At almost the same time that the destroyer Yudachi caught fire and exploded, the 356mm main gun of the battleship Kirishima also began to spit flames at the U.S. military. The Japanese army's excellent gunnery skills were fully demonstrated. Only the first shot caused damage to the cruiser Atlanta.

The battleship's huge bomb stirred up a water column of tens of meters high, surrounding the Atlanta. As soon as Rear Admiral Scott, who was on the Atlanta, saw this situation, he knew that something was wrong and hurriedly ordered

Turn the rudder to dodge. But at this moment, a 356 shell fired from the Hiei directly hit the stern part of the Atlanta. The C turret was completely destroyed. Fortunately, the fire door connected to the ammunition depot was closed tightly.

.But another loss

Losing it was much more fatal than losing the C turret: the reconnaissance aircraft carried by the cruiser was hit and ignited a fire. In the dark night, the fire turned the Atlanta into an oversized light bulb. Then all kinds of shells were fired one after another.

Fly towards her.

Within just a few minutes, the cruiser USS Atlanta was hit by a 356 mm shell and at least 30 5-inch and 6-inch shells. The entire superstructure of the warship was almost completely destroyed. The captain died in the battle and Major General Scott was seriously injured.

Before he fell into coma, he gave the order to abandon the ship. Five minutes later, the cruiser USS Atlanta, which had been burned to a torch, was hit by two 93-mm missiles.

The torpedoes hit continuously and sank into the sea almost within a few minutes. Most of the US officers and soldiers on the ship died in the battle, including Major General Scott, and the whereabouts of 15 people are unknown. Witnesses said that they saw them on the warship with their own eyes

They got on the lifeboat before it sank, but no one ever saw the lifeboat or the people on it again. No one knew what happened in this dark night.

When the Japanese warships surrounded the Atlanta, the Americans were not idle either. The B-17s at high altitude first used searchlights to illuminate the Hiei battleship brightly. Countless shells flew over, and the Hiei was hit by more than 80 bullets.

Although her armor could not be penetrated according to law, her superstructure was also beaten to pieces, various observation facilities were almost completely destroyed, and her combat effectiveness was almost lost. But this was not the biggest blow she would bear.

.

Captain Stern divided the Night Assassin's torpedo planes into two groups and attacked the two Japanese battleships respectively. They quietly approached the Japanese fleet from the opposite direction of the US fleet. The sound of the torpedo plane engines was completely silenced by artillery fire at this time.

The roar covered it up. The only thing that might expose the target is a device used to measure altitude.

There are two small searchlights, one red and one green. But these two lights are not too bright. By the time they attract the enemy's attention, the distance is not far away. What's more, at this time, the enemy still has to identify, judge, and add targets.

It is also difficult to judge distance and speed in the dark. It is almost impossible to fire effectively to intercept them.

Now Captain Stern personally led the first team to approach the battleship Hiei. The Japanese on the ship, who were busy avoiding US gunfire, knew nothing about their arrival. As they approached to a distance of 400 meters, Stern

The captain took the lead and dropped torpedoes at an angle of 70 degrees from the Hiei's course. Then the other four torpedo planes also dropped torpedoes one after another.

Captain Stern, who was the first to drop the torpedo, controlled the plane to turn around and start to climb. At this time, he observed three violent explosions on the side of the Hiei: 3 of the 5 torpedoes hit, and all of them were hit.

On the side of the warship. This hit is definitely enough for this battleship

It’s time to drink a pot. American torpedoes were a huge tragedy until 1943. And the Japanese torpedoes were very bad-tempered and would explode if they didn’t do anything well (the 93 spear was very sensitive and fired

In the end, almost half of them were hit by waves on the way.

On the contrary, the American torpedo is definitely a piece of wood that is super dull. To use the phrase used to describe Jia Yingchun, nicknamed "Er Wood" in "Dream of Red Mansions", "If you prick it with a needle, you won't even know what to say.

"It's not enough to describe it, this guy is absolutely

It's a super piece of wood that won't feel anything even if you hit it hard on the head. In actual combat, there have been many times when American torpedoes hit enemy ships and were smashed into two pieces. They still didn't lose their temper and explode. On the contrary, the ships floated on the water.

Half of the torpedo was often used as a lifebuoy by Japanese soldiers who fell into the water.

Later (that) after repeated experiments, although the problem has not been completely solved, at least it was finally figured out under what circumstances this embarrassing torpedo will explode and under what circumstances it will not explode:

If the impact angle is too positive, and the contact angle with the target is between 80-90 degrees, well, it will basically not explode. If it is 90 degrees, it will definitely not explode, even if the impact force can smash the torpedo.

It also never explodes. So if the torpedo you drop hits accurately

If you hit the target but didn't explode, it's probably because you aimed too accurately and hit it too straight. But the hit angle was too biased. For example, if the hit angle is less than 45 degrees, well, basically it won't explode. This time, three of them succeeded.

The explosion showed that Captain Stern's control of the hit angle was very successful.

Lieutenant General Abe Koki got up from the floor with the help of his assistant. The continuous explosions just now caused the battleship Hiei to shake violently. Abe Koki failed to stand still and fell to the ground.

"What happened just now!" Captain Masao Nishida asked, "Let each department report the damage."

"Sir, the starboard side was hit by three enemy torpedoes, water began to enter, the steering gear was damaged, and the ship's operation became difficult."

Under normal circumstances, the Hiei's injuries are not irreversible, but this is Guadalcanal. Here, there is no problem more fatal than the damage to its navigation ability. If it cannot operate at high speed away from US bombers at night,

During the day, you have to be prepared to be surrounded by a group of dive bombers and torpedo planes from the US military.

"General," Masao Nishida walked up to Abe, "given the condition of this ship, it is difficult to continue to perform its flagship duties. General, please move to other warships and continue to command."

Abe also understood that the current Hiei was really not suitable as a flagship. It was hit by a mine and could no longer keep up with the movement of other ships. Moreover, the Hiei's radio antenna and signal light system were seriously damaged, which was indeed harmful to the situation.

The conductor caused a lot of trouble.

"Okay, please excuse me, Captain." Abe decided to leave the Hiei.

Before leaving, Abe ordered: "The destroyers Teruzuki and Akatsuki escort the retreat of Hiei. The destroyers Yukikaze, Tianjin Feng, and Shigure will pay attention to search for possible torpedo boats on the starboard side. (Ri himself did not expect it at all.

It would be attacked by a torpedo plane, and I intuitively thought it was the torpedo boat that did it.)" Originally, according to Yamamoto's order,

Once the battleship is damaged and it is difficult to retreat, it should take the initiative to rush to the beach and run aground as a fixed firepower point to continue fighting. However, the Japanese are worried that this will lead to the final battleship being captured. If the Americans capture an imperial

Battleships, and then displaying propaganda everywhere would do too much damage to the reputation of the empire. So this fate later

The order added an amendment clause, that is, the battleship must be allowed to wash up on the beach after suffering irreparable damage. But what exactly this "irreparable" means is really difficult to grasp. You must know that the Americans later

Most of the battleships that sank in Pearl Harbor were fished out and repaired. In other words, these sunk battleships are not considered "suffered damage".

"Irreparable damage". It is really not that difficult for a battleship to be "irrepairable". But it is even more difficult if it has already suffered such damage and can be washed up on the beach and stranded.

In addition, Abe was unwilling to become the first commander in the empire to lose a battleship, so he decided to let the Hiei retreat.

Just after the Hiei was attacked, the B-17 above pointed its searchlight at the battleship Kirishima.

Abe was sitting on a speedboat at this time, approaching the battleship Kirishima, but suddenly saw it being illuminated brightly. Abe immediately felt that Kirishima might be in trouble with the Hiei.

This feeling was not wrong. As soon as he saw the Kirishima illuminated, Callahan immediately ordered the cruiser to concentrate fire on the Kirishima. Half a minute later, Kirishima was caught in a hail of bullets.

Seeing the water pillars rising around the Kirishima, Abe knew that if he leaned on it now, he would be like a longevity star hanging himself - he thought his life was too long.

So where to go? The Nagara is of course another option, but just when Abe turned to the Nagara, he discovered that something had happened to the Nagara too. A 127mm shell hit the Nagara's seaplane

The projectile not only destroyed the plane above, but also ignited the fuel on the plane, and the Nagara was suddenly exposed in the night.

The most terrifying thing in a night battle is a fire. Once it catches fire, it will be conspicuous. Once it is conspicuous, it will be watched and it will become a magnet for shells. This law is also effective for Nagara. The 127 shells of the US destroyer are like seeing them.

They all ran over like stinking flies with a buzzing and whistling sound. As a result, after the Japanese troops withdrew, they counted 26 shells on the Nagara, and the entire superstructure was smashed.

Fortunately, there is a Japanese warship fighting not far away. Well, there is no place to go anyway, so just go there. A few minutes later, Abe's traffic boat approached the warship. After a while, his Lieutenant General

The flag is flying high on the mast of this great destroyer, the Yukikaze destroyer.

Just when Abe got close to the Yukikaze, Yukikaze's curse came into effect again, and another team of night assassins had already approached the Kirishima...

Kirishima's luck was much better than that of Hiei. Only one torpedo hit it. Of course, it is possible, well, the possibility is very high that only one torpedo that hit it exploded. Based on Kirishima's thirty-five thousand

With a displacement of 1,000 tons, a light torpedo dropped from the air will generally not be too lethal.

The loss. In fact, this is the case. At least for now, there is no big problem. The Kirishima is even constantly using its 356mm cannon to launch counterattacks against US ships. She fires far fewer shells than her opponents.

The frequency of firing is also much lower, but the threat is also higher than the opponent's 6

The inch cannon was much larger. A minute later, two 356mm shells fired by her hit the US cruiser Juneau. One of them directly penetrated the armor of the Juno's magazine and exploded inside. The shell detonated

After reaching the ammunition depot, the Juno was blown into two pieces, almost instantly

It sank into the sea. All the more than 700 people on the ship were martyred, including the five sons of Thomas Sullivan and his wife in Waterloo, Iowa. Later, in order to avoid such a tragedy from happening again, the U.S. Navy specially issued a regulation stipulating that the same family

Immediate family members are not allowed to serve on the same warship.

The battle between the destroyers has become extremely fierce: the USS Monson recklessly turned on its searchlight to search for enemy ships, but instead exposed itself. It was hit by more than 20 cannons from the Japanese besieged company. The hull was flooded and sank half an hour later.

An accident occurred when the May Rain fired a torpedo at the US military. A Type 93 torpedo suddenly exploded during the launch, causing a fire on the ship. As a result, to make matters worse, it was hit by 8 shells, 4 of which were fired by 6 US cruisers.

14-inch cannon shells. The May Rain sank 14 minutes later.

Taking advantage of May Rain's beating, the USS Patton destroyer rushed up and fired 4 torpedoes at Kirishima from a distance of 2,000 meters, but none of them hit. Instead, it was hit by 3 consecutive rounds from Kirishima's 356mm cannon.

One of the rounds hit the waterline, causing a large amount of water to enter. The Patton sank ten minutes later.

Although Kirishima quickly achieved two victories in a row after being hit by a torpedo, the previous torpedo itself had already frightened Abe. Nagano's (that) Shushen's words "Don't destroy the warship"

It suddenly popped up in his mind. So as soon as he boarded the Yukikaze destroyer, he immediately ordered: "Abandon the bombardment plan and return!"

Abe ordered the other destroyers except Yukikaze to break off, and other ships began to withdraw from the battle one after another. Callahan commanded the American fleet to pursue them. In the darkness, the Japanese destroyers released a large number of Type 93 torpedoes. At 0:12 on 13ri, they were chasing the enemy.

ship

The cruiser USS San Francisco was hit by a Type 93 torpedo, and the entire ship was blown up. At 0:13, the destroyer USS Fletcher was also hit by a Type 93 torpedo. It immediately exploded and caught fire, and sank a few minutes later.

Only two officers and soldiers on the ship survived.

Out of concern about the Type 93 torpedo, Callahan ordered the pursuit to be stopped. Then the boiling night gradually became quiet.

In this battle, two Japanese destroyers were sunk, two battleships were injured (one of them was seriously injured), one cruiser was seriously injured, and other destroyers, including the Yukikaze, were damaged to a certain extent.

The US military had two cruisers and three destroyers sunk in the battle, one cruiser was seriously damaged, and other ships were also injured to varying degrees.
Chapter completed!