"Friday The Thirteenth"

On 13 November 1942, five Cactus Air Force SBDs of VMSB-142 led a strike on attacking Japanese fleet. Targeting the Hiei, the Japanese battleship, the Dauntless scored a direct hit amidships. A later flight led by Captain George Dooley of VMSB-31 delivered the first marine aviator’s torpedo attack, scoring another hit on the Hiei. Still later, Dooley returned with three others for a second torpedo attack, closely followed by Joe Foss with six F4Fs which strafed a destroyer attempting to screen the Hiei. Dooley’s torpedo again struck the battleship.

As the Hiei was under fire, CV-6 USS Enterprise, badly damaged at Santa Cruz was sailing toward the Solomons undergoing repairs while under way. Nine TBF-1 Avengers from VT-10 were dispatched from the Enterprise for Guadalcanal. Led by Lieutenant Albert “Scoffer” Coffin, and shown in this painting, they skirted the waves at low altitude and eventually sighted Savo Island and the already damaged Hiei. Three of Coffin’s six TBFs loosed torpedos that sent the Hiei-the first battleship to be sunk by naval aviators-to the deep. Two days later a second Kongo-class battleship, Kirshima, joined the Hiei, sunk by the 16 inch guns of U.S. Navy Admiral Lee’s battleships and added to the collection that gave rise to the name “Ironbottom Sound.”