Q  What do you get when two confused formations of enemy ships stumble upon each other in the middle of the night?

A As one American captain put it: "The battle became a barrom brawl after the lights have been put out"  Enemy ships converged at the unimaginable distance of 1,000 yards.  

Correction: American destroyers sailed so close to Japanese battleships that the BBs couldn't depress their guns low enough to hit them. That was the Battle off Samar, sorry: American destroyers sailed so close to Japanese BBs that they were able to rake the BB's superstructure with machine gun fire.

Memorable quote: "Odd ships fire to starboard, even ships fire to port" - Admiral Callahan after he realized his formation was surrounded by Japanese ships.

http://www.historynet.com/wars_conflicts/world_war_2/3026026.html?page=2&c=y