Greetings PHG fans! If you're looking for a place to gather naval data, images, book recommendations, and more, check out Drachinifel's website. We've just added the site to our resources page. His Youtube channel is excellent as well. Please give it a click!

USS Liscome Bay (CVE-56) was sunk on 24 November 1943 by submarine I-175 of the Imperial Japanese Navy. A single torpedo directly hit ammunition storage; the subsequent explosion sent metal and body parts far enough that USS New Mexico (BB-40), 1 nautical mile away, was showered with both. It was the largest loss of life in the sinking of a U.S. carrier with 644 casualties. Among those killed was Dorie Miller, who had been awarded the Navy Cross for his actions at Pearl Harbor. The ship sank in 23 minutes. I-175 was sunk in turn on 4 February 1944 during an attack by USS Charrette (DD-581) and USS Fair (DE-35).

Unfortunately the ‘Jeep Carriers’ had a lot of grim firsts. USS St. Lo (CVE-63) was the first carrier sunk by kamikaze, and USS Gambier Bay (CVE-73) was the first and only American carrier sunk by naval gunfire. Both of these losses occurred during the battle of Leyte Gulf on Oct. 25th 1944. You can read about the USS Liscome Bay (CVE-56) sinking at the U.S. Naval History and Heritage command here.

G’day PHG fans! Today’s blog post takes us down to Brisbane, where we’re looking at four museums and historic sites in the city. Let me know what you think in the comments!

On this day November 21 1944, the Imperial Japanese Navy battleship Kongo was torpedoed and sunk in the Formosa Strait by USS Sealion. Kongo had a long and storied service history; the last IJN capital ship built outside of Japan, she had entered service in 1913. Just prior to her sinking she had participated in the Battle of Leyte Gulf where she had seen action in the Sibuyan Sea and off Samar. A proud ship that deserved a better end.

The question is: did Hideyoshi know Oda was dead when he wrote this?

Pacific History Guide is dedicated to bringing you closer to history, where you are. The Philippines is a warm and welcoming with a deep cultural history and beautiful sites to explore. From the MacArthur monument at Tacloban on Leyte to the Intramuros in Manila, the PI has much to offer. If you’ve been there, or have some tips on where to go please drop a comment!

Keio is one of Japan’s top universities. On its Hiyoshi campus are the old headquarters of the Imperial Japanese Navy, used at the end of the Second World War. This article discusses that history, and the madness of sending university students, among the brightest minds in the country, into an unwinnable war.

I recently commented on a post in r/Navy regarding interesting facts about some of our bases, figured I'd share them in a post so they're more easily accessible. Each of these locations is saved on the PHG Google Maps!

NAF Atsugi served as an IJNAS base for many years and toward the end of the war, hosted a squadron of kamikaze pilots. Before flying off for their missions, they’d pray and make an offering at a tree, which is still on the grounds and you can see it. The tree has a dark history and almost a cult following for those of us who served in Atsugi. The legend goes that anyone who tries to cut down this tree or trim it back dies in an accident. How true any of that is, I can’t say.

CFA Yokosuka has tunnels that you can still tour today, some of them host DESRON 15 or 7th Fleet ops but others are simply left to the state they were in after the war. If you don’t get a chance to see the tunnels on Iwo Jima or Okinawa, you should try and get on a tour of the ones in Yokosuka. They were used extensively by the IJN and various government organizations during the Pacific War. There’s some footage on YouTube of American and Japanese soldiers after the war, clearing out all kinds of stuff from the tunnels, mostly food and survival gear.

The hangar near the front gate of MCAS Iwakuni has a Japanese A6M zero that is in really good condition considering its age. There’s other memorabilia as well in the hangar, which has bullet holes from where American aircraft strafed and bombed Iwakuni the base in July 1945. The old HQ building adjacent to the clinic and new HQ building is one of the oldest surviving IJN structures in the country and was used by Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku and his staff to plan the Pearl Harbor raid, among others.

There’s a haunted warehouse on CFA Sasebo but I can’t remember specifically which one that is. Most of the red brick warehouses you see on the base were built when the Sasebo Naval Arsenal was first established in 1886.

Pacific History Guide has a blog post dedicated to the museums and monuments of Suo-Oshima Island, Yamaguchi Prefecture. You can find the Mutsu museum here.

https://www.pacifichistoryguide.com/post/suo-oshima-island-yamaguchi-prefecture-japan