Login
Military Photos
Main Menu
Online
Past Articles
Military Quotes
Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity. -- General George Patton Jr |
USS Earle Attacks U-boats8784 Reads
1/3/43 German radio reported attack on Casablanca the night after we left the area. The supply convoy of 35 ships was probably packed like sardines in the harbor. No dope on damage. Could have been murderous. Apparently we picked the right time to get out of there. Excitement galore today.
We were patrolling station in the "coffin corner" astern of the convoy. Shortly after I went off watch at 2000 we picked up an SG radar contact. Didn't arouse much interest at first, everyone thinking of a dummy run or a ghost. Contact persisted, however. I had got to bed pretty tired and was very nearly asleep when:"all hands to general quarters! Show no lights! Followed by the general alarm. Whipped on shoes but no socks. Grabbed sweater, watch cap and life jacket and ran topside. Worrill still in his skivies when I left. Of course my telephone lines would get fouled in a pinch, but got machine gun batteries reported in in fairly good time. Hagan, my talker was on the JA circuit and could overhear a lot of what was going on on the bridge below. FD radar picked up the contact, tracked it and got solution: target angle 180 degrees, speed 12 knots. |
Related Links
Military History
Forum Posts
This Day in History
1863:
The Union army seals the fate of Vicksburg by defeating the Confederates at the Battle of Champions Hill.
1943: The British Royal Air Force sets into motion a plan to bomb key dams in order to flood the Ruhr region of Germany, while the German army pursues an anti-partisan sweep in Russia. 1951: The Chinese launched the second phase of their spring offensive. Far East Air Forces fighter-bombers killed and estimated 5,000 enemy troops on the roads from Chunchon and Inje in a two day period, part of the "May Massacre." 1952: The 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team arrived in Korea for its second tour of duty. 1965: An accidental explosion of a bomb on one aircraft which spread to others at the Bien Hoa air base leaves 27 U.S. servicemen and 4 South Vietnamese dead and some 95 Americans injured. More than 40 U.S. and South Vietnamese planes, including 10 B-57s, were destroyed. 1972: A series of air strikes over five days destroys all of North Vietnams pumping stations in the southern panhandle, thereby cutting North Vietnams main fuel line to South Vietnam. |
Comments