Military History

The Day Frigate Samuel B. Roberts Was Mined (USNI News)

I'm not sure if we known this site with construction number details: http://www.uswarplanes.net/index.htm http://www.uswarplanes.net/c130.HTML

The Naval History and HNSA Guide to U.S. Museum Ships (USNI News) Excellent resource!

By LCDR Sean Walsh, USN (Ret.) Following up on last week’s commemoration of the 246th anniversary of the Chaplain Corps, the NHF would like to acknowledge the service of Navy chaplains during the attack at Pearl Harbor. At the time of Pearl Harbor, the Chaplain Corps had only 192 chaplains on active duty (105 Regular and 87 Reserve) although actions were underway for the accession of additional Reserve chaplains. Of these, 19 were present at Pearl Harbor on December 7th, ranging in rank from Captain to Acting Chaplain (Lieutenant Junior Grade equivalent). 14 were assigned to ships, with the Fleet Chaplain having an office ashore although also assigned to the flags…

From BBC News 1998: India explodes nuclear controversy The Indian government has announced it has carried out a series of underground nuclear tests. It is the first time India has carried out such tests since 1974. The experiments took place without any warning to the international community, and there has been widespread outrage and concern over the move. The test site, in Pokhran in the northern desert state of Rajasthan, is only about 150km (93 miles) from the border with Pakistan. The two countries have fought three wars since independence with Britain in 1947, mainly over the disputed territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and there are fears the tests could e…

Reviewed by ISCM (AW) David Mattingly, USN Ret. A mix of airframes; fighters, light attack planes, and helicopters all made up the carrier air wings on Yankee Station during the Vietnam War. Most notably, the RF-8 Crusader piloted by Navy and Marine Corps aviators flew over enemy territory as the “eyes of the fleet.” Kenneth Jack, a Navy photographers mate assigned to Navy Light Photographic Squadron 62 (VFP-62), has gathered the story of the RF-8, its pilots, and maintainers from unofficial and official sources including reels of archived reconnaissance film shot over North Vietnam by RF-8 photo pilots. The RF-8 Crusader was developed from the F-8 Crusader whic…

Research on the CSS Hunley proceeds in Charleston, CS. Picture attached. I served on the submarine tender named for the submarine, in Scotland and the US (from 1986 to 1989). FWFS, Greg Emerson, DM1(SW), USN Renton, WA, USA

Reviewed by CAPT Richard Dick, USN (Ret.) U.S. Aircraft Carriers 1939-45 is an excellent 2021 addition to the Casemate Illustrated Specials series. This slim volume offers a surprisingly comprehensive overview of American carriers that served in World War II as well as those that belonged to wartime classes but were completed only in the aftermath of the war. Author Ingo Bauernfeind also reviews aircraft developments starting in World War I and then goes deeper in describing the development of fleet carriers and naval aircraft from USS Langley (CV-1), through the conversions of USS Lexington (CV-2) and USS Saratoga (CV-3), to interwar carrier designs. He contrasts wor…

Reviewed by CAPT Chuck Good, USN (Ret) Broad in scope and rich in detail, Hitler’s Navy is a comprehensive overview of the ships, organization, and sailors of the Kriegsmarine. As befits Osprey’s core competency in producing monographs of famous ships and classes, the work is lavishly illustrated and full of technical detail. For those seeking focused accounts of famous campaigns or battles, such as the River Plate, Denmark Strait or the Norwegian Campaign, this is not the work. These engagements have been the focus of many previous works, and the author chooses to give them a minimalist summary in his first chapter. But Hitler’s Navy makes up for the lack of fighting…

Reviewed by LCDR Joseph L. Ilk, SC, USNR (Ret.) “On May 12, 1975 – only two weeks after the fall of Saigon and the collapse of South Vietnam – Cambodian Khmer Rouge forces boarded and seized the U.S. merchant vessel SS Mayaguez in international waters and took its crew hostage.” Thus begins Dr. Christopher J. Lamb’s analysis of the Mayaguez crisis. Lamb devoted five years of his life to understanding the Mayaguez crisis while earning his master’s and doctorate in the 1980’s. However, in the past few years new sources of information have become available, including interviews with primary participants as well as previously classified material. These enabled Lamb to…

A link to the Flottes de Combat (from 1988 published also in English by the Naval Institute Press as Combat Fleets of the World) history (in French): http://www.netmarine.net/g/dossiers/fdc/index.htm A link to the 1914 issue in Gallica (the French virtual national library), of difficult navigation: http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k54015052.image.langFR.r=flottes%20de%20combat

By Pam Ribbey, Opus (2022) Rebuttal Review By Capt. J.R. Reddig, USN (Ret.) I read a review of this book and wanted to respond. By way of background, I served in three wars in uniform. Three that were declared, anyway. Others were undeclared, like the war in the Navy about communications intelligence. The issues were stark, and play out today in the review you published. Who owned the management of the radio intercept system that collected it? Who provided authoritative analysis of the material that was collected? I joined in 1977, when the lines had been drawn. SIGINT collection had been consolidated at NSA, and the old and sometimes bitter struggle betwee…

The Navy Museum will serve as the backdrop for an afternoon seminar followed by a reception as the NHF commemorates the 40th anniversary of the largest naval combat confrontation in the post-World War II era. With the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano (ex-USS Phoenix) torpedoed on 2 May 1982, and the HMS Sheffield crippled two days later, this is an appropriate time to mark the occasion with presentations capturing various aspects of the fight for sea control around this South Atlantic island group. Featuring Director of Naval History Rear Adm. Sam Cox; Former Secretary of the Navy John Lehman, and former DoD officials Norman Polmar and Dov Zakheim. Sabastian Bruns with…

In the immediate aftermath of World War I, many Americans attributed the naval arms race between Great Britain and Germany as a factor leading to the cataclysmic conflict and had little appetite for further naval spending by the United States. Influenced by pacifist voices as well desiring to cut the budget, President Warren Harding invited hosted a naval arms confrontation in Washington between 1921-22 that resulted in an understanding between the five-post World War I naval powers of the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, France and Italy to place a moratorium on new capital ship construction and impose tonnage restrictions on the fleets of the five signatory nations…

A curious 1875 Brassey's article found casually about armoured and unarmoured warships. Only an historical curiosity: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Unarmoured_ships

Operation Chariot (Defense Media Network)

Not very clear his use, but post it to no forget it: http://seesaawiki.jp/w/namacha2/d/%B4%CF%BA%DC%B5%A1%B4%D8%CB%A4/CIWS%A1%CA%C3%E6%B9%F1%A1%CB

By Pam Ribbey, Washington, DC: Opus Self-Publishing, Politics and Prose Bookstore (2022) Reviewed by Charles C. Kolb, Ph.D. This self-published booklet is, in the main, a biography of Pam Ribbey’s grandfather, focuses on her own research and discussions with him on his is role before, during, and immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Capt. Charles Hamilton Maddox, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Class of 1909, served as a United States naval officer and was a veteran of both World Wars. He had also attended the Harvard Graduate School of Applied Science and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Captain Maddox retired in 1946 and passed away u…

By Staff Historian Dr. Dave Winkler It was an honor back in 2011 to meet Tom Hudner who toured the Cold War Gallery that the Naval Historical Foundation had raised funds for. Ten years earlier the NHF hosted a symposium about the Korean War to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Korean War and the Hudner rescue attempt to save Ens. Jessie Brown was discussed in detail and retired Vice Adm. Gerald Miller stood up in the back of the Navy Memorial theater to state he had been on the bridge of Leyte when radio transmissions of the loss of Brown’s aircraft and Hudner’s subsequent ditching of his aircraft to attempt to extract Brown were received. Miller recalled Le…

By Sean Walsh Last week I was able to watch the new movie Devotion along with three other NHF members. The movie centers around the real-life friendship between Ens. Jesse L. Brown, the first African American naval aviator* and Lt. (JG) Thomas Hudner and is based on the book of the same name by Adam Makos, previously reviewed here. I suspect many of you have seen trailers for Devotion on television and are familiar with the basic story. Prior to seeing the film I also re-read portions of Such Men As These by David Sears, about naval carrier aviation during the Korean War and watched the classic film The Bridges at Toko-ri to get additional background. The movie st…