Monthly Archives: May 2017

Warship Wednesday, May 31, 2017: The Swordfish of the Baltic

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Here at LSOZI, we are going to take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and will profile 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

Warship Wednesday, May 31, 2017: The Swordfish of the Baltic

Image via Saab Defense, who own Kockums.

Here we see the ubåt HSvMS Svärdfisken (Sf) of the Royal Swedish Navy (svenska flottan) as she appeared in 1914 on builder’s trials from Kockums before delivery to the fleet.

The cool kid stuck sitting in the Baltic between the knuckle-cracking bruisers that were the Kaiser’s Germany and the Tsar’s Russia, Sweden faced the problem of being able to keep her sea lines of communication open while appearing to be too tough a nut to crack should either one of the class bullies decide to come sniffing around. This meant innovative coastal battleships and submarines.

While Sweden counted among her illustrious sons no less a person than early U-boat pioneer Thorsten Nordenfelt who sold cranky early submarines to Turkey and Greece, the country went shopping elsewhere for some more mature designs.

The first Swede ubåt, the stubby single-hulled HSvMS Hajen (Shark) was built at Bergsunds Mek. Verstad in Stockholm in 1904 under the eye of former USN engineering officer and MIT graduate Carl Eric Richson (himself a Swede) and, at 111-tons and 77-feet oal, would be considered a midget sub today. She carried a single 450mm bow tube and could make 9.5-knots wide open.

Next were a series of three locally built “bathtub” boats of the same size as Hajen built in 1909, followed by a narrow and sexy Italian sub, HSvMS Hvalen (Whale) of some 140-feet, built at Fiat-Laurenti of San Giorno in 1912.

Italian Foca Class Submarine built by Fiat-San Giorgio at La Spezia for the Swedish Navy in 1909,HSwMS Hvalen pictured in Portsmouth Harbour c.1910, in the background is an unidentified Eclipse Class Second Class Protected Cruiser.

While Hvalen was nice, had a double-hull, and could touch 14-knots, the spaghetti boat also had leaky gasoline engines that were prone to catch fire at the most inopportune times.

This brings us to the decision in 1913 by the Swedes to contract with Kockums Mek. Verkstads AB of Malmo to build the first modern all-Swedish combat submarines, the Svärdfisken (“Swordfish,” Kockums hull No. 115, Swedish Navy pennant “Sf”) and Tumlaren (No. 116, pennant “Tu”) while the near-sister Delfinen (“Dolphin,” pennant “Df”) was laid down at Bergsunds Mek. Verkstad.

Svärdfisken at her builder’s dock, early 1914. She was delivered 25 August, just three weeks after the outbreak of the Great War. (Photo: Saab)

A modification of the Fiat-Laurenti design of Hvalen, these 300-ton boats had a long, narrow pressure hull and went 148-feet overall. Gone were the gasoline engines, replaced by a pair of Swede Jonas Hesselman’s forward-thinking 500 hp diesels which charged batteries for two Luth & Rosén electric motors on twin shafts. On the surface, they could make 14.2-knots, submerged 9.5. The difference between Delfinen and the two Kockums-built craft was that she carried a different set of diesels that generated 450 hp each (good for 13.2kts) and a slightly modified single hull design.

The vessels’ 21-man crew operated a pair of 450mm torpedo bow tubes with four “fish” carried as well as a low-angle M98 37mm deck gun kept very greasy to help abate salt-water corrosion.

The class was designed from the ground up to use wireless sets, which at the time were so new as to almost be considered a novelty.

Note the double periscopes

All ships of the class could dive to 110-feet, which was sufficient for use in the shallow waters of the Baltic– and they could float in 11 feet of seawater and operate at a periscope depth of 25 feet. The crews trained to spend upwards of 24 hours at a time submerged, most of it stationary.

Note her deployed high mast which incorporated a wireless antenna. As with the image above, her deck gun has not been fitted yet.

When the Great War kicked off and Germany and Russia began to duke it out on the regular whenever the Baltic ice allowed it, all three of the new Swede swordfish were operational and spent much of their time at sea enforcing Swedish neutrality at the force of a torpedo tube and deck gun– stepping up the latter to a 57mm Bofors piece after Armistice Day. This early cold war often turned hot, with Hvalen on at least one occasion taking deadly fire from an armed German trawler.

The two Kockums-built boats were reportedly popular with their crews and had an enviable safety record, a feat that was often elusive with pre-WWI designs.

The three sisters alongside tender in 1917, the elderly 1870s 175-foot iron-hulled steam gunboat HSvMS Skäggald (Bearded Eagle)

Then came the salad days of the Swedish Navy’s submarine force.

By 1929, the King’s ubat fleet counted the 3 Svardfisken, 2 Laxen-class, 2 Abborren-class, 3 Hajen-class, 3 Bavern-class, HSvMS Valen, and 3 Draken-class vessels giving the force a total of 17 modern hulls. When you take into account the Germans were forbidden by the Versailles Treaty to operate/maintain U-boats, and the Soviets’ Red Banner fleet was still crippled by the Great War/Revolution/Civil War and remained that way until the early 1930s, Sweden had more operational submarines in the Baltic than anyone else.

And it would only get stronger, as in 1933 a program to build a dozen new 200~ foot subs, each with a six-pack of 21-inch tubes, were ordered. This, of course, led to the withdrawal of some older designs.

While the cranky Delfinen was scrapped in 1930, Svärdfisken and Tumlaren had their names struck (and recycled for new submarines) and were placed in reserve in 1936 to continue to serve as pierside trainers.

Still in reserve when the next war came but working with hulls considered too unsafe to submerge and take into combat, both Kockums-built boats were used as floating AAA batteries along the Swedish coast during World War II. For this, they landed their old low-angle 57mm deck gun and fitted a few 40mm Bofors and light weapons.

All the Svärdfisken-class were scrapped by 1946, with the set-aside Bofors 57mm deck gun (Ubåtskanon) of Svärdfisken retained and placed on public display at the Swedish Marinmuseum.

 

Via Swedish Marinmuseum

As mentioned above, the Svärdfisken and Tumlaren had their names given to new Sjölejonet-class ubats commissioned in 1940. These vessels remained in the fleet through WWII and the Cold War until 1959 and 1964 respectively.

Since the production of Svärdfisken, Kockums has produced no less than 73 submarines, with the latest being the Gotland-class and pending A26s, which, while sharing many traits of the old Swordfish (small, shallow divers) are still some of the most innovative and deadly in the world.

Via Saab

A26 via Saab

Specs:

Via Swedish Marinmuseum

Displacement: 247 tons surfaced, 300 smgd
Length:148 ft.
Beam:    13.78 ft.
Draft:    10 ft.
Engineering: Diesel engines, 2 x 500 hp, electric motor 2 pcs
Speed:    14.2 knots, surfaced. 9.5 submerged.
Endurance: 1,000nm at 10kts surfaced, 40nm at 5kts submerged.
Diving depth 35 m
Crew     21 men
Armament     2 x 45 cm torpedo tubes, 1x37mm M98 (replaced by M1919 57mm by 1920).
(1939)
2x 40mm Bofors singles, machine guns

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We have the DOD FY18 budget briefs

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In brief (pardon the pun) no 600 ship Navy or million-man Army any under these budgets, which, of course, still have to run the gauntlet. On the bright side, the A-10 gets to stay.

Army Budget Director Maj. Gen. Thomas Horlander briefs Pentagon reporters on the president’s fiscal year 2018 defense budget proposal, May 23, 2017.

Air Force Deputy Assistant Secretary for Budget Maj. Gen. James Martin Jr. briefs Pentagon reporters on the president’s fiscal year 2018 defense budget proposal, May 23, 2017.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Budget Rear Adm. Brian Luther briefs Pentagon reporters on the president’s fiscal year 2018 proposal May 23, 2017.

The ‘Morg goes ‘back home’ (to Vietnam)

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Morgenthau off Governors Island in New York Harbor circa 1970. Note the 5″/38 DP forward and the WTC in the background.

USCGC Morgenthau (WHEC-722), a 378-foot high endurance cutter, was commissioned in 1969 and, after nearly a half-century of service, including action in the Vietnam War, numerous major drug interdictions, law enforcement cases, and a variety of noteworthy rescues was taken out of U.S. service at Honolulu in April. Now, renamed CSB 8020, she was commissioned into the Coast Guard of Vietnam where she will continue her traditional mission under a red flag.

“This cutter provides a concrete and significant symbol of the U.S-Vietnam Comprehensive Partnership,” said U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Michael J. Haycock, assistant commandant for acquisition and chief acquisition officer, in a statement. “The Coast Guard is honored to see this vessel continue to preserve global peace and prosperity as a part of the Vietnam coast guard.”

As part of Operation Market Time, Morgenthau was very active in the Vietnam War, conducting support for coastal patrol craft, naval gunfire support, and patrol duties off the coast of Vietnam in 1970-71. During her period in Market Time, she delivered 19 naval gunfire support missions on targets ashore, inspected 627 junks and sampans, and cruised 39,029 miles on patrol. In total, she fired 1,645 rounds from her main 5-inch gun, destroying 32 structures and 12 bunkers ashore.

Her crew also sank an armed North Vietnamese SL-8 trawler in a night surface action while it was trying to infiltrate the South Vietnam coastline.

Morgenthau later made Coast Guard history by being one of the first ships to have gender-integrated crews and captured a number of drug runners on the high seas. In short, she had an extensive and celebrated career.

USCGC Morgenthau (WHEC-722), a 378-foot high endurance cutter, by John Wisinski

The cutter was transferred in conjunction with an additional six smaller 45-foot patrol boats this week as tensions in the South China Sea between China and her neighbors escalate and Vietnam is now counted as a key U.S. ally in the region.

New Metal Sharks headed to Vietnam

This is not the first time the U.S. has helped rebuild the navies of former enemies. Among the first ships of the new Japanese and German fleets in the 1950s in the aftermath of World War II were loaned former U.S. Navy vessels.

Moving past equipping the Vietnamese coast guard, the Southeast Asian country is looking to pick up 100~ modern fighter-bombers “to replace its antiquated fleet of 144 Mikoyan MiG-21 Fishbeds and thirty-eight Sukhoi Su-22 Fitter strike aircraft.”

While some say competitors range from the Saab JAS-39E/F Gripen NG, Eurofighter Typhoon, Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and South Korea’s F/A-50 lightweight fighter, how much do you want to bet they may get 100 gently refirb’d surplus F-16C/Ds fresh from the boneyard.

Heck, we are using the F-16A/Bs as target drones at this point.

A QF-16 Full-Scale Aerial Target from the 82nd Aerial Targets Squadron flies over the Gulf of Mexico during its first unmanned flight at Tyndall Air Force Base Sept. 19. The 82nd ATRS operates the Department of Defense’s only full-scale aerial target program. The QF-16 will provide a more accurate representation of real world threats for testing and training. (U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. J. Scott Wilcox).

The ‘Pineapple’ is no more

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“A source close to the family of Manuel Noriega says the former Panamanian dictator has died at age 83. The onetime U.S. ally was ousted as Panama’s dictator by an American invasion in 1989 and spent years in prison in several countries.”

Operation Just Cause (Blue Spoon) resulted in the death of 26 U.S. troops and more than 325 wounded. PDF casualties were estimated at about 235 military and wildly divergent (200-3,000) figures when it comes to civilian casualties.

A Panama Defence Force patch for the Septima Compania de Infanteria ‘Macho de Monte’ (7th Infantry Co) which, along with Battallion 2000, were considered the elite of Noriega’s forces. The force was named after a fierce wild boar native to Panama. Trained in both COIN and commando operations, this was the force that primarily put down the 3 October coup against Noriega and had 200 troops headquartered at the Rio Hato Airfield in the Cocle province some 45 miles from Panama City and 50~troops at La Comandancia in the capital. These were the hard cases of the PDF. (Patch is Currently on display at the USAF Armament Museum. Photo by Chris Eger)

“Jump Into Night, Torrijos Airport by Al Sprague Panama, 1989” The operation used 27,000 U.S. active, reserve and National Guard troops and included combat parachute jumps, Delta operations to rescue high-value personnel, and extensive use of Naval Special Operations to hobble the PDF.

Troops on the ground in Just Cause, note the extra M203 rounds. The 10,000-strong joint Canal Zone garrison of USSOUTHCOM was reinforced by 17,000 from the Fort Ord-based 7th Infantry Division and elements of the XVIII Airborne Corps among others.

U.S. Army M-113 near the destroyed Panamanian Defense Force Headquarters in Operation Just Cause, 21 December 1989. The PDF and their Dignity Battalion irregulars amounted to about 20,000 under arms, though only about 3,500 were serious infantry troops.

Remember, it’s not about great deals on home appliances today..

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“The Constant Reminder,” Painting, Acrylic on Illustration Board; by Robert Adam Malin; 1998; Framed Dimensions 22H X 32W, NHC Accession #: 98-110-E

The subject depicts a modern attack submarine leaving Pearl Harbor with the topside watch noting Battleship Row in the distance with the USS Arizona Memorial gleaming in the sunlight.

Remember to thank and to think of a veteran today.

 

The sweepers Pelican 1917-2007, and no, that is not a bar of soap

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The name “Pelican” in honor of the large and rather dopey seabird, has always been carried by a mine warfare vessel in the U.S. Navy.

USS PELICAN (AM-27) Caption: With PN-9 #1 on her fantail, after the unsuccessful San Francisco to Hawaii flight in early September 1925. The ship is going to Pearl Harbor Hawaii. Description: Catalog #: NH 44902

The first, AM-27/AVP-6, was a Lapwing-class minesweeper laid down 10 November 1917 at Gas Engine and Power Co., Morris Heights, New York. Commissioned a month prior to Armistice Day, she helped with the sweeping of the North Sea Mine Barrage and was almost blown sky high when a chain of six British mines exploded all around her on 9 July 1919. Heroically saved by her crew and responding ships, the beaten Pelican limped to Scapa and was repaired. Later converted to a seaplane tender, she served in both the Atlantic and Pacific in WWII (including work as a “Tuna boat” Q-ship) before being sold for scrap in November 1946 after 29 years service.

USS Pelican via Navsource

The second Pelican, (MSC(O)-32/AMS-32/YMS-441) was a YMS-1-class minesweeper built at Robert Jacob Inc. City Island, New York. Commisoned with a hull number only in 1945, she assumed Pelican‘s vacant moniker 18 February 1947. She supported the Eniwetok atomic bomb tests and then saw extensive service in the Korean War, including helping to clear the heavily mined port of Chinnampo. Taken out of service in 1955, she was loaned to Japan as the JDS Ogishima (MSC-659) for 13 years before striking in 1968.

The third Pelican, MHC-53, is an Osprey-class coastal minehunter built at the now-defunct Avondale Shipyard, Gulfport, Mississippi, launched 24 October 1992 and commisoned 18 November 1995. Based on the 164-foot Italian Lerici-class minehunters designed by Intermarine SpA in the early 1980s, and built in variants for Algeria, Finland, Malaysia, Nigeria, Australian and Thailand, the Osprey‘s were a good bit larger, at 188-feet overall but could float in just seven feet of water, enabling them to perform littoral sweeping and clear mines from inland waterways.

Below is a slice of her hull sandwich that I have, a two-inch-thick piece of green soap-colored carbon fiber-reinforced polymer resin that has the consistancy of a brick– and is non-magnetic.

The Osprey-class were the largest vessels built at the time, save for the eight-foot longer HMS Hunt-class minehunters, to have fiberglass hulls. This may have been surpassed since then by a mega yacht or two, but I doubt it as most of those are steel hulled.

While most countries still use their Lerci-class vessels (31 are afloat worldwide and Taiwan is building six more by 2023) the 12 Ospreys, after spending their time in the Reserves, were decommissoned 2006-2007 while still relatively young. Eight low-mileage Ospreys had either been transferred to or marked for transfer to other navies: two each to the Hellenic (Greek) Navy, Lithuanian Navy, Egyptian Navy, and Republic of China (Taiwan) Navy, anf four scrapped (!)

Pelican, struck from the Naval Register 16 March 2007, was commisoned by the Greeks as HS Evniki (M61) the same day, and she continues in active service.

Evinki, in the Corinth Canal that connects the Gulf of Corinth with the Saronic Gulf in the Aegean Sea. The rock walls, which rise 300 ft. above sea level, are at a near-vertical 80° angle.

Ballistic impressions

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A Civil War-era .58 caliber star base 3-ringer Minie ball…now on my desk. Squee!

This is your typical Federal 3-ringer in “dropped” condition, with the star inside the base detailing its origin from the Washington Arsenal.

California-based Ballistic Impressions handcrafts everything from paperweights to earrings and cufflinks, all with bullets as the medium.

Jason Bell is the man behind the scenes at BI and over the past couple years he has crafted more than 800 creations, taking pride in the fact that he donates 20 percent of all profits to non-profit 501(c)(3) Mil/LE organizations.

I recently covered his work over at Guns.com which evolved into commissioning the above piece.

Canadian grunt gear, 1900 edition

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Here we see the barracks bedroll and equipment of a soldier based at Wellington Barracks, Halifax Citadel Hill, 1900, first packed then unpacked. Note the kit on the shelf in the first image.

Notman Studio, Nova Scotia Archives accession no. 1983-310 number 8570 negative N-1069

Note the Magazine Lee-Metford rifle (MLM) of Mr. James Paris Lee’s design. First produced in 1884, the 8-10 round bolt-gun was faster to work than its predecessors but was still black powder, firing the Cartridge .303 Mk I, and by the time this image was taken was already undergoing replacement with the Lee–Enfield.

During the time this image was taken, the Nova Scotia Company, the first group of local troops to serve abroad, had just left headed to the Boer War. The 1st battalion, Prince of Wales’s Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians) was also relieved from duty at the garrison about this time for service overseas while a new unit was raised to watch over Halifax. The 3rd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, consisting of 29 officers and 975 enlisted, was stood up at the Citadel on 25 March 1900 and remained in possession of the Citadel until 2 October 1902 when a detachment of the Royal Garrison Artillery arrived and the 3rd Battalion was disbanded. If you note the cap badge in the above image, it is of the RCR.


The Citadel, which had housed such famous regiments as the 78th Highlanders, was garrisoned by the British Army until 1906 and afterward by the Canadian Army throughout the First World War and is now maintained by Parks Canada.

As for 3 RCR, the unit at Halifax when the above images were taken, they are still around and were recently designated Canada’s first airmobile battalion, garrisoned at Petawawa.

mRAC and cheese for mines anyone?

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Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock is using what they term a Mine Warfare Rapid Assessment Capability (mRAC) demonstrator which “is a man-portable threat detection and localization system that utilizes an ultra-sensitive magnetometer sensor package to afford operators the ability to conduct an exploratory wide area search more efficiently.”

Or, put in a more basic description: a quadcopter with a magnetometer array linked to an iPad, which is pretty cool. They bill it as working the 0-40 foot surf/littoral area.

Above video shows it in use at the Ship-to-Shore Maneuver Exploration and Experimentation (S2ME2) Advanced Naval Technology Exercise (ANTX) 2017 at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California.

That’s a whole lotta brrt

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Offical caption:

Aircraft from the 23d Wing conducted a surge exercise May 22, 2017, at Moody Air Force Base, Ga. The exercise was conducted in order to demonstrate the wing’s ability to rapidly deploy combat ready forces across the globe. The 23d Wing maintains and operates A-10C Thunderbolt IIs, HH-60G Pave Hawks, and HC-130J Combat King II aircraft for precision attack, personnel recovery and combat support worldwide.

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