Qualla: Battle off Horaniu

Battle off Horaniu: Introduction

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. It was close to a full moon but you could not tell. Clouds smothered the sky over the New Georgia Sound, and intermittent squalls dropped visibility to about three miles. Through this murk, a few minutes before midnight on 17 August 1943, four American destroyers raced up The Slot at flank speed. Somewhere ahead of them, behind the same weather, an Imperial Japanese Navy convoy was trying to thread barges, subchasers, and escort destroyers along the northern coast of Vella Lavella to land troops at a cove called Horaniu. The Americans had radar. The Japanese had Type 93 torpedoes. For the next two hours, both sides fired into the dark and largely missed each other - and the small boats that were the real target mostly got away.

Read more: Battle off Horaniu on Qualla

Image: Public domain

Battle off Horaniu: Why Horaniu Mattered

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. The battle that took its name from an obscure cove started because the Japanese needed a back door. Two days earlier, on 15 August, American troops had landed on southeastern Vella Lavella, neatly stepping around the main Japanese troop concentration on Kolombangara. That garriso...

Read more: Battle off Horaniu on Qualla

Image: Public domain

Battle off Horaniu: Four Destroyers Up The Slot

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Allied aircraft spotted the Japanese force on the afternoon of 17 August. Rear Admiral Theodore Wilkinson, commanding the Third Amphibious Force from Guadalcanal, did what American commanders in the Solomons had learned to do: he sent destroyers. A division of four - USS Nicholas...

Read more: Battle off Horaniu on Qualla

Image: Public domain

Battle off Horaniu: Radar Against Long Lance

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. At 00:29 on 18 August, American radar found the Japanese destroyers at 23,000 yards. Three minutes later Japanese lookouts found the Americans by eye at 16,400 yards. That differential - the ability to see without being seen, by electronics - had transformed Solomons naval warfar...

Read more: Battle off Horaniu on Qualla

Image: Public domain

Battle off Horaniu: What the Americans Hit and What They Missed

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. With the escort gone, the Americans turned on the convoy and sank what they could find - two subchasers, two motor torpedo boats, and one powered barge. Five small ships went down with an unknown number of personnel killed or injured - men whose names rarely made it into the reco...

Read more: Battle off Horaniu on Qualla

Image: Public domain

Battle off Horaniu: Aftermath

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Hamakaze and Isokaze - the two Japanese destroyers lightly damaged in the action - took part in further operations just three days later. The American destroyers went back to Purvis Bay and were sent out again in other directions, other nights, other convoys. The battle was calle...

Read more: Battle off Horaniu on Qualla

Image: Public domain