Henderson Field - Guadalcanal - November 29, 1942
About 2 weeks have passed ever since the Battle of Guadalcanal, the Japanese have now a problem in transporting more supplies to the Imperial Japanese Army, having to be pushed by the Americans from Henderson Field, they now begin to lack supplies for defense and pushing the Americans back.
With the combined forces of CAF Aircraft, US Navy PT boats, and available naval ships around Tulagi and Guadacanal as well as the help of a bright full moon at night, the Japanese cannot transport the necessary supplies needed, using destroyers is a risk, so they decided to use submarines if means possible to deliver the supplies needed for the army.
Beginning on November 16, 1942, and continuing for the next three weeks, 16 submarines made nocturnal deliveries of foodstuffs to the island, with one submarine making the trip each night. Each submarine could deliver 20 to 30 tons of supplies, about one day's worth of food, for the 17th Army, but the difficult task of transporting the supplies by hand through the jungle to the frontline units limited their value to sustain the Japanese troops on Guadalcanal.
At the same time, the Japanese tried to establish a chain of three bases in the central Solomons to allow small boats to use them as staging sites for making supply deliveries to Guadalcanal, but damaging Allied airstrikes on the bases forced the abandonment of this plan.
On November 26, the 17th Army notified Imamura that it faced a critical food crisis. Some front-line units had not been resupplied for six days and even the rear-area troops were on one-third rations. The situation forced the Japanese to return to using destroyers to deliver the necessary supplies.
All supplies were put in drums as their solution in delivering supplies to avoid naval contact with US ships and aircraft. They planned to do this on the night of November 30, along with their eight destroyers.
Tanaka's unit was centered on the eight ships of Destroyer Squadron (Desron) 2, with six destroyers assigned to carry from 200 to 240 drums of supplies to Tassafaronga in Guadacanal. Tanaka's flagship IJN Nanagami and IJN Takanami are fully armed and their role will be escorting the 6 destroyers, filled wih the supply drums. The six destroyers are, Shinonome, Oyashio, Kagero, Suzukaze, Kawakaze, and Makinami.
On the American side, Vice Admiral William Halsey commander of Allied forces in the South Pacific, had reorganized US naval forces under his command, including, on November 24, the formation of Task Force 67 (TF67) at Espiritu Santo.
With changing commanders on the task force consisting 6 destroyers and 5 cruisers, Vice Admiral Halsey along with Rear Admiral Carleton H. Wright briefed his ship commanders on his plan for engaging the Japanese in future; he expected night battles around Guadalcanal.
They told about the situation for the two large cruisers and the two aircraft carriers docked on Henderson Field. Vice Admiral Halsey received a report from Ad. Alaskio that they're continuing their naval bombardments as well as launching their squadrons to drop on Japanese occupied territory to slow the Japanese down.
The marines are now pushing further to enemy territory. This made a sigh in relief, but they now have to consider about the Japanese now delivering supplies to the Japanese Army.
Ad. Guamo: Any reports from Pearl?
Lieutenant #21: We have further reports of new ships coming, however they're not yet commissioned unlike the aircraft carrier we have.
Lieutenant #43: Except the reports of US Task Force 67 or TF 67, Halsey had gotten an early fleet just in case of any Japanese supply ships on sight.
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