USS Uranus (AF-14)

Figure 1:  USS Uranus (AF-14) off Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia, 11 December 1943. US Navy Bureau of Ships photograph now in the collections of the US National Archives.  US National Archives, RG-19-LCM, Photo Number 19-N-60186. Click on photograph for larger image. 

Figure 2:  USS Uranus (AF-14) off Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia, 11 December 1943. US Navy Bureau of Ships photograph now in the collections of the US National Archives.  US National Archives, RG-19-LCM, Photo Number 19-N-60188. Click on photograph for larger image. 

Figure 3:  Camouflage Measure 32, Design 9T. Drawing prepared by the Bureau of Ships for a camouflage scheme intended for the store ship USS Uranus (AF-14). This plan, approved by Captain Torvald A. Solberg, USN, shows the ship's starboard side and superstructure ends. It was probably prepared in the spring of 1944. Official US Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.  

Figure 4:  USS Uranus (AF-14) at San Francisco, California, 19 September 1944. US Navy Bureau of Ships photograph now in the collections of the US National Archives.   US National Archives, RG-19-LCM, Photo Number 19-N-81361. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 5:  USS Uranus (AF-14) at San Francisco, California, 19 September 1944. US Navy Bureau of Ships photograph now in the collections of the US National Archives.   US National Archives, RG-19-LCM, Photo Number 19-N-81363. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 6:  Ex-USS Uranus (AF-14) at the breakers yard, Sveti Kajo, Split, Yugoslavia, in 1968. Courtesy David Nixon. Click on photograph for larger image.

 

The SS Helga was a refrigerated cargo ship built in 1933 for J. Lauritzen A/S Shipowners by the Helsingor Shipbuilding Works at Elsinore, near Copenhagen, Denmark. She worked in the fruit trade between Denmark and Central America and in 1938 was renamed SS Caravelle. The ship was re-named once again in 1940 and called SS Marie. After Denmark fell to the advancing German army in the spring of 1940, Marie became a ship without a country. She was docked in the United States and literally had nowhere to go. Her captain and crew also were not about to go back to Denmark just to hand over the ship to the Germans. So on 11 August 1941, Marie was acquired by the US Navy from the United States Maritime Commission and was placed in the Robbins Drydock Company yard at Brooklyn, New York, for conversion into a refrigerated naval stores ship. She was given the unfortunate name of USS Uranus (AF-14), after the Greek God, and was commissioned on 27 October 1941. The newly overhauled and now armed cargo ship was approximately 269 feet long and 39 feet wide, had a top speed of 12 knots, and had a crew of 93 officers and men. Uranus carried two 3-inch guns and six 20-mm guns, and could transport roughly 1,415 tons of cargo. 

While Uranus was on her shakedown cruise, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and the United States entered World War II. Uranus left Norfolk, Virginia, on 20 December 1941 and headed for Halifax, Nova Scotia, arriving there on 24 December. Five days later, the ship departed for Iceland.

Uranus served as a floating refrigerated storage vessel and provided stores and provisions to American forces on Iceland until the summer of 1943. The ship divided its time among five ports along the Icelandic coast, including Reykjavik, the capital. In these inhospitable and stormy northern waters, Uranus ran aground off Akureyi, Iceland, on 10 April 1943. She came to a stop on a sloping gravel beach which was reputedly once the fairway between two holes of a coastal golf course. After several attempts, the cargo ship was finally refloated on 13 April with the assistance of USS Symbol (AM-123) and USS Kewaydin (AT-24).

After undergoing temporary repairs, Uranus left Iceland on 21 August 1943 carrying men and equipment from a Navy construction battalion on board. But, due to uncooperative winds and currents, the ship did not arrive at her destination of Davisville, Rhode Island, until 3 September. After discharging her passengers, the ship steamed to New York, arriving there three days later. Uranus then returned to Norfolk, where she underwent a lengthy overhaul.

During her overhaul, Uranus was given a new refrigeration system. Once the overhaul was completed, the ship left the east coast on 20 December 1943 and five days later rendezvoused with a convoy bound for the Pacific. Uranus transited the Panama Canal on 1 January 1944 and headed for Pearl Harbor two days later. Proceeding independently, the ship reached Oahu, Hawaii, on 23 January.

Uranus completed two round-trip Pacific journeys between San Francisco, California, and Pearl Harbor and Midway Island. She then sailed to Majuro in the Marshall Islands. For the rest of 1944, Uranus carried cargo between Midway and Pearl Harbor to the west and San Pedro, California, to the east. The ship underwent another overhaul at San Francisco in April 1945 and remained based there until the war ended in the Pacific. Uranus then participated in “Magic Carpet” operations and brought veterans back to the United States from various locations throughout the Pacific.

Uranus was sent back to Norfolk and was decommissioned on 8 May 1946. She was given to the War Shipping Administration of the Maritime Commission and was struck from the Navy List on 21 May. The Maritime Commission returned the ship to her original owner, J. Lauritzen, and it was placed under the Danish flag once again and re-named SS Maria Dan. The cargo ship was registered at Esbjerg, Denmark, and carried wood pulp from the Baltic to Great Britain until 1959. That same year, the ship was sold to Chrisot M. Sarlis in Patras, Greece, and re-named SS Michael.  This ship that began her career in Denmark, survived a World War as a US Navy transport, and miraculously made its way back to its original owner in Denmark after the war, was sold for scrapping to a firm in Yugoslavia in 1968.

USS Hyperion (AK-107)

Figure 1:  USS Hyperion (AK-107) moored pier side, date and location unknown. Photograph courtesy of David Nixon. Click on photograph for larger image.

 

Originally built as the Liberty Ship SS Christopher C. Andrews by the Permanente Metals Corporation at Richmond, California, the 4,023-ton vessel was acquired by the US Navy 10 July 1943 and re-named USS Hyperion (AK-107), after a Greek god. Hyperion was commissioned on 25 August 1943 and was considered part of the Crater class of cargo ships then entering the Navy. The ship was approximately 441 feet long and 56 feet wide, had a top speed of 12.5 knots, and had a crew of 206 officers and men. Hyperion was armed with one 5-inch gun, one 3-inch gun, two single 40-mm guns, and six single 20-mm guns, and could carry roughly 7,750 tons of cargo.

Hyperion was assigned to the US Navy’s Pacific theater of operations and her first assignment was to tow the gasoline barge YOG-85 to the large American naval base at Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides. Hyperion left the west coast with her barge in tow on 18 September 1943. During this remarkable journey that was plagued by terrible weather, the tow line with the barge parted twice, lightning struck the ship’s mainmast, and a crewman was lost in rough seas. Although some emergency flares were spotted by the ship, the crewman was never found. Hyperion finally steamed into Espiritu Santo harbor with her barge and her cargo on 30 October, 42 days after leaving the United States.

During the next six months, Hyperion sailed to different parts of the Solomon Islands, delivering valuable supplies (such as gasoline, diesel oil, rolling stock, and foodstuffs) to the American troops fighting there. On 5 April 1944, Hyperion left the Solomon Islands with 45 passengers in addition to her usual cargo of oil and supplies. On 10 April, she arrived at Emirau Island in the Bismarck Archipelago off the northeastern coast of New Guinea. Emirau Island was occupied by the Allies only three weeks prior to her arrival, so for safety reasons Hyperion discharged cargo by day and steamed out of the harbor at night. After completing her mission at Emirau Island, the cargo ship returned to her critical work of delivering badly needed supplies to various Allied staging areas around the Pacific, such as New Caledonia, Guadalcanal, New Zealand, and the Bismarck Archipelago.  

During the fall of 1944, as the war in the Pacific progressed from one island group to another, the massive Battle of Leyte Gulf took place off the coast of the Philippines. After leaving Espiritu Santo on 22 September 1944, Hyperion picked up cargo at Tulagi in the Solomon Islands and was assigned to Admiral Daniel Barbey’s massive Task Force 78. Hyperion steamed into Leyte Gulf as part of a 33-ship convoy on 29 October, only three days after the Battle of Leyte Gulf ended. During the next few days, Hyperion went to “general quarters” 87 times, fought off 37 Japanese air attacks, and her gunners shot down two enemy planes.  

After her mission was completed in the Philippines, Hyperion carried cargo between New Zealand and New Caledonia. In late April 1945, Hyperion brought 6,500 tons of Army engineering equipment from Noumea, New Caledonia, to Okinawa, which was still in the midst of a major battle between the United States and Japan. On 8 May, Hyperion arrived at Okinawa. During the 18 days that it took to unload her cargo, the crew on board the ship observed naval bombardments of Japanese positions on Okinawa, survived two naval battles, and fought off countless kamikaze suicide plane attacks. During one such attack, Hyperion was anchored less than 500 yards away from USS New Mexico (BB-40) when two suicide planes damaged the battleship on 12 May.   

As the war in the Pacific came to an end, Hyperion sailed to San Francisco, California, on 4 August 1945, ending two years of continuous service in the Pacific. She had steamed approximately 75,225 nautical miles, carried 150,000 tons of cargo, transported more than 1,000 passengers, made 62 voyages to 29 islands and 37 ports, and fought in the Battles of Leyte Gulf and Okinawa. Hyperion crossed the equator six times and the International Date Line four times (even celebrating two Fourths of July in 1944).

Hyperion arrived at San Francisco on 24 August 1945. After completing some minor repairs, she sailed to the east coast via the Panama Canal. The veteran cargo ship reached Norfolk, Virginia, on 24 October 1945 and was decommissioned on 16 November. Hyperion was placed in the Maritime Commission National Defense Reserve Fleet and was berthed in the James River, Virginia, until she was sold for scrapping on 11 August 1961. USS Hyperion received three battle stars for her service during World War II.

USS Upshur (DD-144, AG-103)

Figure 1:  USS Upshur (DD-144) in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, circa 1931-1932. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 2:  USS Upshur (DD-144) in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, circa 1931. The heavy cruiser in the background is a flagship version of the Northampton class, either Chicago (CA-29), Houston (CA-30), or Augusta (CA-31). US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 3:  USS Upshur (DD-144) circa 1934-1935, location unknown.  Notation in the lower right-hand corner of the photograph mentions “San Diego, California,” but this may not be where the photograph was taken.  Courtesy Tim Rizzuto. Click on photograph for larger image. 

Figure 4:  USS Upshur (DD-144) photographed during the 1930s. Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1969. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 5:  USS Upshur (DD-144) and USS Tarbell (DD-142) tied up in port during the late 1930s. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 6:  USS Upshur (DD-144) photographed circa 1940-1941. Note the degaussing cables installed externally on her hull, just below the main deck level. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 7:  USS Upshur (DD-144) at the US Navy Yard, Charleston, South Carolina, 12 April 1945. Courtesy Jim Flynn. Click on photograph for larger image.

Named after Rear Admiral John Henry Upshur (1823-1917), the 1,247-ton USS Upshur (DD-144) was a Wickes class destroyer that was built by William Cramp and Sons at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was commissioned on 23 December 1918. The ship was approximately 314 feet long and 31 feet wide, had a top speed of 35 knots, and had a crew of 113 officers and men. Upshur was armed with four 4-inch guns, two .30-caliber machine guns, 12 21-inch torpedo tubes, and depth charges.

After being commissioned, Upshur patrolled the western Atlantic for several months and in May 1919 was stationed along the route taken by the US Navy’s “NC” flying boats during their attempt to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. Upshur spent the next two months in northern European waters and then was transferred to America’s Pacific coast.

Upshur spent roughly the next two years as a unit in the US Navy’s Asiatic Fleet. Upshur initially arrived at Cavite in the Philippines, but soon reported for duty in the waters of the lower Yangtze River in China. At Yochow, China, on 16 June 1920, troops under the local warlord Chang Ching-yao murdered an American missionary, William A. Reimert. At that time, Upshur was at Hankow and was sent urgent orders to proceed to Yochow to save the rest of the American missionaries there. Upshur arrived at Yochow on 23 June and sent ashore a landing party of one officer and 40 men to protect the American mission in Yochow. After guarding the mission for two days and making sure that the local warlord understood that any more attacks would be met with gunfire from both the ship and the landing force, the sailors returned to the destroyer. Meanwhile, the Commander-in-Chief of the Asiatic Fleet, Admiral Albert Cleaves, arrived at Yochow on board the destroyer USS Elliott (DD-146) to observe the situation there. Eventually, the offending Chinese warlord, Chang Ching-yao, was removed from his command and the Chinese foreign office, while “investigating” the incident, expressed its profound regrets.

Upshur remained on the Yangtze River until 9 July 1920. After that, the destroyer conducted naval exercises in the Philippines and then returned to China, this time off the coast of Chefoo. After completing her tour of duty in the Far East in early 1922, Upshur arrived back on America’s west coast in the spring and was decommissioned at San Diego, California, on 15 May 1922 and placed in reserve.

Re-commissioned in June 1930, Upshur served in both the Pacific and the Atlantic before being placed in reserve in December 1936 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The outbreak of World War II in Europe called Upshur back to duty in October 1939. The ship was assigned to the Neutrality Patrol and escorted ships in the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. Upshur began convoy escort missions in the north Atlantic in September 1941. This assignment became increasingly dangerous during the next three months, as relations between the United States and Hitler’s Germany rapidly deteriorated into a state of undeclared war. German U-boats prowled the Atlantic and American warships ran the very real risk of being torpedoed while escorting merchant ships. The American destroyer USS Reuben James (DD-245) was torpedoed and sunk on 31 October 1941 while escorting one such convoy, showing just how dangerous work on the Neutrality Patrol could be. Out of a crew of 159 officers and men, only 44 survived.

Upshur’s Atlantic convoy escort duties continued for more than two years after the United States formally entered the war on 7 December 1941. During one such convoy escort mission on the evening of 4 February 1942, Upshur left Londonderry, Northern Ireland, along with the destroyers USS Gleaves (DD-423), USS Dallas (DD-199), and USS Roper (DD-147), as well as the Secretary class US Coast Guard Cutter USCGC Ingham. Throughout the day on 5 February, the warships hunted a U-boat that seemed to be following the American ships as they were sailing towards the merchant convoy they were assigned to escort.  Seven times the destroyers and the Coast Guard cutter attacked the submarine, dropping 30 depth charges, but they could not sink the elusive U-boat.

After rendezvousing with Convoy ON-63 on the morning of 7 February 1942, the American escorts steamed southwest with a total of 30 merchant ships, shepherding them and trying to keep them in formation in the rough wintery seas. Upshur’s lookouts suddenly spotted a U-boat slithering along the surface two miles away and gave chase, but the German lookouts on board the submarine saw the destroyer and the U-boat was able to submerge before Upshur could attack. For two hours, Upshur and Ingham scoured the area for the U-boat, dropping 15 depth charges before returning to the convoy. Upshur had no sooner returned to the convoy when she again spotted a U-boat roughly 8,000 yards away. Accelerating to full speed, Upshur bounded towards the enemy, only to see the submarine beginning to submerge once again. Upshur fired two rounds from her forward 4-inch gun, with both shells splashing around the submarine’s conning tower. Gleaves soon arrived on the scene and assisted Upshur in searching for the U-boat. Neither ship was able to make contact with the submarine that day or the next, but they succeeded in preventing the U-boat from attacking the convoy and managed to bring all of the merchant ships safely to port.

With more modern escorts becoming available by 1944, Upshur was reassigned to provide plane guard and target services for new aircraft carriers. Re-designated AG-103 in June 1945, Upshur was decommissioned on 2 November 1945 and struck from the Navy list nine days later. USS Upshur was sold for scrapping on 26 September 1947.

IJN Kongo

Figure 1: Photograph of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) Kongo printed on a post card. It was taken between 1925 and 1928. The Japanese language caption in upper left center gives information on the ship's construction, displacement, dimensions and armament. Text in upper right identifies Kongo and Haruna as having this appearance. However, only Kongo had the searchlight platform between the first and second smokestacks, as seen here. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 2:  Photograph of Kongo taken between about 1925 and 1928. Part of the Japanese language caption in upper left is cut off, but the remainder reads: "Battlecruiser ... Vickers Co., U.K. ... completed August 1913 ..." and gives information on the ship's displacement, dimensions and armament. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 3:  Kongo in port, prior to her 1929-31 reconstruction. The original photograph, which came from Office of Naval Intelligence files, is dated 1929. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 4:  View of Kongo’s starboard midsection, showing her masts, smokestacks, gunfire controls and other details. Note searchlight tower between the first and second smokestacks, and the large smoke deflector on the forward stack. The original photograph, which came from Office of Naval Intelligence files, is dated 1929. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 5: View of Kongo's starboard midsection. The original photograph, which came from Office of Naval Intelligence files, is dated 1929. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 6:  Photograph taken of  Kongo after her 1929-31 reconstruction. Japanese language text at bottom left is a warning against reproduction of the photograph. That at right reads (from right to left): "Large battleship Kongo, Haruna, Kirishima". All three ships had a similar appearance during this period. The original print was received from the Board of Economic Warfare, circa 1942. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.  

Figure 7:  Halftone reproduction of a photograph taken of Kongo in 1933, after her 1929-31 reconstruction. The original print came from Office of Naval Intelligence files. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 8:  Halftone reproduction of a photograph taken of Kongo in 1934. The original print came from Office of Naval Intelligence files. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 9:  Halftone reproduction of a photograph taken after Kongo's 1936-37 modernization. The original print came from Office of Naval Intelligence files. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 10:  Kongo off Amoy, China, in October 1938. Photographed from USS Pillsbury (DD-227). The original print came from Office of Naval Intelligence files. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 11:  Battle of the Philippine Sea, June 1944. Japanese Carrier Division Three under attack by planes from the US Navy’s Task Force 38, 20 June 1944. The battleship in the lower center is either Haruna or Kongo. The carrier Chiyoda is at right. Photographed from a USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) plane. Official US Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.

 

The Imperial Japanese Navy’s (IJN) Kongo (which means “indestructible”) was a 36,600-ton battle cruiser that was built by the Vickers Shipbuilding Company at Barrow-in-Furness, England, and was commissioned on 16 August 1913. Kongo was the last Japanese capital ship built outside of Japan. The ship was approximately 728 feet long and 101 feet wide, had a top speed of 30 knots, and had a crew of 1,360 officers and men. Kongo also proved to be one of the fastest ships in the Japanese battle fleet. As built prior to World War I, Kongo was armed with eight 14-inch guns, 16 6-inch guns, eight 3-inch guns, four 6.5-mm machine guns, and eight 21-inch torpedo tubes. However, this armament changed dramatically prior to and during World War II, with her final armament consisting of eight 14-inch guns, eight 6-inch guns, eight 5-inch guns, and an amazing 122 25-mm anti-aircraft cannons.

During World War I, Kongo was used primarily to patrol off the coast of China. From 1929 to 1931, Kongo was modernized at the Yokosuka Dockyard and from then on was rated as a battleship. She was overhauled and modernized yet again from 1936 to1937, receiving new machinery and a lengthened hull to increase her speed to more than 30 knots. This combination of high speed and heavy armament made Kongo an extremely valuable warship and she was used extensively during World War II.

When war began between Japan and the western powers on 7 December 1941, Kongo was supporting the Japanese amphibious landings on the Malayan peninsula. As Japan’s southern offensive continued, Kongo assisted in the Japanese invasion of Java. She then used her 14-inch guns to bombard Christmas Island and was part of the raid against British shipping in the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal. During the Battle of Midway in early June 1942, Kongo was part of Vice Admiral Nobutake Kondo’s covering group.

During the tumultuous and bloody battle for the island of Guadalcanal (which began in August 1942), Kongo bombarded Henderson Field on 14 October 1942, participated in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands later that month, and escorted the Japanese aircraft carrier force during the naval battle of Guadalcanal in mid-November. Although the battleship did not see combat during 1943 and the first part of 1944, she accompanied the Japanese carrier division during the Battle of the Philippine Sea in mid-June 1944.

After the American invasion of Leyte Island in the Philippines in October 1944, Kongo was part of the Japanese counterattack against the US Navy. This resulted in the enormous Battle of Leyte Gulf, a confrontation that essentially destroyed Japan’s Navy as a major fighting force. As part of the Japan’s Center Force battle group, Kongo survived a submarine attack on 23 October 1944, a carrier air attack in the Sibuyan Sea the next day, the Battle off Samar Island against US escort carriers and destroyers on 25 October, and a US Army Air Corps high-level bombing attack as she withdrew from the area on 26 October. But Kongo’s luck ran out almost a month later. On 21 November 1944, soon after moving through the Formosa Strait on her way back to Japan, Kongo was torpedoed by the American submarine USS Sealion (SS-315). The resulting fires apparently were uncontrollable, since Kongo blew up and sank a few hours after she was hit. Kongo had the dubious honor of being the only battleship sunk by a submarine attack during the Pacific War.