HISTORY

USS Lexington (CV-2) on fire after avgas explosion, 8 May 1942.

1707 hours. Noel Gayler recalled “We were

driven to the extreme stern by the fire. The

ship’s service ice cream plant was in the

extreme port stern quarter. Some clown

passed the word that there was free ice

cream and sailors who were abandoning

At 1430 hours, Admiral Hara informed Ad- ship lined up for it. Of course they puked

miral Takagi that there were only 24 Ze- it up afterwards as soon as they had been

ros, eight D3As and four B5Ns operatio- swimming in salt water awhile.

nal aboard Zuikaku. At 1500 hours, Takagi

notified Admiral Inoue his force had sunk There was no panic, no worry about being

two American carriers, a “Yorktown-c- picked up. The water was warm and the

lass” and a „Saratoga-class,“ but he could destroyers moved in with cargo nets.”

not continue to provide air cover for the Gayler was picked up by a destroyer after

invasion due to heavy aircraft losses. Ad- 90 minutes in the water.

miral Inoue recalled the invasion convoy

Bill Eder remembered, “After the abandon

to Rabaul.

ship order was given, I waited my turn and

Zuikaku and her escorts turned towards descended a knotted line to the warm waRabaul while Shôkaku headed for major ter. I found an inflated life raft with three

older chief petty officers aboard. Since I

repair in Japan.

had a life jacket, I stayed alongside in the

Sparks from unattended electric motors water. Pretty soon the destroyer Dewey

ignited gasoline fumes near Lexington’s came along and picked us up. They threw

central control station at 1247 hours; the us a line and I, being the young ‘un, held

resulting explosion killed 25 men, star- it for the chiefs to climb. When it was my

ting a large fire. A severe fire began after turn I was too exhausted to climb and a

another large explosion occurred at 1442 sailor had to come down and put a line

hours. At 1525 hours there was a third around me so they could winch me up.”

explosion. Damage control reported the

fires were uncontrollable at 1538 hours. At 1915 hours with the sun setting over

The order to abandon ship was given at the Coral Sea, the destroyer Phelps (DD-

to fuel the planes. Bill Eder remembered,

“We were to refuel, rearm and relaunch.

However, before that was accomplished

the below-decks fires reached the hangar deck.”

14

INFO Eduard

360) fired five torpedoes into the burning

Lexington and she sank in 2,400 fathoms

at 1952 hours, taking 216 of the 2,951-man

crew and 36 aircraft down with her.

When Yorktown returned to Pearl Harbor,

VF-42‘s F4F-3 Wildcats were replaced

by F4F-4s with folding wings. The pilots

did not consider the new Wildcat an improvement. To save weight after wing folding was installed, the ammunition load

remained the same - now distributed

between six guns rather than four and

reducing firing time by 20 seconds, a lifetime in combat. The F4F-3 had held the

line against a superior enemy in difficult

situations and demonstrated its fighting

heart.

Adapted from Thomas McKelvey Cleaver’s

best-selling “I Will Run Wild: The Pacific War

from Pearl Harbor to Midway,” from Osprey Publishing.

Credit all photos: USN Official

September 2022