Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku is, and will forever be, one of the main figures of the Pacific War.
The mastermind behind the Attack on Pearl Harbor, Yamamoto led the Imperial Japanese Navy through
the initial phase of great victories, which saw the Empire expand from Burma to the island of
New Britain, from the Philippines to the island of Java. He also led the IJN through a darker,
much more grim phase of transition, in which the Japanese suffered a decisive defeat at Midway,
were unable to capture Port Moresby and were left crippled after the gruesome Guadalcanal Campaign.
Yet in 1943, the Japanese still believed they could return to that era of recent glories;
and Yamamoto, in his crisp white uniform, was the symbol of hope that fueled such desire:
the hope of a triumphant comeback; the hope that the war could still be won. Today,
that hope is finally going to be crushed, as the daring Allied pilots
launch Operation Vengeance, the payback for the infamous Attack on Pearl Harbor.
Hey, history fans, quick channel update: Unfortunately, the current youtube algorithm
makes it unfeasible to release more than 3 or 4 videos per week, as the more videos you release,
the lower the average views per video is. We have a great team, and we want to be able to
continue paying them living or competitive wages and not cut back on production. So
until the algorithm is more favourable and we can release more than 3 videos per week,
extra videos that our team has created will be posted as youtube member and patron exclusives.
1 or 2 videos per week will be exclusively available for our youtube members and patrons,
whose ranks you can join by pressing the button below the video or becoming a patron via the link
in the description. Last week we released the video on the historicity of Mahabharata, and
we are continuing to release our episodes in the series on the Peloponnesian War and the Italian
Wars of Independence. For just 5$, you can support our work and watch exclusive videos - there are 25
now, and more are added weekly. You will also get early access to free videos, learn our schedule,
get access to our private discord, watch our behind the scene videos and much more. Thank
you for watching and for your kind support, we wouldn’t be able to do what we love without you!
As we last saw, Admiral Yamamoto and the Japanese forces in the South Pacific had launched Operation
I-Go, a massive air counteroffensive aiming to cause much attrition on the Allied forces, while
at the same time attempting to prevent any future enemy offensives against Japanese possessions in
New Guinea or the Central Solomons. Yamamoto himself had traveled to Rabaul to personally
send off the air strikes, something that was seen by the Japanese pilots as a huge boost in morale.
Though the apparent success of those missions undoubtedly helped the overall mood at Rabaul,
it was the presence of Admiral Yamamoto in his crisp white uniform that served as a great
inspiration to the Japanese soldiers, sailors and airmen stationed there.
Understanding the importance of being seen by the aircrews, Yamamoto had thus decided to continue
with his highly visible and almost ritualistic send-offs, announcing on April 13 his intention to
tour the forward area in order to raise the morale of the men stationed there just as he had done in
Rabaul. That same afternoon, a message outlining Yamamoto’s proposed visit was drafted to notify
the outlying bases; a message that was soon to seal the fate of such a legendary naval commander.
This is because the message contained highly-detailed information, such as
the date and time of Yamamoto’s departure from Rabaul, the location of the first stop
and estimated time of arrival , the type of aircraft Yamamoto and his staff would ride in,
the number of escorts , and the exact itinerary to be followed throughout the day.
Using an old code that was still in use at the Shortlands base, the message was transmitted from
Rabaul in the afternoon; and within seconds, it had been received both by the intended
addressees and by American cryptanalysts and codebreakers at Pearl Harbor . Soon,
the message would be successfully decoded and the Americans would be amazed to learn that
the mastermind behind Pearl Harbor was going to be in such an extremely vulnerable situation,
as his flight to Ballale would bring him within 325 miles of Guadalcanal. On April 14, the message
was then delivered to Admiral Nimitz and, after some deliberation , the mission to kill Yamamoto,
which would be codenamed Operation Vengeance, was finally approved; albeit with the utmost secrecy
to protect, as far as possible, the cryptanalysis breakthrough that had set the operation in motion.
Halsey was very pleased about this news, and he soon informed his subordinate air commanders,
Admirals Fitch and Mitscher, about the details of Operation Vengeance. As commander of AirSols,
Mitscher called a secret meeting for his staff on April 16, where it was determined that any
possible interception of Yamamoto’s flight would have to be conducted by P-38s with external fuel
tanks, the only type of fighter at Guadalcanal with the range to fly to Bougainville and back.
Additionally, Major John Mitchell was selected as strike group commander for the mission;
and, as per Mitchell’s wishes, it was also decided that the fighters would
intercept Yamamoto in the air just south of Empress Augusta Bay instead of ambushing
the admiral while he moved from Ballale to Bougainville in a submarine tender.
Mitchell’s plan was to divide his flight plan into five legs,
veering far out to sea to avoid any detection by the enemy that could compromise the plan.
Since Yamamoto was scheduled to arrive at Ballale at 09:45 , he determined that the interception
should take place at 09:35 and that his strike group should depart Guadalcanal at 07:20.
From his total of 18 P-38s, Mitchell assigned four aircraft to the “killer flight”, under Captain
Thomas Lanphier, which would be tasked with intercepting and eliminating Yamamoto’s aircraft.
The rest would fly Combat Air Patrol above the killer flight to hold off any fighters from
Bougainville the Japanese were able to scramble and to avoid congestion in the target area.
Even with the external fuel tanks, the Lightnings would still be at the extreme limit of their
range, so they would have only 15 minutes to shoot down Yamamoto. At the time, Mitchell figured the
odds at about a thousand to one that they could make a successful intercept at that distance.
Meanwhile, back at Rabaul, important naval commanders such as Admirals Ozawa and
Jojima voiced their opposition to such foolish plans, but Yamamoto refused to change his mind.
A stickler for punctuality, Yamamoto and his staff finally departed Rabaul at 08:00 on April 18.
Yamamoto, this time wearing field green although with his usual white gloves and a ceremonial
sword, climbed aboard an olive-colored Betty with the number 323 painted on its vertical stabilizer
along with three officers, while Admiral Ugaki and three other staff officers were seated in
the second G4M, numbered 326. The bombers took off to the southeast , passing over Matupit
Harbor and the gaping crater of Tavurvur as they climbed, with the six escort fighters behind them.
Confident about his chances of getting to Bougainville sight unseen and on time, Major
Mitchell’s strike group also departed Guadalcanal at 07:10, thus setting in motion Operation
Vengeance, the longest aerial interception mission of World War II. Within minutes of Mitchell’s
takeoff, two Lightnings were scrubbed: one with a blown tire, the other with fuel transfer problems.
Both were part of the killer flight, so two designated alternates slid into the vacated spots.
As they headed outbound on the first leg of their route, the P-38s had to descend to 50ft
to avoid detection while the pilots began to endure the hot temperatures at sea level.
After flying on a heading of 265 degrees on the first and longest leg for 55 minutes,
Mitchell then turned 25 degrees right to 290 degrees.
Twenty-seven minutes later, he turned to 305 degrees. This leg was flown for 38 minutes;
then to 20 degrees for the 40-mile leg to the south edge of Empress Bay, toward the coast.
As he crossed the bay, he turned to 90 degrees; and with the flight now approximately four minutes
from the calculated interception point, the P-38s began to close in and made sight of the southwest
corner of Bougainville. In an extraordinary act of navigation, the flight had arrived at
the precise location intended and, at 09:34, only one minute ahead of the scheduled time. And right
on top of them, passing serenely overhead, was the anticipated flight of Japanese aircraft,
just as they were beginning their descent over the jungles of Bougainville. Unfortunately for
Yamamoto and Ugaki, Japanese operational security was incredibly lax at every level.
Yet Mitchell was also very surprised to find not one, but two enemy bombers, which disrupted his
entire plan. Furthermore, due to a problem with the release of a belly tank, two P-38s of the
killer flight had to pull away until the problem was resolved. Thus, Mitchell now had only half
as many fighters as planned to pit against twice as many bombers as anticipated, and he couldn’t
order his men to concentrate on one of them because he didn’t knew which one was Yamamoto’s.
With icy resolve, he refused to improvise and ordered Captain Lamphier to attack nonetheless.
Meanwhile, the rest of the P-38s had to climb to a predetermined altitude for Combat Air Patrol,
as Mitchell expected the Japanese to send many fighters from the Kahili airbase to greet the
admiral. But alas, none were to come, to the disappointment of Mitchell and the cover flight.
While the two remaining fighters of the killer flight turned towards the eight enemy aircraft,
the Japanese were caught completely by surprise. The escorting Zeros were
flying above the bombers and scanning the horizon ahead of them to the south,
but they never suspected American fighters would approach from behind them at a lower altitude.
By all accounts, Lamphier made a climbing run to the left, going nose to nose with the three
escorting Zeros; while the other bomber [fighter?], under Lieutenant Rex Barber,
banked hard right [was this meant to say that the 2nd bomber banked right and Barber followed it?].
In response, all six of the Zeros made a straight dive from their higher altitude
to position themselves between the bombers and the oncoming P-38s.
Rather than firing at the American fighters, they kept shooting in front of the P-38s,
trying to prevent them from closing on the Bettys. Aboard the bombers, confusion was total; and with
the Allied pilots closing in to attack, Yamamoto’s and Ugaki’s aircraft separated as they accelerated
into their dives, the distance between them increasing as the first plane banked to the right,
south-southwest toward the shoreline while the second plane banked east to the left.
But what followed next has been the source of bitter contention for many decades,
as the participants all went to their graves each swearing their perspective was the legitimate one.
In Lamphier’s version, which would later be published by the media and would become the
most well-known, he quickly engaged the three diving Zeros to the left, successfully shooting
down one of them before twisting away to find the Bettys. He then found the lead Japanese bomber
skimming the jungle, headed for Kahili; and so, he dived in pursuit. With the two surviving Zeros
converging on him to cut him off, Lamphier managed to hold his course and fired a long
steady burst across the lead bomber’s course of flight. Soon, the bomber’s right engine,
then its right wing, burst into flames; and then, in Lamphier’s words: “the bomber’s wing tore off.
The bomber plunged into the jungle. It exploded. That was the end of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto.”
While racing out over the open sea towards Moila Point , Ugaki himself was horrified to see the
funeral pyre of Yamamoto’s crashed bomber. But at the same time, Rex Barber tells a different story.
He claims that Lamphier’s initial maneuver to the left was very wise, as it allowed Barber
the opportunity to attack the bombers without the Zeros on his tail. Thus, he banked sharply
right to fall in behind one of the Bettys. At about 1,000ft above the jungle canopy, Barber
opened fire, aiming over the fuselage at the right engine. The bomber was shuddering at each burst,
and Barber could see chunks of its engine cowling detaching. He then continued to rake the bomber
with his guns until the Betty suddenly stopped in mid-air, almost colliding with Barber’s P-38 and
then crashing into the jungle. This was allegedly Yamamoto’s G4M, as Barber claimed that he got no
fire back frome the bomber at all. But the three Zeros on the right had now caught up with him and
were making firing pases at his aircraft. Only the sudden and miraculous appearance of Lieutenants
Besby Holmes and Raymond Hine would save him, as they managed to shoot down the three Zeros.
Heading towards the coast, Holmes and Hine then pursued the remaining Betty and began
to fire at him, very likely scoring some hits. As the two pilots passed it over, Barber also
dropped in behind Ugaki’s bomber. He fired one burst and the bomber suddenly disintegrated,
going down into the water. Although Holmes claimed to shoot down Ugaki’s Betty himself,
Barber believed that Holmes’ rounds “must have hit the tanks and filled [the bomber’s] wings with gas
fumes, because the ship exploded” in his face. As he flew through the black smoke and debris,
a large chunk of the Betty hit his right wing, cutting out his turbo supercharger intercooler.
Up ahead, Holmes and Hine then encountered the two remaining Zeros and immediately engaged them.
Although Holmes claimed to shoot down one of the fighters, making his total
alleged kill count three Zeros and one Betty; Hine’s P-38 would be damaged in the struggle,
forcing him to head east and out to sea, with smoke trailing from his right engine.
Hine was last seen at 09:40, and he would become the only Allied casualty of Operation Vengeance.
But before the Japanese fighters could take off from Kahili, Mitchell ordered his strike
group to initiate the withdrawal, their mission already accomplished with the destruction of the
second Betty. Thus, the P-38 flight broke up as each pilot headed for home individually,
operating at the limit of their range and suffering again under the hot weather. In the end,
all of them would arrive safely at Guadalcanal, with the exception of Hine. The mission had been
a resounding success, with both enemy bombers successfully shot down; and, most importantly,
with the successful elimination of Yamamoto as a potential threat for the future . As no leader
would subsequently emerge who possessed a fraction of Yamamoto’s tactical insight or domestic
prestige, the mission would be completely worth the risk of exposing their codebreaking advances.
Yet the controversy of who killed Yamamoto would begin as soon as the pilots returned
to Guadalcanal. In the words of Lieutenant Julius Jacobson, another pilot on the mission:
“There were 15 of us who survived, and as far as who did the effective shooting, who cares?”.
While the Americans celebrated, the Japanese were stunned by this turn of events. A rescue
party was immediately readied to seek the crash site, hoping against hope that there might be
survivors. On April 20, the Japanese would finally stumble into the wreckage of a Betty bomber;
and unfortunately for the Japanese, there were no survivors. The bodies of the 11 crew and
passengers were scattered about the wreckage, and among them was Yamamoto . As for Ugaki,
he actually managed to survive the wreckage off Moila Point along with two other survivors,
rushing to swim for the shore while clinging to floating debris. Despite his miraculous survival,
Ugaki’s injuries were severe, including a severed radial artery and compound fracture of the right
arm, which would leave him out of action until 1944. On May 7, the battleship Musashi
would set sail from Truk carrying the ashes of Yamamoto and the others who had died with him.
Two weeks later, it reached Tokyo Bay just as the Japanese population learned the fate
of their hero . Yamamoto was posthumously awarded the Grand Order of the Chrysanthemum, First Class,
and the rank of Fleet Admiral. His funeral on June 5 - the first anniversary of the battle of Midway,
coincided with the legendary Admiral Togo Heihachiro’s funeral nine years previously;
that day, the roads were lined with mourners and an estimated three million Japanese crowded
into the area near the cemetery to pay their last respects to a national hero.
Admiral Koga Mineichi, the new commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet, would later say: “There was
only one Yamamoto and no one is able to replace him. His loss is an unsupportable blow to us.”
Thus came the end of Admiral Yamamoto, one of the most important leaders of the Empire
of Japan during the Pacific War. Next week, we’ll turn once again to the Arakan Campaign to see its
last developments, as the Japanese counterattack puts the British Indian defenses in great peril,
so make sure you have subscribed and pressed the bell button. Recently we have started releasing
weekly patron and youtube member exclusive videos. Join the ranks of patrons and youtube
members via the link in the description or by pressing the button under the video to
watch these weekly videos, learn about our schedule, get early access to our videos,
join our private discord, and much more. Please, consider liking, commenting, and sharing - it
helps immensely. This is the Kings and Generals channel, and we will catch you on the next one.