Battle of Tassafaronga 1942
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Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 30 November 1942 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1942 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | World War II era (1939–1945) | derived from year |
| Location | Solomon Islands | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Oceania | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Guadalcanal campaign | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Empire of Japan, United States | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | -9.2000, 159.8333 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Tassafaronga, sometimes referred to as the Fourth Battle of Savo Island or in Japanese sources as the Battle of Lunga Point (ルンガ沖夜戦; "Naval Battle of Lunga"), was a nighttime naval battle that took place on 30 November 1942 between United States Navy and Imperial Japanese Navy warships during the Guadalcanal campaign. The battle took place in Ironbottom Sound near Tassafaronga Point on Guadalcanal.
In the battle, a US force of five cruisers and four destroyers under the command of Rear Admiral Carleton H. Wright intercepted eight Japanese destroyers attempting to deliver food to their forces on Guadalcanal. The US destroyers waited four minutes after radar contact for permission to launch torpedoes and missed the optimal firing position; the torpedoes all missed, and the destroyers retired. The US cruisers opened fire and sank one destroyer. The muzzle flashes exposed the US cruisers' positions. Under the command of Rear Admiral Raizō Tanaka, Japanese destroyers quickly launched Type 93 "Long Lance" torpedoes, sinking one US cruiser and heavily damaging three others. The rest of Tanaka's force escaped undamaged but failed to complete the intended supply mission.
Rear Admiral Samuel J. Cox, director of the Naval History and Heritage Command, considers this battle and the Battle of Savo Island to be two of the worst defeats in US naval history, behind only…
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Tassafaronga (revision 1380914317), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Naval Battle of Guadalcanal 1942 · 7 km
- Battle of Savo Island 1942 · 8 km
- Battle of Cape Esperance 1942 · 23 km
- Battle of Mount Austen, the Galloping Horse, and the Sea Horse 1942 · 30 km
- Battle for Henderson Field 1942 · 35 km
- Battle of the Tenaru 1942 · 36 km
Other battles of the Guadalcanal campaign
- Actions along the Matanikau 1942
- Battle of Edson's Ridge 1942
- Battle of Tulagi and Gavutu–Tanambogo 1942
- Battle of the Tenaru 1942
- Battle of Rennell Island 1943
All 6 battles of the Guadalcanal campaign →
Browse more: battles in Solomon Islands · Oceania · World War II era battles