Tag: Turkey

selected WWII warships in NATO-era Turkey’s fleet

jwh19754 Comments

As a loose theme, these are somehow unique WWII warships which served in the Cold War-era Turkish navy. That in itself is not particularly odd, as there was a stretch during the 1970s when practically the entire Turkish fleet was surplus WWII warships. However I selected these as I feel there is some unique trait: either what they were; or; how Turkey (neutral during WWII) ended up getting them.

(The netlayer TCG Kaldiray started WWII as Sansin, a warship of the French navy. It was part of the Vichy Levantine squadron’s interned flotilla along with TCG Akar described below. It served Turkey until 1975.)

Read More »

last voyage of TCG Kocatepe 1974

jwh197510 Comments

Fratricide, sometimes called “blue-blue” or in colloquial civilian “friendly fire”, has been a terrible and unfortunately, not completely avoidable aspect of warfare probably as long as organized conflict has existed.

During WWII the ranges over which naval battles were undertaken expanded immensely, and the first steps to develop electronic technologies allowing battle without hitting visually-unseen friendly assets were started.

Since WWII, from time to time this has still been a challenge. An added burden is rare instances when antagonists are using the same warships, aircraft, and electronics – as during the 1974 Cyprus conflict.

harwoodearly

(USS Harwood (DD-861) during WWII.)

kocatepeattack

(TCG Kocatepe, the ex-USS Harwood, on fire during the 1974 Cyprus conflict.)

Read More »

the Krali Marko Line

jwh19756 Comments

One of the more remarkable re-uses of WWII tanks was Bulgaria’s Krali Marko defensive line along its southeast border during the Cold War.

panzer4

(Bulgarian Panzer IV and T-34 tanks.)

uniconbgCom

(T-34 turret in the Krali Marko Line.) (photo via uniconbg website)

panzer4a

(Panzer IV after being exhumed out of the Krali Marko Line during the 2010s.)

Read More »

sunset of naval netlaying after WWII

jwh19759 Comments

Some changes to the US Navy after WWII were both readily apparent and abrupt. The carrier-based warplane replaced battleship gunnery as the most potent offense at sea. Smokescreen-laying, an important art for destroyer captains in 1939, was more or less moot ten years later due to the near-universal fitting of radar on warships. And so on.

The decline of naval defensive nets after WWII was neither fast, nor with a simple explanation. In the US Navy the discipline sort of just quietly went away, slowly, over a period of about 15 – 20 years…yet, the decline was unmistakable even as soon as WWII’s end in 1945.

Little is said as to how or why naval nets vanished, or what happened to the US Navy’s many net warfare ships after WWII. So perhaps this will be of value.

pinoncherbourg

(USS Pinon (AN-66) hauls in a German anti-submarine net at Cherbourg, France following the city’s liberation during WWII.)

butternut

(An inert Polaris ballistic missile being launched in 1963 from a buoyant test cylinder tended by USS Butternut (AN-9), a WWII veteran net ship.)

seperacion1990s

(The Dominican Republic navy’s Separación, which had been USS Passaconaway (AN-86) during WWII, during the 1990s.)

Read More »

WWII CVEs into AKVs: Korean & Vietnam wars

jwh197517 Comments

cover2card

(USS Card departs San Francisco, CA with a load of F-102 Delta Dagger fighters on the wooden WWII flight deck. The supersonic F-102 was based at home, at overseas airbases in Japan, West Germany, and the Philippines; and during the Vietnam War in South Vietnam. It was also exported to Greece and Turkey.)

After WWII, some of the US Navy’s escort carriers were converted for aircraft ferry use. While not the most glamorous mission, they filled an important niche in the use of American airpower during the Cold War.

Read More »