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For the most part, the naval portion of the Guadalcanal campaign was a series of surface battles, pitting American cruisers and destroyers against Japanese cruisers and destroyers. The only times that Japan used their battleships were (1) when they sent Kongo and Haruna to shell Henderson Field, with spectacular results; (2) when they sent Kirishima and Hiei to do it again, with the result of losing Hiei; and (3) when they sent Kirishima to try it one more time, with the result of her being lost at the hands of the U.S. battleships Washington and South Dakota.
Meanwhile, Japan's other 8 battleships -- including the monster warships Yamato and Musashi -- sat idle back in port, doing nothing. My question is, what would have happened if Admiral Yamamoto had thrown caution to the wind and sent every capital ship he had into the campaign? Would these powerfully gunned ships have mowed down the American forces and won the campaign, thus prolonging the war? Or would their slow speed (excepting the four ships of the Kongo class) prove their undoing, with the result being more of their battleships lost than the two that actually were, and the Battle of Leyte Gulf never happening because Japan wouldn't have had some or all of the ships that were used in that action? Or something else entirely?
EDIT: I guess we can't count Ise and Hyuga, because they were in dry dock being converted into hybrid battleship-carriers at the time. (That's what desperation will do to ya.) So we'll say, what if they had used their remaining SIX battleships, in addition to the Kongo sisters.
I think that, assuming IJN had enough fuel and ammunition to field all 6 ships at Guadalcanal, it would have at least materially complicated the problem for the Allies. I think the actual facts, IIRC, were that lack of fuel and ammo was a major reason the big ships mostly stayed in port.
While yes of course. We all know that the battleships were the key in the War of the Pacific. Already the fact that the Japanese lost a large portion of their battleships in "what the hell, go on, we've lost already anyways" -style of battles tells it all.
I realise that battleships have a sense of romanticism in them, after all they were extremely advanced and costly behemots, but if a few biplanes with torpedoes could make them useless, it's kind of a turnoff, isn't it?
Sure, the Japanese battleships would've made a difference. I can't recall how much of the surface fleet USN lost (some 20's heavy cruisers?), but IJN lost more and Guadalcanal was not a war-deciding campaign. The American forces could've retreated, replace their losses and choose to fight a better day, something that the Japanese couldn't.
The land battle on Guadalcanal was touch and go for a while; it was early in the war and was fought more or less on the basis of equality between the ground forces, whereas later on the United States enjoyed a superiority in artillery, food supplies, and the ability to rotate troops out for rest.
The naval battles also were fought between more or less equal forces, the U.S. Navy still having much to learn about night fighting. The Japanese got the upper hand in most of those battles, but they could ill afford their losses in the long run.
The waters around and north of Guadalcanal were tight, so the huge Yamato and Musashi with their larger turning circles and generally less maneuverability would have had their difficulties there. It was probably smart to keep them (at least them) out of the fray.
Interesting question, with no clear answer (in my opinion).
Some of the OBBs* were not far from the Canal, but not deployed for fuel reasons. If the Japanese had shown a preponderance in big guns they could have been brought forward to help counter that threat.
*Old Battleships, the "20 knot" ships that served as floating artillery during most of the war.
Some of the OBBs* were not far from the Canal, but not deployed for fuel reasons. If the Japanese had shown a preponderance in big guns they could have been brought forward to help counter that threat.
*Old Battleships, the "20 knot" ships that served as floating artillery during most of the war.
Interesting. I was under the impression that the old battleships (those that weren't at Pearl Harbor on December 7th) were kept on the West Coast until about 1944 or so, when they were brought westward to bombard Japanese-held islands, once the U.S. had gained air supremacy. I thought that only the fast battleships (North Carolina, South Dakota, etc.) were kept anywhere in the South Pacific before then.
Would Japan have won Guadalcanal if they had used all their battleships?
If the IJN committed all of their battleships to Guadalcanal, they simply would have lost them earlier in the conflict. Not that they played a decisive role in the Pacific conflict, anyway. And they wouldn't have won the battle for Guadalcanal in any case. They simply lacked the logistical resources to prevail. In every island campaign throughout the war, the US had the goods to overwhelm the Japanese defenders, who were routinely cut off from their supply chain because Japan didn't have the merchant fleet to support operations. At G-canal much, if not most, of their supplies were delivered by destroyers.
I'm thinking they were at Espiritu Santo or somewhere like that. Wasn't a primary interest for me so I didn't make notes on it.
Pretty much it. Right after Pearl, a number of the older BBs were sent back to the West Coast for refitting, and spent much of early 42 bouncing back and forth up and down the coast on shakedown cruises and defending the West Coast against possible Japanese attacks. By summer of 42, most of them were being redeployed to Hawaii to prepare for further assignments. By August and September, most of the older BBs were deployed to the area around Espiritu and tasked with holding the line around the Fiji and New Hebrides Islands to keep the Japanese from making any moves toward Australia.
Mississippi, Colorado and Maryland were briefly involved with the invasion of the Gilberts in late October and early November, and unavailable for Guadalcanal.
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Would Japan have won Guadalcanal if they had used all their battleships?
