Destruction of the USS Wasp by Japan’s Top Submarine Ace.

The Allied landing on Guadalcanal on 7 August had caught the Japanese by surprise, so there were no Japanese submarines in the area. The Japanese quickly rectified their initial lack of submarines in this sector.

By the end of August 1942, nine Japanese submarines were patrolling the area south and southeast of Guadalcanal. One of these subs was commanded by a man that would become Japan's top sub ace, his name was Takaichi Kinashi and he commanded I-19. At 10:45 on 15 September he had a report of an allied convoy hedging in his direction. Soon Kinashi saw numerous smoke stacks on the horizon. He dived and set I-19 on an intercept course with the convoy.

As Kinashi looked through his telescope, he could see a large convoy escorted by carriers, battleships and numerous destroyers. He fired his salvo of six torpedos and dived as deep as he could to try and avoid detection. Although Kinashi didn't know it at the time, this would become the most destructive salvo in submarine history. Within the space of a few minutes Kinashi would half the number of operational fleet carriers available to the U.S. navy and badly damage America's newest and most powerful battleship.