USS LaVallette (DD448) Off Guadalcanal January, 1943 While protecting the USS Chicago in the Battle of Rennell Island, an aerial torpedo* blew open a forty-foot hole in the USS LaValette. The Chicago was sunk: it took 5 or 6 "fish" (torpedoes) to do it. We lost 21 men. *An aerial torpedo is a torpedo dropped by a plane.