Solomons
Float planes sent out by Mikawa force reports sighting 1 battleship, 6 cruisers, 19 destroyers and 18 transports. This is a slight overestimate calling 1 cruiser a battleship. This did not change Mikawa's battle plan. The plan: all ships were to go in with guns and torpedoes to attack the ships at the Guadalcanal anchorage; dash in at high speed and dash out across Sealark Channel to Tulagi, strike transports there, retire north of Savo Island and steam back up The Slot.
Before midnight Mikawa orders his force to assume a long battle column with his flagship Chokai at the head, followed by the heavy cruisers Aoba, Kako, Kinugasa, and Furutake. Behind them come the light cruisers Tenryu and Yubari and the destoyer Yunagi. At 0030 Mikawa issues a battle warning and 15 minutes later calls the force to combat stations. Just before 0100 the Chokai crosses the track of the American destroer Blue. Lookouts on the Blue see nothing in the murk, and the destroyer steams away to the southwest as the Japanese ships pass by.
At 0100 the Chokai rounds Savo Island and just after 0130 lookouts see the line of an American destoyers 2 miles to the north. The ship is the Jarvis which was damaged in Japanese air attacks earlier in the day. She is headed for Sydney for drydock repairs. The Jarvis apparently never sees any Japanese ships and if she does has no way of warning other American ships as her communications had been knocked out in the earlier air attack. Torpedoes are fired from the Japanese ships but all miss. No guns are used by the Japanese ships and the Jarvis continues on.
The Japanese force continues coming at 26 knots. 2 American destroyers and then 2 US cruisers are spotted 7 miles away. Mikawa orders his ships to begin firing torpedoes as targets are sighted. The first targets are the cruisers Chicago and Canberra and the destroyer Bagley. 5 minutes after the first torpedoes are launched the destroyer Patterson sights a strange ship. About the same time 2 Japanese float planes begin dropping greenish flares silhouetting the Chicago and the Canberra. Chokai opens fire from less than 3 miles. Aoba 3/4 mile further and Furutaka just under 6 miles also open up. Canberra is hit by 2 torpedoes as she sights the enemy. Several 8-in and 5-in shells follow shortly. Capt F.E. Getting is mortally wounded and the gunnery officer killed. Canberra launches a few torpedoes and fires a few guns, but power fails after about 5 minutes and she is dead in the water.
Patterson warns the fleet with blinker signals and radio, then turns hard left to engage the enemy. A Japanese shell hits aft near a 5-in gun and ignites the powder, but the fires are quickly put out.
Bagley fires 8 torpedoes at the steaming Japanese cruisers, but none hit. The Japanese ships keep going without firing back.
Chicago is the object of the next round of Japanese torpedoes. Capt H.D. Bode, who is asleep, when the action begins, and is only half awake when a torpedo takes off part of Chicago's bow. Chicago's gunners begin firing, but star shells sent up to illuminate the enemy don't ignite and they can see no targets. Soon a gray shape appears and it becomes the target. It is the destroyer Yunagi whose searchlight is sweeping ahead of her. 2 dozen 8-in shells are fired from Chicago and search light goes out. Chicago turns on her searchlight but finds nothing.
The Japanese steam ahead and at 0145 Mikawa changes course and splits his ships into 2 sections, the flagship leading 3 other cruisers on the west and the second group led by the Furutaka on the east. The two groups turn north, guided by flares dropped by seaplanes over the landing areas at Guadalcanal and Tulagi. The American northern defense force is steaming in a box pattern, with the cruiser Vincennes in the lead, Quincy and Astoria behind, and the destroyers Wilson and Helm on the flanks. Chokai fires 4 torpedoes at the first target she sees from a range of nearly 6 miles. It is the cruiser Astoria, under Capt W.G. Greenman. Soon star shells light up the sky. Gunnery officer, Lt-Cmdr W.H. Truesdell, first to sense danger, orders the bridge to signal General Quarters. The ship is next lighted by searchlights and the first salvo of Japanese shells bracket the ship. Truesdell orders his guns to commence firing. Capt Greenman, who had been asleep, comes up and orders cease fire, fearing they are firing on their own ships. This pause throws the ship into confusion and the delay allows Chokai's gunners to get the range. As Greenman gives the order to open fire, an 8-in shell hits amidships and starts fires. The Chokai then pours more shells into the American cruiser. Astoria fires 11 salvos, but hits Chokai only once which does not slow down the Japanese flagship. The Astoria quickly becomes a hulk. Both forward 8-in gun turrets are destroyed, the float plane amidships catches fire and burns, the 5-in guns are wrecked. Fires are everywhere. The engine room becomes unbearable and has to be abandoned. No. 2 turret fires the last salvo, a shell hits the Chokai's forward turret, but the ship sweeps past.
The next American ship in line is the Quincy which becomes the target of the Aoba. Like the rest of the Allied cruisers, the Quincy is unprepared for action. Capt S.N. Moore had not listened to his junior officer who have been reporting for about an hour of aircraft overhead. When Japanese searchlights come on, he orders his guns to fire on them, but then has second thoughts thinking they might be friendly ships. He turns on his recognition lights and turns to starboard. This is the wrong way with the enemy shooting at him from the port quarter; he can not fire his forward guns. Japanese shells begin to hit. The Furutaka cruiser column fires at Quincy and with Astoria sinking, Chokai also opens up on Quincy. The bridge is hit mortally wounding the captain. The engine rooms are sealed off by flames, turrets are hit, and small guns are destroyed. The ship is abandoned just after 0230 and sinks almost immediately.
Aboard the Vincennes they are alert. After hearing the enemy plane sighted from the destroyer Ralph Talbot at 1145, Capt Riefkohl instructs his crew to exercize extreme vigilance. At first the captain and his officers thought they were under air attack only. At 0150 Riefkohl sees searchlights reaching for the American cruisers. Gunnery officer Lt-Cmdr R.L. Adams trains his guns on nearest searchlight. A salvo falls a quarter of a mile short of Vincennes. She fires back and second salvo hits Kinugasa. At that moment shells from at least 3 Jap cruisers begin falling on her. The port side of the bridge is destroyed by a shell. A dozen shells knocks out most of the small guns. A hard right turn by Riefkohl runs into 3 torpedoes from the Chokai. Fire rooms and engine rooms fill up with smoke. Power fails and communications go out. Seeing searchlights on his starboard side, the captain assumes they are friendly, runs up American colors. The Japanese mistake the flag for that of US admiral and redouble their efforts. By 0210 all the guns of Vincennes are silent and she is listing to port. The captain wonders if the order to abandon ship should be given when the Japanese cease firing and move on. The ship is dead in the water and most of the living get off before ship sinks.
The American destroyers of the northern group are not able to ascertain the pattern of movements of the American cruisers, so are not able to help much. Wilson fires a few shots at the Japanase searchlights but does not hit anything. She nearly collides with the destroyer Helm which about 0200 is rushing off in pursuit of a ship which turns out to be the destroyer Bagley.
Chokai turns but the other ships do not follow, then has to chase them to round them up. The Quincy, close to sinking, hits the Chokai with 2 shells, 1 wiping out the chart room and the other smashing the deck near the aviation crane. A third bounces off the forward turret. Mikawa does not like taking punishment and orders his captains to withdraw. The Chokai column forms up and speeds off at 35 knots. The Furutaka column heads homeward and crosses the path of theRalph Talbot. Being on other side of the sound near Florida Island when the action began, missed the original action. On the way out, however, Tenryu puts asearchlight on the Ralph Talbot and begins firing at her. Soon the Furutaka, Yubari and Tenryu are all firing at the destroyer, but she makes and elusive target only getting hit once which knocks out some torpedo tubes. The Ralph Talbot's captain, Lt-Cmdr J.W. Callaghan makes the mistake common that night, thinking the ships are friendly, turns on his recognition lights. The cruiser Yubnari turns on its searchlight on Ralph Talbot's bridge and begins firing more rapidly. The third salvo has the range and shells begin to cause damage. The chart foom, gun control system, wardroom and a 5-in gun are all destroyed or partially destroyed. Ralph Talbot launches 4 torpedoes that do no damage, then ducks into a rainsquall. The ship is burning and listing 20 degrees to starboard.
By this time Mikawa's force has reached a point north of Savo Island. He has to make a decision. His mission was to destroy the transports. Shoulde he turn and go after the transports or report a phenomenal naval victory, which they estimate as having sunk 7 cruisers and 5 destroyers. He decides to retire and the US transports are saved.
The American and Australian Navies have lost more than 1,000 men killed and 700 wounded. Canberra is dead in the water. Patterson, which rushes in to aid, has to stay away because of exploding ammunition. After an hour Patterson manages to get alongside and passes over hoses and a pump, but is too late. Adm Turner orders the ship to join up with the transports or be destroyed. Movement is not possible, so she has to be destroyed. The destroyer Ellet torpedoes her.
Canberra's crew is rescued by Patterson and Blue. Before daybreak, Quincy and Vincennes sink. Astoria lingers on until noon, and despite heroic measures to save her, a magazine explodes and she sinks. The Ralph Talbot, heavily damaged, manages to limp back to Tulagi.
Mikawa retires at high speed, because is certain at dawn, American carrier planes will return.
The Japanese damage report from the sea battle shows the Chokai has only its chart room damaged; the Aoba lost a set of torpedo tubes; the Kinugasa has a flooded storeroom from a shell going through the hull and also some steering damage; the Kako lost a float plane and its crew. All the ships have shrapnel and machine gun damage, but only 58 men had been killed and 53 wounded. When Mikawa reaches Bougainville, 4 heavy cruisers, Furutaka, Kinugasa, Aoba, Kako, are sent to Kavieng for repairs. The Chokai, Tenryu, Yubari and the destroyer Yunagi go to Rabaul.
The Americans call the naval battle the Battle of Savo Island; the Japanese the First Battle of the Solomons. The Japanese have scored an impressive tactical victory but miss a great opportunity to wipe out the supply ships of the invading forces. The American defenses are decimated, the carriers are frightened away and Gen Vandegrift is persuaded not to move ahead to capture all of Guadalcanal which if he had been given supplies could have been done in a day or two with his 17,000 men against a few hundred Japanese naval troops and 2,000 laborers who remained on the island.
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