A great original Kodachrome with an air-to-air right side view of a “hump-backed” A-4F Skyhawk (BuNo 154975) of the “Royal Blues” of Attack Squadron (VA) 127, on 21 July 1975. Hot rods, they carried J52-P-408 engines with 11,200 lbf of thrust on an aircraft with an empty weight of 10,450 pounds.
Scene Camera Operator: PH3 Stoner. DN-SC-88-06702, National Archives Identifier 6430109
Established 15 June 1962 at NAS Lemoore with a complement of F-9F/TF-9J Cougar, VA-127 soon switched to Skyhawks. At the time of the above image, the Royal Blues were the only A-4 Replacement Air Wing squadron in the Navy, a role that switched to a primary mission of adversary training by November 1975. Switching to T-38B/F-5Es in 1987, just after they became the “Cylons” in an ode to Battlestar Galactica, they briefly flew F-18s as the “Desert Bogeys” out of NAS Fallon until they were disestablished in 1996.
It was in Blue No. 5 Livery that she and her pilot, LCDR Stuart R Powrie (USNA ’70), 34, was killed when the airframe crashed in the Imperial Valley desert near the Salton Sea following the completion of a maneuver called “the clean loop-dirty loop” while flying from NAS El Centro, on 22 February 1982.
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Warship Wednesday, July 16, 2025: Flat Iron Warrior
Above we see the Norwegian Gor-class gunboat-turned-minelayer KNM Tyr, all 102 feet long with a 4.7″/40 EOC gun forward and mines stowed aft. Downright ancient when the Germans came in 1940, she nonetheless proved a serious thorn in their side.
Norwegian Rendels
Starting in the 1870s, the Norwegians embarked on a program of modern warship construction, including steam engines and iron/steel hulls. Constructed locally at Carl JohansVærns Værft, Horten, they ordered eight 2nd class gunboats (Kanonbåt 2. kl) running between 250 and 420 tons, three first class gunboats of between 720 and 1,280 tons, a 1,045-ton steam corvette, an armed 350-ton minelaying “crane vessel” (Kranfartøy), and 14 assorted (45 ton-to-107 ton) 2nd class torpedo boats by 1902. Meanwhile, four 4,000-ton coastal battleships (Panserskibe) with 8.2-inch guns and up to 8 inches of armor would be ordered from Armstrong in the 1890s.
The eight 2nd class gunboats were all of the “flat iron” or Rendel type, a common format introduced by Armstrong in 1867 and built under contract for or copied by over a dozen fleets around the globe, including Norway’s neighbors Denmark and Sweden. Short and stubby, typically about 100 feet long with a 30-foot beam, they were flat-bottomed and drew a fathom or less, even under a full load. This hull form and their anemic compound steam engines only allowed for a speed in the 8-10 knot region, leaving these as defensive vessels ideal for guarding strongpoints and key harbors.
Armament was typically a single large (8-to-15-inch!) gun that could be lowered and elevated inside a shielded battery but not traversed, with the gunboat coming about to aim the horizonal.
The Norwegian Rendels included KNM Vale and Uller (1874, 1876, 250t); Nor, Brage, and Vidar (1897-1882, 270t); Gor and Tyr (1884, 1887, 289-294t); and Æger (1893, 420t). The first five carried a single Armstrong 26.67 cm (10.5-inch) RML forward and two 1-pounder Hotchkiss guns amidships.
Kanonbåt 2 kl Brage’s crew with her Armstrong 26,7cm RML.
Æger toted a more modern 8.3-inch Armstrong breechloader and three small (one 10-pdr and two 4-pdrs).
Æger. This 109-foot 420-tonner was the pinnacle of Rendel development. A one-off design, she was decommissioned in 1932 and her name recycled for a new Sleipner-class destroyer. NSM.000460
Gor and Tyr each carried a single breechloading Krupp 26 cm (10.2 inch) L/30 gun (606-pound shell, 192-pound charge, m/v 1805 ft/secs), the same model gun used on the 3,700-ton Japanese Armstrong-built protected cruisers Naniwa and Takachiho, backed up, like most of the other Norwegian Rendels, by two 1-pounder Hotchkiss guns.
Kanonbåt 2. kl. Gor (b. 1884, Karljohansvern Verft, Horten), note the large Krupp gun forward. NSM.000459
Japanese officers of the protected cruiser Naniwa posing near one of her 26 cm (10.2″) Krupp guns, 1885
Meet Tyr
Constructed as Yard No. 67 at Horten, Tyr was named for the one-handed Norse god of war who sacrificed his other hand to trap the wolf Fenrir. Laid down in 1884, she launched on 16 March 1887 and, fitting out rapidly, joined the Norwegian fleet shortly after.
Norwegian gunboat KNM Tyr from 1887
After 1900, with the looming formal separation from Sweden on the horizon and the prospect of a possible fight on their hands, the Norwegians upped their torpedo boat numbers rapidly to nearly 30 boats as their four new bathtub battleships arrived on hand from Britain. With that, the Rendels transitioned to more static support roles around this time, such as minefield tenders at strategic coastal fortifications and depot ships.
Around this time, most landed their obsolete main gun in exchange for something more contemporary, with most picking up a trainable QF 4.7″/40 Elswick 20-pounder behind a shield. This allowed the removal of their armored bow bulwark. Gor and Tyr also picked up a high-angle 76mm mount, while some of the older boats received a 47mm mount.
Gor as minelegger with mines aft.
After Norway got into the submarine business in 1909 with the small (128-foot, kerosine-engined) German-built KNM Kobben, Tyr became her tender until 1914.
K/B 2 kl Tyr as tender with Norwegian submarine Kobben alongside. MMU.944062
Tyr plan 1913, slick-decked as tender.
With the mine warfare lessons reverberating around the globe after the Russo-Japanese War, it became obvious how easy these broad-beamed shallow-draft craft could be converted to minelayers. This typically meant installing twin port and starboard rail tracks on deck running about 65 feet to the stern for easy planting either via boom over rail drop. On the Gor and Tyr, this allowed for as many as 55 mines stowed on deck.
Tyr as mine planter with her 4″/40 forward and two 37mm 1-pounders on her amidships bridge deck. Model in the Horten Marinemuseet.
Same model, note the mine arrangement. The model omits her 6-pounder 76mm gun.
mines on converted Norwegian 2c gunboat, pre-1940
Same as above
Same as above
1929 Jane’s abbreviated listing of seven of the old Rendel gunboats, including Tyr. Note that Gor is still listed with her old 10-inch Armstrong. The larger Aegir was listed separately and was disposed of in 1932.
War!
September 1939 brought an uneasy time to Scandinavia. The remaining seven Norwegian Rendals, all by this time working as minelayers, bided their time and clocked in on the country’s Nøytralitetsvakt (Neutrality Watch).
Tyr was placed under the command of Orlogskaptein (LCDR) Johan Friederich Andreas Thaulow “Fritz” Ulstrup and stationed at the outer ring Lerøy Fortress overlooking the narrow Lerøyosen south of Bergen. Ulstrup, 43, was a career naval officer who was minted in the Great War and, having studied in France from 1922 to 1924, was serving as an instructor at the Naval Academy in Bergen when the war started.
Ulstrup, who doubled as fortress commander at Lerøy, also had a flotilla of five small armed auxiliary guard boats– Haus (135grt), Lindaas (138grt), Alversund (178grt), Manger (153grt), and Oygar (128grt)– and an old (circa 1898) torpedo boat, Storm, under his control. However, the fort itself, slated in 1939 to receive a 120mm gun battery with four old L/40 French-built Schneider weapons from the decommissioned border forts of Vardasen and Gullbekkasen pointing toward Sweden, instead only had a couple of 65mm Cockerill guns and searchlights.
On the early morning of 9 April 1940, just after midnight, two cruisers appeared off Bergen and flashed that they were the RN’s HMS Cairo and Calcutta, when in fact they were the German Kriegmarine’s light cruiser sisters Koln and Konigsberg, each with nine 15 cm SK C/25 (5.9-inch) guns, as the Gruppe 3 invasion force under RADM Hubert Schmundt. The cruisers were followed by 600 troops of the Wehrmacht’s 69th Infantry Division on the 1,800-ton gunnery training ship (Artillerieschulschiff) Bremse with four 12.8 cm SK C/34s, the torpedo boats Wolf and Leopard, and the E-boat tender Carl Peters shepherding S19, S21, S22, S23, S24, and naval trawlers Schiff 9 and Schiff 18.
Tyr, loaded with live and armed mines picked up at Laksevåg, was at the ocean-front fishing village of Klokkarvik, directly in the path of the Germans.
Klokkarvik harbor during the neutrality watch in 1939/40. In the picture, you can see a mine-armed KNM Tyr at anchor with a Draug-class destroyer at the quay. Note the Royal Norwegian Navy’s Hover M.F.11 floatplane in the foreground. (Source: Naval Museum Horten)
When the Germans began to creep into the fjord and with word of other sets of foreign warships in the Oslofjord, Ulstrup, who had been arguing with Bergan’s overall commander, RADM Carsten Tank-Nielsen all day on the 8th to be able to sow his mines, finally obtained clearance at 0030 for Tyr to hurriedly drop eight mines between Sotra and Lerøy, closing Lerøyosen. However, the 10-14-hour time-delay safety features on the magnetic contacts of the mines meant they were still dormant when the German cruisers passed harmlessly over them. Storm, meanwhile, fired a torpedo at Carl Peters at 0220 but missed.
Ulstrup closed to shore so he could place a quick phone call to Tank-Nielsen to apprise him of the situation, then returned to his minelayer to beat feet toward Bjørnefjord, playing a cat and mouse game with German E-boats and reportedly landing a hit from her 4.7-inch gun on one, receiving several 20mm hits from the Schnellbooten in exchange.
Further up the fjord, batteries at the now-alerted Norwegian inner ring Forts Kvarven (3 x 210mm St. Chamond M.98s) and Sandviken (3 x 240mm St. Chamond L/13s) opened up on the passing Germans at 0358 and soon landed hits on both Konigsberg and Bremse in the darkness of pre-dawn, leaving the former adrift with flooded boiler rooms. While Tyr, Ulstrup, and company managed to withdraw further into the fjords– laying another 16 mines in the Vatlestraumen approaches north of Bergen– Bergen itself fell to the German seaborne force just hours later.
Meanwhile, Tyr’s mines near Vatlestraumen sank the packed German HSDG freighter Sao Paulo (4977grt) on the evening of the 9th, sending her to the bottom in 260 feet of water.
The 361-foot Hamburg-Südamerikanische Dampschiffahrts-Gesellschaft steamer Sao Paulo was lost to one of Tyr’s mines.
In trying to sweep the mines, the German naval auxiliary Schiff 9 (trawler Koblenz, 437grt), and the auxiliary patrol boat Vp.105 (trawler Cremon, 268grt), along with two launches from Carl Peters, were lost on the 11th. Some sources also credit the German steamer Johann Wessels (4601grt), damaged on 5 May, and the German-controlled Danish steamer Gerda (1151grt), sunk on 8 May, as falling to Tyr’s eggs.
Withdrawing down the 114-mile-long Hardangerfjord, Ulstrup was appointed the commander of this new sector on 17 April and, moving ashore to Uskedal, left Tyr to her XO, the 47-year-old Fenrik (ensign) Karl Sandnes. Ulstrup, stripping the 37mm guns from Tyr and two 65mm guns from auxiliary gunboats, mounted them on flatbed trucks as improvised mobile artillery.
A 1937 Chevy flatbed with a 65mm L35 Hotchkiss under Ulstrup’s dirt sailors, April 1940
The next two days saw a series of skirmishes around Uskedal, in which Tyr closed to shore to use her 4.7-inch gun against German positions in improvised NGFS, coming close enough to get riddled by German 8mm rifle fire in return.
A naval clash on the 20th involving the advancing Germans in the Hardangerfjord saw Tyr, under the command of Sandnes, shell the German auxiliary Schiff 18, which beached at Uskedal to avoid sinking. The same battle saw the Norwegian Trygg-class torpedo boat Stegg sunk by Schiff 221 while the Norwegian armed auxiliary Smart was sunk by Bremse. The German minesweeper M.1 went on to capture five Norwegian-flagged steamers that were hiding in the fjord.
With Ulstrup and his force ashore getting ready to displace inland under fire, and Tyr trapped in the fjord, Sandnes brought his command to the shallows and, attempting to camouflage her, hid the breechblock for her 4.7 and evacuated the old minelayer. By forced march, they made it to Matre, some 14 miles on the other side of the mountain, and soon rejoined Allied lines.
Meanwhile, Tyr was soon discovered by the Germans, who towed her back to Bergen and, along with her fellow Rendel gunboat-turned-minelayer cousin, Uller, were soon pressed into service with the Kriegsmarine.
On 30 April, Tyr and Uller left occupied Bergen with German crews on a mission to mine the entrance to Sognefjord, barring it to British ships. This service would be short-lived as a Royal Norwegian Navy Heinkel He 115 seaplane spotted the pair, now under new management, and bombed Uller seriously enough to have her crew beach on a reef and evacuate on Tyr. Uller later lifted off the reef and sank near Gulen, becoming a popular dive spot.
As for Tyr, she saw no further direct combat, although the Germans likely continued to use her in some form of coastal service for the rest of the war.
Post-war
Tyr was still afloat in 1945 when the Germans were run out, and was subsequently sold on the commercial market. Her old hull still in good shape, she was converted to an economical diesel plant and sailed for a time as a heavy lift steamship.
By 1951, she had been converted to the car ferry Bjorn West, a task she fulfilled for three decades. Further converted for service in a salmon farming operation.
Found in poor condition ten years ago, she recently passed to a consortium of Vestfold county municipality, the KNM Narvik Foundation in Horten, and the Bredalsholmen Shipyard and Preservation Centre, who, with Tyr safely in drydock in Kristiansand, plan on restoring her to her 1940 condition. At this point, she is believed to be the last Rendel-type gunboat.
They plan to make her sailable, which isn’t that far-fetched.
Epilogue
The Norwegian Navy has recycled our gunboat/minelayer’s name at least twice.
The first was an Auk-class minesweeper, ex-USS Sustain (AM-119), which was transferred in 1959 and served as KNM Tyr (N47). Three Auk-class sisters transferred with her (ex-USS Strive, Triumph, and Seer) were named Gor, Brage, and Uller, in a nod to the old Rendel boats that saw WWII service.
Ex-USS Sustain (AM-119) as KNM Tyr (N47). Commissioned 9 November 1942, she earned eight battle stars for her World War II service from North Africa to France to Okinawa, helping to sink at least one U-boat in the process. She served the Norwegians from 1959 to 1984.
The third KNM Tyr in Norwegian service, N50, was bought commercially in 1995 and spent two decades mapping and filming dozens of historic wrecks in the country’s waters with her ROVs, including Scharnhorst and HMS Hunter (H35).
The intrepid LCDR Ulstrup continued to resist the Germans after leaving Tyr in April 1940. He crafted a makeshift shoreside torpedo battery, the only torpedo available being salvaged from the wreck of an old torpedo boat, and managed to caravan mines from a storage facility in Sogn to Ulvik to surprise the occupation forces. Once the Allies pulled out in mid-June, he was left to his own devices with a resistance group that became known, logically, as the Ulstrup Organisasjon.
With the heat getting too close for comfort, Ulstrup and a dozen other patriots crowded on the sailing trawler MK Måken (M 366 B)on 19 September 1940 and set out from Alesund for the Shetlands, arriving at Baltasound 11 days later. Welcomed as a hero in London, he was soon in command of the old four-piper HMS Mansfield (G76)(former USS Evans, DD-78), which in April 1941 carried commandos for a raid on Oksfjord, Norway, where the herring oil factory was destroyed.
“HNMS Mansfield, Norwegian Town-class destroyer. She is an ex-U.S. destroyer (USS Evans) and is manned entirely by the Norwegian Navy.” Circa 1941. Note her Norwegian flag. Photo by Harold William John Tomlin, IWM A2725
Once Mansfield was passed on to the Canadians in March 1942 after the Norwegians rode shotgun on 17 Atlantic, Ulstrup, promoted to Kommandørkaptein, was given command of the 11th Department in the Ministry of Defense in London, then subsequently placed in command of the Norwegian forces in Iceland, where he spent the rest of the war.
Returning to Norway with a War Cross with Swords, Ulstrup was promoted to rear admiral in August 1952. After escorting Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie on his tour of Norwegian naval bases, including the Horten shipyards in November 1954, he was made a Grand Officer of the Order of the Ethiopian Emperor Menelik II, rounding out his international awards.
Kontradmiral Johan Fredrik Andreas Thaulow Ulstrup, retired, passed in 1956, age 60, having wrapped up a 41-year career.
Tyr’s best-known “kill” of the war, the HSDG steamer Sao Paulo, packed with German military vehicles and stores that never made it to shore, is a favorite of wreck divers.
Meanwhile, in Klokkarvik, a memorial, complete with a mine and a seagull, was dedicated in 2021.
As noted in the town:
The seagull that takes off from the mine is a symbol of optimism. We should be aware of what war brings, but be most concerned with how we can secure peace. We should learn from history, – because it tends to repeat itself. The seagull draws our attention to the sea, the source of everything, our future.
Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive
***
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It happened 85 years ago, in London, on 14 July 1940.
Men of the “Free French” 14e demi-brigade de marche de la Légion étrangère (DBMLE), who had participated in the Norwegian campaign and then rallied to General de Gaulle’s cause after the Fall of France, parade through the streets of London on Bastille Day. Note their Adrian helmets, iconic Legionnaire “Cheche” desert scarves, Alpine breeches and boots, and MAS 36 7.5x54mm bolt-action rifles carried with trigger guard out in French fashion.
Réf. : FFL 16-5345 Auteur inconnu/ECPAD/Défense
On July 14, 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who delivered a very Francophile speech in tribute to the French men and women who had not given up fighting, allowed De Gaulle and his forces to celebrate Bastille Day in the English capital, which simultaneously became for a time the capital of Free France. The general laid a wreath at the foot of the statue of Marshal Foch (a ceremony he would repeat on Bastille Day 1942) and watched the (short) parade of the Free French Forces who marched from the Cenotaph in Whitehall to the statue of the marshal in Grosvenor Gardens.
The unit was originally formed as the two-battalion 13e DBMLE under the bespectacled Lt. Col. Raoul Charles Magrin-Vernerey in February 1940 in preparation for a planned Franco-British expeditionary force to initially intervene in Finland. Importantly, they were given a crash course in mountain operations, equipped with skis, and given the uniforms of the famed “Blue Devils,” the Chasseurs Alpins.
However, Finland’s peace with Moscow on 12 March put its operations on ice.
Literally.
Re-tasked to the Franco-British expeditionary force to Norway in April, the legionnaires helped liberate first Bjervik and then Narvik from the Germans before being withdrawn in early June.
April 23, 1940 – Brest. Troops stand by during the departure ceremony of the 13th Foreign Legion Marching Brigade (DBMLE) towards Norway. Ref. : NAVY 224-3148 Jammaron/ECPAD/Defense
The brigade lost eight officers and 93 legionnaires in combat in Norway, including its 2nd battalion c/o, Maj. Albéric Joseph Calixte Guéninchault. Their dead remain in a military cemetery in Narvik, a plot of land that will forever be French.
Returning to France, they landed at Brittany on 4 June but, with the country rapidly collapsing to the Germans, elected to be taken off by British ships to Scotland on the 8th, to continue the fight. After all, most of the Legion was back in French North Africa, which was not under German occupation.
Following De Gaulle’s appeal on 18 June to join his forces, the choice was put to the men of the 1,619 remaining officers and men of the 13th DBMLE and, by sundown on the 30th, 25 officers, 102 NCOs, and 702 other ranks, led by Lt.Col. Magrin-Vernerey had elected to remain in exile and cast their lot with the Allies. The rest were repatriated to Vichy French-held Morocco, taking their flags with them.
As the “old” 13th DBMLE had returned home, the men left in Britain became the brand-new 14th DBMLE on 1 July 1940. Fighting under that designation, they served on Operation Menace, the botched landing in Senegal in October, and then in the more successful Gabon campaign in November.
Hearing that the “old” 13th DBMLE had been disbanded under pressure from the Germans to draw down Vichy French forces in November 1940, the 14th adopted the name of the 13th, becoming the “new” 13th DBMLE.
As such, they continued to serve as renowned fire eaters, earning honors at Keren-Massaouah (1941), Bir-Hakeim and El-Alamein (1942), Rome (1944), Colmar and Authion (1945), covering 20,000 miles in the process, spanning from Norway to Egypt and Syria, and back to Europe, fighting up the “Boot” in Italy to landing on the shores of the Riveria and driving to the Alps.
They later added Indochina (1945-54) and Algeria (1955-62) to the list.
They endure today, stationed at Larzac as part of the 6th Armored Brigade.
80 years ago. Official wartime caption: “After a strafing mission, North American P-51 Mustangs snuggle under the wing of a Boeing B-29 Superfortress for the trip back to Iwo Jima, Bonin islands. July 1945.”
U.S. Air Force Number B67967AC. National Archives Identifier. 204834881 (B&W). Similar images in the series include 59049AC/204834866, 67967AC/204834875, and A67967AC/204834878, all of the same four-plane stack through what looks to be the same window, that of the B-29’s portside remote gunner.
The tail number of the closest fighter, 44-72864, indicates that it is a North American P-51D-25-NA and is almost surely from the 7th Fighter Command’s “Sunsetters.”
The Very Long Range escort missions flown by Iwo Jima’s P-51s– note the twin drop tanks under each of the fighters– were grueling 1,500-mile round trips escorting B-29s over Japan. They were extremely dangerous, and under arguably worse flying conditions than the 8th AF had over Germany, all things considered.
Of note:
One of the greatest limiting factors of fighter escorts from Iwo was the human factor. The B-29 was heated and pressurized. Compared to the unheated, unpressurized P-51, the bomber crews sat in secure comfort. The punishment on the fighter pilots’ bodies was compounded by the extremely high altitudes they flew to escort the bombers, usually more than 30,000 feet. This was several thousand feet higher than fighter pilots flew in Europe, escorting B-17 and B-24 bombers. The round trip from Iwo to Japan and back was nine hours, spent in a physically battered state.
While 44-72864’s service history is unknown, it probably didn’t end well.
Take a gander at the 18 closest known P-51 serials to that frame, via Baugher:
72848 (530th FS, 311th FG, 14th AF) crashed after takeoff in China while on an administration mission from Sian to Peishiyi on Sep 12, 1945. MACR 14929. Pilot killed.
72851 (457th FS, 506th FG) in a landing accident at North Field, Iwo Jima Aug 2, 1945. The pilot survived, but the aircraft was destroyed.
72860 (457th FS, 506th FG) crashed from unknown cause at North Field, Iwo Jima Aug 5, 1945. The pilot was killed and the aircraft was destroyed.
72863 (72nd FS, 21st FG) shot down by AAA N of Koriyama, Japan Aug 1, 1945. MACR 14842. The pilot bailed out but was killed.
72865 (46th FS, 21st FG) crashed on takeoff at Central Field, Iwo Jima Jul 2, 1945. The pilot survived, but the aircraft was destroyed.
72866 (78th FS, 15th FG, 7th AF) in a landing accident at South Field, Iwo Jima Jun 7, 1944. The pilot survived, the aircraft was badly damaged, and it is unknown if repaired.
72867 w/o? 16 Sep 1947. Landing accident at Johnson AB, Japan 5FG-4FS
72869 (46th FS, 21st FG) in a landing accident at Central Field, Iwo Jima Jun 26, 1945. The pilot survived, the aircraft was badly damaged, and it is unknown if repaired.
72870 w/o? 16 Sep 1946 Landing accident at Johnson AB, Japan 314CW-8PRS
72871 (46th FS, 21st FG) crashed from unknown cause 19 mi N of Iwo Jima on Jun 7, 1945. The pilot bailed out and was rescued.
72872 (45th FS, 15th FG, 7th AF) crashed 150 mi from S of Osaka, Japan due to turbulent weather on Jun 1, 1945. MACR 14641. Pilot killed.
72873 (46th FS, 21st FG) hit by AAA over Hanshin Airfield, Osaka, Japan, and crashed in Osaka Bay, Japan Aug 8, 1945. MACR 14837. Believe that he was captured and killed.
72879 (21st FG, 72nd FS) crashed into the sea during a strafing run over Arita-cho, Oki-gun, Wakayama Prefecture, Yuasa, Japan Aug 8, 1945. MACR 14841
72883 (458th FS, 506th FG) was shot down by AAA and crashed N of Mount Fujiyama, Japan Jul 8, 1945. MACR 14733. The pilot bailed out and was MIA, believed killed.
72885 (457th FS, 506th FG) crashed 360 mi from Iwo Jima in the Pacific Ocean due to turbulent weather on Jun 1, 1945. MACR 14634. Pilot killed.
72886 (72nd FS) 21st FG) collided in midair with P-51D 44-63969 and crashed 14 mi S of Kita Iwo Jima Jul 13, 1945. The pilot bailed out and survived, but the aircraft was destroyed.
72892 506th FG 462nd FS. Lost in a midair collision in the traffic pattern over North Field on Aug 28, 1945, with P-51D 44-72550
72893 w/o 5 Aug 1947 takeoff accident at Johnson AB, Japan 35FG-39FS
A touching image, some 80 years ago today, with an almost unfathomable background.
Official period caption: “Lecco, Italy. PFC George Morihiro, Co I, 442nd Inf. Regt., adopted a little orphan, one of the group from the St. Joseph’s orphanage, which attended the 4th of July party at the Red Cross given by the members of the 442nd Regt., for the evening, and made sure that she had plenty of sweets to eat.”
U.S. Army Signal Corps Photo 111-SC-340940 by Menikheim, 3131st Signal Photo Platoon. National Archives Identifier 404791224
Just in case you didn’t immediately grasp it, the famed 442nd “Go for Broke” Regimental Combat Team was made up of Japanese American troops during WWII. One of the most decorated units in U.S. military history– including five Presidential Unit Citations, 21 MoHs, and 18,000 other individual decorations– the second-generation “Nisei” men who filled its ranks often hailed from families shamefully interned by the federal government under armed guard during the war.
Born in September 1924, in Tacoma, Washington, to Gunjiro and Tsuru Morihiro, George graduated from high school in Fife, Washington, and was eager to volunteer for the Army prior to Pearl Harbor. Following the start of the Pacific War, his family was removed to the Puyallup Assembly Center and the Minidoka Concentration Camp, Idaho, where 13,000 Americans were detained in the high desert.
Nonetheless, he joined the Army in late 1943, was sent to Camp Shelby, and, in what he thought was punishment for talking smack to a sergeant there, was promptly designated as a BAR man, toting the 21-pound M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle. As anyone can tell you, it sucks to carry a BAR to the range and back, I can’t imagine having to tote one through the gumbo mud of Mississippi or up a mountain in Italy, but George did it.
Earning a Purple Heart in action against the Gothic Line, Staff Sgt. Morihiro returned to Fife after the war. Attending photography school, he worked 20 years for Tall’s Camera Supply and 24 years as owner of GEM Photo Distributors. He was also active in the Nisei Veterans Association, speaking to school groups and community organizations about his wartime experiences, going on to leave a nine-part oral history in 1998.
George passed in 2009, aged 85, and left behind a son and grandchildren. Because, of course, he did.
Serving and former members of the Royal Marines, a couple of weeks ago, staged a re-enactment, Exercise Itchy Blanket, of Operation Frankton – and the men who became known as the Cockleshell Heroes. They came complete with WWII kit, kayaks, and (inert) limpet mines down the Thames to place them on HMS Belfast before a crowd.
Over 80 years ago, ten marines set out on a mission to paddle right up to Nazi ships undetected and blow them up in port, and just two of them were able to exilftrate back home.
To mark the extraordinary operation, today’s marines paddled their folding ‘yaks down the Thames to the side of HMS Belfast in the heart of London and placed mock limpet mines to her side. The expedition was not only to remember the heroics of the operation, but also to raise money for a plaque to David Moffatt, one of the men involved in the original Op Frankton.
The future USS Jeremiah Denton (DDG 129), the third Flight III advanced Arleigh Burke-class destroyer to be built at Ingalls, was christened in Pascagoula on Saturday.
The ship’s name honors RADM Jeremiah Denton Jr., (USNA 1947), a Vietnam War veteran who earned the Navy Cross for his heroism as a prisoner of war. Denton spent 34 years as a naval aviator, including eight years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam after his Intruder was shot down while flying from USS Independence (CV-62).
Daughters of the RADM Denton, Madeleine Denton Doak and Mary Denton Lewis, performed the traditional bottle-breaking ceremony against the bow to formally christen the ship.
Ingalls has delivered 35 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers to the U.S. Navy, including the first Flight III, USS Jack H. Lucas (DDG-125), in June 2023. In addition, Ingalls Shipbuilding has five Flight IIIs currently under construction, including Ted Stevens (DDG 128), Jeremiah Denton (DDG 129), George M. Neal (DDG 131), Sam Nunn (DDG 133), and Thad Cochran (DDG 135).
Original caption: 3 Aug. 1952, Officers and men of U.S. Pacific fleet and Fleet Marine Force, Pacific, staged the largest fresh water amphibious assault training operation in Navy and Marine Corps history on the shores of Lake Washington, Seattle. Frogmen of UDT #1 prepare to drop over the side of the rubber boat being towed by the master pick-up boat. Frogmen swam ashore to blast obstructions impeding the progress of the assault location. NARA 80-G-449678
The AP Archive continues to deliver, with this great circa mid-1950s Cold War-era 30-minute UDT team recruiting film, “The Navy Frogmen.”
It includes footage of the 110-foot New London submarine escape tower, UDT shorts, classic beach delivery and recovery techniques, early double and triple-tank (!) Aqualung open-circuit SCUBA gear, Pirelli Lung rebreathers, beach clearing demo against obstacles, submerged submarine lock-in/lock-out ops, and the like.
Contrary to popular belief, the destroyer HMS Shikari’s departure just before dawn on 3 June, the last day of the “Miracle of Dunkirk” during Operation Dynamo, was not the end of the evacuation from France in 1940.
Neither was the near-catastrophic (especially if you were a Highlander) Operation Cycle, which pulled another 14,000 Allied troops from Le Havre and St. Valery-en-Caux between June 10 and 13, 1940.
This saw the French Atlantic ports at Cherbourg (30,630 Brits of the 52nd Lowland Division, 1st Armoured Division, Beauman Division, and Norman Force), Saint-Malo (21,474 men, mostly of the 1st Canadian Division), Brest (28,145 British and 4,439 Allied personnel), Saint Nazaire/Nantes (57,235 troops, of whom 54,411 were British), La Pallice/La Rochelle (10,000 British and more than 4,000 Polish), as well as smaller contingents from Le Verdon, Bordeaux, Bayonne, and Saint Jean-de-Luz, continue near round-the-clock withdrawals as late as 25 June to Africa and the Caribbean in the case of the French, and to England in the case of British and other allies. Meanwhile, low-key departures continued from French Mediterranean ports, especially of colonial troops (and those newly designated as such) retrograding back to North Africa, until 14 August, a full three weeks past the effective date of the Second Armistice at Compiègne.
One almost forgotten chapter in Ariel was story of the exiled Free Polish soldiers evacuated from France aboard the humble British Pool Shipping Co merchant steamer SS Alderpool (4,313 tons), which left the port of La Pallice (which incidentally was the pierside backdrop for films Das Boot and Raiders of the Lost Ark) 85 years ago today on 19 June 1940 with more 4,000 exiled Poles in French uniform aboard.
These men, of the nascent 4th (Free) Polish Infantry Division (4. Dywizja Piechoty) under Maj. Gen. Stanisław Franciszek Sosabowski, had beat feet from their training camp at Parthenay, in western France, toward Saint Nazaire but only made it to Ancenis by 16 June before finding out that the port was closed. Rather than stack arms, they pushed 110 miles down the coast to La Rochelle by any available means– coal train, lorry, and forced march– to catch the last British ship leaving from there. Sosabowski had already escaped one German POW camp the year before and wasn’t keen on having to do it again.
Once aboard Alderpool, the slow steam to Plymouth took four long days, bracing for U-boats at night and Messerschmitt by day.
Lance Sergeant Władysław Jacek Prytyś, a Polish Army photographer, was able to chronicle the withdrawal to La Rochelle and on Alderpool, in a collection of images now in the Imperial War Museum.
Polish troops of the 4th Infantry Division standing in an assembly point in Ancenis, before their evacuation. The evacuation of that particular unit began on 16 June 1940 in Ancenis till 19 June 1940 when they reached La Rochelle to be evacuated on the British steam merchant ship SS Alderpool. Note their uniforms of the French mountain infantry, the famed “Blue Devils” of the Chasseurs Alpins. The French had already equipped a similar outfit, the newly formed Polish Independent Podhalan Rifles Brigade (Samodzielna Brygada Strzelców Podhalańskich) under Brig. Gen Zygmunt Szyszko-Bohusz, which fought in Norway. IWM (HU 109715)
Retreating Polish units on board a train on the way to an evacuation point in the port of La Rochelle after the collapse of French defenses during the German invasion of France. IWM (HU 109739)
Long line of lorries, crammed full of Polish soldiers, standing room only, on the way to an evacuation point in the port of La Rochelle after the collapse of French defenses during the German invasion of France. IWM (HU 109741)
Same as the above, displaying the desperation on the faces of men who had already fought the Germans in their homeland and were looking at being on the losing side of the Fall of France, yet still hopeful to make it to England to continue fighting. IWM (HU 109740)
Lance Sergeant Władysław Prytyś is looking out for German ships while one of his colleagues is scanning the sky with a French FM 24/29 light machine gun for enemy planes. Photograph taken on board the British steam merchant ship SS Alderpool on the way to Plymouth. IWM (HU 109750)
Mass of soldiers of various allied armies and civilians being evacuated on board the British steam merchant ship SS Alderpool on the way to Plymouth. IWM (HU 109744)
A Polish Officer, still in a prewar uniform, and a Polish Air Force pilot standing by a 3-inch deck gun and .303 Vickers MG on board the British steam merchant ship SS Alderpool on the way to Plymouth. IWM (HU 109745)
Polish soldiers with national eagles on their French uniform berets checking a map while being evacuated on board the British steam merchant ship SS Alderpool on the way to Plymouth. SS Alderpool left the French port of La Pallice in La Rochelle on 19 June 1940 to reach Plymouth on 22 June 1940. IWM (HU 109743)
A cigarette-smoking Polish soldier loading a French MAS-36 rifle on board the British steam merchant ship SS Alderpool on the way to Plymouth. An old 3-inch deck gun is visible in the background, and a French FM 24/29 light machine gun on the right, mounted as an anti-aircraft weapon. IWM (HU 109748)
Once ashore in Plymouth, the Poles were rushed to Scotland to rest up and change uniforms, again, this time into British kit. The 4th Infantry, after contributing to the defense of the British Isles, should Operation Sea Dragon occur, never did make it to full strength.
Many of its men wound up in the 1st (Polish) Independent Parachute Brigade (1. Samodzielna Brygada Spadochronowa) in September 1941, originally with the idea that they would be dropped into German-occupied Poland at some point.
Paratroopers of the 1st Independent Polish Parachute Brigade adjusting their parachutes before taking off. IWM (MH 1965)
Instead, Sosoboski, as a British brigadier, led them back to the continent in September 1944 for the “Bridge too far” that was Operation Market Garden, suffering 25 percent casualties.
Sosoboski, portrayed by the great Gene Hackman (albeit with the worst Polish accent imaginable) in 1977’s A Bridge Too Far, passed a decade before the film’s release. He died in London, exiled from his homeland, having spent his last years as an assembly line worker in an automobile factory. However, his remains were installed in a military cemetery in Warsaw with honor.
As for Alderpool, she was lost on 3 April 1941, southwest of Reykjavik, while part of convoy SC-26, torpedoed by U-73 (Helmut Rosenbaum) and sent to the bottom slowly via a pair of G7es. Gratefully, instead of 4,000 Allied troops aboard, all that was lost was a cargo of grain. Her full crew and gunners were picked up by another steamer in the convoy and landed in Scotland.
Her master, Tom Valentine Frank, had earned an OBE and the Polish Cross of Valour (Krzyz Walecznych) for his work in helping save the Poles. Sadly, Capt. Frank would not be as lucky on his final command, the steamer SS Ashby, which was sunk in November 1941 by U-43 (Wolfgang Luth).
Between February 22 and 28 1951, Haiduong (French Indochina, now Vietnam).
Elements of the locally recruited Bataillon de Marche Indochinois (BMI) advance through rice paddies during Operation Marécages. During this operation, the search of villages (Le Thon, Hong Tien, Phung Do, and Phung Xa) allowed the capture of Viet Minh partisans who had hidden in underground hiding places and shelters.
Note the mix of French and British kit, the nonchalantly carried 43-pound 60mm Brandt Mle 1935 light mortar (including very local footwear), and MAS-36 7.5mm rifle.
Ref.: TONK 51-28 R31, Guy Defives/ECPAD/Defense
The BMI was formed in January 1948 as the Annamite Bataillon, largely from the remnants of the five assorted Tirailleurs Indochinois regiments that dated to the 1880s and had fought against the Germans in WWI then the Japanese and Thais in WWII.
The five regiments of Tirailleurs Indochinois fought in numerous campaigns across Southeast Asia between 1880 and 1947 including forming 27 rifle battalions during the Great War, several of which fought in Europe.
Note the black beret, a standard headgear for the unit, complete with its distinctive dragon and anchor badge. (Bataillon de Marche Indochinois (BMI) advance through rice paddies during Operation Marécages. )
Based south of the Tonkin Delta, theirs was a war of sharp actions among the rice fields and brown water.
Once the Geneva Accords went through in 1954, the BMI was disbanded and many of its members– who had elected to remain in the French Army rather than join the ARVN– joined the 1st battalion of the 43e Régiment dInfanterie de Coloniale (43e RIC), bound for service in Algeria.
