By dusk (October 13), the ships came under attack again, and a well-executed attack by enemy torpedo bombers resulted in Boston’s sister cruiser, the Canberra being slammed by a torpedo that instantly killed dozens of men below decks.
The events that followed over the next week or so are too complex for me to give a detailed account in this blog. I will try to “paint a broad brush stroke picture.”
The Boston and her task group is less than 80 miles off Formosa — a half hour plane ride for enemy pilots. In the inner circle of the formation lies a heavy cruiser that is on fire and has lost all power. The admiral aboard the Boston orders another cruiser, the Wichita, to take the Canberra in tow. The goal: tow the cruiser to the anchorage at Ulithi, some 1200 miles away.
The next day, the light cruiser Houston, that had taken the Canberra’s place in the formation was also slammed by a torpedo dropped in another attack on the ships. A massive explosion caused the captain to give the abandon ship order. By the time half the men (more than 800) had jumped overboard, the captain requested a tow. The Boston, in pitch darkness, hooked up the cripple and took her in tow.
This is not, by any means, the end of the Cripple Division (also called “Streamlined Bait” by Admiral Halsey — because he purposely dangled the wounded ships as bait to lure the Japanese Fleet into a massive sea battle) saga.
I’ll post more on this (Houston was torpedoed AGAIN while under tow . . . . . ).