After several damaging air attacks, the naval surface combatants from both America and Japan withdrew from the battle area.

[7] The overall commander of the three carrier task forces was Vice Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher, who flew his flag on Saratoga.

[9] After a successful landing, they remained in the South Pacific Area charged with four main objectives: guarding the line of communication between the major Allied bases at New Caledonia and Espiritu Santo; giving support to Allied ground forces at Guadalcanal and Tulagi against possible Japanese counteroffensives; covering the movement of supply ships aiding Guadalcanal; and engaging and destroying any Japanese warships that came within range.

[10] Between 15 and 20 August, the U.S. carriers covered the delivery of fighter and bomber aircraft to the newly opened Henderson Field on Guadalcanal.

[16] Also departing from Rabaul to help protect the convoy was a "close cover force" of four heavy cruisers from the 8th Fleet, commanded by Vice Admiral Gunichi Mikawa.

The four heavy cruisers of Mikawa's group left the Shortlands on 23 August and became tangentially involved, dropping bombs on Henderson Field during the following nights with their float planes.

[20] Finally, a force of about 100 IJN land-based bombers, fighters, and reconnaissance aircraft at Rabaul and nearby islands were positioned for operational support.

[21] Nagumo's main body positioned itself behind the "vanguard" and "advanced" forces in an attempt to more easily remain hidden from U.S. reconnaissance aircraft.

[27] At 09:50 on 23 August, a U.S. PBY Catalina flying boat operating out of Ndeni in the Santa Cruz Islands initially sighted Tanaka's convoy.

By late afternoon, with no further sightings of Japanese ships, two aircraft strike forces from Saratoga and Henderson Field took off to attack the convoy.

Tanaka, knowing that an attack would be forthcoming following the PBY sighting, reversed course once it had departed the area and eluded the strike aircraft.

After Tanaka reported to his superiors his loss of time by turning north to avoid the expected Allied airstrike, the landings of his troops on Guadalcanal was pushed back to 25 August.

By 18:23 on 23 August, with no Japanese carriers sighted and no new intelligence reporting of their presence in the area, Fletcher detached Wasp, which was getting low on fuel, and the rest of TF 18 for the two-day trip south toward Efate Island to refuel.

[29] The Ryūjō mission was most likely in response to a request from the naval commander at Rabaul, Nishizō Tsukahara, for help from the combined fleet in neutralizing Henderson Field.

Between 05:55 and 06:30, the U.S. carriers, mainly Enterprise,[32] augmented by PBY Catalinas from Ndeni, launched their own scout aircraft to search for the Japanese naval forces.

Finally, with no firm word on the presence or location of other Japanese carriers, at 13:40 Fletcher launched a strike of 38 aircraft from Saratoga to attack Ryūjō.

Although the aircraft was shot down, its report was transmitted in time, and Nagumo immediately ordered his strike force launched from Shōkaku and Zuikaku.

Before leaving the area, the two U.S. scout aircraft attacked Shōkaku, causing negligible damage but forcing five of the first-wave Zeros to give chase, thus aborting their mission.

[37] Also at this time, the Saratoga strike force arrived and attacked Ryūjō, hitting and heavily damaging her with three to five bombs and perhaps one torpedo, and killing 120 of her crew.

Amatsukaze and Tokitsukaze rescued Ryūjō's survivors and the aircrews from her returning strike force, who ditched their aircraft in the ocean nearby.

[47] Although Enterprise was heavily damaged and on fire, her damage-control teams were able to make sufficient repairs for the ship to resume flight operations at 17:46, only one hour after the engagement ended.

[53] Believing that two U.S. carriers had been taken out of action with heavy damage, Tanaka's reinforcement convoy again headed toward Guadalcanal, and by 08:00 on 25 August they were within 150 nmi (170 mi; 280 km) of their destination.

An uninjured but shaken Tanaka transferred to the destroyer Kagerō, sent Jintsu back to Truk, and took the convoy to the Japanese base in the Shortland Islands.

The Japanese naval forces lingered near the northern Solomons, out of range of the U.S. aircraft based at Henderson Field, before finally returning to Truk on 5 September.

[59] The troops in Tanaka's convoy were later loaded onto destroyers at the Shortland Islands and delivered piecemeal to Guadalcanal without most of their heavy equipment, beginning on 29 August.

[63] She returned to the South Pacific on 24 October, just in time for the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands and her rematch with Shōkaku and Zuikaku.