Monthly Archives: November 2018

Happy 76th to the ‘Forgotten 551st’

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The 551st Parachute Infantry Battalion (551st PIB) was formed 26 November 1942 at Fort Kobbe in the Panama Canal Zone, drawing its cadre came from Company C of the 501st Parachute Infantry Battalion and fleshed out with new recruits, formed initially to storm the Vichy French Caribbean island colony of Martinique. With the Vichy government folding before that could happen, the 551st was sent to Europe, dropping as part of the provisional 1st Airborne Task Force into Southern France in August 1944.

Over the next five months, the 551st would be bled white.

Attached later to the 82nd Airborne, they were wiped out at the Battle of the Bulge and the 110 remaining officers and men were folded into other All American units and the 551st quietly disbanded 27 January 1945 without ceremony at Juslenville, Belgium.

The official motto of the 551st, seen on the early unit patch above, “Aterrice y Ataque” is Spanish for “land and attack.” The insignia depicts an eagle on which is superimposed a shield bearing a palm tree and a machete. The green palm tree represents Panama, where the 551st was activated and began training in late 1942. The machete represents jungle warfare and the 551st original mission to invade Martinique. The red lightning bolt is symbolic of the battalion’s rapid insertion, quick-strike capability.

Long all but lost to history, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for extraordinary heroism during the Battle of the Bulge to the unit during an official ceremony at the Pentagon on 23 February 2001.

The echos of the old Republic

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Senegal– a traditional French ally who provided the Republic the use of the famed Tirailleurs Sénégalais for twin World Wars as well as Algeria and Vietnam Indochina– produced some of the most reliable of French colonial troops for generations. These hardy Senegalese riflemen were stationed throughout overseas France to include North Africa, where their descendants endure in their own unique enclaves.

Here’s a look at one such group in Lebanon today, where the riflemen landed in 1919 in the aftermath of the Ottoman Empire’s implosion, and a century later their legacy remains.

A new take on an old idea

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The first revolver speedloader patented was that of William H. Bell in 1879. Bell’s device was a simple metal disk with a rotating locking mechanism that held six revolver rounds. When used with a top-break revolver of the time, such as the Smith and Wesson Lemon squeezer, the speedloader would drop six ready rounds in the cylinder extremely rapidly. It is unclear if Bell’s device ever was manufactured, but it certainly seems like the first of its species.

Now, 130 years later, people are still tweaking the idea.

CK Tactical went live with their Ripcord series five and six-round revolver speedloaders in September and they have been generating some buzz in the gun industry and earning newfound fans. Their signature product is designed, like other speedloaders, to hold a full load of spare rounds for a wheel gun until needed, then dump them into the cylinder.

Unlike existing Safariland and HKS loaders that use a central knob or button, the Ripcord, as its name implies, is designed to be deployed by pulling by a loading tab, leaving the cartridges behind.

At a cost of $10 for a two-pack, CKT currently offers the loader in two different models with a range of compatibility with various Chiappa, Rossi, Ruger, S&W, and Taurus revolvers. As such, I am getting a few sets to see how they stack up against the Bianchi speed strips and HKS/Safariland loaders I’ve used for years.

More on the CKT in my column at Guns.com.

The curious Soviet mini-sub of South Alabama

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While running around South Alabama, I came across the sleepy shrimping capital of Bayou La Batre along the Mississippi Sound. The basis for Winston Groom’s (who grew up in Mobile County and for years later lived along Mobile Bay) fictional Greenbow, Alabama in “Forest Gump,” the town self-bills as, “The Seafood Capital of Alabama.”

So, of course, it has a surplus Soviet mini-sub along Hwy 188 downtown.

Soviet Sever 2 Bis civil submersible on its carriage at Bayou La Batre, 2018 (Photo: Chris Eger)

Built in Leningrad between 1968 and 1972 for the Soviet Ministry of Fisheries to research fish concentrations, Project 1825 produced two “North” (Sever) type submersible, dubbed “Север-2” (Sever-2) and Sever-2 Bis.

Proof the above wasn’t a Mardi Gras parade float

Complete with manipulator arms, seven viewing ports (3x 140mm, 4x60mm) and the ability to dive to as deep as 2,000m, they were legit minisubs for their day, akin to the U.S. Navy’s similar Alvin DSV project which predated the Severs by a half-decade.

Sever 2 in happier times

Operating from the 2,700-ton Soviet research ships Odissey and Ikhtiander, the two subs spent time in the Med, Atlantic, Baltic, and Pacific throughout the 1970s and 80s, conducting fisheries and oceanographic research. Electrically powered, they could motor at 3.5-knots for up to 9 hours before their batteries were drained, or simply submerge for as many as 72, carrying 3-5 operators/observers.

SEVER 2 & ODISSEY in the Atlantic, May 12, 1977, via Shipspotting

Specs:
Displacement 39.9 tonnes
Length: 40.68 feet
Beam: 8.76 feet
Draft (surfaced): 13.28 feet
Speed: 3.5 kts
Diving depth: 2,000 m, operating

Their work was important enough that the Soviets showed them off in a series of postage stamps.

Once the Cold War ended and Moscow thawed, the aging Severs and their motherships were laid up. Odissey and Ikhtiander were soon scrapped and Sever-2 left to rust in Sevastapol.

Apparently, in the 1990s, Sever-2 Bis was sold to an entrepreneur who considered putting it back into service and moved to Steiner Shipyard in Bayou La Batre. There it has sat ever since.

Mobile-native filmmaker Mike deGruy– who dived on “Titanic” with director James Cameron and for his BBC series “The Blue Planet”– took a look at the vessel in 2010 saying at the time that “a person would have to be crazy to go underwater in that contraption.”

Now, pushing 50, the Sever-2 Bis is still hard ashore in Shrimp Town, USA.

Head-on (Photo: Chris Eger)

Starboard. (Photo: Chris Eger)

The most important part of a Harrier’s selling point

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British air power in the Falklands Islands War in 1982 was limited to a handful of Harriers crammed on a pair of smallish carriers and a merchant ship, while the Argentines were able to throw all of their land-based A-4s and Mirage III/Vs at the British task force.

A low-flying Argentine Mirage attacks the British at San Carlos, Falklands, May 1982

However, the Brits did manage to use their “jump jets” to good effect, including creating a FOB ashore.

A Harrier hide.

The San Carlos Forward Operating Base was variously called West Wittering, HMS Sheathbill and Sid’s Strip (after Squadron Leader Syd Morris)

As noted by Think Defence:

The FOB was variously called West Wittering, HMS Sheathbill and Sid’s Strip (after Squadron Leader Syd Morris) depending on what service you belonged to. The final FOB, operated by 11 Squadron RE and commanded by the RAF had a 260m runway, dispersal areas for four aircraft, a separate vertical landing pad and a redesigned and reinstalled bulk fuel installation that could store 18,000 Litres.

More here.

SCAR goes long

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Long available only to military and LE customers, FN announced earlier this month that they are releasing a commercial version of the SCAR 20 rifle.

The 7.62x51mm-chambered FN MK20 SSR, or Sniper Support Rifle, has been fielded within USSOCOM units over the past decade and promises sub-MOA accuracy out to and beyond 1,000 yards.

The new commercial SCAR 20S version sports much the same specs to include a lengthened receiver, 20-inch, 1-in-12-inch twist, heavy profile barrel and an adjustable stock outfitted with numerous MIL-STD-1913 accessory rails at the 3-, 6-, 9-, and 12 o’clock positions. Importantly, it also comes with a factory-installed, double-stage Geissele Super SCAR trigger that provides a 3.5 to 4.5-pound trigger pull.

But is it worth the $4,400 MSRP?

More in my column at Guns.com.

 

Good deal on slightly used minesweepers, some assembly required

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If you are in the market for some pre-owned warships, the Royal Australian Navy wants to make a deal. Working through a commercial service, the Navy advertised the HMAS Hawkesbury and HMAS Norman for sale “Sold As Is Where Is.”

The 172-foot long mine hunters have composite hulls designed to “flex inwards if an undersea explosion occurs nearby,” which is always a good thing.

HMAS Hawkesbury left, and HMAS Norman are Huon-class coastal mine hunters commissioned in 2000. They have been in reserve for the past seven years. (Photo: Royal Australian Navy)

Built in 2000 as part of a six-ship class to an Italian design (Lerici-class, the same as the U.S. Navy’s short-lived Osprey-class MHCs) both Hawkesbury and Norman were laid up in 2011 and have been in storage ever since while the other four ships have remained with the fleet.

Sadly, it looks like their DS30B 30mm Bushmaster cannons and M2 .50-cal machine guns have been removed, but the vendor offering them for sale suggests they could be turned into luxury yachts or charter vessels.

The vendor suggests they could be converted to charter vessels or yachts. (Photo: Grey Online)

Not mentioned is a Jacques Cousteau/Steve Zissou-style recycle.

No price is listed but the vendor, Grays Online, does caution that the ships have had their shafts and propellers removed and would have to be towed off by the buyer, saying, “inspection is highly recommended.”

100 Years of Turkey Day

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Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Here we see a quartet of U.S. Navy chief petty officers in the city of Ponta Delgado, Azores, on Thanksgiving Day, 1918. They seem to have obtained the services of one local pony and the curiosity of one stray pooch. During the Great War, the Azores became an important ASW base in the effort to keep the supply lines open across the Atlantic, a theme that would become reoccurring for the strategically placed archipelago.

Naval History and Heritage Command #NH 67753

Tapping in, 53 years ago today

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(Abbreviated Warship Wednesday due to the holidays). 

USS Independence (CVA-62) (foreground) and USS Enterprise (CVAN-65) rendezvous in the Indian Ocean on 21 November 1965– OTD 53 years ago.

Photographed by PH3 E.R. Pomponio. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command. Catalog #: NH 97717

Independence was en route to Norfolk, Virginia, after six months on the line off Vietnam. Enterprise was headed for combat duty in Vietnamese waters.

Just two weeks later, on 2 December 1965, Enterprise became the first nuclear-powered warship to see combat when she launched air strikes at the Viet Cong near Biên Hòa, South Vietnam.

Small Wars, Big Data

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Small Wars, Big Data: The Information Revolution in Modern Conflict, Eli Berman, Jacob N. Shapiro, and Joseph H. Felter, presented by Shapiro during a noontime lecture at the Army War College. Oct. 2. Pretty interesting. Pack a lunch and take notes.
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