Earl D. Allen, Kaysville, Utah: an interview by Winston P. Erickson, June 12, 2000: Saving the legacy tape no. 38

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EARL D. ALLEN J 12 2000 EAR: Yes. Espiritu Santo was the furthest north U.S. base. We was perating with-there were two task forces, really. We would go up once a week to northern Guadalcanal, and the San Francisco got shot up just a week ahead of the night that we went up. Ther were reinforcements coming into Guadalcanal to reinforce the J aps against our marines. We got off all of our shells. I still can't understand why they were only steaming at ten knots. But the Minneapolis had the flag. New Orleans, a sister ship, was second in line. The Pensacola was third in line. The North Hampton was fourth in line. And the Honolulu light cruiser was at the tail end. The Minneapolis took torpedoes and it broke part of her bow off. The New Orleans took the bow off past number two turret. The Pensacola got torpedoes, and she was on fire from stem to stem. In fact, the admiral on the Honolulu reported two cruisers lost. The North Hampton took two torpedoes in the after engine room. I was in the after fire room. There was a three-eighth inch bulkhead between me and the after engine room. Nobody came out of the after engine room. We all survived in the fire room, but the light was out and we lost communications. Even a JV phones and the sound power phones weren't working. So after a short time, maybe five minutes, maybe ten minutes, I don't know how long it was, the chief decided when the water started leaking in around the steam lines on the overhead, why, there was no use us standing down there because it was from the after engine room. So we come up, and there was a kid, I don't think he was twenty years old yet, he was the first under the armored hatch. There were six or eight dogs on there that you had to knock off to open the hatch. He knocked all but one, and he hit that hatch and it didn't budge. He looked back down at 19