victory even after Midway and Guadalcanal. It also forced the Japanese government to acknowledge that the Americans were quickly rebuilding their military capacity and had begun going on the offensive.
His staff cremated his remains at Buin, and the ashes were returned to Tokyo aboard the battleship Musashi, Yamamoto's last flagship. Yamamoto was given a full state funeral on 5 June 1943,[24] where he received, posthumously, the title of Marshal and was awarded the Order of the Chrysanthemum, (1st Class). He was also awarded Nazi Germany's Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. Part of his ashes were buried in the public cemetery in Tama, Tokyo (多摩霊園), and the remainder at his ancestral burial grounds at the temple of Chuko-ji in Nagaoka City. He was succeeded as commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet by Admiral Mineichi Koga.
Yamamoto was a valid military target.
bump
Ah those were the days, when armies wore uniforms.....
To this day, the P-38 is one sharp looking machine.
Ahmedinejad..........
When are we going to hear froim the Magicians Union that the code name is offensive?
Yamamoto was a valid military target.
I seem to recall from my history lessons in high school that there was a quaint old document created called a "Declaration of War", passed by the Congress on December 8, 1941. After that declaration, any member of Japan's military was a legitimate target for attack.
He was. "Assassination" is arguably more of a term of art than anything else. Even the Church Commission, concluded that the intentional targeting of a plainly military leader during armed conflict was legal even in the face of prohibition of assassination. And, EO 12333 doesn't preclude targeted killing in an armed conflict though it does prohibit political assassination.
I’ve always thought the shootdown of Yammamoto an Act of God. Kind of like the Battle of Midway, it could easily have gone the other way. Even though the Allies had the info, still, finding his plane in the the middle of the big sky like that, was like finding a needle in a haystack.
I have always thought this incident would have made for a great movie.
No mention of Tom Lanphier?
It wasn’t worth risking Magic over.
Yamamoto the “brilliant” stratagist split the Kido Butai of six carriers in May 42 to conduct Coral Sea with only 2 carriers. Shokaku’s flight deck was wrecked by bombs and Zuikaku’s air groups were mauled meaning neither carrier was available for Midway. And they didn’t get Port Moresby either.
Around the time Yamamoto was assassinated, he had come up with the “brilliant” strategy of committing the retraining carrier air groups of Zuikaku and Shokaku for a landbased air offensive and Japanese naval pilot quality never recovered.
Actually I was thinking the Magic Dragon Society might complain.
I like twin boomed aircraft in general, and built 1/72 scale models of them as a boy.
Magic
Ultra
Purple
KataKana
based on Enigma encryption
the essence of this was not declassified until 1976.
Bamster think politics first everything else last. He probably wanted to save killing OBL for the election run, late 2012. Darn that.
I think the word assassination is valid for the planned killing of any person of power and notoriety. This isn’t a legal document. I am not a lawyer.
I think the word is generally, and aptly, descriptive in this case.
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