The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, by James W. Grace, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Md., 1999, $32.95.
Writing about the Battle of Guadalcanal, Rear Adm. Richmond Kelly Turner, commander of amphibious forces in the South Pacific theater, said: “In this engagement, we had displayed for our lasting respect and admiration a cool but eager gallantry that is above price. These splendid ships and determined men won a great victory against heavy odds. Had this battle not been fought and won, our hold on Guadalcanal would have been greatly endangered.”
Admiral Turner was paying tribute to the captains and crews of the cruisers and destroyers who had fought the Battle of Guadalcanal on November 12-13, 1942, one of the most confusing and ferocious naval actions in American history. In a remarkably complete account of this hitherto neglected battle, James W. Grace draws on untapped primary sources and eyewitness accounts from 200 American and Japanese survivors to tell the complete story of what happened that night in the waters between Savo Island and the northern coast of Guadalcanal. His narrative is masterfully detailed and vigorously written.
Grace describes how, early in November 1942, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was determined to strike a decisive blow that would break the U.S. 1st Marine Division’s tenuous hold on Guadalcanal. His plan involved the naval bombardment of Henderson Field and the landing of 13,500 reinforcements. Two battleships, a cruiser and 14 destroyers, led by Vice Adm. Hiroaki Abe, steamed toward Guadalcanal, unaware that the Americans had decoded Yamamoto’s plan. The Japanese were ambushed by a squadron of five cruisers and eight destroyers, led by Rear Adm. Daniel J. Callaghan. The Americans had the advantage of surprise, but due to poor communications, faulty radar use, bad radio control, overly strict fire discipline and unreliable torpedoes, they failed to make the most of it.
Grace describes the confused gun and torpedo melee that lasted 24 minutes, during which Admiral Callaghan was killed and his flagship, the cruiser USS San Francisco, was severely damaged. Rear Admiral Norman Scott was killed aboard the cruiser USS Atlanta, which was so badly damaged that she later sank. The early deaths of the two commanders compounded the American ships’ confusion, and the battle took on a life of its own.
By 2 a.m. on the 13th, all control over the battle had been lost, and the Japanese formation was in disarray. Admiral Abe had been wounded and was unable to issue orders, and his battleship Hiei seemed to be the target of every American ship. The U.S. formation, however, had fallen apart.
The Japanese lost two destroyers in the engagement, and Hiei was crippled and forced to limp away. She was the first battle wagon the Japanese lost in the war. The rest of the enemy ships withdrew.
The Americans, as Grace explains, paid a high price in the battle. The destroyers Barton, Cushing, Laffey and Monssen were sunk, and the cruisers Portland and Juneau were crippled by torpedoes. Juneau was torpedoed a second time later on the 13th by a Japanese submarine and sank.
The Americans had been vastly outgunned by the Japanese, who claimed a victory even though they retreated in the end. Although the Americans suffered more casualties in the battle–losing roughly 1,560 seamen as compared to 600 Japanese–U.S. forces also claimed a victory because they had managed to drive the Japanese away and keep them from reinforcing Japanese troops on Guadalcanal and bombarding vital Henderson Field.
Grace points out that the battle came at a critical time, when American confidence was at stake. Guadalcanal represented the first opportunity for America to take something away from the Japanese, and the naval battle tipped the balance. Deftly weaving eyewitness accounts into a lucid, informed and powerful narrative, Grace shows how the American seamen won a fight that, by all odds, they should have lost.
Michael D. Hull
