Battle of Tassafaronga
During the morning Adm Tanaka turns east from Bougainville to confuse the Americans about his purpose. A coastwatcher reports there are 12 Japanese ships missing from Buin Harbor. Guadlacanal assumes something is up. Tanaka receives word, as he is heading toward The Slot, that an American force of 12 destroyers and 9 transports are heading for Guadalcanal. Tanaka's mission is to supply not fight, but he prepares for action anyway.
The American force comes out of Indispensable Strait early in the evening and encounters 3 American transports and 5 destroyers heading back toward Espiritu Santo. Halsey orders 2 of the destroyers to join Adm Wright, and they take postion at the end of the cruiser column. At 2300 the American task force is in Iron Bottom Sound heading for Savo Island. Tanaka's ships are just passing west of Savo and turning southeast. Kinkaid's plan calls for 2 destroyers to move ahead of the main flotilla, but this had not been done and the Americans are deprived of advance knowledge of enemy. Just after 2300 American radar picks up a strange blip. Wright orders a 40 degree turn to put the American ships in the column formation he wanted. The single blip changes into a number of smaller ones, ships in formation, heading southeast toward Guadalcanal. Adm Tanaka has already given orders for the destroyers to be ready to dump their drums, since the current and tide would put them ashore on the Japanese held portion of the island. About this time it is reported enemy ships have been spotted bearing 100 degrees. The Japanese ships have already broken battle formation. Tanaka orders them to drop the drums and assume battle stations. There is no time to reassemble in the usual Japanese battle formation. At 2315 the American destroyer commander asks permission to make independent torpedo attacks. Wright hesitates thinking the range too far. 5 minutes later he says ok, but the moment had passed. 20 torpedoes are launched but the range and angle are all wrong as the Japanese ships move away and pass the US ships. Next, American float planes drop flares which light up the Japanese ships without using searchlights.
When Tanaka sees the first cruiser he orders his force to close in and attack. The destroyer Takanami is the first to open fire. She hits some of the American ships, but concentrated fire from the cruisers Minneapolis and New Orleans and others soon have her in flames and her guns are destroyed. The Naganami spots an American cruiser, changes course to parallel that ship's course and at a range of 3 mi;es launches 8 torpedoes. Just before 2330 2 strike the cruiser Minneapolis. Her general power system fails and she is out of the fight. Another of the torpedoes strikes the New Orleans who is trying to avoid a collision with the wavering Minneapolis. The twoforward magazines blow up and the ship breaks in two. The whole bow section slips along the port side of what was left. The New Orleans after guns, the Pensacola and other US ships fire on the Naganami. The are several near misses but no direct hits, probably because of her 45 knot speed.
The Japanese destroyers Oyashio and Kuroshio fire 10 torpedoes at the American ships. One strikes the cruiser Pensacola below the mainmast. She loses power and begins to list. Her captain takes her out of the fight and heads for Tulagi. The American cruiser Northampton turns to avoid the 3 damaged vessels in front of her and keeps firing, but 2 of Oyashio's torpedoes strike her, opens her up as a can opener through a can of beans. She begins to list, slows and finally stops. The American ships become confused and some fire on each other. 2 destroyers leave the scene to avoid gunfire from the crippled cruisers.
The action only lasts about half an hour. Both sides take stock. Wright in the Minneapolis gives up command to Adm Tisdale in the Honolulu which goes around Savo trying to find the Japanese but finds nothing. Tanaka pulls clear of the battle and calls up the Takanami. Receiving no answer, he sends Oyashio and Kuroshio back to investigate and help if possible. She is found south of Cape Esperance, dead in the water. The Honolulu appears and the 2 destroyers flee not seen by the Honolulu. Some survivors make it to shore by small boats and rafts. 26 Japanese sailors and the ship's log are rescued by the Americans. Besides the loss of the Takanami, it is discovered that none of the other Jap destroyers has suffered a direct hit. All torpedoes have been fired but they do not have enough ammunition for further action. With nothing but destroyers, he has sunk the Northamption which is abandoned later that night, so damaged the Minneapolis and the New Orleans they will have to be sent back to the US for repairs, and damaged the Pensacola which will be sent back to Pearl Harbor putting her out of action until October 1943. It is a stunning victory for the Japanese.
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