Battle of Makassar Strait

Air raids were frequent in the area, and Houston's gunners shot down four Japanese planes in the Battle of Bali Sea (also known as the Battle of Makassar Strait) on 4 February 1942, as Admiral Karel Doorman of the Royal Netherlands Navy took his force to engage Japanese reported to be at Balikpapan. Houston took one hit, disabling the number three turret, and the cruiser USS Marblehead was so damaged that she had to be sent out of the battle area. Doorman was forced to abandon his advance.^[5]

Timor Convoy

USS Houston escorting the Timor convoy in February 1942.

Houston arrived at Tjilatjap 5 February and stayed until 10 February, when she left for Darwin to escort a convoy carrying troops to reinforce forces already defending Timor. Escorting USAT Meigs, SS Mauna Loa, SS Portmar, and Tulagi, Houston with the destroyer USS Peary and sloops HMAS Warrego and HMAS Swan departed Darwin before two in the morning of 15 February for Koepang. By eleven in the morning, the convoy was being shadowed by a Japanese flying boat that dropped some bombs without causing damage before departing. The next morning another shadowing aircraft had taken position, and before noon the convoy was attacked by bombers and flying boats in two waves. During the first attack, Mauna Loa suffered slight damage and two casualties, one killed and one wounded. Houston's fire showed no effects. During the second attack, Houston distinguished herself with a barrage which made her "like a sheet of flame"^[9] shooting down 7 of the 44 planes of the second wave. The convoy continued toward Timor for a few hours, with Houston launching a scout plane seeking the enemy position. ABDA suspected the presence of Japanese carriers, an imminent invasion of Timor, and a support fleet lying in wait and thus ordered the convoy back to Darwin, which it reached before noon on 18 February.

Houston and Peary departed later that day to rejoin combat forces at Tjilatjap.^[10] Shortly after departure, Peary broke off to chase a suspected submarine, and expended so much fuel in doing so that the destroyer returned to Darwin instead of continuing with Houston.^[10] Houston thus escaped the Japanese attack on Darwin on 19 February, in which Peary, Meigs and Mauna Loa were among the ships sunk and Portmar was forced to beach.^[11][12][13]

Battle of the Java Sea

Receiving word that the major Japanese invasion force was approaching Java protected by a formidable surface unit, Admiral Doorman decided to meet and seek to destroy the main convoy. Sailing on 26 February 1942 with the cruisers Houston, HMAS Perth, HNLMS De Ruyter, HMS Exeter, HNLMS Java and ten destroyers, he met the Japanese support force under Admiral Takeo Takagi consisting of four cruisers and 13 destroyers in the late afternoon of 27 February 1942.^[5] As Japanese destroyers laid a smokescreen, the cruisers of both fleets opened fire. After one ineffective torpedo attack, the Japanese light cruisers and destroyers launched a second and sank the destroyer HNLMS Kortenaer. HMS Exeter and the destroyer HMS Electra were hit by gunfire, Electra sinking shortly after. At 17:30, Admiral Doorman turned south toward the Java coast, not wishing to be diverted from his main purpose of destroying the convoy.^[5]

The Allied fleet dodged another torpedo attack and followed the coastline, during which time the destroyer HMS Jupiter was sunk, either by mine or internal explosion. The destroyer HMS Encounter was detached to pick up survivors from Kortenaer, and the American destroyers were ordered back to Surabaya as they had fired all their torpedoes. With no destroyer protection, Doorman's four remaining ships turned north again in a last attempt to stop the invasion of Java.^[5] At 23:00, the cruisers again encountered the Japanese surface group. Sailing on parallel courses, the opposing units opened fire, and the Japanese launched a torpedo attack 30 minutes later. De Ruyter and Java were caught in a spread of 12 torpedoes, which resulted in their destruction.^[5] Before De Ruyter sank, Doorman ordered Houston and Perth to retire to Tanjong Priok.^[5][14]

Two cruisers and three destroyers of the ABDA naval force were sunk, the cruiser Exeter had been damaged, and the remaining ships were ordered back to Surabaya and Tanjong Priok.

Battle of Sunda Strait

Captain Albert H. Rooks, commanding officer of Houston, c. 1940–1942.

Houston and Perth reached Tanjong Priok on 28 February, where they attempted to resupply, but were met with fuel shortages and no available ammunition.^[15] The two cruisers were ordered to sail to Tjilatjap with Dutch destroyer Evertsen, but departed at 17:00 without Evertsen, which was delayed.^[16] The Allies believed that Sunda Strait was free of enemy vessels, with the last intelligence reports indicating that Japanese warships were no closer than 50 miles (43 nmi; 80 km), but a large Japanese force had assembled at Bantam Bay.^[17][16][18] At 23:06, the two cruisers were off St. Nicholas Point when lookouts on Perth sighted an unidentified ship; when it was realized that she was a Japanese destroyer, Perth engaged.^[17][16] However, as this happened, multiple Japanese warships appeared and surrounded the two Allied ships.^[17][16]

The two cruisers evaded the nine torpedoes launched by the destroyer Fubuki.^[18] According to ABDA post-battle reports, the cruisers then reportedly sank one transport and forced three others to beach, but were blocked from passing through Sunda Strait by a destroyer squadron, and had to contend with the heavy cruisers Mogami and Mikuma in close proximity.^[5] At midnight, Perth attempted to force a way through the destroyers, but was hit by four torpedoes in the space of a few minutes, then subject to close-range gunfire until sinking at 00:25 on 1 March.^[16]

On board Houston, shells were in short supply in the forward turrets, so the crew manhandled shells from the disabled number three turret to the forward turrets. Houston was struck by a torpedo shortly after midnight, and began to lose headway.^[5] Houston's gunners had scored hits on three different destroyers and sunk a minesweeper, but she was struck by three more torpedoes in quick succession.^[5] Captain Albert Rooks was killed by a bursting shell at 00:30, and as the ship came to a stop, Japanese destroyers moved in, machine-gunning the decks and men in the water. A few minutes later, Houston rolled over and sank.^[5] Of the 1,061 aboard, 368 survived, including 24 of the 74-man Marine Detachment, only to be captured by the Japanese and interned in prison camps. Of 368 Navy and Marine Corps personnel taken prisoner, 77 (21%) died in captivity.^{[19][lower-alpha 1]}

Aftermath

George S. Rentz, Chaplain of Houston 1940–1942.

Houston's fate was not fully known by the world for almost nine months, and the full story of her last fight was not told until the survivors were liberated from prison camps at the end of the war.^[5] Before then, on 30 May 1942, 1,000 new recruits for the Navy, known as the Houston Volunteers, were sworn in at a dedication ceremony in downtown Houston, to replace those believed lost on Houston. On 12 October 1942 the light cruiser Vicksburg (CL-81), then under construction, was renamed Houston in honor of the old ship, President Roosevelt declaring:

Our enemies have given us the chance to prove that there will be another USS Houston, and yet another USS Houston if that becomes necessary, and still another USS Houston as long as American ideals are in jeopardy.^[21][22]

Captain Rooks received posthumously the Medal of Honor for his actions.^[5] Chaplain George S. Rentz, who had surrendered his life jacket to a younger sailor after finding himself in the water, was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross. He was the only Navy Chaplain to be so honored during World War II.

The crew of Houston is honored alongside that of Perth at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, and in St John's Anglican Church, Fremantle.

The wreck

The wreck of USS Houston has been dived by amateur scuba divers since at least the early 1970's, first on an irregular basis, but by the late 1990's on a more semi-regular basis, with multi-day scuba diving charter-vessel trips being undertaken to specifically dive the wrecks of both Houston and HMAS Perth which rests nearby, having been sunk in the same battle as Houston.^[23] There could be no doubt whatsoever which wreck they were diving as the ships bell had been 'unofficially' raised from Houston's wreck in 1973 ^[24] (as was Perth's in the late 1960's,^[25] and a book written about the 'expedition' by the salvor, David Burchell^[26]), and after passing through several hands over the years, now sits atop a plinth in a park in the city of Houston, Texas, USA ^[27] (while Perth's bell is displayed at the Perth Town Hall in Western Australia).^[28] In a training evolution conducted as part of the Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) 2014 exercise series, U.S. Navy divers, assisted by personnel from the Indonesian Navy, surveyed what they believed to be the wreck of Houston in June 2014. The purpose of the mission was to determine the vessel's condition and provide real-world training to rescue-and-salvage divers in maneuvering around a sunken ship. The formal report was released in August 2014 and confirmed that the wreck is indeed that of Houston. The report also stated that the wreck had suffered illegal salvage over the years, including removal of rivets and a steel plate from the hull. The investigation also recorded active oil seepage from the ship's fuel tanks.^[29][30] Another survey of Houston occurred in October 2015, with United States Navy and Indonesian Navy divers embarked aboard USNS Safeguard for a nine-day survey of Houston and Perth (which had also been subject to unauthorized salvaging).^[31] Divers documented the condition of the two shipwrecks, with this data presented to a conference in Jakarta on preserving and preventing the illegal salvage of wartime shipwrecks in the Java Sea.^[31][32]

Bibliography

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• Cassells, Vic (2000). The Capital Ships: Their Battles and Their Badges. East Roseville, New South Wales: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7318-0941-6. OCLC 48761594.
• Jane's Fighting Ships of World War II. Studio. 1989. ISBN 1-85170-194-X.
• Fahey, James C. (1941). The Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet, Two-Ocean Fleet Edition. Ships and Aircraft.
• Gill, G. Hermon (1957). Royal Australian Navy 1939–1942. Australia in the War of 1939–1945. Series 2 – Navy. Vol. 1. Canberra: Australian War Memorial. Archived from the original on 25 May 2009. Retrieved 26 June 2013.
• Grose, Peter (2009). An Awkward Truth: The Bombing of Darwin, February 1942. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 978-1-74175-643-2. OCLC 271861660.
• Hornfischer, James D. (2006). Ship of Ghosts: The Story of the USS Houston, FDR's Legendary Lost Cruiser, and the Epic Saga of Her Survivors. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 978-0-553-80390-7. OCLC 69680190.
• Hornfischer, James D. (December 2006z). "Street Fight in Sunda Strait". Naval History. Annapolis, Maryland: U.S. Naval Institute. 20 (6): 16–20. ISSN 1042-1920. OCLC 61312917.
• Masterson, James R. (1949). U. S. Army Transportation In The Southwest Pacific Area 1941-1947. Washington, DC: Transportation Unit, Historical Division, Special Staff, U. S. Army.
• Miller, John Grider (1985). The Battle to Save the Houston: October 1944 to March 1945. Annapolis, Maryland: U.S. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-276-5.
• Schultz, Duane P. (1985). The Last Battle Station: the Story of the USS Houston. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-46973-3. OCLC 11444339.
• Silverstone, Paul H. (1965). US Warships of World War II. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-773-9.
• Weinberg, Gerhard (2005). A World At Arms. ISBN 0-521-61826-6.
• Winslow, Walter G. (1974). The Ghost of the Java Coast, Saga of the USS Houston. Satellite Beach, Florida: Coral Reef Publications. ISBN 978-0-914042-00-6. OCLC 947862.

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.