Trivia!

What veteran of the Battle of the river Plate was sunk in the south java sea, and when?

 

HMS Exeter was sunk in the battle of Sunda Strait. Off the top of my head, I want to say Feb 25 1942, but I am not positive on the date without looking it up.

 

Very close. Wiki has the date of loss as march 1 1942

 

yes march 1 1942 but.
it was not the battle of sunda strait, but the 2nd battle of the java sea.
exeter was intercepted by first 2 jap heavies with 2 destroyers and they where reinforced by 2 more heavies and escorts.
( Japanese heavy cruisers Nachi, Haguro, Myoko and Ashigara and the destroyers Akebono, Ikazuchi, Inazuma, Yamakaze and Kawakaze)
the 3 allied ships (Exeter,Encounter and Pope) where all sunk but pope survived the longest as she managed to escape the destruction of her 2 pal's but while escaping got a near miss of an 8 inch shell against her engineroom wich caused a considerable amount of leakage, more then her pumps could manage, pope was then overtaken by the japanese and her crew decided to scuttle the ship, while making preparations to scuttle the japs opend fire and pope went down a little later.
the battle of sunda strait was the action in wich Houston ,Perth and Evertsen where lost, infact Evertsen never made it into the strait.
Krijn
of note , George Squance a former RN engineer lives in this town, he gave me a small book that he wrote on his experiences in the royal navy and his part in the battle of the java sea, George is 1 of verry few survivors of the destroyer HMS Jupiter, wich hit a mine and was lost during the battle of the Java sea.

 

You're right, I had second java sea and sunda strait backwards in my mind. For some reason I had thought first Java sea was on Feb 24, and that Sunda Strait was the next day, which is why I went with the 25th. I also thought Exeter and Houston/Perth were sunk on the same day.

 

OK, I'll have to give this one to krijn, as he was the first to give the whole answer.

Krijn, you're up.

 

ok nice and easy one
ALLIED ships only
name the 6 battleships the 1 battlecruiser and the 1 dreadnought lost or damaged during the gallipoli campaign.
only name the Allied SHIPS


krijn

 

I came up with 9 total.

French Sunk - Bouvet,
French Damaged - Suffren and Gaulois

British Sunk - Triumph, Majestic, Irresistible, Ocean, Goliath
British Damaged - Inflexible

 

yes .. and the damaged dreadnought was HMS Queen elizabeth.

the Gallipoli plan was hatched by a young Winston Churchill using the Anzac corps (australians/new zealanders) they met fierce resistance from badly equipped turkish/german troops and deseases and bullets caused a large amount of casualties, a simple single line of mines proved fatal to 2 battleships and almost claimed a battlecruiser aswell, german/turkish fortresses added some devastation and submarines did their bit.

the campaign was costly at almost the same scale as the trenchwar on the western front and the royal navy lost more crewmembers then at all the major seabattles in the northsea.

Krijn

 

A glorious campaign for the Central Powers.

 

DJrainier, your turn

 

What was the Original name of the transport ship that transported the 1920 Oylmpic team to Europe in 1919, and what future Naval Flag officer was on the Oylmpic team, and what did he do in WW2.

My Great grandfather served on the ship during 1919.

 

Oh boy. I think I know which ship you're going for but there's lots of names to choose from in its career! I was looking at the Gerrman Barbarossa class as a possible convoy vessel and this one had a pretty interesting history. I'm not sure if you want the name when it was built, name when captured by the US, or name when it carried the Olympic team. So here's a bunch of choices!

Original name SS Kiautschou sailing for the Hamburg America Line

Renamed SS Prinzess Alice when transferred to North German Lloyd

Renamed USS Princess Matoika after taken over by the US Navy and used as a troop transport in WW1

Renamed USAT Princess Matoika after transferring to the US Army. This is the ship that carried the majority of the Olympic team, which launched something of a revolt complaining about the poor conditions aboard the ship as it transported the athletes to Europe.

SS Princess Matoika when chartered to the US Mail Line and later operated by the United States Line

Renamed SS President Arthur by the United States Line and kept this name when sold to the American Palestine Line

Renamed City of Honolulu after auctioned to the Los Angeles Steamship Company

 

The member of the Olympic team who became a famous naval officer is Daniel Gallery. He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1920 before competing as a wrestler in the Olympics.

In WW2, Captain Gallery was in command of USS Guadalcanal when the escort carrier succeeded in capturing the German u-boat U-505 (now on display in Chicago).

Gallery rose to the rank of rear admiral (2-star) before he retired in 1960.

 

An interesting side note--even though the majority of the US Olympic team was carried aboard Princess Matoika, Dan Gallery was not. Athletes associated with the Navy were instead taken to Europe aboard the armored cruiser USS Frederick. The Navy must have known how awful the Matoika was!

 

Well it was an Army transport....

 

Well you got the Dan Gallery part right, but not the ship. I actually got the ship name from reading Dan's autobiography. Then found out later it was the one my Grand Father served on.

It was a steamship captured in a U.S port from the Germans, and renamed. We later sold it back to the original owners.

Princess Irene was the name, in U.S. service it was Pocahontus. I was going for Dan's name. So eljefe your up.

 

Hmmm, Prinzess Irene was also a member of the Barbarossa class ocean liners that, like Prinzess Alice, was interned when WW1 began and taken over by the US Navy once America entered the war. However, I don't know of it having a connection to the 1920 Olympics.

The story of the "Mutiny of the Matoika" is relatively well-known:

http://freepages.military.rootsweb....toika.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutiny_of_the_Matoika

 

Here is a new question:

In 1893, one of the most powerful ships afloat collided with a fellow Royal Navy pre-dreadnought and sank in the Mediterranean. The wreck was discovered 111 years later with its bow buried deep in the seabed and the stern standing straight up like a skyscraper! What is the name of this ship?

Bonus points if you can name the survivor of the sinking who became a famous British naval commander during World War I.

 

Easy. HMS Victoria was rammed by HMS Camperdown. Jellicoe was the survivor.

It is reported that Admiral Tyron on Victoria's last words were "It's all my fault". He had given the order for the two lines of ships to turn in towards each other.
Camperdown was almost lost as well.