Kurita ordered Fujinami to escort Chokai at 1006, and as more aircraft attacked the pair, they shot down an Avenger. "Kitkun Bay" began launching five Avengers, four armed with torpedoes and the fifth with bombs, at 1013. At 1035, these five planes joined a sixth flying from St. Lo and attacked Yamato, the largest and most heavily armed battleship in the Japanese armada. The aircraft dived through intense antiaircraft fire and assailed the behemoth but failed to score any confirmed hits.