Gambier Bay & Heerman

[Sakrison]

Originally Posted by Don Boose

The initial maneuver for underway replenishment seems like a logical set up for the diorama. Furthermore, there was almost always a destroyer "plane guard" close off the carrier's port quarter during flight operations to fish errant pilots out of the drink. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plane_guard

And during the Battle off Samar, it is conceivable that for a brief moment Heerman maneuvered close to Gambier Bay while trying to screen it fromt he Japanese shell fire.

In any event, there would be nothing improbable about the two ships maneuvering close enough together to provide a plausible situation for the diorama.

Don

Good point, Don. In the Battle off Samar the American task force, Taffy 3, was fighting in very close quarters with several near-collisions between the six CVEs and the seven DDs and DEs that were racing around trying to screen the carriers and make desperate attacks on the superior Japanese force.

The display I've laid out might or might not be an accurate depiction of one of those close calls. In either case, I'm limited to a size I can manage.

[CMDRTED]

to complicate your diorama you could have heerman making smoke. or even better just build the heerman and a huge smoke screen and say the gambier bay is in there!

[SCEtoAUX]

Originally Posted by Don Boose

The initial maneuver for underway replenishment seems like a logical set up for the diorama. Furthermore, there was almost always a destroyer "plane guard" close off the carrier's port quarter during flight operations to fish errant pilots out of the drink.
Don

Yes, I can confirm that ships do get close to each other during underway replenishment. Although I was in either the engineroom or some other engineering space during UNREP, I did mangage to make it topside on a few occasions. We UNREPed from both supply ships and aircraft carriers, whichever was available. It was interesting watching the approach. We would make the approach on either the port or starboard side, match speeds, steady down on distance between the ships, then proceed with the passing across of lines and hoses. What made it more interesting was when a Soviet ship was in the area and tried to get close enough to see how the USN managed to do the procedure. There were a few emergency breakaways performed when they got too close. I was on the throttles a few times during UNREP. Routine slight changes in RPMs to maintain speed, then all of a sudden emergency breakaway and high RPMs called for. Lots-o-fun.

I also managed to get topside a few times and hang out on the signal bridge when we were on plane guard station. It was interesting watching the aircraft do touch and goes on the carrier flight deck. It was also interesting watching the Naval aviators see how close they could come to our mast (or that is what is seemed like a few times).

A diorama with two USN ships in very close proximity would be appropriate.