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The Last Battle of the Asiatic Fleet: Escape to Batangas Bay (part 4) Surprise Attack
Batangas Bay
The Canopus is in the middle of the bay at first light, steaming straight for Batangas at 13 knots. Meanwhile the Tenryu has departed the most recent battle area after detaching the two battered patrol boats to pick up survivors and see if the remaining minesweeper can be gotten off the reef it has run into (it is, but spends many months in the yard after). An exhausted Japanese Rear Admiral again calls for air support, and Japanese floatplanes begin looking for the fugitive American ship while he answers queries from high authority regarding the events of the last few hours. The tone of those questions is very critical, particularly regarding the fate of his other cruiser and the loss of still more combat vessels.
The Japanese do not spot the Canopus until she is only a few thousand yards from Batangas, while the Tenyru has already well into Balayan Bay checking for American fugitives. Thus she is miles away and when the message is received at 0640 hours, the cruiser makes an immediate turn and makes revolutions for 33 knots. She is an hour away, and it will be at least 45 minutes before she can get within gun range. Once again no one from the Navy thinks to warn the Army, focused as they are on the chase and failing to imagine that the American ship is crammed with troops.
Surprise attack
The Japanese Army has only 600 troops at Batangas, a beat up infantry battalion and some support troops. Regimental headquarters is Batangas Airfield with another 400 troops, while another 1,200 troops which include ground crews, are at Rosario and Zablan Airfield (along with 45 Army light bombers). The bombers at Zablan are being bombed up and fueled for a strike planned against Bataan later in the morning or are undergoing maintenance and repair.
Army sentries spot the American ship, which to the untrained eye looks little different from a 6,000 ton troops ship or freighter and officers are soon on their way to the dock to greet the unexpected arrival of reinforcements and supplies. Meanwhile the Canopus has launched her 4 motor launches, each crammed with 30 troops, which are moving so that the ship is between them and any observers on the dock.
Only when she is at 900 yards from the dock does the flag of the Republic of the Philippines replace the Japanese Army Flag, and at that moment gunners open fire on the small crowd of Japanese soldiers at the dock with 5 inch and 3 inch shells and heavy and medium machine guns, inflicting a slaughter on the completely surprised Japanese. The motor launches meanwhile accelerate to their best speed and come out from behind the ship, hurrying to get troops onto the dock so that it can be seized and a small perimeter established by the 120 man mixed US Marine Corps and Philippine Scouts troops. It takes several minutes for the remainder of the Japanese garrison to figure out what is going on, which is too late to interfere with the seizure of the docks and nearby buildings.
The ship is rapidly tied up to the dock, and cargo nets and gangways are soon filled with troops making their way ashore. By 0655, nearly 1,000 men are ashore, where they meet the Japanese counterattack with the support of heavy weapons and cannons aboard the Canopus and chew it to pieces. The surviving Japanese retreat to the edge of town, while sending word of an American raid by courier to the nearest other Japanese garrisons as battalion headquarters has already been overrun and the senior battalion commanders and staff were at the dock and thus vital minutes were lost before anyone thought to send a radio message or make a telephone call.
Of all the events this day, the element of surprise is what ensures the success of the debarkation of the 4th Philippine Infantry Regiment and crew off the Canopus. Nearly everyone is off by the time the Tenyru reaches artillery range and begins firing round after round into her. In all Filipino-American casualties are under 200, most of them in wounded, and only 45 are killed or fatally wounded. By the time the Japanese 59th Infantry Regiment or 14th Infantry Division have figured out what has occurred, the Filipino-Americans are 10 miles into the jungle and it will be a couple of days before the Japanese determine that this was more than a desperate ships crew with a few soldiers that took Batangas. The last of the crew of the Canopus set off scuttling charges as they depart, sinking her in shallow water. It will be months before the ship is salvaged by the Japanese, only to be sunk by an American submarine in 1944.
Due to secrecy, the true story of this major victory is kept quiet until the return and liberation of the Philippines later in the war, but the 4,500 men aboard the Canopus, particularly the veteran infantrymen, are the cadre of a partisan army that would be 20 times this size by time the Americans return to liberate Luzon. By that time Lieutenant General Lim will be in control of much of Luzon while Rear Admiral's Andrade and Juarado, both evacuated from Luzon, command ships manned by Filipinos and Filipino-Americans (from the US) in that liberation.
April 18 is Navy Day in the Republic of the Philippines. Both the US Navy and the Republic of the Philippines Navy have ships named Canopus.
The Canopus is in the middle of the bay at first light, steaming straight for Batangas at 13 knots. Meanwhile the Tenryu has departed the most recent battle area after detaching the two battered patrol boats to pick up survivors and see if the remaining minesweeper can be gotten off the reef it has run into (it is, but spends many months in the yard after). An exhausted Japanese Rear Admiral again calls for air support, and Japanese floatplanes begin looking for the fugitive American ship while he answers queries from high authority regarding the events of the last few hours. The tone of those questions is very critical, particularly regarding the fate of his other cruiser and the loss of still more combat vessels.
The Japanese do not spot the Canopus until she is only a few thousand yards from Batangas, while the Tenyru has already well into Balayan Bay checking for American fugitives. Thus she is miles away and when the message is received at 0640 hours, the cruiser makes an immediate turn and makes revolutions for 33 knots. She is an hour away, and it will be at least 45 minutes before she can get within gun range. Once again no one from the Navy thinks to warn the Army, focused as they are on the chase and failing to imagine that the American ship is crammed with troops.
Surprise attack
The Japanese Army has only 600 troops at Batangas, a beat up infantry battalion and some support troops. Regimental headquarters is Batangas Airfield with another 400 troops, while another 1,200 troops which include ground crews, are at Rosario and Zablan Airfield (along with 45 Army light bombers). The bombers at Zablan are being bombed up and fueled for a strike planned against Bataan later in the morning or are undergoing maintenance and repair.
Army sentries spot the American ship, which to the untrained eye looks little different from a 6,000 ton troops ship or freighter and officers are soon on their way to the dock to greet the unexpected arrival of reinforcements and supplies. Meanwhile the Canopus has launched her 4 motor launches, each crammed with 30 troops, which are moving so that the ship is between them and any observers on the dock.
Only when she is at 900 yards from the dock does the flag of the Republic of the Philippines replace the Japanese Army Flag, and at that moment gunners open fire on the small crowd of Japanese soldiers at the dock with 5 inch and 3 inch shells and heavy and medium machine guns, inflicting a slaughter on the completely surprised Japanese. The motor launches meanwhile accelerate to their best speed and come out from behind the ship, hurrying to get troops onto the dock so that it can be seized and a small perimeter established by the 120 man mixed US Marine Corps and Philippine Scouts troops. It takes several minutes for the remainder of the Japanese garrison to figure out what is going on, which is too late to interfere with the seizure of the docks and nearby buildings.
The ship is rapidly tied up to the dock, and cargo nets and gangways are soon filled with troops making their way ashore. By 0655, nearly 1,000 men are ashore, where they meet the Japanese counterattack with the support of heavy weapons and cannons aboard the Canopus and chew it to pieces. The surviving Japanese retreat to the edge of town, while sending word of an American raid by courier to the nearest other Japanese garrisons as battalion headquarters has already been overrun and the senior battalion commanders and staff were at the dock and thus vital minutes were lost before anyone thought to send a radio message or make a telephone call.
Of all the events this day, the element of surprise is what ensures the success of the debarkation of the 4th Philippine Infantry Regiment and crew off the Canopus. Nearly everyone is off by the time the Tenyru reaches artillery range and begins firing round after round into her. In all Filipino-American casualties are under 200, most of them in wounded, and only 45 are killed or fatally wounded. By the time the Japanese 59th Infantry Regiment or 14th Infantry Division have figured out what has occurred, the Filipino-Americans are 10 miles into the jungle and it will be a couple of days before the Japanese determine that this was more than a desperate ships crew with a few soldiers that took Batangas. The last of the crew of the Canopus set off scuttling charges as they depart, sinking her in shallow water. It will be months before the ship is salvaged by the Japanese, only to be sunk by an American submarine in 1944.
Due to secrecy, the true story of this major victory is kept quiet until the return and liberation of the Philippines later in the war, but the 4,500 men aboard the Canopus, particularly the veteran infantrymen, are the cadre of a partisan army that would be 20 times this size by time the Americans return to liberate Luzon. By that time Lieutenant General Lim will be in control of much of Luzon while Rear Admiral's Andrade and Juarado, both evacuated from Luzon, command ships manned by Filipinos and Filipino-Americans (from the US) in that liberation.
April 18 is Navy Day in the Republic of the Philippines. Both the US Navy and the Republic of the Philippines Navy have ships named Canopus.
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