May 02, 2012

GOTCHA!

The USS Phoenix (CL-46) was a Brooklyn-class light cruiser built for the US Navy in 1938.  She was considered a light cruiser because her main armament consisted of 6" guns; 8" rifles were the hallmark of the heavy cruiser.  However, there weren't many ships of any fleet that would want to get within range of a Brooklyn: she carried fifteen Mark 16/47 guns in five triple turrets.  While that armament wouldn't sink a battlewagon, it'd chew the upperworks to pieces. 

The Phoenix had an adventuresome war from the get-go.  She spent nearly the entire time in the Pacific (other than a quick run to Casablanca in 1943, to deliver SecState Cordell Hull to a meeting), and was at Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941.  She herself suffered barely any damage throughout the conflict, losing only one man to enemy action (near as I can tell, that is).  When the Surrender was announced, she was heading to the US for a refit.  She then officially joined the Atlantic Fleet just long enough to be transferred to the Reserve Fleet (Philadelphia) in 1946.  Where she sat until 1951, which is when she was sold.

To Argentina, who renamed her ARA 17 de Octubre.  Shortly after the coup that overthrew Juan Peron, the Argentinian Navy gave her the name under which she became famous:

The General Belgrano.  During the Falklands War, on May 2nd, 1982, she was involved in maneuvers against the oncoming fleet of Royal Navy ships.  Thought to be part of a pincer operation with the 25 de Mayo, an ex-RN CVL carrying A-4 Skyhawks, if the Belgrano could close with the thin-skinned RN vessels, there'd be serious butchery at sea.  Modern vessels aren't armored the way they used to be; the Belgrano was built like a bank vault in comparison to the Type 42 destroyers and the various frigates she'd be facing.  She was a serious threat.  And the Brits had a serious way of dealing with her: the nuclear-powered submarine HMS Conqueror, which had been shadowing the Belgrano for 36 hours.  Once given the go-ahead, she fired three WWII era torpedoes at the cruiser.

The second hit her forward of "A" turret, carrying away 40 feet or so of her bow.  The third missed altogether, though it carried on and dented an Argentinian frigate (no explosion) some distance away.  The first torpedo hit just behind the side armor plating, penetrated into the hull of the ship, then detonated.  The explosion vented the boiler room to the sea, which began flooding immediately.  It also blew out vertically, destroying two mess halls and a recreational area before taking out a 60 foot chunk of the main deck.

After her remaining crew had abandoned ship, the General Belgrano rolled on her ends, then sunk stern first.  770 crew were later rescued, a nigh-on miraculous feat, considering that her escorts never knew she was in trouble and sailed away.

The Sun's understated headline.
Exactly 30 years ago today, May 2nd.

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Name This Mystery Ship XVI

Sometimes the Mystery Ship I trot out for these contests are found long in advance, carefully stored away until the time comes to spring them on my unsuspecting readers.  Other times, it's serendipitous.  They fall in my lap completely by accident as I'm doing something else altogether.

FDM, CXT, you two have been moved to to "master-level," so you can't play on this one.  Everybody else, take your best shot!  The winner gets a post on a topic of their choice... but no cheating.  If you cheat, you make little duckies cry, and big duckies angry.

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April 24, 2012

Name This Mystery Ship XV

Got a toughie for you today, with an extra bonus: flatdarkmars can't play!

He can't play because he's the one that brought it to my attention... and I had never heard of it.  So take your best shot, folks!  Winner gets a post on a topic of their choice, with the usual limitations.  Good luck!

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April 06, 2012

Vengeance Is Mine, Sayeth The Duck


See?  Told you... Vengeance! is mine.

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February 27, 2012

My Lexington Story

A couple of weeks ago, I'm walking up the hill from the main parking lot to the Duck U Bookstore trying to avoid the worst of the slippery spots, when a late-model Chrysler sedan pulled into one of the handicapped spots by the door.  The driver, an elderly woman, began to get out of the car as I changed course to help her if need be.  I glanced at the license plate, noticed the car's color, and began to laugh long and hard.

The woman shot me a nasty look, and I realized she probably thought I was laughing at her, not what I had just noticed.  Unable to speak from laughing so hard, I did what I could: I pointed at the license plate, then waved my hand vaguely towards the rest of the car.  Then she realized that I got the joke... and smiled, saying "Most people don't understand." 

Chuckling, I offered her my arm, which she took gratefully.  Walking into the school building the Bookstore is located in, I inquired when her husband had been in the Navy.  "1944; I didn't meet him until 1950, when I was 20."  Her husband passed away a couple of years ago, but she still kept the license plate the way he wanted it.  After we got into the building, I bid her good day... and she thanked me for both my help and for remembering my history.  "He would have talked your ear off, you know.  He could do that," she said with a gleam in her eye.  I replied with "I've got two," which made her laugh.

What made me laugh so much to begin with?  The license plate read "CV 16 USN".  The car was painted dark blue.

CV-16 was better known as USS Lexington, one of the multitude of Essex-class carriers that joined the fleet in the second half of the Pacific War.  She was the only fleet carrier never to have pattern-disrupting camouflage applied to it, wearing instead Measure 21 ("Navy Blue" hull and deck overall) for the entire war.  This paint scheme led the Japanese to give her the nickname "The Blue Ghost."

They also claimed to have sunk her four times.  While she did take some damage during the war, it was never particularly serious.  Post-war, she continued to serve until 1991, the last of the Essex-class carriers to be retired.  She's now a museum ship in Corpus Christie, Texas.

CXT figured out the mystery ship, so he gets another post...

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February 26, 2012

Name This Mystery Ship XIII

Here we go again!  One neat thing about this ship is that I've got a personal story to tell about it...

As usual, no imagesearch or anything like that.  I may not be able to prevent you from doing it, but you're less of a human being for doing so.  As is usual, the first to accurately name the ship will get a post on a topic of their choice, as long as it doesn't involve religion, politics or pr0n.

I'll tell the story when an accurate ID is made.  Good luck!

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February 23, 2012

2/23/45


The single most famous picture from WWII was taken some 67 years ago today.  The sad thing is that most people today don't realize that this wasn't the end of the fighting... oh no.  Two of the men in the picture were dead a week later.  A third was killed a few weeks after the first two.  The island of Iwo Jima was declared secure over a month after Joe Rosenthal took the picture.

27 Medals of Honor were earned at Iwo Jima, 13 posthumously.  22 of the Medals were issued to US Marines, nearly 30% of all Medals of Honor earned by Marines in WWII.

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February 22, 2012

The Shelf

You may remember that a few days ago, I had some broadband issues.  The powers that be sent a technician to the apartment complex, so as to discover just what was going on.  I gather they found nothing out of the ordinary, so the technician came into Pond Central to investigate.  When I got home some hours later, there was a note on my door, saying that there was a signal strength issue and the tech needed access to the cable outlet.  I groaned at this; the cable outlet is behind a bookcase in my living room... a bookcase overfilled with books.  While I knew this was going to be three different levels of hell to deal with, I did realize that I had been presented with a great opportunity.  For years, I've meant to get all my military history books out of my bedroom and into one of the big bookshelves in the living room... well, here was my chance! 

I should have known better.  Almost every time there's a broadband connection problem, the techs say there's a signal strength issue.  As I was getting the books out of the bookcase, my broadband connection came back.  Yay, I guess.  Still, I wasn't going to just fill the thing back up again, in case there really was a problem (for once), so I let it sit for the weekend... and the books that had been in it stacked high on my coffee table.  While it made watching TV a little difficult (read: impossible), and folding laundry a  challenge (read: are you kidding?), I put up with it until Monday.

That night, I came home from the Duck U Bookstore, changed into the grubbiest clothes I had, and began moving books from the bedroom to the living room.  Grubby, because some of them were going to be dusty as all get-out.  It took an hour, and I still haven't gotten around to organizing them other than by size, but I now have my military history reference library all in one place, where I can easily peruse them.  Before this, they were in three different bookcases AND stacked on a dresser in four piles AND stacked on top of two other bookcases.  Yeah, this works much better.

The top of the bookcase is devoted to either paperbacks (for example, "Zero!" by Martin Caidin, though my edition is substantially older than the one linked to, or "Climax at Midway" by Thaddeus Tuleja, in fact the very edition shown, for which I need to thank Uncle JoeDuck) or quick reference books from Salamander.  Those titles, and the others like it from B&N Press, are what I term bathroom reference books, because... well, that should be obvious, shouldn't it?  They aren't for in-depth research, but they often provide a good starting point for things that end up on The Pond.  Indeed, my post on HMS Nelson and HMS Rodney, The Misfit Battleships, had its genesis exactly that way.

The bottom shelf is full of Tom Clancy, both fiction and non-fiction.  They make a good solid weight for the rest of the bookcase.  Also down there are two editions of Norman Polmar's "Ships and Aircraft of the US Fleet" (the 14th and 15th, in case you're curious).  While I'd kill to have some Jane's Fighting Ships in here, they're just too expensive (though this one is reasonable... which makes me wonder why). 

In between the top and bottom is the heart and soul of The Pond's Military History category.  I haven't quite figured out how I intend to organize them yet... do I alphabetize by author?  Arrange by category (with Midway books on top)?  By size?  By spine color?  The world wonders.  If you want to take a closer look at The Collection, click on the picture for a much larger version, one where you can actually read the spines. 

Having it all in one place for the first time ever is... wow, quite daunting, actually. 

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February 12, 2012

What If...? #5: Opening The Locks

Admiral Osami Nagano walked into the meeting room with an ashen look on his face.  Taking his seat at the head of the table, he looked less like the Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy's General Staff, and more like the weak leader some thought he was.  With a shaken tone to his voice, he brought the meeting to order.  "Gentlemen, I've been informed that the aircraft carrying Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto on his inspection tour of the Solomon Islands... has been shot down.  He is confirmed dead."  As the rest of the General Staff reacted to this grim news, he continued.  "Admiral Ugaki survived, but is seriously injured."  He looked around the table.  "Coming so soon on the heels of our losses.. no, let's call them what they are, our defeats, at Midway and that damnable 'Starvation Island', this is another terrible blow.  Reports are that the first of the new American aircraft carriers is nearing completion, soon to be followed by a half-dozen more.  Gentlemen, unless something is done quickly, the unstoppable tide will soon sweep over us and wash us away.  Do any of you have any plans that can balance the ledger sheet in our favor?"

Silence fell over the table.  Nagano looked at the assembled General Staff with something approaching horror on his face.  "Nothing?  Was Yamamoto the only one of us with an imagination?"  At that goading, many of the militaristic hardliners flushed angrily but remained quiet.  From the far end of the table, a quiet yet confident voice, loud in the nearly silent room, said "There is a plan we have been working on...."

When one thinks of the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II, one undoubtedly thinks of the aircraft carriers of the Kido Butai, or the massive battleships Yamato and Musashi.  More thoughtfully, one might consider the deadly efficient force of cruisers they put to sea or their squadrons of destroyers, considered by many to be the best of the War.  Yet only rarely would any consider sparing a thought to the IJN's submarines, unless it was to react in horror to the kaiten manned torpedoes fielded as a counterpoint to the kamikaze.  This is a mistake, as the Japanese submarine force was interestingly varied, not to mention fairly successful in their generally assigned role of warship hunters.  Japanese submarines sank as many American fleet carriers (two, Yorktown and Wasp) as their conventional naval air did (Lexington and Hornet). 

On the whole, Japanese submarines were inventive and cleverly designed, if perhaps ill-used.  Without a doubt, however, there was one surprising class of submarine where they were the unquestioned best in the world.

more...

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February 04, 2012

Name This Mystery Ship XII

Might be a fun one this time... or it might be ridiculously easy.  It'll be one of the two, for sure.

Usual rules apply: no Imagesearch or anything like that.  I can't do anything about it, but your victory will be tainted and hagridden.  If you DO win, you get a post on a topic of your choice!  While I don't do politics, religion or pr0n (other than F1 Pr0n), anything else is fair game.

So get your guessin' shoes on!

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January 29, 2012

Name This Mystery Ship XI

Well, this is a fine kettle of fish.  I received an e-mail this afternoon from the Official First Friend of The Pond, Vaucaunson's Duck.  Attached was a challenge: "Name This Mystery Ship."  After working on it for an hour or so, I gave up.  And now it's your turn... and I don't know the answer!

My guess is that it's a destroyer, destroyer escort, or frigate.  The flag looks Dutch, but my searching didn't turn up a match of any sort.  I guess it could be a cruiser, but it seems like the armament is awfully light for that.

Name the ship and if Vauc can verify that your guess is correct, you win a post on a topic of your choice!  As usual, I won't write about politics, religion or pr0n... anything else is free game.  Have at it, y'all!

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January 03, 2012

Combustable Vulnerable Expendable 79


The USS Ommaney Bay (CVE-79) was the twenty-fifth of the fifty Casablanca-class escort carrier built.  Constructed in just over two months by the Kaiser Company shipyard in Vancouver, WA, she weighed in at just over 10000 tons at full load.  At full steam, she could move her crew of 860 men and the embarked "composite wing" of 28 planes at 19kts.  Like most other escort carriers, she wasn't designed to fight with the fleet.  Instead, CVEs were to be used first as stopgaps, then when bigger carriers became available, to free up the more capable CVs and CVLs to hunt for bigger targets.  In effect, the CVE became a air support unit, providing air cover for amphibious landings.  It was in this role that she was off Leyte as part of Taffy 2 when Admiral Kurita's fleet famously attacked Taffy 3.  Ommaney Bay helped sink one of the Japanese cruisers and aided in the defeat of the larger Japanese force.  And it was in the air support role that the Ommaney Bay was going to serve as she transited the Sulu Sea. 

Then the kamikazes came.

more...

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December 27, 2011

Name This Mystery Ship X

No actual contest this time around, as this one would be too easy to brute-force, but nevertheless: Name This Mystery Ship!

Get it right, and you will gain the people's ovation and fame forever.  Get it wrong, and... uhm... nothing will happen.  So there!

UPDATE: Since nobody's gotten it yet, I'll just give the answer.  The ship pictured is CVE-123, the USS Tinian.  She was completed in just under six months, and was launched in September 1945.  She was never actually comissioned, sailing right from acceptance trials into the Pacific Reserve Fleet where she sat until 1970.  She was struck from the list on June 1st, 1970, and sold for scrap 18 months later.  The Tinian had never been a US Navy warship.

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December 24, 2011

God Mode / NoClip

Imagine, if you will, that you have the ability to travel back in time and space to one location during World War II.  You will not be able to influence events, nor will your presence be noticed, but you will be able to see and understand anything you'd like in that location.  Even if you don't know the language being spoken, you will know what's being said, what's being written, so on and so forth.  You will, for all intents and purposes, be the ultimate historian.  You can travel, but only as far as conveyances of the day can take you: if you wanted to see the bombing of Coventry from the air you can, but it'd be from one plane only.  If you want to observe the Marianas Turkey Shoot, it can only be from one p.o.v. (though you could start on an aircraft carrier and "board" a plane, even a fighter).

Perhaps unsurprisingly considering my personal interests, I'd choose the Battle of Midway.  More specifically, I'd choose to station myself on the bridge of the USS Hornet, just so I could find out what REALLY happened leading up to the "Flight To Nowhere", and what occurred afterwards.  I'd probably jump into Stanhope Ring's SBD to find out his reactions and to see his heading choice.

My second pick would to be onboard the Akagi on June 4th, 1942.  To see the events of Midway unfold from the standpoint of the Japanese would be nigh-on invaluable.  My third choice would be May 27, 1941, onboard the HMS Rodney, to witness the sinking of the Bismarck, and to see if the Rodney really did torpedo the German battleship.

So what event would you choose?

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December 18, 2011

Hal Far Flight

One of the famous stories of World War II is that of the legendary defenders of Malta, Faith, Hope and Charity. As the legend goes, when Malta was placed under aerial siege by the Italians in June of 1940, there were only three British fighters to defend the entire island.  To make things even more grim, the fighters were obsolete Gloster Sea Gladiators, the last biplane fighter in RAF/FAA inventory.  These three planes managed to hold back the Italian Regia Aeronautica until the Germans got involved in early 1941.  It's a wonderful story, one that surely went a long way toward boosting British morale in those dark days of the War. 

Like many of those types of stories, there's quite a bit of... um... let's call it embellishment... involved.

more...

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December 07, 2011

70 Years



Today is the 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.  It will also be the final one for the Pearl Harbor Survivor's Association, which will disband on December 31st, 2011, ending its 53-year existence.  There may only be around 2000 or so men left of those who were at Pearl that Sunday morning.  Today, we remember those who fought, those who died and those vanishing few who remain.


And we offer our thanks.

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December 06, 2011

Name This Mystery Ship IX

Just because I stumbled upon this story last week, name this mystery ship!



No cheating, folks... that takes all the fun out of it.

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December 01, 2011

Which Fighter Is Best? Part II: The Early Years

In December of 1941, when the United States joined the rest of the world's industrialized nations in the first truly globe-spanning war, there was a tremendous range of single-seat fighters both in use and under design everywhere.  However, to paraphrase a later persona, you go to war with the military you have, not the one you wish you had.  What was a nation's front-line fighter plane in 1942 was obsolescent in 1943 and a death trap a year later.  This entry will examine the best fighter planes from the "early years," and decide which of them is the best.  Bear in mind, however, that in the hands of a talented pilot any one of these planes could beat any of the others.  None of them could be considered a "dog," just perhaps not quite as good as the eventual winner.

As previously mentioned, the US gets two planes, one from the Navy and one from the USAAF, since the two services had completely different design criteria which generated completely different fighters.  The Japanese, Germans and British get one entry each.

The entries are presented in no particular order.  Let's get on with it.


more...

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November 28, 2011

Which Fighter Is Best? Part I: Introduction

If you stick two or more WWII otaku in a room, supply them with beer and pretzels and a suitable collection of Avalon Hill games, close the door and walk away, three things will happen:

1) the beer will disappear;
2) a game will be played (probably not Source of the Nile, however);
3) an argument will break out.

Unless the argument is about the rules of the game being played ("Of course a T-34/85 can move in a lake hex... the rules don't say it can't!"), it will invariably be one about "which is best".  Best tank, best rifle, best navy, best game, best way to carry dice (Crown Royal bag), best infantry, the topics one can choose from are endless.

Except amongst the grognards I know, the discussion always veers to "best fighter."  There would never be any structure to these arguments, devolving quickly to people championing their favorite plane, sometimes (depending on the amount of beer consumed) quite heatedly.  Almost always the answer would end up being the P-51 Mustang, because, well, look at it

But is it really the best fighter of World War II?

more...

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November 07, 2011

Attention To Orders


I would like to call your attention to the creation of a new category here at Wonderduck's Pond.  It's been a long time coming, and it's an even longer time overdue, but I'm happy to finally announce the debut of the "Military History" category.  It'll take some time to get everything sorted out and filed away, but now there's someplace to put my military stuff other than the "various" bucket.

I'm actually surprised at how much MilHist stuff I've written... should have done this a long time ago.

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