I wonder who compiled the key dates and info.
Quote:
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June 19, 1944 - The "Marianas Turkey Shoot" occurs as U.S. Carrier-based fighters shoot down 220 Japanese planes, while only 20 American planes are lost.
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They certainly missed a spectacular submarine victory.
The Battle of the Philippine Sea was much more than an aircraft battle!
June 19, 1944
Admiral Lockwood, commander of Task Force 17, the patrol submarines of the Central Pacific Force, had positioned four of his boats to intercept the Japanese fleet. Two of these located and attacked Ozawa's force on 19 June.
At 0816 Albacore sighted Ozawa's carrier division, and soon began an attack on the carrier most suitably placed, which by chance was the Taiho, Ozawa's flagship, the Japanese Navy's most modern and most strongly constructed carrier. As Albacore was about to fire a salvo of six torpedoes at Taiho her fire-control guidence system failed and her commanding officer, J.W. Blanchard, was forced to aim the salvo by visual judgment.
Taiho was than steaming at 27 knots. She had just launched 42 aircraft, her component of the Japanese second wave attacking Task Force 58. Four of Albacore's torpedoes were off-target. The pilot of one of Taiho's recently launched aircraft, Sakio Komatsu, sighted one of the two which were heading for Taiho and heroically crashed his aircraft on it, destroying the torpedo but losing his life. Nonetheless the remaining torpedo struck the carrier on her starboard side near her aviation fuel tanks but the damage to Taiho initially appeared to be not very serious.
The gods of war, who had smiled upon the Japanese Navy on so many occasions, were now playing a cruel game with the Japanese. As aircrew after aircrew and plane after plane met its demise at the hands of anti-air artillery and fighter planes, the Mobile Fleet’s precious carriers once more were targets for an attack.
This time it was Shokaku, veteran of Pearl Harbor and three carrier battles. The big flattop was flying off and landing planes, the planes that comprised Raid IV and various Zekes of the Combat Air Patrol. The whole screen seemed totally oblivious to the threat from submarines. This was luck for Cavalla, commanded by Hermann Kossler, whose periscope had pierced the surface of the Philippine Sea at 1152. Kossler quickly closed the carrier, reaching 1200 yards without being sighted or otherwise detected. He fired six torpedoes, going deep as finally a Japanese destroyer engaged him. Three torpedoes slammed into the carrier at 1220, which immediately erupted into flames. Here, as in Taiho, the gasoline tanks were ruptured and the deadly fumes spread through the ship. The resulting fires were difficult to control, even for the experienced crew of Shokaku, and quite soon the damage control teams lost their battle. At 1500, a powerful explosion doomed the carrier.
Shortly after 1530, a violent explosion erupted in Taiho's hangar deck. Her armored flight deck buckled, then broke up, her bottom was holed and fires spread out of control. Ozawa’s flagship was doomed, by the distribution of the volatile oil and aviation fuel gases through out the ship. Ozawa left his ship not much after the explosion, prodded to do so by his staff. At 1828, Taiho went under in another great detonation, heeling over on her side and beginning her voyage to the bottom.
Albacore and Cavalla were both subjected to heavy depth-charge attacks, but the submarines escaped without serious damage.
Source:
http://www.ussessexcv9.org/Bravepages/philsea.html