"Woolworths Limited headquarters in the Norwest Business Park Woolworths Group Limited, a major Australian company, has extensive retail interests throughout Australia and New Zealand. It is the largest company in Australia by revenue and the second-largest in New Zealand. In addition, Woolworths Group is the largest takeaway liquor-retailer in Australia, the largest hotel and gaming poker-machine operator in Australia, and was the 19th-largest retailer in the world in 2008. Despite similar names, Woolworths Group has no affiliation with the F.W. Woolworth Company based in the United States, the now-defunct Woolworths Group in the UK or the South African chain of retail stores, Woolworths Holdings Limited. Its main operations include supermarkets (under the Woolworths brand in Australia and the Countdown brand in New Zealand), liquor retailing (as BWS and Dan Murphy's in Australia), hotels and pubs under the Australian Leisure and Hospitality Group (ALH Group) umbrella, and discount department-stores under the Big W name in Australia. On 25 August 2016, the company announced a loss of $1.235 billion for the 2016 financial year, the biggest loss in the more than 20 years since it has been publicly listed on the ASX, mainly due to more than $2 billion in write-downs of the failed Masters business and losses in the Big W business. ==History== Woolworths flagship store in the Sydney CBD Woolworths opened its first store, the Woolworths Stupendous Bargain Basement, in the old Imperial Arcade Pitt Street, Sydney, where Westfield Sydney now stands, on 5 December 1924. Its nominal capital was just £185,000, and although 85,000 shares were offered to the public, only 81,707 shares were subscribed for by 619 people, including the five founders – Percy Christmas, Stanley Chatterton, Cecil Scott Waine, George Creed and Ernest Williams. One of the foundation investors was Preston Lanchester Gowing, the then chairman of Gowings. The name on the draft prospectus drawn up by Cecil Scott Waine was "Wallworths Bazaar" – a play on the name of F.W. Woolworth, the owner of the Woolworth's chain in the United States and United Kingdom. Moreover, according to Ernest Robert Williams, Percy Christmas dared him to register the name Woolworths instead, which he succeeded in doing after finding out the name was available for use in New South Wales. Accordingly, Woolworths Ltd in Australia has no connection with the F.W. Woolworth Company in the United States, nor the Woolworths Group of UK. It also has no connection to the Woolworths Group in South Africa. The new Woolworths store was the first variety store in the world to use cash registers that print receipts for customers. Christmas set up a New Zealand general merchandise operation in Wellington in 1929. Woolworths New Zealand opened its first food store in Auckland in 1956, and supermarkets in 1971. Woolworths New Zealand was sold to the company that is now Lion Nathan in 1979, then sold to Dairy Farm International in 1990, now owned by Progressive Enterprises, a subsidiary of Foodland Associated Limited of Australia. In 2005 Woolworths Limited and Metcash Holdings agreed to purchase a demerged Foodland, and Progressive Enterprises and 23 of Foodland's Action supermarkets came under Woolworths' ownership. This acquisition brought total store numbers in Australia to near 750. During the late 1920s, the company grew, with a second store in Sydney and stores in Brisbane and Perth. It grew further in the 1930s, despite the depression, until by the end of 1933 it had 23 stores. In 1933 the first store in Melbourne was opened. On 1 April 1936 the company bought eight stores from Edments Ltd and opened its first store in Adelaide. The original Imperial Arcade store was moved to larger premises in Her Majesty's Arcade, a short distance along Pitt Street near the Market Street corner. World War II slowed the growth of Woolworths and the Australian and United States military used Woolworths' warehouses in Sydney for storage. After the war expansion was rapid and in 1955 Woolworths opened its 200th store, in the Civic Centre in Canberra (since closed). At this point Woolworths was still mainly a variety chain and had not moved into the food sector that uses the "Woolworths" brand today. This move began in 1955 when it opened its first supermarket at Beverly Hills, south-west of Sydney. The company bought the Rockmans chain of women's clothing stores in 1960. In the 1970s, the company started to open Big W discount department stores and the slow removal of many variety products from the supermarket and variety stores began. This process finished in 1989 when the last of the Woolworths Variety stores was closed (except the one in Rundle Mall) and the "Family Centres" were split into separate Big W and Woolworths supermarket stores. Woolworths acquired the Dick Smith Electronics consumer electronics chain in 1981 and expanded the consumer electronics arm of its business with the purchase of the Tandy chain in Australia from InterTan Inc in 2001. The company sold the Rockmans chain in 2000, and the Dick Smith Electronics chain in 2012. === 1980s === In 1985, the acquisition of the 126 Safeway stores in eastern Australia made Woolworths the largest food retailer in Australia. Safeway stores were in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland and included Food Barns in Queensland and northern New South Wales. The stores were acquired following an agreement whereby Safeway acquired a 20% interest in Woolworths Limited. Woolworths and Safeway supermarkets in Victoria traded under the Safeway brand, and Safeway's Food Barns in Queensland and New South Wales became part of Woolworths. Around this time, the supermarket chain had run eight small supermarket chains including the Queensland-based Food For Less and the Sydney-based Flemings, both of which survive. In 1989, Woolworths was acquired by Industrial Equity Limited, which was in turn one-third owned by the Adelaide Steamship Company, David Jones Limited and Tooth & Co. It was a wholly owned subsidiary until 1993, when it was floated in the biggest share sale (at that time) in Australia's history. === 1990s === In 1996, Woolworths entered the petrol market, initially with wholly owned "Plus Petrol" outlets located in shopping centre parking lots. In 2003, as part of a loyalty program aimed at attracting customers to supermarkets through the lure of four-cent a litre discounts, Woolworths entered into an agreement with Caltex to co-brand some Caltex outlets as Caltex Woolworths. These joint venture outlets are supplied with fuel by Caltex and with groceries by Woolworths, and accept Woolworths cards and discount dockets. In 1999, Woolworths began a joint venture with the Commonwealth Bank called Woolworths Ezy Banking, but was scaled back by 2006. In 2005, the company reached an agreement with the ANZ Banking Group to install ATMs at Woolworths, Big W and Caltex Woolworths locations. Additionally, by 2008, it had invested in financial services infrastructure and expertise, building a team of 50 staff for this purpose. In 1997, Woolworths opened its first Metro convenience store, in Sydney, converting their premier multi-level variety store for 32 years to this format with the lower ground floor specialising in a large range of 'prepared meals' to cater for the increasing numbers of city dwellers. Known for its rainbow branding with the slogan "Fine food without the fuss", subsequent stores were opened in Coogee, Boronia Park, West Pennant Hills, Newtown, Waterloo and its flagship Town Hall store in Sydney and Ascot in Brisbane. Currently the "Woolworths Metro" brand is used for smaller format convenience stores in the major cities and towns across Australia. Woolworths expanded into liquor businesses with the acquisition of Dan Murphy's in 1998. === 2000s === By 2001, the BWS chain had been established. With Queensland licensing laws dictating that retail outlets must be operated by a hotelier, Woolworths moved into the hotel industry in 2005 in a joint venture with experienced hotel operator Bruce Mathieson, purchasing hotelier Australian Leisure and Hospitality Group (ALH). Later in 2005 the ALH Group expanded its portfolio to 250 hotels by acquiring the Taverner Hotel Group and the Bruce Mathieson Group. The ALH Group is 25% owned by Bruce Mathieson and 75% owned by Woolworths. Statistics provided during the acquisition of the Taverner group showed that over one third of sales are made up of gaming/poker machine takings.Woolworths Limited taverners analyst presentation The number of poker machines owned by Woolworths and Bruce Mathieson after ALH acquisitions was 10,722."Retail Giants Place Side Bet on Pokies", theage.com.au, 28 March 2006. In June 2006, the company opened a buying office in Hong Kong to cut out the intermediary in sourcing foreign-produced items. In September 2006, Woolworths announced that it had taken a 10% strategic stake in The Warehouse Group in New Zealand. Also in 2006, it announced a venture with the Tata Group in India to introduce Dick Smiths Electronics stores to that country. In 2006, Woolworths rolled out new Retalix point of sale systems running on IBM POS hardware with LCD touchscreens throughout all its stores. These self-serve checkouts were initially trialled in Carlingford, NSW. In August 2007, Woolworths announced that it was planning to launch a general purpose credit card in 2008. It is expected to offer credit cardholders reward vouchers redeemable through its store network. HSBC was subsequently named as its credit card partner. Woolworths subsequently announced that the Woolworths Everyday Money MasterCard would be launched on 26 August 2008 and allows customers to earn shopping cards redeemable at Woolworths group retailers. It was suggested Woolworths could earn approximately $20m from credit cards in three years and that it was targeting 100,000 to 150,000 cardholders in the first year. Into 2008, a Wake Up Woolworths campaign, largely funded by the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, was pushing Woolworths to sever its relationship with Asia Pulp & Paper over claims of deforestation of Indonesian rainforests. Asia Pulp & Paper supplies Woolworths' Select Brand tissue products. During 2009, Woolworths Ltd. and Lowes purchased Danks Ltd. owners of the Home Timber and Hardware brand. They entered joint venture with Lowes, one of North America's largest home improvement chains, to launch a new hardware brand named Masters Home Improvement. The first of these stores was opened to the public in Braybrook, Melbourne, Victoria, on 1 September 2011.http://miy.masters.com.au/about/media/first-masters-store-opens-today-in- braybrook-melbourne Aiming to open 150 stores within the next five years, as of June 2014 there were 49 stores operational with more being constructed and/or planned. The business was not profitable, and in 2015 Masters lost . On 18 January 2016 Woolworths announced that it intended to "either sell or wind up" Masters hardware and Home Timber and Hardware. Chairman Gordon Cairns said that it would take years to become profitable and that the ongoing losses could not be sustained. On 24 August 2016 it was announced that all Masters stores would close on or before 11 December 2016. It was also announced that Woolworths would sell the Home Timber and Hardware brand to Metcash. == Other ventures == The Australian Leisure & Hospitality Group, 75% owned by Woolworths, operates over 12,650 poker machines across Australia, making it the largest operator of pokies in Australia. The poker machines are estimated to raise $1.2 billion in net revenue each year. Michael Luscombe in 2010 told shareholders he has no intention of leaving the poker machines business, and the company has lobbied against mandatory precommitment technology. When mandatory pre-commitment was implemented, the Woolworths owned hotels created a loyalty card scheme to offer incentives to frequent gamblers, giving them free food and drink. In July 2019, Woolworths announced plans to sell its gambling and liquor interests. It said ALH and Endeavour Drinks would potentially be spun-off into a separate company and launched on the stockmarket in 2020, but Woolworths shareholders would first need to approve the plan at an annual general meeting. ===Shopping Centres Australasia Property Group=== In 2012, Woolworths Limited placed 69 shopping centres it owned into a real estate investment trust known as Shopping Centres Australasia Property Group (or SCA Property Group), which listed as a separate entity on the ASX on 26 November 2012. Most of the locations contain a Woolworths Limited owned store as an anchor tenant. The trust derives most of its rental income from Woolworths Limited stores. ===Cartology=== In 2019, Woolworths Group launched a stand-alone media business called Cartology to communicate with supplier partners and customers. The company will be managed by Mike Tyquin who has worked in media for over 25 years. ==See also== * List of Woolworths Limited companies ==References== ==External links== *Woolworths Group *Woolworths Limited *Woolworths supermarkets Category:Companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange Category:Conglomerate companies of Australia Category:Companies based in New South Wales Category:Conglomerate companies established in 1924 Category:Retail companies established in 1924 Category:Australian brands Category:Online retailers of Australia Category:Gambling companies of Australia Category:The Hills Shire "

— Woolworths Group (Australia) ❄️

" USS Edsall (DD-219), named for Seaman Norman Eckley Edsall (1873-1899), was a of the United States Navy. She was sunk 1 March 1942. ==Construction and commissioning== Edsall was laid down by the William Cramp & Sons Ship and Engine Building Company on 15 September 1919, launched on 29 July 1920 by Mrs. Bessie Edsall Bracey, sister of Seaman Edsall and commissioned on 26 November 1920, Commander A. H. Rice in command. ==Service history== Edsall sailed from Philadelphia on 6 December 1920 for San Diego, California on shakedown. She arrived at San Diego 11 January 1921, and remained on the United States West Coast until December, engaging in battle practice and gunnery drills with fleet units. Returning to Charleston, South Carolina, 28 December, Edsall was ordered to the Mediterranean and departed 26 May 1922. Arriving at Constantinople on 28 June, Edsall joined the U.S. Naval Detachment in Turkish Waters to protect American lives and interests. The Near East was in turmoil with civil strife in Russia and Greece at war with Turkey. She did much for international relations by helping alleviate postwar famine in eastern Europe, transporting American commercial operatives, evacuating refugees, furnishing a center of communications for the Near East, and standing by for emergencies. When the Turks expelled the Anatolian Greeks from Smyrna (Izmir), Edsall was one of the American destroyers which evacuated thousands. On 14 September 1922, she took 607 refugeesDD-219's Log states 664 persons were evacuated off in Smyrna and transported them to Salonika, returning to Smyrna 16 September to act as flagship for the naval forces there. In October she carried refugees from Smyrna to Mytilene on Lesbos Island. She made repeated visits to ports in Turkey, Bulgaria, Russia, Greece, Egypt, Mandate Palestine, Syria, Tunisia, Dalmatia, and Italy, and kept up gunnery and torpedo practice with her sisters until her return to Boston, Massachusetts, for overhaul 26 July 1924. Edsall sailed to join the U.S. Asiatic Fleet on 3 January 1925, joining in battle practice and maneuvers at Guantanamo Bay, San Diego, and Pearl Harbor before arriving at Shanghai on 22 June. She was to become a fixture of the Asiatic Fleet on the China coast, in the Philippines and Japan. Her primary duty was protection of American interests in the Far East. She served during the civil war in China, and the early part of the Sino-Japanese War. Battle practice, maneuvers and diplomacy took her most frequently to Shanghai, Chefoo, Hankow, Hong Kong, Nanking, Kobe, Bangkok, and Manila. In late October 1927, for example, Edsall visited the Siamese capital at Bangkok, and had three of the Royal Princesses aboard for tea. In return Edsalls skipper, Commander Jules James, was given an engraved silver cigarette case by the Royal Family. ===World War II=== On 25 November 1941, two days in advance of the "war warning" which predicted that hostile Japanese action in the Pacific was imminent, Admiral Hart, commander of the Asiatic Fleet, dispatched Destroyer Division (DesDiv) 57 (, , and Edsall) with the destroyer tender , to Balikpapan, Borneo, to disperse the surface ships of his fleet from their vulnerable position in Manila Bay. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 (local date 8 December 1941 due to the International Date Line), Edsall was en route to Batavia (Jakarta) with her sister ships when word of the start of hostilities was received. DesDiv 57 was ordered to Singapore to rendezvous with the Royal Navy Force Z. She embarked a British liaison officer and four men at Singapore from and was sent to search for survivors of and , sunk by Japanese aircraft off the east coast of Malaya on 10 December. Edsall intercepted a Japanese fishing trawler, Kofuku Maru (later renamed and used extensively by Australian special forces) with four small boats in tow and escorted them into Singapore before turning them over to . Edsall and her division mates then joined the heavy cruiser and other US units at Surabaya on 15 December 1941, then escorted shipping retiring to the relative safety of Darwin, Australia. During the first week of 1942 Edsall escorted the so-called Pensacola Convoy from Torres Strait back to Darwin. After fueling operations in the Lesser Sunda Islands, Edsall and Alden were escorting the Darwin-bound oiler in the Beagle Gulf west of Darwin, Australia, on the morning of 20 January 1942, when the Imperial Japanese Navy submarine sighted Trinity. Misidentifying Trinity as a transport, I-123 fired four Type 89 torpedoes at Trinity at shortly after 0630. The sound man aboard I-123 reported hearing one torpedo hit Trinity, but in fact all four torpedoes missed, although Trinity sighted three of them and reported the attack. Alden then searched for I-123, made sound contact, and conducted a brief depth charge attack at 06:41 before losing contact on I-123 and abandoning the search. I-123 escaped unscathed. Later that day, Edsall became the first U.S. destroyer to participate in the sinking of a full-sized enemy submarine in World War II. With three Australian corvettes — (, , and ) — Edsall helped sink the off Darwin. Contrary to rumor, this sunken submarine was never entered, nor were classified documents ever recovered from it. Continuing to escort convoys in northern Australian waters, Edsall was damaged when one of her own depth charges exploded prematurely during an anti-submarine attack on 23 January 1942 in the shallow — — Howard Channel. On 3 February Edsall and other American units of ABDA moved up to Tjilatjap, Java in order to be closer to the combat theater and also to fuel stocks. She continued in her service as a patrol vessel off southern Java. On 23 February 1942 she and the old gunboat operated off Tjilatjap on antisubmarine patrols. USAT Willard A. Holbrook off Java, 15 February 1942 On 26 February she steamed from Tjilatjap with her sister ship to rendezvous with the converted seaplane tender , which was bringing in P-40E fighters and U.S. Army Air Force personnel for the defense of Java. On 27 February, the three ships were attacked by sixteen (16) Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" bombers of the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service's Takao Kōkūtai, led by Lieutenant Jiro Adachi, flying out of Den Pasar airfield on Bali, and escorted by fifteen (15) Mitsubishi A6M Reisen (Zero) fighters. The attack damaged Langley so severely that she had to be scuttled. Edsall picked up 177 survivors; Whipple, 308. On 28 February the two destroyers rendezvoused with the oiler off Flying Fish Cove, Christmas Island some southwest of Tjilatjap. More Japanese bombers forced Edsall and the other ships to head for open sea. They headed directly south into the Indian Ocean for the rest of 28 February in high winds and heavy seas; in the early pre- dawn hours of 1 March all Langley crew were transferred to Pecos. This was completed between 0430 (USN/local time) and 0815 on 1 March. Whipple then set off for Cocos as protection for the tanker Belita sent to meet her there; Pecos, carrying about 700 survivors from Langley, and Houston, plus assorted stragglers, was ordered to Australia. Edsall was directed to return to Tjilatjap, carrying U.S. Army Air Force (USAAF) pilots and 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 delivered to Tjilatjap aboard the cargo ship . Following orders, at 0830 she headed back to the northeast for Java, and was never seen again by Allied forces. ===Last engagement of Edsall=== Pecos was detected later that morning by air patrols from the carriers of Vice Admiral Chūichi Nagumo's Kido Butai (or KdB) and came under heavy air attack. For some time she sent out distress calls to any Allied ships in the area, as it was assumed the ship would probably be lost. Whipple, less than distant, copied some of these calls, but was too far away to return quickly. , a troopship many hundreds of miles/kilometers away in the Indian Ocean also read some of the signals. At approximately 1548 hours Pecos sank after being attacked for several hours by four waves of IJN dive-bombers from Nagumo's KdB. At 1550 hours (USN/local time) a single "light cruiser" was spotted about behind the Japanese task force, approximately SSE of Christmas Island; this was in fact Edsall. The destroyer was perhaps no more than from the last reported position of Pecos and likely attempting to get to her stricken comrades. At about 1603 hours she was seen from the Japanese heavy cruiser and within another five minutes the cruiser opened fire with her guns. Fifteen minutes later the battleships of Vice Admiral Gunichi Mikawa's Sentai 3/1 (Hiei and Kirishima) opened fire with their main battery of guns at extreme range (). All shots missed as the destroyer fled and conducted evasive maneuvers that ranged from flank speed – about for the hobbled ship – to full stop, with radical turns and intermittent smoke-screens. USS Edsall sinking Edsall also disrupted the Japanese with counter-attacks, firing her torpedoes – which narrowly missed Chikuma – and with 4-inch gunfire, even though outranged. Edsall signalled that she had been surprised by two enemy battleships; this was copied by the Dutch merchant ship Siantar more than away. The Japanese surface vessels (2 cruisers, 2 battleships) fired 1,335 shells at Edsall that afternoon with no more than one or two hits, which failed to stop the destroyer. Vice Admiral Nagumo ordered airstrikes: 26 Type 99 divebombers (Aichi D3A) (kanbaku) in three groups (chutai) took off from the carriers (8), (9), and (9). The dive bombers were led by Lieutenants Ogawa, Kobayashi, and Koite respectively. Their bombs immobilised Edsall. At 17:22 the Japanese ships resumed firing on the destroyer. A Japanese camera- man, probably on the cruiser , filmed about 90 seconds of her destruction. (A single frame from this film was culled for use as a propaganda photo later, misidentified as "the British destroyer HMS Pope".) Finally, at 17:31 hrs (19:01 IJN/Tokyo time) Edsall rolled onto her side, "showing her red bottom" according to an officer aboard the , and sank amid clouds of steam and smoke. Subsequent Japanese navy reports referred to the incident as "a fiasco". ===The fate of Edsall survivors=== Japanese Imperial Navy officers aboard the cruiser Chikuma many years later reported that a number of men may have survived the sinking of Edsall—they were found in the water on liferafts, cutters, clinging to debris, etc. However, due to a submarine alert, the nervous Japanese only stopped long enough to rescue a handful (the Japanese word is jakkan) before they received orders to steam off for home base, leaving the others to perish in the Indian Ocean. On board Chikuma the survivors were treated well, clothed & fed, and interrogated by their captors, giving the name of their ship as "the old destroyer E-do-soo-ru". After a few days the details of these interrogations were shared with the other ships of Nagumo's Kido Butai during their return journey. There is some suggestion that the cruiser Tone may have picked up a survivor or two as well, but there is no confirming evidence of this. The Americans were held on Chikuma for the next ten days before returning to the Japanese force's advance base on 11 March 1942. On 21 September 1946 several mass graves were opened in a remote locale in the East Indies, over from the point of Edsalls disappearance. In two graves, containing 34 decapitated bodies, were the remains of six Edsall crewmen and what are thought to be five more USAAF personnel from Langley, along with numerous Javanese, Chinese, and Dutch merchant sailors from the Dutch merchant-ship Modjokerto, sunk the same day as Edsall in the same area south of Christmas Island. The American bodies were reinterred in U.S. cemeteries between December 1949 and March 1950. War crimes trials conducted in 1946–1948 concerning other murders that occurred in or near Kendari by IJN personnel contain fragmentary information about the killings of Edsall survivors but were not recognized as such by Allied investigators, and were not pursued. ==Awards== Edsall received two battle stars for her World War II service. ==L. Ron Hubbard claim== L. Ron Hubbard claimed he served on Edsall during World War II. Following her sinking he swam to shore, and remained in the jungle as the ship's sole survivor. He claimed that this is where he was during the bombing of Pearl Harbor, despite the fact that Edsall was sunk in 1942, and the U.S. Navy has no record of his service on the ship. Navy records show that Hubbard was in training in New York when the war broke out. He was supposed to be posted to the Philippines, but his ship was diverted to Australia. There he angered the Naval Attache for assuming "unauthorized duties," he was relieved from his assignment and returned to the United States.Lawrence Wright "Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief," ==References== * Primary source: Donald M. Kehn, Jr.'s A Blue Sea of Blood: Deciphering the Mysterious Fate of the USS Edsall (Zenith Press 2009) * ==External links== *Movement record of Tone from combinedfleet.com *The Sinking of the Edsall *A SHIP TO REMEMBER: USS EDSALL (DD 219) *http://www.navsource.org/archives/05/219.htm * Roll of Honor Edsall (DD-219) Edsall (DD-219) Category:Ships built by William Cramp & Sons Category:World War II shipwrecks in the Java Sea Category:1920 ships Category:Maritime incidents in March 1942 "

— USS Edsall (DD-219) ❄️

" USS Porter (DD-356) was the lead ship of her class of destroyers in the United States Navy. She was the third Navy ship named for Commodore David Porter and his son, Admiral David Dixon Porter. ==Operational historyConstruction=== Porter was laid down by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation at Camden in New Jersey on 18 December 1933, launched on 12 December 1935 by Miss Carlile Patterson Porter and commissioned at Philadelphia on 27 August 1936, Commander Forrest B. Royal in command. ===1936-1941=== After shakedown in waters off Northern Europe, Porter visited St. John's, Newfoundland, for ceremonies in honor of the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in May 1937 and was at the Washington Navy Yard during the Boy Scout Jamboree, June–July 1937. Then reassigned to the Pacific Fleet, she transited the Panama Canal and arrived at San Francisco, California 5 August 1937. She operated continuously with the Pacific Fleet until the outbreak of World War II, homeported at San Diego, California. ===World War II=== On 5 December 1941, Porter got underway from Pearl Harbor, escaping the Japanese attack by two days. She patrolled with cruisers and destroyers in Hawaiian waters before steaming in convoy 25 March 1942 for the west coast. She operated off the west coast with Task Force 1 (TF 1) for the next 4 months. Returning to Pearl Harbor in mid-August, she trained in Hawaiian waters until 16 October when she sortied with TF 16 and headed for the Solomon Islands. Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands On 26 October 1942, TF 16 exchanged air attacks with strong Japanese forces northeast of Guadalcanal in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands. During the ensuing action, Porter was torpedoed, and, after the crew had abandoned ship, was sunk by gunfire from . Authorities differ as to the source of the torpedo which sunk Porter. Author Eric Hammel states Porter was sunk by a single torpedo, part of a three- torpedo spread fired from Japanese submarine . However, author Richard B. Frank states that Japanese records do not support this, and that, more likely, an errant torpedo from a ditching US Navy Grumman TBF Avenger hit Porter and caused the fatal damage. p. 388-389. Her name was struck from the Navy List 2 November 1942. Porter earned one battle star for World War II service. == Notes == == References == * == External links == * navsource.org: USS Porter * hazegray.org: USS Porter Porter (DD-356) Porter (DD-356) Category:Ships built in Camden, New Jersey Category:Shipwrecks in the Solomon Sea Category:1935 ships Category:Maritime incidents in October 1942 Category:Destroyers sunk by aircraft Category:Friendly fire incidents of World War II Category:Ships sunk by US aircraft "

— USS Porter (DD-356) ❄️