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. |
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.
The language of the account you found is interesting - florid and a bit archaic.
This battle reminds me somewhat of the battle for Normandy in that the two sides pounded each other into basically a tie, but neither the Germans nor the Japanese could afford the losses because unlike the US they didn't have the industrial capacity to quickly produce replacement equipment or the ability to train large numbers of replacement personnel.
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Air Power |
The right plane at the right time. That's what the "Slow But Deadly" SBD Dauntless was. When the US Navy was forced to go to war it did so in an aircraft that was considered by many to be obsolete. By the end of the war this "obsolete" plane was responsible for sinking more enemy ships than any other aircraft in the US inventory.
The first version of the Dauntless was the dash one and was found to be unsuitable for Navy service. As was Navy tradition, these first 50 aircraft were destroyed on the gound at Pearl Harbor. The most produced versions were the improved dash three and dash five aircraft. These planes ranged from the skies over the Coral Sea to the final victory flight over the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay and are now recognized as treasured museum pieces.
The SBD Dauntless was a two-place, low-wing Navy scout bomber, powered by a single Wright R1820, 1200-horsepower engine. The Dauntless became a mainstay of the Navy's air fleet in the Pacific, with the lowest loss ration of any U.S. carrier aircraft. A total of 5,936 SBDs were delivered between first delivery in 1940 and the end of production in July 1944.
The Dauntless was the standard shipborne dive-bomber of the US Navy from mid-1940 until November 1943, when the first Curtiss Helldivers arrived to replace it. The SBD was gradually phased out during 1944, and the June 20 strike against the Japanese Mobile Fleet - in the Battle of the Philippine Sea - was therefore its last major action. In 1942-43, in the Battle of the Coral Sea, in the bitter Guadalcanal campaign and - most of all - at the decisive Battle of Midway, the Dauntless did more than any other aircraft to turn the tide of the Pacific War. At Midway it wrecked all four Japanese carriers, and later in the battle sank a heavy cruiser and severely damaged another. From 1942 to 1944, in addition to its shipboard service, the SBD saw much action with the Marine Corps flying from island bases.
In the Guadalcanal Campaign the Dauntless - operating from US carriers and from Henderson Field on Guadalcanal itself - took a huge toll of Japanese shipping.
It sank the carrier Ryujo in the battle of the Eastern Solomons, and damaged three other Japanese carriers at Eastern Solomons and in the Battle of Santa Cruz. In the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal SBDs sank the heavy cruiser Kinugasa and, in company with TBD Avengers, sank nine Japanese transports
The Dauntless was older and slower than its Japanese opposite number, the Aichi D3A2 "Val" - but the SBD was far more resistant to battle damage, and its flying qualities perfectly suited it to its role. In particular - as Dauntless pilots testified - it was very steady in a dive. When the more modern and powerful Helldiver went into action alongside the SBD it was soon realized - particularly at Philippine Sea - that the new aircraft was inferior to the Dauntless. However, the Helldiver was already well into large-scale production, and it was too late to reverse the decision that it should supplant the SBD.
Specifications:
Manufacturer: Douglas Aircraft
Type: Two-seat carrier-based and land-based dive-bomber
Powerplant: One Wright R-1820-66 Cyclone , 1,350 hp (1007 kw), 9-cylinder radial, air cooled engine.
Crew: Two - some models had Three
Dimensions:
Wing span: 41 ft 6 in (12.65 m)
Length: 33 ft 0 in (10.06 m)
Height: 12 ft 11 in (3.94 m)
Weights: Empty: 6,535 lb (2,964 kg) Max T/O: 9,519 lb (4,318 kg)
Performance:
Maximum Speed: 255 mph (410 km/h) @ 14,000 ft (4,265 m)
Service Ceiling: 25,200 ft (7,680 m)
Range: 773 miles (1,244 km)
Armaments:
Two forward firing .50 inch (12.7 mm) machine guns
Two 0.30 inch (7.62 mm) machine guns on flexible mounts.
Fuselage mount for up to 1,600 lbs (726 kg) of bombs,
And up to a total of 650 lbs (295 kg) of bombs carried on the wings.
I liked "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." (Wish I could write like that! "Brilliance of metaphor", as MacArthur put it.)
My mother's brother Fred Carpenter was on the ENTERPRISE from 1940 to about May 1943. He was an Aviation Machinist's Mate Chief at the time of Santa Cruz, and short of his twenty-fifth birthday. He flew rear seat on the famous SBD, old Slow But Deadly, and TBMs. At Santa Cruz he was the senior Chief in flight deck and hanger deck damage control. Fred said that Santa Cruz was the hardest and most close run action he saw. My uncle was a very brave man and a clear thinking engineer in later life. He taught me the meaning of Honor, and Duty, for which I am forever in his debt.
My own personal belief is that Santa Cruz was as critical as any event in the Pacific War, equal to Midway. Americans do not realize what our people did in 1942, the terrible strategic risks, and the acceptance of death required of our people on the sharp end.
One last point. This was Halsey's finest hour, defending Guadalcanal, and thank the Lord he was there.
