- 63 - Pacific War - Operation KE and evacuation from Guadalcanal, January 31 - February 7, 1943

Last time we spoke about General Patchs campaign to finally rid Guadalcanal of the Japanese menace. The Sea Horse, Galloping Horse and Gifu were neutralized and now the hybrid force of US Soldiers and Marines were marching west. The newly created CAM division seized Kokumbona in astonishing speed, greatly hindering the future Operation KE. At the same time, all of the Japanese activity related to preparing Operation KE was prompting responses from the Americans. One of those responses was sending Rear Admiral Richard Giffen  to Cape Chunter to rendezvous with Captain Robert Briscoe. Giffen was stubborn about making his rendezvous and this led him to make some very poor tactical decisions leading to the sinking of the USS Chicago during the battle of Rennell Island. Despite the sinking of the cruisers, the Japanese now had to push back Operation KE until February the 1st, would this setback ruin everything? This episode is Operation KE: the Evacuation of Guadalcanal Welcome to the Pacific War Podcast Week by Week, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about world war two? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on world war two and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel you can find a few videos all the way from the Opium Wars of the 1800’s until the end of the Pacific War in 1945.    Last week we spoke about the rather small battle of Rennell Island. Perhaps small in scale, but the consequences of the battle were far reaching. Operation KE had to be postponed until February 1st. Alongside this there was some shuffling about for who was to command the Reinforcement unit, and eventually it landed in the hands of Admiral Shintaro Hashimoto, with Rear Admiral Koyanagi in a reserve capacity. The 11th air fleet and the 6th air division were tasked with maintaining the CAP over the reinforcement unit during the day, while the R Area air force would cover them during the night. Now the skirmish at Rennell Islands gave the IJA and IJN a dose of anxiety, because the islands had a critical role in Operation KE. Basically if the destroyers failed to evacuate the 17th army on Guadalcanal, the backup was to be landing crafts via Russell Island. Many staff officers also sought to create a temporary garrison and base in the Russells to be a feint. Thus on January 28th, 6 destroyers bearing 328 men went to the Russells and were attacked by 33 aircraft from the cactus airforce, leading to 17 casualties, but no warship damage. The day for Operation KE to commence had finally come and it was to begin with a short battle over the air. 9 B-17’s with their fighter escort bombed Shortland at 8:45. They were unable to damage or delay Operation KE very much and lost 3 B-17’s for their efforts. Likewise the Cactus air force lost 2 dauntless attacking Munda while the 6th air division tossed 23 Oscars and 6 Lilies at Guadalcanal. On February 2nd, General Patch concluded that with the seizure of Kokumbona, this must mean the Japanese were all but finished on guadalcanal, unless more reinforcements came. He presumed they would prolong the struggle by making a fighting withdrawal to the southern coast, so to thwart this possibility he decided to land a battalion in a blocking position. Lt Colonel George commanding the 132nd infantry assembled a task force at Lunga using his 2nd battalion with various other units, one of which was a howitzer company of the 10th marines. The men loading up in some Landing Craft Tanks aboard the destroyer transport Stringham. Captain Briscoe’s Cactus striking force es