The Allies also carried out an amphibious operation in Kula Gulf that night. Admiral Halsey had dispatched transports carrying 4,600 troops consisting of Marine raiders and two US Army battalions under Colonel Liversedge to Rice Anchorage on the northwest coast of New Georgia. A force of three light cruisers and four destroyers commanded by Rear Admiral Walden L. Ainsworth covered the troopships. One of Ainsworth's destroyers was torpedoed and sunk by the Japanese as the latter were retiring up the Gulf from their reinforcement mission to Vila.