Category Archives: man card

Not Quite Cryptids

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It happened 70 years ago this week, 16 May 1955.

Official caption, “Japanese Army Pfc. Kaichiro Eguchi is pictured in Canlubang Army Headquarters (in Calamba, Laguna), after his long overdue surrender to a U.S. Army detachment in the Philippines. He came out of a jungle hideout nine years after the end of the war. He wore a suit he had woven from hemp, coconut shell, and other materials, and carried a still usable Japanese army rifle.”

The good private would not be the last of the holdouts (zanryū nipponhei). 

Seaman Noboru Kinoshita captured (and promptly self-terminated) the following November in Luzon.

Four Japanese airmen surrendered to the Dutch on Hollandia in late 1955.

Nine soldiers threw in the towel on Morotai and another four on Mindoro in 1956.

Pvt. Bunzō Minagawa and Sgt. Masashi Itō walked out of the bush in Guam in 1960.

Sgt. Shoichi Yokoi also gave up in Guam in 1972.

PFC Kinshichi Kozuka was killed in a shootout with Filipino police in 1972.

LT Hiroo Onoda surrendered in Lubang in March 1974.

Pvt. Teruo Nakamura— the last confirmed holdout– turned himself in to an Indonesian Air Force patrol on Morotai just before Christmas 1974, 29 years after WWII ended.

Of course, sightings and unconfirmed reports endured from Kolombangara to Luzon as late as 2005, making unreconstructed Japanese soldiers something of the cryptids of the Southwestern Pacific jungle for a half-century.

Supero

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Sergeant Pilot F. H. Dean of No. 274 Squadron RAF examines belts of .303 ammunition before they are installed in his Hurricane at Sidi Barrani, Egypt, circa early 1941.

IWM (CM 868)

In the background, one of the groundcrews attaches a trolley accumulator to Hawker Hurricane Mark I, P2638, sporting the yellow lightning flash emblem (later changed to blue) which became 274 Squadron’s unofficial insignia at about this time.

F/Sgt Frank Henry Dean, 565551, RAF, MID, was shot down and killed on 15 May 1941, age 26, when his section of Hurricanes fought with Messerschmitt Bf 109s near Halfaya at the start of Operation Brevity.

As for No. 274 Squadron, it later upgraded to Spitfire IX Fs for air defense over England before switching to the Hawker Tempest Mk V to engage V-1s after August 1944. The squadron was disbanded in September 1945. Its motto is Supero (“I overcome”).

British Army to stand up Gurkha Artillery

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The Staff Captain, Captain Tom Mountain inspects every detail during the inspection of The Queen's Own Gurkha Logistic Regiment.

The Staff Captain, Captain Tom Mountain, inspects every detail during the inspection of The Queen’s Own Gurkha Logistic Regiment, 2019, MoD photo.

Currently, around 4,000 Nepalese Gurkhas serve in six dedicated units across a range of roles in the British Army, a time-honored and unbroken tradition that dates back to 1814.

Those units include the Queen’s Gurkha Signals, the two-battalion (and three separate companies attached to the Ranger Regiment) Royal Gurkha Rifles, the Queen’s Gurkha Engineers, the 10th Queen’s Own Gurkha Logistic Regiment, the Gurkha Allied Rapid Reaction Corps Support Battalion, and the British Gurkhas Nepal (BGN).

Stemming from the PM’s promise to raise defense spending to 2.5% of GDP, the MOD announced the new King’s Gurkha Artillery (KGA), the first new British Gurkha unit in 14 years.

The 400-member unit will start filling slots in November, and recruits will likely be easy to find. Approximately 10,000 to 20,000 Nepali men eagerly compete for a position in the British Army’s Brigade of Gurkhas every year. Only a few hundred, typically between 200 and 320, are selected to begin training. That’s usually 30 or so candidates for every slot. They have an extremely low wash-out rate.

As noted by MOD:

As part of the new offer for Gurkha soldiers, and in recognition of the demands of modern warfare, personnel who join the KGA will be trained on advanced equipment, including the Archer and Light Gun artillery systems. In the future they will also train on the remote-controlled Howitzer 155 artillery system.

The Gurkha Museum points out that the cheerful little warriors from Nepal have long had arty units, and of course, the RGR has integral “foot artillery” in the form of L16A2 81mm mortars and NLAW, et. al.

Smokin pic

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It happened 60 years ago today.

Official period caption: “The shadow of a U.S. Navy photograph reconnaissance jet passes near a burning Communist Vietnamese PT boat after it was blasted by U.S. Seventh Fleet aircraft from aircraft carriers USS Midway (CV 41) and USS Hancock (CV 19). This was one of the five PT boats destroyed by U.S. Navy aircraft on April 28, 1965. The boats were spotted in the Song Giang River near the Quang Khe Naval Base (located some 50 miles north of the 17th Parallel) despite heavy camouflage. A total of 58 Navy aircraft (28 strike and 30 support types) took part in the day-long attack. All were recovered safely.”

330-PSA-81-65 (USN 711478)

The silhouette is unmistakably that of a Crusader, making it either from Hancock’s embarked CVW-21’s Light Photographic Squadron (VFP) 63 Det. L or Midway’s CVW-2’s VFP-63 Det A, both of which flew RF-8A photo birds during that time.

While not made in big numbers (just 144 constructed), the RF-8A was key in Cold War history, playing a critical role during the Cuban Missile Crisis spotting Russian missile sites. In 1957, five years before becoming the first man to orbit the Earth, Marine Major John Herschel Glenn Jr. made the first supersonic transcontinental flight in “Project Bullet,” a photo Crusader, cruising from California to New York in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 8.3 seconds, averaging 725.55mph. It would have been faster had he not had to slow for three aerial refuelings. Glenn’s on-board camera likewise took the first continuous, transcontinental panoramic photograph of the United States.

For what it is worth, postwar analysis shows that the Vietnam People’s Navy lost three Chinese-supplied Type 55A (NATO Shantou or “Swatow” class) gunboats on 28 April 1968 at Song Gianh, South Vietnam: T-161, T-163, and T-173. Two others, though roughed up a bit by Navy air and follow-on strikes by USAF F-105 Thunderchief, were able to limp away to fight another day. The 82-foot steel-hulled diesel-powered boats were based on the Soviet P-6 class (Project 183) PT boats (which themselves were based on American-built Elco and Higgins mosquito boats delivered to Uncle Joe during WWII via Lend-lease), but only carried guns and depth charges, not torpedoes and were notable for their involvement in the Gulf of Tonkin incident in August 1964.

Just in case things get rowdy

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50 years ago today.

Official period caption, 1st Marine Brigade aboard the carrier USS Hancock (CV-19) on 28 April 1975. Operation Frequent Wind. “Sgt. M.C. Murdock, assigned as a side gunner in one of the CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters of Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 463 (HMH-463) onboard the USS Hancock, poses beside the .50 caliber machine gun prior to flying into Saigon for evacuation exercises.”

Marine Photo A150915 (091-0850-86-75) by: GySgt.D.L.Sbearer, via NARA 127-GVB-279-A150915

Founded originally as a SBD bombing squadron (VMB-463) in 1944, by 1966 HMH-463 was reborn hard as a CH-53 unit and not only served in Frequent Wind– the evacuation of Saigon– but also in Eagle Pull, the evac of Phnom Penh two weeks prior.  

The number of fleeing refugees they could pack on a CH-53, once the gloves were off and pressure on, was amazing, as retold by retired Sgt. Maj. Michael G. Zacker:

“Our 53s were picking up 60 (evacuees). On our second load, we took on three sticks since we had no problem with 60, so then we had 90 aboard. On the third flight, we still had room on the ramp, and so we waved the CIA guy to have him send another stick. With a six-man crew and about 120 passengers, we left the DAO compound just east of Saigon for the Hancock at sea.”

HMH-463, flying CH-53s to the last, was decommissioned on 22 April 2022 as part of the Marines’ “divest to invest” budget cuts to fund the Marine Littoral Regiments.

Aitape Triple Canopy

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80 years ago this week: 26-year-old Australian Army Private Rosslyn Frederick Gaudry (Service Number: NX94822) of 2/3rd Infantry Battalion, 16th Brigade, 6th Division “watches his sector with his Owen submachine gun in a forward observation pit at Kalimboa Village” in Aitape, Wewak, New Guinea, 26 April 1945.

Australian War Memorial AWM 091259

Raised for WWII at Victoria Barracks, Sydney on 24 October 1939, 2/3 Aust. Inf. Battalion A.I.F. sailed from Sydney just 11 weeks later for North Africa and disembarked in Egypt on 14 February 1940. Fighting first against the Italians in Libya in early 1941, they were sent to the fiasco in Greece then evacuated to Palestine where they fought the French in July 1941 then remained here until March 1942 as a garrison force. Returned to Australia, they were soon fighting along the Kokoda Trail and would remain in and around the green hell of New Guinea until the end of the war. The battalion left 207 of its men on the Roll of Honour, earned boxes of decorations (4 DSO; 16 MC; 12 DCM; 30 MM; 2 BEM; 73 MID), and 16 battle honours stretching from Tobruk to Mount Olympus to Damascus and Kokoda.

As for the very haggard Pte. Gaudry shown above, he was born in Gulgong, New South Wales in 1918 the son of George Henry Gaudry and Maude Gaudry (nee: Lyons). He enlisted in the Australian Army on 10 April 1942 in Paddington, Kandos, NSW and served in 2/3 Bn across New Guinea from the Owen Stanley Mountain Range along the Kokoda Track to the Aitape-Wewak Campaign.

Discharged from service on 4 October 1946, he returned to NSW and became a salesman. Married to Joan May Gloede in 1953, Gaudry passed at age 61 on New Year’s Eve 1979 in Homebush, Australia.

He is buried in the New South Wales Garden of Remembrance in Rookwood.

Mindanao Doughboys

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It happened 80 years ago today.

Infantry troops of Company B, 19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry “Victory” Division, marching towards the Mindanao River in pursuit of Japanese forces retreating near the Fort Pikit Ferry, Mindanao Island, Philippines. 22 April 1945. During the PI campaign, the 19th carried the radio call sign “Doughboy.”

Photographer: Pfc. Mack Gould. Signal Corps SC 270579

A closer look at the above image shows that every third or fourth man in the columns are local Philippine guerrilla force, often barefoot and very ill-clad, serving apparently as porters. Make no mistake, though, the Filipino forces got plenty of action in 1945 and were increasingly better outfitted.

As for the 19th Infantry (Regulars who earned the title “Rock of Chickamauga” during the Civil War), they had fought at Hollandia for months before landing at Leyte with as part of  X Corps of the Sixth Army in October 1944, with the regiment’s 2nd battalion the unsung “Lost Battalion” of WWII.

As the rest of their division moved up the Leyte valley, the 19th was carved off and assigned to the Western Visayan Task Force, landing at San Jose on Mindoro on 15 December 1944. They then assaulted Romblon Island and Simara Island in March 1945 before moving onto Mindanao in April.

Following a half-decade of garrison duty in the PI, in 1950, they would see much service in Korea during that war, keeping their “Doughboy” call sign.

19 September 1950. L-R: M/Sgt. Albert R. Charleton, Salem, Ill., and 1st Lt. Harry J. Lumani, Cumberland, Md., both of the 19th Inf. Regt., 24th Div., put up welcome sign for the newly-arrived Philippines combat troops at Pusan, Korea. SC 348885

Part of TRADOC today at Fort Benning, the colors of the 19th Infantry are decorated with the streamers of 30 campaigns, and the regiment has participated with distinction in 86 battles and engagements. Eight of those streamers are for Korea, while nine are from the Philippines including three for WWII (Leyte, Luzon, Southern Philippines) and six for the 1899-1901 Insurrection.

Willpower, self-discipline, and perseverance

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New soldiers and officers from the Royal Swedish Navy’s Stockholm Amphibious Regiment (amfibieregemente) recently completed their annual Övning Amfibie, a final exam of sorts for the regiment. A small coastal defense force, just 850 strong, you have to earn your place.

It is a grueling three-phase (combat obstacle course, fast march and amphibious exercise) evolution held over four days that allows only six hours of sleep (not in a row), 80 km of marching– of which about 40 km is with a 50 kilo 120L pack– water crossings through icy water, dozens of of skills stations, and few meals (none warm) all under constant precipitation (April is rainy in the Baltics) followed by nightly sub-freezing temperatures.

Those participating finish as a group or not at all.

Photos: Bezav Mahmod/Försvarsmakten

 

Joker’s Wild

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It happened 80 years ago today.

Mindanao Operations, Philippines, 1945. Original period Kodachrome. Official caption: “PT boats speed through Polloc Harbor, Mindanao, while supporting landings there, 17 April 1945.”

The boat in the background appears to be PT-150. Note the twin .50cal machine gun in the foreground and 40mm/60 Bofors single over the stern.

NARA 80-G-K-4342 via NHHC

An 80-foot Elco boat, PT-150 (dubbed at various times by her crew as Lady Lucifer, Princessr, and Joker) was built by EB in Bayonne in 1942 and shipped to the Southwest Pacific to join Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron EIGHT (MTBRon 8). After seeing action in New Guinea- they fired a torpedo that missed the Japanese submarine I-17 but managed to strafe the conning tower with .50 cal before it submerged- the mosquito boat became part of MTBRon 12, a squadron that earned a Presidential Unit Citation.

Following operations in the Philippines, she was burned along with dozens of her type there in Samar in October 1945.

Rock and Roll

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A U.S. Navy Patrol Boat, Riverine (PBR) crewman mans his twin M2 Browning .50 caliber machine gun mount as the craft patrols the Vung Tau River in Vietnam on 14 April 1966, “in anticipation of trouble with the Vietcong.” Note the alternating mix of M20 red-over-silver-tipped armor-piercing incendiary tracer (API-T), silver-tipped M8 AP-I, and M1 incendiary (light-blue tipped) ammo in his belts.

Journalist First Class Ernest Filtz Photographer, NARA – K-31263

While the war of a million sorties from Yankee Station gets the most attention from Navy historians, the “Brown Water Navy” of the River Patrol Force and Mobile Riverine Force on Operation Market Time and Operation Game Warden involved the efforts of more than 30,000 Bluejackets and deserves to be remembered.

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