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Wreck of USS Colhoun (DD-85/APD-2)

Solomon Islands / Guadalcanal / Honiara /
 Second World War 1939-1945, shipwreck, destroyer (ship), United States Navy
Laid down at the Fore River Shipyard in September 1917 as the 11th member of the Wickes Class of Destroyers, USS Colhoun commissioned into service with the US Atlantic Fleet in June 1918.

With the First World War still raging on the other side of the Atlantic, Colhoun was assigned to serve as a convoy escort from June through September 1918, screening both troop and merchant ships as they crossed the U-boat filled North Atlantic. Returning stateside to take part in testing and evaluation of a very early version of Sonar under development, the Colhoun returned to active service in mid-1919 and participated in several exercises in the Caribbean and Atlantic. With the end of the First World War, the US Navy significantly drew down its forces and fleet size, prompting the Colhoun into port at Charleston, where she decommissioned into reserve in December 1922.

Remaining in the mothball fleet for the next 28 years, the Colhoun was eventually relocated to the Philadelphia Navy Yard where she sat when news came of the outbreak of war once again in Europe in September 1939. Pulled from reserve and towed to the Norfolk Navy Yard in June 1940, the obsolete USS Colhoun was given a major overhaul not only to modernize her onboard systems but also to convert her to a High Speed Transport, or APD. At the cost of her forward boilers, engines and her torpedo battery, the Colhoun gained berthing space for up to a Company sized unit of troops, four landing craft and fully modernized and upgraded weaponry. With her conversion work complete, the Colhoun recommissioned on December 11th, 1940 wearing the hull number APD-2. Taking part in amphibious exercises along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts during the next year, the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941 found the Colhoun and her crew well prepared for their upcoming role in the Second World War.

Departing the US Atlantic Fleet in February 1942, the Colhoun transited the Panama Canal and began operations and exercises with the US Pacific Fleet at San Diego and then out of Pearl Harbor during the first half of 1942. Selected for duty as part of the American Invasion of Guadalcanal, the Colhoun steamed for Noumea, New Caledonia in June 1942 where she took the 1st Marine Raider Battalion aboard and began intensive training to prepare for her first action. Arriving off Tulagi on August 7th, 1942, the Colhoun discharged her load of Marines and provided gunfire support as they assaulted and captured the island, then reloaded her troops and ferried them across Ironbottom Sound and put them ashore on Guadalcanal.

Though the initial landings on Guadalcanal were lightly opposed, as August wore on the Japanese began to mount an ever-larger campaign against the American land and sea forces operating in and around the island. Operating as an anti-submarine patrol boat, gunfire support ship and an anti-aircraft screen in addition to her transport duties, the Colhoun and her crew were kept in near-constant operation as the fight for Guadalcanal continued through August. On a gunfire support patrol off the coast of Guadalcanal on the morning of August 30th, the Colhoun’s crew was alerted shortly after 1300hrs to an inbound flight of Japanese aircraft, something which was had become a near-daily occurrence. Abandoning her coastal patrol, the Colhoun raised her speed and moved to open waters as her crew manned their gun stations and welcomed their enemy with anti-aircraft fire.

The large formation of Japanese dive-bombers and fighters quickly separated and attacked US ships and shore installations from multiple directions, with several dive-bombers closing in on the Colhoun from the North and West. Despite her gunners throwing up a pall of anti-aircraft fire, one of the Japanese pilots from the Western formation succeeded in planting his bombload into the Colhoun’s after landing craft. Both LCP’s were destroyed in their davits and spilled out their diesel fuel onto the Colhoun’s deck, where it quickly caught on fire and sent thick smoke aft, obscuring the vision of the after gun mounts. The second wave of aircraft then swept in from the North and with little AA fire from the ships Stern to repel them sent several bombs directly amidships on the Colhoun. Detonating in her empty troop berthing area, the force of the explosions blew both of the Colhoun’s midship 20mm guns and one of her 4-inch guns and their crew’s off the ship, brought her mast down across her deck and opened several of her seams. Shock damage, smoke and fire soon took its toll on the Colhoun’s engineering spaces and engineers, who struggled to maintain their posts as choking smoke and heat filled the battered ships engine and boiler rooms. Topside, the Colhoun’s crew worked to control several large fires now burning in the ships’ midsection, while gun crews on her Stern did their best to fend off an ever growing number of Japanese aircraft intent on finishing off the stricken vessel. Colhoun’s Captain did his best to maneuver the ship to keep the smoke away from his Stern gun crews as he made for Honiara, but another coordinated dive-bomber attack shortly before 1415hrs penetrated her AA defenses once again and at least three bombs hit the Colhoun squarely on her after deckhouse killing all crew stationed on or inside it. One or more of the bombs penetrated her hull far enough to knock out both her propeller shafts, leaving the Colhoun dead in the water.

Slowing to a halt with heavy fire now consuming most of the ship’s midsection and still under air attack, the Colhoun was ordered abandoned at 1420hrs when she began leaking fuel oil into the waters around her, which threatened to envelop the ship in fire. Within ten minutes, all of the Colhoun’s surviving crew had taken to the waters of Ironbottom Sound where they were either rescued by small craft or swam to shore as the Japanese withdrew. The Colhoun remained afloat for almost an hour as she slowly foundered, burning furiously and suffering several detonations before she finally gave out and sank Stern-first at this location on August 30th, 1942.

For her actions on the date of her loss, USS Colhoun received her second Battle Star for World War Two service.

www.navsource.org/archives/10/04/04002.htm
www.navsource.org/archives/05/085.htm
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Colhoun_(DD-85)
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   9°23'59"S   160°1'0"E

Comments

  • chris brice (guest)
    my father was on the colhoun when it sank. he ran one of the higgins boats. coast guard boy. he died in 2000. his name frank brice, from lavallette new jersey.
  • Joseph P. Lewis (guest)
    My father, LTJG George D. Lewis was also aboard the Colhoun when it sank. He was picked up by a small boat from Guadalcanal after spending some time in the oil soaked sea, which fortunately did not catch on fire. He passed away in 2006 at the age of 86.
  • Rebekah B. (guest)
    My great-grandfather, Benjamin Hill, was on the USS Colhoun when it sank. He was miraculously saved. He worked in the engine room, and would have been in there when it blew up, except for that he had just gone to go fetch a pack of cigarettes for one of the other crew members. He ended up having to jump off the ship into the water. He couldn't see anything, and he prayed to God for help. Then he stretched out his hand to start swimming, and with his first stroke he found an empty lifeboat. I'm not sure when he passed away, but he grew into old age, and eventually died of cancer before I was born.
  • Scott Lansdale (guest)
    My grandfather was also on the Colhoun when it sank, thankfully he survived. I still enjoy hearing his many navy stories today. It is amazing what those guys went through out there.
  • Dan Scott (guest)
    My Great Uncle Robert Burns Hardy was killed on board the Colhoun. He was a machinist mate second class.
  • Seth Davis (guest)
    My uncle, Samuel Davis, was lost on the USS Colhoun when it sank in August 1942. He was a storekeeper, 3rd class. He was my father's older brother. I was named after him.
  • Chris duvall (guest)
    My grandfather was killed on the Calhoun his name was Robert Duvall my dad was only three when that happened I was wondering if your father might still be alive my dad would love to talk with him if he is still alive I can be reached at 252 207 1471 email exterio wash at yahoo.com thanks for your time.
  • Scott Lansdale (guest)
    He was one of the few Coast Guardsmen onboard I see. I can ask my grandfather if recalls meeting him or knowing him.
  • steve (guest)
    My father also was aboard the Colhoun when it went down. He was a signalman 1st class. He was picked up by the USS Little which was also sunk several days later. He got reassigned to another escort destroyer in Pearl Harbor and went back to the war. Meanwhile in 1943 he managed to get some leave time and married my mother in Philadelphia. I arrived in this world 3 years later. My father passed away in 2009 and my mother 10 months later.
  • Ron Henerfouth
    My dad Aubrey L (Eddie) Cox was a survivor on the Colhoun.
  • Show all comments
This article was last modified 14 years ago