On the night of 12-13 September 1942 The IJN sent a supply convoy south to Guadalcanal and had the Escort bombard Bloody Ridge while they were there, to support the Army efforts to hold the ridge over looking the airfield. There had been no meaningful counter-fire from the Americans on the island, so none was expected. The plan was to close to within 6,000 meters [6560 yards] of the coast and commence rapid fire as they cruised by, then come about and repeat the bombardment before escorting the supply ships back up the slot.
Unknown to the Japanese, the US Navy had landed 4x 5”/51 coast defense guns on the beach and that the Marines had manually moved these 11,000 pound guns into emplacements to the left and right of Lunga Point over 10 days, as the Navy had not unloaded the prime movers or cranes to set them up. The rangefinders were also jury rigged as the mounts for those had not been unloaded either. Regardless, by the night of 12-13 September the Marines had one operational gun to the west of Lunga point (Battery B ) and two set up to the East (Battery C). The Marines should have the ability to fire illumination rounds out to 8,000 yards. Use the stardard US 5” firing chart, but do not use rapid fire.
The CL Sendai led the DDs Shirayuki, Fubuki and Suzukaze* in to conduct the bombardment and discovered the change in defense.
* For Suzukaze use a 1941-43 Fubuki class DD chart with three twin turrets.
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