USS ASTORIA CA-34
The Official Home of 'Nasty Asty'
Operation WATCHTOWER
The Invasion of Guadalcanal and Tulagi, 7 August 1942
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USS VINCENNES CA-44 fires her forward main battery in misting rain at dawn on 7 August 1942. The outline of Guadalcanal is just visible in the early morning light, as is the ship's camouflage pattern.
This image was taken from HMAS AUSTRALIA; below is the original caption.
-RAN photo from Brent Jones collection
Smoke rises from the initial bombardment of Guadalcanal on 7 August 1942.
-RAN photo from Brent Jones collection
Observing the bombardment from Sky Control aboard ASTORIA, UPI correspondent Joe Custer wrote:
Our guns fired steadily, deliberately, pausing between rounds to adjust bearings. The shells struck on the brown beach and threw up geysers of sand and debris. Bits of palm trees spurted into the air. Our five-inch guns joined the bombardment, their shells whistling on a high note and, seconds later, exploding on their objectives.
Remains of a Japanese picket boat burn after shelling by a destroyer in the early minutes of the invasion.
-RAN photo from Brent Jones collection
Custer continued:
...about a thousand yards forward, a destroyer was slamming shells into a ball of crimson flame that had been a patrol ship a few minutes before. Now, only its outlines were vaguely discernible. The entire ship was in flames, towering sheets of crimson leaping into the sky, tapering in a plume of black smoke. No one could be alive on it.
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Above and below: Landing craft loaded with Marines move away from transports and head toward shore.
-RAN photos from Brent Jones collection
Custer wrote:
Between the two islands, the transports were surrounded by hundreds of small landing boats, like baby chicks cavorting around a squatting hen; the disembarking had begun.
The Marine shock troops started the dash to the beach head, their landing boats kicking up small wakes. We counted fourteen in the first group, then thirty-two more. Soon the water was filled with them. We reached one hundred and gave up--there were too many.
The first Marines jumped into the water, dashed up the beach, their bayonets fixed and ready. Behind them came swarms of green-clad shock troops; and as they charged over the beach our guns lifted to clean up the area before them.
The Marines were landing. The situation was well in hand.
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Further out at sea, the carrier element conducted bombing and support missions throughout the day. In this photo, SARATOGA CV-3 (foreground) and ENTERPRISE CV-6 are launching aircraft.
-U.S. Navy photo from Brent Jones collection
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USS ASTORIA CA-34 as seen from AUSTRALIA in Savo Sound on 7 August 1942. Her SOC floatplanes are airborne for gunfire spotting as practiced off Kona, Hawaii.
-RAN photo from Brent Jones collection
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Above: In the mid-morning hours, the Japanese pressed an attack with 36 twin-engine horizontal bombers. Below: Anti-aircraft fire begins to appear in the formation. Most of these bombers were brought down by AA fire and carrier-based planes.
-RAN photos from Brent Jones collection
Above: A wall of bombs dropped by the Japanese planes misses its mark, exploding in the water between the transports and cruisers. This concluded the first of two unsuccessful attacks conducted by the Japanese on 7 August. The next twenty-four hours would prove quite different.
-RAN photo from Brent Jones collection
8 August 1942 D+1
Joe Custer wrote:
Guadalcanal continued its eerie silence, strengthening the supposition that the Japs were hiding in the mountains, reconnoitering for guerilla warfare. The Marines would search them out--it might take months.
The supply ships had worked far into the night--to midnight in most cases--speeding their unloading. Necessarily, they turned on their lights for the job. Which caused a shaking of heads aboard our ships; we were asking for trouble, using lights.
We received the word: Jap planes were coming in again--forty torpedo planes, eight horizontal bombers, Zero fighter escorts. [Chief Signalman McKnight] whistled, arching his eyebrows: "Gonna be a hot time in Guadalcanal Channel today!"
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On the second day of operations, 8 August 1942, attacking Japanese planes came in low over the water. In this photo, antiaircraft fire appears over the invasion force. PRESIDENT JACKSON AP-37 is at left.
-U.S. Navy photo from NARA collection 80-G-K-385
Two American planes descend rapidly in pursuit of a Japanese Zero. They were mistaken as enemies and taken under fire by the invasion force. USS SELFRIDGE DD-357 steams in the foreground.
-RAN photo from Brent Jones collection
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USS VINCENNES CA-44 in silhouette as smoke pours from the wreckage of a plane shot down on 8 August 1942. This is the last known photograph that can be positively identified as VINCENNES.
-RAN photo from Brent Jones collection
QUINCY CA-39 steams past a smoke plume from a plane she shot down on 8 August 1942.
-RAN photo from Brent Jones collection
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An ASTORIA-class heavy cruiser evades bombs from Japanese horizontal bombers in the midday hours of 8 August 1942.
-RAN photo from Brent Jones collection
Shrapnel from antiaircraft fire rains into the water as a plane crashes at center.
-RAN photo from Brent Jones collection
Joe Custer wrote:
...they swerved to the right, dropped low, and came roaring into the channel less than sixty feet above the water, hedge-hopping the transports, breaking up into small units as they sought out their targets. The channel was filled with ships, zigzagging, wiggling, moving at high speed.
...a cruiser threw AA fire into a group--five planes dropped like plums in one bunch, trailing wisps of smoke... All the ships were firing now, including the transports. Planes burst into flames, others just dived nose-first and crashed--the sky was one black mass, the shells overlapping their patterns.
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Above: Japanese bombers come in low over the water, flying between cruisers and transports. There are three bombers visible in this photo as antiaircraft bursts appear.
Below: Two smoke plumes rise from crashed planes. The same transports and cloud pattern (at right below) are visible in both photographs. The wake of HMAS AUSTRALIA making emergency turns is visible at left.
-RAN photos from Brent Jones collection
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Above and below: Bombs miss near the American transport force as AUSTRALIA (visible by her mainmast) executes emergency turns.
-RAN photos from Brent Jones collection
Transport USS GEORGE F. ELLIOTT AP-13 was struck by a damaged Japanese plane during the attack.
-U.S. Navy photo from Naval History and Heritage Command collection NH-69118
Above and below: Attacks against American destroyer DEWEY DD-349 result in near misses.
-RAN photos from Brent Jones collection
In the aftermath of attacks on 8 August, the wings and forward fuselage of a Japanese bomber float for a brief period before sinking into the waters of what came to be known as Iron Bottom Sound.
-U.S. Navy photo from NARA collection 80-G-K-383
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The wreckage of a Japanese bomber sinks in the waters of Iron Bottom Sound, 8 August 1942.
-RAN photo from Brent Jones collection
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USS ASTORIA CA-34 as seen from AUSTRALIA in Savo Sound on 8 August 1942. Note that her SOC floatplanes are positioned on her catapults. This is the last known photograph of ASTORIA CA-34.
-RAN photo from Brent Jones collection
Sources
Custer, Joe James. Through the Perilous Night: The Astoria's Last Battle. New York, NY: The MacMillan Company, 1944.
Jones, Brent. Private photo and document collection.
National Archives and Records Administration. http://www.archives.gov/research/.
Naval History and Heritage Command Photographic Section. http://www.history.navy.mil/
NavSource Navy Historical Photograph Database. http://www.navsource.org/
Wiemer, Robert S. Private photo and document collection.
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