Wreck of USS De Haven (DD-469)

 Second World War 1939-1945, military, shipwreck, destroyer (ship), United States Navy

USS De Haven was the 12th Fletcher Class Destroyer built for US Navy, laid down at the Bath Iron Works shipyard in September 1941 and commissioning into service in September 1942. Originally assigned to the US Atlantic Fleet for shakedown and training, the new Destroyer and crew spent little time in Atlantic waters before passing through the Panama Canal and steaming immediately for the South Pacific.

Arriving in Ironbottom Sound in November 1942 after escorting a convoy of troops and supplies for US forces fighting on Guadalcanal, the De Haven was pulled from escort duty and assigned to patrols and gunfire support missions around the Solomons Islands to interdict the regular runs of the 'Tokyo Express' and support troops ashore. Serving in this role for the rest of 1942 and into the early part of 1943, the De Haven was grouped with other Fletcher Class Destroyers into a hunter-killer group which became known as the 'Cactus Striking Force' and began to spend increasing amounts of time prowling the waters North of Guadalcanal to stem the tide of resupply ships and submarines aiding Japanese ground forces. By mid-January 1943 the efforts De Haven, her fellow ships and American ground forces ashore had steadily pushed Japanese forces from a defensive position into full retreat and finally a large-scale amphibious withdrawal from the island, codenamed Operation Ke, which began on the first of February.

As reports of heavy Southbound Japanese ship and air movements around Rabaul began to reach US Forces on Guadalcanal, many planners took them as a sign of a massed reinforcement effort by the Japanese and ordered the ships of the 'Cactus Striking Force' into action, first escorting a detachment of US troops to the Northwestern Coast of Guadalcanal to make an amphibious landing in preparation to repel any Japanese landings. Departing Tulagi in the morning of February 1st escorting a group of six LCT's and one Seaplane Tender bound for Marovo Point, the De Haven and her escorting group were sighted while underway by a Japanese recon plane which hastily reported their movements to the air base at Buin, where a strike force of 40 fighters and 15 dive bombers was quickly organized to attack the ships. After successfully screening her charges to the landing sites, the De Haven and the USS Nicholas (DD-449) then began a return trip to Tulagi escorting two LCT's for re-loading when reports came in that a large group of planes had been sighted in the area.

Ordering all crew to battle stations, De Haven's Captain Charles E. Tolman Jr. joined his lookouts in attempting to identify the group of planes passing well to their Stern as friend or foe, and passed an order to his gun batteries not to fire until the planes could be identified. At 1458hrs the need to identify the planes as Japanese was precluded when six of them made a sudden and obviously hostile turn directly at the De Haven and her group, prompting De Haven's anti-aircraft gunners to immediately open fire. Increasing speed and moving evasively to the Northwest in an attempt to expose her full AA broadside to her attackers, De Haven was still attempting to address the aircraft to her Stern when a group of six Aichi D3A "Val" dive bombers began their attack. Though alert lookouts saw the high-flying aircraft coming down on the ship and De Haven's gunners succeeded in knocking three of the six planes out of the sky, the other three were able to complete their bombing runs.

The first 500lb bomb to hit De Haven did so squarely in her bridge, where it impacted the armored deck plating and detonated, killing all but two men of the bridge crew, including her Captain. The second and third 500lb bombs landed directly aft of the bridge and were able to follow her smokestack trunk all the way into her forward boiler room before detonating, killing most of the forward engine and boiler room crew and blowing a massive hole in her forward Port side hull. The Val's wing-mounted bombs landed on either side of the De Haven, detonating and warping her hull plates with the pressure waves created by their explosions and allowing seawater to enter her rear fireroom where it forced her aft boilers to be shut down. Mortally wounded and already listing to Port, the De Haven quickly slowed to a stop and her crew began to abandon ship, but the amount of inrushing water quickly inundated her forward compartments and raised her stern higher and higher out of the water, making escape from deep within her hull incredibly difficult. Those who managed to get off the sinking Destroyer alive did so in the 5 minutes after the last bomb hit, as after the likely failure of a damaged internal bulkhead between her engine compartments the ship suddenly went nearly vertical in the water and plunged straight to the bottom of Ironbottom Sound, taking 167 members of her crew with her.

For her actions on February 1st, 1943, the USS De Haven earned her first and only Battle Star.

www.navsource.org/archives/05/469.htm
www.destroyerhistory.org/fletcherclass/ussdehaven/index...