Santa Cruz: Hornet's last fight

The only carrier left

By October 1942 the fight for Guadalcanal had cost the Navy dearly. Wasp had been torpedoed and sunk in September. Saratoga was under repair. For a time, Hornet (CV-8) was the only operational U.S. fleet carrier in the South Pacific.

Then Enterprise returned, hurriedly repaired. Admiral William F. Halsey ordered the two carriers, under Rear Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid, to sweep around the Santa Cruz Islands and get into position to intercept Japanese forces moving toward Guadalcanal. Waiting for them was a larger Japanese carrier force under Vice Admiral Nagumo Chūichi.

The morning of 26 October

Both sides launched strikes early on 26 October. Enterprise was hidden for a time under a rain squall, and the Japanese aircraft found Hornet first.

According to NHHC, the first bomb struck a little after nine in the morning, near the bridge. Two more penetrated the flight deck. A damaged dive bomber struck the island and then the flight deck, starting a serious fire. Two torpedoes hit her starboard side, and a second damaged aircraft crashed into her forward. When the attack ended, after about a quarter of an hour, Hornet was listing, dead in the water, burning in several places, and without power, communications or water pressure for her fire mains.

Her own aircraft were already out. Dive bombers from Hornet hit the carrier Shōkaku and a destroyer. Hornet's torpedo planes damaged the heavy cruiser Chikuma. Enterprise's scouts damaged the carrier Zuihō.

A tow, and a second attack

Destroyers came alongside to help fight the fires and take off the wounded. The heavy cruiser Northampton tried to take the carrier in tow. Her first attempt was interrupted by another attack. By late morning she had Hornet moving at about three knots, away from the battle.

That afternoon a second wave of Japanese aircraft arrived. Northampton had to cut the tow line to defend herself, and another torpedo struck Hornet. It ended any chance of restoring power. With the list reaching 18 degrees, Captain Charles P. Mason gave the order to abandon ship. NHHC records that he was the last man to leave.

Her escorts took most of the crew off. The destroyers Mustin and Anderson were then ordered to sink the carrier so that she would not fall into enemy hands. According to the Navy's 2019 account, they fired 16 torpedoes and 369 five-inch rounds into her, and still she stayed afloat. As Japanese ships approached, the destroyers had to withdraw. That night, Japanese destroyers Akigumo and Makigumo sank Hornet with torpedoes.

Enterprise, and the cost

Enterprise was also hit and badly damaged, and the battleship South Dakota and the light cruiser San Juan were damaged too. The destroyer Porter was lost.

On paper it was a Japanese tactical victory. NHHC's director, Rear Admiral (Ret.) Samuel Cox, called it a victory "at an extremely high cost." About half the Japanese aircraft engaged were shot down, and their carriers did not fight another carrier battle for almost two years. Meanwhile the Marines held their positions on Guadalcanal.

Hornet's crew numbered nearly 2,200. Navy accounts give her dead as between 111 and 118 men: sailors, Marines of her detachment, and airmen of her air group.

Found in 2019

In late January 2019, the research vessel Petrel found Hornet about 5,400 meters down, nearly 17,500 feet, on the floor of the South Pacific near the Solomon Islands. The searchers had plotted positions from the deck logs and action reports of nine other U.S. warships in the battle. Video from a remotely operated vehicle confirmed her identity. She rests there as a war grave.

She was in commission for barely a year. She received four battle stars, and her crew's work at the Doolittle Raid, Midway and Santa Cruz is still studied today.

Our USS Hornet (CV-8) collection is made for those who keep her crew's story going.

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