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Warship Wednesday, September 10, 2025: Scots, East!

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Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 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

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Warship Wednesday, September 10, 2025: Scots, East!

Imperial War Museum photo GOV 2739

Above we see, almost exactly 75 years ago, a Balmoral capped and STEN-gun toting CPL John MacDonald of the 1st Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, waiting to embark on the modified Fiji (Uganda)-class light cruiser HMS Ceylon (C 30) in Hong Kong on 25 August 1950 for an emergency sealift to help defend the embattled enclave of Pusan, South Korea.

MacDonald’s war chariot made sense. Despite her name, Ceylon was built in Scotland and “paid for” by its residents. Korea was her second major Pacific war.

The Ugandas

A borderline “treaty” cruiser of interwar design, the Fijis amounted to a class that was one short of a dozen with an 8,500-ton standard displacement. In WWII service, this would balloon to a very top-heavy weight of over 11,000. Some 15 percent of the standard displacement was armor.

As described by Richard Worth in his Fleets of World War II, the design was much better off than the previous Leander-class cruisers, and essentially “the Admiralty resolved to squeeze a Town [the immediately preceding 9,100-ton light cruiser class] into 8,000 tons.”

With a fine transom stern, they were able to achieve over 32 knots on a plant that included four Admiralty 3-drum boilers driving four Parsons steam turbines, their main armament amounted to nine 6″/50 (15.2 cm) BL Mark XXIII guns in three triple Mark XXI mountings in the case of our cruiser and her two immediate full sisters (HMS Uganda and HMS Newfoundland).

A strong secondary battery of eight QF HA 4″/45 Mark XVIs in four twin mountings gave excellent DP capabilities.

The standard Fiji/Colony-class cruiser had four Mark XXI turrets, as shown in the top layout, while the “Improved Fijis/Ceylon-variants of the class mounted three, as in the bottom layout. Not originally designed to carry torpedo tubes, two triple sets were quickly added, along with more AAA guns, once the treaty gloves came off. (Jane’s 1946)

Meet Ceylon

Our vessel is at least the fourth (and surely the last) Royal Navy warship to carry the name of the British colony of Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, which was under Crown rule from 1796 to 1948.

The first was an ex-East Indiaman that served as a 38-gun fifth rate and then as a 40-gun frigate from 1793 through 1857. She is perhaps best known for her stirring overnight action off the island of Bourbon in 1810 against two French ships.

“Naval Combat Between The Frigate La Venus And The British Frigate HMS Ceylon” by Pierre-Julien Gilbert. On the night of September 16/17, 1810, the 40-gun Junon-class frigate Vénus, along with the 20-gun privateer corvette Victor, encountered and captured Ceylon off the coast of the island of Bourbon, now the island of Réunion, losing her fore-mast and her topgallant masts in the process. The next day, a British squadron composed of HMS Boadicea, HMS Otter, and the brig HMS Staunch in turn captured Vénus and recaptured Ceylon and her surviving crew. Victor managed to escape.

The second and third were private craft taken up from service in the Great War (ex-Seaton, 149grt, and ex-Lady Ina, 311grt). The latter, serving as a group leader in the special yacht squadrons in the Mediterranean, earned a battle honor for the Dardanelles from June 1915 to May 1916.

Our subject cruiser was built by Stephen and Sons, Ltd., Govan, in Scotland, under the Admiralty’s 1938 Build Programme. Laid down four months before WWII on 27 April 1939 as Job No. 1469, the same yard had previously built her sister, HMS Kenya (C14), as Job No. 566.

Ceylon was launched on 30 July 1942, christened by Lady Dorothy Macmillan, and, after 11 months of fitting out, commissioned on 29 June 1943, with Capt. Guy Beresford Amery-Parkes, RN, in command.

Left to right: July 1943. Capt. Guy Beresford  Amery-Parkes, Commanding Officer of HMS Ceylon, and his XO, CDR Frank Reginald Woodbine Parish, DSO. Parish earned his DSO in 1940 as skipper of the destroyer HMS Vivacious. Photo by Beadell, S J (Lt), IWM (A 17715)

A regular with 32 years’ service on his jacket, Amery-Parks had entered the RN as a cadet at Dartmouth at age 13, shipped out for his first war as a 16-year-old midshipman in August 1914 on the cruiser HMS Amphitrite, and saw service at Jutland on the Bellerophon-class dreadnought HMS Superb as an acting sub-lieutenant. During the 1930s, he had served as XO on two cruisers, HMS Delhi and Frobisher, before a stint as gunnery officer on the battleship Warspite. Fast forward to WWII, he had almost gone down with the minesweeping sloop HMS Sphinx (J69) when she was sunk in 1940 and had previously commanded the net layer HMS Guardian (T 89) during the invasion of Vichy-held Madagascar in 1942.

After an amazingly successful “Warship Week” National Savings campaign in February 1942, the future HMS Ceylon was adopted by the civil corporation of the city of Dundee in Scotland, with a population of 164,000. The city had raised a whopping £3,782,775 in loans to the Exchequer between 31 January and 7 February 1942, about twice as much as the cost of HMS Ceylon, so the Admiralty got a good deal on that one.

City representatives swapped out plaques and other items on the stern of “their” cruiser on 2 July, before an assembled crew under the watchful bores of Ceylon’s big guns.

The Lord Provost (center) addressing the ship’s company at the presentation ceremony. Photo by Beadell, S J (Lt), IWM (A 17712)

Dundee’s plaque for the cruiser Ceylon, 2 July 1943, Glasgow. The Lord Provost of Dundee, Lord Provost Garnet Wilson, accompanied by Bailie Colin Baird, Bailie Caldwell, and other members of the Corporation, presented a plaque to the British Cruiser HMS Ceylon to commemorate her adoption by the citizens of Dundee. The Captain of the Ceylon made a return presentation to the citizens; a plaque replica of the crest of the Ceylon, which was handed over on behalf of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. Photo by Beadell, S J (Lt), IWM A 17713.

The Lord Provost of Dundee and members of the Corporation inspect the ship. Photo by Beadell, S J (Lt), IWM (A 17714)

HMS Ceylon at anchor in the Clyde, July 1943. IWM (FL 7789)

HMS Ceylon at anchor in the Clyde. IWM (FL 7788)

Ceylon was girded and ready for war, spending most of August in large-scale tactical exercises off Scapa Flow.

It Ain’t Half Hot Mum

Nominated for service with the British Eastern Fleet based in Ceylon, her namesake colony, our cruiser was given extra 20mm Oerlikon mounts for added AAA defense against Japanese aircraft.

On 30 October 1943, she shoved off for parts East via the Bay of Biscay, Gibraltar, Port Said, and Aden, arriving in Bombay on 27 November. She was assigned to RADM A.D. Read’s 4th Cruiser Squadron at Trincomalee, joining the Town-class light cruiser HMS Newcastle and sister HMS Kenya.

She was feted upon arrival in Colombo, the hometown ship sorts, at least by name.

“A” Turret of HMS Ceylon fires a broadside while at sea off Colombo, 5 January 1944. Photo by Trusler, C (Lt), IWM (A 21901)

Royal Naval gunners on board HMS Ceylon explain the workings of a twin Oerlikon gun to Mr. A. Mamujee. On the right are Mr. J.A. Martensz and the Editor of the Ceylon Observer. Photo by Trusler, C (Lt), IWM (A 21891).

Pith helmets all-round! Admiral Sir Geoffrey Layton and a group of Ceylon personalities watch the gunnery practice on board HMS Ceylon during her visit to Colombo. Note the beret-clad RM officer in the distance and the slouch hat in the foreground. Photo by Trusler, C (Lt), IWM (A 21900)

The Bishop of Colombo preaching at Morning Service on board HMS Ceylon as she swings at anchor in the colony, 5 January 1944. Note the flags of Allies KMT China, Belgium, and France behind the pulpit. Photo by Trusler, C (Lt), IWM (A 21907)

After morning service on board HMS Ceylon. Left to right: The Bishop’s Curate; HMS Ceylon’s Chaplain; The Bishop of Colombo, Right Revd Cecil D Horsley; Commanding Officer of HMS Ceylon, Captain G B Amery-Parkes, RN. Photo by Trusler, C (Lt), IWM (A 21906)

Ceylon spent the first part of 1944 on a series of exercises with her squadron, culminating with a sweep into the Bay of Bengal, Operation Initial, in March, centered around the battlecruiser HMS Renown, battleship HMS Valiant, and aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious.

April 1944 saw our cruiser as part of Task Force 69, built around the battleships HMS Queen Elizabeth (flying the flag of Admiral J.F. Somerville, KCB, KBE, DSO, RN, C-in-C Eastern Fleet), Valiant, and the Free French Richelieu.

The force was an over-the-horizon screen during Operation Cockpit, a carrier raid by the Eastern Fleet (TF 70 and the carriers Illustrious and USS Saratoga) against Sabang in the Japanese-held Dutch East Indies.

Operation Transom in May 1944 was a near repeat, swapping out Sabang for occupied Surabaya, with Ceylon this time screening the carriers themselves.

Richelieu, HMS Valiant, and HMS Renown Cruising About the Indian Ocean On 12 May 1944, Operation Transom

The next month would see Operation Councillor, another carrier raid on Sabang (June 10-13), followed by Operation Pedal, a series of strikes in the Andaman Islands.

July 1944 would see another run at Sabang (Operation Crimson), this time screening the battlewagons Queen Elizabeth, Valiant, and Richelieu, along with the battlecruiser HMS Renown, and the carriers Illustrious and HMS Victorious. Our cruiser fired in anger for the first time, hitting enemy positions in shore bombardment during the operation, her 6-inch guns accompanied by Queen Elizabeth’s 15s. In all, the light cruiser sisters HMS Nigeria, Kenya, Ceylon, and HMNZS Gambia fired 324 6-inch shells during the raid, along with a similar number of 4-inchers.

More of the same came in August with Operation Banquet, striking Padang with the battlewagon Howe now riding shotgun with the flattops HMS Indomitable and Victorious. Following the end of a very hectic five months of operations and a year deployed, Ceylon made for Durban, South Africa, in September, where she spent the rest of the year in refit.

January 1945 saw Ceylon back with the armored carriers Illustrious, Indomitable, and Victorious for strikes against oil refineries in Sumatra at Pangkalan-Brandan (Operation Lentil) and Palembang (Operation Meridian).

April 1945 saw Ceylon again bring her big guns into action with Operation Bishop, a surface bombardment of Burma’s Car Nicobar to provide cover for Operation Dracula– the amphibious landings off Rangoon. Ceylon and the cruiser HMS Suffolk of Bismarck fame were tasked to soak enemy AA positions just before sunrise on 30 April, clearing the way for later air strikes. HMS Cumberland of Graf Spee fame and Ceylon shifted to ruining Japanese airstrips with 8-inch and 6-inch shells the next morning.

This capped the run of Capt. Amery-Parkes, who was relieved by the incoming Capt. Kenneth Lanyon Harkness, DSC, RN, on 12 May.

August 1945 saw Ceylon steaming as part of Force 11, centered on the battleship HMS Nelson and four escort carriers, under Operation Beecham, the occupying amphibious landings at Penang. For this, her RM detachment was paired with those from three other cruisers and Nelson to form a light battalion (400 men), dubbed Force Roma, which was going to take the surrender of 3,000 emplaced Japanese defenders.

In the end, Force Roma was kept on their ships as, on 28 August, Japanese VADM Sueto Hirose arrived aboard Nelson to negotiate the formal surrender of the Japanese forces in Penang. The Indian 26th Division would instead arrive for occupation duty in mid-October, with the Japanese tasked informally with keeping order until then.

Penang conference on board HMS Nelson. 28 August to 2 September 1945, on board the British battleship HMS Nelson, flagship of Vice Admiral H T C Walker. During the Penang surrender and re-occupation negotiations. Rear Admiral Uzuni and the Japanese governor of Penang signed for the Japanese, after which the documents of agreement were signed by Vice Admiral H T C Walker at 2115 hours on 1 September 1945. Royal Marines of the British East Indies fleet formally took over the island on 3 September 1945. Photo by Hales, G (Lt), IWM (A 30472)

By 9 September, Ceylon was covering the planned Operation Zipper landings of Allied troops on the Malayan coast, which were a whole lot less bloody than originally envisioned.

During the Japanese surrender ceremony at Singapore on 12 September, selected members of her ship’s company formed part of the guard of honor for the ceremony.

The Union Jack being hoisted over Singapore after the signing ceremony, 12 September 1945. The honor guard was provided by Force W, including HMS Ceylon, and the Indian 5th Division. Photo by Trusler, C (Lt), IWM (A 30489)

Following the liberation of Malaya and Singapore, Ceylon was ordered home, which meant she *had* to stop off at Colombo on the way for a week-long port call.

“Men of HMS Ceylon. 30 September 1945, Colombo, on board HMS Ceylon, the day before she sailed for home at the end of her commission with the British East Indies fleet. The men are grouped by area: Dundee interest. Front to back: Able Seaman J Ramsay, Dundee; Able Seaman D Dallas, Kirkadly, Fife; Able Seaman E Mollison, Dundee; Engine Room Mechanic G Mekkinson, Cupar, Fife.” Photo by Cochrane, R W (Sub Lt), IWM (A 30708)

Ceylon arrived at Portsmouth on 25 October 1945, having steamed 115,000 nm during the war, and was promptly paid off into the Reserve fleet. She had earned the battle honors Sabang (1944) and Burma (1945) during her service.

Uganda class cruisers Ceylon, Newfoundland, Jane’s 1946

Korea!

After four years of slumber, Ceylon was brought out of mothballs in Portsmouth in early 1950 to relieve the cruiser HMS Birmingham with the 4th Cruiser Squadron of the East Indies Fleet. Her skipper would be Capt. Cromwell Felix Justin Lloyd-Davies DSC, RN, who had commanded the light cruiser HMS Glasgow (21) in the latter months of WWII.

While the old Birmingham was slated for an in-depth two-year refit, Ceylon was given a much more modest refresh and left for the Far East on 15 April 1950, with the intention of her crew to “work up” along the way. She arrived at Trincomalee on 22 June.

In a desperate response to the invasion of South Korea on 25 June 1950 and the subsequent United Nations Security Council Resolutions (UNSCRs) 82, 83, 84, and 85, Great Britain became one of 22 countries contributing either combat forces or medical assistance to support South Korea under the UN flag. That muscle, besides the British Far East Fleet, required some boots on the ground. In response, Ceylon was dispatched to the Far East on a “temporary secondment of about three months”

With that, 27 Brigade, which had garrisoned Hong Kong since 1949, would dispatch its Brigade Headquarters and two battalions– 1st Bn, Argyll and Sutherland and 1st Bn, Middlesex Regiment– to the desperately holding Pusan Perimeter immediately. Rather than schlep them there in slow troopships, it was decided that Ceylon– transferred to the Far East Fleet– would carry the Argylls while the carrier HMS Unicorn would tote the “Die Hards” of the Middlesex.

Severely under strength (as was every other UN battalion sent to Korea in 1950), the Argylls rapidly absorbed 17 men from the Royal Leicesters, 25 from the King’s Own Scottish Borderers, 38 from the South Staffordshire Regiment, and 53 from the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, all volunteers, to bring the Battalion up to its 600-strong Korean war establishment.

General Sir John Harding, the Commander-in-Chief of the Far East Forces, and Mr. Malcolm MacDonald, the High Commissioner for South East Asia, came down to the docks to see the two battalions off to war while the band of the Scottish Borderers played them out while the Argylls own band, augmented by Ceylon’s RM band, matched them from the cruiser’s quarterdeck.

From the deck of HMS Ceylon, Mr. Malcolm MacDonald, the High Commissioner for Southeast Asia, addresses men of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders paraded on the dock below, before they board the cruiser for the journey to Pusan, South Korea. IWM (GOV 2741)

Men of the 1st Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, boarding the cruiser HMS Ceylon for the journey to Pusan, South Korea. In the background, the band of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers plays on. IWM (GOV 2738)

As detailed in Lt.Col. G I Malcolm’s “The Argylls in Korea,” the “Jocks” were crammed in every space the cruiser would allow for the short yet almost enjoyable 1,200 nm sprint to Pusan, one that involved not only running through notorious late summer China Sea rain squalls but the also a darkened ship run past Formosa (Taiwan) at night, just in case the Red Chinese were on alert in those waters.

Almost as soon as the Battalion had reached Holt’s Wharf, officers and men found themselves stowed away in the ship’s interior, allotted to wardroom, gunroom, petty officers’ mess, and mess decks, and made to feel they were the welcome guests of the ship’s company. Thus, laid the foundation of a very happy comradeship. The ordinary sailors, knowing from their experience on the China station that a feeling of insecurity is engendered in ‘Pongos’ who find themselves with neither land nor whitewash in sight, made all the necessary allowances for their passengers. Certainly, no soldiers had better hosts, and once they understood (‘hauled in’) the basic English of naval vocabulary and timekeeping, they all felt that a life on the ocean wave, at any rate in decent weather, had much to commend it.

They shoved off at 1830 on 25 August and docked at Pusan at noon on the 29th, an elapsed time of about 90 hours, with a Korean Army band welcoming them to a hastily learned “God Save the King.”

A well mustachioed Sergeant of the 1st Battalion, The Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders supervises the disembarkation of British troops for HMS Ceylon at Pusan. IWM (MH 32736)

Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders line the decks of HMS Ceylon as she comes alongside at Pusan, Korea, Aug 29 1950 LIFE Carl Maydans 

Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders line the decks of HMS Ceylon as she comes alongside at Pusan, Korea, Aug 29 1950 LIFE Carl Maydans 

The kilt-clad Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders band from HMS Ceylon, Pusan, Korea, Aug 29 1950 LIFE Carl Maydans

Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders land from HMS Ceylon as she comes alongside at Pusan, Korea, Aug 29 1950 LIFE Carl Maydans

By the evening of 30 August, the Argylls would be on the move to the front and would suffer their first of 171 casualties in their first eight-month tour of Korea while deployed along the Naktong river south-west of Taegu on 6 September.

With her Jocks landed, Ceylon was soon made part of the Inchon landing force (Operation Chromite), taking part in diversionary shore bombardment. Ceylon put a landing party ashore on the island of Taechong Do, where they reported that a previously observed North Korean troop concentration had departed.

“We were off the North Korean coast, not a light anywhere. We felt the malevolent force of the Chinese ashore there. Morale was rock bottom,” recalled 18-year-old Midshipman (later RADM) Ian Mclean Crawford, AO, AM.

As she had sailed from Portsmouth in April with a “peacetime” complement, it wasn’t until October 1950 that augmentees from Europe arrived to bring her crew to strength. As noted by her reunion association, “Her first two patrols had been carried out with a much reduced company, which made the duty of Defence Stations hard going, as it had meant that the close-range guns crews were closed up from dawn to dusk each day.”

She continued her Korean service until she was relieved by HMS Belfast in February 1951.

While in Kure for a quick hull scraping, she hosted a family reunion between a subaltern with The Duke of Wellington’s Regiment (West Riding)– a unit soon to be famous for holding off 6,000 Chinese at the Battle of the Hook– and his brother-in-law, an RM on Ceylon. The pair captured some great images of the vessel.

Kure, 10 July 1951. An unidentified petty officer ringing the bell of the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Ceylon as an RM bugler sounds a call over the ship’s tannoy (intercom) system. Photo by Harold Vaughan Dunkley AWM DUKJ4559

Kure, 10 July 1951. “Pointing out the opened breech of a gun aboard HMS Ceylon, is Marine F N Barker (far right) to his brother-in-law Lt P Dooks (Duke of Wellington Regiment), both of Bridlington, Yorkshire, England, who chanced to meet 11,000 miles from home, when Ceylon was in dry dock after a spell of duty off Korea.” Photo by Harold Vaughan Dunkley AWM DUKJ4557

Kure, 10 July 1951. “Dwarfed by one of the props of HMS Ceylon are brothers-in-law Marine F N Barker (right) and Lt P Dooks (Duke of Wellington Regiment), both of Bridlington, Yorkshire, England, who chanced to meet 11,000 miles from home, when Ceylon was in dry dock after a spell of duty off Korea.” Photo by Harold Vaughan Dunkley AWM DUKJ4558

On 26 August 1951, a seven-man raiding party made up of sailors from HMNZS Rotoiti and Royal Marine Commandos from Ceylon departed from Rotoiti and landed at Sogon-ni in North Korea to take prisoners for intelligence purposes. They were joined on the mission by a fire support team and US observers who would stay by the boats to provide cover if necessary. The party made contact with a Nork gun emplacement, and Able Seaman Robert Marchioni, RNZN, was killed in the exchange; body not recovered. Marchioni was the last New Zealand sailor to die in combat.

Sent to refit in Singapore, she arrived back off Korea in May and continued to serve regular stints on the gun line until July 1952, when HMS Newcastle arrived in theatre to relieve her.

  • On 4 February 1952, Ceylon and the destroyer HMS Cockade covered the landings by South Korean raiders on the Mudo Islands from LST-516 and 692.
  • On 26 June 1952, Ceylon was only narrowly missed by enemy coastal batteries near Popkyo-ri, in which two shells came within 1,000 yards of the cruiser. She responded with 24 rounds of 6-inch, smothering the observed gun flash positions and received no return fire.
  • On 29 June 1952, Ceylon supported a raid on Yongmae-do with the destroyer HMS Comus and frigate HMS Amethyst, in which the raiders returned at daylight with two prisoners.

During her Korean deployments (August ’50 – July ’52), Ceylon spent 458 days at sea, steaming some 77,800 miles, discharging 6,877 rounds of 6-inch, as well as 1,965 of 4-inch, plus large quantities of 20mm and 40mm close-range ammunition.

Capt. Lloyd-Davies would add a DSO to his WWII-era DSC for his command of Ceylon during the “police action.”

Salad Days

Following six months in ordinary in Singapore, Ceylon returned to service with a new crew (her old one returning to England on HMS Vengeance) and managed a series of peacetime ceremonial engagements over the next few years including being present at the birth of the Maldive Islands Republic in January 1953, the 150th anniversary of the first settlement in Tasmania in February 1954 (she would later also be on hand for Ghana’s Independence), and escorting the steamer SS Gothic during the Royal Tour of Australasia in April 1954, which included a visit to the ship by the Queen.

HMS Ceylon, dressed in Freemantle for the 1954 Queen’s visit

Modified Crown Colony-class light cruiser HMS Ceylon (C30), deliberately listing for an exercise. 14 August 1953. IWM (HU 129765)

HMS Ceylon escorts the Royal yacht SS Gothic along with HMAS Bataan (I91), HMAS Anzac (D59), and HMS Vengeance (R71), April 1954

9 April 1954. Her Majesty the Queen and His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh with the Captain, Officers and Ship’s Company of HMS Ceylon. Seated on the Fo`c’sle, left to right: Midshipman Grassby, RNVR, Tunbridge Wells; Midshipman A Khan, RPN, Pakistan; Midshipman Chitham, London; Midshipman Malek, RPN, Pakistan; Midshipman Z Khan, RPN, Pakistan; Midshipman Allen, Wimborne; Midshipman Day, Lydney, Glas; Midshipman Snow, S Africa; Midshipman Broomfield, Catterwick; Midshipman Steil, Uganda; Midshipman Suanders, Uganda. Seated front row: Lieut Bannister, Reigate; Lieut (S) North, Doncaster; Inst Lieut Cottam, London; Lieut Cdr Stewart, Ceylon; Lieut Cdr Cheetham. Hatch End, Middx; Captain R M Harris, Bickley, Kent; Commander (S) Mellor, Withington; Commander (E) Grill, Blechingly, Surrey; Captain Foster Brown, Liss; HM The Queen; HRH The Duke of Edinburgh; Cdr Steiner, London; Surg Cdr Hovendon, London; Cdr (L) Webber, Henfield; Lieut Cdr Haley, Bexhill on Sea; Lieut Cdr Leak, Liverpool. IWM (A 32922)

She was then ordered back to England, arriving at Portsmouth on 1 October 1954.

As tradition has it, she again stopped off in Ceylon for a port call on the way back to Europe.

“Homecoming” of HMS Ceylon. September 1954, Trincomalee, Ceylon, as HMS Ceylon left Ceylon for Britain after serving in the Far East Station for four years. Note her homeward-bound pennant flying as she steams out of Trincomalee. IWM (A 33009)

Given an extended 22-month refit at Portsmouth, she emerged much more modern, landing her torpedo tubes and dated sensors for a newer Type 960 long-range air warning radar and picking up American Mark 63 radar FCS for her 4-inch guns. Emerging in July 1956, she was rushed to the Eastern Mediterranean to participate in the Suez operations (Operation Musketeer Revise), where she once again provided NGFS ashore.

She made another trip to Ceylon, visiting Trincomalee in October 1957 on the occasion of the base being handed over to the newly independent Ceylon Navy.

In Toulon

Her 1956-58 deployment

HMS Ceylon with HMS Royalist to her port side MOD 45140251

In 1958, she was once again pressed into service as a troop transport, carrying Jocks– 1st Battalion, The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles)– out of Jordan.

The last British soldiers, members of the Cameronians, to leave Jordan, 3 November 1958, where they had been since August to defend against a possible Iraqi invasion. NAM. 2008-07-34-19

After one last trip to Ceylon, as part of Exercise Jet in September 1959 as the flagship of RADM Sir Varyl Cargill Begg, HMS Ceylon returned to Portsmouth, where she was paid off on 1 January 1960, capping a hectic 14-year career that saw the sun set on much of the British Empire.

HMS Ceylon C30, refueling from an RFA, 1959

South America Bound

Just five weeks after she was stricken from the Royal Navy, ex-Ceylon was sold to the government of Peru and handed over on 9 February 1960.

Renamed BAP Coronel Bolognesi (CL-82) in honor of the heroic Peruvian Coronel Francisco Bolognesi, she would serve alongside her old sister ex-Newfoundland (BAP Almirante Grau, later Capitan Quinones), which had been transferred two months prior.

Ceylon/Bolognesi arrived at her new home port of Callao on 19 March 1960, fully dressed in her glad rags.

These are via the Peruvian Naval archives:

HMS Ceylon, Newfoundland, Peru, Janes 1960 Almirante Grau Coronel Bolognesi

She provided sterling work in humanitarian assistance during the 1970 Ancash earthquake, served in regular UNITAS exercises, and was later modified to operate a Bell 47G (H-13 Sioux) from her stern.

Sister Newfoundland/Almirante Grau/Capitan Quinones was reduced to a pier-side training hulk in 1979 and subsequently scrapped, leaving Ceylon/Bolognesi as the next to last of her class (other than ex-HMS Nigeria, which continued to serve with the Indian Navy until 1985 as INS Mysore) in service.

Ceylon/Bolognesi was decommissioned in May 1982 and then towed to Taiwan to be scrapped in 1985. She had made it 42 years.

Epilogue

Little remains of our subject.

I suspect her 1943 plaque presented to the City of Dundee may still be in a place of honor there. If anyone has seen it, please drop an image.

She is remembered in maritime art.

Watercolour HMS Ceylon by Jim Rae

British cruiser HMS Ceylon seen from Royal Australian Navy destroyer HMAS Warramunga (I). The ship is off Sok-To island in the Yellow Sea, Korea, weighing anchor, to facilitate the return of the ship’s Captain from Ceylon. From 29th June to 9th July, HMAS Warramunga (I) joined the Chodo-Sokto Unit (TU 95.12.1) code-named CIGARRET (patrol area from Sokto to Choppeki Point) in the defence of the islands of Sokto and Chodo. Official war artist Frank Norton described the operations in a letter to the Memorial’s Director ‘”Warramunga’s patrol was very quiet as far as action – the group of ships were anti invasion force – protecting some islands off the North Korean Coast – patrolling between islands and mainland (a matter of a few miles) at night – firing star shells and checking any junks that might attempt to pass from one to the other…During the day, the groups of ships, British, American, Australian, and Korean, lay at anchor just off the coast.’ AWM ART40019

An HMS Ceylon Association exists with an online presence, although its last reunion was in 2018.

One of her 6-inch guns tampions, adorned with her elephant crest, recently surfaced on a Trinity Marine auction, which probably means the other eight are floating around the UK as well, perhaps saved before the cruiser went to Peru under a different name.

Ceylon’s first skipper, Capt. Guy Beresford Amery-Parkes, who had commanded her throughout WWII, post-war moves ashore as the Deputy Superintendent, Captain of the Dockyard & King’s Harbour Master, at HM Dockyard Portsmouth aboard HMS Victory. He left the service due to ill health in 1947, capping a 36-year career. He passed in October 1955 in Hurstpierpoint, Sussex.

Capt. Cromwell Felix Justin Lloyd-Davies, her impeccably named Korean War skipper, would retire in 1955 and pass in 1998 in Buckinghamshire, at a ripe old age of 95.

The last flag officer to fly his flag from her mast, Sir Varyl Begg– who was in charge of Warspite’s guns at Cape Matapan– went on to become a full admiral and talked the RN into the “through deck cruiser” concept that led to the Invincible class Harrier carriers, arguably Britain’s final cruisers.

As for the Jocks that Ceylon carried, the Argylls served with the British Army until 2006, when the historic regiment was amalgamated into The Royal Regiment of Scotland and today make up its Balaklava Company.

The Cameronians served with the British Army until 1968, when the regiment made the rare yet respectable choice to disband rather than be amalgamated.

Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive

***

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Red Devil Crusaders

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With the 100th anniversary of the Red Devils recently, these two great images from its bad old Crusader Days in Vietnam felt appropriate. While the F-8 was a gunfighter built for speed, when used as a low altitude strike aircraft, it took heavy losses.

Official caption “Poised for Action: An ordnance-laden F-8E Crusader jet of Marine All-Weather Fighter Squadron 232 [VMF (AW)-232] stands ready on the Marine Aircraft Group 11 [MAG-11] flight line (official USMC photo by T. J. Mercurio).” From the Jonathan Abel Collection (COLL/3611), Marine Corps Archives & Special Collections.

“On the Way: An F-8E Crusader jet of Marine All Weather Attack Squadron 232 [VMF (AW)-232] launches on a scramble mission in support of Marine ground forces south of Da Nang (official USMC photo by Staff Sergeant Bill Fisher).” From the Jonathan Abel Collection (COLL/3611), Marine Corps Archives & Special Collections.

The above airframe, Bu150316, WT Red 17, was damaged by ground fire over South Vietnam on 4 May 4  1967. The plane made it to the South China Sea, where the pilot (Major Edward F. Townley) ejected and was rescued by a helicopter.

As noted by the unit history:

The squadron, flying the newer F-8E Crusader, which it received in August 1966, began full combat operations in December. The F-8E was similar to the F-8D but with higher-performance radar, which, being mounted in the nose section, changed the appearance slightly.

By the end of the month, VMF(AW)-232 had flown 571 sorties while delivering 418 tons of ordnance to enemy targets; four aircraft had received hits, and the Red Devil pilots had become familiar with the I and H Corps area as well as portions of the area north of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).

During the first 4 months of 1967, 19 more F-8Es were hit. In most cases, the damage was caused by a single small arms round and was easily repaired. Most importantly, no pilots were injured, but in May and June, the Red Devils were not quite as fortunate.

On 4 May, Major Edward F. Townley’s jet was hit as it circled over a suspected enemy position. Soon, the fighter was heading seaward, trailing fire and smoke. Major Townley was ejected and recovered uninjured.

On the 19th, the first Red Devil was killed in action, and the squadron lost its second aircraft. While flying a direct air support mission, Captain Harold J. Hellbach reported receiving fire over the target area. As the pilot turned toward the sea, the jet suddenly pitched nose up and then entered a dive, exploding when it hit the ground about 6 miles from the target area.

On 21 June, Major Charles L. Cronkrite, who, after his transfer from 232 to the group staff, continued flying with the Red Devils, was killed. After experiencing mechanical difficulties, Major Cronkrite ejected, and “it was suspected that the pilot was unconscious when he hit the water.”

July was a better month in that no one was killed or injured, but one aircraft was lost on the 2nd when Major Bruce A. Martin ejected after his plane was hit.

Two other F-8s were destroyed on 15 July as a result of an enemy rocket attack on Da Nang.

August marked the last month of the unit’s combat tour, and on the 30th, when the last plane landed, the Red Devils had amassed totals of 5,785 sorties, 7,273 flight hours, and 6,271 tons of ordnance expended.

The Red Devils received their first two-seater F-4B/J Phantoms on 19 September 1967 and, as VMFA-232, deployed with them back to Vietnam in March 1969.

Warship Wednesday, September 3, 2025: The Three-flagged Frigate

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Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 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

If you enjoy my always ad-free Warship Wednesday content, you can support it by buying me a cup of joe at https://buymeacoffee.com/lsozi As Henk says: “Warship Coffee – no sugar, just a pinch of salt!”

Warship Wednesday, September 3, 2025: The Three-flagged Frigate

National Archives photo 19-N-66007

Above we see the fine new Tacoma-class patrol frigate USS Bisbee (PF-46) during her shakedowns off San Pedro, California, on 23 May 1944, wearing camouflage pattern Measure 32 Design 16D. At the time under the command of a USCG O-5, she had an all Coastie crew, including several well-trained Texas horsemen, which she would go on to carry throughout most of WWII.

Then things got a little weird.

The Tacomas

One of the most generic convoy escorts ever designed was the River-class frigates of the Royal Navy and its sister Australian and Canadian services. Sturdy 301-foot/1,800-ton vessels, some 151 were built between May 1941 and April 1945.

Canadian River-class frigate HMCS Waskesiu (K330) with a bone in her mouth, 1944. Kodachrome via LAC

River Class – Booklet of General Plans, 1941, profile

Carrying a few QF 4″/40s, a suite of light AAA guns, and a huge array of ASW weapons with as many as 150 depth charges, they could make 20 knots and had extremely long range, pushing 7,000nm at a 15-knot cruising speed.

In a sort of reverse Lend-Lease, two Canadian Vickers-built Rivers were transferred to the U.S. Navy, the planned HMS Adur (K296) and HMS Annan, in 1942, becoming the patrol gunboats– later patrol frigates– USS Asheville (PG-101/PF-1) and USS Natchez (PG-102/PF-2). Built at Montreal, Asheville and Natchez were completed with standard U.S. armament and sensors, including three 3″/50s, two 40mm mounts, Oerlikons, and SC-5 and SG radar. Everything else, including the power plant, was British.

USS Asheville (PF-1) plans

With that, the New York naval architecture firm of Gibbs & Cox took the River class frigate plans and tweaked them gently to become the Tacoma-class frigates. Some 2,200 tons at full load, these 303-foot ships used two small tube express boilers and two  J. Hendy Iron Works VTE engines on twin screws to cough up 5,500shp, good for just over 20 knots with a 9,500nm range at 12 knots. Standard armament was a carbon copy of Asheville/Natchez: three 3″/50s, two twin 40mm mounts, nine Oerlikons, two stern depth charge racks, eight Y-gun depth charge throwers, a 24-cell Hedgehog Mk 10 ASWRL, and 100 ash cans. Radar was upgraded to the SA and SL series, while the hull-mounted sonar was a QGA set.

USS Albuquerque 1943 (PF-7), Tacoma class patrol frigate 200414-G-G0000-0003

These could be built at non-traditional commercial yards under Maritime Commission (MC Type T. S2-S2-AQ1) contracts, using an all-welded hull rather than the riveted hull of the British/Canadian Rivers. Many of these would be constructed on the Great Lakes, including by ASBC in Ohio (13 ships), Froemming (4), Walter Butler (12), Globe (8), and Leathem Smith (8) in Wisconsin. On the East Coast, Walsh-Kaiser in Rhode Island made 21, while on the West Coast, Kaiser Cargo and Consolidated Steel in California produced a combined 30 ships.

Using compartmentalized construction, they went together fast. No less than nine Tacomas were built in less than five months, 16 were built in less than six months, and 11 others were built in less than seven months. These times stack up well to the original River class built in British yards, where the best time recorded was 7.5 months. In Canada, the fastest time was just over 5 months.

The Tacomas cost about $2.3 million apiece, compared to $3.5 million for a Cannon-class destroyer escort, or $6 million for a Fletcher-class destroyer, in 1944 dollars.

Meet Bisbee

Consolidated Steel Company’s Los Angeles yard, built on 95 acres in Wilmington, was an emergency operation that was only started in 1941. In 1944, they were booming with 12,000 workers on eight shipways working rotating 10.5-hour shifts. Amazingly, the yard delivered 126 C1 Liberty ships, 10 big C2s, 32 Gilliam-class attack transports (APAs), and 18 Tacoma-class PFs.

Consolidated Steel’s Wilmington yard was in full tilt in 1944, with eight shipways to the right, eight floating Liberty ships in the center fitting out, and six APAs and six PFs fitting out to the left.

The 18 Tacomas built at Consolidated were in a block, PF-34 through PF-51, Yard Nos. 519 through 536. Sandwiched in these was our subject, named for the mining town of Bisbee, Arizona. Originally authorized as Patrol Gunboat, PG-154, she was reclassified as PF-46 before construction began. Laid down on 7 August 1943, she launched one month later on 7 September and commissioned at Terminal Island on 15 February 1944, her construction spanning 6 months, 8 days.

Launching of future USS Bisbee (PF-46), 7 September 1943,  Consolidated Steel Co., Ltd., Los Angeles. NHHC UA 462.27 Mary Murphy Collection.

She spent the next 10 weeks on trials, workups, and yard availability.

Bow-on view USS Bisbee (PF-46) off San Pedro, California, on 23 May 1944. 19-N-66005

Port view USS Bisbee (PF-46) off San Pedro, California, on 23 May 1944. 19-N-66004

Stern view of USS Bisbee (PF-46) off San Pedro, California, on 23 May 1944. Note her depth charge racks and throwers. 19-N-66008

Same as above, 19-N-66006.

Starboard view USS Bisbee (PF-46) off San Pedro, California, on 23 May 1944. 19-N-66003

Semper Paratus!

Of the 100 Tacomas issued hull numbers (PF-3 through PF-102), only four, PF-95 through PF-98, were canceled on the ways (all under contract to American SB in Ohio). Twenty-one others, PF-72 through PF-92, all built by Walsh-Kaiser in Rhode Island, were turned over to the Royal Navy, which renamed them after colonies.

That leaves 75 hulls that were put into Navy service. As the Navy, which operated PF-1 and PF-2, knew the poor handling and habitability of the River design, especially in hot climes, they decided all 75 would be manned by the Coast Guard instead.

Bisbee’s plankowner skipper was a regular, T/CDR John Peter German (USNA 1932), with a wardroom of seven junior officers, many on their first sea-going billet.

Before arriving aboard Bisbee at Terminal Island, many of her officers and crew had sailed on class leader Tacoma off San Pedro for three weeks to get a feel for their new home.

The crew, mostly USCGR ratings enlisted for the duration, included 30 “horse coxswains,” Texas cowboys who had originally signed up in 1942 for the mounted Beach Patrol along the sand dunes of the Gulf Coast. However, by late 1943, the Beach Patrol was being whittled down, and its members were given sea duty. Whomp whomp.

Just 25 of the crew, skipper included, were regulars, making up about an eighth of the complement.

Her crew, in USCG tradition, included a U.S. Public Health Service Medical Officer, Brooklyn native Domenic C. Calamia, PAS, rather than a Navy doctor. Medical Officers of the Public Health Service have been assigned to Coast Guard vessels since 1879, a tradition that endures today. The Commissioned Corps of the USPHS grew from 500 men and women to over 16,000 during WWII, including 660 of whom deployed with the USCG and on CG-manned vessels in every theatre, with three KIA.

At 1700 on 31 May 1944, Bisbee weighed anchor at San Pedro and sailed West to join the Fleet. On 11 June, she passed the equator, and 205 fresh Pollywogs became Shellbacks. Four days later, they crossed into the Domain of the Golden Dragon and on the 21st made their first foreign port, Noumena, in French New Caledonia.

She became the flagship of CortDiv43 (Capt. William J. Austerman, USCG), joining sisters USS Gallup (PF-47), Rockford (PF-48), Muskogee (PF-49), Carson City (PF-50), and Burlington (PF-51). Austerman was joined aboard by a flag staff of two officers (j.g.s) as staff Communications and Recognition officers, and four enlisted (a CY, a CRM, and two sailors).

Moving forward to Papua by way of Cairns, Australia, Bisbee, in the train of the 7th Fleet Amphibious Division, had her baptism of fire in the Biak campaign, bombarding enemy-held villages in the Wardo area for 28 minutes on 7 August, expending 119 rounds of 3-inch, 230 of 40mm, and 982 of 20mm. Her motor launch, with Army observers aboard, contacted local patrols ashore and took into custody seven Japanese prisoners of war for transport back to HQ.

On the 17th, steaming with sister Gallup off Mokmur, Biak, Bisbee supported dawn landings there and plastered the beach with 152 rounds of 3-inch, 820 of 40mm, and 2,460 of 20mm.

With Maj. Gen. Jens Anderson Doe, commander of the 41st Infantry Division (“Jungleers”), aboard Bisbee closed to the North Coast of Biak on 25 August 1944 and bombarded Japanese-held Cape Oboebari at the mouth of the Wardo River with over 4,800 assorted rounds in just 20 minutes while only 1,100 yards offshore. Then came a landing by a company of the 41st on Blue Beach to prevent an enemy escape.

While on ASW patrol in the waters of Geelvink Bay off the Western end of Noemfoor Island, New Guinea, on 1 September, Bisbee spotted Flight Sgt. John C. Keene, RAAF, bobbing around the Coral Sea in a rubber life raft. Keene had been afloat for a day; his bomber had been lost on 31 August. Delivering the waterlogged sergeant to shore, Bisbee caught orders to head for Seadler Harbor in the Admiralty Islands.

Then came the Philippines

On 18 October 1944, Bisbee, accompanied by the destroyers USS Lang (DD-399) and Ross (DD-563), along with the old “Green Dragon” USS Herbert (APD-22), escorted an element (Capt. Bull Simmons’ B company) of the Sixth Ranger Battalion with supplies and equipment to Homonhon Island’s Black Beach Two so that the LCVP-borne Rangers could destroy Japanese installations there which guarded Leyte Gulf and set up nav beacons. Importantly, this was the first island in the Philippines chain to be liberated.

Similar landings were made on Suluan (D company) and Dinagat Islands (A, C, E, and F companies), paving the way for the main invasion on 20 October. The operation was under TG 78.5, with the group commander, Capt. F.W. Benson, USN, using Bisbee as his flag.

Bisbee herself fired 99 rounds of 3-inch ashore that morning from 4,000 yards.

Early morning bombardment of Homonhon Island, Philippines, 18 October 1944, likely from USS Bisbee. US Army SC 260632

A patrol of Company F, 6th Rangers, investigates a native village on Dinagat Island during Phase One of the invasion of Leyte Gulf, Philippines.

The next morning, on 19 October, Bisbee assumed the role of Harbor Entrance Control Post, guiding hundreds of ships of Admiral Kinkaid’s landing force safely into Leyte Gulf through the mined waters of Surigao Strait. Later that day, she fended off the first of what would be several enemy aircraft over the next week, resulting in some close calls, including a torpedo from a Japanese Betty bomber passing just under the frigate’s stern.

Six days later, while still in her “box,” Bisbee’s crew watched the veteran battlewagons of RADM Jesse “Oley” Oldendorf’s TG.77.2 demolish VADM Shoji Nishimura’s force, with the battleships Fuso and Yamashiro sunk.

Her Philippines duty continued for 34 days until Bisbee caught orders back to Pearl Harbor for a refit, arriving there on 15 December, just in time for an “Aloha Christmas.”

On 6 January 1945, she was ordered north to the Aleutians for duty with the reassigned CortDiv43 in those frozen waters along the Bering Sea. For the next six months, they escorted Army transports and merchant vessels shuttling between Dutch Harbor, Adak, Amchitka, and Attu while doubling as an air-sea rescue guardship for Alaska-based Fleet Air Wing 4.

As the war wound down, she was given another short refit in Seattle and decommissioned on 26 August 1945 at Cold Bay, Alaska.

“All Hands” party program cover cartoon map, July 1945, by QMSC William R. Finlay, USCGR

Bisbee earned two battle stars for her WWII service, for the Cape Sansapor operation in Biak (12 Aug 44 – 19 Aug 44, and 22 Aug 44 – 31 Aug 44) as well as the Leyte landings (12 Oct 44 – 22 Nov 44).

Caviar Dreams and Bolshevik Screams

The day after she decommissioned in Alaska, Bisbee was handed over to Soviet custody as part of the 149 vessels transferred, on loan, under Project Hula, an initiative that was designed to equip the Red Banner Pacific Fleet for planned Soviet invasions of southern Sakhalin and the Japanese Kurile Islands.

Her name changed to the unromantic EK-17; she was commissioned into Soviet service some 80 years ago this week, on 5 September 1945, and would remain in their custody for the rest of the decade.

American and Soviet commanding officers of the first ten frigates transferred at Cold Bay, July 1945. Commander John J. Hutson, Jr., USCG, the senior training officer, is seated, second from the left. Lieutenant E. H. Burt, USCGR, commanding Coronado (PF 38), is seated, second from the right.

The 28 Tacoma-class patrol frigates, unwanted by Big Navy, were still the largest, most heavily armed, and most expensive ships transferred during Hula. Even at that, they had been carefully sanitized to remove any equipment that was considered sensitive before transfer.

At least eight Tacomas saw combat with the Red Navy’s 10th Frigate Division in August, invading the Kuriles and Korea, with one even earning a “Guards” title.

A quick rundown:

EK-1 (Charlottesville, PF-25). Transferred to the USSR on 07/13/1945 and on 07/23/1945 became part of the Pacific Fleet. Participated in the landing at Seishin on 15 August 1945. Returned to the USA on 17 October 1949.

EK-2 (Long Beach, PF-34) Transferred to the USSR on 12 July 1945 and joined the Pacific Fleet on 23 July 1945. Participated in the landing of troops in Seishin on 14.08.1945 and Maoku on 20.08.1945. On 26.08.1945, he was awarded the “Guards” title. On 17.02.1950, he was returned to the USA.

EK-3 (Belfast, PF-35) Transferred to the USSR on 12.07.1945 and joined the Pacific Fleet on 23.07.1945. Participated in the landing of troops in Seishin on 15.08.1945 and Genzan (Wonsan) on 21.08.1945. Wrecked in 1948, used as a floating training hulk until 1960.

EK-4 (Machias, PF-53) Transferred to the USSR on 13.07.1945 and on 23.07.1945 entered the Pacific Fleet. Participated in the Kuril landing operation from August 18 to September 1, 1945. Returned to the United States in October 1949.

EK-5 (San Pedro, PF-37) Transferred to the USSR on July 12, 1945, and joined the Pacific Fleet on July 23, 1945. Participated in the landing at Racine (Najin) on 12.08.1945. Returned to the USA on 17.10.1949.

EK-6 (Glendale, PF-36) Transferred to the USSR on 13.07.1945 and on 23.07.1945 entered into the Pacific Fleet. Returned to the USA on 16.11.1949.

EK-7 (Sandusky, PF-54) Transferred to the USSR on July 13, 1945, and entered service with the Pacific Fleet on July 23, 1945. Participated in the landing of troops at Yuki (Ungi) on August 12, 1945. Returned to the USA on November 15, 1949.

EK-8 (Coronado, PF-38) Transferred to USSR on 13.07.1945 and joined the Pacific Fleet on 23.23.07.1945. Participated in the landing at Seishin (Chongjin) on 15.08.1945. Returned to USA on 16.10.1949.

EK-9 (Allentown, PF-52) Transferred to USSR on 13.07.1945 and joined the Pacific Fleet on 23.07.1945. Participated in the landing of troops at Yuki (Ungi) on 12.08.1945 and Seishin (Chongjin) on 15.08.1945. Returned to the USA on 15.10.1949.

EK-10 (Ogden, PF-39) Transferred to the USSR on 13.07.1945 and on 23.07.1945 entered into the Pacific Fleet. Returned to the USA on November 15, 1949.

EK-11 (Tacoma, PF-3) Transferred to the USSR on August 16, 1945, and joined the Pacific Fleet on August 26, 1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on 16 October 1949.

EK-12 (Pasco, PF-6) Transferred to the USSR on 16 August 1945 and joined the Pacific Fleet on 26 August 1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on 16 October 1949.

EK-13 (Hawkeye, PF-5) Transferred to the USSR on 16 August 1945 and joined the Pacific Fleet on 26 August 1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on November 1, 1949.

EK-14 (Albuquerque, PF-7) Transferred to the USSR on August 17, 1945, and entered service with the Pacific Fleet on August 26, 1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on November 15, 1949.

EK-15 (Everett, PF-8) Transferred to USSR on 17.08.1945 and joined the Pacific Fleet on 26.08.1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to USA on 15.11.1949.

EK-16 (Sasalito, PF-4) Transferred to USSR in August 1945 and joined the Pacific Fleet on 26.08.1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on 11/01/1949

EK-17 (Bisbee, PF-46) Transferred to USSR 27.08.1945 and joined Pacific Fleet 5.09.1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to USA 1.11.1949

EK-18 (Rockford, PF-48) Transferred to USSR 27.08.1945 and joined Pacific Fleet 5.09.1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on November 1, 1949.

EK-19 (Muskogee, PF-49) Transferred to the USSR on August 27, 1945, and on September 5, 1945, entered service with the Pacific Fleet. Did not participate in combat operations. Returned to the USA on November 1, 1949.

EK-20 (Carson City, PF-50) Transferred to the USSR on August 30, 1945, and entered service with the Pacific Fleet on September 5, 1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on October 31, 1949.

EK-21 (Burlington, PF-51) Transferred to the USSR on 27.08.1945 and on 05.09.1945 entered into the Pacific Fleet. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on 14.11.1949.

EK-22 (Gallup, PF-47) Transferred to the USSR in August 1945 and on 05.09.1945 entered into the Pacific Fleet. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on November 14, 1949.

EK-25 (Bayonne, PF-21) Transferred to the USSR in September 1945 and entered service with the Pacific Fleet on September 9, 1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on November 14, 1949.

EK-26 (Gloucester, PF-22) Transferred to the USSR on 4.09.1945 and joined the Pacific Fleet on 25.09.1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on 31.10.1949.

EK-27 (Poughkeepsie, PF-26) Transferred to the USSR on 2.10.1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on 31 October 1949.

EK-28 (Newport, PF-27) Transferred to the USSR on 10 September 1945 and joined the Pacific Fleet on 25 September 1945. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on 11/14/1949.

EK-29 (Bath, PF-55) Transferred to the USSR on 13 July 1945 and joined the Pacific Fleet on 25 September 1945. Did not participate in combat operations. Returned to the USA on 15 November 1949.

EK-30 (Evansville, PF-70) Transferred to the USSR on 4.09.1945 and on 25.09.1945 entered into the Pacific Fleet. Did not participate in combat. Returned to the USA on 17.02.1950.

The 27 Tacomas still operational five years later were finally retrograded back to U.S. Navy custody in late 1949-early 1950 and were promptly laid up in Yokosuka.

Dozens of ex-Soviet Tacoma-class PFs were laid up at Yokosuka in January 1951. NH 97295

During the same immediate post-WWII period, the Navy had transferred more than two dozen other decommissioned Tacomas in its custody all over the world, with hulls going to Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, France, Mexico, the Netherlands, and Peru.

While the Navy didn’t really want them back, they damned sure didn’t want the Russkis to have them.

Jane’s 1946 listing for the class, noting 41 hulls with many, marked by an asterisk, being in Soviet hands, with “no word on their return.” The rest had already been handed out to overseas allies.

In the Navy!

Ironically, when the North Koreans jumped over the 38th Parallel to attack their brothers to the South in June 1950, the 27 laid up ex-USCG, ex-Red Navy Tacomas in Yokosuka suddenly became valuable. After all, they were simple ships by design, were low mileage (the Soviets apparently didn’t leave port much in the late 1940s), and, most importantly, were forward deployed.

In all, 15 Tacomas were recommissioned for Korean War duty, 13 of which were drawn from the rusty and beat-up rat-infested ex-Soviet boats in caretaker status at Yokosuka.

Refurbished at Yokosuka in August and September, Bisbee was recommissioned on 18 October 1950 and served the next five months continuously, arriving off Wonsan on 26 November to join TG 95.2 and only tapping out on April Fool’s Day 1951 for a refit. Much of this was on the gun line.

Back on the line on 8 July 1951, she would serve through 25 September of that year and then fill a third stint off Korea from 29 October 1951 over the holidays until 23 January 1952.

By that time, the use of PFs off the Korean coast was curtailed as the ships were backfilled by more capable destroyers and DEs.

While in action in Korea, Bisbee earned five battle stars.

  • K-2        Communist China Aggression (3-24 Dec 50, 28 Dec 50-4 Jan 51)
  • K-4        First U. N. Counter Offensive (24 Feb-6 Mar 51, 24-29 Mar 51)
  • K-5        Communist China Spring Offensive (22 Jul-3 Aug 51)
  • K-6        U. N. Summer-Fall Offensive (19 Jul 51, 15-16 Aug 51, 23-25 Aug 51, 13-17 Sep 51, 21-23 Sep 51)
  • K-8        Korean Defensive 1952 (13-19 Jan 52)

South America Bound

On 12 February 1952 at Sasebo, Bisbee was decommissioned for a second time.

While 18 of her sisters in Japan went on to the newly established Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force, five went to the South Korean Navy.

JMSDF Kusu (Tree)-class frigates, former Tacoma-class patrol frigates, complete with rebooted IJN Rising Sun Flag. These ships were in extremely poor condition when transferred, having been Lend-Leased to the Soviets late in WWII and only returned in 1949, then placed in storage at Yokosuka. Notably, footage of them in JMSDF service appeared in 1954’s original Godzilla. While loaned to the Japanese military for initially five years, they were all eventually transferred outright and continued to serve into the 1970s.

Two (Glendale and Gallup) went south to Thailand while the final pair, Bisbee and Burlington, the latter also a fellow member of CortDiv43 during WWII, were sent around the world to join the Colombian Navy under the Mutual Defense Assistance Program.

Bisbee became ARC Capitan Tono (F 06, later F-12) while Burlington became ARC Almirante Brión (F-14).

ARC Capitan Tono (F 06), dressed on arrival in Colombian waters, 1952

They would serve with their former USCG-manned classmates ex-USS Groton, which had transferred in 1947.

Secretary of the Navy Dan A. Kimball (left) signs the Memorandum of Understanding transferring USS Bisbee (PF-46) to the Colombian Government, in his Pentagon office, 16 November 1951. In the center is Colombian Ambassador Don Dipriano Restrepo-Jaramillo. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Thomas G. Mann is at right. Bisbee served in the Colombian Navy as Capitan Tono. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-708424

Colombia Almirante Padilla class PFs: Bisbee, Groton, Burlington, 1960 Janes

Captain Tono (Columbian frigate, ex-USS Bisbee, PF -46) off Coco Solo, Canal Zone, 6 July 1955. NH 50604

Same as above, NH 81516

Bow on, NH 81515

She continued to serve until 1963, when she was scrapped.

Epilogue

Today, little remains of Bisbee that I can find other than the images in this post and her records in the National Archives.

She has a wall plaque at the National Museum of the Pacific War in Texas.

In Bisbee, Arizona, a large, scale model was in City Hall until it was destroyed in a fire in 2017. The Copper Queen Mine Museum outside of town maintains a similar model of our frigate, along with other relics.

One of her WWII USCG crew, LT (j.g.) John Bagdley, penned a sketch book on his service aboard, 2007’s “Frigate Men: Life on Coast Guard Frigate.” 

Her plankowner skipper, CDR German, who guided his frigate through New Guinea and the Philippines, remained in USCG service after the war and in 1959 was the captain of the famed icebreaker USCGC Mackinaw. He passed in 1963, aged just 55, and is buried at Arlington.

As for the Tacomas, class leader PF-3, on whose deck Bisbee’s crew trained before taking to their own ship, is preserved in South Korea, having served in that country’s navy until 1973. Meanwhile, both the old Glendale and Gallup, both of which served with Bisbee in the Pacific and under the Red Star, are preserved in Thailand.

HTMS Prasae (PF-2), ex-USS Gallup (PF-47).

Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive

***

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Siriuspatruljen at 75

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Danish polar explorer Ejnar Mikkelsen is perhaps most famous to the internet for this image, snapped in 1912 after he and a partner survived two winters marooned and trapped in a cottage in northernmost Greenland:

To be fair to Mikkelsen, an explorer, author (eight books, numerous studies and reports), and administrator (he spent two decades as the Royal Inspector of East Greenland), was a pretty together guy who deserves his monuments and accolades.

Mikkelsen when not looking so haggard.

Well, he has returned to the frozen island in a sense in the form of the 1,750-ton Knud Rasmussen-class patrol vessel HDMS Ejnar Mikkelsen (P571), which is scouting the famed explorer’s old stomping grounds, which has since 1974 been known as the Northeast Greenland National Park. Covering about a fourth of the island, the park is some 375,000 sq. mi. in size, making it larger than 166 countries.

An interesting thing about Mikkelsen’s patrol of the NGNP is that it is carrying members of the Navy’s Sled Patrol Sirius (Slædepatruljen Sirius), aiding the elite unit in its summer sovereignty patrols and sending them ashore via small boat.

Mikkelsen, the explorer, had a role in the creation of Sirius, which was a carryover from a WWII sled patrol set up by the Greenland government while he was trapped back in occupied Denmark. The explorer was still Royal Inspector when the current patrol was rebooted 75 years ago this month.

The patrol and surveillance service was originally established to prevent unwanted activity during wartime and to fulfill Denmark’s sovereignty obligations through the surveillance service in peacetime. The patrol carries out its tasks year-round, using dog sleds in the winter months and patrol vessels in the summer.

Their traditional armament consists of the M1917 Enfield bolt-action rifle in .30-06 (typed as the Gevær M/53-17) and the Glock Gen 3 G20 in 10mm Auto. However, they have also been seen recently practicing with suppressor-equipped Gevær M/10 and Denmark’s Colt Canada-made C8/M4s.

Since its first sortie from Ella Ø Station on 18 August 1950, Sirius has mushed 773,108 miles in the northeastern part of Greenland. This is equivalent to 31 times around the world– and all of it with dog sleds in a high Arctic climate.

They use about 95 locally procured Greenlandic sled dogs (grønlandske slædehund) with new fur-clad talent scouted every year from around the island by a Navy veterinarian to keep the pack at its fittest.

Sirius consists of six sled teams (plans are to beef this up to eight teams in the next year), each consisting of two men and 11 to 15 dogs. These dozen men are supported by another dozen station personnel (stationsspecialister) at the four remote bases who handle support/meteorological/radio duties, giving the whole operation a force of 24. When traveling, each sled team carries approximately 770 to 1,100 pounds of gear, depending on the distance to the next depot.

Running 26-month tours, each sled team contains a senior member, the patrol leader (patruljefører), who has already “walked the beat” for 13 months and has mastered glaciers, frostbite, and polar bears, teamed with a junior member fresh out of training assigned to learn the ropes.

Speaking of training, before a new patrol member sets foot in Greenland, they have to pass a grueling 10-month Sirius Forskole course run by the Jaegerkorpset commando corps in North Jutland which typically starts with 48 carefully prescreened (marching and orientation tests, swim tests, rigorous health and psychological screening) volunteers and is whittled down to the best six over the evolution.

Sirius has its headquarters at Daneborg (over winter contingent 12, originally established in 1943 by the USCGC Storis with an Army weather detachment as Station OYK), and maintains personnel at Station Nord, Grønnedal, and Mestersvig, each with a 3-to-5 member overwinter team.

The only population in the region, other than the Sirius teams, their support personnel, and the ~400 inhabitants of the hunting village of Ittoqqortoormiit at the base of the park, are at three government-owned research stations at Brønlundhus (run by the University of Copenhagen), the Danmarkshavn weather station, and Zackenberg (run by Aarhus University). The research stations may sport as many as a few hundred transient expedition members in the summer, dropping down to a skeleton crew over winter.

Station Nord/Villum Research Station is the furthest north manned Sirius station, at some 700 miles overland from Thule (Pituffik Space Base, the DoD’s northernmost installation). It is also celebrating its 50th anniversary this month, established in 1975, and has been permanently manned since then.

Station Nord today. 

Station personnel at the four Sirius bases, usually assorted Navy mechanics and maintenance rates, have to undergo a similar screening process and a shorter seven-month training school as well as make the same 26-month tour of duty, teaming up senior stationsspecialister with junior ones on a rotating basis.

Sirius also utilizes more than 50 unmanned depot huts scattered across the patrolled area. The nominally polar bear-proof caches are resupplied by small boats in the southern area, and by aircraft in the northern part.

‘Investigate probable spacecraft radar contact bearing 160, distance 25 miles’

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It happened 60 years ago today.

21 August 1965: Recovery of part of the first stage of NASA’s Gemini V first stage Titan II booster, the first to ever be retrieved from space, was made by the Forrest Sherman-class destroyer USS Dupont (DD-941).

NASA photo

The booster was used to launch the third crewed Gemini flight from Cape Kennedy, Florida, and re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere 450 miles Northeast of the launch site. Spotted by a passing aircraft, Dupont was bird-dogged to the floating fragment.

The ship’s crew managed to lug the partially flattened 27-foot 15,000-pound booster section aboard, complete with its (empty) nitrogen tetroxide tank, and return it to shore a week later, where it was later returned to Martin’s plant in Baltimore and found to be in “remarkable condition.”

As noted by her deck log:

While the manned capsule, with Air Force Col. Gordon Cooper and Navy LCDR Charles Conrad aboard, was “officially” recovered by the aircraft carrier USS Lake Champlain (CV-39), Dupont, as part of the 19-ship recovery task force, remained busy during Gemini V’s weeklong trip– at the time the longest crewed space mission.

After recovering the booster, Dupont spent the next day drilling with an unoccupied Gemini boilerplate capsule she had aboard, then steamed to NAVSTA Bermuda for a short port call before heading towards Norfolk, stopping on the way on the 29th to “investigate probable spacecraft radar contact bearing 160, distance 25 miles.”

Cooper and Conrad had returned, and Dupont was the closest vessel to splashdown.

“Escorting Gemini V to USS Lake Champlain.” USS Dupont was the closest ship for the recovery of Gemini 5. Navy divers from the destroyer recovered the astronauts and transferred them via helicopter to USS Lake Champlain. Painting, Watercolor on Paper; by Luis Llorente; 1965; Unframed Dimensions 30H X 22W Accession #: 88-162-CO

88-162-CT These sketches show the sequence of retrieving the command module – recovery by the UDT team Gemini 5

Dupont made Norfolk’s Pier 20 on the morning of the 31st, wrapping her month.

Just a normal week in the life of a 1960s tin can.

Commissioned in 1957, she was the third (and last) destroyer named for Mexican War hero RADM Samuel Francis Du Pont. Besides the Cuban Missile Crisis quarantine and her work for NASA, she served three stints on the gunline off Vietnam, firing over 50,000 rounds of 5-inch shells in NGFS.

USS Du Pont (DD-941) underway in 1967

Given an SCB 251 update with ASROC and improved sensors, she continued to serve and clocked in again for NGFS off Lebanon in 1982.

Aerial starboard bow view of the destroyer USS Du Pont (DD-941) off the coast of Lebanon, during a multinational peacekeeping operation. The ship was deployed here after a confrontation took place between Israeli forces and the Palestine Liberation Organization. PH3 R.P. Fitzgerald, DN-ST-83-02991 / National Archive# NN33300514 2005-06-30

DuPont was decommissioned on 4 March 1983 and, after a decade in mothballs, was sold for scrap.

Speaking of scrap, the Gemini V booster section, the only recovered non-spacecraft launch item in the U.S. collection until the Shuttle program’s boosters in 1981, is preserved at the Space Force Museum in Florida after being at Redstone Arsenal since the 1970s.

Warship Wednesday, August 20, 2025: Sortie Queen

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Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 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

If you enjoy my always ad-free Warship Wednesday content, you can support it by buying me a cup of joe at https://buymeacoffee.com/lsozi As Henk says: “Warship Coffee – no sugar, just a pinch of salt!”

Warship Wednesday, August 20, 2025: Sortie Queen

Photo believed to have been taken by a Sgt. Nutter, 4 August 1950. 111-SC-345275.

Above we see a Grumman F9F-2B Panther from Fighter Squadron 112 (VF-112), “Fighting One Twelve,” on the flight deck of the Essex-class fleet carrier USS Philippine Sea (CV-47), during operations off Korea, circa August 1950.

Some 75 years ago this month, this oft-forgotten flattop proved herself to the men holding the embattled Pusan Perimeter in America’s most forgotten war.

And she was just getting started.

Meet the Philippine Sea

Originally to be dubbed USS Wright after the aviation pioneer, our ship was instead the first named for the epic “Marianas Turkey Shoot” battle that sprawled across the Philippine Sea in June 1944.

The future CV-47 was laid down by Bethlehem Steel in Quincy, Massachusetts, on 19 August 1944, just two months after the sea clash. She was launched three days after the Japanese surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay, sponsored by the wife of Kentucky Democratic Senator Albert Benjamin “Happy” Chandler, a man who only narrowly missed becoming FDR’s running mate to some fellow from Missouri earlier that summer.

Launching an Essex-class carrier, the future USS Philippine Sea (CV-47), Bethlehem Steel Co., Quincy, Massachusetts, Wednesday, 5 September 1945. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Record Group 181, National Archives Identifier 38330011.

Incomplete and with no need for more hulls to push on Japan, she could have easily been written off and canceled along with other Essex class sisters such as the would-be USS Reprisal (CV-35) and Iwo Jima (CV-46), which had been laid down before and after Philippine Sea but never launched. The fact that CV-47 was afloat and not still on the builder’s ways at the end of the war probably saved her from an early scrapping. FDR had already canceled CV-50 through CV-55 in March 1945, before they were formally ordered.

USS Philippine Sea nonetheless continued her fitting out process, effectively a replacement for the soon-to-be decommissioned USS Saratoga (CV-3), which was consigned to the Atomic tests at Bikini Atoll and stricken in August 1946.

Philippine Sea commissioned 11 May 1946, Capt. (later RADM) Delbert Strother Cornwell (USNA 1922), in command. Cornwell knew flattops, had earned his wings in 1925, and commanded the jeep carriers USS Nassau (CVE-16) and Suwanee (CVE-27) during the war, earning a Legion of Merit to go along with the latter’s Presidential Unit Citation for operations off Okinawa.

USS Philippine Sea (CV-47) anchored at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, during her 1946 shakedown cruise. National Naval Aviation Museum photo, 1996.488.114.055.

After a month-long shakedown in the Caribbean with the Bearcats, Helldivers, and Avengers of CVG-20 in October 1946, she returned to Boston to join Task Force 68 and prepare the Navy’s big Antarctic Expedition, Operation Highjump.

She would operate aircraft that the designers of CV-9 could never have anticipated.

Amazing High Jump Antics

Cruise Chart used during Operation High Jump, which was the U.S. Navy’s Expedition to the Antarctic during 1946-1947 and was headed by Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, USN. Collection of Mr. Gerald E. Foreman

For her part of Highjump– which included Byrd’s command ship USS Mount Olympus (AGC-8), two PBM Mariner carrying seaplane tenders, two destroyers, a submarine, two helicopter-carrying icebreakers, two oilers and two cargo ships– rather than a traditional airwing, Philippine Sea carried six huge Douglas R4D-5L Skytrain (Douglas DC-3/C-47) transports on deck along with 57 tons of construction material that was to be used to improve Byrd’s “Little America” base.

The idea was to launch these 29,000-pound 27-passenger aircraft, with their 63-foot wingspan, ashore to help conquer Antarctica. Keep in mind that Doolittle’s B-25Bs were only marginally bigger (67-foot span, 33,000-pound TO weight).

Equipped with skis for operating from the ice cap and assisted by two JATO bottles, CDR William Hawkes (with Rear Admiral Richard Byrd aboard) flew the first of the R4Ds off the deck on 29 January– first carrier take-off for the R4D. Two aircraft made it to Little America that day, while the other four followed on the 30th.

“On 29 January 1947, while still 660 miles off the Antarctic continent, our carrier launched the first of six R4D Skytrain transport aircraft to Little America. CDR William M. Hawkes piloted the first plane, which carried RADM Richard E. Byrd Jr. as a passenger. The aircraft used JATO to take off, and skis attached to their landing gear facilitated ice cap operations. The event marked the first carrier launches for Skytrains.”

All six made it ashore, and these planes, operated along with the six water-borne PBM flying boats for 24 days, logged 650 hours of flight time on photographic mapping flights covering 1,500,000 sq. mi of the interior and 5,500 miles of coastline of the continent of Antarctica, much of it had never before been photographed. Over 70,000 images were captured.

As for the 57 tons of construction material, the carrier cross-decked it over to the icebreaker USCGC Northwind for delivery ashore.

Original caption: Cargo being transferred from the USS Philippine Sea to the Coast Guard Ice-Breaking Cutter Northwind, on Operation Highjump, the Navy’s venture of exploration to the Antarctic. The Coast Guard Ice-Breaker has the task of opening lanes through heavy ice when other vessels with thinner plating cannot force their way through. NARA 26-G-5062

At least a dozen Skytrains, most WWII vets, went on to serve in Antarctica with the “Puckered Penguins” of VX-6 well into the 1960s. One, BuNo12418 (MSN 9358) ex-USAAF 42-23496, “Que Sera Sera,” on Halloween 1956 during Deep Freeze II, brought the first humans to the South Pole since Capt. Robert F. Scott of the Royal Navy reached it in 1912. Its co-pilot for that record-setting mission was the same Bill Hawkes who first flew a Skytrain off the Philippine Sea in 1947.

The U.S. Navy Douglas R4D-5L Que Sera Sera (BuNo 12418, c/n 9358, ex USAAF 42-23496) landing at the South Pole as seen from a U.S. Air Force Douglas C-124 Globemaster. This aircraft was the first aircraft to land on the South Pole on 31 October 1956. Crew: pilot LCdr. Conrad S. Shinn, copilot Capt. William. M. Hawkes; navigator, Lt. John Swadener; crew chief, AD2 John P. Strider; radioman AT2 William Cumbie; Rear Adm. George J. Dufek, Commander Task Force 43 and Commander Naval Support Forces, Antarctica; and Capt. Douglas L. L. Cordiner, Commanding Officer of Antarctic Development Squadron 6 (VX-6). These were the first people to stand at the South Pole since January 1912. The aircraft is today on display at the National Museum of Naval Aviation at Pensacola.

Back to our carrier, in warmer climes

Post-Highjump, the Philippine Sea was soon to carry a series of airwings that could have come right out of the last days of WWII– with the addition of helicopters. She did this while supporting early jets off and on as well.

Returning stateside, she began a relationship with CVAG-9, whose wing included Bearcats, Helldivers, photo/night Hellcats, Avengers, and HO3S-1 whirlybirds. She carried the wing for a short March-May 1947 Caribbean cruise, followed by a February-June 1948 Mediterranean deployment. She made a second Med cruise with the similarly equipped fighter-heavy CVG-7 in January-May 1949, which traded Helldivers for Corsairs.

USS Philippine Sea (CV-47) exercising at sea with another carrier and a heavy cruiser, circa 1948. Note: “E” painted on her stack, location of hull number below the after end of her island; and HO3S helicopter on her flight deck. 80-G-706709

FH-1 Phantom of Fighter Squadron (VF) 171 pictured on approach for recovery on board USS Philippine Sea (CV 47), 24 August 1948. Only 62 of these early jet fighters were produced by McDonnell in the late 1940s and would lead to the development of the much more prolific F2H Banshee. NNAM

Accustomed to the roar of aircraft, crew members work on an anti-aircraft gun aboard USS Philippine Sea (CV-47) as an SB2C-5 Helldiver of Bombing Squadron 9A (VA-9A) roars overhead after launch from the carrier in 1948. This was one of the last carrier deployments with the Helldiver, as it was retired in favor of the Skyraider in June 1949.

USS Philippine Sea (CV-47) looking forward over Mt. 52 (her second 5″/38 twin mount) at embarked CVG-7 aircraft, while the ship lies off Sicily on 29 January 1949. Grumman F8F-1 “Bearcat” fighters are spotted forward. Note Mt. Aetna in the background, also other ships. Identifiable: USS Ellyson (DMS-19) (L) Italian battleship; either Andrea Doria or Caio Duilio. 80-G-402219

USS Philippine Sea (CV 47), moored in Naples, Italy. Photograph released February 6, 1949. 80-G-399785

Then came one more Caribbean cruise in September-November 1949, with CVG-1 embarked.

F8F Bearcat USS Philippine Sea (CV 47) 28 Feb 1950, NNAM

Then came…

Korea

On 24 May 1950, Philippine Sea shifted homeports from the East Coast to the West, arriving at San Diego to join the Pacific Fleet. A month and a day later, North Korean forces swept over the 38th Parallel into neighboring South Korea.

Just ten days into this new war, Philippine Sea left San Diego on 5 July with 95 aircraft of CVG-2 aboard: 32 F9F Panthers, 28 F4U-4B Corsairs, 16 AD-4 Skyraiders. Smaller dets included radar-equipped night fighters (four F4U-5Ns and four AD-4Ns), two F4U-4P photo birds, four AD-3Ws Skyraider early-warning radar pickets, four AD-4Q Skyraider electronic countermeasures aircraft, and a HO3S whirlybird.

The ship’s Disbursing officer drew $1 million in U.S. currency, enough to cover four months’ pay allowances. The ship’s intel shop ordered 150 each blood hits, cloth survival charts, and “pointee-talkies” in both Korean and Chinese for aircrews.

Speeding across the Pacific and stopping in Hawaii for eight rushed days of carrier quals, she arrived off Korea with her sister, USS Valley Forge, as flagship of Task Force 77, on 5 August. Offensive air operations commenced at 1212K, with the launching of a strike group winch had as its mission, the destruction of a railway bridge and two highway bridges near the town of Iri (Iksan), South Korea, in an attempt to halt the oncoming enemy forces.

Between 4 August and 6 September 1950, the Philippine Sea lost four Corsairs and three Panthers in high-tempo ops, with four aviators killed. Running as many as 140 sorties a day, they fired over 351,690 machine gun rounds in strafing runs, along with 4,284 3.5- and 5-inch rockets.

They dropped no less than 3,094 bombs:

Back on the line from 12-21 September 1950 after a short stint in Sasebo, her airwing pulled 868 sorties in those eight days, firing 112,350 rounds in strafing runs along with 2,133 rockets and 748 bombs. They also dropped their first napalm, around the Pusan Perimeter, some 5,780 pounds of jellied gasoline made with  Navy Type I powder used in Mk12 (150-gallon) and Mk5 drop (300-gallon) tanks repurposed for the task. Later, thousands of Japanese-made drop tanks were sourced specifically for this purpose.

And so it went, day after day.

F9F Panther of VF-111 in flight over Korea, from USS Philippine Sea

USS Philippine Sea (CV-47). A Grumman F9F-2 Panther of Fighter Squadron 111 (VF-111) being moved by a flight deck tractor, during operations off Korea, circa 19 October 1950. Other planes parked nearby are Vought F4U-4B Corsairs. 80-G-420925

USS Philippine Sea (CV-47). Grumman F9F-2 Panther from Fighter Squadron 112 (VF-112) on the flight deck, during operations off Korea, circa 19 October 1950. Note spectators on “Vultures Row,” the island walkways. 80-G-420946

Besides the Panthers, these bad early days in Korea saw the old “gull-winged angel of death,” the F4U-4B Corsair clock in and perform brilliantly.

John D. Robinson, AO2, USN, of Imperial Beach, CA, pushes a bomb dolly loaded with 100-pound anti-personnel bombs past a partially loaded VF-113 F4U-4B on the flight deck of the USS Philippine Sea (CV-47) as aircraft are made ready for a strike on Korea. NNAM

Vought F4U-4B Corsair Fighters, of VF-113 (300 numbers) and VF-114 “Executioners,” (400 numbers) prepare for launching aboard USS Philippine Sea (CV-47), during strikes on North Korean targets, circa 19 October 1950. Note small bombs, with fuse extensions, on the planes’ wings. 80-G-420926

USS Philippine Sea (CV-47). Ordnance men loading bombs on a Vought F4U-4B Corsair of Fighter Squadron 114 (VF-114), during operations off Korea, circa 19 October 1950. This aircraft is Bureau No. 63034. F4U-4 in the right background has tail code “PP”, indicating that it belongs to squadron VC-61. 80-G-420921

USS Philippine Sea (CV-47). Vought F4U-4B “Corsair” of Fighter Squadron 114 (VF-114) taking off for a mission over Korea, circa 19 October 1950. Other F4Us are following. 80-G-420967.

Vought F4U-4B Corsair, of Fighter Squadron 114 (VF-114). Returns to USS Philippine Sea (CV-47) following a strike on North Korean targets, circa 19 October 1950. 80-G-420942.

Carrier Philippine Sea (CV 47), ordancemen load a 500-lb. bomb on a F4U-4 Corsair, Korea, September 5, 1950 NNAM

One of the Philippine Sea’s F4U-4B Corsairs from VF-113 (Stingers) over Inchon, 15 Sept 1950, with the battlewagon USS Missouri below. NH 97076

And of course, the mother beautiful AD Skyraider, which was capable of carrying much more ordnance than the Corsair.

USS Philippine Sea (CV-47). Ordnancemen hauling bombs on the carrier’s flight deck, preparing planes for attacks on enemy targets in Korea, circa 19 October 1950. A Douglas AD-4 Skyraider of Attack Squadron 115 (VA-115) is behind them, with small bombs on its wing racks. 80-G-420919.

USS Philippine Sea (CV-47). Douglas AD Skyraider of Attack Squadron 115 (VF-115) ready for launching on a strike mission against Korean targets, circa 19 October 1950. 80-G-420934.

As well as some of the first helicopter-borne sea-based CSAR operations in military history by the Sikorski HO3S-1s of Helicopter Utility Squadron One (HU-1).

HO3S-1s of HU-1 on board USS Philippine Sea (CV-47) during operations off Korea, circa 19 October 1950. Crewman is backing off the vacuum before starting the helicopter’s engine. Note the aircraft carrier in the distance, likely Valley Forge. 80-G-420949

Sikorski HO3S-1 helicopter, of Helicopter Utility Squadron One (HU-1). Hovers near USS Philippine Sea (CV-47), awaiting the return of aircraft from missions over Korea, circa 19 October 1950. Crewmen foreground are standing by their stations on one of the ship’s 40mm gun mounts. Note the screening destroyer in the middle distance. 80-G-420950.

During strikes on bridges over the Yalu River, on 9 November 1950, LCDR William T. Amen, the skipper of VF-111 off USS Philippine Sea (CV 47), scored the Navy’s first MiG-15 in a jet vs. jet engagement in Naval Aviation history. Ironically, he did it in a borrowed Panther from rival VF-112.

The high tempo of the ops required a huge logistical support with regular unreps. The war of shifting avgas and ordnance from deck to deck to keep the sorties rolling.

USS Philippine Sea (CV-47) receives bombs from USS Mount Katmai (AE-16) during underway replenishment off Korea, 29 November 1950. Note crewmen standing in the carrier’s forward hangar bay, and Grumman F9F-2 Panther fighters and a LeTourneau crane parked on her flight deck. Crewmen on Mount Katmai are wearing cold-weather clothing. A few days after this photo was taken, Philippine Sea commenced a period of close-support operations in the vicinity of the Chosin Reservoir. 80-G-439879

USS Philippine Sea (CV-47), 250-pound bombs being loaded under the wings of a Douglas AD Skyraider of Attack Squadron 65, during operations off the Korean coast. A cart of 5-inch rockets and a second cart of 250-pound bombs are also present. 80-G-439902

USS Philippine Sea (CV-47) members of the carrier’s Ordnance Department pose with decorated 2000-pound bombs, during Korean War operations, 9 March 1951. Messages painted on the bombs are: Greetings from PhilCee; Happy Easter; and Listen! To This One it will Kill you. Among the planes parked in the background are F4U-4Bs of Fighter Squadron 113 (VF-113). 80-G-439895

The weather in Korea in winter can be unforgiving, as the deck crews on CV-47 found out.

The use of rockets in extreme freezing weather was curtailed as the motors failed to ignite. It was found that napalm wouldn’t gel at the known rates at temperatures below 60 degrees F, and the ship’s ordnance men and officers with a chemistry background had to improvise a system onboard using low-pressure steam, heated gasoline (!), and flexible steel and copper tubing looped inside 55-gallon drums to get it to mix. The 20mm cannons of the Corsairs and Panthers had heaters, but it was found out that their lifespan was only about 30 hours. Even then, the freezing of condensed water on the gun parts and the ammunition trays and cans caused repeated jams. Crews liberally took to using muzzle tape. The hydraulic system on the F9Fs became sluggish with congealed hydrolube at low temperatures to the point that the landing gear took 85 seconds to lower and lock into place.

Still, across 1 November-31 December 1950, her group dropped 4,547 bombs of all types, mainly 100-pound GPs in close air support roles over the push into North Korea and the fight for the Chosin.

As detailed by ADM David L. McDonald in 1964, the four carrier airwings available to the U.S. X Corps (1st MarDiv, 3rd U.S. Inf Div, 7th U.S. InfDiv) at Chosin was key to preserving the force:
For 16 successive days, the surrounded Tenth Corps received on the order of 220 close support sorties a day with a record peak of 315 on one day at the height of the breakout. Each carrier-based sortie remained on station from one to 1.5 hours and made between five and nine attack passes. Over three-quarters of these sorties were provided by carriers, and it is unlikely that the Tenth Corps would have broken out to the coast without them. As a result of the severe losses inflicted on the Chinese by the Tenth Corps and tactical air, the subsequent evacuation of over 100,000 troops and their full equipment was accomplished with negligible loss.

USS Philippine Sea (CV-47) Grumman F9F-2 Panther fighters of VF-111 & VF-112 parked on the flight deck, forward, during a snowstorm off the Korean coast, 15 November 1950. 80-G-439871

USS Philippine Sea (CV-47). Flight deck scene, looking aft from the island, as the carrier is enveloped in a snowstorm off the Korean coast, 15 November 1950. Planes on deck include Vought F4U-4B Corsair fighters and Douglas AD Skyraider strike planes. Note men on deck, apparently tossing snowballs, and what may be a toppled snowman just in front of the midships elevator. 80-G-439869

USS Philippine Sea (CV-47). Crewmen Gerald F. Quay (AMM3c) and Warren E. McKee (PH2c) check braces on a napalm tank during a snowstorm off North Korea, 17 November 1950. The weapon is mounted on the port wing of a Douglas AD Skyraider of VA-115 parked on the carrier’s flight deck. 80-G-422341

AD-4 Skyraider assigned to VA-15, its wing racks loaded with bombs, launches from USS Philippine Sea (CV 47) for a combat mission over Korea, 23 November 1950. NNAM

Vought F4U-4B Corsair BuNo # 62924 landing on USS Philippine Sea (CV-47) after attacking targets in Korea, circa 7 December 1950. This plane belongs to Fighter Squadron 113 (VF-113). 80-G-423961.

USS Philippine Sea CV-47 launching Grumman F9F Panthers off of Korea – Dec 1950 LIFE John Domins

And into January..

Crew members of USS Philippine Sea (CV 47) clear snow from the deck of the carrier so that another strike could be launched against enemy forces in Korea. It was the second time that morning that heavy snow was cleaned off the deck. Photograph released February 23, 1951. 80-G-426797

By late March, with the aircraft and crews of CVG-11 worn out after eight months of round-the-clock operations, Philippine Sea put into Yokosuka and welcomed aboard CVG-2. With the problems with the Panther apparent in cold weather, the new air wing was light on jets but heavy on props, with three full squadrons of Corsairs (VF-64, VF-63, and VA-24) and one of Skyraiders (VA-65).

F4U-4 Corsair VF 63 USS Philippine Sea (CV 47) Korea 1951 NNAM

Leaving Japan on April Fool’s Day 1951, the carrier and her fresh air wing were diverted to Formosa (Taiwan), where her wing carried out a series of “air parades” along the east coast of Communist China for three days to make sure Mao knew where the U.S. stood concerning the semi-independence of the island.

USS Philippine Sea (CV-47) underway at sea, 9 April 1951, while en route to operating areas off Formosa. 80-G-439899

A film shot on 21 April 1951 shows her 5-inch battery at work in a live fire shoot-ex, perhaps one of the last such videos from an Essex-class carrier, along with footage of her escort, the light cruiser USS Juneau (CL-119), and NP-marked F4U-4 Corsairs and AD Skyraiders conducting fight ops.

She then shifted back to Korea, where she was once again in the thick of close air support. Over the next two months, CVG-2 suffered 13 aircraft lost and 139 damaged (some repeatedly) with an average of 103 sorties scheduled per day.

Check out these figures for those two months, including 2 million rounds of ammunition and more than 15,000 bombs– not including 1,973 napalm tanks:

Bomb-loaded F4U-4 Corsairs of VF-24 from Carrier Air Group (CVG) 2, on the flight deck of USS Philippine Sea (CV-47), April–June 1951. Robert L. Lawson Photo Collection UA 410.05

By the time Philippine Sea made it back to the West Coast on 9 June, she had spent 264 days underway and only 76 in port, steaming 108,000 miles. Her airwings had logged more than 12,000 combat sorties, dropping more than 7,000 tons of aviation ordnance.

She set a record of sorts from Yokohama to San Francisco, steaming the distance in 7 days, 13 hours, averaging 25.2 knots.

USS Philippine Sea (CV-47). Passes under the Oakland Bay Bridge as she arrives at San Francisco, California, upon her return from the Korean War zone, circa 9 June 1951. Crewmen on the flight deck are spelling out “CVG 2” in honor of her air group. NH 97322.

Following six months of much-needed rest and refit, Philippine Sea was headed back to Korea with CVG-11 once again, pulling stumps on New Year’s Eve 1951 for a seven-month, one-week cruise.

This cruise saw the arrival of the new and much more advanced Panther photo reconnaissance planes, which replaced the venerable F4U-4P photo Corsairs. Its K438 camera loaded with K17 aerial film in  A-8 magazines, they captured miles of prints with one batch of 39 sorties generating 28,745 10x10s, keeping the ship’s photo lab guys busy. For BDA during strikes, WWII-era K-25 camera pods carrying 55-exposure reels were loaded on the occasional Corsair and Skyraider.

USS Philippine Sea (CV-47), LT Zack Taylor of VC-61 Det. M gets ready for a reconnaissance flight over enemy territory while the carrier was operating off Korea in April 1952. His plane is a Grumman F9F-2P photo version of the Panther jet fighter. Note the camera window in the plane’s nose, and Lt. Taylor’s rare, ridged Type H-4 helmet. The F9F-2P removed the four 20mm cannons of the standard F9F-2 and replaced them with photographic equipment. Only 36 F9F-2Ps were made. NH 97114

CVG-11’s second war cruise on the Philippine Sea was more of the same, a daily slog at low level. A war of 100-pound GP bombs and 20mm/.50 cals targeting trucks and railcars from 500 feet.

Korea F9F-2 Panthers of VF-191 “Satans Kittens” return to carrier USS Princeton (CV-37) background is USS Philippine Sea (CV-47)

A sample of one week:

Philippine Sea returned to San Diego on 8 August 1952.

While stateside, our carrier was redesignated an attack carrier, CVA-47, on 1 October 1952, along with most of her class.

Headed back to Korea on 15 December 1952, she carried CVG-9 once again, her original airwing from her 1947 Caribbean and first (1948) Med cruise. By that time, CVG-9 had traded in its Bearcats, Avengers, and Helldivers for two squadrons of Panthers, one of Corsairs, and one of Skyraiders.

This cruise saw the use of unmanned platforms, specifically UF-tail coded F6F-5K Hellcat drones of VU-3K, used in attacks against enemy targets. These typically carried a 2,000-pound bomb centerline and a TV pod slung under their wings, allowing an AD-2Q Skyraider to fly these early cruise missiles into their targets.

Drone F6F-5KD Hellcats assigned to VU-3K launch from USS Philippine Sea (CVA 47) 17 June 1953. These aircraft had bright yellow wings with red bands. NNAM

An F6F-5K Hellcat drone assigned to VU-3K is pictured on the flight deck of USS Philippine Sea (CVA 47), 18 June 1953. NNAM

She kept fighting right up to the ceasefire.

In the three days (24-26 July) before the ceasefire, the three TF77 carriers maxed out on sorties, running an amazing 72-hour total of 1,839 aimed at damming up the Chinese/Nork forces, then on the offensive. USS Princeton’s air group flew 159/142/164 sorties in those three days, and USS Lake Champlain flew 150/148/166. However, Philippine Sea bested them both by hitting 167/166/161, her highest three-day run, and perhaps the highest of any Essex-class carrier in any campaign as far as I can tell.

In the 12 days between 15-27 July 1953, CVG-9 logged 1,098 sorties, with its two Panther squadrons, VF-91 and VF-93, running 283 each, compared to the Corsair unit (VF-94)’s 196 and the AD unit (VA-95)’s 203, showing that the once very finicky F9F had hit its stride. By the time combat operations ended, CVG-9 had chalked up 7,243 combat sorties in its seven months off Korea, with over half, 3,754, attributed to its Panthers. Individual pilots logged 16,841 hours on the cruise, averaging almost 150 per aviator.

CVG-9’s tally sheet for the January-July 1953 cruise:

The close air support was a meat grinder, with 24 aircraft lost (including 21 ditchings and crash water landings) and 38 damaged beyond shipboard repair.

USS Philippine Sea (CVA-47), Lt(JG) Hugh N. Batten lands his damaged Grumman F9F-2 Panther after it was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire. The photo is dated 12 July 1953– just 15 days from the Armistice Agreement. This plane’s nose covering has been entirely torn away. 80-G-484863

RADM Apollo Soucek, ComCarDivThree flashed, “The hard pushes delivered by Philippine Sea and her air group will long be remembered as a splendid example of fighting Teamwork under difficult conditions. My congratulations on your performance and best wishes for continued success.”

By 30 July 1953, Philippine Sea had logged her 59,553th arrested landing since her commissioning in 1946.

She arrived back on the West Coast on 14 August 1953.

Too late for WWII, the Philippine Sea received nine battle stars for Korean service.

Continued service

Philippine Sea made two further “non-shooting” deployments to the uneasy Western Pacific with a mix of Panthers and Skyraiders of CVG-5 (12 March-19 November 1954) and one with the F9F-6 Cougars and Skyraiders of the short-lived ATG-2 (1 April-23 November 1955).

The 1954 cruise saw her air wing participate in what was later dubbed the “Hainan Incident.” While responding to the downing of a British Cathay Pacific Airways civilian DC-4 en route from Bangkok to Hong Kong by Chinese Lavochkin La-11 fighter aircraft, two PLAAF La-7 fighters unsuccessfully tried to jump the U.S. Navy aircraft and were in turn splashed by Philippine Sea Skyraiders from VF-54.

As noted by Time, “Radio Beijing announced that two American fighters had made piratical attacks on two Polish merchant ships and one Chinese escort vessel, but failed to mention the LA-7s.”

(Kodachrome) USS Philippine Sea (CVA-47) makes a sharp turn to starboard, while steaming in the Western Pacific with the Seventh Fleet, 9 July 1955, with ATG-2 embarked. Photographed by PH1 D.L. Lash. 80-G-K-18429

(Kodachrome) USS Philippine Sea (CVA-47) view looking aft from the carrier’s island, showing AD Skyraiders and F9F Cougars of ATG-2 parked on the flight deck. Photographed on 19 July 1955, while operating with the Seventh Fleet. Photographed by PH1 J.E. Cook. 80-G-K-18466

(Kodachrome) USS Philippine Sea (CVA-47) refueling from USS Platte (AO-24), while operating with the Seventh Fleet, 19 July 1955. USS Watts (DD-567) is also taking on fuel from Platte. Other ships present include two aircraft carriers, a cruiser, and several destroyers and replenishment ships. 80-G-K-18468

(Kodachrome) USS Philippine Sea (CVA-47) operating in the Western Pacific with the Seventh Fleet, 19 July 1955. 80-G-K-18427

Post-Korea, the Philippine Sea remained a “straight deck” Essex and did not undergo the dramatic SCB-125 angled flight deck reconstruction and modernization that 14 of her sisters did.

This left her in the club that included USS Franklin (CV-13) and Bunker Hill (CV-17) which never recommissioned after their 1947 mothballs, and fellow Korean War vets Boxer (CV-21), Leyte (CV-32), Princeton (CV-37), Lake Champlain (CV-39), Tarawa (CV-40), and Valley Forge (CV-45). The latter six axial deck carriers, along with Antietam (CV-36) which had an early angled deck fit in 1952 but no major modernizations, and Philippine Sea, were all rerated as anti-submarine carriers (CVS) in the mid-1950s, intended to operate a mixed wing of two squadrons of S2F Trackers and one of Sikorsky HSS-1 (SH-34) Seabats.

USS Philippine Sea (CVS-47) underway at sea, with eleven S2F aircraft of Anti-Submarine Squadron 37 (VS-37) flying overhead, July 1958. Six of these aircraft are still painted in the older blue color scheme. Photographed by Everett. NH 97323

USS Philippine Sea (CVS-47), August 1956. View showing the ship’s antenna after recent overhauling. Please refer to the chart that shows the name of the antenna with the use of a numerical system. 1. AN/URN3; 2. AN/CPH6; 3. AN/SRO7; 4. AN/SLR-2 DF; 5. UHF; 6. An/URO-4; 7. VHF; 8. An/SPS-6B; 9. An/SLR-2; 10. SG-6B; 11. AN/UPV-1A; 12. AP/SLR-2 DF; 13. AN/SLR-2 DF; 14. SC-5; 15. YE-3; 16. AN/SPN-8A; 17. AN/SPN-12; 18. Receiving Antennas; 19. AN/UPX-1A; 20. AN/SLR-2; 21. AN/SRK-4; 22. AN/SPS-8A; 23. AN/FMQ-2; 24. Receiving Antennas; 25. AN/URD-2; 26. AN/UPN-7; 27. LF-MF Transmitter Whip antennas Aft. Std.; 28. LF-MF Transmitter Whip, antennas Fwd. Stbd. 80-G-696528

Philippine Sea only made two West Pac cruises as a CVS, 5 January- 6 August 1957 and 13 January-15 July 1958, with the latter as part of Operation Oceanlink, which saw her cross-deck aircraft with the Australian carrier, HMAS Melbourne (R21).

USS Philippine Sea (CVS-47) refuels destroyer USS Orleck (DD-886) in May 1957 while on a West Pac cruise. Photo courtesy of the National Naval Aviation Museum, 1996.488.114.056.

As the mammoth Forrestal-class supercarriers entered the fleet in the late 1950s, eight high-mileage SCB 27A/125 Essex-class angled deck conversions were redesignated as CVS to replace the original unconverted axial deck ships. This also allowed these new CVS models to carry A-4 Skyhawks and F-8 Crusaders in a pinch, such as on USS Intrepid (CVS-11)’s three Vietnam cruises in 1966-68, where she carried three squadrons of A-4s and one of Skyraiders augmented by a few F-8/RF-8s for good measure.

This move proved the final nail in the coffin for the Philippine Sea. While a few unconverted sisters, such as Boxer, Princeton, and Valley Forge, caught amphibious helicopter ship (LPH) conversions and lingered on into the 1960s, that was generally a wrap for these old warriors.

Decommissioned 28 December 1958, marking a busy 12-year career, Philippine Sea was berthed with the Reserve Fleet at Long Beach. She was administratively redesignated a training carrier (AVT-11) on 15 May 1959 and struck from the Navy List on 1 December 1969.

Jane’s 1960 Essex class listing the 17 “non-improved” members, PS included

Sold to Zidell Explorations, Inc. of Portland, Oregon, on 23 March 1971, about 600 tons of her armor plate were put to use at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory for use in proton accelerator experiments. Plates from four other Korean War CVS sisters (Antietam, Bunker Hill, Lake Champlain, and Princeton) are also in use there.

Epilogue

Today, little of our carrier remains outside of Fermi Labs.

The NHHC has her Korean War action reports digitized online.  Meanwhile, NARA has several videos and images.

At least two of her Korean War skippers, Ira Earl Hobbs (USNA 1925) and Paul Hubert Ramsey (USNA 1927), later rose to the rank of Vice Admiral. Both had started their careers as battleship men, then were minted as aviators and were highly decorated in WWII.

Hobbs and “Sheik” Ramsey. From battlewagons to WWII aviators against the Rising Sun, they went on to command the Philippine Sea during Korea, then retire as vice admirals. 

The Navy recycled the name of our carrier for a Flight II Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser, CG-58, commissioned in 1989. She has carried a few relics of her namesake with her all this time.

USS Philippine Sea (CG 58) departed Naval Station Norfolk for her final scheduled deployment, a quiet cruise to the U.S. 4th Fleet area of operations, on 20 January 2025. She is slated to decommission later this year, wrapping over 35 years of service, a stint some three times as long as her flat-topped predecessor. She slung TLAMs in numerous wars, scattered the cremated remains of Korean War pilot Neil Armstrong at sea, and recently battled the Houthis.

Norfolk, Va. (January 20, 2025) The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea (CG 58), departs from Naval Station Norfolk to deploy to the U.S. Southern Command Area of Responsibility (USSOUTHCOM AOR) to support maritime operations with partners in the region, conduct Theater Security Cooperation (TSC) port visits, and support Joint Interagency Task Force South (JIATF-South) to deter illicit activity along Caribbean and Central American shipping routes. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Evan Thompson/Released)

Perhaps a new LHA could carry the name forward.

Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive

***

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WWII echoes

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I love passing by the Trent Lott Gulfport Combat Readiness Center, which houses various Guard and Air Guard units, just outside the municipal airport from which I often fly out.

It is a historic base, with the Guard’s AVCRAD unit having a great display of an AH-1S Cobra, OH-58A, and OH-58D Kiowa Warrior on pedestals. That part of the base, besides lots of use in the recent sandbox wars, was a training area for the helicopter crews of Eagle Claw back in 1979.

Moving past the Guard area to the Air Guard portion, the old 200×80-foot circa 1942 Army Air Corps hangar, which has recently been restored, features an early WWII U.S. “meatball” roundel.

Back during WWII, Gulfport Army Airfield trained ground crews on B-17s, B-24s, B-26s, and B-29s.

It became a primer of sorts for units headed to the South Pacific. If they could endure the 95-degree/95-percent humidity/95-percent chance of rain/Hurricane inbound days that is the Mississippi Gulf South summer, odds were they would do Okay in New Guinea or the Solomon Islands.

It lived on into the Cold War as the Gulfport Air Force Base until 1957, continuing as a Guard base.

And, true to form, the hangar had a group of visiting F-35s aboard, likely from Eglin.

Tigershark on the move!

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Here we see a great image of the Dutch Zwaardvisch class submarine Hr.Ms. Tijgerhaai (S 812) in West Indies waters, 1957, with the good Prof. Vening Meinesz and his team on board, conducting gravity research using special equipment during the voyage.

Audiovisuele Dienst Koninklijke Marine (AVDKM), NIMH 2009-003-012_010

Laid down at Vickers in 1943 as the future Third Group T-class submarine HMS Tarn (P326), she was instead transferred before commissioning and entered Dutch service on 28 March 1945.

After working up out of Holy Loch with several of her British sisters, Tijgerhaai left Scotland some 80 years ago this week, on 5 August 1945, bound for Fremantle, Australia under the command of LTZS1c (LCDR) Arie van Altena, RNN(R), to get into the Pacific War.

NL-HaNA_2.24.10.02_0_137-0326_1

Of course, the war would end while Tijgerhaai was en route to fight the Japanese, and she would, instead, clock in for the next five years off the coast of the Dutch East Indies to combat weapon smugglers and insurgents during the Politionele Acties in the colony that led to Indonesian independence.

She retired from Dutch service in 1964 following a nearly 20-year career and was sold for scrap.

The Big E Takes Napoli

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Some 70 years ago today.

The hulking 46,000-ton Audacious-class aircraft carrier HMS Eagle (R05) and her escort, the aging County-class heavy cruiser HMS Cumberland (57) of Graf Spee near-miss fame, visit Naples, 5 August 1955. The warships called at the Italian port city for a week’s operational visit in line with NATO.

HMS Eagle, seen from her helicopter, shows the ship’s company fallen in on her flight deck as she steams into Naples Bay. Her wing shows 12 Seahawks of No. 804 squadron, the Wyverns likely of No. 830 Squadron, a few AEW Skyraiders of 849 Squadron, and at least one Westland WS-51 Dragonfly. She carries a recently-modified 5.5-degree angled flight deck, later changed to 8.5 degrees in 1964. Also note the 8×2 QF 4.5-inch Mk III guns in BD ‘RP10’ Mk II mounts. IWM (A 33319A)

“Twelve Sea Hawks of 804 Squadron form an avenue demonstrating British Naval Air Power in the Mediterranean.” IWM (A 33321)

HMS Eagle, HMS Cumberland in Naples, August 1955. One of the last three-funneled heavy cruisers, Cumberland would pay off just three years after this photo. IWM A 33318A

A period Kodachrome of Eagle’s airwing circa 1955, including Skyraiders, Seahawks, and Wyverns.

Laid down in 1942, Eagle only entered service in March 1952 (the 15th Royal Navy ship to carry the name) and was primarily known for her service in the Suez Crisis four years later and later the Aden Emergency.

HMS Eagle at Fremantle, Western Australi,a around 1968, with her late 8.5-degree deck and Buccaneers

She was paid off in 1972 to allow her hulk to be stripped of parts to keep her sister, HMS Ark Royal, in service for a few more years.

The “Big E” was scrapped in 1978.

Hanging with the Crayfish

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During the Warsaw Pact era, the Poles broke from the nominally allied Soviets a bit when it came to small arms. Instead of the straight AKM, they used the Kbkg wz. 1960/72. Whereas the Russkies went to the AK-74 in 5.45, the Poles came up with the wzór 1988 Tantal and the Onyks carbine. Rather than the Makrov PM, the Poles had the FB P-64 in the same caliber, later supplemented by the .380 ACP P-83 Wanad.

Whereas the Soviets generally replaced subguns with folding-stocked short-barreled AK variants, the Poles kept on chugging with the FB PM-84 Glauberyt (Pistolet maszynowy wz. 1984) and the smaller PM-63 RAK, both in 9×18 Makarov.

While the PM-84 was no beefcake, hitting the scales at just over 4 pounds unloaded and sporting a 5.5-inch barrel, the PM-63 was downright portable, running just 13 inches long with the stock collapsed and weighing in at 3.5 pounds.

Polish paratrooper armed with a PM-63 submachine gun RAK, with its stock and foregrip folded

Polish marine with a FB PM-63 RAK submachine gun, its stock and foregrip deployed. Note the scooped barrel, which serves as a sort of compensator. Coincidentally, RAK means “crayfish” in Polish

Polish tankers with RAKs in drop leg holsters. The PM-63 RAK, with its stock collapsed, was a true PDW and is akin to the Flux Raider of today.

The PM63 continues to see use

Further, while the PM-63 still floats around in combat use in Ukraine and elsewhere, parts kits complete with 9mm Mak barrels are here in the states for cheap.

Bowman and others have been selling beautiful RAK kits for like $269

While traveling in Minnesota recently to film a bunch of podcasts for Guns.com, I stopped in to see friends at 2 if By Sea Tactical in New Prague, a Class 7 FFL, and put a few boxes downrange with a post-86 reweld “crawfish” they have in the shop.

At 650 rpms, you drained a mag quick.

It uses 15-round flush and 25-round extended magazines, giving you either 1.5 or 2.5 seconds of zpppppp.

With the stock extended, the length is 23 inches, which gives the user a very compact little PDW.

The Poles may have been on the right track with this interesting little guy.

 

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