05/06/2012 - This day, in Wold War II

In the briefing room the Slater started a chalk board noting "this day in WWII".  Great idea, but I was a little disappointed with the entry - a reference to the prelude to the Battle of Coral Sea (the main battle occurred the day following, on May 7th).

I knew there were a few other events that happened on this day, seventy years ago but I had to do a little research first.  In my opinion the big event of May 6th (70 years ago) was the The surrender of Corregidor.   A video of the surrender is available.

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Things were a little busy in the North Atlantic as well. German U-Boats were operating off the American Coast (Operation Drumbeat, Paukenschlag).   

On Wednesday, May 6th, 1942 six merchant ships were sunk.  The total tonnage lost was 27,913 (roughly equivalent to 700 tractor trailer trucks).  Twenty seven sailors were killed, but 182 survived.  One ship, the Alcoa Puritan was carrying six passengers who were torpedo several days before.  It was sunk in deep water, approximately 120 miles from Mobile, Alabama.  A few years ago a survey of the wreck site was done by the Past Foundation and a comprehensive video is available.

02/03/2012 - Heavy Seas

This last week I received an email with an interesting video titled Destroyer Duty. The video of the stormy ocean was spectacular. While it did contain a Destroyer/Frigate, it appeared to be a knock off of professionally made video production.  After a little research I discovered that it was a segment in  Ωceans – a French (Galatée) film produced in partnership with the Census of Marine Life and the Sloan Foundation. Oceans was released in 2010.  The full clip  concerning the storm is available on You Tube.

The embedded video above shows one of the segements of the film being made. The ship in the video is the French frigate Latouche-Tréville (D646) on March 10, 2008. The frigate is substantially larger than the USS Slater but it looks quite small relative to the ocean. According to news reports the waves pictured were 14 - 17.8 meters (over 40').

01/17/2012 - Salute to the Navy (1943)

The Internet Archive contains plenty of great films from the WWII era. This one is a salute to the USS Navy. In the end it briefly profiles the USS San Francisco and the Battle (where Frank Slater was killed).  According to the Archive the film dates from 1941, but that's impossible since many of the events it discusses occurred in 1942.

While the film does not profile Destroyer Escorts (since it was probably made in 1942), it does contain segements that profile the guns used by DEs (20mm, 40mm, 1.1 and 5"38, but no 3"50). It also contains a lightline transfer of mail to a 4-piper destroyer.