Eastern Fleet: USS Saratoga salute

Mostly colour footage of USS Saratoga's sendoff by the British Eastern Fleet. Ships including County class heavy cruisers, Town or Colony class cruisers, HMS Renown, HMS Illustrious, HMS Queen Elizabeth, the Free French battleship Richelieu and several destroyers parade past the US carrier. Mostly as seen from USS Saratoga. www.armouredcarriers.com

[@KillBones]

The Richelieu looks so good, what a beast.

[@robertmarsh3588]

Quite an emotional sight watching this. What an amazing fleet.

[@tomsemmens6275]

HMS Renown looking effortlessly handsome...

[@DavidConnor]

A great day to be a sailor at sea. Excellent film of many fine ships.

[@jaybee9269]

Very nice video! I have to say Saratoga still looks lovely and menacing despite being near to retirement.

[@robbielee2148]

Color film 1944, thx looks great especially Renown, beauty of a ship.

[@LoneTinaja]

My dad was a teenage 20 millimeter AA gunner on Saratoga from summer 1943 to the end of the war. To see many photos of Saratoga go to navsource.org, then click on Aircraft carriers, then click on Saratoga (CV3). To see many photos of the February 21, 1945 kamikaze attack scroll far down to Special Photo Feature - The Harold C. Cassar Photo Collection. If you look at Aftermath Part 1 you’ll see the harsh reality of some of Saratoga’s fallen warriors.

[@jagreb]

Amazing. Absolutely amazing.

[@markballard2442]

My father joined up on 31 December 1941, and was posted to Sara on 2 November 1942 until 24 September 1945. During that time he had a short posting on the British carrier in the Indian ocean- he was not pleased because the British ship was not aircondioned (in the tropics) and the food was terrible. There is a great summary of Sara's history in the navy book called "Story of Sara".

[@ArmouredCarriers]

Thanks for that. You may enjoy my webpage about Operation Diplomat www.armouredcarriers.com/illustrious-and-saratoga

[@sixpackpilot]

You forgot to mention the last, interesting battleship that passes at 6:42 . It is the French Richelieu, which has the appearance of a Iowa or North Carolina, but can be easily recognized by the three smaller triple turrets at the back (quarter deck) instead of one big turret, like the US battleships had. Notice also the big French tricolour flag. This must be between April and July 1944 in the Indian Ocean.

[@sixpackpilot]

+V1Rotate to be precise: 18 May 1944 : commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Richelieu_from_Saratoga_May_1944.jpg

[@sixpackpilot]

+V1Rotate As a Dutchman it is also good to see the Dutch destroyer HNLMS Van Galen (G84) at 3:57. Must have been Van Galen and not her sister-ship Tjerk Hiddes, because the latter was at Trincomalee for repairs until June. Both were British N-class destroyers, transferred to the Royal Dutch Navy in '42. Note the horizontal red,white&blue tricolour flag halfway up the mast.

[@ArmouredCarriers]

+V1Rotate Ah, terribly sorry. Yes, terribly obvious... Very distinctive ship.

[@sixpackpilot]

+Armoured Carriers btw really like your series! I enjoy doing a little background research on historical ww2 footage, especially naval actions where Dutch units were concerned.

[@ArmouredCarriers]

+V1Rotate Thankyou for the detail Do you know the names of the Dutch N Class ships? I'll update the details on the web page I am building about USS Saratoga's forays with HMS Illustrious in the British Pacific Fleet, and the follow-up "Club Run" strikes against the Japanese before the carriers transferred to the British Pacific Fleet.

[@simonstock4448]

the venerable QE doing sterling service in her twilight days seeing her passing by and knowing the same ship was at the Dardanelles in 1915 is extraordinary, what an historic ship. Cannot believe we didn’t even save Warspite from the breakers would be an incredible museum ship today, telling such a compelling story of her class serving in both wars.

[@aurdel775]

It would have been incredible but she was in a very bad state at the end of the war. Repairs would have been needed before putting her as a museum but Britain didn't have money for that so...

[@xyzbobboy]

Never seen footage like this.

[@Olliemets]

Stunning. As a lifelong buff its cool to see so many things. Live footage of the Sara- She rolls a lot but is BIG and fast thanks to the original BC design. Clearly the 5" Twins a big improvement over the 4 8" turrets originally there. Color fottage of some freat ships at see- Renown (Bristling with AA by this time) Queen Elizebeth (This lady serve at Jutland, MEditerrian theatre, etc), and especially the Counties. Never have seen color of these workhorses. Thank glad I stumbled on to your page

[@MultiPauletto]

Thank you for the movie

[@kirkp7470]

Outstanding video. That was a heck of a ships' line-up! Fine day to be a sailor!

[@briankorbelik2873]

Holy cow, the US Lexington class carriers were huge! (USS Lexington CV-2 and USS Saratoga CV-3)

[@jamesbugbee6812]

What a collection! Birmingham in a beautiful swell, Renown looking fine, & old Sara w/ flak In place of boats 💜.

[@simonpotter7534]

Incredible footage

[@TheBlackSpider82]

7:33 Town-class looks great at speed.

[@mebsrea]

Such a pity none of these ships were preserved for posterity. QE or Renown, as well as Saratoga herself, should have been kept as museum ships.

[@PeterBoddy]

Awesome movie.

[@blueshirtbuddah1665]

Awesome video. Thanks

[@TheBlackSpider82]

Brilliant footage.

[@hwclor7094]

Excellent!

[@garyrosson4818]

My dad stood on the deck of cv38 and witnessed the bikini test and watched Sara go down

[@markwest5674]

This video clip is a segment of one part of a 3 part video series, each part being about an hour in length. I know because I saw all three parts a few years ago. they were narrated by someone (from Canada, I think) who was involved in the war at about the time the these scenes were filmed, and had had put together several archived film clips. Unfortunately I don't remember his name, or what that series was called.

[@andredegraaf1643]

Was this the same British fleet that bombarded the Dutch Indonesian Islands and helped free them from the Japanese? My parents were born there and lived through the Japanese occupation as children. I am building models of some of the ships in this clip. Currently the HMS Renown and I think that I will now paint it in the colors recorded in this film. Great footage.

[@ArmouredCarriers]

Highly likely. The Indian Ocean Fleet was active in Indonesia at the end of the war. Though this footage was taken in 1945, so the exact ships may have changed somewhat.

[@andredegraaf1643]

​@@ArmouredCarriers I read that HMS Renown was definitely involved. That makes this particular battlecruiser all the more special to me.

[@Trojan0304]

Great film , thanks

[@HydroSnips]

Think that’s HMS Newcastle from 07:37. Three Town’s had their third turret removed, and of those three (Glasgow, Sheffield, Newcastle) only Newcastle seems to have been in the Eastern Fleet / British Pacific Fleet (whatever date this was). Can’t find listing of fleet ships anywhere to check :(

[@ArmouredCarriers]

This footage is from the conclusion of Operation Transom, when Saratoga left the Eastern Fleet to return to the Pacific. Ceylon, Gambia and Kenya were present. www.armouredcarriers.com/illustrious-and-saratoga

[@HydroSnips]

@@ArmouredCarriers :D They do look maddeningly similar, yeah. Surely though the Fiji’s had the straight funnels, whereas the ship from 07:37 has slanted ones? (Part of the fwd superstructure looks different to a Fiji too, the vertical section with the liferaft seems shorter than the Fiji’s).

[@Mgaming61]

WW2 Legends and fighters.....

[@Johnnycdrums]

Must be in some degree of EMCON, probably EMCON "ALFA", the highest degree of radio silence, as the Saratoga's air search antenna is not turning. They're using flags.

[@johntabler349]

Waved at my dad on the Saratoga, he was in the crowd somewhere I hope he noticed from beyond the Jordan

[@jaybee9269]

I know how you feel! I got to tour the USS Missouri with my dad before he passed. I asked him to show me his battle station. He said they don’t let people go that deep, LOL.

[@LoneTinaja]

@john tabler - if you haven’t seen the website navsource.org it is magnificent. I just posted a comment about it. Regarding Saratoga I mentioned how to find the Special Photo Feature - The Harold C. Cassar Photo Collection that includes photos of the February 21, 1945 kamikaze attack & aftermath. My dad was a teenage 20 millimeter AA gunner on Sara from summer ‘43 to the end of the war.

[@johntabler349]

@@LoneTinaja thanks for the tip

[@andredegraaf1643]

Does anyone have an idea of what messages are being sent via the flags? If I can, I would like to reproduce it on my ship model.

[@tomdolan9761]

Looks like some Benson class destroyers also

[@TheTallhillbilly]

My papa was on that ship

[@Makeyourselfbig]

The Americans really didn't want us there at all and they had more than enough resources to defeat Japan on their own. They wanted to keep the Japanese war to themselves and they thought we just sent a fleet out there to be in at the kill and get our empire possessions back, Hong Kong, Singapore etc. But we were allies so they had to put up with it.

[@99IronDuke]

This is the Eastern Fleet, not the British Pacific Fleet (Task Force 57). Only the Anglophobe Admiral King did not want a British Pacific Fleet and most of the USN was very happy to have the British reinforcements.

[@tomdolan9761]

I think the concern of the US military was mostly the complicated logistics. The political side of Roosevelt and his opposition to British, French and Dutch empires in the Far East was certainly an issue but I think by that point in the war the US government could view the postwar financial limitations on all three would make power projection unlikely.

[@1spitfirepilot]

Tom Dolan ironic American concern re empires, given the US possessions in the Philippines etc. But your point is correct.

[@johntabler349]

My dad was on the Saratoga at this time and I remember he was concerned about the British lack of experience in carrier warfare (and he felt the Americans were just better, but every 19 year old on both sides felt the same way)

[@bobgerbracht3066]

The story line that the Americans didn’t “want British help” in the Pacific and wanted to “keep the Japanese war to themselves” is bunk. The Pacific war was a bitter war with lots of American lives and ships being lost. British help was a big positive. The fact is the British carriers with their armored decks were much better able to withstand kamikaze hits better than the American carriers with their wooden decks. However, the issue was that the British carriers and battleships had a top speed of 28-30 knots while the American carriers and fast battleships had a top speed of 33 knots, with cruisers and smaller ships having even higher top speeds 34-36 knots. In addition, given the huge distances in the Pacific, the Americans had been forced to perfect ship to ship re-fueling and logistics supply which the British had not needed to learn in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. The top brass in both navies knew these basic facts. The fact is that some American commanders were concerned that they might have to compromise two of their greatest assets: speed and range when working in concert with British ships. But the respect for the British ships and their crews was extremely widespread in the American navy, and the more experienced the American officer, the higher their respect for the British.

[@raymondyee3313]

What year was this??

[@ArmouredCarriers]

Early 1944

[@raymondyee3313]

@@ArmouredCarriers Thank you Sir.

[@Peorhum]

The Sara rolls so badly compared to other ships you see

[@mikelynch2938]

She got a little drunk at the party. :)

[@petesheppard1709]

Paranoid about torpedoes...

[@hojoj.1974]

eh... eh...? Damnit! Can't hear you! EH!!!