19 November 1950: “A pilot of the Flying Cheetahs, the South African Squadron fighting in Korea with the Unified Forces, getting ready to take off for a mission.”
UN Media Photo # 188081
You’ll note the pilot is at the stick of a P-51D Mustang, the “Cadillac of the Sky” during WWII. However, just a half-decade later the renowned dogfighter was obsolete at best when compared to the early jets of the day and in the USAF had been relegated to second-line service with the Air National Guard in favor of the P-80 Shooting Star.
F-51 Mustangs Flying Cheetah Squadron of the South African Air Force November 16, 1950 HF-SN-98-07292
Nonetheless, the South Koreans flew the Mustang, and the U.S. Navy, using the carrier USS Boxer as a ferry, carried a deck load of the aircraft to the theatre just a couple months after the balloon went up, for use not only with the ROKAF but also with UN forces– such as the Royal Australian Air Force’s No.77 Squadron and the South African Cheetahs– in need of a supportable tactical fighter still capable of mixing it up with North Korean Yak-9s while able to drop rockets and 500-pound bombs on things below.
The Cheetahs, officially No. 2 Squadron, SAAF, were only a decade old in 1950 but had flown Hurricanes, P-40s, and Spitfires in World War II, seeing plenty of action across North Africa, Sicily, Italy, and Yugoslavia.
Deploying to South Korea in September 1950, they picked up loaned American P-51Ds at Johnson AFB in Japan and landed in Korea, 49 officers and 206 men strong, two months later. Their first combat sortie staged from K9 Airfield on 19 November– 70 years ago today– and it would be the first of many. They would soon switch to K13 and K10, operating from the latter through December 1952.
North American F-51D Mustang fighters of No. 2 Squadron of the South African Air Force in Korea, on 1 May 1951.USAF Photo HD-SN-98-07604
Used primarily for interdiction missions while attached to the 18th (U.S.) Fighter Bomber Wing, the standard per aircraft loadout against road and railway targets was two 500lb bombs, six 5-inch (127mm) HVAR rockets, and a maximum load of .50-cal ammo.
For attacks on supply areas and for close support missions, the bombs were usually replaced with two 110-gallon drop tanks filled with napalm and fused with modified white phosphorous grenades.
One-quarter left front view of a 2 SAAF North American Mustang Mk. IVA ‘Miss Marunouchi’ (s/n KM361) parked beside the runway, somewhere in Korea. In the background, two more Mustang Mk. IVs are visible. Each aircraft bears the markings of the 2nd Squadron of the South African Air Force and is armed with two bombs and four rockets.
The Cheetahs were considered “mud movers” due to the amount of dirt they threw in the air on ground attacks and, likely due to the airfields they worked from.
SAAF Armourer busy reloading a F-51D Mustang of 2 Squadron, Korea
As noted by the SAAF, “While equipped with Mustangs, the squadron flew 10,373 sorties, and out of a total 95 Mustangs acquired, no fewer than 74 were lost due to enemy action and accidents. Twelve pilots were killed in action, 30 missing, and four wounded.”
South African Air Force No. 2 Squadron Korean War. Lt H. Joyce’s F-51D No.334 (ex USAF 44-74757)
Finally jumping to the jet age, the Cheetahs transitioned to (loaned) F-86F Sabres in January 1953 and began missions from K55 two months later. “The squadron flew a total of 2,032 sorties in the Sabres. Only four Sabres were lost out of 22 supplied,” notes the SAAF.
A South African Air Force North American F-86F Sabre from No. 2 Squadron at Tsuiki Air Base, Japan, in 1953. National Museum of the U.S. Air Force photo 100608-F-1234S-027
2 Squadron SAAF Korea F-58 Sabre 609 F “Maloboa.” Note the gun compartment for her starboard trio of 50 cals
They earned over 420 individual decorations as well as Presidential Unit Citations from both the U.S. and South Korean governments.
Captain Joe Joubert DFC (US) with Oak Leaf Cluster; Air Medal (US) with 4 Oak Leaf Clusters returning home after completing two Combat Flying Tours of Duty in Korea. He was the only South African Pilot to successfully complete 175 Combat Missions and the only South African Pilot to be awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (US) twice plus the Air Medal (US) on five occasions.
Leaving Korea on 31 October 1953, the Cheetahs gave their Sabres back to Uncle Sam but, after returning to Waterkloof AFB, would later be equipped with Canadair Sabre Mk 6s until transitioning to Mirages in the 1960s, although some lingered on into the early 1970s.
10 Dassault Mirage IIIs, four F-86 Sabres, three Buccaneers, and four Canberras of the SAAF on the tarmac in the 1970s. At the time, the force was heavily involved in various bush wars both officially and unofficially.
Their motto is Sursam Prorsusque, “Upward and Onward.”
As for the Mustang’s legacy in the country, today, the SAAF Museum at Swartkop Air Force Base maintains a former Swedish & Dominican Air Force P-51D, SN 44-72202 –”Patsy Dawn” the only such aircraft preserved in Africa.
Also, there is a tangible reminder of 2 Squadron SAAF in the ROK. On 22 December 1975, a memorial to the unit was dedicated at Pyeongtaek, by the South Korean government.
The 21-vessel Pauling class, built across four years from 1908 to 1912 were smallish for torpedo boat destroyers, tipping the scales at just 742-tons. Overall, they ran 293-feet long, with a razor-thin 26-foot beam. Using a quartet of then-novel oil-fired Normand boilers (although a range of other boilers was experimented with) pushing a trio of Parsons direct-drive steam turbines, they could gin nearly 30-knots when wide open, although they rattled and rolled while doing so. This earned them the “flivver” nickname after the small and shaky Ford Model Ts of the era. Armament was five quick-firing 3″/50 cal guns and a trio of twin 450mm torpedo tubes, to which depth charges would later be added.
Constructed by four different yards at the same time, the class had vessels completed with either four or three stacks, of which Roe was in the latter category.
The 1914 Jane’s entry for the class, note the varied boiler fit and funnel scheme.
Roe was the first ship named in honor of RADM Francis Asbury Roe (USNA 1848) who explored the Northern Pacific and fought off Chinese pirates on the brig USS Porpoise before the Civil War, during which he served first as XO of the gunboat USS Pensacola before skippering the gunboat USS Katahdin in the fight against the Confederate ram CSS Arkansas. He finished the war as captain of the sidewheeler USS Sassacus and again fought a second Rebel ironclad, CSS Albemarle. Post-war he helped escort the French out of Mexico and exercise gunboat diplomacy in Brazil. Promoted to Commodore in 1880, he gained his star on the retired list in 1885 and is buried at Arlington.
CDR Roe 1866 (NH 46948-KN) and RADM Roe, retired, 1893, at age 70 (NH 103530-KN)
Laid down by Newport News Shipbuilding on 18 January 1909, USS Roe commissioned 17 September 1910, built for $642,761.30, which adjusts to about $17 million in today’s dollars.
USS Roe (Destroyer # 24) Ready for launching, at the Newport News Shipbuilding Company shipyard, Newport News, Virginia, 24 July 1909. Collection of the Society of Sponsors of the United States Navy. NH 103520
USS Roe (Destroyer # 24) Sliding down the ways during her launching, at the Newport News Shipbuilding Company shipyard, Newport News, Virginia, 24 July 1909. The original print is a halftone reproduction. Collection of the Society of Sponsors of the United States Navy. NH 103519
Like the coal-fired Smith-class that preceded them, the Pauldings used a layout of three Parsons turbines with a high-pressure center turbine exhausting to two low-pressure “cruising” turbines on outboard shafts, with the latter used to conserve fuel at low speeds.
The above shows USS Flusser (DD-20)’s engines under construction in 1909 showing the three-shaft/turbine arrangement. Photo from Bath Iron Works – General Dynamics Company.
Roe was a testbed for her type, being the first of her class to run trials and enter service although she was technically the third ordered. Departing from the standard quartet of Normand boilers, she was fitted instead with Thornycroft boilers, two in each engine room, fed by Sirocco forced draft fans. Each room was supplied with 22 oil sprayers and two oil heaters, doing away with coal.
“The enlisted man in the navy is said to be very much interested in oil fuel and in the consequent abolition of the dirty job of ‘coaling ship,’ an expression which will now have to give way to ‘oiling ship,” noted the October 1910 Marine Review.
Designed for a top speed of 28-to-29-knots, she bested that on her all-oil-fired suite of geared turbines, making headlines.
Attached to the Torpedo Flotilla, Atlantic Fleet after commissioning, Roe would spend the next six years in a cycle of winter maneuvers in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, followed by summers cruising off the mid-Atlantic and southern New England sea coasts, completing exercises, interspaced with downtime spent in reserve with a reduced complement– a common fate for the vessels of the rapidly-expanding manpower-poor American steel Navy of the era.
USS Roe In port, circa 1910-1915. NH 43764
USTBD Roe with a bone in her mouth, 1911, NARA 165-WW-335E-20
That’s not to say during that time she didn’t see some interesting events.
In November 1911, Roe, with her paint still fresh, was partnered with a quartet of other vessels in an aviation experiment. Besides the already mentioned scout cruiser Birmingham, the little task force included the torpedo boats USS Bailey (TB-21) and the USS Stringham (TB-19), and Roe’s recently completed sistership, USS Terry (Destroy No. 25). The two destroyers were selected to accompany Birmingham and to follow the course of Mr. Ely’s aeroplane and render service if necessary while the two torpedo boats were ordered to standby as backups.
While the short flight went off without any disastrous hitches, Roe stood by a recovered Ely after the event and was the immediate host to the celebration for the daring young man and his flying machine.
The launch took Ely and the officers to the Roe, where, gathered in the mess room, they were photographed by cameramen. Everyone congratulated Ely and they talked about the flight as they returned to Norfolk.
“The spray got on my goggles,” Ely explained, “so that I could not see or tell which direction I was going for a time. When I got my goggles clear I saw I was heading for a beach that looked like a convenient landing place, so I kept on.” “The splash in the water was my own fault. “The front push rod was a little longer than the one I am used to and I didn’t handle it quite right. Then of course the fact that the ship was not under way was a great disadvantage to me.” The naval officers agreed. They were unanimous in declaring that the flight was rendered much more difficult by the fact that the ship had not gotten underway when the aeroplane left her deck. They observed that Ely had lost all the advantage of the head-on breeze. If the ship had been going ten knots the aeroplane would have arisen much easier. “Had it been necessary I think I could have started right back and landed on the Birmingham” he said. “I think the next test along this line might be that of landing on a ship in motion. There should be no difficulty in accomplishing this. This would mean that an aeroplane could leave the deck of a ship, fly around and then return to the starting point.” While discussing the flight someone brought it to his attention that Ryan had offered a prize of $500 for the first flight made by a USAR member from the deck of a warship more than one mile out at sea to shore. Ely said he had not heard of the prize
Her initial flight activities behind her, Roe got back to fleet work.
In January 1912, Roe, along with four other destroyers battled a two-day storm at sea off Bermuda that scattered the group. As a result, Roe suffered some pretty gnarly damage from a rogue wave during the storm, crumpling two of her three funnels.
USS Roe, Showing Stacks Damaged by Storm, Brooklyn Naval Yard 1/22/1912 LOC 6880371 + 6281761, along with Jan. 9, 1912 edition of the NY Herald
She frequented Pensacola throughout 1916 in further support of the Navy’s aviation operations, with local newspapers in that Navy town running numerous articles on her activities pier-side. Her crew’s “strong” baseball team even repeatedly crossed bats with the local Pensacola Peps and Old Timers clubs.
USS Roe (Destroyer # 24) Ship’s officers and crew, circa 1915-1916. The two officers in the center are possibly (from left to right): Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Aaron S. Merrill, and Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Guy C. Barnes, Roe’s commanding officer. Note the African American stewards in the right corner and the ship’s mascots including a pit-bull in the life ring. The original photograph, by Rox, 518 So. Palafox, Pensacola, Florida, was printed on a postal card, which was mailed at Pensacola on 23 September 1916 with the message: Look natural? Courtesy of Jack Howland, 1982. NH 93718 + Article from the Pensacola Journal, Aug. 4, 1916
When America finally joined the Great War, Roe was ready on day one, seizing the interned 5,800-ton German steamer SS Hohenfelde on behalf of the U.S. Shipping Board, 6 April 1917, at Savannah, Georgia, the same day that Congress responded with the declaration of War requested by President Wilson. The fine British-built Hohenfelde was captured in fairly good shape and would go on, like most captured German ships in 1917, to be repurposed for U.S Navy use, entering the fleet as the cargo ship USS Long Beach (AK-9), 20 December 1917.
Meanwhile, Roe made ready to go “Over There,” sailing for France in early November 1917, where she would spend the next year on coastal patrol and escort duty.
USS Roe (Destroyer # 24) Laying a smokescreen, before World War I. Photographed by Waterman. Courtesy of Jack Howland, 1985. NH 100400
Oiling ship! USS Roe (Destroyer # 24), at right, taking on oil from USS Warrington (Destroyer # 30), at sea off the coast of Brest, France, 1 June 1918. Note Warrington’s dazzle pattern camouflage. NH 41760
She crossed paths with at least one German submarine. Per DANFS:
On 8 August 1918, Roe went to the rescue of the U.S. freighter Westward Ho, a 5,814-ton steamer, which had been torpedoed in the Bay of Biscay by U-62 (Kapitänleutnant Ernst Hashagen commanding) while en route from New York to LaPallice, France, in convoy HB-7. The destroyer took on board the 46 members of the sunken ship’s crew. While in formation the next day, 9 August, Roe received a signal of “submarine ahead.” The ship maneuvered until a wake was visible on which she dropped depth charges, but with no discernible results.
USS Roe (Destroyer # 24) On patrol in 1918. She is painted in dazzle camouflage. Collection of Peter K. Connelly. Courtesy of William H. Davis, 1967. NH 64986
Arriving back in the States on 1 December 1918, she was given a much-needed overhaul at Charleston then was placed out of commission exactly a year later on 1 December 1919.
In all, Roe only served nine years and three months with the fleet but in that abbreviated decade had been the Navy’s inaugural plane guard, survived a tempest, and fought in at least one shooting war. With that, she joined her fellow low-mileage greyhounds in mothballs.
Panoramic of the Reserve Fleet Basin, Philadelphia Navy Yard, PA, ca. 1920-1921. Visible are a vast number of laid-up destroyers including USS Sturtevant (DD-240), USS Roe (DD-24), and USS Gregory (DD-82). NHHC S-574
Rum Row
As deftly retold in a paper by the USCG Historians Office, the service, then part of the Treasury Department, was hard-pressed to chase down fast bootlegging boats shagging out to “Rum Row” where British and Canadian merchants rested in safe water on the 3-mile limit loaded with cases of good whiskey and rum for sale.
Rumrunners in Canada and in the Bahamas had the cry, “For some, there’s a fortune but others will die, come on load up the ship boys, the Yankees are dry.”
This led the agency to borrow 31 relatively new destroyers from the Navy, an act that would have been akin to the USN transferring most of the FFG7 frigates to the Coast Guard during the “cocaine cowboy” days of the 1980s.
From the USCG Historian:
In the end, the rehabilitation of the vessels became a saga in itself because of the exceedingly poor condition of many of these war-weary ships. In many instances, it took nearly a year to bring the vessels up to seaworthiness. Additionally, these were by far the largest and most sophisticated vessels ever operated by the service and trained personnel were nearly nonexistent. As a result, Congress authorized hundreds of new enlistees. It was these inexperienced men that made up the destroyer crews and contributed to the service’s greatest growth prior to World War II.
A total of 31 destroyers served with the Coast Guard’s Destroyer Force. These included three different classes, the 742-ton “flivver-class,” “1,000-ton class”, and the 1,190-ton “Clemson-class” flush-deckers. Capable of over 25 knots, the destroyers had an advantage in chasing large rumrunners. They were, however, easily outmaneuvered by smaller vessels. The destroyers’ mission, therefore, was to picket the larger supply ships (“mother ships”) and prevent them from off-loading their cargo onto smaller, speedier contact boats that ran the liquor into shore.
Via The Rum War at Sea, USCG
Roe was reactivated and transferred to the Treasury Department on 7 June 1924 at the Philadelphia Navy Yard for service with the Coast Guard and was among the first group of destroyers loaned to the Coast Guard for the war on booze. Commissioned as CG-18 at the New York Navy Yard 30 May 1925, she was stationed at Boston.
As described by CDR Malcolm F. Willoughby, USCGR, ret, inThe Rum War at Sea, the 229-page 1964 work on this period in Coast Guard history, these destroyers, which in many cases were mothballed in poor shape, were run on a shoestring once transferred, at least until a larger force was literally created from scratch.
Outside of a half dozen old-time Coast Guard men, the crew were enlisted and shipped directly from the recruiting office to the ship. They might have been shoe salesmen or clerks one week, the next week they were on board a destroyer with the rating of apprentice seaman or fireman third class. Great were the difficulties of running a specialized ship with an inexperienced crew.
U.S. Coast Guard destroyers at the New York Navy Yard, 20 October 1926 These former U.S. Navy destroyers were transferred to the Coast Guard to help fight the illegal rum-running traffic along the East Coast. They are (from left to right): USCGC Monaghan (CG-15, ex USN DD-32); Unidentified; USCGC Roe (CG-18, ex USN DD-24) with a damaged bow; USCGC McDougal (CG-6, ex USN DD-54); and USCGC Ammen (CG-8, ex USN DD-35). Courtesy of the San Francisco Maritime Museum, San Francisco, California, 1969. NH 69025
One of Roe’s most curious cases during her career as a Coastie involved that of the two-master John R. Manta— who in 1925 had been the “last vessel to complete a whaling voyage in New England.” Found aground in shallow water off Nantucket in May 1929, once towed in, the converted whaler was founded to have no Americans aboard, no manifest, no log entries, and, besides a few guns and bottles of booze, also held 11 “aliens all in exhausted conditions” hidden in a compartment secreted under a linoleum deck. Each had paid a whopping $250 for their undocumented passage– $3,800 in today’s greenbacks.
USCGD Roe CG-18 at sea. Coast Guard destroyers typically spent 60-day cruises at sea, scouting long-range sweeps along their patrol zone in a lookout for motherships which they would picket in a game of interference as the vessels were typically beyond the jurisdictional 12-mile limit. DVIDS Photo 1119155
1931 Jane’s showing a few “Coast Guard destroyers”
In poor condition, Roe was placed in a reduced-manning status 25 October 1929, her now-experienced crew transferred to the newly-fielded Coast Guard destroyer Trippe (CG-20), a Paulding class sistership who had served in the Navy as USS Trippe (DD-33).
Officially returned to the Navy on 18 October 1930, she was returned to the Navy List and stored in Philly but never rejoined the fleet. Instead, she was stricken and sold for scrap in 1934 per the London Naval Treaty, a fate shared by the rest of the class.
RADM Roe’s name was reissued to the new Sims-class destroyer (DD-418), commissioned 5 January 1940. The hardy new tin can served from Iceland to the Torch Landings and Iwo Jima, earning six battle stars during World War II. She was sold in 1947 to the breakers. There has not been a third Roe on the Navy List.
USS Roe (DD-418) Underway at sea, circa 1943-1944. NH 103528
Specs: Displacement: 742 long tons (754 t) normal 887 long tons (901 t) full load Length: 293 ft 10 in Beam: 27 ft Draft: 8 ft 4 in (mean) Installed power:12,000 ihp Propulsion: 4 × Thornycroft boilers 3 × Parsons Direct Drive Turbines 3 × screws Speed: 29.5 kn 31kt on Trials Range: 2175(15) on 225 tons of oil Complement: 4 officers 87 enlisted U.S. service. 75 in Coast Guard Armament: 5 × 3 in (76 mm)/50 caliber Mark 3 low-angle guns 6 × 18-inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes (3 × 2) Depth charges, in two stern racks and one Y-gun projector, added in 1917, removed in 1924
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With that being said, I recently ran into two things you guys would find interesting. Below is a great 26-minute Oct. 1945 newsreel on German and Italian sneak attack that was recently archived by the AP:
The designers hoped to combine the transit speed of a speedboat with the stealth and survivability of a submarine. To do this it would need to combine several advanced technologies which Germany had been developing. Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) and hydrofoils.
TBD-1 Devastator of VT-5 pictured in flight over Southern California.
Photo/description from the Naval Aviation Museum
Note the Navy E and squadron insignia, a Valkyrie or maiden of Odin that hovered over the battlefield and chose those to be slain, on the fuselage beneath the cockpit.
Insignia: Torpedo Squadron Five (VT-5) Emblem was adopted during the later 1930s when VT-5 served onboard USS Yorktown (CV-5). This reproduction features a stylized representation of a TBD Devastator torpedo plane and an explanation of the insignia’s design. Courtesy of John S. Howland, 1975. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph Catalog #: NH 82628-KN
The aircraft shown above is 5-T-7 Bu No 0331 pictured in November 1939 when she was operating off USS Yorktown (CV 5) with VT-5.
Thus:
Douglas TBD-1 Torpedo Planes of Torpedo Squadron Five (VT-5) Parked on the after flight deck of USS Yorktown (CV-5) at Naval Air Station, North Island, San Diego, California, in June 1940. Three of these aircraft closest to the stern are painted in an experimental camouflaged color scheme used during Fleet Problem XXI– one of which could be 5-T-7 as it is not seen among the crowd of other planes. Also, note two of Yorktown’s eight 5″/38 singles on sponsons. This section of the ship was examined when Yorktown’s wreck was located in May 1998. The after thirty feet (approximately) of the flight deck was missing, but most other features seen were present, including the ship’s name on her stern. This view is cropped from Photo # 80-G-652042. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 95314
Bu 0331 was transferred to VT-7 on USS Wasp (CV-8) in 1941 and later operated as a trainer at Dahlgren, Virginia until being scrapped in 1944.
While the TBD gets a bad wrap these days– largely because of their disastrous performance at Midway, where any other torpedo bomber of the day (Fairey Swordfish, Nakajima B5N2 “Kate” et al) would have likewise performed poorly in an unsupported daylight attack against a surface fleet protected by good fighter cover– it should be remembered that it was the best torpedo bomber available to the U.S. Navy at the time. Remember, VT-8, which flew Avengers at Midway, didn’t have much luck either.
The British completed 151 River-class frigates for a host of Commonwealth and Allied navies during WWII, and the vessels went to serve at least 19 different fleets around the globe. Of those, HMAS Diamantina, commissioned 27 April 1945, is the only one preserved as a museum ship, the rest of her sisters gone to scrap or reef.
Importantly during her 35 active years with the Royal Australian Navy– during which she had steamed 615,755 miles– she received the official surrender of Japanese forces in the Solomons.
The Ocean Island surrender is signed onboard HMAS Diamantina (Photo: RAN)
Official caption: “As a part of Royal Canadian Naval tradition, Master Seaman Shaun Duguay kisses the fish as part of the initiation to become a new “Shellback” (members who have crossed the Arctic Circle by Order of the Blue Nose – Domain of the Polar Bear), onboard Task Group flagship HMCS VILLE DE QUÉBEC during the Crossing the Line Ceremony, on August 17, 2020, during Operation NANOOK 20.”
Photo: MCpl Manuela Berger, Canadian Armed Forces Photo
HMCS Ville de Québec (FFH 332)(commonly referred to as VDQ) is a 5,000-ton Halifax-class frigate that has served in the Royal Canadian Navy since 1993 and in the past 27 years has seen service on the NATO blockade force against Yugoslavia, escorted food ships off the pirate-infested waters off Somalia, performed disaster assistance in the Gulf of Mexico after Hurricane Katrina, and was one of the naval assets deployed to search for Swissair Flight 111 in 1998.
While the U.S. Army’s museum system (which let me poke around its “attic” in Anniston a few years ago) has 46 small outlets, typically run at the division and branch level and not necessarily open to those without a CAC card, there is no public National Museum of the Army.
Well, I should say that there was no National Museum of the Army, until yesterday.
The Old Guard kicked off the Museum’s Opening Ceremony at Fort Belvoir, VA, Nov. 11, 2020.
The National Museum of the United States Army celebrates over 240 years of Army history and honors our nation’s Soldiers—past, present, and future—the regular Army, the Army Reserve, and the Army National Guard, and I have to say it looks great. I can’t wait to check it out on my next trip to NoVa.
The 185,000-square-foot facility has 11 galleries and nearly 1,390 artifacts available for visitors to see. Those wishing to tour the museum can do so by first visiting the website and ordering a free ticket.
From the 1924 overhaul plans of the Pennsylvania-class dreadnought USS Arizona (BB-39), listing her battery. Besides the traditional battlewagon muscle such as 14″/45, 5″/51, and 3″/50 guns, keep scrolling down passed the two submerged torpedo tubes, two 1-pounder boat guns, and quartet of four-pounder saluting guns, and you see her impressive small arms locker for fielding a light battalion-sized landing force of bluejackets armed with 350 M1903 Springfields, 100 GI .45s, an unspecified number of Krag 1898s (which may have been line throwers), two .30-cal machine guns, and a 3-inch field piece.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs estimates there are about 20 million living American Veterans including 1.6 million over age 85. The largest group, some 7.7 million, are Gulf War-era vets followed by 6.2 million who served during the Vietnam-era. There are 1 million Korean War-era vets.
The smallest group are living World War II-era veterans, whose numbers have declined to about 325,000. Keep in mind over 16 million members of the Greatest Generation served during those trying years.
By the end of the decade, the VA expects the number of WWII vets to decline into the low four-digit numbers.
Remember to thank all Veterans for their sacrifices today.
U.S. Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation photo No. 1977.031.085.071
Here we see a great bow-on shot of the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious (87) underway in the Indian Ocean during the Spring of 1944, while the British flattop was operating with USS Saratoga (CV-3) during WWII. “Lusty” was one of the luckier of HM’s early fleet carriers during the conflict, and a handful of hopelessly obsolete aircraft flying from her decks, borrowing a bit of that luck, would pull off an amazing feat some 80 years ago today.
While today the U.S. Navy is the benchmark for carrier operations, the British would be incredibly innovative in the use of such vessels in warfare. This included being the first country to lose a carrier in combat when HMS Courageous (50) was lost to a German U-boat in the third week of the war and sistership HMS Glorious was embarrassingly lost to the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau during the withdrawal from Norway in June 1940. With that being said, it was a good thing that Illustrious was on the way to make up losses.
Laid down at Vickers Barrow-in-Furness on 27 April 1937, 13 months after German troops marched into the Rhineland as part of the British rearmament due to such muscular action, Illustrious was the lead ship of a new class of a planned six aircraft carriers designed from the first steel cut to be modern flattops. Displacing 25,000-tons full load, they had a 740-foot overall length and the ability to touch 30-knots on a trio of steam turbines.
U.S. ONI sheet on the Illustrious class
Carrying up to 4.5-inches of armor– to include an armored flight deck designed to withstand 1,000-pound bombs– and protected by 16 excellent QF 4.5-inch Mark I guns, both of which would have rated her as a decent light cruiser even without aircraft, the class could carry 36 aircraft in their hangars, which was smaller than American and Japanese carriers of the same size, but keep in mind the Brits guarded their birds inside an armored box. Further, they were fitted with radar, with Illustrious having her Type 79 installed just before she joined the fleet.
HMS Illustrious (87) underway 1940. Note the 4.5″ (11.4 cm) Mark I guns in twin Mark III UD mountings. IWM FL2425
Commissioned 25 May 1940, during the fall of France, Illustrious was to do her workup cruise to Dakar but plans changed once the French surrendered, sending the carrier instead to do her shakedown in the relative safety of the West Indies. Meanwhile, Italy had clocked in on Germany’s side, declaring war on 10 June.
HMS Illustrious landing Swordfish in June 1940. Picture: Fleet Air Arm Museum CARS 1/171
By 30 August, she set out for the Mediterranean on her first operational deployment, sailing for Alexandria in convoy with Force F. Within a week, her airwing, which included Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers of Nos. 815 and 819 Squadrons, would be flying combat missions against Axis-held airfields on Rhodes.
While Illustrious carried a mix of quaint Fairey Fulmar and Sea Gladiator fighters, it was her embarked Swordfish, biplanes capable of just 124 knots and nicknamed “flying stringbags,” that made up the bulk of her strike capability.
Swordfish could carry a torpedo or up to 1,500 pounds of bombs or mines, although their combat radius while doing so was only about 200nm. Self-defense amounted to two .303-caliber Vickers guns.
On the 17th, Swords from Illustrious drew blood during shipping attacks on Benghazi harbor, sending the Italian Turbine-class destroyer Borea to the bottom while air-dropped mines would take out several merchantmen. The proven carrier then spent the next several weeks riding shotgun on convoys between Malta and Egypt.
Then, on 10 November, Illustrious was detached on Operation Judgement, a planned midnight home invasion of the Italian fleet’s main base at Taranto under the cover of darkness, where her airwing would target Rome’s mighty battleships at anchor. As an ace in the hole, they had up-to-date reconnaissance photographs of the harbor, taken by Martin Maryland light bombers flying from Malta.
The carrier strike force? Even including aircraft cross-decked from HMS Eagle, Illustrious could count a mixed bag of just 21 Swordfish of Nos. 813, 815, 819, and 824 Squadrons. To give them a boost in range, each would be fitted with a spare av gas tank that they only had to leave their rear gunner behind to accommodate– what could go wrong?
The first wave, of 12 aircraft, would launch at 20:40 on 11 November and consist of six Swords each with a single 18-inch torpedo, backed up by four Swords each with a half-dozen light 250-pound bombs, and two aircraft with a mix of 16 parachute flares and four bombs each.
The second wave (!), of nine aircraft, would launch an hour later and included five torpedo carriers, two with bombs and two flare-droppers. In all, the Brits planned to bring a total of 11 Mark XII torpedoes and 52 almost lilliputian bombs.
250-pound bombs that would later be dropped on the Italian fleet at Taranto on HMS Illustrious’s flight deck
The tiny force of biplanes faced some serious opposition.
Besides the masses of guns on the Italian ships themselves– which were under standing orders to keep their AAA batteries at least half-manned even when the vessels were anchored– around the Regia Marina’s primary roadstead were land-based anti-aircraft batteries that held no less than 21 4-inch, 84 20mm and 109 13.2mm guns at the ready in addition to smaller numbers of 125mm, 90mm, and 40mm guns. While there was no air-search radar at Taranto, the Italians did have at least 13 “war tuba” sound-detection devices capable of hearing aircraft engines as far out as 30 miles away. Two dozen powerful searchlights scanned the heavens.
Even if the British bombers could get inside the harbor, the Italians had over 23,000 feet of counter-torpedo netting ready to catch any trespassing Royal Navy fish. Further, there was a flotilla of 90 barrage balloons tethered by steel cables, deployed across the harbor in three rows.
While the Brits caught some breaks– two-thirds of the barrage balloons were not on station due to storms and a lack of hydrogen; and 2.9km of the torpedo nets were coiled up, in need of repair– it was still a dangerous mission as witnessed by the more than 12,000 shells of 20mm or greater from shore-based batteries alone during the strike.
In the end, just two Swords were lost while three of six Italian battleships present were seriously damaged, and the last of 18 recovered aircraft were aboard Illustrious by 0230 on 12 November.
The brand-new 35,000-ton fast battleship Littorio suffered three torpedo hits, while the older battlewagons Caio Duilio and Conte di Cavour picked up one each, with the latter so wrecked she would not be repaired for the duration of the war. Bombs lightly damaged the 13,000-ton heavy cruiser Trento, the destroyers Libeccio and Pessagno, and two fleet auxiliaries in addition to falling on the dockyard and oil depot. The fleet suffered nearly 700 casualties, although less than 10 percent of that figure was mortal.
The raid upset the balance of power between the strong Italian fleet and the weaker British force in the Med at a crucial period.
As a booby prize, the Italians captured two downed British Fleet Air Arm members and were left with several dud bombs and torpedoes to examine. Two RN aircrewmen were killed. The morning after the Taranto raid, the undamaged battleship Vittorio Veneto, assuming ADM Inigo Campioni’s flag from the crippled Littorio, led the Italian fleet to Naples. Campioni would be relieved of command three weeks later, replaced by ADM Angelo Iachino.
As encapsulated by the Royal Navy today, “The Fleet Air Arm’s attack on Taranto ranks as one of the most daring episodes in the Second World War. It transformed the naval situation in the Mediterranean and was carefully studied by the Japanese before their carrier-borne strike on the American fleet at Pearl Harbour in December 1941.”
Much more on Operation Judgement can be read at Armoured Carriers.com and the 26-page paper, The Attack at Taranto, by Angelo N. Caravaggio in the Naval War College Review.
Post-Taranto
How do you top a 20-aircraft raid from a five-month-old carrier that sidelined half of the Italian battlefleet? For the rest of the war, Illustrious was a one-ship fire brigade supporting operations in the Med to include earning honors for keeping Malta alive during Operation Excess.
Her luck ran out on the Excess run on 10 January 1941– hit by five bombs from a swarm of 18 He 111s and 43 Stukas 60 miles west of Malta. “Illustrious was the main target and was enveloped in waterspouts and mist of exploding bombs. Some bombers diving from an altitude of 12,000 feet delayed bomb release until they pulled-out lower than the height of Illustrious’ funnel.”
Even so, she reached Malta that day and would suffer 126 dead and 91 wounded by the time she departed the besieged island stronghold– the subject of continuing German and Italian air attacks the entire time she was there.
She was sent to Norfolk Naval Shipyard in the ostensibly neutral United States for repair, eventually arriving there via the Suez Canal on May 27.
HMS ILLUSTRIOUS At the Norfolk Navy Yard, Virginia, following battle damage repairs, November 1941. NH 96323
Post repairs, Illustrious was soon back in the war, covering the landings at Diego Suarez in Vichy-held Madagascar during Operation Ironclad in 1942, where her Swords were back at work.
The Royal Navy battleship HMS Valiant fires its 38.1 cm guns during exercises as seen from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious (87). 22 December 1942, Indian Ocean. The planes in the foreground are Fairey Fulmars of B Flight, 806 Squadron, Fleet Air Arm, with Grumman Martlets of 881 NAS parked aft. Lt. D.C. Oulds, Royal Navy official photographer IWM A 15152
She then shipping back to the Med for the Salerno landings in 1943.
From there she set out for the Indian Ocean in 1944 where she worked alongside USS Saratoga and raided the Japanese-held island of Sabang (Operation Cockpit).
HMS Illustrious and USS Saratoga Trincomalee, Ceylon part of Operation Cockpit
HMS Illustrious (87) steaming past the U.S. carrier USS Saratoga (CV-3) in the Indian Ocean, 18 May 1944. Note the crews of both ships assembled on deck to pay farewell. NNAM.1977.031.085.012
HMS ILLUSTRIOUS, part of the Eastern Fleet, stationary, coastal waters (photographed from the cruiser HMS MAURITIUS). IWM A 13559
HMS Renown and Illustrious in Trincomalee Harbor, Ceylon in early 1944.
Royal Navy aircraft repair carrier HMS Unicorn (I72, left) and HMS Illustrious (87), probably pictured at Trincomalee, Ceylon, in 1944. NNAM No. 1996.488.037.044
Corsairs in the armored box hangar of HMS Illustrious. Tight spaces!
A long way from Sea Gladiators! HMS Illustrious in the Indian Ocean. The flight deck being cleared of Corsairs at sunset ready for the Avenger dusk patrol to land on. May 1944
By January 1945, she was off Sumatra in the Japanese-held Dutch East Indies, launching raids on the vital Soengi Gerong oil refineries near Palembang while dodging kamikazes.
She was the first ship in Green Island’s Captain Cook dock, 11 February 1945
Speaking of which, she continued to reap the divine wind off Okinawa in April, with a Japanese D4Y3 Judy making contact with her deck, leaving the carrier with a vibration in her hull and the remains of a Japanese rubber dinghy as a trophy.
The Bridge and Island crew of HMS illustrious had a remarkably close call on 6 April 1945 when a kamikaze attack plane scored the thinnest of glancing blows with its wingtip ripping the ray dome just forward of the Bridge with the plane spinning into the sea causing no casualties to the crew
Sailing at a reduced speed of 19 knots for Sidney and emergency repairs, she ended the war in the dockyard.
Post-war
The Illustrious class entry in the 1946 edition of Jane’s Fighting Ships
Post-VJ-Day, Illustrious was used for deck-landing trials until being place in reserve in late 1947.
Armoured carrier HMS Illustrious carrying out flying trials in 1947. Seafire is on an out-rigger just forward of the island, and the aircraft aft is a Sea Fury
Hawker Sea Fury about to land on HMS Illustrious 1947. Just a great view of her stern QF 4.5″ gun batteries as well, with the turrets trained seaward
Recommissioned the next year, she was used for further trials and training duties, clocking in as a troop carrier to Cyrus in 1951.
HMS Illustrious, off Norway, 1954, at the tail-end of her career. Note the long-serving TBM Avengers on her deck and twin 4.5-inch guns forward. Via the Municipal Archives of Trondheim
She attended Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation Review at Spithead in June 1953 and continued to provide some service, she never again deployed as an operational carrier.
Battleship HMS Vanguard at Spithead on June 1953, with the bruiser old aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious.
Illustrious was sold to BISCO for breaking-up at Faslane, arriving there on 3 November 1956.
As for her three sisters that were completed, HMS Formidable (67)and HMS Indomitable (92) had been broken up shortly before Illustrious leaving only HMS Victorious (R38) to soldier on, paid off in 1968 and scrapped the next year.
What could have been: Blackburn Buccaneer flies past Illustrious-class aircraft carrier HMS Victorious note Sea Vixen, Gannetts and Westlands on deck
Epilogue
While the name HMS Illustrious would go on to be used by an Invincible-class Harrier carrier, which was retired in 2016, several artifacts of the WWII-era vessel endure.
Of course, as a great ship, she was the subject of great maritime art:
Macdonald, Roderick; HMS ‘Illustrious’ under Air Attack, 10 January 1941. The scene of the attack is viewed from the cockpit of one of ‘Illustrious’ own Fairey Swordfish aircraft. By Roderick Macdonald circa 1980 via the Fleet Air Museum E00728/0001http://www.artuk.org/artworks/hms-illustrious-under-air-attack-10-january-1941-40645
“Task Force of Two Navies” Watercolor by Dwight Shepler, USNR, 1943, depicting U.S. and British warships in the Pentland Firth during an operation toward the Norwegian coast, coincident with the Sicily invasion, July 1943. Alabama (BB 60) is in the lead, followed by HMS Illustrious and HMS King George V. Three British carrier-based fighters (two “Seafires” and a “Martlet”) are overhead. Official USN photo # KN-20381, courtesy of the U.S. Navy Art Collection, Washington, DC, now in the collections of the National Archives.
No place to land by Michael Turner, showing FAA Royal Navy F4U Corsairs return to their carrier HMS Illustrious after the April 1945 Kamikaze attack
And of a variety of scale models from Heller, Aoshima, Revelle, and others.
While both her original ship’s bell– which was damaged in 1941 by the Germans off Malta– and her U.S.-cast replacement, presented while she was at Norfolk, are preserved.
This week, the Royal Navy is planning a spate of remembrance activities concerning the 80th anniversary of Taranto, keeping the memory of Lusty and her 21 stringbags alive.
Specs: Displacement: 28,661 tons, full load Length: 710 ft Beam: 95 ft Draft: 28 feet Propulsion: 6 Admiralty 3-drum boilers, 3 Parsons geared turbines producing 110,000 shp, three shafts Speed: 30.5 knots, range= 10,700nm @ 10 knots Complement: ~1,200 designed. Up to 1,600 during 1944-45 Armor: 3 to 4.5-inches Aircraft: 36, later increased to 60 16 × QF 4.5-inch naval gun (8 × 2) 40 x QF 2 pounder naval gun (5 × 8) Later fitted with: 3 x Bofors 40 mm gun (3 x 1) 38 x Oerlikon 20 mm cannon (19 x 2), (14 x 1)
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