"US Navy Task Force Compositon Question - 1973 Mediterranean" Topic

The US Navy had two Carrier Battle Groups stationed in the Mediterranean during the Yom Kippur War in 1973. I am working on a scenario where things turn hot between the US Navy and the Soviets. Can anyone tell me the US task force composition for either TF 60.1 (Independence CBG) or TF 60.2 (FDR CBG). I also understand the the USS Guadalcanal (TF 61/62)was off the coast of Israel, and I might work her into a scenario. I know that I'm looking for rather esoteric info, but you guys have come through before :)

Thanks, Mark

Sorry, I can't help, but I'll bet if you do a Yahoo Search, or Google them, you'll come up with the info needed.

They histories of the carrier battle groups are on-line, and provide info about their cruises, and usually which vessels accompanied them.

On an interesting side note, when the Israeli air losses were very high during the Yom Kippur War, there was talk of the US providing F-8 Crusaders to the Israelis.

No doubt, that would have been even more of a rude shock to their opponents, due to the Crusader's excellent maneuverability.

Mark,

You might find some information by looking through the sources online for the Naval History and Heritage Command:

link

If the info you're looking for is not there, you can contact them for the specific information. I'm sure they would have it.

BTW, the John F. Kennedy CBG joined the others on 28 October. Most people talk about the Cuban Missile Crisis as the closest point that the United States and the Soviet Union came to war. IMHO, its a pretty close call between 1962 and 1973.

Mark

The two carrier groups that were assigned to the Sixth Fleet in October of 1973 were the Independence and the Frankin D, Roosevelt. Both were at sea at full combat readiness to engage the Soviet 5th Eskrada if it came to that.

Once the IAF really got rolling late in the war, Sadat claimed that he was being engaged by Sixth Fleet aircraft flying from the two carriers!

USS JOHN F. KENNEDY's escorts were the guided missile frigate DALE (DLG-19), guided missile destroyer RICHARD E. BYRD (DDG-23), and destroyer SARSFIELD (DD-837), supported by the oiler CALOOSAHATCHEE (AO-98). I couldn't find the escorts for INDEPENDENCE and FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, but the oilers SEATTLE and PAWCATUCK operated with the task forces. Oh, SIX FLEET flagship was USS LITTLE ROCK (CLG-4).

However, to give you an idea how massive the confrontation at sea was, Abraham Rabinovich, in his boook THE YOM KIPPUR WAR, states that following October 6 the SIX FLEET increased from 50 to 60 vessels and the Soviet fleet in the Med when from 57 to 97 vessels including 16 submarines. U.S. forces were also operating at DEFCON 3. Apparently a number of the Soviet vessels included transports for naval infantry intended to be ready to intervene in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Mark

Mark,

Thanks for the info on the JFK BG. I may attempt to contact the historians at the Washington Navy Yard.

Mark

I seem to recall a bit of chicken going on around that period as well, with both sides playing "bumper-boats" with their escort vessels.

There was probably more than a little paint scraping and repainting needed after those deployments.

Dear Mark,
Hi, I've started working on this too. Did you get any luck with Washington?
From Goldstein and Zhukov's you can work out an almost daily OB for the Soviets.
The Americans prove a lot more difficult to pin down. This is what I have worked out, mostly from individual ship histories:
TF 60.1: Independence, Little Rock, Belknap, Coontz, Sampson.
TF 60.2: FDR, Yarnell, McDonnell, Ricketts, Dewey.
TF.60.3 Guadacanal, Iwo Jima (later),William M. Wood, Barry.
DesRon 10: Manley, Page. (Perhaps unattached, perhaps attached to the TFs.)
Patrol Division 10: Graham County, Antelope and Ready with Standard SSMs, Surpise and Defiance without Standard SSMs.
Submarines: Trepang
USMC: RLT 34, consisting of BLTs 2/6 and 3/6
I'm interested on anything you've got to add before I send off another order to put Denian's and Navwar's kids through college!
Cheers,
Peter

The Naval Historical Society has the annual reports online, either in PDF or html format.

Those should give you good background material.

Rick Tramp writes:

DDG-17 USS Conyngham was also in the carrier group with the Kennedy. I know because I was there.

Dear Rick,
The other ships I have for JFK's group are Dale, Byrd and Sarfield with the AO Caloosahatchee. Do these ring a bell? Any idea of her accompanying SSN. I appreciate that "Lion" would probably shoot you for disclosing such sensitive information. :-))

Did the TF keep its 2nd Fleet designation or did it "chop" to 6th Fleet?

I'm still working on this project, alternating between Soviet and American ships to stop getting bored.

I've just finished Patrol Div 21 with Denian provinding the Cabo San Antonio and Stockholm class boats that handily converted into the Graham County and her four Ashvilles.

An now working on "jumboising" Navwar Cimarron oilers into Pawcatuk and said Caloosahatchee. There is so much cutting, sawing, filing and filling involved that it would have been better to scratchbuild them completely… but never let it be said that modern naval gamers are not totally sad.

Cheers,
Bertie

I was on the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt with VF-41 during this period. The following is from Naval Aviation Chronology 1970-1980. This particular segment is October 1973: 8-13--Task Force 60.1 with Independence; Task Force 60.2 with Franklin D. Roosevelt and Task Force 61/62 with Guadalcanal were alerted for possible evacuation contingencies in the Middle East. Kennedy, in the Atlantic, was directed to a holding area off Gibraltar.

9--The Pentagon announced that Guadalcanal, an amphibious assault ship with U.S. Marines aboard, was operating in the eastern Mediterranean Sea as part of the Sixth Fleet. Other elements of the fleet were moving toward Crete, including the carriers Independence and Franklin D. Roosevelt, on alert as a result of the 1973 Yom Kippur war between Arab and Israeli forces.

19-24--Some 50 A-4 aircraft were flown from the U.S. to supply Israel, staging through the Azores and the Franklin D. Roosevelt which was located south of Sicily. When necessary, the Kennedy, off Gibraltar and Independence, off Crete, also provided assistance. On the 24th, Iwo Jima entered the Mediterranean with reinforcing Marines.

27--Due to the situation in the Middle East, the U.S. government ordered a worldwide "precautionary alert" of its military forces. Possible unilateral intervention by the Soviet Union was feared. By 28 October, three U.S. aircraft carriers and two amphibious assault carriers were off Crete.

This is from globalsecurity.org:On 6 October 1973, Egyptian and Syrian forces launched a surprise attack on Israel. On 25 October U.S. forces went on Defense Condition (DEFCON) III alert status, as possible intervention by the Soviet Union was feared. On 26 October, CINCSAC and CINCONAD reverted to normal DEFCON status. On 31 October USEUCOM (less the Sixth Fleet) went off DEFCON III status. The Sixth Fleet resumed its normal DEFCON status on 17 November 1973.

I have the 1973-74 Cruise Book for USS Fanklin D. Roosevelt and can provide more info on this event. Carrier Air Wing Six squadrons on Roosevelt for example.

Thanks WBC,
Would I be right in thinking that Corsairs had replaced Sky Hawks by 1973, and that the Crusader squadrons were long gone, replaced by F4s? Or did FDR continue to operate the smaller types as her sister Midway did later, transitioning from F4s to F/A 18s whithout shipping F14s?
Also in one of the old comrade sites on Desron 12 one of the crews recollects chasing Russian subs with the help of a French destroyer. Do you have any other recollection of French, Italian or British ships operating in the Eastern Med with you?
Cheers,
Bertie

My squadeon VF-41 was flying F-4B (18 of them that year), VA-87 and VA-15 had A-7, VA-176 had EA-6, VFP-63 had a couple of F-8(FP-8), VAW-121 had a couple of E-2, and HC-2 a couple of rescue helos. We and VF-84 flew F4-N on '75 Med. cruise. The "Rosie" was too old for F-14s and went with Harriers on her last cruise. My first cruise on "Rosie" in '72 we had F-4J. The only A-4s I saw went to resupply Israel in '73.

Dear WBC,
Many thanks for that.
I painted up a couple of the Seaway 1:700 F 8s on the off chance. Now I have a chance to use them along with the Trumpeter F4s and A7 which are very nice.
Cheers,
Bertie

The only other Nationality ships I saw were the Soviet anti-carrier TF that dogged us for over a month. We were at DEFCON 3 with nukes loaded on VA-176 aircraft sitting in Hanger Bay #2, I don't think other countries wanted to be near that.

By the way Bertie, the Hancock which moved to the Indian Ocean at that time operated F-8 Sqaudrons. VFP-63 DET-2 on "Rosie" were RF-8G and VAW-121 was flying E-1B instead of E-2 as I stated above, it was a long time ago and my memory isn't perfect. HC-2 was flying SH-3G and the A-7s were the B version. VA-176 aircraft were A-6A/C/KA-6D.

Dear WBC,
Thanks for that.
If it's of any interest Goldstein and Zhukov state that the Soviet ships shadowing you on 26-OCT-73 were the Sverdlov class cruiser Murmansk, and the Kashin class destroyer Smetlivyi. Neither of these ships were SSM equipped, so what they were doing in the hypothetical "battle of the first salvo" was teeing your TF up for the Echo and Juliet class missile subs which must have been underwater over your horizon somewhere, and for the Blinder bombers based in Bulgaria.
It must be a funny feeling puting all this together four decades later. I'm just glad that I didn't have to experience it first hand like you.
Thanks for the detail about the E 1s. Pit Road include one in their 1:700 "West Wings 2" set, and now I have an excuse to paint up this wonderfully ungainful plane.
Cheers,
Bertie

Than

Squadrons on USS Franklin D. Roosevelt link

F-8's were enroute to Israel via aircraft carrier, and were scheduled to be flown into Israel to replace some of their losses (presumably F-4's, but could have been for the A-4's too I guess, since they were used in ground attack missions a bit in Vietnam as well, later in the war).

The cessation of hostilities eliminated the need to provide them to Israel.

I read about that in one of the Crusader books, e.g. Last of the Gunfighters, or one of the other ones.

Thanks for that WBC.
Mako: the Americans were re-supplying F4s and A4s via the carriers which they were using as "stepping stones" and this partially explained the posture of the CBGs early in the war. This is covered in Richard Parker (Ed) "The October War". A Retospective." Which includes Defense Secretary James Schlesinger's talk on the airlift. The stepping stones were necessary because NATO wasn't playing much to American chagrin. Schlesinger described Ted Heath's Conservative British government as "quasi-Gaullist"!!! (p.154.)
Cheers,
Bertie

I'm glad I found this thread. There could be some interesting CIC (Mal Wright's modern variant based on General Quarters) scenarios made from this information.

As an aside, I didn't know LITTLE ROCK was the Sixth Fleet flagship. My older son and I did a tour and sleepover aboard her at the Buffalo (NY) Naval Park. I recommend the Naval Park, if you're in the area.

Dear Ken,
I'm in the process of arranging a mini-campaign "DefCon 3 and Rising" assuming that the events of October 25th 1973 go from bad to worse. Hopefully it will be sorted and played out by the end of the year and I'll report it on the Hong Kong Society of Wargamers site and copy it here, so watch this space…
According to Goldstein and Zhukov's "A Tale of Two Fleets" (Naval War College Review, Spring 2004) the U.S.S. Mount Whitney (LCC 20) had taken over as 6th Fleet Flagship at the time of the crisis. We get to see her sister Blue Ridge quite a lot in Hong Kong but a visit to Little Rock would be really neat. I'll be travelling in the States and Canada next year. Tell us about a sleep-over on the Little Rock… do they hire out cabins?
Cheers,
Peter

Nah, I won't mind people talking about SSNs abusing high-value skimmer targets, excuse me, aircraft carriers and so on.

The thing that should make you soil yourself is to see how many SSBNs were in service as of 1973, and then divide that by about 3/4. That's a (very) rough estimate for how many boomers would have been ready to turn large parts of the USSR into glass parking lots. Let's see here, Wikipedia says all '41 for Freedom' were in service by about 1968. So, that's 30ish subs, probably all in their alert areas. Ouch.

Here's a little piece on USS Little Rock at that time link our main objective during the DEFCON 3 alert was to get six nuclear armed A-6 aircraft into the air before we might be hit. The most dangerous time was while as a show of force the carriers were in close proximity to each other, I could see another carrier while looking out the hangar bay doors. The F-4s were able to fly from the Azores to Israel without stopping over on my ship, it was the A-4s, six per day that made rest stops on "Rosie" between the 19th and 24th. Of course tankers for in flight refueling and armed escorts were provided by all three carriers. The IAF took over escort approximately 150 miles from the coast of Israel.

Bertie, I thought you might enjoy this little story. The night before those first six A-4s landed on my ship we faked a man overboard. All our escorts and our helicopter converged on an area and pretended to be searching with flood lights while my ship turned off all outside lights and ran at full speed all night. When our escorts (and the Soviets that were tailing us) caught up the next day the first six A-4s were on the ship. The next day those six left and six more landed. Each day six left and six more came aboard.

WBC,
That's interesting as the aim must have been to get a head start on your tattletails even though they should have been able to tell the difference between the FDR on radar and the rest of your escorts. The FDR would have had a good 12 to 18 knot advantage on the average Soviet AGI but not on destroyers or other tattletails. It goes to show that there is still a role for deception in modern naval combat.

Your post about the nuclear armed A6's is also interesting, especially from the perspective in Lion's post about the deterrence having passed to the Polaris subs. You have to wonder what the six A6's would have been targetted at?

The key to the 6th Fleet's position after the Israeli reiforcement stopped was that it was astride any possible Soviet airborne reinforcement or intervention in Egypt. The Fleet's positions SE of Crete were in the gap between possible Soviet escorts flying out of Bulgaria or Alexandria, so any airborne intervention by the Soviets could only have taken place with American acquiesence…which was unlikely. So the political impact of the 6th Fleet in the post 24th October 1973 crisis was really in its Phantoms, not so much in its attack squadrons.

Cheers,
Bertie

This article from The Wall Street Jornal by reporter Neil Ulman aboard the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt in May of 1974 discussess Soviet tattletales and mentions the Kotlin-class destroyer number 452 shadowing the Roosevelt and analysis of the 1973 crises.

I would *assume* that the A6s were a scramble response to the Russian ships in the area. A6s don't really have the legs for strikes on Russia or WARPAC from the eastern Med.

Perhaps you've forgotten that the Soviet Union extended into Eastern Europe at that time.

With a range of 878 nuatical miles plus tanker support, not a problem.

Doesn't mean you can hit *useful* targets with an 800nm range centered on roughly Malta, but I will defer to the airedales here.

During the crisis the 6th Fleet's station was about 100 NM South of the Eastern tip of Crete, (already about 600NM East of Malta,) so 850NM gets you to Belgrade or Sevastapol… so plenty of strategic targets here and certainly the Black Sea Fleet infrastructure in the Crimea would have been a high value naval target, but again nothing that you wouldn't have expected Polaris to be targetted at either.

On a tactical level the Soviets had a large amphibious group North of Alexandria that would have been a worthwhile target for a nuke, but presumably the other KUGs shadowing the three, later four, main 6th Fleet TFs would have been too close to the TFs to make nukes an option. However, apart from the 5th ESkadra the rest of the Black Sea Fleet such as the Moskva and the Kara class cruisers were not in the Med so, as long as they were not transiting the Bosphorus or too close to some idyllic Greek isle they would have been a very tempting target.

Whether or not nuclear release would have been more likely at sea than on land is one of those Cold War "what-ifs" that has always intrigued me. Certainly both sides were well tooled up for it with nuclear depth bombs, torpedoes, SAMs, SSMs and WBC's A6s, with far less rigid control than on land. I may be wrong but it seems to me that the Soviets had tighter control than the West as at least they put special political officers specifically in charge of the weapons, so there would be a sort of dual key,(without the keys if you see what I mean,) arrangement with the captain of the boat or ship; wheras, in the RN at least, there was nobody to second guess the ship's captain or helicopter pilot, although I presume certain protocols had to be followed to load the nuke in the first place. Looking back it is pretty frightening. The Brits toting their nukes down to the Falklands because there was nowhere to offload them is a case in point.

PDF link

Thanks for the WSJ article WBC. It is very interesting reading if a little optimistic or premature about the effects of the Incidents at Sea Agreement. I've just been reading K & C Bonner's "Cold War at Sea, An Illustrated History" (which is pretty much what it says on the can, great photos with a reasonable, if not very deep, text,)and they give lots of illustrations of "bumps and thumps" after the agreement, with spectacular photos of an Echo class SSGN surfacing under the Voge in the Med, (or the Voge running it down, I'm not sure,) and a little Mirka sideswiping the Aegis cruiser Yorktown when it got too close to Sevastapol.

Cheers,
Bertie

I was just an AMS-3 (aircraft mechanic) and all I know is what I saw with my own two eyes. My squadron also took part in enforcing the truce at the end of the war. We dropped anchor for one day at some little island and that Soviet destroyer pulled in and dropped anchor right beside us. I remember this because I was on the flight deck and had to stand at attention on the wing of an F-4 and salute those guys who were on deck in their dress uniforms and saluting us.

Bertie, The October War and U.S. Policy link lots of declassified documents.

link my photo album on facebook.

PDF link there is alot of information here, be patient and give it time to load. It's a detailed analysis with graphs and maps."Superpower Naval Deplomacy In The October 1973 Arab-Israeli War" If you get an error message, don't fret, just click ok and continue to the next page.

A couple of good looking models of USS Franklin D. Roosevelt, one with CVW-6 decals here:http://ussfranklindroosevelt.com/?page_id=3236 link

Here is an account of the 1973 Mediterranean campaign as we played it out in Hong Kong last year:

hksw.org/DEFCON%203.htm

A couple of the links are broken and we'll get them fixed.
The Goldstein and Zhuckov article referred to is also at:

PDF link

Enjoy!
Cheers,
Bertie

Loved the battle report – Inspiring!

It may be me -but where is the TO&Es that you used?

I'd love to steal it to put on something like that!

Thanks!

David

I get a page not found for the link to the pdf, is there an alternative?

"PDF link there is alot of information here, be patient and give it time to load. It's a detailed analysis with graphs and maps."Superpower Naval Deplomacy In The October 1973 Arab-Israeli War" If you get an error message, don't fret, just click ok and continue to the next page."

Dear David,
The CNA article that WBC linked is also at:

PDF link

You can also find it at:

link

Actually Weinland's article gives you a sort of macro view. It is very detailed on stuff like the number of sea days for both sides, but not on the detailed task force constitution that made up those sea days.

Regarding your first query on the OBs most of the American OBs are derived from the thread above, and the Soviet ones from the Goldstein and Zhukov article. So I put the links in the article rather than repeating things.

For ease of reference the Forces in the campaign were:

Americans: Mostly worked out from individual ship histories and some conjecture:

TF 60.1: Independence (CV), Little Rock (CLG), Belknap (CG),Mt. Whitney (LCC), Coontz (DDG), Sampson (DDG), Manley (DD),and Seattle (AOR).

TF 60.2: FDR (CV), Yarnell (DLG), McDonnell(DE) , Ricketts (DDG), Dewey (DDG) and Pawcatuk (AO).

TF.60.3 Guadacanal (LPH), a LST, a LPD, William M. Wood (DD) and Barry (DD).

DesRon 10: Not attached to TFs: Hawkins (DD), Page (FFG), Trippe (DE), Vreeland (DE) and Sims (DE).

Patrol Division 10: Graham County, Antelope and Ready with Standard SSMs, Surpise and Defiance without Standard SSMs.

SSNs: Trepang, Lapon, Sandlance and Gurnard, (as discussed above I found a reference on the net to a lot more SSNs "chopping out" of 6th Fleet at the end of the crisis, but I don't know what they were, know when they arrived, or know if they were in the Eastern Med. (Gurnard is conjectural.)

USMC: RLT 34, consisting of BLTs 2/6 and 3/6.

The Soviets: Mostly from Goldstein and Zhukov and some conjecture:

KUG 1: Groznyi (Kynda CG), Provornyi (Kashin DDG) and Plamennyi (Kotlin gun DD).

KUG 2: Murmansk (Sverdlov CL) and Smetlivyi (Kashin DDG).

KUG 3: Ushakov (Sverdlov CL), Neulovimyi (Kildin DDG) and Reshit'nyi (Kashin DDG.)

TG. 05.50 (5th Eskadra Command): Volga (Urga LCC), Krasny Krym (Kashin DDG) and Nakhodchivyi (Kotlin SAM DDG).

TG 05-54 ( Amphib Group): Otvazhnyi (Kashin DDG), Suznatelnyi, (Kotlin SAM DDG); Ognennyy and Okhotlivyy (both Skory DD); Voron and Yauuar (both Riga FFL); SKRs 94 and 98 (both Petya I FFL); Voronezshki Kom, Krymski Kom, Krasnvneya Penga and BDK 104 (all Alligator LSTs); SDKs 83, 84 and 134 and an SDK MCM, (all Polocny LSTs); and two minesweepers.

Unattached: 3 x Mirka FFL, Naporistyi (Kotlin Gun DD) Krasny Kovkaz, (Kashin DDG), Boris Chilikin and Sheksna, (AOs), Dikson (AR) and two AGIs.

Submarines: 2 x Echo IIs, 1 x Charlie, 1 x Juliet (all missile boats); 3 x Novembers (SSNs), 2 x Whiskies, 2 x Romeo and 4 x Foxtrots (SSs).

We also had all the Israeli Navy, bits of the Greek Navy and what was left of the Egyptian navy to confuse the issue.

In the air CVW 7 on Independence had 78 aircraft and CVW 6 on FDR 72.

These were supported by USAF Phantoms and Greek F102s operating out of Crete and P3 Orions from Italy and EP3 Aries operating out of Rota.

Operating out of Bulgaria the Soviets were given:

Naval Aviation: a Regiment(-)of TU16s, a squadron of TU 22 Blinders, a squadron of SU 17s, a squadron of IL 38s and flights each of TU 95 C (missile carrier,), and TU 95 Rts (command/reccee.)

Frontal Aviation: a regiment of MIG 21s, a regiment of MIG 23s, a regiment of YAK 28s, a squadron of MIG 25 recce, and a squadron of IL 28s, and a flight of YAK 25R recce.

PVO STRANY: a squadron of MIG 25s, a squadron of SU 15s and a squadron of YAK 28Ps. (The PVO STRANY presence was the most conjectural leap that I took, but to make a game of it the Soviets badly needed some long range fighters, I justified this as a Soviet preparation for the escort of the air bridge to Egypt.)

Finally the umpire controlled some RAF Nimrod ASW, Victor recce, and Lightning interceptors operating out of Cyprus, just to mess up the air plots of the two "combatants" in the build-up to hostilities.

Please don't take any of this as gospel. I estimate that the American naval OB is about 90% accurate, and the Soviet about 80% in type, much less so in name. The land based aircraft on both sides are the most conjectural… one of the main deciding factors was what I had available!

I hope that this is useful.
Cheers,
Bertie

Hello, Bertie,

I'm sorry I missed your query of September 2011. I duck in and out of here at irregular intervals.

Our sleepover was as part of a group tour (Native Sons, an offshoot of the YMCA Y-Guides program). We all bunked in the petty officers' quarters, and we had to draw up a watch list and stand watch through the night, since there were plenty of trip hazards and whatnot, and they didn't want some 7-year-old wandering into the bowels of the ship at 0dark30 undetected. I think all the sleepovers are group outings, Boy Scouts and the like. Contact the Buffalo Naval Park for details.

I'm going to grab a copy of the AAR to read at leisure. Thanks kindly for sharing.

Dear Ken,

Thanks for that.

I imagine fat middle-aged men from Hong Kong who have had too many beers, seeking the heads in the middle watch would be a bit of a hazard too.

If I can't rustle up a Boy Scout Troop I'll have to make do with a day visit the next time I'm in the States. She is a unique ship given her history, conversions and role, and very much on my "bucket list."

Cheers,
Bertie

Many thanks Bertie!

As I'm now 500km from my usual gaming group – I can feel an email campaign coming on!

Dear David,
Good luck!
Cheers,
Bertie