Strafing and Saving

[MIflyer]

Over on Youtube they have "videos" which in reality are a reading of the WWII experiences of a IJN naval officer. He commanded a destroyer in the Solomans campaign. He then returned to Japan for a time and then was assigned to command a light cruiser. His cruiser was assigned to the "Suicide Mission" when the IJN Yamato was sent to attack the US forces at Okinawa. Note that he himself called it a suicide mission and requested he be allowed to take his ship out alone to where it might actually make a contribution to the war effort.

The first hit on his cruiser was by an Avenger, which put a torpedo into the engine room and shut things right down. After a while they abandoned ship and he found a floating log, which a crewman allowed him to take over when he realized he was the captain. He found he had a 4 ft length of rope in his pocket, which he used to lash himself to the log.

He observed the explosion of the Yamato and also USN fighter planes dive down and shoot up a lifeboat filled with IJN sailors. He also saw a PBM Mariner land nearby and pick up a downed USN pilot.

It is astonishing to me that the USN had rescue aircraft nearby and that they landed with the battle still raging to rescue crewmen. It s also astonishing that at that point in the war USN fighters were strafing lifeboats. Allied aircraft reportedly strafed lifeboats and rafts at the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, but in that case there was a real possibility that the survivors would make it ashore to reinforce Japanese garrisons on the islands.

 

[cvairwerks]

Depends on the circumstances on the lifeboats. My uncle was landing his PBM to pick up some German U-boat survivors, in life rafts and around the sinking U-boat. Instead of cooperating, some of them tried to kill his crew. You know how that went over with him.....

 

[MIflyer]

Well, that is a thought. If you are going to rescue downed airmen, you have to assume that the enemy guys in boats will take umbrage at that. And you have to assume that any enemy lifeboats or motor launches will not treat kindly an airman who has just sunk their ship.

When rockets were first introduced on Swordfish to attack U-boats they sunk one, and recognizing that they needed to keep the weapon secret for as long as possible, the Wildcat escort began to strafe the U-boat survivors. With the rockets they wanted U-boats to try to fight it out on the surface and not recognize that the aircraft had a weapon that hit them with devastating force from a distance. The Swordfish called, "Wait! A destroyer is on the way and we need some of those men to interrogate." The Wildcat pilot replied, "How many of them do you want me to leave?"

 

[Capt. Vick]

I do know it is a fact the at least once (and likely more often) US Sub captains would call the crew on deck to machine gun surviving Japanese sailors from sunken vessels. Maybe they convinced themselves that it was more humane then the likely slow death of an unrescued castaway? Is it too hard to extrapolate it to other parts of the US Navy? One of the first steps of war is dehumanizing your enemy, making it easier to to do the excesses of war.

 

[MIflyer]

I do know it is a fact the at least once (and likely more often) US Sub captains would call the crew on deck to machine gun surviving Japanese sailors from sunken vessels.

There was famous incident in 1942, where a US sub sank just about a whole Japanese convoy, using not only torpedoes but also the deck gun. Surviving Japanese sailors managed to get some powered lifeboats going and the captain directed that they were fair game, to sink them. Some of the Japanese fired back and at that point he directed that the survivors floating in the water be shot as well. When they returned to Pearl Harbor the captain was treated as a hero.

As Sherman said to Mr Peabody, "War is a heck of a thing." or something like that.

 

[special ed]

I have mentioned a late model club member was a rear gunner in SBDs from the Enterprise. His battle station when the big "E" was attacked, was manning a 20mm on the deck edge. After one particular attack, he fired at Japanese floating by. Admonished by a USMC Captain about shooting survivors, his comment was "Sir, you better get away from here."