The List 5282 TGB
Good Saturday Morning 18 April.
Regards,
Skip
Today in Naval History
April 18
1848
U.S. Navy expedition to explore the Dead Sea and the River Jordan, commanded by Lt. William F. Lynch, reaches the Dead Sea.
1906
U.S. Navy assists in relief operations during the San Francisco earthquake and fire. Sailors and Marines fight fires and ships carry the homeless and injured to Vallejo, where medical personnel established emergency facilities.
1942
The Doolittle Raid begins with 16 Army Air Force B-25 bombers launching earlier than expected from USS Hornet (CV 8), approximately 650 miles off Japan, after being spotted by enemy ships. It is the first attack by the U.S. of the Japanese mainland since Pearl Harbor. Most of the 16 B-25s, each with a five-man crew, attack the Tokyo area, with a few hitting Nagoya. Embarrassed, the Japanese revise plans and six weeks later attack the American carrier group near Midway sooner than expected.
1943
U.S. Army Air Force P-38s off Bougainville, using signals intelligence, shoot down plane carrying Imperial Japanese Navy Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, Commander in Chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet.
1945
USS Heerman (DD 532), USS McCord (DD 534), USS Mertz (DD 691), and USS Collett (DD 730), with assistance from destroyer USS Uhlmann (DD 687) and TBM Avenger aircraft (VT 47) from USS Bataan (CVL 29), sink the Japanese submarine I 56, 150 miles east of Okinawa.
1958
Lt. Cmdr. G.C. Watkins flying a Grumman F11F-1F Tiger at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., for the second time in three days sets a world altitude record of 76,938 feet.
1988
During Operation Praying Mantis, Navy ships and Navy and Marine aircraft strike Iranian oil platforms, sink the Iranian frigate Sahand and smaller boats, and damage the frigate Sabalan in retaliation for when USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58) hit an Iranian mine four days earlier.
2009
USS Stockdale (DDG 106) is commissioned at Naval Construction Battalion Center Port Hueneme, Calif. The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer is named after Vice Adm. James B. Stockdale.
Thanks to CHINFO
No CHINFO ON THE WEEKEND
This Day in World History
April 17
April 18
310
St. Eusebius of Vercelli begins his reign as Catholic Pope.
1521
Martin Luther confronts the emperor Charles V, refusing to retract the views which led to his excommunication.
1676
Sudbury, Massachusetts is attacked by Indians.
1775
American revolutionaries Paul Revere and William Dawes ride though the towns of Massachusetts warning that "the British are coming."
1791
National Guardsmen prevent Louis XVI and his family from leaving Paris.
1818
A regiment of Indians and blacks is defeated at the Battle of Suwannee, in Florida, ending the First Seminole War.
1834
William Lamb becomes prime minister of England.
1838
The Wilkes' expedition to the South Pole sets sail.
1847
U.S. forces defeat Mexicans at Cerro Gordo in one of the bloodiest battle of the Mexican-American War.
1853
The first train in Asia begins running from Bombay to Tanna.
1861
Colonel Robert E. Lee turns down an offer to command the Union armies.
1895
The First Sino-Japanese War ends.
1906
A massive earthquake hits San Francisco, measuring 8.25 on the Richter scale.
1923
Yankee Stadium opens with Babe Ruth hitting a three-run homer as the Yankees beat the Red Sox 4-1.
1937
Leon Trotsky calls for the overthrow of Soviet leader Josef Stalin.
1942
James H. Doolittle bombs Tokyo and other Japanese cities.
1943
Traveling in a bomber, Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the mastermind of the attack on Pearl Harbor, is shot down by American P-38 fighters.
1946
The League of Nations dissolves.
1949
The Republic of Ireland withdraws from British Commonwealth.
1950
The first transatlantic jet passenger trip is completed.
1954
Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser seizes power in Egypt.
1978
The U.S. Senate approves the transfer of the Panama Canal to Panama.
1980
Zimbabwe's (Rhodesia) formal independence from Britain is proclaimed.
1983
A suicide bomber kills U.S. Marines at the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon.
The April 18, 1983, United States embassy bombing was a suicide bombing in Beirut, Lebanon, that killed 63 people, including 17 Americans. The victims were mostly embassy and CIA staff members, but also included several U.S. soldiers and one U.S. Marine Security Guard. It was the deadliest attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission up to that time, and was considered the beginning of Islamist attacks on U.S. targets.
The attack came in the wake of an intervention in the Lebanese Civil War by the U.S. and other Western countries, which sought to restore order and central government authority.
The next bombing on 23 October was Horrific.
1906
The Great San Francisco Earthquake topples buildings, killing hundreds
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If you did not have to memorize it when you were in school Here it is. I only remember the first verse. The rest of the brain cells have deteriorated over the last many years.
Paul Revere's Ride
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
________________________________________
Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five; Hardly a man is now alive Who remembers that famous day and year.
He said to his friend, "If the British march By land or sea from the town to-night, Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch Of the North Church tower as a signal light,-- One if by land, and two if by sea; And I on the opposite shore will be, Ready to ride and spread the alarm Through every Middlesex village and farm, For the country folk to be up and to arm."
Then he said "Good-night!" and with muffled oar Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore, Just as the moon rose over the bay, Where swinging wide at her moorings lay The Somerset, British man-of-war; A phantom ship, with each mast and spar Across the moon like a prison bar, And a huge black hulk, that was magnified By its own reflection in the tide.
Meanwhile, his friend through alley and street Wanders and watches, with eager ears, Till in the silence around him he hears The muster of men at the barrack door, The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet, And the measured tread of the grenadiers, Marching down to their boats on the shore.
Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church, By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread, To the belfry chamber overhead, And startled the pigeons from their perch On the sombre rafters, that round him made Masses and moving shapes of shade,-- By the trembling ladder, steep and tall, To the highest window in the wall, Where he paused to listen and look down A moment on the roofs of the town And the moonlight flowing over all.
Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead, In their night encampment on the hill, Wrapped in silence so deep and still That he could hear, like a sentinel's tread, The watchful night-wind, as it went Creeping along from tent to tent, And seeming to whisper, "All is well!"
A moment only he feels the spell
Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread Of the lonely belfry and the dead; For suddenly all his thoughts are bent On a shadowy something far away, Where the river widens to meet the bay,-- A line of black that bends and floats On the rising tide like a bridge of boats.
Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride,
Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride
On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.
Now he patted his horse's side,
Now he gazed at the landscape far and near, Then, impetuous, stamped the earth, And turned and tightened his saddle girth; But mostly he watched with eager search The belfry tower of the Old North Church, As it rose above the graves on the hill, Lonely and spectral and sombre and still.
And lo! as he looks, on the belfry's height A glimmer, and then a gleam of light!
He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns, But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight A second lamp in the belfry burns.
A hurry of hoofs in a village street,
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark, And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet; That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light, The fate of a nation was riding that night; And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight, Kindled the land into flame with its heat.
He has left the village and mounted the steep, And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep, Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides; And under the alders that skirt its edge, Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge, Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides.
It was twelve by the village clock
When he crossed the bridge into Medford town.
He heard the crowing of the cock,
And the barking of the farmer's dog,
And felt the damp of the river fog,
That rises after the sun goes down.
It was one by the village clock,
When he galloped into Lexington.
He saw the gilded weathercock
Swim in the moonlight as he passed,
And the meeting-house windows, black and bare, Gaze at him with a spectral glare, As if they already stood aghast At the bloody work they would look upon.
It was two by the village clock,
When he came to the bridge in Concord town.
He heard the bleating of the flock,
And the twitter of birds among the trees, And felt the breath of the morning breeze Blowing over the meadow brown.
And one was safe and asleep in his bed
Who at the bridge would be first to fall, Who that day would be lying dead, Pierced by a British musket ball.
You know the rest. In the books you have read How the British Regulars fired and fled,--- How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
>From behind each fence and farmyard wall,
Chasing the redcoats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again Under the trees at the turn of the road, And only pausing to fire and load.
So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm To every Middlesex village and farm,--- A cry of defiance, and not of fear, A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door, And a word that shall echo for evermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past, Through all our history, to the last, In the hour of darkness and peril and need, The people will waken and listen to hear The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed, And the midnight message of Paul Revere.
And now thanks to Charles to bust your bubble here is some more info on the ride CASHIN'S COMMENTS THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2013 [AN ENCORE PRESENTATION] On this day in 1775, there occurred one of the best known yet most misunderstood events in American history. Thanks to Longfellow's famous poem, popularly but mistakenly called, "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere,"
nearly every schoolchild has heard of "that famous day and year."
But most of the image of the poem, while stirring, is not correct. Revere was not a volunteer. He didn't ride alone. He never finished the ride and he didn't hang any lanterns in the Old North Church.
Actually, Revere's heritage was French. He was Appollos Rivoire before a name change. Revere was a patriot, of course. He was one of the "Indians" at the Boston Tea Party. He had been active in many pre-revolutionary groups. But that night he was serving as a paid messenger, a role he had often before served. (He actually submitted a bill for his famous ride.) Historians also believe the ride started at a time earlier than midnight.
The lanterns signaling "one if by land and two if by sea" were actually set by church sexton, Robert Newman. The signal meant the British regulars were setting out to arrest John Hancock and Samuel Adams (two higher profile patriots) at Lexington and then to seize a stash of revolutionary arms and gunpowder at Concord.
Revere and a co-rider William Dawes rented horses and set out on their ride. They made it to Lexington, warning Adams and Hancock. They were joined by Dr. Samuel Prescott. On the way to Concord, Dawes and Reverewere arrested. (Speeding?) Prescott, however got through and so the patriots were ready the next day to fire "the shot heard round the world."
And sources say that Revere didn't shout, "The British are coming!" Rather it is believed he called out - "Awake! The Regulars are out!" (How riveting.)
And finally despite thousands of barroom bets that Revere's horse was "Brown Betty", no one knows the name of the horse. (Not even the Boston Historical Society - it was rented after all!)
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Thanks to Dr. Rich……and he is right I had never heard of this. A little late in the war but so were the Soviets against Japan.
Bet you didn't know ....
… that Mexico deployed a fighter squadron to the Pacific in WW-II !!
Thanks to Billy
https://youtu.be/x6hpw4rbBrA
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A repeat but worth the time
H-Gram 18 from Admiral Cox and the NAVAL HISTORY AND HERITAGE COMMAND
No Higher Honor: The Road to Operation Praying Mantis, 18 April 1988
"Mr. Secretary, I think we've shed enough blood today," said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral William Crowe to Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci. With that, the primary target of Operation Praying Mantis, the Iranian frigate Sabalan, dead in the water with a laser-guided bomb down her stack and U.S. Navy planes ready for the kill, was given a stay of execution. Sabalan's skipper, the infamous "Captain Nasty" (named for his habit of firing into the crews' compartments of neutral merchant ships and tankers, and leaving the high-casualty scene of attack with his trademark radio call, "Have a nice day") also lived to go on to be a vice admiral. Nevertheless, the cost to the Iranians of the one-day operation was very high: over 60 dead and 100 wounded. Sabalan's sister, Sahand, was on the bottom, the largest warship sunk by the U.S. Navy since World War II, smothered by a rain of air- and ship-launched Harpoon missiles, laser-guided air-launched Skipper missiles, and a variety of other air-delivered ordnance. The Iranian missile boat Joshan was also on the bottom, having fired the last operational U.S.-supplied Harpoon missile in the Iranian inventory at the cruiser USS Wainwright (CG-28)—and narrowly missing—crippled by a shower of Standard missiles fired in surface-to-surface mode and then sunk with guns. Three Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps speedboats were also sunk and others damaged. An Iranian Air Force F-4 Phantom fighter, hit by an extended range Standard missile from Wainwright, barely made it back to Bandar Abbas, Iran. Two Iranian oil platforms in the Arabian Gulf, used for intelligence collection and staging points for Iranian reconnaissance and attacks against neutral shipping, were also heavily damaged by U.S. naval gunfire and demolition charges emplaced by U.S. Marines off USS Trenton (LPD-14). U.S. forces were unscathed, except for a Marine AH-1 Sea Cobra helicopter that crashed into the ocean after nightfall while pursuing Iranian speedboats, killing its two-man crew. Operation Praying Mantis, the largest U.S. Navy surface action since World War II, did succeed in modifying Iranian behavior, and represented the culmination of several years of undeclared war between the U.S. and Iranian navies (both of them, regular and Revolutionary Guard). Although there continued to be tense encounters, the Iranians refrained from laying additional minefields in the Arabian Gulf.
The proximate reason for the execution of Operation Praying Mantis was to retaliate for minefields laid by the Iranians in the shipping lanes of the Arabian Gulf. On 14 April 1988, the frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58) struck a mine in a recently and deliberately laid Iranian minefield in the shipping channel in the central Arabian Gulf. The Iranian-made Sadaf 02 (Farsi for "oyster") moored contact mine, based on a 1908 Russian design, inflicted severe damage to the Samuel B. Roberts, breaking her keel, flooding two main spaces, and starting fires. Casualties were light; ten wounded, four of them seriously, only because an alert lookout had spotted the mines, giving the ship's captain, Commander Paul X. Rinn, enough time to order his crew to get above the main deck before the ship hit an unseen mine while attempting to back out of the minefield. Post-event computer simulations all indicated the ship should have sunk, yet her well-trained and drilled crew saved their ship in one of the most inspiring damage-control efforts in the history of the U.S. Navy. At the height of the fire and flooding, the commander of the U.S. Middle East Force, Rear Admiral Anthony Less, asked Commander Rinn via radio if he was considering abandoning ship. Rinn replied that he had no intention of giving up the ship and finished with the ship's motto, "No Higher Honor." The motto derived from the battle report filed by Lieutenant Commander Robert Copeland, skipper of the first Samuel B. Roberts (DE-413), lost in an extraordinarily valiant sacrificial action during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in World War II, in which he stated there was "no higher honor" than to lead the American Sailors who displayed such extraordinary courage during battle.
For more on Operation Praying Mantis and the undeclared naval war between the U.S. and Iran in the late 1980s, please see attachment H-018-1. For more on the legacy of Coxswain Samuel B. Roberts and the three ships that have been named for him see my previous H-Gram 010/H-010-4.
75th Anniversary of World War II
Operation Vengeance: Admiral Yamamoto Shot Down, 18 April 1943
At 0935 on 18 April 1943, 16 U.S. Army Air Force P-38 Lightning twin-engine fighters arrived over Bougainville in the northern Solomon Islands after a circuitous 600-mile flight from Guadalcanal. The two Japanese G4M Betty bombers and six escorting A6M Zero fighters were exactly where the P-38s expected to find them. Four of the P-38s, designated the 'killer" group, went after the bombers, while the others engaged the fighter escorts. The pilots did not know who was aboard the bombers—only that their target was a VIP—nor did they know the true source of the intelligence regarding their target, having been told a cover story that it had been provided by Australian coast watchers. Both of the bombers were shot down. One bomber crashed in the jungle of Bougainville and the other crashed at sea just off the coast. The next day, a Japanese search party found Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander in chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet, in the jungle, sitting upright, buckled in his seat thrown from the aircraft, clutching his katana ("samurai sword") with one white-gloved hand, dead from a .50-caliber slug through his face. One P-38 and pilot were lost on what was the longest fighter-intercept mission of the war. The P-38s returned several times over the next weeks to make it look to the Japanese that the intercept of Yamamoto had been a coincidence, and not because U.S. naval intelligence had broken the Japanese navy code (by then the JN-25D cipher), intercepted and deciphered the message with Yamamoto's flight schedule, and done so in sufficient time for Admirals Nimitz, Halsey, Mitscher, and commanders at Guadalcanal to plan and execute a complex and daring "joint-service" mission (the USAAF P-38s were the only aircraft that had the legs to execute the mission, and even then needed special drop tanks flown in just in time from General MacArthur's Southwest Pacific theater). Operation Vengeance (as best I can tell a name given after the fact) is one of the greatest intelligence-operations success stories of all time. For more, please see attachment H-018-2.
A Presidential Unit Citation for a Failed Attack: USS Tunny's Second War Patrol, 9 April 1943
It was a submarine skipper's dream come true. On the night of 9 April 1943, the Japanese convoy was right where naval intelligence reports said it would be, approaching the Japanese stronghold at Truk Island in the central Carolines, and the submarine USS Tunny (SS-282) was in the perfect position. On the surface, but ballasted down with decks awash, Tunny's skipper, Lieutenant Commander John A. Scott could see off his port bow a column of ships led by a destroyer, followed by a large aircraft carrier. Off his starboard bow was another column, led by a destroyer, followed by two smaller aircraft carriers. At a range of about 880 yards, Scott set up to take out all three carriers, when out of the darkness came three motor torpedo boats, forcing him to submerge. Nevertheless, Tunny fired all four stern tubes at the smaller carrier and all six bow tubes at the large carrier. The shots appeared to be perfect, and seven of the ten torpedoes were heard to detonate at the right time. Back in Pearl Harbor, the attack was hailed as the greatest of the war to date, only to have the euphoria dashed by subsequent deciphered Japanese messages confirming the safe arrival at Truk of all ships in the convoy. The Japanese traffic also confirmed that only the escort carrier Taiyo had been slightly damaged, and that all the torpedoes that would otherwise have been hits had prematurely detonated just short of their targets. Despite the result, Scott's attack would be rightly lauded as a superb example of daring and skill. The results of the attack provided yet more confirmation of what many submarine skippers had been saying for months: U.S. torpedoes were unacceptably defective. Tunny and Scott would go on to earn a second Presidential Unit Citation on her fifth war patrol, dueling and sinking a Japanese submarine, and damaging the super-battleship Musashi. Taiyo led a charmed life for a while, surviving four attacks and two torpedo hits from U.S. submarines, before finally succumbing to torpedoes from the submarine USS Rasher (SS-269) on 18 August 1944, sinking with heavy loss of life (estimated about 800). For more on USS Tunny's extraordinary second war patrol, please see attachment H-018-3.
100th Anniversary of World War I
Dental Valor
U.S. Navy dental officers earned two of the 12 Medals of Honor awarded to U.S. Navy personnel for exceptional acts of valor under combat conditions during World War I, one of them posthumously. Lieutenant Commander (and future vice admiral) Alexander Gordon Lyle was awarded the medal for rescuing and operating on a wounded Marine while under intense bombardment in France on 23 April 1918. Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Weedon Oscar Osborne would be awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for action during the Battle of Belleau Wood on 6 June 1918, when he attempted to carry a wounded Marine officer off the battlefield under intense fire, which killed both. Lyle and Osborne are the only two U.S. Navy dental officers to be awarded the Medal of Honor. Their citations are in attachment H-018-4.
At the time, the Medal of Honor could be awarded for exceptional courage under non-combat conditions, and nine other Navy personnel won such awards during World War I. The Navy combat version of the medal was distinguished by a different design, known as the "Tiffany Cross," which was introduced in 1919 for World War I Navy recipients. This design was officially discontinued in 1942, partly because it looked too much like a German Iron Cross and partly because the Navy and Marine Corps Medal had been by then created for non-combat acts of valor. The non-combat version during World War I retained the original Civil War (and current) five-pointed design.
120th Anniversary of Spanish-American War
Battle of Manila Bay, 1 May 1898
The Spanish Pacific Squadron didn't have a prayer. The United States, on the other hand, had been planning the attack on the Spanish in the Philippines for over four years. According to my "Z-power" professor at the Naval Academy, the fact that the Battle of Manila Bay occurred at all was because the Spanish could not find a white sheet big enough to be seen by the U.S. Asiatic Squadron. That tongue-in-cheek remark was somewhat unfair in that the Spanish flagship, the cruiser Reina Cristina, made a valiant effort to get underway under a hail of U.S. fire. Hit 81 times with half her crew of 400 dead or wounded, the burning Reina Cristina was ordered scuttled by the wounded embarked Contra-Almirante Patricio Montojo. Nevertheless, Montojo had previously recognized that his old, ill-trained, under-manned squadron would be no match for the U.S. Asiatic Squadron in a battle of maneuver. Therefore, he chose to fight from an anchored position in shallow water in the small bay between Sangley Point and the peninsula of Cavite so as to spare the city of Manila from damage resulting from the battle and to give his sailors the best chance of swimming ashore after his ships were sunk. Had he anchored his ships under the protection of the one Spanish shore battery with large enough guns to reach the U.S. squadron, the battle might have been a bit more even, but he didn't. As a result, the U.S. Asiatic Squadron under the command of the combat-experienced and aggressive Commodore George Dewey, embarked on the modern protected cruiser USS Olympia (C-6), cruised back and forth off Cavite at ever-decreasing range, blasting the anchored Spanish ships like ducks in a shooting gallery, suffering only a handful of ineffective hits in return.
In the end, the Battle of Manila Bay was more like a massacre. At a U.S. cost of one dead (from a heart attack/heat stroke on a non-engaged support ship) and seven wounded, all seven Spanish ships were abandoned—either sunk, aground, scuttled or on fire, with between 77 and 381 dead (sources vary). Hailed in the American press as a great victory, the battle propelled Commodore Dewey to "rock star" fame, a presidential run, the rank of "Admiral of the Navy" (technically senior to the World War II five-stars), and president of the new U.S. Navy General Board from 1900 until his death in 1917. Nevertheless, the battle failed in its objective, which was to so shock Spain that it would give up Cuba without a fight. Instead, the Spanish refused to negotiate and sent a force of cruisers to Cuba, and the United States had to resort to an invasion of the island. The victory also sucked the United States into the ongoing insurrection between the Filipino people and Spain when the nation replaced Spain as colonial master of the Philippines, which would cost far more lives than the Spanish-American War (and would largely be written out of U.S. history). For more on the Battle of Manila Bay, please see attachment H-018-5 "You May Fire When Ready, Gridley."
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