9 SEPTEMBER 1942 OREGON FIREBOMBING “All is ready, Sir,” reported Warrant Flying Officer Nubuo Fujita to his skipper, CDR Meiji Tagami, of the submarine I-25. “Very well. Good luck, Fujita.” With that Fujita and his flight observer Petty Officer Shoji Okuda Read More
250th ANNIVERSARY 5 SEPTEMBER 1776 THE FRIGATE TRUMBULL With the sentiment of independence from Britain growing, the 1st Continental Congress in 1775 addressed the issue of seapower. Were we to declare independence (July the following year) we would need a naval force to Read More
TODAY IN NAVAL HISTORY 30-31 AUGUST 1776 EVACUATION OF LONG ISLAND Boston, the hotbed of colonial rebellion, became the British Army’s North American headquarters in the mid-1770s. But after GEN George Washington emplaced cannon in the Dorchester Heights overlooking that Read More
27-28 AUGUST 1861 HATTERAS INLET Union MGEN Benjamin F. Butler, commanding Fort Monroe but not renowned for his tactical genius, nevertheless cleared Rebels from the Newport News region of Virginia during the spring of 1861. This effort was defeated at the Read More
24 AUGUST 1944 HAKE, HARDER, AND HADDO CDR Samuel D. Dealey commanded a three-sub “wolfpack” off the Philippines comprised of his boat, HARDER (SS-257), along with HADDO (SS-255) and HAKE (SS-256). US planners were anticipating the invasion of those islands in Read More
18 AUGUST 1944 WOLFPACKS IN THE PACIFIC? Hitler’s U-boat wolfpacks in the Atlantic innovated the deployment of submarines in that theater. According to Winston Churchill, those U-boats came close to crippling England’s economy. American submariners in the Pacific took note and Read More
12 AUGUST 1814 BRITISH NIGHT RAID As Master Commandant Oliver Hazard Perry built his Lake Erie squadron at Presque Isle during the Summer of 1814, we and the British had but a few brigs and schooners for patrols. Even so, American Read More
5 AUGUST 1864 METACOMET vs. SELMA As RADM David Farragut forced Mobile Bay, the channel coursed only several hundred yards from the heavy Confederate guns of Fort Morgan. To protect his wooden warships, Farragut ordered smaller gunboats lashed to the starboard Read More
30-31 JULY 1944 “RED” RAMAGE Parche is the name of a small, colorful fish remarkable for its uncanny ability to maneuver, even sideways and upside down, among the clefts and crevices of a coral reef. On this night 82 years ago Read More
27 JULY 1776 250th ANNIVERSARY REPRISAL vs. HMS SHARK GEN George Washington had chased the British from Boston only to have them reestablish headquarters in New York. News of the conflict in America had only just reached England. At sea, Read More