As covered in past posts, the Ticonderoga class guided-missile cruisers are not long for us, with Cold Warriors USS Lake Champlain (CG-57) and USS Mobile Bay (CG-53) already decommissioned in the past several weeks.
Add to that the USS Bunker Hill (CG-52), wrapping 37 years of naval service during a decommissioning ceremony at Naval Base San Diego on 22 September.
SAN DIEGO (Sept. 22, 2023) – The crew of the Ticonderoga class guided-missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill (CG 52) stands at attention during the ship’s decommissioning ceremony. Bunker Hill was decommissioned after more than 37 years of distinguished service. Commissioned Sept. 20, 1986, Bunker Hill served in the U.S. Pacific Fleet supported Operation Desert Shield, and Operation Desert Storm, and participated in the establishment of Operation Southern Watch. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Claire M. DuBois)
The third warship to carry the name of the famed Revolutionary War battle, important for naval history was the first built with a VLS system and had a very active career.
As noted by the Navy:
Bunker Hill operated in the North Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman, supporting 10 Earnest Will convoys in 1987. The ship arrived in its new homeport of Naval Base Yokosuka, Japan the following year. At the end of January 1991, the ship launched its first Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles (TLAMs), a total of 28, against targets in Iraq from its station in the North Arabian Gulf, in support of Operation Desert Storm. It also supported Operations Desert Shield. In 2008, it was one of the Coalition ships from the British-led Combined Task Force (CTF) 150 maintaining a presence off the east coast of Africa in response to the recent events in Somalia. The following year it was the first guided-missile cruiser to receive a complete set of upgrades as part of the Navy’s Cruiser Modernization program including a new Aegis Weapons System, the Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC), and SPQ-9B Radar. The guided missile cruiser made full speed from off the coast of Panama to reach Haiti, joining U.S. military efforts on the Caribbean island devastated by a massive earthquake in 2010.
A key moment in my life concerning Bunker Hill, her plankowner skipper, Captain F. Richard Whalen, to me was just “Coach Whalen” as I played on the same soccer team as his son in 6th grade. He hosted us on an unofficial tour of the ship and we attended her departure. The life of a 1980s Pascagoula kid, I guess.
With Bunker Hill gone, and sisters USS Vicksburg (CG-69) and USS San Jacinto (CG-56) slated to join her in mothballs before the end of the year, just 12 of the 27 members of the class will be active going into next year. The Navy plans to put the final Ticos in mothballs by the end of FY 27.
Adios, San Juan
USS San Juan (SSN 751), a late model 688i and the third warship to carry the name, was commissioned on 6 August 1988. Last week, she shifted homeports cross-country from Groton to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and will begin inactivation, decommissioning, and recycling soon, capping a 35-year career.
The Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS San Juan (SSN 751), transits the Puget Sound, on Sept. 20, 2023. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Commu
Taking her final ride to Bremerton was a group of sailors from the French Navy and Royal Canadian Navy on exchange.
Sailors from the French Navy and Royal Canadian Navy completed a joint exercise with the U.S. Navy’s Los Angeles-class attack submarine, USS San Juan (SSN 751), on Sept. 20, 2023.
Importantly, in 1993 San Juan conducted the first through-ice surfacing for a 688i-class submarine in the Arctic, showing off a key ability of the type.
The once-mighty 62-boat Los Angeles class is currently down to just 26 hulls, counting San Juan, with only 15 of the class slated to still be operational by FY27.
San Juan follows in the footsteps of the more than 140 other U.S. nuclear-powered submarines sent to spend their last days at the nation’s largest public shipyard, her reactor compartment stored, her hull cut up and sold for scrap, with possibly her sail or diving planes retained ashore as a monument.
Here we see the Kriegsmarine battleship Tirpitz at Kåfjord in German-occupied Norway, in September 1943. Note the triple torpedo nets surrounding the beast and the flotilla of attending patrol and support craft.
The slightly improved sister to the infamous Bismarck, she would be attacked by an unlikely Beowulf in the form of a trio of British midget submarines while the monster was safe in its Kåfjord cave some 80 years ago today.
Termed Operation Source, after passing through the series of protective torpedo nets, one of the miniature subs, HMS X6, placed two mines of two tons each under the battleship’s keel, while X7 set a third.
Operation ‘Source’, 22 September 1943. Johne Makin (b.1947) via the Royal Navy Submarine Museum Collection.
While all three of the daring British X craft were lost in the resulting explosion and Tirpitz was severely damaged, she was back in service six months later and it would not be until November 1944 that the injured beast was finally slain.
Warship Wednesday (on a Thursday), Sept. 20, 2023: The Ajaccio Express
Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 88998
Above we see the French Redoubtable (Pascal)-class submarine of the M6 series (Agosta type), Casabianca (Q183), on the surface in the late 1930s. She is responsible for landing the first Allied troops on Axis-occupied Metropolitan France, some 80 years ago this week, and has a fascinating story that sort of dispels a lot of smack talk about the Marine nationale in WWII.
The Redoubtables
In the 1930s, the French Navy put a lot of faith in submarines, with upwards of 80 boats on the rolls during the decade. While a lot of those were old “2nd class” submarines or former German boats, there was also a formidable force of 31 modern “Classe 1,500 tonnes” boats that formed the backbone of the fleet. Large ocean-going “sous-marins de grande croisière” (high cruise submarines, i.e., 1st class subs), these boats were decent by any measure of their day.
Hitting the scales at just over 2,000 tons (submerged), they ran 302 feet long and were capable of (at least) 17 knots while surfaced and had long enough legs for 30-day cruises. Armed with a single 4-inch (100/45 M1925) deck gun, a twin 13.2mm Hotchkiss AA mount, and 11 torpedo tubes (9 fat bow and stern 21.65-inch tubes and a pair of smaller trainable 15.75-inch tubes), they could easily be compared to the prewar 307-foot Tambor-class “fleet boats” of the U.S. Navy and thoroughly outclassed the Kriegsmarine’s smaller and slower Type VII U-boats. When stacked against the most numerous pre-war Royal Navy boats, the T class (or Triton class) subs, these French Redoutables also ran a good bit larger and faster.
1931 Jane’s covering the Redoutables, at which point some 25 were in service. 31 would be built by 1939.
The first two boats of the class, Redoubtable (Q136) and Vengeur (Q137) were considered the initial M5 series, powered by a 4,000 hp suite– capable of 17 knots on the surface. The second flight, or M6 series, starting with Pascal (Q138), had more powerful 7,200 hp engines– pushing them to 19 knots– while the last six of the class, starting with Agosta (Q178), count on 8,000 hp and a speed of over 20 knots. This latter variant is often sometimes referred to as the Agosta-class.
They were fast diving, capable of getting submerged in 30-40 seconds, and had superb periscopes, although their listening gear and habitability were reportedly problematic– the latter no doubt due to their large 71-man (5 officers, 14 petty officers, 52 enlisted) crew. Their operating depth was listed as 250 feet– which would have meant easy death in the Pacific but was acceptable in the Med.
Double-hulled and able to partially use ballast tanks for diesel storage, they could make 14,000 nm at 7 knots on the surface before needing to refuel. This allowed the class to roam extensively overseas, including to French colonies in the Pacific, where one member, Phénix (Q157), was lost in an accident off Indochina in 1939. Another, Prométhée (Q153), was lost in 1932 while on sea trials in home waters.
Meet Casabianca
Our subject, a fast third-flight M6 Redoubtable, was ordered as part of the 1930 Programme/Naval Program No. 153 and as such was laid down at Saint Nazaire on 7 March 1937. She was commissioned on New Year’s Day 1937, the last of the class by pennant number (Q183) although five other boats would join the fleet after her, with the final Redoutables, Ouessant (Q180) and Sidi-Ferruch (Q181) not entering service until early 1939.
French submarine Casabianca 2 February 1935 at launch at the Nantes Shipyard of Ateliers Et Chantiers De La Loire NH 88999
Casabianca was originally named for the 1907 landings at the Moroccan city of Casablanca but instead was renamed in 1934 before launch for the Corsican-born French naval hero Luc-Julien-Joseph Casabianca, the skipper of the 118-gunned ship of the line L’ Orient which took Napoleon on his expedition to Egypt in 1798. He would go down with his ship at the Battle of the Nile at the hands of Nelson but died with all the appropriate honor and elan.
Bust of Capt. Casabianca and the painting, “The destruction of the Orient during the Battle of the Nile, August 1, 1798, by George Arnald, National Maritime Museum, London.
War!
When the French Republic went to war with Germany on 1 September 1939 as part of its pact with Poland, which was then under attack, Casabianca was at Brest as part of the 2ème DSM. She was soon ordered to Spanish waters along with sisters Agosta (Q178), Ouessant (Q180), and Achille (Q147) to watch for German blockade runners, U-boats, and raiders, a mission that would be maintained into November, with the squadron beefed up by the addition of Redoubtable sisters Sfax (Q182) and Pasteur (Q139).
With the war heating up, the boats of 2ème DSM, Casabianca included, were attached to the Royal Navy for a series of operations including convoy escort (!) from Halifax to Ireland in the winter of 1939/40, and a May 1940 patrol off Norway that saw the boats poking their periscopes up off occupied Bergen, Stavanger and Egersund but not coming away with any “kills” largely because of the handicap of following very strict “cruiser rules” for taking enemy ships. The only success the class saw in 1939 was when squadron member Poncelet (Q141) captured the German freighter Chemnitz (5522 GRT) off the Azores on 29 September and a prize crew sailed her home.
French submarine Casabianca oversee the departure from Brest to Harwich, on April 17th, 1940. IWM
June 1940 brought the Fall of France and 2ème DSM was ordered to leave their home port at Brest for the perceived safety of Casablanca, escaping capture by the oncoming Germans. The force, including our Casabianca, Sfax, Poncelet, Bévéziers, and Sidi-Ferruch, would arrive there just escaping the armistice, redubbing 2ème DSM (Maroc).
Sisters Pasteur, Agosta, Ouessant, and Achille, left behind at Brest, were duly scuttled by their crews.
Vichy sideshow
Casabianca and her squadron would remain at Casablanca, making short day trips and coastal sorties into November, when Casabianca and Sfax were ordered south to Dakar in French Senegal to increase the Vichy force there against an Allied effort to flip the colony for DeGaulle’s Free French movement. She would remain there, with the occasional trip back to Morrocco, until August 1941 when she was ordered to Toulon to be disarmed and de-fueled in compliance with German demands.
By this point in the war, of the 31 Redoubtables completed, 13 had already been lost (two in pre-war accidents, four scuttled at Brest in June 1940, Persée and Ajax sunk off Dakar by the British in September 1940, Poncelet sunk off Gabon by HMS Milford in November 1940, Sfax lost by mistake to U-37 in December 1940, while Bévéziers, Le Héros, and Monge were sunk off Madagascar in May 1942 by the British).
In late October 1942, with the war in North Africa going bad for the Axis, the French admiralty, with the blessing of the German Armistice Commission, ordered eight subs to rearm, including Casabianca, with the plan to deploy them as reinforcement against a possible Allied push into French North Africa.
Escape from Toulon
With the Germans effectively canceling the Vichy regime following the Allied Torch landings in North Africa– in which the Redoubtable-class boats Le Conquérant (Q171), Le Tonnant (Q172), Actéon (Q149), and Sidi-Ferruch were sunk in combat with the Allies and sisters Archimède, Argo, Protée and Le Centaure captured– the great Sabordé occurred at Toulon in which the bulk of the French navy fell on its sword on orders to prevent their ships from falling into German hands.
Among the 77 vessels sent to the bottom by their crews were another 20 French submarines including the Redoubtable herself and her sisters Vengeur, Pascal, Henri Poincaré, Fresnel, Achéron, and L’Espoir.
27 Novembre 1942 ,Toulon. the crew of a Panzer IV of the 2nd SS Division, Das Reich, watch a burning French warship, cruiser Colbert via Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-027-1451-10 Vennemann, Wolfgang CC-BY-SA Libre de droits
However, five French subs got underway from the Mourillon docks at Toulon on the early pe-dawn of 27 November: our Casabianca, her sister Le Glorieux (Q168), the small (600 ton) Minerve-class boats Iris (Q188) and Vénus (Q187), and the aging 1,100-ton Requin-class submarine Marsouin (Q119).
With only seven of her 40-man crew aboard and damaged by harbor defenses, Vénus was scuttled in deep water once clearing the channel but blazed the way for the other four. The small Iris, with her fuel tanks nearly empty, was forced to stopover in Spain where she was seized and interned until the end of the war.
This left Casabianca, Le Glorieux, and Marsouin who, dodging German bombers and minefields, arrived unannounced off Allied-occupied Algiers on the early morning of the 30 November, with Casabianca’s skipper, 40-year-old Capitaine de Corvette Jean L’Herminier, to report to the American port captain that his boat was “fit for any mission.”
Brave considering the Allies had been sinking French subs off that very port just a few weeks prior.
Indeed, L’Herminier had made it away from Toulon with all but two of his crew who missed the boat, even managing to bring along the ship’s mascot, a small gray dog named “Moussy.”
French Submarine Casabianca arrives Algiers after fleeing Toulon December 11 1942 IWM A 13154
Casabianca at Algiers after escape from Toulon. Note her trainable external sub-deck torpedo tube is out to port
French submarine Casabianca officers in Algiers after escaping Toulon with their boat. L’Herminier in center with cigarette
presentation of the Croix de Guerre to Frigate Captain L’Herminier December 1942 at Algiers by Admiral Darlan
Casabianca soon was detailed to the operational control of Capt. (future RADM) George Barney Hamley Fawkes’s 8th Submarine Flotilla of the Royal Navy, which had just moved its headquarters from Gibraltar to Algiers.
Cloak and Dagger work for the Allies.
While the bulk of behind-the-lines supply and liaison drops in occupied Europe came via airdropped parachute-delivered loads and small STOL planes such as the Lysander, Corsica proved almost immune to such deliveries due to its geography. The island’s built-up areas were so heavily garrisoned by the recently arrived Italian forces (80,000 troops overwatching a local population of 200,000) and the rural areas mountainous that airdrops were considered far-fetched.
This defaulted the effort to seaborne infiltration via small boats and submarines, the latter referred to as the so-called “Algerian Group” heavily involved in running “Le Tube” north to the Riveria and Corsica with the occasional side trip to land agents in ostensibly neutral Spain.
Sir Brooks Richards’s seminal two-volume work on clandestine Allied Sea transport operations in the Med during WWII, Secret Flotillas, spends about 50 pages detailing the 10-month groundwork for the ultimate liberation of Corsica (Operation Vesuvius) in 1943 and the role that the British and Free French submarine forces spent in making that happen. The name “Casabianca” appears in that section on almost every page.
While Casabianca wasn’t the only Free French boat running covert missions in the Med for Vesuvius– past Warship Wednesday alum the Saphir-class minelaying submarine La Perle (Q-184) was there as was Marsouin, Protée, Orphee, Sultane, Archimède, and Arethuse-– none matched CC L’Herminier’s workhorse who accomplished both the first mission and the chalked up the most trips to the island.
As detailed by Sir Brooks:
Casabianca’s displacement was more than twice that of the British S-class and larger than that of the T-class British submarines of the 8th Flotilla, so she offered great advantages in terms of carrying capacity for landing agents and supplies. This and the inspiring personality of her commanding officer [L’Herminier]…made her an obvious choice when a vessel was needed to carry a five-man mission, code-named Pearl Harbor, to Corsica in early December.
Elaborating on L’Herminier, Sir Brooks said:
He was in his early forties while British submarine captains were in their mid-twenties. The fact that Casabianca was not equipped with ASDIC and her torpedoes proved erratic meant that her offensive potential was not rated highly by the Royal Navy and Captain (S)8 was more than ready for her to be used for “cloak and dagger” missions.
Thus, Casabianca’s tasking came from the OSS/SOE’s “conspicuously successful” Massingham Mission and the Free French’s own Deuxième Bureau military intelligence organization under Colonel Paul Paillole.
To assist with the landings and beach recons needed for such operations, the French boat sent eight volunteers from the crew through an abbreviated Commando course conducted by Massingham at the Club des Pins while the boat herself would be fitted with American-supplied rubber rafts, quickly inflated on deck via a lead from the sub’s compressed air system. Later, a pair of lightweight plywood dories made at Helford specifically for such use as they were equipped with large removable kingstons to allow the dories to flood and drain as the submarine dived or surfaced when stowed topside. The Helfords would fit neatly when carried upside down atop Casabianca’s pressure hull, under the forward deck casing.
Finally, L’Herminier was all-in on risking his boat to get close to shore, typically grounding inshore close to the beach when conducting often all-night unloadings, then pulling off just before dawn to submerge on the bottom just offshore to surface again the following evening to do it all again. This was vital as the “delivery boats” were human powered and the crew was burdened by moving 70-pound packages chain gang style from every nook and cranny of the submarine where they were stowed, up to the deck via small hatches, and into the boats then over the beach and into the cache– all in the dark by feel with no lamps allowed.
A brief rundown on her Corsica operations, via Brooks, in which, in addition to her agent shuttling service, Casabianca landed no less than 61 tons of supplies across the beach in such a manner to the local resistance groups throughout seven sorties to the island:
Casabianca I/Pearl Harbor: Landing Commandant Roger de Saule (French intelligence officer), three Corsicans: wireless operator Pierre Griffi, Sgt. Maj Toussaint Griffi, and trade unionist resistance member Laurent Preziosi. Tagging along was mysterious Eastern European OSS agent “Frederick Brown.” Casabianca had been in Algiers less than two weeks when she left on Pearl Harbor on 11 December. After a two-night close recon to find the ideal beach at Anse-de Topiti on Corsica’s west coast, the group was landed with the submarine departing for Algiers again on 16 December– sans three of her crew that had been left behind to join the Pearl Harbor team when their dingy swamped.
Casabianca II/Auburn: February 1943. Landed three Deuxième Bureau, one OSS, and two SIS agents (Capt. Caillot, Lt. Guillaume, Fred Brown, Adj. Bozzi, and SGT Chopitel) on two different beaches (Bon Porte Bay and Baie d’Arone). Then landed 450 STEN guns and 60,000 rounds of 9mm ammo for local Resistance members while two more Casabianca sailors were left ashore.
Casabianca III/Pearl Harbor II: March 1943.A complicated multipart mission to pick up Casabianca’s five castaways who had been working with the local maquis, land three Deuxième Bureau agents, and pick up two French agents that had been landed in other operations. L’Herminier capped off the mission with an unsuccessful four-torpedo attack against the Italian steamers Francesco Crispi and Tagliamento off Bastia.
Casabianca IV: May 1943: Landed four unidentified Deuxième Bureau agents, and conducted a war patrol in the area.
Casabianca V/Scalp. July 1943. With an embarked four-man SOE conducting party (including the future Sir Brooks), landed 13 tons of stores and two agents across two nights at Curza Point– mostly Axis small arms salvaged from the huge stocks of the Afrika Korps recently surrendered in Tunisia. As noted by Brooks: “In one short summer’s night, L’Herminier and his crew had succeeded in landing and hiding eight tons of arms and explosives in hostile territory without any outside help. No British submarine captain would have been allowed to take his submarine inshore to the point to where she grounded, as a preliminary to sending the boats away.” On her way back, she fired three torpedoes at the freighter Champagne near Giraglia, which missed.
Casabianca VI/Scalp II: July-August 1943. Another 20 tons of stores landed at Curza Point for the maquis, with an embarked SOE conducting party assisting.
Casabianca VII/Scalp III: Early September 1943. Landed two agents and another 5 tons of arms and ammunition at Golfe de Lava. Extracted a Corsican resistance leader, Arthur Giovoni, bound for Algiers to consult with Allied leadership about the upcoming landings. Giovoni, alias “Luc,” had a detailed copy of the Italian defense plan for the island, which had been recently acquired.
Her seven Corsican missions. She circled the island.
In all, the Massingham SOE mission was able to filter 250 tons of arms and stores into Corsicaoverf almost eight months, of which Casabianca alone delivered nearly a quarter.
Vesuvius D-Day
By the time Operation Vesuvius kicked off, the Corsican resistance could count 20,000 armed members in the field– a force double the size of the 10,000-man light corps (1er Corps d’Armée) under Free French Lt. Gen. Henry Martin that would begin landing on 13 September to liberate the island.
Speaking of which, the very first landings of combat troops would be at Ajaccio, with Casabianca making her 8th trip to the island, delivering 109 members of 1er Bataillon de Choc, Gen. Martin’s door kickers, while two crack Moroccan goumier divisions (4e DMM and 2e GTM) were inbound on an array of French surface ships. The operation was allocated to be an (almost) entirely Free French affair.
Free French soldiers from the Bataillon de Choc, a commando unit created in Algeria in early 1943. The Bataillon was decisive in the liberation of Corsica and Elba. This picture, with a recently repurposed camouflaged German 7.5cm Pak 40, was taken after they landed in Provence during Operation Dragoon, during the fight to free Toulon, in August 1944. Note the mix of gear including British watch caps, American M1903 rifles, boots and gaiters, and Italian Beretta MAB 38sub guns. Also, note the open 75mm shell crate with two rounds ready.
French Troops training for the invasion of Southern France in North Africa, likely of the Bataillon de Choc. One holding an M1 Thompson sub gun and the others wielding M1903A3 rifles with bayonets attached, the three slash into barbed wire barricades set up on a beach. Photograph received on 27 September 1944. 80-G-59465
Bataillon de Choc in late WWII with the Marlin UDM42 SMG during the liberation of Grenoble 22 August 1944
In addition to the commandos, Casabianca’s 8th sortie landed a joint SOE-Deuxième Bureau team of senior officers to liaise directly with the local resistance forces and help tie the whole operation together, with the twine of previously landed wireless teams helping to sew the strange quilt together.
The sub was mobbed when she arrived.
The fight was short, as the Italian garrison had (mostly) laid down their arms with the Armistice of Cassibile on 3 September, but there were still 10,000 Germans on the island as well as 32,000 Germans on nearby Sardinia that were evacuating through Corsica back to the Italian mainland.
French destroyers Tempête and L’Alcyon landing troops Ajaccio, Operation Vésuve Sept 17 1943 Corsica
The fighting didn’t conclude until the first week of October which ultimately saw some Italian troops cross over to the Allies and lend a hand to help speed up the operation.
The STEN gun, both in the hands of Free French troops and Resistance forces, was key in the fighting for Corsica, and thousands of them were landed by Casabianca
Goumiers marocains, Libération de la Corse. Note the French cadre in more traditional dress.
September 21, 1943 first goumiers landed at Ajaccio, Corsica. Note these are still carrying French weapons and don’t have Brodie helmets yet.
Back to work
Casabianca would go on to conduct at least two further Deuxième Bureau covert missions– one, in November 1943, to embark agents from remote Cap-Camarat near Ramatuelle on the Riveria, and the second, in May 1944, to drop off and pick up agents in Spain.
Casabianca returns to port from a mission in the Mediterranean, on 23 June 1944. NARA 80-G-253640
RADM Andre Lemonnier, French Navy salutes from shore as the French submarine Casabianca returns to port from a mission in the Mediterranean, 23 June 1944. NARA 80-G-253638
She would also conduct several short combat patrols and managed to sink two German submarine chasers (UJ-6076, ex-Volontaire, on 22 December 1943 off Toulon and UJ-6079 off Provence on 8/9 June 1944). In addition, she pumped a torpedo into the freighter Chisone (6168 GRT, built 1922) off Cap-Camarat on 28 December, seriously damaging but not sinking the Italian merchant vessel.
By August 1944, with the Dragoon Landings moving inshore from the Rivera towards the French interior, Casabianca along with surviving sisters Archimède, Le Glorieux, and Le Centaure, were tapped for modernization in the U.S., leaving for Philadelphia NSY soon after. The refit saw HF/DF gear, radar (SD/SJ), and sonar (WDA, JP) sets installed while the twin 13.2mm Hotchkiss machine gun mount was replaced by a twin 20/70 Oerlikon.
Casabianca was not returned to service until the end of March 1945, when her war was officially over.
For the next six years, she participated in a series of Med cruises and experiments– to include launching a captured German Focke-Achgelis Fa 330 Bachstelze (Wagtail) rotor kite.
The 1946 Jane’s entry for what was left of the Redoubtable class, now dubbed the Archimède-class after the seniormost member.
Casabianca was decommissioned in February 1952 and sold for scrap in 1956.
Casabianca’s crew was cited seven times (l’ordre de l’armée de mer) and the submarine was decorated with the Croix de Guerre and the red fourragère of the Legion of Honor, for her wartime service.
Her British-style Jolly Roger marked her seven covert missions to Corsica, along with her surface and subsurface actions.
Note the Corsican flag, with the red dot for Ajaccio. The boat’s final Jolly Roger is proudly held in the French Navy Museum.
Epilogue
Casabianca’s fairwater was salvaged from her during disassembly and paraded through Paris.
It was eventually installed at Bastia in Corsica, where it remains today.
Similarly, a marker was emplaced at Ajaccio, celebrating the September 1943 landing there of Casabianca and the 109 commandos of the Bataillon de Choc.
Sadly, L’Herminier, suffering from thrombosis, left for the U.S. for medical treatment in August 1944, which led to the amputation of both of his legs. Nonetheless, the fearless submariner remained on the rolls in administrative functions until his death, writing two books and serving as an adviser to the film, “Casabianca, Pirate Ship,” about his sub’s Corsican exploits.
L’Herminier was portrayed by French actor Jean Vilar and was filmed aboard Casabianca’s sister, Le Glorieux.
Decorated with the Grand Cross of the Légion d’honneur, Capitaine de vaisseau Jean L’Herminier passed in 1953 in Paris, at age 51, and several streets across the country were subsequently renamed in his honor.
The D’Estienne d’Orves-class aviso Commandant L’Herminier (F791) was commissioned in 1986 and was the only ship in the French Navy authorized to fly “le pavillon de pirate,” a replica of Casabianca’s Jolly Roger.
The flag was proudly a part of her crew’s patch. She was decommissioned on 7 March 2018.
As for the name Casabianca, it was reissued to a destroyer (D 631) of all things in 1954, then, more fittingly, to a Rubis-class nuclear attack submarine, Casabianca (S603), launched in 1984.
Casabianca (S603), which was just paid off in August, carried Casabianca’s Jolly Roger on her fairwater and her crew maintained a replica as well.
The sixth new Suffern-class SSN will become the next Casabianca (S640) when she commissions in 2029.
Ships are more than steel and wood And heart of burning coal, For those who sail upon them know some ships have a soul.
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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.
On the morning of 14 September 1814, it became obvious to Admiral of the Blue, Sir Alexander Inglis Cochrane, Commander-in-Chief, North American Station, that the failed 25-hour bombardment of Fort McHenry would force the British to abandon their assault on the port city of Baltimore.
A view of the bombardment of Fort McHenry, during the War of 1812, near Baltimore, by the British fleet, taken from the observatory under the command of Admirals Cochrane & Cockburn on the morning of the 13th of Sepr. 1814 which lasted 25 hours, & thrown from 1,500 to 1,800 shells in the night attempted to land by forcing a passage up the ferry branch but were repulsed with great loss. Engraving by John Bower. LOC print. LC-DIG-ppmsca-35544
That morning, aboard an American truce sloop near the 80-gun ship of the line HMS Tonnant was lawyer, author, and amateur poet Francis Scott Key, aged 35, whose subsequent poem “Defence of Fort M’Henry” was the next day penned at the Indian Queen Tavern in Baltimore.
In honor of those rockets and mortars launched from the fireships HMS Erebus and HMS Meteor, along with four other British bomb vessels, against McHenry, here is an October 1981 montage of seven views showing parts of the test launching of a Trident I C-4 missile from the submerged Benjamin Franklin-class Fleet Ballistic Missile submarine USS Francis Scott Key (SSBN-657) and the Trident’s inert re-entry bodies as they plunge into the earth’s atmosphere and then into the Atlantic Ocean.
Via the National Museum of the U.S. Navy, 330-CFD-DN-SC-82-00005
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
Warship Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023: Weaving the Falls
Admiralty Official Collections of the Imperial War Museum, Catalog no. A 3295 by Harold William John Tomlin, a Royal Navy official photographer.
Above we see a circa 1941 image of a Royal Canadian Navy officer aboard the 4th group Town class destroyer HMCS Niagara (I57) making his bunk with a very interestingly camouflaged Mk I “battle bowler” style helmet at the ready. As for the U.S. Navy crest on a bunk cover?
There is a good reason for that, one that goes back 105 years ago this week.
The Wickes
Our ship was one of the iconic first flights of “Four Piper” destroyers that were designed in 1915-16 with input from no less an authority as Captain (later Admiral) W.S. Sims. Beamy ships with a flush deck and a quartet of boilers (with a smokestack for each) were coupled to a pair of Parsons geared turbines to provide 35.3 knots designed speed– which is still considered fast today, more than a century later.
The teeth of these 314-foot, 1,250-ton greyhounds were four 4-inch/50 cal MK 9 guns and a full dozen 21-inch torpedo tubes.
They reportedly had short legs and were very wet, which made long-range operations a problem, but they gave a good account of themselves. Originally a class of 50 was authorized in 1916, but once the U.S. entered WWI in April 1917, this was soon increased and increased again to some 111 ships built by 1920.
Wickes class USS Yarnall (DD-143): Booklet of General Plans – Inboard Profile / Outboard Profile, June 10, 1918, NARA NAID: 158704871
Wickes class USS Yarnall (DD-143): Booklet of General Plans – Main Deck / 1st Platform Deck / S’ch L’t P’f’m, S’ch L’t Control P’f’m, Fire Control P’f’m Bridge, Galley Top, After Dk. House and 2nd Platform Deck. / June 10, 1918, Hold NARA NAID: 158704873
Wickes class. A close-up of her stern top-down view of plans shows the Wickes class’s primary armament– a dozen torpedo tubes in four turnstiles and stern depth charges.
Of the 111 Wickes completed, there were three subclasses besides the 38 standard-design vessels built at Bath Iron Works, Cramp, Mare Island, and Charleston. Then came the 52 Bethlehem-designed ships built at the company’s Fore River (26 ships) and Union Iron Works (26 ships) led by USS Little, the Newport News-built variants (11 ships) starting with USS Lamberton, and New York Shipbuilding-built variants (10 ships) led by USS Tattnall.
The subclasses were constructed to a slightly different set of plans modified by their respective builders, which made for some downright confusing modifications later. In addition, the Bethlehem-designed Little variants tended to have shorter legs and proved unable to cross the Atlantic in a single hop without stopping in the Azores for refueling or completing an underway replenishment.
Anyway…
Meet Thatcher
Our subject was the first warship commissioned to honor RADM Henry Knox Thatcher, USN. Born in 1806, this grandson of Maj. Gen. Henry Knox (George Washington’s artillery master) was first appointed to West Point in 1822 then, after being out sick and resigning, subsequently received an appointment as a midshipman with the Navy the following March at age 16, spending the next four years at sea aboard the frigate USS United States in the Pacific. Then came a string of seagoing assignments as a junior officer in the antebellum period (schooner Porpoise, sloops Erie and Jamestown, frigates Delaware and Brandywine, storeship Relief) before earning his first command, that of the sloop Decatur in 1857.
The Civil War saw him promoted to captain and later commodore, commanding the sloop Constellation in European waters, the screw frigate Colorado with the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, and a division of Porter’s squadron against Fort Fisher. The war ended with him in command of the Western Gulf Squadron tasked with the reduction of Spanish Fort and Blakeley– the last two holdouts in Mobile Bay– then accepting the surrender of Sabine Pass and Galveston, the last rebel ports.
Promoted to rear admiral in 1866, he held command of the North Pacific Squadron and was placed on the retired list in 1868 after a 45-year career, Thatcher passed in 1880, aged 73.
Appropriately, USS Thatcher (Destroyer No. 162) was laid down on 8 June 1918 by Fore River at Quincy, Massachusetts; launched 105 years ago this week on 31 August 1918 sponsored by Miss Doris Bentley, the grandniece of RADM Thatcher; and, too late for the Great War, was commissioned on 14 January 1919, with LCDR Francis Warren Rockwell (USNA 1908)– a Navy Cross holder for his time on the destroyer USS Winslow (DD-53) during WWI and future VADM who later commanded the 16th Naval District in the Philippines at the outbreak of World War II in the Pacific— as her first seagoing skipper.
USS Thatcher (Destroyer # 162) At the Boston Navy Yard, Massachusetts, 14 January 1919. Panoramic photograph by J. Crosby, Naval Photographer, # 11 Portland Street, Boston. NH 99264
In all, USS Thatcher’s construction only lasted just 220 days, a wonder of wartime shipbuilding.
USS Thatcher (DD-162). Leading other destroyers into a harbor, circa 1919-1921. The next ship astern is USS Crosby (DD-164). This was likely during the NC flying boat crossing as Thatcher operated on picket station number 9, one of 21 stations strung out from Newfoundland and Labrador to the Azores, between her sister ships Walker (Destroyer No. 163) and Crosby. Underway at sea, she provided visual and radio bearings for the flying boats as they passed overhead on their way toward Lisbon, Portugal. NH 41952
USS Cuyama (Oiler # 3) at Acapulco, Mexico, circa 1919, with several destroyers alongside. Destroyers off Cuyama’s starboard side are (from left to center: USS Walker (Destroyer # 163); USS Crosby (Destroyer # 164); and USS Thatcher (Destroyer # 162). USS Gamble (Destroyer # 123) is moored along Cuyama’s port side. Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1976. NH 85033
USS Thatcher (DD-162) underway, circa 1920. NH 41953
Transferred to the Pacific in the autumn of 1921, Thatcher operated out of San Diego, conducting exercises and training cruises off the West Coast with reduced manning (her last three skippers were ensigns and LTJGs) until decommissioned there on 7 June 1922.
Pacific Fleet Through Panama Canal US Destroyer “162”, Balboa Inner Harbor July 25, 1919. National Archives Identifier 100996438
Destroyers at the Mare Island Navy Yard, 1919 (from left to right): USS Tarbell (Destroyer # 142); USS Thatcher (Destroyer # 162); USS Rizal (Destroyer # 174); USS Hart (Destroyer # 110); USS Hogan (Destroyer # 178); USS Gamble (Destroyer # 123); USS Ramsay (Destroyer # 124); and USS Williams (Destroyer # 108). Donation of Rear Admiral Ammen Farenholt, NH 42537
Destroyers at the Mare Island Navy Yard, 1919, L to R: USS Tarbell (Destroyer # 142); USS Thatcher (Destroyer # 162); USS Rizal (Destroyer # 174); USS Hart (Destroyer # 110); USS Hogan (Destroyer # 178); USS Gamble (Destroyer # 123); USS Ramsay (Destroyer # 124); and USS Williams (Destroyer # 108). Donation of Rear Admiral Ammen Farenholt. NH 42538
She would sway quietly along with others of her kind in the California mothball fleet for another 17 years.
Brought back to life
With war coming again to Europe, Thatcher was recommissioned at San Diego on 18 December 1939, then transferred to the Atlantic the following spring after shakedowns and workups.
Transiting the Panama Canal on 1 April 1940, just before the German blitzkrieg against France and the Low Countries, Thatcher conducted Neutrality Patrols and training cruises off the east coast and in the Gulf of Mexico through the summer of 1940.
USS Thatcher (DD 162) off Brooklyn Navy Yard, New York. Lot 5124-2
Headed to serve the King
With Europe again at war, on 2 September 1940, FDR signed the so-called Destroyers for Bases Agreement that saw a mix of 50 (mostly mothballed) Caldwell (3), Wickes (27), and Clemson (20)-class destroyers transferred to the Royal Navy in exchange for limited basing rights on nine British overseas possessions. Canada would receive seven of these ships including five Wickes, doubling the number of destroyers in the Canadian Navy in days.
In respect of Canada’s naming tradition for destroyers, all seven RCN flush deckers were named for Canadian rivers, ideally, those that ran in conjunction with the U.S. border, a nice touch. Thatcher, therefore, became HCMS Niagra, so named after the river that becomes the Falls in New York.
Sailed by scratch USN crews from Philadelphia, Thatcher and five of her sisters arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 20 September 1940, the third group of the “flush deckers” transferred.
Transfer of U.S. destroyers to the Royal Navy in Halifax, Sept 1940. Wickes-class destroyers USS Buchanan (DD-131), USS Crowninshield (DD-134), and USS Abel P. Upshur (DD-193) are in the background. The sailors are examining a 4-inch /50 cal deck gun. Twenty-three Wickes-class destroyers were transferred to the RN, along with four to the RCN, in 1940 under the Destroyers for Bases Agreement. (Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3199286)
Decommissioned from the U.S. Navy on 24 September 1940, Thatcher was renamed HMCS Niagara (I57) and, headed for a refit for RN service by HM Dockyard Devonport, departed Halifax on 30 November; proceeded eastward via St. John’s, Newfoundland where she joined Convoy HX 080 as an escort on 10 December.
She wasn’t struck from the U.S. Navy List until 8 January 1941.
Besides HX 080, she would ride shotgun with no less than 13 Atlantic convoys in 1941 as part of the Newfoundland Escort Force (NEF), 17 in 1942, 16 in 1943, and one in 1944 for a total of 48 wartime convoy runs.
During this service, she was often a lifesaver, for instance escorting the battered Danish merchantman Triton into Belfast in January 1942, rescuing the survivors of the American merchantman SS Independence Hall two months later, then picking up 12 shaken survivors from the sunken steamer SS Rio Blanco, which had been torpedoed by U-160 in April; followed by 8 survivors from the Norwegian tanker Kollskegg that sent to the bottom by U-754.
Harold William John Tomlin, a Royal Navy official photographer, took a series of detailed shots of the (reserve) officers and crew of HMCS Niagara in action, likely in 1941, and they are preserved in the collections of the Imperial War Museum.
Niagara’s most famous exploit was in the capture of U-570, a low-mileage German Type VIIC boat operating out of Trondheim, in August 1941.
After being damaged by depth charges from a British Hudson aircraft (269 Sqn RAF/S) in the North Atlantic south of Iceland and surfacing showing a white bed sheet on her tower, Niagara and the destroyer HMS Burwell (H 94)— another destroyer for bases vessel, formerly the Clemson-class four-piper USS Laub (DD-263)— together with a quartet of armed trawlers– HMT Kingston Agate, Northern Chief, Westwater and Windermere— were dispatched to the scene, arriving the next morning.
U-570, its German crew on the conning tower; evident to the left of the conning tower is the white sheet used to surrender to the RAF Lockheed Hudson of No. 269 Squadron.
A camouflaged Niagara stands by as a Royal Navy boarding party of four armed men from the HMS Kingston Agate has taken the U-570 under control, their Carley Float (rubber raft) can be seen tied alongside; photo taken from an Iceland-based PBY Catalina during a low pass — Morning, August 28, 1941.
Taking off 43 Germans under the bizarre Kptlt. Hans-Joachim Rahmlow, just seven days into his first war patrol, then installing a prize crew aboard, the trawlers took turns towing the damaged U-boat to Thorlakshafn, Iceland where she was beached, and very thoroughly inspected, detailed plans of her forwarded across all Allied channels.
The U-570 beached on the coast of Iceland at Þorlákshöfn, photo taken probably August 30, 1941.
General Plan of the U-570, U.S. Navy ONI Report Enclosure of the redrawn and translated plan of the submarine captured on board — prepared by the David W. Taylor, Model Basin, U.S. Navy (1941).
While Rahmlow had managed to jettison the boat’s the boat’s Enigma machine and codebooks, an officer from HMS Burwell retrieved documents with plain language and enciphered messages which helped the British to read Enigma messages.
Further, the boat was in fine shape with British inspectors noting, “Internally the damage was negligible and consisted mostly of a few broken gauges, gauge glasses, and light fittings probably caused by the depth charges and also by ignorantly conceived attempts to destroy various fittings.” Her motors, engines and pumps, compressors, auxiliaries, etc., appeared to be undamaged and battery compartments dry and sound.
The swashbuckling pistol-wearing skipper of Niagara, LT Thomas P (“Two-Gun”) Ryan, OBE, RCN, a Great War minesweeper veteran, one-time mercenary in South America, and a former police inspector in Ireland, conducted the initial interrogations of the captured German POWs, who were relieved to be (in their understanding) headed to a much quieter life in Canada.
“Two Gun” Ryan aged 51 at the time of U-570’s capture. A recipient of the Bronze Medal in WWI, he later went on to command HMCS Ingonish (J 69), HMCS Dawson (K 104), and HMCS Shediac (K 110) post-Niagara, then shipped out in 1946 to Manilla to distribute Red Cross supplies and write a memoir.
Formal RN interrogators cited U-570’s crews’ shocking lack of experienced hands, noting, “The chief petty officers, and to a lesser extent, some of the petty officers, expressed great concern at the inadequacy of the training and the lack of U-Boat experience, not only of the men but also of the officers and petty officers; no attempt was made to disguise the incompetence of the crew and the officers were severely criticized by all the men.”
U-570 became the British submarine HMS Graph on 5 October 1941 and, as the first operational German U-boat under Allied control– the more famous Type IXC U-505 wasn’t captured by the U.S. Navy until June 1944 — was key to understanding the tactics that would go on to win the Battle of the Atlantic.
German U-Boat U-570 entering the dock at Barrow-in-Furness after her capture by the Royal Navy. IWM Photo, FL 951
Importantly, the U-570/Graph was the only U-boat to see active service with both sides during the war, sent back out for her first Royal Navy war patrol on 8 October 1942.
Back to the war…
Niagara served and served hard, the unforgiving life of a tiny and aging greyhound in the North Atlantic. Suffering from structural weakness and with her boilers worn out, coupled with the fact that other, more modern escort ships were joining the fleet and needed crews, by March 1944 she was pulled from frontline service.
She continued to serve as Torpedo Branch training ship at Halifax throughout 1944 and, shifting to St. John, New Brunswick the following year, would endure in this important service.
Loading practice torpedoes on HMCS NIAGARA – Sep 1944
Niagara with the British Royal Navy Submarine HMS P553 (former USS S-21) alongside. This image was taken at Halifax circa 1943-44 as P553, transferred to the Royal Navy at New London on 14 September 1942, was then based at Halifax as an anti-submarine warfare training boat until returned to the USN at Philadelphia on 11 July 1944 and sunk as a target.
Paid off and placed on the Disposal List on 15 September 1945, Niagara was sold to International Iron and Steel for demolition on 27 May 1946 then taken in tow to Hamilton where she arrived at the Breaker’s Yard on 12 December 1947.
Epilogue
The old HMCS Niagara is well remembered by the Royal Canadian Navy Historical Project, For Posterity’s Sake.
Her wartime replacement bell (the original USS Thatcher bell was retained by the U.S. Navy, disposition unknown) has for some time been in the Niagara Falls Museum.
As for the U.S. Navy, a second USS Thatcher, a Fletcher-class destroyer (DD-514), was built at Bath in Maine– just miles from where RADM Thatcher was born– and commissioned on 10 February 1943. She was rushed to the Pacific– helping to sink the Japanese destroyer Hatsukaze during the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay in November 1943– and earned 12 battle stars for World War II service.
The newly commissioned USS Thatcher (DD 514) in Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, on 28 February 1943. Note 20mm guns amidships and forward using the photographing aircraft as an opportunity for tracking practice. Worn out from her WWII service which included surviving two kamikaze hits off Okinawa, a post-war survey board decided that the ship should be scrapped, and she was decommissioned on 23 November 1945 and then sold for scrap. National Archives photograph, 80-G-36537
There has not been a third USS Thatcher.
As for the name HMCS Niagara, the Royal Canadian Navy’s liaison base as part of the Canadian Embassy in Washington D.C. was known as the shore establishment HMCS Niagara from 1951 to 1965.
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 Balao-class submarine USS Batfish (SS/AGSS-310), is a famed “sub-buster,” credited with sinking no less than three Imperial Japanese Navy submarines– RO 55, RO 112, and RO 113— in only four days while on a single war patrol. The secret was radar warning receivers picking up on Japanese emissions– the classic trace buster-buster, so to speak.
Navy photographers were waiting for her return to port to record the mighty Batfish’s sixth war patrol.
USS Batfish (SS 310). Battle flags fly from the boat’s superstructure as she heads for her base at the end of a war patrol, in May 1945. Note radars, periscope, and battle flag at the top of the scope. 80-G-468626
Batfish was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation and earned six battle stars for her World War II service.
She claimed 14 ships sunk (7 warships and 7 merchantmen) and three others damaged during her seven war patrols. Over a period of four days in February 1945, she sank three Japanese submarines. For this feat, the “sub killer” was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation. Her other WW II exploits included blasting a grounded destroyer, bombarding a Japanese village, and rescuing downed aviators.
Postwar, she was never Guppy’fied like most of her sisters, and instead largely kept her WWII layout, continuing to serve in USNRF training operations in the Caribbean and along the Gulf and East Coast until 1960 when she was laid up in Orange Texas.
Since then, she has been largely safe and sound on dry ground (except for a historic 2019 flood that left her afloat for the first time in 47 years), and it looked like she would endure as the last preserved Balao save for the USS Drum, which is likewise ashore in Mobile.
However, that may not be the case.
As reported by local news in Muskogee, the boat may be homeless at the end of the month:
The Muskogee Memorial Park, popular for its World War II submarine the USS Batfish, is being forced to move.
“To have a museum like this is just a reminder to the rest of the population what history is,” said James Erb, the museum’s curator.
For the last 50 years. the park has leased its property from the Port of Muskogee.
This year, the port didn’t renew their lease and is asking them to move. This has lead to rumors of the Batfish being scrapped. Erb says that isn’t true.
The park plans on moving everything to Three Forks Harbor.
“The land is confirmed, we just have to make financial arrangements to do it,” said Erb.
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.
180202-N-ND254-0451 BANGOR, Wash. (February 2, 2018) The Gold Crew of the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine USS Alabama (SSBN 731) returns home to Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor following a routine strategic deterrent patrol. Alabama is one of eight ballistic missile submarines stationed at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, providing the most survivable leg of the strategic deterrence triad for the United States. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Nancy diBenedetto/Released)
Dave Chetlain over at The War Horse has this great tale from the Boomers:
“Hey, Eeyore, we need to do something big,” Jim Gover said, using my nickname since we couldn’t use our real ones in sonar for security reasons.
We were on day infinity of submarine patrol and my partner in mischief Jim Gover was about to get me in trouble again.
“We are 400 feet under the water in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with 24 Trident C-4 missiles pointed at the Soviet Union,” I responded. “Isn’t that big enough?”
“No, you idiot. I’m talking about something really important—a big prank.”
