THE “SPRU-CANS”

 By the 1960s our aging fleet of WWII Allen M. Sumner and Gearing-class destroyers was increasingly inadequate against the growing threat of Soviet submarines.  A more capable platform for convoy escort and to counter submarine-launched ballistic missiles was needed.  In response, the Major Fleet Escort Study of 1967 called for a fundamental technological re-design of our surface escorts.  That vision materialized 50 years ago this day with the commissioning of USS SPRUANCE (DD-963).

The Spruances were the largest post-WWII destroyers in any navy, stretched to a size more typical of a cruiser.  They were the first in our Navy to be powered by gas turbines, with later modifications installing General Electric LM-2500 aircraft engines in their four engine rooms.  Each carried 16 anti-submarine rockets (ASROC) and six Mk-46 torpedoes in addition to sophisticated submarine detection and tracking equipment.  Due to their predominant ASW mission they mounted only fore and aft 5″/54 guns and twin Phalanx 20mm CIWS mounts–small enough anti-surface weaponry to class them as “destroyers.”  (In traditional nomenclature surface ships are differentiated by the size of their guns.  Battleships mount 10″ guns or larger; heavy cruisers, 8″ guns; light cruisers, 6″ guns; and destroyers carry 5″ guns).

The Spruance platform had enduring utility and formed the backbone of our surface Cold War anti-submarine capabilities.  Thirty-one units were launched, from DD-963 to HAYLER (DD-997), commissioned 5 March 1983.  They served in every action of the latter decades of the Cold War.  Four additional hulls were laid down in 1978-79 intended for the Shah of Iran and fitted with more robust anti-air capabilities.  But after his abdication to the Ayatollah Khomeni in 1979, the four were retained in our Navy as the Kidd-class.  They took our Navy past the turn of the 21^st century and remained popular with our allies thereafter.  Their versatile hulls, power plants, and auxiliary systems are their legacy, being retained for the later Ticonderoga-class cruisers and Arleigh Burke DDGs.

It was the emergence of this latter DDG that eclipsed the venerable “Spru-cans.”  Thirty years and one day after the lead ship was commissioned, our last Spruance left service.  On 21 September 2005 CDR Steven A. Mucklow, Commanding Officer of USS CUSHING (DD-985), accepted his ship’s commissioning pennant in ceremonies in San Diego timed to the 25^th anniversary of that warship’s commissioning.  An era of superlative destroyers for whom crews still emote undying affection thus ended.  “I could not have asked for better duty.” summed-up SH3 (SW) Eric Browning at the CUSHING ceremony, echoing the feelings of many “Spru-can” sailors.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  25 SEP 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Global Security website. DD-963 Spruance-class.”  AT: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/dd-963-specs.htm, 29 September 2005.

Polmar, Norman.  The Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet, 14^th ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1987, pp. 150-55.

Smith, Cynthia.  “Navy’s Last Spruance-Class Destroyer Decommissioned.”  Military.com electronic news release, 27 September 2005.

ADDITIIONAL NOTES:  USS SPRUANCE remembers ADM Raymond A. Spruance (1886-1969), who commanded US Naval forces in WWII at the battles of Midway and the Philippine Sea.  Near the end of WWII, Congress authorized the 5-star rank of Fleet Admiral, allotting 4 billets to the Navy.  Chester Nimitz, Ernest King, and William Leahy were obvious choices.  For the fourth billet, both William Halsey and Raymond Spruance were considered.  Halsey was chosen, to which Spruance reacted, “…if I had received it instead of Bill Halsey, I would have been very unhappy over it.^”

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                                           THE FIRING OF JUDAH

Had other theaters of the early Civil War not been in the limelight, the tension at Pensacola might have been keener.  The Confederates held the Pensacola Navy Yard and Forts Barrancas and McRee guarding the harbor, but a Union garrison had secured Fort Pickens on the Santa Rosa barrier island at the outbreak of fighting.  Pickens was the strongest position in the Pensacola area.  Her guns could reach all of the other installations, and from atop Pickens’ walls Union soldiers and sailors regularly monitored the goings-on across the bay.  In fact, when a large floating drydock was moved into the bay, Pickens’ guns bombarded and sank it, lest it be used as an artillery platform.

In September 1861. the Federals observed more activity at the Navy Yard.  The schooner William H. Judah had been moved to the yard and was apparently being fitted out and armed for privateering.  CAPT William Mervine, responsible for the Union blockade of that portion of the Florida coast, decided on a daring raid that would prevent Judah from ever getting underway.  He landed 100 sailors and Marines from USS COLORADO at Fort Pickens, who on this moonless night shoved off to cross the bay.  LT John H. Russell led the four longboats, detaching one to the dock to quiet the guard and spike a 10-inch Columbiad mounted there.  The other three boats slid up to Judah completely unnoticed.  The men swarmed across and quickly overpowered the only two rebels aboard the schooner.  Meanwhile, the men of the single boat ably dispatched the guard on the dock and disabled the gun with an iron spike driven down the firing hole.  In a short 15 minutes Judah was ablaze and the attackers were pulling away.  But the activity roused other Confederates who reached the dock in time to open fire on the departing Federals.  Three Union sailors slumped over in their boats, 13 were wounded.  Judah drifted into the bay where she burned and sank.

Local Confederate commander MGEN Braxton Bragg was furious over the affair and on 8 October launched a retaliatory strike on the Federals.  At 2200 that night 1000 Confederate volunteers boarded three steamers and several barges and crossed the bay to Santa Rosa Island.  They landed east of Fort Pickens and sneaked upon the 6^th Regiment of New York Zouaves, bivouacked outside the walls at Camp Brown.  In a classic example of “the boy who cried wolf,” 6^th Regiment pickets had been in the habit of shooting game while on duty, so the fire at the advancing Johnny Rebs did not raise an alarm with the Yankees.  The Zouaves were overrun, and only after troops inside Fort Pickens rallied to their aid did the Federals turn back the attack.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  20 SEP 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 2 “C-F”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1977, p. 144.

Ogden, David P.  The Fort Barrancas Story.  Pensacola, FL: Eastern National, 1998, p. 19.

Parks, Virginia, Alan Rick and Norman Simons.  Pensacola in the Civil War.  Pensacola, FL: Pensacola Historical Society,  1978, pp. 16-18.

Pearce, George F.  Pensacola During the Civil War:  A Thorn in the Side of the Confederacy.  Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2000, pp. 111-13.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Western Florida remained a quiet theater throughout the Civil War, in fact the above action anywhere else would likely have been labeled only a skirmish.  In the battle of Santa Rosa Island, Bragg suffered 18 killed, 39 wounded and 30 captured.  Fourteen Zouaves lost their lives, 29 were wounded and 24 were taken prisoner.  The engagement was characterized by ineptitude on both sides.  Part of the reason the Confederates were so easily reversed was that discipline broke down when rebels began looting the tents they had overrun in Camp Brown.

CAPT Mervine is best remembered for his earlier actions in California during the Mexican War.  By 1861 he had been on active duty for 52 years, indeed ill health forced his retirement on 16 July the following year.  He was subsequently promoted to RADM on the retired list.  His name has graced two Navy destroyers, DD-322 and DD-489.  John Henry Russell also reached the rank of RADM before retiring from active duty 27 August 1886.  For this and other actions he is remembered with the pre-WWII Sims-class destroyer RUSSELL (DD-414).  Braxton Bragg is of course the namesake of the US Army’s Fort Bragg in North Carolina (“Bragg” restored in 2025 from “Fort Liberty”).

Spiking was a means of permanently disabling a muzzle-loading cannon.  An iron spike was driven into the tiny touch hole in the breech of the gun.  This blocked the hole from being used to ignite the powder charge.  The action often cracked or weakened the breech, and at the very least left a large hole that vented the firing pressure.  Once spiked, the only way to “repair” the gun was to melt it down for re-casting.

The post The Firing of Judah appeared first on Today in Naval History.

                                               SAN DIEGO LOST

Almost as our ten Pennsylvania and Tennessee-class armored cruisers entered service at the turn of the 20^th century they were rendered obsolete by advances in technology and dreadnaught design.  By the entry of the US into WWI in 1917, our armored cruisers were no longer being detailed to front-line missions.  For example, USS CALIFORNIA (ACR-6), newly renamed SAN DIEGO to allow the former name to be given to the battleship BB-13, was shepherding merchant ships from eastern seaboard ports to the convoy assembly points in Nova Scotia.

This morning found SAN DIEGO steaming alone south of Long Island, headed for New York City.  She was zig-zagging in calm seas with good visibility.  But at 1123, the morning routine was interrupted when a violent explosion lifted her port quarter.  Seawater flooded through a large hole blown in her port side just aft of amidships.  Two secondary explosions signaled the bursting of her port boiler and the detonation of a magazine.  Sailors clamored to their GQ stations–all eyes searching the seas for a periscope.  Guns opened on anything even remotely resembling a feather wake.

CAPT Harley H. Christy ordered the starboard engine full ahead even as a list to port rapidly developed.  He turned in the direction Fire Island Beach in the hope that the settling cruiser could reach shallow water.  All her guns were in action, firing at any wisp upon the surface.  Assuming they had been torpedoed by a lurking German U-boat, her port gunners fired until their stations went awash.  On the starboard side the firing ended when the advancing list pointed the guns skyward.  Men stayed at their posts until the starboard engine flooded, and CAPT Christy became convinced the ship would founder.  Christy himself was the last to leave, working his way from the bridge to the boat deck, then over the side to the exposed docking keel.  He jumped the last eight feet to the water to the cheers of his crew in the boats, who broke out singing The Star Spangled Banner.  SAN DIEGO rolled and sank.  All but six of her crewmen were rescued.

SAN DIEGO was the only major US warship lost to combat in WWI.  A survey of her wreck by hardhat divers in the days that followed reported her capsized on the bottom with severe hull damage.  A salvage effort by the Navy was not attempted.  Though the men on the scene were convinced she had been torpedoed, the exact nature of her demise was never determined.  The controversy persists today, however German records indicate she was most likely the victim of a floating mine laid by U-156.  Her wreck remains a popular sport diving site today.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  25 JUL 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Albert, George J.  “The U.S.S. San Diego and the California Naval Militia.”  AT: http://www.militarymuseum.org/usssandiego.html, 7 June 2007.

Berg, Daniel.  “The USS San Diego Shipwreck.”  AT:  http://www.aquaexplorers.com/sandiego.com, 7 June 2007.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 2 “C-F”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1977.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Though most of SAN DIEGO’s sailors were picked up by other ships in the area, four lifeboats full of sailors managed to row the 8 miles to shore, three landing at Bellport, and one at the Lone Hill Coast Guard Station.

          Though The Star Spangled Banner was often used for official occasions and ceremonies from as early as the 19^th century, it was not officially adopted by Congress as our National Anthem until 1931.

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“TERROR OF THE CHESAPEAKE”

John Yates Beall was born New Year’s Day, 1839, on a farm in Walnut Grove, Virginia (now West Virginia).  His dreams of studying law seemed to come true when he was admitted to the University of Virginia, however the death of his father in 1856 necessitated his return to the family farm.  Decades of political and social strife before the Civil War engendered in him a passion for the southern cause.  This led him, at the outbreak of fighting, to join Bott’s Grays–Company G of the 2^nd Virginia Volunteer Infantry.  But a chest wound he received in a skirmish in the Shenandoah Valley left him unfit for further service.  An undaunted Beall turned to the Confederate Navy, to whom he proposed a brazen plan to harass Union shipping on the Great Lakes.  Wary of angering England, however, Confederate authorities balked.  But they did appoint Beall as an Acting Master, CSN.  Beall then relocated to Mathews County, Virginia, on the western Chesapeake shore with 20-odd men and two oared sail launches, one black and one white, Raven and Swan.

Beall used these boats on the night of 18-19 September to ferry 18 men across the Chesapeake to Virginia’s Eastern Shore.  They coursed around Cape Charles and up the Atlantic coast to a point near present-day Wachapreague Inlet.  Here they discovered the anchored civilian schooner Alliance.  Under the cover of darkness and a heavy squall this morning, they swept aboard and overpowered the few shocked crewmen.  Armed with revolvers, they similarly took the schooners J.J. Houseman, Samuel Pearsall, and Alexandria over the next two days.  When the latter three were found to be “in ballast,” their sails were set, their helms lashed, and they were headed, crewless, in the direction of the open sea.  They took Alliance underway to return to Milford Haven, Mathews County, in an attempt to land her cargo of sutler’s goods valued in today’s equivalent at $200,000.  But upon reaching the bar at Milford Haven, Alliance was spotted by the Union gunboat USS THOMAS FREEBORN.  A few shots spurred Beall to ground the freighter, fire her, and destroy all of her cargo.  The capture of Beall’s second-in-command, Acting Master Edward McGuire, resulted in the escapade’s full revelation.

Now known as the “Terror of the Chesapeake,” Beall was captured on 15 November and held in Fort McHenry, Baltimore, until being exchanged in May 1864.  He immediately returned to vexation, traveling to Lake Erie with plans to free Confederate POWs held on Johnsons Island near Sandusky, Ohio.  This plot failed and led to Beall’s re-capture (in civilian clothes).  He was tried at Fort Columbus, Governor’s Island, New York, and hanged as a spy on 24 February 1865, six weeks before the surrender at Appomattox.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  25 SEP 24

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Baker, W.W.  Memoirs of Service with John Yates Beall, CSN (reprint of 1910 release).  Staunton, VA: Clarion Pub., 2013, pp. 3-34.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Civil War Naval Chronology 1861-1865.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1961, pp. III 140-41.

Report of Acting Rear-Admiral Lee, U.S. Navy, dtd. 30 Sep 1863.  IN: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of Rebellion, Series I, Vol 9, North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, from May 5, 1862 to May 5, 1864.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1899, p. 206.

Report of Captain Gansevoort, U.S. Navy, dtd. 28 Sep 1863.  IN: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of Rebellion, Series I, Vol 9, North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, from May 5, 1862 to May 5, 1864.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1899, pp. 203-04.

Report of Lieutenant-Commander Gillis, U.S. Navy, dtd. 27 Sep 1863.  IN: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of Rebellion, Series I, Vol 9, North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, from May 5, 1862 to May 5, 1864.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1899, pp. 204-05.

Robinson, William Morrison, Jr.  The Confederate Privateers.  Reprint of 1928 publication, Columbia, SC:  Univ of South Carolina Press, 1994, pp. 221-25.

Sweetman, Jack.  American Naval History:  An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 3^rd ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 2002, p. 73.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Milford Haven was an active shipbuilding center for a century before the Civil War.  Milford Haven today is but a map-dot, forgotten except as the location of a US Coast Guard station.

“Master” was not a standard officer grade in that day, rather a title in both civilian and Naval usage to denote someone with the training and experience to conn a ship.  Beall’s full Navy title was Master-Not-in-Line-of-Promotion, a rank that banned him from command of a commissioned vessel and withheld prize money from any captures.  He could, however, draw government stores, recruit sailors not otherwise subject to conscription, and procure ships at his own expense to operate under official auspices.  He was, effectively, a privateer.

The gear Beall salvaged from Alliance included the ship’s charts and nautical instruments–items in short supply and highly coveted in the south.  Of the three schooners cast adrift, crewless, from Wachapreague Inlet, history records the fate of only one.  Samuel Pearsall was corralled on the open sea by the civilian schooner F.F. Randolph and returned to port.

The post “Terror of the Chesapeake” appeared first on Today in Naval History.

                                     CAPTURE OF CSS TENNESSEE

By August 1864, the last remaining Confederate seaport not in Union hands was Mobile, Alabama.  At 0530 this morning, VADM David G. Farragut’s Union squadron “damned the torpedoes” and forced their way past Fort Morgan into Mobile Bay.  Each ship had to sidestep the vaunted Confederate ironclad CSS TENNESSEE waiting inside the Bay.  She was formidable, the centerpiece of Mobile’s defenses, a 208-foot monster.  The sloping sides of her casemate bore five inches of plate iron covering two feet of oak and were holed for six rifled cannon in broadside.  But her most feared weapon was the iron-plated ram just under the waterline at her bows.  Her captain was Confederate VADM Franklin Buchanan, a respected and experienced veteran of the pre-Civil War US Navy who had “gone South” in 1861 and had skippered CSS VIRGINIA in her famous battle against USS MONITOR in Hampton Roads.  TENNESSEE’s armor rendered Union guns impotent, but her Achilles heel was her comparatively weak machinery that condemned her to a best speed of under six knots.  At Farragut’s entry she sheltered under the guns of Fort Morgan, where all expected she would lie until the cover of night brought her forth again.  But Buchanan was a realist.  He eschewed the invincibility myth the citizens of Mobile ascribed to his vessel.  About 0900 this morning, while daylight would provide better vision, he moved toward the Union squadron.

Farragut’s plan was to fight ram with ram–use his own ships to repeatedly crash the rebel into submission.  The Union screw sloop MONOGAHELA was the first to reach TENNESSEE.  She struck squarely but succeeded only in smashing her own bow.  As she recoiled from the collision, two shells penetrated her berth deck doing terrible damage.  The sloop LACKAWANNA struck head-on just aft of amidships with the same result as MONOGAHELA.  As she spun abreast, each crew hurled musket shots, insults, holystones, and even a spittoon at each other through gun ports only 10 feet apart.  HARTFORD struck a glancing blow then collided with LACKAWANNA.  The monitor MANHATTAN scored the first Union success when one of her 440# bolts fired from 10 yards crashed through TENNESSEE’s casemate.  USS CHICKASAW stood off the enemy’s stern, skillfully shooting away the rebel’s steering chains and jamming closed the shutters of her gunports.  Buchanan’s smokestack was riddled, reducing the draft in his inadequate boilers, and with his steering and power cut, he recognized the inevitable.  The specter of OSSIPPEE now bearing down at full speed brought out a white flag.  OSSIPPEE veered off at the last second, her Acting ENS Charles E. Clark accepted a wounded Buchanan’s surrender.  TENNESSEE was pressed into Union service for the duration of the Mobile campaign.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  11 AUG 24UCHANONU

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Civil War Naval Chronology 1861-1865.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1961, pp. IV-96-97.

Lewis, Charles Lee.  David Glasgow Farragut:  Our First Admiral.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1943, pp. 273-82.

Silverstone, Paul H.  Warships of the Civil War Navies.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1989, pp. 208-09.

Still, William N., Jr.  Iron Afloat:  The Story of the Confederate Armorclads.  Columbia, SC: Univ. of South Carolina Press, 1985, pp. 209-10.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  TENNESSEE survived the war.  She supported the successful Union attack on Fort Morgan on 23 August, then joined the Mississippi Squadron at New Orleans for the remainder of the war.  She was sold for scrap in 1867.  Franklin Buchanan was taken captive this day.  Twice severely wounded during the Civil War, he survived to die peacefully at his home in Maryland in 1874.  USS BUCHANAN (DD-131, DD-484) remembers the sailor honored for his service both in the US and Confederate navies. 

LACKAWANNA, MONOGAHELA, and OSSIPPEE were wooden-hulled, full-rigged, steam-powered screw sloops constructed for the Union Navy in 1862.  CHICKASAW and MANHATTAN were turreted monitors.  The names of all reflect Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles’ opinion that it most befitted and honored our warships to bear the names of Native American tribes.

ENS Charles Clark of OSSIPPEE would later earn undying fame as skipper of the battleship OREGON (BB-3) on her epic voyage around the Horn at the outset of the Spanish-American war.

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                                          BUCKLEY vs. U-66 (cont.)

Every available sailor manned BUCKLEY’s (DE-51) rail with a tommy gun, rifle, or any manner of weapon the arms lockers could yield.  Depth charges, set to explode at the surface, arched from the destroyer escort’s K-guns.  LCDR Brent M. Abel raced alongside the U-boat for several minutes, then in a flash threw his helm hard over.  Collision alarms blared as the escort’s bow struck and rode up across the foredeck of the U-boat.  At nearly the same moment Oberleütnent zur See Gerhard Seehausen ordered “Abandon Ship!”  In the darkness, smoke, and confusion, German submariners poured out of the hatches.  They were met with a hail of bullets, shell casings, tools, coffee mugs, shoe-shine kits, potatoes–anything the American sailors could grab.  Several scrambled aboard the fo’castle of the destroyer escort prompting an order not heard in the US Navy since the age of sail, “Stand-by to repel boarders!”

Abel now ordered “All Aback” to clear the U-boat, leaving five enemy sailors still crouched behind the anchor windlass on BUCKLEY’s foredeck.  One German even made it below decks but was arrested by a steward’s mate who defended his wardroom post with a hot coffee pot.  On deck the remaining Germans pleaded for quarter against a torrent of small arms fire.  They were corralled and taken below by a gunner’s mate brandishing a hammer. 

Meanwhile, with his engines still intact and enough crew left aboard, Seehausen seized this opportunity to speed ahead of the surface ship.  Abel quickly pulled abreast once again; more fire was exchanged.  But by now the U-boat was steering erratically, veering suddenly toward BUCKLEY, striking a glancing blow at the destroyer’s after quarter.  At precisely this moment, a deft American sailor lobbed a hand grenade down the sub’s main hatch.  Its detonation wrecked the control room and started an inferno.  Now completely out of control and shipping water, the U-boat zig-zagged away.  A few short minutes later her death plunge was heralded by turbulent waters and the sound of hissing steam.

The entire action took only 16 minutes, but in that time Abel’s destroyer expended over a hundred rounds from her 3″-50s, 3000 machine gun, and 360 pistol rounds.  Only one BUCKLEY sailor was injured, a deck hand who sustained a bruised fist in hand-to-hand fighting on the fo’castle.

Thirty-six German crewmen were rescued from the cold Atlantic waters, though captain Seehausen was not among them.  BUCKLEY suffered a flooded after engine room and a sheared starboard propeller.  A plow-shaped dent in her port bow made her prankish in answering the helm, but she remained seaworthy and ultimately made Boston under her own power.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  14 MAY 24

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Morison, Samuel Eliot.  History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol 10  The Atlantic Battle Won.  Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1956, pp. 284-88.

Roscoe, Theodore.  United States Destroyer Operations in World War II.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1953, pp. 306-07.

Smith, Stan.  “Buckley’s Bare-Knuckles Bout with U-66.”  Sea Classics, Vol 38 (3), March 2005, pp. 30-33.

Wynn, Kenneth.  U-Boat Operations of the Second World War  Vol 1: Career Histories, U1-U510.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1997, pp. 46-48.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  By this time in the war, German U-boats were being aggressively prosecuted by the Allies.  Most were only able to surface at night, and then only for short time periods.  When BUCKLEY picked up these 36 prisoners, they all appeared pale and gaunt, and all showed signs of vitamin deficiency.

This incident harkens to the 1779 victory of BONHOMME RICHARD over HMS SERAPIS in which a savvy Able Seaman in the American rigging noticed the British hatch to be open and lobbed a grenade therein.  It landed on stacked canister ammunition which exploded, clearing the British gun deck.

German sailors in this event have been characterized in some accounts as aggressively attempting to board and commandeer the American warship, and in truth some might have been.  But the majority were probably following orders to abandon ship and were simply trying to save themselves.

BUCKLEY received a unit commendation for her actions this day.

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                                               BUCKLEY vs. U-66

Oberleütnant zur See Gerhard Seehausen was in desperate need of re-supply.  Operating in the mid-Atlantic west of the Cape Verde Islands, his cruise so far had been constantly dogged by US aircraft from a nearby hunter-killer group.  Forced to stay submerged for most of the last five days, the air in Seehausen’s U-66 was stale and his batteries were nearly dead.   U-66 was at the end of her endurance, and her diesel tanks were critically low.  She surfaced on the evening of 5 May so Seehausen could scan the horizon for his resupply boat, U-188.  Unknowingly he had surfaced only three miles in front of his pursuer of the last five days, the escort carrier USS BLOCK ISLAND (CVE-21).

The sight of a U-boat at 5000 yards was too close even for a anti-submarine carrier, and BLOCK ISLAND turned away immediately.  CAPT Francis M. Hughes launched an unarmed “night owl” TBM Avenger, equipped with radar for surveilling submarines after nightfall, and called his destroyer escorts, then operating miles in advance of the carrier.  USS BUCKLEY (DE-51) answered from 20 miles out.  At 0216 this morning, “night owl” pilot LTJG Jimmie S. Sellars painted the sub with his radar.  Seehausen spotted the Avenger, but chancing that it could not attack at night, he continued charging his spent batteries.  For his part, LCDR Brent M. Abel in BUCKLEY approached quietly, guiding off Sellars.  The night was calm with a near-full moon reflecting brilliantly off smooth seas.  BUCKLEY crept in from an angle that kept the U-boat between her and the moon.  Seven miles out, Abel spotted the low silhouette of the sub against the moonlight.  He called his crew to GQ and paid-out the “Foxer” towed acoustic torpedo counter measure.  He fancied the U-boat skipper might mistake his approach out of the darkness for that of the anticipated supply sub.

Indeed, three red signal flares coursed upward from the U-boat–Abel’s ploy had worked!  Nine more minutes ticked by until, little more than a mile off, Abel turned to unmask his main batteries.  At 2100 yards his 3″ gunners couldn’t miss; the very first salvo struck the U-boat just forward of the conning tower.

The sub sprang to life, returning some erratic fire from her deck gun.  Abel dodged a single torpedo that crossed his bows and closed further.  He brought the full firepower of his destroyer to bear and began matching the sub’s course move for move.  BUCKLEY closed now to within 20 yards and still Seehausen remained on the surface.  Every available man-jack poured onto the destroyer’s decks with tommy guns, rifles, and even handguns.  The ensuing storm of small arms fire cleared the sub’s deck.  BUCKLEY’s three-inch guns continued to hammer the U-boat as the combatants raced on, side by side, each nearly in the other’s wake.  American warplanes circling overhead had to restrain their fire for fear of hitting the friendly destroyer!

Continued tomorrow…

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 1 “A-B”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1959, pp. 132, 170.

Morison, Samuel Eliot.  History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol 10  The Atlantic Battle Won.  Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1956, pp. 284-88.

Roscoe, Theodore.  United States Destroyer Operations in World War II.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1953, pp. 306-07

Smith, Stan.  “Buckley’s Bare-Knuckles Bout with U-66.”  Sea Classics, Vol 38 (3), March 2005, pp. 30-33.

Wynn, Kenneth.  U-Boat Operations of the Second World War  Vol 1: Career Histories, U1-U510.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1997, pp. 46-48.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  BUCKLEY remembers Aviation Ordnanceman Third Class John Daniel Buckley, who was stationed with VP-11 at NAS Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, on 7 December 1941.  He was killed while bravely repelling the Japanese attack in disregard for his personal safety.  He is not to be confused with LT John Duncan Bulkeley, commander of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 3 in the Philippines in 1941-42.

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                                                          PT-31

Matters had run afoul for LT Edward G. DeLong and the 12-man crew of PT-31 soon after splitting company with PT-34.  The fuel strainers of his wing engines clogged, and the center engine failed shortly with an airlock in the cooling system.  They drifted dead in the water as an enemy 3″ gun on Ilinin Point opened some ineffective but pesky fire.  The powerless PT-31 next struck fast on a reef.  For three hours the crew labored to revive the engines and free the boat from an ebbing tide.  But when the reverse gear burned out and dawn threatened to reveal his boat, DeLong had no choice but to abandon ship.  The crew fashioned a raft out of mattresses and the cover of the engine compartment and slid over the side.  DeLong stayed behind to puncture the gas lines and rig grenades.  By the time he lowered himself into the water, his shipmates had drifted away.  The Lieutenant swam ashore alone.  PT-31 exploded and burned.

At first light, DeLong located his crew after following their tracks along the beach.  He was saddened to learn that three had become lost during the night without a trace.  Cloistered in the bushes along the shore, DeLong took stock of the situation.  They had but one rifle and six pistols, some scraps of canvas, no food, and no water.  Furthermore, their chance hideout was within earshot of some loud Japanese soldiers in the nearby jungle.  DeLong set a watch in the trees and instructed that any snooping Japanese be allowed into the hideout to be clubbed, as a gunshot was too risky.  DeLong’s first plan, that of walking along the beach to the American zone, was thwarted by the proximity of the fighting.  Then one of the crew spotted two bancas (native canoes) about a half mile away on the beach.  These bancas now held their only hope.

The nine crept from their thicket at twilight.  The smaller of the bancas proved more seaworthy, and the crew rigged a makeshift sail using canvas and barbed wire.  They shoved off at 2000, the smaller banca towing the larger.  Japanese voices could again be heard within a couple hundred yards, so DeLong deployed the sail only after having paddled some distance from the shore.  Again, fate frowned on the party, for within an hour both bancas capsized and their gear was lost.  Through judicious use of two makeshift bailers, the bancas were righted, and the party cleared Panibutujan Point.  About 0130 they rounded Napo Point only to be met by a strong headwind.  Making no headway after an hour of exhaustive paddling, DeLong put ashore near the point.  As luck would have it, they were spotted after dawn by Philippine Army forces and taken to a nearby US Army unit.  Harried and tired, they were nevertheless back at their base in Mariveles by 1730 the evening of the 20^th.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  26 JAN 24

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Breuer, William B.  Devil Boats:  The PT War Against Japan.  Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1987, pp. 26-31.

Breuer, William B.  Sea Wolf:  A Biography of John D. Bulkeley, USN.  Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1989, pp. 40-43.

Bulkley, Robert J., Jr.  At Close Quarters:  PT Boats in the United States Navy.  Washington, DC: GPO, Department of the Navy, 1962, pp. 9-16.

White, W.L.  They Were Expendable.  New York, NY: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1942, pp. 66-76.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  In March of 1942 Bulkeley used the remaining serviceable boats of MTB-3 to carry GEN Douglas MacArthur to safety.  Those squadron members for whom there was no room on that trip, including DeLong, were ordered to join a nearby Army unit on Bataan.  The surrender of American forces on 6 May 1942 resulted in the capture of DeLong and those unfortunate MTB-3 shipmates.  DeLong was beheaded by his captors on 2 July 1942.  LTJG DeLong received the Silver Star for his actions this night and the Navy Cross for his sustained performance with MTB-3 from February to April 1942.  (Three US warships have borne the name “DeLong,” TB-28, DD-129, and DE-684.  However, all three remember other heroes with the same surname.)

Devotees of Hollywood war movies will recognize this story and others about MTB-3 as the model for the 1945 John Ford production based on William White’s book above, They Were Expendable.  The film stars Robert Montgomery as “LT John Brinkley” (based on real-life LT Bulkeley) and John Wayne as his highly fictionalized XO, “LTJG Rusty Ryan.”  They Were Expendable was nominated for two Academy Awards, for best sound recording and best visual effects.

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                                          ACTION IN SUBIC BAY

The first five weeks of our involvement in World War II found US forces battling a Japanese onslaught in the Philippines.  On Luzon we were pushed farther and farther down the Bataan Peninsula, cut off from reinforcement.  US Naval forces of the Asiatic Fleet were equally pressed throughout far eastern seas, leaving the six PT boats of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 3 under LT John D. Bulkeley to do their sole best against the enemy in the Philippines.  By this date, PT-32 and 33 had already been lost when the former’s engines had been ruined rescuing 196 survivors from the mined civilian steamer Corregidor and the latter grounded while on patrol in Manila Bay.  Weeks of unrelenting action coupled with contaminated fuel and shortages of spare parts had taken a toll on the four remaining 77-foot boats, particularly on the engines.  The crews, too, were worn from the stress.

Regardless, on January 18^th, Bulkeley received a message from Army headquarters requesting his assistance in routing four enemy vessels, including a destroyer and a large transport, from Binanga Bay, a smaller bay within Subic Bay.  After nightfall Bulkeley took PT-34 in company with LT Edward G. DeLong in PT-31 and headed to that location.  Upon entering Subic Bay they split up, PT-31 creeping up the eastern bay and Bulkeley skirting the western edge. As Bulkeley approached their rendezvous point near Grande Island, shore fire erupted on all sides.  PT-31 was nowhere in sight, but 500 yards ahead could be seen two masts of a large freighter.  Flasher signals challenged from several directions.  Bulkeley fired two torpedoes.  One exploded against the hull of the freighter a minute later, the other lodged fast in its tube, running hot.  PT-34 turned for sea with her throttles wide open.

Without water resistance against the propeller blades, the turbine of the hot-running torpedo would take only minutes to overheat and shatter, showering the vicinity with white-hot fragments.  To make matters worse, the bow wash splashing over the torpedo tube was advancing the weapon’s arming impeller.  Once armed, a blow of 8 pounds would be sufficient to detonate the warhead.  TMC John Martino jumped into action.  Straddling the hissing torpedo that hung half out of its tube, Martino stuffed the first thing he could find, toilet paper, into the impeller to stop its advance.  As the PT lurched across each wave Martino dangled over the railing to disassemble the casing and close the valve in the air line.  Once beyond the range of friendly ships, the weapon was jettisoned.

The following morning Army observers on Mariveles Mountain reported watching a 5,000-ton freighter sink in Binanga Bay.  The shelling of US positions in the western Bataan area slackened as the 5.5″ guns of the freighter proved to be the source.  However, no word was received from the missing PT-31 or her crew…

Learn the fate of PT-31 tomorrow…

Breuer, William B.  Devil Boats:  The PT War Against Japan.  Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1987, pp. 26-31.

Breuer, William B.  Sea Wolf:  A Biography of John D. Bulkeley, USN.  Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1989, pp. 40-43.

Bulkley, Robert J., Jr.  At Close Quarters:  PT Boats in the United States Navy.  Washington, DC: GPO, Department of the Navy, 1962, pp. 9-16.

White, W.L.  They Were Expendable.  New York, NY: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1942, pp. 66-76.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  The Japanese had taken Subic Bay around Christmas and were establishing a base to support operations down the western shore of the Bataan Peninsula.  Binanga Bay is opposite Grande Island within the eastern area of Subic Bay.  It formed part of the protected waters of our former Naval Station at Subic Bay; for those still familiar with that erstwhile base, it was the site of the ammunition pier for the naval magazine.  However, the wreck on the northern side of this bay frequented by sport divers in the 1980s is not the freighter sunk by Bulkeley.

Grande Island was later used as a detention center where Filipino males old enough to bear arms were executed as part of the Japanese effort to pacify the region.

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                                                        NECPA

The demands of WWII by August 1942 led Congress to authorize eight heavy cruisers of the Oregon City-class.  But the long construction timetable for heavy warships prevented any from being launched prior to the end of the war, and the latter planned sisters CAMBRIDGE, BRIDGEPORT, KANSAS CITY, and TULSA (CA-126-129) were canceled on 11 August 1945.  USS OREGON CITY (CA-122), ALBANY (CA-123), and ROCHESTER (CA-124) were so nearly complete however, that the three were finished and commissioned in 1946.  That left USS NORTHAMPTON (CA-125) on the ways at 54% completion.  Planners debated her fate.

At a length of 667 feet and driven to 33 knots by her four-shaft steam turbines, some suggested that NORTHAMPTON had the size and speed necessary to serve as a command ship.  On 1 July 1948 construction resumed with modifications.  An entire additional deck was added to accommodate embarked staff.  Her 8″ gun mounts were sacrificed to provide platforms for sophisticated radar systems ranging 300 miles in all directions.  Two enclosed tower masts housed an array of communication antennas.  There was only room on deck for six 5-inch/54 caliber twin mounts and four twin 3-inch/70 caliber guns.  On 27 January 1951 the warship was commissioned as CLC-1, identifying her as a Light Cruiser, Command.  She operated for a few years as the 2^nd Fleet flagship during air warfare exercises and European public affairs cruises.  But by 1957, downsizing determined the command cruiser to be a luxury the Navy couldn’t afford.  Plans to similarly convert the heavy cruiser HAWAII (CB-3) were scrapped, and NORTHAMPTON was reassigned to training duties at the Academy.

But when 1961 brought the Kennedy administration to the White House, the threat of Soviet nuclear attack spurred interest in a mobile Presidential command platform.  Under the National Emergency Command Post Afloat (NECPA) program, on this day new life was breathed into NORTHAMPTON as she was redesignated CC-1.  She underwent a 2-year upgrade of her communications, radar, and berthing to allow her to serve as an emergency refuge and command post for the President.  In these days before Air Force One, two additional Navy ships, the light carriers SAIPAN and WRIGHT (CVL-48-49), were tagged for conversion to CC-3 and CC-2, respectively.

Events never required NORTHAMPTON to fulfill her role as the emergency Presidential haven, though she did embark Presidents Kennedy and Johnson for VIP events.  Advances in Soviet submarines and anti-ship missiles by the end of the 1960s obviated NECPA, and NORTHAMPTON was decommissioned on 1 April 1970.  Today of course, the US Air Force provides the emergency Presidential command post.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  19-20 JAN 24

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Baker, A.D.  “Historic Fleets.”  Naval History, Vol 19 (5), October 2005, pp. 12-13.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 5 “N-Q”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1979, p. 112.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  The difference between a light and heavy cruiser has nothing to do with size or displacement.  Heavy cruisers carry guns of 8-inch bore or larger, and light cruisers mount 6-inch guns or smaller.

Like most 20^th century US Navy cruisers, NORTHAMPTON was named for a prominent city, in this case Northampton, Massachusetts.  She was the third ship so named in our Navy.  The first was a wooden motorboat purchased by the Navy for patrols in WWI, and the second, (CA-26), was lost at the WWII battle of Tassafaronga in November 1942.

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