Evening star., 1942-09-12
By CLARK LEE.

Associated Press war Correspondent
AT SEA WITH THE UNITED
STATES FLEET OFF SOLOMON
ISLANDS, Aug. Is Delayed -
American airplanes partially
smashed and turned back large
seaborne Japanese force attempting
to recapture the Southeastern Solo
mon Islands in a two-day battle
yesterday and today.
Many Japanese ships were DAM
aged, including an aircraft carrier
two destroyers and one submarine
and nearly 100 enemy planes were
shot down.
The Japanese aircraft carrier
which was attacked by American
Navy dive bombers and torpedo
planes, was first identified as the
7,600-ton Ryujo, smallest and one
OF the Oldest of the enemy's regu-
lar carriers. This identification
however, was indefinite and all that
Is known for certain is that 1t was
small carrier with capacity OF
between 40 and so planes.
Two Other Carriers Damaxcd,
In addition, near misses were
scored on two Of the enemy's largest
carriers by Navy and Army bombers
and both probably were damaged
although the extent was unknown
(The Navy announced August
Is that the Japanese had coun-
ter attacked in the Solomons and
that a half dozen enemy ships
were damaged in the battle
which began August %. Carrier
based planes were reported to
have effectively bombed two Jap
anese carriers, one battles,,ip,
one transport, and several cruis-
ers. The transport and cruz
ser were reported left burning
fiercely.
(The following day the Navy
reported that six additional
ships of the foe had been dam
aged in the Solomons battle. The
ships reported successfully at
tackled were two destroyers and
four miscellaneous vessels. An
enemy destroyer was damaged by
American dive bombers on the
night of August 1924 when a
Jap destroyer force attempted to
shell Guadalcanal Island. The
other destroyer and the miscel-
laneous craft were reported left
burning. The Navy also report
ed that on this date an eremy
cruiser had been left burning
f1ercely and transport had been
hit.
CThe Navy reported then that
more than a dozen enemy ves-
sells had been damaged since the
new japanese thrust against the
Solomons began, and that in the
preliminary phases of the battle
81 enemy planes were shot down
with only minor losses to United
States craft.)
u. S. Losses Small.
Our total losses, which were in
hnlteslmal compared with the
enemy's, were one ship damaged
but not put out of action. and i've
Navy and three Marine Corps pilots
missing.
This two-day fight against JAP
anese aircraft carriers and between
Japanese and United States Marine
and Army pilots over the Solomons
was the third round in the battle of
the Solomons, the first having been
the marines occupation of Guadal-
canal and Tulagi Islands August 7
and 8 under the cover of aerial
bombing and warship shelling and
Che second was cruiser battle An
gust 8.
Between August 8 and Yesterday
tnere have been frequent engage
ments as the enemy felt out our DO
atlons IN preparation for a coun-
terattack. These engagements in
cluded the Japanese air attacks on
the Guadalcanal-Tulagi area and
activity by enemy submarines
against our transports, plus the oc-
casional shelling OF our marine shore
positions by japanese submarines
or destroyers on hit-and run raids.
During the lull since August 8 our
task force has been sighted several
times by enemy submarines and
patrol planes. A number of the lat
ter have been shown down in recent
days.
All this was preliminary to this
most recent battle, fought entirely
by airplanes over the Guadalcanal
area and seaward to the north and
east of the Solomons.
1t was the greatest air victory of
the war for us. In addition to 96