D Day and DD Tanks

It wasn’t until I was middle aged that I realized I had an uncle that was on Omaha Beach on D Day. I knew I had an uncle that had been killed in the war but nobody ever talked about him. The reasons might have been long lasting grief or that they just didn’t know any details of his service. I happened to be home for a visit and at the some time I was reading Stephen Ambrose’s book on D Day. Someone mentioned that Uncle Philip had been in the 743rd Tank Battalion. Stephen Ambrose’s book had a diagram that showed the landing order of the assault units. The 743rd Tank Battalion was the lead unit, 10 minutes ahead of the 116th Regiment of the 29th Division, on the right hand side of Omaha Beach opposite Vierville sur Mer. The beach assigned to his company, Company B, was code named Dog Green.

As I started doing research, I was surprised to find that little was discussed in the popular literature about the 743rd Tank Battalion and their position in the assault on D Day. There was almost nothing about them in the exhibits in the World War II Museum in my own hometown of New Orleans. Yet they were a unique secret weapon that military planners relied upon very heavily for close infantry support. It seemed to me that more should be known about them.

The 743rd Tank Battalion was made up of modified Sherman tanks. The tanks were equipped with a double drive unit so that the engine could provide power to the tracks or to two propellers. The tank was also equipped with a canvass flotation shroud that was inflated using a small air compressor. Once erected, the canvass shroud would keep the tank afloat, barely. The idea was that the tanks would use their propellers to drive themselves on the beach. It was hoped that the tanks would look like innocuous rubber boats from the German perspective thereby giving them a big surprise when the tank was revealed. Their mission was to provide close in support to the infantry by engaging machine gun bunkers and other targets of opportunity.

There were two tank battalions on Omaha Beach that day: the 741st and the 743rd. Their orders were to launch from their LCT several miles out to sea and then proceed to the beach. The seas were still rough from the storm the day before. The 741st launched according to their orders and were quickly in a fight for survival against the sea. The tanks had about 1 foot of freeboard and the waves quickly overwhelmed the canvass shroud sending the 35 ton tanks to the bottom. This was observed by the LCT drivers carrying the 743rd. (How they learned of the situation of the 741st is not known. There may have been radio transmissions via tank radio alerting the 743rd to the problem.) The LCT driver made an on the spot decision to ignore orders and take the tanks all the way to the beach. His initiative may have saved many lives that day. (Recently declassified documents indicate that the decision to launch or not was up to the senior Army and Navy personnel on site)

My uncle survived D Day. Elements of his company went to Pont du Hoc to relieve the Rangers on June 9. I’m not sure, but I’d like to think he was part of that. Any letters he may have sent to the family regarding his experiences have been lost, if they ever existed. He was killed in Normandy on July 9 when his company was ambushed by tanks from the 2nd SS Panzer Division.

There is little documented about the independent tank battalions. There were approximately 37 of them in total including a couple of all black units. They were formed for the sole purpose of infantry support and were disbanded after the war. They were not stand alone units but were meant to be attached to infantry units as needed. Tank companies were split up and tanks were often out of contact with their company commander for weeks as they were shuttled between units. They could be fighting with different units on different days which gave them no time to develop coordination procedures with the unit they were fighting with. Ambrose discusses how unit cohesiveness was a key ingredient for building a soldier’s morale. Familiarity with the men you were fighting with gave the soldier a level of confidence as each man knew what the other would do. But Ambrose ignores how the combat vagabonds of the tank battalions coped with being separated from their command structure and shuttled between infantry units. They were dependent upon the kindness of the unit they were attached to for support. It must have been a lonely existence.

I have been to Normandy twice but could find no monument to either of the tank battalions that assaulted Omaha Beach that day, even though they were the first to land. There are almost no examples of DD tanks existing today even though it was considered to be an important secret weapon. (A couple of tanks from the 741st have been recovered and are on display at a museum in Port en Bessen, France. These still have the tubing for the inflation mechanism and pieces of the shroud on them.) And as I said earlier, the World War II Museum in New Orleans, our National WW II museum, has almost nothing about these unique units. Steel Victory: The Heroic Story of America's Independent Tank Battalions at War in Europe is a very good source of information regarding all the tank battalions. The View from the Turret: The 743rd Battalion During World War II is an excellent source for history about the 743rd. The 30th Division Association also has reprints of the unit history, Move Out, Verify.

The survivors of these units are passing from us quickly and a key piece of history will be lost with them. I hope this serves in some small way to keep their memory alive.

Petit Fours and the Four Rules

My wife and I had the Three Amigos (otherwise known as “The Grandsons”) out for lunch one day and the topic of conversation turned to a local specialty bakery. From there it turned to petit fours. As the bakery was known for special orders my wife asked, “Do you think anyone can just walk in and buy petit fours?”

“Of course, honey, we live in a right to own state. Anyone who is not a criminal can buy petit fours.” I replied.

The Three Amigos caught on right away that I was talking about the 2nd Amendment and offered their encouragement by agreeing with me “Yeah, Grandma, we have the right to own petit fours.”

“And if you don’t exercise those rights, you can lose them.” I continued.

The next thing we knew we were on the way to the petit four shop for 2 dozen of the sweet little morsels.

After making the purchase, I schooled the Three Amigos on the 4 Rules:

1) All petit fours are assumed to be loaded
2) Always point your petit four in a safe direction
3) Know the target for your petit four
4) Keep your fingers off the petit four until ready

Happy Birthday, John Wayne

Today in 1907, Marion Robert Morrison was born in Winterset, Iowa. Thank you for providing wholesome entertainment during my childhood. We miss ya, Duke.

The USS Squalus, Oliver Naquin and Swede Momsen

On this day, 69 years ago, LT Oliver Naquin, had his hands full. The New Orleans, Louisiana native and Naval Academy graduate of 1925 was in a most unenviable position. His new submarine, the USS Squalus (SS-192), was sunk in 240 feet of cold water off the New Hampshire coast. The rear part of the sub was flooded and 26 of his crew were presumed dead. 33 remained in the forward part of the boat. They all knew that their chance of rescue was somewhere between slim and none. In those days, sitting on the seafloor in almost 250 feet of water, you might as well have been on the dark side of the moon. Rescue was thought to be impossible.

However, a man named “Swede” Momsen had been experimenting with submarine rescue methods for years and his background in submarine rescue and diving were about to come together in one of the greatest sea rescue stories ever told.

CDR Momsen directed the rescue of the surviving crew using the McCann Diving Bell that he had invented 10 years arlier. The trapped sailors were equipped with Momsen Lungs, an escape device that he invented. The rescue bell was rigged by divers using new helium/oxygen breathing mixtures also developed by Swede.

Put yourself back in those times and imagine how these divers must have looked to the rest of world. They used cutting edge technology and weird gas mixtures to go someplace previously unreachable by man. And they did it under emergency conditions. Four Navy Divers were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for their heroism in rescuing the sailors of the Squalus. They were:

William Badders, Chief Machinst’s Mate
Orson Crandall, Chief Boatswain’s Mate
James Harper McDonald, Chief Metalsmith
John Mihalowski, Torpedoman First Class

William Badders transferred to the Fleet Reserve in 1940, He died in 1986.
Orson Crandall became a Mustang during WW II. He died in 1960.
James McDonald was also a Mustang in WW II. He died in 1973.
John Mihalowski was also a Mustang in WW II. He died in 1993.

(For you non-Navy types, a Mustang is an enlisted man that becomes an officer.)

The Squalus was salvaged (again by Momsen) and reborn as the USS Sailfish (still SS-192). Her sailors were forbidden to speak the name of the original hull, but they got around that by calling her the Squailfish. She was in Pearl Harbor on Dec 7, 1941 and saw combat in the Pacific, completing 12 patrols and returning safely. She was awarded 9 battle stars and a Presidential Unit Citation. She was sold for scrap in 1948 but the conning tower remains at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard as a memorial to the sailors lost on the Squalus.

We next encounter Oliver Naquin near the end of the war. Evidently, he was not given another opportunity for command and had staff jobs throughout the war. He was now a Captain and the Operations Officer on Guam whose office told Captain Charles McVay on the USS Indianapolis (CA-35) that Japanese submarines were not a great concern on his proposed route. He later testified in the court martial of Captain McVay. Not much more is known about Oliver Naquin. He retired from the Navy as a Rear Admiral and died in 1989. He is buried in Arlington Cemetery. His quote about the Squalus crew from the accident investigation is on his gravestone.

"My Officers And Men Acted Instinctively And Calmly. There Were No Expressions Of Fear And No Complains Of The Bitter Cold. Never In My Remaining Life Do I Expect To Witness So True An Exemplification Of Comradeship And Brotherly Love. No Fuller Meaning Could Possibly Be Given The Word 'Shipmate' Than Was Reflected By Their Acts."

“Swede” Momsen went on to become a submarine squadron commander during WW II. He was the one who discovered the problem with torpedo fuses at the beginning of the war by firing them into underwater cliffs off Hawaii and then diving to recover the live torpedo for inspection. However, it was after the war, when he was Assistant Chief of Naval Operations for Undersea Warfare, that he made his greatest contribution to submarine warfare.

He took his wartime lessons and gave simple instructions to his submarine designers: “Forget about surface performance. Think only about submerged capability which will provide the utmost speed with minimum of power. When in doubt, think speed”. (It is rare to get a design basis with such clarity.) This was the idea behind the development of the USS Albacore (AGSS 569). He originally had to hide the true intent of the project by calling it a target vessel for anti submarine warfare training, but his real plan was to build a full size submarine that could be used to test various submarine propulsion and control mechanisms. (His slyness is evident in the fact that, being unarmed, the design did not have to receive “input” from the numerous naval design bureaus responsible for such things.) The Albacore was the first submarine to have the hull shape that is now familiar to the world. Between 1953 and 1972 the USS Albacore developed and tested the technology that was then put to use in the nuclear submarine fleet.

She was not very successful as a target. She easily outran or out maneuvered anything that came after her. The Albacore twice set world submerged speed records. She is now on display and open to the public in Portsmouth, NH.

Charles Momsen retired from the Navy in 1955 as a Vice Admiral. He died in 1967 and is buried at Arlington Cemetery.

Thumb in the Dike, or in their A**?

On top of the levee wall stuffed with newspaper comes word of another leak near the 17th Street Canal. The Corps representative says: "I personally do not at all believe that this little wet spot is anything that is going to cause a breach or a failure of any kind."

He seems to forget that there was a sand eruption near this spot in the weeks before Katrina that indicated an underground flow of water. This may have weakened the wall which was sitting on top on inadequate sheet piles causing the breach.

Remember - The Corps is NOT your friend.

I offer the following song sung to the tune of "The House of the Rising Sun"

There was a house in New Orleans
It was gone with the Rising Sun
And it's now a ruin like many, many more
Stick a fork in me, I'm done

My mother said don’t go there
Don’t live south of I-10
The levees low and a storm’s gonna blow
And drown New Orleans again

It was built below the flood plane
On a slab of cold cement
And every time it rained too hard
We had to pitch a tent

------ organ solo ------

Oh mother tell your children
Not to do what I have done
Trust your lives to the Corps of Engineers
And levees built of mud.

Well, I got one foot on a ladder
The other foot in muck
I'm working down in New Orleans
Tearing out sheetrock

I had a house in New Orleans
It was gone with the Rising Sun
And it's now a ruin like many, many more
Stick a fork in me, I'm done

Superhero Status has been Bestowed

Friday is our day to pick up the three grandsons from school. We pick up P first from pre-pre K (3 years old) and the other two an hour later. P usually brings along some toys to play with while waiting in the pick up line for his older brothers. On this day he had some Spiderman stuff. My wife asked him who his favorite superhero was. "Grandpa" came the answer with no hesitation. Cute story. So my wife tells it to our daughter-in-law. She then turns and asks P, "Who is your favorite superhero?"

"Grandpa"

"What superpowers does he have?"

"He's Grandpa!"

And they wonder why he and I are so tight.

Mother's Day Crawfish

The family tradition is to have a crawfish boil on Mother's Day. This years catch has grown to a good size making the effort to peel the little buggers worth the time. The Bro-in-Laws did an excellent job in boiling the critters. And this time they did an experiment. Some of us like our crawfish with a little more spice so they added a couple of cups of jalapenos to the boil water on one batch. They probably could have added more because the crawfish weren't as hot as you'd expect. The "toxic" crawfish were spread on a separate table for the adventurous.

We brought along a crock pot of chicken etouffe and there are always hot dogs for the kids. My wife has a trick for chicken etouffe. The longest part of making this dish is frying the chicken. In order to short cut that step, she goes to Popeyes and buys the spicy chicken breasts. Chop them up and add them to the roux and vegetables and voila, an almost instant chicken etouffe.

Gotta go. They're cutting the doberge cake!