YMS-326 Minesweeper (Aleutians, 1944) - from Orlik 1/100

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Kilroy1988

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Hello all,

Last night I began building up the hull of a model yard class minesweeper (YMS designation in US Navy) from a 1/100 scale kit created by Orlik Models in Poland.

I purchased separate laser cut hull pieces as well as a wooden deck set, so in fact I have not even had to cut any of the parts from the actual kit yet to put the hull together!

The model will be painted with acrylics to hide all of the edges of the card and any glue residue that is bound to appear, and it will be designated as the YMS-326, which is the ship my grandfather served aboard as a lieutenant stationed in the Aleutian Islands between September 1943 and late 1944. I am working on compiling a detailed record of his time in the service based on hundreds of documents he kept regarding all of his orders, transfers, ration cards, officers' club and event ticket stubs, etc.... And he was also a rather decent photographer at that! I have an album with about two hundred photos he took during his time in the Aleutians, including several of his ship.

Looking forward to sharing my progress with you on this one. Cheers!

-Gregory

YMS-326, Kiska, Alaska, 1944 (Elements Edit 1-16-23).jpgPXL_20230116_021857089_2.jpgPXL_20230116_023227292.jpgPXL_20230116_033813322.jpgPXL_20230116_033837335.jpgPXL_20230116_033925212.jpgPXL_20230116_034353266.jpg
 
My grandfather, Melvin P. Liebau, would serve on two yard class minesweepers, with the second being the YMS-176, where he was a first lieutenant during the late stages of the Okinawa campaign and immediately after the war ended in September 1945. He was responsible for helping to save a group of several minesweepers from the deadly Typhoon Louise on October 9, 1945, and by December he was promoted to captain of the USS Dunlin (AM-361), an admirable class minesweeper that was tasked with sweeping mines from harbors in Korea during the early post-war months.

After the war he would return home to Dinuba, CA to work as a surveyor and farmer. When I was a boy he was already a gruff old man, and I don't know if he ever told me a single story, let alone one about the war... However, my father was the keeper of his thoughts, and still remembers many of Melvin's stories as if he had lived them himself. I plan to write these all down in addition to the research I'm doing with his war documents... Not to mention building models of his ships!

PXL_20230114_020026457 (Elements Edit 1-16-23).jpg
 
Hallo Gregory,
what an interesting story about your grandpa serving on these boats so it will be for you not "a" ship model . No - it will be "the" ship model.
Wish you a lot of fun with this model - I am looking forward
 
My great grandfather was also on YMS-326 while up in the Aleutian Islands, I’d be very interested in seeing your photo album and documents, may give me a time frame for when my great grandfather was transferred out of YMS-326.
 
Hi Gregory,
I wish that I had come into contact with you several years ago when my father was still living. He served on the YMS-326 from about 1944 until 1946. His name was William D. Holmlund. He started as a seaman and was later promoted to gunners mate. He told us a story of the ship almost capsizing one night while in a storm. A large wave rolled the ship over so far that the radar unit on top of the ship, went into the water. Dad remembered the ships dog running on the bulkheads. At that point, the intakes bringing in cooling sea water began sucking in air which caused the diesel engines to shut down. Had not another wave righted the ship and had not the ships engineers been able to restart the engines, I would possibly not be here to tell you this story. Thank you for posting the picture of the ship. It is only the second picture of it that I have been able to find. I would be glad to hear from you.
 
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Hi Gregory, Craig & TonyTheTortoise,

I came across this webpage as a result of gathering information about my dad's USN experience during WW2. My dad served on a YMS in the Aleutian Islands and was stationed in NOB Adak from March 1943 to October 1944. My dad wasn't on the YMS-326, but (according to an operational report from the National Archives), his ship and the YMS-326 were involved in a minesweeping operation in the summer of 1944.

I'm reaching out to you folks, because - like I said - I'm researching my dad's USN experience. I have but one photo of my dad in his early twenties and would like to see any photos or hear any stories about him, the YMS he was assigned to and the YMS navy experience in general.

I'm happy to share any information I've discovered about the YMS-326, however I'm hesitant to put it on an open forum on the internet. I just registered yesterday on Ships of Scale so I'm not familiar with this forum's policies or its security and I'm not sure that you guys would appreciate me putting content about your grandfather/father on an open forum.

Craig, I enjoyed the story about your dad's near capsize. BTW, I did find a reference to him in the National Archives and was pleasantly surprised to see he came from the same part of the USA as my dad!

Please "Start a Conversation" with me if any of you are interested.

Cheers,
Don
 
Hi Don,

I am glad to get your post here on the YMS-326.I have no objection toward any sharing of info about my father. He had an exemplary service record.

Dad didn't talk much about his time aboard ship. He never mentioned any minesweeping operations My understanding is that the YMS-326 at one time held the Pacific Fleet record for mines swept, it did not sweep any mines while dad was on. I have no idea haw accurate this info is. He liked to talk of the time that he and a few others were invited to have lunch with the wife of the Alaska Governor and conversed with a servant girl who was also from Minnesota. He mentioned having to carry a Thompson sub-machine gun when he had to pick up the ship's mail. There were a couple of racial incidents that he mentioned. One between an African-American sailor and a southern white racist. The other was about sailors, while on the bridge one night, talking about Jews, not knowing that the ship's officers were Jewish.

I hope to hear more from you.

Sincerely,
Craig
 
Hi Craig,

I came across the following operational report while searching the National Archives,

MINESWEEPING OFFICER, NOB ADAK - Rep of Minesweeping Ops of 3 Arm Bay, Bay of Waterfalls, Beyer Bay & little Tannage Strait Areas, Adak, Alaska, 7/3-13/44 & 7/18-28/44

It describes a minesweeping operation in 1944 for the YMS-326, YMS-135, YMS-130 and YP-151. My dad was on the YMS-135. If anyone has pictures of her crew or its service information I would be very interested.

With respect to the minesweeping record: I haven't come across any mention of a minesweeping record in any of the war diaries that I've reviewed. There is however the following comment regarding the USS Phoebe (AMc-57) on the Naval History and Heritage Command website. In the month of July 1943 the USS Phoebe, "...was tactical command ship for a group of four minesweepers that cleared a defensive minefield which had been planted in 1942 to protect Shagak Bay and Bay of Islands, Adak, Alaska. By 4 August, they had exploded more than 340 mines."

I don't know if clearing 340 mines in one month is a record. Regardless, I've seen references in some of the Aleutian NOB war dairies that the Mark VI sea mine was being used. The Mark VI sea mine contained about 300 lbs of high explosives. The net result, in one month the minesweepers cleared out 50 tons of high explosives. Also consider the this, the July 1944 report - regarding the "3 Arm Bay, Bay of Waterfalls,.... - mentions that approximately half the days in July 1944 the weather was unacceptable for sweeping. I think it would be a reasonable assumption that similarly poor weather could have occurred in July 1943. My point being, the 340 mines were likely cleared at a rate better than 10 per day!

Your dad's story about carrying a Thompson to pick up the mail would seem to most 21st century humans as being "overkill", (pun intended!). After reading many National Archive muster rolls and war diaries I've noticed that they are often times stamped "SECRET" and have markings of the Fleet Post Office (FPO). During WW2 how would NOB Adak or YMS-326 get its quarterly muster rolls or dairies to San Francisco? A ship was required to generate a muster roll at the end of every quarter. Stealing the mail - especially the first week of the new quarter - would be an easy way to gather intelligence. Also, gunners mate Holmlund with a Thompson, and probably a sidearm, would certainly cause someone to think twice before messing with the mail!

Cheers,
Don
 
Kilroy1988 said:
Hello all,

Last night I began building up the hull of a model yard class minesweeper (YMS designation in US Navy) from a 1/100 scale kit created by Orlik Models in Poland.

I purchased separate laser cut hull pieces as well as a wooden deck set, so in fact I have not even had to cut any of the parts from the actual kit yet to put the hull together!

The model will be painted with acrylics to hide all of the edges of the card and any glue residue that is bound to appear, and it will be designated as the YMS-326, which is the ship my grandfather served aboard as a lieutenant stationed in the Aleutian Islands between September 1943 and late 1944. I am working on compiling a detailed record of his time in the service based on hundreds of documents he kept regarding all of his orders, transfers, ration cards, officers' club and event ticket stubs, etc.... And he was also a rather decent photographer at that! I have an album with about two hundred photos he took during his time in the Aleutians, including several of his ship.

Looking forward to sharing my progress with you on this one. Cheers!

-Gregory
Click to expand...
Hallo @Kilroy1988
we wish you all the BEST and a HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Birthday-Cake
 
Hello Gregory,
I just found your construction report of this minesweeper; for me is this design near to the Bluebird- and Mercure-Class, the French Navy like to use.
The German Bundesmarine got 6 vessels in the beginning.

The first minesweeper bound from Cherbourg to Germany

I hope I didnt interfear your construction report? If there is any interest and a need to diver deep into this type of sweeper - I designed this Class in 1:250 scale ...
Kind regards
Wil
 
Hello @Craig Holmlund @DonJ

Happy new year to you both and my apologies for a late reply! I put this project off for the year while I finished graduate school and am planning to delve back into it slowly but surely. Please give me some time to organize my work a bit and I will try to begin getting some more photographs and information up as it falls into order.

As stated above, my grandfather, Melvin Liebau, transferred off the YMS-326 sometime in late 1944 and continued to serve until war's end on another YMS in the Pacific, including during the invasion of Okinawa. Sadly, if he still had his camera after leaving the Aleutians and if there was an album of photos from that period we have yet to find them and I suspect they were lost among the jumble of moving his things several years ago if so.

The records that he had of his service and some of the online documentation I found last year does make me confident that I can trace his movements and transfers rather efficiently throughout the war, which is neat. Again, I'll get back to it and keep you all posted and hopefully have some time to spend on the model as well!

Cheers!

-Gregory
 
DonJ said:
Hi Gregory, Craig & TonyTheTortoise,

I came across this webpage as a result of gathering information about my dad's USN experience during WW2. My dad served on a YMS in the Aleutian Islands and was stationed in NOB Adak from March 1943 to October 1944. My dad wasn't on the YMS-326, but (according to an operational report from the National Archives), his ship and the YMS-326 were involved in a minesweeping operation in the summer of 1944.

I'm reaching out to you folks, because - like I said - I'm researching my dad's USN experience. I have but one photo of my dad in his early twenties and would like to see any photos or hear any stories about him, the YMS he was assigned to and the YMS navy experience in general.

I'm happy to share any information I've discovered about the YMS-326, however I'm hesitant to put it on an open forum on the internet. I just registered yesterday on Ships of Scale so I'm not familiar with this forum's policies or its security and I'm not sure that you guys would appreciate me putting content about your grandfather/father on an open forum.

Craig, I enjoyed the story about your dad's near capsize. BTW, I did find a reference to him in the National Archives and was pleasantly surprised to see he came from the same part of the USA as my dad!

Please "Start a Conversation" with me if any of you are interested.

Cheers,
Don
Click to expand...
Hallo @DonJ
we wish you all the BEST and a HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Birthday-Cake
Sorry @Kilroy1988 for using your log for the greetings....
 
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