Battle of Cape Esperance
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The Battle of Cape Esperance, also known as the Second Battle of Savo Island, took place October 11-12, 1942, and was a naval battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, between Imperial Japanese Navy and the Allied naval forces. The battle was the third major naval engagement during the Battle of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands campaign and took place at the entrance to the strait between Savo Island and Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.
In a nighttime warship engagement, a U.S. force of cruisers and destroyers surprised and drove-off a Japanese force of cruisers and destroyers that was approaching to bombard Henderson Field on Guadalcanal. Thus, the result of the battle was a tactical victory for the U.S. and its allies, but had little strategic impact on the overall Solomon Islands campaign.
Background
On August 7, 1942, Allied forces (primarily U.S.) landed on Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and Florida Islands. The landings on the islands were meant to deny their use by the Japanese as bases to threaten the supply routes between the U.S. and Australia, and to use them as starting points for a campaign with the eventual goal of isolating the major Japanese base at Rabaul while also supporting the Allied New Guinea and New Britain campaigns. The landings initiated the seven-month-long Battle of Guadalcanal.The Allies had seized Henderson Field on Guadalcanal from the Japanese on August 7, and began operating combat aircraft out of it on August 15. Henderson Field and the aircraft based there soon began having a telling effect on the movement of Japanese forces in the Solomon Islands and in the attrition of Japanese air forces in the South Pacific area. In fact, Allied control of Henderson Field became the key factor in the entire battle for Guadalcanal.Hammel, Guadalcanal: Decision at Sea, 400 In an attempt to neutralize Henderson field, on October 11, 1942 the Japanese sent a force under Rear Admiral Aritomo Goto to bombard the airfield and reinforce the Japanese ground forces attacking the airfield. At about 23:30, off Cape Esperance, the Japanese warships encountered Rear Admiral Norman Scott's patrolling Task Force 64.
Battle
Knowing that the Japanese had the advantage in night fighting, Scott intended to use his destroyers to illuminate the targets with their searchlights and destroy them with shellfire. He ordered his force to turn into line ahead, and managed to "cross the T" of the approaching Japanese; but an error in the execution of the turn placed his destroyers between the two forces, and the Duncan was hit by shells from both sides and crippled, sinking the next day.The Japanese were taken by surprise and Goto was mortally wounded when his flagship Aoba was hit in the opening moments. The Furutaka following Aoba drew the massed fire of the San Francisco, Salt Lake City , Boise and Helena, and sank. The Fubuki, Japanese name for Blizzard, was caught in a blizzard of shellfire by the combined American Task force and was instantly sunk. The Hatsuyuki, and Kinugasa both turned away from the American Task force and were quickly disengaged on the safe side of the battle. Boise received two 8-inch hits from Kinugasa, detonating her forward ready ammunition and killing the crews of turrets 1, 2, and 3. The rest of the American formation was in disarray and this confusion allowed the Japanese enough time to recover and escape.
By 00:20 on the 12th the shooting was over, and sailors set about saving their ships. Fubuki had already sunk at 23:45, while Furutaka lasted until 00:40. Boise was saved by flooding, which put out the most dangerous fires. Duncan was abandoned at 02:00, but at 03:00 a party from McCalla boarded and attempted damage control until noon of the next day, by which time the main deck was awash and the salvage party had to leave Duncan to her fate.
Aftermath
The American victory led to the wrong lessons being learned. The line-ahead tactic worked well at Cape Esperance, but the later battles of Tassafaronga and Kolombangara showed that at night linear gunfire tactics — the gun flashes lighting up ships and revealing their positions — were highly vulnerable to torpedoes.
References
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External links
- -somewhat inaccurate on details, since it was written during the war
Notes
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