Crammed with 1,317 POWs from Singapore and unmarked with a red cross or any other indication that prisoners were on board, the Rakuyo Maru was torpedoed by Sealion on September 11, 1944. Japanese escort vessels rescued surviving crew members, but left most of the POWs to die in the water. At 7:00, Commander Ernest E. Evans of the destroyer Johnston responded to Japanese shell fire on the carriers of the group he was escorting by laying down a protective smokescreen and zigzagging. After knocking two cruisers out of the fight, Johnston retreated as Japanese fire increased in intensity, yet not a single shell hit the victorious destroyer. Three first salvo 18.1-inch (46 cm) shells hit Johnston aft below the waterline, cutting her speed to 17 knots and destroying her 5-inch (127 mm) turrets 3, 4, and 5. Immediately afterwards, three first salvo 6.1-inch (155 mm) shells from Yamato's secondary battery tore into the destroyer, one hitting aft and destroying an AA director, while two hit the torpedo director and bridge, causing numerous casualties and severing the fingers of Commander Evans's left hand. Across the Bannockburn bridge, 9kms south of Cromwell is a tortured yet beautiful landscape sculpted by miners in their sluicing for gold from 1862-1910. Water races, dams, tunnels, shafts and crumbling cobb and stone buildings are fascinating features found on a walk around these Bannockburn diggings.

Destroyers from Taffy 2 to the south also found themselves under shellfire, but as they were spotted by Gambier Bay, which had signaled for their assistance, they were ordered back to protect their own carriers. I sent it right back. Their lack of armor allowed armor-piercing rounds to pass right through without exploding, until the Japanese gunners switched to high-explosive (HE) shells, which caused much more damage. The Japanese ships targeted Johnston and soon shell splashes were bracketing the destroyer. With the attempts by Johnston and Hoel to halt the Japanese dealt with for the time being, the fleet continued to close the range on the American french escort girl london carriers. Johnston closed to 10,300 yard, swerved to broadside, and dumped all ten of her torpedoes into the water. Hoel began a long sprint to get into firing position for their torpedoes. In March 1945, the SS John Howard Payne, was requested by radio to locate and assist possible survivors of an Army plane which had crashed at a given location in the Pacific Ocean seventy miles distant from the ship's position. Haguro's first salvo scored a pair of 8-inch (203 mm) shell hits to Hoel's bridge and rangefinder, destroying her mark 37 director, FD radar, PPI scope, machine gun control, and all voice radio communications.

Just after 08:00, Haguro switched fire to the Kalinin Bay and in running gunnery duel in which Tone joined in, Kalinin Bay was hit by three 8-inch (203 mm) - two hitting the stern and one hitting the bow - while Haguro in turn took two hits from Kalinin Bay's lone 5-inch (127 mm) gun that damaged her radio transmitter and communication cables. However, solid hits were scored by 08:50 as Haruna fired on an enemy "destroyer" at 17,000 yards and claimed a hit after two salvos were fired before rain squalls blinded her. June 8: More than 1,500 British sailors perish when German ships sink the aircraft carrier Glorious and its escort of two destroyers. The ship was mangled badly, with dead and dying sailors strewn across her bloody decks. Effective damage control and redundancy in propulsion and power systems kept them running and fighting even after they had absorbed dozens of hits before they sank, although the decks would be littered with the dead and the seriously wounded.

Haguro fired on the escort carrier Fanshaw Bay at 17,200 yards and landed a pair of 8-inch (203 mm) hits to her forward flight deck, before briefly firing on Heermann. One of Nagato's 16.1-inch (41 cm) shells hit below her bridge alongside a flurry of 5.5-inch (14 cm) and 6.1-inch (155 mm) secondary shell hits destroying her forward engine room and generator, shredding her superstructure, and causing a 10 degree list to port. The rough estimation of the fall of the shell hits was 21,000 yards and 18 degrees; Yamato was at 20,300 yards at 17.5 degrees. Yamato and Nagato located Hoel and took her under fire; Nagato with all her guns at 9,400 yards and Yamato with her secondary battery at 6,300 yards. A dual-purpose system, the Mark 37's gunfire radar and antiaircraft capabilities allowed the destroyers' guns to remain on target despite poor visibility and their own radical evasive maneuvering. Each had five single-mounted 5-inch (127 mm) guns and several light antiaircraft guns, none of which were effective against armored warships. Since the torpedoes had a range of only about 5.5 nmi (6.3 mi; 10.2 km), they were best used at night: during daylight, an attack on heavy warships would have to pass through a gauntlet of shellfire that could reach out to 25 nmi (29 mi; 46 km).