Building V88 / WWII Disaster Epicenter (Norfolk, Virginia)

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1180 Pocahontas Street
NAS Building V88
Norfolk, VA 23511

This area was the epicenter of one of the worst non-combat disasters to occur at a U.S. Naval Base during World War II.

At 11 a.m. on Sept. 17, 1943, an NAS ordnance department truck was pulling four trailers loaded with depth charges on the taxiway between NAS and the NOB piers.
Each trailer was designed to carry four aerial depth charges. To save time, two additional charges were loaded on top of each trailer. Compounding the problem, the charges on top were not properly chained down. One of the charges slipped loose and became wedged between the trailer and the ground. The friction of being dragged against the road caused the charge to begin smoking.

An alert Marine sentry spotted the smoke and notified the driver who immediately stopped the truck and ran to a nearby fire station. Assistant Fire Chief Gurney E. Edwards hurried to the scene and attempted to cool down the charges with a fire extinguisher. As soon as he started his attempt, the first depth charge exploded, killing him instantly. For several minutes, charges continued to explode. The blasts shattered windows up to seven miles away and were heard in Suffolk, 20 miles distant.

In the center of the explosion was a group of old enlisted men`s barracks opposite the dispensary, the vicinity of the current location of V-88. A total of 18 buildings were destroyed by the blast. They were so badly damaged that they had to be razed. Thirty-three aircraft were also destroyed with a monetary damage of $1.8 million.

According to official histories, the shock of the explosion found people scaling fences that had been considered man-proof and impossible to climb. Other persons found themselves some time later with shoes in hand, waiting for street cars, with no memory of the event. The casualties amounted to 426, including 40 dead. Among them was Seaman 2nd Class Elizabeth Korensky, the only woman killed and the first WAVE to die in the line of duty in the war.