Battle of the Bismarck Sea

2–4 March 1943, Bismarck Sea and the Huon Gulf, New Guinea

Allied victory

After losing Guadalcanal, Japan tried to reinforce its base at Lae in New Guinea with a convoy of eight transports carrying the 51st Division, escorted by eight destroyers under Rear Admiral Masatomi Kimura. Codebreakers gave the Allies warning, and General George Kenney's Fifth Air Force had been training for it. On 3 March, in the Huon Gulf, American B-25 and A-20 bombers came in at mast height, skipping their bombs across the water into the ships' sides, while RAAF Beaufighters raked the decks with cannon fire. All eight transports and four of the destroyers were sunk, and some 3,000 men died, many of them shot in the water by aircraft and PT boats over the next two days. Fewer than a thousand troops reached Lae, and Japan never again sent a convoy of large transports into waters covered by Allied aircraft.

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