OOT:
Saya selalu tertarik dengan kisah sejarah PD II. Ada tiga buku tulisan PK
Ojong (pendiri koran KOMPAS bersama Jakob Oetama), yang dirangkum dari
berbagai sumber, dimana salah satu babnya menceritakan secara detail
peristiwa di bawah.
Anyway, di Wikipedia juga ada tulisan tentang Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. Barangkali ada yang juga berminat, saya paste-kan di bawah...
Rgds
On 8/25/07, Sharif Dayan <bintara_88(*)telkom.net> wrote:
>
> Salam Sejahtera...
>
> Pada Kamis, 23 Agustus 22007, James Arifin menulis:
>
> > Medan pertempuran ke depan akan makin sulit karena Bandar makin punya
> > banyak musuh yang makin pintar tiap hari.
>
> Laksamana Isoroku Yamamoto, otak penyerangan Pearl Harbour, dicegat dan
> ditembak jatuh oleh pesawat-pesawat jenis P-38 dari Skadron Ke-339
> Tempur dari Armada Pasifik Amerika Serikat, pada 18 Maret 1943.
> Kedatangannya memang sudah ditunggu, karena ia dikenal sebagai tentara
> yang berdisiplin, termasuk dalam memenuhi jadwal kunjungannya pada
> tanggal tersebut.
>
> Pesan cerita jelas: dalam perang janganlah sampai 'terbaca' oleh lawan.
> Sebaliknya buatlah lawan menganggap bahwa Anda 'terbaca' olehnya padahal
> Anda terlebih dulu sudah 'membaca' mereka dan kemudian menyiapkan
> rencana lain.
Selamat bertempur... dan usahakan tetap selamat sampai akhir !
>
>
> Sharif Dayan
> "Beruang dan Naga", Tom Clancy, Gramedia, 2006
>
>
To boost morale following the defeat at Guadalcanal, Yamamoto decided to
make an inspection tour throughout the South
Pacific<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Ocean_Theater_of_World_War_II>.
On 14 April <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_14>
1943<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1943>,
the US naval intelligence effort, code-named
"Magic<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_%28cryptography%29>",
intercepted and decrypted a message containing specific details regarding
Yamamoto's tour, including arrival and departure times and locations, as
well as the number and types of planes that would transport and accompany
him on the journey. Yamamoto, the itinerary revealed, would be flying from
Rabaul <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabaul> to Ballalae Airfield, on an
island near Bougainville<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bougainville_Province>in
the Solomon
Islands <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_Islands>, on the morning of 18
April <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_18>
1943<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1943>
.
U.S. President Franklin D.
Roosevelt<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt>requested
Secretary
of the Navy <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secretary_of_the_Navy> Frank
Knox<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Knox>to "Get Yamamoto." Knox
instructed Admiral Chester
W. Nimitz <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chester_W._Nimitz> of Roosevelt's
wishes. Admiral Nimitz consulted Admiral William F. Halsey,
Jr.<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_F._Halsey%2C_Jr.>,
Commander, South Pacific, then authorized a mission on 17
April<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_17>to intercept Yamamoto's
flight en route and down it.
The 339th Fighter
Squadron<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=339th_Fighter_Squadron&action=edit>of
the 347th
Fighter Group<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=347th_Fighter_Group&action=edit>,
13th Air Force <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13th_Air_Force>, was assigned
the mission, since only their P-38
Lightning<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-38_Lightning>aircraft
possessed the range to intercept and engage. Pilots were informed
that they were intercepting an "important high officer," although they were
not aware of who their actual target was.
On the morning of April 18 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_18>, despite urgings by local commanders to cancel the trip for fear of ambush, Yamamoto's planes left Rabaul as scheduled for the 315-mile trip. Shortly after, eighteen specially-fitted P-38s took off from Guadalcanal. They wave-hopped most of the 430 miles to the rendezvous point, maintaining radio silence throughout. At 09:34 Tokyo time, the two flights met and a dogfight ensued between the P-38s and the six Zeroes escorting Yamamoto.
1st Lt. Rex T. Barber <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rex_T._Barber> engaged the first of the two Japanese bombers, which turned out to be Yamamoto's plane <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T1-323>. He sprayed the plane with gunfire until it began to spew smoke from its left engine. Barber turned away to attack the other bomber as Yamamoto's plane crashed into the jungle. Afterwards, another pilot, Capt Thomas George Lanphier, Jr.<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_George_Lanphier%2C_Jr.>, claimed he had shot down the lead bomber, which led to a decades-old controversy until a team inspected the crash site to determine direction of the bullet impacts. Most historians now credit Barber with the claim.
One US pilot¡ª1st Lt. Raymond K. Hine¡ªwas killed in action<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killed_in_action> .
The crash site and body of Admiral Yamamoto were found the next day in the jungle north of the then-coastal site of the former Australian patrol post of Buin<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Buin%2C_Papua_New_Guinea&action=edit>by a Japanese search and rescue party, led by Army engineer Lieutenant Hamasuna. According to Hamasuna, Yamamoto had been thrown clear of the plane's wreckage, his white-gloved hand grasping the hilt of his katana<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katana>, still upright in his seat under a tree. Hamasuna said Yamamoto was instantly recognizable, head dipped down as if deep in thought. A post-mortem<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-mortem>of the body disclosed that Yamamoto had received two gunshot wounds, one to the back of his left shoulder and another to his left lower jaw that exited above his right eye. Despite the evidence, the question of whether or not the Admiral initially survived the crash has been a matter of controversy in Japan.
This proved to be the longest fighter-intercept mission of the war. In Japan it became known as the "Navy A Incident" (º£ÜŠ¼×ʼþ *Kaigun k¨<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavenly_Stems> -jiken*). It raised morale in the United States, and shocked the Japanese who were officially told about the incident only on 21 May<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_21> 1943 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1943>. To cover up the fact that the Allies were reading Japanese code, American news agencies were told that civilian coast-watchers <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coast-watcher> in the Solomon Islands saw Yamamoto boarding a bomber in the area. They also did not publicize the names of the pilots that attacked Yamamoto's plane because one of them had a brother who was a prisoner of the Japanese and U.S. military officials feared for his safety. Received on Mon Aug 27 2007 - 11:57:32 EDT
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