Status - John Skinner - USS Daly:
USS Daly (DD-519) -
July 24th: At sea all day. At noon, just north of Crooked Island, Bahamas. Strong breeze late morning.
July 25th: At sea all day. At noon, 250 miles NNW of Cartagena, Colombia.
July 26th: At sea, moored after 10 AM. Transiting Panama Canal.
July 27th: At sea, 8 AM to 5 PM. Transiting Panama Canal.
---------------------------Daly has begun its transit through the Panama Canal to the
Pacific in the screen
of the new Essex-class carrier Lexington (CV-16). Initial destination is San Diego, CA.
---------------------------
The Allied Invasion of Sicily continued as Allied forces continue to push the Italian forces toward the northeast corner of the island.
Battle of the Pips
In the Aleutians, a US Navy battleship-cruiser force with escorting destroyers was preparing to bombard Kiska Island, but was also on the lookout for a Japanese resupply force that had been reported earlier west of Attu. Radar was new to many of the ships and not fully reliable. On the night of July 25th, the battleships and cruisers believed that they saw the Japanese force on radar, but the destroyers saw nothing. A full attack was ordered and hundreds of large shells (14-inch and 8-inch) were fired on the targets.
A search the next morning found nothing; no enemy ships afloat, no wreckage anywhere. As it turned out, the attack was conducted on an empty sea. Whatever caused the echoes - distant mountains, sea birds, or something else - it was not enemy ships. Radar was very useful, but still could give false returns. Wags named the engagement the "Battle of the Pips" (pips being the name for the echoes on the radar screen), and there was much jocularity about this throughout the fleet.
More Information:
- Official Navy Chronology, pp. 365-366.
- Aleutians, Gilberts and Marshalls, Samuel Eliot Morison, pp. 22-61.
- Breaking the Bismarcks Barrier, Samuel Eliot Morison, pp. 160-206.
NEXT POST: JULY 27TH
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