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The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, which we first discussed the other day, ended in the early morning hours of November 15, 1942. This battle was a slugfest, fought at super-close ranges (sometimes measured in feet), and really only concluded because each side pretty much ran out of ships with which to fight. Since this is a “part 2″ type of story, let’s digress a bit to where we left off.
The U.S. Navy, after the action on the 13th, retreated a bit to catch its breath. This allowed the large transport force (sent to reinforce the island) to continue south towards it destination. It also permitted the Japanese Navy to move in that night and shoot up Henderson Field, but their half-hour barrage did little damage.
Fast forward to the evening of the 14th. The Japanese transport force was approaching the north end of the island, so the Japanese again moved in to shell the airfield. The U.S Navy was waiting and the fight was on again. The ”cobbled-together” force consisted of a pair of battleships (the South Dakota and Washington) and 4 destroyers, none of which had ever fought together (the destroyers were chosen because they had the least damage and the most fuel). It was a risky move, but Admiral William Halsey believed that a certain amount of daring was required.
This engagement was one of only two “battleship-versus-battleship” encounters in the entire Pacific War (the other we’ve already mentioned) and it was, again, at very close range. The South Dakota took quite a beating as she became a target for nearly every enemy ship, but the Washington (shown above) came to her rescue. In one of the most remarkable displays of gunnery skill ever, she pounded the Japanese battleship Kirishima to a bloody pulp, leaving her a wreck and spinning in circles with a jammed rudder.
When Admiral Nobutake Konda finally pulled his remaining ships out of action early on the 15th (thereby ending the 3-day Battle), the sea floor around Guadalcanal had gained a much higher iron content. The U.S. Navy actually lost more ships, with a pair of cruisers and seven destroyers lost. The Japanese tally showed only 6 ships lost, but losing the Hiei and Kirishima (both battleships) was particularly painful.
But victories aren’t measured in total counts. The failure to again attack Henderson Field meant that, when the transports began landing 3 hours later, the Cactus Air Force was waiting. With a little help from the Navy, the air warriors put paid to much of the landing force. Only about half of the 7,000 Japanese soldiers were able to land, and nearly all the supplies were destroyed. In fact, other than a few supplies and a handful of reinforcements, the Japanese would not be able to again mount any signifcant resupply of Guadalcanal, though they would certainly try (we’ll look at another attempt in a couple weeks).
Though fighting would continue for another two and a half months, the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal was the beginning of the end of the Japanese presence on Guadalcanal. The momentum of World War II, at least in the Pacific Theater, had switched.
