1943-07-13
Battle of Kolombangara
About twenty miles east of the north end of Kolombangara
Rear Admiral Walden L. Ainsworth, in Honolulu, had St. Louis, the New Zealand cruiser Leander, and ten destroyers. Rear Admiral Shunji Izaki was coming down the Slot in Jintsu, with Mikazuki, Yukikaze, Hamakaze, Kiyonami, and Yugure. Four destroyer-transports, Satsuki, Minazuki, Yunagi, and Matsukaze, were carrying troops. The van destroyers opened with torpedoes. Jintsu was sunk and Izaki was killed. The shot that finished her is not pinned to one ship. A Japanese torpedo hit Leander and killed twenty-eight men. A later spread hit Honolulu, St. Louis, and Gwin. None of those torpedoes is pinned to one Japanese ship. Ralph Talbot sank the wreck of Gwin. The four transports still put their troops ashore. Kiyonami and Yugure were not sunk that night.
Sunk in this fight
2 ships.
Drawn for this encyclopedia from the account on this page. North is up. Not to scale, and not a surveyed track. The fight is placed in open water east of the north end of Kolombangara. About twenty miles is the page's place, not a measured scale. Mikazuki is shown ahead of Jintsu. No other order is marked, and the Allied course is not drawn. The four transports are shown only as reaching the island with their troops. No path through Blackett Strait is drawn. Jintsu's sinking is not pinned to one ship. The torpedoes that hit Leander, Honolulu, St. Louis, and Gwin are not pinned to one Japanese ship.
Chart: New Georgia Group, in Solomon Islands Campaign: XI, Kolombangara and Vella Lavella, 6 August-7 October 1943, Combat Narratives, Office of Naval Intelligence. Public domain. This is a map of the place only. It shows Kolombangara, Kula Gulf, Vella Gulf, and the New Georgia Group. It plots no ship from this fight. The volume begins on 6 August, after this battle. No chart of the action was found.
