The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.

Monday, March 18, 2024

Sure Going to Miss That 'World War II' Magazine

I was really saddened this past week to find out several of my favorite magazines are no longer going to be published.  And one of the best of the lot was the "World War II" magazine.  I was even considering taking out a subscription to it.  Kind of glad I didn't now.

I got quite a bit of material for this blog from it.

Right now I am going through the April 2022 issue which has these articles:

* Mel Brooks Goes to War.

* A U.S. Sub Commander's Ultimate Sacrifice.

* How a British Intelligence Blunder Killed Dozens of Allied Agents in Holland.

Always interesting articles and little-known facts about the war.

Hope It Comes Back.  --GreGen


Thursday, March 14, 2024

100-Year-Old D-Day Vet Getting Married Near the Beaches of D-Day-- Part 1

From the March 11, 2024, Fox News "D-Day veteran, 100, to be married at World War II liberation site in France"  AP.

Harold Terens, 100, will be marrying his fiancee in France near where he first stepped ashore in that country as a 20-year-old Army corporal in 1944, a few days after the initial landings.

He will be honored in France in June on the 80th anniversary of that country's liberation.  Then, he plans on marrying his spry 96-year-old girlfriend, Jeanne Swerlin, near those same beaches.  They were both married to others before and started dating each other in 2021.

During the war she was in high school and dated soldiers who gave her war souvenirs like dog tags, knives and even a gun, trying to impress her.

Terens enlisted in 1942 and shipped to Great Britain the following year as a member of a four-pilot P-47 Thunderbolt fighter squadron as their radio repairman.  He said that all four of the original pilots died during the war.

--GreGen

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

USS Oklahoma Unknown from Alabama Identified

From March 11, 2024, WAFF 48 (Alabama)  "Remains of WW II veteran from Rogersville identified."

Navy Seaman 2nd Class Cecil Thornton was accounted for in April 2019 but his family only received the news.  He was aboard the USS Oklahoma on the day of the attack which left 429 crewmen dead.  He was one of them.

He was from Rogersville, Alabama, and that is where he will be buried.

--GreGen


Friday, March 8, 2024

And Another USS Oklahoma Sailor to be Buried: Raymond Boynton

From March 7, 2024, Detroit Free Press  "Michigan native killed aboard USS Oklahoma to get military burial in Hawaii this month" by Jennifer Dixon.

Raymond Devere Boynton will be buried at the National Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii, on March 20.

He grew up in Grandville, near Grand Rapids and enlisted in the U.S. Navy in June 1940, shortly after his 18th birthday.  He was promoted from apprentice seaman to seaman second class in October 1940 and died just over a year later at the age of 19.

His last surviving relative, nephew Harry Zies of Springtown, Texas, says the burial would have given Raymond's sister a sense of closure as she always felt in the back of her mind that he was still alive.  However, that sister, Bette, Harry's mother, died in 2013.

So Glad the U.S. Is Doing This.  --GreGen


Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Another Identified USS Oklahoma Sailor to Be Buried: Charles E. Hudson

One of the more recent unidentified USS Oklahoma dead has been identified.  He is U.S. Navy Water Bidding 1st Class  Charles E,. Hudson who was 39 when he died.

He was originally from Stockton, California.

He will be buried at the National Memorial of the Pacific on Oahu, Hawaii, on September 10, 2021.

--GreGen


Monday, March 4, 2024

Wreckage of Marine Plane Found in South Pacific

From the March 2, 2024, New York Post  "Wreckage of WW II plane that vanished in South Pacific found after 80 years" by Angela Barbuti.

The wreckage of a Marine Douglas SBD Dauntless was found by Papua New Guinea locals in a jungle last month.  It went down January14, 1944, with pilot Lt. Billy Ray Ramsey and gunner Sgt. Charlie J. Sciara aboard.

The plane crashed into three pieces after having left Munda Airfield in New Georgia in the Solomon Islands to target Japanese shipping in the Rabaul Harbor as a part of a large number of planes.  The tail was shot off.

The bodies were not found and both were declared dead and MIA a year later.  Their remains have still not been found.  It is believed that Sciara survived the crash but died later in a Japanese prison camp.

--GreGen


Friday, March 1, 2024

Iowan to Receive Congressional Gold Medal Posthumously for Service in the 'Ghost Army'

From the February 28, 2024, Des Moines (Iowa) Register "This Iowan served in World War II's Ghost Army.  Years later, his service is being recognized" by Kyle Werner.

The sons of John T. Cantrell, of Des Moines, will receive a Gold Medal for him at a special service in Washington, D.C., at the Capitol on March 21.

Today, only seven members of he "Ghost Army" are still alive and all of them 100 years or older.

Information on this top secret group was classified for more that fifty years before finally being released1996.  Its 1,100 members will be receiving a Congressional Gold Medal, the nation's highest non-military medal.

This is coming about because of a lot of work by groups who thought they should receive the honor.

--GreGen


Monday, February 26, 2024

About Those SS Concentration Camp Guards

From the April 2022 World War II magazine "Stopped Dead on the Tracks"  mail.

Christopher Hoffmann of Colorado Springs, Co. wrote that his uncle was a member of the 41st Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron of the 11th Armored Division when they opened the gates and liberated the Mauthausen slave labor camp in western Austria they had no idea what they were walking into.

He remembered that during the cleanup of the corpses, as SS officer-turned-prisoner had refused to work, declaring to a British sergeant that officers could not be forced to work under the Geneva Conventions.  The sergeant pulled out his pistol and told him to shut up and get back to his job.

The SS office continued to refuse, at which point the sergeant shot him dead between the eyes  My wide-eyed uncle recalled that all SS members were highly motivated for the remainder of the day.

Work Will Liberate You.  --GreGen


Friday, February 23, 2024

WW II Sergeant Laid to Rest 80 Years After His Death: Harold Hammett

From Feb. 20,2024, WECT News (WDAM News Hattiesburg, Ms.) by Jay Harrison and Andrew McMunn.

Sergeant Harold Hammett, USMC, left Hattiesburg for San Francisco in 1940 and later enlisted in the Marine Corps.  Thousands like him were sent to fight in the South Pacific.  In 1943, as a member of the 2nd Marine Division, he landed on the Japanese-held island of Betio

The ensuing fight, called the Battle of Tarawa claimed thousands of lives, including that of Hammett who was just 24 years old at the time and was one of the first killed.  His family was notified a month later.

His remains were declared non-recoverable until they were found recently in  Hawaii's National Cemetery  of the Pacific, known as the "Punchbowl."

Using DNA, his family was found. This past week, he was reinterred at Roseland Park Cemetery in Hattiesburg.

I am so glad our government makes this identification effort.  --GreGen


Tuesday, February 20, 2024

USS Maryland

From the February 19, 2024, National Interest.

The USS Maryland was at Pearl Harbor when it was attacked and sustained damage, but not seriously.  It later played a significant role in the Pacific War.

The battleship featured eight 16-inch guns in four turrets and entered service in 1920.  As such, she was one of America's most modern battleships due to the Washington Naval Treaty's limitations on new battleships.

Post Pearl Harbor, the Maryland underwent a rapid refit to modernize for operations in the Pacific, including improved anti-aircraft capabilities and torpedo protection.

Throughout the war, she served primarily shore bombardment roles, terrifying defenders with her formidable firepower.  Despite taking a torpedo hit and suffering from kamikaze attacks, she continued to support U.S. advances, including the critical Battle of Leyte near the Philippines.

After the war, she was placed in reserve, and, despite her historical significance, efforts to preserve her as a museum ship were not pursued and she was scrapped.

--GreGen


Monday, February 19, 2024

What Did Our WW II Service Men Think?-- Part 3

**  "I'll fight of necessary to prevent racial equality.  I'll never salute a negro officer and I'll not take orders from from a negroe.  I'm sick of the army's method of treating these inferior swine as if they were human."

**  "Why do you induct us in the first place.  Even as a leopard cannot change its spots, neither can we curtail our homosexual inclinations....  I'll just try not to get caught."

**  "I have been in the jungles  26 months.  I was just wondering of they will take us back in the States before thus war is over.  This jungle life will wreck your nerves....  Of the people back home don't think the jungle is hell just let them come over and stay for a few years."

**  "Better food should be considered for men in combat.  Constant diets of Vienna sausage & spam tends to decrease morale, as well as ruin a man's stomach."

--GreGen


Friday, February 16, 2024

What Did Our WW II Service Men Think? --Part 2

Some of their comments:

**  You people can't care for us over here in the jungles ... you folks there at home have a good bed and plenty of chow.  We eat ours out of cans.  Powder eggs & milk.  Give us some of this King's stuff & let us enjoy our life.

**  The Army would be a better place to live in, and the morale higher, if the Officers and many non-coms would not think that they are so high and mighty.  Also that the privates are human.

--GreGen


Tuesday, February 13, 2024

What Did Our WW II Service Men Think?-- Part 1

From the April 2022 World War II magazine "Soldier Surveys Virginia Tech University has published the transcripts of 65,000 surveys made by American GIs for the U.S, War Department in the early days of the war.  Needless to say, they were anonymous and they didn't hold back with their thoughts.

Many times they were quite patriotic, but lamblasted everything from uninspired leadership to bad food.  Black soldiers complained about discrimination.  Whites often expressed a bitterly racist view as was common back then.

--GreGen


Friday, February 9, 2024

Marietta, Ga. Man Killed on USS Oklahoma to Be Buried at Arlington National Cemetery

From the February 2, 2023, Marietta (Ga) Daily Journal by Jake Busch.

John Donald, Shipfitter 3rd Class was serving on the USS Oklahoma when the attack came and was one of the 429 who died aboard the ship that day.

He was born in Ball Ground, Cherokee County on July 15, 1913, and grew up in Marietta and enlisted in the Navy in Nashville, Tennessee on July 6, 1940.  His duties aboard the battleship Oklahoma included metal work,  pipefitting and  repairing different parts of the ship.

He received three promotions.

His was one of the Oklahoma Unknowns.  After being buried in the Punch Bowl for many years, his body was disinterred and DNA testing done on his remains which resulted in his identification.

Burial will be this month at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

Again, So Glad the U.S. Is Seeing to Identifying These Heroes.  --GreGen


Wednesday, February 7, 2024

New Fees at USS Arizona Memorial

From the March 29, 2023, Beat of Hawaii.

As of April 15, a new visitor fee will be implemented at Pearl Harbor to generate funds for the park's maintenance and provide further exhibits, new technology for visitors and security.

The fee for parking goes from free to $7 a day.  There willstill be no charge for admission and the Pearl Harbor National Memorial and USS Arizona Memorial program will remain free of charge.

To this day, the USS Arizona Memorail remains the number one in-demand destination for Hawaii tourists.

That Is Still Very, Very Reasonable.  --GreGen


Saturday, May 13, 2023

Families of USS Arizona's Unknowns Press for Identification

From the November 2021 Military History magazine.

I knew about the USS Oklahoma's unknowns but had never thought about the unknowns of the USS Arizona.  Everyone knows of the ones entombed in the hull of that stricken ship, but what about those whose bodies were recovered, but were too messed up to identify?

The remains of 85 USS Arizona sailors are entombed at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (aka Punchbowl Cemetery) in Honolulu.  They are buried as "Unknowns."

The Defense POW/MIA  Accounting Agency (DPAA)  has announced plans to reinter ths group's remains on the wreck of the ship.  What galls the families of the 85 is that there are no plans to attempt to identify  them like was done with the Oklahoma unknowns.

--GreGen


Monday, May 8, 2023

Minelayer Was Converted Into a Brewery During WW II

From the May 5, 2023, The WarZone "This minelayer was converted into a floating brewery during World War II" by Oliver Parken.

In 19544, the British converted the HMS Menestheus into an amenities ship for Allied forces in the Pacific, complete with a brewery.

The Menestheus was originally a Blue Funnel Line shipping company vessel launched in 1929 by the same name.  The British Navy requisitioned it for use as an auxiliary minelayer early in the war.

As conflict in the European Theater waned and ended, the war in the Pacific was going strong and it was determined that some of the now unneeded minelayers could be altered into so-called amenities ships to help with Allied morale in the Pacific.  One of those amenities was to provide freshly brewed beer.

Before this, beer often spoiled that came from Britain or Australia.

At the behest of Winston Churchill himself, the Admiralty ordered the Menestheus and sister ship Agamemnon be converted for such duty in 1944.  Both ships sailed to Vancouver, British Columbia where their conversion began.

--GreGen


Saturday, May 6, 2023

Newly Restored WW II Tower in Delaware

After 15 years and nearly $2 million in renovations and repairs a World War II-era  watch tower is now open to the public at the Delaware  Seashore State Park.

The newly rehabilitated tower, known as Tower  3, is  one of 15 fire control towers built as part of Fort Miles to defend Delaware Bay and River from German attack and ultimately Philadelphia.

There are elevenof these towers still standing.

Fort Miles had 16-inch naval guns, 12-inch and 8-inch guns as well.

These towers were expected to last just ten years.  Each tower took 8 days to complete.  They ranged in height from 40 to 90 feet.  They were built to keep watch on the ocean and direct gunfire in case of an attack (which never happened).

GreGen


Thursday, May 4, 2023

USS Oklahoma Survivor George Coburn Dies at Age 103-- Part 2

George Coburn and those others that he escaped with were the luckyones of the battleship.  Because 429 of their shipmates remained trapped inside and died.

Coburn continued to serve in the Navy after that in many of the Pacific Campaigns  He was aboard the heavy cruiser USS Louisville afterwards and received a Purple Heart during a kamikaze attack on his ship during the Battle of Okinawa.

The Louisville was struck by two kamikazes on consecutive days.  The first one struck on 5 January 1945 and hit the No. 2 main battery (turret) of 8-inch guns, knocking it completely out of commission.  It killed one and injured/burned 17 others, including the ship's commander Captain Rex  LeGrande Hicks.

The second kamikaze hit the starboard side of the signal bridge 6 January 1945.  Rear Admiral Theodore E. Chandler, commander of Cruiser Divisin  4, was fatally injutred while helping the sailors to man fire hoses to put out the massive fires.  Forty-two were killed and 125 wounded.

George Coburn left the Navy in May 1946,  but then worked as a civilian with the Navy  doing contractor and electrician work.  He and his wife Jenny settled in San Diego.

--GreGen


Tuesday, May 2, 2023

USS Oklahoma Survivor George Coburn Dies at 103

From the April 29, 2023, Honolulu Star Advertiser "George Coburn, who served throughout  Pacific Campaign, dies at 103" by Kevin Knodell.

USS Oklahoma survivor, George Coburn died April 19 in Oceanside, California,  at age 103.

He was born in Mankato, Minnesota, on October 26, 1919, but his family moved to San Diego shortly after he was born and he grew up in Southern California.  Enlisting in the Navy in 1939, he was eventually assigned to the USS Oklahoma and was on board completing an inspection of the ship when the attack came

As he and his shipmates began climbing  to the ship's main deck, several torpedoes hot the ship.  The men became  trapped beneath a sealed hatch as the ship quickly listed  45 degrees to its port side.  The blast also ruptured onboard  oil tanks and they found themselves slipping in oil that had pooled on the floor.

The lights went out and Coburn could hear water pouring into the ship as sailors on the ladder tried frantically to open the hatch to the deck above.  They eventually got the hatch opened and he and the others managed to escape through a side porthole that by then was overhead.

--GreGen