USS Pecos (AO-6)

USS Pecos (AO–6) was a Kanawha-class replenishment oiler of the United States Navy. She was commissioned in 1921 and sunk by 36 Japanese dive-bombers from four different IJN aircraft carriers south of Java on 1 March 1942.

USS Pecos was laid down as Fuel Ship No. 18 on 2 June 1920 at the Boston Navy Yard, Massachusetts (USA). During construction the ship was reclassified AO–6 on 17 July 1920. She was launched on 23 April 1921, sponsored by Miss Anna S. Hubbard and commissioned 25 August 1921.

During the two decades before the United States entered World War II, Pecos operated in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Pecos was in the Philippines supporting the ships of the United States Asiatic Fleet. She departed Cavite Navy Yard on 8 December 1941 for Balikpapan, Borneo arriving there on 14 December. After filling up with oil and gasoline, the tanker continued on to Makassar in Celebes, Netherlands East Indies where she refueled American warships fighting to slow the rapid advance of Japanese forces. She departed Makassar for Darwin, Australia on 22 December 1941.

She departed Darwin on 23 January 1942 headed for Soerabaja, Java where she fueled Allied ships until departing on 3 February after a major Japanese air raid made that port untenable. Tjilatjap, on the southern coast of Java, which she reached on 6 February became the oiler's base. She received fuel from bulk carriers and then replenished various allied ships. Attempts to save more bunker oil, transferred from Dutch tank farms at Surabaja, were met with opposition and not successful. By 27 February Pecos needed to leave Tjilatjap so that her berth could be used by the seaplane tender USS Langley (AV-3), coming to Java from Australia with AAF fighter planes and crews.^[1] At that time the need for evacuation shipping from Java—which was clearly doomed—had become quite urgent. The captain of Pecos (CDR E. Paul Abernethy) would only permit ambulatory cases of wounded men (from Houston and Marblehead) in addition to other stragglers from ships already lost, such as USS Stewart (DD-224), abandoned at Surabaja.^[2] After departing Tjilatjap on 27 February, Abernethy began intercepting radio messages about the bombing of Langley. He hoped to escape Japanese forces and turned to the west, but was soon directed by COMSOWESPAC (VADM Wm. Glassford Jr.) via messages sent to USS Parrott (DD-218)--who was escorting Pecos—to meet the destroyers Whipple and Edsall at Christmas Island. There the two destroyers would transfer the survivors of Langley to Pecos.^[3]

Whipple would then proceed towards the Cocos Islands to rendezvous with the tanker Belita to act as her anti-submarine screen, while Edsall was directed to return to Tjilatjap, carrying the 31 U.S. Army Air Force (USAAF) pilots and 10 or 11 ground crew who had been passengers on Langley. The USAAF personnel were to assemble and fly 27 disassembled and crated P-40 fighters which had been shipped to Tjilatjap aboard the cargo ship Sea Witch. Pecos, now carrying as many as 700 survivors from Langley, Houston, Marblehead and Stewart was ordered to Australia.

At noon that day, after being spotted by IJN air patrols only about 70 miles distant, Pecos was located and attacked by 18 Type 99 (VAL) dive-bombers from the Japanese aircraft carriers Sōryū and Kaga. Two more groups—from carriers Hiryu and Akagi—of 18 planes struck again an hour later. For some time Pecos sent out distress calls to any Allied ships in the area, as it was assumed the ship would probably be lost. The gunners on Pecos, despite lacking modern weaponry, gave a valiant account of themselves, shooting up the enemy Type 99 (VAL) dive-bombers and putting holes in no less than 17 enemy machines. One of the Type 99 bombers from Hiryu caught fire as it landed back on the carrier and had to be pushed overboard in flames.^[4] IJN records indicate the distance between the Japanese force and Pecos could then have been as little as twenty miles. Nagumo gave orders to RADM Omori of 1st Torpedo Squadron (DesRon 1) to send two destroyers to rescue survivors of Pecos. Omori sent the destroyers Tanikaze and Urakaze of the 17th Division, but they never found the men in the water and returned to Nagumo KdB as dusk came on.^[5]

Executive Officer Lt. Commander Lawrence J. McPeake was posthumously awarded the Silver Star for valor for his actions aboard Pecos. After the order to abandon ship was given by the ship's Captain, Commander Abernethy, Lt. Commander McPeake was seen engaging Japanese Aichi D3A1 Type 99 "Val" dive- bombers, which were machine-gunning survivors in the water. By some crewmembers' accounts, he was reported to have made it off the ship after it went down. Others reported him last being seen manning the machine gun. In fact, he did swim away from the vessel with another officer as it was going down. However, his body was never recovered and he was eventually listed as Killed In Action after the war.

After Pecos was sunk, Whipple warily proceeded to the area, arriving after dark. She eventually rescued ~232 survivors. Many of the survivors, although visible by crew members of Whipple, were unable to be picked up and were abandoned at sea, due to the detection of what was thought to be two enemy submarines in the area at extremely close range. This led to the dropping of depth charges, which may have injured or killed men in the water. (However, the submarine contact was not a mirage. The IJN submarine RO-33 reported sighting and stalking an allied destroyer SSE of Christmas Island that night. She fired a single torpedo which—luckily for the Americans—missed.)^[6] Out of over 630 total crewmen and Langley survivors on Pecos more than 400 were left behind and died. Exact casualty numbers for the doomed ships of the United States Asiatic Fleet and American-British-Dutch-Australian Command are impossible to gather because so many Allied warships were sunk in the Dutch East Indies campaign (at least 24 total) and many of those ships had already picked up survivors of other sunken ships and then were also sunk by the Japanese hours or days later.^[7]

• "Pecos I (AO-6) 1921-1942". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Navy Department, Naval History and Heritage Command.

• Messimer, Dwight R. (1983). Pawns of War: the Loss of the USS Langley and the USS Pecos. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 9780870215155.
• Kehn Jr., Donald M. A Blue Sea of Blood: Deciphering the Mysterious Fate of the USS Edsall. (Zenith Books, 2008).
• Kehn Jr., Donald M. In the Highest Degree Tragic: The Sacrifice of the US Asiatic Fleet in the East Indies during World War II (Potomac Books, 2017).

14°27′S 106°11′E / 14.450°S 106.183°E / -14.450; 106.183