Operation SO and SE

Operation SE
	Part of the Pacific Theater of World War II
	; Vice Admiral Jinichi Kusaka (front) at Rabaul in 1943
Date	16 June 1943
Location	Solomon Islands
Result	Inconclusive
Belligerents
United States	Japan
Commanders and leaders
Marc Mitscher	Jinichi Kusaka
Strength
100+ aircraft	94 aircraft
Casualties and losses
1 cargo ship damaged; 1 LST damaged; 6 aircraft	28 aircraft

Operation SO and SE (ソ作戦とセ作戦, SO Sakusen to SE Sakusen) were parts of an aerial offensive launched by

204th and 582nd Air Group).^[1]^[2]^[3] The resulting battles from these operations were dubbed as Lunga Air Battle (ja:ルンガ沖航空戦, Lunga-oki Kōkūsen) by the Japanese.^[3]

Operation SO

The First Operation SO took place on 7 June 1943, where

Petty Officer Hiroyoshi Nishizawa claimed two Allied aircraft destroyed.^[1]^[3]^[4]

The Second Operation SO took place five days later, on 12 June, where Lieutenant Zenjirō Miyano led 77 Zero fighters (24 from 204th, 32 A6M from 251st, and 21 from 582nd Air group) against the same targets. Similarly, as five days earlier, they were intercepted by a strong force of Allied fighters of various kinds and the ensuing air battles had a similar result.^[1]^[3]^[4]

Operation SE

Unlike the First and the Second Operation SO, Operation SE also involved a strike against Allied ships off the coast of Lunga on Guadalcanal, in addition to the regular fighter sweep. The strike included 24

Lieutenant Commander Saburō Shindō and Lieutenant Miyano. The strike took off from Buin on Bougainville at 10:00 on 16 June 1943.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Lieutenant Ema's dive bombers reached Guadalcanal around 12:00 and attacked the Allied ships off Lunga, scoring hits on two Allied ships. The strike force was intercepted by a strong force of Allied fighters of various kinds, which resulted in air battles over the skies of Guadalcanal. Having noticed in previous missions that friendly dive bombers were often shot down after they released their bombs, Lieutenant Miyano of 204th Air Group devised a tactic that would involve fighters going to low altitude and provide fighter cover after the bomb release point. The escorting Zero fighters tested the new tactic during Ema's attack, and while it helped to better protect the dive bombers, Lieutenant Miyano was killed during the action.[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

Aftermath

As with the similar effort in April by

Celeno and the landing ship LST-340, while only six Allied fighters were lost.^[4] On the other hand, the cost for the Japanese was high as they lost 13 dive bombers and 15 Zero fighters. Additionally, the preceding First and Second Operation SO accounted for nine and seven Zero fighters lost, respectively. Furthermore, 204th Air Group lost its experienced leader (Hikōtaichō), Lieutenant Miyano.^[1]^[2]^[3]