Word: honshu
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Even the provocation of the bold, unprecedented strikes by Admiral William F. Halsey's Third Fleet against northern Honshu and Hokkaido had failed to lure out the remnants of the Japanese air force. The weather over Hokkaido was foul; the low overcast blocked the efforts of flyers from Vice Admiral John S. McCain's flagship Shangri-La (and her many sister carriers) to find the fields where the Jap planes were supposed to be skulking. Not a single Kamikaze roared over the fleet...
Shots in the Dark. Halsey selected that night for his most defiant gesture. His battleships steamed within ten miles of the coast of Honshu, northeast of Tokyo. As they bore south, each trained the 67-ft. barrels of its nine 16-inch rifles over the starboard beam...
Sure enough, Halsey struck again. Four days later his carrier planes thundered up again out of the dawn. Some struck Hokkaido (pop. 3,300,000), which had never been bombed before. Some struck northern Honshu. Some struck in Tsugaru Strait, where the railroad and automobile ferries run between Aomori (on Honshu) and Hakodate (on Hokkaido), almost the only link between the two islands...
Much of the food for Honshu townspeople moves-or did move-across that ferry route from agricultural Hokkaido. So does-or did-much of the coal for Honshu steel mills. At the end of the day, two train ferries had been sunk and a third damaged; 13 small ships had been sunk. Airplanes were scarce: the U.S. flyers found only 86, all landbound, which they destroyed or damaged...
That same day, three hours before noon, three great, grey ships stood inshore off the east coast of Honshu, 275 miles north of Tokyo. They were the Massachusetts, South Dakota and Indiana; running in tight formation with them were the heavy cruisers Chicago and Quincy (both named for ships sunk at Guadalcanal), while a dozen destroyers scudded around them. Promptly at noon, the big guns began to speak...