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Seaman First Class Benjamin Grover Hopkins,
Jr., had a bad feeling about what he was witnessing as his ship
cruised the waters of the Sea of Japan and the South China Seas.
It was the fall of 1941 and although war was raging in Europe and
in Inland China, the United States was still taking a slanted, but
neutral, position in the ongoing hostilities of other nations in
the world.
The U.S.S. Marblehead (CL-12), a
four-stack light cruiser named for a city in Massachusetts, had
been cruising the waters between the Philippine Islands and the
Southeast Asian continent for two years, enough time for the crew to
witness a brewing catastrophe. Two months before Pearl Harbor
Hopkins wrote to his sister back home in Plattsmouth, Nebraska: "I'm
going to write you right now, because I may never have a chance
again. We're sitting on a powder keg that may go off any
minute."
In November, one month after Hopkins penned
those words, because of growing tension between Japan and the
United States, the Marblehead was ordered out of the region
to patrol further south in the Java Sea. She was at anchor in
Borneo on December 8 (December 7 on the other side of the International
Dateline) when war at last shattered American neutrality. For the
next two months, along with the cruiser U.S.S. Houston
(CA-30), the Marblehead joined forces with the ABDA
(American-British-Dutch-Australian) naval forces to protect vital
shipping in waters ranging from the Philippine Islands to Java,
and southeast to Australia.
On February 4, 1942, the Marblehead and
Houston were part of an ABDA fleet attempting to intercept
a Japanese convoy reportedly escorting a large invasion fleet
towards Makassar. Before the opposing forces were within combat
range of each other's batteries, 37 Japanese dive-bombers found the ABDA
convoy and attacked. Gunners from the Houston shot down
four enemy planes but not before she took a direct hit on the
Number 3 turret in the fight that became known as the Battle of
Makassar Strait. The engagement netted Gunnery Officer Captain
Arthur L. Maher, who one month later following the sinking of the Houston
was the senior surviving officer, the Navy Cross. Several
members of the Houston's gun crews were far less fortunate,
suffering severe and, in a few cases mortal, combat wounds.
On the U.S.S. Marblehead, Captain
Arthur Robinson's men rallied around their commanding officer,
shooting down two enemy airplanes despite suffering heavy damage
from two direct hits and one near miss.
For his heroic leadership, Robinson also earned the Navy Cross, as
did Seaman Second Class Claude Becker who "assisted in the
removal of powder in the wake of the fire in adjacent
compartments. He opened a hot and heavy hatch which permitted men
to escape from compartments below the fire." Fifteen
members of the crew were either killed or mortally wounded in the
engagement and 84 were seriously wounded, among them, Seaman First Class Benjamin Grover
Hopkins.
 Two
days later the two battle-scarred American cruisers limped into
the southern Javanese port of Tjilatjap, their flags at half-mast.
Somberly, the dead were unloaded for burial. The severely wounded
were also carried ashore to be sent by train to an inland
hospital. There, friendly and well-trained Dutch physicians and
surgeons, aided by caring and equally dedicated nurses, treated
serious burns, broken limbs, and shredded flesh that required more
care than was available aboard the two Navy cruisers. By February
13 the Marblehead had been patched up enough to put back to
sea. She would not immediately return to war; instead the cruiser
embarked on a 9,000 mile journey home for repairs. The Houston,
somewhat less damaged, sailed for Australia. Within a month
the Houston would return to war, earning the nickname the "Galloping
Ghost of the Java Coast" until her own tragic loss on
March 1, 1942. Houston's commander, Captain Albert Rooks,
was posthumously awarded the first Navy Medal of Honor since Pearl
Harbor for his ship's valiant efforts from the Battle of Makassar
Strait until her loss.
Left Behind
In the years of European warfare between
1939 and December 7, 1941, the German
The prelude to war should have served as
ample warning as to what lay in store once war was actually
declared. Less than a week after war was declared, Adolph Hitler
launched Operation Paukenschlag, a direct attack on shipping off
the American eastern seaboard. Five German U-Boats departed for
American waters between December 18 - 24, 1941, arriving to begin
operations by mid-January. On January 11 the U-123 sank the SS
Cyclops less than 300 miles east of Cape Cod. Over the following
weeks the Paukenschlag U-Boats scored near-daily victories along
the American coast. Twenty-five American ships were lost in 26
days.
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A Call for
Sacrifice
President Franklin
D. Roosevelt
Radio Address - April 28, 1942
I should like to tell you one or two stories about the men
we have in our armed forces:
There is, for example, Dr. Corydon M. Wassell. He was a
missionary, well known for his good works in China. He is a
simple, modest, retiring man, nearly sixty years old, but he
entered the service of his country and was commissioned a
lieutenant commander in the navy.
Dr. Wassell was assigned to duty in Java caring for wounded
officers and men of the cruisers Houston and Marblehead which
had been in heavy action in the Java seas.
When the Japanese advanced across the island, it was
decided to evacuate as many as possible of the wounded to
Australia. But about twelve of the men were so badly wounded
that they couldn't be moved. Dr. Wassell remained with them,
knowing that he would be captured by the enemy. But he decided
to make a last desperate attempt to get the men out of Java.
He asked each of them if he wished to take the chance, and
every one agreed.
He first had to get the twelve men to the seacoast-fifty
miles away. To do this, he had to improvise stretchers for the
hazardous journey. The men were suffering severely, but Dr.
Wassell kept them alive by his skill, inspired them by his own
courage.
And as the official report said, Dr. Wassell was
"almost like a Christ-like shepherd devoted to his
flock."
On the seacoast, he embarked the men on a little Dutch
ship. They were bombed, they were machinegunned by waves of
Japanese planes. Dr. Wassell took virtual command of the ship,
and by great skill avoided destruction, hiding in little bays
and little inlets. A few days later, Dr. Wassell and his small flock of
wounded men reached Australia safely.
And today Dr. Wassell wears the Navy Cross.
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