Wreck of USS Juneau (CL-52)

 Second World War 1939-1945, military, shipwreck, cruiser, United States Navy

Laid down at the Federal Shipbuilding Yard at Kearny, NJ in May 1940 as the second member of the Atlanta Class of Light Anti-Aircraft Cruisers, USS Juneau commissioned into service with the US Navy’s Atlantic Fleet in February 1942. Immediately dispatched to the Caribbean to blockade several Vichy French Naval vessels anchored at Martinique and Guadeloupe before she even completed her shakedown cruise, Juneau and her crew nevertheless performed ably through June 1942 and upon their return to New York received orders to join the US Pacific Fleet.

Steaming directly for Tonga after clearing the Panama Canal, Juneau and her crew joined Task Force 18 in early September and began screening duty for the Aircraft Carrier USS Wasp (CV-7) as she conducted air support missions for US forces fighting on and around the island of Guadalcanal in the Solomons. Less than a week into her new assignment, Juneau’s crew were exposed to the harsh realities of sea warfare after the Wasp was torpedoed by the Japanese Submarine HIJMS I-19 and became a floating gasoline-fed inferno before sinking with heavy loss of life. Pulling her share of Wasp’s survivors from the water and seeing them safely to Espiritu Santo, Juneau was reassigned to the Aircraft Carrier USS Hornet (CV-8) in Task Force 17 and moved with her new charge to meet the Imperial Japanese Navy in direct combat for the first time in the waters off the Santa Cruz Islands in late October.

Shaping a course for Espiritu Santo following her first official action, the Juneau remained in the lower Solomons through the beginning of November when she received orders to join her sistership USS Atlanta (CL-51) in Task Force 67 as a convoy escort for a Guadalcanal-bound group of transports. Standing out of Noumea, New Caledonia with her new Task Group on November 8th, Juneau saw her charges safely to the shallows off Lunga Point by the 11th and took up a position to screen the transports as they unloaded their reinforcements and supplies onto landing craft. Not having to wait long for the expected arrival of Japanese aircraft to the disputed island, Juneau joined several other escort ships in repulsing no fewer than three separate waves of Japanese air attack throughout the day, notching a further six enemy aircraft to the ships already impressive tally before the final wave withdrew shortly after 1400hrs. With sundown approaching and the likelihood for further air attacks diminished, many of Juneau’s crew were called off their General Quarters assignments for the first time in several hours for some much-needed downtime, but following the receipt of an ominous report from a recon aircraft that a large surface force of Imperial Japanese Navy ships had been spotted closing in on Guadalcanal at high speed the evenings operations took on a much more serious tone.

Ordered by the Task Group Flagship USS San Francisco (CA-38) to escort the vulnerable transports to the open ocean before the arrival of Japanese forces, Juneau joined her sister Atlanta and several Destroyers in hurriedly ushering the troop and cargo ships from Lunga Point through the Sealark Channel and into the high seas before returning to Ironbottom Sound and rejoining the Task Force shortly before midnight. Forming into a single-file battle line to the North of Lunga Point as they awaited the arrival of the inbound enemy then steaming down “The Slot”, Juneau took up the rear position of the five-Cruiser strong US formation, with a vanguard of four Destroyers leading the ships and a further four trailing astern of Juneau. Moving slowly on a due-North heading and blocking the approach to the US beachhead, radar operators aboard the few radar-equipped ships in the American formation joined countless lookouts aboard Juneau and the other ships in scanning the dark waters to the Northwest for any signs of the enemy they all knew were somewhere on the other side of a heavy line of rain squalls crossing the sound. As the first reports of intermittent radar contact began to filter in at approximately 0030hrs to the Flagship, a series of miscommunication, disagreements and general distrust regarding radar data led to an hour of inaction by the US Fleet as they steamed directly towards their enemy and by the time the USS Cushing (DD-376) reported visual contact with the enemy at 0130hrs, the Japanese force was already enveloping the American battle line.

With her gun crews and torpedo battery crews already at their stations and ready to fight by the time her own lookouts sighted enemy ships to the Northwest, Juneau’s crew awaited orders to fire from the Flagship but instead received instructions for a last-second formation turn to Port that threw the majority of the forward ships in the American battle line out of position. Still awaiting her turn to execute the maneuver when a Japanese searchlight suddenly illuminated her sistership steaming four places ahead of her, Juneau’s crew promptly followed the Atlanta’s lead and opened fire on the nearest Japanese ships at 0148hrs. Though already at point-blank range, both fleets quickly broke formation and became intertwined in a close-quarters melee which was later likened to a “a bar room brawl with the lights shot out” as friendly and enemy ships barely avoided collisions with each other while slugging away with close-quarters concentrated fire. Sighting a pair of Japanese Destroyers moving swiftly down the Eastern flank of the rapidly disintegrating American battle line, Juneau’s forward batteries had no sooner begun sending concentrated fire towards the enemy ships when she was struck directly amidships on her Port side by a single “Long Lance” torpedo which detonated with enough force and low enough on her hull to lift the 6,000 ton Cruiser clear out of the water, breaking her keel and knocking out her engines. Taking a sharp Port list as she settled back to the surface and drifted to the East, Juneau’s dazed damage control parties quickly moved to save their ship while her engineers labored to restore auxiliary power in total darkness. Fortunately left behind by the pitched battle raging behind her, Juneau’s crew were able to restore power to her Starboard engine, enabling the crippled Cruiser to slowly withdraw from the battle area to more sheltered waters.

Morning of November 13th found the battered Juneau down 13ft by her bow and still only able to operate one of her engines, however her crew had made enough repairs during the night to contain her flooding and brought the ship to an even keel, allowing her to be cleared for withdrawal to Espiritu Santo. Standing out of Guadalcanal in company with the damaged Cruisers USS San Francisco (CA-38) and USS Helena (CL-50) and two Destroyers shortly after 0800hrs, the battered formation passed safely through the Indispensible Strait and into the open waters of the Solomon Sea, with Juneau making her best speed of 12 knots and in a position to seaward and astern of the San Francisco. Unknowingly sighted by the Japanese Submarine HIJMS I-26 as they zig-zagged through the open seas, the American formation was unaware they were in any danger until lookouts aboard the San Francisco sighted three inbound torpedo wakes closing on their ship’s position. The entire formation went into evasive maneuvers, with San Francisco and Helena successfully evading the three shots, but the heavily damaged Juneau, running with only one engine and rudder, could not. Though she managed to evade the first two torpedoes, the third torpedo found its mark and impacted the Juneau in nearly the exact same spot as the torpedo from the night before, causing her severely weakened hull to give way as she rolled from the force of the detonation. Barely seconds after the initial impact, one or more of Juneau’s main battery magazines detonated and split the ship in half in a tower of smoke and fire, and in less than 20 seconds both halves of the Cruiser had slipped beneath the surface at this location, along with an estimated 550 of her crew. The already few survivors of Juneau’s loss watched in horror as the escorting Cruisers and Destroyers, themselves fearful of being torpedoed if they stopped to lend assistance and doubting that there were survivors from the Juneau’s horrific end, continued on their course and left the survivors to fend for themselves. In the eight days that followed before rescue finally came, all but ten of the estimated 100 men in the water had died from their wounds, exposure or shark attack.

The sinking of the Juneau gained particular notoriety as the five Sullivan Brothers, championed by the US War Department and Department of the Navy to help in recruiting drives, were all lost with the ship; three by the second torpedo attack and two by exposure awaiting rescue.

USS Juneau, despite being only nine months old at the time of her loss, was awarded four Battle Stars for her World War Two service.

www.navsource.org/archives/04/052/04052.htm
www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-j/cl52.htm