Assignment on ship during sailor career in ww2

[nicolas75]

Hello

 

I have several questions about sailors tours on ship during ww2

 

- By example, if you're drafted in 1942 and are assigned on a special destroyer, do you stay on this ship till the war is over ?

 

- I have seen that sometimes, sailors have in their ww2 career been in 2 different ships. Which decision could make sailors assigned to an other ship ? lack of sailors for an other ship ? promotion ? i guess it's a mess if you took someone to criss cross between ships ...

 

- When a new ship is launched i guess the complement is fill with fresh recruits with some experienced officers ?

 

- Are the sailors already taught to act as mechanic, cooking etc ... before entering the ship complement ?

 

- Was there like in the Army a reserve corps in the US Coast guards during ww2 ?

 

- Last question, in which extend the US Coast guards had an implement of personnel during ww2 ?

 

Thanks and have a nice day

[Dave]

Hello

 

I have several questions about sailors tours on ship during ww2

 

- By example, if you're drafted in 1942 and are assigned on a special destroyer, do you stay on this ship till the war is over ?

 

- I have seen that sometimes, sailors have in their ww2 career been in 2 different ships. Which decision could make sailors assigned to an other ship ? lack of sailors for an other ship ? promotion ? i guess it's a mess if you took someone to criss cross between ships ...

 

- When a new ship is launched i guess the complement is fill with fresh recruits with some experienced officers ?

 

- Are the sailors already taught to act as mechanic, cooking etc ... before entering the ship complement ?

 

Thanks and have a nice day

 

To answer some of your questions about the Navy from my experience researching a couple of ship's crews during WW2...

 

1. If you were assigned to a ship during the War as a junior Sailor, you would remain on that ship for the duration of the War. However, as a more experienced Sailor, or as an officer, you may have further schooling and reassignment to another ship during the course of the War...there are examples of everything during the War though...junior Sailors switching ships, officers staying on the same ship, etc...no real hard and fast rules during the War years. It wasn't difficult to transfer people between ships. Orders were sent out to have the person report to the new ship, and that was that.

 

2. When a new ship was launched, the crew was ususally a mix of experienced and new Sailors. Obviously some of the more senior Sailors (senior Petty Officers and Chiefs) would have been on other ships before, and some of the officers as well. However, unlike other countries, our technical expertise is resident in our Sailors - officers are more managerial. So, while there were some experienced officers (like the Commanding Officer, Executive Officer, and Department Heads) often the Division Officers would be new or nearly new officers with little to no experience. In the case of one ship I studied, none of the crew had actually been in combat during WW2 (this was in 1943), but they did have Navy experience, with some of the senior enlisted personnel and officers having 20+ years of service in the Navy...they had just never been in combat at sea before.

 

3. Yes, before a Sailor would arrive on the ship, they would be trained in their "rate". Some had more training than others, obviously. If someone was a specialist in a certain gun system or sonar operator, they would have a specialized school for that skill that may be quite long. Others would have shorter schools, and for some, they may only receive a small "indoctrination" period into the aspect of their rate before reporting to the ship, and they would be expected to learn the details of their rate while on the ship.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Dave

[Salvage Sailor]

Aye Dave,

 

It was quite common for a veteran ship's complement to be split up inbetween deployments to provide cadre for a new crew (especially among destroyer sailors). These men would quite often be reassigned by "the needs of the navy" while their ship was in the yards or drydock, while attending schools ashore, or after the conclusion of their 'survivors leave' if their previous ship went down.

 

This cadre would provide the enlisted backbone of a newly commissioned ship, which was then fleshed out with new recruits and green junior officers as the plankowners (commissioning) crew.

[sigsaye]

Most Sailors of the WW2 era did not receive any formal rate training. It was Boot Camp and then a ship. Those who were selected for specialized training in electronics or mechanics would be sent to further training, but most learned their job On the Job. This system actually continued on for several years after the war. My father was assigned to a Cruiser in China in 1947. 180 men that he graduated boot camp with were all assigned to the same ship to make up shortages due to post war discharges. His group was marched to the ship and formed on the fan tail between the air craft catapults. The night before, the XO had taken a list to the Chiefs Mess letting each Chief aboard the ship know how many of the new men each one could have, with the remainder going to the Chief Boatswains Mate. Then by seniority, the chiefs pick out the men they wanted, basically by looking at them. The Chief Quartermaster picked my father. My father did not want to be a QM, and tried to explain to the Chief that he was not good enough at math to learn navigation and would not be a good QM. The Chief told him that he was not concerned with that and did not care if my father ever learned to be a QM. He was chosen because he was skinney with long arms and could get behind the chart table and other narrow nooks and crannies to clean and shine bright work.

 

A friend of mine who had enlisted in 1939 and was a BM2 on the USS Pensacola when the war started said that after P-Cola was badley damaged by a torpedo and was forced to return to San Francisco for dry docking, two thirds of the crew was transfered to new construction ships to form the experience core for new crews. he was assigned to USS Wisconsin. This was the norm.

 

There is a book about the USS Abercromdie which was a DE, writen by her XO. He writes that only he, one Chief and two PO1s were the only men on board who had any experience. All other officers, Chiefs and Petty Officers, including the CO were reserves with minimum sea time. the rest of the vrew were all Seamen Second Class whose names all started with the letter "W". A manning officer had simply counted out the number of service records from a filing cabinet that would fill out a DE crew and sent them to the same ship. By the way, the ship was in ever major fight from 1943 on, shot down 5 japanese planes and suffered no damage or casualities.

 

The Coast Guard of WW2 was trained the same as the Navy and they had (and still do have) a reserve component.

 

Steve Hesson

[TLHSS]

My father's service in WWII was as Steve describes .... He went from boot to ship, and learned his "rate" on-board ship.

 

During battle stations, his duty changed to a member of a 3 man boat crew (he was on an AKA). He did receive some training for this duty on Tuluga prior to the invasion of Okinawa (his first and last combat assignment).

 

Tim

[nicolas75]

Thanks all for your answers

[KeithL]

Thanks all for your answers

My grandfather went to school after boot camp. He was in fire control. His first job was above the 40mm mount directing fire. Later he was below decks in a fire control center.

 

He was going stateside on VJ day to attend another fire control school. That would have resulted in him being assigned to another ship. He was a plank owner on his ship the USS Knapp and remained with her until he started back to go to school in 8/45.

 

Pop was an old man on the ship. He was in his twenties. He wasn't a sailor before the war though. The rest of the crew was just a lot younger. His first commander did have combat experience, but I don't know about the rest of the crew. I doubt that many had seen combat.

[gpw_42]

Are there any recommended books which detail life aboard a Naval ship (preferably in WW2)? I'm thinking something comparable to Sledge's "With the Old Breed" (ok, that might be setting the bar high...) but I'm interested in learning more about this. My grandfather was a Watertender in the Navy in WW2, and I've been crawling around battlewagons since I was little.

 

Thanks,

Steve

[kjones5452]

Are there any recommended books which detail life aboard a Naval ship (preferably in WW2)? I'm thinking something comparable to Sledge's "With the Old Breed" (ok, that might be setting the bar high...) but I'm interested in learning more about this. My grandfather was a Watertender in the Navy in WW2, and I've been crawling around battlewagons since I was little.

 

Thanks,

Steve

Go to Amazon.com ,type in tin can sailor (title of the book) this one and a bunch more

pop up.Enjoy. :thumbsup:

[KeithL]

Go to Amazon.com ,type in tin can sailor (title of the book) this one and a bunch more

pop up.Enjoy. :thumbsup:

Try the US Naval Institute Press. They published Tina Can Sailor and the Blue Jackets Manual. Great place for navy books.

Keith

[topdcnut]

Things may have changed but the Naval Inst. did not seem to be too good on out of print titles. Your best bet is to get recomendations here and look for the books at ABEBOOKS.com

John

[topdcnut]

Ohh, as a tincan sailor I hope that tina can sailor was a fatfinger typo?

[David F]

the rest of the vrew were all Seamen Second Class whose names all started with the letter "W". A manning officer had simply counted out the number of service records from a filing cabinet that would fill out a DE crew and sent them to the same ship.

 

Steve Hesson

 

I had to chuckle with this. My Grandfather, an Aviation Metalsmith Third Class, said that he ended up in the Navy in a much similar fashion. His story was that when he reported to the induction station, he was lined up alphabetically. A headcount walked down the line and when he hit his needed number he said, "You're Army", "You on back, you're Navy"

 

Dave

[67Rally]

Are there any recommended books which detail life aboard a Naval ship (preferably in WW2)? I'm thinking something comparable to Sledge's "With the Old Breed" (ok, that might be setting the bar high...) but I'm interested in learning more about this. My grandfather was a Watertender in the Navy in WW2, and I've been crawling around battlewagons since I was little.

 

 

Thanks,

Steve

 

 

Battleship at War by Ivan Musicant does a great job detailing the life aboard ship.

 

The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors and Ship of Ghosts: The Story of the USS Houston by Jim Hornfischer are very good books. The latter spends the majority of the time on the tragedies after the Houston's sinking.

[sigsaye]

Battleship at War by Ivan Musicant does a great job detailing the life aboard ship.

 

The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors and Ship of Ghosts: The Story of the USS Houston by Jim Hornfischer are very good books. The latter spends the majority of the time on the tragedies after the Houston's sinking.

Also "Pacific War Diary" by Fahey. Fahey was a Seaman who served aboard USS Mountpielier, a Light Cruiser from 1942 to 1945 and kept a diary. Straight forward life aboard ship as you can get.

 

Steve Hesson

[KeithL]

Ohh, as a tincan sailor I hope that tina can sailor was a fatfinger typo?

Damn, it sure was a fat finger typo.

The book was released in paperback by NIP in March. I didn't realize until I got it that it had been published previously.

Keith

[Garandomatic]

Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors and Ship of Ghosts are Excellent. My little town has some personal connections to both stories. One man from this town was on the Houston and died at Camp 100 Kilo. Excellent books. Last Stand was one of the things that made me want to collect WWII Navy.

 

In terms of transfers, I know a sub vet, and have seen his discharge papers, and he was on 7 or more different subs. He was a torpedoman, and basically skipped around different war patrols. He was on the Wahoo for one, and I think the Gudgeon (if memory serves) prior to both ships' sinkings. Lucky fella.

[67Rally]

Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors and Ship of Ghosts are Excellent. My little town has some personal connections to both stories. One man from this town was on the Houston and died at Camp 100 Kilo. Excellent books. Last Stand was one of the things that made me want to collect WWII Navy.

 

In terms of transfers, I know a sub vet, and have seen his discharge papers, and he was on 7 or more different subs. He was a torpedoman, and basically skipped around different war patrols. He was on the Wahoo for one, and I think the Gudgeon (if memory serves) prior to both ships' sinkings. Lucky fella.

 

 

Ship of Ghosts doesn't really help to answer the original question since that story is about the USS Houston and details the lives of a handful of the survivors and what they endured after the sinking in early '42.

 

Jim Hornfischer is a friend of mine btw, and has a new book due to come out regarding the naval battles in the waters surrounding Savo/Guadalcanal islands sometime this year.

[sigsaye]

And again, there were those who for what ever reason got a school.. I was just reading a vet account that he enlisted in '42 and after Boot Camp was sent to engineering schools and graduated as an MM2. His first ship was a four stacker after a couple of Atlantic patrols, he ended up on aNew DD in the Pacific which was sunk. He got out at the end of the war as an MM1, back in in '50 as an MM1 and medicaled out in '53 as an MM1.

 

I used to have a guy whose last name was Howard who was a Houston Survivor come into my restaurant every day for lunch and to drink coffee with the other Old Salts that took to hanging around. He never talked of his three years as a "Guest of the

Empire of Japan", but talked for hours about the pre war Navy and Java, Borneo, the Houston and how great it all was before the war. After he got home, he said he just sort of faded off into the woods (we live in Kentucky) and had a hard time getting it all together again. Said he should have stayed in the Navy so he could be around guys that had some clue about what he'd been through and maybe it wouldn't have taken him so long to come to his senses. Good Guy like all of them were. Had a guy who went in in '40 as a Seaman and was Chief BM by '44 and offered Warrant Officer at the end of the war, but turned it down and got out. Dewey went in as a Seaman in Jan '42, and became a Signalman riding cans in the Atlantic. He was an SM1 when the war ended, but admitted to making each rate more than once and being far from ever qualifying for a Good Conduct Medal.

 

Steve Hesson

[henry2]

my dad was a Gunners Mate first class when the war ended .. i asked once about becomeing a chief and he made the comment had to good of time in Pearl to be able to make chief .. only when i got older and joined the military myself did i understand that comment about not beening able to keep rank at times..