[HN Gopher] The USS William D. Porter: The Unluckiest Ship in WWII
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The USS William D. Porter: The Unluckiest Ship in WWII
Author : hubraumhugo
Score : 133 points
Date : 2021-12-25 10:48 UTC (12 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.usna63.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.usna63.org)
| snedfree wrote:
| the wikipedia article on this boat is throws a fair amount of
| cold water on the narrative presented here
| TedDoesntTalk wrote:
| It may be more accurate in this particular case, but please
| don't assume Wikipedia is always correct.
| metabagel wrote:
| I think we can now safely say that Wikipedia is highly likely
| to be more accurate than almost any other internet source. We
| shouldn't feel uncomfortable citing it, nor should it be
| necessary to include a disclaimer every time we do.
| dbcurtis wrote:
| "More accurate than the internet."
|
| I want that on a tee shirt.
| [deleted]
| ethbr0 wrote:
| * for articles on popular and well-documented topics
|
| On the other hand, once you get off into the weeds (dead-
| tree citations, thinly visited articles), Wikipedia's
| reliability alters significantly.
|
| Unfortunately, it's not always clear which sort of article
| you're reading.
| srvmshr wrote:
| Further corroborative article to Wikipedia that gives a truer
| picture of history surrounding USS William D. Porter. Unlike
| the anecdata in this post, this counters with actual ship logs,
| recorded conversations, and ship schematics:
|
| https://uncommonsenseok.blogspot.com/2020/02/uss-william-d-p...
|
| OP's article is a spiced up, gossip laden naval lore - the
| types you expect from navymen banter in pubs & watering holes.
| traeregan wrote:
| It's lacking in comedy, but another unlucky WWII vessel was the
| USS Sturtevant. It succumbed to an unfortunate sort of friendly
| fire.
|
| > _USS Sturtevant (DD-240) was escorting a convoy off Key West,
| Florida on 26 April 1942, when the ship unknowingly sailed into
| an American minefield. The ship struck several mines within
| minutes and broke into three sections._
|
| Source:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_US_Navy_ships_sunk_or_...
| lnxg33k1 wrote:
| Is it nice to read stuff from first-hand sources like a website
| designed when the thing happened :look: :D
| sandworm101 wrote:
| This ship's story isn't unusual. Every ship during WWII was a
| safety nightmare. Fratricide was common. So too were dangerous
| navigation errors. Every weapon system was one checklist item
| away from a deadly mistake (ie torpedo primers being the only
| safety mechanism during a drill). We wax nostalgic for all the
| heroes of WWII, but by today's standards a WWII crew was a bunch
| of under-trained kids manning extremely dangerous equipment. Such
| are the needs of war.
| kennystone wrote:
| They shot a live torpedo at FDR. Not the usual.
| mastax wrote:
| Given it happened in November 1943, it may have been one of
| the first truely live mk14 torpedoes ;)
| sandworm101 wrote:
| Once upon a time every military asset operated with live
| rounds. There were no "training" rounds in wartime. What
| happened in the OP was someone missed a step in an otherwise
| very normal drill. Want to really scare yourself? Google
| around for "broken arrows", live nuclear weapons that went
| missing. Most all of them were live rounds being carried
| during training. Something went wrong and that live nuke
| ended up in a field or at the bottom of a lake.
| hutzlibu wrote:
| "but by today's standards a WWII crew was a bunch of under-
| trained kids manning extremely dangerous equipment. "
|
| In nazi germany in the end, it was literal kids.
| missedthecue wrote:
| Calvin Graham was a US navy servicemember in world war two
| who was awarded the bronze star and purple heart at age 12.
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_Graham
| tharkun__ wrote:
| Reminds me of this film. "Die Brucke" (the bridge)
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Br%C3%BCcke_(film)
|
| Not exactly the same but heart wrenching (and gut spilling).
| IIRC we watched this in history class once.
| mgarfias wrote:
| I once knew a Japanese dude, older guy, now dead. As a kid
| (like 12-13) he was conscripted by the Japanese military and
| made to flight test aircraft.
| ezequiel-garzon wrote:
| Does anybody know why reader mode on Safari shows only two divs
| towards the end of the article? For all the cool features the
| iPhone brings, I wish they focused more on getting this right.
| KarlKemp wrote:
| This is the xpath for the last paragraph. I don't know Safari's
| reader mode fails here, but find it more remarkable that its
| normal mode works: /html/body/div/div/div/div/div/div/div/div/d
| iv/div/div/div/div/div/div/div/div/div/div/div/div/div/div/div/
| div/div/div/div/div/div/div/div/div/div/div/div/div/div/div/div
| /div/div/div/font[1]
| kayodelycaon wrote:
| Awesome. Anyone finding this entertaining, may I recommend
| Drachinifel's The Russian 2nd Pacific squadron - voyage of the
| Damned.
|
| "The Kamchatka announced it was sinking, which lead to much
| rejoicing amongst the fleet."
|
| https://youtu.be/9Mdi_Fh9_Ag
| lostlogin wrote:
| I enjoyed Spike Milligan's biography of his time in the army.
| To put it mildly, it's rather funny.
|
| Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall
| Suchos wrote:
| Also more humorous take on this clusterfuck of voyage by
| Bluejay. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzGqp3R4Mx4
| sq_ wrote:
| Drachinifel's content is amazing. In particular, I love his
| video on the sinking of HMS Hood [0], his videos on Jutland
| [1], and his way of working some humor into what he does as
| with the Kamchatka and the title on his video about surviving
| the sinking of a ship [2]. Have learned a ton from his channel
| and had a great time doing it!
|
| [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLPeC7LRqIY [1]
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkR2HpkrJ2c [2]
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbX8rJMI9GM
| _0ffh wrote:
| Yeah, that one's much better! Also more historically accurate
| it seems, as many of the claims in the article seem to be of a
| rather dubious origin and may be little more than yarn.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IceFeFsS_GY
| gmcharlt wrote:
| And even more skepticism regarding the original article:
| https://uncommonsenseok.blogspot.com/2020/02/uss-william-
| d-p...
| ifdefdebug wrote:
| This should be on the front page, not the other one.
| boomboomsubban wrote:
| "I accidentally shot at the President, how unlucky of me."
| hubraumhugo wrote:
| From Roosevelt's personal log: "Had that torpedo hit the Iowa in
| the right spot with her passenger list of distinguished
| statesmen, military, naval, and aerial strategists and planners,
| it could have had untold effect on the outcome of the war and the
| destiny of the country."
| nopenopenopeno wrote:
| >it could have had untold effect on the outcome of the war
|
| Unlikely. The Soviets defeated the Nazis and nobody outside the
| Anglosphere questions this fact. FDR was a decent president at
| home, but the collaborationism of the British and U.S.
| leadership (see Churchill's prioritizing of international trade
| relations via gold standard) meant their offense was _very_
| late to the table and more focused on claiming victory than
| fighting for it.
|
| >and the destiny of the country
|
| Possibly for the better. The AFL-CIO pact was a wreck for
| working Americans. At the end of the day, FDR was exactly what
| he claimed to be: "capitalism's best friend."
| graeme wrote:
| The Soviets didn't defeat the Japanese though, and they
| benefitted substantially from American supplies. As did the
| British, which kept the Nazis occupied in North Africa, in
| the air, and elsewhere.
|
| Anglosphere people underrate the Soviet contribution but it's
| not clear the Soviets could have done it alone.
|
| Though in fairness, by November 1943 when the torpedo attack
| happened perhaps they could have.
| _0ffh wrote:
| Lmao! If he was a friend of capitalism, he could have let his
| actions speak for themselves. To the contrary, FDR's economic
| policies bordered on outright, open corporatism. He
| obstructed and stymied the free market at every opportunity.
| Some of his policies were so overreaching that SCOTUS
| nullified them as unconstitutional. With "friends" like that,
| who needs enemies?
| [deleted]
| jstx1 wrote:
| The same story with a comedy take from The Dollop podcast -
| https://allthingscomedy.com/podcasts/23---the-willie-dee
| Symmetry wrote:
| It was also on The Memory Palace a few years ago.
|
| https://thememorypalace.us/safe-passage/
| [deleted]
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(page generated 2021-12-25 23:01 UTC)