5 MAY 1863 QUEEN’S CREEK RAID Evasion by a Confederate blockade runner was no small embarrassment to the Union ships whose job it was to isolate the South. And when a small cutter was observed running goods up the Piankatank River Read More
TODAY IN NAVAL HISTORY 30 APRIL 1943 OPERATION “MINCEMEAT” When the American 7th and British 8th Armies landed on southern Sicily 10 July 1943 they found lighter than anticipated resistance. It seems the Germans had concentrated their defenses on the Read More
23 APRIL 1945 THE CONTROVERSY OF PE-56 On this day the 62 sailors aboard the Navy’s “Eagle”-class patrol craft PE-56 were carrying out the plan of the day, patrolling for German submarines off the Maine coast. Duty on board such vessels Read More
14-15 APRIL 1986 AIR RAID ON KADHAFI Before Saddam and bin Laden there was Muammar Kadhafi, and this Lidyan dictator’s continuing support of terrorism in the mid-1980s prompted ADM William J. Crowe, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to draft Read More
11 APRIL 1862 THE PLOT TO CAPTURE MONITOR The historic battle of Hampton Roads on 9 March 1862 between CSS VIRGINIA (the ex-USS MERRIMACK) and USS MONITOR ended in a draw. Plate iron had proven its value. In fact, MONITOR had Read More
6-7 APRIL 1945 THREE NEAR MISSES Joining the fight off Okinawa was USS WESSON (DE-184). Destroyer escorts were a product of WWII, designed specifically for escorting ships against submarine attack. Some DEs were powered by oil-burning steam turbines, but WESSON bore Read More
1 APRIL 1944 VADM FUKUDOME AND PLAN “Z” After diverting to Cebu to escape the path of a violent storm, VADM Shigeru Fukudome’s “Emily” seaplane still found itself in dire straits. On the approach to Cebu’s harbor this dark night the Read More
31 MARCH-1 APRIL 1944 THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ADMIRAL KOGA With the death of ADM Isoruku Yamamoto on 18 April 1943 command of the Imperial Japanese Combined Fleet passed to ADM Mineichi Koga. In February 1944 Koga was forced by American air Read More
23-27 MARCH 1986 OPERATION “PRAIRIE FIRE” After Muslim strongman COL Muammar al-Kadhafi overthrew the monarchy in Libya in 1969, he began agitating against two perceived enemies, the US and Israel. He defiantly and arbitrarily extended his territorial claims to include all Read More
20 MARCH 1945 LAST TRANSMISSION FROM KETE The fleet submarine KETE (SS-369) was launched 9 April 1944, one of the prolific Balao-class submarines that proved so successful in WWII. Like most, she was named for a fish, in this case a Read More