craft and supported the Normandy
landings of June 1944.
Once ports were captured, Irisand
Daffodilreverted to their original role to
carry freight wagons across to France.
TF3struck a mine off Dieppe in March
1945, and TF1survived the war.
TF2and TF3can both be dived in less
than 20m off the French coast.
Standard ships
on the slipway
From the opening of the U-boat
campaign in 1914 the British
Government started ordering new
merchant ships from yards in the UK,
Canada and neutral USA.
From 1916 these orders were for a few
standard designs, predecessors of WW2’s
Liberty ships.
When America entered the war in
1917, political obstacles to increased
shipbuilding were quickly overcome, and
massive new yards were established
purely to build standard ships.
Ships already under construction were
now requisitioned by Uncle Sam.
The largest of these shipyards was Hog
Island on the Delaware river, a few miles
from Philadelphia.
Among dodgy land deals, profiteering
and alleged Mafia involvement, the first
standard ship was launched at Hog
Island on 5 August, 1918, but fitting-out
was not completed until 11 November,
the day the war ended.
With other ships under construction
and orders too far along to cancel,
122 “Hog Islanders” were completed,
with the yard being closed in 1921.
Philadelphia International Airport now
occupies the site.
Between Hog Island and other
shipyards in the USA, Canada and the
UK, 695 standard ships were completed.
Only 14 were lost during the war,
including the War Knighton the back of
the Isle of Wight and War Monarchoff
Sussex.
But these are beyond the scope of this
article, so it’s wrecks from among the
other 681 that we seek. Standard ships
were by far the greatest single type of
ship for the first few years of WW2, and
there were many losses in the depths of
the Atlantic.
Fortunately for divers, some were also
lost closer inshore. Only a wreck geek is
likely to recognise the name War Buffalo,
launched in Newcastle in 1918. Most
divers will know this South Devon wreck
better as the Persier, torpedoed by
U-1017on 11 February, 1945.
In February, 1944, off Haugesund in
Norway, the Anne Sofie, originally the
War Cove, ran aground and sank while
carrying iron ore from Narvik to Emden.
As with many shipping “accidents”
that occurred with Norwegian ships
carrying German cargo, there were
rumours of deliberate sabotage. The
wreck lies on a slope from 37 to 52m.
For a real "Hog Islander" wreck, you
need to go a little further, to Bali, where
the Liberty Glorests just off the beach at
Tulamben. She was torpedoed by
Japanese submarine I-166on 11 January,
1942, while underway from Australia to
the Philippines.
The damaged ship was towed to Bali
and beached, where she was partially
salvaged until a volcanic eruption in
1963 tipped her off the shore to rest just
short of 30m.
While British standard ships were
originally named War-something, names
were changed as surplus ships were sold
further afield. Sold to Japan, the War
Lemurbecame Hokutai Maruand sank
with the Japanese supply fleet at Palau
during Operation Desecrate in 1944.
Following the D-Day landings of 1944,
many old and worn standard ships
served their last mission as Gooseberry
blockships for the Mulberry harbours.New owners for
overseas territories
Before WW1, Germany was an imperial
power with colonial possessions in Africa
and the Pacific. For those who have dived
the Pacific islands, the preponderance of
coconut palms can be attributed to
German colonial plantations.
From 1914 Japan seized German
Pacific colonies and, following the
Versailles Treaty, these were shared out
between the winning colonial powers, the
Mariana, Caroline and Marshall Islands
being awarded to Japan. So at the time of
the Pearl Harbour attack on 6 December,
1941, many of these former Germancolonies were now part of
the Japanese supply chain.
For divers, the most
significant are Chuuk
(Truk) and Palau. In
February 1944 a US carrier
air attack destroyed a
Japanese supply fleet at
anchor in Truk Lagoon.
The following month,
a similar air-strike at Palau
sank a further supply fleet.
Both are now major wreck-
diving destinations.
Lesser-known Japanese
WW2 wrecks are scattered
through the former
German colonies, locations
that Japan controlled only
as a consequence WW1.Capital ships
on the slip
It wasn’t only merchant
ships that were ordered between 1914
and 1918. Many warships ranging from
corvettes to battleships were laid down
through the war, survived, and then
became casualties of WW2 or later. Thus
begins the story of the world’s biggest
diveable warship wreck.
Construction of a pair of battle-
cruisers was started in the USA in 1916,
but then put on hold when the nation
entered the war and resources were
redirected to fast construction of smaller
convoy-escort ships.
After the war, construction was
resumed. Lessons learned about thicker
armour and anti-torpedo bulges were
incorporated into the design, only to be
suspended again in 1922 before the
Washington Naval Conference.
By 1919, most countries were pretty
strapped for cash. To preserve the
existing balance of naval power without
starting an arms race, representatives of
the UK, USA, France, Italy and Japan
met in Washington and negotiated aWRECK DIVER
Above:Swimming through the
propeller-shaft tunnel of the
Persier.Left:The wreck of the steamship
Liberty Glo.Below:Behind the flight deck at
the stern of the USS Saratoga.31 divEr☛