[Illustration: _A portable coincidence range-finder is like those used at Wake Island in conjunction with the 5-inch/51 caliber guns of Batteries A, B, and L. It was believed that they had been removed from decommissioned and deactivated battleships in the 1920s._ Charles A. Holmes Collection, MCHC ] First Lieutenant Kessler’s Battery B, at the tip of Peale, meanwhile, dueled with the destroyers _Yayoi_, _Mutsuki_, and _Kisaragi_, as well as the _Tenryu_ and the _Tatsuta_, and drew heavy counterfire that disabled one gun. The crew of the inoperable mount shifted to that of a serviceable one, serving as ammunition passers, and after 10 rounds, Kessler’s remaining gun scored a hit on the _Yayoi_’s stern, killing one man, wounding 17, and starting a fire. His gunners then shifted their attention to the next destroyer in column. The enemy’s counterfire severed communications between Kessler’s command post and the gun, but Battery B--the muzzle blast temporarily disabling the rangefinder--continued with local fire control. As the Japanese warships stood to the south, Kessler’s gun hurled two parting shots toward a transport, which proved to have been out of range. [Illustration: MAP 2 SURFACE ACTION OF 11 DECEMBER 1941] The _Yubari_’s action record reflects that although Wake had been pounded by land-based planes, the atoll’s defenders still possessed enough coastal guns to mount a ferocious defense, which forced Kajioka to retire. As if the seacoast guns and the weather were not enough to frustrate the admiral’s venture--the heavy seas had overturned landing boats almost as soon as they were launched--the Japanese soon encountered a new foe. While Cunningham’s cannoneers had been trading shells with Kajioka’s, Putnam’s four Wildcats had climbed to 20,000 feet and maintained that altitude until daylight, when the major had ascertained that no Japanese planes were airborne. As the destroyers that had dueled Battery B opened the range and stood away from Wake, the Wildcats roared in. Major Putnam saw at least one of Elrod’s bombs hit the _Kisaragi_. Trailing oil and smoke, the damaged destroyer slowed to a stop but then managed to get underway again, internally afire. While she limped away to the south, Elrod, antiaircraft fire having perforated his plane’s oil line, headed home. He managed to reach Wake and land on the rocky beach, but VMF 211’s ground crew wrote off his F4F as a total loss. Meanwhile, _Tenryu_ came under attack by Putnam, Tharin, and Freuler, who strafed her forward, near the number 1 torpedo tube mount, wounding five men and disabling three torpedoes.