15. Author’s interview with Willy Rhyne, October 20, 2015.
16. A. A. Vandegrift, Once a Marine (New York: W. W. Norton, 1964), 198–199.
17. Ira Wolfert, “Solomons Battle a Fiery Spectacle,” New York Times, November 28, 1942.
18. MacDonald, “Hell and Back,” 89.
19. MacDonald Action Report, November 16, 1942, 5.
20. Rhyne interview, October 20, 2015.
21. Pfeifer and McDowell, “Lucky Mike,” 29.
22. MacDonald Reminiscences, August 6, 1974, 213.
23. Wylie Oral History, December 17, 1985, 72.
24. Author’s interview with Thomas Chesnutt, March 3, 2016.
25. Commanding Officer to Commander, Task Force 67, “Report of Action,” November 15, 1942, 3 (hereafter “Cole Action Report, November 15, 1942”).
26. Author’s interview with Thomas Chesnutt, March 7, 2016.
27. Wylie Oral History, December 17, 1985, 72.
28. Holmes interview, October 14, 2015.
29. Wylie Oral History, December 17, 1985, 72.
30. Ibid.
31. Ibid., 74.
32. Fred Gressard, “Reminiscences,” found at http://destroyerhistory.org/fletcherclass/ussfletcher/index.asp?r=44500&pid=44504, accessed December 4, 2014.
33. Hara, Japanese Destroyer Captain, 126, 134, 137–140.
34. MacDonald Recollections, 12.
35. Wylie Oral History, December 17, 1985, 79.
36. Diary of Jacob Thomas Chesnutt Jr., November 13, 1942, in the J. Thomas Chesnutt Collection (AFC/2001/001/58477), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, found at http://lcweb2.loc.gov/natlib/afc2001001/service/58477/pd0001.pdf, accessed October 13, 2015 (hereafter “Chesnutt Diary”).
37. Greybook, November 13, 1942.
38. William F. Halsey and J. Bryan III, Admiral Halsey’s Story (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1947), 130.
39. Ibid., 131–132.
40. Ibid., 132.
41. MacDonald Reminiscences, August 6, 1974, 213.
42. Wilkinson Action Report, November 17, 1942.
43. Cole Action Report, November 15, 1942.
44. MacDonald Recollections, 32.
45. Chesnutt interview, March 3, 2016.
46. Halsey, “Life,” 381.
47. Hara, Japanese Destroyer Captain, 144.
48. “Japanese Victory Claimed by Tokyo,” New York Times, November 17, 1942.
49. United States Strategic Bombing Survey, Interrogations of Japanese Officials, Volume II, No. 467, “Interrogation of Capt. Toshikazu Ohmae, Chief of Staff, Southeastern Fleet at Rabaul,” November 20, 1945 (Washington, D.C.: Naval Analysis Division, 1946), 471.
50. “Victory off Guadalcanal,” Time, November 23, 1942, 28.
51. “Hit Hard, Hit Fast, Hit Often,” Time, November 30, 1942, 28–31.
52. Charles Hurd, “Solomons Sea Victory Staggers to Japanese,” New York Times, November 22, 1942.
53. Message from General Vandegrift to Admiral Halsey, November 16, 1942, in “General Correspondence, November 1943–March 1944,” in Admiral William F. Halsey Collection, Naval Historical Foundation Collection, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
54. Halsey and Bryan, Admiral Halsey’s Story, 132.
CHAPTER 4: BLUNTING THE TOKYO EXPRESS
1. Letter from Lieutenant Gerard St. George Walker to Commander Donald MacDonald, April 26, 1944, Papers of Donald J. MacDonald, Box 1, “Correspondence, 1944 Jan–June,” Naval Historical Foundation Collection, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
2. Letter from Admiral William Halsey to Admiral Chester Nimitz, December 11, 1942, in “Halsey-Nimitz Letters, 1942–1943,” in Admiral William F. Halsey Collection, Naval Historical Foundation Collection, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (hereafter “Halsey-Nimitz Correspondence”).
3. Halsey to Nimitz, November 29, 1942, Halsey-Nimitz Correspondence.
4. Halsey to Nimitz, December 11, 1942, Halsey-Nimitz Correspondence.
5. Donald J. MacDonald, “They Went to Hell and Back with Me,” American Magazine, July 1944, 91.
6. Chesnutt Diary, November 16–20, 1942.
7. Carl F. Pfeifer and Jack S. McDowell, “Lucky Mike Plays for Keeps,” True, the Man’s Magazine, May 1944, 29.
8. Frederick J. Bell, Condition Red: Destroyer Action in the South Pacific (New York: Longmans Green, 1944), 83.
9. Wylie Oral History, December 17, 1985, 83.
10. Tameichi Hara with Fred Saito and Roger Pineau, Japanese Destroyer Captain (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1967), 149–150.
11. Zenji Orita with Joseph D. Harrington, I-Boat Captain: How Japan’s Submarines Almost Defeated the U.S. Navy in the Pacific (Canoga Park, CA: Major Books, 1976), 131.
12. Hara, Japanese Destroyer Captain, 94, 156.
13. Matome Ugaki, Fading Victory: The Diary of Admiral Matome Ugaki, 1941–1945 (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1991), 177.
14. Wylie Oral History, December 17, 1985, 86.
15. Chesnutt Diary, November 30, 1942.
16. Wylie Oral History, December 17, 1985, 90.
17. Chesnutt Diary, November 30, 1942; Chesnutt interview, March 7, 2016.
18. Halsey to Nimitz, January 1, 1943, Halsey-Nimitz Correspondence.
19. Nimitz to Halsey, December 18, 1942, Halsey-Nimitz Correspondence.
20. Samuel Eliot Morison, History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, volume V, The Struggle for Guadalcanal, August 1942–February 1943 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1949), 315.
21. MacDonald Recollections, 13.
22. Ugaki, Fading Victory, 317, 319.
23. Morison, Struggle for Guadalcanal, 317.
24. Greybook, December 30, 1942.
25. Hanson W. Baldwin, “Ominous Lull on War Fronts,” New York Times, December 17, 1942.
26. Chesnutt Diary, November 30, 1942.
27. William F. Halsey and J. Bryan III, Admiral Halsey’s Story (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1947), 143; J. Norman Lodge, “Halsey Predicts Victory This Year,” New York Times, January 3, 1943, 14.
28. Halsey and Bryan, Admiral Halsey’s Story, 142.
29. John G. Norris, “What Comes Next in the South Pacific?” Washington Post, January 10, 1943, B5.
30. Halsey to Nimitz, December 11, 1942, Halsey-Nimitz Correspondence.
31. Walden L. Ainsworth, “Cruiser-Destroyer Task Forces, Solomons Campaign,” January 17, 1946, 1–2 (hereafter “Ainsworth, ‘Cruiser-Destroyer Task Forces’”).
32. MacDonald Reminiscences, August 6, 1974, 236.
33. Executive Officer to Commanding Officer, “Action Report,” January 6, 1943.
34. “Munda Hit by Big Blasts,” New York Times, January 12, 1943.
35. MacDonald Reminiscences, August 6, 1974, 237–238.
36. Commanding Officer to Commander in Chief, United States Pacific Fleet, “Action Report—Munda Bombardment,” January 6, 1943, 3–4; Commanding Officer to Commander, Task Force 67, “Bombardment of Munda Point, New Georgia Island, Solomon Group, Early Morning January 5, 1943,” January 7, 1943, 3.
37. “Oral History of Rear Admiral Joseph C. Wylie, USN (Ret.),” Naval War College, Oral History Program, interview conducted by Dr. Evelyn M. Cherpak on January 15, 1986, 113.
38. R. H. Roupe, “Hell and High Water,” found at http://destroyerhistory.org/fletcherclass/index.asp?r=45109&pid=45113, accessed March 20, 2015.
39. MacDonald Reminiscences, August 6, 1974, 216.
CHAPTER 5: BIRTH OF A SQUADRON
1. Foster Hailey, Pacific Battle Line (New York: Macmillan, 1944), 286.
2. Ibid., 285–286.
3. Halsey to Nimitz, January 11, 1943, Halsey-Nimitz Correspondence.
4. MacDonald Recollections, 14.
5. E. B. Potter, Nimitz (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1976), 220.
6. Ensign Clem C. Williams Jr., “Sinking of the USS De Haven in the South Pacific,�
� June 3, 1944, Office of Naval Records and Library (hereafter “Williams, ‘Sinking’”).
7. C. Raymond Calhoun, Tin Can Sailor: Life Aboard the USS Sterett, 1939–1945 (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1993), 116.
8. Foster Hailey, “Their Morale Is All Right… How’s Yours?” New York Times, November 8, 1942, 6.
9. MacDonald Recollections, 15; Donald J. MacDonald, “They Went to Hell and Back with Me,” American Magazine, July 1944, 91.
10. Hailey, “Morale,” 6, 27.
11. Letter from Captain John J. Rowan, USN (Ret.), to Commander E. Andrew Wilde Jr. USNR (Ret.), November 20, 1995, in E. Andrew Wilde Jr., ed., The U.S.S. De Haven (DD-469) in World War II: Documents, Recollections and Photographs (Needham, MA: Privately published, 2001), used with the permission of Meredith McComb, widow of Dave McComb, Destroyer History Foundation.
12. Hailey, Pacific Battle Line, 287, 300–301.
13. James D. Horan, Action Tonight: The Story of the American Destroyer O’Bannon in the Pacific (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1945), 60.
14. Hailey, Pacific Battle Line, 288–289.
15. MacDonald Recollections, 15.
16. Hailey, Pacific Battle Line, 289.
17. Horan, Action Tonight, 63; Foster Hailey, “Task Force Fools the Japanese, Then Batters a Base Near Munda,” New York Times, February 6, 1943.
18. Hailey, “Task Force.”
19. Williams, “Sinking”; Hailey, “Task Force.”
20. Ainsworth, “Cruiser-Destroyer Task Forces,” 4.
21. Hailey, Pacific Battle Line, 292.
22. Walden L. Ainsworth, “Activities of Task Forces Under the Command of Rear Admiral Walden L. Ainsworth, U.S. Navy, Solomon Island Campaigns, 10 December 1942 to 4 June 1944,” 57 (hereafter cited as “Ainsworth, ‘Solomon Island Campaigns’”).
23. MacDonald Recollections, 15; Hailey, Pacific Battle Line, 293.
24. MacDonald Reminiscences, August 6, 1974, 231.
25. Chuck Witten, “The Battle of Rennell Island,” found at http://destroyerhistory.org/fletcherclass/index.asp?r=44805&pid=44814, accessed March 13, 2015.
26. R. H. Roupe, “Hell and High Water,” found at http://destroyerhistory.org/fletcherclass/index.asp?r=45109&pid=45113, accessed March 20, 2015.
27. James J. Fahey, Pacific War Diary, 1942–1945 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1963), 17.
28. MacDonald Reminiscences, August 6, 1974, 232.
29. Roupe, “Hell and High Water.”
30. Witten, “Battle of Rennell Island.”
31. Jack Wilkes, “The Battle of Rennell Island,” found at http://destroyerhistory.org/fletcherclass/index.asp?r=44805&pid=44815, accessed March 13, 2015.
32. Executive Officer to Commanding Officer, “Battle Report of Action with Enemy Aircraft off Koliula Point, Guadalcanal, on January 29, 1943,” February 6, 1943.
33. Witten, “Battle of Rennell Island.”
34. Tameichi Hara with Fred Saito and Roger Pineau, Japanese Destroyer Captain (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1967), 161, 173.
35. Halsey, “Life,” 393.
36. Letter from Commander Archie R. Fields, USN (Ret.), to Commander E. A. Wilde Jr., USNR (Ret.), November 14, 1995, in E. Andrew Wilde Jr., ed., The U.S.S. De Haven (DD-469) in World War II: Documents, Recollections and Photographs (Needham, MA: Privately published, 2001), used with the permission of Meredith McComb, widow of Dave McComb, Destroyer History Foundation.
37. Al Breining, “Bye-Bye DD!,” found at http://destroyerhistory.org/fletcherclass/index.asp?r=46905&pid=46910, accessed March 23, 2015.
38. Letter from Fields to Wilde, November 14, 1995.
39. Letter from Captain Bernard W. Frese Jr., USN (Ret.), to Commander E. A. Wilde Jr., USNR (Ret.), May 2, 1996, in E. Andrew Wilde Jr., ed., The U.S.S. De Haven (DD-469) in World War II: Documents, Recollections and Photographs (Needham, MA: Privately published, 2001), used with the permission of Meredith McComb, widow of Dave McComb, Destroyer History Foundation.
40. Letter from Fields to Wilde, November 14, 1995.
41. Ensign Clem C. Williams Jr., “Amplifying Report of the Senior Unwounded Survivor on Loss of the U.S.S. De Haven on February 1, 1943,” June 5, 1943 (hereafter cited as Williams, “Amplifying Report”).
42. Letter from Frese to Wilde, May 2, 1996.
43. Williams, “Amplifying Report.”
44. Hailey, Pacific Battle Line, 311–312, 315.
45. Letter from Frese to Wilde, May 2, 1996.
46. Hailey, Pacific Battle Line, 313.
47. Williams, “Sinking.”
48. Hailey, Pacific Battle Line, 314–315.
49. Ainsworth, “Cruiser-Destroyer Task Forces,” 5.
CHAPTER 6: STRUGGLE FOR THE SLOT
1. Chesnutt interview, March 3, 2016.
2. Herbert P. Bix, Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan (New York: Harper Collins, 2000), 464.
3. Tameichi Hara with Fred Saito and Roger Pineau, Japanese Destroyer Captain (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1967), xi, xii, 94, 160.
4. “Glory for a Tin Can,” Time, April 17, 1944, 65–66.
5. Benjamin Katz, “Highlights of Events and Interesting Occurrences,” July 1981, found at http://destroyerhistory.org/fletcherclass/index.asp?r=46804&pid=46816, accessed March 22, 2015.
6. MacDonald Reminiscences, August 6, 1974, 229.
7. Donald J. MacDonald, “They Went to Hell and Back with Me,” American Magazine, July 1944, 91.
8. Chesnutt diary, information added in January 2001.
9. Rhyne interview, October 20, 2015.
10. Frederick J. Bell, Condition Red: Destroyer Action in the South Pacific (New York: Longmans Green, 1944), ix–x.
11. Henry DeLaureal, “From Guadalcanal to Tokyo,” found at http://destroyerhistory.org/fletcherclass/index.asp?r=46804&pid=46817, accessed March 22, 2015.
12. Foster Hailey, Pacific Battle Line (New York: Macmillan, 1944), 294; Bell, Condition Red, 29, 89.
13. Hailey, Pacific Battle Line, 296.
14. Whisler interview, July 22, 2015.
15. Foster Hailey, “Heroes on a Tin Can,” New York Times, July 15, 1945.
16. MacDonald, “Hell and Back,” 91.
17. Ibid., 25.
18. MacDonald Recollections, 28.
19. MacDonald Reminiscences, August 6, 1974, 249.
20. George Gowen, “Various Reminiscences,” found at http://destroyerhistory.org/fletcherclass/usschevalier/index.asp?r=45109&pid=45110, accessed March 20, 2015; MacDonald, “Hell and Back,” 91.
21. MacDonald Reminiscences, August 6, 1974, 250–251.
22. Warren H. Gabelman, “She Was My Yacht,” found at http://destroyerhistory.org/fletcherclass/index.asp?r=44905&pid=44935, accessed March 10, 2015.
23. Chesnutt Diary, August 28, September 3, and October 11, 1942.
24. MacDonald, “Hell and Back,” 92.
25. MacDonald Reminiscences, August 6, 1974, 228.
26. James J. Fahey, Pacific War Diary, 1942–1945 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1963), 26.
27. Hailey, Pacific Battle Line, 324.
28. Commanding Officer to Commander in Chief, United States Pacific Fleet, “Action Report—Munda Bombardment,” March 8, 1943 (hereafter cited as “Action Report—Munda Bombardment.”
29. Fahey, Pacific War Diary, 27–28.
30. “Action Report—Munda Bombardment”; Ainsworth, “Solomon Island Campaigns,” 61.
31. MacDonald Recollections, 18.
32. Chesnutt Diary, January 26–30, 1943; Hailey, Pacific Battle Line, 297.
33. Hailey, Pacific Battle Line, 298–299.
34. MacDonald Recollections, 18.
35. MacDonald, “Hell and Back,” 91–92.
36. Duncan Norton-Taylor, With My Heart in My Mouth (New York: Coward-McCann, 1944), 66.
37. Bell, Condition Red, 39.
38. Wing Diary, January 13, 1943.
39. John Sherwood, “The Legend of the Deadly Potatoes,” Washington Times,
April 17, 1974.
40. Norton-Taylor, Heart, 61.
41. MacDonald Reminiscences, August 6, 1974, 242.
42. USS Taylor Cruise Book, December 1945, 23; Roupe, “Hell and High Water.”
43. Roupe, “Hell and High Water”; “Glory for a Tin Can,” 65–66; “WWII Shipmates Visiting,” Fredericksburg (TX) Standard-Radio Post, September 22, 1993.
44. MacDonald, “Hell and Back,” 91.
45. MacDonald Reminiscences, August 6, 1974, 248.
46. MacDonald Recollections, 24.
47. “Glory for a Tin Can,” 66.
48. “A Letter to Tojo,” Time, March 29, 1943, 16–17.
CHAPTER 7: KULA GULF CONFRONTATIONS
1. Rear Admiral Joseph H. Wellings, USN (Ret.), “The Night Strong Was Sunk,” Shipmate, July–August 1977, 1, found in E. Andrew Wilde Jr., ed., The U.S.S. Strong (DD-467) in World War II: Documents, Recollections and Photographs (Needham, MA: Privately published, 2001), used with the permission of Meredith McComb, widow of Dave McComb, Destroyer History Foundation.
2. Donald J. MacDonald, “They Went to Hell and Back with Me,” American Magazine, July 1944, 93.
3. Duncan Norton-Taylor, “The O’Bannon and the Battle of Kula Gulf,” Four Star Final, May–June 1944, 6.
4. Hugh Barr Miller Jr., as told to Frank Tremaine, “The Cast Away of Arundel Island,” in The 100 Best True Stories of World War II (New York: Wm. H. Wise, 1945), 219; first appeared in Life, November 1943.
5. Carl F. Pfeifer and Jack S. McDowell, “Lucky Mike Plays for Keeps,” True, the Man’s Magazine, May 1944, 29.
6. Duncan Norton-Taylor, With My Heart in My Mouth (New York: Coward-McCann, 1944), 141.
7. Pfeifer and McDowell, “Lucky Mike,” 29.
8. Burt Gorsline, “Loss of Strong,” found at http://destroyerhistory.org/fletcherclass/index.asp?r=45111&pid=45130, accessed March 20, 2015.
9. Wellings, “Night,” 4.
10. Norton-Taylor, “The O’Bannon,” 6.
11. Pfeifer and McDowell, “Lucky Mike,” 66.
12. MacDonald, “Hell and Back,” 93.
13. Wellings, “Night,” 4.
14. Ibid.
15. Hugh Barr Miller Jr. to Destroyers Representative, “Report of Activities While Missing,” August 24, 1943, 1, found in E. Andrew Wilde Jr., ed., The U.S.S. Strong (DD-467) in World War II: Documents, Recollections and Photographs (Needham, MA: Privately published, 2001), used with the permission of Meredith McComb, widow of Dave McComb, Destroyer History Foundation.
Tin Can Titans Page 34
