Saturday Mac

By tk
Saturday, February 15, 2003

Solomons P 33.

San Francisco using her search lights illuminated the Japanese destroyer Fubuki, caught like a rabbit in the headlights of a car at night , she was soon eliminated.

Boise took hits from Aoba and Kinugasa, Furutaka, 20 miles NW of Savo, rolled over and sank at 0208. ( 2.08 AM )

It was all over, the Battle of Cape Esperence finished.

Conclusion.
Both sides thought of it as a victory, Scott had turned back the Japanese force who lost a heavy cruiser and a destroyer, and the Aoba damaged with her Admiral killed.

The Japanese had sunk the destroyer Duncan, severely damaged the cruiser Boise, and damaged the destroyer Farenbolt.

Scott with a superior force and the element of suprise should, I believe, have achieved heavier casualties upon the Japanese force.

Communications procedures needed to be tightened up, and he was probably lucky to have got away with only Boise badly damaged, Farenbolt damaged, and Duncan sunk.

It also appeared that Rear Admiral Scott did not fully appreciate the value of the SG or surface radar, over the SC or long distance air search radar he had in his flagship ( San Francisco was not fitted with a SG set, and he had to rely on his other ships to keep him informed, losing valuable time, the suprise element, and tactical control ) But, at this early stage of the USN at war, not many Senior Naval Officers had embraced this new " Black Art."

On the Japanese side of the fence, Admiral Tanaka thought the Battle of Cape Esperence a crushing defeat for the IJN.

The Battle of Santa Cruz. 25th./27th. October. 1942.

Introduction.
Although the Japanese had lost at Cape Esperence, it was not a body blow, and only caused them to try even harder to dislodge the Marines from Guadalcanal and retake Henderson field.

Esperence set the scene for another major encounter of the carrier forces of the US and Japan, to be the last of its kind in the Solomons arena.

Solomons P 34.

One big Japanese push.
With the death of Rear Admiral Goto, he was replaced by Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita, he had two battleships Kongo and Haruna, with 8 by 14 inch guns in four turrets, plus 16 by 6 inch guns in barbettes.

On the 13th. of October, just west of Savo, they plastered Henderson Field with high explosive shells and just about obliterated the airfield.

This was followed up the next night when Vice Admiral Mikawa with his heavy cruisers Ckokai and  Kurusaga fired off 752 by 8 inch shells. On the 15th. of October, 6 transports rushed troops ashore, and that night the cruisers Maya and Myoko added their bombardment contribution.

Meantime, Nimitz was backing Halsey's appointment to the South Pacific Command by organising a task force with the new battleship Indiana in from the Atlantic, the 25th. Infantry Division from Oahu, and 50 more army planes to join the South Pacific front, plus a number of submarines to be available to his new commander.

The combined fleet from Truk was to stand off north of the Solomons, land carrier planes on Henderson Field, and clean up any stray US fleet around, the target date being the 25th. of October.

But, and it was a very big but! Lieutenant General Maruyama on Guadalcanal had to wrest the airfield from the tight grasp of the Marines.

Two attempts to deliver this outcome almost succeeded, but in the end they were driven off by the 25th. of October, and the Combined Fleet retired back to Truk.

The two groups of Naval Forces.
Yamamoto had available in several groups poised NE of the Solomons, 4 carriers, 5 battleships, 14 cruisers and 44 destroyers, somewhere in the south, the US had 1 or 2 carriers, 3 to 5 battleships, 5 to 8 cruisers and a number of destroyers.

But the real question for the Japanese Naval Commander was: "How many carriers did the Americans really have? and even more importantly, where were they?"

Yamamoto decided, he ordered Vice Admiral Kondo to press forward and engage the enemy naval ships.

The Japanese strike force included Vice Admiral Nagumo's carriers, Shokaku, Zuikaku, and Zuibo, one heavy cruiser and 8 destroyers. Rear Admiral Abe's group made up of the battleships Hiei and Kirishi, 2 heavy

Solomons P 35.

cruisers, 1 light cruiser and 7 destroyers.

Rear Admiral Kakata's Second Fleet Air Group had the light carrier Junyo, and 2 destroyers.

Finally, Kondo himself had available 4 heavy cruisers, 1 light cruiser and 6 destroyers.

There were 200 planes aboard the carriers, plus 12 submarines in the area, and at Rabaul, Mikawa's cruisers and destroyers.

All in all, a mighty armada.

In turn, Halsey had 2 battle groups:-

Rear Admiral Thomas Kinkaid's TF 16, the carrier Enterprise, the battleship South Dakota, 2 heavy cruisers and 8 destroyers.

Rear Admiral George Murray's TF 17, with the carrier Hornet, 2 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers and 6 destroyers.

Rear Admiral Wallis Lee's battleship Washington, 2 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers and 6 destroyers.

Halsey had told Kinkaid to make an aggressive sweep north of Santa Cruz Island

Japanese carrier force sighted.
Just after noon on the 25th. of October, a Catalina out of Espiritru Santo reported sighting a carrier group 360 miles north west of Kinkaid and his TF.

At 1430 ( 2.30 PM ) Kinkaid launched 12 Dauntless bombers to search in 200 mile legs from west to north.

An hour later, a strike of 12 Dauntless, 6 Avengers with an escort of 11 Wildcat fighters was sent on its way.

But Nagumo had turned his group northwards again, and so evaded this US strike force.

Just after midnight on the 26th. the Catalinas again found Nagumo's carriers.

Halsey's order to the fleet was short and simple: "Strike! repeat Strike!"

At 0605 ( 6.05 AM ) 16 Dauntless flew off the flight deck from Enterprise.