The FReeper Foxhole Remembers The Battle of Santa Cruz(10/25-27/1942) - Sep. 25th, 2003

http://www.microworks.net/pacific/battles/santa_cruz.htm ^

[SAMWolf]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.

...................................................................................... ...........................................

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The Battle of Santa Cruz

Prelude
The Battle for Henderson Field

With Imperial Japanese Army troops still vainly struggling to subdue the beleaguered U.S. Marines who stubbornly clung to the Henderson Field perimeter like a drowning sailor to a preserver, Imperial General Headquarters was loath to leave the situation alone. Strict measures and decisive action would have to be taken to achieve the sort of overwhelming victory at Guadalcanal that morale and strategy required to keep the possibility of final victory open. It was not surprising what the collective minds of the Imperial General Headquarters at Tokyo, still the top authority on the conduct of the war, and Combined Fleet with its seagoing headquarters on the "Hotel Yamato” in beautiful and peaceful Truk lagoon, churned out for execution in the three final weeks of October, 1942.



Similar in appearance to the operations that had led to the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, but more extensive and carefully planned, their scheme offered a foolproof method of eliminating any American opposition to Japanese reinforcement runs to Guadalcanal – either by mere threat of force imposed on a weak opponent, or by attacking and destroying him if he dared oppose the Imperial Navy.

All operations would be tied to the progress of the 17th Army on Guadalcanal. General Kawaguchi, Commander-In-Chief, would set a time by which his forces would be placed in such fashion as to overwhelm the Americans (who were still considered rather weak in number and by comparison) and bring Henderson Field into Japanese possession. The IJN, with a powerful five-carrier force, would move forward to fall upon the U.S. Navy's flanks if it attempted its own reinforcement runs, evacuation maneuvers, or even tried to employ its carriers in a fleet battle.


Admiral Kinkaid
Led the USN task force of the USS Enterprise and the South Dakota at the Battle of the Santa Cruz

The naval operations that would provide Kawaguchi with the necessary additional ground support – artillery pieces, supplies, and most importantly, more men -- would be conducted as two major reinforcement runs and repeated but regular runs of the Tokyo Express.

When Admiral Kondo, in charge of Combined Fleet operations, put to sea at 1330 on 11 October 1942, with two battleships and carriers Hiyo and Junyo, trailing Nagumo's three-carrier 3rd Fleet by three and a half hours, the first of these reinforcement runs was already being executed. It would be an awkward opening for the IJN's most carefully planned campaign. This first reinforcement run, a "singularly important” run by a reinforced Tokyo Express, containing seaplane carriers Nisshin and Chitose, would lift heavy artillery, ammunition and men to Guadalcanal, necessary ingredients to General Kawaguchi's recipe for winning on the ground. Accompanying them would be 8th Fleet's CruDiv 6, or better, its three remnants, under Rear-Admiral Goto Aritomo. Their laborious task would be to shell and disable the feared Cactus Air Force and thus open a route for easier reinforcement both day and night. Alas, it did not turn out the way it was intended.


Admiral Kondo
Led the Japanese naval forces during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands in October 1942.

The Tokyo Express, preceding Goto, arrived at Guadalcanal and successfully disembarked its load. Goto, however, stumbled unprepared into Rear-Admiral Norman Scott and was soundly defeated in the ensuing battle of Cape Esperance.

It was a heavy blow to Japanese morale, and yet it happened to be only a partial defeat within the global scope of the campaign; the most important part, the safe delivery of Kawaguchi's highly needed reinforcements, was accomplished.

While the Japanese reinforced, a small U.S. convoy under Rear-Admiral Richmond Turner also approached Lunga Roads, carrying the National Guardsmen of the 164th Regiment of the Americal Division to their first combat duty. Crowded aboard two freighters were the 2,900 men of the regiment, plus Marine replacements.


Vice-Admiral F. "Bull" Halsey
replaced Ghormley as Commander of the South Pacific area

Turner arrived off Lunga on 13 October and stumbled into the major air offensive preparing for the IJN's second important convoy, this one not a Tokyo Express but a genuine convoy. It was fortunate for Turner that the 11th Air Fleet had not considered a strike at naval forces and chose to hit the runways of Henderson Field instead.

This convoy, called the "High Speed Convoy” by virtue of its comparatively fast movement, consisted of six fast transports and an escort of eight destroyers, and carried 4,500 men and many rounds of ammunition, again vital to the 17th Army on Guadalcanal.

To box this unit through, Combined Fleet had assigned it powerful support in the form of two battleships, Kongo and Haruna, under the command of Rear-Admiral Kurita Takeo, to bombard Henderson Field in the night before the convoy's arrival. It was obvious that such a heavy shelling would incapacitate U.S. air power on the island, and together with the carriers now within supporting distance to the north, any threat to the convoy would be fought off.


Admiral Nagumo
Led the IJN 3rd Fleet at the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, and Carrier Division 1 at the Battle of Santa Cruz.

Kurita's arrival at Lunga Roads in the first hours of 14 October was the first and last time that Henderson Field would be subjected to a battleship bombardment; alas, that took nothing away from the savageness of the action.

Kurita's sixteen 14” guns loaded with Type 3 bombardment shells took to hitting Henderson Field for an hour and a half, and when Kurita departed, most of the Cactus Air Force had been obliterated, along with the greater part of its fuel reserves.


A Kate heading over South Dakota after having released her torpedo.

There had been light casualties overall, but the command staff of VMSB-141 and most of its planes had been destroyed, severely limiting Henderson Field's striking power on the last day it could possibly intervene with the High Speed Convoy's approach. Yamamoto hurried his forces south to engage a now-coverless U.S. fleet and win the campaign. However, Yamamoto was a bit over-ecstatic: Henderson, while severely hit, was in fighting spirits. The Americans scraped together every flyable plane to hit back at the convoy, which they did throughout the afternoon of 14 October. Their tireless efforts did little to decelerate the convoy's advance, but it was a vital feeling of doing something that would help efforts on the 15th. Imperial command units were in high spirits. Their important convoy anchored off Tassafaronga at midnight on the 14th, and commenced unloading immediately. A Tokyo Express added another 1,100 men to the landed troops, and Admiral Mikawa dropped another 700 8” shells within the Henderson Field perimeter, an effort which meant little to the Marines after Kurita's shelling the previous night.


Shokaku under attack during the Battle of Santa Cruz

2nd Fleet's carriers provided cover for the still-unloading convoy on the next morning, but several relays of attackers, first piecemeal, then coordinated, hit at the transports and forced three to beach themselves. One more transport was completely unloaded and retired, but Admiral Takama, in charge of the operation, abandoned the disembarkation and headed north of Savo, to maneuver his ships more effectively -- and never returned when the night, under a full moon, brought no relief from Henderson's constant attacks.

That night, yet another 8” bombardment, this one by cruisers Myoko and Maya, hit Henderson, but it neither turned the tide of operations. Henderson remained more or less operable, although the amount of planes it housed had considerably decreased.


A Japanese Val dive bomber plummets toward the U.S. carrier Hornet on October 26, 1942, during the Battle of Santa Cruz off Guadalcanal. A Japanese Kate torpedo bomber that has recently released its torpedo can also be seen flying past. The Hornet was sunk in this battle.

On 16 October, the renewed aerial offensive cost the U.S. a destroyer, but finally, the Americans were reasonably close to offering the Japanese resistance at sea. Carrier Enterprise left the homely waters of the Hawaiian Islands, where she had been receiving extensive if rushed repairs for the past month, and headed south to reinforce the only carrier then available, Hornet. With her Air Group 10, the U.S. might actually be in a position to move against any further operations of the IJN. But while Enterprise proceeded on her seven-day journey from Pearl Harbor to the Solomons, the Japanese experienced further trouble. Though the reinforcements had been landed largely as scheduled, an early-morning bombardment by destroyers Aaron Ward and Lardner had laced the freshly stocked ammunition dump near the debarkation area of the previous convoy; 2,000 5” shells burst into the area and ignited the greater part of the vital stocks.


26 October 1942: Three near misses straddle Enterprise, as she and her escorts turn in wild evasive maneuvers.

Accordingly, General Kawaguchi was unable to conduct his attack as planned (difficulties in moving his large forces also played into this decision), and he decided to postpone his move from the 20th to the 22nd – a move which the Navy only barely found out about.

The Imperial Navy had problems of its own. With all its major forces deployed at sea, fuel was getting critically low – so low that one of the supporting tankers had to return to Truk and take aboard fuel from battleships Yamato and Mutsu, for no other reserves were left at this advance base.



It was on 18 October 1942 that the campaign took its most sharp turn for the Allies when Admiral Nimitz, tired of Vice-Admiral Ghormley's (COMSOPAC) cautiousness (some said, timidity) and obvious disorganisation, with the approval of Admiral King relieved Ghormley and replaced him with Vice-Admiral William F. "Bull” Halsey. It was Halsey's finest hour. A stocky, tough-looking individual with a gritty face and personal manner that fit his nickname, this former Naval Academy boxer and football player was preceded by his reputation as a fiercely attack-minded fighter who cared little for formula but much for performance. His mere presence lifted American spirits and his first acts in office did likewise – he ordered neckties removed from Navy uniforms and moved the headquarters from pleasant but remote Auckland to the closer Nouméa.


The anti-aircraft battery pumping out shells at the Battle of Santa Cruz, 26 October 1942.

The IJN, meanwhile, paid another price for the continuous delays in the opening of the ground campaign -- which had been postponed to the 24th -- when Hiyo, one of 2nd Fleet's carriers, suffered an engine breakdown on the 21st that could not be fixed at sea, forcing her to retire to Truk, leaving behind several of her planes that were transferred to Junyo.

[SAMWolf]

It so came that 24 October would be the most important day for the Santa Cruz campaign. That morning, the Japanese launched their offensive on Henderson Field. In a battle lasting three days and nights, the Sendai Division hurled itself into the southern side of the U.S. perimeter, while IJN forces moved into support range to Guadalcanal's north, expecting the battle to be successful and hoping for a crack at the elusive U.S. Navy forces.



Those forces had met that same day some 850nm north of Guadalcanal. Hornet and her consorts under Rear-Admiral George Murray, and Enterprise with battleships South Dakota and her escorts under Rear-Admiral Thomas Kinkaid rendezvoused, the largest assembly of naval power the U.S. had in the Pacific and, but for Rear-Admiral Willis Lee's Washington surface action group, the only one.

With Kinkaid in charge of tactical maneuvering, the U.S. had an able leader, but Enterprise lacked the elaborate fighter-direction offices of her younger sister, making Kinkaid's decision to control every element of the battle from the Big E a weak point in the plan.

USS Hornet at the naval Battle of Santa Cruz Forty-nine Japanese aircraft dived through the slather of flak from her escort and killed the carrier Hornet (center, burning) with three torpedoes, six bombs, and two suicide crashes on her flight deck.

In most other respects, as well, Kinkaid's position was less than enviable. Though he possessed two powerful carriers, his total air strength was less than the of the IJN, and his air crews, especially Enterprise’s Air Group Ten, were not up to the abilities of their counterparts. The confusion within the IJN's seagoing commands had not been helped by the repeated delays in the 17th Army's advance. Admiral Nagumo, after the second delay, and the second time he had to turn back out of his ongoing support operations, refused to go south again by the same course, considering it most likely that he would be detected early. From Truk came the stern reply of Vice-Admiral Ugaki – continue according to plan. Nagumo would be forced south whether he liked it or not.



And so, when on the 24th the Army finally advanced to the attack, Nagumo and Kondo took their units down their scheduled routes and sought out contact with Kinkaid's weaker forces. The IJN was in high spirits and confident, and a false report that Army forces had captured the airfield did not help to leaven its anxiety to engage.

The Battle
25 - 27 October 1942

It was as Nagumo had predicted, however: just after noon on the 25th, one of the ubiquitous PBY Catalina flying boats snooped on Nagumo, and reported him back to Kinkaid and Halsey. From the latter, the very simple order went out: "Attack, Repeat, Attack”. The Battle of Santa Cruz was about to start.

Though Yamamoto was subsequently informed of the falsity of the Army's report of the capture of Henderson Field, the IJN continued to go charging down toward Guadalcanal. The IJN's disposition for this battle had considerably changed from how it had fought the Battle of the Eastern Solomons. No longer would surface forces sail behind the all-important carriers, waiting for the decisive surface engagement. Yamamoto had arrayed his surface forces, under Vice-Admirals Kondo and Abe, to take station some 60 miles ahead and to the flanks of Admiral Nagumo Chuichi's vital carriers.


Enterprise, with South Dakota in the background, during the attack. During this phase, Enterprise lost her forward elevator, which she would only have repaired in January 1943.

Their task would be to draw search planes and attackers onto themselves, thus preventing damage to the carriers. They would perform rather well in this role. As both sides closed the prospective arena for their fight, both sides had to cope with different problems. Nagumo had his carriers detected at 0250 on the 26th, and the passing Catalina lost no time dropping a stick of bombs behind Zuikaku. Nagumo turned hard and moved north, Abe and Kondo corresponding to his moves. At 20 knots, the forces maintained this course until their first rendezvous with the enemy. Admiral Kinkaid had a strike group spotted on Hornet throughout the night in hopes of making use of a Catalina report within the first hours of the new day, but his hopes were not fulfilled. No contacts warm enough to warrant their pursuit were left, and thus Kinkaid ordered Enterprise to launch her own search-strike force, successive groups of two Dauntless dive bombers, each lugging a 500-lb. bomb. Eleven such pairs were in the air by 0500 on the 26th, and their search would bear fruit soon. First, a pair detected Admiral Abe's Vanguard Force, but at 0650, 200nm to the northwest of Kinkaid, two Dauntlesses had located Nagumo's carriers and carefully noted their position, speed and heading, before being chased off by Zeros. Kinkaid received this report quickly enough. So did two other Dauntless dive bombers, whose pilots made out Nagumo at 0740 and placed a bomb on the aft flight-deck of light carrier Zuiho, putting her out of the action.



Kinkaid ordered his planes to strike. From Hornet at 0730, twenty-nine planes lifted off, followed by nineteen from Enterprise at 0800, and eventually twenty-five more from Hornet at 0815. By the time these strikes were in the air, however, Nagumo had already cast his dice.

His air search, scout planes from cruisers and B5N Kate carrier attack planes from Zuikaku, had succeeded in locating Kinkaid's barely separated carriers, but although a sighting contact had been made by 0612, the aircrew did not report this until 0658 and misidentified itself in the course of its report; but although serious doubts were entertained by Nagumo and his staff as to the quality of the report, they decided they could not ignore it. At 0725, 62 planes from all three carriers of Nagumo's force had assembled and were heading to the position indicated in the report of the scout.

A Kate passing over Northampton, heading for Hornet. The heavy cruiser would be sunk during the Battle of Tassafaronga in late November 1942.

Immediately, the three carriers re-spotted their remaining planes, but Zuiho's unhappy experience reduced the second wave to just Zuikaku's and Shokaku's planes – a further 48 planes to add to the first strike.

It was most unfortunate for the Americans that both Japanese and American aircraft had to pass through the same space of air. A mere 60nm from its home, the Enterprise strike was bounced by the incoming Japanese strike's escorts and lost eight planes without being able to effect sufficient retribution. The Americans informed their vessels; in both Hornet and Enterprise, action was taken to brace the ship for damage. The Japanese came into radar range not long after their struggle with Enterprise’s airstrike; they headed for Hornet.

Naval Air Might at Santa Cruz
Robert Benney

CAP hurried to intercept them, but it was to little avail, since the Enterprise Fighter Direction Officer completely failed to deliver effective information to the fighters.

Hornet and her escorts increased speed and tightened distances, and when dive bombers were spotted overhead, Captain Mason started swinging his command around. But although he was able to avoid a good part of the bombs launched at him, three bombs smashed into his deck, and one more crashed into her accompanied by its mother plane, testimony of the deadliness of Hornet's defensive fire – as were the wrecks of another sixteen aircraft strewn around the carrier. But the hits were severe, and the simultaneous attacks by B5N Kates didn't help either. While two torpedoes smashed into her starboard side, another D3A Val dive bomber crossed her deck diagonally and plowed into the deck and forward elevator well.

A bomb explodes next to the Enterprise during the thick of the Battle of Santa Cruz

Fifteen minutes had transformed Hornet into a blazing wreck, motionlessly sitting on the ocean with thick black smoke belching from her innards. She had taken 38 of 52 Japanese with her; but her future looked exceedingly bleak. Meanwhile, the Hornet attack group had, at 0918, detected 3rd Fleet's carrier force, distinctively marked by the smoking Zuiho, but lacked power since its poorly organized strike had lost cohesion on the flight. One Dauntless was brought down by defending Zeros, and two quit their attack runs after damage, but the remaining eleven scored a total of four bomb hits from stem to stern on the carrier, leaving her badly aflame and out of the battle for good. Almost two years would pass before she would ever launch offensive strikes again.



Nagumo, now with two of his three carriers out of action and Zuikaku's air group fully committed, retired to the north awaiting the results of his strikes, while on the other side, Hornet's damage control crews worked frantically to restore that carrier's fighting power.

[SAMWolf]

Kinkaid had knocked out two carriers for the price of one, though Enterprise’s small strike had not found a flattop and had elected to strike elements of the Vanguard Force, failing to damage anything. Hornet's second strike had had no luck either, finding only the heavy cruiser Chikuma and plastering her with four bombs, it left her in a moderately damaged condition. In Enterprise, the day's actions had not spelled much luck for the newly arrived carrier. A freak torpedo accident involving a TBF torpedo released by the ditching plane caused heavy damage to destroyer Porter, and Kinkaid ordered the destroyer sunk, expecting further action and not wanting the complications of having his screen weakened. The airborne ambush of her strike group was not a good luck sign either, and now, at 1000, the greenish pips of airborne contacts appeared on the screens in Enterprise’s radar compartment. Once more, her Fighter Direction sprang into action, moving divisions of blue Wildcat fighters around the sky to bounce the bogeys and save the invaluable flight deck of America's last Pacific carrier, but their efforts were largely in vain.



Enterprise's guns, including sixteen of the new and deadly 40mm Bofors, and those guns of her escorts that could provide even the slightest aid in protecting the flattop, were brought to bear on an as yet invisible enemy. Enterprise's fire-control radar failed her; and it was the naked eyes of her topside lookouts that caught the first glimpse of the shiny-gray dive bombers that came hurtling through an empty sky devoid of anti-aircraft fire, at 1015.

Suddenly, from the screen and Enterprise's gun galleries came the sudden burst of gunfire that in carrier battles marked the beginning of swift action with critically important results. AA cruiser San Juan and battleship South Dakota seemed as if dyed in the red of fire and gray of smoke as their powerful five-inch batteries opened up simultaneously. The continuous rattling of 20mm and 40mm artillery added yellow tracers that pointed at the incoming strike planes, and on her open bridge, Enterprise’s Captain Osborne Hardison shouted the helmsmen steering orders for maneuvers designed to fool the Imperial Navy's assault pilots. It was not until 1017 that the first bomb caught Enterprise on her flight deck's overhang and exploded in the air off-board her port bow. Almost at the same instant, another bomb penetrated near her forward elevator and blew up below, igniting fires and wiping out a repair party. Another violent near-hit shook the entire ship at 1019, wrecking the plating of two oil tanks and causing the entire ship to flex up-and-downward for several seconds.


USS Enterprise at the naval Battle of Santa Cruz The American aircraft carrier Enterprise (center) took three hits forward, but new 40mm antiaircraft (as at left) smothered most of her attackers.

Enterprise was in bad condition, but she had been spared the coordinated attacks that had gotten Hornet. The B5N strike of torpedo planes followed only twenty minutes later, first coming into sight at 1044. Captain Hardison moved to comb the wakes of three launched torpedoes, then swerved around his command to bring her out of the danger of hitting destroyer Shaw and a fourth torpedo. More torpedo tracks were avoided, and when the last Kate had pointed her spinner for home, Enterprise was steaming at 27 knots, South Dakota off her starboard quarter, having defiantly withstood two separate attacks.

However, it was still to be decided who would see the end of this day. With just Zuikaku of his force in fighting condition and her airgroup committed, Nagumo would elect to turn command of the operation over to Rear-Admiral Kakuta Kakuji aboard the carrier Junyo at 1140. Her 44-plane air unit had not been committed when the attacks on Shokaku were delivered, and subsequently at 0917, the aggressive Kakuta launched seventeen D3A Val dive-bombers to attack Hornet, the only carrier a bearing was available for, but later, the attack was pointed at Enterprise. It was 1121, six minutes after the carrier had commenced landing her planes, that these Vals hurtled from the skies above Enterprise, her Task Force steaming towards the gray outlines of a squall ahead.


USS South Dakota at the naval Battle of Santa Cruz The new battleship South Dakota drew first enemy blood at Santa Cruz. Her flaming guns clawed down 2 Japanese aircraft from the sky.

In shallow runs forced upon them by the closing squall, several Vals were blasted apart by the combat-experienced gunners of Enterprise and the new but eager gun crews of South Dakota. One bomb came reasonably close to hitting the carrier, but did not; she would stay unharmed through the attack. Other Vals chose other targets, South Dakota and San Juan being their most appreciated targets. Neither sustained serious harm, although both were hit and temporarily lost their steering control. Enterprise, her center elevator down and her forward elevator locked involuntarily in the "Up” position, recommenced landing her planes. It was largely due to the brilliance of Enterprise's LSO, Lt. Robin Lindsay, waving the paddles at his station on the starboard side of the flight deck, that 57 planes were recovered by 1500.

Enterprise's battle was over for good. Unable to launch planes, unable to recover more, Kinkaid pointed her bow south and out of the action. Hornet was, however, a different subject. The end of the attack on her had left her burning, but by 1000, she had her fires under control, and the prospect of regaining momentum seemed real. Rear-Admiral Murray ordered Northampton to tow the wounded carrier to safety. The Japanese preoccupation with Enterprise left him with sufficient breathing space for the moment. At 1130, after brief interruption, Hornet moved with four knots through the calm seas, 800 of her crew taken off. The tow parted at 1140, but was restored at 1450: too late.


Ready for takeoff from a Japanese aircraft carrier, 1942.
This view was probably taken on board Shokaku as she prepared to launch aircraft in the morning of 26 October 1942, during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands.
Japanese writing in lower right states that the image was reproduced by authorization of the Navy Ministry.

Admiral Kakuta had scraped the bottom of his plane contingent, assembling seven B5N Kates with as many Zeros as escorts, and found the wounded carrier at 1520. Put into a corner, unable to move, Hornet fought back with the ferociousness of a wounded animal, but her electricity had not returned, and all she could provide for her own defense were the 20mm guns, hand-held and –aimed, along her starboard side. Two Kates were shot down; two pointed themselves at Northampton; two torpedoes missed – but at 1523, one scored within feet of the first torpedo hit that day, and finished the carrier. Without the slightest chance of regaining her own forward momentum, with her engine rooms wrecked and unable to escape the coming onslaught of surface action groups surely heading for her, Admiral Murray ordered her abandoned, a decision to which Zuikaku's last, third strike could add little.


Under air attack during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, 26 October 1942.
Photographed from a USS Enterprise (CV-6) plane.
Note the smoke coming from her bridge area, which had been hit by a bomb, and what appears to be a recognition marking painted atop her number two eight-inch gun turret. The ship's catapults and aircraft crane appear to be swung out over her sides, aft of amidships.

Murray, aboard Pensacola, ordered destroyer Mustin to sink the derelict carrier, which she attempted with her eight torpedoes. Hornet refused to go under, and destroyer Anderson coming on the scene couldn't help the process either, although she added eight more torpedoes . When Hornet stubbornly clung to her life, both destroyers pumped five-inch shells into her until the presence of Japanese ships suggested a swift retirement. It was two IJN destroyers that with four Type 93 torpedoes ended Hornet's agony at 0135 on 27 October.


The Hornet being abandoned

This ended the Battle of Santa Cruz. Enterprise and the remnants of the Hornet group retired toward Espiritou Santo, and the fuel-conscious Japanese, running almost on fumes, elected not to pursue their beaten foes.

Additional Sources:

www.milartgl.com
www.daveswarbirds.com
www.warships1.com
www.cv6.org
www.usni.org
www.history.navy.mil
www.navsource.org
www.history.navy.mil
www.ibiblio.org
www.geocities.com/Athens/Crete/7962

[SAMWolf]

Aftermath and Results

The morning of 27 October saw Enterprise in bad condition. Her forward elevator was stuck in the "Up” position, no one daring to move it for fear of having it stuck in the "Down” position. Her task force was in good condition, but she would be severely handicapped for several weeks to come. The loss of Hornet was a serious blow to American strategic planning.

It was fortunate indeed that the IJN, on recovering its carrier planes, found that it had lost the larger part of them. None of the four fighting airgroups had enough planes left to continue operations; with the shot-down planes, many hundreds of Japan's last highly trained aviators had perished. The rapier that Evans and Peattie pointed the IJNAF out to be, the brittle weapon of a range fighter, had been thrust against the hardened steel of the USN and had shattered, leaving the IJN with but a dagger. The Imperial Army's failure to capture Henderson Field, and the destruction of so many fine planes and pilots, all combined to make the outcome of Santa Cruz, thoughan immediate Japanese tactical victory, a critical strategic defeat. The Americans were still stubbornly tied to the airfield, and Enterprise, though reduced in capabilities, still formed a potent weapon. It would be up to the next month to decide who had come out the victor of this engagement, for it set the stage for the coming succession of surface battles.

[SAMWolf]

[snippy_about_it]

.......FALL IN to the FReeper Foxhole!

.......Good Thursday Morning Everyone!


If you would like added to our ping list let us know.

[The Mayor]

[E.G.C.]

Good morning, Snippy. and everyone at the Freeper Foxhole. How's it going?

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning Mayor.

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning EGC. So far, so good.

[manna]

Present!

[bedolido]

I sometimes feel I was born at the wrong time. As the WW2 vets slowly fade away, I feel a great loss for a time in history where everyone fought against tyranny and oppression.

thanks for the post and hard work putting it together.

[snippy_about_it]

:)

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning bedolido.

[Prof Engineer]

Thanks Sam. I love naval battles.

[Valin]

On This Day In History


Birthdates which occurred on September 25:
1644 Olaus Rímer Denmark, 1st to accurately measure speed of light
1657 Imre Thokoly, Hungarian patriot, opposed Habsburg rule
1683 Jean-Philippe Rameau Dijon France, composer (Traite) (baptized)
1725 Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot designed & built 1st automobile
1766 Armand-Emmanuel duc de Richelieu, French PM (1815-18, 1820-21)
1866 Thomas Hunt Morgan US, biologist (Nobel-1933)
1877 Plutarco El¡as Calles Mexican revolutionary, president (1924-28)
1887 May Sutton Bundy US, 1st US woman to win Wimbledon (US 1904)
1897 William Faulkner Mississippi, author (Sound & the Fury-Nobel 1949)
1903 Mark Rothko US, painter (Green on Blue)
1905 Red Smith Green Bay Wisc, sportscaster/columnist (Fight Talk)
1906 Dimitri Shostakovich St Petersburg Russia, composer (9th-1945)
1907 Robert Bresson France, director (Pickpocket, Mouchette)
1918 Phil Rizzuto Bkln NY, sportscaster/shortstop (NY Yankees-MVP 1950)
1920 Sergey Bondarchuk Belozerka Ukraine, director (War & Peace)
1925 Silvana Pampanini Rome Italy, actress (Day in Court, Island Sinner)
1926 Aldo Ray actor (God's Little Acre, Naked & the Dead, Green Beret)
1926 John Ericson Dusseldorf Germany, actor (Sam Bolt-Honey West)
1926 Sergei Filatov USSR, equestrian dressage (Olympic-gold-1960)
1927 Carl Braun basketball player (NY Knicks)
1927 Sir Colin Rex Davis Weybridge England, conductor (NY Met 1967-71)
1931 Barbara Walters Boston Mass, newscaster (Today, 20/20, ABC-TV)
1932 Glenn Herbert Gould Toronto Canada, pianist (sued Steinway Piano)
1934 John S Bull Memphis Tennessee, astronaut
1936 Juliet Prowse Bombay India, actress/dancer (Who Killed Teddy Bear)
1943 John Locke LA, rocker (Spirit-I Got A Line on You)
1943 Robert Walden NYC, actor (Joe Rossi-Lou Grant, New Doctors)
1944 Eugenia Zukerman Cambridge Ms, flutist/novelist (Deceptive Cadence)
1944 Michael Douglas NJ, actor (Coma, Wall St, Jewel of the Nile)
1945 Cathy Burns actress (Last Summer)
1949 Anson Williams LA Calif, actor (Potsie-Happy Days)
1949 Mimi Kennedy Rochester NY, actress (Spencer, 3 girls 3, Under 1 Roof)
1951 Bob McAdoo NBA forward/center (Buffalo Braves, LA Lakers)
1951 Mark Hamill Oakland Calif, actor (Star Wars)
1952 Christopher Reeve actor (Superman)
1955 Steve Severin rocker (Siouxsie & the Banshees-Wild Thing)
1961 Heather Locklear LA Calif, actress (Stacy-T.J. Hooker)
1965 Fresh Prince [Will Smith], rapper (Parents Just Don't Understand)
1967 Lezlie Lund Tolna ND, Miss ND-America (1991)
1968 Prince Johan Friso of the Netherlands
1970 Kerri Kendall San Diego Ca, playmate (Sep, 1990)

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Deaths which occurred on September 25:
0813 al-Amin, Arabic Caliph of Islam (809-813), murdered
1066 Harald III Hardrada, king of Norway and England (1047-66), dies in battle at 51
1525 Johannes Pistorius, [Bakker], RC pastor/church reformer, burned at 26
1680 Samuel Butler, poet/satirist, dies
1849 Johann Baptist Strauss, elder, composer (Radetzky March), dies at 45
1867 Cattle pioneer Oliver Loving dies of gangrene
1918 John Ireland, Irish/US archbishop of St Paul, dies at 80
1929 Miller Huggins Yankee manager, dies at 50
1945 Bela Bartok, composer, dies at 64
1959 S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike Ceylon's PM, assassinated by a Buddhist monk
1960 Emily Post etiquette expert, dies at 86
1974 William Sloane publisher/writer ("The Edge of Running Water"), dies
1975 Bob Considine newscaster (Tonight! America After Dark), dies at 68
1984 Walter Pidgeon New Brunswick Canada, actor (MGM-Mrs Miniver, Madame Curie), dies at 87 after a series of strokes
1988 Billy Carter Pres Carter's brother Billy, dies of cancer at 51
1991 - Klaus Barbie, Gestapo chief/torturer of Lyon, dies of cancer at 77

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Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1963 CHENEY JOSEPH C.
[NOT ON OFFICIAL DIA LIST]
1966 BURGESS RICHARD G. ALOHA WA.
[03/05/73 RELEASED BY PRG, ALIVE IN 98]
1966 BOSSMAN PETER R. WEST SENECA NY.
1966 CUSHMAN CLIFTON E. GRAND FORKS ND.
1966 DUCAT PHILLIP A. FORT WAYNE IN.
1966 REITER DEAN W. MANCHESTER MO.
1972 CHAN PETER SAN FRANCISCO CA.
[FELL OVERBOARD/ORISKANY]

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

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On this day...
1066 Battle of Stampford Bridge King Harold Godwinson II of England, beaten by his brother King Harold Hardrada of Norway
1396 The last great Christian crusade, led jointly by John the Fearless of Nevers and King Sigismund of Hungary, ends in disaster at the hands of Sultan Bajazet I's Ottoman army at Nicopolis.
1492 Crewman on the Pinta sights "land"-a few weeks early
1493 Columbus sails on 2nd voyage to America
1513 Vasco Nu¤ez de Balboa is the 1st European to see the Pacific Ocean
1639 1st printing press in America
1690 Publick Occurrences, 1st US (Boston) newspaper, publish 1st & last ed
1775 American Revolutionary War hero Ethan Allen captured
1777 English general William Howe conquers Philadelphia
1789 Congress proposes Bill of Rights (10 of 12 will ratify)
1804 12th amendment to the US constitution, regulating judicial power
1861 Secretary of US Navy authorizes enlistment of slaves
1867 Congress creates 1st all black university, Howard U in Wash DC
1882 1st baseball doubleheader (Providence & Worcester)
1888 Start of Sherlock Holmes "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (BG)
1890 Congress establishes Yosemite National Park (Calif)
1890 Start of the Sherlock Holmes adventure "Silver Blaze" (BG)
1908 Cubs' Ed Reulbach becomes only pitcher to throw Doubleheader shutout
1909 Hudson-Fulton Celebration opens in NY
1911 Ground breaking begins in Boston for Fenway Park
1919 Pres Wilson becomes seriously ill & collapses after a speech
1920 Vern Bradburn of Winnipeg Victorias kicks 9 singles in a game
1924 Malcolm Campbell sets world auto speed record at 146.16 MPH
1926 Henry Ford announces the 8 hour, 5-day work week
1926 International slavery convention signed by 20 states
1926 NHL grants franchises to Chicago Black Hawks & Detroit Red Wings
1934 Lou Gehrig plays in his 1500th consecutive game
1934 Rainbow (US) beats Endeavour (England) in 16th America's Cup
1939 Versailles Peace Treaty forgot to include Andorra, so Andorra & Germany finally sign an official treaty ending WW I
1940 German High Commissioner in Norway sets up Vidikun Quisling government
1949 Louis Suggs wins US Woman's Golf championship
1956 1st transatlantic telephone cable goes into operation
1956 Brooklyn Dodger Sal Maglie no-hits Phila Phillies, 5-0
1957 300 US Army troops guard 9 black kids return to Central HS in Ark
1957 Soviet 7 year plan (1959-1965) announced
1959 President Eisenhower and Soviet Premier Khrushchev begin Camp David talks.
1959 Mob assassins shoot Little Augie Carfano to death in New York City on Meyer Lansky's orders.
1960 Phillies beat Reds 7-1, ending 16 consecutive Sunday losses
1962 A black church is destroyed by fire in Macon Georgia
1962 Sonny Liston KOs Floyd Patterson in 1st round for heavyweight title
1962 Weatherly (US) beats Gretel (Aust) in 19th running of America's Cup
1965 Beatle cartoon show begins in the US
1966 Smallest Yankee stadium crowd, 413 see White Sox win 4-1
1970 Ringo releases his "Beaucoups of Blues" album
1973 3-man crew of Skylab II make safe splashdown in Pacific after 59 days
1973 Willie Mays night at Shea Stadium
1974 Scientists warn that continued use of aerosol sprays will cause ozone depletion, which will lead to an increased risk of skin cancer and global weather changes.
1976 Expo's last game at Montreal's Jarry Park
1978 PSA Boeing 727 & a Cessna private plane collide by San Diego, 144 die
1980 Chevy Chase calls Cary Grant a homo on Tomorrow show (suit follows)
1981 Rolling Stones begin their 6th US tour (JFK Stadium, Phila)
1981 Sandra Day O'Connor sworn in as 1st female supreme court justice
1982 Penn prison guard George Banks kills 13 (5 were his own children)
1983 Bob Forsch pitches 2nd career no-hitter, Cards beat Expos 3-0
1984 Jordan announced it would restore relations with Egypt, something no Arab country had done since 17 Arab nations broke relations with Cairo over the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty of 1979.
1985 Akali Dal wins Punjab State election in India
1986 Antonin Scalia appointed to the Supreme Court
1986 Houston Astro Mike Scott no-hits SF Giants, 2-0
1988 Florence Griffith Joyner runs Olympic record 100m in 10.54s
1990 1st 8 NY Yankees hit safely vs Balt Orioles to tie record
1990 Oakland A's clinch 3rd straight AL West title
1990 Saddam Hussein warns US will repeat Vietnam experience
1990 UN Security Council vote 14-1 to impose air embargo against Iraq
1991 "Good & Evil" premiers on ABC TV
1991 The Paramount at Madison Square Garden in NYC opens
1992 A judge in Orlando, Fla., granted 12-year-old Gregory Kingsley's precedent-setting petition to "divorce" his mother, & live with his foster parents, he takes name Shawn Russ
1993 Three U.S. soldiers were killed in Somalia when their helicopter was shot down.

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Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Rwanda : Government Day/National Assembly Day/Referendum Day
US : Pacific Ocean Day (1513)
US : Gold Star Mother's Day (Last Sunday in September) (Sunday)
US : Good Neighbor Day (4th Sunday in September) (Sunday)
US : Press Sunday (Sunday)
US : American Indian Day (4th Friday in September) (1916) (Friday)
National Singles Week (Day 5)
National Sports Junkie Week (Day 5)
National Rehabilitation Week (Day 5)
Library Card Sign-Up Month

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Religious Observances
Ang, Luth : Commemoration of Sergius, abbot of Holy Trinity, Moscow
Russian Orthodox : Feast of Saint Sergius of Radonezh
Feast of St. Cleophus, martyr

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Religious History
1555 The Peace of Augsburg was signed, resolving bitter disputes between Protestants and Catholics in the German states. Its wider significance, however, meant that both the political unity of Germany and the medieval unity of Christendom was permanently dissolved.
1789 The establishment of religion on a national level was expressly prohibited in the U.S. with the adoption of the First Amendment, the opening words of which read: 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.' Final ratification of the First Amendment came in 1791.
1872 Death of Peter Cartwright, 87, early American Methodist circuit rider. Converted at age 29, Cartwright possessed a rough, uneducated and eccentric personality; but he spent over 50 of his 87 years spreading the Gospel through the Midwestern frontiers of Kentucky and Illinois.
1890 Polygamy was officially banned by the Mormon Church. (This announcement followed on the heels of an 1890 Supreme Court ruling denying all privileges of U.S. citizenship to Mormons who practiced this outlawed form of marriage.)
1908 Death of English Old Testament textual scholar Henry A. Redpath, 60. From 1892-1906, Redpath and Edwin Hatch compiled "A Concordance to the Septuagint and Other Greek Versions of the Old Testament"-- still in print today!

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

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Thought for the day :
"Losing streaks are funny. If you lose at the beginning, you get off to a bad start. If you lose in the middle of the season, you're in a slump. If you lose at the end, you're choking."

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You might be from South Dakota if...
Using an elevator involves a corn truck

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Murphys Law Of The Day...(Wyszkowski's Second Law)
Anything can be made to work if you fiddle with it long enough.

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It's a little known fact that...
The high jump method of jumping head first and landing on the back is called the Fosbury Flop.

[Samwise]

G'morning, SAM. Thanks for tweaking my google. ;~)

[skeeter]

Nice presentation, Sam.

Santa Cruz represented the end for most of the IJN pilots who began the war at Pearl Harbor. For 90% of them, their war, and the rest of their lives, lasted within about 10 months.

[w_over_w]

Morning Glory Snip & Sam~

Great work folks . . . forgive my triteness but that was one hell of a Naval fight.

[w_over_w]

1926 Henry Ford announces the 8 hour, 5-day work week.

What's that?

[SAMWolf]

Good Morning Snippy.