N a v a l O r d e r o f t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s – S a n F r a n c i s c o C o m m a n d e r y Mission: History Studiorum Historiam Praemium Est

Volume 1, Issue 4 HHHHHH 3 May 1999 1898: ‘You M ay Fire W hen Ready, Gridley’ of M anila Bay Established Am erica As M ajor Naval Power

As the was led ever closer to war with , the Navy had six battleships, two armored , ten protected cruisers (deck armor only) and a number of smaller ships. It was a top-heavy force that, while it looked splendid in fleet reviews, did not rank with the navies of other nations. Assistant Secretary of the Navy , one of those push- ing the U.S. into a winnable war, which he said “would be a splendid thing for the Navy,” had Commodore placed in command of the Asi- SURVEYING HIS ENEMY from his exposed position on USS O lympia, C ommodore George D ewey atic Squadron. ignored Spanish shot and shell until, closing the , he uttered his famous, laconic com- In the bellicose frenzy following the mand to his ship’s captain: “You may fire when ready, Gridley.” destruction of Maine, Roosevelt, in the absence of Navy Secretary John D. 1942: Coral Sea Ends Japanese Advance in South Pacific Long, cabled Dewey in Hong Kong to coal his ships and prepare to attack the By May of 1942, the Japanese were and to covet Australia. In any case, Spanish squadron of Rear Admiral Pa- on a roll. They had overrun much of invasion forces were put together with tricio Montojo y Pasarón at . East and Southeast Asia and the west- the intent of taking Tulagi in the Solo- Dewey had four protected cruisers, ern and southwestern Pacific and had mons and Port Moresby on the southern three , a and a supply crippled the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl tip of New Guinea, across the Coral ship. Montojo had two protected cruis- Harbor, destroyed the American- Sea from Australia. A powerful screen- ers and five unprotected cruisers. He British-Dutch-Australian fleet in the ing force was built around the carriers also had behind him numerous shore of the Java Sea and had sunk Shokaku and Zuikaka and the light car- batteries defending . Going the British battleships Repulse and rier Shoho to prevent interference from into the engagement, it looked as Prince of Wales. any American naval forces that might though the Spaniards might have a The Japanese had lost one destroyer, be in the area. slight edge. Moreover, Dewey was low sunk, even though her naval strategists As it was, the Americans had been on ammunition and the nearest resupply had regarded a 20 to 30 percent loss in having limited success breaking the Jap was in California. warships as acceptable. naval code and knew of these plans. A Before dawn on 1 May 1898, It may have been overconfidence force consisting of the U.S. carriers Dewey’s squadron entered Manila Bay bred of these easy victories that led the Lexington and Yorktown, screened by through the South Channel, past a shore Japs to a decision to extend their defen- five heavy cruisers, two light cruisers battery on the small island of El Fraile. sive perimeter outwards from Rabaul (Continued on page 3) (Continued on page 2) PAGE 2 MISSION: HISTORY VOLUME 1, ISSUE 4 When Dewey Called a Time-Out for Breakfast, 1904: Russian Fleet’s Bay Had Already Been Won Slow Dash to Disaster (Continued from page 1) mounted and Marques del Duero had At Tsushima Straits Most of the fleet had passed the island suffered heavy damage. Montojo or- when soot flared up in the funnel of a dered what was left of his fleet to re- When war ended between China and , and the battery opened fire. treat into Bacoor Bay and fight on as Japan in 1895, Japan was in possession Two cruisers and two gunboats re- long as possible. During the breakfast of parts of China, including Port Arthur turned fire and silenced the battery, but break, Dewey learned that, in spite of at the entrance to China’s Gulf of Chi- surprise was now gone. what had appeared to be a strong Span- hli. Under pressure from Russia, Ger- At 0400, as Montojo ordered his ish barrage, he had suffered only nine many and France, she was forced to forces to prepare for action, Dewey injuries among his crews, most slight. give up Port Arthur. sent his collier and supply ship under At 1115, the went Soon thereafter, Russia negotiated the right to garrison Port Arthur and use protection of a gunboat to a safer part back to work, led by Baltimore instead it for a naval base. Europe was aghast at of the bay. The Americans then of Olympia. Dewey had his squadron the cynicism of the move and Japan break ranks, sending individual ships to steamed for Manila, believing the was angry, angry enough to go to war destroy separate targets. The gunboat Spaniards would be at that port. Mon- with Russia, which she did, with a tojo, seeking to spare the city, had Petrel entered the shallow waters of sneak attack on the Russian fleet at Port moved his fleet to , south of Ma- Cavite to fire or capture any vessels she Arthur in February 1904. Japan then nila, and anchored his ships across the might find. Her gunnery was so effec- besieged the port on land and block- mouth of Bacoor Bay, in a general line tive, the forces manning the fort surren- aded what was left of the Russian Pa- from Sangley Point to Las Pinas. dered. The Battle of Manila Bay was cific fleet by sea. Dewey guessed correctly that the Span- over. That night, Olympia’s brass band In St. Petersburg, Tsar Nicholas II ish had done that and headed for entertained crowds of people who decided to send his Baltic Fleet, which was numerically superior to the Japa- Cavite. thronged to the Manila waterfront to As the Americans approached at see the victorious Asiatic Squadron. about 0515, the guns of the Cavite for- Montojo had lost not only his fleet, tifications and the Spanish ships began but had suffered 381 killed or firing. Dewey held his fire for nearly a wounded. In addition to the nine half-hour to conserve ammunition. Americans injured, one obese Navy Then, from his post on Olympia’s open engineer had died from heat prostra- bridge, he told the ship’s captain, “You tion. may fire when ready, Gridley.” When The immediate effect of the battle Olympia’s eight-inch forward turret was the worldwide recognition of the fired, the other ships followed suit. United States as a major naval power.

Steaming at between six and eight RUSSIAN ADMIRAL Rozhestvensky knots, Dewey’s squadron made five passes along the Spanish line. At nese fleet, halfway around the world around 0730, fearing he was low on and defeat his enemy in a showdown ammunition and not wishing the Span- How to Get in Touch sea battle. Having no coaling stations ish to know of his plight, Dewey sig- Mission: History has been asked to provide an on the way, he arranged with his naled his ships to break for breakfast. address for reader communications. E-mail may cousin, Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, to The U.S. press later played this up as be sent to this address: charter a fleet of colliers. an example of American insouciance in [email protected] It was a grueling, seven-month voy- the face of shot and shell. Mail may be sent by conventional post to: age that got off badly when skittish Dewey did not realize it, but the Ric Teague 2239 Wellesley Street Russians sank a British fishing boat in Spanish were already beaten. Mon- Palo Alto, CA 94306 the North Sea, thinking it a Japanese tojo’s flagship, Reina Cristina, had Submissions are not encouraged because of submarine. Half the force transited the suffered heavy damage and casualties. constraints on the time available for editing. If Suez Canal and half sailed around the The admiral had her scuttled and trans- such are sent, they should be sent as e-mail at- tachments in Microsoft Word 6.0 or as typewrit- Cape of Good Hope. When they re- ferred his flag to Isla de Cuba. As he ten copy, double-spaced, accompanied by a 3½- united in Madagascar, they discovered surveyed his fleet, he saw that Don inch diskette containing the submission in MS that Port Arthur had fallen and the Pa- had been sunk, Cas- Word 6.0 for Windows. cific fleet had been sunk at its moor- tilla was ablaze and would soon sink, Quite welcome, however, are suggestions of events for coverage. Please offer suggestions two ings. Isla de Luzon had three guns dis- months ahead of the anniversary of an event. (Continued on page 3) VOLUME 1, ISSUE 4 MISSION: HISTORY PAGE 3 Better Ships, Better Guns, Better Gunnery Sink Tsar

(Continued from page 2) The Russian commander, Admiral Rozhestvensky, was ordered to press on, knowing his force with its half- trained crews and weed-fouled hulls was in sorry shape for battle. At last, on 13 May 1905, the Rus- sians entered the Straits of Tsushima, a narrow passage between the island of that name and the Japanese island of Honshu. The next morning, the Russian THE CREW O F THE U.S. C ARRIER Lexington pours over the side following the order to abandon force of five modern and three old bat- ship. Lady Lex, CV-2, had been in the fleet since commissioned in D ecember, 1927 tleships, an old armored , three coast defense ships and a few light (Continued from page 1) but a strategic victory for the Allies in cruisers and destroyers, saw Togo’s and 13 destroyers was very much in the that Jap plans to invade Port Moresby fleet blocking the straits ahead of them. area. In addition to their carriers, the were thwarted. Yorktown was rushed to With better guns, better gunners and Japs had six heavy cruisers, three light Pearl Harbor for repairs, which were better ammunition, the Japanese began cruisers and a dozen destroyers. completed in time for the Battle of a devastating fire. One salvo actually U.S. Task Force 17 under Rear Ad- Midway, and heavy Japanese radio displaced the armor belt of a Russian York- traffic during the Battle of the Coral battleship, to be followed by another miral Frank Jack Fletcher with Sea enabled Navy codebreakers to fur- which penetrated her now-unprotected town attacked transports landing troops ther refine their understanding of the hull, capsizing her. at Tulagi, damaging several and sinking enemy code — also instrumental in the The battle continued with Togo one destroyer. Fletcher then joined the ensuing success at Midway. crossing in front of the Russians — TF 11, Rear Admiral Aubrey W. Fitch, with Lexington. On 7 May, carrier air- craft located and sank Shoho, and thus began the first naval engagement in history in which the opposing forces did not make contact. On 8 May, the Jap force was found and attacked by air, resulting in damage to Shokaku. At the same time, Japanese fliers found the American force, scor- ing hits on Yorktown and Lexington. JAPANESE AD MIRAL Heihachiro Togo Lady Lex took two torpedoes and three bomb hits, producing a 7 degree list capping their T — more than once, and several fires. Damage control pounding the hapless Tsarists. When brought the fires under control and re- night came, it was without mercy, for stored the ship to an even keel, making Togo sent his torpedo boats to harry the 25 knots, but suddenly gasoline vapors Russians. On the morning of the 15th, in her hangar deck exploded violently. there were the heavy Japanese ships again. When the battle ended, two Rus- Capt. Frederick C. Sherman secured sian battleships had been captured and salvage operations and ordered all the others destroyed. Only a light hands to the flight deck. An hour later cruiser and two destroyers reached he ordered “abandon ship,” and Fitch Vladivostok. The Japanese suffered and his staff transferred to USS Min- almost not at all. neapolis. Sherman was the last to leave The era of steam and steel had ar- his stricken ship. rived and naval strategists studied the The results of the battle were a tacti- THE END O F Shoho. Top – dive bombers hit Battle of Tsushima in vain for lessons. J ap carrier, starting fires. Middle – torpedo on cal victory for the Japs in terms of na- starboard quarter. Bottom – hangar deck val hardware destroyed or damaged, explodes as U.S. plane heads home. PAGE 4 MISSION: HISTORY VOLUME 1, ISSUE 4 1941: British Avenge Hood, Sink Bism arck In May of 1941, Britain relied on a sympathetic but neutral United States not only for the tools of war but for food for her people. Those necessities were carried to the island in convoys, through North Atlantic waters infested with U-boats. If the Germans could put a fast squadron of surface warships in the North Atlantic, Britain might be driven from the war without the need to invade England. On 18 May, under Admiral Günther Lütjens in Kriegsmarineschiffe Bis- marck, in company with KMS Prinz Eugen, a heavy cruiser, slipped out of the occupied Polish port of Gdynia. There were, at the moment, no fewer than 12 British convoys at sea in the North Atlantic. It was believed that the ships would sail northwest and enter the Atlantic through the Denmark Straits, which separate Iceland from Greenland. Two cruisers were on station there, Norfolk A C O NSO LIDATED PBY C atalina of the RAF C oastal C ommand spots Bismarck as Lütjens heads for the safety of the French coast. Though damaged by the ship’s anti-aircraft fire, the plane got and Suffolk. About 600 miles to the off its message, and the Royal Navy swarmed to the attack southeast were the battle cruiser Hood and the new battleship Prince of Wales, generator room, causing one boiler to that night, five destroyers, detached which was not yet fully worked up. be shut down, with a loss of ship speed. from a convoy, shadowed Bismarck and Both British cruisers sighted Bis- Lütjens knew he had to return to a harassed her ineffectually with torpe- marck on 23 May and came under fire. friendly port, so he turned on the trail- Admiral Sir John Tovey, Commander does. The next morning, they delivered ing British in a feint to allow Prinz the German ship to Tovey. in Chief of the Home Fleet, hearing Eugen to slip away to raid convoys. At 8:46 a.m. on 27 May King George Norfolk’s report, ordered Hood, Prince The British continued to shadow V and Rodney began to exchange fire of Wales and six destroyers to the Lütjens but, not knowing his damage, scene. At dawn on the 24th, they inter- guessed wrongly that he had turned with Bismarck at about 16,000 yards. cepted the German warships. west. Instead, Bismarck was making for An hour and one-half later, the German Hood and Prince of Wales began St. Nazaire. The next 31 hours were battleship had ceased firing and was firing at about 25,000 yards and Bis- filled with confused reports. aflame, but she would not sink. It was marck responded. A few minutes into On the morning of 26 May, Bis- thought that torpedoes from the cruiser the fight, a shell from Bismarck plunged marck was re-sighted by a Catalina Dorsetshire sent her to the bottom, but through Hood’s foredeck and exploded aircraft which came under heavy fire in the ship’s magazines. When the that was not the case. smoke cleared, Hood had vanished. but got off a report that the German Survivors reported that no shell or Now, Prince of Wales’ untested arma- battleship was about 690 miles west of torpedo had penetrated Bismarck’s ar- ment acted up. The ship turned away Brest. Tovey, headed west with the mor and that her machinery was still from Bismarck to bring her after turrets bulk of the Home Fleet, including the intact when her engineering officer was to bear when her forward guns failed battleship King George V, had actually ordered to blow the sea valves. and soon an aft turret failed. By the end crossed the Germans’ wake twice. Bismarck, had been fought by every of the engagement, only one turret was At the same time, the carrier Ark type of ocean-going warship except functioning. Royal was steaming north from Gibral- submarines. The loss of Hood, the pride Prince of Wales had taken seven hits, tar and the battleship Rodney was sail- of the British fleet, about balanced the but had inflicted the damage that was to ing to join Tovey. Aircraft from Ark equation, but in the end, the German be Bismarck’s eventual undoing when battleship was not allowed to increase one of her rounds had holed the Ger- Royal attacked Bismarck at about 8:45 man’s hull and a fuel oil bunker beneath p.m. on the 26th, jamming the ship’s the existing menace to the British At- the waterline and another had flooded a rudders, which sealed her fate. During lantic lifeline.