Carriers in U.S. Service

[Richard Farrant]

Originally Posted by Lynn Eades

Richard, the story of the sub sounds interesting.

Hi Lynne,
I don't want to hijack this thread, but the information about Free French being supplied with 10 of the NZ Carriers, and the fact that the hull for sale in Belgium is from Tahiti, led me to find out about a French submarine under the control of Free French met its demise on it way to Tahiti. The Surcouf, read its story here;
http://www.militaryfactory.com/ships...id=Surcouf-NN3
I did read another site saying there was speculation that it might have been targeted by a US bomber as there was claim to have hit a sub within the time it went missing and no other sub was known to be in the area.
Think this should be on a new thread maybe.

regards, Richard

[Big D]

Hi all,

Here are a few more pictures of the Honiara carrier. They are not great I'm afraid.

Lynn-I'm fairly sure all the aussie carriers have the data plate on the right front guard as well. Mine certainly does and it is a Metropolitan Gas Works manufactured one. Perhaps some of the other aussie carrier owners can confirm.

At the time I thought the NZ carriers had the data plate in the same place and I figured this might have been one reason why the guard on the Honiara carrier was gone.

While in Honiara I spoke to an ex-pat aussie living there who had set up a museum of sorts with all sorts of artifacts he had recovered from the jungle with the help of the locals. They included a Willys jeep, M2A1 Stuart tank complete with a 37mm hole in the hull when it was knocked out, (the very early one), Japanese field guns and anti tank guns, Zero engines, Japanese MG's and all sorts of other battlefield pickups.

He said he had located another carrier in the jungle that he hoped to pull out at some stage. He hinted that logistically it was a bit difficult to get to though. I was amazed at what is still being found there with a steady stream of local people coming into see him with battlefield pickups that he was paying them for.

If anyone is interested I could post the pictures on a seperate thread.

I can't seem to reduce the size of the last picture so if it is too big let me know and I'll delete it!









http://imageshack.us/a/img32/5638/bcy.JPG

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Big D

I can't seem to reduce the size of the last picture so if it is too big let me know and I'll delete it!

http://imageshack.us/a/img32/5638/bcy.JPG

Darryl,

No problem, I've reduced it to a link rather than an image, so interested members can click on it.

Please attach the pictures to your post also, as experience learns us that over time the external links to sites like imageshack etc. will disappear.

Thank you!

Hanno
MLU Administrator

[Dianaa]

Originally Posted by Richard Farrant

...
I did read another site saying there was speculation that it might have been targeted by a US bomber as there was claim to have hit a sub within the time it went missing and no other sub was known to be in the area.
Think this should be on a new thread maybe.

regards, Richard

Hi Richard

To continue with your hyjack, how can anyone even consider that one of the Allies could have been subject of friendly fire from our confederates the USofA?

My WWI veteran grandfather is reputed to have said the most dangerous place on the battlefield was being next to the Yanks! As happened to him in the 1918 Battle of Hamel under Sir John Monash.

[Andrew Rowe]

Hi Guys, I will add my 2cents worth. NZ carriers hull build numbers were stamped on the front top of the Right hand towing eye and this number will possibly only go as high as 1210. Sometimes the " T " number is on the Left hand side towing eye top. This is true for the later LP2A's.
The early LP2 number is stamped on the middle towing Eye, sometimes you need to rub the area with a little sandpaper and it shows up.If anybody is handy to this one in the islands it would be nice to know the numbers as I have a bit of a registar of NZ carrier numbers here in NZ. So it usually does not matter whether the mudguards have rusted off or the data plate is gone , we still can trace it manufacture.

[Big D]

Hanno,

Thanks for that.


Andrew,

I have some colleagues arriving there in about 2 weeks. It might take a while but I will get them to check out the towing eyes as you've suggested.