Current Events January 12, 1943. NAVY DISCLOSES LOSS OF 10 WARSHIPS / FLYING FORTRESS STRIKE HEAVYBLOW ON ROMMEL / FIVE SULLIVAN BROTHERS LOST SERVING ON THE CRUISER USS JUNEAU

Carrier Hornet 10 Warships Identified In Navy's lost' List

    The Portsmouth Herald

           PORTSMOUTH, N. H. TUESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 12, 1943

Yank Airmen Blast Ghadames

French Lash Foe In Tunisia

Nazi Force Driven

From Mountain Pass;

180 Taken Prisoners

British Infantry, Tanks Advance

Allied Headquarters in

North Africa, Jan. 12 (AP)—Flying Fortresses, in

their first full raid into Tripolitania, struck a

heavy blow at Marshal Rommel's forces by batter'

ing the fort at Ghadames, while Fmic/i troops in

Tunisia drove the Germans out of a mountain pass 23

miles south of Pont Du Fahs and captured at least

180 prisoners.

Ghadames is deep In the desert, 450 miles south of Tunis, at the

juncture of the frontiers of Tunisia, Algeria and Tripolitania.

Carrier s Name No Longer

Hidden For Military Reasons

Washington, Jan. 12 (AP)—With military security

no longer requiring secrecy, the Navy publicly added to its

list of sunken vessels today the names of Aircraft Carrier

Hornet and 10 other warships—all previously announced

as lost but not identified at the time. The 2O.OOO ton Hornet, commissioned

only a year before its death on Oct. 26. went, to the bottom of the

South Pacific off the Santa Cruz Islands after a battle that inflicted

heavy damage on two Japanese carriers and bomb and torpedo hits on

an enemy battleship and five cruisers. Other Ships Sunk In November

The other United states warships, in the furious November battle

that broke the heaviest Nipponese attempts to recapture Guadalcanal

were identified as the 9,050- t o n cruiser Northampton: 6,000-ton

cruiser Juneau:(E.T's Note; this is another event that we remember; 
 see the next article, below, from the Oakland Tribune.) 6,OOO-ton cruiser Atlanta 'and the destroyers Monssen, Cushing, Benham, Preston, Walke, Barton and Laffey.

'I'he navy communique on the engagements in which these

vessels and another previously unidentified destroyer were lost,

however that a total of 18 warships were damaged and

37 sunk, comprising two battleships, eight cruisers, two large

destroyers or cruisers, 10 destroyers and 15 transports.

The navy announced last Oct. 26 that a carrier was severely damaged

after two attacks by Japanese bomber and torpedo planes. Five days

later the vessel was declared lost but the casualties among its personnel,

normally 2,170, were reported few. Describing the. Hornet's last hours

in a hitherto unpublished interview at Nutley, N. J., a month ago, marine

Pvt. George E, Kindmark. a survivor, told of two Japanese planes divecrashing

to the decks. The explosions wrecked the superstructure and set

the big ship aflame.

Hornet's Planes Opened Battle

Patrol planes from the Hornet opened the battle, Kindmark related,

after spotting an enemy task force off the islands, some 350 miles

northeast of Guadalcanal. American torpedo planes attacked and shortly

Japanese bombers retaliated.

The enemy planes were dispersed but returned later with a force in

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Carrier's Name-

(Continued From Page One)

which the marine counted 84 planes. "They seemed to have no other

object than getting us," Kmdmark observed. "Other ships were ignored."

Even after the Hornet was severely damaged, the carrier's

guns kept firing and the survivor counted 25 falling enemy planes.

Then, with the carrier burning fiercely, the order was given to

abandon ship. Other American warships delivered

the final blows to the carrier when it was found that she

had been damaged beyond repair. Thus, the force of seven aircraft

carriers with which the United States entered the war Dec. 7, 1941, was reduced

to three—the Enterprise, Saratoga and Ranger. Of the other carriers,

the Lexington was lost in the battle of the Coral sea, the Yorktown

at Midway and the Wasp in the Solomons.

Oakland Tribune

January 12, 1943

Five Brothers Are Missing in Action

WATERLOO, la., Jan. 12.—(AP)—

The five Sullivan brothers, who enlisted in the Navy together shortly

after Pearl Harbor, intent on avenging a pal killed in the sneak attack,

are missing in action, the navy informed their parents today.

The brothers served on the cruiser Juneau, which a Navy communique

last night disclosed was lost in battle around the Solomon Islands during

November. (E.T. Note; Part of this article was not readable. Their names are listed below:

George Thomas Gunners Mate Second Class

Francis “Frank” Henry Coxswain

Joseph “Joe” Eugene Seaman Second Class

Madison “Matt” Abel Seaman Second Class

Albert “Al” Leo Seaman Second Class )