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World War II

Battle of Tassafaronga

Pensacola returned to Espiritu Santo to join TF 67 under Rear Admiral Carleton H. Wright. On 29 November, TF 67 sailed to intercept a Japanese destroyer-transport force expected off Guadalcanal the next night. Just before midnight of the 30th, the American ships transited Lengo Channel and headed past Henderson Field on Guadalcanal as the Japanese task group steamed on a southerly course west of Savo Island to enter "Ironbottom Sound".

The two opposing task forces clashed in the Battle of Tassafaronga. American destroyers launched torpedoes as the enemy range came within 5 mi (4.3 nmi; 8.0 km) of Pensacola′s cruiser formation. Now gun flashes, tracers, and star shell candles stained the inky darkness. Takanami—hit many times—was afire and exploding. Minneapolis took two torpedo hits that blasted her bow downward like an immense scoop and left her forecastle deck awash, but she continued to fight on. New Orleans closed on Minneapolis, and ran into the track of a torpedo that ripped off the forward part of the warship.

Pensacola turned left to prevent collision with two damaged American ships ahead of her. Silhouetted by the burning American cruisers, she came into the Japanese line of fire. One of 18 torpedoes launched by Japanese destroyers hit her below the mainmast on the portside. Her engine room flooded, three gun turrets went out of commission, and her oil tanks ruptured to make a soaked torch of her mast. Meantime, Honolulu maneuvered radically at 30 kn (35 mph; 56 km/h), her guns continuing their rapid fire as she escaped the trap. The last American cruiser in column—Northampton—took two torpedo hits to duplicate on a larger scale the havoc inflicted on Pensacola.

The oil-fed flames engulfed Pensacola's main deck aft where ammunition exploded. Only supreme effort and skillful damage control by her men saved the ship. The fire—punctuated by the frightful explosion of 8-inch projectiles in her Number 3 turret—gradually subsided. Pensacola made steady progress toward Tulagi. She arrived there still aflame. After 12 hours the last fire was quenched. Her dead numbered seven officers and 118 men. One officer and 67 men were injured.

Camouflaged as part of the island, Pensacola made repairs in Tulagi Harbor that enabled her to steam to Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides Island. She arrived there on 6 December for emergency repairs by Vestal until she sailed on 7 January 1943 via Samoa to Pearl Harbor, arriving on 27 January.

Awards
Pensacola received 13 battle stars for World War II service including:

Midway
Santa Cruz
Guadalcanal
Tassafronga
Tarawa
Makin
Kwajalein
Iwo Jima
Okinawa

USS Pensacola (CA-24) alongside the repair ship USS Vestal (AR-4), undergoing repair of torpedo damage received during the Battle of Tassafaronga, off Guadalcanal on 30 November 1942. (below)

History buffs will remember that the Vestal was moored alongside the battleship Arizona when she blew up and sank during the Pearl Harbor attack, narrowly escaping destruction herself.

Pearl Harbor

The next day the ordered routine of a peacetime Sunday in port was shattered shortly before 08:00 as Japanese carrier-based aircraft swept down upon Pearl Harbor. At 07:55, Vestal went to general quarters, manning every gun from the 5-inch (127 mm) broadside battery to the .30 cal. Lewis machine guns on the bridge wings. At about 08:05, her 3-inch (76 mm) gun commenced firing.

At about the same time, two bombs – intended for the more valuable battleship inboard on Battleship Row – hit the repair ship. One struck the port side, penetrated three decks, passed through a crew's space, and exploded in a stores hold, starting fires that necessitated flooding the forward magazines. The second hit the starboard side, passed through the carpenter shop and the shipfitter shop, and left an irregular hole about five feet in diameter in the bottom of the ship.

Maintaining anti-aircraft fire became secondary to the ship's fight for survival. The 3-inch (76 mm) gun jammed after three rounds, and the crew was working to clear the jam when an explosion blew Vestal's gunners overboard.

At about 08:10, a bomb penetrated Arizona's deck near the starboard side of number 2 turret and exploded in the powder magazine below. The resultant explosion touched off adjacent main battery magazines. Almost as if in a volcanic eruption, the forward part of the battleship exploded, and the concussion from the explosion literally cleared Vestal's deck.

Among the men blown off Vestal was her commanding officer, Commander Cassin Young. The captain swam back to the ship, however, and countermanded an abandon ship order that someone had given, coolly saying, "Lads, we're getting this ship underway." Fortunately, the engineer officer had anticipated just such an order and already had the "black gang" hard at work getting up steam.

The explosion touched off oil from the ruptured tanks of the Arizona which in turn caused fires on board Vestal, aft and amidships. At 08:45 men forward cut Vestal's mooring lines with axes, freeing her from Arizona, and she got underway, steering by engines alone. The naval tug Hoga, whose tugmaster had served aboard Vestal just a few months before the attack, pulled Vestal's bow away from the inferno engulfing Arizona and the repair ship, and the latter began to creep out of danger, although she was slowly assuming a list to starboard and settling by the stern. At 09:10, Vestal anchored in 35 feet (11 m) of water off McGrew's Point.

With the draft aft increasing to 27 feet (8 m) and the list to six and one-half degrees, Commander Young decided upon another course of action. "Because of the unstable condition of the ship", Young explained in his after-action report, "(the) ship being on fire in several places and the possibility of further attacks, it was decided to ground the ship." Underway at 09:50, less than an hour after the Japanese attack ended, Vestal grounded on 'Aiea Bay soon thereafter. Commander Young was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions that day.

Although damaged herself, Vestal participated in some of the post-attack salvage operations, sending repair parties to the overturned hull of the battleship Oklahoma so that welders could cut into the ship and rescue men trapped there when she capsized. Over the ensuing days, Vestal's men repaired their own ship because yard facilities in the aftermath of the Japanese surprise attack were at a premium. Within a week of the raid, Vestal's crew had pumped out the oil and water that had flooded the compartments below the waterline and cleared out the damaged and gutted holds – all work that had to be completed before the rebuilding process could begin.

The Vestal's skipper, Cassin Young, was promoted to Captain in February of 1942 and given command of the heavy cruiser San Francisco. Young would later be killed on the bridge along with Admiral Daniel J. Callaghan during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal on November 13th, 1942.

Tongatapu

After repairs and alterations and operations at Pearl Harbor, Vestal received orders on 12 August 1942 to proceed to the South Pacific. She set sail for Tongatapu in the Tonga Islands. She arrived there two weeks later, on 29 August, at a key time – less than a month after the launching of Operation Watchtower, the invasion of the Solomon Islands. Over the months that followed, the Japanese would contest the Americans and their Australian and New Zealand allies with skill and tenacity.

During Vestal's 60 days at Tongatapu, she completed 963 repair jobs for some 58 ships and four shore activities. Included were repairs to warships such as Saratoga (torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-26 on 31 August); South Dakota (damaged from grounding at Lahai Passage, Tonga Islands, on 6 September); and North Carolina (torpedo damage suffered on 15 September).

Throughout the rest of the war, Vestal stayed busy repairing many ships damaged from Kamikaze attacks and typhoons.

Entering Buckner Bay at dusk, Vestal witnessed the savage typhoon's aftermath with the dawn of the 11th. Once again, Vestal immediately turned to the task of repairing the battered ships of the fleet.

Subsequently, Vestal performed her vital service functions supporting the occupation of China and Japan, before she sailed back to the United States. Her disposal was delayed in order to allow the ship to perform decommissioning work on other ships referred to the 13th Naval District for disposal, Vestal was ultimately decommissioned at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard on 14 August 1946. Struck from the Navy List on 25 September of the same year, she lay inactive for the next two and one-half years before stripping began on 20 May 1949. Her hull was sold on 28 July 1950 to the Boston Metals Company, Baltimore, Maryland, and subsequently scrapped.

Vestal (AR-4) received two battle stars for her World War II service.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Vestal

kingofnerf · Aug 11, 2021

USS Pensacola, CA-24.

World War II

Battle of Tassafaronga

Pensacola returned to Espiritu Santo to join TF 67 under Rear Admiral Carleton H. Wright. On 29 November, TF 67 sailed to intercept a Japanese destroyer-transport force expected off Guadalcanal the next night. Just before midnight of the 30th, the American ships transited Lengo Channel and headed past Henderson Field on Guadalcanal as the Japanese task group steamed on a southerly course west of Savo Island to enter "Ironbottom Sound".

The two opposing task forces clashed in the Battle of Tassafaronga. American destroyers launched torpedoes as the enemy range came within 5 mi (4.3 nmi; 8.0 km) of Pensacola′s cruiser formation. Now gun flashes, tracers, and star shell candles stained the inky darkness. Takanami—hit many times—was afire and exploding. Minneapolis took two torpedo hits that blasted her bow downward like an immense scoop and left her forecastle deck awash, but she continued to fight on. New Orleans closed on Minneapolis, and ran into the track of a torpedo that ripped off the forward part of the warship.

Pensacola turned left to prevent collision with two damaged American ships ahead of her. Silhouetted by the burning American cruisers, she came into the Japanese line of fire. One of 18 torpedoes launched by Japanese destroyers hit her below the mainmast on the portside. Her engine room flooded, three gun turrets went out of commission, and her oil tanks ruptured to make a soaked torch of her mast. Meantime, Honolulu maneuvered radically at 30 kn (35 mph; 56 km/h), her guns continuing their rapid fire as she escaped the trap. The last American cruiser in column—Northampton—took two torpedo hits to duplicate on a larger scale the havoc inflicted on Pensacola.

The oil-fed flames engulfed Pensacola's main deck aft where ammunition exploded. Only supreme effort and skillful damage control by her men saved the ship. The fire—punctuated by the frightful explosion of 8-inch projectiles in her Number 3 turret—gradually subsided. Pensacola made steady progress toward Tulagi. She arrived there still aflame. After 12 hours the last fire was quenched. Her dead numbered seven officers and 118 men. One officer and 67 men were injured.

Camouflaged as part of the island, Pensacola made repairs in Tulagi Harbor that enabled her to steam to Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides Island. She arrived there on 6 December for emergency repairs by Vestal until she sailed on 7 January 1943 via Samoa to Pearl Harbor, arriving on 27 January.

Awards
Pensacola received 13 battle stars for World War II service including:

Midway
Santa Cruz
Guadalcanal
Tassafronga
Tarawa
Makin
Kwajalein
Iwo Jima
Okinawa

USS Pensacola (CA-24) alongside the repair ship USS Vestal (AR-4), undergoing repair of torpedo damage received during the Battle of Tassafaronga, off Guadalcanal on 30 November 1942. (below)

History buffs will remember that the Vestal was moored alongside the battleship Arizona when she blew up and sank during the Pearl Harbor attack, narrowly escaping destruction herself.

Pearl Harbor

The next day the ordered routine of a peacetime Sunday in port was shattered shortly before 08:00 as Japanese carrier-based aircraft swept down upon Pearl Harbor. At 07:55, Vestal went to general quarters, manning every gun from the 5-inch (127 mm) broadside battery to the .30 cal. Lewis machine guns on the bridge wings. At about 08:05, her 3-inch (76 mm) gun commenced firing.

At about the same time, two bombs – intended for the more valuable battleship inboard on Battleship Row – hit the repair ship. One struck the port side, penetrated three decks, passed through a crew's space, and exploded in a stores hold, starting fires that necessitated flooding the forward magazines. The second hit the starboard side, passed through the carpenter shop and the shipfitter shop, and left an irregular hole about five feet in diameter in the bottom of the ship.

Maintaining anti-aircraft fire became secondary to the ship's fight for survival. The 3-inch (76 mm) gun jammed after three rounds, and the crew was working to clear the jam when an explosion blew Vestal's gunners overboard.

At about 08:10, a bomb penetrated Arizona's deck near the starboard side of number 2 turret and exploded in the powder magazine below. The resultant explosion touched off adjacent main battery magazines. Almost as if in a volcanic eruption, the forward part of the battleship exploded, and the concussion from the explosion literally cleared Vestal's deck.

Among the men blown off Vestal was her commanding officer, Commander Cassin Young. The captain swam back to the ship, however, and countermanded an abandon ship order that someone had given, coolly saying, "Lads, we're getting this ship underway." Fortunately, the engineer officer had anticipated just such an order and already had the "black gang" hard at work getting up steam.

The explosion touched off oil from the ruptured tanks of the Arizona which in turn caused fires on board Vestal, aft and amidships. At 08:45 men forward cut Vestal's mooring lines with axes, freeing her from Arizona, and she got underway, steering by engines alone. The naval tug Hoga, whose tugmaster had served aboard Vestal just a few months before the attack, pulled Vestal's bow away from the inferno engulfing Arizona and the repair ship, and the latter began to creep out of danger, although she was slowly assuming a list to starboard and settling by the stern. At 09:10, Vestal anchored in 35 feet (11 m) of water off McGrew's Point.

With the draft aft increasing to 27 feet (8 m) and the list to six and one-half degrees, Commander Young decided upon another course of action. "Because of the unstable condition of the ship", Young explained in his after-action report, "(the) ship being on fire in several places and the possibility of further attacks, it was decided to ground the ship." Underway at 09:50, less than an hour after the Japanese attack ended, Vestal grounded on 'Aiea Bay soon thereafter. Commander Young was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions that day.

Although damaged herself, Vestal participated in some of the post-attack salvage operations, sending repair parties to the overturned hull of the battleship Oklahoma so that welders could cut into the ship and rescue men trapped there when she capsized. Over the ensuing days, Vestal's men repaired their own ship because yard facilities in the aftermath of the Japanese surprise attack were at a premium. Within a week of the raid, Vestal's crew had pumped out the oil and water that had flooded the compartments below the waterline and cleared out the damaged and gutted holds – all work that had to be completed before the rebuilding process could begin.

The Vestal's skipper, Cassin Young, was promoted to Captain in February of 1942 and given command of the heavy cruiser San Francisco. Young would later be killed on the bridge along with Admiral Daniel J. Callaghan during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal on November 13th, 1942.

Tongatapu

After repairs and alterations and operations at Pearl Harbor, Vestal received orders on 12 August 1942 to proceed to the South Pacific. She set sail for Tongatapu in the Tonga Islands. She arrived there two weeks later, on 29 August, at a key time – less than a month after the launching of Operation Watchtower, the invasion of the Solomon Islands. Over the months that followed, the Japanese would contest the Americans and their Australian and New Zealand allies with skill and tenacity.

During Vestal's 60 days at Tongatapu, she completed 963 repair jobs for some 58 ships and four shore activities. Included were repairs to warships such as Saratoga (torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-26 on 31 August); South Dakota (damaged from grounding at Lahai Passage, Tonga Islands, on 6 September); and North Carolina (torpedo damage suffered on 15 September).

Throughout the rest of the war, Vestal stayed busy repairing many ships damaged from Kamikaze attacks and typhoons.

Entering Buckner Bay at dusk, Vestal witnessed the savage typhoon's aftermath with the dawn of the 11th. Once again, Vestal immediately turned to the task of repairing the battered ships of the fleet.

Subsequently, Vestal performed her vital service functions supporting the occupation of China and Japan, before she sailed back to the United States. Her disposal was delayed in order to allow the ship to perform decommissioning work on other ships referred to the 13th Naval District for disposal, Vestal was ultimately decommissioned at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard on 14 August 1946. Struck from the Navy List on 25 September of the same year, she lay inactive for the next two and one-half years before stripping began on 20 May 1949. Her hull was sold on 28 July 1950 to the Boston Metals Company, Baltimore, Maryland, and subsequently scrapped.

Vestal (AR-4) received two battle stars for her World War II service.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Vestal

Swayin · Aug 11, 2021

The Consolidated B-24 Liberator, one of the iconic planes of the war, and with more than 18,000 produced, it was the most produced heavy bomber in history.

Swayin · Aug 11, 2021

The Consolidated B-24 Liberator, one of the iconic planes of the war, and with more than 18,000 produced, it was the most produced heavy bomber in history.

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