Take Ichi convoy
The convoy left Shanghai on 17 April 1944, carrying two infantry divisions to reinforce Japan’s defensive positions in the Philippines and western New Guinea. United States Navy submarines attacked the convoy on 26 April and 6 May, sinking four transports and killing more than 4,000 soldiers. The failure to bring the two divisions to their destination without loss contributed to the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters’ decision to move Japan’s defense perimeter back by 600 mi.
About Take Ichi convoy in brief
The convoy left Shanghai on 17 April 1944, carrying two infantry divisions to reinforce Japan’s defensive positions in the Philippines and western New Guinea. United States Navy submarines attacked the convoy on 26 April and 6 May, sinking four transports and killing more than 4,000 soldiers. These losses caused the convoy to be diverted to Halmahera, where the surviving soldiers and their equipment were unloaded. The Take Ichi convoy’s losses had important strategic results. The failure to bring the two divisions to their destination without loss contributed to the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters’ decision to move Japan’s defense perimeter back by 600 mi. By early 1944, Allied submarines were sinking large numbers of Japanese ships. The IJN’s faulty anti-submarine doctrine also contributed to Japan’s shipping losses. Attacks on merchant shipping during February 1944 led the Japanese to change the composition of their convoys. In response, the Grand Escort Fleet Headquarters increased the average size of Japanese convoys from five ships to 10–20 vessels. The escort force included the newly established Escort Command Command and the 6th Convoy Command, as well as destroyers Asakaze, Shirujin Fuatsami and Kurahashi, ocean escort ships CD-20 and CD-22, and gunboats Uji Ataka Maru and Tama Maru.
The convoy sailed for Manila on 7 April, bound for Manila. The 32nd Division was to go to Mindanao and the main body of the 35th Division to western New Guinean. Both divisions had been formed in 1939 and were veterans of fighting in China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. One of the three infantry regiments was detached from the division in early April and sent to the Palau islands, arriving there later that month without loss on large transport ships protected by an unusually strong escort force. The other division was detached in early May and went to the Banda and Flores Seas, arriving without loss the following month. The divisions’ combat power was also blunted by their losses, and while they both saw action against United States Army forces, they contributed little to Japan’s attempt to defend its empire. In September 1943, the Imperial Japanese Navy and Imperial Japanese Army agreed to establish defensive positions along what was termed Japan’s “absolute zone of national defense”. The zone’s perimeter reached from the Marianas Islands and Caroline Islands to Western New Guinea and the Bandan and Flores seas. In April 1944 it was decided to move combat units from China and Manchuria to protect the air bases which formed the basis of Japan’s offensive plans.
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This page is based on the article Take Ichi convoy published in Wikipedia (as of Oct. 30, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
