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Vought OS2U-3 "Kingfisher" is recovered by USS Baltimore after she had rescued Lieutenant George M. Blair from Truk Lagoon, 1944-02-18. Blair's F6F "Hellcat", of Fighting Squadron Nine from USS Essex, had been shot down over Truk.
Operation Hailstone was a massive naval air attack launched on 17 February and 18 February, 1944, during World War II 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 as well as the operating "home" base for the Imperial Japanese Navy's Combined Fleet. The atoll was the only major Japanese airbase within range of the Marshall Islands and was the source of support for Japanese garrisons located on islands and atolls throughout the central and south Pacific. To ensure air and naval superiority for the upcoming invasion of Eniwetok Admiral Raymond Spruance ordered an attack on Truk.
Fearing that the base was becoming too vulnerable, the Japanese had relocated the aircraft carriers, battleships, and heavy cruisers of the combined fleet to Palau a week earlier. However, numerous smaller warships and merchant ships remained in and around the anchorage.
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. Several Japanese ships that attempted to escape were sunk by U.S. submarines and surface warships.
The U.S. lost twenty-five aircraft., but many of the aircrews were rescued. Aerial counter-attacks by the Japanese moderately damaged Intrepid with a torpedo and slightly damaged the battleship Iowa with a bomb hit.
The attacks for the most part ended Truk as a major threat to Allied operations in the central Pacific. Thus, the Japanese garrison on Eniwetok was denied any realistic hope of reinforcement and support during the invasion that began on February 18, 1944, greatly assisting U.S. forces in their conquest of that island. The Japanese later relocated most of their remaining aircraft from Rabaul to Truk. But, U.S. pressure prevented these aircraft from causing signficant problems to Allied forces in the area until the end of the war in August, 1945.
Due to the large number of shipwrecks that remain in Truk lagoon to this day as a result of the attack, Truk has become a popular destination for scuba divers. The book Hailstorm Over Truk Lagoon describes the wrecks of the lagoon.
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