Radar, cruiser salvos, and Waller's torpedoes decide the night action

Destroyers screened the cruiser column as it entered the gulf on a dark night, navigating entirely by radar. A return initially mistaken for a navigation point separated into two contacts, and the flagship broke radio silence only when it was time to report the enemy and order fire. Montpelier, Cleveland, and Denver independently concentrated on the second ship, perhaps because it plotted more clearly. Roughly six cruiser salvos disabled Murasame before one of about five torpedoes fired by Waller hit her, after which the cruisers shifted to Minegumo. The Munda detachment first learned that a surface fight was under way when it heard Murasame explode. Denver also used a free five-inch battery against shore flashes while the main action continued. The firing lasted about thirteen minutes and no more than twenty-one minutes passed from first contact to the Japanese ceasefire.