Meredith’s track and positions through 15 October 1942 derived from CNO Action Report.
“It now appears that we are unable to control the sea in the Guadalcanal area. Thus our supply of the positions will only be done at great expense to us. The situation is not hopeless but it is certainly critical,” said Adm. Nimitz, 15 October 1942. Japanese naval resources were stronger than those available to ComSoPac Adm. Robert L. Ghormley and they saw an opportunity to finish the campaign by bombarding Marines defending Guadalcanal’s Henderson Field and then overwhelming them with newly-landed troops.
A first step was bombardment. At the Battle of Cape Esperance, 11–12 October, an American cruiser-destroyer task force turned back a Japanese bombardment group at the cost of Duncan, but that success was short lived. Unopposed on the night of 13–14 October, battleships Kongo and Haruna delivered 80 minutes of shelling, remembered thereafter as “The Bombardment,” with more of the same the next night from cruisers Chokai and Kinugasa, eliminating the Marines’ supply of aviation gasoline.
Hurriedly departing Guadalcanal on the 13th ahead of this onslaught was Task Group 62.6, transports McCawley and Zeilin escorted by destroyers Southard, Hopkins, Hovey, Trever, Zane, Sterett, Gwin and Nicholas, whose torpedo officer, John Everett, remembers with abhorrence leaving the Marines to face the enemy on their own.
Desperate to get planes back in the air to defend themselves, the Marines depended on the Navy to get supplies through. Departing Espiritu Santo on 12 October, was Task Unit 62.4.5, cargo ships Bellatrix and Alchiba, each towing a barge, plus tender Jamestown, tug Vireo and Meredith, limited by the barges to 7 knots and therefore due to arrive only on the 16th. Departing later was destroyer-seaplane-tender McFarland (AVD 14), which did make it that day.
Meredith‘s convoy survived but Meredith did not, sacrificed on the 15th under circumstances as extreme as faced by any destroyer in the entire war—the primary “expense” of which Admiral Nimitz had warned earlier that day.
« « «
In 1990, Meredith Chief Quartermaster and reunion organizer Robby Robinson collected records and accounts and published them as Shipmates Forever. His sources reflect diligent research conducted over many decades. The timeline below is prepared from them plus a summary entitled The Short Life of a Valiant Ship, USS Meredith (DD 434), prepared with Lcdr Robinson by Barry Friedman M.D., the two having served together later in World War II in Russell.
To these records and accounts we now add plots of reported positions using digital mapping. The result is presented in the table below and in the accompanying charts.
|
HOUR
DAY
|
LAT
S
|
LONG
E
|
EVENT
|
|
1700
12
|
|
|
Task Unit 62.4.5, cargo ships Bellatrix and Alchiba, each towing a barge, plus tender Jamestown, tug Vireo and destroyer Meredith, depart Espiritu Santo with supplies for Guadalcanal. (1)
|
|
Eve.
13
|
|
|
Task Group 62.6, transports McCawley and Zeilin plus destroyers Southard, Hopkins, Hovey, Trever, Zane, Sterett, Gwin and Nicholas, depart Guadalcanal for Espiritu Santo to avoid imminent enemy attack. (1)
|
|
Morn
14
|
10-20
|
162-35
|
Nicholas detaches from Task Group 62.6 to rendezvous with Meredith’s Task Unit 62.4.5. (1)
|
|
1600
14
|
10-35
|
162-48
|
Nicholas joins Meredith and her Task Unit 62.4.5, still headed northwest toward Guadalcanal. (1)
|
|
1730
14
|
|
|
Task Unit 62.4.5 reverses course, ordered to return to Espiritu Santo because of enemy surface forces near Guadalcanal. (1)
|
|
0650
15
|
|
|
Meredith and Vireo, towing one barge, are detached, form Task Unit 62.4.6, turn again toward Guadalcanal. Enemy planes begin shadowing. (1)
|
|
1030
15
|
|
|
Meredith detects two enemy planes, which commence attack, then break off. Meredith receives flashed plain-language message from PBY: “two enemy cruisers 20 miles west and heading your way at high speed.” (2) Meredith and Vireo turn south. (3)
|
|
1140
15
|
|
|
Meredith makes radar contact with a large formation of planes at 45 miles. Takes aboard Vireo’s crew. Loses radar contact. Gets underway. (2) Prepares a torpedo for firing.(3)
|
|
1215
15
|
|
|
Meredith is attacked by 9 dive bombers (“Kates”) and 21 torpedo planes (“Vals”) escorted by 8 fighters (“Zeros”).(4)
|
|
1320
15
|
11-53
|
163-20
|
American B-17 observes three ships being bombed, one believed sunk. (1)
|
|
|
|
|
Vireo drifts away, average course northwest.
|
|
Sources: Robinson,
Shipmates Forever: (1)
CNO’s Action Report, (2)
Meredith rough deck log, (3) Investigation of the Abandonment of USS
Vireo, 22 November 1942, (4) Friedman,
The Short Life of a Valiant Ship, USS Meredith
(DD 434), (4)
