Naval Battle of Guadalcanal
The Iron Bottom Sound with the sinking points of the Japanese and American ships
| date | November 13. bis 15. November 1942 |
|---|---|
| place | Guadalcanal , Pacific |
| output | allied victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
|
William F. Halsey |
|
| Troop strength | |
| 1 aircraft carrier , 2 battleships , 5 cruisers , 12 destroyers |
2 fast battleships (converted battle cruisers ), 8 cruisers, 16 destroyers, 12 transporters |
| losses | |
|
2 cruisers, |
2 fast battleships (converted battle cruisers ), |
The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal took place from 13. November bis 15. November 1942 near the Solomon Islands Guadalcanal in the Pacific instead. US and Japanese units met there during the Pacific War in World War II .
prehistory
In the early summer of 1942, the US High Command learned that the Japanese were about to set up an air base on the Solomon Islands Guadalcanal . From there, Japanese long-range bombers would have been able to attack the sea route between the United States and Australia . To prevent this, units of the 1st US Marine Division landed on Guadalcanal on August 7, 1942 and occupied the almost complete Japanese airfield. In the following months there were several sea battles between Allied and Japanese ships and several attempts by Japanese army forces to retake the airfield.
The last attempt to recapture Guadalcanal began on November 12, 1942. A convoy under Rear Admiral Abe Hiroaki was supposed to land 7,000 reinforcements and extensive supplies for the Japanese forces on Guadalcanal and bombard the airfield from the sea. The two fast battleships (two former, converted battlecruisers of the Kongō class ) Hiei and Kirishima were equipped with fragmentation grenades for coastal bombing.
The first battle
On November 13th around 1 a.m. the Japanese convoy reached Iron Bottom Sound between Savo Island and Guadalcanal. There he was expected by Rear Admiral Daniel Callaghan with his cruiser and destroyer fleet . In bad weather, the meeting did not take place before 1:48 a.m. Since the visibility was no more than 2,000 m and both formations ran into each other head-on, there was a barely organized short battle at a short distance with great damage on both sides. Due to the unclear battle situation, ships on the same side sometimes shot at each other. The two American admirals Daniel Callaghan and Norman Scott , as well as the commander of the USS San Francisco (CA-38) , Cassin Young were killed shortly after the start of the battle. At 2 a.m. Abe gave the order to withdraw.
The Americans were unable to follow because the USS Atlanta (CL-51) , Admiral Scott's flagship, was badly damaged by projectiles from the USS San Francisco (CA-38) . It later had to be abandoned. The four destroyers USS Barton (DD-599) , USS Cushing (DD-376) , USS Laffey (DD-459) and USS Monssen (DD-436) had sunk and the cruisers USS San Francisco (CA-38) , USS Portland (CA-33) , USS Helena (CL-50) and USS Juneau (CL-52) had been badly damaged. The Juneau sank the next day after a torpedo hit by a Japanese submarine as she slowly dragged herself south.
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The Japanese only complained about the loss of the destroyer Akatsuki during the battle. At dawn, however, they saw that three other ships were docked. The Amatsukaze was attacked by dive bombers and tried to escape. The Yudachi had been sunk by the Portland and the Hiei had received 85 hits, one of which had destroyed the rudder. Their fire control systems no longer worked either. It burned and 188 sailors had been killed. On the morning of 14 November, it was an immediate success of Avenger - torpedo planes from Henderson Field and the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6) attacked. This was followed by bombing by B-17 bombers from Espiritu Santo . After 70 attack flights, the Hiei was abandoned by the crew.
Abe Hiroaki rated the battle as a Japanese success, but strategically it was more likely a defeat, since the goal of putting Henderson Field out of action by bombarding Henderson Field with heavy ship guns and landing reinforcements and supplies could not be achieved. As a result, the Japanese later tried him (after another tending defeat at Guadalcanal) before a military tribunal and he was forced to retire from active service.
On the night of November 13-14, Admiral Mikawa appeared with a group of cruisers in Ironbottom Sound and bombarded Henderson Field, destroying twenty aircraft. But at dawn the scouts of the USS Enterprise discovered both the departing cruiser formation and an eleven troop transport convoy of Admiral Tanaka approaching Guadalcanal . The planes of the Enterprise and those of Henderson Field first attacked the cruiser formation, sank the cruiser Kinugasa and damaged three others. Then they attacked, reinforced by some B17 from Espiritu Santo , the convoy, which was secured by only a few destroyers and Admiral Kondo's carrier group, which was far to the north . In the late afternoon, six of the eleven troop carriers were sunk while one was trying to run back to the base. Despite the losses suffered, Tanaka continued to run towards Guadalcanal with the troop transports he had left. To relieve him, Kondo hurried up from the north with a bombardment unit consisting of a battleship, four cruisers and nine destroyers.
The second battle
The next night, November 14-15, the Japanese made a second attempt. The remaining ships as well as the battleship Kirishima and the heavy cruisers Atago and Takao were involved .
Since Admiral Halsey hardly had any ships left, he provided the modern, fast battleships Washington and South Dakota , both of which had the most modern radar systems for fire control of the time , from the support group of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise together with four destroyers to Task Force 64 under Admiral Willis A. Lee together. The fact that both sides were ready to use their most important ships in the shallow and narrow waters around Guadalcanal shows the strategic importance attached to this island.
The American association reached Guadalcanal first and entered Ironbottom Sound through the passage north of Savo in the evening at moonset. Here he was discovered by Kondo, who then divided his association into two attack groups and an observation group. When Lee's combat group turned towards Cape Esperance in keel line, the radar of the battleships far to the north recorded the first Japanese destroyers of the observation group, which withdrew after a few salvos. The radar went unnoticed, however, the first attack formation, consisting of a light cruiser with several destroyers, which had hauled west around the island of Savo. This group surprisingly attacked Lee's vanguard with artillery and torpedoes from the north, sank two destroyers and incapacitated the others. To avoid a collision with the incapacitated destroyers, the Washington turned to port and thus away from the enemy, but the South Dakota to starboard towards the enemy. This separated the two American battleships at a critical moment.
Now Kondo came out with his strongest attack group, consisting of the battleship Kirishima , the heavy cruisers Atago and Takao and two destroyers from behind the island of Savo. The USS South Dakota got caught in heavy fire by three Japanese ships after a power failure that paralyzed its radar systems and was hit 43 times. Their communications equipment and a turret failed, three fire control radars were badly damaged and the forward artillery control post was on fire . However, by drawing fire on itself, the USS Washington remained undetected on arrival.
While the heavily damaged South Dakota retreated to the southwest from the overwhelming Japanese forces, Lee decided to attack the Japanese battleship with the remaining Washington . Shortly after midnight on November 14, the Kirishima came under fierce fire from the Washington at a distance of over 7 km unimaginable for night fighting without radar and received 75 hits in just seven minutes, of which at least nine were 40.6 cm. After that she was just a floating wreck. Lee continued the fight north for some time to withdraw the enemy from his damaged ships, then he ran south. Kondo broke off the engagement and sank the Kirishima together with the destroyer Ayanami the next morning .
The American destroyers Walke and Preston also sank. The Benham had been torn from the bow by a torpedo when she escorted the damaged destroyer Gwin as escort ship to Noumea . It had to be abandoned and was sunk using ship cannons.
Meanwhile Tanaka reached with the remaining four ships of the convoy Guadalcanal and landed his troops. Only then were the transporters sunk by American aircraft as well as coastal and marine artillery.
The aftermath of the battle
The naval battle of Guadalcanal was the last Japanese attempt to control the waters around the island. Henderson Field remained operational, and the now defenseless Japanese transports were shot down trying to land reinforcements and supplies. The Tokyo Express , which was supposed to provide Japanese supplies, began with the creeping withdrawal of Japanese troops, mainly by means of fast destroyers, in the direction of New Guinea . The last resistance in the Battle of Guadalcanal did not end until February 9, 1943.
The five Sullivan brothers served together aboard the USS Juneau , all of whom perished as a result of the sinking. This was the greatest loss of any single American family to combat operations in World War II. In response, the War Department introduced the Sole Survivor Policy , according to which the siblings are brought back by fallen soldiers or not even sent into the combat area.
literature
- Samuel Eliot Morison : History of United States Naval Operations in World War II.
- Elmar B. Potter, Chester W. Nimitz - Jürgen Rohwer: Seemacht , Manfred Pawlak Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Herrsching 1986, ISBN 3-88199-082-8
