Eaglemoss Military Watches Collection.
MWC 97 - 1940s American Seaman
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, Jan 9, 2018 at 10:31 AM (32130 Views)
America's determination to win the War in the Pacific can be easily seen in the sheer size of it's Navy.
At the close of the war, the US fleet consisted of over 51,000 vessels, the majority of which were specified as landing craft, a testament to the necessity of landing huge numbers of troops on the numerous Pacific islands. Providing air and artillery support to these troops were up to 28 Aircraft Carriers and 8 Battleships, themselves supported by 1200 combatant ships, including hundreds of Submarines. The manpower of the US Navy would outnumber many small countries at over 3,380,000 personnel
After the war, however, maintaining such a huge fleet was an immense drain on the post-war US economy, and a rapid decommissioning process was underway very quickly. in a little over 2 years active personnel numbers had dropped to a 'mere' 450,000 and only 267 ships were considered active, though many hundreds were in a de-activated state in facilities like Mare Island Naval Shipyard
Case
Polished 33.3mm case, 35.2mm at the crown, 8.3mm deep, 42.2mm Lug to Lug, 16mm lug width
Case Interior, 30.2mm diameter, 8.3mm deep. 5mm crown, 29mm glass.
Dial
White Dial with beige printed minute/second scale Arabic numerals at 5-minute intervals,
Hours indicated by Beige Arabic numbers
Black, Sword-style minute and hour hands with white infill, slim black second hand with round detail near the tip
Strap
Black PU leather strap 16mm wide at the lug narrows to a 14mm buckle, approx. fitting 175/215mm
The watch with this issue is a variation of the issue 35 watch, there are tenths of millimetres differences in size, and with a simplified white dial, both are based on a Longines watch