Battle of Cape St. George

25–26 November 1943, Between Buka and Cape St. George, New Ireland

American victory

The last surface action of the Solomons campaign. Five Japanese destroyers ran troops into Buka, north of Bougainville, and were taking airmen out. Captain Arleigh Burke's five destroyers, "31-knot Burke" as Admiral Halsey had nicknamed him, caught them at night on their way back to Rabaul. Burke's first division fired fifteen torpedoes from 6,000 yards, unseen; Ōnami blew up and Makinami was crippled. Burke then chased the transport group to the north, sinking Yūgiri with gunfire, while his second division finished off Makinami. No American ship was hit. The US Naval War College later taught it as an almost perfect surface action.

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