| Okay that one must've been too hard. The answer is the USS Stewart DD-224. She was an old WWI era "four piper". Heavily damaged in action against Japanese forces in the invasion of Bali it was sent to a floating dry dock for repairs at Holland Pier Basin in Surabaya. While being lifted she fell off her keel blocks and came to rest at a 37 degree list. Efforts to right and repair her proved futile because of periodic Japanese air attacks. Eventually Stewart and the dry dock were extensively damaged by those air attacks and she was abandoned to the invading Japanese. Believed destroyed she was struck from the Navy's list of active ships and her name given to a new a destroyer escort. Then in 1944 and 1945 American airmen and submarine commanders reported sightings of a US Navy "flush-decker" (another name given to the "four pipers" denoting their even decks) operating deep within enemy waters. The ship had Japanese markings and a trunked funnel, but the hull had unmistakable "four-piper" lines. American occupation forces discovered her in Hiro Bay near Kure in August of 1945. She had been raised and repaired by the Japanese and had served as their Patrol Vessel No. 102 from September of 1943 until the end of the war. So USS Stewart was the only ship to have fought in WWII in both the US and Japanese Navies.
Next question will be a much easier one.
For 200 milbucks name the country that was first to invade Germany in WWII and give the date they did so. As there are few countries to pick from I will allow only a few guesses.
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"Do not forget your dogs of war, your big guns, which are the most-to-be respected arguments of the rights of kings."
- Frederick the Great, King of Prussia  |