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

Last Man from USS San Francisco Dies, Richard Jongordon-- Part 2: At Pearl Harbor, Battle of Coral Sea and Guadalcanal

Richard Gordon Johnson (he later changed his name to Richard Jongordon) was born December 6, 1922, in Wheaton, Minnesota, and grew up on a farm and worked any job he could find to help support his family during the Great Depression.  At age 17, he dropped out of high school and joined the Navy after his mother signed a signature waiver.

Because he was a farm kid who had also worked at a butcher shop, he was made a mess specialist and organized and distributed three meals a day on board the USS San Francisco.  He turned 19 on December 6, 1941 while his ship was at Pearl Harbor.  And, we know what happened the next day.

His ship was being overhauled and had essentially no weapons that day, but fortunately the enemy planes ignored it and went after the ships afloat.

Since it wasn't damaged, the guns and work on the ship was quickly done and on December 14, the ship sailed out for war.  It was at the Battle of the Coral Sea and in many operations in the long battle for Guadalcanal.

His main duty was getting the meals out to the crew, but when battle stations were called, he acted as a medic, making sure the wounded were cared for.

The sea battle that took place November 12-13, 1942, off Guadalcanal was the worst the ship was ever in.  The communications and electrical systems were knocked out on the ship, and Jongordon had to look for the wounded in the darkness.  At one point, he found himself in the water up to his waist.  The crew stacked mattresses up against the shell and secured them with tables from the mess hall to slow the rush of water.

--GreGen

Last Man from USS San Francisco Dies-- Part 1: Richard Jongordon

From March 13, 2021, Military.com "World War II veteran, believed to be last survivor of those who served in battle aboard the USS San Francisco, dies at 98" by Sam Whiting, San Francisco Chronicle.

Every Memorial Day  weekend, a crowd gathers  at Land's End, San Francisco to stand in a ceremony beside the  gray, shell-pocked bridge  of the heavy cruiser USS San Francisco, which served valiantly in the desperate Battle of Guadalcanal.  (It was also at Pearl Harbor when it was attacked.)

Chief  Petty Officer  Richard Jongordon stood at the ceremony with his comrades to the last man, and the last man turned out to be him.

Among the 1200 men who so valiantly fought on the "Frisco" in the great sea battle of November 12-13, 1941, against a vastly superior Japanese fleet, he was considered to be the last survivor and was definitely the last of the fifty or so people who regularly attended the ceremony.

Jongordon died March 6 of natural causes.

He was proud of his service during the war, but even more proud of his accomplishment of saving the wing bridge of his old ship which he and other shipmates found in a Mare Island  scrap yard waiting to be scrapped.  They saved it.

Today, it is part of a park memorial at Land's End and it has the names of  100 sailors and seven Marines who died aboard the ship in combat.

--GreGen

Uruguayan Court Orders Graf Spee Eagle To Be Sold

From the October Naval History magazine.

The giant bronze Nazi eagle from the stern of the German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee, sunk by scuttling off the coast of Uruguay after the 1939 Battle of the River Platte, must be sold according to a Uruguay court.

The 800 pound eagle was salvaged in 2006, but for years has been kept out of view in a sealed crate in a Uruguayan naval warehouse.  It has a controversial  artifact on it -- beneath the eagle's talons in a large swastika.  This has brought a lot of feelings.

Options are exhibiting the eagle, auctioning it off or even destroying it.

Personally I would like to have it put on exhibit somewhere as history.

--GreGen

The Navy's Most Unwanted Ship, the USS Prinz Eugen-- Part 1: Formerly a German Warship

From the January 4, 2019 Hampton Roads Naval Museum blog  "The Navy's 'Most Unwanted' ship and the instruments that escaped  its fate."

On January 5, 1946, the U.S. Navy commissioned a heavy cruiser into its fleet.  What was strange about this ship was that, a year earlier, it had been an enemy ship, the German KMS Prinz Eugen.  It was the German Navy's largest and most heavily armed remaining ship.  The United States had gotten the ship by drawing lots from a hat.

It had originally been commissioned into the Kriegsmarine in Kiel, Germany, August 1. 1940.  It was the second of three Hipper class heavy cruisers to see action in World War II.  It almost didn't survive its first mission, which was escorting the KMS Bismarck in its dash out to the Atlantic in late May 1941 for commerce attacks.    They encountered the HMS Prince of Wales and the HMS Hood.  The Prinz Eugen landed some of the first hits on the Hood before the Bismarck sank the ship.

The Bismarck was later damaged by carrier-based aircraft and destroyed a few days later.  The Prinz Eugen made it back to to occupied France.

--GreGen

Bernie Weber, Pearl Harbor Survivor, Turns 101

From the March 22. 2019, Garfield County, Colorado Post Independent  "Bernie Weber turned 101 Thursday March 21."

It is such a pleasure to write about a Pearl Harbor survivor getting another year older these days.

Mr. Weber is a Colorado native.  On December 7, 1941, he was at Pearl Harbor on the USS Oklahoma.  He was listed as MIA to his family for ten days before the Navy located him.

Nearly a year later, he was on the USS Northampton when it was sunk at the Battle of Tassafaronga November 30, 1942.

--GreGen

Staten Island Pearl Harbor Survivor Visits Fleet Wekk

From the May 27, 2012, Military News by MC1 Patrick Gordon.

The last-known Staten island Pearl Harbor survivor, former Chief Boatswain's Mate Alf Kongslie, 91, was on his ship, the USS Saint Louis (CL-49) and recalls the day began like so many others on that December 7, 1941.

"I saw guys going across the harbor in a liberty boat.  I figured they were going to church.  Then I saw them jumping into the water.  I didn't know what was going on.

"I kept trying to climb my way up the ladder to get  to my battle station, but guys kept knocking me off coming down the other way.  I finally got to my station and got to work."

He served in the Navy until 1947.

--GreGen

The Return of USS Houston Artifacts

From the Jan. 3, 2014, Naval History Blog "Return of USS Houston Artifacts to NHHC." NHMC is the Naval History & Heritage Command.

The NHHC's Underwater Archaeology Branch (UAB) received a ceramic cup and saucer and a trumpet from the wreck of the USS Houston. These items were taken from the wreck in an unsanctioned removal.

Unfortunately the article didn't go into how these items were acquired.

The items will now undergo documentation, research and conservation treatment at the UAB Archaeology & Conservation Laboratory.

The USS Houston was a Northampton-class heavy cruiser which had the nickname "Galloping Ghost of the Java Coast" which fought at the Battle of Makassar Strait and the Battle of the Java Sea. On March 1, 1942, it was sunk along with the HMAS Perth at the Battle of Sunda Strait. Seven hundred crew died.

--GreGen

Actually, In the Last Post, It was the USS Northampton

I looked up the cruiser USS Hampton that David Ray Mohlenbrink served on at Pearl Harbor, the Doolittle Raid and was sunk at Iron Bottom Sound and could find any mention of a cruiser by that name.

Most likely, he was serving on the heavy cruiser USS Northampton which was not at Pearl Harbor during the attack but at sea with the USS Enterprise, but entered the harbor soon afterwards. It also was on both the Doolittle Raid and sunk in Dec. 1942. Perhaps the crew of the Northampton just referred to it as the 'Hampton.

Clears That Up. --- GreGen

Pearl Harbor Survivor's Ashes Committed to Sea

From the Oct. 31, 2013, military.com. Navy News.

The ashes of GALE MOHLERBRINK were scattered in Pearl Harbor near the USS Utah Memorial by Ford Island at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam during an October 29th ceremony.

He was born in 1924 and entered the U.S. Navy at age 17 and stationed on the heavy cruiser USS Northampton CA-26, but had been assigned to work ashore on the Captain's Gig, a job entrusted to only the best sailors.

After the attack, he worked to rescue survivors and then went on patrol in Hawaiian waters looking for the Japanese Battle Fleet.

He held the rank of coxswain at Pearl Harbor and later in the war was at the Battles of Midway and Guadalcanal where his ship earned six battle stars before it was sunk at the Battle of Tassafaronga. Mr. Mohlerbrink survived that despite being in shark-infested waters until a destroyer rescued him and his shipmates.

Later, he served on the destroyer USS Edison (DD-439). //// He died July 7, 2013. //// Another of the Greatest Generation.

--GreGen

USS Northampton (CA-26)-- Part 2

After attacking Witje Island (Atoll). the Northampton next bombarded Wake Island and escorted the aircraft carrier Hornet in the famous Doolittle Raid in April.  Then, it fought at the Battle of Coral Sea and screened the carrier USS Enterprise at the Battle of Midway.  This was one really busy ship.

In mid-August, it joined the Guadalcanal Campaign then patrolled southeast of San Cristobal.  On September 15th, the Northampton was attacked by submarines, but received no damage.  The battleship USS North Carolina and carried USS Wasp were hit by torpedoes, though and the USS O'Brien was hit just 800 yards off the Northampton's port beam.

Next, it screened carriers at Bougainville Island and at the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands on 25 October came to the aid of the sinking USS Hornet.

The Battle of Tassafaronga was fought to prevent the Japanese from reinforcing their troops on Guadalcanal.  Here, the Northampton's luck ran out and it was hit by two Japanese torpedoes and sank three hours later.  American losses at the battle were heavier than the Japanese, but it was a strategic victory as the reinforcements were prevented.

Two other ships had the name Northampton and all three will have a reunion September 10-13 in Branson, Missourit.  The 2014 reunion will be in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The Story of a Ship.  --GreGen

USS Northampton (CA-26)-- Part 1

Wikipedia.

The last entry I mentioned David Hughs of Montgomery County, Texas, dying and listed as the county's last Pearl Harbor survivor.  I had never heard of the ship so did some research.

It turns out that the ship wasn't actually there during the attack, being at sea protecting the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise.  The carrier, Northampton and its strike force returned to Pearl Harbor the next day.

The USS Northampton was a heavy cruiser: 600-feet long, 66-foot beam with a crew of 1,100 and mounting nine 8-inch guns in its main battery.  It was commissioned 17 May 1930 and was sunk at the Battle of Tassafarongas 30 November 1942.

As I already mentioned, it was not at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, but returned the following day.  Evidently that still makes Mr. Hughs a Pearl Harbor survivor.

On the 9th, the Enterprise and its force sortied to look for the Japanese fleet.

On February 1, 1942, the Northampton and USS Salt Lake City were sent to bombard Wotje Atoll, a Japanese base.  The two ships destroyed buildings and oil depots on the island and sank two Japanese ships.  On February 24th, they attacked Wake Island.

More to Come.  --GreGen