Wooden
Ships and Iron Men:
The U.S. Navy's Ocean
Minesweepers, 1953-1994
and
Wooden Ships and Iron
Men:
The U.S. Navy’s Coastal and Motor
Minesweepers, 1941-1953
By
Cdr. David D. Bruhn, USN (Ret.)
Wooden Ships and Iron Men: The U.S. Navy’s Ocean Minesweepers, 1953-1994 - David Bruhn
From 1953-1994, sixty-five U.S. Navy ocean minesweepers (MSOs)
swept mines; searched the seafloor for downed aircraft, sunken ships, and lost
munitions; showed the flag throughout the world, even sailing up the Congo and
Mekong Rivers, calling at dozens of the world's seaports; and carried out
patrols and special tasks off strife-torn or hostile countries. Some
participated in the 1962 nuclear test program in the Pacific and in the Mercury,
Gemini, and Apollo space programs. Others, as part of a U.S. armada of military
and civilian research ships at Palomares, located a nuclear bomb lost on the
seafloor off Spain as a result of a midair collision between two U.S. Air Force
aircraft. Iron men in wooden ships were with the Fleet in hotspots around the
world, including Lebanon and the Quemoy-Matsu Islands of Taiwan in 1958; the
Dominican Republic in 1961 and 1965; and the Cuban Missile Crisis and Haiti in
1962. During the Vietnam War, minesweepers participated in Operation Market
Time, to prevent the infiltration of North Vietnamese soldiers and munitions
into South Vietnam. Leader received the Presidential Unit Citation for
extraordinary heroism in Operation Sea Lords; Endurance engaged in close gun
action with and helped destroy an enemy armed coastal freighter in a sea battle;
and MSOs cleared mines in Haiphong Harbor, which aided in the negotiations in
progress for the return of U.S. prisoners of war. During the twilight of their
service in the late 1980s and early 1990s, aging sweeps cleared Iranian”and
Iraqi”laid mines in the Persian Gulf.
NOW AVAILABLE:
ISBN 978-0-7884-3260-6
5½" x 8½", paperback, 416 pp, 41 photos, 34 maps
$37.50 plus $7.00 shipping.
Phone (800) 876-6103 or (213) 537-4021
Fax: (410) 558-6574
Now available from Heritage Books at:
Or send Visa/MC/Check to Heritage Books, Inc.,
100 Railroad Ave, Suite 104, Westminster, MD 21157
You may also read more about the book at my author's website:
Wooden Ships and Iron Men: The U.S. Navy’s Coastal and Motor Minesweepers, 1941-1953 - David Bruhn
Possessing insufficient minesweepers to protect U.S. harbors and bays as the
threat of war in Europe spread, in the winter of 1939-40 the Navy began
purchasing fishing vessels and modifying them to combat mines. One of them,
Condor (AMc-14), first sighted the Japanese Type-A midget submarine that
destroyer Ward (DD-139) sank on December 7, 1941 with the first shots fired by
American forces during World War II. She would be one of six coastal
minesweepers to receive a battle star. From boat- and shipyards across America
came the largest production run of any World War II warship, 561 scrappy little
136-foot wooden-hulled vessels characterized by Arnold Lott in Most Dangerous
Sea as "belligerent-looking yachts wearing grey paint." Although their designers
envisioned that they would operate primarily in the vicinity of yards or bases,
the YMSs (too numerous to be given names) would see action in every theater of
war, earning almost 700 battle stars, twenty-one Presidential Unit Citations,
and fifteen Navy Unit Commendations. YMSs were present in the North African
campaign, in Sicily, at Anzio, Salerno, and elsewhere in Italy, and swept ahead
of invasion forces at Normandy and in Southern France. In the Pacific, they
operated in the Marshall Islands, New Guinea, Solomons, Treasury Island, Gilbert
Islands, New Britain, Admiralty Islands, Guam, Palau, Leyte, Luzon, Manila Bay,
Iwo Jima, Southern Philippines, Okinawa, and Borneo. Following the war, they
cleared mines from the East China Sea, Yangtze River approaches, and throughout
Japanese waters, and their activities gave rise to the proud slogan of the mine
force: "Where the Fleet Goes, We've Been." During the Korean War, a mere sixteen
auxiliary motor minesweepers (former YMSs) performed the bulk of mine clearance,
often while inside the range of enemy coastal artillery, necessary for larger
naval vessels to close the coast to support operations ashore. Garnering
collectively 124 battle stars, seven Presidential Unit Citations, and seven Navy
Unit Commendations, the men aboard these ships were then, and remain to date,
the most highly decorated crews of minesweepers in the history of the U.S. Navy.
Book Dedication: To the "iron men" who have served since 1941in wooden-hulled
minesweepers, and particularly those sweep sailors, many of them reservists, who
went in harm's way during World War II and the Korean War.
I enjoyed researching and writing this book, and hope that readers and
especially former minesweep sailors and their family members and friends enjoy
it as much.
Sincerely,
David Bruhn
ISBN: 0788449095
2009, 5½x8½, paper, index, 368 pp.
$32.00 plus $7.00 shipping.
Phone (800) 876-6103 or (213) 537-4021
Fax: (410) 558-6574
Now available from Heritage Books at:
Or send Visa/MC/Check to Heritage Books, Inc.,
100 Railroad Ave, Suite 104, Westminster, MD 21157
You may also read more about the book at my author's website:
Here are three photographs of the many paintings by Richard DeRosset used in the book: "Hidden Menace at Sin-Do Island" (the cover art), "Moonlit Assault in the Aegean" (depicting the German Luftwaffe attack on British Yard Minesweeper 72) and "Sea Battle off the Cua Co Chien River Mouth." The latter event depicted by Richard is particularly significant in that it was the last occurrence in U.S. naval history in which a wooden ship engaged in a sea battle, the actions of the captain and crew were heroic, and it's an event of which few people were aware.
[ Click on an image to view a larger Photo ]
