I highly second Noel's recommendation of "WARSHIP PERSPECTIVES: FLUSH DECK DESTROYERS IN WORLD WAR TWO". If you can find the book, I don't know if it still is in print, get it.
Have you looked at Navsource.com ... http://www.navsource.org/archives/11/09idx.htm ... for images of DMS units. There are some nice views of LONG in October 1943 and other views of her sisters.
I only have one good photo of a Flush-Deck DMS conversion that I have scanned at NARA ... DMS-3 BOGGS on 2 March 1943.
I've been going through that book and Navsource's APD pages tonight working on an APD page for ShipCamouflage and I think a lot of the individual ship photographs are "faked" in that book. Faked as in heavily retouched and ship numbers changed to provide photographs of ships where they didn't have any.
For example, the photograph of APD-7 Talbot on page 64 shows a completely false camouflage scheme that has been amateurishly added to the image. Ward's photo on page 76 also has a false camouflage scheme that does not match the Measure 31 / 12T design sheet that she clearly matches in photos posted to her Navsource and NHHC page. In fact, looking at it now I can see it's that same Talbot photo, flipped over, with a different fake camouflage drawn on it (also used for USS Herbert APD-22 on page 83 and Noa APD-24 on page 86). The photo of Tattnall on page 80 and Overton on page 84 are the same, with some of the crew standing in formation in front of the bridge photoshopped or airbrushed out. The photo of Goldsborough APD-32 on page 90 is an exact reverse of Badger APD-33 on the facing page, just with the hull number airbrushed out.
If you're looking for stories of the sailors it is still very worth while, but as reference book for the ships it's almost worthless.
raven316 wrote:By "that book" do you mean the Green Dragons?
Yes. I had traded e-mails with the author 5-6 years ago and e-mailed him again last night. Here's his response:
I realize what you say is true.
HOWEVER, when I put the book together I obtained copies of "WHAT WAS AVAILABLE" from the Naval Institute and Navy Yard files
and took a few "liberties" in order to produce the book. No one (of my group) has complained and the main purpose was to tell the
story of the 32 4-stack APDs.
To my knowledge APDs 1-6 started as a "self help" paint job later modified in a navy yard. APDs 7-18, & 25 (converted in west coast yards) were painted dark green at conversion, sent to Pearl Harbor and given their camouflage there before being sent on to the south pacific.
I'm not too sure about the rest.
Keep in mind I'm not trashing the book, just saying don't use it as a source for ship details or camouflage.
Got ya. Curt is a great guy, I was proud to be able to go the their reunion after I lost my dad and meet him and the rest of those "Tin-Can Sailors". Is the picture of the Crosby with the cammy accurate? He had that on the mantle as far back as I can remember.
I'm not sure which photo you're referring to; the one in the Green Dragons book on page 78? That one's all right; I've got a copy I scanned in at the archives. There's one of her in greens on Navsource of a dodgy (low-resolution scan) quality but if it is retouched it was well done.
Buchanan was transferred to the United Kingdom under the Destroyers for Bases Agreement in 1940 and served as HMS Campbeltown (I42). She was destroyed during the St. Nazaire Raid on 28 March 1942 when, loaded with four tons of amatol explosive, the ship rammed the gates of the Forme Ecluse Louis Joubert dry dock. The ship exploded the following morning, ending the use of the dock for the rest of the war.
Good reference for the HMS Campbeltown as it appeared in the St Nazaire raid is the book:
Make your influence positive!
"Oh Lord thy sea is so great and my boat is so small."
Breton Fisherman's Prayer
My father served on the USS Noa in the Pacific after she was reconfigured as a fast transport carrying (4) landing craft. Has anyone ever seen a model in that configuration? I've only seen her as the 1940 experimental Seaplane destroyer.
I don't have my research materials nearby to see what differences there might be, but it would be your best starting point unless you want to do a lot of scratch building.
