3 Allied TFs went in this one had bombardment orders, the other two had surface combat orders. Inspite of being the slowest moving of the 3 the US BB TF made first contact and a huge fight resulted. There were 3 rounds of combat in the first clash:
Japanese Ships
BB Mutsu, Shell hits 13, on fire
BB Ise, Shell hits 3, on fire
BB Hyuga
CA Mogami
CA Mikuma, Shell hits 1
CA Kinugasa
CA Furutaka, Shell hits 4, on fire
CA Kako
CL Kinu
CL Kiso
CL Oi, Shell hits 2
CL Yubari, Shell hits 1
DD Shinonome, Shell hits 1
DD Usugumo
DD Shirayuki
DD Sagiri
DD Yugiri, Shell hits 1
DD Ushio
Allied Ships
BB Colorado
BB New Mexico, Shell hits 2
BB Mississippi, Shell hits 17, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CA Portland, Shell hits 1, on fire
CA Northampton, Shell hits 3, on fire
CA Canberra
CL Detroit, Shell hits 1
CL Concord
DD Edsall
DD Fox
DD Paul Jones
DD Parrott, Shell hits 4, on fire
DD Chew, Shell hits 4, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
DD Stewart
DMS Hopkins, Shell hits 6, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
DMS Lamberton, Shell hits 1, on fire
DMS Elliot, Shell hits 3, on fire
Mutsu took a lot of abuse, many of those hits were 14" shells. Mississippi was also shot to peices. The Americans also lost a few old DDs damage to the Japanese cruisers and DDs was relatively light.
The Japanese must have wanted more because after the action was broken off they two sides came back at it. This time results were more decisive:
Japanese Ships
BB Mutsu, Shell hits 19, and is sunk
BB Ise, Shell hits 9, on fire
BB Hyuga
CA Mogami
CA Mikuma, Shell hits 22, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
CA Kinugasa, Shell hits 4
CA Furutaka, Shell hits 1, on fire
CA Kako, Shell hits 1, on fire
CL Kinu, Shell hits 3
CL Kiso
CL Oi, Shell hits 2
CL Yubari, Shell hits 1
DD Shinonome, Shell hits 1
DD Usugumo
DD Shirayuki
DD Sagiri
DD Yugiri
DD Ushio
Allied Ships
BB Colorado
BB New Mexico, Shell hits 8, on fire
BB Mississippi, Shell hits 6, and is sunk
CA Portland, Shell hits 13, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CA Northampton, Shell hits 25, on fire, heavy damage
CA Canberra, Shell hits 1
CL Detroit
CL Concord
DD Edsall
DD Fox, Shell hits 9, on fire, heavy damage
DD Paul Jones
DD Parrott, on fire
DD Stewart, Shell hits 3, on fire
DMS Lamberton, Shell hits 19, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DMS Elliot, Shell hits 2, on fire
In addition to the trade of BBs Northhampton and Portland are badly damaged cripples now. It is only a guess but I believe Mikuma is also in big trouble, and Oi took several pentrating hits.
The American Cruiser TF never found the enemy but the crack Royal Navy TF with hand picked captains did, I can't post multiple pictures so that gets a seperate entry.
