USS Laffey DD 459 (September 04, 1942)
Courtesy of  Tom Fern





In harbor, probably at Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides, with survivors of USS Wasp (CV-7) on board.
The Wasp had been sunk by a Japanese submarine I-19, on 15 September 1942.







Steams alongside another U.S. Navy ship,
while at sea in the south Pacific on 4 September 1942.






Maneuvering alongside a cruiser (either Salt Lake City or Pensacola), with survivors
of USS Wasp (CV-7) on board, probably at Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides.

Wasp had been sunk by a Japanese submarine (I-19), on 15 September 1942.
Cruiser in the right background is USS Juneau (CL-52).

Note the aircraft catapult on the cruiser from which the photo was taken.




To Ari this is a haunting picture.
Among the survivors show, there were members of the 459
crew that would eventually lose their lives in subsequent actions...

Alongside a cruiser (either Salt Lake City or Pensacola) with survivors of
USS Wasp (CV-7) on board, probably at Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides.

The Wasp had been sunk by a Japanese submarine I-19, on 15 September 1942.

Note Laffey's smokestacks, Searchlight, mainmast, depth charges, and fully outfitted life raft.




Cruiser in the center background is USS Juneau (CL-52).

Note Laffey's 5"/38 guns, depth charges, and life rafts.

 

Operating with U.S. cruisers and destroyers, Laffey took part in two night gun and torpedo battles near Guadalcanal. In the first, the Battle of Cape Esperance on 11-12 October 1942, she helped repulse a Japanese bombardment group. A month later, on the night of 12-13 November, she participated in the first surface action of the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. As part of the van group of the U.S. battle line, she engaged the Japanese battleships Hiei and Kirishima, then was torpedoed in the stern by the destroyer Teruzuki. USS Laffey was sunk shortly thereafter, when her after ammunition magazines exploded.

USS Laffey's wreck was discovered and examined in mid-1992, nearly a half-mile below the surface of Iron Bottom Sound, off Guadalcanal. She is upright and largely intact from the bow to amidships, but her after third has disappeared. Both forward 5-inch guns are trained out to port, and her amidships superstructure bears a hole where a Japanese 14-inch battleship projectile passed through her in the darkness of 13 November 1942.

Back to Home Page