Saturday 13th October

59 Days to go.

The Battle of Savo took place just to the right of the Island (Savo), the Battle of Cape Esperance took place just to the right of the cape in the left midground of the photo. The battle of Guadalcanal took place inbetween where the photo was taken from and the Island.

I went to the Honiara Markets. They have clothes, jewellery, fruit vegetables and fish for sale on little stalls. I wandered around and finally selected 2 pineapples. They cost me A$1.50 each. I went to work at about 1015. We had no computers online. So I did a little bit of typing and went over a couple of processes with Stats.

I did the boring stuff, 2 loads of washing and then went to the pool for a couple of hours. After that a nice leisurely meal and watched a bit of telly.

The 5th of the naval battles was The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, 12 – 15 November 1942. At about 1400 the Japanese launched air attacks on US ships. The US had a Heavy Cruiser and a Destroyer damaged. A large number of Japanese aircraft were lost. In the early hours of the 13th a fierce Naval action commenced. The fighting became so close that the ships actually intermingled. This happens rarely in modern fighting. The US lost 2 Light Cruisers and 4 Destroyers. 2 other Heavy Cruisers including the one damaged the afternoon before a Light Cruiser and 3 Destroyers were further damaged. The Japanese lost 2 Destroyers and had a further 3 damaged. A Battleship was heavily damaged by navy fire and later sunk by aircraft from Henderson.

On the 14th the Japanese launched their heaviest naval bombardment on Henderson Field. US aircraft attacked this force and sunk a Heavy Cruiser, also 2 heavy Cruisers, a Light Cruiser and a Destroyer were damaged. Later that afternoon 11 troop transports and 11 cruisers were sighted and attacked. 7 troop transports were sunk. They continued on and in the early hours of the 15th some of the Japanese reinforcements were landed. At the same time another battle raged 2 US Battleship and 4 Destroyers taking on a greater force. This resulted in the US losing 3 of the 4 Destroyers and the other damaged. The Japanese lost a Destroyer.

Finally on the 15th while a fleet of Japanese vessels concentrated their fire on the US Battleship South Dakota, the other US Battleship did enough damage to a Japanese Battleship that it was later abandoned and sunk. As the South Dakota retreated the Washington broke off and drew the Japanese away from the other Battleship. At daylight aircraft then attacked and sunk the remaining 4 troop carriers.

Even though the US lost more combat ships, the loss of 2 Battleships and the 11 troop carriers ensured that the Japanese did not send large Naval forces against Guadalcanal.