Japanese fleet several days in advance, and a U. S. Navy force of two heavy cruisers, three light cruisers and eight destroyers was deployed under the command of Rear Admiral Daniel J. Callaghan in Ironbottom Sound to meet them. At 01:24 on 13 November, the Japanese force was detected out by the light cruiser . In the ensuing First Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, the American task force concentrated the majority of their firepower on the battleship Hiei. This enabled Kirishima to score multiple hits on the Helena and heavy cruiser . Both Hiei and Kirishima then raked San Francisco with shellfire, killing Rear Admiral Callaghan. However, Hiei was in turn crippled by San Francisco and several American destroyers. With Hiei effectively out of the battle, Kirishima and the surviving destroyers withdrew to the north. On the morning of 13 November, she was ordered to tow Hiei to safety. However, the heavily damaged battleship came under air attack, and was eventually abandoned and scuttled. On the evening of 13 November, Kirishima and her escorting destroyers were joined by the Fourth Cruiser Division and prepared to reenter Savo Sound, the Solomon Islands - "Ironbottom Sound" under the command of Admiral Nobutake Kondō. In the early morning of 14 November, three Japanese heavy cruisers bombarded Guadalcanal before withdrawing. Aware of the damage suffered by his ships the previous night, Admiral William Halsey reinforced the American naval units with the new battleships and . The two fleets made contact on 14 November at 23:01. They exchanged gunfire and torpedoes, with four American destroyers disabled (three would later sink), while the destroyer was crippled by Washington and South Dakota. Kirishima and the heavy cruiser illuminated South Dakota with searchlights, and almost all of Kondō's force opened fire on her. Kirishima achieved hits on South Dakota with at least three 14-inch salvos, which failed to penetrate her armor, and several salvos from her secondary battery, which knocked out the battleship's fire control systems and communications. At 23:40, South Dakota suffered a series of electrical failures, crippling her radar, radios and gun batteries. Washington, undetected, started firing at midnight on Kirishima from , point-blank range for Washingtons 16-inch/45-caliber guns, which were easily capable of penetrating Kirishimas armor at their maximum range. Kirishima was hit by at least twenty primary and seventeen secondary battery projectiles, penetrating the magazines for her forward 14-inch turrets (the magazines were flooded before