Category Archives: military art

Last QF-16 Wings off as Danish Vipers Buzz Buenos Aires

Posted on by Leave a comment

A couple of interesting news-worthy (to you guys) videos just hit, both F-16 related.

First up, Boeing just announced that it has wrapped up its 10-year program taking old Gen Dyn F-16A/Bs and converting them into QF-16 remote-controlled target drones. The last of 127 Boeing-modded QF-16s recently made its final delivery to the U.S. Air Force and is expected to fly until at least 2030.

The video includes some cool unmanned cockpit clips.

Meanwhile, in Argentina…

The Royal Danish Air Force has uploaded a superb 360-degree view from the cockpit of the new (to) Argentina F-16s during the recent flyover of Buenos Aires.

Six of the ultimately 24 refirb’d circa-1980s Danish-operated F-16A/B MLU Block 10/15s have arrived in Argentina earlier this month, with the U.S. providing backing with training, maintenance, and long-term support. The latter is also probably insurance against their possible use against the

Black Devils at 360

Posted on by Leave a comment

The Dutch Marines (Korps Mariniers Koninklijke) were founded on 10 December 1665 and have seen over three centuries of hard service around the world– and remain ready for whatever is asked of them today.

Royal Netherlands Marine Corps recruitment poster (c.1902) Dutch via Nationaal Archief Den Haag

To celebrate their 360th, a group of six veteran Marines and nine recruits will begin a 166.5 km march on 9 December from Den Helder via Amsterdam to Rotterdam, with the aim to wrap it up in 36.0 hours by 9 pm on 10 December.

That’s a bit over 103 miles.

I’m sure they will make it.

85 years ago: Carnarvon Castle v Thor

Posted on by One comment

The Union-Castle Line Royal Mail Motor Vessel Carnarvon Castle was built in 1925-26 by Harland & Wolff, Belfast (Yard No. 595), and at 20,122 GRT and 656 feet overall, was a beautiful ship. With two squat funnels (the foremost being a dummy for looks) she had accommodations for 310 first class, 275 second class, and 266 third class passengers and could make 18 knots.

Coming off a rebuild at Harland & Wolff in 1938 that saw her profile change to a single funnel, 30 feet added to her hull, a new accommodation plan for 699 passengers and a faster speed of 20 knots, it was a no-brainer that the Royal Navy tapped her for service as an armed merchant cruiser in September 1939, carrying eight 6-inch guns left over from scrapped Great War battleships, a pair of 3-inch DP mounts, and some Lewis guns.

Between 25 November 1939 and 21 November 1943, HMS Carnarvon Castle would ride shotgun on a dozen, mostly Sierra Leone-bound, convoys.

Carnarvon Castle, Armed Merchant Cruiser, WWII, By Artist Robert Lloyd

Some 85 years ago today, on 5 December 1940, she would encounter the German Hilfskreuzer Thor (AKA HSK 4, Schiff 10, and Raider E) which was arguably slower (17 knots) but better armed (6x Krupp 5.9″/45s, 4x37mm, 4x20mm Flak, 4x torpedo tubes, mines) and better prepared, having already sunk seven Allied ships and captured one already on her cruise.

The fight would last five hours.

As detailed in “Ocean Liners” by Philip J Fricker:

The Captain had learnt by an intercepted wireless message that the AMC was in the vicinity and hoped to avoid her. However, on 5 December, a large vessel loomed up out of the mist when the Thor was about 550 miles south of Rio and signaled the Thor to stop. (The latter at the time was disguised as a Yugoslav ship.) The British AMC then fired a warning shot, and, realizing he could no longer avoid an engagement, the German captain hoisted his battle ensign and opened fire at a range of about 14,000 yards.

According to the German account, the sun broke through spasmodically, and the British ship was silhouetted against the misty horizon, making a larger target. An enemy shell damaged her electrical control gear early in the action, and guns had to be fired independently by hand control. Nevertheless, the British ship kept up a good, slightly irregular, rate of fire. The Thor kept up a steady fire and also fired a couple of torpedoes, which missed.

By 0844 range had been reduced to about 8,000 yards, and the British AMC had been hit several times. There were several outbreaks of fire on board, and the internal communication had been badly disabled. Accordingly, the ship turned to port and sailed off in a northerly direction to try to control the fires. Having no wish to reopen the engagement, the Thor made off to the eastward. She had expended no fewer than 593 rounds of ammunition, about 70 per cent of her supply, and had escaped damage.

The British ship had not been so fortunate. Twenty-seven enemy shells had found a mark, and her casualties numbered four killed and 28 wounded. The fires were eventually put out, and the ship set a course for Montevideo, where she arrived on 7 December. Some plates salvaged from the wreck of the Graf Spee were used to patch her hull. The Carnarvon Castle later crossed to Cape Town for full repairs.

The skipper of the Thor, Captain Otto Kähler, reported no damage to his ship. It had been Thor’s second gunnery duel with a British Armed Merchant Cruiser, the first being on 28 July 1940 with HMS Alcantara, also a former Union Castle Liner.

On 4 April 1941, Thor engaged and sank HMS Voltaire, the third British Armed Merchant Cruiser she met, in a battle that left 99 British sailors dead and 197 as POWs, underlining just how well Carnarvon Castle had fought the year before, especially when you consider that Voltaire had the same armament as Carnarvon Castle.

Thor arrived in German-occupied France on 23 April 1941 after a 329-day and 57,532-mile war patrol, then seven months later, with new guns, an Arado scout plane, and radar, would venture out on a second one of 321 days that would end in Japan.

As for Carnarvon Castle, she would be converted to trooping duties in late 1943 and survive the war.

Returned to commercial use in 1947, she would be refitted for the emigrant trade and would continue to sail until 1963, when she was scrapped, having served a long and varied 37-year career.

Gurkhas taking care of their own

Posted on by Leave a comment

A burial service was held in late November in Italy for an unknown WWII soldier. A bearer party from the Gurkha ARRC Support Battalion carried him, in the rain, to his final resting place at CWGC Cemetery Arezzo.

The casualty was found in a shallow trench within a forest in Alpe di Catenaia near the town of Subbiano, Italy. Research undertaken by JCCC with help from The National Army Museum established that the soldier was most probably involved in action taking place at the beginning of August 1944 and serving with 20th Brigade of the 10th Indian Infantry Division, which included Gurkha units, notably the 2nd Bn/3rd (Queen Alexandria’s Own) Gurkha Rifles. 

According to the NAM, during WWII, more than 110,000 men served in 40 Gurkha battalions in the Western Desert, Italy, Greece, Malaya, Singapore, and Burma. Nearly 30,000 of them were killed or wounded.

Following the capture of Sicily in late summer 1943, the Allies slowly moved up the leg of Italy to penetrate the Gothic line – the Germans’ last line of defense. The Gurkhas and Indian soldiers who served in the 10th Indian Division were involved in every major offensive and played a significant role in Italy. Their stamina, strength, and ability to fight in difficult terrains made them ideal for this offensive.

This soldier can only have served with a handful of units, but the sheer number of casualties testifies to the ferocity of the fighting, making identification impossible. It is believed this casualty was most probably an Indian or Gurkha soldier.

The service was conducted by Reverend Timothy Watts CF, the bearer party was led by Warrant Officer Class One Yogendra Pratap Singh Thakuri, and the musician was Lance Corporal Amar Magar, The Band of the Brigade of Gurkhas. Readings were delivered by Colonel Erica Bridge, Captain Tej Bahadur Gurung, Rifleman Deepen Gurung, and Sapr Munfin Eakten.

Photos courtesy of Sgt S Terry, HQ Public Affairs Office, Crown Copyright

While the old 3rd Gurkha Rifles have been part of the Indian Army since 1947, the current Brigade of Gurkhas in the British Army boasts a strength of some 4,000 soldiers.

Shootin’s Good in the Schoutens!

Posted on by Leave a comment

On the road today to Georgia at a firearms industry event to see some new guns from a company whose name rhymes with “Wok.”

Thus, I offer you the reader this abridged Warship Wednesday, with a promise to “return to regular scheduled programming next week.

Original caption: Like Johnny in the song, these G.I. Joes ‘got a Zero today’ — in fact, they shot down three zeros in one day with their anti-aircraft gun on the beach of Biak in the Schouten Islands. Ashore from a Coast Guard-manned assault transport, the gunners jubilantly posted the score-three down and more to go.”

US National Archives Identifier 205584181, Local ID 26-G-2487, US Coast Guard photo # 2487.

Closer inspection of the board claims, “Mitsubishi downed May 31st, 1944.” The LST doors in the background read “26.”

Note the caption on the scoreboard says it is “subject to changes daily,” for the USCG 40mm Bofors crew in the Pacific in WWII. They aren’t bluffing, as the board seems crafted from a riveted section of a downed aircraft.

One of 76 sea-going LSTs manned by Coast Guard crews during WWII, USS LST-26’s first skipper was LT. Eugene Kiernan, USCGR.

Her DANFS listing reads:

LST-26 was laid down on 16 November 1942 at Pittsburgh, Pa., by the Dravo Corp.; launched on 31 March 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Mathilda B. Coulter; and commissioned on 7 June 1943.

During World War II, LST-26 served in the Asiatic-Pacific theater and took part in the following operations:

Bismarck Archipelago operation:

(a) Cape Gloucester, New Britain-December 1943 and January 1944

Hollandia operation-April and May 1944, Western New Guinea operations:

(a) Toem-Wakde-Sarmi area operation-May 1944

(b) Biak Island operation-May and June 1944

(c) Noemfoor Island operation-July 1944

(d) Cape Sansapor operation-July and August 1944

(e) Morotai landings-September 1944

Leyte landings-October and November 1944

Consolidation of the southern Philippines:

(a) Mindanao Island landings-March 1945

She saw service in China from 3 to 10 October 1945.

Following the war, LST-26 performed occupation duty in the Far East until early November 1945. She returned to the United States and was decommissioned on 1 April 1946. She was struck from the Navy list on 8 May 1946 and was sold to Arctic Circle Exploration, Seattle, Wash., on 17 June 1946 to be converted for merchant service.

LST-26 earned five battle stars for World War II service.

From small beginnings…

Posted on by Leave a comment

Some 250 years ago this week, on 3 December 1775, the 30-gunned three-masted Continental ship Alfred was commissioned in Philadelphia, marking the first time the Grand Union Flag–  a combination of the British Flag and 13 stripes representing the thirteen Colonies– was raised over an American naval vessel.

Continental Ship Alfred (1775-1778) Painting in oils by W. Nowland Van Powell, depicting Lieutenant John Paul Jones raising the Grand Union flag as Alfred was placed in commission at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 3 December 1775. Commanded by Captain Dudley Saltonstall, Alfred was the flagship of Commodore Esek Hopkins’ Continental Navy flotilla during the remainder of 1775 and the first four months of 1776. Courtesy of the U.S. Navy Art Collection, Washington, D.C. Donation of the Memphis Council, U.S. Navy League, 1776. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 85212-KN

The ship, originally named Black Prince, was built at Philadelphia in 1774 and acquired by the Continental Congress in November 1775. Renamed Alfred, she had the newly minted Continental Navy LT John Paul Jones, a Scot, hoist the Grand Union Flag during the commissioning ceremony.

A Grand Union Flag, circa 1775-1776, displayed in 1926. USN 900248

The ship was outfitted with numerous small guns: 20 9-pounder smooth-bore cannon and 10 6-pounder smooth-bore cannon, and served admirably and against all odds until 9 March 1778, when, under the command of Elisha Hinsman near Barbados, she encountered the faster British warships Ariadne and Ceres and was captured, then ignobly pressed into service with the Crown.

By that time, John Paul Jones had moved on to his own command and was noted as writing, “I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast, for I intend to go in harm’s way.”

The Cold Desperate Fire of the Sapper Steel Battalion

Posted on by Leave a comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It concludes with Taps and a night shoot.

 

Waking up the Dragon

Posted on by Leave a comment

Some 75 years ago this week.

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

She had been recommissioned at Bayonne the day before.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As noted by DANFS:

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

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

Big Mamie, returns

Posted on by One comment

The fifth (completed) U.S. Navy vessel named for the Bay State, the future USS Massachusetts (SSN 798), was delivered to the service from Newport News on 21 November. She is the 25th Virginia/774-class submarine, the 12th delivered by the yard, and the seventh of 10 planned Block IV configured boats. Her commissioning is set for 2026.

Future USS Massachusetts (SSN 798) on builder’s acceptance trials. 251008-N-MQ094-002

Future USS Massachusetts (SSN 798) on builder’s acceptance trials. 251008-N-MQ094-001

Future USS Massachusetts (SSN 798) on builder’s acceptance trials. 251008-N-MQ094-003

The first USS Massachusetts was a 4-gun screw steamer built in 1845 and fought during the Mexican-American War.

The second, a 6-gunned screw steamer, fought in the Civil War– the bane of the Confederates on the Mississippi Coast and still has a fort named after her on Ship Island– while the third, an Indiana-class battleship (BB-2), fought in the Spanish-American War.

The last and most famous USS Massachusetts (BB-59) was commissioned in 1942 as a South Dakota-class fast battleship, earning 11 battle stars for exceptional service in WWII from Casablanca to Okinawa before being decommissioned in 1947. She remained in the Reserve Fleet until stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in June 1962 and continues to serve as a floating museum.

USS Massachusetts underway somewhere in the Pacific (1943)

Nice to see the name back on the Naval List.

Bat ‘Truders

Posted on by Leave a comment

How about this great shot some 50 years ago today, showing a quartet of full-color Grumman A-6A Intruder aircraft (BuNo 155623, 155624, 155625, 157014) of U.S. Marine Corps All-Weather Medium Attack Squadron (VMA(AW)) 242 flying in echelon formation on 21 November 1975.

Photo by Sgt. C. Quinn, USMC, VIRIN: DM-SC-84-04345

Commissioned on 1 July 1943 at MCAS El Centro, California as Marine Torpedo Bombing Squadron (VMTB) 242 with an insignia that included Bugs Bunny riding a torpedo, the squadron flew TBM Avengers throughout the Westpac in the last 20 months of the war, operating from bases ranging from the Solomons to Iwo Jima.

Inactivated post-war and stood back up in 1960, they first flew Skyhawks and then Intruders, stacking up a tally of 16,783 combat sorties delivering 85,990 tons of ordnance in successive tours in Vietnam, where they switched to the “Bats” nickname. One of the last Marine A-6 squadrons, they only transitioned to the F/A-18D Hornet in 1990, which they used to great effect in air support missions in Iraq in 2005.

Today, the Bats of VMFA-242 operate F-35Bs tasked to MAG-12 (1st MAW) out of MCAS Iwakuni. Of note, while they started off looking for Japanese carriers to sink in 1944, the unit recently was the first F-35 squadron to conduct operational testing on the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force helicopter carrier JS Izumo, the country’s first “big deck” fixed-wing carrier since WWII.

« Older Entries Recent Entries »