 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(January 2017) |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name | Caterina Costa |
| Fate | Blew up and sank March 28, 1943 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage | 8,060 GRT |
Caterina Costa was an 8,060-ton motor ship. On March 28, 1943, while loading ammunition and supplies at Naples during World War II, the vessel caught fire and exploded. 600 people died and over 3,000 were wounded.
On March 28, 1943, it was moored in the port of Naples in the area overlooking the district of Saint Erasmus, while being loaded with arms and supplies (1,000 tons of gas, 900 explosives, tanks and others) to be transported to Bizerte to supply war materials for the Italian armed forces stationed in Africa. A fire broke out, possibly due to arson, which became uncontrollable. The fire reached the Caterina Costa's hold, causing a devastating explosion. The pier sank and a large number of buildings around were destroyed or badly damaged. Some ships nearby caught fire and sank while hot parts of the ship and tanks were thrown at great distance, finishing in via Atri and Piazza Carlo III. Other fragments reached the Market Square and Vomero while others set fire to the central station. More than 600 dead and over 3,000 wounded filled the streets. Admiral Lorenzo Gasparri, commander of the Fleet Destroyer Group, was among the casualties; he was killed by the explosion while trying to distance some barges laden with ammunitions from the blazing ship, and he was posthumously awarded the Gold Medal of Military Valour. [1]
USS West Virginia (BB-48) was the fourth dreadnought battleship of the Colorado class, though because Washington was cancelled, she was the third and final member of the class to be completed. The Colorado class proved to be the culmination of the standard-type battleship series built for the United States Navy in the 1910s and 1920s; the ships were essentially repeats of the earlier Tennessee design, but with a significantly more powerful main battery of eight 16-inch (406 mm) guns in twin-gun turrets. West Virginia was built between her keel laying in 1920 and her commissioning into the Navy in 1923. The ship spent the 1920s and 1930s conducting routine training exercises, including the typically-annual Fleet Problems, which provided invaluable experience for the coming war in the Pacific.
USS Amberjack (SS-219) was a Gato-class submarine, the first United States Navy ship named for the amberjack.
There have been many extremely large explosions, accidental and intentional, caused by modern high explosives, boiling liquid expanding vapour explosions (BLEVEs), older explosives such as gunpowder, volatile petroleum-based fuels such as gasoline, and other chemical reactions. This list contains the largest known examples, sorted by date. An unambiguous ranking in order of severity is not possible; a 1994 study by historian Jay White of 130 large explosions suggested that they need to be ranked by an overall effect of power, quantity, radius, loss of life and property destruction, but concluded that such rankings are difficult to assess.
Convoy PQ 16 was an Arctic convoy of British, United States and Allied ships from Iceland to Murmansk and Archangelsk in the Soviet Union during the Second World War. The convoy was the largest yet and was provided with a considerable number of escorts and submarines. QP 12, a return convoy, sailed on the same day
German submarine U-255 was a Type VIIC U-boat that served in Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. The submarine was laid down on 21 December 1940 at the Bremer Vulkan yard at Bremen-Vegesack, launched on 8 October 1941 and commissioned on 29 November 1941 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Reinhart Reche.
HMS Splendid was a third-batch S-class submarine built for the Royal Navy during World War II. She was laid down on 7 March 1941 and launched on 19 January 1942. After an initial patrol through the Bay of Biscay to Gibraltar, Splendid conducted two patrols in the Mediterranean Sea; one was abandoned after technical problems and on the other she sank two Italian ships. On her next patrol, the submarine attacked two Italian convoys, sinking an Italian destroyer in the second attack. Based in Algiers, the boat operated north of Sicily, sinking six Italian ships, including two tankers and two heavy merchant ships. Splendid was detected by a German destroyer on 21 April 1943 while patrolling off Naples, Italy; the submarine was attacked with depth charges by the destroyer and forced to surface, after which she was scuttled and her surviving crew members taken prisoner. She was the most successful British submarine by tonnage sunk between November 1942 and May 1943.
The Battle of the Espero Convoy on 28 June 1940, was the first surface engagement between Italian and Allied warships of the Second World War. Three modern 36 kn Italian destroyers made a run from Taranto for Tobruk in Libya to transport Blackshirt anti-tank units, in case of an armoured attack from Egypt by the British.
USS LST-16 was a LST-1-class tank landing ship built for the U.S. Navy during World War II. Like most ships in her class, she was not named and was known only by her designation. She was staffed by a U.S. Coast Guard crew throughout her service career.
The action off Cape Bougaroun, or the Attack on Convoy KMF-25A was a Luftwaffe action against an Allied naval convoy off the coast of Algeria during World War II. The convoy of American, British, Greek and Dutch ships was attacked on 6 November 1943 by 25 German land-based aircraft. Six Allied vessels were sunk or damaged and six German aircraft were destroyed. German forces achieved a tactical victory, though the Allied warships involved received credit for defending their convoy and reacting to their losses quickly. The quick response led to the rescue of over 6,000 servicemen and civilians without further loss of life.
The 1944 explosion in Aarhus or the 4th of July Disaster was an explosion in the city of Aarhus, Denmark when a barge loaded with ammunition exploded in the harbor, killing 39 people and injuring another 250.
Lorenzo Gasparri was an Italian admiral during World War II.
SS Logan Victory was a cargo Victory ship built for World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding program. The Logan Victory was launched January 16, 1945, by Permanente Metals Corporation, Richmond, California and completed on February 6, 1945. She was operated by the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company under the United States Maritime Commission.
HMS LST-422 was a United States Navy LST-1-class tank landing ship that was transferred to the Royal Navy during World War II. As with many of her class, the ship was never named. Instead, she was referred to by her hull designation.
The SS Berea Victory (MCV-734) was a type VC2-S-AP2 Victory-class cargo ship built for the United States during World War II. The ship was built as part of the Emergency Shipbuilding program by Permanente Metals Corporation in Yard 2 of the Richmond Shipyards in Richmond, California. Launched on 3 March 1945, the Berea Victory delivered supplies for the Pacific War.
American logistics in the Normandy campaign played a key role in the success of Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of northwest Europe during World War II. The campaign officially commenced on D-Day, 6 June 1944, and ended on 24 July, the day before the launch of Operation Cobra. The Services of Supply (SOS) was formed under the command of Major General John C. H. Lee in May 1942 to provide logistical support to the European Theater of Operations, United States Army. From February 1944 on, the SOS was increasingly referred to as the Communications Zone (COMZ). Between May 1942 and May 1944, Operation Bolero, the buildup of American troops and supplies in the UK, proceeded fitfully and, by June 1944 1,526,965 US troops were in the UK, of whom 459,511 were part of the COMZ.
Logistics played a key role in the success of Operation Dragoon, the Allied invasion of Southern France during World War II that commenced with the US Seventh Army landings on the French Riviera on 15 August 1944. On 12 September, the Seventh Army made contact with Allied forces that had landed in Normandy earlier that year as part of Operation Overlord. The supporting logistical organizations continued to operate separately, with the Southern Line of Communications supporting the Seventh Army drawing its supplies from the North African Theater of Operations until it merged with the Communications Zone of the European Theater of Operations on 20 November.
American services and supply played a crucial part in the World War II Siegfried Line campaign, which ran from the end of the pursuit of the German armies from Normandy in mid-September 1944 until December 1944, when the American forces were engulfed by the German Ardennes offensive. In August 1944, the Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, elected to continue the pursuit of the retreating German forces beyond the Seine and across France and Belgium to the German border instead of pausing to build up supplies and establish the line of communications as called for in the original Operation Overlord plan. The subsequent advance to the German border stretched the American logistical system to breaking point, and the advance came to a halt in mid-September.
Pegaso was a torpedo boat and an escort aviso of the Italian Regia Marina. She was one of the most successful Axis anti-submarine warships of World War II.
Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in March 1943 | |
|---|---|
| Shipwrecks |
|
| Other incidents |
|
 | This article about a specific civilian ship or boat is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
