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The Battle of Kolombangara July 12-13 1943

Ultradog MN

Ultradog MN

Well-known Member
Location
Twin Cities
A lesser known night time fight in the Solomon Islands chain where the IJN's superb Long Lance torpedo delivers another butt kicking to the Americans.
In a lopsided trade the US destroyer Gwin will be sunk and three Allied cruisers heavily damaged putting them out of the war for months in exchange for one Japanese light cruiser which was sunk.
Equally embarassing for the US, the Tokyo Express meets their objective and manages to land about 1200 troops on the island of Vila in a hotly contested part of that theater.
But by this point in the war the tremendous manufacturing output of American industry is beginning to have its effect such that the USN is allllmossst able to trade ships at such a ratio.

The great naval historian Samuel Eliot Morison had this to say about the Japanese win at Kolombangara:
?A string of such victories added up to their defeat.?
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The way all those naval battles in the Solomans read the Japanese just had much better tactics than the Americans. In all those night battles we had the tremendous advantage of radar that was not understood and used by the "old school" commanders or improperly used by those who did understand. Also our destroyer torpedo tactics didn't hold a candle to the Japanese.
Most folks also don't know why many of the battle ships repaired after Pearl Harbor spent most of the war patrolling off the US west coast rather than being deployed to the Solomans where they were sorely needed. Their older inefficient engines used more fuel in a month than was available in the whole south Pacific.
 
Yeah, no doubt we lost several battles, but in the end our more than ample resources, along with being united, loyal to our country, confident, and with God's help we won the war. All things we need badly now if we have any chance of conquering our present enemies.
 
We were so unprepared at the beginning of the war but once our industry got rolling we really didn't lose any more battles. After the battle of the Coral Sea we pushed ahead relentlessly and never retreated throughout the South Pacific.
 
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