| Original Japanese caption: The British destroyer, the HMS Pope, seemed to have leaped into the air just before it went down.” USS Edsall (DD-219) and her sister ship USS Whipple (DD-217), were both deemed unfit for combat service due to previous damage. Edsall was impaired by the premature explosion of a depth charge under her fantail in a recent attack on a submarine contact. In the pre-dawn hours of March 1, 1942, the 2 ships completed the transfer to oiler USS Pecos (AO-6) of 485 survivors from the seaplane tender (the former 1st United States Navy aircraft carrier) Langley (AV-3), scuttled 2 days earlier after being crippled by Japanese navy land-based bombers. Edsall received orders to take 31 United States Army Air Force pilots, rescued from Langley, to Java, even though their 32 Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighters had gone down with Langley and Java was being evacuated. Nevertheless, Edsall obeyed her nonsensical orders, set a course north toward Java, and was never seen again — except by the Japanese. Later that day, Pecos was sighted and subjected to relentless attack by Japanese carrier aircraft, and finally sunk despite a spirited defense that embarrassed the best dive-bomber pilots in the Japanese navy. Whipple responded to Pecos’ distress calls, ultimately rescuing 232 survivors after nightfall, but was forced to leave the area due to repeated submarine contacts, leaving almost 500 survivors to perish in what was 1 of the great tragedies of the war. Edsall had reversed course and was probably responding to Pecos’ distress calls when she was sighted by an Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft only 16 miles (26 kilometers) from Kido Butai (“Japanese Carrier Force”) of Akagi, Kaga, Hiryu, and Soryu. The Japanese plane misidentified the Edsall as a “Marblehead-type” light cruiser “pursuing” the Japanese carriers. Reportedly blowing his temper that an enemy “cruiser” was that close to his force without having been previously detected, Vice Admiral Chiuchi Nagumo (March 25, 1887 – July 6, 1944) ordered both his fast battleships, Hiei and Kirishima, and both his heavy cruisers, Tone and Chikuma, to dispatch the enemy cruiser as his carriers continued recovery of aircraft from the Pecos strikes. Against such a surface force, Edsall didn’t have a prayer. With her speed and maneuverability reduced by the damage from the premature depth charge explosion, the destroyer had no hope of escape from the battleships and cruisers. Her antiquated 4-inch (102 millimeter)/50-caliber guns couldn’t even penetrate Japanese destroyer armor, let alone that of battleships and cruisers. Edsall’s anti-aircraft armament was pitifully out of date. She carried less than a full load of 9 torpedoes in 12 tubes; and by design only 6 tubes could fire in each direction. Although torpedoes were Edsall’s most potent weapon, attempting a daylight torpedo attack against faster ships, with torpedoes that could not out-range even the secondary armament of those ships, could only end 1 way. No 1 knows went through the mind of Lieutenant Joshua J. Nix (May 20, 1908 – March 1, 1942) as he assessed the situation. However, as a product of the United States Naval Academy in the interwar years, he was thoroughly indoctrinated with the spirit of John Paul Jones and steeped in the mantra of the dying Captain James Lawrence: “Don’t give up the ship.” Alone in the Indian Ocean against insurmountable odds, with no prospect of help and unable to run, Nix’s options were to strike his colors, scuttle and abandon his ship, or to go down fighting. The evidence shows that for his honor and the honor of the United States Navy, he chose to fight to the end. Japanese heavy cruiser Chikuma opened fire with her 8-inch 20 centimeter/50 caliber 3rd Year Type naval guns at maximum range — 21,000 yards (19,200 meters) — as the battleships circled around to cut off any avenue for escape before they too opened fire at maximum range with their 14-inch (356 millimeter)/45-caliber guns. Edsall responded with a smoke screen described by the Japanese as “very skillfully” laid (it took Tone almost 40 minutes to actually find Edsall and open fire). For well over an hour, Nix put on a display of ship handling for which even the Japanese expressed admiration. Repeatedly and unpredictably altering course and speed, from flank to 0 and in between, Edsall thwarted Japanese aim time and time again, as dozens and then hundreds of Japanese shells missed. The longer range at which the Japanese fought gave Nix enough time between gun flash and impact to take evasive action. The Japanese shells very accurately hit where they were aimed, and where they expected Edsall to be, except Edsall wasn’t there. Interspersed with additional smoke screens, Edsall’s bobbing, weaving, and jinking was described by a Japanese account as like “a Japanese dancing mouse,” meant as a compliment to her nimble, manic, and unpredictable actions. Eventually, the Japanese figured out that they were up against a destroyer and not a light cruiser. This only added to the mounting frustration of the Japanese commanders (the commander of the battleships was Rear Admiral Gunichi Mikawa (August 29, 1888 – February 25, 1981), future victor in the devastating United States Navy defeat in the Battle of Savo Island. Here, however, the powerful Japanese force that had run amok across the Pacific, steamrollering all opposition, was being stymied and thoroughly embarrassed by 1 elderly destroyer. At a point, the Japanese battleship and cruiser commanders ordered their force to “charge” and close the range. Lieutenant Nix responded by charging the Japanese. Shortly after, Edsall turned and opened fire with her 4-inch guns, but all rounds fell short. However, the Japanese were then shocked as a spread of torpedoes narrowly missed Chikuma, causing them to be a bit more circumspect. Finally as dusk was approaching and over 1,200 rounds fired for at most 2 hits — neither of which seemed to affect Edsall — Admiral Nagumo decided that enough was enough and ordered his carriers to launch aircraft despite the fading light. Kaga, Hiryu, and Soryu launched a total of 26 Aichi D3A “Val” dive-bombers that set upon Edsall. For about 20 minutes, Nix managed to make most of the dive-bombers miss. However, several direct hits and multiple near misses were more than the old ship could take. As fires began to rage and the ship began to settle, and before losing all steerage way, Nix defiantly pointed his bow at the Japanese ships. He then supervised an orderly abandon ship before apparently returning to the bridge where he was not seen again (according to Japanese observers). With Edsall immobile, abandoned, and already sinking, Kirishima and Chikuma closed in for the kill with a final fusillade of shellfire from 2 directions. In the end, it took 1,335 14-inch, 8-inch, 6-inch (152 millimeter), and 5-inch (127 millimeter) shells, 26 550-pound (250 kilogram) bombs, and over an hour and a half to put Edsall under. A still from a film of Edsall’s last moments was used in Japanese propaganda, with the destroyer misidentified as HMS Pope, and misidentified in many subsequent accounts as USS Pope (DD-225 — a sister ship lost the same day south of Borneo). In the film and still, Edsall is literally being blown out of the water. Chikuma picked up about 8 survivors from Edsall. Many others were left behind. Edsall had sent a radio report stating she had been surprised by 2 Japanese battleships, but only 1 ship heard it, a Dutch cargo ship subsequently sunk. The message was only reported after the Dutch ship’s master was rescued days later. It wouldn’t have made any difference. There was no 1 to come to Edsall’s aid, as the Kido Butai, a separate battleship force, and other cruiser forces swept the seas around the Netherlands East Indies clear of any Allied warships or merchant shipping. These included heavy cruisers USS Houston (CA-30) and HMS Exeter, light cruiser HMAS Perth, United States Navy destroyers Pope and Pillsbury (DD-227), gunboat USS Asheville (PG-21), and other Allied destroyers and ships. (Every 1 of the ships above has their own unique story of incredible valor to rival this 1.) Lieutenant Nix and his crew were subsequently declared missing in action due to enemy action as of March 1, 1942. No word of the fate of any was heard during the war, and all were declared presumed dead in November 1945. During war crimes trials in 1946, the remains of 6 Edsall enlisted crewmen, and possibly 5 of the United States Army Air Force pilots who had been aboard Edsall were located in mass graves near Kendari II Airfield, Celebes, Indonesia (formerly the Netherlands East Indies). All had been executed by beheading, determined years later to have occurred on March 24, 1942. Japanese accounts suggest that Nix chose to go down with his ship. | |
| Image Filename | wwii1976.jpg |
| Image Size | 1.03 MB |
| Image Dimensions | 5759 x 3457 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | Imperial Japanese Navy |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | March 1, 1942 |
| Location | |
| City | |
| State or Province | |
| Country | Java Sea |
| Archive | Naval History and Heritage Command |
| Record Number | 80-G-178997 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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