What was the detailed story of the naval battle at Cape Enes, Espa? What's the result?
According to the estimation of the Japanese command, the reinforcement formation will not encounter the interception of American naval forces when sailing at sea, but it is quite worried about the air raid by its aviation forces. Therefore, it was decided that the shore-based aviation force would be responsible for suppressing Guadao Airport during the day and the 6th Cruiser Team would continue to perform this task at night when the reinforcement formation entered the operational radius of the US plane.
The core of Japan's 6th Cruiser Team is three ancient eagle-class heavy cruisers "Qingye", "Gu Ying" and "Yi Li", with destroyers "Blowing Snow" and "Chuxue" of the 11th Destroyer Team as the guards. It is under the command of Rear Admiral Taketo Cunzhi. He not only carefully studied the time and place of shelling and what shells and fuses should be used, but also specially found a coral island to do exercises.
When he set sail from Shortland Island, he went south along the "Trough Sea" (a narrow sea area between two islands in Solomon Islands) at 24 knots. The whole Japanese army is full of expectations for him.
at the end of the day, since our reconnaissance plane didn't send any information about the enemy, and most enemy planes didn't attack at night, we increased the speed to 3 knots and galloped to Guadao.
The bombing of Guadao airport by Japanese shore-based aircraft in the daytime really played a role. Although the Japanese reinforcement formation was discovered by the US when it moved south along the "Trough Sea", its aircraft was too busy protecting the airport to get away, so it had to send the 64th Special Task Force formation cruising south of Guadao to intercept it.
This formation has four cruisers and five destroyers under the command of Rear Admiral Scott. After receiving the order, Scott immediately led the team to the north. In order to enter the northwest waters of Guadao before the Japanese army, the formation speed was increased to 29 knots. As a result, the formation of American and Japanese cruisers entered each other from the north and south.
The Sixth Team of the Japanese Navy approached Guadao along the "Narrow Mouth" Strait. Its core is three heavy cruisers, Qingye, Guying and Yili. The destroyers "Blowing Snow" and "Chuxue" of the 11th destroyer fleet served as guards. The entire fleet was under the unified command of Major General Taketeng Cunzhi. He not only carefully studied the time and place of shelling and what shells and fuzes to use, but also specially found a coral island to do exercises. When his fleet went south at 24 knots, the whole Japanese army was full of expectations for him.
the U.S. 64th task force bypassed the west coast of Guadalcanal and sailed to Savo Island, with the speed reduced to 2 knots. Its formation is a single column: three destroyers, namely, Fallenholt, Duncan and Lafite, are in the front, four cruisers, namely, San Francisco, powys, Salt Lake City and Helena, are in the middle, and two destroyers, namely, Buchanan and Michaela, are in the back. The distance between cruisers is 6 yards, the distance between destroyers is 5 yards, and the distance between cruisers and destroyers is 7 yards.
Scott ordered four cruisers to send planes for reconnaissance, and "San Francisco" and "powys" followed the orders. However, the plane of Salt Lake City caught fire and burned during take-off operation; The "Helena" did not receive the order and threw it into the sea for fear that the plane would catch fire in the artillery battle.
The 6th Cruiser Team has entered the northwest of the 64th US Special Task Force, and the distance between the two armies is about 5 nautical miles. The Japanese formation is that the three cruisers "Qingye", "Guying" and "Yili" are arranged in a single column in turn, and the distance between the ships is 12 meters; Two destroyers, "Chuxue" and "Blowing Snow", respectively served as navigation warnings in front of the left and right of "Qingye", with a bearing of 7 degrees and a distance of 3 meters. The formation is heading southeast (125 degrees) with a speed of 3 knots, and the distance between the two sides is rapidly shortening.
The Japanese ship has seen the burning fire of the seaplane "Salt Lake City" of the United States. Goto thought it was a signal from the Japanese army on the shore or the first reinforcement formation, so he replied with a flashing signal. However, due to the low luminosity and poor visibility, the US did not see it.
The plane of the USS San Francisco reported: "One large ship and two small ships were found, which are located in the north of Guadalcanal, about 16 nautical miles from Savo Island." This is a reinforcement formation led by Rear Admiral Chengdao of the Japanese army. Although the strength reported by the US reconnaissance plane is wrong, its position is right.
Helena equipped with SG-type new radar reports: "Target sighted, bearing 315 degrees, distance 27,7 yards, target heading southeast, speed about 2 knots."
Although the flagship "San Francisco" is equipped with an old SC radar, considering that the Japanese ship is equipped with a radar receiver and can receive the radio waves emitted by the SC radar, Scott did not dare to use his ship's radar, and mainly relied on friendly ships and planes to provide enemy information. The above two reports show that there is a group of enemy ships on its left and right.
So, he ordered the ship to turn around, with a view to blocking the waterway between Savo Island and Cape Enes, Espa. Scott thinks that this can not only prevent the enemy ships found by radar from approaching Guadao, but also intercept the enemy ships found by aircraft from evacuating Guadao.
The target discovered by "Helena" radar is the Japanese Sixth Cruiser Team. At this time, this team has entered the left side of the 64th special task force formation in the United States. When Scott turned from left to back, the two armies met in the dark night and suddenly met.
Norman·Scott suddenly turned the rudder and sailed back, leaving Goto in his positive horizontal direction, and the US military inadvertently occupied a very favorable "T"-shaped horizontal head position. Despite this, Scott dared not order the fire. Because the steering angle of the three destroyers ahead was large, they were thrown out of the circle, and they were coming from the right side of several cruisers. In this way, it is difficult to distinguish between the enemy and the enemy for the target that suddenly appears on the right side.
However, because of the SG radar, the "Helena" could see clearly the arrival of the enemy ships. When the two sides were close to 5 yards, the captain used the walkie-talkie to request firing. "Helena" started shooting. Other warships also opened fire.
a few minutes before the American ship shelled, the Japanese formation had found several ship shadows 15 degrees and 5 nautical miles away from the port side, thinking it was its own reinforcement formation. At that time, the heavy rain had just stopped and the visibility was poor. Wuteng decided to move on, and prepared to send out an identification signal after shortening the distance. Just then, the other side turned on the searchlight and bombarded "Qingye" with heavy artillery fire.
When the ship continuously sent out the light signal "I am Qingye ……", the bridge was shot, many people were killed or injured, and Commander Goto was seriously injured. He still thinks that he was hit by one of his own people by mistake and died in the sound of cursing Baga. In order to get rid of the opponent, the team was reorganized and then put into battle. The flagship of "Qingye" immediately turned right and then, and "Guying" followed suit.
American ships could have concentrated fire on Japanese ships approaching the turning point one after another, but Japanese ships could hardly fight back. However, when Scott saw that the other side didn't strike back, he even thought that the target of the shelling of the "Helena" and other ships was his own destroyer, so he ordered to stop firing. Some American ships refused to listen to Koster's orders and continued to fire. Scott repeatedly reiterated the previous order and personally urged his flagship "San Francisco" to finally stop shooting.