[22] It was later reported, based on information from IDF sources, that the over-flights were coincidental, and that the aircraft were hunting for Egyptian submarines that had been spotted near the coast. [24] Israeli naval command dispatched two destroyers to investigate, but they were returned to their previous positions at 9:40 am after doubts emerged during the pilot's debriefing. USS Liberty was originally the 7,725 long tons (7,849 t) (light) civilian cargo vessel Simmons Victory, a mass-produced, standard-design Victory Ship, the follow-on series to the famous Liberty Ships that supplied the Allies with cargo during World War II. [98] These revelations were elicited as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by Florida bankruptcy judge and retired naval aviator Jay Cristol. His sources say that at the time of the attack Liberty was following her signal-intercept mission course along the northern Sinai coast, at about 5 knots (9.3 km/h; 5.8 mph) speed. Vice-Admiral William I. Martin recalled the aircraft minutes later. Fifty-eight Liberty ships were lengthened by 70 feet (21 m) starting in 1958. At its peak in 1965, 189 hulls were stored there. [60][57], The official U.S. records of the Liberty incident were designated top-secret and closed to the general public. On an earlier matter Boston had been willing to bump heads with Kidd when Boston felt it was more important to do the right thing than to curry favor with the senior who would write his fitness report. Johnson assumed that the Soviets were involved, and hotlined Moscow with news of the attack and the dispatch of jets from Saratoga. There was concern about obtaining more information on the attack, as expressed by Committee chairman J. William Fulbright: "We asked for [the attack investigation report] about two weeks ago and have not received it yet from Secretary Rusk. [71], Retired naval Lieutenant Commander James Ennes, a junior officer (and off-going Officer of the Deck) on Liberty's bridge at the time of the attack, authored a book titled Assault on the Liberty describing the incident and saying, among other things, that the attack was deliberate. Merchant Marine. [1][4], Israel apologized for the attack, saying that the USS Liberty had been attacked in error after being mistaken for an Egyptian ship. [52] SS Albert M. Boe survives as the Star of Kodiak, a landlocked cannery, in Kodiak Harbor at .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}57°47′12″N 152°24′18″W / 57.78667°N 152.40500°W / 57.78667; -152.40500. Limited industrial capacity, especially for reduction gears, meant that relatively few of these ships were built. The Shipping World and Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering News, 1952, p. 148. Merchant Ships Sunk or Damaged in World War II. [20]:39 Machine gun mount 53 was located on the starboard amidships side, behind the pilot house. In that case four holds were loaded with vehicles while the fifth was modified to house the drivers and assistants.[8]. 11 July 1943: U-178 sank the freighter Mary Livanos in the Mozambique Channel. Once communications were back on line, it was confirmed that the Israelis had attacked an American ship. They were usually named after famous Americans, starting with the signatories of the Declaration of Independence. World War II: The Liberty ship was torpedoed and sunk in the Indian Ocean off the Maldives) by I-37 ( Imperial Japanese Twenty-five crewmen and gunners die in the sinking. Kislev guessed that the ship was American. Ships sunk or damaged during February 1944 (21 ships) Date: Ship: Type: Cause: Result: Location: Deaths: 02/01/44: George W. Childs: Liberty: Damaged by cargo and grounded [27] At 12:15 pm, Division 914 received orders to patrol a position 20 miles (32 km) north of Arish. [94], Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a critic of the official United States Government version of events, chaired a non-governmental investigation into the attack on the Liberty in 2003. Admiral Shlomo Erell, head of the Israeli Navy in 1967, stated that no successful argument of benefit has been presented for Israel purposely attacking an American warship, especially considering the high cost of predictable complications that would follow an attack on a powerful ally. Liberty ship sunk off Pea Island as an artificial reef. Their production mirrored (albeit on a much larger scale) the manufacture of "Hog Islander" and similar standardized ship types during World War I. Secretary McNamara promised fast delivery of the investigation report, "... you will have it in four hours", and concluded his remarks by saying: "I simply want to emphasize that the investigative report does not show any evidence of a conscious intent to attack a U.S. The accommodation, bridge, and main engine were located amidships, with a tunnel connecting the main engine shaft to the propeller via a long aft extension. Survivors sail in their lifeboats to the Maldives arriving on 30 June. Official testimony combined with Liberty 's deck log establish that throughout the morning of the attack, 8 June, the ship was overflown, at various times and locations, by IAF aircraft. The helicopters arrived at about 3:10 pm, about 35 minutes after the torpedo hit the ship. [11] Several days before the war began, the USS Liberty was ordered to proceed to the eastern Mediterranean area to perform a signals intelligence collection mission in international waters near the north coast of Sinai, Egypt. Oren, Michael B. The need for the troopship conversions persisted into the immediate postwar period in order to return troops from overseas as quickly as possible. A summary of the NSA-translated tapes[102] indicates that at 1234Z Hatzor air control began directing two Israeli Air Force helicopters to an Egyptian warship, to rescue its crew: "This ship has now been identified as Egyptian." [14][15] SS E. A. Bryan detonated with the energy of 2,000 tons of TNT (8,400 GJ) in July 1944 as it was being loaded, killing 320 sailors and civilians in what was called the Port Chicago disaster. However, Kislev was still disturbed by a lack of return fire and requested one last attempt to identify the ship. [95], According to John Loftus and Mark Aarons in their book, The Secret War Against the Jews, Liberty was attacked because the Israelis knew that the ship's mission was to monitor radio signals from Israeli troops and pass troop movement information to the Egyptians. SS Richard Montgomery is an American Liberty ship built during World War II. From 1946 to 1963, the Pacific Ready Reserve Fleet – Columbia River Group, retained as many as 500 ships. McGonagle sent an urgent request for help to the Sixth Fleet, "Under attack by unidentified jet aircraft, require immediate assistance". Between December 1946 and April 1947, the 98 Liberty ships, along with two smaller cargo liners built as the CI-M-AVI type, were acquired and delivered to Greek interests, marking the start of one of the most important and interesting chapters in modern Greek maritime history, the legend of the 100 Liberty ships. 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