Category Archives: military art

The Flotsam of History

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In early February 1807, in Prussian Silesia, French Field Marshal Michel Ney’s cavalry clashed with mounted elements of Russian Lt. Gen. Karl Gustav von Baggovut’s column in the snow outside of the small village of Waltersmühl, causing Gen. Pyotr Bagration to send reinforcements to Bagavout’s aid, and a constant running combat was kept up until nightfall when the Russians withdrew in good order.

It was a nightmarish day of cavalry charge and counter-charge, sans the boorish interference of artillery and infantry. A day of lances and sabers. Horses, steel, and leather. Death the old-fashioned way, with lots of elan and honor. 

The indecisive skirmish, which left Baggovut seriously wounded with a French lance splinter in his chest, was one of the opening actions of what would be remembered as the great pyrrhic Battle of Eylau— which itself saw some of the greatest massed cavalry charges in history.

Fast forward to 1945 and the Russians were back during the tail-end of WWII, this time under a Red Banner, and occupied Waltersmühl. Soon after the war, the region became part of Poland and today Waltersmühl is known as Konradowo.

Last week, during the renovation of an old building in the village, workers discovered three firearms and 403 assorted cartridges concealed inside an attic floor. The guns included a bolt-action Mauser 98K, a Beretta 38 submachine gun, and a Sturmgewehr 44, the latter with three magazines.

Cue the “Jesus, I’ve seen what you’ve done for other people” memes:

The guns were likely stashed “just in case” near the tail-end of WWII when the Soviet Red Army was steamrolling through the area on its way to Berlin.

The fact that the guns were never retrieved although Russian troops only left Poland after 1993, may point to the possibility that the individual who created the cache did not survive the initial stages of the occupation, or was deported soon after the change in flags.

Odds are, if you dig in the garden behind the house, you may find a saber or lance points. 

Warwickshire Cuckoos

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Some 85 years ago this week, the regulars of 2 Battalion, the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, part of the 2nd Infantry Division, British Expeditionary Force, drill in their snow-covered trench near Rumegies, Northern France on 22 January 1940 during the eight-month “Phoney War” or “Sitzkrieg” period between the fall of Poland and the invasion of France.

Note the Great War-era “tin plate” Mk. I Brodie helmets and Short, Magazine Lee-Enfield Rifle No.1 Mk IIIs, items very familiar to the trench life in France.

Photo by Leslie Buxton Davies and Stanley Hedley Kessell, War Office official photographers, IWM F 2212.

And seen the same day in platoon formation in the snow, complete with Bren guns, gas mask chest bags, and at least a few men wearing sleeveless leather jerkins, another Great War throwback:

Drink in that Pattern 37 kit. Men of the 2nd Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment on parade in the snow at Rumegies, 22 January 1940. Photo by Leslie Buxton Davies and Stanley Hedley Kessell, War Office official photographers, F 2207.

And how about this gem, taken the same place and date:

2nd Battalion, the Warwickshire Regiment sniper in a tree taking aim with his rifle. 22nd January 1940.

The above lads saw much action in May 1940, with several of their men massacred at Wormhoudt after being captured by the Waffen SS, but managed to evacuate at Dunkirk, sans anything that couldn’t be carried while swimming. Dedicated to the defense of England until the time was right, they came back to France with lots of friends in June 1944 and fought across Belgium and Holland to Germany.

Raised in 1673 as an ad-hoc force and made official in 1685 as the 6th Regiment of Foot, the Warwickshires were reliable campaigners and earned no less than 15 honors ranging from Namur to Niagara and Corunna to Khartoum before picking up another ~70 during the Great War, the latter so high due to the fact that they had raised 31 battalions for the fight against the Kaiser.

Recruiting poster, 5th Battalion, The Royal Warwickshire Regiment, c1905, via NAM

In WWII service, the Warwickshires still managed to raise 11 battalions and earned 16 honors (Defence of Escaut, Wormhoudt, Ypres-Comines Canal, Normandy Landing, Caen, Bourguébus Ridge, Mont Pincon, Falaise, Venraij, Rhineland, Lingen, Brinkum, Bremen, North-West Europe 1940 ’44–45, Burma 1945).

Post-war, they were amalgamated several times until the traditions of the unit were handed down to the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers in 1968, with their current RHQ in the Tower of London.

Today they field an active duty armored infantry battalion (1st) equipped with Warriors while a TA unit, (5th bn) is equipped as light infantry.

Floating History

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Great comparison of old vs. new, bookends of the service, so to speak.

Here we see the 210-foot Reliance class USCGC Venturous (WMEC 625), outboard of the 418-foot Legend (Bertholf) class USCGC Hamilton (WMSL 753), at a rendezvous at sea, 21 November 2024, in the Eastern Pacific Ocean while in support of Joint Interagency Task Force – South. Both notably have MH-65C Dolphins of the Coast Guard’s Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron (HITRON) squadron aboard, and are East/Gulf Coast-based cutters deployed a few thousand miles from home.

(U.S. Coast Guard photo 21-2024-241121-g-g0100-1002)

For reference, Venturous, based in St. Petersburg, Florida, was commissioned on 12 September 1968, making her 56 years young!

Meanwhile, Hamilton— the sixth cutter (after circa 1830, 1871, 1921, 1937, and 1967 vessels) to bear the name of the first secretary of the treasury and the “father of the Coast Guard”– is based in Charleston, South Carolina and commissioned 6 December 2014.

Cold Canuks

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80 years ago today. Infantrymen of the French-Canadian Régiment de la Chaudière, who are wearing British winter camouflage clothing, on patrol, Bergendal, Netherlands, 24 January 1945. This is either a training course or a unit’s sniper section. The rifles are No.4 Mk.I (T) or No.4 Mk.I* (T). Equipped with No. 32 scopes.

(L-R): Sergeants R.A. Wilkinson and René Letendre, Lieutenant Pierre-Paul Elie, Corporal W. Arsenault and Private Jean-Paul Drouin. Department of National Defence. Library and Archives Canada, PA-137987 by Lieut. Barney J. Gloster

Formed as a reserve unit in 1869, the regiment sailed for Britain in July 1941 and garrisoned the islands until landed on Juno Beach at Bernières-sur-Mer, France, on D-Day, 6 June 1944, from HMCS Prince David and fought their way across Northwest Europe over the next 10 months as part of the 8th Infantry Brigade, 3rd Canadian Infantry Division.

Private Jack Roy of Le Régiment de la Chaudière preparing to disembark from HMCS Prince David off Bernières-sur-Mer, France, 6 June 1944. Note the No. 38 field wireless set across his chest, E-tool slung over his shoulder, helmet skrim, and wrapped Enfield. PD-371 LAC 3396561

An unidentified infantryman of Le Régiment de la Chaudière, 8th Infantry Brigade, 3rd Canadian Infantry Division, preparing to disembark from HMCS Prince David off the Normandy beachhead, France, 6 June 1944. Note that his Enfield is in a protective plastic bag. PD-360. LAC 3202207

They earned 19 battle honors for their time in Europe.

Still on the Canadian rolls, as a reserve unit, they are garrisoned in Levis, Quebec.

Floating Dispensary

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Some 70 years ago. With her 5″/38 hood ornament up front, the white-hulled 255-foot Oswego-class USCGC Klamath (WPG-66, later WHEC-66) is shown winning hearts and minds while on her inaugural Being Sea Patrol in the late summer of 1955.

USCG Photo. NARA 26-G-5700. National Archives Identifier 205573861

Official period caption:

Anchored off Unalakleet, Alaska, under a late summer sky, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Klamath (WPG-66) prepares for the health mission phase of the 1955 Bering Sea Patrol. To the locals living here, she delivers the annually awaited medical and dental services, not readily had in this region. In serving here as a floating dispensary, the Klamath assisted the Territorial Department of Health and the Alaska Native Service in their health program for natives in isolated areas. Aboard the Klamath, Public Health Service officers attached to the Coast Guard, Thomas W. Dixon, surgeon, and Fred Abramson, dentist, dispensed treatments from modernly equipped medical and dental offices.

During her four months of work on the patrol, just recently completed, the Klamath stopped at villages in the Aleutian chain, Pribilof Island, Nunivak, St. Lawrence, and others along the main coastline as far as Wainwright near the top of Alaska. Lieut. Commander Gerhard K. Kels, USCG, commanded the 255-foot cutter and acted as roving commissioner. A crew of 14 officers and 115 enlisted men manned the ship for the patrol.

Arriving at her homeport in Seattle, before the Arctic sun began hibernating, the Klamath became one of many cutters that have been familiar and welcome sight to natives along the 26,000-mile coast of Alaska since its purchase in 1867. This was the Klamath’s first Bering Sea Patrol.

(The main U.S. Coast Guard functions performed by the Klamath on the annually conducted Bering Sea Patrol consisted of law enforcement duties. The cutter also furnished supplies, exchange services, equipment, medical and dental aid to Coast Guard men at installations along the way. In addition, the Klamath accommodated other government services in whatever way possible, such as assisting in the health program for Alaskan natives.)

Built during the tail-end of WWII at the Western Pipe & Steel Co., San Pedro, to replace cutters that had been given by FDR to the Royal Navy in 1940, Klamath was homeported at Seattle her entire career from 19 June 1946 to 1 May 1973, during which she frequently pulled Bering Sea Patrols.

She also got some trigger time in, spending 10.5 months deployed with CGRON Three off Vietnam from 14 May 1969 to 31 January 1970.

Klamath was decommissioned on 1 May 1973 and was sold for scrap on 18 November 1974.

Brown Water C-rat Can Assist

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Official caption: “Mekong Delta, Republic of Vietnam. US Navy Gunner’s Mate Third Class Barry Johnson returns enemy fire with the M-60 machine gun on board his US Navy River Patrol Boat (PBR). The enemy opened fire on the PBR as it moved along a canal near Tan Dinh Island during Operation Bold Dragon III, 26 March 1968.”

U.S. Navy Photo 428GX-K46404

Note the C-ration can used to keep the ammo belt in line without an assistant gunner, a common hack in Vietnam.

There is also another from the same angle.

U.S. Navy Photo 428GX-K46403

Note the locally-made River Div 532 (Navy River Division Five Three Two) patch, a PBR group of 10 boats that typically worked from moored gator mother ship USS Harnett County (LST-821) in the Mekong Delta.

Marolda and Dunnavent mention 532 at least twice in their work on the Brown Water Navy, most notably in this section, covering operations in Feb. 1969’s Operation Giant Slingshot on the Vam Co Dong River:

River Division 532 commanded by Lieutenant George Stefencavage was one of the most successful units in Giant Slingshot. Between 8 February and 4 April, the PBR unit killed more than 100 of the enemy while suffering the loss of two PBRs and four Sailors. Stefencavage and over half of the men in his command were wounded during the period. On 28 February, in a typical action, the PBRs surprised and dispersed a Viet Cong ambush force but then took heavy fire from another position nearby. Without hesitation, Stefancavage, even though he was already wounded in several places, led his command against the threat and silenced the remaining guerrillas. The Navy awarded him a Silver Star for his bravery.

CDR Stefencavage (Moorhead ROTC ’52) retired from the Navy in 1984, with his last command being the XO at Philadelphia Naval Base. He passed in 1990.

Getting Greasy

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Just 40 years ago this week.

Official caption: “Private First Class (PFC) Jose Ledoux-Garcia of Company C, 5th Battalion, 77th Armor, guards his M60A3 main battle tank during Central Guardian, a phase of Exercise REFORGER ’85. He is armed with an M3A1 .45-caliber submarine gun. Base: Giessen, West Germany (FRG), 22 January 1985.”

How about that open bolt on the M3! Note the short receiver M85/T175 (M19) .50 caliber machine gun in the tank commander’s copula, as identified by its crimped flash hider. It was distinctive for being one of the most unreliable machine guns ever adopted by the U.S. DF-ST-85-13234

It is hard to believe that only 40 short years ago, M60 Pattons and M3 Grease Guns were still on the front lines of the Fulda Gap. Both would linger on through Desert Storm.

As for the “Steel Tigers” of the 77th Armor, formed originally as the 753rd Medium Tank Battalion on 25 April 1941, they trained at three different bases in the south that have all been renamed since then and, receiving their first M4A1 Shermans in early 1943, shipped out for North Africa attached to the 45th Infantry (“Thunderbird”) Division.

Just missing the end of the Afrika Corps in Tunisia, they were soon fighting in Sicily (Operation Husky) under Patton’s command and their tanks spearheaded the first Allied unit into Messina, losing six tanks to 28 enemy tracks claimed. They fought for Naples and Rome, earned a French Croix de Guerre for the liberation of the Vosage in 1944, and continued on into Germany through the Ardennes and the Rhineland for VE-Day.

The Sherman-equipped 753rd fought in Sicily, Naples-Foggia, Rome-Arno, Southern France, Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, and Central Europe, typically in platoon and company-sized elements spread out through the 45th ID. 

Post-war, they were redesignated as the Japan-based 77th Heavy Tank Battalion, equipped with M-26s and M4A4E8s, and saw much service in Korea, earning six campaign streamers with the 7th ID.

Then came eight campaigns in Vietnam with M48s in 1969-70, equipped with M60s, continued Cold War service first with the 5th ID and then with the 4th ID, including deployments back to Germany.

Eventually upgrading to the M1 Abrams, they deployed to Bosnia and Kosovo, then moved heavily from Schweinfurt, Germany in 2004, 2006, 2009, 2011, and 2012 to the sandbox in support of the 1st Infantry Division and then the 1st Armored Division.

They are one of the few Army armor units to carry a Navy Unit Commendation, on the recommendation of the Marine Corps Commandant, earned during Operation Iraqi Freedom VI-VIII in support of I MEF.

Today, the Steel Tigers remain as part of the 1st ID’s 3rd BCT at sunny Fort Bliss, Texas, but, in true globetrotter fashion, they are currently on a rotational deployment to Poland, getting some snow time in.

Their official unit motto is Insiste Firmiter (To Stand Firm) and their battle cry is “Blood on the Axe” for obvious reasons.

Gunfighter!

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Sailors work on NP-441 (BuNo 147011), a Vought F-8C Crusader (originally F8U), aboard the Essex-class carrier USS Hancock (CVA 19) during the ship’s 1965 West Pac deployment to Vietnam. Note the open panel showing the feed chute for the starboard pair of the F-8’s four Colt-Browning Mark 12 autocannons. Capable of firing 1,000 rounds per minute per gun, an F-8 only carried 144 rounds per gun, giving the Crusader just nine seconds worth of joy.

Photo courtesy of Stan Swanigan via U.S. Navy in the Vietnam War

As detailed by Baugher, 147011 entered the fleet in 1963 with the “Fighting Red Checkertails” of Fighter Squadron (VF) 24, first as NE-453, then as NP-441. She was lost 60 years ago today, 13 January 1965, while trying to trap on Hancock when her tailhook broke and the aircraft slid into the sea. The pilot ditched safely and was rescued by a Navy helicopter.

The Checkertails became one of the Navy’s first “Ace” squadrons during Vietnam, with its aviators downing five confirmed enemy MiGs (two on 19 May 1967 and three on 21 July 1967)– using a combination of Sidewinders and 20mm cannons. That’s almost a third of the 18 F-8 air-to-air victories over Southeast Asia.

  • Lt Phil Wood: MIG-17, 19 May 1967
  • LCDR Bobby Lee: MIG-17, 19 May 1967
  • CDR Marion Isaacks: MIG-17, 21 July 1967
  • LTJG Phil Dempewolf: MIG-17, 21 July 1967
  • LCDR Robert Kirkwood: MIG-17, 21 July 1967

VF-24 Fighting Checkertails F-8 Crusaders flying a diamond formation NP wing

F-8 Crusaders VF-24 Checkertails and VF-211 Checkmates of CVW-21USS Hancock (CVA 19) Western Pacific circa 1970

Later transitioning to Tomcats in 1977 and renaming the squadron as the “Fighting Renegades,” VF-24 was disestablished on 31 August 1996.

The Danes want Joseph Conrad Back

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Built in 1882 by Burmeister & Wain, København, specifically for the Stiftelsen Georg Stages Minde foundation (which is still around) to be employed as a sailing schoolship, the 111-foot long, 400 ton Georg Stages was a small ship for high seas mercantile service to be sure, but she was very accommodating and perfect for use in training as many as 80 cadets at a time, stretching 10,000 sq. ft. of sail as she went.

Georg Stage I forlader København ca. år 1890.

After a 50-year career in which she reportedly trained more than 4,000 young men in the art of working aloft while underway, Georg Stages was sold to an Australian author and adventurer who renamed her Josef Conrad.

Changing hands and in bad shape, her third owner donated the aging three master to the U.S. Maritime Commission in 1939 and USMSTS Joseph Conrad helped train more than 25,000 merchant sailors in the art of seamanship during WWII.

US Navy SNJ Texan training aircraft making a low-level pass near a three-masted sailing ship Joseph Conrad, built in 1882, photo taken in 1942.

In the hands of Mystic Seaport since 1947, by an act of Congress, Conrad is still around and looks good but hasn’t been to sea in generations. However, they warn that her days may be limited.

That could change as a group in Denmark has three goals for the old girl:

  • Secure Joseph Conrad ex Georg Stage for posterity.
  • Bring the ship back to Denmark and put it in a seaworthy condition.
  • Find a purpose where the ship can once again provide assistance in the public interest.

Also is the possibility, once back in Copenhagen, that she will become the only sailing ship that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

What amazing times…

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100 years ago this month. Drawing of the USS Shenandoah (ZR-1) from the January 1925 issue of The National Geographic Magazine. With a 25-man crew, the airship was designed to carry a half-dozen .30 caliber Lewis machine guns and eight 500-pound bombs.

The first rigid airship to be designed and built by the United States Navy, Shenandoah was designed by the Bureau of Aeronautics; fabricated at the Naval Aircraft Factory, in Philadelphia, and assembled at the Naval Air Station, Lakehurst, the latter famous for being the site of the “Oh the Humanity,” Hindenburg disaster in 1937.

While not filled with flammable hydrogen, the 680-foot-long Shenandoah suffered a disaster all her own just 23 months into her career as a floating battleship of the air.

Via DANFS:

On 2 September 1925, Shenandoah departed Lakehurst on a flight to the Middle West for training and to test a new mooring mast at Dearborn, Michigan. While passing through an area of thunderstorms and turbulence over Ohio early in the morning of the 3rd, the airship was torn apart and crashed near Marietta. Shenandoah’s commanding officer, Cmdr. Zachary Lansdowne, and 13 other officers and men were killed. Twenty-nine survivors succeeded in riding three sections of the airship to Earth.

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