Like weary boxers, the opposing forces slugged it out with one another in Ironbottom Sound.

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By David H. Lippman

War-worn and weary, Commander Tameichi Hara stumbled off the bow of his destroyer Amatsukaze. The Japanese destroyer skipper had just fought the hard Battle of Santa Cruz. He desperately needed some rest. Instead, he would face his greatest ordeal yet.

By October 1942, Japan and the United States had worn each other down in the South Pacific. United States Marines held Guadalcanal’s vital Henderson Field but were ringed in by Japanese soldiers. Both armies were devastated by malaria and supply shortages.

At sea, the picture was equally grim. Japan had just lost 74 planes at Santa Cruz, but the United States had lost the aircraft carrier Hornet, and her sole remaining flattop, Enterprise, was badly damaged. American planes ruled "The Slot" and Ironbottom Sound off Guadalcanal by day, but Japanese ships dominated them by night. Both sides were stalemated, gasping for breath.

In his spartan sea cabin aboard the super battleship Musashi at Guam, Japan’s Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Combined Fleet, spewed out a stream of orders intended to allow the fleet to regain the initiative with typical daring.

Since Yamamoto had only one available carrier, Junyo, he turned to his crack battle-cruiser force. The plan was simple enough: A convoy of troops, backed up by his battleships Hiei and Kirishima, would steam down The Slot to Guadalcanal. The troops would land and reinforce the army there, while the warships would shell Henderson Field, smashing the air base and its planes.

Kirishima and Hiei were fine ships. Built in 1912 and 1914, respectively, they displaced 37,000 tons and were among Japan’s oldest yet fastest battlewagons, able to race along at 30 knots. When Emperor Hirohito went to sea, he always rode aboard Hiei.

Key to the plan were special 14-inch shells loaded in the magazines of Hiei and Kirishima–Type 3 shells, originally designed for anti-aircraft work. Each shell’s casing had a bursting charge that would scatter 470 individual incendiary submunitions across an area. These could shatter the parked planes on Henderson Field, but were useless against steel warships. One heavy cruiser and 10 destroyers, including Hara’s Amatsukaze, would take part.

Soon after Musashi’s mimeograph machines cranked out the orders, Rear Adm. Hiroaki Abe hoisted his flag aboard Hiei. Abe, a veteran destroyer skipper, had escorted Japan’s elite carriers from Hawaii to the Indian Ocean. But he had a reputation for timidity. And his hard-working crews were exhausted. Still, the Japanese had key advantages–well-trained crews, coordinated tactics, and the Type 94 Long Lance torpedo, which outranged American fish.

Hara was aware of all these factors as he returned to his 2,490-ton destroyer. Amatsukaze left Truk on November 9 and met up with Abe’s force near the Shortland Islands on the 12th. The force headed south in tight formation.

Meanwhile, the Americans were not idle. Japan had changed its naval codes, but U.S. code-breakers quickly went to work. Yamamoto had cut his orders on November 8. On the 9th, those orders, decrypted and translated, were on Vice Adm. William F. Halsey’s desk in Noumea, French New Caledonia. America’s aggressive commander of the South Pacific theater moved with his usual speed. Figuring that the best defense was a good offense, Halsey countered Yamamoto’s reinforcements with troops of his own, the 182nd Infantry Regiment, and a strong naval escort. Then he handed the ball over to Rear Adm. Richmond Kelly Turner, the equally aggressive deputy in direct command at Guadalcanal.

Early on the morning of November 12, the Americans won the race to reinforce Guadalcanal when eight U.S. transports steamed into Ironbottom Sound. The Japanese hit back at once. Their land-based 11th Air Fleet flew down The Slot and into a wild battle. The sky was filled with color–yellow flame, black smoke and white spray–as Japanese planes pressed home their attacks. In eight minutes of action, the Japanese lost 11 bombers and one fighter. The Americans lost three fighters, took a hit on the destroyer Buchanan and another hit on the heavy cruiser San Francisco–resulting in 5 dead and 7 wounded on Buchanan and 24 dead and 45 wounded on San Francisco.

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