USS Monssen (DD-436)

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For other ships with the same name, see USS Monssen.
USS Monssen (DD-436)
History
United States
NameMonssen
NamesakeMons Monssen
Builder
Puget Sound Navy Yard
Laid down12 July 1939
Launched16 May 1940
Commissioned14 March 1941
Honours and
awards
battle stars
FateSunk by Japanese warships off Guadalcanal 13 November 1942
General characteristics
Class and typeGleaves-class destroyer
Displacement1,630 tons
Length348 ft 3 in (106.15 m)
Beam36 ft 1 in (11.00 m)
Draft11 ft 10 in (3.61 m)
Propulsion
  • 50,000 shp (37,000 kW);
  • 4 boilers;
  • 2 propellers
Speed37.4 knots (69 km/h)
Range6,500 nmi (12,000 km; 7,500 mi) at 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement16 officers, 260 enlisted
Armament

USS Monssen (DD-436), a Gleaves-class destroyer, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for Mons Monssen, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions aboard USS Missouri (BB-11) in 1904. Commissioned in 1941, the destroyer saw service during World War II in both Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Monssen was sunk at the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal on 13 November 1942.

Construction and commissioning

Monssen was

Lieutenant Commander Roland N. Smoot
in command.

Service history

June 1941–February 1942

Following

Pacific Fleet
.

Transfer to the Pacific

On 31 March Monssen arrived at

B-25s on her flight deck. In the early morning hours of 18 April the force was sighted by the enemy and the air raid was launched to bomb their targets of Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, and Kobe
.

Following the Doolittle Raid, the force returned to Pearl Harbor, from which it sortied 30 April to aid the carriersYorktown and Lexington in the Battle of the Coral Sea. Reaching the scene after the battle was over, the force returned to Pearl Harbor, arriving on 26 May. Two days later they departed again — this time for Midway to repulse an expected assault on that advanced base. By 2 June, TF 16 had rendezvoused with Task Force 17 (TF 17) and was in position 350 miles (560 km) northeast of Midway. On 4 June the Battle of Midway commenced as Japanese aircraft flew against installations on the island. By 7 June, the American forces had won the battle, sinking four Japanese aircraft carriers and one cruiser at the cost of the destroyer Hammann and carrier Yorktown.

Solomon Islands campaign

After Midway the force remained at Pearl Harbor for a month before departing again for combat. Steaming via the

2nd Marine Regiment as the U.S. Navy struck with the first of its giant amphibious assaults. She was then assigned to the screening forces guarding the eastern approaches to Sealark, Lengo, and Nggela Channels
.

She remained in the immediate area through the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, which prevented Japanese reinforcements from reaching Guadalcanal, and then took up duties patrolling the sea routes to Guadalcanal. At the end of the month the carrier Saratoga was damaged and Monssen was one of the ships designated to escort her to the Tonga Islands.

Sinking at the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal

Monssen returned to Guadalcanal 18 September to insure the integrity of an

torpedo plane attacks, one of which had cost Monssen the use of her fire control radar. The transports were pulled out, escorted through Lengo Channel, and seen safely on their way to Espiritu Santo. Then Admiral Callaghan's force, heavily outnumbered even with the addition of Admiral Scott's ships, reversed course and steamed back to engage the enemy in the initial action of what would later be called the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal
.

Shortly, after 01:40, 13 November, they sighted the enemy fleet, under

Vice Admiral Hiroaki Abe, 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Kukum. The enemy was headed toward Henderson Field
— to bombard it and cripple Allied air operations long enough to sneak in 11 of their transports, then en route to relieve their beleaguered comrades fighting on the island.

Battle was given at 01:50. Monssen fired five torpedoes at the Japanese battleship Hiei at 01:56, with two hitting the Japanese battleship on the port side near the boiler rooms between the forward superstructure and mainmast. Monssen fired a second salvo of five torpedoes at a ship (later identified as the USS Atlanta), but missed with the second salvo of torpedoes.[1] At 02:00, Monssen began firing its guns at Japanese warships. At 02:03, Hiei opens fire on Monssen with both main and secondary batteries. Monssen, forced to rely on radio information and optics, was spotlighted, hit by some 39 shells, including three of battleship caliber, and reduced to a burning hulk.[2] Twenty minutes later, completely immobilized in all departments, the ship was ordered abandoned. After daybreak Monssen was still afire. C. C. Storey, BM2c, L. F. Sturgeon, GM2c, and J. G. Hughes F1c, climbed back into the inferno and rescued eight men still aboard and alive, five of whom lived after reaching land. The survivors, 40 percent of the crew, were picked up at about 08:00 and taken to Guadalcanal. The ship herself continued to blaze until early afternoon, when she sank.

Monssen was awarded four

battle stars
for World War II service.

Wreck discovery

In 1992, an expedition headed by oceanographer Robert Ballard found the wreck of Monssen and other ships sunk during the Solomon Islands battles. The wreck lies upright on the bottom of the sound, with the gun turrets still trained out to the starboard side as they had been in combat.[2]

Notes

  1. ^ Lundgren (2023)
  2. ^
    ISBN 0-446-51636-8
    .

References

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

External links

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