America in WWII - (Page 20) A WAR STORIES A WWII Scrapbook COURTESY OF TOM LOWRY NATIONAL ARCHIVES Navy tugs ATA-183 (on the left) and YTB-229 ease a floating dry dock, tilted on edge to fit the channel, through the Panama Canal in early 1945. Lieutenant Junior Grade Richard S. Lowry, USNR (above, right), commanded ATA-183. A TIGHT FIT THROUGH THE PANAMA CANAL O OKINAWA, the US fleet was under assault by kamikazes. Their main target was the big ships—carriers, cruisers, and transports—but to get near these undetected they had to get past a ring of pickets, small craft stationed far out from the main fleet. These picket boats—destroyer escorts, sub-chasers, and the like—were also good targets, first to eliminate their reporting FF OCTOBER 2007 capacity, and second because their light armor, smaller anti-aircraft batteries and isolation made them easier to hit and destroy. Even with a near miss, the concussion could bend frames and crack hulls. To repair damaged hulls requires a dry dock, a huge device into which a ship is floated through open gates and then secured in an upright position. In the next step, water is pumped out of the box around the ship and, in floating dry docks, from the huge flotation tanks on either side. The whole rig rises higher in the water until the dry hull is accessible to cutters and welders. In early 1945, with Germany defeated and Japan still fighting desperately, the navy needed more dry docks in the western Pacific. One of these, capable of lifting 18,000 tons, was in the Caribbean. To tow it around the storm-tossed seas off either Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope seemed a recipe for disaster. Why not 20 AMERICA IN WWII
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