- Expand navigation for H-Gram 001 H-Gram 001
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 002 H-Gram 002
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 003 H-Gram 003
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 004 H-Gram 004
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 005 H-Gram 005
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 006 H-Gram 006
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 007 H-Gram 007
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 008 H-Gram 008
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 009 H-Gram 009
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 010 H-Gram 010
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 011 H-Gram 011
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 012 H-Gram 012
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 013 H-Gram 013
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 014 H-Gram 014
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 015 H-Gram 015
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 016 H-Gram 016
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 017 H-Gram 017
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 018 H-Gram 018
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 019 H-Gram 019
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 020 H-Gram 020
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 021 H-Gram 021
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 022 H-Gram 022
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 023 H-Gram 023
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 024 H-Gram 024
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 025 H-Gram 025
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 026 H-Gram 026
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 027 H-Gram 027
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 028 H-Gram 028
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 029 H-Gram 029
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 030 H-Gram 030
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 031 H-Gram 031
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 032 H-Gram 032
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 033 H-Gram 033
- H-Gram Special Edition: Passing of Supreme Court Justice Stevens
- H-Gram 034
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 035 H-Gram 035
- H-Gram 036
- H-Gram 037
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 038 H-Gram 038
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 039 H-Gram 039
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 040 H-Gram 040
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 041 H-Gram 041
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 042 H-Gram 042
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 043 H-Gram 043
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 044 H-Gram 044
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 045 H-Gram 045
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 046 H-Gram 046
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 047 H-Gram 047
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 048 H-Gram 048
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 049 H-Gram 049
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 050 H-Gram 050
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 051 H-Gram 051
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 052 H-Gram 052
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 053 H-Gram 053
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 054 H-Gram 054
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 055 H-Gram 055
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 056 H-Gram 056
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 057 H-Gram 057
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 058 H-Gram 058
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 059 H-Gram 059
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 060 H-Gram 060
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 061 H-Gram 061
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 062 H-Gram 062
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 063 H-Gram 063
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 064 H-Gram 064
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 066 H-Gram 066
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 067 H-Gram 067
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 068 H-Gram 068
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 069 H-Gram 069
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 070 H-Gram 070
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 071 H-Gram 071
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 072 H-Gram 072
- H-Gram 073
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 074 H-Gram 074
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 075 H-Gram 075
- H-Gram 076
- H-Gram 077
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 078 H-Gram 078
- H-Gram 079
- Expand navigation for H-Gram 081 H-Gram 081
- Theater of Operations--Pacific
- People-Places-Things--Japanese
- Boats-Ships--Destroyer
- Historical Summary
- World War II 1939-1945
- Image (gif, jpg, tiff)
- NHHC
H-011-2: Forgotten Valor: The Sacrifice of USS Meredith (DD-434)
H-Gram 011, Attachment 2
Samuel J. Cox, Director NHHC
October 2017
Aviation fuel at Henderson Field on Guadalcanal was perpetually in short supply. Even before the Japanese battleship bombardment of Henderson Field that killed 41 Marines and destroyed or damaged most of the aircraft at the airfield, a U.S. Navy convoy was en route to Guadalcanal with aviation fuel. The cargo ships USS Alchiba (AKA-6) and USS Bellatrix (AKA-3), along with the PT-boat tender USS Jamestown (PG-55), were each towing a fuel barge. The small convoy was escorted by the destroyers USS Nicholas (DD-449) and USS Meredith (DD-434), and the fleet tug USS Vireo (AT-144). The convoy was a desperate gamble to get critical fuel to Guadalcanal. The Japanese Carrier Division One (fleet carriers Shokaku, Zuikaku, and light carrier Zuiho) was operating north of Guadalcanal seeking U.S. carriers. However, with USS Enterprise (CV-6) still repairing battle damage at Pearl Harbor, the U.S. had only one operational carrier in the Pacific, USS Hornet (CV-8), operating well south of Guadalcanal. With only one carrier, Vice Admiral Robert Ghormley, Commander of U.S. Forces in the South Pacific Area, sought to avoid engagements with the Japanese. As a result, the convoy would have no air cover. The strategy was based on the slim hope that the convoy would not be sighted by Japanese aircraft.
Early on the morning of 15 October, Ghormley received solid intelligence that Japanese ships, including aircraft carriers, were operating in the vicinity of the convoy’s intended track. At 0608, Ghormley ordered the convoy to turn back because threat was too high. However, with the fuel situation on Guadalcanal extremely critical following the Japanese bombardment, the Vireo was ordered to take one of the fuel barges in tow and Meredith would provide escort. The hope was that the smaller group would slip through Japanese reconnaissance.
Meredith, Vireo, and the barge got to within 75 miles of Guadalcanal before their luck ran out. Sighted by a search plane, and then attacked by two planes at 1050 that were out on an unsuccessful scouting mission looking for American carriers, the convoy was in serious trouble. Recognizing that the planes were carrier-based and that no other U.S. ships were in the vicinity, the skipper of Meredith, Lieutenant Commander Harry Hubbard, correctly deduced that Meredith would shortly come under a massive carrier air attack. Initially, Hubbard ordered the Vireo to cut loose the barge, and reverse course in an attempt to escape. It quickly became apparent that with Vireo’s slow speed, that course of action was futile. Indeed, at 1137, Zuikaku launched a 38-plane strike (21 Val dive-bombers, nine Kate torpedo bombers, and eight Zero fighters for escort) to attack Meredith and any other ships they might find. Knowing that Vireo was a defenseless sitting duck, Hubbard ordered the tug abandoned, and Vireo’s crew was brought aboard the Meredith to give them the best chance of surviving. Hubbard then planned to sink Vireo with a torpedo so it would not fall in Japanese hands.
It was too late. At 1225, the Zuikaku strike rolled in on Meredith. She put up a gallant fight, knocking down three of her attackers (one Val and two Kates), but the strike was overwhelming and extremely well-executed. In a matter of minutes, Meredith was hit by 14 bombs and at least three torpedoes, and was repeatedly strafed. The destroyer sank within a matter of minutes. Despite serious burns about his face, Hubbard continued to fight the ship until the end, abandoning ship only after the rest of the surviving bridge crew got off. Japanese aircraft strafed survivors in the water.
Perversely, the abandoned Vireo was not hit (and the barge survived too.) However, Vireo was drifting away, and only one raft-load of Meredith and Vireo survivors reached the tug, where they were later rescued. The other rafts, filled with burned and mangled Sailors, became a preview of what would happen to Sailors on the USS Juneau (CL-52) and USS Indianapolis (CA-35) later in the war. As the rafts and wreckage drifted for three days and three nights, numerous Sailors died from wounds, exposure, salt-water ingestion (and resulting mental incapacity and hallucinations), and from particularly aggressive shark attacks. One shark even jumped into a raft and ripped a chuck from an already mortally wounded Sailor. There was not enough room on the rafts, so the less-injured Sailors treaded water, hanging on to the rafts, and had to fight off the sharks as best they could. Most of the injured, including burned and blinded Hubbard, perished in the rafts.
Finally, the destroyers USS Grayson (DD-435) and USS Gwin (DD-433) found 88 survivors of Meredith and Vireo adrift. (About another dozen had earlier been found on the Vireo.) However, 187 from Meredith and 50 from Vireo died in a desperate attempt to get fuel to the Marines on Guadalcanal.
(I haven’t been able to find a record of a medal for valor for Lieutenant Commander Harry Hubbard; however the Sumner-class destroyer DD-748 was named in his honor and served with distinction in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.)
Footnotes
- Accessibility/Section 508 |
- Employee Login |
- FOIA |
- NHHC IG |
- Privacy |
- Webmaster |
- Navy.mil |
- Navy Recruiting |
- Careers |
- USA.gov |
- USA Jobs
- No Fear Act |
- Site Map |
- This is an official U.S. Navy web site