USS Helena ( CL - 50 ) USS " Helena " ( CL - 50 ) was a " St . Louis " - class light cruiser of the United States Navy . Completed shortly before World War II , she was damaged in the attack on Pearl Harbor , and participated in several battles in the Pacific War . Sunk by a surface - fired torpedo at the battle of Kula Gulf in 1943 , she was one of three U . S . light cruisers to be sunk during the war . " Helena " was the first ship to be awarded the Navy Unit Commendation . Construction and Commissioning . " Helena " , the second Navy ship named after the city of Helena , Montana , was launched on 27 August 1939 by the New York Navy Yard , sponsored by Ms . Elinor Carlyle Gudger , granddaughter of Senator Thomas J . Walsh of Montana , and commissioned on 18 September 1939 , Captain Max B . Demott in command . Inter - war period . After sea trials in December 1939 , the shakedown cruise starting on 27 December took " Helena " to South America . In January 1940 , she arrived in Buenos Aires and on 29 January Montevideo , Uruguay , where her sailors boarded the wreck of the German pocket battleship . World War II . Attack on Pearl Harbor . " Helena " — assigned to the Pacific Fleet , was at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 , when the Japanese attacked . The " Helena " was under the command of Robert Henry English at the time . She was moored at 1010 Dock Navy Yard on the base ( southeast ) side of the harbor . Outboard was the minelayer . By chance , " Helena " was in the berth normally assigned to the battleship , and thus became a prime target for the Japanese planes . Within three minutes of the time the first bomb of the attack fell on Ford Island , a lone torpedo bomber launched a torpedo that passed under " Oglala " , and hit " Helena " on the starboard side almost amidships , just as the crew raced to battle stations . Twenty men were killed . One engine room and one boiler room were flooded . Wiring to the main and secondary batteries was severed , but prompt action brought the forward diesel generator up within two minutes , making power available to all mounts . Immediately , they sent up a heavy fire that kept her free of further damage . The first Japanese plane was sighted at 07 : 57 . " Helena " s guns were in action at 08 : 01 . Outstanding damage control work — and the fact that watertight integrity was promptly insured by the closing of the doors and hatches throughout the ship — kept " Helena " afloat . Guadalcanal Campaign . After preliminary overhaul at Pearl Harbor , " Helena " steamed to Mare Island Navy Yard in California for permanent repairs . In 1942 , she sailed to enter action , escorting a detachment of Seabee s and an aircraft carrier rushing planes to the South Pacific . She made two quick dashes from Espiritu Santo to Guadalcanal , where the long and bloody battle for the island was then beginning , and having completed these missions , joined the task force formed around the aircraft carrier . This task force steamed in distant support of six transports carrying Marine reinforcements to Guadalcanal . Mid - afternoon on 15 September , " Wasp " was suddenly hit by three Japanese torpedoes . Almost at once , she became an inferno . " Helena " stood by to rescue nearly 400 of " Wasp " s officers and men , whom she took to Espiritu Santo . " Helena " s next action was near Rennell Island , again in support of a movement of transports into Guadalcanal . Air attacks from Henderson Field had slowed down the Tokyo Express for several days , so on 11 October the Japanese poured everything they could deliver against the airstrip , hoping to neutralize air operations long enough to bring heavy troop reinforcements during the night . The Japanese fleet closed and by 18 : 10 was less than from Savo Island . " Helena " , equipped with superior radar , was first to contact the enemy and first to open fire at 2346 . When firing had ceased in this Battle of Cape Esperance in Ironbottom Sound , " Helena " helped sink the heavy cruiser and destroyer . " Helena " was next under attack on the night of 20 October while patrolling between Espiritu Santo and San Cristobal . Several torpedoes passed near her but she was not hit . " Helena " saw the climactic Naval Battle of Guadalcanal from its beginning when she was assigned the job of escorting a supply echelon from Espiritu Santo to Guadalcanal . The ship made rendezvous with the convoy of transports off San Cristobal on 11 November , and brought it safely into Guadalcanal . During the afternoon of 12 November , word came from a coast watcher , " enemy aircraft approaching . " Immediately suspending unloading operation , all ships stood out to form an antiaircraft disposition . When the attack came , superb maneuvering of the force , and its own antiaircraft fire , broke up the first attack but the second damaged two ships . " Helena " came through without a scratch , and the task group brought down eight enemy planes in the eight - minute action . As unloading resumed , an increasing stream of reports flowed in from patrolling aircraft . Ominously , the Japanese forces sighted contained no transports , and their intention was thus read as one of being pure offense . " Helena " — still steaming with Rear Admiral Daniel Callaghan ' s Support Group — aided in shepherding the transports away from Guadalcanal , then reversed course to Ironbottom Sound . The night of 13 November , " Helena " s radar first located the enemy . In the action that followed , the tropical night was lit again and again by the flashes of her big guns . She received only minor damage to her superstructure during the action . Daylight found a tragic scene in the grisly slot . The weaker American fleet had achieved the goal at heavy cost . The US had turned back the enemy and prevented the heavy attack that would have been disastrous to the Marine troops ashore . Now the senior American officer in the task force because of the death of the task force commander in action , " Helena " s skipper — Captain Gilbert Hoover — commanded the task force ' s retirement to Espiritu Santo from the battle area . On the way , light cruiser was torpedoed and sunk by submarine . Despite observed survivors , Captain Hoover assessed that the task force lacked the means to conduct a search and rescue in its current location and condition , the battle leaving two ships with antisubmarine capacity on hand ( one heavily damaged ) and other ships too damaged to remain in the area . Aircraft surveillance counted at least sixty survivors of " Juneau " s sinking , ten were later rescued . For this , Halsey removed Hoover from command of " Helena " , which he later regretted as a grievous mistake , writing in his memoirs that " Hoover ' s decision was in the best interests of victory " . " Helena " found a measure of revenge when she was assigned to the several bombardments of Japanese positions on New Georgia in January 1943 . On 5 January 1943 Lt . " Red " Cochrane , commanding the aft 5 " battery on the light cruiser Helena , shot down a Japanese Val dive - bomber with the second of three salvos of VT - fuzed shells , near Guadalcanal . The fuzes were manufactured by the Crosley Corporation and this was the first kill of enemy aircraft . Helena ' s guns rocked the enemy at Munda and Vila Stanmore , leveling vital supply concentrations and gun emplacements . Continuing on patrol and escort in support of the bitter Guadalcanal operation through February , one of her floatplane s shared in the sinking of the submarine on 11 February . Battle of Kula Gulf . Shore Bombardment of New Georgia . After overhaul in Sydney , Australia , she was back at Espiritu Santo in March to participate in bombardments of New Georgia , soon to be invaded . The first goal on New Georgia proper was Rice Anchorage . In the force escorting the transports carrying the initial landing parties , " Helena " moved into Kula Gulf just Before midnight on 4 July , and shortly after midnight on the 5th , her big guns opened up in her last shore bombardment . Engagement with Japanese Destroyers . The landing of troops was completed successfully by dawn , but in the afternoon of 5 July , word came that the Tokyo Express was ready to roar down once more and the escort group turned north to meet it . By midnight on 5 July , " Helena " s group was off the northwest corner of New Georgia , three cruisers and four destroyers composing the group . Racing down to face them were three groups of Japanese destroyers , a total of 10 enemy ships . Four of them peeled off to accomplish their mission of landing troops . By 01 : 57 , the Battle of Kula Gulf had begun , " Helena " began blasting away with a fire so rapid and intense that the Japanese later announced in all solemnity that she must have been armed with " 6 inch machine guns " . Ironically , " Helena " made a perfect target when lit by the flashes of her own guns , which was compounded by the fact that " Helena " had fired all her flashless powder in the preceding bombardments and was left with standard smokeless powder , which produced immense flames when fired . Sinking . Seven minutes after she opened fire , " Helena " was hit by a torpedo . Within the next three minutes , she was struck by two more . Almost at once , she began to jackknife . Below , she was flooding rapidly even before she broke up and sank stern first . In a well - drilled manner , " Helena " s men went over the side . Rescue of the crew and aftermath . " Helena " s history closes with the almost incredible story of what happened to her men in the hours and days that followed . When her bow rose into the air after the sinking , many of them clustered around it , only to be fired on there . About 30 minutes after she sank , two American destroyers came to the rescue . At daylight , the enemy was in range once more , and again destroyers and broke off their rescue operations to pursue . Anticipating an air attack , the destroyers withdrew for Tulagi , carrying with them all but about 275 of the survivors . To those who remained they left four boats , manned by volunteers from the destroyers ' crews . Captain Charles Purcell Cecil , " Helena " s commanding officer , organized a small flotilla of three motor whaleboats , each towing a life raft , carrying 88 men to a small island about 7 miles from Rice Anchorage after a laborious all - day passage . This group was rescued the next morning by destroyers and . For the second group of nearly 200 , the bow of " Helena " was their life raft , but it was slowly sinking . Disaster was staved off by a Navy PB4Y - 1 ( B - 24 ) Liberator that dropped lifejackets and four rubber lifeboats . The wounded were placed aboard the lifeboats , while the able - bodied surrounded the boats and did their best to propel themselves toward nearby Kolombangara . But wind and current carried them ever further into enemy waters . Through the torturous day that followed , many of the wounded died . American search planes missed the tragic little fleet , and Kolombangara gradually faded away to leeward . Another night passed , and in the morning the island of Vella Lavella loomed ahead . It seemed the last chance for " Helena " s men and so they headed for it . By dawn , survivors in all three remaining boats observed land distant and all who were left were safely landed . Two coastwatchers and loyal natives cared for the survivors as best they could , and radioed news of them to Guadalcanal . The 165 sailors then took to the jungle to evade Japanese patrols . Surface vessels were chosen for the final rescue , " Nicholas " and " Radford " , augmented by and set off on 15 July to sail further up the Slot than ever before , screening the movement of two destroyer - transports and four other destroyers . During the night of 16 July , the rescue force brought out the 165 " Helena " men , along with 16 Chinese who had been in hiding on the island . Of " Helena " s nearly 900 men , 168 had perished . Awards . " Helena " was the first ship to receive the Navy Unit Commendation . Her actions in the Battles of Cape Esperance , Guadalcanal , and Kula Gulf were named in the citation . " Helena " also earned the Asiatic - Pacific Area Campaign Medal with seven stars .