USS Sealion (SS-195)-- Part 3: Sunk and Then Destroyed to Prevent Capture

The Sealion flooded immediately and settled down by the stern  with 40% of her main deck underwater and a 15 degree list to the starboard.  The destruction of the Navy Yard made repairs impossible, and she was ordered to be destroyed.    All salvageable equipment was taken  off, depth charges  placed inside and on  25 December, the explosives were set off to prevent her being useful to the enemy.

Eli Thomas  Reich, who was executive officer and engineer on the Sealion when it sank, assumed command of the second Sealion (SS-315) when in March 1944.  Four of the torpedoes that Sealion II fired to sink the Japanese battleship Kongo carried the names Foster, O'Connell, Paul and Oglivie-- the men who had died in the attack on the first Sealion three years earlier.

The sinking of the Sealion (SS-195) was incorporated into the plot of the 1959 Cary Grant film "Operation  Petticoat" where the fictional  submarine Sea Tiger was stationed at Cavite, suffers a similar fate, although in the film, she is re-floated and ordered to Cebu for a complete refit, thereby setting the stage for the film's storyline.

--GreGen

National Vietnam Veterans Day: Captain Phil Bucklew, USN, Fought in WW II, Korea and Vietnam

From the Coffee or Die site.

In honor of this being National Vietnam Veterans Day, here is a man who served in Vietnam, but also in the two previous wars to it.

Captain Phil Bucklew served in every significant Naval Special Warfare (NSW) unit from World War II through Vietnam.

During World War II, he  was with the Amphibious Scouts and Rangers and guided the first wave into the beaches of Normandy, including Omaha Beach, during D-Day.

In 1951, he became a plank owner of Beach Jumper Unit  II and was involved in a lot if undercover work.

When the NSW sent Underwater Demolition Teams and Navy Seals to Vietnam, his famous Bucklew Report contained information from his team, the Vietnam Delta Infiltration Study Group which identified guerrilla operations and other things in the area.

The First USS Sealion (SS-195)-- Part 2: Struck By Bombs in the Japanese Attack on the Philippines

In the spring of 1940, the Sealion (SS-195) and the rest of her  division sailed for the Philippines.  Arriving there in the fall, she commenced activities as a unit of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet  Into October 1941, she ranged from Luzon to the  Sulu Archipelago.

Then with her sister ship, the USS Seadragon (SS-194), she returned to Cavite Navy Yard for a regular overhaul.  Unfortunately, the Sealion was there when the Japanese attacked at the beginning of the war.  She took two direct hits as the Japanese destroyed the base.

She was tied up next to the Seadragon.  The first bomb struck the aft end of her  conning tower and exploded  outside the hull over the control room.  The second smashed through a main ballast tank and caused the pressure hull to explode in the aft engine room, killing four men:  Sterling Cecil Foster, Melvin Donald O'Connell, Ernest Ephrom Ogilvie and Vallentyne Lester Paul, then working there.  In addition, one seaman, Howard Firth, died while a POW.

--GreGen

The First Sealion Submarine (SS-195)

The Sealion (SS315) that sank the Japanese battleship Kongo was the second submarine by that name.  It replaced this one.

From Wikipedia.

It was a Sargo-class submarine.  Her keel was laid down 20 June 1938 by the Electric Boat Co. of Groton, Connecticut.  Launched on 25 May 1939 and commissioned  27 November 1939.

GEBERAL CHARACTERISTICS

LENGTH:   310' 6"

BEAM:  26 feet 10 inches

SPEED:  21 knots surfaced, 8.75 submerged

TEST DEPTH:  250 feet

COMPLEMENT:  5 officers, 54 enlisted

ARMAMENT:

Eight 21-inch torpedo tubes:  four forward, four aft

24 torpedoes

One 3-inch deck gun

four machine guns

--GreGen

Northern Illinois State Teachers College in DeKalb Gets a North American AT-6

From the March 8, 2022 MidWeek "Looking Back" (DeKalb County, Illinois).

1947, 75 years ago.

"A North American AT-6 used by the Army as a training plane has been purchased by the Northern Illinois State Teachers college for instruction purposes.

"The plane was flown here from Oklahoma and is at Taylor  airport where it will be  partially dismantled.  Sold at a low figure to  educational organizations, the plane cannot be used for  flying purposes."

Getting Rid of the Surplus.  --GreGen

Fifty Facts About D-Day-- Part 5: Medals of Honor

41.  The U.S. Army attacked with six divisions.

42.  500 gliders took to the air.

43.  A separate battle was waged high above the beach at Pointe du Hoc, 100-foot cliffs.

44.  Germany's mighty Atlantic Wall fell in a day.

45. There were  12 Medals of Honor.

46.  Heavy packs encumbered troops.

47.  Boat ramps on the Higgins Boats served as shield.

48.  One black unit participated.  The Army was segregated and black troops not allowed to fight.     The 330th  Barrage Balloon Battalion was there.

49.  That unit's medic is an unsung hero  Waverly B. Woodson.  Despite being injured himself, he saved hundreds of lives and kept four from drowning.  In recent years there is a movement to get him  a Medal of Honor.

50.  Germany surrendered less than a year later on May 7, 1945.

--GreGen

Fifty Facts About D-Day-- Part 4: Higgins Boats

31.  It was supposed to happen one month earlier.

32.  Nature played a key role.   Weather almost caused another delay in June.

33.  Higgins Boats (LCVPs) took on D-Day.

34.  D-Day films have become very popular in American culture.  "The Longest Day" and "Saving Private Ryan" of course.

35.  A movie star was at D-Day.  Henry Fonda was a quartermaster on the destroyer USS Satterlee at D-Day.  He also was in the movie "The Longest Day."

36.  Many other famous people were at D-Day.  Yankees catcher Yogi Berra, author J.D. Salinger and Civil Rights activist Medgar Evers.  Also golf great Bobby Jones and British actor David Niven and  Charles Durning.

Before he played Scotty" on "Star Trek," actor James  Doohan sustained six wounds and lost his middle finger at Juno Beach.

37.  Gargantuan supply shipments preceded the invasion.

38.  17 million maps were needed.

39.  The landings opened a supply line.

40.  Artificial harbors supported the supply lines.

I'm Hit, Capt. Kirk!  I'm Hit.  --GreGen

Fifty Facts About D-Day-- Part 3: Casualties and the Germans Almost Guessed It Right

21,  A memorial cemetery sits on U.S. soil in France.   Most of the 9,287 American buried in the Normandy  American Cemetery were killed on D-Day or early battles fought afterwards.

22.  Families fought--and died-- together.  33 sets of brothers were buried side-by-side, along with one father and son.

23.  Around 14,000 corpses were returned home.

24.  The Allies lost more than 11% of their numbers.  (226,386 casualties.  72,911 killed or missing and 153,475 wounded)

25.  German casualties exceeded  240,000.  The Allies also captured 200,000 German prisoners.

26.  The action was far from consistent.  In some places there were almost no casualties while in others almost 96%.

27.  The tide was a double-edged sword.  Landing at low tide avoided the German obstacles but meant troops were exposed to fire for longer to cross the beaches.  Also, as the tide came in, wounded drowned.

28.  The beach was a minefield.  It is estimated that the Germans had planted  around four million mines on the beaches.

29.  D-Day was the result of trial and error.

30.  The Germans almost guessed it right.

Again, if you want more information, go to the site.

--GreGen

Fifty Facts About D-Day You Might Not Know-- Part 2: 7,000 Allied Ships and 11,500 Aircraft

11.  The operation had a code name.  (Operation Overlord)

12.  D-Day involved nearly 7,000 Allied ships.

13.  D-Day involved more than 11,500 Allied aircraft.

14.  There were 73,000 American troops at D-Day.

15.  Comanche 'code-talkers' joined the siege.  (Indians)

16.  The Allies faced 50,000 German defenders.

17.  The battle lasted until August.  It was the beginning of the Battle of Normandy.

18.  The exact number of fallen (on both sides) is not known.  Allied killed put at 4,413.  German is unknown, but estimates place it between 4,000 and 9,000.

19.  Most Allied troops arrived after D-Day.

20.  The operation led to the liberation of Paris.

--GreGen

Fifty Facts About D-Day You Might Not Know-- Part 1: Largest Amphibious Assault in History

From the March 15, 2022, Newsbreak by Andrew Lisa.

I'm just listing them.  If you want to know more, go to the site.

1.  It was the largest amphibious assault in history.  (Yep, even bigger than Fort Fisher)

2.  The "D" in D-Day is redundant.

3.  Secrecy and deception were key.

4.  The practice run turned deadly.

5.  German defenses were the world's biggest construction project.

6.  Allied forces landed on five code-named beaches.

7.  The worst fighting occurred on Omaha Beach.

8.  A massive bombardment preceded the landing.

9.  Thousands of paratroopers landed first.

10.  Canadian forces captured the most ground.

--GreGen

Ise-Class Japanese Battleships: End of the War

While waiting for their air groups, the two sister ships were used to ferry troops and material to Japanese bases.  They participated in the  Battle off Cape  Engano in late 1944 where they decoyed the American fleet supporting the invasion of  Leyte away from the landing beaches.

Afterwards, both ships were transferred to Southeast Asia and in early 1945 participated in  Operation Kita, where they transported petrol and other  strategic materials to Japan.  They were then reduced to reserve until they were sunk during American airstrikes in July.

On 19 March, they were in Kure Navy Base and both were hit by bombs.  After that, they were turned into floating anti-aircraft batteries.  On 24 July, the Ise was struck by five bombs and began to sink  The Hyuga was hit by ten bombs and began foundering, both sustaining heavy casualties.

After the war, they were  scrapped in 1946-1947.

--GreGen

Ise-Class Japanese Battleships: The Ise and Hyuga, Hybrid Battleship/Aircraft Carriers

The front was all battleship.  The back was all aircraft carrier.

From Wikipedia.

These two battleships are of particular interest because they became hybrid ships: half battleship, half carrier.

They were a pair of dreadnaught battleships built for the Japanese Navy during World War I.  Both ships carried supplies for the survivors of the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923.  They were modernized in 1934-1937 with improvements to armor and machinery and a rebuilt superstructure in the pagoda mast style.

Afterwards they played a minor role in the Second Sino-Chinese War.

Despite the expensive and extensive reconstructions, both were considered obsolete by the eve of the Pacific War and neither saw significant action in the early years of the war.  Following the loss of most of Japan's large aircraft carriers in the Battle of Midway, they were rebuilt once again with a flight deck replacing the rear  gun turrets to give them  the ability to operate an air group of float planes.

However, a lack of  aircraft and qualified pilots meant that they never  actually launched aircraft in battle.

Strange Looking Contraptions Indeed.  --GreGen

The Japanese Destroyer Urakaze-- Part 2

The Urakaze was laid down  11 April 1939 and launched 19 April 1940.  Commissioning came 15 December 1940.

On 9 June 1944, she rescued 126 survivors of the destroyer  Tanikaze which had been sunk by the USS Harder (SS-257).  During the Battle of Philippine Sea, she assisted survivors of the aircraft carrier Shokaku (which had been in the Pearl Harbor attack) which had been sunk by the submarine USS Cavalla (SS-244).  Depth charges from the Urakaze slightly damaged the Cavalla.

On 21 November 1944. the Urakaze was torpedoed on sink with all hands by the submarine USS Sealion (SS-315) 65 miles  north-northwest of  Keelung, Formosa.  The torpedo that sank the Urakaze was one of three  the Sealion had launched at the battleship Nagato.  One of which inadvertently hit the Urakaze and the other two missing.

However, other torpedoes hit the battleship Kongo and sank her a few hours later.

--GreGen

The Japanese Destroyer Urakaze-- Part 1

From Wikipedia.

The Japanese destroyer Urakaze (meaning Wind of the Sea) was one of 19 Kagero-class destroyers built during the 1930s.

The USS Sealion (SS-315) sank this ship on the same day it sank the battleship Kongo.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

LENGTH:  388.8 feet

BEAM:  35.5 feet

SPEED:  35 knots

COMPLEMENT:  240

ARMAMENT:  

six 5-inch guns

up to 28 AA guns

eight  24-inch torpedo tubes

36 depth charges

--GreGen

The Nagato After the War: Operation Crossroads

From Wikipedia.

The battleship Nagato was selected for the testing of the atom bombs at Bikini Atoll in Operation Crossroads.

Getting her to the site was not easy with breakdowns and leaking.

The first test of Operation Crossroads was Test Able, an air burst on 1 July 1946 when she was 1640 yards from Ground Zero (just shy of a mile) and she was only lightly damaged.  A skeleton crew boarded the ship to assess damage and to prepare her for the next test on 25 July.  

Test Baker was an underwater explosion and the ship was 950 yards away from Ground Zero (a little over half mile away).  The Nagato rode out the tsunami from the explosion with little apparent damage and had a slight list to the starboard of two degrees when it passed by.

A more thorough assessment couldn't be made because of radioactivity.  Her list gradually increased over the next five days and she capsized and sank during the night of 29/30 July.

The wreck is upside down and her most prominent features are her four propellers at 110 feet below the surface.  She has become a scuba diving destination in recent years and has been named as one of the top ten  wreck diving sites.

--GreGen

IJN Nagato-- Part 3: Met Her Demise After an Atomic Blast

The U.S. Navy used the Bikini atom bomb tests to see the impact of the new weapon on fleet concentrations.  So they used a variety of  older capital ships and support ships, including battleships, aircraft carriers, cruisers and smaller ships.

Many of these ships survived the explosions, though quite a few met their fates testing more conventional weapons.

The Nagato did not.

In early 1946, an American crew took possession of the Nagato and got her in condition to get underway to the Bikini Atoll.  Her condition was poor even before the tests due to age, battle damage and poor maintenance, especially toward the end of the war.

There were leakage and  seaworthiness issues along the way.  Nevertheless, she survived the first test (Test Able) on July 1, 1946.  The second test on July 25 left the Nagato with a list that worsened over the course of a week, until she capsized and sank.

Thus, the Nagato, like the war and Japan's dreams of a Pacific empire, ended with an atomic explosion.

--GreGen

Japanese Battleship IJN Nagato-- Part 2: Surrender and Atom Bomb Tests

The Nagato served in and survived, most of the important battles of World War II, with the exception of the Guadalcanal Campaign.  Because of her symbolic role in the Pearl Harbor attack, the U.S. Navy made special efforts to find and destroy her in the last months of the war.

The Nagato was one of the ships the USS Sealion fired torpedoes at in 1944 when it sank the battleship Kongo.

They successfully camouflaged her and it survived the huge air raids that sank much of the rest of the Japanese fleet.  The Nagato was on hand for the surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945.

As the U.S. fleet entered Tokyo Bay, some officers feared that fanatics on board the Nagato might take the suicidal opportunity to fire one last salvo.  relations, however, remained peaceful and the Nagato surrendered  after a brief scuffle over lowering the IJN flag.

The Nagato was far too old for the U.S. Navy to use (which also had a surplus of aging battleships of its own) and their was also the fear that the ship might become a focus for renewed Japanese nationalism.

So, like many of the captured German ships and older American battleships, it was decided that the Nagato would meet her end at the Bikini atom bomb tests.

--GreGen

Just One Japanese Battleship Survived to Japan's Surrender: The Nagato-- Part 1

Japan's surface fleet was decimated during World War II.  Of her battleships, only one was still afloat at the conclusion of the war.

It was the IJN Nagato.  This was one of the ships the submarine USS Sealion fired torpedoes at that day it sank the battleship Kongo and the destroyer Urakaze.  The famed battleship Yamato was also in the convoy that day.

From the August 14, 2015, Diplomat "Imperial Japan's last floating battleship" by Robert Farley.

It entered service in November 1920, displaced 33,000 tons, carried eight 16-inch guns and could make 26.6 knots, a combination that made her one of the most powerful warships in the world at the time.

The Nagato and her sister ship, the Mutsu were  the first two ships of Japan's "eight and eight" program designed to provide the country with eight modern battleships and battlecruisers (the Kongo and her sisters which I have been writing about were four of the battlecruisers).

This fleet would insure Japan's dominance in her region, but the Washington Naval Treaty put a serious hold on battleship construction.

After a pair of interwar  reconstructions, the Nagato served as the  flagship of the combined fleet until the battleship Yamato was commissioned.  Admiral Yammomoto (Yamamoto) gave the final word for the attack on Pearl Harbor from the bridge of this ship.

--GreGen

Japanese Battleship Pagodas

From Wikipedia.

Look at the pagoda mast of the Kongo at right.

The pagoda mast was a type of superstructure that was common on Japanese capital warships that were reconstructed in the 1930s in a bid to improve their fighting performance.  This came about because of restrictions put on Japan because of the Washington Naval Treaty which severely limited the construction of new battleships.

Pagoda masts were built on existing tripod masts by adding searchlight and other platforms, lookouts and shelters upon each other and led to something looking like a pagoda temple.  These new superstructures were built on the Kongo-class battlecruisers as they were turned into battleships, the Fuso, Ise and Nagato-classes of battleships.

These pagoda masts reached quite high.  For example, the top of the one on the battleship Fuso was 130 feet above the waterline.

The British Royal Navy was considered to be a likely enemy in a war and it was determined that the Japanese would have a better chance fighting them at night time.  The Japanese had developed powerful searchlights and placed them on the pagoda masts with the purpose of illuminating enemy ships.

However, during the early 1940s the development of radar enabled the targeting of enemy ships at night, which negated the value of the searchlights.

--GreGen

Japanese Battleships During WW II-- Part 2

As I said in the last post, I was very much surprised at how few battleships Japan had during the war.

The United Sates, on the other hand, had 24 (counting the USS Arizona, USS Oklahoma and USS Utah which were knocked out of the war on the first day for the country.)

Continuing with the Japanese battleships:

NAGATO-CLASS

NAGATO   Both ships underwent  significant modernization 1934-1936, rebuilding superstructure into the more familiar pagoda mast style.  (I will also be writing about the Japanese pagoda masts this month.)

MITSU

***********************************

YAMATO-CLASS

YAMATO   Five planned, one converted into aircraft carrier, two cancelled.  The Yamato was sunk during a one-way trip to Okinawa during Operation  Ten-Go.  She never saw combat.

MUSASHI

***********************************

DESIGN 1-150

Popularly known as the "Super-Yamato class was a planned class of battleships.  In keeping with the IJN's long-held doctrine of qualitative superiority, they were designed to be the most powerful battleships afloat.  As part of this, the class would have had six 20.1-inch guns.

Design work on  the A-150s began after the Yamato-class was mostly finished by  early 1941, when the Japanese began focusing on aircraft carriers and other smaller warships in preparation for the coming conflict.

No A-150 was ever laid down and many of the designs of the class were destroyed near the end of the war.

--GreGen

Japanese Battleships During WW II-- Part 1

From Wikipedia:  "List of Japanese Navy ships and war vessels in World War II.

After writing about the Kongo and her three sister ships which were converted from battlecruisers to battleships, I got to wondering about how many battleships Japan actually had.  It seemed to me that there were a whole lot of them.

I started searching and good old Wikipedia had a complete list of Japanese warships during the war.

I was surprised to see that Japan only had ten battleships other than the Kongo-class.

*************************

FUSO-CLASS:  There was a plan to convert these ships into  Aviation Battleships in 1943.  The plan was cancelled  and the two Ise-Class battleships were converted instead.  

FUSO

YAMASHIRO

*************************

ISE-CLASS  Converted into Aviation Battleships in 1943.  (I'll write more on these interesting ships later this month.)

ISE

HYUGA

--GreGen

Japanese Battleship Kongo-- Part 4: The Sinking and Shipwreck

Within 15 minutes of detaching from the main force, the Kongo was listing 45 degrees and flooding uncontrollably.  At 5:18  the ship lost all power and the order was given to abandon ship.

At 5:24, while the evacuation was underway, the forward  14-inch magazine exploded, and the broken ship sank quickly with the loss of over 1,200 of her crew, including the commander of the  Third Battleship  Division and her captain.

The two escorting destroyers, the Hamakaze and Isokaze picked up the few survivors.  The Hamakaze rescued  7 officers and 139 men.  The Isokaze did the same for 6 officers and 85 men.  The total rescued out of the 1360 complement was just 347.

The wreck of the Kongo has not yet been found.  The wreck of the sistership IJN Hiei was found in 2019 by  Paul Allen.

The Kongo is believed to have sunk in  350 feet of water approximately 55 nautical miles northwest of Keelung. 

She was one of only three British-built battleships sunk by submarine attack during World War II.  The other two were the HMS Royal Oak and the HMS Barham.  (Remember, the Kongo was built in Britain.)

--GreGen

Japanese Battleship Kongo-- Part 3: Torpedoed By USS Sealion

On 16 November 1944, following a U.S. air raid on Brunei, the Kongo along with the battleships Yamato and Nagato and the rest of the First Fleet, departed from Brunei bound for the Kure Naval base in preparation for a major  reorganization of what remained of the once-mighty Japanese fleet.

On 20 November, they entered the Formosa Strait.  Shortly after midnight on 21 November, the American submarine Sealion made radar contact with the fleet at 44,000 yards.  Maneuvering into position at 02:45, the Sealion  fired six torpedoes at the Kongo, followed by three stern torpedoes at the Nagato fifteen minutes later.

One minute after the first salvo  was launched, two torpedoes were seen to hit the Kongo on the port side, while a third sank the destroyer Urakaze with all hands.  The two torpedoes that hit the Kongo flooded  two of the ship's boiler rooms, but she was still able to make 16 knots.

But, by 05:00, she had slowed to  11 knots and was given permission to break off from the fleet and to head for port in  Keelung in Formosa along with the destroyers Hamakaze and Isokaze as escort.

--GreGen

The Japanese Battleship Kongo-- Part 2: The Battle of Samar

The Kongo's main battery consisted of   eight 14inch guns in four twin turrets.  Secondary armament had sixteen 6-inch guns

From her completion  in England and commissioning into the Japanese Imperial Navy on 16 August 1913 until 1929, the Kongo was classified as a battlecruiser.  From 1929 to 1935, she was reconstructed as a battleship.  Then, from 1935 to 1941 she was again reconfigured into a fast battleship, one that cold keep up with Japan's increasing fleet of aircraft carriers.

I have already written about battles the Kongo participated in in my last post and will skip ahead to events leading up to her loss.

In October 1944, the Kongo departed Lingga in preparation for "Operation  Sho-1", Japan's counterattack during the Battle of Leyte Gulf.  On 24 October, the Kongo escaped damage by attacks from several American aircraft in the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea.  On 25 October, during the Battle of Samar, the Kongo -- as part of Admiral Kurita's Centre Force -- engaged the U.S. 7th Fleet's "Taffy 3", a battle group of escort carriers and destroyers.

She succeeded in scoring several hits on the escort carrier Gambier Bay (CVE-73) as well as the destroyers Hoel (DD-533) and Heerman (DD-532).  At 09:12 she sank the destroyer escort Samuel B. Roberts (DE-413).

After a fierce defensive action by the outgunned and manned American ships, which sank three Japanese heavy cruisers, Admiral Kurita withdrew, ending the battle.

While withdrawing, the Kongo suffered damage after five near misses from attacking aircraft.  The fleet arrived in Brunei on 28 October.

--GreGen