Battle of Vella Gulf

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

Contents 1 Background 2 Battle 3 Aftermath 4 Notes 5 References 6 External links

[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 July 19, July 29, and August 1 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.

The last of these runs resulted in an unsuccessful battle for the U.S. 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 U.S. President John F. Kennedy's PT-109, who was then remarkably found by two natives in a dugout canoe.

[edit] Battle

On the night of August 6 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. The 4 main US ships, which included the Craven, used the mountains of the main island, to their East, to camouflage their position, as Japanese radar was not as sophisticated as the American radar, and could not differentiate the ships and the island. 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. The many Japanese soldiers and sailors left floating in the water after their ships sank refused rescue by the U.S. destroyers. Over 1,000 Japanese troops and sailors were lost. 300 reached Vella lava and were later transferred to Kolombangara. During the entire battle, not one US ship was struck by so much as a single bullet.

[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.

[edit] Notes

[edit] 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. 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.
• McComb, David W. (2008). Battle of Vella Gulf. Destroyer History Foundation. Retrieved on 2008-04-16.
• Description by Vincent O'Hara
• Order of battle

v • d • e Parts of the story of John F. Kennedy's PT-109 Air and water craft PT-109 • PT-109 Loss Report • PT-59 • PT boat • Elco • Japanese destroyer Amagiri • Fubuki class destroyer • Tokyo Express • Nakajima A6M2-N People John F. Kennedy • Arthur Reginald Evans • Coastwatchers • Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana • Andrew Jackson Kirksey and Harold W. Marney • Max Kennedy Places Solomon Islands • Kolombangara • Gizo • Kennedy Island • Lumbari Island • Rendova Island • Tulagi Battles Battle of Blackett Strait • Solomon Islands campaign • Battle of Vella Gulf Media PT 109 (film) • The Search for Kennedy's PT 109 • PT-109 (comic book) • PT-109 (song) • PT-109 (model) Museums, etc. John F. Kennedy Library • Battleship Cove