Sink the Verdammt Delta!
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Conversion completed, USS Delta (now AR-9) was To the Luftwaffe, surrounded by tugs when photographed on 2 March the order of the 1943 at the Cramp Shipyard. day was “Sink“SlNKVERDAMMT the Delta!” But to the capitol ships but effectively protected herself and her brood hard-working, under enemy aerial attack with her hard-fighting batteries of 20mm and twin 40mm MY THEDELTA!” anti-aircraft guns against the crew of that dauntless Navy Repair Ship, the watchword Luftwaffe that made a sustained WAR to the Nazis was “See the Delta and Die!” effort during the most crucial EYEWITNESS months of the offensive into HISTORY southern Europe from June 1943 to ACCOUNT BY FRED EVERETT SOLLIE blast the Delta demon into oblivion. n a warm summer night during June 1943, a In all honesty, I will surely give Luftwaffe Junkers Ju 88 was shot down just the Nazi airmen a big Red “E” for Ominutes after a routine bombing mission over effort. Lake Bizerte, Tunisia. On fire and disabled, the twin- They never quit trying; night after engine aircraft splashed down in the Mediterranean night (almost always at night) they dropped their flares, brilliantly coastal waters less than a mile from the charred ruins Wayne Scarpaci did this painting titled of what was once the Tunisian town of Bizerte. South Pacific Advanced Base that illuminating the hundreds of The pilot parachuted into the sea and was eventually illustrates the USS Mississippi (BB-41) in American amphibious ships and floating dry-dock USS ABSD-2) during rescued by the crew of a small American patrol boat, and boats and other Allied vessels USS Delta (AK-25) photographed arriving on 8 July 1942 at 1944 with USS Delta next to her. anchored in Lake Bizerte. They like any military pilot at such a moment, the dripping, the Cramp Shipbuilding Company where it would be humiliated Nazi, even though being saved from drowning, converted into a repair ship. She sailed as a cargo ship for The mission in the Mediterranean dropped their bombs and sometimes was in no gay mood. Upon being questioned, nearly a year before being placed in commission in ordinary for Delta was two-fold: First, to insure torpedoes, and in turn they were at the Philadelphia Navy Yard before being sailed to the the readiness of the thousands of always met with a crimson tide of he momentarily brightened and confided to Cramp yard. The Matson Navigation Company’s design for his rescuers, “Anyway,” he boasted, “our raid this class of C-3 cargo ships included a flash deck and boats and landing craft needed to anti-aircraft fire from American A/A was successful — tonight we sank that seven pairs of kingposts. mount a successful invasion, and, guns that sounded a veritable Fourth verdammt repair ship!” sunk was not even scratched and, as a secondly, to repair any battle damage of July crescendo of ear-splitting Routinely, the next day Berlin Radio point of historical interest, remained in or other repair work needed after staccato sounds across the normally repeated the same boast. For the sixth service until 1983. their return. She was not only a peaceful waters of Lake Bizerte and time up until that date the US Being a member of Delta’s repair force Florence Nightingale to the ships and the quiet Tunisian countryside. repair ship, which was at that time in history and looking back boats of the Amphibious Forces but Always the number one target of classified the over the years, I can easily see now why larger vessels such as cruisers and German airmen, Delta proved Luftwaffe’s number one that pilot may have honestly thought he destroyers of the American and Allied herself a first-rate fighter as well target was sunk. But had scored a hit on the Delta for she did Navies. She had the trained artisans as a workhorse. During her blitzing Berlin and the indeed weather many a near miss. to tackle any job at hand; the tooling, in Tunisia, she splashed four of the downed Nazi Bombs have drenched equipment, and material available Although a bit slow and ponderous, the attacking Luftwaffe bombers on pilot were both her and concussion and the capacity and will to get the Focke Wulf Fw 200C Kondor exacted a their night air raids and sent her job done as well as the pride in her heavy toll of Navy ships. Later versions own excellent team of divers out to mistaken — for has slammed men carried the first variants of German the USS Delta down like ten-pens on profession of getting the job done cruise missiles. retrieve the downed aircraft and (AR-9), the her trembling steel right the first time around. brought them aboard ship to be “verdammt decks, but in war — as Taking care of the repair problems of the Invasion disassembled, analyzed, and to find a use for salvaged repair ship” in poker — near Fleet, the hundreds of LCIs, LSTs, and all the other parts and metals suitable for re-use. reported misses don’t count gallant little assault craft whose mission was to grind My shop, the heavy machine shop for instance, in and 24-hours a their bows up on the murderous enemy beaches of our spare time, fashioned from the engine nose This view of day, seven-days a Sicily, Italy, and southern France, was no small task section and propeller hub assembly of a bomber Delta the Delta but Delta’s “can do” spirit always prevailed. shot down, one of the most original sun dials ever displays the week, her repair purposeful lines force went At first glance, the Delta definitely lacked glamour. conceived and presented it to Capt. Colin D. Headlee, of the vessel to right ahead She did not have a torpedo boat’s waspish dash or a Delta’s Commanding Officer, on his birthday. advantage. As with their destroyer’s litheness, a cruiser’s trim lines or a Delta was built in 1941 by Newport News Shipbuilding can be seen by battleship’s awful might. She had, instead, a deeper and Dry Dock Company at Newport News, Virginia, to the helmets and work. life jackets, the glamour — the glamour of an American assembly line become the Hawaiian Packer, one of America’s larger cargo crew is at — a floating Detroit, a seagoing Navy yard. In her own ships and was intended to carry sugar from Hawaii — but General Quarters. way, she was the heroine behind the heroes. She was she never carried a cube. The Navy grabbed her instead on not designed to go out and shoot it out with enemy 4 June 1941, and she was commissioned USS Delta (K-29), 42 SEA CLASSICS/December 2017 seaclassicsnow.com 43.