Category Archives: cold war

The Recycled Spoils of War, Dutch East Indies edition

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One of the many “wars after the war” following VJ Day saw the curious fight between British colonial units (mostly of the 5th Indian and 23rd Indian Divisions, along with the 36th and 49th Indian Brigadea) against Indonesian freedom fighters and Japanese hold outs in the Dutch East Indies in late 1945/early 1946 before the Dutch could arrive in numbers from Europe and America and take over the fight for their arguably already lost colony.

In early December 1945, while the British declared victory over various republican militias in the Indonesian city of Surabaya (Soerabaja), which they had been fighting since late October, armed anti-colonial resistance remained vibrant across the rest of the island of Java and began to spread elsewhere in the 17,000-island archipelago—a fire of the kind that could never be extinguished.

Operation Ponce, which began in mid-December, saw 161 Indian Brigade (of the 5th ID) move out into the countryside, kicking off almost another full year of fighting for the deployed Commonwealth forces, albeit on a smaller scale.

The combat saw lots of interesting scenes in which local Indonesian insurgents (and Japanese fellow travelers) used a mixture of former pre-1942 Dutch/British, 1945 inherited Japanese, and locally made hardware against British/Indian and Dutch forces outfitted with freshly supplied late-war U.S. equipment.

Bren gunners of the 3/9th Jats, British Indian Army, cover the advance of their regiment against Indonesian nationalists in Surabaya (Soerabaja), December 1945. The Jats had already fought the Axis across North Africa, Ethiopia, Burma, and Malaya before they arrived in Java. Photo by Burt Hardy, No. 9 Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit, IWM (SE 5661)

Private Edermaniger mans his Bren Gun at an outpost in the 5th Indian Division’s lines at Surabaya (Soerabaja), December 1945. Desmond Davis, Photographer, No. 9 Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit,  IWM (SE 7146)

Indian infantry advancing with British Stuart light tanks on the railway marshalling yards at Surabaya (Soerabaja) during fighting with Indonesian nationalists, December 1945. Photo by Burt Hardy, No. 9 Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit, IWM (SE 5665)

A British-operated Sherman tank involved in street fighting against Indonesian nationalists in Surabaya (Soerabaja), December 1945. Desmond Davis, Photographer, No. 9 Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit, IWM (SE 5975)

Flt Lt Threlfall, RAF, disarms four armed Indonesians captured at Bekassi, 24 November 1945. The guns appear to be pre-1940 Dutch Mannlichers, and the age of the locals would seem to make them part of the PRI, the Indonesian youth movement.  

A British soldier holding a Japanese rifle and a Molotov cocktail, typical weapons used by Indonesian nationalists in the fighting in Surabaya (Soerabaja), December 1945. Photo by Burt Hardy, No. 9 Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit, IWM (SE 5667)

A man of the 1st Battalion, The West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales’s Own) examines a Japanese artillery piece that was used by Indonesian nationalists during the fighting in Surabaya (Soerabaja) until destroyed by British forces, December 1945. The battalion was in India at the outbreak of WWII and saw hard jungle fighting in Burma from 1942 to 1944 before returning to India and deploying from there to Java. Photo by Duncan McTavish, No. 9 Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit, IWM (SE 5735)

A soldier of an Indian armored regiment examines a formerly British, formerly Japanese Marmon-Herrington CTLS light tank used by Indonesian nationalists and recaptured by British forces during the fighting in Surabaya (Soerabaja), December 1945. The “PBM” is likely for the People’s Militia (Barisan Rakyat) group. Photo by Duncan McTavish, No. 9 Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit, IWM (SE 5742)

A Thunderbolt Mk II (P-47D-25/-30-RE/30/-40-RA) of No. 81 Squadron, RAF, is being prepared for action against Indonesian nationalists at Kemajoran airfield, Batavia, in readiness for operations against Indonesian nationalists at Surabaya (Soerabaja) in Java. The unit, which had been No. 123 (East India) Squadron RAF until 10 June 1945 when it was rebadged, shifted from Chittagong to the Dutch East Indies in November along with No. 60 Squadron (also a Thunderbolt Mk II outfit) and remained there until June 1946, flying tactical reconnaissance duties and covering Allied road convoys, while attacking nationalist held airfields and ammunition dumps. (Photo by SGT Woollacott IWM CF 842)

“An Indian soldier guards a former Japanese army light tank used by Indonesian nationalists until knocked out by British forces during the fighting in Surabaya (Soerabaja).” An Indian soldier guards a Universal (Bren) Carrier, which was converted into an ad hoc tank by the Japanese, perhaps by use with the SNLF, as witnessed by the anchor, then taken over by Indonesian nationalists after the surrender, in Surabaya, 27 November 1945. Desmond Davis, Photographer, No. 9 Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit, IWM SE 5866

A South African-made Marmon-Herrington Mark III armored car, formerly of the British Army, captured in Singapore/Malaysia in 1941/42, moved to Java by the Japanese after that, then captured circa-September 1945 from Imperial Japanese Army stocks by PRI, the Indonesian Youth Movement, seen wrecked in Surabaya (Soerabaja), December 1945. Note the pro-Democracy signs, written in English to appeal to the occupying British/Indian troops. Photo by Burt Hardy, No. 9 Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit, IWM SE 5632

12 December 1945. A Soldier of the 5th Indian Division examines a 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft gun, likely a former Dutch, captured in 1942, knocked out by a British tank during fighting with Indonesian nationalists outside the town of Surabaya (Soerabaja). This gun was just one of many weapons handed over to the Indonesians rather than the British following the Japanese surrender. IWM (SE 6183)

The Dutch KNIL colonial army in the East Indies had fielded 40mm Bofors luchtdoelgeschut AAA guns, such as this one seen at Tjimahi, West Java, in 1939. When the islands fell to the Japanese, apparently, some survived long enough to be turned over to the Indonesians in 1945. NIMH 2155_022706

Mechanics of 3219 Servicing Commando, Royal Air Force (RAF), check the engines of a Japanese Kawanishi H6K Mavis flying boat at Sourabaya (Soerabaja), Java, in preparation for an air test flight. Of interest are the markings added by Indonesian nationalists and the fact that an additional band of blue has been added to the fuselage marking by the Dutch. IWM (CF 1074)

Corporal Ralph Hayden and Leading Aircraftman Harry Pearce of No. 80 Squadron (RAF) photographed amongst parts of Japanese aircraft, now bearing ersatz Indonesian markings, found when Royal Air Force personnel reached the airfield and seaplane base at Sourabaya (Soerabaja), Java. No. 80 Squadron, formed in the Great War, flew Tempest Mk Vs in the Far East and today is a F-35 training squadron at Eglin. IWM (CF 1078)

A list of over 200 Japanese aircraft acquired by the Indonesians, mid-1946:

The Brits even handed out some of the captured Japanese small arms to local “friendlies,” which probably just put them back into circulation.

The Indonesian chief of police in the town of Grissee, 15 miles from Surabaya (Soerabaja), receives 18 rifles and 200 rounds of ammunition to assist with keeping law and order in the area. The guns had been confiscated a few weeks earlier when British and Indian troops made a sweep through the town. However, as the chief of police assisted the British forces in locating and destroying Japanese ammunition dumps, the guns were handed back. Three days after this photograph was taken, Indonesian nationalists reoccupied Grissee and probably took control of the weapons. Desmond Davis, Photographer, No. 9 Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit,  IWM (SE 6536)

The British military only fully withdrew from the Dutch East Indies in November 1946, at which point the Dutch forces in the region had swelled to 115,000 under arms (70,000 Dutch Army/Air Force rushed from Europe, 40,000 colonial KNIL troops, and 5,000 American-trained Dutch Marines), not counting sailors afloat.

“See the world. Get it done in the Indies. Serve!” Dutch recruiting poster, circa 1945-1949,

The odd collection of harvested weapons would endure until the Dutch quit the islands in 1949.

As a supreme example of this flotsam of war, check out this 1946 image from Java showing captured weapons bagged by Dutch Marines in the countryside.

NIMH 2174-1377

The above include British-made Vickers M27 machine guns (with ribbed cooling jackets), Dutch Mannlicher M95 rifles, ex-Japanese Swiss-made MP28 submachine guns, Dutch-issued Danish-made Madsen light machine guns (with curved magazines), Colt-Browning and Maxim machine guns (smooth cooling jackets), various landmines, ammunition belts, and helmets. The helmets include Japanese, Dutch M34s, and the local Dutch East Indies-made version of the M16 German Stahlhelm manufactured by N.V. Machinefabriek Braat in Soerabaia, which were issued to the colony’s Stadswacht (Urban Home Guards), firefighters, and Luchtbeschermingsdienst (LBD=Air Raid Protection Service).

Captured Indonesian rebels, with the first two wearing a pre-1942 Staadwacht Stalhelm and an M23 helmet, seen in the middle of the group

February 1947, a Dutch Stuart tank passes a wrecked Japanese Type 89 I-Go in Indonesia

Indonesian troops drilling with captured Japanese Arisaka Type 99 rifles during 1949,

Between 1945 and 1949, the Dutch alone suffered 6,177 losses, including 3,281 in combat.

The British suffered over 600 dead (most of them Indian) for a colony that was not even theirs.

Meanwhile, Japanese losses– for a country that had already surrendered– are believed to be over 700, with some estimates being twice that high.

Indonesian soldiers march through an empty street, 12 November 1949, mostly equipped with salvaged Japanese rifles and equipment, as well as at least one Australian Owen submachine gun, source unknown. Dutch Nationaal Archief Bestanddeelnummer: 888

The number of Indonesians who perished during the period is all over the place, with some quoting as high as 300,000 when civilian deaths by famine and disease are taken into account.

It was truly one of the most senseless of Cold War conflicts.

Warship Wednesday 10 December 2025: Dutch Avenger

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Here at LSOZI, we take a break every Wednesday to explore the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period, profiling 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 10 December 2025: Dutch Avenger

NIMH Objectnummer 2158_014036

Above we see the kanonneerboot (gunboat) Hr.Ms. Van Kinsbergen (U 93) arriving at Willemstad, Curaçao, Dutch Antilles, on Halloween 1939, complete with a large Dutch flag painted amidships as a mark of neutrality. While she arrived to be a station ship in a neutral country’s overseas territory during the first months of WWII, she would go on to put on war paint and go looking for some payback after her homeland was invaded and occupied a few months later.

She would help stop a large German freighter some 85 years ago this week– one of many Axis ships “The Flying Dutchman” would bag.

The need for a gunnery school ship

Our subject was ordered as an artillerie-instructieschip, a vehicle to train the Dutch Navy’s gunners and new gunnery officers in preparation for a series of modern warships, most of which were never constructed before the war began. She was badly needed to replace the very old (laid down in 1897) Holland-class pantser-dekschepen (protected cruiser) Hr.Ms. Gelderland, which had been taken out of front-line service in 1919 and had been working as an artillery training ship ever since.

With a full displacement of just 2,388 tons and a 322-foot length, Van Kinsbergen was rightfully a sloop or frigate. Using two sets of Werkspoor geared steam turbines driven by two Yarrow boilers, she could make 25.5 knots on 17,000shp. Range was 5,790nm at 14.5 knots on 696 tons of oil. Armor was slight, just a half-inch belt, an inch shield on the main guns, a 20mm protected deck over machinery spaces, and 20mm on the conning tower.

Stoom- en motorschepen,Kanonneerboten,Van Kinsbergen 1939-1974,Algemeen plan (Dutch Nationaal Archief )

Her primary armament was four single 12 cm/45 (4.7″) Wilton-Fijenoord Nr. 6 guns in half-shielded (open back) mounts. A dual-purpose gun derived from earlier Bofors SP designs with a 55-degree elevation, they had a rate of fire of 10 rounds per minute and a range of 17,500 yards.

The Dutch aimed to use the same gun on new minelayers (Hr.Ms.Willem van der Zaan (ML-2), the four Tjerk Hiddes/Gerard Callenburgh-class destroyers, seven 1,400-ton 1938 pattern K-class gunboats, and as the secondary battery of a trio of planned 30,000-ton Design 1047 battlecruisers (which were very similar to the German Scharnhorst).

Van Kinsbergen was also given a large and very advanced (for its time) Hazemeyer Signaalapparatenfabriek HSLG-4 fire control device that could be used to direct both her main and secondary armament. Speaking to the latter, she carried two twin 40/56 Bofors Nr.3 guns on advanced triaxial stabilized mounts, one of the first mountings of what would go on to be one of the main Allied AAA mounts of WWII.

The Hazemeyer device was used on both the 4.7-inch guns and 40mm Bofors of the Navy’s late model cruisers, such as De Reuter, and 48 land-based 75mm/43 Vickers Model 1931 AAA guns in service with the K.Lu A.

Dutch AAA HSLG-4 Hazemeyer Signaalapparatenfabriek fire control with 75mm Vickers 1939 AKL071201

Dutch Luchtdoelartilleristen bedienen een Vickers 7,5 cm t.l. vuurmond AKL075817

Most of the Hazemeyer-equipped 7,5 cm Vickers operated by the K.Lu.A were in storage at Artillerie Inrichtingen Hembrug, recently arrived from Britain and waiting to be assembled when the Germans invaded Holland in May 1940.

2158_014040

Een geschutkonstabel-kanonnier bedient een dubbelloops 40mm Bofors mitrailleur (Hazemeyer opstelling) aan boord van Hr.Ms. Van Kinsbergen NIMH 2158_039637

Van Kinsbergen gun’s crew at action stations on the twin Bofors gun by British LT Sidney James Beadell, RNVR, IWM (A 4686)

She was also fitted in 1939 with four .50 caliber machineguns, and two depth charge racks. Most sources also list her with a pair of 3″/52 SA Nr.2 mounts, at least one of which would be mounted ashore to defend Curacao later in the war.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves.

Meet Van Kinsbergen

Our subject was named in honor of VADM (Count) Jan Hendrik van Kinsbergen, who famously beat the Turks several times while in Tsarist service (the Russian Imperial Navy named destroyers after him), in addition to his multiple feats in Dutch service.

Laid down by Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij, at Rotterdam, Netherlands on 11 September 1937, she launched on 5 January 1939– christened by Mrs. A. van Dijk-Wierda, wife of the then Minister of Defense Jannes van Dijk– and commissioned on 21 August 1939– less than a fortnight before the start of WWII in Europe.

The same day Van Kinsbergen entered service, the ancient cruiser Gelderland was laid up, and many of the new ship’s crew came from the vessel she replaced, including her skipper, Kapitein-Luitenant ter Zee (CDR) John Louis Karel Hoeke, RNN, a Java-born regular who had earned his commission in 1915.

A very clean Hr.Ms. Van Kinsbergen, early in her career, possibly on trials, before her fire control was installed. NIMH 2158_005639

Same as above NIMH 2173-222-086

Hr.Ms. Van Kinsbergen was still without her fire control (vuurleiding) installed on 17 April 1939. 2158_014022

Hr.Ms. Van Kinsbergen at sea,17 April 1939. NIMH 2158_014020

War!

With the Germans marching into Poland and the lights going out across Europe once again for the second time in 25 years, Van Kinsbergen’s planned career as a training vessel was put on hold as her North Sea stomping grounds were now a war zone.

Hr.Ms. Kanonneerboot Van Kinsbergen with fire control, likely 1939 2158_014023

Hr.Ms. kanonneerboot Van Kinsbergen in Nederland, KITLV 377322

Instead, it was decided she would be of better use in reinforcing the neutrality of the isolated overseas garrison in the wind-swept Dutch West Indies, a move which also put her within an easy cruising distance of the crown’s Suriname colony. In this, she relived the 1,800-ton sloop Hr.Ms. Johan Maurits van Nassau— just in time for the latter to return home to be sunk by the Luftwaffe the next year.

On 2 October, after a visit from Queen Wilhemena herself, Van Kinsbergen left Den Helder, escorting the submarines Hr.Ms. O 15 and O 20, on a slow crossing to Curacao via the Azores and Puerto Rico that ended on Halloween. While O 15 would remain in the West Indies for a year, the ill-fated O 20 would continue through the Panama Canal to serve in the Dutch East Indies, where she was sunk by a trio of Japanese destroyers in December 1941.

When the Germans rudely violated Dutch neutrality on 10 May 1940– even while the country hosted the exiled former German Kaiser– war came to both metropolitan Holland and her overseas colonies.

Marineman op wacht bij Hr. Ms. Van Kinsbergen, 1940 Bestanddeelnr 934-9873

In the Dutch West Indies, Van Kinsbergen and her crew clocked in with local authorities, including a company of Marines and the 1-pounder armed local coastguard vessels HM Aruba and HM Practico, then moved to seize seven German merchant ships that were interned in the islands. These included the SS Este (7915 gt), SS Vancouver (8269 gt), MS Henry Horn (3164 gt), MS Patricia (3979 gt), MS Frisia (561 gt), MS Karibia (428 gt), and ES Alemania (1380 gt).

While the German crews– confined to their ships since the invasion of Denmark in April– tried, only one of these seven, the HAPAG turboship Almania, managed to successfully scuttle. The other six were soon in Allied service under new names for the duration, while 220 German nationals (215 men from the seven ships and five German sailors turned over by Dutch steamers) were locked up in an internment camp on Bonaire until the British could pick them up later in the summer.

Hr.Ms. Van Kinsbergen “Terror of the Caribbean” with her Dutch flag paint job

Of these seized vessels, Este, renamed Suriname, was torpedoed and sunk by U-558 off Venezuela in September 1942 with the loss of 13 crew. Most of the others, including Vancouver (renamed Curacao), Henry Horn (renamed Bonaire), and Patricia (renamed Arbua), survived the war and were given to Dutch shipping firms post-war as reparations, sailing well into the 1950s.

Soon after the seizure of the German ships, the French dispatched 150 colonial troops from Senegal to help garrison out lying Aruba but then, when France fell the next month and dropped out of the war, Van Kinsbergen stood by the tense scene in early July as the Vichy French armed merchant cruiser Esterel (X21) reembarked the Tirailleurs Sénégalais to return them to Africa.

The 40mm story

On 20 August 1940, Van Kinsbergen would find herself steaming with the heavy cruiser USS Tuscaloosa (CA-37) north of Trinidad, with the latter’s gunnery officers very interested in the Dutch ship’s 40mm Bofors mounts, which they saw in action against towed target kites. The performance reportedly convinced them to help push to adopt the gun as the U.S. Navy standard, with BuOrd formally obtaining Swedish licenses in June 1941.

The first U.S. ship to get 40mm Bofors was the gunnery training ship USS Wyoming (AG-17), which received a quad mount in June 1942; shortly after, the destroyer USS Coghlan (DD-606) became the first combat ship fitted with a twin mount in July.

Over 400 U.S. DDs/DEs would carry the weapon, plus a myriad of cruisers, carriers, battleships, LSTs, you name it. During 1944 alone, U.S. factories produced 6,644 single mountings, and approximately 3,650 twin and 750 quad mountings for the Navy.

The Bofors was credited with more “kills” (742.5) than any other USN AAA platform of the war.

Back to our ship

Van Kinsbergen spent the rest of 1940 operating with British ships in patrols off the coasts of Colombia and Venezuela, looking to intercept German, Italian, and Vichy blockade runners– narrowly missing the Hapag-steamers Helgoland (2947 gt) and Idarwald (5033 gt) as well as the French Charles L.D. (5267 gt).

On 11 December 1940, the German Norddeutscher Lloyd freighter Rhein (6049 gt) was en route from Tampico, Mexico, to Germany with cargo and was followed by several warships in an attempt to apprehend and capture her.

German Norddeutscher Lloyd freighter Rhein, ironically in Rotterdam prewar

However, during the attempted arrest by the Van Kinsbergen, some 40 miles NW of the Dry Tortugas, the ship was set on fire by the crew in an attempt to scuttle her. Later that day, the burned-out hulk was sunk by 22 rounds of 6-inch cannon fire by the British light cruiser HMS Caradoc. Van Kinsbergen dutifully rounded up the shipwrecked German merchant sailors whose war had come to a close.

11 December 1940. The capture of the German freighter Rhein by Hr.Ms. Van Kinsbergen and HMS Caradoc. The crew of the sunken ship. NIMH 2158_052025

In February 1941, Van Kinsbergen, in conjunction with two Canadian corvettes, seized the Danish tankers Scandia (8571 gt) and Christian Holm (9919 gt) at the entrance of the Gulf of Paria, escorting them to Trinidad. These tankers were in Admiralty service within weeks.

On 26 May 1941, just after leaving a much-needed yard period in Bermuda, Van Kinsbergen captured the Vichy French CFN steamer SS Winnipeg (8379 gt) with 732 passengers aboard, including eight Jewish photographers who were saved from internment and persecution in France. Winnipeg would be put into Canadian service and sunk by submarine U-443 while on a convoy run the following October.

Five days after seizing Winnipeg, Van Kinsbergen came across the Vichy-French CGT steamer Arica (5390 gt) and captured the same, escorting her to Trinidad for further Allied service. Like Winnipeg, Arica was soon under the red duster only to be sunk by U-160 off Trinidad in November 1942.

The far-traveled Dutch sloop was directed to Liverpool in July for refit, with 11 captured enemy ships to her credit.

In August 1941, British LT Sidney James Beadell, RNVR, an official war photographer, visited Van Kinsbergen while still in port, and while he dutifully logged several great images that captured a moment in time, he apparently jotted down that she was a cruiser (!) named Van Kingsbergen (sic).

Official wartime period captions, likely by Beadell:

“The Dutch rating responsible for sounding action stations on board Van Kingsbergen (sic)”  IWM (A 4687

“Three Dutch ratings seen busy while sail making” and “A Dutch rating busy with palm and needle.” Actually, it seems like they are mending a tarpaulin cover. IWM (A 4688/4689)

“A Dutch rating who is one of the loading members of the gun’s crew.” Of note, the fixed HE shell of the 4.7″ Mark 6 weighed 70.5 lbs, so the rating is getting his reps in for the photographer for sure. IWM A 4690/A 4691

“A Dutch naval guard with rifles and bayonets.” Note the Indonesian rating and the bluejacket’s Dutch Model 1895 (Geweer M. 95) 6.5mm Mannlicher carbines, complete with web gear. IWM (A 4692)

“A Dutch officer taking a sight,” an obviously posed shot as the ship is tied up. IWM (A 4694)

“A Dutch signalman.”  IWM (A 4693)

It was while in Britain that Van Kinsbergen changed crews and skippers, with KLtz Cornelis Hellingman, late of the sub tender Hr.Ms. Colombia, changing places with the good KLtz Hoeke. Hellingman had earned both a British DSO and a Dutch Bronzen Kruis for his command of the Ymuiden/Ijmuiden naval sector (the gateway to Amsterdam) on 14/15 May 1940 and his decision to demo the six ships in the harbor and wreck the port facilities there rather than allow them to fall into German hands.

In September 1941, leaving Britain to return to the Caribbean, the now camouflaged Van Kinsbergen carried 60 men from the newly-formed Free Dutch Prinses Irene-Brigade to Paramaribo, Suriname, to beef up the garrison there.

18 April 1942. De kanonneerboot Hr.Ms. Van Kinsbergen departs from Curaçao. Note her camouflage scheme. NIMH 2158_053743

Her first Allied convoy, from 19 to 27 July 1942, was the Curacao/Trinidad-to-Key West TAW.6C in which the Dutch slugger was the main escort, augmented by the plucky little 136-foot minesweeper USS YMC-56 (which had a couple of deck guns but no ASW gear or depth charges). The duo shepherded six merchants (three American, one each Norwegian, British, and Dutch), including the big tankers MT Beacon (10,388 tons, Standard Oil Co.) and the 9,912-ton Nortraship MT Glaron.

Her next convoy was TAW.9, another Trinidad-to-Key West run, from 27 July-4 August, that numbered 10 merchants (again, mostly tankers) and six escorts, the latter including a pair of small (173-foot) U.S. PCs, fresh from the shipyard.

Convoy TAW.14, 15-25 August 1942, teamed up Van Kinsbergen with two PCs and an SC as well as an old American flush-deck tin can (USS Upshur) to run 14 merchants, mainly tankers, to Key West.

Following that, she sailed for Norfolk for modernization. There until late October, she emerged with a Type 271 radar, a Type 128C ASDIC, six 20mm Oerlikons (two twin, two single), eight K-gun DCTs, and racks for 52 depth charges.

Van Kinsbergen was seen in late 1942 post-refit (likely between 7 and 12 November) in camouflage scheme near two U.S. Cleveland class cruisers and two tankers, at least one of which is a U.S. Navy AO. Naval History and Heritage Command NH 87890.

Same as above NH 87895

Same as above NH 87888

In Convoy TAG.20 (11-15 November 1942: Trinidad – Guantanamo) (27 merchants and 10 escorts), Van Kinsbergen joined the “reverse Lend-Leased” American Flower-class corvette USS Spry (PG-64), the old flush-deck tin can USS Biddle (DD-151), the gunboat USS Erie, and a half-dozen PC/SCs.

It was during TAG.20 that on 12 November, Van Kinsbergen rescued survivors of the Erie after the American sloop was torpedoed by U-163 and beached, ablaze.

In Convoy TAG.22   (21-14 November 1942: Trinidad – Guantanamo) 43 merchants and 10 escorts, Van Kinsbergen sailed alongside another American Flower— USS Tenacity (PG-71)— the somewhat infamous flush-decker USS Greer (DD–145), and seven small PCs/SCs, one of which was the mighty Free Dutch Queen Wilhelmina (ex-USS PC 468), later to become nicknamed as the “Queen of the Caribbean” due to her Caribbean beat.

In April 1943, she got a third skipper, KLtz Johannes Jacobus Lukas Willinge, RNN, late of the light cruiser Hr.Ms. Sumatra, and in August would get a fourth, Ktz Jan August Gauw, RNN, who had formerly commanded the minelayer Hr.Ms. Nautilus (M 12) until she was sunk in 1941 after being run down by the British freighter Murrayfield off Grimsby.

By this time, she had added a pair of Mousetrap Mk 20 ASWRLs and upgraded her sensors to an SF radar, a TBS system, and QHB sonar, with the work done in New York.

While operating from New York, she joined the outward bound leg of two very large NYC to Liverpool Atlantic convoys, sailing as part of the escort with a couple of divisions of primarily Canadian corvettes, frigates, and minesweepers.

These included:

  • Convoy HX.304 (17-20 August 1944, 87 merchants and 27 escorts)
  • Convoy HX.311 (30 September- 3 October 1944, 60 merchants and 25 escorts)

Van Kinsbergen in camouflage in October 1944, NARA

Ordered to England in January 1945, her war was over.

She changed her pennant to N 3 in May and arrived back “home” in Rotterdam in August, entering the RDM dockyard there for service.

Wait, another war?

Able to float in just 10 feet of seawater, Van Kinsbergen was ideal to support operations in the littoral of the 17,000-island Indonesian archipelago, which at the time was fighting to break free from Dutch colonial rule.

With that, she set out for the Pacific on 24 October 1945. No rest for the weary.

Practicing with 20mm anti-aircraft guns on the gunboat Hr.Ms. Van Kinsbergen during the crossing to the Dutch East Indies, October-November 1945. Note the colonial gunner. NIMH 2173-222-009

Van Kinsbergen in heavy weather around 1945. 2173-222-091

Crossing the line headed to the Pacific! (Neptunus a/b van de kanonneerboot Hr.Ms. Van Kinsbergen in 1945.) 2173-222-085

Hr.Ms. Van Kinsbergen, 1946, sans camouflage. NIMH 2173-222-096

Officers from Van Kinsbergen ashore in Ambon (Molukken) in March 1946. NIMH 2173-222-022

Van Kinsbergen during actions on the south coast of Borneo in April 1946. NIMH 2173-222-100

A landing with support from the gunboat Van Kinsbergen on the south coast of Borneo in April 1946. NIMH 2173-222-026

Damage to propellers and propeller shafts sustained during support of a landing in April 1946 near Bawal Island (South Borneo) by the gunboat Van Kinsbergen, dry-docked in Singapore. NIMH 2173-222-028

A bow shot of the same. NIMH 2173-222-029

And a Cold War

In late 1947, Van Kinsbergen received a further upgrade, swapping out her old 4.7-inch guns for a pair of 2 x 4″/45 SK C/32s, while keeping her Bofors and Oerlikons. Her ASW suite was reduced to two throwers, landing her Mousetraps and stern racks. The sensor fit at the time included the SL-1, SH-1, and Mk 34 radars, as well as her QHB sonar.

Victims of the bomber disaster arrived in Den Helder on July 24, 1948. Bestanddeelnr  902-8692

Aankomst Van Kinsbergen te Rotterdam, Aug 9 1948 Bestanddeelnr 902-7914

Vertrek Van Kinsbergen uit Rotterdam, 15 October 1948 Bestanddeelnr 903-0544

H. Ms. Van Kinsbergen (N 3) Marvo 3, 14 October 1948 Bestanddeelnr 903-0537

Terugkeer Hr. Ms. kanonneerboot Van Kinsbergen in Den Helder, 2 March 1949 Bestanddeelnr 903-2501

Terugkeer Hr. Ms. kanonneerboot Van Kinsbergen in Den Helder, 2 March 1949 Bestanddeelnr 903-2500

Terugkeer Hr. Ms. kanonneerboot Van Kinsbergen in Den Helder, 2 March 1949 Bestanddeelnr 903-2499

Reclassified as a frigate with the pennant number F804 in November 1950, by February 1952, she was deployed once again to the Pacific, remaining in New Guinea until December 1954 and circumnavigating the globe in the process.

Hr. Ms. Van Kinsbergen na 3 jaar uit Nieuw Guinea weer te Den Helder, Feb 4 1955 Bestanddeelnr 906-9672

Hr. Ms. Van Kinsbergen na 3 jaar uit Nieuw Guinea weer te Den Helder, Feb 4 1955 Bestanddeelnr 906-9673

Van Kinsbergen 1954 Janes

By the time she returned to the Netherlands on 5 February 1955, her 16-year career was all but over. She served as an accommodation ship (pennant A 876) in Vlissingen from 1 November 1955 and would continue in that reduced role until 29 May 1959, when she was stricken.

From left to right, the decommissioned artillery training ship/frigate Van Kinsbergen (A 876) and the frigate Ternate (F 812, ex-M 816, ex-HMAS Kalgoorlie, 1946-1956) lay up at the Marine Etablisement Amsterdam in the early 1960s. NIMH 2158_001595

In five years, the Dutch disposed of eight frigates. Flores on 1 May 1955. Soemba in Jan 1956. Jan van Brakel in Aug. 1957. Batjan, Boeroe, and Ceram in 1958. Johan Maurits van Nassau was sold for scrap in January 1960 for 257,650 florins and was broken up at Diemen. Van Speijk was stricken from the active list in 1960.

Van Kinsbergen lingered until 19 February 1974, when she was towed to Fa. Van Heyghen, Ghent, Belgium, for scrapping, her value listed as 515,500 florins.

Epilogue

The “Flying Dutchman’s” myriad of interactions with U.S. Naval forces during WWII, particularly while working under COMCARIBSEAFRON, are cataloged extensively in the National Archives, as are her Bureau of Ships plans and reports from the October-November 1942 refit in Norfolk. Speaking of plans, dozens of pages of her original drawings are digitized online. 

A Den Haag bar, Gastropub Van Kinsbergen, celebrates not only the admiral but also our training ship/gunboat/cruiser, collecting various militaria and relics of her from around the world, including the ship’s crest, salvaged from an antique dealer in Turkey.

As for Van Kinsbergen’s crew, her first skipper, KLtz JLK Hoeke, after a stint in command of the Dutch submarine tender/auxiliary cruiser Colombia (18 Aug 1941-27 Feb. 1943, when she was sunk by U 516 near Simonstown) died in Wallington, England, in March 1944, aged 50, during the “Baby Blitz.” He is buried in Loenen.

Her second wartime skipper, the DSO-wearing KLtz Hellingman, survived the war and retired in December 1945 as a full captain, concluding 30 years of honorable service. The hero of Ijmuiden passed in 1979, aged 85.

Her third and fourth WWII skippers, Willinge and Gauw, would both rise to wear admiral stars post-war and pass in 1989 and 1967, respectively.

The Dutch Navy recycled the name Van Kinsbergen for a Kortenaer-class frigate, F 809, which entered service in 1980, served for 15 years, and is still in the Greek Navy.

Hr.Ms. Van Kinsbergen (F809) Kortenaer-class frigate NIMH 2158_014137

Keeping the name alive, the first purpose-built naval training vessel for the Dutch Navy, MOV Van Kinsbergen (A902), entered service in 1999. Built by Damen (who else?) she is a trim little 136-footer that typically ships 16 students of the Dutch Royal Naval College (Koninklijk Instituut voor de Marine) around 200 days each year.

Dutch Navy naval training vessel MOV Van Kinsbergen (A902)

Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive

***

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The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.

With more than 50 years of scholarship, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

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German big cat show

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Last week in Munich, the German Bundeswehr introduced the new Kampfpanzer Leopard 2 A8 main battle tank to the public. The service, which has ordered 123 of the model thus far, stresses that, rather than upgrading older tanks, the Leopard A8 is a completely new design – and thus the first newly built MBT for the German Army since 1992.

Im Werk von KNDS wird der neue Leopard 2 A8 vorgestellt.

Of note, the display model included a Rafael EuroTrophy Active Protection System (APS) factory-installed. While 1,900 MBTs and AFVs around the world have Trophy, this is the first factory-fresh Leopard with the system. It also has a fully digital fire-control suite and an all-round situational awareness system with sensor-fusion capability on top of a host of improvements to the benchline Leopard 2A7HU production model.

Panzer Leopard rollt in München vom Band. Mit dabei: der Inspekteur des Heeres Ulrich de Maizière und Verteidigungsminister Kai-Uwe von Hassel.

The Germans have taken a keen interest in how second/third-hand Leopard 2A4/2A4V/2/2A6s have performed (and have been zapped) during real-life combat in Ukraine over the past few years to improve 2A8.

The first production models fielded will be with the PzBrig 45, also known as the Lithuania Brigade (Litauenbrigade), Germany’s first armored unit based abroad permanently since 1945.

Krauss-Maffei-Wegmann’s sizzle reel:

Future 2A8 operators besides Germany include the Netherlands (46 on order), Norway (54), Czechia (77), Lithuania (44), Italy (132), and Sweden (44), while Austria, Slovakia, and Croatia are all negotiating a purchase, making the new big cat a de facto NATO standard.

1965 Similarity

The rollout comes a little over 60 years since the original Leopard hit the scene, also in a similar event in Munich.

The Bundestag in 1964 allocated 1.5 billion DM for the purchase of 1,500 units of the new model. Subsequently, on 9 September 1965, a test drive was held at Krauss-Maffei in Munich, the main manufacturer, by Defense Minister Kai-Uwe von Hassel (CDU).

Inspector of the Army, Ulrich de Maizière, and the Minister of Defense, Kai-Uwe von Hassel, the first Leopard tank rolled off the assembly line in Munich, Sept 23 1965 (Panzer Leopard rollt in München vom Band. Mit dabei: der Inspekteur des Heeres Ulrich de Maizière und Verteidigungsminister Kai-Uwe von Hassel.)

The official handover of the first Leopard production model to the 4th Company of Panzerlehrbataillon 93 occurred soon after.

By 1976, the Bundeswehr’s total inventory already comprised almost 2,500 Leopard 1s.

Over 10,000 Leopard tanks have been made across the Leopard 1 and Leopard 2 lines, with the Leopard 1 having 6,485 total units built and the Leopard 2 having over 3,600 battle tanks produced since 1979.

And, since you have come this far and may be curious, this is what the U.S. is up to these days with the Abrams– or isn’t.

Meet the M1E3.

Chosin Thanksgiving

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75 years ago.

Official caption: Thanksgiving Turkey is prepared for members of the Camp Pendleton-based “Fighting Fifth” Marine Regiment near the Chosin Reservoir of North Korea, 21 November 1950.

At this stage, a lot of folks thought the Korean Campaign was a wrap with “home by Christmas” talk being thrown around.

Marine Photo A4975 by Sgt FC Kerr, National Archives Identifier 74242756

The Battle of the Chosin Reservoir/Battle of Lake Changjin would kick off just six days after the happy image above was snapped.

Lasting approximately 17 days, it pitted 120,000 enemy Chinese “volunteers” of the Red 9th Army against a force of just 30,000, mostly Marines (primarily of the 1st Marine Division’s 5th, 7th and 11th Marines augmented by the British 41 Commando RM and assigned Sailors) as well as a smattering of Soldiers from the 3rd and 7th Army Infantry Divisions.

This, as an estimated 300,000 Chinese poured across the Yalu, forced MacArthur to notify Washington, “We face an entirely new war.”

Warship Wednesday 26 November 2025: A Sad Affray

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Here at LSOZI, we take a break every Wednesday to explore the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period, profiling 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 26 November 2025: A Sad Affray

Above we see HM Submarine Affray (P421).

One of a class of 16 British A (Amphion/Acheron) class boats designed for use in the Pacific against the Empire of Japan in the latter stages of WWII, she commissioned 80 years ago this week and, while she did not get to fire a torpedo in anger against the Imperial Japanese Navy, Affray did go on to leave a tragic mark on naval history.

The A-class boats

By 1943, the writing was on the wall at the Admiralty that the naval war would soon shift to the Pacific and would be very different than that in the European theatre. Whereas small subs were ideal for work in the cramped English Channel, North Sea, and Mediterranean, larger hulls, more akin to American “fleet boats,” would be needed for far-ranging Pacific service.

The answer was the A-class boats, Britain’s only full-sized subs designed during WWII, which offered faster surface speeds, improved habitability under tropical conditions (they were the first RN boats to have air conditioning), and a double-hull structure. They used all-welded pressure hulls and welded fuel tanks inside, with ballast tanks adapted for extra diesel storage. With their 280-foot length, they were only a little shorter than the typical 311-footers seen in U.S. service while still being much larger than the  Royal Navy’s preceding 204-foot “Long hull” V-class submarines of the 1941–42 Programme. Even the RN’s vaunted T-class only ran 276 feet oal.

By comparison, the A boats could make 18.5 knots on the surface (with a 10,500nm range at 11) as compared to the 15.5 knots (8,000nm @ 10) of the T-class, and downright pokey 11.25 knots (3,000nm @ 9) of the V-class. The operating diving depth of the A-class was 350 feet (max 600), versus 300 on the riveted V and T classes.

The As were also heavily armed with 10 21-inch tubes: six at the bow (two external) and four (two external) at the stern. Besides the 10 loaded tubes, they could cram another 10 Mark VIII fish inside the pressure hull for reloads, although typically just six were carried. Instead of torpedoes, 18 1,700-pound Mark II/Type G ground mines could be carried and deployed. Deck guns included a QF 4″/40 Mk XXII in the sail, a 20mm Oerlikon, and up to three .303 Vickers guns. Sensors included a Type 267W air warning radar, which could function at periscope depth, as well as Types 138 and 152 sonars.

The 1943 Programme called for the construction of 46 Type A boats built across six yards: Vickers-Armstrong, Barrow-in-Furness; Cammell Laird, Birkenhead; Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Greenock; Chatham Dockyard, Plymouth Dockyard, and Vickers-Armstrongs, Walker-on-Tyne.

Only two of the 46, the Barrow-built HMS Amphion (P439) and HMS Astute (P447), were commissioned before the end of hostilities, in March and June 1945, respectively. Even at that, they never arrived in the Far East in time to conduct a war patrol, spending their wartime career in workup and tests.

The 14 sister boats– Acheron, Aeneas, Alaric, Alcide, Alderney, Alliance, Ambush, Anchorite, Andrew, Artemis, Artful, Auriga, Aurochs, and our Affray— were completed between late 1945 and April 1948.

HMS Alliance on sea trials, August 1946, off Barrow. Ref: CRTY 2017/139/776/1.

British Amphion-class submarine HMS Alcide (P415). Note her sail-mounted 4″/40 gun and original WWII profile. The photo was taken in 1947 at Plymouth Sound

Two more, the would-be Ace (P414) and Achates (P433), were not fitted out but, launched and afloat, were in turn converted into target boats.

The order for the remaining 28 units (Adept, Andromache, Answer, Antagonist, Antaeus, ANZAC, Aphrodite, Admirable, Approach, Arcadian, Ardent, Argosy, Atlantis, Agile, Asperity, Austere, Aggressor, Agate, Abelard, Acasta, Alcestis, Aladdin, Aztec, Adversary, Asgard, Awake, Astarte, and Assurance) was cancelled.

A-class submarines, 1946 Janes

Meet Affray

Our subject was laid down at the Cammell Laird yard in Birkenhead on 16 January 1944, launched on 12 April of that year.

The future HM Submarine Affray after launching at the Cammel Laird ship yard, Birkenhead, 1944 LT CH Parnall, photographer. IWM A28195

Affray commissioned on 25 November 1945, and her first skipper was LCDR Ernest John Donaldson Turner DSO, DSC, RN, a submarine service steely regular who had commanded HMS Sibyl (P 217) for 17 war patrols in 1943-44 and had earned his DSO earlier in the war as XO of HMS L 23 (N 23).

Only two of Affray’s Cammell-built sisters, Aeneas and Alaric, would be completed.

Cold War service

Designed for the Pacific, Affray soon left to join the 4th Submarine Flotilla in Hong Kong, centered around the tender HMS Adamant (A164), and with her four sisters, HMS Amphion, Astute, Auriga, and Aurochs, replacing eight T-class boats that Adamant had been supporting since 1945.

By 1949, Affray and, along with the rest of her class, had received a 60-foot “Snort” device, based on captured late-war German snorkel designs, during regular overhauls back home.

HM Submarine Affray (P421), after her 1949 refit. Note the 4″/40 on her fairwater had been deleted, and she has a forward torpedo tube open. 

The device overall proved successful. On 9 October 1947, Alliance dived off the Canary Islands to commence a 30-day “snort cruise,” covering 3,193 miles to Freetown, all while submerged. Andrew later made a 2,500nm run from Bermuda to the English Channel in 15 days.

Previously, British submarines could only spend a maximum of 48 hours submerged, and that was largely stationary.

.A class submarine HMS Aeneas off Gosport, circa late 1940s/early 1950s, sans 4″/40 and with her “Snort” fitted

However, Affray’s Snort reportedly leaked “like a sieve” during dives in the Med, and by January 195,1 the hard-used boat had been placed in reserve at Portsmouth, with the globe-trotter having logged more than 51,000nm in just her first five years of service.

Final Dive

Reactivated and under the command of experienced sub vet LT John Blackburn, DSC, in April 1951, Affray was detailed to participate in a detached simulated war exercise named “Training Spring.”

It would be a multi-day operation including “a war patrol, dummy attacks on shipping, combining with mock hostile aircraft attacks, Marine Commandos to be landed by cockle-type canoes for a simulated sabotage and enemy observation exercise, then re-embark.”

Instead of her regular crew, she had to land all but 24 experienced members while the boat was crowded with 24 ratings drawn from a new submarine class, a team of four Royal Marine Commando canoeists, and 22 members of a junior officer Executive and Engineering training class.

In all, 75 souls crammed into a boat built for 60~ with only about a third of them being “old salts.”

Affray had dived 30 miles South of the Isle of Wight, some 60 odd miles southwest of St Catherine’s Light, at 2115 on 16 April, and was due to transit to a position 20 miles southeast of Start Point. However, she failed to report her position on 17 April, and a SUBMISS/SUBSMASH alert stated search operations that eventually numbered over 50 ships, including 24 NATO warships.

These efforts continued fruitlessly until 19 April, with only an oil slick observed over Hurd’s Deep, by which point she was considered lost.

During the search, 161 sustained sonar contacts and as many as 70 uncharted wrecks, including another submarine, the 1944-lost U-269, were discovered, each requiring fruitlessly sending down a diver to verify if it was the lost Affray.

On 14 June, after two months, the frigate HMS Loch Fyne (K429) made the first contact with the wreck of Affray on her ASDIC equipment and sent the signal to the Admiralty in Whitehall.

The submarine rescue ship HMS Reclaim arrived on scene soon after and dropped a diver with a Siebe Gorman oxy-helium helmet to a depth of over 200 feet, who reported what could be a submarine below.

To confirm, Reclaim sent down her new underwater television apparatus on 16 June.

The camera container and lights in their frame, on board HMS Reclaim. IWM A 31970

When it neared the bottom at 260 feet, the first grainy image of the wreck, including the word “Affray” on a conning tower, appeared topside on Reclaim’s TV screen.

A picture of the name Affray on the side of the conning tower of the submarine, as documented by Reclaim’s camera rig. IWM (A 32110) Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205163026

There is no shortage of educated theories as to what happened to the submarine, the last British boat lost at sea. What is known is that her Snort mast was broken, and all hatches and hull seemed otherwise intact.

Hopefully, it was over quickly.

As noted by Submarinefamily.uk:

Her loss is still a matter of controversy, and the exact reason for her loss may never be known, as she is now protected as a grave for those who died in her. The most likely cause is that her snort mast broke off while she was at periscope depth and that the induction hull valve had failed to operate satisfactorily, resulting in water entering the submarine through a 10-inch hole. With her buoyancy destroyed, she would have sunk very quickly.

Epilogue

The 75 men lost on Affray have their names recorded in the Submariners’ Book of Remembrance in the chapel at HMS Dolphin, Gosport. Their names are also listed at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, the Submarine Museum Memorial wall at Gosport, and Braye Harbour, Alderney, among others.

A dedicated website to H.M. Submarine Affray endures.

The four lost SBS men are also recorded in the Royal Marines Roll of Honour.

Of note, one of the divers from Reclaim working on Affray was LCDR Lionel “Buster” Crabb, OBE, GM, who later became famous when, in 1956, he disappeared in Portsmouth harbor during the visit of a Soviet cruiser with Khrushchev aboard.

The rest of Affray’s class had a happier and much longer service.

At least 10 of her sisters served at one time or another between 1954 and 1967 with the Royal Navy’s 6th Submarine Squadron out of HMC Dockyard, Halifax (stone frigate HMS Ambrose) as “clockwork mice” for ASW training with Canadian and NATO surface ships– with active service deployed North-East of the Grand Banks to warn if Soviet submarines were active during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Although not in RCN service, they typically had several “Canucks” as part of their crews, which helped the RCN’s transition to the trio of new Canadian Oberon-class submarines, which began entering service in 1965. The Submarine Room at the Naval Museum of Halifax contains many of their relics, including at least one ship’s bell from HMS Aurochs.

Fourteen received a further modernization akin to the American GUPPY conversions, which removed the old sail and replaced it with a more modern fairwater, as well as a streamlined hull profile. Although their four external tubes and the deck guns were removed, they could still carry 18 more modern Mark 8 Mod 4 torpedoes or 26 1,930-pound Mark V/type Q magnetic/acoustic mines. They also received new sonars (Types 186 long-range passive, 187 medium-range search/attack, and 197 intercept). The big Type 187 attack sonar required a large bulbous dome on the bow, giving the updated Amphions a similar profile to the 1960s Oberon class boats.

When they finished their refit, the GUPPY-fied Amphions received updated S-series hull numbers in place of their old P-series numbers.

HMS Alliance (S67), almost unrecognizable after her modernization.

HMS Artful, Amphion-class submarine, S96

Ironically, despite the original deck guns being removed during modernization in the late 1950s, a very non-streamlined replacement 4″/33 Mark XXIII S gun was installed starting in 1960 on several A boats to counter blockade-running junks during the Indonesian Confrontation with the Singapore-based 7th Submarine Squadron.

Modernized Amphion-class submarine HMS Andrew (S63) leaving Singapore at the end of her service with 7th Submarine Squadron (7SM), in 1968. The crew lining the deck wearing broad terandak hats while a sign hanging from the side reads “Mama Sam’s”. Within two hours of departure, the crew rescued two Malaysian fishermen whose boat had sunk and returned them to Singapore. Andrew was one of the many submarines to leave Singapore in the late 1960s when the decision was made to repatriate all British military “East of Suez”. 7SM closed in 1971. IWM HU 129718

HMS Alliance, in camouflage pattern off Malaysia, 1965. IWM HU 129708

Aerial starboard-bow view of modernized Amphion-class submarine HMS Alliance (S67) seen in 1965 during her service with 7th Submarine Squadron, note her deck gun. She is wearing a camouflage paint scheme appropriate for operations in the shallow waters around Malaysia during the Indonesian Confrontation. IWM HU 129708

Jane’s page on the class, 1960.

The class made appearances in several films, with Andrew filling in for a U.S. nuclear submarine in the 1959 post-apocalyptic film On the Beach.

Sistership Artemis appeared in an RN training film entitled Voyage North, from which stock submarine footage was lifted and reused in movies and TV shows for decades.

Aeneas, however, one-upped her sisters by appearing in the classic Bond film You Only Live Twice in 1967. She later went on to become an SSG, carrying an experimental mast-mounted SAM launcher. 

The last of the class in service, HMS Andrew, paid off in May 1977 and was also the final British sub to carry a deck gun.

HMS Alliance, although decommissioned in 1973, would continue to serve as a static training boat until 1979, and survives today.

Alliance has been preserved since 1981 as a museum boat at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Gosport, Portsmouth.

HMS Alliance, Gosport

Among her relics is a replica wreath of daffodils, carnations, tulips, and lilies of the valley modeled after the one Alliance’s crew dropped over the resting place of Affray.

The Submarine HMS Alliance lays a wreath over the spot where submarine HMS Affray failed to surface during a training dive in 1951 (Manchester Mirror)

Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive

***

If you like this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find. http://www.warship.org/membership.htm

The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.

With more than 50 years of scholarship, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO, has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

PRINT still has its place. If you LOVE warships, you should belong.

I’m a member, so should you be!

Bat ‘Truders

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How about this great shot some 50 years ago today, showing a quartet of full-color Grumman A-6A Intruder aircraft (BuNo 155623, 155624, 155625, 157014) of U.S. Marine Corps All-Weather Medium Attack Squadron (VMA(AW)) 242 flying in echelon formation on 21 November 1975.

Photo by Sgt. C. Quinn, USMC, VIRIN: DM-SC-84-04345

Commissioned on 1 July 1943 at MCAS El Centro, California as Marine Torpedo Bombing Squadron (VMTB) 242 with an insignia that included Bugs Bunny riding a torpedo, the squadron flew TBM Avengers throughout the Westpac in the last 20 months of the war, operating from bases ranging from the Solomons to Iwo Jima.

Inactivated post-war and stood back up in 1960, they first flew Skyhawks and then Intruders, stacking up a tally of 16,783 combat sorties delivering 85,990 tons of ordnance in successive tours in Vietnam, where they switched to the “Bats” nickname. One of the last Marine A-6 squadrons, they only transitioned to the F/A-18D Hornet in 1990, which they used to great effect in air support missions in Iraq in 2005.

Today, the Bats of VMFA-242 operate F-35Bs tasked to MAG-12 (1st MAW) out of MCAS Iwakuni. Of note, while they started off looking for Japanese carriers to sink in 1944, the unit recently was the first F-35 squadron to conduct operational testing on the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force helicopter carrier JS Izumo, the country’s first “big deck” fixed-wing carrier since WWII.

The fingers of doom, ala Lightning

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The more you look, the spookier it gets.

Two B61-12 JTA’s sit loaded on an F-35 at Hill AFB for a flight test on Aug. 19, 2025. Sandia NL Photo by Craig Fritz

From a recent Sandia National Laboratories presser:

Sandia, in conjunction with NNSA, conducted a series of successful stockpile flight tests at Tonopah Test Range in Nevada, with support and aircraft generation from Hill Air Force Base in Utah. The tests, conducted Aug. 19-21, yielded positive results as inert units of the B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb were successfully carried and dropped by an F-35 aircraft, marking a significant milestone in evaluating the weapon’s performance.

The B61-12 “dial-a-yield” (0.3, 1.5, 10, or 50 kt, with “Little Boy” at Hiroshima being about 15kt by comparison) nuclear gravity bomb, carried in the stealthy bomb bay of the 5th generation F-35 strike fighter, is about as optimal as it gets when you are talking about tactical nukes.

The F-35A has a combat radius of approximately 670 nautical miles when operating “clean” without external drop tanks, while the STOVL F-35B runs 500nm on the same strike profile. Air-to-air refueling can stretch that to almost any desired in-theatre destination.

Besides the obvious USAF/USN use, this combo is soon to be seen in the hands of Allies.

Dutch F-35As took the first step to become “nuke-certified” in 2023, and will use them in NATO’s Dual Capable Aircraft (DCA) nuclear sharing mission. They are already stored at Vokel for use with Dutch F-16s.

Belgium’s first F-35As arrived in-country in October 2025 and will use the aircraft with NATO-supplied B61s at its Kleine Brogel AB.

Italy operates F-35A and F-35B variants, with a plan to eventually have 115 total aircraft after recent procurement announcements. They are a DCA mission nation with NATO B61s at Ghedi AB.

In June, the British MoD announced that it would purchase 12 F-35As and a stockpile of U.S.-held B61-12s for the RAF already held at Lakenheath AB and formally join NATO’s DCA program.

Germany’s Luftwaffe will also buy 35 F-35As to replace its aging Tornado fleet, with the first aircraft expected to be delivered in 2026. Again, with shared B61s already on the menu for the Tornados of TaktLwG 33 at Büchel AB.

Turkey is also a DCA B-61 sharer, stockpiling NATO-controlled weapons at Incirlik Air Base, capable of being carried by Turkish F-16C/Ds in a pinch. If they ever get cleared to join the F-35 program once again, well, that makes a six-pack of Lightning/B-61 users other than those in the U.S..

Bundeswehr at 70

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On the 130th birthday of Hanoveran-born Prussian army reformer Gerhard von Scharnhorst, 12 November 1955, West German Defense Minister Theodor Blank inspected 101 men who, clad and armed with surplus U.S. GI gear and equipment, would be sworn in to become the first soldiers of the modern federal army, the Bundeswehr’s Heer.

Yesterday was the Bundeswehr’s 70th birthday and Scharnhorst’s 200th.

A bit of classic Cold War Bundeswehr time machine here:

Ein Soldat der ABC-Abwehrtruppe markiert den Fundort einer radioaktiven Strahlung im Gelände, Ort unbekannt im Jahr 1956. Altarchiv V-28. Gewher 1 rifle

Kradmelder fährt mit seinem Motorrad vom Typ DKW RT 175 VS bei der Ausbildung durch unwegsames Gelände im Juni 1960. Altarchiv V-9 412555 3283

Ein Soldat mit Funkgerät PRC-6/6 setzt eine Meldung ab im Herbst 1964. Altarchiv V-26 417929

Übernahme der Kampfpanzer M 41 auf Truppenübungsplatz.

West German panzergrenadier jumping off a M48 Patton during the Cold War, HK G3 in hand.

1991: Soldiers of Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion 2 from Hessisch-Lichtenau practice airborne surveillance of large areas in cooperation with Hueys der Heeresflieger in the Höxter area. (Photo: Jan-P. Weisswange/Soldat und Technik)

Our Bundeswehr is Hiring Volunteers, West Germany, circa 1955

At its peak in 1989, the Bundeswehr had 509,100 uniformed military personnel, another 130,000 civilians, and 1.3 million uniformed reservists– the capability to put nearly 2 million in the field out of a population of 78 million.

Today, even with absorbing its smaller East German neighbor and a population of 84 million, the Bundeswehr can only claim 182,496 active-duty military personnel and 80,770 civilians, along with 860,000 reserves (but of the latter, just 50,000 are drilling, the rest in an IRR type of situation). Moves are afoot to push that to 260,000 active and 200,000 drilling reserve with another 1 million IRR type reserves “on paper” by 2031.

Conscription is still authorized under the federal constitution, but hasn’t been turned on since 2011. That could change, with something like a short (3-6 months) active service training period, then transitioning to a six-year drilling reserve stint.

Scharnhorst would be mildly pleased.

50 Years in the Rearview: Harrier deployment

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Still impressive and hard to believe it is a half-century ago.

A No. 1 (F) Squadron, RAF, Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR.1A, deployed to an ersatz field position at Ladyville in the Crown Colony of Belize, formerly British Honduras, in November 1975. The deployment was one of many that stretched through 1993 to dissuade neighboring Guatemala from moving in.

This real-world deployment was only six years after No. 1 became the world’s first operator of a V/STOL combat aircraft. (RAF photo).

Formed as No. 1 Balloon Company in 1878 and Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, No. 1 Squadron became a heavier-than-air outfit in May 1912 with the establishment of the Royal Flying Corps, the only veteran unit in the RFC.

Minting at least 31 flying aces in the Great War, flying no less than 10 types in the process, No. 1 started WWII in Hurricane Mk. 1s and finished it in Spitfire Mk.IXs while picking up another dozen aces. Graduating to jets with the Gloster Meteor in 1946 (and training Robin Olds while on an exchange tour), No. 1 became the first V/STOL fighter unit in the world in 1969 when they fielded the Harrier.

While they never saw combat in Belize, having deployed there with their innovative “jump jets” numerous times, 10 Harrier GR.3s of the squadron did make it to the Falklands, and flew 126 sorties, including the first RAF LGB combat mission, the unit’s first combat since the Suez Crisis in 1956.

Three camouflaged and aardvark-nosed Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR3s of No. 1 Squadron RAF are positioned in the foreground alongside seven gray-blue Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm British Aerospace Sea Harrier FRS.1s and a Sea King HAS.5 of 820 Naval Air Squadron on the flight deck of the light carrier HMS Hermes (R 12). This scene took place on the day No. 1 Squadron joined the ship in the South Atlantic on 19 May 1982. The first Harrier GR3 is armed with a 1,000lb laser-guided bomb (GBU-16 Paveway II) on its outer pylons. At the center of the deck is Sea Harrier FRS.1 (XZ499) of 800 Naval Air Squadron, the aircraft in which LCDR Smith downed an Argentine Skyhawk. RAF MOD 45163716

Switching post-Falklands to Harrier IIs (GR5, GR7, and GR9s), they only hung them up in 2011 when the type was retired in RAF service, logging 42 years as a Harrier unit, a record since surpassed by a few USMC squadrons.

Since then, they have flown Typhoon FGR4s, first out of RAF Leuchars and later RAF Lossiemouth.

Appropriately, the squadron’s motto is In omnibus princeps (Latin for ‘First in all things’).

The best preserved Fletcher heads back to the water

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The “Pirate of the Pacific,” the Fletcher-class destroyer USS Kidd (DD-661) was launched into the waters off Kearny, New Jersey, on a cold February morning in 1943, then, commissioned just two months later, received four battle stars for World War II service and four battle stars for Korean service.

Used as a Naval Reserve training ship during the Cold War, she saw her last drydocking for hull maintenance in 1962 and was shortly afterward decommissioned to spend nearly two decades on red lead row in Philadelphia.

Disposed of by museum donation in 1982, she has since then been a fixture in Baton Rouge on the Mississippi River, where the destroyer, still largely in her 1945 layout, served as a set for Greyhound and other films.

That was until April 2024, when she was removed from her cradle and then sent for her first full overhaul in drydock in 62 years.

A story in pictures, via the USS Kidd Veterans Museum:

As detailed by the Museum:

For the first time in over 60 years, the USS Kidd has received a full overhaul in drydock. She was removed from her berth in Baton Rouge in April 2024 and towed to the Thoma-Sea Marine Constructors (TMC) shipyard in Houma, LA, for this once-in-a-generation work. Over the past 14 months, the deteriorated steel in the ship was removed and replaced with new steel so that she can survive another 40-60 years as one of the State’s top attractions.  The shipyard’s work is now complete, and the ship is scheduled to be released from her drydock berth on November 11th. USS Kidd’s newly refurbished and repaired hull will therefore be entering the water for the first time on this year’s Veterans Day.

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