A stirring depiction of the Royal Navy aircraft carrier, HMS Courageous (50), after being torpedoed by German submarine KMS U-29 under Kptlt. Otto Schuhart, on 17 September 1939, some 84 years ago today. Schuhart had stalked the carrier for hours before gaining the right range and angle to launch his fish.
Artwork by Adolf Bock, published by Verlag Erich Klinghammer, Berlin, Germany, 1949. LOC LC-DIG-PPMSCA-18356
Launched on 4th February 1916 Courageous was completed in January 1917 as a 22,500-ton battlecruiser with BL 15-inch guns and served in the Great War, only converting to a flattop in 1924 as a result of the London Naval Treaty. She was the first major Royal Navy warship lost in WWII.
Some 518 lives were lost including many Reservists and Pensioners. Some survivors were rescued by HM Destroyer Echo.
As a consequence of this loss and an unsuccessful U-boat torpedo attack on HM Aircraft Carrier Ark Royal on 14th September, the policy of using aircraft carriers for ASW search and destroy patrols was abandoned by the Royal Navy until new American-made escort carriers became available after late 1942.
Meanwhile, in Germany, the Courageous was the first high-value sinking credited to the U-boat arm, and the whole crew of U-29 received the EK II (Iron Cross) while as commander, Schuhart received both the EK I and the EK II then, in May 1940 after growing his record, the Ritterkreuz.
As for U-29, the Type VIIA U-boat became a training submarine in 1941 and was scuttled in May 1945 at Kupfermuhle Bay, near the Danish-German border.
Her skipper, the lucky Kptlt. Schuhart, would leave U-29 after 7 patrols in January 1941 and with some 90,000 tons of shipping on his tally sheet to ride a desk for the rest of the war as an instructor in the 1st ULD (Unterseeboots-Lehr-Division) then later as commander of the 21st Training Flotilla. He joined the reformed West German Bundesmarine in 1955, retiring in 1967 with the rank of Kapitän zur See. He passed in 1990, aged 80.
The name “Navajo,” referencing the Diné people, has been used by the U.S. Navy six times, five of these for hard-working and unsung tugs who, going beyond the title, typically served as rescue and salvage ships.
The first, the 800-ton USS Navajo (AT-52), was in commissioned service from 1908 to 1937 and in non-commissioned service as IX-56 (ex-Navajo) from 1942 to 1946. She spent her entire career in the Hawaiian Islands and was key in the salvage of Battleship Row, helping to return the sunken battleships USS California and West Virginia to service.
Salvage of USS F-4 (SS-23), April-August 1915. Description: All salvage pontoons on the surface, off Honolulu, Hawaii, circa 29 August 1915, with preparations underway to tow the sunken submarine into Honolulu Harbor. The salvage equipment was devised by Naval Constructor Julius A. Furer. Halftone photograph, copied from Transactions of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, Volume 24, 1916, Figure 13. The tug in the center is probably USS Navajo (AT-52). NH 43499
The second USS Navajo (AT-64), was the lead ship of a new 1,300-ton class of seagoing tugs commissioned in 1940.
USS Navajo (AT-64), starboard bow view.
She was on duty on December 7, 1941, at Pearl Harbor and was one of the first on rescue duty after the attack.
USS Arizona (BB-39) sunk at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, after her fires were out, on 9 December 1941. She was destroyed during the Japanese raid of 7 December 1941. USS Navajo (AT-64) and USS Tern (AM-31) are alongside, spraying water to cool her burned-out forward superstructure and midship area. In the left center distance are the masts of USS West Virginia (BB-48) and USS Tennessee (BB-43). NH 83064
Navajo later went forward with the fleet to the New Hebrides and, in the words of DANFS, “supported operations there with repair and salvage work at Espíritu Santo in the New Hebrides, Nouméa at New Caledonia, Tongatabu, Tonga, and Suva in the Fiji Islands, as well as under battle conditions at Tulagi, Guadalcanal, and Rennell in the Solomons.”
She was influential in recovering the battle-damaged USS Saratoga (CV-3) after the precious carrier was hit by a torpedo from the Japanese submarine I-26 in September 1942, then helped rescue the bulk of the crew of the lost cruiser USS Chicago (CA-29) the following January in the aftermath of the Battle of Rennell Island.
Caricature drawing by AOM2c M.O. Martindale (on board USS Saratoga 11 September 1942) of tug Navajo pulling Saratoga (CV-3) with the caption, “rest easy Saratoga, we have you in tow!” Courtesy of Fleet Admiral Nimitz. NH 58336
Sadly, the heroic tug was lost at sea 80 years ago this week while towing the loaded 6,600-ton gasoline barge YOG-42 from Samoa to Espíritu Santo, when the barge suddenly exploded. It was estimated the whole tragedy was over within two minutes before both vessels sank, taking 17 of Navajo’s crew to the bottom. The culprit: a single torpedo from the Japanese submarine I-39.
The third USS Navajo (ATA-211) was an 800-ton Sotoyomo-class rescue tug in commission from 1945 to 1962. A hearty vessel, she worked in the Gulf oil field industry for decades afterward and is still around, currently operating from Flordia as the Honduran-flagged tug Hyperion.
USS Navajo (ATA-211), seen in the late 1940s in Key West. NH 83829
The fourth, USNS Navajo (T-ATF-169), was a Powhatan-class fleet ocean tug in service with Military Sealift Command from 1980 to 2016. She is still in Navy custody, mothballed in Pearl Harbor.
USNS Navajo (T-ATF-169) tows the decommissioned USS Belleau Wood (LHA-3) from the pier side in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, 10 July 2006, out to open waters for an upcoming sink exercise (SINKEX) as part of exercise Rim of the Pacific 2006. US Navy photo # 060710-N-9288T-048 by MC2 Brandon A. Teeples.
A group of wreck hunters, working off the Belgian coast, have discovered a pair of German U-boats that have been lost since World War I. The wrecks include the Kriegsmarine’s German Type U 5 submarine class leader, SM U5 (Kptlt. Johannes Lemmer), and the Type UC I minelayer submarine SM UC-14 (Oblt. (R) Adolf Feddersen).
SM U-5 was an early pre-war boat, commissioned on 2 July 1910, and was small even for her era (500 tons, 181-foot overall) but she was still capable, carrying a single 37mm deck gun and four 17.7-inch tubes with six fish.
German Imperial Navy submarines at Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein (Germany), before the First World War. The boats are: U 13, U 5, U 11, U 3, and U 16 (first row, l-r); U 9, U 12, U 6, and U ? (second row, l-r). To the left of U 9 are the torpedo boat S 99 and the hulk Acheron. The Acheron had been the frigate SMS Moltke (I), commissioned in 1878. After decommissioning she was renamed on 28 October 1911 and used as a barracks ship for submarine crews at Kiel. She was finally scrapped in 1920. A battlecruiser or battleship is visible in the background.
SM U-5 was lost very early in the war– on 18 December 1914– with no recorded sinkings of enemy ships on her two patrols. She took all of her 29 crew members to the bottom.
As for SM UC-14, she was even smaller, displacing just 183 tons (submerged) and having an overall length of 111 feet.
Carrying no torpedoes or large caliber guns, her very successful class used six 39-inch top-loaded/bottom dropping tubes, each with two 710-pound Type II mines, each filled with 290 pounds of guncotton, to sow minefields.
Type II mine being loaded into a UC minelaying submarine. IWM photograph Q 20345.
SM UC-5, of the class UC-14 was in. This image after she was captured by the British.
SM UC-14, a war baby that was commissioned on 3 June 1915 just five months after she was laid down, conducted 38 short war patrols, and her minefields were credited with sinking 16 ships the Italian battleship Regina Margherita (13,215 tons) — one of the largest ships claimed by U-boats during the war.
Italian pre-dreadnought battleship Regina Margherita passing through the Canale Navigabile, Taranto, 1912
UC-14, a boat that lived by the mine, also died by the mine, sunk on 3 October 1917 by what appears to be a British minefield off Zeebrugbee, taking her 17-man crew to the cold dark below.
See the below video of the wreckage. The wreck of U 5 is reported to be in good shape while UC 14 was lost in a heavy explosion and in a bad shape.
And so we remember.
Auf einem Seemannsgrab, da blühen keine Rosen Auf einem Seemannsgrab, da blüht kein Blümelein Der einz’ge Schmuck für uns, das sind die weißen Möwen Und heiße Tränen, die ein kleines Mädl weint Der einz’ge Schmuck für uns, das sind die weißen Möwen Und heiße Tränen, die ein kleines Mädl weint
These haunting images of two Royal Navy warships – the Parker-class flotilla leader HMS Hoste and the M-class destroyer HMS Negro – have just been released.
The wreck of HMS Hoste
The wrecks have been discovered between Orkney and Fair Isle by divers from Lost in Waters Deep who conducted extensive archival research before heading to the area and confirming their studies. The two ships were lost following a collision on 21 December 1916 during the Great War.
Both Hoste and Negro lie around 100 metres (330ft) down. Hoste had been in service a month – and Negro was not much older – when the two ships sailed from Scapa Flow, the Royal Navy’s key base in both world wars, for exercises just six days before Christmas in 1916.
In the small hours of December 20, HMS Hoste suffered steering problems and was ordered to return to base, escorted by Negro. The two ships collided when Hoste was unable to manoeuvre, due to a steering gear defect, and Negro unable to avoid her.
Not only did HMS Negro smash into Hoste’s stern, but the collision also caused the release of depth charges which detonated and crippled Negro and she sank fairly rapidly. Hoste was initially able to slowly proceed under her own steam, but a few hours later the worsening sea state caused the ship to break in two and she was also lost.
All but four of the 138 sailors aboard Hoste were rescued, but Negro lost 51 officers and men.
The divers also found the wreck of merchant vessel SS Express, sliced in two by HMS Grenville in the dead of night in early 1918.
And so we remember.
There are no roses on sailors’ graves, Nor wreaths upon the storm-tossed waves, No last post from the King’s band, So far away from their native land, No heartbroken words carved on stone, Just shipmates’ bodies there alone, The only tributes are the seagulls sweep, And the teardrop when a loved one weeps.
Some 80 years ago this week, in the North Atlantic west of the Canary Islands, the German Type IXC/40 U-boat, U-185 (Kptlt. August Maus), with 31 waterlogged survivors of the lost U-604 aboard, met her end at the hand of depth charges dropped from Willie 9, a TBF Avenger aircraft of VC-13 from the deck of the Bouge-class escort carrier USS Core (CVE-13).
The event was chronicled by Core’s airwing.
The explosion caused by Lt. Williams’ two exploding depth charges dropped on a German submarine, U-185. The bow of the submarine protrudes from the bottom of the explosion. Incident #4082. Released August 24, 1943. Official U.S. Navy photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-77195
German submarine, U-185, sinking after the combined attack of several aircraft from USS Core (CVE 13), principally from two depth charges from an Avenger piloted by Lieutenant R.P. Williams, USNR. Incident #4082. Released August 24, 1943. Official U.S. Navy photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-77196
In all, U-185 went down with 29 dead (including 14 men from U-604) while 22 survivors were rescued and eventually became POWs.
German survivors from the German submarine, U-185, in the water after being sunk by aircraft from USS Core (CVE-13), piloted by Lieutenant R.P. Williams, USNR, August 24, 1943 They were in the water for six hours before being picked up by destroyer. Incident #4082. Official U.S. Navy photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-77198
Submarine survivors of U 185 and U 604 resting on the flight deck of USS Core (CVE 13). Released August 24, 1943. Official U.S. Navy photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-77202
From Core’s war diary, a very matter-of-fact entry for that Tuesday morning:
Core had a particularly effective “hunter-killer patrol” in the late summer of 1943.
Per DANFS:
Core’s second hunter-killer patrol, from 16 August to 2 September 1943 netted her planes U-86 on 24 August in 27-09′ N., 37-03′ W., and U-185 the same day in 27-00′ N., 37-06′ W. Putting to sea again 5 October in TG 21.15, Core’s planes sank U-378 on 20 October in 47-40′ N,, 28-27′ W. She returned to Norfolk 19 November.
USS Core (CVE-13) underway in the Atlantic, probably on 10 October 1943. The wing of the plane from which the photograph was taken is in the foreground. Note also that the planes of her air group are painted white and gull grey to make it difficult for U-boats to see against the sky. Core would continue to serve after the war as an aircraft transport, taking helicopters to Vietnam. She was scrapped in 1971. NH 106565
As for the good Kapitänleutnant August Wilhelm Hugo Maus, he had claimed some 70,000 GRT in tonnage while he was active and earned a Knights Cross while in American custody. Speaking of which, he and five other U-boat officers were able to escape from the lightly guarded POW camp at Papago Park, Arizona on 12 February 1944 but was soon after recaptured in Tucson. Maus later helped dig a tunnel that allowed 25 POWs to escape on the night of 23-24 December 1944, but he elected to remain behind due to an injury. He was eventually repatriated and died in Hamburg in 1986, aged 81.
The splasher of Maus’s boat, LT Robert Pershing Williams, then a 26-year-old Naval pilot hailing from Snoqualmie, Washington who formerly had flown an SBD dive bomber with Bombing Two from USS Lexington (earning a Navy Cross) during the Battle of Coral Sea, flew against U-185 with Morris C. Grinstead, Aviation Radioman, First Class, U.S.N., 21, of Letts, Iowa and turret gunner Melvin H. Paden, Aviation Machinist’s Mate, Second Class, U.S.N., 19, Route 4, Box 17, Salinas, California. The action earned Williams a second Navy Cross.
Acclaimed cartoonist, Wood Cowan used his story to help sell War Bonds.
Above we see the third flight S-class diesel boat, HM Submarine Simoom (P225), underway, likely in 1943, her only year of service. A rather unlucky boat, Simoom fired 15 war shot torpedoes in her career and, although she never hit a target that she intended to punch a hole into, she did manage to spectacularly claim her only “kill” some 80 years ago today.
The mighty S-class
Built to replace the aging boats in RN service, the first pair, HMS Swordfish, and HMS Sturgeon, were ordered in the 1929 program. Small boats, running just over 200 feet in overall length and displacing around 600 tons (900 submerged), they were relatively fast for the day, capable of breaking almost 14 knots on the surface, making them able to catch up to slow-moving merchantmen, and carried a full dozen Mark VIII torpedoes for their six-pack of forward 21-inch tubes. Meanwhile, a 3-inch deck gun and a Vickers light machine gun gave a topside armament. This could be augmented by a dozen mines. Able to operate in shallow waters, with a draft of only 10.5 feet, and able to submerge in 10 fathoms, they could crash dive in just 25-30 seconds with a good crew if needed.
Not bad for a 1920s design.
The 1929 Chatham Dockyard plan of the flight I S-class boats. Chatham would only produce two boats (HMS Shalimar and Sportsman), whereas most were built by Cammell Laird and smaller numbers by Scotts and Vickers.
As noted by Richard Worth in his Fleets of World War II:
“Meant as replacements for the old H-class, they required the same virtues of maneuverability and quick diving. But the Admiralty wanted more– improvements in range, armament, and surface speed. The “S” types became a pillar of His Majesty’s Submarine Force; not remarkable in any respect, rather they performed well all tasks at acceptable levels, a class of well-balanced and workmanlike boats that proved safe and easy to operate.”
A great period color shot of the S-class submarine HMS Seadog (P216), in the foreground moving off, Holy Loch, 1942. The Group 1 T-class submarine HMS Thunderbolt (N25) is in the background. Of note, Thunderbolt was originally HMS Thetis which sank with heavy loss of life in the Mediterranean just before the war and was subsequently salvaged. The two objects seen on her after casing are containers for human torpedo chariots. IWM TR 612
In all, the British would order no less than 73 S-class boats in three flights across 12 construction programs, and they would remain in production from 1930 through 1945, spanning both the interbellum and WWII era. In all, 62 were completed.
Meet HMS Simoom
The name “Simoom” after the desert wind, dates to an 1842 paddlewheel frigate and was used in no less than five other ships by the Royal Navy. The subject of our tale is the sixth and (thus far) final HMS Simoom.
Ordered in the largest batch of S-class boats (20 hulls) under the 1940 war program, she was a third flight vessel and as such had several minor improvements including a slightly higher freeboard forward, a less complicated and simplified engineering layout that allowed a maximum speed approaching 15 knots (one of the batch, HMS Seraph, could hit 16.75 knots). She also had a seventh tube installed, an external one, giving her 13 torpedoes in total. Also, in lieu of a Vickers gun, the 3rd flight S-boats carried a 20mm Oerlikon AAA gun and a primitive air warning RDF receiver. They also carried a Type 138 ASDIC system and a Type 291/291W early-warning radar.
Laid down at Cammell Laird, Birkenhead (a yard that built at least 26 of the class) on 14 July 1941, Simoom was launched the following October and commissioned on 30 December 1942, her construction spanning just under 17 months.
A series of great images were captured of her in April 1943, steaming in conjunction with the captured German Type VIIC U-boat U-570 (HMS Graph, P715).
Her first war patrol off Northern Norway to provide cover for convoy operations to and from Northern Russia in early 1943 was uneventful as was her second in the Bay of Biscay.
Transferring to the still very active Med, her third patrol, off the West coasts of Corsica and Sardinia was a bust.
Her 4th, providing coverage for the invasion of Sicily harassed some coastal shipping and, in the end, she would sink the Italian destroyer Vincenzo Gioberti on 9 August 1943.
Simoon had fired a brace of six torpedoes at the big boys of RADM Giuseppe Fioravanzo’s 8th Cruiser Division (light cruisers Giuseppe Garibaldi and Emanuele Filiberto Duca d’Aosta) but caught the smaller Vincenzo Gioberti instead, making her the last Italian tin can sunk in the war.
Italian destroyer Vincenzo Gioberti, photographed before World War II. NH 47663
She is believed to have taken 95 men to the bottom with her after dramatically breaking in two parts and sinking. Some 171 survivors of Gioberti were recovered by MAS torpedo boats from La Spezia.
The end of Italian destroyer Vincenzo Gioberti, torpedoed by HMS Simoom on 9 August 1943. She was the last Regia Marina destroyer to be lost in the war against the Allies. Photo by “Storia Illustrata” magazine
Other rather sedate patrols followed.
The mysterious end of Simoom‘s tale came in November while on her 7th patrol.
Via Uboat.net:
2 Nov 1943 HMS Simoom (Lt. G.D.N. Milner, DSC, RN) departed Port Said for 7th war patrol (5th in the Mediterranean). She was ordered to patrol between Naxos and Mikonos, Greece. At 1142B/2 she reported that she did not hold the letter coordinates for November and would use those of October. This prompted Captain S.1 to communicate them the following evening.
On the 5th she was ordered to patrol off the Dardanelles, five nautical miles west of Tenedos.
On the 13th she was ordered to leave her patrol area PM on the 15th passing between Psara and Khios, through 35°06’N, 26°44’E and then on the surface from 34°25’N, 29°59′ E. She was due in Beirut at 0901B/20 but this was later corrected to the 19th.
Simoom did not show up at Beirut. She was declared overdue on 23 November 1943.
At 1729 hours, on 15 November, the German submarine U-565 (KL Fritz Henning) fired a single stern torpedo from 2000 metres at a target described as “probably a submarine” on course 250°, one hit was heard after 3 minutes and 48 seconds. The position recorded was Quadrat CO 3381 (36°51’N, 27°22’E or off the east coast of Kos) and it is unlikely that HMS Simoom was in the area. Post-war analysis concluded that she was probably mined on 4 November 1943 on a new minefield laid off Donoussa Island (ca. 37°06’N, 25°50’E).
Her roll of lost, marked “missing presumed killed” 19 November 1943:
ADAM, William G, Able Seaman, P/JX 344969, MPK ANGLESEA, John, Engine Room Artificer 5c, D/MX 102924, MPK BALSON, Lewis F C, Warrant Engineer, MPK BEDFORD, Maurice A, Ty/Leading Seaman, D/SSX 27992, MPK BROADBRIDGE, Thomas G, Stoker 1c, C/KX 83568, MPK CASPELL, George E, Telegraphist, C/JX 163711, MPK COLE, Edward, Stoker Petty Officer, P/KX 83973, MPK CROSS, Charles M, Ty/Sub Lieutenant, RNVR, MPK DAY, Horace C, Signalman, C/JX 207606, MPK ELLIN, Sidney, Petty Officer Telegraphist, C/JX 135616, MPK ELLIOTT, Robert, Able Seaman, P/JX 322974, MPK FRANCIS, Rolland J, Stoker 1c, D/KX 137871, MPK GARBETT, Basil M, Lieutenant, MPK GILL, Geoffrey, Able Seaman, C/JX 235129, MPK GOWLAND, William R, Able Seaman, D/SSX 15958, MPK GRIFFITH, Ben, Petty Officer, D/J 113001, MPK HANNANT, James H, Able Seaman, D/JX 202875, MPK HARRIS, Walter, Stoker 1c, D/KX 134758, MPK HATTON, Charles W, Able Seaman, C/JX 169095, MPK HERD, Charles E, Ordinary Seaman, P/JX 281907, MPK HERSTELL, Norman, Able Seaman, P/JX 347783, MPK JOHNSON, Robert J, Able Seaman, C/SSX 26525, MPK JONES, Louis F, Ty/Sub Lieutenant, RNVR, MPK KENNEDY, Gordon A, Leading Telegraphist, D/JX 154462, MPK KERR, David A, Engine Room Artificer 4c, P/MX 55013, MPK LANDING, John, Leading Stoker, P/KX 84477, MPK LILLYCROP, Francis W, Stoker 1c, P/KX 145412, MPK LOVELL, Ernest A, Able Seaman, P/SSX 18599, MPK MARSDEN, Tom, Engine Room Artificer 4c, P/MX 79301, MPK MASON, George H, Act/Leading Stoker, P/KX 90779, MPK MAY, Sidney J, Able Seaman, C/SSX 30974, MPK MCLENNAN, Harold B W, Ty/Act/Leading Telegraphist, C/JX 259236, MPK MILNER, Geoffrey D N, Lieutenant, MPK MORTIMER-LAMB, Robert J, Ty/Petty Officer, C/JX 145875, MPK OLDING, Walter G, Act/Chief Engine Room Artificer, P/MX 46951, MPK O’LEARY, Michael T, Electrical Artificer 3c, D/MX49539, MPK RAWE, James A, Act/Chief Petty Officer, RFR, P/JX 136102, MPK SALMON, Alfred W, Able Seaman, P/JX 295724, MPK SAUNDERS, Arthur, Able Seaman, P/JX 155201, MPK SCHOFIELD, Bernard P, Able Seaman, C/JX 241234, MPK SEABORNE, William J R, Stoker 1c, D/KX 94051, MPK SHANKS, Thomas S, Ty/Sub Lieutenant, RNVR, MPK SHARP, Norman, Able Seaman, D/JX 223594, MPK SHEPHERD, John V, Stoker 1c, P/KX 83132, MPK SMITH, William J, Stoker 1c, D/KX 145306, MPK SONGHURST, Thomas J, Stoker 1c, C/KX 83463, MPK TAYLOR, James, Engine Room Artificer 4c, C/MX 77617, MPK WARDALE, Irvin, Able Seaman, D/JX 303574, MPK WILSON, William, Act/Petty Officer, P/SSX 18131, MPK
Across over 3,000 patrols, HM submarines sank 158 enemy combatant ships and damaged 54 others, in addition to sinking 1.6 million tons of enemy merchant shipping. A lot of that came from S-class boats.
Nonetheless, they were small and slow by postwar standards. By 1946, Janes listed just 39 S-class boats under the British fleet’s entry and a half-dozen of those warned “may be discarded in the near future.”
Soon, nine would be transferred to France, Portugal, and Israel.
One, HMS Sidon (P259), was wrecked by its own torpedo explosion on 16 June 1955 then refloated and sunk as a target. Another, HMS Sportsman/French submarine Sibylle, was lost off Toulon in 1952 in a diving accident.
Of the dwindling number of S boats still in RN service, most were withdrawn in the late 1940s and 1950s while still relatively young with just a couple lingering on for a few years longer. HMS Sea Devil, completed just after VE-Day, was paid off for disposal at Portsmouth on 4 June 1962, and was the last of the S class in service with the Royal Navy, completing 17 years of service. She was sold to the shipbreaker Metal Recoveries and arrived at Newhaven on 15 December 1965.
The sparsely used trio of boats operated postwar by Portugal (HMS Saga/NRP Nautilo, HMS Spearhead/NRP Nepunto, and HMS Spur/NRP Narval) were disposed of in 1969.
The last of the class afloat, HMS Springer, was used by Israel until 1972 as INS Tanin and had landed commandos in Egypt during the Six-Day War.
Submarine INS Tanin (ex-HMS Springer) arrives at Port of Haifa in 1959. She would be the last S-class boat
Ships are more than steel and wood And heart of burning coal, For those who sail upon them know That some ships have a soul.
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I’m on the road this week and don’t have time to do a proper Warship Wednesday but I would be remiss if I missed the 80th anniversary of the loss of an Elco-built 80-foot motor torpedo boat, lost when she was split in two by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri (LCDR Kohei Hanami)— whose name means “mists in the heavens”– in the predawn darkness of 2 August 1943 east of Gizo Island in the Blackett Strait, on the southern side of Kolombangara Island.
The loss of PT-109, 2 Aug 1943, to the Japanese destroyer Amagiri, as portrayed by Gerard Richardson, courtesy of the JFK Library
The skipper of the lost PT boat was one Lieutenant John F. Kennedy, USNR, later president
USS PT-109, 1943. Lieutenant John F. Kennedy, USNR, (standing, far right with the survival knife) with other crewmen onboard USS PT-109 at a South Pacific Naval Base, 1943 U.S. Information Agency Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Accession #: 306-ST-649-9
PT-109 was lost. Two sailors, TM2 Andrew Kirksey, and MoMM2 Harold Marney, were never seen and presumed killed in the collision with Amagiri. The Japanese tin can was later sunk by a mine in the Makassar Strait in April 1944.
Warship Wednesday, July 19, 2023: Red Sub Circumnavigator
Above we see the type IX-bis S (Stalinets) class “medium” Guards Red Banner submarine S-56 returning to Polyarni in early 1944 from a patrol off the coast of German-occupied Norway. The most celebrated of her class, she claimed one of her biggest “kills” some 80 years ago today.
The S-class
It is a little-known fact that the Tsarist Imperial Navy entered the Great War in 1914 with more submarines in its inventory than anyone else. Following the national disaster that was the Russian Revolution and Civil War, the reformed Red Navy inherited a few of these old boats and even managed to keep some of them in operation into the 1950s!
When it came to new designs, by the late 1920s the Soviets built a half dozen modest 1,300-ton Dekabrist-class (Series I) submarines constructed with Italian expertise, followed by 25 minelaying Leninets-class (L class, or Series II) submarines of the same size which were essentially reverse engineered from the lost British L-class submarine HMS L55 which was recovered by the Soviets, and a staggering 88 Shchuka-class (Series III, V, V-bis, V-bis-2, X, X-1938) “medium” submarines that went some 700 tons and were ideal for use in the cramped Baltic and Black seas.
Then, the Stalinets class in IX, IX-bis, IX-bis-II, and XVI series, began to appear in 1936.
Besides the lessons learned in making the Italian-based Dekabrist-class and English-based Leninets-class boats, the Russians, who were very close to a quietly rearming Weimar Germany in the early 1930s, worked with the Dutch front company Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw (IvS), which was, in fact, a dummy funded by the German Weimar-era Reichsmarine using design assets from German shipyards AG Vulcan, Krupp-Germaniawerft, and AG Weser to keep Berlin in the sub-making biz while skirting the ban on such activity by the Versailles treaty.
IvS had previously built boats and shared technology with Finland and Spain and it was with the latter’s planned Submarino E-1 that the Soviet S-series was based.
Spanish submarine E-1 at the shipyard in Cádiz. Built in Spain from 1929-30, Soviet engineers participated in her construction and trails. Although her design would go on to be used as the basis for both the German Type IA submarine and the Russian Stalinets class, ironically, the Spanish Navy never operated E-1, as she was sold to Turkey in 1935 just before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. She went on to fly the star and crescent until 1947 as TCG Gür.
Some 255 feet long and with an 840/1070 ton displacement, the basic Stalinets design was good for 19.5 knots on the surface and a cruising range of 4,000nm. Carrying four forward torpedo tubes and two sterns, they also mounted a 100mm deck gun and a 45mm backup as well as machine guns that could be set up for AAA use. Besides the six 533mm torpedoes in the tubes, they could carry another six spare fish.
Stalinets class
The first flight of three boats used German diesels, something that was corrected in follow-on ships that evolved slightly across their construction, hence the four different flights. In all, some 41 Stalinets would be completed. The first, C-1, was laid down on Christmas Day 1934 (because who needs religion in the worker’s paradise) and delivered on 23 September 1936 while a final eight whose construction began at around the same time languished on the builder’s ways during WWII, and were only finished post-war.
The subject of our tale is the most successful of the class. Of the 33 Stalinets class boats completed in time for WWII, 16 were lost. Of the 30 that saw combat patrols, 19 claimed tonnages. This would include the infamous S-13, which sank five ships including two large transports Wilhelm Gustloff and General Steuben, regarded as among the worst maritime disasters in history.
1946 Janes entry on what was left of the class at that time
Two submarines of the class were awarded the rank of Guards, and seven boats earned the Red Banner, only S-56 was awarded both distinctions.
Meet S-56
A 2nd series (IX-bis) Stalinets, S-56 was intended for service in the Pacific Fleet and therefore was assembled at the Dalzavod works at Vladivostok from a kit sent across Siberia from Leningrad starting on 24 November 1936. Launched Christmas 1939, she was commissioned on 20 October 1941, as the Germans were on the outskirts of Moscow.
With the Soviets eschewing combat against the Japanese until after Berlin was licked, on 6 October 1942, S-56, along with sisters S-51, S-54, and S-55, departed Vladivostok ahead of the ice to join the Red Navy’s Northern Fleet at Murmansk. They would be joined by the Leninists-class minelaying subs L-15 and L-16 sailing from Petropavlovsk on a 17,000-mile transoceanic voyage across both Pacific and Atlantic, maneuvering the seas of Japan, Okhotsk, Bering, Caribbean, Sargasso, Northern, Greenland, Norwegian and Barents with stops in Dutch Harbor, San Francisco, the Panama Canal, Guantanamo Bay, Halifax, and Rosyth.
At least that was the plan.
L-16 was lost en route with all hands, believed torpedoed and sunk by the Japanese submarine I-25 on 11 October 1942 approximately 500 miles west of Seattle. This was even though the Soviet Union and Japan were officially at peace. Fog of war, after all.
While returning to Japan on the surface, I-25 spots two ships, apparently en route to San Francisco. The seas are rough. LCDR Tagami first identifies the ships as two battleships. Later, he identifies them as two “American” submarines. At 1100, he dives and fires his last remaining torpedo. It hits 30 seconds later. Several heavy explosions follow. One of the explosions wrecks a head aboard I-25.
The leading submarine starts to sink rapidly stern first with its bow up 45 degrees. A second explosion follows. When the smoke clears there is only an oil slick on the water. The submarine sinks with all 56 hands (a Russian crew of 55, a naturalized American and American interpreter/liaison officer Sergey A. V. Mikhailoff (USNR) who boarded the submarine at Dutch Harbor) at 45-41N, 138-56E. (Postwar, it is learned that the submarine was Soviet Cdr Dmitri F. Gussarov’s 1,039-ton minelayer L-16 en route from Petropavlovsk, Siberia via Dutch Harbor, Alaska to San Francisco.)
The accompanying Soviet L-15 reports seeing one more wake, fires five 45-mm rounds at I-25 and mistakenly claims a hit on I-25’s periscopes.
The five remaining Russian boats were captured several times by American and Canadian cameras while en route to Murmansk.
Russian S-type submarine probably photographed about 1942. 80-G-636837
The Russian submarine S-54 is seen departing Mare Island on 11 November 1942. USN photo # 6697-42
Russian submarine SS-55 is seen departing Mare Island on 11 November 1942. USN photo # 7001-42
The skippers had a chance to meet and pose for a snapshot in Panama, where they rested from 25 November 25 to 2 December 1942.
From left to right: S-54 skipper, LCDR Dmitry Kondratievich Bratishko, S-51 skipper Captain 3rd rank Ivan Fomich Kucherenko, submarine group commander, Captain 1st Rank Alexander Vladimirovich Tripolsky, commander of S-56 LCDR Grigory Ivanovich Shchedrin, commander L-15 Captain 3rd Rank Vasily Isakovich Komarov, Commander S-55 Captain 3rd Rank Lev Mikhailovich Sushkin. Unfortunately, the names of the American officers are not noted.
Soviet “L” Class submarine (L-15) in Halifax harbor. Date: January 1943. Reference: H.B. Jefferson Nova Scotia Archives 1992-304 / 43.1.4 180.
In March 1943, S-56 became part of the 2nd division of the submarine brigade of the Northern Fleet, after a voyage of 153 days.
Her combat career would encompass 125 days underway on eight patrols against the Germans in which she was declared overdue and likely destroyed no less than 19 times, more an issue of poor radio communications than anything else.
S-56 in the Northern Fleet
She logged 13 attacks and fired 30 torpedoes. This included several runs on German convoys, escaping a surface duel with a pair of escorts, surviving a glancing torpedo strike from the German U-711, and reportedly hitting at least one large freighter with a dud torpedo.
Although she would claim 14 enemy transports and warships sunk with a total displacement of 85,000 tons, her post-war validated tally is a good bit smaller (as are most subs from all sides).
17 May 1943 sank the German tanker Eurostadt (1118 GRT) off the Kongsfjord.
17 July 1943 sank the German minesweeper M 346 (551 tons) west of the Tanafjord.
19 July 1943: Torpedoed and sank the German auxiliary patrol vessel NKi 09 / Alane (466 GRT, former British ASW trawler HMS Warwickshire) off the Tanafjord near Gamvik.
31 July 1943 sank the German merchant Heinrich Schulte (5056 GRT) west of the Tanafjord.
C56 Victory Parade July 1945
Epilogue
In 1954, the now famed S-56 was sent back to her birthplace at Vladivostok via the then very perilous Northern Sea Route through the Arctic, thus becoming the first Russian submarine to circumnavigate the globe.
Decommissioned in 1955, she was retained in the Pacific Fleet as a floating charging station and damage control training hulk, renamed ZAS-8 and then UTS-14.
In 1975, on the 30th anniversary of VE Day, she was installed as a museum ship on the Korabelnaya Embankment, where she remains well preserved today, the last of her class.
She is also celebrated in several heroic Soviet maritime art pieces.
Ships are more than steel and wood And heart of burning coal, For those who sail upon them know That some ships have a soul.
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The Casablanca-class escort carrier USS Ommaney Bay (CVE-79) was laid down under a Maritime Commission contract as M.C. Hull 1116 on 6 October 1943 at Kaiser’s Vancouver yard, launched on 29 December 1943 and commissioned on 11 February 1944 (the day she was delivered).
In all, a total build-out of just 128 days.
USS Ommaney Bay (CVE-79). NHHC Accession #: UA 467
Her naval career, rushed into the front lines of the push to Tokyo, would only span 334 days.
She was lost during the landings in the Lingayen Gulf on 4 January 1945 when a twin-engine Japanese suicide plane, just before dinner, “nicked her island then crashed her starboard side. Two bombs were released; one of them penetrated the flight deck and detonated below, setting off a series of explosions among the fully-gassed planes on the forward third of the hanger deck. The second bomb passed through the hanger deck, ruptured the fire main on the second deck, and exploded near the starboard side.”
This led to a fire main break and uncontrollable fires that forced the ship to be abandoned and her blazing hulk sent to the bottom by a torpedo from the Fletcher-class destroyer USS Burns (DD-588). In all, Ommaney Bay would lose 93 of her crew and air group while Burns, standing by close when her torpedos went off, would lose two of her own bluejackets as well.
USS Ommaney Bay (CVE-79) burning in the Sulu Sea, off Luzon, on 4 January 1945, during the Lingayen Operation. She had been hit by a Kamikaze. A destroyer is standing by with fire hoses ready, likey USS Burns (DD-588). NH 89350
NHHC’s Underwater Archaeology Branch used a combination of survey information provided by the Sea Scan Survey team and video footage provided by the DPT Scuba dive team, to confirm the identity of Ommaney Bay. This information correlated with location data for the wreck site provided to NHHC in 2019 by Vulcan, LLC (formerly Vulcan, Inc.).
“Ommaney Bay is the final resting place of American Sailors who made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of their country,” said NHHC Director Samuel J. Cox, U.S. Navy rear admiral (retired). “It is with sincere gratitude that I thank the Sea Scan Survey team; Mick Stefurak, Neil “Snake” Krumbeck and Joe Brothers for confirming the location of this wreck site. We would also like to thank the team of Australian divers from DPT Scuba; David Tipping, Chris McCran, Aimee McCran, Samir Alhafith, Heeman Lee and John Wooden for their deep diving expertise and assistance identifying the Ommaney Bay. This discovery allows the families of those lost some amount of closure and gives us all another chance to remember and honor their service to our nation.”
Warship Wednesday, June 28, 2023: A 22,000-Yard Fish and a One-Man Army
Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Catalog #: 80-G-52931
Above we see the Fletcher-class destroyer USS Strong (DD-467)as she highlines mail to the light cruiser USS Honolulu (CL-48) during operations in the Solomon Islands area, circa early July 1943. Our fighting tin can had the misfortune of being lost to what is credited as the longest-range torpedo hit in military history some 80 years ago today, 5 July 1943. A war baby, she had only been in service for 332 days.
Fletcher class background
The Fletchers were the WWII equivalent of the Burke class, constructed in a massive 175-strong class from 11 builders that proved the backbone of the fleet for generations. Coming after the interwar “treaty” destroyers such as the Benson- and Gleaves classes, they were good-sized (376 feet oal, 2,500 tons full load, 5×5″ guns, 10 torpedo tubes) and could have passed as unprotected cruisers in 1914. Powered by a quartet of oil-fired Babcock & Wilcox boilers and two Westinghouse or GE steam turbines, they had 60,000 shp on tap– half of what today’s Burkes have on a hull 25 percent as heavy– enabling them to reach 38 knots, a speed that is still fast for destroyers today.
USS John Rodgers (DD 574) at Charleston, 28 April 1943. A great example of the Fletcher class in their wartime configuration. Note the five 5″/38 mounts and twin sets of 5-pack torpedo tubes.
LCDR Fred Edwards, Destroyer Type Desk, Bureau of Ships, famously said of the class, “I always felt it was the Fletcher class that won the war . . .they were the heart and soul of the small-ship Navy.”
Meet USS Strong
Our vessel was the first named in honor of naval hero James Hooker Strong. A New Yorker who was appointed midshipman in 1829 at age 14, he learned his trade fighting buccaneers while with the Brazil Squadron and spent long years on the Mediterranean and East India Squadrons. Commander of the steamer Mohawk when the Civil War began, by 1863 he was skipper of the steam sloop USS Monongahela as part of the Western Gulf Blockading Squadron. Under Farragut, he sailed Monongahela into the heart of the Confederate stronghold of Mobile Bay and his ship was the first to engage the fearsome rebel ironclad CSS Tennessee.
RADM James Hooker Strong, a hero of the Battle of Mobile Bay, retired from the Navy in 1876 completing a 48-year career. He passed away in 1882. The photo above shows him with a special sword awarded by Congress for the Battle of Mobile Bay.
The first USS Strong (DD-467) was laid down on 30 April 1941 at Bath Iron Works in Maine. Launched on 17 May 1942, sponsored by Mrs. Susan H. Olsen, the great-grandniece of the late RADM James Hooker Strong, and commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard on 7 August 1942, her construction took just under 16 months.
USS Strong (DD-467). Heavily retouched copy of a photograph taken circa the later part of 1942. The retouching, which includes the land in the distance and the ship from the forward smokestack to the top of the pilothouse, was mainly done for censorship purposes, to eliminate radar antennas from the ship’s gun director and foremast. NH 97883
After a quick shakedown in the Casco Bay area and along the East Coast– which included active screening escort missions for the battleship USS Massachusetts— by October Strong was tagging along on convoys in the Caribbean and, by November, she was part of Convoy UGS-2 steering a course for North Africa to take part in the Torch landings.
Returning to New York on westbound Convoy GUF-2, she would sail two days after Christmas 1942 as part of Task Force 39, bound for Nouméa in Free French New Caledonia, the staging area for the push into Guadalcanal and the Solomons.
Strong at the New York Navy Yard three days before Christmas of 1942, Mt. 51, and Mt. 52 of her main battery are prominent in the foreground. Parenthetical numbers refer to recent modifications: (1) the raised platform and foundation for a 20-millimeter Oerlikon on the centerline aft of Mt. 52; (2) the large-type BL radar antennae; and (3) the relocated groups of vertical fighting lights. (U.S. Navy Bureau of Ships Photograph BS-40290, National Archives, and Records Administration, Still Pictures Division, College Park, Md.)
USS Conyngham (DD-371) At Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides, 15 February 1943. The destroyer in the right background appears to be USS Strong (DD-467). 80-G-38661
By March 1943, Strong, along with sisters USS Nicholas, Radford, and Taylor, as part of TG 18.6, was delivering 5-inch shells on the roofs of Japanese shore installations in late-night raids of Kolombangara Island.
Strong delivered 368 shells in that raid, all fired in just under 10 minutes.
Via her report “USS STRONG – Act Rep, Bombardment of Vila-Stanmore, 3/15-16/43” in the National Archives.
On the night of 7 April, while screening the cruiser Task Force 18 off San Cristobal Island, Strong came across one of the Emperor’s submarines, RO-34.
Via DANFS:
Strong’s searchlight revealed the presence of what proved to be RO-34 (Lt. Cmdr. Tomita Rikichi). Strong opened fire with her main battery and machine guns — expending ten 5-inch/38 rounds, 98 40-millimeter rounds, and 288 20-millimeter rounds. The destroyer reported that she struck the submarine three times with her 5-inch fire. During the barrage, RO-34 dove into the sea, down by the stern.
Strong circled RO-34’s location and dropped ten Mk. 6 depth charges and six Mk. 7 depth charges, to ensure RO-34’s journey to the bottom. Before she returned to the task force, Strong observed debris from RO-34 on the surface at 10°05’S, 162°08’E, and she was later credited with the sinking. After the war Japanese records indicated that RO-34 was given orders on 16 April to return to Rabaul, New Britain, which went unanswered, leading to the presumption that she was lost with all 66 souls on board.
USS Strong coming alongside, 1943. Note the highline.
Speaking of aircraft, by 16 June, Strong, steaming with Nicholas (DD-449) and the oiler Monongahela (ironically), encountered a wave of 15 Val bombers joined by another half dozen Zekes. In the fight, all three American ships made it safely out of it while Strong, reportedly firing 194 5-inch, 750 40mm Bofors shells, and 980 20mm shells in just seven mad minutes, splashed three aircraft.
With an active career that saw her sink a submarine, shoot down a trio of incoming bombers, and hit enemy positions with almost 1,200 shells inside a span of just four months– all without any losses or damage of her own– Strong was in for a harsh meeting with fate.
Battle of Kula Gulf
On the night of 4/5 July, Strong, in company with three cruisers and four destroyers, was headed back to Kolombangara for another nighttime gun raid. As the second ship in the column behind USS Nicholas, Strong steamed into the Kul Gulf just after midnight on the 5th and plastered Japanese positions on Kolombangara Island, then around the Bairoko Inlet on New Georgia Island.
Via Destroyer Report: Torpedo and Mine Damage and Loss in Action: 17 October 1941 to 7 December 1944
While the cruisers moved off, with Nicholas as a screen, the destroyers USS Chevalier and O’Bannon moved in to assist Strong with rescue operations. All during the rescue, Japanese 140mm guns at Enogai Inlet kept firing star shells and AP rounds, some of which landed awfully close including both “shorts and overs.” Chevalier came alongside and managed to take off about three-quarters of the ship’s company before Strong’s depth charges exploded, wrecking Chevalier’s radars and sound gear.
USS Chevalier (DD-451) Moored to the Government Wharf, Tulagi, Solomon Islands, 6 July 1943. Her bow was damaged while rescuing the crew of the sinking USS Strong (DD-467) during the 5 July 1943 Battle of Kula Gulf, and her 5/58 gun mount # 3 shows the effects of a hang-fire, explosion, and fire immediately after that rescue was completed. Courtesy of Rick E. Davis, 2012. This is a cleaned version of National Archives’ Photo # 80-G-259220.
Through the courageous actions of the men of the USS Chevalier, most of Strong’s crew was safely taken aboard before the destroyer sank. Some 46 of her 325-man complement were listed as missing including several last seen “floating on a raft in the Kula Gulf.”
A standout of the Alabama football team, Miller was with the Crimson Tide when they won the national championship at the Rose Bowl in 1931 with a 24-0 shutout of Washington State. Old “Rose Bowl” Miller went on to become a southern lawyer who volunteered for the Navy in 1941 and, eschewing JAG work for surface warfare, was assigned to Strong as the destroyer’s 20mm and stores officer.
Making it to nearby Japanese-held Arundel Island, Miller survived there for 39 days, alternatively fighting, and coming on top in lop-sided battles against malnutrition, dehydration, and Japanese troops before he was recovered. 190225-N-ZV259-0184
Strong received three battle stars for her short but spectacular service in World War II,
Post-war, it was established that Strong was likely holed by a Type 93 Long Lance torpedo from the Japanese Akizuki-class destroyer Niizuki, fired from no less than 11 nautical miles. If true, it is the longest confirmed wartime torpedo hit on record. Fittingly, Niizuki was sunk the next night in a clash with American surface ships.
CDR Joseph H. Wellings, Strong’s only commander, would earn the Bronze Star Medal, with Combat Distinguishing Device “V” and the Silver Star Medal for the destruction of the submarine RO-34 and the destroyer’s other actions. Following the sinking of the Strong, he was hospitalized until January 1944, then went on to command DESRON TWO for which he earned a Gold Star in lieu of the Second Bronze Star Medal, with Combat “V” for actions in the Philippines in early 1945. Post-war, he would command the cruiser USS Columbus (CA 74) and hold a series of senior appointments, retiring as a rear admiral in 1963. Admiral Wellings died on March 31, 1988. His papers take up 32 boxes in the U.S. Naval War College Archives.
As for “Rose Bowl” Miller, the hard-to-kill lieutenant was awarded the Navy Cross, two Silver Stars, six Bronze Stars, two Purple Hearts, and 27 other individual and unit decorations.
Miller was awarded the Navy Cross, personally bestowed on him by Eleanor Roosevelt, seen here in a Red Cross uniform, who was on a Pacific swing with the American Red Cross. Note Halsey looking on. 190225-N-ZV259-0185
Miller’s story was dramatized by the Navy in his lifetime, a real “One-Man Army”:
And he appeared on an episode of This is Your Life, hosted by Ronald Reagan.
Miller retired as a Navy Captain before passing away in 1978.
As for Strong’s Fletcher-class sisters, 24 were sunk or evaluated as constructive total losses during WWII including Strong’s companion Chevalier, which was scuttled after being torpedoed by a Japanese destroyer during the Battle of Vella Lavella, 6 October 1943. These ships were sent into harm’s way.
The rest of her surviving sisters were widely discarded in the Cold War era by the Navy, who had long prior replaced them with more modern destroyers and Knox-class escorts. Those that had not been sent overseas as military aid were promptly sent to the breakers or disposed of in weapon tests. The class that had faced off with the last blossom of Japan’s wartime aviators helped prove the use of just about every anti-ship/tactical strike weapon used by NATO in the Cold War including Harpoon, Exocet, Sea Skua, Bullpup, Walleye, submarine-launched Tomahawk, and even at least one Sidewinder used in surface attack mode. In 1997, SEALS sank the ex-USS Stoddard (DD-566) via assorted combat-diver delivered ordnance. The final Fletcher in use around the globe, Mexico’s Cuitlahuac, ex-USS John Rodgers (DD 574), was laid up in 2001 and dismantled in 2011.
Today, four hard-charging Fletchers are on public display, three of which in the U.S– USS The Sullivans (DD-537) at Buffalo, USS Kidd (DD-661) at Baton Rouge, and USS Cassin Young (DD-793) at the Boston Navy Yard. Please try to visit them if possible. Kidd, the best preserved of the trio, was used extensively for the filming of the Tom Hanks film, Greyhound.
The name USS Strong was recycled during the war for a new Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer (DD-758) laid down on 25 July 1943 by Bethlehem Steel Co., San Francisco. Commissioned on 8 March 1945, she made it to the Japanese Home Islands just in time for VJ-Day. She would then be highly active in the Korean War, conducting gun strikes up and down the peninsula, and then go on to conduct gunline conducting harassment and interdiction missions against North Vietnamese water-borne logistic craft in the 1960s.
USS Strong (DD-758) underway off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii on 21 May 1968. Photographer: PHCM Louis P. Bodine. Official U.S. Navy Photograph NH 107152
This second Strong received one battle star for Korean service and three battle stars for service in Vietnam before she was decommissioned and struck from the Navy list on Halloween 1973, transferred to Brazil for further service before being lost at sea while headed to the breakers in 1997.
With that, both USS Strongs rest on the sea floor.
Ships are more than steel and wood And heart of burning coal, For those who sail upon them know That some ships have a soul.
If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International
The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.
With more than 50 years of scholarship, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.
PRINT still has its place. If you LOVE warships, you should belong.
