Found After 66 Years
The wreck of the missing Royal Australian Navy light cruiser HMAS Sydney II has been discovered barely 12 nautical miles from the remains of the German raider that sank her. The cruiser was lost on 19 November 1941 with her entire crew following a fierce engagement with the HSK Kormoran. The Finding Sydney Foundation located her remains on 16 March some 128 miles from Steep Point on the west coast of Western Australia at a depth of approximately 8,100 feet. The Kormoran had been found four days earlier at nearly the same distance from Steep Point but in a different direction, about 8,400 feet down. Until her discovery, the only traces of the cruiser after the battle were a Carley life-float recovered eight days after the action and a life belt.
The magnitude of the cruiser's discovery to the people of Australia cannot be underestimated. In an e-mail to Naval History, Ted Graham, chairman of HMAS Sydney Search Party Ltd., noted:
HMAS Sydney II established a distinguished fighting reputation as history shows, and whenever she was in Australia she was greeted with admiration and affection. For a country with a small population [7 million in 1941] who greatly admired this ship to suddenly lose her and 645 men . . . without trace was . . . almost impossible for the nation to believe.
I was . . . amazed at the outpouring of emotion when we discovered her. My personal experience was of strangers stopping me in the street to congratulate us, of family members of those lost being very emotional and grateful that she had been discovered and, as an example of the interest, our Web site had received approximately 15 million hits.
The Finding Sydney Search Foundation received $4.2 million from the commonwealth, as well as money from the New South Wales and Western Australia governments and private donations to conduct a search for HMAS Sydney II. The search began on 3 March, focusing first on finding the German raider for which some basic information had been obtained from her surviving crew. Her wreck was found 11 days later. That position combined with the discovery of the main battle site less than four nautical miles south of the Kormoran, was then used to direct the team's effort in searching for the cruiser. Graham said they were prepared to search for approximately 35 days, so finding both within a matter of weeks "is a stunning achievement."
Nearly a dozen memorial services or commemorations have occurred or been planned since the discovery, and the chief of the Defence Force has convened a Commission of Inquiry into the ship's loss. It will investigate new and existing evidence in an attempt to gain a greater understanding of the circumstances surrounding the cruiser's demise. The commission's hearings will be open to the public.
The minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts has declared both sites historic shipwrecks, and a protection zone has been established around them. Both wrecks will be treated with respect and any investigation on site will only involve the collection of visual imagery.
Additional information can be found on the Australian government's Web site at www.navy.gov.au/spc/history/ships/sydney2.html and from the Finding Sydney Search Foundation at www.findingsydney.com.
Naval History Author Receives Radford Award
In May Robert J. Cressman, author of Naval History's "Historic Fleets" column, received the Admiral Arthur W. Radford Award for Excellence in Naval Aviation History and Literature. The Naval Aviation Museum Foundation in Pensacola, Florida, presents the award annually in recognition of an individual who has made outstanding and significant contributions to the field.
A widely published author, Mr. Cressman has written two significant ship's biographies—That Gallant Ship USS Yorktown (CV-5) (Pictorial Histories Publishing Co., 1985) and USS Ranger: The Navy's First Flattop from Keel to Mast, 1934-1946 (Potomac Books, 2003)—and cowrote works on the USS Enterprise (CV-6), Pearl Harbor, and the Battle of Midway. He also earned the prestigious John Lyman Book Award from the North American Society for Ocean History in 1999 for The Official Chronology of the U.S. Navy in World War II (Naval Institute Press, 1999).
Together, for a While
The USS Constitution Museum in May put on display the most important images of the defining moment in "Old Ironsides'" career: the frigate's battle with HMS Guerriere on 19 August 1812. Earlier this year, the museum purchased at auction a series of four 1813 paintings of the battle by Salem, Massachusetts, artist George Ropes Jr. They are among the earliest images of this seminal battle in which the ship's nickname was coined.
The four paintings will be displayed together for only six months, ending on 14 November. They will then be rotated on and off display, used as aids in educational programs, and reproduced on museum products. Located adjacent to the USS Constitution in the historic Charlestown Navy Yard, the museum, is open seven days a week. Hours vary depending on the season. There is no admission charge.
War Technology Boosts History Hunts
U.S. Navy mine-hunting technology—with its potential use to help the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration find historic shipwrecks by allowing maritime archaeologists to see below the seafloor—was featured at this year's Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Festival 2008 (AUVfest 2008) in May. Since 1997, the Navy's Office of Naval Research has sponsored the festival to expose both the defense and scientific communities to technical advances and common applications in AUV technology. This year's program at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center's Narragansett Bay Test Range off Newport, Rhode Island, focused on the dual objectives of mine countermeasure operations and marine archaeological exploration.
AUVs explored five marine archaeological sites in Narragansett Bay: two Revolutionary War-era British frigates, two 20th-century wrecks about which little is known, and a section of the Narragansett Bay Test Range, which was examined for remnants of past human use, including decades-old Navy torpedo testing.
Of the four shipwrecks, one was HMS Cerberus, a 28-gun frigate intentionally sunk along with other ships in 1778 to avoid capture by an approaching French fleet.
Rare Bird Surfaces
One of only 192 built, a British Blackburn Skua dive-bomber that ditched in a Norwegian fjord after being shot down on 13 June 1940 has been recovered after 68 years underwater. Flown by Lieutenant Commander John Casson off HMS Ark Royal, the Skua was leading an attack on the German battlecruiser Scharnhorst at Trondheim during the opening days of the German invasion of Norway.
The plane, which ditched at Geitastand near Trondheim, is in remarkable shape and should be capable of full restoration, according to a representative of the National Norwegian Aviation Museum in Bodoe. The wings and cockpit are intact and even the plane's registration number, L2896, is visible. Its pilot and gunner both survived.
Discovered in 2007, the aircraft was raised from a depth of 800 feet in an effort that involved a crane barge, a research ship, and remotely operated submarines largely operated by volunteers and with help from marine technology students from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. The project leader believes the plane will be the world's only complete example of the dive-bomber after restoration, which will take several years. Another Skua was recovered from a Norwegian lake in 1974 but was incomplete. It is on display in unrestored condition at the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Yeovilton, southwest England.
Blockade Runner Has a Name
After two years of searching and more than 100 man-hours of underwater data collection by archaeologists from the Florida Aquarium in Tampa, the first Confederate blockade runner ever found in Florida has been identified. She is the Kate Dale.
"I'm 98 percent sure," said John W. Morris, principal investigator on the project. "In this field you are rarely 100 percent sure on anything, but with all the data we've collected and historical records we've researched, I can say with confidence this is the Kate Dale."
The sloop was one of three blockade runners owned by Captain James McKay, considered the father of Tampa's maritime industry and the city's sixth mayor. More than 80-feet long, the Kate Dale was used to support the Confederacy until Union troops burned her—loaded with cotton and ready to run the Federal blockade—on the Hillsborough River on 17 October 1863.
"She's badly burnt and she's exactly where she ought to be," Morris said of her remains. "Nobody else has found a blockade runner in Florida."
Naval History Research Fellowship
The Naval War College Foundation will award one grant of $1,000 to the researcher with the greatest need and use of naval history research materials in the Naval War College's Archives, Naval Historical Collection, Naval War College Museum, and Henry E. Eccles Library. The recipient will be a research fellow in the Naval War College's Maritime History Department, which will provide administrative support during the research visit.
To apply, submit a detailed research proposal, including a statement of financial need and comprehensive research plan for use of Naval War College materials, curriculum vitae, at least two letters of recommendation, and relevant background information to: Miller Naval History Fellowship Committee, Naval War College Foundation, 686 Cushing Road, Newport, RI 02841-1207, by 1 August 2008. For further information, contact the selection committee chair, Dr. John Hattendorf, at [email protected]. U.S. Naval War College employees and those of any U.S. Department of Defense agency are ineligible.
Museum Expands
The groundbreaking ceremony for a 40,000-square-foot expansion of the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas, was held 9 May 2008. The addition, expected to be completed in December 2009, will more than double the museum's current exhibit space. Texas Governor Rick Perry was the keynote speaker and retired General Michael Hagee, former commandant of the Marine Corps, served as master of ceremonies.
The museum is the only institution in the continental United States dedicated exclusively to telling the story of the Pacific theater battles of World War II. Located on a six-acre site, it boasts an impressive display of Allied and Japanese aircraft, tanks, guns, and other artifacts.
Admiral Holloway Awarded History Prize
Naval Historical Foundation Chairman and Naval Institute Press author Admiral James L. Holloway III, U.S. Navy (Retired), was awarded one of two honorable mentions of the Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt Naval History Prize. The honor for outstanding work on American naval history is presented annually by the New York Council of the Navy League with the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute and the Theodore Roosevelt Association.
Admiral Holloway received the recognition for writing Aircraft Carriers at War: A Personal Retrospective of Korea, Vietnam, and the Soviet Confrontation published by the Naval Institute Press.
Yangtze Patrol Disbanded
The South China Yangtze Patrol Asiatic Fleet, which had its origins in a 1984 ship's reunion, has disbanded. Former crew members of the USS Asheville (PG-21), sunk by Japanese forces on 3 March 1942, originally formed the oganization which later merged with another group of veterans called the Yangtze River Patrol.
In a tangible sign of the passing of veterans of their era, the group's board voted in April to disband because of membership loss. Their treasury will be transferred to the U.S. Asiatic Fleet Association.
'Marvelous Documentary'After producing more than 50 high-definition 90-second vignettes under the title Americans at War, we've received several flattering comments. The Baltimore Sun even did a story about the series, commenting that "the vignettes are personal and triumphant, sprinkled with stirring reflections on lessons about faith, fear, and war's ability to define the lives of service members." For me personally, I could see in those young faces that of my father, bravely enduring the fear and privation that one finds only in brutal combat. My father's experiences in the U.S. Navy in the South Pacific, at terrible places whose names are now buried deep in history books, are daily in his thoughts, and in his nightmares each night. -Fred Schultz, Associate Producer, Americans at War |