When the LCS was first proposed under the Streetfighter concept back in the day, everyone looked at the idea and thought it had at least some merit, especially for sea control with a growing number of surface challenges from in the Persian Gulf and South China Sea. But sea control involves having something bigger than a 57mm popgun and some 25’s to punch a hole in something over-the-horizon.
Well it looked like in the latest RIMPAC exercise, an LCS has finally gotten a Harpoon in the air. Of course it looks like a limited installation (topside weight issues?) such as seen on the Hamilton-class Coast Guard cutters of the 1990s, but it is still a Harpoon.
160719-N-ZZ999-007 USS CORONADO (July 19, 2016) USS Coronado (LCS 4), an Independence-variant littoral combat ship, launches the first over-the-horizon missile engagement using a Harpoon Block 1C missile. Twenty-six nations, 40 ships and submarines, more than 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel are participating in RIMPAC from June 30 to Aug. 4, in and around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California. The world’s largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity that helps participants foster and sustain the cooperative relationships that are critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world’s oceans. RIMPAC 2016 is the 25th exercise in the series that began in 1971. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Michaela Garrison/Released)
Meanwhile, the latest Independence-class LCS, USS Jackson, was the subject of explosive shock testing so serious that the USGS thought it was a 3.7m earthquake.
Warship Wednesday, July 20, 2016: The Majestic, if unlucky, Aussie flattop
Here we see the lead ship of the Majestic class of British Royal Navy carriers, the HMAS Melbourne (R21) with Gannets and Sea Venoms ranged on deck, early during her career in the Royal Australian Navy.
She was one of 16 planned 1942 Design Light Fleet Carriers for the RN. This class, broken up into Colossus and Majestic-class sub-variants, were nifty 19,500-ton, 695-foot-long carriers that the U.S. Navy would have classified at the time as a CVL. They were slower than the fast fleet carriers at just 25 knots with all four 3-drum Admiralty boilers lit and glowing red, but they had long legs (over 14,000 miles at cruising speed) which allowed them to cross the Atlantic escorting convoys, travel to the Pacific to retake lost colonies or remain on station in the South Atlantic (Falklands anyone?) or the Indian Ocean for weeks.
Capable of carrying up to 52 piston-engine aircraft at the time, these carriers had enough punch to make it count.
The thing is, only seven of these carriers were completed before the end of World War II and even those came in during the last months and weeks. They effectively saw no service. Laid down beginning in 1942, most of the ships were launched and afloat in 1945, but construction was canceled when the war ended.
That’s what happened to the hero of our tale, HMS Majestic, which was laid down at Vickers-Armstrongs, Barrow-in-Furness in April 1943, around the time of the invasion of Sicily, though work stopped on her floating hull in 1945.
Fast-forward ten years.
With the Post-WWII Royal Navy not needing 16 flash new oceangoing landing strips, they kept a few, then started selling off the rest. Three went to Canada, one to France, one to Holland, one to India, and others were scrapped.
Of the Colossus/Majestic, light carriers, three– Majestic, Vengeance, and Terrible— were transferred to Australia as HMAS Melbourne, HMAS Vengeance, and HMAS Sydney, respectively.
Completed after a dozen years in the builder’s yard, Melbourne was commissioned on 28 October 1955 and had the benefit of an angled reinforced flight deck, steam catapult, beefed-up arrester gear and a mirror landing aid added during her time under construction– in effect, updating her WWII design to operate jet aircraft.
Gannet landing on Melbourne
Once received, the RAN gave HMAS Vengeance back to the Brits who sold her to Brazil as the Minas Gerais and passed Sydney into use as a training vessel and transport, comfortable with operating just Melbourne as a fleet carrier and flagship, carrying the flag of a rear admiral while in commission.
HMAS Sydney (A 214), Melbourne (R 21), Supply (AO 195) and Yarra (DE 45). Note how different the unmodified Syndey on the outside is from Melbourne. Hard to believe they are sisters.
Taking her name from one of the first ships of the Australian Navy, in this case, a WWI cruiser, Melbourne sailed from Glasgow for Australia on 11 March 1956 with 808 Squadron (Sea Venom all-weather fighters) and 816 & 817 Squadrons (Gannet anti-submarine aircraft) embarked, a total of some 64 aircraft packed aboard.
Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne greets her Hawaiian hosts. Pearl Harbor 1958 note 9 Gannets on the stern
For the next several years, she participated in regular South East Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) exercises and operations that took her all over the Pacific. During one cruise in 1958, she clocked more than 25,000 nautical miles alone.
HMAS Melbourne conducting damage control drills off Thistle Island, Spencer Gulf, SA, 3 March 1960. She would need them in the future.
In 1963, due to budget constraints, the Sea Venoms and Gannets began to retire, replaced eventually with A-4G Skyhawks, S-2 trackers (whose wingspan was only three feet less than her flight deck width), and Westland Wessex anti-submarine helicopters.
On 17 March of that year, Melbourne celebrated her 20,000th landing when Lieutenant Ryland Gill, RAN, landed his Gannet on board.
HMAS Melbourne, HMAS Vendetta (D08), HMAS Voyager (D04), and HMAS Quiberon (G81) sailing alongside each other. Voyager and Melbourne would soon meet again under less happy conditions
Tragedy struck on 10 February 1964 when Melbourne was performing trials in Jervis Bay and collided with the Daring-class destroyer HMAS Voyager while zigzagging, which left the smaller warship cut in two and sinking, taking 82 lives with her in just 10 minutes.
The bow of HMAS Melbourne after the collision with HMAS Voyager
A Royal Commission ultimately found that Melbourne‘s skipper was unfit to command for medical reasons while an earlier Commission held that Voyager was primarily at fault for failing to maintain effective situational awareness.
After repairs, Melbourne returned to sea on 11 May 1964.
Soon she became involved in the periphery of the Vietnam conflict, with some of her Skyhawk crews training to fly on combat missions there from bases in Thailand, though they ultimately were not used. She escorted her sister Sydney on several trips to Vietnam carrying Australian troops to the war zone. It should be noted that between 1962-75 almost 60,000 Australians, including ground troops and air force and navy personnel, served in Vietnam; 521 died as a result of the war, and over 3,000 were wounded.
It was during that conflict that Melbourne was involved in a repeat of the Voyager incident when on 3 June 1969, while participating in SEATO exercise Sea Spirit in the South China Sea, she collided with USS Frank E. Evans (DD-754), slicing the vessel in two in the dark and killing 74 of her crew.
Evans, her stern cutaway, post-collision
A joint RAN–USN board of inquiry found officers on both ships to blame. The Wessex unit onboard, 817 Squadron RAN, was later awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for their rescue efforts in the aftermath of the event.
Repaired, Melbourne undertook regular ANZUK, RIMPAC, and SEATO exercises as well as waved the flag extensively around the Pacific. At one point in 1974, she even embarked on a US Coast Guard Sikorsky HH 52 Seaguard helicopter for a time in the spirit of jointness.
National Salutes were exchanged as Melbourne entered Manila Bay at 0850, 22 May 1969 before anchoring at 0900. she would keep her WWII-era Bofors, though reduced in number, until her decommissioning
A-4G Skyhawks conduct a low flypast on 2 September 1971.
S-2 landing HMAS Melbourne. Via the STOOF Facebook page. Note how big the S-2 is on M’s bow.
RAF Avro Vulcan makes a low pass over HMAS Melbourne (R21) during Exercise Bersatu Padu, South-East Asia 1970.
HMAS Melbourne on RIMPAC ’73– look at those Skyhawks!
Her hangar deck– note the Scooter and Wessex
With Vietnam coming to a close, Melbourne‘s sister and the only other Australian flattop at the time, Sydney, was decommissioned on 12 November 1973 and sold for scrap two years later. That largely disarmed carrier conducted some 25 voyages to Vietnam between 1965 and 1972, earning the ship the nickname “Vung Tau Ferry” after the RVN port she called at so regularly.
When 1977 came, the aging Melbourne took a trip to the land of her birth, passing through the Indian Ocean and the Med to the UK where she participated in Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee– shadowed off and on by Soviet intelligence ships who came dangerously close at times.
1977 Silver Jubilee Fleet Review, note the Commonwealth flattops, HMS Ark Royal (soon to be retired), HMS Hermes, and HMAS Melbourne
HMAS Melbourne. Note how big those S-2 trackers are
Sept.1977 HMAS MELBOURNE [II] and escorts HMNZS CANTERBURY and HMAS BRISBANE
HMAS MELBOURNE SPITHEAD REVIEW JULY 77
HMAS Melbourne celebrates the silver jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, 1977.
By the 1980s, her days were clearly numbered. Almost all of her sisters had gone to the breakers already with only the Argentine Navy’s ARA Veinticinco de Mayo (ex-HMS Venerable), Brazil’s Minas Gerais (ex-HMS/HMAS Vengeance), and the Indian Navy’s Vikrant (ex-HMS Hercules) still afloat.
Tracker 848 was about to take the wire aboard HMAS Melbourne, In 1980 the USN had retired trackers in 1976. Look how broad that wingspan is.
HMAS Melbourne (R21) at Honiara, Solomon Islands. 1st of April 1980. note Skyhawks on deck
HMAS Melbourne (R21) note Sea King on deck
The plan at the time was hatched for Australia to buy the new British “Harrier carrier” HMS Invincible, then under construction, as Melbourne’s replacement.
HMAS Melbourne was decommissioned on 30 June 1982, having spent 62,036 hours underway and steamed 868,893 nautical miles in her 27 years with the RAN.
However, with the Brits finding HMS Invincible newly useful during the Falkland Islands War, the deal fell through and Australia has been without a carrier for the past 34 years. The last Australian A-4G flights took place on 30 June 1984 followed the next week by the last S-2G.
The stricken Melbourne was initially sold in June 1984 to an Australian company for A$1.7 million, however, the sale fell through, and the next year she was sold to a Chinese company for A$1.4 million to be broken up for scrap metal in the port of Dalian, China.
Though her rudders were welded in place and all sensitive gear removed, the Chinese still got more than some scrap iron and asbestos out of her. During a painstakingly slow disassembly over the next 15+ years, the Chinese reportedly made extensive notes on her construction and steam catapult and landing systems as first steps towards their own carrier program. Reportedly, the Chinese Navy reverse-engineered a land-based replica of Melbourne‘s cat by 1987 and has used it in a series of trials of their own carrier-based aircraft.
The PLAN further compared the 1940s British design to that of the 1970s Soviet helicopter carriers Kiev and Minsk, purchased in the 1990s as floating amusement parks for tourists, to help with their own best practices in flattop construction moving forward.
As for the Australians, the name Melbourne was recycled for the Oliver Hazard Perry/Adelaide-class frigate HMAS Melbourne (FFG 05) that entered service in 1992.
In 2012, the Australian government issued a formal and official apology to Melbourne Capt. John Stevenson, who was in charge of the vessel during the Evans collision said he was “not treated fairly” by the government of the day and the Australian Navy.
All of the Colossus/Majestic class carriers are now gone, with INS Vikrant, saved briefly as a museum ship, scrapped in 2014, ending the era of these light carriers.
However, Australia’s two Canberra-class landing helicopter docks, 30,000-ton ships larger than Melbourne and Sydney ever were by far, are envisioned to be capable of handling the F-35B with some modifications and Prime Minister Tony Abbott instructed 2015 Defence White Paper planners to consider the option of embarking F-35B squadrons aboard the two ships, though at present it seems unlikely.
Specs:
Displacement:
Standard: 15,740 long tons (17,630 short tons)
Full load: 20,000 long tons (22,000 short tons)
Length:
213.97 m (702 ft.) overall
Increased by 2.43 m (8 ft.) in 1969
Beam: 24.38 m (80 ft.)
Draught: 7.62 m (25 ft.)
Propulsion: Two Parsons single-reduction geared turbine sets; four Admiralty 3-drum boilers; two screws (port: 3 blades, starboard: 4 blades); 40,000 shp (30,000 kW)
Speed: 24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph)
Range:
12,000 nautical miles (22,000 km; 14,000 mi) at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
6,200 nautical miles (11,500 km; 7,100 mi) at 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph)
Complement: 1,350, including 350 Air Group personnel
Sensors and processing systems:
Radar:
1955–1968:
3 × Type 277Q height finding set
1 × Type 293Q surface search set
1 × Type 978 navigational set
1969–1982:
1 × Type 293Q surface search set
1 × Type 978 navigational set
1 × LW-02 air search set
1 × SPN-35 landing aid radar
Armament:
1955–1959:
25 × 40 mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns (6 twin mountings, 13 single mountings)
1959–1968:
21 × Bofors (6 twins, 9 single)
1969–1980:
12 × Bofors (4 twins, 4 single)
1980–1982:
4 × Bofors (4 single)
Aircraft carried: Up to 27 aircraft, including helicopters.
Typical air group 1956-1965: 8 Sea Venoms, 16 Gannets, 2 Sycamore helicopters
Typical air group 1965-1972: 4 Skyhawks, 6 Trackers, 8 Wessex
Typical air group 1972-1984: 8 Skyhawks, 6 Trackers, 8 Sea Kings, 3 Wessex
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In one of the most colossally stupid moves in modern military history, the Army is looking to scrap their three active-duty and six National Guard Long-Range Surveillance companies in the next 60 days. Established back in the 1950s, they were known as Long Range Reconnaissance Patrols (LRRP, or Lurp) back in Vietnam and Alamo Scouts in WWII.
A team of Alamo Scouts pose for a photo after completing a reconnaissance mission on Los Negros Island, February 1944.
In all some 882 billets will be saved as each unit is small (just comprised of 15 six-man teams led by a staff sergeant and a minute headquarters staff). Undoubtedly, since they are such a small community, they don’t get a lot of attention and support.
What will be lost will be unique airborne-qualified specialists that excel in forward surveillance and battlefield-intelligence gathering that is integral to the units they are assigned to such as the 82nd ABN, 101st Air Assault and 10th Mountain on active duty and the enhanced readiness units including the Alaska Guard in the reserves.
The argument is that this role can be given to drones who provide a soda-straw view of the battlefield. Gray Eagle squadrons, which contain 9 of the modified MQ-1C UAVs and about 120 personel in three platoons, will pick up the slack but since the Army is only funding 152 of these drones (and just 31 ground systems) and the 160th SOAR is getting two full 12-aircraft squadrons and two 4-ship units are in Afghanistan, there will only be one Gray Eagle squad per each of the 10 active duty division and none for the Guard or Reserve. The Army is also picking up 36 Improved Gray Eagles (IGE) with extended range for use by SF.
And of course what isn’t mentioned is that Gray Eagle replaced the old RQ-5 Hunter and RQ-7 Shadow drones in MI units, so there are a lot of eggs in the Eagle basket so to speak.
Team 5 from the Maryland Army National Guard’s Long Range Surveillance Company, C Company, 1-158th Cavalry get ready to jump during Leapfest XXXI, in Kingston, R.I., Aug. 2, 2014. Leapfest is an airborne parachute competition sponsored by the Rhode Island National Guard to promote high level technical training within the international airborne community. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Brady Pritchett)
“Every year there are capabilities that must be added, but unfortunately this means the Army must divest some,” Army spokesman Troy Rolan said as reported by Stars and Stripes.
Commanders identified operational LRS units as a low priority, he said, adding that the decision to cut LRS companies was aided by “extensive computer models using combatant commander plans to determine what the Army needs.”
The problem is that a lot of Guard LRS units are composed of guys who were former active duty, many with Ranger and SF tabs.
The tribal knowledge these units have is simply not replaceable if needed in the future– leading to the enduring question of why the military always has to reinvent the wheel when the next war comes because they scrapped it in peacetime for the square.
This 26-inch long, 13-inch wide cavalry pennant came currently on display at the Imperial War Museum in London may look like it comes from the Napoleonic period but in fact is a century newer.
From 1889 all cavalry units of the Imperial German Army carried lances and each was fitted with a pennant, the colors indicating the state from which the regiment was recruited. The two regiments of “Death’s Head Hussars” were however the exception, having a skull and crossbones (Totenkopf) design. That of 1 Leib-Husaren-Regiment Nr.1 adopted a white Totenkopf on black, whilst 2 Leib-Husaren-Regiment “Königin Viktoria von Preußen” Nr. 2 featured reversed colors, black on white.
On active service the pennant was conventionally rolled around the shaft of the lance.
This lance pennant was picked up on the Battlefield of The Marne in 1914 where both of the above regiments saw action together in the Hussar Brigade.
Transferred to the Eastern Front in autumn 1914, the brigade fought first in Galicia and in the Battle of Riga and were involved in the occupation of the islands Oesel and Dago. After the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Russia on 3 March 1918, the units remained as occupation forces in Russia, returning in January 1919 to Danzig, they were disbanded after 178 years service though their lineage, flags, and trophies were retained in the 2nd Squadron of the 5th (Prussian) Reiter (Mounted) Regiment in the Reichswehrstationed at Stolpe throughout the 1920s and 30s.
The Wermacht distanced themselves from much of the old Imperial trappings and the hussars were not reconstituted after 1935– though of course the Totenkopfhusaren skull went on to greater infamy in the Nazi regime.
Princess Viktoria Luise, only daughter and the last child of Wilhelm II, and a great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, as noted from the unit’s title was the honorary colonel of the regiment and regularly inspected the hussars, complete in her uniform. The unit dated back to 1741 when Fredrick III founded it as Husaren-Regiment (H 5).
Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia wears the uniform of the Leib Husaren Regt Nr. 2. in these photos from around 1910
If the busby (fur shako hat) looks familiar, it is very similar to the one was famously worn by 1 Leib-Husaren-Regiments Nr. 1 vet, German Field Marshal August von Mackensen throughout his career.
Now that’s a mustache only a Kaiser could love. He won the Iron Cross around his throat as a volunteer with the 2nd Life Hussars Regiment during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 and went on to command the 1st regiment in 1893, continuing to wear the uniform the rest of his service career. Note the black silk cover denoting the busby is that of the 1st Life Hussars. In the images above the silk is white.
During the Nazi era, Von Mackensen remained a committed and unreformed monarchist and appeared at official functions in his First World War uniform just as a particular “eat shit” to the little corporal.
Former Prussian & German Field Marshall August von Mackensen during his 95th birthday 1944
He lived past the last Reich, passing away Nov 1945 at age 95.
Among his nicknames was “The Last Hussar.”
Viktoria Luise, the final Regimentschefin und Oberst à la suite of the Regiment, passed away in 1980 in Hanover, reportedly still quite an equestrian even late into her life.
I’ve been covering the story of a DIY gun maker who goes by derwoodvw, a 47-year-old carpenter, and his very AR-ish/Tec-9 looking Shuty MP 1 semi-auto pistol made almost completely of plastic for a minute over at Guns.com.
His latest version uses an aftermarket Glock 17 barrel along with a 3D printed lower and upper designed to use G17 mags. He says he has gotten 3K rounds out of it without jamming thus far.
A big step from the homemade guns of yesteryear. You can almost picture resistance armorers in occupied wherever peering at their desktop 3D printer in the dim lights of their basement workshops, the hand-rolled cigarette of the 1940s replaced with a vape…
It’s a pretty interesting Grade 5 Titanium direct thread silencer design with 5/8″-24tpi threads (or a QD version) to match the muzzles of a lot of common .30 caliber rifles on the market today. Rated to provide 135 dB suppression for up to 300 Win Mag it will take everything smaller in diameter ( .204 Ruger, .223/5.56x45mm, 5.45x39mm, 7.62x39mm, 7.62×35 (300 Blackout), 6.5 Grendel, 6.5 Creedmoor, 6.8 Spc, et.al) as well though dB mileage varies with ammo as with any suppressed offering.
Weighing in at 17.6 ounces (18.4 for the QD model) and a length of 9.25”, it’s beefy, but wait till you look inside:
Just look at all those baffles, I mean, that’s a lot of damned baffles….
The taper of the back end is actually the back of the blast chamber and there is no outer sleeve (yup, its technically tubeless) allowing for a lot of volume to dissipate the gas.
The NFA-compliant serialized portion of the SRD762Ti is the machined blast chamber, which houses the silencer’s thread interface. This SRD556 uses the same concept.
I really dug kicking the tires on the can and it makes a heck of a difference, even moderating the high “tone” that you get when shooting high-powered rifles in a suppressor. I hope to get one to review for Guns.com in coming weeks.
Although she has had a less than stellar mechanical availability, the heavy aircraft-carrying missile cruiser (TAVKR) Kuznetsov, laid down in 1982, will be headed to war for the first time in her confusing life.
Commissioned at the tail end of the Cold War in 1990 (though not operational until at least 1995), Kuznetsov has always been the shiny “fleet-in-being” for the Russian Navy. Renamed no less than four times, the 61,000-ton very ship has a very potent weapons load to balance the fact that her airwing has always been lackluster, especially for a ship her size.
Semi-active for the past 26 years, she has only made five short summer deployments to the Mediterranean from her Northern base–typically escorted by an ocean going tug for those not so capable moments.
However, word has come that in October she will depart the great North once more for the Med, a departure from her typical summer-only cruises which could lead her to winter over in the Black Sea which is sure to be a hit with the Ukraine and Turkey.
In another radical move, she will engage in combat operations off Syria to support the Assad regime, which will be rough as she is much too large to dock at the Soviet Russian base at Tartus.
Her airwing will include about 15 short-legged Su-33 and MiG-29K/KUB fighters and “more than 10” Ka-52K Katran and Ka-27/31 Helix ASW/AEW helicopters.
The Ka-52K Katran will likely see its first seaborne combat in Syria this fall, a first for Russian aircraft carriers.
The use of the Ka-52, a particularity wicked-looking version of the “Hokum” gunship which only started delivery to the Russians in 2012 (and the navalised “K” variant last year), mirrors the use of AH-64 Apaches by the Brits from ships off Libya a few years back.
Also, it may be an audition to possible weapons deals in the area, as Egypt is buying a crapload of Ka-52s for their French-made Mistral LPDs.
A view of the U.S. Naval Air Station Keflavik, 19 August 1982. In the foreground are the ramp areas and facilities of the U.S. Air Force 57th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, with other facilities in the background. The two aircraft in the foreground are Lockheed P-3Cs of U.S. Navy patrol yquadron VP-26 Tridents. Also visible are three USAF McDonnell Douglas F-4C/D Phantom II fighters. In the background are three Lockheed HC-130 Hercules´, a Lockheed C-141B Starlifter, a Boeing KC-135A Stratotanker and a Boeing E-3A Sentry.
The Icelanders only kinda considered themselves part of Denmark in the days leading up to World War II and maintained their own armed police on a quasi-military footing complete with Krag rifles and Madsen LMGs for defense against invasion. There was a brief period of semi-independence after the Germans rolled into Denmark on 9 April 1940 that lasted a month until a battalion of British Royal Marines showed up with the RN in tow on 10 May to peacefully occupy the windswept island nation, swapping out for the nominally neutral Americans a year later.
With the Icelanders declaring independence in 1944 and the war ending the next year, the Americans made a formal basing request in October 1945, to which PM Ólafur Thors rejected. Then came a stormy few years that saw the Keflavik agreement which led the Americans to withdraw in 1947, Iceland’s only full scale public riot (over its entry to NATO), and the founding of Naval Air Station Keflavik (NASKEF) in 1951 after the Americans came back in force.
The Navy has allocated around $21.4 million in its 2017 budget to renovate the aging base in order to be able to station P-8s at the facility.
“The security environment in Europe, including in the North Atlantic, has changed for the past 10 years and Icelandic and US authorities agree on the need to reflect this in a new declaration,” states Foreign Minister Alfreðsdóttir.
Seems like everything old is new again.
And with that, I give you the Viking War Chant for Iceland’s returning soccer team.
Yup, the canne de marche or cannes de poilus was very popular with the average French soldier of the period. Going back to the time of the little Emperor, senior sergeants in the Grand Armee often carried their own thick canes for correcting disciplinary problems and there was evidence this practice continued through the 1870s.
By the time of the Great War, the elite “blue devils” of the French Chasseurs Alpins and les troupes alpine were issued long-handled walking sticks for use in skiing and mountaineering.
Nos diables bleus en reconnaissance
Carte Postale DESSIN JULLIAN – CHASSEUR ALPIN
Carte Postale DESSIN JULLIAN – CHASSEUR ALPIN
French blue devils Chasseurs alpins marching order uniforms by Hector Large
French blue devils Chasseurs alpins uniforms by Hector Large
Then came the average soldier, or poilus (bearded ones), who often carried their own non-standard walking sticks to help during marches–especially along muddy roads of the era– or to kill rats in bivouac. As imagery from the time shows, these sticks were widespread and varied from soldier to soldier. Functional trench art if you will.
French soldiers and officers outside of Fort Vaux, Verdun, December 1916– with canes
There is some evidence that the practice outlived the trenches of the Great War.
This image from 1919 portrays a soldier on occupation duty in Germany, his kit carried by a local German boy.
Here is a set of French soldiers in 1939 with their own very well-made walking sticks:
WWII Free French icon Gen. Philippe de Hauteclocque (aka Leclerc) was often seen with a cane, though he may have used it honestly– as he broke his leg in two places in a fall from his horse in 1936– although in this 1947 image, he seems to get along just fine without it.
Further, tributes such as postage stamps and monuments across France all show Leclerc with his ever-present canne, though rarely showing him actually using it, giving even more credence to the fact that it was his own marshal baton throwback to the time when he commanded First World War veteran poilus as a young sous-lieutenant with the 5e Régiment de Cuirassiers on occupation duty in the Ruhr.
French General Leclerc, canne in hand, with a group of captured Waffen-SS Frenchmen of the Waffen-Grenadier-Brigade der SS “Charlemagne”, May 1945. The unit, made up largely of anti-Bolshevik French collaborationists, many of whom were already serving in various other German units, was all but annihilated in Berlin in April 1945. A dozen survivors, captured by the Soviets in the ruins of the German capital, were handed over to the Free French. “How could you wear someone else’s uniform?” the general was reported to have asked. One of them replied by asking why Leclerc wore an American one. The prisoners were executed the next day without trial.
He wasn’t the only one.
With “le canne” in hand, Maj. Gen. Claude Philippe Armand Chaillet inspects the citadel of Belfort on 25 November 1944 after the 1ère Armée française retook the city from the Germans. Born in 1893, he was in the last pre-1914 St.Cyr class and had risen to the rank of colonel in the professional army by 1938, when he retired to a desk in the Ministry of War after 25 years of service. He joined De Gaulle in 1941, led a West African Division, then the artillery of the Corps Expéditionnaire Français in Italy before his promotion to the staff of the 1st French Army late in the war, and rejoined the reserve list in 1946.
The cane even appeared in Indochina in the 1950s
2e BEP Plaine des Jarres, Laos 1953 opération Muguet
And in Algeria, after that, possibly its last hurrah.
As I mentioned back in April, picked up 10 stripped Anderson lowers from a local FFL and have been working on a couple of builds.
These two are now loaded with a Palmetto State Armory AR15 Fire Control Group (#7265); with Classic Lower Build Kit (#445), M4 Stock, A2 Pistol grip, and Mil-Spec diameter 6-position buffer tube assembly and ambi single point sling attachments..
Going to marry them up to a PSA Freedom Upper (#482726) with 16″ 416R stainless 5.56 NATO barrel with a 1 in 7″ twist and mid-length gas system (.750 diameter at the gas block), classic handguards; full-auto profile BCG (#35099) and a 7075 T6 Forged Mil-Spec Charging Handle (#24080).
Here is a great AR15 build video to help you get your own lowers ready:
![RAF Avro Vulcan makes a low pass over HMAS Melbourne (R21) during Exercise Bersatu Padu, South-East Asia 1970. [1,000 x 720]](https://i0.wp.com/laststandonzombieisland.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/raf-avro-vulcan-makes-a-low-pass-over-hmas-melbourne-r21-during-exercise-bersatu-padu-south-east-asia-1970-1000-x-720.jpg?resize=519%2C374&ssl=1)
![Sept.1977 HMAS MELBOURNE [II] and escorts HMNZS CANTERBURY and HMAS BRISBANE](https://i0.wp.com/laststandonzombieisland.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/sept-1977-hmas-melbourne-ii-and-escorts-hmnzs-canterbury-and-hmas-brisbane.jpg?resize=519%2C622&ssl=1)
