October 13, 2012

Navy Proud: It’s in the blood ³

American History, Submarine, US Navy, World War 2 • Tags: Navy, Navy Birthday, World War 2

On the sixth of April 1917, the United States Congress declared war on Germany.

The declaration came after the German government increased its belligerent actions against the United States.

President Wilson who had campaigned on the strength that he had kept the US out of war from 1914 until that very moment had relented after the sinking of seven US merchant ships and the publication of something called the Zimmerman Papers (a secret plot to involve Mexico and start a front against the southern border to the US).

Fifteen days later, John Charles MacPherson enlisted in the United States Navy for a four year hitch. Sadly, I only know a few things about his service (from his discharge papers). He was rated as overall very good (3.4) on the scale and had his highest rankings as a sober and loyal Navy man.

I also know from growing up that he helped to run the local Sea Scouts, most of which ended up going off to fight in far away places in the next World War.

I look forward to meeting him someday and having him tell me all of his stories on the collier he rode. He was an excellent knot tier and had many varnished samples in his workshop. He was pretty tough too from all the stories I heard growing up. I am sure his time on a ship that was designed to fuel bigger ships made him that way. That determination and drive probably helped him to become the foreman at the steel mill he worked at until he died.

His son John also answered the call to arms as a Navy man in March of 1945. He was seventeen years old and in my younger years I imagined him sailing a ship in enemy infested waters manning a cannon or machine gun. It wasn’t until I was almost 40 years old and found his letters from that time period that I found out that he was truly a hero but not in the sense of someone that singlehandedly killed a platoon of enemies. His heroism was the same heroism of his Dad and all of those who answered their countries call to serve in the seagoing service.

When you think about what makes the Navy great, it would be really easy to let your mind drift to battleships cutting their way through a storming sea.

I wouldn’t fault you if you pictures a giant aircraft carrier launching planes and jets into the air to fight an unseen enemy.

Even the submarine comes to mind as it charges from the deep on its way to the surface in a crashing display of power.

All of those things are important, but what makes our Navy great is the people who make it up. The ones who volunteered in war or peace to serve their country as a sailor or leader of sailors. They are the ones who do the tedious jobs of keeping the galley clean, scrubbing the decks of a ship that may never see combat, polishing the rails of a boat that may do nothing more than move people from point a to point b.

Those sailors that stand the mid-watch in a shipyard shivering in the night air while their contemporaries are snug at home in their beds. The ones that miss birthdays, anniversaries, weddings and yes, even funerals because someone has to be the lookout on a auxiliary ship that is keeping the big boys fueled.

It’s the engineman or boiler tech who can barely remember the port call the ship made since most of their time was spent repairing a valve or a pump in order to get the ship underway again. Its that young sailor on the planes of a fast attack who secretly wishes he was any place but the planes as the boat goes through angles and dangles.

The Navy I love is the one that takes a kid who was struggling in life and gives him a chance to someday be a Chief Petty Officer – a leader of sailors. The young girl who everybody thought was such a ditz who will one day become a highly decorated war veteran and Major in the Air Force Medical department because the Navy helped give her the drive to want to help others. A woman responsible for saving and extending the lives of so many brave young boys.

The teachers and doctors and professional people of every color and stripe that learned their first lessons wearing a uniform of Navy Blue.

When the world needs my Navy, we have answered for over 237 years.

I am proud to have served.

I am proud that my brother Tom and several of my nephews (including his son Theo who is probably the best sailor among all of us) have continued the tradition. I am proud of the families that have supported all of us. It has been an honor to have followed the tradition.

It has mostly been an honor to have known so many others who have it in their blood.

Happy Birthday Shipmates!

Mister Mac

2012

Thanks Dad and Grandpa… you are missed

July 5, 2012

PQ 17 July 4th 1942… 2132… “Scatter” ³

American History, Submarine, US Navy, World War 2 • Tags: Luftwaffe, PQ17, submarine, U Boats, US Navy, World War 2

The summer of 1942 was not just a horrible time for merchant shipping long the east coast of the United States, it was also one of significant losses in the Atlantic

U-boats were coming out in larger and larger numbers and even the convoy systems were being tested to the limits with the existing escorts. Russia had finally entered the war on the side of the Allies and was facing tremendous pressure on the home front from rapidly advancing German armies. Stalin knew that his survival now rested with supplies from the allied forces and he demanded that they provide him with the tools and weapons to defend the Motherland.

PQ 17 was one of the first joint convoys that combined units of the British fleet with American fighting ships and escorts. On June 27th, the assembled ships left for the Soviet Union and because of a number of factors, suffered a special type of hell for the next ten days. In the words of Admiral Dan Gallery, the man who orchestrated the later capture of the U-505 submarine, this incident was a “shameful page in naval history”.

Some of the factors which contributed to the disaster were the weather and light conditions. At that time of year, the light stays bright much longer. On my first trip to Sweden during the month of late June I had been told to expect a different type of evening but as I lay in bed at 2330 that first night, I was amazed at how much light still remained. This light would make it much harder for the ill-fated convoy to escape the marauding planes from the Luftwaffe.

The second major influence was the number of U-boats that were on patrol in the area. German U-boats were strategically placed to support all of the raids of the convoy through the Arctic and their damage was both effective and efficient in carving away the number of ships that were in the convoy.

The third concern at that point in the war was that the Germans had superiority in the air. The flying squadrons of the Luftwaffe were placed well along the lines of the convoy’s run and there were no escorting carriers available of any number to counter the relentless air attacks.The air forces also could be used to direct submarine attacks and control how the survivors would be chopped to pieces.

The major threat in the eyes of the Admiralty though was the presence in Norwegian waters of the German battleships Tirpitz, Lutzow & Admiral Scheer and cruiser Hipper. Up to the night of the fourth of July, air raids and submarine attacks had already taken a toll. Faulty intelligence sealed the fate of the doomed convoy. First Sea Lord Pound received word that the major German ships may have sailed and were on their way to destroy the remaining convoy and her escorts. Escorts and warship were still in very short supply this early in the war and the fateful orders were passed at 21:36 for the convoy to “Scatter” and make their way as best they could to the Russian ports.

The German surface forces never arrived. It was too late for the hapless merchant ships that were left to fend for themselves. The Allied merchant ships became easy targets for the U-boats and aircraft. During the course of the day on the fifth of July, torpedo bombers sink 5 merchant ships and British rescue ship Zaafaran while several others are damaged. U-88 and U-703 each sink 2 while U-334 and U-456 sink 1 each, including several vessels damaged or stopped by the bombers.

In all 26 of the 39 merchant ships were lost to the slaughter.

Thousands of vehicles and hundreds of tanks and planes were lost not to mention the poor crewmen who manned the ships. The British high command recognized that it could not sustain that loss rate and support Operation Torch in North Africa so they suspend further convoys for a time. Stalin was furious and even accused his Allies of making up the entire affair in order to let him fail in the face of the German onslaught.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill called the event "one of the most melancholy naval episodes in the whole of the war." A later inquiry assigned no blame to anyone, since orders were issued by the First Sea Lord. American Admiral King distrusted the British in the early days of the war and diverted the next convoy to the Pacific where the Americans controlled the escort ships directly. It would take many months for trust to be rebuilt between the Allies and even then it was trust with strings attached.

An interesting viewpoint for the battle can be found here: http://www.pq17.eclipse.co.uk/index.html

From the Diary of Engine Room Artificer Jack Bowman

“Saturday, July 4th. | FATAL DAY German planes still making swoops at us, and shadowing. At 1800 suddenly the sky is black with bombers and the attack is on. It was a small hell let loose. As far as is known, all these were carrying tinfish. One of the merchant ships, it must have been an oiler, sank within five seconds. Soon the sea was covered with boats and rafts and bodies. As far as I know, three ships were sunk and some abandoned, but later were boarded again (note 3). All this time neither cruisers, battleships, or aircraft from the carrier came to our assistance. I suppose they were looking for the German fleet. Later on the Admiralty signaled all destroyers to leave the convoy and try to engage the Germans. The convoy was to split up, every man for himself. We seemed to be in a very hopeless situation. Soon ships seemed to be racing in every direction. Our captain decided to go north. Two or three followed us.”

“Sunday, July 5th. By this morning we could get no further because of icefields. We are 15 degrees off the North Pole. What a sight! Icebergs as big as Orrest Head (note 5), all a lovely bluey-green, covered with arctic birds. I think we have covered about 200 miles trying to get round these icefields. At 1600 another Admiralty signal. Two German battlewagons and eight destroyers were likely to intercept that night, or early morning. Imagine our feelings. By this time we were beginning to lose hope. Remember that we had never had our clothes off for a week, and nerves were becoming taut. I never lost hope myself, but felt very sorry for one of my stokers whose nerve has gone. I was prepared, if given the chance, to sell my life very dearly. My only regrets were those I loved at home. A fog set in and we must have lost the fleet.”

Seventy years ago the radio waves were filled with the cso0unds of desperate merchantmen calling out over their band. "Am being bombed by a large number of planes", "On fire in the ice", "Abandoning ship", "Six U-boats approaching on the surface.”

As the crews drowned in the icy waters or burned on ships that had been left helpless to a pursuing enemy, I wonder what their last thoughts would have been. I can’t help but think some of them wondered “Why”? before the sunk below the waves.

As I look at our defensive situation today, I am more and more worried about that question as well.

Politicians with other priorities in the past forty years have already allowed our merchant fleet to be dissolved. Our shipbuilding industry has been crippled by outsourcing on a scale that is too massive to understand by most. As newer threats emerge, our fleet is designed to fight a completely different war. Would we be able to manage safe passage for the ships that provide us with the oil and other vital resources that keep our country moving forward? Or will we find ourselves on some night in July ordering the hapless unarmed ships carrying those supplies to “Scatter”

I hope we never have to find out. I hear the Iranians are planning a nuclear submarine.

Mister Mac

May 7, 2012

No wonder the bust went packing… ²

American History, Congress, Freedom, Leadership, Service and Sacrifice, White House • Tags: Churchill, Great Britain, Insensitive, politically incorrect, World War 2

I have highlighted a bit about character and leadership recently in theleansubmariner. Its been refreshing to see the support from so many readers but I have also received my share of criticism for trying to put a smiley face on bad behavior. Fair enough. When reading someone else‘s opinions it can be easy to chip away at one idea or another if you fundamentally disagree with the entire notion.

One of my shipmates even suggested that I welcomed booze addled skippers in Mister Mac’s Navy to the detriment of the poor lads (and lassies) who might suffer under that brand of leadership. I am pretty sure I didn’t actually say anything about including drinking as a major at the Naval Academy (although truth be told, there may be a few who had already unofficially adopted it with abandon). In fact, my life and career were indeed affected by at least one full time imbiber (how much Scope do you need for a three day run, anyway?)

I suppose my real point then and now is that there must be a giant “Sensitivity Meter” somewhere in the maze of buildings called the Capitol Complex. I can almost imagine what it looks like with a matrix of cross functional definitions and schemes. No race, gender, mixed gender, confused gender, creed, color, religious sensitivity of any kind is excluded although rumor has it that the segment concerning Caucasian males has been permanently disabled.

The Sensitivity Meter has existed since the earliest days of the country.

It was invented by Ben Franklin on one of his more creative days. His original intent was to take a good poke at early American society. Somehow though, it was hijacked by people who didn’t understand that he was practicing SARCASM. These good folks (and their followers) have maintained it and have continued to tweak on it even to this very day.

The original spring Franklin used for the meter has long since had to be replaced from being wound too tight. Edison’s contribution of lights and Alexander G. Bell’s buzzers have all been upgraded to digital and there is talk of some new sort of plasma flow illuminator coming down the pike. The Sensitivity Meter itself is the single best example of non-partisanship in the entire world. Everybody uses it for different purposes of course, but they all use it. Word has it that there is a permanent connection to the United Nations now with an over-ride feature.

There is only one recorded time in the history of the nation where the meter was broken. Naturally, it was broken during a prelude to war. Impressively, it was broken by a man who was only half American. This man made a speech in another country but its reverberations were felt around the world. The meter would be operating at reduced capacity for more than five years from that point. The fear of a repeat resulted in many new filters and protective devices being added and an internal strengthening that would ensure it never happened again. Ironically, Admiral Rickover’s passion for a certain type of energy secretly fueled the progress of the new machine but protocol requires that the source of power never be mentioned near the device.

Who was the man who caused such damage? Well, he was a failed politician. Many times over. He hated many things but specifically he hated:

Women’s suffrage, worker’s rights, communism, bolshevism, socialism, any other countries that were not his (except of course the US since he was half America). He had a sharp tongue and once told a Navy Admiral that he didn’t want to hear about Naval Traditions which were about nothing more than booze, sodomy and corporal punishment (which leads me to believe that he hated gays too). He spoke to his colleagues with offensive language and was not overly careful around the ladies (especially after he had downed a few).

This hater often slept until noon and then made his folks work with him late into the night. He was a Zionist, a war mongering extremists, and was determined that using force against Gandhi was the only way to succeed.

He was a one per center before being one was even fashionable. Eating from gold plates and having food served by large powdered servants was very common at his house. Copious quantities of wine and cognac and boxes full of CUBAN cigars that he smoked until his death despite his hatred for the place where he continued to purchase them. He was not overly impressed by Africans, Pakistanis, Indians, Chinese, and people from any part of Asia in general. In his earlier life his writings about their weakness and need for civilized leadership were well known.

He was an opportunistic man who switched from the Liberal to Conservative view points as it suited his purposes. He was a gambler who loved casinos and mixed it up regularly with people of less than honorable intentions. He was a veteran of a number of wars, ruthless in his treatment of his enemy, failed in several major campaigns and disgraced in more ways than the average man could ever recover from.

In no sense of the word could you ever categorize Winston Churchill as an average man though. His greatest sin that propelled all others was that he had an ego that was unsurpassed by anyone of his age. That in itself is probably what cracked the tubes wide open on the Sensitivity Meter.

Making this speech to Parliament on May 13 1940 sealed the deal on damaging the “Meter”

“I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”

We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark and lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: victory; victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival. Let that be realized; no survival for the British Empire, no survival for all that the British Empire has stood for, no survival for the urge and impulse of the ages, that mankind will move forward towards its goal. But I take up my task with buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail among men. At this time I feel entitled to claim the aid of all, and I say, “Come then, let us go forward together with our united strength.”

With all of his tumultuous faults, he became the right man for the right age at the right time. His dogged determination saved the world from being overrun by Fascism and if we had kept the Sensitivity Meter in drydock, may have helped to prevent us from fifty years of Bolshevism.

No wonder the White House sent the bust back. (And here you thought it was just about the way Grandpa was treated in Kenya, didn’t ya?

Mister Mac

Quiz time: How many politically incorrect things can you identify about Winston Churchill that would keep him from serving as a leader with our newly remodeled Sensitivity Meter?

Bonus Food from Angus:

Nancy Astor was an American socialite who married into the wealthy English family of Astor. She actually was the first woman to be elected to Parliament, which makes her humiliation all the sweeter. She was invited to 1912 a dinner party located in the Churchill estate , but, unfortunately for her, she became extremely annoyed at a drunk and politically incorrect Winston Churchill. Finally, she exclaimed the following: “Winston, if you were my husband, I’d put poison in your coffee.” Unaffected by her sudden outburst, Churchill moderately and quickly replied with a great comeback:

theleansubmariner

The original lean from a stealthy source

Tag Archives: World War 2