Sky here with another episode of the History on Plug podcast.

One of the largest maritime graveyards in the world is near Guadocanel in a location called the Iron Bottom Sound, because so many ships were sunk there.

Nearly nonstop naval warfare happened here in early 1942 following the invasion of the Solomon Islands.

This is where the USS Gregory found itself on the night of September 5th, 1942.

Gregory was a converted destroyer turned high-speed transport, and it was caught in a deadly

ambush near Guadal. The ship had been supporting U.S. Marine forces, varying troops and supplies,

when it was mistaken for a larger threat by a group of

Japanese destroyers. It was outgunned and unable to escape, so the Grigory was hammered by shellfire,

set a blaze, and ultimately sank. As it was going down, the captain of the ship, the tenant commander

Harry of Bauer, refused to abandon his men and fought to the end for as long as he possibly could.

As the surviving crews struggled in the water, a cook, mess-attentant Charles French,

emerges an unlikely hero tying a rope around his waist and towing wounded shipmates

for hours through shark-infested waters to safety. Against overwhelming odds, he kept them together

until they were finally rescued. Today's episode is speaking to Carol Averitt,

author of Midnight and Iron Bottom Sound, the Halloween World War II story of heroism in the shark-infested

waters of Guadocanau. Hope you enjoyed this discussion. And one more thing before we get started

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