Claude Hubert Breedlove

Fireman Second Class Claude Hubert Breedlove was killed in action November 14, 1942 during World War II in the First Naval Battle of Guadalcanal when his ship, the U.S.S. Barton, was torpedoed and sank.  He was 22 years old.

Claude Hubert Breedlove was born in Middleburg, Vance County, North Carolina on September 19, 1920, the son of Ernest G. Breedlove and Mattie Jackson Breedlove.  He attended Middleburg High School before joining the Navy in September 1940.

In 1942, Breedlove was deployed to the Pacific Theater of War and assigned to the U.S.S. Barton.  Arriving off Guadalcanal on November 12, 1942 after safely escorting a supply convoy to the island, Barton was ordered to join up with Rear Admiral Daniel J. Callaghan's force of five cruisers and seven other destroyers to repel a force of Japanese warships reported by recon aircraft to be heading down the body of water known as 'The Slot' towards Guadalcanal.

Steaming through a heavy rain squall, the Japanese ships consisting of two battleships, one cruiser and eleven destroyers, were totally unaware of the presence of the American force directly ahead of them, and the heavy rain prevented the US fleet from sighting the Japanese ships for over an hour after the first radar contact.

Both sides finally made visual contact with each other as the first Japanese ships emerged from the squall line only 3,000 yards away from the entire US formation. Despite the Americans having steamed directly into the middle of the Japanese force, neither side opened fire for almost ten minutes as they passed by each other, with the Japanese ships enveloping the American battle column as they emerged from the darkness in three separate groups.  Fully enveloped by Japanese battle lines, Barton and Monssen, steaming astern, broke to the northwest into the main group of Japanese ships while firing at point blank range on nearby Japanese destroyers and making violent maneuvers to avoid collisions with both friendly and enemy ships in the melee. Barton had just fired a full spread of torpedoes at the battleship Hiei when the light cruiser USS Helena appeared suddenly out of the darkness and cut directly across the bow of Barton. Making an emergency stop to avoid colliding with Helena, Barton found herself at a dead stop as her engineering crew tried to get her engines back into gear to get her moving again. Before she could get underway, two 'Long Lance' torpedoes fired by the Amatsukaze slammed into the midsection of Barton; one in her boiler room and one in her engine room. The massive explosions broke the Barton in two, and both sections sank only minutes after the first torpedo struck, carrying with her 164 men: 13 officers and 151 of her crew, including F2C Breedlove.

Fireman Second Class Claude Breedlove is memorialized in the Manila American Cemetery, Manila, Philippines. 

Last edited: 28 April 2026