Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands 1942
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Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 25 October 1942 – 27 October 1942 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1942 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
| Era | World War II era (1939–1945) | derived from year |
| Nearest landmass | At sea (nearest continent: Oceania) | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Oceania | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Pacific War | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | United States | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | -8.6333, 166.7167 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, fought during 25–27 October 1942, was the fourth aircraft carrier battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II. It was also the fourth major naval engagement fought between the United States Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy during the lengthy and strategically important Guadalcanal campaign. As in the battles of the Coral Sea, Midway, and the Eastern Solomons, the ships of the two adversaries were rarely in sight or gun range of each other. Instead, almost all attacks by both sides were mounted by carrier- or land-based aircraft.
In an attempt to drive Allied forces from Guadalcanal and nearby islands and end the stalemate that had existed since September 1942, the Imperial Japanese Army planned a major ground offensive on Guadalcanal for 20–25 October 1942. In support of this offensive, and with the hope of engaging Allied naval forces, Japanese carriers and other large warships moved into a position near the southern Solomon Islands. From this location, the Japanese naval forces hoped to engage and decisively defeat any Allied (primarily US) naval forces, especially carrier forces, that responded to the ground offensive.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands (revision 1371593352), 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.
Other battles of the Pacific War
- Battle of Hong Kong 1941
- Battle of Wake Island 1941
- Battle for Henderson Field 1942
- Battle of Badung Strait 1942
- Battle of Balikpapan (1942) 1942
- Battle of Christmas Island 1942
- Battle of Corregidor 1942
- Battle of Manado 1942
- Battle of Midway 1942
- Battle of Mount Austen, the Galloping Horse, and the Sea Horse 1942
All 56 battles of the Pacific War →
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