The Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands took place on October 26, 1942, during the Pacific Theater of Operation of World War II. It was the result of a Japanese attempt to reinforce their beleaguered troops at Guadalcanal, which had been taken a couple of months before by the US Marines on August 7. Both Guadalcanal and the Santa Cruz Islands are part of the Solomon Group and they are located to the southeast of Papua New Guinea.
The Imperial Japanese Navy had sent their Combined Fleet to the area, which was composed of three carriers, the Shokaku, Zuikaku, and Zuiho, plus a vanguard group of two fast battleships, Hiei and Kirishima, and three cruisers; the vanguard group's vessels had sailed ahead, preceding the carrier battle group. They had been assigned with the task to hunt down and attack the US Navy's carrier force, which basically consisted of USS Enterprise and USS Hornet, reinforced by battleship USS South Dakota and six escort cruisers.
Summary
The Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands began at 10:06 AM, on October 26, when 36 Japanese carrier-based torpedo and dive-bombers attacked the USS Hornet (CV-8). The US carrier got hit twice by torpedoes on her starboard side as 3 bombs struck her deck and hull. As a result, the Hornet would sink several hours later. On the second wave of Japanese attack, enemy torpedo and dive-bombers also attacked the USS Enterprise and South Dakota.
Although both Enterprise and South Dakota got hit, they were able to remain operative and keep fighting. The AA 40-mm Bofors guns on the deck of these vessels opened fire and were able to shoot down several enemy aircraft, both surviving this vicious Japanese air raid. Meanwhile, the American dive bombers that had taken off from the Hornet before it got hit, attacked the Shokaku and the cruiser Chikuma, severely damaging them as they were put out action for repair.
The result of this naval engagement was a Japanese pyrrhic victory. However, the US Navy had thwarted a major Japanese reinforcement on Guadalcanal.
Below, the deck of the USS Hornet before the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands.
The action taking place on October 26, 1942. you can see US AA gun fire everywhere as the American vessels were under attack.
USS Enterprise fighting against Japanese dive-bombers