Sunday 11 October, 1942

US NAVY

PACIFIC—Japanese transport force (Rear Admiral Joshima Koji), formed around seaplane carriers Chitose and Nisshin and six destroyers, reaches Tassafaronga, Guadalcanal, to disembark elements of the Japanese Army's 2d Infantry Division. Three heavy cruisers and two destroyers (Rear Admiral Goto Aritomo, his flag in heavy cruiser Aoba) are to provide cover by shelling Henderson Field. Battle of Cape Esperance commences shortly before midnight, however, as naval surface force TG 64.2 (Rear Admiral Norman Scott) bars Goto's way. Heavy cruiser Salt Lake City (CA‑25) and light cruiser Boise (CL‑47) are damaged, but combine to cripple Japanese heavy cruiser Furutaka; destroyers Duncan (DD‑485) and Farenholt (DD‑491) are also damaged by Japanese gunfire, the latter possibly by friendly fire from either Boise or Helena (CL‑50). American cruiser and destroyer gunfire sinks Japanese destroyer Fubuki (09°06'S,159°38'E) and damages heavy cruiser Aoba (Rear Admiral Goto is killed on board his flagship) and destroyer Hatsuyuki.

            Japanese submarine I‑25, homeward bound from her deployment off the U.S. West Coast, torpedoes and sinks Russian submarine L 16 (bound from Dutch Harbor, Alaska, to San Francisco, California), 46°41'N, 138°56'E.

            Submarine Searaven (SS‑196) torpedoes German blockade runner Regensburg in Sunda Strait, N.E.I.

            British destroyer HMS Active rescues 23 survivors from No.2 lifeboat from U.S. freighter Coloradan, which had been torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U‑159 on 9 October 1942 (see 19 October 1942).

ATLANTIC—U.S. freighter Steel Scientist, en route to Paramaribo, British Guiana, is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U‑514, 05°48'N, 51°39'W; one crewman is killed in the attack. Survivors (who include 37 merchant seamen and the 9 man Armed Guard) take to a gig and three lifeboats (see 19 and 20 October 1942).

US ARMY AIR FORCE

US ARMY MIDDLE EAST AIR FORCE—B‑24’s attack convoy in the Mediterranean, hitting 1 vessel and claiming 1 fighter shot down.

SOUTH PACIFIC—B‑17’s sight Task Force of cruisers and destroyers bearing down on Guadalcanal in the afternoon. During 11/12 Oct, in the Battle of Cape Esperance, Adm Scott’s cruisers drive away the vessels. Search has been and continues to be the most useful service of the B‑17’s in SOPAC.

ELEVENTH AF—Kiska is hit by 3 bombing and strafing missions flown by 10 B‑24’s and 3 B‑17’s. The B‑17’s make no contact. The B‑24’s blast harbor targets and Main Camp.

US ARMY

BATTLE OF CAPE ESPERANCE—After Japanese naval force moving toward Guadalcanal is spotted by U.S. planes in afternoon, Task Force of 4 cruisers and 5 DD’s under Rear Admiral Norman Scott, standing off Rennell Island to protect convoy bringing elements of Americal Division to Guadalcanal, moves toward Cape Esperance to engage enemy and at 2346 opens fire. During 34-minute battle, the Task Force sinks Furutaka (CA) and Fubuki (DD) and damages Aoba and Kinugasa (CA’s). Enemy retires northward, leaving DD’s Natsugumo and Murakumo to rescue survivors. U.S. losses are light: Duncan, Boise, Salt Lake City, and Farenholt are damaged; of these, only the DD Duncan sinks, on 12th.

MADAGASCAR—General Platt, CG E African Command, relinquishes command on island to Maj General Smallwood, General Officer Commanding Islands Area.

US MARINE CORPS

—Naval Battle of Cape Esperance. U. S. forces under Admiral Spruance engage Japanese ships of the “Tokyo Express. ”