Category Archives: cold war

Sheathing the Broadsword

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A Falklands War veteran Type 22 frigate, HMS Broadsword (F88), was recently deep-sixed just after her 45th birthday.

The Yarrow-built Broadsword, the second such RN warship to carry the name, was commissioned in 1979 and saw a quarter-century in British service including splashing two Argentine aircraft during the Falklands with her then-revolutionary Sea Wolf missile system, making her and her sisters indispensable during the conflict.

Type 22 Frigate HMS Broadsword alongside HMS Hermes during the Falklands War, 1982. IWM (MH 27508)

Paid off after the end of the Cold War, Broadsword was sold to Brazil alongside her sisters HMS Brazen (F91), HMS Brilliant (F90), and HMS Battleaxe (F89) for £116,000,000, becoming Greenhalgh (F46), Bosísio (F48), Dodsworth (F47), and Rademaker (F49), respectively.

Although all had more than 25 years on their hulls, they were still the most advanced surface escorts and augmented the Brazilian navy’s seven smaller Vosper-designed Niteroi-class frigates.

Greenhalgh/Broadsword in Brazilian service– still with her Exocet/Sea Wolf punch.

However, with Brazil ordering eight new German (MEKO A-100) Tamandare-class frigates, both the Niterois and the Type 22s are being put to pasture.

Brilliant/Dodsworth was sold for scrap in 2012, Brazen/Bosísio expended as a target in 2017, and Broadsword/Greenhalgh, which decommissioned in 2021, was sent to the bottom during Lançamento de Armas IV back in September.

This included 500-pound Mk. 82s dropped by AK-4KU (AF-1B/C) Skyhawks from VF-1, the first warshot Brazilian-made SIATT MANSUP anti-ship missile– fired from Broadsword/Greenhalgh’s sister Battleaxe/Rademaker no less– and AGM-119B Penguins from the SH-60 Seahawks of Esquadrão HS-1. Ironically, the Type 22s often only narrowly missed dumb bombs from A-4s back in 1982.

Images via the Marinha do Brasil:

There is also a video from the Marinha do Brasil of the HS-1 Penguin shots.

The Greenhalgh/Broadsword agora descansa no Reino de Poseidon.

Special K

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Official period caption. “8 December 1962. Capt. Richard A. Jones with Vietnamese Eagle Force troops he advises.”

Photo by Richard Tregaskis. From the Richard Tregaskis Collection (COLL/566) at the Archives Branch, Marine Corps History Division.

Note Capt. Jones’ weapon of choice, the humble Kulsprutepistol m/45, AKA the Carl Gustaf M/45, AKA the Swedish K.

A handy little 9mm sub gun designed by Gunnar Johansson for Swedish forces in WWII as the country’s answer to the STEN and MP40, the Swedes made something like 300,000 of them during the Cold War for issue not only to the military but also for security and police forces– with the latter even having a select-fire version to accommodate launching tear gas grenades.

The Swedish K M/45 used the same bayonet as the country’s Mausers

Swedish UN soldier during the Congo Crisis, 1961. Photo by Åke Sandberg. Note the K gun and FN MAG at the ready.

Swedish Terrängbil m42 KP in UN service during the Congo Crisis 1960s. Note the Swedish trooper with a Carl Gustav K gun M45 and a local gendarme with a Belgian Vigneron submachine gun

It was such a hit with American advisors in Southeast Asia in the early 1960s that S&W had to pick up domestic production of it as the S&W Model 76 after the Swedes placed it under embargo to the U.S.

Soldier training at MACVSOG Recondo School Vietnam with a Swedish K SMG sporting ERDL “Leaf” camo

Special Forces legend Capt. Larry Thorne (Lauri Törni), who died in 1965 when his CH-34 went down with a recon detachment near the Ho Chi Mein Trail when his body was recovered by a joint Finnish-American team in 1999, was able to help confirm his remains from the fact that his K gun was found at the wreck site.

Only removed from Stockholm’s inventory in 2007, it was produced legally in Egypt by Maadi in the 1960s, and in unlicensed garage-built variants in South America and the Middle East, where it is just commonly known as the Port Said…and are still seeing use in combat.

Navy Husky on Ice

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Official caption: Field technicians with the Arctic Submarine Laboratory prepare to remove ice from the Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS Hampton (SSN-767) at Ice Camp Whale on the Beaufort Sea, Arctic Ocean, during Operation Ice Camp in March 2024.

USN Photo 240308-N-JO245-1316A Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Justin Yarborough

One of the dwindling 688is left in operation, Hampton was commissioned in 1993 and is part of SubRon 11 out of San Diego.

Besides the Husqvarna seen above, the Navy and Coast Guard have often used four-legged huskies for work in the polar regions, such as in the Great Alaska Overland Expedition in 1897, the Northeast Greenland Sledge Patrol during WWII, and Operation Deep Freeze.

For reference, Task Force 43 in the 1955-56 Deep Freeze expedition had no less than 28 such dogs as part of the crew– which sometimes required some extra fresh meat, harvested from local sources.

Period caption: “Ensign David E. Baker adjusts the sled harness of an Eskimo Husky on the training grounds for Antarctic-bound dogs at Wonalancet, New Hampshire, in addition to comfortable sled harness, the dogs will be rigged with “shoes” to protect their feet from the ice when they begin their trail rescue work in the land of the South Pole. They are part of Operation Deepfreeze and will sail in ships of Task Force 43.” Photograph released October 10, 1955. 330-PS-7528 (USN 681173):

The Brown Water Navy’s 81mm Mortar Mark 2

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In a recent Warship Wednesday (Coast Guard Ron Three) we touched on the use of the 81mm mortar in two fixed emplacements behind the main 5-inch gun mount on a series of USCG cutters that deployed to Vietnam between 1967 and 1972.

The 81mm mortar was mounted on either side of the No. 1 (5-inch) mount, seen here on USCGC Campbell in 1967.

Developed by the Navy and Coast Guard in two different models (Mark 2 Mod 0 and Mark 2 Mod 1) in the early 1960s, the thought behind such mounts was that they could be used for illumination quicker and easier than shooting star shells from the main gun (which also could conceivably leave the main gun slow to switch gears from lofting illum shells to hitting surface/shore targets with HE).

Plus, the mortars could be used for near-shore naval gunfire support as well.

Campbell’s mortar team “hanging an 81” ashore

These mortars were also used extensively by the USCG’s 26 82-foot Point class cutters as part of CGRON One during the war, typically piggybacked with an M2 air-cooled Browning .50 cal BMG.

Rel. No. 6135: USCGC POINT LOMAS FIRED AT SUSPECTED VIET CONG CAVE HIDEOUT: An 81mm mortar shell fired from the 82-foot U.S. Coast Guard Cutter POINT LOMAS (WPB-82321) shatters rocks over the entrance to a suspected Viet Cong cave hideout along a beach in a Viet Cong controlled area near Danang. Rounds from a .50 caliber machine gun, mounted piggyback on the mortar gun also were fired into the cave. Commanding the POINT LOMAS is Lieutenant Keith D. Ripley, USCG of Baltimore, Md. The 82-footer was stationed at Port Aransas, Texas, before reporting for duty with Coast Guard Squadron One’s Division 12, based at Danang, Vietnam, in July 1965. 

The Navy also heavily used them on just about everything that moved that was smaller than 165 feet in length, as detailed by Bob Stoner GMCM (SW) Ret. over at Warboats.org.

Navy 50-foot coastal patrol craft (PCF); Navy 75-foot fast patrol boats (PTF, “Nasty”-class); Navy 95-foot fast patrol boats (PTF, “Osprey”-class); Navy 164-foot patrol gunboats (PG, “Ashville“-class); miscellaneous riverine craft which were mostly converted LCM-6 landing craft: MON (monitor); CCB (command and control boat); Zippo (flame thrower boat); ASPB (assault support patrol boat); HSSC (heavy SEAL support craft); and advanced tactical support bases such as SEA FLOAT/SOLID ANCHOR (Nam Can) and BREEZY COVE (Song Ong Doc).

Cam Ranh Bay, Republic of Vietnam. Gunner’s Mate Second Class Robert Phalen, left, and another crewmember of Fast Coastal Patrol Craft 42 (PCF 42) prepare to fire an 81mm Mortar while on patrol, 18 October 1968. 428-GX-K60314

South Vietnam. Engineman Second Class McCune drops a projectile into a mortar on the deck of the fast coastal patrol craft (PCF-3) of Coast Division 11 as Boatswain’s Mate First Class Byerly stands by to fire on the Viet Cong unit position. Photographed by F. L. Lawson, 17 July 1967. 428GX-K40159

GMCM Stoner:

The mortar itself is mounted on a very robust tripod and uses clamps to control traverse and elevation angles. Unless fitted with NO FIRE zone mechanical stops, the mortar has 360 degrees of traverse and -30 degrees of depression, and +71.5 degrees of elevation. Its rate of fire is 18 rounds/minute at 45 degrees elevation in DROP FIRE mode and 10 rounds/minute in TRIGGER FIRE mode. Sights for the mortar are attached to the left side of the elevation arc. The weight of the Mk 2 Mod 0 was 593 pounds; the weight increased to 677 pounds in the Mk 2 Mod 1 (with machine gun). The range of the 81mm (direct) was 1,000+ yards; (high angle, indirect) was 3,940 yards. The maximum effective range of the .50 Browning machine gun was 2,000 yards; the maximum range was 7,440 yards.

From the 1966 manual, OP 1743, of the Mark 2 Mod 0:

Post-Vietnam, the Navy’s nascent riverine and littoral capability transitioned to Boat Support Units which later changed their name to become Coastal River Squadrons, then later the Special Boat Squadrons and SBTs, with some Mark 2s remaining in service, especially in reserve outfits, into the mid-1980s.

Likewise, the USCG kept their Mark 2s on stateside cutters– both on small 82- and 95-footers as well as high endurance 255-to-378-foot cutters– into the early 1980s.

USCGC Cape Jellison (WPB-95317) getting some time in off Seward Alaska in the early 1980s with their 81/.50 cal mount

Getting Raffica with the Beretta 93R

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Beretta has been in the firearms-making business for nearly 500 years in the Gardone Val Trompia region and, while we visited the amazing complex, we were asked what three guns we would like to shoot in the company’s on-site shooting range, located inside a mountain. Because Beretta.

Our choice was easy: the classic Cold War-era PM12 “Spaghetti Uzi” submachine gun, the exciting new NARP rifle, and the elusive 93R machine pistol.

If you are pure of heart and wish hard enough, dreams can come true. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

While we’ll get into the first two later, let’s go ahead and get into the 93R.

The 93R in its most basic form. Note the folding handguard and extended compensated barrel. The frame-mounted two-position select fire lever (with three dots denoting its 3-round burst) is above the grip. The safety button is behind it.

Select-fire, with options for a three-round burst or single shots, the “R” in its model designation stands for “Raffica,” which roughly translates into “gust” or “flurry.” To help control this zippy 9mm with its 700 round-per-minute cyclic rate of fire, the frame has a hinged metal forward grip and an extended barrel with compensator cuts. Beretta marketed the pistol with an extended 20-round magazine to feed the brass-chewing little beast, which would allow for six bursts of three rounds and a seventh of two.

The company produced (and continues to develop) several generations of submachine guns, and a similar select-fire pistol had already preceded the 93R. The M951R was adopted by several Italian special forces and police units in the 1960s.

The M951R, which was a select-fire variant of the Beretta M1951. Note the folding foregrip. Whereas the M1951 is a single-stack 1950s forerunner of the Beretta 92, the M951R (again, with the Raffica) was a select-fire great uncle to the 93R.

From one of Beretta’s period brochures on the 93R, emphasizing the gun could be fired both with and without its stock. Ideally, a uniformed officer could carry the pistol with a standard 15-round flush-fit mag inserted, with a spare 20 or 30-rounder and folding detachable stock carried in belt pouches. (Photo: Beretta)

To see the gun in action and read the rest of this, check out my column at Guns.com.

Warship Wednesday Dec. 4, 2024: Danish E-Boat Days

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Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday to 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, Dec. 4, 2024: Danish E-Boat Days

Foto: Tøjhusmuseet

Above we see a great Royal Danish Navy recruiting poster from 1951 by Aage Rasmussen. Reading roughly, “A healthy life. A future – become a naval officer,” it shows a well-dressed lieutenant in the Danish RN style uniform, complete with Marineglas 6×30 binos produced by Carl Zeiss.

You may find the planing torpedo boat– the hull number, P558, makes it Musvaagen— in the poster’s foreground familiar. We’ll get into that.

The Danish TB Saga

Denmark loved fast torpedo boats probably longer than any other naval force in history, fielding no less than 108 of them between 1879 and 2000.

Danish torpedoer Hajen, first of her type in service to the King of Denmark

As we have touched on with a past Warship Wednesday (“A Tough Little Wolf”) which focused on the Great War-era Søridderen and Tumleren classes, the country had 17 such TBs on hand going into 1914.

The green-painted Tumleren class torpedo boat Vindhunden aside the anchored panserskibet coastal defense ship Peder Skram at Østre Mole. Commissioned in 1911, Vindhunden and her class would be retired by 1935. (Aarhus Stadsarkiv)

Danish Tumleren class torpedo boat Vindhunden in Aarhus Harbour between 1919 and 1924, note the cutlass worn, likely by the crew’s bosun. There is just so much I love about this image from the dirty whites and flatcaps to the drying kapok life jackets and the grimy snipe catching a smoke. (Aarhus Stadsarkiv)

During WWI, the country managed to construct 10 further vessels of the 126-foot Springeren class, the last two of which were finished in 1919. This allowed the country, interbellum, to retire elderly boats left over from the late 19th Century.

June 1927. Three Great War-era Springeren-class TBs in Aarhus harbor including Søhunden (Nr.7), Narhvalen (Nr.5), and Havhesten (Nr.6), June 1927 at the Østre Mole. At the time, Søhunden was under the command of HKH Kronprins Frederik, the Danish heir. (Photo: Aarhus Stadsarkiv)

By 1929, six big (195-foot) and well-armed Dragen/Glenten-class torpedo boats began entering service, which gave enough breathing room to the Danish admiralty to finally put the last of their pre-1914 TBs (the six members of the Søridderen and Tumleren classes) to pasture, and downgrade the Springeren-class to fast mine warfare vessels (capable of both laying and sweeping).

Danish Torpedobåden Dragen T1 overhead. Capable ships of 335 tons, the Dragen/Glenten-class torpedo boats carried two deck guns, two bow-mounted 17.7-inch tubes, and 4 or 6 further 17.7-inch tubes on turnstiles.

Danish torpedo practice 1939 Torpedobåd affyrer skud i Aarhus Bugten.

Danish Torpedobåden Dragen (T1). THM-12146

Danish Mandskab, Torpedosektionen Dragen class in background 1937-38 THM-6114

Danish Aarhus Harbour, torpedo boats T1 Dragen, T2 Hvalen, and T3 Laxen are located at the Quay 1939, iced in

Danish torpedo boat T3 Laxen in Aarhus Bay in the autumn of 1939

Aarhus, Denmark, Torpedo boats T2 Hvalen, T5 Høgen, and T4 Glenten, 1939. Note the six chemical smoke cylinders on the stern and twin 75-foot mine rails on each boat.

Then came WWII.

Denmark entered the conflict in 1939 the same way it had in the First World War, as a neutral. To enforce this neutrality on the sea, she had the aforementioned Dragen/Glenten TBs in her fleet– balancing several small gunboats, 10 fast minesweepers (the old Springeren-class TBs, sans torpedoes), four submarines, the training cruiser (artilleriskib) Niels Juel, and the old bathtub battleship (kystforsvarsskib) Peder Skram.

Ordered not to resist when the Germans blitzkrieged through the country in April 1940, and then largely disarmed, the Danish Navy was further humiliated by its government and ordered to “lease” their beautiful Dragen/Glentens to the occupier in February 1941. The Kriegsmarine used them as U-boat support ships and torpedo retrievers, numbered TFA1 through TFA6.

One, TFA3 (ex-Dragen) was lost to a mine, while the other five were in condemned condition by the end of the war.

Wrecked former Danish torpedo boats, the Dragon class, photographed in Flensburg harbor after Donau’s explosion, 14 June 1945. A4= “ex-Glenten”, 5= “ex-Hvalen, 6= “ex-Laxen” THM-6979

Post-war, the Danish Navy, which had committed ritual scuttling in 1943 to escape German capture, only had a single torpedo boat left, Havkatten, a circa 1920 member of the Springeren class had been able to escape to Sweden and returned home in 1945 as the flagship of the Free Danish Brigade’s 133-member flotilla (Den Danske Flotille).

Officially rerated in the 1930s as a minesweeper, Havkatten only had a single 17.7-inch torpedo tube still mounted in her bow– but no torpedoes!

The torpedo boat Havkatten, which escaped to Sweden on 29 August 1943, returns to Copenhagen on 11 May 1945. Her 27-member crew at this point manned two 57mm AAA guns and a 40mm Bofors. FHM22287

Besides Havkatten, the Danish flotilla at VE Day only contained three small 80-foot coastal mine boats (MS 1, MS 7, and MS29), each with a 12-man crew and armed with a 20mm cannon, nine even smaller coast guard launches with 5-man crews, and the 41-foot motor launch Fandango, with the latter types only armed with small caliber machine guns.

Schnellboote Solution!

Looking to get back into the TB business after WWII, the easiest way to pull this off was for the Danes to get reparations in the form of former Kriegsmarine Schnellboote, or E and S-boats in Allied parlance.

The Danes had the hulk of one, S116, on hand already in 1945.

As chronicled by Die Schnellboote Seite, beginning in early 1947, OMGUS, the U.S. occupation government in Germany, authorized the sale of 10 scratch-and-dent German E-boats collected at Bremerhaven for $80,000. With that also came whatever 21-inch torpedoes and parts could be scrounged.

S64 in Kriegsmarine service with the panther emblem of 4. Schnellbootflottille. Post-war, she was the Norwegian Lyn and then the Danish Stormfuglen

Hejren (P566) ex-S117, in Danish green livery.

Copenhagen kept reaching out concerning similar boats and obtained four more from U.S. stores in 1948, and another four from the British.

In 1951, the Danes picked up six E-boats from Norway, where they had been in coastal service.

Ultimately, the Danes would own no less than 22 former German E-boats and eventually get 18 of them working.

The first operational, appropriately dubbed Glenten (T51), formerly the Kriegsmarine’s S306, entered service in July 1947, and those that followed are typically known as the Glenten class in Denmark even though the boats came from several slightly different German classes. Meanwhile, in English-speaking sources, these are often broken down by former German sub-classes: Glenten/T51/S170, Gribben/T52/S38, and Havørnen/T53/S139.

See table:

German Number

German class, builder

Entered Service

Seized By

Norwegian Name

Danish Name

Entered Danish Service

Danish Number

S15

S14 Lürssen

27 February 1937

USN

N/A

(Cannibalized)

(1947)

T46

S115

S109 Schlichting

30 May 1942

UK

N/A

(Cannibalized)

(1947)

 

S116

S109 Schlichting

4 July 1942

Denmark

N/A

(Cannibalized)

(1945)

 

S122

S26 Schlichting

21 February 1943

UK

N/A

(Cannibalized)

(1947)

 

S306

S151 Lürssen

Incomplete

USN

N/A

Glenten

07/31/1947

P551 (T51)

S107

S26 Schlichting

6 July 1941

USN

N/A

Gribben

04/15/1948

P552 (T52)

S216

S151 Lürssen

27 December 1944

USN

N/A

Havoarnen

11/19/1948

P553 (T53)

S133

S26 Schlichting 

31 December 1943

USN

N/A

Hærfuglen

03/21/1949

P554 (T54)

S206

S151 Lürssen

31 August 1944

 

USN

N/A

Hoegen

03/28/1949

P555 (T55)

S127

S26 Schlichting 

10 July 1943

USN

N/A

Isfuglen

07/08/1949

P556 (T56)

S305

S301 Lürssen

29 March 1945

USN

N/A

Jagtfalken

07/08/1949

P557 (T57)

S79

S26 Lürssen

27 June 1942

Norway

N/A

Musvaagen

07/15/1950

P558 (T58)

S196

S171

Lürssen

3 July 1944

UK

N/A

Raagen

11/01/1949

P559 (T59)

S97

S26 Lürssen

25 March 1943

USN

N/A

Ravnen

01/10/1953

P560 (T60)

S207

S171

Lürssen

19 September 1944

UK

N/A

Skaden

10/07/1950

P561 (T61)

S64

S26 Lürssen

2 November 1941

USN

Lyn (1947)

Stormfuglen

10/08/1953

P562

S303

S301 Lürssen

24 February 1945

USN

E2, Brann

Taarnfalken

05/12/1952

P563

S85

S26 Lürssen

7 December 1942

USN

Storm

Tranen

11/03/1955

P564

S302

S301 Lürssen

12 February 1945

USN

E1, Blink

Falken

02/07/1953

P565

S117

S109 Schlichting

8 August 1942

USN

B97, Tross

Hejren

01/05/1956

P566

S195

S171

Lürssen

10 July 1944

USN

E3, Kjekk

Lommen

04/21/1955

P567

S68

S26 Lürssen

1 July 1942

 

USN

N/A

Viben

11/03/1955

P568 (T62)

By late 1954, the fleet reached its zenith, with 15 former German E-boats in active service, a full decade after WWII ended.

Danish Glenten class Schnellbooten. Note the boat to the right has been retrofitted with a U.S. 40mm L60. THM-24118

Havørnen (P-553, ex-S216), Danish Glentenklassen Schnellboote. THM-24131

Jagtfalken (P-557, ex-S79) Danish Glentenklassen Schnellboote. THM-24132

Musvaagen (P-558, ex-S79) first in a nest of Danish Glentenklassen E-boats.THM-24137

Same as above, with Musvaagen’s name plainly visible on the deck house. Note the forward 20mm cannon mounts and starboard torpedo tube hatch.THM-24145

Isfuglen (P-556) outboard of a group of Danish Glentenklassen S-boats. THM-24129

As acquired by the Danes, most of these boats had two 21-inch forward torpedo tubes- the first time the Danish Navy went with such large fish– with two torps loaded and room for a reload, giving them the capability to carry four torps. War-surplus German G7 straight runners were used.

Torpedo fired by Danish Glentenklassen Schnellboote. THM-24148

Deck-mounted armament at first typically consisted of anywhere from two to five 20mm/65 Flak C30/C38s. The guns were classified as the Mk M/39 LvSa in Danish service. The boats also had some capability to run a few mines and/or depth charges on stern racks.

2 cm Flugabwehrkanone 38 Danish Glentenklassen Schnellboote. Note the American M1 helmets. THM-24157

2 cm Flugabwehrkanone 38 Danish Glentenklassen Schnellboote E-boat S-boat THM-24156

2 cm Flugabwehrkanone 38 Danish Glentenklassen Schnellboote. THM-24150

With all the E-boats running 114 feet in length on similar hulls, the force was all powered by a trio of Daimler-Benz diesels, albeit in three different variants across the classes. Even the slower models could still touch 38 knots at a full clip, at least for the length of a couple of attack runs, while the zestier of the herd could log 45. Their range was typically 700 miles, more than enough to cover the narrow Kattegat and Skagerrak straits. 

One of three 3,000 hp Daimler-Benz MB518 diesels on a Danish Glentenklassen Schnellboote. Other models included 2,500 hp MB511s or 2,000 hp MB501s. THM-24154

By 1951, with NATO standardization, the Danish E-boats started landing their German-made flak guns in favor of, first, a single 40mm/60 Mk M/36 Bofors aft, and then by late 1955 an improved new Swedish-made 40mm/70 Bofors SAK 315 single (M/48 LvSa in Danish service) as well a U.S. supplied 20 mm/70 Mark 7 Oerlikon (Mk M/42 LvSa) forward.

40mm Bofors L60 on Danish Glenten class Schnellboote. THM-24121

March 1957. 40mm Bofors L70. Danish boats mounted these on the stern and had a 20mm single forward in the “zero gravity” area near the bow. Note the U.S. M1 helmets. Aarhus Archive. 

Likewise, they received a small surface search radar and NATO pennant numbers, transitioning from the Danish T series (e.g. T54) to the NATO P series (e.g. P554).

In Danish service, these craft typically had 22 member crews including two officers, two petty officers, and 18 ratings.

Gangway guard for a Danish Glentenklassen Schnellboote. Note the M1 Garand rifle (adopted as the M/50 GarandGevær). THM-24141

In Danish service, boats were originally in a grey/green livery but the country did experiment with a flash white scheme as well.

4 September 1953. The MTB tender HMDS Hjælperen (A563) in Aarhus Harbor together with six motor torpedo boats, all former S-boats. Note that four are painted flash white and two are grey/green. Note the forward mounts have been landed (Photo: Aarhus Stadsarkiv)

Glenten (P551, ex S306) with the experimental flash white scheme

Our subjects were augmented in service by 10 brand-new Danish-built Flyvefisken and Falken-class vessels, which were constructed at Copenhagen based on a scaled-up 118-foot version of the German design they had been working with since 1945.

12 August 1959, Danish torpedo boats motortorpedobåde in the harbor off Vejerboden. Five Danish motor torpedo boats: Sværdfisken (P505), Flyvefisken (P500), Glenten (P551), and Falken (P565). The boats are part of a large NATO squadron of 69 ships that docked in Aarhus Harbour. Of note, Sværdfisken and Flyvefisken, despite their lower pennant numbers and appearance, are actually brand-new TBs commissioned in 1955, built at Orlogsværftets, København as an ode to the German E-boats. Note their stern 40mm L70s and surface search radar fits. (Photo: Aarhus Stadsarkiv)

The first to be decommissioned by the Danes, Hærfuglen (ex-S133), Isfuglen (ex-S127), and Musvaagen (ex-S79) were all early boats with smaller diesels and were pulled from service in November 1954. Speed was everything with these boats, after all.

By 1960, the Danes still had 11 left in service. Via the 1960-61 Janes:

However, all things fast eventually run out of time, and by September 1965, the last, Viben (ex-S68), was withdrawn, capping some 20 years of E-boat fun under the Dannebrog.

November 1957 Motortorpedobåde entering Aarhus (Base). (Photo: Aarhus Stadsarkiv)

Epilogue

None of the Danish-operated E-boats survive. 

Supplemented by the newer Flyvefisken and Falken-class near-sisters, they were replaced by a half-dozen of the Soloven (British Vosper Brave-Ferocity type). Short boats at just 98 feet, they carried four torpedo tubes and could reach a paint-peeling 50 knots.

Danish Soloven (Sea Lion) Class Vosper Brave SØHUNDEN (P514).

Finally, in 1974 the Danish Navy introduced their penultimate torpedo boat, the 10 ships of the Willemoes class. Sleek 139-footers running on Rolls-Royce Proteus gas turbines, they could make 40 knots and carry a combination of Harpoon AShW missiles, up to six torpedo tubes for modern wire-guided torpedoes, and a 76mm OTO Melera.

Danish Willemoes klassen torpedo missile boats

The Willemoes would remain in service until 2000.

The end of an era.

Ships are more than steel
and wood
And heart of burning coal,
For those who sail upon
them know
That some ships have a
soul.

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Kangaroo in the Pouch

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How about this great shot some 80 years ago this week showing the stern of the destroyer USS Claxton (DD-571), at left, a bow-on view of the heavy cruiser USS Canberra (CA-70), center, and another tin can stern, of USS Killen (DD-593), right, undergoing battle damage repairs in the forward deployed 927-foot floating drydock ABSD-2 at Seeadler Harbor, Manus, Admiralty Islands, 2 December 1944.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Catalog #: 80-G-304088

All of the above would go on to have a rich, long life.

The famous “Kan-do-Kangaroo,” Canberra, earned seven battle stars for her WWII service, became the country’s second guided-missile cruiser (CAG-2) in the 1950s, carried the Unknown Serviceman of World War II home, walked the line during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and blistered her guns off Vietnam and only fading to the scrappers in 1978.

Killen, a Fletcher-class destroyer commissioned in May 1944, got in a torpedo against the Japanese battleship Yamashiro at Surigao Strait, and, despite being mothballed in 1946, would serve, unmanned, as a ghost ship for atom bomb and high explosive tests for another 15 years. She was expended as a target off Vieques in 1963.

ABSD-2, consisting of ten sections, continues to have at least three of them in use at Pearl Harbor, one of WWII’s forgotten yeoman vessels.

As for the hard-fighting Claxton, a sister of Killen, she earned a Presidential Unit Citation with DESRON 23 at Rendova, fought in tough surface engagements at Augusta Bay, Cape St. George, and the Surigao Strait; bombarded Japanese positions just yards off the beach in the Philippines, and fought off a dozen-strong kamikaze swarm while performing hazardous radar picket duty off Okinawa. Ending the war with eight battle stars along with her PUC, in 1959, she was transferred to the West German Navy with whom she served as Zerstörer 4 (D 178).

Claxton as Zerstörer Z-4. Ironically, in March 1943 while on her shakedowns, the Texas-built Claxton patrolled briefly in Casco Bay, Maine, awaiting the possible sortie of German battleship Tirpitz from Norwegian waters.

Claxton served with the Germans until 1981, then was passed on to the Greek (Hellenic) Navy for use as a spares ship for that country’s fleet of seven second-hand Fletchers.

Components of Claxton are no doubt aboard ex-USS Charrette (DD-581)/Velos (D16) which, still ceremonially active, has been preserved as a museum in Thessaloniki.

The Last Amazon Endures!

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Coming on the heels of the death knell of the efforts to preserve one of the U.S. Navy’s Cold War-era fast frigates-– with the Bronsteins, Garcias, Brookes, and Knoxes long gone and the final Perrys circling the drain– there is great frigate museum ship news coming out of the UK.

We have also covered plans to create a Falkland’s Heritage Centre on the Clyde, based around the last surviving, great-condition, Falkland’s Task Force warship, the Type 21 frigate HMS Ambuscade (F172).

Ambuscade, the last of the Amazon class, is the sister ship of both HMS Ardent and Antelope, which were lost in the Falklands to Argentine air strikes.

The Pakistani Navy donated Ambuscade to the cause last year. It has served there as PNS Tariq (D181) since 1993. The Falklands vet is to leave the Karachi Naval Dockyard in February 2025 and will be moved to a private mooring so preparation work can begin for her journey back to Britain.

As noted by Navy Lookout: 

A team from the UK will be heading to Karachi to carry out some of the work required. The frigate will subsequently make the 6,000nm journey on a heavy-lift vessel back to the Clyde.

It has not yet been decided exactly where the ship will be berthed in the long term but Glasgow City Council is supportive and there are several sites under consideration. There are two main options, either at Custom House Quay, Inverclyde or at the Govan Graving Docks when renovated. A temporary berth might also be found at the Riverside Museum area close to the tall ship Glenlee.

Au Revoir Tchad

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The Republic of Chad, a French colony from 1900 with the defeat of Sudanese warlord Rabih az-Zubayr at the one-sided Battle of Kousssri (4,500 Sudanese casualties to 103 French), to 1960 when it gained independence, was long key to the Republic’s control of Equatorial and North Africa.

On 26 August 1940, just two months after the fall of metropolitan France to the Axis, Chad was the first French territory in Africa to break with the Vichy government and join De Gaulle’s Free French movement.

Its local garrison, the Senegalese infantry regiment of Chad (Régiment de Tirailleurs Sénégalais du Tchad, RTST), formed the hard kernel that would become Leclerc’s 2e DB division that he would take to Paris and Germany in 1944 and 1945 and is still part of the French Army today, albeit based in Alsace, and led the annual Bastille Day parade in Paris just a couple of years ago.

Free French infantryman, native of the Chad colony, who was awarded the Croix de Guerre, in 1942. Note the tribal face scars. (NARA)

In all, some 15,000 Chadian troops would serve De Gaulle in the push for Liberation.

The Republic remembered, too, and, still patrolling the desert post-WWII, the new nation became a hub for the French Foreign Legion post-1962 after it withdrew from Algeria.

Then, after 1969 when Mummar Qaddafi/Gaddafi overthrew the Libyan king and started getting close to the Soviets, this only increased.

June 10-20, 1978 – Chad. A legionnaire from the 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment (REC) in his Jeep before setting off on patrol on the Ati track. Ref.: F 78-337 L51A © Roland Pellegrino/ECPAD/Defense

June 10-20, 1978 – Chad A patrol from the 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment (REC) changes the wheel of an AML 90 near the Chadian village of Alifen. Ref.: F 78-338 LC109 © Roland Pellegrino/ECPAD/Defense

When Libyan troops pushed over the line into the country from the North in 1979, the French supported Chad’s president, Hissene Habre, and over the next decade, with the help of upwards of 3,000 French troops, forced the Libyan army off Chadian soil in the Toyota Wars and Jaguar Diplomacy that followed.

Between 17 February and 26 March 1986 – N’Djamena (Chad) An F1 Mirage armed from the 5th Wing. Réf. : 1 986 072 12 06 © Patrice George/ECPAD/Defense

August 31 – September 7, 1983 – Chad Portrait of a legionnaire from the 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment (REC) at the Biltine campRéf. F 83-382 LC308 Photo by Bernard Sidler/ECPAD/Défense

Libyan tanks stand abandoned in the desert after being captured by FANT (Forces Armees Nationales Chadiennes), the Chadian National Army, as troops reconquered the Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti region of Chad. The Chadian Army recaptured Faya-Largeau and Wadi Doum airport, where the retreating Libyan army abandoned many dead and a great deal of military equipment, most of it of Soviet manufacture. Libyan planes made a bombing raid on the same day in an attempt to destroy material that had fallen into Chadian hands. Between April 6 and April 10, 1987, Wadi Doum, Chad

Even with Gaddafi gone for more than a decade, the continued instability in Libya to the North, the fight against Boko Haram to the South, and the tension along the 1,400 km border with Sudan to the East, meant a continued– and even welcome– French presence in Chad. 

13 November 2014 – Chad. Caracal EC-725 helicopter in parking, as part of a jump by soldiers of the 3rd Marine Infantry Parachutist Regiment (3rd RPIMa). Ref. : 2014TMLI004_038_080 © Didier Blanchet/ECPAD/Defense. Groupement Tactique Désert Est (GTDE) a embarqué à bord d’un C130 (Hercule) en vue d’effectuer un saut au dessus du TCHAD. 3 sticks ont été formé, le C130 a ainsi effectué 3 largages sur les terres arides du TCHAD.

Now, following the election of Gen. Mahamat Idriss Déby, son of the late strongman Gen. Idriss Déby Itno (who served as Chad’s president from 1991 to 2021), apparently, the good times are over and the country is moving to “fully assert its sovereignty” and is demanding the departure of the 1,000 French troops left in the country, as it leans closer to Russia.

Chad earlier this year sent a 70-member U.S. Army SF det home from a training mission in the country, although talks were apparently looking good a few months ago to send them back. Maybe not after this. 

Notably, the French have been kicked out of Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso in recent months, signaling a much smaller role for the traditional “Gendarme of Africa.”

Efforts to Save an FFG Sunk

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6 January 2013. Period caption: “Guided-missile frigate USS Halyburton (FFG 40) transits the Gulf of Aden. Halyburton is deployed with Commander, Task Group 508, promoting maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility.” (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jamar X. Perry/Released)

We’ve talked about the Oliver Hazard Perry Shipyard in Erie, Pennsylvania, and their half-decade-long effort to secure one of the 7 long-decommissioned FFG-7 class frigates currently stored at the NAVSEA Inactive Ships facility at Philadelphia.

The vessel they were looking to acquire, ex-USS Halyburton (FFG-40) has been in storage since 2014 and is the most complete of her class in mothballs, having been on donation hold.

Well, it looks like that isn’t going to happen.

From the museum, repeated in whole for posterity should their site disappear.

November 25, 2024: United States Navy Declines OHPS Phase II Application For Donation of USS Halyburton (FFG-40)

U.S. Navy has declined the Phase II application of the USS Halyburton (FFG-40) to the Oliver Hazard Perry Shipyard. The U.S. Navy listed several reasons for the decision including additional funding on hand, the first 5 years of operating expenditures, and a long-term lease with the Western Erie Port Authority. These were several of the items that the Navy wanted to see more concrete information about.

This is the end of the nearly 6-year-long journey to bring an Oliver Hazard Perry Class Frigate to Erie, Pennsylvania. “This is a sad day for the Oliver Hazard Perry Shipyard and the many Navy veterans who served on the Perry Class Frigates. For the past 5 years, our efforts to bring the USS Halyburton (FFG-40) to Erie have been rigorous and diligent. We have exhausted all available avenues with the Navy and now we have brought the project to an end.” said Dr. Joe Pfadt Chief Executive Officer of the Oliver Hazard Perry Shipyard.

“We gave it our best effort but came up short. This was a long and very detailed process,” said Pfadt. There are no other known plans on the part of the Navy to release a Perry Class Frigate for historic display anywhere else in the country. The USS Halyburton (FFG-40) will most likely be reduced to scrap or used as a target ship and sunk by the Navy.

Of the 51 former USN FFG-7s (another 20 were built for Australia, Spain, and Taiwan), one was sold/transferred to Pakistan, two each went to Poland, Taiwan, and Bahrain (the last just arriving at its new home early this year after a $150 million update), four to Egypt, and eight to Turkey. Of the rest, 12 were sunk as targets, and 13 were scrapped.

The handful that is left in Philly only escaped the cull as they were typically on hold for potential foreign military sale, with Mexico, Thailand, Greece, and Ukraine all mentioned as possible end users but those transfers never materialized, leaving them often open for plunder by the active Navy, foreign governments operating their sisters, and the Coast Guard for useable gear including turbines, Mk 75/38 mounts, CIWS systems, gun control panels, barrels, junction boxes, and other components– meaning they are far less than ideal for use as a museum ship and will more than likely be bound for SINKEXs.

For the record, besides Halyburton, Philly also holds the late flight “long hull” FFG7s ex-USS Klakring (FFG-42), De Wert (FFG 45), Carr (FFG 52), Elrod (FFG 55), Simpson (FFG 56), and Kaufman (FFG 59).

That means, unless a second-hand frigate can be “acquired” from Egypt, Turkey, Poland, Taiwan, or Bahrain by some veterans group at some point in the future once those countries are done with them (it happened before, that’s how USS Orleck and Slater made it over here, purchased privately from Turkey and Greece, respectively), that’s a wrap for the class in U.S. waters.

Perhaps a CG-47 class cruiser could be preserved instead. The time to get started on such an effort would be now.

At this point, there hasn’t been a “new” museum ship put on display since Iowa opened to the public in 2012. 

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