Neither the Nashville nor the Enterprise air group could take much pride in the action. The Nashville had fired no fewer than 928 6-inch rounds at the little sampan, an expenditure of ammunition that her captain described as“ridiculous” and “excessive.” (It is possible that some of those shells struck the vessel but did not detonate, passing cleanly “through and through.”) One of the F4F Wildcats fired a full 1,200 rounds of .50-caliber ammunition at the vessel.
