Battle of Vella Gulf

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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	U.S. victory

Combatants

United States

Japan

Commanders

Frederick Moosbrugger

Kaju Sugiura

Strength

6 destroyers

4 destroyers

Casualties

None

3 destroyers sunk,
1,210 killed^[1]

Solomon Islands campaign
1st Tulagi – Guadalcanal – Blackett Strait – Cartwheel – Death of Yamamoto – New Georgia – Kula Gulf – Kolombangara – Vella Gulf – Horaniu – Vella Lavella – Naval Vella Lavella – Treasury Is. – Choiseul – Empress Augusta Bay – Cape St. George – Green Is. – 2nd Rabaul – Bougainville

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 the islands of Vella Lavella and Kolombangara in the Solomon Islands.

1 Background
2 Battle
3 Aftermath
4 References
- 4.1 Books
- 4.2 External links
5 Notes

[edit] Background

The Americans 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 formidable garrison of 12,400 in Vila at the southern tip of the island. It was the principal port on that island, and supplied at night using fast destroyers as transports known as the Tokyo Express. Three supply runs on 19 July, 22 July, and 1 August were successful. By August, the Americans were driving the Japanese out of the airfield on the large island of New Georgia just south of Kolombangara.

see main article PT-109

The last last of these runs resulted in a unsuccessful battle for the US which did not merit a name from military historians. It would become the infamous topic of magazine articles, books, movies and political campaigns when of fifteen PT boats which did not score a single sinking, the destroyer Amagiri rammed and sank future president John F. Kennedy's PT-109, and was remarkably found by two natives in a dugout canoe.

[edit] Battle

On the night of 6 August they sent a force of four destroyers under Captain Kaju Sugiura (Hagikaze, flagship, Arashi, Shigure and Kawakaze) carrying 950 troops and supplies. The Japanese airfield at Munda on New Georgia, which the force at Vila was tasked with reinforcing, was on the verge of being captured (it would fall later that day) and the Japanese anticipated that Vila would become the center of their next line of defense.

The U.S. Task Group 31.2 of six destroyers (Dunlap, Craven, Maury, Lang, Sterett, and Stack) commanded by Captain Frederick Moosbrugger was lying in wait and made radar contact at 23:33. Having incorporated lessons of night-fighting after the Battle of Tassafaronga and the PT boat debacle, the Americans did not give away their position with gunfire, but waited until their torpedoes were in the water. All four Japanese destroyers were hit. Hagikaze, Arashi and Kawakaze burst into flames and were quickly sunk by gunfire. The torpedo that hit Shigure was a dud, damaging the rudder only, and she escaped in the darkness. 1,500 Japanese troops and sailors were lost. 300 reached Vella lava and were later tranferred to Kolombangara.

[edit] Aftermath

The battle, coming less than one month after the night action at Kolombangara, was the first U.S. victory in a torpedo duel. The six destroyers had accomplished what a squadron of 15 PT boats could not, sink the Tokyo Express with torpedoes with no friendly losses. The Japanese could no longer supply the garrison on Kolombangara, and the Allies bypassed it, landing instead on Vella Lavella to the west.

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[edit] References

[edit] Books

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. 0785813071.
Roscoe, Theodore (1953). United States Destroyer Operations in World War Two. Naval Institute Press. 0870217267.

[edit] External links

Parshall, Jon; Bob Hackett, Sander Kingsepp, & Allyn Nevitt. Imperial Japanese Navy Page (Combinedfleet.com). Retrieved on 2006-06-14.
Description by Vincent O'Hara
Order of battle

[edit] Notes

^ Hara, Japanese Destroyer Captain, p. 191-192, & Nevitt, Combinedfleet.com, [1]. Breakdown of deaths: Hagikaze-178, Arashi-178, Kawakaze-169, and 685 troops.