The Young Ship

 On August the 15th 1942 a line of young American men were attempting to enlist. One of the processes involved was being inspected by a dentist. At the time the age of enlistment could be as low as 16 (with a parent’s consent) but 17 or older was preferred. The dentist performing the checks was surprised as he peered into the mouth of the man in front of him, as he had the teeth of a 12-year-old. 

The boy's name was Calvin Graham. He was attempting to enlist, and when the dentist told him his age he began to argue. For one thing he knew the previous two males in the line were both underage, around 14, but had managed to get past the dentist. Eventually, running out of time and frustrated with Graham's insistence he was 17 the dentist let him pass. The dentist was right, Graham was born on the 3rd April 1930. This was would make Graham, in all probability, the youngest US veteran of the Second World War. The official stance of the US was that children under the age of 16 could not enlist. However, there seems to have been a grey area with training camps applying extra harsh conditions to the underage recruits to force them to quit, by admitting their age. Examples include giving the recruits heavier packs or longer distances to cover. 

Calvin Graham

Graham toughed it out in his chosen service, the US Navy, and eventually was posted to the USS South Dakota. He served as a 2nd loader on a quad AA-gun mount. His job was to pass clips to the loaders feeding the ammunition into the loading chutes of the guns. His first action was at the Battle of the Santa Cruz. The USS South Dakota was sailing as close escort to one of the carriers, when they came under massed air attack. One torpedo bomber aimed at the USS South Dakota, but missed by just 20ft, another flew between both the carrier and the battleship, both of which raked the other with their AA fire. Another had its pilot hit, causing the plane to lurch upwards, the torpedo broke loose from one of its two retaining straps and was swinging loose as the plane careened past, only for the torpedo to fall off track and miss the battleship. In this engagement the USS South Dakota claimed 32 enemy planes shot down by the barrage of flak they had laid. In return they suffered one bomb hit, that caused some causalities and damaged two of her forward guns. 

One of USS South Dakota's quad gun mounts being test fired during her shake-down cruise.

Shots of Japanese planes attacking the USS South Dakota.

 

 The second action Graham was involved in was the Battle of Guadalcanal. The USS South Dakota had been at action stations for six hours before the battle begun. During the battle, an electrical fault knocked out USS South Dakota's radar. This made her gunnery difficult, however, with a group of destroyers she pressed home the attack. However, the destroyer screen was soon disabled and burning, and the USS South Dakota was forced to manoeuvre in front of the burning ships and was promptly silhouetted. Raked by salvo after salvo she turned and headed out, to her surprise she met a second group of Japanese ships, which she had been unable to detect due to the lack of radar. Using her rear turrets, she opened fire. However, the blast from the main battery set her three Kingfisher spotting aircraft on fire. A second salvo solved this problem, with the shockwave blowing the fires out, although the blast also tossed two of the three aircraft overboard. After this the USS South Dakota retired from combat, the Japanese believing her sunk. 

Damage to the battleship taken during the night time battle.

 

 

The Surviving Kingfisher onboard the USS South Dakota.

 

During the battle Graham had been at his post, however he was then sent with a message to his officer. As he was carrying the message, he heard a yell of warning to get down, so he hit the deck, however, the heavy shells that hit the ship still caused him some minor injuries. He was then assigned to rescue duties. For his actions that day he was awarded the Bronze Star.

The USS South Dakota returned to the US to make repairs and refit. Whilst in port Graham heard that his grandmother had died, and so went AWOL returning to his hometown. However, he lacked money so had to hitch-hike. By the time he reached home he was a day after the funeral. He presented himself at the Navy's recruitment office, informed them of the fact he was AWOL and expected to be returned to his ship. However, his mother then revealed his age in an effort to prevent him returning to the war.

Graham was sent to prison due to the AWOL charges and stripped of his Bronze Star. He was then abruptly released when the family threatened to approach the press. Instead of returning to school he went to work as a welder’s apprentice in a shipyard, although his case stirred some interest from the media, that quickly faded.

He married at 14 and had a child the next year. He divorced shortly after and lost his job. However, he was now 17, and so he joined the USMC. He became invalided due to a fall during training and was discharged rated as having a 20% disability. With no honourable discharge or education his only avenue was to sell magazine subscriptions. The lack of honourable discharge meant he was also barred from the support networks the US had for veterans. In 1978, after some campaigning he was awarded his honourable discharge, and his Bronze Star was reinstated. Graham would die in 1992.

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Thank you for reading. If you like what I do, and think it is worthy of a tiny donation, you can do so via Paypal (historylisty-general@yahoo.co.uk) or through Patreon. For which I can only offer my thanks. Or alternatively you can buy one of my books.

 

Image Credits:

www.archives.gov

There is a huge collection of images, about the USS South Dakota, some of which I used above, on the following website. It also contains a lot of other material, so may well be worth a visit.

https://www.navsource.org/archives/01/57a.htm

The Unlucky Plane

 Early in the morning, around 0800, on the 24th of August 1938 a lone DC-2, named Kweilin, lifted off from the main runway of Hong Kong's Kai Tak airport. At its controls was an American pilot called Hugh Woods. He turned his plane on its course for China and continued to climb. The DC-2 belonged to the China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC), which was a Chinese air transport company. The reason why it was flown by an American was that CNAC had a contract with Pan American to fly their planes. This particular routine scheduled flight was between Hong Kong and Chungking. 

 

 

A CNAC DC-2

 
As the Kweilin passed through 6,000 feet, and passed over the border, Woods spotted a flight of eight Japanese float-planes (highly likely to be Nakajima E8N "Dave's") loitering above him. Woods was not too worried, he had seen such flights beforehand. Equally, his DC-2 was clearly marked as a CNAC aircraft, and the DC-2 had a unique silhouette that did not match any combat aircraft flown by the Chinese. Even so, erring on the side of caution, he swung back towards the border. After a while he could no longer see any sign of the Japanese aircraft, and so he turned back to his course for Chungking. 

As the Kweilin crossed the Zhujiang river estuary, it was about to enter Chinese airspace when five Japanese planes reappeared and dived to attack the DC-2. Woods reacted immediately, throwing his lumbering aircraft into a dive and turning as he went. He had spotted a clump of clouds at 5,000ft. As he closed, Woods realised these clouds were actually wrapped around the tops of mountains, so he had to skirt round the edges of the clouds. He emerged briefly from the clouds and saw that the area was clear but turned back into the safety of the cloud cover. At that point the first bursts of machine gun fire struck the plane. Woods threw it into a tight spiral, on the side of the mountain he could see his shadow, and that of one of his pursuers, with more bullets thudding into the plane. On board there were fourteen passengers, who were likely screaming.

Woods began to look for a place to land, however, the land around him was nothing but rice paddies, criss-crossed by dykes. Then Woods spotted a river, and deciding it was his only chance, dove for it. As he got closer, Woods powered down his aircraft and disconnected the batteries, and glided in to land. All the time the Japanese planes were making passes at his craft slamming bursts of machine gun fire into it. The Kweilin came to a rest near the bank of the river in a spray of mud and water. However, as Woods recovered his wits the water dripped from the windscreen, and the current took hold of the plane and dragged it out into the main channel. 

Woods checked on his passengers and crew, remarkably no-one had been hit. In another bonus the DC-2's basic design meant it was prone to floating. As Woods looked outside the Japanese planes returned and began to strafe the Kweilin. Woods then found his next problem, he was the only one able to swim. At this point Woods spotted a small boat on the shore. So, he leapt out of the DC-2 and struck out for it. However, he quickly realised he had misjudged matters. First the Japanese fighters started to attempt to gun him down, to add to his troubles he estimated the current was moving at around 5 knots. By the time he reached the boat he was exhausted, and to make matters worse the Kweilin had been swept much further down river and was unreachable, and had been strafed so much she had sunk, with only the tail plane visible above the water. Woods collapsed in exhaustion and was only able to walk again after about an hour. Of the seventeen persons on board only four survived. One of the passengers, who was wounded, Woods and the two other crew.

This was the first time in history that a passenger liner had been shot down, which created a huge amount of negative press and outrage aimed at Japan. It could even be seen as one of the major steppingstones towards the US reaction towards Japan that would culminate in events at Pearl Harbour. The Japanese were highly unapologetic. It is highly likely that they were attempting to assassinate the son of the then President of China. However, the son had been on an earlier flight. Over the next few years several more passenger planes were shot down over China, although none belonged to CNAC. There were other incidents such as when a CNAC DC-2, once again flown by Woods, was hit by a Japanese bomb on the ground, and had a wing destroyed. The answer was to fit it with a DC-3 wing and fly the whole aircraft out. The story of that can be found here. 

The Kweilin being salvaged.

The Kweilin ready for transport back to base.

One of the Kweilin's engines being inspected for damage.
 
The Kweilin was salvaged from the river and started flying under a new identity as the Chungking (her destination when she was shot down). However, in August 1940 she landed at Changyi airfield. Unknown to her pilot the Japanese had just finished the first wave of an attack on that location. The second wave appeared and attacked, catching the plane in the open. She was destroyed by fire during the air raid.

Woods would continue flying for CNAC until Japan entered the Second World War, he then escaped from Hong Kong and was put in charge of logistic flights over the Hump from India to China. After the war he returned to the US, where he ran a small shopping centre which he eventually sold before moving into real estate. He died in 1979 aged 73. 

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Thank you for reading. If you like what I do, and think it is worthy of a tiny donation, you can do so via Paypal (historylisty-general@yahoo.co.uk) or through Patreon. For which I can only offer my thanks. Or alternatively you can buy one of my books.

 

Image Credits:

lanna-ww2.com, www.cnac.org and industrialhistoryhk.org

Run in Shooting.

During the D-day landing planning the Allies quickly realised there was a problem. They had overwhelming air and naval superiority, and they could bring overwhelming firepower to bear. But during the final run in of the landing craft this deluge of explosive had to lift so as not to hit any troops landing. The last few vital moments they needed to keep the HE raining down to suppress the enemy. For this reason armed landing craft were constructed. But once the troops were ashore, what then? Air and naval firepower could not be brought down on the enemy. The answer became known as the Run-in Shoot. 

HMS Belfast giving the good news to Juno Beach on the early hours of D-day.

Amongst the follow-on waves of the landings on the British beaches were several Field Artillery Regiments. The solution was to land the observers in the very first wave. These observers were to be landed immediately behind the DD tanks, and before the sappers landed. All these elements were landing ahead of the assault infantry. Once established these observers could direct the self-propelled guns still afloat in their landing craft. The observers were to spot fall of shot by looking for impacts in the sea front houses. The LCT's would run in with the follow-on waves, but break off before becoming committed to the landing, then extend outwards, and re-join their designated landing wave. Now obviously this fire would be less accurate than the usual standard of gunnery, with the craft moving, at the same time pitching up and down. But in general, it adds to the weight of fire landing on the German held coast. In the end it seemed reasonably effective. After battle analysis showed that the beaten area was 400-700 yards wide, and 400-600 yards in depth. However, that was the area for all shots. The maximum crater density was centred around about 200 yards from the targets. 

Essex Yeomanry Sexton on Gold Beach.

Now comes something I did not know. I thought that all SP artillery had their Sextons replaced by Priests for D-Day. This turns out to be untrue. Indeed, only the units landing on Sword Beach were altered to Priests. On Gold and Juno all the regiments kept their Sexton's. One of these was the Essex Yeomanry, or the 147th Field Regiment. They were due to support operations on Gold Beach. In total the Run-in Shoot was to be of three regiments, each with their own target. However, during the run-in the targeting data for the Essex Yeomanry target was unavailable, so the regiment switched its fire to the neighbouring target. This resulted in the next sector down being well bombarded, however, the area in front of the Essex Yeomanry was undamaged. This would prove very bad for the landing forces. There were two unsubdued bunkers there, one called the Sanatorium required the ministrations of a Churchill AVRE. The other was a PAK bunker, code named WN37, which had been the Essex Yeomanry's primary target. 

WN37's firing slit today. The sea is to the right of the picture, and you can see the thickness of the wall to protect it from naval gunfire.

WN37 was a dense concrete block house, with a solid wall that extended outwards, and sheltered the gun aperture from bombardment from the sea. The aperture was sited to fire along the beach giving flanking shots against any British tanks that landed there. Inside the blockhouse was an 88mm gun. When the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry landed in their DD tanks the bunker WN37 began to knock them out, several trying to advance along a path from behind a line of trees. In total it knocked out five tanks in very short order, with two on fire and left the others pinned in place. This was the situation when on D+60 minutes the Essex yeomanry were landed, having re-armed after the Run-in shoot. As the 147th Regiment spread out, one of the command Sherman’s advanced from behind a tree line and was quickly knocked out. A bit further down the improvised path was a Sexton commanded by Sergeant Robert Palmer. Dismounting, Sgt Palmer conducted a foot reconnaissance along the tree line. Here he consulted with some of the infantry. He asked them to clear the path so he might get his Sexton up. They arranged this by attaching chains to the tanks and using another tank to drag them out of the path. Then it was time for Palmer's attack.

Sgt Palmer figured that if he exposed his tank slowly, as the Sherman's had done, his Sexton would be destroyed instantly by the 88mm. So, he decided to use the speed of the Sexton to his advantage. He arranged everything he could in advance. The Sexton would take a flying charge at the end of the tree line. Thus, they would be doing about 35mph as they came into the 88mm's field of fire. The gun would be pre-loaded, with the safety off. On signal, which was Sgt Palmer hitting his driver on the top of the head, the driver would swing the Sexton through 45 degrees which would bring the gun to bear on the bunker. At which point the gunner would lay onto the aperture, and fire. The round was a standard HE round, with a cap over the fuse to delay detonation. 

Running through the firing drills on a Sexton.

The plan was enacted perfectly, when the Sexton skidded to a halt it was sitting in the open, about 300 yards from the bunker. The gunner laid on and fired. The HE shell impacted on the bunker above and to the left of the aperture. Blurting out revised fire orders to drop range by 25 yards, and traverse slightly right, the crew hastily re-loaded. Then the German gun roared out a sheet of flame.

It appears the German gunner was shaken by the sudden appearance of the Sexton, and by the HE impact as his shell whistled over the top of Sgt Palmer's vehicle. The second round from the 25-pounder smacked into the gun shield, penetrated inside and detonated the bunkers ammo, and Gold Beach was open.
For his actions Sgt Palmer was awarded the Military Medal, and would go on to survive the war.

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Thank you for reading. If you like what I do, and think it is worthy of a tiny donation, you can do so via Paypal (historylisty-general@yahoo.co.uk) or through Patreon. For which I can only offer my thanks. Or alternatively you can buy one of my books.

 

Pig Attack

Gibraltar was one of the more strategically important bases for the Royal Navy in the Second World War. With it, the Mediterranean was completely sealed up and contained. The Bay of Gibraltar also gave a nice sheltered area for shipping to rest on its way to somewhere else. Think about ships heading up and down the Atlantic, and where the next guaranteed friendly port might be, possibly not until South Africa or Ascension Island? The Bay of Gibraltar is only about 8km wide, on one side you have Gibraltar, on the other the Spanish port of Algeciras. Usually, during the war merchant ships anchored up to about 1km from Gibraltar in the bay. The depth of the bay can be up to 400m, although a lot of the bay is much less than that. It was over one of these much shallower parts that on the 10th of June 1940 the Italian ship Olterra was berthed. On the declaration of war, the Olterra was sunk, how exactly no one is sure. The most common story is a raid by British commando's, but that is not mentioned anywhere else, and frankly, I doubt the British had the raiding forces in place that early. Equally, as we'll see, the damage was rather negligible. Another story is that it was scuttled by her crew is something I find much more credible. Especially as when she had settled on the seabed, she still had parts of her above water, as two Italians and a Spanish guard remained on board to maintain Italy's ownership over her. 

The importance of this mass of allied shipping did not go unnoticed, especially by the Italians. On several occasions in the first eighteen months of the war the Italians mounted raids using their excellent frogmen. Attacks by combat swimmers and human torpedoes (called Maiales by the Italians, which translates as Pig) they caused the loss of several ships. All these raids had been launched and recovered by submarines. 

Gibraltar, and the mass of shipping.

The Italians then decided on a new approach. They hired a villa that was just 4km from the Gibraltar harbour entrance. From here they were able to dispatch frogmen to attack shipping, sinking five more merchants in short order.

 A picture, taken in 1942, from behind Gibraltar looking across the bay to Algeciras.

Then a new plan was hatched. The Olterra was raised and moved to Algeciras. Under the cover of refitting and repairs modifications were made to the ship to include a secret underwater hatch and a hangar deck for Maiales. The equipment needed to operate the Maiales from the ship was transported across Spain, as spare parts, and the crews also posed as workers. To all intents and purposes the Olterra seemed to be undergoing repair and refit after sitting on the ocean floor for so long. The British did have some vague suspicions about all this activity, as they could clearly see the ship under refit. However, they never seemed to link it to the idea of a mother ship. 

The hatch in the side of the Olterra. This would normally be well under water. The Plimsoll line can be clearly seen about halfway up the picture.

At the end of 1942, Force H sailed into Gibraltar Harbour. The Italians had become operational only a short while before and they decided that the battleship HMS Nelson, and the carriers HMS Formidable and HMS Furious would be their first targets. On the 8th of December three Maiales floated out of the underwater hatch and set off for the warships. However, the target ships were actually inside Gibraltar harbour. The British were aware of the likelihood of an underwater attack and had small depth charges they'd drop to cover the harbour entrance. By sheer random chance one of the depth charges scored a direct hit on one of the Maiales killing the crew. 

The second Maiales was spotted, and a frantic chase ensued. During the chase the co-pilot of the craft was lost overboard, and never heard from again. However, the pilot managed to extract himself and return to the Olterra. Instead of trying to dock the pilot opened his buoyancy tanks and sunk his craft to the seabed next to the mother ship where it could later be retrieved.
A similar fate occurred to the third torpedo. Spotted and chased they had almost run out of air, so the crews scuttled their craft, and surrendered. They claimed they had been launched by submarine.

It had become clear that Gibraltar harbour was too well defended. However, the mass of transport shipping was still vulnerable. On the night of the 8th of May 1943 another sortie was carried out, this was aimed at the ships as far away as possible, to give the deception the attack was coming from the sea. Three ships were attacked, and all three sunk or so badly damaged they were written off.

On the 3rd of August a final attack was mounted. Again, three Maiales were dispatched, and successfully attacked two ships. At the third target things went wrong. The Maiales carried their warhead on the front of their craft, in exactly the same place as a conventional torpedo warhead. When under a ship this was attached to the target, and the nose section was then detached and left with a time fuse, while the crews remounted their torpedo and drove back to safety.  

Loitering under the target ship the co-pilot was working to attach the mine, when the Maiales malfunctioned and crashed dived. Suddenly the dive was reversed and the Maiales sprung to the surface. This could very well have incapacitated the pilot who was still in place, and indeed seems to have left him almost unconscious. Unable to submerge again, barely conscious, the pilot left on the surface at full speed heading back towards the Olterra. By sheer blind luck a school of porpoises was heading in the same direction, and the splashes and shapes of them moving covered his escape.

Back at the target ship the co-pilot finished attaching his mine. Then he clung onto the rudder of the ship for two hours, before he judged it was too late for the British to remove the charge, then called for help. Once rescued the British were certain there was a mine and called for a bomb disposal diver. Before he could start his dive, the mine exploded sinking the third ship. The following month the Italians signed an armistice with the Allies, and the Olterra's mission was over.

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Thank you for reading. If you like what I do, and think it is worthy of a tiny donation, you can do so via Paypal (historylisty-general@yahoo.co.uk) or through Patreon. For which I can only offer my thanks. Or alternatively you can buy one of my books.

Image Credits:

www.sarahsundin.com

The Rockets Red Glare

The Northrop F-89 Scorpion was an odd aircraft. It was designed to combat the Russian bombers that were the principal risk to the US in the 1950s. The jet vaguely resembled a P-80 shooting star, with two crew, and a massive nose to house the radar. The first variants had fore and aft remote control gun turrets that were layed by the radar. This was done automatically. When the F-89D entered service, the planes were upgraded by removal of the guns, and gun sights, and the fitting of two huge pods on the wing-tips. These held fifty-two 'Mighty Mouse' rockets. Each rocket was of 70mm calibre and had four folding fins at the rear. The rockets were unguided. However, the radar of the plane was linked to a simple computer that gave a predicted track of the target and would fire the pilot requested number of rockets to hit the predicted flight path, and this was all done automatically. The fire control computer could be set for the target being wings level, or in a bank. A month after their conversion to the F-89D the 437th fighter-interceptor Squadron, based at Oxnard near Los Angeles, would get to use this technological wonder against a live enemy during the Battle of Palmdale.

F-89D Scorpion, the rocket pods are the large wing tip pods.

At 1134 on the 16th of August 1954 a radio-controlled drone took off from the US Navy's air station at Point Mugu. The drone was an F6F-5K Hellcat. These were regular F6F-5's modified with remote control. Painted bright red they were to be used as a target for the development of guided missiles such as the AIM-7 Sparrow. After the drone was airborne the controllers watched with horror as it refused to respond to commands, and conducted a climbing turn towards the Southeast, right towards Los Angeles. An out of control plane crashing into LA would of course cause untold havoc. So the Navy called for help from the Air Force. Two F-89D's of the 437th were scrambled these were flown by Lieutenant Hans Einstein and Lieutenant Richard Hurliman. They soon caught up with the Hellcat at around about 30,000ft. However, it was too late, the F6F, weaving all over the sky had entered Los Angeles air space.

F6F-5K Hellcat drone.

The two pilots easily kept up with the erratic Hellcat, first it headed turned Southwest, then Northeast, then entered a circle. Eventually, after several more direction changes, the F6F left the densely populated city. The pilots locked their radar's on and activated their automatic firing system. Which utterly failed. After several passes, the missiles had failed to be fired by the onboard computer, so the F-89D's had to switch to manual firing mode. However, they lacked any form of sight. The gun sights had been removed when the planes were upgraded to F-89D standard. The pilots then started making attack runs using dead reckoning. This was less of an issue as you might think, as the Mighty Mouse was notoriously inaccurate, so the presence of gunsights would have only been of moderate help. But if you ripple fired off enough rockets one will connect with the errant Red Drone.

The two pilots made their first attack, each firing forty-two rockets. Several of the rockets slammed into the drone and promptly failed to detonate. The pilots made another pass, launching a salvo of thirty-two rockets apiece. This time none hit. A final pass fired off the remaining thirty rockets each, again without any hits.

 Salvo of Mighty Mouse rockets being launched during development at China Lake facility.

The Mighty Mouse had a fuse on it that would disarm should the rocket fall below a certain speed. The idea was that when the rocket ran out of fuel and then decelerated the warhead would safe itself. Like just about everything else about the rocket, this system largely failed to meet expectations. Of the 208 rockets fired, only between thirteen and fifteen were recovered as inert. The remainder, which I remind you were fired around an altitude of 30,000ft spread themselves about the countryside, far and wide. Several houses suffered very near misses, with lumps of shrapnel ripping through the houses. One rocket hit a road just in front of a truck that was being driven by two people and shredded the front of the vehicle. However, the luckiest escape belonged to two co-workers who were having lunch in their truck. Due to the hot weather, they both decided to alight and finish their lunch break under a nearby tree. Moments after exiting the vehicle it received a direct hit from a rocket and was obliterated. Remarkably, although there was serious damage, and several very close misses no one was hurt by the rockets.

But worse was to come. One rocket was seen skipping along the ground, each time it impacted, the rocket efflux would cause a fire to start. many of the other rockets that hit the ground started fires. In the end, around 1,000 acres, and several oil pumps were in a raging inferno, which took 500 firefighters about a day and a half to extinguish. The fire nearly caused more devastation. At one point it had burned to under 100m of the Bermite Powder explosives plant before the fire was stopped.

Crash site of the Hellcat drone.

But what of the Hellcat? After the final pass by the F-89D's the drone continued on its merry way, and eventually crossed back over Los Angeles, and ran out of fuel crashing near Palmdale. The only damage it caused was to some telegraph wires along a road.

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Thank you for reading. If you like what I do, and think it is worthy of a tiny donation, you can do so via Paypal (historylisty-general@yahoo.co.uk) or through Patreon. For which I can only offer my thanks. Or alternatively you can buy one of my books.

Move Over

Blogger's new software continues to perform exquisitely. Fun work around I need to do to centre the picture captions. 1: Attempt to justify centre. This will fail. 2: Then I need to place an indent at the start of the sentence, which will then appear on the next line down. 3: At which point the Blogger software will realise there's a sentence above it, and justify centre now works. 4: I can then delete the indent. But we can not judge too harshly, after all advanced word processors like this are new cutting edge technology!

Helicopters are not known for dropping bombs. This is normally due to the difficulties in aiming the devices. An aircraft imparts a degree of forward movement that can be calculated and predicted. The relatively slow-moving helicopter cannot be calculated. Equally, a helicopter hovering over its target has a huge number of random factors involved in a straight drop, not least of all actually aiming the bomb. There is also the risk of a helicopter hovering within a hostile air defence net having the life expectancy of a mayfly. However, when faced with extremes the helicopter has been used as an ersatz bomber at times. Today I wanted to look at one of those incidents, as it is a well-documented incident and somewhat fascinating, even if it is outside our usual topics. 

A group photo of some of the MOVE members.

In 1972 Vincent Leaphart changed his name to John Africa. This was a symbolic moment for him as he had just founded a movement called MOVE. Like many movements MOVE had an answer to the modern world and offered to save it. On one hand it was a pro-black power organisation. However, it also preached primitivism, animal rights, and communalism. Essentially all the members were to change their surname to Africa, live in the same place, eat only raw vegetables, shun modern technology, science and medicine, but be armed! The other habit of MOVE was to preach to their neighbours at all times of day and night by a bullhorn. These rants were often filled with profanities. The area was also littered with the organisations rubbish which they dumped at will. 

Also a group photo of some of the MOVE members.

In 1977 the authorities of Philadelphia responded to the complaints from the neighbours of MOVE by obtaining a court order for MOVE to leave their current property. MOVE attempted to negotiate with the police agreeing to leave, should a list of those in prison be released. Accounts differ on what happened next. However, some state that the organisations weapons were handed over (which were all broken), others that weapons remained inside. A year after the court order had been issued, and the authorities had attempted to resolve the situation peacefully, force was deemed a requirement. When the police attempted to enter the house and evict the last few MOVE members remaining inside a firefight erupted, and a police officer was hit and killed. As usual both sides have their version of events. MOVE suggests that the officer was shot in the back by his own side, and they had no working weapons left in the house. The state said the officer was facing away from the house when hit. Regardless the nine MOVE members were tried and convicted of third-degree murder.

Leaphart was not in the house. It may be that he and a few others had left prior to the police action, so the organisation still had its nucleus. In 1981 they moved into another house and re-started their sermons. In addition, they ensured they had a significant amount of weaponry and constructed a steel lined bunker on the roof of their new property. They also fitted a loudspeaker arrangement. In 1985 the complaints of the usual nature followed from the local residents. In 1985 the first African American Mayor of Philadelphia Wilson Goode and his Chief of Police agreed that the organisation should be classified as a terrorist organisation and moved to close it down. They had a variety of warrants, including unlawful possession of weapons. 

The MOVE bunker

On the 13th of May 1985 the nearby residents were evacuated, and some 500 police mounted a major operation to arrest four members of MOVE. Upon setting up a cordon the police called for the surrender of the individuals concerned. The only response they got was gunfire. For ninety minutes a blistering firefight erupted. It is said that the police alone fired some 10,000 rounds of ammunition, including tear gas. MOVE had constructed their defences well, and they withstood the barrage, and were able to return fire. 

The bunker being hit by high pressure water streams in an attempt to force the MOVE gunmen to surrender. you can just see part of the loud speaker arrangement on the centre of the 1st floor.

Like the North Hollywood shoot-out, when the police were outmatched, they turned to external sources for help. In this case it was the FBI who supplied a small amount of explosives. These were formed into satchel charges and given to the crew of a police helicopter. MOVE had constructed their bunkers to resist ground attack, never imagining an air attack, and so it is likely they could not bring fire to bear on the helicopter. At 1728 one of these improvised bombs was dropped against the bunker. It seems that the FBI had supplied C-4 explosive, and the device had been added to with a modern dynamite equivalent. 

 

 

Footage of the police Helicopter dropping the satchel charge

The explosive caused fuel for a generator (which if you consider MOVE's goals should not have been there) to catch fire. Soon the blaze spread, at first there was some concern that MOVE would shoot at the firefighters, however they were eventually ordered in when it became apparent this was not the case, and the prior dampening down had failed. It seems there was a failure in the lines of communication and the crews were not moved up. 

 

The fire spreading

 

Of the twelve people inside (some of which were children) only two escaped the fire. The fire burned for some considerable time, gutting some sixty-five houses. 

 

 

Aftermath of the fire

 

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Thank you for reading. If you like what I do, and think it is worthy of a tiny donation, you can do so via Paypal (historylisty-general@yahoo.co.uk) or through Patreon. For which I can only offer my thanks. Or alternatively you can buy one of my books.

 

Image Credits:

philly.com, www.phillymag.com and www.vox.com

Spy Sub

Note: Blogger's new and "improved" software is still being pants on head special. Hence the layout issues.

 Submarines are great for spying on your enemies. It's basically a ship that you can load with all sorts of amusing gizmo's and then lurk where you are not meant to, and be totally invisible, gathering data. The Royal Navy have been doing it for years, sometimes going a bit further than gathering just data. For example, one of the early missions was HMS Turpin in 1955. She was loitering, with intent, at periscope depth, inside the Arctic circle listening for electrical transmissions such as radar. Suddenly her radar receiver was overwhelmed by a very close radar. Luckily, the captain ordered an immediate crash dive, and the Soviet vessel failed to achieve its intended ramming attack. But on two occasions during the Cold War, the submarines of the Royal Navy got a lot closer to their targets, on purpose. 

HMS Turpin

The first happened in 1977. Just two years earlier the Soviets had launched a very confused ship, the Kiev. The Kiev class identified as a two ship types. Having the weapons fit on the fore part that one would associate with a guided missile cruiser, but amidships you have the slanted deck of an aircraft carrier. From this deck she could launch and recover anti-submarine helicopters, as well as fixed wing assets. 

One of the Kiev class.

In 1977 one of the newest British submarines, the HMS Swiftsure discovered a large Soviet naval exercise, which included the Kiev. HMS Swiftsure's mission at the time was to capture the acoustic signature of the Kiev, so that she could be more easily tacked. To get a good reading HMS Swiftsure had to get close. Starting from astern of the Kiev, the HMS Swiftsure slowly sped up. She had to gain on the target slowly so as not to spook the Kiev. HMS Swiftsure pretended to be a small patch of water. Speed changes were done gradually by increasing or decreasing the rotation of her propeller by one revolution per minute. For hour after hour the submarine gradually crept closer. First, she passed the outer escort screen. Then, hours later, the inner. When HMS Swiftsure's captain judged them to be under the Kiev, he prepared for the second, most dangerous part of the mission. Rising from the safety of the depths HMS Swiftsure raised her periscope while still submerged. The submarine continued to raise itself, and manoeuvre. Eventually the periscope was just 10 feet away from the surface, and was located between the hull of the Kiev, and her rudder. From here HMS Swiftsure was able to take photographs of the Kiev's propeller. 

 The picture HMS Swiftsure took of the Kiev's propeller

Let's remember that HMS Swiftsure is 82 meters long, and displaces nearly 5,000 tons, and this was parked just ten feet under a Soviet capital ship that was likely moving at well over 20 knots. A heavy swell would have caused a collision between both ships, if a Soviet pilot had been flying over, or a sailor onboard had glanced at the sea, there is a very high chance HMS Swiftsure would have been seen. With all data gathered, HMS Swiftsure sunk back down to the relative safety of the depths, and the Soviet Navy never knew their most important craft had just been up-skirted by the Royal Navy. 

A picture of a Kiev class taken from a British submarine, although it may have been at a later point that HMS Swiftsure's mission.

Another, slightly more risky incident occurred in 1982. A few months after sinking the ARA Belgrano, HMS Conqueror was at port, where she was being fitted with a new mechanical device monitored by CCTV. This device was a pair of shears designed and built in the US. The shears operated in a specific manner, to gnaw through thick steel cables 3in thick, and give the appearance that the cable being cut had in fact broken. HMS Conqueror was to take this new fitting into international waters near the Barents Sea and steal a towed array from one of the Soviet Union's spy trawlers. In August 1982 HMS Conqueror was closing on a spy trawler, this particular one flagged to Poland. There had been three previous attempts to obtain the towed array. First HMS Churchill had tried sailing through the array to sever it, and had been involved in a collision, and had been depth charged. Then HMS Conqueror had tried twice with the shears with no success. Part of the problem was the submarine had to approach from the rear quarter, avoiding the towed array, and not being detected by it. The towed array's design was to detect submarines at many miles range, and here you are practically knocking on the sonar's front door. Again, the submarine would be within feet of the target vessel. HMS Conqueror was 4 meters longer than HMS Swiftsure, but about the same displacement. 

 HMS Conqueror returning from her victory in the Falklands war.

Considering several of the refusals by the Ministry of Defence to release information on the operation, it is highly likely that this attack was conducted inside Soviet territorial waters.

The operation was a complete success. Again, after several hours of careful calculation and manoeuvring the shears latched on to the cable, and after a few moments the towed array had been sawn through. Conqueror then sunk back down to safety, and divers retrieved and stowed the towed array. When she returned to base, the array was whisked off to the US by plane for analysis. 

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Thank you for reading. If you like what I do, and think it is worthy of a tiny donation, you can do so via Paypal (historylisty-general@yahoo.co.uk) or through Patreon. For which I can only offer my thanks. Or alternatively you can buy one of my books.

Catapult Condor

Update: Good news everybody! Blogger have updated their software for creating posts... and they've competently banjaxed it, made it vastly more complicated, with no benefit. The new software is also not working properly. Hence why you will see some oddities in layout. This is now a hell of a lot more difficult and time consuming to get an article up.

Yay for progress! 

 

On the 23rd of July 1943 convoy MKS 18G left Gibraltar and sailed out into the Atlantic. Three days later it met up with convoy SL 133, which it merged into. This convoy now consisted of forty ships in eight rows of five. The convoy was bound for the UK, and had to cross Germany's back yard, the Bay of Biscay. To cover this force there were just eight escorts, including the Dido AA cruiser HMS Scylla. The presence of an AA cruiser might seem curious at first glance, but the Germans flew FW200 Condors out of France to attack convoys, and marauding Condors could, and would sink shipping.

FW200 attacking an allied convoy

The convoy had one other defence against Condors. The freighters SS Empire Tide and SS Empire Darwin. These were two CAM ships, in fact the last two CAM ships on their final voyage, as the CAM ship program had been ended. For those unaware CAM stood for Catapult Aircraft Merchant. An old Mk.IA Sea Hurricane was strapped to a sled on ramp. The sled had thirteen rockets on it, which when fired, and with the Hurricane's engine at full boost would accelerate the fighter to flying speed in just 75ft! There was no way to land the fighter, so the pilot would bail out, and hope to be picked up. In all other respects the merchant ship was entirely normal, and usually carrying a full cargo. 

 SS Empire Darwin as a CAM ship

On the 28th of July, warnings were issued that a south bound convoy was under attack from Condors, and at this time some eight ships were reported as sunk. HMS Scylla took up position in the centre of the convoy to provide as much of a flak umbrella as she could, and SS Empire Tide prepared to launch her plane. The first of many radar contacts, at a range of 35 miles, and closing, was picked up heading towards the convoy. The Condor was attacking a ship that had fallen behind. However, the catapult on SS Empire Tide then broke down, so SS Empire Darwin took over as first to launch while the fault was fixed. A FW200 was soon seen closing from the starboard rear side of the convoy, and SS Empire Darwin prepared to launch. 

However, as luck would have it a USAAF B-24 Liberator, flown by Lieutenant Elbert Hyde, on anti-submarine patrol was spotted to the north of the convoy. The convoy commander requested the Liberator tackle the closing Condor. The B-24 swooped in, and chased down the Condor, with a blistering low speed dogfight erupting as both planes hammered each other, getting lower and lower, until they were only about 150ft in altitude. Without warning one of the engines on the Condor burst into flame, the German plane dumped its bombs to try and maintain altitude, however, it was to no avail and it slammed into the ocean. The last that was heard from the Liberator was an SOS, however, as the American plane was now some twenty miles away no help could be given. Luckily, the crew of the Liberator were able to make landfall in Algiers before they had to crash land. The German crew lost one person killed, but five others, and the pilot Rudolf Waschek, were rescued and became POW's. 

Eight minutes later two more Condors were detected closing on the convoy at altitude. Flying Officer Jimmy Stewart, the pilot in the SS Empire Darwin's Hurricane, was scrambled. After the colossal acceleration had thrown the Hurricane into the sky, F/O Stewart had steadied his craft. Back on the merchant his Fighter Direction Officer radioed through directing him to a Condor on his 9 o'clock, which F/O Stewart immediately spotted. The Condor was heading north but turned to head south as the Hurricane approached. When the pilot of the Condor spotted the closing fighter he turned east and put his plane into a dive. It was still easy for the Hurricane to catch up. F/O Stewart dived out of the sun, and opened fire, aiming at the cockpit. He started firing at 300 yards, with a five second burst. He could see hits on the sea around the nose of the craft. Suddenly there was a vivid white flash from near one of the turrets, to no effect. He closed in, firing away, the defensive fire was described as heavy, but scored no hits on the Hurricane. F/O Stewart broke off and lined up for a second pass.

About half a second after opening fire all of the Hurricane’s guns jammed. F/O Stewart continued making dummy attack runs to keep the pressure up, however, he soon realised he was leaving the convoy behind. He returned to the convoy and began orbiting it at about 1,000ft trying to make contact with the convoy on radio. Then suddenly he saw a second Condor attacking the convoy from 800ft, and in a storm of flak from HMS Scylla. Two near misses rocked the cruiser, as F/O Stewart dived on the Condor. F/O Stewart braved the defensive fire making repeated dummy attacks until the Condor entered a cloud bank, when he returned to the convoy. He made contact, confirmed he was bailing out, and climbed to 4,500 feet, where he and his Hurricane went their separate ways. After fifteen minutes afloat he was rescued by HMS Leith, who confirmed they too had seen the bright flash from the FW200.

Later on that same day, SS Empire Tide's Hurricane was launched and shot down a Condor. However, we do not have an accurate account of the flight. Due to the strange flash that F/O Stewart encountered, he filled out an intelligence report which detailed the entire incident, this report survives. 

 F/O James Stewart

F/O Stewart went on to serve in Typhoons. He was shot down near Roen in France while attacking a German tank convoy, he survived, and bailed out. He met up with a group of resistance fighters, whom he worked with for some months. The resistance group was then betrayed by a Gestapo agent and the cell, along with F/O Stewart were captured. F/O Stewart ended up at Fresnes Prison, as he was claimed to be a spy supporting the resistance. Here he was placed with several other RAF officers whom had displeased the Gestapo. Later this party would be moved to Buchenwald Concentration Camp to await execution. Shortly before the act was to be carried out a Luftwaffe officer learnt of the situation and forced the Gestapo to hand over the condemned. These were then transferred to Stalag Luft III, where F/O Stewart remained until the end of the war. Jimmy Stewart died last year on 17th of April. 

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Thank you for reading. If you like what I do, and think it is worthy of a tiny donation, you can do so via Paypal (historylisty-general@yahoo.co.uk) or through Patreon. For which I can only offer my thanks. Or alternatively you can buy one of my books.

Image credits:

www.asisbiz.com and obituaries.tj.news

Putting the Oxcart Before the Bird

In 1959 the CIA decided that it needed a new means of spying on its opponents. The only practical answer at the time was a plane. Thus, the CIA approached Lockheed and asked them to produce something a bit special. The result of this was the A-12 Oxcart.

A Line of CIA Oxcart's. Note the paint scheme.

 At first glance one would think it looks like the SR-71 Blackbird, and you're right. The Blackbird was a follow on to the A-12, but we are getting ahead of ourselves. Oxcart was developed by Lockheed and became operational in November 1965. Oxcart's first deployment came some two years later in support of the Vietnam War. From May 1967 a fleet of three Oxcarts flew from Japan as part of the Black Shield missions. Over the next year they would fly twenty-nine sorties off south east Asia. The first such mission took off at 1100 on May the 31st. The Oxcart then climbed to meet a refuelling tanker, he climbed to 80,000ft, and set course for his planned route, at a speed of Mach 3.1. At the end of each run he would descend, meet another airborne tanker, refuel then climb back up to altitude. While cruising on operational sorties at high speed the plane would usually have its nose up at eight degrees and be rolled nine degrees to the left. This first Oxcart mission carried out four passes over Vietnam, which took it about three hours thirty-nine minutes. In total the onboard cameras, located in four bays on the underside of the plane, had used enough film, that if laid out end to end would be over a mile in length.

Oxcart and Blackbird parked together. Now the Oxcart is sporting the same black paint that gave the Blackbird its name.

Oddly, even before the Oxcart entered service, the USAF was showing an interest in a variant of the plane. In 1962 they approached Lockheed asking for a modified version, which had room for two people in it. This would become the RS-71 Blackbird, which was about 6ft longer than Oxcart.
Those of you who were paying attention will have noticed the designation above is given as RS instead of SR, which is the modern way of naming the Blackbird. There are two stories about how its name changed. The first is that when the US President Johnson announced the project, he juxtaposed the letters, and not wanting to correct the President, and embarrass him it was quickly changed. The other version is that the script of the speech has RS, however, the head of the USAF preferred the SR designation. The RS stood for Reconnaissance/Strike, but SR was Strategic Reconnaissance. Johnson changed his speech to match the new designation, however, the script of the speech issued to the press retained the RS version.
The initial order in December of 1962 was for just six SR-71's. A further order for twenty-five arrived in August 1963. The first flight was in December 1964 and the plane became operational in March 1968.

Another shot of both planes, here you can, just about, make out the differences between the two cockpits.

A final sub-type of the family was the YF-12. Which was a fighter version. Like the Blackbird it was a twin seat modification of the Oxcart. Three of the four bays usually used for reconnaissance gear became weapon bays, while the fourth held the fire control gear. Targeting and fire control radars were fitted. The weapon chosen was the AIM-47 Falcon, with one in each bay. This very short lived missile only had handful of firings, one of which failed due to a faulty giro. However, in one case the the YF-12 was flying at 74,000ft, and doing Mach 3.2 when it launched agaisnt its target.

YF-12 in flight.

The target was a drone, flying at just 500ft. The missile was fitted with an inert warhead, and struck the drone's tail tipping a big hole in it. The Falcon would be developed further before entering service as the AIM-54 Phoenix.

Close up of the YF-12's radar instillations, that is likely one of the easiest identifying features.

There were only three YF-12's built, and the project was cancelled fairly early on. However, the planes were publicly announced, so that any pictures or sightings of the Blackbird or Oxcart could be explained away as the YF-12 series. Two of the prototypes were lost in accidents involving fires, one while on the ground, the other while flying, but both crew members ejected. The last YF-12 was used by NASA, before being given to a museum.

The YF-12 in NASA service. It was used for experiments in high speed flight. Notice how the leading edges where the radar was installed has been flattened, and new surfaces isntalled.

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Thank you for reading. If you like what I do, and think it is worthy of a tiny donation, you can do so via Paypal (historylisty-general@yahoo.co.uk) or through Patreon. For which I can only offer my thanks. Or alternatively you can buy one of my books.

Image credits (This should wind up the conspiracy theorists):
www.cia.gov, www.nasa.gov and migflug.com