Tassafaronga-forgotten naval battle from Guadalcanal

In November of 1942, the Allies where engaging Japanese land forces on Guadalcanal. By 26, November General Imamura was informed by the 17th army on Guadalcanal that it faced a critical food shortage. A plan was devised to supply the troops with food while minimizing the threat to Japanese destroyers. Large drums where cleaned and prepared, filled with food and medical supplies, and tied together. The hope was that the Japanese could make a run down “the slot” make a sharp turn, cut lose the supplies and let them float in to shore to be picked up by the troops on the island. On the night of the 29th, Rear Admiral Raizo Tanaka was tasked with making the first of five scheduled deliveries with the new drum method.

RADM Tanaka’s force, DesRon2, departed the ShortlandIslands with 8 destroyers just after midnight on the 30th. Two as escorts and six carrying 200-240 drums apiece. Aware of the impending re-supply run by the Japanese, due to an intercepted transmission to the 17th army, Admiral Halsey ordered Rear Admiral Carleton Wright’s TF 67 to intercept and destroy the Japanese ships. Task Force 67 consisted of the Heavy cruisers Minneapolis, New Orleans, Pensacola, and Northampton, light cruiser Honolulu, and the destroyers Fletcher, Drayton, Maury, and Perkins. The plan was to use the destroyers as scouts for the cruiser force before launching a torpedo attack with the cruisers opening fire between 10-12000 yards.

On 30 November at around 22:40 Tanaka’s destroyers Takanami, Oyashio, Kuroshio, Kagero, Makinami, Naganami, Kawakaze, and Suzukaze passed around three miles south of Savo Island and began preparations to unload the re-supply drums. A half hour later a spotter on board Takanami spotted the US column approaching and Tanaka ordered unloading preparations halted and that “all ships attack” unknown to the Japanese, Writes destroyers had the Japanese ships on Radar and were preparing to fire. At 23:20 three of the US destroyers launched a torpedo attack. The USS Maury didn’t have a SG radar so held there fire. At the same time the cruiser force also opened fire on the Japanese and the battle begun.

Takanami was the first to be hit, and took fire from most of the American cruisers. She got off her all 8 torpedoes before being knocked out of the fight by damage. The rest of DesRon2 however was maneuvering for a torpedo attack on the American cruisers. By 23:28 all Japanese destroyers with the exception of Kagero had launched a spread in the direction of the flashes from the American guns. About two minuets later 2 torpedoes ripped into the Minneapolis. The bow folded 70 degrees, and the ship lost steering and power. One minute later a torpedo hit the New Orleans detonating the forward Ammunition Magazine and ripping the bow off the ship forward of the number two turret. Observing the damage sustained by the first two cruisers in the formation the Pensacola maneuvered to pass the stricken ships to port before turning back on course. At approximately 23:40Pensacolawas hit abreast the mainmast by a single torpedo and the ship took a 13 degree list. The Honolulumade the same move as Pensacola, however decided to pass the disabled ships to starboard but also increased speed. The USS New Orleans followed Honolulu but without an increased speed and she too was struck by two torpedoes. At 23:44 VADM Tanaka ordered his forces to break off and retire from the area.

The damage had been done. The USS Northampton sank at around 03:00. The rest of the American cruisers where able to make it to Tulagi the next morning however the damage sustained in the battle left all three stricken ships out of action for almost a full year. The Japanese left the battle in far better shape with only the loss of Takanami. No other Japanese ships where even damaged. Despite the fact that the US strategically stopped the Japanese from delivering supplies to the Island, It was a huge tactical defeat. It was the third worst naval defeat suffered by the US during WWII, and worst, of the three instances, is the only one where the US forces surprised the Japanese.

In his report, Wright shows the lack of knowledge the US had about the capabilities of the Long Lance torpedo.
He observed that the position of the Japanese destroyers made it improbable that they could hit the US ships and that the torpedoes had, by all rights to be fired from submarines. Wright escaped blame for the loss of the battle as most of it was placed on the destroyer screen launching torpedoes from too great a distance. Wright was awarded the Navy Cross for his actions during the battle.

 

Thanks Jeff, I thought about some pics maybe ten min. after I posted

 

Shame, shame, and he got a Navy Cross for getting his butt "kicked" in the #3 worst defeat of the Blue Water Navy.
Privileges of rank...eh?

At least PT boats zoomed in and sunk all (most of) the barrels of supplies with 50 cal fire.

What's #2 (dare I ask), I'm sure Savo is #1 ?

 

No Skunk, Pearl is Listed as #1 Savo is 2, or vice versa.
Point is Pearl Harbor is the other

 

Oh sh......shoot, I figgered Pearl don't count cuz war wa-int declared yet. I thought for sure it wuz Samar/Okinawa er the like.
Pearl was a "Bushwack".
I guess defeat is defeat, sneak attack on a hungover Sunday morning or no.

 

Well skunk, you bring up one of the things that really irritates me. Japan never declared war. Well, I ask, when did they ever? China? No. The Russians? No. So why does it really shock people to find out Japan attacked before the formalities of declaring war?

Skunk, please don't take offense. I'm not "complaining" about what you said. Just taking the opportunity to point out that America should have expected a preemptive attack.

Samar was damned close to being worse that Savo. Only the brave and heroic actions of a few destroyer captians prevented this.

In this case it is the Japanese that where uterly surprised by the American TF and should have ended misrably for them. They where clearly able to show how superior they where to Allied forces in a night fight. (I once read that the driving factor behind seeking night action was that the Japanese thought themselve vastly superior to the Allies in "night vision") The entire US cruiser colomb did little to react to the Apparent torpedo threat. No, they kept formation and steamed directly into the spread. Following all that, Wright gets a Navy Cross?

 

No sweat, I'm not offended at all, just trying to find the starting line.
Without a starting & stopping point, all facts & figures become confusing at least & less relevant for sure.
All inclusive is all inclusive.

I'm disturbed with what was known, and what was done at Pearl as well. Be the commanders "ham-stringed" by politics or not. As you say, they should have pulled their head out of the sand....wake up and smell the coffee....take off the "Rose" colored glasses, and the rest.

History rhymes (Mark Twain), and all this "Edith Keeler" (revisit Star Trek) peace now and forever sentiment is ...........knowing human nature, and economic recession, and overpopulation/pollution, and winding down on availability of natural resources that took billions of years to create, and corruption/useless vague nonsense of political leaders worldwide.......petty bickering......idol threats......hypocrisy beyond measure......police/nanny states......

........___........_____!

 

in both savo and tassafaronga, the destroyer screen of the defeated side was found wanting. destroyers arranged in a screen have a marginal capability to detect intruders at night, and have practically no ability to engage a determined column of warships.