On 28 August , 600 of Kawaguchi 's troops were loaded onto the destroyers Asagiri , Amagiri , Yugiri , and Shirakumo , designated Destroyer Division 20 ( DD20 ) . Because of a shortage of fuel , DD20 could not make the entire round trip to Guadalcanal at high speed in one night , but had to start the trip earlier in the day so that they could complete the trip by the next morning at a slower speed which conserved fuel . At 18 : 05 that day , 11 U.S. dive bombers from VMSB @-@ 232 under the command of Lt. Col. Richard Mangrum , flew from Henderson Field and located and attacked DD20 about 70 mi ( 110 km ) north of Guadalcanal , sinking Asagiri and heavily damaging Yugiri and Shirakumo . Amagiri took Shirakumo in tow and the three destroyers returned to the Shortlands without completing their mission . The attack on DD20 killed 62 of Kawaguchi 's soldiers and 94 crew members .