1942-11-30
Battle of Tassafaronga
Off Tassafaronga, Guadalcanal
Wright's cruisers were Minneapolis, New Orleans, Pensacola, Honolulu, and Northampton, with Fletcher, Perkins, Maury, and Drayton ahead of them. Lamson and Lardner joined late and stayed at the rear. Tanaka had eight destroyers on a supply run: Takanami out in front, then Oyashio, Kuroshio, Kagero, Makinami, Naganami, Kawakaze, and Suzukaze. American gunfire sank Takanami. Japanese torpedoes, not pinned to one ship, blew the bows off Minneapolis and New Orleans, hit Pensacola, and sank Northampton. Honolulu was not hit. Helena and Amatsukaze were not in this fight.
Sunk in this fight
2 ships.
Track chart, 30 November 1942. United States Strategic Bombing Survey, The Campaigns of the Pacific War, 1946, Appendix 49. Public domain. North is up. Guadalcanal is at the bottom. Savo and Florida are marked. The legend prints U.S. cruisers, Honolulu, the destroyer van, and the enemy. The Japanese column is labeled Destroyer Division 24, Suzukaze and Kawakaze; Destroyer Division 15, Kagero, Kuroshio, and Oyashio; Destroyer Division 30, Makanami and Naganami, marked as flagship. Takanami is drawn ahead of the column. The sheet prints Makanami. This catalog's name for that destroyer is Makinami. The sheet marks divisions readjusted positions at 2330, Pensacola torpedoed at 2359, Minneapolis and New Orleans torpedoed at 2322, Northampton torpedoed at 2348, and Northampton sank. It marks Takanami sunk. It does not name the ship that fired any of those torpedoes, and it does not name the ship that sank Takanami.
