Battle of Vella Gulf

The Battle of Vella Gulf was a naval battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II fought on the night of 6–7 August 1943 in Vella Gulf between Vella Lavella and Kolombangara in the Solomon Islands of the southwest Pacific. This engagement was the first time that American destroyers were allowed to operate independently of the American cruiser force during the Pacific campaign. In the battle, six American destroyers engaged four Japanese destroyers attempting to reinforce Japanese troops on Kolombangara. The American warships closed the Japanese force undetected with the aid of radar and fired torpedoes, sinking three Japanese destroyers with no damage to American ships. After their victory in the Battle of Kolombangara on 13 July 1943, the Japanese had established a powerful garrison of 12,400 around Vila on the southern tip of Kolombangara in an attempt to block further island hopping by the American forces, which had taken Guadalcanal the previous year as part of Operation Cartwheel. Vila was the principal port on Kolombangara, and it was supplied at night using fast destroyer transport runs the Americans called the "Tokyo Express". Three supply runs—on 19 July, 29 July, and 1 August—were successfully completed. During the final run on 1 August, a force of 15 U.S. PT boats launched an unsuccessful attack, firing between 26 and 30 torpedoes. Four Japanese destroyers responded, and in the ensuing battle PT-109, captained by Lieutenant John F. Kennedy, later President of the United States, was sunk. By 5 August, the Americans were driving towards the Japanese held airfield at Munda on New Georgia just south of Kolombangara, and the Japanese decided to send a fourth transport run to Vila with reinforcements. On the night of 6 August, the Imperial Japanese Navy sent a force of four destroyers under Captain Kaju Sugiura—2 : , and 2 : of Sugiara's own Destroyer Division 4 and of Captain Tameichi Hara's Destroyer Division 27—carrying about 950 soldiers and their supplies.