Pacific Counterblow - Air Force Historical Studies Office

and perhaps 2 more. First Marine Air Wing at Guadalcanal heard
"Typhoon McGoon's" report and the dive and torpedo planes were
readied.
The convoy, carrying a force which General Vandegrift put at
30,000 to 35,000 troops, had been sighted and hit during the morning
by SBD's from the Enterprise. At ioi8, i6 B-17's were ordered to
attack from Espiritu. While the Forts were making their way northward,
Marine and Navy planes from Henderson carried out two
damaging strikes on the Japanese armada. The B-17's arrived in
two flights, the first securing one hit on a transport from I7,ooo; the
second straddling a seaplane tender from 2o,ooo. Of i5 land-based
Zeros intercepting, at least five were shot down. The bombers suffered
only minor damage. Throughout the day the destruction of the
transports, now separated from their escort, continued. The 67th,
able to put only four planes in the air, helped provide high cover for
the TBF's and SBD's. By nightfall, eight of the 12 vessels were
either sunk or gutted.
In the early morning hours of Sunday, 15 November, the U. S.
Navy task force, commanded by Rear Adm. Willis A. Lee, sailed
past Savo with the South Dakota and the Washington and slugged
the Japanese hard. The enemy had come down with a force including
two battleships and a half-dozen cruisers; he left for safer waters
minus the Kirishima, the Hiyei's sister ship. Two cruisers, one heavy
and one light, may also have been sunk.
With daylight of the i 5th, one of the 67th's P- 39's was out looking
for breakfast fires, new tracks through the jungle, any sign of enemy
activity. It was no routine patrol. Along the shore at Tassafaronga,
about 18 miles west of Lunga Point, the pilot saw a beached vessel;
two more were in process of beaching and another was heading for
shore. Here were the survivors of the i2-ship convoy which had been
worked over the afternoon before. To make sure, the pilot flew over
at 8oo feet with the AAA literally bursting under his nose, then back
to Henderson with his discovery.
Mop-Up
Abetted by the Navy and Marine flyers, the 67th Fighter and 7oth
Bombardment Squadrons played havoc with the beached vessels. By
o7oo the 67th had in commission five planes'which went out with the
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