Tempestuous
This is part of the second book that I am currently working on. "Tempestuous."
Chapter 5: Reign of fire
August 9, 1942
01:28 hours
The rain had stopped about six hours earlier and once again a soft cool breeze made the night cool enough for some of the men to lay out under the starry August skies on the hill overlooking the sea towards Savo Island. It was a cloudy night and if you looked out towards the ocean there wasn't much to look at. It was covered in darkness
01:40 hours aboard The heavy American Cruiser USS Quincy.
The day quickly turned to night and the men settled in once again, and the question of the situation they faced was left unanswered; but it would soon be revealed as the night wore on and dark clouds moved in. It was abnormally hot below decks aboard the Heavy Cruiser Quincy, and many of the men not on duty had made bed topside. The air was still somewhat humid, but a cool breeze was blowing and it was a relief from the swelter within the steel walls below. The boiler room temprature reached upwards to 120 degrees, and when second watch was relieved those crewmen too made their way topside for a little rest.
“Casey do you think we're gonna see any action. Seems like all we do is stand watch and sleep.” One sailor said to the other.
“Nah, we're just doomed to patrol the rest of the war. It ain't right, this old lady was made to fight.” Replied another young sailor.
On the bridge Captain Samuel Moore was giving his final orders to the Officer of the deck before turning in for the night. “Keep her on coarse and notify me if anything comes up.” Moore said.
“Aye aye Captain.” A fresh faced second lieutenant responded.
Aboard the Australian Heavy Cruiser Canberra the situation was much the same. The men had stood at their stations for the past two days and they were beyond exhaustion. The night went on and there was no sign of the enemy, and no hint that a battle would take shape. It was peaceful, or so it would seem.
The American Cruisers Vincennes, Astoria, and Quincy were in a line patrolling from north to south along the coast of Savo Island and Canberra along with American Cruiser USS Chicago and two escorting destroyers were to the north of the Quincy's position. On the west side of Savo Island two American destroyers patrolled the entrance to what would later be known as “Iron bottom sound” Notably because the great number of ships on both sides that lined the bottom of the sea there.
No one had a clue, and the Captains of each of the vessels had turned in for the night having never expected anything other than a routine patrol.
Two men on the bridge of the Canberra were checking the ships way points when they noticed a light reflecting off of the beam just above them. They turned to look out the windows of the pilot house to see where the lights were coming from. “What in the bloody name of Scott is that?” David Thomas asked.
“Its' those ruddy Yanks, what are they shooting off flare for?” another Lieutenant exclaimed. It would be the last thing he would ever say, within seconds the ship was rocked by incoming 8 inch shells from the Japanese Cruiser Chokai.
Commander Frank Getting was shaken from his sleep and leaped into action, but it was to late. The Cruiser was hit time after time and soon she was ablaze, and her decks were filled with the bloody corpses of crewmen that had tried to make it to station..... they never had a chance.
A salvo from the heavy Japanese Cruiser blew off a section of Canberra's bow, and another disabled her steering, leaving the ship helpless and sinking. Not long after Canberra was attacked, the USS Chicago about 600 yards behind Canberra was lit up by Japanese searchlights, and the shells again began to reign down. Although the Chicago would limp away with severe damages her sisters would not find such luck. The Destroyers USS Blue, and Ralph Talbot would meet similar fates.
“Enemy ships bearing 220. opening fire on the Canberra!” A lookout aboard Ralph Talbot reported to his Captain.
“Very well, helm swing to, bring her to port. Prepare torpedoes.”
“Aye sir.” The young man at the helm replied.
“Torpedo to bridge, all tubes ready for a full spread.” a voice came from the speaker on the bridge.
On the ship to ship speaker the captain could hear bits and pieces of garbled battle reports, but the entire situation was confusing.
“Blue taking fire from enemy ships, we're under heavy fire..... requesting fire support.” The commander of the Destroyer U.S.S Blue called out.
“Captain searchlights!” A lookout yelled to the Captain of the U.S.S. Talbot.
It was the same searchlights that lit up the Blue and it wouldn't be long before Ralph Talbot would be catching buckets of lead from the larger enemy cruisers.
The time was 1:45am when Thomas Morris looked up to the north where he swore that he could hear thunder rumbling. It didn't concern Morris as there had been reports of a storm brewing to the north. It was 01:50 the next time he looked down at his watch, but when his eyes returned to the horizon they were met by a blinding light. Morris didn't have time to even take his next breath when the air around Quincy was lit up by searchlights from the Japanese ships.
It seemed as though time had suddenly stood still; men were running down the decks and Morris knew that this surreal moment would be followed by hell on the water. Seconds later the feeling of timelessness was over, and Morris could hardly breath from the heat of the explosions that erupted to the rear of the bridge. Quincy was overwhelmed by a reign of fire from Japanese eight inch HE shells. That's “High Explosive” munitions that explode on contact, and they pack a whale of a punch, and set everything on fire. The enemy was so close that he could feel each time their guns fired. Flames spread everywhere, and the ship shuttered as it was hammered by shells from Japanese heavy cruiser Chokai.
Quartermaster third class Nate Corwin called out from the aft Battle control station at the rear of the ship to inform the bridge that the adjacent USS Astoria had been hit, and was burning, but there was no answer. Little did Corwin know that his own ship was in as much trouble as the others.
I think everyone's dead forward, Mack. Let's get the heck out of this oven!” Corwin shouted to his fellow shipmates.
As Corwin and his men slid out of the armored control station they slipped down the blood soaked decks, and down into the water.
The Quincy was going down fast and listing severely to port that's the left side in Navy terms. The men were joined in the water now by others who had escaped the ship, and as they bobbed up and down they could see the stern (the back of the ship) lift up out of the water; the propellers were still going a full 5 knots, and now they had another enemy to fight. The water was covered in fuel oil from the sinking ships that could very well be ignited as the ship sinks.
“Dear God save us!” One man cried out as he watched the ship slip under the waves.
Back at the scene of the nights naval battle Nate Corwin grabbed hold of a cork net that was floating close by and fell asleep. An hour or so had went by when the exhausted Corwin heard a voice crying out to him from the dark.
“Help me, please help!” A man with a faint voice called out.
Corwin jumped into the water swimming to where he thought the man was. “Where are you?” He shouted.
“Oh thank goodness, help me. I've lost part of my leg, please don't let me die out here.” Nate could see it was lieutenant Devon Randall.
“Lieutenant, grab my hand and I'll pull you to the cork net.” Corwin said as he reached for Randall's outstretched hand.
Nate caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye, but before he had time to realize what is was, Randall popped under the water, and disappeared into the depths as a shark pulled him under.
“Swim boy!” Corwin told himself as he grabbed a handful of water making his way back to the net. The night was filled with an unnatural silence part of the time, and the sounds of screams as one by one men would be pulled under by the attacking sharks. It was truly a night that Corwin would always remember, a night that would cost him many a nights sleep.
01:45 – Lunga point, Guadalcanal.
The light of the moon was obscured by a heavy cloud cover that had moved in and Lonnie, Hank, and Hacker laid on the top of the hill overlooking Lunga Point and the sea beyond. As they lay there talking about home, and such Hank caught a flash out of his peripheral vision and turned his head to face in the direction of Savo Island to the north. He saw another flash that reflected off both the water below and the clouds above. Then a low rumble that seemed to go on, and on.
“If I was back home in Oklahoma, I'd say we had a thunderstorm coming our way.” Hank announced.
Lonnie and Chick looked up to see what Hank was talking about, and when they saw the flashes both Lonnie and Chick jumped to their feet.
“That's no thunderstorm Hank, that's our ships slugging it out with the Japs!” Lonnie exclaimed.
“It didn't take long for the nip Navy to show their faces!” Chick added.
About that time there was another flash of light and a long low rumble that lasted about ten seconds, five more seconds go by, and there was an even brighter flash, and another, and another. The man made lightning show lasted about and hour, but it seemed to go on and on, and even then the men could see fires burning at sea that identified a burning, or sinking ship. It was too far for them to see what was actually happening, but there were cheers rising from the men who'd gathered. They just knew that “Our boys” were giving those Japs the licking of their lives. Lonnie, Hank, and Jim Hacker didn't join in with the others cheering though as they didn't know what the outcome of the battle had been.
“I wonder who won that round boys?” Lonnie said to Hank and Chick.
“I s'pect we'll know tomorrow Whit.” Mac Henry replied.
The next morning on Guadalcanal the men heard all about the first battle of Savo Island. The worst defeat in the history of the United States Navy, and it wasn't a pretty picture; What resistance the Japanese lacked on the beach on August 7th they had made up for in a little over an hour, in one nights time.
Colonel Mason took time the next afternoon to let the men know what had happened. The men stood silent as Mason read the dispatch sent by Admiral Turner to General Vandegrift.
“The Vincennes, Sunk..... estimates say over 300 dead, and an unknown number of wounded. Cruiser Quincy sunk, almost 400 dead and about 200 wounded. Cruiser Astoria sunk, 300 dead, and 100 wounded. Several destroyers sunk and a lot of good men dead! The Japanese Navy dealt us the single greatest blow in the history of the American Navy and I'm afraid it gets worse. There's a lot of rumors going around that the Navy will have to pull back for a while, and if they do that means that the food and supply situation is going to get pretty tight!”
As Mason was explaining the situation to the men of the 5th regiment he was interrupted by Corporeal Davie Coats who came running up to him with a message from General Vandegrift. “Sir this came for you just a minute ago.” The young lance Corporeal said.
“Dad nab-it! Turner is pulling his ships back. They landed a hand full of supplies this morning. But they aren't gonna risk any more ships to supply us
Chapter 5: Reign of fire
August 9, 1942
01:28 hours
The rain had stopped about six hours earlier and once again a soft cool breeze made the night cool enough for some of the men to lay out under the starry August skies on the hill overlooking the sea towards Savo Island. It was a cloudy night and if you looked out towards the ocean there wasn't much to look at. It was covered in darkness
01:40 hours aboard The heavy American Cruiser USS Quincy.
The day quickly turned to night and the men settled in once again, and the question of the situation they faced was left unanswered; but it would soon be revealed as the night wore on and dark clouds moved in. It was abnormally hot below decks aboard the Heavy Cruiser Quincy, and many of the men not on duty had made bed topside. The air was still somewhat humid, but a cool breeze was blowing and it was a relief from the swelter within the steel walls below. The boiler room temprature reached upwards to 120 degrees, and when second watch was relieved those crewmen too made their way topside for a little rest.
“Casey do you think we're gonna see any action. Seems like all we do is stand watch and sleep.” One sailor said to the other.
“Nah, we're just doomed to patrol the rest of the war. It ain't right, this old lady was made to fight.” Replied another young sailor.
On the bridge Captain Samuel Moore was giving his final orders to the Officer of the deck before turning in for the night. “Keep her on coarse and notify me if anything comes up.” Moore said.
“Aye aye Captain.” A fresh faced second lieutenant responded.
Aboard the Australian Heavy Cruiser Canberra the situation was much the same. The men had stood at their stations for the past two days and they were beyond exhaustion. The night went on and there was no sign of the enemy, and no hint that a battle would take shape. It was peaceful, or so it would seem.
The American Cruisers Vincennes, Astoria, and Quincy were in a line patrolling from north to south along the coast of Savo Island and Canberra along with American Cruiser USS Chicago and two escorting destroyers were to the north of the Quincy's position. On the west side of Savo Island two American destroyers patrolled the entrance to what would later be known as “Iron bottom sound” Notably because the great number of ships on both sides that lined the bottom of the sea there.
No one had a clue, and the Captains of each of the vessels had turned in for the night having never expected anything other than a routine patrol.
Two men on the bridge of the Canberra were checking the ships way points when they noticed a light reflecting off of the beam just above them. They turned to look out the windows of the pilot house to see where the lights were coming from. “What in the bloody name of Scott is that?” David Thomas asked.
“Its' those ruddy Yanks, what are they shooting off flare for?” another Lieutenant exclaimed. It would be the last thing he would ever say, within seconds the ship was rocked by incoming 8 inch shells from the Japanese Cruiser Chokai.
Commander Frank Getting was shaken from his sleep and leaped into action, but it was to late. The Cruiser was hit time after time and soon she was ablaze, and her decks were filled with the bloody corpses of crewmen that had tried to make it to station..... they never had a chance.
A salvo from the heavy Japanese Cruiser blew off a section of Canberra's bow, and another disabled her steering, leaving the ship helpless and sinking. Not long after Canberra was attacked, the USS Chicago about 600 yards behind Canberra was lit up by Japanese searchlights, and the shells again began to reign down. Although the Chicago would limp away with severe damages her sisters would not find such luck. The Destroyers USS Blue, and Ralph Talbot would meet similar fates.
“Enemy ships bearing 220. opening fire on the Canberra!” A lookout aboard Ralph Talbot reported to his Captain.
“Very well, helm swing to, bring her to port. Prepare torpedoes.”
“Aye sir.” The young man at the helm replied.
“Torpedo to bridge, all tubes ready for a full spread.” a voice came from the speaker on the bridge.
On the ship to ship speaker the captain could hear bits and pieces of garbled battle reports, but the entire situation was confusing.
“Blue taking fire from enemy ships, we're under heavy fire..... requesting fire support.” The commander of the Destroyer U.S.S Blue called out.
“Captain searchlights!” A lookout yelled to the Captain of the U.S.S. Talbot.
It was the same searchlights that lit up the Blue and it wouldn't be long before Ralph Talbot would be catching buckets of lead from the larger enemy cruisers.
The time was 1:45am when Thomas Morris looked up to the north where he swore that he could hear thunder rumbling. It didn't concern Morris as there had been reports of a storm brewing to the north. It was 01:50 the next time he looked down at his watch, but when his eyes returned to the horizon they were met by a blinding light. Morris didn't have time to even take his next breath when the air around Quincy was lit up by searchlights from the Japanese ships.
It seemed as though time had suddenly stood still; men were running down the decks and Morris knew that this surreal moment would be followed by hell on the water. Seconds later the feeling of timelessness was over, and Morris could hardly breath from the heat of the explosions that erupted to the rear of the bridge. Quincy was overwhelmed by a reign of fire from Japanese eight inch HE shells. That's “High Explosive” munitions that explode on contact, and they pack a whale of a punch, and set everything on fire. The enemy was so close that he could feel each time their guns fired. Flames spread everywhere, and the ship shuttered as it was hammered by shells from Japanese heavy cruiser Chokai.
Quartermaster third class Nate Corwin called out from the aft Battle control station at the rear of the ship to inform the bridge that the adjacent USS Astoria had been hit, and was burning, but there was no answer. Little did Corwin know that his own ship was in as much trouble as the others.
I think everyone's dead forward, Mack. Let's get the heck out of this oven!” Corwin shouted to his fellow shipmates.
As Corwin and his men slid out of the armored control station they slipped down the blood soaked decks, and down into the water.
The Quincy was going down fast and listing severely to port that's the left side in Navy terms. The men were joined in the water now by others who had escaped the ship, and as they bobbed up and down they could see the stern (the back of the ship) lift up out of the water; the propellers were still going a full 5 knots, and now they had another enemy to fight. The water was covered in fuel oil from the sinking ships that could very well be ignited as the ship sinks.
“Dear God save us!” One man cried out as he watched the ship slip under the waves.
Back at the scene of the nights naval battle Nate Corwin grabbed hold of a cork net that was floating close by and fell asleep. An hour or so had went by when the exhausted Corwin heard a voice crying out to him from the dark.
“Help me, please help!” A man with a faint voice called out.
Corwin jumped into the water swimming to where he thought the man was. “Where are you?” He shouted.
“Oh thank goodness, help me. I've lost part of my leg, please don't let me die out here.” Nate could see it was lieutenant Devon Randall.
“Lieutenant, grab my hand and I'll pull you to the cork net.” Corwin said as he reached for Randall's outstretched hand.
Nate caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye, but before he had time to realize what is was, Randall popped under the water, and disappeared into the depths as a shark pulled him under.
“Swim boy!” Corwin told himself as he grabbed a handful of water making his way back to the net. The night was filled with an unnatural silence part of the time, and the sounds of screams as one by one men would be pulled under by the attacking sharks. It was truly a night that Corwin would always remember, a night that would cost him many a nights sleep.
01:45 – Lunga point, Guadalcanal.
The light of the moon was obscured by a heavy cloud cover that had moved in and Lonnie, Hank, and Hacker laid on the top of the hill overlooking Lunga Point and the sea beyond. As they lay there talking about home, and such Hank caught a flash out of his peripheral vision and turned his head to face in the direction of Savo Island to the north. He saw another flash that reflected off both the water below and the clouds above. Then a low rumble that seemed to go on, and on.
“If I was back home in Oklahoma, I'd say we had a thunderstorm coming our way.” Hank announced.
Lonnie and Chick looked up to see what Hank was talking about, and when they saw the flashes both Lonnie and Chick jumped to their feet.
“That's no thunderstorm Hank, that's our ships slugging it out with the Japs!” Lonnie exclaimed.
“It didn't take long for the nip Navy to show their faces!” Chick added.
About that time there was another flash of light and a long low rumble that lasted about ten seconds, five more seconds go by, and there was an even brighter flash, and another, and another. The man made lightning show lasted about and hour, but it seemed to go on and on, and even then the men could see fires burning at sea that identified a burning, or sinking ship. It was too far for them to see what was actually happening, but there were cheers rising from the men who'd gathered. They just knew that “Our boys” were giving those Japs the licking of their lives. Lonnie, Hank, and Jim Hacker didn't join in with the others cheering though as they didn't know what the outcome of the battle had been.
“I wonder who won that round boys?” Lonnie said to Hank and Chick.
“I s'pect we'll know tomorrow Whit.” Mac Henry replied.
The next morning on Guadalcanal the men heard all about the first battle of Savo Island. The worst defeat in the history of the United States Navy, and it wasn't a pretty picture; What resistance the Japanese lacked on the beach on August 7th they had made up for in a little over an hour, in one nights time.
Colonel Mason took time the next afternoon to let the men know what had happened. The men stood silent as Mason read the dispatch sent by Admiral Turner to General Vandegrift.
“The Vincennes, Sunk..... estimates say over 300 dead, and an unknown number of wounded. Cruiser Quincy sunk, almost 400 dead and about 200 wounded. Cruiser Astoria sunk, 300 dead, and 100 wounded. Several destroyers sunk and a lot of good men dead! The Japanese Navy dealt us the single greatest blow in the history of the American Navy and I'm afraid it gets worse. There's a lot of rumors going around that the Navy will have to pull back for a while, and if they do that means that the food and supply situation is going to get pretty tight!”
As Mason was explaining the situation to the men of the 5th regiment he was interrupted by Corporeal Davie Coats who came running up to him with a message from General Vandegrift. “Sir this came for you just a minute ago.” The young lance Corporeal said.
“Dad nab-it! Turner is pulling his ships back. They landed a hand full of supplies this morning. But they aren't gonna risk any more ships to supply us
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