Early on 21 October, a Japanese aircraft, possibly an Aichi D3A dive-bomber or a Mitsubishi Ki-51 (of the 6th Flying Brigade, Imperial Japanese Army Air Force) deliberately crashed into the foremast of the heavy cruiser HMAS Australia. The attack killed 30 personnel, including the cruiser's Captain, Emile Dechaineux, and wounded 64, including the Australian force commander Commodore John Collins. The Australian official history of the war claimed that this was the first kamikaze attack on an Allied ship, although other sources disagree because it was not a planned attack by a member of the Special Attack Force, but was most likely to have been undertaken on the pilot's own initiative
It was the first battle in which Japanese aircraft carried out organized kamikaze attacks