Salt Lake City (CA 25) - Naval Cruise Book

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that her missiles were the tirst American naval shells ol the war to fall on lap-held land. Military installations on Wotje were ruined and seven to nine cargo ships were sunk. One twin-engined bomber was shot down and another damaged by the Salt Lake City. TWO, lap planes made bombing runs on the ship, but skillful maneu- vering caused them to miss by lOO yards. On February 24, the task group bombarded Wake Island and on March 4, its planes struck Marcus Island. There was no surface bombardment ot Marcus. A month later, the Salt Lake City set out as an escort for one of the war's most adventurous strokes, the Doolittle raid on Tokyo. It was a Salt Lake City lookout who, on April l8, discovered the -Iapanese picket boat which caused the early launching of the B-25 raiders from the carrier Hornet. The lap was sunk by the U.S.S. Nashville and the task force was not molested. Then the tide ot war took the cruiser south, where Australia was in peril. Until late Iuly, she operated in that area, part of the time with a joint allied force under command of a British admiral. On August 7 to 9, the Swayback helped cover the landings on Guadalcanal and Tulagi, the first American land counter- oftensive. ' She then went back to patrol. lt was a perilous task in a disputed ocean. Cn September l5, the carrier Wasp was sunk by Iapanese submarines only l,UOU yards from the Salt Lake City. The Swayback helped rescue survivors. The time was one ot doubt. The battle tor Guadalcanal had developed into a grim struggle ot men, planes and ships. The Salt Lake City was attached to a task group assigned to stop the Iapanese Tokyo Express , which was claiming the sea lanes for its own. lt ran into the enemy on the night of October ll, in the action known interchangeably as the Second Battle of Savo Island or the Battle ol Cape Esperance. The story of the tide-turning battle, wrote Ioseph Driscoll, a staff correspondent of the New York Herald-Tribune tive 10

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Oahu, steaming back to the Hawaiians with a task group that had just delivered a dozen planes to a remote, sandy American outpost, Historic Wake Island. By that quirk, the cruiser escaped the fiery hell of Pearl Harbor and was with the group that made the first independent American reprisal. The Enterprise, carrier with that task group, launched planes which cut down some of the straggling lap sneak attackers. The task group refueled at smoldering Pearl Harbor, then patrolled the area near Oahu against a reappearance of the Iapanese fleet. The next patrol duty, ten days later, was scheduled originally to provide relief for besieged Wake, but with the fall of that atoll, it was switched to cover reinforcement of Midway and then of far-off Samoa. Then the Salt Lake City participated in the first American offensive action of the war. On February l, l942, a task group commanded by Rear Admiral Halsey, USN., conducted an air and surface bombardment of Wotje atoll, one of the principal lap bases in the mandated Marshall Islands. The Salt Lake City opened fire a few seconds before her fellow ships. The fact has never been officially established, but it is probable TASK FORCE UNDER AIR ATTACK AT WOTIE 9

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months later, when censorship had been lifted, was revealed to me in the wardroom of the Salt Lake City by several of her younger officers: Lt. Comdr. David D. Hawkins, the navigator, of Berkeley, Calif., Lt. Comdr. larnes T. Brewer, the gunnery officer, of New York and Conway, N. H., Comdr. Theodore H. Kobey, the engineering officer, of Bisbee, Arizona, Lt. George A. O'Connell, Ir., assistant gunnery officer, of Norfolk, Va., and Lt. Lyle B. Bamsay, fire control officer, of Abilene, Texas. The story of that action-packed night is best told in their own words: The laps had been running their Express every night until it got monotonous. So this Sunday night, we set out to derail the Express. It was pitch black, except for heat lightning. We searched in several places and failed to find it. We thought we had muffed the ball. We steered dead ahead for Savo and at close range we discovered the enemy. With the luck that rewards the aggressor, we had Walked into something more important than the Guadalcanal Express. The enemy had four heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, six destroyers and at least one transport. Apparently, they were out to bombard our marines on Guadalcanal and to land in force. Iapanese battleships were also playing around. We BATTLE OF CAPE ESPERANCE 1 l