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"Old Swayback" was a nickname of the USS Salt Lake City. The Salt Lake and the Pensacola were designed as flush-deck cruisers, that gave the swayback appearance. The Salt Lake was commissioned prior to the Pensacola and therefore the oldest cruiser in the Navy, gaining the "Old Swayback" moniker.
James Basset, author of "In Harms Way", served onboard the Salt Lake City during 1941 so knew the nickname and "the straw-bottom" nomenclature.
Check out the article "Blue Jackets Are Ready" on the ussslcca25 website for an article in the Honolulu Advertiser during October of 1941. The ussslcca25 website is one of the best sites out there! There are hours of great information on the ship and each crew-member has a place to tell his story.
...sorry to get off message on the Houston, but I'm old!
If anyone wants the true story of the USS Houston, read the book titled "Ship of Ghosts: The Story of the USS Houston, FDR's Legendary Lost Cruiser, and the Epic Saga of Her Survivors" by James D. Hornfischer.
The sinking of the Houston was just the beginning of hell that her crew would endure. They ended up as POWs building the railroad made famous (infamous) in "The Bridge Over the River Kwai".
James D. Hornfischer is one of the best Naval historians, as his books attest.
It might have been better for the ships and submarines to have abandoned the South Pacific and retreated to Australia instead of fighting the Japanese in the Java Sea area.
From hindsight you are probably right.
But the Allies were still trying to save parts of the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) from being overrun by the Japanese. Since the Dutch still had several cruisers and I believe submarines, the other Allies - the Americans, British and Australia did not want to abandon them.
Also, I think at the time, the Allies were in shock just how effective the Japanese were, especially when you consider most of the Japanese Army was locked up in their invasion of China. In Jan-Feb 1942, they were possibly still underestimating the Japanese and probably could not believe that the Japanese were going to take all of the Dutch East Indies, much of New Guinea and the Solomons and even land in parts of Alaska.
My dad was one of the 141 men that survived the USS Johnston's attack on the Japanese Centre Force off Samar in 1944. He never did talk about it much, his one remark was that "Commander Evans didn't know the meaning of giving up, and said that we rode that ship into hell with all guns blazing."
My dad was one of the 141 men that survived the USS Johnston's attack on the Japanese Centre Force off Samar in 1944. He never did talk about it much, his one remark was that "Commander Evans didn't know the meaning of giving up, and said that we rode that ship into hell with all guns blazing."
I salute your father..........and all of the gallant and brave men who were serving on that ship............
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