Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Assessment/USCGC Dione: Difference between revisions

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Nominator(s): PhoenixCaelestis (talk)

USCGC Dione (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)

I am nominating this article for A-Class review because I want this article to one day become a FA. I am confident that it meets the criteria. Who doesn’t want the read the story of a little 165-foot long Coast Guard cutter, the sole ship capable of repelling German U-boats off the American coast during 1942? Oh, did I mention she had an interesting merchant ship career too? Plus, there’s no Coast Guard representation in the warships FA topic.. PhoenixCaelestis (Talk · Contributions) 15:50, 11 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Apologies for the long wait to get a review. This is a great article.

• Glad you enjoyed it. I’ve got high hopes for her. PhoenixCaelestis ‣ _Talk // ^{Contributions} 21:20, 2 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
• “She had a gross register tonnage of 256 and a net register tonnage of 174.” Suggest adding “tons” to the end of the sentence.
  • “Tonnage” being presented there already, in my mind, has that covered. If someone else brings it up I’ll change it.
• “Following the beginning of World War II” – a little ambiguous here, as the US was not yet officially at war
  • The USCG source is ambiguous as well, keeping it as is.
• “397 Allied ships were sunk by U-boats between January and June 1942,[35]

  Avoid beginning a sentence with a figure (MOS:NUMNOTES)

• “during the time period that was referred to as the “Second Happy Time” by Kriegsmarine officers as well as Karl Dönitz—Admiral of the Kriegsmarine.”

  I would pipe Admiral to Admiral (Germany). Also, I think it would be worth mentioning that he was the Admiral Dönitz was the admiral in charge of the U-Boats. (He was promoted to admiral on 14 March 1942.) (Fun fact: His uniform and baton are on display in the Internationales Maritimes Museum Hamburg.)

  • • Very cool, did not know that! Added.

  Italicize Kriegsmarine – use a {{lang}} template.

• “Andolphus Andrews, the Admiral in charge of the Eastern Sea Frontier”

  “Admiral” should only be capitalised when used as a title ie just before a name.

  More importantly, Andrews was only a rear admiral at the time. (A character saved from notoriety by obscurity.)

  And his first name was “Adolphus”, not “Andolphus”

  • • Autocorrect, undoubtedly. Fixed.

  Link Eastern Sea Frontier.

• “After determining that U-boats generally attacked at night, McCormick decided to abandon his usual routine in favor of grid-searching the waters off the Outer Banks for U-boats;[1]:27 [43]:28  these would utilize a World War I-era sonar system[39]:24  and other types of sound-detection gear”

  But somehow he missed the fact that the U-Boats operated on the surface at night, so this would not have worked. (Although once they figured out how effective the US Navy was, some started sailing on the surface in broad daylight. Dixie Arrow was sunk by a U-Boat in daylight.) Do you know if Dione had radar?

  • This is close to the wording in Hickam’s book. Dione had sonar from WWI, which is mentioned somewhat in Hickam’s book but not in this section.

    I’m therefore guessing that it did not have radar, but we do not have a source. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 23:17, 2 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

    Elaboration: She gained a radar set in 1945 (specially an SF set) and her sonar was upgraded to a QCN-1 system that same year (this is per the USCG source and the Scheina book). She supposedly carried a World War I sonar system not mentioned in the USCG page, but would make sense considering what takes place in Hickam’s book. The reference for the sonar system is a newspaper article from a 1991 reunion (which also says she had no radar). PhoenixCaelestis ‣ _Talk // ^{Contributions} 02:15, 3 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

• “A Coast Guard airplane from the Elizabeth City Air Station dropped two depth charges with unknown results”

  I think you have a shrewd idea what the result was.

  • • Removed “unknown results”
• ” As a result, large amounts of oil bubbled to the surface.”

  No U-Boat was sunk though. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 20:48, 2 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

• “The convoys that she escorted were nicknamed “bucket brigades” after the old-fashioned method of transporting buckets during a fire.”

  Well, yes, but I’m not sure the reader will understand what you’re talking about. Under the bucket brigade system, convoys sailed by day and took shelter in harbours at night. It was possible in that part of the world because there were so many good harbours north of Cape Hatteras. Consider adding this explanation to the article.

  • • • I’ll add this tomorrow when I get a chance.
• “echos” -> “echoes”
• Link The Saturday Evening Post

Hawkeye7 (discuss) 20:48, 2 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I’ll get around to reviewing this soon. Hog Farm _Talk 03:21, 4 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Good to hear. I’ll be really busy today after about noon EST so I probably won’t be able to reply this afternoon/evening, but I’ll definitely get to your comments by tomorrow or Saturday. PhoenixCaelestis ‣ _Talk // ^{Contributions} 12:06, 4 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]