you
they were designed to be the best they
met enemies face to face endured
tragedies and enjoyed victories they
went down in history due to the bravery
of their crews and deserve to be called
naval legends in this episode kid a
pirates tour of duty my name is Tim
Nesmith I'm the ship's superintendent
for the USS Kidd DeeDee 661 the kid is a
fletcher-class destroyers that served in
world war ii from 1943 to 1946 she
served again during the Korean War
starting in 1951 and ended her service
in 1964 during the Cold War the ship
derives her name from Rear Admiral Isaac
C kid who died on the bridge of the USS
Arizona flagship during the attack on
Pearl Harbor the Arizona sank after her
magazines were directly hit by a bomb
from the air posthumously Kidd was
awarded with the Medal of Honor the
highest US military honor after the
vessel was built the crew decided to
choose a lucky talisman and decided upon
the namesake pirate Captain William Kidd
an English sailor who lived in the 17th
century who was widely known in folklore
he is even considered to be one of the
direct inspirations for Captain Flint
from the novel Treasure Island by Robert
Louis Stevenson
mrs. kid thought that was a great idea
and got permission for them to fly
pirate flag and also to paint a pirate
up on the forward smokestack Admiral
kids nickname as it turns out part of
the reason that this actually worked and
the Navy gave permission was cap after
Captain Kidd the pirate initially the
ship served in the Atlantic protecting
convoys then she was included in the
48th destroyer squadron and transferred
to the Pacific consequently she
participated in the battles of
Bougainville Rabaul Philippines tenían
Guam and Okinawa
with 12 meters length 115 metres gross
displacement up to 3,000 tonnes draft
four meters armament major caliber five
turrets with 127 millimeter in k-12
versatile cannons low caliber AAA guns
five chained befores autocannons forty
millimeter and 720 millimeter airlie
corn torpedo tubes a couple of five tube
launchers anti-submarine weapons key gun
howitzers with 28 d bombs hull armor up
to 19 millimeters propulsion 60,000 SHP
with speed up to 38 nuts and range of
6,500 NM i people of a certain age could
be pulled into military service came
from all walks of life they might have
entered the Navy without any particular
skill they were trained in bootcamp or
they once they got onboard ship that was
a phrase called striking a rate the 330
people coming from all walks of life a
lot of people different religions
different ethnicities three that had
different cultural backgrounds thrown
into the mix in a small little ship is
an interesting time for a lot of
a major part of world war two she spent
in hot moist climates the crew had a
really hard time facing temperatures up
to 35 to 40 degrees Celsius and even
hotter inside the hull
at the beginning of World War two five
weeks after Pearl Harbor at 17 years old
I joined the Navy I went through
training center in San Diego and wound
up in Pearl Harbor Hawaii on the salvage
crew salvaging the sunken ships that
were sunk
during the on December the 7th 1941
I worked for 60 days without stopping 10
to 12 hours a day cleaning up removing
ammunition standing by while they picked
up bodies and evident let us young boys
fool with the bodies thankfully
destroyers those days really lacked
internal space the placement of living
space was predominantly ruled by ships
design and convenience was secondary
listed crews slept on top of the
magazine's if they took a hit there and
there's an explosion
unfortunately you would lose those crew
members and for that reason the crew did
not sleep segregated according to their
division all the engineers wouldn't be
in one spot all the Gunners wouldn't be
in another spot you would have them
scattered throughout the ship so that if
you did take a hit like that you
wouldn't lose a large percentage of one
area the US fleet has always longed to
maximize survivability of its vessels
all expedient equipment was designed in
order to help the crew to repair any
damage possible for instance the crews
hammocks were made water and fireproof
these could easily be used to plug
modest sized holds in the ship and stamp
out a fire
we are in radio central here aboard the
kid during the kamikaze attack in 1945
this area was hit pretty hard by the
bomb blast it shredded the entire
portside bulkhead a lot of the wounded
from that attack came from this area the
situation in the Pacific became quite
heated by the end of the 1930s Japan had
invaded China and was preparing to
advance towards the u.s. moreover the
Japanese fleet grew very rapidly the
threat didn't remain unnoticed from over
the ocean the US military machine
developed classes of ships one after
another gradually improving their
characteristics of all the ships in the
Navy the battle wagons get all the
attention and the aircraft carriers all
the glory but arguably the backbone of
the fleet has always been two destroyers
small fast nimble little ships with dual
purpose armament which can often pack a
punch quite above their weight one of
the most numerous classes was the
fletcher class destroyer Wondra dand 75
or sail were built and we are on one
right now USS Kidd which is pretty much
1945 configuration as it was at the end
of the war work on Fletcher class ships
was initiated in 1939 right before world
war ii broke out they turned out to be
larger than their predecessors allowing
for an increase in their battle
potential a number of additional
measures were introduced so as to
increase sustainability the decks armor
was up to 19 millimeters thick the
engine and boiler rooms were placed far
away from each other such an arrangement
lowered the chances of the ship's
immobilization even if heavily damaged
Fletcher's turned out to be
outstandingly robust withstanding
multiple successful assaults a fact that
really lifted the spirits of the crews
on
major caliber cannons were designed to
engage both aerial and ground targets
the shells were equipped with remote
fuses that significantly increased the
power of the ship's artillery fire armed
with a good selection of weaponry from
dual purpose 5-inch guns down to
anti-ship torpedos and anti-submarine
depth charges destroyer had a fair
chance of being a danger to pretty much
anything that I met on high seas despite
the high battle potential Fletcher's
were never designed for solo operations
as a rule they were used in squadrons
similar to any other destroyers
destroyers would be in divisions of
three and four squadrons rate a nine the
usual taskings were escort duty
anti-submarine warfare pickets ships
reconnaissance screening and pretty much
anything that ship could do it or it
could be asked to do
based on their powerful armament unique
survivability sophisticated fire control
systems long operational range and
decency keeping Fletcher's are
rightfully considered one of the best
ships of this type of course along with
many other classes of ships they also
had their fair share of casualties
during the war there were 25
fletcher-class destroyers that were sunk
during World War two Japanese kamikaze
tactics became their major headache the
ships were quite an easy target
patrolling far away from major forces
and it was April 1945 that our Pacific
pirate first encountered kamikaze pilots
Kidd was patrolling in a group of four
destroyers when a couple of aircraft
were spotted in the skies seemingly
having a dogfight with one another
perplexed to have detected an allied
plane the ships ceased fire and kept
observing only when the couple started
to descend a crews realized that it was
a trap set to by a kamikaze one of the
planes was shot down but the other one
hit the USS kids deck
almost a third of the crew was
incapacitated 38 killed 45 wounded the
chief mechanic was boiled alive in the
ship's boiler rooms the ship's doctor
was caught by a bomb fragment and lost
his eye making him unable to fulfill his
duty he was carrying a camera that he
used to shoot the battle after the
explosion its film was mostly burned
except for the fragment displaying the
Kamikaze plane directly before the
impact the young boy and all the young
boys were put in the most dangerous
dirtiest jobs while my ship I was in the
powder magazine I had no idea was going
to be hit I don't know what happened but
all I know is a bang
the lights went out I went out I woke up
couldn't see anything because they were
so dark
despite all these casualties the kid
managed to move away for repairs under
her own steam this surely outlines the
outstanding construction of Fletcher's
and the high skill of the crews aboard
however this was the end of World War
two for the USS Kidd later she would
participate in the Korean War
supporting ground forced with her
cannons during her service years the USS
Kidd was awarded with twelve battle
stars eight during World War two and the
rest in the Korean events the ship also
participated in numerous landing
operations across the Pacific Ocean
islands repelled aerial attacks of the
Japanese and even scored a film role in
run silent run deep a movie dedicated to
us submarines in 1964 after 20 years of
service the destroyer now inferior in
certain parameters was finally
decommissioned nevertheless a lucky fate
saved the pirate ship from the dock
cutters as it was decided to leave her
among three Fletcher's set to be
renovated and turned into floating
museums she's been brought here to Baton
Rouge as a memorial for the state's
veterans and for destroyer and Navy
veterans all around the country and as
rated one of the most accurate
historical ships in the historic fleet
which stands about five continents
the name USS Kidd now belongs to the new
arleigh burke-class of ship this old
pirate may now sleep well her flag is in
reliable hands
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