This was a decision that was somewhat impulsive, given that he had only Wasp and Enterprise at hand. He had no real idea where the enemy was, or in what force, and yet, he was the cop on the beat that hour, and moved to support his comrades as best he could. His only other option would have been to contact Halsey and request support, but the Fighting Admiral was so far away, it could take 18 to 24 hours before he could be on the scene. So this option was tantamount to doing nothing in the mind of Spruance, and he rolled the dice, increasing speed and making ready for battle.
Yet Hara had no intention of lingering where the enemy might expect him. That night, he turned south, and then slightly west, putting on speed and maneuvering to a position where he might be able to hit those American landings at Efate a day or so later. He decided to try and deceive the Americans with a feint attack from the north by land based planes on the morning of the 20th. There was a Squadron of old Ki-30 single engine bombers at Luganville that had taken off to make a run at Efate, but they suffered the same fate as the Nells out of Noumea. The fighters off Shiloh and Antietam cut them to pieces, killing 13 of 18, though that defense left them with little ammo and less fuel, which was exactly what Hara intended when he threw a long shot at the area, again with his Kates armed with bombs.
Captain Hansen got the word from radar that another formation of enemy planes had been spotted to the northwest. “Nothing out there but open ocean,” he said. “Those won’t be from Luganville. Better tell the air crews to turn over those fighters ASAP. Our CAP is thinned down to just three planes.”
Those crews would be too late, and the price would be two bombs on Antietam. The ship wasn’t seriously damaged, but it was hit badly enough to end flight operations while the crews were fighting a fire. So Hara had been fighting like Muhammad Ali, at long range, and he had been able to deliver two stinging jabs to the lighter American carriers, forcing Vicksburg and Gettysburg to withdraw east. Now he delivered this setback to Hansen’s smaller group. Spruance was beside himself, and he turned his two fleet carriers due west to close the range, but Hara knew exactly where he was.
The cagey King Kong had maneuvered into the Coral sea, well west of the New Hebrides, and he believed he still had the range to strike his enemy as Spruance rushed west to look for him. This time the strike would be much bigger, nearly 100 planes, with half of them fighters, the remainder being longer range Kates, 26 planes off Junyo and Hiyo, and then another 18 Jills, the new torpedo bomber he had on the Taiho. They were the only strike planes that could go that far, along with the long legged Zero escorts. A scout plane out of Luganville fed that strike the location of Spruance and his carriers, and in they came, hitting at a time when Spruance did not believe his enemy was even close enough to reach him.
The American had 12 fighters up, all F4F Wildcats, and the decks were scrambling another dozen planes on each carrier. The resulting fighter duel saw them get seven enemy Zeroes, and a good number of those torpedo bombers. The B6N Jills were out in front, and they got the worst of it, with six of the 18 shot down, and another seven damaged. Yet of the five planes that got through to make their attack run three would put their torpedoes right into the guts of the Wasp.
Then the larger body of Kates arrived, with 11 of the 26 planes getting down to make clear attack runs at the American ships. Those B6Ns had the range to haul their torpedoes, over 1600 nautical miles endurance as compared to only 1075 miles for the B5N Kates. So the Kates were again carrying bombs, but they would be very good that day. Three would rock the Wasp, adding smoke and deck fires to the flooding caused by those torpedo hits. Only one bomb would strike Enterprise, and that did not cause serious damage.
Yet when it was over, Spruance knew his game was over as well. He had gambled that he could intervene and challenge his enemy, but the presence of those land based search assets on Luganville had given Hara the read edge. He informed Halsey that he had been bushwhacked, with Wasp badly damaged, most of her remaining planes diverted to Ndeni or his own ship.
“Get out of there!” said Halsey, hopping mad. “Some sly son-of-a-bitch is out there fighting from arm’s length. The only way we can get after him is to close the range and get inside. I’m coming about to get back in this thing. You get Enterprise down near Efate at once. They want to hit the transports there, so that’s where I’m taking my group. Join me by 09:00 tomorrow.”
Halsey wanted to put one more face card in his hand by adding the Enterprise to his task force, then he believed he would have the cards to go raging after the Japanese, just as he had stopped their 1st Carrier Division earlier. The stricken Wasp was given a destroyer escort and ordered to Suva, limping along at just 8 knots, a thick column of smoke clearly marking her position. If Hara had come east, he could have finished the ship off easily, but instead he went further south, behind New Caledonia, eventually spotted by planes off Shiloh and Antietam. They were still bravely standing watch over that fleet of eight APDs offloading the 8th Marine Regiment at Efate.
Hansen would have been better off to simply withdraw, because the punch that Hara would now threw at Efate was simply too much for those light escort carriers to defend against. It was led by 31 Zeroes, more planes than Hansen had between his two carriers, for Antietam was already wounded, finally getting temporary flight deck plates down to enable operations again. Halsey was hastening west, but he would not get there in time to prevent what happened next.
Behind those Zeroes came a massive formation of 55 Vals, finally getting into the action with the range to reach the scene. Yet there was a reason Hara had been able to jab so successfully from extreme long range. Yamamoto had given him virtually every torpedo bomber then available in the South Pacific, all the planes off Akagi, and those of Kaga and Soryu as well. They were crowded on the decks of Tosa and Taiho, their engines sputtering to life and soon taking off to follow the dive bombers in. 88 B5Ns and another 24 B6Ns would come as the main second wave of the attack, and all the planes except the Jills were carrying bombs, intending to pound the American ground troops as well as the transport fleet.
That sent over 160 strike planes in, and 26 of them would put their ordnance on a ship. They were all stationery targets, though the two scout carriers already had up steam and were racing out of Mele Bay, they would not escape. Shiloh would take four hits, Antietam another five, and neither ship would survive those heavy 1000 pound blows.
In the middle of the battle, Captain Hansen sent out a frantic plea, right in the clear: “Where is Halsey, we need support! Where is Halsey?” He was still over 300 miles to the east, steaming at full speed. Four more bombs would hit the cruiser Saint Louis before it ended, starting raging fires. A torpedo would also strike cruiser Cleveland, and another four fish would sink the AP Wharton. Eight more bombs would smash the Harris and Zelin. This time, however, Hara was just a day late, for all the ground troops had gone over the netting and made it safely ashore that night, though many supplies were lost on those three APDs.