Van Heemskerck

[Hartley]

A CLAA coming out of PH in 1943 with only 560 AA ? :rolleyes:


I sent it back pretty quickly, hoping to get a real CLAA.

[PzB74]

A ship that survived a long and difficult journey deserved more respect than that Even Winston Churchill had been aboard!

History:
http://leden.tref.nl/~jviss000/Jacheem_his.htm

Picture:

http://leden.tref.nl/~jviss000/Cruisers/JHkerck2.jpg

[crsutton]

A CLAA coming out of PH in 1943 with only 560 AA ? :rolleyes:


I sent it back pretty quickly, hoping to get a real CLAA.

She was pretty small. Barely larger than a large DD. And pretty old. I don't know that the Americans tended to load up Allied ships with the most modern goodies. I suspect that American ships took priority. Anybody know more?

[Don Bowen]

R.N.M.S. Jacob van Heemskerck was intended to be a sister ship to the Tromp and would have mounted a main armament of 6 150mm guns. She was launched but incomplete at the time of the German invasion and was towed to England. Since her original armament had not been installed she was completed with a British-supplied armament of 10 4" AA guns.

She was sent to the Netherlands East Indies in 1942 but arrived too late to take part in the action. She was then attached to the British East Indies fleet. In late 1942 she, Tromp, and several other Dutch surface warships were based at Fremantle. They were part of the U.S. Seventh Fleet and performed convoy escort duties, primarily of convoys arriving/departing Australian via the Indian Ocean. In early 1943 she escorted convoys to Melbourne and Wellington, which is apparently the reason for her inclusion in Uncommon Valour. By mid-1943 she left the Pacific and returned to European waters.

Jacob van Heemskerck was overhauled in Liverpool in 1944 but, as far as I can tell, never in the U.S.

Her half-sister Tromp was refitted in Sydney in March, 1942 and was active in eastern Australian waters from late-April, 1942 until the end of the year. During this time Tromp escorted convoys to Port Moresby, Cairns, Townsville, and Noumea. Notably Tromp and HMAS Arunta escorted a convoy of three Dutch transports (the K.P.M. ships Bontekoe, Bantam and Van Heutsz) transporting the 14th Australian Brigade to Port Moresby in mid-May, 1942. Neither Tromp nor any of the K.P.M. ships are in Uncommon Valour.

[dwesolick]

Hi Don,

Good info. Thanks! I seem to recall that the actual Jacob van Heemskerck was a Dutch admiral in the 1600s. I think he won some victories against the Spanish fleet. I sort of have to know this since my wife is Dutch.
Actually, she told me "Heemskerck" is a very common name in the Netherlands (and Suriname, where she is from---originally Dutch Guyana). She has some friends and a few (distant) relatives by the same name.
As far as the ship goes in UV, I never send it back, but I don't use it in CV tfs. Actually, I never send ANTHING back that doesn't have major holes in it.

[Don Bowen]

I seem to recall that the actual Jacob van Heemskerck was a Dutch admiral in the 1600s.
__________________
"The Navy has a moth-eaten tradition that the captain who loses his ship is disgraced. What do they have all those ships for, if not to hurl them at the enemy?" --Douglas MacArthur

I believe you are right. There was also a K.P.M. merchant ship named Van Heemskerck that was active in the New Guinea area. In fact, if memory serves, she might have been sunk in Milne Bay. Perhaps it is confusion between the merchant ship Van Heemskerck and the cruiser Jacob Van Heemskerck that accounts for the the cruiser being included in the Uncommon Valour OOB.

On the MacArthur quote - he has it wrong as usual. In the military someone who loses government property must pay for it. That is the reason Captains go down with their ships.

Don Bowen

----------------------------
When called, we served
As our Fathers had served
And they spat on us for it.

[609IAP_Thumper]

I remember the first time I signed for five M60 main battle tanks. Back then, with them loaded out it was about a million $ total, but it sure opened my eyes.

Later, I had a soldier who's M60 machine gun and ruck sack came loose (or wasn't attached) to his parachute harness during a jump. The Army was trying to decide if they were gonna dock his pay some $8,500 to pay for it! Don't know how the poor sucker fared, I got out before they resolved the issue.

[Snigbert]

"As far as the ship goes in UV, I never send it back, but I don't use it in CV tfs. Actually, I never send ANTHING back that doesn't have major holes in it."

Dont worry, I'll put the holes in them for you.