Walter Becker, USS Oklahoma Survivor-- Part 2

It is so nice to write about men who survived the capizing of the USS Oklahoma, especially one who went on to do so well in life.

After Pearl Harbor, he was on the destroyer USS  Blue which was sunk at Guadalcanal on 22 August 1942.  So, he was on two ships that sank.  Unfortunate, but fortunate.  The Blue had also been at Pearl Harbor, but got underway.

After that, he was assigned to an aircraft carrier  that was attacked and sunk by Japanese kamakaze planes.  Unfortunately, the article did not say which one.  But, I did find a list of U.S. aircraft carriers sunk by kamakazes and the ones listed were Ommaney Bay (CVE-79), USS Bismarck Sea (CVE-95) and USS St. Lo (CVE-63).

That would make three ships he was on that sank.  I would have given up going to sea.

After the war, Becker eventually moved to Casper where he founded the Becker Fire  Equipment Company

Walter Becker died  December 4, 2015, at the age of 94.  His remains are interred at the Oregon Trail Veterans Cemetery north of Evansville.

--GreGen

Interstate TDR-1 Delivery on the USS Marcus Island (CVE-77)

Photos of the TDR-1 drones accompany the Wikipedia article so you can get an idea what they looked like.  I found the most interesting one of the escort carrier USS Marcus Island (CVE) with a deck load of the TDR-1s and possibly some TBMs for drone control.

The caption reads:  The U.S. Navy Escort Carrier Marcus Island (CVE-77) in a South Pacific port 17 June 1944.  The airplanes parked on her flight deck from amidships to her stern appear to be  Interstate TDR-1 assault drones.

She is probably delivering elements of Special Task Force Group One (STAG-1), which employed TDR-1s in Solomons area operations during September and October  1944.

Other planes aboard appear to be TBMs (which might have actually been Grumman TDF Avengers which were the originally designated control planes), which were used for drone control.The ship is painted in Camouflage Measure 32,  Design 15A.

That Was One Packed Deck.  --GreGen

USS Helm (DD-338)-- Part 5: Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Atomic Testing

Task Force 38 retired to Ulithi, arriving November 2, 1944, after almost two months of continuous action.  After three days, they departed on 5 November and headed back to the Philippines.  The Helm later took part in the landings at Lingayen Gulf on Luzon.

The Japanese put up fierce resistance with their only remaining weapon, suicide kamikaze planes.  On January, 4, 1945, the escort carrier USS Ommaney Bay was struck and sunk.

Next up was Iwo Jima where she screen carriers and rescue survivors of the escort carrier USS Bismarck Sea.  After that, it was on to Okinawa where it shot down many kamikazes.

Afterwards, the Helm did mostly patrol duty and helped search for survivors of the USS Indianapolis.  After the Japanese surrender, it took part in the occupation of Japan.  It was decommissioned in 1946 and used that summer as a target ship of the Operation Crossroads atomic tests in the Pacific.  Her hulk was sold for scrapping in October 1947.

Mr. Winslow's ship was definitely involved in a lot of action.  I wonder if any other ship was involved with that much.

--GreGen

USS Liscome Bay-- Part 3: The Torpedo Hit the Bomb Magazine

On 23 November 1943, the Japanese submarine I-175 arrived off Makin.  The U.S. Task Force built around Rear Admiral Henry M. Mullinnix's three escort carriers:  Liscome Bay, Coral Sea and Corregidor,  was steaming 20 miles  southwest of Butaritari Island at 15 knots.

At 04:30 24 November, reveille sounded on the Liscome Bay.  Flight quarters sounded 04:50 and crew to routine general quarters at 05:05.  Flight crews began preparing their planes for dawn launching.  Thirteen planes had been readied on the flight deck, including one on the catapult.   They had all been  fueled and armed.

Since this was the Liscome Bay's first operation since leaving Pearl Harbor, she still had her full amount of fuel and bombs.  And, there were a lot of  big bombs on board as well as depth charges and torpedoes.

At about 05:10, a lookout on the starboard side of the ship reported a torpedo headed for the ship.  It struck behind the engine room and detonated the bomb magazine causing a devastating explosion that engulfed the whole ship.

--GreGen

Strength of U.S. Navy After World War II, 1947-1957

After the war, numerous warships were put into mothballs, sold, or scrapped.  There was an increase from 1951 to 1953 during the Korean War.

BATTLESHIPS--  4, 2, 1, 1 (1951) 3, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3, 2  (The WWII high was 23).

FLEET CARRIERS--  14, 13, 11, 10, (1951) 17, 19, 19, 20, 21, 22, 22  (The WWII high was 28)

ESCORT CARRIERS--  8, 7, 7, 4, (1951) 15, 19, 19, 18, 17, 16, 16  (WWII high was 71)

CRUISERS--  32, 32, 18, 13, (1951) 15, 19, 19, 18, 17, 16, 16   (WWII high was 72)

DESTROYERS--  138, 134, 143, 137, (1951) 206, 243, 247, 247, 249, 250, 253  (WWII high was 377)

FRIGATES--   24, 12, 12, 10, (1951) 38, 56, 57, 64, 70, 84  (WWII high was 376)

SUBMARINES--  80, 74, 79, 72, (1951) 83, 104, 108, 108, 108, 108, 113  (WWII high was 232)

--GreGen

Build Up of U.S. Navy Before During and After the War-- Part 1

Using U.S. Navy records, here's a year-by-year look at the numbers of different types of warships in the Navy from 1938 to 1946.

BATTLESHIPS--   15, 15, (1940) 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, (1944) 23, 23, 10

FLEET CARRIERS--  5, 5, (1940) 6, 7, (1942) 4, 19, (1944) 25, 28, 15

ESCORT CARRIERS--  0, 0, (1940) 0, 1, 12, 35 (1944) 65, 71, 10

CRUISERS--  32, 36, (1940) 37, 37, 39, 48, (1944) 61, 72, 36

DESTROYERS-- 112, 127, (1940) 185, 171, 224, 332, (1944) 367, 377, 145

There was a big drop in the numbers after the war was over.  Also the drop in aircraft carriers in 1942 due to sinkings.  But after 1942, the American industry kicked into overdrive.

Some Interesting Numbers.  --GreGen

USS Card CVE-11-- Part 1

Since I wrote about the USS Card the past two days and I'd never heard of the ship, some more research was in order.  Thanks Wikipedia.

The Card was a Bogue-class escort carrier, originally was to be a C-3 cargo ship, but while under construction was converted to an escort carrier.  Laid down 27 Oct 1941, launched Feb 1942 and commissioned 8 Nov 1942.

Stats:  9,800 tons, length 496 feet, beam 69.6 feet, 890 officers and men and carried 28 planes.

Was the flagship of TG 21.14, a U-boat hunter-killer group and was very successful.  Their first operation sank the U-117 7 Aug 1943, U-664 9 Aug 1943, U-525 11 Aug and U-847 27 Aug.

On the second cruise 29 Sept to 9 Nov, planes from the Card spotted nest of four subs refueling.  On 4 Oct 1943 sank U-460 and U-422.  Nine days later the U-402 and 31 Oct the U-584.

On Nov 1st, one of the Card's escort ships, the USS Bone, got into gunfight with the U-405 and rammed the sub and sank it but was so badly damaged, it had to be sunk herself.

So, Donald Brown certainly saw a lot od action on the Card.

More Operations Coming.  --GreGen

Avon World War II Veteran Remembers Naval Service

From April 18, 2010, Enterprise by Mike Melanson.

Richard Sellars was 17 in 1942 and supposed to go to detention at Stoughton High School, but went to Boston and joined the Navy. He later became an aviator and belonged to a squadron credited with sinking 2 Japanese and 9 German subs.

He served on the USS Bogue CVE-9, an escort aircraft carrier that protected convoys to Europe.

His first job was to push planes on and off the elevator that brought them up from the hangar deck to the flight deck. Sellars worked his way up to become top turret gunner and his squadron usually flew from midnight to 4 AM, mostly hunting subs that followed the convoys.

They'd drop sound buoys every two miles making a square to try to pick up submarine propeller revolutions on sonar.

Once a sub was detected, they'd either drop depth charges or "The Zombie," a Mark 24 Mine that chased the sound. "It would hit that and stand up like a telephone pole, and we never got any survivors off of that, usually, that went straight down."

Submarines operated in wolf packs of between 4-7 and had a milk cow sub carrying supplies and fuel.

On Christmas 1943, they disabled a sub and took 125 men off and had Christmas dinner with the prisoners.

In June 1944, they sank two Japanese subs off the Azores in the Atlantic. They were carrying rubber to France. There were no survivors.

He got out of the Navy April 27, 1946 on his 21st birthday.

Little-Known Battle of the Atlantic. --GreGen