4. The division returned to Korean waters in September of 1952 and the following month, KIDD participated in a mock invasion near Kojo, diverting the enemys attention. . On the night of the 17th, the Ingham's sonar was turned off and her sonarman, Mike Sasso, was listening for screw noise with the hydrophones. Not a member of the Naval Institute? The latter part of 1958 saw her engaged in a similar role patrolling the straits between Formosa (Taiwan) and mainland China while international tempers flared over the Chinese bombardment of the offshore islands of Quemoy and Matsu. She whispers stories of courage, bravery, and sacrifice. Each compartment has been treated as a display case into which innumerable artifacts have been collected and arranged just as they would have been when sailors lived and worked on board. did fletcher class destroyers serve in the atlantic? Several films are told from the point of view of the German U-boat crews. Upon reaching Ulithi, another devastating blow to morale was waiting for them. With the outbreak of the Korean Conflict, many destroyers were recalled to service and also served in Atlantic . The only ports we got to visit during my deployments were Yokosuka and Sasebo in Japan, Hong Kong, Kaoshung Taiwan, and Subic Bay in the Philippines. . During his 30 year naval career he held two ship commands and served a total of 8 years on naval material inspection boards, during which he conducted trials and inspections aboard over 200 naval vessels. Krause commands a multi-national group of four escort ships tasked with protecting a convoy of merchant ships that are being hunted by German U-boats. (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1992). Built at Federal Shipbuilding & Dry-dock Company of Kearny, New Jersey, KIDD was one of four destroyers [USS BULLARD (DD-660), USS THORN (DD-647), and USS TURNER (DD-648)] launched on February 28, 1943 in a record-breaking fourteen minutes. But while the Mahans were all in service before World War II, the first Fletcher class vessels was not introduced into service until the middle of 1942, which is after the February 1942 date in which the movie is set. On 12 June 1944, a new Gearing -class destroyer, USS Chevalier (DD 805) was laid downlike the 451, the third ship of her class from Bath Iron Works. The combat air patrol downed the remaining Japanese aircraft. She serves as a reminder of all those who have gone before us. The part of Greyhound that's based on a true story is the Battle of the Atlantic, in which the fictional USS Keelingbecomes involved. The crew quickly adopted the pirate Captain Kiddwho ironically hailed from New Yorkas their mascot and hired a local cartoonist to paint the famed buccaneers image high of the forward smokestack. The first 25 ships were ordered 28 June and 1 July 1940 (the first day of the 1941 fiscal year), with DD 445 actually belonging to the 1 July group. She continued rescue operations all the while maneuvering to avoid bombs and airborne torpedoes while simultaneously engaging the enemy. The latter part of 1958 saw her engaged in a similar role patrolling the straits between Formosa (Taiwan) and mainland China while international tempers flared over the Chinese bombardment of the offshore islands of Quemoy and Matsu. The last significant encounter between U-boats and 327s took place on 17 April, as the Spencer and Duane were escorting Convoy HX-233. The 2,050-ton Fletcher -Class destroyer was considered one of the best destroyers of the period. She rests in a unique docking system designed for the near forty foot rise and fall of the river each season. In Greece, the former Charrette, renamed Velos (Arrow), is a popular attraction. The character's first name was changed for the movie. Not wishing to dishonor RADM Kidd, however, the crew obtained permission from Mrs. Kidd first. Was on DD650 for 4 years right out of boot camp I am now ret USN MSC you in 76 there is not a day that goes by that I dont think of the best year s of my life I am now 77and I wish I could do it all again when the good Lord takes me I hope he will put me on the USS C APERTON DD650, Pingback: The George Stewart I Knew | Naval Historical Foundation. They used USS Kidd, a real WWII destroyer, to film the journey of Greyhound. Today, USS KIDD is moored in the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the centerpiece of the USS Kidd Veterans Museum. She returned fire on and silenced several batteries successfully. The search for hard-to-find World War II vintage equipment has gone around the world. We were forward deployed to Yokosuka, Japan as part of DESRON 15. The Pirate of the Pacific began a series of WESTPAC cruises which lasted from 1954 to 1959. Allied long-range shore-based aircraft extended their patrols as far as 600 miles, but there remained a significant gap in their coverage. Mr. Walling served as a commissioned and a senior petty officer in the Coast Guard and is the author of Bloodstained Sea: The U.S. Coast Guard in the Battle of the Atlantic, 1941-1944 (New York: International Marine/McGraw-Hill, 2004). The Coast Guard, however, maintains that the cutter's attacks two days later destroyed the same U-boat. Under the command of Cdr. The edition of TIME magazine that week carried a photo of KIDD, announcing that it had been one hundred years since the Jolly Roger had flown in New York Harbor. Transportation was by a combination of ships boats and private water taxis. Without waiting for Bruns' order, the U-boat's engineer gave the command to surface. U-boat U-405 was swallowed by the sea that night, adding to the Atlantic's WWII seabed graveyard. On March 19, 1945, the carrier USS FRANKLIN (CV-13) suffered a devastating hit which touched off gasoline and ammunition explosions and claimed 724 lives. The Fletcher class destroyer is one of the most famous and most produced warships developed and built for the US navy in WW2. Commissioned back into service on March 28 of that year under the command of Cdr. In addition, the Coast Guard ships' commissioning pennants were replaced with the Navy flags. The second was CASSIN YOUNG. The U.S. Coast Guard, hearing of the disaster and the City of Flint's need for medical help, immediately dispatched two of its 327-foot Secretary-class cutters: the Bibb (WPG-31) from Boston and Campbell (WPG-32) from Halifax, Nova Scotia. In 1995, what began as a blind letter to several allied navies which had received Fletcher-class ships in the years following 1945 resulted in the donation of twelve Mk-9 depth charges from the Turkish navy. Of the 1,103 passengers on board, 118 men, women, and childrenincluding 28 Americanswere killed. In those days there was no bridge to bridge radio. On 17 December, the Ingham was on the western edge of the air gap, sweeping ahead of eastbound Convoy SC-112. "It was a shallow charge, and as that thing exploded, the ship quivered, really quivered," Sasso said. I am a retired Navy Chief. There was always a stop at Pearl Harbor on the way to and from the deployment for INCOP and OUTCHOP (Change of Operational Command) briefings at CINCPACFLEET. She provided escort for the carrier task force which launched air raids on Wake Island in October of 1943 and then again, in November, for the carriers ESSEX (CV-9), BUNKER HILL (CV-17), and INDEPENDENCE (CV-22) in strikes against Rabaul and Bougainville. She participated in the bombardments of Roi and Kotje through February of that year, guarded construction of airfields at Emirau from March through April, and then supported the occupation of Aitape and Hollandia in New Guinea in May. Christened USS Fletcher, she carried over several design features from the earlier classes, such as a rounded pilot house. While the U-boats did occasionally eavesdrop after stumbling upon the transmitting frequency of the escort ships, as far as we know, they were never able to transmit on that frequency, nor were they able to hack into and broadcast over the convoy's inter-ship communication system. But with the advent of suicide tactics by the Japanese, destroyers on escort duty faced an even greater peril than before. In general, the statement that the military spends its time in peacetime preparing to fight the previous war has some merit. While the movie finds Tom Hanks' Commander Ernest Krause and the convoy caught up in the Battle of the Atlantic over a five-day period in the latter part of 1942, the battle actually spanned almost the entirety of the war, beginning on September 3, 1939 and ending on May 8, 1945. Also in early 1942, Secretary cutters began running a convoy shuttle as part of U.S. Navy Task Force 24. On deck it was necessary to disconnect all shore services, pick up the ships boats, remove rat guards, and a variety of other actions, including preparing an anchor for dropping in an emergency. The CO, XO, Officer of the Deck (OOD), Junior Officer of the Deck (JOOD) and appropriate enlisted personnel would proceed to the bridge. Each compartment has been treated as a display case into which innumerable artifacts have been collected and arranged just as they would have been when sailors lived and worked on board. Meanwhile, medium-size Coast Guard cutters and U.S. Navy destroyers covered waters closer inshore. When Congressman W. Henson Moore and the citizens of Louisiana began looking for a suitable vessel to serve as a memorial to the states veterans, KIDD was ready to serve once again. An American freighter, the SS City of Flint, reached the scene the next morning, joining the Norwegian freighter Knut and the Swedish yacht Southern Cross. The Navy, however, did not have enough ships to watch the vast area effectively and immediately asked for Coast Guard assistance. Simultaneously, Armed Guard gunners on merchant vessels in the rear columns of the convoy also opened fire. Not long afterward, KIDD saw action at Tarawa during the Gilbert Island invasion in November of 1943. The Allies had yet to set up a convoy system, and according to the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, between January and July 1942, 86 ships sank off the coast of North Carolina, claiming the lives of more than 1,100 merchant seamen. Fifteen minutes later, however, the radarman reported a contact at only 4,600 yards on a bearing well clear of the convoy. All watertight doors and hatches are closed to provide maximum subdivision. The winter of 1942-43 would be the Battle of the Atlantic's most bitterly fought season. The conditions are described as follows: The OOD would then execute a Getting Underway check list. A doctor transferred over by highline to care for the wounded from squadron mate HALE (DD-642). With carrier-based aircraft pounding the Japanese installations on the island, KIDD moved off to investigate a submarine contact miles away from the formation. The officer of the deck, Lieutenant Ed Osborne nevertheless ordered a depth charge dropped. Sign up to get updates about new releases and event invitations. Naval Documents of the American Revolution, - Naval Documents of the American Revolution, Manning Fletcher Class Destroyers | Naval Historical Foundation, Fletcher Class Destroyer Operations - Part II | Naval Historical Foundation, The George Stewart I Knew | Naval Historical Foundation, A History of the Naval Historical Foundation. On April 30, Cdr. that 175 FLETCHER class destroyers were completed in the two plus year period from June 1942 to September 1944. So on the crews behalf, Mrs. Kidd obtained official permission from the powers-that-be in the Navy for them to paint the pirate on the stack and fly the Jolly Roger. Acting as a member of a screen as part of a carrier task group against air, surface, and subsurface attack. While the vessels drifted clear of each other, the Campbell's 20-mm and 3-inch guns raked the U-boat's conning tower and deck. She saw her first duty covering the North Atlantic sea lanes near Argentia, Newfoundland. Arch A. Mercey and Lee Grove, eds., Sea, Surf and Hell (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1946). On 21 February, the Campbell was on her way to rejoin Convoy ON-166 after rescuing 50 survivors of the torpedoed Norwegian freighter Nielson Alonso. She returned to bombardment duty and rescuing downed pilots. ed. The first of these was USS THE SULLIVANS (DD-537), named after the five brothers killed aboard USS JUNEAU (CL-52) in 1942 off of Guadalcanal. Since 1975 all new destroyer, cruiser, and frigate types have been powered by aircraft derivative gas turbine engines. Gap in their coverage to the Atlantic 's WWII seabed graveyard private water taxis and 327s took on... The same U-boat while the vessels drifted clear of each other, the statement that military! 'S attacks two days later destroyed the same U-boat March 28 of that year under the of! 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