Six Sea Battles for Guadalcanal: Orbat, Second Savo (First Guadalcanal), November 13, 1942
v.1.0 June 9, 2002

Ravi Rikhye
 

Sources:

Orbat: Richard Worth, Daniel Muir, Don Edwards www.warships1.com
The Sullivan Brothers: www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq72-5.htm

Corrections and comments on our note about the Sullivan Brothers are welcomed.

Six major sea battles took place between the United States and Imperial Japanese Navies during the Guadalcanal Campaign in 1942:

Ø      Savo Island

Ø      Eastern Solomons

Ø      Cape Esperance

Ø      Santa Cruz

Ø      Guadalcanal

Ø      Tassafaronga

As we’ve seen with the Royal Navy’s battles, a particular battle can be named in different ways, and the First Naval Battle of Guadalcanal is also known as the Second Battle of the Savo Sea.  The Third was fought just a day later, and the First, the biggest disaster in US naval history after counting Pearl Harbor as the first, was fought in August of  1942.

Our interest in Second Savo arose primarily because it was in this battle that the famous Sullivan brothers, all five on whom were serving on the anti-aircraft light cruiser the Juneau (CL-51), were lost.  Whether movie director Mr. Stephen Spielberg knew it or  not, one basis for his movie Saving Private Ryan  lay with the Sullivans. The movie Ryan is based on the true story of four brothers from New York State. Two died on D-Day and one was lost in Burma, though later found alive. An Army chaplain located the fourth brother and brought him out of the war zone. In the movie, our hero, Tom Hanks, plays an Army Ranger who is ordered by the War Department to get Private Ryan, who is somewhere in Normandy, out of the war zone. [ http://private-ryan.eb.com/page1.html ]

After the Sullivans were lost, a myth grew up that a subsequent law forbade the posting of siblings on one warship, and that in the event two brothers except died or were killed, the surviving siblings  had to be offered non-hazardous duty or returned home. The author knew that the latter was not true, and that Mr. Spielberg’s “realistic” movie was thus based on an unrealistic premise. Aside from no such law existing, to imagine that when the US War Department had 12 million personnel under command that an order would come from the highest levels to find one man and get him out of the combat zone, and that too so expeditiously that Private Ryan was still in Normandy with the invasion force, is plain ludicrous.  The movie has it share of realism, though we personally feel Mr. Spielberg can take no credit for it, but it also has its share of fantasy.

Be that as it may, readers may be interested to know that a US Navy rule forbidding posting of siblings existed prior to the loss of the Sullivans, and commanding officers were forbidden to forward requests to serve together.  The rule arose after the loss of three brothers at Pearl Harbor, but was seldom enforced in practice, even after the loss of the Sullivans.  All five enlisted on together, on the same day, shortly after Pearl Harbor.  Two had already completed 4-year assignments in the Navy.  The propaganda value of the brothers clearly would have outweighed any bureaucratic policy, even had someone thought to enforce the rule.

The brothers were assigned to the Juneau (CL 51), a new built cruiser of the Astoria  class, commissioned at New York on February 14, 1942.  Such was the urgency of the times that the Juneau had already earned three battle stars when she went into Second Savo.  She survived damage from Japanese surface ships, only to succumb to torpedoes fired by the Japanese submarine I-26. Four of the brothers died in the explosions, one survived along with about 150 others, but died before rescue in the skark-infested waters of the Savo Sea – only ten men made it back alive.

The Sullivan parents had six children: Joseph, Francis, Albert, Madison, and George, and one sister. They ranged in age from 22 to 28. Albert was married, with a 22-month-old son. It was his granddaughter that commissioned the present-day Sullivans (DDG 68) in April 1993. This ship was preceded by another Sullivans (DD 537), one of the famous Fletcher class destroyers.  The ship was the very next one awaiting commissioning when the news of the Sullivans deaths reached President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the name of the then USS Preston was changed on his orders.  The Sullivans (DD 537) served from 1943 to 1965, earning nine battle stars and then two more in Korea.

Today we cannot imagine what a shock the loss of all five sons in a single action must have been for the parents.  World War II, however, was that sort of war: instead of the horrifically maudlin stories we would get today, the parents and the sister were asked by the War Department to tour the country to raise morale by highlighting their sacrifice.  This they did with patriotic enthusiasm.  Also in keeping with the times, a 3-cent stamp was issued honoring the mother – that the father’s loss was just as great would not have occurred to people then.

But back to the policy: a direct quotation from a naval document dated November 15, 1944, clarifies the issue:

2. In recognition of the Sacrifice and contribution made by a family which has lost two or more sons who were members of the armed forces, consideration will be given to the return to, or the retention in, the continental limits of the United States, of all remaining members of the immediate family serving in the Navy, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard, except when engaged in nonhazardous duties overseas.

3. Applications for return to, or retention in, the continental limits of the United States must be filed by the serviceman himself or his immediate family. Request from the individual concerned shall be submitted officially to the Bureau of Naval Personnel for naval personnel, Commandant, U. S. Marine Corps, for Marine Corps personnel, and Commandant, U. S. Coast Guard, for Coast Guard personnel, by their commanding officers. Applications received from immediate families shall be referred to the Bureau of Naval Personnel, Commandant, U. S. Marine Corps, or Commandant, U. S. Coast Guard, as appropriate.-BuPers. Randall Jacobs.

D-Day had come and gone by the time this circular was issued, and its easy to see from the above that many months could conceivably have elapsed before action was taken on a request.

Second Savo was yet another defeat for the US Navy: on a single night, November 13, 1942, the heavy cruiser Astoria, the light cruiser Juneau, and five destroyers were sunk. Yet, the Americans did not leave unavenged: they sank a Japanese battleship and two destroyers. More important, they smashed the Japanese 38^th Division before it could land at Guadalcanal. The division, if landed, could have turned the tide of the land battle against the Americans; instead, an astonishing 12,000 soldiers were drowned with their transports.

A footnote: twelve Medals of Honor were awarded for the Guadalcanal campaign, six posthumously. Two went to aviators, one to a sailor, one to a coast guardsman, three to the US Army’s 25^th Division that took over from the Guadalcanal, and five to Marines. One of the marines was Major-General A.A. Vandergrift, the divisional commander.

This battle has several connections with later ships of the US Navy.  The Callahan and Cassin Young were destroyers named after two officers killed; the Laffey was resurrected again as DD 724 and withstood extraordinary damage in a later battle. The cruisers were commemorated in the Los Angeles class of attack submarines.

US Navy Task Group 67.4	Rear Admiral Daniel J. Callaghan, KIA
USS San Francisco (CA-38) Flagship TF 67.4	Captain Cassin Young (KIA), CO;
USS Cushing (DD-376) (sunk)	Commander Thomas M. Stokes, COMDESDIV 15 ;
	Lt Commander Edward Parker, CO
USS Laffey (DD-459) (sunk)	Lt. Commander William E. Hank, CO (KIA)
USS Sterett (DD 407) (damaged)	Commander Jesse G. Coward, CO
USS O'Bannon (DD-450)	Commander Edwin Wilkinson, CO
USS Atlanta (CL-51)(scuttled due damage)	Flagship Rear Admiral Norman Scott (KIA)
	Captain Samuel B. Jenkins
USS Portland (CA-33) damaged	Captain Lawrence T DuBose, CO
USS Helena (CL- 50) damaged	Captain Gilbert C. Hoover, CO
USS Juneau (CL-52) sunk	Captain Layman K. Swenson, CO
USS Aaron Ward (DD-483)	Captain Robert G. Tobin COMDESRON 12;
	Commander Orville F. Bregor, CO
USS Barton (DD-599) sunk	Lt. Commander Douglas H. Fox, CO
USS Monssen (DD-436) sunk	Lt. Commander Charles E. McCombs, CO
USS Fletcher (DD-445)	Commander William M. Cole, CO

 Note (Richard Worth) The Atlanta was hit by 13 14in, 19 8in, 12 5in, and 5 3.9in shells and 1 24in torpedo towed to Lunga Point and scuttled 1800, 172 killed , 79 wounded, Presidential Unit Citation.

Composition of Japanese Force

Naval Support Group	Vice Adm Nobutake Kondo
Bombardment Force	Rear Adm. Hiroaki Abe
Battleship Division 11
Hiei (Flag)	Capt Massao Nishida, CO
Kirishima	Capt Sanji Iwabuchi, CO
Destroyer Squadron 10	Rear Adm Satsuma Kimura
Light Cruiser Nagara (Flag)	Capt Katsukiyo Shinoda, CO
Desdiv 6	Capt Yusuke Yamada
Akatsuki (Flag) sank	Commander Osamu Takasuka, CO
Ikazuchi	Lt. Commander Saneo Maeda, CO
Inazuma	Lt. Commander Masamichi Terauchi, CO
Desdiv 16	Capt Kiichiro Shoji
Yukikaze (Flag)	Commander Ryokichi Kanma, CO
Amatsukaze	Commander Tameichi Hara, CO
Desdiv 61
Teruzuki	Commander Tsuneo Orita, CO
Destroyer Squadron 4	Rear Adm Tamotsu Takama
Asagumo (Flag)	Commander Toru Iwahashi, CO
Desdiv 2	Capt Masao Tachibana, CO
Harusame	Commander Masao Kamiyama, CO
Murasame (Flag)	Commander Naoji Suenaga, CO
Yudachi sunk	Commander Kiyoshi Kikkawa, CO
Samidare	Commander Noboru Nakamura, CO
Picket Unit	(Covering the passage between the Russells and Guadalcanal)
Desdiv 27	Capt Yasuhide Setoyama
Shigure
Yugure
Shiratsuyu

 

Note (Richard Worth) Hiei was hit by 28-38 8in and 70-74 5in shells, then 1 500-lb bomb and 4? 1000-lb bombs plus up to 7 aerial torpedoes; scuttled with 2 24in torpedoes, about 450 killed.