Professor Walter's History Lessons

They almost made it through the war unscathed...

Throughout the course of the Civil War, most large cities in the Confederacy were reduced to smoking ruins. Mobile, Alabama survived mostly intact, surrendering to Union forces on April 12, 1865 as the end of the war neared. The city quickly returned to being a bustling seaport, with thousands of bales of cotton filling the warehouses awaiting transport to northern cotton mills. Additionally, approximately 30 tons of Union and captured Confederate munitions were stored in a nearby temporary brick warehouse until they could be moved into underground magazines.

May 25th was a very hot day. A number of recently paroled confederate soldiers and freed slaves were hired to unload a munitions train into the warehouse. The men were untrained, unsupervised, and went about the work in a "happy-go-lucky" manner, as reported by an observer. At 2:15 p.m., a massive explosion shook the city. A witness would later speak of the event:

"Suddenly, as if by some great volcanic upheaval of the earth, a black mass sprang into the quiet sky, and spreading its lurid wings, dealt death and terror for miles around. It seemed a writhing giant--gaunt and grim--poised in midair, and from its wondrous loins sprang bursting shells, flying timbers, bales of cotton, balls of rosin, bars and sheets of iron, bricks, stone, wagons, horses, men and women and children commingled and mangled into one mass."

Nearly eight city blocks were obliterated, as were several steamers in the river. An estimated 300 people were killed, and damages are estimated to have been around $5 million. The crater remained for years, a visible reminder of the catastrophe. The exact cause was never determined. Although some northern newspapers blamed it on former Confederate officers, most accepted the theory that it was the result of simple carelessness by workers handling wheelbarrows full of live ammunition.

-Professor Walter

3 score & 7 years ago our fathers brought forth in this country a new plane, built in wood, & dedicated to the proposition that all enemies should be destroyed remotely

On the beach lay a grounded enemy ship. The U.S. Navy decides to test their newest weapon on it. Gliding over the trees toward its target, the drone zooms in. Behind the drone is a tailing plane with a pilot, who is controlling the drone while watching its flight on screen. When the moment arrives, another pilot alerts the first and the drone dives into the wreckage in a brilliant explosion. The new, secret drone is a success. The Navy orders 2,000 more, which will see action before the conflict is over.

No, this isn't the latest Predator or Raptor drone attacking insurgents in the Middle East. The year is 1944 and the new weapon is the great granddaddy of our modern tactical weapons. This is the TDR-1, the first in a long line of military drones. It was made of wood, to circumvent the rationing necessary for the war effort. It utilized state-of-the-art technology to allow for remote control from up to eight miles away. When pushed into service, the drones performed well, hitting 21 out of 46 targets. All without the loss of a single life.

The core problem was not with the grainy image the pilot had to work off of, or the limited eight mile range. Rather, it was the speed of the drones -- which was way too slow. Japanese anti-aircraft guns were able to shoot them down too easily. Citing problems with production, the drone program was cancelled before the 2,000 unit order could be filled, only two months after being placed. Only 200 were built, and of those only 50 saw action. Many were converted to sports planes, most were lost to history. Only one remains: in the U.S. Navy's National Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, Florida.

-Professor Walter

The Navy's Great Recruiter

Between October 11, 1962 and August 31, 1966 the television airwaves were graced with the American Comedy McHale's Navy. The show told the story of a small group of seamen who are led by Lieutenant Commander Quinton McHale played by Ernest Borgnine. Borgnine was a Navy veteran serving prior to and during WWII. In the role of McHale he found himself doing the things he couldn't do in the real Navy such as water skiing behind a PT Boat.

As Borgnine would later recount* two years into the show he was called by the Pentagon and asked to come have lunch with the Secretary of the Navy's Office. Borgnine asked why he was called in for the lunch and the response was, “You know something? You’re the greatest recruiter we’ve ever had."

-Professor Walter

*Read the full interview article with Ernest Borgnine by Jim Kushlan at http://www.americanwii.com.

How Tennessee went to Washington via Mobile

The last Confederate port of the Civil War fell on May 5, 1864. Union Rear Admiral David Farragut led his fleet, superior in number, against Confederate Admiral Franklin Buchanan's fleet, which was guarding Mobile Bay. Farragut's plan took him around Fort Morgan pushing the ships through mined waters. It was risky, but he felt it was necessary because without bypassing the fort he would be vulnerable to Confederate land-based cannons. His gamble paid off and the journey only cost him one ironclad Monitor, the USS Hartford, leaving him three additional ironclads and fourteen wooden ships. The Confederate fleet, which consisted of four ships, three of which were wooden, was outmatched. Their numbers were quickly reduced to one, the ironclad CSS Tennessee. The Tennessee was the Confederacy's most powerful warship and it continued to fight the fleet alone.

The Tennessee was designed to battle wooden ships, with a large ram on its bow and a solid armament of two 7-inch and four 6.4 inch Brooke rifles. Despite its technological advantages, it was outgunned and had an achilles heel that Farragut's fleet was quick to take advantage of: the chains that controlled steering for the vessel ran on the deck. Repeated firing bounced off the iron hull, but the chains broke, leaving the Tennessee a sitting duck, its ram worthless. At 9:35 am the ironclad fired its last shot. Around 10:00 a wounded Buchanan surrendered the vessel and her 190 person crew. Shortly thereafter, Farragut captured or neutralized the remaining forts and the last Confederate port closed, tightening the noose around the the Confederacy. Farragut's gamble paid off, with 315 casualties. The Confederate forces suffered only 32. 

The story of the Tennessee does not end there, however. It was captured and turned into the USS Tennessee and after repairs she would help in the defeat of Fort Morgan, the very fort she once protected. She served the Union well, a member of the U.S. Navy's Mississippi Squadron, until after the end of the war. Though she was decommissioned and sold for scrap in November, 1867, one of her double-banded 7-inch Brooke rifles is on display at East Willard Park in the Washington Naval Yard in Washington, DC.

-Professor Walter

When the Empire tries to strike back

April 1945: the Empire of Japan was fighting for survival. After each of their confederates had fallen against the Allied forces, Japan stood alone as a relentless push came closer and closer to their homeland. Eventually Okinawa was the last remaining buffer. The Japanese government dispatched a fleet of ships on a suicide mission, in a final attempt to stop the forward motion of their enemies. Operation Ten-Go called for the fleet to position themselves between the advancing enemy and Okinawa -- then sink their own ships in shallow waters so that they would become unsinkable fighting platforms. Land based kamikaze planes would provide support. Their hopes rested on the notion that this tactic would slow, or even stop, the Allied advance, and inflict "unendurable" damage in the process.

What the Japanese did not know was that the Allied forces had an ace up their sleeve: Purple, the codebreaking machine for Japanese intelligence. Listening stations from the Philippines to Iwo Jima intercepted orders, passing them on to be quickly decoded. As a result, before Operation Ten-Go could reach its intended destination, the U.S. Navy launched hundreds of aircraft against the armada. The attack ended with a Japanese loss of over 4,000 soldiers and all but three badly damaged destroyers. Among the ships lost was the IJN Yamato, then the largest battleship in the world. In contrast, the U.S. Navy suffered the loss of 12 airmen.

The decisive battle ended Japanese sea power and solidified air-power as the guiding force in future conflicts. This also convinced the United States and Allied forces that Japan would fight to the last man, in a bloody, multi-year conflict if necessary. This realization influenced the decision to use atomic weapons to end the war.

-Professor Walter

The USS Aylwin -- 50% Crew, Four Ensigns & Ready for Battle

On December 7, 1941, "a day that will live in infamy," Japan launched an attack on Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands of the United States.  The damage was extensive and many lives were lost, but it was not as bad as it could have been.  After the assault ships were re-floated and repaired, facilities were brought back online and the offices of the Navy and Marines saw record recruitment levels as the US geared up for the war.  In the blaze of battle that day, one ship escaped with only minor damage.

The USS Aylwin (DD-355) was moored with her squadron, only a small boiler operating to provide power for auxiliary services.  About half of her crew was on leave that Sunday morning when, at 7:55 a.m., the sound of airplane engines caught everyone's attention. Three minutes later the skeleton crew of the Aylwin returned fire.  Five minutes later the "black gang" lit the main two boilers, bringing them fully online in 15 minutes.  At 8:29 a.m. the commander of the fleet ordered all able ships to get underway.  At 8:50 a.m. a Japanese bomb went off 75 yards from the Aylwin's bow.  Eight minutes later the Aylwin, leaving her stern wire and anchor chain behind, left for the open sea.

The 50% skeleton crew performed admirably in taking the vessel out to sea.  The only officers on board were four ensigns.  The senior most was Ensign Stanley B. Caplan, who had only served at sea for eight months.  They guided the ship out while maintaining continuous fire.  As they left Pearl Harbor the men topside were able to see a small motor launch 1,000 yards off the entrance buoys. In that launch they saw their captain, Lt. Commander Robert H. Rodgers, and other officers of the Aylwin in a small WWI destroyer following them.  Orders were to make way for the open sea so they could not slow down.  The officers were left behind on the their small vessel.  In the battle one of the screws was damaged.  For 36 hours the ship patrolled and worked chasing down a potential submarine before heading back to dock for repairs on December 12.  Lt. Commander Rodgers spoke highly of his men who continued without him:

The conduct of the personnel was magnificent.... Every man more than did his job and was eager to fight."

Then went on to speak of Ensign Caplan:

"The conduct (of this man) ... in superbly taking command for 36 hours during war operations of the severest type is a most amazing and outstanding achievement."

Their actions and quick thinking saved the ship and the Aylwin continued to serve throughout the war in the Pacific theater.  As the war ended, the need for the large naval fleet diminished and the Aylwin sailed through the Panama Canal to the New York Naval Yard.  On October 16, 1945, the vessel was struck from the Navy list and the following year was sold and cut up for scrap by 1948.

-Professor Walter

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down, Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee

And so begins Gordon Lightfoot's iconic song, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," which tells the tale of the Edmund Fitzgerald and her sinking on Lake Superior on November 10, 1975. Interestingly, the song was created after Lightfoot read a dry article in Newsweek on November 24, 1975, called "Great Lakes: The Creulest Month" by James R. Gaines with Hon Lowell.  The article began with the line, "According to a legend of the Chippewa tribe, the lake they once called Gitche Gumee 'never gives up her dead."  Inspiration struck and Lightfoot penned the song as a tribute to the ship and those who lost their lives that day.

The exact cause of the loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald is not known, despite the existence of many theories.  She went down in a storm and the wreckage was located the same month it sank.  When she went to the bottom she took 29 lives with her.  The day after the wreck the Mariners' Church in Detroit rang its bell 29 times, once for each life lost.  Every year the church remembers the tragedy by reading the names of those lost and ringing the bell each time. 

-Professor Walter

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
of the big lake they called "Gitche Gumee."
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
when the skies of November turn gloomy.
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more
than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty,
that good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
when the "Gales of November" came early.

  The ship was the pride of the American side
coming back from some mill in Wisconsin.
As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most
with a crew and good captain well seasoned,
concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
when they left fully loaded for Cleveland.
And later that night when the ship's bell rang,
could it be the north wind they'd been feelin'?

  The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound
and a wave broke over the railing.
And ev'ry man knew, as the captain did too
'twas the witch of November come stealin'.
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
when the Gales of November came slashin'.
When afternoon came it was freezin' rain
in the face of a hurricane west wind.

When suppertime came the old cook came on deck sayin'.
"Fellas, it's too rough t'feed ya."
* At seven P.M. a main hatchway caved in; he said,
"Fellas, it's bin good t'know ya!"
The captain wired in he had water comin' in
and the good ship and crew was in peril.
And later that night when 'is lights went outta sight
came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Does any one know where the love of God goes
when the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
if they'd put fifteen more miles behind 'er.
They might have split up or they might have capsized;
they may have broke deep and took water.
And all that remains is the faces and the names
of the wives and the sons and the daughters.

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
in the rooms of her ice-water mansion.
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams;
the islands and bays are for sportsmen.
And farther below Lake Ontario
takes in what Lake Erie can send her,
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
with the Gales of November remembered.

In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed,
in the "Maritime Sailors' Cathedral."
The church bell chimed 'til it rang twenty-nine times
for each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
of the big lake they call "Gitche Gumee."
"Superior," they said, "never gives up her dead
when the gales of November come early!"

* 2010 lyric change: At 7 p.m., it grew dark, it was then he said,)

 

Takeo Yoshikawa - One of the most successful and hated spies in history

Born on March 7, 1914 Takeo Yoshikawa graduated at the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy at Etajima at the top of his class in 1933. His naval career was derailed in 1936 when he was discharged due to a stomach ailment.  After briefly considering suicide, he decided to learn as much as possible about the United States Navy and studied everything he could on it.  His early efforts revealed secrets which, when passed on to the Germans, allowed for the sinking of troop transports that were en-route from the United States to England as part of the Lend-Lease Act.

In 1940 he passed the Foreign Ministry English examinations and became a junior diplomat. Then Yoshikawa was sent to Hawaii under the cover of a vice-consul named Tadashi Morimura (森村 正 Morimura Tadashi), arriving on March 27, 1941.  He rented an apartment and walked the streets taking scrupulous notes of Naval Placements and passing them back to the Japanese Consulate.  He took rides on the local tugs and listened to gossip, he took short plane rides and even went into the harbor, breathing through a reed, to learn more of the naval placements.

A request was sent to him from Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto requesting specific data on the location he each naval vessel on a grid breaking the land into five key areas. Yoshikawa transmitted twice-weekly reports as requested which helped facilitate the Japanese attach on Perl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Sadly, the message Yamamoto had sent was intercepted but US officials, but there were delays in decoding it and once it was readable it was dismissed as having little consequence.

Yoshikawa did not receive credit for his efforts during the war, and continued to work in Japanese Naval Intelligence for the duration.  After the Japanese defeat he went into hiding as a Buddhist monk fearing American retribution. He returned to his wife and two children only after American Occupation ended in 1952.  In 1955 the former spy opened a candy business.

In 1960 he told his story, for the first time, to an American audience and became a scapegoat for the war.  He was hated by Americans for his role in the war, and hated by Japanese as causing them to enter a war they were destined to lose. His candy business failed as a result and he remained unemployed for the rest of his life, as no one would hire him. His wife supported him as an insurance salesman.  He has been quotes as saying,  "My wife alone shows me great respect,", "Every day she bows to me. She knows I am a man of history." Yoshikawa passed away in 1993 in a nursing home without any note of his contribution to history.

-Professor Walter

The ill-fated flight of the Bermuda Sky Queen

Between 1938 and 1941 the Boeing Corporation produced the 314 Clipper Flying Boat.  These planes were designed to land on the water and were, at the time, one of the largest planes in the world.  In all, twelve of the planes were built.

The Bermuda Sky Queen, originally known as the Cape Town Clipper, was one of these planes.  Sold to the US Navy in 1942, it was sold to American International Airways in 1947 for commercial use.  On October 13, 1947 the Bermuda Sky Queen departed Foynes, Ireland for Gander, Newfoundland with 62 passengers.  The winds were a problem, and it became clear to Captain Charles Martin at the half-way point that they would not be able to reach their destination.  With land far off, they were forced to set the plane down in the Atlantic Ocean as near a Coast Guard Cutter as they could.  Despite the high winds and 30 foot seas, Captain Martin was able to land the Bermuda Sky Queen without damage.  

The high seas made it nearly impossible to transfer the passengers to the Coast Guard Cutter.  At one point, the two vessels collided.  Finally, after days of careful work, every passenger and crew member was pulled off the sea plane.  The Bermuda Sky Queen, now damaged from the collision and caught adrift in the ocean, was sunk as a hazard to surface navigation.

-Professor Walter

You may read the Civil Aviation Board's inquiry into the event here.

The Shortest War, from first shot to end in 40 minutes

It was August 27th 1896 at 9:02am when war came to the tiny island of Zanzibar.  The pro-British Sultan Hamad Bin Thuwaini died on August 25th and the new leadership of Sultan Khalid Bin Barghash began.  The British wanted Hamud bin Muhammed  in charge instead and sent an ultimatum to Khalid to stand down and leave the palace.  Instead of leaving, he barricaded himself in the palace and summoned his guards to protect him.  At 9:00 East Africa Time, the ultimatum expired and Khalid was still in the palace.

The British had amassed a small army, three cruisers, two gunships, 150 marines and sailors, and 900 Zanzibaris.  Two minutes after 9 they opened fire.  There was an outdated ship that attempted to attack the British, but it was sunk effortlessly by superior firepower.  At 9:40 the flag was shot down over the palace and the war was over.  Khalid and forty of his followers fled to the German Consulate for protection.  The British quickly placed their own people in charge and hence began a long period of British rule through a puppet government for the country of Zanzibar.

The Sultan's forces suffered approximately five hundred casualties in the war, while the British suffered just one.  That is more than eight people per minute dying to protect the Sultan in the Anglo-Zanzibar War that only lasted forty minutes.

-Professor Walter