70 Fun Facts About Naval Battles of World War II

Which October 1944 engagement was the largest naval battle of World War II?

It was also the first battle in which Japanese aircraft flew organised kamikaze attacks.

Which May 1942 battle was the first in which the opposing fleets never sighted or fired on one another?

It was also the first battle between aircraft carriers, and it stopped the Japanese seaborne push toward Port Moresby.

How many Japanese fleet carriers were sunk at the Battle of Midway in June 1942?

Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū and Hiryū all went down, along with many irreplaceable veteran pilots.

How did US codebreakers confirm that the Japanese target 'AF' was Midway?

Within 24 hours a Japanese signal reported that 'AF' was short of water, and Nimitz set his ambush.

Which US carrier was lost at Midway, only weeks after being patched up in three days at Pearl Harbor?

Estimates said she needed months in dock after the May carrier battle; instead she sortied in time to help sink four Japanese carriers.

Who commanded the Japanese carrier strike force at both Pearl Harbor and Midway?

Yamamoto planned both operations but stayed with the main body; the strike force itself, the Kidō Butai, was Nagumo's.

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor took place on what date?

The US declared war on Japan the next day; the same morning Japan also struck the Philippines, Guam, Wake, Malaya and Hong Kong.

Of the eight US battleships at Pearl Harbor, how many were sunk?

All eight were damaged; every one but Arizona and Utah was later refloated and six returned to service during the war.

The 353 Japanese aircraft that struck Pearl Harbor flew from how many carriers?

They came in two waves; the first launched at 7:48 a.m. Hawaiian time.

Along with the target ship USS Utah, which battleship sunk at Pearl Harbor was never refloated?

Her wreck remains in the harbour beneath the memorial dedicated in 1962.

How many Americans were killed in the Pearl Harbor attack?

A further 1,178 were wounded, and more than 180 US aircraft were destroyed on the ground.

Which October 1944 Philippines engagement was history's last battleship-versus-battleship action?

Oldendorf's old battleships crossed the T of Nishimura's force, though by then only Yamashiro was still in line.

In October 1944, Halsey took the Third Fleet north after a decoy carrier force led by which Japanese admiral?

The bait carriers had only 108 aircraft between them, but the ruse left the San Bernardino Strait unguarded.

Who commanded the escort carrier group Taffy 3 during its desperate stand off Samar on 25 October 1944?

Six small escort carriers, three destroyers and four destroyer escorts faced Kurita's battleships and cruisers.

Off Samar, Kurita mistook Taffy 3's escort carriers for what?

Believing he faced Halsey's fleet carriers, he eventually broke off, sparing the vulnerable landing force on Leyte.

Which destroyer captain charged Kurita's fleet off Samar and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor?

Without consulting anyone, he rang up flank speed and laid smoke, and his torpedo run threw the Japanese line into disarray.

Which battleship, Yamato's sister ship, was sunk by carrier aircraft in the Sibuyan Sea in October 1944?

The bulk of the day's air strikes were poured into that single ship while Kurita's other heavy units survived.

Yamato's one-way sortie toward Okinawa in April 1945 is best known as which operation?

Yamato and five escorts were sunk by carrier aircraft before reaching Okinawa, for the loss of ten American planes.

Which vice admiral commanded Yamato's final sortie despite believing the plan futile and wasteful?

Kusaka flew from Tokyo to talk him round; Yamato capsized at 14:20 on 7 April 1945.

Swordfish from which British carrier jammed Bismarck's rudders on 26 May 1941?

The biplane torpedo bombers left her steaming in circles, and King George V and Rodney finished her the next morning.

How many Bismarck survivors did British warships rescue before a U-boat scare ended the effort?

A U-boat and a German weather ship found five more; over 2,000 men died.

How many of HMS Hood's crew survived her destruction on 24 May 1941?

A shell from Bismarck reached her aft magazines and she sank in about three minutes with 1,415 men.

HMS Hood was sunk in which strait, between Greenland and Iceland?

Bismarck and Prinz Eugen were trying to slip through it into the North Atlantic convoy lanes.

The May 1941 breakout of Bismarck and Prinz Eugen was code-named what?

The plan was to raid the convoys carrying supplies from North America to Britain; it lasted barely a week.

After the December 1939 Battle of the River Plate, Admiral Graf Spee was scuttled off which neutral port?

Uruguay gave her 72 hours; her captain, convinced a superior force waited outside, blew her up on 17 December.

Who was the captain of Admiral Graf Spee, who took his own life two days after scuttling her?

His raiding cruise sank several merchantmen without a single death because he took every crew aboard first.

Which cruiser in the River Plate squadron was serving with the Royal Navy's New Zealand Division?

She and Ajax were Leander-class light cruisers, alongside the heavier Exeter which was badly mauled.

The November 1940 raid on Taranto used 21 Swordfish flying from which carrier?

It was the first all-aircraft ship-to-ship naval attack in history.

Why did Japanese planners study the Taranto raid while preparing the Pearl Harbor attack?

Japan had been working on shallow-water torpedo drops since 1939, and Taranto proved it could be done.

Which British admiral commanded at both Taranto and Cape Matapan?

He said Taranto proved the Fleet Air Arm was 'the Navy's most devastating weapon'.

Which Bletchley Park cryptanalyst first broke Italian naval Enigma?

The first message read simply 'Today's the day minus three'; a reconnaissance plane was sent so the Italians would not suspect codebreaking.

Before Matapan, the British admiral staged a departure from which Alexandria venue to fool the Japanese consul?

He arrived with a suitcase as if staying overnight, played within sight of the consul, then slipped out after dark to his flagship Warspite.

Which crippled Italian heavy cruiser drew her sisters Zara and Fiume into the night ambush at Matapan?

All three were sunk; British destroyers finished the drifting ship with torpedoes shortly after 04:00.

Allied Guadalcanal veterans gave the August 1942 Battle of Savo Island what nickname?

Four Allied cruisers were sunk in a night action for minimal Japanese damage, one of the worst defeats in US naval history.

Which Japanese vice admiral led the cruiser force that routed the Allies at Savo Island?

Fearing carrier strikes at daylight, he withdrew without attacking the transports, a decision that arguably saved the landings.

The waters off Guadalcanal where so many warships sank became known as what?

The New Georgia Sound that Japanese reinforcements ran down each night was, by contrast, simply 'The Slot'.

Which two US rear admirals were killed at the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in November 1942?

They were the only US Navy admirals killed in a surface engagement in the whole war; both died within minutes of each other in the same melee.

The Japanese Type 93 torpedo that wrecked a US cruiser force at Tassafaronga was nicknamed what?

Eight destroyers on a supply run sank one cruiser and heavily damaged three more with it.

At Tassafaronga, what were Tanaka's destroyers trying to deliver to Japanese troops on Guadalcanal?

By late 1942 the garrison was starving; the 'Tokyo Express' had been reduced to dropping supply drums offshore.

What was notable about the Battle of Vella Gulf in August 1943?

Six American destroyers used radar to close undetected and sank three Japanese destroyers without a scratch.

Hitler's fury over the botched Barents Sea attack of December 1942 forced which Kriegsmarine chief to resign?

Hitler ordered that German naval strategy would henceforth concentrate on U-boats rather than surface ships.

Which escort commander won the Victoria Cross for holding off German heavy ships at the Barents Sea?

In HMS Onslow he kept fighting after being badly wounded and losing an eye.

Which British battleship sank the Scharnhorst at the Battle of the North Cape?

It was the last battle between British and German big-gun capital ships.

On what date was the Scharnhorst sunk off Norway's North Cape?

She had sailed on Boxing Day to attack an Arctic convoy in the polar darkness.

What was the German code name for the February 1942 Channel Dash of Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen?

Hitler wanted the ships back in Germany in case of a British invasion of Norway, and gambled on surprise and Luftwaffe cover.

Which First Sea Lord ordered Convoy PQ 17 to scatter in July 1942, with disastrous results?

He acted on reports that Tirpitz was sailing; she never came, but aircraft and U-boats destroyed the scattered merchantmen.

Of the 35 merchant ships in Convoy PQ 17, how many reached the Soviet Union?

They delivered 70,000 tons of cargo; the rest went to the bottom of the Barents Sea.

What sank HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse off Malaya on 10 December 1941?

Force Z had sailed without air cover, and the sinking showed that even the heaviest ships were helpless without it.

Who commanded Force Z, and kept radio silence until an hour after the first Japanese attack?

He went down with Prince of Wales; the alert that finally reached Singapore was sent by Repulse.

Which Dutch rear admiral led the Allied force at the 1942 Battle of the Java Sea and died when his flagship sank?

Long-range torpedoes from the cruisers Haguro and Nachi destroyed both Dutch light cruisers within minutes.

Which Australian cruiser was sunk alongside USS Houston in the Sunda Strait in 1942?

Five Japanese ships also went down that night, three of them sunk by their own side's torpedoes.

American aviators nicknamed the air battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944 what?

US submarines also sank two of Japan's largest carriers, ending its ability to mount big carrier operations.

How many aircraft carriers were involved in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, history's largest carrier battle?

Roughly 1,350 carrier aircraft took part, and a new secret weapon, the proximity fuze, helped the American gunners.

How many carrier-versus-carrier battles were fought between the US and Japanese navies in World War II?

Coral Sea, Midway, Eastern Solomons, Santa Cruz and the Philippine Sea; the last of them ended Japan's carrier arm as a force.

Which US fleet carrier was lost at the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands in October 1942?

Enterprise was heavily damaged too, briefly leaving the US Navy with no undamaged carrier in the Pacific.

The vital tanker that reached Malta at the end of Operation Pedestal in August 1942 was named what?

American-owned with a British crew, she was towed in lashed between destroyers, and her aviation fuel revived Malta's air offensive.

How many of Operation Pedestal's fourteen merchant ships reached Malta's Grand Harbour?

More than 500 sailors and airmen died, but the supplies allowed the island to hold out.

Which U-boat commander penetrated Scapa Flow in October 1939 and sank HMS Royal Oak?

In U-47 he became an instant hero in Germany; the carrier Courageous had been sunk by U-29 only a month earlier.

In which year was 'Black May', when German U-boat wolf packs lost their advantage for good?

Escort carriers, long-range aircraft, radar and codebreaking all came together that spring.

How many U-boats were lost in the Battle of the Atlantic?

The Allies lost 3,500 merchant ships and 175 warships in the same campaign, the longest continuous one of the war.

Britain needed more than how much imported material per week to survive and fight in WWII?

Rationing was as much about cutting demand for shipping space as about sharing food.

Which British aircraft carrier was sunk by U-29 in September 1939, in the first weeks of the war?

She was on anti-submarine patrol at the time, a use of fleet carriers the Admiralty quickly abandoned.

The 1940 naval battles at Narvik were fought over a port that shipped what resource from Sweden?

Narvik was the ice-free outlet for ore railed from Kiruna, and both sides wanted it.

The March 1943 Battle of the Komandorski Islands was unusual for what?

The outnumbered American force in the North Pacific escaped when the Japanese chose to withdraw.

The Battle of Empress Augusta Bay in November 1943 covered Allied landings on which island?

The Japanese sortied from Rabaul hoping to repeat Savo Island, and were turned back.

What was the Japanese code name for Yamamoto's plan to take Midway?

The exceedingly complex plan required coordinating multiple battle groups over hundreds of miles of open sea.

What did American codebreakers call the main Japanese naval code they partly broke before Midway?

Yamamoto's dispersal of forces meant none of his formations could support the others once the Americans knew his plan.

To win army support for Midway, the Japanese navy backed an invasion of Attu and Kiska in which island chain?

Operation AL drew off ships that could otherwise have joined the strike on Midway.

Which light carrier was the largest American ship lost in the battles around Leyte Gulf?

A single Judy dive bomber hit her with an armour-piercing bomb; 108 men died and 1,361 were rescued.

Leyte Gulf was the first battle in which Japanese aircraft carried out organized attacks of what kind?

It was also the last battle ever fought between battleships, and the Japanese navy never again sailed in comparable force.