tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438008.post115790019840203068..comments2024-03-27T06:40:56.148-04:00Comments on EagleSpeak: Sunday Ship History: Submarine ChasersMark Tempesthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18172703868541571574noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438008.post-89113739852363111082019-01-03T19:31:53.873-05:002019-01-03T19:31:53.873-05:00My first attempt has disappeared, but I'll try...My first attempt has disappeared, but I'll try again.<br />This article needs some amending, as several false impressions are made, that are unnecessary to highlight the sub-chasers contribution to the WWII war effort.<br /> First, the German U-boats weren't unopposed in the Atlantic, the British and Canadian navies had hundreds of escort ships fighting them, while the US navy had only 5% of it's Atlantic destroyers patrolling the US East Coast where most of the U-boats were at the time.<br /> Given the fact that German U-boats had sunk ships off the US east coast in WWI, US Navy planning to cope with threat despite more than 2 years of war in Europe was pathetic, no ships assigned to patrol the coast, the Coast Guard having less than 3 dozen old small planes to add to the army and navy's pathetic numbers.<br /> Second, the first WW2 sub chasers were ordered well before Pearl Harbor, although most of those first 80 weren't laid down until the summer of 1942, after the U-boats had been recalled to the mid-Atlantic, ie too late and out of range of the sub chasers, but that didn't stop almost 400 more being built. <br /> Third, the US Navy under CNO Admiral King, wasn't very interested in convoying America's coastal traffic, expecting new construction to make up losses, whatever the delays involved might cost in lives, time, and expense, which were great both direct and indirectly (such as the effect of black market gasoline on US society), including possibly delaying the end of the war by 6-12 monthes.<br /> Fourth, The US navy was not virtually destroyed at Pearl Harbor; only 8 of the 17 battleships were at Pearl and only 19 of the 90 US Navy ships in harbor were hit, with only the Arizona, Oklahoma, and Utah not returning to duty since the machinery etc of the Cassin and Downes was salvaged. Three of them, the Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the Tennessee, were only lightly damaged, were quickly repaired and left Pearl Harbor on December 20 under their own power for west coast ports for complete repairs and considerable additions to their anti-aircraft outfit, all joining Colorado (at Puget Sound naval yard December 7th) in TF-1 patrolling off the west coast from March 1942, while the California, Nevada, and the West Virginia took much longer for their repairs.<br /> The US Navy also had the 7 aircraft carriers and some 37 cruisers besides the 4 AA CL's (2 more soon added) and 171 destroyers at that time; with hundreds more already laid down, not to mention some 110 submarines, so its a pitiful lie the navy couldn't stop the U-boats, when it was because it chose not to. Until public pressure finally began to change some thinking in the naval hierarchy, but too late to save several thousand American civilian sailor's lives, the vast majority of American civilian lives lost in the war.<br /> Like so many of the Destroyer Escorts and Escort Carriers built in the second half of the war, ie largely wasted as APD's (fast transports) and aircraft ferries, other tasks had to to be found for all the sub chasers, such as the landing craft control ships (the PCC's), but none of those modified were at D-Day, which was typical of the navy's disinterested and perfunctory role there.<br /> This is not to belittle the service of the 'splinter fleet', but there is too much hype and exaggeration going on at too many of these web sites to let obvious overstatements go unremarked upon.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10797103117050675719noreply@blogger.com