Keating didn’t know it yet, but the Nicholson had been dealt a near fatal blow. The guns were not those of a typical heavy cruiser at 8 inches, but the new 12.2-inch main battery of the Amagi Class. Nicholson’s boilers were hit, the white steam hissing out with a wail, scalding three men unlucky enough to be close at hand. That was going to see her speed fall off dramatically, leaving her to wallow in the sea and take whatever else the Japanese could throw at her, and with little chance of surviving the encounter. The rounds that struck aft had also wrecked her depth charge racks, and two of her four 127mm gun turrets were also out of action with the fires and smoke obscuring all.
Thankfully, Keating was not alone, but he knew he was in a very bad situation now. Behind him, the lead ship in Lee’s line was the Atlanta Class light AA cruiser San Juan. That ship was bristling with sixteen 127mm dual purpose guns, and many more lighter caliber AA weapons.
Captain James Maher saw the dark smoke rising into the clearing skies before he got the sighting report. A battle was underway before they knew one was coming. He gave the order all ahead flank, and came charging to the rescue, not really knowing what the Nicholson had encountered until the signalman came in with the report. He was some ten nautical miles from the enemy ships, barely able to make them out in the distance. But off to the northwest, the second Atlanta Class CLAA, San Diego, was also vectoring in on the action, and now he saw that ship was under fire, barely able to make out the tall sea spray of falling rounds.
Whatever was out there had to be big, with guns large enough to have the range to engage San Diego. Maher turned to his signalman and told him to notify Lee. “Tell him we confirm two large capital ships bearing 330, and they just blew the Nicholson to hell.”
Reports were coming in flurries. Captain Russell Berkey was on the San Diego, already in action from the northwest against the Amagi, and now both those ships were taking hits. But Amagi was in another weight class compared to the US cruisers. San Diego and San Juan displaced just under 8500 tons, with belt armor no more than 95mm at its thickest point, and only 32mm on the deck and turrets. The Amagi was rightfully classed as a light battlecruiser, displacing 12,000 tons, and armed with three triple 12.2-inch main gun turrets. She might even stand with the likes of the older British ships like Renown and Repulse, and certainly had more throw weight than those ships, even if the British battlecruisers had 15-inch guns.
Amagi was taking hits from the sheer volume of fire being pumped out by San Diego, which had lost one of her 127mm turrets, with a second damaged, but still had ten more of those gun tubes in action. But Amagi had twice the armor at 210mm, and she was shrugging off many of those hits. When San Diego got walloped, the heavier 12.2-inch shells were doing a great deal of harm, forcing Captain Perry to order a sharp turn to come about and attempt to break off. He realized he was tangling with something more than a heavy cruiser, and at that time, had no knowledge that a ship like the Amagi even existed. Few did, for this was the Shadow Fleet.
With Nicholson sinking, and San Diego beaten off, Amagi was about to turn its guns on the San Juan, when large caliber rounds began arcing in to stir up large dollops in the sea. Lee had given the order to his lead battleship, South Dakota, and she was firing by radar with her two forward main gun turrets. Lee was getting the reports from his lead ship, and now he wanted San Juan to turn and disengage.
“Whatever it is,” he said, “the cruisers have no business with it. Does Washington have the range yet?”
“Sir, they report no visual contact, but they do have radar.”
“Then tell them to use it and double team that enemy contact with South Dakota, we should be in range in a few minutes ourselves.”
Five US ships had now engaged Amagi, and all this time she had served to screen off the battleship Hiraga, which was following about a mile behind. It was South Dakota weighing in that set the battle off in a new direction. Her 16-inch guns had more than enough power to hurt the battlecruiser, and she did. A round struck aft where the 324mm triple torpedo tube was mounted, and set all three off in a massive explosion. The resulting damage and fire aft on Amagi had an immediate effect on her speed. She signaled Hiraga for a turn to port, intending to try and get out of range of those heavy guns, and this prompted Captain Tomaya on the Hiraga to come to 000 north to make room for Amagi to maneuver.
That was going to take Tomaya’s ship out of the action temporarily, the heavy smoke put off by Amagi serving to mask the enemy ships that were now moving into action. He could see the enemy on radar, but at this point, the Japanese used that system for long range spotting, and not fire control. Yet he was wise enough to know it was not a cruiser that had done this, and signaled to Admiral Kurita aboard Satsuma that he now believed two enemy battleships were bearing on the Mataso Strait. He was wrong. There were three enemy battleships, but his radar had not yet picked up the Indiana.
Kurita was now steering 045 towards the Amagi, and her nine 16-inch guns were already being trained on South Dakota, firing long range at the distant silhouette only now discernable on the horizon. Hiraga was making a loop to come about and rejoin the action, and the second battlecruiser, Kagami, was following Satsuma’s wake, about three miles behind.
The main event was now about to begin. Amagi had her way in the overture, sinking the US destroyer and beating up a pair of AA cruisers, but she was overmatched when South Dakota struck her that heavy blow. Now the battleships would square off against one another in the first such action of the war.
Aboard Satsuma, Admiral Kurita was eager to get into action, though he was surprised to encounter such a strong enemy force here. He had been detached by Nagumo and ordered to move south to Efate and support the landing of the 79th Regiment of 20th Division. If enemy carriers were spotted by any of his float planes, he was to abort the mission and withdraw north towards Luganville, which was now the principle Japanese air base in the New Hebrides.
The Americans have been operating their battleships with the carriers, he thought. And so when the carriers withdrew, I assumed the battleships would have gone with them. But it now seems that the American Admiral Halsey has read Nagumo’s mind. This enemy surface action group can have but one purpose, to attack our beaches in the north of Efate, or to destroy any transports lingering in the bay off Port Havana. Amagi has given the enemy a good fight, but now she reports heavy shell damage, and flooding aft. What was Captain Tomaya on Hiraga doing all that time? I must get Satsuma into action immediately.
He could already see the long guns on the triple 16-inch turrets turning, elevating, ready to fire their next spotting salvos. The range was very long now, too far to expect a hit on the enemy, but at least he could announce his presence, a bold Samurai warrior coming on the scene, and drawing his sword. Up north, he had done nothing but watch helplessly as those incredible rocket weapons flew past his battleships, but there was no sign of that here. The strange AA cruiser, Takami, had been ordered to break off and steam to Yokohama, and that, too, was most unusual.