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"Gentlemen," Captain Kaju Sugiura, commander of Japanese Destroyer Division 12, began, "I am very happy to report that our last transport mission to Kolombangara was a complete success. Both the Navy and the Army high command are gratified. . . . They have also ordered that the mission be repeated the day after tomorrow. . . . We shall go through Vella Gulf and Blackett Strait again . . . exactly as we did last time." Captain Tameichi Hara, commander of the destroyer Shigure, listened to the 4 August 1943 briefing in stunned silence. Before Sugiura had finished, Hara came...

The Vella Gulf, a Norfolk-based ship that until recently led America's offensive on piracy off the Horn of Africa, traces its name to a World War II battle in which the Navy pursued tactics a pirate would admire. Labeled "a little classic of naval warfare " by famed Adm. Chester Nimitz, the Battle of Vella Gulf was fought and won in about an hour on the night of Aug. 6-7, 1943. The engagement was a pivotal moment in the long and bloody campaign to dislodge the Japanese from the Solomons, a chain of islands northeast of Australia. The fight's American...

NORFOLK — Two Dutch sailors, foundering for three days in the storm-churned North Atlantic with torn sails, a failing engine and sinking boat, were rescued by the cruiser Vella Gulf 1,300 miles due east of Boston, the Navy said Tuesday. And the Navy coxswain operating Vella Gulf’s 24-foot rigid hull inflatable rescue boat, plowing through 20-foot seas and high winds, is being hailed as a hero for getting his crew of five and the stranded sailors safely back aboard the Norfolk-based ship on Monday. Capt. Stephen F. Davis Jr., the cruiser’s commanding officer, said by satellite telephone from sea Tuesday...