On March 17th, 2018 the RV Petrel, sponsored by Paul Allen, located the wreck of the USS Juneau CL-52 in the area of the Soloman Islands, south-west of San Cristobal.
_-_19-N-28149.jpg/1280px-USS_Juneau_(CL-52)_-_19-N-28149.jpg)
25th of October, 1941. Just after launching, with some of the main gun turrets and many of the AA guns yet to be installed.
This is a diagram of an Atlanta Class light cruiser from a US Navy identification guide. There might be some slight differences between the photos and the diagram as the guide was from 1943-44, but the major features remain the same.
The wreck is more than 4,200 meters down, which is roughly 2.6 miles. Juneau was badly damaged even before sinking by a Japanese torpedo, and the torpedo that sank her hit in almost the same place.
The first video that was released was of the very stern of the ship, which shows the ships name, and the pair of depth charge tracks.
_at_anchor_in_September_1942.jpg)
This photo of Juneau, taken in September 1942, shows the stern of the ship. While the name cannot be made out, the depth charge tracks can be faintly seen, as can what looks to be a 1.1'' AA gun. Also clearly visible are the main guns, 16 5''/38 caliber guns in eight turrets. Amidships the ship's port torpedo tubes can also be seen just behind one of the turrets.
The depth charges look to be Mark 6 or Mark 7 charges.
The next batch of images was released on the 22nd, and are of the stern section the Juneau. The photos will go from the stern on the port side, forward the break in the ship, around to the starboard, and back towards the stern again.
This is the port side screw of Juneau.
The port side 5'' turret is still pointed out from the rest of the ship, mostly towards the stern though. Very much like the guns of the Lexington, the rifling in the barrel can still be seen.
Towards the bow was the set of torpedo tubes. Each Mark 15 mount held four Mark 15 torpedoes, the same type as was found at the wreck of the Lexington. Gun tubs for 20mm Oerlikon AA guns can be seen on the upper left side of the photo.
A Mark 15 torpedo launcher, though with five tubes instead of four. Each mount would have had a crew of three men, a mount captain, a mount trainer, and a gyro setter.
This is a photo of the USS Dunlap [DD-384] firing a Mark 15 while underway. The launchers are very close to the same, if not exactly the same, type as the ones on the Juneau.
The davit of the ship's crane has fallen onto the blast shield atop the torpedo launcher. This photo is directed towards the bow of the ship, and the gun tubs can be faintly seen.
In the set of three photos below, the torpedoes can still be seen in the tubes.
It looks like the inboard tube might be missing, but it might just be hidden from view by the other tubes, or it might have been damaged in some other way.
Here is where the break occurred. The side of the ship has been peeled back like a can of sardines from the force of the explosion. This seems to be right in the middle of the two funnels, effectively right amidships.
These photos are of the rear funnel and the 20mm gun tubs. Parts of the ship's crane can be seen, as well as the 20mm Clipping Room.
The funnel is the structure in the background with the three rectangular cutouts. The Clipping Room is the rectangular structure in the bottom left.
The Clipping Room is the rectangular object between the two gun tubs, and the davit from the crane can be seen on the right side of the photo. The 20mm cannons can be seen in their tubs.
This is the remaining upper section aft funnel viewed from the port side. Part of the crane can be seen on the left, and the bent over mainmast can be seen on the right. The photo of Juneau from March 19, 1942, below shows the funnel, the FD RADAR on the rear director, the 5'' guns, and the port side torpedo tubes.
The 20mm gun tubs [2] can be seen on the lower right, as can the 20mm clipping room where shells were loaded into magazines [1]. The two 36'' searchlights can also be seen on both sides of the stack. The radar on the Mk 37 can also be seen between the funnel and the right searchlight.
There is some debate on how Juneau was painted before she was sunk. Down-post there is a photo of the aft director for the 5'' guns that seems to show the remains of what might be Measure 12 camouflage. The paint might be Ocean Gray [5-O], which was a requirement of Measure 12. But photos of Juneau from late October show the ship painted in a solid color.
Captain Lyman Swenson wanted to paint the ship in what was called 'Mountbatten Pink' [shown below], which was being applied to many warships in-theater at the time.
According to the given description, this is the starboard side of the ship. Apparently, this also shows the starboard propeller shaft, which has been broken in half. The Juneau is in several pieces, so I'm unsure of what part of the ship this is exactly.
The starboard side torpedo launcher, still trained out to starboard, with the fish still in the tubes. Of note is that one of the tubes is missing, the tube's base can be seen on the right side of the frame by the blast shield, but there is no sign of the tube or the torpedo.
This is the torpedo stop mechanism, which prevented the torpedo from moving except when being loaded or being fired. The plaque lists instructions on how to load a torpedo into the tube.
This shows the damage to the spoon extensions on the Mark 15 launcher and the 5'' gun turret. Inside the tube is a Mark 15 torpedo.
This is the starboard side 5'' gun turret and a close-up view of one of the periscopes for the crew. The protective door for the periscope is missing, though the hinges can still be seen, as can what looks to be a locking latch on the left side.
Now to the things on the centerline.
This is the stern Mk 37 fire control station for the Juneau's 5'' guns. Of note are the remains of the ship's camouflage paint, the open observation hatches (the large ones on the top), the telescopic hatches (the three smaller ones below), and the base for the FD Fire Control radar on the top of the station. The tube sticking out the left side is part of the rangefinder, which used trigonometry to determine the length of the leg to the target. The base length between lenses was known, and based on the angle needed to bring the target into focus, the distance could be calculated with exceptional accuracy.
The bent over mainmast can be seen in the background on the left side of the frame. The circular object on the bottom and to the right of the Mk 37 looks to be the tub for a 20mm AA gun as can be seen in the photo below.
Moving farther astern, a 1.1'' AA gun is still in its tub, and another of the Juneau's 5'' gun turrets can be seen in the lower right behind the SONAR screen. Juneau had four quad mounts like this one, two located superfiring over the centerline turrets, and one on each broadside close to the bridge.
I think that the turret on the left in this photo is the same one as in the photo above. The barbette in the superstructure looks to have been damaged and collapsed. Of note is the Battle Efficiency Award on the side of the turret. The award, also known as a Battle 'E', is given to a ship that demonstrates the highest level of battle readiness, evaluated over the course of a year. For such a new ship, it is clear that the crew of Juneau knew what they were doing.
This is in the New York Navy Yard, possibly in May 1942. This shows the entire port side of the stern that we have photos of. The funnel, mast, torpedo tubes, four 5'' gun mounts, the 20mm battery, and the 1.1" mount are all visible.
Update 3-23-2018
Photos of the bow and debris field have been released on the RV Petrel Facebook page.
This is one of the forward 5'' gun turrets that was blown well clear of the main sections of the hull. The roof, right side, and part of the front face were blown off as well.
Juneau carried Mark 29 Twin Enclosed Base Ring Mounts, each one of which weighed around 108,000 pounds [Mod 0, Mod 1 weighed 132,000 pounds]. Each gun had as many as 450 shells allocated to it, but I don't know what exactly Juneau was loaded with when she was lost.
One of Juneau's anchors, still attached to the bow of the ship. I can't tell if this is on the port or starboard side of the ship from this photo. In the lower photo, the word 'NORFOLK' can be seen cast into the bottom of the anchor.
This is the forward rangefinder and fire control system, like the one that was seen on the stern. This is looking at it from behind.
The text reads: 'SHIFT COUNTERWEIGHT TO MATCH BLACK LINE AT INSTALLATION'
This is one of Juneau's four boilers, each of which was rated for 665 psi of steam pressure. The steam drove two geared turbines, generating 78,985 horsepower to the shafts, giving the ship a top speed of 33.6 knots. After being damaged, Juneau was able to make about 13 knots and was down as much as 12 feet by the bow.
This is a mesh platform of some kind, probably from one of the ship's masts. I can't tell what the structure behind it is, but it is probably part of the forward superstructure.
This is Juneau's rudder, completely detached from the hull of the ship. The single rudder was positioned between the two screws. The leading edge of the rudder is on the right side, and I think that the box on the seabed under the rudder is the gear for turning it.
The pattern on the rudder is interesting. It took me a while, but I remembered where I saw something like it before.
_H97221k.jpg)
The wreck of the USS Scorpion, SSN-589, lost with all hands on May 22nd, 1968. The exact cause of the sinking is unknown, but the pattern on the Scorpion's fins and Juneau's rudder are very similar.
It is known that Juneau was sunk in around 20 seconds, and is resting at a greater depth than the Scorpion [4,200 vs 3,000 meters]. I think that the high speed of the sinking resulted in the pressure crushing the hollow structure of the rudder to create that pattern. It would be interesting to see if other wrecks have similar damage to things like their rudders or hull.
These are photos are apparently of a practice mount for the 5'' guns. Unfortunately, I cannot find any photos of a mount like this or even a description of what it might have looked like. From the Facebook comments [A bastion of accurate information I know], this was located behind the aft superstructure, in the area of the 1.1'' AA gun that can be seen above.
The bottom photo was inverted by the RV Petrel crew to give a better view at the small plaque on the mechanism. Unfortunately, these photos seem to be of a lower resolution than the other photos that have been posted, so it's not very legible.
The other photos of the set were of the very stern of the ship and were of the depth charges and name.
Juneau had a short career, being laid down on May 27th, 1940, launched on October 25th, 1941, and commissioned into the Navy on February 14th, 1942. After an abbreviated shakedown, she acted as a blockade ship against Vichy French naval forces around Matrinuqe and Guadalupe before returning to New York to complete modifications before heading to the Pacific.
Juneau fought through several of the early actions of the war in the Pacific, after assisting in the rescue of 1,910 men of the USS Wasp, the ship went through such major actions as the Buin-Fasi-Tonolai Raid, the Battle of Santa Cruz Island, and the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal.
At Guadalcanal, on the night of November 12-13th, the Japanese were sending a force down the so-called 'Slot' made up of several warships and transport ships to bombard Henderson Field and supply their forces on the island for a month of combat.
The battle was a colossal screwup on practically all accounts.
The commander of the American task force, Rear Admiral Daniel Callaghan, made several poor decisions about the arrangement of his ships. Several of them had radar, which gave a titanic advantage in situational awareness at night. Yet he did not make one of them the lead ship in his formation. His own flagship, the USS San Fransisco, did have a radar set, but it had been disabled when the ship had been hit by a Japanese aircraft on the 12th. He also didn't have a cohesive plan before the battle, which only furthered the confusion when contact was made.
The combination of these shortcomings on the American side, along with confusion on the Japanese side, resulted in the two forces closing to within 1,000 yards of each other when the firing started. How close they got, and how contact was made can be seen on the map above. In the midst of the fighting, Juneau was hit on the port side by a torpedo from the Japanese destroyer Amatsukaze [photo below], which knocked out many of the ship's systems, leaving the brand-new cruiser crippled.
While the First Naval Battle of Guadalcanal was a strategic victory for the United States, the Japanese had been stopped from supplying their forces on Guadalcanal, it was a tactical loss. 1,439 Americans had been killed, the light cruisers Atlanta and Juneau were lost, as were the destroyers Cushing, Laffey, Barton, and Monssen. The Japanese lost at most 800 men, the fast battleship Hiei, and the destroyers Akatsuki and Yudachi.
Juneau wasn't sunk during the battle though. While retiring from the battle with several other damaged ships, the Japanese submarine I-26 fired torpedoes at the San Fransisco. They all missed in front of the heavy cruiser, but one slammed into Juneau in the same area as she had been hit before.
'1101 - JUNEAU was blown up in one tremendous explosion. The entire ship was instantaneously enveloped in a cloud of yellow, black and grey smoke. Large particles of debris were thrown several hundred feet in the air. When the smoke cleared the JUNEAU had completely disappeared. No debris of any size could be seen. No survivors were seen. Everything apparently had been "sucked" under when the JUNEAU sank.'
But there were survivors. As many as 115 of the ship's complement were still alive. But due to poor communications, and the possibility of submarine attack, search and rescue efforts were delayed by several days. In the end, only 10 men were rescued on November 20th, after almost a week at sea.
Among the dead were the five Sullivan brothers.
From left to right: Joe, Frank, Al, Matt, and George.
From the survivor's reports, Frank, Joe, and Matt were killed during the immediate sinking. Al drowned the next day. George went over the side of his raft four or five days later, be it from delirium or grief is not known.
As a result, the US War Department created the Sole Survivor policy to prevent the death of so many in an immediate family while in active service.
The Navy has named two destroyers in their honor. The first was the Fletcher class USS The Sullivans [DD-537], the second is the Arleigh Burke USS The Sullivans [DDG-68]. The motto for both the ships is/was 'We stick together'.
Sources:
https://www.paulallen.com/uss-juneau-wreck-located-famous-for-sullivan-brothers/
http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WAMUS_ASW.php#Mark_10
https://archive.hnsa.org/doc/destroyer/ddtubes/index.htm
https://ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ref/Ordnance/FCS-Mark37/index.html
http://www.pwencycl.kgbudge.com/F/d/FD_fire_control_radar.htm
https://www.navysite.de/what/bridgewing.htm
http://www.public.navy.mil/surflant/cg69/Pages/BattleE.aspx
http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNUS_5-38_mk12.php
https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/j/juneau-i.html
https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/disasters-and-phenomena/the-sullivan-brothers-and-the-assignment-of-family-members/the-loss-of-uss-juneau.html
Roll of Honor - http://www.maritimequest.com/warship_directory/us_navy_pages/cruisers/pages/juneau_cl52/uss_juneau_cl52_roll_of_honor.htm
Broken photographs replaced on 7/14/2018
The first video that was released was of the very stern of the ship, which shows the ships name, and the pair of depth charge tracks.
This photo of Juneau, taken in September 1942, shows the stern of the ship. While the name cannot be made out, the depth charge tracks can be faintly seen, as can what looks to be a 1.1'' AA gun. Also clearly visible are the main guns, 16 5''/38 caliber guns in eight turrets. Amidships the ship's port torpedo tubes can also be seen just behind one of the turrets.
The depth charges look to be Mark 6 or Mark 7 charges.
The next batch of images was released on the 22nd, and are of the stern section the Juneau. The photos will go from the stern on the port side, forward the break in the ship, around to the starboard, and back towards the stern again.
The port side 5'' turret is still pointed out from the rest of the ship, mostly towards the stern though. Very much like the guns of the Lexington, the rifling in the barrel can still be seen.
Towards the bow was the set of torpedo tubes. Each Mark 15 mount held four Mark 15 torpedoes, the same type as was found at the wreck of the Lexington. Gun tubs for 20mm Oerlikon AA guns can be seen on the upper left side of the photo.
A Mark 15 torpedo launcher, though with five tubes instead of four. Each mount would have had a crew of three men, a mount captain, a mount trainer, and a gyro setter.
The davit of the ship's crane has fallen onto the blast shield atop the torpedo launcher. This photo is directed towards the bow of the ship, and the gun tubs can be faintly seen.
In the set of three photos below, the torpedoes can still be seen in the tubes.
It looks like the inboard tube might be missing, but it might just be hidden from view by the other tubes, or it might have been damaged in some other way.
These photos are of the rear funnel and the 20mm gun tubs. Parts of the ship's crane can be seen, as well as the 20mm Clipping Room.
The funnel is the structure in the background with the three rectangular cutouts. The Clipping Room is the rectangular structure in the bottom left.
This is the remaining upper section aft funnel viewed from the port side. Part of the crane can be seen on the left, and the bent over mainmast can be seen on the right. The photo of Juneau from March 19, 1942, below shows the funnel, the FD RADAR on the rear director, the 5'' guns, and the port side torpedo tubes.
The 20mm gun tubs [2] can be seen on the lower right, as can the 20mm clipping room where shells were loaded into magazines [1]. The two 36'' searchlights can also be seen on both sides of the stack. The radar on the Mk 37 can also be seen between the funnel and the right searchlight.
Captain Lyman Swenson wanted to paint the ship in what was called 'Mountbatten Pink' [shown below], which was being applied to many warships in-theater at the time.
But from what's been seen so far, we just can't tell. The paint on the director doesn't look like Mountbatten Pink, and it looks too light for the all-Deck Blue that would indicate Measure 11. Whatever the case, some of the earlier camouflage seems to be visible from under whatever she was painted like before she went down.
This is the torpedo stop mechanism, which prevented the torpedo from moving except when being loaded or being fired. The plaque lists instructions on how to load a torpedo into the tube.
This is the starboard side 5'' gun turret and a close-up view of one of the periscopes for the crew. The protective door for the periscope is missing, though the hinges can still be seen, as can what looks to be a locking latch on the left side.
Now to the things on the centerline.
This is the stern Mk 37 fire control station for the Juneau's 5'' guns. Of note are the remains of the ship's camouflage paint, the open observation hatches (the large ones on the top), the telescopic hatches (the three smaller ones below), and the base for the FD Fire Control radar on the top of the station. The tube sticking out the left side is part of the rangefinder, which used trigonometry to determine the length of the leg to the target. The base length between lenses was known, and based on the angle needed to bring the target into focus, the distance could be calculated with exceptional accuracy.
The bent over mainmast can be seen in the background on the left side of the frame. The circular object on the bottom and to the right of the Mk 37 looks to be the tub for a 20mm AA gun as can be seen in the photo below.
Moving farther astern, a 1.1'' AA gun is still in its tub, and another of the Juneau's 5'' gun turrets can be seen in the lower right behind the SONAR screen. Juneau had four quad mounts like this one, two located superfiring over the centerline turrets, and one on each broadside close to the bridge.
I think that the turret on the left in this photo is the same one as in the photo above. The barbette in the superstructure looks to have been damaged and collapsed. Of note is the Battle Efficiency Award on the side of the turret. The award, also known as a Battle 'E', is given to a ship that demonstrates the highest level of battle readiness, evaluated over the course of a year. For such a new ship, it is clear that the crew of Juneau knew what they were doing.
This is in the New York Navy Yard, possibly in May 1942. This shows the entire port side of the stern that we have photos of. The funnel, mast, torpedo tubes, four 5'' gun mounts, the 20mm battery, and the 1.1" mount are all visible.
Update 3-23-2018
Photos of the bow and debris field have been released on the RV Petrel Facebook page.
This is one of the forward 5'' gun turrets that was blown well clear of the main sections of the hull. The roof, right side, and part of the front face were blown off as well.
Juneau carried Mark 29 Twin Enclosed Base Ring Mounts, each one of which weighed around 108,000 pounds [Mod 0, Mod 1 weighed 132,000 pounds]. Each gun had as many as 450 shells allocated to it, but I don't know what exactly Juneau was loaded with when she was lost.
One of Juneau's anchors, still attached to the bow of the ship. I can't tell if this is on the port or starboard side of the ship from this photo. In the lower photo, the word 'NORFOLK' can be seen cast into the bottom of the anchor.
The text reads: 'SHIFT COUNTERWEIGHT TO MATCH BLACK LINE AT INSTALLATION'
The pattern on the rudder is interesting. It took me a while, but I remembered where I saw something like it before.
The wreck of the USS Scorpion, SSN-589, lost with all hands on May 22nd, 1968. The exact cause of the sinking is unknown, but the pattern on the Scorpion's fins and Juneau's rudder are very similar.
It is known that Juneau was sunk in around 20 seconds, and is resting at a greater depth than the Scorpion [4,200 vs 3,000 meters]. I think that the high speed of the sinking resulted in the pressure crushing the hollow structure of the rudder to create that pattern. It would be interesting to see if other wrecks have similar damage to things like their rudders or hull.
The bottom photo was inverted by the RV Petrel crew to give a better view at the small plaque on the mechanism. Unfortunately, these photos seem to be of a lower resolution than the other photos that have been posted, so it's not very legible.
The other photos of the set were of the very stern of the ship and were of the depth charges and name.
Juneau had a short career, being laid down on May 27th, 1940, launched on October 25th, 1941, and commissioned into the Navy on February 14th, 1942. After an abbreviated shakedown, she acted as a blockade ship against Vichy French naval forces around Matrinuqe and Guadalupe before returning to New York to complete modifications before heading to the Pacific.
Juneau fought through several of the early actions of the war in the Pacific, after assisting in the rescue of 1,910 men of the USS Wasp, the ship went through such major actions as the Buin-Fasi-Tonolai Raid, the Battle of Santa Cruz Island, and the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal.
At Guadalcanal, on the night of November 12-13th, the Japanese were sending a force down the so-called 'Slot' made up of several warships and transport ships to bombard Henderson Field and supply their forces on the island for a month of combat.
The battle was a colossal screwup on practically all accounts.
The commander of the American task force, Rear Admiral Daniel Callaghan, made several poor decisions about the arrangement of his ships. Several of them had radar, which gave a titanic advantage in situational awareness at night. Yet he did not make one of them the lead ship in his formation. His own flagship, the USS San Fransisco, did have a radar set, but it had been disabled when the ship had been hit by a Japanese aircraft on the 12th. He also didn't have a cohesive plan before the battle, which only furthered the confusion when contact was made.
The combination of these shortcomings on the American side, along with confusion on the Japanese side, resulted in the two forces closing to within 1,000 yards of each other when the firing started. How close they got, and how contact was made can be seen on the map above. In the midst of the fighting, Juneau was hit on the port side by a torpedo from the Japanese destroyer Amatsukaze [photo below], which knocked out many of the ship's systems, leaving the brand-new cruiser crippled.
While the First Naval Battle of Guadalcanal was a strategic victory for the United States, the Japanese had been stopped from supplying their forces on Guadalcanal, it was a tactical loss. 1,439 Americans had been killed, the light cruisers Atlanta and Juneau were lost, as were the destroyers Cushing, Laffey, Barton, and Monssen. The Japanese lost at most 800 men, the fast battleship Hiei, and the destroyers Akatsuki and Yudachi.
Juneau wasn't sunk during the battle though. While retiring from the battle with several other damaged ships, the Japanese submarine I-26 fired torpedoes at the San Fransisco. They all missed in front of the heavy cruiser, but one slammed into Juneau in the same area as she had been hit before.
'1101 - JUNEAU was blown up in one tremendous explosion. The entire ship was instantaneously enveloped in a cloud of yellow, black and grey smoke. Large particles of debris were thrown several hundred feet in the air. When the smoke cleared the JUNEAU had completely disappeared. No debris of any size could be seen. No survivors were seen. Everything apparently had been "sucked" under when the JUNEAU sank.'
But there were survivors. As many as 115 of the ship's complement were still alive. But due to poor communications, and the possibility of submarine attack, search and rescue efforts were delayed by several days. In the end, only 10 men were rescued on November 20th, after almost a week at sea.
Among the dead were the five Sullivan brothers.
From the survivor's reports, Frank, Joe, and Matt were killed during the immediate sinking. Al drowned the next day. George went over the side of his raft four or five days later, be it from delirium or grief is not known.
As a result, the US War Department created the Sole Survivor policy to prevent the death of so many in an immediate family while in active service.
The Navy has named two destroyers in their honor. The first was the Fletcher class USS The Sullivans [DD-537], the second is the Arleigh Burke USS The Sullivans [DDG-68]. The motto for both the ships is/was 'We stick together'.
Sources:
https://www.paulallen.com/uss-juneau-wreck-located-famous-for-sullivan-brothers/
http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WAMUS_ASW.php#Mark_10
https://archive.hnsa.org/doc/destroyer/ddtubes/index.htm
https://ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ref/Ordnance/FCS-Mark37/index.html
http://www.pwencycl.kgbudge.com/F/d/FD_fire_control_radar.htm
https://www.navysite.de/what/bridgewing.htm
http://www.public.navy.mil/surflant/cg69/Pages/BattleE.aspx
http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNUS_5-38_mk12.php
https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/j/juneau-i.html
https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/disasters-and-phenomena/the-sullivan-brothers-and-the-assignment-of-family-members/the-loss-of-uss-juneau.html
Roll of Honor - http://www.maritimequest.com/warship_directory/us_navy_pages/cruisers/pages/juneau_cl52/uss_juneau_cl52_roll_of_honor.htm
Broken photographs replaced on 7/14/2018
Comments
Post a Comment