Silent Service TV show

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AlHunt

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With all the old TV discussed here, I think some of you will appreciate 130 episodes of "Silent Service" available on Youtube.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHcicudhMPE&list=PLZgGjj9ev8IC2QYB3ccieYd2PkBuFfXZP&index=1[/ame]

Pretty cool old TV series from the late 50's retelling real life submarine stories.
 
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130 episodes! Wow, that's a bunch. I remember watching this series at 7PM in NYC in 1957, forget which channel. Back then 1942 was 15 years earlier. Since it was before my birth, it seemed like a lifetime. Now...

Kaaskop49
Shield #5103
 
Actual sub!

Most of those pictures appear to be in an actual sub. The shots of the periscope, helm, and topside hatch look as if they were in the conning tower and are to size. The men serving today on patrols in the nuc boats think they have it bad. There were 88 men in a 311ft sub with none of the amenities of the nuc boats! When we ran submerged you smelled diesel oil and sweat and on the surface you heard 4, Fairbanks-Morse, 1200HP, 16 cylinder, opposed piston, diesel engines banging away! The good part of surface running was the fresh air, the diesel induction air came from the interior of the sub.
jcelect USN 1961-1969
 
Hey Al, PLEASE SEND ME REMINDERS TO MAIL YOUR STUFF OFF-or ill keep forgetting. Im wanting to send you these: Branded entire series, The Texan entire series, and The Loner entire series. Id send you both seasons of Daniel Boone but-already promised our forums Swede.:)
 
I have an affinity for submarine stories. Some weekend I'll put the whole playlist on and let them run for a few hours.

My dad was a submariner for a little over 20 years. Can't recall all the boats he served on but the Trutta (his last boat), Abraham Lincoln, Thresher and maybe the Skipjack come to mind. He's been gone for about 20 years now.
 
I too watched the Silent Service on commercial TV back in the 50s. I always marveled at how there always seemed to be a convenient rain squall "over there," for the sub in question to seek refuge.
 
DWalt said:
About the same time there was another Navy-themed TV series - Navy Log. Does anyone remember that one? Then - Victory at Sea - over and over and over.
Click to expand...

Archive.org has one episode of Navy Log. I couldn't find any more available online. I'll poke around for Victory at Sea.

"Blind Man's Bluff" is a great book about submarine escapades over the years. ISBN-10: 006097771X
 
My uncle Gene was on the "Scamp", SS277, when it was sunk late in 1944 off the coast of Japan. Records available after the war indicate that his sub was spotted from the air just south of Tokyo Harbor on November 11th, 1944, and depth charged from the air and sunk. But when I was growing up, and until just recently, we only knew that the Scamp was lost at sea, and the approximate date, based on their last communication.

Gene had just been promoted from Ensign to LT j.g.and he was the sub's Gunner. He had been back home on leave prior to his last deployment, while his sub was being refitted and essentially rebuilt after severe depth charge damage in the South Pacific. He had also previously served on the Stingray, SS 186, before transferring to the Scamp. He was in almost continuous action from December 7th 1941 (Stingray) until his second sub (Scamp) was sunk. While he was in on leave, he married my aunt Fleda in San Francisco. He left his personal log that he had kept during that time with her for safekeeping, and rejoined the Scamp at Pearl Harbor, IIRC. He never came back. Aunt Fleda recently gave me uncle Gene's log, and a lot of other memorabilia. They had no children, and he was my mothers baby brother, and I am named after him (my middle name is Gene). His full name was Eugene Sturm Moore.

The point of this story is that that log is an amazing story of life on a WWII sub, with notes of ships that the Stingray and Scamp engaged, and surviving depth charges, etc. this all happened just before I was born, so I grew up with these stories. Mom's other two brothers were also career Navy men, and I knew them as I grew up, but the stories in uncle Gene's log still haunt me. When I get a chance, I'll photograph a page or so and post here. I served on two Destroyers... At least I could see the sky most days!!

Edit...Finally able to access Photobucket. Here is what uncle Gene was doing on Pearl Harbor day and just after. He was in Manila Bay. Began War Patrol immediately. Notice that it was December 8th in Manila Bay, as he was East of the 180th meridian, or International Date Line. I will add a couple of more pictures when I can get the technology to cooperate.

Starting with Pearl Harbor:



Next two pages of Uncle Gene's Log:



Nest two pages. The men of the Stingray are finally starting to wreak some revenge on both Japanese shipping and Naval assets:



Dad's side of the family were Army men, but I guess that the lure of the sea was just compelling when it came time for me to join the service!!

Best Regards, Les
 
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les.b said:
My uncle Gene was on the "Scamp", SS277, when it was sunk late in 1944 off the coast of Japan. Records available after the war indicate that his sub was spotted from the air just south of Tokyo Harbor on November 11th, 1944, and depth charged from the air and sunk. But when I was growing up, and until just recently, we only knew that the Scamp was lost at sea, and the approximate date, based on their last communication.

Gene had just been promoted from Ensign to LT j.g.and he was the sub's Gunner. He had been back home on leave prior to his last deployment, while his sub was being refitted and essentially rebuilt after severe depth charge damage in the South Pacific. He had also previously served on the Stingray, SS 186, before transferring to the Scamp. He was in almost continuous action from December 7th 1941 (Stingray) until his second sub (Scamp) was sunk. While he was in on leave, he married my aunt Fleda in San Francisco. He left his personal log that he had kept during that time with her for safekeeping, and rejoined the Scamp at Pearl Harbor, IIRC. He never came back. Aunt Fleda recently gave me uncle Gene's log, and a lot of other memorabilia. They had no children, and he was my mothers baby brother, and I am named after him (my middle name is Gene). His full name was Eugene Sturm Moore.

The point of this story is that that log is an amazing story of life on a WWII sub, with notes of ships that the Stingray and Scamp engaged, and surviving depth charges, etc. this all happened just before I was born, so I grew up with these stories. Mom's other two brothers were also career Navy men, and I knew them as I grew up, but the stories in uncle Gene's log still haunt me. When I get a chance, I'll photograph a page or so and post here. I served on two Destroyers... At least I could see the sky most days!!

Edit... I took a picture of a couple of pages, but Photobucket is down this evening, tried several times, but will load it when I can get PB to cooperate. This is the first time I have shared any of this history anywhere, thought you guys might be interested. Also, I am going to watch a couple of episodes of this show. Might give me a feel for uncle Gene's working environment!!

Dad's side of the family were Army men, and I guess that the lure of the sea was just compelling when it came time for me to join the service!!

Best Regards, Les
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing. Very sobering. My dad was in San Francisco for a ship refit in early 1945 and mom took a train out to be with him for a couple of weeks. I am one of the results of that trip.

P.S. Photobucket is still having problems at this time.
 
My family is all Navy, except me. My old man was on Sub Chasers. I was down at Norfolk to pick up my brother one time,
and at 3:00am we went to a pier and the ship he was on in the
Pacific in WW2 was tied up there. It was converted to a Coast
Guard ship, stripped of all the armaments, and painted up like
new. The officer of the deck was kind enough to give me a short
tour. Sadly the old man had just passed, he would have got a big
kick out of it, had he been there.
 
I had an Uncle in the Navy from WWI through WWII. He was a hard-hat salvage diver, and had a lot of experiences all over the world, including a tour in China during the Japanese invasion. He married a Chinese woman there, or so we were told, who died shortly afterward. Nobody in the family knew very much about his Naval service, and he left no records or letters anyone is aware of. But I do have one picture of him in uniform (sort of) that looks like it was taken during the 1930s based on the cars in the background. Family legend (with some substantiation from an old newspaper clipping) was he was one of the divers who worked on the rescue and recovery of the Squalus in 1939. That's my only tentative connection to the Silent Service.
 
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DWalt said:
About the same time there was another Navy-themed TV series - Navy Log. Does anyone remember that one? Then - Victory at Sea - over and over and over.
Click to expand...


I recall one Navy Log show where some sailor was on a Jap-held island and wanted to steal a rifle. He blew up a gun emplacement or something with a grenade, but all the rifles were damaged. Must have been pretty heartbreaking.


I think he eventually was rescued by either USN or Aussie coast watchers.


I think this show was where I first heard the Navy Hymn.


Hollywood always seems to be partial to the Navy in their productions. I wonder why.
 
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I was finally able to use Potobucket. Check my addition of a couple of pages from Uncle Gene's log to post #17 above. I will add a couple more when I can get them taken, and the technology cooperates. These two pages show what was going on on Pearl Harbor day.

Best Regards, Les
 
Texas Star said:
I recall one Navy Log show where some sailor was on a Jap-held island and wanted to steal a rifle. He blew up a gun emplacement or something with a grenade, but all the rifles were damaged. Must have been pretty heartbreaking.


I think he eventually was rescued by either USN or Aussie coast watchers.


I think this show was where I first heard the Navy Hymn.


Hollywood always seems to be partial to the Navy in their productions. I wonder why.
Click to expand...

The Navy Hymn was indeed the theme song for Navy Log. And each episode had something to do with actual events during WWII.
 
I am starting to follow Alhunt's lead, and sort through some of the episodes in his original post. In the meantime, if anyone finds any relevant material to the two subs that my uncle Gene was on (see post 17 above), please let me know. I had let the family stories drift to the back of my mind, but seeing this thread, and starting to look through Gene's memorabilia again has rekindled my interest in this segment of family history.

Thanks to the other posters for their observations on some of these old TV series that were based on real stories. Somewhere in there I might find reference to the Stingray, or the Scamp!!

Best Regards, Les
 
In April of '44 I think it was the USS Scamp almost got blown out of the water by a aircraft bomb. She was diving when the bomb went off and went tail down and started sinking. The skipper sent all hands to the forward torpedo room to get the nose down somewhere in the neighborhood of 320 feet. Then she started to yo-yo. Once back under control she limped to Mahr for a total refit.
 
I'm reading uncle Gene' log more. I just came into possession of it not too long ago, and I'm not sure just how far it goes, before he gave it to his bride in San Francisco for safe keeping.

I've been thinking about starting a thread of my own to tell some more of the remarkable story about this, one of my own personal heros, although I never met him.

I feel bad that I have been hijacking Alhunt's thread. Apologies, Al.

Best Regards, Les
 
What was the WWII U.S. sub that was blown out of the water by one of its own torpedoes? I can't remember the name, except the torpedo's guidance system went haywire, and it circled back to strike the sub that fired it.
 
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