Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    World War 2 In Review No. 17
    World War 2 In Review No. 17
    World War 2 In Review No. 17
    Ebook502 pages3 hours

    World War 2 In Review No. 17

    By Merriam Press

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Merriam Press World War 2 In Review Series

    2022 eBook Edition

    This issue presents articles on the following 16 World War II topics:

    (1) USS Alabama BB-60: American Battleship

    (2) The Aerodynamic Development of the Peenemünde Rockets

    (3) British G.S. Mark V Anti-tank Mine

    (4) Avro Anson: British Multi-Role Aircraft

    (5) Organization Todt

    (6) 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment at Bastogne, Belgium, December 1944

    (7) The U.S. Navy at Bataan

    (8) Darned Clever These Chinese… and Confounding: An American Veteran Remembers

    (9) Action in the Eifel: A German Veteran Remembers

    (10) Fairey Firefly: British Fighter/Anti-Submarine Aircraft

    (11) French 25 mm Hotchkiss Anti-tank Gun

    (12) Breakout from the Klin Pocket, Russian Front, December 1941

    (13) Truk and Operation Hailstone

    (14) The Navy Neutralizes Truk, February 1944

    (15) Orders for Flight Crews of USS Enterprise for Operation Hailstone

    (16) VB-10 Hits Truk During Operation Hailstone

    530 B&W/color photos/illustrations
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLulu.com
    Release dateSep 3, 2017
    ISBN9781387200511
    World War 2 In Review No. 17

    Read more from Merriam Press

    Related to World War 2 In Review No. 17

    Related ebooks

    Wars & Military For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Combat Warrior

      Feb 18, 2020

      Combat Warrior
      13 min read

    • Article

      Thunderbolt!

      Oct 27, 2020

      Thunderbolt!
      10 min read

    • Article

      Operation Bodenplatte

      Feb 26, 2020

      Operation Bodenplatte
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Spoils of War

      Jun 7, 2022

      The Spoils of War
      2 min read

    • Article

      What They Wore

      Apr 5, 2022

      What They Wore
      3 min read

    • Article

      Defending The Fleet

      Oct 21, 2021

      Defending The Fleet
      7 min read

    • Article

      Air Zoo Camel

      Aug 3, 2021

      Air Zoo Camel
      3 min read

    • Article

      Defender Of The Homeland

      Jun 7, 2022

      Defender Of The Homeland
      2 min read

    • Article

      Join Our Team!

      Apr 5, 2022

      Do you have aviation in your blood? Crazy about aircraft and flying? Add your unique perspective to our content mix! We’re looking for flightline reporters and contributors to share their expertise and advice in videos and posts. (Original and unpubl

      1 min read

    • Article

      Lost And Found

      Apr 5, 2022

      Lost And Found
      8 min read

    • Article

      Body Of Work

      Jul 12, 2022

      Body Of Work
      6 min read

    • Article

      Ordeal By Degradation

      Aug 31, 2021

      Ordeal By Degradation
      3 min read

    • Article

      Always Forward

      Aug 9, 2022

      Always Forward
      13 min read

    • Article

      An Airplane For The Yanks

      Jan 24, 2023

      An Airplane For The Yanks
      11 min read

    • Article

      The Eruption Of Mount Hood

      Feb 20, 2024

      The Eruption Of Mount Hood
      11 min read

    • Article

      The Legend Of Maj. Paul "Pappy" Gunn

      Jun 16, 2020

      "Pappy" Gunn had served in the U.S. Navy for twenty years before retiring to start airlines in Hawaii and the Philippines. When Pearl Harbor was attacked, he returned to the service — and received a Distinguished Flying Cross for flying in medical su

      1 min read

    • Article

      Great Guns

      Sep 29, 2020

      Great Guns
      5 min read

    • Article

      Reluctant Enemy

      Jul 6, 2021

      Reluctant Enemy
      13 min read

    • Article

      A Month Like No Other

      Jun 7, 2022

      A Month Like No Other
      9 min read

    • Article

      Stanley Christopherson

      Oct 28, 2021

      Stanley Christopherson
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Battle Of St Vith

      Feb 26, 2020

      The Battle Of St Vith
      6 min read

    • Article

      Carriers at War

      Apr 5, 2022

      Carriers at War
      1 min read

    • Article

      Island Fortress

      May 23, 2023

      Island Fortress
      5 min read

    • Article

      Bristol F.2b Fighter

      Nov 26, 2020

      Bristol F.2b Fighter
      2 min read

    • Article

      Lightning ACE!

      Nov 17, 2020

      Lightning ACE!
      11 min read

    • Article

      Wwii’s Forgotten V-2 Heist

      Jun 8, 2023

      Wwii’s Forgotten V-2 Heist
      6 min read

    • Article

      Nieuport 17

      Jan 20, 2022

      Nieuport 17
      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for World War 2 In Review No. 17

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      World War 2 In Review No. 17 - Merriam Press

      USS Alabama BB-60: American Battleship

      USS Alabama (BB-60), a South Dakota-class battleship, was the sixth ship of the United States Navy named after the US state of Alabama. A seventh prominent ship named for the state was the famous Confederate commerce raider CSS Alabama. Alabama was commissioned in 1942 and served in World War II in the Atlantic and Pacific theaters. Alabama was decommissioned on 9 January 1947 and placed in the reserve fleet in Puget Sound Naval Shipyard Bremerton, Washington. In 1964, Alabama was taken to Mobile Bay and opened as a museum ship the following year. The ship was added to the National Historic Landmark registry in 1986.

      Alabama was laid down on 1 February 1940 by the Norfolk Navy Yard, launched on 16 February 1942, and sponsored by Henrietta McCormick Hill, wife of J. Lister Hill, the senior Senator from Alabama. Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, spoke at the launching ceremony: As Alabama slides down the ways today, she carries with her a great name and a great tradition. We cannot doubt that before many months have passed she will have had her first taste of battle. The Navy welcomes her as a new queen among her peers. In the future, as in the past, may the name Alabama ever stand for fighting spirit and devotion to a cause. Alabama was commissioned on 16 August 1942, with Captain George B. Wilson in command.

      After fitting out, USS Alabama commenced her shakedown cruise in Chesapeake Bay on 11 November 1942. As the year 1943 began, the new battleship headed north to conduct operational training out of Casco Bay, Maine. She returned to Chesapeake Bay on 11 January to carry out the last week of shakedown training. Following a period of availability and logistics support at Norfolk, Alabama was assigned to Task Group 22.2 (TG 22.2), and returned to Casco Bay for tactical maneuvers on 13 February 1943.

      With the movement of substantial British strength toward the Mediterranean theater to prepare for the invasion of Sicily, the Royal Navy lacked the heavy ships necessary to cover the northern convoy routes. The British appeal for help on those lines soon led to the temporary assignment of Alabama and South Dakota to the Home Fleet. On 2 April 1943, Alabama, as part of Task Force 22 (TF 22), sailed for the Orkney Islands with her sister ship and a screen of five destroyers. Proceeding via Little Placentia Sound and Naval Station Argentia, Newfoundland, the battleship reached Scapa Flow on 19 May, reporting for duty with Task Force 61 and becoming a unit of the British Home Fleet. She soon embarked on a period of intensive operational training to coordinate joint operations.

      Early in June, Alabama and her sister ship, along with British Home Fleet units, covered the reinforcement of the garrison on the island of Spitzbergen, which lay on the northern flank of the convoy route to Russia, in an operation that took the ship across the Arctic Circle. Soon after her return to Scapa Flow, she was inspected by Admiral Harold R. Stark, Commander, United States Naval Forces, Europe. Shortly thereafter, in July, Alabama participated in Operation Governor, a diversion aimed toward southern Norway, which was an attempt to draw the German military's attention away from the real Allied target, the Italian island of Sicily. This operation had also been carried out in an attempt to lure the German battleship Tirpitz out of her northern Norwegian seaport and into battle, but Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine (navy) did not rise to this challenge. Tirpitz remained in her port in a northern Norwegian fjord.

      Alabama was detached from the British Home Fleet on 1 August 1943, and, in company with South Dakota and their screening destroyers, steamed for Norfolk, Virginia, arriving there on 9 August. For the next ten days, Alabama underwent a period of overhaul, repair, and shore leave for the sailors. This work completed, Alabama departed from Norfolk on 20 August, bound for the Pacific Ocean. She transited the Panama Canal five days later, and then steamed across the Pacific. She reached her assigned destination of Havannah Harbor, Efate Island, the New Hebrides Islands, in the southwestern Pacific, on 14 September.

      Following a month and a half of exercises and training with fast carrier task groups, Alabama steamed to the Fiji Islands, arriving on 7 November. Alabama steamed out of port on 11 November to take part in Operation Galvanic, the assault on the Japanese-held Gilbert Islands. The battleship screened the fast aircraft carriers, for defense against surface and air attacks, while they launched air attacks on Jaluit and Milli Atolls, in the Marshall Islands, attempting to neutralize Japanese airfields located there, within range of the Gilberts. Alabama supported the U.S. Marine landings on the main island Betio of the Tarawa Atoll on 20 November, and soon afterwards, she supported the U.S. Army landing on Makin Atoll. During the night of 26 November, Alabama twice opened up antiaircraft fire to drive off Japanese aircraft that approached her task group.

      On 8 December, Alabama, along with five other fast battleships (Massachusetts, North Carolina, South Dakota, Washington, and Indiana), bombarded Nauru Island, an enemy phosphate-producing center, causing severe damage to shore installations there. Firing some 535 large caliber rounds in the bombardment, she also took the destroyer Boyd alongside, after that warship had received a direct hit from a Japanese shore battery on Nauru. Alabama took aboard three wounded sailors for treatment by the battleship's doctors, since the smaller warships did not have doctors. Alabama next escorted the aircraft carriers Bunker Hill and Monterey back to the port of Efate, arriving on 12 December. The battleship departed from the New Hebrides on 5 January 1944 for Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, arriving on 12 January. She underwent a brief stint in the large drydock at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard. The major need for drydock repair was the replacement of her port outboard screw, one of her four propellers. Alabama was soon underway again to return to the combat area of the Pacific Ocean.

      USS Alabama reached Funafuti, in the Ellice Islands, on 21 January 1944, and there she rejoined the Fast Carrier Task Forces. She was assigned to Task Group 58.2, which was centered around the carrier Essex and light carriers. Alabama left the Ellice Islands on 25 January to help carry out Operation Flintlock, the wresting of selected members of the Marshall Islands, such as Kwajalein Atoll and Eniewetok Atoll, from the Japanese. Alabama, South Dakota, and North Carolina bombarded Roi Islet on 29 January and Namur Islet on 30 January. She fired 330 rounds of 16-inch (406 mm) shells and 1,562 rounds of 5-inch (127 mm) ammunition toward Japanese targets, destroying planes, airfield facilities, blockhouses, other buildings, and artillery emplacements. Over the following days of this campaign, Alabama patrolled the area north of Kwajalein. On 12 February, Alabama sortied out with the aircraft carrier Bunker Hill's Task Group, and many other members of the Fast Carrier Task Force to launch very major carrier air attacks on the Japanese installations, aircraft, and shipping at the major Japanese Central Pacific base of Truk Atoll. This large series of air attacks, flown on 16 and 17 February, caused heavy damage to all of the Japanese airfields, and other installations, and the enemy shipping that had remained there. Very little of the Imperial Japanese Navy fleet, which had used Truk as a major forward base for years, remained there, since it had already departed northwards to safer waters.

      Upon leaving the vicinity of Truk, the battleship began steaming toward the large islands and Japanese air bases of the Marianas to screen the aircraft carriers in heavy air raids on the islands of Tinian, Saipan, and Guam. During these air attacks on the Marianas, Alabama, while fighting against Japanese air attacks on 21 February, accidentally fired her 5-inch/38 caliber, dual-purpose gun mount number nine into gun mount number five. Five sailors died, and 11 more were wounded in the mishap. The twenty 5-inch dual-purpose guns of Alabama were her major, long-range, radar-directed anti-aircraft guns, as well as forming her secondary armament for ship-to-ship combat and shore bombardments.

      After the carrier air strikes were completed on 22 February 1944, Alabama conducted a sweep of the ocean southeast of Saipan, looking for damaged enemy ships, and finding none, she then returned to Majuro Atoll on 26 February. There she served temporarily as the flagship for Vice Admiral Marc Mitscher, the Commander of the Fast Carrier Task Force, called Task Force 58 at that time, from the third to the eighth of March. The battleship's next mission was to screen the fast carriers while they projected air strikes against Japanese positions on the islands of Palau, Yap, Ulithi, and Woleai, in the Caroline Islands. She steamed out from Majuro on 22 March with Task Force 58, in the screen of the carrier Yorktown. On the night of 29 March, about six enemy warplanes approached Task Group 58.3, with which Alabama was operating, and four planes broke off to attack ships in the vicinity of the battleship. Alabama helped in shooting down some of these aircraft and driving the rest away.

      On 30 March, planes from Task Force 58 began bombing Japanese airfields, shipping, fleet servicing facilities, and other installations on the islands of Palau, Yap, Ulithi and Woleai. During that day, Alabama again provided anti-aircraft fire whenever enemy planes appeared. At 2044 hours on 30 March, a single plane approached Task Group 58.3, but Alabama and other ships drove it off.

      Alabama next returned briefly to Majuro, before she steamed out on 13 April with Task Force 58, this time in the screen of the carrier Enterprise. During the next three weeks, Task Force 58 hit enemy targets on Hollandia, currently known as Jayapura, Wakde, Sawar, and Sarmi along the northern coast of New Guinea. She next covered U.S. Army landings at Aitape, Tanahmerah Bay, and Humboldt Bay on New Guinea, and then escorted further aircraft carrier raids on Truk Atoll.

      As part of the preliminaries of the invasion of the Marianas, Alabama, in a battle line with five other fast battleships, shelled the large island of Ponape, in the Caroline Islands, which was the site of major Japanese airfields and a seaplane base. As Alabama's Captain, Fred T. Kirtland, later noted, this bombardment, of 70 minutes' duration, was conducted in a leisurely manner. Alabama then returned to Majuro Atoll on 4 May 1944 to prepare for the Marine Corps and Army troops' invasion of the Marianas.

      After a month spent in exercises and refitting, Alabama again got under way as a part of Task Force 58 to participate in Operation Forager, the invasion of the Marianas Islands and the recapture of Guam from Japanese occupation. On 12 June, Alabama screened the aircraft carriers as they made air strikes on Saipan. On 13 June, Alabama took part in the six-hour-long pre-invasion bombardment of the western coast of Saipan, aimed at softening up the ground defenses, and also to cover the Navy minesweeping operations off the shore of the island. Alabama's spotting planes reported that her salvoes had caused great destruction and fires in Garapan town. Though the shelling appeared to be successful, it was later found to be a relative failure, due to the warship's gun crews lacking the specialized training and experience required for successful shore bombardments. Alabama had spent many months in the Pacific screening aircraft carrier Task Groups, and thus the efforts of her gun crews had been concentrated on providing anti-aircraft fire to defend the carrier task groups against Japanese air attacks. Additional air strikes and shore bombardments of Saipan by the fleet continued, and two Marine divisions landed on the heavily defended island on 15 June. These were later reinforced by an Army division.

      On 19 June 1944, during the last major carrier air battle of the War in the Pacific, the Battle of the Philippine Sea, the battleship, operating with Task Group 58.7, provided the first confirmed radar warning to Task Force 58 of the incoming Japanese attackers. The Japanese aircraft were initially detected by shipboard radars at a distance of about 190 miles (310 km), but that detection was thought to be a radar anomaly. Alabama formally reported its radar's detection of the attack at the distance of about 140 miles (230 km), and Iowa confirmed this radar report soon afterwards. Beginning at 1046 hours, and continuing over the course of the next five hours, the Japanese carried out repeated air strikes against the Fast Carrier Task Force commanded by Vice Admiral Mitscher. These totaled seven attacking groups in all on that day. Three of these Japanese attacks were aimed at Task Group 58.7, and two of them caused Alabama to open up with anti-aircraft fire.

      In the first instance, only two planes managed to evade the defending Navy fighter planes to attack the Task Group's ships. The only casualties were on board the battleship South Dakota, which suffered from one aerial bomb hit that killed one officer and 20 enlisted men, and also wounded an additional 23 sailors. One hour later, a second wave, composed mostly of torpedo planes, attacked, but Alabama's anti-aircraft barrage helped repel two Japanese planes from attacking the already-hit South Dakota. The intense concentration paid to the group of incoming torpedo planes left one Japanese dive bomber nearly undetected, and it dropped its bomb load close to Alabama. The two small aerial bombs were near-misses, but caused no damage to the battleship.

      This battle, which the U.S. Navy fighter pilots soon came to call the Marianas Turkey Shoot, with nearly 400 Japanese airplanes shot down, plus the sinking of three Japanese aircraft carriers, practically finished off all Japanese naval air power. The Imperial Japanese Navy was never again able to accumulate enough trained pilots and naval warplanes to engage in a serious air attack against the American Navy and its allies. Practically no more conventional air attacks were ever made against these ships, with the Japanese Navy and its Army Air Force resorting to determined kamikaze attacks for the remainder of the war in the Pacific. USS Alabama had a hand in the Turkey Shoot, as the Commander of Task Group 58.7 (the fast battleship fleet of the U.S. navy, Vice Admiral Willis A. Lee, recognized in his TBS (VHF radio) message to the ships of his Task Group at 1247 hours: In the matter of reporting initial bogies, to IOWA well done, to ALABAMA very well done. Alabama's radar early warning had allowed the aircraft carriers to scramble huge numbers of their fighters, which intercepted the inbound Japanese warplanes at a considerable distance from Task Force 58 – farther than would have been possible, otherwise.

      Alabama continued patrolling areas around the Marianas to protect the American landing forces on Saipan, screening the carriers to the east as they struck enemy shipping, aircraft, and shore installations on Guam, Tinian, Rota, and Saipan. She then retired to the Marshall Islands for upkeep. The battleship, as flagship for Rear Admiral Edward Hanson, Commander, Battleship Division 9 (BatDiv 9), left Eniwetok on 14 July, sailing with the task group formed around Bunker Hill. She screened the fast carriers as they conducted pre-invasion attacks and support of the landings on the island of Guam on 21 July. She returned briefly to Eniwetok on 11 August. On 30 August, she got underway in the screen of Essex to carry out Operation Stalemate II (the seizure of Palau, Ulithi, and Yap). From 6–8 September, the forces launched strikes on the Carolines.

      Alabama departed from the Carolines to steam to the Philippines and provided cover for the carriers striking the islands of Cebu Island, Leyte, Bohol, and Negros from 12–14 September. The carriers launched strikes on shipping and installations in the Manila Bay area on 21–22 September, and in the central Philippines area on 24 September. Alabama retired briefly to Saipan on 28 September, then proceeded to Ulithi on 1 October.

      On 6 October, Alabama sailed with TF 38 to support the liberation of the Philippines. Again operating as part of a fast carrier Task Group, Alabama protected the flattops while they launched strikes on Japanese facilities at Okinawa, in the Penghu archipelago, and Taiwan. Detached from the Formosa area on 14 October to sail toward Luzon, the ship again used her anti-aircraft batteries in support of the carriers as enemy aircraft attempted to attack the formation. Alabama's gunners claimed three enemy aircraft shot down and a fourth damaged. By 15 October, Alabama was supporting landing operations on Leyte. She then screened the carriers as they conducted air strikes on Cebu, Negros, Panay, northern Mindanao, and Leyte on 21 October.

      Alabama, as a part of the carrier USS Enterprise's screen, supported air operations against the Japanese Southern Force in the area off Surigao Strait then moved north to strike the powerful Japanese Central Force heading for San Bernardino Strait. After receiving reports of a third Japanese force, the battleship served in the screen of the fast carrier task force as it sped to Cape Engaño. On 24 October, although American air strikes destroyed four Japanese carriers in the Battle off Cape Engaño, the Japanese Central Force under Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita had transited San Bernardino Strait and emerged off the coast of Samar, where it fell upon a task group of American escort carriers and their destroyer and destroyer escort screen. Alabama reversed her course and headed for Samar to assist the greatly outnumbered American forces, but the Japanese had retreated by the time she reached the scene. She then joined the protective screen for Essex task group to hit enemy forces in the central Philippines before retiring to Ulithi on 30 October for replenishment.

      Underway again on 3 November, Alabama screened the fast carriers as they carried out sustained strikes against Japanese airfields, and installations on Luzon to prepare for a landing on Mindoro Island. She spent the next few weeks engaged in operations against the Visayas and Luzon before retiring to Ulithi on 24 November. The first half of December found Alabama engaged in various training exercises and maintenance routines. She left Ulithi on 10 December, and reached the launching point for air strikes on Luzon on 14 December, as the fast carrier task forces launched aircraft to carry out preliminary strikes on airfields on Luzon that could threaten the landings slated to take place on Mindoro. From 14–16 December, a veritable umbrella of carrier aircraft covered the Luzon fields, preventing any enemy planes from getting airborne to challenge the Mindoro-bound convoys. Having completed her mission, she left the area to refuel on 17 December, but as she reached the fueling rendezvous, began encountering heavy weather. By daybreak on 18 December, rough seas and harrowing conditions rendered a fueling at sea impossible; 50 kn (58 mph; 93 km/h) winds caused ships to roll heavily. Alabama experienced rolls of 30°, had both her OS2U Kingfisher floatplanes so badly damaged that they were of no further

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1