Lexington (CV 16) - Naval Cruise Book

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' ' wr'-ef X ,,.,,,,, ,,, - ,, f ' at pdlquep ,, f ea-rf My niting. A bad fire followed, then more explo- sions, more fires, and a gradual loss of ship- board communications. The earlier fires and explosions had damaged water mains and other equipment necessary for battling the spreading blazes, intensifying damage. At 3:58 p.m. Cap- tain Sherman, fearing for the safety of those working below from the present fires or from the imminent danger of stored bombs and torpedoes going off, ordered all hands topside. Explosions continued, with destroyers bravely moving close aboard to receive the wounded or to turn their hoses on the blazing structure. Reluctantly, shortly after five p.m., the order was given to abandon ship, and an orderly debarkation com- menced. A few men jumped, while others slid down lines into the water where they boarded life rafts, or merely swam until they were picked up by the circling destroyers or nearby cruisers. Some 150 wounded were lowered in basket stretchers into motor whaleboats, a skillfully conducted opera- tion under the circumstances. ' Admiral Fitch and his staff transferred to lllinneapolis, and after all crewmen had aban- doned ship, Captain Sherman and his Executive Officer, Commander M. T. Seligman madeafinal inspection of their vessel amid flying debris, smoke and flames. They then slid down a line, with the commanding officer being the last to leave-just as the torpedo head locker exploded, shaking both from the line and into the sea. All but 26 officers and 190 men were rescued Qin- Iiive torpedoes and two bombs turned the proud carrier into a limping casual- Q1 on the hnal day of the Battle of the Coral Sea, May 8, 1942. Thejighting oven her speed was restored and her fires nearby out when accumulatedgases below decks suddenbz exploded' more fires and detonations followed and final- by the order was given to abandon ship, left. She jinalbz became a raging holo- caust and had to be sent to the bottom by one ofour own destroyers. f M3'iW9W2mf'f 't,:,fi,-7 irrrr

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1-sum-Q,,.f , - ...,d.,.,.,,,,a.,., af,,f-.1-,Q-.f-m-rw-1:--.af-1. f- -4-- X-O f. an intercepted message had indicated the japan- ese knew the location of the two carriers. Late in the morning the expected attacking force was sighted, and the Combat Air Patrol Qassisted by the anti-submarine patrol flying Douglas Daunt- lessesj challenged them, managing to shoot down seventeen. The attackers were numerous Cprobably seventyj however, and a number penetrated the air cover and anti-aircraftbarrage thrown up by the flattops and their escorts. Yorktown received but one bomb hit, and man- aged to evade all torpedoes, a number of person- nel were killed, but the ship's mobility was not materially affected. Lexington, however, did not escape so lightly. A correspondent from the Chicago Tribune, Stanley Johnston, who was the sole press repre- sentative aboard, described the action in detail. The great old ship - one of the twin carriers around which almost all mod- ern carrier fighting technique was de- veloped-was hard hit in the attack which began at 11:16 a.m. It contin- ued for 17 minutes. 'cFive torpedoes had torn huge holes -20 to 30 feet in diameter-in her port side along the waterline and be- low it. One heavy bomb, probably a japanese 1,000-pounder, had hit the ship's rail on the forward flight deck and on the port forward 5-inch gun position. Another lighter bomb had ripped holes in her smokestack and killed with its splinters several men of an anti-aircraft machine gun crew sta- tioned there. In addition to these direct hits by 24 . torpedoes and bombs the Lexington also had been damaged to some extent by scores of near misses by japanese dive bombers. The heavy bombs, ex- ploding in the water at distances of 100 feet to 10 feet from the carrier's sides, had rocked her and possibly had sprung certain side plates.'7 japanese pilots throughout the war had an af- finity for reporting American ships, and carriers in particular, as sunk, sinking, or in some other state of inoperation. In this instance accounts of their attacks on the Task Force convinced Ad- miral Takagi that both U. S. carriers were sink- ing, so he ordered the damaged Shohaku to re- turn to Truk around noon. Both Yorktown and Lexington had indeed been badly hit, but at that time there was little cause to believe either would go down. ,The former had taken only the single bomb, while Lex had apparently recovered from her much more extensive damage by battle's end. She still had a list at noon and three fires were burning aboard, but the former had already been corrected to seven degrees and the latter ap- peared virtually under control. By 1:00 p.m. the situation appeared even better, damage con- trol parties had righted the ship on an even keel, only one fire still burned, the steering gear was intact, and she was making 25 knots through the Water, conducting nearly normal flight opera- tions. Because of her damage, however, and loss of carrier aircraft, Admiral Fletcher decided to retire for re-assessment of strike capabilities be- fore considering further Air Group actions. As the crew battled gamely on, however, a sud- den, heavy explosion shook the ship, the result of the collected gasoline vapors below decks ig- x

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' aw ,f-f-ef-v--.-q-fffe-v1m--w+vvv--'- :- ' .- agua--11--mer.-wif.-fy . 55 -:xmas-'mm-1:1 1f'4 -'-'z iEf?!'5E'? Ti'1 :?.'Z:.,. . -. cluding seven brothers aboard named Pattenj, and it is thought none of these casualties occur- red by drowning after abandoning ship. Even amid the tragedy of the ship's final strug- gle for survival, a few anecdotes and stories of a less serious character emerged. As a certain group commander had his men gathered about him on the flight deck, speaking to them about the fortunes of war, one of his men approached to report he had finished fitting an accessory on his plane's pump. When the Commander com- mented that it had taken a long time, the airman agreed: HYes, sir. . .had to draw it from stores and had an awful job getting to it. There's a terrible fire down there. In another instance some fliers were navigating clear of the burning carrier, when one was hailed by an officer still aboard. Dutifully paddling his tiny yellow life raft back again, the crew chief in- quired what the officer wanted. f'Nothing, came the answer, just wanted to say you look fine and that it's only 4,000 miles to Australiaf' And one enlisted survivor reported: . No one seemed to be excited. Some of the boys were matching coins to see who'd go Qabandonj first. Most of them stood around swapping stories. N o one hurried unnecessarily. In fact, a couple of the boys curled up in a corner and went to sleep while waiting for orders to leave. When we realized the ship would have to be abandoned all hands who felt the urgewent down to the canteen and had a feast of ice cream. Some of the men filled their metal helmets, others filled cups and their hands or anything handy. One fellow who couldn't swim went down to the galley and got a huge aluminum cooking pot which he tossed overboard and then climbed into and proceeded to paddle away using his hands as oars. c'Some of the boys saved odd things when they left the ship. One man took with him four books and a tube of toothpaste. He left the toothbrush behind. Another was carrying a picture album. Still another saved his wallet containing his driver's license. The commanding officer himself related amov- ing experience about his final moments aboard: HI made an inspection aft and ran into a couple 26 of gun crews of from 40 to 50 men preparing to leave the ship. One of them shouted, fLet's give three cheers for the Captain. ' And they did, right there on the deck of the sinking Lexingfon. They gave me three cheers. It was something I,ll never forget.'7 Reporter Johnston, who abandoned ship along with the rest of the crew, had some poignant words about the brave men who accompanied him into the water. In a lead to his account of Lexingfon is final hours, he wrote: f'It is a tale of gallantry above and beyond the valor of men in the heat of battle. It is the storyof a crew, smash- ed and blitzed from the air by an over- whelming enemy force, that rose to a second desperate fight when attacked from within by natural enemies that fed upon the fuels and stores within the great, valiant aircraft carrier. HIt is an account of the dogged deter- mination and unshakeable courage with which the humblest and highest mem- bers of the ship7s company strove to- gether in a long, torturing and deadly hazardous effort. Celts heartbreaking finish, in which the doomed Lexington slid flaming be- neath the calm waters of the Coral Sea, was one they had battled against for hours. X, As it was, f'Laa'y Lex, described by Morison as 'fbeloved as few warships have been by her crew, had to be finally Hput awayw by our own forces. When she had become a raging in- ferno, with flames shooting hundreds of feet into the air, the destroyer PlzeLos steamed within 1,500 yards and fired two torpedoes into her hull. With a final thunderous explosion, Lexing- ton sank at 7:56 p.m. at 50 degrees, 20 minutes South latitude, 155 degrees, 30 minutes East longitude. As Captain Sherman himself described it after the destroyer had fired her torpedoes into his ship: H. . .but she didn't want to sink even then. She finally went down on an even keel, her flags still flying and with signal flags meaning 'Abandoning Ship, still aloft.