18 JUNE 1942

                                              LTJG RALPH RICH

With Hitler’s 1 September 1939 invasion of Poland, the citizenry of the United States remained divided over whether or not we should become involved.  However, enlistments in our military went up as men prepared for the possibility of war.  In October 1939, in rural North Dakota, Ralph McMaster Rich was so inspired and traveled to Minneapolis to enlist in the Navy.  He was shortly selected for aviator training which he completed in July 1940.  Four months later he embarked on USS ENTERPRISE (CV-6) with fighter squadron VF-6.  The Pearl Harbor attack found Rich and ENTERPRISE at sea, ferrying planes to Wake Island.  As the carrier entered this new Pacific war, Rich participated in the raids on the Marshall Islands, in which he is credited with destroying a Japanese bomber on the ground.  He flew as well, in the February 1942 raid on the Japanese on Wake Island.

His promotion to LTJG came on 28 May 1942, and only a week later Japan staged an attack on Midway Island.  In a daring gamble, and with secret intelligence as to the enemy’s target, ADM Chester Nimitz arrayed our forces in a potential ambush.  On the afternoon of June 4^th, Rich found himself escorting dive bombers against the Japanese fleet as the enemy readied their aircraft for a second wave against Midway.  His “capable and aggressive leadership” on this mission resulted in a highly successful attack.  A day later Rich was flying Combat Air Patrol (CAP) over YORKTOWN (CV-5) when a flight of enemy torpedo bombers appeared.  Rich’s slashing attack sent one of those bombers into the sea in flames.  On Rich’s behalf, his commanding officer forwarded an award nomination.

The squadron was completing a transition to the Grumman F-4F “Wildcat,” and two weeks after Midway, Rich was practicing aerial gunnery over Hawaii.  From 5000 feet, as he pushed his Wildcat into a simulated diving attack, the air was split with the shrieking sound of ripping metal.  The right wing of Rich’s fighter tore free!  Such is always a fatal event.  The intact left wing still provides lift, now unopposed by the missing right wing.  The plane is pitched into a violent, unrecoverable, corkscrew spin.  There was nothing that could be done.  Rich’s plane hit the ground at full speed, killing him instantly.

Rich’s award nomination continued to work through channels, being approved ultimately for the Navy Cross.  As with several heroic sailors lost in WWII, the Navy named a destroyer escort for the aviator.  RICH (DE-695) fought at D-Day where she struck mines and was lost.  The Navy transferred her name to another destroyer then building, however RICH (DD-820) was not launched until October 1945, the month following Japan’s surrender.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  25 JUN 23

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 6 “R-S”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1976, pp. 93-94.

Stafford, Edward P.  The Big E: The Story of the USS Enterprise.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1962, p. 119.

The post LTJG Ralph Rich appeared first on Today in Naval History.

                                                  8-10 JUNE 1944

                                   THE FIGHT TO SAVE GLENNON

USS GLENNON (DD-620), JEFFERS (DD-621), and BUTLER (DD-636) spent June 7^th close inshore against “Utah” beach, the former expending 430 five-inch rounds against enemy pillboxes and machine gun nests from which American soldiers were being mauled.  The following morning GLENNON was again holding her station, dodging the scattered fire of a Germany 4″ battery, when suddenly at 0803 there was a massive explosion under her stern.  Sixteen sailors were pitched overboard; two standing on the fantail were thrown 40′ into the air, one suffering two broken legs.  A 600# (unarmed) depth charge was torn from its rack and crashed into the #3 torpedo launcher.  Her stern began to settle, the mine blast having gripped the crew with alarm.  The skipper, CDR Clifford A. Johnson, sternly passed word over the 1MC, “The ship will not sink; all hands remain aboard, repair parties proceed with rescue and salvage work.”

Quickly the minesweeper STAFF (AM-114) arrived to pass a towline, while THREAT (AM-124) swept the area ahead.  But a destroyer dead in the water is an inviting target, and while these lines were being passed a German shore battery opened.  GLENNON’s own 5″ guns answered, and a call for more assistance brought LCDR E.A. Michael in the destroyer escort RICH (DE-695).  However, as Michael rounded GLENNON’s stern another explosion was heard.  This time RICH reeled from a mine that knocked her into the air.  Minutes later a second explosion blew away 50 feet of RICH’s stern; then a third mine detonated under her fo’castle.  “Abandon ship” was passed and within ten minutes the destroyer escort was gone.

Meanwhile STAFF had failed to budge GLENNON, whose starboard prop had been driven into the bottom by the explosion.  As gunfire from the shore continued, Johnson ordered all crewmen except gunners and salvage parties removed.  These men fought the ship while pumping fuel forward and working to jettison topside gear from her stern.  The powerful salvage tug KIOWA (ATF-72) made a second futile try, but even with GLENNON’s remaining crewmen crowded into the stricken lady’s bows, she stood fast.  Sunrise on the 9^th brought sporadic fire from shore.  Heavy salvage gear now arrived and GLENNON’s crew was brought back aboard.

But by dawn on June 10^th their best efforts had still not been fruitful.  By now a German battery near Quinneville had found its range.  Their second salvo caught GLENNON amidships and cut all power.  A third salvo struck as well, forcing Johnson to abandon ship.  The gun crews volunteered to stay until the last and worked her guns for the time it took to remove all hands to an LCM.  Struck over twenty times by 4″ shore fire, the tenacious destroyer stayed up until 2145, when she finally rolled and sank.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  14 JUN 23

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 3 “G-K”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1977, p. 108.

Morison, Samuel Eliot.  History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol 11  The Invasion of France and Germany.  Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1957, pp. 171-73.

Parkin, Robert Sinclair.  Blood on the Sea:  American Destroyers Lost in World War II.  New York, NY: Sarpedon, 1995, pp. 225-29.

Roscoe, Theodore.  United States Destroyer Operations in World War II.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1953, pp. 354-56.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  GLENNON lost 25 killed and 38 wounded during this three-day fight and salvage effort.  RICH lost 27 killed, 73 wounded and 62 missing.  Among the dead were Pharmacists Mate 2^nd Class George Burnes of GLENNON and PM1c Hardy L. Pilkinton of RICH.

Partly to confuse the enemy and partly out of respect, the names Glennon and Rich were passed to later destroyers of WWII.    GLENNON (DD-840) was launched 14 July 1945.

GLENNON remembers RADM James Henry Glennon, a combat veteran of the Spanish-American war and Philippine Insurrection and a Navy Cross recipient as Commander of Battleship Division 5 during World War I.  RICH remembers LTJG Ralph McMaster Rich, a WWII Naval aviator and a posthumous Navy Cross awardee for actions at the battle of Midway.

The post The Fight to Save GLENNON appeared first on Today in Naval History.

                                          CORRY CONTROVERSY

The morning of 18 December 1941 dawned at the Charleston Navy Yard with palpable anticipation.  Our citizenry was united against the Pearl Harbor attack only 11 days earlier, and this morning our Navy was set to commission the next destroyer in that brand new war, the Gleaves-class USS CORRY (DD-463).  She joined the Atlantic Fleet and shortly earned three Battle Stars for operations off North Africa, Norway, and against U-801, respectively.  Spring of 1944 found her in England, preparing for the cross-channel invasion of Europe.  At 1815, June 4^th (H-Hour minus 36 hours and 15 minutes), CORRY and FITCH (DD-462) led the five LSTs of Convoy U-2B out of Dartmouth harbor.  U-2B comprised the first sortie to cross the English Channel toward Normandy.

As shell splashes enveloped the landing craft headed for Utah Beach at H-Hour, CORRY’s skipper, LCDR George D. Hoffman, recognized how severely German shore fire was smashing the invasion.  He maneuvered as closely to the breakers as the destroyer’s draft would allow–a mere 1000 yards off the beach–to lay down supporting fire.  But as American 5-inchers fired, German gunners ashore in the Saint-Marcouf battery stared in amazement.  CORRY was steaming at point-blank range from their triple mounted 210-mm guns!  At 0633, three 300 lb. shells screamed into CORRY, striking her amidship and detonating in her engine room.  The blast broke the destroyer’s keel and raised her stem and stern skyward.  Sailors on deck were thrown toward a 4-foot crack across her beam ends.  Nearby FITCH watched the destroyer blown sideways to seaward with her superstructure recoiling toward shore.  Minutes later she went under.  CORRY’s mainmast and ensign remained visible as she settled in only 30 feet of water.  FITCH, HOBSON (DD-464), BUTLER (DD-636), and PT-199 rescued 252 CORRY survivors, including LCDR Hoffman.  Twenty-four were lost.

Hoffman’s ship loss report described the shelling–at least until Hoffman met the skipper of MEREDITH (DD-726) in a survivor’s camp in Scotland.  MEREDITH had been sunken by an aerial bomb while close inshore–at least according to her skipper’s initial report.  But after their meeting, both skippers redrafted their reports to claim their ships had succumbed to mines.  Hoffman’s amendment asserted that CORRY struck a mine at nearly the same moment the shore fire hit, and that the gunfire caused only incidental damage.

There is little support today for Hoffman’s rewritten report.  It has been suggested that both skippers feared censorship for hazarding their ships too closely inshore, and both perceived mines to be a hazard of lesser negligence.  To the contrary, close-in destroyer support saved countless lives among the D-Day invasion force.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  10 JUN 23

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, pp. 190-91.

Morison, Samuel Eliot.  History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol X  The Atlantic Battle Won.  Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1956, pp. 279-80.

Morison, Samuel Eliot.  History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol XI  The Invasion of France and Germany.  Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1957, pp. 88, 96, 106-08.

Roscoe, Theodore.  United States Destroyer Operations in World War II.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1953, pp. 349-50.

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. 171.

USS CORRY website.  AT: https://www.uss-CORRY-dd463.com, retrieved 18 December 2022.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Our Navy accepted Hoffman’s revised report and still lists her loss officially as due to striking a mine.  However, neither German action reports nor the reports of witnesses aboard CORRY and FITCH support the mine theory.  Indeed, a mine explosion under her keel might well have broken CORRY, but such would likely have raised her amidships, contrary to eye-witness reports.

CORRY was the second warship to remember LCDR William M. Corry, Jr., a naval aviator and Navy Cross recipient from WWI and a Medal of Honoree from the interwar period.

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