Railway operations, American Expeditionary Forces

Railway operations were originally established by the United States Army to provide support to France and Great Britain after the United States entered World War I. The Army organized and deployed different types of railway regiments and battalions. As operations progressed, the railway units were used to support the American Expeditionary Forces as well. U.S. rail regiments moved both troops and supplies for the AEF and for the allies from the seaports to the front.
Organization.
Organization began with a survey group established by Secretary of War Newton D. Baker and railway executive Samuel Morse Felton Jr. This group, led by William Barclay Parsons, examined docks and rail traffic and recommended a solution for the United States. After Parsons' group observed that the France's ports were inadequate, its rail system was carrying all the traffic it could bear, and its canals were blocked, it requested that engineers be sent to France. The Army sent nine railway regiments, all filled with volunteers from U. S. railways, as follows: five construction regiments, three operations regiments, and one shop regiment. Railway regiments typically consisted of two battalions of three companies each.
Operations.
Existing services.
France had six railway systems: the Etat, Nord, Est, Paris-Orleans, Paris-Lyon-Mediterranee, and Midi.
Track.
Broad gauge (width between the rails) track in France was . Standard gauge in the United States was . The difference between the two in tenths of an inch was negligible and the wheels of U.S. locomotives and rolling stock did not have to be modified to be used.
Locomotives and Rolling stock.
American rail equipment was larger than that of the French. The countries agreed that the size of U.S. locomotives used in France would have a traction force limited only by the clearances and load-bearing capacity of French railways and that cars would match the capacity of the locomotives. After two test runs proved the feasibility of air brakes, the French agreed to allow American cars to be equipped with those brakes, which the French rolling stock was not. Instead of American knuckle couplers, U.S. trains would be equipped with couplers and buffers used in France. American trains were limited to a length of ; the limit was imposed by the length of French passing sidings.
The standard American locomotive in use was the 2-8-0 Consolidation type. More than 1600 of the Consolidation locomotives were assembled in France by U.S. mechanics; most were allocated to the AEF.
Almost twenty thousand American-made railway cars were received in France during the war and after the armistice. Car types included box cars, flat cars, gondola cars (high and low sided), tank cars, refrigerator cars, ballast cas and dump cars.
Routes.
The American Expeditionary Forces were authorized to run their own trains operated by American crews on French rails from the ports to the advance section.


7th Bombardment Squadron

The 7th Bombardment Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the 34th Bombardment Group at Sioux Falls Army Air Field, South Dakota, where it was inactivated on 28 August 1945.
The squadron was activated in January 1941 at Langley Field, Virginia. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the squadron performed antisubmarine patrols. The squadron moved to the western United States and was a training unit until the end of 1943. It then trained for combat and moved to the European Theater of Operations in April 1944. It participated in combat from May 1944 until VE Day. It returned to the United States in the summer of 1945 and was inactivated.
History.
The squadron was activated at Langley Field, Virginia in January 1941 as the 7th Bombardment Squadron, one of the original squadrons of the 34th Bombardment Group, and equipped with a mixture of B-17C and B-17D Flying Fortresses and Douglas B-18 Bolos. Along with the 34th Group, the squadron moved to Westover Field, Massachusetts four months after they were activated.
After the Pearl Harbor attack the squadron began antisubmarine patrols off the Northeast coast of the United States, but soon became part of Western Defense Command and moved to Pendleton Field, Oregon. By the summer of 1942, Second Air Force had become primarily a heavy bomber training force and the squadron became a B-17 Replacement Training Unit (RTU) at Geiger Field. RTUs were oversized units which trained aircrews prior to their deployment to combat theaters.
On 15 December, 1942 the squadron moved to Blythe Army Air Base, California a base of the Desert Training Center. The unit provided cadres for a number of heavy bomber units that served with Eighth Air Force during this period.
The 7th began training with Consolidated B-24 Liberators for overseas combat operations on 5 January 1944. Its ground echelon moved to the port of embarkation on 1 April 1944, while the air echelon began its overseas movement on 31 May 1944, taking the southern ferry route, from Florida to Trinidad, Brazil, West Africa and Marrakesh arriving at RAF Valley, Wales. The squadron arrived at its permanent station, RAF Mendlesham, England, in April 1944 and entered combat on 23 May 1944.
The squadron helped to prepare for Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy, by bombing airfields in France and Germany, and supported the June landings by attacking coastal defenses and communications. It supported ground forces at Saint-Lô in late July and struck V-1 flying bomb launch sites, gun emplacements, and supply lines throughout the summer of 1944.
The mixture of B-24s and B-17s in the 3d Bombardment Division presented a number of operational problems, and in early 1944 plans had begun at VIII Bomber Command headquarters to standardize the division with the Flying Fortress. The 34th Group flew its last B-24 mission on 24 August 1944. It transferred its Liberators for overhaul and eventual transfer to units of the 2d Bombardment Division, and began converting to B-17s. It flew its first mission with the new planes on 17 September 1944. The squadron engaged primarily in bombardment of strategic objectives from October 1944 to February 1945. Targets included marshaling yards in Ludwigshafen, Hamm, Osnabrück, and Darmstadt; oil centers in Bielefeld, Merseburg, Hamburg, and Misburg; factories in Berlin, Dalteln, and Hanover; and airfields in Münster, Neumünster, and Frankfurt.
During this period the squadron also supported ground forces during the Battle of the Bulge from December 1944 to January 1945. In March 1945, with few enemy industrial targets remaining and with Allied armies advancing across Germany, the 7th turned almost solely to interdicting enemy communications and supporting Allied ground forces. The 7th flew its last combat mission on 20 April 1945.
After V-E Day the squadron flew missions carrying food to flooded areas of the Netherlands and transported prisoners of war from German camps to Allied centers. The squadron redeployed to the United States in June and July 1945. The first elements of the air echelon departed 19 June 1945. The ground echelon sailed aboard the from Southampton on 6 August 1945. Upon arrival in the states, unit personnel were given 30 days leave. The squadron reassembled at Sioux Falls Army Air Field, South Dakota, where it was inactivated on 28 August 1945.


Convoy HG 53

Convoy HG 53 was the 53rd of the numbered series of World War II HG convoys of Homeward bound merchant ships from Gibraltar to Liverpool. Convoy HG 53 lost nine ships during a coordinated attack in February 1941. HG 53 was one of the few Atlantic convoys to have ships sunk by submarines, by aircraft, and by surface ships.
Background.
Twenty-one ships departed Gibraltar on 6 February 1941 bound for Liverpool and escorted by the and the sloop HMS "Deptford". The convoy commodore was Rear Admiral Sir OH Dawson aboard "Dagmar".
Action.
While southbound to African waters on the evening of 8 February German Type IX submarine sighted the convoy southwest of Cape St. Vincent and torpedoed the British freighters "Courland" and "Estrellano" after midnight. "U-37" reported the convoy to Bordeaux-Mérignac Air Base and commenced shadowing the convoy providing beacon signals for "Kampfgeschwader" 40. Five Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor bombers took off at dawn and found the convoy at noon southwest of Lisbon. The Fw 200s bombed from an altitude of because they lacked bombsights. Each flight mechanic fired at their target ship with a ventral machine gun during the approach to discourage anti-aircraft gunners; but one of the bombers was hit in a wing fuel tank and crash-landed in Spain when fuel was exhausted on the return trip. Six of the twenty bombs dropped hit ships, sinking the convoy commodore's freighter "Dagmar", the Norwegian freighter "Tejo", and British freighters "Britannic", "Jura", and "Varna". "U-37" sank the British freighter "Brandenburg" after dark and continued sending beacon signals for the . "Admiral Hipper" found and sank the straggling British freighter "Iceland" on 11 February.
Aftermath.
"Hipper" was distracted from further search by finding convoy SL 64 and sinking seven ships from that unescorted convoy. The escort of convoy HG 53 was reinforced by the on 18 February, by the on 20 February, and by the , the , and the HMS "Anemone" from convoy OG 53 on 22 February. The surviving 12 ships of convoy HG 53 arrived in Liverpool on 24 February 1941. Nine ships totaling 15,217 GRT had been sunk.


Ulithi

Ulithi (, , or ) is an atoll in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean, about east of Yap. It consists of 40 islets totalling , surrounding a lagoon about long and up to wide—at one of the largest in the world. It is administered by the state of Yap in the Federated States of Micronesia. Ulithi's population was 773 in 2000. There are four inhabited islands on Ulithi Atoll. They are Falalop (), Asor "(Yasor)", Mogmog "(Mwagmwog)", and Fedarai "(Fedraey)". Falalop is the most accessible with Ulithi Airport, a small resort hotel, store and one of three public high schools in Yap state. Mogmog is the seat of the high chief of Ulithi Atoll though each island has its own chief. Other important islands are Losiap (), Sorlen "(Sohl'oay)", and Potangeras "(Potoangroas)".
The atoll is in the westernmost of the Caroline Islands, southwest of Guam, east of the Philippines and south of Tokyo. It is a typical volcanic atoll, with a coral reef, white sand beaches and palm trees. Ulithi's forty small islands barely rise above the sea, with the largest being only in area. However the reef runs roughly north and south, by across, enclosing a vast anchorage with an average depth of .
Ulithi was a major staging area for the United States Navy in the final year of the Second World War. Several sunken warships rest at the bottom of the Ulithi lagoon, including , a fleet oiler which sank fully loaded. The sunken oiler was found to be seeping oil into the lagoon. The United States Navy responded, locating the oiler, tapping her storage tanks, and pumped off her oil. The cleanup operation was completed in February 2003.
Given permission from the local community, the atoll offers good diving. Reef damage from Typhoon Maysak in 2015 is still visible in places, but the reefs have largely recovered.
Census records can be misleading because population can fluctuate during the year because it is common for Ulithians to leave for work or school abroad and to return. This is particularly true during festive times like the Outer Island High School graduation ceremony, when the population can increase considerably. Additionally, during events like weddings and funerals, community populations may double.
Electricity is now available on some islands, and the advent of video players and cell phones have brought a touch of the outside world to this very isolated atoll. Occasional diving and adventure tours visit Ulithi from Yap.
History.
The Portuguese navigator Diogo da Rocha is credited as the first European to find Ulithi in 1525. Its visit was recorded by Spanish navigator Álvaro de Saavedra on board the ship "Florida" on 1 January 1528. He named them "Islas de los Reyes" (Islands of the Three Wise Kings in Spanish) because of the sighting happening on the eve of Epiphany. It was later charted by the Spaniards as "Islas de los Garbanzos" (Chickpeas Islands in Spanish). It was also visited by the Spanish expedition of Ruy López de Villalobos on 26 January 1543. It remained isolated until visited and explored in detail by Captain Don Bernardo de Egoy in 1712, and later visited by Spanish Jesuit missionaries led by Juan Antonio Cantova together with a group of 12 Spanish soldiers in 1731.
Germany purchased the islands from Spain in 1899. They were occupied in 1914 by Japan at the outset of the First World War. Japan received them in 1920 as a League of Nations mandate.
Second World War.
Early in the Second World War, the Japanese had established a radio and weather station on Ulithi and had occasionally used the lagoon as an anchorage, but had abandoned it by 1944. As the operations of the United States Navy moved west across the Pacific, the Navy required a more forward base for its operations.
Ulithi was perfectly positioned to act as a staging area for the US Navy's western Pacific operations. The anchorage was large and well situated, but there were no port facilities to repair ships or re-supply the fleet.
On 23 September 1944, a regiment of the United States Army's 81st Division landed unopposed, followed a few days later by a battalion of Seabees. The survey ship examined the lagoon and reported it capable of holding 700 vessels—a capacity greater than either Majuro or Pearl Harbor.
The US Navy transferred the local islanders to the island of Fedarai for the duration of the hostilities. Arriving next was Service Squadron 10, termed by Admiral Nimitz as his "secret weapon". Its commanding officer, Commodore Worrall R. Carter, devised the mobile service force that made it possible for the Navy to convert Ulithi to the secret distant Pacific base used during the major naval operations undertaken late in the war, including Leyte Gulf and the invasion of Okinawa. Service Squadron 10 converted the lagoon into a serviceable naval station, creating repair facilities and re-supply facilities thousands of miles away from an actual naval port. Pontoon piers of a new design were built at Ulithi, each consisting of the 4-by-12-pontoon sections, filled with sand and gravel, and then sunk. The pontoons were anchored in place by guy ropes to deadmen on shore, and by iron rods driven into the coral. Connecting tie pieces ran across the tops of the pontoons to hold them together into a pier. Despite extremely heavy weather on several occasions these pontoon piers stood up remarkably well. They gave extensive service, with little requirement for repairs. Piers of this type were also installed by the 51st Battalion to be used as aviation-gasoline mooring piers near the main airfield on Falalop.
Within a month of the occupation of Ulithi, a complete floating base was in operation. Six thousand ship fitters, artificers, welders, carpenters and electricians arrived aboard repair ships, destroyer tenders, and floating dry docks. had an air-conditioned optical shop and a metal fabrication shop with a supply of base metals from which she could make any alloy to form any part needed. , which looked like a big tanker, distilled fresh water and baked bread and pies. The ice cream barge made a shift. The dry docks towed to Ulithi were large enough to lift dry a 45,000-ton battleship. The small island of Mog Mog became a rest and recreation site for sailors.
Fleet oilers sortied from Ulithi to meet the task forces at sea, refueling the warships a short distance from their combat operational areas. The result was something never seen before: a vast floating service station enabling the entire Pacific fleet to operate indefinitely at unprecedented distances from its mainland bases. Ulithi was as far away from the US Naval base at San Francisco as San Francisco was from London, England. The Japanese had considered that the vastness of the Pacific Ocean would make it very difficult for the US to sustain operations in the western Pacific. With the Ulithi naval base to refit, repair and resupply, many ships were able to deploy and operate in the western Pacific for a year or more without returning to the Naval base at Pearl Harbor.
The Japanese had built an airstrip on Falalop. It was expanded and resurfaced, the runway running the full width of the island. The east end of the strip was extended approximately past the natural shoreline. A number of small strips for light aircraft were built on several of the smaller islands. The Seabees completed a fleet recreation center at Mog Mog island that could accommodate 8,000 men and 1,000 officers daily. A 1,200-seat theatre, including a stage with a Quonset hut roof was completed in 20 days. At the same time, a 500-seat chapel was built. A number of the larger islands were used both as bases to support naval vessels and facilities within the lagoon.
The Japanese still held Yap. Early after the US occupation they mounted a number of attacks but caused no damage to the Seabees working on the islands.
On 20 November 1944 the Ulithi harbor was attacked by Japanese "kaiten" manned torpedoes launched from two nearby submarines. The destroyer rammed one in the early morning hours. At 5:47 the fleet oiler , at anchor in the harbor, was struck and sunk. Destroyers began dropping depth charges throughout the anchorage. After the war Japanese naval officers said that two tender submarines, each carrying four manned torpedoes, had been sent to attack the fleet at Ulithi. Three of the "kaiten" were unable to launch due to mechanical problems and another ran aground on the reef. Two did make it into the lagoon, one of which sank USS "Mississinewa". A second "kaiten" attack in January 1945 was foiled when "I-48" was sunk by the destroyer escort . None of the 122 men aboard the Japanese submarine survived.
On 11 March 1945, in a mission known as Operation Tan No. 2, several long range aircraft flying from southern Japan attempted a nighttime "kamikaze" attack on the naval base. One struck the , which had left a cargo light on despite the black out. The plane struck over the stern starboard quarter, damaging the flight deck and killing a number of crewmen. Another crashed on Sorlen Island, having perhaps mistaken a signal tower there for the superstructure of an aircraft carrier.
By 13 March there were 647 ships at anchor at Ulithi, and with the arrival of amphibious forces staging for the invasion of Okinawa the number of ships at anchor peaked at 722.
In late June 1945, the Japanese aircraft-launching super submarines "I-400" and "I-401" were diverted from their planned attack on the Panama Canal to attack Ulithi Atoll. However, their mission was interrupted by the destruction of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, followed by the Japanese surrender.
After the Leyte Gulf was secured, the Pacific Fleet moved its forward staging area to Leyte, and Ulithi was all but abandoned. In the end, few US civilians ever heard of Ulithi. By the time naval security cleared release of the name, there were no longer reasons to print stories about it. The war had moved on, but for seven months in late 1944 and early 1945, the large lagoon of the Ulithi atoll was the largest and most active anchorage in the world.
Language.
In an annual report released in early 2010, the Habele charity announced plans to develop and distribute native-language materials for educators and students in the outer islands of Yap State, Micronesia. The first project was a Ulithian-to-English dictionary. This was the first rigorous documentation of the Ulithian language, and copies were provided to educators and students throughout Ulithi and Fais. The authors' stated aim was to create a consistent and intuitive Latin alphabet useful for both native Ulithian and native English speakers.
Education.
Public schools:
Climate.
Ulithi has a tropical rainforest climate (Af) with heavy rainfall year-round.


Battle of Gratangen

The Battle of Gratangen occurred during the first Norwegian counter-attack in the Narvik Campaign. The Norwegian 6th Division gathered forces to push the Germans out of the Gratangen area and back towards Narvik. The first attack failed disastrously when the Germans counter-attacked unprepared Norwegian forces, a battalion and blunting the first Norwegian advance.
Background.
Gratangen was the site of some of the first battles between the German 3rd Mountain Division under Eduard Dietl and the Norwegian 6th Division under General Carl Gustav Fleischer after the German invasion of Norway on 9 April 1940.
After initial German success in surprising and routing a battalion from Trøndelag, the tide turned and the German were pushed southwards in the direction of Narvik.
German invasion and Norwegian counter-attacks.
Transported by ten destroyers from the "Kriegsmarine", the German Task Force under command of "General der Infanterie" Eduard Dietl had occupied Narvik and the important military depots at Elvegårdsmoen in the early hours of 9 April 1940. Sinking the outdated Norwegian coastal defence ships and with great loss of life and bluffing the Norwegian land forces into surrender.
The Allies counter-attacked by sea and, in the two naval battles of Narvik, the Royal Navy sank all ten German destroyers.
The approximately 2,900 shipwrecked German sailors were kitted out with captured Norwegian equipment from Elvegårdsmoen and employed as ground troops in support of Dietl's "Gebirgsjäger".
In the meantime, the Norwegians mobilised their forces under the leadership of General Carl Gustav Fleischer.
The Norwegian plan for a counter-attack on the German bridgehead around Narvik was based on pushing towards Elvegårdsmoen and Bjerkvik through Salangsdalen over the hill Lapphaugen with II/IR15 (Second Battalion/Fifteenth Infantry Regiment) in a frontal attack with artillery support on the German forward positions on Lapphaugen. Lapphaugen was believed to be held in company strength. I/IR12 (First Battalion/Twelfth Infantry Regiment) was planned to advance on the German main positions in Gratangsbotn by a surprise march over difficult terrain over Fjordbotneidet. Alta Battalion (an Independent Infantry Battalion) was in divisional reserve but positioned to support I/IR12.
The battle.
On 24 April, the II/IR15 started its attack on Lapphaugen but due to extreme weather conditions and German resistance the attack was repulsed.
The Germans, however, decided to abandon their positions on Lapphaugen and Gratangsbotn. In the foul weather, this went unnoticed by the II/IR15. Consequently, this battalion did not push on with the advance.
In wind and heavy snowfall, the I/IR12 crossed the Fjordbotneidet and arrived at Gratangsbotn to find the area cleared of Germans. The soldiers were exhausted after the forced march and went to rest in the farmhouses and barns in Gratangsbotn. For reasons not fully explained, probably a misunderstanding by the battalion's commanding officer, the battalion failed to post a sufficient perimeter security; this was indeed critical as Gratangsbotn geographically is located at the bottom of a kettle with dominating high ground all around.
The Germans did not miss this opportunity and immediately counterattacked with a 165-strong force, using Norwegian civilians as a human shields. Though inferior in numbers, the German attack suppressed the surprised Norwegians with superior firepower from mortars and heavy machine guns. Thirty-four Norwegian soldiers were killed, 64 wounded and 130 taken prisoners. Officer losses were heavy: three out of five company commanders were killed in action, one wounded, the fifth was ill with snow-blindness and did not take active part in the battle. The Germans suffered only six soldiers killed, 16 wounded and three missing.
The surviving Norwegians retreated from Gratangsbotn. The depleted battalion was later reorganised as a reduced battalion with two rifle companies and one support company and participated actively in the rest of the campaign.
Aftermath.
Despite soundly defeating I/IR12, the Germans understood that their position in Gratangsbotn was untenable. The fresh Alta Battalion under Arne Dagfin Dahl pressed on from the north and II/IR15 resumed its advance over Lapphaugen.
The Germans therefore abandoned Gratangen soon after the battle.
For the Norwegians on the Narvik front, the battle of Gratangen proved their first serious lesson in the art of war. Before the battle, the inexperienced Norwegian soldiers often had hesitated to fire on the enemy. After Gratangen, the bitterness caused by the German ruthlessness—particularly the use of civilians as human shields—ensured that any such reservations were gone.


Battle of Lansdowne

The First English Civil War battle of Lansdowne (or Lansdown) was fought on 5 July 1643, near Bath, Somerset, southwest England. Although the Royalists under Lord Hopton forced the Parliamentarians under Sir William Waller to retreat from their hilltop position, they suffered so many casualties themselves and were left so disordered and short of ammunition that an injured Hopton was forced to retire.
Prelude.
By late May 1643, Lord Hopton's royalist army had captured most of the south west of England. Joined by the Earl of Hertford, he then advanced eastward into Parliamentarian-held territory. Sir William Waller's army held Bath, to obstruct their further advance. On 2 July 1643 the Royalists seized the bridge at Bradford on Avon. On 3 July, skirmishes took place at Claverton and at Waller's positions south and east of Bath. Waller retired to a strong position on Lansdowne Hill, northwest of Bath while the main Royalist force moved north through Batheaston to Marshfield.
Hopton's forces encountered Waller's position on Lansdowne Hill on 4 July and were unpleasantly surprised at its strength. They withdrew north-east to Marshfield, while their rearguard repulsed an attempt by Waller's cavalry to pursue.
Battle.
Early on 5 July, Waller moved to the north end of Lansdowne Hill, where he built crude breastworks for his infantry, and sent some of his cavalry against Hopton's outposts. The Parliamentarians put to flight some badly-led Royalist cavalry, and the alarm caused all of Hopton's army to form up and to begin advancing west until they came in sight of Waller's position.
The two forces engaged in indecisive skirmishing for two hours until Hopton tried to withdraw. Waller once again sent his horse and dragoons against the Royalist's rearguard, and this time they routed the Royalist cavalry, although the infantry stood firm. Hopton's army then turned about and ultimately defeated the Roundhead cavalry in a confused action. With his Cornish foot regiments already advancing without orders, Hopton at last attacked Lansdowne Hill.
As they charged up the steep slopes towards the Parliamentarian position on the crest, Hopton's cavalry suffered badly, and many panicked. 1,400 of them fled, some as far as Oxford. Under Sir Bevil Grenville, Hopton's Cornish pikemen stormed Waller's breastworks, while Royalist musketeers outflanked Waller's forces through the woods on each side of his position. Grenville was mortally wounded in hand-to-hand combat as Parliamentarian horse counter-attacked and were driven off. Waller's infantry fell back to a wall across the crest of the hill from where they kept up musket fire until dark fell. During the night, they withdrew silently, leaving burning matches on the wall to deceive the Royalists that they still held the position.
Aftermath.
The day after the battle, a Royalist ammunition cart exploded. Hopton was injured and temporarily blinded. The loss of the powder and the absence of most of their horse meant that the Royalists could not fight another action. Meanwhile, Waller had retired to Bath, where he was reinforced and was ready to attack again. Hopton's army retreated in low spirits to Devizes. Hopton's army was in such a poor situation before their retreat that Hopton's military opponent but old friend Waller offered him hospitality in Bath, though he refused it.
A Cornish officer describing the battle wrote that Waller was "... the best shifter and chooser of ground when he was not Master of the field that ever I saw". (sic)
The site of the battle is marked by a monument to Sir Bevil Grenville, who died after the battle in Cold Ashton Rectory.


Battle of Arundel Island

The Battle of Arundel Island was fought from 27 August – 21 September 1943, primarily between United States Army and Imperial Japanese Army forces on Arundel Island during the New Georgia campaign in the Pacific War. The battle took place towards the end of the campaign after the capture of Munda airfield and mopping up operations in western New Georgia had resulted in the Japanese evacuation of mainland New Georgia. The US high command decided to occupy the island so that it could be used as a base for artillery to fire on the main Japanese troop concentration on Kolombangara.
After landing on the southeastern tip of the island, the single US infantry regiment of three battalions assigned to the operation undertook a two-pronged advance up the eastern and western coasts. The small Japanese garrison on the island was reinforced during the fighting, and offered stronger resistance than US forces had expected. As a result, they were strongly reinforced by elements of three other infantry regiments, totaling eight infantry battalions, as well as artillery, mortars and United States Marine Corps tanks. After heavy fighting, the defending Japanese were pushed into a pocket on the northern coast around the Stima Peninsula from where they were evacuated by barge to Kolombangara on 20–21 September.
Background.
Arundel Island lies off the western coast of New Georgia island, separated by a narrow body of water consisting of Hathorn Sound and the Diamond Narrows. It is situated to the south of Kolombangara, separated by the Blackett Strait, and lies in the mouth of where the Kula Gulf enters the Solomon Sea, from which it is shielded further west by Wana Wana Island. The island of Gizo lies further west in the Vella Gulf. Commencing on 30 June 1943, US forces had begun operations to secure the New Georgia islands, as part of their advance towards the main Japanese base around Rabaul under Operation Cartwheel. Their main objective on New Georgia was to capture Munda airfield on the western coast of the island so that it could be used for future operations. After the airfield fell in early August, Japanese troops had begun an evacuation of mainland New Georgia, while US troops undertook mopping up operations.
The bulk of the Japanese forces had been withdrawn to Kolombangara by mid-August. During the next phase of their advance, the Allies had decided to bypass this concentration and land on Vella Lavella instead. Operations on Vella Lavella began on 15 August. Meanwhile, the final stages of Allied operations to secure western New Georgia saw them secure Baanga islet between 11 and 21 August. With Baanga captured by US troops, mopping up operations secured the area north from Munda to Bairoko on New Georgia island. The Japanese high command considered launching a counterattack on New Georgia at this time, using troops on Kolombangara. Efforts to bring forward reinforcements in early August had been disrupted by the loss of three destroyers during the Battle of Vella Gulf and consequently these plans were cancelled and instead the decision made to move the troops from Baanga to Arundel from where they could delay further Allied advances. This move was completed on 22 August.
Possession of Arundel Island offered control of the Blackett Strait, which stretched north from New Georgia, as well as the Diamond Narrows to the south. It also offered firing points on either Munda to the Japanese, and on Villa, for the Americans. In the wake of the campaign on the mainland, Allied commanders decided to capture Arundel Island so that it could be used to shell the main Japanese troop concentration on Kolombangara, specifically the airfield around Villa. Prior to the invasion, the island was held by 200 Japanese troops from the 229th Infantry Regiment, under the overall command of General Minoru Sasaki. US planners anticipated only a minor operation to secure the island and initially assigned only a single infantry regiment to it.
Battle.
On 27 August 1943, the 172nd Infantry Regiment, forming part of the 43rd Infantry Division (assigned to Major General Oscar Griswold's XIV Corps), crossed Hathorn Sound via the Diamond Narrows and landed unopposed on the southeastern coast of the island. After establishing a beachhead, the landing forces sent out patrols to locate the Japanese. They then split into two forces that advanced north up the eastern and western coasts through dense jungle and mangrove swamps towards Stima Lagoon in the east and Bustling Point in the west. The advance was slow, held up by the terrain and fatigue amongst the US soldiers. The first clash occurred on 1 September on the eastern coast, south of the lagoon. During the initial stages of the battle, the defending Japanese troops sought to engage the attacking US troops from maximum range, or conduct harassing raids on static points, while generally avoiding contact to prevent being decisively engaged.
The 173rd Infantry Regiment had previously fought on the mainland around Munda and Baanga. It was understrength and its troops were fatigued and affected by malaria. In an effort to cut off the Japanese line of withdrawal, the 2nd Battalion, 173rd Infantry landed near the lagoon and dispatched more troops to reinforce the eastern patrols. Meanwhile, on the western side of the island, the 1st Battalion embarked on several landing craft and traversed the Wana Wana Lagoon to link up with the patrol that had reached Bustling Point without establishing contact with the Japanese. From there, they established a beachhead around the western part of the Bomboe Peninsula. On 5 September, the 2nd Battalion attacked heavily fortified Japanese positions around Stima Lagoon that were defended with mines and booby traps, and machine guns.
Supported by artillery batteries firing from Kolombangara, the Japanese resistance proved more intense than US planners had anticipated and the 3rd Battalion, 173rd Infantry Regiment was also landed around the lagoon to assist on 5 September. Having expected only limited combat, the fighting to secure Arundel eventually evolved into a major operation and the 173rd Infantry Regiment was initially reinforced by the 169th around 8 September. This regiment relieved the 1st Battalion, 173rd Infantry around Bustling Point, allowing the battalion to move to the east coast to support the regiment's other two battalions around Stima Lagoon. To break the deadlock, other reinforcements were sent later, with US forces reaching a peak strength of eight infantry battalions. These were drawn from a number of units, including the 27th Infantry Regiment (a Regular Army regiment detached from the 25th Infantry Division) and a company from the 103rd Infantry Regiment, along with 4.2-inch mortars from the 82nd Chemical Battalion, two batteries of 155 mm howitzers, a reconnaissance troop, and 13 US Marine tanks (a platoon from each of the 9th,10th, and 11th Defense Battalions). The 27th was landed around the Bomboe Peninsula—where the 169th Infantry had established a blocking position—with artillery support from the mortars and 155 mm guns, while other artillery from the 9th Defense Battalion based on mainland New Georgia around Munda Point fired against Japanese guns on Kolombagara to support the eastern force.
Meanwhile, the Japanese also reinforced the island, dispatching a battalion of Colonel Satoshi Tomonari's 13th Infantry Regiment commencing 8 September, with orders to secure food by attacking US troops around Munda or Bairoko on the New Georgia mainland. They were also charged with delaying the US forces long enough to enable elements of the 8th Combined Special Naval Landing Force and the South Seas Detachment to withdraw from Kolombangara. Two battalions of the US 27th Infantry Regiment arrived around Bustling Point on 10–11 September; while the 1st Battalion remained at Enogai on northern New Georgia. Their commander, Colonel Douglas Sugg, would assume command of all US troops in the north of the island. The 27th was tasked with clearing Sagekarasa Island and the Bomboe Peninsula, attacking towards the east in an effort to push the Japanese back towards the blocking positions that the 172nd Infantry Regiment was holding.
US troops from the 169th Infantry Regiment secured the Bustling Point area around 12 September and then elements the 27th Infantry advanced along the narrow neck of the Bomboe Peninsula. Other elements of the 27th Infantry crossed over to Sagekarasa Island, wading ashore and forcing the Japanese in the area to withdraw from the western part of the island. The 172nd also pushed north on the eastern coast, squeezing the Japanese defenders against the two forces. On the evening of 12–13 September, the Japanese launched several local counterattacks, but these failed to dislodge the US beachhead in the west. In response, over the course of the next two nights, the Japanese began evacuating their westernmost staging area and made preparations to reinforce their shrinking perimeter with the remainder of the 13th Infantry Regiment. While crossing from Kolombangara via barge on 14–15 September, the Japanese reinforcements came under heavy US artillery fire, resulting in the deaths of Tomonari and two of his battalion commanders. Despite these losses, the reinforcements launched a frenzied counterattack, and although this was eventually contained by elements of the 27th, 169th and 172nd Infantry Regiments, it brought the US advance to a halt again. The Japanese subsequently resumed delaying tactics.
In an effort to reinvigorate the offensive, Sugg arrived on Arundel on 15 September to oversee a renewed attack supported by the Marine tanks, which arrived on the Bomboe Peninsula via landing craft from Munda. He began a series of coordinated assaults utilizing the tanks to provide close support to his infantry. The fighting would continue for another week as the Japanese were forced into a small perimeter on the Stima Peninsula. Exploiting the sound of a heavy downpour to muffle the noise of their engines, five tanks from the 11th Defense Battalion moved into position behind the 27th on the west coast on the night of 16–17 September. The following morning the five tanks, operating in two waves with infantry support, destroyed a Japanese strongpoint, allowing the front line to advance . There were no losses amongst the tanks during this first engagement, but the following day Japanese defenders firing 37 mm guns destroyed two tanks, which had become isolated from infantry support after adopting the wrong formation. The crews were rescued from their vehicles, though, as the supporting infantry recovered from their initial surprise and laid down supporting fire.
On 19 September, 11 tanks from all three defense battalions took part in the 27th Infantry Regiment's attack on the pocket of Japanese resistance on the Stima Peninsula. Using their 37 mm guns to fire into the jungle, they attacked northwards in two waves to provide mutual support. Defending Japanese troops attempted to swarm over the tanks to attach magnetic mines to them, but infantrymen operating alongside the tanks shot them down, while snipers were used to harass the Japanese antitank gunners and prevent them from firing on the tanks.
Unable to receive supplies due to the interdiction of their sea lanes of communication by the US Navy, on 20–21 September, the Japanese evacuated Gizo and Arundel, withdrawing back to Kolombangara via barge. In order to cover their withdrawal, the Japanese laid down an intense artillery bombardment from Kolombangara, which prevented the surrounding US troops from attacking the withdrawing troops; meanwhile, US gunners and mortarmen maintained their own bombardment on the withdrawing Japanese barges. Some Japanese who attempted to swim across to Kolombangara drowned in the attempt and were found washed up on the shore in the aftermath.
Aftermath.
US losses during the battle amounted to 44 killed and 256 wounded. The Japanese lost 345 killed and 500 wounded. According to Stephen Lofgren, the fighting on Arundel was described by the commander of the 43rd Infantry Division as "the most bitter combat of the New Georgia campaign". Minor mopping up operations on the island continued after 21 September. As a result of capturing Arundel, the US commanders managed to secure the airbase around Munda from counterattack or shelling, although it remained under threat from Japanese air attack. In the aftermath, the fighting continued on Vella Lavella, where the New Zealand 14th Brigade arrived to take over responsibility for the final advance through the coastal areas from US troops.
Meanwhile, the Japanese decided to evacuate over 12,000 troops from Kolombangara as part of a major retrograde operation in the Solomons. The evacuation was conducted over the course of several nights via barge, commencing on 28–29 September and continuing through until 2–3 October. The Japanese then evacuated Vella Lavella on 6–7 October, bringing the New Georgia campaign to a conclusion. During the evacuation operations, the US Navy claimed to have sunk up to 46 barges, killing several thousand Japanese troops, but ultimately the Japanese evacuation operations were successful. The delay inflicted by the defenders on Arundel allowed the Japanese to improve their defenses around Rabaul and on Bougainville. Many of the troops who were evacuated from Kolombangara took part in the fighting on Bougainville later in the war. The next phase of the Allied advance through the Pacific would see them land at Cape Torokina in November 1943 as part of efforts to secure Bougainville, while further actions were undertaken by the New Zealanders in the Treasury Islands and the US Marines on Choiseul.


Tami Islands

The Tami Islands are a small island group located 13 km SSE of Finschhafen in the Huon Gulf (see also Solomon Sea). It is part of today's Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea.
Its people were known throughout the Solomon and South Sea islands for their distinctive wooden bowls, their religious figure carvings, and their ceremonial masks. During World War II, the islands were briefly occupied by the Japanese; Tami Islands were secured after the landings and Nassau Bay, Lae and Nadzab.
Geography.
The Tami Islands include four atolls, two of which are very small, and one so small it is not much larger than a strip of sand. On the two largest islands there are two villages that face each other across a volcanic cove. The islands form a circle around a lagoon, which at its center is deep. The cove attracts snorkelers and divers who explore the reefs, including day-trippers from nearby Lae, on the main island of Papua New Guinea. The reefs contain Spanish Dancer jellyfish, Blue See Stars and varieties of colorful Pelagic fish, both predators and prey. At its widest, the largest island is not more than about across.
Regional trade.
Islanders specialized in elaborately carved bowls. These were often used for bridal wealth payments throughout the islands, part of a regional exchange reaching as far as the Caroline and Solomon Islands. The islanders still make their living through fishing and the production of these bowls, intricately woven sleeping mats, and delicate carvings, and tourism. The evidence of the regional trade is visible in the physiognomy of the inhabitants, who resemble in their facial structure the islanders of New Britain. Islanders decorate themselves with blue and pink paint.
The Tami role in the trading cycle is evident from the bowls, which appear throughout the archipelago, and the Siassi islands. Bowls would be exchanged for dogs' teeth (used for carving and wood working, as well as for jewelry), sweet potatoes, reeds, pigs, bows, arrows, feathers and the betel nut. The Tami bowls are distinctive not only for their specific decorative designs, but because they are made of wood, not of clay; most Papua New Guinea pottery is clay, but the Tami Islands have no clay deposits.
In addition to the rectangular bowls, Tami art also appears in representations of religious figures, some of them massive. Images are full-length and standing, and the head is placed directly on the torso (no neck). The head usually has a headdress, often very ornate, and the arms fall to the side, like a figure almost at attention. Tami carving places circular eyes directly under the forehead. Tami sculpture also has two incised triangles pointing at the centre of the face. Tami masks also appear as products of trade. The depiction of facial figures resembles the style of carving found on the human figures. Tamis depict a variety of animal figures, equally as stylized as the human ones, on wooden bowls, hooks, spatulas, canoe prows, paddles, and other useful tools.
Tami canoes, although outriggers like most of the neighbouring styles, are unique in design and decoration.
The distinctive Tami Island outrigger canoe prows have finer and more rectangular structure than those of other south Milne Bay islanders, although they are similarly painted with shields.
European missions and regional trade.
The islands' position in the larger trading ecology of the eastern islands attracted Johann Flierl, in 1888, who established a Lutheran mission there. Flierl hoped not only to gain the confidence of the Tamis, and convert them to Lutheranism, but also to integrate the mission goals into the island groups with which the Tamis had contact. The process did not work as Flierl planned: instead, the Tami islanders became incorporated into a western-style material culture. As cash-based jobs became available, often working for the Mission itself, they decreased the product of bowls and cult figures. As a result, the Siassi learned to make the wood bowls, taught by Tami island catechists who went to the Siassi Island to help the missionaries.
World War II.
During the war, most of the Tamis were evacuated to the main island, and they returned in May 1944. The islands were the target of three raids by the United States Air Corps. On 25 November 1942, a B-25 hit a Japanese cruiser off one of the main islands. On 18 September 1943, a flight of A-20s hit installations on the island itself, and on 21 September 1943, flights of A-20s, B-26s, and the RAAF also targeted installations there. By this time, however, according to local people, the Japanese had left. As a consequence of the bombings, there were large craters in the centre of the villages, and in the betel nut grove, and many of the palm trees were ripped apart.
Today the Tami Islands are protected by the Papua New Guinea National Seas Act 1977.


Auxiliary Patrol

The Auxiliary Patrol was an antisubmarine patrols initiative by the British to help combat German submarine operations in the early stages of World War I. It was under the command of the Admiral of Patrols at the Admiralty and was the pioneer of anti-submarine warfare.
History.
On May 1, 1912 the post of Admiral of Patrols was established responsible for five destroyer flotilla's covering waters around the British Isles. In 1914, the Board of Admiralty sent an order the Admiralty War Staff to re-evaluate the functional role the patrol flotillas off the Eastern Coast of Britain the First Sea Lord indicated that the current function of patrolling would now be that of coastal defence. After the implementation took place R Admiral de Robeck was then replaced as (ADMOP) by a new commander Commodore George A. Ballard. He assumed the duties of Admiral of Patrols on the 1 May 1914 the auxiliary patrol was then a component part of the Admiral of Patrols command until 1917.
The majority of British trawlers were commandeered by the Admiralty, and those left were obliged to fish in groups of 20 with additional protection.
The Auxiliary Patrol was crewed by fishermen and led mainly by Merchant Navy men commissioned into the Royal Naval Reserve. They operated as trawlers do, in all weathers. Their trawlers were retrofitted with armaments, typically 3,6 or 12-pounder guns as well as 7.5" Bomb Throwers (Anti Submarine howitzers). Specialist crew such as signallers and gunners were also put on board.
Later in the war the Admiralty built 3 classes of larger trawlers as well as developing a new special class of Minesweeper.
By the Second World War, the Royal Navy had formed a specialist minesweeping capability, and the Royal Naval Patrol Service was formed, known to many as "Harry Tate's Navy".
Patrol areas Home waters.
"In 1914 new patrol areas were designated "Auxiliary" that covered UK waters."
Patrol areas Mediterranean Sea.
The Mediterranean Sea was divided into patrol zones dividing responsibility between the British, French and Italian navies.


327th Fighter Group


Convoy HG 76

HG 76 (19 to 23 December 1941) was an Allied convoy of the HG (Homeward from Gibraltar) series, during the Second World War. It was notable for the destruction of five German U-boats (the true total was not known to the British until after the war).
Two Focke-Wulf Condor long-range reconnaissance aircraft were shot down by Martlet fighters. The fighter cover was provided by the escort carrier , which was sunk during the voyage along with a destroyer and two merchant ships. Despite the loss of the escort carrier, it was regarded as the first big convoy victory for the Allies in the Battle of the Atlantic.
Background.
The attack on HG 76 was the last in a series of U-boat pack attacks on Gibraltar convoys which had started in the summer of 1941. Before this the U-boat Arm (, UBW) had only enough boats operational to form one patrol line at a time and their focus was on the North Atlantic convoy route. Gibraltar convoys had suffered only occasional adventitious attacks by individual U-boats that had met them while crossing their route. By the summer 1941 U-boat Command (BdU) had sufficient boats to form several patrol lines but this coincided with Hitler ordering U-boats into the Mediterranean to support Axis forces operating in North Africa and attack the Gibraltar traffic. This phase of the campaign had commenced with a pack attack on OG 69.
For the Allies the introduction of stable escort groups had created the conditions the development of convoy protection tactics, giving a measure of success in countering the wolf pack threat. It was recognized that air cover was needed to counter shadowing aircraft and to seek out approaching U-boats and for reinforcement to convoys under attack to provide sufficient ships to hunt U-boats to destruction rather than simply driving them off, as so often happened. The first requirement was met with the commissioning of HMS "Audacity", the first in a series of merchant aircraft carriers, the second by reinforcing the escorts and by the formation of an ASW Strike Force at Gibraltar, which would sweep ahead of a homeward bound convoy, to attack and destroy patrolling U-boats. The new measures had been introduced by the time HG 76 sailed.
Prelude.
HMS "Audacity".
"Audacity" participated in the escort of convoy OG 76 of twenty merchant ships, which sailed from Liverpool for Gibraltar on 31 October. The escort carrier embarked 802 Naval Air Squadron (802 NAS) of the Fleet Air Arm with eight Martlets and ten pilots. The fighters were usually split into standing patrols of two aircraft, which flew over the convoy for about two hours, searching for U-boats and Condors, the danger mainly coming from deck landings. The weather was atrocious and at times pitched the flight deck and rolled it through spray swept over the deck. Two Martlets took off on patrol and one managed a safe landing but the other touched down when the stern was rising and was thrown overboard, the pilot being rescued just before the Martlet sank.
On 8 November, "Kampfgeschwader" 40 (KG 40) sent six Focke-Wulf Condor aircraft to locate convoy SL 91, bound for Liverpool from Freetown, Sierra Leone. Near noon, the radar on "Audacity" detected two of the Condors and a Martlet patrol was sent to intercept. One Condor escaped in cloud but two Martlets caught the second, which shot down one Martlet before the other Martlet shot it down. About three hours later, another Condor was shot down by a Martlet making a head-on attack and a fourth Condor escaped. KG 40 had lost a third of its operational aircraft and failed to direct any U-boats onto either convoy, OG 76 making a safe arrival at Gibraltar late on 11 November. The presence of "Audacity" was now known to KG 40 and to BdU.
HG 76.
HG 76 comprised 32 ships homeward bound from Gibraltar, many in ballast or carrying trade goods. The Convoy Commodore was Vice-Admiral R. Fitzmaurice in the steamship "Spero". The convoy had a strong escort, consisting of 36th Escort Group (Commander F. J. "Johnnie" Walker), usually composed of two sloops ( and ) and seven corvettes ("Convolvulus", "Gardenia", "Marigold", "Pentstemon", "Rhodedendron", "Samphire" and "Vetch"). Walker, a skilled anti-submarine warfare expert, had taken command of EG 36 in October and brought the group down to Gibraltar in November with OG 76. He had exercised the group there in anti-submarine patrols that had resulted in the destruction of U-433 by "Marigold". This force was augmented by the new escort carrier and her three escorting destroyers, , and , plus the sloops , and the corvettes "Carnation" and "La Malouine", also at Gibraltar. This made a total escort of 17 warships. A group of destroyers from Force H in Gibraltar, comprising , , and sailed as an independent U-boat hunting force.
Since August 1940, Dönitz had ended the practice of U-boats freelancing and sending only one report per day. U-boat commanders were ordered to signal whenever they found a convoy and shadow it rather than attack. The commander was to send short homing signals every thirty minutes, to guide other U-boats to the convoy. When the pack had assembled, Dönitz gave the order to attack, usually at night, so that the U-boats could fire their torpedoes on the surface. For the tactic to work, U-boats had to signal their positions to Dönitz at Kerneval (across the river from the submarine base at Lorient in Brittany). Closer to land, when Condors on tracking patrol () sighted a convoy, the wireless operator reported its position and course to the BdU and relays of Condors remained over the convoy. When the position of a convoy was established, the information was passed to the senior officer of a group of U-boats organised for pack attacks, who ordered the boat nearest to the convoy to shadow it and guide the rest by wireless. When the pack had rendezvoused near the convoy, surface attacks would be made on successive nights, the U-boats withdrawing during the day.
In mid December U boat Command was informed that a convoy was assembling at Gibraltar. German agents stationed in the Spanish city of Algeciras, in neutral Spain, were able to overlook the harbour and report any and all activity there, without hindrance from the Axis-friendly Spanish authorities.
BdU began to assemble a patrol line, code-named (Pirate), preparatory to launching a pack attack. was an group, as the previous , had disbanded following a fruitless pursuit of southbound OS 12.
 comprised seven U-boats; "U-67" was already in position after a failed attack on OG 77; "U-434" and "U-574" from had refuelled from a clandestine depot ship in Vigo harbour, "U-127" and "U-131" had arrived from Germany and "U-107" and "U-108" from bases in France. Five of the seven were Type IX boats, which Dönitz considered unsuitable for pack attacks and five of the seven crews were inexperienced, being on their first patrols. The pack had orders to sink "Audacity" at all costs and was reinforced later by three more boats; U-108 sank a Portuguese freighter sailing independently on 14 December.
Battle.
14–15 December.
HG 76 sailed from Gibraltar on 14 December 1941, in company with a small convoy bound for Cape Town, and was reported almost immediately by German agents across the bay in neutral Spain, who reported the composition, escort strength and departure time of the convoy; BdU was confused by an agent report that the convoy had returned to port. The first sightings of HG 76 were made by U-74 and U-77, both to the Mediterranean and about to transit the Straits. U-77 sank one ship from the Cape Town convoy, but U-74 was unable to attack HG 76; Fairey Swordfish aircraft of RAF Gibraltar Command were escorting the convoy and on three occasions during the night of drove off the U-boats. The boats formed a patrol line south of Cape St Vincent but HG 76 passed through the line without detection. At Lockheed Hudson and Consolidated Catalina aircraft took over from the Swordfish and for the next two days co-operated with the 802 NAS Martlets on "Audacity", forcing U-boats to submerge. U-127 was detected on a routine anti-submarine sweep by a Short Sunderland from Gibraltar late in the day; next morning it was detected on Asdic by and sunk at
16–18 December.
At noon on 16 December, HG 76 was sighted and its position reported by a Focke-Wulf Condor of I/KG 40 patrolling from Bordeaux, which guided U-108 to the convoy to begin reporting its position to other U-boats. During the night of the wolf pack closed in and U-574 was ordered to the area; by morning on 17 December, the convoy had passed beyond the range of Gibraltar-based aircraft and four U-boats made contact, U-67 and U-108 being forced away from the convoy. Just after a Martlet from "Audacity" sighted a surfaced U-boat about from the convoy and circled over the area for the escort ships to gain a good radar fix; a corvette made an Asdic attack to no apparent effect. At on 17 December, "Stanley" sighted U-131 on the surface and Walker ordered a Martlet to attack while "Stork", with "Pentstemon" and the three destroyers, made their best speed to the location. The Martlet pilot dived towards the U-boat and both opened fire at the same time, the Martlet being shot down and the pilot killed. The British ships opened fire at extreme range, U-131 was driven to the surface and sunk. Observers saw the crew of U-131 abandon the vessel before it sank at Survivors said that they had been shadowing the convoy (claiming to have spent the previous night inside the convoy, homing other U-boats) and had been the U-boat attacked earlier.
On the night of the U-boats attacked again but failed to torpedo any ships; U-107 was forced under water by "Pentstemon" and after a failed torpedo attack, U-67 was forced to retire by "Convolvulus". At on 18 December, "Stanley" gained an Asdic contact and several ships dropped fifty depth charges. After thirty minutes U-434 surfaced and the crew abandoned ship just before it rolled over and sank north of Madeira, of the crew being rescued and taken prisoner. Before noon, the radar on "Audacity" indicated two aircraft and Martlets were scrambled to intercept but the guns on both aircraft jammed and the Condors escaped. The rest of the day was quiet but the Admiralty signalled that three more U-boats were en route. In the early hours of "Stanley" sighted U-574 astern at sent a sighting report, was hit by a torpedo and blew up. "Stork" following behind, swung behind the stern of "Stanley", gained an Asdic contact and dropped a pattern of depth charges, then turned after to attack again.
A U-boat shot to the surface ahead and a chase began; Walker tried to ram the U-boat but found that it could turn inside the turning circle of "Stork" nearly as fast. The ship fired on the U-boat, illuminated it with snowflakes and managed to ram it just forward of the conning tower, scraping over the hull of the submarine. As the U-boat emerged from under the stern, depth charges set for "shallow" were dropped, blowing up the U-boat. The bows of "Stork" were crushed and bent sideways and the Asdic dome under the hull was smashed. Soon after, U-108 torpedoed "Ruckinge", which was abandoned and sunk later by "Samphire". Focke-Wulf Condors arrived, one was shot down in another head-on attack and a second aircraft was damaged. When more Condors reached the convoy in the afternoon, a Martlet pilot made such a determined head-on attack that he collided with the Condor, destroying it and coming back with its aerial round his tail-wheel; the night of was quiet.
19–21 December.
At a Condor appeared to shadow the convoy and a Martlet chased it away before returning for lack of fuel. In the afternoon a Martlet spotted two U-boats and the convoy made an emergency turn. The U-boats were forced to submerge and Martlets patrolled overhead keeping them down for as long as their fuel lasted. It was so dark that the aircraft were guided to the flight deck with hand torches and again the night was quiet. U-107 maintained contact and the wolf pack was joined by U-71, U-567 (commanded by leading ace Engelbert Endrass), and U-751 from Bordeaux and the three original wolf pack boats U-67, U-107 and U-108 re-joined by 21 December. On 21 December 802 NAS could only keep three Martlets operational, take-off and landing was dangerous in the heavy swell and the pilots were very tired. After the last patrol, the commander of "Audacity" ordered the ship out of the convoy to the starboard as usual but no escorts could be spared. At during the night of 21/22 December, a ship at the rear of the convoy was torpedoed by U-571 and nearby ships fired snowflakes, illuminating the area to both sides. U-567 saw the silhouette of "Audacity" at close range and at torpedoed "Audacity", which began to sink at the stern. Two more torpedoes from U-571 hit the carrier, a big explosion blew off the front end and the ship began to sink at the head. "Audacity" sank head first at west of Cape Finisterre.
22–23 December.
At on the night of U-567 was sunk by depth charges from "Deptford", two hours after gaining an Asdic contact; "Deptford" then collided with "Stork", damaging them both. U-67 fired torpedoes at a CAM ship but missed. During 22 December, U-71 and U-751 remained in contact, to be joined by U-125 (en route to America), while HG 76 was reinforced by the destroyers and . At a Consolidated Liberator of 120 Squadron, 19 Group Coastal Command based at RAF Nutts Corner in Ireland away, arrived over the convoy and saw off a Focke-Wulf Condor. After two hours the Liberator attacked a U-boat and at was relieved by a second Liberator, which forced another three U-boats to submerge. The Liberator turned for home with minimal fuel but next day the convoy came into range of continuous air support. On 23 December, Dönitz, shaken by the loss of five U-boats and the lack of success against the convoy, called off the attack and U-67, U-107, U-108 and U-751 returned to bases in France.
Aftermath.
Despite the loss of "Audacity" and the three other ships, the safe arrival of 30 ships and the destruction of three U-boats (U-127 was not included and U-567 not confirmed until after the war) was judged to be an outstanding victory. It also confirmed Walker as the Royal Navy's foremost expert in anti-submarine warfare. The loss of five of the nine U-boats and Endrass, one of the most experienced U-boat commanders, was considered a grievous blow by Donitz; his loss was concealed from the U-boat men for several weeks.
Order of battle.
Allied forces.
HG 76 comprised 32 merchant and 17 warships
Merchant ships.
A total of 32 merchant vessels joined the convoy. (Data from Arnold Hague Convoy Database, unless specified.)
Convoy escorts.
A series of armed military ships escorted the convoy at various times during its journey.
Axis forces.
 was assembled on 14 December 1941, comprising seven U-boats. It was reinforced on 21 December by a further three. Four U-boats were destroyed attacking the convoy and another by the Gibraltar Strike Force.


Battle of Castle Itter

The Battle of Castle Itter was fought in the Austrian North Tyrol village of Itter on 5 May 1945, in the last days of the European Theater of World War II.
Troops of the 23rd Tank Battalion of the 12th Armored Division of the US XXI Corps led by Captain John C. "Jack" Lee, Jr., a number of Wehrmacht soldiers led by Major Josef "Sepp" Gangl, SS-Hauptsturmführer Kurt Siegfried Schrader, and recently freed French prisoners of war defended Castle Itter against an attacking force from the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division until relief from the American 142nd Infantry Regiment of the 36th Division of XXI Corps arrived.
The French prisoners included former prime ministers, generals and a tennis star, as well as General de Gaulle's sister. It is the only known time during the war in which Americans and Germans fought side by side. Popular accounts of the battle have called it the strangest battle of World War II.
Background.
Itter Castle is a small castle situated on a hill near the village of Itter in Austria. After the 1938 "Anschluss", the German government officially leased the castle in late 1940 from its owner, Franz Grüner.
The castle was seized from Grüner by SS Lieutenant General Oswald Pohl under the orders of Heinrich Himmler on 7 February 1943. The transformation of the castle into a prison was completed by 25 April 1943, and the facility was placed under the administration of the Dachau concentration camp.
The prison was established to contain high-profile French prisoners valuable to the "Reich". Notable prisoners included tennis player Jean Borotra, former prime ministers Édouard Daladier and Paul Reynaud, former commanders-in-chief Maxime Weygand and Maurice Gamelin, Charles de Gaulle's elder sister Marie-Agnès Cailliau, right-wing leader and closet French resistance member François de La Rocque, and trade union leader Léon Jouhaux. Besides the VIP prisoners, the castle held a number of Eastern European prisoners detached from Dachau, who were used for maintenance and other menial work.
Battle.
On 3 May 1945, Zvonimir Čučković, an imprisoned Yugoslav communist resistance member from Croatia who worked as a handyman at the prison, left the castle under the pretext of performing an errand for the prison's commander . Čučković carried with him a letter in English seeking Allied assistance which he was to give to the first American he encountered.
The town of Wörgl lay down the mountains but was still occupied by German troops. Čučković instead pressed on up the Inn River valley towards Innsbruck distant. Late that evening, he reached the outskirts of the city and encountered an advance party of the 409th Infantry Regiment of the American 103rd Infantry Division of the US VI Corps and informed them of the castle's prisoners.
At dawn, a heavily armored rescue was mounted but was stopped by heavy shelling just past Jenbach around halfway to Itter, then recalled by superiors for encroaching into territory of the U.S. 36th Division to the east. Only two jeeps of auxiliary personnel continued.
Upon Čučković's failure to return, and the death at the prison of the former commander of Dachau Eduard Weiter under suspicious circumstances on 2 May, Wimmer feared for his own life and abandoned his post. The "SS-Totenkopfverbände" guards departed the castle soon after, with the prisoners taking control of the castle and arming themselves with the weaponry that remained.
Failing to learn of the result of Čučković's effort, prison leaders accepted the offer of its Czech cook, Andreas Krobot, to bicycle to Wörgl mid-day on 4 May in hopes of reaching help there. Armed with a similar note, he succeeded in contacting Austrian resistance in that town, which had recently been abandoned by "Wehrmacht" forces but reoccupied by roaming "Waffen-SS" troops. He was taken to Major Josef Gangl, commander of the remains of a unit of "Wehrmacht" soldiers who had defied an order to retreat and instead thrown in with the local resistance, being made its head.
Gangl sought to maintain his unit's position in the town to protect local residents from SS reprisals. Nazi loyalists would shoot at any window displaying either a white or Austrian flag, and would summarily execute males as possible deserters. Gangl's hopes were pinned on the Americans reaching Wörgl promptly so he could surrender to them. Instead, he would now have to approach them under a white flag to ask for their help.
Around the same time, a reconnaissance unit of four Sherman tanks of the 23rd Tank Battalion, 12th Armored Division of the US XXI Corps, under the command of Captain Lee, had reached Kufstein, Austria, to the north. There, in the town square, it idled while waiting for the 12th to be relieved by the 36th Infantry Division. Asked to provide relief by Gangl, Lee did not hesitate, volunteering to lead the rescue mission and immediately earning permission from his HQ.
After a personal reconnaissance of the Castle with Gangl in the major's Kübelwagen, Lee left two of his tanks behind but requisitioned five more and supporting infantry from the recently arrived 142nd Infantry Regiment of the 36th.
En route, Lee was forced to send the reinforcements back when a bridge proved too tenuous for the entire column to cross once, let alone twice. Leaving one of his tanks behind to guard it, he set back off accompanied only by 14 American soldiers, Gangl, and a driver, and a truck carrying ten former German artillerymen. from the castle, they defeated a party of SS troops that had been attempting to set up a roadblock.
In the meantime, the French prisoners had requested an SS officer, Kurt-Siegfried Schrader, whom they had befriended in Itter during his convalescence from wounds, to take charge of their defense. Upon Lee's arrival at the castle, prisoners greeted the rescuing force warmly but were disappointed at its small size. Lee placed the men under his command in defensive positions around the castle and positioned his tank, "Besotten Jenny", at the main entrance.
Lee had ordered the French prisoners to hide, but they remained outside and fought alongside the American and "Wehrmacht" soldiers. Throughout the night, the defenders were harried by a reconnaissance force sent to assess their strength and probe the fortress for weaknesses. On the morning of 5 May, a force of 100–150 "Waffen-SS" launched their attack. Before the main assault began, Gangl was able to phone Alois Mayr, the Austrian resistance leader in Wörgl, and request reinforcements. Only two more German soldiers under his command and a teenage Austrian resistance member, Hans Waltl, could be spared, and they quickly drove to the castle. The Sherman tank provided machine-gun fire support until it was destroyed by German fire from an 88 mm gun; it was occupied at the time only by a radioman seeking to repair the tank's faulty radio; he escaped without injury.
Meanwhile, by early afternoon, word had finally reached the 142nd of the desperation of the defenders' plight, and a relief force was dispatched. Aware he had been unable to give the 142nd complete information on the enemy and its disposition before communications had been severed, Lee accepted tennis star Borotra's offer to vault the castle wall and run the gauntlet of SS strongpoints and ambushes to deliver it. The tennis star was recognized by René Lévesque, a French Canadian reporter embedded with the 142nd and later Premier of Quebec. Borotra requested an American military uniform, then joined the force as it made haste to reach the prison before its defenders fired their last rounds of ammunition.
The relief force arrived around 16:00, and the SS were promptly defeated. Some 100 SS prisoners were reportedly taken. The French prisoners were evacuated towards France that evening, reaching Paris on 10 May.
Aftermath and historical significance.
For his service defending the castle, Lee received the Distinguished Service Cross.
Gangl died during the battle from a sniper rifle bullet while trying to move former French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud out of harm's way, and was honored as an Austrian national hero; a street in Wörgl was named after him. He was the sole defender to die during the battle, though four others were wounded. Popular accounts of the battle have dubbed it the strangest battle of World War II. The battle was fought five days after Adolf Hitler had committed suicide and only two days before the signing of Germany's unconditional surrender.


Leonard B. Smith

Leonard B. "Tuck" Smith (October 29, 1915 in Mayview, Missouri – May 16, 2006 in Friday Harbor, Washington) was an American pilot who spotted the German battleship "Bismarck" prior to its being sunk by British naval and air forces. Smith was the first American to participate in a World War II naval victory and is sometimes considered the first American to be directly involved in World War II for his actions.
A number of US pilots, who had ferried Catalinas across to the UK and were supposed to familiarize the RAF crews with the plane, were unofficially used as copilots on operations ("unofficially" because the USA was not at war with Germany at that time). Smith was acting as copilot of "AH545" WQ-Z of No. 209 Squadron RAF which had been specifically assigned a search area after contact was lost with the "Bismarck" shortly after the Battle of the Denmark Strait. They flew out of a flying boat base on Lough Erne and through the Donegal Corridor. The plane was primarily piloted by British Flying Officer Dennis Briggs but Smith was at the controls when the battleship was spotted around at 10:10 on 26 May 1941, heading for Brest. He jettisoned the depth charges and made for cloud cover under heavy anti-aircraft fire, losing sight of the "Bismarck" and never regaining contact. Two other Americans were also in Catalinas that spotted the "Bismarck" later in the day: Lt Johnson in M of No. 240 Squadron RAF, and Ensign Rinehart in O of No. 210 Squadron RAF. Knowing the battleship's position accurately enabled the British navy to intercept it and sink it soon after.
Smith was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his role in the sinking of the "Bismarck". He was later sent to Hawaii, and was flying a training mission between Midway and Pearl Harbor when the base was attacked on the morning of December 7, 1941. He remained in the Pacific Theatre for the remainder of the war, later fought in Korea, reached the rank of captain, and retired from the Navy in 1962. After his retirement he lived in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, Washington. He died in 2006 at the age of 90.
At one stage during his naval career Smith worked alongside Richard Nixon, whom he described as "one of the most conscientious and hard-working officers I ever met".


Hickinbotham Brothers Shipbuilders

Hickinbotham Brothers Shipbuilders was a shipbuilding company in Stockton, California on the Stockton Channel. To support the World War II demand for ships Hickinbotham Brothers built: Type V ship Tugboats, Tank Landing Barge, balloon barges and Coastal Freighter (design 381, 381 tons). Hickinbotham Brothers also called Hickinbotham Brothers Construction Division was opened in 1852 and is still a working shipyard. Hickinbotham Brothers started by building: horse carriages, horse wagons, threshers and Combine harvester. In 1942 Ronald Guntert and L. R. Zimmerman ran the company as a partnership on the Banner Island waterfront. After World War II, Guntert and Zimmerman purchased Hickinbotham out and renamed the company Guntert & Zimmerman Construction. In 1984 the company moved to Ripon, California on the Stanislaus River, as the business continues. The Banner Island waterfront yard was on the deepwater port on the Stockton Ship Channel of the Pacific Ocean and an inland port located more than seventy nautical miles from the ocean, on the Stockton Channel and San Joaquin River-Stockton Deepwater Shipping Channel (before it joins the Sacramento River to empty into Suisun Bay. Notable ship: USNS Shearwater (T-AG-177).


Operation Lustre

Operation Lustre was an action during the Second World War: the movement of British and other Allied troops (Australian, New Zealand and Polish) from Egypt to Greece in March and April 1941, in response to the failed Italian invasion and the looming threat of German intervention.
Background.
By April 1941 Greece had defeated the Italian invasion and was therefore Britain's only effective ally in Europe. British leaders, especially Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister, thought it was politically unacceptable not to support an ally under threat. In addition, use of Greek airfields would put the Romanian oilfields at Ploieşti, vital to Germany's war effort, within reach of Allied bombers. General Archibald Wavell, commander of all the Allied forces in the Middle East, was told in January 1941 that support for Greece must take precedence over all operations in North Africa and this order was reinforced in February.
Wavell's attitude is unclear. It had been generally believed that he was pushed into the Greek campaign, but recent writers believe that Wavell approved of it. British commanders concluded that with British help, the Greek Army could hold the Germans at the Aliakmon Line. They knew German forces were being sent to Libya in Operation Sonnenblume, but thought these forces would be ineffectual until the summer. However, it is now accepted that given the disposition of Greek forces the transfer of further Allied forces to the Greek mainland had no chance of preventing a German victory there, as well as weakening Allied forces in North Africa, leading to the success of Rommel's counterattack in April and the failure of an Allied offensive, Operation Brevity, in May.
Anthony Eden had got Churchill and the British Cabinet’s agreement to send a British force of two divisions to Greece on 7 March. Though claiming that his military advisors concurred, he had not mentioned the provisos by Dill, Wavell and Papagos that eight to ten divisions would be required to hold the Aliaknon Line. It would take 20 days to withdraw three Greek divisions from the frontier line, leaving Wavell with a requirement of five to seven divisions with only the two ANZAC divisions available. Longmore doubted if he could take on the German Air Force in Greece and Albania, and Cunningham doubted if he could protect transport convoys from air attacks.
From 4 March, a series of convoys moved from Alexandria to Piraeus at regular 3-day intervals, escorted by warships of the Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy. Although there were air attacks, these had little effect. Since January, when the Italian torpedo boats "Lupo" and "Libra" attacked convoy AN 14 off Suda bay and disabled the large tanker "Desmoulea" for the rest of the war, Allied shipping used to avoid passage into the Aegean Sea through the Kaso strait and chose the Antikithera strait instead, which was west of Crete. The Italian fleet mounted a major attempt at the end of March to disrupt these convoys south of the island, but it ended in the stunning defeat at Cape Matapan.
The Allies initially planned to deploy about 58,000 personnel and their equipment to Greece by 2 April, including the British 1st Armoured Brigade, the New Zealand 2nd Division and the Australian 6th Division. While it was intended that these units would be followed by the Australian 7th Division and the Polish Independent Carpathian Rifle Brigade, neither was deployed before the defeat of the Allies on the Greek mainland.
Two infantry and two armored divisions were in place on the Aliakmon Line, south-west of Thessaloniki (Salonica), before the Axis (German, Italian and Bulgarian) invasion ([Operation Marita]) on 6 April. The Greek Army did not retire to the Aliakmon Line as expected for fear of being overrun by the more mobile German troops during a retirement and the Allied troops were left vulnerable. These forces had little effect on the German invasion and they were evacuated (Operation Demon) on and after 24 April.
Some of these units were moved to Crete, where they were defeated and forced to evacuate by the airborne invasion of that island (Operation Mercury).


Convoy HX 79

HX 79 was an Allied North Atlantic convoy of the HX series which ran during the Battle of the Atlantic in World War II.
It suffered major losses from a U-boat attack, and, with the attack on convoy SC 7 the previous day, represents the worst two days shipping losses in the entire Atlantic campaign.
Prelude.
HX 79 was an east-bound convoy of 50 ships which sailed from Halifax on 8 October 1940 making for Liverpool with war materials.
On 19 October, 4 days from landfall, HX 79 was entering the Western Approaches, and had caught up with the position of SC 7, which was under attack.
The escort for the crossing had been meagre, being provided by two armed merchant cruisers against the possibility of attack by a surface raider, but even these had departed when HX 79 was sighted by , commanded by submarine ace "Kapitänleutnant" Günther Prien.
At this point HX 79 was unescorted; Prien sent a sighting report and set to shadowing the convoy, while "Konteradmiral" Karl Dönitz ordered the pack to assemble. Those U-boats which had attacked SC 7 and were still able to fight (three had departed to re-arm having expended all their torpedoes) were directed to the scene. Four did so, (Joachim Schepke), (Engelbert Endrass), (Heinrich Bleichrodt) and (Heinrich Liebe) joining U-47 during the day.
However the Admiralty, concerned by the fate of SC 7 and anticipating an attack, rushed reinforcements to the scene; throughout the day a large escort force of 11 warships also gathered to provide cover.
Action.
Undeterred by their presence however, the pack attacked as night fell; using the darkness to cover an approach on the surface, Prien penetrated the escort screen from the south to attack from within the convoy, while Endrass (who had learned his trade as Prien's 1st officer), did the same from the north.
Over the next six hours, 13 ships were torpedoed; 6 by "U-47" alone (4 of which were sunk). 10 ships were sunk from the convoy, and 2 stragglers were lost later in the day. These were "Shirak", which had been torpedoed in the night, and "Loch Lomond", sailing with the convoy as a rescue ship. Another, "Athelmonarch", was damaged but was able to make port.
HX 79 had lost 12 ships out of 49, a total tonnage of .
None of the attacking U-boats were damaged.
Ships in the convoy.
Allied merchant ships.
A total of 50 merchant vessels joined the convoy, either in Halifax or later in the voyage. The SS "Erna III" returned to Halifax before the convoy was attacked by the assembled German wolfpack.
Convoy escorts.
A series of armed military ships escorted the convoy at various times during its journey.
Conclusion.
Despite the strength of the escort, it was ineffective; the ships were uncoordinated, being unused to working together, and having no common battle plan or tactics.
The escorts had arrived singly, being dispatched as and when available, this being the common practice at the time. Command of the escort force fell to the senior officer present, and could change as each new ship arrived. Any tactical arrangements had to be made on the spot, and communicated by signal lamp to each ship in turn.
Finally, the presence of an Allied submarine was actually counterproductive; "O 14" had no targets, and was twice attacked by mistake by other escorts.
The failure of such a substantial escort led to a number of changes in escort policy. The first to take effect was the formation of escort groups, collections of escort ships that would operate together, under defined leadership. This would allow the development of consistent tactics, and teamwork, and an increasing effectiveness.


Convoy HX 47

Convoy HX 47 was a North Atlantic convoy of the HX series which ran during the battle of the Atlantic in World War II.
It was the 47th of the numbered series of merchant convoys run by the Allies from Halifax to Liverpool.
The convoy was attacked by German U-boats and lost three of its 58 ships.
Background.
HX 47 was formed of two sections sailing from the Americas.
The main body, of 37 ships departed Halifax on 2 June 1940 with ships gathered from the US eastern seaboard; it was led by convoy commodore Adm. BS Thesiger RN in the steamship "Pacific Pioneer". It was accompanied by its ocean escort, the armed merchant cruiser HMS "Esperance Bay", and a local escort, a Royal Canadian Navy destroyer.
Two ships dropped out early in the voyage; "Randsfjord" was damaged in collision with a Greek steamer and returned for repairs, and another returned to port for degaussing.
On 8 June the convoy was joined by BHX 47, 21 ships from the Caribbean and South America, that had gathered at Bermuda, departing there on 31 May escorted by the AMC "Ascania" and a local escort.
Ranged against HX 47 were U-boats of the German Navy's U-boat Arm (UBW), on patrol in Britain’s sea lanes. The UBW had just two U-boats in Southwest Approaches, and , with another, , further west.
Action.
On 14 June HX 47’s Western Approaches escort arrived. These were the sloops , from escorting the outbound convoy OA 164, and from port following a refit.
During the crossing three ships had dropped out of convoy; of these, "Balmoralwood", was sighted on 14 June by "U-47" and sunk, 70 miles from Cape Clear Island.
That evening "U-38" had attacked the Greek freighter "Mount Myrto", on independent passage; sighting HX 47 the U-boat left the freighter in a sinking condition and stalked the convoy. Attacking after midnight fo 14/15 June "U-38" sank two ships, the tanker "Italia" and the freighter "Erik Boye". The U-boat escaped and HX 47 continued without further loss.
The main body of the convoy reached Liverpool on 17 June.
Conclusion.
Of the 58 ships that set out, two turned back and three were sunk. 53 ships made a safe and timely arrival. HX 47 was one of two trans-Atlantic convoys attacked during June, the other, HX 49, also losing three ships. During the month as a whole the UBW sank 63 ships in the Atlantic; most of these were unescorted vessels sailing independently. June 1940 was the beginning of a marked increase in successes by the U-boat Arm, referred to by them as "The Happy Time".
Ships in the convoy.
Merchant ships.
Convoy information is from Arnold Hague's Convoyweb
Escort.
Escort information is from Arnold Hague's Convoyweb
Axis forces.
U-boat information is from Guðmundur Helgason's uboat.net