The Sinking of the USS Wasp: The Most Devastating Torpedo Attack of WW2

(Animated Battle Map)
In this video I explain the sinking of the USS Wasp by an incredibly lucky and destructive torpedo salvo from submarine I-19. I also include the Battle of Edson’s Ridge and show how the two events are connected.

Corrections:
07:08 I say "only an hour left of daylight" I meant to say "only an hour left till daylight".
22:40 I should have said overhead instead of ceiling.

I don’t have a Patreon but if you want to show appreciation for my work feel free to donate.

00:00 Introduction
01:10 Kawaguchi prepares to take Henderson
06:40 Battle of Edson’s Ridge
11:22 Torpedo junction
16:58 The “Almost” Carrier Battle of Sept. 14
18:25 The Sinking of the Wasp
21:16 Damage Control
25:25 The Spectacular Shot
28:04 Analysis
30:23 Aftermath

Map terrain data obtained by Maptiler. "© MapTiler © OpenStreetMap contributors"

Special thanks to :
Daniel N. – for help on the script
Michal A Piegzik - for help on research
And KANIM GROUP for the 3d Model.

Sources:
Blee, B. W. (2005). Battleship North Carolina. USS North Carolina Battleship Commission.

Boyd, C., & Yoshida, A. Y. (2012). The Japanese Submarine Force and World War II. Naval Institute Press.

Cox, Jeffrey (2019). Morning Star, Midnight Sun: The Early Guadalcanal -Solomons Campaign of World War II ... August-October 1942. Osprey.

Dull, P.S. (1978) A battle history of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press.

Frank, R.B. (1990) Guadalcanal. Penguin Books.

Hammel, Eric. (2016)The Death of the U.S.S. Wasp: September 15, 1942 . Pacifica Military History.

Hornfischer, J. D. (2011). Neptune's inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal. Bantam Books.

Lundstrom, J.B. (2013) Black Shoe Carrier Admiral: Frank Jeck Fletcher at Coral Sea, midway, and Guadalcanal. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press.

Lundstrom, J. B. (2005). The first team and the Guadalcanal Campaign: Naval Fighter Combat from August to November 1942. Naval Institute Press.

Prados, J. (2013) Islands of destiny: The solomons campaign and the eclipse of the rising sun. New York: NAL Caliber.

Rottman, G. L., & Anderson, D. (2004). US Marine Corps Pacific Theater of Operations. Osprey.

Smith, M. S. (2003). Bloody Ridge: The battle that saved Guadalcanal. Pocket Books.

Stille, M. (2015) Guadalcanal: 1942-43 ; America's first victory on the road to Tokyo. Oxford: Osprey Publishing.

Stille, M. (2012) Santa Cruz 1942: Carrier Duel in the South Pacific. Botley, Oxford: Osprey Publishing.

Stille, M., & Wright, P. (2018). USN Fleet Destroyer vs IJN Fleet Submarine: The pacific 1941-42. Osprey Publishing.

[Fenrir]

Montemayor is the definition of quality, not quantity

[shootfirst]

17:01 The use of music in these videos is always subtle and excellent. Just a touch of drama and suspense.
Never obvious or obnoxious

[nitehawk]

21:07 That switch from graphics to the actual photograph is *chef's kiss*

[JediKnight]

As a history teacher, this is my favorite supplementary channel. Pearl Harbor, the Fog of War at Midway, and now the Guadalcanal series are of superb quality and beyond anything remotely comparable that I have found in over a decade of teaching.

[gabrielh]

When we needed him most, he returned...

[ISAF_Ace]

Also of note, Wasp was a small ship and product of the Washington naval treaties. Because the US only had 15 000 tones left, they made a comparatively tiny purpose built carrier, the Wasp. Being small and constrained by the tonnage limits of the Washington naval treaties; Wasp was very lightly armoured and small enough that a single hit would damage multiple systems at once. In short, Wasp was literally the worst ship possible to be on the receiving end of a submarine torpedo attack.

I do to give kudos to Wasp for her operations in the Med though, the grand lady helped the Royal Navy keep the RAF in the fight over Malta and the central Mediterranean against the Italian Regia Marina and Axis air forces. She may not have seen major action in the Pacific, but she did her part for the Royal Navy.

[panzerwafflez]

I literally just finished a rewatch of all your previous Pacific War content a couple days ago. This video is a dream come true!

Some additional fyi: The reason why this torpedo attack was PARTICULARLY deadly to Wasp while carriers like Yorktown and Lexington relatively shrugged off other torpedo attacks was because Wasp was purposefully designed and built without ANY armor. USS Wasp was supposed to be a cheaper/smaller version of the Yorktown class so in order to keep her displacement and size down, the Navy ended up limiting her speed and removing all protection from the ship, including any underwater protection that might have protected her from torpedo hits.

[larsu-gx]

As a huge WWII Aviation buff, I'd often read the story that a Japanese submarine embarked on a secret mission to bring back blueprints for the ME-262 and ME-163 fighters to Japan, but was sunk on the journey. It was a surprise to learn Kinashi was the one who commanded that sub.

[anakinanakinov]

You are doing an incredible job! This visualization of naval battles is exactly what is missing when you read about them in books.

[greghanson]

I appreciate including the information about the land battle and tying it to the naval battle. It's important to remember that both air and sea power ultimately are in service to land campaigns. You made this clear how they're linked.

[ATBatmanMALS]

Thanks again for the "better than television" quality content, you are one* of the GOATs* for historical info/docs!

[WulfieZi]

26:52 Imagine getting a kill feed notification a month later 😅

[nathangreer]

Always substituting QUALITY for QUANTITY. Welcome back!

[mattiaserio]

OMG.

As an italian passionate of Ww2 with a family who served in the army in the past generations...
This is better than pure gold.
I love to read all of these pacific events, and to have the possibility to watch a so well done documentary about these battles is a blessing.
My respect to all of lives lost during the war, both sides.

And my salute to you, sir. Keep doing this.

[WilliamDye-willdye]

Lone sub humbles the mighty. Lone passion-project filmmaker humbles documentaries with multimillion-dollar budgets. Respect, Montemoyor, respect.

[Redhand]

Nice to see your posting of another informative video. I had no idea that North Carolina and O'Brien we part of HORNET's escort, not WASP's! Once again, your maps and commentary make me see this battle in a completely different light.

[dragonstalk]

I see a Montemayor vid drop, I immediately watch it, I'm a simple man

[johnmichaelarellano]

I've watched other Youtube channels such as Kings and Generals, Invicta, The Operations Room that also shows these kinds of documentaries. In my opinion, Montemayor is still the best in comparison with the others. It's just a shame we only get to see 1 or 2 uploads from him every year. Oh well, I'm still thankful to you Montemayor! For your next videos, I hope you can also include the battle of Leyte Gulf.

[The_Modeling_Underdog]

Love how Montemayor disappears for nine months, then comes back, gives birth to this excellent video and then leaves again, refusing to ellaborate. The man truly is The Ghost of Youtube.

Here's to you, mate. For a great 2024.

[gocubs]

Thank you for posting this. My grandfather and his brother were in the Wasp when it sank. This was before the Sullivan brothers and both brothers were on the same ship. The story was they jumped overboard on opposing sides of the ship and didn't know if the other survived for 3 whole days. They both made it out and continued to serve until 1945. This video just makes his story even crazier!