Midway

English: The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Yorktown (CV-5) in Dry Dock No.1 at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard, 29 May 1942, receiving urgent repairs for damage received in the Battle of Coral Sea. She left Pearl Harbor the next day to participate in the Battle of Midway. USS West Virginia (BB-48), sunk in the 7 December 1941 Japanese air attack, is being salvaged in the left distance. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I mentioned yesterday that we are going to do quite a bit of history this week, I wasn’t kidding. This is a week that plays host to several battles that changed the course of history, or didn’t, which can, of course, be as significant. Yesterday was one of those. because of the British (plus Canadian and Australian) strategic win at Jutland, the English speaking peoples continue to this day to rule the oceans and guarantee free trade and work for freedom everywhere.

Today we go halfway around the world and twenty-six years forward in time.

Here’s the situation: On 7 December 1941 the Imperial Japanese Navy struck at Pearl Harbor disabling the US Pacific Fleet‘s battleships, and destroying most of the airpower in Hawaii, Shortly thereafter they struck Clark Air Base in the Philippine destroying the largest concentration of American strategic airpower outside of the continental United States. Shortly thereafter the Japanese invaded the Philippines, Singapore and elsewhere. The Prince of Wales and the Repulse were sunk off Singapore and the fortress (which had no rear) surrendered..

It was a busy spring, on 18 April Colonel Doolittle mounted his raid on the Japanese Home Islands from the deck of the USS Hornet. Between 4 and 8 May the United States Navy and the Australian Navy, under Frank Jack Fletcher fought the first naval battle between aircraft carriers where surface units never saw in each other against Shigeyoshi Inoue of the IJN. On 4 May the Japanese took Tulagi  but were surprised by airstrikes from the USS Yorktown.

On 6 May Lt. General Wainwright surrendered all Allied forces in the Philippines to the Japanese army.

Back in the Coral Sea, the Americans on the 7th sank the light carrier Shoho, on the 8th the Shōkaku was heavily damaged while the Americans had the Lexington critically damaged (it was scuttled) and the Yorktown was damaged. Both sides lost a lot of aircrew as well. And the invasion of Port Moresby was deferred.

In the meantime, American signal intelligence people were trying to figure out what the Japanese were planning and by doing a bit of trickery they deduced that the Japanese, who were pretty ticked off by the Doolittle raid, had a plan to invade Midway, and mount at least a raid in the Aleutians. Midway is about 1200 or so miles northwest of the main Hawaiian Islands and was mostly a military outpost. later it would become the main submarine base for the war on Japan. But not today.

Today, one of those amazingly complicated Japanese plans began to unfold, as the carrier air strike came in against Midway, there was adequate warning because of the radar installations and a return strike by army B-17s and B-26s was ordered reinforced by nearly every other combatant aircraft on the island. To very little effect, except that the Japanese strike commander radioed that a second strike was needed.

In the meantime, Midway reported the position of the various fleet units that they had sighted to Pearl Harbor where Nimitz was able to relay the information to the fleet, as opposed to Yamamoto sitting on the Yamato hundreds of miles from the battle observing radio silence. If you remember Yorktown had been damaged fairly badly at the Coral Sea a month ago, by herculean efforts the Pearl Harbor base had got it usable for this battle. So the Enterprise, the Hornet, and the Yorktown would be available for the battle against the IJM with four carriers.

And so Admiral Spruance, filling in for Halsey who was on the beach with a skin ailment, found out where the Japanese carriers were and ordered a strike. The range was long and it seems at this distance that Halsey’s staff wasn’t all it could have been. Because the aircrew were told to look for the fleet where it wasn’t [I'm skipping a lot here, more than a few books have been written about this day] Spruance decided that assembling the strike was taking too long (and burning too much gasoline as well) and ordered a general attack. The dive bombers went down the wrong track, but the torpedo bombers, which were the most effective anti-ship weapons but very slow and vulnerable, found the Japanese first.

Ensign George Gay

In a heroic effort three torpedo squadrons were wiped out, VT-8 had a single survivor, ensign George Gay of Valparaiso, Indiana.

This is the high water mark of the Imperial Japanese Navy. They had just destroyed the American Schwerpunkt, and were in position to resume the offensive. Or were they? The scout plane from the cruiser Tone had reported the American fleet although it took a while to establish its composition, and the Japanese were rearming the aircraft for a maritime strike instead of a second strike on Midway. And then Wade McClusky, leading the dive bombers spotted a Japanese destroyer making high speed and followed its lead and found the carriers. When the torpedo attacks were coming in the Japanese combat air patrol had come down to combat them and hadn’t regained altitude yet, when the dive bombers appeared.

They attacked into the undivided attention of every gun in the Japanese fleet. In the next 5 minutes the Imperial Japanese fleet lost three carriers, and would lose the fourth as well. The return strike would cost the Americans the Yorktown. The Japanese could not replace the carriers and even more they could not replace the trained airmen. After this battle the Japanese would never again be on the offensive, and soon they would face overpowering odds, as American production started to get into high gear.

This was the day, only 71 years ago when the United States Navy both won World War II in the Pacific, although never doubt that there was an incredible amount of desperate fighting to come, and secured the control of the sea down to our own day.

Military historian John Keegan called it “the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare.” It was Japan’s worst naval defeat in 350 years.

Thus we see the twin thrusts of American leadership once again, the daring gamble leading up to and through Midway, which served to keep the cause alive and then the massive firepower which began to completely overwhelm the Japanese. To the point that in 1945 there was disagreement on whether to invade Japan or just starve the entire country to death, all sides should thank their God(s) that the atomic bomb offered a third way.

The World Changed that Day, in Thirty Minutes, on decisions made by men probably in their 30s

 

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The Skagerrak

The British Grand Fleet imposing the blockade of Germany at the outbreak of war in 1914 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We’ve talked several times here of Trafalgar and the importance of “those distant storm-tossed ships” on the modern world, and it is nearly impossible to overstate. One could make the case that Trafalgar was the sunrise of Victorian England with all the changes in the world that wrought. Today we are going to discuss tea-time in that world. Saturday was the 97th anniversary of the Battle of Jutland

You see in that era Britannia really did rule the waves, using the rule that Royal navy should be more powerful than the next two most powerful navies. This started getting expensive with the rise of Imperial Germany, the United States and Imperial Japan. In fact the Kriegsmarine‘s building program was part of the reason that Great Britain went to war in 1914, some commentators had been saying since at least 1905 that they were going to have to fight the Germans, best to get it over with. It’s also the reason that Great Britain signed an alliance with Japan which gave Japan some fruits of victory in World War I. In addition, the brilliance of the naval treaties in 1921 is in here, Great Britain agreed to equality with the United States Navy, and the alliance with Japan was changed to merely a pledge to consult.

But, anyway, the Germans were big believers in Admiral Mahan’s “fleet in being” and in truth they did tie down lots of the Royal Navy in home waters. The problem was that the British had declared a blockade of German controlled Europe, and just as had happened in the Napoleonic wars it was working quite well. And yes, it was again causing friction with the “great neutral”, the United States. You’ll recall that the Napoleonic blockade led to the War of 1812. It didn’t come close to that level in World War I, not least because America was even more irritated by the German U-boats.

So, the stalemated war in the west continues, Great Britain is doing OK (at least superficially) because of the transatlantic trade and the Empire, but Germany and its allies are starting to starve, nobody had considered the effects of a long war (who ever does?). In Germany things are bad and getting worse, this was the reason that Lenin was shipped off to Russia as well.

But the German decided they had to break the blockade, this is one of the first demonstrations of the limitations of submarine warfare, or any other area-denial weapon, like drones. So, the German come up with a plan.

The German battlecruisers sail. Battlecruisers were one of those ideas that were supposed to get around the limits of technology, they were sleek ships, and fast, and armed much like a full battleship. This was accomplished by skimping on the armor, the thin skin reduced weight which allowed the engines of the day to move the ship much faster. Eventually the problems were solved, the American fast battleships in World War II, like the Iowa, were faster than even the battlecruisers, and that is why they are often considered the most powerful gunships to ever sail.

So the German battlecruisers sail, the plan is to draw out the British battlecruiser force and lead it into an ambush set by the High Seas Fleet. The Brits show up, actually a bit before the Germans expect them and obligingly do about what the Kriegsmarine expected. The British find out all about the limitations of battlecruisers as 3 of them blew up when hit, leading Admiral Sir David Beatty commanding the battlecruisers to comment to his flag captain, ”Chatfield, there seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today.” What was wrong was that they were not really designed for a fleet action.

Eventually Beatty turned his fleet around and with the High Seas Fleet following led the way back to the British Home Fleet under Admiral Sir John Jellicoe and sort of a reverse ambush was achieved.

It was an expensive battle in which the British did not look especially good (the Germans looked better actually). Tactically the High Seas Fleet won but strategically, because of (amongst other causes) the return to port of the High Seas Fleet, where it would stay, the British won. After the Armistice the High Seas Fleet would sail one more time, to Scapa Flow to surrender. That plan led to the US Secretary of the Navy to propose a building plan that would have overawed the combined British and German fleet which is one of the things that let to the Washington conference.

Rather than surrender the High Seas Fleet scuttled itself, probably to everyone’s relief.

But the blockade continued and eventually Germany would declare unrestricted submarine warfare leading to the intervention of the United States on the Allies side, and the defeat of Imperial Germany. It also led the United States and the United Kingdom to begin to see that our interests were common enough for us to be starting to think about cooperating more with each other.

Naval superiority would pass to the United States Navy in 1921, the traditions of the Royal Navy, would continue to resonate in both navies to this day, and hopefully far into the future.

Control of the Sea is the Trump for Land Power

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Happy Independence Day

English: Depiction of the flag of the Philippines, as conceived by Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo. Created with Inkscape. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Huh, what? Is that what I hear you saying? Today is Independence Day, in the Philippines, they celebrated yesterday, by the way. It’s sort of a weird holiday, in my opinion.

You see, the Philippines declared their independence on 12 June 1898, about a month after the Battle of Manila Bay between the U.S. Asiatic Squadron and the Spanish Pacific Squadron. The problem is that neither the United States nor Spain recognized it. The Treaty of Paris (1898) gave control of the Philippines to the United States which granted them their independence on 4 July 1946. It was postponed by the World War II occupation by Imperial Japan..

It could hardly have been otherwise in the atmosphere of 1898, although it may was not have been the most moral choice ever made by the United States. This is true because the Philippines set dead athwart almost all of the trade routes in the Western Pacific. You see, the Imperial German fleet was already nosing around in Manila Bay, and the Japanese weren’t far behind. The United States took control, with the urging of the British. It was undoubtedly the right decision, for both nations, although it led to a nasty guerrilla war, the so-called Philippine Insurrection. This war was so nasty that it led John Moses Browning to develop the Model 1905 .45 ACP Pistol (the predecessor of the 1911) to increase the last-ditch defensive strength of the American Soldier.

I think it is well to also remember the Filipino people were incredibly stout allies under very harsh conditions during World War 2. A great people who got caught in the tides and currents of great power politics and wars.

“You may fire when ready, Gridley,“

The Battle of Manila Bay was pretty one-sided, as were all the naval battles in this war. There was nothing wrong with the courage of the Imperial Spanish Navy but, the were severely under trained and supplied, partially due to corruption. Here is a description from Wikipedia.

The U.S. squadron swung in front of the Spanish ships and forts in line ahead, firing their port guns. They then turned and passed back, firing their starboard guns. This process was repeated five times, each time closing the range from 5,000 yards to 2,000 yards. The Spanish forces had been alerted, and most were ready for action, but they were heavily outgunned. Eight Spanish ships, the land batteries, and the forts returned fire for two and a half hours although the range was too great for the guns on shore. Five other small Spanish ships were not engaged.

Montojo accepted that his cause was hopeless and ordered his ships to ram the enemy if possible. He then slipped the Cristina’s cables and charged. Much of the American fleet’s fire was then directed at her and she was shot to pieces. Of the crew of 400, more than 200, including Montojo, were casualties and only two men remained who were able to man her guns. The ship managed to return to shore and Montojo ordered it to be scuttled. The Castilla, which only had guns on the port side, had her forward cable shot away causing her to swing about, presenting her weaponless starboard side. The captain then ordered her sunk and abandoned. The Ulloa was hit by a shell at the waterline that killed her captain and disabled half the crew. The Luzon had three guns out of action but was otherwise unharmed. The Duero lost an engine and had only one gun left able to fire.

Contemporary colored print, showing USS Olympia in the left foreground, leading the U.S. Asiatic Squadron in destroying the Spanish fleet off Cavite. A vignette portrait of Rear Admiral George Dewey is featured in the lower left.

At 7:45 a.m., after Captain Gridley messaged Dewey that only 15 rounds of 5″ ammunition remained per gun, he ordered an immediate withdrawal. To preserve morale, he informed the crews that the halt in the battle was to allow the crews to have breakfast.^[8] According to an observer on the Olympia, At least three of his (Spanish) ships had broken into flames but so had one of ours. These fires had all been put out without apparent injury to the ships. Generally speaking, nothing of great importance had occurred to show that we had seriously injured any Spanish vessel. Montojo took the opportunity to now move his remaining ships into Bacoor Bay where they were ordered to resist for as long as possible.

A captains’ conference on the Olympia revealed little damage and no men killed. It was discovered that the original ammunition message had been garbled – instead of only 15 rounds of ammunition per gun remaining, the message had meant to say only 15 rounds of ammunition per gun had been expended. During the conference reports arrived that sounds of exploding ammunition had been heard and fires sighted on the Cristina and Castilla. At 10:40 AM action was resumed but the Spanish offered little resistance and Montojo issued orders for the remaining ships to be scuttled and the breechblocks of their guns taken ashore. The Olympia, Baltimore and Boston then fired on the Sangley Point battery putting it out of action and followed up by sinking the Ulloa. The Concord fired on the transport Mindanao, whose crew immediately abandoned ship. The Petrel fired on the government offices next to the arsenal and a white flag was raised over the building after which all firing ceased. The Spanish colors were struck at 12:40 PM.

One of the reasons we should remember this battle is that this was the début of the United States as a world power, only 112 years ago. The United States and especially the US Navy and Marines performed very well. Thus we have the sight of a brand new world power totally defeating the oldest of world powers decisively, although the Spanish Empire had been in decline since the Battle of the Armada in 1588. Thus 310 years after the victory of the nascent Royal Navy over the Armada, the American cousins drove the famous Orange and Red war ensign of Spain from the sea.

I do want to note that the Protected Cruiser USS Olympia is preserved in Philadelphia, and is very interesting to visit. Also note this again from Wikipedia.

Dewey’s flagship, the Olympia, was preserved as a museum ship in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the Independence Seaport Museum (formerly the Philadelphia Maritime Museum). However, in 2011 the Independence Seaport Museum launched an effort to identify new stewards for the Cruiser and announced that the Cruiser will be scrapped or scuttled unless a new owner can be found.

I think that this ship that was present at the dawn of America’s world power needs to be preserved.

Also note that the Philippine government moved their Independence Day celebration from 4 July to 12 June in 1962. They found it more appropriate to celebrate their Declaration of Independence than to celebrate the voluntary withdrawal of American colonial power. I find that entirely right and proper, since Independence cannot be granted, but only won, and held.

Happy Independence Day to our Filipino friends.

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Halfway Around the World

USS Lexington (CV-2) during the action, seen from USS Yorktown (CV-5), 8 May 1942. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, U.S. National Archives.

We started the day in Europe with VE Day. So it’s only fair to end it in the South Pacific. Sorry, but no hula dancers here we have business to take care of. You see 3 years before VE Day a naval battle was fought that blunted the edge of the Japanese thrust toward Australia. Even in the ’40s America was working on “Global Reach-Global Power”.

Anyway, this was the famous Battle of the Coral Sea. This was the first battle in which combatants’ ships never sighted each other.

From Wikipedia:

In an attempt to strengthen their defensive positioning for their empire in the South Pacific, Imperial Japanese forces decided to invade and occupy Port Moresby in New Guinea and Tulagi in the southeastern Solomon Islands. The plan to accomplish this, called Operation MO, involved several major units of Japan’s Combined Fleet, including two fleet carriers and a light carrier to provide air cover for the invasion fleets, under the overall command of Shigeyoshi Inoue. The U.S. learned of the Japanese plan through signals intelligence and sent two United States Navy carrier task forces and a joint Australian-American cruiser force, under the overall command of American Admiral Frank J. Fletcher, to oppose the Japanese offensive.

…

Beginning on 7 May, the carrier forces from the two sides exchanged airstrikes over two consecutive days. The first day, the U.S. sank the Japanese light carrier Shōhō, while the Japanese sank a U.S. destroyer and heavily damaged a fleet oiler (which was later scuttled). The next day, the Japanese fleet carrier Shōkaku was heavily damaged, the U.S. fleet carrier Lexington was critically damaged (and was scuttled as a result), and the Yorktown was damaged. With both sides having suffered heavy losses in aircraft and carriers damaged or sunk, the two fleets disengaged and retired from the battle area. Because of the loss of carrier air cover, Inoue recalled the Port Moresby invasion fleet, intending to try again later.

Read the entire account here.

Tactically, the IJN won but, and this is a big but, their invasion never happened, This was the high point of the Imperial Japanese and soon their fleet would be defeated at Midway, never to win another engagement with the Allied (mostly but not entirely American) fleet.

And here is the The Theme of the Fast Carriers from the television epic Victory at Sea.

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Last Patrol for a Legend

Yesterday the USS Enterprise CVN 65 set off on its last mission. The Enterprise has been doing this since 1961 when she became the first Nuclear power aircraft carrier. She served in the Cuban Missile Crises,Vietnam, the Evacuation of Saigon, several tours in the Middle East and is now heading there again on her final mission. From CNN:

http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/apps/cvp/3.0/swf/cnn_416x234_embed.swf?context=embed&videoId=us/2012/03/12/dnt-va-enterprise-last-voyage.wvec

Enterprise is, of course, one of the most hallowed names in the United States Navy.

The first was a sloop of war captured from the British by Benedict Arnold which fought at the Battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain.

The 3d ship of the name served starting in the quasi war with France and in the First Tripolitan War capturing the brig Tripoli and helping USS Constitution capture the ketch Mastico which was used by Decatur to burn the Philadelphia in Tripoli Harbor. During the War of 1812 Enterprise captured 4 ships including the HMS Boxer. After the war Enterprise was on patrol in the Caribbean against slavers, pirates, and smugglers of whom she captured 13.

USS Enterprise

The 6th USS Enterprise is , of course, the most famous. This is CV6 the most decorated ship of World War 2, commissioned in 1938 and serving till 1947, the Big E served all through the Pacific campaign from before Pearl harbor and through Tokyo Bay.

Enterprise at SLC-6 at Vandenberg AFB

It probably wouldn’t hurt to note that another famous Enterprise, NCC-1701 was most probably named after CV-6. You probably remember her Captain, James Kirk. And that still another Enterprise, OV-101, the very first Space shuttle was named after NCC-1701.

And that brings us back to the Current USS Enterprise, CVN 61, which is probably the most distinctive aircraft carrier in the world. Oh, did I mention that the Enterprise also starred in Top Gun.

The aircraft carrier Enterprise (CVN 65) departs on its final deployment from Naval Station Norfolk, Va., on March 11. Enterprise is deploying to support maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 5th and 6th Fleet areas of responsibility. Courtesy, US Navy

While this is not an exhaustive account of these ships, it is enough for you to understand why there are several active online petitions to get hull number CVN-80, the third in the Navy’s new Gerald Ford class of carriers, named the Enterprise. That ship is planned to be commissioned in 2021.

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“Powering America” Movie Trailer by Heritage Foundation

I have never in all my life been able to understand why people would oppose nuclear power plants. It’s just another way to make steam. Do you have to be careful? Sure. But so what, you don’t need trains full of coal every day either, or natural gas which has better uses.

You know, ever since the USS Nautilus was commissioned on 30 September 1954, major combatant ships of the United States Navy have been nuclear powered. They have compiled a record of nearly 58 years of operations without a reactor problem. Do we really think civilians can’t handle safety concerns as well as the military? After all, nuclear stations are not running around the oceans 200 feet under water.

Do we need to make sure safety rules are followed? Sure, but that’s true with anything in heavy industry, it can all kill you quick. One thing that I have noticed, in my field, is that even little things matter. For instance those little colored crimp connectors that you see in electrical/electronics (on the back of switches and such). They come in four grades, 1: commercial, 2: Industrial, 3: Military, and 4: Nuclear. In most of my work, I use commercial, in the larger sizes there is a mark and serial number that identifies the die set used to make the connection and assure the inspector that it is properly made, if it’s not there, the job will be red tagged until it is fixed. Think about how much higher the nuclear spec might be is!

Anyway, I’m looking forward to the movie, Thanks to the Heritage Foundation.

And a big hattip to Sarah at American Freedom for finding this:
http://usamericanfreedom.com/2012/03/06/powering-america-movie-trailer-by-heritage-foundation/

 

Link fixed, Sorry Sarah and thanks to Sherry for the notice

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