At 13:20, I-58 detected the formation with Type 13 air-search radar and broadcast a continuous long-wave signal to help guide it. Engine trouble reduced the strike from 24 aircraft to eight before a navigation error near Yap, and only two reached Ulithi at 20:07 after almost eleven hours in the air. One P1Y hit the Essex-class carrier USS Randolph, killing 26 and wounding 105, but its fuel was so depleted that the aircraft did not burst into flames. The other aircraft crashed into a baseball field without damaging a military target. Japan paid for this temporary damage with roughly 60 to 70 personnel and at least 13 aircraft. Randolph returned for the Okinawa campaign, so the hit produced no durable operational result. The American anchorage had been caught napping, yet the understrength raid still failed.
Chapter · 39:23-45:40
Navigation error, attrition, and the hit on USS Randolph
Engine trouble and a navigation error left only two aircraft at Ulithi, where one struck USS Randolph with little fuel remaining.