Operation Hula
The North Pacific Offensive

Potential Joint US/Russian Operation
in the North Pacific, 1945

Part 6: Reinforcement of the US 9th Fleet

by Brooks A Rowlett, brooksar@indy.net

Beginning in the early summer of 1945, and despite the requirement for major fleet units to operate in the air strikes on Japan, as well as the buildup for the anticipated invasion in the fall, the 9th Fleet was also built up. Frank Jack Fletcher, who had been detached from carrier command after 1942, might have had a chance to participate in a successful offensive, because from the indications of the Our Navy article, the USN may have planned to support the Soviet operations against the Kuriles.

Fletcher received one of the valuable Command Ships that had come into use to direct amphibious operations, and moved his flag from shore to this vessel in preparation for operations. His light cruisers were supplemented by a division of the oldest heavy cruisers, and his destroyer force was perhaps tripled. Ninth Fleet received some auxiliary ships as well, but most significantly, an entire squadron of escort carriers (CVEs) After this reinforcement, the known warship strength of the 9th fleet included:

Command: Frank Jack Fletcher, in AGC-13 (Command Ship) Panamint. (C-2 conversion)

    CVEs (newly assigned), TF-44
      CVE-78 Savo Island (VC-3)
      CVE-75 Hoggatt Bay (VC-99)
      CVE-74 Nehenta Bay (VC-8)
      CVE-61 Manila Bay (VC-71)
      CVE-71 Kitkun Bay (VC-63)
      CVE-70 Fanshaw Bay (VC-10)
      (all Casablanca class)
      CVE-9 Bogue (Bogue Class) with no assigned air group, probably used as an aircraft transport.

    The typical CVE air wing consisted of a Composite Squadron (CompRon) or VC, with 16 FM-2 Wildcat and 12 TBF or TBM Avenger. They would not have been reequipped with Hellcats, as these were considered unsuitable for all but the Sangamon and Commencement Bay class CVEs, which were longer, being built on tanker hulls.

    CruDiv 5 (newly assigned)

      CA-27 Chester (Flag)
      CA-24 Pensacola
      CA-25 Salt Lake City These all carried OS2U Kingfisher floatplanes from VCS-5

    CruDiv 1 (already assigned) (all Omaha class)

      CL-9 Richmond (Flag)
      CL-10 Concord
      CL-11 Trenton
      These all carried OS2U Kingfisher floatplanes from VCS-1.

    DesRon 2 (all Sims class)
    DesDiv 3
    DD-410 Hughes
    DD-411 Anderson
    The other vessels of DesRon 2 were undergoing the anti-Kamikaze refit program of 1945 and were not available.

    9th Fleet original Destroyer force:

    DesRon57:

      DesDiv 113 (Fletcher class)
        DD 564 Rowe (Flag)
        DD 565 Smalley
        DD 566 Stoddard
        DD 567 Watts
        DD 568 Wren

      DesDiv 114 ( Fletcher class)

        DD 654 Bears
        DD 655 John Hood
        DD 799 Jarvis
        DD 800 Porter

      As many as two more full 9-ship DesRons, probably also of Fletcher-class ships, may have been added as well.

    Store Ship: AF-29 Graffias
    Fleet Oiler: AO-36 Kennebec
    Repair Ship: AR-19 Xanthus

    9th Fleet also included at least one "CortDiv" (Escort Division), CortDiv 14, of six Evarts -class destroyer escorts, primarily for escorting supply vessels from Dutch Harbor out to the other bases, and back.

    While 9th Fleet did not have any submarines under its control, it is likely that US subs may have been added to forces patrolling off the Kuriles had US action occurred. USN subs, most spectacularly USS Barb under Eugene B. Fluckey, had already penetrated the Sea of Okhotsk as well in June and July 1945.

Unfortunately for history, 9th Fleet was never fully activated as a combat command, rather than an administrative command. The Japanese surrender intervened, so that the buildup of US forces dispersed just as quickly.

The potential for renewed US offensive operations from the Aleutians was quickly forgotten, and is not even mentioned in Morison. Only in the forgotten pages of Our Navy magazine, a minimal reference in The Empire Express, and in tantalizing references to ships suddenly transferring to Aleutian waters in summer 1945 in ship's histories in the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, does any indication of this potential offensive survive.

The implication of the Our Navy article, which has been ignored by every other major source, is that the USN was prepared to directly support the Soviet operations in the Kuriles and Sea of Okhotsk against Japan. If this interpretation is correct, it is an interesting counter-argument to allegations about the atomic bomb being used on Japan as much as a warning to the Soviet Union as a means to end the war.

It would, further, have been an unprecedented amount of cooperation, exceeding even such episodes as the occasional provision of Soviet escorts to convoys inbound to Murmansk, or the USAAF shuttle bombing missions to Poltava. This would have been a direct, fighting side-by-side, offensive operation. The Empire Express confirms that USN FAW-4 crews knew they would be flying in support of Soviet operations. It seems certain that the USN forces were not intended to cover any US landing operations, because no US-operated landing craft were in their area - only those being sent to the Soviet union via lend-lease, for the USSR's use in the Far East. In short, the best explanation for the mission of this force is exactly what is suggested in Our Navy magazine: The USN force would provide the heavy cover - and for Russian landings, USN air and gunfire support - in the Northern Pacific area, to support the Russians in the landings in the Kuriles and Sakhalin - a role that was agreed to at Yalta!

More Operation Hula

BT

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