HISTORY

The scene of fierce fighting, Henderson Airfield in late August 1942.

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INFO Eduard

seriously, Hiei was hit by at least two torpedoes. The Japanese force, besides the

battleships, was also formed by a light cruiser and 11 destroyers. Those engaged eight

American destroyers and Hiei and Kirishima could focus on five American cruisers.

Their gun turrets however were stocked

with the shrapnel grenades which caused

great damage to the superstructures however were not able to penetrate the hull

and turrets’ armor. Therefore, the cruisers

maintained the ability to sail and fire. One

of them, San Francisco, scored a lucky hit

on Hiei, disabling her steering mechanism.

The huge ship therefore had her maneuvering abilities restricted. Wounded Admiral

Abe had enough and ordered the withdrawal. He did not know that the only two

undamaged American ships were between

his fleet and Henderson airfield – cruiser

Helena and destroyer Fletcher.

Great losses on both sides

During the night battle the Japanese destroyer Akatsuki was sunk as well as the

American destroyers Laffey and Barton.

The first rays of sunshine in the morning

revealed eight more seriously damaged

ships which were either motionless or

moved very slowly. Three of them were

Japanese and five American. The burning

wrecks of Cushing and Monssen were

Photo: Naval History and Heritage Command

cision it was already too late. The American and Japanese ships converged too

close, and his orders caused more chaos.

The encounter turned into 40 minutes long

merciless chaotic combat at close range

where each individual ship made her own

decisions. Several ships even became targets of the friendly fire. As later described

by one of the American officers, it was like

a bar brawl when all lights were shut down.

The inferior American vessels however,

thanks to the close range, were able to deliver serious hits. For example, at one moment Hiei was fired at by three American

destroyers from extremely close range.

One of them almost collided with her, they

missed each other just by six meters! The

huge Japanese ship, under normal circumstances, would have blown the destroyer

off the water by a single salvo.

But now she could not lower her guns

enough and her heavy grenades were flying above the destroyers making loud noise. The American sailors wasted no time

and were shooting at Hiei with all they had,

including the machine guns. They could

not penetrate her armor, but the numerous hits were setting off fires on the superstructure and killed many officers on

the bridge. The fleet commander, Admiral

Hiroaki Abe himself was wounded. More

Photo: US Navy

The first Japanese battleship sunk, the Hiei. Her sister ship Kirishima followed her to the bottom two days later.

February 2023