Monday Music "Sink the Bismark" by Johnny Horton

  I have blogged about the Bismark more than once and the effect that the ship had on the German psyche and the British, especially when Bismark sunk the Hood.  HMS Hood was a prewar battlecruiser that was the pride of the British fleet and was sunk in a 15 minute battle with the Bismark with 3 people that survived the Hood sinking. 

"Sink the Bismark" (later "Sink the Bismarck") is a march song by country music singer Johnny Horton and songwriter Tillman Franks, based on the pursuit and eventual sinking of the German battleship Bismarck in May 1941, during World War II. Horton released this song through Columbia Records in 1960, when it reached #3 on the charts. As originally released, the record label used the common misspelling "Bismark"; this error was corrected for later releases of the song. It was inspired by the 1960 British war movie Sink the Bismarck! and was in fact (with the producer John Brabourne's approval) commissioned from Johnny Horton by 20th Century Fox who were worried about the subject's relative obscurity. While the song was used in U.S. theater trailers for the film, it was not used in the film itself.

Air Attack on the Bismark

I am taking a bit of a break from the stupidity going on from the Charlotteville stupidity and the resulting fallout.  I had watched a show on netflex last weekend and it was talking about finding the H.M.S Hood and it talked about the cruiser and the effect the sinking had on British Morale.  Well anyway the show also had them looking for the S.M.S Bismark.  They had touched about the Fairey Swordfish finding the Bismark and the torpedo attack that jammed the rudder and forced the Bismark back to the British ships that were trying to catch them.

The German battleship, Bismarck, was one of the biggest vessels ever built in the first half of the 20^th century. A marvel of advanced engineering and technology, it was the most powerful ship in the world – yet a single shot by an antiquated biplane took it down.
At 792’8” in length, and with a beam of 118’1”, it displaced 49,500 tons of water. It was also deadly with eight 15” SK C/34 guns in four twin turrets, twelve 5.9” L/55 guns, sixteen 4.1” L/65 guns, sixteen 1.5” L/83 guns, and twelve 0.79” anti-aircraft guns, as well as four Arado Ar 196 reconnaissance floatplanes.

Bismarck in 1940. Photo Credit.

Its function was to destroy Allied convoys in the Atlantic, the lifeblood of Britain. On the 18th of May 1941, it set off under Admiral Günther Lütjens and Commander Ernst Lindemann, accompanied by the light cruiser, Prinz Eugen. Three days later, they were spotted near Bergen, Norway.

The British sent out the HMS Hood. Launched in 1918, it measured 860’7” in length and 104’2” at the beam. It had been upgraded in 1939, but not enough. More had to be done, but the war’s outbreak forced the Hood to patrol Iceland and the Faroe Islands to keep the Germans at bay.

HMS Hood.

When first commissioned, it was the biggest and fastest warship in the world, securing Britain’s grip over her colonies. The Hood, therefore, represented the height of British technology, naval power, and imperial might – making it a beloved icon.
With it went the HMS Prince of Wales (PoW), which was more up-to-date. Unfortunately, the technology was so cutting-edge that much of it was untested. It had ten 14” guns, but eight were housed in malfunctioning turrets. The Royal Navy knew this, but the Bismarck’s sighting had forced their hand.
The Hood and the Bismarck were almost evenly matched. Both had eight 15” guns that could shoot 1,700-pound shells over 15 miles. But the Hood could only fire two shells a minute compared to the Bismarck’s three. The latter was also more heavily armored, while the Hood was less so because it was designed for speed.
The British tried to reach the Denmark Strait before the Germans so they could “cross the T” before them. This strategy requires positioning the length of one’s ship to the front of an enemy ship, since ships have more guns at their sides than they do at the front. The one who crosses the T can then fire more salvos than the one who gets crossed.

Aerial reconnaissance photo taken by Flying Officer Michael Suckling shows Bismarck anchored in Norway.

But the Hood and the PoW got there too late before dawn on May 24, so it was the Germans who crossed the British T off the western coast of Iceland. The Hood was sunk at a little past 6 AM and the PoW had to retreat after suffering extensive damage.
Before it did, however, it managed three solid hits – puncturing the Bismarck’s fuel tanks and flooding its front lower decks with seawater. So the Bismarck headed toward Nazi-occupied France for repairs and since the Prinz Eugen could do nothing more, it headed off toward the Atlantic. Despite the damage, the Bismarck was still heavily armed and the captain felt  confident about reaching France by dawn on May 27th.
Twenty-one British destroyers, thirteen cruisers, six battleships, and two aircraft carriers gave chase… but the German ship had vanished.
On May 26 at 10:30 AM, the Bismarck was found a mere 700 miles off the French coast. In another 500 miles, the sea and air would be filled with German ships and planes – so a British fleet closed in from the north, while another came in from the south.

Bismarck firing her main battery during the battle. Photo Credit.

At 7 PM, fifteen Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers took off from the HMS Ark Royal and split into three groups to attack. Lieutenant-Commander John “Jock” Moffat flew one of them. As he broke through the cloud cover, he was awed at the sight of the German behemoth.
The Swordfish plummeted at 115 miles per hour. The Bismarck desperately filled the air with flak, so the pilots dived even lower, hugging the water and hoping the ship’s guns couldn’t aim that low. In a worst case scenario, they might just survive a sea crash.

A Swordfish returns to Ark Royal after making the torpedo attack against the Bismarck.

At 2,000 yards, Moffat prepared to launch his only torpedo, when he heard a voice, “Not yet, Jock! Not yet!”
Moffat jerked and looked around. It was his Observer, Flight-Lieutenant JD “Dusty” Miller. The man was standing on the right wing with his butt in the air, head somewhere below the plane’s belly.
Moffat understood. The sea was rough. If his torpedo hit the crest of a wave, it could veer off course. Miller wanted to make sure it fell into a trough so their only weapon had a chance. But the longer they took, the greater their chances of getting hit.
“Let her go, Jock!”

The Fairey Swordfish biplane torpedo bomber LS326 built in 1934. It has been refurbished and was photographed in flight on 1 July 2012. Photo Credit.

Moffat released his torpedo.
“We’ve got a runner!” Miller screamed.
The Bismarck turned left sharply – a mistake. The torpedo hit the left rear, tearing a hole through the hull and causing rivets to pop off the bulkhead. The ship’s twin rudders, angled for the turn, jammed. Power died, forcing the engineers to restart everything. Mechanics tried to fix the rudders, but too much water was rushing in.
With rudders stuck at 12° to port, the Bismarck turned around and headed back toward the British fleet. Within minutes, it was turning around in circles. Lütjens informed Berlin and vowed to die fighting.

Map showing the course of Bismarck and the ships that pursued her. Photo Credit.

The British showed no mercy. They surrounded the Bismarck, forcing it to fire in all directions. Unable to maneuver, it became a sitting duck and ran out of ammunition at 9:31 AM the next day. Despite the lack of return fire, the Royal Navy kept up their barrage till it sank at 10:39 AM.
They did try to rescue survivors, but a U-boat scare forced them to retreat with only 115 Germans (out of 2,092). The rest were left to their fate. Germany only found out about the sinking from a News Network at around noon. By the time they reached the scene, only five more men were alive to be retrieved. But not Lütjens. He kept his word, as did Lindemann.
Thanks to an outdated biplane, the Bismarck’s only combat mission lasted a mere 215 hours. From that moment on, naval warfare changed forever. The plane was now as important as the ship in naval warfare.

HMS Dorsetshire picking up survivors.

German Assault troops from WWI

I have several "Historical" posts in the works, I also have one that that talks about the drug use and the American troops in Vietnam, but that one I will have my Dad "Proof" the article since he was an MP his first tour and "El CID" his second tour and he knows a lot about the subject.  I know that I occasionally make mistakes on my historical stuff but I try to be accurate when I can.  This one comes from the German Front of WWI.  I have blogged on several articles about the Germans in WWI and the "Interwar" period.

German Assault Troops getting ready for a raid on the trenches of the Allies

In recent years, the term “stormtrooper” has come to mean something out of the science fiction world of Star Wars. It wasn’t an accident that George Lucas used the term. Before his movies, the word was used to describe the men of the SS, Hitler’s fanatical bodyguards.
But it was also no accident that Hitler and others used the word to describe his elite unit. In the front lines of WWI in 1918, where Hitler was a runner in the trenches, the new and innovative German infantry units dubbed “Sturmtruppen” led the last great German offensive of the war.

 Otto Von Bismark taking the oath of allegiance from the various states of the German nation to form the NAtion of Germany.  After soundly trouncing the French in the Franco-Prussian War in 1970 where Bismark was the architect of the stunning victory over the hated French.

In the Romantic Era of the late 19th century that saw Germany become a united nation, the word “storm” was popular. It denoted power and impending doom. Nothing could have described the German troops of 1918 better, but the truth is, these specially trained German soldiers were not the only “stormtroops” of the war.
Italy had its “Arditi” – “the Ardent Ones,” and elements of the British Lancashires actually referred to themselves as “stormtroops” and underwent specialized small-unit training towards the end of the war, as a way to (hopefully) break the log-jam of trench warfare, which was not only costly but also kept each side from its larger objectives. Other nations such as Canada and Austria experimented with similar ideas.

Hitler (far right, seated) with his army comrades of the Bavarian Reserve Infantry   Regiment 16 (c. 1914–18)

The impetus in developing new infantry tactics came from the bloody stalemate of trench warfare and the new weapons of war which made it necessary, primarily the machine-gun. It is an axiom of warfare that armies tend to fight their next war the way they fought their last.
Though infantry weapons had become much more deadly in the late 18th century, men still organized themselves on the battlefield as if they were on the parade ground. This was primarily to increase firepower and casualties on the enemy, but also was because many of their officers were not capable of maneuvering troops freely outside of formation.

The result? The hundreds of thousands of men cut down in rows by machine guns.

German soldiers of the 11th Reserve Hussar Regiment fighting from a trench, on the Western Front, 1916

This went on for years, but behind the scenes, even in 1915, the Germans were working on training specialized units in new tactics and weapons. In this, the Germans had a significant advantage and head start over their rivals: their command structure.
Though the stereotype of the German soldier is one that rigidly obeyed orders like an automaton, this in many ways was far from the truth. Long before other nations developed the modern infantry tactics of today and the type of command and control necessary to coordinate them, the Germans were innovating them.

German Army hussars on the attack during maneuvers

Basically speaking, years before most of the other great powers, the German army trained each man, from the bottom to the very top, in the job of the man one rung higher than him on the ladder.
For example, should a sergeant fall on the field, the corporal under him would have not only trained as a corporal but would have known the sergeant’s job as well, and thus could fill his role. The sergeant would have known the lieutenant’s job, etc., up to the top.
This sounds completely mundane today, but in 1914-1918 this was pretty unheard of – you didn’t learn the job of the man above you until you had earned it.
The Germans’ departure from that mindset meant that in the chaos of battle, the death of one man might not stop an attack in its tracks. Of course, this is an oversimplification, but the German Army showed a great deal more flexibility in this regard than any of its foes.

German soldiers (wearing distinctive pickelhaube helmets with cloth covers) on the front at the First Battle of the Marne during World War I

Another factor that contributed to the development of stormtroop tactics in 1918 was another idea that seems to run counter to the image of the German/Prussian military man as a mindless military machine.
From the top down, officers and men were given objectives, and perhaps a framework to work within, but within each planning stage, all the way down to squad level, officers and men were (generally) responsible for working out a plan at their level for achieving their objective.
For example, a captain commanding a company might be given the assignment of capturing a small town. How he did this was up to him – given the equipment allotted to him, timetable, etc. Typically, he would assign each platoon commander an objective and they would work out with their sergeants (and they with their corporals, and so on) how they would go about the attack.
In many of the other armies of 1914, generals and colonels with no knowledge of the objective would plan out the assault for company commanders and very little deviation was allowed. Today the German idea does not sound revolutionary at all, but back then it was, and it laid the foundation for modern infantry tactics.

 Some German gear from WWI

In the spring of 1915, a German unit was developed under the name “Sturmabteilung” (“Assault Section”). Yes, this was the same name given to Hitler’s early “Brownshirts” or “SA,” many of whom had served in these type of units during the war. Later, as the unit grew, it was referred to as a “Sturmbataillon” and the men within it as “Sturmtruppen.”

In charge of training this group of men was Captain Willi Rohr, who had been in the army since he was 14 years old. He had come up through the ranks and had also served in a specialized “Jäger,” or “Hunter,” division.

Captain Willy Rohr, Commander of Storm Battalion No. 5 (Rohr).

The Jäger were specialized troops that operated in forests and woods, and many of the men within them had been gamekeepers, hunters, and even poachers. They had different and camouflaged uniforms before most of the rest of the German Army did, and had a strong esprit de corps.
They were also given a much greater degree of autonomy than many other troops since they would be out of the reach of communications for days or weeks at a time. The wooded areas in which they drilled and were deployed also called for a more flexible formation strategy. All of this evolved into the first stormtrooper units.
Among the first changes that Rohr made were to the units’ field artillery. Many German units had organic artillery within them, both of relatively small caliber: 37mm and a heavier 3-inch (7.5 cm) support gun. Rohr and his men reduced the weight of both of these weapons, making them much more portable.

German Stoßtruppen (stormtroopers) rising from trenches to attack

Rohr also changed the footwear of the men – instead of the traditional jackboot we’re all familiar with, he equipped them with more resilient and flexible Austrian mountain boots, which were lighter and quieter as well. Different camouflage patterns were developed and the uniform itself was equipped with elbow and knee patches made of cloth and leather to help with crawling and to prevent injury.

 German Uniforms of WWI

The most obvious changes came in the form of weaponry. First and foremost, Rohr reached back into the past, using the old grenadiers of the Prussian Army as a model. Like these men, his stormtroops would be equipped with satchels full of grenades, making virtually every man a walking arsenal.
The standard German infantry rifle, the famous Mauser 98k, was made lighter and shorter for easy movement and firing. Later in the war, the stormtroops were the first to receive sub-machine guns, those weapons whose development was owed to the need to clear trenches. Shotguns were also deployed.

Stormtrooper of the Assault Bataillon Rohr

Rohr initially developed body-armor, but the materials of the time were too heavy and impeded movement, and fast movement combined with overwhelming violence was key to the stormtroops’ success. Other nations, particularly the Italians, did develop and used body armor.
One piece of equipment did stay and was eventually used by the entire German army – the coal scuttle helmet, which provided much greater protection than the spiked “Pickelhaube” helmet of the wars’ first years.

German Reichswehr soldiers wearing WW1 Stahlhelms.  As I recall in this pic was when Adolph Hitler had the German Army swear personal loyalty to him instead of the German Republic

Rohr, and others such as future legend Erwin Rommel, developed infiltration tactics designed to surprise and overwhelm the enemy. They realized that the hours-long artillery bombardments that took place all along the line didn’t inflict the desired casualties, but did alert the enemy of a pending attack.
Accordingly, Rohr and the subsequent stormtroop units either gave up the barrage entirely, or focused a short and intense barrage on the one part of the line they were planning to assault. Sometimes this was a ruse, and the units used the noise down the line to cover their movements while attacking elsewhere.

Soldier of a German stormtrooper assault group with his Bergmann MP18.1 and a Parabellum P08, Northern France, Spring 1918.

 

As in WWII 20-some years later, the men of the stormtroops attempted to seize the weakest part of the enemy line, break through, and assault the rest of the enemy position from the rear. The men would be right behind the barrage, which became known as a “rolling barrage” when the British used the tactic in the last part of the war.
Before the enemy could recover their senses, the stormtroops were on them, using their grenades, shotguns, machine-guns and small field artillery under direct fire. Once in the trenches, the men of the stormtroops used their own brutal and primitive armament: clubs with nails, medieval spiked maces, trench knives with grooves and skull crackers, and of course, the sharpened shovel.

A German stormtrooper on the Somme wearing a body armour. Note two potato mashers-grenades he is armed with.

In the spring of 1918, General Ludendorff launched the last German offensive of the war. Leading the way were the stormtroops, many of whom infiltrated enemy lines before the main attacks. For the first days of the offensive, they caused shock and panic among the Allies, driving them miles from the starting point.

However, as the offensive continued, attrition and exhaustion took their toll on the men of Sturmtruppen and many of them simply collapsed. In more than one case, deprived German troops, overrunning French supply depots, filled themselves with bread, cheese, and gallons of wine. The result? A lot of German POW’s.
The German Offensive of 1918 failed for a number of reasons, but the tactics of the stormtroops live on today on almost every battlefield in the world.

Monday Music "You don't want me" by Steel Breeze

I remembered hearing this group on MTV back in the early days when MTV played music video's.  I had forgotten this song until my Sirius/XM Played it and it jogged my memory.  Well I almost went with Johnny Horton "Sink the Bismark" but decided to roll with an 80's song.  I will probably go with Johnny Horton next week though. 

Steel Breeze is an American rock group that had a popular video on MTV with "You Don't Want Me Anymore" in 1982, followed by "Dreamin' is Easy" the following year.

Taking their name from a phrase in Pink Floyd's song, "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", the six-member band from Sacramento, California comprised- in its "classic" lineup- of Ric Jacobs (vocals), Ken Goorabian and Waylin Carpenter (guitars), Rod Toner (keyboards), Vinnie Pantaleoni (bass guitar), and Barry Lowenthal (drums) released their self-titled debut album in 1982 on RCA Records. "You Don't Want Me Anymore," the first single from the album, quickly jumped into the Top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 supported by a video that was a favorite of early MTV, and peaked at #16. The next single, "Dreamin' Is Easy" also made it into the Top 40, but could not go higher than #30.

 

They had originally gotten together a few years earlier in a different lineup and had enjoyed some local success with "You Don't Want Me Anymore" with the hard work of manager John Wiseman, before catching the ear of producer Kim Fowley and attorney David Chatfield, who recorded the band's first album at Rusk studios in Hollywood and got Steel Breeze their recording contract with RCA. Casey Kasem, on the March 12, 1983 edition of American Top 40, describes how Fowley discovered Steel Breeze while going through approximately 1200 demo tapes that were about to be discarded by a local Hollywood night club, Madam Wongs. Chatfield and Fowley flew up to Sacramento and signed the band after Chrysalis Record executive Tom Trumbo told Chatfield he was looking for a band like Journey. Chatfield left Trumbo's office and went to Fowley's home where Fowley pulled out the Steel Breeze demo of "You Don't Want Me Anymore," which they both knew was a hit. 

 

The band's lineup has shifted considerably since the release of the debut album, with keyboardist Rod Toner remaining in the band the longest of anyone from the classic lineup days. In 1984, Steel Breeze (now with ex-707 vocalist Kevin Chalfant and keyboardist Loren Haas as members) released their second album, Heart On The Line on an independent record label, but the record went unnoticed despite guest appearances by Bruce Springsteen's saxophonist, Clarence Clemons and Santana's vocalist, Alex Ligertwood. Five years later, a third Steel Breeze album, Cry Thunder came out with Bobby Thompson on vocals, Rick Lowe and Robbie Bickford on guitar, Toner on keyboards and Paul Ojeda on drums. In 1991, Still Warrior was released with yet another lineup, just as Chalfant had a small hit with a similar act, The Storm. In 1994, Peace Of Mind was issued.

The Fairey Swordfish.

The first time I heard of this airplane,was when I read a book called "Sink the Bismark" by CS Forester,

    My copy was printed in 1976, I bought it from the Stars and Stripes bookstore in Frankfurt Germany where my Dad was stationed at.

The Second World War was a period of greatly accelerated development in the field of aviation: this was the first war in which jet fighters were used, and bigger bombers than the world had ever seen rained down death from the skies.
It is tempting to think that these types of airplane – the biggest, fastest, most powerful, most technologically advanced models – were solely responsible for winning the air war.
However, in focusing entirely on the flashiest, most impressive planes, it’s easy to lose sight of the plainer, simpler and smaller aircraft that played an equally important role in the Allied victory. One of these models was the Fairey Swordfish, nicknamed the “Stringbag,” a basic torpedo bomber biplane used extensively by the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy during WWII.
 

A Swordfish I during a training flight from RNAS Crail, circa 1939–1945

It was one of these humble planes that, reminiscent of Luke Skywalker taking out the Death Star in Star Wars, managed to disable one of the German Kriegsmarine’s most gigantic ships. Another Stringbag was also the first Allied plane to sink a German U-boat, and then later yet another of these unassuming airplanes was the first to sink a U-boat at night.
Stringbags also relentlessly harried the Axis shipping fleet in the Mediterranean, accounting for over a million tons sunk by the end of the war – not a bad tally for an outdated biplane!

Workers carrying out salvage and repair work on a wing of a Swordfish

Looks and performance-wise, the Fairey Swordfish bore a much closer resemblance to the airplanes of the First World War rather than those of the Second. With its open cockpit, fixed landing gear and its pair of stacked wings, by no stretch of one’s imagination could this humble plane have been described as “cutting edge” even in 1933, when the first prototype was built.
However, despite its outdated design, it was no less important to the Allied war effort than its more technologically-advanced compatriots. Indeed, the Swordfish’s antiquated appearance was deceptive – not so much in terms of its flat-out performance, but rather in terms of the roles it was able to perform.

A Fairey Swordfish floatplane being hoisted aboard the battleship HMS Malaya in October 1941

In addition to being armed with two basic but reliable 7.7mm machine guns, one fixed in position for the pilot in the front and one trainable at the rear for the gunner, the Swordfish was able to carry a wide variety of ordnance: anti-ship mines, depth charges, bombs, flares, or a ship-sinking 1,610-pound torpedo.
The plane was also used for a variety of roles, including reconnaissance, bombing, escort duty, or naval artillery spotting.

Swordfish on the after deck of HMS Victorious, 24 May 1941. The next day, nine Swordfish from Victorious attacked Bismarck.

Because of the variety of ordnance the Swordfish could carry and the diversity of its roles, it was given the nickname “Stringbag,” likening the plane to a popular style in women’s handbags at the time. Humorous as it was, the nickname was apt and it stuck.
As a basic three-seater biplane with a simple Bristol Pegasus motor that cranked out 690-odd horsepower, the Stringbag wasn’t going to be breaking any speed records in the air. However, the simple design meant that maintenance of the aircraft was easy, and that the planes were reliable.

A Swordfish, circa 1943–1944

The twin wings meant that the Stringbag had an excellent lift and could take off or land on a relatively short strip of land. This made Stringbags perfect for use on naval aircraft carriers, with their very limited landing and takeoff space.
Stringbags were also extraordinarily maneuverable, making up for their slow speed with excellent agility. Their fabric-covered, all-metal under-structures were sturdy enough to deal with harsh landings, and this meant that they were ideal for night use – an excellent advantage, when they could fly all but invisible to Axis ships or other targets below.

A Swordfish taking off from the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, with another passing by astern, circa 1939

These planes weren’t without their disadvantages, of course. They were at a severe disadvantage when it came to air-to-air combat against Axis fighter planes, and the open cockpit meant that the men in the plane would suffer immensely in the cold. Early in the war, Stringbags didn’t have communication radios, so they had to rely on hand-held signalling devices.
Nonetheless their advantages generally outweighed their disadvantages, and Stringbags saw extensive use throughout the war. In one of the most famous incidents in which they were involved, a Stringbag was instrumental in the sinking of one of the Kriegsmarine’s mightiest ships, the battleship Bismarck.

The Royal Navy’s HMS Ark Royal in 1939, with Swordfish biplane fighters passing overhead. The British aircraft carrier was involved in the crippling of the German battleship Bismarck in May 1941

The Bismarck was, at the time of its production, the most powerful warship ever made. In a sortie into the Atlantic aimed at crippling Britain’s crucial supply lines, the Bismarck battled and sank the British battle cruiser HMS Hood.
Realizing the Bismarck had to be stopped, Britain launched a pursuit, but the Bismarck managed to evade her pursuers. The only ship close enough to have a chance of disabling the giant was HMS Ark Royal, which had a few Stringbags equipped with torpedoes aboard. The Stringbags took off an hour before sunset on May 26, 1941 to take on the German behemoth.

 H.M.S. Hood

As the Stringbags, each carrying a single torpedo, approached the Bismarck they dived low, hoping to evade the flak that filled the air from the ship’s anti-aircraft guns. One Stringbag, piloted by Lieutenant Commander John Moffat, got the Bismarck in its sights.
Moffat and his observer, Flight Lieutenant JD Miller, had to time the release of their torpedo with extreme precision. They only had one chance to do this, and if they missed or the torpedo hit the crest of a wave in the extremely choppy sea, it was mission over. With flak flying all around them, and Miller waiting for the exact moment, Moffat’s hands were surely sweating on those controls.

A Swordfish III of RAF 119 Squadron being refueled at Maldegem, Belgium, (1944–1945). The fairing of the aircraft’s centimetric radar can be seen below the engine

Finally, the moment came, and the torpedo was dropped. Against all odds it hit home, striking the mighty battleship in a small area of vulnerability: the rudder, which the torpedo succeeded in jamming mid-turn.
With her rudder jammed to port, and thus unable to move in anything but endless circles, the Bismarck became a sitting duck. British naval ships later surrounded the Bismarck and eventually sank her after extensive bombardment.

Stringbags also played a key role in the night attack on Italy’s Taranto naval base. Two waves of Stringbags launched a surprise attack on the naval base on the night of November 11, 1940, and succeeded in destroying or disabling the bulk of Italy’s naval fleet – an attack that would be carefully studied by the Japanese, who would use similar tactics to attack Pearl Harbor.
Stringbags also saw extensive use in taking out Axis shipping lines, especially in the Mediterranean, where they sunk over a million tons throughout the war. All in all, this humble airplane proved its worth to the British Royal Navy many times over during the course of WWII.

Monday Music "North to Alaska" by Johnny Horton

   I decided to continue with the Johnny Horton with my Monday Music.  Besides the "Battle of New Orleans" post I did last week, he also did a couple of other songs, I will probably do "sink the Bismark" next week.   I remembered hearing this song as it was played on my dads record player.

"North to Alaska" is a 1960 hit song recorded by Johnny Horton which featured in the movie of the same name. Though Horton had sung several popular movie tie-in songs, this was the first one that was sung over the opening titles.
Written by Mike Phillips, "North to Alaska" topped Billboard magazine's Country Singles chart, reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and eight on Norway Singles Chart. Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.
Horton died in an automobile accident shortly after the song was released.

North to Alaska is a 1960 comedic Western/Northern film directed by Henry Hathaway and John Wayne (uncredited). The picture stars Wayne along with Stewart Granger, Ernie Kovacs, Fabian, and Capucine. The script is based on the play Birthday Gift by Ladislas Fodor and set during the Nome gold rush.

The movie featured Johnny Horton's song "North to Alaska", sung during the opening titles, setting up an introduction to the story.

The Evolution of the Iowa Class

I am still busy, but I was taking a break from studying and was doing a bit of surfing and ran across this article and thought it was very neat and it had a lot of pics I have never seen before.  I hope to continue blogging over the weekend of all goes well:)  I still would like to see one of those ships to be recommissioned but with the lethality of today's missiles I am not sure that the battleships would survive and the swarm of missiles that the Chinese  opposing force would launch.  I am a student of History and I see parallels between the Iowa's and another famous ship that represented a country and a navy during the Prewar Years.

 The "Mighty" Hood

H.M.S Hood flew the flag and was the embodiment of the British Empire during the prewar years and unfortunately by the time WWII rolled around, the Hood was very obsolete.  She was due for upgrades in Armor, fire control systems and anti-aircraft defenses in the late 1930's, but the bean counters put off the upgrades that would have most likely saved the ship when she fought the Bismark in the Battle of the Denmark Strait and was destroyed by an explosion that was endemic of the British Battle Cruisers.  The British knew of the flaw since Jutland but never fixed the problem.

From the time that USS Iowa was laid down in 1940 until today, the Iowa class battleships have been around for 78 years. During that time, the ships underwent many changes to help them adapt to the type of conflict they were engaged in. In this article, I gathered a number of photos from those years and organized them into this collection. They help to show how these warships looked throughout their long and illustrious careers.

Iowa Class Battleships From 1940 to Present

September 30, 1940. Workers lay out the bottom hull plates for the battleship USS Iowa (BB-61) about one month into her construction. Iowa would be the leadship for a new class of battleship design was free of the limitations imposed by the Second London Naval Treaty.

1941. The ceremonial driving of the first rivet for the battleship USS Missouri.

December 7, 1942. The Battleship USS New Jersey slides down the ways on the one year anniversary of the Attack on Pearl Harbor. The day that saw the loss of many battleship of the United States Navy now sees one of its most powerful take to the water.

1943. The hull of the USS Wisconsin (BB-64) looks like she is ready to take to the water. In a few months she would finally slide down the ways during her christening on December 7, 1943.

November 1944. USS Wisconsin (BB-64) ties up to the hulk of the battleship USS Oklahoma (BB-37) while stopping at Pearl Harbor. Wisconsin was 304′ longer than Oklahoma and displaced almost twice as much. Oklahoma was sunk at Pearl Harbor three years earlier. Now it was Wisconsin’s turn to go on the offensive as she headed to the front lines.

September 2, 1945. Swarms of aircraft fly over the battleship Missouri (BB-63) during the surrender to the Allies by the Empire of Japan.

April 5, 1946. USS Missouri anchored off of Istanbul, Turkey. She brought home the body of the Turkish Ambassador Mehmet Munir Ertegun. She is accompanied by the Turkish battlecruiser Yavuz, formally the battlecruiser SMS Goeben of the Imperial German Navy.

May 24, 1947. USS Iowa (BB-61) anchored in San Francisco Bay.

June 1948. USS New Jersey being moved from the New York Navy Yard to the Bayonne Shipyard in New Jersey for decommissioning. The dome shaped structures adorning her are covers for her 40mm anti-aircraft guns.

Summer 1949. USS Missouri tied up to the pier at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. Photos like this really show off just how amazingly large these leviathans truly were.

October 21, 1950. USS Missouri fires a salvo into Chong Jin, Korea. Missouri was the first battleship to arrive off of Korea and she quickly set to work pummeling targets of opportunity. The firepower of the battleships was devastating to North Korean and Chinese forces.

November 10, 1951. USS New Jersey (BB-62) unleashes a broadside into the region surrounding the 38th Parallel during the Korean War. A haze of smoke in the background marks the location of a previous salvo.

April 1952. USS Wisconsin is used to test the lifting power of the largest drydock available to the United States Navy, AFDB-1. AFDB-1, named Artisan was first used during the Second World War. It was one of the only floating drydocks capable of handling an Iowa class battleship. She was moved to Guam to serve as a forward repair base during the Korean War.

1953. New Jersey lends her firepower during the Korean War. Judging by the elevation of her 16″ guns, she is firing at extreme range. The Iowa class were capable of sending a 2,700lb shell to just over 42,345 yards (24.05 miles).

June 7, 1954. All four battleships of the Iowa class steam together as Battleship Division 2. This was the only time that all four sisters were together. The ships (from nearest to farthest) are USS Iowa, USS Wisconsin, USS Missouri, and USS New Jersey.

1955. USS New Jersey takes on fuel from the fleet oiler USS Mississinewa (AO-144) along with the destroyer USS Bordelon (DDR-881). New Jersey was operating in the Mediterranean Sea at this time.

May 1956. USS Wisconsin steams to port with a chunk of her bow missing. On the sixth of May, she had collided with the destroyer USS Eaton (DD-510). Wisconsin was repaired by replacing her damaged bow with that of her never finished sister, USS Kentucky (BB-66).

June 13, 1957. USS Iowa at Hampton Roads, Virginia. She was there to take part in the International Naval review.

1958. USS Wisconsin cruising off of Hampton Roads. This was one of the last cruises she would conduct before being decommissioned later that year.

February 6, 1959. The sixth ship of the Iowa class, USS Kentucky (BB-66) is towed up the Chesapeake Bay on her way to the scrappers. Her deck is littered with unused material including 5″ gun barrels and their turrets. Kentucky and her sister, Illinois (BB-65), were both cancelled during construction.

1962. Three Iowa class battleships mothballed at the Philadelphia Naval Yard. From back to front: USS Iowa, USS New Jersey, and USS Wisconsin. New Jersey was originally stored at Bayonne, New Jersey but had been moved to Philadelphia the previous year.

July 4, 1963. USS Missouri continues sit in mothballs at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. Missouri was mothballed on the West Coast while her sisters were on the East Coast.

April 10, 1964. Despite her mothballed status, Missouri served as the location of the memorial service that honored General Douglas MacArthur following his passing.

April 1965. The battleships New Jersey (Left) and Iowa (Right) tied up together at Philadelphia. Wisconsin had been temporarily moved to another location at the time.

1966. Though she as not a battleship, the fast combat support ship USS Sacramento (AOE-1) was very much related to the Iowa class. Before scrapping, the boilers and turbines of the sixth Iowa class battleship USS Kentucky were removed. Half of the power plant would be placed into USS Sacramento while the other half would go to her sister USS Camden (AOE-2).

April 1967. Three of the Iowa class sisters tied up together in mothballs. From left to right: USS Wisconsin (BB-64), USS New Jersey (BB-62), and USS Iowa (BB-61).

September 11, 1968. USS New Jersey cruising off of Hawaii before she would head for Vietnam. In interesting feature of this photograph is the 40mm gun tubs just forward of the 5″ guns. These were used as swimming pools by the crew. New Jersey was the only one of her sisters to have such a lavish feature!

March 1969. USS New Jersey (BB-62) fires a shell into South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. During the war, New Jersey performed brilliantly. During her brief time off Vietnam, she fired 5,688 rounds of 16 inch shells, and 14,891 rounds of 5-inch shells.

March 19, 1970. The battleship Missouri is mothballed at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. She is accompanied by several other ships including the cruisers Roanoke (CL-145) and Worcester (CL-144). Perhaps one of the few images showing America’s last battleships alongside its last light cruisers.

July 1974. A large assortment of mothballed ships at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. USS Missouri is at the bottom of the photo while her sister USS New Jersey can be seen farther up. Following her tour of service off Vietnam, New Jersey was decommissioned and placed at here.

1976. The battleship Missouri still quietly moored at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.

1978. USS Iowa (Right) and USS Wisconsin (Left) mothballed at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. Iowa was mothballed from 1958 until 1984. Wisconsin was mothballed from 1958 until 1988. They are accompanied by the aircraft carrier USS Shangri-La (CVS-38).

April 1980. Years of neglect are apparent in this photo taken from the bow of USS Wisconsin.

1981. The Iowa class battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) and USS New Jersey (BB-62) at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. Due to her being reactivated for service in Vietnam, New Jersey looks very different from Missouri. 

December 28, 1982. The USS New Jersey is recommissioned at Long Beach California with President Ronald Regan in attendance. The Iowa class had finally returned to service thirteen years after being decommissioned.

June 17, 1983. USS Iowa (BB-61) undergoing modernization at the Ingalls Shipbuilding Yard to prepare for her recommissioning. Following her modernization, she would finally be recommissioned on April 28, 1984.

July 1, 1984. With a thunderous roar, USS Iowa demonstrates her firepower by firing all nine of her 16″/50 as well as six of her 5″/38 guns. The blast of her main guns is easily seen o the water surrounding them.

November 19, 1985. USS Iowa (BB-61) uses all of her 212,000 shaft horsepower during a full power run in the Chesapeake Bay. She is kicking up an unbelievable amount of water in her wake.

December 30, 1986. USS New Jersey (BB-62) fires all of its 16″ guns during a spectacular firepower demonstration.

October 17, 1987. The Battleship USS Iowa (BB-61) leads the aircraft carriers Coral Sea (CV-43) and Saratoga (CV-60) plus their respective battlegroups into Augusta Bay, Sicily.

1988. Tugboats guide USS New Jersey into Port Jackson. New Jersey had arrived in Sydney to take part in the Australian Bicentennial.

February 1, 1989. USS Missouri having her hull scrapped and other work done while in drydock. Her outer four bladed screws are 18.25′ in diameter while her inner five blades screws are 17′ in diameter. Couple with the powerful 212,000 shaft horsepower turbines, the Iowa class could exceed 32 knots.

1990. USS Wisconsin steaming alongside the carrier USS Saratoga (CV-60) during their 1990-1991 deployment in the Mediterranean and Red Seas.

January 18, 1991. USS Wisconsin uses her 5″/58 secondary guns to pound targets ashore during the Gulf War. Wisconsin spent eight months in the Persian Gulf. During that time, she fired 319 16″ shells, 881 5″ shells, and 5,200 20mm rounds in addition to her 24 cruise missiles.

August 1992. The battleship New Jersey is tied up to the same pier at USS Hornet (CVS-12) at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.

September 1993. The mothballed battleships USS Iowa (BB-61) and USS Wisconsin (BB-64) tied up together at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. I remembered seeing them there while we were driving in the Northeas.

October 30, 1995. A photo of the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard along with a wide assortment of warships. Among the battleships Iowa and Wisconsin can be seen at the right. I was on that bridge when I saw the ships and I almost wrecked,  I knew what they were and so wanted to stop...but couldn't.

June 22, 1998. Crowds gather as USS Missouri enters the channel leading to Pearl Harbor. She was being moved to Pearl Harbor to serve as a museum ship. The location that saw the entrance of the United States into World War II would now host the vessel that saw its end.

November 11, 1999. The battleship USS New Jersey is towed up the Delaware river towards the Philadelphia Shipyard. She would go on to be restored and converted into a floating museum.

December 12, 2000. USS Wisconsin located at her new home in Norfolk, Virginia.

January 31, 2003. The battleship Missouri watches over the USS Arizona. In the background, nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) enters Pearl Harbor.

April 16, 2004. In celebration of the ship’s 60th anniversary of her commissioning, sailors from the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71)  man the rails aboard USS Wisconsin.

January 7, 2010. Workers work early in the morning to prepare USS Missouri for her undocking later that day. Missouri had undergone an 18 million dollar overhaul aimed at preserving her so that future generations could continue to visit her.

May 25, 2015. The crew renders honors aboard the USNS Mercy (T-AH-19) as they pass the battleships Arizona and Missouri.

August 30, 2016. Iowa fires her secondary guns in salute to the assault carrier USS America (LHA-6) as she arrives at Los Angeles Harbor.  Though it might not look like it, at full load the Iowa (58,000 tons) displaced roughly 13,000 more tons than USS America (44,971 tons).From harbingers of war to the setting for peace. From World War II to the Gulf War. From instruments of destruction to tools of education. The Iowa class battleships have seen plenty of change throughout the years. Thanks to the dedicated people who maintain them today, we will ensure that they remain around for another 78 years.