Some 80 years ago this month, members of the intelligence and reconnaissance (I&R) platoon, 86th Mountain Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division, logged the first documented combat use of ski troops by the American military as they sent patrols over the snow-covered Campiano-Mancinella Ridge, also known as Riva Ridge, to scout the German positions there overlooking Mount Belvedere.
Sgt. Stephen P. Knowlton, Durham, N.H., I & R Platoon, 86th Mountain Inf., 10th Mountain Div., does a couple of short turns to get his “ski legs” as he prepares to leave on a 3-day ski patrol deep into enemy territory. 21 January, 1945. Spigvana, Italy. Graning, 3131st Signal Service Co., SC 201357
Five Soldiers were sent on a mission to report on the location and enemy strength on the ridge. The team used skis but hid them away before reaching the top. The men free-climbed to the top of the cliff. The men took out three German soldiers but were chased from the area by machine-gun fire.
“From then on, there was increased activity on the ridge,” wrote Lt. Col. Henry J. Hampton, who served as commander of 1st Battalion, 86th Infantry Regiment during the operation. “There was continual improvement and digging of old and new positions. The result of this patrol was that we had one trail over which a small force of well-trained mountain men could advance.”
“A 5-man ski patrol of the I & R Platoon, 86th Mountain Inf., 10th Mountain Div., begin to climb up the mountain as they start deep into enemy territory on a 3-day patrol, the longest one ever made in this region. All 5 men are famous skiers and have held records at one time or another. 21 January 1945. Spigvana, Italy.” Photographer: Graning, 3131st Signal Service Co. SC 201358
Two GIs with the 10th Mountain Division in the Apennine Mountains Italy, likely early 1945, Note the snow camo, Ray Bans, and mix of M1 Garand (front) and M1 Carbine (rear). LIFE Magazine Archives – Margaret Bourke-White Photographer WWP-PD
Simple origins
Formed following reports of wildly successful Finnish ski troops in the 1939-40 Winter War, FDR stressed that something similar could be established from U.S. soldiers, with experienced men drawn from among the estimated 2 million Americans who enjoyed the winter sport in the States.
U.S. Army Takes to Skis, 1/14/1940 Lake Placid, N.Y.—Perhaps taking a lesson from the Fighting Finns who glide swiftly over the snow to cut down unwary Russians. Men of the 26th Infantry, U.S. Army, stationed at Plattsburg, N.Y., slide along in single file as they receive ski instruction at Lake Placid from Rolf Munsen, Olympic star. Credit: ACME;
Formed beginning in November 1941 by blending earlier ski troop detachments from the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 41st, and 44th Infantry Divisions, then greatly expanded by volunteers from other units who attested to peacetime alpine experience, the 10th Mountain remains the only American military division recruited by civilian organizations, the American Alpine Club and National Ski Patrol.
The training cadre was drawn from the Ski Patrol itself and included many American winter Olympians.
These American ski troops got lots of press in 1943 during training.
Famous image of Corporal Hall Burton, Mountain Trooper, At Camp Hale, Colorado, ca. 1943 10th Mountain M1 Garand ski 111-SC-329331
World War II American soldiers on skis take aim with M1 Garands during winter training in the Colorado Rockies 10th mountain
Following something of a dress rehearsal in the liberation of the Aleutians, the 10th arrived in the North Apennines and the Po Valley front on 6 January 1945 and went into tough combat, earning their motto “Climb to Glory” in the hardest of ways.
During its brief four months in combat, the division suffered a staggering 4,866 casualties– a full quarter of its strength. This average of 1,216 casualties per month was the highest in the Italian campaign.
While ISR platoons in other American infantry units were issued skis and told to make a go of it as best they could (see the slapstickyness below), only the 10th actually sent patrols out on the devices.
60th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division – 12 January 1945. Wearing Quartermaster-issued snow capes, American soldiers go into training as ski troops. Lt. William M. Trafford, left, of Vinal Haven, Maine, gives instructions to one man while others look on. L-R: Pfc. Donald L. Taylor, Devils Lake, N.D.; Cpl. Edmund J. Hums, Jr., Pottstown, Pa.; Pvt. Ernest Bassett, Pittsfield, Mass.; Pfc. Glen K. (illegible), Ypsilanti, Mich.; and Pfc. Alfred J. Peters, Buffalo, N.Y. SC 199088-S
As any follower of the blog will know, I’ve been reporting on the CMP 1911 program since 2015 and have been lucky enough to have participated in the program’s Second and Fourth rounds.
Well, everything seems to have been straightened out and CMP announced this week that it is proceeding full speed ahead, both with the long-delayed Round Four folks (moi included) as well as scrapping the random number generator lottery system altogether and moving to a first-come-first-served model.
This is likely because the legislation moving the guns from Anniston Army Depot across town to CMP’s warehouse covered “up to 10,000” pistols per year and, as Round Four covered the 2023 allotment and the 2024 guns likely didn’t get moved, plus the 2025 guns are probably on the way, the organization may have several truckloads of 1911s on hand.
The announcement:
The Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) is excited to announce the immediate resumption of surplus U.S. Army M1911/M1911A1 pistol sales! These historic firearms, cherished for their role in U.S. military history, are now available to qualified US Citizen customers.
Key Details:
Pistol Availability:The CMP currently holds a substantial inventory of a variety of Pistol Grades, many ready to ship to consumers, and expects to fulfill a significant quantity of orders.
Free Shipping:Those purchasing a CMP M1911 pistol will receive free shipping and handling (a $25 value).
Updated Process: Given the quantity of on-hand pistols, we reorganized our sales fulfillment structure and our staff is ready to process orders in a timely manner without the use of the Random Generated Number (RGN) process, as in past M1911 sales. Additional detail on fulfillment information and sequencing follows below.
Fulfillment Information:
Round Four Orders Fulfilled First:The CMP will prioritize fulfilling existing orders from Round Four and will honor the pricing of those orders. Starting this week (Jan. 27, 2025), the CMP M1911 customer service representatives will contact Round Four individuals to confirm order details.
New Orders Now Accepted:Effective immediately, the CMP is accepting new applications on a first-come, first-served basis. Again, we do not anticipate having more “rounds” or using RGN numbers as in the past.
Purchasing Guidelines:
Limitations:A lifetime limit of two pistols per customer remains in effect. Customers who have not previously purchased a pistol may now submit an order for up to two pistols.
Upgrades for Round Four Customers:Existing Round Four applicants making their first purchase may also upgrade their order to include two pistols.
CMP 1911 staff will reach out to customers when their order is ready to process. At that time, customers will indicate the pistol grade and quantity with CMP 1911 staff.
The CMP encourages all interested individuals to submit their applications promptly. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to own a piece of history!
NATO has put out a 12-minute moto video on the Alliance’s paratroopers including cameos by German Fallschirmjäger, Italian Folgore brigade Paracadutisti, French 1er RCP (1er Régiment de Chasseurs Parachutistes), American 173rd PIRA and Airborne School candidates, and the Polish 6th Airborne Brigade (6 Brygada Powietrznodesantowa).
The 17th Coast Guard District is now just over halfway through its slow-motion upgrade from its squadron of elderly Reagan-era 110-foot Island-class patrol cutters to the much more capable new 154-foot Sentinel (Webber) class Fast Response Cutters.
The future USCGC John Witherspoon (WPC 1158) arrived at the cutter’s new homeport in Kodiak on Tuesday, following an unescorted 7,000-mile self-deployment from Key West.
The crew of U.S. Coast Guard Cutter John Witherspoon (WPC 1158) arrives at their homeport in Kodiak, Alaska, aboard their cutter for the first time, on Jan. 28, 2025. The Witherspoon is the first of three new cutters to be stationed in Kodiak, has a crew of 24 people, and has a range of approximately 2,500 miles. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Shannon Kearney)
Witherspoon joins three Ketchikan-based sisters: USCGC John McCormick (WPC-1121)— the first Sentinel-class stationed in Alaska in 2017– USCGC Anthony Petit, and USCGC Bailey Barco— in Alaskan waters and will be the first of three of her class based at Kodiak.
USCGC John McCormick (WPC-1121), the first Sentinel-class cutter stationed in Alaska in 2017
Scheduled to be “officially” commissioned during a ceremony in April when things warm up, Witherspoon’s crew spent the past three months in shakedown and training in the Gulf of Mexico (America?). She is the 58th FRC delivered by Bollinger under the U.S. Coast Guard’s current program.
Armament includes a Mk 38 Mod 2 25mm gun forward and four flex mounts for M2 .50 caliber BMGs (or anything else that can be put on those pintles) along with assorted small arms. These vessels have been operating small UAVs as of late.
As referenced by the builder:
FRCs have conducted operations as far as the Marshall Islands—a 4,400 nautical mile trip from their homeport. Measuring in 154 feet, FRCs have a flank speed of 28 knots, state of the art C4ISR suite (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance), and stern launch and recovery ramp for a 26-foot, over-the-horizon interceptor cutter boat.
Stacking the two classes against each other is dramatic.
110-foot Island class cutters compared to the new 154-foot Sentinel (Webber) class FRCs
The Coast Guard had a force of six 110-foot Island-class cutters stationed in Alaska in the late 1980s-2020s, of which two remain in service:
USCGC Liberty (WPB-1334) has spent her 33-year career at Juneau and Valdez.
USCGC Mustang (WPB-1310) has spent her 39-year career stationed in Seward.
USCGC Naushon (WPB-1311), which has been in Homer since 2016.
The Coast Guard Cutter Liberty crew prepares to moor at their homeport of Juneau, Alaska, on March 13, 2018. The crew of the Cutter Liberty, a 110-foot patrol boat homeported in Juneau, Alaska, was completing tailored ship’s training availability, a biennial readiness assessment of the cutter and crew. Coast Guard photo by Lt. Brian Dykens.
Legacy 110s on the Alaska beat included:
USCGC Anacapa (WPB-1335), which was decommissioned in 2024, spent 32 of her 34 years stationed in Petersburg, Alaska, and famously sank by NGF a Japanese “zombie trawler” a few years back that had drifted across the Pacific from Fukushima in 2012.
USCGC Farallon (WPB-1301), which was in Valdez from 2015 to 2019
USCGC Chandeleur (WPB 1319), which was at Ketchikan until decommissioned in 2021.
USCGC Sapelo (WPB-1314,) which was at Homer from 2015 to 2022.
USCGC Roanoke Island (WPB-1346,) which was at Homer from 1992 to 2015.
Four recently decommissioned CENTCOM Islands— ex-Adak (WPB-1333), Aquidneck (WPB-1309), Monomoy (WPB-1326), and Wrangell (WPB-1332)— were just handed over to the Greek Navy earlier this month.
A much smaller 87-footer, USCGC Reef Shark (WPB-87371), has been stationed in Auke Bay since 2022 while her sister, USCGC Pike (WPB-87365) is in Petersburg.
USCGC Reef Shark (WPB-87371), on patrol in Alaska (USCG photo)
Official wartime caption: “Japanese balloon, Fu-Go [Fugu, 河豚; 鰒; フグ]. A completed Japanese balloon is inflated for laboratory tests at a California base. It was recovered at Alturas, California, January 10, 1945. Ineffective as it is, however, the Japanese balloon is an ingenious device. The balloon itself at a maximum altitude is a true sphere, 100 feet in circumference. It is made of five layers of mulberry paper, each about as thick as cigarette paper, but strong and water-repellant when cemented together. It is filled with hydrogen. Suspended like a chandelier below the envelope by 19 shroud lines, each 45 feet long, is a device for automatic control of altitude. The bomb load is attached to the ‘chandelier’ with an automatic release mechanism. The balloon is further equipped with automatic demolition blocks which are supposed to destroy it in the air. On many of the balloons recovered the self-destroying device failed to function.”
Print received August 1945 from Publications Sec., AC/AS, Intelligence. Used in the August 1945 issue of “Impact.” Copied August 27, 1945. U.S. Army Air Corps (Air Force) photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 342-FH-3B23422
It is estimated that an amazing 9,300 Fu-Go balloons were launched from Japan against the U.S. and Canada from Coastal Honshu Island between November 1944 and April 1945.
While only 285 were documented as reaching North America, as many as 1,000 may have made it this far, meaning their wreckage is likely sprinkled over remote forests and lakes, waiting.
Surely this is something China would never consider doing again, right?
Considered one of the founding fathers of the modern American suppressor industry, Dr. Philip H. Dater, MD, has quietly passed.
The New York-born Dater, a radiologist and Vietnam-era U.S. Air Force veteran, started designing suppressors in the 1950s, later “dabbling off-hours in his hospital’s machine shop.” He founded Automatic Weapons Company, or AWC, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the mid-1970s to pursue his designs before leaving to co-found Gemini Technologies, now Gemtech, in the 1990s.
As noted by Gemtech, “Dr. Dater merged his passion for guns and his knowledge of ultrasound to create solutions that would silence skeptics and improve the overall shooting experience.”
Even after stepping away from manufacturing suppressors, Dater penned numerous technical papers in firearms journals and magazines. He continued to patent new designs, consult with industry partners, and hold classes on suppressor history and development well into his 80s.
I remember hanging out with Mark Serbu— no slouch when it comes to being a “mad scientist” in the gun space– who told me at the time that Doc. Dater was the smartest man in the gun industry.
Dater’s death was first noted by JK Armament last week, who described him as “the most influential innovator in the world of firearm silencers since Maxim.”
If you have a few, sit in on Jk’s interview with Dr. Dater last year. It is worth your time.
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Warship Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025: Saigon Beauty
Above we see the Dugay Trouin-class light cruiser Lamotte-Picquet (also seen as La Motte Picquet) steaming sedately atop the Saigon River in French Indochina on 31 January 1939. Note the GL-810 series floatplane on her stern.
Twin masted with twin funnels, all with a slight rake, she was lovely and would win France’s last sea battle and go on to suffer a tragic ending at the hands of an ally, some 80 years ago this month.
The Trouins
The first large French warships designed after the Great War, the three sisters of the Dugay Trouin class were fairly big for naval treaty-era “light” cruisers, hitting the scales at 7,360 tons standard (9,350 full). Some 575 feet long at the waterline (604 feet overall), they would be considered destroyers by today’s standards.
Their draft was 17.25 feet (20 at full load) and they had a stiletto-like 1:10 beam-to-length ratio.
Powered by an eight-pack of Guyot high-pressure oil-fired boilers trunked through two funnels and feeding four Parsons geared turbines, they had 100,000 shp on tap– also about the same as today’s destroyers. This allowed all three sisters to sustain over 33 knots on trials while hitting 115,100-116,849 shp with top speeds over 34 knots. Further, they could steam at speed over distance– able to make 30 knots sustained for 24 hours straight– an important requirement for screening the battlefleet or chasing German or Italian surface raiders.
When dialed down to a more economical 15 knots, they could make 4,500nm, an unrefueled range that allowed them to span the Atlantic if needed or, with a pitstop in any of France’s numerous African or Caribbean colonies, to make the Indian and Pacific Oceans with ease.
The main armament was eight 6.1″/55 Modele 20 guns in four twin mounts. With this main battery able to fire 32 125-pound shells out to 23,000m in the first minute of operation, these guns were considered to be superior to the 7.6-inch breechloaders on older French cruisers and battlewagons and equal to contemporary designs afloat anywhere on the globe, the guns were also used on the training cruiser Jeanne d’ Arc and the carrier Bearn.
Bow Turrets on Lamotte-Picquet. Note the director and large searchlight above it. ECPA(D) Photograph. Besides the Duguay Trouin class, the French only used the 6.1″/50 Model 1920 on the training cruiser Jeanne D ‘Arc and the carrier Bearn.
Look at those hull lines. Here, Lamotte-Picquet seen in drydock.
French Duguay-Trouin-class light cruiser Primauguet on 28 Juli 1939. Note her twin forward 6-inch gun turrets, the gunnery clock on her tower, and the tropical dress of her crew
Secondary armament for period cruisers was considered their torpedo battery and the Trouins carried 24 heavyweight models able to be fired in any one of a dozen 21.7-inch topside torpedo tubes, arranged in four triple mounts on turnstiles.
Lamotte Picquet torpedo drill, Haiphong, 1939. Note the tropical service pith helmets.
Unusually for vessels of this type, there was also allowance for depth charges and mechanical minesweeping gear (paravanes).
Their anti-aircraft batteries– four 3″/60 Mod 22 AA singles clustered around the funnels amidship and another quartet of 13.2mm Hotchkiss heavy machine guns– were felt adequate for the 1920s but would be woefully underwhelming by 1939. Auxiliary armament included a pair of older 3-pounder 57mm guns for use in saluting and a 37mm landing gun on a wheeled mount along with enough small arms to send a 180-man landing force ashore if needed.
They were designed from the outset to carry two single-engine floatplanes for scouting use and had a centerline stern-mounted Penhoët-type air-powered catapult capable of handling them. It seemed the French used or evaluated at least a dozen distinct types of aircraft across the mid-1920s through 1942 on these cruisers with mixed results. The country fielded no less than 50 assorted “Hydravion de reconnaissance” types (!) in the first half of the 20th Century and I’ve seen or read of the Duguay-Trouin class with CAMS 37, Donnet-Denhaut, Loire 130 and 210, Gourdou-Leseurre GL-810/812/820 HY and GL-832, FBA 17 HL 2, Latecoere 298, and Potez 452 types aboard.
Visitors aboard the French light cruiser Lamotte-Picquet in East Asia. Note the tropical helmets on her crew and the single-engine flying boat (she carried a couple Potez 452 in 1936-39) on her catapult. The marching band is dressed in outlandish tropical grass skirts and seems to be leading a parade, which may be the start of a crossing-the-line ceremony.
Fast and with a decent armament, something had to be sacrificed and it was protection. These cruisers had an arrangement of 21 watertight bulkheads and used only double skin plating abreast of their machinery– hardly what could be described as a torpedo blister.
A scant 0.75 inches of armor protected their main deck and box citadel which covered the magazines and steering gear while the vital main turrets and conning tower only had one inch of armor, a plan capable of defeating splinters only. In all these cruisers only carried 166 tons of armor plate, which is something like 1.9 percent of its standard tonnage. By comparison, the American Omaha class light cruisers which were being built at the same time and were roughly the same size/armament (7,100 tons, 12×6″/53 guns) carried 572 tons of armor in a 3-inch belt.
Little wonder why Jane’s described the Dugay Trouin class’s armor at the time as “practically nil.”
Nonetheless, these ships were generally considered successful and seaworthy in peacetime service, with sisters Dugay Trouin and Primaguett constructed at Arsenal de Brest while middle sister Lamotte-Picquet would be built at Arsenal de Lorient. The first ship was laid down in August 1922 and all three were completed within a few weeks of each other in September-October 1926.
Jane’s 1931 listing on the class.
The Duguay Trouins proved the basis for French cruiser design throughout the 1920s and early 1930s.
As mentioned above, the type was shrunk down to create the training cruiser Jeanne D ‘Arc, and it was also upsized to make the first French heavy cruisers (croiseur de 1ere classes), the Duquesne and Tourville (10,000t std, 627 oal, 62 ft beam, 8×8″/50, 118,358.4 shp to make 34 knots). These Duquesne and Tourville used almost the same engineering suite (8 guyot boilers, 4 turbines, trunked through two funnels), the same thin bikini-style light armor plan that only covered gun magazines, deck, and the CT; arrangements for two scout planes on a single rear catapult, and the same 4×2 main gun arrangement for the main battery with torpedo tube clusters amidship.
Then came the later heavy cruisers Suffern, Colbert, Foch, and Dupleix which were basically just the Duquesne class with slightly better armor arrangement in exchange for a lower speed.
A French Navy recruiting poster, featuring the country’s modern style of light and heavy cruisers. Beautiful, fast, modern, but very lightly armored.
Meet Lamotte-Picquet
Our subject is the third French warship named in honor of the 18th century Admiral Comte Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte who famously took part in 34 naval campaigns and sea battles across a half-century of service to his king. In addition to several single-ship commands and sea duels, this included commanding the French squadron at the Battles of Martinique and Cape Spartel and capturing a massive 22-ship British convoy in the Caribbean in 1781.
All in all, the good Comte de Lamotte-Picquet had a very successful career.
Importantly to Americans, on Valentine’s Day 1778, he ordered his flagship, the mighty Bucentaure-class 80-gun ship of the line Robuste, to fire a 9-gun salute to the incoming 18-gunned Continental Navy sloop of war Ranger under John Paul Jones, as the latter warship entered at Quiberon Bay, France. This was the first salute to the American flag given by a foreign ship and has made sure he is remembered as a hero of the American War of Independence only just behind the Comte de Grasse.
“First Recognition of the American Flag by a Foreign Government” 14 February 1778, French ship Robuste salutes Ranger. Painted in 1898 by Edward Moran. NHHC 80-G-K-21225
The first Lamotte-Picquet in French service was a 179-foot steam aviso that served in the 1860s-80s, followed by a 167-foot Jacques Cœur-class colonial gunboat/seaplane tender that served in the early 1920s before being renamed so that her moniker could go on to be used by our subject cruiser.
Before the Great War, a 10-ship class of 6,000-ton light cruisers– the first of the type in French service– was to have been led by a La Motte-Picquet, but these vessels never got further than design plans.
Our La Motte-Picquet was completed on 1 February 1926 and was able to begin its first test runs under the command of Capitaine de Vaisseau Jean Émile Paul Cras. A career officer born in Brest to a family of naval officers, Cras graduated fourth in his class from the Ecole Navale in 1898 and was a bit of a polymath. He designed several navigational instruments that are still in use today, developed electronic signaling gear earned a Legion of Honour in combat during the Great War as commander of the destroyer Commandant Bory on the Adriatic Campaign, served as a professor at the naval academy, and composed more than 60 symphonic and chamber music works– some of which were quite popular.
Capitaine de Vaisseau Jean Émile Paul Cras, Lamotte-Picquet’s very metropolitan plank owner skipper.
Peacetime service
Assigned to the 3e division légère at Brest after she joined the fleet, Lamotte-Picquet spent just over six years on a series of squadron maneuvers and summer cruises to the Mediterranean.
French cruiser Lamotte-Picquet at Brest 3 May 1927 BnF Btv1b53179908r
Le Havre 3/7/1928, Lamotte-Picquet et Revue_navale Agence_Rol_btv1b53201896j
Lamotte-Picquet lit up at night.
Crew of Lamotte-Picquet sur le cours Dajot Brest Bastille Day
Manoeuvres navales la_vedette Duquesne Provence and Lamotte Piquet BNF 1b532305530_1
County Class Cruiser HMS London Duguay-Trouin Class Lamotte Picquet Worlds Fair Barcelona May 14 1929
French cruiser Lamotte-Picquiet Cherbourg 30 July 1933 BnF btv1b9027179r
Far East Service
Then came an overseas deployment when, on 8 January 1936, La Motte-Picquet became the flagship of the French Far East Squadron (Forces Navales d’Extreme Orient), based in Indochina.
Crossing the line:
Marine Française, Croiseur Lamotte Picquet. Baptême de la Ligne plein Océan
She was easily the largest ship and most powerful member of the squadron.
The rest of the assets amounted to a pair of newer Bougainville class aviso (gunboats), Amiral Charnier and the Dumont d’Urville (1,969 tons, 15.5 kts, 3x138mm guns, 4x37mm guns, 50 mines, 1 Gourdou 832 seaplane) and two old colonial gunboats, Marne (601 tons, 21 kts, 4x100mm, 2x65mm) and Tahure (644 tons, 19 kts,2x138mm, 1x75mm guns).
Two large (302-foot) Redoutable-class deep-sea patrol submarines deployed to Indochina were deleted from the squadron before 1941, with L’Espoir recalled to Toulon in December 1940, while the second, Phenix (Q157), was lost with all hands during an accident in June 1939 off Saigon while in ASW exercises with Lamotte Picquet.
A force of 10 shallow draft river gunboats (Mytho, Tourane, Vigilante, Avalanche, Paul-Bert, Commander Bourdais, Lapérouse, Capitaine-Coulon, Frézouls, and Crayssac) was busy on constabulary duties along the brown waters of Indochina.
There was also a naval aviation squadron with eight lumbering Loire 130 flying boats, unwieldy beasts that were slow (89-knot cruising speed) and lightly armed but could at least stay aloft for almost eight hours.
This left our cruiser as a big fish in a little pond.
Duguay-Trouin class light cruiser LAMOTTE-PICQUET in Ha Long Bay Vietnam, 22-26 February 1937
French cruiser Lamotte-Picquiet, Indochina
French cruiser Lamotte-Picquiet, Indochina
Lamotte Picquet pre-war in the Far East.
Lamotte-Picquet in Saigon, note the extensive awnings.
Arriving at the station in early 1936, La Motte-Picquet spent much of her time showing the flag around the tense Western Pacific, ranging from Japan to China, Hong Kong, and Singapore, leaving the smaller gunboats to police the waters of Indochina. The French fleet had two gunboats/station ships in China, the Rigault de Genouilly in Shanghai and the Argus in Canton, to which regular visits by the much more impressive cruiser were no doubt welcome.
Hong Kong Harbor circa November 1936 with ships of the British, French,h and U.S. Navies present. Ships are (in the most distant offshore row, left to right): French light cruiser Lamotte-Picquet, British submarine tender HMS Medway with several submarines alongside, and British aircraft carrier HMS Hermes. (in the nearest offshore row, left to right): two destroyers (unidentified nationality), a French colonial sloop, USS Augusta (CA-3,1), and USS Black Hawk (AD-9) with two destroyers alongside. Alongside dockyard wharves (left to right): British heavy cruiser Berwick with two or three destroyers outboard, and British heavy cruiser Cumberland. Inside the dockyard basin (clockwise from entrance): Two destroyers, three submarines, and an Insect class gunboat. Offshore of, and to the right of, the dockyard (left to right): USS Isabel (PY-10) alongside a U.S. destroyer, two British destroyers, three U.S. destroyers, and three U.S. destroyers. Courtesy of Lieutenant Gustave Freret, USN (Retired), 1972. NH 80422
Shanghai November 11 1938 heavy cruiser USS Augusta, HMS Dorsetshire, Lamotte-Picquet in background.
Lamotte-Picquet at Shanghai, 1930s. University of Bristol – Historical Photographs of China reference number: Ro-n1005.
“Man of War Row” in the Whangpoo (Huangpu) River, Shanghai, China, in late May or early June 1939. The U.S. Navy heavy cruiser USS Augusta (CA-31) is moored to the left. The Siccawei Observatory signal tower is in the foreground. The old Japanese cruiser Izumo is in the distance, beyond Augusta’s bow. Next is the British Royal Navy light cruiser HMS Birmingham (C19), which has large Union Jacks painted atop her awnings and turrets to assist identification from the air, and carries a Supermarine Walrus aircraft amidships. What appears to be a British Insect-class gunboat is near shore in the center background. The French light cruiser Lamotte-Picquet is moored astern of Birmingham. The U.S. Navy troop transport USS Chaumont (AP-5) is moored in the most distant row, ahead of the Italian cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni and astern of Lamotte-Picquet. The merchantman moored in the nearer offshore row including the British Shantung (left) and the Italian Enderia (center). The British merchantman Yingchow is moored in the distance, beyond Chaumont’s bow. U.S. Navy photos NH 81985, NH 81986, NH 81987, and NH 81988.
War!
Going into 1939, Lamotte-Picquet’s new skipper, Capt. Marie Daniel Régis Berenger– a Knight of the Legion of Honor who served on the battleship Patrie on the Dardanelles gunline in 1915 and commanded the landing craft Polypheme in 1916 during the Serbian landings on Corfu– was celebrating 33 years in the service.
Once WWII erupted in Europe, our cruiser spent eight months on regular patrols around the Tonkin Gulf on the lookout for German merchant vessels at large. Her only brush with such contraband-carrying vessels was to take over the seized Soviet steamer Vladimir Makovsky (3972grt) on 26 March 1940 near Hong Kong, which had been taken into custody in the Sea of Japan by the Australian armed merchant cruiser HMAS Kanimbla (C78), because the freighter was carrying a cargo of copper from the U.S. to Germany. Lamotte Picquet escorted the Soviet merchantman into Saigon, arriving on 1 April.
Mayakovsky and her 40-man crew sweated it out at Saigon under French guns for six months then were allowed to leave after the local administration relieved its cargo of coffee and ore. The ship somehow survived WWII and was only removed from Soviet service in 1967.
When France entered into an Armistice with the Germans and Italians in June 1940, the situation changed in Indochina. While the French colonies of Polynesia and New Caledonia had declared for De Gaulle’s Free France movement, Indochina remained aligned to the Vichy regime of Marshal Petain, with our cruiser and its squadron along with it.
While French colonial officials in Saigon were concerned about an increasingly aggressive Japan and their allies in Siam– which started pushing militarily on Indochina’s borders before the end of the year– they made efforts to remain on watch against the British in nearby Burma and Malaysia, especially after the shameful attack on the French fleet at Mers-el-Kébir, Algeria by the Royal Navy (Operation Catapult) in July 1940.
Nonetheless, some members of her crew released themselves on their own recognizance to make it back to the fight in Europe.
In November 1940, three of her junior officers, led by LV Andre Jubelin, eager to get back in the war, managed to join a local civilian aviation club and, packed into a single-engine Caudron Pélican– which required sitting on spare gas cans in place of the seats to refuel in flight– flew 600 miles across the Gulf of Siam from Saigon to Singapore. They managed to make it from there in an epic 10-hour flight and then to England where they joined the Free French forces.
Lts. Andre Jubelin, Jean Arnoux, and Louis Ducorps dramatically deserted their post in Indochina for Singapore and, subsequently, London.
When the Siamese were eventually enticed into making a move against the French in Indochina over territorial aspirations along the Mekong frontier led to a mutual exchange of air raids, a ground campaign launched in early January 1941 that saw a 60,000-man Thai army sweep into French Laos. As the French colonial forces mobilized for a counter-attack, Berenger’s cruiser-gunboat squadron, sailing as Groupe de travail 7 (TF 7), was ordered to the Gulf of Siam, sailing from Saigon late on 14 January, with the slow sloops scouting ahead and Lamotte-Picquet following.
By dawn of the 17th, with the positions of the Thai fleet pinpointed the previous evening by French flying boats, the combat was soon joined at the anchorage of the former Thai fleet near Ko Chang. The French force squared off against the Japanese-built Thai armored coast defense vessels Thonburi and Sri Ayudhya (2,540 tons, 4×8″/50, 4x75mm guns), two British-built Thai gunboats (1,000 tons, 2×6″/50), a dozen assorted torpedo boats, and a small submarine.
On paper, you would say the odds were on the Thais.
However, luck flew with the French.
In the short 40-minute battle, Thonburi was severely damaged by 6-inch shells from Lamotte-Picquet to the point that fires spread out of control and, towed to Laem Ngop to be beached, she would instead capsize a few hours after the order to abandon ship was given, her captain, Luang Phrom Viraphan, killed in the engagement.
The French cruiser also landed hits on the torpedo boats Chonburi and Soughkla which sent them to the bottom, and shelled the base at Ko Chang, destroying its telephone exchange.
Responding land-based Thai air force Vought O2U Corsairs and Curtiss Hawks bracketed Lamotte-Picquet with small bombs, which lightly damaged her with shrapnel.
Lamotte-Picquet fired 454 6-inch and 280 3-inch shells, including 117 anti-aircraft shells, during the battle.
Casualty figures vary widely between French and Thai sources, but all agree that the French losses were negligible (11 killed) while Thai losses ran as high as 300 killed, wounded, captured, and missing with the latter including several Japanese officers serving as advisers.
Berenger reported his victory and praised his crew, saying “Under the bombs of airplanes, amid the roar of shells of an adversary who fought valiantly, you have all given an example of courage worthy of our ancestors,” withdrawing in good order back to Cam Ran Bay.
Shortly after, between the naval action at Ko Chang and the responding French colonial forces in Cambodia, the Japanese sponsored a ceasefire that took effect by the end of January which ended the conflict– with some territorial concessions to Bangkok.
Ko Chang is remembered as the last French naval ship-to-ship clash and, along with the even more forgotten Battle of Dakar (Operation Menace) in September 1940 against the Royal Navy, as the only French naval victory in WWII.
Berenger was made a Commander of the Legion of Honor and promoted to rear admiral shortly after the battle.
Ignoble End
Cut off from the possibility of dry docking in Hong Kong, Australia, Surabaya, or Singapore due to the bad blood between the Vichy regime and the Allies, the French negotiated a shipyard maintenance period in Osaka in August 1941 to clean the cruiser’s hull. At the same time, the Japanese had come to an agreement with Vichy to allow the basing and transshipment of troops and aircraft in Indochina, a factor that led to the birth of the Việt Minh.
Returning to Saigon in October 1941, the cruiser’s boilers were in a sad state of affairs and, although two new boilers were available, other parts and components were not and by 1942, suffering additional damage from typhoons that had come ashore, the mighty Lamotte-Picquet found herself laid up, with most of her officers and crew reassigned. The ship was turned into a floating school for colonial naval cadets (Ecole des marins Annamites), men who would go on to found the Vietnamese Navy.
Her turrets and superstructure were largely removed, and many of her guns were planned to be re-established ashore as coastal artillery.
In January 1945, as part of Operation Gratitude, the fast carriers of VADM “Slim” McCain’s Task Force 38 paid Indochina a visit to destroy Japanese ships and aircraft sheltering there.
Formation of TBF Avenger Aircraft of Carrier Air Group Four, USS Essex (CV-9), Task Group 38.3, approaching the coast of French Indochina on their way to bomb and torpedo airfields and shipping in the Saigon area, 12 January 1945 80-G-300673
Japanese Ships burning and sinking in Saigon River, Saigon Town, French Indochina after an aerial strike by planes of Carrier Air Group Four, USS Essex (CV-9), Task Group 38.3 on 12 January 1945. 80-G-300660
Lamotte-Picquet, her tricolor still flying, was caught in the melee and took several bombs through her decks, leaving her at the bottom of Saigon Harbor at Thanh-Tuy-Ha. She suffered 10 of her French cadre and 60 of her colonial cadets killed. The hydrographic survey vessel Octant was sunk alongside.
USS Essex strike photo of the former French cruiser La Motte-Picquet capsized in Saigon Harbor, French Indochina (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam), 12 Jan 1945. The cruiser’s turrets and superstructure were previously removed, NNAM.
TBF Avenger Aircraft of Carrier Air Group Four, USS Essex (CV-9), Task Group 38.3, leaving the coast of French Indochina as they return to their carrier after strikes on the Saigon area, 12 January 1945 80-G-300666
To add insult to injury, in March 1945 the Japanese revoked French colonial rule in Indochina in a coup executed by the Japanese 38th Army, termed Operation Bright Moon, that left over 4,000 French troops dead and 15,000 interned, including Berenger and most of the former crew of Lamotte-Picquet.
Japanese troops entering Saigon
Most of the French sailors were housed in the notoriously bad Martin-des-Pallières camp in Saigon.
One petty officer who served there, Maurice Amant, formerly a signalman aboard the Lamotte-Picquet, recounted after the war that in July 1945, inside a courtyard surrounded by a wall, he was made to dig a series of holes 25×25-inches wide, three feet deep, and spaced six feet apart. It was only after liberation that he learned the purpose: the Japanese had placed electrically wired anti-tank mines and wheelbarrows of scrap metal in each of these holes, and in the event of a resisted Allied landing, they would have gathered all the prisoners in the courtyard to send them collectively on their “final journey” with the clack of a firing switch.
C’est la vie.
Epilogue
Our lost cruiser was slowly salvaged between 1947 and 1959, by which time the management in Saigon had changed a few times.
An online record of her travels, in particular her period in the Far East in the late 1930s, is maintained by the grandson of Claude Berruyer, a sailor who served aboard her and had a proclivity for photography.
French light cruiser Primauguet beached off Casablanca, Morocco in November 1942. She had been badly damaged during the Battle of Casablanca on 8 November and is largely burned out forward. What appears to be shell damage is visible at her main deck line amidships, just aft of her second smokestack. In the left distance are the French destroyers Milan (partially visible at far left) and Albatros, both irreparably damaged and beached closer to shore. The latter is flying a large French flag from her foremast. 80-G-31607
Class leader Duguay-Trouin was interned with the British in June 1940 in Alexandria, and sat out the war until early 1943 when she was turned over to the Free French following the fall of the Vichy regime. Refitted by the Allies in time for the Dragoon Landings along the French Riveria in August 1944, she was ordered to Indochina after the war and participated in NGFS operations there against the Viet Minh insurgents until 1952– the ghost of Lamotte-Picquet returned to exact vengeance.
French cruiser Duguay-Trouin 1946 Janes
One of the few pre-Revolutionary military heroes still honored in the Republic, ADM Picquet de la Motte has a street named after him in Paris (Avenue de La Motte-Picquet) as well as a rail station and a slew of buildings.
The French Navy has dutifully issued the name for a fourth warship, a Georges Leygues class ASW frigate (D645) commissioned in 1987. Her 100mm main gun bore the name “Ko Chang.”
The French Georges Leygues class ASW frigate La Motte-Picquet (D645) is seen in her prime. She served until 2020, including seeing a bit of action in the Bay of Kotor during the Kosovo affair, numerous deployments to the Persian Gulf, and counter-piracy operations off Somalia, capping a 33-year career.
As for Lamotte-Picquet’s skippers, her plank owner composer Jean Cras, went on to command the battleship Provence and died an untimely death from cancer at age 53 as a rear admiral in 1932. His Trio de Cordes (String Trio) No.3, one of the pieces he composed while on the cruiser, remains.
Her most famous captain, Berenger, the victor of Ko Chang, survived a Japanese POW camp and was released in September 1945. Placed on the retirement list post-war as a vice admiral after 39 years in uniform, he passed in 1971, aged 82. Ko Chang is still regarded by many as near-flawless surface action. In his memoirs, De Gaulle describes it as a “brilliant naval victory.” The battle is commemorated in numerous square and street names in France, for example in Brittany and Vendée.
Marie Daniel Régis Berenger passed in 1971, aged 84.
The young aviator from the cruiser who borrowed a single-engine aircraft to fly from Saigon to Malaysia with two passengers, Andre Jubelin, went on to fly Spitfires with No. 118 Squadron RAF and in 72 combat sorties downed two German aircraft. Returning to naval service, he commanded a destroyer on convoy duty in the Atlantic then the French carrier Arromanches off Indochina against the Viet Mien in 1948, and retired as a rear admiral in 1967, head of the French Navy’s air arm.
He made sure the borrowed Pelican made it back to the Saigon Flying Club, packed as cargo on a steamer, at his own expense.
RADM André Marius Joseph Jubelin passed in 1986, aged 80. He penned a memoir, The Flying Sailor, which is very entertaining, as well as the more mauldin J’étais aviateur de la France libre, which covers his war years, among other works.
Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive
Ships are more than steel and wood And heart of burning coal, For those who sail upon them know That some ships have a soul.
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We’ve talked several times about the efforts by the Scandinavian sister countries– Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland– since 2009, to unify their efforts militarily via the Nordic Defence Cooperation Group, or NORDEDCO.
The Nordic Combat Uniform System is soon to be common across Scandinavia.
There was even serious talk of a “Viking” class submarine program that would see the four countries jointly operate a squadron of 10-12 sister boats but that tanked over a myriad of reasons outside the scope of this blog.
Now, the four NORDEDCO countries, joined by fellow traveler Iceland have entered into a seven-year contract with Federal to supply 9mm duty handgun ammo to the joint Nordic Police program.
This will see cops from Reykjavik to Helsinki load up their mags with Speer 124-grain Gold Dot JHPs, a personal favorite of mine for years.
In early February 1807, in Prussian Silesia, French Field Marshal Michel Ney’s cavalry clashed with mounted elements of Russian Lt. Gen. Karl Gustav von Baggovut’s column in the snow outside of the small village of Waltersmühl, causing Gen. Pyotr Bagration to send reinforcements to Bagavout’s aid, and a constant running combat was kept up until nightfall when the Russians withdrew in good order.
It was a nightmarish day of cavalry charge and counter-charge, sans the boorish interference of artillery and infantry. A day of lances and sabers. Horses, steel, and leather. Death the old-fashioned way, with lots of elan and honor.
The indecisive skirmish, which left Baggovut seriously wounded with a French lance splinter in his chest, was one of the opening actions of what would be remembered as the great pyrrhic Battle of Eylau— which itself saw some of the greatest massed cavalry charges in history.
Fast forward to 1945 and the Russians were back during the tail-end of WWII, this time under a Red Banner, and occupied Waltersmühl. Soon after the war, the region became part of Poland and today Waltersmühl is known as Konradowo.
Last week, during the renovation of an old building in the village, workers discovered three firearms and 403 assorted cartridges concealed inside an attic floor. The guns included a bolt-action Mauser 98K, a Beretta 38 submachine gun, and a Sturmgewehr 44, the latter with three magazines.
Cue the “Jesus, I’ve seen what you’ve done for other people” memes:
The guns were likely stashed “just in case” near the tail-end of WWII when the Soviet Red Army was steamrolling through the area on its way to Berlin.
The fact that the guns were never retrieved although Russian troops only left Poland after 1993, may point to the possibility that the individual who created the cache did not survive the initial stages of the occupation, or was deported soon after the change in flags.
Odds are, if you dig in the garden behind the house, you may find a saber or lance points.
Members of the 740th Tank Battalion and Headquarters Company of the 3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, advance in a snowstorm behind a tank to attack Herresbach, Belgium. 28 January 1945, with the help of a local.
U.S. Army Photo.
A tank and infantrymen of the U.S. Army’s Company G, 740th Tank Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, push through the snow toward their objective near Herresbach, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge, Jan. 28, 1945. 111-SC-199509
For those who haven’t read of the fight between the three refurbished M4 Shermans of the 740th against the lead element of Battle Group Peiper and the 1st SS Panzer Division during the “Bulge,” you have some research to do.
