Category Archives: military art

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.

Looking back on the XM204 Swamp Howitzer

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Mark Struve over at the U.S. Army Sustainment Command delves into the time the Army wanted a pair of 105mm and 155mm howitzers capable of being used in swampy ground that was the consistency of bubble gum. These would be CH-47 capable, with two carried per lift. 

An artist’s rendering of the XM204 howitzer. The XM204 was designed to replace both the M101 and M102 howitzer. The XM204 was designed with two artillery size variants: 105- and 155-mm.

The XM204 underwent a large amount of testing. This took place on the ground and in the air. As one of the first soft-recoil systems, it was a prime candidate for airborne deployment.

Concept of a CH-47 in a gunship configuration for airborne artillery support. This drawing shows the carriage being stowed within the helicopter, allowing both XM204s on the winglets to be removed, placed on their carriages, and then ready to use on the ground.

The year was 1966, and for several years the Soldiers in Vietnam had been using the same howitzer that their fathers had used in World War II. The M101 (known in World War II as the M2) was a 105-mm howitzer that was known for its accuracy and destructive power. So, why, in the middle of a war in the jungle, was the Army changing these well-known and tried-and-true fire-breathing monsters with a lighter M102?

More here.

Fighting Bats

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“Training to Fight at Night” at Naval Air Station, Vero Beach, Florida, January 1945.

Official U.S. Navy photograph, 80-G-323891, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Starting in 1953 and running for decades, the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers trained in Vero Beach, earning the town the moniker of “Dodgertown” and their 110-acre complex was constructed on the grounds where Naval Aviators completed operational training during WWII, with the base dedicated primarily to night fighter training.

In all some 200,000 flight hours were logged at Vero Beach and much of the operations were performed by Navy WAVES and Woman Marines.

Air Control Center at Naval Air Station, Vero Beach, Florida, January 10, 1945. 80-G-323898 

The NAS was formed from the nascent Vero Beach Municipal Airport. Note the F6F.

Between 1943 and 1946, the Navy stood up at least 25 night fighter squadrons with the designation “VF(N)” along with at least seven Marine VMF(N) squadrons. Added to this were night attack squadrons– VT(N)– with radar-equipped TBM-3M Avengers.

This was over and above the USAAF’s own sweeping efforts to fight in the dark.

F6F-5N Hellcat night fighters of VMFN-541 on Peleliu Island, 1944.

This led to entire “night carrier” wings such as Night Light Carrier Air Group 41, CVLG(N)-41, which deployed to the Philippines and Okinawa on USS Independence in 1944-46.

This experience made possible the “Heckler” missions of Operations Moonlight Sonata and Insomnia in Korea.

Three F6F-5N Hellcats assigned to the Operational Training Unit at Naval Air Station (NAS) Vero Beach, Florida, pictured in formation during a training flight on December 23, 1944, NNAM photo

Placed in caretaker status in 1946, the abandoned Vero Beach complex would eventually be used, in addition to the Dodgers, in part by Piper Aircraft, and is still a regional airport. At least two WWII-era buildings survive.

Carrier Gunnery

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How about these great shots, taken 7 August 1976 over NAS North Island, California, of the new class-leading big deck phib USS Tarawa (LHA 1), and the carriers USS Coral Sea (CV-43) and USS Constellation (CV-64).

An aerial view of ships moored at Naval Air Station, North Island. They are, from left to right, the amphibious assault ship USS TARAWA (LHA 1), the aircraft carrier US CORAL SEA (CV 43), and the aircraft carrier USS CONSTELLATION (CV 64). (Substandard image)

These show good details– to include a mix of guns– on the Midway-class Coral Sea and Tarawa. Constellation, as a circa 1960s Kitty Hawk class flattop, was the first class of American fleet carriers going back to USS Langley (CV-1) in 1920, to not mount a single 5-incher.

The Midway class was originally designed to carry 18 long-barreled 5″/54 Mk 16 guns— originally designed for the Montana class battleships– along with a slew of 40mm (21 quad) and 20mm (28 twin) guns.

Coral Sea was seen with her 1947-57 14-gun 5-inch fit, via USS Coral Sea assoc. https://www.usscoralsea.net/shipsweapons.php

They subsequently downgraded by 1960 to just 10 5″/54s, four on the port side and six on the starboard side, while their smaller guns had been replaced by 11 twin-3-inch mountings in place of the former quadruple 40 mm mountings. This was dropped to just six 5″/54s by January 1960 and only three after 1966. Coral Sea and Midway lost their last 5-inchers in 1979/80 to pick up CIWS while middle sister FDR had already been retired by then.

For the record, the first Langley carried four 5″/51s in open mounts during her “covered wagon” period of carrier ops, the mighty USS Lexington (CV-2) and Saratoga (CV-3) toted eight heavy cruiser-worthy 8″/55 guns along with dozen 5″/25s, Ranger (CV-4) had eight 5″/25s, the three Yorktowns and the one-off USS Wasp (CV-7) had eight 5″/38 DPs, and the 24 Essex class fleet carriers had eight 5″/38s in twin turrets and another four in single open mounts.

USS Lexington (CV-2) showing off just a portion of her impressive gun fit. Both Lex and Sara would land their 8-inchers in 1942, with the Army going on to use them for coastal defense around Hawaii

While the Independence and Saipan-class light carriers had to make do with smaller guns, every one of the assorted escort carrier classes (Long Island, Charger, Bogue, Sangamon, Casablanca, and Commencement Bay) carried at least one or two 5-inch guns, with USS Kalinin Bay and White Plains credited with scoring hits on pursuing Japanese heavy cruisers off Samar in October 1944.

Testing 5-inch guns on the escort carrier USS Manila Bay (CVE 61) 3 November 1943. Note fuzed ready shells. 80-G-372778

So it made sense in the 1950s that the new Forrestal-class supercarriers carried eight new style Mk.42 5″/54 caliber mounts, the same style guns as in the Navy’s new DD and FF classes throughout the Cold War.

McDonnell F3H Demon on Forrestal-class USS Saratoga. Not the Mk 42 5 inch gun and S-2 Tracker.

A-3B Skywarrior coming aboard USS Independence note 5-inch guns on carrier

USS Ranger (CVA-61) test firing two of her eight 5-inch 54 Mark 42 guns during a practice drill in 1961.

Check out these 1960 profiles of Midway and Forrestal:

Of course, the Forrestals later had their troublesome 5-inchers removed in later updates, as did Midway and Coral Sea.

Coupled with the retirement of the Essexes (Oriskany still had two 5″/38s aboard when she was decommissioned in 1976), Tarawa and her sisters, which carried three 5″/54 Mk 45s in bow and starboard aft sponsons, were the last American “flattops” to carry such heavy seagoing artillery.

USS Tarawa with her bow 5-inch MK45 guns.

Even these were removed by 1997 to allow for better topside aircraft operations.

It was a good 77-year run.

Little Rock Med New Year Greetings

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Happy New Year, gentlemen!

From the January 1969 deck log of the Cleveland-class gun cruiser/converted to Galveston-class guided missile cruiser USS Little Rock (CLG-4), a traditional New Year’s Day poem, in true bluejacket style:

Commissioned just 10 weeks before VJ Day, Little Rock was still on her shakedown cruise when the Big Show ended. Nonetheless, after her missile-slinger conversion, she was configured as a fleet flagship and served as one for the next two decades.

It should be pointed out she was the Sixth Fleet flag at Gaeta in the above deck log entry.

USS Little Rock (CLG-4) photographed circa mid-1960s. USN 1109531

Only decommissioned in 1976, she was one of the last two (with sister Oklahoma City) active 6-inch gunned cruisers in the U.S. fleet.

USS Little Rock (CLG-4) fires her 6″/47 Mk 16 guns during exercises on the Salto di Guirra missile range, off Sardinia, 23 April 1975. K-108728

She is preserved at the Buffalo and Erie County Naval and Military Park, one of just three American cruisers who linger as museum ships, and the sole light cruiser.

SBDs of the Republic

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Some 80 years ago today.

Between December 13 and 31, 1944 – Cognac (Charente). Maintenance and inspection of a Douglas SBD-5 Dauntless dive bomber belonging to the 4e flottille de bombardement (4e FB) of the French Navy.

Ref.: MARINE 389-7165, ECPAD

Ed Heinemann’s Douglas SBD Dauntless dive-bomber was famous in U.S. Naval service, doing everything from bombing Vichy French tanks during the Torch Landings in Algeria to the day the update went back at Midway to “scratch four flattops” from the Empire of Japan’s lineup.

SBD-5 Dauntless dive bombers Marine Scouting Squadron 3 VMS-3 Devilbirds Kodachrome. Note the distinctive grey-blue-white Atlantic Theater camouflage on the aircraft. NHHC 80-G-K-14310

Nearly 6,000 came off the assembly line during WWII and most went to serve in American hands across the Navy and Marines (SBD) and Army (as the A-24 Banshee). However, the Royal New Zealand Air Force fielded a whole squadron (No. 25) of SBDs and post-war Chile, Mexico, and Morrocco would keep the plane flying into the Cold War.

However, it may surprise you that the second most prolific user of the SBD, after Uncle Sam, was the Free French Air Force and Aeronavale.

The French Navy, whose sole aircraft carrier never really had any teeth in the form of a credible air wing, ordered 174 early SBD-3s in 1940 but the Republic fell before they could be delivered.

Nonetheless, between mid-1943 and June 1944, the Free French AF received as many as 50 A-24Bs, flown by I/17 Picardie and GC 1/18, while the Aeronavale picked up 32 SBD-5s. which would be flown by Flotilles 3FB (Lv Felix Ortolan) and 4FB (CC Raymond Béhic).

The French naval SBDs were placed under the initial command of U.S. Navy Fleet Air Wing 15 at NAS Port Lyautey.

French SBD Douglas SBD 5 dauntles de la 4F

SBD 5 of Flotilla 4.FB 166 and 174, GAN 2 Cognac winter 1944-45.

From providing air cover over the Dragoon landings to moving inland to support the Free French forces in the effort to liberate their country, the A-24s and SBDs were well used, with the Naval units, in particular, flying an average of three sorties a day per airframe towards the end of the war.

Battered French Douglas A24 crew pose with locals in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region 1945

Flying together as Groupe d’aéronautique navale n°2, the two French Navy SBD squadrons spent lots of time dopping ordnance on German pockets left along the Atlantic Wall. It sort of made sense as most of these were port units garrisoned by the Kriegsmarine, which made it, in a way, a French Navy-on-German Navy fight, albeit all conducted on land– with donated American dive bombers famous for sinking Japan’s finest.

French Douglas SBD Dauntless 4FB and 3FB at Cognac, late 1944

French Douglas SBD Dauntless 162 of 4FB Cognac, late 1944

French Douglas SBD Dauntless 3FB Cognac, late 1944, Note the star and crescent tail insignia

Crew members of Douglas SDB-5 Dauntless dive bombers, belonging to the 3FB or 4FB flotilla of the No. 2 Naval Aviation Group, returning from a mission as part of the operations to liberate the Atlantic pockets, 1945. Note the Yank and RAF flying gear mix, including British Enfield holsters and USN “Mae Wests”.

Post-war, the French AF relegated their A-24s to use as trainers Meknès, Morocco, a role they retained as late as 1953.

At the same time, the Aeronavale took their SBD act on the road, flying from them via Flotille 4FB from the light carrier Arromanches (HMS Colossus, on loan) and 3FB from the escort carrier Dixmude (HMS Biter), over Indochina in the late 1940s, ironically making the French the last folks to fly the Dauntless in combat. They converted to SB2Cs in 1949. 

French Douglas SBD Dauntless of 3FB au dessus du porte-avions Arromanches.

French Douglas SBD Dauntless of 3FB on Dixmude

Dauntless de la 3.F sur le PA Dixmude en Indochine en 1947

Today, Flottille 4F, the most decorated squadron in the Aeronavale, flies Grumman E-2C Hawkeyes from the French Navy’s sole carrier, DeGaulle, and is the only non-USN carrier Hawkeye unit.

Meanwhile, Flottille 3F was dissolved in Hyères on 31 December 1954– 70 years ago today– after flying their SB2Cs danger-close at Dien Bien Phu.

And, keeping the Navy Air-Aeronavale connection in the same space, this is from yesterday’s DOD contracts, emphasis mine:

General Atomics, San Diego, California, is awarded a $41,572,260 firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee order (N0001925F0028) against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N0001921G0014). This order provides for the advancement of the design of the future French carrier configuration of the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System and advanced arresting gear through the preliminary design review. Work will be performed in San Diego, California (91%); Lakehurst, New Jersey (5.6%); and Tupelo, Mississippi (3.5%), and is expected to be completed in January 2026. Foreign Military Sales customer funds in the amount of $41,572,260 will be obligated at the time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This order was not competed. Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.

Alsace Priest

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80 years ago today. 30 December 1944 – Alsace. Gunners hide “Orléans,” an M7 HMC Priest self-propelled gun of the Free French 1re division blindée (1st Armored Division)’s 68e régiment d’artillerie, under a camouflage net. The outfit at the time was under the command of Maj. Gen André Zeller, a future chief of staff of the army and one of the later leaders of the Algiers coups in 1961.

Germaine Kanova/ECPAD/Defense, Ref. : EARTH 10043-R4

The photograph is by Germaine Kanova (Kahn), born Germaine Sophie Osstyn, a well-known pre-war commercial photographer who pivoted from snapping images of actors and politicians to working with the Resistance– taking photos of sensitive German equipment for review by various Allied intelligence services in London. At age 42 in November 1944, she volunteered to follow the line as an official war photographer– the first female war correspondent of the French army– with the Section cinématographique de l’Armée française (SCA) chronicling the liberation of Alsace and then the invasion of Germany to include the liberation by French troops of the Vaihingen concentration camp outside of Karlsruhe.

Her wartime service was capped with putting down her camera in late April 1945 to fight on the line against German holdouts at Futzen alongside the “black feet” of the 2e bataillon de zouaves portés (2e BZP). These feats would earn her a Croix de Guerre, with a bronze star, in 1945.

Germaine Kanova, SCA, 1944-45

Returning to cinematic photography during the French Nouvelle Vague period in the ’50s, Germaine passed in 1975, aged 72.

Spahis & Stuarts

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80 years ago this month. December 10-27, 1944 – Alsace. General de Lattre de Tassigny, at the head of the 1st (Free French) Army, and General Béthouart, commanding its 1st Army Corps, inspect the recently mechanized 1st Algerian Spahi Regiment (1er régiment de spahis algériens, 1er RSA) on the Alsace front. 

ECPAD Ref.: TERRE 10038-L63

Note the American-supplied Stuart light tanks– the Free French operated a mix of 615 M3A3s and M5A1s during the war– and uniforms, particularly the famed 16-button “32-ounce” roll-collared Melton wool overcoats, beloved by Joes for their ability to remain warm even when soaking wet.

The 1er RSA– not to be confused with the later 1er régiment de marche de spahis marocains (1er RMSM)– was the first of the Spahi regiments in French colonial service, organized at Algiers in 1834 around a cadre of 214 horsemen seconded from the 1er régiment de chasseurs d’Afrique (1er RCA), which had been established two years prior.

It rapidly covered itself in glory in North Africa, earning six honors in 15 years (Taguin 1843, Isly 1844, Tedjenna 1845, Temda 1845, and Zaatcha 1849) across hard campaigning.

Detachments fought in the Crimea and against the Germans in 1870.

Shipping out to Indochina in 1884, it fought in the jungles of Southeast Asia for a generation– with one squadron sent for service in Dahomey– before earning further honors in Morocco fighting in 1907-13.

Rushed to the Continent in the Great War, the wild cavalrymen from Algeria were bled white at Artois in 1914 and the Aisne in 1915 before being sent back to the deserts, this time to the Palestine Front, to fight alongside the Australian Light Horse against the Ottomans.

Officers of 1er régiment de spahis algériens in 1920, with lots of Great War-era service medals via Spahis.fr

Disbanded in 1939 to form two infantry division reconnaissance groups (the 81st and 85th GRDI) which in turn were lost in the 1940 campaign, the regiment was reformed in Algiers in late 1942 around three squadrons of horse cavalry then got in some licks in the Tunisian campaign including the battles at Kranguet Ouchtatia and Ousseltia.

February 1943 – Tunisia. Patrol of spahis from the 1st Algerian spahi regiment advancing in the desert during the Tunisian campaign. Ref.: TERRE 22-221

Official caption: “Algiers, North Africa – The Famous French Arabian Cavalry- The Spahis- On Review During Presentation Of Curtiss P-40’S To The Free French By America.” (U.S. Air Force Number K87. Color)

Trading their horseshoes from tracks, the 1er RSA– technically now the 1er Régiment de Spahis Algériens de Reconnaissance (RSAR)– landed in Marseilles in Southern France as part of the Dragoon Landings in late 1944, they fought in Alsace at the Battle of Frédéric-Fontaine, breached the Belfort Gap, and stormed the Saint-Louis barracks. In early April 1945, they spearheaded the division’s crossing of the Rhine at Maxau and ended the war in German territory, fighting a die-hard SS unit at Merckelfingen in the last days of the war.

After returning to Northern Africa post-war, they fought against the AFN insurgency and, zeroed out after 1962, was formally disbanded in 1964, its banners cased and badges retired.

One of the unit’s spectacular service uniforms is preserved in the Musée de l’Armée.

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