The Battle of the Bismarck Sea: The tipping point in the South-West Pacific WW2

The Battle of the Bismarck Sea would prove to be a decisive and pivotal battle in the South West Pacific during World War Two. After a rapid advance throughout late 1941, and early 1942, the Japanese had faced set backs at the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942, and then defeat at Midway in June. Then between late August and early September, the Japanese suffered their first land defeat of the war, when an Australian and American force repealed the landings at Milne Bay in New Guinea. The Japanese had also had setbacks at Kokoda between August and September and by November 1941 had been pushed back to Buna and Gona. By mid December Buna and Gona fell to Australian and American troops, fighting in horrific conditions. Additionally, after 6 months of intense fighting, the Japanese had decided to evacuate all remaining forces from Guadalcanal between January and February 1943. However, the fate of New Guinea still hanged in the balance, and the Japanese still believed that they could capture New Guinea. Thus, in late December 1942 they decided to begin reinforcing their troops in New Guinea, in an attempt to reignite their conquest of New Guinea. This occurred throughout January and February.
On the 28th of February 1943 the Japanese convoy, designated Operation 81, left Simpson Harbour, Rabaul destined for Lae. The convoy consisted of eight transports and eight destroyers, carrying five battalions of the 51st Infantry Division (comprising 6000 soldiers), 1000 men of the 5th Special Landing Force (SNLF), 1500 non combatant personnel, and much needed supplies and weapons. The troops being transported where being sent as reinforcements to reignite Japan's conquest of New Guinea. Over the next few days the convoy did encounter sporadic Allied raids although little damage was done. However, this all changed on the morning of 3rd of March 1943, when the Allies launched a large highly precise attack on the convoy. The attack consisted of three waves, seconds apart, from various altitudes, and consisted of a mixture of both American and Australian aircraft. Catching the convoy just over 100 miles from their destination of Lae, the Allied armada caused havoc. In what would become to be known as the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, by the end of 3rd of March, all ships but one had been hit and ultimately all eight transports and four destroyers were sunk, crushing any hopes the Japanese had of capturing New Guinea. historian Lex McAulay concluded that the Battle was “thirty minutes that changed the balance of power in New Guinea.”
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Images :
Australian War Memorial
Pacific Wrecks: URL: pacificwrecks.com/ships/ss/pr...
Sources:
Books:
The Battle of the Bismarck Sea - Michael Veitch
E-Books/Papers:
Weapon of Denial: Air Power and the Battle for New Guinea - Gary Null : media.defense.gov/2010/Oct/06...
The Battle of the Bismark Sea - Lieutenant Colonel Peter Sweenery RFD (Ret'd) - RUSI of NSW : www.rusinsw.org.au/Papers/202...
Attaining Maritime Superiority in an A2/AD Era: Lessons from the Battle of the Bismarck Sea - Ben Ho - Joint Force Quarterly: www.proquest.com/docview/2369...
Websites:
Battle for Australia Association: www.battleforaustralia.asn.au...\
Historynet: www.historynet.com/battle-of-...
War History Online: www.warhistoryonline.com/war-...
National Museum of the U.S Navy: www.history.navy.mil/content/...
Chapters:
0:00 Background/Context Information
1:43 Operation 81
2:40 Codebreakers
3:19 The Allies' Attack Plan
4:13 The Rehearsal
4:54 Convoy departs
5:17 Convoy Spotted and First Attack
6:47 Catalina Patrol
7:04 Beaufort Attack
8:05 The Battle: Sinking the Convoy
11:38 Followed up attack
12:02 Damien Parer and filming the battle
12:13 Patrol Boats
12:18 The days after the attack: Strafing the survivors
12:44 Controversy
13:12 Conclusion
#ww2 #ww2pacific #worldwartwo #battleofWW2 #aviationhistory #aircraft #history #bismarcksea #ww2history #military #militaryhistory #australianhistory #americanhistory #ww2history #battle

[@antonioperez2623]

Great video. This battle should be a movie.

[@AntiqueAirshow]

Thanks 👍✈️ Yes agree, it has all the features of a Hollywood blockbuster

[@ronluckenbach9492]

very well done..thank you.

[@AntiqueAirshow]

Thank you 👍✈️

[@richarddixon7276]

A nice change from the emphasis which is usually purely on a particular type of aircraft , the overview of the whole battle & the preparations undertaken was fascinating and extremely well presented . Well Done probably one of Your best video's yet , and each one is frequently an improvement on the last . Keep this up and those subscribers will come . Thanks Stay Safe & Stay Well .

[@AntiqueAirshow]

Thank you 👍✈️ I was really happy with how this came out. I plan on doing a few more 'event' based videos throughout the year to mix it up with videos on particular aircraft. Some cool things on their way. Thanks and likewise 👍

[@richarddixon7276]

@@AntiqueAirshow Do You watch the Mark Felton Productions ? , they are very good & this particular video shared many similarities to some of his presentations ( not the event's described , but the format etc ) which is No bad thing . Your subscriptions are creeping up & I'm not surprised Keep it up , and they'll keep on watching as will I .

[@AntiqueAirshow]

@@richarddixon7276 I sometimes watch it, and find his videos very good and informative. Thanks, all heading in the right direction. I've got quite a bit planned for this year, so should be good. Thanks for watching and commenting, appreciate it 👍✈️

[@richarddixon7276]

@@AntiqueAirshow Like wise .

[@Splattle101]

Good choice of battle, mate, and good research on Garing. Suggestion for future research: the operations of the 6 or 7 RAAF squadrons operating B-24 heavy bombers. Few folks realize how potent the RAAF was by 1944-5, and even fewer know the RAAF operated US-built heavies.

[@AntiqueAirshow]

Thank you. It's already on my list of topics to cover, so hopefully sometime in the first half of this year, I'll get it done. It is very interesting stuff. Agree, I read somewhere that by the end of the war Australia was the fourth biggest Air Force in the world. pretty impressive considering the situation the RAAF found itself in at the start of the war.

[@johnyoung2279]

This would make a good film

[@AntiqueAirshow]

very much agree. Following the battle, during 1943 there was a documentary film released utilizing footage shot of the battle by famous Australian photographer Damien Parer

[@MarcDufresneosorusrex]

Nice ^^ always nice more info on Japan strategic imperatives in WW2 .. very little of it out there

[@AntiqueAirshow]

👍✈️

[@ashleysmith3106]

Not a bad precis of the Battle, but suggest you check on Google Translate the pronunciation of words like"echelon", "brigadier" and "communique" as well as some of the relevant place-names. It's interesting that this comes only a few months after Hypohystericalhistory's somewhat more detailed version of the same battle. Coincidence maybe?

[@AntiqueAirshow]

I try my best with the pronunciation and frequently utilize Google Translate or other media (such as videos on a location) to try and get it correct, or as close as possible. Sometimes it doesn't come off quite right. I've been working on this video for a few months and had planned to do it for quite some time. It wasn't until I was a decent way into producing the video, that I came across Hypohystericalhistory's version. I still wanted to go ahead with my version as I had put considerable work in for it. Also as my version would be much shorter, I believed that the videos would be different. I deliberately did not watch it, as even though I'm sure it is a great video, I wanted to produce my own original take on the battle. So yes it was just a coincidence. The idea for this video actually came after doing research for my Beaufighter video and reading about No.30's squadron RAAF utilization of the type in the battle. 👍✈️

[@ronluckenbach9492]

maybe you haven’t heard..but Australians pronounce their words the way they like too. I spent some great times in Australia..love their accent, love their pronunciation,and love Aussies in general,😊

[@ronluckenbach9492]

Tomat@@AntiqueAirshow no worries …he’s just being picky and smug… you did awesome job.. he’s also hinting ( I believe) that you might have ‘borrowed’ some info from another source.. Guys like him are all over theses sites.

[@AntiqueAirshow]

@@ronluckenbach9492 Thank you 👍 Yeah I guessed that, and there's a reason I list my sources. Allows people to realize where I have gone and that I'm using reputable places. I also rarely use videos, because I don't want to be influenced 👍✈ If you stay tuned to the channel over the next few weeks, I have some more things to announce in regard to work I've done around this event.

[@ileanakuakini5200]

ρ尺ｏΜ𝐎ᔕᗰ 😱