World War 2 In Review

USS Buchanan (DD-484) steaming near USS Wasp (CV-7) in the South Pacific, circa August 1942, during the Guadalcanal Campaign. Note her Measure 12 (Modified) camouflage scheme. The Battle of Cape Esperance, also known as the Second Battle of Savo Island and, in Japanese sources, as the Sea Battle of Savo Island, took place on 11–12 October 1942, in the Pacific campaign of World War II between the Imperial Japanese Navy and United States Navy. The naval battle was the second of four major surface engagements during the Guadalcanal campaign and took place at the entrance to the strait between Savo Island and Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. Cape Esperance is the northernmost point on Guadalcanal, and the battle took its name from this point. On the night of 11 October, Japanese naval forces in the Solomon Islands area—under the command of Vice Admiral Gunichi Mikawa—sent a major supply and reinforcement convoy to their forces on Guadalcanal. The convoy consisted of two seaplane ten...

Heavy cruiser Furutaka on speed trials after reconstruction off Ugurujima, 9 June 1939. The main gun director and rangefinder tower on the top of the bridge had not yet been installed. (Colorized) Furutaka was the lead ship in the two-vessel Furutaka-class of heavy cruisers in the Imperial Japanese Navy. The ship was named after Mount Furutaka, located on Etajima, Hiroshima, immediately behind the Imperial Japanese Navy Academy. She was commissioned in 1926 and was sunk 12 October 1942 by USS Salt Lake City and USS Buchanan at the Battle of Cape Esperance.   Furutaka's original appearance, 1926. (Colorized) Furutaka and Kinugasa seen from Kako in the Strait of Bungo, October 1941. (Colorized) Furutaka at anchor off Shinagawa, Japan, on 4-10 October 1935. The three bands painted on her after smokestack signify that she is the third ship of the 6th Sentai (squadron). The cruisers Aoba and Kinugasa, also members of Sentai 6, are in the left distance. (Naval History & Heritage...