Saturday, August 11, 2007

Lt.. Cdr. Arthur Loeser, USS Atlanta and USS Loeser DE680

DE680, the USS Loeser from the deck of the USS Greenwood. 1944.

Arthur Edward Loeser was born 17 April 1906 at Rahway, N.J. He was appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy 15 August 1923, and commissioned ensign 2 June 1927. On 2 September 1941, Lieutenant Commander Loeser reported aboard light cruiser USS ATLANTA (CL-51) as engineering officer. Lieutenant Commander Loeser was killed in action 13 November 1942 when enemy torpedoes crippled USS ATLANTA in the First Naval Battle of Guadalcanal.

An excerpt from the book GUADALCANAL: Decision at Sea by Eric Hammel.

Concerned with his crew of engineers who were sealed below decks in the firerooms and engine rooms, Atlanta's chief engineer, LtCdr Arthur Loeser, had arranged for topside talkers to keep him abreast of what was going on outside while he relayed a running commentary via loudspeakers from his station in the forward engine room. Thus, the engineering staff throughout the cruiser was listening as Lieutenant Commander Loeser described the first seconds of the gunnery exchange - "We're really putting rounds into them!"

Crewmen in blind engineering spaces throughout the ship heard LtCdr Arthur Loeser's mike open once again. Loeser said, "Ah . . ." and the entire world fell in. Loeser's voice was stilled in mid sentence - and forever.

The first Japanese long lance torpedo to find any target struck Atlanta on the port side, nearly amidships and exactly in the center of her forward engine room. In addition to killing virtually everyone on the forward engine room, the detonation blasted a hole in the overhead and killed nearly everyone manning a damage-control station in the crew's mess. The shock of the massive detonation lifted the light cruiser right out of the water...

The USS Atlanta was the lead ship in a class of light cruisers of unique design. They were conceived as flotilla leaders but ushered in a new concept in warship design, the anti-aircraft cruiser, a concept that can still be seen in the navy today in ships specialized for this role. Both ships were sunk in a night surface action in the Naval Battle for Guadalcanal on November 13th, 1942, for which the Atlanta received a Presidential Unit Citation.

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 13th, 1942- one of the most ferocious naval battles ever fought took place off Guadalcanal. Thirteen US ships including,light cruisers Atlanta and Juneau, fought a superior Japanese naval force including two battleships, at close range in what one US naval officer described as a "bar room brawl with the lights shut off"!

The smaller American naval force turned back the Japanese that night and as a result 1,439 US and 520 Japanese sailors gave their lives.

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