SS Mauna Loa - World War II

World War II

Less than three weeks after Mauna Loa's charter, the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor propelled the United States into World War II. Mauna Loa's movements over the next three months are unknown, but by mid-February 1942, she had made her way to Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.

Japanese forces—advancing down the Malay Barrier, the notional Allied line of defense that ran down the Malayan Peninsula through Singapore and the southernmost islands of the Dutch East Indies—had reached the island of Timor by mid February. In order to prevent the fall of that island to the Japanese, which would give them a base within 400 miles (640 km) of Darwin, the Allies assembled a joint American-Australian force to reinforce the Australian Sparrow Force and Royal Dutch East Indies Army forces defending Timor.

The American cruiser Houston and destroyer Peary, and the Australian sloops Swan and Warrego, led Mauna Loa and three other civilian ships out of Darwin Harbour at about 03:00 on 15 February heading for Koepang with relief intended for Timor. Mauna Loa, loaded with 500 men, and United States Army transport ship Meigs carried an Australian infantry battalion and an antitank unit between them. The British refrigerated cargo ship Tulagi and the American cargo ship Portmar carried the 148th Field Artillery Regiment of the Idaho National Guard between them.

The ships were spotted by a Japanese Kawanishi H6K "Mavis" four-engined flying boat that tailed the convoy at 10,000 feet (3,000 m). When Captain Albert H. Rooks of Houston requested air cover for the convoy, a lone Curtiss P-40 responded and engaged the Mavis, with each plane managing to shoot down the other. At around 09:00 the next day, another Mavis began trailing the convoy and at 11:00, 36 land-based Mitsubishi Ki-21 "Sally" twin-engine bombers and ten seaplanes attacked. Houston, the primary target of the bombers, unleashed all of her available antiaircraft fire and repelled the attacking aircraft. Houston's 900 rounds fired in the 45-minute attack resembled a "sheet of flame", according to witnesses. The only casualties during the attack were from one near miss on Mauna Loa; 1 crewman and 1 passenger were killed and 18 men were wounded in the attack. The convoy was ordered back to Darwin when word that Koepang had fallen to the Japanese was received; she arrived back in Darwin on 18 February.