The Battle of the Bismarck Sea
In January 1943, a combined army of Australian and American troops started to move on the Japanese in New Guinea.Admiral Yamamoto was still determined to hold his bases at Salamoua and Lae.So, on Febuary 28,1943, 8 destroyers and 8 transports carrying 6,000 troops slipped out of Rabaul, heading along the coast of New Britain Island and through the Bismarck Sea towards Lae.The next day, an RAAF Liberator spotted the convoy.Despite the initial raid by B-17 Flying Fortesses, which blew up two of the transports, the convoy stayed on course.They were about to turn around the Huon Peninsula and make their final run for Lae when, on the morning of March 3rd, 84 American bombers and fighters, accompanied by 13 RAAF Beaufighters swept in mast-high out of the morning sun.Four destroyers and the remaining transports were sunk, leaving hundreds of men clinging to wreakage.More and more Allied aircraft (330 in all) now zoomed in to machine gun the survivors.Later that night, the grisly work continued, to stop the Japanese from coming ashore.About 3000 Japanese died in what the Japanese called the "Bismarck Sea Massacre".Only 850 reached Lae, where they too soon perished.After that, there was little Yamamoto could do to reinforce his forces in New Guinea.
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