Osprey's Naval Battles for Guadalcanal 1942

By mid 1942, the Japanese had been stopped in the central Pacific and their attempts to invade Port Morseby in New Guinea had been stifled. However, they were still on the move, attempting to cut off Australia from the US (though the US could have supplied them from the west, it would have taken a lot longer). In this case, they were moving down the Solomon Island chain, aiming at Fiji. The US had to do something to stop them as the British had their own issues in Europe and early losses pretty well had them out of the fight in the Pacific until the last year of the war.

It was known that the Japanese were building a seaplane base at Tulagi in the Solomans so it was decided to start the land offensive at that location. As plans were getting underway, word was received that they were also building an airstrip on Guadalcanal. This added new urgency so a force was gathered to invade both islands.

The Japanese were caught very much by surprise by all this, figuring it would be 1943 before the US would be able to go on the offensive. As such, there was little in the way of a garrison on either island. The initial response to the US landings were to send aircraft from Rabaul to attack the US force. Typical of the Japanese, they concentrated on the warships, leaving the transports pretty well alone. The Japanese had little success, losing a goodly portion of the attacking force, but in two days of attacks, it was enough for the cautious US commander to pull back his ships before all supplies were off loaded.

Meanwhile, the Japanese sent a task force south to Guadalcanal to see if they could be effective. Thus began a naval war for supremacy of the waters around Guadalcanal and some of the most intense surface action of the Pacific war. There were five major surface ship battles fought in the waters around Guadalcanal: Savo Island, Cape Esperance, First and Second Battles of Guadalcanal and Tassafaronga.

For the Japanese these were fought in conjunction with the goals of either shelling the airfield into uselessness, or preparing the way for reinforcements of the troops already on the island. One thing it showed was that the Japanese were pretty well the masters of the night at this period of the war. However, during the day, the US ruled the waters as it had planes which were able to bomb and sink Japanese ships.

The outcomes of these battles were all quite different with the Japanese winning some and the Americans winning some. All resulted in ship losses or ships so badly damaged that it took them out of the war for periods of time. Mistakes were made on both sides and this was especially true on the American side where cautious commanders were relieved and more aggressive ones put into their place. But lessons were learned.

This edition in Osprey's 'Campaign' series is a great read. The description of the battles is superbly done and tells a great series of tales without breaking into the sort of hyperbole that was so common in post-war accounts of these events. When one adds in the superb choice of period photos as well as some great artwork, you have a book that is a real winner. Most highly recommended.

July 2013