Episode 600
Allied naval bombardments of Japan during World War II
Wed, 2018-Dec-26 00:47 UTC
Length - 2:50
Direct Link
Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of the featured Wikipedia article every day.
The featured article for Wednesday, 26 December 2018 is Allied naval bombardments of Japan during World War II.
During the last weeks of World War II, warships of the United States Navy, the British Royal Navy and the Royal New Zealand Navy bombarded industrial and military facilities in Japan. Most of these bombardments involved battleships and cruisers which caused heavy damage to several of the factories targeted, as well as nearby civilian areas. A major goal of the attacks was to provoke the Japanese military into committing some of its reserve force of aircraft into battle. However, the Japanese did not attempt to attack the Allied bombardment forces, and none of the involved warships suffered any damage.
The major bombardments began on 14 and 15 July 1945, when US Navy warships attacked the cities of Kamaishi and Muroran. The next attack was made by a joint American and British force against the city of Hitachi during the night of 17/18 July. Groups of cruisers and destroyers subsequently shelled the Nojima Saki and Shionomisaki areas on 18 July and the night of 24/25 July, respectively. On 29 July, American and British warships attacked Hamamatsu, and on the night of 30/31 several American destroyers shelled Shimizu. The final bombardment took place on 9 August, when Kamaishi was attacked again by American, British and New Zealand warships. Two US Navy submarines conducted small-scale attacks during June and July 1945; one of the submarines also landed a small raiding party.
The Allied naval bombardments disrupted industrial production in the cities targeted, and convinced many Japanese civilians that the war was lost. Up to 1,739 Japanese were killed in the attacks, and as many as 1,497 were wounded. The only Allied casualties were 32 prisoners of war, who were killed in the bombardments of Kamaishi.
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:47 UTC on Wednesday, 26 December 2018.
For the full current version of the article, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_naval_bombardments_of_Japan_during_World_War_II.
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