Mallory Shelbourne – February 26, 2025 8:16 PM Sailors assigned to the Virginia-class fast-attack submarine USS Minnesota (SSN 783) conduct mooring operations at HMAS Stirling, Western Australia, Australia, Feb. 25, 2025. U.S. Navy Photo A Virginia-class attack boat is in Perth, Australia for a port visit as part of the ongoing AUKUS partnership that’s gearingContinue reading “Virginia-class Attack Boat Makes Port Visit to Perth, Australia”
USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) was the lead ship of the Pennsylvania class of super-dreadnought battleships built for the United States Navy in the 1910s. The Pennsylvanias were part of the standard-type battleship series, and marked an incremental improvement over the preceding Nevada class, carrying an extra pair of 14-inch (360 mm) guns for a total ofContinue reading “USS Pennsylvania, MARE ISLAND 1942”
HMNZS BreezeHeat proved to be one of the toughest challenges for crews in the wartime Pacific. War artist Russell Clarke painted crew members cleaning the boilers on HMNZS Breeze, a similar-sized vessel to the Bird-class ships Moa, Kiwi and Tui.
Breeze was owned by the Canterbury Steam Shipping Company. She was taken up on 3 March 1942, under protest, to replace the Puriri which had sunk in a minefield. She was a sister ship to Gale.
Operational history
Breeze joined the 25th Minesweeping Flotilla at Tulagi in April 1943. On her arrival she was also formed, with Matai and her sister ship Gale, into the 9th Auxiliary Minesweeping group within the flotilla. They carried out night-time patrol and escort duties under COMSOPAC control. The Japanese were well north by this time, but occasionally made sudden attacks into American strongholds around Guadalcanal.
In July 1943, prior to being fitted with radar, Breeze collided with USS LST-895 off Guadalcanal while patrolling in a monsoon rainstorm. Grazing port to port, she had a boat wrecked.
During convoy escort duty in Ironbottom Sound she was attacked, but not damaged, by dive-bombers.
From time to time the flotilla boats would return to Auckland for refits, usually escorting freighters bound the same way.
By the middle of 1944 the owners were demanding the return of Breeze and her twin Gale. COMSOPAC released her on 10 November 1944.
Fate
She was sold to the Philippines in 1964 and renamed Balabac in 1966.
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via WordPress https://ift.tt/eCY7PWI April 03, 2024 at 04:10PM
Gale was owned by the Canterbury Steam Shipping Company. She was one of four ships requisitioned as a consequence of the German auxiliary cruiser Orion‘s minefield and the loss of the liner Niagara, the others being Matai, Puriri and Rata. She was taken over on 10 October 1940 and handed to the dockyard for conversion. She was a sister ship to Breeze.
Operational history
Gale joined the 25th Minesweeping Flotilla in April 1941, sweeping for German mines in the Hauraki Gulf. On 14 May, she rescued the survivors of the Puriri sinking. Later in 1941, the flotilla swept suspected minefield areas such as near Cuvier Island and Farewell Spit. In December 1941 Gale detached to relieve Viti in Fiji. She returned to New Zealand for refit in February 1942.
In June 1942, Gale was deployed to Noumea for port minesweeping duties where she was the first New Zealand vessel to deploy with COMSOPAC, the United States Navy‘s South Pacific Command, then taking over command of the 25th Minesweeping Flotilla. On 5 August, Gale located a missing US amphibious aircraft, rescued the crew, and towed it back to Noumea. The ship subsequently received a US commendation. Gale sailed back to New Zealand on 30 October 1942; she was then assigned to Wellington as a port minesweeper with the Second Minesweeping Group.
In February 1943, Gale rejoined the 25th Minesweeping Flotilla at Tulagi in the Solomons. In April 1943, her sister ship Breeze arrived at Tulagi, at which point Gale, Breeze and Matai were formed into the 9th Auxiliary Minesweeping group. They carried out night-time patrol and escort duties under COMSOPAC control. The Japanese were largely well to the north by this time, but occasionally made sudden attacks into American strongholds around Guadalcanal.
From time to time flotilla boats would return to Auckland for refit, usually escorting freighters bound the same way. By mid-1944, the owners were demanding the return of Gale and her twin Breeze. COMSOPAC released her on 20 September 1944.
Fate
Gale was sold by Canterbury Steam Shipping Company in December 1962[1] to Cia de Transportes Sylvia S.A. of Panama and renamed Jasa. She was scrapped in Singapore in 1970
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via WordPress https://ift.tt/FDC43PJ April 03, 2024 at 03:28PM
Wednesday, 3 April 2024, 8:56 amPress Release: NZ Post
NZ Post is honoured to feature six Kiwi veterans who served New Zealand on overseas deployments in the armed forces from the mid 1990s.
All six profiled in the stamp series have been awarded theNew Zealand Operational Service Medal. The medal is given for service that exceeds the normal requirements of peacetime service and involves a credible military threat from the enemy’s military, insurgents, or other hostile forces.
Rebecca Brierton, Ben Peckham, Kelley Waite, Vance Leach, Ange Coyle and David Bennett represent over 42,000 living veterans who have been involved in active service and made personal sacrifices while serving in either the New Zealand Army, the Royal New Zealand Navy or the Royal New Zealand Air Force.
Released today (3 April 2024), NZ Post Head of Collectables Antony Harris says the story behind the stamps is to show that veterans are not just ‘elderly men’.
“They are young, have served in recent conflicts, can be men or women, and come from all walks of life. They could be your neighbour, people you work with, or someone you see in the street,” Harris said.
“They may march in the Anzac Day parades with the older veterans of previous conflicts, but these veterans haven’t retired; though they have left the New Zealand Defence Force, they are now living, studying, and working alongside us, in our communities.”
Harris said NZ Post worked closely with Veterans’ Affairs and the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services’ Association in developing the stamps.
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via WordPress https://ift.tt/BSWdNGe April 03, 2024 at 12:39PM
Nora Niven and Simplon were chartered by the Royal Navy during the First World War to be used as minesweepers and In respect of personnel it was acknowledged that the normal crews of the trawlers would have to be utilised, but that for the purposes of naval discipline, the masters should be given a temporary status in the New Zealand Branch of the Royal Naval Reserve. They were later recognised as having been members of the New Zealand Naval Auxiliary Service. The Nora Niven was a 90ft steam Trawler launched 17th November 1906. Built by Cochrane & Sons of Selby for the Napier Fish Supply Co of New Zealand this state of the art trawler with an Ice Making machine that could produce 3 tons of ice in 24 hour and cool storage compartments for 80tons of fish. In June 1917, a German surface raider, the SMS Wolf entered New Zealand waters. She laid two small minefields in New Zealand waters and sank two merchant ships. One (the Port Kembla) off Farewell Spit, and another (the Wairuna) off the Kermadec Islands. Two fishing trawlers, the Nora Niven and Simplon, were fitted as minesweepers and took up sweeping duties in these areas. Another brief flurry of activity occurred when Felix von Luckner, imprisoned on Motuihe Island after being captured in the Society Islands, escaped and commandeered a small vessel before being recaptured in the Kermadec Islands. https://navymuseum.co.nz/explore/by-themes/world-war-one/minesweeping-ww1/ Regarding Second World use read below- A comprehensive report here https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH2Navy-c12.html
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via WordPress https://ift.tt/PK4LubC April 02, 2024 at 01:54PM
HMNZS Phyllis at the Devonport Naval Base, perhaps HMNZS Kiwi (T102) inboard
HMNZS Phyllis
Built: Seattle Construction Co., USA 1912 Type: Danlayer Pennant No.: T22 Displacement: 148 tons gross, 67 tons net Length: 96.1 ft./29.3 m Beam: 19.5 ft./ 5.9 m Draft: 2.8 ft./0.8 m Propulsion: Steam recip., ihp 350, single screw coal fired Speed: 9 knots. Armament: 2 x light MG Complement: 14
Phyllis was built as a whale chaser built for the Norwegians named Star III, and worked from Stewart Island. She was laid up there in 1929, sold to a NZ buyer, renamed Phyllis and used as a trawler.
The ship was purchased from the Canterbury Steam Trawling Co. Ltd.of Christchurch on 3 September 1942 and fitted out at Lyttelton as a danlayer, the intention being to employ her at Auckland. A danlayer is a small vessel employed in minesweeping operations to lay dan-buoys to mark the limits of the channels swept through a minefield.
She was commissioned on 11 January 1943 as HMNZS Phyllis and sailed for Auckland but was delayed by engine trouble in Wellington. Inspection at Auckland revealed numerous defects and she prove unsatisfactory as a danlayer. Repairs were not completed and little or no use was made of Phyllis: she paid off in 28 February 1944 and was sold.
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via WordPress https://ift.tt/X1yjPtl April 02, 2024 at 01:29PM
