Category Archives: cold war

Cold War Classic HK G3 Resurfaces in German Use

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The iconic Heckler & Koch-produced 7.62 NATO caliber Gewehr 3 battle rifle officially left German military service in the 1990s, yet it continues to break cover.

The social media page for the Schleswig-Holstein State Command recently posted images of the G3 DMR, or Designated Marksman Rifle, on a military flat range in Hamburg’s Duvenstedt area. The post went on to explain that the robust G3 DMR closes the gap for medium to long distances between Sturmgewehr and Scharfschützengewehr (sniper rifle).

HK G3 DMR in German Army service
Looks like they are getting some work done from the 300m line. (Photos: German Army)
HK G3 DMR in German Army service
Oh, hallo!

The post soon garnered over 300 comments, mainly from German Boomers and Gen X members who had cut their teeth on the G3 while serving in the Bundeswehr during the country’s old conscription days of the Cold War.

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

The G3, in then-West German service, replaced the briefly adopted FN FAL in 1959 and was the country’s standard infantry weapon during the Cold War. While officially replacing the HK G36 in 5.56 NATO starting in 1996, and thousands of legacy G3s were given away as military aid to Eastern European (The Baltic Republics) and overseas (Peshmerga) allies, the legendary roller-delayed blowback rifle is still apparently on hand on a just-in-case basis for “Der Tag.”

Since you’ve come this far, enjoy this circa 1970 film, which shows the G3 in production at HK, complete with a funky period soundtrack. Sure, it is in German, but it really needs no translation.

Korean War Ranger Resurgence

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Earlier this week, in the post commemorating the 75th anniversary of the combat jump by the 187th “Rakkasans” Regimental Combat Team near the North Korean town of Sukchon/Sunchon well behind enemy lines, in October 1950, I would be remiss to not expound on the mention of Korean War Ranger companies, as members of the 4th Ranger Company leapt with the 187th on its second combat jump during 1951’s Operation Tomahawk.

Here’s a quick rundown.

The first Korean War-era Ranger unit was the Eighth Army Ranger Company (8213 AU), created from whole cloth from among members of the in-theatre 25th Infantry Division in August 1950. It was an experimental “Marauder” company that stood up after the Army’s unwelcome experience fighting Nork stay-behinds and guerrillas after the breakout from Pusan/Inchon and the rapid advance to the Yalu.

Eighth Army Ranger Company, 8213th Army Unit, October 1950, Korea LIFE Hank Walker

By February 1951, 18 such companies were established (the original EARC, joined by 1st through 15th Companies, along with Able and Baker Companies). Of note, while many were quickly formed from volunteers of the “All Americans” of the stateside 82nd Airborne Division, others were drawn from “leg” units and would pick up their parachute wings along the way.

Men of the “Cold Steel” 3rd Ranger Company adjust their gear before undertaking a dawn patrol across the Imjin River, Korea. Note the 3rd Infantry Division patch. 

Rangers in Korea. The “Travel Light, Freeze at Night” 5th Ranger Company. Note their 25th ID patches. Contributor: David Kaufman, via AFSOF History

The Korea-bound First Ranger Company class graduates, November 1950

They were in units much leaner than the seven 516-man Ranger Battalions fielded in WWII, all of which were disbanded by 1946.

As noted by ARSOF History: 

A provisional Table of Organization and Equipment (TO&E) was soon developed. TO&E 7-87 (16 Oct 1950) set the Ranger Company manning at 5 officers and 107 enlisted, with an allowable 10% combat overage, bringing the company strength to 122. A standard infantry rifle company of the time had a TO&E strength of 211.

The six-week training program included a “cycle curriculum consisted of seventeen different topics that included training with foreign weapons, demolitions, field craft and patrolling, map reading, escape and evasion, and intelligence collection.”

One company, the 2nd Rangers, was wholly African American. Unlike the smoke-jumping paratroopers of the “Triple Nickels” during WWII, the 2nd Rangers saw combat.

In all, five of the new airborne Ranger companies—the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th—saw the elephant in the Korean War besides the EARC during the concept’s 15-month run, while the 6th Rangers were deployed to Europe, attached to the 8th Infantry Division, should the Cold War turn hot there.

The Korean War combat Ranger tabs, via AFSOF History

One of the Eighth Army Ranger Company’s founders, 1st Lt. Ralph Puckett Jr., earned a MoH during the conflict during a raid just three months after the unit was formed.

Then-1st Lt. Ralph Puckett Jr. led fellow Rangers and Korean Augmentation to the United States Army soldiers across frozen terrain under enemy fire to seize and defend Hill 205 in Unsan, North Korea. Puckett will receive the Medal of Honor on May 21, 2021, for going above and beyond the call of duty as the Eighth Army Ranger Company’s commanding officer during a multiday operation that started on Nov. 25, 1950. (Courtesy photo via DVIDS)

While these units proved a godsend in many instances, ideal for deep recon and raids, the Army deemed them a waste of the best sort of men who would be better suited to strengthen the sometimes faltering line units and disbanded all 18 Ranger companies by November 1951. Many of the in-theatre Rangers were folded into the 187th, which seemed a perfect fit.

However, better minds swept in and, with the small unit Rangers showing the way, when Col. Aaron Bank started standing up the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) in Colorado the following June, many ex-Rangers, especially those with combat experience, were “called up to the big leagues.”

The budding Ranger Training Center at the U.S. Army Infantry School, where Companies Able and Baker were formed and soon after disbanded, was converted into the Ranger Department in December 1951. The first class of individual Ranger candidates, drawn from across the Army with men returning to their units afterward, graduated on 1 March 1952, following an expanded 59-day training period. Then, as today, they are all volunteer.

Today, Army Ranger School is of course still around, with dedicated full-time Ranger units re-established in 1974. Ranger School now runs for 61-62 days and notoriously has a completion rate of only about 50 percent.

You have to earn the tab.

Rakkasans hit the silk!

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Some 75 years ago today, paratroopers of the United Nations forces made a combat jump from aircraft near the North Korean town of Sukchon/Sunchon well behind enemy lines, 20 October 1950.

This dramatic picture was made on Friday, October 20, over the area of Sunchon, about 23 miles northeast of Pyongyang. It shows six Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcars of Far East Air Force Combat Cargo Command about to paradrop troops of the 11th Airborne Division together with necessary equipment and supplies, to stop the northward retreat of North Korean troops who have been forced out of the enemy capital of Pyongyang. Paratroopers were dropped on an arc between the North Korean cities of Sukchon and Sunchon. 342-AF-77984AC

These men were all of the 187th “Rakkasans” Regimental Combat Team, the old 187th GIR/PIR of WWII fame. On 20 October, they dropped 1,407 men in the first serial, and 1,203 men in the second, reinforcing the regiment with its last tranche of 671 men on the 21st.

A lot of gear was also flown in/dropped in, including a full dozen 105mm pack howitzers, 39 jeeps, 38 1/4-ton trailers, a quartet of 90mm antiaircraft guns (each with a 3/4-ton truck to pull them), and 584 tons of ammunition, gasoline, water, rations, and other supplies.

111-SC-362121

It had originally been thought that the 187th could be used in Inchon in a similar way to the old 82nd/101st Airborne on D-day in Normandy, but the Army couldn’t get the paratroopers in theater in time.

The regiment had been redesignated from the 187th Airborne Infantry Regiment on 28 August 1950, just three days before loading on 14 troop trains from Fort Campbell, cross-country from Kentucky to San Francisco for sealift embarkation for Korea aboard the USNS Heintzelman and the USNS Anderson. It had only arrived at Moji Port, Kyushu, Japan, on 20 September, joining the Eighth Army’s reserve.

Within days, they were airlifted via 300~ C-119 Flying Boxcar sorties from Ashyia AB to Kimpo outside of recently-liberated Seoul.

Paratroopers of the 187th Regimental Combat Team put on parachutes and “Mae West” life preservers before boarding a 483rd Troop Carrier Wing U.S. Air Force C-119 “Flying Boxcar,” en route to Korea from southern Japan. Combat Cargo “Commandos” and C-119s airlifted the 187th RCT personnel, weapons, vehicles, and supplies, in a continuous operation lasting two nights and a day, which involved 300 round-trip flights across the Japan Sea. The big transport planes landed or took off every two minutes, in combat Cargo’s eighth airlift of the 187th since the Korean war began. 342-AF-88059AC

They were used in action in “rat hunting expeditions,” mop-up duties against North Korean stragglers. They saw combat starting on 24 September as part of the tail end of the Inchon operation once the Inchon Marines had been shifted north to Wonson.

Battle-equipped paratroopers of the 187th Regimental Combat Team wait to board C-46s of the 315th Combat Cargo Group before take-off on an airborne assault mission somewhere in Korea. 342-AF-84143AC

Then came the prep for the Sukchon jump, which was intended to cut off a North Korean evacuation toward the safety of the Yalu River, hopefully bagging the country’s brass as it fled the capital of Pyongyang to the south.

As noted by the unit history:

At 1900 hours on the eighteenth, with all preparations completed and billets cleared, a briefing was held for pilots and jumpmasters at Kimpo AFB. A drizzling rain had begun and continued throughout the day. At the joint briefing, it was announced that, in the event of worsening weather, the jump would be delayed by three-hour periods.

Though the weather reports were unfavorable for the 20th, Headquarters remained alert throughout the late hours until Colonel Bowen returned with the news that P-Hour was postponed until 1100 hours, 21 October. Turned out of barracks, the troops had only their combat loads and a ticket on an air train that looked as though it might not leave.

Revielle was held at 0230 hours on 20 October. It was still raining when the men fell out for formation. Formed by plane loads in stick order, they shuttled to Kimpo AFB. At 0400 hours, the drawing and fitting of parachutes began. Then the jump was postponed for three hours. Few men realized that a train containing Communist Party bigwigs and American Prisoners of War had already departed Pyongyang.

At 1030, the order was given to chute up.

A typical C-119 aircraft carried two sticks of 23 men each, fifteen monorail bundles, and four door bundles. The planes were so filled that some men had to sit on the floor to find space. Each man, besides a main parachute and reserve, carried a light pack, water, rations, ammunition, a 45 caliber pistol, and a carbine or M-1 rifle. An extra Griswald container, filled with small arms or light mortar ammunition, was carried.

At 1200 hours, the first aircraft, commanded by Colonel Bowen, was airborne. Some of the aircraft scraped the ground on takeoff. The flightpath hooked West over the Yellow Sea before curving back into North Korea from the seaside to maximize surprise and minimize flying over enemy-contested territory.

The armada consisted of 73 C-119s of the 314th Troop Carrier Wing from Ashiya, AFB, Kyushu, and 40 C-47s of the 21st Troop Carrier Wing from Brady AFB, Kyushu, Japan. Top cover was established at 5,000 feet by escorting F-80 Shooting Stars while F-51 Mustangs were on call for ground support.

At 1350, the airborne force turned east on the base leg of the approach to the drop zone, opening the monorail doors just 20 minutes out, while still over the water. “When the green light came on, door bundles, monorail, and paratroopers debouched in a streaming mass. Seventy-four tons of equipment and 1,470 men were landed from the first two serials alone.”

“Stopped by the camera the split second before his parachute opens, this paratrooper seems to be dangling from the Far East Air Force’s C-46 Commando of the 437th Troop Carrier Wing from which he has jumped. Beneath him, the parachutes of other 187th Regimental Combat Team troopers in his “stick” have already burst open. Presenting an excellent example of the air-ground team in action, FEAF’s 437th Troop Carrier Wing works in the closest possible coordination with the veteran 187th. C-46 “Commando” of the 437th and other transports of the 315th Air Division (Combat Cargo) dropped paratroopers at Munsan-ni last March, and once previously in the Sunchon-Sukchon area north of Pyongyang, Korea, in October 1950. Since that time, the two organizations have worked closely on practice field maneuvers. Thirty “Commandos” participated in this training exercise. HF-SN-98-07329″

The first serial had landed by 1405 hours and was soon in contact with what turned out to be the 239th North Korean Infantry Regiment.

The second serial, under the command of Lt. Col. Gerhart, comprised 17 C-119s lifting the First Battalion, Regimental Headquarters, Support Company, Company A 127th Engineers, Medical Company, and Service Company. These elements dropped southeast of Sukchon before dark. By the next day, the Medical Company was carrying out casevac of critical cases by helicopter and L-5 Grasshoppers, while the Clearing Platoon moved more stable patients to a hospital in Sukchon.

In the first use of a helicopter in support of an airborne operation, the USAF’s 3rd Air Rescue Squadron sent H-5s to evacuate some 35 paratroopers and rescue 7 American POWs from the Sukchon and Sunchon area. In the same operation, a C-47 used loudspeakers to persuade some 500 enemy troops hiding in houses near Kunmori to surrender. Combat Cargo Command began aeromedical evacuations from Pyongyang.

The H-5 “Dragon Fly”, originally designated the R-5 (H for Helicopter; R for Rotorcraft), was designed to provide a helicopter having greater useful load, endurance, speed, and service ceiling than the R-4. The first XR-5 of four ordered made its initial flight on August 18, 1943. In March 1944, the AAF ordered 26 YR-5As for service testing, and in February 1945, the first YR-5A was delivered. During its service life, the H-5 was used for rescue and mercy missions throughout the world. It gained its greatest fame, however, during the Korean War when it was called upon repeatedly to rescue United Nations’ pilots shot down behind enemy lines and to evacuate wounded personnel from frontline areas. More than 300 H-5s had been built by the time production was halted in 1951.

Relieved by Australian-manned Sherman tanks of the 27th Commonwealth Brigade, the 187th was able to fall back to captured Pyongyang on the 24th. Their first combat jump in Korea was a success, and even though it did not catch the Nork leadership, it disrupted a division-sized force and bagged 3,818 enemy POWs.

In all, the 187th only suffered 29 KIAs during the operation.

Sukchon, North Korea, a 187th RCT paratrooper paints over a portrait of the country’s “Red Premier” on 20 October 1950, via LIFE magazine.

It wasn’t the first American parachute combat jump into Korea ever, as an OSS Team had made a drop into the Japanese-controlled Seoul area on 19 August 1945, four days after the ceasefire, ahead of American occupation troops in the last days of WWII.

The 187th made a second combat jump in Korea: Operation Tomahawk on 23 March 1951 into Musan Ni where 3,486 men, augmented by the 4th Ranger Company, 674th Parachute Field Artillery, and a few members of the 66 India Para Ambulance Detachment, jumped to cut off a Chinese retreat.

187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team dropping into Munsan-ni, Korea, in March 1951 SC 414084

Paratroopers of the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team, seated in the cargo compartment of 314th Troop Carrier Group C-119 “Flying Boxcar,” “sweated out” the flight to the drop zone at Munsan-ni, Korea, in March 1951. This was the second combat airborne assault for the U.S. Air Force aircraft of the 314th Troop Carrier Group since their arrival in the Far East in August 1950. The first assault was at Sukchon-Sunchon, Korea, in September 1950, when the 187th was dropped shortly after the Allied landing on the beachhead at Inchon. Dropping paratroopers is only one of the many missions performed by the 314th since they joined the Far East Air Forces two years ago. 342-AF-117302AC

Parachutes billow out behind a formation of 314th Troop Carrier Group C-119 “Flying Boxcars” over a drop zone in Korea as paratroopers of the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team make a practice parachute jump as a part of their training for an airborne assault. 342-FH-4A(37869)

“One of the nine missions assigned to the 315th Air Division (Combat Cargo) is the dropping of paratroopers in airborne assaults. Far East Air Forces Combat Cargo has participated in two such combat assaults: at Sukchon-Sunchon, Korea, in October 1950 and at Munsan-ni in March 1951. Chutes billow out as troopers of the U.S. Army 187th Regimental Combat Team jump from a formation of U.S. Air Force C-46 “Commandos.” While airborne assaults took place, other Combat Cargo planes continued the other missions assigned to the 315th Air Division. Besides airborne operations, FEAF Combat Cargo planes have airlifted more than 1,100,000 passengers and 400,000 tons of cargo on the Korean airlift.” 342-AF-121729AC

And that was the end of large combat jumps during the Korean War.

Small jumps, of the U.S.-trained United Nations Partisan Forces Korea (UNPFK), meanwhile, were logged by at least 21 missions behind enemy lines between 17 March 1951 and 18 May 1953, with most teams ranging between 6 and 20 men, except for one large operation (Green Dragon) that dropped 97 hardy souls. Of these, with the partisan forces receiving as little as six days of training before their drop, very little was heard of them again.

The mighty Willis

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After covering Unatis LXVI earlier this week, these images from almost 60 years ago to the day seemed appropriate.

Below we see USS John Willis (DE-1027) as she maneuvers in heavy seas while operating with the Unitas VI task force off the Argentine coast on 19 October 1965.

USN 1114319-C

Destroyer escorts USS John Willis (DE-1027) and sistership USS Van Voorhis (DE-1028) steam astern of the destroyer leader USS Norfolk (DL-1) while operating with the UNITAS VI task force off the Argentine coast on 19 October 1965. USN 1114319-A

A Dealey-class destroyer escort, DE-1027, was named for Pharmacist’s Mate First Class John Harlan Willis, who gave his last full measure with the 5th Marine Division on Iwo Jima in 1945.

Christened by his widow and later commissioned at Philadelphia Naval Yard on 21 February 1957, our DE gave important service off Lebanon in 1958, the Cuban Missile Crisis and intervention in the Dominican Republic in 1961, trained Norwegian Navy personnel to operate their own Dealey-class escorts, clocked in on NASA splash down missions, and sailed on a myriad of deployments and exercises, including at least two of the early Unitas events.

She was stricken from the naval registry on 14 July 1972, and on 8 May 1973, she was sold for scrapping, having served but 16 short but busy years during the Cold War.

Warship Wednesday, October 15, 2025: One Tough Cat

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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, October 15, 2025: One Tough Cat

Royal Navy official photographer Lt. SJ Beadell, IWM FL 7995

Above we see the armed merchant cruiser HMS Cheshire (F 18) in war paint at anchor at Greenock, 5 December 1942. Note her mixed battery of six 6-inch and two 3-inch guns arranged in tubs around her decks.

At the time, this grey lady had already caught and survived torpedoes from no less than two different U-boats and still had a lot of war left in her.

The Bibby 10,000 tonners

The Liverpool-based Bibby Line was founded in 1807 by the first John Bibby and continues to exist as one of the UK’s oldest family-owned shipping businesses. It’s Bibby Steam Ship Co., operating from 1891 with its flagship, the 3,870-ton Harland and Wolff-built SS Lancashire, recording the fastest time on the Burma run at 23 days and 20 hours.

Looking to grow and maintain its England to Burma service, Bibby ordered a new SS Lancashire, this one a stately 9,445-ton steamship, in 1914 from Harland & Wolff. Not completed until 1918 due to the Great War, her first cruises were in repatriating French prisoners of war and later Belgian refugees, as well as shuttling troops around the Empire before being released to her owners in 1920.

A sister, Yorkshire, was also constructed to a similar plan.

With peacetime accommodation for 295 1st class passengers in addition to mail and cargo, Lancashire proved popular, especially on lease to the Crown for delivering troops overseas, and a follow-on class of six near-sisters were soon ordered.

With four masts, a single large funnel, and elegant decks, the 482-foot, 9,445-ton SS Lancashire and her sister Yorkshire were elegant, especially for the Rangoon “Burma Boat” run, and would remain in Bibby’s service until 1946. Note the “HMT” designation on this period postcard, notable as she spent 1918-20 and 1939-45 in service to the Crown, along with numerous lease terms on a £400 per day rate.

Ordered from Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company of Govan in Glasgow starting in 1925, MV Shropshire (Yard No. 619), followed by our MV Cheshire (620), MV Staffordshire (630), MV Worcestershire (640), MV Derbyshire (653), and MV Devonshire (670) were delivered by 1939.

While Lancashire/Yorkshire had been designed to run a coal plant (replaced by oil-fired boilers in a 1921 conversion), the new “Shires” would be run on two Sulzer 8-cyl (28, 39in) diesel engines from the start, with a speed pushing 14.5 knots, sustained. As such, these were the first Bibby liners to be motorships rather than steamships. Since the diesels were more compact and required no stokers, they freed up extra cargo and passenger space over the old design.

The design remained close enough to keep the same general dimensions (482 feet registered length vs 483) as Lancashire/Yorkshire, albeit a couple of feet wider (60 vs 57), which grew the displacement to 10,500 tons. To be certain, this continued to grow as the class was built out, with Staffordshire expanding to 62 feet across the beam, Worcestershire to 64, Derbyshire to 66, with the resulting heft in tonnage as well. Devonshire, the last of the class, would balloon to 12,796 tons.

They kept a similar 275 1st class passenger capacity as Lancashire/Yorkshire. This was arranged in two overall decks, a third deck below outside the engine room, and a forecastle, long bridge, and poop deck above. There were eight main bulkheads dividing the ship into two peaks, the engine room and six holds, four of them forward, and No. 4 abaft the bridge, worked by derricks on posts just forward of the single funnel, along with a 1,340 cu ft in a refrigerated hold. Boats included 10 26-foot lifeboats, two 22-foot accident boats, and two motor launches.

Crews were small for liners, hovering around 200, with British stewards quartered in the forecastle and Lascar seamen in the poop.

The passenger areas and cabins, to the “Bibby tandem” design, were much better appointed than on Lancashire, as shown by this circa 1930s pamphlet of Worcestershire:

They also had all the cutting-edge navigational gear of the era, including wireless direction finding and submarine signaling.

These half-dozen new 10,000-ton Shires, along with Lancashire and Yorkshire, graced Bibby’s posters and cards during the 1920s and 30s, with the line expanding regular service from Liverpool and Plymouth beyond Rangoon to Colombo and Cochin with assorted stops along the way.

Meet Cheshire

Our subject was Official Number 149625, Fairfield Yard No. 620, and built at Govan like her sisters, following class leader Shropshire by just 10 months when she was launched on the Clyde on 20 April 1927.

Cheshire finished fitting out and was delivered that July, with Bibby soon putting her into Far East service shortly after. In doing so, she replaced the smaller Bibby steamship SS Warwickshire, which had been in service for 25 years.

Her pre-war service was quiet, as one would expect. Her typical run was Liverpool to Rangoon via Gibraltar, Port Said, Port Sudan, and Colombo, a regular sea-going Agatha Christie novel. Between 1928 and 1934, she logged an impressive 447,361 miles.

Torpedo Bait

On 29 August 1939, just three short days before the Germans marched into Poland, Cheshire became one of ultimately 41 Royal Navy Armed Merchant Cruisers to see service in WWII (along with three each in the RAN and RCN).

This amounted to removing most of their superfluous peacetime appointments, reducing their masts and rigging, landing excess lifeboats, slapping on a coat of thick grey paint (later camouflaged), and adding a mixed battery of 6″/45 Mark VII/VIIIs left removed from Great War era battleships and cruisers (an amazing 629 of these were in storage in 1939), along with a couple of more modern 3″/50s and machine guns to dissuade low-flying aircraft.

Cheshire profiles, pre-war and WWII, by JH Isherwood, Sea Breezes magazine, circa 1962.

Likewise, three of her sisters (Shropshire, Worcestershire, and Derbyshire) were similarly converted as AMCs, while the balance became troop carriers.

Sister HMS Worcestershire at Greenock in 1943. Shropshire, Cheshire, and Derbyshire all had similar 1939-43 appearances. IWM (A 17213)

HMS Worcestershire is shown as AMC. IWM FL21782

Cheshire was commissioned on 30 October, with the pennant number F18, and was tasked initially with patrolling the North Sea for German blockade runners.

Cheshire’s first convoy run was from Freetown, Sierra Leone, to Plymouth with Convoy SLF.16 for two weeks in January 1940, being the largest escort in the force of two destroyers and HM Severn, which were returning to duty in Home Waters.

February 1940 saw her as part of SL.20, shipping from Freetown to Plymouth in line with the AMC HMS Esperance Bay and four V-class destroyers.

In March, she rode shotgun with SL.24 from Freetown to Liverpool.

May 1940 saw her patrolling from Gibraltar off Vigo, Spain, with the destroyer HMS Keppel (D84), searching for German blockade runners, raiders, and U-boats.

It was during this duty that she rescued survivors from the torpedoed French cargo liner Brazza, sunk on 28 May by U-37. Working alongside the French gunboat Enseigne Henry, the two ships accounted for 52 crew members, 98 military passengers (56 French Navy, 17 French Army, and 25 Colonial Troops,) and 47 civilian passengers (20 men, 19 women, and eight children) from Brazza who survived the sinking. Another 379 were never recovered.

While deployed with the Western Approaches Defence Force on 16 August 1940, Cheshire spotted a prowling U-boat and birddogged the destroyer HMS Arrow (H 42).

Starting 7 October 1940, she and her fellow AMC, HMS Salopian (ex sister Shropshire, renamed as there was already a cruiser named Shropshire), was part of the first leg of an early “Winston’s Special” Convoy, WS 3 (Fast), leaving Liverpool with seven large 20,000-ton transports carrying troops to North Africa the long way round via Freetown and Cape Town.

On 8 October, the Orient Liner turned troopship Oronsay (20043 GRT) was damaged by Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condors of I./KG 40 off Ireland’s Bloody Foreland and forced to leave the convoy, escorted by Cheshire and the destroyers Arrow and Ottawa, which took her safely into Lough Foyle.

Returning to sea, at 21.28 on 14 October, Cheshire was promptly struck in her No.2 hold by one torpedo from U-137 (Kptlt. Herbert Wohlfarth), northwest of Ireland. The A-class destroyer HMCS Skeena (D 59) and Flower-class corvette HMS Periwinkle (K 55) embarked all 230 survivors from Cheshire and put parties on board to maintain steam until a tug arrived to take the damaged ship in tow for repair.

Cheshire was successfully towed to Belfast Lough, where she was beached. She was taken to Liverpool for repairs requiring six months.

The 10,000-ton Bibby liners were tough for sure. Sister HMS Worcestershire (F 29) likewise survived a torpedo from U-74 in March 1941, suffering but one casualty. She limped into port on her own power, was repaired, and back on the job in four months.

Sadly, sister Salopian/Shropshire succumbed to three fish from U-98 while off Greenland in April, but remarkably, only sent two of her crew to the bottom with their vessel, while the 278 survivors were landed in Iceland. Even more tragic, her half-sister, the Yorkshire, was also sunk off Cape Finisterre, via two torpedoes from U-37, just 10 weeks into the war, carrying passengers and cargo to Rangoon while still in merchant service. Yorktown carried 58 passengers and crew to the cold embrace of the Atlantic.

Following repairs, Cheshire joined Convoy SL 020F in February 1941 and SL 024 in March. A short run to Iceland, Convoy DS 3, escorting two troopships to the Allied-occupied island from Clyde, was tense but successful.

She continued her convoy escort work with Halifax to Liverpool HX 131 in June 1941, an 11-day crossing. The follow-up Liverpool to Halifax Convoy OB 335 finished up the month.

Convoy BHX.137 and HX 137 came in July 1941.

On 10 January 1942, Cheshire was tasked to escort Convoy WS.15 from Liverpool to embattled Singapore via Cape Town. With 24 steamers packed with troops and munitions, the escort amounted to our subject, the AMC Ascania, the old battleship HMS Resolution (09), the small Dutch cruiser Heemskerk, and a half dozen destroyers and sloops. The convoy suffered one loss, a freighter damaged by U-402 on 16 January, and was later forced to disperse once Singapore fell on 15 February, with the ships proceeding to Suez, Colombo, and Bombay as ordered.

It was during this trip, on 14 March 1942, while on patrol off Cape Town, that Cheshire stopped the German auxiliary minelayer and blockade runner Doggerbank (Schiff 53), which was the British freighter Speybank, which had been captured and converted by the Hilfskreuzer Atlantis in the Indian Ocean a year prior. Doggerbank, flying the ship’s old red duster, successfully identified herself as her sister ship, the Bank Line steamer Levenbank, and was allowed to proceed.

Cheshire can’t be blamed for the mistake; the Royal Navy’s D (Danae)-class light cruiser HMS Durban (D 99) had intercepted the wily Doggerbank two days before with the same result.

Ironically, her British lines would seal her fate, and Doggerbank/Speybank would later be sunk by one of the Kriegsmarine’s own U-boats, which was sure they were sinking an Allied merchant.

Getting back to escort duty, Cheshire rode with WS 19 during passage from Cape Town to Durban in June 1942.

Her final blue water convoy run as an AMC came with Freetown to Liverpool-bound SL 118, her fourth SL/MKS convoy, in August 1942. Amounting to 37 merchants escorted by 12 warships and Cheshire, the convoy had the misfortune of being haunted for a fortnight by the eight U-boats of Wolfpack Blücher, who claimed five of the merchants. Also damaged during this slow-running fight was Cheshire herself, who caught a single fish from a four-torpedo spread from U-214 (Kptlt. Günther Reeder) at 18.52 hours on 18 August.

Undeterred, Cheshire was able to make port on her own power, after all, she had been torpedoed before.

Repaired, she rode with the short coastwise Convoy FS.19 from Methil to Southend in May 1943, where she was paid off on 9 June 1943.

Her escort service as an AMC is remembered in maritime art by Jim Rae.

“AMC HMS Cheshire escorting Admiralty Floating Dock 53, towed in two halves by Tugs HMS Roode Zee and Thames with seven escorts from Montevideo to Bahia. Escort then passed to AMC Alcantara for onward passage to Africa.” By Jim Rae

Troop service (and continued torpedo bait)

Post-Torch and Husky, and with the British fleet much reinforced with new escorts, Cheshire and her surviving sisters were returned to their owner, who operated them, still armed, with merchant crews as troopships under charter to the Ministry of War Transport.

Derbyshire at Clyde, as a troop landing ship with LCVPs on her sides.

HMT Cheshire, Malta

Lancashire as HMT, Malta

On the eve of D-Day, HMT Cheshire joined Convoy ETP1 (sometimes also seen as EWP 1) in the Thames Estuary, where she met the fellow Bibby liners Lancashire (convoy commodore), Devonshire, and sister Worcestershire. Loaded with 10,000 troops of the train of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division and elements of the Second British Army, they arrived off Juno Beach on 7 June 1944.

Cheshire also had another brush with death on the sea when she sailed on Christmas Eve 1944, alongside the Belgian troopship Leopoldville, escorted by four destroyers, from Southampton across the English Channel to Cherbourg. The two troopships carried the bulk of the U.S. 66th “Black Panther” Infantry Division, and while Cheshire made it to Cherbourg unharmed with her charges, Leopoldville was sunk by U-486, taking 816 Belgian sailors, RN armed guards, and American soldiers with her to the bottom.

Shipping to the Far East in 1945, Cheshire both shuttled Commonwealth troops around the Pacific for occupation duty once Japan quit the war and carried former Allied POWs home. On 23 November, she brought the last Australian former POWs home from Singapore.

Sydney, NSW 1945-11-23. The steamship Cheshire which carried the last group of ex-prisoners of war to return home from Singapore. (Photographer LCpl E. Mcquillan) AWM 123738

Sydney, NSW 1945-11-23. A Group Of The Last Prisoners Of War To Arrive From Singapore Wave To Friends As The Steamship Cheshire Pulls Into Its Berth At Woolloomooloo. Left To Right: Sapper Sullivan, Driver (Dvr) Pasfield, Dvr Mcbean, Private (Pte) Johnston, Pte Mainwaring, And Pte Kermode. (Photographer L. Cpl E. McQuillan)/ Sydney, NSW 1945-11-23. A Group Of The Last Prisoners Of War To Arrive From Singapore Sitting On The Edge Of The Top Deck Of The Steamship Cheshire. Left To Right: Nx65713 Private (Pte) D. Johnson; Nx44139 Pte A. S. Kermode; Nx56312 Driver (Dvr) M. Pasfield; Nx66021 Sapper D. Sullivan; Nx10767 Pte A. Mainwaring; And Qx19008 Dvr R. Mcbean. (Photographer L. Cpl E. McQuillan) AWM 123727/28

She also carried Dutch POWs to Java and Borneo. It was estimated that upwards of 80,000 troops rode Cheshire during the war.

Cheshire was further used for civilian repatriation services, for instance, carrying Gibraltar residents back home in September 1946 who had been evacuated to Northern Ireland in late 1940 when it looked like Spain might invade the colony.

Liner, again

On 5 October 1948, Cheshire was finally released to the owner and allowed to return to commercial service. She was overhauled and rebuilt as a rather spartan emigrant ship, with accommodation for 650 passengers, and three of her masts removed.

Thus minimally refurbished, she sailed on her first Liverpool to Sydney voyage on 9 August 1949, carrying Europeans fleeing war-shattered and Iron Curtain-divisioned Europe for the hope of a better life Down Under.

She would eventually return to trooping duties for the Korean War, able to carry a battalion at a time back and forth from the Peninsula to Europe.

Paid off for good at Liverpool in February 1957, she arrived at Newport on 11 July of that year for breaking by BISCO’s John Cashmore Ltd., having completed a very busy 30 years of service.

Epilogue

Of Cheshire’s sisters who survived the war, Staffordshire likewise returned to service with Bibby and was broken up in Japan in 1959.

Worcestershire lived long enough to be renamed Kannon Maru for her 1961 voyage to the breakers in Osaka.

Derbyshire was scrapped at Hong Kong in 1963.

Devonshire, used for trooping during WWII and Korea, was present at Operation Grapple, the joint U.S./British atomic bomb tests conducted at Christmas Island (Kiritimati/Kiribati) in 1957, having carried Royal Engineers and landing craft crews there to prepare the sites. Later converted to the school ship Devonia for the British India Steam Navigation Co., she was the last of her class disposed of, broken in La Spezia in 1967.

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.

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I’m a member, so should you be!

Indian Balalaikas

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First acquired in March 1963, the MiG-21 (NATO: Fishbed), a legendary fighter and the first supersonic aircraft in the IAF inventory, has flown its last flight under the green, white, and red Indian roundel.

The final flight came from the Panthers of the 23rd Squadron at Chandigarh Air Force Station on 26 September 2025. Keep in mind, these were not training aircraft and were on airstrip alert up until the past few weeks.

A 62-year run for any combat aircraft isn’t bad.

A hero of the 1971 War, where they engaged Pakistani F-104 Starfighters in supersonic dogfights, securing India’s first jet-on-jet kills (earning a claimed 13:1 kill ratio), the MiG-21 was upgraded over the years to undertake multiple combat roles, including ground attack.

India was the largest non-Soviet operator of MiG-21s and the largest maker outside of the Motherland. Of the 11,496 MiG-21s produced, at least 840 of those (MiG-21FL, MiG-21M, and MiG-21bis variants) were built domestically in India by HAL, while another 400 were purchased directly from the Russians.

With the retirement of the “Balalaika” from IAF service, which ended production in 1986, only about 150 of the type remain in token use by Angola, Cuba, Mali, Mozambique, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, and you can bet few of those are airworthy.

About 400 Chinese Chengdu J-7 (NATO: Fishpot) knock-offs, which remained in production until 2013, are in service as well, primarily with the Norks.

Warship Wednesday, October 8, 2025: Everlasting

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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, October 8, 2025: Everlasting

Library of Congress Call Number HAER CONN,6-NEWLO.V,1–1

Above, we see the camouflaged 180-foot Balsam/Cactus class sea-going buoy tender USCGC Evergreen (WAGL-295) during World War II while fighting the “Weather War” against the Germans on the Greenland Patrol. Note her SLa radar set on her mast and covered 3″/50 DP mount behind her stack. Harder to make out are her 20mm Oerlikons, depth charge tracks, Mousetraps, Y-guns, and WEA-2 series sonar set.

To be sure, she was a war baby, built in Duluth for an economical $871,946, but would go on to put in nearly a half-century of dedicated service to the country. She really set the bar for the term “multi-role.”

The 180s

In 1916, the Revenue Cutter Service and Lifesaving Service were merged to form the Coast Guard, to which the Bureau of Lighthouses was added on 1 July 1939, and as such, all U.S. lighthouses, tenders, and lightships became USCG installations and ships. The thing is, the lighthouse and buoy tender fleet was a hodgepodge of antiquated single-use vessels to which the Bureau had been looking to replace with a new series of 177-foot lighthouse tenders modeled after the USLHT Juniper, the last vessel designed by the Bureau.

Taking these plans, the Coast Guard made some changes and produced a 180-foot/950-ton single-screw steel-hulled ship that incorporated some new features that the USLHS never needed (an ice-strengthened bow, search and rescue equipment and mission, allowance for armament, etc. al). The first of these, USCGC Cactus (WAGL-270), was appropriated for $782,381 on 20 Jan 1941 and laid down at Marine Iron & Shipbuilding Corporation, Duluth, Minnesota, on 31 March.

Almost all of these hardy ships were built either at Marine or at Duluth’s Zenith Dredge Company very rapidly in three subclasses: the “A” or “Cactus” class, “B” or “Mesquite” class, and “C” or “Iris” class (with all named for trees and bushes). All ships of the three subclasses have the same general characteristics, but with slight differences (e.g., the “A/Cactus” class tenders may be differentiated from the other two classes of 180-foot tenders by their unique “A” frame main boom support forward and their large 30,000 gal fuel tanks that allowed an economical 17,000nm cruising range on their gentle diesel suite.)

The last to come off the ways was USCGC Woodbrush (WAGL-407), which commissioned 22 Sept. 1944. The building process entailed an average of 192,018 hours of labor per vessel.

USCGC Basswood through the Straits of Mackinac- 12 May 1944, a good example of the “180s.” Note the 3″/50 behind her wheelhouse facing over the stern as well as her 20mm mounts. ASW weapons, firefighting gear, and buoy-tending equipment were also shoehorned into these ships. Further, as shown above, they could break light ice, a feature that was to serve the units headed to the Pacific well!

Meet Evergreen

Our subject was laid down as hull number CG-102 at Duluth’s Marine Iron & Shipbuilding Company on 15 April 1942.

Laying the keel of USCGC Evergreen at the Marine Iron & Shipbuilding Yard, Duluth, MN, 15 April 1942 (USCG photo)

The future USCGC Evergreen under construction, 30 April 1942 (USCG photo)

She was launched just ten weeks later on the day before Independence Day.

USCGC Evergreen prior to her launching on 3 July 1942. This view shows the notched or cutaway forefoot that made the 180s suitable for icebreaking. (USCG photo)

USCGC Evergreen in Duluth – April 1943 (USCG photo)

Evergreen commissioned on 17 March 1943, LT John E. Klang, USCG, commanding. Her construction took but 336 days. The new tender spent her first month in service tending AtoN and breaking ice on the Great Lakes before heading to the Atlantic to get into the “Big Show.”

Weather War

Following a short shake down and availability at the Coast Guard Yard, Evergreen embarked four civilian U.S. Weather Bureau personnel, set off on 18 August 1943 from Boston bound for a spot between the Davis and Denmark Straits off Greenland dubbed Weather Station No. 2, a location she would rotate with the identical but geographically distant Weather Station No.1 off and on over the next ten months other than trips back to Boston or Argentia, Newfoundland when relived. She alternated this duty with sisters USCGC Sorrel and Conifer, each typically clocking in for three-week stints.

Official wartime caption: “The latest U.S. Coast Guard armed buoy tender is shown slogging into a head sea during an Atlantic storm in this oil painting by USCG Combat Artist Hunter Wood. This type carries heavy guns in case it runs upon a U-boat.” Released February 11, 1944. National Archives Identifier 205575897

Officially there to steam in a 100-square-mile area to provide weather and position reports to transatlantic flights as an aid to the Army planes flying over the Northern Route (from Newfoundland, Labrador, and Iceland to Britain), this was not “cake” duty as one cutter, Muskeget, was sunk on Weather Station by a U-boat in 1942, taking her entire crew and her Weather Bureau met detachment to the bottom.

Evergreen chased a few submerged sonar targets on her days in the box and bumped into wayward Allied shipping but came away unharmed.

Her weather patrol duty came to a close in July 1944, when she was transferred to the Greenland Patrol, leaving Argentia in the company of the 125-foot patrol boat USCGC Frederick Lee (WSC-139) to escort the merchant ships SS Biscaya and SS Aragon to the frozen Danish territory, firing 16 rounds from her Hedgehog on a suspicious sonar contact along the way.

She would remain part of the Greenland Patrol through 30 September 1945, heavily involved in cargo runs, icebreaking to keep harbors open, shuttling Navy and Army personnel around the region, coming to the assistance of the icebound cutter USCGC Northland, and handing over four German prisoners of war to the Provost Marshal at Narsarssuak on Halloween 1944.

Permafrost

Post-war, Evergreen was homeported in Boston and reverted to her original task: tending buoys. Her guns, depth charges, and Hedgehogs landed; she took on the more traditional black hull and buff superstructure livery of a USCG working boat.

In 1948, Evergreen began service as the International Ice Patrol’s unofficial oceanographic vessel, continuing the work of mapping the ocean currents near the Grand Banks and surveilling bergs during the season. Sheep-dipped Aerographers Mates (AG) and Sonarmen (SO) performed the task of carrying out oceanographic observations.

Evergreen served in this capacity off and on until 1982.

USCGC Evergreen in heavy seas on the International Ice Patrol in 1951. (USCG photo)

Evergreen circa 1950s with black hull and buff superstructure. Via the UW-Madison State of Wisconsin Collection call no. ANSIY6CLATV43H9A

The 180s, via the 1960 edition of Janes.

Evergreen was held up as a shining example of the IIP’s success on the occasion of the Patrol’s unofficial 50th anniversary in 1962, having been founded in the aftermath of the 1912 loss of the RMS Titanic.

An attached USCG PAO and camera crew dutifully captured her patrol that year and reported back on the USCG’s experimental efforts to read the tea leaves of ocean currents in the region, then mark and, if needed, destroy dangerous bergs headed for the sea lanes.

January 1962. Original caption: “The 180-ft. Coast Guard Cutter Evergreen passes a mammoth iceberg conducting an oceanographic survey for the International Ice Patrol.” NARA 26-G-5965

January 1962. Original caption: “Seen here being lowered into the water from the Coast Guard Cutter Evergreen is one of the three experimental oceanographic buoys which the 1962 Ice Patrol will use to delve into the secrets of the Labrador Current. This current carries icebergs farthermost south along the eastern slopes of the Grand Banks off Newfoundland, where they menace North Atlantic shipping. The buoy carries oceanographic instruments that automatically record the direction and volume of current and sea temperature, among other important data, and detect fluctuations and changes in the current. Information collected over long periods by the buoys will enable oceanographers to forecast more accurately the severity of the approaching ice season.” NARA 26-G-5967

January 1962. Original caption: “Personnel aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Evergreen, oceanographic vessel for the International Ice Patrol, are reading and recording temperatures of water samples collected in Nansen bottles during an oceanographic survey in the Grand Banks. Temperatures read to a thousandth of a degree. The Nansan bottles are numbered and represent various depths of the sea that have been tapped and measured. From 20 to 25 bottles spaced about 100 ft. apart on a cable are lowered into the sea from the current at one time with the aid of a winch. In some places, the sea floor is touched. An average survey depth is one mile, however. From information on temperature, salinity, surface and sub-surface currents collected from oceanographic research, the drift of icebergs may be predicted, and subsequently the most efficient use is made of the searching unit of the Ice Patrol.” NARA 26-G-5963

January 1962. Original caption: “A crew member takes a bearing on an iceberg in the Grand Banks off Newfoundland from the bridge of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Evergreen during a recent International Ice Patrol. From the beginning of the U.S. Coast Guard’s formal undertaking of International Ice Patrol operations in 1914 until World War II, the tracking of icebergs and warning of ships passing through the dangerous ice zone in the North Atlantic was performed solely by Coast Guard cutters. Since 1946, the operation has relied mainly on aerial reconnaissance flights of Coast Guard planes operating out of Argentia, Nfld. Cutters still play a role in the Ice Patrol operations; however, in emergencies, when icebergs drift too near the shipping lanes, and require constant monitoring. Also, when the patrol places are grounded because of dense fog or foul weather. Another exception is the cutter Evergreen, which has performed much of the Ice Patrol’s oceanographic surveys during every patrol season.” NARA 26-G-6057

January 1962. Original caption: “Ignited thermite spews skyward a geyser of ice, steam, and smoke from a cave behind the 180 ft pinnacle of a mined iceberg 325 ft. long in Cape Bonavista Bay, Nfld. The charges were electronically detonated by Ice Patrol men from the Ice Patrol Cutter Evergreen after an unsuccessful try from a rubber raft. It was the second and final demolition test on this iceberg in which twenty 28-lb. charges of thermite were ignited. Thirteen 28-lb. thermite charges were tried the day before. Neither blast had any marked effect on the berg. The ice patrol followed as a basis for its iceberg thermite demolition tests, a theory of the late Professor H.T. Barnes of McGill University, Canada, who experimented with thermite in icebergs. His theory holds that the thermite’s high-temperature explosion would produce a thermal shock wave that could rupture an iceberg along its planes of natural stress, causing it to crumble and melt faster than normally.” NARA 26-G-5905

January 1962. Original caption: “Lieutenant (jg) Thomas F. Budinger, USCGR, last of the Ice Patrol iceberg lamp blacking party to abandon target, make a run for the lifeboat from the oceanographic vessel USCG Evergreen. One-half of this 75-ft. wide, 150-ft. long tabular iceberg in Cape Bonavista bay, Nfld., has been covered with 100 lbs. of carbon by three U.S. Coast Guard officers. The berg will be watched from the Cutter Evergreen for 12 hours, and the effects of the carbon will be evaluated. The theory of this test is based on the carbon’s potential capacity for holding the heat from sun rays, which can penetrate the iceberg and hasten its melting. Several days before this test, the Ice Patrol tried mining and igniting thermite incendiary charges on this same berg. There was no marked demolishing effect.” NARA 26-G-5907

In 1963, Evergreen was redesignated as the Coast Guard’s first dedicated oceanographic vessel, WAGO-295.

She soon received the first computer installed aboard a government-operated oceanographic research vessel. She also transformed her livery for the third time, earning an all-white scheme, replacing the black and buff that she had carried since the late 1940s. The hard-to-keep-clean livery and her frequent deployments earned her several nicknames during her far-flung service, including “Evergone,” “Cutter Neverseen,” “Never Clean,” and just “The Green.”

180-ft. U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Evergreen (WAGO-295), oceanographic vessel for the International Ice Patrol and other missions, shown here in new white paint coat. The cutter was formerly black.”; USCG Photo No. 1CGD1025631; 25 October 1963; photo by ENS John C. Goodman, USCGR.

USCGC Evergreen in Boston Harbor on 7 January 1964 (USCG photo).

Nonetheless, she had an impact.

As noted by a USCG Oceanography publication:

By 1965, Evergreen’s computer and lab had enabled much more rapid evaluations of berg data, in turn allowing for rapid warnings of the ice patrol. In 1966, Evergreen was sent on an oceanographic cruise of the tropical Atlantic off the coast of Brazil, where routine temperature, salinity, and oxygen measurements were made.

Evergreen’s work transformed how the Coast Guard addressed oceanography, and her sea-going lab was replicated on all 35 high-endurance cutters by 1968. An oceanographer’s mate rating was established for the service the same year, with an eight-week school set up on Governor’s Island.

After NOAA was created in 1970, Evergreen’s oceanographic role decreased but did not go away entirely, at least not for another decade.

Evergreen, late 1960s, now with the familiar racing stripe, which was adopted after 1967

USCGC Evergreen, between 1967 and 1968. 

In 1979, the IIP began using satellite-tracked oceanographic drifters to determine the currents and no longer had a need for an oceanographic vessel to conduct surveys in support of operations.

By this time, Evergreen had moved on to other duties anyway.

Walking the beat

Evergreen had survived an engine room fire and flooding in 1968 that sent her to the Coast Guard Yard for an extended period.

She took on the appearance quite different from the rest of her class, with a new superstructure, no buoy tending gear, a bow thruster (exotic for the 1970s), and improved electronics.

CGC Evergreen (WAGO-295) Oceanographic Conversion. 1971 plans NARA 301094596

Evergreen, 28 Feb 1973, with her much different “wide” superstructure without bridge wings and very little open deck space forward. 

Following her repair, she shifted homeport from Boston to the Yard, from where she still made ice surveys during the season but also engaged in other oceanographic and SAR research.

In 1974, the cutter’s homeport was changed to New London, Connecticut. She roamed from Labrador to the South Atlantic Bight in 1976, conducting current surveys.

Evergreen with an iceberg in February 1976 off the Grand Banks

Three of the 180s, Evergreen and sisters USCGC Citrus (WLB-300) and Clover (WLB-292) were eventually redesignated as Medium Endurance cutters (WMEC) to combat the rising drug trade and replace smaller 143-foot Sotoyomo-class fleet tugs that had been transferred from the Navy in the 1950s. Citrus was redesignated WMEC-300 in June 1979 to replace USCGC Modoc (WMEC-194, ex-Bagaduce), while Clover became WMEC-292 in February 1980 to replace the old tug Comanche (WMEC-202, ex-Wampanoag).

Citrus and Clover looked very much like Evergreen’s 1967-68 scheme.

USCGC Citrus in 1984 as WMEC

USCGC Clover at anchor, no date, in the 1980s WMEC arrangement.

Evergreen had her designation changed in May 1983 after the service’s oceanography program was all but shuttered.

These “white hulled” conversions entailed the removal of their remaining buoy handling gear and reassignment to predominantly LE and SAR patrol duties.

Armament was the provision to mount two M2 heavy and two M60 GPMGs (not always carried) as well as the cutters’ own small arms lockers. This was later augmented by two 40mm Mk 19 grenade launchers in the mid-1980s. They also picked up SPS-64(v)1 navigational radars.

Some of Evergreen’s more noteworthy drug seizures included that of FV Glenda Lynn off Long Island with 27 tons of marijuana on board in May 1983 and the 25 September 1984 seizure of the yacht Margie 150 mi SE of Nantucket Island carrying 4 tons of marijuana.

Bridge of USCGC Evergreen- 22 February 1983 (USCG photo)

End game

Starting in 1972 with the USCGC Redbud, which was decommissioned and transferred to the Philippines, the Coast Guard began whittling down the 180s. Before the end of the decade, four further 180s, all from the earliest Cactus variants (Balsam, Cowslip, Woodbine, and Tupelo), were taken out of service and disposed of.

Three of the 180s were lost in accidents.

  • Cactus ran hard aground in 1971, and the damage was so extensive that the government decided to decommission the vessel rather than repair her– nearly 30 years into her service career.
  • In January 1980, USCGC Blackthorn collided with a commercial tanker in Tampa Bay, Florida, and capsized the buoy tender, taking 23 members of her crew to the bottom.
  • In December 1989, USCGC Mesquite grounded on a rock pinnacle jutting from the bottom of Lake Superior, which damaged her so severely that the USCG decided to decommission the old gal, and she was scuttled by a commercial salvage company in 1990.

With the service moving to commission the new and much more capable 225-foot Juniper class of ocean-going buoy tenders, the writing was on the wall for the remaining 180s. Evergreen decommissioned on 26 June 1990 and was turned over to the Navy at Patuxent River two months later.

She wound up in deeper waters than the Titanic off the coast of North Carolina after giving up the ghost to Navy shelling and target practice during a fleet exercise on 25 November 1992.

She only narrowly avoided a coup de grâce from the brand-new USS Arleigh Burke (DDG 51), which found her, and then soon after lost her, before the destroyer’s 5-inch gun could be brought to bear.

As detailed by a former Burke crewman in CIC, the conversation went something like this:

“Bridge, Combat: Surface target lost by radar. Last bearing zero-zero-zero relative, range 6,000 yards.”

Followed shortly by:

“Bridge, Sonar: Underwater target acquired, bearing zero-zero-zero relative, range 6,000 yards, depth increasing.”

Evergreen earned the Unit Commendation twice, the Meritorious Unit Commendation three times, and almost too many Arctic Service Medals to count.

Epilogue

Little remains of Evergreen that I can find.

She has a few of her logs and war diaries, along with her 1971 plans, which have been digitized in the National Archives.

The Coast Guard Art Program has memorialized her in at least two paintings.

Midwatch Sighting by Terence Maley. Illumination flares show the looming 300-feet-high, quarter-mile-long iceberg directly in front of the Evergreen, a former Coast Guard cutter converted into an oceanographic research vessel, patrolling off the Grand Banks.

Evergreen at New London by Peter Eagleton. The Coast Guard Cutter Evergreen, launched in 1942, rests amid ice floes at New London, CT. This is her post-1971 configuration. 

Today, the Marine Science Technician (MST) rating, established in 1970 during the time of Evergreen’s service, carries on the legacy of the Oceanography Mate.

For more information about the 180s in general, the MARAD has a great 73-page PDF report on them here, while the LOC has a great series of images from the Planetree, a Mesquite subclass sister.

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!

Rock photoex

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How about two great shots of NATO Standing Naval Force Atlantic (STANAVFORLANT) ships steaming in formation off the Rock of Gibraltar, February 1979.

The flagship destroyer HMCS Iroquois (280) is in the center, carrying a Canadian commodore, Capt.(later RADM) Gordon Lewis “Gordie” Edwards.

Just to the right (her port side) is the British Type 42 class destroyer HMS Sheffield (D 80), which would be lost just three years later in the Falklands War.

On the outside starboard is a Knox-class frigate USS Paul (FF-1080), while outside right is the West German Bundesmarine’s Köln-class frigate Lübeck (F224) with the Leander class frigate HMS Ariadne (F72), and the Dutch Van Speijk-class class (“Dutch Leander“) frigate Zr.Ms. Evertsen (F815) on either side of the Iroquois and Sheffield

Iroquois, a regular in STANAVFORLANT and later SNMG1 service, was kept steaming with a Maple Leaf from her stem until paid off in 2015, capping a 43-year career.

While Lubeck would be retired after 25 years of service, as the Germans tend to like newer ships, she would ironically be joined by Paul as a parts hulk in the Turkish fleet, while Ariadne would go on to a second career in Chile, with the latter sunk as a target in 2004.

Of interest, Evertsen, transferred to Indonesia as KRI Abdul Halim Perdanakusuma (355) in 1989, is still in operation at some 60 years young.

KRI Abdul Halim Perdanakusuma (355) ex Dutch Leander Zr.Ms. Evertsen (F815), photographed in 2024

As for SNMG1, it still sails after STANAVFORLANT’s founding some 58 years ago, and was recently in the high north operating within the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group as part of exercise Neptune Strike 25-3.

Among the participating forces are the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Mahan (DDG 72) and Bainbridge (DDG 96), the Royal Danish Navy Iver Huitfeldt-class frigate Niels Jeul (F363), and the Swedish Navy Visby-class corvette HSwMS Helsingborg (K32).

Korean Privateers

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How about this great circa 1952 Kodachrome of an airstrip “somewhere in Korea” (likely Taegu Air Base, K-9) showing a USAF RF-51D photo Mustang (s/n 44-84775; c/n 44631, formerly F-6D) of the 45th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron with a second RF-51D to its left while in the distance to the right you see two huge dark blue Navy Convair PB4Y-2 Privateers of VP-871 and a USAF Douglas R-4D1 Skytrain.

342-FH-4A39909-K90259, National Archives Identifier 176889420

The legendary Privateers weren’t a fluke, as no less than 22 Navy VP squadrons made 38 deployments to support the Korean War between 16 July 1950 and December 1953.

While most of these were with the new P2V-3/3W/5/6 Neptune (7 squadrons, 14 deployments) or PBM-5/5S/5S2 Mariner flying boats (8 squadrons, 14 deployments), at least seven squadrons of WWII-era PB4Y-2S Privateers (VP-9, VP-17, VP-22, VP-28, VP-42, VP-772, and VP-871) made 10 deployments. The last two Privateer squadrons mentioned (VP-772 and VP-871) were USNR units that were activated and rushed to the theatre, with planes often taken out of long-term storage.

PB4Y Privateer patrol planes of VP-23, in formation over Miami, Florida, July 1949. PB4Y-2 in foreground is Bu. no. 60006. Note that by this time, their dorsal gun mounts had been removed. 80-G-440193

The Privateers served in sea patrol, SAR, and night interdiction missions as well as supporting combat ashore. Of note, the reservists of VP-871, which is now VUP-19, earned its “Big Red” nickname during Korea for its role in night missions, dropping hundreds of red illumination flares to support allied air and ground units.

These “Lamp Lighter” or “Firefly” missions typically saw a P4Y rendezvous with four attack aircraft, search for truck convoys, and illuminate the targets for the attack aircraft, with each long-legged patrol bomber carrying as many as 250 flares.

During Korea, 5 PBMs and 6 P2Vs were lost in the conflict (including 16 KIA and 2 POW in combat-related crewmember losses), while only two Privateers were seriously attacked. Both of these were PB4Y-2Ss of VP-28, jumped off the coast of Red China by PRC MiG-15s on 20 September and 23 November 1952, respectively. Neither were lost, although one had to make an emergency landing in Okinawa.

All Navy PB4Y-2s were retired by 1954, though unarmed PB4Y-2G Privateers served until 1958 with the Coast Guard before being auctioned off for salvage, with many of those going on to work in the Western States as firebombers well into the 2000s.

USCG Coast Guard PB4Y-2G Privateers over San Francisco, 026-g-024-031-001

Warship Comings and Goings

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The past week has been a very busy one when it comes to new warships coming online and old ones getting the (sometimes hard) goodbye.

Comings

The future Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Ted Stevens (DDG 128), equipped with the new-to-the-fleet AN/SPY-6 (V)1 radar and Aegis Baseline 10 Combat System, recently completed her builder’s sea trials. 

Stevens will be commissioned in Alaska in May or June 2026 as she honors the former senator from that state.

Ingalls delivered the first Flight III, USS Jack H. Lucas (DDG 125), in June 2023 and has five others under construction. In all seriousness, these should probably be re-classified as Lucas-class cruisers (CG) as they are stepping into the AAW boss role in carrier battle groups left vacant by the retirement of the Ticonderogas.

Speaking of Flight III Burkes, the future USS Louis H. Wilson Jr (DDG 126) was christened on Bath Iron Works’ drydock over the weekend.

She was sponsored and christened by the daughter of Mississippi-born General Louis H. Wilson Jr., USMC, who served as the Twenty-Sixth Commandant of the Marine Corps during its immediate post-Vietnam rebuilding process. Wilson was no slouch when it came to valor, having earned a MoH while leading a rifle company of the Ninth Marines on Guam in 1944 at the ripe old age of 24.

When it comes to another storied WWII vet, the 82-year-old Gato-class fleet boat USS Cobia (SS-245) is looking great after a dry docking at Fincantieri shipyard. Among other things, she has blasted, primed, and coated with 1,945 gallons of paint, and her sea chests have been cleared of mussels and blanked off with metal plates. A leak was also found in main ballast tank 2, which was drained, cleaned, and repaired.

Her $1.5 million refresh is scheduled to take six weeks and keep her ship-shape for another 25 years, after which she will go back on display at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc around mid-October.

Cobia was last dry-docked in the fall of 1996, which tracks.

Goings

The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea (CG 58) was officially decommissioned during a ceremony onboard Naval Station Norfolk on Sept. 25, 2025. Commissioned in 1989, she has given 36 years of hard service and is the second U.S. Navy warship to carry the name.

Now, only seven of the 27 Ticos are still in active service, with another 15, all decommissioned since 2022, nominally in the Reserve Fleet. Five earlier non-VLS Ticos have all been disposed of.

Finally, the retired Norwegian Olso-class (modified Dealy class DEs) frigate KNM Bergen (F301) was disposed of in a sinkex off the coast of her homeland last month.

There is some confusion over whether she was sunk by a torpedo from the Ula-class submarine KNM Uthaug (S 304) or a Quickstrike delivered by a visiting USAF B-2. As some of the photos released by the Norwegian Navy are clearly taken via periscope, it may be a combination of the two.

It is known that a visiting B-2A “Spirit of Indiana” (82-1069), accompanied by a Royal Norwegian Air Force F-35A Lightning II and P-8A Poseidon aircraft, did use a 2,000-pound class GBU-31 JDAM (Quicksink variant) against “a maritime target” off Andøya in the Norwegian Sea, on 3 September, so this may have been against ex-Bergen.

Either way, it was a dramatic end to the 2,000-ton frigate, which served faithfully on the front lines of the Cold War from 1967 to 2005.

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