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https://www.navalhistory.org/2019/01/29/battle-of-rennell-island?fbclid=IwAR338hRwdnjm2R9z8nQR2PaozDTxRgCskvF_b3aMf8089WKoMq9WB8zg6ic29
Battle of Rennell Island
Tuesday, January 29, 2019 12:01 AM
By Emily Hegranes
For years, I thought I knew about World War II. Going to public school, almost every year from sixth grade to senior year had at least a few weeks discussing WWII. I did not realize the blank spot in my education until we came to the combat photos in our archive, and suddenly I am confronted with photo after photo of the Pacific. It suddenly struck me that in all that time learning about WWII, not one of my teachers had taken the time to discuss the Pacific Front in detail. Talking with others, I soon began to realize it wasn’t just me, but that most people my age somehow missed out on learning that side of history. So, in an effort to curb a general lack of knowledge about the Pacific Front, I will tell you about the Battle of Rennell Island, which began today, the 29th of January, in 1943.
By March of 1942, Japanese forces had taken control of many of the small island chains in the Pacific, including the Solomon Islands. From April 1942 onward, however, U.S. and other Allied forces had slowly progressed through the Pacific, attempting to deny the Japanese use of the islands as bases to interrupt supply routes. By August of 1942, U.S. forces had reached the southern Solomon Islands, and the six-month long Guadalcanal Campaign began. In early November 1942, the Japanese attempted their last offensive battle against Allied forces but were soundly defeated. From then onward, they were only able to send supplies by night to their forces still holed up on the islands, in operations the Allies called “Tokyo Express.”
Eventually, though, the Japanese realized the futility of this mission; by December, the Japanese were losing about fifty men each day to malnutrition, disease, and Allied attacks. The Imperial Japanese Navy, with approval from their Emperor, determined that the only viable course of action left to them was a full evacuation of the few troops left on the islands.
The Japanese codenamed the evacuation Operation Ke and determined the best way to get their troops out safely was to distract U.S. Navy forces with air strikes beginning 28 January 1943, and keep the Navy occupied while the Japanese troops were evacuated from Guadalcanal.
Unfortunately for U.S. forces, they misread the air offensive by the Japanese as a sign that they were gearing up to retake Guadalcanal. The admiral in charge of this theatre of the war, Admiral William Halsey, Jr., was also feeling pressure to give relief to the 2nd Marine Regiment, which had been in combat on Guadalcanal since August 1942. He hoped to kill two birds with one stone by using the impending Japanese offensive to draw their navy into battle while at the same time sending Army troops to relieve the Marines. On 29 January 1943, Halsey sent five task forces toward the southern Solomon Islands to engage with any Japanese that came into range, as well as cover the relief convoy steaming towards Guadalcanal.
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