The Naval Engagement of Guadalcanal.

The most decisive fight in the whole series of battles in the Guadalcanal campaign which divided into two phase. The Japanese objective is to neutralized Henderson Field and to further reinforce their presence in Guadalcanal. They assigned two Japanese Fast Battleships, Hiei and Kirishima with 2 CAs, 2 CLs, and 12 DDs, to do bombardment at the airfield.

Hiei able to spot USS Atlanta and open fires, this started the first phase of engagement, Akatsuki got overwhelmed from the barrage of gunfire also illuminated her searchlight at Atlanta which she becomes the first concentration of enemy gunfire from Leffey, O'Bannon, Atlanta, San Francisco, Portland, and Helena which sunk her. After Akatsuki sunk, Ikazuchi and Inazuma torpedoed Portland and damaging her. Though Atlanta manage to disabled Hiei's searchlight, she suffered heavy damage that cut all her engine power and totally put out all of her guns caused by Ikazuchi, Inazuma, and Nagara and also suffered a friendly fire from San Francisco. Yuudachi and Amatsukaze also contributed in the fight as she torpedoed USS Portland and sunk USS Barton but Yuudachi taken several hits from Aaron Ward and Sterett which crippled and sunk her while Amatsukaze already received several damage from the engagement manage to escape with the help of Asagumo, Murasame, and Samidare as the three smothered Monssen. Then Hiei along with Kirishima, they manage to damage Cushing and Laffey which Cushing later sunk. Hiei becomes the concentration target of the American's 5 inch guns and was crippled but her 14 inch gun still manage to hit Laffey and crippled the destroyer. Laffey manage to escape but she was unfortunate to encounter Asagumo, Murasame, and Samidare which pounded her with gunfire and a torpedo hit her which sunk her. Kirishima somehow manage to avoid the attacks and somehow crippled the USS San Francisco with the help of Nagara, Ikazuchi and Inazuma, she also engage with a one-on-one duel with Aaron Ward which damage the destroyer. Kirishima attempted to tow Hiei to safety but Hiei already received quite a beating from the rest of the American warships. Then B-17 bombers dropped bombs at Hiei while two torpedoes from Avengers coming from Enterprise struck Hiei completely incapacitating the battleship. Hiei was later scuttled by a destroyer. The USN lost 1 CL and 4 DDs while 2 CAs, 2 CLs, 1 DDs were damaged during the first phase. Amatzukaze, Inazuma, Ikazuchi, Samidare, and Murasame took moderate damage in the engagement.

After the lost of Hiei, Akatsuki and Yuudachi the IJN fleet again engaged the USN Fleet, Kirishima along with Ayanami open fires against the enemy fleet, Ayanami manage to sink 2 destroyers and damaged another 2 destroyers plus a battleship though she took 3 shells from USS South Dakota and another from USS Washington, she was scuttled by Uranami afterwards. Both Atago and Kirishima illuminated their searchlight at South Dakota. Kirishima scored a hit from her main gun and numerous hits from her secondary guns at USS South Dakota and able to sink the 2 heavily damage destroyers, South Dakota immediately withdrawn from battle. But Washington manage to avoid detection from the enemy fleet and fired 5800 yards away from Kirishima. Kirishima suffered nine hits from Washington's main gun, and another forty hits from the secondary turret which disabled Kirishima's 14 inch main gun, Nagara attempted to tow Kirishima but she already suffered enough damage and had to be scuttled, Kirishima's crew were rescued by Asagumo, Teruzuki, and Samidare. Several hours later the IJN finally detected Washington and launched several torpedo attack but Washington manage to outmaneuvered them and escape the fight. The IJN lost Kirishima and Ayanami, while the USN suffered 4 destroyer were lost and South Dakota suffered moderate damage.

[Sorry for the tl;dr, just my little own way for requesting a translation bump.]

Hiei was later scuttled by a destroyer.

Hmm, that sounds oddly familiar. I wonder where I heard tha ...

Lunatic6 said:

But Washington manage to avoid detection from the enemy fleet and fired 5800 yards away from Kirishima. Kirishima suffered nine hits from Washington's main gun, and another forty hits from the secondary turret which disabled Kirishima's 14 inch main gun....

Whenever I read about that, the words that immediately come to mind are "Surprise Motha'F---a".