Pacific
South of Guadalcanal on patrol is the Wasp surrounded by 4 cruisers and 6 destroyers, and the Hornet with the battleship North Carolina, 3 cruisers and 7 destroyers. At 1400 the Wasp gets ready to launch a new search and combat air patrol. 18 dive bombers and 8 fighers are launched. Being shadowed at the time by Japan's I-19 under Cmdr Takaichk Kinashi. He launches a 6 torpedo spread. 3 torpedoes hit the Wasp. The explosions are enormous. Fire breaks out in the ammunition and fuel supplies and the forward water mains burst. Fires can not be fought without water. Capt Forrest P. Sherman turns the carrier so the flames and smoke blow away from undamaged parts of the carrier. With all this activity a warning has still not been sent out to the Hornet group. The remaining 3 torpedoes fired by I-19 now came within this group. The destroyer Mustin sights 1 wake and spreads the alarm by voice and flag. The North Carolina unable to maneuver in time is hit on the port side 20 feet below the waterline. 5 men are killed instantly and a hole 32 by 18 feet is torn in ship's side. Compartments are flooded to balance and for safety. She can still make 25 knots. Damage control adjusts ballast so the ship will not list. The 5th torpedo misses the dodging destroyer O'Brien, but the 6th hits the destroyer in the bow and rips it open. The American destroyers search all over for the enemy submarine but find no clues.
Aboard the Wasp efforts are being made to fight the fires, but without water the fires continue to expand. At 1500 several explosions from gas trapped below decks rock the carrier. Fires reach bombs, machine gun bullets and torpedoes which bagin to explode. After 20 more minutes of distressing effort, Capt Sherman decides there is no hope and the ship must be abandoned, so the order is given. The evacuation takes nearly an hour and about 1600 Capt Sherman leaves the ship. Of the 2,250 men aboard, 200 have been killed and 375 wounded. All but one of the planes from the Wasp are able to land on Hornet.
1 sub does a lot of damage in the presence of 13 destroyers. Anti-submarine tactics must be improved. The Wasp continues to burn. Rear-Adm Norman Scott in San Francisco, who takes command while Adm Noyes is in the water, orders the destroyer Lansdowne to torpedo the carrier in order to sink her. 5 are fired, 5 hit, but only 3 explode. The Wasp sinks that afternoon. Torpedoes that did not explode, an issue that has not yet been solved.
|