The Japanese, reluctant to risk their remaining carriers in a major engagement in the Solomons until they had a good land airfield, decided to seize Henderson Field on Guadalcanal. The land offensive commenced on 23 October1942 but the Marines managed to repulse each assault. Vice Admiral Halsey, the Commander of the South Pacific Area, sent the Hornet and Enterprise to attack the Japanese fleet cruising northeast of the Solomons.
On 26 October both carrier forces launched their aircraft against each other in an exchange of strikes which damaged Hornet and Shokaku. In two subsequent attacks from Shokaku and ZuikakuEnterprise was hit and damaged while Hornet was set ablaze, abandoned, and later sunk by the Japanese destroyersAkigumo and Makigumo. The Americans retreated eastwards to get air cover from the land bases in the New Hebrides but the Japanese, still cautious because of their defeat at Midway, failed to pursue the American fleet and lost the opportunity to sink or damage Enterprise.
References
Eric M. Hammel, Carrier Strike: The Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, October 1942 (Pacifica Press, 2000) ISBN 0935553371
However, the MidwayIslands were the closest remaining U.S. base to Japan, and would therefore be strongly defended by the U.S. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto'sbattle plan was typically bold and ingenious.
Meanwhile, as a result of their participation in the Battle of the Coral Sea, the Japanese aircraft carrier Zuikaku was laid up, at Truk in the Caroline Islands, waiting for an air group to be brought to her to replace her decimated planes, while the lightly damaged Shokaku was awaiting repairs.
The battle was another demonstration (after the Battle of Taranto and the attack on Force Z) of the superiority of naval air power over direct ship-to-ship combat.
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