March 18 1942 - Wednesday - 80 years ago today

Status - John Skinner - USS O'Brien:

O'Brien has been stationed at Pearl Harbor, and is doing patrol and escort duty from there.

Pearl Harbor, in the Spring of 1942, though not the paradise it had been before the war, was still functioning well and servicing the fleet, including the carrier task forces.  Here is a YouTube video, with some accompanying march music, showing scenes from Hawaii at this time:

 Pearl Harbor Spring 1942

In the footage of the city, there are many Japanese-Americans moving about.  Even though by this time the internment on the mainland had begun, very few Japanese-Americans were interned in Hawaii, partly because of their key role in the local economy. See also: Internment_of_Japanese_Americans.  

Three of the battleships sunk on December 7th (Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Maryland) had already been patched and sent to the west coast for permanent repairs. Nevada, beached during the attack, had been re-floated and was undergoing repairs. California was re-floated on March 25th, and West Virginia on May 17th. 

Arizona and Utah remained sunk in place, as they do to this day. 

Oklahoma, sunk and capsized, was being righted at this time in mid-March.  Here is a picture of the operation in progress:

 An aerial view of salvage operations on 19 March 1943, looking toward Ford Island, with the ship halfway righted.  Department of the Navy. Fourteenth Naval District. Naval Air Station, Pearl Harbor (Hawaii). (ca. 1940 - 09/1947), Photographer (NARA record: 1130789) - U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.)   Public Domain. 

 

U. S. Navy Task Forces:

• Task Force 17 (Yorktown) remained in the South Pacific area to continue raids and offensive operations.
• Task Force 11 (Lexington) had left the South Pacific and was en route to Pearl Harbor.
• Task Force 16 (Enterprise) was at Pearl Harbor.

Other Events: 

• Another command re-organization was finalized on the 18th.  General MacArthur, having left the Philippines, was given overall command of the Southwest Pacific area (currently Australia and New Guinea).  This would put him on track for a return to the Philippines, as he had expressed his commitment to do.  The Navy command under Nimitz would cover the rest of the Pacific (later leading to the island-hopping campaign into the central Pacific.  King for a time did retain direct control of the ANZUS area, basically the Coral Sea, but this was not efficient.
  

More Information:

• Official Navy Chronology, pp. 167-169.
  
•  The First South Pacific Campaign, John B. Lundstrom, pp. 39-58.

NEXT POST: MARCH 22ND

January 13, 1942 - Tuesday - 80 years ago today

 Status - John Skinner - USS O'Brien:

On January 13, 1942, O'Brien was still in port, undergoing a refit and awaiting its transit to the Pacific which was to begin on January 15. 

Ships to the Pacific

Below is a photo taken at the Norfolk base at this time.  The battleship New Mexico is the focus.  Although O'Brien is mentioned in the caption, it seems to be out of the frame.

 

 

The New Mexico (BB-40) at Norfolk, 31 December 1941. She is equipped with the then "state of the art" quadruple 1.1"/75 machine guns [later replaced by the Bofors 40mm gun(s)]. She has also just been fitted with 20mm Oerkilons, but still was equipped with 0.5 caliber machine guns which the 20mm ultimately replaced. She also carries two radar units; a surface search set (Mark 3) on top of her forward main battery director atop her tower bridge and an air search SC unit on her pole main mast. The tug YT-213 is pulling alongside an unidentified vessel. Across the pier from her is the new destroyer O'Brien (DD-415).

From <http://www.navsource.org/archives/05/415.htm>

 

 As all of the battleships in the Pacific were out of action since December 7th (except Colorado, which was being refitted in Puget Sound), the battleships of the New Mexico class were to be transferred there.  Although the old battleships were too slow to escort the fast carrier task forces that were becoming the backbone of the the Pacific Fleet, the Navy was not willing to be almost completely without battleships there.

O'Brien and Sims-class destroyer Mustin would travel with the New-Mexico class battleship Idaho through the Panama Canal to their initial destination, San Francisco.