我が方の航空母艦からの航空機が発艦、敵艦隊に爆撃をし、敵艦それぞれに小破ないし中破の損傷を与え、敵が体制を崩している隙に大井、北上がそれぞれ雷撃。チ級、リ級に命中し、２隻は戦闘不能に追い込んだ。残る手負いのヲ級に戦艦の艦砲射撃でとどめをさそうとした時、敵の新手らしき深海棲艦が我が艦隊の前に現れた。その新手の艦娘は我々が見覚えがなく、艦種すらわからない深海棲艦だったが、我が方の戦力は万全の調整だったので、その正体不明の深海棲艦一隻と我が艦隊は正面から撃ち合った。結果を先に報告すれば、我が方の惨敗だった。敵の正体不明の深海棲艦は凄まじい量の弾幕を撃ちつづけ、終始、我が艦隊を圧倒した。我が艦隊は、全艦中破以上の損害を受け、ほうほうのていで退却した。幸いな事に轟沈した艦娘は居なかったが、もしかすると、逃がされたのかもしれない。――第１艦隊旗艦榛名

Our aircraft carriers launched their planes for an attack on the enemy fleet, dealing minor to medium damage to each ship. Then while the enemy was still disorganized, Ooi and Kitakami launched their torpedo attacks, hitting Chi-class and Ri-class and taking them out of action. Just when our battleships were about to deliver the finishing bombardment against the remaining Wo-class, a Shinkaisei-kan of unknown type appeared. With our forces in perfect coordination, we clashed head-on against this lone unidentifiable Shinkaisei-kan. Allow me to report the result first: it was a crushing defeat for us. The unidentifiable Shinkaisei-kan continuously launched a terrible danmaku barrage which overwhelmed us from beginning to end. All ships in our fleet received more than medium damage and we hurriedly retreated. The fortunate thing is that no fleet girl was sunk, or perhaps we were let off.
――1st Fleet Flagship Haruna