Posted on 02/02/2012 4:44:34 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1942/feb42/f02feb42.htm
Egyptian King an Axis sympathizer
Monday, February 2, 1942 www.onwar.com
In Egypt... The Cabinet resigns after a dispute with King Farouk regarding his pro-Axis sympathies.
In the Dutch East Indies... Japanese forces overcome Dutch and Australian forces on Amboina Island.
In London... The British Naval Staff reports that the German battlecruisers Gneisenau and Scharnhorst will probably attempt to leave Brest, in occupied France, and pass up the English Channel through the Straits of Dover.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/02.htm
February 2nd, 1942
UNITED KINGDOM: Glasgow: A reception committee of workmen at Harland and Wolff shipbuilders greet a trade union delegation from Russia.
The British Naval Staff reports that the German battleships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst will probably attempt to leave Brest, in occupied France, and pass up the English Channel through the Straits of Dover. (Jack McKillop)
Minesweeping trawlers HMS Cloughton Wyke and Cape Spartel sunk by German aircraft off the Humber. (Dave Shirlaw)
GERMANY: Because the British have been usually calling the Japanese “Japs”, the Berlin broadcasts of the German Transocean News Agency last week began referring to the British as “Brits”. (William Rinaman)
EGYPT: The Cabinet resigns after a dispute with King Farouk regarding his pro-Axis sympathies. (Jack McKillop)
LIBYA: General Claude Auchinleck, Commander in Chief Middle East Command, orders the British Eighth Army to hold Tobruk as a supply base for a future offensive. (Jack McKillop)
AUSTRALIA: HQ of the USAAF’s 49th Pursuit Group (Interceptor), with its three subordinate squadrons, arrives at Melbourne, Victoria, from the U.S. with P-40s. The aircraft are in crates and must be assembled and the vast majority of the pilots do not have the skills to survive in combat and must undergo combat training. The first squadron will fly their first mission in March. (Jack McKillop)
Minesweeper HMAS Rockhampton commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
NEW GUINEA: The Japanese launched their first air raid on Port Moresby in New Guinea, in preparation for a planned amphibious assault. (Dave Shirlaw)
NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: The Japanese begin a combined, concentrated attack against Australian troops at Laha Airdrome on Ambon Island using infantry, dive-bombers, fighter planes, warships and artillery; the Japanese capture the airfield by mid-morning. Later in the day, the surviving Australians at Laha approached the Japanese with surrender negotiations, sending at least ten representatives under the commanding officer at Laha, Major Newbury, waving a white flag. The Australian party was escorted to the village of Suakodo, where the local Japanese HQ was located, and held captive for the night at the village school. (Jack McKillop)
Japanese minesweeper W.9 is sunk, and minesweepers W.11 and W.12 are damaged, by Dutch mines off Ambon Island. (Jack McKillop)
PACIFIC OCEAN: The submarine USS Seadragon (SS-194) sinks a Japanese army cargo ship off Cape Bolinao, Luzon. (Jack McKillop)
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: On Bataan, the II Corps attacks to clear the Japanese bridgehead, at first employing the 31st Engineer Battalion, Philippine Army (PA), and then reinforcing with elements of the 41st Infantry, PA, after Japanese opposition proves stubborn. The Japanese completes withdrawal from the bridgehead during the of night 2-3 February. In the I Corps area, an armoured platoon of U.S. 192d Tank Battalion and a platoon of the 1st Battalion, 45th Infantry, Philippine Scouts, attempt unsuccessfully to reduce the Big Pocket. In the South Sector, Company C of the 192d Tank Battalion assists the Scouts in another attack on the Quinauan Point beachhead, but results are no more satisfactory. Other Scout battalions (2d Battalion of the 45th Infantry; 3d and 1st Battalions of the 57th Infantry) attack abreast to clear the Anyasan-Silaiim sector, making slow progress except on left, where no opposition is met. (Jack McKillop)
TERRITORY OF HAWAII: The Hawaiian Air Force activates the VII Interceptor Command at Ft Shafter. (Jack McKillop)
U.S.A.:
Under provisions of Public Law 403 passed by the Congress and signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, clocks in the U.S. are advanced one hour year-round, i.e., Greenwich Mean Time minus four hours.. This law remains into effect until 30 September 1945. (Jack McKillop)
The motion picture “Kings Row” premieres at the Astor Theater in New York City. Directed by Sam Wood, this small-town drama based on a Henry Bellamann novel stars Ann Sheridan, Robert Cummings, Ronald Reagan, Charles Coburn, Claude Rains and Judith Anderson. (Jack McKillop)
Washington: Lt-General Joseph Stilwell is appointed chief of staff to Supreme Commander, China Theatre,Chiang Kai-shek and C-in-C of the US forces in the Chinese theatre. He is directed by the US War department to “increase the effectiveness of United States assistance to the Chinese Government for the prosecution of the war and to assist in improving the combat efficiency of the Chinese Army.”
Two B-25 Mitchell medium bombers are loaded onto the aircraft carrier USS HORNET. The ship then steams out of sight of land.
Lieutenant John F. Fitzgerald then revs up his engines to the maximum and, at the signal from the launching officer, roars down the deck and takes off. (Jack McKillop)(107)
Large cruiser USS Guam laid down.
Submarine USS Jack laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-581 (Type VIIC) is sunk in the mid-Atlantic south-west of the Azores, in approximate position 39.00N, 30.00W, by the British destroyer HMS Westcott. 4 dead and 41 survivors. U-581 was sunk near the coast of Pico Island, in front of a place called Guidaste.
One of the officers, Ltn. Walter Sitek, managed to swim 6 km to shore where he was picked up by the locals. He then managed to pass through neutral Spain and make his way to Germany again when he again went to sea on a U-boat. Oblt. Walter Sitek commanded 3 boats (U-17, U-981 and U-3005) during the rest of the war and survived the fighting. The rest of the crew, 37 men, were picked up by the British destroyer and taken to POW camp being finally released in 1947. (Alex Gordon)
The unescorted and unarmed tanker, from Standard Oil of New Jersey (Esso) W.L. Steed (6,182 tons) was struck by one torpedo at 1940 in bad and cold weather about 90 miles (145 kilometres) east of the mouth of the Delaware River, and was abandoned by all crewmembers in four lifeboats. U-103 surfaced and fired 17 shells into the hull until a second torpedo exploded her cargo and sank her 50 minutes after the first hit. The four lifeboats later drifted apart. Two survivors in boat 2 (14 of 16 men aboard had died of exposure) were picked up four days later by the British SS Hartlepool, but one died in hospital in Halifax on 10 February. Three others in boat 3 (had have 5 men aboard) were picked up by AMC HMS Alcantara on 10 February. Boat 4 (had 14 men aboard) was found on 12 February by the British SS Raby Castle with four men onboard, but only one was alive. The man died three days later aboard the ship. Boat 1, with three men, had cleared the ship first. But it was never found. (The Mexican tanker Poza Rica found an empty boat on 19 February northwest of Cape Hatteras, it may have been boat 1 from WL Steed) (Jack McKillop and Dave Shirlaw)
Tanker Corilla sunk by U-751 in Convoy HX-173. (Dave Shirlaw)
RE: post 5 where it mentions the USS Guam is laid down.
here is a post from a few years back on the Guam’s Sister ship, USS Alaska.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-vetscor/1698603/posts
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
I thought cruisers were all named after cities. I guess territories are another option.
You are correct that during WW-II cruisers were named after cities and battleships were named after states.
I guess the reasoning was that the treaty cruisers fit in between the two.
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
Basically a SCHARNHORST class battlecruiser.
The Alaska class and and the KMS Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were often called “battle cruisers,” but that does not exactly fit the definition as first proposed by Admiral Sir John Fisher. The Alaska class had 12” guns and the two German ships had 11” guns, while the battleships of the era were all fitted with guns of 14” to 18”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_battlecruisers_of_the_Royal_Navy
The battlecruiser was the brainchild of Admiral Sir John (”Jacky”) Fisher, the man who had sponsored the construction of the world’s first “all big gun” warship, HMS Dreadnought. He visualised a new breed of warship with the armament of a battleship, but faster, lighter, and less heavily armoured. The first three battlecruisers, the Invincible class, were laid down while Dreadnought was being built in 1906.[1]
This design philosophy was most successful in action when the battlecruisers could use their speed to run down smaller and weaker ships. The best example is the Battle of the Falkland Islands where Invincible and Inflexible sank the German armoured cruisers SMS Scharnhorst and SMS Gneisenau almost without damage to themselves, despite numerous hits by the German ships.[2] They were less successful against heavily armoured ships, as was demonstrated by the loss of Invincible, Indefatigable, and Queen Mary during the Battle of Jutland in 1916. All three ships were destroyed by more heavily armoured German battlecruisers,[3] with the British failure to prevent fires or explosions in the gun turrets from reaching the magazines also playing a role in the losses.[2]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battlecruiser
Battlecruisers (also rendered as battle cruiser in some sources) were large capital ships built in the first half of the 20th century. They were developed in the first decade of the century as the successor to the armoured cruiser, but their evolution was more closely linked to that of the dreadnought battleship. They were similar in size and cost to a battleship, but while they typically used the same large-calibre main armament as a battleship, battlecruisers sacrificed armour protection in exchange for speed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_class_cruiser
The Alaska-class cruisers were a class of six very large cruisers ordered prior to World War II for the United States Navy. Although often called battlecruisers, officially the Navy classed them as Large Cruisers (CB). Their intermediate status is reflected in their names relative to typical U.S. battleship and cruiser naming practices,[A 5] all were named after “territories or insular areas” of the United States.[A 6] Of the six that were planned, only three were laid down; two were completed, and the third’s construction was suspended on 16 April 1947 when she was 84% complete. The finished two, Alaska and Guam, served with the U.S. Navy for the last year of World War II as bombardment ships and fast carrier escorts. They were both decommissioned in 1947 after spending only 32 and 29 months in service, respectively.
http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq63-1.htm
Ship Naming in the United States Navy
DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY — NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
Looks like SCHARNHORST matches her in speed, carries almost an inch more of armor, and outweighs her by about 5,000 tons. ALASKA and GUAM have 1” more on the main guns.
What does the extra inch mean in a shootout? Is it just more destructive power or is it also added range?
Normally, it would indicate extra weight of shot [heavier projectile, and more range. But I’m not up on the ballistics of SCHARNHORST or GUAM, soI can’t really say. The 1” refers to the diameter of the bore of the tube. An 11” gun holds a shell 11’ wide. A 12” gun holds a shell 12” wide.
I was able to track down the stats on the Scharnhorst vs Alaska main batteries last night.
The Alasaka's 12" rifles could fire a 1100 pound AP shell about 21 miles. The Scharnhorst 11" rifles would fire a 800 pound AP shell 24 miles. So the answer to your question is kind of a split decision. I would not want to be on the recieving end of either ship.
However the Scharnhorst's secondary battery out classed the Alaska's. Sharnhorst carried 12 5.9" guns and 12 4.1" guns all in twin mounts. Alaska had 12 5" guns in twin mounts. I am not familiar with the German 5.9" gun but the American 5"/38 caliber was probably the best dual purpose piece of naval artillery made in WW-II. The Alaska's secondary guns were\ mounted in a rather unusual fashion. There was a twin 5" turret mounted to fire over the main guns both fore and aft and two turrets on each side basically at the corners of the super structure.
Pic links below
One final note on armament the Scharnhorst had an ace in the hole in it's 2 3 tube torpedo battery. Sorry I don't recall the range on the torps.
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
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