Battle of Savo Island 1942: America's Worst Naval Defeat

(Animated Battle Map)
This is a remake of one of my oldest videos. It needed much improvement on the animations and audio, and as you can see a lot more information was added as well.
If you came just for the battle, it starts at the 36 minute mark.

Corrections:
at 29:15 mark, it should have read "2353" not "2153". It was a mistake on my part.
at 39:27, I should have said "5.5 inch shell" not "6 inch shell".

I don’t have a Patreon but if you want to show appreciation for my work feel free to donate.

Music:
Filmstro
Ross Bugden “ Parallel”

Map terrain data obtained by Maptiler. "© MapTiler © OpenStreetMap contributors"

Sources:
B., J. L. (2013). Black Shoe Carrier Admiral: Frank Jack Fletcher at Coral Sea, Midway, and Guadalcanal (Reprint ed.). Naval Institute Press.

Cox, J. (2018). Morning Star, Midnight Sun: The Early Guadalcanal-Solomons Campaign of World War II August–October 1942 (Illustrated ed.). Osprey Publishing.

Hornfischer, J. (2021). Neptunes Inferno by Hornfischer, James D. [Hardcover]. Bamtan,2011.

Loxton, B., & Coultard-Clark, C. (1997). The Shame of Savo. Amsterdam University Press.

Newcomb, R. F. (2002). The Battle of Savo Island: The Harrowing Account of the Disastrous Night Battle Off Guadalcanal that Nearly Destroyed the Pacific Fleet in August 1942 (1st ed.). Holt Paperbacks.

Prados, J. (2021). Islands of Destiny: The Solomons Campaign and the Eclipse of the Rising Sun by John Prados (2013–10-01). NAL.

Stille, M., & Gerrard, H. (2013). The naval battles for Guadalcanal 1942: Clash for supremacy in the Pacific (Campaign) (First Edition). Osprey Publishing.

Stille, M., & Laurier, J. (2019). Guadalcanal 1942–43: Japan’s bid to knock out Henderson Field and the Cactus Air Force (Air Campaign) (Illustrated ed.). Osprey Publishing.

Tagaya, O., & Styling, M. (2001). Mitsubishi Type 1 Rikko “Betty” Units of World War 2 (Osprey Combat Aircraft 22) (1st ed.). Osprey Publishing.

U.S. Department of Defense. (2020). Solomon Islands Campaign (II): The Battle of Savo Island : World War II Combat Narratives. U.S. Department of Defense.

(2021). The battle of Savo Island, August 9, 1942 : strategical and tactical analysis 1950 [Hardcover]. Isha Books.

[DaoBao]

18:40 the Betty flying extremely low on the left was piloted by Lt Jun Takahashi. He entered the Guinness World Records in 2014 for being the oldest active commercial pilot alive and he's still alive.

[Nerdykearns]

This dude is the definition of quality over quantity

[BiggestCorvid]

54:25 "He didn't possess a crystal ball." Mikawa didn't even possess navigation charts anymore. He had received so many lucky breaks, he was smart to act based upon what the enemy could do.

[baptistebauer]

Imagine being in Mikawa's position. He obliterated 4 ennemy ships, coming from accross the biggest ocean in the world, made a plan that was accepted and went through with it brilliantly, he won a battle by the biggest margin up to date and the biggest that will be during the Guadalcanal campaing, and some dudes were like "why didn't you kill the transports too" when the army told him not to worry about it. And he had wrong intelligence from a previous battle the same day. Give the man a break, he did outsandingly well.

[crazytger]

One extra note: FDR was so taken by the loss of HMAS Canberra in this battle the next Baltimore-class Heavy Cruiser to be commissioned that was to be named USS Pittsburgh was in fact named USS Canberra to honour this brave Australian ship and its men, something that was never done before or since, naming an American warship after a foreign capital city.

The Australian Government returned this tribute by naming a new Tribal-class destroyer, HMAS Bataan, in honor of the US stand during the Battle of Bataan.

[i.alicorne]

*_And so, Montemayor begins his long and arduous siege against the history of Guadalcanal._*

[kumisz]

I love how you portray the hard choices the commanders have to face and present the pros and cons of their options.

[encyclpedia-]

Mikawa absolutely made the right call based on the information he had.

The Allied forces were absolutely devastated thanks to terrible decisions and worse communication.

[robertrexroad]

80 years ago tonight. My grandfather Robert Owen Rexroad served aboard the USS Vincennes and lucky for my sake survived! Every year I would call him on the night of August 8 to make sure he stayed dry that night. I miss him terribly.

[mightychicken]

As a history professor I must say that this is truly great. Although some parts are speculative (mostly due some reports being lost over the past 80 years from Japan - that or having been destroyed), over all you did a fantastic job. Your history here is sound, and the visual of the battle plan is very well put together. It is encouraging for me to see the younger generations embracing specific moments like these and understanding the importance of those moments.
I look forward to more of your work! Keep it up!

[jimmehjiimmeehh]

"In order to lighten the weight, they got rid of their lifeboats."

Bugger me.

[ralphcorsi]

The real irony is what happened to the transports the next morning. They were ordered to leave because they could no longer be defended. They left with most of their cargo hence the effect was almost the same as if Mikawa destroyed them. Yes they made deliveries later but they were forced to drop and run due to the Japanese ships continuously coming down the slot on a regular basis at night firing their guns on the marines on Guadalcanal. Another excellent presentation of the battle. Thank you.

[cryhavoc]

Absolutely Brilliant - yet again a masterful bit of work. Mikowa acted correctly given what he knew. In Fletchers defence on his withdrawal of the carrier - he had lost a number of his fighters through accidents (he had many green pilots) and losses sustained defending the landings and his aviation fuel levels were low so had taken the opportunity to withdraw to replenish from oilers. Again had he been told a force was coming down the slot in a timely fashion he may very well have not withdrawn.

[theskepticalwhaler]

Mikawa definitely made the right call, like you said, everything we know was in hindsight, sure he could've easily knocked out the transports without any retaliations because the carriers left, but he didn't know and if the carriers were still around, he would've almost definitely lost all his ships. That would've almost assured the doom of the IJN.

[uladzimirdarozka]

I absolutely love to have these "ask the viewer what-would-you-do"' pauses in Montemayor videos. That really places one into commander's shoes. I didn't know Fletcher decided to withdraw, and given all the pro's and contra's, I as Mikawa said - right, we should withdraw now, the carriers could come to help any moment, and my ships are precious.

[Maria_Erias]

One thing that I don't think was brought up later: Mikawa also had that (erroneous) report from the previous' day's air attack, claiming a large number of Allied ships sunk and damaged. When he arrived at the Savo Sound and only found a handful of Allied cruisers with destroyer support split to cover the transports, the thought that there could be an even larger (unknown) force out there which was tending to the "damaged ships" from that report would have been large in his mind, possibly reinforced if his spotters caught sight of the eastern group. I think it's safe to assume that he didn't know he had effectively destroyed the entire cover of the transports, and so him withdrawing makes absolutely perfect sense - especially considering the fact that, given that report from the previous day's air attack, he could assume that there was a good number more ships in the area than there actually was. If a report had gone out from either of northern or southern cruiser groups that he had missed, if he had turned back to go for the transports, he could assume he would be facing a prepared and possibly equivalent or even superior force. Given how valuable his ships were and how irreplaceable they were, yeah. He made the right call.

[Dustz]

15:00 Nagumo: Is it possible to learn this power?

[taufiqutomo]

Indy Neidell: We'll get to the Battle of Savo Island in a few weeks

Montemayor: Challenge accepted

[davidfink]

When I met my wife's uncle in 1959 he never talked about the battles he fought in in World War II but as I was a World War history buff, I researched some of the battles both on land and at sea. I learned about her uncle being on two ships that were sunk in the Pacific and one day while I was a book store I picked up a magazine with an article in it about the battle of Savo Island and it had some pictures of the battle and one picture of the search lights from a Japaneese ship. So I invited her uncle to go with me to the book store so I could show him the magazine. After he looked at the article and the pictures I asked him to tell my about his experience on the Astoria.

He told me that after Pearl Harbor, he joined the navy and was sent to Pearl Harbor where he was assigned duty on the Astoria. He told me that his Gereral Quarters was in fire control which I thought it was about putting out fires but told me it was controlling the firing of the big guns. He told me that on the night of the battle he had just gotten off watch and heard the hits being made on the ship from the Japaneese ships. He said after general quarters was announced he finally made it to his station and saw body parts from a few of the men after some hits from the Japaneese and he looked at me and I saw tears in his eyes and he tried to tell me about what happend and he started crying and he shut up and told me that he didn't want to talk about anymore. I felt so ashamed that I asked him to tell me about the battle and I never asked him about it again.

After he passed away a few years later, his daughter was dating a man that was stationed at Scott Air Force Base nearby and he made up a glass case with some of the awards from the U S Navy and he was represented by the military by pallbearers and they played taps at his burial and I was proud to be there and to just know him.

[ratboygenius]

The amount of poor decision making on the part of the allies in this tale is off the charts. I don't blame them. Simply taking the islands was a big enough job. They needed a reserve naval perimeter to give the strike force a night's sleep. I guess not possible in 1942. P.S. I think Mikawa made the perfect decision. He HAD to assume the carrier group was there. I see criticism against his decision more of an admittance that the allies failed so horribly and got away with it.