Why Japan Never Saw This US Navy Battleship Coming

At midnight in Ironbottom Sound, USS Washington became the last American battleship still standing. The night before, a disastrous naval battle off Guadalcanal had left American cruisers and destroyers burning across the water while Japanese bombardment forces prepared to return and finish the job. If the Japanese managed to destroy Henderson Field, they could regain control of the skies over Guadalcanal and potentially reverse the entire Pacific campaign. Admiral William Halsey had almost nothing left to stop them. So he sent two battleships into some of the worst waters imaginable for capital ships. USS Washington and USS South Dakota entered Ironbottom Sound alongside four destroyers that had barely trained together. The waters were narrow, filled with islands, torpedo threats, wrecks, and confusion. Even Halsey believed the area was utterly unsuited for battleship combat in darkness. But Rear Admiral Willis “Ching Chong China” Lee had spent months preparing Washington for exactly this kind of fight. While many officers still distrusted radar, Lee treated it as the ship’s primary weapon. Then the Japanese arrived. Vice Admiral Kondo’s force included cruisers, destroyers, and the battleship Kirishima, armed with 14-inch guns and escorted by deadly Long Lance torpedoes capable of silently crossing miles of ocean before impact. Within minutes of contact, the American destroyer screen was annihilated. USS Walke was blown apart by a torpedo. Preston exploded into flames. Benham was crippled. Gwin fell out of the fight. And then everything went wrong aboard South Dakota. An electrical failure knocked out her radar, communications, and fire-control systems almost simultaneously. Moments later, Japanese searchlights found the burning battleship, and nearly every enemy ship in the area opened fire on her at once. Shells ripped through her upper decks while fires spread across the superstructure. South Dakota survived, but only barely, limping southward while drawing the full attention of the Japanese fleet. Hidden in darkness off the enemy’s flank, Washington remained unseen. For over twenty minutes, Willis Lee watched a massive radar contact tracking across his screen at only 8,400 yards — nearly point-blank range for a battleship. But there was one problem: a known blind spot in Washington’s radar meant the contact might still be the damaged South Dakota. Lee waited in silence while the battle burned around him. Then Japanese searchlights illuminated South Dakota. Lee took one final drag from his cigarette and gave the order to fire. USS Washington unleashed one of the most devastating radar-guided battleship attacks of World War II. Her 16-inch guns smashed directly into Kirishima’s bridge and superstructure while star shells lit the Japanese formation from above. Salvo after salvo hammered the battleship in darkness so complete that many Japanese crews never understood where the fire was coming from. In roughly seven minutes, Washington fired 75 rounds of 16-inch ammunition and more than 100 rounds from her secondary battery. Shells skipped off the water and punched beneath Kirishima’s waterline, flooding her boilers and destroying the ship from within. Through the entire battle, Washington was never hit once. By dawn, Kirishima was sinking beneath the waters of Ironbottom Sound. It was the last time in history a Japanese battleship would ever be sunk by another battleship’s guns. And after that night, Japan would never seriously threaten Guadalcanal again. -- As images and footage of actual events are not always available, Dark Seas sometimes utilizes similar historical images and footage for dramatic effect. I do my best to keep it as visually accurate as possible. All content on Dark Seas is researched, produced, and presented in historical context for educational purposes. We are history enthusiasts and are not always experts in some areas, so please don't hesitate to reach out to us with corrections, additional information, or new ideas.