Diverse firepower
80 years ago this month: British and American Navy Forces in Combined Exercises, June 1943, off Scapa Flow. Shown are two very different battlewagons including the brand new SoDak-class fast battleship USS Alabama (BB-60) and the King George V-class HMS Anson (79).
Photograph by LT H.A. Hudson. IWM A 17582
The above stems from the efforts of U.S. Navy RADM Olaf Mandt Hustvedt (USNA 1909), a diehard battleship sailor who commanded TF 61 around Alabama and her sister, the recently repaired USS South Dakota, along with the destroyers USS Ellyson (DD-454), Emmons (DD-457, Fitch (DD-462), Macomb (DD-458), and Rodman (DD-456).
TF 61 sailed at varying times with the British ADM Sir Bruce Fraser’s Home Fleet between May and July 1943, typically in the company of HM battleships Anson (79) and Duke of York (17) along with a myriad of RN cruisers and destroyers. This was an effort to backfill the British ships sent to take part in the Husky landings in the Med.
USS Alabama BB-60 and HMS Anson (79) exercises off Scapa Flow June 1943 IWM Hudson, F A (Lt) b
USS Alabama BB-60 and HMS Anson (79) exercises off Scapa Flow June 1943 IWM Hudson, F A (Lt)
The force took part in a series of relatively bloodless missions including Operation Gearbox III, the relief of the Anglo-Norwegian garrison of Spitzbergen, and Operations Camera/Governor, demonstrations off the Norwegian coast to divert German attention from the Husky landings in July 1943.
South Dakota, Ellyson, Emmons, Fitch, Macomb, and Rodman arrived back in Norfolk on 1 August 1943, while Alabama reached Norfolk eight days later. They would soon sortie to the Pacific for a much more active role in the war.
As for Hustvedt, he went on to command Battleship Division 7 on the push to Tokyo and would retire as a Vice Admiral in 1946, capping 37 years of service. For his operations with Sir Bruce, he would be invested as a Knight Commander Order of the British Empire.
