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The Battle For Guadalcanal

Last updated June 2009

The USS John Penn, converted from the SS Excambion (I), departed Norfolk, Virginia, on 17 December 1942 for deployment to the Pacific, arriving in New Caledonia via the (Panama) Canal Zone on 18 January 1943. She was carrying a load of Sea Bees and their construction equipment (personal comment by E. Wallace Haynes - see references). She departed New Caledonia on 24 January 1943, touching at Espiritu Santo. Three days later, she got underway to pick up survivors from the cruiser USS Chicago, sunk off Guadalcanal on 29 January 1943. In all she rescued 1,003 men and 63 officers, including Captain R.C. Davis, the lost cruiser's commanding officer. After debarking her grateful passengers at Noumea, New Caledonia, she spent the next six months delivering supplies, equipment and troops to Guadalcanal from the New Hebrides [now Vanuatu], the Fiji islands and New Zealand. Reclassified APA-23 on 1 February 1943, she continued to bring supplies and troops into this bitterly contested island.

Iron Bottom Sound, Guadalcanal
Iron Bottom Sound, Guadalcanal

On August 11th, 1943 the John Penn departed Espiritu Santo as part of a munitions convoy headed for Guadalcanal, where American forces were continuing to fight the Japanese for control of the Island. Arriving off the landing beaches of Lunga Point in the morning of August 13th, the crew of the John Penn began offloading their cargo of 155mm artillery shells onto landing craft to be brought ashore, while being screened by Destroyers against air attack.

On the evening of Friday 13 August 1943 the SS John Penn had just completed unloading its cargo of supplies off Henderson Field, the main airfield of Guadalcanal, when it and other nearby vessels were attacked by Japanese torpedo planes. The planes were Nakajima B5N2 Kate torpedo bombers that had left Southern Bougainville between 1845 and 1900. There were seven planes, two of which were carrying flares and bombs while the others had torpedoes.

The planes were sighted by radar at 2020 and the alarm was raised on the John Penn. However, after a considerable period had passed, no real action had been seen except for some bombs dropped from height on Lunnga Point and the nearby sea and some flares dropping from nowhere.

Just after 2110, all hell broke loose as when a supporting destroyer started firing at a low flying aircraft. Two more destroyers started firing at different planes, all converging on the John Penn. The first plane attacked from the direction of Tulagi, towards the starboard side amidships. The plane was 50 feet off the water and was under tremendous attack from not only the John Penn, but USS Fuller as well. At the same time, another plane was attacking from direction of the bow. When it was 150 to 200 meters away, it dropped a torpedo.

A third plane also attacked at the same time. When the transport took one of the planes under fire while attacking the stern, it burst into flames and crashed into her mainmast or aft section.

At 2123 hours the John Penn was struck by the torpedo on its starboard side, either amidships or towards the stern at hold five. The Penn was rocked by two or three explosions, the first being the torpedo and the second the ship's after magazine in hold five. The third may have been a plane hitting the ship. The torpedo and subsequent explosions caused considerable damage to the ship. A large hole was torn in the starboard side, a fire started in the after holds, the after gun platforms were blown towards the stern and the main mast and 30 ton boom were thrown about the upper deck (this was possibly from the plane hitting the mast). All engine and electrical power was lost and the watertight compartments aft were observed to be filling with water. At 2133 (10 minutes after the attack) there was only three inches of freeboard aft and orders were given to abandon ship. At 2150 the SS John Penn disappeared from view and became another casualty of the Battle of Guadalcanal. Of the crew of the ship and the marines on board unloading the cargo, 98 were dead or missing.

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