Best of the History Guy: Destroyers and Destroyer Escorts

when the united states mobilized for war after the japanese attack on pearl harbor one of the greatest priorities was the expansion of the nation's fleet over the course of the war and fighting on two fronts the u.s added more than 1200 major combatant ships to its navy those new ships represented 70 percent of the world's tonnage for naval vessels over a thousand tons and men were needed to crew these new ships more than three and a half million men signed up for u.s naval service during the second world war but there wasn't always adequate time to train all these new men to operate all these new ships the crew of the uss william d porter a destroyer that was also called sometimes the willie d and recognizes one of the most unlucky ships in the navy suffered from that lack of time for preparation they're often unfortunate but ultimately heroic service deserves to be remembered the uss william d porter was constructed in orange texas and commissioned on july 6th 1943. the fletcher-class destroyer was named for william david porter a naval officer who served in the american civil war porter came from a family known for its naval service his father david porter commanded the frigate uss constitution old ironsides for a time his adopted brother was commodore david glasgow farragut the civil war naval commander remembered for issuing the memorable order damn the torpedoes full speed ahead during the battle of mobile bay with a length of 376 foot six inches and a beam of 39 foot eight inches the uss william d porter's main armament was 10 torpedoes with 500 pound warheads five five-inch main guns depth charge racks and launchers and anti-aircraft artillery weapons just four months after she was commissioned the uss william d porter was assigned to a super secret mission president franklin delano roosevelt needed safe travel to french north africa on his way to the cairo and tehran conferences where he was to meet with churchill stalin and chiang kai-shek to plan the course of the war the summits were so important that roosevelt brought the entire joint chiefs of staff with him the president was to be transported on the battleship uss iowa which would be joined by two aircraft carriers to provide air cover and three destroyers one of which was the willie d to provide protection from the german submarines that were prowling the atlantic roosevelt boarded the uss iowa on november 12th 1943. the crew of the iowa wasn't even informed of their soon-to-be vip guest until he arrived grier sims where the iowa's crew recalled they'd installed a bathtub when we were in norfolk and we were all asking what the hell a bathtub was doing on a battleship and then it made sense when the president came on board lieutenant commander wilford walter was put in command of the william d porter as she left norfolk virginia to join the iowa as they departed the ship's anchor clipped another destroyer and ripped off its life rafts railing and other small pieces of equipment including a lifeboat the willie d was on a tight schedule need to meet up with the other ships of its mission so unable to assist with repairs she shipped out with only a short apology from walter to the other commander iowa and its escort were supposed to be traveling in radio silence and fast in order to clear the dangerous atlantic as safely as possible the first day into the mission the willie d accidentally dropped one of its depth charges in rough seas and it exploded sending the entire mission into battle preparations believing they were being attacked by german submarines the ship signaled its mistake and everyone resuming the journey unfortunately the next day a large wave swept one of the william d porter's sailors overboard and he was never recovered tragedy was followed by engine trouble when the wave caused one of the ship's boiler tubes to fail and forced it to fall out of formation until repairs could be made the willie d broke radio silence again in order to fix its engine then on november 14th the iowa ran a series of training games to demonstrate her capabilities to president roosevelt her crew used her deck guns and fired at weather balloons roosevelt was able to enjoy the show from his wheelchair which he had placed on deck when some of the balloons from the iowa drifted her way the crew of the willie d also shot down some of the balloons contributing to the president's show then the crew of the william d porter began running a series of practice torpedo launches at the largest target in the convoy the uss iowa in training exercises the torpedo launches are only simulated because the primers required to actually launch the torpedo from the tube are removed imagine the horror on the willy d when a live torpedo shot out of its tubes and headed straight towards the ship carrying the president of the united states in an effort to maintain radio silence but still prevent imminent disaster walter willie d's commander ordered the signalman to sign the approaching danger to the iowa but at first the inexperienced sailor mistakenly indicated that a torpedo was moving away from the iowa in his second attempt he again messed up the message and signaled that the willy d was reversing frustrated with the signaling failures walter ordered his radio man to break the imposed silence and contact the iowa using its code name lion the sailor relayed lion lion come right in response the iowa said identify and say again where is submarine the willie d replied torpedo in water lion come right emergency around the same time the torpedo had been spotted by the crew of the iowa and his crew began invasive maneuvers the iowa moved so quickly that the secret service said to hold roosevelt's wheelchair in place as he sat on the deck and watched the approaching torpedo the president seemed more bemused than frightened by the mishap he wrote in his diary a monday last a gun drill porter torpedo at us by mistake we saw it missed by a thousand feet the torpedo ended up exploding in the iowa's wake according to legend when the willie d rejoined the formation the iowa and its escort pointed their guns at her suspecting some assassination plot the iowa radioed the william d porter to ask what happened and walter responded meekly we did it the willie d was sent back to bermuda for questioning while the rest of the convoy took the president to the summit there is a rumor that the entire crew was arrested in bermuda but historians disagree if that story is actually true the historical record is murky because the incident wasn't released to the public until 1958. if the crew was arrested that would have been the first time such a thing happened in u.s naval history if it did happen it was kept quiet as no such records appear in the ship's log the inquiry that followed determined that the torpedo had launched because the chief torpedo men launden had accidentally forgotten to remove the primer dawson eventually admitted that when the torpedo launched he tried to hide his mistake by throwing the primer in the ocean dawson was sentenced to 14 years hard labor but fdr pardoned him and spoke up for the crew of the willie d he didn't think that their career should be destroyed because they made a few mistakes due to inexperience after the incident crews of other ships would often mock the crew of the willie d shouting don't shoot we're republicans bill glover was assigned to serve on the william d porter after they nearly killed the president and he at first wasn't happy about it he said once you fire the torpedo at roosevelt then everyone is looking at you and you get noticed for the little things that everyone else is doing too there were a lot of rookies in the service in 1943. the willie d was next assigned to serve know the aleutian islands traveling through the panama canal to get there she joined task force 94 was an anti-submarine escort commander charles m keys took over command of the ship from walter in may 1944 unfortunately she was in trouble once again when one of her crewmen got drunk and fired one of her guns blindly the five inch shell landed in the front yard of the commandant to the american base nearby while he was hosting a party with other officers present no one was hurt but the william d porter's tarnished reputation took another hit but it was all hands on deck for the war in the western pacific the willie d served at lenient gulf mindoro and finally okinawa in march 1945. she was assigned to the anti-aircraft picket patrolling for kamikazes shooting the planes down before they reached the bigger ships as well as support fire to troops on the ground and escorting transport and supply ships it was hot action and the william d porter accounted for multiple kills of japanese aircraft in march the william d porter was sent to participate in the battle of okinawa the largest amphibious invasion in the pacific theater during the war the allied battle fleet was huge including 20 battleships 44 aircraft carriers and 146 destroyers including the william d porter the japanese threw what was left of its decimated fleet of the allies including sacrificing the super battleship yamato but the worst wasn't the remnant of the imperial japanese navy but the terrifying scourge of kamikazes the japanese made over 1400 kamikaze attacks against the allied fleet at okinawa the attacks were so brutal that the ali fleet decided to establish a cordon of radar pikachips around the island to warn the fleet of incoming waves of kamikazes the william d porter was part of this mission which left the pickets themselves in danger in the course of the shooting at the japanese the william d porter accidentally strafed and damaged her sister ship the fletcher class uss loose at 8 15 in the morning on june 10th an aichi d3a die bomber broke from the clouds the outdated plane made mostly of wood and canvas with little metal was attacking alone leaving little radar signature the attack came as a total surprise the kamikaze headed straight for the willie d kamikazes were deadly enemies a weapon of desperation while some 3 800 kamikaze pilots died in kamikaze attacks during the war they killed more than 7 000 allied personnel a kamikaze plane carried more explosives than the conventional attack and the kamikaze was more likely to hit a kamikaze plane could take damage that would disable a conventional attack and still hit its targets as the plane roared towards the ship the guns of the william d porter pounded the plane setting it on fire yet it still came towards its target the willie d swerved and the plane missed the ship apparently saved from the attack but this was the uss william d porter the unluckiest ship in the navy despite having missed the aircraft exploded under the water directly under the william d porter the explosion was so large it lifted the 2 000 ton ship out of the water the ship lost power steam lines were broken several fires started crews tried to extinguish the fires but the damage was extensive the crew fought for three hours to save the ship and support vessels rushed to its aid as well but it wasn't enough the order to abandon ship came at 11 15 that morning just 12 minutes later the ship healed to starboard and sunk beneath the waves and yet the last tragedy for the seemingly cursed william d porter was actually a stroke of good luck not one member of her crew lost their lives in the attack while the uss william d porter is mostly remembered for her unfortunate series of events she was actually characteristic of a navy that greatly expanded in a short period of time on the backs of a generation that volunteered and sacrificed more than almost any other in history and while she had her many accidents including of course nearly torpedoing the president of the united states the uss william d porter saw significant and important service during the war and earned four battle stars in her brief three years of service [Music] the longest continual campaign of the second world war was the battle of the atlantic fought across the atlantic ocean over shipping lanes and vital supply routes the campaign resulted in the death of nearly a hundred thousand sailors and merchant mariners and the sinking of more than 14 million tons of shipping the campaign encompassed more than 100 major convoy battles and a thousand single ship encounters and one of the most interesting occurred in the early morning hours of may 6 1944 when the destroyer escort uss buckley encountered the german submarine u-66 this battle to the death between these two warships was the epitome of the old saying that combat is hours and hours of boredom followed by a few moments of sheer stark screaming terror the short fierce fight illustrated the the ferocity and courage displayed in the hundreds of smaller fights that made up the longest largest and most complex naval battle in world history the fight between the uss buckley and the u-66 is history that deserves to be remembered one innovation that changed the battle of the atlantic was the auxiliary or escort carrier these small carriers often called baby flat tops had less than a third of the displacement of a fleet carrier and only carried a handful of aircraft but included as parts of convoys they were able to cover the dangerous mid-atlantic gap where convoys could not be protected by land-based aircraft allied successes in mid-1943 with 38 u-boats lost in the month of may alone had temporarily driven the u-boats from the convoy routes of the north atlantic and the kriegs marine was focusing on the area south of the azores trying to interdict convoys between the united states and gibraltar but the u.s strategy had a new weapon improvements in u-boat tracking both by code breaking and radar sonar on radio tracking allowed a different role for the baby flat tops instead of just defending convoys the carriers along with escorts could be sent to areas where u-boats congregated and tracked them down these flotillas which began in the spring of 1943 included an escort carrier and up to a half dozen anti-submarine escort ships and were called hunter killer groups on april 26 1944 a hunter killer group with the escort carrier uss crouton sunk the u-488 a type of u-boat called a milch cow a vessel that tended and refueled u-boats off the cape verde islands a hunter-killer group led by the uss block island was sent to find and destroy the u-boats in the area who may have been trying to rendezvous with the u-488 the uss block island was constructed by the seattle tacoma shipbuilding corporation and launched in june of 1942 built on a c3 tanker hole the block island displayed 7 800 long tons and carried 24 aircraft the hunter killer group also included four destroyer escorts the uss aaron's bar eugene e elmore and buckley the group had been tracking and harassing a yuba with which they'd had intermittent contact since may 1st they did not know it yet but the submarine was the u-66 it was a veteran vessel and its nine wartime patrols that had sunk 33 merchant vessels totaling more than 200 thousand gross registered tons and damaged two british torpedo boats who had tried to sink her in tonnage sunk the u-66 was the seventh most successful u-boat of the war the u-66 was a type 9c u-boat launched in january 1941 it had a surface displacement of 1 100 long tons and a crew of 48 officers and men with a maximum surface speed of 18.3 knots it was armed with six torpedo tubes a 10.5 centimeter deck gun and one 3.7 centimeter and a twin two centimeter anti-aircraft guns in may 1944 was commanded by over lieutenant zarc gerhard seehausen as suspected u-66 was in the area to rendezvous with the u-488 for supply but in the battle of the atlantic the line between hunter and hunted was thin near midnight on may 5th the block island's radar coughed the u-boat just five thousand yards off apparently preparing to make a torpedo attack on the carrier the carrier surged ahead at flank speed and executed an emergency turn to avoid the attack uss buckley was dispatched to the site of the radar signal the uss buckley was the lead ship in a class for destroyer escorts of which 154 were produced buckley was launched january 9 1943 the ship displaced 1673 long tons and had a normal complement of 186 officers and men it was armed with three large 3-inch guns a quad 1.1 inch gun 8 lighter 20 millimeter guns torpedoes and depth charges it could make a top speed of 25 knots in may 1944 was commanded by lieutenant commander brent m abel of the united states navy reserve at 2 16 a.m a grumman avenger unarmed and on a night radar patrol got a radar contact 20 miles from the buckley and directed the ship to it moving at flank speed literally pushing the engines and screws to their limits the buckley raced to the scene the plane reported that the submarine appeared to be lying too which suggested that it was waiting to resupply not knowing that the u-488 had been destroyed this gave the buckley the opportunity to surprise the u-boat on the surface lieutenant commander brent m abell in command of the buckley reported that there was a brilliant moon in calm sea with a gentle breeze from the northeast the buckling made radar contact at 2 46 am an able called the crew to general quarters at the time the submarine was moving around too erratically to attempt a torpedo attack and abel decided to hold fire until they drew close hoping the u-boat would think that they would supply boat and allow them to close at nine thousand yards the submarine fired three flares an apparent recognition signal for their supply boat and the first indication that the u-but had seen them the buckley closed at flank speed at 4 000 yards abel reported that the u-boat was perfectly silhouetted by the bright moon a perfect target the buckley turned left bring the u-boat dead ahead it was a well-timed move as the u-boat had recognized the threat as the buckley turned a torpedo passed to starboard able then had buckley turn right to keep them the submarine silhouetted by the moon and the submarine started firing with machine guns the buckling commenced firing at 2100 yards shots from the three-inch guns rammed into the submarine's foxhole preventing the u-boat crew from reaching the main deck gun the buckley now had all guns firing with the bridge directing the fire of the large three-inch guns based on radar see house and turned the u-66 moving it so as not to be silhouetted by the moon this gave them a chance to bring their 10.5 centimeter deck gun into action tracers were landing all around the buckley but in the dark the germans were firing high and most of the shots went long the only hit scored by the u-66 deck gun pierced buckley's stack abel ordered left full rudder which brought the sub back into the moonlight buckley's guns were scoring hits on the submarine's conning tower and fire from the u-66 became intermittent knowing he was out gunned seahausen was trying to make some distance to allow a torpedo attack look out saw a torpedo wave coming towards a starboard bow and abel ordered rightful rudder causing the torpedo to pass the avenger was still in the air giving direction using its radar and that offered buckling advantage the buckley closed firing like blazes a shot appeared to start a fire on the u-boats bridge abel had the buckley closed to 20 yards on a parallel course the u-boat was being raked from bow to stern with machine gun fire and point-blank three-inch fire abel then ordered buckley to turn hard right ramming the u-boat and riding up on her foxhole trapped the crew of the u-boat swarmed out trying to board the buckley or maybe to distract the destroyer so the submarine could make its escape able reported that machine gun tommy gun and rifle fire knocked off many of the u-boat crew as they swarmed out of the submarine close quarters combat was extremely rare in the second world war but these two ships were locked in a desperate struggle and the crews were fighting each other hand to hand or using small arms sitting atop the submarine the buckley could not bring her three-inch guns to bear and the crew was repelling borders with whatever weapons they had at hand in a fight that would have been more fitting in the previous century the buckley's crew defended themselves as they could including throwing several messed coffee cups which were on hand at already gun station it will reported the two of the enemy were hit in the head with these the crew were also throwing the heavy brass empty shell casings from the three-inch guns during the action nabel reported that the buckley suffered its only casualty of the engagement when a man bruised his fist knocking one enemy over the side the fighting was close the bosons made in charge of the forward ammunition party killed a man attempting to board with a 45-caliber pistol not a common occurrence in the battle of the atlantic the crew of the buckley was now firing at the submarine crew with rifles and tommy guns able reversed engine backing off the u-boat to prevent further boarding five germans still aboard were disarmed and taken prisoner the u-66 was now trying to make distance again enable ordered the buckley to charge at flank speed able's plan was to come alongside and fire depth charges so that they would explode under the submarine but the submarine either intentionally out of control turned towards the buckley the buckley swerve preventing a direct ram but the u-66 scored a glancing blow breaching the destroyer's hole before rolling under and shearing off the buckley starboard shaft as it hit the u-boat rolled over 60 degrees and for a moment some of the buckley's crew could see into the con which was described as a flaming shambles too close to used depth charges the torpedo men threw hand grenades one went down the hatch before exploding the ruined submarine past the stern it screws still turning making 15 knots this offered a perfect shot for the buckley's three-inch guns which scored several direct hits on the con the submarine then began to dive but with the hatch on the now-abandoned con and the forward hatch still open as it went under several large explosions were heard seahausen had ordered the u-66 scuttle to prevent her secret equipment from being captured the entire engagement from radar contact to sinking of the u-66 had lasted just 16 minutes buckley searched for two hours rescuing survivors 36 of the u-boats crew survived including four officers over lieutenant cersei gerhard seahausen was not among the survivors the survivors reported that they were convinced that they had been attacked by a light cruiser rather than a destroyer escort for such a close quarters fight it wasn't overly deadly but still both vessels were fighting to the death and the buckley easily could have been lost had either of the u-66 torpedoes struck home the buckley had lost its starboard screw with the shaft sheared off they had a five-inch hole bridge in the engine room two feet above the water line and damage to the bow from the ram the ship required nearly a month in dry dock for repairs in the 16 minute fight the buckley expended 105 three inch rounds 2720 millimeter rounds 418 1.1 inch rounds and more than 300 rounds from small arms and two hand grenades for his command during the action lieutenant commander abel was awarded the navy cross the kriggs marine would get its revenge less than a month later when on may 29th the u-549 snuck through the destroyer escort screen and sunk the uss block island but by then the battle of the atlantic was in its waning years the alley sunk 248 u-boats in 1944 and the u-boats had largely been driven from the north atlantic still the allies continued to take shipping losses from the u-boat menace through the end of the war today is pearl harbor day the anniversary of the japanese attack on the os pacific fleet that president franklin roosevelt called a date which will live in infamy among the many stories of heroism on this day is one of a small outdated vessel crewed by naval reservists that played a unique role in the second world war and the attack on pearl harbor this scrappy vessel demonstrated the spirit of the us navy and the determination of the nation through two wars and some of the hardest fighting in the history of the navy the history of the uss ward deserves to be remembered james armand ward had an extraordinary career in the navy appointed a midshipman in 1823 he served aboard old ironsides the uss constitution in the atlantic squadron later he served in the blockade of africa an operation that cooperated with the british royal navy to intercept and stop the west african slave trade and then in the west indies fighting pirates because doesn't every great story involve pirates an evil scholar ward taught courses for midshipmen and authored textbooks on naval theory and practice when in 1845 secretary of the navy george bancroft formed a naval school on the grounds of the former u.s army fort severn in annapolis maryland james harmon-ward was one of the first five founders and the first commandant of midshipmen of what would eventually be called the u.s naval academy at the advent of the u.s civil war he was given command of the potomac squadron there in the june 1861 battle of matthias point he was leading from the front having brought his flagship the steamer uss thomas freeborn close to shore to protect a retreating shore party while citing the ship's bow gun commander ward was killed by sniper fire he was the first u.s naval officer killed fighting in the civil war and his name would carry on in the u.s navy the development of the self-propelled torpedo in the 1860s led to a new vessel for naval service the torpedo boat these small cheap and fast boats could run out and engage large ships with torpedoes and then retreat the first successful use of such a boat to sink an armored ship with a self-propelled torpedo occurred during the chilean civil war of 1891 when the torpedo gunboat almaronti lynch sank the armored frigate blanco encolada in the battle of caldera bay the development of the torpedo boat then gave rise to another class of vessel the torpedo boat destroyer whose purpose was to screen larger warships from attacks by torpedo boats and be able to fire torpedoes themselves the first boat of this type built for the united states was the uss bainbridge commissioned in 1903. u.s navy destroyer designs evolved quickly by 1916 when it was increasingly clear that the us may be drawn into the first world war and the navy was being greatly expanded the naval appropriations act called for the construction of 50 wix-class destroyers vessels with a displacement of 1154 tons nearly three times the size of the 420-ton bainbridge commissioned just 13 years earlier the submarine threat that became apparent during the great war gave greater impetus to produce destroyers and eventually 267 of the wix class and the similar clemson class destroyers were built one of those was the uss ward designed for high speed and mass production wix class destroyers were larger than previous us designs largely because of the requirement that they'd be able to make 35 knots fast enough to keep up with the lexington and omaha class cruisers the larger design used a single deck that was continuous from stem to stern differentiating it from previous usd storage designs and had a raised foxel thus the wix and the closely related caldwell and clemson class destroyers were commonly called the flush deck destroyers they had two boilers and thus four stacks armament was four four inch 50 caliber guns 12 21 inch torpedo tubes a three inch 23 caliber anti-aircraft gun and depth charges built at the mare island naval shipyard near vallejo california the construction of the uss ward is a testament to the extent of the u.s mobilization during the first world war the navy was emphasizing destroyer production even delaying the production of cruisers to facilitate more destroyers being built under this pressure the ship's keel for uss ward was laid may 15 1918 and she was launched june 1st marking u.s record for production of a destroyer of only 17 days ward was commissioned into service on july 24th one of only a handful of wix-class vessels completed in time to serve during the great war and was the flagship of the destroyer division 18 but sono combat in may of 1919 ward was part of a famous first participating in a chain of navy ships that provided navigational aid and lifeguard station for a u.s navy curtis flying boat which became the first aircraft of any kind to fly across the atlantic ocean or any of the other oceans for that matter in 1921 with most of her sister ships ward was decommissioned and placed in reserve in san diego but in january 1941 with war on the horizon word was recommissioned manned by reservists of the minnesota naval reserve which have been called to active duty during the same month many of the recommissioned ships were sent to the atlantic to protect convoys but ward was sent to hawaii arriving in march she was assigned along with three other world war one era destroyers to patrol the harbor entrance to pearl harbor where the u.s pacific fleet had been moved 1941 was a tense year the us and japan went out odds over japanese actions in china and indochina the u.s froze japanese assets on july 26 1941 and on august 1st established an embargo on oil and gasoline exports to japan while negotiations were ongoing tensions were high and in november the coastal patrol was given orders to depth charge suspicious submarine contacts in essence permission to shoot as submarines that entered territorial waters while submerged while not protected by innocent passage protections on december 5th ward got a new commander lieutenant william outerbridge a 1927 graduate of the u.s naval academy ward was his first command having been executive officer aboard the destroyer uss cummings two days later ward was on her routine patrol outside pearl harbor around 4am when she received visual signals via signal light from the coast guard mann coastal minesweeper uss condor the condor had a tentative sighting of a periscope word called to general quarters and conducted a search using sonar for the next hour but turned up no contacts at 6 40 the general store's issue ship antares waiting outside the harbor for a favorable tide sent another signal about a suspicious object off her stern words lookout saw behind the antares a small wake the sign of a periscope the risk for which they had been warned in november at first the watch commander thought it might be a buoy but decided probably it was a conning tower of a submarine although the u.s didn't have anything that looked like that in its navy the officer on the bridge lieutenant gepner sen sent for captain albert bridge who was sleeping in the nearby ready cabin outer bridge came to the bridge still wearing his pajamas by his observation it looked to be a submarine apparently intent on following the antares into pearl harbor following the order that had been issued in november outer bridge ordered an attack charging the contact the first shot came from the number one four-inch gun mount but went long the number three gun came to bear firing a second round the submarine was so close that the shot was below the gun's targeting reticle the gunner had to fire by sight alone the shot seemed to hit the submarine's conning tower but the crew couldn't be sure word then dropped four depth charges outer bridge sent a message to the 14th naval district headquarters he wanted to be clear because he did not want them to mistake the attack as being on just an unidentified sonar contact we have attacked fired upon and dropped death charges upon submarine operating in defensive sea area he reported the message should have been a warning that an enemy attack was imminent but the message took time to work its way through channels and command then required confirmation another destroyer was sent to help search for contacts but the navy did not grasp the significance of the event ward saw other sonar contacts and fired more depth charges but saw no more submarines they were still outside the harbor when the air attack began the crew at first thought the explosions they were hearing were from highway work the submarine the ward had seen was a japanese type a [ __ ] submarine one of five that had been launched from larger submarines some 10 miles from pearl harbor on december 6th the taipei was about 75 feet long carried two 450 millimeter torpedoes and had a range of about 100 nautical miles the question of what the word saw and whether it scored a hit was not defendedfully answered until august of 2002 when researchers from the university of hawaii finally discovered the wreckage of the submarine with a clean hole through the conning tower right where outer bridges said the number three gun it hit thus the first shot between the united states and japan and the pacific war was fired by the uss ward and in the second shot of that war the ward had struck home sunk the japanese submarine the first casualties and first vessel loss in the japanese attack on pearl harbor were japanese rather than american us's war continued her duties outside pearl harbor through the end of the year but in 1942 was sent to california to be one of 17 wix-class vessels to be refitted as high-speed transports high-speed transports were a new concept these converted destroyers were designed to be able to disembark troops under fire their armament was sufficient to defend themselves from small naval ships and to provide fire support while they were fast enough to avoid larger ships their primary role was to deliver small units such as marine raiders or army rangers the flush deck destroyers were a good fit for the role as removing the second boiler and consequently two of the four stacks allowed accommodation for 200 troops a company-sized unit while reducing the top speed to 25 knots the torpedo tubes were removed allowing room to mount four large landing craft in addition words older four inch fifty caliber guns were replaced with newer three inch fifty caliber anti-aircraft guns along with depth charges the high-speed transport was affected both as an anti-aircraft screen and an anti-submarine role high speed transports were given the designation apd ap meaning transport and d meaning destroyer the former uss ward was redesignated apd-16 and was ready for service in february 1943. the work of the fast transports was arduous combining the roles of transports and destroyers apd-16 participated in a dizzying array of operations in the solomon islands and the invasion of new guinea in december 1944 the ship was engaged in landing operations supporting the invasion of the island of leyte the beginning of the operation to recapture the philippines on a patrol assignment the apd-16 and the destroyer uss mahan came under air attack by a group of japanese g4m betty bombers with escort fighters three broke off to attack the high speed transport her blazing gun splashed two the third was hit but crashed into apd-16 amid ships hitting so hard that one of the plane's two engines continued on through the ship exiting at the water line on the starboard side the bomber exploded starting uncontrollable fires the ship came to a stop her crew attempting to fight the fires but the hoses had lost pressure they received assistance from the destroyer uss o'brien but as the fires burned towards the fuel and ready ammunition storage the ship's commander lieutenant raymond forrest farwell jr had to give the order to abandon ship miraculously only one member of the crew had been injured and the crew was safely evacuated to other ships as the fires were beyond control uss o'brien was ordered to sink the burning transport with gunfire in a stunning coincidence the former uss ward went under at 11 30 a.m on december 7th three years to the day after she fired the first shot of the war in the pacific the commander of the uss o'brien ordered to sink the gallant ship was william outerbridge who had commanded her that day outside pearl harbor uss ward earned one battle star as a destroyer and eight battle stars as a high-speed transport her distinguished service and dog determination well represented the navy in the pacific campaign ward's number three four-inch 50-caliber gun that fired the second shot and sunk the first enemy vessel of the pacific war was removed when the ship went in for refit in 1942. in 1958 that gun was installed as a memorial out front the minnesota state capitol in saint paul the wreckage of the former uss ward was discovered by the research special rv petrol in december 2017. william outerbridge continued to serve with the navy until 1957 when he retired as a rear admiral he passed away in 1986 at the age of 80. [Music] it was december 7th 1941 and the united states naval reserve ensign john charles england was serving in the radio room aboard the battleship uss oklahoma he actually hadn't been scheduled for duty that morning he had traded chefs his young wife helen elaine whom they called laney was due to arrive the next day and she was bringing with her their newborn daughter victoria whom he was yet to meet and so he had traded shifts so that he would have more time with them when they arrived the oklahoma was moored to birth fox 5 that day next to the battleship maryland and was one of the first ships attacked by torpedo planes of the kagi and the kaga the nevada class battleship took three torpedoes in quick succession and as she started to roll to capsize struck by two more instant england survived those initial attacks he could have made it free but instead he chose to go back inside the battleship and lead a shipmate to safety he went back in two more times and rescued two more shipmates but when he went in a fourth time he never came back out he was officially listed as missing one of 429 officers and enlisted men to die on the battleship of oklahoma in the japanese attack he was just four days shy of his 21st birthday his daughter torah never met her father almost exactly two years later on december 10 1943 a new buckley class destroyer escort who was commissioned was christened the uss england in his honor and its extraordinary service would well demonstrate the change in tactics in technology and in the fortunes of war that had occurred in the intervening two years it is history that deserves to be remembered it was may 18th 1944 and the 306-foot long 1400 long-ton displacement destroyer uss england was leaving to laggy harbor in the solomon islands england was under the command of lieutenant commander walter b pendleton a graduate of the us naval academy pendleton had commanded the lap wing class mine sleeper uss turn during the attack of pearl harbor the turn was credited with shooting down a japanese aircraft and had rescued survivors of the arizona england had arrived in the solomon islands in march and while it had done escort duty between the new hebrides and guadalcanal it was yet to see combat pendleton and uss england were anxious to repay the imperial japanese navy for pearl harbor five days earlier and some two thousand miles away at truck harbor in the carolina islands lieutenant commander yoshitaka takuchi in command of a type c1 japanese submarine i-16 was preparing to get underway on a mission to supply a japanese garrison on bougainville island in new guinea tekuchi radioed the headquarters of submarine squadron 7 located on saipan in the mariana islands estimating his arrival at bougainville on may 22nd takuchi did not know that the u.s navy had eavesdropped on his message the japanese naval code called jn 25 was different than the mechanically insiphered german enigma code jn25 was a book cipher where the sender writes the message and then encodes it using a code book even before the war the usc had success with japanese naval codes which were vulnerable to standard cryptological attacks such as frequency analysis cracking the code required deducing the means meanings of phrases in each new code book but although the code books were changed frequently they were not changed radically code breakers at pearl harbor had cracked the code in 1942 allowing them to predict the japanese attack on midway island the u.s had been carefully using the knowledge gained from their code breaking to assist u.s submarines which when combined with the development of more reliable torpedoes had significantly improved u.s success but sharing information with submarine hunters was relatively new england was dispatched along with the buckley class historic escorts uss george and uss raby to track down the i-16 they departed to laggy harbor on may 18th and on may 19th the u.s plane spotted the i-16 on the surface alerted raby george and england rushed to the location of the sighting and conducted what was called a line abreast radar sweep the line of breast sweep allows ships to combine their search creating a large entrapment triangle in front of the vessels the ships in a line of breast formation are close enough for convenient communications know the positions of their fellow ships in addition ships are in a position to coordinate during attack once a contact is made the england's soundman john d prock was the first to make contact he announced contact bearing 305 degrees range 1800 yards they radioed the officer in tactical command aboard the uss george england would go in for the attack while george and raby would circle some 2000 yards out preventing the i-16 from escaping pendleton first ordered a non-firing run to confirm the contact was a submarine and then made its first firing run it was england's first attack against a live target the england was armed with a weapon that was relatively new to the pacific theater the mark 10 hedgehog anti-submarine mortar the hedgehog had been designed by the british in 1941 and was first used in 1942 but didn't become widely available until late 1943. the hedgehog was designed to fire a spread of 24 anti-submarine projectiles two to three hundred yards ahead of the ship each projectile had a contact fuse that detonated on impact with a submarine if one of the projectiles had a submarine there would be an explosion the hedgehog could be reloaded in about three minutes for a repeat attack although the explosive charge of the hedgehog projectile was smaller than a standard depth charge a contact explosion of only one would usually be sufficient to breach the submarine's hull and sink it the first salvo fired but there were no explosions submarine had been making a hard right and the england had failed to lead her enough and missed to the left england regained contact and fired again this time a hedgehog exploded but the england could not detect signs that the submarine had been damaged the i-16 had nine war patrols during the war and takuchi was an experienced captain he moved the submarine behind the england masking his sound in their wake but england made contact again throwing out another deadly hedgehog salvo but the i-16 was deeper than anticipated and again none of the hedgehogs exploded a fourth attack also missed takuchi was throwing his rudder side to side to evade the attack but the england was onto his game sound recorded five to six hits with the fifth attack but still was the i-16 sunk the answer came two minutes later the explosion of the i-16 was so powerful and lifted the fan tail of the england six inches out of the water i-16 was lost with all hands there was some poetic justice i-16 had been at pearl harbor had launched one of five minute submarines intended to attack inside the harbor in her first combat uss england had gained some revenge for the young ensign after whom she was named but there was more to come the imperial japanese navy was attempting a desperate action called operation a-go to draw the u.s fleet into a decisive engagement in support seven japanese submarines of the seventh submarine squadron have been sent to establish a line to intercept the predicted path of u.s aircraft carriers the u.s had caught an odd bit of luck a u.s aircraft had observed the submarine ro104 and radioed a contact report the japanese had intercepted the communication and as a result had ordered six submarines to relocate their line to the south the u.s had intercepted those orders and from the communication had been able to divide the location of the submarines the george raby and england were dispatched to hunt them down the three destroyers were moving on a base course of 321 degrees separated at 4 000 yard intervals george made the first contact on the medium-sized r0100 class r0106 on may 22nd under the command of lieutenant kitauda the ro106 was on her 11th war patrol george and raby moved in for the attack while england was ordered to stand off to prevent the submarine escaping george coffee ro 106 by surprise still on the surface but the submarine managed to crash dive tried to escape george made a hedgehog attack but scored no hits the ro106 ran under england who also missed with the hedgehog salvo but the ro106 turned to possibly intent on making a torpedo attack on uss england it was a mistake england's second salvo recorded three explosions the next morning a large oil said confirmed that the ro106 had been destroyed england's second kill in four days the squadron now knew where the japanese line of submarines was planned to roll down that line the next to be sighted was ro104 under the command of lieutenant hisashi isubici on may 23rd an aircraft cited the submarine first and the group moved in for the kill raby made the first contact but failed his corny hits in four hedgehog salvos george moved in and fired a salvo but again ro104 managed to avoid being hit izubichi went deep trying to escape but george were getting contact finding three more salvos but scoring no hits frustrated the england was called in their first salvo missed but the second scored 10 to 12 hits followed a few minutes later by the sound of ro104 exploding england had our third kill since may 19th john williamson who is executive officer aboard the england recalls bumping into a young sailor who asked him sir how many men were on the submarine we just destroyed williamson answered that it depended upon the type of submarine but between 40 and 80 men the sailor looked at him sir how do you feel about killing all those men williamson answered this is war the choice is kill or be killed uss george was the first to cite the ro116 under lieutenant commander takeshi okabe on the morning of may 24th england rushed to the scene okabe was clever using a tactic called counter pinging using his sonar ping to confuse england's sonar pendleton decided on a ruse sowing his own sonar pings making it appear that england thought that the submarine was farther away than it was thinking he had fooled them ocabo stopped counter-pinging and went to full stop but england had him targeted better than he realized england's first salvo scored five hits it took some time to confirm but england had scored its fourth kill by now all three of the escorts were low on fuel and ammunition a hundred killer force consisting of the escort carrier uss huggett bay and three destroyers arrived on may 26th and the three destroyer escorts were sent to manus island in new guinea to refuel and re-arm but they were not anxious to give the chase and so steered a path to manus it would take them across the assumed location of the southwest end of the japanese line of submarines about 110 nautical miles northeast of manus island raby caught a sonar contact raby's first hedgehog attack missed and england moved in williamson recalled some concern england only had enough hedgehogs for two more attacks they only needed one the ro-108 on her fifth war patrol was england's fifth victim in the early morning hours of may 30th england raby and george have been joined by another destroyer escort the uss spangler the fletcher-class destroyer uss hazelwoods greeting the hog at bay had made a contact but its depth charge attacks have been unsuccessful the submarine was the ro105 and had captain ranasuki cato commander of japanese submarine division 51 aboard one of their most experienced submariners ketu had managed to keep breaking contact by the next day the destroyers were still in pursuit commander haynes the officer and tactical command or otc aboard the george held england back ordering them to stand off rabie george and spangler all made attacks with george apparently scoring some hits but cato managed to keep the submarine alive finally haynes exasperated radioed oh hell go ahead england england charge cut a good sonar contact and scored six hits in her first salvo haynes radioed god damn it how do you do it uss england's impressive six submarine kills in 12 days is a feat that is unparalleled in the annals of anti-submarine warfare but it demonstrates the change in technology and tactics and coordination that occurred over the course of the pacific war of approximately 25 japanese submarines that were deployed in may and june of 1944 17 were sunk uss england received the presidential unit citation and lieutenant commander pendleton received the navy cross and a promotion to commander but the england would go on to see another change in tactics that occurred over the course of the pacific war she was on picket duty in may of 1945 near the island of okinawa when she was attacked by three kamikaze aircraft despite her guns sitting on a fire it managed to strike her on the starboard side just below the bridge they managed to save the ship and fight the fires but 37 members of england's crew were killed 25 more were wounded she limped back to the united states and was going to be converted to a high-speed transport but with the end of the war it was decided that her damage was not worth repair england was stricken from the rolls sold for scrap admiral ernest king who'd been the chief of naval operations during the second world war said after england's success in the spring of 1944 that there will always be an england in the united states navy and that promise was kept in the form of the leahy class guided missile cruiser uss england which proudly served the nation for more than 30 years between 1963 and 1994. i hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guy short snippets have forgotten history between 10 and 15 minutes long and if you did enjoy please go ahead and click that thumbs up button if you have any questions or comments or suggestions for future episodes please write those in the comment section i will be happy to personally respond be sure to follow the history guy on facebook instagram twitter and 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Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 314,449

Keywords: history, history guy, the history guy

Id: t7hoGVBG7_s

Length: 49min 54sec (2994 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 03 2022