Destroyer Ayanami

Ayanami (綾波, "Twilled Waves") was laid down at Fujinagata Shipyard in Osaka on 20 January 1928, launched on 5 October 1929, and commissioned on 30 April 1930. She was the lead ship of the Ayanami subclass — the improved Type II variant of the Fubuki-class destroyers — introducing a new gun mount whose 127mm guns could elevate to 75° for anti-aircraft fire.

During the Second Naval Battle of Guadalcanal (also called the Third Battle of Guadalcanal) on the night of 14-15 November 1942, Ayanami was attached to Rear Admiral Shintarō Hashimoto's screening force (light cruiser Sendai) ahead of Vice Admiral Kondō's bombardment force, which was tasked with shelling Henderson Field. When the Japanese screening force encountered the American battleships USS Washington (BB-56) and USS South Dakota (BB-57), the situation devolved into a chaotic night action.

Sent alone around the opposite side of Savo Island, Ayanami charged the American formation by herself. In a remarkable display of aggressive seamanship, she launched torpedoes and opened fire at close range; together with the light cruiser Nagara and the destroyer Uranami she is credited with sinking the destroyers USS Preston and USS Walke, fatally damaging USS Benham and badly damaging USS Gwin. However, Ayanami was then caught in the radar-directed gunfire of USS Washington. Multiple hits left her ablaze and dead in the water, with 27 of her crew killed. Her surviving crew abandoned ship — about thirty, including her captain, reached Guadalcanal by boat and the rest were taken off by Uranami — and Uranami then delivered a scuttling torpedo. Ayanami sank in Ironbottom Sound in the early hours of 15 November 1942. Her wreck was located southeast of Savo Island by Robert Ballard's expedition in 1992.