Mississippi Pirate Newsletter
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Volume 9, Issue 4 September 2006 Special Points of Interest 1945 BROCHURE TELLS MISSY’S STORY • We think you’ll enjoy Earl Slattum’s submis- We want to thank Earl Slattum for sion of the history of the sending in this brochure. Earl served on USS Mississippi found on the Mississippi from November 1945 to the first three pages. September 1948 and served as an ET 2. This brochure will be used as a series to • Welcome Mat on page be continued in the next several issues three has two new names of the Pirate. to add to the roster. Wel- come Aboard!! WAR HISTORY OF THE • President Jake Jacobs’ column is on page four. U.S.S MISSISSIPPI He hopes to see many of you at the reunion. Introduction—Pre-War Years The MISSISSIPPI was ordered and • If you haven’t signed up her keel laid in 1914 at Newport News, for the reunion yet, get Virginia. She was commissioned on De- your registration in right cember 18, 1917. As originally built, she away. displaced 32,000 tons, and had a top • Come to Nashville for a speed of 21 knots. In addition, she great time, see old friends mounted twelve 14” guns, fourteen 5” and make new ones. See broadside guns, and had an anti-aircraft you October 5-8 at the battery consisting of four 3” guns. Embassy Suites Hotel. Commissioned less than a year before Cover of 1945 brochure from the the armistice, she was assigned to the USS Mississippi. (Continued on page 2) VOLUME 9, ISSUE 4 THE PIRATE PAGE 2 (Continued from page 1) convoys and lines of communica- NEAPOLIS, and arriving the third Atlantic Fleet and saw little real ac- tions. During this period, scouting of March. tion in World War I. In 1919, the MIS- and searching operations were con- She stayed in Pearl Harbor for SISSIPPI, along with other major ducted in the North Atlantic in the a brief time, undergoing much ships and destroyers, was shifted to vicinity of Iceland, including a needed repairs. From there she the Pacific Fleet, the fore-runner of search for the Nazi battleships proceeded to the North Pacific today’s powerful force. SHORNHORST and TIRPITZ, then Area, arriving at Kuluk Bay, Adak During the years of peace that suspected of violating United State on the 17th of May, 1943. followed, the MISSISSIPPI distin- neutrality. Throughout the months of June, guished herself by winning the “Iron July and August the MISSISSIPPI Man,” symbol of the fleet athletic Combat History operated in Aleutian waters partici- championship, for six consecutive The morning of December 7th pating in the regaining of Atta and years. She was known as the “Iron found the MISSISSIPPI in Hvalfjor- Kiska Islands from the Japanese. Man Ship” because of her athletic dur, Iceland. She and her sister- On the twenty-second of July, she prowess and high morale, and was ships of Division THREE remained engaged in the bombardment of coveted duty assignment for both among the very few undamaged Kiska, and on the twenty-sixth took officers and men. battleships then in the U.S. Navy. In part in a night action against uni- Also during this period gunnery January, 1942, she was again dentified radar targets. She left the installations were continually im- transferred to the Pacific Fleet. After Aleutian area the latter part of Au- proved. However, after nearly 14 transitting the canal she anchored in gust and arrived in San Francisco years of freedom from major gunnery San Francisco Harbor on January on September the sixth. accidents in the Fleet, the worst tur- 22, 1942. The remainder of September ret fire of all occurred in the MISSIS- Her first assignment with the and the first part of October, 1943 SIPPI while firing off San Pedro, Pacific Fleet was to escort a convoy was spent undergoing drydocking California on June 12, 1924. Due to to within five hundred miles of Pearl and repairs. Then after training in low pressure on the gas ejector sys- Harbor and to return immediately to San Pedro—San Diego area, she tem of Turrett II, a flareback occurred San Francisco. During the period got underway for Pearl Harbor on resulting in a fire which took the from January to July, the MISSIS- the twentieth of October. The early lives of 3 officers and 44 men; 9 oth- SIPPI operated out of West Coast part of November was spent oper- ers being injured. Ports, escorting convoys and guard- ating in Hawaiian Waters, but on In 1933, the ship was modern- ing Pacific Coast from what was November 10, 1943, the MISSIS- ized. The armament was improved then believed to be imminent am- SIPPPI was on her way to take by the removal of the 3” AA battery. phibious attacks. From August to part in the Gilbert Islands Cam- A new 5”/25 caliber battery and its November of 1942, she stood by an paign. It was on the twentieth of associated modern fire control sys- uncommitted reserve in the Central November, while bombarding tem was installed. Also a new main Pacific, operating in Hawaiian Wa- Makin Island that a flareback in battery fire control system was in- ters, supporting light forces and car- Turrett II resulted in the loss of 42 stalled. All major engineering instal- riers who had borne the brunt of men. During this same period an- lations were renewed except for Japanese aggression since the be- other ship of the same task force, some minor auxiliaries, and there ginning of the war. the escort carrier LISCOMB BAY, were many alterations in the hull de- On November 30th, the ship was was torpedoed while on station sign. Modern mast structures were underway for Nandi Waters, Fiji Is- 1,000 yards from the MISSIS- furnished, considerably improving lands, reaching her destination on SIPPI, and sunk within twenty-one the ship’s appearance. Shortly after December 18th. There she acted as minutes. completion of the modernization on the rear guard for the Solomons December of 1943 and January August 31, 1933, the MISSISSIPPI forces in the great battles of Gua- of 1944 were spent in Hawaiian was assigned to, and operated with dalcanal and Santa Cruz. Waters in training and preparation the Pacific Fleet until early in the During January and February of for another amphibious operation. year of 1941. 1943, the MISSISSIPPI continued On January 22, the MISSISSIPPI In May of 1941, the MISSISSIPPI to operate in the South Pacific was underway once more, this was ordered to the East Coast and Theater, at one time forming part of time for the Marshalls. The 31st of reported to the Atlantic Fleet for duty. a task force which escorted the January and the 1st of February From June to December of that year, damaged cruiser PENSACOLA to were spent in the bombardment of she operated with the Atlantic Fleet, the vicinity of Samoa. In the later Kwajalein and other atolls in that guarding commerce on so-called part of February of that year she area. It was here that the MISSIS- neutrality patrol duties in the area returned once more to Pearl Harbor, SIPPI moved in to a range of less between the East Coast and Iceland, escorting the damaged cruiser MIN- than 1800 yards from the beach, and acting as a covering force for (Continued on page 3) VOLUME 9, ISSUE 4 THE PIRATE PAGE 3 (Continued from page 2) the remainder of the month of No- wounding several others. and at this point-blank range, demol- vember and first part of December Arriving back in Leyte on the 21st ished the Japanese defenses so training in that area. After a brief of June, the MISSISSIPPI entered a completely that opposition to our period at Kossol Passage, as re- floating drydock where combat re- landing forces was negligible. serve for the Mindoro Operation, pairs were completed. During July From Kwajalein she moved on to she returned to San Pedro Bay, and the early part of August, 1945, Majuro, and it was from this base Leyte, P.I. on the twenty-eighth of she continued training in the Leyte that she bombarded Taroa on 20 December. January the second, Gulf—San Pedro Bay area. February and Wotje the following 1945, found the MISSISSIPPI un- Moving north to Okinawa on the day. With Kwajalein secured, she derway for Lingayen, Luzon where twenty-first of August, the MISSSIS- proceeded to Efate in the New Hebri- she arrived on the sixth. It was dur- SIPPI became part of the task force des. After a short period of combat ing this passage that the Task which entered Sagami Wan, Honshu inactivity the MISSISSIPPI bom- Forces involved were subjected to Japan, on August twenty-seventh. barded Kavieng, New Ireland on almost continuous air attacks During the remainder of the month of March 20, 1944 as a diversionary which resulted in the loss of the August the ship assisted in support- operation in support of Emirau land- escort carrier OMMANWY BAY, ing the actual landings of the Allied ings. and considerable damage to many Occupation Forces on Japan in this Badly in need of regunning, the other major combatant units. The area. On September 1st, the MIS- ship returned to the States, arriving bombardments of San Fabian and SISSIPPI moored in Tokyo Bay, and in Bremerton Navy Yard on April San Fernando followed, and it was was present during the signing of the 25th. Throughout the month of June, here that she received her first hit surrender Terms on the second. the MISSISSIPPI underwent repairs by the enemy.