My Dad was on the Carrier St. Lo and was an original plank owner. Dad didn't say much about his time on board but as a kid i remember waking up in the middle of the night to him screaming.... I would run to see what was going on and Mom would go back to bed your Dad had a bad dream. after a few years I come to find out what the bad dreams were . It was the memories of the day the St. Lo went down. and him remembering the darkness of the interior of the ship and the fires that seemed to be everywhere and confusion and mostly of lost shipmates . It wasn't till I was in the Navy that he finally would talk to me about his time in the Navy including his time on the St. Lo. I have a audio recording of him talking about the day of the sinking. His voice is precious to me. it lets me miss him a little less.
My Uncle Served Aboard this ship. I've spoken on the Other Video on St. Lo you did as well but, it's amazing to hear about a ship I've only heard about through Story's, and until your Last Video, only ever say in Paintings. Your 2 videos Combined give FAR more Information on this Ship than anywhere else in the Internet.
Nicely done video! Side note: the loss of the _USS Shelton_ provoked a sub hunt by other US DEs. The _USS Richard M. Rowell_ found and sank a submarine in the area...which was likely the _USS Seawolf,_ which was running behind schedule and was out of the safety zone.
Thank you for giving me some much-needed context for the story of this poor little escort carrier. I could never remember what class of escort carrier she was, and for the longest time, mistook her for a Bouge class. I also was unaware that she would end up having three different names. That's fairly unusual, and I can't remember that last time an American warship changed names that many time during her service. The story of how the Kamikaze struck this carrier is one of the first stories I remember learning about from the episode of the Dogfights series on the 'History Channel'...back when it used to actually be a history channel. Back then, the story always had a comfortable pg-13 filter over it...but that filter's long gone now, and I'm honestly glad it is. The story of St. Lo would be repeated over and over across the pacific as a result of the tragic efforts of the Special Attack Corp., and the story of the Kamikaze is much more heartbreaking than is given credit. Young men throwing their lives away as living bombs to delay what even the man who commanded them knew was an inevitability...and yet, there was never a shortage of volunteers for the Kamikaze program, certainly with the growing carnage of the strategic bombing of Japan. Another great vid about an iconic moment of the Pacific theater, and I always appreciate having a refresher on events like this from a perspective such as yourself. Here's to the gallant little carrier taken before her service was done, to the crew that tried to save her, and the son of the Rising Sun who sacrificed himself for an entire carrier.
Young Japanese men threw away their lives willingly because in their country they were subservient to their leaders, especially the Emperor. In many east Asian nations you do not question what your leader, teacher, or elder says. Doing so not only reflects badly on you but your entire family as well, and you could all be punished for it. Japan was being destroyed and none of them wanted to look like a coward who valued their life over that of their countrymen. So these young men were forced to do it whether they really wanted to or not. It must have been extremely unnerving for our own young men who badly wanted to live. It's interesting to note that in their most desperate hours even the Germans and Soviets were conducting suicide missions of their own. Perhaps not due to their cultural or patriotic beliefs but fear of their families being shot if they didn't.
Ni I don’t think I will remember the son of Nippon who deliberately flew his plane into the ship, my grandfathers brother was a POW of the Japanese, he survived 3 years of hell, post war he would say that two atomic bombs hadn’t been enough…utter hell and misery caused by militaristic dictatorship, nothing honourable about these individuals…you look through rose tinted spectacles my friend…
@@alexwilliamson1486 I meant no offense, and you have a fair reason to feel that way, as did your grandfathers brother. War has the tragic habit of forcing humans to kill each other in order to satisfy people who aren't doing the fighting themselves. The man who flew the zero that sank the St. Lo was a flight commander who volunteered for the role in order to demonstrate its effectiveness...the effectiveness of deliberately throwing lives away for the sake of getting one lucky hit to take out a warship that can be replaced in a fifth the time it takes to make a new pilot...and of course your grandfathers brother would carry those sentiments, because they put him through the events you just described. Who wouldn't develop such strong emotions towards a group of people that put them through such agony? My point being, I meant no offense, and I can assure you, my glasses bear no such tint when it comes to this subject matter. My intent was to demonstrate that much like the pilot who crashed into USS Missouri towards the wars end, regardless of the overall impact/damage that resulted from such a desperate act of war, that there was still a person at the controls. Thanks for the comment! Always nice to be reminded that the comment section still has some teeth to it.
There are a lot of examples of a ship getting jinxed by a name change in service. A good example is Panzerschiff Deutschland being renamed to Lützow. She had an unending series of groundings, engine failures and unfortunate crippling hits afterwards, though admittedly that kept her out of any serious harm until 1945.
Changed names so much you'd think she was Russian. Seriously though I don't think I've heard of this carrier before, so thank you for the fascinating and informative vid. Roughly 80 years after the war ended and there's still so much to learn about what went on at that time
Petty Officer Doris Miller also lost his life on an escort carrier. I am so proud that the man is remembered in USS Doris Miller (CVN 81). Sailors know who Doris Miller is; too bad politicians have to google the man.
With CVEs it is weird that in the same class you had some that had extensive combat service rivalling that of fleet carriers while other spent the entire war shuttling replacement aircraft. Totally identical ships but their service record would entirely depend on which assignment the ship got.
I appreciate that you photos relate to the subject matter. Some channels just toss in any old war clips, including ines from movies and television series.
I admit I may be misremembering, but for the invasion of Saipan wasn’t Midway one of the 2 escort carriers ferrying a load of deck parked P-47’s to be launched ashore once Aslito Field was taken? They ended up having to launch them early because an inbound flight of Val’s from one of the smaller islands had been detected, and they needed to clear the decks to bring up their own air groups. The Army pilots took off not knowing if they would have a place to land, as the Marines were still doing mop up around the airfield, and the Army Engineers had barely just arrived to clear the runway. The engineers managed to quickly get an Un damaged Japanese bulldozer working and cleared enough runway for the Thunderbolts to land after a few hours of patrolling.
Incidentally St.Lo was the first ever escort carrier I read about, in a book about famous airplanes in the article on the Zero. Where it was mentioned as the first Kamikaze victim. Must have been around 10.
“I’d never heard of a Kamikaze. I’d heard of bombers, and all those kinds of things. But somebody _purposely_ doing this? It didn’t even occur to me.” -Orville Bethard, survivor from the St. Lo
It is amazing just how many ships the US was able to build in the four years that the nation was involved during the second world war. It is equally amazing and horrifying that the Japanese would throw away the lives of their fighting men in such an utterly insane way. Much like so many modern day terrorists of a certain religion.
Nor could the Allied soldiers. They were not used to dealing with an enemy who was conditioned to fight to the death and never surrender. The western way of fighting was to give your all, but once it became futile you had the option to surrender, where the enemy would take you as a prisoner of war and was obligated to provide basic human needs. Not so with the Japanese. They looked at Allied soldiers who surrendered as cowards who were a shameful disgrace to their own country and thus unworthy of humane treatment.
My Dad was on the Carrier St. Lo and was an original plank owner. Dad didn't say much about his time on board but as a kid i remember waking up in the middle of the night to him screaming.... I would run to see what was going on and Mom would go back to bed your Dad had a bad dream. after a few years I come to find out what the bad dreams were . It was the memories of the day the St. Lo went down. and him remembering the darkness of the interior of the ship and the fires that seemed to be everywhere and confusion and mostly of lost shipmates . It wasn't till I was in the Navy that he finally would talk to me about his time in the Navy including his time on the St. Lo. I have a audio recording of him talking about the day of the sinking. His voice is precious to me. it lets me miss him a little less.
My Uncle Served Aboard this ship. I've spoken on the Other Video on St. Lo you did as well but, it's amazing to hear about a ship I've only heard about through Story's, and until your Last Video, only ever say in Paintings. Your 2 videos Combined give FAR more Information on this Ship than anywhere else in the Internet.
Nicely done video! Side note: the loss of the _USS Shelton_ provoked a sub hunt by other US DEs. The _USS Richard M. Rowell_ found and sank a submarine in the area...which was likely the _USS Seawolf,_ which was running behind schedule and was out of the safety zone.
I'm from Vancouver. The Kaiser shipyard no longer exists. Fascinating stuff to hear about it though.
Thank you for giving me some much-needed context for the story of this poor little escort carrier. I could never remember what class of escort carrier she was, and for the longest time, mistook her for a Bouge class. I also was unaware that she would end up having three different names. That's fairly unusual, and I can't remember that last time an American warship changed names that many time during her service. The story of how the Kamikaze struck this carrier is one of the first stories I remember learning about from the episode of the Dogfights series on the 'History Channel'...back when it used to actually be a history channel. Back then, the story always had a comfortable pg-13 filter over it...but that filter's long gone now, and I'm honestly glad it is. The story of St. Lo would be repeated over and over across the pacific as a result of the tragic efforts of the Special Attack Corp., and the story of the Kamikaze is much more heartbreaking than is given credit. Young men throwing their lives away as living bombs to delay what even the man who commanded them knew was an inevitability...and yet, there was never a shortage of volunteers for the Kamikaze program, certainly with the growing carnage of the strategic bombing of Japan.
Another great vid about an iconic moment of the Pacific theater, and I always appreciate having a refresher on events like this from a perspective such as yourself. Here's to the gallant little carrier taken before her service was done, to the crew that tried to save her, and the son of the Rising Sun who sacrificed himself for an entire carrier.
Young Japanese men threw away their lives willingly because in their country they were subservient to their leaders, especially the Emperor. In many east Asian nations you do not question what your leader, teacher, or elder says. Doing so not only reflects badly on you but your entire family as well, and you could all be punished for it. Japan was being destroyed and none of them wanted to look like a coward who valued their life over that of their countrymen. So these young men were forced to do it whether they really wanted to or not. It must have been extremely unnerving for our own young men who badly wanted to live.
It's interesting to note that in their most desperate hours even the Germans and Soviets were conducting suicide missions of their own. Perhaps not due to their cultural or patriotic beliefs but fear of their families being shot if they didn't.
Ni I don’t think I will remember the son of Nippon who deliberately flew his plane into the ship, my grandfathers brother was a POW of the Japanese, he survived 3 years of hell, post war he would say that two atomic bombs hadn’t been enough…utter hell and misery caused by militaristic dictatorship, nothing honourable about these individuals…you look through rose tinted spectacles my friend…
@@alexwilliamson1486 I meant no offense, and you have a fair reason to feel that way, as did your grandfathers brother. War has the tragic habit of forcing humans to kill each other in order to satisfy people who aren't doing the fighting themselves. The man who flew the zero that sank the St. Lo was a flight commander who volunteered for the role in order to demonstrate its effectiveness...the effectiveness of deliberately throwing lives away for the sake of getting one lucky hit to take out a warship that can be replaced in a fifth the time it takes to make a new pilot...and of course your grandfathers brother would carry those sentiments, because they put him through the events you just described. Who wouldn't develop such strong emotions towards a group of people that put them through such agony?
My point being, I meant no offense, and I can assure you, my glasses bear no such tint when it comes to this subject matter. My intent was to demonstrate that much like the pilot who crashed into USS Missouri towards the wars end, regardless of the overall impact/damage that resulted from such a desperate act of war, that there was still a person at the controls. Thanks for the comment! Always nice to be reminded that the comment section still has some teeth to it.
There are a lot of examples of a ship getting jinxed by a name change in service. A good example is Panzerschiff Deutschland being renamed to Lützow. She had an unending series of groundings, engine failures and unfortunate crippling hits afterwards, though admittedly that kept her out of any serious harm until 1945.
I would say that name change was bad luck.
Changed names so much you'd think she was Russian. Seriously though I don't think I've heard of this carrier before, so thank you for the fascinating and informative vid. Roughly 80 years after the war ended and there's still so much to learn about what went on at that time
She and her crew deserve respect and to be remembered
Great video Skynea. Poor St Lo, she and her crew went down fighting.
Petty Officer Doris Miller also lost his life on an escort carrier. I am so proud that the man is remembered in USS Doris Miller (CVN 81). Sailors know who Doris Miller is; too bad politicians have to google the man.
With CVEs it is weird that in the same class you had some that had extensive combat service rivalling that of fleet carriers while other spent the entire war shuttling replacement aircraft. Totally identical ships but their service record would entirely depend on which assignment the ship got.
I appreciate that you photos relate to the subject matter. Some channels just toss in any old war clips, including ines from movies and television series.
I admit I may be misremembering, but for the invasion of Saipan wasn’t Midway one of the 2 escort carriers ferrying a load of deck parked P-47’s to be launched ashore once Aslito Field was taken? They ended up having to launch them early because an inbound flight of Val’s from one of the smaller islands had been detected, and they needed to clear the decks to bring up their own air groups. The Army pilots took off not knowing if they would have a place to land, as the Marines were still doing mop up around the airfield, and the Army Engineers had barely just arrived to clear the runway. The engineers managed to quickly get an Un damaged Japanese bulldozer working and cleared enough runway for the Thunderbolts to land after a few hours of patrolling.
Incidentally St.Lo was the first ever escort carrier I read about, in a book about famous airplanes in the article on the Zero. Where it was mentioned as the first Kamikaze victim. Must have been around 10.
“I’d never heard of a Kamikaze. I’d heard of bombers, and all those kinds of things. But somebody _purposely_ doing this? It didn’t even occur to me.”
-Orville Bethard, survivor from the St. Lo
It is amazing just how many ships the US was able to build in the four years that the nation was involved during the second world war. It is equally amazing and horrifying that the Japanese would throw away the lives of their fighting men in such an utterly insane way. Much like so many modern day terrorists of a certain religion.
How about a piece on the HMS Rohna and the british cover up that lasted decades?
Elapsed time from the ship and crew finding out about the name change, to the ship hitting the bottom? 13 days. Now that’s creepy.
She is in the first set of Axis & Allies War at Sea game
I hope they didn’t remove the Swastika that’s so lame to do.
@treystephens6166 In the game? Well, yes. As to market to Germany. But you can paint the miniatures yourself and add swastikas.
If the navy had just waited another month the name would have become available on its own
Never change a of a warship
I have been told that size doesnt matter as long as you know how to use it ;)
Don’t change a name of a ship…period…
Jeep carriers
They got screwed! It was poor taste to rename after having been in combat.
Banzai
We are changing your ships name.
That’s bad luck and we don’t like it
You are overreacting
Now go join Taffy 3!!!
I can’t believe how Hard the Japanese fought‼️🇯🇵⛩
Nor could the Allied soldiers. They were not used to dealing with an enemy who was conditioned to fight to the death and never surrender. The western way of fighting was to give your all, but once it became futile you had the option to surrender, where the enemy would take you as a prisoner of war and was obligated to provide basic human needs. Not so with the Japanese. They looked at Allied soldiers who surrendered as cowards who were a shameful disgrace to their own country and thus unworthy of humane treatment.