Battle of Savo Island 1942: America's Worst Naval Defeat

many believe that after Midway the Japanese never had the upper hand but this assertion is plainly wrong the Japanese may have lost their main carrier force but they still retained a strong surface fleet and it was a force to be reckoned with on August 7th America launched his first offensive in the Pacific and landed on Guadalcanal Japan launched ineffective air raids on the invasion fleet with poor results something more was needed a dorama Kawa was in charge of the newly formed 8th fleet his force was comprised of five heavy cruisers two light cruisers and a single destroyer as soon as he heard of the Guadalcanal landings he thought of one thing attack the naval General Staff opposed his clan originally at first but then reassessed the situation what other alternative do they have let the Americans strengthen their hold no the Japanese Navy spirit was that of attack and they approved Mikado's boat operation by 1430 his force departed his objective destroyed the enemy force it would be a quick and never saying thrust and then he will be drawn to the cover of darkness before American carrier aircraft could retaliate on August 8th makalah saw Allied planes above and he knew he had been spotted literally he know he was actually spotted the day before as well by submarine s38 Michal must have assumed that surprise was lost when we car received reports that the American fleet was divided into three groups in the waters off Guadalcanal and this gave him hope to continue the mission if the reports were accurate he could defeat each group separately his Scout planes assured him he would make it by midnight and at 11:13 p.m. three Scout planes were launched ahead of Mikado's fleet they would drop flares on the American cruisers during the battle the Japanese had the finest night binoculars in the world and at 12 43 caught sight of a destroyer but this lone destroyer was actually oblivious to their presence and was moving further and further away his forces reduced speed and pressed on 50 guns were trained on this little destroyer ready to blow it out of the water if this sounded an alarm but nothing he couldn't believe it miraculously he was able to pass by it undetected had he truly achieved surprise or maybe it was a trap with the Americans waiting for him he had no idea what he was about to face regardless he crease speed to 26 knots and a-133 he gave the order all ships attack now McHale couldn't have known it at the time but he had achieved complete surprise the Americans were under the command of Rear Admiral Turner the main force guarding the landings were for American cruisers and to Australian cruisers Admiral Crutchley in the USS Australia was in charge of the southern group in Captain reef Cole in the USS Vincennes was in charge of the northern group so the American fleet would be capable of handling the Japanese but its fleet was divided into two leaving them subject to defeat in detail Rear Admiral Turner had indeed received all reconnaissance reports of McHale was fleet heading towards his area but the poor chain of communications resulted in him receiving the reports at the end of the day what didn't help was that there is also a misidentification of the Japanese force identifying a sea tender with him so when he did receive the report he disregarded them if it was a sea tender maybe the Japanese were building a seaplane base nearby yes they were near but the Japanese would never attack during the night would day and this is what Turner was guilty of he was assuming what the Japanese would do and not taking into account their capabilities in other words his battle plan was based on what the enemy would do not could do thus nothing was done to raise the alert status of his ships also the Americans were too dependent on radar betting that they would be able to spot the enemy from afar if they chose to attack but they were unfamiliar with the usage of radar at this point of the war and it would fail them during the battle this explains their overconfidence in just placing two single destroyers on picket duty to make things worse a huge gap were formed between them when they were at the furthest point apart and by pure luck this is where Mikawa was able to squeeze through undetected it's also important to note that the cruisers have been at General Quarters for the past 15 hours so this night the exhausted crews would finally be given rest and be placed in condition to readiness meaning that battle stations would be partially manned and to top all of this off Admiral Crutchley was summoned for a conference and the USS Australia pulled out of formation at 9:23 p.m. the cruisers were now without an admiral not only that but the northern force wasn't even aware of the fact that their commander was away what resulted was a broken and confused chain of command during the battle as you can see there were so many flaws in the command structure and dispositions of the American fleet that tragic consequences were sure to follow Mikawa approached a wounded destroyer the Jarvis was coincidentally passing through exiting the area due to earlier damage from the air raids the you Nagi separated to deal with the ship Americans could hear planes hovering above many thought they were friendly aircraft but some correctly deduced that they were enemies the Patterson spots the Japanese and reports warning warning strange ships entering Harbor but it is too late torpedoes were already on their way battle commenced at 143 a.m. a moment later flares from those mysterious planes were dropped illuminating the American ships then the Japanese battle column begins to rain fire on the Canberra and Chicago from only 4,500 yards jokai opens fire on the Canberra then a Hoba kako and pollute our joining the Canberra never had a chance she was hit by as many as 24 shells her engine room was struck propulsion and power were lost and her captain was killed fortunately no torpedoes hit her and she was left dead in the water the Chicago beard often sought repeaters coming her way she dodged the first two but the third torpedo fired by the kako hit her under starboard bow she had forward flooding no power and was struck on her four masts by a six-inch shell her reaction was slow her main guns never got a chance to fire but her secondary guns scored a hit on the tender causing casualties she retired to the west and was out of the fight inexplicably she does not report or send a warning to another force the southern force had been defeated in seven minutes for the most part the Destroyers were ignored vaguely launched an ineffective attack and broke off to the west the Patterson bravely engaged three cruisers between 151 and 1:55 a.m. she hit nothing but in return got hit in the after gun mount and fell back unintentionally Nichols column splits into two and the iron juggernaut has now become a two-headed monster and in between the two heads lies the northern force they launched her Peters enclosed in the Japanese lit up the Northern Fleet whose guns were still trained forward they could see men running on her decks only a few Tokyo men were aware of what was going on but the majority of American sailors were still confused and believed they were being lit by friendly ships near-misses fell upon Astoria she was ordered to engage but the captain ordered a cease fire still thinking they were friendly ships choked eyes fifth sob will finally hit her success of sob was followed and struck her bow gun deck and bridge she managed to fire back but was ineffective she lost even control and her hanger was hit the Americans was soon discovered that their cruisers had a weakness their flow planes located on the well deck and hangar where the Achilles heels on their ships the gasoline lubricating oil ordinances and all other flammable contents were concentrated and exposed in this area which greatly contributed to feeding the fire the Astoria tried to fight the fires but the Sailor soon discovered that there was no pressure on her water lines she almost collided with the quincy who was suffering a similar fate in total she received 34 263 hits Alba kinugasa and Kaka finished her off she was left a burning wreck the quincy was raked along her entire length propulsion was killed when she was struck by two torpedoes on her portside the bridge was hit and her captain was killed she had five planes on board the catapult was struck and her planes went up in flames she quickly became an inferno and yet she was able to fight back she got off three Souls and hit yokai's bridge nearly taking out Mikawa and his staff about fifty four hits were registered on the blazing Cruiser just so you can get idea of how intense the fires were the Japanese turn off their searchlights because of flaming ships were eliminating the combat area so well the head of the northern group the Vincennes took a beating she was struck by 74 shells from both the eastern and western column every single one of her turrets were hit and taken out testifying to the Japanese as accuracy and precision shells struck the main stem lines the fire main and battery control and the conning tower was hit severing communications on the ship her hangar lit up and to make matters worse two torpedoes hit her portside the steering power failed the electrical system failed and the flagship of the northern group began to fight for her life the destroyers played no significant part in the battle the helm practically missed the battle and the Wilson fired but didn't register any hits the only obstacle left for me come up was a rough Hobbit tender and flew taka engaged the destroyer Yubari joined him and five hits were scored fortunately a rain squall saved the destroyer from assured destruction the damage was catastrophic the quincy was the first to sink 30 minutes after the battle had started she sank at 2:38 with 370 lives the Vincennes sank at 258 taking 332 over crew it almost looked as if the camera might be saved but internal explosions began to rattle the Australian ship at 4:15 and it was soon decided that she would be scuttled she sank at 8 a.m. 85 men died the last ago was the Astoria she sank by the bow at 12:15 216 senators went down with the ship Japanese losses were minimal 35 men killed and 51 wounded this was the worst defeat of the United States Navy the final tally for a cruiser sunk one Cruiser damaged and to the storage damage a thousand and seventy seven men killed seven hundred and nine wounded led to sinking almost as many sailors died to stay than Marines during the entire six-month Guadalcanal campaign that's how vicious this battle was it had been a stunning victory the enemy forces were destroyed and from it emerged an opportunity to turn this tactical victory into a strategic one the transports were now exposed and vulnerable McHale was still have 40% of his ammunition in 50% mr. Peters left but it is worth mentioning the maqams pre-battle plants did not mention attacking transports nevertheless the transports represented tempting targets should he go back Mikawa calculated the risk the single hit on yokai by the Quincy was truly a lucky shot it destroyed the charts and maps mikawa needed to navigate safely but the biggest concern was time Don was not far off it would take two hours to reassemble leaving only one hour of night to attack if he attacked now he wouldn't be withdrawing back home with the protection of darkness he would be exposed in daylight hours he would have to face the wrath of American carrier airplanes during his retreat he deliberated at 223 he ordered a withdrawal another factor involved was at the Japanese Imperial Army had boasted how they would defeat the Americans soon enough his mission was to take care of the Navy which he did and they would take care of the Marines so why risk is flee the irony however was that the American carrier force that when he was so scared of was already on its way out of the operational area if he had gone through with the plan and destroyed the transports his force would have been able to escape unmolested this is one of the greatest what-ifs of the Guadalcanal campaign but who could blame him we today have the benefit of hindsight while Mikawa had to act on the information at hand however some may argue that he still should have taken the opportunity author mark still wrote mikawa did not know it at the time but he had just squandered the IGN's best chance of delivering a knockout blow to the first American offensive in the Pacific it is hard to imagine the Americans holding on to their lodgement following the destruction of their transport fleet and the supplies still on board the destruction of the American transports would have been worth to sacrifice Annika was entire force this battle had demonstrated to the Americans that the IGN surface fleet still packed a mean punch and that the Japanese were superior in night fighting the Battle of Sabo adding would be the first of many intense battles for control of the waters off Guadalcanal and as if I don't know a measure of revenge was obtained upon the Japanese the next day the kako was sunk by submarine s 44 on her return trip however remember to damage the story that made it out of the battle before it started the Jarvis she was on her way back to Australia for repairs when 31 Japanese planes approached she was sunk with all hands it was going to be a vicious campaign indeed you

Channel: Montemayor

Views: 3,175,728

Rating: 4.8646274 out of 5

Keywords: Guadacanal Campaign, World War 2, Imperial Japanese Navy, United States Navy, Savo Island, Cruisers, Defeat, Animated Map, The Pacific War, Animation

Id: XWEEHOKcTnA

Length: 13min 12sec (792 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 26 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/Dr_Lord_Platypus]

If you want to learn more about Savo Island and Guadalcanal in general, I highly recommend Neptune's Inferno by James D. Hornfischer. Its a fantastically well written account of the US navy at Guadalcanal.

You'll learn things you never knew about the battles and the men and ships that fought in them, many of which we have in game! One example I found pretty funny: While Atlanta was fitting out in New York, the crew practiced aiming their guns by targeting and training them on the above ground rail!

[u/ZomBry]

This guy's content is pure quality, I HIGHLY recommend you check out his Pearl Harbor video, the sheer amount of detail + PoV shots is insane.

[u/[deleted]]

This is one amazing documentary.