Neptune's Inferno_ The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal - James D. Hornfischer [264]
33: Atlanta Burning
Efforts to save the Atlanta: USS Atlanta, “Action Report,” Encl. C, Notes on Damage Control, Paragraph 12; Mustin interview, 602–610. “Plastered flat”: McKinney, CL-51 Revisited, 46. “It is a matter of wonder”: Ibid., 42. “Get off. She’s going to blow!” Ibid., 40–41. “Just don’t sink the ship”: Ibid., 43. “Took a little time”: Ibid., 51. “A horrifying spectacle”: Ibid., 55. “They were so deeply ingrained”: Mustin interview, 608. “The entire area was covered”: Kennedy, Fearless Warrior, 114. “As it came alongside”: Mustin interview, 605–606. “There were not very many”: Kennedy, Fearless, 114. “There was a general rush”: McKinney, CL-51, 44. “It’s not in my registry”: Parrent, Third Savo, 43–44. “We raised a cheer”: McKinney, CL-51, 45. Air attacks on Hiei: Lundstrom, The First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign, 477–480; Frank, Guadalcanal, 454; Moore, The Buzzard Brigade, 68–69. Decision to scuttle Hiei: Tully, “Death of Battleship Hiei”; Lundstrom, First Team, 482–483. “Boys, I don’t know”: Moore, Buzzard, 70.
34: Cruiser in the Sky
“I don’t know why”: Whitt interview; Satterfield, We Band of Brothers, 145. Body parts sweep: Spencer, The War Years: Hellfire and Glory, 71. “The ship was just”: Whitt interview. “Detailing the senior rates”: Jenkins, “A Real Belly Full,” 2. “Fellows were picking them up”: Whitt interview. Lt. Cdr. S. Yunoki, the Kirishima’s main-battery fire-control officer, confirmed that bombardment ammo was fired on the U.S. ships. Interrogation of Lt. Cdr. S. Yunoki, 191. “I never will be able”: Jenkins, “A Real,” 2. “The usual eruption”: USS Helena, “Report of Submarine Torpedo Attack on Task Unit and Sinking of USS Juneau,” 2. “Full right rudder”: Schonland interview 1, 41–42. “Loud crrrrrack”: Whitt interview. “De Long, she ain’t no more”: De Long, narrative, 1–2. “The Juneau didn’t sink”: McCandless, “The San Francisco Story,” 51. “Debris fell to such extent”: Hoover to Turner, November 14, 1942 (0001). “As we got up even”: Whitt interview. “Our ship rapidly keeled”: Jenkins, “A Real,” 3. “No one moved or spoke”: Morris, The Fightin’est Ship, 95. “We often talked”: Parrent, Third Savo, 52. “The intrepid and seamanlike way”: Commander, Task Unit 17.5.4, “Report of Action in Coral Sea Area on May 8, 1942.” “Juneau torpedoed”: USS Helena, “Action Off North Coast Guadalcanal,” Encl. D. “Probably the most courageous”: Wylie, NWC interview, 79. “If we had tried”: Mustin interview, 610. “Here comes a bear”: Holbrook, The History and Times of the USS Portland, 195. “This is the American cruiser Portland”: Generous, Sweet Pea at War, 98. “There is a Japanese task force”: Melhorn interview, 98. PT boats seldom operated at the blistering speeds suggested by full-page ads in Collier’s and the other weeklies. They were very heavily loaded, with four torpedoes, several gun mounts, smoke-making apparatus, and wooden hulls that became sodden with water (Mustin interview, 651). At speed, they tossed a high rooster-tail wake that was clearly visible at night. Their captains thus preferred to stalk. “We always idled in with the mufflers down and tried to get in a shooting position,” said Charles Melhorn, whose boat, the PT-44, was in the posse that tangled with the Portland that night.