Episode 5: The First Catastrophic Disaster

Explains the Battle of Savo Islands, the United States' first major loss in the Pacific. A few mispronunciations but not many. Enjoy!

Transcript

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Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome back to the Admiral's Desk. I'm the Admiral known as CM Carr and I'm alive and well. I truly don't know why I'm gone for three months. I know part of the reason, but also I don't know part of the reason. I was very busy and also I was looking into like the series after World War II. I'm thinking either the Korean War or the Cold War. But also I was very busy and I was too lazy to get up and do an episode when I had free time. So yeah. Today, now that I'm back, I want to bring you the next episode in our series of the World War II. Um and the World War II in the Pacific. I want to bring you Savo Islands. And Savo Islands was the United States' first major defeat in the Second World War, besides Pearl Harbor, and one of the worst defeats in naval history for the United States. Um it's part of the Guadalcanal campaign. And Guadalcanal was almost a year long, and I think I'm gonna split that up into two to four parts. And the Salvo Islands begins like maybe two days after the Guadalcanal invasion began. So I decided instead of just putting it right in the middle of Guadalcanal, I was just gonna go ahead and get it over with. So I hope you enjoy, and let me begin. The United States have been rallying off their victories in the Pacific Theater since Midway, which was episode four all those three months ago. Many commanders have made a name for themselves. For example, Ravens Brooks was known for his victory in Midway. He was known for being a cruiser skipper, commanding a giant aircraft carrier with no experience at all, and kind of like kicked off his career as a naval well like kicked off his career as an admiral and brought him very new things. Um Admiral Nemitz, he was it gave him a better rep and he was m known more as a brilliant commander. He had great strategy. And Admiral Freight Jack Fletcher, um it was in the middle for him. People still hated him for the Coral Sea and they somewhat hated him for Midway for using losing the Yorktown, but he was a really crucial part of the victory, and Fletcher is one of my favorite admirals, so yeah, his reputation was somewhat restored, and he was still, of course, getting flamed by Admiral King because um Ernie never is satisfied, he's rarely satisfied, but besides that, Edwin Leighton and Joseph Rochefort were all were also giving good remarks. They were um they were a very key figure on Midway. They absolutely blew the intelligence out of the water in a good way, and they're basically the reason why we knew where the Japanese were at in the Pacific. So from there, Jap the Japan's Air Force would be crippled, and the strategic balance shifted heavily. Fast forward to August 7th, 1942, when where U.S. Marines will land on Guadalcanal along with Tulagi and Florida in Florida Islands. In two days, the Marines would capture an uncompleted airfield on Guadalcanal. Now, Vice Admiral, forgive me if I pronounced his first name wrong, I can say his last name. Gunichi Makawa, the commander of the newly formed Eighth Fleet, which was a mix of cruisers and destroyers. He had about seven cruisers and one destroyer, and his flagship was the Jokai. I will go in depth on that, not about the ship names, but like what kind of cruisers he had later on. But his job was to defend the Solomon Islands against any Allied attacks. And this part next isn't really that important. It mixes with Salvo Islands, but it also mixes with Guadalcanal since they're interlinked. So it's kind of a preview for next episode. But the Allied commander of the naval forces around Guadalcanal and Tulagi would be a very important and very familiar person that I've talked about here. He would now be a Vice Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher. He would now command Task Force 61 during the campaign, but like I said, Guadalcanal is for next episode. Back to Bakawa, his days would go by with plannings and reports. The waters would be charted very poorly, and the process was slow. Now he had about five heavy cruisers and two light cruisers and one fleet destroyer. Um him and his staff would spend off hours looking over the few charts, and Mikabo feared discovery by Allied reconnaissance aircraft, so he remained north of Bougainville until around the late hours of August 8th. In those late hours of August 8th, he would steam through the St. George Channel and launch his attack after surrounding Savo. It was to the west of the assumed Allied fleet off Lunga, which is in Guadalcanal. Now, this next person I'm about to mention is going to be a very key figure in Guadalcanal. Um, I think he's in a few more episodes after this, but we have ne I have I don't think I've mentioned it before, but Rear Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner. And he would serve as the commander of the invasion fleet and he would have Task Force 62. And Turner preferred going by his little name of Kelly, but he was good with amphibious operations. He was really arrogant and aggressive, but he was brilliant. He was really smart and he was the perfect guy for the job. If I'm not mistaken, he used to work in DC and Admiral King had enough of him, and he sent him out to the Pacific, and they reported in the Pacific during World War II that he was great and he was like he was annoying, but he was great. But Turner would receive a message late August 7th saying that two to shores and three large ships of unknown type heading southwest at a high speed, eight miles west of St. Cape George. And the submarine that reported that would be S-38, and the seven S-38 was right under McCower's forces. Someone who would also be serving with Turner would be Rear Admiral Victor Cretchley. And Cretchley would have the Southern Group at Salval Islands, and he would have eight cruisers and fifteen destroyers. He was a British naval officer. Now while Turner receives the report, Marines on Guadalcanal are slowly making progress. They have advanced their way onto the island. They're getting through. But they're struggling on Tulagi and forgive me if I pronounced this wrong too. But Gavuto Tenenbogo. They were having a very hard time there, and they nearly didn't make it on. Now on August 7th, the beginning of the battle, or where the battle is starting to pick up, force McCaw's forced to sail south through the New Georgia Strait at a steaming speed. He plans to launch an immediate night attack on the Allied forces once he finds them. Now here's where the battle actually is starting to begin. In the early hours of August 8th, McCaw conducts a reconnaissance mission of the area. He sends three cruisers three cruiser float planes to search north of the Solomon Islands. Around 10 25 a.m. He is spotted by a Royal Australian plane and orders his ships to turn 90 degrees, somewhat to throw them off of where he's going. Macable is soon spotted again by another Australian Hudson plane at 11 o'clock. The Chokai shoes the play away by firing her bang guns at him. The Hudson's report the sightings, but it would reach Turner very late in the afternoon. If I'm not mistaken, the report would be off. It was the Australians saw the they misjudged the size. They thought they were very small boats, but they tend not to be. Now, August 9th, Turner would end up concluding the Japanese force that was sighted. It was misidentified as only containing two seaplane tenders, and this is where his personality of arrogantness and cogginess comes in. Turner thinks that they are no immediate threat to his forces. While the Jap while the Japanese close in and prepare for battle, the somewhat backfires in Richmond Kelly Turner's face. And you'll see it later. Around 1112, Makawa sends one last air group of four planes to locate the Allies. At midnight, his cruisers increase speed to 26 knots and go for their battle stations. At 12 50 a.m., the Allied ship Blue is spotted, and Makawa reduces his speed while turning directions. But also, while he's turning directions, he spots another Allied ship, the Ralph Talbot. Soon Makawa spots the tattered up USS Jarvis in six ships, which was the Southern group, and the Jarvis was tattered up, I think something from Glaudal Canal. But Makawa saw the blue, which was an allied ship, and then turned the other way, and then saw another allied ship, and then he kind of had to maneuver his way through. And Crutchley would have this um the southern group, and the northern group would go to Captain Frederick Reefall, which will also contain her five ships. And at 1 38 a.m. the battle begins. Makawa fires four torpedoes at the HMS Canberra along with her main guns. Soon the Canberra is hit by 24 shells. Her captain dead and the ship in flames. It was just illuminating the lo the ocean and just a big fireball. But somehow the ship was stinging, but somehow still going. Somehow she missed the rest of the 11 torpedoes fired at her. At 147, USS Chicago is struck by a torpedo, but manages to strike forgive me the 10 the Tenreu, killing 23. The Patterson tries to fight, but it's outnumbered, I think, a good 3-1 and leaves the battle. The Bailey fires four torpedoes, but they all miss. And by then the Southern group is very crippled, and this is part of the major defeat. And somehow I get there was a lot going on, but nobody reported what just happened. Nobody, like, reported that everything just blew up in their face. They just went along with it. Now we're gonna switch perspectives and go up to the north with the northern group at 1 35 a.m. Because Makawa's forces split up and just started striking. The Northern group is started by the blaring Japanese search flights and struck by four torpedoes. The Quincy was struck 50 times and was out of action quickly. Sorry, forgive me if I say this one wrong, but the Vinces was also struck many times, and her captain calls to abandon the ship. The historia tries to fight back until she is left a flaming wreck, and the North group was also crippled too. At 2 20 a.m., Makawa gives the order to withdraw after their first victory and disrupt the Allied forces' very strong campaign going. The Astoria, Vinces, Quincy, and Canberra would all sink. This would result in a learning experience for the Allies and show that you can't be cocky about everything Richmond Kelly Turner. It would show that you still have to fight even though you're on a good path. And it would set them up for Guadalcanal and want them to fight back. And that is today's episode. And before I go, I wanted to share something. A major milestone. We have reached over a hundred downloads slash listens. We have made it to 108. And I'm very proud of that. And I thank you all for listening and sharing. And I hope you continue to do that. And I think in celebration of that, maybe in the future, I'm gonna do either an episode on my top ten admirals, or I might do the little Wake Island thing that I told you all at the beginning when I started because Wake Island was so different. But anyways, thank you all for listening. This is Admiral Carr signing up.