Battle of Cape Esperance

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Battle of Cape Esperance
Part of World War II, Pacific War
The U.S. destroyer Duncan on October 7, 1942, five days before she was sunk during the Battle of Cape Esperance.
Date October 11, 1942 – October 12, 1942 Location Off Cape Esperance, Guadalcanal Result Allied victory
Combatants
United States New Zealand Australia	Japan
Commanders
Norman Scott	Aritomo Goto†
Strength
4 cruisers 5 destroyers	3 cruisers 2 destroyers
Casualties
1 destroyer sunk, 1 cruiser, 1 destroyer heavily damaged, 163 killed[1]	1 cruiser, 1 destroyer sunk, 1 cruiser heavily damaged, 454 killed, 111 captured[2]

Guadalcanal campaign
and  Gavutu-Tanambogo">Tulagi – Savo I. – Tenaru – Eastern Solomons – Edson's Ridge – Cape Esperance – Henderson Field – Santa Cruz Is. – Naval Guadalcanal – Tassafaronga – Ke – Rennell I.

Solomon Islands campaign
1st Tulagi – Guadalcanal – Blackett Strait – Cartwheel – Death of Yamamoto – 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 Esperance, also known as the Second Battle of Savo Island and, in Japanese sources, as the Sea Battle of Savo Island (サボ島沖海戦) 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. Although the result of the battle was a tactical victory for the U.S. and  its allies, it  had little strategic impact on the overall Solomon Islands campaign.

Contents 1 Background 2 Battle 3 Aftermath 4 References 4.1 Books 4.2 External links 5 Notes

[edit] 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.^[3] 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.

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[edit] References

[edit] Books

• Brown, David (1990). Warship Losses of World War Two. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-914-X.
• Cook, Charles O. (1992 (Reissue)). The Battle of Cape Esperance: Encounter at Guadalcanal. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-126-2.
• D'Albas, Andrieu (1965). Death of a Navy: Japanese Naval Action in World War II. Devin-Adair Pub. ISBN 0-8159-5302-X.
• Dull, Paul S. (1978). A Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1941-1945. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-097-1.
• Frank, Richard B. (1990). Guadalcanal : The Definitive Account of the Landmark Battle. New York: Penguin Group. ISBN 0-14-016561-4.
• Hammel, Eric (1988). Guadalcanal: Decision at Sea : The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, Nov. 13–15, 1942. (CA): Pacifica Press. ISBN 0-517-56952-3.
• Hara, Tameichi (1961). Japanese Destroyer Captain. New York & Toronto: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-27894-1.
• Kilpatrick, C. W. (1987). Naval Night Battles of the Solomons. Exposition Press. ISBN 0-682-40333-4.
• Lacroix, Eric, Linton Wells (1997). Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-311-3.
• Langelo, Vincent A. (2000). With All Our Might: The WWII History of the USS Boise (Cl-47). Eakin Pr. ISBN 0-316-58305-7.
• McGee, William L. (2002). The Solomons Campaigns, 1942-1943: From Guadalcanal to Bougainville--Pacific War Turning Point, Volume 2 (Amphibious Operations in the South Pacific in WWII). BMC Publications. ISBN 0-9701678-7-3.
• Morison, Samuel Eliot (1958). “Chapter 8”, The Struggle for Guadalcanal, August 1942 – February 1943, vol. 5 of History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. Boston:  and  Company">Little, Brown and  Company. ISBN 0-316-58305-7.
• Parkin, Robert Sinclair (1995). Blood on the Sea: American Destroyers Lost in World War II. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-81069-7.
• Poor, Henry Varnum, Henry A. Mustin & Colin G. Jameson (1994). The Battles of Cape Esperance, 11 October 1942 and  Santa Cruz Islands, 26 October 1942 (Combat Narratives. Solomon Islands Campaign, 4-5). Naval Historical Center. ISBN 0-945274-21-1.

[edit] External links

• Horan, Mark. Battle of Cape Esperance. Order of Battle. Retrieved on 2006-05-17.
• Office of Naval Intelligence (1943). The Battle of Cape Esperance 11 October 1942. Combat Narrative. Publications Branch, Office of Naval Intelligence, United States Navy. Retrieved on 2006-05-17.-somewhat inaccurate on details, since it  was written during the war
• Parshall, Jon; Bob Hackett, Sander Kingsepp, & Allyn Nevitt. Imperial Japanese Navy Page (Combinedfleet.com). Retrieved on 2006-06-14.

[edit] Notes