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. City of Flint's crew picked up 238 survivors, some of whom had been wounded in the attack or were suffering from exposure. In May 1942, before the first Fletcher was even commissioned, it approved a six-gun ship in which the Fletchers five 5-inch single mounts were replaced with three 5-inch twinsthe 2,200-ton Allen M. Sumner class, with 20 per cent more firepower on a Fletcher hull widened by 14 inches. Initially it was a 300-mile-wide strip of ocean bounded on the north by Canadian territorial waters then running south through the Caribbean. At 2,050 tons standard displacement and approximately 2,900 tons fully loaded, the Fletchers were significantly larger than any preceding American destroyer classes. Commissioned back into service on March 28 of that year under the command of Cdr. The Pirates were one of the first tin cansdestroyersto have their very own ice cream machine, something usually reserved for the larger vessels of the fleet. USS Halsey Powell backs away from a pier in Subic Bay. 8. After the three ships met at night on 9 September, the cutters helped care for and transport the survivors back to the United States. Copyright 2011-2022 Naval Historical Foundation. Fred Edwards, Destroyer Type Desk, Bureau of Ships, 1942, quoted in Holland, Rear Admiral W. J., Jr., USN (Ret), ed. Navy ships never use this method any more, as sufficient pier space is provided in all of the navys home ports and all necessary services are provided from shore. Posted on 26 Feb in greenshield pharmacy intervention codes 0 Likes ), Bloody Winter, rev. Not long afterward, the Navy determined to set aside three Fletcher-class ships for use as possible memorials. She splashed at least one of the many Japanese aircraft which attacked on 8 January, and during the landings in Lingayen Gulf the next day, patrolled the Gulf. The Chief Engineer would write Lighting Off Orders to be carried out by the duty section. No. Four B&W three-drum boilers (565 psi @ 850 F), Two sets of General Electric geared turbines (60,000 hp total), five 5"/38-cal. The plane departed trailing smoke. I spent 22 years in the Navy. Despite being rooted in World War II history, the Tom Hanks movie is not directly based on a true story. The first two raids were driven off by the combat air patrol, in tandem with KIDD and her division mates: BLACK (DD-666), BULLARD, and CHAUNCEY (DD-667). 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. Ordered to take a training tour of the Kearny Shipyards, her name was placed on the list of personnel that were scheduled to report on board KIDD for the purpose of accompanying the destroyer across the harbor to the Brooklyn Naval Shipyards. 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). Germany lost roughly 28,000 to 30,000 U-boat crewmen, roughly 70 percent of the 41,000 German seamen who took part in the lengthy battle. 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. Morale among the crew soared. Thus far during the war, she had suffered no major damage, the starshells fired by NORTH CAROLINA over a year and a half earlier being the most severe. As a torpedoed merchant ship goes down in February 1943, the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Spencer searches for the attacking U-boat. She then provided escort for new carriers during their shakedown cruises from Norfolk to Trinidad. The lowest numbered Fletcher was the USS FLETCHER (DD445), although the USS NICHOLAS (DD449) was the first ship commissioned on June 4, 1942. In 1945, the seven ships remaining in the war zone participated in the Iwo Jima operation. There, the earliest ones saw action in the nighttime surface battles in the Solomon Islands, many fought at Leyte and all completed in time for fleet screening and shore bombardment assignments and the notorious anti-kamikaze radar picket duty at Okinawa. Half of the year, she rides the currents of the Mississippi; the other half, she sits dry-docked in a cradle where visitors can see her full dimensions. The WWII battle focused on Germany's effort to cut off transatlantic supply lines by gaining control of the Atlantic Ocean. The KIDD would become the only vessel in the history of the United States Navy to ever have such leave granted to fly the flag of piracy. May her victories be triumphant and conclusive!. Gun crews kept the aircraft at bay. During World War II, the Atlantic Coast destroyers would probably be at battle stations with Material Condition Zebra set by the time that they cleared the submarine net. Detached from bombardment duty, KIDD was ordered to convey an Admiral to Pusan at flank speed. Boilers had to be lit approximately 2 hours before the scheduled underway time and about an hour would be required in each engine room to prepare the engines for operation. Up until the 1960s, most naval home ports did not provide much in the line of pier space and in San Diego, we usually moored to a mooring buoy in the harbor. Some went on to serve during the Korean War and into the Vietnam War. ZEBRA is the highest level of protection. In those days, the Navy had been heavily influenced by carrier task group operations during the war and the experiences with the Kamikazes during the Battle of Okinawa. Beginning in December 1943, all other DesRon 51 ships began making their way to the Pacific, some in time for the Marshall Islands operation, continuing in various combinations through the Marianas operation, where Haraden was damaged in a bomb attack, and Palau. If we were backing out of a slip you would hear a prolonged blast on the whistle. Once clear of the harbor, the navigator would announce that we were entering International Waters, where different Rules of the Road apply. 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. RoR tickets are $75ea in the online store. Tying up alongside the destroyer tender HAMUL (AD-20), the crew began to make temporary repairs. (The seventh, the Taney [WPG-37], would spend most of World War II in the Pacific.) They would pick up an eastbound convoy from a Canadian escort group, protect it through storms and U-boats, and then turn it over to a British escort group off Ireland. Upon departing Pusan, she rounded the southern tip of the Korean peninsula and almost ran headlong into Typhoon Marge. The disabled cutter, meanwhile, was towed to Newfoundland for repairs. 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. Now, on the eve of impending war, the U.S. was ready to take destroyer design to the next level. An explanation of Material Conditions is in order. She participated in a precautionary deployment in November, 1956, of American naval forces during the Suez Crisis. Battery containers were smashed, releasing toxic chlorine gas, and two of the bow torpedoes began hot runs but could not be fired because of the sub's depth. The character's first name was changed for the movie. Instead, she struck a glancing blow and the U-boat's hydroplane opened a large gash in the Campbell's hull. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had died on April 12, the same day that KIDD had committed her dead to the sea. Commissioned back into service on March 28 of that year under the command of Cdr. Normally all four ships in the division would be moored to the same buoy. Allan B. Roby, the destroyer moved across New York Harbor for delivery to the Brooklyn Naval Shipyards . My dad (Richmond Thomas (RT) Ezzell) was on the TAYLOR DD468 during WWII .Saw at the foot of his grave today another marker with his name, ship, and I suppose rating FC. 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. While all of this was going on, the crew of the HAMUL cast a brass plaque with the names of KIDDs thirty-eight fallen crewmen. A large portion of the movie was shot aboard the USS Kidd (DD-661), a Fletcher-class Navy destroyer named after Rear Admiral Isaac C. Kidd, who lost his life on the bridge of the USS Arizona during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. They did not appear until the 1970s. In January, 1952, DESDIV 152 returned to San Diego for overhaul and repair. Another unique distinction about KIDDs first voyage was the make-up of her crew. Meanwhile, medium-size Coast Guard cutters and U.S. Navy destroyers covered waters closer inshore. Destroyers have been called upon to perform a wide variety of duties. Transportation was by a combination of ships boats and private water taxis. l spent over a year on the USS TINGEY (DD539). To emphasize the importance of the battle, Winston Churchill coined the name "Battle of the Atlantic," intentionally alluding to the Battle of Britain. Today, USS KIDD is moored in the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the centerpiece of the USS Kidd Veterans Museum. Commander Harold S. Berdine, the cutter's commanding officer, ordered a barrage of 11 depth charges set to explode at only 50 to 100 feet. The 327s were later converted to amphibious-force flagships and served in the Pacific theater. World War II was only days old, but the Coast Guard's "327s" had already answered the call of duty in what would come to be known as the Battle of the Atlantic. She then provided escort for new carriers during their shakedown cruises from Norfolk to Trinidad. . The Royal Navy primarily covered the western approaches to England, the U.S. Navy protected the mid-Atlantic from its bases in Newfoundland and Iceland, while the Royal Canadian Navy protected the convoys as they departed or arrived off Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. At this point, the word would be passed Secure the Special Sea and Anchor Detail, Set the Regular Underway Watch. None of the Germans hoisted a white flag, and the one-sided close-range battle continued. She was my first, and my favorite ship. Percentage-wise, it was the most severe loss of any of Germany's armed forces. About once per quarter we would be assigned an availability alongside a Destroyer Tender for routine repairs. By December, at least six convoys were simultaneously in the North Atlantic, and the available escort ships were not enough to stop the U-boats' slaughter. There were 39 casualties and extensive damage in the after part of the ship. (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1987). Beginning in the fall of 1939, the large white-hulled cutters were assigned the outer limits of the Neutrality Zone. In my previous two articles (read Part 1 here, read Part 2 here) I gave technical and manning overviews of the U.S. Navys highly successful Fletcher class destroyer. The goal was to have two boilers on line, one in each fire room, and have both engines ready for operation with the plant split (2 independent plant configuration) prior to setting what is referred to as the Special Sea Detail. At 14:09, KIDDs crew observed a dogfight between Japanese aircraft and the fighters of the combat air patrol. Being 376 feet, 6 inches, in length meant that they could carry five five-inch dual-purpose guns, ten torpedoes, depth charges and antiaircraft guns. Later emphasis on anti-aircraft defense led to a redesigned or square bridge for improved all-around sightlines, beginning with Brownson (DD 518). X-RAY provides the least protection. With a gaping hole in her side, most of her forward super-structure severely damaged, and radio communications down for the first hour after the attack, KIDD withdrew from the area under the covering fire of her sister ships. Enemy planes, spotting smoke from the crippled destroyer, attempted to finish her off. single-barreled gun mounts, two 40mm quad-barreled anti-aircraft mounts, three 40mm twin-barreled anti-aircraft mounts, six 20mm twin-barreled anti-aircraft mounts, 305 South River Road Baton Rouge, LA 70802. Next. In 1984, the Dutch fleet oiler ZUIDERKRUIS arrived in Baton Rouge on a port visit and transferred to KIDD two twin 20mm gun mounts, two Mk-16 K-gun depth charge projectors, and twelve 20mm magazine drums. 9. 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. Reg Ingraham, First Fleet (Cornwall, NY: Bobbs-Merill Company, 1944). Brittin took command of the ship and headed the beleaguered ship southward. Losing the supply lines was a constant worry for the Allies. 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. At several points in the film, a German U-boat uses Greyhound's transmitting frequency and broadcasts threatening messages over the ship's loudspeakers. Twenty of the 21 men in those spaces were instantly killed. The Admirals nickname at the Naval Academy had been Cap (as in Captain Kidd) and he had gone by this nickname his entire life. Authorized for fiscal year 1941, construction of the first ships was already under way when the United States entered the war. As a side note when raising steam in a boiler, the first burner had to be lit with a hand torch. KIDD was one of several destroyers which stood guard for the beleaguered carrier while her crew fought to keep her afloat. Despite talk of returning her to the United States as a museum ship, she was condemned in 2010 as a derelict and hazard to navigation and scrapped in 20102011. Bennett (DD 473) lays stack and chemical smoke in the Shortland Islands, 1944. off Korea in the 1950s and some even off Vietnam in the 60s, she was condemned in 2010 as a derelict and hazard to navigation and scrapped in 20102011. The days of surface to surface torpedo attacks had pretty well gone away, although we still retained that capability. We were forward deployed to Yokosuka, Japan as part of DESRON 15. From tax deductible donations to your time and skills, there are many ways you can contribute! Not wishing to dishonor RADM Kidd, however, the crew obtained permission from Mrs. Kidd first. I also served aboard USS CORAL SEA (CVA43) for 2 years before joining the submarine force, which I spent 26 years in. Therefore, prior to her departure from Philadelphia, the Navy was contracted to remount two twin 40mm gun mounts forward of the bridge in place of the hedgehog anti-submarine projectors which had been added in the 1950s. Your email address will not be published. This meant passing a second bight around the bollard on the pier or the ship alongside. On October 2, 1961, she found herself part of the rapid mobilization of the nations military forces in response to the Soviets construction of the Berlin Wall. The torch was kept in a small pot filled with diesel oil. By 1971, all ships remaining in the US Navy had decommissioned but not until 2001 was Mexicos Cuitlhuac, the former John Rodgers and the last active Fletcher, retired. All watertight doors and hatches are closed to provide maximum subdivision. The deck divisions would man the line handling stations with the First Lieutenant and Chief Boatswains Mate on the Forecastle and the Gunnery Officer in charge on the fantail. For six days the ships battled heavy seas. The crew buried their dead at sea along the way on April 12. The Fletcher class was the largest and most important class of U.S. destroyers to serve in the war. February 27, 2023 By restaurants on the water in st clair shores By restaurants on the water in st clair shores Beginning in the fall of 1939, the large white-hulled cutters were assigned the outer limits of the Neutrality Zone. Robert L. Scheina, U.S. Coast Guard Cutters & Craft of World War II (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1982). USS The Sullivans served with . "The contact was fast; there was a lot of motion, a lot of movement," he recalled. Under the command of Cdr. USS Fletcher (DD 445) of the 175-ship 2,100-ton Fletcher class was an outstanding example of promise fulfilled. Allan Roby was reassigned at this time, with Cdr. DD 522 : Diary of a destroyer Surels, Ron Books dealing with this subject include: 200,000 Miles Aboard the Destroyer Cotten, Robinson, C. Snelling, 1999 She serves as a reminder of all those who have gone before us. The CO, XO, Officer of the Deck (OOD), Junior Officer of the Deck (JOOD) and appropriate enlisted personnel would proceed to the bridge. The Pirate of the Pacific began a series of WESTPAC cruises which lasted from 1954 to 1959. She serves as a reminder of all those who have gone before us. From there, they picked up an outbound convoy and battered their way west to Newfoundland. 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