The Battle of the Bismark Sea may be a misnomer simply because it wasn’t much of a battle. The word battle signifies that there is a two-sided confrontation and in the case of the Bismark Sea encounter it was hardly two-sided.
To set the stage, in December of 1942 the Japanese brain trust decided to reinforce their New Guinea station in Lae by moving some 6,900 troops by ship convoy from Rabaul to Lae. The Japanese leaders knew this was risky because Allied air power in the area was strong and the ship convoy would essentially be defenseless if the movement were detected.
And detected it soon was; using naval codebreakers and decrypting messages, the Allies were fully aware of the planned convoy and the U.S. Fifth Air Force and Royal Australian Air Force were more than up to the task.
A sustained attack against the convoy occurred on March 2-3, 1943 with follow-up attacks by PT boats and other aircraft on March 4th. When the attack was finished all eight transports and four supporting destroyers were sunk. Of the 6,900 troops only 1,200 made it to Lae, some were rescued by Japanese submarines and the rest died in the South West Pacific waters.
As with all military engagements this was not an isolated incident; because Lae could not be reinforced, the Japanese hold on New Guinea was weakened and New Guinea eventually fell back to the Allies under increased efforts by MacArthur and Nimitz, and because of that the Pacific Theater was eventually controlled by the Allies.
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