Monday, October 14, 2019

Ohio


 It was a fairly dreary weekend down here in the Texas Hill Country.  Just enough rain to get you wet and make drivers stupid yet not add a lot of moisture to the soil, but at least the wind was blowing and the temps were in the 40's.  So...not a lot of encouragement to go out and do things.  We did have our first fire of the season, though.

Which was nice.  Accompanied by a wee dram of Sarge's best Whisky, Bruichladdich Islay Barley.

Sarge, you need to change the combo on your liquor cabinet lock. 1234 is not all that secure.

As I said, the weather was kinda dreary and the next step in the desk project is staining and painting. However, the sanding step left dust all over the shop, so the weekend was spent with spurts of cleaning it up, then leaving for a while to let the dust settle (quite literally) again, then clean up more, rinse and repeat all weekend long.

Big shout out to John from Philly for his recommended dust mask.  Worked like a champ, much more comfortable, more effective and, added bonus, I could see.  My glasses didn't fog up.

But, the cleaning and weather meant I had to find other means to amuse myself as Mrs J was putting the final packages together for SIL's side of the Family's annual Christmas Vacation trip as well as the Wine Cruise she's putting together for our Wine Maker Friends and 45 of their closest wine drinking buddies.  Mrs J and I will go along as the adult supervision...of course.

So, I had a lot of time on my hands, and "Idle hands....", so I spent some time watching videos and came across a very interesting one from "The History Guy".

OK, now that we're back to our normal Bat Time and Bat Channel (if you don't recognize that, your misspent childhood is not my concern), I think I'll wax poetic about Ohio.

No, Beans, not that anti-war Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young song, nor a Mid-Western State.  No, we're going to talk about an Ohio with Texan roots.

 One thing that amazes me the more I study military history is how many battles, even wars, seem to have turned on the smallest thing.  Sarge has commented frequently about Waterloo and the timely arrival of Blucher.  The timely arrival of the Dive Bombers at Midway is another.

Well, Ohio is another of those "skin of the teeth" moments.

The Ohio I'm going to talk about is the SS Ohio, a tanker launched in 1940 for Texas Oil Company.  (You may know that company as Texaco.)  In any case, at the time of her launching, she was the largest and fastest tanker afloat, built to carry over 9000 tons of oil at a design speed of 16 knots.  Sea trials would establish that she was capable of 19 knots.

She spends the next couple of years ferrying oil between Texas and New York.
I apologize for the quality, this was the only picture I could find pre-story. Source
It's now 1942.  The war isn't going swimmingly for the British.  Rommel is earning his "Desert Fox" nickname in Africa.  However, the island of Malta (archipelago actually), is strategically located to interdict his supply lines.  The Axis powers, mainly the Italians initially then increasingly the Germans, have blockaded it and have been seriously bombing it for months.  Convoys have been sent to resupply it, but have been unsuccessful with anything other than Submarines and Torpedo Boats.


Not much cargo carrying ability on either.

There hasn't been a successful convoy resupply in months and it's beginning to look like surrender is inevitable.  The British want to try one more time to get supplies, primarily fuel, to Malta.  They want this convoy to be very heavily escorted and sailing as fast as possible.

You beginning to see the handwriting on the wall?

So, it's Summer 1942, the Captain of Ohio, had received orders to put in to Galveston and take on a load of gasoline and deliver it to England.  He does so and after offloading is awaiting orders for his next assignment only to find that the British commandeer his ship, replacing he and his crew with a British crew.  She undergoes a hurried upgrade to maximize her resistance to battle damage in preparation for duty.

Seeking to take advantage of a period of moonless darkness in mid August, the Ohio sails for Gibraltar.  Rendezvousing with the rest of the convoy, they sail for Malta on the 9th.

The convoy is composed of 14 merchantman of which Ohio is the only one carrying the critical fuel.  Protecting them are 2 Battleships, 4 Aircraft Carriers, 7 cruisers and 33 destroyers.  Churchill realizes that if this convoy, most especially the Ohio, does not resupply Malta, it will be forced to surrender.  This will supply Germany with middle eastern oil, close access to the Suez Canal, isolate Australia and New Zealand, and quite probably force Great Britain out of the war.

The convoy is attacked relentlessly from the start.  An Aircraft Carrier, HMS Eagle, is sunk.  Ohio is hit by a torpedo.
 According to the source, this is an actual shot of Ohio being torpedoed.
Source
Then a Stuka is shot down and crashes in to her.  A short while later, two bombs straddle her and lift her out of the water.  (I've come to understand that for ships to be lifted out of the water is a "bad" thing, causes structural damage or something).  Another bomb hits her boiler room shutting off power.  The boiler is relit (which took about 20 minutes, AKA an eternity when you're motionless in the midst of an air attack.)  Ohio resumes course, at 13 knots now, when another bomb hits and knocks out the fuel pumps.  Again, they are repaired and Ohio begins to get underway even more slowly.  However damage will shortly cause Ohio to come to a halt.  A destroyer attaches lines to her and begin towing her toward Malta.  However, another set of bombs hits exactly where the torpedo had hit breaking her back.  Slowly taking on water (another "bad" thing) Ohio is now being towed by two destroyers however damage to her steering is making this extremely difficult.  Two more destroyers come along either side of her and nudge her in the proper direction.
Source

They are very near Malta now as another attack begins.  Unfortunately for the Germans, the ships are now within range of Spitfires on Malta and the attackers are driven off.

Source

Ohio was so badly damaged, she had to be scuttled at the dock in order to offload her fuel.  Yet, Malta had been resupplied.  Of the 14 merchant ships in the convoy, 9 were sunk only 5 made it to Malta, 3 of whom were damaged.  Ohio was one of those.  Of the combatants, 1 Aircraft Carrier was sunk, another damaged.  2 Cruisers and 1 Destroyer were sunk.  4 Destroyers were damaged.


Was it worth it?

In September, 100,000 tons of Axis shipping was sunk attempting to reinforce and resupply Rommel in preparation for his second attack on El Alamein in October.  He was defeated.

It is entertaining to play "what if" in this situation and The History Guy does.  It is not out of the realm of possibility that if Ohio hadn't reached port, Great Britain may have been forced out of the war.  Could the US project power from the US to invade Europe as well as fight the Japanese?

Things could be quite different if only a few little things had happened differently.

But then, that's life!

Here's the video that started this. Skip to the 2 minute mark if you don't want to watch his sales pitch.





Sources:
US Merchant Marine Website (doesn't look like it's an official site, but it had good info)
Wikipedia-  SS Ohio

31 comments:

  1. Maybe... send two tankers next time?


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  2. Maybe only tanker that fast that could keep up with the speed of the convoy? Don't know and I'm surprised that the Ohio didn't ignite after all the hits. The crew on her knew how to do battle damage and certainly had the cojones eh? A dreary weekend here too juvat, cold, gray and wet but better than NoDak land, they had a spot get 27 inches of the white stuff.......

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    1. Yeah, the added “this ship is a giant bomb of high-octane aviation gas” adds a certain pucker factor....

      Combined with the fact that ships around you have been doing this sort of thing:

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Pedestal#/media/File%3ASS_Waimarama_explodes.jpg

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    2. As Nylon12 said, they had sent convoys with multiple tankers before and had them decimated. The tactic for this one was to go as fast as possible. Thus, the Ohio. Her sister ship the Kentucky had sailed in a convoy in June and been sunk. One of the lessons learned from that was to mount the engines on rubber mounts and the piping from steel springs to better absorb the shocks of the explosions. As it was, most of this convoy was also lost (9 of 14 merchantships, a carrier, 2 cruisers and a destroyer).

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    3. A bear,
      From what I understand about the SS Waimarama is one of the surviving crewmen was a Merchant Marine Academy CADET and received the Merchant Marine Distinguished Service Medal for his actions in defending that ship. Their citation is at the bottom of the Merchant Marine Source I cited. That is the Merchant Marine's equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor.

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    4. 19 knots was fast for a tanker at that time. The US was busy designing and building fast fleet colliers, but those were being built for the Pacific and for feeding the US Navy thereof. The Atlantic War was Convoy and Escort, Keep Together and Be Protected, so fast wasn't necessarily needed in a cargo or tanker ship.

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    5. Convoy and escort is a sound tactic. Minimize time in the target area is a Law! I've escorted slower (A-4s and A-6s) strikers on simulated raids and it is not easy. On the other hand, I've escorted a 12 ship strike package (F-16s) that put all of them across the target area in a minute and a half. A lot less gun camera footage taken of the good guys on the latter.

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  3. I didn't mention it, but when Ohio reached port, the crowds went wild and the Maltese people still celebrate her arrival each year. Based on that, I'd say the dire status of the Island at the time wasn't understated.

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  4. My personal WWII hero, Colonel William Leverette, shot down his 7 Stukas covering a British Convoy in the Med in October 1943, though it was a shattered convoy trying to supply beleaguered Rhodes. The Germans really understood how important Britain's fixed carriers, Gibraltar, Malta and Rhodes, were.

    Malta. That name keeps coming up in bitter struggles against an evil enemy that turn into a hell of a siege with tales of derring do and valiant action in supplying the island, with the eventual result of victory over the evil empire.

    Good post. The Merchant Marine doesn't get the credit for doing, and all too often dying during the course of, their job during WWII. Well, during any war, really. The job must get done, hopefully in a non-exciting way, is probably how many of them saw it.

    Looking forward to your AARs on your trips.

    As to dust, do you have some sort of vent system or air filter system to help move airborne dust out of the workspace?

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    1. Thanks, Beans, yes I have an air filtration system for the work shop, and most of my tools have hookups to my dust collection system. However, my belt sander and random orbit sanders only have small bags to collect the dust, those were overwhelmed. I'm asking Santa for bigger, better, faster models with improved dust collection.

      As per Malta, It has stood up to multiple evil empires over time. Including one still a factor in the world today.

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    2. Beans. Speaking of Malta, and for John Ringo nerd points, why is Steve Smith's daughter named Faith?

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    3. One must remember the sacrifices of others.

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  5. Juvat, another one of those relatively unknown heroic stories from WWII. You could probably write a screenplay that Hollyweird would love, and would turn into a lousy movie. That was definitely the resupply run that wouldn't stop, couldn't stop.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNLUS0o69wQ

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    1. Ahhhh yes, my favorite saying. Thanks, Tuna. Good post yesterday, BTW. I tried to write a comment, but every version brought my blood pressure to boiling and I couldn't keep the verbiage at a level that would be acceptable here. Basically, California-->High Taxes-->No F'in electricity.

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    2. And now with something like 15 new anti-gun laws signed. It's like they don't know what 'shall not be infringed' means.

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    3. Yes, Well...I'm not a Citizen of the state although I was born there. My Favorite Aunt and Uncle live there, Marin County. Brother lives in LA and another Aunt and Uncle, with assorted Cousins live in Santa Barbara. Used to love to visit. Wouldn't visit now on a bet. Irritates the snot out of me that portions of my Income Tax are used to support that government. I don't believe they are stupid. I believe they know exactly what they are doing and do it anyway. For their personal enrichment. If cutting off power doesn't incite the populous to march on Sacramento with torches and pitchforks, then I will be ashamed to have been born there.
      And that's the mild version of yesterday's comments.

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    4. Thanks Juvat. Glad you kept an M.I. in check, although I'd have enjoyed reading your ire nevertheless. As much as the power companies shutting off power sucks, and just enables the state which doesn't clear the back country enough, after so many in Paradise lost their lives, I can't blame them.

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  6. (Don McCollor) somewhere in my archives is an account related as best as I can remember "Ohio came slowly into port under tow and sinking. Overhead the Spitfires and Hurricanes expended the last of the island's aviation fuel to protect her. When they landed, Malta would be without fighter defenses...But it did not matter. Without the fuel in Ohio's tanks, Malta would fall..."

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    1. One of the posts I cited had an end game summary. Ohio was sinking at the dock and as the last of the fuel was pumped off, her hull hit the bottom. Mission complete.

      Who said ships don't have souls?

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  7. One of the most sobering (my regrets to Sarge's Medicinal Brandy Locker) and enjoyable things to do is peruse the written history of of the 1940's version of the siege of Malta. You can't (well, I can't) begin to enumerate the tales of tragedy, heroism, perseverance, etc., which attended it. The history of Malta before and after is a delight as well. I particularly like the way they told NATO and the U.S. "firetruck you very much" back in the 70's. I thought they were arseholes at the time but ave I've aged (gone smelly and soft) I rather like the attitude of scrappy arseholes. Bit like looking in the mirror I suppose. Sometimes I try very hard to imagine what it must have been like to be embroiled in that WWII storm and I realize I can't even come close.

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    1. All I had read up to this point was about the Gloster Gladiators, so I had no idea. As I said, it was "THIS Close" to going the wrong way. I wonder sometimes, if there won't be a future person looking back at today and saying "Whew, it was THIS close", rather than "Stupid SOB's, they shoulda known better".

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    2. I keep assuming they'll be on the "stupid SOB" side, but I never considered that a "this close" side might exist. Thanks for sharing that insight, and as I forgot to add it earlier, thanks for an enjoyable and thought provoking post. BTW (and with no snark intended), 75 and sunny here today. A bit breezy, but not too bad. Excellent day to labor outside.

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    3. Yeah, it was much more autumn like down here also. Just the Big Guy reminding us to prep for harder times I guess.

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  8. From Alistair MacLeans "HMS Ulysses." "When tankers go up, they go up, Nichols.' Vallery seemed curiously far away. 'If they just burn, they may last long enough. Tankers die hard, terribly hard, my boy: they live where any other ship would sink.'
    'But-she must have a hole the size of a house in her side!' Nichols protested.
    'No odds,' Vallery replied. He seemed to be waiting, watching for something.
    'Tremendous reserve buoyancy in these ships. ........... Never heard of Captain Dudley Mason and the Ohio?"

    (there is an awful lot of pollen right now)

    Great post. Thank you.


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    1. I read most (probably all) of his novels as a kid. I don't remember that one, but I'm pretty sure I would have read it. I frequented the Library at Webb and read a lot. Mom and Dad rationed TV. I'm grateful to them for that. Thanks.

      As for pollen...I can recommend a good Dust Mask if you need. :-)

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    2. Even the best masks lack the auto nose blowing feature that I needed after typing that.
      And I will re-read the novel.
      :)

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  9. An amazing story, and one tough ship. Carrying that much fuel, it's a miracle she didn't go up like a roman candle during one of the attacks!!!

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    1. Well, as they say..."I'd rather be lucky than good, Luck is more reliable."

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Just be polite... that's all I ask. (For Buck)
Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

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