A second torpedo soon struck home after the first, flooding number three fireroom and the forward engine room leaving Chicago dead in the water. The attack momentarily subsided, giving the Americans a respite. Louisville took her crippled sister in tow, and, by early on 30 January, the damaged cruiser was on her way to Espiritu Santo at four knots. At 14:45, well after Louisville had passed the tow to the tugboat Navajo (AT-64), 12 "Betties" were reported south of New Georgia heading for Rennell Island. Combat air patrol fighters from splashed three of the attackers, but nine remained to attack Chicago. Seven of these went down to the antiaircraft fire from the task force and the attacks by Grumman F4F Wildcats from Enterprise. Waller claimed one Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" downed and two damaged. Chicago, however, took two more torpedoes and was abandoned soon thereafter, sinking stern-first, at 16:44. Navajo, Sands (APD-13), Edwards (DD-619), and Waller collected 1,049 survivors from the cruiser. In the melee, La Vallette (DD-448) was damaged and left the area, towed by Navajo. While retiring to Espiritu Santo, Waller located a submarine contact but could not develop it. The Battle of Rennell Island, which resulted in the loss of one American cruiser and damage to a destroyer succeeded in diverting Japanese intentions from the transports off Lunga Point and allowed vital American reinforcements to enter the final phase of the battle to drive the Japanese from Guadalcanal. Blackett Strait, March 1943 In early March 1943, Captain Arleigh "31-knot" Burke broke his broad pennant in Waller. On the 5th, she led Conway (DD-507), Montpelier (CL-57), Cleveland (CL-55), Denver (CL-58), and Cony (DD-508) in a raid on the Japanese airfields at Vila, on the southern coast of New Georgia. Assigned to protect the larger ships, the destroyers drew the duty of silencing any hostile shore batteries which might try to interfere with the cruisers as they carried out the main bombardment. Entering Kula Gulf shortly after midnight on 5 March, Wallers radar detected two ships—later determined to be Murasame and Minegumo—at the eastern entrance to Blackett Strait and standing out at high speed, apparently unaware of the American ships' presence. Waller opened the action at about 01:00, firing a five-tube spread of torpedoes at a range of three and one-half miles. A minute later, her gunners soon commenced fire with the main battery. Taken by surprise, the two Japanese