Humanities desk
< January 5	<< Dec \| January \| Feb >>	Current desk >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Humanities Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

January 6

USS General Mifflin

Life preserver on this one shows the name of the ship.

We have these five photos of a (presumably) U.S. Navy ship called General Mifflin, clearly not the Revolutionary War ship of that name. I can't find anything else about it anywhere on line. Does anyone have any information about this ship? - Jmabel | Talk 06:38, 6 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Well, I googled "USS general mifflin" and found only Wikipedia references to the 18th century ship—except for one item in the 1916 report of the Commission on Industrial Relations. On page 4343 of Volume V, a witness states that when 3–4 days of work was done by the Seattle Machine Works on the USS General Mifflin and the USS Dix by the Seattle Machine Works in 1913, the eight-hour day law was seriously violated, with one man laboring for 36 hours straight.

But this leads to the question of what ship the "USS Dix" referred to here is. In Wikipedia that name redirects to the USS Dorothea L. Dix of World War II, which it obviously isn't, and Wikipedia's alphabetical lists of U.S. Navy ships show no others where Dix is a word in the name. And googling "USS dix" is not productive.

--142.112.159.101 (talk) 08:14, 6 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, here's a bit more. Page 4529 of the same report identifies the General Mifflin as a "steamer" and the Dix as a "transport". --142.112.159.101 (talk) 08:23, 6 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Our List of ships of the United States Army#Transport ships has a redlink for USAT General Mifflin (presumably "US Army Transport"). Alansplodge (talk) 13:51, 6 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

U.S. harbor boat (army) in San Fran Bay, serving Alcatraz, maybe Angel Island, starting sometime 1854-96. Harlan, George H. (1967). San Francisco Bay ferryboats. pp. 25, 82. (have to borrow).
San Fran between July 1, 1908 and June 30, 1910. Army tug 250 tons. [1].
San Fran, Fiscal 1910-12, 108 arrivals. [2]
~~"the Continental Colors being flown on the General Mifflin commanded by Captain William McNeil when it" Smith, Whitney (1975). The flag book of the United States. (waitlist at Archive)~~ nm, that was 1777
repaired 1913, $731, 12 days, Standard Boiler Works, Seattle. Q.M.D (Quartermaster Marine Department?) U.S.H.B. (U.S. Harbor Boat).[3]
here we have 443.81 gross and 129.61 net tonnage (Quartermaster Corps, U.S. Army)
built SF 1904, purchased Alaska Steamship Company 1934 and renamed Kenai, then 1942 to Foss Launch and Tug Company, scrapped 1963[4] (just realized that contradicts Harlan above)
Bethlehem Steel Company, SF 1903 [5]
Collisions and such at California Digital Newspaper Collection have to search from their page, google searches seem to take you to the wrong issue. launched Feb. 29, 1904, Risdon Iron Works, 132'3"x27'beam, draws 12'10", 13kt, designed as water carrier
A careless master?[6]
Skalley, M. (1981). Foss: Ninety years of towboating. pp. 155–6. for 1942-63

—eric 16:46, 6 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I'm sure the USAT is the one in question, thanks! And a confirmed Seattle connection is great to have. - Jmabel | Talk 22:18, 6 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Dix, by the way, is almost certainly this one. We have pictures of it in Bremerton, Seattle, and Tacoma (all Puget Sound ports). - Jmabel | Talk 22:25, 6 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]
I've now placed the five photos in Commons:Category:USAT General Mifflin (ship, 1904). - Jmabel | Talk 22:48, 6 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Highest-ranking officers killed by enemy action in World War II

Speaking of World War II, the events of recent days have left me curious about what generals, admirals, or other high-ranking officers of the major belligerents were killed by enemy action in that war. Does there happen to be a list of such events? --142.112.159.101 (talk) 08:19, 6 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know about a list, but at the top of it could be Isoroku Yamamoto. A case in the American Civil War was General Stonewall Jackson, who died as a result of being shot during combat; but that's with an asterisk, as he was shot by his own troops, presumably by mistake. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 11:07, 6 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

As to Allied officers, a starting point might be the footnote in the article on Admiral Sir Tom Phillips (went down with his flagship, HMS Prince of Wales, in December 1941), which states: "Phillips was the highest ranking Allied officer killed in battle during the war since Royal Air Force Air Chief Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory was killed in a plane crash and U.S. Army General Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr. was posthumously promoted to four-star rank." Proteus (Talk) 11:56, 6 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

This article looks useful for your research. --Jayron 32 12:03, 6 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Lt Gen William Gott was shot down and killed in 1942, leaving a vacancy filled by Bernard Montgomery. Władysław Sikorski, the Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Armed Forces, was killed in the 1943 Gibraltar B-24 crash, which was an accident, or was it? see Władysław Sikorski's death controversy. On the other side, General Reinhard Heydrich, the Director of the Gestapo, was assassinated in Operation Anthropoid in 1942. Alansplodge (talk) 13:43, 6 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto of the Japanese Air Force died when his aircraft was shot down by the Americans. However, he was touring his troops at the time, and he was deliberately targeted LongHairedFop (talk) 19:17, 6 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

And Vice Admiral Lancelot Holland went down with HMS Hood at the Battle of the Denmark Strait, last seen sitting in his chair on the bridge, making no effort to escape. Alansplodge (talk) 21:46, 6 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

ISTR that in the US Civil War, Union forces expended colossal resources trying to kill or capture Nathan Bedford Forrest, but never managed to do so. 2601:640:10A:F3C9:534B:5F1F:3590:C99C (talk) 05:59, 7 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

So to summarize, and speaking only of WW2:

For the Japanese, the highest-rank person killed by the other side was Yamamoto, comparable to five-star rank.
For the Americans, it was Lt.Gen. Simon Buckner (three-star rank). Three other lieutenant-generals died in cases of accident or presumed accident, including one by friendly fire.
For the British, ~~there were two three-stars: Lt.Gen. Gott and Vice Admiral Holland~~ see below (and above).
For the Germans, there's Heydrich, who was an Obergruppenführer, which is comparable to three-star rank, but that was in the SS, which was considered a paramilitary, not a military force. Was anyone of high rank killed in the other German forces?
And nobody has suggested any instances for the USSR.

Thanks! --142.112.159.101 (talk) 04:55, 8 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I'm pretty sure the highest ranking German of the regular military killed in action during WWII was Generalfeldmarschall Fedor von Bock (5-star). He was killed on the ground by a British air attack. --Jayron 32 13:01, 8 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

You missed out Tom Phillips from your summary, he was at acting Admiral (four star) according to our article. DuncanHill (talk) 13:10, 8 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Oops. --142.112.159.101 (talk) 18:35, 8 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

This thread discusses many high ranking Soviet officers who died during the war; the highest ranking one I can see who died in action is Ivan Georgievich Zubkov, who was a 2-star officer whose plane was shot down. This looks like a better source even. Some ideas may be there. --Jayron 32 13:13, 8 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Zubkov seems to be notable only for having an imposing grave in St Petersburg. Alansplodge (talk) 09:56, 12 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]
I have you all beat. Palpatine, as Emperor of the entire galaxy, was the highest ranking military leader ever to be killed in combat. :) A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 13:33, 8 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]
He didn't die in combat. He was assassinated by his chief lieutenant, Anakin Skywalker d/b/a Darth Vader. --Jayron 32 13:36, 8 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Thrown down to the core of the second Death Star. An unusual twist on "friendly fire". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 17:07, 8 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, all! --142.112.159.101 (talk) 18:35, 8 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Resolved

Four U. S. Rear Admirals were killed in the Pacific theater during World War II. Each of the four Kidd-class destroyers was named for one of them. I am very familiar with Daniel J. Callaghan since a major road near where I live is named after him. Cullen³²⁸ Let's discuss it 07:54, 12 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

But as two-stars, they were outranked by Lt.Gen. Buckner. --142.112.159.101 (talk) 21:23, 12 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]