December 28th - The Day of Infamy, Part XXI

The Death of a Navy

At 1255 Yamato opened fire at 38,000 yards, aiming for USS New Jersey (visible only from mast to mast by the Japanese). By 1300 the other six ships of the IJN line had followed suit, aiming for the USN column leaders. The first hit was scored on USS Alabama at 1258, but the IJNs gunnery was erratic due to the range and hits were few. At 1306 the USN line turned to open their broadsides, forming a single line of eight ships angling slightly towards the Japanese.

The lighter ships, meanwhile, had their own fight. Here the US was the first to open fire, the initial salvo from the USS Boston actually straddling Kumano at 1252. At 1311 the US screen ceased fire, due mainly to lack of targets – while a few of the IJN cruisers and destroyers still lived, smoke from their burning consorts completely obscured them. The Japanese had simply been smothered under high-rate, devastatingly well directed fire. USS Quincy, USS Columbia, USS Philadelphia, and USS St. Louis had been seriously damaged and six destroyers had been sunk, but the Japanese had lost four heavy cruisers, five light cruisers, and seven destroyers sunk and most of the rest crippled. USS Quincy would eventually sink while being towed back to Pearl Harbor.

While the lighter ships hammered at each other, the battle lines ponderously closed.

At 1308 USS South Dakota veered out of line, both her bridge and rudder destroyed.

At 1309 Hyuga lost all power.

At 1311 a shell from Iowa slipped though a pair of armor plates deformed by previous hits and found Musashi’s aft 18” magazine and half the ship vanished in a tremendous explosion.

At 1312 Kirishima fired her last shot; she had been pounded into floating scrap by USS North Carolina and USS Washington.

At 1313 USS Alabama, fires raging out of control, flooded her forward magazines and turned to withdraw from the line.

At 1314 Ise ceased fire as her last turret was knocked out by USS Massachusetts.

At 1315 a 5” magazine on Nagato exploded, followed seconds later by another, and her damage control center ordered all magazines flooded in a panic. Her main battery fired its last rounds and then went silent. Only Yamato and Shinano were still firing at the US, while six US battleships returned fire.

At 1317 Kirishima broke in half, her structure fatally weakened by fires, explosions, and flooding.

At 1318 a shell from USS New Jersey sprayed steel splinters across Yamato’ flag bridge, killing Admiral Yamamoto instantly.

At 1320 Yamato and Shinano turned away, their rear turrets firing parting shots.

At 1322 Spruance ordered the US battleline to turn to pursue. As they did, USS Indiana lost helm control and rammed USS North Carolina, seriously damaging both ships.

As the Japanese fled USS Gridley and USS Maury, closing from the north, fired sixteen torpedoes at the fleeing Japanese superbattleships, turned hard to open their other beam and fired sixteen more. The Japanese ships, their upper works shredded and still under fire from four US battleships, did not notice the torpedoes until the first hit. Eight fish hit Yamato, and seven hit Shinano, all on their starboard sides near the waterline. The two ships began listing almost immediately and soon capsized. Ise and Nagato were pounded under the waves by the US battleline, while Hyuga was finished off by torpedoes from USS Walker.

Throughout the afternoon, fleeing destroyers and cruisers were hunted down by follow-up strikes from the US carriers.

By sunset on the 20th, the Imperial Japanese Navy had been destroyed. Sixty-three warships had sailed to battle. Only five limped back to Truk – the battered survivors of the Carrier Force.