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Warship Wednesday 1 July 2026: The Klinker Dinker

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Here at LSOZI, we take a break every Wednesday to explore the old steam/diesel navies from 1833 to 1954, 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 

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Warship Wednesday 1 July 2026: The Klinker Dinker

Above we see a great period Kodachrome of the well-armed Crosley-class high-speed transport USS Kleinsmith (APD-134) moored next to the Chicago Sun Times building in July 1959 during the celebration of the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway.

Laid down in WWII as a destroyer escort but completed as a frogman delivery vehicle, she starred in an iconic movie released some 75 years ago this week on Uncle Sam’s “fin-footed, goggle-eyed, beach-blasting heroes,” before heading off to hold the line in the South China Sea for another 30 years.

The Crosley class

During the early days of WWII, with a dire need for small and fast amphibious warfare vessels, especially in the South Pacific, the Navy quickly converted 32 old flush-deck destroyers left over from the Great War.

Dubbed “Green Dragons,” such conversions meant landing their 4-inch guns, which went on to equip armed merchant ships, as well as their torpedo tubes. Also left behind were half of their boilers, which dropped their speed down to 25 knots. These high-speed transports (APDs) were given a trio of newer high-angle 3-inch/50 guns, one 40 mm AA gun, and five 20 mm AA guns, and the capability to carry up to 300 Marines or soldiers for a brief period. Where torpedo tubes once were, they now carried four 36-foot LCVP landing craft on large davits.

USS Colhoun (APD-2) February 1942. In her Green Dragon configuration 80-G-464374

These converted flush-deckers saw very hard service, with one three out of the four Dragons of TransDiv 12, USS Colhoun (DD-85/APD-2), Gregory (DD-82/APD-3), and Little (DD-79/APD-4), all lost in the Guadalcanal Campaign within a week of each other. The surviving fourth, USS McKean (DD-90/APD-5), was later sunk by a Japanese bomber.

With the concept of destroyer-sized transports vetted and with replacements needed, the Navy soon ordered 99 Buckley– and Rudderow-class destroyer escorts converted as APDs (though five were canceled).

Just under 1,800 tons and 306 feet long, the Rudderows were hardy 23-knot ships that would be classified as sloops or corvettes in other navies, but the term destroyer escort seemed a better fit for the USN and their pair of 5 inch /38 dual purpose mounts, four 40 mm Bofors, ten  20 mm single mount Oerlikons, torpedo tubes and depth charges allowed them to punch out of their weight class. Plus, they could float in just 11 feet of seawater, which meant they could get pretty close into old Hirohito’s backyard.

To maximize their usefulness, these ships were redesigned from the stack back, with the aft 5-incher and torpedo tubes never fitted. This left them with six Bofors in a 3×2 arrangement and six single 20mm mounts along with two stern racks for depth charges. Surface search radar (SA, SF, SL or SU) and a QGA sonar set were standard.

The first Rudderrow APD conversion was USS Crosley (APD-87, ex-DE226) which entered service in October 1944, the leader of what would become a 51-vessel class.

Drink in these images of Crosley-class member USS Joseph M. Auman (APD-117).

Auman carried UDT-7 to the Pacific in late 1945, then was laid up in 1946. In 1963, she was transferred to the Mexican Navy and served as ARM Tehuantupec (H05) until 1989

Their reason for existing was to carry a company-sized element of Marines, UDT teams, Army Rangers, etc., and bring them to the three-fathom line out from the surf, where landing craft would take over and do the rest of the job to get them over-the-beach.

To get their Marines in the water, the Crosleys had four 36-foot LCVP landing craft, each capable of holding 36 men in marching order, able to theoretically land 144 men in a single lift.

A 26-foot whale boat was shoe-horned in to serve as a gig/control vessel. Six 25-man floater nets and eight 25-man balsa wood floats provided emergency accommodations for 350 men should the APD have to be vacated in an emergency, and the boats were not available.

Ship’s crew included a skipper and 10 wardroom officers, 15 CPOs, and 164 crew, all with their own personal gear lockers. Less than luxurious accommodations were provided for 12 “greenside” officers and 150 enlisted, without the aforementioned lockers, as they were supposed to be short-term riders. Total berthing was for 346 souls (24 in officers’ country and 322 assorted enlisted), leaving only six to hot bunk if all the billets were full.

There was also a series of small storage compartments and allotted deck space, designed to carry six 1/4 ton trucks (jeep/GPW equivalent), two M-2-4 1 ton trucks, four ammunition carts, four 75mm M1 pack howitzers, 6,000 cu. ft. of ammo, 3,500 cu. ft. of general cargo (C-rats, etc.), as well as bunker space for 7,000 gallons of mo-gas. With no vehicle deck to speak of and her landing craft in davits, the only way to load these was via the crane on the stern once the Higgins boats were in the water.

The Bethlehem-built Crosley-class high-speed transport USS Scribner (APD-122) underway off Boston on 20 October 1944. She is painted in Camouflage Measure 31, Design 20L. U.S. National Archives photo BS 76150

Crosley-class high-speed transport USS Scribner (APD-122) underway. She earned a single battle star running UDT divers during the Okinawa campaign, was laid up in 1946, then sold for scrap in 1966. NHHC 19-N-76151

Meet Kleinsmith

Our subject was named after Water Tender First Class Charles Kleinsmith (NSN: 2428775), a regular who enlisted in the Navy just after his 18th birthday in 1922. After service as an engineering rate on the battleships USS Wyoming (BB-32) and Maryland (BB-46), cruisers Milwaukee (CL-5), Cincinnati (CL-6), Portland (CA-33), and Honolulu (CL-48), and the carrier Saratoga (CV-3), he transferred to the new flattop Yorktown (CV-5) on Halloween 1940.

He earned a Navy Cross, the kind they give your family after, during the Battle of Midway aboard Yorktown, giving his last to fight a fire in Boiler Room No. 1 and assisted in keeping the boiler under steam to keep the ship’s auxiliary power in operation after a Japanese attack that “enabled the fighting carrier to attain the speed necessary for launching planes to oppose a Japanese aerial attack.” Lost in the battle, he is still listed as missing, presumed dead, promoted to Chief Water Tender, posthumously.

Watertender First Class Charles Kleinsmith

The 25th of the 37 destroyer escorts (Yard Nos. 266-303) ordered from the Defoe Shipbuilding Co of Bay City, Michigan, starting in October 1942, the future USS Kleinsmith was laid down as Defoe Hull No. 291 on 30 August 1944, a Rudderow-class destroyer escort (DE-718).

She was launched 27 January 1945, sponsored by Mrs. Mary Agnes Kleinsmith, Charles’s widow.

Note the fella holding on to the bow!

Towed down the Mississippi to New Orleans via the Illinois River and Lakes Michigan and Huron, she finished outfitting there and was commissioned as USS Crosley (APD-87), 12 June 1945, just before what would have been her namesake’s 41st birthday.

The future USS Kleinsmith (APD-134) in the tow of tug John W. Weeks passing downstream on the Illinois River under the Morris Highway Bridge, 23 May 1945. Kleinsmith was in tow down the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans for commissioning. War Department US Engineers Office, Chicago, IL. Photo #556 from the collections of the Wisconsin Maritime Museum, Home of the SS Cobia. Via Navsource

Making future Kleinsmith (APD-134) fast to the Towboat John W. Weeks at the Marseilles Lock on the Illinois River, 23 May 1945. Kleinsmith was in tow down the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans for commissioning. War Department US Engineers Office, Chicago, IL. Photo #564 from the collections of the Wisconsin Maritime Museum, Home of the SS Cobia. Via Navsource

Her plankowner c/o was LCDR Alden James “Doc” Laborde (USNA 1938). It was the young Louisianan’s third command after being called back from the reserve list in 1942, having been skipper of USS PC-560 and USS Blair (DE 147) on Atlantic duty.

Of note, just two other tin cans were completed by Defoe past Kleinsmith, Hull 292 USS Weiss (DE 719/APD 135) and Hull 293 Carpellotti (DE 720/APD 136), with Hull Nos. 294-303 canceled by the Navy.

War!

Commissioned in the twilight period between VE-Day and VJ-Day, Kleinsmith’s war was short but she still served.

Leaving New Orleans for a shakedown cruise to Guantanamo Bay and post-shakedown availability at Norfolk, she departed the East Coast on 4 August 1945 for the Pacific via the Panama Canal. In post-war interviews with Laborde, he was advised the little APD would be used as a UDT ship for the Operation Olympic Landings in Southern Japan in November, but VJ-Day scrubbed that plan.

After calls at San Diego and Pearl Harbor, she reached Buckner Bay, Okinawa on 1 October and spent the next five months on Occupation duty in Japanese and Chinese waters with Task Group 59.2.

Leaving Sasebo on 21 February 1946, she arrived at San Francisco six weeks later with 118 returning veterans embarked.

With a one-page War History, her crew was eligible for the Navy Occupation Service Medal and China Service Medal (for period 28 September 1945 to 22 February 1946), but Kleinsmith did not rate any battle stars.

None of the 51 Crosley-class APDs were lost in the war, with 34 mothballed in gently used condition by 1947.

One of just 17 Crosleys retained on active duty post-war, Kleinsmith departed the West Coast on 10 April 1946 for the East Coast via the Panama Canal, arriving in Norfolk on 1 May, where she would call home for the rest of her U.S. Navy career.

The 1954 Jane’s entry for the 92 remaining DE-APD conversions still in the U.S. fleet, with the Crosleys (converted Rudderows) lumped in with the Lawrences (converted Buckleys). Most of the ships in both classes were in mothballs at this time:

Cold War

Operating with the UDT frogmen out of Little Creek and assorted East Coast Marine units, Kleinsmith spent the next 14 years on a series of exercises ranging from Puerto Rico (amphibious training at Vieques Island) to Maine (submarine shakedown support), with ship-to-shore, gunfire support, ASW, and antiaircraft drills alternating with seven very real deployments to the Mediterranean during an era where the Soviets were always over the horizon.

USS Kleinsmith (APD-134) during the 1950s with her boats launched. NHHC L45-158.05.02

It was while in the Caribbean on one such exercise that Kleinsmith was tasked with what would be referred to these days as a Non-Combatant Evacuation Operation (NEO) on 24 October 1958 when she rescued 56 U.S. citizens and 3 foreign nationals at Nicaro, Cuba, where they were endangered by military operations ashore between Batista’s Army and Castro’s rebels.

In the summer of 1959 (27 May to 3 August), Kleinsmith became one of the few active duty U.S. warships in modern history to conduct an extended operation on the Great Lakes, transiting the newly opened St. Lawrence Seaway.

In doing so, she was the first naval vessel in several Lake ports in a century or more.

USS Kleinsmith (APD-134) first warship in Ashtabula since 1812. Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 25, 1959

Several images exist of her in Chicago that summer.

USS Kleinsmith (APD-134) moored next to the Sun Time Building at Chicago in July 1959. Kleinsmith was part of the task force that was in Chicago for the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway.

Same as the above

Movie Star

For three weeks in 1951 (15 January to 6 February) the old “Klinker Dinker” stood by at Naval Station Key West to serve as a floating movie set for the Richard Widmark vehicle, The Frogmen.

Highlighting the efforts of Navy UDT men during WWII, many of the extras on the “set” were real UDT men, brought down by Kleinsmith from Little Creek for the occasion, and the film shows some very realistic depictions of period tactics and methods used by these men.

Our little APD shows up in scene after scene.

The film was a major box-office success, ranking 37th among that year’s top earners.

Distributed by 20th Century Fox, it became a cultural phenomenon and is still widely recognized for bringing scuba diving and underwater action to mainstream audiences, clearing the way for a generation of follow-on “dive suit” movies and no doubt driving eager volunteers to The Teams for decades.

The film also enjoyed a wide overseas release.

Under a New Ensign

Several of the Crosleys that had been laid up in 1946 were held in mothballs for 15 years, then transferred aboard to overseas allies looking for a cheap-to-run escort with low mileage.

Crosley herself was stricken from the Naval Register on 1 June 1960, pulled from her rusty berth at Green Cove Springs, and transferred to Ecuador. Likewise, ex-USS Brock, Tollberg, and Ruchamkin were transferred to Colombia in the 1960s. Ex-USS Rednour went to Mexico in 1969 along with Auman. Four others went to South Korea.

In that vein, Kleinsmith was tapped in late 1959 for transfer to the Republic of China (Taiwan) under the Military Assistance Program.

To support the handover, in early 1960, the ROCN sent a 20-person team led by LCDR Chen Zhenmin to  San Diego or on-board training. Subsequently, her hybrid U.S./ROCN crew sailed the ship to Taiwan in March, arriving at Tsoying on 16 May for a combined decommissioning/handover/commissioning ceremony.

She was named ROCS Tien Shan, which translates to “Heavenly Mountain,” and given pennant APD-815. Assigned to the 212th Destroyer Squadron, she engaged in regular patrol and amphibious warfare exercises for the next seven years.

The 1960 Jane’s entry:

By 1967, the ROCN had seven active ex-USN APDs, all dubbed the Mountain class after Tien Shah (Kleinsmith).

Jane’s for that year:

Others left unclaimed in U.S. service were soon scrapped, while a handful were given an extension to continue to serve a few more years, reclassified as LPRs (amphibious transport, small).

In May 1967, Tien Shah (Kleinsmith) was sent on the fourth Dunmu (Goodwill) voyage under RADM Guo Xunjing. Carrying 4th year naval cadets, she steamed to South Korea, Guam, Okinawa, and the Philippines, returning in August. It was the longest and best-traveled of the ROCN’s Dunmu cruises at the time.

In December 1967, Tien Shah had her pennant changed to APD-215, and she was assigned to the amphibious fleet.

Before 1974, she and most of her sisters picked up a second 5″/38 Mk 12 mount on their stern, taken from a similarly modernized Fletcher-class destroyer which had been given other armament, as well as six 324mm ASW torpedo tubes.

As described in that year’s Jane’s:

She was also later given some modern AA defenses in the form of a RIM-72C Sea Chaparral launcher.

By April 1978, pushing 33 years old, Tien Shah was then reclassed as a patrol frigate (PF-615, later PF-815) and transferred to the 131st Fleet, a coastal defense force tasked with counter-smuggling and fisheries protection.

That saw her armament reduced to just her forward twin 40mm Bofors.

Late in her career as an OPV, with just her forward Bofors. 

She would soldier on for another 14 years, carrying pennant LPR-815 for most of that era, and still using the same checkerboard and seahorse crest as Kleinsmith, kept for good luck.

Via Baker, circa 1995 on the class:

Her final skipper passed on an extensive video in English to the APD Association/Kleinsmith Association in 1995 on the occasion of the tin can’s 50th anniversary reunion, including a walk-through of how the vessel looked at the time.

Decommissioned in October 1995 after 50 years of service, she was sold for scrap.

The ROCN ultimately operated 13 Mountain-class frigates/transports, and the last in service, ROCS Shou Shan (PF-837), the ex-Crosley-class USS Kline (APD-120), was put to pasture in May 1997. She was sunk as a target three years later.

Epilogue

Our subject had a remarkable 36 skippers, 25 of those Taiwanese.

Perhaps the most famous of Kleinsmith’s American captains was “Doc” Laborde, her plankowner wartime commander. After leaving the Navy, he designed and built the first submersible offshore drilling rig, Murphy Oil’s Mr. Charlie. He also founded ODECO, Tidewater Marine, Gulf Island Fabrication, and the Almar Foundation. A well-known mover and shaker in Gulf drilling for decades, Laborde passed in New Orleans in 2014, aged 98, and left behind five children, 18 grandchildren, and 35 great-grandchildren.

Tien Shah’s best-known skipper was ROCN VADM Lan Ningli, who has served as Deputy Chief of Staff of the Naval Headquarters, Commander of the 124th Naval Fleet, Director of the Intelligence Division of the General Staff Headquarters, Chief of Staff of the Naval Anti-Submarine Warfare Command, and Director of the Naval Headquarters Intelligence Agency. Retired in 2017 after 40 years of service, he is a noted wargamer and naval pundit.

ROCN VADM Lan Ningli

Much of Kleinsmith’s 1950s logs are digitized in the National Archives.

Further, a quick YouTube search shows that The Frogmen is available to stream for free.

As for the APD/LPRs left on the U.S. Navy List, there were still at least 23 Buckley (Lawrence) and Crosley-class vessels still around in 1967, with some of the survivors given FRAM updates and others given limited conversions to serve as flagships.

Jane’s for that year, including a good list of disposals and transfers:

However, that would soon come to an end.

In November 1969, USS Beverly W. Reid (APD-119/LPR-119) was decommissioned and placed in reserve at Orange, where she remained inactive, for almost five years before her sale for scrap. She was the last Crosley in U.S. service.

Today, only one Crosley exists, the Colombian Navy’s ARC Cordoba (DT-15), formerly USS Ruchamkin (APD-89). Most of her has been serving as a museum ship at Jaime Duque Park since the 1980s.

USS Ruchamkin (APD-89) ( ARC Córdoba (DT-15)) on display in the Jaime Duque Park, Tocancipá, Colombia. Via Wikicommons.

The ROCN still conducts Dunmu goodwill training cruises, with the latest one seeing three ships crossing the Pacific Ocean and entering the Panama Canal and the Caribbean Sea, sailing 20,000 miles and calling at ports as diverse and far-flung (to Taiwan) as Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, and Guatemala.

The photo shows three ships of the ROCN Dunmu Goodwill Fleet: from left to right, the Cheng Kung-class guided-missile frigate ROCS Yueh Fei (PFG-1106), the oiler and ammunition supply ship Pan Shih (AOE-532), and the Kang Ding-class guided-missile frigate Di Hua (PFG-1206), docked at the Port Zante pier in St. Kitts and Nevis, April 2026.

Thanks for reading!

Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive

***

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Rubber Duckies

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Some 85 years ago, a bit of calm before the storm.

Official period caption: “British and Chinese troops on exercise in rubber boats, Hong Kong, 1941.” Note the M1928 Thompson SMG on the bow of the leading boat and SMLEs at the ready.

IWM (KF 141)

The British first garrisoned Hong Kong on 26 January 1841 when a landing force from the 10-gun Hecla-class bomb vessel HMS Sulphur rowed ashore and set up shop.

Fast forward a century, and, as a result of the build-up to the Pacific War in 1941, the Hong Kong garrison held two battalions sent from Europe (2nd Royal Scots, 1st Middlesex) along with two from India (5th 7th Rajput, 2nd 14th Punjab), and would soon receive two from Canada as reinforcement (Royal Rifles, Winnipeg Grenadiers). This was in addition to units from the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers, et. al.

Plus, as witnessed above, there were some locally raised outfits drawn from the colony’s 1.6 million residents: the Hong Kong Chinese Regiment and the much larger and senior Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps.

Two members of the Hong Kong Volunteer Defense Force on Queen’s Road Central in Hong Kong, 1941, UWM Libraries collection

The HKCR, led by a major, was only established in November 1941 and authorized as a single machine-gun battalion. Still in training as the Japanese closed in the next month, only a platoon-sized unit of the HKCR was able to take the field.

Meanwhile, the HKVDF was nearly brigade-sized, containing 2,200 men in seven infantry companies, five artillery batteries, five machine gun companies equipped with Vickers guns, a service company, an engineer company, an armored car platoon (with four Bedford chassis armored locally by the Kowloon-Canton Railway), a field ambulance unit, and signals. Led by Col. Henry B. Rose, it was formed in 1854.

Newly trained officers and NCOs of the Chinese Battalion, Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps. The Corps was the largest military unit of the Hong Kong Garrison at the time of the Japanese invasion. Photographer Frederick E. Palmer. IWM (KF 114)

Decimated in the desperate fight for Hong Kong in December 1941, both “local” units had their men largely paroled by the Japanese rather than tossed into POW camps.

Many of these men duly made their way into mainland China and either joined KMT forces ashore or later joined the 126-man Hong Kong Volunteer Company in Burma, where they were attached to the 77 Chindits Force under General Orde Wingate.

They were later deployed to Japanese-occupied Malaya, conducting special reconnaissance behind enemy lines.

Reformed after WWII once the colony was liberated, the Royal Hong Kong Regiment (The Volunteers) remained in the colors until 1995, manning British Ferret armored cars under association with the Royal Armoured Corps.

A toast to the Marina de Guerra del Peru

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As part of my curiosity when it comes to everything naval, I follow a lot of fleets around the world, and the Peruvian Navy has been very busy in the past few months.

Besides the Caribbean cruise of the tall ship BAP Union to participate in Operation Sail 250 (which is what I am enjoying in New Orleans this week!), the fleet has been getting it done.

Submarino BAP Chipana

Peru has a rich 100+ year submarine tradition and operates a six-pack of German-made Type 209/1100 (Islay-class) and 209/1200 series (Angamos-class) SSKs delivered in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

One of these, the Angamos-class BAP Chipana (SS-34), recently left her homeport headed West to join U.S. forces in RIMPAC and SUBDIEX, both of which she has participated in in the past.

Commissioned in October 1982, Chipana gave 35 years of dedicated service without incident in the first half of her career.

I say “first half” because Chipana last year completed an intensive 7.5-year (December 2017 to June 2025) reconstruction and modernization by SIMA in Callao. This consisted of the installation of the new Kallpa fire control and combat system, 480 new high-performance batteries, four new Rolls-Royce-MTU engines, a new Siemens electric motor, a new Hensoldt SERO 250 optronic mast, the Elbit Timmes II ESM system, and the ability to launch SM-39 Exocet anti-ship missiles and AEG DM2A4 Seehecht (SeaHake Mod 4) and Leonardo WASS Black Shark torpedoes.

She was essentially hauled on dry land, cut open, scooped out, and refilled with all new stuff, then put back together and refurbished, all under the watchful gaze of ThyssenKrupp advisers sent from Germany.

This is expected to give her at least another 15 years of service life, and her three Type 209/1200 sisters will follow in similar modernizations. This should buy enough time to develop a local submarine production line (with assistance from HHI) at SIMA.

Peruvian Type 209s have deployed to California’s Naval Base Point Loma as part of the U.S. Navy’s Diesel-Electric Submarine Initiative (DESI) program no less than 20 times since 2001, typically a 2-3 month deployment that sees the submarino both serve as a “target” for ASW forces and work alongside surface assets to better interoperate in multi-national task forces.

PACIFIC OCEAN (Nov. 1, 2019) An MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter from the Magicians of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 35 conducts a hoist exercise with the Peruvian navy submarine BAP Angamos (SS-31) off the coast of San Clemente Island. HSM-35 is conducting antisubmarine warfare training to maintain readiness by utilizing a live submarine. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Patrick W. Menah Jr./Released)

Meanwhile, in the green inferno

The Peruvian Naval Infantry brigade (Infantería de Marina del Perú) has also been heavily involved with the Army’s 2a Brigada de Protección de la Amazonía along the country’s Amazon border regions with Colombia and Brazil in counter-narco operations and in wrapping up illegal mining operations and general banditry.

The IMP (unfortunate acronym) is distinctly armed with a combination of FN 2000 “Tactical Tuna” rifles, IMI Galils, and FN SCARs, so they stand out.

And, of interest to all the gun nerds that follow this page, the captured weaponry taken off aforementioned narcos and banditos is amazing, including homemade MAC-10s, condemned FALs, shorty Galils, and the occasional MP5K and M1A1.

 

Looking back at Sandy and the 602nd

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Below, we see Sandy at work, just 60 years ago.

U.S. Air Force Douglas A-1G (AD-5N) four-seat night attack Skyraider (ex-Navy BuNo 132619) nicknamed “Carolyn’s Folly” from the 602nd Fighter Squadron (Commando), call sign Firefly, flying out of Bien Hoa AB, South Vietnam, seen escorting an HH-3C Jolly Green Giant rescue helicopter during a Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) mission in 1966.

Note the ‘Raiders” jolly roger. VIRIN: 100426-F-1234S-004

This circa 1952 aircraft began service in the Navy and was noted aboard USS Hancock (CV-19) on 21 August 1958 with VA(AW)-35 Det. D before transfer to the USAF. Struck off charge at NAS Alameda on 29 October 1964 after a 12 year Navy career, 132619 was transferred to the USAF– one of 330 Skyraiders to the Air Force including the A-1E, G, H, and J models. After flying with the 602nd and later the 1st ACS/SOS, 132619 was transferred to the South Vietnamese Air Force’s 516th Squadron in February 1971 when the USAF divested themselves of the type.

She was one of the rare ex-USN Raiders that survived USAF service in Southeast Asia, with more than 200 lost across 90,000 combat sorties in their nine-year (1963-72) stint

The aircraft is available as a Scalemates decal set.

The 602nd (designated a Special Operations Squadron in 1968) alone amazingly had 140 different AH-1E/G/H/J Skyraiders pass through their hands during Vietnam between 1964 and December 1970.

Here are a few.

USAF A-1E Skyraider (s/n 52-133885) of the 602nd Air Commando Squadron flies over a fortified hamlet in Vietnam, in 1964. In 1964-1965, USAF aircraft in Vietnam often flew with Vietnamese markings due to political reasons. This aircraft was shot down over Laos on 15 February 1966. U.S. Air Force photo scanned from Dana Bell: Air War over Vietnam. Volume IV. (Warbirds Illustrated 26). Arms and Armour Press, London 1984, p. 38, ISBN 0853686351.

USAF A-1E Skyraider (s/n 52-132423) of the 602nd Air Commando Squadron escorts a Sikorsky HH-3C Jolly Green Giant, in 1966. 132423 was shot down by small arms fire 40km north-west of Sam Neua, Houaphan Province, Laos on 6 July 1966. The pilot, Capt. J.R. Crane was able to fly about 30km north of Udorn, Thailand, and bailed out. He was rescued by a USAF helicopter. USAF Museum Photo  101117-F-1234S-104

USAF A-1E Skyraider (s/n 52-132425) of the 602nd Air Commando Squadron in South Vietnam, January 1966. Note the Douglas C-47 and the Grumman HU-16 Albatross in the background. 132425 was shot down by ground fire near Na Pho, Khammouan Province, Laos, on 19 April 1966. The pilot, Capt. Richard J. Robbins, was killed. National Museum of the U.S. Air Force photo 051123-F-1234P-016

U.S. Air Force “Tropic Moon I” Douglas A-1E Skyraider (s/n 52-135195) of the 602nd Special Operations Squadron in flight with a Low-Light-Level-Televison (LLLTV) pod on the left wing, 1 June 1968. This aircraft was later shot down on 11 February 1970 while in service with the 22nd SOS. The pilot, Colonel William L. Kieffer, was killed.

A U.S. Air Force Douglas A-1H Skyraider (s/n 52-134555) of the 602nd Special Operations Squadron sits on the ramp at Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force Base (“NKP”), Thailand, circa in 1968. This was the first USAF A-1H to be named “The Proud American”. 134555 was operated by the U.S. Navy until 9 January 1968. It was then transferred to the USAF, where it operated with the 602nd, 22nd, and 1st SOS before being transferred to the Vietnam Air Force. Here it operated with the 515th and 518th Fighter Squadrons until it was lost on 3 April 1972. 221109-F-IO108-002

U.S. Air Force “Tropic Moon I” officers and airmen of the 602nd Special Operations Squadron at Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force Base on 1 June 1968, showing the Low-Light-Level-Televison (LLLTV) pod on the wing of one of the four Douglas A-1E Skyraiders that made up the unit (s/n 52-135177, -135187, -135195, -135211).

USAF HC-130P Combat King recovery aircraft refuels a Sikorsky HH-3E Jolly Green Giant of the 40th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron in flight near Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand, between 10 and 23 February 1969. Visible are another HH-3E and two Douglas A-1 Skyraider (A-1H 135314, A-1J 142023) of the 602nd Special Operations Squadron. The A-1H 135314 was later shot down by ground fire near Ban Na, Laos, on 18 June 1971 while in service with the 1st SOS. The pilot was killed. The A-1J 142023 was shot down by ground fire over Laos on 1 March 1969. The pilot was killed. 342-C-KE-60922

USAF A-1H Skyraider (s/n 52-139778, “Bubbles’n Bust”) of the 602nd Special Operations Squadron on final approach before landing at Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand, 15 March 1970. NARA 176246880

The Air Force lost 102 pilots, killed, while flying A-1s in combat with USAF Skyraider drivers earning two Medals of Honor, 14 Air Force Crosses, and many other awards for valor.

The two Skyraiders in the collection the National Museum of the Air Force, Bu Nos. 132649 and 134600 are both former Navy planes that served with the 1st Special Operations Squadron during Vietnam.

Of note, 649 was the aircraft that Major Bernard Fisher earned his MoH in in 1966, having rescued a fellow pilot shot down over South Vietnam by landing in enemy territory under heavy fire and personally flying him to safety.

Douglas A-1E Skyraider Bu No. 132649 at the National Museum of the United States Air Force. A 1952 Navy plane, she was struck off at Alameda in April 1964 and transferred to the USAF, serving with the 1st ACS in Vietnam. (U.S. Air Force photo 071030-F-1234S-020)

The aircraft on display represents Captain Ronald Smith’s A-1H The Proud American (Serial Number 52-139738) as it appeared during his SAR mission in June 1972 as part of the 1st Special Operations Squadron, Nakhon Phanom (NKP) Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand. Captain Smith was awarded the Air Force Cross for the rescue of a downed F-4 Phantom crewman near a North Vietnamese airfield. The Proud American had a long and storied record in Southeast Asia. Although many pilots flew the plane, it is renowned for three separate episodes: Lt Col William Jones’ Medal of Honor mission in 1968, Capt Ronald Smith’s Air Force Cross mission in June 1972, and for being the last US Air Force A-1 lost in combat in Southeast Asia in September 1972. This aircraft (U.S. Navy BuNo 134600) was modified and painted by the Museum’s Restoration Division to represent Capt Smith’s Air Force Cross aircraft and placed on display at the National Museum of the Air Force in 2022. It was part of OPERATION FARM GATE and flown by the South Vietnamese Air Force from 1965 to 1975. (U.S. Air Force photo 221114-F-AU145-1305 by Ty Greenlees)

Jetting around the Baltic littoral

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Aurora 26 just wrapped up in the Baltic, with 18,000 soldiers from 13 countries participating in the Swedish-led NATO exercise. It notably included some Ukrainian drone operators to serve as, among other things, a very capable and modern OPFOR.

Images released by the Swedes are stirring, highlighting two battalions (2.amfibiebataljonen and 5.amfibiebataljonen) of the Swedish Navy’s Amphibious Corps, are great.

Photos: Bezav Mahmod and Hampus Andersson/Försvarsmakten

They also include shots of a couple of massed CB90 (Stridsbåt 90H) waves, with each of the highly maneuverable 52-foot shallow-draft (31 inches) jet boats capable of toting 20 troops at 40 knots.

Sure, they would usually move in much smaller groups, at night, but the photo op is amazing, and sends a bit of a point.

Genom styrka håller vi kriget borta (Through strength we keep war away). Indeed.

USCG Update: Sail drones arrive, Snow Hawks New Special Missions Command

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Lots of updates to our favorite mini-Navy.

Great Lakes sail drone summer stock

A Saildrone Explorer unmanned surface vessel operates with the fast response Coast Guard cutter Robert Goldman in the Arabian Gulf during Exercise Phantom Scope, Oct. 7, 2022. During the bilateral exercise between the United States and the United Kingdom, USVs operated in conjunction with crewed ships and naval command centers in Bahrain. Credit: Navy Chief Petty Officer Roland Franklin VIRIN: 221007-N-NS602-1218

“Leveraging a contract awarded by the Coast Guard to enhance maritime domain awareness, the Great Lakes District will deploy autonomous drones to support Coast Guard missions on the Great Lakes from May to October.”

The drones will be 16 Saildrone Voyager SD-2050 USVs under a $15.5 million contract. The SD-2050 is 33 feet long, draws just over six feet under its fin keel, and has an almost 20-foot-tall wing (sail). All electric with solar panels in the wing (sail), it has a 3.5 kW peak draw, uses an electric motor for cruising at 5 knots, and is good for 100 days between service stops.

Saildrone Voyager SD-2050 deploys on Lake Erie as it begins its border security and MDA mission for the US Coast Guard in the Great Lakes.  Equipped with radar, cameras, AI collision avoidance, and sensors scanning 300 meters deep, they monitor vessel traffic, illegal activity, and support emergency response. Via Saildrone

From USCG PAO:

The drones are wind- and solar-powered vessels the Coast Guard will use to monitor the Great Lakes, gather critical weather data for emergency response planning, track illicit activity, and keep maritime borders safe.

The autonomous vessels are highly visible, equipped with radar, cameras, and collision-avoidance artificial intelligence, and monitored continuously by human operators who can take manual control if needed.

Sail drones are equipped with sensors focused solely on maritime domain awareness, providing critical information on vessel activities, including vessels in distress or engaged in illegal operations.

A sizzle reel of Saildrone operations from last year, when the company’s USVs sailed 383,674nm in 10,217 drone days on the water, and identified 2.5 million surface contacts.

The U.S. Coast Guard Great Lakes (District 9), headquartered in Cleveland, manages operations across all five Great Lakes, the Saint Lawrence Seaway, and 6,700 miles of shoreline and 1,500 miles of Canadian border with roughly 6,000 personnel

Jayhawk snow games

The MH-60T det from U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Sitka recently worked on an avalanche training exercise with the Alaska National Guard and local first responders. In doing so, some incredible shots were captured by AUX Don Kluting, PA2 John Hightower, and AST2 Grooms.

Of note, a Coast Guard helicopter crew from Air Station Kodiak flew nearly 620 miles to rescue two stranded hikers from Makushin Volcano on the remote Unalaska Island. To put that in perspective, that’s the same distance from Massachusetts to North Carolina!

The USCG has been flying the ’60 since 1989, first with the HH-60J and now as the MH-60T– which includes converted surplus USN SH-60Fs.

Moving forward, the service aims to have an all-Jayhawk heli fleet with 127 aircraft replacing the smaller MH-65 Dolphin.

Special Missions Command

The Coast Guard is standing up a new Special Missions Command to oversee its deployable specialized forces.

Slated to form at the start of FY27 (1 October 2026), the SMC will be based at Coast Guard C5I Service Center facility in Kearneysville, West Virginia, about 70 miles as the crow flies from D.C.

Members from the Coast Guard Maritime Security Response Team East (MSRT) patrol the East River during the 79th United Nations General Assembly, Sept. 26, 2024. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Breanna Boardman)

It will fold in the current two Maritime Security Response Teams (MSRT-East, Chesapeake; MSRT-West San Diego), two Tactical Law Enforcement Teams (PACTACLET in San Diego and TACLET South in Opa Locka), seven Maritime Safety and Security Teams (MSST Seattle (91101), MSST Kings Bay (91108), MSST Miami (91114), MSST New York (91106), MSST Houston (91104), MSST New Orleans (91112), MSST Cape Cod (91110)), three Regional Dive Lockers (RDLE Portsmouth, RDLW San Diego, and RDLP Honolulu) and the National Strike Force (CBRN) team along with the eight USCGR Port Security Units.

Members from the Coast Guard Maritime Security Response Team East (MSRT) patrol the East River during the 79th United Nations General Assembly, Sept. 26, 2024. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Breanna Boardman)

Part of the SMC’s buildout will be an $80 million investment to add more than 650 personnel to the service in addition to those being merged. When fully constituted, the SMC should have somewhere around 3,000 personnel, counting reserves and support elements.

The move is a return to the Deployable Operations Group, or DOG, concept that existed from 2007 to 2013, with operational control returning to regional commands once it was disestablished and replaced with the more loosely formed Deployable Specialized Forces (DSF) moniker. From what I gather, DOG wasn’t stood down because it didn’t work, but rather as a money-saving measure and so that local area commanders could keep more control over their shiny local counter-T/high-risk/high-profile units.

In other words, you can look at this as more of a USCG version of NSWC, which is probably a good thing.

A Coast Guard Maritime Security Response Team (MSRT) East patch is shown August 7, 2025, aboard the USCGC Richard Synder (WPC 1127) in Portsmouth, Virginia. The MSRT is a deployable specialized forces unit that conducts counterterrorism and direct-action missions, such as high-risk law enforcement boarding procedures and CBRNE (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive) threats. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Christine Bills)

German Marines are back and looking sharp

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Germany long fielded Marineinfanterie units, especially during the World Wars of the 20th Century, along with ship detachments, the latter coming in very handy during the Kaiser’s colonial period (1884-1918).

German marines of III. Seebataillon in Tsingtao, the Kaiser’s China treaty port, which still has a very good German-style distillery. Bundesarchiv, Bild Bild 116-214-09

German Marines in Peking, 1900, during the Boxer Rebellion. AWM A05904

Disbanded in 1945, the West German Navy (Bundesmarine) reformed a Seebataillon in 1958, which was disbanded in 1993 when the Cold War thawed.

Now the Marines are back, reformed once again in 2014 as a specialist unit tasked with VBSS via a Bordeinsatzkompanie (BEK) and ship/installation ground defense.

Der Teamführer Hauptbootsmann Alexander West gibt seinen Kameraden ein Handzeichen im Rahmen vom Training der Bordeinsatzkompanie (BEK) der Marine in Eckernförde, am 28.08.2017.

With Europe getting increasingly wacky, starting in 2016, the Seebataillon integrated into the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps (Korps Mariniers) for NATO operations and has been getting ready for offensive operations, under a defensive pretext, of course.

German Seebataillon troops use Sea Kings to operate from the Dutch landing ship Rotterdam (L800), May 2022 Bundeswehr Jana Neumann Bundeswehr/Nico Theska

Recently, 200 Marineinfanteristen undertook a simulated CH-53-borne raid near Hanover– the battalion’s largest combined operation since reformation.

Wir haben Marineinfanteriekräfte des Seebataillons in Celle bei einer Übung begleitet. Sie wurden durch das Ausbildungszentrum Luftbeweglichkeit beübt. Im Schwerpunkt ging es um den luftbeweglichen und abgesetzten Einsatz durch Luftfahrzeuge verschiedener Art und das Gewinnen und Nehmen von Räumen durch die Marineinfanteriekräfte.

Wir haben Marineinfanteriekräfte des Seebataillons in Celle bei einer Übung begleitet. Sie wurden durch das Ausbildungszentrum Luftbeweglichkeit beübt. Im Schwerpunkt ging es um den luftbeweglichen und abgesetzten Einsatz durch Luftfahrzeuge verschiedener Art und das Gewinnen und Nehmen von Räumen durch die Marineinfanteriekräfte.

Wir haben Marineinfanteriekräfte des Seebataillons in Celle bei einer Übung begleitet. Sie wurden durch das Ausbildungszentrum Luftbeweglichkeit beübt. Im Schwerpunkt ging es um den luftbeweglichen und abgesetzten Einsatz durch Luftfahrzeuge verschiedener Art und das Gewinnen und Nehmen von Räumen durch die Marineinfanteriekräfte.

Wir haben Marineinfanteriekräfte des Seebataillons in Celle bei einer Übung begleitet. Sie wurden durch das Ausbildungszentrum Luftbeweglichkeit beübt. Im Schwerpunkt ging es um den luftbeweglichen und abgesetzten Einsatz durch Luftfahrzeuge verschiedener Art und das Gewinnen und Nehmen von Räumen durch die Marineinfanteriekräfte.

Wir haben Marineinfanteriekräfte des Seebataillons in Celle bei einer Übung begleitet. Sie wurden durch das Ausbildungszentrum Luftbeweglichkeit beübt. Im Schwerpunkt ging es um den luftbeweglichen und abgesetzten Einsatz durch Luftfahrzeuge verschiedener Art und das Gewinnen und Nehmen von Räumen durch die Marineinfanteriekräfte.

Wir haben Marineinfanteriekräfte des Seebataillons in Celle bei einer Übung begleitet. Sie wurden durch das Ausbildungszentrum Luftbeweglichkeit beübt. Im Schwerpunkt ging es um den luftbeweglichen und abgesetzten Einsatz durch Luftfahrzeuge verschiedener Art und das Gewinnen und Nehmen von Räumen durch die Marineinfanteriekräfte.

Wir haben Marineinfanteriekräfte des Seebataillons in Celle bei einer Übung begleitet. Sie wurden durch das Ausbildungszentrum Luftbeweglichkeit beübt. Im Schwerpunkt ging es um den luftbeweglichen und abgesetzten Einsatz durch Luftfahrzeuge verschiedener Art und das Gewinnen und Nehmen von Räumen durch die Marineinfanteriekräfte.

“We need highly mobile forces capable of conducting land-based combat in coastal areas,” explains LCDR Timm K., outlining the reason for the current transformation within the Seebataillon. “Previously, the unit provided highly specialized soldiers to the fleet, who, in smaller groups, secured ports and ships, conducted small-scale amphibious landing exercises, and searched civilian vessels for contraband. However, the current threat landscape demands a powerful naval infantry capable of operating on a significantly larger scale.”

Marking the passing of Brigade 2506 including Baker, Gray, Ray, and Shamburger

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Today marks the end of the attempted liberation of Cuba by Brigade 2506 (Brigada Asalto 2506), which landed at the island’s Bahía de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs) on 17 April 1961 and, surrounded and cut off, laid down their arms on 20 April, some 65 years ago.

Special Demolition Frogman, Brigade 2506, Cuban Bay of Pigs, by Stephen Walsh, Paratrooper from 1st Bn, and a Brigadista with a MP40

Brigade 2506, Cuban Bay of Pigs, Stephen Walsh

The brigade, 177 airborne paratroops and 1,297 landed seaborne, fought valiantly but, facing upward of 25,000 Cuban troops backed by militia and police, never stood a realistic chance, especially once the Cubans controlled the air over the beachhead.

An estimated 114 drowned or were killed in action, and 1,183 were captured, “tried” before a kangaroo court, and imprisoned.

Exile groups in the U.S. raised $53 million worth of food and medicine in ransom to exchange for the release and repatriation of Brigade prisoners to Miami starting on 23 December 1962.

Four Americans, Capt. Thomas Willard “Pete” Ray, TSgt. Leo Francis Baker, Major Riley W. Shamburger, and TSgt. Wade C. Gray was killed when their Brigade 2506-marked B-26s were shot down over the beachhead. The CIA had recruited all through the Alabama Air National Guard and posthumously earned the Distinguished Intelligence Cross.

A new museum of the Brigade 2506 Association just opened in Miami.

The Southern Museum of Flight, joined by the 117th Air Refueling Wing of the Alabama Air National Guard, will assemble in Birmingham on 21 April in solemn remembrance to honor four Alabamians who paid the ultimate price.

And so we remember…

Echoes of Weserübung

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On 9 April, some 86 years ago, neutral Denmark was attacked and quickly occupied by the Germans in Unternehmen Weserübung-Sud as a stepping stone to the invasion of Norway (Weserübung, proper).

The 9th of April has always held special significance for the volunteer soldiers in the Danish Home Guard (Hjemmeværnet, or HJV) and other parts of the country’s military, with “Never Again April 9th” (Aldrig mere 9. april) as a motto.

Formed just after Liberation in 1945, when the country had a robust Resistance movement, the Home Guard initially was divided into the black guard (sorte hjemmeværn) and the blue guard (blå hjemmeværn), with the terms coming from whether they wore recycled Axis (German panzer) uniforms or donated Allied (RAF blue)!

Formalized in April 1949, HJV combat patrols (kamppatruljer) began to appear across the country, organized at the local Army district level, and remained a fixture in the Cold War.

Thus:

Danish home guard (Forsvarets Hjemmeværnet) under en øvelse i 1980

Danish home guard (Forsvarets Hjemmeværnet) under en øvelse i 1980

Today, the HJV has some 45,000 members, with demographics averaging skilled workers in their 30s to 50s who have prior active military service. HJV members have volunteered to be deployed overseas in the GWOT, to Bosnia, and UN operations in Africa.

This April is also the 67th anniversary of the creation of the HJV’s Special Support and Reconnaissance Company (Særlig Støtte og Rekognosceringskompagni, or SSR), a “stay behind unit” intended to come out after Soviet/Russian occupation to perform direct action.

You know, Danish Wolverines, but with government backing.

The SSR was formed in 2007 from the amalgamation of two previous patrol companies (PTRKMP/HOK and PTRKMP/ELK) that were stood up in 1994, which in turn dated back to the old Special Intelligence Patrols (Specielle Efterretningspatruljer, or SEP) whose official birthday is considered 9 April 1959.

Selected from very skilled Home Guard members, who are typically prior active service, SSR members undergo 400 hours of training in 12 months (one classroom weeknight every week, one weekend in the field every month) before joining their patrol.

To be able to be considered for an SSR training spot, a candidate has to complete a five-day Selection process and ace these minimum physical fitness requirements:

  • A 2600-meter run wearing running clothes in a maximum of 12 minutes.
  • Two 20 km marches wearing boots, uniform, basic gear, and backpack totaling 25 kg, incl. rifle, excl. water and food. Each march must be completed in a maximum of 3 hours and 50 minutes.
  • Two land nav orientation marches (daylight and dark) using 2 cm army maps, with satisfactory results.
  • Swim test (minimum 300 meters, 15 meters of swimming underwater, deep dive 4 meters to retrieve a dummy, jump from a seesaw)

The unit consists mainly of volunteer soldiers from all over the country and is based at Tirstrup Field in the West and Skalstrup Field in the East.

The SSR is considered part of the country’s Special Operations Command and can be tapped to support the Jægerkorpset and Frømandskorpset.

As such, they wear a green beret with a distinctive and hard-earned sword-and-lightning-bolt cap badge (huemærke).

Warship Wednesday (on a Tuesday) 31 March 2026: Good Luck Sometimes Runs Thin

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Here at LSOZI, we take a break every Wednesday to explore the old steam/diesel navies from 1833 to 1954, 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 (on a Tuesday) 31 March 2026: Good Luck Sometimes Runs Thin

Admiralty photo by LT Sidney James Beadell, Royal Naval Voluntary Reserve (Sp), Imperial War Museum catalog A 1725

Above we see the twin 5.25″/50 QF Mark II DP gun turrets A, B, and Q forward of the very open bridge of the Royal Navy’s Dido-class light cruiser HMS Bonaventure (31), circa 1940. Note the compass platform and the canvas-covered rangefinder in the foreground.

Often credited with helping to spoil the attack of the much larger German super heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper on Convoy WS 5A– firing 438 rounds from the above three forward turrets in the space of only 24 minutes– Bonaventure gave her last full measure some 85 years ago today, just a short ten months after she was rushed into service.

The Didos

The Didos were very light cruisers indeed, designed in 1936 to weigh just 5,600 tons standard displacement, though this would later swell during wartime service to nearly 8,000 tons. Some 512 feet long, they were smaller than a modern destroyer, but, on a powerplant of four Admiralty 3-drum boilers and four Parsons steam turbines, each with its own dedicated shaft, they could break 32.5 knots on 62,000 shp.

They were intended to be armed with 10 5.25″/50 (13.4 cm) QF Mark II DP guns in five twin mounts, three forward and two over the stern, although most of the class failed to carry this layout.

Bow 5.25″/50 turrets on HMS Hermione as she enters Malta Harbor in September 1941. The muzzles of her third forward “Q” turret can just be seen above the crane at the upper left. She, along with Euryalus, Naiad, and Sirius, was the only Dido that completed with the full battery of five twin 5.25-inch mounts, largely due to a shortage of such guns. IWM A 5772.

The Dido class had provision for up to 360 rounds for “A”, “B” and “Q” turrets, 320 rounds for “X” turret and 300 rounds for “Y” turret and a properly trained crew could rattle them off at 7-8 shots per minute per gun out to a range of 23,400 yards or a ceiling of 46,500 feet when used in the AAA role. The fact that one of these cruisers could burp 70-80 shells within a 60-second mad minute gave them a lot of potential if used properly. However, this didn’t play out in reality, at least when it came to swatting incoming aircraft.

Gunnery booklet laying out the general plan of a Dido-class cruiser

As noted by Richard Worth in his Fleets of World War II, “Often referred to as AA cruisers, the 16 Dido-type ships shot down a total of 15 enemy planes. The entirety of British cruiser-dom accounted for only 97 planes, while enemy planes accounted for 11 British cruisers.”

Nonetheless, these vessels carried a decent (for the era) secondary AAA batteries as well.

Originally fitted with two quad .50-caliber Vickers guns, these were augmented with five single 20mm Oerlikons, whose numbers were further expanded until the ship carried over a dozen in twin mounts by the end of the war.

She was also equipped with a variety of quadruple 2 pdr 40mm MK VIII pom-pom guns on Mk.VII mountings.

WRNS visit Dido-class cruiser Euryalus of the Mediterranean Fleet, 3 May 1942, Alexandria. A Wren with her bearded Supply Petty Officer escort on the pom-pom platform. IWM A 8830 http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205142750

Meet Bonaventure

Our subject is at least the 10th RN warship to carry the Latin term for “good fortune” since 1489, giving her nine battle honors carried forward (Lowestoft 1665, Four Days’ Battle 1666, Orfordness 1666, Solebay 1672, Schooneveldt 1673, Texel 1673, Beachy Head 1690, Barfleur 1693, and China 1900).

The immediately preceding ninth Bonaventure was an Astraea-class second-class cruiser commissioned in 1894 and used mostly as a submarine depot ship until broken up in 1920.

“HMS Bonaventure and submarines” circa 1911 by William Lionel Wyllie. RMG PW2083. Inscribed, as title, and signed by the artist, lower right. The ‘Bonaventure’ (1892) was a second-class protected cruiser converted to a submarine depot ship in 1907. This finished watercolor shows the ship in her 1911-14 condition. Both the ‘Bonaventure’ and the trawler tender on the left are flying large red flags, advising other vessels to keep clear of a submarine operating area. 

Ordered from Scotts of Greenock on 21 March 1937 under the 1937 Programme, our future Dido-class Bonaventure was laid down on 30 August the same year as Yard No. 575 and launched on 19 April 1939, officially having a peacetime hull.

Bonaventure shared the same armament fit as class leader Dido and sister Phoebe, with her four twin 5.25″/40s (as opposed to five mounts as seen on Naiad, Euryalus, Hermione, Sirius, Cleopatra, and Argonaut), a single 4″/45 QF Mk V starshell gun in the position of her “X” turret (only ever seen on these three cruisers and Charybdis due to a shortage in the supply of the new 5.25s), two quad Vickers 40/39 2pdr QF Mk VIII pom poms, two quad Vickers 50 cals (guns just seen on the first six Didos, replaced on the latter vessels by Oerlikons) and the univesal torpedo tube fit of two triple 21-inch tubes.

On 24 May 1940, amid the evacuation from Dunkirk, Bonaventure was commissioned for Contractor’s Trials and accepted on 19 June, just days before the Fall of France.

Her plankowner skipper was Henry Jack Egerton, a 48-year-old Mountfield-born Englishman listed in the peerage (grandson of 1st Earl Brassey) who started “taking the king’s shilling” as a Mid in 1909. Serving as a junior officer during the Great War, he shipped aboard the battleship HMS Agincourt, the cruiser Caledon, and the battlecruiser Repulse. Interwar, he passed out of the Senior Officers’ War Course at Greenwich and the Imperial Defence Course before moving into the captain’s cabin of the destroyer Bridgewater, his first command, in 1936. When WWII began, he was commanding officer of the Emerald-class light cruiser Enterprise with the 4th CS on Atlantic escort duties.

War photographer LT Sidney James Beadell, RNVR, captured a series of images of “Britain’s latest light cruiser” and her skipper and XO, CDR Edward Francis Disbrowe, RN.

IWM A 1733

IWM A 1732

IWM A 1739

IWM A 1731

Note her two H-aerial (separate transmitting and receiving antennas) 70kW Type 279 A-band radar atop her mainmast, good for a theoretical 60nm for high altitude targets and about 2-6nm for surface targets. IWM A 1730

Note her missing “turret. IWM A 1734

Left: Captain E J Egerton, RN, and (Right) Commander E F Disbrowe, RN. Disbrowe, 39, had joined up in 1919 and had previously commanded the Acacia-class sweeping sloop HMS Laburnum out of Singapore. IWM (A 1735)

War! (Already in progress)

After just a couple weeks of trials and exercises in the Clyde followed by a short yard period to address defects, Bonaventure sailed out on 5 July to escort the liners Monarch of Bermuda, Batory, and Sobieski for Halifax– all loaded with £25 million in gold from the Bank of England, sent abroad for safekeeping in Canada should Mr. Hitler cross the Channel as part of Operation Fish. The little convoy was joined at sea by the battleship HMS Revenge and three destroyers.

On her return from the Canada run, Bonaventure was assigned to the 15th Cruiser Squadron, Home Fleet at Scapa Flow, and she shipped out with HMS Naiad to patrol the Faeroes for German blockade runners in late August.

HMS Bonaventure as seen from the destroyer HMS Javelin, August 1940, in the Firth of Forth. Note her four-turret arrangement. Photo by Reginald George Guy Coote, IWM (A 443).

By 6 September, she was part of Operation DF, a carrier raid built around HMS Furious on German shipping in the occupied Trondheim area.

The next month saw Operations DN 2/DNU which aimed to bag a group of 20 German fishing vessels and a patrol ship that were reported off Egersund. Only the 300-ton weather ship WBS 5 (ex-Adolf Vinnen) was found and sunk north of Iceland, sent to the bottom by detached destroyers.

November saw Bonaventure scrabbled to join the unsuccessful hunt (alongside Hood and Repulse) for the German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer after the latter attacked convoy HX 84, with our new cruiser sustaining weather damage to her foc’sle in the rough North Atlantic.

Nominated for duty in the Mediterranean Fleet with the rest of the 15th CS, Bonaventure put in for repair at Rosyth and was then assigned to escort the slow Middle East military Convoy WS (Winston Special) 5A, its 18 transports packed with 40,000 troops, from UK ports to the Suez. WS5A started leaving on 18/19 December and by Christmas Eve was some 700 miles West of Spain’s Cape Finisterre, where they stumbled across the bruising 18,000-ton German heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper on her Operation Nordseetour raid.

Not what you want to see chasing you if you are a British light cruiser.

While the convoy had two carriers attached (Furious and Argus), they only had a bare handful of two Swordfish of 825 NAS and three Skuas of 801 NAS available for ASW duties; the rest of their hangars and decks were packed with aircraft being ferried to Takoradi in Ghana.

That left the primary line of defense against Hipper in the hands of the County-class heavy cruiser HMS Berwick, our Bonaventure, and the old 4,000-ton Danae-class light cruiser Dunedin. While Berwick carried eight 8″/50s and went some 13,000 tons, her armor was thin. Likewise, Dunedin carried slow 6″/45 Mk XIIs, which had been all but replaced in RN service.

Hipper had made contact with the convoy with her DeTe radar at some 23km out late on Christmas Eve. Closing to 6,600 meters unseen, she attempted an unsuccessful three-fish long-range night torpedo attack at 0153 on Christmas, then closed for a gun action at 0639 in a heavy gale with whitecaps. Over the next 36 minutes, Berwick and Bonaventure fought Hipper at long range, with Dunedin laying smoke and the convoy dispersed, the weather dropping visibility to less than a mile. The Brits used Hipper’s gun flashes as an aiming point, with the German boogeyman turning to retire.

Berwick got the worst of the encounter, hit by at least four of Hipper’s 8-inch AP shells (which, for the most part, passed right through the ship), knocking out her X turret, killing four of her crew, and sending her to the yard for seven months. Hipper also landed an 8-inch shell on the liner/transport Empire Trooper (ex-German Cap Norte, 13,994 GRT), having fired 174 shells in the encounter, and a 4.1-inch DP shell hit on the freighter Arabistan (5,874 GRT). Hipper made Brest on 27 December.

For Bonaventure’s part, she fired a “prodigious amount of 5.25in shell,” some 438 rounds, from her forward six guns in 24 minutes at Hipper, who came away with no damage. I mean, that is probably understandable for the low visibility and heavy seas of the encounter, and her performance was mirrored by sisters Cleopatra and Euryalus, who fired 868 and 421 5.25-inch shells at the Battle of Second Sirte in 1942 and hit as many Italian ships as Bonaventure did Germans on Christmas ’40.

Sent to look for the damaged Empire Trooper-– which she located– Bonaventure got something of a consolation prize by encountering the 8,300-ton German blockade runner Baden on Boxing Day, sending the HAPAG freighter to the bottom via torpedo– as the weather conditions did not allow boarding– about 325 nautical miles northeast of Ponta Delgada in the Azores. All 39 crew members were rescued and taken to Gibraltar, with their skipper, Capt. Max Schaefer, reporting on the three-day ride on the cruiser: “The accommodation on board was very primitive, but the food was plentiful and good.”

The HAPAG steamer Baden was sent to the bottom by Bonaventure while coming from Tenerife and bound for occupied France.

January 1941 saw Bonaventure outbound from Gibraltar and involved in the periphery of Operation Ration, the interdiction of a four-ship Vichy convoy off Oran. Then came convoy ops in the Med to Malta (Operations Excess and Operation MC 4) with our cruiser generally credited with shooting down at least one (and up to three) attacking Italian Savoia bombers on the 9th.

By February, she was operating from Suda Bay with other cruisers of CS15 and took part in Operation Abstention, the failed commando raid on the Italian island of Casteloriso (Castelelorizo).

Dido-class cruiser HMS Bonaventure steaming at high speed in the Med, early 1941

March saw her with Force C, supporting Convoy MW 6 to Malta, where she survived a near miss from a German bomber, just narrowly missing the Battle of Cape Matapan.

Returning to Alexandria, Bonaventure joined Force A at sea on the 29th to escort another convoy, GA 8, from Piraeus, Greece. The convoy heading from Greece to Alexandria with the transports HMS Breconshire and Cameronia, along with the destroyers HMAS Stuart, HMS Griffin, and HMS Hereward, was soon being bird-dogged by Italian submarines.

Bonaventure came away from a night attack mounted by the Italian Adua-class submarine Dagabur (TV Domenico Romano) at 2037 on 30 March, with both of the sub’s fired torpedoes missing at 3,000 meters.

Our cruiser was not as lucky, just six hours later, when the Italian Perla-class coastal submarine Ambra (TV Mario Arillo) came across her while about 100 nm south-south-east of Crete.

Via Uboat.net:

At 0237 hours, Ambra was proceeding on the surface when, from the bridge, S.T.V. Ignazio Spinale observed a shadow in the mist at a distance of 2,000 meters, followed by another at about 1,000 meters.

At 0244 hours, three torpedoes were fired from bow tubes at 4-second intervals. After a lapse of time, T.V. Arillo thought the torpedoes had missed. He was about to order the firing of more torpedoes when a double explosion was observed. He immediately gave orders to crash-dive. ASDIC pings (described as “Hastings” in the Italian report) were heard, and many depth charges followed, but the submarine escaped.

Bonaventure sank in six minutes, taking 139 souls with her, including her XO, CDR Disbrowe. Stuart and Hereward heaved to and picked up 310 survivors. She was the third of HM’s cruisers taken out of action in the last week of March in the region.

The cruiser is often billed as the largest warship sunk by Italian submarines in WWII.

She was in the first batch of a staggering 206 Allied vessels lost in the Eastern Med during the Greek/Crete campaign and its follow-on evacuation between 28 March and 1 June.

Bonaventure’s slayer: the 600-ton. 197-foot Italian Perla-class coastal submarine Ambra. She was knocked out of service by RAF Wellingtons in 1943 and sent to the bottom for good by USAAF B-17s the following year

Of Bonaventure’s sisters, Charybdis, Hermione, Spartan, and Naiad were all lost during the conflict. Classmate HMS Scylla was badly damaged by a mine in June 1944 and was never repaired.

Epilogue

Our ship and her lost men are remembered by The Wartime Memories Project in the UK and For Posterity’s Sake in Canada, as at least two of her final complement hailed from the RCN/RCNVR.

Bonaventure’s only skipper, Jack Egerton, survived his ship. He continued in the cruiser trade, going on to command the familiar Berwick from Admiral Hipper fame while escorting convoys to North Russia, was named an ADC to the King, and ended the war as Senior British Officer in Russia then later became Captain in Charge, Singapore/Malaya with a CB on his chest before moving to the Retired List in 1948, capping 39 years in uniform. VADM Henry Jack Egerton, C.B., RN, passed in Coxwold in 1972, aged 80, and is buried in St Helen and the Holy Cross Churchyard in North Yorkshire with his wife. His eldest son. LT Edward Gervase Egerton, RN, was killed in action at Dieppe in 1942, aged 22. His younger son, Col. Christopher Charles “Kit” Egerton, M.C., passed in 1970, a former commander of the 15th/19th Hussars.

Captain E J Egerton, RN, as seen aboard Bonaventure, May 1940. By Beadle, IWM (A 1737).

The final Bonaventure (F139), the command and depot ship for the newly formed X/XE-craft of the 14th Submarine Flotilla, entered service in 1943 and, by extension, went on to be the most decorated ship in the fleet, her submariners earning no less than 4 VCs, 3 CBEs, 11 DSOs, a OBE, 10 MBEs, 17 DSCs, 6 CGMs, 12 BSMs, 4 BEMs, and over 100 MiDs from her deck during WWII. She returned to commercial service in 1948 and was scrapped in 1963.

HMS Bonaventure, Xcraft mothership, IWM 30564

Somehow, the RN has not seen fit to recycle the name.

Thanks for reading!

Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive

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