This took place over the period 12 to 15 November 1942. The encounter on the first night is also known as the first part of the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, described by a participant as a ‘bar room brawl after the lights had been shot out’. On the night of 12/13 November, a Japanese bombardment force, centred around the fast battleships Hiei and Kirishima, planned to repeat the successful bombardment of Henderson Field one month earlier, and at the same time cover a resupply convoy. The Japanese ran into an American force of cruisers and destroyers, and a confused close-range battle began at 0148 when Hiei and a destroyer illuminated the leading American light cruiser Atlanta at a range of only 3000yds (2700m).
Atlanta was hit by a Type 93 torpedo and was crippled. Hiei was hit by one, or perhaps two, American torpedoes, and had to be scuttled by her crew. The destroyer Laffey took a torpedo hit amidships which broke her back. She caught fire, blew up and sank. The heavy cruiser Portland was hit in the stern by a torpedo and forced into a turn, her steering damaged. She completed a full circle then managed to withdraw. The destroyer Barton was torpedoed twice by Amatsukaze and sank, then Amatsukaze torpedoed and badly damaged the light cruiser Juneau. Two American destroyers hit the destroyer Yudachi with torpedoes and her crew abandoned ship.
On the following morning, Atlanta finally sank, and on her withdrawal for repairs, Juneau was torpedoed by the submarine I 26 leading to the loss of almost all her crew, including the five Sullivan brothers later commemorated by naming a destroyer USS The Sullivans.
The following night the Japanese returned with their surviving battleship Kirishima to once more attempt the bombardment of Henderson field and cover the transports, in the action known as the second part of the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. Unknown to them the Americans had sent in two modern battleships, Washington and South Dakota.
First blood went to the Japanese at around 2230, when their Type 93 torpedoes sank the destroyers Wake and Preston, and crippled Benham and Gwin. The US battleships had lost their screen, and during the fire-fight which ensued, South Dakota lost electrical power and suffered damage to her bridge area, but Washington so damaged Kirishima in return that she capsized and sank. The bombardment mission had failed, and the transports that had beached themselves were destroyed before much of their cargo could be unloaded.
Also known as the Fourth Battle of Savo Island, this took place on the night of 30 November 1942, and resulted in heavy American losses. Eight Japanese destroyers under Rear Admiral Tanaka were conducting a regular nightly supply run down the ‘Slot’ to the troops on Guadalcanal in the type of operation which became known as the ‘Tokyo Express’.
At 2312 the Japanese sighted the American force of five cruisers and four destroyers, and in turn they were tracked on American radar just two minutes later. The captain of USS Fletcher requested permission to launch his torpedoes, but Admiral Wright hesitated, losing precious minutes. When he gave the go-ahead, the optimum launch position had been passed, and all twenty American torpedoes launched, missed.
In response Japanese destroyers launched a total of forty-four Type 93 torpedoes, and the American cruisers, which maintained their original course, crossed their tracks. At 2327, Wright’s flagship Minneapolis was hit by one torpedo which blew off her bows as far back as turret № 1, and a second torpedo hit amidships and put out of action three of the four boiler rooms. Less than a minute later, a Type 93 hit New Orleans abreast № 1 turret, and her forward magazines exploded, blowing off 125ft of the hull forward of № 2 turret.
Next to be hit was Pensacola, which was struck by a torpedo abreast the mainmast, causing serious damage and casualties, and leaving her crippled. Honolulu’s captain conned his ship to avoid the torpedoes, but the last in line, Northampton, ran across the tracks of two, and was hit in the aft engine room, which flooded. She was left with only one of her four shafts still turning, caught fire and took up a 10-degree list to port. The fire spread out of control, she was abandoned, and sank at 0130.
The three other heavily damaged cruisers managed to make temporary repairs, and were eventually to be permanently repaired and returned to service. However, after this encounter the US Navy was left with only four heavy and nine light cruisers in the entire Pacific theatre.
In the course of a heavy air presence to cover their planned troop withdrawal from Guadalcanal, the Japanese launched torpedo bomber attacks on a group of six US heavy cruisers. USS Chicago was hit by two torpedoes and crippled. As she was being towed from the area a further two groups of Bettys arrived, and put a further four torpedoes into Chicago, which sank twenty minutes later.
This encounter took place when an American task group intercepted a resupply run by the ten destroyers of the Tokyo Express to land troops on the island of Kolombangara, on 6 July 1943. When the American ships opened radar-controlled gunfire, two of the Japanese destroyers launched their Type 93 torpedoes. USS Helena, a survivor of the Pearl Harbor attack, had used up all her flashless powder and was forced to revert to normal smokeless, which made her the prime target. Hit by three torpedoes, she jack-knifed and sank.
Also known as the Second Battle of Kula Gulf, it took place on the night of 12/13 July 1943, when an Allied force of cruisers and destroyers intercepted a run by the Tokyo Express to land troops at Vila on Kolombangara. The Japanese destroyers were aware of the Allied force and were able to launch their Type 93 torpedoes. HMNZS Leander was struck in a boiler room and badly damaged, the American cruisers St Louis and Honolulu were also hit and damaged, and destroyer USS Gwin was hit amidships and had to be abandoned.
HMNZS Leander was a 9144-ton (full load) light cruiser manned by the Royal New Zealand Navy. At 0124 a torpedo track was seen approaching 100yds away, running on the surface at slow speed. Leander turned, but the Japanese torpedo struck her on the port side amidships, some 10ft below the waterline. The contact pistol detonated the warhead on the Type 93 24in torpedo, blowing a hole 40ft long and 20ft deep. ‘A’ boiler room was immediately flooded, and the ship was temporarily immobilised. After temporary repairs she continued at 12 knots, but her main armament and anti-aircraft fire control positions were out of action. Power was restored to ‘X’ and ‘Y’ turrets, but ‘A’ and ‘B’ turrets were worked in hand control, as were her twin 4in AA guns. The torpedo fire control was knocked out, and the port quad torpedo tubes were actually wrenched off their pivot by the shock of the explosion and deposited upside down on the deck a short distance astern. The talk-between-ships set was smashed, as was the radar, and the gyro repeaters failed. Her casualties were seven killed, twenty-one injured, and twenty-one missing.