USS Iowa on open waters
#16
05-28-2012, 02:10 PM
During the Battle of Leyte Gulf, Tokyo Rose claimed the Japanese had sunk 50 US 'aeroplane' carriers.
We didn't have 50 'aeroplane' carriers in the entire PTO (Pacific Theater of Operations) at this time and this included fleet, light and jeep (escort) carriers.
During the retaking of the Philippines, only 2 jeep carriers and 4 destroyers were sunk (excepting 1 DD, all were sunk during the Battle of Samar), while the Japanese lost 4 carriers, 3 battleships, 9 cruisers, multiple destroyers.
An irony of WWII: The destroyer USS Ward was sinking in Ormoc Bay, the destroyer USS O'Brien was designated to pick up survivors.
December 7th 1941, before the attack on Pearl Harbor began, the USS Ward, commanded by Lt. W.W. Outerbridge, patrolling outside Pearl Harbor, fired the first shot of the Pacific War, sinking a Japanese midget sub.
Who was the commander of the USS O'Brien? Lt. Cmdr. W. W. Outerbridge!
Read all about it: "And Then There Was One" the true story of the USS Enterprise (CV-6).
This was the only carrier we had in the entire PTO during parts of 1942/43 after the carriers Lexington (CV-2), Yorktown (CV-5), Wasp (CV-7) and Hornet (CV-8) were sunk and the Saratoga (CV-3) was at Bremerton being repaired.
Despite the efforts of Admiral Halsey and many former crew members to save the USS Enterprise as a war memorial, it was scrapped in 1958.
Wing and a Prayer (1944:20th Century-Fox) is the story of carrier X that steamed all over the South Pacific on a decoy mission to fool the Japanese into thinking that we had more than one carrier.
While the carrier in the film isn't named, it has to be the USS Enterprise, because this is exactly what it did.
We didn't have 50 'aeroplane' carriers in the entire PTO (Pacific Theater of Operations) at this time and this included fleet, light and jeep (escort) carriers.
During the retaking of the Philippines, only 2 jeep carriers and 4 destroyers were sunk (excepting 1 DD, all were sunk during the Battle of Samar), while the Japanese lost 4 carriers, 3 battleships, 9 cruisers, multiple destroyers.
An irony of WWII: The destroyer USS Ward was sinking in Ormoc Bay, the destroyer USS O'Brien was designated to pick up survivors.
December 7th 1941, before the attack on Pearl Harbor began, the USS Ward, commanded by Lt. W.W. Outerbridge, patrolling outside Pearl Harbor, fired the first shot of the Pacific War, sinking a Japanese midget sub.
Who was the commander of the USS O'Brien? Lt. Cmdr. W. W. Outerbridge!
Read all about it: "And Then There Was One" the true story of the USS Enterprise (CV-6).
This was the only carrier we had in the entire PTO during parts of 1942/43 after the carriers Lexington (CV-2), Yorktown (CV-5), Wasp (CV-7) and Hornet (CV-8) were sunk and the Saratoga (CV-3) was at Bremerton being repaired.
Despite the efforts of Admiral Halsey and many former crew members to save the USS Enterprise as a war memorial, it was scrapped in 1958.
Wing and a Prayer (1944:20th Century-Fox) is the story of carrier X that steamed all over the South Pacific on a decoy mission to fool the Japanese into thinking that we had more than one carrier.
While the carrier in the film isn't named, it has to be the USS Enterprise, because this is exactly what it did.
#17
05-28-2012, 02:11 PM
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Beautiful.....
I was a little girl when my Dad was shipped off on the USS Shangri La with his squadron on a trip to Japan back in the 50s. My son and I visited the USS Midway a few years ago. Until you actually go through a ship like that, you don't realize just how cramped and how huge a carrier has to be.
Earlier this month, the SyFy channel aired "American Warships" a rip off of Universal's "Battleship". The Only good thing about that whole movie was their using the USS Iowa as the main focus of their tale. They used shots of her last being in active service for some action shots.
I was a little girl when my Dad was shipped off on the USS Shangri La with his squadron on a trip to Japan back in the 50s. My son and I visited the USS Midway a few years ago. Until you actually go through a ship like that, you don't realize just how cramped and how huge a carrier has to be.
Earlier this month, the SyFy channel aired "American Warships" a rip off of Universal's "Battleship". The Only good thing about that whole movie was their using the USS Iowa as the main focus of their tale. They used shots of her last being in active service for some action shots.
#18
05-28-2012, 02:57 PM
When FDR was asked by the press what location did the USAAF B-25 bombers fly from that bombed Japan in 1942, he replied: "Shangri-La."
This was a reference to the mythical Asian kingdom in James Hilton's 1933 novel Lost Horizon. 1937: The film Lost Horizon, directed by Frank Capra, starring Ronald Colman was released by Columbia Pictures.
The USAAF (US Army Air Force) bombers actually flew off the carrier USS Hornet (CV-8). This operation was the brain child of Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle.
Because of FDR's comment: Commissioned 9/15/1944: Essex class carrier USS Shangri-La (CV-38).
This was a reference to the mythical Asian kingdom in James Hilton's 1933 novel Lost Horizon. 1937: The film Lost Horizon, directed by Frank Capra, starring Ronald Colman was released by Columbia Pictures.
The USAAF (US Army Air Force) bombers actually flew off the carrier USS Hornet (CV-8). This operation was the brain child of Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle.
Because of FDR's comment: Commissioned 9/15/1944: Essex class carrier USS Shangri-La (CV-38).
#20
05-29-2012, 01:46 AM
You can track the Iowa's position online, but it won't enter LA (San Pedro) harbor when it gets here. The LA Times reported that there's some fall-der-all of having divers clean the hull of any possible foreign material.
How long will this take? Lawd only knows.
Left Turn 095: September 8th, 1923, the USN's worst peacetime disaster occurred. 9 destroyers (DD's) went on the rocks at Point Honda, just north of where the Iowa is now.
A squadron of DD's were heading south from San Francisco to San Diego, navigating by dead reckoning in a fog. At about midnight, the lead DD (USS Delphy) turned too soon into what the commander assumed was the Santa Barbara Channel.
2 DD's were able to back off, the remains of the other 7 are there today. The LA Maritime Museum (next to where the Iowa will be berthed) has a display of artifacts of this disaster donated by skin divers.
Edit: I just received another email from Sue Schmidt, the volunteer coordinator. She says the Iowa will be moored 'temporarily' in LA's outer harbor. She doesn't know how long the cleaning of the hull will take place.
How long will this take? Lawd only knows.
Left Turn 095: September 8th, 1923, the USN's worst peacetime disaster occurred. 9 destroyers (DD's) went on the rocks at Point Honda, just north of where the Iowa is now.
A squadron of DD's were heading south from San Francisco to San Diego, navigating by dead reckoning in a fog. At about midnight, the lead DD (USS Delphy) turned too soon into what the commander assumed was the Santa Barbara Channel.
2 DD's were able to back off, the remains of the other 7 are there today. The LA Maritime Museum (next to where the Iowa will be berthed) has a display of artifacts of this disaster donated by skin divers.
Edit: I just received another email from Sue Schmidt, the volunteer coordinator. She says the Iowa will be moored 'temporarily' in LA's outer harbor. She doesn't know how long the cleaning of the hull will take place.
#21
07-25-2012, 09:09 PM
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