The bombardment of the Henderson airfield in the night of October 13, 1942 carried by Kongou and Haruna was one of the successful actions carried by the IJN during the Guadalcanal campaign: the Americans lost much of their planes and aviation fuel, and both runways were damaged, allowing the Japanese to send reinforcements unopposed the next morning.
It was a short-lived triumph for the Japanese however. The Americans managed to restore one of Henderson's runways into working order in a few hours. And over the next weeks, fuel, aircrews and replacement aircraft were successfully delivered to Guadalcanal, making the airfield operational once again.
Shortage of fuel was a probable reason why Yamamoto did not ordered a constant bombardment of the Henderson airfield: such operation could take weeks before Henderson airfield was either completely destroyed or captured by ground troops.
From the Japanese point of view, Guadalcanal had become a frustrating campaign of attrition, where the decisive results they were desperately seeking weren't showing up, as Vice-admiral Matome Ugaki wrote in his diary: "It's infuriating -- we shoot them down and we shoot them down, but they only send in more.".
Kongou SongImperial Japanese Navy ships each have their own songs. These are songs made with love by the crews to their ships.
Because it's not famous, almost no records are left, though. My song, "Warship Kongou" survived through records sold before the Pacific War. Everyone, listen to it okay!I'm Kongou, constructed during the Dreadnought Shock in 1913.
I pride myself with the world's first 35.6 cm guns and maximum speed of 27.5 knots and at that time I'm the fastest and strongest super dreadnought in the world.
Although an old battleship, through multiple modernizations and design changes, I managed to get maximum speed of 30 knots!
My operational distance also jumps!The Old Face who fought in two world wars
