PVK <"octave at btinternet.com"> wrote in
news:p4OdnQynW5RtS9jJnZ2dnUVZ7tudnZ2d@bt.com:
> Thanks for that, John - it's not often I get things right.
> Unfortunately, the link you provided doesn't work but thanks for
> confirming the location.
>
> Regards
> Paul
>
link should work, but here is the caption with that photo.
=================
Shortly after midnight on 5 July 1943 the crew of USS STRONG (DD-467)
would forever be grateful to the crew of USS CHEVALIER (DD-451). That
night in opening actions for what became known as the Battle of Kula
Gulf, USS STRONG was torpedoed by a IJN destroyer. She was nearly cut in
half. CHEVALIER almost immediately came to her assistance by ramming her
bow in a glancing angle into STRONG's portside at 0100. CHEVALIER was
still under fire and was continuing to fire back at the enemy and in the
action experienced a hang-fire in 53 mount. During the next 23 minutes
CHEVALIER's crew took off 232 enlisted and 7 officers from STRONG.
Casting off the rapidly sinking STRONG at 0123, CHEVALIER was shaken by
STRONG's exploding depth charges. At 0125 the hang-fire exploded with
only one injury from the explosion and fire.
USS CHEVALIER returned to Tulagi harbor at 1041 with the rest of TF 36.1.
After off loading the survivors and making minor repairs she then
continued on to Espiritu Santo the following day for repairs to her 53
mount and bow lasting until 22 July. CHEVALIER went on to serve in the
South Pacific until she herself was lost on 6 October 1943 to a IJN
torpedo. In a final act as she was sinking, CHEVALIER fired her torpedoes
into a crippled IJN destroyer.
Until the discovery of this image of USS CHEVALIER during her service in
the South Pacific there were no good views of her after October 1942.
Even though the destroyers in DesRon 21 were among some of the most
photographed destroyers, clear photos of CHEVALIER were not among them.
This photo was found last summer, quite by accident among a series of
photos taken during the Kula Gulf events including this remarkable photo
of CHEVALIER tied up at the Government Wharf in Tulagi harbor on 6 July
1943, taken from USS NICHOLAS (DD-449) as she returned from the Battle of
Kula Gulf. Official USN Photo 80-G-259220 residing at NARA and NH107950.
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