OneManGang
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Tennessee vs The Maxims vs Auburn
One has to think that when the history of 2020 is written it will go down as the “Year of The Fake.”
Fake news. Fake News hyping a Fake Pandemic, Fake Solutions mandated for said Fake Pandemic with Fake Experts on Fake News shows excoriating Americans for not following the Fake Solutions were just the opening. These same Fake Experts maundering on about “herd immunity” should tell even the dimmest among us just what our elites at all levels think of “We The People.” Our lives have been perhaps irredeemably disrupted by people who literally lie away nights worrying that somebody, somewhere, might be having a good time.
There could be mention of the recent Fake Election, but, no.
Now we are being treated to Fake Sports. The NBA held its playoff in a “bubble” with only the Fake News people and certain invited guests in attendance. Baseball was being played in empty ballparks, hell's bells, it seems the Tour de France had more spectators than Major League Baseball. There was no March Madness (methinks the BasketVols should follow Alabama's example and claim a National Championship for 2020.)
Fake football is now unfolding and there is really no other description for it. The NFL is playing in stadiums with cardboard cutouts of fans and crowd noise piped in. College stadiums are at 25% capacity at best. This was driven home when Yours Truly found a link to the Fightin' Texas Aggie Band playing at halftime of their tilt with Florida earlier this year. Now, when the FTAB takes to Kyle Field, the Aggie faithful are whipped into a frenzy no matter the score or the team's record. On this particular day, they were performing IN AN EMPTY STADIUM!
Good Lord.
The scolds and self-righteous Fake Intellectuals of academia have been striving for decades to diminish college football into a “that's nice” sport.
What is a “That's Nice” sport you ask? Well think about it. UT has three sports that matter: football, men's basketball and women's basketball, That's it. I mean no disrespect to any participants in those other sports. But, for all the rest, be it the golf team, the tennis program, swimming and diving, etc., when a team or an individual achieves some level of success most of us look at the headline and think, “That's nice.”
This year, the scolds may just have succeeded.
Frustration still abounds on all levels and it's also still doubtful even Smokey has a positive outlook right now.
* * * * * * * * *
In the opening to the epic movie “Patton” George C. Scott delivers a speech that was actually excerpts from a series of addresses given by the General to his troops during World War II.
The line from that speech that has always stuck with this writer is, “Now, an army is a team. It lives, eats, sleeps, fights, as a team.”
As with armies, so it is with navies and the individual ships that make up those fleets.
On 13 May 1944, US Navy code-crackers intercepted a message from the Japanese submarine I-16 under the command of Lieutenant Commander (Lt. Cdr.) Takeuchi Yoshitaka that she was departing Truk harbor to deliver supplies to an isolated garrison on Buin Island in the Solomons. This report was flashed via Third Fleet to Commander Hamilton Hains, commander of Escort Division 39 at Tulagi. Hains ordered two destroyer escorts of his division, USS George (DE-697), USS Raby (DE-698) and joined by USS England (DE-635) of Escort Division 40 to intercept the I-16. Hains would be onboard George in tactical command.
Unknown to all hands England, commanded by Lt. Cdr. Walton B. Pendleton, had a rendezvous with history.
Teamwork.
England and the two others were Buckley-class destroyer escorts. Built in 1943 and early 1944 the 102 US Navy Buckleys were 1700-ton ships, 306 feet long with a crew of 15 officers and 298 men. Lightly armed with 3 x 3” guns and a scattering of 40mm and 20mm anti-aircraft guns, they were optimized for anti-submarine work with the most advanced sonars and carrying two depth charge racks and eight “K-gun” launchers. Also mounted forward between the 3-inchers was a box-shaped apparatus called a Hedgehog.
As the name suggests, the Hedgehog was a British development consisting of four rows of six “spigots” resembling spikes. A 65-lb projectile with a small propelling charge was fitted over the spigot and could reach out 250 yards when fired. All 24 of these were fired at once directly over the bow and formed a circular pattern which then fell into the sea like an explosive cast net. The projectiles would only explode if they hit something solid like, say, a submarine. This feature gave the Hedgehog a stealth factor since the only warning a sub would have it was under attack was when it was too late.
On 19 May a patrol plane spotted I-16 on the surface and reported her position and speed.
The American ships formed a line abreast about 16,000 yards apart and started pinging their sonars. At 1335 (1:35pm) England got a sonar contact and followed the sub as it began a series of radical maneuvers designed to break contact. England's sonar troops were up to the task and soon the first set of Hedgehogs were in the air – and missed. A second attack (it took about 3 minutes to reload the projector) also missed but one hit was scored with the third but the big Japanese boat shook it off. A fourth attack also missed but then the fifth achieved several hits and at 1435 a huge underwater explosion lifted England's fantail and threw several of her crew off their feet. An oil slick bubbled up about 20 minutes later to mark the grave of I-16 and her 95 crew.
On the same day the code-breakers got the original message, they decoded another detailing a Japanese plan to set up a picket line of seven Type Ko subs across the likely route of any American approach to the Mariana Islands. The Type Ko boats were smaller than the I-16 and were designed for work closer to shore but Japanese losses were so bad they had to be used in open water.
Cdr. Hains and his little flotilla were sent to “roll up” this line and at 0345 on 22 May, George detected the sub RO-106 skippered by Lieutenant Keitai Uda on radar and lit her up with a searchlight. RO-106 crash dived and commenced to maneuver. Hains had ordered England to stand by at a distance in case the Japanese sub broke contact. His foresight was rewarded when England got a firm sonar contact and her second Hedgehog attack was rewarded with three hits and a deep cracking sound as RO-106 and her crew of 49 were violently stricken from the Japanese Naval Registry.
The next day, RO-104 under Lieutenant Hisashi Izubuchi was sighted by a patrol plane and Raby soon made radar contact. Beginning at 0600, Raby and George made a total of nine Hedghog attacks with no results. At 0819 England took her turn and scored 10 or 12 hits on her second attack and RO-104 was lost with all 58 hands.
At 0120 on the 24th George made radar contact with RO-116 with 56 crew commanded by Lieutenant Commander Takeshi Okabe. RO-116 crash dived but George soon had her on sonar. The enemy sub also maneuvered violently but ended up right in front of England which soon had a sonar solution passed to her Hedgehog crew which hit with at least three rounds on her first attack. She then dropped 13 depth charges to make sure. An oil slick and debris field confirmed the kill.
Raby got a radar hit on RO-108 under Lieutenant Kanichi Obar at 2303 on 26 May. RO-108 had already had success, sinking the destroyer USS Henley (DD-391) on 23 October 1943 with the loss of 15 men killed and 54 wounded. The sub dove but England got a solid sonar contact on her at 1250 yards and vectored Raby to make the attack. Raby missed, but England was in position by then and made her own Hedgehog run at 2323 and hit with at least four rounds. RO-108 went down with her 53 men.
After this action, Hains' little group made for Seeadler Harbor where they reloaded on Hedgehog rounds and depth charges. They now joined a “hunter-killer” group based around the escort carrier Hoggatt Bay (CVE-75) and went back on the prowl.
Late on the night of 30 May, the destroyer Hazelwood (DD-531) made radar contact with RO-105 commanded by Lieutenant Junichi Inoue. An epic battle resulted as the sub used every trick in the book to try to escape. Over the next several hours until after dawn on the 31st, various ships in the group, including the other two ships under Hains made attack after attack to no avail. In frustration, Cdr. Hains radioed, “Ah, hell, go ahead England.” She made her run and scored hits on her first attack with a massive underwater explosion marking the end of the gallant little sub and her 55 men.
Over twelve days the USS England and her crew had destroyed six Japanese submarines, a feat unequaled in naval history before or since. In his after action report, Lt. Cdr. Pendelton credited the teamwork and training of his crew together with teamwork all the way up the line for his ship's success.
Teamwork.
The Navy sat on the story of the England's exploits for quite some time. This was primarily because the Hedgehog system was Top Secret and neither the Japanese nor the Germans had figured out what it was or how to counter it. They eventually told the tale after the German surrender and the Japanese sub fleet had been reduced to a flag with a couple of guys to hold it up. The story became a brief sensation and no less a personage that Winston Churchill sent a message of congratulations to US Navy CNO Adm Ernest J. King. King responded that, “There will always be an England in the US Navy.” There isn't, but it was a nice sentiment. Lt. Cmdr. Pendelton was awarded a Navy Cross and the ship itself received a Presidential Unit Citation.
Pendelton stepped down as CO and was replaced by Lt. Cdr. John Williamson who had been Executive Officer and had been boss of the ASW troops during the sinkings. England went on in other roles until 9 May 1945 when she was hit by a kamikaze and seriously damaged losing 37 killed and 25 wounded. After emergency repairs, she made her way to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard where she was still undergoing refit at the end of the war. Given that she had been badly damaged, and her ten Battle Stars notwithstanding, she was stricken from the Naval Register and sold for scrap in 1946.
*********
The more discerning among my faithful readers will already have noticed that if you substitute the proper employment of code-breaking, radar, and sonar for the “kicking game,” England and her crew followed Neyland's Maxims almost to the letter in those 12 days making nearly no mistakes and certainly carrying the fight to the opponent.
Teamwork.
So how did the team do compared to the Maxims?
1. The team that makes the fewest mistakes will win.
With the Knox County Board of Health likely voting Monday evening to shut down Knoxville and Knox County on Monday, maybe this might be a good time time for the UT Athletics Dept. to declare its own Covid emergency for the rest of the season and, in T.J. Lambert's immortal words declare that we have, “done writ this sumb*tch off.”
2. Play for and make the breaks. When one comes your way … SCORE!
Eric Gray's sparkling performance and Harrison Bailey's TD pass in the closing minutes were the only highlights in an otherwise dismal evening on The Plains.
3. If at first the game – or the breaks – go against you, don’t let up … PUT ON MORE STEAM!
Yeah, whatever.
4. Protect our kickers, our quarterback, our lead and our ballgame.
It is telling that since the Kentucky fiasco, Guaratano has thrown more second half touchdown passes to the other team that to his own receivers.
5. Ball! Oskie! Cover, block, cut and slice, pursue and gang tackle … THIS IS THE WINNING EDGE.
Guarantano's pick six was a stake in the heart for Vol fans from Ducktown to Dyersburg.
6. Press the kicking game. Here is where the breaks are made.
The normally reliable Cimaglia scattered footballs all over Jordan-Hare Stadium, none of which seemed to go where they were needed. His effort at an onside kick was an epic fail.
7. Carry the fight to Aubrin* and keep it there for sixty minutes.
Can we go back to January, hit the reset key, and do 2020 all over?
MAXOMG
© 2020 Keeping Your Stories Alive
Suggested Reading:
Samuel Eliot Morison, History of U.S. Naval Operations, Vol. VII, New Guinea and the Marianas
Theodore Roscoe, United States Destroyer Operations In World War II
Capt. John R. Williamson, "The Twelve Days of the England", US Naval Institute Proceedings, March, 1980
The USS England, 1944 (Naval history and Heritage Command)
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