Battle of Tassafaronga: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

The Battle of Tassafaronga was a naval battle fought between United States and Japanese forces on 30 November 1942. The last of the series of sea fights in the months-long Battle of Guadalcanal, US cruisers were badly mauled by a squadron of destroyers. The battle occurred in the channel between Guadalcanal and Savo Island, and was named after the Japanese base Tassafaronga on Guadalcanal, the destination of the destroyer squadron; this battle has also been called a later "Battle of Savo Island" or the "Battle of Lunga Point".

Background

Following the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal the Japanese command doubted their ability to retake the island and began to look at New Georgia, to the north of Guadalcanal, as a base from which they could thwart the American advance in the Solomons. The bombardments of Guadalcanal stopped but the Tokyo Express still made frequent supply runs to the island and one of these runs led to the last major naval battle of the campaign.

Task Force 67, a recently formed cruiser/destroyer force that comprised the heavy cruisers USS Minneapolis (CA-36), New Orleans (CA-32), Pensacola (CA-24), and Northampton (CA-26), the light cruiser Honolulu (CL-48), and four destroyers (USS Fletcher, USS Drayton, USS Murry, and USS Prekins under the command of Rear Admiral Carleton H. Wright, steamed north from Espiritu Santo. The force, designed to counter any attempted reinforcement by the Japanese, intercepted a Japanese force of eight destroyers and six transports expected off Guadalcanal on the night of 30 November 1942. Destroyers USS Lamson and USS Lardner returning from a escort assignment to Guadalcanal were ordered to join up with Task 67. Lacking the time to brief the Commanding Officers of the joining destroyers they were assigned a posistion behind the cruisers.

Minneapolis made radar contact with the Japanese ships and, just after 2300, three US destroyers launched twenty torpedoes while the American cruisers opened fire. The Japanese destroyer Takanami was hit but the American torpedoes missed and the Japanese squadron quickly replied with twenty torpedoes of their own. Minneapolis was hit by two 24-inch torpedoes, New Orleans was hit by one torpedo which severed her bow, Pensacola was also torpedoed and damaged but Northampton received two hits which caused her to sink later. The damaged heavy cruisers managed to reach Tulagi harbor where emergency repairs were carried out but all three were out of the war for more than nine months.

This battle underlined the American inferiority in night actions and led to much discussion in the Pacific Fleet about changes in tactical doctrine.

“It is a painful truth that the Battle of Tassafaronga was a sharp defeat inflicted on an alert and superior cruiser force by a partially surprised and inferior destroyer force.” - Samuel Eliot Morison

• Morison, History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, vol. 5, chap. 13