ONE  OF  THE  MOST  REMARKABLE  SURFACE  BATTLES  OF  WWII

Edwin Joseph O’Hara was born on November 27, 1923 in Lindsay, California and grew up on the family farm where his father grew oranges and wheat, and young Edwin was a member of the Future Farmers of America.  However, Edwin dreamt of seeing the world and in late 1941 he was accepted in the Cadet program at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.  Before graduation, students were required to spend time at sea and thus on March 14, 1942, Engine Cadet O’Hara signed on aboard the troop ship SS Mariposa.  However, a knee infection required he sign off the Mariposa when it arrived in San Francisco on May 3, 1942 and on May 16, with the infection cleared up, he signed on for duty at San Francisco aboard the newly delivered Liberty ship SS STEPHEN HOPKINS.

Her maiden voyage took STEPHEN HOPKINS from San Francisco to Bora Bora, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, and then into the Atlantic Ocean bound for British Guiana, where on the morning of September 27, 1942, she met her fate off Surinam.  While proceeding through haze she spotted two ships coming out of the fog not far away.  The ships were the German surface raider STIER and its supply ship TANNENFELS.  The STIER was a former merchant ship disguised as a neutral-flag cargo ship and she now carried six 5.9-inch guns hidden behind false deck panels. 

A scant three minutes after the two ships were sighted and they neared to about 1,000-yards, shots suddenly pierced the STEPHEN HOPKINS superstructure.  As Navy Armed Guard gunners and mariners assigned as loaders raced to their guns, they saw a ship off the starboard bow about their same size firing at them.  Thus, began one of the most remarkable surface battles of World War II.  Explosions rocked the ship and machine gun fire was raking the decks.  The order was given to steer STEPHEN HOPKINS so the stern with its single World War One era 4-inch gun would point at the enemy and at the same time present the smallest target.  Although severely wounded, the commander of the Armed Guard expertly directed the 4-inch gun at the waterline of the German raider, getting a shot off about every 45-seconds.  They made every shot count as they hit the STIER’s rudder and then damaged its forward guns.

STEPHEN HOPKINS took damaging shots and the ship went almost dead in the water.  The STIER continued putting shell after shell into the upper works of STEPHEN HOPKINS.  A large caliber shell hit near the 4-inch stern gun killing all the men nearby.  Engine Cadet O’Hara saw the 4-inch gun was deserted, so although untrained, he ran to the gun.  His first duty was traumatic as he had to clear away the dead bodies of men.  He then managed to muscle the remaining five 91-pound rounds into the breach of the gun, aimed it and fired the gun all by himself.  Survivors later said that all five rounds O’Hara fired hit the STIER.  Survivors said that immediately after firing the last round, O’Hara was killed by incoming fire as he stood next to the gun.  Others said he was killed by machine gun fire while attempting to help some of the wounded into the one undamaged lifeboat as it prepared to leave the sinking ship.  What is known for sure is that his body went down with the ship.  The firefight lasted about half an hour leaving STIER in shambles as was the STEPHEN HOPKINS.  Both ships were on fire and sinking.  After an hour or so she sank as did the STIER.

As the battle concluded, surviving crewmembers lowered the only seaworthy lifeboat into the water and soon nineteen survivors managed to board it.  The sole surviving officer took command of the lifeboat which had no navigational instruments other than a compass.  With little food and water, a course was set for land 2,200 miles away.  The small boat beat her way westward for thirty-one days.  Despite all efforts in their behalf, three wounded crewmembers died and there were times when delirium threatened.  Finally, sixteen desperate men made a safe landing at a remote fishing village in Brazil.  A U.S. Navy lieutenant sent to meet them commented that they “were never for one moment beaten.  After days of being battered together on a cramped lifeboat, they were still lavishing praise on one another, helping one another.” 

When news of the battle was released the STEPHEN HOPKINS was hailed as a “Hero Ship” and the ship and its crew were awarded the U.S. Maritime Commission’s Gallant Ship Unit Citation.  During World War II it was the only U.S. merchant ship to sink a German surface warship.  Engine Cadet O’Hara was posthumously awarded the Merchant Marine Distinguished Service Medal, the highest award which can be bestowed upon members of that service.  In his honor, the merchant ship SS EDWIN O’HARA was later named for him.  Additionally, a painting is on display at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy depicting Engine Cadet O’Hara loading the 4-inch gun of the SS STEPHEN HOPKINS.

MERCHANT MARINE DISTINGUISHED SERVICE MEDAL CITATION

The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the Merchant Marine Distinguished Service Medal to Edwin Joseph O’Hara, Engine Cadet on SS Stephen Hopkins on September 27,1942 for extraordinary heroism under unusual hazards.  Two enemy surface raiders suddenly appeared out of the morning mist to attack the merchantman upon which he was serving.  Heavy guns of one raider pounded his ship, and machine guns from the other, sprayed her decks for one-half hour at close quarters. The heroic gun crew of O’Hara’s ship exchanged shot for shot with the enemy, placing thirty-five shells into the waterline of one of the raiders until its crew was forced to abandon their sinking ship. The gun commander was mortally wounded early in the action, and all of the gun crew were killed or wounded when an enemy shell exploded the magazine of their gun.  At the explosion, O’Hara ran aft and single-handedly served and fired the damaged gun with five live shells remaining in the ready box, scoring direct hits near the waterline of the second raider. O’Hara was mortally wounded in this action. With boilers blown up, engines destroyed, masts shot away, and ablaze from stem to stern, the gallant merchantman finally went under carrying O’Hara and several of his fighting shipmates with her.  The magnificent courage of this young cadet constitutes a degree of heroism which will be an enduring inspiration to seamen of the United States Merchant Marine everywhere.

Cadet O'Hara fires shells at the Stier.
Tannenfels is also on fire in the distance.
[Painting by W.M. Wilson, at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy]

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)