October 27th, 1942. At 3:26 a.m., USS Lansdowne radios USS Washington, "Torpedo headed for your starboard bow!" Harvey Walsh sounds GQ and sends his ship on an emergency turn to starboard. Washington cranks up to 22 knots. The ship's bugler blows GQ into the 1MC. As the battlewagon turns, Lansdowne spots another torpedo in the water. But Washington maneuvers out of the way, and the two fish - from Japan's I-15 - pass by harmlessly. Washington escapes. So does I-15.

At 5:42 a.m., I-15 is back, and hurls two more fish directly at the battleship's screws. By now Capt. Glenn Davis is on the bridge, and he does another crash turn to starboard. Washington's huge bulk turns slowly at 22 knots. The Japanese torpedoes close in at 40 knots. 500 yards off the starboard quarter, the two fish break surface and explode harmlessly in the battleship's wake. The explosions send a column of water into the air 100 feet high.

At 1:35 a.m., on America's Navy Day, USS Hornet, the ship that launched the Doolittle Raid, sinks amid smoke and steam. She is the last fleet carrier the United States loses during the war.

A few more shots remain in the Battle of Santa Cruz - at 12:55 a.m. PBY Catalina hits destroyer Teruzuki with a bomb, and the US battleship South Dakota collides with the destroyer Mahan, making the smaller vessel a dockyard case. An hour before dawn, Nagumo boards Zuikaku for the return home.

The last of four carrier battles of 1942 is over.

At Truk, Ugaki is ecstatic over the victory. In the moonlight, he strolls Yamato's teakwood decks, revelling in the fact that the Japanese have defeated the United States on America's Navy Day.

He goes to his cabin and writes three haiku verses:

After the battle I forget the heat
While contemplating
The sixteen-day moon.

Contemplating the moon,
I mourn
The enemy's sacrifice.

Beneath the moon
Stretches a sea at whose bottom
Lie many ships.

Yamamoto is aware that the Americans have fled and fuel is short. He orders his ships to withdraw. Based on pilots' reports, Japan claims to have sunk three or four carriers, a battleship, a cruiser, a destroyer, a submarine, and shot down 79 American planes.

Imperial General Headquarters christens this the South Pacific Sea Battle, and the village radios in Japan crackle with the "Battleship March" again, as GHQ claims four carriers, one battleship, and 200 or more aircraft. The victory is considered so momentous that the Emperor prepares a rescript praising Yamamoto and the "brave fight" put up by the Combined Fleet. Privately, the Emperor predicts that the situation in the Solomons "will become more and more difficult."

Japan has not lost a single ship, but Shokaku, Zuiho, and Chikuma will be out of action for weeks. Japanese shipboard losses are not compiled, but 192 are dead in Chikuma, seven in Teruzuki.

The Imperial Navy entered the battle with 199 aircraft, and has lost 27 Zeros, 40 Vals, 22 Kates, and a Judy, for 97 losses. Of the 102 survivors, only 86 can fly. 148 irreplaceable aviators are dead, 16 Zero pilots, 65 Val crewmen, and 67 Kate crewmen, including aces like Murata. The skilled aviators who dominated the Pacific from Hawaii to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), who sank five American battleships at Pearl Harbor, a British carrier in the Indian Ocean, and bombed Port Darwin, Australia, are all dead.

Worse, Japan has kept these aviators at the front instead of sending them home to pass on their skills to replacements. Japanese air training, already weak, becomes even more deficient. As the war goes on, more and more Japanese pilots will die - in training accidents, or go into battle without training.

American losses are 81 aircraft, 32 Wildcats, 31 SBDs, and 18 TBFs. Total American flight crew casualties are 20 dead and four POWs. Only one squadron commander is lost.

240 officers and men are killed and missing in the attacks on Enterprise and Hornet. The former is badly damaged, and owes her survival to heroic crewmembers and good damage control. The latter is sunk. The United States has exactly one operational carrier in the Pacific Ocean, and she is crippled.

Japan has a tremendous opportunity here, but cannot take advantage of it. The planes are shot down, the pilots dead.

As the day goes on, Yamamoto and Ugaki review the losses and the situation. They now believe that Guadalcanal cannot be re-taken. Three times the Army has failed to take Henderson Field. American strength is growing daily. How can a fourth attempt succeed?

The Americans are doing post-mortems, too. As at Midway, American communications were poor. Had Kinkaid got the 3:10 a.m. PBY report, he could have launched a strike that would have caught the Japanese with their decks full of gassed and armed planes, as at Midway. American radios still have trouble, as do torpedoes. 5-inch guns are still poor anti-aircraft systems.

Enterprise's Air Group 10 fought hard, but to little avail. Hornet scored all the hits.

Most importantly, Enterprise's fighter direction has proved inept, as Flatley admits. Hornet's Sanchez compares Enterprise's ad hoc fighter direction with Hornet's special facility, and rips Kinkaid for not making Hornet the battle fighter controller. Kinkaid shoots back in this paper war by pointing out that Hornet was dead in the water early in the action, and that the attack on Hornet was the most devastating single type of combined air attack ever mounted by Japanese carrier aviators in the entire war.

The good news for the Americans is that their 40mm and 20mm flak guns were venomously effective. "There cannot be too many 40mm and 20mm guns on any type of ship. They knock down planes."

Nimitz offers his assessment weeks later. "This battle cost us the lives of many gallant men, many planes and two ships that could ill be spared. Despite the loss of about three carrier air groups and damage to a number of ships, the enemy retired with all his ships. We nevertheless turned back the Japanese again in their offensive to regain Guadalcanal and shattered their carrier air strength on the eve of the critical days of mid-November.

None of this analysis impresses Dusty Rhodes, the Enterprise aviator paddling for his life in the Pacific. His face is caked with salt, and skin sunburned. He lies exhausted in his raft, mouth dry, surrounded by sharks, struggling to keep his raft inflated.

Late in the afternoon, he sees masts heading towards him, and sees a destroyer closing in. The tincan sails up and drops a rope. Rhodes grabs hold of the rope, lets the raft go, and is pulled up. He looks up at the rail, lined with faces - and they are all Japanese.

In New Guinea, the Australian 16th Brigade, part of the 7th Division, continues its slow advance up the dreadful Kokoda Track. 16th Brigade is Australia's first team, the men who launched the country's first attack of the war, at Bardia in December 1940. Now they are inching their way from Ioribaiwa back to Kokoda, fighting an enemy that battles for every yard. The advance is too slow for Field Marshal Blamey, Australia's top officer, who fires Maj. Gen. Allen, commanding 7th Division, and sends in Maj. Gen. Vasey, a veteran of Crete, to take command.

Behind the Australians, the first American troops are arriving in New Guinea, the 32nd Infantry Division, National Guardsmen from Michigan and Wisconsin. Like most American troops at this point, they are not fully trained. They are sent to the front anyway.

In the North Sea, the weather improves, and the Norwegian fishing boat Arthur plods on without being seen.

The Japanese retreat on Guadalcanal continues amid pouring rain. Lt. Keijiro Minegishi writes in his diary: "I never dreamed of retreating over the same mountainous trail through the jungle we crossed with such enthusiasm. We haven't eaten for three days and even walking is difficult. On the up hill my body swayed around unable to walk. I can't imagine how the soldiers carrying the artillery are doing. I must take a rest every two meters. It is quite disheartening to have only one tiny teaspoon of salt per day and a palmful of rice porridge."

In the Atlantic Ocean, the Western Task Force, bound for Morocco, forms together. Its defense consists entirely of US warships, led by the fleet carrier Ranger and four escort carriers: Santee, Sangamon, Suwanee, and Chenango. The last is loaded with Army P-40 fighters to be flown ashore once airfields are taken. Ranger is the prime air cover. Its aviators must sit in a wardroom, thanks to the ship's poor design, directly downwind from the head.

The American force also includes the new battleship USS Massachusetts, armed with 16-inch guns, and the older and slower World War I veteran battlewagons USS Texas and USS New York. Massachusetts is assigned to deal with the French battleship Jean Bart, moored at Casablanca. Jean Bart is unable to move, but can fire her forward 15-inch quadruple gun turret. The second turret is also unfinished.

Providing gunfire support to the Morocco landings are the heavy cruisers Augusta, Wichita, and Tuscaloosa, and the light cruisers Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Savannah, and Cleveland.

The American force also includes 38 destroyers, four submarines, eight minesweepers, three minelayers, 23 combat-loaded transports, eight mechanical transports, five tankers, and a seaplane tender. Rear Adm. Kent Hewitt commands the force from USS Augusta.

The force groups together and sails for Morocco. In the transports, American troops battle seasickness and sit through briefings on their invasion.

Inside the Third Reich, dissent is not tolerated. The standard punishment for disloyal acts is the guillotine, with the execution's costs billed to the victim's family. Today, Helmuth Gunther Huebner is put to death. He has been found guilty of listening to foreign radio broadcasts, and spreading the news he has heard. Huebner is a 17-year-old Hitler Youth.

The Stalingrad battle continues. The 6th Army, which once engaged in massive pincer movements, now regards the capture of ruined buildings as major victories. German troops of the 79th Division push through towards the "Red October" Factory, and hurl hand grenades into the HQ of Guryev's 39th Division. Chuikov dispatches his last reserve, the 62nd Army's HQ Guard Company, to retrieve the situation. They do. But they have to dig in at the "Red October" plant.

German machine-gunners reach a point between the "Barricades" and "Red October" factory about 400 yards from the Volga, and can open fire on 62nd Army's last remaining ferry landing. The Germans now hold nine-tenths of the city.

Still, help is on the way for Chuikov, as Sokolov's 45th Infantry manages to push two battalions over the Volga. They are ordered to keep the Germans away from the river, and succeed in doing so until evening, while losing half their men. Chuikov's men now only hold the Mamayev Kurgan, a few factory buildings, and a narrow strip of the Volga bank, several miles long but only a few hundred yards wide.

German victory seems inevitable.

Eisenhower sends a message to Washington recommending a Distinguished Service Medal for Mark Clark. It is approved.

At El Alamein, gunfire continues through the night. At 2 a.m., the sky grows "bright with the glare of muzzle-flashes and shell-bursts."

The Australians attack at that time, with a massive artillery barrage. The Aussies move forward without opposition, finding the defenders stunned and shocked. The Australians collect 41 PoWs and an intact 88mm gun.

South of the Australians, 1st Armoured Division sends two infantry battalions forward from Kidney Ridge to dominate the enemy anti-tank positions. This will enable British armor to break through. The British objectives are two points named "Woodcock" and "Snipe."

The two rifle battalions - 2nd King's Royal Rifle Corps and 2nd Rifle Brigade, move forward in the dark, their vehicles struggling behind through soft sand. The British move into the middle of a German engineers dump, capture some exhausted Italians, then find themselves under heavy German fire. The POWs try to flee, and are cut down. The British withdraw a few yards to the cover of their anti-tank guns, which proves wise, as an Italian Semovente and German tank attack. British guns destroy both, but one German tanker leaps out of his tank, into a trench, and spends the rest of the night sniping the British until they kill him with a grenade.

At dawn, 300 British soldiers and their anti-tank guns are dug in at Snipe, awaiting enemy counterattack.

The enemy does so, sending in a large column of German and Italian vehicles. The British open fire and a wild duel ensues, with smoke and blown sand filling the air. Half an hour later, the Germans pull back, leaving behind eight wrecked Italian tanks, two blasted Semoventes, and two wrecked German panzers. The British lose three anti-tank guns, one buried by its own recoil.

At Woodcock, the 2nd Armoured Brigade and 24th Armoured Brigade await the enemy attack.

Rommel heads up to Kidney Ridge early, watching artillery bombardments, air strikes, and the clock, awaiting his panzers from the south.

They don't show. What does appear is a message from Tobruk, saying that the two vital supply ships, Proserpina and Tergesta, have been sunk by the RAF just outside Tobruk. Their moves were picked off by British codebreakers. The fuel and ammunition will not arrive. Rommel is stunned. All he has is 70 tons of fuel flown in by the Luftwaffe. With virtually no fuel, he orders the counterattack anyway.

The Germans attack with their toughest tanks, Mark IIIJs and Mark IV Specials, and come under fire from the anti-tank guns at Snipe, which blast three German tanks. That alerts 24th Armoured Brigade's Sherman tanks, which rumble over to Snipe to help the defenders. The Germans hit back with their 88mm anti-tank guns, which set seven Shermans ablaze. 24th Armoured Brigade is ordered to withdraw.

As they do, the Germans attack again. The Rifle Brigade's 6-lbr. (57 mm) anti-tank guns shred the Germans. The British are hanging on, but short of medical supplies and artillery support.

The enemy attacks again, this time 1,000 Italian infantrymen, armed with Mannlicher-Carcano rifles, noted for their slow rate of fire. The British send a platoon of Bren carriers against them, rifles and machine-guns blazing, which scatter the Italians.

The Axis, however, show ample determination. They attack again with 13 Italian M13/40 tanks - slow-moving vehicles with thin armor, weak 47mm gun, and a riveted hull - and more than 20 more impressive German tanks, facing the hull-down British Shermans of 24th Armoured Brigade. "(A hull-down vehicle is one that has most of its hull behind a a man-made or natural visual obstruction.)"

The anti-tank guns open up and hit four M13s in the first salvo. The remaining Italians get the point and retreat. The Italians know their tanks can be ripped open by British 2-lbr. (37 mm) guns. To advance against the 6-lbr. is suicidal.

The Germans, however, maintain their advance. Sergeant Calistan opens up with his anti-tank gun, and helps the Shermans knock off eight enemy vehicles. The Germans are forced to withdraw again. Finally, the British are coordinating armor and infantry. But the British are nearly out of water, bandages, and ammunition.

At 1 p.m., the Italians attack again with eight M 13s and a Semovente assault gun, one of Italy's new weapons, packing a 75-mm gun. The British are running out of guns, shells, and men. Colonel Victor Turner, leading the 2nd Rifle Brigade defense, personally helps load Calistan's gun. The determined sergeant picks off five M 13s and the Semovente before they reach 400 yards - reducing his ordnance supply to two rounds. Lt. Toms jumps into a jeep, drives over to a wrecked gun, and tosses shells in the back. He speeds back to Calistan with the ammo. Just as he arrives, Italian machine-gun fire sets the jeep's jerrican ablaze. Ignoring the fire, Turner and a corporal hurl the shells out of the jeep and to the gun. A shell fragment pierces Turner's helmet, cuts into his skull, sending blood pouring over his face, temporarily blinding him.

The three Italian tanks are now 200 yards away, their machine-guns stitching up British defenses. Calistan loads, aims, and fires three times, scoring an amazing hat-trick, destroying all three tanks, killing their crews. "Hardly miss `em at that range," he says later. "Poor bastards!"

Meanwhile, Rommel drives up to Telegraph Track again, to watch this battle. He sees the 90th Light Division deploy under heavy British bombing. At 3 p.m., Rommel's men and tanks go forward, backed by Stukas and 88mm guns. German ordnance tears apart the sandlines. The panzers creak forward and come under massive British fire from dug-in anti-tank guns and tanks. The German tanks explode in flame.

At Snipe, the Rifle Brigade endures heavy enemy shelling. Turner regains consciousness, and despite intense pain and heat, visits his gun positions. The heat gives Turner hallucinations, and his staff has to keep him in his headquarters by force, amid flying sand, shellfire, and flies.

To add to the suffering, British gunners of the 11th Royal Horse Artillery finally move their American-made self-propelled 105 mm guns into range. These are known as "Priests" for their pulpit, and are something new in the Allied arsenal. In fact, these guns are among the 100 President Roosevelt sent to the 8th Army after the Gazala defeat. The shells land amid the Rifle Brigade's defenses, killing British soldiers.

"During an unpleasant day," Turner writes, "this was the most unpleasant thing that happened."

The Germans try again with 15 panzers. Sergeant Miles is hit and his gun crew pinned down, so Sergeant Swann crawls 50 yards under intense machine-gun fire to Miles's gun, loads, aims, and fires, knocking out the lead panzer. Sergeant Hine picks off another one at less than 100 yards. Hine's shell slices through the tank and into another one 10 yards behind, halting the attack. 2nd Rifle Brigade signals, "20 tanks lying doggo in valley to the north of us at about one thousand yards. We are being swept by machine gun fire. Expect attack at any moment."

At 7 p.m., the sun sets, and by 7:40 the Germans also withdraw, leaving the British alone. All anti-tank ammo is gone, and the British destroy their guns' breech blocks and finally send the wounded men back in Bren carriers.

The British await the final enemy attack. It doesn't happen. The British hear German ambulances and recovery teams at work. At 10:30 p.m., the British withdraw on foot, covered by an artillery barrage.

The fanatical British defense has cost them about 100 killed and wounded, including Turner, who is awarded the Victoria Cross. Sgt. Calistan is recommended for one, but receives the Distinguished Conduct Medal instead. Several Distinguished Service Orders are handed out, as well.

Rommel loses more than 34 tanks, and writes, "There is, in general, little chance of success in a tank attack over country where the enemy has been able to take up defensive positions; but there was nothing else we could do."

Rommel's tanks are now almost reduced to being mobile artillery. He begs Rome and Rastenberg for help, but there is little to offer.