There will always be an England*

Well....That sucks!  Had a pretty good post here and made a small edit that required doing the edit in HTML mode.  Made a mistake and when I hit the undo button, the whole post went away.  Thanks, Google Blogger!.


So...Here we go with the Cliff Notes edition. 

Found an interesting History Guy Video on YouTube, and did a little deeper dive into the story.  

Source

It all starts with a guy named John C. England.  He was born in Missouri, but grew up in Alhambra CA.  Graduated as President of his HS Class, attended Pasadena City College.  Upon Graduation there, he enlisted in the US Naval Reserve.  Went to basic training and upon graduation, enrolled in the Naval Midshipmen School.  Upon graduation there, was commissioned an Ensign.  Reported to the Navy's Radio school and upon graduation there reported to his first assignment, USS Oklahoma (BB-37).  Somewhere, during all this schooling, he got married and had a child although he hadn't met the child as of yet..

Source

As his wife and child were due to arrive in a few days, he swapped shifts so he could spend time with them and get them settled in.

He took the shift on December 7th, 1941.

The Oklahoma is hit with two torpedoes almost immediately in the attack and begins to capsize.  She has two more torpedo hits and continues to roll.  The article I read estimated that she had a total of 8 hits during the attack.

Source

Ensign England manages to make it out of the ship's interior, but realizes the other people in the room didn't follow.  He makes three trips back inside and brings back a wounded crewmember each time.  

He returns below for a fourth time but does not return.  His remains were recovered and buried in a mass grave.**

Source

 To honor his memory, a Buckley Class Destroyer Escort was commissioned.  It was launched in Sept '43, commissioned in December and sailed for Espiritu Santo in Vanuatu in March of 44 with Commander W.B. Pendleton in command.

Mother and Sister christened the ship. Source

The first few weeks were spent doing escort duty between Espiritu Santo and Guadalcanal, but in Mid-May, things got "Fast and Furious".

The US had decoded a radio message tasking the Japanese Submarine I-16 to resupply troops on the southern tip of Bougainville.  Astute Chanters will recognize this submarine as the one that brought the mini-subs to participate in the attack on Pearl Harbor.

In any case, USS England along with USS George and USS Raby are tasked to intercept her.  On May 19th, the sub is spotted by aircraft and the 3 ship are vectored to the area.  That afternoon, USS England gets sonar contact and executes a Hedgehog attack which misses.  She attacks again and gets a single hit.  Attacks 3 and 4 have no hits also.  Attack 5 scores 4-6 detonations and is followed by a large underwater explosion which lifts USS England's fantail out of the water. 

I didn't know what these were when I visited USS Stewart.  I do now

The very next day, the US intercepts another message detailing plans to deploy 7 Japanese submarines across the expected line of advance for US Aircraft Carriers.  The three ships are sent to intercept.  USS George gets the first contact on radar on 22 May and makes an attack, but misses.  USS England attacks, misses, reattacks and scores at least 3 hits, followed by a large underwater detonation.

It's now 23 May, the three ships are still searching out the submarines.  USS Raby gets a radar contact then picks the sub up on sonar.  Makes 4 Hedgehog attacks and misses all.  USS George makes 4 attacks and misses.  USS England makes an attack, misses, reattacks and scores 10-12 hits followed by breaking up noises and an underwater explosion.

Source

24 May, USS George makes radar contact.  USS England picks the sub up on sonar and make her attack with 3-5 hits.  Breaking up noises are heard on Sonar.

The threesome is now low on fuel, ammo and other supplies, so starts to return to port.  Enroute to the resupply base on the 26th. USS Raby gets a radar contact,  USS England soon achieves both Radar and Sonar contact, makes her attack and scores 4-6 detonations followed by a large oil slick.

Upon resupply, the threesome returns to the area to continue operations.  In addition to the these three,  USS Spangler joins the party.  On May 30,  a surfaced sub is detected and  attacked.  16 Hedgehog attacks were made over the period of 25 hours with no success.  USS England had been held in reserve.  Finally, out of frustration, the Division Commander radios "Oh, Hell, Go ahead, England"..  USS England makes her attack and scores 6-10 detonations followed by a major explosion.

  6 Japanese submarines in 12 days, I think the Ensign's death was adequately avenged.

Unfortunately, in May of '45, USS England is doing picket duty off the coast of Kerama Retto a large anchorage used by the US in support of the Okinawa invasion.  While on patrol, the ship is attacked by 3 Japanese dive bombers.  The ship's AAA scores hits on one, but it crashes into the ship just below the bridge.  The crew manages to conduct damage control and get the ship into Kerama Retto.  However, 37 crewmembers died and 25 were wounded.  The ship will eventually make it back to the US for extensive repair, but the war ends and she will eventually be decommissioned and scrapped.

Source

The ship received a Presidential Unit Citation for her actions in May of '44 and her Captain would receive the Navy Cross.

Commander Pembleton
Source

Presidential Unit Citation:

"For outstanding performance in combat against enemy forces from May 19 to 31, 1944. Utilizing to the full all available weapons and equipment the USS ENGLAND skillfully coordinated her attacks with other vessels and with cooperating aircraft, striking boldly and with exceptional precision at the enemy.

In a sustained series of attacks, she destroyed six hostile ships within twelve days effecting this devastating blow to enemy operations during a particularly crucial period and disrupting attempts by the enemy to supply or evacuate key units.

By this heavy loss to the enemy the ENGLAND contributed substantially to unmolested advance of the United States Fleet pointing toward subsequent seizure and occupation by our forces. 

A gallant and daring fighter, superbly ready combat, the ENGLAND has achieved an outstanding record of success, reflecting the highest credit upon her gallant officers and men and the United States Naval Service."

Here's the Video that got this post started.

*The title quote is from Admiral Ernest King saying "There will always be an England...in the US Navy."  A second USS England (CG-22) served from '62 until the early 90's.  There currently is not a USS England on duty today.

Just for your musical entertainment, here is a different take on that statement.  Evidently it was a patriotic song in Great Britain during the war.

**On a somewhat happier note, in part because of the actions of Joint Task Force-Full Accounting (JTF-FA) in the early 90s in recovering and identifying Americans Missing in action in Vietnam, Ensign England's remains were positively identified in 2016 and he was reburied with his parents.

We'll call this post an SPNS.  A pilot training grading code for "Poopy*** Pattern, Nice Save". 

***Or a more scatological version of the word.