This isn't a good or accurate description of the naval campaign of the Guadalcanal campaign. The First Battle of Savo Island was considered possibly the worse defeat the US Navy ever suffered in a gun battle. It was a night battle, like the other naval battles of the Guadalcanal campaign. A force of American and Australian cruisers and destroyers got their asses kicked. The place is now called Iron Bottom Sound for all the American iron that's on the bottom of it.
Because it's not a description of the naval campaign off Guadalcanal. He's describing the battle of Surigao Strait during the Leyte campaign. The Pearl Harbor BBs confirm it, but even his first description fits Surigao to a T (Japanese capital ships getting mauled by PTs, before encountering American battleships ; a second Japanese group behind them retreating and going home).
The First and Second Naval Battles of Guadalcanal came in November of 1942. This is where the first battleships became involved, with the arrival of 2 Japanese battleships. While one of those battleships was sunk, it was still a Japanese tactical victory. You ever heard of the 5 Sullivan Brothers? This is where they died. This is where the US Navy learned to not put 5 brothers on the same ship.
Ooooof. Describing First Naval Guadalcanal as a Japanese win is a large stretch. Strategically it was a clear-cut USN win (the IJN withdrew without bombarding Henderson, and delayed the landings, which was the result the USN sought to achieve). Tactically, too, the conclusion is unsound: both sides withdrew with heavy damage, and at the end of the day, the USN may have suffered a 2:1 ratio in ship losses (6-3, 4 destroyers and 2 light cruisers to 2 destroyers and 1 light cruiser), but the IJN suffered something close to a 2:1 ratio in ship tonnage (Japan lost two destroyers at 2000 and 1600 tons respectively, plus the Hiei at 36 600 ; America lost one 1500 ton destroyer and three 1600 ton ones, as well as two 7 400 tons light cruisers), and their losses had a much bigger impact in the second round two nights later (two light cruisers and four destroyers wouldn't have made much difference on the US side. Hiei on the Japanese side would have made a world of difference...)
And one of those American ships left the battle almost as mauled as the Japanese ship.
Teething trouble, not poor American warfighting. The ship was brand new: it had been declared ready for service a month earlier. Early in the battle, a crew mistake with breakers led to massive short circuits, which left her radar, radio and most of her guns dead. Rather easy to get mauled in those conditions. She should have disengaged at that point, but chose to stay in the battle, which allowed the Japanese to maul her - but served as a very effective decoy for Washington to get up close to Kirishima undetected.
There were multiple other smaller battles as well. The US Navy did not cover itself in glory. The US won the campaign because the location of it was beyond what Japanese logistics could support, and so American forces could keep entering the battle, where Japanese forces could not. But that was despite a poor showing at sea by American forces. Not to mention the destruction of the cream of the Australian navy.
To what Dachs said, I'd add that Japan was fighting roughly 500 nautical miles from their major base at Rabaul, and 1000 nautical miles from their fleet headquarters at Truk - much closer than America was to major allies base .
That isn't the link I read a few days ago but the 39 PT boats in 13 groups of 3 was in the story I read. And the Shigure is the ship that escaped, albeit it doesn't mention the fate of the commander who lost his job for retreating.
Oh god.
Shigure. The Banshee of the Japanese navy - on
three separate occasions it was the sole survivor of a full Japanese naval squadron it sailed with.