Last mission: Ayanami's final mission, on November 14–15, 1942, was that of the Second Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. There, she was attached to a scouting force under the command of Rear Admiral Shintarō Hashimoto in the light cruiser Sendai. When American Admiral Willis A. Lee's Task Force 64 was spotted near Savo Island, Hashimoto took his ships clockwise around the island, but sent Ayanami alone in the opposite direction sweeping for enemy vessels. When Lee's ships were located, the order to attack was given, and as such, Ayanami became one of three prongs in the initial attack (Along with Hashimoto's group, and another group led by Rear Admiral Susumu Kimura in the light cruiser Nagara).
Ayanami was first sighted by the American destroyer USS Walke (DD-416), but the light cruiser Nagara was located soon after and the four destroyers' attentions shifted to it. Fire from Ayanami, Nagara, and Uranami sank two of the four destroyers (USS Preston (DD-379) and USS Walke), mortally wounded USS Benham (DD-397) (which was scuttled after the battle), and severely damaged the USS Gwin (DD-433), causing heavy American losses in the first phase of the battle. Ayanami also caused heavy damage to the battleship USS South Dakota (BB-57), along with repeated gunfire from Kirishima. However Itself taking several disabling blows from the USS South Dakota (BB-57).
Lee's USS Washington (BB-56) then sighted Ayanami and shelled her further. The Japanese destroyer sustained critical damage and 27 of her crew were killed; she fired one shell, which missed Washington. Thirty surviving crew members including Commander Sakuma escaped in a boat to Guadalcanal; the remainder were taken off by Uranami. At the same time Washington crippled and sank the battleship Kirishima. Later in the night Uranami scuttled the abandoned Ayanami with a single torpedo, and she sank soon after 02:00. Her wreck remains at the bottom of Ironbottom Sound. Despite the shelling from the Washington she had already taken a 3 fatal blows from the South Dakota. As a result the South Dakota is credited with the sinking.
On 12 December 1942, Ayanami was removed from the navy list
Last mission: Ayanami's final mission, on November 14–15, 1942, was that of the Second Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. There, she was attached to a scouting force under the command of Rear Admiral Shintarō Hashimoto in the light cruiser Sendai. When American Admiral Willis A. Lee's Task Force 64 was spotted near Savo Island, Hashimoto took his ships clockwise around the island, but sent Ayanami alone in the opposite direction sweeping for enemy vessels. When Lee's ships were located, the order to attack was given, and as such, Ayanami became one of three prongs in the initial attack (Along with Hashimoto's group, and another group led by Rear Admiral Susumu Kimura in the light cruiser Nagara).
Ayanami was first sighted by the American destroyer USS Walke (DD-416), but the light cruiser Nagara was located soon after and the four destroyers' attentions shifted to it. Fire from Ayanami, Nagara, and Uranami sank two of the four destroyers (USS Preston (DD-379) and USS Walke), mortally wounded USS Benham (DD-397) (which was scuttled after the battle), and severely damaged the USS Gwin (DD-433), causing heavy American losses in the first phase of the battle. Ayanami also caused heavy damage to the battleship USS South Dakota (BB-57), along with repeated gunfire from Kirishima. However Itself taking several disabling blows from the USS South Dakota (BB-57).
Lee's USS Washington (BB-56) then sighted Ayanami and shelled her further. The Japanese destroyer sustained critical damage and 27 of her crew were killed; she fired one shell, which missed Washington. Thirty surviving crew members including Commander Sakuma escaped in a boat to Guadalcanal; the remainder were taken off by Uranami. At the same time Washington crippled and sank the battleship Kirishima. Later in the night Uranami scuttled the abandoned Ayanami with a single torpedo, and she sank soon after 02:00. Her wreck remains at the bottom of Ironbottom Sound. Despite the shelling from the Washington she had already taken a 3 fatal blows from the South Dakota. As a result the South Dakota is credited with the sinking.
On 12 December 1942, Ayanami was removed from the navy list
Where did you get that good info? Hopefully someone in the wikipedia should update it.
"Caused heavy damage" to the USS South Dakota is quite the exaggeration. Basically a lucky one-in-a-million shot knocked out the South Dakota's electrical systems and its radar, which she relied upon for fire control being a modern battleship design and was thus blind for most of the battle. South Dakota sustained little in the way of real physical damage in that fight, it just wasn't able to contribute much firepower due to the electrical outage. Washington, on the other hand, pulverized the Kirishima into a burning wreck before it was finally abandoned.
"Caused heavy damage" to the USS South Dakota is quite the exaggeration. Basically a lucky one-in-a-million shot knocked out the South Dakota's electrical systems and its radar, which she relied upon for fire control being a modern battleship design and was thus blind for most of the battle. South Dakota sustained little in the way of real physical damage in that fight, it just wasn't able to contribute much firepower due to the electrical outage. Washington, on the other hand, pulverized the Kirishima into a burning wreck before it was finally abandoned.
Actually, Ayanami scored some few hits against South Dakota, then Kirishima fired a total of 117 shells from her main guns and several from her secondary turrets, 1 AP shell struck South Dakota's No. 3 Turret, Takao and Atago also fired their guns against South Dakota and took 17 8-inch shells, 5 6-inch and 1 5-inch from the cruisers which badly damaged her infrastructure though her armor pretty much withstand all the beating. The battle did knocked down her radar, disabled her communications cables, shattered her radar plot, put out her gun directors and destroyed four of her six fire-control radars.
South Dakota is still lucky in this fight since none of the Type-93 torpedoes which fired by the destroyers and the cruisers struck her.