USS Mount Hood explodes

10th November 1944: A massive explosion utterly destroys the ammunition ship, leaving no trace of any of the crew on board - or even of small craft nearby

USS Mount Hood (AE-11) exploding in Seeadler Harbor, Manus, Admiralty Islands, 10 November 1944, the smoke trails are left by fragments ejected by the explosion.

Exactly a year after being named after a volcano in the Cascade Mountains in Oregon, the USS Mount Hood lay at berth off Manus Island, north of the Admiralty Isles in New Guinea. With around 40…