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Crossing the line

Posted on November 5, 2015 by laststandonzombieisland 5 comments

Crossing the Line, in which veteran Sons of Neptune, termed Shellbacks, initiate Pollywogs, sailors who have never crossed the Equator, into the Kingdom of Neptune upon their first time reaching that line, has been around since at least the 1800s and has been celebrated in a number of navies. It has remained even as warships moved from oak and canvas to iron and steam and now non-skid and gas turbines.

Here are a few from the U.S., German and RN fleets from the last century.

Neptune, Amphitrite and the rest of the court on the USS Alabama for ceremonies on January 5th, 1908

Crossing the line 1920s, likely a RN vessel. From the NSW Archives

Barbers of Neptune! Crossing the Line ceremony on USS Nereus

The Doctor, Dentist, and Scribe of Neptunus Rex taken during a Crossing the Line ceremony on USS Nereus

U177

Crossing in the U-177, WWII

Celebration of Neptune on the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise 1940s

Equator crossing ceremony aboard Wasp, Jul 1942

USS George Washington (CVN 73) – WOG DAY!! 2013

Warship Wednesday Nov.4th, 2015: HMs long-lasting welterweight sluggers

Posted on November 4, 2015 by laststandonzombieisland One comment

Here at LSOZI, we are going to take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all of their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places. – Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday Nov.4th, 2015: HMs long-lasting welterweight sluggers

IWM photo

Here we see the head of her class, the Royal Navy monitor HMS Erebus at a buoy in Plymouth Sound in early 1944, as she was prepping to pummel the jerries overlooking Normandy. Though a cruiser-sized hull with a destroyer’s draft, this ship and her sister, HMS Terror carried a very impressive set of battleship 15-inchers and her crew knew how to use them.

Rushed into service in the darkest days of World War I, these ships were built not to slug it out with the Kaiser’s High Seas Fleet (as the whole rest of the RNs battle line was!) but rather to close into old Willy’s stormtroopers along the French and Belgian coasts and plaster them but good.

As such, these 405-foot/8,450-ton ships, with a shallow 11 foot draft, carried an impressive armament but very little armor (just 4-8 inches, enough for splinter protection from German destroyers and field artillery), and were very slow, at a very pedestrian 12 knots.

Huge anti-torpedo bulges were fitted to these squat ships to allow them to suck up German fish and keep punching (These proved so effective that when Erebus was attacked by a German Fernlenkboote remote controlled boat carrying a very serious 1550-pound charge, all it did was cave in 50 feet of her bulge and knock loose a lot of equipment– but failed to sink her. Terror likewise survived German torpedo boat love while in service).

Named after the two ships, HMS Erebus and Terror, of the 1839-43 expedition to Antarctica of Sir James Clark Ross which resulted in mapping most of the Antarctic Coastline (and for whom the Ross Sea is now named) and later of the ill-fated expedition of Rear Admiral Sir John Franklin, their namesakes were tiny 100~ foot long “bomb vessels” with huge 13 and 10 inch mortars– which in the end was surprisingly fitting. (As a footnote, the “bombs bursting in air” part of the Star Spangled banner comes from the 1814 mortaring of Fort McHenry, for which bomb vessel Terror was on scene).

‘Erebus’ and the ‘Terror’ in New Zealand, August 1841, by John Wilson Carmichael, via wiki

As with any monitor, its the guns that steal the show and both 1916 Erebus and Terror carried a pair of huge 15″/42 (38.1 cm) Mark I naval guns, which proved to be among the most popular and hard-service type carried by HMs battleships throughout WWI and WWII, being carried by everything from the Queen Elizabeth to Vanguard classes, as well as being fitted as giant coastal artillery pieces at Dover and Singapore.

These were really big guns: Worker being helped out of a BL 15 heavy gun after she had finished cleaning the rifling, Coventry Ordnance Works, England, United Kingdom .

Terror's 15s, these ships had thier turret set so high to enable her shallow draft

Terror’s 15s, these ships had their turret set so high to enable her shallow draft. Note the observation tower.

From the same shoot: A female worker cleans the rifling of a 15-inch gun after being lifted inside the barrel in the Coventry Ordnance Works, Warwickshire during the First World War. (Source -IWM Q 30135) Colorized by Doug

These beasts could fire a 1,920 lb. shell (of which the stubby monitors carried 200 in their magazine) out to 29,000 yards. It should be noted that the monitors were able to elevate their guns to an amazing 30 degrees (most of the battleship fittings were limited to 20 degrees, with only HMS Hood able to match the monitors’ arc), giving them about 5,000 yards more range. Later SC super charges boosted this to 40,000~ yards, which is downright impressive for guns designed in 1912!

Erebus‘s guns came from the 355-foot monitor HMS Marshal Ney (and were originally built for the Revenge-class battleship Ramillies) while the smaller Ney was given a more appropriate single 9.2-inch mount. Terror‘s guns came from a spare turret left over from the Courageous-class battlecruiser HMS Furious that was finished as an aircraft carrier and didn’t need them.

Both ships were laid down at Harland and Wolff yards, Erebus at the concern’s Govan, Scotland site, Terror at H&W’s Belfast site (the same yard that had just three years before completed RMS Titanic) in October 1915.

By the fall of 1916, they were both in commission with their abbreviated 204-man crews and headed to the Continent.

They proved their worth at bombarding German naval forces based at Ostend and Zeebrugge as part of the Long Range Bombardment force for the Zeebrugge raid and in plastering the Kaiser’s forces on shore during the Fourth Battle of Ypres.

Erebus kept slugging into 1919-20 when she participated in the British Intervention in Northern Russia, sailing around the White Sea as needed and popping off shots at the Bolsheviks around Murmansk and Archangel.

Terror at Malta, 1930s

After the war, while other monitors were laid up or went to the breakers, T&E remained somewhat active, flexing their guns in a series of tests against captured German armor and serving as gunnery training ships, guard ships and depot vessels as needed.

Oh the fate of peacetime service! Note the school house/barracks on Erebus in this 1930s photo.

Terror at Singapore, early 1939, with camo added

When the next war came, the aging monitors were stripped of their peacetime housing, given an updated AAA suite, and called back to service, first in the Mediterranean Fleet, where Erebus‘s shallow draft enabled her to become a blockade-runner into besieged Tobruk and Terror stood to in Malta to provide a floating anti-air battery against incessant Axis air attacks.

Speaking of which, Terror was severely damaged in attacks by German Junkers Ju 88 bombers on 22 February 1941 off the coast of Libya and sank while under tow the next day, gratefully with very few casualties.

Erebus finished her Second World War, returning to French waters where she helped bombard British beaches at Normandy. Suffering a detonation that crippled one of her guns, she nevertheless continued the war into late 1944, advancing with the land forces along the coast into Belgium and Holland.

Decommissioned at the end of hostilities, she was scrapped in 1946 although her single good 15-incher left was kept as a spare for the RN’s last battleship, HMS Vanguard.

Hard serving, indeed.

Specs:

Displacement: 7,200 long tons (7,300 t)
Length: 380 ft. (120 m) (p/p); 405 ft. (123 m) (o/a)
Beam: 88 ft. (27 m)
Draught: 11 ft. 8 in (3.56 m)
Installed power: 6,235 ihp (4,649 kW) (trials); 6,000 ihp (4,500 kW) (service)
Propulsion:
2 × triple expansion reciprocating engines,
Babcock boilers
2 × screws
Speed: 13.1 kn (24.3 km/h; 15.1 mph) (trials); 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph) (service)
Capacity: Fuel Oil: 650 long tons (660 t) (normal); 750 long tons (762.0 t) (maximum)
Complement: 204 WWI, 315 WWII
Armament:
(1916)
2 × 15-inch /42 Mk 1 guns in a single turret
2 × single 6-inch (150 mm) guns
4 × single 3-inch (76 mm) anti-aircraft (AA) guns
(1939)
2 × 15-inch /42 Mk 1 guns in a single turret
8 × single mount 4-inch (102 mm) BL Mk IX guns
2 × single mount 3-inch (76 mm) anti-aircraft guns
2 × quadruple .50-inch (12.7 mm) Vickers machine gun AA mounts
6 × .303 Vickers

Armor:
Deck: 1 in (25 mm) (forecastle); 1 in (25 mm) (upper); 4 in (100 mm) (main, slopes); 2 in (51 mm) (main, flat); .75 to 1.5 in (19 to 38 mm) (lower)
Bulkheads: 4 in (100 mm) (fore and aft, box citadel over magazines)
Barbettes: 8 in (200 mm)
Gun Houses: 4.5 to 13 in (110 to 330 mm)
Conning Tower: 6 in (150 mm)
If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find http://www.warship.org/

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.

Nearing their 50th Anniversary, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

I’m a member, so should you be!

Combat Gallery Sunday : The Martial Art of Claus Bergen

Posted on November 1, 2015 by laststandonzombieisland One comment

Much as once a week I like to take time off to cover warships (Wednesdays), on Sundays (when I feel like working), I like to cover military art and the painters, illustrators, sculptors, and the like that produced them.

Combat Gallery Sunday : The Martial Art of Claus Bergen

Born 18 April 1885 in Stuttgart, Claus Friedrich Bergen was a product of Kaiserian Imperial Germany. Studying at the at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, under the American-born master Carl von Marr, young Claus shined.

By his 22nd birthday had been selected to illustrate Karl May’s classic Teutonic fiction novels about Winnetou, the wise chief of the Apaches and Old Shatterhand, Winnetou’s white blood brother in the American Old West and Kara Ben Nemsi and his manservant Hadschi Halef Omar in the Sahara and Far East.

As May’s works were sold in upwards of 200 million copies, the more than 400 illustrations that Bergen did between 1907-14 for these books have been seen world wide.

When the war came, Bergen was appointed as a naval artist to the Kaiserliche Marine and, in the weeks and months following the pivotal Battle of Jutland, created some of his best work.

High Seas Fleet setting sail 31 May 1916

German battleships passing Heligoland

SMS-Grosse-Kurfurst-

German battleships in action

Bridge of SMS Markgraf

Hipper leaving Lutzow for SMS Moltke

Inside a battleship main turret

German destroyers attack the British battleship line at Jutland 31 May

SMS-Seydlitz seeing what hell looks like

Night action

SMS Thuringen lighting up HMS Black Prince

The Kaiser addressing the High Seas fleet after Jutland

In 1917, Bergen embarked on tiny SM U-53, a 213-foot Type 51 unterseeboot conned by legendary Fregattenkapitän Hans Rose, who won both the Pour le Mérite and the Ritterkreuz for sending a staggering 79 Allied ships to the bottom of the Atlantic (including six while bobbing off the Nantucket Lightship in 1916) and went to sea on a two month war cruise. The images he saw in the heavy seas were burned into his memory and he committed them to canvas for posterity.

In den Wellenbergen

U-53 in the summer of 1917

During WWII, Bergen, then in his 50s, was a party member and one of the Reich’s favored painters. He continued working, composing military subjects on the list of those approved by Berlin.

Battleship Schlesig-Holstein on 1st-September 1939 fires the first naval shots of the War at Danzig

1942 U-boot Type IX

Prinz Eugen at Denmark Strait Painting by Claus Bergen

Dornier Flugboot X

After the war, he escaped his Nazi party associations and, living in West Germany at 8172 Lenggries/OBB, painted simple sea scenes and landscapes…

Mit Wind und Wellen

Though he did paint the cover of the 1950s board-game Bismarck, one of the most popular in the U.S. at the time.

He donated several large pieces to U.S. and British public museums and the Admiralty after the Second World War, many of which are on display around the UK. He is also celebrated, of course, by the Karl May Society and others. The Hellmann Art Gallery in Munich contains a large body of his more famous works.

Dr. Bergen was impressed with the President John F. Kennedy’s 1963 visit to Germany (Ich bin ein Berliner) and wanted to present him with one of his paintings because of the President’s love of the sea and maritime art. His gift, The Atlantic, shows the windswept Atlantic at twilight and hung in the Atlantic Room of the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum for years, making Bergen possibly the only artist to have presented canvas to Kaiser Wilhelm, Hitler and JFK.

Bergen died 4 October 1964 in Lenggries, Bavaria at age 79.

For more Bergen pieces on Jutland, see British Battle’s excellent series of articles on the clash.

Thank you for your work, sir.

Warship Wednesday Oct. 28, 2015: The Rime of the Ancient marine research ship

Posted on October 28, 2015 by laststandonzombieisland One comment

Warship Wednesday Oct. 28, 2015: The Rime of the Ancient marine research ship

Image via Navsource

Here we see the 30-year old United States Fish Commission Steamer (and past/future warship) USS Albatross in the Mare Island Channel on 14 February 1914.

That’s not a misprint, the USFC was founded back in 1871 as the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries and transitioned through a number of names until 1940 when it became part of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and when NOAA was established on 3 October 1970, took over the Bureau’s assets and lives on today as part of that agency– leading the one of the primary reasons that NOAA has a commissioned officer corps (trained at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy).

The hearty little 234-foot steel hulled steamer with a brigantine auxiliary sail rig, USS Albatross was laid down at Pusey and Jones, Wilmington, Delaware in March of 1882 and by November of that year was commissioned into service, a Navy-manned (by a 70 man crew) and commissioned ship loaned to the USFC.

USS Albatross. View was possibly taken onboard USS Albatross when she traveled in the Pacific Northwest to study Alaska.

Upper laboratory on the U.S.S. Albatross, 1900

Albatross was designed from the outset as a research vessel, and in fact was the first of its kind, though she had weight and space reserved for armament and could be used as an auxiliary cruiser if needed (more on this later). As such,she was the first research vessel ever built especially for marine research.

Taking soundings

Dredging for soil and sea life. She did this tens of thousands of times all over the world. Its not glamorous, but her body of research is still being digested nearly 100 years later.

Her crew working a sounder as USFC gentlemen observe

Albatross was very futuristic for 1882, being equipped with full service on-board laboratories, storage space for specimens, and sophisticated dredging equipment. The first U.S. government vessel to be wired for electric interior lighting, she could process specimens and conduct research around the clock.

1901. Note her partial sail rig in use.

She was also equipped with provision to drop “dynamite stations” to perform the first underwater acoustic experiments.

Dredging 1901

She spent all but three of her 39 years of service to the government in the employ of the USFC and journeyed from the Bahamas to the Philippines and everywhere in between.

As noted by the Smithsonian Institution, who have most of her collected specimens, Albatross‘s work was groundbreaking:

The Albatross occupies an important place in history, as her life spanned a period of growth in the marine sciences. Some well-known naturalists served on the Albatross and many young men trained on the research ship became eminent scientists. Over the course of her career, the Albatross collected more marine specimens than any other ship. Most of the material collected was deposited at the Smithsonian Institution, but some can also be found at other museums. These specimens have formed the basis of many scientific papers and are still being studied today.

War Service

As a naval vessel, Albatross had to close up her labs, pull in her sounding machines and dredges, and get to the business of high seas combat twice during her service.

As she appeared early in her career. The house shown in the 1914 image at the top was installed in 1898– for her first war service

From 21 April- 8 September 1898 Albatross was reclassified as an auxiliary cruiser during the Spanish-American War, landing her USFC personnel, and taking on extra bluejackets to man two 20-pounders, two 37mm guns, one 53mm gun, and two Gatling guns. Her coal bunkers expanded, she served in the quiet Pacific and never fired a shot, and her guns were traded back in for fish doctors.

Then during WWI Albatross chopped back to the Navy’s operational control on 19 November 1917, taking on four 6-pounders and one Colt automatic gun and served first with the 12th Naval District, then transferred to the East Coast. Stationed at Key West on coastal patrol against German U-boats and surface raiders, she participated in the epic but fruitless search for the lost collier USS Cyclops in 1918. Her active service with the fleet ended with transfer back to Fisheries control on 23 June 1919.

Albatross in poor state, 1920

Following her Great War service, she clocked back in for a couple years but by 1921 was decommissioned and sold soon after. Acquired by a Boston concern, she lived on very briefly as a school ship but by 1928 was high and dry in Hamburg Germany, “under attachment for indebtedness.”

Her final fate is unknown, however being a worthless ship in Wiemar Germany; she was likely broken up on the cheap.

Remembered in this portrait, “Albatross” by maritime artist Eugene Voishvillo

The government kept the name alive as a research vessel, literally tacking on suffixes to the original as a sign of respect.

RV Albatross II, formerly the USS Patuxent (Fleet Tug No. 11) carried the name from 1926 to 1932.

RV Albatross III saw service with the United States National Fish and Wildlife Service from 1948 to 1959 (and with the Coast Guard in WWII).

NOAAS Albatross IV (R 342) was commissioned for USFWS in 1963 and served with NOAA until 2008. She now is inactive in NOAA ‘s Atlantic Fleet.

NOAAS Albatross IV

Specs:
Displacement: 638 long tons (648 t)
Length: 234 ft. (71 m)
Beam: 27 ft. 6 in (8.38 m)
Draft: 16 ft. 9 in (5.11 m)
Propulsion: Steam engine
Speed: 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement: 70 USN, up to 25 scientists and research civilians. 110 USN in wartime.
Armament:
(1898)
2 × 20-pounder guns
2 × 37 mm guns
1 × 53 mm (2 in) gun
2 × Gatling guns
(1917-19)
4× 6-pounder guns
1 × Colt machine gun

If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find http://www.warship.org/

Nearing their 50th Anniversary, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

I’m a member, so should you be!

Warship Wednesday Oct. 21, 2015: The humble yet resilient Frenchman

Posted on October 21, 2015 by laststandonzombieisland 6 comments

Warship Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2015: The humble yet resilient Frenchman

Photo colorized by irootoko_jr

Here we see the French aircraft carrier Bearn, the only one of her kind, in pre-WWII aircraft operations. She was too young for WWI and too old for WWII, but she remained with the fleet for some 50 years.

In 1912, the Republic ordered five brand new battleships to augment the (26,000-ton, 10 × 340mm/45 Modèle 1912 guns in five twin turrets, powered by four direct-drive steam turbines) Bretagne-class.

These new ships, Normandie, Flandre, Gascogne, Languedoc, and Béarn, would carry a full dozen 340mm guns in three quadruple turrets (the French loved that arrangement, using it on all their later battleships) and be powered by a hybrid powerplant of two turbines and two reciprocating engines, each on their own shaft. Insulated by up to 12 inches of armor, they were thought to be comparable to the latest Italian, Austrian, and German designs of the 1911-era and fast enough at 21 knots to make due.

To speed up construction, the five ships were to be built around the country at three different yards with class leader Normandie laid down 18 April 1913 at St Nazaire and her four sisters likewise started over the next eight months with Bearn, begun 10 January 1914 at F C de la Méditerranée, La Seyne, the last of the class.

However, when the Great War began in August 1914, France, allied to the mighty Royal Navy and soon to that of the Italian Regina Marina, was good in the battleship department with both the Austrians and Germans bottled up in their respective harbors and unlikely to sail on Toulon or Brest any time soon.

This meant that the five new battleships were suspended and the first four of their hulls, able to float but not much else, launched to clear the ways for other more pressing projects. Bearn, even less along than the other four, was left on the ways. Several of the battleships’ intended 340mm and 138.6 mm guns were mounted as railway artillery instead and went to pounding the Kaiser’s thick gray line along the Western Front and then lingered as coastal artillery emplacements into the 1940s. (Some of these coastal guns saw action in August 1944 during the Allied invasion where they were fired upon by USS Nevada (BB-36))

At the end of the war, the prospect of a financially strapped France completing five 1911-era battlewagons whose hulls were already covered with enough kelp and sea growth to make an instant reef was slim. In the end, it was decided to scrap the four floating leviathans and launch Bearn‘s own incomplete hull in April 1920 and figure out what to do with her later.

The French hit upon the idea to do what the Brits, Japanese, and Americans were doing with their likewise unfinished battleship/cruiser hulls– turn them into an aircraft carrier. You see the RN did that with the three 27,000 ton Courageous-class carriers (converted from battlecruiser hulls), the 22,000 ton (battleship-hulled) HMS Eagle; the Japanese followed course with the 42,000-ton Akagi (converted from a battlecruiser hull in 1927), and the 38,000-ton Kaga (converted from a battleship hull in 1928), while the Americans rolled with former 36,000-ton battlecruisers Lexington and Saratoga in 1927.

To be fair, the French beat the Japanese and Americans to the punch and started converting Bearn in 1923, with her shakedown complete and entering service with the fleet in May 1928.

Interesting arrangement of the flight deck and hanger elevator on French aircraft carrier Bearn

An interesting arrangement of the flight deck and hangar elevator on French aircraft carrier Bearn

Covered with a 590-foot flight deck, she had two below-deck hangars served by three elevators (all in the center of the deck) and could carry about 40 aircraft.

Close up of her pre-war. Note the two casemated 6.1-inch guns Photo colorized by irootoko_jr

Like other carriers of her day, she was equipped largely with the same suite as a decent-sized cruiser, with eight 6.1-inch guns mounted in casemates (!) for surface action, a host of modest anti-aircraft guns, and a quartet of 22-inch torpedo tubes (unique in carrier development). She also had a modicum of armor above the waterline but no torpedo blisters.

French carrier Béarn viewed from another warship, date unknown

Her peacetime role in the 1930s saw her sprout the flower of French naval aviation.

With news that the Germans were going flattop (with their never finished 32,000-ton Stuka-carrying Graf Zeppelin), in 1937 the French authorized a pair of new 20,000-ton Joffre-class carriers which, with a 774-foot flight deck and a capability to carry at least 40 combat aircraft were about the size as the USS Ranger. The first vessel, Joffre, was laid down in 1938 and was about 25 percent complete when the Germans marched into Paris while the second vessel, Painlevé, never even had her keel laid.

The planned French Aircraft carrier Joffre

As Bearn was somewhat stubby (with a 590-foot flight deck, far outclassed by the big Lexington and Akagi), the newer carriers would go almost 800 feet long, which was thought ideal.

When those two carriers joined the fleet, she was to convert to a seaplane depot ship in 1942.

However, when the next war started, Bearn was all the French had as the other two carriers were still under construction (and never completed). This left Bearn as the sole French carrier headed into WWII.

“Le porte-avion Bearn et un latecoère 298″by Albert Brenet

In 1939, Bearn was assigned, alongside the new battleship Dunkerque (with quadruple turrets!) and three cruisers to go and hunt down German surface raiders, which turned out to be uneventful.

French battleship Bretagne and Lorraine in heavy seas, circa 1939. Bearn in the background

In May 1940, with things not going so well for the French Army, she was ordered to Toulon where she secretly took aboard the 3880 boxes of the Republic’s gold reserves (over 250 tons) and, escorted by the 6500-ton school cruiser Jeanne d’Arc and the new 8,400-ton light cruiser Émile Bertin, sailed for Canada under the command of Rear Admiral Rouyer.

In early 1940, 50 former USN Curtiss SBC Helldivers were taken out of the reserve, given French machine guns and camo patterns, then flown to Nova Scotia to be loaded onto Béarn and the light cruiser Jeanne d’Arc. Because of space limitations, only 44 of the SBC-4s could be carried on Béarn as she also had 25 Stinson 105s, 17 former USAAF P-36s, and 6 Brewster F2A-2 Buffalos aboard for the Belgian Air Force. Jeanne d’Arc carried 14 crated, unassembled aircraft: 8 Stinson 105s and 6 Curtiss P-36s.

French Helldivers delivered to RCAF Station Dartmouth, Nova Scotia for carrier Béarn

Sailing from Halifax on 16 June 1940 bound for Brest, the news came that France fell and the ships diverted to the colony of Martinique.

Six Belgian Brewster Buffalo's aboard the French aircraft carrier Béarn during the journey, which would end on Martinique. Besides the Buffalos, she was carrying 27 Curtiss H-75s (P-36s), 44 SBC Helldivers and 25 Stinson Voyagers.

Six Belgian Brewster Buffalo aboard the French aircraft carrier Béarn during the journey, which would end in Martinique. Besides the Buffalos, she was carrying 27 Curtiss H-75s (P-36s), 44 SBC Helldivers, and 25 Stinson Voyagers.

Unwilling to join the Free French forces, the three-ship task force offloaded their gold and planes on the island and made ready to defend it against any invader, be they British or German, and remained on this footing for almost two years.

Original Kodachrome of French Aircraft Carrier Béarn at Martinique, Feb 1941, LIFE- David E. Scherman

Finally, after pressure from the Americans, on 16 May 1942, they were ordered by the Vichy authorities to be immobilized and interned.

With the fall of Vichy France following the invasion of North Africa, the ships joined the Free French forces in June 1943, when the local government recognized De Gaulle’s.

At that point, Jeanne d’Arc immediately left for the Med where she participated in the capture of Corsica and helped the Allied fleets for the rest of the war. Bearn and Émile Bertin, in need of a refit, sailed for the U.S.

French carrier Béarn, date unknown, seen in the May 1963 issue of US Navy publication Naval Aviation News

After modernization at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Bertin joined Jeanne d’Arc in the Med in time for the Allied invasion of southern France (Operation Dragoon) in August 1944 and later bombarded Axis positions along the Italian Riviera.

As for the aircraft Bearn left in the Caribbean, they were shipped from the West Indies to Morocco during 1943-44, placed in flying condition, and used for training, with some of the Stinsons reportedly remaining in service as late as the 1960s.

For Bearn, her refit took far longer due to her size, complex engineering suite, and the fact that her pre-war AAA suite was considered wholly inadequate by 1943 standards for a ship her size.

She traded in her 6-inch casemates, 13.2mm machine guns, and 75mm low-angle pieces for 4 5″/38s, six quads 40mm Bofors, and 26 20mm Oerlikons, which sounds about right. Her flight deck was shortened, the central elevator was removed, modern electronic equipment was installed, and the complement was reduced to 650. Oh yeah, and her torpedo tubes, inactive since 1939 anyway, were deactivated.

Bearn after her WWII American refit. Note the casemates are empty and a number of AAA guns are fitted as are emergency rafts and liberal camo. Note stored planes on deck Photo colorized by irootoko_jr http://blog.livedoor.jp/irootoko_jr/

Bearn after her WWII American refit. Note the casemates are empty and several AAA guns are fitted as are emergency rafts and liberal camo. Note stored planes on deck Photo colorized by irootoko_jr

Emerging from Philadelphia in April 1945 and with the European war ending, she was sent with her old Martinique pier-mate Émile Bertin as part of the immense French Armada sailing to liberate Indochina from the Japanese, arriving there just after the end of the War in the Pacific.

A repurposed Japanese Aichi E13A “Jake” floatplane aboard Béarn, while at Ha Long Bay, Indochina.

Although the only French aircraft carrier from 1928 to 45, her final days were numbered. Instead of an air wing, she arrived at Haiphong loaded with troops and supplies.

French carrier Béarn, 1946

Bearn underway in Ha Long Bay, Indochina, March 1946

Serving as an aviation transport rather than a full-fledged carrier, (the French immediately after the war operated F6Fs, Bearcats, Douglas Dauntless dive bombers, Helldivers, and F4Us from loaned jeep carrier HMS Biter/Dixmude, the Independence-class light carriers Langley/Lafayette, and Belleau Wood/Bois Belleau as well as the British-built Arromanches and didn’t need Bearn‘s flattop anymore), she was recalled to Toulon and served as an immobile submarine accommodation and training ship.

Dutch submarine Dolfijn (3) moored alongside the French aircraft carrier Bearn, Toulon, Mar 1963

French carrier Bearn in port at Toulon, France, 1964. Note the moored submarines, lack of any armament, and helicopter landing zones marked on her deck.

Bearn continued this sad role until November 1966, when she was stricken. She was sold for scrap the following year. Although her hull had more than 50 years on it, she was only in active service in fleet operations for about 14 of those and reportedly never fired a shot in anger or launched a combat sortie.

Specs:

Image via Shipbucket

Displacement:
22,146 long tons (22,501 t) (standard)
28,400 long tons (28,900 t) (full load)
Length: 182.6 m (599 ft. 1 in) (o/a)
Beam: 35.2 m (115 ft. 6 in)
Draft: 9.3 m (30 ft. 6 in)
Installed power:
2 Parsons steam turbines, 2 VTE, 6 Normand du Temple boilers, 4 shafts
22,500 shp (16,800 kW) (turbines)
15,000 ihp (11,000 kW) (reciprocating engines)
Speed: 21.5 kn (39.8 km/h; 24.7 mph)
Range: 7,000 nmi (13,000 km; 8,100 mi) at 10 kn (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement: 865 as completed
Armament:
Original: 8 × 155 mm (6.1 in)/50 cal guns (8 × 1)
6 × 75 mm (3.0 in)/50 cal anti-aircraft guns (6 × 1) 8 × 37 mm (1.5 in) anti-aircraft guns (added 1935)
16 × 13.2 mm (0.52 in) anti-aircraft machine guns (6 × 1) (added 1935)
4 × 550 mm (22 in) torpedo tubes
After 1944 Refit: 4 × 127 mm (5.0 in)/38 cal dual-purpose guns
24 × 40 mm (1.57 in) anti-aircraft guns (6 × 4)
26 × 20 mm (0.79 in) anti-aircraft autocannons
Armor:
Main Belt: 8 cm (3.1 in)
Flight Deck: 2.5 cm (1.0 in)
Aircraft carried:
35-40 as designed
1939: 10 × Dewoitine D.373, 10 × Levasseur PL.7, and 9 × Levasseur PL.10

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So long, Barry

Posted on October 19, 2015 by laststandonzombieisland One comment

Note the Capitol Dome in the distance

Warship Wednesday alumni, the Forrest Sherman-class destroyer USS Barry (DD-933), which has been a fixture at the Washington Navy Yard since 1983, was closed to the public for the last time in a ceremony on Oct. 17.

Naval Support Activity Washington hosted the departure ceremony, honoring the ship and its past crew members. The event served as the final send-off before the ship is towed down the Anacostia River for dismantling.

Retired Rear Adm. Sam Cox, director of Naval History and Heritage Command spoke.

“It’s a sad day to see the Barry go but I’m glad to be able to thank those in attendance today that served on the Barry,” said Cox. “She was not just a ship made of metal but she represents a legacy of valor and sacrifice of those who served.”

More than 20 former Barry crew members attended the ceremony.

It seems the pleas to swap out Barry for the ex-USS Reuben James have likewise fallen on deaf ears. She is still listed as, “Stricken, to be disposed of,” on the NVR. Currently moored at Pearl, she will most likely be sink-ex’d in an upcoming RIMPAC exercise.

Warship Wednesday Oct. 14, 2015: The great return of the hurricane Apache

Posted on October 14, 2015 by laststandonzombieisland Leave a comment

Warship Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2015: The great return of the hurricane Apache

Here we see the U.S. Revenue Marine Cutter Apache decked out with signal flags sometime after 1906 and before 1910.

In her 59 years of service to the nation, she saw three wars, served in three (five if you really want to argue the point) different branches of the military, and helped deliver one of the most remembered victory speeches in U.S. history.

Ordered from Reeder and Sons, Baltimore, Maryland in 1890, the new 190-foot iron-hulled revenue cutter was commissioned into the U.S. Revenue Marine on 22 August 1891. She was built for coastal operations, capable of floating in 10 feet of seawater, but with a 6:1 length to beam ratio and hardy steam plant with twin screws was able to operate in blue waters far out to sea if required.

She cost $95,650.

The new cutter had provision for an auxiliary sailing rig, although not equipped as such. Armed with a trio of small (57 mm, 6-pounder) deck guns and demolition charges, she could sink floating derelicts at sea which were a hazard to navigation, as well as hole smugglers who declined the offer to heave to and be inspected.

Named the Galveston in service, she shipped to that port for her home base in October 1891.

As Galveston, completed. Note the twin stacks and rakish bow. Click to embiggen and you will notice the wheel and compass station on her stern as well as an uncovered 57mm popgun way forward (the other two are under tarps amidships)

There, for the next 15 years, she was the Revenue Marine’s (and after 1894 the renamed Revenue Cutter Service’s) presence along most of the Texas coast. She participated in Mardi Gras celebrations, transported local students “for educational purposes to study Galveston Harbor,” patrolled regattas, enforced oyster seasons, and performed other USRM/USRCS functions as needed.

Revenue Service Cutter USRC Galveston, participating at Mardi Gras New Orleans 1900

When the Spanish American War broke out in 1898, instead of chopping to the Navy like most of the large cutters, Galveston was ordered to New Orleans where she took on field pieces from the local militia and stood to in the Mississippi River delta to assist in repelling a potential Spanish naval thrust to the Crescent City.

After the war, she went back to Galveston where she encountered the super-hurricane of 1900 that left some 8,000 dead.

Root, USCG Photo

Aboard the USRC Galveston during the storm was assistant engineer Charles S. Root, later founder of the USCG’s Intelligence Service, who volunteered to lead a rescue party in the destroyed coastal town. A call for volunteers went out to the ship’s crew and eight enlisted men stepped forward to accompany Root, but first had to round up the swamped and damaged cutter’s whaleboat.

From the USCG:

Within half-an-hour of volunteering, Root and his men deployed, performing a mission more common to Lifesaving Service surf men than to cuttermen. The small group overhauled their whaleboat, dragged it over nearby railroad tracks and launched it into the overflowing streets. The winds blew oars into the air, so the men warped the boat through the city using a rope system. One of the rescuers would swim up the streets with a line, tie it to a fixed object and the boat crew would haul-in the line. Using this primitive process, Galveston’s boat crew rescued numerous victims out of the roiling waters of Galveston’s streets.

At around 6:15 p.m., the Galveston Weather Bureau anemometer registered over 100 mph, before a gust tore the wind gauge off the building. Later, Weather Bureau officials estimated that at around 7:00 p.m., the sustained wind speed had increased to 120 mph. By this time, assistant engineer Root and his rescue party returned to the Galveston having filled their whaleboat with over a dozen storm survivors. By this time, even the cutter’s survival seemed doubtful, with demolishing winds stripping away rigging and prying loose the ship’s launch. Meanwhile, wind-driven projectiles shattered the cutter’s windows and skylights in the pilothouse, deckhouse, and engine room covers.

Not long after Root returned to the cutter, Weather Bureau officials recorded an instantaneous flood surge of 4 feet. Experts estimate that the sustained wind speed peaked at 150 mph and gusts up to 200. The howling wind sent grown men sailing through the air and pushed horses to the ground. The barometric pressure dropped lower than 28.50 inches, a record low up to that date. By then, the storm surge topped 15 feet above sea level. The high water elevated the Galveston so high that she floated over her own dock pilings. Fortunately, the piling tops only bent the cutter’s hull plates but failed to puncture them.

Within an hour of returning to the cutter, at the height of the storm, Root chose to lead a second rescue party into the flooded streets. Darkness had engulfed the city and he called again for volunteers. The same men from the first crew volunteered the second time. The wind still made the use of oars impossible, so the crew warped the boat from pillar to post. As the men waded and swam through the city streets, buildings toppled around them and howling winds filled the air with sharp slate roof tiles. But the boat crew managed to rescue another 21 people. Root’s men housed these victims in a structurally sound two-story building and found food for them in an abandoned store. The cuttermen then moored the boat in the lee of a building and took shelter from flying debris and deadly missiles propelled by the wind.

The hurricane remains the worst weather-related disaster in U.S. history in terms of loss of life. Root and his volunteer crew were (posthumously and only in recent years) awarded Gold and Silver Lifesaving Medals respectively for their actions in September 1900.

After the storm, Galveston was repaired and made ship-shape again before receiving a major refit in 1904, which included replacement of her entire engineering suite. Later her bowsprit was modified as after that time it was considered the 1891-designed provision for sail power was obsolete.

In 1906 she was renamed USRC Apache and reassigned to the Chesapeake region, based in Baltimore, the city of her birth.

After refit as Apache, note single stack

After refitting as Apache, note single stack and much-modified bowsprit and streamlined rigging.

Apache gave yeoman service enforcing customs and quarantine laws and saving lives. During the great blizzard of January 1914, she was credited with helping save 15 threatened fishing vessels trapped in ice and snow on the Chesapeake.

She participated in fleet drills with the Navy, transported D.C. politicians and dignitaries up and down the Bay, and generally made herself useful.

During World War I, she kept regular neutrality patrols with a weather eye peeled for U-boats and German surface raiders, becoming part of the new USCG in 1915.

When the U.S. entered the war in April 1917, she was transferred to the Navy along with the rest of the service. Painted haze gray, her armament and crew were greatly expanded in her service to the 5th Naval District.

In 28 months of Navy service, USS Apache continued her coastal patrol and search and rescue activities all along Hampton Roads, the approaches to the Potomac and the Chesapeake Bay in general.

Returned to the USCG in August 1919, she regained her standard white and buff scheme, landed most of her armament– keeping just a sole 3″/23 caliber deck gun– and went back to working regular shifts for another two decades.

Coast Guard cutter “Apache” firing salute of the unveiling of the statue of Alexander Hamilton, May 1923. LOC Photo

Finally, at the end of 1937, with 46 years of hard service to include two wars and a superstorm under her belt, USCGC Apache was decommissioned, replaced by a much newer and better-equipped 327-foot Treasury-class cutter.

However, Uncle still owned her and, while other lumbering old retired cutters were brought back for coastal patrol duties in World War II, Apache languished unused and unwanted at her moorings.

Then in 1944, the U.S. Army took over the old ex-Apache and utilized her as a radio transmission ship.

Sailing to Australia, she was painted dark green, refitted with generators, receivers, cables, antennas, and two 10kW shortwave transmitters to serve as a MacArthur conceived press ship to follow along on the invasions to Japan. She was manned by a crew of a dozen Army mariners, staffed by some 25 Signal Corps radiomen, and carried several civilian war correspondents, thus keeping them away from the Navy’s flagships.

This floating Army broadcasting station sailed north from Sydney in September 1944, arriving at General Douglas MacArthur’s headquarters at Hollandia, New Guinea on October 10. Two days later, U.S. Army Vessel Apache joined a flotilla of American war vessels for the return invasion of the Philippines.

For the next 18 months, little Apache relayed American Armed Forces Radio Service and the Voice of America via shortwave all over the Philippines, off the coast of Korea, and then further south off the coast of China.

She was the first to broadcast MacArthur’s “I have returned” speech in October 1944 to the island chain.

Following the fleet to Tokyo Bay, she stood near USS Missouri for the surrender and continued her radio programming operations until 20 April 1946 when she was replaced in service by the Army vessel Spindle Eye, a converted freighter with much more powerful transmitters.

Decommissioned, Apache was sold for scrap in 1950.

I cannot find any surviving artifacts from her.

Specs:

Displacement: 416 tons (700 full load, naval service)
Length: 190′
Beam: 29′
Draft: 9.3
Propulsion: Compound-expansion steam engine; twin screw with 1 propeller to each cylinder; 15.75”and 27” diam by 24” stroke, replaced with triple-expansion steam engine, 17”, 27”, 43” diam by 24” stroke with a single propeller in 1904.
Maximum speed: 12.0 knots
Complement: 32 officers and men as commissioned; 58 WWI USN service; 37 U.S. Army in WWII.
Armament: 3×6 pdrs as commissioned for derelict destruction as completed
(1918) Three 3″/23 single mounts and two Colt machine guns, one Y-gun depth charge launcher, stern-mounted depth charge racks
(1920) 3″/23
(1944) As Army vessel carried small arms which may have included light machine guns.

If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International

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Warship Wednesday Oct. 7, 2015: Los Submarinos!

Posted on October 7, 2015 by laststandonzombieisland One comment

Here at LSOZI, we will take off every Wednesday to look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all of their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places. – Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2015: Los Submarinos!

Submarino S-01 leaving harbor, 1962. She looks remarkably like a Type VIIC U-boat. Hey, wait a minute...

Submarino S-01 leaving the harbor, 1962. She looks remarkably like a Type VIIC U-boat. Hey, wait a minute…

Here we see what could have very well been the last of old Adolph’s U-boat fleet in fleet operations, Submarino S-01 of the Armada Española.

Starting life as U-573, a Type VIIC U-boat built for Germany’s Kriegsmarine, she was laid down on 24 October 1939, roughly 76 years ago this month, at Blohm and Voss in Hamburg. As such, she was a war baby, with the German invasion of Poland beginning some two months before. She cost the Germans 4 million marks.

The Type VIIC design was the backbone and icon of the U-boat force, with 568 commissioned from 1940 to 1945. For instance, the submarine in Das Boot, U-96, was a VIIC.

These 800-ton, 220-foot long vessels had great range (8,500 nm), could make 17.7 knots on the surface which was faster than most merchantmen of the day, and carried 14 advanced torpedoes and an 88mm SK C/35 gun with some 200~ rounds for those ships not worthy of a torp.

Commissioned on 5 June 1941, on the cusp of the invasion of the Soviet Union, U-573 completed four combat patrols in eight months between 15 September 1941 and 2 May 1942. Spending 119 days at sea, her inaugural skipper, Kptlt. Heinrich Heinsohn, helmed the vessel the whole time.

U-573 in German service

The city of Landeck in Tyrol adopted the submarine within the then-popular sponsorship program (Patenschaftsprogramm), organizing gifts and holidays for the crew, earning her the honorary name “U-573 Landeck,” and she carried that town’s coat of arms briefly.

U-573′s four patrols produced lackluster results, only chalking up one kill, the 5,289-ton Norwegian flagged steamer Hellen, sunk by two of three torpedoes fired by the submarine about 4 miles off Cape Negro. The bow broke away and the Norwegian sank shortly after midnight without loss of life. All 41 crew members were picked up by the armed trawler HMT Arctic Ranger and landed in Gibraltar the next day.

SS Hellen

Speaking of Gibraltar, on April 29, 1942, U-573 was encountered on the surface by a Lockheed Hudson bomber (U.S. A-28) of RAF Sqdn. 233/M who promptly dropped 325-pound depth charges on her until she submerged.

Damaged, the submarine was again attacked by Hudsons from No. 233 the next day.

Lockheed Hudson of No. 233 Squadron RAF preparing for take-off in August 1942, with the Rock of Gibraltar in the background. Taken by Lt. G.W. Dallison, War Office official photographer – This is photograph GM 1405 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums; captioned A Royal Air Force Lockheed Hudson III of No. 233 Squadron RAF leaves its dispersal at Gibraltar for a reconnaissance sortie.

With one man killed, his batteries leaking, a crack in his hull that prevented submergence to more than 45 feet, and numerous other issues, Heinsohn made for the closest friendly harbor– that of neutral but pro-German Spain– arriving at Cartagena on 2 May.

There, under the howls of British diplomatic protests, the Spaniards allowed the sub 90 days to patch up and get back into the Med. However, the battered U-573 was too far gone for pierside ersatz repairs against a waiting British blockade. On 2 August 1942, Germany sold her to Franco for 180 million pesetas (1.5 million marks) in a warm handover, minus torpedoes and shells, which were destroyed to help keep the British happy. Her flag, books, code machine, and crests were given to the German ambassador.

Handover. Note the caps!

Her 43-man crew, officially to be interned for the duration, snuck back to the Reich in small groups and was replaced by a few civilian German naval technicians who remained with Spain’s new sub as advisers until well after the war.

(Note- One other German Type VIIC sub, U-760, was interned under the guns of the Spanish cruiser Navarra at Vigo harbor in 1943 and, her engines dismantled, was towed away by the British in 1945.)

While the war ended and Hitler was swept away with all of his legions of VIICs (Heinsohn himself and most of Crew 33, were killed on other U-boats after they returned home), U-573, rechristened G-7 by the Spanish, endured.

Why G-7? You see Franco had planned to build six of their own VIICs that were to be numbered G1 to G6, but that never happened.

G7 during her reconstruction

The thing is, the sole Type VIIC the Spanish did have was still a wreck. A floating wreck to be sure, but far from operational by any stretch of the imagination.

It wasn’t until 17 November 1947, after an extensive refit in dry-dock to include much German contract labor, salvaged gear from Hamburg, and new (American) batteries, that she was in active service.

Painted gray, she still carried her 88mm Rheinmetall Borsig forward although her 20mm AA gun was landed. The Armada had acquired 12 working 533mm torpedoes and mounted a 7.62mm MG3 on her tower when needed. Still, she was far in advance of the few smallish pre-WWII subs the Armada had been using.

Tested to 120 meters depth (half or original design), her Spanish crew consisted of a Commander, Deputy Commander, Chief Engineer, Deputy Engineer, three CPOs, 13 Cabos (NCOs), and 24 ratings.

Her 88mm was kept standard in working condition until 1970.

Across her tower was installed “Todo por la Patria” (All for the Fatherland) in place of the old Landeck crest.

The most modern Spanish submarine until the 1950s, she was the fleet’s pride and frequently appeared in period movies and film footage portraying German U-boats for obvious reasons.

“U 47 – Kapitänleutnant Prien,” a 1958 German film starring one U-573/Submarino G-7

In 1961, refitted with the help of the U.S., she was repainted black and renamed S-01.

Submarine (G-7) on its visit to the port of Alicante 1952

Los submarinos G-7 y D-2 petrolean el 6 de Mayo de 1953

Spanish submarine S-01 in Barcelona in June 1962. In the background is the famed circa 1903 Port Vell Port Authority Building, designed by Julio Valdés

Her skippers:
CC. D. GUILERMO CARRERO GARRE of –.–. 1947 to 26.9.1949
CC. D. Ayuso SERRANO JACINTO of 26/09/1949 to 27/11/1952
CC. Joaquín Florez of 27/11/1952 to 19/11/1954
CC. D. TOMAS NAVARRO CLAVIJO of 11/19/1954 to 17/04/1956
CC. Juan A. MORENO AZNAR from 04/17/1956 to 04/05/1960
CC.D. ENRIQUE ROMERO GONZALEZ of 05/05/1960 to 09/29/1961
TN. D. Luis Rodriguez Mendez-Nunez 09.29.1961 to 15.02.1965
CC. D. LUIS FERNANDO MARTI NARBONA of 15/02/1965 to 20/09/1966
CC. ENRIQUE SEGURA Agacino of 20/09/1966 to 04/16/1968
CC. JAVIER GARCIA CAVESTANY of 16/04/1968 to 05/10/1969
CC.D. AREVALO EMILIO Pelluz of 05/10/1969 to 02/05/1970

Docked for the last time in February 1970, she was stricken from the Armada on 2 May that year. Plans to preserve her as a museum fell through and she was sold for about $25,000, her value in scrap metal.

She was replaced in service 11 months later by USS Ronquil (SS-396), a Guppy’d Balao-class smoke boat that became SPS Isaac Peral (S-32)— with much of S-01‘s former crew aboard. Ironically, Ronquil was also a movie star, having appeared as the fictional USS Tigershark in the film Ice Station Zebra.

While numerous submarines are preserved in museums, including 9 in Germany, there is only one Type VIIC on public display– U-995 at Laboe, Germany. Like U-573/S01 she was a Blohm and Voss boat and is a near sister.

(Note, U-505 at the Museum of Science and Industry, in Chicago, Illinois is a type IXC).

Submarino S 01 Ex U573 y G-7 1941-1970 By Martin Garcia Garcia

Specs:

Displacement: 769 tonnes (757 long tons) surfaced
871 t (857 long tons) submerged
Length: 67.10 m (220 ft 2 in) o/a
50.50 m (165 ft. 8 in) pressure hull
Beam: 6.20 m (20 ft. 4 in) (o/a)
4.70 m (15 ft. 5 in) (pressure hull)
Height: 9.60 m (31 ft. 6 in)
Draft: 4.74 m (15 ft. 7 in)
Propulsion: 2 × supercharged 6-cylinder 4-stroke Germaniawerft diesel engines totaling 2,800–3,200 PS (2,100–2,400 kW; 2,800–3,200 shp). Max rpm: 470–490. Two Brown, Boveri & Cie GG UB 720/8 double-acting electric motors
Speed: 17.7 knots (32.8 km/h; 20.4 mph) surfaced
7.6 knots (14.1 km/h; 8.7 mph) submerged
Range: 8,500 nmi (15,700 km; 9,800 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) surfaced
80 nmi (150 km; 92 mi) at 4 knots (7.4 km/h; 4.6 mph) submerged
Test depth: 230 m (750 ft)
Calculated crush depth: 250–295 m (820–968 ft.)
Complement: 44-52 officers & ratings
Armament: 5 × 53.3 cm (21 in) torpedo tubes (4 bow, 1 stern)
14 × torpedoes or 26 TMA or 39 TMB mines
1 × 8.8 cm SK C/35 Rheinmetall Borsig naval gun with 220 rounds
1x Rheinmettal 20mm antiaircraft

If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International

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Warship Wednesday Sept. 30, 2015: The Deseret Battlewagon

Posted on September 30, 2015 by laststandonzombieisland 3 comments

Warship Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2015: The Deseret Battlewagon

Photo colorized by irootoko_jr http://blog.livedoor.jp/irootoko_jr/

Utah as she appeared in World War One (click image to big up). At the time she was the flag of the 6th Battleship Division and carried a unique camo pattern that included the white triangular veins shown here Photo colorized by irootoko_jr

Here we see the Florida-class dreadnought USS Utah (BB-31/AG-16) as she appeared during World War I. While she went “Over There” and was ready to fight the Germans yet never fired a shot, her follow-on experience in the next world war would be much different.

The period of U.S. battleship development from the USS Indiana (Battleship No. 1) in 1890, until Florida was ordered in 1908 saw a staggering 29 huge capital ships built in under two decades. While the majority of those vessels were pre-dreadnought Monopoly battleships (for instance, Indiana was 10,500-tons and carried 2 × twin 13″/35 guns), the U.S. had gotten in the dreadnought business with the two smallish 16,000-ton, 8×12 inch/45 caliber gunned South Carolina-class ships ordered in 1905, followed by a pair of larger 22,400-ton, 10×12 inch/45 gunned Delaware-class battleships in 1907.

The pair of Florida-class ships were better than the U.S. battleships before them but rapidly eclipsed by the 33 that came after and developmentally were sandwiched between the old and new era. Dimensionally, they were more than twice as heavy as the country’s first battleships and only half as heavy as the last commissioned in 1944.

At 25,000 tons, they carried roughly the same battery of 12 inchers (10x12″/45 caliber Mark 5 guns) in six twin turrets as the Delawares, which were equivalent to the period Royal Navy’s BL 12 inch Mk X naval gun and the Japanese Type 41 12-inch (305 mm) /45 caliber naval gun. Utah was the last battleship mounted with this particular model gun.

The crew of Turret I on USS Utah B-31 in 1913 U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph # NH 103835 via Navweaps

Their belt, an almost homogenous 11-inches everywhere, was thick for the time and they could make 21-knots on a quartet of Parsons steam turbines powered by a full dozen Babcock & Wilcox coal-fired boilers.

Laid down 9 March 1909 at New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Utah was the first (and, until this week, only) ship named after the former State of Deseret.

Commissioned 31 August 1911, her early career was a series of training and goodwill cruises. Then the gloves came off.

In April 1914, Utah was heavily involved in Mr. Wilson’s intervention in the affairs of Mexico, ordered to seize the German-flagged steamer SS Ypiranga, and loaded with good Krupp and Mauser guns for old man Huerta.

This led to the battle for and subsequent occupation of Veracruz where Utah and her sistership Florida landed two provisional battalions consisting of 502 Marines and 669 bluejackets (many of whose white uniforms were dyed brown with coffee grounds) to fight their way to the Veracruz Naval Academy. Utah‘s 384 sailors gave hard service, pushing street by street and tackling the Mexican barricades. The fleet suffered ~100 casualties in the fighting while the Mexicans took nearly five times that number.

Formal raising of first flag of U.S. Veracruz 2 P.M. April 27, 1914 by sailors and Marines of the Utah and Florida

Formal raising of the first flag of U.S. Veracruz 2 P.M. April 27, 1914, by sailors and Marines of the Utah and Florida

As the crisis abated, Utah sailed away two months later for the first of her many refits.

When the U.S. entered WWI in 1917, Utah spent most of the conflict as an engineering school training ship in Chesapeake Bay. then in August 1918 sailed for Ireland where she was stationed in Bantry Bay to keep an eye peeled for German surface raiders.

Photo colorized by irootoko_jr

After her fairly pedestrian war service, she and Florida had their dozen coal eaters replaced with a quartet of more efficient White-Forster oil-fired boilers, which allowed one funnel to be removed. Their AAA suite was likewise increased.

Battleship Number 31, USS Utah, at rest in Guatanamo Bay, Cuba, January 1920.

Battleship Number 31, USS Utah, at rest in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, January 1920.

One bluejacket who served aboard her in 1922 Petty Officer 3rd Class (Machinery Repairman) John Dillinger, but he deserted after a few months when Utah was docked in Boston and was eventually dishonorably discharged before becoming Public Enemy No. 1.

dilenger aboard uss utah

Despite the cranky Mr. Dillinger, Utah was a happy ship in the 1920s, completing several goodwill cruises to South America and Europe including a trip in 1928 with President-Elect Herbert Hoover aboard.

While the ships survived the cuts of the Washington Naval Treaty, the ax of the follow-on London Naval Treaty fell, and when compared to the newer hulls in the battleship fleet, Utah and Florida were found lacking although they were only 15~ years old and recently modernized.

As such, class leader Florida was decommissioned in February 1931 and towed to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, where she was broken up for scrap.

As for Utah, she was decommissioned, pulled from the battle fleet, disarmed, and converted to a radio-controlled target ship, designated AG-16 on 1 July 1931. She was capable of being operated completely by remote control with a skeleton crew.

Her electric motors, operated by signals from the controlling ship, opened and closed throttle valves, moved her steering gear, and regulated the supply of oil to her boilers. In addition, a Sperry gyro pilot kept the ship on course.

Able to operate with her much-reduced crew buttoned up inside her protective armor with every hatch dogged, her decks were reinforced with a double layer of 6″x12″ plank timbers to keep inert practice bombs from damaging the ship. Her funnel likewise was given a steel cap. Sandbags and cement patches covered hard-to-plank areas.

Photographed by George Winstead, probably immediately after her recommissioning on 1 April 1932, when Utah (AG-16) departed Norfolk on to train her engineers in using the new installations and for trials of her radio gear by which the ship could be controlled at varying rates of speed and changes of course maneuvers that a ship would conduct in battle. USN photo courtesy of Robert M. Cieri. Text courtesy of DANFS. Via Navsource

No longer considered a capital ship befitting flag officers, her 102-piece silver service, purchased by a donation from 30,000 schoolchildren of Utah (and each piece with an image of Brigham Young on it), was sent back to the state for safekeeping.

While her main and secondary armament was landed, she was equipped with a battery of 1.1-inch quads and later some 5″/38 cal DP, 5″/25, 20mm, and .50 cal mounts to help train anti-aircraft gunners. To keep said small guns from being whacked away by falling practice bombs, they had to be dismantled and stored below decks when not in use or covered with timber “doghouses.”

Utah as target ship entering pearl harbor in 1939

This armament constantly shifted with the needs of the Navy. In August 1941 she was considerably re-armed for her work as a AAA training vessel.

She carried two 5in/25 mounts forward atop No.1 and No.2 turrets respectively. Two 5in/38 mounts to port atop the port aircastle with two 5in/25s in the same position on the starboard aircastle. (The `aircastles’ are the projecting casemates abreast the bridge area for the former secondary battery). On the 01 level abeam the bridge, a quad 1.1 inch gun was carried on both sides of the ship. Aft, came two more 5in/38s atop No.4 and No.5 turrets, this time enclosed with gun shields. Finally, four Oerlikon 20mm (later scheduled to be replaced by 40mm Bofors) and eight 0.50-calibre guns completed the ensemble. An advanced gun director and stereoscopic range-finder was mounted on the top of No.3 turret and anti-aircraft and 5-inch directors fitted on the foremast area

Note her missing guns and extensive decking

Note her missing guns, funnel cap, and extensive extra decking

She was in roughly this configuration on the Day that will live in Infamy. Note the 5/38s rear and 5/25s forward. These were covered with heavy wooden ‘dog houses’ on Dec. 7th

Used in fleet maneuvers in the Pacific for a decade, she was resting near Battleship Row on Dec. 7, 1941.

Ironically, she was scheduled to leave Hawaii for the West Coast on Dec. 8th.

The attacking Japanese pilots in the Pearl Harbor attack had been ordered not to waste their bombs and torpedoes on the old target ship, but it has been theorized some excited aviators mistook the gleaming wooden planks on her decking to be that of an American flattop. Further, she was berthed on the Northwest side of Ford Island where visiting aircraft carriers were usually tied up on the weekends.

Utah received two (perhaps three) Japanese torpedoes in the first wave of the attack.

Painting by the artist Wayne Scarpaci showing the Utah (AG-16) being torpedoed

Painting by the artist Wayne Scarpaci showing Utah (AG-16) being torpedoed

Not retrofitted with torpedo bilges as other WWI-era U.S. battleships were, the Emperor’s fish penetrated her hull and she soon capsized, taking 64 of her sailors with her– 54 of which were trapped inside her hull and to this day never recovered.

It went quick for the old battleship. The attack began at 7:55 a.m. and by 8:11 Utah was reported to have turned turtle, her masts embedded in the harbor bottom.

One of those 64 was Chief Watertender Peter Tomich, a Bosnian immigrant who served in the U.S. Army in WWI before enlisting for a career in the Navy. Tomich saved lives that day.

CPO Peter Tomich, MOH

From his MOH citation:

Although realizing that the ship was capsizing, as a result of enemy bombing and torpedoing, Chief Watertender Tomich remained at his post in the engineering plant of the U.S.S. UTAH (AG-16), until he saw that all boilers were secured and all fireroom personnel had left their stations, and by so doing lost his own life.

Navy hardhat salvage divers made 437 dives on the stricken ship during her attempted re-righting in 1944, involving 2,227 man-hours under pressure. However, she was never fully salvaged. She was stricken from the Naval List on 13 November 1944 and is currently preserved as a war grave. A further move to salvage her in the 1950s was stillborn.

Utah‘s ships bell is located on the University of Utah campus and is maintained by the campus NROTC unit.

Her silver service is maintained along with other artifacts in Salt Lake City at the Governor’s Mansion.

Utah persists to this day at her berth along Ford Island leaking oil into Pearl Harbor.

She is preserved as the USS Utah Memorial and the National Park Service, U.S. Navy and other stakeholders take her remains very seriously, mounting a color guard daily.

Underwater Photographer Captures Images of USS Utah Memorial. Shaan Hurley, a technologist from Autodesk, takes photographs of the USS Utah Memorial during a data-collecting evolution in Pearl Harbor, October 23, 2014. In a process called “photogrammetry”, the underwater photos will be inputted into computer software that will create 3D data models of the photographed areas. The National Park Service is working with several companies and agencies to gather data points to create an accurate 3D model of the ship. U.S. Navy video by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Brett Cote / RELEASED

Today she is remembered by a veteran’s group and survivors association of which there are only seven known remaining survivors. A number of those who have passed have been cremated and had their ashes interred in the wreck.

Members of the Navy Region Hawaii Ceremonial Guard march in formation at the conclusion of a ceremony in honor Pearl Harbor survivor Lt. Wayne Maxwell at the USS Utah Memorial on historic Ford Island. Maxwell was a 30-year Navy veteran and former crew member of the farragut-class destroyer USS Aylwin during the Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. He was 93.

Members of the Navy Region Hawaii Ceremonial Guard march in formation after a ceremony in honor of Pearl Harbor survivor Lt. Wayne Maxwell at the USS Utah Memorial on historic Ford Island. Maxwell was a 30-year Navy veteran and former crew member of the Farragut-class destroyer USS Aylwin during the Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. He was 93.

As for Chief Tomich, he was something of an orphan and his award is the only Medal of Honor since the Indian Campaigns in the late 1800s that has never been awarded either to a living recipient, or surviving family member. The state of Utah, who pronounced him a resident posthumously, long had custody of his award.

USS Tomich (DE-242), an Edsall-class destroyer escort, was named in his honor in 1942 and remained on the Naval List until 1972.

In 1989, the U.S. Navy built the Senior Enlisted Academy in Newport, R.I., and named the building Tomich Hall. Chief Tomich’s Medal of Honor is on display on the quarterdeck there.

Finally, this week, SECNAV Ray Mabus announced in Salt Lake City that SSN-801, a Virginia-class submarine under construction, will be the second vessel to carry the name Utah.

Specs:

1911 Via ship bucket

Plan, 1932 Via Navsource, notice one stack, no main guns

Displacement: Standard: 21,825 long tons (22,175 t), full load 25,000
Length: 521 ft. 8 in (159.00 m)
Beam: 88 ft. 3 in (26.90 m)
Draft: 28.3 ft. (8.6 m)
Installed power: 28,000 shp (21,000 kW)
Propulsion: Steam turbines, 4 screws. 12 Coal boilers were later replaced by 4 oil boilers in 1926.
Speed: 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph)
Range: 5,776 nmi (6,650 mi; 10,700 km) at 10 kn (12 mph, 19 km/h) and 2,760 nmi (3,180 mi; 5,110 km) at 20 kn (23 mph, 37 km/h)
Coal: 2,500 tons (2,268 tonnes)
Complement: 1,001 officers and men as designed, 575 after 1932
Armament:
(1931)

10 × 12 in (30 cm)/45 cal guns
16 × 5 in (127 mm)/51 cal guns
2 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes

(1941)

4×5″/38 DP in single mounts
4×5″/25 in single mounts
8×1.1″ AAA in two quad mounts
4x20mm/80 in singles
15x.50-cal singles, water-cooled

Armor:
Belt: 9–11 in (229–279 mm)
Lower casemate: 8–10 in (203–254 mm)
Upper casemate: 5 in (127 mm)
Barbettes: 4–10 in (102–254 mm)
Turret face: 12 in (305 mm)
Conning tower: 11.5 in (292 mm)
Decks: 1.5 in (38 mm), later reinforced with wooden planks, sandbags, and concrete.

If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find http://www.warship.org/

Nearing their 50th Anniversary, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

I’m a member, so should you be!

Combat Gallery Sunday: The Martial Art of Manuel García García

Posted on September 27, 2015 by laststandonzombieisland Leave a comment

Much as once a week I like to take time off to cover warships (Wednesdays), on Sunday, I like to cover military art and the painters, illustrators, sculptors, and the like that produced them.

Combat Gallery Sunday: The Martial Art of Manuel García García

Spanish maritime artist Manuel García García specializes in taking period black and white photographs and plans of ships that have long-since sailed their last and transforming them into fully-fleshed out paintings.

Barcelona-based Garcia specializes in ships of the Spanish Navy and several of his superb watercolors have been turned into postage stamps both in Spain and abroad.

August 7, 1889, at Dock No. 1 ArsenalCádiz) where the submarine Peral appears there I built and launched, with 6 crew members

August 7, 1889, at Dock No. 1 Arsenal Cádiz, where the submarine Peral appears there with 6 crew members. She was actually the world’s first modern electric-powered torpedo armed military submersible and is currently preserved at the Naval Museum of Cartagena.

Knox-class FRAGATA CATALUNA F 73 by Manuel García García. Commissioned in 1975, she was sunk as a target in 2007.

Spanish cruiser CRUCERO ALMIRANTE CERVERA manuel garcia garcia

This 9500-ton light cruiser was the head of her class, served on the Nationalist side in the Civil War and was present in most of the major battles. She was one of the last unaltered WWII-era all-gun cruisers in NATO service when she was stricken 31 August 1965.

Archives of his work are available here, and please take the time to visit his website and blog (Spanish) here.

Thank you for your work, sir.

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laststandonzombieisland

Weapons, Wars, Preparation and Security from a recovering gun nut turned bad writer

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