This description of the first Battle of Kula Gulf was cabled by TIME correspondent Duncan Norton-Taylor, who was aboard one of the U.S. warships:
Early on the morning of July 6, between 1 and 2 o'clock, we made contact with the "Tokyo Express" as it was crawling in a northeasterly direction around the Kolombangara coast. We paralleled our course and opened up before they apparently even knew we were there. In the flame and thunder it was impossible to know completely what was going on, but we knew that five of their ships died...
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