Unlucky day

On Friday the thirteen, Juneau met her

fate. Still at darkness, the group of five

American ships maintaining the ability to

sail, withdrew. There were the cruisers

San Francisco, Helena, destroyers Sterret

and O’Bannon and Juneau. In the battle, the

cruiser suffered a torpedo hit to the port

side. Only one of his screws worked and

the bow was deeply submerged, yet she

maintained speed of 13 knots. The Americans ships however were detected by the

Japanese submarine I-26. Her commander,

Yokota Minoru, at 11 o’clock sharp, ordered

launching of two torpedoes. He was targeting San Francisco but missed. One of

the torpedoes hit Juneau, exactly at the

same spot she was hit during the night.

The spear of steel penetrated deeply into

the vessel and caused the explosion of the

ammunition dump. Juneau was covered in

the enormous column of water, fire and

smoke and when everything cleared the

cruiser disappeared from the surface.

The remaining American ships faced a

difficult choice. It seemed no one survived the explosion and had they stopped

to search for castaways they could have

become an easy target for a submarine.

A B-17 bomber was just flying by, so they

Juneau launching at Kearny, New Jersey, October 25, 1941.

signaled to it to report at the headquarters

the sinking of the cruiser as they continued sailing. The bomber crew did not want

to break the radio silence, so they submitted the report only after landing. That was

buried under other documents to process

and did not make it further soon enough.

No one dispatched the rescue ship. The US

Navy was busy repulsing further Japanese

attacks. During the night of 14-15 of November 1942, the Henderson airfield was

again shelled by the battleship Kirishima.

This time, two battleships, Washington and

South Dakota, each with nine 406 mm caliber guns, opposed her. Having received nu-

merous hits Kirishima capsized and sank.

In the meantime, the sailors from Juneau

fought for their lives. The conclusion that

there were no survivors after the cruiser

explosion, was mistaken. Approximately

115 sailors ended up in the water, however,

no one was looking for them. Without food

and drinking water they were left up to the

elements and sharks. In the following days

most of them died a cruel death. After eight

days, accidentally, more-less, just 10 survivors were rescued.

Five brothers

687 crew members perished, including the

Photo: Naval History and Heritage Command

abandoned by their crews and during the

day they sank to the bottom of the ocean.

In the evening, despite the great crew

effort, the cruiser Atlanta sank. During the

battle she hit three Japanese destroyers in

a row but then a Japanese torpedo disabled her engines. The worst damage was

caused by 19 grenades from the cruiser

San Francisco fired at her by mistake. Rear

Admiral Norman Scott lost his life on board

of Atlanta. The Japanese shrapnel killed

Rear Admiral Callaghan on San Francisco. They were the only American admirals

killed during the surface battle in the course of the whole war.

Unlike Atlanta, the destroyer Aaron Ward

and heavy cruiser Portland were rescued.

Having fired several salvos, Portland still

managed to sink the burning wreck of the

Japanese destroyer Yudachi. Another damaged Japanese destroyer, Amatsukaze,

managed to save herself. The battleship

Hiei however did not escape. Cactus Air

Force were all eager to revenge her regular night shelling. Since the morning, torpedo Avengers’, dive bombing Dauntless

and even heavy B-17 bombers attacks were

concentrated on Hiei and in the evening of

November 13, 1942, she sank. It was the

first Japanese battleship lost during the

conflict.

Photo: Naval History and Heritage Command

HISTORY

USS Juneau (CL-52) taken shortly after launching.

February 2023

INFO Eduard

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