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Revision as of 14:07, 16 January 2006
Template:Battlebox In World War II, Operation Hailstone was a massive naval air attack launched on 17 February and 18 February, 1944 against the Japanese naval and air base on Truk in the Caroline Islands, a pre-war Japanese territory. Truk was Japan's main base in the South Pacific. It was the only major Japanese airbase within range of the Marshall Islands. To ensure air and naval superiority for the invasion of Eniwetok Admiral Raymond Spruance ordered an attack on Truk.
Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher's Task Force 58 had five fleet carriers (Enterprise, Yorktown, Essex, Intrepid, and Bunker Hill) and four light carriers (Belleau Wood, Cabot, Monterey, and Cowpens), embarking more than 500 planes.
In two air strikes, American dive and torpedo bombers sank three Japanese cruisers (Agano, Katori, and Naka), six destroyers (Oite, Fumizuki, Maikaze, Hagio, Isogu, and Tachikaze), three other warships and 32 merchant ships. Over 250 aircraft were destroyed, mostly on the ground.
The attackers lost only twenty-five aircraft; Intrepid was hit by an aerial torpedo and damaged. The attack on Truk has often been compared to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
The book Hailstorm Over Truk Lagoon describes the wrecks of the lagoon.