| Battle of Convoy Hi-81 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of World War II, Pacific War | |||||||
 Port side view of USS Spadefish in May 1944. | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 United States |
 Japan | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
.svg){kind=small} Gordon W. Underwood Eugene B. Fluckey |
 Tsutomu Sato Shizue Ishii | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
|
Sea: 6 submarines Air: 1 B-29 bomber |
Sea: 2 escort carriers 1 seaplane tender 1 destroyer 7 escort ships 1 submarine chaser 3 landing ships 5 oilers Air: 27 B5N torpedo bombers | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| none |
~6,600 killed 2 escort carriers sunk 1 submarine chaser sunk 1 landing ship sunk | ||||||
Convoy Hi-81 (ヒ-81) was the designation for a formation of Japanese transports that carried soldiers bound for Singapore and the Philippines during World War II. The transports were escorted by a large force of surface combatants including the escort carriers Shinyo and Akitsu Maru which were sunk in the Yellow Sea by American submarines. Over the course of a four-day convoy battle in November 1944 nearly 7,000 Japanese were killed in action while the Americans sustained no casualties.[1]