Atlantic Fleet transfers post Pearl Harbor

[Sean Hert]

Gee, all I wanted to know was-

"Oh my, lookit all them sunked ships. Whatever are we to do?"

"I know, let's steal some from Adm King!"

So, which, if any, transferred fleets.

Me and my big mouth...

[ar]

I'm not trying to keep it simple. There are times when KISS will bite you on the butt.

*IF* a unit was built on the east coast, but even before commissioning was intended for service in the Pacific Fleet, do you count that as a transfer from the Atlantic to the Pacific fleet? That's all I'm asking.

If you do not want to keep it simple then that is your choice.
All I see that matters is what I have said in my previous posting. Total numbers from one date to another. That's what I believe the man wants.
If not, then he will say so, maybe?

[Tracy White]

So, Sean, what would you consider the "deadline" for it to have been stolen deom King following the attack. A month? Two? Six????? THREE AND A HALF YEARS???????? The world wonders......

[Rick E Davis]

Alan,

You are asking for Order-of-Battle for the USN on three specific dates. There are listings of the Order-of-Battle for the USN in both the Atlantic and Pacific on 7 December 1941 ... even available on-line. I'm not aware of seeing a published listing of Order-of-Battle for the end of June 1942 or end of September 1942. Likely there are official records for that information ... I just don't know where it would be located. Many ships were delivered to the USN during this period, but they needed time to go through shakedown, refits and crew training before heading to the war. Many of the ships built on the East Coast served in the Atlantic temporarily as escorts in convoys or on special missions to Europe before heading to the Pacific. What I'm getting at, the movements of ships were quite fluid and tracking which ship was where and when and if they were "combat-ready" is quite a task.

An example are the Benson/Gleaves ships I listed above. The four DesDiv 22 ships went to the Pacific in January 1942. (And other earlier classes of Destroyers were moved back to the West Coast as well.) The first of the "new" construction Benson/Gleaves units headed for the Pacific in May 1942. In the other direction, the surviving Asiatic Destroyers were refitted as escorts and sent to the Atlantic. Aircraft Carriers and Battleships are easy to track ... it gets a little busy with Cruisers and real busy with the Destroyers.

The listing I provided shows that the delivery of new Destroyer construction was painfully slow to the needs. But it does give a good idea of the priorities given to countering the U-Boat menace that was a BIG problem in early 1942. Of the six Benson/Gleaves commissioned in June 1942, two went to the Pacific and the rest to the Atlantic. The Fletchers started to be delivered in June, but didn't start arriving in the Pacific until September/October. Even then the movement of Fletchers to the Pacific was slowed/delayed so that most of those available at the time were sent to support the North Africa Invasion.

[ar]

I chose the three dates as being pertinent. The man may wish to have different ones looked at. Either way, it will be an interesting exercise for him, and when done, we will all know more than now.

[Tracy White]

Alan, he's a Pearl Harbor researcher. I asked him to answer Sean's question as he's been forthcoming with answers before and is quite knowledgable regarding the attack and its aftermath.

You lack e-mail, I suspect, to keep people from hounding you for help on their projects. Lord knows enough people have offered help. I think it a bit rude under the circumstances to take an answer and almost demand the author do more work. If this were an institute of higher learning or training for Army Special Forces I could see it..... but a lot of the experts who weigh in here have other things they could be doing.

[ar]

In my last post I was referring to Mr Hert doing some small research, not Mr Arroyo who I have known for over a quarter of a Century.
After thinking about the matter, I remembered seeing (what I call) the assignment sheets. Similar to the RNs Pink lists, and published every month I believe. I know these exist because I had two sets, one dated December 1941 and the other dated June 1945. They contain the make-up of every division and squadron in the navy. These must have been published on a monthly basis, as the Pink lists were.
I don't have these documents anymore, having passed them over to a person who is writing a volume on USN camouflage in WW11.
A call to Naval Historical in DC by Mr Hert should produce some results.
To Mr Hert;this is the section where a question can be given a detailed answer and discussion. Do not be put out by the replies you are getting.

PS Admiral King was replaced as CinC Atlantic right after Pearl Harbor.

[Tracy White]

So noted.

I'll have to look Alan, I've seen such a list (or lists) at Seattle NARA but I do not remember the dates. It was a 90-some-odd page document, so I never seriously considered scanning and converting it. Text is OK, but 90+ pages of tables would drive me mad!

[ar]

There you go. It's all there, what ships were in which division/group/squadron and when, and...... on a monthly basis. Could not be better.
The USN version of the RN Pink lists.

[Tracy White]

No, What I saw was a regional archives branch. It contains (amongst other things) records for the Commandant of the 13th Naval District, Pacific Northwest. Com13 didn't receive anything on the atlantic fleet unless it was to be used for comparison.

Looking over my notes (of which I lost one research session of, so this may not be complete with what I've seen or what is at the archives) I remember now that there were a couple of BIG pieces and then monthly/quarter reports of JUST THE CHANGES, with instructions for adds and removes. I think it was just for Pacific Fleet though, not the whole fleet.