Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!wuarchive!emory!att!cbnews!cbnews!military From: boulder!boulder!scottmi@ncar.UCAR.EDU (PUT YOUR NAME HERE) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: Battleships Summary: Japanese-American Battleship duels during World War Two Message-ID: <1990Oct29.024911.5945@cbnews.att.com> Date: 29 Oct 90 02:49:11 GMT References: <1990Oct24.012123.19865@cbnews.att.com> <1990Oct25.145356.29834@cbnews.att.com> Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker) Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder Lines: 37 Approved: military@att.att.com From: boulder!boulder!scottmi@ncar.UCAR.EDU (PUT YOUR NAME HERE) Off Guadalcanal the USS Washington and USS South Dakota engaged IJN Kirishima. South Dakota was crippled early in the fight when the blast from one of the 5"/38's damaged an electrical conduit, shorting the ship's entire electrical system out. Kirishima fired at South Dakota during this time, causing lots of superficial damage (no belt or turret penetrations, though.) Washington fired 75 16-inch shells at Kirishima, and nine of these hit. Wrecked by these hits, Kirishima was scuttled by its crew. At the Surigao Straits, a total of six US battleships, including California, Maryland, West Virginia, Tennessee (and I believe Idaho and Mississippi - I'm working from memory here), backed up by cruisers and destroyers, destroyed almost all of Admiral Nishimura's forces, including the battleships Fuso and Yamashiro. IJN Fuso was destroyed by torpedos from US destroyers, while IJN Yamashiro was destroyed by the overwhelming concentration of American gunfire on it (the six US battleships mounted a total of 48 14-inch and 16 16-inch guns.) Additionally, USS Massachusetts shelled the incomplete Vichy French battleship Jean Bart, (which had been firing it's few operational 15-inch guns at Allied ground formations) until its fire ceased. Jean Bart was not an operational battleship at this time, but the three Japanese battleships sunk in the two engagements mentioned above were. "Organize for Anarchy." -E. Clark