Cape St George (CG 71) - Naval Cruise Book

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THE BATTLE OF CAPE ST GEORGE USS CAPE ST. GEORGE (CG 7 1 ) is the first ship to bear this name. She commemorates the World War II naval engagement, dubbed the perfect battle, fought in the South Pacific off the island of New Ireland, in the Solomon Island chain, on No- vember 25. 1943. Naval Intelligence suspected that the Japanese would attempt to resupply or evacuate their forces on Bougainville and Buka islands to their base at Rabaul. Anticipating their move. Admiral William Bull Halsey gave Captain ( later Admiral ) Arleigh Burke, Commander of Destroyer Squadron Twenty Three (DESRON 23). the following orders: Thirty One Knot Burke. get athwart the Buka-Rabaul evacuation line... if enemy con- tacted you know what to do. At 0141 . SPENCE reported radar contacts off the starboard bow of the formation at 22.000 yards and the Battle of Cape St. George began. As the unsuspecting five- ship enemy task group headed westward. CAPT Burke turned his formation to the East and prepared to launch torpedoes. When the targets were in range. AUSBURNE. CLAXTON. and DYSON fired torpedoes. CDR Luther K. Reynolds. CO of AUSBURNE. wrote in his Action Report saj ing it was a destroyer officer ' s dream. Consequently, two enemy destroyers, ON AM I and MAKANAMI. were hit and the remaining three. YUGIRI. AMIGIRI. and UZUKI. fled northward. Of the two ships torpedoed, ONAMI sank immediately and MAKANAMI was set ablaze. In accordance with CAPT Burke ' s doctrine, the rear destroyers, CONVERSE and SPENCE, finished off the damaged destroyer with gunfire and sank her while the other Little Beavers sped after the remaining Japanese ships. CAPT Burke ' s ships caught up to YUGIRI. AMIGIRI. and UZUKI and managed to hit and sank the YUGIRI with gunfire. The other two Japanese ships fled westward at high speed. Copt. Arleigh A. Burke, Commander of Destroyer Squadron 23, with officers of the squadron. Sitting, left to right, are: Cmdr. L. K. Reynolds, Commanding Officer of USS Ausburne (DD-570); Cmdr. R. W. Cavenaugh; Capt. Arleigh A. Burke and Cmdr. R. A. Gano, Commanding Officer of USS Dyson (DD-572). Standing, left to right, are: Cmdr. Henry J. Armstrong. Commanding Officer of USS Spence (DD-512): Lt. J. W. Bobh: Cmdr. J. B. Morland and Cmdr. J. B. Calwell.