Air Attack off Formosa, October 1944

Off Formosa on 13 and 14 October 1944, two Japanese torpedoes crippled the heavy cruiser Canberra and the light cruiser Houston. Both came in the minutes after the day fighter patrols landed at dusk, in the gap before the night fighters were up. The Americans identified that gap after the first attack, predicted it in writing before the second, and still could not close it. This is what their own action reports, war diaries and signals say about why. Every claim in this video is taken from a primary document read at native resolution. Where those documents disagree with each other, the video says so rather than choosing. The records do not settle whether the attacking aircraft were Frances or Bettys, and they do not settle whether the Japanese were aiming at the dusk recovery or simply arriving when they did. The narration is synthetic speech. No part of the imagery is generated: every photograph, chart and document page is an archival record, shown as it is. SOURCES, in the order the video uses them 1. USS Houston, report of battle damage sustained from enemy aircraft, 6 January 1945. NARA 139819547. 2. Commander Task Group 38.1, action report, serial 00101, 15 December 1944, with enclosure C track charts and enclosure D fighter direction and radar report. NARA 83560543. 3. Commander Task Group 38.1, war diary, 1 to 31 October 1944, serial 0394. NARA 139807657. 4. USS Canberra, action report, 13 October 1944. NARA 78649283. 5. United States Strategic Bombing Survey, interrogation of Japanese officials, Nav No. 115. From the National Diet Library Digital Collections, PID 8821719. 6. USS Canberra, supplementary action report, 24 November 1944. NARA 78686620. 7. USS Houston, action report, serial 0134, 20 October 1944. NARA 78670305. 8. USS Cowell, action report. NARA 78649292. Learn more: https://actionreporthistory.com/video...