TURKEY AND DRESSING, JUNE 19-20, 1944
Another excellent piece, Tann. I particularly appreciate the mention of the “greyhounds of the fleet” the “tin-cans”.
Being an old Destroyer sailor I was proud to see the Fletcher class DD featured in the picture you selected, performing one of the many roles they fulfill.
I was glad to see credit going to the submarine force too. The subs held the line and took the fight to the enemy while the Navy recovered from the devastation of Pearl Harbor. They cannot be credited enough.
Only recently did I learn that the Japanese did not rotate their experienced pilots back home to train new pilots from their experiences. A fatal flaw in their system.
Shooting down Yamamoto’s plane was a triumph for the code breakers who were reading the IJN’s message traffic and contributed greatly to victory.
The war in the Pacific brought the aircraft carrier into its own, though, and ushered the mighty battleship off of history’s stage.
It sort of makes me wonder about what might be coming next.
That’s easy Stin:
The Submarine Aircraft Carrier, nuclear powered, displacement 150,000 tons, crew of over 1400, 60 jet aircraft, 12 choppers .... and 24 trident nuclear missiles.
ROCK AND ROLL!
I appreciate it, Stin. I was thinking about you when I selected that picture (and also in the Jutland article, when I mentioned Admiral Hipper’s background as a “tin can sailor"). This picture is entitled “Mission Beyond Darkness” by Robert Taylor, and here is the link, by the way: http://www.oldgloryprints.com/Taylor.htm
One of my best friends (a devoted ballroom dancer in his eighties) served on a Fletcher-class “can” (USS Paul Hamilton DD-590), and she was included in Fifth Fleet’s invasion forces for “Operation Forager.”
A good account of USS Harder‘s exploits at Tawitawi can be found in William C. Chambliss, The Silent Service (California National Productions Inc., 1959, Signet paperback edition Y5813).
I too wonder what may be coming next. A submersible aircraft carrier sounds a little farfetched to me yet, and it would be naturally damned expensive and hard to protect, but who knows?
Something like that crossed my mind when I wrote that, Skipper.
With the emphasis lately being on littoral warfare, let’s put a bunch of Marines and landing craft on that critter too. Make it an ass kickin’ submersible assault carrier.
In any case I note that they’re moving to extremely low profile, high speed ships. It’s just a matter of time before they can do it all from one platform.
Skipper, it looks like each of us posted while being unaware of the other. Strange how we both hit on the same idea. Or is it?
“Great minds think alike!”
The need to protect that asset would naturally lead to the submersible destroyer, of course.
Problem solved.
You guys have been watching too much Robotech!
Not me, Macker. I don’t even have a TV, and haven’t had one since the 1970’s. Can’t say I miss it....
Me neither. I have a 55” big screen TV but all I ever watch are Fox News, History Channel, Cubs baseball and my library of over 900 DVD’s.
My vid collection isn’t quite that large, Skipper, and my video player monitor is only the size of the average computer monitor (I live in a small place), but it’s nice to know that in another respect, we are on basically the same page.
I do catch Fox (Cavuto and Gibson) in my favorite restaurant when I go in to get dinner after work, and I check the Weather Channel, but in terms of TV, that’s about all I ever have time for.
I sympathize with you, Barb, and all other long-suffering Cubs fans everywhere. Maybe someday.
The anniversary of the sinking of USS Indianapolis CA-35 is July 30. I plan to cover it here.
I have a 13” tv, Macker, and a 17” computer monitor. Priorities, you know. The tv works fine for Fox, C-Span and Antiques Roadshow on PBS.
I truly couldn’t tell you what other channels might be available. It’s basic cable service that comes with my ‘net connection, I have no choice.
Were I able to chose just the channels I want, I’d go for the History channel and some of the other “the” channels. I’ve never seen robotech.
When I’m not
being a nusianceexpounding on somebody else’s blog, I read.I’m presently plotting a way to abscond with Tannenberg’s library. Phoenix’s too. Shhh.
Oh, and I’m looking forward to Tannenberg’s piece on the USS Indianapolis. The Navy (ashore) screwed the pooch on that one, then tried to hang the Captain for it. An old Navy tradition.
Library? Did I hear the word LIBRARY?
Stinkerr, surely you’re not referring to the eight tall bookcases spread out over my office, my living room and my bedroom with everything from Homer to Hawking, from Plato to Pericles to Caesar to Layafette to .... oh, forget it.
Suffice it to say, I have Doug Stanton’s “In Harm’s Way: The Sinking Of The USS Indianapolis” in my hand right now. I highly recommend it.
Oh, I’d never steal from you, Skipper. No way. Uh uh. Nope, never.
[adds another name to list]
I’m proud to hear about those eight bookcases, Skipper, but with all due respect, I’ll stack my 13 up against them any day. I know I’m only urging our buddy Stin forward with his larcenous plans
, but I will disclose that among my proudest possessions is a complete first-edition Roskill “War at Sea” set, with the dust jackets intact and in protective wraps.
And Stin, you’re right, they dropped a major brick in the USS Indianapolis case. It is difficult to cover in a monograph, but I will do what I can. So far I have read Holt (1958) and Lech (1982) on the subject; Stanton is still ahead on my schedule.
SPECIAL NOTE TO BMEWS MEMBER LyndonB, who once requested an article on HMS Warspite: I plan to submit that on July 9, to coincide with Calabria, where she fired that record gunnery shot of 26,500 yards.
Correction above: Make that Newcomb (1958) instead of Holt, the publisher. Sorry ‘bout that, troops.
Next on the calendar, by the way, is the PQ-17 disaster....
They always underestimate the weak, flabby, comfort-obsessed Americans!
Fuck with us and we exterminate you!
I’ll always remember the dialog from the “Victory at Sea” episode regarding the Battle of the Phillipines Sea. “With this battle, japan ceased to be a naval power!”
Toast to all the surviving Tin-Can men, Naval Aviators, and the finest of the “Greatest Generation”!
Shai Dorsai!
Posted by MAJ Mike
06/19/2005 at 08:00 PM
Stin,
Touch my books and DIE ! :} I have a separate library in my house, and in my office here rests the overflow. My bedroom closet has more books in it than clothes. It is a huge room in itself. The left side of my bed is stacked with magazines and books. Yeah… sad, I know… Don’t you come ‘trawlin’ for books here. I’ll fight ya. You can have my cat, though.
Funny about our TV watching habits. I watch only FOX and then if it’s late and I need to be numbed to sleep, I watch Forensic Files. I do watch Arrested Development and Reno 911. Otherwise, I could live without a TV.
Captain,
Among your 900 DVD’s do you have DEAT POETS SOCIETY? My favorite movie. oh.. can’t even think about it without wanting to wail.
Posted by Phoenix
06/19/2005 at 08:00 PM
Hear, hear!
Reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw, the last time I was at Lejeune: “MESS WITH THE BEST, DIE LIKE THE REST.”
Oh, Tanny,
I won’t read your post on the U.S.S. Indianapolis. I read about it years ago and was just traumatized by it. :{
Cat summmed it up exactly.
It’s as though no one could ever make up such a horror. But otherwise, your posts are neat because we get to read comments from people who experienced much of what you write about. I love that.
Posted by Phoenix
06/19/2005 at 08:05 PM
I understand, Phoenix, but in dealing with such a horror, I try to think of the worthwhile message Newcomb left us in his epilogue to his 1958 book Abandon Ship, perhaps the first book devoted solely to the Indianapolis case.
“When all the bickering was over, it had nearly obscured the only bright page in the whole story--the courage and sacrifice of the men in the water. These men, cast by ill fortune into a hostile sea, were forced to battle for their lives in circumstances perhaps never paralleled. When the sun rose Monday morning, it turned out to be an enemy, and when it set, night proved even more malevolent. The sea, far from being impersonal, became alive with dangers, not only in itself but because of the marauders within it....Alone and helpless, burned by day and chilled by night, the men struggled on. That any survived was a miracle. That some found the strength to offer, and in some cases give, their lives for their shipmates was proof once again of man’s divine heritage.
“When the Indianapolis is remembered, let it bring to mind not alone the imperfections of human-ordered events but also the heroism of those who battled the sea.”
May those who perished rest in peace.
Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bidst the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep.
Oh hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in peril on the sea.
Oh, blasphemy. I meant to type DEAD POETS SOCIETY above. :{
Tanny,
I appreciate your sharing of those words, but I cannot get past the use of ‘the only bright page in the story’… oh, please. Men made the subsequent mess. That ‘bright’ page was anything but. It was a tragedy beyond comprehension. How stupidly people use words! As if ‘bickering’, man-made stupidity, could compare to what went on in that sea. As IF there is anything to compare to men being eaten alive by sharks. Any bickering should have resulted in court martial and hanging. All heads should have been deeply bowed.... not raised in self-justification to point fingers and whine.
Sorry. This story cuts me deeply.
Posted by Phoenix
06/19/2005 at 10:41 PM
Let me put it this way, Phoenix. They were in a very bad situation: Sailors who had lost their ship in the vastness of the Pacific finding themselves at the mercy of wind, sun, sea and the creatures that dwell therein.
Every one of them knew that they could prolong their lives by throwing their weaker shipmates to the sharks. They didn’t do that. They stuck together and did their best to save each other, including, or should I say especially, the weakened ones. Sometimes at the expense of the strong, the ones that could reasonably be expected to survive.
One never knows how humans will act in situations like that. To act in the best manner is important to the survivors. Otherwise, though they live, they have great trouble living with themselves. Many find it not to be worth the survival.
Since we got onto this track I don’t feel comfortable with continuing my flippant reparté regarding libraries and my nefarious plans.
Maybe later.
On further reflection perhaps this story will help. It’s what sets man above beast.
Here’s a longer, more in depth version of the same story.
To add my $0.02 to the carrier-sub subthread:
I remember that when I were a wee lad (around 10 or 11) I read a comic called the Eagle. (Brits of my vintage should remember it well.) One of the regular stories was of a nuclear submarine which held two VTOL jump-jets. The pilots’ names were Kidd and Morgan.
Also who remembers the Jerry Anderson TV series UFO? That had a submarine with a detachable nose which was also a plane/space vehicle. And Skipper, I know you played with Thunderbirds toys, just like I did.
06/22/2005 at 09:45 AM
