February 17, 1944—The Japanese destroyer Maikaze was pulling troops from Truk when Captain Kenma Isohisa spotted a massive silhouette on the horizon. His gut twisted. It was USS New Jersey, the fastest Battleship in the world.
He ordered full speed ahead. Maikaze was light and nimble, but it didn't matter. The floating citadel, twenty times heavier, wasn't just keeping up. She was gaining.
There was no escape.
Isohisa made his decision. He turned Maikaze around. He would meet her head-on.
The ocean erupted. USS Iowa joined the hunt, her 16-inch guns hurling Volkswagen-sized shells. Katori, a Japanese cruiser, was hit dead-center, shattered with a single shell; 6 more followed. Maikaze was next.
Captain Carl F. Holden, aboard New Jersey, saw the impossible; Maikaze wasn't retreating. She was charging. A torpedo run.
Even the most powerful Battleship afloat could be sunk by well-placed torpedoes. The stakes flipped in a second. Holden gave the order to fire.
Twenty 5-inch guns roared. The Maikaze was ripped apart, fire and steel raining into the sea.
But it was too late.
Before she vanished, Maikaze got her final command through, a full spread of torpedoes in the water, wakes closing in.
New Jersey’s full thrust of 212,000 horsepower was thrown into a brutal turn. The battleship was about to find out what being the fastest in the world really meant.
On New Jersey's bridge, alarms screamed. Officers froze. The Battleship heaved to turn.
Maikaze was gone. But 3,000 men aboard America's most valuable Battleship were left praying for a miracle.