THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 19, 1994 TAG: 9406170268
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Alan Flanders
DATELINE: 940619 LENGTH: Medium
Although they were not on the beaches of northern France, more than 42,000 Norfolk Naval Ship-yard workers built 30 major warships during the war. Among those, four turned their guns on German positions on the French coast during the dark morning hours of June 6, 1944, when it looked as if American forces were on their way to certain defeat.
{REST} Few veterans who landed on D-Day will forget the support and firepower they received from the battleships Texas and Nevada and destroyers Herndon and Shubrick.
The Texas, along with her sisters, the North Carolina, New York, Nevada, Arizona, Mississippi and Idaho, had arrived on the Portsmouth waterfront during an era of international restriction against new battleship construction. Instead, they were placed in what became known as the battleship modernization program.
Like the others, the Texas and Nevada had been built from a World War I design and were in need of heavier armor, more powerful guns, and an overhaul of their machinery and power plant.
For all seven, the Norfolk Naval Shipyard answered these needs and was able to return them to the fleet just before World War II. Tragically, the Arizona was lost during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but the rest were able to make considerable contributions to the war effort, with the Texas and Nevada lobbing shells in front of American troops as they stormed ashore at Normandy. To war correspondent and novelist Ernest Hemingway, the shells sounded like ``freight trains going over your head.''
According to official reports, ``at about 0440 on the morning of the 6th, Texas closed the Normandy coast to a point some 12,000 yards offshore near Pointe du Hoc. At 0550, Texas began churning up the coastal landscape with her 14-inch salvos. Meanwhile, her secondary battery went to work on another target on the western end of Omaha beach, a ravine laced with strong points to defend an exit road.
``Later, under control of airborne spotters, she moved her major-caliber fire inland to interdict enemy reinforcements and destroy batteries farther inland.''
The Nevada was ``in action from 6 to 17 June, and again 25 June, her mighty guns pounded not only permanent shore defenses on the Cherbourg Peninsula, but ranged as far as 17 miles inland, breaking up German concentrations and counterattacks. Shore batteries straddled her 27 times, but failed to diminish her accurate fire.''
Joining the Texas, Nevada and the 5,000 other allied warships that participated in the Normandy bombardment were the smaller destroyers. The death-defying courage of the crews more than made up for the destroyers's small size as they came almost to the shoreline to get better aim on the enemy. As much as the Texas and Nevada were legends on D-Day, so were the Portsmouth-built destroyers Shubrick and Herndon.
The Shubrick was launched from the shipyard on April 18, 1942, with Mrs. Grosvenor Benis, the great-great-granddaughter of the ship's namesake, a War of 1812 hero of the battle of Craney Island, as her sponsor.
After distinguished service during the North African and Sicilian campaigns, the Shubrick escorted the battleship Nevada and five cruisers to Normandy and then turned to the business of fire support as American troops headed for the beach. Her logs record that she then ``opened fire on pre-arranged targets. She continued her fire as troops landed, then checked her fire at 0630 to avoid hitting friendly forces. She remained off Normandy beaches for over a month, performing escort duty, fire support missions, and patrol duty.''
Like the Shubrick, the Herndon took a front-row seat in the action off Normandy. Her log places her on D-Day as ``down front in `Bald-headed row' ahead of the first assault waves.''
Her battle report states that ``despite heavy counterfire from enemy batteries, she effectively bombarded enemy targets ashore,'' where she remained until being redeployed for further action elsewhere along the coast on June 19.
These ships and the brave crewmen who sailed them to Normandy were part of the greatest armada the world had ever seen. Without them, there is no doubt that the terrible number of casualties suffered at Normandy would have been much higher.
Normandy also was a success because thousands of shipyard workers flexed America's industrial might and strengthened the sinews of her Navy with ships built in Portsmouth from Norfolk Naval Shipyard steel.
It was this kind of effort on the Elizabeth River waterfront that got our troops across the English Channel, gave them a fighting chance on the beaches and supplied some of the muscle it took to break through Normandy.
by CNB