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6 June 2023
Welcome back to our National Maritime Historical Society members and friends who share a love for naval history!
Today is a double anniversary day. On this date in 1942, American naval aviators finished off the Japanese heavy cruiser Mikuma and inflicted damage on sister ship Mogami on what would prove to be the final day of the epic Battle of Midway. Unfortunately for the Americans, any hope of salvaging the carrier USS Yorktown that day perished with a spread of torpedoes from Japanese submarine I-168, which also hit and sank the destroyer USS Hammann. Two years later, on this date, Allied forces under the command of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, stormed the beaches of Normandy. The naval component of D-Day has been brilliantly captured by Dr. Craig Symonds in Operation Neptune: The D-Day Landings and the Allied Invasion of Europe (2014). So overlooked has been the naval story that it took over 60 years to dedicate a monument to the Navy’s many contributions. Thanks to the Naval Order of the United States, an impressive sculpture honoring the Navy’s role was dedicated on 27 September 2008.
One of those sailors that monument honors is Yogi Berra, whose naval service at D-Day is being recognized tonight at Yankee Stadium during a pre-game ceremony that salutes the 25th Anniversary of the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center in Montclair, New Jersey. Last year the Yogi Berra Museum held a fascinating roundtable on Berra's role in D-Day as well as the contributions of other major leaguers to the war effort. See: Yogi Berra Museum & Bob Feller Act of Valor Foundation Sacrifice & Courage, A Tribute to D-Day.
Coincidently, our two book reviews are Midway-centric. Jeff Schultz reviews a saga about the loss of an American submarine rescue ship at Midway in 1944 due to the wrath of nature, and Richard Dick provides his assessment on a book that examines the contributions of submarines on both sides during the engagement involving that atoll two years prior.
With Tuesday Tidings highlighting the final reunion of the Destroyer Escort Sailors Association (DESA) hosted by the USS Slater in Albany ten days from now, we learned of the final gathering of the Escort Carrier Sailors and Airmen Association (ECSAA) in August in Washington, DC. For ECSAA, this gathering intends to be transformational, as the organization will focus on capturing the history of escort carriers for posterity. ECSAA president Dave Ryan details ECSAA’s plans in this week’s Feature.
For our “In Case You Missed It” we offer a 2017 Sea Power Historical Perspective article about Yorktown at the Battle of Midway as remembered by one of her survivors.
Tuesday Tidings is compiled by Dr. David F. Winkler and Jessie Henderson. As always, comments are welcome at nmhs@seahistory.org.
| ITEMS OF IMMEDIATE INTEREST | |
7 June 2023 - Battle of Midway Commemoration
National Museum of the American Sailor, Great Lakes, Il.
10 AM–11AM (CDT)
Battle of Midway Commemoration (navy.mil)
9 June 2023 - Lecture -- Laird Brothers’ Rams (live and streaming)
Noon–1 PM (EDT)
Mariners’ Museum, Newport News, VA
Laird Brothers’ Rams - The Mariners’ Museum and Park (marinersmuseum.org)
14 June 2023 - Naval Order of the US Heritage Night
Navy Museum Director Dr. James C. Rentfrow on Plans for the New Museum
8–9 PM (EDT)
History Happenings - Upcoming and On-going Events — Naval Order
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Escort Carrier Sailor & Airmen Association (ECSAA) to Meet 25–26 August in Washington, DC
A final face-to-face reunion convention honoring 30 years of service by CVE sailors and
airmen—WWII, Korea, and Vietnam; re-commissioning of ECSAA to a historical &
memorial organization; gathering to feature a one-day history conference open to general public.
By Dave Ryan, ECSAA Board of Governors President, Progeny, USS Bogue, CVE-9
The ECSAA governors are delighted to have announced the 2023 Escort Carrier Sailor & Airmen Reunion Convention, located in Washington, DC. How special is this event, and how did it come about? We were honored to have Samuel J. Cox, Rear Admiral, US Navy (Ret.) as keynote speaker at our pre-COVID convention in New Orleans in 2019. Shortly thereafter, with Rear Admiral Cox’s support and that of several of his Bremerton-based officers, plans were in full swing to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II in an ECSAA Bremerton Convention. Even though we had to cancel that event, and wait more than two years for it to be safe to plan a face-to-face reunion convention, we were very encouraged that Rear Adm. Cox immediately accepted our request to re-connect in December 2022 and discuss the possibility of ECSAA producing a “final” Convention. The week before Christmas, I visited Rear Adm. Cox at his office to seek his input on our options. As the Director showed me around the facilities, he talked to me about how important it is to the Navy and the country that the service of our veterans be remembered. And how important is the work of the ecosystem of private organizations, like ECSAA, to ensuring that the history be collected and preserved and shared with the next generations. After the multi-hour meeting, I left DC with my head—and notepad—overflowing with valuable input to help ECSAA plan, and even more valuable offers of support. Shortly thereafter, the ECSAA governors unanimously voted to hold a very special, final convention in Washington, DC, on 25–26 August 2023. The event will feature a two-day program spanning our hotel and the Washington Navy Yard’s National Navy Museum. The first day will feature a history conference at the Doubletree in Crystal City. Non-ECSAA members interested in naval aviation and escort carrier history are strongly encouraged to attend. Convention registration and hotel reservations are live (ECSAA.org). The lineout of speakers and registration for the history symposium will soon be posted to our ECSAA website.
Read full article>>
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Yorktown’s Final Battle— Sea Power, June 2017
By David F. Winkler
With her air wing having inflicted losses on Japanese forces at the battle of the Coral Sea, Yorktown hastily returned to Hawaii to repair damage caused by a bomb that had penetrated her
flight deck. Initial estimates sidelining the carrier for three months were reduced to two weeks when Navy Yard inspectors surveyed the ship upon her arrival at Pearl Harbor on 27 May 1942.
Unfortunately, the combat-tested carrier would not have the luxury of this shortened time away from the fleet, as US Navy cryptologists had determined that Japan’s next move would be against Midway, a mere 1,139 nautical miles Northwest of Honolulu. The day following Yorktown’s arrival, the carrier entered Dry Dock Number 1 to repair her deck and bomb damage below. Working around the clock, Pearl Harbor’s workforce accomplished two weeks of work in three days. To replace personnel and aircraft losses sustained at Coral Sea, the carrier would take on aircraft and aircrews who had flown ahead from Saratoga. Sister ship of the recently lost Lexington, the big flattop would not arrive in time to participate in the forthcoming naval battle.
In addition to the Saratoga personnel, other replacement personnel waited in Hawaii to report aboard. Jack Crawford had expected to graduate with the Class of 1942 at the Naval Academy that month but found his graduation had been accelerated. In recognition of his academic achievements, Crawford had been presented with a pair of binoculars by the American Legion during his second year at the academy. He had planned to make good use of those glasses on the battleship Oklahoma. However, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor forced a change in orders.
Read full article>>
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NAVAL HISTORY BOOK REVIEWS | |
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A Strange Whim of the Sea: The Wreck of the USS Macaw By Tim Loughman, University Press of Kentucky (2022).
Reviewed by Jeff Schultz
...The last chapter, “Aftermath” outlines the post-sinking events such as the board of inquiry, the experience of the survivors on Midway Island, now with no ship, and finally the postwar status of certain crewmembers that Loughman was able to reconstruct. The board seemed more lenient on the crew of Flier than of Macaw, even when the weather was at least as bad, if not worse, for the latter than the former. After a while, many of the Macaw’s former crew traveled back to Pearl Harbor aboard USS Nautilus (SS 168), a large fleet submarine which, with a hundred additional men on board, must have been crowded. After reaching Pearl Harbor they parted ways, being reassigned where the Navy needed them, with some of the crew serving there, while others were assigned to various vessels or tasks. There follows a number of survivor vignettes, which provide details of the fates of former crewmen and other notables from the text. Significantly, the damaged submarine Flier did return to service after stateside repairs at Mare Island, but tragically struck a mine near Palawan in August 1944, and was lost with only eight survivors.
Tim Loughman’s A Strange Whim of the Sea: The Wreck of the USS Macaw provides a very narrowly focused, yet engrossing, look at the gritty events that sank a US Navy auxiliary, not by virtue of enemy action, but rather an ancient enemy, the sea. This book will appeal to anyone who longs to read of the lost chapters of World War II, stories that few know about and, in this tragic case. which pit sailors against the weather in a life and death struggle. In combat with nature, man will always find such raw power not to be underestimated.
Read full review>>
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Midway Submerged: American and Japanese Operations at the Battle of Midway By Mark W. Allen; Casemate Publishers, Havertown, PA. (2023).
Reviewed by Capt. Richard Dick, USN (Ret.)
... Allen does a very good job of examining the submarine portions of the US and Japanese operational plans. He builds a strong case that Admiral Nimitz ordered Rear Admiral English to deploy his submarines defensively, close to Midway, to defend against the planned Japanese landing. Nimitz’s plan, ultimately successful, left most of the burden of locating the Japanese carriers to land- and carrier-based aviation. Once the Japanese ships had been sighted, Rear Adm. English ordered many of his boats to attack the carriers. Nautilus succeeded in hitting the carrier Kaga but the American torpedo failed to explode. However, Nautilus made a crucial, if unintentional, contribution to the American victory. As the Japanese formation steamed away from Nautilus, the destroyer Arashi stayed behind to attempt the destroy the American submarine. Eventually, Arashi gave up and headed off at high speed to rejoin the fleet. The dive bomber squadrons from Enterprise, searching for the Japanese carriers, spotted Arashi’s prominent wake and followed it to the carriers.
As for the IJN Submarine Squadron FIVE’s supposedly fatally late arrival on station, Allen points out that the Japanese operational plan required that the submarines arrive on station by 1 June.
Maintenance difficulties delayed the squadron’s arrival until 3 June. However, forewarned by American cryptographers, the last American carrier had passed the intended Japanese patrol line by 31 May.
Thus, Squadron FIVE had no chance, given its orders, of intercepting the American carriers.
The author could have provided more depth, covering his material in more detail. For example, he could have discussed briefly the experiences of some of the other submarines involved on both sides and spent more time on submarine I-168’s sinking of carrier Yorktown. Overall, though, Midway Submerged is an excellent revisionist assessment of submarine employment at the Battle of Midway.
Read full review>>
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NAVAL HISTORY BOOKS AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW | |
Navy History Matters - Battle of Midway | |
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Shortly after dawn on June 4, a patrol plane spotted two Japanese carriers and their escorts, reporting, “Many planes heading to Midway from 320 degrees, distance 150 miles!” Later that morning, at roughly 6:30 AM, Japanese carrier aircraft bombed Midway installations. Although US Marine Corps fighters defending the island suffered heavy losses, the Japanese inflicted little damage to the island’s facilities. Between 9:30 and 10:30 AM, torpedo bombers from the three American aircraft carriers attacked the Japanese carriers. Although these were nearly wiped out by the defending Japanese fighters and antiaircraft fire, US fighters drew off enemy aircraft, leaving the skies wide open for dive bombers from Enterprise and Yorktown. Aircraft from Enterprise bombed and fatally damaged carriers Kaga and Akagi, while aircraft from Yorktown bombed and wrecked carrier Soryu. At approximately 11:00 AM, Hiryu, the one Japanese carrier that escaped destruction that morning, launched dive bombers that temporarily disabled Yorktown. Three and a half hours later, Hiryu’s torpedo planes struck a second blow, forcing Yorktown’s abandonment. That afternoon, aircraft from Enterprise mortally damaged Hiryu. The destruction of the Japanese force compelled Yamamoto to abandon his Midway invasion plans and the Japanese fleet began to retreat westward.
Due to American intelligence capabilities, analysis, aircraft carrier tactics, and a lot of luck, the US Navy inflicted a devastating defeat on the Imperial Japanese Navy. Although the performance of the three American carrier air groups would later be considered uneven, their pilots and crews had won the day through courage, determination, and heroic sacrifice. The US Navy had lost a carrier, but the Japanese had lost four—all of which had participated in the Pearl Harbor attack. More importantly, the Japanese had lost more than 100 trained pilots, who could not be replaced. In a larger strategic sense, the Japanese offensive in the Pacific was derailed and their plans to advance on New Caledonia, Fiji, and Samoa postponed. The balance of sea power in the Pacific had begun to shift in favor of the Allies.
Read full article>>
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Sinking Of IJN Mikuma. Painting, Oil on Wood; by John Hamilton; C. 1975. Courtesy US Navy. | |
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During the night of 5 June 1942, the Japanese cruisers Mogami and Mikuma collided with each other while withdrawing from the Battle of Midway. One day later they were noticed and attacked by American aircraft. Also visible is the destroyer Arashi near the damaged cruiser. While Mogami and 2 other screening destroyers were able to escape, IJN Mikuma sank.
More information here>>
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The Pivotal Role the US Navy Played in D-Day | |
NAVAL HISTORY CALLS FOR PAPERS | |
UPCOMING NAVAL & MARITIME HISTORY GATHERINGS | |
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16–18 June 2023: Fairwell DESA Reunion, Albany NY
23–24 June: North Carolina Naval History in the Age of Sail and Steam Symposium, Kinston, NC (See here for more details)
25–26 August: Fairwell ECSAA Reunion, Arlington, VA
18–21 September 2023: Historic Naval Ship Association Conference aboard USS Slater
21 September 2023: Navy Memorial Lone Sailor Award Dinner, National Building Museum, Washington, DC
21–22 September 2023: McMullen Naval History Symposium, US Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD
9 October: US Naval Institute 150th Celebration
17–22 October 2023: Naval Order of the United States Congress, San Diego
25 October 2023: US Naval Institute Conference – Critical Thinking – Our Greatest Weapon to Winning Tomorrow’s War
| Click here to watch Dr. Michael A. Verney’s presentation of his book: A Great and Rising Nation: Naval Exploration and Global Empire in the Early US Republic. | PREBLE HALL NAVAL HISTORY PODCAST | |
A naval history podcast from Preble Hall – the United States Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis, Maryland. Preble Hall will interview historians, practitioners, military personnel, and other experts on a variety of naval history topics from ancient history to more current events.
Click here for the latest episode: 190: Craig Symonds: Nimitz at War>>
Click here for all Preble Hall Podcasts >>
| NAVAL HISTORY & HERITAGE COMMAND H-GRAMS | |
H-Gram 078: 20 March 2023 >> The Revolt of the Admirals, Ship Renaming
| DRACHINIFEL YOUTUBE CHANNEL | INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NAVAL HISTORY | |
The International Journal of Naval History (IJNH) provides a preeminent forum for works of naval history, researched and written to demonstrable academic standards, with the goal of stimulating and promoting research into naval history and fostering communication among naval historians at an international level. IJNH welcomes any scholarly historical analysis, focused on any period or geographic region, that explores naval power in its national or cultural context. The journal is independent of any institution and operates under the direction of an international editorial board that represents various genres of naval history.
Click here to read the February 2023 edition and archived issues on the IJNH website >>
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