Rembering Battleships...
- Thread starter Chernobyl
- Start date
Remarkable ship remarkable history
But its unlikley the Washington will ever be honored or memoralised up here in Seattle. San Fransico is one of the only cities that is more anti-military than Seattle. We cant even get a memorial to 'Papi' Boyington at the Universtiy of Washington (Papi graduated from there)
There are times I hate living in Seattle.
But its unlikley the Washington will ever be honored or memoralised up here in Seattle. San Fransico is one of the only cities that is more anti-military than Seattle. We cant even get a memorial to 'Papi' Boyington at the Universtiy of Washington (Papi graduated from there)
There are times I hate living in Seattle.
chaos0xomega
Mongoose
Hence: the reason why I hate the west coast of the USA.
That electronics system test story sounds TOO FUNNY though, lol. I guess they got what they deserved.
That electronics system test story sounds TOO FUNNY though, lol. I guess they got what they deserved.
Chernobyl said:
Chernobyl, I want to thank you for that. I read every word!
When I became interested in naval history, I stumbled upon a fascinating set of books at my local library. You might have heard of it as it has a rather long name- History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. As I would read each volume in sequence (there are fifteen volumes in total!), I would be a tad bothered when returning a finished book only to find the next book in line was missing, no doubt checked out by a 'kindred spirit' or perhaps even a WW2 veteran. I was so taken with the narrative style and easy to read content that I saved up $225.00 (over 25 yrs. ago it was worth more than it is today that's for sure) from my local bookstore and bought the entire set. I then proceeded to read the rest of the set and still value its richness today. It was in reading the history of Guadalcanal that I studied the exploits of the beautiful and powerful battleship USS Washington, a battleship that I had never before even knew existed let alone was a famous warship. After concluding the history, I did a search for where I might find and visit the ship, a ship that surely of all of the U.S. battleships must have been saved from the ship breakers. I was shocked and astonished only to find that the State I lived in that was the ship's namesake, that the major naval base in the Pacific Northwest (Bremerton) that could have served as a most worthy host for such a gallant ship was left without a berth and a place of honor. For God's sake I thought, Washington was hardly a land-locked State and a horrible mistake had been allowed to occur in scrapping a ship with 13 battle stars (each star signifying a major action). I was stunned frankly, and for a non-military citizen more than a bit pissed off (I still am 25 years later!). Just to add insult to injury, I then learned that the only other ship in WW2 that also deserved a place of honor as a war memorial and that indeed suffered the same fate of becoming razor blades was the USS Enterprise, the "Big E" herself with 20 battle stars. :evil: I consider whoever did this (probably very deceased by now) to have made a grievous error in judgement imho. If there were only two ships saved from WW2 from the American side that deserved a place of honor as memorials it was these two ships. If I could scrap all of the rest to bring them back, I would in a second (USS Arizona set aside from this "dream" obviously). Another ship that I found out didn't survive that should have is the old USS Oregon, but that's another story :wink: . Thanks again, Chernobyl. It really brings a tear to my eye that Adm. Lee's flagship, that a ship that might have fought the Tirpitz, that the singular hero of the 2nd Naval Battle of Guadalcanal (not Battleship 'X' dammit!) [nuther story] and the flagship of TF34 at Leyte Gulf (not deployed by Halsey to guard Samar and San Bernardino Strait and Taffy 1,2 &3) commanded by none other than Willis A. "Ching" Lee should be forgotten and denied her well earned rewards (dammit). I had even planned a future S&P scenario of an 'altered' Samar with the Japanese Center Force against TF34 and a little history on the Washington thrown in for its exploits over in British waters to boot, and still have it planned. :wink:
Chernobyl said:
Yeah, that has never been lost on me either. At least the Kirishima was sunk in battle fighting for its country. To have a ship with 13 battle stars and the singular distinction of going toe-to-toe with an opposite battleship and coming out a clean victor only to be converted into razor blades chaps my ass :evil: . To have that same fate bestowed upon the Enterprise even more so with her 20 battle stars :twisted:. I'll make a short note that there was another battle between a US battleship and a foreign BB, but I don't place it in the same category as the Washington's fight with the Kirishima. A sister of the South Dakota (SoDak or battleship 'X' was with the Washington at the 2nd Naval Battle of Guadalcanal) that was at Casablanca was the USS Massachusetts. It had a 'tussle' with the docked battleship Jean Bart. While the Jean Bart was sitting still with one arm tied behind it (one of her two main turrets was not even completed), it nonetheless traded salvoes with the Massachusetts. One 16" shell glanced off of the roof of the one functional turret (talk about hitting a bullseye!) and landed in the city center. This jammed the turret in-train and ended the squabble. An 8" shore battery made a hit on the Massachusetts, but nothing from the Jean Bart connected. The Massachusetts managed five 16" hits on the Jean Bart, which tore her up some. Several of the AP projectiles did not detonate either through being duds and/or not exploding when they passed through unarmored sections of the hull.
chaos0xomega said:
believe me, we got a front page reprimand the next day, the CO could have scheduled it at a better time, but he wanted to push to get us out of ED-SRA as quick as can be. Which, in my mind, led to the death of at least one sailor, who failed to properly tag out an arresting gear engine while doing some "midnight maintenance"...that CO left a bad taste in my mouth regarding the Nimitz...I'll have to find out what happened to him...
Chern
edit
didn't like this guy - Alfred G Harms Jr, now Vice Admiral. http://www.nstc.navy.mil/harms-bio.html
This guy was a great CO, and it shows in his career after Nimitz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_B._Nathman
he was Vice CNO (Chief of Naval Operations) at one point and is now Commander, US Fleet Forces Command
which one would you rather serve under?
Chern
I was reading up on the USS Texas wikipedia page earlier, and discovered something that would have been great to see on film...
The USS Texas was one of the many vessels supporting the Normandy invasion, specifically at Omaha beach. In film, the actual area supported by the Texas is shown in "Saving Private Ryan", and is accurate so far as to show the problems the Rangers had extricating themselves from the beach at "Dog-1" or D-1. What isn't shown in the film, is the USS Texas firing her 14" main guns at near 0 deg. to fire on strongpoints (while only 3000 yards from water's edge) protecting this exit from the beach!
I guess they "Hollywooded" it up to show Tom Hank's unit as more heroic, but showing the main battery taking out a sniper nest would have been awesome...!
Chern
The USS Texas was one of the many vessels supporting the Normandy invasion, specifically at Omaha beach. In film, the actual area supported by the Texas is shown in "Saving Private Ryan", and is accurate so far as to show the problems the Rangers had extricating themselves from the beach at "Dog-1" or D-1. What isn't shown in the film, is the USS Texas firing her 14" main guns at near 0 deg. to fire on strongpoints (while only 3000 yards from water's edge) protecting this exit from the beach!
I guess they "Hollywooded" it up to show Tom Hank's unit as more heroic, but showing the main battery taking out a sniper nest would have been awesome...!
Chern
