To protect the approaching convoy from attack by CAF aircraft, Yamamoto sent two battleships from Truk to bombard Henderson Field. At 01:33 on 14 October, and , protected by one light cruiser and nine destroyers, reached Guadalcanal and fired at Henderson Field from a distance of . Over the next one hour and 23 minutes, the two battleships fired 973 shells into the Lunga perimeter, most of them falling in the area of the airfield. Many of the shells were fragmentation shells, designed to destroy land targets. The bombing heavily damaged both runways, burned almost all of the available airplane fuel, destroyed 48 of the CAF's 90 aircraft, and killed 41 men, including six CAF pilots. The battleship force then returned to Truk.