DEATH STRUGGLE OFF GUADALCANAL

The picture you see is of the 'Island' on the USS Enterprise and if you look close to the left of the Island you'll see a Japanese 'Val' on fire and attempting to come in for a 'kill.'  This is just one of many Japanese planes that was attacking the Enterprise during the battle of the eastern Solomons.
We had three carriers and there support groups in this battle....but the Enterprise was pretty much singled out as the target....the Japs wanted her "down & out" in there quest to hang on to southern Solomons.

Folks this is one heck of a battle...and yes one of the commanders of our side did make a mistake....a costly one for his career as a battle commander....and the Enterprise took one hell of a beating....damaged her...as well as killed some of her crew.

It is a detailed article of which if you're into reading about sea battles....well let me tell you this one is for you...at first it is a tad 'slow' in providing you with how this battle all got started and how we "thought" it was going to play out....but hang with it...because it sure does get interesting.

If you wish to give it a go...just click on the title below:

DEATH STRUGGLE OFF GUADALCANAL 

MIDWAY-CLASS CARRIERS A FIRST FOR ATOMIC AGE

Months before Pearl Harbor the Navy began design studies that envisioned a quartet of giant new carriers intended to improve on the then-building Essex-class. The result would be the 45,000-ton Midway-class, the largest warships ever built for the US Navy.

It was an unusually hot summer in Washington, D.C., when naval planners gathered to tackle a thorny new project. Given a mandate to conceive a giant new class of battle carrier, heated round table discussions commenced in an atmosphere as scorching inside the bureau of ship as temperatures outside. No two people shared the same reactions to the encyclopedic masses of data on which judgments would be based.  At issue was not only the concept of how to configure the envisioned gargantuan 45,000-ton vessels, but debate if they were needed at all. The time was 1941. Though the United States was not officially at war disastrous events in Europe and Asia foretold that the thin thread of America’s neutrality would soon snap under the weight of Axis aggression. A year earlier President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration had fortuitously ordered an unprecedented naval treaties. If the United States were to become the fee world’s ‘Arsenal of Democracy’ it would need a strong modern navy to counter the sizable fleets of Japan, Italy and Germany.  Foremost in these fleets would be the large new 27,000-ton Essex-class aircraft carriers then under construction. Fast, tough, purpose-built ships embodying the very latest naval technology, the 24 Essex would become the backbone of the carrier task forces in the 1940s.

Due to the length of this extremely interesting article there is "two parts"...just click on the titles below:

THE MIDWAY-CLASS CARRIERS [PART I]

THE MIDWAY-CLASS CARRIERS [PART II]

I certainly hope you enjoy the article

DISASTER OFF SAVO ISLAND

We had a major battle in getting onto Guadalcanal....but we did eventually manage.....but involved in this whole mess was a night battle referred to as "The Battle of Savo Island."  

To put it real bluntly...there were four.....yes that is 1, 2, 3, and 4...cruisers lost during this battle...one of which was the USS Astoria (CA-34).  Now a cruiser is no cork in the water as far as a warship goes....she is one hunk of ship that does in fact pose a factor in any sea battle.

Well this particular night...August 9th, 1942 started a series of events that proved out to be extremely costly in the loss of the four cruisers.  The Japanese had slipped into position....missed by all the forces we had in the area....planes, ships and anything else that would float....but still the Japanese slipped in to within striking distance of yards.....and lite up the surprised cruisers with searchlights....and lite them up...and pounded the hell out of all units.

The one unit...the USS Astoria provides great detail on what took place during being surprised right up to the ship fighting back when surprised....all the way to when she was abandoned...
Yes it is one hell of a story.

If you'd care to give it a read....just click on the below title:

DISASTER OFF SAVO ISLAND

THE "LADD REEF RESCUE"

This article is an extremely unique sub-to-sub rescue....which draws together two sub crews .....U.S. and Dutch submariners in the later days of WW II.

It involves the USS Cod (SS-224) and the Dutch Sub O-19.  The Cod got sent out on a mission to take care of one situation but ended up being directed to the O-19 that so happened to having an unfortunate meeting with a coral reef.

So the two crew met...and proceeded to tackle the problem of removing the O-19 from the reef...which for a submarine was not in the Submarine handbook on 'Just how to do such a thing'.

Anyway...after it was all said and done.....[no I'm not going to tell you how it turned out you'll have to read that for yourself]....the two crews bonded....and it even continues in todays world.

If you consider reading this....just click on the below title

RESCUE AT LADD REEF

Hope you enjoy the article

U.S. NAVY..."SICK WITH THE FLU"

In our modern world it is almost unbelievable that an illness would almost cause the loss of a war....but in WW I do you realize that the flu was more deadly than mustard gas, bombs, or bullets....it killed millions in its march across the land.

What you see in the picture is these young Navy recruits at the Naval Training Center, San Francisco....which all found out they were not immune from the flu's lethal effect.

Yes...it was a "Pandemic".....and in 1918 -19...influenza was comparable to the "Black Plague"...it was called many things...flu, grippe, Spanish Lady, Flanders Fever, or Three-day Fever....whatever you decide to call it....it killed more than 20 million people...which was a conservative estimate...  

This article provides you with some idea how this 'Influenza Pandemic" effected the U.S. Navy fighting forces....it came close to shutting down all Naval activity...in WW I.

If you'd care to give this one a read....just click on the below title
EVERYONE SICK WITH THE FLU