Another one for the history buffs- a few days ago, the research vessel RV
Petrel, operated by a research foundation started by the late Paul Allen, located the wreck of
HIJMS Hiei, the first Japanese battleship sunk in the Second World War in over 1200' of water, to the northwest of Savo Island.
https://news.usni.org/2019/02/06/40942
https://www.facebook.com/pg/rvpetrel/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2185795551455914
Hiei was sunk during the
First Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. On the night of November 12-13, 1942, a Japanese task force consisting of
Hiei, her sister
Kirishima, a light cruiser, and 11 destroyers was on a mission to bombard the American positions at Henderson Field on the island of Guadalcanal in order to cover a convoy landing supplies & reinforcements for the Japanese forces on the island, when it was intercepted by a hastily assembled American force of 2 heavy cruisers, 3 light cruisers, and 8 destroyers at a point between Guadalcanal and Savo Island. Between a rain squall, a complex Japanese formation, and multiple miscues on the parts of both commanders, the engagement rapidly degenerated into a wild melee fought at point-blank range, which saw 2 Japanese and 4 American destroyers sunk, one American light cruiser crippled to the point she had to be scuttled, and all the rest of the American ships except for 1 light cruiser and 2 destroyers badly damaged and combat ineffective (the other light cruiser was picked off by a Japanese submarine a few days later,) while the Japanese, in addition to the two destroyers sunk, suffered severe damage to
Hiei and a destroyer, moderate damage to 4 other destroyers, and light or no damage to their remaining ships. However, the American force had succeeded in preventing the bombardment and forced the Japanese to delay their reinforcement operation.
Hiei, in addition to having her superstructure shot to pieces from 5" shells, anti-aircraft autocannon, and even small arms fire from several American destroyers that passed close by the battleship, sometimes even within pistol range, was also dueled by the heavy cruiser
San Francisco at a range of a little over a mile and a half, and suffered several penetrating hits from 8" shells, one of which penetrated the steering gear compartment and knocked out the primary steering gear. It took several hours for
Hiei's crew to get the backup steering gear operational, by which time the sun had rose, and being thus exposed, was subjected to repeated air attacks from American aircraft- Marine bombers from Henderson Field, Navy aircraft from the carrier
Enterprise, and even USAAF B-17s based out of Espiritu Santo- which scored multiple bomb hits that knocked out the backup gear, as well as several jury-rigged repairs and backups. In addition, the battleship was likely hit by two torpedoes, which may have damaged the engines on top of causing serious flooding. After several hours of arguments during the attacks, between
Hiei's captain and the task force commander over whether to continue trying to save the battleship, or to abandon and scuttle her, the task force commander finally orders the ship abandoned a little after 3:30 PM local time, but the captain does not agree to follow the order until some two hours later and another air attack that damages a destroyer rendering assistance. Another hour passes, and the abandonment of the battleship is well underway, when the Japanese commander-in-chief, Adm. Yamamoto hears about it, and countermands the order to scuttle
Hiei, hoping to use the hulk as a decoy to draw off further air attacks, but it is unclear as to whether the scuttling ever took place. (Given the relatively poor watertight integrity and vulnerability to flooding-caused instability of the
Kongo-class, the analysis of the sinking at combinedfleet.com suggests that whether or not a scuttling was attempted would have been irrelevant, and the implication is that the only way
Hiei would not have sank as a result of the air attacks would have been to have beached her.) The abandoned
Hiei sank unobserved a few hours later- a force of Japanese destroyers making a sweep through the area around 1 AM saw no sign of her. 188 of her crew were killed in the battle.
The Japanese would make another attempt to bombard Henderson in order to cover a reinforcement convoy using the remaining operational ships of the first attempt, reinforced by 2 heavy cruisers, an additional light cruiser, and 4 destroyers, only to be intercepted by another American force, this time consisting of 2 battleships and 4 destroyers. At the expense of 3 destroyers sunk and the 4th destroyer, as well as one battleship suffering significant damage, the Japanese were again repulsed with the loss of a destroyer and the battleship
Kirishima, blasted into a wreck by several devastatingly accurate salvos from USS
Washington. Despite the failure of the second bombardment operation, the Japanese went ahead with the attempt to land the supplies and reinforcements, only to have their transports shot to pieces by American aircraft and a destroyer that had been held out of the night action after dawn. The wreck of
Kirishima was located during the early 1990s during an expedition by Bob Ballard to search for the warships sunk off Guadalcanal, though until the discovery of
Hiei, there was some debate over which battleship the wreck found by Dr. Ballard was in naval history circles.
Hiei in Tokyo Bay, July, 1942.
Hiei being bombed by B-17s of the 11th Bombardment Group on November 13, 1942, taken from one of the attacking aircraft.