RETIRING VICTORY

VADM Boshiro Hosogaya’s heavier force pursued the American cruiser/destroyer squadron of RADM Charles H. McMorris, gaining steadily.  CAPT Bertram J. Rodgers in SALT LAKE CITY, with the longest-range US guns, kept up impressive fire from the end of the American line.  Both RICHMOND and SALT LAKE CITY “chased salvos” (steered into the enemy shell splashes to subvert corrections).  At 0945, SALT LAKE CITY took the destroyer ABUKUMA under fire as the latter positioned herself 18,000 yards off RICHMOND, an excellent vantage from which to spot.  Eight salvos forced ABUKUMA into a 360-degree turn, to the cheers of Rodgers’ sailors.  But the overpowering Japanese would not be denied.  SALT LAKE CITY took her first hit at 0910, an 8″ shell that penetrated the fo’c’sle and chain locker but did not explode.  Another shell wrecked the starboard aircraft and killed two crewmen.  McMorris turned south and the Japanese followed, coursing inside his turn and cutting McMorris from his Aleutian base.  McMorris now redirected northward in another parry at the transports.

SALT LAKE CITY’s impressive fighting drew the combined fire of the heavy cruisers NACHI and MAYA.  She was holed below the waterline and worse, concussions from her own guns disabled her steering engine.  The gallant cruiser next took a damnable hit in the engine room, and to make matters worse, her crew accidentally doused her boilers by mistakenly flooding the fuel lines with seawater.  At 1155 she went dead in the water with the enemy charging at 30 knots from 17,000 yards astern!  Rodgers’ gunners defiantly slugged away at the onrushing enemy, but disaster seemed assured.  McMorris abandoned the freighters again and turned west, laying smoke.  The destroyers BAILEY (DD-492), MONAGHAN (DD-354), and COGHLAN raced to launch a covering torpedo attack, expecting at any minute to see themselves, or the “sitting duck” cruiser, blasted.  DALE (DD-353) closed to take off Rodgers’ crew, who were reciting prayers and exchanging final farewells.  Miraculously however, working chest-deep in icy water in total darkness, SALT LAKE’s damage control parties stuffed their shirts into hull breeches and purged her fuel lines.  Her boilers were re-fired, and after only six minutes her shafts began turning again!

Then in an queer twist of fate, Hosogaya inexplicably broke off the attack.  Failing to sense the victory just off his bows, he apparently feared the arrival of overdue American land-based bombers.  BAILEY and NACHI exchanged the final blows, but Hosogaya’s abrupt return to Japan (where he was relieved for cause) gave McMorris a strategic victory.  Even the transports were forced to return later without landing.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  2 APR 24

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 1 “A-B”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1959, p. 84.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 2 “C-F”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1977, pp. 138, 234.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 4 “L-M”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1969, p. 306, 413.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 6 “R-S”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1976, pp. 269-70.

Lorelli, John A.  The Battle of the Komandorski Islands, March 1943.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1984.

Love, Robert W.  History of the US Navy, Vol 2  1942-1991. Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1992, pp. 137-40.

Morison, Samuel Eliot.  History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol 7  Aleutians, Gilberts and Marshalls.  Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1951, pp. 22-36.

Potter, E.B.  Sea Power: A Naval History 2^nd ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1981, p. 310.

Purdon, Eric.  “War in the Arctic:  The Battle of the Komandorskis.”  Sea Classics, Vol 31 (11), November 1998, pp. 34-42.

Sweetman, Jack.  “Great Sea Battles of World War II:  The Komandorskis”.  Naval History, Vol 9 (3), June 1995, pp. 39-40.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Retiring victories are not usually as impressive as offensive ones, but this scene–with SALT LAKE CITY firing from dead in the water, RICHMOND turning to her aid with guns blazing, and three destroyers in a suicidal torpedo charge–must have been memorable.  SALT LAKE CITY’s OOD concluded her log entry with, “This day the hand of Divine Providence lay over the ship.  Never before in her colorful history has death been so close for so long a time.  The entire crew offered its thanks to Almighty God for His mercy and protection.”

Sakito Maru and Asaka Maru turned back after being spotted by PBY patrol planes.  Americans on Adak indeed planned to send land-based B-25s after these freighters.  But the bombers were delayed six hours installing auxiliary fuel tanks and reloading with armor-piercing bombs, many of which had to be chipped from frozen bomb racks.

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                                 BATTLE OF THE KOMANDORSKIS

One Japanese success at the battle of Midway was an effort intended only to be a diversion.  As Yamamoto’s Combined Fleet closed on Midway Island, a smaller force of two carriers and supporting ships attacked Dutch Harbor, the main settlement in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.  Here the attackers overpowered the paltry American forces and captured two islands at the far end of the Aleutian chain, Attu and Kiska.  These bleak and desolate islands held little value to either side, but after the embarrassing defeat at Midway, Japanese propagandists recognized the value of holding US territory.  To our embarrassment, they dug in.  Initially a minor annoyance, Japan’s garrisons on Attu and Kiska grew increasingly troubling as the US began ferrying planes to Russia via Siberia.  A Japanese presence in the Aleutians could no longer be tolerated by 1943.

Preliminary US efforts isolated the enemy garrisons from resupply.  RADM Charles H. McMorris was sent to patrol the approaches to Kiska with Task Group 16.6 composed of the aging light cruisers SALT LAKE CITY (CL-25) and RICHMOND (CL-9) and four destroyers.  Just after breakfast on this day, on glassy seas in unusually clear weather, the lead destroyer, COGHLAN (DD-606), made radar contact with five enemy ships on the same northerly course.  What followed was anachronistic, the last naval battle in history that did not involve aircraft, missiles, or submarines–a classic surface action in keeping with turn of the 20^th century navalism.

The ships COGHLAN had spotted were the trailing end of VADM Boshiro Hosogaya’s Northern Force escorting two armed marus to Attu.  Smarting from earlier losses to US submarines, Hosogaya was employing the full strength of his four cruisers and four destroyers in escort.  Against this enemy force that outnumbered him two to one, McMorris prepared to do battle.  Lookouts were sent aloft, gunners took up station, prisoners were released from the brig, messmen sliced bread for sandwiches, and coffee was put to boil.  An American line-ahead formed on COGHLAN, McMorris hoping to make a quick strike at the freighters then retire.

But Hosogaya, aware he was being followed, sent the freighters ahead and reversed course.  The enemy opened at 0840 from nearly five miles distant, straddling RICHMOND with salvos.  Two minutes later SALT LAKE CITY brought her long-range forward turret to the action.  Her third and fourth salvos struck the heavy cruiser NACHI, starting a fire worse in appearance than in fact.  From a range of 20,000 yards SALT LAKE CITY was accounting herself well, scoring hits to NACHI’s bridge and torpedo room–and getting drenched by near misses in the process.  But with the full weight of the stronger enemy force now approaching head-on, McMorris abandoned the freighters, rang up a flank bell, and turned away in a fighting withdrawal to the west.

Continued tomorrow….

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 1 “A-B”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1959, p. 84.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 2 “C-F”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1977, pp. 138, 234.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 4 “L-M”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1969, p. 306, 413.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 6 “R-S”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1976, pp. 269-70.

Lorelli, John A.  The Battle of the Komandorski Islands, March 1943.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1984.

Love, Robert W.  History of the US Navy, Vol 2  1942-1991. Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1992, pp. 137-40.

Morison, Samuel Eliot.  History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol 7  Aleutians, Gilberts and Marshalls.  Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1951, pp. 22-36.

Potter, E.B.  Sea Power: A Naval History  2nd ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1981, p. 310.

Purdon, Eric.  “War in the Arctic:  The Battle of the Komandorskis.”  Sea Classics, Vol 31 (11), November 1998, pp. 34-42.

Sweetman, Jack.  “Great Sea Battles of World War II:  The Komandorskis”.  Naval History, Vol 9 (3), June 1995, pp. 39-40.

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