Oct 20, 2018
USS Bulmer (DD-222) crew circa 1920-1922. Note dog.
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USS Bulmer (DD-222) crew circa 1920-1922. Note dog.
Large newspaper clipping from The Evening World dated September 16 1922. Note McCormack should read McCormick and McLeish should read MacLeish in the photo caption. Twenty-one allied warships were in Smyrna harbour when Turkish troops entered it, eventually setting fire to the city. The ships included Litchfield (DD-336), Simpson (DD-221), and Lawrence (DD-250). Among the ships to reinforce them were Edsall (DD-219) and MacLeish (DD-220). Edsall served as the flagship for the American squadron, which after quite a bit of political fumbling, eventually evacuated some of the refugees from the burning city. A scant few compared to the many in distress.
The fire has a very complicated history of conclusions surrounding it, though the general conclusion is that Turkish soldiers started it as Greek soldiers had evacuated five days before the fire started. Tens of thousands to possibly hundreds of thousands of Greeks and Armenians crammed the Smyrna waterfront. The estimates range from ten to a hundred thousand died in the flames and massacres occurring throughout the city. Yet more were deported into the interior of Anatolia and died there as part of the Armenian genocide.
August 26 1943, pictures of USS Simpson (DD-221) taken by Naval Air Station New York.
Serving primarily in the Atlantic, the longest convoys she escorted were in 1941 to August of 1943, after which she escorted convoys up and down the east coast, and then escorted newly built ships like battleships Wisconsin and Missouri and the carrier Ticonderoga. On 23 May 1945 with being reclassified a miscellaneous auxiliary, Simpson was disarmed and converted to tow targets.
Simpson was decommissioned on 29 March 1946, and sold for scrap 21 November. Though she had a long service life in the USN and an appreciable amount of time spent as a training ship or escorting new ships, Simpson earned no battle-stars for her service.
Colorized photo of the Bulmer (DD-222) circa 1934-1939. From the collection of LCDR Rayborn M. Hall USN who served aboard the USS Bulmer (DD-222) during this period.
USS Bulmer (DD-222) at Red Crown Zerolene tank farm in San Pablo, Ca in December 1920 or October-November 1921.
USS Simpson (DD-221) off San Diego's Point Loma about 1938.
Newspaper clipping of Simpson (DD-221) supposedly off Nanking dated February 2 1932. Note that the caption is likely incorrect; Shanghai was the city that the Japanese fought in during 1932, leading to the demilitarization of the city.
A group of destroyers of Point Loma circa 1924. The only one that can be positively identified is Simpson (DD-221), second in the line.