hit home

Do you think the message really hit home with him?

This revised situation doesn't go well for poor old Nagato. Whilst curls of smoke and scorch marks along the hulls and superstructures of Washington and Alabama do tell of some Japanese shells hitting home, neither of them seem particularly perturbed by this. Instead, their fire begins to overhaul the Japanese battleship, and, sooner or later, another salvo of 16-inch shells - no one's quite sure whether it comes from Alabama or Washington - smashes into the base of the superfiring aft turret.