Category Archives: military history

Coastie 154s Keep Chugging in the West Pac

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At a time when China is applying a lot of soft pressure to make friends in places like the Solomon Islands (won with $730 million in financial aid) important strides are being made with a hardscrabble trio of new U.S. Coast Guard cutters roaming West from their home in Guam, where they have been pulling 8,000-mile patrols lasting as long as six weeks, which is impressive for 154-foot patrol craft. 

From USCG Pacific Area PAO:

U.S. Coast Guard Forces Micronesia/Sector Guam’s Fast Response Cutters conducted four patrols over 44 days, enhancing safety and prosperity in the Pacific Islands region while combatting illicit maritime activity, including illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing and the illegal and unsafe transport of passengers.

Lt. j.g. Sims and Ensign Salang welcome the Marine Corps Detachment in Chuuk for Operation Koa Moana aboard the USCGC Frederick Hatch (WPC 1143) for a tour while visiting Chuuk, Federated States of Micronesia, on July 28, 2023. The crew conducted a patrol in FSM in support of Operation Rematau. (U.S. Coast Guard photo)

The crews of USCGC Frederick Hatch (WPC 1143), USCGC Myrtle Hazard (WPC 1139), and USCGC Oliver Henry (WPC 1140):

  • Conducted seven boardings and five observation reports.
  • Completed over 20 training evolutions.
  • Qualified 18 new shipboard members.
  • Supported the investigation into the transport of 11 people aboard an overloaded vessel transiting to Guam from the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands on an illegal charter following their rescue by DoD partners.
  • Supported operations such as Operation Blue Pacific, Operation Rematau, Operation Nasse, and Operation Koa Moana.
  • Operational Achievements and Highlights
  • USCGC Frederick Hatch (June 21 – July 2 and July 18 – Aug. 3): Enhanced international relations, streamlined boarding processes, qualified new personnel, and improved communication with FSM Maritime Police.
  • USCGC Myrtle Hazard (July 3 – 16): Strengthened connection with CNMI, ensured maritime law enforcement presence in less patrolled areas, and enhanced collaboration with customs and public safety departments.
  • USCGC Oliver Henry (July 18 – 23): Increased U.S. presence, enforced fishing regulations, and fostered crew readiness with weapons proficiency and collaboration.

Myrtle Hazard has also been invited by Papua New Guinea (PNG) to join their lead in maritime operations to combat illegal fishing and safeguard maritime resources during August 2023. This comes after Oliver Henry became the first U.S. Coast Guard Fast Response Cutter to call on port in Papua New Guinea during their southern expeditionary patrol in the fall of 2022 to build relations, conduct engagements, and resupply and the two countries inked a security agreement a couple of months ago.

The crew of the USCGC Myrtle Hazard (WPC 1139) arrive in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea on Aug. 20, 2023. The U.S. Coast Guard is in Papua New Guinea at the invitation of the PNG government to join their lead in maritime operations to combat illegal fishing and safeguard maritime resources following the recent signing and ratification of the bilateral agreement between the United States and Papua New Guinea. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Chief Warrant Officer Sara Muir)

Via USCG:

This collaborative effort marks the first time a joint patrol effort will be executed at sea since the signing and ratification of the recent bilateral defense agreement between PNG and the United States, which allows the U.S. to embark ship riders from PNG agencies aboard the ship to conduct at sea boardings on other vessels operating in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) under their national agency authority. This is the U.S. Coast Guard vessel deployment first announced during Secretary of Defense Austin’s engagement with Prime Minister James Marape in July.

The Coast Guard has ordered 65 Sentinel (Webber)- class Fast Response Cutters (FRCs) to date.

With the recent commissioning of USCGC Patterson (WPB 1153) in Portland Maine earlier this month–the fourth of six FRCs to be stationed in Boston– 53 FRCs are in service: 13 in Florida; seven in Puerto Rico; six in Bahrain with PATFORSWA; four each in California and Massachusetts; three each in Alaska, Guam, Hawaii, Texas and New Jersey; and two each in Mississippi and North Carolina. Future FRC homeports include Astoria, Oregon; and Kodiak and Seward, Alaska.

At least one more FRC will be sent to Guam, where she will no doubt be put to good use. 

LTJG Bob Barker, Corsair Jock

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The late Robert William “Bob” Barker, who was the brightest part of staying home sick as a kid, also did his bit as part of the Greatest Generation.

Bob enlisted in the Navy Reserve Aviation Cadet (AvCad) program in November 1942 at age 18 while attending Drury College in Springfield, Missouri on a basketball scholarship. 

He trained at 11 locations including eight Navy air bases on six different types over the next three years:

  • William Jewell College – Liberty, Missouri: 6th Battalion Cadet ground school and athletic training.
  • Ames, Iowa—Iowa State University: Taylorcraft L-2 Grasshopper flight training.
  • University of Georgia: Preflight School and Navy Basketball Team.
  • Millington Naval Air Station- Memphis, Tennessee: Stearman NS2 Biplane Training.
  • Corpus Christi, Texas Naval Air Station: Completed flight training and received Commission as a Navy Ensign.
  • Cabaniss Field Texas: Vultee BT-13 Valiant Training.
  • Beeville, Texas: SNJ Texan flight training.
  • DeLand Naval Air Station—DeLand, Florida: FM2 Wildcat flight training (during his honeymoon)
  • Great Lakes Naval Air Station—Lake Michigan: Carrier landing qualifications on USS Wolverine (IX-64)— the infamous paddlewheel “Covered wagon of the Great Lakes.”
  • Banana River Naval Air Station: Gunnery runs on U.S. Navy Mariner aircraft to train their crews.
  • Goose Island Michigan: F4U Corsair training with VF-97 and advancement to Lieutenant Junior Grade (LTJG).

He was in line to be deployed to the Pacific to fight the Empire in August 1945 when the whistle was blown.

As Barker summed up:

“I was a Naval Aviator, a Fighter Pilot. I completed all facets of my training, including my qualifying landings on a carrier. I was all ready to go, and when the enemy heard that I was headed for the Pacific, they surrendered. That was the end of World War II.”

Demobilized in November 1945, he remained in the inactive Naval Reserve until 1960.

You will be missed, sir.

And, with that, I’ll leave you with one of his greatest three minutes, which he filmed at a spry 73.

USS High Point hits her lowest point

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NHHC L45-125.04.01

A few years ago, we covered the story of the experimental 115-foot “hydrofoil sub chaser” USS High Point (PCH-1) being up for sale in poor condition in Astoria, Oregon.

Built by Boeing in 1962, she was the first of a series of hydrofoil craft designed to evaluate the performance of this kind of propulsion in the modern Navy, one that ultimately led to the design (by Boeing) of the Pegasus-class patrol combatant missile hydrofoils, or PHMs.

Decommissioned by the Navy in March 1975 after a decade of testing, High Point was used briefly by the Coast Guard until her main turbine exploded, then was stricken in 1980.

428-GX-K108129 Patrol Craft, Hydrofoil, USS High Point (PCH-1) underway during a search and rescue exercise off San Francisco by JOC(AC) Warren Grass, 25 April 1975

428-GX-K108129 Patrol Craft, Hydrofoil, USS High Point (PCH-1) underway during a search and rescue exercise off San Francisco by JOC(AC) Warren Grass, 25 April 1975

Powered just by her auxiliary Detriot Diesel, she was retained as a non-commissioned experimental hulk until finally disposed of by MARAD in 1991. She passed through a series of private owners until she came up for sale once again for $70,000– with no takers.

Now, as detailed by Scotty Sam Silverman over at the Museumships group, she met her end earlier this month.

Silverman’s photos: 

All is not totally lost as a number of relics from the vessel were apparently passed on to a local, free cannery museum on the condition they set up and display the foil propeller.

A Requiem for a Ship that Could Fly;
A Ship of local notoriety,
USS HIGH POINT PCH-1

There were no flags flying, no bands playing on the pier, no dress uniforms with gold braids waiting to congratulate the captain and crew for a successful mission. No, there was none of that. Only an excavator with a hydraulic crusher awaited. And over a period of four days, in the middle of August, this once proud foilborne warrior was reduced to a heap of scrap and hauled away.

She deserved better, but you can’t save them all.

The only American “fighting foil” left afloat is the ex-USS Aries (PHM-5) museum in Gasconade, Missouri. Please pay them a visit or at least throw them a few dollars.

Death of a U-boat, Williams vs Maus

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Some 80 years ago this week, in the North Atlantic west of the Canary Islands, the German Type IXC/40 U-boat, U-185 (Kptlt. August Maus), with 31 waterlogged survivors of the lost U-604 aboard, met her end at the hand of depth charges dropped from Willie 9, a TBF Avenger aircraft of VC-13 from the deck of the Bouge-class escort carrier USS Core (CVE-13).

The event was chronicled by Core’s airwing.

The explosion caused by Lt. Williams’ two exploding depth charges dropped on a German submarine, U-185. The bow of the submarine protrudes from the bottom of the explosion. Incident #4082. Released August 24, 1943. Official U.S. Navy photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-77195

German submarine, U-185, sinking after the combined attack of several aircraft from USS Core (CVE 13), principally from two depth charges from an Avenger piloted by Lieutenant R.P. Williams, USNR. Incident #4082. Released August 24, 1943. Official U.S. Navy photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-77196

In all, U-185 went down with 29 dead (including 14 men from U-604) while 22 survivors were rescued and eventually became POWs.

German survivors from the German submarine, U-185, in the water after being sunk by aircraft from USS Core (CVE-13), piloted by Lieutenant R.P. Williams, USNR, August 24, 1943 They were in the water for six hours before being picked up by destroyer. Incident #4082. Official U.S. Navy photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-77198

Submarine survivors of U 185 and U 604 resting on the flight deck of USS Core (CVE 13). Released August 24, 1943. Official U.S. Navy photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-77202

From Core’s war diary, a very matter-of-fact entry for that Tuesday morning: 

Core had a particularly effective “hunter-killer patrol” in the late summer of 1943.

Per DANFS:

Core’s second hunter-killer patrol, from 16 August to 2 September 1943 netted her planes U-86 on 24 August in 27-09′ N., 37-03′ W., and U-185 the same day in 27-00′ N., 37-06′ W. Putting to sea again 5 October in TG 21.15, Core’s planes sank U-378 on 20 October in 47-40′ N,, 28-27′ W. She returned to Norfolk 19 November.

USS Core (CVE-13) underway in the Atlantic, probably on 10 October 1943. The wing of the plane from which the photograph was taken is in the foreground. Note also that the planes of her air group are painted white and gull grey to make it difficult for U-boats to see against the sky. Core would continue to serve after the war as an aircraft transport, taking helicopters to Vietnam. She was scrapped in 1971. NH 106565

As for the good Kapitänleutnant August Wilhelm Hugo Maus, he had claimed some 70,000 GRT in tonnage while he was active and earned a Knights Cross while in American custody. Speaking of which, he and five other U-boat officers were able to escape from the lightly guarded POW camp at Papago Park, Arizona on 12 February 1944 but was soon after recaptured in Tucson. Maus later helped dig a tunnel that allowed 25 POWs to escape on the night of 23-24 December 1944, but he elected to remain behind due to an injury. He was eventually repatriated and died in Hamburg in 1986, aged 81.

The splasher of Maus’s boat, LT Robert Pershing Williams, then a 26-year-old Naval pilot hailing from Snoqualmie, Washington who formerly had flown an SBD dive bomber with Bombing Two from USS Lexington (earning a Navy Cross) during the Battle of Coral Sea, flew against U-185 with Morris C. Grinstead, Aviation Radioman, First Class, U.S.N., 21, of Letts, Iowa and turret gunner Melvin H. Paden, Aviation Machinist’s Mate, Second Class, U.S.N., 19, Route 4, Box 17, Salinas, California. The action earned Williams a second Navy Cross.

Acclaimed cartoonist, Wood Cowan used his story to help sell War Bonds.

Williams outlived Maus, and passed in 1997, aged 79.

Warship Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023: The Last Violet

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Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places. – Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023: The Last Violet

USCG Historian’s Photo 220211-G-G0000-010

Above we see the Department of Commerce’s United States Lighthouse Service’s Violet-class coast-wise tender Lilac standing by the wreck of a derelict sailing ship in New York harbor, circa 1930s, with Lady Liberty in the background, likely during one of the vessel’s regular trips to the Service’s St. George Depot on Staten Island. If you look closely, you’ll note the USLHS’s brass lighthouse emblem bolted to her bow.

Lilac would later go on to serve, including a spell in haze gray, for another 40 years, and continues to clock in today.

The last tenders of the USLHS

The U.S Lighthouse Establishment was founded in 1789 and morphed across several iterations until, as the U.S Lighthouse Board in the 1890s, developed a basic design for its largest steam tenders that would remain little changed for a century. Between 1892 and 1939, no less than 33 such large coast-wise tenders were built, typically ranging in length from 164 to 174 feet and outfitted to carry about two dozen crew to work a series of large steam-powered booms to service a growing array of federally maintained aids to navigation– 11,713 in 1910 when the USLHS was formed swelling to 30,420 by 1939. These included lighted aids (lighthouses, lightships, and buoys), fog signals, radio beacons, unlighted buoys, and daymarks.

The trio of Violet class tenders (joined by the near-sister Arbutus) was led by the Manitowoc-built USLHT Violet, contracted in September 1929, followed by our Pusey & Jones Co. built Lilac and Mistletoe. Modern vessels, they were built almost entirely of riveted steel, including hulls, decks, deckhouses, and masts, edged with wood as a protective against heavy buoys, chains, and cement anchors. They had electric lights throughout and refrigerated storerooms.

Some 173 feet in length (163 feet six inches on the waterline) the class had a molded breadth of 32 feet, and the minimum depth of hull at the side, from the top of the main deck to the top of the keel, of 14 feet 6 inches. At a displacement of approximately 770 tons (799 is full load), the draft is 10 feet seven inches in salt water, essential to being able to tread in hazardous shoals.

Early plans of near-sister Arbutus, which was of the same overall type although slightly deeper of hold and with Foster-Wheeler boilers rather than Babcock & Wilcox as used by the Violets.

Arbutus out of the water before launch at Pusey & Jones. Note the wooden strakes to protect her hull while working buoys and the USLHS lighthouse insignia on her bow. (USCG photo)

The fuel capacity of the class was 29,000 gallons of fuel oil for their pair of Babcock & Wilcox boilers, each driving a triple expansion engine. The designed top speed of the class was approximately 13.7 knots at 1,000 hp– although later maximum speed was in the typically 11.5 knot range. They were not built as racehorses. The range, at 10 knots, was 1,734 nm which allowed them to range along the coast and keep station for weeks if needed.

Lilac, seen here ready for launch at Wilmington Delaware in 1933. She was moved through the water by twin four-bladed propellers 7 feet 5 inches in diameter. Each propeller was driven by a triple expansion, reciprocating steam engine developing 500 indicated horsepower at 160 revolutions per minute. The engines were built by the ship’s builders, Pusey & Jones of Wilmington, Delaware, and had high, intermediate, and low-pressure cylinders 11 1/2, 19, and 32 inches in diameter respectively with a 24-inch stroke. Steam to operate the engines and booms was supplied at 200 pounds per square inch by two Babcock & Wilcox oil-fired watertube boilers. (Hagley Library)

The deck gear included a 20-ton capacity boom with a steam-powered hoist, here seen in action aboard Lilac in 1948. (Philadelphia Inquirer archives)

Besides normal crew berthing of about six officers and 20 crew while on USHLS orders, the class also had spare accommodations to allow ferrying rotating crew members to lightships and keepers to lighthouses as well as providing space for district and national officials on periodic inspection tours.

Meet Lilac

Our subject had been planned to be named Azalea, contracted on 13 April 1931 to Hampton Roads Shipbuilding of Portsmouth, Virginia. However, Pusey & Jones subsequently underbid Hampton Roads, and the former was awarded the contract, after which the USLHS changed the new tender’s name to Lilac.

The name “Lilac” was the second in the USLHS, with the first being a 155-foot tender built in 1892 that served in the Navy during the Great War on patrol off the East Coast and in the Caribbean.

Ordered for $334,900 from Pusey & Jones on 16 August 1932, she was launched on 26 May 1933 and entered service with the service later that same year under the command of Capt. Andrew J. Davidson, a man who began his long career 42 years prior as a ship’s carpenter aboard the lighthouse tender Zizania and would be her skipper for five years.

USLHS Lighthouse Tender Lilac, NARA Identifier 26-LG-69-64

Lilac was assigned to the Fourth Lighthouse District, which covered the Delaware River, from Trenton, New Jersey south to the mouth of the Delaware Bay. She replaced the old (c. 1899) tender Iris and was based in Edgemoor, Delaware, just north of the mouth of the Christina River, where she would spend the next 15 years. Among her more famous charges was the Breakwater Lighthouse, founded in 1885 and now part of the Cape Henlopen State Park.

The Delaware Breakwater Lighthouse. LOC.

Joining the Coast Guard

On 1 July 1939, with the world edging towards war, the USLHS merged with the U.S. Coast Guard, which is still in charge of the maintenance and operation of all U.S. lighthouses, lightships, and aids to navigation. Lilac and her sisters were among 63 existing and building tenders of all sorts transferred to the USCG. With that, the triangular pennant of the Lighthouse Service was lowered for the last time on 7 July and the Coast Guard pennant ran up.

Upon commissioning into the Coast Guard, the vessels were given the WAGL designation meaning “auxiliary vessel, lighthouse tender” with the “W” being the USCG’s service differentiator. Lilac’s pennant number, therefore, became WAGL-227.

Other changes included repainting the all-black stacks to the standard Coast Guard buff with a black cap and removing the brass USHLS lighthouse emblems from the bows. Internally, the complement switched to two officers, two warrant officers, and 34 enlisted. Room for a small arms locker was set aside and plans were made to mount a topside armament drawn up.

When the Coast Guard was transferred to the Navy under Executive Order 8929 of 1 November 1941, out came the guns and thick haze grey paint. The Violets would pick up a single 3″/50 DP mount on the foc’sle, a pair of 20mm/80 Oerlikon single mount amidships behind the wheelhouse, and a pair of depth charge tracks over the stern. They would also, late in the war, pick up an SO-1 (Violet, Lilac, and Arbutus) or SO-8 (Mistletoe) detection radar on the top of their masts and WEA-2 sonars.

Mistletoe seen in 1943 during WWII before she had her SO-8 radar fit.

Lilac seen in late Sept. 1945, with her armament apparently landed but still wearing her “war paint.” 4th Naval District Photographer WC Dendal

Lilac would spend her war in the 5th Naval District on orders in the Delaware River system and would be fitted with a degaussing system for protection against magnetic mines laid off the mouth of the Delaware Bay by German U-boats. She would stand by when they brought in the surrendered U-858 in May 1945 and docked her at Fort Mills.

Mistletoe and Violet, also under 5th District Orders based in Norfolk and Baltimore, respectively, would work in Chesapeake Bay during the war.

Arbutus, assigned to the 1st Naval District, was used as a net tender at Newport RI. Her armament would be much the same with the exception of a smaller 3″/23 rather than a 3″/50 and a BK series radar initially fitted as early as 1943.

The men who tended the lights and buoys were in the war as well, and it should be remembered the USLHS lightship LV-71 was sunk in the Great War by the German submarine U-104 near Diamond Shoals, North Carolina while the unarmed USCG Speedwell-class buoy tender Acacia (which had joined the old USLHS in 1927) was sent to the bottom by gunfire from U-161 in 1942 during WWII. Another tender, the former 173-foot circa 1904 USLHT Magnolia, was lost in USCG/Navy service in 1945 when the American Mail Line freighter SS Marguerite Leland in Mobile Bay ran her down.

Postwar

Postwar, Lilac and her sisters would return to a more typical life, reverting to their peacetime livery. At first this would be a black hull with a white superstructure and bow eyebrow and buff stack with a black cap. 

Tender Lilac 5 Sept 1946 near Burlington NJ Photographer McKisky

Tender Lilac 5 Sept 1946 at Harbor of Refuge. Note the radar fit on her mast top. Photographer McKisky

Mistletoe, 1947, note her SO-8 radar on her top mast. USLHS Digital Archive

Then this would change to an all-black hull, losing the eyebrow, and wearing large white hull numbers.

Tender Lilac 5 W227 1950s

Lilac underway circa 1940s (U.S. Coast Guard)

Lilac with unidentified light

In 1948, Lilac was transferred to Gloucester City, New Jersey, where, in addition to her ATON work, would be remarkably busy in a series of SAR cases.

As detailed by the Coast Guard Historian’s Office, here is just a two year-run down:

  • On 15 to 17 May 1952, she assisted following the collision between the motor vessels Barbara Lykes and F. L. Hayes in the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. 
  • On 22 May 1952, she assisted the tug Pateo and the Atlantic Dealer in the Delaware River. 
  • On 26 May 1952, she assisted following the collision between the tanker Michael and the motor barge A. C. Dodge near Ready Island. 
  • On 30 January 1953, she assisted the fishing vessel Benjamin Brothers in the Delaware River. 
  • From 6 to 12 June 1953, she assisted following the collision between the tankers Pan Massachusetts and the Phoenix in the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. 
  • On 24 and 25 June 1953 she fought the fire on board the tanker Pan Georgia and searched for survivors in the Christina River. 
  • On 30 December 1953, she assisted the motor vessels Atlantic Dealer and Atlantic Engineer in the Delaware River. 
  • On 13 July 1955, she assisted the yacht Nip and Tuck in the Delaware River. 

LILAC underway circa 1950s (U.S. Coast Guard)

Taking buoy on board Lilac (Philadelphia Enquirer)

Bridge, buoy tender LILAC 220211-G-G0000-011

Wheelhouse of Lilac (Philadelphia Enquirer)

In a 1961 refit for a further decade of service, she would be equipped with an SPN-11 radar and UNQ-1 sonar.

By 1965, the USCG switched the WAGL designation to WLM for “‘medium or coastal buoy tender” and Lilac became WLM-227.

She would pick up the now-classic Coast Guard racing stripe after 1967.

With the service having the much-improved all-welded diesel-powered 180-foot buoy tenders on hand in serious numbers, by 1972 the riveted-hulled steam-powered Lilac was seen as incredibly old-fashioned.

She was decommissioned on 3 February 1972, capping just under 40 years with the USLHS/Navy/USCG.

Tender Lilac decommissioning

Her sisters Arbutus, Mistletoe, and Violet had been taken out of service already, decommissioned and disposed of between 1963 and 1969. None are afloat.

Arbutus met her end in Florida in the 1980s after serving as one of treasure hunter Mel Fisher’s “sentry” vessels over the Atocha wreck site.

The Arbutus wreck was celebrated, and she was later used by Jimmy Buffett for a back cover shot for his 1985 album ‘Songs You Should Know By Heart’.”

Switching careers

Just a few months after she was decommissioned, ex-USCGC Lilac was donated to the Harry Lundeberg Seafarers International Union seamanship school in Maryland, where she was used as a stationary pier side training vessel until 1984. In this role, she provided accommodation and class space to mariners upgrading their ratings across both bridge, deck, and engine room departments.

After 1984, she passed hands a few times and was used as a salvage company’s office for a spell, grounded in a dredged berth along the James River outside of Richmond, before she was listed in 1999 for scrap value, still relatively intact but showing her age.

Preservation

The non-profit NYC-based Tug Pegasus Preservation Project became involved in the prospect of saving Lilac and she was refloated on 25 February 2003, then towed to a shipyard in Norfolk where, after a favorable report on the condition of the ship’s hull– she had spent most of her life in freshwater– she was purchased on 11 March 2003, with the intent to return her to operation as a steam vessel based in New York harbor.

After berthing at the Hudson River Park’s Pier 40 and transfered to the newly created non-profit LILAC Preservation Project, she was eventually moved to the newly built Pier 25 in Tribeca in 2011 and has since opened as a museum ship.

The last unaltered American steam-propelled and steam-hoisting lighthouse tender designed for work on the open sea and connecting bays and sounds, Lilac is special and, other than the diesel-powered tender Fir (which was still under construction when the service was absorbed by the USCG was preserved at the Liberty Maritime Museum in Sacramento for a half-decade and is now apparently looking for a new owner) is the only USLHS tender still around– and the only one on display.

She is the oldest Coast Guard “black hull” afloat.

If you have a chance to visit her, please do.

Ships are more than steel
and wood
And heart of burning coal,
For those who sail upon
them know
That some ships have a
soul.

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Tossing ASW back on the 378s

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USCGC Mellon (WHEC 717) sits in full dress at the pier before a decommissioning ceremony in Seattle on Aug. 20, 2020. USCGC Mellon was a High Endurance Cutter homeported in Seattle and served as an asset in completing Coast Guard missions around the world for 52 years. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Michael Clark)

The Hamilton class of Coast Guard cutters served the USCG well for over 50 years, including most working the Market Time gun line off Vietnam as well as standing toe-to-toe with the Soviet Navy in the Cold War.

Equipped from the beginning as a patrol frigate, they entered service starting in 1967 with a 5″/38 DP mount and an ASW suite that included the AN/SQS-38 sonar and Mk32 torpedo tubes for launching lightweight ASW torpedoes, first the Mk44, then the Mk46. They had to requal for both surface warfare and ASW every year and often bird-dogged Russki subs, especially off New England and in Alaska waters.

1972 Hamilton-class USCGC Boutwell (WHEC-719) close aboard a Soviet Submarine. USCG Historian’s Office. 230802-G-G0000-102.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s the Hamiltons a FRAM program that replaced the 5″/38 gun with the MK 75 76mm OTO, upgraded the MK 32 Surface Vessel Torpedo Tubes to Mod 7, installed MK 36 SRBOC launchers and the AN/SLQ-32 electronic warfare suite, added a CIWS and Harpoon capability, and upgraded the cutters’ air and surface search radars. This came in tandem with the ability to operate a Navy LAMPS I (Sea Sprite) helicopter should they need to clock in as convoy escorts.

Then, in 1996, the USCG got out of the ASW biz, pulling its tubes and sonar suites. Everyone figured it would never be needed again. After all, the world was at peace and sub-busting was so WWII.

In recent years, the Coast Guard retired all 13 of its long-serving Hamiltons and Uncle Sam has since gifted them to overseas allies. This included three sent to the Philippines– the former USCGC Hamilton (WHEC-715), renamed BRP Gregorio del Pilar (PF-15); USCGC Dallas (WHEC-716) renamed BRP Ramon Alcaraz (PF-16), and USCGC Boutwell (WHEC-719) as BRP Andres Bonifacio (FF-17).

Two Gregorio del Pilar-class frigates (former Hamilton-class cutters) of the Philippine Navy during naval exercises with the US Navy 

And, it seems the Philippine Navy is fitting them for ASW once more, with ELAC SONAR GmbH, a German supplier of hydroacoustic systems, announcing recently that it completed sea acceptance tests of the HUNTER 2.0 hull-mounted sonar for the class.

The company notes:

HUNTER 2.0 is a hull-mounted sonar carrying out anti-submarine warfare (ASW) in active and passive modes in shallow and deep waters for panoramic detection of submarines and other objects.

As for teeth, the PI last year contacted with the UK SEA firm for its Torpedo Launcher System (TLS) for a class of corvettes being built in South Korea. It is not a stretch they could add a few more to the contract for the old Hamiltons, and in fact, the presser at the time said clearly: “The contract follows the successful delivery of SEA’s TLS for the Philippine Navy’s frigates.”

SEA’s TLS is a weapon-agnostic, close range and rapid-reaction system capable of firing a variety of NATO-compatible standard light weight torpedoes, including the US Mk44, Mk46 and Mk54 torpedoes, UK Sting Ray, Italian A244S, French MU90 and the Korean Blue Shark.

100K Brens & Hi-Powers for points East and West (and counting)

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80 years ago this week: A plant celebration for the 100,000th Bren gun built at the John Inglis and Co. factory, Toronto, Canada, 20 August 1943.

Photographer: Alexandra Studio. August 20, 1943. City of Toronto Archives. Series 1057, Item 2180

Another shot of the above from a different angle. Note the flags.

The light machine gun with Czech lineage (ZGB 33) had been put into service with the British and Commonwealth armies as early as 1936 and production started of the simplified Mark II (“Garage Hands”) model at Inglis in 1940. 

A beautiful original Kodachrome of a 1st Canadian Division soldier with Bren gun in England, 1940. Note the “tortoise” No.3 helmet

The company delivered 143,000 .303 models to Commonwealth and European allies and another 43,000 8mm Mauser variants to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist Chinese– hence the Chinese official speaking and the KMT “cog” flag (modern Taiwan flag) alongside the French and British in the above image.

With that, it only made sense that the 100,000th Bren would go to the KMT. 

Original Toronto Star caption: The gun was entrusted to Maj.-Gen. S. M. Chu, military attache to the Chinese embassy in Washington. Gen. Chu. holding the gun is shown with Dr. Liu Shih Shun, the Chinese minister plenipotentiary to Canada. Both expressed their country’s thanks to Canada and the workers. The City of Toronto Archives TSPA_0110116F

At this stage of production at Inglis, the company was peaking at some 10,000 guns per month in addition to 9mm Hi-Power production. At the time, 18,000 workers were working around the clock on 5,000 machines.

Veronica Foster, “Ronnie, the Bren Gun Girl”, was arguably the most famous Inglis war production worker.

A real assembler from the Bren line and not a model, she was photographed for a campaign spearheaded by the National Film Board and predated the American “Rosie the Riveter” campaign, going on to be a cultural icon.

Of note, the 100,000th Canadian Automatic Pistol (Hi-Power) was made by John Inglis co. on 21 August.

Rare Back Bay Dolphin

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The Harrison County (Mississippi) Library System’s Local History and Genealogy Department recently posted this great snapshot from the Joe Scholtes Collection, showing the old U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Biloxi.

Formed in 1934, USCGAS Biloxi was built on the City’s 18-acre Point Cadet Park, which was (and still is) located on Biloxi’s eastern edge with direct access to Biloxi’s Back Bay. Soon, Public Works Administration funds of some $290,000 went towards a 120×100 ft. (12,000 square foot) steel-framed, asbestos-sided hangar with offices and maintenance shops along each side, a seaplane ramp, a radio station (“NOX”), E-shaped barracks, mess hall, garage, and crash boat dock which was completed in 1938. The peacetime complement, to support three aircraft, was about 10 officers and 35 enlisted.

By early 1935, even while the barracks and facility were still being built, the station’s first amphibian aircraft, two Grumman JF-2 Ducks (#163 and #164) and a single Douglas RD-4 Dolphin (#132) had arrived and were in operation. While JF-2s were fairly common, with hundreds operated by the Navy, the USCG had only acquired 14 of them prior to the war. Likewise, the RD-4 was even rarer, with just 58 Dolphins built, and just 10 of those acquired by the Coast Guard.

Coast Guard Douglas RD-4 “Alloth” (V132) taxiing off the Coast Guard Air Station Biloxi, Mississippi. USCG photo

The example shown in the above image of Point Cadet, #132, was named “Alloth” by the Coast Guard and soon transferred (as V127) to Hartford, Connecticut in 1939, dating both of the above images as between 1935-39.

The above image is from 1941. In the far back of the hangar pictured above is a twin-engine PH-2 Hall Aluminum Flying Boat, either V-166 or V-170. Next to it is the single-engine JF-2 Grumman Amphibian V-143. A brand new twin-engine JFR-2 Grumman Amphibian, V-184, pokes its nose into the sunshine.

Biloxi Coast Guard Air Station would become the Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum. The structure was destroyed in Katrina

A stylized 1940s postcard made from composite photographs showing two J2F Ducks, three airborne J4F-1 Widgeons, and an RD-4 Dolphin at USCG Air Sta Biloxi at Point Cadet. After 1966, the old hangar was used by the city for concerts and festivals until it was destroyed in Hurricane Katrina

By WWII, Biloxi was squarely in the war, with six USCG-operated Vought-Sikorsky OS2U-3 Kingfisher floatplanes joined by another half dozen Curtiss SO3C-3 Seamew floatplanes which would be very active in ASW work against German U-boats operating in the Gulf and SAR. They would work in pairs with the radar-equipped Seamew acting as the hunter while a Kingfisher, armed with two 325-pound bombs, would be the killer.

In all, from 1942 into 1943, no less than 24 German U-boats patrolled the Gulf of Mexico– the American Sea– sinking 56 Allied vessels of which 39 are in the coastal waters of Florida, Louisiana, and Texas.

By the end of the conflict, the Kingfishers and Seamews had been replaced by longer-ranged J4F-1s, JRFs, and PBY-5As and the base grew to over 300 personnel. U-166, the only German submarine lost in the Gulf, was unsuccessfully attacked by a USCG J4F-1 Widgeon amphibian (#V212) out of Biloxi

Post-war atrophy and shifting needs of the service saw the closure of the base in 1947, with the PBY operations shifting to nearby Keesler AFB, and the old airplane hanger and barracks which would be used by elements of the Mississippi Army National Guard, later become International Plaza then Point Cadet Plaza.

Meanwhile, the Keeseler Coast Guard seaplane detachment was disbanded in 1966, and replaced by helicopter facilities in New Orleans and Mobile.

Point Cadet returned to the City and the hangar was used for events and festivals while the old barracks housed the Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum (MSIM) which was established in 1986. This persisted until Hurricane Katrina in 2005 when both were swept into Back Bay via a 30-foot storm surge.

Since then, Point Cadet has been rebuilt to include a new MSIM and a multi-use outdoor recreational facility– but the old stepped seawall, which used to support the seaplane ramp, is still there.

Plus, the MSIM has the old bell tower from the circa 1930s USCG barracks as well as images and relics from the base on display.

Warship Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023: Copenhagen’s Finest

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Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places. – Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023: Copenhagen’s Finest

Photo by Nationalmuseet, Danmark, THM-30863

Above we see the Royal Danish Navy artilleriskib Niels Juel (also seen as Niels Iuel) in Aarhus harbor. In the background at the quay is the 1,300-ton cargo steamer Slesvig (Schleswig), belonging to the Danish-Fransk shipping company. Note the Danish flag recognition flashes on the warship’s forward turrets. She would give her last full measure for her country some 80 years ago this month.

The Danish Navy

While Denmark had a fairly decent series of light cruisers such as the Valkyrien and a couple of “bathtub battleships” or kystforsvarsskib— Iver Hvitfeldt (3,446 tons, 2 x 10″ guns, 8-inches armor) and Skjold (2,195 tons, 1 x 9.4″, 10 inches armor)– at the turn of the century, as a likely battleground for a tense naval build up between Imperial Germany and Great Britain, the country thought it would be a good idea in the early 1900s to whistle up some more modern warships.

This was exemplified by a trio of Herluf Trolle-class (~3,500 tons, 2 x 9.4″, 4 x 6″, 7 inches armor) coastal battleships completed by 1908.

Postcard for Danish coastal battleship Herluf Trolle THM-30778

Then came plans for a larger, more prestigious vessel that would carry 12-inch guns.

The initial design of this Danish “Orlogskibet” called for an enlarged Herluf Trolle with the 9.4-inch guns swapped out for a pair of Krupp-made 30.5 cm/50 (12″) SK L/50 guns— the same type used on the German Helgoland, Kaiser, König, and Derfflinger battleships and battlecruiser classes– ordered in July 1914 with magazines for some 80 shells for each mount. This armament would be augmented by a secondary battery of eight 10.5 cm/40 (4.1″) SK L/40 guns, the typical armament of many German light cruisers. A true “Balic battleship” akin to what was seen in use by Sweden and Norway at the time.

The thing is, these guns were soon embargoed as the Great War began and Germany was no longer interested in exporting any war material, even to a close neighbor whose neutral window to the west was cherished for numerous reasons.

This left the new vessel, which was laid down in September 1914 at Orlogsverftet, Copenhagen, to be launched in July 1918 just to clear the builder’s ways, to languish without guns that would never be delivered.

The future Niels Juel launched at Holmen on 3 July 1918

This left the Danes to come up with another idea.

Meet Niels Juel

The name “Niels Juel” is in honor of the 17th Century Danish admiral and naval hero who, after learning his trade in Dutch service alongside Tromp and De Ruyter, would return home and raise Danish sea power to the point that it was one of the strongest fleets in Europe at the time– and beat the pesky Swedes to boot.

Niels Juel is well remembered in Denmark, and is one of the country’s biggest naval heroes, with a statue at Holmen Canal in Copenhagen.

The first ship named in his honor, the 190-foot 42-gun screw frigate Niels Juel, built in 1856, would be one of three Danish warships under Commodore Edouard Suenson to fight the curious and brutal 13-hour long Battle of Helgoland— the last naval battle fought by squadrons of wooden ships in Europe– against Austrian Commodore Wilhelm von Tegetthoff’s stronger force in 1864 during the Second Schleswig War. She would survive the fight and be disarmed in 1888, kept as a barracks and training hulk into 1910.

Onboard the frigate Niels Juel during the Battle of Heligoland, May 9th, 1864, by Christian Mølsted ca. 1897-98 (left) and Battle of Helgoland by Ludwig Rubelli von Sturmfest, right, showing the Danish battle fleet in action against the Austrians.

This set up our new would-be-battleship for a great name to inherit.

With her original set of German guns never arriving, the Danes hit on an idea to convert the unfinished battleship to a gunnery training ship used for seagoing training of midshipmen, displacing some 4,350 tons, and running 295 feet oal.

Her armament would be an all-up battery of 10 Krupp 15 cm SK L/45 guns— which were still available postwar– directed by two Zeiss rangefinders, augmented by four of 57mm (14 pounders) A.B.K. L/30 AAA guns, and a pair of submerged port and starboard 17.7-inch torpedo tubes with room for four heater style fish. The machinery would be a quartet of British-supplied Yarrow boilers (two coal, two oil-fired) powering triple expansion engines for a total of 5,500 hp on two screws– good for 16 knots. Armor was Krupp-style cemented plate made by Bethlehem in the U.S. and include a 7.75-inch amidships belt, 6 inches on the bulkheads and CT, and 2 inches on the gun shields and deck.

Niels Juel’s plan via 1931 edition of Janes.

She was not completed to this modified plan until 23 May 1923, her construction spanning almost a decade. Still the largest ship in the Danish fleet, she was the local equivalent of the HMS Hood as far as Copenhagen was concerned although the three smaller Herluf Trolle-class vessels carried larger (9.4 inch) guns.

The 1930s fleet was rounded out by some 20-30 assorted torpedo boats, a dozen small submarines, and a host of sloops (including the old HMS Asphodel sold to Denmark in 1920 and renamed Fylla), mine warfare vessels, and fisheries patrol boats.

The Royal Danish Navy’s silhouettes, circa 1931, via Janes.

Happy service

Soon after she entered service, Niels Juel became the command ship for the Artillery School and for the Training Squadron. She immediately embarked on a series of visits to Danish colonies in the Faroe Islands and Iceland, as well as port calls in neighboring friendly ports such as Bergen, Leith, and Gothenburg.

October 1923 saw her complete a six-month cruise to South America.

The battleship Niels Juel with Christmas greetings from Rio de Janeiro, 1923. Note her early tripod mast. THM-16006

Niels Juel (built 1918) at the quay in Køge Havn, seen to port. A Hansa-Brandenburg W. 29 (HM1) reconnaissance aircraft with the number 26 is seen in the air. Taken in the 1920s. THM-26156

THM-39469

She carried Danish King Christian X to the Faeroe Islands and Iceland in June 1926, then again in 1930, as well as a royal trip to Finland in 1928 and a Mediterranean trip in 1929 which included bringing a Danish delegation to the Barcelona Universal Exposition. These trips were commemorated by Danish maritime artist Benjamin Olsen and are in the archives of the Forsvarsgalleriet.

Niels Juel at the Trøllkonufingur in the Faroe Islands on June 6, 1926. The Niels Juel carried the Danish King Christian X to the Faeroe Islands and Iceland in June 1926, accompanied by two other Danish naval vessels. Benjamin Olsen seems to have been part of the entourage. By Benjamin Olsen 1926 via the Forsvarsgalleriet.

The Niels Juel saluting the Finnish State vessel Eläköön. The experts at Bruun Rasmussen assumed that the occasion was the visit of the Danish King Christian X to Finland in May 1928. The Eläköön was built in 1886 while Finland was still a part of the Russian Empire. It served as a pilot ship, and after 1918 it was retained in Finland as a state ship, serving also as a presidential yacht when needed. By Benjamin Olsen 1928 via the Forsvarsgalleriet.

The Niels Juel saluting Spanish dignitaries in the Harbor of Barcelona during the 1929 Barcelona Universal Exposition. The Niels Juel visited Barcelona as part of a Mediterranean training cruise for aspiring officers. To the left are seen two Italian Turbine class destroyers, the Euro (ER) and the Nembo (NB). By Benjamin Olsen 1929 via the Forsvarsgalleriet

Niels Juel and Fylla in Oslo, Norway July 7, 1930. The paintings show the Danish coastal defense ship Niels Juel (left) and the gunboat Fylla saluting the Norwegian King in Olso. The two vessels carried the Danish king Christian X to the Faeroe Islands and Iceland from June 1930, so this visit must have been on their way home to Copenhagen. Benjamin Olsen seems to have been part of the entourage. By Benjamin Olsen 1930 via the Forsvarsgalleriet.

The coastal defense ship Niel Juel gun-saluting at Iceland. Between 1923 and 1939. By Benjamin Olsen. Auctioned at Sotheby’s, London on November 30, 2005. Lot W05705/215.

Coast defense ship Niels Juel Danish Naval Museum gallery artist Benjamin Olsen Denmark

Other trips around the Med in the winter months and the Baltic in the summer were common throughout the 1930s.

A series of incremental upgrades and modernizations between 1929 and 1936 saw a new mainmast fitted, her old 3-meter Zeiss rangefinders replaced by much more effective 6-meter models and her four 57mm AAA guns swapped out in favor of 10 more modern Madsen/DISA 20mm cannons, the latter one of the better AAA guns of the 1930s.

HDMS Niels Juel pictured on sea trials at Copenhagen post her major refit on July 10th, 1936 courtesy of Mr. Brian James

Niels Juel (Danish Coast Defense Ship, 1918-1952) Photographed after July 1, 1936, following a refit to receive a new mainmast. NH 88491 & THM-22287

Photographed circa 1938. NH 88492

Artillery ship Niels Juel, new post-1936 mast and bridge, flanked by 5.9-inch guns. THM-39470

War!

Denmark tried to be as neutral in WWII as it had been in 1914-1918 but Germany wasn’t having it and blitzkrieged the country in a lopsided invasion (Operation Weserübung – Süd) on 9 April 1940. The interwar Danish government, which had been controlled by socialists in the 1920s and 30s, had gutted the military and, while the rest of Europe was girding for the next war, the Danes were laying off career officers, disbanding regiments and basically burning the bridge before they even crossed it.

Five Danish soldiers with a 37mm anti-tank gun outside Hertug Hansgades Hospital in Haderslev on the morning of 9 April 1940 Denmark. They were ordered to lay down their arms before noon.

This made the German invasion, launched at 0400 that morning, a walkover of sorts, and by 0800 the word had come down from Copenhagen to the units in the field to stand down and just let it happen. That doesn’t mean isolated Danish units didn’t bloody the Germans up a bit. In fact, they inflicted some 200 casualties on the invaders while suffering relatively few (36) of their own. (More on that in detail here)

The peace agreement reached with Berlin allowed the country to still be sort of independent, although extensively garrisoned by the Germans, while the Danish military would still be allowed to exist, just deprived of fuel, and largely kept under lock and key by their new friends.

Of course, that didn’t stop extensive Free Danish forces to be formed overseas, most of the Danish merchant marine to sail for the Allies– over 5,000 Danish merchant sailors manned over 800,000 tons of shipping for the Allies, many never to be seen again– and the training ship Danmark, in the U.S. in 1940, to train over 5,000 Americans for while operating for the USCG. Two small Danish Navy fisheries patrol boats, Maagen and Ternen, were in Greenland and would serve the Allies.

God Save the King, God Save Denmark, Destroy the Ship!

Then came August 1943, with Danish workers on strike in Odense and Esbjergwhen and a growing homegrown resistance movement, the Germans decided that, with the invasion of Sicily and the perceived increased threat to an Allied invasion in Northwest Europe, they enacted Unternehmen Safari (Operation Safari), a “state of emergency” and on 29 August 1943 the Danish government and military had its mandate canceled.

There was resistance, with the Danish military suffering about 100 casualties and inflicting about 70 on the Germans. Many armories had a chance to spike their weapons and remove the bolts from their rifles before the Germans swarmed in.

Danish weapons after the disarmament of the Danish soldiers on 29 August 1943 at Næstved Barracks in connection with the state of emergency. The weapons were destroyed before being seized. FHM-170310

As for the Navy, in a pre-arranged signal and in an ode to the epic scuttlings of the Dutch fleet at Java and the Vichy French fleet at Toulon the previous March and November, respectively, Danish RADM Aage Helgesen Vedel flashed a prearranged signal– K N U — instructing all his crews to attempt to sail for neutral Sweden or scuttle their ships.

Across Denmark, the Danes gave their own fleet the hard goodbye and fought off the arriving Germans in the process, with at least nine Danish sailors killed and around a dozen seriously wounded in the process.

Some 32 Danish ships– two-thirds of the fleet– were wrecked within hours. An impressive feat considering most were in and around Copenhagen and the fast-moving German troops were literally pulling up at the docks while the scuttlings were underway. The Germans kicked off Safari at 0400, Vedel flashed his order at 0408, the first scuttling charge was blown at 0413, and the last one went off at 0435.

Following the operation, the senior-most German Kriegsmarine officer in Denmark, VADM Hans-Heinrich Wurmbach, told Vedel, “We have both done our duty.”

Danish warships after the fleet’s sinking at Holmen in connection with the state of emergency on 29 August 1943. From the right is seen the artillery ship Peder Skram, torpedo boat Vb. 2, and the motor torpedo boat Hvalrossen (only the masts are visible). In the background is the frigate Fyn. FHM-166686

Danish warships at Holmen after the sinking of the fleet in connection with the state of emergency on 29 August 1943. Here the minesweepers Laaland (right) and Lougen (left) are seen sunk in the Søminegraven. FHM-166766

Danish warships at Holmen after the sinking of the fleet in connection with the state of emergency on 29 August 1943. In the foreground are the submarines Bellona and Havmanden. Behind these workshop ship, Henrik Gerner. FHM-166843

Sailors with life belts on board the inspection ship Hvidbjørnen before the ship was sunk in Storebælt off Korsør on 29 August 1943. The sinking took place in connection with the state of emergency on 29 August. FHM-167263

The minesweeper Søbjørnen on Holmen after the sinking of the fleet in connection with the state of emergency on 29 August 1943. FHM-166994

The minesweeper Lougen on Holmen after the sinking in connection with the state of emergency on 29 August 1943. FHM-166807

Assorted Danish submarines scuttled including C-3. THM-21265

Only 14 Danish ships were taken intact by the Germans, but they were generally of low value (survey ships, minesweepers, inspection boats, barracks ships, etc.), were decommissioned, or were still under construction and uncrewed.

Four small fast movers– the torpedo boat Havkatten, and the 80-foot minesweepers MS 1, MS 7, and MS 9, reached the safety of Sweden– where they formed a Danish naval flotilla in exile that would sail back with their flags flying proudly in May 1945.

The torpedo boat Havkatten, which escaped to Sweden on 29 August 1943, returns to Copenhagen on 11 May 1945. Her 27-member crew at this point manned two 57mm AAA guns and a 40mm Bofors. FHM22287

But what about our Niels Juel?

The pride of the Danish fleet was the largest warship flying the Dannebrog to attempt to displace to Sweden. Unfortunately, with a speed of just 14 knots and harried by German Heinkels and Stukas, she couldn’t clear the water from Holbaek to Malmo.

Niels Juel leaves Copenhagen, on 26 August 43, on her last trip. Note the Danish recognition flash added after 1940. FHM-165422

The running battle saw the Danish ship, under skipper CDR Carl Westermann, exchange hot fire with German bombers, then, once the outcome was clear, strike her flag and leave her on the bottom, suffering five casualties. It is known today in Denmark as the Battle of the Isefjord.

The artillery ship Niels Juel is bombarded by German planes north of Hundested, when the ship, according to orders, searched for a Swedish port on 29 August 1943. FHM-167241

As told by one of her officers, in a 1945 issue of Proceedings:

August 27th, we had called at Holbaek and were supposed to stay over Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I had leave from Sunday, 9:00 P.M. and intended to take a trip home. We understood that something was wrong because nobody got liberty Friday night, and I figured I had to give up the idea of going home. Friday night at 11:00 P.M. orders were given to fire up under all boilers and to prepare to leave port any minute- Rumors went wild all over the ship and Saturday afternoon two of our men went up to the commander, Captain Westermann, and requested an explanation. We were told that we were supposed to defend ourselves with all means if necessary. So, we knew that this was it. We reinforced all watches, and when I had to go on watch at 4:00 A.M. nobody doubted any longer that something would happen. I served as messenger for the Captain and I had just brought him a message when he came out to the commander of the watch and gave the order “Clear ship for action.” Within a moment all guns were manned.

It was pitch dark, but it did not last long until all was in readiness and with the first sign of dawn breaking, we left the pier. I had managed to get a letter on shore which I had written the evening before. In it I had given an account of the situation. Little did I expect to see any of you again. It seemed to me that there was only one way out. To try to escape to Sweden or fight until the ship sank.

It was a gray morning with low-hanging clouds. We were looking out sharply for enemy planes. The tug which had towed us lowered the flag and everybody aboard took off their hats as we passed by.

We sighted a German plane at the horizon but it disappeared soon. We hoisted ammunition up to the big guns on our way out. While sailing through the Isefjord, coffee was brought up to us. Nothing was rationed any longer and we distributed all our cigarettes among the gun crews. Morale was high and everybody was in good spirits in spite of the seriousness of the situation.

After having traveled for half an hour, orders were given for action stations. The enemy had been sighted off Hundested, one heavy cruiser and two destroyers. We were out of range, as yet, but everything was being prepared. Their superiority was definite but we had to engage them and we wanted to.

We were right off the pier of Hundested when one of our mine-sweepers signaled that the enemy had mined the entrance of the firth all night long. From the bridge we were told that we would try to force the barrage some 400 meters from land and hold our course. Only a moment later, we saw bombers circling around us at proper distances but we could not see how many there were as they kept flying in and out of the clouds. Suddenly a Heinkels dived on us, strafing our deck with cannon fire. A few were wounded. The plane disappeared in a jiffy, but by now we were all set. The next one got a hot welcome and was shot down. The next again dropped two heavy bombs which narrowly missed our quarter-deck, while a couple of others strafed our deck with cannon. It was almost unbearable. Shell fragments and projectiles kept on whizzing around us. It was hardly believable that so few of us were killed or wounded. One howled terribly, another was taken down to the sickbay on a stretcher unconscious. A mate came running along and told me that warrant officer Andreasen was killed. He was gun captain of an anti-aircraft gun. The gun had been hit and the crew had taken cover. I ran up there right away and found him lying on the platform. I thought him dead but suddenly he moved and groaned. At that moment, two planes dived and opened fire. That was the only time I got the chills. There was no cover so I flung myself down and grasped Andreasen’s hand. The poor soul yelled when they started shooting. He had been hit in the belly and was scared. A big iron splinter struck off the platform. The whole deck was desolate, only the gun captains had taken cover behind the rail after sending their crews down. Only the anti-aircraft guns remained manned but, of course, they were the only ones which had something to harvest.

When the planes had gone, another warrant officer came and got Andreasen down. In the meantime, however, the captain had received orders to go back: the enemy ships had been reinforced.

Then came the Stukas.

They came howling and screaming from ’way up high and let go their bombs. The detonation seemed to be right under us and we jumped up into the air. All lights in the whole ship went out, and we discovered a leak in the port coal bunkers. The bunker door in the deck was flung up, and people on land told us later that the only thing visible of the whole ship was the stem. It was probably two 250-kilo bombs. Now we set the course toward land for full speed and prepared to abandon ship. The Diesel engines were smashed and we had to pack the most necessary things in complete darkness. When we took the ground, foot valves were removed and thrown overboard and all suction valves were opened. The ship went down and sank deeply into the bottom.

Niels Juel (built 1918) bombed and set aground in the Isefjord on 29 August 1943. THM-21411

“The artillery ship Niels Juel ran aground in Nykøbing Bay after an unsuccessful attempt to sail to Sweden on 29 August 1943. The escape attempt took place in connection with the state of emergency on 29 August. The ship is salvaged by a salvage vessel from Svitzer.” FHM-167255

Sadly, the Germans were able to raise the damaged Dane in October, and, landing her guns for use in coastal fortifications, tow her to Kiel for repairs. They ultimately put her back into service as the training ship Nordland in September 1944, operating in Polish waters.

Niels Juel as a German cadet ship, with the guns removed as training ship “Nordland”. FHM-167262

Ex-Niels Juel/Nordland withdrew to Kiel to escape the oncoming Soviets and, at the end of the line, was scuttled in May 1945 in the Eckernførde inlet in 92 feet of water.

Epilogue

The Germans interned most of the captured Danish sailors and officers such as at the Tårnborglejeren arena and at the KB-Hallen arena in Frederiksberg to include Westermann and Vedel.

Danish sailors interned in KB Hallen. The dormitory is arranged on an indoor tennis court. Note the triple-decker bunks. FHM-170704

Operation Safari cost the Danish Navy six men were killed and 11 injured, while 258 officers and 2,961 ratings were taken into custody.

Ice distribution in Tårnborglejeren near Korsør, where the crews from the inspection ships Hvidbjørnen and Ingolf were interned after the Germans declared a state of emergency on 29 August 1943. FHM-174949

The sites closed in October 1943 and the men were paroled.

Most subsequently took to a range of resistance activities.

Vedel began interfacing with the British and, in May 1945 when the Allies came to liberate Denmark, immediately began working with Royal Navy VADM Reginald Vesey Holt to supervise German disarmament and minesweeping work. He later served as the Danish Flag Officer to NATO, retired from the Navy in 1958, and passed in 1981.

The usable 5.9-inch guns from Niels Juel, which were landed in Denmark before the hulk was towed to Kiel, were installed by the Germans in a new coastal defense fort near Frederiksberg to defend the Jutland peninsula. Surrendered to the Danes in 1945, they remained in service until 1962 and Bangsbo Fort is today a museum. 

M270 bunker med 150mm Bofors kanon fra Niels Juel by Carsten Wiehe via Wikimedia

The wreck of the old Niels Juel was sold by the Danish government to the salvage firm of Em. Z. Svitzer in 1952, and most of the superstructure was raised to be scrapped. Her hull, however, is still in the Eckernførde.

The Danes reused her name, with the third Niels Juel being the lead ship (F 354) of a class of handy corvettes that remained in service from 1980 to 2009.

Starboard-bow view of the Danish Navy Frigate HMDS Niels Juel (F 354) underway in the Baltic Sea on the coast of Ventspil, Latvia, while participating in BALTOPS 2005. 330-CFD-DN-SD-07-00068

The fourth Niels Juel (F 363) is an Iver Huitfeldt class frigate that was laid down in 2006 and commissioned in 2011. Her motto is Nec Temere, Nec Timide (Neither reckless nor timid).

Ships are more than steel
and wood
And heart of burning coal,
For those who sail upon
them know
That some ships have a
soul.

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So long, R/P FLIP 

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As easily explained by the Marine Physical Laboratory of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, “FLIP, the FLoating Instrument Platform, is not a ship, but a 355-foot-long research platform that can be deployed for oceanographic research.”

Maybe a picture or three would help:

330-PSA-149-62 (USN 1060451): A new oceanographic research vessel – Floating Instrument Platform (FLIP), has been constructed for the Marine Physical Laboratory of Scripps Institution of Oceanography under contract to the Office of Naval Research. When the craft is flipped to a vertical position, the bow section remains above, water, shown here are the plan view and inboard elevation of the research craft. Photograph released May 25, 1962

330-PSA-149-62 (USN 1060451): A new oceanographic research vessel – Floating Instrument Platform (FLIP), has been constructed for the Marine Physical Laboratory of Scripps Institution of Oceanography under contract to the Office of Naval Research. When the craft is flipped to a vertical position, the bow section remains above, water, shown here are the plan view and inboard elevation of the research craft. Photograph released May 25, 1962

Offical caption: Floating Instrument Platform (FLIP). FLIP is in the vertical position. Photograph released August 7, 1962. Master caption: A new type of oceanographic research vessel – Floating Instrument Platform (FLIP) – is undergoing operational tests by the U.S. Navy in Dabob Bay, near Seattle, Washington. FLIP has been constructed for the Marine Physical Laboratory of Scrupps Institution of Oceanography under contract to the Office of Naval Research. The craft can literally flip from a horizontal to a vertical position while at sea. FLIP is flipped into the vertical position by flooding its long aft section with sea water. Only its “four story” bow section remains above the water. To return the vessel to a horizontal position, high pressure air blows the water out of the submerged section. FLIP will be used for studies of wave motion, marine biology, internal waves, sound waves, and other phenomena. The vessel has accommodation for four people and can carry enough supplies to last for about two weeks. In the vertical position, the research laboratories, living quarters, and engine room are above the water. Two diesel engines supply electrical power for air conditioning and other miscellaneous electrical equipment. Two waterfront tubes permit the crew to descent to 150 feet below the water. Upon completion of the tests in Dabob Bay, FLIP will be towed to San Diego, California, to begin its sea voyages. 330-PSA-207-62 (USN 1061426)

Scripps created FLIP with funding from the Office of Naval Research as it was seen at the time (1962) as a platform that could help better understand the mechanics behind wave height, acoustic signals, water temperature, and density– all valuable things when it comes to submarines and ASW.

The 355-foot, 700 GT vessel was unpowered and had to be towed to/from her location, where she had a trio of diesel generators (on rotating beds) to deliver electricity. She could remain “flipped” with a crew of a dozen researchers for as many as 35 days, long enough for the local fish to use her as structure.

A wild concept, FLIP in action was always neat to see, and I remember watching videos like this back in the 1970s and being blown away by the vessel.

As with everything, especially everything Cold War era maritime, FLIP has come to an end of her useful life, and was recently towed off to be scrapped.

“FLIP set the stage for thinking big about what could be done with technology to enable new scientific discoveries,” said Scripps’ Marine Physical Laboratory (MPL) Director Eric Terrill. “It was built in an era of risk-taking; a spirit that we try to embrace to this day and encourage in the next generation of seagoing scientists.”

The venerable spar vessel has been towed off for the last time, but a piece of it remains at Scripps. The institution has arranged for one of FLIP’s booms to be removed and mounted onto a pier, where it will continue to be used to deploy instruments into the water.

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