USS Monaghan (DD-354) - Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor

On 7 December 1941, Monaghan was a ready duty destroyer in Pearl Harbor, and at 07:51 was ordered to join Ward, who had just sunk an unidentified submarine off the entrance to Pearl Harbor. Four minutes later, before Monaghan could get underway, the Japanese air attack began. Monaghan opened fire, and at 08:27 was underway to join Ward when notified of the presence of a Ko-hyoteki class midget submarine in the harbor. Monaghan headed for the trespasser, rammed it glancingly, then sank it with two depth charges. She headed on out of the harbor to patrol offshore for the next week, then joined Lexington in the attempt to relieve doomed Wake Island. But Wake was captured by the Japanese before Lexington's force could bring aid. Homeward bound, Monaghan, with Dale and Aylwin, made repeated attacks on an enemy submarine, causing it to broach and give off a large oil slick.

Patrol and scouting operations out of Pearl Harbor with the Lexington group were followed by convoy duty to the west coast and back before Task Force 11 (TF 11), with Monaghan screening Lexington, sortied from Pearl Harbor 15 April 1942, bound for the South Pacific. With the Japanese threatening Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, sea lines of communication to Australia and New Zealand were in peril, and the Navy moved quickly and decisively to block so critical a threat. First action came 4 May when planes from Yorktown hit Japanese invasion shipping at Tulagi and Gavutu. The two carrier forces now combined upon word that an enemy carrier group had entered the Coral Sea. The opening action of the victory there came 7 May, when American search planes spotted the Japanese occupation force, several transports guarded by the light carrier Shōhō. Lexington and Yorktown planes sank Shōhō. Next day, before the major engagement by aircraft from both American and Japanese heavy carriers, Monaghan was ordered away from formation to transmit important messages, thus preserving radio silence in the main body. She was then ordered on to search for survivors of Neosho and Sims, sunk on the 7th by the Japanese. Since the position of the sinking had been erroneously reported, Monaghan was unable to carry out a rescue, and sailed on with messages for Nouméa before rejoining TF 16 in time to return to Pearl Harbor 26 May.