Category Archives: Korean War

The Cold Desperate Fire of the Sapper Steel Battalion

Posted on by Leave a comment

It is unusual for American units to burn their colors every year, but there is one, the 2nd Engineer Battalion.

During the Battle of Kunu-ri in the Korean War, in late November 1950, with an tsunami of Chinese “volunteers” close to overrunning the 8th Army’s 2nd Infantry Division, the division’s attached 2nd Engineer Battalion’s commander, Lt. Col. Alarich “Al” Zacherle, elected to set his unit’s own colors ablaze rather than let them be captured by the enemy and used as a trophy.

It was clear to Zacherle that his unit, left to perform a rear guard action as the division left the mountain pass, would likely be mauled if not eliminated in toto.

Founded in 1861 and first seeing combat at Antietam, then fighting in the Great War and WWII with the 2nd Division, the unit had 25 hard-earned battle streamers, at least three French Croix de Guerre, and a Presidential Unit Citation by 1950.

“The colors, box and all, were drenched with gasoline,” Zacherle wrote in a 1996 letter to the battalion’s association. “A last look at the colors with the unbelievable number of battle streamers were imprinted on our minds. Setting the fire produced a bright blaze that denied the enemy of a trophy they surely would have greatly prized.”

When the 2nd Battalion regrouped after the withdrawal, just 266 of its 787 Soldiers were present for roll call. While 331 of those “missing” had been captured, only 117 of those men survived the conflict.

Zacherle was a prisoner of war from 30 November 1950 to September 1953 at Pyeongtaek, but, repatriated post-ceasefire, lived to a ripe old age of 94, passing in Florida in 2005. He reportedly weighed but 80 pounds when released.

For at least the past 30 years, the unit, now as the Fort Bliss-based 1st Armored Division’s 2d Brigade Engineer Battalion (2BEB), has held a burning ceremony with each Soldier present reading off the name of a fallen/missing circa 1950 member of the battalion as the roll is called.

It concludes with Taps and a night shoot.

 

Chosin Thanksgiving

Posted on by One comment

75 years ago.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Waking up the Dragon

Posted on by Leave a comment

Some 75 years ago this week.

The mothballed Iowa-class fast battleship USS New Jersey (BB-62) is towed up the East River under the Brooklyn Bridge to the New York Navy Yard, 22 November 1950, for reactivation as a fire support platform for use in the Korean War.

She had been recommissioned at Bayonne the day before.

She would be refitted with SK-2 search radar, MK 12/22 radar on her MK 37 directors, and retained her 20mm Oerlikons, although most of her 40mm Bofors are gone

USS New Jersey (BB-62) commissioning at Bayonne, 21 November 1950, for Korean War reactivation

Already the recipient of nine battle stars for her WWII service, New Jersey had been decommissioned at Bayonne on 30 June 1948, so her hull had only languished on “red lead row” for 28 months and, notably, was still a very young ship, having been commissioned the first time at Philadelphia on 23 May 1943.

After a quick refit and shakedown, New Jersey left for the Seventh Fleet, where she arrived off the east coast of Korea on 17 May 1951 and spent the next seven months as fleet flagship. The recalled battleship’s big guns opened the first shore bombardment of her Korean career at Wonsan just two days later.

Over the next two years, she would pick up another four battlestars.

The battleship New Jersey (BB-62) fires a full nine-gun salvo of her 16″ rifles at a target in Kaesong, Korea, on 1 January 1953. Official USN photograph # 80-G-433953 in the collection of the National Archives,

USS New Jersey (BB-62) fires a nine 16-inch gun salvo during bombardment operations against enemy targets in Korea, adjacent to the 38th parallel. The photo is dated 10 November 1951. Smoke from shell explosions is visible ashore, in the upper left. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-435681

As noted by DANFS:

During her two tours of duty in Korean waters, she was again and again to play the part of seaborne mobile artillery. In direct support to United Nations troops, or in preparation for ground actions, in interdicting Communist supply and communication routes, or in destroying supplies and troop positions, New Jersey hurled a weight of steel fire far beyond the capacity of land artillery, moved rapidly and free from major attack from one target to another, and at the same time could be immediately available to guard aircraft carriers should they require her protection.

New Jersey would be decommissioned a second time on 21 August 1957, was brought back in 1968 to rain 6,000 shells on NVA positions in Vietnam, then decommissioned a third time the next year, and brought back a fourth and final time in 1982.

The best preserved Fletcher heads back to the water

Posted on by One comment

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

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

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

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

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

As detailed by the Museum:

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

Korean War Ranger Resurgence

Posted on by Leave a comment

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!

Posted on by One comment

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.

Warship Wednesday, October 15, 2025: One Tough Cat

Posted on by Leave a comment

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.

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

I’m a member, so should you be!

Korean Privateers

Posted on by Leave a comment

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

Advancing to new finds

Posted on by Leave a comment

With the expansion inland from the Inchon beaches and the breakout from the Pusan Perimeter in late September 1950, the North Korean People’s Army was broken.

Kim Il Sung’s ruined regiments, after three months of non-stop fighting and thousands of sorties from Allied airpower, had been reduced from 220,000 troops to around 70,000 effectives, and were outnumbered by UN ground forces by more than 2:1 by this point in the war, with the latter growing stronger every day.

Members of the 5th Marine Regt. are welcomed by a greeting party of South Koreans as they move to the front lines near the Han River to engage in action against the North Korean forces, in an offensive launched by U.S. troops in that area. 18 September 1950. Photographer: Sgt. Herbert Nutter. SC 348694

Cpl. Ulysess J. Breaux of Breaux Bridge, La.; Cpl. Roy L. Guice of Rioneer, La.; and Pvt. David L. Cordova of Los Angeles, Calif., zeroed in their .30 caliber water-cooled machine gun on the line 23 miles southwest of Inchon, Korea. 19 September 1950. Photographer: Cpl. Alex Klein. SC 348698

ROK Marines move toward the Han River from the Kimpo air strip aboard DUKWs of the 1st Marine Div., in an offensive launched by UN forces against the North Korean enemy forces in that area. 20 September 1950. SC 348704

The 24th Infantry Division of the Eighth Army enters Taejon on 28 September 1950, returning to the scene of their earlier battles. National Archives Identifier 348337951

The next two months saw a steady advance while the North Koreans retreated, with Seoul liberated on 26 September and the ROK Army crossing the 38th Parallel into their northern neighbor’s territory on 1 October, with British and American forces following a week later.

What they encountered was the remnants of a smashed Communist fighting force, and often vehicles never seen up close by Western eyes of the era, outside of May Day parades.

While the North Korean force had invaded as an armored fist with a spearhead of 150 Soviet-made T-34-85s, it left the South largely on foot.

The captured equipment was a boon to Western intelligence, which, familiar with the T-34-76 from 1945 link-ups in the ETO and captured German intelligence files, was eager to examine some newer models and how they fared against NATO weapon systems.

A Soviet-built T-34/85 tank was knocked out during the Battle of Taejon, and later recovered by the same unit, a testament to the stand of Maj. Gen. William F. Dean, commanding the U.S. 24th Infantry Division.

Result of a napalm bomb on an enemy T-34 tank guarding the main road to Waegwan, Korea. 20 September 1950. Photographer: Cpl. George J. Myers. SC 348914

Men of the 5th RCT pose on a Russian-made SU-76 (self-propelled gun) with the back section of the turret blown off, captured from North Koreans in the Waegwan area, Korea. 20 September 1950. Photographer: Cpl. George J. Myers. SC 348915

T-34 tank destroyed by 5th Marines on the road to Kimpo Airfield, 17 September 1950. From the Oliver P. Smith Collection (COLL/213), Marine Corps Archives & Special Collections

A wrecked T-34 tank on a collapsed bridge span somewhere near Suwon or Osan, September 1950

Soviet-built T-34-85 tank captured by the U.S. Army’s 27th Infantry Regiment “Wolfhounds” (25th ID) from North Korean forces, September 1950.

Further, the advancing troops came across the “ghost bridges” used by the Norks to create nearly bomb-proof submerged crossings over rivers, which were thrown up after UN airstrikes and retreating U.S. engineers had dropped the peacetime bridges. A classic Soviet Red Army technique, especially when operating in an area with questionable air superiority, the tactic still worked.

They were almost impossible to spot from the air when not in active use and harder to knock out.

2.5-ton trucks cross a river by an underwater bridge, eight miles northwest of Taegu, Korea, on their way to the front line during the Korean War, September 16, 1950. Underwater bridges are a useful way of avoiding being spotted from the air.

M-26 tanks of the 6th Tank Bn.., 24th Inf. Div. crossing the Kumho River on an underwater crossing, consisting of rocks and sandbags reinforcing the riverbed as the 24th Inf. Div. advances against the North Korean forces along the Naktong River. 18 September 1950. Photographer: Pfc. Lonnie Butler SC 348668

M-26 tanks of the 6th Tank Bn.., 24th Inf. Div. crossing the Kumho River on an underwater crossing, consisting of rocks and sandbags reinforcing the riverbed as the 24th Inf. Div. advances against the North Korean forces along the Naktong River. 18 September 1950. Photographer: Pfc. Lonnie Butler SC 348669

The advance would continue, with the U.S. Eighth Army moving up the east coast of the Korean peninsula from Pusan while the Marines and the 7th Infantry would leapfrog up the west coast, the two forces bisected by the 300-mile-long Taebaek Mountain range, into which many of the remaining North Korean formations withdrew.

By 18 October, ROK forces captured Hamnung and Hugnam, while the North Korean capital of Pyongyang was captured by Eighth Army on the 19th.

However, by 25 October, with some forward elements in sight of the Yalu River, the lines solidified and, in a few days, the “Victory” and “Home by Christmas” talk would be dashed as the conflict became an entirely different war.

Hanging out with the gals

Posted on by Leave a comment

Via the Oklahoma National Guard Museum: two members of the 45th Infantry “Thunderbird” Division show off their sweetheart-named select-fire M2 Carbines somewhere in Korea.

The Thunderbirds were one of just two National Guard divisions-– along with the California-based 40th Infantry– sent to fight in Korea. Activated in September 1950, by the end of the following year, they were deployed to Korea as a unit and spent 429 days in combat until the end of the conflict in 1953.

They saw hell at Yonchon-Chorwon, Old Baldy, Pork Chop Hill, Heartbreak Ridge, and Luke’s Castle, suffering 4,004 casualties, including 834 killed in action.

« Older Entries Recent Entries »