Second World War Carrier Campaigns by David Wragg

Author:David Wragg
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781783034222
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2013-02-19T08:00:00+00:00

Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands

Throughout the war in the Pacific, Japanese intelligence seems to have been faulty, both at the macro and micro levels. At the latter, Japanese reconnaissance would frequently mistake a tanker for an aircraft carrier, at the former, it always seemed to underestimate American strength or exaggerate Japanese successes, with any appreciation of the raid on Pearl Harbor being a good example. Yet another instance of Japanese over optimism came in October 1942, when the Imperial Japanese Navy received a report maintaining that Henderson Field had been recaptured, meaning that the Americans no longer had aerial superiority in the eastern Solomons. Unaware that the report was inaccurate, Admiral Yamamoto sent the Japanese Combined Fleet to complete the recapture of Guadalcanal, and in one sense, the balance of power was once again with the Japanese, since Admiral Halsey had just two aircraft carriers available following the loss of the Wasp.

The United States Navy’s two aircraft carriers in the area were the Enterprise, recently repaired, in Vice Admiral Kinkaid’s Task Force 16, with eighty-four aircraft, and the Hornet in Vice Admiral Murray’s Task Force 17, with eighty-seven aircraft. Henderson Field had another sixty aircraft, mainly of the United States Marine Corps. The remainder of the US fleet was just one battleship, six cruisers and fourteen destroyers, many of which were heavily engaged in blocking the ‘Tokyo Express’ operation.

The Japanese had no less than four aircraft carriers once again, with a total of 212 aircraft. Vice Admiral Kondo in the van of the fleet had Junyo with fifty-five aircraft, supported by two battleships, five cruisers and fourteen destroyers, while the main fleet under Vice Admiral Nagumo had the other three carriers, Shokaku, Zuikaku and Zuiho, with 157 aircraft, as well as two battleships, five cruisers and fifteen destroyers.

Aware of the approaching Japanese ships, the Americans launched their first strike on 25 October, but failed to find their opponent. Early the following morning, the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands started in earnest, after US reconnaissance aircraft found the Zuiho, and at 07.30, the USS Hornet sent a strike of torpedo-bombers and dive-bombers, escorted by Grumman Wildcat fighters. Slightly before this, at 07.10, anticipating American action, Nagumo had sent a first wave of aircraft to attack the Hornet, with the aircraft reaching the ship shortly after 09.00. Fifteen dive-bombers and twelve torpedo-bombers fell on the Hornet, with one bomb hitting the flight deck before a bomber flew into the island, although it remains unclear whether this was an aircraft out of control, possibly with the pilot pulling out of his dive too late, or a pilot, perhaps frustrated by a bomb being ‘hung up’, attempting a suicide operation. Then two torpedoes hit the carrier on her starboard side, before three 500-lb bombs smashed their way through the wooden flight deck and into the hangar. Within ten minutes, the ship was ablaze and listing to starboard. Meanwhile, an American bomb had hit the Zuiho, causing serious damage.

At 09.30, the Shokaku was

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