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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
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Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Laffey (DD-459), 1942-1942

USS Laffey, a 1620-ton Benson class destroyer, was built at San Francisco, California, and commissioned at the end of March 1942. Following training operations off the west coast, she was sent to the south Pacific to take part in the Guadalcanal campaign, arriving in late August. On 15 September 1942, after the aircraft carrier Wasp was sunk by a Japanese submarine, Laffey rescued many of her survivors.

Operating with U.S. cruisers and destroyers, Laffey took part in two night gun and torpedo battles near Guadalcanal. In the first, the Battle of Cape Esperance on 11-12 October 1942, she helped repulse a Japanese bombardment group. A month later, on the night of 12-13 November, she participated in the first surface action of the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. As part of the van group of the U.S. battle line, she engaged the Japanese battleships Hiei and Kirishima, then was torpedoed in the stern by the destroyer Teruzuki. USS Laffey was sunk shortly thereafter, when her after ammunition magazines exploded.

USS Laffey's wreck was discovered and examined in mid-1992, nearly a half-mile below the surface of Iron Bottom Sound, off Guadalcanal. She is upright and largely intact from the bow to amidships, but her after third has disappeared. Both forward 5-inch guns are trained out to port, and her midships superstructure bears a hole where a Japanese 14-inch battleship projectile passed through her in the darkness of 13 November 1942.

This page features all the views we have of USS Laffey (DD-459).

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 97864 USS Laffey (DD-459) Steams alongside another U.S. Navy ship, while at sea in the south Pacific on 4 September 1942. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 97KB; 740 x 600 pixels
Photo #: NH 97865 USS Laffey (DD-459) In harbor, probably at Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides, with survivors of USS Wasp (CV-7) on board. Wasp had been sunk by a Japanese submarine on 15 September 1942. Cruiser in the left background is USS Helena (CL-50), with a destroyer tied to her starboard side. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 75KB; 740 x 600 pixels
Photo #: NH 97867 USS Laffey (DD-459) Maneuvering alongside a cruiser (either Salt Lake City or Pensacola), with survivors of USS Wasp (CV-7) on board, probably at Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides. Wasp had been sunk by a Japanese submarine on 15 September 1942. Cruiser in the right background is USS Juneau (CL-52). Note the aircraft catapult on the cruiser from which the photo was taken. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 115KB; 740 x 600 pixels
Photo #: NH 97866 USS Laffey (DD-459) In harbor, probably at Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides, with survivors of USS Wasp (CV-7) on board. Wasp had been sunk by a Japanese submarine on 15 September 1942. Cruiser in the center background is USS Juneau (CL-52). Note Laffey's 5"/38 guns, depth charges, and life rafts. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 113KB; 740 x 605 pixels
Photo #: 80-G-13612 USS Laffey (DD-459) Alongside a cruiser (either Salt Lake City or Pensacola) with survivors of USS Wasp (CV-7) on board, probably at Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides. Wasp had been sunk by a Japanese submarine on 15 September 1942. Note Laffey's smokestacks, Searchlight, mainmast, depth charges, and fully outfitted liferaft. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 128KB; 590 x 765 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.
Photo #: NH 97863 USS Laffey (DD-459) Fitting out, at the Bethlehem Steel Company shipyard, San Francisco, California, 3 January 1942. Note the bright metal finish of her pilothouse and smokestacks, and the city skyline in the distance. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 88KB; 740 x 585 pixels

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Page made 12 February 2002