Eastern Solomons, Battle of the

World War II naval action between US and Japanese forces 23–24 August 1942 to the east of the Solomon Islands in the Pacific theatre. Although the battle itself was indecisive, the US object of preventing Japanese troops reaching Guadalcanal was achieved.

US search and attack The US Navy learned of a Japanese fleet escorting troop reinforcements to Guadalcanal and deployed Task Force 61 in the area. Both fleets had aircraft carriers and the Japanese had sent one of theirs ahead of the main body of the fleet to act as a decoy. A US reconnaissance plane spotted the main Japanese fleet but a strike force sent to intercept it failed to find it owing to rain-cloud cover. The following day another reconnaissance plane found the lone Japanese carrier and the strike force was sent out again, but was then partially diverted when another observation plane found part of the Japanese main fleet. The decoy carrier was sunk but only a few aircraft reached the main body of the fleet and did little damage.

Battle At the same time the Japanese had found the US fleet and the arrival of their strike force coincided with the return of some of the US strike force who combined with the 50 US fighters protecting the fleet, leading to considerable aerial confusion. In an inconclusive exchange, some US ships were damaged, but not seriously, and both fleets then withdrew. Meanwhile land-based US aircraft had found the transports that the Japanese were supposed to be escorting, sank one, severely damaged an escort cruiser, and drove the other two transports to shelter in the Shorland Islands where the troops had to be reloaded into destroyers for another attempt at reaching Guadalcanal.