Battle of Cape St. George

Encyclopedia : B : BA : BAT : Battle of Cape St. George

Solomon Islands campaign
Guadalcanal – Savo I. – Eastern Solomons – Cape Esperance – Santa Cruz Is. – Naval Guadalcanal – Tassafaronga – Rennell I. – Blackett Strait – Operation Cartwheel – New Georgia – Kula Gulf – Kolombangara – Vella Gulf – Horaniu – Vella Lavella – Naval Vella Lavella – Treasury Is. – Choiseul – Empress Augusta Bay – Cape St. George – Green Is. – 2nd Rabaul – Bougainville

Solomon Islands campaign
Guadalcanal – Savo I. – Eastern Solomons – Cape Esperance – Santa Cruz Is. – Naval Guadalcanal – Tassafaronga – Rennell I. – Blackett Strait – Operation Cartwheel – New Georgia – Kula Gulf – Kolombangara – Vella Gulf – Horaniu – Vella Lavella – Naval Vella Lavella – Treasury Is. – Choiseul – Empress Augusta Bay – Cape St. George – Green Is. – 2nd Rabaul – Bougainville

The Battle of Cape St. George was a naval battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought on November 26, 1943 between Cape St. George, New Ireland and Buka Island (now part of the North Solomons Province in Papua New Guinea). It was the last engagement of surface ships in the Solomon Islands campaign.

Contents

1 Background
2 Battle
3 Aftermath
4 References

4.1 Books
4.2 External links
4.3 Notes

Background

Americans had landed troops on Bougainville on November 1 1943. This posed a threat to the Japanese base on Buka Island to the west, and 900 troops were loaded on the destroyer transports Amagiri, Yugiri, Uzuki and sent together with the destroyers Onami, Makinami under the command of Captain Kiyoto Kagawa to reinforce the garrison.

The US Navy learned of the convoy and sent the five destroyers Charles Ausburne, Claxton , Dyson, Converse, and Spence under the command of Captain Arleigh Burke to intercept it.

Battle

The Japanese had landed their troops and cargoes and were returning to Rabaul when at about 01:40 they were spotted. Superior radar allowed the American ships to approach and launch their torpedoes at about 01:55 before the Japanese had spotted them. Onami was hit by several torpedoes and sank immediately. Makinami was hit by one torpedo, disabled, and sunk by gunfire. The transports fled in different directions; Burke pursued Yugiri and sank her about 03:30.

Aftermath

The battle marked the end of the Tokyo Express and the end of Japanese resistance in the Solomon Islands, and the success of Allied efforts to achieve superiority in night combat using radar. There were no more surface engagements in the Pacific War until the Marianas Islands campaign began with the invasion of Saipan in June 1944.

References

Books

External links

Notes

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.