Bombardment of Henderson Field

13–14 October 1942, Off Lunga Point, Guadalcanal

Japanese success

Two nights after Cape Esperance the fast battleships Kongō and Haruna, under Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita, steamed up and down off Lunga Point for an hour and a half and fired 973 fourteen-inch shells into Henderson Field, many of them new incendiary shells meant for aircraft. The Marines called it simply "the Bombardment". It killed 41 men, wrecked about 48 of the 90 aircraft on the field and burned most of the aviation fuel. Four PT boats from Tulagi attacked but hit nothing. The field was flying again within days, and a Japanese convoy that landed troops the next night lost three transports to the planes that were left.

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