It may not be a Friday, but it is still the 59th anniversary of a big surface battle in the Pacific. A Japanese Bombadement force of 2 Battleships, 1 Light Cruiser, and 9 Destroyers met an American Cruiser Taskforce consisting of 2 Heavy Cruisers, 3 Light Cruisers, and 8 Destroyers.
This battle was very brutal, for the range closed to a mere 1,000 yards before both sides opened fire, leading to a point blank brawl as both formations passed through one another. By the end, the Americans had won a Stragetic Victory, for the Japanese Bombardement mission against Henderson Field was foiled, and in addition to the 2 Japanese Destroyers sunk, and 4 Destroyers damaged, the Japanese Battleship Hiei, partly slowed by battle damage, would be sunk by American Aircraft later in the day as she withdrew from the battle area. The Americans lost 2 Heavy Cruisers heavily damaged, 2 Light Cruisers sunk with the other Heavily damaged, and 4 Destroyers sunk with one heavily damaged.

Comments?

Correction: It should be the 55th Anniversary.

You have any links to sites describing this battle?

Yes, here is one:
www.combinedfleet.com/kaigun.htm Go to the Pacific War in Maps, and click on the 3rd one down in the Guadacanal Campaign Area.

Also:
www.geocities.com/Pentago...dbatl.html

The Destroyer Laffey dueled with the Battleship Hiei at a range of 75 feet!!! Ouch.

*reads*


Anyone ever watch old movies and wish you could pop some modern stuff into battle? Like, wondering how the guys at the Alamo would have fared if they were equipped with modern firearms...

Kas: "Guns of the South"... or something like that. A friend of mine read it and said it was pretty good. It's one of those strange 'what if?' time books in which AK-47s or something somehow showed up during the civil war. Sounds silly... but I believe I also heard from one of my history teachers that it's pretty good. Not sure on the title, but if you are interested in that, I can check on it.

Yeah. Usually when they're going at it with cheap stuff that doesn't work the idea that one little modern missile could wipe out both sides occurs to me.

Or it's a really, really crappy movie, and you wish you could just drop in and SHOOT THE BLASTED HERO because he's such a moron...


Hyfe, I'll look it up, sounds interesting.

What about the reverse happening? Robots of the 25th Century, Mechwarriors, etc. Going at each other with rocks, slingshots, and Katana Swords?

I think there's some Anime series with robots and katana's. But then, there are probably about twenty score series' just like it.