The next morning the battle was renewed when aircraft from Henderson Field attacked Tanaka's convoy. Unable to save the ship, Ryujo was abandoned by its crew. Battle of Eastern Solomons (August 23-25, 1942) The first major carrier battle over the Solomons occurred shortly after the American landings. Commanding the Big E’s Task Force Sixty-One was Rear Admiral Thomas Kinkaid, who led Yorktown’s escorts at Coral Sea and Enterprise’s at Midway. Though not an aviator, like Fletcher he had Nimitz’s confidence. Battle of the Eastern Solomons - Conflict: The Battle of the Eastern Solomons was fought during World War II. https://www.thoughtco.com/battle-of-the-eastern-solomons-2361431 (accessed April 18, 2021). The Battleship’s first crew member killed in action was George E. Conlon on August 24, 1942. Flying his personal Dauntless, “Queen Bee,” he orchestrated a coordinated attack of thirty dive bombers and eight torpedo planes against the enemy force. 23-25 August 1942. One of the first carrier only batt... Today a different video, it's more historical-like. This is a replay of a game of the Battle of the Eastern Solomons we played last week. As the attack on Ryujo was beginning, the first wave of Japanese planes was detected by Fletcher's force. I am now looking at wounded man to see if I know him. The Battle of the Eastern Solomons By John Tiller and Gary McClellan. Scott Michael Rank, Ph.D., is the editor of History on the Net and host of the History Unplugged podcast. Two Enterprise scouts nosed into an attack that scratched Shokaku but left her intact. As these planes were taking off, American scouts spotted Shokaku and Zuikaku. A historian of the Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey, he is a publisher of popular history, a podcaster, and online course creator. During the battle, neither side was ever within sight of each other. One of our forward 20mm gunners opened up on him when he was at 10,000 feet, and this was the signal for the formation. Reacting to this report, strikes took off from Saratoga and Henderson Field. It is available to order now at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. We were absolutely unable to see the planes due to the fact that they were so high and small, and that it was late in the afternoon and the sky was considerably bluer than it would have been earlier. The Battle of the Eastern Solomons took place on 23-25 August 1942, early in the Guadalcanal campaign. "World War II: Battle of the Eastern Solomons." "World War II: Battle of the Eastern Solomons." Aboard Saratoga, Fletcher was hesitant to launch an attack, preferring to husband his aircraft in case the Japanese carriers were located. In the wake of the Battle of the Eastern Solomons She was towed to Truk in the Carolines for repair and eventual conversion to a conventional carrier. Read lost his life during the battle of 24 August 1942 and it is widely believed that his final photo was of the bomb that killed him. The damage sustained forced the carrier to return to Pearl Harbor. While the battle had few long-term results, it did force the Japanese to bring reinforcements to Guadalcanal by destroyer which severely limited the equipment that could be transported to the island. The Eastern Solomons: Death Struggle Off Guadalcanal in World War II. The Battle of the Eastern Solomons As the forces steamed toward each other, the elaborate net spread out by search planes of both sides once more extended over the approaches to Guadalcanal. The naval Battle of the Eastern Solomons (also known as the Battle of the Stewart Islands and, in Japanese sources, as the Second Battle of the Solomon Sea (第二次ソロモン海戦?)) A third bomb struck forward, blowing a ten-foot hole in the flight deck but causing little structural damage. Battle … On 7 August 1942, Allied forces (primarily U.S. Marine Corps units) landed on Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and Florida Islands in the Solomon Islands. Through the rest of the morning, this report was followed by sightings of Kondo's ships and a cover force sent from Rabaul to protect Tanaka's convoy. Their presence following the Battle of the Eastern Solomons was important to the perennially shorthanded air garrison. You’ve got to get them all, you can’t afford to get hit. This was an instantaneous bomb. Zuikaku alone lost her entire nine-plane bomber squadron. However, as they worked around toward the stern, where we had little firepower protection, when they came down although we hit them, they were able to take aim and we sustained three hits. . The following day both Fletcher and Nagumo launched scout planes in an effort to locate each other's carriers. Contributed by Richard Worth, David Williams, Richard Leonard and Mark Horan. World War II: Battle of the Eastern Solomons. Eric Hammel's CARRIER STRIKE The Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, should be the definitive work on this, the last of the 4 major carrier battles of WWII. Led by Lieutenant Robert M. Elder, one of the finest aviators afloat, the small formation found the battleship Mutsu with seaplane carrier Chitose and four escorts. Enterprise came under heavy air attack during the Battle of the Eastern Solomons of August 24. On August 31 Saratoga was sidelined for the second time that year. A tactical and strategic victory for the Allies, both commanders departed the area believing they had won a victory. Heavily damaging Jintsu and sinking a troop ship, the strike from Henderson was followed by an attack by B-17s based at Espiritu Santo. Hickman, Kennedy. The Japanese encountered fifty-three Wildcats airborne, but some were poorly positioned to intercept. Kennedy Hickman is a historian, museum director, and curator who specializes in military and naval history. Wildcats and AA guns took their toll on the attackers—twenty six in all. American and Japanese forces clashed on August 24-25, 1942. The Japanese planned an operation, KA-Go, to simultaneously land reinforcements from Rabaul on Guadalcanal and draw out and annihilate the American carrier strength in the South Pacific. Though Frank Jack Fletcher, riding Saratoga, had overall command of the U.S. carriers, the Enterprise operated semi-independently. Click here for our comprehensive article on the WW2 Navies. The Battle of the Eastern Solomons gained the Marines on shore a valuable respite from Japanese reinforcement. By 7:45 PM Enterprise was able to resume flight operations. At 1:45 AM on August 24, Nagumo detached Ryujo, along with a heavy cruiser and two destroyers, with orders to attack Henderson Field at dawn. . Reporting back, the sighting report never reached Fletcher due to communication problems. After a considerable hiatus because of work on Bay of Bengal and the second edition standard rules of Solomon Sea, I finally managed to get on with the sequence, playing Eastern Solomons as the next battle. This attack was defeated by planes from Henderson. During the Battle of Guadalcanal, the fight for the eastern Solomons helped … It is available to order now at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. All rights reserved. Centered around the carriers USS Enterprise, USS Wasp, and USS Saratoga, Fletcher's force returned to the waters off Guadalcanal on August 21, to support US Marines in the wake of the Battle of Tenaru. He has appeared on The History Channel as a featured expert. Enterprise steams past the burning wreckage of two Japanese dive bombers that were shot down while attacking during the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, 24 August 1942. Felt directed twenty-one SBDs and five TBFs to hit Ryujo while the others went for the large cruiser Tone. Finally at 1:40 PM, he ordered 38 planes from Saratoga to take off and attack Ryujo. The carrier launched fighters just before bombs began to fall, too late to intervene. The United States invasion of Guadalcanal set the stage for a series of naval actions. The carrier flight deck from amidships aft was smoking fiercely and flames were seen shooting out from the hangar deck. Clearly, carrier warfare would continue exacting a price. The following article on the Battle of the Eastern Solomons an excerpt from Barrett Tillman’s book On Wave and Wing: The 100 Year Quest to Perfect the Aircraft Carrier. A second Japanese strike failed to locate the American ships due to radio issues. The toll was a shock: in the previous nine months of war she had lost fewer than one hundred dead. Japanese casualties numbered around 290 and included the loss of valuable aircrews. The third carrier battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II and the second major engagement fought between the United States Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy during the Guadalcanal campaign. ThoughtCo, Aug. 26, 2020, thoughtco.com/battle-of-the-eastern-solomons-2361431. The action in the Battle of the Eastern Solomons was not over, however, as Hara’s Ryujo task force remained the focus of Saratoga’s air group, led by the tough, capable Commander Harry Don Felt, who had helped inaugurate the SBD to fleet service. This article on the Battle of the Eastern Solomons is an excerpt from Barrett Tillman’s book On Wave and Wing: The 100 Year Quest to Perfect the Aircraft Carrier. At 2:25 PM a scout plane from the cruiser Chikuma located Fletcher's flattops. A Japanese dive bomber burns as it is shot down directly over Enterprise during an attack on August 24, 1942. Designated “Flight 300” in the Big E’s air plan, they remained ashore for more than a month, sinking a transport and a destroyer. Due to further communication issues, the fighter cover had some difficulty intercepting the Japanese. Opposing the Japanese advance were Allied naval forces under Vice Admiral Frank J. Fletcher. the pilot would be killed. (2020, August 26). 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