Submarine Stories

FRI 22 OCT 1943
Pacific
Submarine Grayback (SS-208) sinks Japanese transport Awata Maru, China Sea, 26°40'N, 125°00'E.

Submarine Shad (SS-235) attacks Japanese light cruisers Naka and Isuzu, en route from Shanghai to Rabaul, 28°40'N, 124°10'E. Although Shad claims damaging both, neither enemy warship is hit.

Honest mistake, or brazen lie?

More Tin Can Seamanship*

THU 21 OCT 1943
Pacific
Submarine Steelhead (SS-280) damages Japanese aircraft transport Goshu Maru southeast of Ulithi, Carolines, 08°16'N, 141°53'E.

RAAF Beaufort damages Japanese light cruiser Kiso 53 miles from Cape St. George, 04°23'S, 153°11'E.

Japanese cargo ship No.11 Chofoku Maru is sunk by mine while en route from Surabaya to Penang; cargo ship Rakuto Maru is damaged by mine off Padamarang Island.

Atlantic
Destroyer Murphy (DD-603) is cut in two when she is accidentally rammed by U.S. tanker Bulkoil 265 miles east-southeast of Ambrose Lightship, New York. Murphy's forward section sinks.

Murphy under tow by the USS Glennon (DD-620).

["(T)aking 36 officers and men with it" the Official Chronology does not mention. Other post-ramming photographs at NavSource Destroyer Archive. Scroll down if you click the Wiki link, or go directly to King Ibn Saud's voyage aboard the Murphy. Ripped from today's headlines, sorta.]

Aircraft (VC 13) from escort carrier Core (CVE-13) damage German submarine U-271, north of the Azores.

Mediterranean
German planes attack convoy MKS 28, strafing and torpedoing U.S. freighter Tivives about 15 miles off Cape Tenes; one of 48 merchant seamen and one of the 25-man Armed Guard perish in the ensuing abandonment as the ship sinks swiftly. Free French-manned corvette HMS LaMalouine rescues the survivors, who also include the six-man staff of the convoy commodore and one passenger.

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*Refer to 18 & 20 OCT 1943 for previous examples of destroyer hot-dogging.

Two Words For The Taliban

Try Harder!

 Dan Lamothe / Washington Post: 
U.S. general wounded in attack in Afghanistan

Paul Szoldra / Task & Purpose:   An American General Was Wounded During The Insider Attack In Kandahar

Friendly Fire From Above

WED 20 OCT 1943
Pacific
Submarine Gato (SS-212) sinks Japanese transport Tsunushima Maru between Truk and Kavieng, 01°26'N, 148°36'E.

Submarine Kingfish (SS-234) sinks Japanese merchant cargo ship Sana Maru off Banbon Bay, French Indochina, 12°36'N, 109°30'E.

Atlantic
Aircraft (VC 13) from escort carrier Core (CVE-13), escorting convoy UGS 20, sink German submarine U-378 north of the Azores, 47°40'N, 28°27'W.

Destroyer Cowie (DD-632) is damaged in collision with U.S. steamship Craigsmere in New York Harbor.

Mediterranean
USAAF B-25s and RAF Beaufighters attack German convoys north of Crete, sinking transport Sinfra which, unbeknownst to the attackers, is transporting POWs.

What. Ever.

Style

‘It doesn’t matter.’ ‘We’ll see.’ The Trump Doctrine is sounding more fatalistic every day.

It was Feb. 27, 2004, and Donald Trump was on “Larry King Live” to talk about his new hit TV show “The Apprentice.” Eight episodes had already aired — including one titled “Ethics Shmethics” — and the real estate mogul seemed pleased to gab with King about his return to relevance. Near the end of the segment, a caller from Burlington, N.J., asked Trump how he handles stress.

“I try and tell myself it doesn’t matter,” Trump replied. “Nothing matters. If you tell yourself it doesn’t matter — like you do shows, you do this, you do that, and then you have earthquakes in India where 400,000 people get killed. Honestly, it doesn’t matter.”

Sunday night, Trump was again on television, this time as president of the United States, and not for a softball chat with a showbiz pal. Lesley Stahl of “60 Minutes” pressed Trump about his public mockery of Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who accused Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh of sexual assault.

“It doesn’t matter,” Trump said eventually. “We won.”

It doesn’t matter. Nothing really matters. Is this, finally, the Trump Doctrine?

Most presidents have governed from the standpoint of things mattering. Individuals matter. Words matter. Life matters.

“Show up,” Barack Obama said during his farewell address. “Dive in. Persevere.”

“Make the choice to serve in a cause larger than your wants, larger than yourself,” George W. Bush said during his second inaugural address.

Trump began his presidency on a traditional note, with an inaugural speech hinting at the virtue of meaningful collaboration. “We, the citizens of America, are now joined in a great national effort,” he said, “to rebuild our country and to restore its promise for all of our people.”

[20 years ago, the Starr Report got a president impeached. Ken Starr wants to remind you why.]

Since then, Trump has reverted to his old fatalism.

“We’ll see what happens with Iran,” Trump said Sept. 5. “Whether they want to talk or not, that’s up to them, not up to me. I will always be available, but it doesn’t matter one way or the other.”

This philosophy springs from the privilege that’s defined his life, theorizes Tim O’Brien, author of “TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald.” The president was born into wealth, inherited business and opportunity, and kept graduating to higher stations despite financial, personal and political blunders.

“He profoundly believes nothing matters because he usually isn’t the victim of his own mistakes,” O’Brien says. (The White House did not reply to a request for comment.)

“In the end it will work out,” Trump said in May. “I can’t tell you exactly how or why, but it always does.”

He was talking about a summit with North Korea, but he could’ve been talking about his own life. “If it doesn’t [work out], that’s okay too,” he went on to say. “Whatever it is, it is.”

I’d like to know how you handle your stress.

I try and tell myself it doesn’t matter.

Perhaps the Trump Doctrine springs from his onetime assumption that he wouldn’t live past 40, says Gwenda Blair, author of “The Trumps: Three Generations That Built an Empire.” His grandfather died shy of 50, inspiring his father to work (and profit) like a man who was running out of time. Trump’s older brother died in his early 40s. In 1989, when Trump was 43, three of his young employees died in a helicopter crash on the way to Atlantic City.

A tragedy like that “can have two effects,” Trump told Larry King the following year. “You can cherish life more because of it, or it can have the tendency to cheapen it. And unfortunately, it cheapened a little bit for me, because these were three incredible people to die like this.”

[From 2015: Why Donald Trump shrugs so much]

For a man so rich, life got cheaper. For a man who likes to define life on his terms — he’s an existentialist, in practice — he talks like a fatalist, resigned to the chaotic but predetermined mechanics of the universe.

“Life is what you do while you’re waiting to die,” Trump told Playboy in 1990. “. . . We’re here and we live our 60, 70 or 80 years and we’re gone. You win, you win, and in the end, it doesn’t mean a hell of a lot.”

“I’m very much a fatalist,” he told the New York Times in 2016, when asked about the hereditary specter of Alzheimer’s disease, which afflicted his father.

“I’m a great fatalist,” Trump told Newsday in 1991, as his business empire was teetering. “Whatever happens, happens, and you just have to go along with it.”

On Tuesday, in an interview with the Associated Press: “We’ll see what happens,” he said about the possibility of firing Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

And then a few minutes later: “We’re going to see what happens,” he said in reference to U.S. troops in Syria. “We’re going to see what happens.”

Or perhaps this is not a doctrine at all, but a tactic. In his “maybes” and “we’ll see what happens,” Blair hears a man hedging, refusing to promise anything — “building in deniability,” she says, so no one can ever go back to his statements and say his word was no good. O’Brien, meanwhile, sees statements that are left “intentionally wishy-washy” because “he doesn’t have enough insight into issues to actually know what he thinks about it.”

[...]

“We’ll see what happens,” he said about North Korea on “60 Minutes” Sunday.

“We’ll see,” he said this month about a deal with China. “We’ll see. We’ll see.”

“We’ll see what happens,” he said Thursday when asked about responding to the apparent murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

I’d like to know how you handle your stress.

I try and tell myself it doesn’t matter.

“It doesn’t matter,” Trump said in January 2016, when asked about his flip-flopping political views.

“It doesn’t matter,” a White House aide said in May about John McCain and his opposition to Trump’s nominee for CIA director. “He’s dying anyway.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Trump said two separate times during his Sept. 20 rally in Las Vegas, where he also said “let’s see what happens” twice.

But of course there is one thing that does matter. He implied it on “60 Minutes,” and he pronounced it five weeks before his election, at a rally in Wisconsin.

“The only thing that matters,” he said then, “is to win.”

[WaPo, but all the good stuff is here.]

Communist Dupes Convene In Moscow

TUE 19 OCT 1943
Moscow Conference, attended by the Secretary of State and British and Soviet foreign ministers, convenes.

Atlantic
Heavy cruiser Tuscaloosa (CA-37), accompanied by one U.S. and three British destroyers, transports Norwegian troops and equipment to Spitzbergen to reestablish bases destroyed in the German raid of 8 September 1943. A second allied force, with carrier Ranger (CV-4) included, provides cover for the operation.

U.S. freighter Delisle, in convoy WB 65, fouls mine laid by German submarine U-220 as the merchantman lies to, 15 miles out of St. John's, Newfoundland, rescuing survivors of British freighter Penolver. Delisle suffers no casualties and is abandoned by the 32-man crew and 7-man Armed Guard, and three sailors from Penolver. British trawler HMS Miscou rescues the survivors.

Friday's Freak-Out: Roots Of "Louie Louie"

René Touzet’s “El Loco Cha Cha Cha”Spotted at The Los Angeles Review of Books.

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NB: I am irked beyond reason that YouTube has removed the "no title" option for embedded videos, & extra p.o.'d that we now have to look at the effing uploader's image as well. A shame the poor woman who tried to shoot the dump up🔫 earlier this yr. after they screwed her out of her monetization wasn't able to do a more thorough job. And I see the pricks at Google have denatured their pistol emoji. 💣IF IT'S GOING TO BE THAT WAY, FUCK EVERYTHING!!!💣 (At least the bomb remains a bomb.)

Memento Mori

 Tom Scocca / Hmm Daily:
Your Real Biological Clock Is You're Going to Die

I feel better already. I thought this shit would never be over.

Emphasizing the Negative: Bad Seamanship & Dud Torpedoes

MON 18 OCT 1943
Pacific
Small carrier Cowpens (CVL 25) and destroyer Abbot (DD-629) are damaged in collision during maneuvers in Hawaiian Operating Area.

Submarine Flying Fish (SS-229) attacks Yokosuka-bound Japanese escort carrier Chuyo, 19°27'N, 145°20'E. Although Flying Fish claims one hit, the enemy flattop bears a charmed life, having survived an attack by Mingo (SS-261) on 16 October 1943 as well, and continues to her destination on schedule.

Submarine Lapon (SS-260) torpedoes and sinks Japanese merchant cargo ship Taichu Maru, 33°59'N, 136°24'E, and scores two "dud" hits on auxiliary minesweeper Keijin Maru.

Submarine Silversides (SS-236) sinks Japanese army cargo ship Tairin Maru, 22'N, 143°23'E.

The Candidates They Deserve

 Adam Rubenstein / Weekly Standard:

Steve King: America's Most Deplorable Congressman  —  He's an embarrassment to the GOP and to America.  —  Representative Steve King is an embarrassment to the Republican party.  He has been for some time.  On October 16, he endorsed white-nationalist Faith Goldy for mayor of Toronto.

Pilar Melendez / The Daily Beast:   Rep. Steve King Endorses Neo-Nazi Sympathizer Faith Goldy. GOP Says Nothing.

William Petroski / Des Moines Register:   Iowa U.S. Rep. Steve King endorses white nationalist Canadian politician

Yair Rosenberg / Tablet Magazine:   Republican Rep. Steve King Endorses Anti-Semitic Toronto Mayoral Candidate

Paul Blest / Splinter:   We Already Have a Fascist in Congress

Sebastian Murdock / HuffPost:   White Supremacist Rep. Steve King Endorses White Supremacist Faith Goldy For Toronto Mayor

Brain dead⇧Angry Samoans - "D For The Dead"or dead as a doornail:

 Riley Snyder / The Nevada Independent:

Republicans plan campaign for deceased Hof to keep Assembly seat  —  Nevada Republicans are planning a campaign to persuade voters to cast ballots for former Assembly candidate and brothel owner Dennis Hof, who died suddenly on Tuesday, a knowledgeable source confirmed Wednesday.

Taegan Goddard / Political Wire:   Nevada GOP Plans Campaign for Dead Candidate

Doug Porter / San Diego Free Press:   The Duncan Hunter(s) and Various Other Threats to Our National Security

Last Kraut Commerce Raider Sunk

SUN 17 OCT 1943
Pacific
Small reconnaissance seaplane from Japanese submarine I-36 reconnoiters Pearl Harbor.

Submarine Tarpon (SS-175) sinks German auxiliary cruiser Michel (Schiffe No.28) off Chichi Jima, Bonins, 33°42'N, 140°08'E.

Photo courtesy of Robert Hurst, via NavSource

USAAF B-24s damage Japanese troopship Hakusan Maru 80 miles from Kavieng.

Added detail on the fate of the Michel (Schiffe No.28), per ... Note date discrepancy.

Almost within sight of Japan and only 50 miles (80 km) out from port, Michel was spotted by the US submarine Tarpon on 20 October 1943. In one of the few instances of American submarines attacking a German ship during World War II, Tarpon fired a total of eight torpedoes in four successive strikes, of which four torpedoes struck home and also detonated - the Mark 14 torpedo still had reliability problems. Michel sank, taking down 290 of her crew, including the captain. The 116 survivors reached safety in Japan after a three-day journey in open boats. Scores of others had been left on rafts and floating wreckage, but the Japanese Navy search aircraft reported they had seen nothing. This caused some friction with the German Navy officers in Japan, who felt the Japanese seemed unconcerned about rescuing possible German survivors. The loss of the Michel marked the end of the cruises of German auxiliary commerce raiders.

James Russell Lowell Breaks In Twain

SAT 16 OCT 1943
Pacific
USAAF B-24 sinks Japanese auxiliary submarine chaser Cha 31 off Cape Lambert, New Britain, 04°00'N, 145°45'E.

Submarine Mingo (SS-261) attacks Japanese escort carrier Chuyo north-northwest of Truk, 11°02'N, 151°21'E. Although Mingo claims two damaging hits, the carrier (see 18 October 1943) emerges from the encounter unscathed; destroyer Hatsukaze depth charges Mingo but does not damage her.

Atlantic
American-built destroyer escorts transferred under Lend-Lease to Great Britain (HMS Byard, HMS Bentinck, HMS Berry, HMS Drury, and HMS Bazely) enter combat for the first time as escorts for convoy ONS 20. Byard will sink U-841 on 17 October. The British classify the ships as "frigates."

U.S. freighter James Russell Lowell torpedoed by German submarine U-371 the day before, is beached off Colla, Algeria, by British tug. The ship breaks in twain and sinks two weeks later, a total loss.

Even "The Troops" Wising Up

By definition you can't be a bigger sucker-ass chump than those who enlist in the American military, other than those who believe there's a Big Fucking Killer in The Sky watching them all the time because Mommy told them so when they were four.

So this is (slightly) encouraging:

 Leo Shane III / Military Times: 
Support for Trump is fading among active-duty troops, new poll shows

Brendan Morrow / The Week:   The troops are souring on President Trump
Steve M. / No More Mister Nice Blog:   WHY DO THE TROOPS HATE AMERICA?

And now that I've insulted the glorious members of our Warrior Caste, may I suggest you consult No More Mister Nice Blog for a more adult analysis of the poll findings. I sure as hell can't be bothered.

(Allegedly) Pin-Dicked Assface Calls Woman "Horseface"

And that's today's news & information in the Age of Trump!

On a personal note, were every last one of the seven to eight billion wastes & wasters of time, space & oxygen temporarily occupying this golfball in space to die of a coronary event, stroke, painful ass-cancer or an asteroid strike before midnight local time it would not be soon enough for this reporter.

Tuesday Tunes

Weather Report

"Indian Summer" (8/19/66) · The DoorsFairly warm yesterday, warmer today & expected to get hotter through the rest of the wk. We'll grant you it's difficult to determine which season we're experiencing in proverbially & perpetually sunny Los Angeles County.Lou Donaldson Quartet - "Autumn Nocturne"Heard here.

James Russell Lowell Torpedoed

FRI 15 OCT 1943
Pacific
Submarine Tullibee (SS-284) attacks 10-ship Japanese convoy, sinking transport Chicago Maru, 24°35'N, 120°30'E.

Atlantic
Advanced Amphibious Training Base, Fowey, Cornwall, England, is established.

U.S. freighter James Russell Lowell*, in convoy GUS 18, is torpedoed by German submarine U-371 at 37°18'15"N, 07°10'30"E and abandoned. British whaler HMS Southern Sea rescues the 41-man merchant complement and the 28-man Armed Guard. With hopes high for saving the ship, the merchant crew reboards the ship and Southern Sea takes James Russell Lowell in tow. As weather conditions worsen, all but the master and two men abandon ship once more (see 16 October 1943).

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*History Lesson: The most versatile of the New Englanders during the middle of the nineteenth century, James Russell Lowell was a vital force in the history of American literature ...

The Coward Trump

 Jonathan Allen / NBC News: 
Trump's travels: Staying away from swing voters ahead of the midterms

Oliver Willis / Shareblue Media:   Trump is too scared to campaign where Americans didn't vote for him

Taegan Goddard / Political Wire:   Trump Stays Away from Swing Voters

Scared & weak; easily the biggest gawd-damn pusillanimous pansy in the nation today.

Monday Moon Music

Kamasi Washington - "Clair de Lune"

We Are So Screwed

America's Presidential journey continues.
Richard M. Nixon: "I am not a crook."
Donald J. Trump: "I'm not a baby." https://t.co/xXYdbF7Hjc

— M. Bouffant (@MBouffant) October 15, 2018

Y'know, if you have to keep denying it ...

Get Out Your Carving Knives!

And start feeling their edges; the Santa Ana winds are back, as the ever-redundant mynewsLA.com reminds us, once,

Weekend Rain Will Give Way to
Red Flag Fire Weather Conditions

twice,

Rainstorm To Be Followed With
Red Flag Warning

thrice,

Red Flags To Fly At 10 p.m. For
Hot, Dry Gusts

Enough, Contributing Editor, if that is your real name.

The local Times assumes its readers only need telling once.

Southern California braces for the first major Santa Ana winds since the devastating Thomas fire

"The Wind" - Laura NyroSo blow already!