14 Major US Navy Ships Sunk During WW2

World War II was a tumultuous time that saw combat in both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Despite how large the planet is, a war that involved every major nation made it seem that much smaller, and no ship was safe — not even those still docked, as evidenced by the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941. By the end of the conflict, hundreds of American vessels, from battleships to patrol boats, met their end and sank to the bottom of the ocean. Some had their remains memorialized as museums, while others were never found. Some were destroyed in the heat of battle against the enemy, while others were sunk by their own brothers or by their own weaponry.

War never changes. It's unpredictable, it's dirty, and no matter who comes out on top, it's ugly because even while a sailor is locked into their particular job, they bear witness to the most gruesome sights a person can see. One day, they're laughing with their crewmate about what they'll do when their tour is up, the next, they're at a funeral. Many ships lost in the Second World War came in the Pacific after Japan's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, but the Battle of the Atlantic was no less fierce. Here are 14 of the U.S. Navy ships that made the ultimate sacrifice during the Second World War. 

The USS Borie doesn't get the glory it deserves. This Clemson-class destroyer fought a valiant one-on-one battle to stay afloat against a German U-boat that is not talked about enough. The Borie was refitted with an SL surface-search radar, additional depth-charge projectors, and six 20-mm guns to specialize in hunting and destroying submarines. So, it should come as no surprise that the Borie was successful against U-405.

The American destroyer picked up the German sub on sonar and promptly deployed depth charges. In the midst of dropping charges, a malfunction caused the Borie to dump every loaded depth charge from its stern. The unexpected explosion not only lifted the rear of the Borie out of the water, but it forced U-405 to surface, giving the destroyer the perfect opportunity to open fire, eliminating every German sailor who tried to man the sub's deck gun. 

However, that wasn't the end of the engagement. At this point, the Borie was heading for the submarine at 25 knots with the intention of ramming the enemy boat. The destroyer ended up colliding with the sub. U-405 sank once the two ships separated, but the Borie wasn't in any better shape, as its flooded engine room and choppy waters made it impossible to tow. The USS Barry took survivors from the Borie, then helped the submarine hunter on its way under the waves by scuttling it.

The USS Houston was a Northampton-class light cruiser that saw combat in the Java Sea, where it was the star of the show. Armed with a trio of triple 8-inch gun turrets, a quartet of 5-inch antiaircraft guns, and multiple machine guns, the Houston was no pushover. It also had the capability to launch seaplanes via a catapult system. So when the Battle of the Java Sea took place, the Houston was able to defend a convoy and handle a Japanese air raid pretty swiftly. That's where its anti-aircraft guns really shone.

During the Battle of the Java Sea, Houston was fairly successful at evading bombs dropped from planes, but in the last wave, one struck the light cruiser, hitting a turret. Houston continued assisting the convoy until it was ordered out of the area the next day, when it — and Australia's light cruiser, Perth — came across the Japanese landing on an island. Both ships opened fire, but the Perth was the first to go under, leaving Houston to fend for itself. The American cruiser lasted for about 40 minutes after the Perth sank before it sustained too much damage from torpedoes and gunfire to stay afloat.

Naval History and Heritage Command Director Sam Cox said (via the Navy) at a memorial service for the Houston, "To this day, we do not know how many American Sailors went down with the Houston, but of her crew of about 1,100 only 368 survived to be captured by the Japanese."

The USS Astoria wasn't present for the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor — it was 700 miles away, heading toward Midway Island — but it still fell victim to an attack by the Japanese. In August 1942, under the cover of darkness, seven Japanese cruisers and a destroyer got the jump on a group of American vessels near Savo Island. The Astoria returned fire and went unscathed in the first four waves of the attack, but the fifth attack lit up the heavy cruiser like a Viking pyre. This made the Astoria an easy target.

Just as the ship lost complete power, the Japanese forces started withdrawing from the battle, giving the crew aboard the Astoria a reprieve and time to tend to the injured and dead. The USS Bagley, a destroyer, arrived to help the cruiser unload the wounded. It appeared at first that the ship would be able to live to fight another day, but fires below deck proved too much, forcing the commander to order the entire crew to abandon ship. Close to 12 hours after the initial attack, the Astoria capsized and disappeared beneath the waves.

The USS Yorktown saw combat in multiple campaigns throughout World War II, including the Battle of Midway and the Battle of the Coral Sea. The former, however, was the final battle in which it would take part. On June 4, 1942, the Yorktown launched a plane to patrol the area around Midway, but it came back without sighting a single Japanese craft. The USS Enterprise and Hornet opted to send up their own aircraft, which did spot enemy forces. The Japanese aircraft methodically picked off American plane after American plane, leaving the aircraft carrier defenseless.

Multiple Aichi D3A bombers scored hits on the Yorktown, with one bomb hitting an exhaust stack that disabled five of its nine boilers. Then came a wave of Nakajima B5N torpedo bombers that successfully disabled the carrier's rudder system. Despite the Yorktown listing and being unable to move under its own power, it continued launching aircraft until it lost all power, and the crew was forced to abandon ship. When the battle concluded on June 7, 1942, the destroyer USS Hammann attempted to tow the carrier back to Pearl Harbor, but it was intercepted by a Japanese submarine. Two torpedo strikes to the Yorktown caused it to capsize and sink, but the submarine didn't stop there and sank the Hammann as well.

The crew of the Indianapolis had no warning of the ship's impending destruction. It was early on July 30, 1945, and the top-secret mission to deliver atomic bomb components was complete when two explosions shook everyone aboard awake. It didn't take any longer than 12 minutes for the cruiser to capsize and sink, not nearly enough time for anyone to comprehend what happened or get to safety. A Japanese submarine had scored two direct torpedo hits on the ship.

By August 2, when the Indianapolis didn't arrive at its destination, a patrol plane was sent to look. The pilot spotted a couple of life rafts, with the majority of the sailors and Marines floating in the water. Of 1,195 crewmembers, the Navy was only able to rescue 316. The USS Indianapolis is known as one of the worst disasters in U.S. Navy history. Those 316 survivors had been adrift for four days, fighting for their lives against the elements, dehydration, attacks from other crewmates, and sharks — though there are some myths surrounding the severity of the shark attacks.

Even before submarines in the United States Navy became nuclear-powered, they were a threat that no sailor wanted to encounter. The Gato-class submarine, USS Wahoo, was nothing special compared to others in the fleet. It was a diesel-electric sub that carried up to 24 torpedoes,a 3-inch deck gun, as well as two .30-caliber and two .50-caliber machine guns. It was its commander and crew that made the ship one of the most legendary submarines of World War II.

The Wahoo went on a total of seven Pacific patrols between August 1942 and September 1943, each with increasingly better results than the previous. That is, until its last two outings. On its first patrol, under the command of Lieutenant Commander Marvin Granville Kennedy, the Wahoo encountered enemy vessels, but errant and malfunctioning torpedoes marred the excursion. Its second patrol was more successful, sinking one Japanese tanker. The executive officer, Lieutenant Commander Dudley W. "Mush" Morton, took over for the rest of the ship's service. Every patrol from there was especially successful, sinking one Japanese destroyer and several freighters.

However, its sixth war patrol proved to be a dud, with mishap after mishap, mostly centered around torpedo performance, preventing it from even damaging another vessel. Morton saw the Wahoo's seventh war patrol as a way to redeem itself. It departed on September 9, 1943, but by October 21, it hadn't been heard from. After the conflict, it was revealed that the sub was spotted and sunk by enemy aircraft, but not before the Wahoo sank four Japanese ships.

If anyone has ever heard of the USS Wasp, it was possibly while discussing some of the worst aircraft carriers in military history. The Wasp was built between 1936 and 1939, a time when the U.S., U.K., Italy, and France were constrained by the Washington Naval Treaty. This agreement limited the tonnage America could have in its entire fleet, which ultimately limited the size of various ships. With the remaining tonnage America had allotted, it built a small carrier, and the result was the Wasp. The Navy skimped on armor for the Wasp, leaving it susceptible to direct attacks. If it ever saw combat, it was going to have to outmaneuver enemy attacks and pray that was enough.

While the USS Wasp was initially assigned to the Atlantic, it transferred to the Pacific Theater in June of 1942.  It ultimately met its fate after supporting the Battle of Guadalcanal, when a Japanese submarine hit the carrier with three torpedoes. Due to the light armor, the carrier was immediately out of commission. The attack claimed 175 men stationed on the USS Wasp, including one news correspondent. However, it wasn't the submarine that actually sank the Wasp. A destroyer, the USS Lansdowne (DD-486), scuttled the carrier by launching three torpedoes into its hull.

It might have a funny-sounding name, but the USS Tang had a rather fearsome reputation, thanks in large part to Lieutenant Commander Richard H. O'Kane, who previously served aboard the USS Wahoo under Lt. Cmdr. Morton. Unlike the Wahoo, the Tang was a Balao-class submarine that was just over 311 feet in length and 27 feet wide. It had four 21-inch torpedo tubes aft and six forward, plus a deck gun and anti-aircraft guns.

The Tang quickly made a name for itself, sinking an impressive five ships on its first outing during the war. Unfortunately, its second patrol saw no combat, though it did rescue downed fliers. Its third patrol was considered, according to the U.S. Navy, "[O]ne of the most devastating American submarine deployments carried out against Japanese shipping," as the Tang sent over 39,160 tons of enemy ships to the bottom of the Pacific. As successful as that run was for the submarine, it's the fifth and final patrol that's most memorable.

In October 1944, the Tang engaged a Japanese convoy, which included a destroyer among its ranks. The destroyer attempted to engage the Tang, but was quickly handled before it could cause any damage. This gave the Tang an opportunity to fire its last two torpedoes on the remaining tankers. Unfortunately, one of the torpedoes went rogue and headed back at the submarine, causing its own demise. O'Kane, along with eight other crew members, survived only to be picked up by the Japanese and interned for the duration of the war. 

Commissioned in 1916, the Nevada-class USS Oklahoma served in the waning days of World War I, protecting Allied convoys in the Atlantic Ocean. Much like another notable battleship (USS Arizona), the Oklahoma took part in escorting President Woodrow Wilson to the Paris Peace Conference of 1918. Unfortunately, what the general public primarily remembers this battleship for is its premature sinking during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. It was hit in the attack's first wave by three torpedoes. This ripped open its hull and caused the battleship to capsize a mere 12 minutes later. A barrage of six more torpedoes hit Oklahoma shortly after.

While the ship was one of the first to sink, it didn't go down without a fight. One Marine aboard the Oklahoma, Sgt. Thomas E. Hailey swam to the neighboring USS Maryland to use one of its anti-aircraft guns to try to take down as many Japanese planes as he could. He also took the gunner's seat in a Sikorsky JRS-1 flying boat later that day in an attempt to track the Japanese fleet. More impressively, he did all this in nothing more than his underwear.

The Navy salvaged the USS Oklahoma in 1943 and sent it to a dry dock. After determining that it couldn't be returned to service, the Navy decommissioned the USS Oklahoma in 1944. In a twist of irony, it sank while being towed to California, where it was going to be scrapped.

Commissioned in 1941, the Yorktown-class aircraft carrier USS Hornet is best known for its participation in the Doolittle Raid, a response to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. That wasn't the only action the carrier saw in the Pacific, though. Just months after the raid, the Hornet took part in the Battle of Midway, and later it saw combat in the Solomon Islands campaign in addition to aiding in the defense of Guadalcanal. The USS Hornet was engaged all over the Pacific in 1942. Its last campaign would come in October 1942, just a year after its commissioning, in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands.

The Hornet sustained significant damage from Japanese dive-bombers and torpedo planes on the first day of the battle. Captain Charles Mason knew the carrier wasn't going to stay afloat for much longer, so he ordered the crew's evacuation. Unfortunately, not everyone made it to safety, with 111 sailors perishing in the turmoil. American forces attempted to scuttle the Hornet themselves by launching nearly 20 torpedoes and roughly 370 rounds of 5-inch shells on it, but it was a stubborn vessel and refused to sink.

Two Japanese destroyers took this opportunity to launch their own torpedoes and steal credit for sinking an American aircraft carrier, which did the trick. Now the USS Hornet rests 17,500 feet below the waves.

Seawolf should be a familiar name for veterans and military buffs because it's the name of a modern submarine that changed underwater warfare. The first of its name, the USS Seawolf (SS-197), was commissioned on December 1, 1939. Unlike other submarines that saw combat in World War II, the Seawolf didn't go out in a blaze of glory fighting a Japanese destroyer, nor was it outsmarted by a Japanese submarine with an innovative commander. Unfortunately, the Seawolf met its end at the hands of its allies during its 15th war patrol.

In October 1944, a Japanese submarine attacked a Seventh Fleet task group and sank the John C. Butler-class destroyer USS Shelton (DE-407). The USS Midway launched aircraft to investigate and spotted a submarine submerging. Despite the submarine being spotted in an area that was deemed safe for American vessels, the planes dropped bombs on the submarine, and then the USS Rowell (DE-403) moved in and fired on the sub, as well. After an underwater explosion signaled the sub's destruction, all friendly subs in the area were ordered to relay their positions. The task group knew of four American submarines nearby, one of which was the Seawolf, but the Seawolf was the only one that didn't report.

The USS Arizona, a Pennsylvania-class battleship, is easily one of the most famous battleships in United States history. Not because it won an exorbitant amount of battles or accomplished anything particularly impressive. Sadly, its name lives on in history books because of its sinking during the Pearl Harbor surprise attack on December 7, 1941. A Nakajima B5N2 Type 97 carrier attack plane dropped one 1,760-pound (800 kg) bomb onto the Arizona that lifted the vessel partly out of the water. The nearly 2,000-pound bomb is believed to have put the ship on the bottom of the harbor by piercing through the main deck and igniting the ship's black powder magazines. Of the sailors aboard the Arizona that morning, 1,177 lost their lives.

The USS Arizona was commissioned in 1916 during World War I, but besides escorting President Wilson to the Paris Peace Conference, it didn't actually participate in the conflict. It was a 608-foot-long ship with a 97-foot beam and a 29-foot draft powered by 12 boilers that could propel it up to a maximum of 21 knots in open waters. Most impressively, the Arizona was armed with triple gun turrets that held a dozen 45-caliber 14-inch guns at the front and rear. To defend against aircraft, there were four 50-caliber guns, and, since torpedo boats were an issue, it had 22 5-inch 51-caliber guns on the sides. The USS Arizona remains submerged in Pearl Harbor as a memorial that you can still visit.