WW2, the Early YearsVice Admiral FRANK JACK FLETCHER         Page 2 :   Continuous Combat from Dec 7, 1941 to Sept 30, 1942.

Commander of Heavy Cruiser Force 6 at Pearl Harbor

Attempted Relief of Wake Island

Dec 12.  Japanese reconnaissance flying boats bomb Wake Island in pre-dawn raid. Later in the day, land attack planes bomb Wake.

Dec 14. TF 11 (VAdm Wilson Brown Jr.), comprising carrier Lexington (CV-2), three heavy cruisers, nine destroyers, and oiler Neosho (AO-23), sails for the Marshall Islands, to create a diversion to cover TF 14's attempt to relieve Wake Island

Dec 15. Seaplane tender Tangier (AV-8), oiler Neches (AO-5), and four destroyers sail for Wake Island.
Japanese reconnaissance flying boats bomb Wake Island.

Dec 16. TF 14 (RAdm Frank Jack Fletcher), comprising carrier Saratoga (CV-3);  heavy cruisers Astoria (CA-34, flagship), Minneapolis (CA-36), and San Francisco (CA-38); and five destroyers, sail from Pearl Harbor. These ships will overtake the force formed around Tangier (AV-8) and Neches (AO-5) and their consorts, which departed the day before, to relieve Wake Island and return 1,145 civilian contractors.

Japanese Pearl Harbor Attack Force detaches carriers Hiryu and Soryu, heavy cruisers Tone and Chikuma, and destroyers Tanikaze and Urakaze to reinforce a planned second attack on Wake Island.  Japanese naval land attack planes bomb Wake.
Submarine Tambor (SS-198), damaged, retires from the waters off Wake.

Dec 17.  VAdm William S. Pye, Commander, Battle Force, becomes acting Commander in Chief Pacific Fleet, pending the arrival of Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, who is ordered on this date to relieve Admiral Husband E. Kimmel.

Dec18. Lexington ordered north to join with Saratoga.

Dec 19.  TF 8 (VAdm William F. Halsey, Jr.), formed around carrier Enterprise (CV-6), heavy cruisers, and destroyers, sails from Pearl Harbor proceeding to waters west of Johnston Island and south of Midway to cover TF 11 and TF 14 operations.

Dec 21.  The PBY departs Wake Island; Japanese concern over the potential presence of patrol planes at Wake, prompts advancing the date of the first carrier strikes. Planes from carriers Soryu and Hiryu bomb Wake Island for the first time. Later that day, land attack planes bomb Wake.

Dec 22.  Japanese bombers and attack planes, covered by fighters from carriers Soryu and Hiryu, bomb Wake Island for the second time; the last two flyable USMC F4Fs intercept the raid. One F4F is shot down, the other is badly damaged.   Saratoga TF refuels while waiting for Lexington TF.

Dec 23. Wake Island is captured by naval landing force that overcomes gallant resistance offered by the garrison that consists of marines, sailors, volunteer civilians (Contractors Pacific Naval Air Bases) and a USAAF radio detachment. Two Japanese Patrol Boats (old destroyers converted to high speed transports) intentionally run ashore to facilitate landing of troops, are destroyed by Marine shore batteries. Planes from carriers Hiryu and Soryu, as well as seaplane carrier Kiyokawa Maru provide close air support for the invasion.

Uncertainty over the positions of and number of Japanese carriers and reports that indicate Japanese troops have landed on the atoll compel VAdm Pye, Acting Commander in Chief Pacific Fleet, to recall TF 14 (RAdm Fletcher) while it is 425 miles from its objective

Dec 25. Carrier Saratoga (CV-3) diverted from the attempt to relieve Wake Island, flies off USMC F2A Buffaloes to Midway. These will be the first fighter aircraft based there.

Dec 26. Seaplane tender Tangier (AV-8), diverted from the attempt to relieve Wake Island, disembarks Battery "B," 4th Defense Battalion and ground echelon of VMF 221 at Midway to augment that garrison's defenses.

Battle of Java Sea.  East Indies are lost

During this period, on the other side of the Pacific, the Japanese were rapidly moving down the East Indies from their earlier conquests in the Philippines and Indo China.   Borneo - Jan 10,   Bismarck Archipelago (Rabaul) - Jan 23,   Celebes - Jan 24,   New Guinea - Feb 9,   Sumatra - Feb 16,   Bali and air raid on Darwin - 19 Feb,   Timor - Feb 20.

A joint task force of Dutch, Australian, British, and American cruisers and destroyers under RAdm Karel Doorman attempted to attack invading troopships:   with some successful at Macassar Strait, Jan 24, but the fleet was lost in battles around Java: Badoeng (Lombok) Straits, Feb 18-19; Java Sea, Feb 27; and Sundra Strait, Feb 28.  Details

Battle of the Coral Sea, May 4-8, 1942.   Japanese Expansion Stopped.

Other Imperial troops started taking the Solomon Islands with Bougainville, March 30, and down the chain to Tulagi, opposite Guadalcanal, May 3. On May 4th Fletcher attacked this new seaplane base in the Solomons. His TF 17 then linked with Fitch's TF 11 head off a Japanese troop landing at Port Moresby, Papua, New Guinea. This invasion would give the Japanese control over the seaways to Australia, even to threaten Australia itself. Meanwhile a second Japanese fleet, with two heavy carriers, arrived to search for Fletcher. Fletcher sent his planes to attack the occupation fleet destroying the supporting carrier: "scratch one flattop" and assigned his cruisers to attack the occupation fleet while he held off the Japanese carrier fleet. The next morning, the naval air fleets attacked each other simultaneously. One enemy carrier was damaged and virtually all of the 121 IJN carrier planes destroyed. However, both US carriers were damaged with a loss of 76 planes. The invasion force retreated; both enemy fleet carriers were out of service until after Midway. At the conclusion of the fighting, the US had won, but a few hours later, gas fumes on Lexington exploded.  The "Lady Lex" had to be abandoned. Yorktown returned to Pearl Harbor for repairs.

The final numbers in the battle were in favor of the Japanese who lost a small carrier while the US lost a large one. However, the Japanese attack and occupation of Port Moresby was thwarted and the Coral Sea remained a buffer for Australia and allowed the continued US naval buildup in the New Hebrides. And, two enemy carriers were not available for the next battle.

Battle of Midway,   June 4-6, 1942.   -- Major US Victory.

The Japanese did not feel they could continue to encounter the US fleet in isolated instances, there were too many risks and false alarms that distracted the fleets, required extra support to each troop movement, and required a home fleet to protect the main islands. The strength of the Japanese fleet was far superior to the US Pacific fleet and a plan was drawn up to bring out the entire US fleet to be defeated once and for all. Adm Yomamoto drew up a plan that included a diversionary taking of Aleutian Islands and a frontal assault on Midway with 200 ships. There were two carrier strike fleets (Dutch Harbor and Midway), three invasion fleets (Midway, Kirska, and Attu), a main force of 9 battleships and several covering, supply, and screening forces. From coded information, the US fleet knew of the Japanese attack and waited in ambush. All four enemy strike carriers were destroyed; the Yorktown was again damaged and later sunk by a submarine. But, the excessive Japanese power in the Pacific had been broken.

Battle of Savo Island, Aug 8-9, 1942.    -- Major US Disaster.

Battle of Eastern Solomon Sea, Aug 24, 1942.   -- Air Fight

The second naval battle in the Solomons took place on August 23-25, 1942 and was fought with aircraft. Henderson Field had become operational about the 21st with Marine Fighter Squadron 223 and Scout Bombing Squadron 232, delivered by the escort carrier Long Island, Aug 20.

• Adm Yamamoto gathered 58 warships including 4 BB, 2 CV, 3 CVL, 13 CA, 3 CL, and 30 DD with the mission to smash American naval forces in the SW Pacific and convoy 3 troop ships to reinforce Guadalcanal.
• Vice Adm Fletcher, TF 61, had BB New Jersey, 3 CV, 5 CA, 2 CL, and 18 DD.
  Both fought cautiously. Fletcher, although out numbered two to one, attacked first. A Jap small carrier was sunk. The two US carriers engaged were damaged: Enterprise and Saratoga. The Wasp had been detached for refueling and did not participate. With aircraft depleted, the Japanese fleet withdrew, Yamamoto, no doubt remembering Midway and wondering where was the other US carrier? The next day, a Jap light cruiser, a DD and a troop ship were sunk by land planes.
  
  At the end of September Fletcher returned to the States after almost nine months of continuous combat and the fleet organization was shuffled from defensive to offense.
  In the Battle of the Coral Sea, he had damaged two of the six enemy carriers that had attacked Pearl Harbor so that they could not join in at the Battle of Midway, where he destroyed the other four. He stopped the major enemy thrust to retake Guadalcanal in the Eastern Solomons before returning home. He was assigned as Commander Northwestern Sea Frontier, Nov 1942, to lend his prestige to defense of the US from a northern attack.

The Northwest Sea Frontier

The Japanese had taken two Aleutian Islands while Fletcher was fighting at Midway. These islands are on the most direct route from Tokyo to Seattle. The public perceived an invasion from the North and the Northwestern Command was in disarray. Fletcher had the prestige and diplomacy to straighten things out between the various US services, civilians, and Canada. When this was accomplished, Fletcher was given command of the entire North Pacific, but in this theater, where the major enemy was the weather, he had to content himself with transporting aid by the western route to Russia : 6,400 planes, 149 frigates and other small ships, and trained 8,700 Russian sailors. He was able to raid the Kurile Islands in 1944 and again in 1945. He accepted the surrender of the Imperial Japanese Northern Fleet in Mutsu Bay September 1945. He retired as Chairman of the Navy's General Board in 1947.