Replies

Most people don't know it, but in the battles fought in and around Guadalcanal between August - December 1942, there were three sailors killed in action for ever Marine or soldier killed on land.

These are the six major naval battles in that time frame, but there were dozens of small engagements where ships and men were lost:

Battle of Savo Island (1,077 America and Australian sailors killed in about 45 minutes of savage fighting)
Battle of the Eastern Solomons
Battle of Cape Esperance
Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands
Naval Battle of Guadalcanal (Known as the "The Battle of Friday the 13th, 1,439 American sailors killed)
Battle of Tassafaronga (400 killed)

The best book, in my opinion on this, is Neptune's Inferno by James D. Hornfischer It covers many facets of these naval battles, fought during a time when the US Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy were fighting from a relatively even footing, though the Japanese had superior numbers of vessels closer to the front.
The Battle of Savo Island is thought my many to be the lowest part of the war, after which, the pendulum began to swing the Allies way after that.
The savagery of the fighting is nearly impossible to grasp, the night battles, in particular The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal which had battleships, cruisers, destroyers, intermingled firing at unimaginably close ranges (less than 400 yards at one point)
There is one account of a US destroyer (USS Laffey) firing all of its five inch guns into the superstructure of the IJN battleship Hiei (which the USS Laffey had missed colliding with by only twenty feet!) severely damaging the battleship and killing Admiral Abe's Chief of Staff. and injuring him.
Both US Admirals that night (Admiral Callahan and Admiral Scott) were killed in action on their ships. When Halsey was promoted to three stars, he took his set off and directed that the two sets of two stars be sent to the widows of Callahan and Scott, because they had given him the three stars. (there were no three star insignia in the theater, so they had to be manufactured by a fleet machine shop in the region for Halsey to wear)
It bears mentioning, that in these battles in the South Pacific region in the Solomons, there was a huge, unsaid, un-talked about thing: shark attacks. It was prevalent, men saw it all the time, and nobody, including the navy talked about it aloud. There was no solution for it, and talking about it was discouraged and not even officially addressed from the top of the ranks down to the bottom because it had no effect other than to decrease morale. The sinking of one of the US Carriers (I can't remember if it was Wasp or Hornet) had hundreds of men being devoured in the water in full view of men trying to rescue them, even as they were trying to pull them out.

Respect for those men.

There was a poem written after the Battle of Savo Island that has stuck with me these many years since I first read it. It was written by a Navy Chaplain, and it still makes me shudder to read it:

Iron Bottom Bay
by Walter A. Mahler, Chaplain, USS Astoria

I stood on a wide and desolate shore
And the night was dismal and cold.
I watched the weary rise, –
And the moon was a riband of gold.

Far off I heard the trumpet sound,
Calling the quick and the dead,
The long and rumbling roll of drums,
And the moon was a riband of red.

Dead sailors rose from out of the deep,
Nor looked not left or right,
But shoreward marched upon the sea,
And the moon was a riband of white.

A hundred ghosts stood on the shore
At the turn of the midnight flood,
They beckoned me with spectral hands,
And the moon was a riband of blood.

Slowly I walked to the waters edge,
And never once looked back
Till the waters swirled about my feet,
And the moon was a riband of black.

I woke alone on a desolate shore
From a dream not sound or sweet,
For there in the sands in the moonlight
Were the marks of phantom feet.

Profound and moving...thank you.

Superb post. Neptune’s Inferno is a fine read. Yep, about 4,500 sailors KIA v. 1,500 or so Marines.

Great poem too.

Savo was such an unnecessary disaster.

The USN paid for its unpreparedness. The IJN was at its peak and only declined, where the USN improved every day in every way.

the navy lot more at Okinawa too. took a great class with a friend whose dad was senior NCO of the initial medical clearing station for the 77th INF. they were on Okinawa. working on a SHERMAN plus a few infantrymen diorama for him.
i was born on DEC07 1951. my dad and uncle were in the navy. I was a tanker in the army. I wonder if that is the reason for my interest in history. i teach mostly Russian history now.

One more summary of two salient events of Guadacanal:

One Marine, One Ship, by Vin Suprynowicz

http://www.tysknews.com/Depts/Our_Culture/one_marine_one_ship.htm