Another Month, Same Old Stuff

February

• MON 1 FEB 1943
  Pacific
  High speed transport Stringham (APD-6) and five tank landing craft (LCT) land Army 2d Battalion, 132d Infantry, at Verahue, Guadalcanal, covered by four destroyers. After unloading, three LCTs, escorted by destroyers Nicholas (DD-449) and DeHaven (DD-469), come under attack from Japanese planes about three miles south of Savo Island. DeHaven is sunk by three bombs, 09°09'S, 159°52'E, while Nicholas is damaged by near-misses. Tank landing craft LCT-63 and LCT-181, aided by SOCs (VCS Detachment RINGBOLT), rescue 146 DeHaven sailors, including 38 wounded.
  
  To deny the Japanese "Tokyo Express" access to the channel between Savo Island and Cape Esperance, light minelayers Tracy (DM-19), Montgomery (DM-17) and Preble (DM-20) sow 255 mines in those waters. The three ships clear the mining area as Japanese men-of-war are only 12,000 yards away and closing (see 2 February).
  
  Two waves of aircraft from Henderson Field (TBFs, SBDs, F4Fs, and USAAF P-38s, P-39s, and P-40s) attack Japanese destroyer force (Rear Admiral Hashimoto Shintaro), en route to evacuate Japanese troops from Guadalcanal (Operation KE), damaging Makinami (Hashimoto's flagship). U.S. motor torpedo boats later attack the Japanese force, but in that action PT-111 and PT-37 are sunk by gunfire from destroyer Kawakaze; a Japanese floatplane sinks PT-123. Hashimoto's force extracts 4,935 soldiers.
  
  Submarine Tarpon (SS-175) sinks Japanese merchant passenger-cargo ship Fushimi Maru about 20 miles south of Omai Zaki, 34°08'N, 138°11'E.
  
  Japanese torpedo boat Kari is damaged by aircraft, Rangoon, Burma.