The fifth (completed) U.S. Navy vessel named for the Bay State, the future USS Massachusetts (SSN 798), was delivered to the service from Newport News on 21 November. She is the 25th Virginia/774-class submarine, the 12th delivered by the yard, and the seventh of 10 planned Block IV configured boats. Her commissioning is set for 2026.
Future USS Massachusetts (SSN 798) on builder’s acceptance trials. 251008-N-MQ094-002
Future USS Massachusetts (SSN 798) on builder’s acceptance trials. 251008-N-MQ094-001
Future USS Massachusetts (SSN 798) on builder’s acceptance trials. 251008-N-MQ094-003
The first USS Massachusettswas a 4-gun screw steamer built in 1845 and fought during the Mexican-American War.
The second, a 6-gunned screw steamer, fought in the Civil War– the bane of the Confederates on the Mississippi Coast and still has a fort named after her on Ship Island– while the third, an Indiana-class battleship (BB-2), fought in the Spanish-American War.
The last and most famous USS Massachusetts (BB-59) was commissioned in 1942 as a South Dakota-class fast battleship, earning 11 battle stars for exceptional service in WWII from Casablanca to Okinawa before being decommissioned in 1947. She remained in the Reserve Fleet until stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in June 1962 and continues to serve as a floating museum.
USS Massachusetts underway somewhere in the Pacific (1943)
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Warship Wednesday 19 November 2025: Pride of the Scouting Group
Photographed by A. Renard of Kiel, Germany, via the Naval History and Heritage Command, NH 45198
Above we see the Roon-class armored cruiser (panzerkreuzer) SMS Yorck of the Kaiserliche Marine, passing under the famous Levensauer Hochbrücke along the Kiel Canal prior to the Great War.
She was commissioned 120 years ago this week and, a beautiful ship, had a short but tragic peacetime career and even shorter and more tragic wartime service without ever firing a shot in anger.
The Roons
In the 1890s, the German Imperial Navy moved to field several armored cruisers, initially rebuilding old (circa 1870s) ironclads with newer and more modern guns and updated engineering plants.
Then came the majestic 11,500-ton SMS Fürst Bismarck, the country’s first purpose-built armored cruiser, laid down in 1896. Built for 18 million gold marks, Fürst Bismarck was capable of 18.7 knots and carrying a main battery of four 9.4″/40s and a secondary of 12 5.9″/40s, while clad in up to 7.9 inches of armor plate. Bismarck was followed in 1898 by the smaller (and cheaper, at 16 million marks) SMS Prinz Heinrich (9,800t, 2×9.4″/40, 10x5.9-inch SK L/40s, 20 knots, 5.9-inch armor).
Then came the twin SMS Prinz Adalbert in 1900 and Friedrich Carl in 1901, which were basically a three-funneled improvement of the preceding Prinz Heinrich, while carrying a different main armament (four 8.27-inch SK L/40 C/01s rather than 2×9.4″/40s) and thinner but better armor with the secondary armament (10×5.9″/40s) housed in a central armored citadel amidships and a 21 knot speed on a 18,500shp plant.
Jane’s 1914 entry for the armored cruisers SMS Prinz Adalbert and Friedrich Carl.
Continuing that vein, the 1902-03 Naval Program ordered a pair of essentially improved Prinz Adalbert-class cruisers, dubbed initially Ersatz (more or less “replacement”) Kaiser and Ersatz Deutschland as they were replacing the old ironclad/armored cruiser conversions on the German Navy List. The differences between the new cruisers and their Adalbert-class half-sisters came in the fact that they had four funnels rather than three, with 16 boilers rather than 14 on a more powerful 20,000 shp plant.
Armament was largely the same primary (four 8.27″40s with 380 rounds) and secondary batteries (ten 5.9″/40s with 1,600 rounds), while the tertiary battery was slightly larger (14 24-pounders with 2,100 rounds vs 12 24-pounders with 1,800 rounds). Four 17.7-inch torpedo tubes were fitted below the waterline– one each in the bow and stern, and one on each side approximately at the level of the forward twin turrets– with 11 torpedoes in the magazine.
The two new cruisers, Ersatz Kaiser and Ersatz Deutschland, entered the fleet as SMS Roon and SMS Yorck, constructed eight months apart at Kaiserliche Werft, Kiel, and Blohm & Voss, Hamburg, respectively.
Jane’s 1914 entry for the armored cruisers SMS Roon and Yorck.
Brassy’s line drawing on SMS Roon and Yorck.
A 1917 ONI publication on the armament and armor of Roon.
For reference, the Germans liked the design of Roon and Yorck so much that they ordered another pair of armored cruisers in 1904 to an improved design, the larger (and 25 percent more expensive, at 20-million marks each) Scharnhorst and Gneisenau of later Maximillian Von Spee fame.
Jane’s 1914 entry for the armored cruisers SMS Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. These were just bigger Roon-class cruisers with more speed and range but roughly the same armament and armor.
Following Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, the Germans in 1906 ordered their last armored cruiser, the huge 15,000-ton 12x 8.4″/45 gunned SMS Blücher (which cost 28.5 million marks), then shifted gears to battlecruisers with the 21,000-ton 11-inch gunned SMS Von der Tann (36.5 million marks) in 1907.
With that…
Meet Yorck
Our subject carries the name of Johann David Ludwig Graf Yorck von Wartenburg, a Prussian feldmarschall and statesman of the early 19th century.
An ardent patriot, Yorck resented Prussia’s subservience to Napoleon and, in 1812, defied the orders of Wilhelm Friedrich III by initially refusing to join the French emperor’s great invasion of Russia. With Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow, Yorck seized the opportunity for liberation and negotiated a separate peace treaty (the Convention of Tauroggen) for his Corps with Russian General Ivan Ivanovich Dibich-Zabalkansky over the Christmas holiday of 1812 without the consent of their respective monarchs. He went on to fight Napoleon for the next three years and retired from the Prussian Army in 1821, passing nine years later.
Yorck, a thorn in Napoleon’s side, later became a favorite icon of the newly unified Germany.
Laid down as Ersatz Deutschland (Baunummer 167) at the Blohm & Voss in Hamburg on 25 April 1903, the hull of the future SMS Yorck was launched into the water on a warm 14 May 1904, christened by Josephine Yorck von Wartenburg, the 45-year-old granddaughter of the famous field marshal. Speaking of field marshals, the 71-year-old Gen. Wilhelm Gustav Karl Bernhard von Hahnke, then the Oberkommando in den Marken over state functions, read the dedication to the new cruiser.
Yorck, launched. Note her ram bow
Yorck, despite being laid down eight months later, managed to be completed six months earlier than her sister Roon, commissioning on 21 November 1905, while the class leader entered service on 5 April 1906.
Yorck’s construction costs were 16,241,000 goldmarks, while Roon came in at a comparatively cheaper 15,345,000 goldmarks. Still, they both came in cheaper than the previous twins, the 16.4 million mark Prinz Adalbert and the 15.7 million mark Friedrich Carl. Roon is listed as costing £875,733 (£660,469 hull and machinery, £195,695 guns, £19,569 torpedo armament) in a British journal.
She and her sister joined the fleet’s reconnaissance force (Aufklärungsstreitkräfte), with Yorck taking over the task of flagship from Friedrich Carl. The flagship role would remain with Yorck until May 1908, then again from March 1909 to April 1910, and intermittently in 1912 and 1913. Whenever she wasn’t the direct flagship, she typically carried the recon force’s second or third commander and staff.
Yorck Mai 1910 Hansestadt Bremisches Amt Bremerhaven, Bild-Nr. S1 F 22-1
She spent the next several years in a series of fleet maneuvers and squadron cruises into the Atlantic, ranging as far as Spain and Norway.
Roon and Yorck with the Aufklärungsstreitkräfte in Puddefjorden, Bergen, Norway, between 1907 and 1911.
Roon and Yorck with the Aufklärungsstreitkräfte in Puddefjorden, Bergen, Norway, between 1907 and 1911.
Roon and Yorck with the Aufklärungsstreitkräfte in Puddefjorden, Bergen, Norway, between 1907 and 1911.
She not only looked good but could shoot as well. Yorck won the Emperor’s Shooting Prize (Kaiser Preis) for large cruisers in both 1908 and 1910.
Meanwhile, sister Roon, unburdened by flagship roles, even managed a sortie to escort ships to the far east and attend the 1907 Jamestown Exhibition naval parade in New York City along with the protected cruiser SMS Kaiserin Augusta.
SMS Roon 1907 Jamestown Exhibition, NYC. LOC ggbain 28287
S.178
While practicing counter-torpedo boat operations on the night of 4 March 1913, just northeast of Heligoland, Yorck inadvertently rammed the low-lying and fast-moving S.178, driving the 800-ton ship under the waves, and sending 69 men with her to the bottom. Just 15 survivors were saved through the combined efforts of fellow torpedo boat S.177, Yorck, and the battleship SMS Oldenburg.
The 242-foot S.138-class torpedoboot S.178 was cut in half by Yorck in March 1913 but was salvaged (during which one of the salvage vessels, Unterlebe, capsized in heavy seas, carrying another seven men to the bottom). Her two pieces reconstructed, she survived the Great War and was surrendered to the British, who scrapped her in Dordrecht in 1922.
Doldrums
As the Kaiser built out his shiny new High Seas Fleet and a fresh batch of battlecruisers joined it, the still young but smaller, weaker, and slower armored cruisers were put to pasture to free up their crews for reassignment. Prinz Heinrich was laid up from 1906 to 1908 and then put into limited service as a training ship. Likewise, in 1909, Friedrich Carl was withdrawn from front-line service and re-tasked as a torpedo training ship. Prinz Adalbert became a gunnery school and test ship in 1912.
Roon was laid up in September 1911 after just five years of service, while Yorck soon followed her sister and was laid up on 21 May 1913, having completed less than eight years of service. It probably didn’t help that the high-profile ramming of S.178 had occurred just ten weeks prior. Most of Yorck’s crew, including the skipper, transferred to the newly completed battlecruiser SMS Seydlitz.
Yup, that Seydlitz.
SMS-Seydlitz seeing what hell looks like at Jutland, by Carl Becker
Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were only on active service in 1914 due to their overseas assignment with the East Asian Squadron, while Blucher was, well, a proto if under-gunned battlecruiser. If you ask me, it’s likely that on a long enough timeline, the Germans would have replaced von Spee’s armored cruisers with battlecruisers in the same way that the Moltke-class BC SMS Goeben was stationed in the Mediterranean from 1912 onward.
Anyhow…
War!
Yorck, photographed in 1914. Courtesy of Master Sergeant Donald L.R. Shake, USAF, 1981. NH 92713
When the lights went out across Europe in August 1914, Yorck and Roon were pulled out of reserve and rushed back into service, both attached to the III. Aufklärungsgruppe, with Roon, made the group flag.
The squadron initially operated in the Baltic Sea, then later shifted to the North Sea.
On 2 November, the 3rd Scouting Group helped cover the first offensive operation of the High Seas Fleet– the bombardment by the battlecruisers of the 1st Scouting Group of Yarmouth, the first attack on British soil in 250 years. While no casualties were suffered on either side and the Germans retired in good order, Yorck would upend that empty victory.
While wrapped in fog in the inner Jade estuary on the morning of 4 November, Yorck’s skipper, KzS Waldemar Pieper– a skilled professional officer who had signed up in 1887 as a cadet and had commanded both the armored cruisers Prinz Adalbert and Blucher before the war– had reason to believe his ship’s water supply was contaminated and ordered her to weigh anchor and proceed to Wilhelmshaven without pilots. The pilot had refused to take over the conn due to the poor visibility and the considerable risk of German defensive minefields, which were known but subject to tidal drifting.
At 0410, Yorck struck a mine, then turned away to escape the field and hit a second one, soon capsizing and turning turtle, entombing fully half of her crew. If not for the efforts of the old Siegfried-class coastal defense ship (küstenpanzerschiffen) SMS Hagen rushing out to her rescue despite the mines, the other half (the chagrined Pieper among them) would surely have succumbed to hypothermia.
SMS Yorck mined near Wilhelmshaven, on return from Yarmouth, 4th November 1914. The ship is on her side. Reichs Marine Sammlung Collection, IWM (Q 48420)
The German armored cruiser SMS Friedrich Carl was sunk by a pair of Russian mines in the Baltic Sea almost a year to the day later, in November 1915
Yorck and Friedrich Carl were in the club of over a dozen cruisers claimed by mine warfare between 1904 and 1942, including the British cruisers HMS Cassandra, Amphion, Hampshire, and Neptune; the Japanese cruisers Miyako, Saien, and Takasago; the Italian cruisers Carlo Alberto Racchia, Carlo Mirabello, and Cesare Rossarol; the Russian cruisers Boyarin, Peresvet, and Ladgoda; USS San Diego (ACR-6), the French cruiser Kléber, and the Ottoman cruiser Mecidiye.
Yorck’s sister Roon was decommissioned in Kiel on 4 February 1916 and, after being disarmed and used as a training hulk for U-boat crews, was slated for conversion to a seaplane carrier.
Roon’s planned seaplane carrier conversion which never completed. Found at Kiel after the war in poor condition, she was scrapped by 1921. Drawing by Dr Dan Saranga, Blueprints.com
Epilogue
Lost in shallow water with some elements of her wrecked hull at the time just 10 feet below the surface, between 1926 and stretching to 1983, Yorck was slowly blasted and salvaged, then later broken up in place on the seabed as a navigational hazard, finally being dredged under to effectively bury what remained.
These days, about the only relics of Yorck that endure are period postcards.
The Germans may have tried to recycle the name of our cruiser in the lead ship of the nascent Ersatz (replacement) Yorck-class of battlecruisers, whose two sisters would have, at least initially, been named Ersatz Gneisenau and Ersatz Scharnhorst. Big 38,000-ton beasts with a planned 90,000shp on tap from a suite that included 32 boilers and four geared steam turbines, the Ersatz Yorcks were a sort of Super Mackensen type that would have made 27 knots while still carrying eight 15″/45 guns (as opposed to SMS Mackensen’s eight 13.8″/45s) and as much as 10 inches of armor plate. Ersatz Yorck had her keel laid at AG Vulcan in Hamburg in July 1916, but with production resources pivoting to U-boats, she never stood a chance and was eventually abandoned and broken up on the ways after the war. Her design did reportedly prove a starting point for the Kriegsmarine’s later Scharnhorst-class battleships, however.
Drawing of proposed Ersatz Yorck-class (1916), the German Imperial Navy’s final battlecruiser design, which never saw the water.
Our Yorck’s captain’s cabin was an important stepping stone for several future German admirals.
Her first skipper, KzS Leo Jacobson, by 1918 was a vice admiral and the fortress commander of Wilhelmshaven.
Her second commander, KzS Arthur Tapken, went on to head the Navy’s intelligence section, led a scouting squadron early in the Great War from the bridge of the battlecruiser SMS Von der Tann, and ended the war as a vice admiral and the fortress commander of Kiel.
Her fourth commander, KzS Ludwig von Reuter, went on to be the ignoble final commander of the High Seas Fleet, interned at Scapa Flow, and would order it to scuttle in June 1919.
KzS Max Köthner, Yorck’s fifth skipper, was director of the torpedo department at the shipyard in Wilhelmshaven, retiring in 1919 as a rear admiral.
Our cruiser’s sixth skipper, KzS Moritz von Egidy, famously commanded the Swiss-cheesed battlecruiser SMS Seydlitz at Jutland and ended the war as commandant of the Mürwik Naval Academy.
As for her seventh and final skipper, Waldemar Pieper was court-martialed in Wilhelmshaven for the sinking of the Yorck and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment in a fortress for disobeying orders and negligence. However, requested by name by Admiral Wilhelm Souchon as an artillery expert, he was paroled and seconded in February 1915 to Ottoman Turkey on probation, where he later distinguished himself to such an extent that Kaiser Willy commuted his sentence in December 1915. An Ottoman Pasha and major general, by 1916, he was the head inspector of the Turkish ordnance plants (Türk Silah Dairesi ve fabrikalari komutani) clustered around Constantinople, with 700 German experts supervising 14,000 local munitions workers. He returned to Germany in July 1917 to serve in the weapons bureau, and Pieper was later retired as a rear admiral (Konteradmiral) in 1919. He passed in early 1945, aged 73.
Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive
***
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This continued a legacy of Dutch involvement in the Boxer Rebellion in which 35 Marines (Korps Mariniers) helped defend the Peking Legation Quarter, and remained in attendance of the country’s embassy into the 1920s.
Commissioned 22 October 1929, Van Galen was soon dispatched to the Dutch East Indies, where all seven of her sisters would eventually serve (until destroyed while fighting the Japanese in 1942).
However, Van Galen would make China a specialty, and spent several deployments in the waters there over the 1930s, protecting Dutch interests during the turbulent era.
Torpedobootjager Hr.Ms. Van Galen (far right) in Shanghai, along assorted British and American cruisers. 2158_013844
On 22 February 1932, Van Galen was deployed to Shanghai during fighting between the Chinese and Japanese in the city, putting ashore a naval landing division (landingsdivisie) and Marine detachment on 1 March, to protect the international district there following the bombardment of the city by the Japanese navy.
The ship and her ashore detachment would remain in the city for two months.
Detachement mariniers van de torpedobootjager Hr.Ms. Van Galen te Shanghai, in tropentenue 2158_061491
Marines from the destroyer HNLMS Van Galen marching along Nanking Road in Shanghai. March 1932.
Bayonet exercise by marines from the destroyer HNLMS Van Galen on the training ground in Shanghai, 1932. NIMH 2158_061489
Dutch destroyer Van Galen mariniers marines, Shanghai 1932, 2158_061488
The detachment boarded the destroyer on 27 April 1933 and returned to her homeport at Soerabaja (Surabaya).
She would return in 1935 for a port call, though she did not land any troops.
The destroyer returned to Shanghai on 23 August 1937, during a period of heavy fighting between the opposing forces involved in the Second Sino-Japanese War. During this stay, in addition to her ship’s landing forces, the ship disembarked a contingent of 150 Dutch marines (talk about cramped on a 1,600-ton tin can!) to help protect and evacuate European citizens residing in Shanghai. The detachment was housed ashore at the British Union Jack Club during its 11-week deployment.
A detachment of Dutch marines from the destroyer HNLMS Van Galen at the jetty on the Bund in Shanghai, August 1937. “SMJRMARNS Hein Harfst reports the detachment to LT1MARNS H. Lieftinck.” Note the 6.5x53mm Geweer M. 95 Dutch Mannlicher carbines, M23/27 helmets, and traditional klewang cutlasses. NIMH 2158_061492
Detachement mariniers van de torpedobootjager Hr.Ms. Van Galen in Shanghai 1937 2158_061487
After the withdrawal of the defeated Chinese troops, the detachment embarked on 17 November, and Van Galen returned to the Dutch East Indies.
She would return to Chinese waters off and on until war came to Europe, and she alone was the only member of her class recalled to the metropolitan Netherlands in late 1939. There, while under refit in May 1940, she would attempt to come to the assistance of Rotterdam and was sunk by 30 successive Luftwaffe air attacks, presaging the fate of her seven Pacific sisters.
Het wrak van de Van Galen na de berging in de Merwehaven Oct 1941 2158_005609
As for the remaining Dutch in Shanghai, the Japanese ended the Foreign Concessions there in December 1941, and the Dutch consulate was taken over by Japanese troops.
By that time, the embassy at its Marine detachment had been moved to Chongqing, situated 500 miles further inland, in territory firmly under KMT control. Dutch consulate personnel captured in Beijing were detained at their homes for about eight months before being sent aboard the Italian liner SS Conte Verde to Lorenço Marques, Portuguese Mozambique, for an exchange.
Meanwhile, a later 2,400-ton destroyer of the same name but different pennant number (D 803)– formerly the British N-class destroyer HMS Noble (G84)— would serve twice in nearby waters during the Korean War, earning two ROK Presidential Unit Citations as well as numerous accolades from COMSEVENTHFLT.
But that is another article.
Torpedobootjager Hr.Ms. Van Galen (D 803) in Korean waters, circa 1951-52 NIMH 2158_005596
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Above we see the Dutch Admiralen-class torpedobootjager (destroyer) Hr. Ms. Banckert (BK)as she appeared sometime between 1931 and 1942. She was commissioned 90 years ago this week and is sadly almost forgotten, although she often came through in the clutch when the chips were down.
The Yarrow Admiralen 8-pack
In November 1923, the British Admiralty issued a request to the major shipyards specializing in escorts for designs of the first destroyers to be built for the Royal Navy since the end of the Great War. The tender was awarded jointly the next year for two prototype ships, one from Thornycroft to become the future HMS Amazon, and the second from competitor Yarrow for what would become the future HMS Ambuscade (D38). Ambuscade, a two-funneled greyhound of some 322 feet overall length, had a narrow 31-foot beam and, with a 1,600-ton displacement, could float in just nine feet of water.
Armed with four BL 4.7″/45 Mk I guns in single mounts with an armored shield, Ambuscade also carried six 21-inch torpedo tubes in two triple launcher turnstiles. Powered by a pair of geared turbines on triple Yarrow (who else?) 4-drum boilers, she had 35,000shp on tap and could make 37 knots.
HMS Ambuscade Yarrow ad, 1929 Janes
Profile plan of an Acasta (A class) destroyer, 1927, based on Ambuscade. NPA4551
While Ambuscade would serve through WWII and lead to the follow-on 20-ship A- and B-class destroyers for the Royal Navy, which were basically the same ship but a little slower and with a heavier armament, the design proved a hit for Yarrow when it came to export.
The Portuguese ordered five Douro-class destroyers to the Ambuscade design (two of which were resold to Colombia while still on the builder’s ways), and the Dutch would order another eight, each class with minor differences.
The eight Dutch ships would replace, on a one-for-one basis, the older Roofdier-class torpedobootjager, which were built on the eve of the Great War. Small, at just 500 tons/231-feet oal, the Roofdiers were cramped and poorly armed with just two 18-inch torpedo tubes and four low-angle 3″/52 guns. The new destroyers would be bound for the Dutch East Indies to bolster the defense of that far-off yet resource-rich colony.
Dubbed the Admiralen-class (Admiralenklasse) because they were all named after famous Dutch admirals, these Ambuscade clones had a similar layout to their British older sister but went a little lighter (1,337 tons) on the same-sized hull. A little slower due to a 31,000shp engineering plant, they could “only” make 34 knots, and they had about the same range (3,300nm @15 knots), but added a couple of tricks.
1929 Janes Dutch destroyers entry for the Yarrow type
Rather than the comparatively slower British BL 4.7s, the Dutch went with a four-pack of Swedish Bofors-made 4.7″/50 guns with only the most forward and most aft guns protected by shields.
Bofors 12 cm/50 (4.7″/50) Mark 4 guns on Dutch destroyer Kortenaer. Note the “A” mount has a shield, while the “B” mount does not. NIMH No. 2158_005426.
Firing Bofors 4.7-inch gun from Hr.Ms. Van Galen, Soerabaja, April 1936 2173-223-048
The unshielded Gun 2/Mount B of the destroyer Hr.Ms. Banckert, note the breechblock and gun clocks, 1933. 2173-223-002
For AAA (luchtdoelgeschut) use, the Admiralen carried one or two 3-inch guns (Bofors Mark 6 in early ships, a single HIH Siderius Mark 8 in latter ships) on a bandstand between the stacks and four .50 caliber Browning water-cooled mounts on deck. The second flight of four ships substituted four Vickers QF 2-pounder (40mm) guns instead of the second 3-incher.
A Bofors Mark 6 3″/55 AA Luchtafweer gun on Admiralen class torpedobootjager Hr.Ms. Kortenaer. Note what might be a fuze setter machine in the foreground. 2158_001019
Automatic 40mm Vickers Maxim QF 2-pounders on pedestal mounts in a Luchtdoelbatterij on the cruiser Java. Water-cooled and fed via 25-round cloth belts, the guns had been designed in 1915 as balloon-busters and could fire 50-75 rounds per minute. These are not to be confused with 40mm Bofors. Note the sunglasses of the operator closest to the camera.
Six torpedo tubes for Whitehead Type II/53 torpedoes, and mine handling gear (mechanical mine sweeping paravanes in the first four, mine laying tracks for 24 Vickers mines in the last four– the latter of which blocked the firing arc of the stern most 4.7-inch mount) rounded out the armament. Weight and space were reserved for depth charge racks and four throwers (with 12 “ash cans”,) although listening gear was only provided to two of the ships (Hr.Ms. Van Ghent and Witte de With) in 1941.
Admiralen-class torpedobootjager Hr.Ms. Van Nes (VN)Torpedolanceeroefeningen. The ships carried no torpedo reloads. 2158_005653
With a crew of about ~130 men, the Admiralens could land a light platoon size force of armed sailors and Marines (Korps Mariniers) for expeditionary landing division (landingsdivisie) service ashore, complete with cartridge belts, infantry uniforms with puttees, and 6.5x53mm Geweer M. 95 Dutch Mannlichers, as with these men of the class member Van Galen seen in Shanghai in 1932.
Despite their small size, the class was designed to carry and use a single embarked Fokker C.VII-W floatplane, although without a catapult. This means the Fokker had to be winched over the side for both takeoff and recovery, a time-consuming process.
The Marineluchtvaartdienst (Netherlands Naval Aviation Service) bought 30 pontoon-borne Fokker C.VII-W floatplanes in the late 1920s for use both ashore and from their warships in a reconnaissance/light strike role. Using a welded steel tube frame, the rest of the 32-foot aircraft was fleshed out in plywood and fabric. Powered by a 225hp Armstrong Siddeley Lynx 7-cylinder air-cooled radial piston engine, these were good for about 85 knots to a range of about 600nm and could carry two light bombs and an observer-mounted light machine gun. A baker’s dozen were sent to Morokrembangan in Java, operating alongside huge Dornier Do J Wal and later Dornier Do 24 flying boats, while the rest remained in Europe. 2158_061489
Fokker Hr.Ms. Witte de With at anchor at Kupang, September 1934 2173-223-014
The seaplane of the Admiralen-class destroyer Hr.Ms. Witte de With at anchor at Kupang, Timor, September 1934. 2173-223-014
Hr.Ms. Van Galen (1929-1940), een Fokker C-VII W lichte zeeverkenner July 1936 2173-223-057
Plane-carrying, torpedo-slinging, fast destroyers that doubled as minesweepers/layers. Not a bad concept.
Although to a British design and with a British powerplant and much equipment, all eight Admiralen were constructed in Holland, with the first flight of four (De Ruyter/Van Ghent,Evertsen, Kortenaer, and Piet Hein) all laid down in August 1925 from Koninklijke Maatschappij De Schelde (now Damen) and Burgerhout. The second flight of four (Van Galen, Witte de With, Banckert, and Van Nes) was ordered in 1927-28 from the same two yards as well as Wilton-Fijenoord.
All eight were delivered and in service by 1931.
Meet Banckert
Our subject carries the name of legendary 17th-century Dutch Luitenant-Admiraal Adriaan van Trappen Banckert, who played key roles during the victories of The Four Days’ Battle (Schoonebeld) in 1666, which pitted 84 Dutch ships vs 79 English, and the Two Days’ Battle (Kijkduin) in 1673, which saw 97 Dutch ships best a 130-strong Anglo-French force.
Admiral Banckert, born in 1615, was himself the son of an admiral, while his two brothers rose to the rank of captain (one posthumously), so it’s safe to say he came from a seagoing family. He shipped out as a lad with his pop, fighting Dunkirk pirates at sea before he was old enough to shave, became a ship’s master at the ripe old age of 24, and a commander two years later. He passed at age 68 while still holding a seat on the admiralty council, surpassing over a century of service.
She was laid down on 15 August 1928 at Burgerhout’s Machinefabriek en Scheepswerf NV near Rotterdam.
Launched 14 November 1929, she commissioned 11 November 1930.
Banckert was placed into service at Burgerhout’s, 11 November 1930. 2158_005115
As Banckert and Van Nes, also constructed side-by-side at Burgerhout, were the last flight, they had upgraded guns, including Mark 5 4.7″/50s rather than the Mark 4s in their sisters, in addition to the other above-mentioned changes.
Torpedobootjager Hr.Ms. Banckert 2158_005101
torpedobootjager Hr.Ms. Banckert 2000-372-015
Torpedobootjager Hr.Ms. Banckert 2158_000194
Torpedobootjager Hr.Ms. Banckert 2158_005104
Headed to the Far East by way of the Caribbean
All eight Admiralens spent the bulk of their career in the Far East, returning to Europe for refits and making the occasional call on Dutch colonies in the West Indies (e.g, Curacao) and South America (Guiana/Suriname) along the way back and forth to serve as a station ship when needed before the purpose-designed gunboat Hr.Ms. Johan Maurits van Nassau became the permanent station ship in the Dutch West Indies in 1933.
With that being said, Banckert left Nieuwediep on 12 January 1931, bound for Curacao, with stops at Lisbon, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, and Port of Spain before arriving at Willemstad on 7 February.
Departure of the destroyer Hr. Ms. Banckert from Den Helder, with many spectators on shore, headed to the Dutch West Indies, 12 January 1931. Regional Archief Alkmaar RAA003012918
She remained the station ship in the Dutch West Indies until November, when she sailed back to Nieuwediep. She remained in Dutch waters for the next 13 months, except for a summer training cruise to Scotland and a fortnight port call at Invergordon in July 1933.
On 14 December 1933, Banckert and her sister Van Nes waved goodbye to the crowds at Nieuwediep to begin their extended deployment to the Dutch East Indies, a trip of 9,900 miles.
Along the way, they made port calls at Tunis, Alexandria, Port Said, Perim (Yemen), and Colombo before arriving at Sabang on Sumatra on 25 January 1934, wrapping up the cruise in 42 days.
Banckert seen from the destroyer Van Nes in December 1933 in the Mediterranean Sea during the voyage to the Dutch East Indies. 2173-227-048
Participants at a lunch aboard the destroyer Hr.Ms. Banckert in Tunis at the end of 1933. 2173-227-024
Hr.Ms. Banckert in Alexandria, Egypt, where she and Van Nes spent the New Year, 30 December 1930 to 3 January 1934. 2173-227-027
The destroyers Hr.Ms. Van Nes and Hr.Ms. Banckert pass through the Suez Canal on 3 January 1934. 2173-227-052
Once in Indonesia, Banckert and most of her sisters formed a squadron around the light cruisers Hr.Ms Java and her twin Sumatra (the latter relieved after 1937 by the shiny new 7,900-ton Hr.Ms De Ruyter) then spent the next six years in a series of training maneuvers, naval parades, state visits, and sovereignty patrols.
January 1935, the Dutch East Indies squadron, including the cruiser Hr.Ms. Java and destroyer Hr.Ms. Banckert as seen from Hr.Ms. Van Nes. 2173-223-021
31 August 1935. The Dutch cruiser Java and destroyers Van Nes and Banckert moored on mooring buoys at Tandjoeng Priok. 2173-223-024
On 20 October 1936, Banckert became a lifeguard, rushing to the aid of the sinking Dutch KPM coastal liner Van der Wijck, which had capsized in calm weather while underway in the Java Sea. The destroyer joined with seven MLD Dornier Wal flying boats and three local vessels in helping to save 210 of the 268 people aboard.
KPM liner SS Van der Wijck (BRT: 2596), built in 1921. The vessel capsized a few hours after departure from Soerabaja for Semarang with the loss of 58 lives. Investigations later pointed to improper ballast water transfers by inexperienced crew, exacerbated by open lower deck portholes, as the cause of the accident.
The incident is infamous in the region, with Van der Wijck having something of a “Titanic of Indonesia” air about her, likely due to an enduringly popular Indonesian-language novel, “Tenggelamnya Kapal Van Der Wijck” (The Sinking of van der Wijck), written by Hamka in 1939, which was later turned into a movie, which was the highest-grossing Indonesian film of 2013.
War!
When the Germans marched into Poland in September 1939, the Netherlands remained a cautious, Allied-leaning neutral until invaded nine months later as the Wehrmacht swept through the Lowlands on the way to France. It was there that the Admiralen-class Hr.Ms. Van Galen, the only destroyer in Dutch European waters at the time, there for a refit, suffered a series of 30 air attacks while underway in the Nieuwe Waterweg and sank near Merwehaven on 10 May 1940.
On the other side of the globe in the Dutch East Indies, the remaining seven Admiralen-class sisters went on the warpath with the destroyers, in conjunction with local colonial troops, seizing 18 of 19 German merchant ships in Dutch territorial waters, long a haven in the Pacific from British and French patrols.
This came about due to a bit of cloak and dagger in which the PTT (Post, Telegraaf, en Telefoondienst) office in Soerabaja (Surabaya) withheld a coded German telegram, dated 9 May, directed to the respective captains of the interned German ships, ordering them to take flight on the eve of the invasion of the Netherlands. Passing it on to local intelligence instead, Dutch forces were able to swiftly capture 18 steamers with only the wily captain of the HAPAG freighter SS Sophie Rickmers (7,033 GRT) managing to scuttle his ship in harbor.
SS Sophie Rickmers.
Although declared a total loss at the time, Rickmers was raised, repaired, and put into Dutch service with KPM as SS Toendjoek. Rickmers/Toendjoek was later scuttled off the port of Tandjung Priok as a blockship during the Dutch evacuation of Java in March 1942 and raised a second time, then put under a meatball flag sailing for the Japanese as the Iino lines freighter Tango Maru. Tragically, the former German/Dutch freighter, packed with a mix of 3,500 local Javanese Romusha laborers and Allied (mostly Dutch Colonial) POWs, was torpedoed and sunk by USS Rasher (SS-269) 25 miles off Java on 25 February 1944, taking most of them to the bottom with her for her third and final time.
At the end of the day on 10 May 1940, the Dutch in the East Indies bagged 18 German merchant ships (19 once Rickmer was raised), and threw their crews and 2,400 German nationals over the age of 16 taken into custody across the islands into an internment camp where, besides their regular rations, they were issued “ten cigarettes a day and pocket money for refreshments.” Despite this easy treatment by the Dutch in Java, in July 1940, 231 members of the KNIL– the Dutch East Indies colonial army– who were on leave in the German-occupied Netherlands, were arrested by the Gestapo and thrown into concentration camps for the duration.
After that, the mobilized Dutch naval forces in the East Indies kept an eye peeled for German surface raiders and U-boats while on loose convoy duty and prepped to fight…
A whole new war
On 30 September 1940, Luitenant ter zee der 1e klasse (LTZ I) Lambert Johan Goslings, RNN, assumed command of Banckert, just days after Japanese troops entered French Indochina. The Sumatra-born Goslings was a career officer with 13 years of service behind him and had previously served on the Admiralen class destroyers Evertsen and Kortenaer, so he knew his trade.
Soon, with tensions building with the German-aligned Empire of Japan and the Western Allies, Banckert and the rest of the Dutch fleet in the Pacific began quietly exercising with the British forces in nearly Malaya and Australians to the south.
With a state of war existing between the Netherlands and Japan as of the morning of 8 December 1941, and with news of inbound Japanese troopship convoys sighted near Indochina, the Dutch fleet spent the next several weeks aggressively patrolling and…waiting.
In the meantime, Banckert and her sisters pitched in escorting British convoys from Africa and India, the final leg to Singapore, including Convoy BM 9A (1-2 January), Convoy BM 9B (4-6 January), Convoy DM 1 (11-13 January), and Convoy BM 10 (22-26 January).
By 1 February, Dutch RADM Karel Doorman’s joint ABDA Striking Force consisted of four cruisers, the De Ruyter (his flag), USS Houston, USS Marblehead, and Hr.Ms.Tromp, along with seven tin cans: U.S. Destroyer Division 58 led by CDR Binford on USS Stewart, with USS Edwards, USS Barker, and USS Bulmer; and a Dutch destroyer division commanded by LCDR Krips on Van Ghent, with the Piet Hein and Banckert.
While going after reported Japanese convoys in the Makassar Strait, Doorman’s cruiser-destroyer force was mauled by enemy land-based twin-engine bombers on 4 February, sending it back to port to lick its wounds. Although Banckert was so far unscathed, that would not continue.
On Valentine’s Day, Doorman’s Striking Force, augmented by two Australian cruisers, the Dutch cruiser Java, and three extra Dutch/U.S. destroyers, headed out to stop the Japanese Palembang invasion convoy. It was on this run that Van Ghent grounded on the Bamidjo reef between Banka and Billiton island while zipping through the Stolze Strait in the dark predawn of 15 February. Ordered to put down the wounded greyhound, Banckert closed with her stranded sister and took off her crew and sensitive materials, then pumped five broadsides into her bow, then retired to Surabaya with the extra crew.
Banckert was at Surabaya on 24 February when the port was attacked by Japanese bombers, with near misses cracking the destroyer’s hull in several places– knocking her out on the eve of the Battle of the Java Sea and the follow-on clash at Sunda Strait in which Doorman was killed and most of his ships were lost.
Put in the port’s 3,500-ton dry dock for emergency repairs, Banckert was again the subject of a very near miss on 28 February that damaged her stern. Meanwhile, the Japanese had landed on Java and were closing in on Surabaya.
With the call made to fire the port and evacuate what could be moved, the dock containing the evacuated Banckert was torpedoed by Hr.Ms. K XVII before the submarine submerged and made for Freemantle with the port’s commanding admiral aboard. Behind were left her damaged sister, Witte de With, similarly abandoned and scuttled, along with a mix of over 120 vessels either too old, small, or broken to make it to Australia.
Marine docks in Soerabaja. The photo was taken from the warehouse towards the East. Start of the destruction at 11:30 am. The 3,000-ton dry dock with the destroyer Hr.Ms. Banckert is seen sinking. On the right is the 227-ton tug/coastal minelayer Hr.Ms. Soemenep.
Surabaya, Java, Netherlands East Indies. 1942-02. Wrecked ships, including Banckert beside a wharf which is strewn with debris after bombardment during a Japanese air raid. Note the clouds of smoke behind the port facilities. (Navy Historical Collection) (Formerly Y043) AWM 306786
The crews of Banckert and Witte de With, their job as wreckers done, marched off to join Dutch Lt. Gen. Hein Ter Poorten’s land forces and continued to fight the Japanese until 8 March, when resistance collapsed. The Dutch radio station at Ciumbuluit signed off with “Wij sluiten nu. Vaarwel tot betere tijden. Leve de Koningin!” (We are closing now. Farewell till better times. Long live the Queen!)
With the port still ablaze, no less than 66,219 Dutch troops and sailors laid down their arms and marched off to begin more than four years of hard captivity.
All six of Banckert’s sisters in the Pacific– her entire class– were similarly lost in the first four months of the war against Japan.
Evertsen: Caught by the Japanese destroyers Murakumo and Shirakumo during her last sortie on the night of 27/28 February 1942 while trying to escape to falling Java for Colombo via the Sunda Strait, she was beached ablaze on the Seboekoe Besar reef. Nine men were killed, and others were captured and imprisoned for the duration of the war.
Wreck of Hr.Ms. Evertsen on the coastal reef of Seboekoe Besar Island, Sunda Strait, Dutch East Indies. The photo was taken in December 1945. 2158_005249
Piet Hein: Sunk in the February 19/20 night action while trying to intercept the Japanese invasion forces off Bali, she went down with the loss of 64 crew.
Van Ghent: As discussed above, she was accidentally reefed while on a sortie against the Japanese and abandoned.
Kortenaer: Took a torpedo from the Japanese heavy cruiser Haguro during the Battle of the Java Sea, which broke her back and sent her to the bottom with a third of her crew.
The sinking of the destroyer Hr.Ms. Kortenaer during the Battle of the Java Sea, 27 February 1942. Watercolor photo by JPM Wanders, one of the illustrations for the book “The Netherlands’ Naval Forces at War” by Lieutenant Commander A. Kroese, HMARVO, former commander of HNLMS Kortenaer. 2158_051000
Witte de With: Damaged at Java Sea and by a Japanese bomb to the fo’c’scle on 1 March, she was scuttled the next day.
Van Nes: Attacked and sunk by Japanese aircraft from the Japanese carrier Ryujo on 17 February 1942, with the loss of 68 crew.
Destroyer Hr.Ms.Van Nes (VN). Painting by Jos Wanders of the sinking south of Banka, during an escort voyage from Billiton to Java, 17 February 1942. 2158_005655
Under the Rising Sun
The water-logged Banckert was raised by the escort-poor Japanese in 1944, partially repaired, and put in service as the patrol craft PB-106.
On 23 October 1945, VADM Shibata Yaichiro, CINC, Second Southern Expeditionary Fleet, surrendered Java to Free Dutch Forces, and Banckert/PB-106 was returned to the Dutch, who eventually stripped the hulk and decommissioned the wreck from the Koninklijke Marine on 5 March 1947.
The almost unrecognizable ex-Banckert was sent to the bottom of the Madura Strait in September 1949, the last member of her class to take the plunge.
KITLV_MLD392_031
Ironically, she was sunk by the new (to the Dutch) British S-class destroyers Evertsen and Kortenaer.
KITLV MLD392 020, et. al
Epilogue
As for Banckert’s wartime skipper, LTZ I Goslings, he managed to escape Japanese custody and by September 1943, wearing a recently-awarded Bronzen Kruis, was once again on the bridge of a Dutch escort, commanding the Flower-class corvette Hr. Ms. Friso (K 00) on convoy duty in the Atlantic.
By late 1945, he was XO of the 14,000-ton escort carrier Hr. Ms. Karel Doorman (QH 1) (formerly the HMS Nairana D05) which operated with Hawker Sea Fury fighters against communist insurgents in the Dutch East Indies.
Neptune’s Day line crossing celebration aboard HNLMS Karel Doorman. Captain L.J. Goslings, first officer aboard HNLMS Karel Doorman, is in the middle with sunglasses, and is seen to the right with the crew. (NIMH 0018_101565)
In 1954-55, Kapitein-ter-zee Lambert Johan Goslings was skipper of the Dutch flagship, the Colossus-class light fleet carrier Hr. Ms. Karel Doorman (R81), ex-HMS Venerable, future ARA Veinticinco de Mayo.
The next year, RADM Gosling led the Dutch Navy’s 1,500-man Smaldeel 5 (Squadron 5), with his flag on the cruiser HNLMS De Zeven Provinciën, accompanied by the destroyers Friesland and Zeeland, on a tour of Europe, including a port call at Leningrad (St. Petersburg), laying a wreath at the city’s WWII memorial at Kronstadt. It was reportedly the first time Russian naval officers were welcomed aboard a Dutch warship since 1914.
RADM Goslings retired 1 on November 1956, capping 29 years of service, and passed in 1982, aged 77.
The Dutch remembered Banckert in a British-built Q-class destroyer, D801, previously HMS Quilliam, which was acquired in 1945 and scrapped in 1957. Notably, she served in the Dutch East Indies during the war with Indonesian separatists there.
Destroyer Hr.Ms. Banckert 1947 1957 2158_004000
The latest Banckert, (F810), a Kortenaer-class frigate, served with the Dutch fleet from 1980 through 2003 and continues to sail with the Greek Navy as the frigate Aigaion.
Dutch frigate HR MS BANCKERT (F-810) underway during Fleet Ex 1-90 Feb 1990 DN-ST-90-06944
Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive
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New York City. Some 80 years ago this week, 9 November 1945, from left to right, we see the troopship USS Europa (AP-177), the Iowa-class battlewagon USS Missouri (BB-63), and the famed ocean liner RMS Queen Mary at Pier 90. The ancient three-stack Tennessee-class cruiser-turned-receiving ship, USS Seattle (IX-39) [former USS Washington, ACR-11, disarmed in 1931], is to the far right.
Mary had just delivered 11,209 troops back to the States from Southampton, who were taken directly across the river to New Jersey for demobilization.
The Europa, formerly a German Norddeutscher Lloyd liner taken in May 1945 as a war prize, had just disembarked nearly 10,000 troops herself.
Some 150 years ago this week: “The Grand Illumination of The British Flying and Indian Squadrons at Bombay, 8 November 1875,” on the occasion of carrying Prince Edward Albert, later King Edward VII, to India.
The Detached (or Flying) Squadron of unarmored screw ships visited the East Indies Station while on a world-wide training and flag-waving cruise, arriving in October 1875 in Bombay from Cape Town. It was the first time the squadron had visited India in three years and would remain there over winter before heading into the Pacific. The ships included the flagship HMS Narcissus, HMS Immortalité, HMS Topaze, HMS Newcastle, HMS Raleigh, and HMS Doris.
At the time, the Royal Navy was the undisputed largest fleet in the world, a title it had held since the Seven Years War in the 1760s and would retain until 1943 when surpassed by the U.S., an impressive 180-year run.
According to the Brassey’s Naval Annual for the closest year I can find (1886 with data for 1885), the Royal Navy included 55 armored ships (13 1st class, 14 2nd, 14 3rd, and 14 coastal defense) totaling some 361,000 tons compared to the next largest, that of France, which had 40 armored ships for 213,000 tons. The Royal Navy also had 130 assorted torpedo boats of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd classes. Then came a myriad of 170 unarmored sloops, gun vessels, dispatch vessels, paddle wheel gunboats, frigates, corvettes, torpedo cruisers, transports, auxiliaries, and training hulks, some dating back to Nelson. Another 23 were laid up in “fourth class reserve.”
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Warship Wednesday 5 November 2025: Celebrate the Ram!
IWM (FL 22661)
Above we see the modified former Brazilian J-class (RN Havant-class) escort destroyer HMS Harvester (H 19)underway during World War II in coastal waters, complete with Western Approaches style disruptive camouflage scheme. True to her name, she was a harvester of men in peril, saving nearly 2,300 men directly from the beaches of Northwestern France and another 244 adrift the sea.
She was also a harvester of steel sharks.
Over the course of no less than 51 North Atlantic convoy runs, she bagged at least two Axis submarines, one of them notably some 85 years ago this week.
The Brazilian Hs
The British Royal Navy would order some 27 assorted “G”, “H” and “I” Class destroyers between 1934 and 1936 as part of the rearmament to safeguard against the growing German, Italian, and Japanese fleets in the uneasy peace leading up to WWII. They were slight ships, of just 1,800 tons and 323 feet overall length with a narrow 33-foot beam, giving them a dagger-like 1:10 length-to-beam ratio. With a speed of 35 knots and a 5,000 nm range at half that, they could keep up with the fleet or operate independently and had long enough legs for North Atlantic convoy work, should such a thing ever be needed in the future.
The differences between the three classes were primarily in engineering fit, minor superstructure changes, and armament. They were typically fitted with a quartet of QF 4.7-inch (120 mm) Mk IX guns, a few AAA mounts, between 8 and 10 anti-ship torpedo tubes, and depth charges for ASW work.
HMS Grenade (H86), a G-class destroyer. Note her layout, which was like all her sisters. Grenade would be sunk in May 1940 off Dunkirk by German Stukas.
The 27th and last of the type delivered to the RN from the ships the Admiralty ordered was HMS Ivanhoe (D16) on 24 August 1937, completing the classes built out in just four years, which is not bad for peacetime production.
The G/H/Is would prove so successful of a design that the British exported it, accepting prewar orders for 19 ships for overseas allies: Argentina (seven Buenos Aires class ships delivered in 1938), Greece (two Georgios class delivered in 1939), Turkey (four desperately needed Inconstant class delivered in 1942, largely to keep Istanbul friendly at a crucial time in the war) and a half-dozen Jurua-class tin cans for the Brazilian Navy.
The Brazilian Navy in early 1938 ordered six modified H-class destroyers, spread across the Vickers, White, and Thornycroft yards. They would be named Jurua, Javary, Jutahy, Juruena, Jaguaribe, and Japura after rivers and towns in Brazil. Construction proceeded along nicely, and all were christened with their intended names by visiting dignitaries from the Latin American country and afloat in the summer of 1939.
Rather than a fit for four 4.7-inch guns, these six former Brazilian destroyers in British service would carry only three, with the extra deck space freed up to be used for more depth charges– capable of toting as many as 110 ash cans across three rails and eight throwers.
They would enter service between December 1939 and June 1940 as the Havant class (Havant, Handy/Harvester, Havelock, Hearty/Hesperus, Highlander, and Hurricane), keeping with the “H” class naming sequence.
Hesperus is underway at sea, resplendent in her war paint. IWM A 7101
Meet Harvester (aka Handy, aka Jurua)
Ordered from Vickers by the Brazilian government on 6 December 1937 as the future destroyer Jurua, our subject was laid down at the company’s Barrow yard on 3 June 1938 alongside her sister, the planned future Japura. Jurua and Japura were purchased by the British government on 5 September 1939 while still on the builder’s ways and were launched into the water of the Irish Sea 24 days later to complete fitting out for Royal Navy service.
Our Jurua would initially be referred to as the future HMS Handy, while Japura would become HMS Hurricane.
One thing led to another, and Jurua/Handy would be commissioned on 23 May 1940, at the height of the Battle for France, as HMS Harvester, while Hurricane would only break out the white duster and join the fleet on 21 June 1940, well into the Fall of France.
Harvester leaving Barrow, June 1940
Speaking of which…
Dunkirk, et al
Without even the benefit of a proper shakedown cruise, the brand new Harvester, under LCDR Mark Thornton, RN, who had previously commanded the older S-class destroyer HMS Scimitar (H 21) on convoy defense, was rushed to the English Channel to help pull the BEF and Allied soldiers from France.
Harvester took part not only in the famous Operation Dynamo, doing her part with so many others to evacuate 338,226 Allied troops from the beaches and surf line of Dunkirk, but also in the lesser-known Operations Cycle (evacuation of 3,400 Allied troops from Le Havre) and Aerial (191,870 from a range of French Atlantic ports in late June).
She did this in the face of fierce German air and submarine attack, with her sister HMS Havant crippled by Luftwaffe aircraft during the Dunkirk operation, and was scuttled to prevent capture.
One of the former Brazilian RN H-class destroyers at Dover during the Dunkirk evacuation, crowded with Tommies on her deck. This ship is either HMS Harvester or Havant, both of which were active in Dynamo, the latter lost in the process. IWM H1668
The details of Harvester’s evac runs:
29 May, Dunkirk (Op Dynamo), 272 men saved
31 May, Dunkirk (Op Dynamo), 1,341 men saved (two round trips)
9 June, Le Harve (Op Cycle), no troops found
11 June, Saint-Valery-en-Caux (Op Aerial), 78 men saved
She also escorted transports during Aerial, who were evacuating Saint-Nazaire and St. Jean de Luz further down the coastline, and rode shotgun with the cruiser HMS Cumberland on a mission to bombard German positions on the occupied French coast.
It was reported that Harvester suffered at least one strafing from German aircraft and successfully evaded at least two torpedoes. LCDR Thornton, who had cut his teeth as a mid in the 1920s on the Jutland veteran battlewagon HMS Emperor of India, was mentioned in dispatches for his efforts.
The U-boat war
Harvester’sfirst of many convoy runs was to sanitize the area south of Ireland to clear the way for Halifax-to-Liverpool-bound Convoy HX 054, along with the destroyers HMS Highlander (a sister) and Punjabi on 16 June.
Her next run began on 29 June 1940 at Liverpool, riding shotgun with the inaugural “Winston Special,” Convoy WS.1, which carried some 10,000 British troops aboard the fast liners turned troopships Queen Mary, Mauretania, and Aquitania, to the Middle East. She also made the follow-on WS.2 and WS. 3A.
Then came ASW clearing for outbound Liverpool to Halifax return Convoys OB 194 and OB 199 in August, Liverpool to Gibraltar Convoy OG.43, Liverpool to Suez Convoy AP.3/1, and Freetown to Liverpool SL/MKS.47 in September; escorting inbound Sydney to Liverpool SC.8 in October, and screening OB.252 in November. It was on the latter that Harvester and the Canadian destroyer HMCS Ottawa came across the Italian Marcello class submarine Comandante Faà di Bruno (FB, I.5) on the afternoon of 6 November and likely sank the same, with all hands.
LCDR Thornton received a DSO on 12 January 1941 for the destruction of the enemy submarine and would remain aboard until March 1942, when he shipped out for command of the destroyer HMS Petard. Thornton was replaced by CDR Harold Pitcairn Henderson, RN, and CDR Arthur Andre Tait, DSO, RN, in turn. Of note, Tait had earned his DSO in 1942 while skipper of HMS Hesperus for sinking German U-boat U-93.
As for Harvester, the convoy runs continued, including five further OB runs, another OG run, at least seven outbound Liverpool to NYC/Boston ON convoys, four more SCs, two additional SL/MKS convoys, four Halifax to Clyde TC convoys, and seven more HXs.
She even had a brush with history, escorting HMS Prince of Wales along with sisters Havelock and Hesperus in August 1941 during the battleship’s passage to Newfoundland with Winston Churchill aboard for the Atlantic Charter meeting.
Besides dropping ash cans on contacts, she also saved the lives of those cast to the mercy of the sea. This included 90 survivors from the lost armed merchant cruiser HMS Dunvegan Castle during SL-43, 19 survivors from the British freighter Silverpineon OB.252, and 131 survivors from the ocean boarding vessel HMS Crispin on OB-280.
It was hard, dirty, and unsung work.
The famed American photojournalist Robert Capa, while crossing the Atlantic to North Africa with an eastbound convoy in 1941, caught two striking Kodachrome images of Harvester zipping among her charges, a seagoing greyhound stalking Axis sharks.
On 11 March 1943, while escorting convoy HX-228 west of Ireland, Harvester with LCDR Taite in command and the Free French Flower-class corvette Aconit in support, came across the Type VIIC boat U-444 (Oblt. Albert Langfeld) of Wolfpack Westmark and gave the new boat a hard fight.
In the end, after forcing U-444 to the surface, Taite chose to ram the German at 27 knots and send her back down, leaving 41 dead and 4 survivors to be plucked from the water.
Tragically, with the now-damaged Harvester dead in the water with a snapped shaft, she was twice torpedoed and sunk by U-432 (Kptlt. Hermann Eckhardt), which was in turn brought to the surface by Aconit’s depth charges and finally destroyed by gunfire and ramming. The Admiralty later passed on an order to halt ramming as a tactic after this incident.
The damaged Aconit then picked up five survivors from U-444, 12 from U-432, 12 survivors from the lost American Liberty ship SS William C. Gorgas, and 60 men from Harvester. Among those claimed by the sea were all three skippers from the lost warships, Taite, Eckhardt, and Langfeld.
Three days later, Aconti sailed into Greenock and discharged her motley accumulation of waterlogged sailors from three countries.
“Fighting French corvette sinks two U-boats. 14 March 1943, Greenock, the Fighting French corvette Aconit sank two U-boats by gunfire and ramming while escorting an Atlantic convoy through a U-boat pack on 10 March 1943. The second submarine had just torpedoed the British destroyer HMS Harvester. The Aconit steamed to a British port with survivors from the Harvester and a merchantman, and prisoners from the two U-boats.” IWM (A 15075)
“Survivors of the British Destroyer HMS Harvester fraternizing with the crew of FFS Aconit after the French corvette had avenged them by sinking two U-boats. The survivors are wearing the Aconit’s badge, and the cat is one of the Aconit’s three mascots – two cats and a dog.” IWM (A 15084)
Epilogue
Little remains of Harvester. I cannot even find where her wreck has been located. She no doubt rests very near the shattered U-432 and U-444.
She is best remembered in scale models and box art.
As for her first skipper, Mark Thornton chalked up assists on two additional submarine kill assists while in command of Petard, picking up a DSC, and was on the Combined Operations staff for Overlord. He then returned to destroyer operations post-war and retired as a full commander in 1956. He passed in London in 1982, aged 75.
Only three of the Brazilian destroyers survived the war, sisters Havelock, Hesperus, and Highlander, and were scrapped by 1947.
While the British have not reused the name Harvester, three French warships have since been named Aconit, including the modern La Fayette-class stealth frigate Aconit (F 713). The fourth Aconitflies the Free French jack, and its crew wears twin fouragères as a salute to the old corvette.
Mardi 04 janvier 2022, le capitaine de vaisseau Guillaume Fontarensky, adjoint organique de l’amiral commandant la force d’action navale (ALFAN) de Toulon, fait reconnaître le capitaine de frégate Jean-Bertrand Guyon comme nouveau commandant de la frégate de type Lafayette (FLF) Aconit.
Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive
***
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The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.
With more than 50 years of scholarship, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO, has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.
PRINT still has its place. If you LOVE warships, you should belong.
The “Pirate of the Pacific,” the Fletcher-class destroyer USS Kidd (DD-661)was launched into the waters off Kearny, New Jersey, on a cold February morning in 1943, then, commissioned just two months later, received four battle stars for World War II service and four battle stars for Korean service.
Used as a Naval Reserve training ship during the Cold War, she saw her last drydocking for hull maintenance in 1962 and was shortly afterward decommissioned to spend nearly two decades on red lead row in Philadelphia.
Disposed of by museum donation in 1982, she has since then been a fixture in Baton Rouge on the Mississippi River, where the destroyer, still largely in her 1945 layout, served as a set for Greyhound and other films.
That was until April 2024, when she was removed from her cradle and then sent for her first full overhaul in drydock in 62 years.
A story in pictures, via the USS Kidd Veterans Museum:
For the first time in over 60 years, the USS Kidd has received a full overhaul in drydock. She was removed from her berth in Baton Rouge in April 2024 and towed to the Thoma-Sea Marine Constructors (TMC) shipyard in Houma, LA, for this once-in-a-generation work. Over the past 14 months, the deteriorated steel in the ship was removed and replaced with new steel so that she can survive another 40-60 years as one of the State’s top attractions. The shipyard’s work is now complete, and the ship is scheduled to be released from her drydock berth on November 11th. USS Kidd’s newly refurbished and repaired hull will therefore be entering the water for the first time on this year’s Veterans Day.
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Warship Wednesday (on a Thursday) 30 October 2025: End of the Line
IWM (Q 48273)
Above we see the Italian Conte di Cavour-class dreadnought Giulio Cesare, in a very clean state while at Taranto during the Great War, on 3 June 1917. Note her interesting original five-turret (A-B-Q-X-Y), 13-barrel (3-2-3-2-3) main battery of 12″/46 Model 1909 Elswick pattern guns. She also wears a bow eagle with the Caesarian motto, “Veni. Vis. Vita.”
Following her second world war, she would go on to be the final battleship lost while in active service, under very controversial circumstances, some 70 years ago this week.
The Cavour class
The three-pack of Conte di Cavour–class battleships was designed in 1908 by RADM Engineer Edoardo Masdea, Chief Constructor of the Regia Marina, in the immediate spell after HMS Dreadnought and the French Courbet-class battlewagons. They followed in the wake of Italy’s first dreadnought, Dante Alighieri (19,500t, 551 ft. oal, 22 knots, 12×12″ guns, 10 inch armor plate), but were much heavier, at 24,500 tons.
As built, they carried the previously mentioned 13 12″/46s as well as 18 casemated 4.7″/50s, three torpedo tubes, and assorted tertiary light guns. Their Parsons turbines on 20 Yarrow boilers allowed Cavour to hit 22 knots on trials, but Cesare, even with 21 Babcock boilers installed (later 24), was only able to hit 21.7 knots. Even this came by whittling down the armor belt to where it was only 9.8 inches at its thickest, tapering to as thin as 3 inches near the bow, while the front forward tower and front turret faces were only 11 inches. Still, they were triple bottomed and had 23 watertight sections. While Terni made the armor for Cavour, Cesare’s and Da Vinci’s was imported from Bethlehem in Pennsylvania.
Plan, via the 1914 Jane’s
The three sisters, Cavour, Cesare, and Leonardo da Vinci, were laid down within weeks of each other in the summer of 1910 at three different yards (La Spezia, Gio. Ansaldo, and Odero) to be finished in 1913, one that would slip slightly due to Italy’s war with the Ottoman Empire and a diversion of resources during that period.
Hail, Cesare!
Our subject was named after the legendary Roman general and statesman of Et Tu Brute fame. Laid down at Ansaldo in Genoa on 24 June 1910, she launched on 15 October 1911 to much fanfare, one day after Da Vinci slid down the ways at Odero.
15 October 1911, Sestri-Ponente & Launch of Giulio Cesare, Bain News Service, LC DIG ggbain-09800-09879u
Fitting out would take nearly three full years, but she entered service on 14 May 1914, just 10 weeks before the “lights went out across Europe.”
Placing a 305 mm/12″ gun within Turret 2 of the Italian battleship Giulio Cesare, Genoa, 1912
Battleship Giulio Cesare during sea trials, 9 January 1913.
She was the first of her class commissioned, three days before Da Vinci and a full 11 months ahead of Cavour, which had been delayed due to Terni developing their cemented armor, while Ceasare and Da Vinci benefited from American imports.
Cesare compared to her contemporaries. Imagerie d Epinal Les Flotte de Guerre
Great War
While the potential of a clash with the British and French loomed at the beginning of WWI, as Italy was officially an ally of Germany and Austria, the country’s quick declaration of neutrality, migrating to a polar shift to join the fight against Berlin and Vienna by May 1915, changed the orientation of the Italian battle fleet.
The Cavours were assigned to RADM Corsi’s 1st Battleship Division and left on seemingly eternal alert, ready to weigh anchor and sortie out within three hours.
Italian battleships of the Cesare Class, showing triple gun turrets, Great War. NH 111474 and IWM Q 19095
With the German Mediterranean Squadron chased to the Black Sea and the Austrian fleet effectively bottled up in the Adriatic, the naval war in the region devolved into four years of small craft and submarine operations as the respective battleships lay in wait for a decisive Tsushima/Battle of Yalu River/Manila Bay/Santiago style sea clash.
This led to a boring war for the Italian battleships as the Austrians decided to ride out the war safely at anchor rather than tempt a Jutland.
Sadly, Da Vinci would be lost to an unexplained magazine explosion while moored at Taranto in August 1916, taking a full quarter of her crew with her.
Da Vinci turned turtle at Taranto, August 1916.
In all, Cesare only spent 418 hours at sea during Italy’s war, 31 hours on combat missions (supporting operations in the islands of the Ionian archipelago in May 1917), and 387 hours in training/exercises, without ever encountering an enemy during the conflict in which her country suffered over 650,000 dead.
Interwar
The remaining sisters saw more sea time in the months just after Versailles than during the entire war, with Cavour heading to the Americas for a flag-waving cruise while Cesare toured the Eastern Med and stood by the Greek-Turkish conflict.
Cesare photographed at Constantinople, Turkey, in August 1919. Note that the ship is flying a Greek National Flag at the mainmast top. NH 47786
Jane’s 1921, with Da Vinci missing.
Following this, she had her first modernization, landing some small guns and her bow crest, picking up some AAA pieces, and changing her mast arrangements.
She also engaged in a bit of battleship diplomacy, being used in the seizure of Corfu in August 1923.
Italian battleship Giulio Cesare in La Spezia, 1925
A 1925 upgrade saw her pick up a Macchi M.18 seaplane over the stern along with a catapult and crane to retrieve it, and, after two years in ordinary, by 1928, she was relegated to use as a gunnery training ship, with the country soon after moving to build four new 40,000-ton Littorio-class battleships.
Jane’s 1929.
Great Rebuild
It was decided by the Italian admiralty in the early 1930s to not only keep on with the construction of a planned quartet of new Littorio-class 30-knot fast battleships, with their impressive 15-inch guns, but also to extensively modernize the two Cavours and the two similar yet slightly younger Andrea Doria-class battleships, giving Mussolini eight battleships in a decade. At least that was the plan, anyway.
Following the design by Gen. Francesco Rotundi, the Cavours and Dorias were rearming with more capable 12.6″/44 Model 1934 guns on upgraded mounts, with the middle Q mount deleted, giving them 10 new guns in place of 13 older ones, with a modern fire control house atop the conning tower.
Naples during the great 5 May 1938 naval review, showing the modernized Cavour followed by the similarly modernized Cesare and a heavy cruiser. NH 86147
The modernization also added armor, replaced the boilers and machinery, and deleted the casemate guns for more modern 3.9″/47 M1928 twin AA guns in high-angle turrets.
Cesare carried 12 of these 100 mm/47 (3.9″) Model 1928 AA guns in six twin turrets. These art deco-looking mounts were also used on the Trento, Zara, and Condotteri class cruisers.
They also picked up an assortment of twin Breda 37mm and Breda M31 13.2mm guns, landed the circa 1914 torpedo tubes, and lengthened the hull for added stability. Powered by eight more efficient Yarrow boilers and with 75,000shp on tap compared to the old 30,000shp, the class could make 27 knots, making them, at age 20, the fastest they had ever been.
Cesare underwent modernization at the Cantieri del Tirreno shipyard in Genoa from 25 October 1933 to 1 October 1937. Tellingly, the rebuild was one month longer than her original construction.
The U.S. Navy’s ONI, with war on the horizon, made sure to get several nice images of her in the late 1930s, essentially a new ship built around the upcycled bones of a circa 1914 dreadnought.
Cesare photographed during the late 1930s after her 1933-37 reconstruction. NH 86124
Cesare was photographed in 1938 following her 1933-37 reconstruction. NH 86127
Cesare photographed before World War II. The photograph has been retouched. NH 86590
Cesare at sea, 1938, photographed before World War II. NH 86588
Many shots endure from the epic May 1938 Naples Naval Review.
Italian battleship, either Cavour or Cesare, probably photographed during the 5 May 1938 naval review off Naples. Cant Z.501 flying boats be seen overhead. NH 86141
Cesare, 5 May 1938, at the Naval review off Naples. The torpedo boats Spica and Aldebaran appear in the background, NH 86142
Italian battleships Cavour and Cesare seen in column at the May 1938 Naval review off Naples. NH 86153
Italian battleships Cavour and Cesare seen in column at the May 1938 Naval review off Naples, followed by two Zara class cruisers. NH 86154
Cavour and Cesare seen in column at the May 1938 Naval review off Naples. NH 86151
5 May 1938, battleships Cavour and Cesare as seen from the fantail of a destroyer-type ship. Two cruisers appear in the right background, and a paravane for minesweeping can be seen on the ship’s stern in the foreground. NH 86148
Late 1930s, two Italian battleships and about nine or ten torpedo boats, the Cavour and Cesare, appear in the foreground, and the torpedo boat Altair can be identified in the background by her hull letters “AT.” NH 86140
A Second War
Cavour-class battleships as rebuilt, circa 1939. Luce archives via NHHC NH 111400
Giulio Cesare – San Giorgio, NH 111420
ONI 202 sheet on Cavour and Cesare.
Soon after Italy joined Germany in World War II, Cavour and Cesare, as the 5th Battleship Division, were part of a 14-cruiser/16 destroyer covering force running a convoy from Taranto across the Med to the country’s Libyan colony under the overall command of ADM Ingio Pola.
On the return trip, they crashed into a trio of Royal Navy task groups, Force A (five cruisers), Force B (battleship HMS Warspite and six destroyers), and Force C (battleships HMS Malaya and Royal Sovereign, carrier Eagle, 10 destroyers) on 9 July 1940, and the Battle of Calabria/Battle of Punta Stilo ensued.
During that clash, in which no ships were ultimately sunk on either side, Cesare opened fire on Warspite at an impressive 29,000 yards and, while her shells fell long, damaged two of the British battlewagon’s escorting destroyers. In return, the closing Warspite fired at and eventually hit Cesare with a 15-inch shell from 26,000 yards, exploding one of the Italian ship’s funnels and damaging four boilers, causing her to fall out of the battle line and reduce speed as Cavour took over. Cesare made it to Messina safely and took a month to repair.
Italian battleships at the Battle of Punta Stilo, July 9, 1940. Cavour opens fire with her 12.6-inch main battery during the battle. Photograph taken from aboard her sister ship Cesare. NH 86586
Italian battleship Giulio Cesare, seen from her sister Conte di Cavour, firing at HMS Warspite with her 320 mm guns, waters off Punta Stilo (Calabria), around 1555 h, 9 July 1940
Warspite hit on Cesare
Warspite hit on Cesare
Warspite hit on Cesare
Italian battleship Giulio Cesare after a hit from the HMS Warspite during the Battle of Calabria, 9 July 1940. The 15-inch shell hit the Italian ship from around 13nm. IWM HU 52333.
Then came the dramatic pre-Pearl Harbor night attack by a handful of British Fleet Air Arm Swordfish torpedo bombers from the carrier HMS Illustrious on the Italian battleship anchorage of Taranto on 11 November 1940.
While Cesare was spared damage, one torpedo sank sister Conte di Cavour in shallow water and effectively took her out of the war.
Cesare would strike out against the British again at the Battle of Cape Spartivento/Cape Teulada in November, without giving or receiving much damage, and in convoy work, including what is remembered by the Brits as the First Battle of Sirte off Malta in December 1941.
With the Med becoming less and less friendly to Italian capital ships due to British submarines and land-based bombers, Cesare was largely port-bound by 1942 and was eventually withdrawn up the Adriatic to a safer anchorage at Pola (Pula) and reduced to training status. It would seem her war was effectively over.
During the 1940–1943 campaign, Cesare made 38 combat sorties, covering 16,947 miles in 912 sailing hours, and consumed 12,697 tons of oil in the process.
Russia-bound
Spared the indignity suffered by most other post-1942 Axis capital ships, which were sunk at their moorings by Allied bombers, when Italy switched sides on 8 September 1943, Cesare overcame a small mutiny by Mussolini-inclined crew and made it safely to Malta by the interned under British guns. She fought off German air attacks along the way and managed not to be sunk by her former allies, such as the Littorio-class battlewagon Roma,which was sunk by German Fritz X radio-controlled bombs launched by Do 217s on 9 September, taking over 1,300 of her crew to the bottom.
Cesare was the last Italian capital ship to arrive at Malta.
As the invasion of Italy pushed the Germans and the rump of the Italian socialist republic further and further up the country’s “boot,” Cesare and the two Dorias were released to return to Taranto in June 1944, where they languished in ordinary.
Post VE-Day, Cesare was one of a list of ex-Italian vessels held by an Allied commission to be handed out as trophies.
Cesare in the 1946 Jane’s.
This process dragged on for years as Stalin’s iron curtain descended across Eastern Europe and the Western Allies were in no hurry to keep giving his war machine new toys. It was only in December 1948 that she was moved to Sicily and finally removed from the Italian naval list, ending her 34 years of service to Rome.
Ex-Cesare was turned over to the very happy Soviets under ADM Gordey Ivanovich Levchenko on 6 February 1949.
While Stalin wanted the newer Littoros, Cesare was arguably the nicest battleship the Russians had at the time, despite her age and the fact that she had basically been in reserve for six years and had not been dry-docked in eight.
Soviet battleship Novorossiysk, formerly Italian Giulio Cesare, from Vlorë (Albania) to the Black Sea in late February 1949.
After Cesare departed for a Soviet port, the loaned Arkhangelsk (HMS Royal Sovereign) was returned to England for scrapping.
Dubbed originally Z11 and moved to Communist allied Albania for a quick two-week refit with an Italian adviser crew aboard, then departed for Sevastopol. By order of the Black Sea Fleet dated 5 March 1949, the Italian battleship was renamed Novorossiysk.
Reportedly in extremely poor condition, with inoperable diesel generators, leaking pipes, broken fittings, and suffering signs of purposeful Italian neglect and sabotage, the Russians spent the next several years trying to reshoe their gift horse.
Although the Italians had delivered a library of technical manuals and books on the ship’s systems, a handful of Russian Italian translators on hand lacked experience in the specialized terminology used in the tomes, particularly when it came to handwritten notes and abbreviations, and the books ultimately proved an alien language.
Soviet battleship Novorossiysk (the former Royal Italian Navy Giulio Cesare
After six weeks in dry dock at Sevastopol, Cesare/Novorossiysk sailed (briefly) as Black Sea Fleet flagship on maneuvers in July 1949. Over the next five years, she had five shipyard overhauls (July 1950, April-June 1951, June 1952, November 1954, and February-March 1955) in an attempt to bring old systems back online and add new ones.
Battleship Novorossiysk (Giulio Cesare) April 13, 1955
The Soviets added several new AAA batteries (24 twin 37mm V-11 guns, six 37mm 70-K automatic cannons) and a Zalp-M radar.
It was planned to put the elderly battlewagon into her second rebuild (first Russian), which would include new Soviet-made turbine engines and Russian Obukhovskii 12″/52 Pattern 1907 guns left over from the Tsarist Gangut, Imperatritsa Maria, and Imperator Nikolai I battleship classes.
She never made that grand overhaul.
Tragedy in Sevastopol
On the night of 28 October 1955, the 41-year-old Cesare/Novorossiysk returned from a cruise marking the 100th anniversary of the defense of Sevastopol and tied up at Buoy No. 3 near the Naval Hospital.
At 0131 on 29 October 29, a massive explosion under the ship’s starboard bow pierced the battleship’s hull, blew out part of the forecastle deck, and created a cavernous 1,600 sq. ft underwater hole.
Within a minute, a second explosion on the port side created what was later found to be a 2,000 sq. ft. hole in her hull.
The warship didn’t stand a chance and was settling on the harbor floor in minutes, and began to list, eventually turning turtle by the following evening.
At least 557 of the battleship’s crew were lost, along with some 60 men from the rest of the fleet who were lost in the attempt to save the ship and rescue trapped sailors.
We won’t get into the myriad of theories as to what killed Cesare/Novorossiysk, but suggestions have ranged from the far-fetched, such as Italian frogmen of the long-disbanded Xª MAS and long-dormant scuttling charges left aboard in 1948, to German bottom mines left over in the harbor’s silty bottom from their occupation of the port in WWII and assorted internal magazine explosions. Lingering mines seem the most likely cause, as extensive sweeps later found 32 mines on the bottom of Sevastopol’s harbor, some dating to the Great War.
In the end, with Stalin long gone and the Red Banner Fleet moving towards a more submarine and missile-borne strategy, the age of the Russian battleship came to an end as Cesare/Novorossiysk was raised over the course of the next 18 months and scrapped.
The final Soviet dreadnought, the circa 1911 Gangut/Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya, was stricken on 17 February 1956 and slowly scrapped over the next two years.
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90 years ago today. 28 October 1935. Official caption: “Huge crowds crammed the Navy Yard as the Navy went on show for the Navy Day celebration. This picture shows the U.S.S. Dale, the largest type destroyer in the service.”
The above image, likely at the Washington Navy Yard as Harris & Ewing Inc. was a photo studio in Washington, D.C. owned and run by George W. Harris and Martha Ewing, is just great due to its detailed crowd shot. You can zoom in and just drink in the clothes, the cars, the characters, and the slice of life frozen in time. You can even make out the license plate numbers.
As for the well-dressed and turned-out USS Dale (DD-353), she was a brand-new Farragut-class destroyer that had just been commissioned four months prior (17 June 1935) and was the third warship named for American Revolutionary War hero Richard Dale. She would soon transit to the West Coast where she would take part in one of the most stirring U.S. Navy interwar photo shoots on record.
Destroyers on Maneuvers with planes overhead. Ships from the left are USS Monaghan (DD-354), USS Dale (DD-353), USS Worden (DD-352), and USS Macdonough. Note that signal flags are repeated throughout the squadron. NH 60270.
DesRon20 Steam through a smokescreen laid by planes of Patrol Squadrons Seven, Nine, and Eleven, during an exhibition staged for Movietone News off San Diego, California, 14 September 1936. The ships are, from bottom to top: Farragut (DD-348), Dewey (DD-349), Hull (DD-350), Macdonough (DD-351), Worden (DD-352), Dale (DD-353), Monaghan (DD-354) and Aylwin (DD-355). Courtesy of Commander Robert L. Ghormley, Jr., USN, 1969. NH 67293
What a great picture! A P2Y right, of VP-7 with an early PBY-1, left, of VP-11 flying over USS DALE (DD-353) of DESRON-20, during an exhibition for Movietone News off San Diego on 14 September 1936. Description: Courtesy of Commander Robert L. Ghormley Jr., Washington DC, 1969 Catalog #: NH 67305
However, our destroyer went on to do more than just look pretty.
In the Pacific War from the first day, she was moored with Destroyer Division Two at Berth X-14 at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 and fired at incoming Japanese planes within minutes. Dale received 14 battle stars for her World War II service which included screening USS Lexington and Yorktown during the Coral Sea, doing the same for USS Washington and South Dakota during the Guadalcanal campaign, fighting in the push to liberate the Aleutians (which saw her exchange fire with Japanese cruisers at the Battle of the Komandorski Islands), then on to the Marianas, Philippines, and Japan.
Dale was decommissioned on 16 October 1945 and was sold for scrap on 20 December 1946. The name was recycled for a Leahy-class guided-missile destroyer leader (DLG-19, later CG-19) that served from 1963 through 1994, liquidated in the Great Cruiser Slaughter of the Clinton administration.
