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Operation Vengeance was the American military operation to kill Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto of the Imperial Japanese Navy on April 18, 1943, during the Solomon Islands campaign in the Pacific Theater of World War II. Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Combined Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy, was killed on Bougainville Island when his transport bomber aircraft was shot down by United States Army Air Forces fighter aircraft operating from Kukum Field on Guadalcanal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Vengeance
Dawn on April 18 was met with bright, clear skies. Coincidently, this day was also the first anniversary of the surprise strike on Tokyo by Doolittle and his raiders, flying off the USS Hornet.
Today, the Japanese psyche was about to be dealt a blow just like it had been a year earlier.
Final mission briefing was conducted with parting words form a Marine Lt Col to the effect of “don’t come back until Yamamoto is dead…” On takeoff at 0700 local, sixteen a/c successfully made it airborne and outbound – one of the remaining two had suffered a punctured tire and aborted takeoff and the other failed to transfer fuel from the drop tanks. Under strict radio silence, the mission set off at near wave top height (50 ft).
An hour later (and forty-seven sharks counted, by one pilot’s reckoning) Yamamoto’s flight and escorts lifted off from the field at Rabaul. Mitchell’s flight was 280 nm out and closing. Approaching the predicted intercept point at 0900, the P-38s began a gentle climb for altitude and started to look for Yamamoto’s flight. At 0934, Lt. Caning spotted the flight, almost exactly where predicted. Two Betty bombers with two vees of three Zeros each as escorts. The attack phase of the mission now swung into action. As Doug Caning wrote:
Mitchell later said that he was not sure that we had our target as we had been briefed that there would only be one Betty bomber. However, he quickly realized we had our enemy in sight and said, “Skin em off” meaning to get rid of our belly tanks and then said “go get em Tom”.
At that time it appeared we still had not been seen by the enemy. As I later read in the mission report, Tom and his flight immediately turned towards the enemy with max power and climb. As he neared the
Jap formation, Tom saw that if he turned left into the nearest Zeroes he could divert them allowing Rex to go in and shoot at the lead Betty bomber. Rex did so coming out of his right turn slightly to the left of his target. He corrected and began shooting at the bomber getting hits on the fuselage and right engine. Shortly after that the bomber crashed in the jungle.
The second bomber made a right turn toward the ocean. Besby Holmes who had had trouble dropping his belly tanks now was able to get on the tail of the second bomber getting numerous hits on it. In the meantime Rex turned to his right, but was being pursued by the second vee of Zero’s, however he was able to get enough distance to where he was able to shoot at the second bomber too. It then crashed in the ocean. Besby Holmes at this time was chasing Zero’s off of Rex’s tail. After the crash of the second bomber there were three survivors, one of whom was Admiral Ugaki, Yamamoto’s chief of staff.
https://blog.usni.org/2009/10/12/the-solomons-campaign-operation-vengeance-the-shootdown-of-yamamoto
@ col mikel COL Mikel J. Burroughs @ ltc frank LTC (Join to see) @ ltc stephen LTC Stephen C. @ ltc stephen LTC Stephen F. @ capt marty Maj Marty Hogan @ smsgt doc SMSgt Minister Gerald A. "Doc" Thomas @ tsgt joe TSgt Joe C. @ msg andrew MSG Andrew White @ sfc george SFC George Smith @ sgt david SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth @ sp5 robert SP5 Robert Ruck PO2 Robert M.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Vengeance
Dawn on April 18 was met with bright, clear skies. Coincidently, this day was also the first anniversary of the surprise strike on Tokyo by Doolittle and his raiders, flying off the USS Hornet.
Today, the Japanese psyche was about to be dealt a blow just like it had been a year earlier.
Final mission briefing was conducted with parting words form a Marine Lt Col to the effect of “don’t come back until Yamamoto is dead…” On takeoff at 0700 local, sixteen a/c successfully made it airborne and outbound – one of the remaining two had suffered a punctured tire and aborted takeoff and the other failed to transfer fuel from the drop tanks. Under strict radio silence, the mission set off at near wave top height (50 ft).
An hour later (and forty-seven sharks counted, by one pilot’s reckoning) Yamamoto’s flight and escorts lifted off from the field at Rabaul. Mitchell’s flight was 280 nm out and closing. Approaching the predicted intercept point at 0900, the P-38s began a gentle climb for altitude and started to look for Yamamoto’s flight. At 0934, Lt. Caning spotted the flight, almost exactly where predicted. Two Betty bombers with two vees of three Zeros each as escorts. The attack phase of the mission now swung into action. As Doug Caning wrote:
Mitchell later said that he was not sure that we had our target as we had been briefed that there would only be one Betty bomber. However, he quickly realized we had our enemy in sight and said, “Skin em off” meaning to get rid of our belly tanks and then said “go get em Tom”.
At that time it appeared we still had not been seen by the enemy. As I later read in the mission report, Tom and his flight immediately turned towards the enemy with max power and climb. As he neared the
Jap formation, Tom saw that if he turned left into the nearest Zeroes he could divert them allowing Rex to go in and shoot at the lead Betty bomber. Rex did so coming out of his right turn slightly to the left of his target. He corrected and began shooting at the bomber getting hits on the fuselage and right engine. Shortly after that the bomber crashed in the jungle.
The second bomber made a right turn toward the ocean. Besby Holmes who had had trouble dropping his belly tanks now was able to get on the tail of the second bomber getting numerous hits on it. In the meantime Rex turned to his right, but was being pursued by the second vee of Zero’s, however he was able to get enough distance to where he was able to shoot at the second bomber too. It then crashed in the ocean. Besby Holmes at this time was chasing Zero’s off of Rex’s tail. After the crash of the second bomber there were three survivors, one of whom was Admiral Ugaki, Yamamoto’s chief of staff.
https://blog.usni.org/2009/10/12/the-solomons-campaign-operation-vengeance-the-shootdown-of-yamamoto
@ col mikel COL Mikel J. Burroughs @ ltc frank LTC (Join to see) @ ltc stephen LTC Stephen C. @ ltc stephen LTC Stephen F. @ capt marty Maj Marty Hogan @ smsgt doc SMSgt Minister Gerald A. "Doc" Thomas @ tsgt joe TSgt Joe C. @ msg andrew MSG Andrew White @ sfc george SFC George Smith @ sgt david SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth @ sp5 robert SP5 Robert Ruck PO2 Robert M.
WWII World War Two
Military History
Warfare
Mission
Death
Posted 7 y ago
Responses: 9
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An assassination? Hardly. ADM Yamamoto was a KIA just like all KIAs in WWII. The background story which led to his death was the product of superior intel work and some great shooting by a P-38 pilot.
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SGT John " Mac " McConnell
It is a stretch !
Assassination is the murder of a prominent person, often a political leader or ruler, usually for political reasons or payment.
An assassination may be prompted by religious, political, or military motives; it is an act that may be done for financial gain, to avenge a grievance, from a desire to acquire fame or notoriety, or because of a military, security or insurgent group's command to carry out the homicide.
Assassination is the murder of a prominent person, often a political leader or ruler, usually for political reasons or payment.
An assassination may be prompted by religious, political, or military motives; it is an act that may be done for financial gain, to avenge a grievance, from a desire to acquire fame or notoriety, or because of a military, security or insurgent group's command to carry out the homicide.
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One of the little known operations in WWII. Imagine tracking him down without cell phones etc. We must have had some good intelligence. Thanks SGT John " Mac " McConnell
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PO3 Donald Murphy
It was an ULTRA hit pure and simple. The Japanese were incredibly anal retentive about protocol and within seconds they had his entire itinerary down to piss breaks and uniform changes. The biggest problem Nimitz had was making it all look like an accident.
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