Sunday, October 25, 1942. Rommel returns, the Japanese Navy strikes.

Rommel returned to Africa.

During his absence, things had not gone well for the Axis.  There's no reason to believe that they would have gone any better had he been there.

Rommel arguably has an outsized reputation.  Perhaps because the British tended to admire him, for some reason, as an adversary, and as they measured their success in the desert in terms of defeating his command, he's obtained the reputation of being a "clean" German commander.  There actually is some evidence to support this, but it's mixed and not as clear-cut as sometimes claimed.

Spectacular photograph of US ships in action on the following day, October 26.

The Battle of Santa Cruz Islands began with the Japanese, operating under the assumption that they had taken Henderson Field on Guadalcanal, moved ships from the Shortland Island towards Guadalcanal in order to support the Japanese ground forces on the islands.  Aircraft from Henderson Field ended up attacking the Japanese convoy throughout the 25th, sinking a light cruiser.  This alerted the Japanese that Henderson Field remained in American hands, but they pushed forward in hopes of engaging the American Navy in a decisive naval battle.