In a span of 25 minutes, the battleship USS Washington fired on the opposing Jap battleship KIRISHIMA. At that point, Admiral Lee ceased fire and left the Kirishima in a sinking condition. This proved that the US had effective radar for gunfire at night and at long ranges.
The 'Fighting Sullivans' were lost in an earlier battle at Guadacanal, and the loss of so many cruisers forced the battleships to be committed.
One can more in the 15 volume US Navy History of World War II written Samuel Elliot Morrison...
The excerpt is from the USS Washington webpage: http://www.usswashington.com
Posted between Veterans Day and the 77th anniversary of the battle...
USS South Dakota had a crew of untrained sailors to go with the ship not having a proper shakedown.
The South Dakota was between the enemy ships and the Washington.
The South Dakota was targeted and took over 40 hits in the night action
The South Dakota used her guns in this action too.
Am right now reading Neptune’s Inferno by James Hornfischer, the author of The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors. The Japanese got some payback for Midway at Guadalcanal.
I read, years ago, that what destroyed the destroyers at Savo Island was - Linoleum. In the battles it caught on fire destroying the destroyers.
After the battle, all ships were ripping out their linoleum flooring and dumping it into the sea.
The captain of the Kirishima, Sanji Iwabuchi, survived the battle and returned to Japan, but was reassigned to shore duty and more-or-less told he would never be granted another ship command.
He was commander of the naval garrison at Manila when MacArthur’s forces returned to the Philippines, and when General Yamashita decided to abandon Manila and withdraw into the mountains of Luzon, Iwabuchi ordered his Naval ranks—including Special Naval Landing Forces (I won’t dignify them with the title of “marines”) and land-based garrisons—to stand and fight. The Japanese Naval forces committed horrible atrocities on the trapped civilian population as they fought to the death, building by building, for over a month in early 1945. Around 100,000 Philippine civilians died during the Battle for Manila.
Ironically, General Yamashita paid the “official” price for Iwabuchi’s atrocity, even though as an Army commander he had zero authority over the Navy’s doings.
I have read a lot on this subject, and one of the most informative and entertaining (entertaining in the way the story was told, not the subject which was terrible battle) was the book “Neptune’s Inferno”.
Their description of Admiral “Ching” Lee was fascinating. He was an early adopter and guru of radar directed gunfire. He knew the systems better than the men who worked on them and often better than the people who designed them.
He understood the strengths and weaknesses of the technology at that current date and was the first in history to use it effectively in a ship to ship engagement.
But what I enjoyed most was their description of Admiral Lee, the man. He apparently had a mild disposition and a spectacled face that made him approachable, but was a steely competitor and fighter.
He won 7 medals (5 gold, 1 silver, and 1 bronze), all in team shooting events.
He once designed a electronic guillotine with a meat cleaver for rats that they put in the overhead of the wardroom on a path rats were known to take. They had contests to see who could trigger the solenoid on the meat cleaver to get the rat as it ran under it during its journey on the pipes!
However, what was sobering was the butchery of naval gunfire battles at night in those waters. I once read someone’s characterization of one of those battles (I do think it was the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal) as a barroom fight where all was pitch black until a light was continually switched on and off.
Also makes you pause when you realize that Marine and Army deaths on Guadalcanal were around a thousand, but in the naval battles around Guadalcanal, around 4,000 men died. And when you realize a lot of those deaths were compressed into combined time frames that could be measured in hours, whereas the land battle went on for months.
I remember reading an account of one of the US ships caught in a searchlight of a Japanese ship, and everyone had a feeling that, if they could simply hide behind a turret or bulkhead to get out of the glare, they would somehow be safe. Being individually visible in the beam of light was apparently unnerving and gave rise to that irrational desire to get back in the shadows.
Great subject, thanks for posting it.
BKMK for ltr
*Guadalcanal ping*
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During my time with 3rdBn 26thMar in Vietnam, the battalion went afloat twice. The second time, I was aboard the USS Paul Revere, an amphibious attack transport (APA). One afternoon, all the embarked Marines were ordered to remain in their berthing spaces while the ship’s crew did gunnery training with the multiple twin 40mm antiarcraft gun mounts positioned around the ship’s weather deck. My berthing space was on the lowest billeting level in the forecastle (bow). There were two twin 40mm mounts immediately above. When the firing began, the effect was like some huge sledge hammer beating on the hull just outside the compartment.
I write all of this as a preamble for you to appreciate what that hour aboard the USS Washington at Salvo Island must have been like:
Extracted from the article text:
- From 0016 to 0019 fired 42 rounds 16”, (42 rounds in 3 minutes)
- From 0016 to 0017 fired 100 rounds 5” (100 rounds in 1 minute)
- fired 133 rounds 5” from 0025 to 0034 (133 rounds in 9 minutes)
- From 0100 to 0107 fired 75 rounds 16’’ and 107 rounds 5” (182 rounds in 7 minutes)
In 51 minutes, the USS Washington fired 117 rounds of 16” and 440 rounds of 5.”
Wow.
wow.....
This is a typo, for USS South Carolina, read USS South Dakota. USS South Carolina (BB26) was a WW1 Battleship decommissioned in 1921.
As for the Guadalcanal Campaign, it was only able to be attempted because of the results of Midway five months earlier. If even two IJN aircraft carriers had survived, an equivalent battle might have been fought in French Polynesia in order to keep the IJN from cutting off Australia & New Zealand.
I live near Waterloo, IA.....home of the 5 Sullivan brothers.
I attended a show last evening at our local military museum...the paul allen funded guys that found the Juneau gave a presentation of their adventures.
It was really cool to talk with these guys. they also found the Wasp, Hornet, Indianapolis, Musashi, Hiei, Kaga, Akagi, and others. Their next target to find is Soryu.
thanks for posting this. Fascinating stuff.