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REMARKABLE VESSEL
The review of the Buffalo & Erie County Naval & Military Park (MHM August/September 2024) was a fine overview of an excellent but sadly little-known museum. Christopher Warner did a solid job of covering the broad collection and compelling stories in just a page and a half. No doubt the story of the Sullivan brothers, all five of whom were killed aboard USS Juneau when it sank in 1942, is one of the most moving in naval history.
That said, it seems a shame that the largest and most fascinating vessel, the guided-missile cruiser USS Little Rock, got the least amount of ink. It could be argued that she embodies a profound moment of transition in naval strategy and weaponry. Before Little Rock it was all guns; after, it was all missiles.
Beyond her historical significance, the vessel herself is remarkable. The Talos missiles were too big to be shipped fully assembled, so Little Rock’s conversion meant having a vast missile assembly line retrofitted into the ship. It was top secret at the time, but is open to visitors today, and is a wild space-age/steampunk experience to walk through.
More broadly, Little Rock is a champion for her type. There are numerous battleships, aircraft carriers, destroyers, and submarines preserved around the world, but precious few cruisers. The cruiser room aboard Little Rock is unique in presenting the record of the vessels that bore the brunt of the fighting and losses over the first few years of World War II.
Gregory Morris New York City
VISITING CORREGIDOR
David Porter’s detailed article on armoured warfare in the Far East and Pacific before and during World War II (‘Thunder in the East’, MHM October/November 2024) was very informative. It led me to recall a visit to the Philippines some years ago, during which I was fortunate to be able to visit Corregidor – a very small island guarding the entrance to Manila Bay. It was initially occupied by the Americans in 1902 and heavily fortified due to its strategically vital location.
The capture of Corregidor by Japanese General Masaharu Homma’s forces in May 1942 led to the infamous ‘death march’ from the adjacent Bataan Peninsula, in which some 18,000 Allied prisoners of war died. Today, Douglas MacArthur’s derelict HQ can be seen, as well as the entrance to the Malinta Tunnels, the site of a ferocious banzai charge in February 1945, when hundreds of Japanese defenders were mown down.
Numerous artillery batteries were built by the Americans to defend the bay, including a surviving 12-inch coastal gun (above). As well as a being a UNESCO World Heritage site, Corregidor – with its bloody history – is today the home of the Main Allied Pacific War Memorial.
Roger Laing Iver, Buckinghamshire
THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX
Taylor Downing’s piece on Churchill’s encouragement of outlandish military inventions (MHM October/November 2024) reminded me of the writer Nevil Shute’s wartime career. Best known for his popular novels, such as A Town Like Alice and Pied Piper, Shute spent four years developing secret weapons during his time with the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve.
Few of these ingenious devices succeeded. They included an acoustic warning device for the Navy, consisting of microphones fixed to a ship’s mast, and a pilotless glider that was supposed to lay a smokescreen for the D-Day invasion. More successful was the Rocket Grapnel, used for scaling cliff faces.
Shute was particularly fascinated by weapons capable of projecting fire. His novel Most Secret, written in 1942 but not published until the end of the war because of official censorship, features a secret cross-Channel mission, using a fishing boat equipped with a flamethrower.
The most spectacular invention that Shute helped to develop was the ill fated Grand Panjandrum (above), consisting of giant wheels with an explosive-packed box between them, which was to be propelled up the Normandy beaches by rockets. It had to be abandoned after running amok during trials on the North Devon coast.
William Oxenforth Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire
All images: Wikimedia Commons
