South Pacific Destroyer by Russell Crenshaw Jr

Author:Russell Crenshaw Jr. [Crenshaw, Russell Sydnor]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781612515502
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
Published: 2017-10-25T04:00:00+00:00

15

Kula Gulf

HALSEY’S OP-ORDER required the assault on Munda to begin on 3 July, with the airfield being occupied by the seventh. All elements of the complex armada had been working around the clock to achieve the admiral’s goal, but despite frequent bombardment of Japanese strong points by the supporting ships and aircraft, the American land assault was making little headway and the ships of the support forces were running low on both fuel and ammunition. There had been little reaction at sea from the Japanese, but ComSoPac and his staff had no doubt that there would be plenty of response as soon as the enemy had time to put his forces together. Meanwhile, Turner took advantage of the first lull in the campaign to replenish his hardworking ships.

In the early afternoon of 5 July, a coastwatcher reported 10 destroyers departing from Buin, obviously on a supply run down the Slot to Vila. At their usual speed of nearly 30 knots, it was expected they would enter Kula Gulf just after midnight. To counter them was a task for a cruiser-destroyer force, and the only one able to reach the top of the gulf in time was Ainsworth’s TG-36.1.

At 1500 this weary group, still reeling from the stresses of the preceding 24 hours and low on both fuel and ammunition, was steaming southeast between Guadalcanal and San Cristobal toward a replenishment rendezvous, when they received a flash message from Halsey with orders to meet the Japanese force. Ainsworth reversed course immediately and headed up Indispensable Strait to pass north of Florida Island and enter the Slot through the broad opening between Florida and Santa Isabel Island. Because of engineering problems in St. Louis, 29 knots was his best speed.

Strong was on the bottom of Kula Gulf and Chevalier had damaged her bow so badly alongside Strong that she was not battleworthy, so Radford and Jenkins of Ryan’s force, refueling and rearming at Purvis, were ordered to join Ainsworth to replace the two missing ships. They had to scramble to catch the cruisers, which would be passing north of Purvis about 1800.

Radford, especially low on ammunition, borrowed 200 rounds of five-inch from Jenkins as the latter departed, then went alongside Chevalier for an additional 300 rounds—which the two crews transferred in an astonishing 20 minutes. An ammunition barge from Tulagi arrived with more rounds just as the last of the Chevalier ammunition was struck below, but Captain Romoser, with barely time to catch Ainsworth even using full power, had to wave off the barge and head for sea.

Turner, on Guadalcanal, radioed Halsey that Radford would be unable to join Ainsworth. The message was received by Radford as she rounded the western tip of Florida Island and slanted northward toward the rendezvous. When she reached line-of-sight TBS range, she cited the message and requested permission to come aboard. Ainsworth welcomed her with pleasure.

Admiral Ainsworth was still puzzling over the mysterious happenings of the night before. Strong had been hit on the port side by a torpedo that must have been fired from the vicinity of Vila, where his ships had just been.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.