Early in 1945 the Japanese war machine was in a sorry state: “American submarines and aircraft destroyed in four years almost all of Japan’s merchant fleet. It was radically defeated even before American bombs incinerated the cities and Roosevelt obtained the entry into the war of the Soviet Union.”(1) Immediately after the surrender, the Japanese government confessed that shipping losses were the main reason behind defeat.(2) Japanese failure to protect its merchant fleet and thwart the U.S.
The World War Two era USS Independence (CVL-22) was one of many US Navy ships to carry the name independence (leading up to today's Littoral Combat Ship: LCS-2). What made this Independence unique was that it was the lead ship in a class of light aircraft carriers produced from converted cruisers.
What many forget today is that in 1941 the US Navy was desperate to find additional decks to support its existing carrier fleet, which throughout the first years of the Second World War was outnumbered by the Imperial Japanese Navy's carriers.
Known as "America's Flagship" and one of the fastest ships in the Navy (in spite of her 82,538 ton full load displacement), the USS Constellation (CV-64) was a Kitty Hawk Class Supercarrier whose crews served in some of the most important US military engagements of the Cold War era and the decade that followed. Commissioned on October 27, 1961 and decommissioned on August 6, 2003 the "Connie" (as she was known by her crews) is probably best known for her service during the Vietnam War. The Connie is being towed to the scrapyards as of this post's writing.
The first operational deployment of the USS Freedom (LCS-1) remains an ongoing disaster. The latest snafu occurred while the Freedom was operating off the coast of Singapore. There, and on July 20th, the Freedom temporarily lost propulsive power. Though the ship's crew quickly fixed the problem (according to the US Navy LCS-1 was a sitting duck for "only" minutes rather than hours - as if the one would have been better than the other in an active combat environment) they were forced to return to port for more extended repair and maintenance.
There are several important milestone events in the life of a warship. Of particular importance are those proceedings surrounding the ship's launching and retirement from active service. Such events include the keel laying, launching, commissioning, decommissioning, and final disposition of the ship. On 23 May 2013 one of history's most powerful warships, the battleship USS New Jersey (BB-62), will celebrate the 70th Anniversary of its commissioning.
USS New Jersey is the second of the Iowa-class fast battleships. The four Iowas (Iowa, New Jersey, Missouri and
In January we reported that the U.S. Navy was preparing the first monohull designed LCS 1 (littoral combat ship) USS Freedom (in contrast to the trimaran design LCS 2 USS Independence) for its first deployment. This was welcome news considering the bevy of mechanical issues that had cropped up during sea trials in 2011.
Of course, on the eve of that deployment the roughly 3,000 ton combat ship was blasted in a report issued by the Defense Department’s director of operational test and evaluation. A report that concluded the USS Freedom is "not expected to be survivable" in combat and unable to
Let's start with the good news. The Navy is preparing the first monohull designed LCS 1 (littoral combat ship) USS Freedom (in contrast to the trimaran design LCS 2 USS Independence) for its first deployment. This is welcome news since it has been just over four years since the Freedom was commissioned. Of course the discovery of cracks in the hull and superstructure and a shaft seal leak during sea trials in 2011 (requiring six weeks in dry dock) didn't help matters, but, and more good news, these problems have been fixed.
Now, for those of you new to the LCS drama, what we are looking at
The USS Kittiwake was a US Navy submarine rescue ship built during WWII, and commissioned on July 16, 1945. Decommissioned in 1994, the Kittiwake was sunk early in 2011 as an artificial reef just off the island of Grand Cayman in the Caribbean Sea.
Though not a warship - in comparison to most modern corvettes and other such vessels the Kittiwake certainly ranks as good sized.
Yesterday evening the Cold War Era US Navy Destroyer USS Edson passed through Detroit (picture below) along the Detroit River, the river also separates the US and Canada, on its way to its final berth as a floating museum at the Saginaw Valley Naval Ship Museum. Pulled and pushed by tugs, the Edson left Philadelphia on July 18th on a 2,500 mile journey to its final destination.
Launched in 1958 the Edson is a Forrest-Sherman Class Destroyer that most notably saw extensive service in the South China Sea during the Vietnam War.
World War II era German submarine U-550, a Type IX C-40 U-boat, was found this past week roughly 70 miles off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts. On April 16, 1944 U-550 discovered Allied convoy CU-2, which had departed from New York for the United Kingdom.
Straggling behind the convoy was the massive tanker SS Pan Pennsylvania, which U-550 promptly discovered and torpedoed; causing the tanker to begin to sink. The convoy's escorts, The US Navy's USS Gandy and Coast Guard's USS Joyce and Peterson, immediately pounced and sank the German U-boat after a brief engagement (the sinking U-boat
