The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.

Friday, March 22, 2019

USS Maumee (AO-2) in World War II-- Part 1: Fleet Oiler


I am writing about this ship in my Cooter's History Thing blog as it was the first ship in the U.S. Navy powered by diesel engines, first ship to resupply destroyers at sea and commanded by William Tomb, who was the son of a Confederate Navy officer James Tomb (whom I wrote about in my Running the Blockade: Civil War Navy blog.

Here is the Maumee's service as a fleet oiler and training ship during World War II, from Wikipedia.

After World War I, the Maumee was put into reserve at Philadelphia, but when hostilities began in Europe in 1939, it was brought out and given extensive overhaul in Baltimore and had the diesel engines reverted to steam power.  Recommissioned 2 June 1942 and assigned to the Atlantic fleet where she was a training ship off the North Carolina Capes.  In November 1942, it sailed across the Atlantic to Europe for the first time since World War I.

--GreGen

No comments:

Post a Comment