Battle of Tassafaronga
1942 naval battle between US Navy and Imperial Japanese Navy warships during the Guadalcanal campaign
The Battle of Tassafaronga, sometimes referred to as the Fourth Battle of Savo Island or in Japanese sources as the Battle of Lunga Point (ルンガ沖夜戦; "Naval Battle of Lunga"), was a nighttime naval battle that took place on 30 November 1942 between United States Navy and Imperial Japanese Navy warships during the Guadalcanal campaign. The battle took place in Ironbottom Sound near Tassafaronga Point on Guadalcanal.
In the battle, a US force of five cruisers and four destroyers under the command of Rear Admiral Carleton H. Wright intercepted eight Japanese destroyers attempting to deliver food to their forces on Guadalcanal. The US destroyers waited four minutes after radar contact for permission to launch torpedoes and missed the optimal firing position; the torpedoes all missed, and the destroyers retired. The US cruisers opened fire and sank one destroyer. The muzzle flashes exposed the US cruisers' positions. Under the command of Rear Admiral Raizō Tanaka, Japanese destroyers quickly launched Type 93 "Long Lance" torpedoes, sinking one US cruiser and heavily damaging three others. The rest of Tanaka's force escaped undamaged but failed to complete the intended supply mission.
Rear Admiral Samuel J. Cox, director of the Naval History and Heritage Command, considers this battle and the Battle of Savo Island to be two of the worst defeats in US naval history, behind only Pearl Harbor.
Background
Guadalcanal campaign
On 7 August 1942 Allied forces landed on Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and the Florida Islands in the Solomon Islands.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Battle of Tassafaronga” as 1942 naval battle between US Navy and Imperial Japanese Navy warships during the Guadalcanal campaign. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as 1942 naval battle between US Navy and Imperial Japanese Navy warships during the Guadalcanal campaign. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1475679. The Library of Congress control number is sh96005011. Authority coordinates are -9.200, 159.833. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1942.
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This entry incorporates text from “Battle of Tassafaronga” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.