Battle of Vella Gulf

Battle of Vella Gulf Part of the Pacific Theater of World War II The U.S. destroyer Sterett. Date August 6, 1943 – August 7, 1943 Location Near Kolombangara in the Solomon Islands Result United States victory Belligerents  United States  Empire of Japan Commanders Frederick Moosbrugger Kaju Sugiura Strength 6 destroyers 4 destroyers Casualties and losses None 3 destroyers sunk, 1,210 killed[1]

v • d • e Solomon Islands campaign 1st Tulagi – Guadalcanal – Blackett Strait – Cartwheel – Vengeance – New Georgia – Kula Gulf – Kolombangara – Vella Gulf – Horaniu – Vella Lavella – Naval Vella Lavella – Treasury Is. – Choiseul – Bougainville – Rabaul air raids – Cape St. George – Green Is.

The Battle of Vella Gulf (Japanese: ベラ湾夜戦) was a naval battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II fought on the night of August 6, 1943 – August 7, 1943, in Vella Gulf between Vella Lavella Island and Kolombangara Island in the Solomon Islands of the South Pacific (south of the Equator)..

Background

The American forces were in a campaign of island hopping their way towards Japan. They had taken Guadalcanal the past year. After their victory in the Battle of Kolombangara on July 13, the Japanese had established a powerful garrison of 12,400 around Vila at the southern tip of the island. This was the principal port on that island, and it supplied at night using fast destroyers as transports known as the "Tokyo Express". Three supply runs on July 19, July 29, and August 1 were successful deliveries. However, by August 1, the Americans were driving the Japanese out of the airfield on New Georgia Island just south of Kolombangara.

The last of these runs resulted in an unsuccessful skirmish for the Americans - one which does not merit a name from naval historians. It would become the noted topic of magazine articles, books, motion pictures, and political campaigns when of fifteen PT boats which did not score a single sinking, the destroyer Amagiri rammed and sank the future U.S. President John F. Kennedy's PT-109, who was then most remarkably rescued by several natives via a dugout canoe.

Battle

On the night of August 6 the Imperial Japanese Navy sent a force of four destroyers under Captain Kaju Sugiura - the Hagikaze, the Arashi, the Shigure, and the Kawakaze - carrying about 950 soldier and their supplies. The Japanese airfield at Munda on New Georgia, which the force at Vila was assigned to reinforce, was on the verge of being captured - It would actually fall later that day. The Japanese commanders expected that Vila would become the center of their next line of defense.

The U.S. Navy Task Group 31.2 of six destroyers - the Dunlap, Craven, Maury, Lang, Sterett, and Stack - commanded by Captain Frederick Moosbrugger was lying in wait, and it made radar contact with the enemy force at 2333 hours. Having learned the lessons of night naval fighting after the harsh lessons of the Battle of Tassafaronga, the Battle of Kula Gulf, and the previous PT boat debacle, the American destroyers did not give away their position with gunfire, but rather, they waited until they had all their torpedoes in the water. The U.S. Navy destroyers fired a total of 36 torpedoes in the space of 63 seconds. The four main American ships, which included the USS Craven, used the mountains of the main island, to their east, to help camouflage their position, since what radar the Japanese might have had was not as advanced as the American radar, and it could not differentiate between the surface ships and the island. All four Japanese destroyers were hit by American torpedoes. The Hagikaze, the Arashi, and the Kawakaze burst into flames, and they were quickly sunk by naval gunfire. The torpedo that hit the Shigure was a dud that did not explode, damaging her rudder only, and she escaped into the darkness. The many Japanese soldiers and sailors left floating in the water after their ships sank mostly refused rescue by the American ships. Over 1,000 Japanese soldiers and sailors were lost, mostly by drowning. 300 of them reached Vella Lava and they were later transferred to Kolombangara Island. During this entire battle, not one U.S. ship was struck by so much as a single bullet or shell. This battle, using radar wisely by Capt. Moosbrugger and his ship's captains, was nearly a "clean sweep" of Vella Gulf by the U.S. Navy.

The aftermath

This battle, coming less than one month after the night action at the Battle of Kolombangara, was the first U.S. Navy victory in World War II in a torpedo duel. The six destroyers had accomplished what a squadron of 15 American PT boats could not shortly before: sink the Tokyo Express with torpedoes with absolutely no American or friendly navy losses. The Japanese could no longer supply their garrison on Kolombangara Island, and the Allies bypassed it, landing instead on Vella Lavella to the west. The Japanese Army soon abandoned Kolombangara.

Namesakes

The escort aircraft carrier USS Vella Gulf (CVE-111), in commission from 1945 to 1946, and the Ticonderoga class guided-missile cruiser USS Vella Gulf (CG-72), in commission since 1993, were named for this battle.

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Notes

References

• Brown, David (1990). Warship Losses of World War Two. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-914-X. 
• Calhoun, C. Raymond (2000). Tin Can Sailor: Life Aboard the USS Sterett, 1939-1945. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-228-5. 
• Crenshaw, Russell Sydnor (1998). South Pacific Destroyer: The Battle for the Solomons from Savo Island to Vella Gulf. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-136-X. 
• D'Albas, Andrieu (1965). Death of a Navy: Japanese Naval Action in World War II. Devin-Adair Pub. ISBN 0-8159-5302-X. 
• Dull, Paul S. (1978). A Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1941-1945. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-097-1. 
• Hara, Tameichi (1961). Japanese Destroyer Captain. New York & Toronto: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-27894-1. -Firsthand account of the battle by Japanese squadron commander aboard Shigure.
• Kilpatrick, C. W. (1987). Naval Night Battles of the Solomons. Exposition Press. ISBN 0-682-40333-4. 
• Morison, Samuel Eliot (1958). Breaking the Bismarcks Barrier, vol. 6 of History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. Castle Books. ISBN 0785813071. 
• Roscoe, Theodore (1953). United States Destroyer Operations in World War Two. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0870217267. 

External links

• Parshall, Jon; Bob Hackett, Sander Kingsepp, & Allyn Nevitt. "Imperial Japanese Navy Page (Combinedfleet.com)". http://www.combinedfleet.com/kaigun.htm. Retrieved 2006-06-14. 
• McComb, David W. (2008). "Battle of Vella Gulf". Destroyer History Foundation. http://www.destroyerhistory.org/actions/vellagulf.html. Retrieved 2008-04-16. 
• Description by Vincent O'Hara
• Order of battle