Warship Wednesday (on a Thursday) 5 November 2026: The Soldier Queen

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Here at LSOZI, we take a break every Wednesday to explore the old steam/diesel navies from 1833 to 1954, profiling a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger.

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Warship Wednesday 4 November 2026: The Soldier Queen

By Perkins from Fahey Collections, USNI

Above, we see the Regele Ferdinand-class destroyer (distrugătorul) NMS Regina Maria of the Royal Romanian Navy (Marinei Regale Române) early in her career, likely in the 1930s.

Some 85 years ago this week, the long-lived Maria drew blood, credited with sinking the Soviet Black Sea Fleet Malyutka-class submarine M-58 near the Danube estuary, one of at least 16 Russian boats likely killed by the Romanians during WWII.

Romanian Tin Can Backgrounder

The blue water MMR was one of Europe’s youngest navies in the 1930s, tracing its origins to 1880, when the Danube Flotilla Corps of the recently unified Romanian Principalities acquired the 198-foot Trieste-built gunboat NMS Grivița. Armed with two 57mm Nordenfelt 3-pounders and three smaller pieces, Grivița could make 9 knots and was based in newly Romanian Constanța on the Black Sea, the port ceded along with Northern Dobruja by the Ottoman Empire.

Grivița was later augmented by the very small (1,300 ton, 240-foot, four 5.9-inch guns) protected cruiser Elisabeta, built in 1888 by Armstrong, and a trio of French-built Smeul-class torpedo boats for its newly formed Black Sea Division (Divizia de Mare).

Royal Romanian Protected Cruiser NMS Elisabeta, with a full sailing rig, arrived in Romania for the first time in 1889.

A dozen new Vifor-class destroyers had been ordered from Cantieri Navali Pattison, Naples, prior to the Great War, but only four were completed and, impounded in 1915, were used by the Italians during the war as scout cruisers (esploratori= explorers).

Following the country’s occupation during WWI, the Romanian fleet had contracted but was rebuilt in the early 1920s with seven 250t-class torpedo boats received from Austria as war reparations, the former Vifor-class destroyers/Italian scout cruisers Sparviero and Nibbio (entering service as NMS Mărăști and NMS Mărășești), as well as assorted river monitors and gunboats.

The Mărăști and Mărășești, besides seeing their first five years in Italian service, were small ships, at 1,700 tons with a 310-foot overall length. As they had a speedy 34-knot suite and 5.9-inch guns, as well as two twin 17.7-inch torpedo tubes, the Italians had classed them as scout cruisers. Sisters Vifor/Aquila and Viscol/Falco, were retained by the Italians and passed on to Franco during the Spanish Civil War. For Romanian service, they were rebuilt by Pattison in the 1920s with five 4.7″/45 Schneider-Canet-Armstrongs in lieu of the 5.9s.

Romania still wanted more than two destroyers and once again entered into a contract with Pattison for two more improved Vifor/Mărăști types to be completed at the company’s Naples yard. However, because Pattison had a long relationship with British shipbuilders (the Italian Nembo class built by the yard was a modified Thornycroft design, while the follow-on Indomito and Sella classes used many British components, including Parsons turbines), they instead offered the Romanians something different.

In 1916, Thornycroft developed a 2,000-ton/339-foot/5-gunned/6×21-inch torpedo-tubed/38-knot destroyer leader to compete with designs from other British firms, namely Cammell Laird.

The Royal Navy ordered seven Thornycroft DLs, with HMS Shakespeare as the first of just five completed before the Admiralty chose Cammell Laird’s design.

British flotilla leader HMS Shakespeare at sea, IWM 18680, and drawing by AD Baker

Post-war, Thornycroft took their Shakespeare DL design, beefed up the horsepower of its four Yarrow boilers and two Brown-Curtis turbines to push 40 knots, and offered it to overseas clients.

The Spanish adopted the improved design as their domestically produced Churruca-class destroyer, while Argentina ordered a trio in 1927 as the Mendoza class destroyers, built in England by JS White, Cowes. All three 2,125-ton Mendozas exceeded their design speed during sea trials, with ARM La Rioja (E-4) reaching 39.4 knots on her measured mile without exceeding her engines’ limits.

March 1929 East Cowes, Isle of Wight Argentine destroyer ARA La Rioja Mendoza class

The Thornycroft improved DL design by K.C. Barnaby, as built by Pattison in Naples, was even lighter than the Mendozas (1,880 tons) with a 52,000shp suite of four three-drum Thornycroft boilers pushing two Parsons geared turbines for a designed speed of at least 37 knots.

Rather than the twin guns preferred by the Italians, they would use five advanced Swedish-made Bofors 4.7″/50 Mark 4s with a 45-degree maximum elevation, controlled by a Siemens FCS which included a pair of optical rangefinders.

Romanian Regele Ferdinand-class destroyer in late WWII splinter camo with stern 120mm Bofors swung out

They also carried two triple 21-inch ST tubes of Italian make with accompanying Whitehead fish– the first time torpedoes that big had been used by the Romanians.

Two were ordered in 1927 from Pattison: NMS Regele Ferdinand and Regina Maria, laid down side by side in June and both delivered by September 1930, bringing the MMR to a four-destroyer fleet for the first time. Cost per hull was 205,000 pounds, without armament.

Commissioned without pennant numbers, Regele Ferdinand received an Ace of Cups (Asul de Cupa) hull identifier symbol, while Regina Maria received an Ace of Spades (Asul de pica). This made a set with Mărăşeşti (Ace of Clubs) and Mărăşti (Ace of Chariots).

As the old cruiser Elisabeta was scrapped in the 1930s, these four ships formed the Romanian battle line.

Jane’s 1929, with the MMR’s four destroyers listed, the new Ferdinands over the older Vifor/Mărăștis.

This all brings us to…

Meet Regina Maria

Our subject was named for Marie of Romania, née Princess Marie of Edinburgh, the Kent-born bride of the late King Ferdinand I (whose name the class leader carried).

The ceremonial colonel of the 4th Roșiori Cavalry Regiment, Marie volunteered as a nurse in military hospitals during the Great War and opposed signing the May 1918 Treaty of Bucharest with the Germans and Austrians, earning her the description “truly the only man in Romania.” Post-war, she championed Greater Romania’s interests at the Paris Conferences, waving her ministers aside and leading negotiations herself; the country’s size doubled with the acquisition of Transylvania from defeated Hungary without plebiscites, although the region was only about 55 percent ethnically Romanian. This led to her being called “The Soldier Queen.”

Both destroyers arrived at Constanța on 7 September 1930, where King Carol II (son of the destroyers’ namesakes) and Prime Minister Iorga inspected them.

Handsome ships, they often went overseas during their decade of pre-war service to show the flag.

In that vein, Maria represented Romania as one of 17 nations sending ships to join 134 Royal Navy vessels in the May 1937 Spithead Fleet Review off the coast of Portsmouth to celebrate the coronation of King George V.

Romanian destroyer Regina Maria Coronation Fleet Review for King George VI, May 1937

In January 1938, she attempted to carry Crown Prince (later King) Michael to Greece to attend a royal wedding there. On the way to the event, the ship was caught in a maelstrom and forced to return to port.

Maria also sailed in the International Squadron with the British battlewagon HMS Malaya, French cruiser Emil Bertin, Kriegsmarine cruiser Emden, Soviet destroyer leader Moskva, and Greek destroyer Hydra, following the Turkish Navy Destroyer TCG Zafer and battlecruiser Yavuz to carry the coffin of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk the 60 short miles from Sarayburnu Port in Istanbul to Izmit in November 1938.

By 1939, with war on the horizon, in a refit at the Galaţi shipyard, they picked up two Italian depth charge throwers, two German 37mm SK C/30 flak guns, and a pair of French 13.2mm M1929 Hotchkiss machine guns, the latter AAA guns replacing two original 40/67 Škoda guns.

Going into 1940, the MMR had 15,113 all ranks including 1,002 officers, 780 warrant officers (maiștri militari=military foremen), 257 NCOs and 13,074 enlisted. Besides the Black Sea Division and Danube Flotilla, the force had eight coastal artillery batteries and three Marine Infantry (Infanterie Marină) battalions numbered 15th-17th.

War!

In the summer of 1940, Stalin occupied Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina in a sharp, undeclared war led by Gen. Georgy Zhukov’s 460,000-man Southern Front, which left 40,000 unprepared Romanian troops captured while inflicting only about 100 casualties on the Russians. The region, of which only about 10 percent of its 3 million inhabitants were Russians, was carved away while Hungary and Bulgaria also pressed territorial claims on Romania. Germany and Italy arbitrated, and Romania lost Northern Transylvania and Southern Dobruja to Hungary and Bulgaria, respectively.

Hurting, Romania joined the Tripartite Pact with Germany, Italy and Japan in November 1940, with Marshal Ion Antonescu in control of the government.

Fully mobilized, the Romanian Third and Fourth Armies were on the front lines to liberate Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina when Romania entered WWII on the Axis side in June 1941 with the Operation Barbarossa invasion of the Soviet Union.

In response, the much stronger Black Sea Red Banner Fleet soon went on the offensive and raided the MMR’s principal base at Constanza.

Soviet VADM Filipp Oktyabrskiy in the cruiser Voroshilov, with the destroyers Moskva, Kharkov, Bodry, and Dzerzhinsky, began bombarding Constanza at 0400 on the morning of 26 June, on Barbarossa +5, firing 350 shells. In response, the Romanian destroyers Mărăști and Regina Maria and German-manned coastal artillery (three 11-inch SK L/45 Great War-era guns from Nassau-class battlewagons) returned fire while a poorly timed Soviet bomber raid, flying right into the already aroused defenders in broad daylight, was met by Axis fighters and AAA guns, which shot down multiple Soviet aircraft.

When the smoke cleared, Moskva, which had her mainmast brought down by a Romanian 4.7-inch shell, had blundered into a Romanian minefield and sank with 268 sailors killed and 69 survivors captured by the locals. Voroshilov and Kharkov limped off, damaged by a mine and Axis shells, respectively. The raid was an Axis victory by all accounts, with only minor damage done to the port.

Convoys and sub-busting

As the ground war went bad for the Soviets in the summer and fall of 1941, the Romanian fleet left its mine- and gun-protected citadel and began probing toward Odessa, eventually protecting convoys headed to the occupied Russian ports along the Northwest Black Sea coast as well as convoys from the Bosporus to Constanța, safeguarding them from Soviet submarine attack.

It was on such runs that MMR surface ships splashed four M-class boats via depth charges:

  • M-31 by Mărășești on 7 July 1943.
  • M-58 by Regina Maria on 4 November 1941.
  • M-59 by Regele Ferdinand on 17 December 1941
  • M-118 by the Romanian minesweepers Sublocotenant Ghiculescu and Locotenant-Commandor Stihi Eugen on 1 October 1942. Ghiculescu also sank the Leninets-class submarine L-6 in April 1944.

At least three other M-class boats (M-33, M-34, and M-60) went missing, thought to have been lost probing Romanian coastal minefields.

As you can probably tell, the 200-ton Malyutkas (Russian for “baby, little one”) had a rough war, with 34 of their 109-strong class lost between the Arctic, Baltic, Black, and Pacific fleets.

Of note, the “three kings,” the Romanian minelayers NMS Amiral Murgescu, Regele Carol I, and Aurora, would lay fields that also accounted for the Soviet subs S-34, Shch-211, Shch-210, Shch-208, Shch-212, Shch-213, and L-24.

Multiple sources also disagree on how and when the accumulated Soviet subs vanished in the Black Sea in WWII, so there is that.

By early 1944, both Ferdinand and Maria would land their No. 2 4.7-inch Bofors in favor of a German 88mm/42 SK C/30 Flak gun. They would also be fitted with four German 20/65 C/38 Flak guns and an S-Gerat sonar suite.

They also got large recognition flashes and a splinter camo scheme.

Romanian destroyer Regina Maria in dry dock. Note the Ace of Spades and new splinter camo

Royal Romanian Navy destroyer NMS Regina Maria mounting German 88 in 2nd mount

Romanian Dunkirk

When the tide turned on Barbarossa (the Romanians suffered 180,000 casualties at Stalingrad), the Romanian Navy had its own Dunkirk: “Operation 60,000,” the evacuation of Crimea, which pulled out men from the trapped Romanian Mountain Corps and the Wehrmacht’s 17th Army.

Between 14 and 24 April 1944, the Romanians ran 25 convoys out of the peninsula, bringing out 72,358 souls in the path of the Red Army, including 29,494 Germans, 20,779 Romanians, 15,055 Russian volunteers, 723 Slovaks, 2,559 Soviet POWs, and 3,748 civilians.

Regina Maria off Sevastopol, 1944 via Preston

Romanian destroyer Regele Ferdinand

A second round of evacuations, between 9 and 13 May 1944, saw another 47,825 evacuated (28,992 Germans including Gen. Walter Hartmann, 15,078 Romanians, 336 Russian volunteers, 52 prisoners, and 3,367 civilians).

In all, the Crimean withdrawal saw the Romanians bring out 108,000 Axis soldiers– 16,000 of whom were wounded– along with 2,611 prisoners, 7,115 civilians, and 22,548 tons of vital war materials and munitions.

A mix of exhausted faces on Regele Ferdinand during Operation 60,000, the evacuation of the Crimea. You can note Romanian sailors in their jumpers along with beret-clad Vânători de munte mountain troops. Torpedo tubes in the background. Of interest, the 35,000 Romanian mountain troops pulled out of Crimea later provided admirable service to the Soviets, notably in the Tatra Mountains, once Romanian switched sides late in the war.

Running the gauntlet from the Crimea to Constanza in the face of the Red Air Force and Navy cost eight lost freighters, a tanker, and a dozen smaller tugs and lighters.

While the Romanians shot down at least 12 Soviet bombers, others found their marks, and Ferdinand was struck by a large bomb that, while it did not explode, caused enough damage to knock her out of the war.

Red Banner Days

By August 1944, amid the ongoing collapse and the withdrawal of the Romanian Third Army from Bessarabia into the Constanza area, King Michael I led a coup on 23 August that arrested Marshal Antonescu and led Romania to immediately switch sides, join the Allies, and declare war on Germany.

In Constanza, RADM Horia Macellariu (who earned a German Knight’s Cross for Operation 60,000) still amazingly had all four of his pre-war destroyers, but only two were serviceable (our Regina Maria and Marasesti). Meeting with German VADM Helmuth Brinkmann, who had orders to hold Constanța at all costs, agreed to let the Germans in harbor quietly on the night of 25/26 August, with 70 packed vessels shipping south to Bulgaria before dawn.

After that, Georgescu ordered his men to disarm and seize the local German-operated shipping in Romanian coastal waters and up the Danube.

While 60 ships were scuttled, 538 German-Bulgarian vessels, mostly minor, were captured and subsequently passed on to the advancing Red Army and Navy, which arrived at Constanza with a 26-ship battleship-led task force on 5 September. This windfall included 213 barges, 90 coastal tankers, 25 pontoons, 22 tugboats, 20 sloops, 14 motor barges, and many similar vessels.

Speaking of the Red Navy, while they were taking away every captured Axis barge and pontoon the Romanians offered, they also impounded every MMR vessel that could float and moved them across the Black Sea to Caucasian ports.

The takeover of Regina Maria by Soviet Naval Infantry was brutal, with the ship’s skipper, Captain Tudor Nicolae, seriously wounded by several bayonet strikes and rifle blows. The head of the Romanian destroyer group, Căpitan-comandorul Alexandru Dumbravă, blew his head in with a revolver in Maria’s command cabin rather than surrender his vessels.

At 0600 on 12 October 1944, the Romanian Navy noted that the NMS Mărășești, Regina Maria, Mărăști, Regele Ferdinand, Amiral Murgescu, the base ship Constanța, the submarine Rechinul, and three gunboats left the port southward under Soviet control, in an unknown direction.

The older Mărăști and Mărășești, Great War veterans, served in the Red Navy as Lovkiy and Lyogkiy, respectively, until they were returned with most of the other Romanian ships in October 1945, along with two gunboats, two very old torpedo boats, a small submarine, and two hydrographic vessels.

They soon dropped their prefix NMS (Nava Majestății Sale= His/Her Majesty’s Ship) as the fleet was rebranded as the more communist-oriented Marina Republicii Populare Române (Navy of the Romanian People’s Republic).

Ferdinand, repaired in the Soviet Union and painted green, was recommissioned as Likhoy, while Regina Maria became Letuchiy. They continued to serve in the Soviet Black Sea Fleet until July 1951.

Regele Ferdinand as Soviet Likhoy

Romanian Regina Maria as Soviet Letuchiy

Back Home, under a Red Star

Returned as a “donation” to Romania, part of the Warsaw Pact after 1955, Ferdinand and Maria lost their regal names but earned new pennant numbers: first D1 and D2, then D9 and D10.

They likewise served in the outlandishly designated 418th Destroyer Division, which was rebadged as the 101st.

Janes 1954, with Ferdinand and Maria still the best ships in the Romanian fleet. Note Marasti and Marasesti, veterans of two world wars and four flags, are still in service as well!

The same quartet remained in the 1960s. The Romanians at the time still had two of the old Imperial Austrian Navy 250-ton torpedo boats in service, Sborul (ex-SMS T 81F) and Smeul (ex-SMS T 83F), dating to 1913 and given as reparations in 1920.

Having served 30 very hard years, and cut off from support for their Western machinery and weapons, it was only a matter of time before the twins were non-functional. The same could be said for the even older Marasti and Marasesti.

Starting in 1955, as a benefit of being in the co-prosperity sphere, the Romanians took over three Soviet-built Project 122bis and later three Project 204E subchasers. Light ships at some 325 and 500 tons, respectively, they were nonetheless better than the old Italian-built tin cans and ideal for confined Black Sea waters.

With that, the baton was passed.

Ferdinand and Maria, along with Marasti and Marasesti, were stricken in April 1961 and scrapped. Assorted relics from all four of the historic ships were saved, including apparently one set of torpedo tubes from Maria, and are in the collection of the Romanian National Muzeul Marinei.

Epilogue

By the 1980s, the Romanian Navy had moved away from Soviet-built ships and produced six Project Tetal I/II-type Bărbuneanu/Sebastian-class frigates.

Once the Cold War thawed, the Romanian Navy, now the Forțele Navale Române, once again looked west, to an English design.

In 2004, they acquired a pair of surplus British frigates of the Type 22 (Broadsword) class, ex HMS Coventry and ex HMS London. They were duly commissioned in Portsmouth in September 2005 as Regele Ferdinand (F 221) and Regina Maria (F 222), the first time those names had been on the Romanian naval list in 61 years.

Both Regele Ferdinand (F 221) and Regina Maria (F 222) continue in service today.

Some things are cyclical.

Thanks for reading!

Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive

***

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CVN-65 Begins Her Final Cruise

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Operation Sea Orbit: On 31 July 1964, USS Enterprise (CVAN-65) (bottom), USS Long Beach (CGN-9) (center) and USS Bainbridge (DLGN-25) (top) formed “Task Force One,” the first nuclear-powered task force, and sailed 26,540 nmi (49,190 km) around the world in 65 days. Accomplished without a single refueling or replenishment, “Operation Sea Orbit” demonstrated the capability of nuclear-powered surface ships.

The world’s first nuclear-powered flattop and the longest carrier ever constructed (at 1,088 feet oal, later pushed to 1,123 feet, some 31 feet longer than a Nimitz and 17 feet longer than a Ford) is now on her way to be deconstructed slowly in Mobile Bay through the end of the decade, under the oversight of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. She will disappear while docked at Modern American Recycling and Radiological Services, LLC (MARRS), where the former SS United States is now tied up, the two ships likely passing each other as SSUS heads for reefing.

The ex-USS Enterprise (CVN-65), formerly CVA(N)-65, was ordered on 15 November 1957 during the Eisenhower administration and commissioned on 25 November 1961, somehow just four years later. She left on her inaugural deployment just seven months later in June 1962. In all, she would complete 25 overseas deployments in her career.

Keep that in mind when you note that Ford took nine years from ordering (2008) through commissioning (2017) and only deployed for the first time six years later (2023).

Big E’s original cost, in 1961 dollars, was $451.3 million. Her $536 million recycling, after more than 55 years of service, will be more expensive once you factor in inflation.

She still looks mighty, even though her last airwing flew off in November 2012 and her last of eight reactors defueled in 2017. It could be argued she is still more effective than Russia’s carrier right now, regardless.

Images from HII as she left Norfolk:

Enterprise CVN 65 Final Departure

Enterprise CVN 65 Final Departure

Enterprise CVN 65 Final Departure

As detailed by HII:

The world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the former USS Enterprise (CVN 65), departed HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding division today for the final time, bound for dismantlement.

When CVN-65 launched at NNS in 1960, she ushered in a new era for the U.S. Navy and the world. A technological marvel, Enterprise served our nation for 51 years.

From construction through inactivation, the skilled shipbuilders of HII are proud to have supported the entire lifecycle of this mighty aircraft carrier.

To the generations of shipbuilders, suppliers, and sailors who are forever part of the CVN-65 legacy: thank you for your dedication to the mission. That legacy will live on in the next Enterprise, CVN-80, under construction right now at NNS.

B&T Suffers Fire at Swiss Facility, Vows Comeback After Arson

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B&T has been around since 1991 and has an interesting history, along with some seriously top-shelf stuff. (Photos: Chris Eger/Guns.com) 

B&T’s facility and headquarters in Thun, Switzerland, suffered a catastrophic fire late last week, and leftist terror groups are claiming responsibility, apparently tied to the company’s less-lethal offerings being used against riots elsewhere in Europe.

No one was injured, but the damage is estimated at 12 to 20 million Swiss francs ($15 to $24 million USD), and the company announced on its website that the main building, flagship Store, and indoor shooting range will remain closed until further notice. As authorities investigate the crime and pursue possible suspects, B&T is picking up the pieces.

However, company officials vow they will not roll over and play dead.

An excerpt from a statement released Monday:

Our motto is, and always will be:

We stand together.

We will not be intimidated.

We will not be defeated.

We will come back stronger.

B&T is far more than buildings, machinery or material assets. B&T is a community of people who believe in their work, take responsibility and stand by one another, even in the most difficult of times.

Our strength lies not only in what we have built, but above all in the people who make this company what it is every single day.

We will overcome the damage that has been inflicted, continue our work and move forward with the same conviction and determination with which we have built B&T over the past decades.

Violence will not silence us. Threats will not deter us from our path. And destruction will not break our unity.

We have faith in the rule of law and trust that justice will prevail.

B&T (aka Brügger & Thomet AG) entered the firearms scene manufacturing suppressors in 1991, but it wasn’t long before they began offering complete, tactical firearms. Soon after, they became a leader in the gun industry.

From iconic early products such as the MP9/TP9 submachine gun and the VP9 (Veterinärpistole 9mm), or Station Six, the company has expanded into interesting and diverse designs such as the USW and APC series.

The APC9 was recently selected by the U.S. Army and Air Force for use as a Sub Compact Weapon platform, beating out stiff competition from around the world.

It is unclear what impact the Swiss fire will have on B&T products in the U.S., where there has been some messy back-and-forth over licensing and distribution recently.

What is known is that the company’s Utah suppressor facility – commercial silencer imports from overseas are banned – has expanded production to 7,000 cans a month. 

‘Slay dragons, do noble deeds… and never, never, never, never give up’

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Patriot, Vietnam vet, publisher, and Cold War legend Robert Brown has passed away, leaving behind generations of gun enthusiasts who spent much of their youth scanning newsstands for his publications.

Born in Monroe, Michigan, in November 1932, Brown served in the U.S. Army from 1954 to 1957 and again from 1964 to 1985. A Green Beret, he served with Special Forces in Vietnam and retired as a lieutenant colonel.

Long the beacon in the newsstand for those who yearned to meet interesting people in far-off lands– and maybe get into a firefight with them, Brown founded “Soldier of Fortune, The Journal of Professional Adventurers,”  in 1975 after having a hand in founding field manual outlet Paladin Press five years prior.

Based in Boulder, Colorado, SOF provided an outlet for legitimate and would-be professional military contractors and helped fill urgent positions in Africa, the Middle East, and South America, while fueling untold Walter Mitty fantasies in the more chairborne commando.

Noted contributors included Col. David Hackworth, Lt. Col. Oliver North, and sniper guru Maj. John Plaster.

While at the helm of SOF, Brown continued to globetrot and, through the magazine’s offices, helped support pro-Western groups in El Salvador, Afghanistan, and Laos, among other Cold War hotspots. If the Russkis showed up there, Brown was not far behind.

SOF pulled off a number of coups for the good guys over the years, including effectively grounding Sandinista Mi-24 Hind helicopters during the Contra years after Brown published an offer of a $1 million reward for the defection of a Nicaraguan pilot with his gunship. Brown also spirited out the first bulk caches of the then-new Soviet 5.45x45mm AK74 round seen in the West as well as other equipment of intelligence interest from Afghanistan in the 1980s.

The Soviets even targeted Brown in propaganda efforts (left) largely for his support for Mujahideen groups in Afghanistan and Contras in Nicaragua. His offer to buy a Sandinista-operated Mi-24 Hind reportedly grounded the entire force for weeks. In December 1988, a Nicaraguan Air Force captain defected to Honduras in a Soviet-built Mi-16 transport helicopter.

At least six correspondents from the magazine were killed while on assignment in such third-world hotspots as Burma, Angola, and Sierra Leone, going that extra mile for the story.

A member of several Hi-Power and Marksmanship Unit teams while in the Army, Brown was long a power in the gun rights community and sat on the board of the National Rifle Association since the early 1980s. He played a prominent, though behind-the-scenes, role in electing pro-gun political leaders for generations.

In disclosure, this author spoke with Brown, whose email address was simply “Maximus,” numerous times over the years, and was invited to an annual retreat in New Mexico with RKB in 2019. He was always a great storyteller and a true gentleman. He was a welcome regular in the media room at SHOT Show and NRAAM every year.

My buddy, Ben Philippi, also spent time with Brown in Colorado in 2014 and captured an image of him for his book, “We the People.”

Still very spry in his 80s, Brown cautioned Philippi, “Certainly, the Second Amendment and a ‘God-given right’ are substantial reasons for the right to keep and bear arms. But for me, the key criteria for justification of an armed populace, is for it to serve as an ultimate protection from the tyranny from an oppressive government. Think 1776.”

Lt. Col. Robert K. Brown, USAR, (Ret.), publisher of Soldier of Fortune magazine, NRA BOD, photographed in Boulder, Colorado, 2014, sporting his DPMS-Panther Arms SASS .308 rifle topped off with an Aimpoint Hunter scope. He leans on his “arrest-me-red” ’93 Vet convertible. (Photo: Ben Philippi)

The motto of SOF during the Brown era was “Slay dragons, do noble deeds… and never, never, never, never give up.”

Warlords always get the coolest guns

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War Noir recently uncovered a short clip from Haiti’s near-lawless streets, apparently showing Galil-, Kalashnikov-, and M14-equipped members of the Unite Bawon Laplen (UBP) preparing for war as their leader blesses other gang members and their weapons with rum, as one does.

Lanm SanJou, the gang’s leader, was shown mogging with a very rare American-made Colt R80 Monitor, a subvariant of the M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle.

Colt produced only about 125 Monitors in its Connecticut factory, the result of a “cleanup” of leftover parts from its Great War contract to supply 12,000 BARs to the military.

Capable of emptying a 20-round magazine of .30-06 rounds in under three seconds when cyclic, the Colt Monitor could bring it when needed. (Photo: Springfield Armory National Historic Site, courtesy of Alex MacKenzie, curator)

Note the massive compensator. In the early 1920s, Colt made the early Auto Ordnance Thompson submachine guns, which also included a Cutts. (Photo: Springfield Armory National Historic Site, courtesy of Alex MacKenzie, curator)

With a bit of infamy, Colt loaned Texas Ranger Frank Hamer a slow-selling Monitor (Serial No. C-103168) to help bring Bonnie and Clyde to ground, and Dallas County Deputy Sheriff Ted Hinton used it in the 1934 ambush that well-ended the outlaws. The gun lives in the Ranger Museum today.

Of the 125 made, at least 90 went to the FBI, and the specimen in SanJou’s possession could have come from U.S. stocks during one of the periods when the U.S. assisted the Gendarmerie d’Haiti.

For much of the Duvalier period and into the early 1990s, the Haitian military and police mirrored the U.S. military of the late 1940s.

Haitian Army 1980s-early 1990s

Seeing the Monitor reminds me of the worst M1903s I’ve ever seen, two five-digit serial-numbered Springfields that I was able to handle at the U.S. Army’s Museum Support Center at Anniston Army Depot in 2017.

They had been recovered, among tons of other relics, during the 1994 Uphold Democracy operation.

Among the other Uphold Democracy relics recovered was a M3A1 Stuart, found with five improved M5A1s, all apparently acquired by Papa Doc from “an Italian arms broker during the 1950s after being refurbished by the automobile company Ferrari.”

Kept in service until the 1970s, they were left to ruin.

The U.S. Army brought the M3A1 back to Anniston, where it was later restored and sent first to Baumholder, then to Fort Bliss, where it remains today.

Ex-Haitian M3A1 Stuart in the Fort Bliss Museum, Wikimedia Commons

With the U.S. military on the ground off and on in Haiti since at least 1915, invited or not, and with the Pentagon currently supporting the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force (recently supplying C-130s to airlift Salvadoran special forces into Port-au-Prince following the gang ambush and disappearance of Salvadoran personnel attached to the force), the prospect that SanJou’s monitor could possibly “come home” isn’t totally off the table.

Cue the “it belongs in a museum” memes.

Interesting what a sole frigate can do (if you have one)

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The days of the old Spanish Armada have long gone, but today’s Spanish Navy just wrapped up a historic 160-day, 24,000nm globetrotting deployment that included the country’s first warship participation in RIMPAC.

Spain deployed the CODAG Aegis guided-missile frigate ESPS Álvaro de Bazán (F101) to the Pacific during the biannual exercise, where the ship engaged in multinational air defense, surface warfare, and live-fire drills. The latter included a Harpoon warshot expended in a SINKEX against the ex-USS Peleliu (LHA 5).

Spanish Navy Ship ESPS Álvaro de Bazán (F101) launches a Harpoon missile at the hulk of decommissioned Tarawa-class amphibious assault ship USS Peleliu (LHA 5) during a combined sinking exercise in the Pacific Ocean as part of Exercise Rim of the Pacific 2026, July 17, 2026.

Spanish Navy frigate Álvaro de Bazán (F-101) Bay of Acapulco, Mexico deployment in the Pacific

Spanish frigate EPS Álvaro de Bazán in the Panama Canal

She carries a 5″/54 forward, has a 48-cell VLS, 8-can Harpoon AshM battery, carries a single SH-60, and has a fit for four (4) triple Mk32 ASW torpedo tubes– which is a lot of tubes these days. Her sensor suite includes a SPY-1D 3-D phased array radar, active and passive sonar, two SPG-62 illuminators, and an Aegis combat system plus EW and countermeasures. That is a lot of firepower and capability in a 5,600-ton ship. For reference, she is about 1,000 tons heavier than a Knox-class FF, but much more capable

Prior to sending a warship to Hawaii, Spain attended RIMPAC ’24 as an observer country without deploying surface vessels or submarines.

Bazan just returned home last week to the Arsenal de Ferrol, with the proud flag flying.

However, this wasn’t her first Pacific cruise.

In 2007, she completed the first circumnavigation of the globe by a Spanish warship in 142 years (the last being a three-year circuit by the French-built, iron-hulled armored steam frigate Numancia from 1865-68), and made the first visit by a Spanish man-of-war to Australia in over 150 years.

Plus, Spain has four more or less identical sisters to Bazan, while the newer CODELAG F110 (Bonifaz)-class Aegis frigates, of which at least five are planned, are even more advanced.

The first, Bonifaz, is being fitted out ahead of commissioning, while the second, the future ESPS Roger de Lauria (F 112), was launched at Navantia Ferrol last week.

Spanish fragata F112 Roger de Lauria clase F110 launched 27 October 2026 at Ferrol

Spanish fragata F112 Roger de Lauria clase F110 launched 27 October 2026 at Ferrol

Spanish fragata F112 Roger de Lauria clase F110 launched 27 October 2026 at Ferrol

So tell me again why Spain can pull this off, and we haven’t had a proper FFG since 2005, when the SM-1 platform was stripped from our remaining OHPs, and we’ve never had an Aegis ship smaller than a cruiser-sized destroyer?

Holding down the Hanko

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Some 85 years ago. The siege of the Soviet naval base on Hanko Cape in occupied southwestern Finland, north of Leningrad, during the Continuation War, November 1941.

Swedish Volunteer Battalion (Svenska Frivilligbataljonen, SFB) member Erland Petrus Malmström (#872910) seen on the line with a 6.5mm Gevär m/96 Mauser and a commercial optic.

Note how he uses his thumb around the stock’s wrist to raise his view of the scope, which is mounted too far forward for a normal face-on buttstock position. Also note the puukko knife hanging from his belt and the Swedish m/37 helmets to his right. The Swedes later picked 5,300 m/96s and converted them into scoped sniper rifles (the Prickskyttegevär m/41) based on experience in Finland, though the above is not one.

The Swedes have long been a traditional enemy of the Russians, fighting a dozen wars with them between 1554 and 1809.

In the 20th Century, they proved willing on numerous occasions to rise to the occasion against the old foe when prompted.

In March 1918, a 1,000-strong Swedish volunteer brigade under Allan Winge landed in Finland to help disarm Russian troops and fight for Finnish independence.

The Swedish brigade deployed in Helsinki on May 16, 1918. Allan Winge is at the forefront.

When the Soviets invaded neighboring Finland (formerly Swedish territory) in November 1939, a Swedish Volunteer Corps (Svenska frivilligkåren) formed with 12,000 volunteers (including 727 Swedish-speaking Norwegians and at least a few Danes) under Lt. Gen. Ernst Linder.

Swedish Volunteer Corps poster, 1939 Finland Winter War: “Det gäller oss” translates to “It’s about us”

Only 8,260 of its men made it to Finland before the Winter War ended in March 1940.

Swedish Volunteer Corps Finland, during the Winter War, Salla, March 1940

They saw a bit of combat, with 33 killed, around 50 wounded in direct combat, and over 130 suffering frostbite before they were disbanded and sent home on the outbreak of peace.

Well-equipped Swedish Volunteer Corps ski patrol poses in Finland during the Winter War in 1940, along with a Swedish BAR (Kg m/21) and m/96s. Note the bamboo ski poles and, for dramatic effect, gas masks. 

Once the Finns invaded the Soviet Union after the Axis launched Barbarossa in June 1941, the 900-strong SFB was stood up in Sweden to give it another go.

With volunteers arriving as early as 24 July, the SFB swore allegiance to the Finns as a unit on 17 August, and the battalion, simply dubbed the Hangöbataljonen, was seconded to the Finnish IR 55 on the Hanko Front.

Swedish Volunteer Battalion Hanko, Finland, August 1941, with Swedish uniforms and helmets, along with a Swedish BAR (Kg m/21) and m/96s. (SA-Kuva)

Swedish Volunteer Hangöbataljonen, Finland, August 1941, including Swedish BAR (Kg m/21), SMGs, and m/96s. Note the mix of helmets and uniforms. (SA-Kuva)

The Swedish Voluntary Battalion pioneers advancing through the deep Finnish forests, clearing bunkers with explosives (note the satchel charges on their backs) and flamethrowers, to liberate the city of Hanko under Soviet occupation. (SA-Kuva)

Fighting into December, the Hangöbataljonen was the first to march into the port after the Soviets withdrew, though they raised a Finnish flag. They suffered 25 killed and another 75 wounded in the short campaign.

After the Finns disbanded the victorious SFB and sent it home, die-hards wanting to keep fighting formed a smaller Swedish Volunteer Company (Svenska frivilligkompaniet) in February 1942 under Capt. Rickard Nilsson, which was attached to the Finnish IR 13.

Serving on the Svir Front and later fighting in the brutal Battle of Tali-Ihantala on the Karelian Isthmus in 1944, some 412 Swedes served at one time or another in this final unit, which was never stronger than 160 men at any given time. It suffered 39 dead, and 84 were wounded in its time on the line. The unit was disbanded on 26 September 1944, a week after Finland’s peace with Moscow. They apparently had no appetite for fighting the Germans. Russians only.

As for the m/96 Swedish Mauser in Finnish service, besides the 8,800 or so guns brought over by the assorted volunteer groups, Helsinki bought another 77,000 m/96 rifles and carbines directly from surplus Swedish military stocks during the Winter and Continuation War, with some 30,000 eventually repatriated with thanks. The rest were sold off as surplus in the 1950s and were generally unwanted post-war by the Finnish military because they didn’t accept the standard 7.62x54R round used by the Finnish-standard Mosins.

Sometimes you find yourself in a real live shooting war, declared or no

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USS Reuben James in the Panama Canal in happier times, 19-N-10982. National Archives Identifier 496085338

Some 85 years ago this week, just after 0530 on 31 October 1941, the “Red Devil” boat, German Type VIIC submarine  U-552, Kptlt. Erich Topp, commanding, was less than a week out of St. Nazaire, France, on her sixth war patrol. By that point in the war, Topp, 27, had already sunk 18 enemy ships. He had just joined five other boats of Wolfpack Stosstrupp, combing the North Atlantic for convoys.

And he found one off Iceland.

Stumbling across slow-moving (8-knot) Allied Convoy HX-156, with 43 ships, Topp fired two torpedoes that punched into the port side of an enemy destroyer.

As noted in the Official War History of the humble Wickes-class “four piper” USS Reuben James (DD-245):

A lookout on the escort commander’s ship, USS Tarbell (DD 142), reported that there had been a large flash followed by a deep explosion on the port quarter of the convoy in the direction of Reuben James. Immediately, all escort vessels were called by radio. Everyone answered with the exception of James.

At the time of Topp’s attack, HX-156, sailing from Halifax for Liverpool, was being shepherded by the American tin cans, USS Benson, Hilary P. Jones, and Niblack, along with the aforementioned Reuben James and Tarbell as CTU 4.1.3 under CDR R.E. Webb, with a scheduled handover to British escorts on 1 November.

The U.S. Navy, on FDR’s orders, had only just begun escorting Allied convoys from Canada to a Mid-Ocean Meeting Point south of Iceland (around 58° North and near 35° West) the previous month, with the first being HX-150 which sailed from Halifax on 16 September 1941, with U.S. Navy destroyers USS Dallas, Eberle, Ellis, Ericsson and Upshur replacing Canadian coastal escorts HMCS Algoma, Annapolis and Brandon the next day, then handing over to HMS Arrowhead, Badsworth, Blankney, Camella, Celadine, Churchill and Honeysuckle on the 25th, the convoy arriving in Liverpool unscathed on the 30th.

The follow-on HX-151, 152, 153, and 154 all followed the same template.

HX-156 almost made it without a hitch as well.

The thing is, almost isn’t good enough when torpedoes are concerned.

James, suffering from magazine explosions, broke in two. The forward section sank immediately with all hands while the stern remained afloat for five minutes. When the stern sank, at least two unsecured depth charges exploded, killing some survivors in the water. Niblack picked up 36 men (one of whom later died of wounds), and Jones found ten more.

Among those lost were James’s skipper, Texas-born LCDR Heywood Lane Edwards (USNA ’26)— who wrestled in the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam– along with the destroyer’s entire wardroom. Of the 159 souls aboard, 113 perished outright.

The senior-most survivor was the only member of the Goat Locker to make it, the injured Chief Machinist’s Mate (AA), William H. Bergstresser, 35.

Bergstresser told the NYT about his ship’s loss when the crew returned to Brooklyn, something the country allowed because it was still under peacetime rules.

James was the first American warship lost in WWII, lost in the shuffle when Pearl Harbor hit six weeks later.

Ultimately, 86 American “tin cans,” counting both DDs and DEs, were lost in the conflict.

James’s slayer, U-552, almost survived the war, scuttled at Wilhelmshaven three days before Dönitz surrendered what was left of the Third Reich.

As for Topp, after September 1942 he spent the rest of his Kriegsmarine career in a series of training assignments, passing on his experience. By that time, he had sunk 36 ships for nearly 200,000 tons across 12 patrols. He escaped the fate that caught 583 fellow U-boat skippers and survived the war.

He surrendered to the British in Norway in May 1945, later joined the West German Navy, and retired as a rear admiral in December 1969. He retired with the Großes Verdienstkreuz, adding it to his wartime Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords.

He later became an industrial consultant for, among others, the submarine maker Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft, where he had some input on the Type 209. He died on dry land the day after Christmas 2005, aged 91.

Some are luckier than others.

Looks like AUKUS is getting real(ish)

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The Virginia-class USS Colorado (SSN 788) arrived at Perth’s HMAS Stirling last week for a scheduled month-long Submarine Maintenance Period, marking the fourth SMP in Western Australia since the AUKUS security partnership began.

Virginia-class fast-attack submarine USS Colorado arrives at HMAS Stirling for a scheduled Submarine Maintenance Period in Western Australia. *** Local Caption *** The United States Submarine Maintenance Period 2026 (USSMP26) marks an important step in Australia’s preparations for the establishment of Submarine Rotational Force-West (SRF-W), which is on track to commence from 2027. The USS Colorado’s visit to HMAS Stirling will demonstrate Australia’s growing ability to sustain US and UK nuclear-powered sub

GARDEN ISLAND, Australia (Oct. 27, 2026) – Virginia-class fast-attack submarine USS Colorado (SSN 788) arrives at HMAS Stirling, Western Australia on Oct. 27, 2026, for a planned submarine maintenance period (SMP) supporting AUKUS, the trilateral security agreement between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. During the SMP, more than 30 fully trained and certified Australian civilian technicians from ASC Pty Ltd. will perform routine maintenance on a Virginia-class submarine in Western Australia

The previous three boats included USS Hawaii (SSN-776), supported by the USS Emory S. Land (AS-39), from August to September 2024; USS Vermont (SSN-792) without tender support from October to November 2025 and with a blended USN/RAN workforce; and the far-ranging RN Astute-class sub HMS Anson (S 123) from February to March 2026, which integrated local Australian-made components and systems into the boat.

Key activities to be undertaken during Colorado’s upcoming Maintenance Period include:

  • The installation of an Australian-made sail maintenance scaffolding, also known as a ‘racetrack’, which will sit around the submarine during its time at HMAS Stirling –  giving workers safe and rapid access to carry out submarine maintenance work
  • Personnel from Australia, the UK and the US working side-by-side to conduct off-hull capability demonstrations using specialized training equipment and locally produced submarine components
  • Australian personnel conducting in-hull maintenance work, including replacing the thin line towed array and ship repairs
  • Use of the newly upgraded Diamantina Pier at HMAS Stirling, demonstrating Australia’s increased readiness to sustain conventionally-armed nuclear-powered submarines.
  • Australian personnel (supported by US personnel) conducting simulated radiological scenarios that exercise radiation safety practices and procedures, with no radioactive waste being transferred ashore.

This is important as Colorado, a Block III Virginia packing 12 VLS slots along with her torpedo tube-launched weapons, is a fairly new boat, just eight years in the fleet. Based at Pearl, she is slated to be the first boat assigned to the Perth-based Submarine Rotational Force-West (SRF-West) beginning in late 2027. The deployment will last about one year.

The Australians, whose submarine arm dates back to 1914 with HMAS AE1 and AE2, currently operate six aging Collins-class SSKs (the youngest commissioned 23 years ago) and have roughly 850 men in the branch.

They plan to buy purchase three-to-five used Virginias in the early 2030s as a decade-long stopgap measure between the retirement of the Collins-class and the acquisition of five new-built 10,000-ton British-designed/American armed SSN-AUKUS class submarines, which are tentatively set to begin construction at the Osborne Naval Shipyard in South Australia in 2027 (hold your breath) with the first entering service with  Rolls-Royce PWR3+ reactors in “the late 2030s.”

Read that as the RAN will probably run their surplus Ginnys for 20 years without replacement.

Either way, RAN says it has 230 personnel in various stages of the U.S. nuclear-powered submarine training pipeline, with 400 to be on hand by 2030. A retired Australian admiral says a force of 3,000 nuke-qualified submariners will be needed to operate five SSNs, and recruitment will obviously need to step up robustly.

Further, the Brits are putting all their eggs in the SSN-AUKUS basket, intending to buy “up to 12” boats, built at BAE Systems’ Barrow-in-Furness shipyard and Rolls-Royce’s Raynesway facility, to replace their seven hard-used Astutes. Steel cutting for the first British SSN-AUKUS is scheduled for 2027 and operational entry in the late 2030s.

Read that as the Brits will probably get six Ginnys of their own in the 2030s. Perhaps with a Submarine Rotational Force-Atlantic (SRF-Lant) kicking off in the late 2020s with a forward-deployed Ginny at, say, Holy Loch.

I mean, I want AUKUS to work and would love the Brits to have 12 and the RAN to have at least five, but the track record isn’t there.

Hopefully I am wrong.

Why can’t we have nice things…

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It is hard to look at our LCS and stillborn FFG program then see something like this.

Check out this great overhead shot of the 6,600-ton Iver Huitfeldt-class frigate HDMS Niels Juel (F-363) of the Royal Danish Navy.

Forward you have a pair of OTO Melara 76mm guns, while the amidships “missile deck” holds 16 Harpoon Block II cans, and a 32-cell Mark 41 VLS for SM-2 IIIAs, flanked by two 12-cell Mk.56 VLS for Enhances Sea Sparrows. Aft is a Oerlikon Millennium 35mm CIWS, overlooking the helo deck atop the hangar for an MH-60R Seahawk. Not seen are two pairs of  MU90 Impact 324mm ASW torpedo launchers.

The Harpoons are being replaced missile-per-missile with the NSM while her soft kill countermeasures (Terma Mk 137 130mm decoy launchers and Seagnat Mark 36 SRBOCs) are being augmented by the new Rheinmetall  Multi Ammunition Softkill System (MASS).

A great in-depth 45 minute doc on another Huitfield, HDMS Peter Willemoes, is here.

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