1/600 USS Pope - US flush-deck destroyer

[Don Boose]

Definitely taking shape!

Don

[Foute Man]

Originally Posted by waynemac

......In the absence of contradictory info, I take this show that at least some of the flush-deckers had not yet changed their 4" guns for 3" guns.
Wayne

And there's more confusion, just found out there was a small group of 5 Clemson's that was equipped with 5" (130 mm) guns when commissioned. According to Navsource and Wiki DD-231 USS Hatfield, DD-232 USS Brooks, DD-233 USS Gilmer, DD-234 USS Fox & DD-235 USS Kane were part of this group.

Attached an image of the 5" gun, caption on Navsource "....Close-up of a 5"/51 guns aboard USS Gilmer (DD 233) date (likely circa 1921) and place unknown...."

[waynemac]

Friedman mentions the 5-inch armed Clemsons. There were more Clemsons to be so armed but were not built.

Also the original AA armament included two 3"/23 guns. One was mounted on the foredeck between the 4"/50 and the bridge. The second was on the main deck, port side between the bridge and the galley. The second one was later moved to the stern, then deleted.

Most of the flush-deckers that survived into WW2 were re-armed with up to 6# 3"/50 DP guns - 4 in place the 4" guns and two in place of the aft torpedo tubes.

Those converted to long-range escorts traded the aft torpedo tubes and the stern 3"/23 AA gun for depth charge racks, "Y" guns and "K" guns.

There are all sorts of armament possibilities here.

Wayne

[Don Boose]

Maru Special 95, Dutch East Indies Campaign and Indian Ocean Operation, Pacific War Sea and Air Battle Series, Tokyo, Japan: Maruzen Publishing Company, 1985, has arrived.

Image 1 is the cover, dramatically portraying the loss of HMS Hermes and HMS Vampire, Image 2 is the page on the naval battle off the coast of Batavia, Image 3 is the image of the sinking USS Pope, and Image 4 is the text accompanying the image.

It does not add anything to our knowledge of Pope, but it gave me some Japanese translation (decoding) practice, so just to close the loop, here is my translation:

“The end of the American destroyer Pope. On 1 March 1942, after the British heavy cruiser Exeter was sunk, Pope escaped into a rain squall. However, it was located by the carrier-based aircraft of the 4th Carrier Division and the land-based aircraft of the 11th Air Fleet. Unable to navigate due to the bombardment, it was sunk by the Main Force of the [Japanese] Netherlands East Indies Task Force off the southern coast of Borneo.”

Don

[waynemac]

I finished the beta-build of USS Pope (DD225). A couple of pics are attached. I made a number of changes during this process. I simplified the main guns and the small boat support frames. Following discussions here, I lightened the base color to simulate the Ocean Gray in a weathered condition.

I have also pretty well done the APD (fast transport) version. Screen shots are also attached. I will simplify the 4 LCP-R's - they are only 3/4 inch long, and the depth charge projectors (K-guns).
Wayne

[Don Boose]

Pope looks very good, Wayne, and I am glad that you are working on an APD.

Indulge me as I quote from Donald W. Boose, Jr., Over the Beach: U.S. Army Amphibious Operations in the Korean War, Fort Leavenworth, KS: Combat Studies Institute Press, 2008, p. 29, available at: CONTENTdm

"A crucial element in the conduct of effective amphibious operations was the production of suitable ships to transport troops and equipment to the objective and landing craft to transfer them from the ships to the beach. Although some expeditionary transports had been built for the Marine Corps after World War I, warships had generally been used to transport landing forces, which were then delivered to the shore by beetle boats (a covered motor launch with a primitive ramp system), cumbersome artillery lighters, whaleboats, and motor launches. In the late 1930s the Navy converted several World War I four-stack destroyers into fast transports (APDs) by removing some of the boilers to provide troop space and adding davits for landing craft. One APD could carry a company of troops and its 4-inch guns provided fire support. First tested during FLEX [Fleet Landing Exercise] 7, they were particularly useful for transporting raider units to seize special objectives. Eventually, 36 destroyers and 98 destroyer escorts would be converted to APDs and several of the destroyer escort types would serve in the Korean War.80"

[Endnote 80: "Norman Friedman and A.D. Baker, U.S. Amphibious Ships and Craft: An Illustrated Design History (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2002), 33–35, 195–197; James C. Fahey, Ships and Aircraft of the United States Fleet, 1945 (New York, NY: Ships and Aircraft, 1945, reprinted Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1976), 26–30, 64, 76. APD was the Navy designation for auxiliary (A) transport (P) destroyer (D), but the ships were universally known as fast transports or high-speed transports. Jon T. Hoffman relates the development of the APDs, initially in conjunction with the formation of the Marine Raider battalion in From Makin to Bougainville: Marine Raiders in the Pacific War (Washington, DC: Marine Corps Historical Center, 1993); and in 'The Legacy and Lessons of WW II Raids,' Marine Corps Gazette (September 1992): 62–65."

Don