Daily Event for August 9, 2005

During the landings at Guadalcanal the U.S. waited for the Japanese to mount a counter attack by air. One of the ships waiting was a destroyer, USS Jarvis DD-393. Jarvis was screening while the transports unloaded men and equipment. The Japanese made two air attacks on the 7th only damaging one ship, but loosing 14 of their aircraft. About noon on the 8th. the Japanese planes appeared in the skies again, this time they would be more successful.

Nine of the enemy planes breached the screen and attacked the U.S. ships. They bombed the transport George F. Elliot and hit the Jarvis with a torpedo. She had a fifty foot gash torn in her side, but stayed afloat. The crew miraculously kept her from sinking and she was towed to shallow water. Several men were injured and one died of his wounds the next day. The wounded were transferred to USS McCawley AP-10 for treatment, they would be the only men from the ship to survive. She was ordered to Efate for permanent repairs, but the Captain headed for Australia for the needed repairs.

At midnight USS Jarvis limped out of the harbor and headed across the Coral Sea. At 01:30 the ship passed just north of a Japanese cruiser squadron headed for Savo Island. The Japanese fired torpedoes and a few rounds from their guns with no effect. USS Jarvis, without radio apparently, could not warn the U.S. forces patrolling in the area of the presence of the Japanese ships.

That fact had tragic consequences for not long after passing, the Japanese mauled the U.S. ships in the Battle of Savo Island. The worst surface defeat the U.S. would suffer. In a total Japanese victory the cruisers USS Quincy CA-39 and USS Vincennes CA-44 were sunk outright. HMAS Canberra was torpedoed and later scuttled to prevent capture and USS Astoria CA-34 sank later in the day while under tow. USS Chicago CA-29 was damaged and out of action until Jan. 1943. The Japanese lost no ships and received only slight damage to one destroyer. One cruiser, Kako, was sunk leaving the area by a USS S-44 SS-155. Four heavy cruisers, one destroyer and 1,270 men were lost in a battle that lasted only half an hour.

The crew on the Jarvis must have seen the battle from a distance, what they saw we will never know, because she was sighted by the Japanese. They believed that Jarvis had been in the battle and was going to escape. Thirty-one planes were dispatched from Rabaul and they found the Jarvis. She was trailing fuel, down in the bow only had a few operational guns. Unable to defend herself USS Jarvis was an easy target for the Japanese. She was bombed and torpedoed until she split in two and sank at 13:00 on Aug. 9, 1942. She took all four hundred and forty-seven men with her.
© 2005 Michael W. Pocock
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