Category Archives: US Navy

Never Forget

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19 October 1984: The Twin Towers dot the Gotham skyline as crackerjack-wearing gunners mates stand at attention on USS Iowa’s (BB 61) No. 1 16″/50 gun turret as the battleship approaches the southern end of Manhattan during a scheduled port visit to New York City shortly after the dreadnought was recommissioned for the third (and final) time. Note the full-color recognition flag on the roof of the gun house.

U.S. Navy photo DNST8505245 by PH1 Jeff Hilton, NARA 330-CFD-DN-ST-85-05245

Two other views from the same photographer that day, including a cameo by the Staten Island Ferry.

Coast Guard orders more Offshore Patrol Cutters as Canada’s CG Gets (Kinda) Militarized

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After Eastern Shipbuilding in Panama City ruined the proverbial sheets on its four building Heritage (Argus) class Offshore Patrol Cutters for the Coast Guard, Austal of Mobile swooped in and picked up basically an emergency contract for two OPC, augmented with long lead time materials funding for a third granted in August.

Now, with the future USCGC Pickering (WMSM-919) and Icarus (920) under construction, and Active (921) planning to cut steel, Austal was just approved for $314 million in LLM funding for the 4th, 5th, and 6th cutters on their schedule.

“With a range of 10,200 nautical miles at 14 knots and a 60-day endurance period, each OPC will be capable of deploying independently or as part of task groups, serving as a mobile command and control platform for surge operations such as hurricane response, mass migration incidents, and other events. The cutters will also support Arctic objectives by helping regulate and protect emerging commerce and energy exploration in Alaska.”

The program of record for the OPC is an ambitious 25 hulls, the USCG’s largest shipbuilding program in history. Every single hull will be needed to replace the 13-ship 270-foot Bear class cutters and the 16 ships of the now 50+ year old 210-foot Reliance class cutters, as well as the elderly USCGC Alex Haley (WMEC-39), which entered service with the Navy in 1971 as USS Edenton (ATS-1).

And with that, how about this interesting USNI op-ed from LCDR Keith Blevins, USCG, on how the Navy can best get to its fleet number goal by keeping the Coast Guard’s production lines open for grey hulls.

He has a point in that the Navy is sleeping on the possibility of grey-hulled National Security Cutters with frigate capabilities and 158-foot WPCs becoming a new class of Navy PCs, back-filling the much-used 170-foot Cyclones, which were retired without replacement.

Meanwhile in Canada…

In further news, the 6,700-strong quasi-military (wears uniforms and has ranks and epaulettes, plus has a few small arms in lockers) Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) and “key employees” from Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) have been shifted to the Canadian Ministry of National Defence.

The Canadian Coast Guard already has a good history of joint operations with NATO-allied Arctic CGs and Navies.

Formed in 1962 from a variety of services that date to 1867, the CGC has 119 vessels of varying sizes and 23 helicopters. This includes two large (25,000-ton) polar-class icebreakers under construction, the old 15,000-ton polar icebreaker CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent, eight medium (~5,000-ton) icebreakers, seven 4,700-ton “multi-tasked vessels,” 15 blue water offshore patrol vessels, and a whole catalog of smaller fisheries research vessels, lifeboats, and buoy tenders.

The 15,324-ton icebreaker and flagship of the Canadian Coast Guard, CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent under way in Halifax Harbor, escorted by CFAV Glenside in the foreground. Commissioned in 1969, she carries two helicopters and is slated to be replaced by 2030 by breakers being built in Finland. (Wiki commons)

The 4,737-ton Martha L. Black class “high endurance multi-tasked vessel” CCGS George. R. Pearkes (left) and the 2,080-ton fishery patrol vessel CCGS Leonard J. Cowley (right) in St. John’s Harbour, NL, Canada, August 2008. Wiki commons

The CGC also has 16 light-lift Bell 429 (seen above) and 7 medium-lift Bell 412EPI helicopters, along with several DHC-6/7/8s, King Air 200s owned and operated by Transport Canada or contractors on behalf of CCG.

The service has over 100 bases, stations, and centers, including the Canadian Coast Guard Academy and four-year Canadian Coast Guard College, the latter with about 300 officer cadets enrolled.

The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has some 600 armed green-uniformed officers with Smith & Wesson 5946s, rifles, and shotguns who conduct boardings from CCG ships, but there are no official figures available for how many have been transferred to the DND. The DFO had 1,908 active firearms on its latest audit.

In Canadian fashion, the change in “ownership” to DND (not the Canadian Armed Forces outright) doesn’t (necessarily) mean a more militaristic CGC. As noted by Minister of National Defense David McGuinty:

The CCG will remain a civilian Special Operating Agency. There are no plans to arm CCG personnel or assets, or to incorporate an additional enforcement role in the organization. The CCG will continue to deliver the essential services on which Canadians rely, including search and rescue, icebreaking, environmental conservation and protection, safe navigation, and supporting ocean science.

The superb silver lining for Canada is that the $2.392 billion (for 2024-25) budget for the CCG will now be counted towards the country’s long-lapsed NATO target of 2 percent of GDP in defense, which is currently only at a meager 1.37 percent. Talk about Trudeau-level L party bait and switch…

Mosquito Boat Rendezvous: Waving the White flag at Balikpapan

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While VJ Day had come and gone, the Japanese surrender at Balikpapan, which controlled the Emperor’s occupation forces in most of the Dutch East Indies, only lowered the flag on 8 September 1945.

The official ceremony took place some 50nm offshore, aboard the River-class frigate HMAS Burdekin (K376), with the Japanese military governor of the area, VADM Michiaki Kamada, signing the document surrendering all Japanese troops in Borneo to Maj. Gen. Edward James Milford, commander of the 7th Australian Division.

At sea, off Balikpapan, Borneo. 1945-09-08. Major General E. J. Milford, general officer commanding, 7th Division, accepted surrender from VADM Kamada, commander 22nd Naval Base Force, Imperial Japanese Navy, during a surrender ceremony held on board the ran vessel, HMAS Burdekin. After the surrender ceremony, a conference between Australian and Japanese officers was held to discuss the surrender procedures. Shown, the conference in progress. AWM 115823

Kamada’s party reached the Australian frigate via the efforts of the hardbitten LCDR Henry Stillman “Stilly” Taylor, USNR, who led seven 80-foot Elco PT boats of MTBRon 27 to a rendezvous in the delta of the Koetai River on the morning of the 8th and returned the defeated detail home afterward, this time with Allied minders and a load of bananas.

PT boats that carried Japanese delegates to Balikpapan definitely included “Miss Chatterbox” (PT-377) and “Judy” (PT-375). Other boats in MTBron27 at the time included PT-356, PT-357, PT-358, PT-359, PT-360, PT-361, PT-372, PT-373, PT-374, and PT-376, although I cannot tell which other five were part of this party.

PT-375, “Judy,” was placed in service on 10 August 1943 and fought with MTBRon 27 in the Treasury and Green Islands and in the Philippines before heading to Balikpapan.

Note the late war arrangement, including heavy camouflage, Mk 13 aerial torpedoes, a light mortar on deck, and a 37mm M4 autocannon salvaged from a P-39 Airacobra. Beeldnummer NI 3192

NI 3194

Kamada is fourth from the left, clean-shaven. NI 3199

Kamada is speaking to the mustached officer. NI 3206

NI 3198

Kamada is in the center, holding the document. NI 3217

Kamada on PT alongside HMAS Burdekin

PT pulling away from HMAS Burdekin with Australian and Japanese at the negotiation table, AWM 115825

Kamada boarding PT-377 alongside HMAS Burdekin after signing, AWM 044977

Japanese surrender at Balikpapan, 8th September 1945, returning with Australian liaisons and a parting gift of bananas. Beeldnummer NI 3204

Later, a Dutch military tribunal in Pontianak convicted Kamada of war crimes for the executions of 1,500 West Borneo natives in 1944, the execution of captured Allied commandos, and the ill treatment of 2,000 Dutch POWs held on Flores Island. He was sentenced to death and executed by hanging on 18 October 1947, aged 57.

As for the Mosquito boats of MTBRon 27, they were all disarmed and placed out of service on 19 October 1945, transferred to the State Department, Foreign Liquidation Commission in May 1946, and sold, ultimate fate unknown but likely burned with hundreds of others off Samar. Four of them notably took “Dug-out Doug” MacArthur and the “Bataan Gang” to Corregidor in March 1945.

Small world.

The commander of MTBRon 27, Stilly Taylor, had earned both a Silver Star and a Bronze Star as the LT(j.g.) skipper of PT-40 and later PT-46 with MTBRon 3, the first squadron to arrive in the Solomons in 1942, and had been tasked with stopping the nocturnal annoyance of the nightly Tokyo Express. This included pumping torpedoes into the destroyer Teruzuki. He had previously commanded MTBRon 14 (4 April- 6 September 1944) as an O-3 before taking over MTBRon 27 in November 1944.

Post-war, Taylor went into business and later became president of J. P. Stevens Inc., a textile company. An Oyster Bay resident and well-known yachtsman, Stilly was also part of The Colony’s croquet set and passed in 1985, aged 67.

Big Iron secures from the Persian Gulf Watch

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An MH-53E Sea Dragon, attached to the “Blackhawks” of Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron (HM) 15, idles on the flight deck of the world’s largest aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), December 12, 2024. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Maxwell Orlosky)

The “Blackhawks” of Helicopter Mine Countermeasures (HM) Squadron Fifteen are steadily prepping to end their 38-year run as an RH-53A/D and MH-53E Sea Dragon squadron.

Its sister squadrons, “The World Famous Vanguard” of HM-14 and the reserve airborne mine countermeasures (AMCM) squadron, the “Golden Bears” of HM-19, were decommissioned in 2022 and 1994, respectively.

With the Sea Dragon slated to retire in FY27, ending the Navy’s AMCM program, which began in 1971 when 15 well-worn CH-53As were acquired from the Marines and rebuilt as RH-53As, the ‘Hawks have shut down “Big Iron,” Det II (DET2), the longstanding four-aircraft AMCM deployment to Bahrain. HM-14 established the first permanent forward-deployed AMCM detachment in Manama in 1999.

The last flight of Det II occurred on 31 August 2025.

It should also be pointed out that the first of four Bahrain-deployed Avenger-class mine countermeasures ships, USS Dextrous (MCM-13), was decommissioned this week as well. The other three will soon follow.

231023-N-EG592-1261 ARABIAN GULF (Oct. 23, 2023) The Avenger-class mine countermeasures ship USS Dextrous (MCM 13) sails in the Arabian Gulf during small boat operations. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jacob Vernier)

As for USN mine assets in the Gulf after that happens, where Iran has a huge arsenal of 5,000-6,000 sea mines (potentially including advanced EM-52 rocket-propelled, rising mines from China), well, there may be an LCS with a MCM Mission Package (“we promise they work”) or maybe an MH-60 with an Archerfish kit.

Maybe.

Mines Below, indeed.

Drone updates galore

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So it looks like the DOD (and the Coast Guard) is finally getting serious about UAVs and USVs. Lots of recent developments.

To kick it off, a recent Congressional Research Service report on the U.S. Army’s Small Uncrewed Aircraft Systems Programs highlights the increase in funding for the UAS, with the Army requesting $803.9 million for procurement and research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) for FY26. Compare this to just $99.9 million in FY24.

In a nod to the increase, the Army formally established the Joint Interagency Task Force 401 (JIATF 401) with a mission to enhance the DOD’s unmanned systems and affordable C-sUAS capabilities.

Further, Fort Rucker has established its first Unmanned Advanced Lethality Course.

Speaking of Rucker, during the Army’s Unmanned Aerial Systems and Launched Effects Summit, held Aug. 11-15 on the base, a paratrooper from the 173rd Airborne Brigade “achieved a milestone once unimaginable for conventional Army units: destroying an aircraft in flight using a first-person-view drone carrying an explosive charge.” In short, strapping a remote detonated claymore to a Skydio.

The service has been using small FPVs with charges in exercises in Europe in recent months.

U.S. Army paratroopers assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade prepare to operate and detonate a live First Person View (FPV) drone at Pabradė Training Area, Lithuania, during a joint forcible entry operation as part of Swift Response 2025 (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Jose Lora)

And in Poland, as part of Project Flytrap 4.0, an evolving C-UAS training event, troopers with the 2nd Cavalry Regiment “detected, tracked, engaged and defeated multiple drones at ranges between 500 and 800 meters using the Ballistic Low Altitude Drone Engagement system from a Stryker vehicle.”

BLADE has been fielded slowly since 2019, and is interesting.

Ballistic Low Altitude Drone Engagement, or BLADE, prototypes are mounted on trucks during an engineering test in June at Fort Dix, New Jersey. BLADE is integrated with an armament system to shoot down smaller unmanned aerial systems at close ranges. The test proved that the BLADE system can hit them with only a short burst of fire. (Photo by Marian Popescu, CCDC Armaments Center BLADE team)

“Some of those [drone] threats were being flown simultaneously, so the system defeated one target then quickly targeted and defeated a second target in a matter of seconds,” said David Goldstein, counter-unmanned aerial systems lead for the Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Armaments Center at Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey.

With BLADE, a precision radar and C-UAS fire control software are integrated with CROWS hardware and software to assist operators in identifying, tracking, and pointing the weapon to a continually calculated intercept point, enabling the difficult challenge of destroying enemy drones.

Capable of functioning with numerous weapons, the BLADE/CROWS combination at Project Flytrap included an M2 .50-caliber machine gun firing multiround bursts.

The Army has also initiated production of the second tranche of its short-range reconnaissance (SRR) unmanned aircraft systems, and has “selected two vendors to manufacture the SRR system, which will equip the Army’s Transformation in Contact units with advanced, networked communication systems designed to address emerging threats.”

Initial fielding of SRR tranche one began in September 2022, and, to date, the Army has fielded over 16 brigades with this capability. Critical lessons learned and soldier feedback from tranche one were incorporated into tranche two. This strategy of integrating new technologies into future tranches will continue to provide the best UAS capabilities on an accelerated schedule.

Meanwhile, with the Coast Guard

The U.S. Coast Guard announced recently the Initial Operating Capability of the Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS) Program Executive Office (PEO), “dedicated to the rapid operationalization of the Unmanned Systems Strategic Plan.”

While the service has been sending cutters overseas with contractor-operated Scan Eagle UAVs since 2018 and has been trialing other platforms, a USCG LCDR who has been flying an MQ-9 with the Department of Homeland Security Customs and Border Patrol’s Air and Maritime Operations Division out of San Antonio just earned his wings, becoming the Coast Guard’s first aviation vehicle pilot. The service plans to spend $266 million to acquire its own MQ-9 Alphas in the coming months.

And finally, DARPA’s USX-1 Defiant, the No Manning Required Ship (NOMARS) platform, was recently christened in Everett, Washington.

The 180-foot-long, 240-ton lightship, which “can handle operations in sea state 5 with no degradation and survive much higher seas,” is completing final systems testing in preparation for an extended at-sea demonstration of reliability and endurance.

Warship Wednesday, September 3, 2025: The Three-flagged Frigate

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Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger

If you enjoy my always ad-free Warship Wednesday content, you can support it by buying me a cup of joe at https://buymeacoffee.com/lsozi As Henk says: “Warship Coffee – no sugar, just a pinch of salt!”

Warship Wednesday, September 3, 2025: The Three-flagged Frigate

National Archives photo 19-N-66007

Above we see the fine new Tacoma-class patrol frigate USS Bisbee (PF-46) during her shakedowns off San Pedro, California, on 23 May 1944, wearing camouflage pattern Measure 32 Design 16D. At the time under the command of a USCG O-5, she had an all Coastie crew, including several well-trained Texas horsemen, which she would go on to carry throughout most of WWII.

Then things got a little weird.

The Tacomas

One of the most generic convoy escorts ever designed was the River-class frigates of the Royal Navy and its sister Australian and Canadian services. Sturdy 301-foot/1,800-ton vessels, some 151 were built between May 1941 and April 1945.

Canadian River-class frigate HMCS Waskesiu (K330) with a bone in her mouth, 1944. Kodachrome via LAC

River Class – Booklet of General Plans, 1941, profile

Carrying a few QF 4″/40s, a suite of light AAA guns, and a huge array of ASW weapons with as many as 150 depth charges, they could make 20 knots and had extremely long range, pushing 7,000nm at a 15-knot cruising speed.

In a sort of reverse Lend-Lease, two Canadian Vickers-built Rivers were transferred to the U.S. Navy, the planned HMS Adur (K296) and HMS Annan, in 1942, becoming the patrol gunboats– later patrol frigates– USS Asheville (PG-101/PF-1) and USS Natchez (PG-102/PF-2). Built at Montreal, Asheville and Natchez were completed with standard U.S. armament and sensors, including three 3″/50s, two 40mm mounts, Oerlikons, and SC-5 and SG radar. Everything else, including the power plant, was British.

USS Asheville (PF-1) plans

With that, the New York naval architecture firm of Gibbs & Cox took the River class frigate plans and tweaked them gently to become the Tacoma-class frigates. Some 2,200 tons at full load, these 303-foot ships used two small tube express boilers and two  J. Hendy Iron Works VTE engines on twin screws to cough up 5,500shp, good for just over 20 knots with a 9,500nm range at 12 knots. Standard armament was a carbon copy of Asheville/Natchez: three 3″/50s, two twin 40mm mounts, nine Oerlikons, two stern depth charge racks, eight Y-gun depth charge throwers, a 24-cell Hedgehog Mk 10 ASWRL, and 100 ash cans. Radar was upgraded to the SA and SL series, while the hull-mounted sonar was a QGA set.

USS Albuquerque 1943 (PF-7), Tacoma class patrol frigate 200414-G-G0000-0003

These could be built at non-traditional commercial yards under Maritime Commission (MC Type T. S2-S2-AQ1) contracts, using an all-welded hull rather than the riveted hull of the British/Canadian Rivers. Many of these would be constructed on the Great Lakes, including by ASBC in Ohio (13 ships), Froemming (4), Walter Butler (12), Globe (8), and Leathem Smith (8) in Wisconsin. On the East Coast, Walsh-Kaiser in Rhode Island made 21, while on the West Coast, Kaiser Cargo and Consolidated Steel in California produced a combined 30 ships.

Using compartmentalized construction, they went together fast. No less than nine Tacomas were built in less than five months, 16 were built in less than six months, and 11 others were built in less than seven months. These times stack up well to the original River class built in British yards, where the best time recorded was 7.5 months. In Canada, the fastest time was just over 5 months.

The Tacomas cost about $2.3 million apiece, compared to $3.5 million for a Cannon-class destroyer escort, or $6 million for a Fletcher-class destroyer, in 1944 dollars.

Meet Bisbee

Consolidated Steel Company’s Los Angeles yard, built on 95 acres in Wilmington, was an emergency operation that was only started in 1941. In 1944, they were booming with 12,000 workers on eight shipways working rotating 10.5-hour shifts. Amazingly, the yard delivered 126 C1 Liberty ships, 10 big C2s, 32 Gilliam-class attack transports (APAs), and 18 Tacoma-class PFs.

Consolidated Steel’s Wilmington yard was in full tilt in 1944, with eight shipways to the right, eight floating Liberty ships in the center fitting out, and six APAs and six PFs fitting out to the left.

The 18 Tacomas built at Consolidated were in a block, PF-34 through PF-51, Yard Nos. 519 through 536. Sandwiched in these was our subject, named for the mining town of Bisbee, Arizona. Originally authorized as Patrol Gunboat, PG-154, she was reclassified as PF-46 before construction began. Laid down on 7 August 1943, she launched one month later on 7 September and commissioned at Terminal Island on 15 February 1944, her construction spanning 6 months, 8 days.

Launching of future USS Bisbee (PF-46), 7 September 1943,  Consolidated Steel Co., Ltd., Los Angeles. NHHC UA 462.27 Mary Murphy Collection.

She spent the next 10 weeks on trials, workups, and yard availability.

Bow-on view USS Bisbee (PF-46) off San Pedro, California, on 23 May 1944. 19-N-66005

Port view USS Bisbee (PF-46) off San Pedro, California, on 23 May 1944. 19-N-66004

Stern view of USS Bisbee (PF-46) off San Pedro, California, on 23 May 1944. Note her depth charge racks and throwers. 19-N-66008

Same as above, 19-N-66006.

Starboard view USS Bisbee (PF-46) off San Pedro, California, on 23 May 1944. 19-N-66003

Semper Paratus!

Of the 100 Tacomas issued hull numbers (PF-3 through PF-102), only four, PF-95 through PF-98, were canceled on the ways (all under contract to American SB in Ohio). Twenty-one others, PF-72 through PF-92, all built by Walsh-Kaiser in Rhode Island, were turned over to the Royal Navy, which renamed them after colonies.

That leaves 75 hulls that were put into Navy service. As the Navy, which operated PF-1 and PF-2, knew the poor handling and habitability of the River design, especially in hot climes, they decided all 75 would be manned by the Coast Guard instead.

Bisbee’s plankowner skipper was a regular, T/CDR John Peter German (USNA 1932), with a wardroom of seven junior officers, many on their first sea-going billet.

Before arriving aboard Bisbee at Terminal Island, many of her officers and crew had sailed on class leader Tacoma off San Pedro for three weeks to get a feel for their new home.

The crew, mostly USCGR ratings enlisted for the duration, included 30 “horse coxswains,” Texas cowboys who had originally signed up in 1942 for the mounted Beach Patrol along the sand dunes of the Gulf Coast. However, by late 1943, the Beach Patrol was being whittled down, and its members were given sea duty. Whomp whomp.

Just 25 of the crew, skipper included, were regulars, making up about an eighth of the complement.

Her crew, in USCG tradition, included a U.S. Public Health Service Medical Officer, Brooklyn native Domenic C. Calamia, PAS, rather than a Navy doctor. Medical Officers of the Public Health Service have been assigned to Coast Guard vessels since 1879, a tradition that endures today. The Commissioned Corps of the USPHS grew from 500 men and women to over 16,000 during WWII, including 660 of whom deployed with the USCG and on CG-manned vessels in every theatre, with three KIA.

At 1700 on 31 May 1944, Bisbee weighed anchor at San Pedro and sailed West to join the Fleet. On 11 June, she passed the equator, and 205 fresh Pollywogs became Shellbacks. Four days later, they crossed into the Domain of the Golden Dragon and on the 21st made their first foreign port, Noumena, in French New Caledonia.

She became the flagship of CortDiv43 (Capt. William J. Austerman, USCG), joining sisters USS Gallup (PF-47), Rockford (PF-48), Muskogee (PF-49), Carson City (PF-50), and Burlington (PF-51). Austerman was joined aboard by a flag staff of two officers (j.g.s) as staff Communications and Recognition officers, and four enlisted (a CY, a CRM, and two sailors).

Moving forward to Papua by way of Cairns, Australia, Bisbee, in the train of the 7th Fleet Amphibious Division, had her baptism of fire in the Biak campaign, bombarding enemy-held villages in the Wardo area for 28 minutes on 7 August, expending 119 rounds of 3-inch, 230 of 40mm, and 982 of 20mm. Her motor launch, with Army observers aboard, contacted local patrols ashore and took into custody seven Japanese prisoners of war for transport back to HQ.

On the 17th, steaming with sister Gallup off Mokmur, Biak, Bisbee supported dawn landings there and plastered the beach with 152 rounds of 3-inch, 820 of 40mm, and 2,460 of 20mm.

With Maj. Gen. Jens Anderson Doe, commander of the 41st Infantry Division (“Jungleers”), aboard Bisbee closed to the North Coast of Biak on 25 August 1944 and bombarded Japanese-held Cape Oboebari at the mouth of the Wardo River with over 4,800 assorted rounds in just 20 minutes while only 1,100 yards offshore. Then came a landing by a company of the 41st on Blue Beach to prevent an enemy escape.

While on ASW patrol in the waters of Geelvink Bay off the Western end of Noemfoor Island, New Guinea, on 1 September, Bisbee spotted Flight Sgt. John C. Keene, RAAF, bobbing around the Coral Sea in a rubber life raft. Keene had been afloat for a day; his bomber had been lost on 31 August. Delivering the waterlogged sergeant to shore, Bisbee caught orders to head for Seadler Harbor in the Admiralty Islands.

Then came the Philippines

On 18 October 1944, Bisbee, accompanied by the destroyers USS Lang (DD-399) and Ross (DD-563), along with the old “Green Dragon” USS Herbert (APD-22), escorted an element (Capt. Bull Simmons’ B company) of the Sixth Ranger Battalion with supplies and equipment to Homonhon Island’s Black Beach Two so that the LCVP-borne Rangers could destroy Japanese installations there which guarded Leyte Gulf and set up nav beacons. Importantly, this was the first island in the Philippines chain to be liberated.

Similar landings were made on Suluan (D company) and Dinagat Islands (A, C, E, and F companies), paving the way for the main invasion on 20 October. The operation was under TG 78.5, with the group commander, Capt. F.W. Benson, USN, using Bisbee as his flag.

Bisbee herself fired 99 rounds of 3-inch ashore that morning from 4,000 yards.

Early morning bombardment of Homonhon Island, Philippines, 18 October 1944, likely from USS Bisbee. US Army SC 260632

A patrol of Company F, 6th Rangers, investigates a native village on Dinagat Island during Phase One of the invasion of Leyte Gulf, Philippines.

The next morning, on 19 October, Bisbee assumed the role of Harbor Entrance Control Post, guiding hundreds of ships of Admiral Kinkaid’s landing force safely into Leyte Gulf through the mined waters of Surigao Strait. Later that day, she fended off the first of what would be several enemy aircraft over the next week, resulting in some close calls, including a torpedo from a Japanese Betty bomber passing just under the frigate’s stern.

Six days later, while still in her “box,” Bisbee’s crew watched the veteran battlewagons of RADM Jesse “Oley” Oldendorf’s TG.77.2 demolish VADM Shoji Nishimura’s force, with the battleships Fuso and Yamashiro sunk.

Her Philippines duty continued for 34 days until Bisbee caught orders back to Pearl Harbor for a refit, arriving there on 15 December, just in time for an “Aloha Christmas.”

On 6 January 1945, she was ordered north to the Aleutians for duty with the reassigned CortDiv43 in those frozen waters along the Bering Sea. For the next six months, they escorted Army transports and merchant vessels shuttling between Dutch Harbor, Adak, Amchitka, and Attu while doubling as an air-sea rescue guardship for Alaska-based Fleet Air Wing 4.

As the war wound down, she was given another short refit in Seattle and decommissioned on 26 August 1945 at Cold Bay, Alaska.

“All Hands” party program cover cartoon map, July 1945, by QMSC William R. Finlay, USCGR

Bisbee earned two battle stars for her WWII service, for the Cape Sansapor operation in Biak (12 Aug 44 – 19 Aug 44, and 22 Aug 44 – 31 Aug 44) as well as the Leyte landings (12 Oct 44 – 22 Nov 44).

Caviar Dreams and Bolshevik Screams

The day after she decommissioned in Alaska, Bisbee was handed over to Soviet custody as part of the 149 vessels transferred, on loan, under Project Hula, an initiative that was designed to equip the Red Banner Pacific Fleet for planned Soviet invasions of southern Sakhalin and the Japanese Kurile Islands.

Her name changed to the unromantic EK-17; she was commissioned into Soviet service some 80 years ago this week, on 5 September 1945, and would remain in their custody for the rest of the decade.

American and Soviet commanding officers of the first ten frigates transferred at Cold Bay, July 1945. Commander John J. Hutson, Jr., USCG, the senior training officer, is seated, second from the left. Lieutenant E. H. Burt, USCGR, commanding Coronado (PF 38), is seated, second from the right.

The 28 Tacoma-class patrol frigates, unwanted by Big Navy, were still the largest, most heavily armed, and most expensive ships transferred during Hula. Even at that, they had been carefully sanitized to remove any equipment that was considered sensitive before transfer.

At least eight Tacomas saw combat with the Red Navy’s 10th Frigate Division in August, invading the Kuriles and Korea, with one even earning a “Guards” title.

A quick rundown:

EK-1 (Charlottesville, PF-25). Transferred to the USSR on 07/13/1945 and on 07/23/1945 became part of the Pacific Fleet. Participated in the landing at Seishin on 15 August 1945. Returned to the USA on 17 October 1949.

EK-2 (Long Beach, PF-34) Transferred to the USSR on 12 July 1945 and joined the Pacific Fleet on 23 July 1945. Participated in the landing of troops in Seishin on 14.08.1945 and Maoku on 20.08.1945. On 26.08.1945, he was awarded the “Guards” title. On 17.02.1950, he was returned to the USA.

EK-3 (Belfast, PF-35) Transferred to the USSR on 12.07.1945 and joined the Pacific Fleet on 23.07.1945. Participated in the landing of troops in Seishin on 15.08.1945 and Genzan (Wonsan) on 21.08.1945. Wrecked in 1948, used as a floating training hulk until 1960.

EK-4 (Machias, PF-53) Transferred to the USSR on 13.07.1945 and on 23.07.1945 entered the Pacific Fleet. Participated in the Kuril landing operation from August 18 to September 1, 1945. Returned to the United States in October 1949.

EK-5 (San Pedro, PF-37) Transferred to the USSR on July 12, 1945, and joined the Pacific Fleet on July 23, 1945. Participated in the landing at Racine (Najin) on 12.08.1945. Returned to the USA on 17.10.1949.

EK-6 (Glendale, PF-36) Transferred to the USSR on 13.07.1945 and on 23.07.1945 entered into the Pacific Fleet. Returned to the USA on 16.11.1949.

EK-7 (Sandusky, PF-54) Transferred to the USSR on July 13, 1945, and entered service with the Pacific Fleet on July 23, 1945. Participated in the landing of troops at Yuki (Ungi) on August 12, 1945. Returned to the USA on November 15, 1949.

EK-8 (Coronado, PF-38) Transferred to USSR on 13.07.1945 and joined the Pacific Fleet on 23.23.07.1945. Participated in the landing at Seishin (Chongjin) on 15.08.1945. Returned to USA on 16.10.1949.

EK-9 (Allentown, PF-52) Transferred to USSR on 13.07.1945 and joined the Pacific Fleet on 23.07.1945. Participated in the landing of troops at Yuki (Ungi) on 12.08.1945 and Seishin (Chongjin) on 15.08.1945. Returned to the USA on 15.10.1949.

EK-10 (Ogden, PF-39) Transferred to the USSR on 13.07.1945 and on 23.07.1945 entered into the Pacific Fleet. Returned to the USA on November 15, 1949.

EK-11 (Tacoma, PF-3) Transferred to the USSR on August 16, 1945, and joined the Pacific Fleet on August 26, 1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on 16 October 1949.

EK-12 (Pasco, PF-6) Transferred to the USSR on 16 August 1945 and joined the Pacific Fleet on 26 August 1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on 16 October 1949.

EK-13 (Hawkeye, PF-5) Transferred to the USSR on 16 August 1945 and joined the Pacific Fleet on 26 August 1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on November 1, 1949.

EK-14 (Albuquerque, PF-7) Transferred to the USSR on August 17, 1945, and entered service with the Pacific Fleet on August 26, 1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on November 15, 1949.

EK-15 (Everett, PF-8) Transferred to USSR on 17.08.1945 and joined the Pacific Fleet on 26.08.1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to USA on 15.11.1949.

EK-16 (Sasalito, PF-4) Transferred to USSR in August 1945 and joined the Pacific Fleet on 26.08.1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on 11/01/1949

EK-17 (Bisbee, PF-46) Transferred to USSR 27.08.1945 and joined Pacific Fleet 5.09.1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to USA 1.11.1949

EK-18 (Rockford, PF-48) Transferred to USSR 27.08.1945 and joined Pacific Fleet 5.09.1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on November 1, 1949.

EK-19 (Muskogee, PF-49) Transferred to the USSR on August 27, 1945, and on September 5, 1945, entered service with the Pacific Fleet. Did not participate in combat operations. Returned to the USA on November 1, 1949.

EK-20 (Carson City, PF-50) Transferred to the USSR on August 30, 1945, and entered service with the Pacific Fleet on September 5, 1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on October 31, 1949.

EK-21 (Burlington, PF-51) Transferred to the USSR on 27.08.1945 and on 05.09.1945 entered into the Pacific Fleet. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on 14.11.1949.

EK-22 (Gallup, PF-47) Transferred to the USSR in August 1945 and on 05.09.1945 entered into the Pacific Fleet. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on November 14, 1949.

EK-25 (Bayonne, PF-21) Transferred to the USSR in September 1945 and entered service with the Pacific Fleet on September 9, 1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on November 14, 1949.

EK-26 (Gloucester, PF-22) Transferred to the USSR on 4.09.1945 and joined the Pacific Fleet on 25.09.1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on 31.10.1949.

EK-27 (Poughkeepsie, PF-26) Transferred to the USSR on 2.10.1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on 31 October 1949.

EK-28 (Newport, PF-27) Transferred to the USSR on 10 September 1945 and joined the Pacific Fleet on 25 September 1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on 11/14/1949.

EK-29 (Bath, PF-55) Transferred to the USSR on 13 July 1945 and joined the Pacific Fleet on 25 September 1945. Did not participate in combat operations. Returned to the USA on 15 November 1949.

EK-30 (Evansville, PF-70) Transferred to the USSR on 4.09.1945 and on 25.09.1945 entered into the Pacific Fleet. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on 17.02.1950.

The 27 Tacomas still operational five years later were finally retrograded back to U.S. Navy custody in late 1949-early 1950 and were promptly laid up in Yokosuka.

Dozens of ex-Soviet Tacoma-class PFs were laid up at Yokosuka in January 1951. NH 97295

During the same immediate post-WWII period, the Navy had transferred more than two dozen other decommissioned Tacomas in its custody all over the world, with hulls going to Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, France, Mexico, the Netherlands, and Peru.

While the Navy didn’t really want them back, they damned sure didn’t want the Russkis to have them.

Jane’s 1946 listing for the class, noting 41 hulls with many, marked by an asterisk, being in Soviet hands, with “no word on their return.” The rest had already been handed out to overseas allies.

In the Navy!

Ironically, when the North Koreans jumped over the 38th Parallel to attack their brothers to the South in June 1950, the 27 laid up ex-USCG, ex-Red Navy Tacomas in Yokosuka suddenly became valuable. After all, they were simple ships by design, were low mileage (the Soviets apparently didn’t leave port much in the late 1940s), and, most importantly, were forward deployed.

In all, 15 Tacomas were recommissioned for Korean War duty, 13 of which were drawn from the rusty and beat-up rat-infested ex-Soviet boats in caretaker status at Yokosuka.

Refurbished at Yokosuka in August and September, Bisbee was recommissioned on 18 October 1950 and served the next five months continuously, arriving off Wonsan on 26 November to join TG 95.2 and only tapping out on April Fool’s Day 1951 for a refit. Much of this was on the gun line.

Back on the line on 8 July 1951, she would serve through 25 September of that year and then fill a third stint off Korea from 29 October 1951 over the holidays until 23 January 1952.

By that time, the use of PFs off the Korean coast was curtailed as the ships were backfilled by more capable destroyers and DEs.

While in action in Korea, Bisbee earned five battle stars.

  • K-2        Communist China Aggression (3-24 Dec 50, 28 Dec 50-4 Jan 51)
  • K-4        First U. N. Counter Offensive (24 Feb-6 Mar 51, 24-29 Mar 51)
  • K-5        Communist China Spring Offensive (22 Jul-3 Aug 51)
  • K-6        U. N. Summer-Fall Offensive (19 Jul 51, 15-16 Aug 51, 23-25 Aug 51, 13-17 Sep 51, 21-23 Sep 51)
  • K-8        Korean Defensive 1952 (13-19 Jan 52)

South America Bound

On 12 February 1952 at Sasebo, Bisbee was decommissioned for a second time.

While 18 of her sisters in Japan went on to the newly established Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force, five went to the South Korean Navy.

JMSDF Kusu (Tree)-class frigates, former Tacoma-class patrol frigates, complete with rebooted IJN Rising Sun Flag. These ships were in extremely poor condition when transferred, having been Lend-Leased to the Soviets late in WWII and only returned in 1949, then placed in storage at Yokosuka. Notably, footage of them in JMSDF service appeared in 1954’s original Godzilla. While loaned to the Japanese military for initially five years, they were all eventually transferred outright and continued to serve into the 1970s.

Two (Glendale and Gallup) went south to Thailand while the final pair, Bisbee and Burlington, the latter also a fellow member of CortDiv43 during WWII, were sent around the world to join the Colombian Navy under the Mutual Defense Assistance Program.

Bisbee became ARC Capitan Tono (F 06, later F-12) while Burlington became ARC Almirante Brión (F-14).

ARC Capitan Tono (F 06), dressed on arrival in Colombian waters, 1952

They would serve with their former USCG-manned classmates ex-USS Groton, which had transferred in 1947.

Secretary of the Navy Dan A. Kimball (left) signs the Memorandum of Understanding transferring USS Bisbee (PF-46) to the Colombian Government, in his Pentagon office, 16 November 1951. In the center is Colombian Ambassador Don Dipriano Restrepo-Jaramillo. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Thomas G. Mann is at right. Bisbee served in the Colombian Navy as Capitan Tono. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-708424

Colombia Almirante Padilla class PFs: Bisbee, Groton, Burlington, 1960 Janes

Captain Tono (Columbian frigate, ex-USS Bisbee, PF -46) off Coco Solo, Canal Zone, 6 July 1955. NH 50604

Same as above, NH 81516

Bow on, NH 81515

She continued to serve until 1963, when she was scrapped.

Epilogue

Today, little remains of Bisbee that I can find other than the images in this post and her records in the National Archives.

She has a wall plaque at the National Museum of the Pacific War in Texas.

In Bisbee, Arizona, a large, scale model was in City Hall until it was destroyed in a fire in 2017. The Copper Queen Mine Museum outside of town maintains a similar model of our frigate, along with other relics.

One of her WWII USCG crew, LT (j.g.) John Bagdley, penned a sketch book on his service aboard, 2007’s “Frigate Men: Life on Coast Guard Frigate.” 

Her plankowner skipper, CDR German, who guided his frigate through New Guinea and the Philippines, remained in USCG service after the war and in 1959 was the captain of the famed icebreaker USCGC Mackinaw. He passed in 1963, aged just 55, and is buried at Arlington.

As for the Tacomas, class leader PF-3, on whose deck Bisbee’s crew trained before taking to their own ship, is preserved in South Korea, having served in that country’s navy until 1973. Meanwhile, both the old Glendale and Gallup, both of which served with Bisbee in the Pacific and under the Red Star, are preserved in Thailand.

HTMS Prasae (PF-2), ex-USS Gallup (PF-47).

Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive

***

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That big SOCOM 6.5 Creedmoor purchase makes more sense now

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Back in 2023, we covered the story of Geissele Automatics winning the $23 million SOCOM MRGG-S (Mid-Range Gas Gun, Sniper) award for a full-time suppressed 6.5 Creedmoor rifle with a 20-inch barrel, MOA accuracy, and a fully adjustable stock.

This thing, seen largely as the replacement for the FN SCAR 20 in use by SOCOM

Then last week came the news of the Navy Surface Command dropping $40 million for 17,367,760 rounds of DODIC AC58 6.5x49mm Special Ball Long Range Ammunition.

Now we have a big development, with LMT Defense picking up a $93 million award for the more compact (14.5-inch) new Medium Range Gas Gun-Assault (MRGG-A) carbine.

We have been in contact with LMT, so you can expect to see much more in the coming days.

Navy goes huge on APKWS II

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One of the big takeaways from the off and on two-year fight with the Iranian-backed Houthis in the Bab-el-Mandeb is that the AGR-20 Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System, or APKWS, is damned handy.

Taking your basic Becky level unguided Hydra 70 2.75-inch rocket (which is fundamentally just an update of the WWII era Mk 4/Mk 40 “Might Mouse” Folding-Fin Aerial Rocket), and adding a Distributed Aperture Semi-Active Laser Seeker (DASALS) laser guidance kit, the APKWS suddenly turns into a 33-pound laser-guided precision-kill munition with a 10-pound HE warhead and a “published range” of 11,500 yards.

Plus, they are cheap, at about $30K a pop, which is peanuts for guided ordnance, running a third the cost of even bulk buy Hellfires. Then consider an AIM-9X Sidewinder costs $1.3 million.

And, besides the traditional rotary-wing (AH-1W, UH-1Y, MH-60S/R) and Harrier platforms in USMC/USN service, it has been vetted on the F-18C/D loaded in twin seven-cell LAU-68 F/A pods since 2018.

The USAF has been going APKWS heavy in recent months, with both F-16s and F-15s photographed with six LAU-131A pods, giving them 42 rockets on tap with extra pylons left over for Sidewinders, targeting pods, and fuel tanks.

Several have returned from deployment with drone “kills” stenciled on their sides, which is a telltale of lessons learned.

F-15E from the 389th FS “Thunderbolts” carrying six LAU-131A rocket pods

Further, L3 Harris has the super low-cost Vampire SAM SHORAD system, which uses quad-packed APKWS that can be mounted on a truck or small (think 25-foot) boat or USV.

It has been very useful in Ukraine.

And don’t even forget to mention the recent tests at Dugway Proving Grounds by BAE of a small (250 pounds, with half that being payload) Malloy TRV-150 UAV VTOL air cargo drone (which is being trialed by the Marines for carrying “Speedball” style battlefield resupply packets) paired with an APKWS.

So you see, between much more use in counter-drone work via F-18s and MH-60s, traditional ground support work by AH-1s and UH-1s, potential use as bolt-on SHORAD systems for assets like LCS and LPDs, and use in UAVs and USVs, the Navy wants a whole lot more APKWS on hand (with extras for the Army and friends overseas), because you never know.

Yesterday’s contract announcement (emphasis mine):

BAE Systems Information and Electronic Warfare Systems, Hudson, New Hampshire, is awarded a $1,743,038,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the production and delivery of up to 55,000 Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System II Full Rate Production Lots 13-17 in support of upgrading the current 2.75-inch Rocket System to a semi-active laser guided precision weapon for the Navy, Army, and Foreign Military Sales customers. Work will be performed in Hudson, New Hampshire (31%); Whippany, New Jersey (22%); Plymouth, United Kingdom (16%); Austin, Texas (7%); Bristol, Pennsylvania (3%); Rochester, New York (3%); Kitchener, Ontario, Canada (2%); Westminster, Maryland (2%); Ronan, Montana (2%); Topsfield, Massachusetts (2%); Pomfret, Connecticut (2%); Danbury, Connecticut (2%); Anaheim, California (1%); Tempe, Arizona (1%); Ipswich, Massachusetts (1%); Centennial, Colorado (1%); Carson, California (1%); and Boston, Massachusetts (1%), and is expected to be in completed December 2031. No funds will be obligated at the time of award, funds will be obligated on individual orders as they are issued. This contract was not competed. Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N0001925D0018).

Welcome back, Whiskey

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The future USS Wisconsin (SSBN 827) had her keel laid yesterday on her hull number date (8/27) at General Dynamics Electric Boat in Groton.

It looked like a beautiful day.

She is the second of 12 planned Columbia-class boomers, the long-awaited replacements for the Cold War leftover Ohio-class, the youngest of which is 28 years young.

She is the third Navy warship to carry the name of the 30th state after the famous, Iowa-class fast battleship USS Wisconsin (BB-64), which decommissioned in 1991 and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in 2006, and the Illinois-class USS Wisconsin (Battleship # 9) of Great White Fleet fame.

As SSBNs are the battleships of today, the name makes sense.

Wisconsin likely won’t be delivered until 2032 or so, but with an expected 42-year service life, including 124 deterrent patrols, she will possibly outlive us all.

Warship Wednesday, August 27, 2025: A Tour of the Bay

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Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger

If you enjoy my always ad-free Warship Wednesday content, you can support it by buying me a cup of joe at https://buymeacoffee.com/lsozi As Henk says: “Warship Coffee – no sugar, just a pinch of salt!”

Warship Wednesday, August 27, 2025: A Tour of the Bay

Photo by Sub-Lieutenant E R Jones, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, Imperial War Museum catalog # A 30447

Above we see the “battle bowler” clad Lt. R M Howe, DSC, RN, explaining the plan of landing to his platoon of armed sailors and Royal Marines drawn from British Pacific Fleet warships before they disembark from the Buckley-class destroyer escort turned high-speed transport USS Sims (APD-50) into waiting LCVP landing craft to occupy the Japanese Coastal Forts at the entrance to Tokyo Bay on the morning of 30 August 1945, some 80 years ago this month. The item over Howe’s shoulder is one of Sim’s davits.

Knowing the background of the escort’s namesake, the joint operation should be of no surprise.

The Buckleys

With some 154 hulls ordered, the Buckleys were intended to be cranked out in bulk to counter the swarms of Axis submarines prowling the seas.

Just 306 feet overall, they were about the size of a medium-ish Coast Guard cutter today but packed a lot more armament, namely three 3″/50 DP guns in open mounts, a secondary battery of 1.1-inch (or 40mm), and 20mm AAA guns, and three 21-inch torpedo tubes in a triple mount for taking out enemy surface ships.

Buckley-class-destroyer-escort-1944 USS England by Dr. Dan Saranga via Blueprints

Then there was the formidable ASW suite to include stern depth charge racks, eight depth charge throwers, and a Hedgehog system.

Powered by responsive electric motors fed by steam turbines, they could make 24 knots and were extremely maneuverable.

Class-leader, USS Buckley (DE-51), cutting a 20-knot, 1,000-foot circle on trials off Rockland, Maine, 3 July 1943, 80-G-269442

Meet Sims

Our ship was the second greyhound named after ADM William Sowden Sims (USNA 1880), the Canadian-born officer who commanded all United States naval forces operating in Europe during the Great War.

He was the epitome of a “joint warrior” before such a thing was in vogue, often bending over backwards to keep his British and French allies happy.

Our humble ship followed the path blazed by a pre-war destroyer, the Bath-built USS Sims (DD-409), which commissioned on 1 August 1939.

USS Sims (DD-409) Off the Kennebec River, Maine, during her builder’s trials, 6 July 1939. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. 19-N-20822

After neutrality patrols, DD-409 was sent to the Pacific and became part of TF 17, the screen for the famed carrier USS Yorktown. She was with Yorktown at the Battle of the Coral Sea and took seven bomb hits and a dived Japanese plane to the stern, sent to the bottom after a magazine explosion that left but 13 survivors.

The second Sims was laid down on 7 September 1942 at the Norfolk Navy Yard and launched five months later, sponsored by Mrs. Anne Erwin Sims (nee Hitchcock), the widow of the late Admiral Sims. She had also sponsored the DD-409 four years prior.

Sims and her sister USS Reuben James (DE-153) were the only members of their class to carry the same armament as Buckley, to include a quad 28mm/75 Mk 1 “Chicago Piano” instead of a more effective twin or quad 40mm Bofors mount. The rest of the armament included the same triple 3″/50 DP singles in open, largely unprotected mounts, six 20mm Oerlikons, three 21-inch torpedo tubes, a Hedgehog Mk 10 ASWRL, and an impressive depth charge array.

Sims was commissioned on 24 April 1943 and was soon put to work.

Fighting U-boats across the Atlantic

4 October 1943, USS Sims moored at Pier C of the Brooklyn Navy Yard with the newly commissioned USS Reybold (DE 177) tied up on her port side. Sims had arrived in the Navy Yard on 28 September for scheduled maintenance and repair between convoys. 19LCM-dd68

USS Sims (DE 154) in New York Harbor, 17 April 1944, with a commercial barge and harbor tug alongside. 19-N-64416

USS Sims (DE 154) in New York Harbor, 17 April 1944, with a commercial barge and harbor tug alongside. 19-N-64418

A great stern shot at the same location and date as above, showing off the details of her ASW gear to include two chock-full Mk9 depth charge racks and eight Mk6 K-gun projectors. 19-N-64419

USS Sims (DE-154) in New York Harbor, 17 April 1944. Note the quad 1.1-inch “Chicago Piano” AAA mount just past her stern, No. 3, 3″/50, and her triple Mk15 torpedo tube turnstile amidships. 19-N-64417

After fitting out, Sims completed her shakedown cruise off Bermuda and then was assigned to Task Group (TG) 21.6, tasked with escorting vital tankers in large “CU” convoys from Curacao in the Dutch East Indies (later New York), across the Atlantic to Londonderry/Liverpool, with the return reverse runs being dubbed “UC” convoys.

She made 20 of these runs between July 1943 and September 1944, typically with at least five other DD/DEs:

  • CU 003 (11/07/43-24/07/43)
  • UC 003A (30/07/43-10/08/43)
  • CU 004 (26/08/43 09/09/43)
  • UC 004 (15/09/43-27/09/43)
  • CU 005 (13/10/43-24/10/43)
  • UC 005 (30/10/43-09/11/43)
  • CU 008 (02/12/43-13/12/43)
  • UC 008 (18/12/43-02/01/44)
  • CU 012 (19/01/44-30/01/44)
  • UC 012 (07/02/44-18/02/44)
  • CU 017 (10/03/44-20/03/44)
  • UC 017 (27/03/44-07/04/44)
  • CU 022 (24/04/44 06/05/44)
  • UC 022 (10/05/44-20/05/44)
  • CU 027 (08/06/44-18/06/44)
  • UC 027 (23/06/44-04/07/44)
  • CU 032 (19/07/44-29/07/44)
  • UC 032 (03/08/44-14/08/44)
  • CU 037 (27/08/44-07/09/44)
  • UC 037 (12/09/44-23/09/44)

The toughest of these was CU-17, a ten-day West-East slog from New York to Liverpool in March 1944. Shipping out with 22 merchantmen, mostly tankers but with the addition of the troop-filled U.S. Army Transport George S. Simonds, six tin cans, and the Bouge/Attacker class jeep carrier HMS Premier (D23), escorted the convoy.

The only convoy that Sims rode shotgun on that lost a ship, on 19 March, just West of Lands’ End, the German Type VIIC submarine U-311 (Kptlt. Joachim Zander) somehow found itself among the convoy and fired fish into the armed American tanker SS Seakay (10,342 tons), with one of her Navy Guard members killed. Wallowing, she was evacuated and later sent to the bottom with 14,000 tons of vapor oil and 14 aircraft (stored on deck).

Sims and her fellow greyhound pursued Zander and his U-boat relentlessly, but to no avail.

From Sim’s report:

Instead, Zander was boxed in by the Canadian frigates HMCS Matane and HMCS Swansea southwest of Ireland a few weeks later, and U-311 was sent to the bottom, with all hands. Seakay had been the sub’s (and Zander’s) only victim.

USS Sims (DE-154) Underway at sea, circa 1944. NH 107614

Sent to take on the Emperor

Sims became one of the most well-traveled of her class. Whereas most either served in the Atlantic or the Pacific during WWII, Sims got plenty of both.

On 23 September 1944, Sims entered the Boston Navy Yard for conversion into a high-speed transport, or APD. This resulted in her landing all her 3-inch guns, her torpedo tubes, her Hedgehogs, and her K-guns (leaving the stern depth charge racks). She gained a single 5″/38 Mk 12 mount forward as well as two twin 40mm Bofors. Also added were large davits supporting four 36-foot LCVP Higgins boats, and her crew berthing was modified to carry 162 troops in cramped, temporary conditions, even for the 1940s.

Clad in mottled green Measure 31 camouflage, she became a “Green Dragon.” The Navy wanted to convert 50 Buckleys to this spec, but only managed 37 before the end of the war.

The work completed, Sims (now APD-50) departed Boston on 6 December 1944 for Norfolk, where she was used as an amphibious training ship near Little Creek for the next seven weeks.

Shipping out for the Pacific, she arrived at Pearl Harbor on 20 February 1945.

U.S. Navy high-speed transport USS Sims (APD-50) at anchor, circa 1945. She is painted in Camouflage Measure 31, Design 20L. Note her davits and single 5-inch gun. Photo via Navsource

Moving forward for the Okinawa landings, Sims was assigned to TF 51 (CTG 51.5) and on 27 March 1945 sailed from Leyte as an escort for Transport Group Dog. She spent most of the next month supporting the landings, performing ASW patrols, scanning for frequent enemy air attacks, sinking floating mines with gunfire, and rescuing souls at sea (Ensign E.G. Johnson, blown off the cargo ship USS Tyrell on 2 April). During this period, Sims fired 64 rounds of 5-inch, 731 of 40mm, and 1,002 of 20mm, claiming two enemy aircraft downed.

In May, she became the flagship of Capt. J.M. Kennaday, USN, Commander of Transport Division 105, continued more of the same.

The work was hazardous in the extreme.

During a six-week stint off Okinawa, no less than 10 Buckleys were damaged by Japanese aircraft and kamikazes, including one, USS England, which was so heavily damaged that she was never repaired. An 11th, USS Gendreau, was severely damaged by Japanese coastal guns during the same period. Sims was one of these 11, having fought off two kamikazes on 24 May whose near misses remarkably left her with only some popped seams, an oil leak, and 11 injured, four seriously.

A 12th Buckley, USS Bates, was sunk when she was hit by a cluster of three kamikazes at Okinawa on 25 May 1945.

The same day that Bates sank, Sims went to the aid of the damaged, burning, and abandoned USS Barry (APD-29), an old Clemson-class destroyer turned Green Dragon. A volunteer DC boarding party of two officers and 10 men from Sims went aboard and extinguished the blaze in a little over two hours. Later towed to Kerama Retto to be used as a decoy for the kamikazes, the unmanned Barry was sunk there on June 21 by suicide planes.

Meanwhile, Sims returned to Leyte via Saipan in early June to effect repairs, then was back on the line off Okinawa on the 26th, returning to service as Kennaday’s flag. In her stint off Okinawa in May, she fired 32 rounds of 5-inch, 575 rounds of 40mm, and 516 rounds of 20mm in anti-air operations.

Kennaday provided the following accolades:

Tokyo Bay

On 13 August, Sims, with Kennaday aboard, proceeded to Buckner Bay for supplies, then the next morning left with five other APDs– USS Barr, Pavlic, Bass, Wantuck, and Runels, to form Task Unit 30.3.6, shifting to Third Fleet command. The task: prepare for the Tokyo Bay Occupation. 

British Pacific Fleet elements attached to the Third Fleet organized a light company-sized landing force– of 22 officers and 120 enlisted, mixed Royal Marines and Tars– to occupy the coastal forts and batteries ringing Sagami Bay, located south of Tokyo Bay, and the island of Azuma.

Sims was detailed as their chariot, and on 20 August, she dispatched her landing craft alongside the battleship HMS King George V, and the Australian destroyers HMAS Nizam and HMAS Napier. The men collected from KGV included a contingent of Kiwi sailors from the cruiser HMNZS Gambia that had been cross-decked to the battlewagon. The force also included a team of Commonwealth war correspondents, which means the images of the event made it into the Imperial War Museum and the Australian War Memorial.

HMS King George V, with LCVPs headed to USS Sims

At sea off Japan, 20 August 1945. Members of the British Landing Force embarking from HMS King George V for USS Sims, which was to ferry them ashore. Sub Lieutenant Leary of HMAS Nizam is in the foreground. (Photographer Capt. J. C. Goodchild). AWM 121207

Sagami Bay, Japan. c. September 1945. LCDR George R. Davis-Goff RNZN, from the cruiser  HMNZS Gambia, is addressing men of the British Landing Force on the quarterdeck of their transport USS Sims, only a few hundred yards from the shores of Sagami Bay. The white flag flying on the point in the background denotes the position of a gun emplacement surrendered by the enemy. AWM 019231

A chow line on Sims. Note the beret-clad Royal Marines contrasting against the assorted Commonwealth sailors

The enlisted Commonwealth contingents were excited about the landing as the tars escaped an all-hands call to paint their ships’ upperworks in an effort to remove the signs that the ships had been at sea for a long time. Plus, they were the tip of the occupation force.

Sagami Bay, Japan. Australian Naval personnel took the first snapshots of the Japanese mainland as seen from the decks of their transport USS Sims. There was a rush for cameras to record souvenirs of their first glimpse of the enemy’s territory, as the ship drew near the shores of Sagami Bay. Pictured, left to right: Leading Seaman Ken Edgerton of Orange, NSW; Able Seaman (Ab) Bob Skinner of Underdale, SA; AB Cliff Howard of Alberton East, SA; AB Colin Llewellyn of Cooroy, Qld; AB Bill Ives of Bathurst, NSW, and kneeling, AB Bruce Hazard of Caulfield, Vic. All are members of the destroyer HMAS Napier. AWM 019429

At sea off Japan, 1945-08-27. British landing force personnel on the forecastle of the destroyer USS Sims. Note her new 5″/38. (Photographer, Captain J. C. Goodchild) AWM 121192

New Zealand sailors, comprising part of the British Landing Force, lined up on the quarterdeck of their transport USS Sims before landing on Yokosuka, the largest naval base in Japan, situated in Tokyo Bay. In the background can be seen the gutted Japanese battleship Nagato, once a powerful flagship of the Japanese Navy. A carrier-based plane can also be seen flying overhead. AWM 019233

Capt. Herbert James Buchanan, DSO, RAN, who oversaw the British landing force, watching the party preparing to disembark from Sims. Buchannan, an Australian who joined the Navy as a cadet in 1915, earned his DSO at Dunkirk after his command, the destroyer HMS Valentine, was bombed and sunk by Junkers 87 Stuka dive bombers, leaving him and his crew ashore to organize beach control parties during the evacuation. He had later commanded the destroyers HMS Vanity and HMAS Norman and Napier, the latter of which brought him to Tokyo Bay, IWM (A 30445)

British platoons on the deck of the Sims are preparing to go ashore. IWM (A 30446)

Landing party disembarking from USS Sims to LCVPs IWM (A 30448).

And in the Higgins boats. IWM (A 30449)

The British landing party from USS Sims is taking over one of the Japanese forts. IWM A 30450

Continuing her work with the Occupation Forces, on 30 August, working with fellow APD USS Pavlic, Sims embarked Love Company, 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines Regiment, under Major Wallace L. Crawford, and landed them first on Green Beach in Tokyo Bay then, reembarking them on 1 September, took them to Tateyama Naval Air Station on the northeastern shore of Sagami Wan to accept its surrender, reconnoiter the beach approaches for follow-on Army troops, and to make sure the Japanese aircraft there were disabled. Importantly, the “Old Fourth” had been chosen for this task by MacArthur as the regiment had been part of the 1942 Bataan Campaign.

Following the official surrender ceremony on 2 September, Sims brought L/3/4 back to Green Beach on 3 September once they were relieved at Tateyama by the Eighth Army’s 112th Cavalry Regiment.

Sims continued to operate in Japanese waters for the next three months before being ordered stateside, arriving at San Diego with 208 assorted GI and Navy passengers on 17 December, just in time for Christmas.

For her 20 convoys, pursuit of U-317, Okinawa actions, and Tokyo Bay mission, she earned a grand total of one battle star.

Cold War mothballs

Sims was sent through the Panama Canal, destined to be decommissioned at Green Cove Springs, Florida, on 24 April 1946, and was then placed in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet.

Beyond the 37 APD conversions, the Navy converted others of the class, including USS Foss, Marsh, Wiseman, and Whitehurst, which were rigged as power supply ships with two large reels for power cables amidships.

Seven others became radar pickets (DER) with the addition of large air search radar sets on a second mast, while USS Cronin, Frybarger, and Raby were redesignated DEC (escort vessels, control) to guide landing craft to beaches. USS Vammen was converted to a DE (A/S) for testing new anti-submarine warfare sensors and weapons, while USS Francis M. Robinson, Jack W. Wilke, and Malay became EDEs (experimental destroyer escorts) for a time for much the same purpose.

Of the 46 Buckleys loaned to the Royal Navy during the war as the Captain-class, six were lost. Of the USN-operated vessels, USS Fechteler and Underhill were lost in action, as was one wartime APD conversion, USS Bates (APD 47, ex-DE 68).

The Navy retained nearly 100 Buckleys of all types on the Navy List into the early 1960s– but most were in mothballs– and then began whittling them down, with some transferred and the rest scrapped or sunk (12) as targets.

Jane’s 1960 APDs converted destroyer escorts, of both the Buckley and other classes, with Sims listed as a 1960 disposal.

The final Buckley on active duty with the Navy was Wiseman, decommissioned in 1965, while some were retained as pier-side naval reserve training ships as late as 1969. The last five members of the class were removed from Navy custody in 1974– not a bad run for “disposable” ships.

The Navy deleted the “DE” classification in 1975.

Sims, hulked, was sold to the North American Smelting Co. of Wilmington, Delaware, on 14 April 1961 and scrapped.

In a perhaps poignant touch, ADM Sims’ widow, Anne, passed in 1960, the year before the second destroyer to carry his name was sold for scrap. She was 85 and was buried next to her husband at Arlington National Cemetery. The U.S. Naval War College Archives maintain the Sims’ papers.

Epilogue

Today, little remains of Sims other than her logs and reports in the National Archives. 

Lt Howe, pictured in the first photo, became a regular and retired from the Royal Navy in April 1958 as an LCDR.

Capt. Buchanan, the Dunkirk hero who commanded the Commonwealth landing force that occupied Yokosuka and the Tokyo Bay coastal forts from the deck of Sims, joined the staff of Admiral Sir Louis Hamilton. He then later commanded the cruisers HMAS Shropshire and Australia. He received a CBE and retired as a rear admiral in 1957 and passed in Sydney in 1965, aged 63.

Post-war, the Navy recycled our ship’s name for the new Knox-class destroyer escort USS W. S. Sims (DE-1059, later FF-1059), commissioned in 1970. She served 21 honorable years and was decommissioned in 1991, then later transferred to Turkey for use as a floating spare parts platform for that NATO ally’s surplus Knoxes.

USS W.S. Sims (FF-1059) underway in the Mediterranean Sea, June 1987. Photographer: PH2 Hensley. DNSC8709254. National Archives Identifier 6418455

It is beyond past time for a new destroyer, the fourth, to carry the name Sims.

Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive

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