Since the Japanese air arm had been decimated by this point in the war, the lack of trained and experienced pilots led their most extensive deployment of "kamikaze". Just after dawn, a wave of kamikazes broke through friendly fighter cover and closed to attack the task group. Although two "Vals" were quickly shot down, a third crashed into the battleship and a fourth, taken under fire and burning, crashed into "Biloxi" amidships. The light cruiser's luck continued when the aircraft's bomb did not explode and she suffered only minor damage to a storeroom.