Posted on 11/03/2004 10:23:59 PM PST by SAMWolf
That's a new word to me ..
Morning alfa6.
Thanks alfa6.
Hey Feather!
We should be getting our "Official" sign up today. I have to remember to have Snippy bring the camera.
Good morning, Foxhole! Falling in for a great day today!
I have the "two days after" drag today. Got through yesterday on adrenalin but I'm pretty tired this morning! I hope this finds you well.
Morning PE.
I guess the world can hear us now. :-)
Me too but I like the definition, it makes sense in today's world.
Oh boy, Happy Day!!! WOW wish I could be there to watch.
:-)
Morning Colonel.
I've just about caught up with the missed sleep from Tuesday night. I do plan on continuing to gloat though. :-)
We're getting close to taking possession. We hope to get it tomorrow, the carpet is scheduled for Monday and we have a lot to do before that so we're hoping on having the weekend to do it.
On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on November 04:
1650 William III of Orange, king of England (1689-1702)
1812 Aleardo [Gaetano] Aleardi Italian/East poet (Lettere a Maria)
1816 William Polk Hardeman Brig General (Confederate Army), died in 1898
1818 Alexander Robert Lawton Brig General (Confederate Army), died in 1896
1820 Robert Vinkler Richardson Brig Gen (Confederate Army), died in 1870
1835 Lunsford LIndsay Lomax Major General (Confederate Army), died in 1913
1842 William Barker Cushing Lt Cmdr (Union Navy), died in 1874
1873 GE Moore English philosopher (Ethics)
1876 James Fraser designed buffalo nickel
1879 Will Rogers Oologah Indian Territory (Oklahoma), humorist
1886 Ian Wolfe Canton IL, actor (Diary of a Madman, Wizards & Warriors)
1900 Luigi Lucioni Italian, landscape painter (opera stars)
1906 Bob Considine sports columnist (Bob Feller Story)
1912 Pauline Trigere fashion designer (Bell Bottoms)
1913 Gig Young St Cloud MN, actor (They Shoot Horses Don't They)
1916 Walter Cronkite St Joseph MO, news anchor (CBS Evening News 1962-81)
1918 Art Carney Mount Vernon NY, actor (Ed Norton-Honeymooners)
1918 Cameron Mitchell Dallastown PA, actor (Buck-High Chaparral)
1919 Martin Balsam NYC, actor (Murray-Archie Bunker's Place, Catch 22)
1923 Alfred Heineken (beer mogul: Heineken Brewery)
1929 Jimmy Piersall baseball player (Red Sox, Senators, Indians)
1931 Darla Hood Leedey OK, singer/actress (Little Rascals)
1932 Noam Pitlik Philadelphia PA, actor/director (Sanford & Son, Bob Newhart)
1937 Loretta Swit Passaic NJ, actress (Hotlips Houlihan-M*A*S*H)
1940 Delbert McClinton Lubbock Tx, singer (Everytime I roll the dice)
1947 Aleksandr Tkachev USSR, parallel bars gymnast (Olympic-gold-1980)
1950 Markie Post [Marjorie], Palo Alto Cal, actress/serious Babe (Christine-Night Court)
1962 Ralph Macchio Huntington NY, actor (Karate Kid, 8 is Enough)
1966 Kool Rock [Damon Wimbley], rapper (Fat Boys-Jail House Rock)
1975 Heather Tom actress (Victoria-Young & Restless)
Went down to the upper 30's here last night. How's it going for you, Snippy?
Ed Norton had me rolling on the floor as a kid.
He still does, of course I've never really growed up.
LES ZOUAVES
Who were the Zouaves? In their day they were better known than the French Foreign Legion, revered by their countrymen as tough, dashing, roistering daredevils -- the heroes of many a hard-fought battle, and the stuff of legend.
Young U.S. Army Captain George B. McClellan, who observed the colorful and exotic fighters in 1855, praised the Zouaves as "The finest light infantry that Europe can produce....the beau-ideal of a soldier." It was not long before American militia units began to adopt the baggy trousers, braided jacket and tasseled fez of these famed Gallic warriors.
The origins of the Zouaves can be traced to the Zouaoua, a fiercely independent Kabyli tribe living in the rocky hills of Algeria and Morocco. In the summer of 1830 a number of Zouaoua tendered their services to the French colonial army, and in October of that year were organized into two battalions of auxiliaries. Over the following decade these Zouaves -- as the French styled them -- proved their valor in dozens of bloody desert encounters under the command of the intrepid General La Moriciere. Although the Zouave units were increasingly comprised of native Frenchmen, their distinctive uniform remained a derivation of traditional North African dress: A short, collarless jacket; a sleeveless vest (gilet); voluminous trousers (serouel); 12-foot long woolen sash (ceinture); white canvas leggings (guetres); leather greaves (jambieres); and of course the tasseled fez (chechia) and turban (cheche).
In 1852, President Louis Napoleon, soon to become Emperor Napoleon III, ordered the Zouaves restructured into three regiments of the regular French Army. They were now made up entirely of Frenchmen. Henceforth Algerians and Moroccans would be assigned to units of the Tirailleurs Algeriens, or Turcos, as they were popularly known, and would wear their own distinctive light blue version of the Zouave uniform. In 1855 the Emperor created a fourth Zouave regiment from the best soldiers of the other three, and assigned it to his Imperial Guard. Each unit of Zouaves was distinguished by the color of the false pocket, or tombeau, on the front of the blue jacket: red for the 1st, white for the 2nd and blue for 3rd Zouaves. The Zouaves of the Imperial Guard sported yellow rather than red trim on their uniforms, and their tassels were likewise yellow rather than the blue of the other units.
The Crimean War of 1854-55 confirmed the fighting reputation of the French Zouaves, and their exploits were widely publicized in European and North American journals. At the battle of the Alma on September 20, 1854, Zouaves scaled a precipitous ridge and captured the Russian position, impressing even their stolid British allies with their rapid light infantry tactics and prowess with the bayonet. In the engagement at Inkermann on November 5, the 3rd Zouaves lost heavily in a hand to hand grapple with their Russian assailants, and Zouaves also served at Balaclava, where the English Light Brigade made its famous charge. But it was in the protracted and costly siege of the fortress city of Sebastopol that the colorful warriors won immortal renown. On June 7, 1855, more than 500 Zouaves fell taking the earthwork known as Mamelon Vert at the point of the bayonet. Three months later, on September 8, Marshal MacMahon personally led soldiers of the 1st Zouaves in a charge that overran the Malakoff, a strongpoint that was the linchpin of the Russian defenses.
In 1859 Zouaves played a gallant part as France and Piedmont/Sardinia warred with Austria for control of northern Italy. In the bloody battle of Magenta on June 4, the Zouaves of the Imperial Guard earned 10 crosses of the Legion of Honor and 50 Military Medals. Among the recipients of the latter award was Madame Rossini, the regiment's female provisioner, or cantiniere; the first woman to be decorated with the Medaille Militaire. After the fight, the Emperor placed his own Legion of Honor on the gilt eagle and colors of the 2nd Zouaves, as testimony to their valor. In the June 24, 1859 battle of Solferino, the decisive engagement of the Italian campaign, Zouaves spearheaded an assault that pierced the Austrian lines and turned the fight in favor of France and her Italian allies.
From 1860 to 1867 Zouaves saw a variety of service, much of it under rugged conditions and against merciless opponents in Africa and Mexico. While America was distracted by Civil War, France sought to shore up the puppet government of Emperor Maximilian in a losing battle against the Mexican forces of Benito Juarez. Little quarter was asked or given, and combats like the assault on Puebla furthered the Zouaves' reputation as ferocious shock troops.
The Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 was a dark page in French history, and ended with the destruction of the Second Empire. Zouave battalions were bloodied in the battles of Worth, Mars La Tour, Gravelotte, and in the siege of Paris.
But even after the surrender and abdication of Napoleon III, Zouaves continued to battle in the ranks of the Republican armies. A detachment of Papal Zouaves was dispatched by Pius IX to aid France in the conflict, and suffered heavy losses in the clash at Loigny on December 2, 1870. Despite the disastrous result of the war, the Zouaves took solace in the fact that they had been both respected and feared by their German adversaries.
But the colorful Zouave uniforms did not long survive the next major European conflict. The bloodbath of the First World War sounded the death-knell of 19th century military finery, with all its notions of swashbuckling bravado and glory. In the summer and autumn of 1914 some Zouave battalions lost as many as 800 men in a single charge -- gaudy formations futilely hurling themselves into German artillery and machine gun fire. By mid-1915 the dark blue-and-red uniforms of the French infantry had been replaced with more practical horizon blue, the red kepi giving way to a steel helmet. The colonial troops, including the Zouaves, were issued somber hues of mustard brown, as camouflage not color, became the standard dress of armies throughout the world. With that final page in their illustrious record, the Zouave uniform passed into the pages of history.
http://www.zouave.org/origins.html
ELMER ELLSWORTH AND THE ZOUAVE CRAZE
O haughty France!
We looked on as a wild romance,
And many a one was heard to scoff
At Algiers and at Malakoff;
Nor did we Yankees credit quite
Their evolutions in the fight.
But now we're very sure what they
Have done can here be done to-day,
When thus before our sight deploys
The gallant corps from Illinois --
American Zouaves!
-- Anonymous poem, 1860
Despite the far-flung fame of the French Zouaves, it is unlikely that the gaudy uniforms of those exotic soldiers would have found such widespread popularity in the American Civil War had it not been for Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth.
Ellsworth was born at Malta, Saratoga County, in New York, on April 11, 1837, and raised in the Hudson River town of Mechanicville. As a youth he struggled to support his impoverished family by selling newspapers and clerking at a dry-goods store, his hope of attending West Point a pipe-dream. When he was 17 years old, Ellsworth moved to Chicago. Though unsuccessful in business, he began to rise to prominence in the State Militia. In 1857 a chance encounter with Charles DeVilliers, a veteran of the French Zouaves, prompted Ellsworth to explore the intricacies of French light infantry drill, and he began considering the possibility of forming an American Zouave unit. After a brief period studying law in the Springfield office of Abraham Lincoln -- who became a lifelong friend -- Ellsworth returned to Chicago where he transformed a lackluster local militia outfit into the "United States Zouave Cadets." Ellsworth required that his hand-picked volunteers be "morally upright," abstain from alcohol and tobacco, and subjected them to a strict regimen of physical training. He outfitted his Cadets in a Zouave uniform of his own design, and drilled them in tactics he had adapted from French manuals.
Though short of stature, Ellsworth was a striking, athletic figure, who exuded authority. He was an ideal drillmaster, and by the summer of 1860 his U.S. Zouave Cadets of Chicago were being hailed as the finest militia unit in the Midwest.
Not content to rest on his laurels, Ellsworth issued a blanket challenge to the State Militias of a dozen states: That his Zouaves would compete against them in drill competition for the prize of a specially commissioned flag. On July 2, 1860, Ellsworth and 50 of his best men embarked on a six-week tour that took them to 20 cities, including Detroit, Cleveland, Boston, Pittsburgh and Baltimore. The Zouaves humbled their competitors and awed thousands of spectators who came to watch their superbly choreographed exhibitions, while the handsome commander became an overnight celebrity. Newspapers described Ellsworth as "the most talked-of man in the country."
The high point of the tour came in New York City, where tens of thousands gathered to watch the Zouaves drill in City Hall Park, and local journals were effusive in their praise. The New York Times noted "Their bronzed features, sharp outlines, light, wiry forms, muscular developments and spirited, active movements, give them an appearance of dashing ferocity." The Herald hailed the Zouaves' "dashing confidence and elasticity, which we do not see in any of our own companies... Every movement of the company was so splendidly precise, that a new sensation indeed was experienced." By the time the Zouave Cadets returned to Chicago, there was no question that they had truly won the prize of best-drilled militia unit. Moreover, like a Zouave "Johnny Appleseed," Ellsworth had scattered in his wake the seeds of what became known as "The Zouave Craze."
Almost overnight dozens of American Zouave companies sprang into existence, sporting a variety of garb that in most cases owed more to Ellsworth's version of the Zouave outfit than the true French uniform.
Bored with the study of law, the 24-year-old Ellsworth welcomed the coming of War, and after traveling to Washington with his friend, newly elected President Lincoln, he hastened to New York to raise an entire regiment of Zouaves for the Union. He called upon Manhattan's Volunteer Firemen, whose physical fitness and intrepid bearing seemingly qualified them as ideal volunteer soldiers, and within days the 11th New York Infantry -- "Ellsworth's Fire Zouaves" -- were mustered, hastily uniformed in a light-weight gray uniform of Ellsworth's design, issued a variety of firearms, and ready to embark for the defense of the Capital. Their parade down Broadway on April 29, 1861, was a frenzy of patriotic enthusiasm, and on their arrival in Washington the Fire Zouaves received a personal welcome from Abraham Lincoln. The President's Secretary, John Hay, described the Zouaves as "a jolly, gay set of blackguards," who "were in a pretty complete state of don't care a damn, modified by an affectionate and respectful deference to their Colonel." In fact, Colonel Ellsworth had his hands full attempting to discipline and train the rowdy, hard-drinking and boisterous firemen. Their antics and occasional depredations made them few friends in the Capital, and it was in part to redeem the reputation of his "Pet Lambs" -- as Ellsworth ironically dubbed his troublesome soldiers -- that the Colonel insisted his unit be assigned to the Federal force preparing to occupy the Virginia shore of the Potomac River. In large part due to his friendship with the President and Lincoln family, Ellsworth and his Fire Zouaves were belatedly included in the invasion plans.
On the early morning of May 24, 1861, they filed aboard steamships and crossed the Potomac to seize the town of Alexandria, Virginia. After landing at the city docks, Colonel Ellsworth led a small detail of men in search of Alexandria's telegraph office. But upon reaching the corner of King and Pitt Streets, he abuptly changed his intentions. A huge Secessionist banner was fluttering atop a 30-foot pole on the roof of the Marshall House hotel. "Boys," Ellsworth told his companions, "we must have that flag!"
Ascending to the roof, Ellsworth cut the halyards and hauled down the Stars and Bars. With Corporal Francis E. Brownell in the lead, the group of Zouaves were descending the hotel stairway when all of a sudden a burly civilian stepped from the shadows and leveled a shotgun at Colonel Ellsworth, who was preoccupied with folding the captured banner. The man was James W. Jackson -- innkeeper of the Marshall House -- who had sworn to kill any man who attempted to take his flag. Corporal Brownell attempted to knock Jackson's weapon aside, but stumbled on the steps and the shotgun roared out -- the shot tearing into Ellsworth's heart. As the Colonel sprawled down the steps, Brownell rose and fired, his bullet striking Jackson in the face. The innkeeper's second barrel went off as he toppled backward, Brownell following up his shot with a bayonet thrust into the dying Secessionist.
Elmer Ellsworth had been instantly killed, and the Union had its first Martyr of the Civil War. Devastated by the loss of his young protogé, Abraham Lincoln ordered that Ellsworth's body lie in state in the East Room of the White House. "Avenge Ellsworth!" became a Northern battle-cry, and the death of the charismatic founder of the "Zouave Craze" spurred even more volunteers to don the flashy attire Ellsworth had championed. Dozens of Zouave units would fight on the battlefields of that war, from Bull Run to Appomattox; and one of the finest of them was the 5th New York Volunteer Infantry, "Duryee's Zouaves."
http://www.zouave.org/craze.html
Today's classic warship USS USS Wilkes-Barre (CL-103)
Cleveland class light cruiser
Displacement: 10,000 t.
Length: 610’1”
Beam: 66’6”
Draft: 20’0”
Speed: 33 k.
Complement: 992
Armament: 12 6”; 12 5”; 20 40mm; 10 20mm
WILKES-BARRE (CL-103) was laid down on 14 December 1942 at Camden, N.J., by the New York Shipbuilding Corp.; launched on 24 December 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Grace Shoemaker Miner, the wife of a prominent Wilkes-Barre doctor, and commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 1 July 1944, Capt. Robert L. Porter, Jr., in command.
After fitting-out, WILKES-BARRE conducted her shakedown cruise in Chesapeake Bay and in the Gulf of Paria, Trinidad, British West Indies, before she returned to Philadelphia for post-shakedown availability. Getting underway on 23 October, the new light cruiser conducted training over ensuing days as she headed for the Panama Canal and the Pacific. Soon after transiting the isthmian waterway on 27 October, WILKES-BARRE arrived at San Diego, Calif., where she loaded provisions and ammunition. Then, following gunnery exercises off San Clemente Island, Calif., the warship headed for Hawaii on 10 November.
WILKES-BARRE reached Pearl Harbor on the 17th and conducted exercises in the Hawaiian operating area between 19 and 24 November and between 2 and 3 December, before she left Oahu in her wake on 14 December, bound for the Carolines. Upon her arrival at Ulithi, WILKES-BARRE joined Cruiser Division (CruDiv) 17 and sortied on 30 December as part of a support unit for Vice Admiral John S. McCain's Task Force (TF) 38.
Planes from TF 38 hit targets on Formosa and in the southern Ryukyus and, later, on Japanese targets on Luzon, in support of the landings on that Philippine island. TF 38 delivered a second strike upon Japanese positions on Formosa on 9 January 1945, before it passed through the Bashi Channel on the night of 9 and 10 January 1945 and headed into the South China Sea to counter the threat of enemy surface units opposing the Lingayen Gulf landings. On 12 January--the day that Navy aircraft sank 127,000 tons of merchant and naval shipping in the Indochina area--WILKES-BARRE and her sisters in CruDiv 17 were detached from Task Group (TG) 38.2 and became TG 34.5 which was set up to deal with enemy warships reported off Camranh Bay, French Indochina. However, search planes from the cruisers found no trace of the supposed enemy force, and WILKES-BARRE, with the rest of CruDiv 17, rejoined TF 38.
On 13 and 14 January, soon after the abortive Camranh Bay sweep, WILKES-BARRE and her consorts ran into rough weather--a tropical disturbance which caused stormy weather with intermittent squalls, heavy seas, and strong winds from the northeast. WILKES-BARRE rolled as much as 38 degrees to a side as she proceeded on a northeasterly course into the teeth of the gale.
However, the weather soon cleared enough to permit air strikes against Japanese shipping and targets on the coasts of China and French Indochina. Through holes in the thick overcast, American carrier planes bombed Japanese shipping at Takao, Amoy, and Swatow on 15 January and at Hainan Island, Indochina, and Hong Kong on the 16th. Fueling operations for the task group--hampered by the generally bad weather that had prevailed during the period--was finally completed on the 19th, shortly before the ships transited the Balintang Channel.
Strikes against Formosa continued on 21 January, but the enemy drew blood in return, damaging LANGLEY (CVL-27) and TICONDEROGA (CV-14). The next day, almost as if in revenge, Navy planes pounded Japanese targets-of-opportunity on the island of Okinawa, in the final act of the 27-day drama.
On 26 January, TF 38 arrived at Ulithi for replenishment and repairs. At Ulithi, TF 38 became TF 58 when command of the Fast Carrier Task Force passed to Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher.
Within two weeks, WILKES-BARRE was at sea again, still with CruDiv 17 but attached to TG 58.3, Rear Admiral Frederick C. Sherman, whose flag, as commander of the group, flew in ESSEX (CV-9). The light cruiser and her consorts appeared off the coast of Honshu, Japan, on 16 February and screened the carriers as their planes bombed Tokyo, the capital of the Japanese empire. The raid served as a diversion for what was taking place to the southward--the invasion of Iwo Jima. Admiral Sherman's planes pounded Japanese airfields and industrial sites near Tokyo in raids that marked the first bombings of their kind since Lt. Col. Doolittle had brought his "Tokyo Raiders" in from HORNET (CV-8)--alias "our new secret base at Shangri-La"--in April 1942.
After two days of strikes against the Japanese capital, the task group headed toward Iwo Jima and conducted strikes on Japanese positions on Chichi Jima and Haha Jima en route. On 19 February 1945, marines left their transports and headed toward the black beaches of Iwo Jima.
It soon became evident that the going would be tough against General Tadamichi Kuribayashi's garrison of defenders on Iwo Jima. On 21 February, WILKES-BARRE was called in to assist in the shore bombardment. The light cruiser, her fire directed by spotters aloft in her Kingfishers, proceeded to demolish enemy gun positions, pillboxes, fortified caves, and ammunition dumps. On one occasion, her prompt and effective call-fire turned back a Japanese counterattack.
WILKES-BARRE rejoined TG 58.3 on 23 February and screened the group's carriers as their planes hit targets in and near Tokyo on 25 February and on Okinawa on 1 March. Four days after the latter strikes, TG 58.3 put into Ulithi to replenish and refuel.
The light cruiser remained at anchor in Ulithi Lagoon from 5 to 14 March, before she participated in exercises with TF 59 on the 14th and 15th. The latter day, she was reassigned to TG 58.3 and soon thereafter headed for Japan.
Steaming east of Okinawa on the 18th, the carriers hurled their squadrons against Japanese airfields on Kyushu; and--with bombs and rockets, and strafing with machine guns--the American carrier planes continued their attacks on the following day as well. The raids drew retaliatory strikes--met by the combat air patrol (CAP) and gunfire from the screen. On the 19th, WILKES-BARRE bagged her first aircraft--a "Judy" dive bomber.
The Japanese managed to draw blood from the American force, however, as two well-dropped bombs turned the carrier FRANKLIN (CV-13) into a floating inferno on the 19th. While the task group subsequently retired toward a fueling rendezvous--moving slowly to protect the "cripples"--Japanese aircraft continued the harassment.
The air strikes continued in ensuing days. Planes from TG 58.3 hit Japanese targets in the Okinawa area on 23 and 24 March. On the latter day, WILKES-BARRE's Kingfisher rescued two downed pilots from the light carrier BATAAN (CVL-29) off Minami Daito Shima. Three days later, WILKES-BARRE returned to waters near Minami Daito and, in company with a destroyer group and the rest of CruDiv 17, shelled the airfield there.
On the 29th, after a high-speed, night approach toward Kyushu, the carriers--screened by WILKES-BARRE and her sisterships and destroyers--launched dawn searches and strikes against points along the coasts of Kyushu and the Inland Sea. Again, one of WILKES-BARRE’s planes performed a rescue mission, rescuing two fliers from BUNKER HILL (CV-17) from the waters off Yaku Shima.
On Easter Sunday, 1 April 1945, American troops commenced the invasion of Okinawa. Their accomplishment was one of the most difficult Allied undertakings in the war and the conflict's biggest American amphibious assault. As men and materiel began establishing a beachhead, TF 58, WILKES-BARRE included, began its supporting operations.
Beginning on D day, 1 April, the fast carriers flew an extended series of support missions at Okinawa and made neutralizing raids against airfields in Kyushu, Shikoku, and southern Honshu. A key base for Japanese planes turned out to be Sakashima Gunto in the Nansei Shoto group, and that site came under heavy air attacks. Nevertheless, the suiciders, taking off from bases in the Japanese home islands, proved persistent.
Japanese planes attacked TG 58.3 on 11 April, and from noon until dark, WILKES-BARRE’s guns--and those of the other screening ships--put up lethal barrages of antiaircraft fire at the oncoming enemy. She knocked down three Mitsubishi "Zeke" fighters and a "Val" dive-bomber and also scored assists with two more "Zekes."
When TF 58 subsequently headed north to launch strikes against the airfields on southern Kyushu, WILKES-BARRE went along. Those bases, thought to be the source of the Japanese air raids upon the joint expeditionary forces on Okinawa, were under attack throughout the 16th. Meanwhile, "flash red" alerts came one after another as the enemy planes--stirred like a nest of angry bees--attempted to penetrate the umbrella of the combat air patrol (CAP). Together with the fighters, WILKES-BARRE and the other ships in the screen swung into action. The cruiser herself bagged a bomber at 1854 on 16 April and a "Zeke" at 0939 on the 17th.
WILKES-BARRE's Kingfisher pilots again showed their skill at rescuing downed pilots, picking up two Navy fliers some 30 miles east of Okinawa on 26 April. Over the first 10 days of May 1945, the fast carriers-- operating some 60 miles east of Okinawa--continued to launch strikes against that island. On 10 May, CruDiv 17, with escorting "tin cans," was temporarily detached from TG 58.3 for another night shelling of Minami Daito Shima.
"Snoopers," winging near the task group early the following day, sized up the disposition, and thus gave a hint of what was to come: a lightning-like foray. Two kamikazes plunged through the flak-torn skies and crashed into the fleet carrier BUNKER HILL, enveloping the flattop's after deck in flame. At 1059, WILKES-BARRE received orders to stand by the critically injured carrier.
Capt. Robert L. Porter brought his light cruiser alongside BUNKER HILL at 1115, placing WILKES-BARRE's bow hard against the flattop's starboard quarter. The cruiser played 10 streams of water on the persistent fires, while 40 men, trapped astern in BUNKER HILL scrambled to safety. Destroyers STEMBEL (DD-644), CHARLES S. SPERRY (DD-697), and ENGLISH (DD-696) also added their fire hoses to the joint effort to save the stricken carrier.
WILKES-BARRE transferred fire-fighting gear--rescue breathing apparatus and handy-billies--to BUNKER HILL in exchange for the carrier's injured and dying. At 1534, when the flames finally were well under control and her assistance was no longer needed--WILKES-BARRE finally cleared the blackened flattop.
BUNKER HILL’s captain later praised the ships which had labored bravely and tirelessly to save the carrier. "The WILKES-BARRE, the SPERRY and STEMBEL and ENGLISH did a magnificent job. They came alongside not knowing whether we were likely to have explosions aboard. The WILKES-BARRE evacuated our seriously wounded, and with their able assistance, we got through."
On the 12th, WILKES-BARRE held burial services on board for the 13 men from the carrier who had succumbed to their wounds and transferred their surviving shipmates to the hospital ship BOUNTIFUL (AH-9). That day, TF 58 traveled to Kyushu to launch strikes on the 13th against the network of airfields there. The Japanese air arm responded on the 14th. Commencing at midnight, other task groups came under coordinated assaults; but Japanese planes did not molest WILKES-BARRE’s group until dawn. Falling shell fragments, possibly from "friendly" guns, hit the ship during that raid, wounding nine men on the after signal bridge. At 0816, the cruiser claimed an assist in splashing a "Zero."
On 28 May, fleet and task force designations were changed to reflect the switch in command when Vice Admiral John S. McCain relieved Vice Admiral Mitscher. WILKES-BARRE, her tour off Okinawa and the Japanese home islands completed, left TG 38.3 on 29 May and headed for the Philippines.
WILKES-BARRE remained in the snug anchorage at San Pedro Bay from 1 to 20 June, receiving repairs, upkeep, and replenishment. She then conducted gunnery and tactical exercises off Samar from 20 to 23 June and then returned to anchorage for the remainder of the month.
For the coup de grace administered against Japan's homeland, TF 38 sortied from Leyte Gulf on 1 July. As part of TG 38.3, WILKES-BARRE steamed along with her sisters of CruDiv 17. For the first week of July, the ships engaged in intensive aircraft patrol and firing practice.
Carrier planes struck Hokkaido and Honshu on 10 July. Four days later, WILKES-BARRE and other ships parted company with the task group and conducted antishipping sweeps off northern Honshu and across Kii Suido.
On the 17th, American planes seared the Tokyo plains with incendiaries and rockets. On the night of 24 and 25 July, WILKES-BARRE and other bombardment ships departed the task group and, at 1210, opened fire with their main batteries on the Kushimoto seaplane base and on the Shionomisaki landing field on the south coast of Honshu.
Navy planes struck Kure and Kobe from 24 to 27 July in strikes aimed at ferreting out merchant shipping hidden in the Inland Sea. On the 30th, American planes gutted the manufacturing centers of Tokyo and Nagoya; hut, horrible as they were, these raids were only a prelude to the awesome air strikes to come, the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Typhoons kept American planes out of the skies for most of the first week of August; but, on 7 August, the ships turned north for further strikes on the Honshu-Hokkaido area. Foul weather prevented attacks on the 8th, but the following two days presented favorable conditions for air strikes which continued apace. During that time, the two atomic bombs, Russia's entry into the Far Eastern war, and then nearly incessant pressure kept on the Japanese by ships and planes of the armada massed off her shores, all combined to force Japan to a decision to surrender. On the 15th, the orders finally came through to cease offensive operations--the war was over.
CruDiv 17 was detached from TG 38.3 on 23 August and, on the 27th, after 59 days at sea, formed part of the 3d Fleet that made its way triumphantly into Sagami Wan, the entrance to Tokyo Bay. WILKES-BARRE was among that procession, and her 6-inch guns covered the occupation of the Yokosuka Naval Base. On 3 September, the day after the official surrender of Japan, WILKES-BARRE moved into Tokyo Bay proper, over 103,000 miles after her commissioning.
As flagship for demilitarization group, Task Unit (TU) 35.7.2, WILKES-BARRE churned out of Tokyo Bay on 9 September and proceeded to Tateyama Wan, anchoring late that afternoon. On the 10th, she covered the seizure of the former midget submarine and suicide boat base there, before she returned to Tokyo Bay.
Subsequent operations in connection with the occupation of the erstwhile enemy's homeland kept WILKES-BARRE busy. She anchored off Koajiro Ko, Sagami Wan, between 12 and 14 September to demilitarize the Aburatsubo and Kurihama midget submarine bases on the Sagami peninsula. She next anchored in Tokyo Bay to refuel and take on provisions on the 14th before shifting to Onagawa Wan between the 15th and 17th. She then conducted another demilitarization mission, her guns covering the occupation at Katsuura Wan before turning to Tokyo on 24 September.
From 24 September to 4 October, WILKES-BARRE anchored within sight of Mount Fujiyama, Japan's sacred mountain, and held gunnery and tactical exercises between 24 and 28 October. Detached from the 5th Fleet on 5 November, WILKES-BARRE set out on the 9th for Korea and reached Jinsen (now Inchon) on the 13th.
On the 16th, WILKES-BARRE--in company with destroyers HART (DD-594) and BELL (DD-587)--shifted to Tsingtao, China. Further occupation duties kept her at that port until the 19th; but, over the ensuing weeks she steamed twice to Taku and Chinwangtao, China before returning to Tsingtao where she spent the remainder of the year 1945.
Finally sailing for the United States on 13 January 1946, WILKES-BARRE proceeded, via Pearl Harbor, and reached San Pedro, Calif., on the last day of January. WILKES-BARRE got underway on 4 March, bound for the east coast of the United States. Transiting the Panama Canal between 12 and 14 March, the light cruiser put into Philadelphia on the 18th and remained there through the spring and summer of 1946. She got underway for the Gulf of Mexico on 20 October and reached New Orleans in time to celebrate Navy Day on 27 October.
From New Orleans, WILKES-BARRE sailed for Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and a period of refresher training in company with sisterships DAYTON (CL-105) and PROVIDENCE (CL-82). After returning to Norfolk, Va., on 13 December, WILKES-BARRE made a goodwill cruise to England and Norway; underway on 17 February 1947, she reached Plymouth, England, on the 27th. She then operated in the waters of the British Isles throughout March and April and made one trip to Bergen, Norway, before returning to the United States for eventual assignment to the United States Reserve Fleet.
Decommissioned on 9 October 1947, WILKES-BARRE was simultaneously placed in reserve at Philadelphia. She remained in "mothballs" at Philadelphia until struck from the Navy list on 15 January 1971--the last light cruiser on the Navy list. Thereafter, the ship was subjected to underwater explosive tests. On 12 May 1972, her battered hulk broke in two. The after section sank of its own accord on that day, the forward section sank on the 13th, as a result of a scuttling charge. Presently off the Florida Keys, the ship continues to serve society, however, as an artificial reef.
WILKES-BARRE received four battle stars for her World War II service. Transcribed by Michael Hansen mhansen2@home.com
Apparently ARAFAT IS DEAD!
RE# 39 No Teasing Now, one can hope though.
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
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