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A German Gebirgsjäger (light infantry alpine or mountain troops) of the 137th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Mountain Division (2. Gebirgs-Division) with an MG 34 machine gun sits in position in the forest of Norway’s Junkerdal National Park during Operation Weserübung; Germany’s invasion of Norway. Junkerdal National Park, Nordland, Norway. May 1940. Image taken by Karl Marth.
Infantry Sgt. Tatyana Danylyshyn of the Canadian Scottish Regiment (Princess Mary’s) picked up top honors in international shooting competitions in both the U.S. and the UK in recent months.
Danylyshyn, a reservist from Victoria, British Columbia who joined the Canadian Forces in 2002, won the Hager Hollon Trophy for Top Rifle Shooting earlier this year at the 24th Armed Forces Skill at Arms Match hosted by the U.S. Army National Guard Marksmanship Training Center in North Little Rock, Arkansas.
THEN, last month she traveled to the land of warm beer to compete in the annual Bisley shooting competition held in Bisley, England, in a field with 700 competitors. There, she competed in two of the three weapons categories: operational service rifle and service pistol, winning top shot in the former.
Her “competition” gun is her field standard Colt Canada C7A2 rifle with 3.4x28mm C79A2 optic. Lovers of marksmanship, the C7 is a Canadian-built M16A2 but with a hammer-forged heavy barrel. She augments this with the standard Browning Hi-Power, which hasn’t let Canada down in over 70 years.
Tests in adding a 24-pack of Hellfire missiles, guided by the Army’s Apache Longbow system, to thier LCS fleet seems to be moving forward rather well. Now don’t freak out, LCS is also supposed to get a real anti-shipping missile such as Harpoon or the really neat new Norwegian Naval Strike Missile (NSM) and the Hellfire is just supposed to batter small boat swarm attacks that are just aren’t worth wasting a 13 foot long over-the-horizon missile on. But we’ll see I guess
Integration of the Longbow Hellfire missile system, designated the Surface-to-Surface Missile Module (SSMM), will increase the lethality of the Navy’s fleet of littoral combat ships. The SSMM is expected to be fully integrated and ready to deploy on LCS missions in late 2017.
“This test was very successful and overall represents a big step forward in SSMM development for LCS,” said Capt. Casey Moton, LCS Mission Modules program manager.
Termed Guided Test Vehicle-1, the event was designed to specifically test the Longbow Hellfire launcher, the missile, and its seeker versus high speed maneuvering surface targets (HSMSTs). The HSMSTs served as surrogates for fast inshore attack craft that are a potential threat to Navy ships worldwide.
During the mid-June tests off the coast of Virginia, the modified Longbow Hellfire missiles successfully destroyed a series of maneuvering small boat targets. The system “hit” seven of eight targets engaged, with the lone miss attributed to a target issue not related to the missile’s capability. The shots were launched from the Navy’s research vessel Relentless.
The test scenarios included hitting targets at both maximum and minimum missile ranges. After a stationary target was engaged, subsequent targets, conducting serpentine maneuvers were engaged. The tests culminated in a three-target “raid” scenario. During this scenario all missiles from a three-shot “ripple fire” response struck their individual targets.
Integration of the “fire-and-forget” Longbow Hellfire missile on LCS represents the next evolution in capability being developed for inclusion in the Increment 3 version of the surface warfare mission package for LCS. When fully integrated and tested, each 24-shot missile module will bring added firepower to complement the LCS’s existing 57mm gun, SEARAM missiles and armed MH-60 Sea Hawk helicopter.
When I was at an ASA shoot in Nashville back in April, I first heard about this and have been researching this for a bit. Its a little personal to me as I learned to shoot in the scouts and have taught rifle marksmanship at several local camps off and on for the past decade.-CE
Scouts in Maine are getting a chance to participate in the shooting sports with an increased level of safety on behalf of new suppressors, rifles and ammunition contributed free of charge.
This spring, the Boy Scouts of America’s Pine Tree Council, which serves ten counties in central Maine, took possession of a windfall of gear with the help of gun rights groups and the shooting industry. That equipment is allowing the scouts at Camp William Hinds, a 280 acre facility in the state’s Sebago Lakes Region, to use suppressor-equipped rifles, pistols and shotguns during its week-long summer camps this year.
The equipment came from a variety of vendors to include Sturm, Ruger & Company, which chipped in eight American Rimfire .22 rifles with threaded barrels; a local federal firearms license holder, Furlong Custom Creations, who handled the transfer paperwork; and two suppressor companies, Gemtech and SilencerCo, who contributed both devices and ammunition.
Venture Scouts, aged 14 and up, are using suppressor-equipped Smith and Wesson 22s in their pistol course. (Photo: Gemtech)
The U.S. Marine Corps’ F-35B Lightning II aircraft reached initial operational capability July 31, 2015 with a squadron of 10 F-35Bs ready for world-wide deployment.
Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121 (VMFA-121), based in Yuma, Arizona, is the first squadron in military history to become operational with an F-35 variant, following a five-day Operational Readiness Inspection, which concluded July 17.
“I am pleased to announce that VMFA-121 has achieved Initial Operational Capability in the F-35B, as defined by requirements outlined in the June 2014 Joint Report to Congressional Defense Committees,” said Gen. Joseph Dunford, Commandant of the Marine Corps. “VMFA-121 has ten aircraft in the Block 2B configuration with the requisite performance envelope and weapons clearances, to include the training, sustainment capabilities, and infrastructure to deploy to an austere site or a ship. It is capable of conducting Close Air Support, Offensive and Defensive Counter Air, Air Interdiction, Assault Support Escort and Armed Reconnaissance as part of a Marine Air Ground Task Force, or in support of the Joint Force.”
Dunford stated that he has his full confidence in the F-35B’s ability to support Marines in combat, predicated on years of concurrent developmental testing and operational flying.
“Prior to declaring IOC, we have conducted flight operations for seven weeks at sea aboard an L-Class carrier, participated in multiple large force exercises, and executed a recent operational evaluation which included multiple live ordnance sorties,” said Dunford. “The F-35B’s ability to conduct operations from expeditionary airstrips or sea-based carriers provides our Nation with its first 5th generation strike fighter, which will transform the way we fight and win.”
The U.S. Marine Corps has trained and qualified more than 50 Marine F-35B pilots and certified about 500 maintenance personnel to assume autonomous, organic-level maintenance support for the F-35B.
VMFA-121’s transition will be followed by Marine Attack Squadron 211 (VMA-211), an AV-8B squadron, which is scheduled to transition to the F-35B in fiscal year 2016. In 2018, VAM-311 will conduct its transition to the F-35B.
No matter how you feel about them personally, production seems to be moving right along. For instance, BAE Systems’ F-35 Lightning II facility in Samlesbury, England just completed their 200th rear fuselage. That’s right, in case you didn’t know, each F-35 has an English ass.
I just keep telling myself that when they introduced the F4U Corsair (which had its share of teething problems and was for several years considered unsafe for carrier operations), I’m sure there were some Navy and Marine pilots that would have preferred to keep their Brewster Buffaloes and F4F Wildcats.
And truth be told, the Harrier caught a lot of flack for thirty years over its own perceived issues, so overall, I guess the beat goes on.
Video shows Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine USS Pennsylvania (SSBN 735) underway in the vicinity of Hawaii. Video by Petty Officer 1st Class Jason Swink | Commander Submarine Forces Pacific | Date: 06.28.2015
The fourth ship of the United States Navy to be named for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (1837 140-gun ship of the line, 1863 screw steamer, 1903 armored cruiser, and the famous BB-38 of the World Wars), SSBN-735 was commissioned in 1989 and is home ported at Bangor.
She just completed her Engineered Refueling Overhaul (ERO) at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in 2012 and is expected to serve well into the 2030s at which point she will be pushing a half-century with the dolphins.
Much as once a week I like to take time off to cover warships (Wednesdays), on Sunday, I like to cover military art and the painters, illustrators, sculptors, and the like that produced them.
Combat Gallery Sunday : The Martial Art of Richard Jack
Richard Jack, though born in Sunderland, England, in 1866, was Canada’s first official war artist.
In the late 19th Century he studied at a number of esteemed art schools including the York School of Art, the South Kensington Art School, the ARA, the Royal College of Art and the Académie Julian— almost all on academic scholarships for his submitted work.
Returning to London from the Julian, he became first a black and white illustrator for Cassells and other periodicals then switched to painting, winning silver medals for his work before the Great War.
The Passing of the Chieftain by Richard Jack, York Museums Trust. Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation
Pushing 50 when Word War I began and not having a military background, he still did his part and took to sketching soldiers passing through.
The Return to the Front Victoria Railway Station, by Richard Jack, 1916, via the York Museums, on display in Lincolnshire. Trust Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation
These were subsequently published and brought him the attention of the Canadian governor general’s office, who extended an offer in 1916 to commission Jack as the official war artist to cover Canadian exploits in the war to end all wars.
Heading to the Western Front as a Major, Canadian Forces, Jack took to his work in covering the heroic stand by the Canadians at Second Ypres for posterity. Unlike the British government commissions, which encouraged a modernist approach to war, the Canadians wanted Jack to produce recognizable ‘history’ paintings as realistic as possible– and he did, controversially including bodies of the broken and dying.
Though, naturally, not actually present at the fighting, Major Jack had carefully investigated and sketched the whole ground, and has spent some time with the units which took part in the engagement, collecting from officers and men all the details and facts needed for absolute accuracy. Some of the men who had been through the battle actually posed for the picture, whilst machine-guns and all manner of military accoutrements were temporarily placed at the artist’s disposal, whose studio assumed something of the appearance of a battlefield.
This time spent on the continent yielded two massive works, The 12-foot-by-20-foot canvases of The Second Battle of Ypres, 22 April to 25 May 1915, and The Taking of Vimy Ridge, Easter Monday, 1917.
The Second Battle of Ypres, 22 April to 25 May 1915
Official war artist Major Richard Jack poses by his painting. ‘The Second Battle of Ypres, 22 April to 25 May 1915’ depicting Canadian soldiers making a stand against a German assault He painted this enormous work of art, with the canvas measuring 371.5 x 589.0cm (12 x 20 foot), in his London studio, c.1917. Commissioned by the Canadian War Memorials Fund (CWMF), an organization established by Lord Beaverbrook to document Canada’s war effort. Sir Edmund Walker, who sat on the advisory board to the CWMF, felt that Jack captured the achievements of the Canadians during the battle, but felt the work would not resonate with Canadians, who, he felt, were “not likely to appreciate such realistic treatment of war.” He was wrong and Jack’s painting remains an iconic work from the First World War. (National Archives of Canada PA 4879)
The Taking of Vimy Ridge, Easter Monday 1917. The painting is a part of the Beaverbrook Collection of War Art at the Canadian War Art Museum in Ottawa, Ontario.
After the war, Jack, a civilian again, emigrated to Canada (why not, right?) and settled in the Montreal area. Jack became a renowned portrait artist, brushing depictions of royalty, statesmen and senior officers.
Lieutenant Colonel Lancelot Robson, CMG, DSO by Richard Jack, currently part of the collection of the Hartlepool Museums and Heritage Service. Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation. Robinson was commander of the Royal Artillery who responded to the raid on Hartlepool, commanding three BL 6 inch Mk VII naval guns mounted ashore against Hipper’s squadron
Muriel Elsie, née Hirst, (1895–1969), Lady Gamage painted 1950 by Richard Jack via St Johns Museum. Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation. Muriel Gamage was a prominent worker for public causes, and had served during WWI with the VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment), organizing the military hospitals during the war, and was appointed D.J.ST.J.(Dame of Justice of the Order of St John of Jerusalem), in recognition of her service, whose badge appears on her uniform
Jack was later inducted to Royal Society of British Artists and the Royal Institute of Painters before his death in 1952, aged 86.
He spent the latter part of his life paining landscapes in his adopted country.
Richard Jack landscape, from the York Trust. Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation
You can find an in-depth study of his works here and the BBC has a collection of some 45 of his works online
His style of battle scenes has drawn much modern imitation.
Thank you for your work, sir.
I guess somebody had to ride that lion to Valhalla.
All images this post are mine and I release them into the public domain. Click to big up in each case. If you want even higher rez, email me and I’ll hook you up (egerwriter at gmail.com)
On a trip around my stomping grounds I finally got around to visiting the new Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum in Biloxi. I say new because the original, housed in the old WWII era USCG seaplane station, was swept away during Katrina leaving only the very top bell-tower of the historic facility.
If you are in Biloxi, stop by and see the new museum as it is very interesting.
While they had a large collection from the old light cruiser USS Biloxi (which will be covered in a future WW!) the highlight for me was Nydia.
Note the SYC pennant fourth down
Nydia is 30-foot gaff-rigged shoal draft centerboard sloop built in the late 1890s for the Commodore of New Orleans’s Southern Yacht Club, John A. Rawlins.
(Note: SYC is historic, putting on the oldest point to point regatta in the Western Hemisphere, initially raced on July 4, 1850, and has several Olympic sailing medalists listed on their rolls.)
Nydia was constructed in Biloxi of cypress and steam-bent oak at the Johnson Shipyard owned by William N. Johnson, a native of the city with a reputation for crafting lightning fast boats. Nydia was raced as a open pit “sand-bagger,” which meant there would be the skipper on the tiller and a “bailing boy” forward who spent his time shuffling sand bags from side to side to adjust the roll while racing.
Between 1898 and 1910, Nydia competed in no less than 39 regattas and races between Mobile and New Orleans, winning a cabinet full of trophies and a fair bit of cash and prizes. Her first win was the Bay-Waveland Yacht Club regatta on July 29,1899 (116 years ago this week!) and her last was the same event in 1908.
After 1904, she was owned by A. Baldwin Wood, a well-known New Orleans engineer who developed the pumping stations that keep the Crescent City dryish.
Baldwin added a cabin and continued her sailing career after 1910 as a seasonal pleasure craft, carting her back and forth from the Mississippi Sound to land-based storage during the fall and winter months.
During WWII, he had to obtain a special permit from the Coast Guard to continue sailing her, but nonetheless did so.
Wood, literally crossing the bar with his hand on the tiller, died aboard Nydia on a morning sail in 1956 and, at his request, she was given to his alma mater– Tulane University– along with some $380,000 and a stipulation that she be maintained and displayed for 99 years.
Well, Tulane eventually ran out of space over the decades and by 2003 Wood’s estate discovered she was in a sad shape, then launched a legal campaign to win custody of the sloop.
Risking destruction, she was saved just before Hurricane Katrina, lovingly restored in Biloxi by shipbuilder and sailor John Dane and put on exhibit at the Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum, with her mast rigged with correct English cotton sails and pennants to include one from the SYC.
She sits about 100 yards from Back Bay Biloxi, with a view of the Horn Island Pass and the open sea beyond.
It was said of Nydia that, “A tree has a body, but when it is fashioned into a beautiful boat, its timber then takes on a soul.”
Today she is the only hull remaining from Johnson’s yard which was located just blocks from where she currently rests.
At night she sits, bathed in a spotlight for the world to see, standing watch over a 45 foot long 1:5 scale model of a German U-boat used in the film U-571— which has a less romantic home in the dark parking lot.
See the U-boat lurking? Hint: Bottom left. Das Boot!