Recruiting propaganda, likely going back to the Romans, has always been replete with snazzy uniforms, exotic climes, and sweet gear.
Speaking of which, the Dutch Korps Mariniers were recently in Norway undertaking regular ops in the snow, a task they have held along with their allied British Royal Marines of 3 Commando for well over 40 years.
And man, did they make a recruiting poster-worthy moto photo.
Incidentally, the Dutch Marines have a long combat history, especially in the Dutch East Indies in the 1940s after being trained and equipped by the U.S. Marines for late 1945 landings in Japan that didn’t happen.
Dutch Marines heading for the beach at Pasir Putih during the police actions in Indonesia, 1947. Note the USMC-issue gear and the PBY in the distance.
Historically tasked with staffing far-off outposts in places such as in the Dutch West Indies (Aruba, Curaçao Sint Maarten, et. al) they used to run the more old-school snazzy uniform posters back in the day. You know, to get the kids out of the tulip fields and into the barracks.
Pickelhaube-wearing Royal Netherlands Marine Corps recruitment poster (c.1902), showing European and tropical uniforms, via the Nationaal Archief Den Haag
The French Army’s 1er Régiment Étranger de Cavalerie (1er REC) was created on 8 March 1921 at Sousse in Tunisia. An important and historic trading post and waypoint, at the time the city was small, numbering just 25,000 inhabitants, most of whom were French colonials, Maltese, and a large contingent of exiled White Russians.
Speaking of which, the new mounted cavalry unit, the first in the French Foreign Legion, contained a large number of skilled horsemen who learned their trade in the Tsar’s Cossack and Horse Guard units and had, until very recently, still plied it under the banners of counter-revolutionary warlords such as Kaledin, Kransov, and Mamontov.
An undated photo of members of the 2nd Gorsko-Mozdoksky Regiment of the Terek Cossacks. Note the M91 Cossack Model carbine, placing the time frame into the early 1900s at least.
In all, of 1er REC’s inaugural draft of 156 troopers, 128 were Russians. As many were former officers and nobles, the unit soon gained the nickname “Royal Etranger.” The regiment was soon balanced out by former out of work cavalrymen from Austria, Germany, and Hungary, which surely led to some interesting Friday nights once the wine was broken out.
The unit would soon see use in Syria and Morocco as traditional cavalry and by the late 1930s would trade in their horse flesh for armored cars and light tanks. Equipped after the Torch Landings by the U.S., the reinvigorated unit would help liberate metropolitan France in 1944 and take the war to the Germans in 1945, the first time 1er REC operated in Europe. They earned battle honors for actions in Colmar and Stuttgart.
Post-war was far from the outbreak of peace for the Legion, and 1er REC was heavily involved in Indochina for nine hard-bitten years before coming back to open rebellion in Algeria in 1954.
1er Régiment étranger de cavalerie in Indochina
M8 Greyhound of 1REC, Indochina
Once France quit North Africa, they moved to France in 1967 and today remain the Legion’s only dedicated armored unit, using 105mm cannon-equipped AMX 10 RC 6×6 fighting vehicles and based (when not on campaign) at Camp de Carpiagne in Aubagne.
1er REC AMX 10 RCs making it rain with their 105mm guns, Nov 2018
In the 1980s they served in Chad against the Libyans, took fire along U.S. Marines in Beirut, then raced into Western Iraq in Desert Storm, policed the Former Yugoslavia, and have been heavily involved in both Afghanistan and more recently the unending French nightmare in Mali.
Their motto is “Nec Pluribus Impar” (Like no other)
1REC always used horsehair plumes, on their lances, an Ottoman tradition
For reference, the blade is a German Puma Medici swing guard from the same era. I’m a sucker for pairing guns and knives.
Today, tested with a good defense load and a modern holster, this gun could still clock in for EDC as needed.
One thing for sure, when visiting the range, the PPK continues to turn heads and sparks interest. Although it has very small sights, they are workable, and the gun is almost surprisingly accurate– surely due to its fixed barrel design.
Guns like these are not only collectible, shootable, and useable, but are a great device for bringing new people into the shooting community. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard, “I always wanted to shoot one of those,” when the old Walther comes out of the safe for a breath of fresh air.
Sergent Len “Happy” Knox, 2nd New Zealand Division, 2NZEF, cleans an old-school .455-caliber break action Webley revolver Maadi Camp, near Cairo, Egypt, around 1940-41.
Alan Blow Album PH-ALB-497, Collection of Auckland War Memorial Museum / Tāmaki Paenga Hira
2NZEF would spend all of WWII under the British Eighth Army, seeing the elephant in Greece and at Crete, the fighting at Minqar Qaim and El Alamein; and the end of the North African campaign. They then crossed the Med and fought up up the Sangro and Monte Cassino across central Italy, finishing the war on the Northern Adriatic.
The USCG does a lot of unsung nation-building operations around the world and has done so for years. The fact is, a low-tech cutter is often a better training mesh with the navy or maritime patrol force of a small coastal nation. One of the longest relationships is with the Japan Coast Guard, which was founded in May 1948 as the Japan Maritime Safety Agency– notably six years and two months prior to the current Japan Maritime Self Defense Force.
In an ode to the past, and with eyes on the future, the huge (9,300-ton) Shikishima-class patrol vessel Akitsushima (PLH-32) of the JCG last month conducted exercises near the Ogasawara (Bonin) Islands in the Philippine Sea with the West Pac-deployed 4,600-ton Bertholf-class National Security Cutter USCGC Kimball (WMSL-756). The drills included operating “helicopters, small boats, and unmanned aerial vehicles to practice interdicting foreign vessels operating illegally inside Japanese waters.”
The two ships looked great together.
Of note, Akitsushima, while the same size as a DDG, is very lightly armed for her tonnage, carrying only two 35mm twin Oerlikons and two optically-trained 20mm Vulcans. She does have an impressive 20,000nm range and the capability to carry two large Super Puma helicopters.
Kimball is a bit better armed, roughly to the level of an old OHP-class frigate (once they lost their one-armed bandits) or to nearly the same standard as the baseline LCS with a 57mm MK110, a CIWS-1B/BL2, and six crew-served MGs as well as soft-kill countermeasures and a Slick-32. Would be a whole lot nicer if they had an ASW suite, an 8-pack of NSMs, and another of VLS ESSMs, but hey, it is still 2021.
Of note, the Ogasawaras are some 600 miles south of Tokyo and are sparsely populated, earning them the nickname of the “Galápagos of the Orient,” making them a target for illegal fishing and other activities. Naturally, military history buffs will recognize the names Chichijima and Iwo Jima in the chain.
While the traditional naval practice of separate wardrooms/messing for enlisted, chiefs, and officers is standard knowledge, something I did not know about until this week was the practice of “Admiral’s China,” especially reserved for visits to capital ships by flag officers.
The Officers dined on the Officers china, printed with the iconic anchor on it. Their meal was served in the Wardroom, the Officers’ dining room. When the Captain was dining, the Captain’s china was used, the flying pennant with navy blue band and the meal served in the Captian’s dining room. Each ship carried a set of china used when an Admiral was aboard the ship. The Admiral’s china features a gold band and insignia.
Announced earlier this year, the FN 509 Compact builds on the legacy – and growing popularity – of the platform that was originally designed in 2015 to compete in the Army’s Modular Handgun System program. While the Pentagon ultimately went with Sig, the extensive R&D led FN to release the 509 to the commercial market in standard, Tactical, MRD, Mid-Size, and LS Edge variants since then.
Overall length is just 6.8 inches with a 3.7-inch barrel. Shipping complete with low-profile iron sights, the FN 509 Compact tips the scales at 25.5 ounces. The size puts it a skosh smaller than the Glock 19 and, with the included 12-round flush fit and 15-round pinky extension mags, able to carry the same capacity of 9mm.
I’ve been checking one out for the past few weeks, and it is my current T&E carry gun.
If you think that grip texture is super aggressive and “sticks” to your hand, you are absolutely correct, my friend!
PHILIPPINE SEA (Feb. 25, 2021) Sailors with Bravo Company, Maritime Expeditionary Security Squadron 2 [formerly Coastal Riverine Squadron Two], maneuver a U.S. Navy Mark VI patrol boat alongside the dock-landing ship USS Ashland (LSD 48) during a refueling operation. This refueling operation is the first time Ashland has refueled a Mark VI patrol boat while at sea. Ashland, part of the America Amphibious Ready Group, along with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, is operating in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of responsibility to enhance interoperability with allies and partners and serve as a ready response force to defend peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Brienna Tuck)
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Brienna Tuck)
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Brienna Tuck)
Of course, while the Mark VIs are the same size, speed, and spirit as the old PT boats, they lack the massive offensive weapons those crafts had but do still pack a decent punch in so far as 25mm (1) and .50 cal (4) mounts are concerned– three of them stabilized and using a multi-sensor optic– making these boats valuable in a host of counter-piracy, counter-insurgency, harbor defense and operations short of full-scale war with a near-peer adversary, especially if they could be “fed-ex’d” to any littoral around the world in a gator such as Ashland.
Heck, they could even be used as commerce raiders with an embarked VBSS team should that come into vogue again.
And the drill for these weapons was serious, as demonstrated by this superb reenactment video courtesy of the Massachusetts National Guard, who notes:
“In early 17th century Massachusetts, every able-bodied male between 16 and 60 was required to attend militia drill once a month except during the harvest months of July and August. One of the main weapons for European armies at the time was the pike, a wooden pole up to 17 feet long with a sharp metal point on the end. Handling a pike in a row with your fellow soldiers could be very difficult and exhausting. This video shows reenactors from the Salem Trayned Band demonstrating a training drill from a 1607 manual with 16 ½ foot long pikes.”
This 17th-century pike point was excavated at Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site at the site of the workshop of bladesmith and blacksmith Joseph Jenks. It may have been part of the equipment for the local militia unit. National Park Service Museum Collections, SAIR 2251
Perhaps the last military use of the pike for purposes other than ceremonial was in 1940, when Winston Churchill, facing the dearth of arms for the newly formed Home Guard post-Dunkirk wrote the War Office in July 1941, begging, “Every man must have a weapon of some kind, be it only a mace or pike.”
The War Office took this order literally and by July 1941, had reportedly ordered 250,000 “Home Guard Pikes” along with a smaller number of ersatz cudgels and maces. These long five-foot pikes had 45-inch metal tubes topped with surplus 17-inch American-made Pattern 1913 sword bayonets welded in place. However, most were not produced and those that were weren’t even issued as better weapons for the Home Guard were soon procured.
Via the Royal Armouries collection.
Still, it would have been interesting to see footage of a highly drilled Home Guard platoon using the old 1607 pattern manual for their pikes– provided they never had to use them against Panzergrenadiers armed with MP40s and MG34s.
The British, along with their Australian and Canadian cousins, had at least a passing affinity with the M1911 platform going back to the days of the Great War. Canadian troops carried the hardy John Browning-designed pistols on the Western Front as early as 1914 and the “daring young men and their flying machines” of the RAF often had .455-caliber M1911s along for their fight against the Red Baron and his Flying Circus, ordered on a special contract.
Fast forward to WWII and the M1911 was commonly issued to elite Commando and Parachute units– the product both of early commercial contracts with Colt and wartime Lend-Lease production passed through U.S. Army channels to London.
However, the Brits made sure to double-check these guns through the Birmingham and London proof houses (it’s not like there was a war on or anything), and in the process, these guns often received upwards of a half-dozen post-production proofs and stamps, one of the most glaring was “Not English Make,” just so there wouldn’t be any confusion that it wasn’t a fine Webley or Enfield product.
From left to right, the U.S. Property stamp, Birmingham proof house stamps,” NOT ENGLISH MAKE” under the manufacturer’s (Ithaca) serial, “Released British Govt. 1952” and US ARMY model number– and the gun has numerous other marks on the barrel and left side
