A now-deceased navigation officer on the cruiser Kumano saw the signals and felt quite annoyed. But he (and his fellow officers) decided not to mention it in the official battle report.
The fire-eating and impetuous Admiral William "Bull" Halsey reportedly once remarked if there was a Japanese ship he could feel sorry for at all, it would be the Kumano.
”Now I am not capable of towing you.Excuse Me.”KumanoHow it sounds like for Kumano:
Well, actually I really really wanted to tow Kumano back home to the mainland. But I'm also struggling here. So for the time being, I'll allow myself to run away from hereFollowing Aoba, a few days ago she had also been critically damaged by a submarine and after emergency repairs, in her current condition she could only muster up to 5kn.
...but that last line is really unnecessary...When they're returning to mainland Japan, Kumano was hit by torpedoes from an American submarine and got damaged enough to be incapacitated to sail. Aoba sent a message in flashing lights to her...
6 November 1944