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Mission: History Studiorum Historiam Praemium Est 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 2 HHHHHH 1 March 1999 1943: Bismarck Sea - 1941: Royal Navy Rules the Med MacArthur’s Air Corps Sinks Entire Jap Convoy After Routing Modern Italian Fleet The Battle of the Bismarck Sea, fought on 2, 3 and 4 March in 1943, involved for the most part only one navy, the Japanese, and at the end of the battle, even the Japs weren’t in- volved. At the end of the battle, eight Japa- nese transports and half of their eight- destroyer escort were on the bottom and they were put there by Army Air Corps THE ONLY DAMAGE done by Vittorio Veneto’s big guns at C ape Matapan was to her own obser- vation plane. No one thought to secure or stow the aircraft before a parting salvo was fired from the after turret as the battleship left the scene. National Geographic 1898: Oregon’s Famous Night Action off Matapan B-25 Mitchells trying something new 14,000-Mile ‘Dash’ to Cuba Costs Axis Three Cruisers, called “skip bombing.” While the world’s attention was riv- On 19 March 1898, USS Oregon, a Costs Italy its Will to Fight eted on Guadalcanal, an even more new “big gun” battleship, steamed bitter battle was being fought on New through the Golden Gate, taking her 13- By March 1941 the British had been Guinea, the last stepping stone in the inch guns to war on the other side of the at war for 18 months and were alone. Japanese planned conquest of Australia. nation. The French had fallen and the Italians At a place called Wau, an isolated Aus- When word had come that the battle- had recently joined Germany in its sie garrison had fought off repeated ship Maine had been sunk, Oregon was conquest of the world. assaults and the Jap commanders called in something of a fix. She was in Brem- The balance of naval strength had for more troops. erton, where coal was hard to get be- (Continued on page 3) The Japanese decided a division- cause of demands of the Klondike gold sized reinforcement would be sufficient rush and her ammunition was in San to settle the New Guinea issue once and Francisco. The ship finally had enough for all and plans were laid to move coal to leave Puget Sound on 3 March about 7,000 troops from Rabaul to Lae and she arrived in San Francisco three across an unnamed patch of water, par- days later, where the crew set to work alleling the north coast of the island of loading coal and ammunition. New Britain. The convoy sailed under On 18 March, orders were received cover of an approaching storm. for Oregon to proceed to Peru, and the Major General George Kenney’s B- next day she set out on her famous trip National Geographic (Continued on page 4) (Continued on page 2) PAGE 2 MISSION: HISTORY VOLUME 1, ISSUE 2 1943: W here the Hell are the Kom andorski Islands, Anyway? The Komandorski Islands are 850 destroyer escort. McMorris concen- and hit the Jap cruiser several more square miles of Russia, off the Kam- trated his force. times with single shells. She then chatka Peninsula in the Bering Sea. At the same time Jap lookouts spot- shifted her attention to Maya, the other They are a little less than 300 miles ted the masts of the Americans and the Jap 8-incher and, for her efforts, got hit from Attu — west northwest. One of two fleets, about 13 miles apart, herself for the first time. the oddest sea battles of World War II steamed toward each other. McMorris For the next hour or so the battle was fought there on 26 March 1943. turned into a running gun duel fought Rear Admiral Charles H. McMorris’ mostly at about 20,000 yards, with the task group, if it can be called that, con- Japanese sacrificing their physical su- sisted of Salt Lake City, an 8-inch periority to caution. Salt Lake City lost cruiser commissioned in 1929, Rich- her steering hydraulics at 1002, but a mond, 6 inches, commissioned in 1923, diesel substitute was rigged permitting and four destroyers . 10-degree rudder. Then, at 1010 she McMorris, with his flag in Rich- was hit by an 8-inch armor-piercing mond, had been patrolling a north-south shell that penetrated her main deck and line west of Attu for about a week to passed out below the waterline. Now, interdict any Japanese efforts to rein- McMorris’ objective was saving his force their positions in Attu. was sailing to meet two 8-inch and two ships. At 0730 on 26 March his ships were 6-inch cruisers, two heavily armed The battle had carried the Americans strung out in a six-mile-long scouting merchant cruisers and two destroyers. closer to Japan than to the United line 180 miles west of Attu and only While the two forces were still States, so McMorris broke off to the 100 miles from the Russian Komandor- 20,000 yards apart the shooting began south and then turned east. Salt Lake ski Islands. As dawn general quarters with the Japs firing first on Richmond. City took another hit at 1103, which was being sounded, radar on the flag- They then shifted to Salt Lake City and flooded the engine room. Even so, she ship Richmond and the van destroyer, stayed there for the rest of the battle. maintained speed and kept up her accu- Coghlan, picked up a force of perhaps Salt Lake City scored the first hits on rate fire which prevented the Japs from five ships, probably transports with a Nachi with her third and fourth salvos closing the range to less than 9 miles. At 1150, sea water got to Salt Lake City’s burners and steam pressure was Oregon Averages 11.5 Knots on Voyage ‘Around Horn’ lost. She was dead in the water, still Straits of Magellan and two days later shooting but a sitting duck herself and put in at Punta Arenas for three days of McMorris prepared to take off her crew resupply and routine maintenance. with Richmond and the destroyers. But In the Atlantic now, Oregon sailed the the Japanese were still cautious, so 2,248 miles to Rio de Janeiro, where three U.S. destroyers broke off to de- news was waiting that the United States liver a torpedo attack on the heavies, and Spain were at war. With a new 17,000 yards away. sense of urgency, the ship steamed an- As the Japs oddly broke off the action other 2,970 nautical miles to Barbados, and turned toward home, Salt Lake City which because of neutrality laws, al- had purged her fuel lines and cut in (Continued from page 1) lowed her only a 24-hour stay. Leaving fresh bunkers — she was making 15 knots. She was ready to fight some “around the horn.” during the night, Oregon steamed an- more but McMorris signaled a course For the 4,112-mile leg to Callao, other 1,670 miles to Jupiter Inlet in for Dutch Harbor. Peru, Oregon could not make her best Florida, marking the end of its 14,000- For all this action, the Americans speed unless fresh water were con- mile “dash. suffered only 7 killed, 7 hospital cases served for her boilers. Captain Charles Oregon made the voyage at an aver- and 13 minor injuries. The battle can’t Clark broached the matter to the crew age speed of 11.5 knots without a be called a victory over the Japs but it and the men cheerfully agreed to drink breakdown. She was available for im- was a victory over two-to-one odds, boiler condensate — it was warm, it mediate service in the North Atlantic though Salt Lake City shortened those wasn’t fresh, but it was potable — even Squadron. odds some. though the ship would be steaming in equatorial waters Your Ideas—and Help—would be Nice The next leg of the voyage took Ore- Many of you probably have favorite knowledge of them. Please tell us about gon 2,549 nautical miles to Port Tamar, maritime stories that could be reported in them, so that they may be shared with all Chile. On 16 April, she entered the these pages, and may even have special of our readers. VOLUME 1, ISSUE 2 MISSION: HISTORY PAGE 3 1862: Ironclads Introduce New Era of Sea Warfare In Duel at Hampton Roads When Confederate Commodore Franklin Buchanan steamed out of Nor- folk Navy Yard on 8 March 1862, it was in Merrimac, a Federal steam frig- ate that had come with the captured real estate. The rebels had cut her down to the waterline, built a flush deck and placed a huge deckhouse on that, cov- ered with two layers of railroad iron. IRONCLADS SLUG IT OUT on the second day of the Battle of Ham pton Roads during the Am eri- Her mission was to break the Union can C ivil W ar. Though Monitor (foreground) and Merrim ac ham m ered each other for seven hours, neither did the other m uch hurt. But Merrim ac had proved the superiority of an arm ored blockade in Chesapeake Bay.
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