against Japanese land-based air raids from Rabaul and from nightly shelling by Imperial Japanese Navy cruisers and battleships that came down the "Slot" from their large Naval and air base at Rabaul. East Solomons: August 24–25, 1942 Fletcher fought a superior Japanese fleet intent on counter-invasion in the aircraft carrier battle of the Eastern Solomons. He started the engagement and the force under his command sank a sixth carrier, the . The ensuing battle was essentially a giant aerial dogfight interspersed with shipborne anti-aircraft fire. The United States lost 20 aircraft; the Japanese lost 70. Enterprise was hit by three bombs; the Japanese seaplane tender was nearly sunk, but survived. The enemy withdrew without landing troops on Guadalcanal and had to resort to the Tokyo Express: overnight delivery of a few hundred troops and supplies by destroyers. Fletcher was second-guessed by non-combatants and was criticized by the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Ernest King, for not pursuing the Combined Fleet as it withdrew. This criticism may have affected the decision to not return Fletcher to his command after his flagship carrier, the , was torpedoed and damaged by a Japanese submarine on August 31, 1942. Fletcher himself suffered a gash to his head in the attack, for which he received the Purple Heart, and was given his first leave after eight months of continuous combat. Northern From November 1942 – 1945, Fletcher commanded naval forces in the North Pacific from the Alaskan island of Adak. In November 1942, he became commandant of Thirteenth Naval District and commander of Northwestern Sea Frontier. He was relieved as commandant in October 1943, but continued to serve as commander Northwestern Sea Frontier until April 15, 1944, when the Northwestern Sea Frontier was abolished and the Alaskan Sea Frontier established. He then became Commander of the latter, with additional duty as Commander North Pacific Force and North Pacific Ocean Area. It was revealed in July 1945, that Task Force 90, under his overall command, had made the first penetration through the Kurile Islands in the Sea of Okhotsk on March 3 and 4, 1945, and the same task force on February 4, 1945, bombarded Paramushir in the first sea bombardment of the Kurile. Postwar and final days September 1945, following the cessation of hostilities in the Far East, he proceeded to Ōminato, Japan, with the North Pacific Force (consisting of about sixty vessels) for the