The most famous German surface warship to survive WWII was the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, studied by the US Navy after WWII and then expended as a nuclear target.
The only large WWII German warship to see active duty in its intended role during the Cold War was the light cruiser Nürnberg, which served on in the Soviet navy.
(The light cruiser Nürnberg of the WWII German navy.)
(The Soviet light cruiser Admiral Makarov, the former Nürnberg, during the mid-1950s.)
I would like to wish a merry Christmas to all readers of wwiiafterwwii.
Below is the WWII-veteran aircraft carrier USS Essex (CV-9) in 1961. The crew is spelling out “Merry Christmas” in Dutch for a port visit to the Netherlands.
USS Essex was the leadship of the Essex class fleet carriers. Perhaps more than any other single warship design, the Essex class was instrumental in the US Navy’s victory in the Pacific theatre of WWII. USS Essex commissioned on 31 December 1942 and participated in the Tinian, Marcus Island, Marianas, Leyte Gulf, Lingayen Gulf, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa battles of WWII. USS Essex later fought again during the Korean War and participated in the Cuban Missile Crisis; and was the Apollo 7 recovery ship. USS Essex finally decommisisoned in 1973 and was scrapped in 1975.
Like many Essex class carriers, USS Essex was extensively modernized after WWII. One interesting item is below:
I neglected to make an intended “anniversary” post for one year of being online, and later two years, and five years, and 100 subscribers, and then finally the number of days WWII ran. As you can tell I am not well with remembering events. So belatedly, this is the sixth anniversary of wwiiafterwwii, now longer than the war itself lasted.
I thank all readers / commenters for the knowledge shared over the years.
While I just write these for general enjoyment, I do try to keep the atmosphere at least plausibly scholarly and thus avoid “silly” or irrelevant topics. So, normally I would not touch on something like the below. But I figure, just once can not hurt, so here is a bit of “lighter reading”.
In August 1945, the USA’s two atomic bombs hastened the end of WWII. Four years later the USSR tested its own atomic bomb. As the American military adjusted to the new reality, many new concepts came about. Some were tried, successful, and retained. Others were just tried.
NECPA (National Emergency Command Post Afloat) was a concept to use two WWII warships as a refuge for the President during times of great tension, either prior to a nuclear war with the USSR or as one was already starting.
(USS Northampton (CC-1), an unfinished WWII cruiser, was one of the NECPA ships.)
(USS Wright (CC-2), formerly a WWII aircraft carrier, was the other NECPA ship.)Read More »
The fall of Saigon in 1975, and along with it the fall of South Vietnam and final end of the Vietnam War, is most remembered in the United States for the dramatic helicopter evacuation of the American embassy.
Less known is the final chapter to the “Frequent Wind” story: how the aircraft carrier USS Midway, built to fight the Imperial Japanese Navy during WWII, ended up retrieving the remnants of the defunct VNAF (South Vietnamese air force) during the summer of 1975.
(USS Midway (CV-41) at the end of WWII, prior to commissioning.)
(USS Midway with US Air Force helicopters staged prior to the start of “Frequent Wind” in 1975.)
(A most unusual scene as the flight deck of USS Midway is filled with land-based warplanes of the defunct South Vietnamese air force.)
I would like to extend Christmas greetings to all readers of wwiiafterwwii.
Below is the 1953 Christmas mess deck menu cover from USS Lake Champlain (CV-39), a WWII Essex class aircraft carrier. This was the ninth Christmas after Japan’s surrender and WWII’s end, and the first since the end of the Korean War.
I debated writing on this topic as it really doesn’t fit the theme of WWII weaponry being used after WWII. However in the past I have described how WWII warships were preserved, how they were modernized, and how they were transferred between countries. So maybe this will be of interest.
(The ex-USS Franklin (CV-13) being scrapped in 1966. This aircraft carrier had been terribly damaged in 1945, repaired at great expense, but never again used. Cut metal from other WWII warships fills the property of Portsmouth Salvage.)
(A Mk15 triple 8″ gun turret yanked off a WWII cruiser by Zidell during the 1970s. Zidell scrapped hundreds of WWII warships.)
(The ex-USS Sphinx (ARL-24), a WWII repair ship, being scrapped in 2007 by Bay Bridge Enterprises. The original shipbreaker for this job went bankrupt, which happened with increased frequency in the 1990s and 2000s.) (photo by Robert Hurst)
USS Cabot, a light aircraft carrier of the US Navy, had an improbable and highly successful second career as the first aircraft carrier of the Spanish navy and the first carrier in the world to fly a V/STOL air wing.
(The launching of USS Cabot (CVL-28) during WWII.)
(A Matador over Dédalo, the former USS Cabot, in 1988.)
Formerly one of Great Britain’s eastern African colonies, Tanzania used WWII-era equipment throughout the later 20th century including a late-1970s war against Uganda.
(Mt. Kilimanjaro is the highest point of Africa and the only part of Tanzania to receive snow. East Africa Railways continued in dwindling existence after WWII, including the wartime Garratt steam locomotives. The defunct company’s rail lines were a great logistics asset to Tanzania during the 1978-1979 Kagera war.) (photo via internationalsteam.co.uk website)
(WWII-vintage PPSh-41 submachine gun of the Tanzanian army.)
Originally designed as a carrier-based gun dogfighter, the F4U Corsair, and it’s later attack variant, the AU-1, was used heavily as a ground attack plane during WWII, and almost exclusively in that role during the Korean War.
(The first prototype Vought Corsair during WWII.)
A wide variety of weapons not originally envisioned were successfully used by the Corsair: air-to-ground rockets, napalm tanks, radar, depth charges, cluster munitions, and so on.
Easily the most unusual was something that could have never been envisioned by Vought’s engineers when they designed the plane; a guided missile.
(French navy Corsair with SS.11 guided missiles aboard.)
wwiiafterwwii 