Wreck of USS Atlanta (CL-51)

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

USS Atlanta was the lead ship in her Class of Light Anti-Aircraft Cruisers built for the US Navy, laid down at the Federal Shipbuilding Yard in Kearny, NJ in April 1940 and commissioned into service in December 1941. Dispatched immediately to the US Pacific Fleet to combat the formidable threat posed by Japanese aviators, the Atlanta arrived at Pearl Harbor in April 1942 where she found her substantial anti-aircraft capabilities in high demand.

Briefly calling at Pearl before joining Task Force 16 at Noumea, New Caledonia, the Atlanta was attached to the USS Enterprise (CV-6) and joined her in returning to Hawaiian waters to meet the Imperial Japanese Navy’s powerful Combined Fleet in the Battle of Midway. Seeing her charge safely through the decisive American victory, Atlanta spent much of the next two months engaged in exercises in Hawaiian waters before shaping a course for Solomon Islands, where she and her crew were once again paired with the Enterprise in heavy fighting as Japanese Carrier forces counterattacked their American counterparts in the August 1942 Battle of the Eastern Solomons. Remaining in theatre supporting American forces fighting in and around Guadalcanal for the next two months, Atlanta assumed the role of Flagship for the newly-designated Task Group 64.2 as she brought aboard Rear Admiral Norman Scott in late October and in company with her sistership USS Juneau (CL-51) departed Espiritu Santo Island as part of an escort force for a resupply convoy bound for Guadalcanal.

Screening the transports as they unloaded off Lunga Point on the morning November 12th, Atlanta and her crew came under no fewer than three separate waves of Japanese air attack throughout the day, but through heavy fire and adroit maneuvering both Atlanta and her assigned transports emerged unscathed and with no fewer than four enemy aircraft downed to her credit. As darkness approached and the potential of further airstrikes lessened, Atlanta’s crew were pulled from their General Quarters stations for the first time in over seven hours and allowed a chance for a meal, however the reprieve from action proved to be short-lived. Word soon reached the assembled American naval force that recon aircraft had spotted a large Japanese Naval Force had been spotted heading South through the body of water known as 'the Slot' towards Guadalcanal, with obviously malicious intent. Immediately ordered to escort the vulnerable transports into the open ocean, Atlanta saw her charges to the mouth of the Sealark Channel before rejoining her Task Group and assuming battle formation off Lunga Point shortly before midnight.

Screened ahead by a column of four Destroyers, Atlanta led a line of four other Cruisers and a further four Destroyers on a slow Northward heading as radarmen aboard ship and aboard the USS Helena (CL-50) scanned the dark and squall-dotted seas for any signs of the inbound enemy force. Making their first intermittent contact at roughly 0030hrs on the morning of the 13th, communication issues between the few radar-equipped American vessels and their non-equipped Flagship USS San Francisco (CA-38) about the size, distance and bearings of the enemy force led to nearly an hour of crippling inaction as the Japanese Force, consisting of two Battleships, one Cruiser and eleven Destroyers, continued to close in at high speed. With numerous rain squalls further complicating efforts to get visual contact with the enemy, the sudden emergence of the entire Japanese formation on both sides of the American column from a squall line at only 3,000 yards distance at 0130hrs caused all preconceived battle tactics to be cast aside.

Aboard Atlanta, gun and torpedo battery crews began to target their mounts on a formation of enemy ships now appearing to their Northwest as they waited for what must have seemed like an eternity for the order from the Flagship to open fire. Instead, an order for a full column turn to the left served to scatter the American formation and almost caused the Atlanta to collide with the Destroyer USS O’Bannon (DD-450) which was steaming ahead of her. With both sides still holding fire as Japanese ships steadily enveloped the US battle line, Atlanta found herself racing to resume her position at the lead of the US Cruiser formation when a single searchlight from the Japanese Destroyer HIJMS Akatsuki pierced the night and lit Atlanta’s superstructure at 0148hrs.

Needing no further orders, Atlanta’s main battery immediately opened fire onto the enemy ship from the nearly point-blank distance of 1,600 yards, opening the First Naval Battle of Guadalcanal with a nearly-full salvo hit. Joined seconds later by all ships on both sides the battle quickly descended into total chaos as Japanese ships began to attack the American formation from both sides, causing the American ships to break formation and attack independently. With ships from both sides now cutting through each other’s formations in the total darkness, the First Naval Battle of Guadalcanal became a series of violent evasive maneuvers to avoid collisions with both enemy and friendly ships, all the while firing and taking fire from point blank range in what would later be termed as “a bar room brawl with the lights shot out”. Despite the hectic conditions, Atlanta’s gun batteries split their attention between different targets lying to each side of the ship, her Bow trio raking a pair of Japanese Destroyers passing ahead with accurate fire as her rear turrets continued to pound the now hapless Akatsuki into a flaming wreck. Shifting her fire to a large enemy vessel attacking from the Northeast, Atlanta was beginning a turn to engage when a single “Long Lance” torpedo slammed into her Portside midship, easily punching through her lightly-armored hull and causing catastrophic damage to her forward engine and fire rooms and knocking her rear engine and fire rooms offline, leaving the ship suddenly dead and dark in the water and with no power to her gun mounts. Drifting to a halt as her engineers raced to bring her auxiliary generators online, Atlanta’s silhouette was sighted by gun directors aboard the Flagship, who took the ships unfamiliar outline and silent guns to be those of a Japanese vessel and promptly ordered the San Francisco’s formidable main battery of nine 8-inch guns to engage.

Regaining power, headway and the ability to fight, Atlanta was moving to rejoin the still-furious battle raging around her when the first salvo of shells from the San Francisco slammed into her, the first of nineteen direct hits of friendly fire to strike the ship over the next few minutes. Due in part to her lightly armored superstructure and hull not detonating the San Francisco’s armor-penetrating shells, Atlanta was spared nearly total destruction as the accurate fire passed cleanly through the ship. Heavy shrapnel spray and concussive effects from the impacts however killed or injured dozens of Atlanta’s crew, including Rear Admiral Scott, killed with most of his staff and crew when Atlanta’s bridge took a direct hit. Frantic radio and signal lamp messages to the San Francisco caused the Flagship to realize her mistake and cease fire, but for Atlanta the respite came too late. Riddled with shellfire, once again left without power and cloaked in several large onboard fires, Atlanta took a heavy list to fore and Port as her remaining crew, reduced by death and injury by almost a third, set about massive damage control efforts as the battle left her behind and eventually broke at 0226hrs.

Sunrise on November 13th found Atlanta adrift North of Guadalcanal, still listing and largely powerless but still afloat and no longer afire thanks to the efforts of her crew. Towed to the protected waters off Kukum Point with great difficulty due to her heavily damaged and waterlogged condition, Atlanta was abandoned by all but a skeleton crew who remained aboard to oversee continued salvage efforts. Not surprisingly found to have suffered severe damage and to still be taking aboard considerable amounts of water through uncontrolled flooding, Atlanta’s Captain conferred with the Commander of US South Pacific Forces and was authorized to scuttle his ship if onsite repairs could not make her sound enough to be towed out of the battle area. Despite a daylong effort by salvage parties to save Atlanta, by nightfall on the 13th the battered Cruiser was still taking on water and settling more and more by the Bow, prompting Captain Samuel Jenkins to issue the order to scuttle Atlanta. With only a small boarding party and her Captain aboard, the Atlanta was towed to this location roughly 3 miles north of Lunga Point where her colors were struck and explosives set off in her hull. Rapidly flooding after the final blast, USS Atlanta sank bow first at this location at 2015hrs on November 13th 1942.


USS Atlanta received her fifth and final World War Two Battle Star and the Presidential Unit Citation for her "heroic example of invincible fighting spirit" for her actions on the date of her loss.

www.navsource.org/archives/04/051/04051.htm
www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-a/cl51.htm