Which crazy thing that USS San Francisco did does this represent?

ithekro said:

Which crazy thing that USS San Francisco did does this represent?

My guess would be the Naval Battle of Guadacanal, aka "San Francisco getting the living daylight knocked out of her by Hiei and Kirishima at Point Blank range (2300m)."

The only reason she didn't sink outright after being bombarded by two FBB was because both of them were bombarding Henderson Field with Type 3 Shells and forgot to switch to AP shells before San Francisco managed to run away.

Had to ask because there wasn't just one crazy thing this ship did during the war.

AdventZero said:

My guess would be the Naval Battle of Guadacanal, aka "San Francisco getting the living daylight knocked out of her by Hiei and Kirishima at Point Blank range (2300m)."

The only reason she didn't sink outright after being bombarded by two FBB was because both of them were bombarding Henderson Field with Type 3 Shells and forgot to switch to AP shells before San Francisco managed to run away.

You also forgot: beating the daylights out of Hiei and a whole lot of other cruisers and destroyers.

This kind of implies she was going in deliberately. In actuality, the USN forces were basically blindsided due to poor coordination and leadership, even though they had detected IJN forces first using radar because the Admiral didn't understand/trust radar, and wanted to get a visual, instead... at night in a rainstorm.

Therefore, when a certain elephant lady turned on her night light to help the fleet, lighting up Atlanta, the two sides were at nearly minimum range from one another, and it was a bloody brawl.

If any ship deserves credit for ludicrous/suicidal bravery, it's Laffey, which actually sailed so close to Hiei, Laffey was inside Hiei's gun depression, so Hiei couldn't fire back, at which point Laffey started shelling Hiei like crazy. (I believe Fletcher and battle lunatic O'Bannon were other destroyers that similarly charged the battleship that night. In spite of O'Bannon charging to point-blank, to the best of my knowledge, no potatoes were thrown that day.) The confusion it caused also is responsible for "dojikko" Samidare shooting Hiei by mistake.