On 17 of February, 1944, Operation Hailstone was launch, a massive USN air and surface attack against on Truk Lagoon. F6F Hellcats fought against A6M Zeros while SBD Dauntless (and one SB2C Helldiver squadron) and TBF/M Avengers drop bombs on enemy vessels and airfields. One flight of Dauntless from USS Monterey was suddenly attacked by a floatplane that came from above, that managed to shoot down one Dauntless and damaged a second one. When it tried to do a second pass (this time against TBF Avengers of VC-832*, from USS Shiloh**), it was itself shoot down by the rear gunners of the torpedo bombers, but not before forcing one of the aircrafts to abandon formation due to battle damage. In both scenes, they reported an unusual sight in the floatplane: Iron Crosses in the upper wing and a swastika in the tail!
It was the end of the war in Europe (and with some papers found in Japan in 1946) that it was confirmed that there was one German "auxiliary cruisers" present in the lagoon! It was one of the two "missing" cruisers that the Allies failed to take account by 1944 (Hansa and Thor***). The reason of not leaving Asia was due to the Allied better control of the seas and better convoy systems. Hansa was the one present Truk, while Thor was later converted in a Q ship-style, as a kind of escort/transport hybrid. It survived until late 1945, as after Germany surrender, the ship was renamed Iwami, and reconverted back into the auxiliary cruiser. But on their first voyage as Iwami, it ran into a storm (to also hide from allied recon aircraft). When leaving the storm, they were almost face to face with a battleship Task Force on their way to bombard Nobeoka...
*As USS Robin (HMS Victorious) returned to the Atlantic, Churchill actually wanted to keep a force to fight against the IJN (as its forces had almost none against it). The end result was VC-832, a composite squadron of both fighters and torpedo boats, with british personnel on their controls.
**As part of the previous ORANGE war mobilization plans, three large passengers’ liners were to be converted into a light carrier. However, only one carrier was converted (the SS President Hoover) was converted, as troopships were more needed. It was an actually an improvement over the Independence-class light carrier, as it better than the previous carrier apart of speed and armor. It could carry 60~ aircrafts over the 34~ of the Independence-class. Due to the priority over escorts, fleet carriers and others military ships, the now renamed USS Shiloh only entered in service in mid-1943.
***Altmark/Uckermark was captured prior to take refugee in Norway, and taken in service into the RN. Ironically, it was selected as one of the tankers for the British Pacific Fleet.
