The Battle of Savo Island

The Unauthorized History of the Pacific War

Captain William Toti, USN

Halsey, Station Hypo, World War Ii, Macarthur, Seth Paridon, Pacific War, History, Stavridis, Cactus Air Force, Fargo, William Toti, Aircraft Carriers, Nimitz, Mush Morton, Wahoo, Imperial Japan, Cruisers, Wake Island, Battleships, Spruance, Courses, Submarines, Midway, Cincpac, Guadalcanal, Documentary, Naval History And Heritage Command, Society & Culture, Admiral King, Imperial Japanese Navy, New Guinea, Cincpoa, Cryptology, Navy, Sam Cox, Pearl Harbor, Education, Bill Toti, December 7, Us Navy, Bombers, Fighters

4.8 • 654 Ratings

🗓️ 29 November 2022

⏱️ 85 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, Seth and Bill discuss the details of the worst defeat in the storied history of the United States Navy-The Battle of Savo Island. The team breaks down the minute details and the loss of 4 Allied heavy cruisers in the first surface engagement of the Guadalcanal campaign.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to episode 114 of the unauthorized history of the Pacific War podcast.
0:22.6	My name is Seth Parenthood and Deputy Director of the Mississippi Armed Forces Museum here at Camp Shelby.
0:27.6	And with me, as always, is my esteemed co-host retired Navy Captain Bill Tody.
0:31.6	Former Skipper of the Fast Attack Submarine U.S.S. Indianapolis, Commodore of Submarine Squadron 3 in Pearl Harbor and many other
0:38.1	postings. Bill, how are you this fine October morning? I'm still doing great. Yeah, it is October,
0:44.7	isn't it? Almost through October. Yeah. Time is, she is clipping along, as they say. Weather is
0:52.2	beautiful day, by the way.
0:56.9	Florida, it's almost always great.
1:01.5	We missed the hurricane kind of just sat on us, but no damage.
1:02.4	We're happy about that.
1:03.6	That's always a good thing.
1:04.1	Yeah.
1:06.5	Well, let's dive into it.
1:11.6	Today, we're going to tackle one of the more controversial episodes of the Guadalcanal campaign. And we're going to tackle, without a doubt, is the worst, this is what's considered the worst defeat in United States Navy history.
1:18.6	That, of course, is the Battle of Savo Island, August 8th, 9th, 1942.
1:24.6	Now, the battle itself unfolded and was executed in a relatively short amount of time,
1:29.0	less than two hours total really from start to finish. But in those terrible hours, the entire
1:35.8	pre-war U.S. Navy surface battle force doctrine was utterly destroyed by nighttime Japanese naval
1:43.3	gunfire and incredibly destructive Japanese long lance torpedoes.
1:48.6	Pre-war tactics, the aforementioned doctrine and arrogance on the part of the U.S. Navy was since sinking to the bottom of the waters that, what would soon be called, iron bottom, sound, along with the lives of over 1,000 American sailors
2:03.2	and their allies.
2:06.0	Now, you know, Bill, when you talk about Guadalcanal and the sea battles, this is the first
	...

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