The U.S. Navy in WW II and Afterwards-- Part 1

From the July 29, 2022, 19fortyfive site  "Why the Navy dropped nuclear  bombs on aircraft carriers and battleships" by PeterSuciu.

At the outbreak of World War II, the British Royal Navy was the strongest  maritime force in the world.  However, by the end of the conflict the United States Navy had ovetaken it for strongest even though it was tasked with fighting a two-front war on the seas.

But the United States proved up to the challenge and produced a massive number of warships.  Even so, the U.S. fleet was a considerable force at  the outbreak of the wat.

In  1939, the U.S. Navy had 15 battleships, 5 aircraft carriers, 18 heavy cruisers and 19 light cruisers.  Even as a new class of battleships entered service during the war, the vaunted Iowa-class, the focus had shiffed to  aircraft carriers, of which 16 super carriers were built along with dozens of smaller carriers.

When the fighting ended in 1945, the United States had more warships than any other power and there was the consideration of what to do with all of the,.

For many of the older ones, they were used as test targets for a new kind of weapon.

Nuclear.

--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

President Trump Visits Wilmington, NC, Yesterday and Recognizes the City's Role in WW II-- Part 1

From the September 2, 2020, Spectrum News "In visit to Wilmington, president marks city's WW II history, criticizes protesters" by Charles Duncan.

Standing in front of the battleship North Carolina, President Trump recognized Wilmington's role in World War II as the nation marked the 75th anniversary of Japan's signing of the surrender document on board the USS Missouri that ended World War II.

Sadly, the USS North Carolina was not in Tokyo Bay on September 2, but one of the battleships sunk at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the USS West Virginia, was.  Other battleships there were the USS South Dakota, Iowa, Colorado, New Mexico, Mississippi, Idaho and the British battleships HMS Duke of York and King George V.

The president said that Wilmington and North Carolina made extraordinary contributions to the war effort.  "Nearly two million American servicemen trained for combat in North Carolina, more than any other state,"  Trump said.  "Over 11,000 North Carolina patriots fought to their very last breath.

--GreGen

Lost British Submarine HMS Urge Found-- Part 2: It Went Down Fast

"The damage to the bow shows a very violent explosion ... indicating that the ship would have sunk very fast giving no chance to anyone to survive from this tragedy," said Timmy Gambin, who led the search mission.  "Besides the damage on the bow, the wreck is in absolutely fantastic condition.  It is sitting upright on the seabed  still facing the direction to which it had been ordered."

The British Defense Ministry has reviewed the findings and says it is the HMS Urge.

Gambin believes it hit the mine while sailing on the surface shortly after leaving Malta under the cover of darkness.

A ceremony is planned for April to declare the site an official war grave.  He hopes the daughter of the Urge's commander Lt. Commander  E.P. Tompkinson, will be in attendance.

--GreGen

Lost British Submarine HMS Urge Found in the Mediterranean-- Part 1

From the October 31, 2019 Reuters  "Lost WW2 British submarine found off the coast of Malta" Crispian Balmer.

The British submarine HMS Urge had been based with other submarines at the island of Malta during the height of the war and had carried out several missions against Italian warships and commerce when it and the others were ordered to leave Malta and redeploy to Egypt because of relentless German attacks on the island.

The Urge set sail on April 27, 1942 with a crew of 32, 11 other Navy personnel and a journalist.  However, it failed to reach Alexandria by its May 6 rendezvous date and its final fate has been unknown, until now.  Most thought it had hit a mine as the area it had gone through had been heavily mined by the Germans.

A maritime team from the University of Malta has spent two decades surveying local waters at the request of the son of the Urge's commander.

A sonar image revealed a submarine-like shape at a 425 foot depth about two miles off Malta's coast.  Subsequent dives by an unmanned submersible revealed it to be a U-Class submarine with a large chunk of its bow missing.

That's It.  --GreGen

Deaths: Courtenay Wright: D-Day With Eisenhower

COURTENAY WRIGHT, 95     (1923-2018)

Physicist Saw Normandy Beaches With Eisenhower.

November 27, 2018, Chicago Sun-Times.

Worked with some of the world's greatest military and scientific minds during his life.

As a 20-year-old Royal Navy radar officer, he decoded the message that made him one of the first in the world to know about the launch of D-Day.

The day after that, he was on the bridge of the HMS Apollo when General Dwight D. Eisenhower urged the captain to go full speed ahead so he could inspect the Normandy beaches.  The ship ran aground and "nearly decapitating the general."  Eisenhower's "startled face was inches from his own.

After the war, he was brought to to the University of Chicago by renowned physicist Enrico Fermi, a leader in the Manhattan Project.

--GreGen

LST-157

Gerald "Jerry" Barbosa, who just recently died and I wrote about in the last two posts, served on this ship.

One site had the nickname of the ship as the USS Ivory Soap -- It Floats.

It was built by the Missouri Valley Bridge and Iron Company at Evansville, Indiana.  Laid down 25 June 1942, launched 31 October 1942 and commissioned 10 February 1943  It ended service 9 December 1944 and was transferred to the Royal Navy and returned to the Navy 13 April 1946 and sold 5 September 1946.

It served in the European Theater:

Sicilian Occupation July 1943

Salerno Landing  September 1943

Invasion of Normandy  June 1944

During its service, it earned three Battle Stars.

--GreGen

Irish Lighthouses in World War II-- Part 1: Ballycotton Island Lighthouse

From "Lighthouses of Ireland" by Kevin McCarthy.

Ballycotton Island Lighthouse is located along Ireland's southern coast near Cork.  The waters near it recently have been often used by the Royal Navy from their Haulbowline Island facility in Cork Harbor.  The Royal Navy transferred that facility to Ireland in 1938.

During World War II, even though Ireland remained neutral, the Irosh government established the Marine and Coastwatching Services in 1940. and took over the old Royal Naval Repair and Victualling Yard and Naval Hospital on Haulbowline Island.

They sent their ships out to patrol the area, protect navigational aids, enforce the fishing limits, rescue shipwreck survivors and ward off unfriendly ships (German).

--GreGen

HMS Looe/HMS Lyemun/IJN Nanyo-- Part 1:

I have been writing about the HMS Looe which sank in 1744 at Looe Key in the Florida Keys.  Nine of its cannons have been tentatively traced to a recreated Colonial fort in New York.  I also researched other ships in the Royal Navy by the name HMS Looe.  This is in my Cooter's History Thing Blog.

The seventh HMS Looe looked interesting and had a World War II connection, so did further research.

Wikipedia had it listed as it being a Bangor-class minesweeper laid down in 1941 and renamed the HMS Lyemun while still on the stocks, but captured that year by the Japanese and later completed as the Nanyo in 1943 and lost later that year.

On that information, I'd have to believe it was built and captured in either Hong Kong or Singapore.

--GreGen