On the night of August 8th and August 9th 1942 southeast of the island of Savo The Japanese VIII Fleet, comprised of 5 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers and 1 destroyer under vice admiral Gunichi Mikawa managed to sneak undetected by Skylark Strait and in 32 minutes sank the heavy cruisers HMAS Canberra, USS Astoria, USS Vincennes and USS Quincy and a destroyer. Another destroyer and the heavy cruiser USS Chicago were severely damaged. 1.270 men were killed and 708 wounded. The Japanese forces went out almost unscratched.



Vice admiral Gunichi Mikawa.




USS Chicago




HMAS Canberra




USS Quincy



USS Astoria



USS Vincennes

Fortunately for the Allies, vice admiral Mikawa soon withdrew from the scene. But he could have went on southwards against the beachheads in northern Guadalcanal, where unprotected transports and supply ships were. Once these ships would have been sunk. The 1st Marine division would have been isolated and would have been annihilated by the Japanese.

What-if Mikawa would have attacked the beachheads? Would the US had lost the battle?

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"War is less costly than servitude, the choice is always between Verdun and Dachau." - Jean Dutourd, French veteran of both world wars

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It really wouldn't have mattered. In the short run the Marines already were ashore with about 18,000 men landed. They had 4 units of fire and 37 days of rations ashore as well. After all, the US did have 2 1/2 days to unload prior to that battle. In the long run, the transports would have to be replaced. This would have strained things elsewhere for awhile. However, supplies could have still been delived virtually daily in smaller amounts by APDs. These were converted 4 stacker destroyers rebuilt to carry about a company of troops, their equipment and, supplies each. As fast supply vessels they could land about 20 to 40 tons of supplies every other day. They carried their own landing craft and could have retired before nightfall each time.
Historically, these small ships did do this repeatedly in the early stages of the Guadalcanal campaign providing a critical life line to the Marines. Also, once the airfield opened critical supplies like medical provisions could have been flown in and casualities flown out.
The only way the Japanese could have countered the US at Guadalcanal would have been to send two or three divisions of troops on transports accompanied by a large naval presence. Could the Japanese have successfully pulled this off? Maybe. But, it is unlikely.

I dont think they wouldve lost the battle, at that point the Tojo's were still unorganized on the Island.


CvM

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Not to downrate the performance of the men on Guadalcanal, ( US or Japanese ), but US hardware was always a major factor in the Pacific. The Japanese believed that the warrior spirit of the individual soldier would win the war. Significant to be sure, but when you're opponent has a 20 to 1 supply advantage, both quantitatively & qualitatively, the opponent wins. Not exact figures, but I did hear a figure on the Iwo Jima program about the amount of hardware produced for the individual soldier on both sides & it was either 10 to 1 or 20 to 1. The US soldiers on Guadal canal did run a little thin as I recall. The Japanese commander did make a big mistake I must concur.

Am reading Cactus air force about air battles over Guadalcanal. It was mentioned that Macarthur & one other high up wanted to postpone the invasion til more supply was gathered. One can't help but wonder if Japan would have made it to Samoa & Tonga had the invasion been delayed. Depends on how long of course. Good thing the attack came when it did.

Well, it was caused 'Operation Shoestring' for a reason

Barely had any supplies...

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indeed, there was a 2 week period when the only planes the marines saw were Japanese when airstrip became usable, & also a 10 day period of no supplies whatsoever. According to the book anyway.

A little known episode that took place as an epilouge to the Battle of Savo Island involves the US submarine S-44 and the Japanese heavy cruiser Kako. While retreating toward Rabaul after the night battle off Savo Island, Adm. Mikawa detatched CruDiv6 consisting of the heavy cruisers Aoba, Furutaka, Kako and Kinugasa to return to their base at Kavieng. On August 10, 1942 as the cruisers approached Kavieng harbor, the US submarine S-44 fired 4 torpedos from a range of approximately 700 yards. Three of the four torpedos tore into the Kako at about 0910hrs, the Kako sank within 5 minutes. The other three cruisers remained to pick up survivors and rescued all but 71 crewmen. Despite Japanese destroyers depth charging the S-44 shortly after the attack, the S-44 was able to safely withdraw from the area and return to Brisbane two weeks later on the 23rd of August.

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Bill Murray
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