The First Battle of Guadalcanal - Friday 13 November 1942

Note: The First Battle of Guadalcanal (known to the Japanese as the Third Battle of the Solomon Sea) was without doubt the most confused surface naval action of World War II, described by one American commanding officer as being a "bar-room brawl with the lights out".
Consequently, exactly who did what to whom has been impossible to determine, and the numerous accounts of the battle differ considerably in this regard. Further, the precise times of specific events after battle was joined vary by up to 5 minutes, reflecting the confusion that reigned in the participants and the loss of many "official" chronologies because of damage and/or sinkings.

Moreover, as was often the case, the Americans misidentified a number of their opponents with respect to both type and class - e.g., they reported the presence of "Maya" Class (sic) heavy cruisers (there were no Japanese heavy cruisers present) and a number of light cruisers, as the large Japanese destroyers were frequently misidentified as such.

As usual, more ships were claimed as sunk by both sides as was actually the case, and near-misses by heavy shells were reported as torpedo hits.

The following account is the best I can compile using a number of sources, in many cases selecting the "most likely" option with regard to specific incidents and disregarding the "least likely" or downright impossible.

Bruce T. Swain

In the late evening of 12 November 1942, two opposing groups of warships were converging on the waters south of Savo Island and an inevitable confrontation.

From the north came Vice-Admiral Abe Hiroaki's Advance Force Raiding Group, which had sailed from Truk with other units of the Second and Third Fleets on 9 November. The huge Japanese armada, which had sortied to ensure the safe arrival on Guadalcanal of the main body of the 38th Infantry Division carried in 11 transports from the Shortland Islands, arrived in the vicinity of Ontong Java atoll late on 11 November, from where Abe's force detached and headed for Guadalcanal. His mission was to carry out the first of three consecutive nightly bombardments of Henderson Field, designed to neutralise American air power on the island which was the principal threat to the troop convoy.

The magazines of his two battleships, Hiei and Kirishima, were stocked predominantly with 14-inch APHE shells, the same type of projectile that their sister ships Haruna and Kongo had used with such devastating effect the previous month in what was known as "The Night of the Battleships". Abe was definitely not seeking an engagement with American warships; indeed, it was one thing he wished to specifically avoid. His sole aim was to pound the American airfield into rubble and withdraw to the northward as soon as possible.

Screening the two battleships were a light cruiser, Nagara, and six destroyers: Akatsuki, Ikazuchi and Inazuma of the 6th Destroyer Group, Amatsukaze and Yukikaze of the 16th Destroyer Group, and the brand-new anti-aircraft destroyer Teruzuki.

As Abe's force approached Indispensable Strait between the islands of Santa Ysabel and Malaita on 12 November, it was joined by two groups of destroyers that had sailed from the Shortland Islands late on the previous day. These were Rear-Admiral Takama's 4th Destroyer Flotilla flagship Asagumo with the 2nd Destroyer Group (Harusame, Murasame, Samidare and Yudachi), and the 27th Destroyer Group comprising Shigure, Shiratsuyu and Yugure. Takama's destroyers formed the Sweeping Unit while the other three ships were designated the Patrol Unit, intended to guard the rear of the Japanese formation.

As the ships entered the Strait, Abe formed them into their tactical disposition. The close screen was formed by Nagara, 2000 metres ahead of flagship Hiei, with destroyers Amatsukaze, Yukikaze and Teruzuki to port and Akatsuki, Ikazuchi and Inazuma to starboard. Asagumo was stationed a further 8000 metres ahead of Nagara, with the four ships of the 2nd Destroyer Group forming an arc to port and starboard; the task of the Sweeping Unit was to provide Abe with early warning of any enemy vessels ahead.

Bringing up the rear were the three ships of the 27th Destroyer Group.

The Raiding Group had settled into this disposition by 1600, whereupon Hiei launched a floatplane to reconnoitre the waters between Savo Island and Lunga Point on Guadalcanal. Soon after, the force entered a heavy rain squall; visibility was reduced to only a few thousand metres, and despite the urgings of his staff officers to reduce speed for reasons of safety and accurate station-keeping, Abe maintained a speed of advance of 18 knots. This was necessary, he explained, to commence the bombardment on schedule, and he had the fullest confidence in his destroyer captains to maintain station.

Closing Savo from the southeast, determined to prevent any bombardment by Japanese warships, was the American Task Group 67.4 - a "scratch" cruiser-destroyer force under Rear-Aadmiral Callaghan. It comprised heavy cruisers San Francisco and Portland, light cruiser Helena, anti-aircraft cruisers Atlanta and Juneau, and 8 destroyers.

Callaghan was far from the most suitable flag officer to be in command of such a force, as until only a few weeks earlier he had been on the staff of the area commander, Vice-Admiral Ghormley, and had no front-line experience whatsoever. When Admiral Nimitz had replaced the over-cautious Ghormley with the more aggressive Vice Admiral "Bull" Halsey, Callaghan had been left without an appointment, until taken in by Rear-Admiral Kelly Turner, commander of Task Force 67. Unfortunately this relegated Rear-Admiral Norman Scott - the victor of the Battle of Cape Esperance - to a subordinate command, as Callaghan was the senior admiral. Scott was still present that night, however, albeit as second-in-command of the force aboard Atlanta.

The American task group was a mixed bag of ships, as unfamiliar with each other as they were with their commander. All were fitted with fire-control radar, but only three - Helena and the destroyers O'Bannon and Fletcher - had the latest surface-search radar.

Earlier in the evening, Task Group 67.4 had escorted four transports and two "attack cargo ships" (AKAs) to relative safety southeast of Guadalcanal, then returned to the waters north of the island to meet the Japanese surface forces reported to be heading that way. A combination of radio intercepts and visual sightings by aircraft and coastwatchers had given the Americans ample warning that a big Japanese push was being aimed at Guadalcanal, with the main battle fleet moving south from Truk and a large transport convoy assembling in the Shortlands.

During the daylight hours of 12 December numerous reports of Japanese warships had come in, but the one that concerned Callaghan the most was that received at 1035: two battleships or heavy cruisers, one cruiser and six destroyers 335 miles north of Guadalcanal. With a speed of advance of 25 knots, those ships could be off the island by midnight.

This sighting had been made by a patrolling B-17 at 0830, and the ships reported had been Abe's Raiding Group. The aircraft itself had been spotted by the Japanese, and several Zeke fighters from the carrier Junyo were ordered to intercept; the B-17, however, made good its escape and returned safely to its base in New Guinea.

The fact that he had been sighted so early in the day, still some sixteen hours' steaming from his objective, only deepened Abe's concerns with the whole operation. The restricted waters between Guadalcanal, Savo and Florida Islands might be all right for destroyers, but Abe did not relish the prospect of having to manoeuvre his battleships in such a restricted area - even for a simple bombardment operation, let alone a surface battle against enemy ships.

The stationing of the of the advance screen of destroyers 10,000 metres (5.4 nautical miles) ahead of the flagship was intended to give Abe ample warning of any surface opposition, so that he may keep his big ships well away from the enemy, utilise the range advantage of his 14-inch guns, and deploy all his destroyers in a night torpedo attack.

Abe's confidence in his destroyers was well-founded, as all except Teruzuki were seasoned veterans. Commanding Amatsukaze was Commander Hara Tamaeichi, arguably the Imperial Navy's leading torpedo tactician. Amatsukaze and Yukikaze had fought their way through the Philippines and Dutch East Indies campaigns as part of Rear-Aadmiral "Tenacious" Tanaka's 2nd Destroyer Flotilla, and both had fought in the Battle of the Java Sea. On 27 February Amatsukaze had sunk the American submarine Perch, but Hara had yet to put his torpedo doctrine to the test personally.

Ikazuchi and Inazuma had also been active in the southern campaign in the first few months of the war, and the two had been participants in the destruction of H.M. Ships Exeter and Encounter in the Java Sea on 1 March. Asagumo and the four ships of the 2nd Destroyer Group had also fought in the Battle of the Java Sea, in which Asagumo had suffered serious damage to her machinery when struck by a 6-inch shell from HMAS Perth.

Hiei and Kirishima, on the other hand, had yet to fire a shot in anger from their main armament. They had spent the first few months of the war supporting Vice-Admairal Nagumo's Carrier Striking Force, being separated only for the Battle of Midway when Hiei had been part of Vice-Aadmiral Kondo's Midway Invasion Force Main Body, her place in Nagumo's force being taken by her sister-ship Haruna.

Many authors have referred to the four "Kongo" Class as "old" battleships, as in terms of hull age they indeed were. They had been completed between 1913 and 1915 as fast battlecruisers similar to HMS Lion, but had been considerably modernised during the 1930s and re-rated as fast battleships, with a top speed of 30 knots. They were older and less heavily armed than the American "California" and "New Mexico" Classes of 14-inch-gun battleships, but were nearly 10 knots faster; it was this high speed, together with their formidable armament of eight 14-inch guns, which made them ideal fast escorts for the fleet carriers.

At midnight on the 12th, Abe received a report from an Army radio station on Guadalcanal that a heavy rainstorm was in progress; this was obviously the same inclement weather through which the Raiding Group had been steaming, and seemed to be moving in roughly the same direction and at the same speed as Abe's ships. Earlier, when Hiei's floatplane had reported "More than a dozen enemy warships seen off Lunga", Abe had laughed and said, "If heaven continues to side with us like this, we may not even do business with them."

Now, however, Abe was forced to concede that the torrential rain that was screening his ships from American eyes might also be concealing enemy ships from Japanese eyes. Moreover, the integrity of the formation had degenerated to the extent that no commanding officer was sure of his ship's position relative to others in the force. Consequently, Abe ordered all his ships to reverse course simultaneously to the north.

The executive order was delayed, however, as communications staff sought acknowledgements from Yudachi and Harusame, the starboard-side ships of the advanced screen. The two were apparently well out of station, much further to starboard than they should have been; no doubt the two commanding officers had decided to err on the side of caution, to avoid being run down by either of the two battleships in the bad visibility.

Eventually the turn was executed, and the Raiding Group steered north for some 30 minutes at a leisurely - and relatively safe - 12 knots. At 0040 the ships emerged from the rain squall, and Abe ordered another simultaneous turn - this time to the east-southeast, towards Lunga Point. Speed was maintained at 12 knots.

The two turns, however, had had an even worse effect on the formation than the weather. Yudachi and Harusame were now on the starboard beam of the flagship, instead of the starboard bow, and the other three van destroyers were well back on Hiei's port quarter. Both groups wound on 24 knots in an effort to regain their proper stations, with Yudachi and Harusame at first running parallel to the battleships then swinging due east.

At 0130 Abe received word from Guadalcanal that the weather had cleared over the island, and speed was increased to 23 knots as the ships passed south of Savo Island. This increase in speed made it even more difficult for Asagumo, Murasame and Samidare to get back to the van, as they were still astern of the left-flank destroyers of the close screen.

Shortly after 0100, Callaghan's ships were approaching Lunga Point from the east, course 290 degrees, speed 18 knots. Like Scott before him at Cape Esperance, Callaghan had adopted a column formation: destroyers Cushing, Laffey, Sterett and O'Bannon in the van, followed by Atlanta, San Francisco, Portland, Helena and Juneau, with destroyers Aaron Ward, Barton, Monssen and Fletcher bringing up the rear.

This was far from a viable tactical formation, as Admiral Scott had learned at Cape Esperance; whether or not Scott tried to dissuade Callaghan from assuming such a formation is not known. It gave no opportunity for a concentrated torpedo attack by the eight destroyers, and a turn by wheeling - even at 20 knots - would take nearly 10 minutes for the entire column to complete.
Further, the best radar-equipped ships were not stationed closest to the enemy: O'Bannon was the rearmost of the van destroyers, Helena was the fourth ship out of five in the cruiser line, and Fletcher was at the extreme rear of the formation.

The first contact by either side was made by Helena's SG radar at 0124 - bearing 312 degrees, range 27,100 yards; this was most probably light cruiser Nagara.

This was what had happened at Cape Esperance, as Helena's radar was then the best afloat. What happened subsequently was a repetition of Cape Esperance: the report was passed to the flagship, and the officer in tactical command vacillated.

One minute later Helena made a second contact - this one at 310 degrees, range 31,900 yards, and it was undoubtedly Hiei.

Four minutes after the first radar contact, at 0128, Callaghan at last issued an order: all ships were to alter course by wheeling in succession twenty degrees to starboard, to 310 degrees - straight towards the radar contacts.

At 0131 Helena amplified her latest contact by reporting three targets bearing 312 degrees, range 26,000 yards, estimated course 107 degrees at 23 knots. Callaghan's reaction was to order Cushing to lead around further to starboard, to due north; at that stage only the four van destroyers had completed the first turn, to 310 degrees. Speed was increased to 20 knots at the same time.

None of the first three destroyers in the American column was fitted with surface-search radar; O'Bannon, the only ship so fitted, was 1500 yards astern of Cushing. There was a further gap of 2000 yards to Helena, then another 1500 yards to Fletcher. It is obvious from this that O'Bannon should have been leading the column, and Helena should have been the leading cruiser. The poor positioning of his best radar-equipped ships was yet another flaw in Callaghan's planning that night.

At 0139 O'Bannon reported three targets, the nearest of which was only 6000 yards from her. This put the contact only 4500 yards from Cushing.
Then, at 0141, Cushing reported that she could actually see two Japanese destroyers, crossing from left to right only about 3000 yards distant.

Commander Kiikawa Kiyoshi, commanding officer of Yudachi, could only guess at the Japanese flagship's position as his destroyer raced eastward across the dark waters, trailed by Harusame. He thought he was somewhere ahead of Hiei, but just how far and on what bearing he had absolutely no idea. It was therefore natural, if inexcusable, that the eyes of most of the officers and men on Yudachi's bridge were peering out to port and astern.

Had a proper lookout - in all directions - been maintained, the column of ships approaching on Yudachi's starboard bow would undoubtedly have been spotted much earlier, and at a much greater range. As it was, Yudachi and Cushing sighted each other almost simultaneously.

"Enemy sighted!"
The plain-language transmission from Yudachi at 0142 shattered the quiet calm of Hiei's flag bridge.
"What is the range and bearing?" Abe shouted. "And where is Yudachi?"
No-one answered him - none of the staff officers had the answer to either question. The situation was further confused immediately after, when Hiei's masthead lookout reported,
"Four balck objects ahead. Looks like warships. Five degrees to starboard¼eight thousand metres. Unsure yet¼visibility bad."
On Hiei's bridge, her captain shouted into the voicepipe to the lookout,
"Is eight thousand correct? Confirm!"
"It may be nine thousand, sir."

Abe's immediate reaction was to order the change over from APHE to armour-piercing shells in his two battleships, which prompted frantic activity in both vessels. They had been totally unprepared for surface action, as the entire chain - from shell-rooms to breeches - had been stacked with the special bombardment shells. Under normal conditions it would take perhaps half an hour to complete the evolution of replacing the APHE shells with AP; with their lives depending on it, that night the sweating Japanese seamen completed the change in 8 minutes.
In Hiei, however, such swiftness was accomplished by the hazardous expedient of stacking the shells from the turrets on the deck outside; only when the breeches were loaded with armour-piercing ammunition did the gunners set about striking these APHEA shells down to the shell-rooms. Meanwhile, Hiei was a floating time-bomb, much like Nagumo's four carriers had been at Midway when the American dive-bombers struck: one hit amongst the exposed APHE shells on deck would have disastrous consequences.

Also, in an attempt to delay the clash with the enemy ships ahead, Abe reduced speed to 12 knots and ordered the formation to turn to port to due east; the destroyers were ordered to form up astern of Nagara - an easy enough manoeuvre for the three destroyers on the port flank, but Akatsuki, Ikazuchi and Inazuma from starboard were faced with a long haul to the northeast at high speed.

The Japanese were completely mystified by the enemy's failure to open fire during the time it took the battleships to change over to anti-ship ammunition. Abe spent all 8 agonizing minutes in his chair on the flag-bridge; some sources say that in his anxiety - but determined not to show it - he actually bit through his bottom lip. But while he waited he also issued no orders - Hiei and Kirishima continued to close the enemy, instead of turning away in accordance with Abe's original contingency plan.

To avoid what appeared to be an imminent collision, Cushing's skipper had swung his ship hard left as Yudachi and Harusame swept past a little over a quarter of a mile to the north, and, with guns and torpedo tubes trained on the two Japanese ships, had tried to get through to Callaghan on the TBS ("Talk Between Ships") for permission to open fire. The circuit was completely overloaded, however, as ships called for more information on the enemy's position, asked for confirmation of formation course and speed, and made their own contact reports. By the time Cushing's report got through to Callaghan, and approval was given, Yudachi and Harusame had disappeared into the night.

Astern of Cushing, the rest of the column began following her around in her turn to the northwest - unaware that the turn had been on Cushing's initiative, not on Callaghan's order.

O'Bannon turned more tightly than was necessary, ending up on Sterett's port quarter instead of directly astern. This in turn forced Atlanta to swerve sharply, and the effect was felt right through the rest of the American column as ships "fishtailed" to lose distance on the turning ships ahead. The situation was rapidly getting out of Callaghan's control when even his own flagship heeled over in a turn to port without any order from him.

In fact, Callaghan gave no manoeuvring order after that at 0131 to wheel to the north at20 knots. By 0150 nearly all the American ships were tracking targets with their fire-control radars, and had been doing so for some time - waiting for their admiral to give the order to open fire.

Matters were taken out of Callaghan's hands completely, and the initiative passed to the Japanese when destroyer Akatsuki slammed open her searchlight shutters at 0150. The powerful beam moved left and right along the American column, finally settling on the leading large ship - Atlanta. Akatsuki, who had been heading northeast to join Nagara, then turned hard to starboard and emptied her three triple banks of torpedo tubes in Atlanta's direction.

Thus began what the Japanese called the Third Battle of the Solomon Sea (the first being the Battle of Savo Island and the second the Battle of the Eastern Solomons), and what the Allies referred to as the First Battle of Guadalcanal. It was fought in roughly the same waters as the first stage of the Savo Island battle, where HMAS Canberra had been crippled and USS Chicago torpedoed, and, as stated earlier, was arguably the fiercest and bloodiest naval battle of the entire war. As the American column, led by Cushing, had steered straight into the Japanese formation, the Americans found themselves with enemy ships on both sides when battle was joined.
Events and manoeuvres occurred with such rapidity that no 100% accurate reconstruction of individual ship's movements is possible.

Many of the subsequent accounts of the battle contradicted each other to certain degrees, but Samuel Eliot Morison is generally regarded as being the doyen of historians and his account is that which is regarded as "official". Eric Hammel, however, produced a much more detailed account in his book "Decision At Sea"; this work was compiled with information from American personnel who took part in the battle, and while such information may provide greater detail it also produces greater inaccuracies. To some individuals in the heat of battle, five minutes might seem like only one - whereas to others it may seem an eternity. A destroyer half a mile away might be seen as a battleship or cruiser at twice that distance, and gunflashes are easily mistaken for exploding shells.

For example: Hammel has Hiei passing close to Cushing at about 0150½, then crossing astern of Laffey at 0156. If the two destroyers were 500 yards apart, and their speed was 20 knots and that of Hiei 12 knots, then it would have taken the battleship only half a minute to cover the distance between Cushing and Laffey; even adding two minutes to the time Hiei passed Cushing and subtracting the same amount from the time she cut Laffey's wake does not produce the correct speed/time/distance solution.

In plotting the relative positions of the two forces at the time of the early American contacts - 0124, 0125 and 1031 - it must be mentioned that the bearing accuracy of the SG radar was 2 degrees either way. An angle of 4 degrees subtends and arc of 2227 yards at a distance of 31,900 yards, and an arc of 1892 yards at a range of 27,100 yards. Using the two extremes, the course made good of the Japanese ships between the 0125 and 0131 positions could have been anywhere from slightly east of south to slightly south of east.

At 0150, when battle was joined, Hiei, Kirishima, Akatsuki, Ikazuchi and Inazuma seem to have been on the port hand of the American column, with the battleships heading due east and the destroyers roughly northeast towards Nagara. Inazuma and Ikazuchi were close together, very fine on Cushing's port bow, while Akatsuki was about a mile further south and therefore heading directly for the American line.

Nagara, Amatsukaze, Yukikaze and Teruzuki were on the starboard bow of the Americns, with the destroyers jostling for position astern of the cruiser. No orders were issued by either Abe or Rear-Admiral Kimura in Nagara regarding a torpedo attack, which must have caused some consternation and frustration among the Japanese destroyer captains.

At the time Akatsuki lit up the American line with her searchlight, she opened fire with her four 5-inch guns and - with the range so short - even her 25mm AA guns. In return, however, she drew fire from many of the American ships, who used her searchlight as a very convenient point of aim. Without waiting for an open-fire order from Callaghan, Atlanta, Helena and O'Bannon all began pouring a deadly hail of shells into Akatsuki, from ranges between 1600 and 4000 yards. Under this barrage the searchlight was quickly snuffed out, then No.1 gun was knocked out; the after turret managed a few more salvoes before it too was silenced.

Just seconds after Akatsuki's searchlight reached out to settle on Atlanta, a brilliant beam from Hiei's bank of searchlights around the after funnel fixed San Francisco in its blinding grip. However, before the flagship could follow up with a salvo of 14-inch shells, she became embroiled in a close-quarters melee with the American van destroyers which was to occupy her full attention for the next few minutes.

Cushing took the enemy's use of searchlights to be reason enough to open fire, and although Hiei was in sight fine on the port bow the destroyer opened fire on a smaller ship on her starboard bow, range about 2000 yards. Just as the first salvo was sent on its way, Cushing's skipper ordered the wheel put hard right to avoid being run down by Hiei, who passed only 500 feet from the destroyer's port side. The turn to starboard temporarily masked the target from the after batteries, but the two forward mounts kept up a steady rate of fire.

Their target, apparently, was Commander Hara's Amatsukaze. As shells began landing around his ship, Hara was sure that he was being straddled by "overs" meant for Hiei. Calling for full speed, Hara swung Amatsukaze to port out of the ragged column, overtaking both Nagara and Yukikaze; when clear of the falling shells, Hara reduced speed and turned back to starboard.
As his ship steadied on a southerly heading, Hara's attention was grabbed by a cry from a starboard lookout: a ship was bearing down on them rapidly from the starboard bow. Hara ordered the engines aster, and breathed a sigh of relief as sister-ship Yukikaze surged past Amatsukaze's bows. Barely had Hara given the order for the engines to be put ahead again when there was another cry of alarm from the lookout: a second destroyer loomed out of the night, right on the starboard beam.

Emergency ahead power was ordered, and for the second time in less than a minute Amatsukaze avoided a collision with a friendly ship by the narrowest of margins - this time with Teruzuki.
Hara had no idea what Nagara and the other two destroyers were doing, and it seems he did not care. With no orders from any admiral in the Japanese force, he acted on his own initiative, and took his large, modern and powerful destroyer racing southward towards the enemy.

Nagara, however, was indeed doing something. With Atlanta's silhouette standing out starkly in the brilliance of Akatsuki's searchlight, Nagara opened fire on Admiral Scott's flagship at 0151. Atlanta had initially concentrated all turrets that would bear on Akatsuki, but within a minute her forward turrets had shifted to another target ahead - Ikazuchi, as she trailed Inazuma in cutting across the path of the American column. No attention was being paid to starboard - from whence came Nagara's salvoes.

More than a dozen 5.5-inch shells tore into Atlanta's forward superstructure, killing Scott and three of his staff officers. The captain of Atlanta was one of the very few on the cruiser's bridge to survive the brief but devastating fusillade, as he had been out on the port wing.
Return fire from the two destroyers at which she was firing also hit Atlanta, knocking out Mounts 1 and 2. Then, at 0152, came the crippling blow.

Akatsuki exacted her revenge when one of her torpedoes struck Atlanta on the port side amidships, in the forward engine room. Such was the force of the explosion of the 500kg warhead of the "Long Lance" torpedo that the 8000-ton light cruiser was lifted bodily from the water.
A second massive explosion quickly followed: whether this was another torpedo or a sympathetic explosion in her machinery spaces is not known, but when the blast subsided Atlanta was left drifting and helpless, without power and out of the fight.

At the very moment Atlanta was blasted by Akatsuki's torpedo(es), Admiral Callaghan at last gave his order to open fire: "Odd ships fire to starboard, even ships to port."

This order only added to the confusion among the American ships, as many had to shift target because of their sequential numbering in the column. Laffey, who had been tracking Nagara and the three Japanese destroyers to starboard, was forced to turn her guns to port, and settled on the embattled Akatsuki. Sterett, third ship in the line, shifted her aim from Hiei on her port side to Nagara on her starboard side.

San Francisco, Callaghan's flagship, ignored the order. She had Akatsuki firmly fixed in her sights, and added her 8-inch shells to the 6-inch and 5-inch already tearing the Japanese destroyer apart.

Portland did not have to shift her aim: she, too, had been tracking the hapless Akatsuki since the first searchlight beam had stabbed out, and now joined in the overkill of that ship. No destroyer could have survived the concentrated, radar-controlled fire of two heavy cruisers, one light cruiser and two destroyers, and in just three minutes Akatsuki was blasted from sight, sent plunging into the depths of Ironbottom Sound. Her entire crew of some 250 men went with her.

Away to the east, some three miles from the centre of the action, Commander Kiikawa's face was burning with humiliation.

The sudden appearance of an American destroyer only a few thousand metres on his starboard beam had forced Yudachi's commanding officer to react more in panic than by instinct and training: he had ordered full speed and maintained a course of due east, which at the time seemed to be the best heading on which to open from the enemy.

His mind had instantly flashed back to a night 9 months earlier in Badoeng Strait off Bali when, as captain of destroyer Michishio, he and his bridge team had paid too much attention to enemy ships approaching from one direction only to be caught unawares by accurate gunfire from another direction. Michishio had suffered serious damage and many casualties before she could extricate herself from the dangerous situation, and had been put out of action for 6 months.

Now, Kiikawa's immediate intention was to put as much distance as possible between himself and the enemy as quickly as he could - but he retained sufficient presence of mind to send off a sighting report, albeit somewhat lacking in detail.

When, to Kiikawa's surprise, no gunfire or torpedoes came his way, he slowed Yudachi to 20 knots and swept the darkness astern with his high-powered night glasses. The bridge crew were soon able to discern a long column of enemy ships - which, they observed with some puzzlement, were turning in succession away from Yudachi. Of the other Japanese ships there was still no sign, except for Harusame following 1000 metres in Yudachi's wake.

Then, at 0150, searchlight beams were observed emanating from the far side of the enemy ships, Kiikawa immediately ordered the helm hard to port and the engines to full ahead; Yudachi heeled over in a skidding turn to the left, through north, and steadied on a course slightly north of west - straight towards the enemy.

Kiikawa had wrongly assumed that the main body of Japanese ships were on the western side of the Americans - an assumption based on the searchlight beams coming from that direction. He had no way of knowing that the enemy column had split the Japanese formation - or that the formation had by now completely disintegrated.

Somewhere during the hard turn contact with Harusame was lost; that destroyer continued on a northwesterly heading and took no part in the battle. Yudachi raced on alone, her turbines driving her through the water at 35 knots.

Inazuma and Ikazuchi crossed ahead of the American ships soon after battle was joined, turned to starboard, and proceeded to run parallel to the enemy in the opposite direction. Ignoring the enemy destroyers (who seemed to have their hands full with Hiei and Nagara), they selected as their target the first large ship in the American column - the hapless Atlanta.

When that ship was seen to take numerous hits around her bridge, followed by a very obvious torpedo hit amidships, the two Japanese destroyers moved their sights to the next in line - San Francisco. Inazuma led her sister around in a 180-degree turn, and as the two ships steadied on a heading of northwest both illuminated the American cruiser on their port bow.

Seconds later, fire was opened with the destroyers' 5-inch guns; this drew return fire from San Francisco's after 8-inch turrets and her starboard 5-inch battery. Ikazuchi was hit by an 8-inch shell forward, which knocked out her forward gun, started a fire, killed 21 men and wounded another 20. No other hits were sustained by either destroyer, despite numerous straddles by the American gunners.

The set-up was not good for a torpedo attack, however, with the target forward of the beam and manoeuvring at an estimated 20 knots. The next ship in the column presented a much more favourable proposition.

At 0159 both Inazuma and Ikazuchi launched 6 torpedoes; these were not Long Lances, but Type 90s - the immediate predecessor to the Type 93 Long Lance. They still had a greater maximum range - 8 miles - and packed a heavier punch - 375kg (827lb) - than the American torpedoes.
With the torpedoes away, and enemy shells raining down all around them, Inazuma and Ikazuchi put their wheels hard over and sped away to the north.

A short distance to the southeast, another Japanese destroyer was also preparing to launch torpedoes.

Commander Hara had observed Inazuma and Ikazuchi off his starboard quarter, but apparently they had not seen Amatsukaze. Hara was itching to come about and launch his torpedoes at the very attractive targets racing down his starboard side, but the relative position of the other two destroyers presented a serious risk of collision. When at last the other two ships reversed course, Hara was able to do the same, but all the large targets had passed him by. He was forced to select the second of the rear destroyers (Barton), and at 0159 he called out to his torpedo officer, Lieutenant Miyoshi:
"Ready torpedoes! Fire!"

It took only seconds for Amatsukaze to send a full salvo of 8 Long Lances on their way, carefully spread by Hara's calculations to ensure a hit. The tubes' crews immediately set about reloading the two quadruple mounts, determined to break all records for the evolution; they knew their skipper was the Navy's top torpedo tactician, and they wanted nothing more than to show themselves worthy of him.

While his torpedo men laboured furiously, and while his guns were preparing to fire at the rear cruiser in the American column, Hara kept his binoculars on the first target, Barton. Suddenly, across his line of sight from right to left, raced another Japanese destroyer.
Hara recognised the silhouette of a "Shiratsuyu" Class; which of the four in the force it was he did not know. What he did know was that the destroyer was in mortal danger - either of colliding with one of the American ships, towards which she was speeding, or of being hit by one of Amatsukaze's torpedoes.

Aaron Ward, leading the rearguard of Amercian destroyers, had picked up the dark form of a ship bearing down on their starboard, and it appeared that a collision was imminent. At 0159, when the range by radar had closed to 1200 yards, Ward's skipper ordered his engines stopped and then put astern at emergency full power.

Yudachi sped across the startled American destroyer's bows with barely 100 yards to spare, then heeled over in a tight turn to starboard to parallel the ragged American column. Astern of Aaron Ward, Barton was faced with two courses of action to avoid running down the ship ahead of her: stope or turn. Had her skipper chosen to turn, Hara's calculations would have been severely disrupted, and she might well have escaped all 8 torpedoes aimed at her. As it was, her skipper ordered Barton's engines stopped.

The skipper of the third destroyer, Monssen, saw the two ships ahead of him slow dramatically, and reacted by swinging his ship out of line to starboard. Monssen's stem was just coming level with Barton's stern when two torpedoes were spotted streaking toward her bow from starboard; her captain ordered full right rudder, full power ahead on the port engine and stopped the starboard engine. The two torpedoes raced past 15 yards ahead of Monssen - and seconds later smashed into Barton.

The first struck in Barton's forward fire-room, the second in the forward engine-room. A few seconds later, the 6-month-old destroyer simply blew up. In less than half a minute she was gone, leaving just a handful of survivors struggling in the oily water.

Heavy cruiser Portland had joined in the pounding of Akatsuki at 0152, and with that ship's demise had sought out targets to starboard. She had just fired one 8-inch salvo at a ship some 7000 yards distant when lookouts shouted a warning that two unidentified destroyers were overtaking the cruiser on the starboard beam. Before the guns could be shifted to these new targets, the entire ship reeled under the impact of a torpedo hit.

One of either Inazuma's or Ikazuchi's torpedoes had struck Portland less than 30 feet from her stern, blowing off both starboard propellers and jamming the rudder 5 degrees to the right. The main steering-gear compartment was flooded, and the main deck around the blast site was blown up and over the port side.

As if this were not enough, the hull plating around the detonation point was blasted and bent to an angle of 45 degrees, producing the same effect as if the rudder were set hard to starboard. Portland began an uncontrolled swing to the right, which, because of the loss of both starboard propellers, could not be corrected even by the use of her main engines.

Yudachi could have raked Aaron Ward with close-range gunfire as she sped across the American destroyer's bows in a classic "crossing the T" manoeuvre, but Commander Kiikawa was after bigger game. His ship had just steadied on a course to the northwest when light cruiser Juneau loomed into sight, directly to starboard on a parallel course, and less than 2000 metres away. Less than a minute after sighting the American cruiser, Yudachi had a full salvo of 8 torpedoes in the water, and her 5-inch guns barked.

Juneau was not asleep, however, and even as Kiikawa ordered his ship around to port to open the range the cruiser's 5-inch guns spat their reply. Yudachi scored first, with at least one shell from her first salvo striking Juneau's forward superstructure just aft of the bridge, then the American's first salvo landed: some shells fell short, some over - and six struck home.

Most of the damage to Yudachi was topside, but one hit caused a major leak in the main steam line. Yudachi began to slowly but surely lose speed, which caused all the shells in Juneau's second salvo to roar overhead and burst some 50 yards beyond the destroyer. Kiikawa and his men were bracing themselves for the third salvo when one of their own torpedoes saved them.
It struck the cruiser below the 3½-inch armour belt on the port side, abreast the forward fire-room. All 17 men in the compartment were killed instantly, power was lost in the forward part of the ship and to all eight 5-inch gun mountings. Most significantly, the ship's keel was broken directly beneath the impact point; this could be plainly seen from the bridge in the dim light of fading starshells - the after part of the ship, from the forward funnel back, was twisted to starboard in relation to the forward part.

Juneau's skipper had no option but to haul his shattered ship out of line to starboard, and shape a course back towards Sealark Channel.

Yudachi, badly hurt but spared almost certain destruction by Juneau, came back to starboard to once again rougly parallel the enemy column. Kiikawa breathed a sigh of relief at his narrow escape, then turned his attention to seeking out the next target for his guns and tubes.
Down below, however, the situation was becoming critical.

Commander Hara had been momentarily stunned by the awesome suddenness of Barton's end, but quickly regained his self control. With the jubilant cheers of his topside crewmen ringing in his ears, he rapped out the wheel and engine roders that took Amatsukaze racing along the enemy line. A medium-sized ship - probably a light cruiser - was sighted seventy degrees to port, and the Japanese destroyer's three 5-inch mountings lined up on her. Turning to Lieutenant Miyoshi, Hara asked,
"Are the torpedoes ready?"
"Only four, sir," the torpedo officer replied. He sounded apologetic, but to have reloaded even one bank of tubes in such a short time and under such conditions was a remarkable achievement.
"Very good," said Hara. "They should be sufficient. Fire when you are ready."

Miyoshi acknowledged, and crouched over his sight. Just as the 5-inch guns sent their first salvo streaking towards the enemy ship, another four Long Lances leapt from their tubes into the dark waters.

Shortly after, a brilliant flash and an immense column of water were seen erupting from the cruiser. Both Hara and Miyoshi knew that it was too soon for one of their own torpedoes to have hit; moreover, the explosion seemed to be on the other side of the target. Someone had beaten them to the punch.

As Juneau's speed rapidly dropped off and she staggered around to starboard, Amatsukaze's four torpedoes sped harmlessly past her bow.

Hiding his disappointment, Hara ordered the guns to cease firing. They had scored a number of hits along the target's starboard side, and now, after the torpedo hit, the cruiser was obviously out of the fight. Amatsukaze still had four torpedoes left, however, and Hara was determined to find another target.

At the same time, he felt a sense of amazement that he had been able to carry out torpedo attacks on two ships and rake one of them with gunfire without any return fire coming his way. He also felt a growing concern that nothing had been heard from either Abe or Kimura, so, while searching for his next target, he exhorted his lookouts to watch for Hiei and Nagara.

A few minutes after 0200, with the battle less than 15 minutes old, things were going well for the Japanese - but they had no way of knowing it.

Two American light cruisers were crippled and out of the fight, and a heavy cruiser was circling and out of control. Flagship San Francisco had taken numerous hits from Hiei's secondary battery and from Inazuma and Ikazuchi, one of the two rear destroyers had been sunk and two of the van destroyers were in severe difficulties. On the debit side, Akatsuki had gone down and Hiei had been badly mauled by San Francisco and the van destroyers. Yudachi had taken a brief pounding from Juneau, and Ikazuchi had suffered some damge, but both were still fighting. No other Japanese ship had yet been hit.

Hiei had been fired on at very close range by Laffey, Sterett and O'Bannon, who added 40mm and 20mm fire to the 5-inch shells of their main batteries. This deadly hail of fire caused heavy casualties among personnel in the forward superstructure and exposed guns' crews, and started numerous fires. The flagship's communications equipment had also been damaged, with many aerials being shot away, so that an order from Abe at 0200 for all ships to withdraw was missed by most.
Cushing, Laffey and O'Bannon had all launched torpedoes at the battleship, and at least two - from whom it is not certain - had struck and detonated, while many others undoubtedly failed to explode or were launched at too short a range for the warheads to arm.

Even as Hiei tried to extricate herself from the close-quarters melee, American shells of all calibres - from 8-inch down to 20mm - continued to pound her and tear at her vitals, causing further damage to her main machinery and steering gear. So close did the destroyers come to Hiei that she could not depress her 14-inch guns sufficiently to fire on them, but she managed to put numerous shells from her secondary battery into Cushing. Then, as she steadied on a course to the northward, she fired a final salvo from her after 14-inch turrets at San Francisco.

The American flagship had engaged ships on both sides with her main and secondary armament - and had also put two 8-inch salvoes into Atlanta. This had prompted Callaghan to order "Cease firing own ships!" at 0158; the order was meant only for San Francisco, but went out over the TBS to all ships. Some ignored the order - including the flagship - while those who obeyed it resumed firing within a very short time.

It was when Hiei scored a number of hits on San Francisco's starboard side with her 6-inch secondary battery that Callaghan yelled out: "Tell the navigator to get us out of here!" The admiral and most of his staff had been on the starboard side of the cruiser's flag-bridge when Hiei's parting 14-inch salvo struck.

Callaghan, the ship's captain, many of the admiral's staff and most of the bridge crew were killed instantly. The forward steering position was wiped out, and the cruiser began swinging to port at 18 knots, out of control.

The American force was now leaderless, with both admirals dead. Captain DuBose in Portland was the senior surviving officer, but he had his own problems with his unsteerable cruiser - so even had he been aware of the deaths of both Callaghan and Scott there was not much he could have done except to pass command to Captain Hoover in Helena.

It was at this stage that the Japanese should have pressed their advantage, and used their superior firepower on the unco-ordinated American force. Unfortunately for them, the Japanese were equally unco-ordinated, with most ships acting independently.

Laffey had emerged from her brief but furious battle with Hiei relatively unscathed, and after narrowly avoiding being run down by the Japanese battleship Laffey's skipper took his ship north-northwest at full speed, towards the concealing bulk of Savo Island.

Shortly after 0200 another Japanese battleship - Kirishima - was sighted to port, and Laffey trained all her guns on her; fire was prudently withheld, and the destroyer sped on her way apparently unseen by the Japanese dreadnought. Then, as Laffey approached Savo, two Japanese destroyers were sighted off the port bow, distance about 3000 yards, crossing from left to right at high speed.

Again Laffey trained her armament on the enemy ships, but refrained from opening fire. Just as she thought she had escaped detection, however, a searchlight beam from her port bow caught Laffey full in its beam, and starshell burst overhead; too late, Laffey's lookout spotted a third destroyer off the port bow.

The three Japanese ships were Asagumo, Murasame and Samidare, part of the original advanced screen who had ended up on the port quarter of the main formation during the two 180-degree turns to clear the rainsquall. They had been steaming southeast at 24 knots to get back to their proper station when they had seen the battle break out fine on their starboard bow; they had then gone on to 30 knots, racing to join the fray.

Neither Asagumo nor Murasame had seen Laffey as they passed ahead of her, as their attention was further to the left. Samidare, however, had been more observant - she picked up the silhouette of the American destroyer against the backdrop of distant starshells, fired two starshells of her own, and, as they burst, snapped open her searchlight shutters.

Seconds later she sent five 5-inch shells streaking towards Laffey, and as her second salvo was fired Asagumo and Murasame joined in. The American destroyer became the target for sixteen 5-inch guns, and a dozen shells struck her almost simultaneously.

Laffey had managed only one salvo in reply, directed at Samidare, when her stern was lifted some 15 feet out of the water by an exploding Long Lance. Both her screws and her rudder were blown away, and as she drifted to a halt more 5-inch shells tore into her. All four of her 5-inch guns were knocked out before the Japanese destroyers ceased fire and disappeared into the night, leaving Laffey ablaze and sinking.

At 0215 the order was given to abandon ship; at 0220 there was a tremendous explosion as her after magazines went up, and the entire after section of the ship disappeared. The bow section stood straight up into the air for a few seconds, then slid into the black depths of Ironbottom Sound.
Asagumo, Murasame and Samidare sped on, eager to find more targets but wary of firing on their own ships. Many vessels were sighted, but the smoke and gunfire and burning ships made positive identification difficult. The three destroyers swung to the southward, then at about 0205 sighted a ship to port that Asagumo's skipper was certain was an American destroyer. To make sure he ordered starshell fired; when they burst, Monssen was clearly visibile beneath them.
The American destroyer thought she was being illuminated by friendly ships, and turned on her recognition lights. This brought a veritable deluge of fire from the Japanese destroyers, and in just a few minutes Monssen took 37 direct hits. Shells tore into her machinery spaces, cutting the main steamlines and demolishing her pumps; two of her 5-inch guns were blown off their mountings, her torpedo tubes were blasted into scrap, and machine-gun mountings were blown high in the air.

Monssen managed not one shot in reply before all her guns were silenced, and when the Japanese destroyers ceased fire and moved on they left their victim a total wreck, enveloped in flames. At 0220, certain that his ship was about to explode, Monssen's skipper gave the order to abandon ship.

Asagumo, Murasame and Samidare had now put paid to two American destroyers - but they were not finished yet. With no targets in sight to the south, they came about and headed northwest, their guns loaded and ready for their next victim.

After leaping out from beneath Hiei's bows, Cushing had continued her turn through north to northeast, and launched six torpedoes at the Japanese battleship. No sooner were the fish on their way when shells began hitting home from an enemy destroyer to port. This was either Yukikaze or Teruzuki - or both - and the fire was extremely accurate. Worse was to come for Cushing, as Hiei's port-side secondary battery ranged on her, and began scoring hits from the destroyer's starboard side.

Her main gunnery director took a direct hit, the forward upper shell-handling room was wiped out, and a hit at the base of the after funnel caused soot and fumes to be sucked back into the after fire-room. Another hit ruptured the main steamline in the forward fire-room and started a fire, and before long the destroyer was without power, drifting and burning.

The incoming gunfire amazingly ceased before mortal damage was inflicted, and the destroyer's crew were granted some five minutes' respite in which to set about fighting the numerous fires. Then a large, three-funnelled ship loomed out of the smokey darkness on Cushing's starboard quarter and opened fire.

This was Nagara, who for the next five minutes circled Cushing at a range of about 3000 yards and pounded her mercilessly with her 5.5-inch guns. The damage inflicted throughout the American destroyer was massive, and shells continued to smash into her even as her crew began going over the side at 0220.

Nagara eventually tired of the easy game and moved on to the northwest, leaving behind a fiercely burning wreck. Cushing's skipper and a few of her crew remained on board until 0315, then realised nothing could be done to save their ship and joined the other survivors in the water.

Sterett took a hit early in the battle that knocked out her main steering and left her temporarily out of control. Soon after her skipper effected emergency steering by main engines, she managed to put eight full 4-gun salvoes into Hiei, then emerged into a lull as the battleship passed her by. For some 15 minutes she zig-zagged to the northwest of the main action, then came about in a wide semi-circle to the southeast. Shortly before 0210 a destroyer was sighted ahead, moving slowly northward. It was quickly identified as enemy, and Sterett's guns barked.

After going full astern to avoid Yudachi, Aaron Ward then continued north at a sedate 18 knots. At 0203 a Japanese battleship was sighted to port, and the tubes were trained in her direction.
Just as the American destroyer was preparing to fire, however, a burning cruiser appeared out of the gloom 1500 yards to port, across the projected track of Ward's torpedoes. This ship was identified as San Francisco, and there was no way Aaron Ward could launch her torpedoes at the Japanese battleship without endangering her own flagship.

Aaron Ward pressed on northwards, sighting several ships without being able to determine friend from foe. Some five minutes after her aborted torpedo attack on the enemy battleship she came around to a southeasterly heading, but was then forced to apply fell left rudder to avoid a ship emerging from the smokey void on the starboard bow.

This was Sterett, who had just sighted and identified a Japanese ship ahead, and she saw her compatriot just in time to put her engines full astern. The two American destroyers then lost sight of each other, but Aaron Ward also then sighted an enemy destroyer broad on the starboard bow.
Both Aaron Ward and Sterett opened fire together - unknowingly, at the same target.

Yudachi's brave run finally came to an end when escaping steam in her machinery spaces necessitated those compartments being abandoned. A few brave men stayed below to try to keep the engines turning, but they died at their posts, and the destroyer drifted to a halt just before 0210.

Once again Commander Kiikawa and his bridge team were looking in the wrong direction when disaster struck: their attention was directed ahead and to starboard, searching for the flagship or Nagara, when Aaron Ward and Sterett assailed her from the port bow.

The Americans' opening salvoes landed with deadly accuracy, with almost all the shells striking home. The second salvo from both ships was just as accurate, and caused the detonation of the after 5-inch magazine. Yudachi's stern was blown off as far forward as the after deckhouse, the explosion lifting the destroyer right out of the water before she settled back, on an even keel but with her forefoot almost clear of the water.

Both the American destroyers believed Yudachi to be sinking and ceased fire. Her after bulkheads were still holding, however, but her demise seemed so imminent that Kiikawa ordered the burning wreck to be abandoned.

After ceasing fire on Yudachi, Sterett was still heading southeast when she herself was struck by a virtual hail of shells from somewhere to port. Both after 5-inch guns were knocked out by this first enemy salvo, and the next arrived within seconds. Her skipper called for full speed and Sterett surged ahead, burning fiercely aft and still having to manoeuvre by main engines. The closely-grouped Japanese salvoes pursued her for a short distance, then miraculously ceased.

The Americans had been stunned by the enemy's rate of fire, and the accuracy and grouping of the salvoes. Even when later an unexploded 10cm (3.9-inch) shell was recovered from one of Sterett's flooded handling rooms, no-one could say who her assailant had been - for at that stage of the war the Allies had very little intelligence on the new "Akizuki" Class destroyers, which they assumed were armed with the standard 5-inch guns. Teruzuki had given a stark demonstration of the efficiency of the new Type 98 10cm dual-purpose gun, which could pump out 20 rounds per minute, and the Type 94 Kosha Sochi fire-control system.

Aaron Ward also ran into trouble after her brief but successful pounding of Yudachi. She had rounded up onto a northerly heading when a probing searchlight from starboard settled on her. So bright was the glare that no-one aboard Aaron Ward could identify the other ship, but the gunnery officer locked all four 5-inch guns onto the searchlight and opened fire.

The illuminating ship was Kirishima, and she opened fire with her secondary battery at the same time Aaron Ward fired. The destroyer took a number of 6-inch hits, one of which knocked out her gunnery director, then two 14-inch APHE shells struck her forward.

Things were not looking good for the American destroyer - and they looked a lot worse when 5-inch shells began landing from somewhere to port. These came from Asagumo, Murasame and Samidare, who had already put paid to Laffey and Monssen; that they did not deal similarly with Aaron Ward is puzzling, for after a few salvoes both they and Kirishima ceased firing.

The damage sustained by Aaron ward was serious, but not mortal. She was able to eventually settle on an easterly heading, towards safety - but she was not out of trouble yet.

After wasting four torpedoes on Juneau, Commander Hara kept Amatsukaze on a heading to the northwest, searching both for a friend to join and a target to engage. A number of gunnery duels seemed to be taking place in an arc from west to north, but nobody on Amatsukaze's bridge could say for certain who was firing on whom.

After some five minutes of searching, the familiar silhouette of a "Kongo" Class battleship was sighted dead ahead; the big ship was on fire in more than a dozen places along her length, and was heading slowly north. Hara did not know whether it was Hiei or Kirishima, but nevertheless shaped a course to close her.

No sooner had he done this when another large, burning vessel loomed out of the darkness ahead, moving slowly across Amatsukaze's bows from left to right. Hara took immediate evasive action, and a collision was avoided by the narrowest of margins; strangely, the unidentified vessel seemed not to have noticed the Japanese destroyer.

For a moment Hara believed the strange ship to be an unarmed non-combatant, and thought she resembled a Japanese submarine tender. He wasted precious time wondering what such a vessel was doing there without his knowledge, then decoded that it must be an enemy ship of some sort. He readied his guns and torpedoes for action to port.

Still not completely sure of the other ship's identity, Hara ordered a searchlight to be trained on her: the brilliant beam lit up San Francisco, and Hara shouted the orders to open gunfire and launch torpedoes.

Hits were scored with the first salvo of 5-inch shells, and less than 30 seconds after the torpedoes hit the water Hara heard them strike the enemy cruiser's hull.

The dull thuds were all he heard - the Imperial Navy's leading torpedo tactician had impetuously launched his last four torpedoes at too short a range, not giving them time to arm.
As Hara stood clutching the bridge rail in total frustration and cursing his own stupidity, his ship was suddenly violently shaken by shells falling all around her. Hara knew that they had not come from the ship he was firing on, and was about to raise his binoculars when a lookout's startled cry drew his attention to a ship almost on the port beam.

Hara looked along the bearing to see more than a dozen muzzle flashes as the hitherto unseen enemy sent another salvo Amatsukaze's way.
"Douse the searchlight!" Hara yelled. "Cease firing! Make smoke!"
But all these countermeasures were too late: the electronic fingers of the enemy's fire-control radar had Amatsukaze firmly in their grasp.

Light cruiser Helena had an unusually quiet time since contributing to the sinking of Akatsuki at the very start of the battle. She had been forced to veer out of line to port when Portland ahead of her was struck by a torpedo, and then sought out San Francisco to form up on her. Helena's SG radar picture was at that stage cluttered with contacts, but there was no way to distinguish friend from foe except by visual means.

Around 0210 a contact some 5 miles on the starboard bow was at least identified as the American flagship, and Helena turned to close. Shortly after, the forward main battery director pocked up a smaller ship at a range of 8800 yards, close to San Francisco, and less than half a minute later this unidentified ship was seen to open fire on the American flagship. Helena immediately turned slightly to port to bring all five turrets to bear, and at 0215 opened fire with a full 15-gun salvo.

Two hits in the vicinity of the bridge almost blew Commander Hara off his feet, and only his tight grip on the bridge railing prevented his being sent sprawling on the deck. Nevertheless, he was still stunned for several seconds, after which he felt himself all over for wounds and was greatly relieved to find none. Casting a quick glance around the bridge, Hara saw that the officer-helmsman was still on his feet, struggling to bring the ship to the northerly heading ordered just before the first enemy shells struck. Everyone else on the bridge, however, seemed to be either dead or wounded.

Hara then moved to the voicepipe to the gunnery director, but his frantic calls to the gunnery officer went unanswered.

At this point Hara realised that one of the two hits must have been on the director; seconds later a sailor reported that the radio room directly below the bridge had taken a hit, and everyone in the compartment was dead.

Then Hara noticed that the ship was still swinging sharply to starboard. He shouted an order to the helmsman to steady the ship, but the young officer replied that he had lost steering control.
Things looked bad for Amatsukaze, but Hara was determined to go down fighting. If he could not escape the enemy's heavy and accurate fire, he could at least fight back. He dispatched a messenger to tell all three twin 5-inch mountings to switch to local control, but this man had barely left the bridge when another bleeding sailor reported to Hara that all the guns were locked in train due to a hydraulic failure.

Hara was still digesting this disastrous news when an engine-room sailor arrived on the bridge with a message from the engineering officer: the same system failure that was preventing the guns from moving had also jammed the rudder. The sailor was asked if the main machinery was damaged and if there were any fires below, and for the first time Hara received good news: the engines and boilers appeared to be intact, there were no fires, and no fuel tanks had been breached.

By that stage Amatsukaze had completed a full circle. Damage control parties were hard at work fighting fires on the upper deck, even as more shells from Helena continued to fall about them. Watching from the bridge Hara admired their efforts, but had to admit to himself that their efforts were probably in vain. Amatsukaze was helpless: all her torpedoes had been fired, none of her guns could be trained on the enemy, and she could not steer. The end was surely near.

Helena had been firing continuously at Amatsukaze for ninety seconds and had opened the range to 9400 yards when San Francisco slowly lumbered into her line of fire. Captain Hoover was quick to order his guns to cease fire, and before the range was clear again Helena came under heavy and rapid fire from port.

This came from the ubiquitous Asagumo, Murasame and Samidare, who had come across the one-sided duel between one of their own and an enemy cruiser soon after breaking off their pounding of Aaron Ward. They did not know who the Japanese destroyer was, but they were sure of the identity of the cruiser battering her. Sixteen 5-inch guns barked in unison, and Helena's attention was very quickly diverted from Amatsukaze.

Soon after shifting her aim from the crippled Amatsukaze to the three ships on her opposite side, Helena's situation deteriorated further when a Japanese battleship was sighted to the northwest, only about 3000 yards away. With her main and secondary batteries fully engaged with the three destroyers, the only guns that could fire on the battleship were the 40mm. Hits were observed around the base of the big ship's forward superstructure, which brought a two-gun 14-inch reply.
Fortunately for the Americans, Kirishima's changeover of ammunition had not been as complete as Hiei's, and the rounds she fired at Helena were both APHE bombardment shells. One hit the face of No.4 turret, and while the hit severely jarred the gunhouse and everyone in it, no serious damage was done.

Captain Hoover then ordered the 40mm guns to cease firing, as the insignificant damage they could inflict was not worth drawing the battleship's full fire. The main and secondary batteries also fell silent as their targets disappeared into the smokey void at high speed; no more 14-inch fire came from the battleship, and Helena was left to escort San Francisco to safety.

By 0220, all ships on both sides who were able to do so were withdrawing.

Hiei, suffering from innumerable hits by shells of all calibres from 8-inch down to 20mm and at least two torpedoes, limped northward under her own power but steering with great difficulty. Her topsides were a twisted shambles, and scores of sailors lay dead around shattered anti-aircraft guns and other exposed stations on the upper decks. Between decks was little better, as many armour-piercing shells had penetrated deep into her vitals to inflict further damage and casualties. The towering, pagoda-like superstructure had been blasted by shellfire and riddled by machine-gun fire, which killed or severely wounded nearly everyone on the navigating and flag bridges.

Vice-Admiral Abe was one of those still alive, but he was beginning to wish he had died along with hundreds of his men. He had failed to carry out his mission, his flagship was a battered wreck, and he knew that first light would bring the full wrath of the American aircraft from the Guadalcanal airfield.

Kirishima was joined by Nagara, Asagumo, Harusame, Murasame and Inazuma, and Rear-Admiral Kimura took charge of their withdrawal northward. Samidare, after closing the derelict Yudachi and picking up most of her survivors, including Commander Kiikawa, was some distance behind the Kirishima group but racing at 30 knots to catch up.

In Amatsukaze, a dozen of her strongest hands had been put to work manning the heavy and unwieldy emergency tiller connected to the rudderhead. Under this manual steering, Hara conned his battered ship northwards at 20 knots; he was feeling a deep sense of self-recrimination, as he accepted sole blame for the battering his ship had taken from Helena. He was the captain, he should have ensured a proper all-round lookout was maintained while they were engaging San Francisco. The fact that he had allowed an enemy cruiser to approach undetected and open such damaging fire was unforgivable.

Now, 43 of his crew were dead, many more were wounded, and his ship was incapable of combat. To Hara, the sinking of an enemy destroyer and the damage he had inflicted on two cruisers was little compensation; through his own negligence he had unnecessarily hazarded his ship, and for that he had paid an awful price.

Yukikaze, who had taken no active part in the furious battle, and Teruzuki, who had briefly fired on Sterett, stood by Hiei as she crawled painfully past the southern tip of Savo and up the island's western side. For four hours Hiei continued to bulldoze painfully north, but at 0600 as sunrise lighted the battlefield the steady flooding forced the stubborn men to abandon the manual-steering compartment. This caused the battleship's rudder to swing hard over to the right, jamming Hiei in a wide starboard turn so that "¼she circled almost in the same spot." This was an ominous turn for the worse, and Hiei's plight was now very serious.

As a result, Rear-Admiral Kimura ordered Destroyer Group 27 (the rearguard destroyers Shigure, Shiratsuyu and Yugure) to join Yukikaze and Teruzuki inscreening the battleship. Almost as if seeking relief from his frustration, at 0607, Hieis' skipper, Captain Nishida, ordered her after turrets to train out and open fire on a drifting enemy derelict visible 13 miles to the south. This was the crippled Aaron Ward, and again and again Hiei sent 4-gun salvoes streaking towards the American destroyer. The third salvo was a straddle, but just as the Aaron Ward appeared doomed, Marine Corps aircraft appeared and commenced the first of a day-long series of air attacks. Hiei got off only one more salvo at Aaron Ward before she had to turn her attention to the threat from the air. Her last opportunity to strike a blow at the enemy had passed, and a grateful Aaron Ward was soon towed away to Tulagi.
At 0815 Vice-Admiral Abe shifted his flag to Yukikaze and delegated the defence of Hiei to Captain Shoji Kiichio, commander of the 16th Destroyer Group in Yukikaze.

During the day Hiei was subjected to no fewer than 70 bombing and torpedo attacks by USN, USMC and USAAF aircraft. The exact number of hits she sustained is uncertain, but at least 4 torpedo, three 1000lb bomb and one 500ln bomb hits were confirmed.

By 1530 Hiei was visibly listing and down by the stern. Abe sent a message to Nishida to abandon ship, and the destroyers moved alongside to begin taking off the more than 1300 men of the battleship's crew. At 1800, with sunset approaching, the laborious task of removing Hiei's crew was at last completed. Abe was then able to proceed with the unseemly business of sinking the wounded queen by his own hand. He ordered Captain Setoyama Yasuhide in Shigure to perform the unenviable task with torpedoes, but at 1838 received a final roadblock to his determination. A signal arrived from Combined Fleet, from Admiral Yamamoto no less, ordering that Abe "not do so". Hiei was not to be sunk by Japanese hands, Yamamoto instructed, but left afloat to perform the final service of drawing American fire away from the approaching transports and the second, reformed bombardment group led by her sister, Kirishima. There is some question as to whether the seacocks had already been opened, or even torpedoes fired, but in any case, Abe suspended the scuttling forthwith.

With that, a doubtless vexed and frustrated Abe could do nothing but circle the Hiei wearily. At 1900 he ceased to do even that, and took his five destroyers out of sight to the west so as not to cause confusion among Admiral Mikawa's incoming cruisers. Hiei, forlorn and abandoned, was left behind in the gathering darkness alone. When last seen, she was listing 15 degrees to starboard, and the quarterdeck was nearly awash. No one ever saw her again. When Abe in Yukikaze finally returned with the others at 0100 on 14 November, the stricken battleship was nowhere to be found. He searched for half-an-hour, but still nothing was found. Some time in the six long hours between 1900 and 0100 Hiei had gone with 188 of her company to her final resting place at the floor of Ironbottom Sound. She was the first Japanese battleship lost in World War II and the first sunk by the U.S. Navy since 1898.

Despite American claims of sinkings and damage, the Japanese force on the whole had got off very lightly. Akatsuki had been sunk with all hands in the first few minutes of the battle, Yudachi had been left immobilised and abandoned, Hiei was eventually to sink and Amatsukaze was severely battered. Of the other ships, Ikazuchi had had a gun knocked out and suffered numerous casualties, and Murasame had suffered slight damage from a shell that penetrated her forward boiler room but failed to explode. Kirshima was hit by one 8-inch shell that killed 8 men, but the damage inflicted by Helena's 40mm shells was negligible. Nagara, Asagumo, Harusame, Samidare, Inazuma, Teruzuki and Yukikaze escaped completely unscathed. That Nagara suffered no damage, although many ships fired at her and were certain they scored hits, is quite remarkable - as is the fact that Asagumo, Murasame and Samidare could inflict so much damage with only minor damage to Murasame.

On the American side, by 0230 Barton and Laffey had sunk, Cushing and Monssen were abandoned and burning, Aaron Ward was dead in the water with her boilers out and her steering gear wrecked, Sterett was on fire aft and struggling eastwards, and the lightly damaged O'Bannon was searching the Guadalcanal coastline for any transports that might have slipped through while the battle was in progress. Of the eight American destroyers, only Fletcher - who had been at the tail-end of the American column - was undamaged.

The shattered Atlanta was dead in the water, Juneau was creeping slowly eastwards towards Sealark Channel, Portland was steaming in slow circles southeast of Savo, and the battered San Francisco was crawling painfully towards Tulagi with the lightly damaged Helena in company.

Morning twilight came at about 0530, and revealed the waters bordered by Savo, Florida and Guadalcanal strewn with cripples. There were the drifting Cushing and Monssen, the immobilized Aaron Ward, the circling Portland and the burning Atlanta. From Portland's bridge a stationary destroyer was visible about 7 miles away, southeast of Savo; as the light improved, however, she was seen to be Japanese, and Captain DuBose seized the chance to exact some measure of revenge for the damage to his ship.

As Portland continued to steam in slow, clockwise circles, her main battery director locked onto the stationary target, and she sent a six-gun salvo from her forward turrets streaking across the wreckage-strewn waters.

The shells landed short; the second salvo, fired just before the forward turrets were unable to bear because of the ship's swing, fell over. During the next circle, two more salvoes were fired, and a few shells of the fourth salvo were seen to strike home. The fifth salvo, fired during the next turn, missed completely, but all six shells from the sixth salvo tore into the target's forepart. Some of these apparently detonated Yudachi's forward magazine, as a large explosion was observed in the target. Portland ceased fire as the wreck blazed fiercely for a few minutes, then rolled over and sank.

Monssen blew up and sank around noon; Cushing finally went down at about 1700, when her fires eventually reached her magazines and she, too, blew up.

Efforts were made to tow Atlanta to Tulagi, but these were abandoned late in the afternoon and she was scuttled approximately 3 miles off Lunga Point at 2015.

All the other American ships withdrew safely, except for Juneau who was sunk with heavy loss of life by the submarine I-26 south of San Cristobal at 1100 that morning. San Francisco, with 77 dead and 105 wounded, was out of action until the following February, while Portland was not operational again until March 1943.

In terms of ships lost, the First Battle of Guadalcanal was another tactical victory for the Japanese - but another strategic defeat. The Raiding Group had lost a battleship and two destroyers, with another destroyer heavily damaged, while the Americans had lost two light cruisers (including Juneau) and four destroyers, with two heavy cruisers and three destroyers damaged.

The strategic defeat for the Japanese meant that Henderson Field had been spared another "Night of the Battleships", and its aircraft were able to turn on their would-be aggressor and pound her to scrap during the daylight hours of the 13th. The Japanese, however, had not given up on the American airfield, and within the next 48 hours many more ships would be sunk and many more men would die.