Neptune's Inferno_ The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal - James D. Hornfischer [262]
28: Into the Light
“The light seemed high”: Cochran, “Recollections.” “Counter-illuminate!”: Graff interview; Morison manuscript, p. 6, has Nickelson ordering counter-illumination; but Graff, who was there, states that Jenkins ordered counter-illumination and that Nickelson exclaimed as indicated. See also Leavelle, “The Log of the Mighty A,” March 31, 1943. “Action port”: USS Atlanta, “Engagement with Japanese Surface Forces Off Guadalcanal,” Encl. D, Paragraph 4. “You couldn’t help but see”: Mustin interview, 579. “Odd ships commence fire”: USS Portland, “Night Action Between Task Force 67.4 and Japanese Forces, November 13, 1942,” 3. “A display of futility”: Mustin interview, 585. “It was disorganized”: Becton, The Ship That Would Not Die, 9. “A roar so constant”: Barham, The 228 Days of the United States Destroyer Laffey (DD-459), 81–82. “It was so close”: Hale, letter to author, 2. “She was only about”: Barham, 228 Days, 81–82. “So close Hank could have”: Becton, The Ship, 9. “The whole world suddenly” and “The Laffey was designed”: Barham, 228 Days, 84. “The next second”: Ibid., 84–85. “I could see that”: Hale, letter to author, 2. “The air was full”: Barham, 228 Days, 89. “I gulped”: Hara, Japanese Destroyer Captain, 114. “A form of firecracker”: USS Sterett, “Report of Action on Night of November 12–13, 1942,” 7. “A ghostly gray”: Ibid., 4. “Oh, you poor”: Calhoun, Tin Can Sailor, 78–79. “It was as if a huge” and “The number-four handling room”: Parrent, Third Savo, 32. Damage to Sterett: USS Sterett, “Report,” 2, 6. Citations of Sterett’s crew: Ibid., 11–15.
29: The Killing Salvo
“Should have sufficed”: McCandless, “The San Francisco Story,” 39. Callaghan may have realized that a close-range fight was the only way his cruisers could defeat battleships, but no evidence exists that this was his design. “At least four bursts of flame”: USS Portland, “Night Action Between Task Force 67.4 and Japanese Forces, November 13, 1942,” Encl. B, “Gunnery Officer’s Report,” 2. “Practically all of our shots”: USS Helena, “Action Off North Coast Guadalcanal,” 5. “The tracers from fifteen guns”: Luehman interview, 6. “Smoky orange bonfire”: Morris, The Fightin’est Ship, 86. “The Atlanta’s turning left” and “First I had to swing”: McCandless, “The San Francisco Story,” 40–41. “Swept out of line”: Morris, The Fightin’est Ship, 87. “A tremendous piiing”: Graff interview. “A monstrous column of water”: Mustin interview, 583. Second torpedo hit on Atlanta: Ibid., 581. “Like a pendulum”: Parrent, Third Savo, 47. “Stick a pillow in it”: Shaw, Beside Me Still, 107. “It was absolutely deafening”: Mustin interview, 582–583. Atlanta’s final range reading: McKinney, CL-51 Revisited, 45. Identification of San Francisco: Morton, Mustin, 197. “Some alarm on the port side” and damage to Atlanta: Mustin interview, 590; Leavelle, “The Log Mighty A,” April 1, 1943. My God, they got Scott: Graff interview. “Let’s get below”: Hammel, Guadalcanal: Decision at Sea, 255. “I hit, I’m pretty certain”: Moredock, quoted in National Geographic Society, The Lost Fleet of Guadalcanal. “I don’t know where I thought”: Graff interview. “Illuminated the firing ship”: Mustin interview, 588–589. “We were firing”: Gibson, “As I Remember,” 32. “Probably she drifted”: McCandless, “The San Francisco Story,” 41. The Atlanta’s William B. McKinney added, “Two years later I met the officer who had been in charge of Turret 3 on that heavy cruiser. He acknowledged that they had pumped out three three-gun salvos at what they first thought was a Japanese ship. Also, in later years, Bob Tyler [EM1/c] served on the same ship with the former San Francisco gunnery officer who conceded that all San Francisco’s main battery turrets had fired three salvos at Atlanta” (McKinney, CL-51, 49). “You could