The USS Montgomery (DD-121)

In January, I gave a presentation "RoadTrippin' Through History;  The Continuing Saga of the USS Montgomery" at the College of Lake County (Illinois).  I talked about six ships in the U.S. Navy by the name of USS Montgomery.  There was a ship by that name in the American Revolution, War of 1812, Civil War, Spanish-American War, World Wars I and II and the current U.S. Navy.

Right now, I am writing the presentation in my Running the Blockade:  Civil War Navy blog.

And, I am currently writing about the World War I and II destroyer USS Montgomery (DD-121). It was named after John B. Montgomery who was an officer in the War of 1812, Mexican War and Civil War.  It was at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

--GreGen

Admiral David W. Bagley

I have been writing about the sinking of the destroyer USS Jacob Jones(DD-61) by a U-boat during World War I in my Cooter's History blog.   It was under the command of David W. Bagley at the time.  There was also a second destoyer USS Jacob Jones (DD-130) that was sunk by a torpedo during WW II as well as a destroyer escort USS Jacob Jones (DE-130) that was in the war, but did not get sunk.

David Bagley continued in the U.S. Navy and rose to the rank of admiral and at the beginning of 1941 he was commander of Battleship Division 2, with his flag on the USS Tennessee (BB-43) and was at Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941, when the attack damaged his ship.

On April 14, 1942, he assumed command of the 14th  Naval District (Hawaii) and  the Hawaiian Sea Frontier and served there until January 1943, then he commanded the  Western Sea Frontier from February 1, 1943, and also commandant of the 11th Naval District and eventually the 14th District again until the end of the war.

You can read about his earlier service in my Cooter's History Thing blog.  Just click on the site in My Blogs List to the right of this.

Looks like I'll have to do some RoadTripping Through History.

--GreGen

HMS Venturer-- Part 5: The 4th's the Charm

Lt. Jimmy S. Launders fired off four torpedoes at 17-second intervals beginning at 12:02 and all took four minutes to reach their target.  Then he dived the Venturer, expecting German retaliation.  The U-864 heard the torpedoes coming at her and took evasive action, dived deeper and turned to avoid them.

She managed to evade the first three but steered directly into the path of the fourth.  Exploding, the German ship split in two and sank with all hands some 490 feet below the surface of the water.

Launders was awarded a bar to his Distinguised Service Order medal for this.

During the Venturer's career, it also sank five merchant ships.

When the war ended, the ship was destined for the scrapyard before being sold to the Royal Norwegian Navy and renamed the Ulstein and served until January 1964 when it was retired and scrapped.

And, I wouldn't have known this story except for writing about a War of 1812 ship.  That's called Road Tripping Through History.

Quite the Story.  --GreGen