The US Fleet Trivia Quiz

Answer: F6F Hellcat

The future F6F Hellcat began on the drawing board in late June of 1941, over five months before Pearl Harbor. It had been designed to replace another Grumman naval fighter, the F4F Wildcat which served as the principal Navy fighter for the first half of the war. It took little over two years from the time the contract was first awarded to get the Hellcat into combat. This included incorporating changes to the aircraft from what had been learned since the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Hellcat was faster and more maneuverable than the Wildcat, features that had been added to the Hellcat during the design phase to better counter the Japanese fighter's advantage over the older Grumman aircraft. But like the Wildcat, the Hellcat was a tougher, more heavily armed aircraft than the Zero.

Although the numbers vary, Navy records claim that of about 6,477 enemy planes downed by carrier-borne aircraft, about 4,947 were shot down by Hellcats. This number increases to about 5,155 to 5,163 when land-based Hellcats flown by Marines are added. In contrast, only about 270 Hellcats out of the 12,275 produced were actually lost to enemy action during the war. In other words, the Hellcat earned about a 19:1 kill ratio.

Answer: To provide CAP (Combat Air Patrol) for Task Force 16

Task Force 16 (TF16), consisting of CV-6 USS ENTERPRISE, CA-26 USS NORTHAMPTON, CA-25 USS SALT LAKE CITY, DD-363 USS BALCH, DD-397 USS BENHAM, DD-398 USS ELLET, DD-385 USS FANNING, and AO-25 USS SABINE, set sail from Pearl Harbor on April 8, 1942 on a course that would take it north of Midway for a rendezvous with TF18. TF18 had sailed from San Francisco six days before in order to make the rendezvous on the 13th. Consisting of CV-8 USS HORNET, CA-44 USS VINCENNES, CL-43 USS NASHVILLE, DD-435 USS GRAYSON, DD-433 USS GWIN, DD-434 USS MEREDITH, DD-436 USS MONSSEN, and AO-22 USS CIMARRON, along with 16 Army Air Corps B-25 bombers, TF18 became a part of TF16 after the rendezvous. TF16 then set sail for a point between 400 and 500 hundred miles of the Japanese coast. However, the Doolittle Raiders were forced to launch their raid at about 600-650 miles from the Japanese coast as Japanese patrol boats had been spotted.

Of the two carriers, only planes from ENTERPRISE was able to fly CAP. HORNET's flight deck carried the 16 B-25's used in the raid and so her planes had to be stored on the hangar deck until after the raiders launched. Once the raiders had all launched, HORNET was able to launch her planes as part of the CAP for the task force as it steamed away.

In addition to the ship's listed above, the subs SS-200 USS THRESHER AND SS-202 USS TROUT also received the TF16 Citation, which was awarded May 15, 1995, for their part in the raid.

Answer: The Sullivan Brothers

Though the Navy had a policy of separating family members serving at the same time, there was nothing that made it impossible for family members to serve on the same ship at the same time. According to the Naval Historical Center, references to a "Sullivan Act" in relation to the Sullivan brothers' deaths is a misconception. Though such an act was proposed, it was never enacted by Congress.

However, the deaths of George, Francis, Joseph, Madison, and Albert Sullivan helped bring public attention to the need for regulations known as the Sole Survivor Policy. Under this policy, siblings are protected against the possibility of one or more being lost in combat. One of the more well known cases of the Sole Survivor Policy was the Niland brothers, who also served during the war. Fredrick Niland was returned to the States after brothers Robert and Preston were killed in action (June 6th and 7th respectively) in 1944. Edward Niland was also presumed to have died in action, but was actually a POW in a Japanese camp in Burma.

DD-537 USS THE SULLIVANS had originally been laid down as the PUTNAM in October 1942, but her name was changed February 6, 1943 during construction in honor of the brothers. She was launched April 4th and commissioned September 30, 1943.

Answer: Pennsylvania

BB-38 USS PENNSYLVANIA was the lead ship in the two ship Pennsylvania-class of battleships, her sister was BB-39 USS ARIZONA. While both ships were present during the attack on Pearl Harbor, PENNSYLVANIA was in drydock and did not sustain as much damage as the other battleships. On December 20, 1941 she sailed from Pearl Harbor for San Francisco to undergo repairs which were completed on March 30, 1942. Her first assignment after repairs were completed would be to conduct training operations and patrol the California coast from April 14th to August 1st. During this time Admiral King, the Commander in Chief of the United States Fleet, held ceremonies aboard her on June 4th to award Admiral Nimitz the Distinguished Service Medal for his meritorious service as the Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet from December 31, 1941 to that time. She returned briefly to Hawaii before returning again to California to complete an overhaul that had begun during operations off the California coast.

It would not be until April 23, 1943 that she would be dispatched to Alaska for her first combat operations of the war, taking part in the Aleutian campaign. In addition to the Aleutian campaign, PENNSYLVANIA would also see duty at, among other locations, the Gilbert Islands, the Kwajalein, the Marianas, Guam, the Battle of Surigao Strait, the South China Sea, and Okinawa. On August 12, 1945 she was torpedoed while at anchor in Buckner Bay (the American nickname for Okinawa's Nakagusuku Bay) and forced to depart on August 18th in order to make repairs. This removed her from combat duty for the rest of the war.

After she joined fellow Pearl Harbor survivor BB-36 USS NEVADA as a target vessel in Operation Crossroads, the nuclear weapons tests conducted at Bikini Atoll in 1946. She survived both the Able and Baker tests conducted July 1st and 25th and was then towed to Kwajalein Lagoon to undergo radiological and structural tests. Decommissioned August 29, 1946, she was scuttled off Kwajalein February 10, 1948.

Answer: USS North Carolina

Laid down October 27, 1937, BB-55 USS NORTH CAROLINA, the lead ship in the two ship North Carolina-class, was actually launched thirteen days after her sister ship BB-56 USS WASHINGTON. However, she was commissioned just over a month before the WASHINGTON. On December 7, 1941, she was in the New York Navy Yard as part of her shakedown.

Early in 1942 the Navy issued orders for NORTH CAROLINA to sail immediately for the Pacific theater. However, the threat of the German battleship TRIPITZ forced the Navy to keep her in the Atlantic for several months in case she was needed to counter the German commerce raider. Because of this, NORTH CAROLINA didn't enter service in the Pacific until June 10th.

NORTH CAROLINA's own website points to two places for her nickname of the "Showboat." The first appears to be civilian. During her shakedown, she was in and out of the New York Navy Yard so often that New Yorkers took to calling her "The Showboat" after a popular Broadway musical of the time.

The second source comes from the USS WASHINGTON. Though NORTH CAROLINA and WASHINGTON were commissioned within a little over a month of each other, NORTH CAROLINA was receiving far more public attention than WASHINGTON. Apparently it was something those aboard the WASHINGTON felt was unfair. One Sunday in the fall of 1941 the NORTH CAROLINA radioed the WASHINGTON that she was going to overtake and pass her during a training cruise, and she expected her sister ship to give her full honors. The WASHINGTON's chaplain was in charge of the ship's band at the time and instructed them to play "Here Comes that Showboat" as North Carolina passed by. All would probably have been forgotten if the WASHINGTON's weekly publication hadn't reported on the event and the ship's captain had all copies rounded up and the article removed before the paper was reprinted. The fact that the article was missing ended up spreading through the fleet, helping secure the nickname "Showboat" for the NORTH CAROLINA.

Answer: Destroyer

A Wickes-class destroyer, DD-139 USS WARD was laid down May 15th launched about eighteen days later on June 1st, and commissioned July 24th. All in the same year, 1918. She was in active service just three days shy of three years before being decommissioned July 21, 1921 and being placed in the reserve fleet. In the late 1930s the US began rearming in response to the threat posed by the Axis powers, resulting in the WARD being recommissioned January 15, 1941.

On the morning of December 7th, the WARD was on routine patrol of the entrance to Pearl Harbor when her lookouts spotted a Japanese midget sub trying to enter the harbor. At 6:45 AM she began shelling the sub, eventually putting one shell through its conning tower. This was followed up by the WARD dropping four depth charges on top of the sub as she sank. All of this took place about an hour before the attack on Pearl Harbor began.

Though the WARD started the war as a destroyer, she would not finish it as such. February 6, 1943, after undergoing a conversion at the Puget Sound Navy Yard in Bremerton, Washington, she was re-designated as APD-16, a high speed transport. The WARD was struck by a Japanese kamikaze on December 7, 1944. It was three years since she had sunk the midget sub just before the start of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The resulting fire was unable to be extinguished and her task group commander ordered her sunk. In an ironic twist of fate, the commander of the destroyer who sunk the WARD, Lieutenant Commander William W. Outerbridge, had been commanding her December 7, 1941.

Answer: Avenger

Both Grumman and Vought were awarded contracts to produce a replacement for the of the aging Douglas TBD Devastator. The results were the Grumman TBF Avenger and the Vought TBU Sea Wolf. While Grumman would have to turn over production of the Avenger to General Motors in 1943 so as to focus on the Hellcat, Vought was unable to meet production of the Sea Wolf and thus most Sea Wolves were produced by Consolidated as TBYs.

Though the Avenger made it's debut at Midway, few Avengers were present at the time and thus the US torpedo planes at Midway were largely the older Devastators. However, the Avenger would eventually become the pre-eminent US torpedo plane of the war.

Answer: PT-109

PT-109 was laid down March 4, 1942, launched a little over three months later on June 20th, and delivered to the Navy about twenty days later on July 10th. She first saw action in the Pacific on the night of December 7-8, 1942 after recon reports placed eight Japanese destroyers traveling though the passage between New Georgia and Santa Isabel, also known as the "slot."

In addition to Thom, Albert, and Maguire, PT-109's crew on her final mission included Ensign George H. R. Ross, Gunner's Mate 3rd Class Charles A. Harris, Motor Machinist's Mate 2nd Class William Johnston, Torpedoman's Mate 2nd Class Andrew Jackson Kirksey, Motor Machinist?s Mate 2nd Class Harold William Marney, Quartermaster 3rd Class Edman Edgar Mauer, Motor Machinist's Mate 1st Class Patrick H. McMahon, Torpedoman's Mate 2nd Class Ray L. Starkey, and Motor Machinist's Mate 1st Class Gerard Emil Zinser. And of course the boats commander, Lieutenant Junior Grade John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

After the rescue of the PT-109 survivors, Kennedy was given command of PT-59 in September of that year until November 18, 1943.

Answer: USS Samuel B. Roberts

Samuel B. Roberts Jr. had joined the Navy reserve April 13, 1939 and served until his death September 28, 1942. On September 27th, 1942, he volunteered to rescue a group of Marines, which included the then Lieutenant Colonel Lewis "Chesty" Puller, who had become stranded on Guadalcanal and were facing an overwhelming Japanese force.

When the resuce group came under fire, Roberts volunteered his boat to serve as a decoy, which allowed the group to succesfully rescue the trapped Marines. However, before his boat could withdraw, it was hit by enemy fire and Roberts was mortally wounded. Though his boatmates managed to get him back to safety and he was placed on a medical evacuation flight, he died the next day from the wounds he had recieved. For his actions during the rescue mission, the Navy posthoumously awarded him the Navy Cross.

The Navy has also named three different ships for him, the John C. Butler-class destroyer escort DE-413 USS SAMUEL B. ROBERTS, the Gearing-class destroyer DD-823 USS SAMUEL B. ROBERTS, and the Oliver Hazard Perry-clas frigate FFG-58 USS SAMUEL B. ROBERTS.

Answer: USS New Orleans

A Navy Chaplain, Forgy was a Lieutenant Junior Grade at the time of the Peral Harbor attack, having been commissioned as such in October of 1940. According to Andy Gura, a Navy Reservist aboard CA-32 USS NEW ORLEANS at the time, Lt. Forgy ran to one of the cruiser's five inch guns when General Quarters was sounded. There, as a means of encouraging the ammunition chain gang, he shouted "Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!" And whenever the men became exhausted he would shout the now famous quote to encourage them to keep going. As a Chaplain, Forgy was unable to man the gun himself so the best he could do was to offer moral support for those who could. He would serve through the rest of the war and would be promoted to the rank of Commander in November of 1945.

The heavy cruiser USS NEW ORLEANS suffered no damage during the battle, though some of her crew were injured by a fragmentation bomb that exploded near by. The lead ship of her class, NEW ORLEANS was a part of USS YORKTOWN's task force at the the Battle of the Coral Sea where she helped to save survivors of the mortally wounded carrier USS LEXINGTON. On May 28th she departed Pearl Harbor as part of the screening force for the USS Enterprise, bound for Miday. There she would rendezvous with USS YORKTOWN on June 2nd.

On November 30, 1942 NEW ORLEANS lost her bow to a torpedo while trying to avoid collision with another NEW ORLEANS-class heavy cruiser, USS MINNEAPOLIS, in the Battle of Tassafaronga. Her crew managed to keep her afloat and sailed her to Tulagi Harbor where her crew rigged a bow out of coconut tree logs. From there she sailed to Sydney Australia to replace a damaged propellor and make other repairs before sailing to Puget Sound Navy Yard in March, 1943. NEW ORLEANS served the entire war in the Pacific Theater and would be decommissioned February 10, 1947. In September 1959 she was sold for scrap.