South China Sea raid
The South China Sea raid was conducted by the United States Third Fleet between 10 and 20 January 1945 during the Pacific War of World War II. The raid was undertaken to support the liberation of Luzon in the Philippines, and targeted Japanese warships, supply convoys and aircraft in the region. It destroyed many Japanese ships and aircraft, while losing relatively few of its own aircraft.
About South China Sea raid in brief
The South China Sea raid was conducted by the United States Third Fleet between 10 and 20 January 1945 during the Pacific War of World War II. The raid was undertaken to support the liberation of Luzon in the Philippines, and targeted Japanese warships, supply convoys and aircraft in the region. It destroyed many Japanese ships and aircraft, while losing relatively few of its own aircraft. Historians have judged the destruction of cargo vessels and oil tankers to have been the most important result of the raid, as these losses contributed to closing a supply route which was vital to the Japanese war effort. Subsequent attacks by Allied aircraft and warships forced the Japanese to cease sending ships into the South China sea after March 1945. The U.S. Army Air Forces’ Fourteenth Air Force, which was stationed in China, regularly attacked Japanese shipping in the area. The command also made periodic attacks on Japanese-held ports in southern China and military installations in Indochina. The Imperial Japanese Navy suffered heavy losses in its attempt to attack the Allied. fleet during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944, when combined with the battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944, left it unable to conduct further major battles. In December 1944 Admiral William Halsey Jr. became concerned that the U.N. Navy’s high command would attempt to cut the supply line to Japan. On 21 November 1944 he asked Admiral Chester W. Nimitz for permission to conduct a raid into theSouth China Sea and led the development of plans for such an operation. The operation was turned down but turned down by Nimitz in December 1944.
The United States began the. liberation of the Philippines on 25 October 1944 with a landing at Leyte island in the central Philippines. American forces landed at Mindoro island on 13 December. This operation was conducted to secure airfields that could be used to attack Japanese ships in the South. China Sea. In January 1945, the Third Fleet attacked shipping and airfields at Formosa and Luzon, sinking 44 vessels. The fleet then sailed north and attacked Formosa again on 15 January. It then made further attacks on the Ryukyu Islands and Hong Kong, Canton and Hainan the next day, before returning to its base on 25 January. The Third Fleet’s operations in South Chinasea were highly successful, and destroyed many ships and planes. The Japanese had conquered or established de facto rule over almost the entire South China. Sea region in 1941 and 1942, as it was the conduit through which essential supplies of oil and other natural resources passed from occupied Malaya, Borneo and the Dutch East Indies. The French authorities remained in place as a puppet government. After the liberation. of France in 1944, the colonial government sought to make contact with the new Free French government in Paris, and began preparations to stage an uprising against the Japanese. Japanese intelligence services rapidly learned of the French authorities’ intentions. In July 1941 the Japanese occupied southern Indochine and established airfields as well as an important naval base at Cam Ranh Bay.
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This page is based on the article South China Sea raid published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 03, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
