USN · CL

St. Louis-class light cruiser. On the night of 13 November 1942, off Guadalcanal, her 6-inch guns hit Commander Tameichi Hara's destroyer Amatsukaze and drove her out. The steering was out, and Hara steered her by hand for hundreds of miles. Amatsukaze was not sunk. Hara was her captain that night. He later flew his flag in Shigure as commander of Destroyer Division 27. Most of the time she was the only ship of that division with him. He was not her captain, and that later job was not at Tassafaronga. At Kula Gulf on 6 July 1943 Helena was in the cruiser line and was sunk by Japanese destroyer torpedoes.