The River Disaster the US Navy Tried to Bury

Video Description

At 2:00am on August 9, 1942, the Captain of USS Astoria was jolted awake by the deafening roar of shells slamming into his cruiser. 19,000 Marines' beachhead on Guadalcanal depended on the supply ships he was supposed to be guarding. Through smoke and confusion, the Captain tried to make sense of it all. Japanese warships? Here? Impossible. They would have had to sail straight past two different battle groups. There were reconnaissance planes everywhere—someone must have seen something, reported something. He barked at his XO: “Cease firing! I think we are firing on our own ships… Astoria’s guns fell silent, but shells still kept coming at them from the darkness. Whoever they were, this phantom fleet was coming straight at them. That was when the silhouette of 8 ships suddenly started to take shape. The gunnery officer and captain looked nervously at each other, both thinking the same thing: “What the hell *is* that??”