That sounds great: are you saying under her own power ? - I wish I could be there to see the famous lady on the move. She will, I'm sure, go at a liesurely pace. Unlike her 1968 Atlantic modernized sea trials when she achieved a new top speed of 35.2 knots and held that for six hours, setting a new official battleship world speed record.
She was at sea on 16 March 1945 and refueled a DD or two, one [DD-704] was fortunately with a photog-mate getting the proceedings photographed. Receiving fuel aboard the destroyer Borie DD-704 -the photog. snapped an image from astern and another from forward of the DDs twin 5 inch turrets. These both show in detail the massive BB-62 close by to starboard. I believe, without looking through my paper files, there were several images snapped and the one published on Navsource .com is one of two that I did buy 4in. X 5in. copy negs. of and a third view was available.
The two-mentioned above- became two of my preferred old favorites after getting large B&W prints developed during c 1999.
https://www.navsource.org/archives/01/016245.jpg
That is a cropped image... my copy and print shows a lot of the DDs crew and structure in action. Paul Stillwell added this full image on page 76 in his USNI 1986 book Battleship New Jersey: An Illustrated History [ Hardcover, March 1, 1986 ]
Here's more about the Borie and her brave crew figting alongside the destroyer Hank.
In July 1945 the Borie and the Hank DD-701 with Destroyer Squadron 62 were ordered on an anti-shipping sweep off Tokyo Bay. Returning to their radar picket station on 9 August, both destroyers Hank and Borie came under heavy air attack by five suicide Kamikaze aircraft. One of the enemy attackers was set afire and came so close to the HANK that it drenched both ship and crew with gasoline before the destroyers’ gunners destroyed it.
In the vicious battle a plunging burning Kamikaze managed to find a narrow space aboard the destroyer and crashed into Borie's superstructure between the mast and the 5-inch main gun director and exploded, causing extensive damage.
DD-704 suffered forty-eight dead and sixty-six injured. Returning to the U S West Coast, the ship got permanent complete repairs at the San Francisco Hunter's Point Navy Yard drydock. Finishing on 20 November, DD-704 departed San Diego on 4 February 1946 to report to the Atlantic Fleet. Remaining in the Atlantic Fleet, the Borie had one cruise to Korea, five European and Mediterranean cruises and one in the Gulf of Tonkin during the Vietnam war. In 1962 she got her ‘FRAM’ mods and a ‘DASH’ helicopter. She served as a training ship from 1969 until June 1972, when she was decommissioned. She served in the Argentine Navy and in the 1982 Atlantic battle action in the Falklands War she received a torpedo hit that did not explode [probably striking at the end of its run]. The destroyer was scrapped in 1984 after 39 years of service.
These ships did their assigned duty guarding the carriers in their airstrikes against the Japanese on the long road to victory in Tokyo Bay.
I know there are many USN battleship researchers out there but I was inspired. If anyone else was, let's hear some more BB-62 history and trivia.
Mar. 21st is the big day. USS New Jersey sails down the Delaware River. Then it will be trimmed and one Mar 27th moves into drydock. It should be a sight for those in the Camden/Philadelphia area.
Responses