Enterprise's guns, including sixteen of the new and deadly 40mm Bofors, and those guns of her escorts that could provide even the slightest aid in protecting the flattop, were brought to bear on an as yet invisible enemy. Enterprise's fire-control radar failed her; and it was the naked eyes of her topside lookouts that caught the first glimpse of the shiny-gray dive bombers that came hurtling through an empty sky devoid of anti-aircraft fire, at 1015.
Suddenly, from the screen and Enterprise's gun galleries came the sudden burst of gunfire that in carrier battles marked the beginning of swift action with critically important results. AA cruiser San Juan and battleship South Dakota seemed as if dyed in the red of fire and gray of smoke as their powerful five-inch batteries opened up simultaneously. The continuous rattling of 20mm and 40mm artillery added yellow tracers that pointed at the incoming strike planes, and on her open bridge, Enterprise’s Captain Osborne Hardison shouted the helmsmen steering orders for maneuvers designed to fool the Imperial Navy's assault pilots. It was not until 1017 that the first bomb caught Enterprise on her flight deck's overhang and exploded in the air off-board her port bow. Almost at the same instant, another bomb penetrated near her forward elevator and blew up below, igniting fires and wiping out a repair party. Another violent near-hit shook the entire ship at 1019, wrecking the plating of two oil tanks and causing the entire ship to flex up-and-downward for several seconds.
USS Enterprise at the naval Battle of Santa Cruz The American aircraft carrier Enterprise (center) took three hits forward, but new 40mm antiaircraft (as at left) smothered most of her attackers.
Enterprise was in bad condition, but she had been spared the coordinated attacks that had gotten Hornet. The B5N strike of torpedo planes followed only twenty minutes later, first coming into sight at 1044. Captain Hardison moved to comb the wakes of three launched torpedoes, then swerved around his command to bring her out of the danger of hitting destroyer Shaw and a fourth torpedo. More torpedo tracks were avoided, and when the last Kate had pointed her spinner for home, Enterprise was steaming at 27 knots, South Dakota off her starboard quarter, having defiantly withstood two separate attacks.
However, it was still to be decided who would see the end of this day. With just Zuikaku of his force in fighting condition and her airgroup committed, Nagumo would elect to turn command of the operation over to Rear-Admiral Kakuta Kakuji aboard the carrier Junyo at 1140. Her 44-plane air unit had not been committed when the attacks on Shokaku were delivered, and subsequently at 0917, the aggressive Kakuta launched seventeen D3A Val dive-bombers to attack Hornet, the only carrier a bearing was available for, but later, the attack was pointed at Enterprise. It was 1121, six minutes after the carrier had commenced landing her planes, that these Vals hurtled from the skies above Enterprise, her Task Force steaming towards the gray outlines of a squall ahead.
USS South Dakota at the naval Battle of Santa Cruz The new battleship South Dakota drew first enemy blood at Santa Cruz. Her flaming guns clawed down 2 Japanese aircraft from the sky.
In shallow runs forced upon them by the closing squall, several Vals were blasted apart by the combat-experienced gunners of Enterprise and the new but eager gun crews of South Dakota. One bomb came reasonably close to hitting the carrier, but did not; she would stay unharmed through the attack. Other Vals chose other targets, South Dakota and San Juan being their most appreciated targets. Neither sustained serious harm, although both were hit and temporarily lost their steering control. Enterprise, her center elevator down and her forward elevator locked involuntarily in the "Up” position, recommenced landing her planes. It was largely due to the brilliance of Enterprise's LSO, Lt. Robin Lindsay, waving the paddles at his station on the starboard side of the flight deck, that 57 planes were recovered by 1500.
Enterprise's battle was over for good. Unable to launch planes, unable to recover more, Kinkaid pointed her bow south and out of the action. Hornet was, however, a different subject. The end of the attack on her had left her burning, but by 1000, she had her fires under control, and the prospect of regaining momentum seemed real. Rear-Admiral Murray ordered Northampton to tow the wounded carrier to safety. The Japanese preoccupation with Enterprise left him with sufficient breathing space for the moment. At 1130, after brief interruption, Hornet moved with four knots through the calm seas, 800 of her crew taken off. The tow parted at 1140, but was restored at 1450: too late.
Ready for takeoff from a Japanese aircraft carrier, 1942.
This view was probably taken on board Shokaku as she prepared to launch aircraft in the morning of 26 October 1942, during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands.
Japanese writing in lower right states that the image was reproduced by authorization of the Navy Ministry.
Admiral Kakuta had scraped the bottom of his plane contingent, assembling seven B5N Kates with as many Zeros as escorts, and found the wounded carrier at 1520. Put into a corner, unable to move, Hornet fought back with the ferociousness of a wounded animal, but her electricity had not returned, and all she could provide for her own defense were the 20mm guns, hand-held and –aimed, along her starboard side. Two Kates were shot down; two pointed themselves at Northampton; two torpedoes missed – but at 1523, one scored within feet of the first torpedo hit that day, and finished the carrier. Without the slightest chance of regaining her own forward momentum, with her engine rooms wrecked and unable to escape the coming onslaught of surface action groups surely heading for her, Admiral Murray ordered her abandoned, a decision to which Zuikaku's last, third strike could add little.
Under air attack during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, 26 October 1942.
Photographed from a USS Enterprise (CV-6) plane.
Note the smoke coming from her bridge area, which had been hit by a bomb, and what appears to be a recognition marking painted atop her number two eight-inch gun turret. The ship's catapults and aircraft crane appear to be swung out over her sides, aft of amidships.
Murray, aboard Pensacola, ordered destroyer Mustin to sink the derelict carrier, which she attempted with her eight torpedoes. Hornet refused to go under, and destroyer Anderson coming on the scene couldn't help the process either, although she added eight more torpedoes . When Hornet stubbornly clung to her life, both destroyers pumped five-inch shells into her until the presence of Japanese ships suggested a swift retirement. It was two IJN destroyers that with four Type 93 torpedoes ended Hornet's agony at 0135 on 27 October.
The Hornet being abandoned
This ended the Battle of Santa Cruz. Enterprise and the remnants of the Hornet group retired toward Espiritou Santo, and the fuel-conscious Japanese, running almost on fumes, elected not to pursue their beaten foes.
Additional Sources:
www.milartgl.com
www.daveswarbirds.com
www.warships1.com
www.cv6.org
www.usni.org
www.history.navy.mil
www.navsource.org
www.history.navy.mil
www.ibiblio.org
www.geocities.com/Athens/Crete/7962
