USS Monssen (DD-436)
| Navy | US Navy |
| Type | Destroyer |
| Class | Benson / Gleaves |
| Pennant | DD 436 |
| Built by | Puget Sound Navy Yard (Bremerton, Washington, U.S.A.) |
| Laid down | 12 Jul 1939 |
| Launched | 16 May 1940 |
| Commissioned | 14 Mar 1941 |
| Lost | 13 Nov 1942 |
| Loss position | off Savo, Solomon Islands, |
| History | |
| USS Monssen
was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet Destroyer Squadrons after her shakedown
trials. She almost immediately left for the Pacific with task force 17,
screening the carrier Hornet when Lieut. Colonel James Doolittle and his
16 B-25 bombers set off for Tokyo on the famous Doolittle Raid. In November 1942 USS Monssen joins Task Group 67.4 and was hit by a bomb that damaged her fire control radar. USS Monssen (Lt Cmdr Charles Edward McCombs) fired 5-inch shells and fired 5 torpedoes at the Japanese battleship Hiei. She was also damaged herself, being quickly reduced by fire to a mass of wreckage and lay dead in the water. Many of the crew abandoned ship, watching the fires detonate the ammunition onboard Monssen. The heat finally reached her magazines and she blew up and sank, 145 of her crew were killed and 97 were wounded which includes the commanding officer. |
|
| Commanders | Lt.Cdr. Lt Cmdr Roland Nesbit Smoot, USN from 14 March 1941 |
| Lt.Cdr. Charles Edward McCombs, USN from 1942 to 13 Nov 1942 |
