APA project

[DrPR]

The railings/lifelines look normal to me. Perhaps there is some confusion because there are two lifelines, one outboard around the edge of the deck at the hull sides, and another a few feet inboard around the well deck. At the right picture angle the inboard railing may look like an upper extension of the outboard railing.

****

Merchant ships in a convoy might carry depth charges that they could drop on command from the sonar equipped escort vessels. Movies may it look like submarine attacks on convoys happen quickly, but both the subs and ships were fairly slow moving and the distances relatively long. If an escort detected a sub close to a merchant ship it could order the merchant to drop depth charges. If nothing else it would give the sub something else to think about and interrupt the attack.

I wonder if near the end of WWII LCMs and other landing craft were fitted with a depth charge as a precaution against suicide swimmers and guided torpedoes? The Japanese were preparing to attack the invasion fleet in this way. The shock wave from an exploding depth charge would kill or disable swimmers or the crew of suicide torpedoes for some distance.

When our ship went into harbors in Vietnam we posted guards with rifles and hand grenades on swimmer watch, and if they saw any sign of bubbles from a swimmer they tossed a few grenades overboard. My bunk was against the hull, and when a grenade went off nearby it made quite a bang. Waking up like that you immediately wonder if the ship was hit by an artillery round or mine!

Phil

[Fliger747]

Phil:

As always thank you for the interesting sea stories! I have my Dad's USN MK II Kbar he was issued off Okinawa a possible defense against swimmer/boarders at night. A lot of the LSM's had extra automatic weapons spaced on light steel tripods along the deck. The photos I have seen were covered so I am guessing they were 50 BMG's. Though the ready ammo boxes nearby were the standard 20 mm types. I find it interesting that these small ships made trans Pacific voyages under the capable command sometimes of an USNR Ensign. The occasional Lt Cmdr was a "flotilla commander". Pascal had a photo showing a tanker armed with K guns on the fantail! Maybe my only experience similar to the Alligator Navy was the Tugboat Navy. A Fleet Tug like Tatunck was sort of real Navy, but the harbor tugs with the Indian names like Sebeda (Sp?) were more like a family. Good Coffee! We had a Motormech who was a Philipino about every other sentence was punctuated by "Goddam Sibilians", Really nice guy but he like to hide out in his engine room!

You must have been considered a "bright guy" to be a "Captain/Ensign".

Regards: Tom

[Fliger747]

Small progress yesterday: Designed, printed and installed USN Mk 5 Smoke Generator on the fantail and two small davits on the port side superstructure deck. The smoke generators usually featured a quick release lever such that the unit could be jettisoned overboard easily. My understanding, such as it is, was that if shutdown improperly a fire could result. The LSM's had a single small generator, but lots of standby oil drums suggesting that prolonged operation off a beachhead was anticipated. Off Okinawa smoking the invasion area was tried as a Kamikaze defense, till someone climbed a mast and discovered the forest of masts was clearly visible and the smoke merely interfering with AA defense. PT Boats sometimes used a small unit that fit on the depth charge rack and could be jettisoned that way.

[DrPR]

Tom,

I was "Officer In Charge" of an old minesweeper for about a month while I was an Ensign. But it wasn't what it sounds like. The minesweeper I was assigned to was decommissioned, and that left me with the Mine Squadron for about six weeks until my next billet opened up (USS Oklahoma City). The Squadron had no billet for me, and rather than give me a month of paid vacation they made up the "Officer In Charge for Decommissioning" title for another ship being decommissioned. When I arrived there was a big hole in the deck and the engines were gone. My first (and last) command, and not at sea!

Phil

[Fliger747]

In the Amphibious fleet right after the war there were a lot of reserve ensigns that probably thanked their stars they had no chance to run their "command" aground or any of the other hazards common to seafaring while the disposal bureaucracy slowly ground along. My recollection was the orders of the time carried a summary of the "points" each transferee had accumulated towards separation. Thank you as always for your interesting and informative posts!

Regards! Tom

[Fliger747]

USN Mk5 Smoke generator, mounted on the fantail of the LSM, starboard side. The APA had four cylinders on each side, the LSM just one, but was supplied with a considerable number of oil drums to feed this device, suggesting considerable use was expected.

Tom

[Iceman 29]

Incredible these details, Tom, the camera has trouble to follow!

[Fliger747]

Pascal: Thank you for the comments. If the photos sometimes look a bit lower in quality, it was then taken with my "Eye-Phone" as opposed to the Canon (50 mp) 5D sR an 100 mm L Macro lens which is what I normally use but requires me to (1) go into the house and fetch a Mem card; (2) set up tripod and lights (3) take the card back to the house and open Photoshop and process the image, reducing down to the incredibly small image sizes for the forum. Sometimes laziness wins out.

Much like photographing a beautiful woman, too much detail and resolution can dispel the image desired.

Cheers: Tom

[Iceman 29]

..Much like photographing a beautiful woman, too much detail and resolution can dispel the image desired.

Cheers: Tom

Nice parabola !

[Fliger747]

Pacscal!

Mon ami, that made me laugh, but it is a truism. I have always enjoyed France, my earliest antecedent in the New World came from the Island of Gurnsey, circa 1720. A small body of water separating this from France. In my arrivals as a 747 Captain in Paris I was amused by the use of traffic circles for taxiways and enjoyed the hospitality of the Parisians, who share a bad reputation with New Yorkers. I blessed their kind treatment of my very basic and not long used French. I should enjoy the wonderful hospitality of the provinces. NYC is not America, Paris is not France. So much love in culture is expressed in wines.

Thank you for contributing much to the bon homi of this venue!

Regards: Tom

[Fliger747]

Ah, for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, the day's are long, temperatures (mostly) pleasant and as there is a time to every purpose, modeling is starved of time that Winter blesses it with. Some minor progress, the hull rub strips on the starboard side have been placed and airbrushed with what I have mixed as "APA Gray". Hank Strub and I have collaborated on a MK 5 26 ft. Motor Whaleboat, I did the basic hull and Hank is doing a canopy and other details for his Stoddard DD566, She carried one new canopied boats (Port side) and a wooden one stbd side. I don't need this new model boat for any of my WWII projects, but will look good on the 1:192 Missouri which I have been slowly been replacing many detail parts on with my newer 3D printed efforts. I didn't have any MWB's aboard previously.

Items hindering modeling right now? I am now sole owner of my airplane and ginning up for doing a lot of flying and aerial photography this Summer. The Alaska Senior "Olympics" are coming up again in August so I need to tune up my pistol and rifle marksmanship to a fine pitch ( I won the rifle shoot last time the games were held). Just got an Anschutz target rifle and getting used to it and comparing it to the one I built from various parts.

Maybe some photos when the "roundtuit" (on backorder) arrives via dog sled.

Cheers: Tom

[Fliger747]

It's a designated platform where the Officer (or designated Petty Officer) of the mail buoy watch stands.

[DrPR]

I think the mail must be about ankle deep up there!

Phil

[Fliger747]

In the days of Celestial and Ded Reckoning Navigation, missing the mail buoy could have serious personal fallout! As Captain Queeg might say "Woe betide the Bow Hookman" who drops a mail bag into Davey Jones Locker!

[Iceman 29]

Pacscal!

Mon ami, that made me laugh, but it is a truism. I have always enjoyed France, my earliest antecedent in the New World came from the Island of Gurnsey, circa 1720. A small body of water separating this from France. In my arrivals as a 747 Captain in Paris I was amused by the use of traffic circles for taxiways and enjoyed the hospitality of the Parisians, who share a bad reputation with New Yorkers. I blessed their kind treatment of my very basic and not long used French. I should enjoy the wonderful hospitality of the provinces. NYC is not America, Paris is not France. So much love in culture is expressed in wines.

Thank you for contributing much to the bon homi of this venue!

Regards: Tom

It is well summarized !

What type of aircraft do you own? Aviat Husky?

[Fliger747]

Pascal:

I just purchased full interest in the plane, a 1954 Piper Supercub. My friend and I bought this together in 1975. At the time we thought it was an old airplane. Altogether it has wheels, skis and floats!

I hope that you are enjoying your vacation, good for the soul!

Best regards: Tom

[Fliger747]

Since Pascal asked about my small and modest airplane, here is "Charlie" at about 8000' on a small glacier shelf near Denali.

[Iceman 29]

The Super Cub is a very nice plane Tom.

As we say at home: ��It's in the old pots that we make the good soup!��

[mikegr]

IMG_2242.JPG

USN Mk5 Smoke generator, mounted on the fantail of the LSM, starboard side. The APA had four cylinders on each side, the LSM just one, but was supplied with a considerable number of oil drums to feed this device, suggesting considerable use was expected.

Tom

excellent work as always

[Fliger747]

Thank you Mike! As always the most difficult aspect is finding good info. Sometimes scaled drawings are available, other times helpful information is found in copies of USN Manuals. Often the trouble with those excellent 3D drawings is no scale is provided! My 3D "model" of the MK5 did include the very small valve handles, but those did not print. A lot of small details will print, but in the handling of washing, curing and painting they will often not survive.

I did manage to knock some rail off the LSM Forecastle and that will require some retrograde activity.

Cheers: Tom