Hello and welcome to episode 123 of the unauthorized history of the Pacific War podcast.

My name is Seth Peridon, historian and deputy director of the Mississippi Armed Forces Museum here at Camp Shelby.

And with me, as always, and happy to have him back, is retired Navy captain Bill Toadie, former skipper of the Fast Attack Submarine, Indianapolis, Commodore Submarine Squad Squadron 3 in Pearl Harbor. How many other postings? How are you this new year, Bill? I'm all recovered, Seth, so I'm glad to be back. Excellent. Glad to have you back, too. And this week, we are always happy to welcome back our good friend historian John, partial John. How are you this new year? I, too, am just delightful.

Outstanding. historian john partial john how are you this new year i too am just delightful outstanding yes not delighted but delightful i like for that

hey whatever whatever it is whatever it is all all right well this is the moment that I personally, and I know John, too,

have been waiting for right here. I'm going to be perfectly honest with everyone. This is

the very fight that I've waited to talk about since Bill and I first discussed doing this

podcast. I've waited for this very moment right here. To put it into perspective, I'll remind you that the last episode, in which Bill, unfortunately, was absent for in that John and I helm the Bar Room Brawl, we talked about the first naval battle of Guadalcanal.

In that Friday the 13th melee, a heavily outgunned and outnumbered U.S. Task Force, Task Force 67, to be exact, quite literally, drove itself into the middle of a Japanese battleship cruiser and destroyer formation and slugged it out with them at frighteningly close range and took a beating, but delivered a beating in return. The outguned U.S. force drove the Japanese off, denied them their mission of bombarding Henderson Field,

and in return allowed the aircraft from Henderson to deliver the coup de grace, the finger in the eye, if you will, so to speak, as the TVFs, SPDs, and even B-17s dropped ordinance all over the

battleship, Hea, and harassed Japanese all the way back through the slot. The Japanese, nothing if not determined, decided that they would continue in their mission

to bombard Henderson and reinforced the beleaguered troops ashore again, this time with a smaller

force, albeit still powerful, centered around the battleship Karishima. To answer the threat, he knew

was coming. Admiral Halsey sent the only two remaining

heavy surface units at his disposal who were at the time, screening the battered but invaluable

aircraft carrier enterprise. 1915 hours on November 13th, signalment aboard the battleship USS Washington,

received the following message from Admiral Halsey, quote,

to Commander Task Force 64, proceed north with both battleships and your four destroyers at best speed, unquote. Task Force commander and Admiral known as Ching turned to his signalman and said

Signal Enterprise and proceeding north. With that, the throttles aboard the two American

battleships opened up wide, increasing speed to 28 knots. The Leviathans and their tiny destroyer escorts plowed through the wide open spaces off Numea, bound for the close confines of Savo Sound, with arrivals set for the following night. The stage was set for a collision of monsters, the likes of which had not been seen in the Pacific Ocean since Admiral Dewey and Manila. And even then, nothing like this. On the night of November 14th, 15th, the seas around Guadalcanal would erupt in furious gunfire yet again and would become known as the night the Giants rode across Iron Bottom Sound.

Oh, yeah.

Right.

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