They Gave Their All : The Sullivan Brothers and Tragic Sinking of the USS Juneau
tle of the Santa Cruz Islands ( October 26 ) when Hornet succumbed to Japanese air attack . After the battle , Juneau transported seventeen officers and 193 enlisted men from the Hornet to New Caledonia .
For nine days , Juneau rode at anchor in Dumbea Bay in the Free French town of Nouméa . Juneau ’ s crew had performed well during the Santa Cruz battle , with eight confirmed kills — four dive-bombers and four torpedo planes . 21 Despite the satisfaction of earning their first battle star , a curious incident left Captain Swenson and crew crestfallen over the Hornet ’ s loss . Juneau had misunderstood a signal from the carrier , causing Juneau to transfer to Enterprise ’ s screen , leaving the “ Happy Hornet ” with diminished anti-aircraft protection at the time the carrier needed it the most .
Now bloodied veterans , the Sullivans and their shipmates set about the grim task of transferring the Hornet ’ s wounded to hospitals and replenishing the ship ’ s magazines with ammunition and its larder with dry and perishable goods . Decades later , none of the Juneau survivors remembered how the brothers felt about the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands . Still , they did remember , and not surprisingly , “ They spent a lot of time together in the enlisted mess , just sitting and talking when they got time off .” 22 Each officer , petty officer , and sailor had privately answered the question of how they would acquit themselves in battle . The stoic determination of men who had glimpsed their mortality replaced the cocky invincibility of boys spoiling for a fight .
When Juneau finally departed Nouméa , the Allies ’ first offensive campaign of the Pacific War was just four months old . The fighting on land , at sea , and in the air , which began with the First Marine Division ’ s assault on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands , would be the bloodiest fighting anywhere . The Marines were holding on , but just barely . The Leathernecks needed help to hold “ Cactus ,” the island ’ s codename , and the crushed coral airstrip whose polyglot of Army , Navy , and Marine planes kept the Japanese from reinforcing their garrison , at least during daylight .
At sunset , the Allies ceded control of the sea to Dai Nippon , whose guns , large and small , cratered the airfield and grounding the Cactus Air Force . If the planes were grounded , the “ Tokyo Express ” could land Imperial Japanese Army soldiers , artillery , and even tanks in daylight and in plain sight of the Marines who could do nothing about it .
Twice since the Marine landing on August 7 , the Navy had confronted the nocturnal intruders . In the first instance , the joint American-Australian task force screening the invasion transports were totally surprised and thoroughly defeated by a numerically inferior force at the Battle of Savo Island : the worst defeat in the US Navy ’ s history . The second occasion , two months later off Cape Esperance , a marginal tactical victory for the Blue Jackets failed to prevent Japanese battleships from bombarding Henderson Field the following night . At dawn , Allied sea and air power reasserted local control .
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