What Happened to the Admiral Who Died 10 Days After Japan Surrendered?

November 14, 1942. Iron Bottom Sound, off Savo Island. Two American admirals have already died here in 48 hours. The Marines on Guadalcanal are running out of food. And Vice Admiral William Halsey has sent the one officer the US Navy almost benched as "too academic" to do what neither Callaghan nor Scott could. Vice Admiral Willis A. "Ching" Lee was a 1920 Olympic gold medalist, an Anti-Aircraft Defense Board chairman, and the Director of Fleet Training Division when Pearl Harbor was attacked. He had never commanded a battleship in his life. Eight months later, on the flag bridge of USS Washington (BB-56), he was about to fight the only American battleship-versus-battleship night gunnery duel of the entire Pacific War. The Japanese force racing south to bombard Henderson Field was built around the battleship Kirishima — 40,000 tons, eight 14-inch guns, escorted by cruisers and 9 destroyers under Vice Admiral Nobutake Kondō. Lee had two battleships and four destroyers. Three of those destroyers would be sunk within nine minutes of contact. USS South Dakota would lose electrical power in the worst possible moment. This is the story of what Willis Lee did next. Of the 7-minute gun duel that followed. Of the wire-rimmed glasses blown off his face by his own first salvo. And of how the man Washington considered a desk officer became the admiral the Imperial Japanese Navy understood before his own service ever did. If you or a family member served in the Pacific Theater during World War II, please share their name and unit in the comments below so their legacy is never forgotten. SOURCES: Paul Stillwell, Battleship Commander: The Life of Vice Admiral Willis A. Lee Jr. (Naval Institute Press, 2021) James D. Hornfischer, Neptune's Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal (Bantam, 2011) Samuel Eliot Morison, The Struggle for Guadalcanal (Vol. 5) Naval History and Heritage Command — Lee biographical file: https://www.history.navy.mil/research... US Naval Institute, Naval History Magazine, April 2022 — Stillwell interview: https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-... CHAPTERS: 0:00 - The Scientist On The Bridge 2:11 - The Olympic Shooter Washington Almost Benched 5:03 - Two Nights That Changed Everything 8:01 - Seven Minutes Off Savo Island 12:35 - The Way Home — Casco Bay, August 1945 ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ Subscribe to @NostalgicWarStoriesOfficial for authentic WWII documentaries with verified military history. #AdmiralWillisLee #NavalBattleOfGuadalcanal #USSWashington #WWIIPacific #PacificWar #MilitaryHistory #UntoldHistory #WWIIHistory