The Battle of Savo Island - Aug 9, 1942 _ U.S. Navy's Worst Defeat

WW2 PACIFIC ^ | Unknown | Unknown

[SAMWolf]

Map provided by ibiblio.org

[SAMWolf]

The Battle of Savo Island was the most complete and humiliating defeat the U.S. Navy has ever suffered. After the battle, Rear Admiral R.K. Turner withdrew his warships to the New Hebrides, leaving Vandegrift and the 1st Marines without naval support.

[Soaring Feather]

Good Morning SAM

Good read thanks much.

[Steelerfan]

Outstanding post. Thank you for taking the time and effort to do this. If you are interested, there is also a good account of all the naval actions off Guadalcanal at www.combinedfleet.com

[SAMWolf]

Thanks for the link.

[SAMWolf]

Good Morning Bentfeather.

[Consort]

Solomon Islands (British)
1906 - 1947 Flag

[blam]

Iron bottom sound bump.

[txzman]

Thanks for the post.

[pttttt]

Chicago had the senior captain, but his ship was immediately torpedoed into a state of confusion that even included an exchange of friendly fire.

Not researched and working from hazy recollection, but I seem to remember that torpedoes and torpedo employment may have been significant factors in the outcome of this battle. Torpedoes and close-in night combat were big parts of Japanese Navy surface tactics well before radar became available, going back to the Russo-Japanese War, and pretty much every Japanese surface combat ship - heavy cruisers, even battleships - had torpedo tubes. They also had excellent and lethal torpedoes.

OTOH the US Navy had for some reason (maybe more open-ocean history and less archipelagic?) decided prior to WWII that any surface action between cruiser-and-above combatants was most likely to be a long-range (gun) battle where torpedoes wouldn't be important, and to save weight took the torpedo tubes off everything but destroyers (not sure about light cruisers but I think they were included in the removal). So you had a Japanese force with more firepower that counted at closer range, more experience and doctrinal history at using it, and better rounds (US torpedoes had a lot of problems in the early years of WWII). The US Navy wasn't altogether wrong - the really decisive WWII actions did take place at longer ranges - but it may have been a problem at Savo Island.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

bump

[johnny7]

Then the Marines didn't have to just worry about the Jap soldiers... they had to sweat out those big naval guns.

We were lucky in one way, the Jap commanders on Guadalcanal suffered from “victory disease”.

They thought they were invincible. After the Ilu and Bloody Ridge defeats, they got a taste of Marine courage.

[SAMWolf]

The Japanese had the excellent "Long Lance" torpedo.

[SAMWolf]

The Japanese would make regular runs down "The Slot" at night to bombard the Marines and Henderson field. They made life pretty miserable for the Marines.

[KellyAdmirer]

Apropos of nothing, and not involved in the battle at all, but Vice-Admiral John S. McCain was in charge of shore-based aircraft on Guadalcanal, though I don't think any were in place yet anyway.

[MattinNJ]

Sparta-Ping.

SAMWolf-Thank you for the excellent post

[VOA]

The clear victor at Savo Island was Japanese Vice Admiral Gunichi Mikawa,
but he failed to follow up on his triumph.

Ah, defeat from the jaws of victory.

I'll have to return for a read later today...

[KeyWest]

My father was the Gunnery Officer on the Astoria. He was in the main battery Director when the Japs attacked. He returned fire, but the Captain came to the bridge and ordered cease fire because he thought they were firing on the southern group. My Dad said, "For God's sake, fire!" But the CO would not. That gave the Japs enough time to zero in on the cruisers and started to hit them with gunfire. Only then did the CO allow my Dad to return fire but then it was too late.

The long lance torpedos came into use when the Cruisers were burning and made easy targets.

The Astoria made it into the next day. My Dad was rescued that day.

He never told me what happened to him during the war. I learned it from books, all of which made him into the one person who did the right thing. The CO got a medal but refused to allow one for my Dad. He hated him for being right.

One of my father's classmates published an article saying that it was probably the Astoria that made the only hit on the jap group- the chartroom of the flagship. The Admiral thought others of his ships were being hit so withdrew. Had they just turned around they could have sunk all the transports and that would have doomed the Marines on Guadacanal.

One of the great lessons that came out of the battle was that we lost ships because of fire resulting from peacetime practices. Dust was allowed to collect in the ventilation ducts over many years of just being show ships, so that when they took a hit and fire broke out, it spread throughout the whole ship quickly. No one thought of cleaning the ducts or the danger of years worth of dust.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks for sharing about your Dad. I thank him for his service.

[Sparta]

Excellent post again, once again I see no reason why the ping-list shouldn't activated.