Army & Navy: Death of the Houston

On the night of Feb. 28, 1942, a radio flash told the Navy that its cruiser Houston had joined battle with the Japs. Then there was silence. Everyone knew the Houston must have gone down; everyone was sure that she had gone down gallantly. But not until last week, when the Navy gathered reports from survivors who had been held incommunicado in Japanese prison camps until the end of the war, was the story told:

For a month the Houston had been taking it in a hopeless, losing, running battle with the powerful Imperial Fleet. Her crew was red-eyed and groggy from...

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