On 13 November 1942, in a night battle off Guadalcanal, an American cruiser force under Rear Admirals Daniel Callaghan and Norman Scott turned back a Japanese force led by the battleship Hiei that had come to shell Henderson Field. Both admirals were killed. On this date in 1642, London's army faced down Charles I at Turnham Green.
Naval Battle of Guadalcanal: the night of 13 November 1942
Three months after the US Marines landed on Guadalcanal, Japan was still fighting to retake the island and its airfield, Henderson Field. In November it sent a large convoy of reinforcements, preceded by warships meant to bombard the American positions. In the first hours of 13 November a force of five cruisers and eight destroyers under Rear Admiral Daniel J. Callaghan, with Rear Admiral Norman Scott aboard the light cruiser Atlanta, sailed to meet a larger Japanese force that included the battleships Hiei and Kirishima.1
The light cruiser Helena picked up the enemy on radar at 1:24 a.m., but the two forces ran into each other at very close range, and when the Japanese switched on their searchlights at 1:48 the fight became a melee. Callaghan was killed on the bridge of his flagship, the heavy cruiser San Francisco, and Scott on Atlanta. The Americans lost Atlanta and the destroyers Barton, Cushing, Laffey and Monssen, but the Japanese ships withdrew without shelling the airfield. The crippled Hiei was attacked by American aircraft through the next day and then scuttled.2
The light cruiser Juneau, hit by a torpedo in the night, was limping away when a Japanese submarine torpedoed her again late that morning. She broke in two and sank in less than a minute. Only ten of her crew were rescued, days later. Among the dead were five brothers from Waterloo, Iowa, George, Francis, Joseph, Madison and Albert Sullivan.3
The battle went on for two more days. On 14 November American aircraft sank or wrecked most of the Japanese transports, and on the night of 14 to 15 November the battleships Washington and South Dakota under Rear Admiral Willis A. Lee fought a second night action in which Kirishima was sunk; the four transports that reached the island were destroyed on the beach. After this Japan made no further major attempt to retake Guadalcanal or to knock out Henderson Field from the sea. The Marine Corps history calls this series of naval and air battles the truly decisive battle for the island. The whole campaign is told in our article on the Battle of Guadalcanal.4
Battle of Héricourt, 1474: the first battle of the Burgundian Wars
13 November 1474 · 551 years ago
Swiss Confederates and their Alsatian and Swabian allies, besieging Héricourt, turned to meet an approaching Burgundian relief army in the Burgundian Wars. Helped by Habsburg cavalry they routed the Burgundians, and the town's garrison surrendered a few days later.
Read the full story of Battle of Héricourt, 1474: the first battle of the Burgundian Wars ›Battle of Turnham Green
13 November 1642 · 383 years ago
Turnham Green, 13 November 1642
Three centuries earlier the date belongs to the English Civil War. After the drawn battle of Edgehill on 23 October 1642 King Charles I advanced on London while Parliament opened peace talks with him, and on 12 November his army stormed Brentford, defended by the regiments of Denzil Holles and Lord Brooke, and sacked the town.5
By eight o'clock the next morning, 13 November, the Earl of Essex had about 24,000 men drawn up on Turnham Green near Chiswick: his field army together with the London trained bands under Philip Skippon and volunteers. The king had only about 12,000. Essex sent foot and horse, among them John Hampden's regiment, around the Royalist flank toward Acton, then called them back. The day passed in a standoff with exchanges of artillery fire, and late in the afternoon the Royalists withdrew. They never again came so close to taking London. Dates are in the Julian calendar, which England used until 1752. The campaign's opening battle is told in our article on Edgehill.6
