Savo Island, battle of

Savo Island, battle of, encounter during the Pacific war between an Allied naval force screening US marine landings at the start of the Guadalcanal campaign, and seven Japanese cruisers commanded by Vice-Admiral Mikawa Gunichi. Immediately the Japanese were alerted to the landings, which started on 7 August 1942, Mikawa was dispatched from Rabaul, and before dawn on 9 August he surprised the Allied screen off Savo. Without loss to his force, Mikawa sank one Australian and three US cruisers, and badly damaged another US cruiser; the waters in which these ships went down were thereafter known as Iron Bottom Sound. But fearing the air attacks that daylight might bring, Mikawa withdrew without attacking the US landing and supply transports lying helpless in Lunga Bay. In the action 1,270 Allied seamen lost their lives and 709 were wounded.