The Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands was a naval battle of World War II, one of several episodes in the struggle for the Solomon Islands. Fought on 26 October 1942, the Japanese won a tactical victory by crippling the aircraft carrier USS Hornet and forcing the remaining US ships to retreat, but they did not achieve their strategic goal of dislodging the US Marines from Guadalcanal.

The Japanese, reluctant to risk their remaining carriers in a major engagement in the Solomons until they had a good land airfield, decided to seize Henderson Field on Guadalcanal. The land offensive commenced on 23 October 1942 but the Marines managed to repulse each assault. Vice Admiral Halsey, the Commander of the South Pacific Area, sent the Hornet and Enterprise to attack the Japanese fleet cruising northeast of the Solomons.

On 26 October both carrier forces launched their aircraft against each other in an exchange of strikes which damaged Hornet and Shokaku. In two subsequent attacks from Shokaku and Zuikaku Enterprise was hit and damaged while Hornet was set ablaze, abandoned, and later sunk by the Japanese destroyers Akigumo and Makigumo . The Americans retreated eastwards to get air cover from the land bases in the New Hebrides but the Japanese, still cautious because of their defeat at Midway, failed to pursue the American fleet and lost the opportunity to sink or damage Enterprise.

References

• Eric M. Hammel , Carrier Strike: The Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, October 1942 (Pacifica Press, 2000) ISBN 0935553371
• Samuel Eliot Morison, History of United States Naval Operations in World War II