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      In real history, on the night of August 9, 1942, Vice Admiral Mikawa's squadron of seven cruisers and one destroyer defeated a squadron of cruisers and destroyers of the United States and Australia, which outnumbered the Japanese, in the battle off Savo Island. Not a single Japanese ship was sunk. The Allies lost four heavy cruisers. Another cruiser and two destroyers sustained serious damage. 1,077 Australian and American sailors were killed. Japanese casualties were limited to 58 men. Three cruisers sustained moderate damage. This undoubted and striking victory, however, was not used by Vice-Admiral Mikawa to disrupt the landing of American troops on Guadalcanal Island, although all the conditions were in place to do so. The clearly erroneous decision not to continue the attack and to retreat was influenced by fears of being hit by aircraft from American aircraft carriers after sunrise.

      Mikawa did not know that the enemy carrier formation had left the combat zone, having suffered serious losses in deck fighters, and did not take the opportunity to destroy Allied transport ships at anchorages off the coast of Guadalcanal with impunity. As a result, the Japanese missed their chance to fundamentally change the course of the battle for the Solomon Islands and New Guinea.