1942-11-13
Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, night action
Off Guadalcanal, near Savo Island
Callaghan's thirteen ships, in one column: Cushing, Laffey, Sterett, O'Bannon, Atlanta, San Francisco, Portland, Helena, Juneau, Aaron Ward, Barton, Monssen, and Fletcher. Abe was coming the other way with Hiei, Kirishima, the light cruiser Nagara, and eleven destroyers. The lines ran together in the dark. Atlanta was scuttled, Juneau was finished that afternoon by a submarine that was not in the fight, and Cushing, Laffey, Barton, and Monssen were sunk. Akatsuki was sunk, and Yudachi was finished the next morning. Hiei was disabled and sunk later on the 13th. Helena hit Amatsukaze and drove her out. Sterett was badly damaged and claimed hits on Hiei. Kirishima took one hit and was not sunk this night. Shigure, Shiratsuyu, and Yugure were a picket off the Russells and were not in this melee.
A diagram of how this fight went will go here.
