Lesser Known WWII Facts

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

article reference: http://www.timewastersguide.com/view.php?id=761

Heh, I found myself reading these and re-reading them even when I did format edits. Where do you pick this stuff up HoM?

At any rate, some of this stuff is very usable for campaigns and books. Thanks.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

The USCG Cutter Taney (Now in Baltimores Inner Harbor) was one of the first vessels to fire upon the Japanese at the Battle of Pearl Harbor. At 0731 the captain of the Taney, upon reciving a report from the USS Ward about a possible contact with a Japanese submarine, ordered his men to battlestations exclaiming "Bring out the real stuff, this is no drill!". When the first planes roared overhead the Taney was one of the first warships able to return fire. It put up such a wall of fire that the Japanese were unable to bomb the Honloulu power plant (right behind the Taneys anchorage.
The Taney is the last Surviving ship that saw action at Pearl Harbor.


The lack of patrol vessels in both the atlantic and pacific led the US to start Auxillary Coast Guard Flotilla known as the Corsair fleet, or more affectionately as the hooligan navy.
http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-cp/history/h_beachpatrol.html
The Corsair fleet used an insignia designed by Walt Disney (Its my avatar right now) With Donald Duck in pirate gear.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

During the latter half of the War the USCG pioneered the use of Helicopters for Anti-Submarine Warfare and SAR or Search and Rescue...

http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-cp/history/h_antisb.html

(Gives you all sorts of neat ideas for a weird wars game)

[House of Mustard]

Yeah -- Sorry, SE.  I realized last night that I hadn't attached a bibliography.  I'll put it together today and send it to you to post.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

oh, heh, I wasn't looking for anything so scholarly, but that'd be a good resource. I'll plug it in as a link from both articles.

[House of Mustard]

Oh don't worry -- it certainly won't be scholarly.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

Many people don't know how real and scary the Submarine threat was during World War II preferring to think of it as a north Atlantic problem... not so German Submarines sunk several ships only a hundered yards or so off of Virginia Beach Virginia.

[GorgonlaVacaTremendo]

UBoats (subs) were huge right before WWII with the Germans.  Without them, it is unlikely we would have ever joined the war, or we would at least have been much more hesitant.  The Germans sank three british merchant ships which had American passengers on it, causing an outroar against the German UBoats by the American public, although all the passengers were pre-warned of the threat of a German UBoat attack.  The biggest of the three was the Sussex... I forget the other two.

Anyway, the Uboats were EXTREMELY important from the beggining of the war all the way through.  German UBoat policy was being created, debated and undermined almost the entire war.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

I think your thinking of WWI, ...and in fact you are. The Sussex incedent happend in 1916, right before America Joined the Allies in WWI.

[Tekiel]

Okay, I was watching the History channel recently, and they mentioned that not only did the Japanese have kamikazi (sp?) planes, but they developed kamikazi torpedos as well (torpedos large enough for a man to sit inside it and steer it towards the boats).  But they didn't turn out half so effective as the airplanes, so they stopped using them after a while.

[GorgonlaVacaTremendo]

I think your thinking of WWI, ...and in fact you are. The Sussex incedent happend in 1916, right before America Joined the Allies in WWI.

Why, I am.  Wars suck.  I always get them confused.  Every one of them.  It doesn't help that they were both against Germany and Germany lost both times...

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

Well to be perfectly honest the first one was Triple Entante vs Triple  Alliance while the second was Axis vs Allies.

And to say just Germany is to disreguard the reality of history. For instance, how many brave Auzzies died fighting Turks during WWI,  or Against the Japanese in WWII. Or what about the Belgians who died fighting the Italians, or so on.

[Fellfrosch]

What's up, Mustard? You didn't mention the Indianapolis.

[House of Mustard]

The Indianapolis is pretty well known.  At least, anyone who's seen Jaws knows about it.

[Tracy White]

Aloha!
Couple of Corrections for y'all.
The original article states that a DC-3 was coming in to land; actually she was starting to taxi out for take off. Additionally, the Taney is not the only ship left from Pearl Harbor. There are at least three tugs, the USS Hoga, USS Nokomis, and YT-153. There is also a barge around that was at Pearl but that's kind of a snoozer.

If you're looking for little known, odd facts, here's a couple for you. There were many destroyers based at Pearl that day, but of those, five stand out. Ward, Monaghan, Shaw, Cassin, and Downes. Ward and Monaghan are famous for sinking midget subs before and during the attack. Shaw, Cassin, and Downes are famous essentially for blowing up.

Here's the odd thing. Both Ward and Monaghan survived the attack undamaged yet neither survived the war. Shaw, Cassin, and Downes were for all intents and purposes destroyed, but were rebuilt and survived until the end.

Last coincidence. USS Shaw had her forward magazine blow up, which severed her bow. She was actually the second Shaw in Navy Service. The first Shaw had served in World War One and had HER bow severed when her sterring gear jammed and she turned in front of the liner Aquitania. Like the second Shaw, she was saved by her crew and survived to serve again.

Just some random notes from a Pearl Harbor historian.