World War II, Pacific
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Available were 2 escort carriers, 4 battleships, 7 heavy cruisers, 4 light cruisers, and 30 destroyers.
The US had no operational carriers and only one battleship, Washington (BB-56), but too distant to engage. The carrier, Enterprise (CV-6) and battleship, South Dakota (BB-57) that had taken bomb damage at the Battle of Santa Cruz and were repairing at Noumea.
The US had available : 2 heavy cruisers, San Francisco (CA-38) and Portland (CA-33), 1 light cruiser, Helena (CL-50), 2 antiaircraft cruisers, Atlanta (CLaa-51) and Juneau (CLaa-52) and eight destroyers.
Both sides were in the process of sending full Army divisions to Guadalcanal. The US arrived on Nov 12 and unloaded troops and most of their supplies before bombers damaged San Francisco and a destroyer and the convoy withdrew. The Japanese had sent a bombardment force of two battleships attended by a light cruiser and 8 destroyers, intending to take out Henderson Field to allow their troop landing on Nov 13 without air attack. The U.S. cruisers and destroyers engaged the Japanese battleships that night.
The Japanese did not expect the U.S. force that night and the big guns were loaded with high explosives shells. The Americans maneuvered by radar to bring all guns to bear but were sighted by Japanese eyes and their guns were reloaded with armor piercing shells. Suddenly a Japanese searchlight illuminated the lead cruiser. Atlanta fired her 16- 5" guns, but received 14" shells and two torpedoes. Cushing and Laffey rushed to her aid and suffered a similar fate. San Francisco took 14" shells, Portland and Juneau each took a torpedo. A torpedo split Barton in two and Monssen took shellfire. After 24 minutes of confused firing, both sides retired. The escaping American ships were sighted by submarine I-26 and already damaged Juneau exploded and went down in minutes taking the 5 Sullivan brothers with her. The U.S. lost 1,000 men including two admirals.
The Japanese lost two destroyers. Next morning, Marine flyers from the undamaged Henderson Field found a battleship slowed with engine damage and attacked with bombs and torpedoes. Still damaged Enterprise arrived to launch her aircraft, which landed on Guadalcanal as she retired. AAF B-17's participated. Her admiral ordered Japanese battleship Hiei scuttled.
A Japanese troop convoy of 11 ships and 12 destroyers was delayed for 24 hours to allow a second attempt to bombard Henderson Field, this time with cruisers.
With the American fleet gone, two heavy cruisers were able to fire 1,000 rounds to disrupt the American airfield. Next morning, scout planes found the retiring Japanese ; American planes attacked. Kinugasa was sunk and three more heavy cruisers were damaged. Meanwhile the troop convoy of transports and DDs was sighted. Planes shifted their attention. By nightfall seven transports had been sunk. LtCol Joe Bauer, MOH, lost.
The Japanese rushed their remaining battleship and five cruisers to bombard the airfield to protect the landing.
The two American battleships with four destroyers arrived in time to meet the Japanese force. The two battlewagons opened fire and the two sets of van destroyers engaged. South Dakota (BB-57) had an electric fault that took her guns out of an early part of the battle and she took heavy hits. Washington (BB-56) 16" shells pelted the Japanese battleship. The destroyer fight saw two Japanese destroyers and three U.S. destroyers sunk. Her admiral ordered battleship Kirishima abandoned and sunk by torpedoes.
Meanwhile the remaining four Japanese transports were run aground to most expeditiously unload 2,000 surviving troops, but their equipment was destroyed with the dawn. The Japanese now had 32,000 troops on Guadalcanal, but their Navy had to give up on support. The Tokyo Express of destroyers continued to run at night to bring in supplies, but only could bring in enough to sustain the troops; they could not bring any more reinforcements. The American air fields on Guadalcanal had survived and continued to grow. It took another two months for the Japanese Army to give up and withdraw. From this point onward, the Japanese could only retreat.
- At the Coral Sea, the Japanese advance was checked.
- At Midway, the odds were evened a bit.
- At Guadalcanal, the Japanese retreat began.
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