The Battle of Savo Island

The Solomon Island campaign is a unique chapter in naval history. Those seventeen months of 1942-43 were marked by unremitting warfare, sudden and vicious battles—most of them at night, most at very close range, all of them deadly.

This is the story of the opening exchange of that campaign, now known as the Battle of Savo Island. It was the first surface engagement for a coordinated American force in nearly half a century, and a very bad start. Courage and will were never lacking, but Admiral Mikawa and the Imperial Japanese Navy, with the help of their dreaded Long Lance torpedoes, perfected a new tactic based on an ancient Japanese war strategy that they introduced here to devastating effect.

Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan once said that history shows military men are reluctant to change tactics, but "the one who does will go into battle with a great advantage—a lesson in itself of no mean value." As Newcomb's gripping history makes clear, Savo taught us that lesson; it was learned the hard way, but learned forever.