USN:
Wickes-class destroyer USS Little (DD-79) at Boston, January 18, 1919
Having managed to escape the culling of the destroyer inventory resulting from the London Naval Treaties and the boiler issues of the Bethlehem-built ships,
Little remained in reserve until the summer of 1940, when she was selected as one of the first five production conversions of 4-pipers into fast transports, with her forward boilers being removed to make space for a company of troops and their supplies, while landing craft replaced her torpedo tubes. Assigned a new hull number of APD-4 on August 2, 1940, she was recommissioned on November 4, that year.
Little’s first year back in service was spent engaged in various training exercises out of San Diego and in the Carribbean. The American entry into World War Two found her undergoing refit at Norfolk, and she did not sail for the Pacific until early February. Assigned as the flagship of Transport Division 12,
Little participated in amphibious exercises off San Diego until late April, when she sailed for Pearl Harbor. After a transport run to Midway in late June, Transport Division 12 was ordered to New Caledonia to join the forces preparing to land at Guadalcanal. The disruption of the landing operations caused by the Battle of Savo Island resulted in the fast transports, including
Little, making frequent runs to Guadalcanal carrying urgently needed supplies and reinforcements.
On September 4, 1942,
Little, and another destroyer transport,
Gregory (APD-3), had just completed a supply run, when they were tasked to carry a force of Marines to Savo Island in order to investigate a report that the Japanese had established a position there. Having not found anything, the transports returned the Marines to Guadalcanal, and afterwards the division commander, not wanting to risk entering Tulagi harbor without navigational aids on an unusually dark night, decided to patrol off Lunga Point for the night.
Around 1 in the morning on September 5, lookouts on
Little spotted flashes they thought had come from a submarine.
Little was moving to investigate when the pilot of a Catalina flying overhead who had also seen the flashes, dropped a series of flares, which instead of revealing the source of the flashes, illuminated
Little and
Gregory instead. The flashes did not come from a submarine, but rather, three modern Japanese destroyers,
Yūdachi,
Hatsuyuki and
Murakumo, that had been bombarding Henderson Field after completing a Tokyo Express supply run. Reacting quickly, the Japanese turned their attention to
Little and
Gregory, and although the transports fired upon their attackers, they were hopelessly outgunned, and reduced to flaming wrecks within minutes. Despite knocking
Little and
Gregory out of action, the Japanese destroyers continued to fire on the two ships and survivors in the water for several minutes before breaking off.
Gregory sank around 0140, and
Little about two hours later, with the loss of 65 of her crew, including both her captain,and the division commander, Cdr. Hugh W. Hadley.
Little and
Gregory in July 1942
