In my reading thus far about the Guadalcanal Campaign, I count six named naval battles: Savo Island, August 9. Eastern Solomons, August 23-25 Cape Esperance, October 11-12 Santa Cruz, October 26 Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, November 12-13 Tassafaronga, November 30. At Savo Island, a naval disaster for the Allies, HMAS Canberra was sunk. Santa Cruz was an air battle between carrier-based aircraft. And these do not include skirmishes such as that of September 15th which saw the carrier Wasp go down. So many vessels were sunk in Sealark Channel it came to be called Ironbottom Sound. JT
Hope no one minds me bringing this back out to see some light. Savo Island was a disaster, however it could have been much worse. Thank god that the Japanese decided to fall back and regroup as opposed to destroying the beach head. Eastern Solomons could also have been much worse. Personally I do not see how this can be chalked up as an Allied victory (according to Wikipedia). It was at best a draw as the US carriers never found the main Japanese carrier force. They also suffered more with the damage to the Enterprise than did the Japanese in losing Ryūjō. Cape Esperance was a clear allied victory in turning back a Japanese force intent on shelling Henderson Field. It was however to hold little effect as the Japanese shelled the airfield a few days later. Santa Cruz clearly left the US with a bad taste in there mouths. Hornet was sunk, and IMO the air attack against her could not have been more perfect. Enterprise was left with an elevator stuck in the down position, leaving a gapping hole in her flight deck, and she was the only operational carrier in the entire Pacific. Naval Battles of Guadalcanal are one of my favorites. It was I believe the first Battleship engagement in the Pacific. After that the Japanese rarely used anything bigger than a destroyer in the Solomons. Tassafaronga, in my opinion is way to overlooked. It was not one of the "sexy" carrier battles, and thus mostly forgotten. A horrible defeat by the Allies. Element of surprise was blown, and each ship followed each other into the paths of Japanese type 93 torpedoes. I have done a small paper on the battle if anyone is interested in reading it.
The Battle of Tassafaronga By: Michael Batzel In November of 1942, the Allies where engaging Japanese land forces on Guadalcanal. By 26, November General Imamura was informed by the 17th army on Guadalcanal that it faced a critical food shortage. A plan was devised to supply the troops with food while minimizing the threat to Japanese destroyers. Large drums where cleaned and prepared, filled with food and medical supplies, and tied together. The hope was that the Japanese could make a run down “the slot” make a sharp turn, cut lose the supplies and let them float in to shore to be picked up by the troops on the island. On the night of the 29th, Rear Admiral Raizo Tanaka was tasked with making the first of five scheduled deliveries with the new drum method. RADM Tanaka’s force, DesRon2, departed the ShortlandIslands with 8 destroyers just after midnight on the 30th. Two as escorts and six carrying 200-240 drums apiece. Aware of the impending re-supply run by the Japanese, due to an intercepted transmission to the 17th army, Admiral Halsey ordered Rear Admiral Carleton Wright’s TF 67 to intercept and destroy the Japanese ships. Task Force 67 consisted of the Heavy cruisers Minneapolis, New Orleans, Pensacola, and Northampton, light cruiser Honolulu, and the destroyers Fletcher, Drayton, Maury, and Perkins. The plan was to use the destroyers as scouts for the cruiser force before launching a torpedo attack with the cruisers opening fire between 10-12000 yards. Left: USS New Orleans; Right: USS Northampton - note the painted on bow wake to confuse enemy speed estimates On 30 November at around 22:40 Tanaka’s destroyers Takanami, Oyashio, Kuroshio, Kagero, Makinami, Naganami, Kawakaze, and Suzukaze passed around three miles south of Savo Island and began preparations to unload the re-supply drums. A half hour later a spotter on board Takanami spotted the US column approaching and Tanaka ordered unloading preparations halted and that “all ships attack” unknown to the Japanese, Writes destroyers had the Japanese ships on Radar and were preparing to fire. At 23:20 three of the US destroyers launched a torpedo attack. The USS Maury didn’t have a SG radar so held there fire. At the same time the cruiser force also opened fire on the Japanese and the battle begun. Takanami was the first to be hit, and took fire from most of the American cruisers. She got off her all 8 torpedoes before being knocked out of the fight by damage. The rest of DesRon2 however was maneuvering for a torpedo attack on the American cruisers. By 23:28 all Japanese destroyers with the exception of Kagero had launched a spread in the direction of the flashes from the American guns. About two minuets later 2 torpedoes ripped into the Minneapolis. The bow folded 70 degrees, and the ship lost steering and power. One minute later a torpedo hit the New Orleans detonating the forward Ammunition Magazine and ripping the bow off the ship forward of the number two turret. Observing the damage sustained by the first two cruisers in the formation the Pensacola maneuvered to pass the stricken ships to port before turning back on course. At approximately 23:40Pensacolawas hit abreast the mainmast by a single torpedo and the ship took a 13 degree list. The Honolulumade the same move as Pensacola, however decided to pass the disabled ships to starboard but also increased speed. The USS New Orleans followed Honolulu but without an increased speed and she too was struck by two torpedoes. At 23:44 VADM Tanaka ordered his forces to break off and retire from the area. Left: USS Minneapolis at Tulagi following the battle; Right: USS New Orleans shows off her battle damage near Tulagi; both pictures taken on 1 December 1942 The damage had been done. The USS Northampton sank at around 03:00. The rest of the American cruisers where able to make it to Tulagi the next morning however the damage sustained in the battle left all three stricken ships out of action for almost a full year. The Japanese left the battle in far better shape with only the loss of Takanami. No other Japanese ships where even damaged. Despite the fact that the US strategically stopped the Japanese from delivering supplies to the Island, It was a huge tactical defeat. It was the third worst naval defeat suffered by the US during WWII, and worst, of the three instances, is the only one where the US forces surprised the Japanese. In his report, Wright shows the lack of knowledge the US had about the capabilities of the Long Lance torpedo. He observed that the position of the Japanese destroyers made it improbable that they could hit the US ships and that the torpedoes had, by all rights to be fired from submarines. Wright escaped blame for the loss of the battle as most of it was placed on the destroyer screen launching torpedoes from too great a distance. Wright was awarded the Navy Cross for his actions during the battle.
At Savo Island, a naval disaster for the Allies, HMAS Canberra was sunk. Three other heavy cruisers were also sunk in the battle, U.S.S. Astoria, U.S.S. Vincennes and U.S.S. Quincy. regards, Martin
Excellent reading..Not too long, nor too short. Thanks for sharing that and look forward to anymore you have Ps. One favour if I may ask ? Can you identify the ships for me please Cheers again Andy
Excellent reading..Not too long, nor too short. Thanks for sharing that and look forward to anymore you have Ps. One favour if I may ask ? Can you identify the ships for me please Cheers again Andy Top left is going to be hard to do, lacking a bow number or other clues Top right - I'll have to look for that one, I have seen that pic before Bottom left - USS Minneapolis Bottom right - USS Honolulu EDIT - - yeah, like I said, that one on the bottom right was the USS Nawlins:p
Cheers for the captions Mike, It was definately worthwhile....I chuckled at the painted wake (How'd have thought it) Regards Andy
USS Alchiba burning after being torpedoed off Guadalcanal, circa 1942 How Low? Japanese torpedo plane attack on Guadalcanal-Tulagi invasion force, 8 Aug 1942
