No. 32 and Patrol Boat No. 33), and two troop transports containing 450 Japanese Special Naval Landing Forces (SNLF) troops. The Japanese approached the island early on the morning of 11 December, and the warships began to bombard the island at a range of at 05:30. As none of the six coast-defense guns replied, Rear Admiral Sadamichi Kajioka, commander of the invasion forces, ordered his ships to close the island, believing that the American guns had been destroyed by the earlier aerial attacks. Encouraging this, Major James Devereux, commander of the United States Marine garrison, had ordered his men to hold their fire until he gave the order to do so. After the Japanese ships had closed to a range of , he ordered his guns to open fire. Battery L, based on Peale Islet, engaged their closest target, Hayate, and hit her on the third salvo. After a large explosion aft, she broke in half and sank within two minutes at coordinates , two miles (3 km) southwest of Wake. The location of the explosion makes it probable that the shells struck one of the aft torpedo mounts, or, less likely, the depth charges on the stern. Only one man from the 169 men aboard was rescued. She was the first warship lost by the Japanese during the war. The quick loss of Hayate and the near misses around his flagship, Yūbari, caused Kajioka to order his forces to disengage. Notes References Kamikaze-class destroyers (1922) Ships built by IHI Corporation 1925 ships World War II destroyers of Japan World War II shipwrecks in the Pacific Ocean Maritime incidents in December 1941 Battle of Wake Island Naval magazine explosions Ships sunk by coastal artillery