Way to go USS WARD...Paint the sihouette on the stacks! - The Firearms Forum

ysacres · 03-06-2003, 11:30 PM

polishshooter
*TFF Senior Staff*
Posts: 3642
(8/29/02 11:18:42 pm)
Reply Way to go USS Ward... paint the silhouette on the stacks!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
www.soest.hawaii.edu/HURL/midget.html

---------------------

I think it's funny that first, in related stories, revisionist Japanese Historians are now trying to claim that this PROVES the US started the war! Yeah, like they JUST HAPPENED to have a carrier strike force handy to "punish" us an hour later for sinking a midget sub that JUST HAPPENED to be on a "peaceful" cruise in a restricted area near the anti sub nets at the mouth of Pearl....!

But I also hope that the at least SOME of the crew of the Ward are still alive...when they sent the message "Observed, fired at, dropped depth charges, and believed sunk an unidentified submarine in restricted waters" an hour before the attack, the message duly went up the chain of command all the way to Washington, and the message came back ordering them to "confirm" it before they put out a warning...

I'd LOVE for one of them to send the Navy Department an email..."THERE"S your damned confirmation... Signed, USS Ward."

What's neat, is at the time they claimed a 3" hit on the base of the conning tower before it went under...and there it is...pretty nice shooting for a reserve crew under reserve officers on an old 4-piper in peacetime, wouldn't you say? NEAT pictures...

"Don't hear him call you an ---hole, hear WHY he's calling you an ---hole." -------- From "A Season on the Brink"

Edited by: polishshooter at: 8/30/02 12:20:37 am

warpig883
*TFF Staff*
Posts: 4532
(8/30/02 7:29:21 am)
Reply
Re: Way to go USS Ward... paint the silhouette on the stacks
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
paint the silouette on the stacks That is a great line polishshooter

Xracer
*TFF Senior Staff*
Posts: 2636
(8/30/02 8:20:49 am)
Reply Re: Way to go USS Ward... paint the silhouette on the stacks
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yep, Polish.....there are several Ward crewmembers still alive in Minn-eeeee-sota. Two of them were interviewed here on Channel 5 last night.

The Ward was manned, mostly, by Minnesota Naval Reservists.....and the 3" gun that sank that midgit sub is on the lawn at the State Capitol.

Those Minnesota farmboys did OK!

polishshooter
*TFF Senior Staff*
Posts: 3645
(8/30/02 9:06:47 pm)
Reply Re: Way to go USS Ward... paint the silhouette on the stacks
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wrong stacks, Pig, get your mind out of the gutter...

...unless you like old ladies with FOUR of them, kinda like a cow....

That's neat X, I was wondering how many were alive.

I heard several discussions on the radio today about the Ward shooting first, some people even said they were WRONG to shoot without positively IDing it first.

BS! Just what in the hell do you think they were patrolling THERE for?????

They did their jobs EXACTLY like they were supposed to have done, and not very many people there that day could say the same thing...

When I first read the story, I got about the same thrill I got reading about Flight 93 on 9/11...SOMEBODY wasn't asleep at the switch back then either...
"Don't hear him call you an ---hole, hear WHY he's calling you an ---hole." -------- From "A Season on the Brink"

warpig883
*TFF Staff*
Posts: 4551
(8/31/02 10:45:38 am)
Reply
Re: Way to go USS Ward... paint the silhouette on the stacks
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ha ha polish

Xracer you guys really do have a treasure with that 3" gun.

obelix2
V.I.P. Member
Posts: 362
(9/17/02 5:26:08 pm)
Reply back again
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have just seen a film called Pearl Harbor. I would love to tell you what I think of it, but I assume that in my absense there has been such a thread. Still, I would like to hear it again, better phrased.

kdub01
*TFF Senior Staff*
Posts: 1109
(9/17/02 6:39:19 pm)
Reply Re: back again
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hey, Obelix2 - !

Great to have you back (from wherever you've been!).

Don't stay away so long, next time!
"Keep Off The Ridgeline"

obelix2
V.I.P. Member
Posts: 363
(9/17/02 6:48:22 pm)
Reply thanks, Kdub
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In all films I've seen (Tora x 3 is the best), Ward is a WWII DE, instead of the four-piper she really was. This isn't important. What is, is that the Ward's report might have put the island on full alert.

polishshooter
*TFF Senior Staff*
Posts: 3703
(11/8/02 10:15:37 pm)
Reply Re: thanks, Kdub
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I read a book on those 50 4 pipers we traded the British for those bases in the Caribbean, it's amazing, with good pictures of all of them. Was amazing how many different armament plans on each basic hull...from anywhere from 3-4" to as many as 6-3" to even mixed guns...each one was a little different.

Some of them gave yeoman service, some, (quite a few) were 'Port Queens' that saw little service. Some saw none.

Their plates leaked even when new, worse if exposed to heavy seas, the oil in the bunkers was always contaminated with sea water so they rarely could do over 20 knots even, they were unstable as heck, narrow, low freeboard, low f'castls, unprotected open gun mounts, lousy sea keeping...the original "Tin Cans," but they did the job!

And it's amazing too how many were still in service in the US Navy during WWII, both theaters, and they did a pretty decent job, many Uboat kills, and one glorious suicidal gun and torpedo charge, dirty smoke pouring from all 4 stacks, against the Jap fleet with the ABDA command in '42 in Indonesia...and actually got a few hits with their antique 18" slow torpedoes...(That WORKED unlike our "new" ones in service at the time....) THAT would have been a sight to see!

"Don't hear him call you an ---hole, hear WHY he's calling you an ---hole." -------- From "A Season on the Brink"

Xracer
*TFF Senior Staff*
Posts: 2976
(11/9/02 9:04:30 am)
Reply Re: thanks, Kdub
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hey, don't knock the old four-stackers. The Brits were so low on escort vessels at the time that, they were more than glad to get them.

A lot of the four-stackers that we kept were later converted to APDs.....fast attack transports.

polishshooter
*TFF Senior Staff*
Posts: 3719
(11/19/02 9:43:51 pm)
Reply Re: thanks, Kdub
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yeah but the APDs were really then only "2 stackers," since they used the space from the two boilers that were removed for the "hold," usually for moving Raiders.

And they were only "fast" when compared to the typical 6-8 knot "Real" transports.

But the Gyrenes on the 'canal sure loved them! Sometimes they were the ONLY link they had to the outside world, floating gasoline and lube oil for Henderson in 55 gallon drums thrown over the side because they couldn't stay too long in the Slot....

"Don't hear him call you an ---hole, hear WHY he's calling you an ---hole." -------- From "A Season on the Brink"

Xracer
*TFF Senior Staff*
Posts: 3049
(11/20/02 9:58:03 am)
Reply Re: thanks, Kdub
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ahhhhh, yes! "The Slot", "Ironbottom Sound", "Crossing the "T" with Ching Lee", "The Cactus Air Force", "Bloody Ridge", "The Tenaru".......

Ain't military history grand! But how sad that 99.9999% of people nowadays couldn't tell you what a single one of those are!

polishshooter
*TFF Senior Staff*
Posts: 3730
(12/1/02 10:28:23 pm)
Reply Re: thanks, Kdub
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Ching Chong China Lee coming through with 2 'wagons, call off your small boys!"

THAT was a classic line! (Washington and South Dakota had a date with a couple of Ise class... )

...and to think he died of a heart attack not to much later and never saw the war end!

"Don't hear him call you an ---hole, hear WHY he's calling you an ---hole." -------- From "A Season on the Brink"

polishshooter · 08-25-2006, 04:19 PM

WOW, I never knew WHAT happened to the USS Ward after it's famous opening shot, until I read it in Morison..what IRONY.

It got converted to an APD, participated in several assaults in the Central and SW PAC, got hit by a Kamikaze off Lingayen Gulf off Luzon in late '44, (after shooting down SEVERAL in the attack with it's ORIGINAL 3 inchers!) high damage, high loss of life, is abandoned, and ordered sunk by an accompanying DD with a torpedo.....

....and the DD that fired it was COMMANDED by the officer who commanded the Ward at Pearl Harbor and sunk the Jap Midget!

All I can say is....WOW.

polishshooter · 12-07-2006, 10:33 PM

In honor of 65 years since it had the first kill of the war, but only a few years since it was CONFIRMED, I'll put this one back on top....the PICTURES of the kill are amazing....

southernshooter · 12-07-2006, 10:37 PM

Thanks for bumpin this Polish it is a great thread

Pistolenschutze · 12-08-2006, 08:16 AM

I saw an episode on the History Channel some time back on the Ward attack, Polish. For many years many questioned whether the Ward had actually sunk the Jap mini-sub as the crew claimed. When they finally found the sub, there was a clear 3 inch hole right where the gun crew claimed to have hit it.

polishshooter · 12-08-2006, 10:21 AM

Yeah, the link in the very top I posted is all about that, and shows the pictures and describes the attack, and how they found the Jap sub with the research submarine...and shows the neat 3" (or 4"?)hole clearly in the base of the conning tower right where the Ward claimed to have hit her....of couse they claim it was a 4" shell. but my reading says the Ward was armed only with 3" guns...the four pipers were NORMALLY armed with 4-4" and one 3", but several of the series from the begnning had either 5 or 6 3" only, and from several sources, I've read the Ward was of the latter, but others that it had the 4 inchers...and Morison described the sinking of the Ward as an APD in Dec 44 as "shooting down several kamikazes with the same 3" guns it had at Pearl Harbor before it was fatally hit....."

But now I don't know, I found a link supposedly showing the gun crew of the Ward that fired the shot after Pearl Harbor, and they are posed by a 4"/50 gun, but I'm not sure if it was actually on the Ward or not....HHHmmmmm.....

polishshooter · 12-08-2006, 10:34 AM

Anyway, here is the official Action Report from the Ward for that day...

http://www.history.navy.mil/docs/wwii/pearl/ph97.htm

Xracer · 12-09-2006, 08:00 AM

.......and that old 3"-50 Caliber still sits there on the Minn-eeee-sota Capitol lawn.

To most who pass it, it's just an old gun. Few realize that part that it played in our country's history 65 years ago....but for those of us that do, we give it a tip of our hat or a salute each time we pass by.

08-25-2006, 04:19 PM	#2
polishshooter Advanced Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Indiana Contributor Posts: 7,879	Re: Way to go USS WARD...Paint the sihouette on the stacks! WOW, I never knew WHAT happened to the USS Ward after it's famous opening shot, until I read it in Morison..what IRONY. It got converted to an APD, participated in several assaults in the Central and SW PAC, got hit by a Kamikaze off Lingayen Gulf off Luzon in late '44, (after shooting down SEVERAL in the attack with it's ORIGINAL 3 inchers!) high damage, high loss of life, is abandoned, and ordered sunk by an accompanying DD with a torpedo..... ....and the DD that fired it was COMMANDED by the officer who commanded the Ward at Pearl Harbor and sunk the Jap Midget! All I can say is....WOW. __________________ The problems we face today are there because the people who work for a living are outnumbered by those who vote for a living. Last edited by polishshooter; 08-25-2006 at 08:44 PM..

12-07-2006, 10:33 PM	#3
polishshooter Advanced Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Indiana Contributor Posts: 7,879	Re: Way to go USS WARD...Paint the sihouette on the stacks! In honor of 65 years since it had the first kill of the war, but only a few years since it was CONFIRMED, I'll put this one back on top....the PICTURES of the kill are amazing.... __________________ The problems we face today are there because the people who work for a living are outnumbered by those who vote for a living. Last edited by polishshooter; 12-07-2006 at 10:34 PM..

12-07-2006, 10:37 PM	#4
southernshooter Advanced Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Deep South Mississippi Posts: 5,943	Re: Way to go USS WARD...Paint the sihouette on the stacks! Thanks for bumpin this Polish it is a great thread __________________ Only you can see this

12-08-2006, 08:16 AM	#5
Pistolenschutze Advanced Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Colorado Posts: 13,094	Re: Way to go USS WARD...Paint the sihouette on the stacks! I saw an episode on the History Channel some time back on the Ward attack, Polish. For many years many questioned whether the Ward had actually sunk the Jap mini-sub as the crew claimed. When they finally found the sub, there was a clear 3 inch hole right where the gun crew claimed to have hit it. __________________ --Pistolenschutze (Pistol Shooter)

12-08-2006, 10:21 AM	#6
polishshooter Advanced Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Indiana Contributor Posts: 7,879	Re: Way to go USS WARD...Paint the sihouette on the stacks! Yeah, the link in the very top I posted is all about that, and shows the pictures and describes the attack, and how they found the Jap sub with the research submarine...and shows the neat 3" (or 4"?)hole clearly in the base of the conning tower right where the Ward claimed to have hit her....of couse they claim it was a 4" shell. but my reading says the Ward was armed only with 3" guns...the four pipers were NORMALLY armed with 4-4" and one 3", but several of the series from the begnning had either 5 or 6 3" only, and from several sources, I've read the Ward was of the latter, but others that it had the 4 inchers...and Morison described the sinking of the Ward as an APD in Dec 44 as "shooting down several kamikazes with the same 3" guns it had at Pearl Harbor before it was fatally hit....." But now I don't know, I found a link supposedly showing the gun crew of the Ward that fired the shot after Pearl Harbor, and they are posed by a 4"/50 gun, but I'm not sure if it was actually on the Ward or not....HHHmmmmm..... __________________ The problems we face today are there because the people who work for a living are outnumbered by those who vote for a living. Last edited by polishshooter; 12-08-2006 at 10:31 AM..

12-08-2006, 10:34 AM	#7
polishshooter Advanced Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Indiana Contributor Posts: 7,879	Re: Way to go USS WARD...Paint the sihouette on the stacks! Anyway, here is the official Action Report from the Ward for that day... http://www.history.navy.mil/docs/wwii/pearl/ph97.htm __________________ The problems we face today are there because the people who work for a living are outnumbered by those who vote for a living.

12-09-2006, 08:00 AM	#8
Xracer TFF Admin Staff Mediator Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Minn-eeee-sota, ya, sure, you bet! Posts: 9,144	Re: Way to go USS WARD...Paint the sihouette on the stacks! .......and that old 3"-50 Caliber still sits there on the Minn-eeee-sota Capitol lawn. To most who pass it, it's just an old gun. Few realize that part that it played in our country's history 65 years ago....but for those of us that do, we give it a tip of our hat or a salute each time we pass by.