Battle of Cape Esperance

On August 7, 1942 Allied forces landed on Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and Florida Islands in the Solomon Islands in an attempt to deny the Japanese the islands as bases. Also, the Allies we looking to secure starting points for a campaign to isolate the major Japanese base at Rabaul while also supporting the Allied New Guinea campaign. The Guadalcanal campaign would last six months.
By nightfall on August 8, the Allied forces, mainly consisting of U. S. Marines, had secured Tulagi and nearby small islands, as well as an airfield under construction at Lunga Point on Guadalcanal, later to be named Henderson Field. Allied aircraft operating out of Henderson became known as the "Cactus Air Force" (CAF) after the Allied codename for Guadalcanal.

The Japanese Plan
Shortly after the Allies had established themselves on Guadalcanal, Imperial Japanese Navy officers, Capt. Yasuji Watanabe, the Combined Fleet’s planning officer, and Cmdr. Toshikazu Ohmae, from the 11th Air Fleet’s staff and Imperial Japanese Army were two officers, Col. Masanobu Tsuji, chief of the Operations section, Army General staff, and Maj. Tadahiko Hayashi of the 17th arrived at Truk to discuss the Guadalcanal invasion with Admiral Yamamoto. Because of the threat by allied aircraft flying from Henderson Field, the Japanese were unable to use large, slow transport ships to deliver their troops and supplies to the island. Instead, warships were used. The IJN light cruisers and destroyers were usually able to make the round trip down "The Slot" to Guadalcanal and back in a single night, thereby minimizing their exposure to CAF attacks. The only drawback to delivering troops in this manner was that it prevented most of the heavy equipment and supplies from being delivered. In addition, these convoys expended destroyers that were desperately needed for commerce defense. These high speed runs occurred throughout the campaign and were later called the "Tokyo Express" by the Allies and "Rat Transportation" by the Japanese.



The result of this meeting was that the Japanese would land a large number of troops from the 2nd and 38th Infantry Divisions, totaling 17,500 troops, for an all out attempt to recapture Henderson Field. The navy formed a formidable force of ships commanded by Radm. Takaji Joshima. This force included two seaplane carriers, the Chitose and Nisshin, and six destroyers. Another group of ships, commanded by Radm. Aritomo Goto, assembled with the mission to shell Henderson Field. It had the three heavy cruisers, Aoba, Kinugasa, and Furutaka, and two destroyers. The plan was for this group of ships to arrive after the Army landed its ships and destroy Henderson Field so that the Americans lost control of the air. Since U.S. Navy warships had yet to attempt to interdict any Tokyo Express missions to Guadalcanal, the Japanese were not expecting any opposition from U.S. naval surface forces that night.


The US Prepares
Meanwhile, Major General Millard F. Harmon convinced Vice Admiral Robert L. Ghormley that the Marines on Guadalcanal needed to be reinforced immediately if the Allies were to successfully defend the island from the next expected Japanese offensive. So, on October 8, the 2,837 men of the 164th Infantry Regiment from the U.S. Army's Americal Division boarded ships at New Caledonia for the trip to Guadalcanal with a projected arrival date of October 13. Meanwhile, Ghormley collected powerful naval forces to make sure the reinforcements and materiel got ashore safely and intact. The first two forces included the carrier Hornet, commanded by Radm. George D. Murray, and the battleship Washington, commanded by Radm. Willis A. Lee. The third force, commanded by Radm. Norman Scott, had two heavy cruisers, the San Francisco, Scott’s flagship, and Salt Lake City, two light cruisers, the Helena and Boise, and five destroyers. The Americans moved these ships nearer to Guadalcanal to protect their ships carrying more troops to Guadalcanal.


The Opening Moves
At 08:00 on Sunday, October 11, Jojima's reinforcement group left the Shortland Islands anchorage to begin their 250 miles run down the Slot to Guadalcanal. The six destroyers that accompanied Nisshin and Chitose included Asagumo, Natsugumo, Yamagumo, Shirayuki, Murakumo, and Akizuki. Gotō departed the Shortland Islands for Guadalcanal at 14:00 the same day.

To protect the reinforcement group's approach to Guadalcanal from the pesky CAF, the Japanese 11th Air Fleet planned two air strikes on Henderson Field for October 11. A fighter sweep of 17 A6M Zeros swept over Henderson Field just after mid-day but failed to engage any U.S. aircraft. Forty-five minutes later the second wave, this time 45 Betty bombers and 30 Zeros, arrived over Henderson Field. In an ensuing air battle with the CAF, one Betty and two U.S. fighters were downed. Although the Japanese attacks failed to inflict significant damage, they did prevent CAF bombers from finding and attacking the reinforcement group. As the reinforcement group sailed through the Slot, relays of 11th Air Fleet Zeros from Buin provided escort.

While the Hornet and Washington task forces stayed south of Guadalcanal, Scott’s force cruisers and destroyers stayed out of range from Japanese aircraft based at Rabaul. But, on October 11, an American B-17 bomber spotted the wakes of Japanese ships heading down the Slot at a speed of 25 knots about 260 miles northwest of Guadalcanal. The B-17’s crew reported the sighting to Henderson Field. Scott’s force also heard the sighting report. In response to the sighting of Jojima's force, at 16:07 Scott turned toward Guadalcanal for an interception.

Meanwhile, the radar at Henderson Field detected a flight of unidentified planes heading on a southeasterly course at a distance of 138 miles from Guadalcanal. The coastwatchers did not detect the planes. But any planes coming in that direction could only be Japanese. The 1st Marine Air Wing scrambled their planes and launched 52 planes to intercept approaching Japanese planes. After a series of American air attacks on the Japanese airplanes, the Japanese planes withdrew with minor losses. The first Japanese attack on Henderson Field failed to close the vital American airfield.

After receiving the sighting report of the Japanese ships approaching ships, Scott increased his force’s speed to 29 knots to reach Guadalcanal before midnight. His ships went to battle stations. By 8:30 a.m., Scott’s ships were off Cape Hunter, a point of land where Guadalcanal’s southern coastline turns northwesterly. He changed course to the northwest and headed toward West Cape, the islands westernmost point. He steamed to Cape Esperance and entered the area where he thought the Japanese would attempt landing their troops. Scott had ordered his search planes to fly over the waters between Guadalcanal and Florida Islands. No moon now shown; the night was pitch-black.


The Battle Begins
At 22:33, just after passing Cape Esperance, Scott's ships assumed battle formation. Scott turned his force northward and changed his course to starboard toward Savo Island as his ships passed Cape Esperance. He knew the Japanese were not far away and wanted to prepare to meet them in battle. Wanting to cross the Japanese ships’ “T”, he ordered his ships into the classic line of battle formation of a single file.

Gotō's force passed through several rain squalls as they approached Guadalcanal at 30 knots. Gotō's flagship Aoba led the Japanese cruisers in column, followed by Furutaka and Kinugasa. Fubuki was starboard of Aoba and Hatsuyuki to port. At 23:30, Gotō's ships emerged from the last rain squall and began appearing on the radar scopes of Helena and Salt Lake City. The Japanese, however, remained unaware of Scott's presence.

At 23:00, the San Francisco aircraft spotted Jojima's force off Guadalcanal and reported it to Scott. Scott, believing that more Japanese ships were likely still on the way, continued his course towards the west side of Savo Island. At 23:33, Scott ordered his column to turn towards the southwest to a heading of 230 degrees. All of Scott's ships understood the order as a column movement except Scott's own ship, San Francisco. As the three lead U.S. destroyers executed the column movement, San Francisco turned simultaneously. Boise, following immediately behind, followed San Francisco, thereby throwing the three van destroyers out of formation.

At 23:32 Helena's radar showed the Japanese warships to be about 27,700 yards away. At 23:35, Boise's and Duncan's radars also detected Gotō's ships. Between 23:42 and 23:44, Helena and Boise reported their contacts to Scott on San Francisco who mistakenly believed that the two cruisers were actually tracking the three U.S. destroyers that were thrown out of formation during the column turn. Scott radioed Farenholt to ask if the destroyer was attempting to resume its station at the front of the column. Farenholt replied, "Affirmative, coming up on your starboard side," further confirming Scott's belief that the radar contacts were his own destroyers.

At 23:45 Farenholt and Laffey, still unaware of Gotō's approaching warships, increased speed to resume their stations at the front of the U.S. column. Duncan's crew, however, thinking that Farenholt and Laffey were commencing an attack on the Japanese warships, increased speed to launch a solitary torpedo attack on Gotō's force without telling Scott what they were doing. San Francisco's radar registered the Japanese ships, but Scott was not informed of the sighting. By 23:45, Gotō's ships were only 5,000 yards away from Scott's formation and visible to Helena's and Salt Lake City's lookouts. The U.S. formation at this point was in position to cross the T of the Japanese formation, giving Scott's ships a significant tactical advantage. At 23:46, still assuming that Scott was aware of the rapidly approaching Japanese warships, Helena radioed for permission to open fire, using the general procedure request, "Interrogatory Roger" (meaning, basically, "Are we clear to act?"). Scott answered with, "Roger," only meaning that the message was received, not that he was confirming the request to act. Upon receipt of Scott's "Roger," Helena, thinking they now had permission, opened fire, quickly followed by Boise, Salt Lake City, and to Scott's surprise, San Francisco.
Gotō's force was taken almost completely by surprise. At 23:43 Aoba's lookouts sighted Scott's force, but Gotō assumed that they were Jojima's ships. Two minutes later, Aoba's lookouts identified the ships as American, but Gotō remained skeptical and directed his ships to flash indentification signals. As Aoba's crew executed Gotō's order, the first American salvo smashed into Aoba's superstructure. Aoba was quickly hit by up to 40 shells from Helena, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Farenholt, and Laffey. The shell hits heavily damaged Aoba's communications systems and demolished two of her main gun turrets as well as her main gun director. Several large-caliber projectiles passed through Aoba's flag bridge without exploding, but the force of their passage killed many men and mortally wounded Gotō.

Scott, still unsure who his ships were firing at, and afraid that they might be firing on his own destroyers, ordered a ceasefire at 23:47, although not every ship complied. Scott ordered Farenholt to flash her recognition signals and upon observing that Farenholt was close to his formation, he ordered the fire resumed at 23:51.

Aoba, continuing to receive damaging hits, turned to starboard to head away from Scott's formation and began making a smoke screen which led most of the Scott's ships to believe that she was sinking. Scott's ships shifted their fire to Furutaka, which was following behind Aoba. At 21:49 Furutaka was hit in her torpedo tubes, igniting a large fire that attracted even more shellfire from Scott's ships. At 23:58, a torpedo from Buchanan hit Furutaka in her forward engine room, causing severe damage. During this time, San Francisco and Boise sighted Fubuki about 1,400 yards away and raked her with shellfire, joined soon by most of the rest of Scott's ships. Heavily damaged, Fubuki began to sink. Kinugasa and Hatsuyuki turned to port instead of to starboard and escaped the immediate attention of Scott's ships.



During the exchange of gunfire, Farenholt received several damaging hits from both the Japanese and American ships, killing several men. She escaped from the crossfire by crossing ahead of San Francisco' and passing to the disengaged side of Scott's column. Duncan, still engaged in her solitary torpedo attack on the Japanese formation, was also hit by gunfire from both sides, set afire, and looped away in her own effort to escape the crossfire.

As Gotō's ships endeavored to escape, Scott's ships tightened their formation and then turned to pursue the retreating Japanese warships. At 00:06, two torpedoes from Kinugasa barely missed Boise. Boise and Salt Lake City turned on their searchlights to help target the Japanese ships, giving Kinugasa's gunners clear targets. At 00:10, two shells from Kinugasa exploded in Boise's main ammunition magazine between turrets one and two. The resulting explosion killed almost 100 men and threatened to blow the ship apart. Seawater rushed in through rents in her hull opened by the explosion and helped quench the fire before it could explode the ship's powder magazines. Boise immediately sheered out of the column and retreated from the action. Kinugasa and Salt Lake City exchanged fire with each other, each hitting the other several times, causing minor damage to Kinugasa and damaging one of Salt Lake City's boilers, reducing her speed.

At 00:16 Scott ordered his ships to turn to a heading of 330 degrees in an attempt to pursue the fleeing Japanese ships. Scott's ships, however, quickly lost sight of Gotō's ships, and all firing ceased by 00:20. The American formation was beginning to scatter, so Scott ordered a turn to 205 degrees to disengage.
During the battle between Scott's and Gotō's ships, Jojima's reinforcement group completed unloading at Guadalcanal and began its return journey unseen by Scott's warships, using a route that passed south of the Russell Islands and New Georgia. Despite extensive damage, Aoba was able to join Kinugasa in retirement to the north through the Slot. Furutaka's damage caused her to lose power around 00:50, and she sank at 02:28, 22 miles northwest of Savo Island. Hatsuyuki picked up Furutaka's survivors and joined the retreat northward.

Boise extinguished her fires by 02:40 and at 03:05 rejoined Scott's formation. Duncan, on fire, was abandoned by her crew at 02:00. Unaware of Duncan's fate, Scott detached McCalla to search for her and retired with the rest of his ships towards Nouméa, arriving in the afternoon of October 13. McCalla located the burning, abandoned Duncan about 03:00, and several members of McCalla's crew made an attempt to keep her from sinking. By 12:00, however, they had to abandon the effort as interior bulkheads within Duncan collapsed causing the ship to finally sink 6 miles north of Savo Island. American servicemen in boats from Guadalcanal as well as McCalla picked up Duncan's scattered survivors from the sea around Savo. In total, 195 Duncan sailors survived; 48 did not. As they rescued Duncan's crew, the Americans came across the more than 100 Fubuki survivors, floating in the same general area. The Japanese initially refused all rescue attempts but a day later allowed themselves to be picked up and taken prisoner.

Jojima, learning of the bombardment force's crisis, detached destroyers Shirayuki and Murakumo to assist Furutaka or her survivors and Asagumo and Natsugumo to rendezvous with Kinugasa, which had paused in her retreat northward to cover the withdrawal of Jojima's ships. At 07:00, five CAF SBD Dauntless dive bombers attacked Kinugasa but inflicted no damage. At 08:20, 11 more SBDs found and attacked Shirayuki and Murakumo. Although they scored no direct hits, a near miss caused Murakumo to begin leaking oil, marking a trail for other CAF aircraft to follow. A short time later, seven more CAF SBDs plus six TBF Avengers accompanied by 14 Wildcats found the two Japanese destroyers 170 miles (274 km) from Guadalcanal. In the ensuing attack, Murakumo was hit by a torpedo in her engineering spaces, leaving her without power. In the meantime, Aoba and Hatsuyuki reached the sanctuary of the Japanese base in the Shortland Islands at 10:00.
Rushing to assist Murakumo, Asagumo and Natsugumo were attacked by another group of 11 CAF SBDs and TBFs escorted by 12 fighters at 15:45. An SBD placed its bomb almost directly amidships on Natsugumo while two more near misses contributed to her severe damage. After Asagumo took off her survivors, Natsugumo sank at 16:27. The CAF aircraft also scored several more hits on the stationary Murakumo, setting her afire. After her crew abandoned ship, Shirayuki scuttled her with a torpedo, picked up her survivors, and joined the rest of the Japanese warships for the remainder of their return trip to the Shortland Islands.

Imperial Japanese Navy Forces
Rear-Admiral Aritomo Goto
Sentai 6
CA Aoba Captain Yonejiro Hisamune
CA Furutaka* Captain Tsutau Araki
CA Kinugasa Captain Masao Sawa
Desron 3
DD Fubuki* Commander Musao Yamashita
DD Hatsuyuki Lt. Commander Tatsuya Yamaguchi

United States Navy Forces
Rear Admiral Norman Scott
San Francisco (F) CA-38 Captain Charles H. McMorris
Salt Lake City CA-25 Captain Ernest G. Small
Boise CL-47 Captain Edward J. Moran
Helena CL-50 Captain Gilbert C. Hoover
Desron 12
Captain Robert G. Tobin
Farenholt DD-491 (F) Lt. Commander Eugene T. Seaward
Duncan* DD-485 Lt. Commander Edmund B. Taylor
Laffey DD-459 Lt. Commander William E. Hank
Buchanan DD-484 Commander Ralph E. Wilson
McCalla DD-488 Lt. Commander William G. Cooper
*sunk in this battle