WENT DOWN FIGHTING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25277, 14 July 1943, Page 3

WENT DOWN FIGHTING

AMERICAN CRUISER HELENA (Rec. 10 p.m,) NEW YORK, July 13. The cruiser Helena, the sole American casualty in the first battle of Kula Gulf on July 6, perished gallantly after sinking, two Japanese cruisers and one destroyer and damaging a third cruiser. Blinded by the flashes of their own guns, the crew of the Helena did not see the wake of the torpedoes which sank their ship. Captain Charles Cecil, commander of the Helena, told war correspondents in the Solomons how the American ships participating in the Kula victory opened fire simultaneously, “ as though a master key had been used for all the main batteries.” He added: “The Helena seemed keyed up for her last fight. I have never seen anything like our volume of fire. We seemed to pout out shells like water from a hose.” Survivors from the Helena reached the shore 15 hours after the sinking. Captain Cecil spent five hours in the water before he was hauled on board a raft. He has been 31 years in the American Navy, and commanded the destroyer Porter, which was sunk in the battle of Santa Cruz last October.