Both the enemy's first class destroyers had returned, but other than shielding himself with his smaller vessels the enemy commander didn't have much idea of maneuvers.  Do circled around them, lobbing missile after missile at them, and sending a few at the transports, too.  Again and again they were blown apart, men could be seen being blown off them into the water, but still they kept coming.  The shore batteries opened up and created even more havoc.  All the big vessels were hit, but the men dove off them, took to rafts, and tried to paddle ashore.  Do continued to attack the warships.  Suddenly one of his missiles got through, hit the already damaged destroyer, amidships.  There was an horrendous explosion!  Most of the destroyer above the water line, disappeared, and the rest quickly slipped beneath the waves. 
      "One down!"  Do commented. 
     A missile was caught by one of their counter measures just off their bow.  It rocked the ship, but did little damage. 
     "Sir!" an officer snapped, "We're in range of our guns!"
     "Then, give it to them!"  Do screamed. 
      His forward and stern battery opened up, their first four rounds ripped into one of the escorts.  It suddenly burst afire, stopped, and men began to leap overboard.  The bridge of a second escort was blown apart and it turned away, obviously out of control, and a few minutes later slammed into a reef.  It was out of the battle.
     The enemy destroyer, however, couldn't seem to use its gun effectively, at all!  Round after round came nowhere near them! Finally one of The Republic's missiles got close and rocked the remaining destroyer.  It didn't have time to recover before the next one hit it!  Most of its stern disappeared.  It turned around and came straight at Do, its gun blazing.  Do turned on it and his forward battery began to blaze away.  A shell ripped along their hull making a huge gash, but didn't explode. Their shells, however, hit time after time until the enemy's forward battery was blown off his ship! 
     "Hard over!"  Do screamed, "Then, bring her back!"  The helmsman obliged.  The two ships passed so close to each other they scraped!  men leaped from the enemy ship onto the Republic vessel, not to fight, but to escape the blazing inferno that their ship was becoming. They fell to their knees on the deck and locked their fingers together on top of their heads.  The enemy destroyer was only a few hundred yards behind The Mary Marie when she blew apart.  Fortunately none of the debris hit the Republic vessel.
     "Now THAT'S what you call slugging it out!"  Do screamed. 
     "The last remaining cutter is running, sir.  We've only got two missiles left.  Should we use them?"
     FINISH her!"  Do screamed. 
     The cutter was soon a blazing wreck slowly settling into the water.
     "They've got troubles on the island!"  Mr. West cried.  "At least eight landing barges have reached the shore.  Tanks and armored vehicles are on the beach.  More and more small craft are reaching the shore and dispatching men, then returning to the sinking transports to pick up more."
     "We've got some rounds left!"  Do answered, "Let's get in there and see if we can eliminate that armor!"
     The approach to the beach was narrow, the destroyer had a hard time getting in position to use its guns effectively, but it did its best.  Still those on shore had to knock out three of the tanks with wire guided missiles!  But the enemy kept coming!