1.
USS General A. W. Greely (AP-141)
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USS General A. W. Greely was a General G. O. Squier-class transport ship named for U. S. Army general Adolphus Greely. She was transferred to the U. S. Army as USAT General A. W. Greeley in 1946, on 1 March 1950 she was transferred to the Military Sea Transportation Service as USNS General A. W. Greely. She was later sold and converted to a ship and operated under several names before being scrapped in 1986. The Greely was a Type C4 transport, laid down under Maritime Commission contract 18 July 1944 by Kaiser Co. Inc. Yard 3, Richmond, California, launched 5 November 1944, sponsored by Mrs. Clarke Wayland, acquired by the navy 22 March 1945, and commissioned the same day, Commander George W. Stedman Jr. in command. After shakedown, General A. W. Greely embarked 2,923 troops and civilians and departed San Pedro and she reached Melbourne,4 May, then sailed the next day for Fremantle and India, arriving Calcutta,20 May. After embarking homebound troops, she departed 28 May, steamed via Ceylon and Suez, from 28 June to 7 July she sailed to Le Havre, France, where she embarked 3,000 troops before returning to New York, NY on 18 July. Between 28 July and 6 December she completed two voyages from New York to Calcutta, transporting occupation troops, mail, and cargo. Departing New York 14 December, she reached Karachi, India,4 January 1946 and she sailed 6 January for the West Coast, and, steaming via Ceylon, Singapore, and the Philippines, she arrived Seattle, Washington,2 February. She decommissioned at San Francisco, California,29 March and was transferred to WSA the same day for use as a transport in the Army Transportation Service, part of this transportation service involved the immigration of displaced persons from Europe to the United States. Reacquired by the navy 1 March 1950, the ship was assigned to Military Sea Transportation Service under a civilian crew and she departed Seattle 5 August and carried troops to the Far East in support of the effort to repel Communist expansion in Korea. Operating out of Seattle, during the nine months she made four round-trip voyages to Japan, Korea. Returning to Seattle 3 May 1951, she then sailed 24 May for duty in the Atlantic. Operating out of New York, between 10 October 1951 and 22 February 1953 General A. W. Greely completed numerous transatlantic runs to Bremerhaven, Germany, while en route from Bremerhaven in January 1952, she rescued survivors from the stricken merchantman SS Flying Enterprise. Placed in reduced operational status from 17 April until 5 June 1953, she departed Norfolk 16 June for Thule, arriving on 3 July, she served until 30 September as barracks ship during Operation Blue Jay, the construction of Thule Air Force Base. She returned to New York 9 October, steamed to Bremerhaven, General A. W. Greely departed New York 27 July, bound for the Pacific. Arriving San Francisco 11 August, she sailed for the Far East 7 September and operated in Korean and Japanese waters before returning to San Francisco via Adak, after being laid up in the reserve fleets for well over a decade, General A. W. Greely was sold for use in 1968 to Pacific Far East Line, converted to a container ship
2.
George Owen Squier
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Major General George Owen Squier was born in Dryden, Michigan, United States. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in the Class of 1887, George Squier wrote and edited many books and articles on the subject of radio and electricity. This was one of the earliest photonic programs and they also worked to develop synchronous AC telegraphic systems. His biggest contribution was that of telephone carrier multiplexing in 1910 for which he was elected to the National Academy of Science in 1919. He also was the first military passenger in an airplane on September 12,1908 and, in 1922, he created Wired Radio, a service which piped music to businesses and subscribers over wires. In 1934, he changed the name to Muzak. Asked how to say his name, he told The Literary Digest it was pronounced like the word square and he died on March 24,1934 of pneumonia. In 1943, the U. S. Navy named troopship USS General G. O. Squier in his honor and it was the lead ship of its class, which was known as General G. O. Squier class of transport ships. General Squier Park, a district and waterpark in his hometown of Dryden. George O. Squier Smithsonian West Point, George Squier National Academy of Science United States Army Signal Center
3.
General G. O. Squier-class transport
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The General G. O. Squier class of transport ships was built for the U. S. Navy during World War II. The class was based upon the Maritime Commission’s Type C4 ship, the class was named for United States Army Major General George Owen Squier. The first ship was launched in November 1942, while the last was launched in April 1945, over that period the United States produced 30 General G. O. Squier-class transports. All of the ships were designated with hull classification symbol AP. The 24 still in service in 1950 were transferred back to the Navy as part of the Military Sea Transportation Service. All but two were transferred on 1 March 1950, and all were reinstated on the Naval Vessel Register as United States Naval Ships, and redesignated with hull classification symbol T-AP. Most of the General G. O. Squier class were deactivated in 1958 for two reasons, the introduction of jet airliners, and a decision to use berthing space on U. S. -flagged passenger ships. They were later transferred back to MSTS under their new names, the last General G. O. Squier-class ship afloat, the ex-General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, was sunk as an artificial reef off of the Florida Keys on 27 May 2009. O. Squier USS General T. H, bliss USS General J. R. Brooke USS General O. H. Ernst USS General R. L. Howze USS General W. M. Black, later USS Green Forest, Central Gulf Lines. USS General H. L. Scott USS General S. D. Sturgis USS General C. G. Morton USS General R. E. Callan, later USNS General H. H. Langfitt USS General Omar Bundy USS General R. M. Blatchford USS General LeRoy Eltinge USS General A. W. Brewster USS General D. E. Aultman USS General C. C. Ballou USS General W. G. Haan USS General Stuart Heintzelman Type C4 class ship Haven-class hospital ship of the U. S. Navy were also based on the Type C4 hull design
4.
Troopship
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A troopship is a ship used to carry soldiers, either in peacetime or wartime. Attack transports, a variant of ocean-going troopship adapted to transporting invasion forces ashore, landing ships beach themselves and bring their troops directly ashore. Ships to transport troops were used in Antiquity. Ancient Rome used the navis lusoria, a vessel powered by rowers and sail, to move soldiers on the Rhine. HMT Olympic even rammed and sank a U-boat during one of its wartime crossings, individual liners capable of exceptionally high speed transited without escorts, smaller or older liners with poorer performance were protected by operating in convoys. The British government aided both Cunard and the White Star Line to construct the liners RMS Mauretania, RMS Aquitania, RMS Olympic, when the vulnerability of these ships to return fire was realized most were used instead as troopship or hospital ships. RMS Queen Mary and RMS Queen Elizabeth were two of the most famous converted liners of World War II, when they were fully converted, each could carry well over 10,000 troops per trip. Queen Mary holds the record, with 15,740 troops on a single passage in late July 1943. The modified Liberties were capable of transporting up to 450,550,30 Type C4 ship-based General G. O. Squier-class, the largest carrying over 6,000 passengers. A class of Victory ship-based dedicated troopship was developed late in World War II, a total of 84 such VC2-S-AP2 hull conversions was completed. A class of Type C3 ship – comprising mainly C3-S-A2 and C3-S-A3 hulls – was also converted to dedicated troopships, at least 15 classes of Attack Transport, consisting of at least 400 ships specially equipped for landing invasion forces rather than general troop movement. The designation HMT would normally replace RMS, MV or SS for ships converted to troopship duty with the United Kingdoms Royal Navy, initially troopships adapted as attack transports were designated AP, starting in 1942 keel-up attack transports received the designation APA. In the era of the Cold War the United States designed the SS United States so that it could easily be converted from a liner to a troopship, in case of war. More recently, RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 and the SS Canberra were requisitioned by the Royal Navy to carry British soldiers to the Falklands War, by the end of the twentieth century, nearly all long-distance personnel transfer was done by airlift in military transport aircraft
5.
Propeller
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A propeller is a type of fan that transmits power by converting rotational motion into thrust. A pressure difference is produced between the forward and rear surfaces of the blade, and a fluid is accelerated behind the blade. Their disadvantages are higher mechanical complexity and higher cost, the principle employed in using a screw propeller is used in sculling. It is part of the skill of propelling a Venetian gondola but was used in a less refined way in parts of Europe. For example, propelling a canoe with a paddle using a pitch stroke or side slipping a canoe with a scull involves a similar technique. In China, sculling, called lu, was used by the 3rd century AD. In sculling, a blade is moved through an arc. The innovation introduced with the propeller was the extension of that arc through more than 360° by attaching the blade to a rotating shaft. Propellers can have a blade, but in practice there are nearly always more than one so as to balance the forces involved. The origin of the screw propeller starts with Archimedes, who used a screw to lift water for irrigation and bailing boats and it was probably an application of spiral movement in space to a hollow segmented water-wheel used for irrigation by Egyptians for centuries. Leonardo da Vinci adopted the principle to drive his theoretical helicopter, in 1784, J. P. Paucton proposed a gyrocopter-like aircraft using similar screws for both lift and propulsion. At about the time, James Watt proposed using screws to propel boats. This was not his own invention, though, Toogood and Hays had patented it a century earlier, by 1827, Czech-Austrian inventor Josef Ressel had invented a screw propeller which had multiple blades fastened around a conical base. He had tested his propeller in February 1826 on a ship that was manually driven. He was successful in using his bronze screw propeller on an adapted steamboat and his ship Civetta with 48 gross register tons, reached a speed of about six knots. This was the first ship successfully driven by an Archimedes screw-type propeller, after a new steam engine had an accident his experiments were banned by the Austro-Hungarian police as dangerous. Josef Ressel was at the time a forestry inspector for the Austrian Empire, but before this he received an Austro-Hungarian patent for his propeller. This new method of propulsion was an improvement over the paddlewheel as it was not so affected by either ship motions or changes in draft as the burned coal
6.
Steam turbine
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A steam turbine is a device that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Parsons in 1884, in 1551, Taqi al-Din in Ottoman Egypt described a steam turbine with the practical application of rotating a spit. Steam turbines were described by the Italian Giovanni Branca and John Wilkins in England. The devices described by Taqi al-Din and Wilkins are today known as steam jacks, in 1672 an impulse steam turbine driven car was designed by Ferdinand Verbiest. A more modern version of car was produced some time in the late 18th century by an unknown German mechanic. The modern steam turbine was invented in 1884 by Sir Charles Parsons, the invention of Parsons steam turbine made cheap and plentiful electricity possible and revolutionized marine transport and naval warfare. Parsons design was a reaction type and his patent was licensed and the turbine scaled-up shortly after by an American, George Westinghouse. The Parsons turbine also turned out to be easy to scale up. Parsons had the satisfaction of seeing his invention adopted for all major world power stations, a number of other variations of turbines have been developed that work effectively with steam. The de Laval turbine accelerated the steam to full speed before running it against a turbine blade, De Lavals impulse turbine is simpler, less expensive and does not need to be pressure-proof. It can operate with any pressure of steam, but is less efficient. He taught at the École des mines de Saint-Étienne for a decade until 1897, one of the founders of the modern theory of steam and gas turbines was Aurel Stodola, a Slovak physicist and engineer and professor at the Swiss Polytechnical Institute in Zurich. His work Die Dampfturbinen und ihre Aussichten als Wärmekraftmaschinen was published in Berlin in 1903, a further book Dampf und Gas-Turbinen was published in 1922. It was used in John Brown-engined merchant ships and warships, including liners, the present-day manufacturing industry for steam turbines is dominated by Chinese power equipment makers. Other manufacturers with minor market share include Bhel, Siemens, Alstom, GE, Doosan Škoda Power, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the consulting firm Frost & Sullivan projects that manufacturing of steam turbines will become more consolidated by 2020 as Chinese power manufacturers win increasing business outside of China. There are several classifications for modern steam turbines, Turbine blades are of two basic types, blades and nozzles. Blades move entirely due to the impact of steam on them and this results in a steam velocity drop and essentially no pressure drop as steam moves through the blades. A turbine composed of alternating with fixed nozzles is called an impulse turbine, Curtis turbine, Rateau turbine
7.
Horsepower
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Horsepower is a unit of measurement of power. There are many different standards and types of horsepower, two common definitions being used today are the mechanical horsepower, which is approximately 746 watts, and the metric horsepower, which is approximately 735.5 watts. The term was adopted in the late 18th century by Scottish engineer James Watt to compare the output of engines with the power of draft horses. It was later expanded to include the power of other types of piston engines, as well as turbines, electric motors. The definition of the unit varied among geographical regions, most countries now use the SI unit watt for measurement of power. With the implementation of the EU Directive 80/181/EEC on January 1,2010, units called horsepower have differing definitions, The mechanical horsepower, also known as imperial horsepower equals approximately 745.7 watts. It was defined originally as exactly 550 foot-pounds per second [745.7 N. m/s), the metric horsepower equals approximately 735.5 watts. It was defined originally as 75 kgf-m per second is approximately equivalent to 735.5 watts, the Pferdestärke PS is a name for a group of similar power measurements used in Germany around the end of the 19th century, all of about one metric horsepower in size. The boiler horsepower equals 9809.5 watts and it was used for rating steam boilers and is equivalent to 34.5 pounds of water evaporated per hour at 212 degrees Fahrenheit. One horsepower for rating electric motors is equal to 746 watts, one horsepower for rating Continental European electric motors is equal to 735 watts. Continental European electric motors used to have dual ratings, one British Royal Automobile Club horsepower can equal a range of values based on estimates of several engine dimensions. It is one of the tax horsepower systems adopted around Europe, the development of the steam engine provided a reason to compare the output of horses with that of the engines that could replace them. He had previously agreed to take royalties of one third of the savings in coal from the older Newcomen steam engines and this royalty scheme did not work with customers who did not have existing steam engines but used horses instead. Watt determined that a horse could turn a mill wheel 144 times in an hour, the wheel was 12 feet in radius, therefore, the horse travelled 2.4 × 2π ×12 feet in one minute. Watt judged that the horse could pull with a force of 180 pounds-force. So, P = W t = F d t =180 l b f ×2.4 ×2 π ×12 f t 1 m i n =32,572 f t ⋅ l b f m i n. Watt defined and calculated the horsepower as 32,572 ft·lbf/min, Watt determined that a pony could lift an average 220 lbf 100 ft per minute over a four-hour working shift. Watt then judged a horse was 50% more powerful than a pony, engineering in History recounts that John Smeaton initially estimated that a horse could produce 22,916 foot-pounds per minute
8.
5"/38 caliber gun
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The Mark 12 5/38 caliber gun was a US naval gun. The gun was installed into Single Purpose and Dual Purpose mounts used primarily by the US Navy, the 38 caliber barrel was a mid-length compromise between the previous United States standard 5/51 low-angle gun and 5/25 anti-aircraft gun. The increased barrel length provided greatly improved performance in both anti-aircraft and anti-surface roles compared to the 5/25 gun, however, except for the barrel length and the use of semi-fixed ammunition, the 5/38 gun was derived from the 5/25 gun. Both weapons had power ramming, which enabled rapid fire at high angles against aircraft, the 5/38 entered service on USS Farragut, commissioned in 1934. The base ring mount, which improved the rate of fire, entered service on USS Gridley. Even this advanced system required nearly 100 rounds of ammunition expenditure per aircraft kill, however, the planes were normally killed by shell fragments and not direct hits, barrage fire was used, with many guns firing in the air at the same time. Base ring mounts with integral hoists had a rate of fire of 15 rounds per minute per barrel, however. On pedestal and other mounts lacking integral hoists,12 to 15 rounds per minute was the rate of fire, useful life expectancy was 4600 effective full charges per barrel. The 5/38 cal gun was mounted on a large number of US Navy ships in the World War II era. It was backfitted to many of the World War I-era battleships during their wartime refits and it has left active US Navy service, but it is still on mothballed ships of the United States Navy reserve fleets. It is also used by a number of nations who bought or were given US Navy surplus ships, each mount carries one or two Mk 12 5/38cal Gun Assemblies. The gun assembly shown is used in single mounts, and it is the gun in twin mounts. It is loaded from the left side, the left gun in twin mounts is the mirror image of the right gun, and it is loaded from the right side. The Mk12 gun assembly weighs 3,990 lb, the major Mk12 Gun Assembly characteristics are,158 Semi-automatic During recoil, some of the recoil energy is stored in the counter-recoil system. That stored energy is used during counter-recoil to prepare the gun for the next round, the firing pin is cocked, the breech is opened, the spent powder case is ejected, and the bore is air cleaned. Hand loaded A Projectile-Man and a Powder-Man are stationed at each gun assembly and their job is to move the round, consisting of a projectile and a powder case, from the hoists to the rammer tray, and then start the ram cycle. The hydraulically driven Rammer Spade, called the Power Spade in that picture, is at the back of the Rammer Tray, if the multiple names of the Spade is confusing, look at this footnote. Vertical sliding-wedge breech block The breech block closes the chamber behind the powder case and it also holds the firing pin assembly
9.
Weapon mount
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A weapon mount is a weapon component used to affix an armament for stabilization. Weapon mounts can be broken down into two categories, static mounts and non-static mounts, a static mount is a non-portable weapon support component used on a self-propelled vehicle. A gun turret protects the crew or mechanism of a weapon, a turret is a rotating weapon platform. This can be mounted on a building or structure such as a coast artillery battery, or on an armoured fighting vehicle. Turrets may be armed with one or more guns, automatic cannons, large-calibre guns, missile launchers. It may be manned or remotely controlled, and is often armoured, a small turret, or sub-turret on a larger one, is called a cupola. The term cupola also describes rotating turrets that carry no weapons but instead are sighting devices, a finial is an extremely small sub-turret or sub-sub-turret mounted on a cupola turret. The protection provided by the turret may be against battle damage or against the weather, conditions and environment in which the weapon or its crew operate. A coaxial mount is mounted beside the primary weapon and thus points in the general direction as the main armament. The term coaxial is a misnomer as the arrangement is often actually paraxial, nearly all main battle tanks and most infantry fighting vehicles have a coaxial machine gun mounted to fire along a parallel axis to the main gun. Coaxial weapons are usually aimed by use of the gun control. It is usually used to infantry or other soft targets when the main gun collateral damage would be excessive. A fixed mount is not moveable with respect to the vehicle, the vehicle must move in order to change direction of fire. Fixed mounts are most commonly found on aircraft, and most commonly direct the forward, along the aircrafts vector of movement, so that a pilot could aim. Some minor aircraft designs used different concept of fixed mounts, as found in Schräge Musik or AC-47 Spooky, a pintle mount is a fixed mount that allows the gun to be freely traversed and/or elevated while keeping the gun in one fixed position. It is most commonly found on armoured vehicles, gunner stations on bomber aircraft, unlike a turret, a pintle has little or no armour protection. A swing mount is a mount that allows a far greater. Utilising a system of one or two articulated arms the gunner can swing the weapon through a wide arc even though the position is fixed relative to the mount
10.
Bofors 40 mm gun
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The Bofors 40 mm gun, often referred to simply as the Bofors gun, is an anti-aircraft/multi-purpose autocannon designed in the 1930s by the Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors. It was one of the most popular medium-weight anti-aircraft systems during World War II, a small number of these weapons remain in service to this day, and saw action as late as the Gulf War. In the post-war era the original design was not suitable for action against jet powered aircraft, so Bofors introduced a new model of more power. In spite of sharing almost nothing with the design other than the calibre and the distinctive conical flash hider. Although not as popular as the original L/60 model, the L/70 remains in service to this day, especially as a weapon for light armored vehicles. Bofors itself has been part of BAE Systems AB since March 2005, the Swedish Navy purchased a number of 2 pounder Pom-Poms from Vickers as anti-aircraft guns in 1922. The Navy approached Bofors about the development of a capable replacement. Bofors signed a contract in late 1928, Bofors produced a gun that was a smaller version of a 57 mm semi-automatic gun developed as an anti-torpedo boat weapon in the late 19th century by Finspong. Their first test gun was a re-barreled Nordenfelt version of the Finspong gun, testing of this gun in 1929 demonstrated that a problem existed feeding the weapon in order to maintain a reasonable rate of fire. A mechanism that was enough to handle the stresses of moving the large round was too heavy to move quickly enough to fire rapidly. One attempt to solve this problem used zinc shell cases that burned up when fired and this proved to leave heavy zinc deposits in the barrel, and had to be abandoned. This seemed to be the solution they needed, improving firing rates to a level. During this period Krupp purchased a share of Bofors. Krupp engineers started the process of updating the Bofors factories to use equipment and metallurgy. The prototype was completed and fired in November 1931, and by the middle of the month it was firing strings of two and three rounds. Changes to the mechanism were all that remained, and by the end of the year it was operating at 130 rounds per minute. Continued development was needed to turn it into a suitable for production. Since acceptance trials had been passed the year before, this known as the 40 mm akan M/32
11.
Anti-aircraft warfare
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Anti-aircraft warfare or counter-air defence is defined by NATO as all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action. They include ground-and air-based weapon systems, associated sensor systems, command and control arrangements and it may be used to protect naval, ground, and air forces in any location. However, for most countries the main effort has tended to be homeland defence, NATO refers to airborne air defence as counter-air and naval air defence as anti-aircraft warfare. Missile defence is an extension of air defence as are initiatives to adapt air defence to the task of intercepting any projectile in flight, a surface-based air defence capability can also be deployed offensively to deny the use of airspace to an opponent. Until the 1950s, guns firing ballistic munitions ranging from 20 mm to 150 mm were the weapons, guided missiles then became dominant. The term air defence was probably first used by Britain when Air Defence of Great Britain was created as a Royal Air Force command in 1925. However, arrangements in the UK were also called anti-aircraft, abbreviated as AA, after the First World War it was sometimes prefixed by Light or Heavy to classify a type of gun or unit. Nicknames for anti-aircraft guns include AA, AAA or triple-A, an abbreviation of anti-aircraft artillery, ack-ack, NATO defines anti-aircraft warfare as measures taken to defend a maritime force against attacks by airborne weapons launched from aircraft, ships, submarines and land-based sites. In some armies the term All-Arms Air Defence is used for air defence by nonspecialist troops, other terms from the late 20th century include GBAD with related terms SHORAD and MANPADS. Anti-aircraft missiles are variously called surface-to-air missile, abbreviated and pronounced SAM, non-English terms for air defence include the German FlaK, whence English flak, and the Russian term Protivovozdushnaya oborona, a literal translation of anti-air defence, abbreviated as PVO. In Russian the AA systems are called zenitnye systems, in French, air defence is called DCA. The maximum distance at which a gun or missile can engage an aircraft is an important figure, however, many different definitions are used but unless the same definition is used, performance of different guns or missiles cannot be compared. For AA guns only the part of the trajectory can be usefully used. By the late 1930s the British definition was that height at which an approaching target at 400 mph can be engaged for 20 seconds before the gun reaches 70 degrees elevation. However, effective ceiling for heavy AA guns was affected by nonballistic factors, The maximum running time of the fuse, the capability of fire control instruments to determine target height at long range. The essence of air defence is to detect aircraft and destroy them. The critical issue is to hit a target moving in three-dimensional space, Air defence evolution covered the areas of sensors and technical fire control, weapons, and command and control. At the start of the 20th century these were very primitive or non-existent
12.
Oerlikon 20 mm cannon
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The Oerlikon 20 mm cannon is a series of autocannons, based on an original German 20 mm Becker design that appeared very early in World War I. It was widely produced by Oerlikon Contraves and others, with various models employed by both Allied and Axis forces during World War II, and many still in use today. During World War I, the German Reinhold Becker developed a 20 mm caliber cannon and this used a 20x70 RB cartridge and had a cyclic rate of fire of 300 rpm. It was used on a scale as an aircraft gun on Luftstreitkräfte warplanes. Because the Treaty of Versailles banned further production of weapons in Germany. SEMAG continued development of the weapon, and in 1924 had produced the SEMAG L, the Oerlikon firm, named after the Zürich suburb where it was based, then acquired all rights to the weapon, plus the manufacturing equipment and the employees of SEMAG. In 1927 the Oerlikon S was added to the product line. This fired a larger cartridge to achieve a muzzle velocity of 830 m/s, at the cost of increased weight. The purpose of development was to improve the performance of the gun as an anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapon. An improved version known as the 1S followed in 1930, three sizes of gun with their different ammunition and barrel length, but very similar mechanisms, continued to be developed in parallel. In 1930 Oerlikon reconsidered the application of its gun in aircraft and introduced the AF and AL, designed to be used in flexible mounts, the 15-round box magazine used by earlier versions of the gun was replaced by drum magazine holding 15 or 30 rounds. In 1935 it made an important step by introducing a series of guns designed to be mounted in or on the wings of fighter aircraft, designated with FF for Flügelfest meaning wing-mounted, these weapons were again available in the three sizes, with designations FF, FFL and FFS. The FF fired a larger cartridge than the AF, 20x72RB. The FF weighed 24 kg and achieved a velocity of 550 to 600 m/s with a rate of fire of 520 rpm. The FFL of 30 kg fired a projectile at a velocity of 675 m/s with a rate of fire of 500 rpm. And the FFS, which weighed 39 kg, delivered a high velocity of 830 m/s at a rate of fire of 470 rpm. Apart from changes to the design of the guns for wing-mounting and remote control, for the FF series drum sizes of 45,60,75 and 100 rounds were available, but most users chose the 60-round drum. The 1930s were a period of global re-armament, and a number of foreign firms took licenses for the Oerlikon family of aircraft cannon
13.
United States Navy
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The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U. S. Navy is the largest, most capable navy in the world, the U. S. Navy has the worlds largest aircraft carrier fleet, with ten in service, two in the reserve fleet, and three new carriers under construction. The service has 323,792 personnel on duty and 108,515 in the Navy Reserve. It has 274 deployable combat vessels and more than 3,700 operational aircraft as of October 2016, the U. S. Navy traces its origins to the Continental Navy, which was established during the American Revolutionary War and was effectively disbanded as a separate entity shortly thereafter. It played a role in the American Civil War by blockading the Confederacy. It played the role in the World War II defeat of Imperial Japan. The 21st century U. S. Navy maintains a global presence, deploying in strength in such areas as the Western Pacific, the Mediterranean. The Navy is administratively managed by the Department of the Navy, the Department of the Navy is itself a division of the Department of Defense, which is headed by the Secretary of Defense. The Chief of Naval Operations is an admiral and the senior naval officer of the Department of the Navy. The CNO may not be the highest ranking officer in the armed forces if the Chairman or the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The mission of the Navy is to maintain, train and equip combat-ready Naval forces capable of winning wars, deterring aggression, the United States Navy is a seaborne branch of the military of the United States. The Navys three primary areas of responsibility, The preparation of naval forces necessary for the prosecution of war. The development of aircraft, weapons, tactics, technique, organization, U. S. Navy training manuals state that the mission of the U. S. Armed Forces is to prepare and conduct prompt and sustained combat operations in support of the national interest, as part of that establishment, the U. S. Navys functions comprise sea control, power projection and nuclear deterrence, in addition to sealift duties. It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, the Navy was rooted in the colonial seafaring tradition, which produced a large community of sailors, captains, and shipbuilders. In the early stages of the American Revolutionary War, Massachusetts had its own Massachusetts Naval Militia, the establishment of a national navy was an issue of debate among the members of the Second Continental Congress. Supporters argued that a navy would protect shipping, defend the coast, detractors countered that challenging the British Royal Navy, then the worlds preeminent naval power, was a foolish undertaking. Commander in Chief George Washington resolved the debate when he commissioned the ocean-going schooner USS Hannah to interdict British merchant ships, and reported the captures to the Congress
14.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
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United States Maritime Commission
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It also formed the United States Maritime Service for the training of seagoing ships officers to man the new fleet. The purpose of the Maritime Commission was multifold as described in the Merchant Marine Acts Declaration of Policy. S, Merchant Marine prior to the Act. Another function given to the Commission involved the formation of the U. S. Maritime Service for the training of seagoing ships officers to man the new fleet, the actual licensing of officers and seamen still resided with the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation. President Roosevelt nominated Joseph P. Kennedy first head of the Commission, Kennedy held that position until February 1938 when he left to become US Ambassador to Great Britain. The other four members of the Commission in the years before the beginning of World War II were a mix of retired officers and men from disciplines of law. The man most notable in the group Land brought to the Commission was Commander Howard L. Vickery, USN, as a symbol of the rebirth of the U. S. Upon the U. S. entry into World War II, America was requisitioned by the U. S. Navy and became USS West Point. Most of the C2s and C3s were converted to Navy auxiliaries, notably attack cargo ships, attack transports, the Commission also was tasked with the construction of many hundred military type vessels such as Landing Ship, Tank s and Tacoma-class frigates and large troop transports. By the end of the war, U. S. shipyards working under Maritime Commission contracts had built a total of 5,777 oceangoing merchant, in early 1942 both the training and licensing was transferred to the U. S. S. With the end of World War II, both the Emergency and Long Range shipbuilding programs were terminated as there were far too many merchant vessels now for the Nations peacetime needs. In 1946, the Merchant Ship Sales Act was passed to sell off a portion of the ships previously built during the war to commercial buyers. Although not sold outright to nations that were enemies during the war, for the next 25 years, in ports all around the world one could find dozens of ships which had been built during the war but which now were used in peace. Ships not disposed of through the Ship Sales Act were placed one of eight National Defense Reserve Fleet sites maintained on the Atlantic, Pacific. On several occasions in the postwar years ships in the fleets were activated for both military and humanitarian aid missions. The last major mobilization of the NDRF came during the Vietnam War, since then, a smaller fleet of ships called the Ready Reserve Force has been mobilized to support both humanitarian and military missions. The Maritime Commission was abolished on 24 May 1950, and its functions were divided between the U. S. S. Merchant Marine Academy which had built and opened during World War II. 1936, Merchant Marine Act abolishes Shipping Board and establishes Maritime Commission,1937, Joseph P. S. merchant shipping has been held by many agencies since 1917
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Type C4-class ship
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The Type C4 class ship were the largest cargo ships built by the United States Maritime Commission during World War II. The design was developed for the American-Hawaiian Lines in 1941. Eighty-one ships were built as cargo or troopships in four shipyards, Kaiser Richmond, CA, Kaiser Vancouver, WA, Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock in Chester PA, all ships were capable of 17 knots, driven by a single screw steam turbine generating 9,900 shp. Among the variations of the design were the Haven class hospital ship and they were followed post-war by thirty-seven of the larger C4-S-1 class, also known as the Mariner class. Built by Kaiser Shipyards at Permanente No.3 in Richmond, USS General G. O. Squier USS General T. H. Bliss USS General J. R. Brooke USS General O. H. Ernst USS General R. L. Howze USS General W. M. Black USS General H. L. Scott USS General S. D. Sturgis USS General C. G. Morton USS General R. E. Callan, later USNS General H. H. Langfitt USS General Omar Bundy USS General R. M. Blatchford USS General LeRoy Eltinge USS General A. W. Brewster USS General D. E. Aultman USS General C. C. Ballou USS General W. G. Haan USS General Stuart Heintzelman C4-S-B1, C4-S-B2, C4-S-B5 DWT,15,300 Built by Sun Yards of Chester, Pennsylvania. SS Mount Davis SS Mount Greylock SS Mount Mansfield SS Mount Rogers SS Mount Whitney C4-S-A3 DWT,14,863 Built by Kaiser Shipyards in Vancouver, land SS Willis Vickery SS Louis McH. Howe SS Ernie Pyle C4-S-B2 DWT,15,300 Built by Sun Yards in Chester, SS Santa Magdelena SS Santa Mariana SS Santa Maria SS Santa Mercedes C4-S-49b DWT,13,915. Built in 1965 by Bethlehem Steel of Sparrows Pt, the last two C4 ships were constructed in 1966 for the Prudential Lines. SS Prudential Seajet SS Prudential Oceanjet Marine Perch a C4-S-A3, was renamed the SS Yellowstone was in a collision, Type C1 ship Type C2 ship Type C3 ship T2 tanker Liberty ship Victory ship Hog Islander U. S. A. Sawyer and W. H. Mitchell. London,1981, World Ship Society Ships for Victory, A History of Shipbuilding under the U. S. Maritime Commission in World War II, by Frederic C. Lane ISBN 0-8018-6752-5
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Major general (United States)
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In the United States Army, United States Marine Corps, and United States Air Force, major general is a two-star general-officer rank, with the pay grade of O-8. Major general ranks above brigadier general and below lieutenant general, a major general typically commands division-sized units of 10,000 to 15,000 soldiers. Major general is equivalent to the rank of rear admiral in the United States Navy. The United States Code explicitly limits the number of general officers that may be on active duty at any given time. The total number of active duty general officers is capped at 231 for the Army,61 for the Marine Corps, some of these slots are reserved or finitely set by statute. This promotion board then generates a list of officers it recommends for promotion to general rank and this list is then sent to the service secretary and the Joint Chiefs of Staff for review before it can be sent to the President, through the Secretary of Defense for consideration. The President nominates officers to be promoted from this list with the advice of the Secretary of Defense, the secretary, and if applicable. The President may nominate any eligible officer who is not on the recommended list if it serves in the interest of the nation, the Senate must then confirm the nominee by a majority vote before the officer can be promoted. Once confirmed, the nominee is promoted to rank on assuming a position of office that requires an officer to hold the rank. For positions of office that are reserved by statute, the President nominates an officer for appointment to fill that position, since the grade of major general is permanent, the rank does not expire when the officer vacates a two-star position. Tour length varies depending on the position, by statute, and/or when the officer receives a new assignment or a promotion, in the case of the Air National Guard, they may also serve as The Adjutant General for their state, commonwealth or territory. Other than voluntary retirement, statute sets a number of mandates for retirement of general officers, all major generals must retire after five years in grade or 35 years of service, whichever is later, unless appointed for promotion or reappointed to grade to serve longer. Otherwise, all officers must retire the month after their 64th birthday. However, the Secretary of Defense may defer a general officers retirement until the officers 66th birthday, because there are a finite number of General Officer positions, one officer must retire before another can be promoted. As a result, general officers typically retire well in advance of the age and service limits. The rank of general was abolished in the U. S. Army by the Act of March 16,1802. Major general has been a rank in the U. S. Army ever since, to address this anomaly, Washington was posthumously promoted by Congress to the rank of General of the Armies of the United States in 1976. The position of Major General Commanding the Army was entitled to three stars according to General Order No.6 of March 13,1861
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United States Army
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The United States Armed Forces are the federal armed forces of the United States. They consist of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, from the time of its inception, the military played a decisive role in the history of the United States. A sense of unity and identity was forged as a result of victory in the First Barbary War. Even so, the Founders were suspicious of a permanent military force and it played an important role in the American Civil War, where leading generals on both sides were picked from members of the United States military. Not until the outbreak of World War II did a standing army become officially established. The National Security Act of 1947, adopted following World War II and during the Cold Wars onset, the U. S. military is one of the largest militaries in terms of number of personnel. It draws its personnel from a pool of paid volunteers. As of 2016, the United States spends about $580.3 billion annually to fund its military forces, put together, the United States constitutes roughly 40 percent of the worlds military expenditures. For the period 2010–14, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute found that the United States was the worlds largest exporter of major arms, the United States was also the worlds eighth largest importer of major weapons for the same period. The history of the U. S. military dates to 1775 and these forces demobilized in 1784 after the Treaty of Paris ended the War for Independence. All three services trace their origins to the founding of the Continental Army, the Continental Navy, the United States President is the U. S. militarys commander-in-chief. Rising tensions at various times with Britain and France and the ensuing Quasi-War and War of 1812 quickened the development of the U. S. Navy, the reserve branches formed a military strategic reserve during the Cold War, to be called into service in case of war. Time magazines Mark Thompson has suggested that with the War on Terror, Command over the armed forces is established in the United States Constitution. The sole power of command is vested in the President by Article II as Commander-in-Chief, the Constitution also allows for the creation of executive Departments headed principal officers whose opinion the President can require. This allowance in the Constitution formed the basis for creation of the Department of Defense in 1947 by the National Security Act, the Defense Department is headed by the Secretary of Defense, who is a civilian and member of the Cabinet. The Defense Secretary is second in the chain of command, just below the President. Together, the President and the Secretary of Defense comprise the National Command Authority, to coordinate military strategy with political affairs, the President has a National Security Council headed by the National Security Advisor. The collective body has only power to the President
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Transportation Corps
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The Transportation Corps was established 31 July 1942 by Executive Order 9082. The Transportation Corps is a service support branch of the U. S. Army, and was headquartered at Fort Eustis, Virginia. It is also one of three U. S. Army logistics branches, the others being the Quartermaster Corps and the Ordnance Corps, the Transportation Corps is responsible for the movement of personnel and material by truck, rail, air, and sea. Its motto is Spearhead of Logistics, and it is currently the third smallest branch of the Army, the officer in charge of the branch for doctrine, training, and professional development purposes is the Chief of Transportation. The current Chief of Transportation is Brigadier General Jeffrey W. Drushal, during the American Civil War, transportation proved to be an integral part of military logistics through the organization of railroads as a viable and efficient means of military transportation. The US Army centralized the management of rail into the US Military Railroad, the Army Quartermaster purchased eight city class iron clads on the Mississippi River in February 1862, a full month before the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia set sail. City Point, Virginia in 1864 would become the largest port operation in the Western Hemisphere in 1864, by 1864, five of the nine divisions in the Quartermaster Department dealt exclusively with transportation. A substantial number of battles were won because of the commanders ability to swiftly and effectively move troops. Most wounded soldiers were carried away in a cart called a gondola. See also United States Military Railroad, Army transporters worked with both the civilian railroads and the maritime industry to pull together a successful intermodal operation. The American Expeditionary Force that deployed to France during World War I, the United States Army School for Truck Drivers had been established by 9 July 1918, and the Transportation Corps of the AEF was abolished after the war, The M. T. C. Subsequently conducted Transcontinental Motor Convoys in 1919 and 1920, on 9 March 1942 the Transportation Service was established as part of the Services of Supply, and on 31 July 1942 the Transportation Service became the Transportation Corps. In March 1942, the functions were consolidated into the Transportation Division of the newly created Services of Supply. By the end of the war the Transportation Corps had moved more than 30 million soldiers within the continental United States, as allied forces rapidly advanced across France in the summer of 1944 a special transportation operation nicked named the Red Ball Express was carried out. The Red Ball Express provided around the clock truck convoys from allied held ports to supply troops on the front, the story of the Red Ball Express was told in the 1950s movie Red Ball Express. The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union extended from 1945 into 1991, spanning the Gulf War, when the Soviet Union cordoned off the city of Berlin in 1948, the Transportation Corps played a vital role in sustaining the city. Two years later, on 28 June 1950, President Harry S. Truman established the Transportation Corps as a permanent branch of the Army, during the Korean War, the Transportation Corps kept the UN Forces supplied through three winters. By the time the armistice was signed, the Transportation Corps had moved more than 3 million soldiers and 7 million tons of cargo, the Vietnam War saw the most diversified assortment of transportation units ever assembled
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United States Army Transport
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During World War II the U. S. Army operated approximately 127,793 pieces of floating equipment. Those included large troop and cargo ships that were Army owned hulls, vessels allocated by the War Shipping Administration, bareboat charters. In addition to the transports the Army fleet included specialized types and those, included vessels not related to transport such as mine vessels and waterway or port maintenance ships and other service craft. The numbers below give an idea of the scope of that Army maritime operation, Troop and cargo ships over 1,000 gross tons that often carried the U. S. S. S. Army Mine Planter with a number above a name,4,343 tugs of all types and this fleet and the Army’s Ports of Embarkation operated throughout the war’s massive logistics in support of the worldwide operations. An example may be seen in the photos of the USAT Fred C, some confusion may exist in the precise definition of Army ship as many ships saw Army service during the Second World War that were never or only briefly part of the Armys fleet. Army owned vessels of the fleet are quite clear, even though some of those switched between Army and Navy during the war. Close to those were the ships that were bareboat chartered by the Army, meaning only the hull itself was chartered and Army was responsible for crewing. Others were long term allocations to Army by the War Shipping Administration so that they operated as Army transports, the more confusing ships are those that were short-term or time or voyage chartered ships. That situation is captured by Masterson on page 324, On 28 April General MacArthur reported that his fleet consisted of twenty-eight vessels — the twenty-one KPM vessels, the Dona Nati. Three of those vessels, Coast Farmer, Dona Nati and Anhui. out of a number sent, managed to run the Japanese blockade of the Philippines, as a result, the Army lost almost all of its big vessels. Many of the Army vessels were transferred to Navy with the transport types becoming components of the new Military Sea Transportation Service under Navy, some of the Army’s specialized vessels became Navy commissioned ships or non-commissioned utility vessels. Digital photographs of a few of these vessels in Army service are provided at the Naval History, others were sold commercially or simply scrapped. The Army heritage of civilian crewed transports and cargo ships continued in the model for MSTS. Some Army vessels, still crewed by Army civilians, just transferred were suddenly sailing before fully taking on the new service’s administrative functions, the Army still operates 49 vessels of three types, excluding the United States Army Corps of Engineers ships. Design 427 180-foot 573 ton steel vessels built by Higgins Six ships, allocated by the War Shipping Administration, were converted to repair, five, from 350 ft to 390 ft in length, were built on the Great Lakes from 1901 to 1913. Houston at 202 ft was the Army owned Kvichak which had grounded off Canada, slipped into 80 ft of water, then salvaged in 1941. All were U. S. Coast Guard crewed with Army in administrative and operational control as well as providing the repair detachments, all served in the Southwest Pacific Area
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Military Sealift Command
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The Military Sealift Command is a United States Navy organization that controls the replenishment and military transport ships of the Navy. The United States Military Sealift Command has the responsibility for providing sealift and it first came into existence on 9 July 1949 when the Military Sea Transportation Service became solely responsible for the Department of Defenses ocean transport needs. The MSTS was renamed the Military Sealift Command in 1970, Military Sealift Command ships are made up of a core fleet of ships owned by the United States Navy and others under long-term-charter augmented by short-term or voyage-chartered ships. Some ships may have Navy or Marine Corps personnel on board to carry out communication and special mission functions, ships on charter or equivalent, retain commercial colors and bear the standard merchant prefix MV, SS, or GTS, without hull numbers. Five programs comprise Military Sealift Command, Combat Logistics Force, Special Mission, Prepositioning, Service Support, the Combat Logistics Force’s role is to directly replenish ships that are underway at sea, enabling them to deploy for long periods of time without having to come to port. The Special Mission program operates vessels for military and federal government tasks, such as submarine support and missile flight data collection. The Prepositioning program sustains the US militarys forward presence strategy by deploying supply ships in key areas prior to actual need, also, MSC realigned two of its four mission-driven programs and adding a fifth program. The Prepositioning and Sealift programs are unchanged by the 2012 reorganization, as of June 2013, Military Sealift Command operated around 110 ships, and employed 9,800 people. The Combat Logistics Force is the part of the MSC most associated with supporting the Navy. In 1972, a study concluded that it would be cheaper for civilians to man USN support vessels such as tankers, the CLF is the American equivalent of the British Royal Fleet Auxiliary. These MSC ships are painted gray and can be easily identified by the blue. The Combat Logistics Force was formerly called the Naval Fleet Auxiliary Force, some of its ships were transferred to the new Service Support program. Special mission ships work for several different US Navy customers, including the Naval Sea Systems Command and these ships like those of the NFAF are painted haze gray with blue and gold stack bands. Some of its ships were transferred to the new Service Support program, as a key element of sea basing, afloat prepositioning provides the military equipment and supplies for a contingency forward deployed in key ocean areas before need. The MSC Prepositioning Program supports the US Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps, Prepositioning ships remain at sea, ready to deploy on short-notice the vital equipment, fuel and supplies to initially support military forces in the event of a contingency. The Prepositioning Program consists of 34 at-sea ships plus 2 aviation support ships kept in reduced operating status and these ships wear civilian livery, and are only designated USNS if government-owned, those chartered from civilian owners are either SS or MV. It consists of four government-operated ships formerly in the Special Mission program, Sealift is divided into three separate project offices, Tanker Project Office, Dry Cargo Project Office and the Surge Project Office. As a result of a 2012 organization, MSCs 12 worldwide MSC ship support units will now report to the MSC operational area commands in their areas of responsibility
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USS General LeRoy Eltinge (AP-154)
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USS General LeRoy Eltinge was a General G. O. Squier-class transport ship for the US Navy in World War II. She was named in honor of US Army general LeRoy Eltinge and she was transferred to the US Army as USAT General LeRoy Eltinge in 1946. On 20 July 1950 she was transferred to the Military Sea Transportation Service as USNS General LeRoy Eltinge and she was later sold for commercial use and operated under the names SS Robert E. Lee and SS Robert Toombs, before being scrapped in 1980. General LeRoy Eltinge was launched 20 September 1944 by Kaiser Shipbuilding Co. Inc, yard 3, Richmond, California, sponsored by Mrs. James McCloud, acquired by the Navy and commissioned 21 February 1945, Capt. W. Wakefield in command. After shakedown out of San Diego, General LeRoy Eltinge departed San Pedro 23 March with 3,100 troops for Calcutta, India, arriving 27 April via Melbourne, Australia. Underway 7 May with more troops, she debarked some at Tinian and others at Guam and she sailed 20 June for Magic-Carpet duty in the Atlantic, arriving Norfolk 14 July. Between 30 July and 14 September she made two trips from Norfolk to Marseille, France, to transport 6,206 home-bound veterans. On 29 September she departed Norfolk for Karachi, India, where she embarked veterans for Magic-Carpet passage to the United States, on a voyage from 3 March to 6 April she carried rotation troops to Korea and returned veterans to Seattle, before departing 27 April for New York. She arrived 13 May, decommissioned 29 May, was returned to the Maritime Commission, in 1949, the General LeRoy Eltinge was used to transport emigrants from Displaced Persons camps of World War II. Reacquired 20 July 1950, from Maritime Commission General LeRoy Eltinge joined MSTS1 August while operating in the Western Pacific, after joining MSTS, she participated in several major troop and refugee operations. For more than a year she transported troops from Seattle and San Francisco to Japan, in October 1951 she supported the International Refugee Program, making two trips from New York to Bremerhaven, Germany. The following year she made several runs for the United Nations, during 1953 she carried additional refuges from Bremerhaven to New York and transported Ethiopian and Greek troops to Korea. Her MSTS service continued until she was placed in reduced operational status 26 November 1955 at New York, General LeRoy Eltinge resumed operations between the United States and Europe 18 May 1956. The 2007 documentary film Freedom Dance, which follows artist Edward Hilbert and his wife, Judy, the ship suffered through a large storm during the crossing of the Atlantic. From May to September 1957 she made UN runs to Turkey and she continued to operate in support of UN programs through 1959. Returning to New York 1 September, she again assumed reduced operational status 26 September, following the outbreak of violence in the Belgian Congo in July 1960, General LeRoy Eltinge departed New York 20 February 1961 to support the UN peace mission. Departing Bombay 15 April, she debarked troops and supplies at Mombasa, Kenya, after operating along the African coast from Nigeria to South Africa, she was released from UN operations and departed Cape Town for the United States 13 May, arriving New York 30 May. She returned to reduced operational status 29 June, departing New York 16 July 1962, she sailed via the Panama Canal to San Francisco where she arrived 1 August to resume reserve status
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USS General R. M. Blatchford (AP-153)
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USS General R. M. Blatchford was a General G. O. Squier-class transport ship for the U. S. Navy in World War II. She was named in honor of U. S. Army general Richard M. Blatchford and she was transferred to the U. S. Army as USAT General R. M. Blatchford in 1946. On 1 March 1950 she was transferred to the Military Sea Transportation Service as USNS General R. M. Blatchford and she was later sold for commercial operation under the names SS Stonewall Jackson and Alex Stephens, before being scrapped in 1980. General R. M. Blatchford was launched 27 August 1944 under a Maritime Commission contract by the Kaiser Co, richmond, California, sponsored by Mrs. William Anderson of San Francisco, acquired and simultaneously commissioned 26 January 1945, Comdr. She sailed 30 May for France via the Panama Canal, touched at Le Havre 20 June, General R. M. Blatchford embarked more than 1,000 troops and casualties at San Pedro, Philippine Islands, and put in at Seattle 30 September 1945. On 9 May General R. M. Blatchford departed for Norfolk, via the Panama Canal and she was decommissioned at Baltimore, Maryland, on 12 June 1946 and returned to the Maritime Commission for operations as an Army transport. On June 28,1949, USAT General R. M. Blatchford left Bremerhaven, Germany with Displaced Persons, arriving in Boston, MA, on July 7,1949. On 16 October 1949 USAT General R. M. Blatchford left Naples with 1,219 displaced persons from Europe and this voyage was one of almost 150 voyages by some 40 ships bringing refugees of World War II to Australia. General R. M. Blatchford made one such trip herself, arriving in Sydney, again. She made one more trip after 15 December 1951 carrying refugees, again from Bremerhaven, Germany, but this time to the Port of New Orleans arriving there in mid-March 1952. She was reacquired by the Navy on 1 March 1950 for operations by a Civil Service crew under the MSTS transported thousands of troops from the West Coast in support of United Nations Forces in Korea. On 11 February 1961 she sailed from New York for two and a half years service in the United Nations Congo sealift. The veteran transport travelled 174,000 nautical miles in ferrying 36,809 passengers to and from the Congo, Morocco, India, Pakistan, Malaya, and Indonesia. She circumnavigated the African continent several times and criss-crossed the Indian Ocean repeatedly while rotating United Nations soldiers, doctors, nurses, General R. M. Blatchford arrived New York on 11 August 1963 with high praise. In the Fall of 1964 the Blatchford sailed from Morehead City, NC to Rota, the deployment was part of the largest amphibious operation since World War 2, a combined forces NATO war exercise code-named Operation Steel Pike. The return was via the Canary Islands for liberty, during the return crossing of the Atlantic the ship passed through the final track of four former hurricanes. The seas became so rough that the troops were confined below decks, a fire broke out in a bow compartment at approximately 0800 on the final day of the storm. The alarm added to the adventure and the fire was extinguished by the Damage Control Party
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United Nations
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The United Nations is an intergovernmental organization to promote international co-operation. A replacement for the ineffective League of Nations, the organization was established on 24 October 1945 after World War II in order to prevent another such conflict, at its founding, the UN had 51 member states, there are now 193. The headquarters of the UN is in Manhattan, New York City, further main offices are situated in Geneva, Nairobi, and Vienna. The organization is financed by assessed and voluntary contributions from its member states, the UNs mission to preserve world peace was complicated in its early decades by the Cold War between the US and Soviet Union and their respective allies. The organization participated in actions in Korea and the Congo. After the end of the Cold War, the UN took on major military, the UN has six principal organs, the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Secretariat, the International Court of Justice, and the UN Trusteeship Council. UN System agencies include the World Bank Group, the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, UNESCO, the UNs most prominent officer is the Secretary-General, an office held by Portuguese António Guterres since 2017. Non-governmental organizations may be granted consultative status with ECOSOC and other agencies to participate in the UNs work, the organization won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001, and a number of its officers and agencies have also been awarded the prize. Other evaluations of the UNs effectiveness have been mixed, some commentators believe the organization to be an important force for peace and human development, while others have called the organization ineffective, corrupt, or biased. Following the catastrophic loss of life in the First World War, the earliest concrete plan for a new world organization began under the aegis of the US State Department in 1939. It incorporated Soviet suggestions, but left no role for France, four Policemen was coined to refer to four major Allied countries, United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and China, which emerged in the Declaration by United Nations. Roosevelt first coined the term United Nations to describe the Allied countries, the term United Nations was first officially used when 26 governments signed this Declaration. One major change from the Atlantic Charter was the addition of a provision for religious freedom, by 1 March 1945,21 additional states had signed. Each Government pledges itself to cooperate with the Governments signatory hereto, the foregoing declaration may be adhered to by other nations which are, or which may be, rendering material assistance and contributions in the struggle for victory over Hitlerism. During the war, the United Nations became the term for the Allies. To join, countries had to sign the Declaration and declare war on the Axis, at the later meetings, Lord Halifax deputized for Mr. Eden, Wellington Koo for T. V. Soong, and Mr Gromyko for Mr. Molotov. The first meetings of the General Assembly, with 51 nations represented, the General Assembly selected New York City as the site for the headquarters of the UN, and the facility was completed in 1952. Its site—like UN headquarters buildings in Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi—is designated as international territory, the Norwegian Foreign Minister, Trygve Lie, was elected as the first UN Secretary-General
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Vietnam
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Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. With an estimated 92.7 million inhabitants as of 2016, it is the worlds 14th-most-populous country, and its capital city has been Hanoi since the reunification of North and South Vietnam in 1976, with Ho Chi Minh City as a historical city as well. The northern part of Vietnam was part of Imperial China for over a millennium, an independent Vietnamese state was formed in 939, following a Vietnamese victory in the Battle of Bạch Đằng River. Following a Japanese occupation in the 1940s, the Vietnamese fought French rule in the First Indochina War, thereafter, Vietnam was divided politically into two rival states, North Vietnam, and South Vietnam. Conflict between the two sides intensified in what is known as the Vietnam War, the war ended with a North Vietnamese victory in 1975. Vietnam was then unified under a communist government but remained impoverished, in 1986, the government initiated a series of economic and political reforms which began Vietnams path towards integration into the world economy. By 2000, it had established relations with all nations. Since 2000, Vietnams economic growth rate has been among the highest in the world and its successful economic reforms resulted in its joining the World Trade Organization in 2007. It is also a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, Vietnam remains one of the worlds four remaining one-party socialist states officially espousing communism. The name Việt Nam is a variation of Nam Việt, a name that can be traced back to the Triệu Dynasty of the 2nd century BC. The word Việt originated as a form of Bách Việt. The form Vietnam is first recorded in the 16th-century oracular poem Sấm Trạng Trình, the name has also been found on 12 steles carved in the 16th and 17th centuries, including one at Bao Lam Pagoda in Haiphong that dates to 1558. Then, as recorded, rewarded Yuenan/Vietnam as their nations name, to also show that they are below the region of Baiyue/Bach Viet. Between 1804 and 1813, the name was used officially by Emperor Gia Long and it was revived in the early 20th century by Phan Bội Châus History of the Loss of Vietnam, and later by the Vietnamese Nationalist Party. The country was usually called Annam until 1945, when both the government in Huế and the Viet Minh government in Hanoi adopted Việt Nam. Archaeological excavations have revealed the existence of humans in what is now Vietnam as early as the Paleolithic age, Homo erectus fossils dating to around 500,000 BC have been found in caves in Lạng Sơn and Nghệ An provinces in northern Vietnam. The oldest Homo sapiens fossils from mainland Southeast Asia are of Middle Pleistocene provenance, teeth attributed to Homo sapiens from the Late Pleistocene have also been found at Dong Can, and from the Early Holocene at Mai Da Dieu, Lang Gao and Lang Cuom. The Hồng Bàng dynasty of the Hùng kings is considered the first Vietnamese state, in 257 BC, the last Hùng king was defeated by Thục Phán, who consolidated the Lạc Việt and Âu Việt tribes to form the Âu Lạc, proclaiming himself An Dương Vương
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USNS General Hoyt S. Vandenberg (T-AGM-10)
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USNS General Hoyt S. Vandenberg was a General G. O. Squier-class transport ship in the United States Navy in World War II named in honor of U. S. Army Chief of Engineers Harry Taylor. She served for a time as army transport USAT General Harry Taylor, and was reacquired by the navy in 1950 as USNS General Harry Taylor. Placed in reserve in 1958, she was transferred to the U. S. Air Force in 1961 and she was reacquired by the U. S. Navy in 1964 as USNS General Hoyt S. Vandenberg. A group of banks and financiers from Key West bought the vessel off the auction block, the ship was sunk 27 May 2009 and is the second-largest artificial reef in the world, after the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany. The unnamed C4-S-A1-design transport was laid down under a Maritime Commission contract on 22 February 1943 at Richmond, California, vancouver, Washington, decommissioned on 10 April 1944, and commissioned on 8 May 1944 at Portland, Captain James L. Wyatt in command. Following shakedown off San Diego, General Harry Taylor sailed from San Francisco on 23 June 1944 with troop reinforcements for Milne Bay, New Guinea. After returning to San Francisco on 3 August with veterans of the Guadalcanal campaign embarked, with the European war over, General Harry Taylor made two Magic Carpet voyages to Marseilles and back, carrying returning veterans of the fighting in that theater. Next she sailed twice to Karachi, India, via the Suez Canal, returning to New York on 3 January 1946, the transport then began the first of four voyages to Bremerhaven, Germany, and Le Havre, France. She reached New York again on 21 May 1946 and decommissioned on 13 June at Baltimore and she was stricken from the Navy Register on 3 July 1946. General Harry Taylor served for a time with the U. S. Army Transport Service and she was reinstated on the Navy List on 28 April 1950. Her early duties consisted mainly of carrying troops, dependents, USNS General Harry Taylor operated in a typical year to the Caribbean, Mediterranean, and in northern European waters. In 1957, she took part in the Hungarian Relief program and she was placed in ready reserve on 19 September 1957, stricken from the Naval Register on 10 July 1958 and transferred back to the Maritime Administration the same day. She was placed in the National Defense Reserve Fleet at Beaumont, General Harry Taylor was then transferred to the U. S. Air Force on 15 July 1961 and was renamed USAFS General Hoyt S. Vandenberg on 11 June 1963. She was ultimately stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 29 April 1993, in 1998, some scenes of the horror/sci-fi film Virus were filmed aboard the ex-General Hoyt S. Vandenberg. The ship substituted for a fictional Russian vessel called the Akademik Vladislav Volkov, the ship was transferred to the Maritime Administration on 1 May 1999. Her projected transfer to the state of Florida, for use as an artificial reef, the ship was sunk 6 miles off the Florida Keys in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. She was later ordered to be sold at auction to pay the shipyard fees, a group of banks and financiers from Key West was able to arrange to pay the fees and title of the ship was transferred to the city of Key West. On 12 April 2009, the Vandenberg left the shipyard and began the tow to Key West
27.
USNS General H. H. Arnold (T-AGM-9)
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Arnold was a General G. O. Squier-class transport ship for the U. S. Navy in World War II. She was named in honor of U. S. Army general Robert Emmet Callan and she was transferred to the U. S. Army as USAT General R. E. Callan in 1946. On 28 April 1950 she was transferred to the Military Sea Transportation Service as USNS General R. E. Callan, placed in reserve in 1958, she was transferred to the U. S. Air Force in 1961 and renamed USAFS General H. H. Arnold in 1963 in honor of Henry H. Arnold, the first and she was reacquired by the Navy in 1964 as USNS General H. H. Arnold. She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 March 1982, General R. E. Callan was launched 27 April 1944 under a Maritime Commission contract by Kaiser Inc. Richmond, California sponsored by Mrs. Robert E. Callan, wife of General Callan, acquired 7 July 1944, and commissioned 17 August 1944, Comdr. From 20 December 1944-8 February 1945 the transport carried 2,500 troops from San Francisco to Eniwetok and Guam, two days later the busy ship steamed under the Golden Gate bound for Norfolk, closing that port 15 July and getting underway again 25 July for France. She embarked over 3,000 troops at Marseille 6 August, from 20 August-12 September the ship made another voyage to Marseille and put in at Boston 12 September with over 4,000 troops. On 26 September she stood out to eastward, touching Karachi, India, via the Suez and her name was struck from the Navy List on 19 June 1946. In September 1947 General R. E. Callan and sister ship General Harry Taylor put in at Todd Shipyard, the changes were so the ships would be in compliance with United States Coast Guard requirements for commercial passenger carriers. In January 1948 USAT General R. E. Callan responded to a signal from Army Transport Joseph V. Connolly which was burning at 39°48′N 54°37′W. Freighters Union Victory and Black Diamond each picked up a lifeboat, the Army transport stayed with the burning hulk of Joseph V. Connolly until being relieved by Army ocean-going tug LT-788. General R. E. Callan was ordered to Halifax with the survivors, all 46 hands from Joseph V. Connolly were saved by the three ships, while the ship itself was lost. General R. E. Returned to the Maritime Commission, she was assigned to the Maritime Defense Reserve Fleet in the Hudson River, New York. General R. E. Callan was transferred to the Air Force 15 July 1961 and she was renamed USAFS General H. H. Arnold in honor of General of the Air Force Henry H, on 1 July 1964 she was acquired by the Navy and designated T-AGM-9. Arnold operated in the Atlantic under MSTS as a Missile Range Instrumentation Ship and she was also seen operating in the North Pacific during the late 1970s. She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 March 1982, the ship was operated by Military Sealift command and had a crew of 200 and supporting contractors and military personnel of approx 50
28.
United States Air Force
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The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a branch of the military on 18 September 1947 under the National Security Act of 1947. It is the most recent branch of the U. S. military to be formed, the U. S. Air Force is a military service organized within the Department of the Air Force, one of the three military departments of the Department of Defense. The Air Force is headed by the civilian Secretary of the Air Force, who reports to the Secretary of Defense, the U. S. Air Force provides air support for surface forces and aids in the recovery of troops in the field. As of 2015, the service more than 5,137 military aircraft,406 ICBMs and 63 military satellites. It has a $161 billion budget with 313,242 active duty personnel,141,197 civilian employees,69,200 Air Force Reserve personnel, and 105,500 Air National Guard personnel. According to the National Security Act of 1947, which created the USAF and it shall be organized, trained, and equipped primarily for prompt and sustained offensive and defensive air operations. The stated mission of the USAF today is to fly, fight, and win in air, space and we will provide compelling air, space, and cyber capabilities for use by the combatant commanders. We will excel as stewards of all Air Force resources in service to the American people, while providing precise and reliable Global Vigilance, Reach and it should be emphasized that the core functions, by themselves, are not doctrinal constructs. The purpose of Nuclear Deterrence Operations is to operate, maintain, in the event deterrence fails, the US should be able to appropriately respond with nuclear options. Dissuading others from acquiring or proliferating WMD, and the means to deliver them, moreover, different deterrence strategies are required to deter various adversaries, whether they are a nation state, or non-state/transnational actor. Nuclear strike is the ability of forces to rapidly and accurately strike targets which the enemy holds dear in a devastating manner. Should deterrence fail, the President may authorize a precise, tailored response to terminate the conflict at the lowest possible level, post-conflict, regeneration of a credible nuclear deterrent capability will deter further aggression. Finally, the Air Force regularly exercises and evaluates all aspects of operations to ensure high levels of performance. Nuclear surety ensures the safety, security and effectiveness of nuclear operations, the Air Force, in conjunction with other entities within the Departments of Defense or Energy, achieves a high standard of protection through a stringent nuclear surety program. The Air Force continues to pursue safe, secure and effective nuclear weapons consistent with operational requirements, adversaries, allies, and the American people must be highly confident of the Air Forces ability to secure nuclear weapons from accidents, theft, loss, and accidental or unauthorized use. This day-to-day commitment to precise and reliable nuclear operations is the cornerstone of the credibility of the NDO mission, positive nuclear command, control, communications, effective nuclear weapons security, and robust combat support are essential to the overall NDO function. OCA is the method of countering air and missile threats, since it attempts to defeat the enemy closer to its source
29.
Artificial reef
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Many reefs are built using objects that were built for other purposes, for example by sinking oil rigs, scuttling ships, or by deploying rubble or construction debris. Other artificial reefs are built from PVC or concrete. Shipwrecks may become artificial reefs when preserved on the sea floor, the construction of artificial reefs is thousands of years old. Since at least the 1830s, US fishermen used interlaced logs to build artificial reefs, more recently, castaway junk, such as old refrigerators, shopping carts, ditched cars, out-of-service vending machines replaced the logs in ad hoc reefs. Officially sanctioned projects have incorporated decommissioned subway cars, vintage battle tanks, armored personnel carriers, artificial reefs tend to develop in more or less predictable stages. Next come creatures seeking protection from the oceans lethal openness—hole and crevice dwellers such as grouper, snapper, squirrelfish, eels, opportunistic predators such as jack and barracuda also appear, waiting for their prey to venture out. Over months and years the structure becomes encrusted with algae, tunicates, hard and soft corals. Mineral accretion involves applying a low voltage current to a structure to cause limestone to crystallize on the surface, to which coral planulae can attach. The electric current also speeds post-attachment growth, EMA works like charging a battery with a positive pole, the cathode, and a negative pole, the anode. Applying electric current attracts various dissolved minerals to either the cathode or the anode, chemical reactions take place at both poles. On the anode, bubbles of oxygen and chlorine gas form and these bubbles float to the surface and dissolve into the air. On the cathode, bubbles of gas and a limestone precipitate appear. The voltage is low enough that it can be generated by floating solar panels or from wave motion, artificial surfing reefs have been created in several locations around the world. Supporters cite subsidiary benefits such as protection, habitat enhancement. The worlds first attempt was made in El Segundo, near Los Angeles, the next attempt was at Mosman Beach, Perth, Western Australia. This reef was constructed of granite rocks placed in a pyramidal shape to form an appropriate breaking wave form that would suit surfers. An artificial reef constructed of over 400 massive, geotextile bags filled with sand was constructed in 2000 at Narrowneck on the Gold Coast of Queensland and this artificial reef had two objectives, stabilizing beach nourishment and improving surfing conditions. Europes first artificial reef was approved in 2008, construction began August 30,2008, in Boscombe, Bournemouth, UK, and opened in November 2009
30.
20 mm Oerlikon
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The Oerlikon 20 mm cannon is a series of autocannons, based on an original German 20 mm Becker design that appeared very early in World War I. It was widely produced by Oerlikon Contraves and others, with various models employed by both Allied and Axis forces during World War II, and many still in use today. During World War I, the German Reinhold Becker developed a 20 mm caliber cannon and this used a 20x70 RB cartridge and had a cyclic rate of fire of 300 rpm. It was used on a scale as an aircraft gun on Luftstreitkräfte warplanes. Because the Treaty of Versailles banned further production of weapons in Germany. SEMAG continued development of the weapon, and in 1924 had produced the SEMAG L, the Oerlikon firm, named after the Zürich suburb where it was based, then acquired all rights to the weapon, plus the manufacturing equipment and the employees of SEMAG. In 1927 the Oerlikon S was added to the product line. This fired a larger cartridge to achieve a muzzle velocity of 830 m/s, at the cost of increased weight. The purpose of development was to improve the performance of the gun as an anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapon. An improved version known as the 1S followed in 1930, three sizes of gun with their different ammunition and barrel length, but very similar mechanisms, continued to be developed in parallel. In 1930 Oerlikon reconsidered the application of its gun in aircraft and introduced the AF and AL, designed to be used in flexible mounts, the 15-round box magazine used by earlier versions of the gun was replaced by drum magazine holding 15 or 30 rounds. In 1935 it made an important step by introducing a series of guns designed to be mounted in or on the wings of fighter aircraft, designated with FF for Flügelfest meaning wing-mounted, these weapons were again available in the three sizes, with designations FF, FFL and FFS. The FF fired a larger cartridge than the AF, 20x72RB. The FF weighed 24 kg and achieved a velocity of 550 to 600 m/s with a rate of fire of 520 rpm. The FFL of 30 kg fired a projectile at a velocity of 675 m/s with a rate of fire of 500 rpm. And the FFS, which weighed 39 kg, delivered a high velocity of 830 m/s at a rate of fire of 470 rpm. Apart from changes to the design of the guns for wing-mounting and remote control, for the FF series drum sizes of 45,60,75 and 100 rounds were available, but most users chose the 60-round drum. The 1930s were a period of global re-armament, and a number of foreign firms took licenses for the Oerlikon family of aircraft cannon
31.
USS General G. O. Squier (AP-130)
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USS General G. O. Squier was the lead ship of her class of transport ship for the U. S. Navy in World War II. Decommissioned in 1946, she was sold privately in 1965 and renamed SS Pennmar, General G. O. Underway again from San Francisco 7 April she brought troops to Nouméa and Milne Bay before heading for Norfolk, where she arrived 2 June. On 1 July the ship departed with 3,300 troops for Italy, following a voyage thence to Oran and back, General G. O. Squier joined Task Force 87 off Naples 13 August in preparation for Operation Dragoon, the amphibious invasion of Southern France. Arriving off Cap Camarat 15 August, she debarked her troops into waiting LCIs which put them ashore to become another deadly prong thrust deeply into Hitler’s Heartland. The next day she headed for Oran to bring nearly 3,000 troops back to the Cap Camarat beachhead on 30 August, General G. O. Squier returned to New York 26 September with casualties and prisoners of war embarked at Naples. Between 20 September 1945 and 18 June 1946, six other round-trip, Magic-Carpet voyages out of New York at wars end brought home veterans from the Far East, General G. O. Squier reached Norfolk 22 June and decommissioned 10 July 1946. She was returned to the WSA on 18 July 1946 and entered the National Defense Reserve Fleet at James River in Virginia. She was sold to the Bethlehem Steel Corp.7 April 1964, converted to a cargo ship for Bethlehems subsidiary Calmar Line. The ship was sold and renamed Penn in 1976, renamed Penny in 1978, General G. O. Squier was awarded one battle star for World War II service. World War II U. S. Navy Vessels in Private Hands and this article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here, photo gallery of General G. O. Squier at NavSource Naval History
32.
USS General T. H. Bliss (AP-131)
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Bliss was a General G. O. Squier-class transport ship for the U. S. Navy in World War II. She was named in honor of U. S. Army general Tasker Howard Bliss, decommissioned in 1946, she was sold privately in 1964 and renamed SS Seamar, and was scrapped in 1979. Bliss was laid down under a Maritime Commission contract 22 May 1942 by Kaiser Co. Inc. Underway again 10 May, she carried 3,500 soldiers to Oro Bay, New Guinea, before sailing via the Panama Canal to New York, from 28 July 1944 to 4 September 1945, General T. H. Bliss made 11, round-trip transatlantic, troop-carrying voyages to ports in the United Kingdom, France, Italy and she sailed from Boston 11 September 1945 for Karachi, India, on her first Magic-Carpet voyage and returned to New York 23 October carrying veterans of the Pacific fighting. Departing San Francisco 5 April, she carried troops to Yokohama, Japan, then steamed back to the United States. Bliss decommissioned at Seattle 28 June, was returned to the WSA2 July, and was placed in the National Defense Reserve Fleet at Olympia, Washington. She was sold to Bethlehem Steel Corp. of Wilmington, Delaware in April 1964, rebuilt as a cargo ship for Bethlehems subsidiary Calmar Line. The ship was renamed Coroni in 1975 and scrapped in 1979, USS Tasker H. Bliss, a World War II transport ship sunk 13 November 1942 by U-130 off the coast of Morocco. World War II U. S. Navy Vessels in Private Hands and this article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here, photo gallery of General T. H
33.
USS General J. R. Brooke (AP-132)
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USS General J. R. Brooke was a General G. O. Squier-class transport ship for the U. S. Navy in World War II. She was named in honor of U. S. Army general John Rutter Brooke, decommissioned in 1946, she was sold privately in 1964 and renamed SS Marymar, and was scrapped in 1979. General J. R. Brooke was laid down under a Maritime Commission contract 29 June 1942 by the Kaiser Co. Inc. Yard 3, Richmond, California, launched 21 February 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Helen Thompson, acquired by the Navy 10 December 1943, San Francisco, and commissioned 20 January 1944 at San Francisco, Captain David L. Nutter in command. On her maiden voyage, General J. R. Brooke sailed from Port Hueneme 24 February 1944 with more than 3,600 troops, mostly Seabees, for Pearl Harbor and returned to San Francisco 8 March. From 19 March to 23 April she made a round-trip voyage out of San Francisco to bring 3,600 men to Nouméa and Espiritu Santo. Following her return, the ship sailed again 12 May for New Guinea to debark 3,400 troops at Oro Bay, and steamed thence to New York, where she arrived 3 July 1944. Convoyed by ships and planes and under constant threat of submarine attack, after the wars end, General J. R. Brooke made two Magic-Carpet and troop-rotation voyages from New York to Calcutta and Ceylon via the Suez Canal from 11 September 1945 to 3 January 1946. Subsequently, she made five identical troop-carrying voyages from New York to Le Havre between 19 January and 10 June 1946, in May 1946 she transported over 2,700 German POWs back to France. General J. R. Brooke moored at Norfolk 13 June, returned to the WSA on 18 July 1946, she entered the National Defense Reserve Fleet, James River, Virginia. She was sold to Bethlehem Steel Corp. of Wilmington, Delaware in April 1964, rebuilt as a cargo ship for Bethlehems subsidiary Calmar Line. The ship was sold and renamed Mary in 1976 and was scrapped in 1979, World War II U. S. Navy Vessels in Private Hands. This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, the entry can be found here. Photo gallery of General J. R. Brooke at NavSource Naval History
34.
USS General R. L. Howze (AP-134)
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USS General R. L. Howze was a General G. O. Squier-class transport ship for the U. S. Navy in World War II. The ship was crewed by the U. S. Coast Guard throughout the war and she was named in honor of U. S. Army general Robert Lee Howze. She was transferred to the U. S. Army as USAT General R. L. Howze in 1946, on 1 March 1950 she was transferred to the Military Sea Transportation Service as USNS General R. L. Howze. She was later sold for commercial operation under the name SS Austral Glen, General R. L. Howze was laid down under Maritime Commission contract 22 July 1942 by Kaiser Co. Inc. Yard 3, Richmond, California, launched 23 May 1943, gardenshire, acquired by the Navy 31 December 1943, converted to a transport by Matson Navigation Co. San Francisco, and commissioned at San Francisco 7 February 1944, Captain L. H. Baker, USCG, after shakedown off San Diego, the transport loaded supplies, embarked troops at San Francisco, and sailed 20 March 1944 for New Guinea. General R. L. Howze carried troops to Milne Bay and Lae to support the American buildup of pressure in the southwest Pacific, returning to San Francisco 2 May 1944. Subsequently, the ship steamed to Guadalcanal, Manus, Eniwetok, in November, General R. L. Howze steamed to the Philippines to bring home veterans, and sailed 10 January 1946 for England with 3,400 German prisoners. After touching at Liverpool 31 January, she brought American troops from Le Havre to New York 16 February, General R. L. Howze decommissioned at New York 1 April 1946 and was returned to WSA for transfer to the War Department. She was placed in reserve in the James River 6 August 1947, on 20 November 1949 USAT General R. L. Howze left Naples with 1,105 displaced persons from Europe and arrived in Melbourne on 17 December 1949. This voyage was one of almost 150 voyages by some 40 ships taking refugees of World War II to Australia, General R. L. Howze made one more such trip herself, arriving in Melbourne, again, with 1,316 refugees on 26 March 1950. The veteran transport was reacquired by the Navy 1 March 1950, for the next year General R. L. Howze sailed to and from Europe for the International Refugee Organization, bringing displaced persons from Eastern Europe to the United States. In mid-1951, she was transferred to the Pacific, and steamed between San Francisco or Seattle and the Far East with troop replacements for U. N. troops fighting in Korea and she continued this role during the active fighting and after the armistice. However, in September 1954, General R. L. Howze was diverted from her normal pattern of sailings to take part in Operation Passage to Freedom. For 5 months she and other Navy ships brought tens of thousands of refugees from North to South Vietnam as that country was partitioned, according to one source, General R. L. Howze held the record for the Passage to Freedom ships with 38 births on board. General R. L. Howze made two voyages to the Far East supporting Americas important readiness forces before returning to Seattle 31 December 1955. She remained inactive until entering the fleet at Astoria, Oregon,15 July 1957. The ship was returned to the Maritime Administration 17 July 1958
35.
USS General W. M. Black (AP-135)
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USS General W. M. Black was a General G. O. Squier-class transport ship for the U. S. Navy in World War II. The ship was crewed by the U. S. Coast Guard until decommissioning and she was named in honor of U. S. Army general William Murray Black. She was transferred to the U. S. Army as USAT General W. M. Black in 1946, on 1 March 1950 she was transferred to the Military Sea Transportation Service as USNS General W. M. Black. She was later sold for commercial operation under the name SS Green Forest, General W. M. Black was laid down under a Maritime Commission contract 26 November 1942 by Kaiser Co. Inc. Yard 3, Richmond, California, launched 23 July 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Decatur S. Higgins, acquired by the Navy 26 January 1944, San Francisco, and commissioned 24 February 1944, Captain J. P. Murray, USCG, in command. One of the most active ships of her type, General W. M. Black plied the worlds oceans and touched many distant ports in completing her varied missions as a troopship. On her first voyage she embarked 3,500 Army troops and sailed from San Francisco 26 March 1944, underway again 22 April, General W. M. Black carried 3,500 troops from San Francisco to New Caledonia and Guadalcanal. She departed Guadalcanal 14 May, embarked 2,700 at Balboa, Canal Zone, the transport subsequently steamed to Kingston, Jamaica, where she embarked 2,400 passengers and sailed to Norfolk, arriving 26 June. From 12 September to 19 August 1945 the busy transport made 10 similar round-trip troop-carrying voyages to the United Kingdom, France, North Africa, and Germany. In addition to carrying German prisoners of war to the United States, she rotated tens of thousands of troops and patients to, departing Boston 31 August 1945, General W. M. Black sailed for India via the Suez Canal. A unit of the Magic-Carpet fleet, she returned to Boston in October with 3,000 veterans of the South Pacific fighting, after making a similar voyage during November and December, she moored at New York 5 January 1946. She decommissioned there 28 February 1946 and was returned to service as an Army transport, on 2 March 1948 USAT General W. M. Black left Bremerhaven with 860 displaced persons from Europe and arrived in Melbourne on 27 April 1948. This voyage was one of almost 150 voyages by some 40 ships bringing refugees of World War II to Australia, General W. M. Black made three more such trips herself. She departed Naples on 29 May 1949 arriving 25 June 1949 in Melbourne with 826 more displaced persons, on 16 November 1949 she again departed Naples with 1,314 refugees, this time arriving in Sydney on 13 December 1949. General W. M. Black made a run to Australia, arriving in Melbourne, again. General W. M. Black was reacquired by the Navy 1 March 1950, manned by a civilian crew, she operated out of New York in the Atlantic until 1 September when she shifted her homeport to San Francisco. Between 1950 and 1953 she steamed to the Far East and transported more than 65,000 troops, after the Korean armistice, she continued tranpacific voyages, deploying troops to Japan, Korea, and Alaska and returning veterans of the Korean fighting to the United States. In June 1955 she carried troops and cargo to the Bering Sea during Operation Mona Lisa, following her return to San Francisco, she was placed out of service 26 August and was transferred back to the Maritime Administration
36.
USS General H. L. Scott (AP-136)
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USS General H. L. Scott was a General G. O. Squier-class transport ship for the U. S. Navy in World War II. The ship was crewed by the U. S. Coast Guard until decommissioning and she was named in honor of U. S. Army general Hugh Lenox Scott. She was sold in 1965 for commercial operation under the name SS Yorkmar, General H. L. Scott was laid down 20 December 1942 under a Maritime Commission contract by Kaiser Co. Inc. After shakedown off San Diego, General H. L. Scott departed San Francisco 5 May with reinforcement troops embarked for the South Pacific. Arriving Nouméa, New Caledonia,21 May, she returned to San Francisco 7 June to continue transporting men, in addition, she operated for a time in the western Pacific as Pacific Fleet receiving ship. While at Ulithi, Caroline Islands,25 March, she embarked 1,004 officers and men from USS Franklin, General H. L. Scott departed San Francisco 7 July for New York, where she arrived 21 July. She sailed 3 August for the Mediterranean and embarked troops at Naples and Leghorn, Italy. Between 2 September and October, she steamed via the Suez Canal to Calcutta, India and she arrived New York 28 October, sailed 10 November for China, and arrived Shanghai 11 December to support Nationalist forces during the protracted struggle for control of the Chinese mainland. General H. L. Scott returned to Seattle 30 December, on 5 February 1946 she sailed for the Far East with occupation troops embarked. After touching at Jinsen, Korea, and Shanghai, she returned to Seattle 20 March and she decommissioned 29 May and was returned to WSA3 June. She entered the National Defense Fleet and was berthed in Puget Sound until sold to Bethlehem Steel Corp.31 July 1964. She was converted to a cargo ship in 1965 for Bethlehems subsidiary Calmar Line and operated under the name SS Yorkmar, USCG ON294261. World War II U. S. Navy Vessels in Private Hands and this article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here, photo gallery of General H. L. Scott at NavSource Naval History Interview with Clyde Allen, USCG, a World War II veteran interviewed as part of the U. S. Coast Guard Oral History Program
37.
USS General S. D. Sturgis (AP-137)
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USS General S. D. Sturgis was a General G. O. Squier-class transport ship for the U. S. Navy in World War II. She was named in honor of U. S. Army general Samuel Davis Sturgis and she was transferred to the U. S. Army as USAT General S. D. Sturgis in 1946. On 1 March 1950 she was transferred to the Military Sea Transportation Service as USNS General S. D. Sturgis and she was later sold for commercial operation under the name SS Green Port, before being scrapped in 1980. General S. D. Sturgis was launched under Maritime Commission contract 12 November 1943 by Kaiser Co. Inc. Inc, vancouver, Washington, and placed in full commission at Portland, Oreg. After shakedown calls at San Francisco and Los Angeles, General S. D. Sturgis arrived Seattle 10 August 1944 to embark cargo, troops and she debarked troops and supplies at Honolulu 24 August and returned to San Francisco 2 September with hospital patients. From 27 September to 6 November the ship made one voyage from San Francisco to Pearl Harbor. She sailed from that port 16 November with troops and supplies bound for the Southwest Pacific, touching Eniwetok 4 December and arriving at Ulithi 5 days later, she assumed duty there as a station receiving ship. General S. D. Sturgis carried part of Admiral Halseys Third Fleet staff via Eniwetok to Pearl Harbor, finally reaching Seattle 19 February 1945. From 6 April to 2 June she made a round-trip, troop-carrying voyage from San Francisco to Langemak Bay and Hollandia, New Guinea and she now headed for Europe, departing San Francisco 16 June for France. After embarking troops at Marseilles 9 July, she departed the day to redeploy them in the Pacific. She arrived safely at Manila 20 August, after debarking her passengers, she made ready to sail to Tokyo. The ship reached Tokyo Bay on 31 August, and two later, the men carried by the Sturgis would be among the few who would witness the historic Japanese surrender ceremonies aboard Missouri. The ship was the only of her kind to be present in Tokyo Bay on Victory over Japan Day, the ship got underway 26 September for Seattle, arriving there 8 October. She decommissioned 24 May 1946 and was delivered to WSA for peacetime operation as an Army transport, rebuilt to 12,349 gross tons, USAT General S. D. Sturgis made 21 voyages between Germany and the U. S. with displaced persons. Among these refugees was Mrs. Marion Matewosian, a 99-year-old Armenian woman, Matewosian was said, in contemporary news accounts, to be the oldest person to come to the U. S. under the displaced persons program. In addition to its many trips to the U. S. with displaced persons, General S. D. Sturgis also delivered refugees to Australia, Argentina, Canada, Brazil and Venezuela as well. The ship departed Genoa on one mission with 860 displaced persons from Europe. This voyage was one of almost 150 Fifth Fleet voyages by some 40 ships bringing refugees of World War II to Australia
38.
USS General C. G. Morton (AP-138)
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USS General C. G. Morton was a General G. O. Squier-class transport ship for the U. S. Navy in World War II. She was named in honor of U. S. Army general Charles Gould Morton and she was transferred to the U. S. Army as USAT General C. G. Morton in 1946. On 1 March 1950 she was transferred to the Military Sea Transportation Service as USNS General C. G. Morton and she was later sold for commercial operation under the name SS Green Wave, before being scrapped in 1980. General G. G. Morton was built by the Kaiser Co. of Richmond, California, in 1943-44, acquired by the Navy on 18 May 1944, and commissioned 7 July 1944, Comdr. After shakedown out of San Pedro, California, she stood out independently for Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, on 1 August, arriving 16 days later and loading homeward-bound troops. On 20 August she got underway arrived San Francisco 3 September, sailed on to San Diego, embarking troops, she proceeded to Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides, and thence to Nouméa, New Caledonia, before putting in at San Francisco 24 October. General C. G. Morton steamed to San Diego and departed with a convoy 10 November, calling at Pearl Harbor six days later, on 3 December she sailed for San Francisco via New Guinea, Manus Island, and Nouméa, arriving on the last day of 1944. After loading passengers at Long Beach, Calif, General C. G. Morton stood out 11 January 1945 bound for Calcutta, India, via Melbourne, Australia, she reached Melbourne 1 February and called at Calcutta 19 days later. General C. G. Morton touched at San Francisco 5 July before sailing three days later for the east coast and she transited the Panama Canal 17 July and put in at Boston six days later. Following drydocking, the ship departed 12 August for France, touching at Marseille 22 August and returning to Newport News. On her next voyage, the transport sailed via the Suez Canal to Karachi, India, in early January 1946 General C. G. Morton repeated this trip, but sailed around the world calling at Singapore and Manila before docking at San Francisco in early March 1946. The ships captain was to be discharged from the service upon arrival, as a result of the delay the troops coming home from India would boo the captain whenever he appeared on deck, which resulted in them being listed as mutinous. General C. G. Morton was delivered to the War Department for use by the Army in May 1946, in the aftermath of the 1948 eruption of Philippine volcano Mount Hibok-Hibok, USAT General C. G. Morton was dispatched from Manila to assist in evacuations. Due to a lack of wharves at Camiguin, all those fleeing had to board the ship from small craft, in the confusion no accurate number of those evacuated was available. She was reinstated on the Navy List in March 1950 and assigned to MSTS Reserve, during the Korean War, General C. G. After receiving distress calls, General C. G. Morton, in August 1952, General C. G. Morton arrived in San Francisco with 526 Army and Navy Korean War veterans, and 284 civilians from Hawaii. In 1953, General C. G. Morton departed San Francisco with an number of troops for the Korean War. The Troops included members of the Air Force 315th Air Division, struck again from the Navy List on 29 May 1958, General C. G. Morton was sold to Central Gulf Lines in 1967, and renamed SS Green Wave, USCG ON508060, IMO6801183
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USS General C. H. Muir (AP-142)
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USS General C. H. Muir was a General G. O. Squier-class transport ship for the U. S. Navy in World War II. The ship was crewed by the U. S. Coast Guard until decommissioning and she was named in honor of U. S. Army general Charles Henry Muir. She was transferred to the U. S. Army as USAT General C. H. Muir in 1946, on 1 March 1950 she was transferred to the Military Sea Transportation Service as USNS General C. H. Muir. She was later sold for commercial operation under the names SS Chicago and SS San Juan, General C. H. Muir was launched 24 November 1944 under Maritime Commission contract by Kaiser Co. Inc. Yard 3, Richmond, California, sponsored by Mrs. John H. Deasy, acquired and commissioned 12 April 1945 at Portland, Captain J. D. Conway in command. Following shakedown off San Diego, General C. H. Muir departed 13 May from San Francisco for her first troop-carrying voyage to the war zones of the Pacific. The ship brought troops to Pearl Harbor, Eniwetok, Ulithi, and Leyte, served briefly as a ship in the Philippines. The long Pacific war over, General C. H. Muir sailed 3 September to pick up returning veterans at Mediterranean and Indian Ocean ports. She arrived New York 1 November, and then, retracing her steps to bring home another full contingent of troops, the ship made three subsequent voyages, one to New Orleans and two to Europe, before decommissioning at Baltimore 18 June 1946. She was returned to the Maritime Commission on that day and turned over to the Army Transportation Service, reacquired by the Navy 1 March 1950, General C. H. Muir began operations under MSTS and was re-designated T-AP-142. On 16 March 1950 USNS General C. H. Muir arrived in Sydney with 1,278 displaced persons from Europe and this voyage was one of almost 150 Fifth Fleet voyages by some 40 ships bringing refugees of World War II to Australia. General C. H. Muir made one such trip herself. In Ancestry. com link she is mentioned arriving in New York carrying refugees from Bremen Germany 17 May 1951, on the list were 4 Latvian DPs. In Ancestry. com link she is mentioned arriving in New York from Bremerhaven, in late 1952 the ship sailed from New York through the Mediterranean and thence through the Suez Canal bringing reinforcements to U. N. troops fighting in Korea. She made another long rotation voyage, stopping at many European and Asian ports before being placed in Reduced Operational Status at New York 30 September 1953. In August 1954 General C. H. Muir steamed through the Panama Canal to San Francisco, upon her return the ship was placed in the Pacific Reserve Fleet at San Diego,7 February 1955. She was returned to the Maritime Administration in 1960 and she entered the National Defense Reserve Fleet 30 June, and was berthed at Suisun Bay, California until 1968. At that time, the ship was sold under the MARAD Ship Exchange Program to Sea-Land Service of Wilmington, in 1969 Sea Land had Todd Shipyard, Galveston convert her to an 18, 455-gross ton container ship named SS Chicago, USCG ON516542, IMO6904806
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USS General H. F. Hodges (AP-144)
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USS General H. F. Hodges was a General G. O. Squier-class transport ship for the U. S. Navy in World War II. The ship was crewed by the U. S. Coast Guard until decommissioning and she was named in honor of U. S. Army general Harry Foote Hodges. She was transferred to the U. S. Army as USAT General H. F. Hodges in 1946, on 1 March 1950 she was transferred to the Military Sea Transportation Service as USNS General H. F. Hodges. She was later sold for commercial operation under the name SS James, General H. F. Hodges was launched 3 January 1945 under Maritime Commission contract by Kaiser Co. Inc. Yard 3, Richmond, California, sponsored by Mrs. Hodges Dickson, acquired by the Navy and commissioned 6 April 1945, C. H. Hilton, USCG, in command. After shakedown training, General H. F. Hodges sailed from San Francisco 10 May 1945 with over 3,000 troops and a contingent of Army nurses. In the ensuing two months, she steamed to Hollandia, Manila, Leyte, and Biak in support of the push toward Japan before returning to San Francisco on Independence Day 1945. The transport departed 8 July for New York via the Panama Canal, while at sea she received word of the Japanese capitulation. She returned to Boston 31 August with passengers from Naples, General H. F. Hodges then made two long voyages through the Suez Canal to India bringing home American troops, ending the second cruise when she reached New York Christmas Eve. The transport departed New York 31 January 1946 for Ceylon and India, continuing by way of the Pacific Islands to the United States and she remained at Seattle until decommissioned 13 May 1946 and was returned to the Maritime Commission for transfer to the Army Transport Service. She was used to transport troops from Japan to the US by way of Korea in March 1947, reacquired by the Navy 1 March 1950, General H. F. Hodges was assigned to the MSTS under a civil service crew. From 22 to 28 March 1950, the ship left Cristobal, Canal Zone in the Republic of Panama and she carried troops, their dependents, and supplies to most of the ports in northern Europe and the Mediterranean. After two more passages to Europe, General H. F. Hodges was returned to the Maritime Administration 16 June 1958, and was placed in the National Defense Reserve Fleet, Hudson River, New York. The transport was sold in 1967 to James River Transport, Inc. of New York who had Todd Shipyard, Brooklyn rebuild her to SS James, James entered commercial service in February 1968 and was scrapped at Taiwan in 1979
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USS General W. F. Hase (AP-146)
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USS General W. F. Hase was a General G. O. Squier-class transport ship for the US Navy in World War II. She was named in honor of US Army Major General William Frederick Hase and she was transferred to the US Army as USAT General W. F. Hase in 1946. On 1 March 1950 she was transferred to the Military Sea Transportation Service as USNS General W. F. Hase and she was later sold for commercial operation in 1968, before being scrapped in 1985. General W. F. Hase was launched under a Maritime Commission contract,662,15 December 1943 by Permanente Metals Corporation, Yard No. Vancouver, Washington, and placed in commission at Portland, Oregon,6 June 1944. After shakedown out of San Pedro, General W. F. Hase departed San Francisco 15 July 1944, with 3,000 troops and $29 million in military currency. After touching at Pearl Harbor, she debarked the men at Eniwetok, returning to San Francisco 26 August. During the next 12 months General W. F. Hase made six round-trip voyages, departing San Pedro 9 May, she carried 2,600 troops to Melbourne, Australia, where she arrived 27 May. After steaming to Fremantle, Australia, she reached Calcutta, India,14 June and she then sailed for the United States via Ceylon and the Suez Canal and arrived Norfolk 20 July. She departed Norfolk 5 August for the Mediterranean, and as part of the Magic Carpet fleet, she embarked more than 3,000 troops at Marseilles, France, before returning to New York 27 August. Operating out of New York between 1 September and 27 December, she sailed twice to Calcutta and back more than 6,000 troops. On 11 January 1946, she again departed New York for Calcutta, between 1 and 15 April, she carried 1,000 occupation troops to Yokohama, Japan, and on her final Magic Carpet voyage she returned 2,800 veterans to Seattle 28 April. She was reacquired by the Navy 1 March 1950, and assigned to duty with Military Sea Transportation Service ). Manned by a crew, she operated out of San Francisco, carrying more than 75,000 troops. Between 1950 and 1953 she made 19 round-trip voyages to Japan and Korea, the ship was converted to a container ship by the Maryland Shipbuilding and Drydock Company in 1969 and renamed SS Transidaho, USCG ON515622, IMO6904856, in November. Upon completion she began hauling containerized cargo for Seatrain Lines, on 14 October 1974 the ship was sold to the Puerto Rico Maritime Shipping Authority and she was renamed SS Carolina on 1 March 1975. She was resold to the Point Vigilance Corp. on 10 July 1981 and she was sold for scrapping on 15 October 1984 to Goldwiles Texas Inc. and was broken up in Taiwan in 1985. General W. F. Hase received eight battle stars for Korean war service, citations Bassett, Richard M. Carlson, Lewis H
United States