1942-11-13
Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, night action
Off Guadalcanal, near Savo Island
Callaghan's thirteen ships, in one column: Cushing, Laffey, Sterett, O'Bannon, Atlanta, San Francisco, Portland, Helena, Juneau, Aaron Ward, Barton, Monssen, and Fletcher. Abe was coming the other way with Hiei, Kirishima, the light cruiser Nagara, and eleven destroyers. The lines ran together in the dark. Atlanta was scuttled, Juneau was finished that afternoon by a submarine that was not in the fight, and Cushing, Laffey, Barton, and Monssen were sunk. Akatsuki was sunk, and Yudachi was finished the next morning. Hiei was disabled and sunk later on the 13th. Helena hit Amatsukaze and drove her out. Sterett was badly damaged and claimed hits on Hiei. Kirishima took one hit and was not sunk this night. Shigure, Shiratsuyu, and Yugure were a picket off the Russells and were not in this melee.
Sunk in this fight
7 ships.
Japanese formation, 12-13 November 1942, at 0100 before opening fire. United States Strategic Bombing Survey, The Campaigns of the Pacific War, 1946, Appendix 47, chart 2. Public domain. North is up. The scale bar is 5 km. The time zone on the sheet is minus 11. Savo is at the top and the Guadalcanal coast is at the left. The sheet names Samidare, Murasame, Asagumo, Battleship Division 11, Ikazuchi, Inazuma, Harusame, Yudachi, Teruzuki, Amatsukaze, Yukikaze, Nagara, and Akatsuki, which it marks (C). The lower sketch is the same night after the enemy was sighted. It marks Battleship Division 11 as having fired, and it marks three cruisers, six cruisers, and seven destroyers without naming them. Those counts are the sheet's. The sheet does not credit a sinking.
Plan of bombardment of the airfield, night of 12 November 1942. United States Strategic Bombing Survey, The Campaigns of the Pacific War, 1946, Appendix 47, chart 1. Public domain. North is up. The time zone on the sheet is minus 11. The track runs from Savo at 0000 to the coast at 0500. The sheet says the bombardment group arrived at Savo at 0000 and was delayed 40 minutes by an unfavorable weather report from an observation post on Guadalcanal. It prints 438 rounds, illumination by two reconnaissance seaplanes, and a range of 18 to 23 km. It does not name the ships.
Tracks of Hiei and Kirishima, 13 November 1942. United States Strategic Bombing Survey, The Campaigns of the Pacific War, 1946, Appendix 47, chart 3. Public domain. The sheet does not print a north arrow. It prints Savo Island, northwest 8 minutes. The time zone on the sheet is minus 11. It draws Hiei and Kirishima together at 0151, a sighting of the enemy, and Hiei's track ending near Savo at 0607, marked with an X. It does not print the word sunk. It marks a heavy cruiser in two places and does not name the ship. Kirishima's track continues away from Savo.
Track of the destroyer Yudachi, 13 November 1942. United States Strategic Bombing Survey, The Campaigns of the Pacific War, 1946, Appendix 47, chart 4. Public domain. The sheet does not print a north arrow. The time zone on the sheet is minus 11. It also draws Hiei and Kirishima. It prints Yudachi sunk at 0430, south 5 miles from Savo Island, and does not name the ship that fired. This page's account is that she was finished the next morning. The sheet marks a cruiser and a destroyer and does not name them.
Tracks of Asagumo, Murasame, Samidare, and Harusame, 13 November 1942. United States Strategic Bombing Survey, The Campaigns of the Pacific War, 1946, Appendix 47, chart 5. Public domain. The sheet does not print a north arrow. The time zone on the sheet is minus 11. Savo is at the upper left. It marks the four destroyers at the beginning of the battle at 0145, Samidare going to the rescue of Yudachi, Murasame with one boiler out of order, and Harusame after separating from Yudachi at 0150. It marks heavy cruisers at 0204 and 0236 and does not name them. It does not credit a sinking.
