Japanese bombers were spotted approaching the patched-together force off the port beam. She was then transferred to the Army where she served as USAT General John Pope. Doorman, RNN) and HrMs Java (Capt. The damage to the Exeter was bad enough to make her unfit for action. It was intended that the four US destroyer would enter Badoeng Strait and attack with torpedoes first and that the Tromp would come behind them to finish off the Japanese after the confusion of the torpedo attack. Three hours after nightfall on Sept. 15, 1942, the U.S.S. However the ememy soon resumed their original course and were out of sight shortly afterwards. Nearly 4,000 fighting men, mainly troops of the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces, were embarked and delivered safely to Melbourne and Wellington before the ship moored again at San Pedro 16 January 1945. 196. She left the landing zone escorted by the destroyers Arashio and Michishio. Many was the time that I would look at the 3/8" steel plate that was the skin or bulkhead of the ship, and expect at any moment to see a shell penetrating it. This hope was however short lived as the enemy ships were soon seen to turn towards though they were still well hull down. Oil-rich Borneo had been invaded and the tatters of the American, British, Dutch and Australian fleets had been reorganized into a single ABDA command. Welford Charles Blinn, USN) departs Surabaya, Netherlands East Indies on 28 February 1942 together with the British heavy cruiser HMS Exeter and the British destroyer HMS Encounter. If it had, of course, I would never have lived to tell about it. This is a list of aircraft carriers of the Second World War. During the action the enemy had spotter aircraft overhead the Allied ships. USS General John Pope (AP-110) was a troop transport that served with the United States Navy in World War II. The first wave came from Tjilatjap on the south coast of Java and consisted of the Dutch light cruisers HrMs De Ruyter (Cdr. 19-N-60596. Action continued by the sole remaining Allied ship, USS Pope. Manage all your favorite fandoms in one place! As an Amazon Associate uboat.net earns a commission from qualifying purchases. With no further means of propulsion, she slowed to dead in the water. Though my wound was of a superficial nature, several others received more serious wounds. The AWM caption suggests this is a "local modification" of Measure 12 camouflage (which no Asiatic Fleet vessel ever carried) or a locally applied scheme. Pound, USN) and USS John D. Edwards (Lt.Cdr. Pope returned to Manila in late June on neutrality duty and remained on station there until 11 December 1941, when she got underway for Balikpapan, Dutch East Indies. Although the Japanese cruisers were evaded by a course change within the squall, Pope was rediscovered by aircraft from Japanese aircraft carrierRyj after she emerged from the squall. Edited by Clay Ramsey. At each firing of the 4" guns, the reverberations woul be transferred throughout the ship. This humanitarian decision by Lieutenant Commander Shunsaku Kud placed Ikazuchi at risk of attack, and it interfered with her fighting ability, due to the sheer load of rescued sailors. [5] Pope remained afloat long enough to be sunk about 2pm[6] by the sixth salvo of a Japanese cruiser arriving on the scene. On 12 December 1966, the 199th Light Infantry Brigade and 9th Infantry Division disembarked the General John Pope in Vung Tau, South Vietnam. We in the engine rooms had by now set the bilge pumps in operation. The Snook was lost six months in the Luzon Strait later on April 8, 1945 with 60 onboard. United States. For questions or comments about this site, please e-mail ww2_troopships@comcast.net. During the Second Battle of the Java Sea, Pope and Encounter were directed to escort Exeter away from the action. $350.00. United Nations Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal, Republic of Korea War Service Medal.[1]. They were escorted by four destroyers; Asashio (Lt.Cdr. Around this time all the Allied ships also engaged Japanese destroyers with gunfire. The message received was to " Defend the Isle of Java to the Last. We proceeded with the smoke screen even though we were under heavy enemy fire. Finally, Japanese air raids at Surabaya damaged destroyer USS Stewart and Dutch destroyer Witte de With. At 0930 the inevitable happened. Asheville does not strike her colors, raise a white flag, jump into the lifeboats or scuttle . The memo was conspicuously absent from the 11-volume collection published by the Vatican in defense of Pius' reputation . She later served in the Korean and Vietnam Wars as a civilian-crewed Military Sea Transportation Service vessel, as USNS General John Pope (T-AP-110). Heavy Cruisers Of Ww2 - The armament of the Des Moines class is relatively unchanged from that of the earlier Baltimore class cruiser. Now, on the horizon yet another threat to our survival appeared: seven high bombers. Pope returned to Manila in late June on neutrality duty and remained on station there until 11 December 1941, when she got underway for Balikpapan, Dutch East Indies. We even had the safety valves lashed down, so they couldn't pop, in an effort to gain some speed, in an attempt to outrun them, all to no avail. Framed stained glass panel. They had on board part of the Imperial Japanese Armys 48th Infantry Division and had departed Makassar for Bali during the night of 17/18 February. About ten minutes later the word came to abandon ship, an order we had hoped we would never hear on our ship. 's) and started dive-bombing / strafing runs against us. Little did we know that we were headed for a big disappointment and what would prove to be the last voyages for these three ships. When the two British ships were destroyed by gunfire shortly before noon 1 March 1942, Pope found temporary refuge in a rain squall. She engaged in maneuvers with the battleship divisions off Guantanamo Bay from 12 January until her return to Philadelphia 27 April. The Baker shot produced so much contamination that President Truman cancelled the third test. by HistoryNet Staff 6/12/2006. Only 123 are liberated which include the Commanding officer and 29 died in captivity. In early January 1967, the General John Pope returned to San Francisco Bay. Others made contact with the natives of Java, who alerted the Japanese to the sailors' presence. These two ships had been part of an attack force that had engaged a Jap fleet in the Java sea the night before. This collection of records was created by the Office of Naval Records and Library from various Naval components in an . The battle occurred in the Makassar Straits. We'd even converted other pumps into bilge pumps by "jury rigging", in an effort to pump out the flooding water. French Indochina had fallen and the Japanese were marching down the Malay Peninsula toward Singapore. Underway again 10 December with over 5,000 troops for the Pacific fighting and 500 staff. It was 50% thicker than the armored belts found on German and Japanese competitors. We had fought the enemy from about 0800 until about 1350 hours. This gave one the feeling that the ship had been hit. 1 Mar 1942 : At the Battle of the Java Sea, slightly damaged cruiser HMS Exeter, destroyer HMS Encounter, and destroyer USS Pope at 0850 hours. The wreck of USS Pope was located and identified in December 2008 by the dive vessel MV Empress, approximately 60 nautical miles (110km) from the wreck of HMS Exeter, which Empress discovered in 2007. The spring of 1945 saw a round-trip troop-carrying voyage begin in San Francisco 26 March, which took her to Manila, Leyte, and Biak before returning 21 May. " Receiving that message from the Commander in Chief, the crew knew that . Sailing of these ships from Surabaya and course to follow. I would pray to the good lord silently to protect the crewmen from injury and the ship from destruction. The Treasures from World War II US Navy Command Files consist primarily of records from the Pacific Theater. Asashio and Oshio when went after them. was also part of this force but acted as 'rescue boat'. No aircraft or ships were spotted until about 0715 hours. $12000.00. Two Japanese bombs had penetrated the main deck, one detonating 15 feet aft of the wardroom and the other wrecking the after steering house. In the Orient, Pope protected American lives and interests during the civil strife in China. The U-boat War in World War Two (Kriegsmarine, 1939-1945) and World War One (Kaiserliche Marine, 1914-1918) and the Allied efforts to counter the threat. General John Pope: Glenn G. Griswold: General LeRoy Eltinge: Glynn: General Maurice Rose - See "Admiral Hugh Rodman" Golden City: General M. B. Stewart: Goodhue: General M. C. Meigs: Goshen: . HMS Encounter could not make a torpedo attack, she had none on board having fired all her torpedoes during the Battle of the Java Sea. During 1921 she alternated between her winter base at Charleston, South Carolina and her summer one at Newport, Rhode Island and escorted President Warren G. Harding to Plymouth, Massachusetts 30 July 1 August. As with the Baltimore class, it carried its magazines and equipment on a heavy 6-inch belt. Prior to hearing the abandon ship order, I was attempting to seek cover from the strafing by ducking under the torpedo mounts, which offered some protection. She was the first ship named for John Pope . The events as they're presented in Saving Private Ryan would never happen that way. As fate would have it, the rain lasted only about half an hour, but at least for that length of time, we had a short respite from the heat of battle. No enemy aircraft nor ships were seen at daybreak and visibility was extreme. We were forced to stay in Surbaja, tied to the dock, to effect emergency repairs to the hotwell. In the months that followed, General John Pope sailed in support of the giant amphibious offensive on New Guinea's northern coast, spearheaded by Rear Admiral Barbey's famed VII Amphibious Force. On May 15, 1944, antisubmarine task force TG 22.3, consisting of the escort carrier USS Guadalcanal (CVE-60) and the destroyer escorts USS Pillsbury, USS Pope, USS Chatelain, USS Jenks, and USS Flaherty, departed Norfolk for a patrol near the Canary Islands. These forces were split into two groups. A short time later, we were listing heavily to port and the afterdeck was awash, in fact under water. During the naval battle of Balikpapan she made close-quarter torpedo and gun attacks which helped delay Japanese landings at Balikpapan and later in the Battle of Badung Strait she impeded the invasion of the island of Bali. The attack force consisted of ships of the American, British, and Dutch navies; namely the cruisers USS Houston and Marblehead, the British cruisers HMS Hobart, Exeter, Jupiter, and Express. On 18 May 2010, the last surviving P2-S2-R2 U.S. Army Transport vessel of her type, the General John Pope departed San Francisco Bay for her final voyage to Texas. They stayed beyond the range of our secondary battery (guns). You can locate this information through various sources: Government Sources: The Old Military and Civil Records Branch, National Archives, 700 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20408, holds copies of deck logs from 1801 through 1940, as well as . Japanese surface and air forces launched an attack the next morning, midway between the islands of Java and Borneo. With each pass over the ship, they would strafe the ship with machine guns. Gobe, RNN), HrMs TM-5 (S.Lt. Japanese forces deployed to intercept the Allied ships trying to escape. The damaged British heavy cruiser HMS Exeter (Capt. Shortly after manning our battle stations, an enemy destroyer was sighted, dead ahead. Smith, USN), USS Parrott (Lt.Cdr. In them he looked forward to a new world order that would supersede the selfish nationalism that had provoked the conflagration. Piet Hein then turned around towards the US destroyers with the intention to attack the Japanese again. His ship, the U.S.S. I would like to describe the weaponry at our disposal to fight this battle. USS Utah (BB-31) was the sixth dreadnought battleship commissioned by the U.S. Navy. HNLMSWitte de With was unable to recall her crew from shore leave in time to join their retreat to Ceylon. Schmitz, RNN), HrMs TM-15 (Lt. H.C. Jorissen, RNN). I would answer the annunciator from the bridge and adjust the throttle accordingly, giving the bridge the speed it was requesting. The nervous reactions, while engaged in battle, made it seem even hotter. We in the engine room were surprised when told that we were surrounded by enemy ships, thirteen to be exact, five cruisers and eight destroyers. Unfortunately commercial salvage divers had discovered Pope previously and save for a skeleton, little now remains of her wreck. The vibration became so strong, coupled with the high rpm's the turbines were turning, that the ship felt like it was shaking to pieces. She was, by all battle tactics, out of commission. [3] In the evening of 28 February 1942, Exeter and the two destroyers left Soerabaja and proceeded north. G. Yoshii), Oshio (Cdr. The balance of the task force was made up of about 20 destroyers from the fleets of three countries. Movements of the Allied ships during the night. Pope was initially placed in reduced commission at Philadelphia and assigned to Squadron 3, Division 39 of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet. The Dutch MTBs had seen the second wave attacking but when they entered Badoeng Strait the Japanese were not sighted and they left without being able to fire torpedoes. Hoeksel, RNN), HrMs TM-6 (S.Lt. Later USAT General John Pope and USNS General John Pope (T-AP-110) USS General John Pope, name ship of a class of 19,650-ton (full load displacement) transports, was built at Kearny, New Jersey, to the Maritime Commission's P2-S2-R2 design. Japanese surface and air forces launched an attack the next morning, midway between the islands of Java and Borneo. Pope manages to escape only to be bombed by Japanese aircraft which leaves her unmanouverable after a near-miss. To fight on was futile as she was a sitting duck with no means to maneuver. Soon after HMS Exeter was brought to a halt, HMS Encounter also had to stop due to damage received in the engine rooms by splinters. She sailed on to Da Nang to disembark remaining elements of the 3rd Marine Regiment. The crew was ordered to abandon the doomed destroyer and she soon sank. General John Pope was launched under a Maritime . We were hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned by the enemy. But its armament was still impressive: sixteen five-inch anti-aircraft guns, 145 25 mm anti-aircraft machine guns, and twelve multiple rocket launchers with 4 . About the only recourse we had left was to fan out our fish and fire them in the general direction of their ships and hope for a lucky hit. M. Ogura). U.S. Military. During this gunfight the Michishio was heavily damaged and in the end she had to be towed back to Makassar. They had arrived south of Bali around 0100/20. You can help improve our commands section On 6 June 1966, elements of the 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment boarded the General John Pope at Oakland Army Base. Shortly afterwards two more torpedoes were fired but none found their intended target. US Navy adds powerful new missile in Pacific. The other group was made up of the heavy cruisers Ashigara and Myoko and the destroyers Akebono and Inazuma. Pope joined Squadron 15, Division 43 of the Asiatic Fleet at Chefoo, China 26 August and participated in fleet exercises off Chefoo until her departure 28 October for her winter base at Cavite, Philippines. US Corporations' September 30th fiscal payment deadline Sep 30, 2023 USA Each year around that time, as the payment deadline approaches, we see all sorts of maneuvers. Hughes, USN), USS Pillsbury (Lt.Cdr. It is not completely clear but it is possible that one of these US destroyers then engaged Piet Hein with gunfire thinking she was Japanese. Each engine room is responsible for the propulsion of one of the twin screws that the ship was equipped with. There are four charges of TNT, ten pounds to the charge, placed next to the skin or hull of the ship, which when blown, allows the water to pour in at a rapid rate and speed up the sinking of the ship, better known as scuttling. In return the Japanese sank a Dutch destroyer and damaged the Dutch cruiser Tromp heavily. The USS Pope (DD-225) was a Clemson -class destroyer in the United States Navy that served during World War II. By bleeding the hydraulic lines and yoking the rudder gears with chains Goggins and the damage control parties were able to lock the rudder amidships. The Dutch destroyer HrMs Witte de With (Lt.Cdr. Pope was laid down 9 September 1919 and launched 23 March 1920 from William Cramp and Sons; sponsored by Mrs. William S. Benson; and commissioned 27 October 1920 at Philadelphia, Commander Richard S. Galloway in command. By the following evening, we had completed the necessary repairs and were once again prepared to return to action. On 23 July 1966, elements of the 64th Transportation Company boarded the General John Pope, and departed from the Tacoma, Washington Outport Facility, arriving in Okinawa on 5 August 1966. This effort seemed futile, we were taking water on faster that we could pump it out. They used a firing pattern that is known as "the ladder". 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