December 28th - the Day of Infamy, Part XII

The Solomons Campaign, Part I

After Tarawa, there were some officers and many civilians who wanted to charge ahead. Admirals King and Nimitz, however, realized that the US would do better to proceed cautiously until they had built up an overwhelmingly superior force of ships and aircraft. Accordingly, only one more major offensive was planned for 1943. It would occur in October, and the target would be to seize a base in the Solomon Islands: New Georgia.

The US was not idle in the meantime. US Navy Construction Battalions and US Army Engineers built airfields on Tarawa, and by June heavy bombers began using them to attack targets in the Marshall Islands. US submarines continued to bleed the Japanese merchant marine, and in July USS Darter sank the escort carrier Unyo while she was ferrying aircraft to Truk.

In August the Japanese seized Attu and Kiska in the Aleutians and attempted to land a battalion of SNLF troops on New Caledonia in support of a pro-Axis coup. While the landing on New Caledonia was successful, the island quickly declared for the Free French. By the time a mixed force of US and Australian troops arrived a week later the Japanese had withdrawn with heavy casualties.

With New Caledonia now firmly in friendly hands Nimitz proposed calling off the Solomons offensive, but King directed that the attack should proceed.

The one benefit for the Japanese from the New Caledonia attack was that Yamamoto was convinced the US would follow up their success there with an offensive in the Solomons, and accordingly concentrated all available land-based aircraft, submarines, and some light surface units in the area. Once again, the goal was attrition.

The US invasion force was spotted on October 8th as it approached the Solomon Islands. Hours later, it was visited by 94 G4M “Betty” medium bombers from Rabaul. An escort of 30 Ki-43 “Oscar” fighters was sent from Guadalcanal, which arrived ten minutes before the bombers. The US fleet, however, had a surprise waiting: the fleet and light carriers were now carrying the F6F “Hellcat”. 56 of the new fighters were airborne by the time the Oscars met the CAP, with more launching. Despite the odds against them the Oscars refused to break off until the Bettys had dropped their loads. The fighters paid a heavy price: only four survived, and only seven Hellcats were lost.

The Japanese bombers were carrying a mix of torpedoes and bombs. It would be the last time the Japanese attempted to employ two-engine bombers as torpedo planes against a major US formation. US flak, by now well-supplied with proximity fuses, downed every single torpedo bomber – all but six of them before they released their torpedoes. Not one hit. The conventional bombers did little better; US fighters and flak broke up their formation, and there were too few bombs to saturate the target area. Still, they achieved three bomb hits, one each on USS Bataan CV10, USS Indianapolis CA35, and USS Montpelier CL57. Only USS Montpelier’s damage was severe enough to warrant retiring from the action. The surviving Japanese bombers were pursued by Hellcats. Only 15 of them made it home, though three more Hellcats were lost.

On the 9th twelve IJN submarines engaged the US force. Radio messages allowed them to coordinate their attack, but also alerted the US to their presence. The purge of the IJN submarine force had achieved one desired result: aggression. It had achieved this, however, at the expense of a certain amount of prudence and skill. Ten of the twelve IJN subs were lost, and the other two damaged. They hit six ships. USS Ticonderoga CV16 was hit square on the bow as she combed a spread of six torpedoes. Although flooding was relatively minor, her ability to operate aircraft was nearly eliminated. USS Indiana took two hits, which slowed her enough that she was transferred from the Carrier Force to the Bombardment Force for the rest of the action. The escort carrier USS Copahee was surprised at close range and hit by four torpedoes. Fires reached her bomb magazine thirteen minutes later and she exploded and sank with a loss of all but 102 of her crew, also damaging destroyers USS Forest and USS Fitch which had closed to render assistance. Destroyers USS Laub and USS Ellyson were sunk, the latter after a six-hour struggle to keep her afloat. The worst loss however was the USS General John Pope, which was carrying some 5,000 troops. She took at least three hits shortly after 1800 and sank with the loss of over 2,000 men. The ship had been in commission only three months and six days, and had been carrying several engineering units as well as other support troops. The casualties were a major blow to plans to quickly set up airfields and harbor facilities on New Georgia.