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Gun flashes, tracers, and star shell candles stained the inky darkness off Guadalcanal. Eight Japanese destroyers outfought American cruisers that night of Nov. 29, 1942. US heavy cruisers Minneapolis and New Orleans both reeled under the impact of powerful Japanese 'Long Lance' torpedoes. Pensacola turned left to prevent collision with two damaged American ships ahead of her.
Silhouetted
by the burning American cruisers, she
came in 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. The last cruiser
in column, Northampton (CA–26),
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 torpedoes
and machine gun ammunition exploded. Only supreme effort and skillful
damage control by her gallant 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
towards
Tulagi. She arrived there still aflame. After twelve hours the last
fire was quenched. Her dead numbered 7 officers and 118 men.
The third Pensacola (CA–24:
dp. 9,100; l. 585’8”; b. 65’3”; dr. 15’2”; s. 32 k.; cpl. 653; a. 10
8”, 4 5”, 6 21” tt.) was laid down by the New York Navy Yard 27
October 1926; launched 25 April 1929; sponsored by Mrs. Joseph L.
Seligman; and commissioned 6 February 1930, Capt. Alfred G. Howe in
command.Pensacola departed New York 24 March 1930, transited the
Panama Canal
to Callao, Peru, and Valparaiso, Chile, before returning to New York 5
June. For the next four years she operated along the eastern seaboard
and in the Caribbean Sea, several times transiting the Panama Canal for
combined Fleet battle practice ranging from California to Hawaii.
Pensacola departed Norfolk 15 January 1935 to join the Pacific
Fleet
arriving San Diego, her new home port, 30 January. Fleet problems
ranged to Hawaii, one cruise took her to Alaska, and combined fleet
maneuvers returned her briefly to the Caribbean Sea before she sailed 5
October 1939 to base at Pearl Harbor, arriving the 12th. Maneuvers
frequently found the cruiser off Midway and French Frigate Shoals, and
she made one voyage to Guam.
Pensacola departed Pearl Harbor 29 November 1941 with a
convoy bound
for Manila in the Philippines. After the in famous raid on Pearl
Harbor, the convoy was deverted to Australia, entering Brisbane Harbor
7 January 1942. Pensacola returned to Pearl Harbor 19 January
and put
to sea 5 February to patrol the approaches to the Samoan Islands. On 17
February 1942 she rendezvoused off Samoa with Carrier Task Force II,
built around the aircraft carrier Lexington (CV–2).
Near Bougainville, Solomons, Pensacola’s gunners helped repel
two waves
of Japanese bombers, 20 February. Not a ship of the carrier task force
was damaged. Antiaircraft fire and Lexington Combat Air Patrol planes
shot down 17 of the 18 attackers. One pilot, Lt. Edward H. O’Hare,
destroyed five enemy planes in a gallant fight that made him the first
Ace of the Navy in World War II and won him the Medal of Honor.
Pensacola continued to help guard Lexington on offensive patrol
in the
Coral Sea until carrier Yorktown joined the task force 6 March. The
American ships steamed for the Gulf of Papua where 10 March Lexington
launched planes for a surprise strike over the Owen Stanley mountains
at Japanese shipping and installations at Salamaua and Lae. A complete
surprise, the raid caused heavy damage. The task force then turned
toward Noumea, New Caledonia, to replenish. Pensacola patrolled
with
the Yorktown carrier task force until 8 April, then headed via Samoa
for Pearl Harbor, arriving 21 April. She carried Marine Fighting
Squadron 212 to Efate in the New Hebrides Islands and returned to Pearl
Harbor with famed carrier Enterprise (CV–6) 26 May.
Pensacola departed Pearl Harbor 28 May with the Enterprise task
force
for a rendezous 2 June northeast of Midway with units of Task Force 17.
Two days later, 4 June, when the Japanese armada came within range of
the American carriers, the decisive Battle of Midway commenced.
Adm. Spruance’s torpedo planes and dive-bombers attacked the Japanese
carriers. Akagi and Kaga went up in flames, and Soryu was badly
damaged. A fourth enemy carrier, Hiryu, still at large, launched
strikes at Yorktown and the American flattops struck back, leaving the
enemy carrier, hit many times, in a mass of flames. Meanwhile, gallant
Yorktown. hit by three bombs was fighting for her life. Pensacola
raced
from the Enterprise screen to aid the stricken carrier. Yorktown was
dead in the water when Pensacola arrived, and the cruiser
assisted in
shooting down four enemy torpedo bombers during a second attack.
Despite all that could be done, Yorktown received two torpedo hits
amidships and had to be abandoned. Pensacola rejoined the
screen of
Enterprise to pursue the retiring Japanese.
Pensacola returned to Pearl Harbor 13 June and, with Enterprise,
again
put to sea 22 June carrying 1,157 marines of Marine Aircraft Group 22
to Midway. She patrolled and trained in Hawaiian waters until 7 August.
As Marines stormed the shores of Guadalcanal, the cruiser set course
for the Solomons in the screen of carriers Saratoga (CV–3), Hornet
(CV–8) and Wasp (CV–7) to support the leathernecks in that bitter
campaign. In submarine infested waters, torpedoes damaged Saratoga 31
August and sank Wasp 15 September, Pensacola arrived at Noumea,
New
Caledonia, 26 September and departed with carrier Hornet 2 October to
strike the enemy in the Santa Isabel Guadalcanal area. On 24 October
Hornet’s carrier task group joined Enterprise and the combined force
steamed to intercept enemy warships approaching the Guadalcanal-Tulagi
area.
On 26 October 1942, search planes located a Japanese carrier and
battleship formation, beginning the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands which
was fought without contact being made between surface ships of the
opposing forces. Air strikes inflicted severe bomb damage to Japanese
carriers Zuiho and Shokaku, and sank Japanese cruiser Yura. Bomb hits
damaged battleship Kirishima and other enemy ships.
Pensacola helped fight off a coordinated dive bombing and
torpedo plane
raid which damaged Hornet so severely that she had to be abandoned.
Within minutes of the attack on Hornet, 24 dive bombers dropped 23
bombs in a run on Enterprise (CV–6). Despite damage, the famed
“Fighting Lady” launched a large number of planes from abandoned Hornet
besides her own.
Pensacola received 55 officers and 133 men-survivors from Hornet
whom
she debarked at Noumea, 30 October 1942. The Task Force had turned back
a Japanese attempt to regain Guadalcanal, sunk cruiser Yura, and
damaged a number of enemy capital ships. Japanese carriers had lost 123
planes.
Pensacola departed Noumea 2 November 1942 to guard transports
landing
Marine reinforcements, and supplies, at Aola Bay, Guadalcanal. She
helped guard Enterprise during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal 12–13
November 1942. Planes from Enterprise assisted in the sinking of
battleship Hiei, one cruiser, three destroyers, and eleven auxiliaries
and the damaging of four Japanese cruisers and four destroyers.
Pensacola returned to Espiritu Santo to join cruiser-destroyer
Task
Force 67 under Rear Admiral Carleton H. Wright. On 29 November, the
task force 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
five miles of Pensacola’s cruiser formation. AS described
above, the American cruisers, took dreadful damage, Pensacola herself hit by torpedos
and badly burnt with heavy loss of life. 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 6 December for emergency repairs by tender
Vestal until she sailed 7 January 1943 via Samoa to Pearl Harbor,
arriving 27 January.
On 8 November Pensacola sailed from Pearl Harbor in the screen
of
Southern Attack Force aircraft carriers. On 19 November Pensacola
made
bombardment runs on Betio and Tarawa. She rained 600 projectiles to put
coast defense guns out of action, and destroyed enemy beach defenses
and numerous buildings. As troops stormed ashore on Tarawa 20 November,
the cruiser screened carriers launching air strikes supporting the
landings. That night she fought off Japanese torpedo bombers and
assisted torpedo-damaged carrier Independence (CVL–22) into Funafuti,
Ellice Islands. For the next two months she ranged out of that base to
screen carriers covering the movement of reinforcements and supplies to
the Gilberts.
On 29 January 1944 she began strikes and bombardments to
destroy Japanese air power and shipping in the Marshall Islands. That
night Pensacola helped bombard Tarao in the Eastern Marshalls.
She then
slammed shells into airfield runways, seaplane ramps, ammunition
stowage areas and buildings on Wotje. She continued pounding these
targets as Marines and Army troops landed 31 January to seize Kwajalein
and Majuro Atolls. Invasion of the Marshall Islands continued 1
February as Marines occupied Roi and Namur Islands. Pensacola
continued
to hit hard at Tarao, Maloelap Atoll through 18 February, destroying
coastal defenses and air bases of the enemy in the eastern Marshalls.
Operating from Majuro and Kwajalein, she continued to patrol in
approaches of the Marshalls. She again served in the screen of fast
carriers conducting raids in the Carolines 30 March–1 April, against
Japanese defenses at Palau, Yap, Ulithi and Woleai.
Pensacola departed Majuro 25 April sailing via Pearl Harbor and
Mare
Island for duty in the Northern Pacific, arriving in Kulak Bay 27 May.
On 13 June, she joined her cruiserdestroyer task force in raining
destruction on the airfields of Matsuwa, Kuriles. In the early morning
of 26 June she fired 300 8-inch projectiles to destroy shipping,
airfields and installations at Kurabu Zaki, Paramushiru To, Kuriles,
returning to Kulak Bay 28 June. Pensacola continued patrol in
Alaskan
waters until departing Kulak Bay 8 August for Hawaii.
Pensacola arrived Pearl Harbor 13 August and put to sea the
29th.
Enroute to the Marianas 3 September, she joined an air-sea bombardment
of Wake Island. On 9 October she pounded the main radio station and
installations on Marcus Island. She and her sister cruisers and
destroyers stirred up a fire melee in their “impersonation” of Halsey’s
3rd Fleet to lead the Japanese into thinking the ladder of islands to
the Bonins was next on the American timetable for invasion. Meanwhile
Adm. Halsey’s units advanced on the Philippines while Fast Carriers
rained destruction on the enemy air and Fleet bases at Okinawa and
Formosa.
Pensacola made rendezvous with the units of the Fast Carrier
Task Force
retiring from the great air battles over Formosa. After protecting
battle-damaged cruisers Canberra (CA–70) and Houston (CL–81) to Ulithi,
she joined a Fast Carrier Task Group including Wasp 16 October. The
following day, troops supported by the 7th Fleet, began the liberation
of the Philippine Islands.
Pensacola screened fast aircraft carriers striking Luzon and
directly
supported the invasion of Leyte beginning 20 October. She raced north
to aid in the destruction of the enemy carrier force in the Battle of
Cape Engano 25 October, then turned south as the fast carriers launched
planes to aid the gallant escort carriers.
Pensacola bombarded Iwo Jima the night of 11–12 November and returned to Ulithi the 14th. As she was about to depart for Saipan 20 November, she spotted a periscope about 1,200 yards to starboard. As she maneuvered clear, destroyer Case (DD–370) rammed the enemy. Four minutes later her men witnessed the flaming explosion that destroyed fleet oiler Mississinewa (AO–59), victim of a Japanese midget submarine.
Pensacola arrived Saipan 22 November to prepare for the invasion
of Iwo
Jima. Five nights later, she helped splash several attacking Japanese
aircraft. She departed Saipan 6 December, plastered Iwo Jima with 500
8-inch projectiles on the 8th. She returned to Iwo Jima on the 24th and
the 27th pounding mountain gun positions, north of Suribachi Mountain.
She hit defenses on Chichi Jima and Haha Jima as well as pounding
mountain gun positions, north of Suirbachi Mountain. She hit defenses
on Chi Jima and Haha Jima as well as Iwo Jima on 5 and 24 January 1945.
At Ulithi, 27 January, Pensacola formed with a
battleshipcruiser-destroyer gunstrike task force under Rear Admiral B.
J. Rodgers. Six battleships, four cruisers and a destroyer screen
comprised the bombardment force which sailed 10 February via Tinian to
Iwo Jima. On 16 February Pensacola opened fire on the northwest
sector of Iwo
Jima to prepare for the landings. That afternoon Lt. (j.g.) Douglas W.
Gandy, USNR, piloting one of Pensacola’s gun-spotter scout
planes, shot
down a Japanese fighter. The next morning Pensacola took six
hits from
enemy shore batteries as her guns covered operations of the
mineSweepers close inshore. Three of her officers and 14 men were
killed. Another five officers and 114 men were injured.
Pensacola fired back as she retired for temporary repairs, then
returned to her bombardment station. The morning of 19 February she
commenced harassing and counter-battery fire in direct support of the
invasion landings. Her deadly guns fought day and night into 1 March
when she silenced enemy shore batteries which had hit destroyer Terry
(DD–513) amidships. After helping Terry’s wounded, she resumed direct
bombardment support to advancing Marines that continued into 3 March.
She arrived in Ulithi 5 March and put to sea on the 20th to support the
invasion and capture of Okinawa, the “last stepping stone” to Japan.
On 25 March Pensacola bombarded enemy defenses and covered the
operations of minesweepers preparing the way for the Okinawa invasion
landings. On 27 March she spotted a torpedo wake on her port quarter. A
second “fish” streaked towards the ship from dead astern. As her 40-mm
gunners opened fire on the torpedoes, Pensacola went hard left
then
hard right to parallel the deadly missiles. The first torpedo missed
her starboard quarter by less than twenty feet. The second passed some
twenty yards along the port side of the cruiser as her gunners opened
with automatic weapons on a submarine periscope. Pensacola gave
direct bombardment support to the initial invasion of
Okinawa 1 April and continued to blast at enemy targets until the 15th.
She then sailed via Guam and Pearl Harbor for home. She arrived at Mare
Island 7 May for overhaul.
She sailed 3 August for Adak, Alaska and was there when hostilities
ended. On the 31st she sailed with units of Cruiser Division Five
enroute to Ominato, Northern Honshu, Japan. She anchored in the outer
harbor of Ominato 8 September.
Pensacola departed Ominato 14 November to embark 200 veterans at
Iwo
Jima, then touched Pearl Harbor enroute to San Francisco, Calif.,
arriving 3 December. Five days later she put to sea for Apra Harbor,
Guam, where she embarked nearly 700 veterans for transport to San
Diego, arriving 9 January 1946.
Pensacola departed San Pedro 29 April to stage with units of
Joint Task
Force One at Pearl Harbor in preparation for operation “Crossroads,”
the atomic bomb experiments at Bikini Atoll. She stood out of Pearl
Harbor 20 May and reached Bikini the 29th to serve as a target ship.
She survived the tests of 1 July and 25 July 1946. On 24 August 1946
she was taken in tow for Kwajalein where she decommissioned 26 August
1946. Her hulk was turned over to the custody of Joint Task Force One
for radiological and structural studies. On completion of these
studies, her hulk was sunk 10 November 1948.
Pensacola received thirteen battle stars for World War II
service.
Sources: Public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
and pictures from my father's 1943 Naval Recognition Manual
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