Veterans Day 2012

To those who are or have served, thank you.  Without you, we couldn't do the goofy stuff we do today.

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When The Cherry Blossoms First Fell

Ensign Jimmy Green stared at the horizon... nothing.  There'd been nothing there for nearly ninety minutes, and he finally began to feel like he could relax, just a bit.  Below him, in one of the gun tubs, he could hear shell humpers joking about how the Jap fleet had gotten away, but Green knew in his bones that he and his ship were alive only by the Providence of fortune, a confusing decision by the Japanese to break off, and the White Plains' position towards the front of Taffy 3's formation.  At least, he thought ruefully, it became the front when the collection of Kaiser Coffins turned away from the Japs.  Yet that was the difference between him being there on the tiny island of an Escort Carrier... and being in the Pacific with his ship sitting on the bottom.  Like the Gambier Bay, he thought glumly.  He was pretty sure he'd seen her roll over and go down, with a Jap cruiser standing a few miles off throwing shells at her the whole time.  Now, though?  Nothing at all.  It was like the Japs had never been there, except for the smoke coming from Kalinin Bay, that is.  He'd overheard one of the pilots saying that her flight deck looked like swiss cheese from all the holes in it.  Green didn't like the sound of that very much at all.  Why in the world had the Japs turned around, anyway?  It didn't make sense.  When I saw that big bastard come over the horizon, I was sure I was dead, he thought to himself, and it sure ain't that they were scared off by a handful of destroyers and some Wildcats.  Then those big battleship shells started to splash around him, and Cap'n Weller kept the White Plains dancing between the salvos.  Well, lumbering at least; nobody ever accused a CVE of being nimble.  Well, some coffee might be nice.  It was only after he got the cup that he realized his hands were shaking.


more...

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Why MilHist Weeps

Today was laundry day, and I took my dual bags of dirty stuff to the laundromat near Pond Central instead of doing them here in the provided laundry room.  See, there's currently only one working dryer, and I had a week's worth of clothes and about a dozen towels and various assorted things to wash.  When I go to this particular laundromat, I always take a dense book with me.  Today's selection was the newly acquired US Aircraft Carriers: An Illustrated Design History by Norman Friedman. 
If Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War is the ultimate book on that particular topic, Friedman's work  is arguably the ultimate on the planning, design, use and upgrading of American carriers.  I've learned a lot from it, and I've only read a couple of chapters disjointedly.  So this was my entertainment whilst the laundry spun and tossed. 

Even better, when I got there there was only one other person in the place, and they were carrying their laundry out the other door!  I had a peaceful hour-and-some-minutes ahead of me!

The laundry was in the rinse cycle when a guy, probably in his fifties, came in.  He got his laundry going, then started jabbering at the attendant.  Seemed to be a nice enough guy, just refused to shut up.  Still, he wasn't bothering me so I continued to read, and you probably know where this is going by now.

Yep, after a few minutes, he walked up to me and said "I'm going to be nosy, what are you reading?"  I've had this happen once or twice before at the laundromat, and the usual result when I've showed them whatever book I'm reading has been a bemused "oh," followed by quickly finding some other place to be.  To be fair, it's hard to blame them; mine is an esoteric hobby these days, and it's not like there's much interest in the British Pacific Fleet in WWII anymore.

Not this guy, though.  He immediately began talking about how he visited the USS Lexington a few years ago.  This was interesting, until he said it was originally built as a battleship in 1924.  Ah, they must tell the visitors about the history of the name, because that's really the first carrier named Lexington (CV-2) he's talking about.  I pointed this out to him, and he disagreed; he visited the first one.  I quickly flipped through Friedman's book and found a picture of a  post-war upgraded Essex-class carrier and asked him if that's what his ship looked like?  He replied in the affirmative, angled deck and everything.  I told him he was looking at a picture of CV-16 taken in 1962.  Still he refused to believe it; he went so far as to say it was the book that was wrong.

I smiled at that.  I did a bit of flipping through the book, found a picture of CV-2, and pointed out that that was the ship he was saying he'd visited, and that it was totally impossible that he had walked upon its decks.  He was actually beginning to get angry when he asked why that was.  "Because the first Lexington was sunk during the Battle of the Coral Sea.  It's under about 10000 feet of water to the northeast of Australia."

"Are you sure?"

"Pretty darn."

"Oh."  He then kind of walked away and began talking to the attendant again.

Military History: Yeah, it kinda rocks.

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Name This Mystery Ship XX

My internet connection has been gone for most of the past two days, so now that I'm back, it's time for a Mystery Ship in celebration... and it may be a doozy.

FDM and CXT, don't sprain your hands diving for the keyboard... you two can't play for 24 hours (or 1130pm Central Pond Time on Saturday).  Everybody else, no image searching or the like, one guess per person, have at it!  Winner gets a post of your choice.  Good luck!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 11:32 PM | Comments (16) | Add Comment
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I Have Joined An Elite Group.

Every hobby has a "holy grail."  For us American rubber duck collectors, it's usually the Tolo Duck.  For those who collect baseball cards, it's the American Tobacco Company's T206 Honus Wagner.  Car collectors have different tastes... for one, it'll be a cherry '68 Mustang fastback, but another will only look at Dinos... for whatever reason.  But when you're an amateur military historian of the Pacific War like I claim to be, what's the goal?  Kaigun, Sunburst, Shattered Sword, The First Team, A Glorious Page In Our History... all of these are on The Shelf.  In the comments of that post, CXT mentioned a title I wasn't familiar with.  I looked into it and immediately began salivating: it seemed like it pushed every activation button in my brain at once.  Full of histories and detailed to the extreme, it was exactly what I look for in a mil-hist book.  That it's also considered one of the best references of all time helped a lot, too... until I took a look at the prices.

Holy jumpin' guacamole on a stick, $300???  Yeah, not so much.  However, I kept an eye on the Amazon price listing... every now and again, it'd drop to $200, and I vowed to myself that if I had the cash on hand if the price fell to $150, I'd go for it.  It still felt ridiculous spending that much on a book, but then I realized that college students spend twice that much and more on books all the time.  Eh, whatever, it's only money.  Last Friday, I clicked the link to Amazon, and...

Holy jumpin' frijoles in a hot tub, $150.  I couldn't click on the purchasing link fast enough.  Today, this Holy Grail that has been out of print for at least 10 years and had a list price of $75 in 1997... was delivered unto my hands.

And just what is this paragon of the mil-hist world?

more...

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All Along The Watchtower

The weather the previous few days had frankly been lousy.  The ships had been pitching and rolling in a way destined to make everybody who wasn't either a natural sailor or possessing good sea legs rather uncomfortable.  Alas, most of the men on board the fleet were neither.  Still, nobody begrudged the weather; it kept them hidden from eyes that would be very interested indeed at their presence.

As the sun broke over the horizon that morning, the fleet broke into two task groups.  TG Yoke headed to the north, while TG X-Ray steered south, towards the larger of the cluster of islands.  Simultaneously, escorting ships raced ahead to deliver a short, sharp bombardment.  Overhead, planes wheeled around the sky, swooping down to deliver their payloads, then return to their carriers.  Below, the transport vessels began disgorging men and machines into landing craft for the run to the beach.

In the landing craft, the men were tense and prepared for everything.  Everything, that is, except for what they got.  While to the north resistance was remarkably heavy, to the south the landing craft and amtracks were pretty much unopposed.  By the end of the first day, somewhere around 10000 men were well on their way to having landed on that island to the south.  The main enemy being reported was a nigh-on impassable jungle.  Still, nearly 1000 yards worth of progress had been made and the major objective was near at hand.

In the coming days and months the battle for this island would become a meatgrinder for both sides, chewing up men and machines and spitting them out with total disregard.  On that first day, however, the landing on the southern island gave no indication of what was to come.

The day was August 7th, 1942.  The island was Guadalcanal.  70 years ago, the War in the Pacific entered a new phase: the Allies went on the offensive.  That phase would continue until the end of the War.

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Stay To Port!!!

Like many monitors, the HMS Lord Clive and her sister ship HMS General Wolfe were armed in a ridiculous manner.  Of course, that's pretty much the very definition of a monitor: heavy weaponry on a smallish hull.  In the case of these ships, they weighed in at just under 6000 tons... bigger than a destroyer, smaller than a light cruiser.  They were just over 330 feet long, had "meh" armor, and like most monitors, they were slower than molasses.  Indeed, they could make a whopping seven knots at full power.  A lot of that came down to her beam: 87 feet from side to side if you count the torpedo bulges.  You could drop the engines from an Iowa-class into one of these ships and they still wouldn't be fast with a length:beam ratio of 4:1.  Of course, speed isn't what a monitor is for... big ol' guns, that's what monitors are for.

The Lord Clive and General Wolfe looked like they were pretty heavily armed, what with that big honkin' turret up front, carrying two 12" rifles.  That's pretty impressive on a 6000 ton hull, but that's not why they always said to stay to the port side of these ships, no no.  No, there was a very good reason for that!

That, my friends, is an 18" gun.  Let me say that again: an EIGHTEEN INCH GUN.  The gun on the General Wolfe came from the HMS Furious when she was converted to a seaplane carrier/aircraft carrier.  The 18" gun on the Lord Clive was a spare built for the Furious in case of malfunction.  On both monitors, the big'un was fixed to fire to starboard, and one can only imagine what it felt like onboard when it fired.  In fact, when the General Wolfe fired her behemoth, the ship moved sideways, like people always claim the Iowas do when they fire a broadside. This was because she had a shallow draft of eight feet at the bow, 13 feet at the stern.  They two monitors would roll like the dickens as well, lowering their rate of fire from one round/minute to one round every four minutes or so.

What appears to be a turret on the stern is really just a big blast shield with an open back.  It couldn't rotate at all, though the gun could swivel within a 20° arc.  It really wasn't intended for use against enemy shipping, but for shore bombardment.  To be fair, the two ships weren't particularly good at their job, as their guns could outrange any sighting equipment on hand, save aircraft of course... which didn't carry any radio to speak of at the time.  Still, there must be an incredible horror when you realize that someone is throwing 3000+ pound shells at you from well over the horizon.

After WWI ground to a halt, the General Wolfe was paid off and broken up in 1921, while the Lord Clive lasted until 1927 as a gunnery trials ship.

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Midway: The Speech

Want to hear a lot of great stuff about the Battle of Midway, from the mouth of one of the authors of the book Shattered Sword?  Clear an hour, bunkie, because here's Jonathan Parshall discussing it in the  General Raymond E. Mason, Jr. Distinguished Lecture Series speech at the National World War II Museum on the 70th anniversary of Midway.

A lot of good stuff there.  I'll admit that none of it was new to me, but it's safe to say that I know more about Midway than average... in part because of Parshall's work in Shattered Sword.  I'd love to have heard his thoughts on The Flight To Nowhere, though as he points in the Q&A session afterwards, there's so much to discuss regarding Midway that there's no way to get to it all in an hour.  Still a darn fine job.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:21 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Name This Mystery Ship XIX

This mystery ship just stumbled into my lap today.  I had absolutely no plans to do one of these today, but it's too good to pass up... particularly because I don't think anybody will get it!

Take your best shot.  No image searching, no cheating, no soliciting.  Winner will get a post on a topic of their choice... g'wan, impress me.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 05:43 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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Name This Mystery Ship... er... Airplane XVIII

Here ya go, take your best shot!

No hints, no clues, no cheating.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:23 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
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Name This Mystery Ship XVII

The final episode writeup for HSotD is coming along nicely, but it won't be done in time to get posted tonight... so instead, here's a mystery ship!

You know the rules.  No image lookup, one guess per person, my judgement is final, winner gets a post on a topic of their choice (no pr0n, religion or politics).  Take your best shot in the comments!  CXT and FDM don't get to play after the two of them basically won everything.  Post no bills.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:45 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Thoughts On What Didn't Happen: Midway 70 Years Later

Today is the 70th anniversary of US Navy's "Incredible Victory," that "glorious page in our history," the Battle of Midway.  In that conflict, the three carriers of the Americans (and the planes off Midway itself) engaged and sank the four carriers of the Imperial Japanese Navy.

I've gone into many, many elements of the Battle of Midway in other posts here at The Pond, such as "Timing Is Everything", "Tone #4," "Beginning The Miracle" "Midway Myths Debunked," "The Reason For Midway," "The Flight to Nowhere," and a bunch of others.  Instead of rehashing that information, or go into the level of detail one can find in the plethora of good books on the subject, I'm going to deal with some lesser issues, ones that probably aren't deserving of posts in their own right. 

So let's get to it!

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The Battle of Midway, 70 Years Later

Today is the 70th Anniversary of the Battle of Midway, the greatest of all US Naval victories.  While I intend to have a larger post on this subject later this evening, until then I leave you with the two classic movies from John Ford on the topic.
The Battle of Midway
Much of The Battle of Midway was filmed on Midway Atoll as the attack occurred.  Ford himself was wounded during the fighting.  The movie won an Academy Award for best documentary in 1942.
Torpedo Squadron 8
After the Battle and most of VT-8 was dead, Ford and his crew put together this tribute movie to them.  Most of the footage was shot shortly before Midway.  Only 30 copies were distributed, all to the family members of those squadron members flying from Hornet that day.  It was never intended for public viewing.

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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.

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.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 05:47 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
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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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Vengeance Is Mine, Sayeth The Duck

See?  Told you... Vengeance! is mine.

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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...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:48 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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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!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:36 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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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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