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GUADALCANAL. One of the decisive naval battles of WW2, it took place in the south-west Pacific Ocean at the peak of the struggle for the island of Guadalcanal in the Solomons, when American surface forces clashed with Japanese bombardment groups coming down to bombard Henderson Airfield, and to cover the landing of reinforcements. American aircraft took on the Japanese during daylight and the surface actions taking place intermittently from midnight on 12 November 1942, the battles finally ending on the morning of the 15th. In the first engagement the American forces sighted the Japanese on their radar but failed to take advantage of this and the Japanese skill in night fighting enabled them to bring a storm of fire down on the Americans, the Japanese force included two battleships while the Americans had nothing larger than cruisers, this fight resulted in all the American cruisers being damaged, one of which was later scuttled, four American destroyers being sunk and two others severely damaged, while the Japanese had one battleship so severely damaged that daylight revealed her limping slowly away north of Savo Island where after further air attacks she was scuttled. They also lost two destroyers sunk and three damaged. The next bombardment force arrived off Henderson Field on the night of the 13/14th, but failed to wreck the airfield. The next day they were attacked by aircraft from Henderson Field and the USS ENTERPRISE losing one cruiser sunk and three damaged. During that day American aircraft also attacked a troop convoy of eleven transports, sinking seven of them. The next bombardment force was assembled and encountered American surface forces on the night of the 14/15th. In the first clash (between the opposing destroyers) the Americans lost two destroyers sunk and two crippled while the Japanese had one destroyer so badly damaged she later had to be scuttled. The main forces then clashed and The Japanese lost the battleship KIRISHIMA, the cruiser KINUGASA and destroyers AYANAMI and YUDACHI, while the US lost the cruisers JUNEAU and ATLANTA. As a result of this battle the Japanese ships never challenged again in this area. Battle Scene No info - Uganda 1990 500s SG812