The USS Hornet has been located:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/uss-hornet-wreckage-world-war-two-warship-discovered/
Thanks for that link Baron. Incredible how they are finding these sunken ships.
And I do love the surviving sailors sense of humor…
“If you go down to my locker, there’s 40 bucks in it, you can have it!”
Thanks for putting this up. After she was abandoned, she took US torps to keep her from possibly falling into enemy hands.
When they found the Lady Lex, was hoping they could eventually find her. Also hope they are able to continue with their efforts in the future and document these war graves for future generations and maybe give some closure to families and survivors.
That is awseome, thanks for the link Baron!
IIRC, the US torpedoes did not do the job, and the IJN actually sank her wreck.
On relfexion, I think you are right, as we had to vacate in a hurry as we were overwhelmed right then.
Yes, the IJN surface fleet was bearing down upon the ships left with Hornet, and there was no sense in sacrificing them for a burning wreck. Santa Cruz was the IJNs last “victory”, although it pretty much gutted their air groups in that victory. Both navies carriers were done for 1942. The US had one damaged fleet carrier left in the Pacific, and the IJN had two with not enough trained aircrew for a single air group.
Enterprise had taken a couple of bombs, and Sara was still repairing torpedo damage for the second time since the war started.
Not much to hold the line, since the other surface units were still real thin to non-existant. Dark days, but a glimmer of light was beginning to show through.
Yup. A few old slow battleships along the West Coast, and the USS Washington and USS South Dakota. USS North Carolina was also undergoing repairs from the same torpedo spread that sank USS Wasp. The first night of the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal would show how thin that the US surface fleet was in the battle zone
My dad was a crew man on the USS San Juan during the battle, so as a little kid he used to tell us stories of the battle of Santa Cruz, about how the weather was and of the bomb that hit them and passed thru them. So it was something we lived with. He was with mostly the Enterprise during that battle. But I’m glad they found the Hornet.
The only time I saw my fater cry was telling me how shocked he was when he saw the USS Wasp blow up when She was torpedoed on a clear day out of no where. He did not see the other damage done by that submarine.
ROV footage of the wreck.