Трагедия крейсера "Джуно": гибель братьев Салливанов во Второй мировой войне

Irish American brothers killed in World War II
the fictional characters, Damien and Anthony Sullivan

The Sullivan brothers were five brothers from Waterloo, Iowa who served together on the light cruiser Juneau. They were all killed in action during and shortly after its sinking around November 13, 1942. On Saturday, March 17, 2018, the wreckage of the USS Juneau was discovered off the coast of the Solomon Islands by the expedition crew of Research Vessel Petrel, owned by Microsoft co founder Paul Allen.

The Sullivans enlisted in the US Navy on January 3, 1942, with the stipulation that they serve together. The Navy had a policy of separating siblings, but this was not strictly enforced. George and Frank had served in the Navy before, but their brothers had not. All five were assigned to the light cruiser Juneau. The Sullivans were not the only brother sailors on board the ship. At least thirty sets of brothers served on the Juneau, including the two Rogers brothers from Bridgeport, Connecticut. Before the ill fated Savo Island operation, two of the Rogers brothers were transferred to other commands. According to those who survived, had the ship returned to port safely, at least two Sullivans would have also transferred. Juneau participated in a number of naval engagements during the months long Guadalcanal Campaign beginning in August 1942. Early in the morning of November 13, 1942, during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, Juneau was struck by a Japanese torpedo and forced to withdraw. Later that day, as it was leaving the Solomon Islands' area for the Allied rear area base at Espiritu Santo with other surviving US warships from battle, the Juneau was struck again, this time by a torpedo from the Japanese submarine I 26. The torpedo likely hit the thinly armored light cruiser at or near the ammunition magazines, and the ship exploded and quickly sank. Captain Gilbert C. Hoover, commanding officer of the light cruiser Helena, and the senior officer present afloat (SOPA) of the battle damaged US task force, was skeptical that anyone had survived the sinking of Juneau and believed it would be reckless to look for survivors, thereby exposing his wounded ships to a still lurking Japanese submarine. Therefore, he ordered his ships to continue on towards Espiritu Santo. Helena signaled a nearby US B 17 bomber on patrol to notify Allied headquarters to send aircraft or ships to search for survivors. In actual fact, approximately 100 of Juneaus crew had survived the torpedo attack and the sinking of their ship and were left in the water. The B 17 bomber crew, under orders not to break radio silence, did not pass the message about searching for survivors to their headquarters until they had landed several hours later. The crew's report of the location of possible survivors was mixed in with other pending paperwork actions and went unnoticed for several days. It was not until days after the ship had been sunk that headquarters staff realized that a rescue operation had never been mounted, and belatedly ordered aircraft to begin searching the area. In the meantime, Juneaus survivors, many of whom were seriously wounded, were exposed to the elements, hunger, thirst, and repeated shark attacks. Eight days after the sinking, ten survivors were found by a PBY Catalina search aircraft and retrieved from the water. The survivors reported that Frank, Joe and Matt were all killed instantly, Al drowned the next day, and George survived for four or five days, before suffering from delirium as a result of hypernatremia (though some sources describe him being "driven insane with grief" at the loss of his brothers); he climbed over the side of the raft he had occupied and fell into the water. He was never seen or heard from again. Security required that the Navy not reveal the loss of Juneau or the other ships so as not to provide information to the enemy. Letters from the Sullivan sons stopped arriving at the home and the parents grew worried, which prompted Alleta Sullivan to write to the Bureau of Naval Personnel in January 1943, citing rumors that survivors of the task force claimed that all five brothers were killed in action. This letter was answered by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on January 13, 1943, who acknowledged that the Sullivans were missing in action, but by then the parents were already informed of their fate, having learned of their deaths on January 12.

The Sullivan Brothers have a Department of Defense Dependents Schools elementary school in Yokosuka, Japan, named in their honor. A museum wing has been built in honor of their service in World War II. The museum is located in downtown Waterloo, Iowa, their hometown. It was completed in 2008. The grand opening occurred on November 15, 2008. The $11.5 million, state of the art facility aims to play a role in preserving the history and service of Iowa veterans and serve as a facility for research and genealogy studies. The brothers' hometown of Waterloo, Iowa, renamed its convention center in 1988 as "The Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center". In June 2017, the city was considering a proposal to sell the center to a developer who would renovate the facility and change its name. The proposal met with some community opposition. The town also named a street and a public park in their honor. The park is the location of their childhood home.

Tom and Alleta Sullivan made speaking appearances at war plants and shipyards on behalf of the war effort. Later, Alleta participated in the launching of a destroyer, The Sullivans, named after her sons. Thomas and Alleta Sullivan toured the country promoting war bonds and asked that none of their sons died in vain. As a direct result of the Sullivans' deaths (and the deaths of four of the Borgstrom brothers within a few months of each other two years later), the U. S. War Department adopted the Sole Survivor Policy. The Navy named two destroyers The Sullivans to honor the brothers: The Sullivans and The Sullivans. DD 537 was the first American Navy ship ever named after more than one person. The motto for both ships was/is "We stick together." The Sullivans Association, an organization of veterans who served on both US Navy ships named after the brothers, conducted a reunion on September 25, 2011, in Waterloo, Iowa. The attendees gathered at Sullivans Park, visited Calvary Cemetery and laid flowers at the graves of the Sullivan brothers' parents and sister, and visited the neighborhood where the family had lived.

The brothers' story was filmed as the 1944 movie The Sullivans (later renamed The Fighting Sullivans) and inspired, at least in part, the 1998 film Saving Private Ryan. The Sullivans were also briefly mentioned in Saving Private Ryan. The song "Sullivan" by the alternative rock band Caroline's Spine tells the story of the Sullivans.