Battle of Tassafaronga
As flagship of Task Force 67 (TF 67), she sortied on 29 November to intercept a Japanese force attempting to reinforce Guadalcanal. At 23:05 the next night, she spotted six Japanese ships, and the Battle of Tassafaronga was opened by her fire. She scored many hits on , which sank. However, a second group of Japanese destroyers, which had been giving distant cover to the transport group, entered the action, and "Minneapolis" took two torpedo hits, one on the port bow, the other in her number two fireroom, causing loss of power and severe damage; her bow collapsing back to the chain pipes, her port side badly ruptured, and two firerooms open to the sea. Of the battle, American naval historian Samuel Eliot Morison wrote, "It is a painful truth that the Battle of Tassafaronga was a sharp defeat inflicted on an alert and superior cruiser force by a partially surprised and inferior destroyer force."