Here's one for me because I like ships.
2nd Night Battle of Guadalcanal, November 14th/15th 1942. This is one of two times that the US Navy ever engaged in a Battleship vs Battleship action (the second at Surigao Strait in 1944, 6 Battleships versus 1 Battleship and several Heavy Cruisers, again on radar-directed fire control at night. That was a turkey shoot).
The Japs had mauled us badly at Guadalcanal, and the Navy ended up losing 3x more men keeping the Marines supplied than the Marines actually lost on Guadalcanal. Including the worst defeat ever suffered by the USN at sea, the Battle of Savo Island. That action saw the loss of 2 Admirals, Cunningham, who didn't seem to understand the implications of Radar, and Norman Scott, who tragically did but was under Cunningham's command. The IJN tore off a piece of the Navy's ass and handed it to us. Not to mention several instances of vicious friendly fire USN vs USN. I mean Heavy Cruisers spotting Destroyers and Light Cruisers at near point-blank range in the dark, and blasting them down with broadside after broadside of 8" guns.
The First Battle of Guadalcanal saw the Japanese bring Hiei and Kirishima, two improved Battlecruisers converted to Fast Battleships. The American Heavy Cruisers managed to set Hiei on fire and she had to be scuttled early the next morning, but still the USN's losses mounted, and fast.
The Navy finally had enough, and the Marines were eating captured Japanese rice infested with maggots, just like in the miniseries The Pacific. When the Japs started bringing Battleships along with the Tokyo Express down 'The Slot' to bombard Henderson Field, which the Marines had to go out and rebuild nearly ever single morning, the Navy Brass finally decided to deploy two of their precious Fast Battleships to decide the issue.
These were the South Dakota and Washington. The SoDak was brand-new, and suffered the usual teething problems. One of which was the propensity of a 5"/38 mount to trip it's mount breakers. So an Electrician Division Officer decided to physically tie the breaker in place On. Yep.
Of course the night action began and the South Dakota started firing on Japanese ships with her secondaries, the range was so close, and the 5" mount tripped the breaker, which didn't release, and the short-circuit traveled up to the main panel and shut the ship down. Total dark, all power lost.
Now the USS Washington is steaming in Ironbottom Sound, with dozens of afloat contacts, flashes all over the place, two land contacts in Savo Island and Guadalcanal itself, and no idea where either the Kirishima or the SoDak is at. She has two big blooms on her radar, but which one is the Kirishima and which one the South Dakota? It's total chaos, Washington is steaming through a graveyard of burning and disabled US Destroyers, the Japs are mauling us again.
Finally, the Kirishima spots SoDak's fires, and illuminates her with enormous spotlights, and opens fire with 14". The rest of the Japanese ships follow suit. While the Kirishima and a couple of Heavy Cruisers and several Destroyers open on SoDak, peppering her with 8" and smaller shells, and at least one 14" strike on her aft turret barbette, the Washington lays her plot, totally unseen and unknown by the Japanese. The Washington has her target.
At 8400 yards or 5 Statute Miles, she opens with 16" at 12:03 AM the morning of 15th November, and ceases fire with main battery at 12:10 AM. In that 7 minutes, she manages to get 20 16" hits on Kirishima using radar-directed fire control and a fire control computer. Firing out of the dark.
20 16" hits on one ship in 7 minutes is one of the most violent gunfire actions in the history of warfare. It's point-blank range. The 2,700 lb armor-piercing shells are still traveling 2,000 mph when they strike Kirishima. Her bridge is wrecked, several underwater hits open her to flooding, the rudder control is shot away, she's set on fire, and virtually all over her topside is wrecked.
One 16" shell will open a 50-foot wide, 20-foot deep crater on a beach. The armor piercing shells will penetrate 30 feet of reinforced concrete. To concentrate that much destruction x20 on one ship, even a Battleship, is destruction beyond comprehension.
The Japanese cease the action, and so do the Americans. South Dakota is mauled with 36 dead, but she's seaworthy and not terribly damaged. The 14" hit on her barbette jams the turret, but overall she's relatively unscathed and fully capable of battle (as long as proper electrical procedures are followed). The Japanese are left to retreat and scuttle an already-sinking Kirishima on the other side of Savo Island, while the Americans lick their wounds. It's the first real victory for US surfaces forces over the Japanese and marks the turning of the Guadalcanal campaign. The Japanese won't attempt a resupply or bombardment in force again, and with confidence in their supply lines, the emboldened Marines build on their victories and begin real offensives that eventually clear the island of Japanese by early 1943.
Taking South Dakota and Washington and applying them to a night battle in Ironbottom Sound is sort of like taking a fine-tuned, large athlete like Tom Brady and sending him into a dark alley to have a knife-fight with Ninjas. It's a huge risk, with Long Lance torpedoes darting around, nobody knowing WTF is going on, and the Japanese having all of the night-fighting skills and advantages. But they do it, and win, and it's a savage victory. Those Fast Battleships were supposed to be shepherding the precious Carriers, of which the Navy was running out in late 1942. At one point, the USS Enterprise is the sole operational Carrier in the entire South Pacific.
But the Washington pulls it off, and this is supposedly a photograph of her firing on Kirishima in that action
Thanks for your service. 07 
