Elliot, was killed in the encounter. According to Sakai, that was his 60th victory. Serious wounds Shortly after he had shot down Southerland and Adams, Sakai spotted a flight of eight aircraft orbiting near Tulagi. Believing it to be another group of Wildcats, Sakai approached them from below and behind and aimed to catch them by surprise. However, he soon realised that he had made a mistake since the planes were in fact carrier-based bombers with rear-mounted machine guns. Despite that realisation, he had progressed too far into the attack to back off, and had no choice but to see it through. In Sakai's account of the battle, he identified the aircraft as Grumman TBF Avengers and stated that he could clearly see the enclosed top turret. He claimed to have shot down two of the Avengers (his 61st and 62nd victories) before return fire had struck his plane. The kills were seemingly verified by the three Zero pilots following him, but no Avengers were reported lost that day. However, according to US Navy records, only one formation of bombers reported fighting Zeros under those circumstances. That was a group of eight SBD Dauntlesses from Enterprise, led by Lieutenant Carl Horenberger of Bombing Squadron 6 (VB-6). The SBD crews reported being attacked by two Zeros, one of which came in from directly astern and flew into the concentrated fire from their rear-mounted twin .30 AN/M2 guns. The rear gunners claimed that the Zero as a kill when it dove away in distress in return for two planes damaged (one seriously). Whatever the case, Sakai sustained serious wounds from the bombers' return fire. He was hit in the head by a .30 caliber bullet, which injured his skull and temporarily paralyzed the left side of his body. The wound is described elsewhere as having destroyed the metal frame of his goggles and "creased" his skull, a glancing blow that broke the skin and made a furrow, or even cracked the skull but did not actually penetrate it. Shattered glass from the canopy temporarily blinded him in his right eye and reduced vision in his left eye severely. The Zero rolled inverted and descended towards the sea. Unable to see out of his left eye because of the glass and the blood from his serious head wound, Sakai's vision started to clear somewhat as tears cleared the blood from his eyes, and