Reply #3: An old friend of mine (from 15 years ago) was on the USS Helena (CL-50)... [View All]

[Dennis Donovan]

She was at 1010 Dock (across from Battleship Row and inboard of the USS Oglala). He told me that he, like so many others, thought the Army Air Corps was fucking around (something they did frequently around the Harbor). When he saw the torpedo impacts (and the water flumes shooting up) from the USS Oklahoma and USS West Virginia, he knew then that it wasn't the Army. About 30 seconds after that, he was knocked off his feet when a torpedo hit the Helena, got up and ran to his battle station. The Helena survived the day but was sunk later at the Battle of the Kula Gulf. The Oglala was sunk (not by a torpedo hitting her, but when the torpedo hit Helena, the concussion split her sides) but raised and served the remainder of the war, finally being scrapped in 1965.

You can imagine my rapt attention listening to him. Living history...