Naval History Magazine - June 2020, Volume 34, Number 3

Launched on 24 November 1859, France’s La Gloire was the world’s first oceangoing ironclad battleship.

On Our Scope

By Richard G. Latture

June 2020

Highlights from the June 2020 issue of Naval History.

Daniel Tomlinson remembered Lieutenant Commander William F. Halsey as “a marvelous battalion officer while I was at the Academy—tough but absolutely square. Everyone loved Bull Halsey.”

Midshipman Perils

By Captain Daniel W. Tomlinson IV, U.S. Naval Reserve (Retired)

June 2020

Daniel Tomlinson remembered Lieutenant Commander William F. Halsey as “a marvelous battalion officer while I was at the Academy—tough but absolutely square. Everyone loved Bull Halsey.”

Members of SEAL Team One operate on the Cà Mau Peninsula

In Contact

June 2020

Letters to the Editor for the months of April and May 2020.

There are multiple paths to joining the U.S. Navy, including enlisting, like these young men in 1948, who were sent to San Diego Naval Training Center after taking their oaths.

Becoming a Sailor

By Lieutenant Commander Thomas Cutler, U.S. Navy (Retired)

June 2020

An individual can take several paths to become a sailor—enlisted or commissioned—in the U.S. Navy.

A quartermaster takes a sun sighting from the navigation bridge of the USS Alaska (CB-1) in 1945.

Navigating to the Sextant

By Philip K. Allan

June 2020

The 20th-century sextant never fails to attract the attention of visitors, whether or not they have an interest in the sea.

12 August 1864: The packet ship Adriatic, having fallen victim to the notorious Confederate raider Tallahassee (immediate right), lights up the sky before sinking to her grave. Divers now have located the shipwreck.

Naval History News

June 2020

Naval History News from the months of April and May.

A Sikorsky HO3S-1 helicopter rests on the carrier USS Philippine Sea (CV-47) during the Korean War. These helicopters were flown in large numbers during the conflict for VIP and mail delivery, search and rescue, gunfire spotting—and mine-spotting.

Clean Sweeping

By Norman Polmar, Author, Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet

June 2020

During the 20th century and into the 21st, mines have sunk more surface ships than any other weapon.

8 October 1879: Smoke fills the air in the engagement between the Peruvian turret ship Huáscar (left) and the Chilean central battery ship Almirante Cochrane—the culmination of the naval side of the War of the Pacific. The battle resulted in the Chilean Navy’s capture of the Huáscar, which lives on as a museum ship.

A Global Phenomenon

By Bruce Taylor

June 2020

From Kinburn in 1855 to the Yalu River in 1894, the age of the ironclad wrought a revolution in naval warfare.

While Confederate ironclads only briefly breached the blockade of Charleston, South Carolina, the vessels helped prevent the Union Navy’s capture of “the seat of the rebellion.” Charleston Bay and City shows a pair of the local naval squadron’s ironclad gunboats on patrol.

‘Blockade Busters’ of the Confederate Navy

By Richard Selcer

June 2020

Setting out under cover of foggy darkness, Southern ironclads wreaked havoc among Union warships off Charleston, but their effort to open the port to commerce was chimeric.

Richard Wright, The Battle of Quiberon Bay: the Second Day (1760), National Maritime Museum

The Trafalgar of the Seven Years’ War

By Chuck Lyons

June 2020

The 1759 battle at Quiberon Bay established Britain as the world’s dominant naval power and changed the course of North American history.

Nissan Atoll, Green Islands, South Pacific, 31 January 1944: Inside enemy territory, a recon party lands, senses keyed up for sounds of the Japanese troops known to be present. A perilous fact-finding mission is under way.

Raiders of the Green Islands

By Reginald Newell

June 2020

The South Pacific advance hinged on cracking the Japanese stronghold of Rabaul—and an obscure atoll became the target for a daring probe by U.S. and New Zealand forces.

The USS Oregon in pursuit of the Spanish squadron

The Race of the USS Oregon

By Mark Carlson

June 2020

The ‘Bulldog of the Navy’ had a long and storied career that ended nearly 60 years after her launch into the national spotlight.

Exclusive Excerpt: The Stringbags

By Garth Ennis and P. J. Holden

June 2020

An exclusive excerpt from the new graphic novel from Dead Reckoning. The heroic story of the torpedo bomber crews who flew outdated Fairey Swordfish biplanes in World War II.

The USS Casco was one of only four light-draft monitors commissioned during the Civil War. She served on the James River from late 1864 through 1865, here near Dutch Gap, in her guise as a torpedo boat.

‘Entirely Unnecessary’

By J. M. Caiella

June 2020

The USS Casco was one of only four light-draft monitors commissioned during the Civil War. She served on the James River from late 1864 through 1865.

Book Reviews

June 2020

June 2020 Book Reviews including Tower of Skulls, and 1545: Who Sank the Mary Rose?

One of the museum’s exhibits displays a uniform worn by Navajo Code Talkers, who trained at Camp Elliott, today’s East Miramar. The Lady Ace 09 helicopter that evacuated the U.S. ambassador from the Saigon embassy in 1975 also is on display.

At 20, ‘5th’ Marine Aircraft Wing Eyes Permanent Museum

By Gidget Fuentes

June 2020

The Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum in San Diego is one of three Marine Corps command museums and the only one focused on Marine aviation.

Pieces of the Past

By Eric Mills

June 2020

A flag, an Iron Cross, and a photograph reflect war-torn years when German Navy ships sailed the skies.

June 2020

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