Allied Pilots Erased Japan's Lae Convoy in 3 Days

Allied pilots erased Japan's Lae convoy in three days, 2 to 4 March 1943. Sixteen ships carrying about 6,900 soldiers sailed from Rabaul, and within twenty minutes of the main attack on 3 March every merchant ship was sunk, sinking, or badly damaged. Japan would never again send a troop convoy to Lae by sea. This documentary covers the Battle of the Bismarck Sea: the eight transports and eight destroyers of Operation 81, Kenney's Fifth Air Force, the RAAF Beaufighters of No. 30 Squadron, the B-17 Flying Fortresses, and the B-25 Mitchell strafers rebuilt by Pappy Gunn with forward-firing .50-calibre guns. It traces the cause back to the wreck of the SS Pruth on Nateara Reef, the delayed fuses, the mast-height skip bombing, and the January 1943 convoy that cost 416 sorties and sank two ships. It ends with the ledger, the PT boats, and the inflated communique. Built from after-action reports, loss tables, squadron records and Japanese ship histories, with every disputed figure marked as disputed. Claims are separated from the record. Subscribe for the definitive history of the United States in the Second World War — new documentaries every few days. #WW2 #WorldWarII #PacificWar #BattleOfTheBismarckSea #B25Mitchell #Beaufighter #FifthAirForce #WWIIHistory #MilitaryHistory #USAInWW2