Night Fighters Without Equal, Task Force 39 at Empress Augusta Bay
Abstract
On the 1st of November 1943, the ships and men of Rear Admiral "Tip" Merrill's Task Force 39 steamed off the west coast of the island of Bougainville, the last island at the northern end of the Solomon Islands chain. Their mission was to protect the landing of the 3rd Marine Division at Cape Torokina in the closing act of the United States' first counter offensive campaign against the Japanese that had begun at Guadalcanal sixteen months earlier. Within hours, Merrill and his trusted destroyer commander, Arleigh Burke, faced the largest and most powerful Japanese surface naval force encountered since the dark and ugly initial naval defeats of the Solomons that killed so many American sailors and littered the bottom of the waters in the Solomons with so many American ships as to earn them the name "Iron Bottom Sound." Yet, just as the Marine force going ashore at Bougainville was far better prepared that its predecessor at Guadalcanal', so too was this U.S. Navy task force far better prepared than its predecessors that fought in the night "slug fests" of a year earlier. For Task Force 39, despite being outgunned in nearly every category by the ships commanded by Rear Admiral Omori, several other factors contributed to an unquestionable victory by the United States Navy at the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 03, 2004
- Accession Number
- ADA427638
Entities
People
- David C. Fuquea
Organizations
- Naval War College