*As I am on the road this week at SHOT Show, trying to blend into the understated kaleidoscope carpet of the Venitian, please accept this humble offering. We shall resume the regular-length WW posts next week.*
Today is the 112th anniversary of the very first documented aircraft landing onboard a ship. The occasion, on 18 January 1911, took place when pioneering (and ill-fated) aviator Eugene Burton Ely touched down onboard USS Pennsylvania (Armored Cruiser No. 4)while the warship was anchored in San Francisco Bay. Taking back off from the vessel later that day, he then made his return flight back to Tanforan Field ashore.
The event was captured in a very interesting series of photographs– especially for the age of giant large format box cameras– now digitized in the U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command.
Crewmembers of merchant sailing ships at San Francisco, California, watching during the morning of 18 January 1911, as aviator Eugene Ely landed his Curtiss pusher biplane on board USS Pennsylvania (Armored Cruiser # 4), which was anchored off the city. Photograph from the Eugene B. Ely scrapbooks. NH 77569
First airplane landing on a warship, on 18 January 1911. Eugene B. Ely lands his Curtiss pusher biplane on USS Pennsylvania (Armored Cruiser # 4), which was anchored in San Francisco Bay, California. The San Francisco waterfront is visible in the left distance. NH 77498
Eugene B. Ely’s Curtiss pusher biplane nears the landing platform on USS Pennsylvania (Armored Cruiser # 4), during the morning of 18 January 1911. The ship was then anchored in San Francisco Bay, California. Photograph from the Eugene B. Ely scrapbooks. NH 77500
Ely’s Curtiss pusher biplane nears the landing platform on USS Pennsylvania (Armored Cruiser # 4), during the morning of 18 January 1911. NH 82737
Ely’s biplane is about to touch down. Note the arresting system, consisting of lines stretched across the platform, with sandbag weights at each end. The lines, which were to be engaged by hooks on the airplane, were held above the deck by two rows of boards laid fore and aft. Canvas awnings were erected on both sides of the platform to catch the plane (and pilot) if it veered over the edge. Also note at least two box cameras set up in the foreground. NH 77507
Note that Ely has his elevator down to compensate for an unexpected updraft the plane encountered as it came over the landing platform’s after end. NH 77607
The plane has now caught the first lines of the arresting gear, and sandbags at the ends of the lines are being pulled along the landing platform as the plane moves forward. NH 77608
Ely’s biplane at rest on board USS Pennsylvania. Ely (with rubber inner tubes around his shoulders, and wearing a leather helmet) has dismounted from the plane and is talking with a man standing in front of the plane. Note the sandbags attached to lines behind the plane, used to stop it after it reached the deck. NH 77609
The officer in the lower left is Lieutenant John Rodgers, who would become an airplane pilot a few months later, the second Naval Aviator. NH 77610
Ely has now walked out of view, to the left. Photograph from the Eugene B. Ely scrapbooks. NH 77583
Ship’s crewmen and guests looking over Eugene B. Ely’s Curtiss pusher biplane, shortly after his successful landing on USS Pennsylvania (Armored Cruiser # 4). Some of the Sailors are removing the sandbag and line arresting gear behind the plane. Photograph from the Eugene B. Ely scrapbooks. NH 77503
Guests and crewmen examine and photograph Eugene B. Ely’s Curtiss pusher biplane on USS Pennsylvania’s aircraft platform, during preparations for his return flight to Tanforan field, San Francisco, California. Ely’s wife, Mabel, is standing with the photographers in front of the plane. Photograph from the Eugene B. Ely scrapbooks. NH 77591
Crewmen and guests examine Ely’s Curtiss pusher biplane on USS Pennsylvania’s aircraft platform, after it had been rotated during preparations for his return flight to Tanforan field, San Francisco, California. Note the photographers (with large box cameras) near the platform’s after end. Sailors nearby are clearing away sandbags used to help stop the plane as it landed. Photograph from the Eugene B. Ely scrapbooks.NH 77589
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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The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.
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The below image details Queen Liliuokalani’s 272-man Royal Household Guard being disarmed by Col. John Harris Soper, late of the California National Guard and a former Marshal of the Kingdom of Hawaii, following the overthrow of the monarchy in January 1893, while outgoing Captain of the Guard Samuel Nowlein looks toward the camera beside the bowler-hatted Soper. The Hawaiians stacked arms, turned over equipment, and list to “The Authority” notice read by Colonel Soper, who had been appointed commander-in-chief of military forces of the Provisional Government of Hawaii the day before.
Hawaii State Archives: Call Number: PP-54-1-001
Note the Union Army-style sack coats and kepis over white canvas trousers, and stacked “Trapdoor” Model 1873 Springfield breechloaders with Mills-style cartridge belts atop.
A small force of about 16 men were left to provide a ceremonial detachment to serve Liliuokalani in exile for another year or so.
Royal Guards in front of the house of Queen Lili’uokalani (known as Washington Place), circa 1893. Pictured here is the “fallen Queen’s house,” Washington Place, and the guard of sixteen, plus their captain. Photograph by Hedemann, 1893. It appears Nowlein is to the left, armed with a sword. Courtesy of the Bishop Museum.
As outlined by Lillich, on the Forcible Protection of Nationals Abroad, in International Law Studies, Vol 77, Boston’s Marines and Bluejackets were landed under the old “protection of lives and property” pretext:
When Queen Liliuokalani informed her cabinet that she planned to promulgate a new autocratic constitution by royal edict, some of her ministers informed the prominent American residents of the islands. These Americans requested the support of the U.S. Minister, John H. Stevens, and the protection of the U.S. Navy. Stevens arranged to have a detachment from the fifth USS Boston, a protected cruiser, land at Honolulu on 16 January 1893, for the ostensible purpose of protecting American lives and property. Curious to their stated purpose, the Americans were not stationed near American property, but rather were located where they might most easily intimidate the Queen.
The American presence served its function and on 17 January, Liliuokalani’s opponents deposed her and established a provisional government under the presidency of Sanford B. Dole. The provisional government requested that the United States assume the role of a protectorate over the islands. Mr. Stevens complied with the request and raised the American flag on 1 February. The Boston landed another detachment of Marines that same day, increasing the number of American forces in Honolulu to about 150 men. Subsequently, there was a change of administration in Washington, with President Cleveland disavowing the actions of Mr. Stevens.
On 1 April 1893, the American flag was hauled down and the landing force withdrew.
Sources: Baily 429-33; Ellsworth 93; Offutt 72-73
Fine screen halftone reproduction of a photograph of the USS Boston’s landing force on duty at the Arlington Hotel, Honolulu, at the time of the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy, January 1893. Lieutenant Lucien Young, USN, commanded the detachment and is presumably the officer at right. The original photograph is in the Archives of Hawaii. This halftone was published prior to about 1920. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. NH 56555
Going further down the rabbit hole, the dour Soper, aged 46 in the top image, would become Adjutant General and Chief of Staff of the National Guard of the Republic of Hawaii and then the Hawaii Territorial Militia in 1900 when the islands were formally absorbed by the U.S., retaining that post through 1907 when he retired at the rank of brigadier general. Of note, he managed Soper, Wright & Company, a large sugar plantation on the Big Island.
The National Guard of Hawaii, formed to serve the Hawaiian Republic from 1893-1898, was a battalion-sized unit comprised of two companies of mostly whites recruited in Honolulu (most of the former Honolulu Rifles), one company of Portuguese volunteers, and one of Germans. Hawaii State Archives
As for Nowlein, the native Hawaiian and devoted monarchist would later play a big role in the so-called Wilcox Rebellion in 1895, named such due to its leader, Robert William Kalanihiapo Wilcox, a surveyor with experience in the Italian Army. Nowlein’s and Wilcox’s ~500-man force of Royalists would fight the much-larger Republican Hawaii National Guard, which was augmented by two companies of U.S. Army regulars and a battalion of local Citizen’s Guard volunteers, in three pitched battles across three days, ultimately failing. Pardoned of most of a resulting five-year prison sentence, the last Captian of the Queen’s Guard died in 1905.
In 1916, the U.S. Army’s 32nd Infantry Regiment was first organized at Schofield Barracks on Oahu. At its activation, it was known as “The Queen’s Own” Regiment, a title bestowed by the deposed last queen of Hawaiʻi, Liliʻuokalani. Although it long ago left Hawaii (1/32 has been part of the 10th Mountain Division in New York since 1996), it still retains the nickname as part of its lineage.
32nd Inf memorial on Fort Benning. Note the islander’s “Kamehameha” war cap and “The Queens Own” scroll
The Royal Guard would remain disbanded for 70 years.
In 1963, the state enrolled a small ceremonial guard, outfitted in pith helmets and Trapdoor Springfields, to be the Royal Guards of Hawaii. Drawn from members of the Hawaiin Air National Guard, each of its 42 volunteers has to be of full or partial Hawaiian descent.
As noted by the state:
They were re-established on November 16, 1963, marking the beloved 19th-century monarch King Kalakauka’s birthday celebration. Members of the unit go to great lengths to maintain period-correct uniforms, even refurbish original helmets all on volunteer hours, and use the Hawaiian language to call commands during their drills and ceremony. The members of the Royal Guard help the state and its Guard members to connect to their unique place in history serving as reminders of the heritage and history of their forbearers.
Hawaii Air National Guardʻs Royal Guard posts ceremonial watch on the anniversary of refounding, November 16, 2021. (US Air National Guard Photos by Master Sgt. Andrew Lee Jackson)
80 years ago this week. Official caption: “A Daimler armored car opens fire in the gloom of early morning at the start of the Battle for Tripoli, 18 January 1943.” The car is likely of the famed 11th Hussars (Prince Albert’s Own), attached to the 7th Armored Division’s “Desert Rats,” who both used them in North Africa and were present in the Tunis campaign.
Photo by Keating G (Capt), No 1 Army Film & Photographic Unit, IWM collection E 21333
Note the infantrymen behind, their .303 SMLEs at the ready. They would need them. Over the course of the next five days, Montgomery’s 8th Army would fight one of their last battles with the Afrika Korps and enter Tripoli on the morning of 23 January after Rommel abandoned the town.
When it comes to the Daimler armored car, the company made almost 2,700 of these light (7.6 ton) 4x4s during the conflict. Clad in just 7-to-16mm of steel plate, they were only proof against small arms rounds and shrapnel but were toast to anything .50 caliber or above. Nonetheless, they we fast, capable of 50 mph on good roads and handy both in the open and in built-up areas due to their size.
Canadian Daimler Mk. 1 Scout Car, Sallenelles, France, LAC 4233182, original color
They proved effective in their standard (40mm Ordnance QF 2-pounder) and Mk I CS variants (with a 76mm gun) enough to remain in use with the 11th Hussars in Northern Ireland as late as 1960 and with Commonwealth and Middle Eastern countries until at least 2012.
The smallest military force in NATO with the possible exception of the Icelandic Coast Guard, Luxembourg actually has a rich military tradition going back to 963. An unwilling participant in both World Wars– the country was the first one that the Kaiser’s troops passed through on the way to Belgium and France– it was one of the original 12 states that created NATO in 1949. After all, “Free Luxembourg” troops (whose rank and file included members of the Duchal family) organized in England in WWII had helped liberate the country while others fought as insurgents in the countryside. They were even given their own slice of Germany to occupy post-war as recognition of this.
By 1954, the country of just 300,000 had expanded its military to a full brigade battle group of some 5,200 men and had sent a combat contingent to fight in Korea as part of a Belgo-Luxemburgish battalion.
The below images of the brigade at its peak in the 1970s and 80s– when it was an all-volunteer, professional standing army– show an interesting mix of U.S. M1 helmets and M151 “Mutt” jeeps (with TOW anti-tank launchers) along with Belgian FN FALs and FN MAGs, in largely Dutch/American-pattern uniforms. Similarly, the Dutch, who were fans of the UZI, seem to have passed on their love of the Israeli SMG for support troops.
Further, the duchy became a staging area for the Western Alliance and in 1967 the joint NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency (NAMSA) was established in Capellen.
As noted by NATO:
In the late 1970s, for example, the Luxembourg government decided to build two gigantic military storage depots, holding 63,000 tons of combat vehicles, machine parts, food, clothing, fuel, and other equipment that the Allies would need in the event of a war. At a public consultation with the local population before construction began, one man wanted to know whether the tanks would make noise at night. He was interrupted by somebody who shouted: ‘”You found the noise of American tanks sweet enough in 1944”.
Today, while the Lëtzebuerger Arméihas dwindled to just 900 or so full-time troops, they are still professional and have gained much international experience in the past 30 years, sending contingents on worldwide deployments. Donating lots of kit to Ukraine since the Russian invasion last year, the Armei has also committed to training Ukrainian troops in Europe.
In further news from the Duchy, the decoration for completing the longstanding Marche Internationale de Diekirch road march, a permanent and wearable foreign award from the Armed Forces of Luxembourg, has been reauthorized by the U.S. Army for American Solders to accept and wear on their dress uniforms, after some controversy.
Currently, Luxembourg is contributing to the NATO multinational battlegroup in Lithuania with a transport and logistics unit, moving supplies and equipment across the country in support of the battlegroup’s mission. The Luxembourgers work alongside troops from Belgium, Czechia, Germany, the Netherlands, and Norway, which are currently part of the battlegroup.
Caption: “Painting by Arthur Beaumont, 1961. USS Duncan (DD-874) leads USS Mansfield (DD-728) and other destroyers into the Yokosuka, Japan, naval base. In the background is the aircraft carrier USS Wasp (CVS-18).”
Naval History and Heritage Command Catalog #: NH 73366-KN
If you aren’t aware of Mr. Beaumont’s work, the NHHC and Navy Museum have lots of it digitized, most suitable for framing. A true maritime artist, he could make even life on a weather-beaten icebreaker or a slow-poking minesweeper seem just as exotic and stirring as serving on a cruiser with a bone in her teeth– just add humble local sailing craft or penguins.
USS Glacier (AGB 4) passes Beaufort Island, Arthur Beaumont. U.S. Navy photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 428-GX-KN 1388
USS Prime (MSO 466), artwork by Arthur Beaumont. U.S. Navy photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Photographed from small reference card. 428-GX-K-42971
NH 94735-KN (Color). USS Providence (CLG-6). Watercolor by Arthur Beaumont, 1965
Warship Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023: The Grounded Shrine
Colorized period photo by Atsushi Yamashita/Monochrome Specter http://blog.livedoor.jp/irootoko_jr/, original in Naval Historical Command archives, NH 58997
Above we see the lead ship of her class of Italian-made armored cruisers, HIJMS Kasuga, making a temporary stay in Tsukushi on its way from Yokosuka to Kure, circa 1904 (Meiji 37). Sourced from a cash-strapped Latin American navy while still under construction and named in honor of a famous Shinto shrine in Nara, this cruiser would endure until the final days of the Empire.
Spaghetti cruisers
Built around the turn of the Century by Gio. Ansaldo & C shipbuilders, Genoa, Italy, as an updated version of the Giuseppe Garibaldi armored cruiser class, the ship that would become Kasuga was designed by Italian naval architect Edoardo Masdea as a vessel only smaller than a 1st-rate (pre-dreadnought) battleship of the era, yet larger and stronger than most cruisers that could oppose it.
The Garibaldi class was innovative (for 1894,) with a 344-foot long/7,200-ton hull capable of making 20 knots and sustaining a range of more than 7,000 nm at 12 when stuffed with enough coal. Although made in Italy, she was almost all-British from her Armstrong batteries to her Bellville boilers, Whitehead torpedoes, and Harvey armor.
Armored with a belt that ran up to 5.9-inches thick, Garibaldi could take hits from faster cruisers and gunboats while being able to dish out punishment from a pair of Elswick (Armstrong) 10-inch guns that no ship smaller than her could absorb. Capable of outrunning larger ships, she also had a quartet of casemate-mounted torpedo tubes and extensive rapid-fire secondary batteries to make life hard on the enemy’s small ships and merchantmen.
These cruisers were designed for power projection on a budget and the Argentine Navy, facing a quiet arms race between Brazil and Chile on each side, needed modern ships. They, therefore, scooped up not only the Garibaldi (commissioned in 1895) but also the follow-on sister ships General Belgrano and General San Martín (built by Orlando of Livorno in 1896) and Genoa-made Pueyrredón (1898) to make a quartet of powerful cruisers. These ships, coupled with a pair of battleships ordered later in the U.S., helped make the Argentine navy for about two decades the eighth most powerful in the world (after the big five European powers, Japan, and the United States), and the largest in Latin America.
The design was well-liked, with Spain moving to buy two (but only taking delivery of one in the end, the ill-fated Cristóbal Colón, which was sunk at the Battle of Santiago de Cuba during the Spanish American War) and Italy electing to purchase five further examples of the type.
Why all the talk about Argentina and Italy?
Well, because Kasuga and her sistership Nisshin were originally ordered by the Italians in 1900 as Roca (#129) and Mitra (Yard #130), respectively, but then sold while still on the ways to Argentina to further flesh out the fleet of that South American country’s naval forces, who dutifully renamed them, respectively, Rivadavia and Mariano Moreno.
At some 8,500 tons (full), these final Garibaldis were 364 feet long overall and were roughly the same speed, and carried the same armor plan (with Terni plate) as their predecessors.
However, they differed in armament, with Mitra/Rivadavia/Kasuga carrying a single 10-inch EOC gun forward and twin 8″/45s aft, while Roca/Moreno/Nisshin carried the twin 8-inchers both forward and aft.
Stern 8″/45 (20.3 cm) turret on armored cruiser Nisshin on 24 October 1908. Ship’s officers with USN officers from USS Missouri (B-11) during “Great White Fleet” around the world cruise. Note the landing guns on the upper platform. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph # NH 82511.
Of note, the same 8-inch EOC guns were also used on other British-built Japanese armored cruisers (Adzuma, Asama, Iwate, Izumo, Tokiwa, and Yakumo) so they weren’t too out of place when Japan took delivery of these ships in 1904 instead of Argentina.
Armstrong 1904 model 20.3 cm 8 inch 45 as installed on Japanese cruisers, including Kasuga
Both Mitra/Rivadavia/Kasuga and Roca/Moreno/Nisshin were launched, fitted out, and ran builders’ trials in Italy under the Argentine flag.
Armada Argentina crucero acorazado ARA Moreno, at 1903 launch. Note Italian and Argentine flags. Colorized photo by Atsushi Yamashita/Monochrome Specter http://blog.livedoor.jp/irootoko_jr/
Nisshin Running trials under the Argentine flag, probably in late 1903, just before her purchase by the Japanese NH 58664
Running trials under the Argentine flag, probably in late 1903, just before her purchase by the Japanese. The photo is credited to her builder Ansaldo. NH 58665
From the same publication as the photo of Nissen, above, NH 58998
Kasuga (Japanese Armored Cruiser, 1902-1945) Photographed at Genoa, Italy, early in 1904 soon after completion by Ansaldo’s yard there. The lighter alongside the ship carries a warning banner reading “Munizioni”– munitions. Courtesy of Mr. Tom Stribling, 1987. NH 101929
With the Japanese and Imperial Russia circling each other tensely in late 1903, and Argentina not really wanting to take final delivery of these new cruisers, Buenos Aries shopped them to the Tsar’s kopeck-pinching Admiralty only to be rebuffed over the sticker shock, leaving Tokyo to pick them up for £760,000 each– considered a high price at the time but a bargain that the Russians would likely later regret. The Argentines would later reuse the briefly-issued Moreno and Rivadavia names for their matching pair of Massachusetts-built battleships in 1911.
With a scratch British/Italian contract delivery crew, Kasuga and Nisshin set sail immediately for the Far East and were already outbound of Singapore by the time the balloon finally went up between the Russians and Japanese in February 1904.
Kasuga in Italian waters, Source l’Illustration dated 16 January 1904
Japanese Crews embarking at Genoa Italy on Kasuga, Source l’Illustration dated 16 January 1904
The sisters were soon in the gun line off Russian-held Port Arthur, lending their fine British-made batteries to reducing that fortress, and took part in both the ineffective Battle of the Yellow Sea in August 1904 (where Nisshin was lightly damaged) and the much more epic Battle of Tsushima in May 1905.
Carrying the flag of VADM Baron Misu Sotarō, Nisshin fired something on the order of 180 heavy shells during Tsushima, exchanging heavy damage with the 15,000-ton Russian battleship Oslyabya and others– taking several 12-inch hits to show for it. The Japanese cruiser had three of her four 8-inch guns sliced off and a number of her crew, including a young Ensign Isoroku Yamamoto, wounded. The future commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet during World War II had the index and middle fingers on his left hand shorn off by a splinter, earning him the wardrobe nickname “80 sen” as a manicure cost 10 sen per digit at the time.
The forward gun turret and superstructure of the Japanese armored cruiser Nisshin following the Battle of Tsushima, showing 8-inch guns severed by Russian 12-inch shells
Oslyabya, in turn, was ultimately lost in the course of the battle, taking the Russian Squadron’s second-in-command, Capt. Vladimir Ber, and half of her crew with her to the bottom of the Korea Strait.
Death of the battleship OSLYABYA in the Battle of Tsushima. (by Vasily Katrushenko)
As for Kasuga,, fifth in the line of battle, she would also engage Oslyabya, though not to the extent that her sister did, and would also land hits on the Russian battleships Imperator Nikolai I and Oryol. All told, Kasuga would fire 50 shells from her 10-inch forward mount and twice as many from her stern 8-inchers, in exchange for minor damage from three Russian shells.
Armoured Cruiser Kasuga pictured post the Battle of Tsushima at Sasebo in May 1905
For both Kasuga and Nisshin, Tsushima was their brightest moment under the Rising Sun.
Kasuga dressed for peacetime flagwaving. NH 58671
Oct.10,1908 : Armored-cruiser Kasuga at Yokosuka.Colorised period photo by Atsushi Yamashita/Monochrome Specter http://blog.livedoor.jp/irootoko_jr/
Greatly modified in 1914 with Japanese-made Kampon boilers replacing their Italian ones, along with a host of other improvements, Kasuga went on to serve as a destroyer squadron flagship in World War I looking out for German surface raiders and escorting Allied shipping between Australia and Singapore.
On 11 January 1918, some 105 years ago today, Kasuga ran aground in the Bangka Strait off Java in the Dutch East Indies. After much effort, she was eventually refloated in June, repaired, and returned to service. The event mirrored that of one of the Emperor’s other warships, the armored cruiser Asama that embarrassingly ran aground off the Pacific coast of Mexico in 1915 and took two years to free.
Kasuga later took part in the Allied Intervention in the Russian Civil War and would tour the U.S. on a world cruise in 1920, calling in Maine and New York.
Disarmed to comply with international naval treaties and largely relegated to training tasks, both Nisshin and Kasuga were put on the sidelines after the Great War, replaced by much better ships in the Japanese battle line.
Armoured Cruiser Kasuga in Japan in the early 1920s graduating cadets
Hulked, Nisshin was eventually disposed of as part of a sinkex in the Inland Sea in 1936, then raised by Shentian Maritime Industry Co., Ltd, patched up and sunk a second time in 1942 during WWII by the new super battleship Yamato, whose 18.1″/45cal Type 94 guns likely made quick work of her.
Kasuga, used as a floating barracks at Yokosuka, was sunk by U.S. carrier aircraft in July 1945 and then later raised and scrapped after the war.
Epilogue
Incidentally, the two Japanese Garibaldis outlasted their Italian sisters, all of which were disposed of by the 1930s. Their everlasting Argentine classmates, however, lingered on until as late as 1954 with the last of their kind, ARA Pueyrredon, ironically being towed to Japan for scrapping that year.
ARA Pueyrredon in Dublin in 1951. At this point this pre-SpanAm War vet was pushing her sixth decade at sea.
Of note, the British 8″/45s EOCs removed from Nisshin, Kasuga and the other Japanese 1900s armored cruisers in the 1920s and 30s were recycled and used as coastal artillery, including four at Tokyo Bay, four at Tarawa (Betio) and another four at Wake Island once it was captured in 1941.
Japanese Special Naval Landing Force troops mount a British-made, Vickers eight-inch naval cannon into its turret on Betio before the battle. This film was developed from a Japanese camera found in the ruins while the battle was still on. Via http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USMC/USMC-C-Tarawa/index.html
Destruction of one of the four Japanese eight-inch EOC guns on Betio caused by naval gunfire and airstrikes, 1943. Department of Defense photo (USMC) 63618
While the Japanese have not recycled the name of Kasuga, one of her 10-inch shells, an anchor, and other relics are preserved in and around Tokyo.
Meanwhile, a builder’s plate that took shrapnel at the Battle of the Yellow Sea is preserved in the Argentine naval museum.
Jane’s 1914 entry, listing the class as first-class cruisers
Displacement: 7,700 t (7,578 long tons) std, 8,500 full Length: 366 ft 7 in (o/a), 357 wl Beam: 61 ft 5 in Draft: 24 ft 1 in, 25.5 max Machinery: (1904) 13,500 ihp, 2 vertical triple-expansion steam engines, 8 Ansaldo marine boilers, 2 shafts Speed: 20 knots at 14,000 shp, although in practice were limited to 18 at full load. Range: 5,500 nmi at 10 knots on 1316 tons of coal, typically just 650 carried Complement: 600 as built, 568 in Japanese service. Armor: (Terni) Belt: 2.8–5.9 in Deck: 0.79–1.57 in Barbette: 3.9–5.9 in Conning tower: 5.9 in Armament: (1904) 2 twin 8″/45 EOC (classified as Type 41 guns by the Japanese) 14 single QF 6″/45 Armstrong “Z” guns 10 single QF 3″/40 12-pdr Armstrong “N” guns 6 single QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss guns 2 Maxim machine guns 2 landing howitzers 4 × 457 mm (18 in) torpedo tubes in casemates (1930) 4 single QF 6″/45 Armstrong “Z” guns 4 single QF 3″/40 12-pdr Armstrong “N” guns 1 single 76/40 AAA
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.
If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International
The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.
With more than 50 years of scholarship, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.
PRINT still has its place. If you LOVE warships you should belong.
“Ensign Virginia McKachern studies a chart in the Port Director’s Office, Jacksonville, Florida, to which she is now attached. Hydrographic distribution has become a function of this office, photograph released circa 1943.” U.S. Navy photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-CF-8811-7_Box 175
On New Year’s Eve 2022, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and National Geodetic Survey, National Ocean Service, NOAA, and the Department of Commerce officially retired the U.S. survey foot, established in 1893, and replaced it with the international foot.
For reference, A U.S. survey foot is expressed as a fraction — 1200/3937 meters — while an international foot is expressed as a decimal, exactly 0.3048 meters. The U.S. has been in a slow march for the past two years to halt the institutional use of the “old” foot. Meanwhile, the U.S. military has largely been metric since 1957, as a part of NATO standardization, although some things (altitude and ship dimensions) are kept in feet for traditional reasons.
As noted by NOAA, “Doing so will reduce surveying errors that can cost money, and increase accurate positioning for surveying, mapping, and more.”
Beginning on January 1, 2023, the U.S. survey foot should be avoided, except for historic and legacy applications and has been superseded by the international foot definition (i.e., 1 foot = 0.3048 meter exactly) in all applications. Prior to this date, except for the mile and square mile, the cable’s length, chain, fathom, furlong, league, link, rod, pole, perch, acre, and acre-foot were previously only defined in terms of the U.S. survey foot.
With the muddy season in Ukraine morphing into the frozen season with the arrival of General Winter on the front, Western military allies in the proxy international war with Russia have decided to up the ante from just supplying small arms, air defense systems, artillery of all sorts and anti-tank weapons, to delivering some significant medium armor to Kyiv.
AMX-10 RCR (RCR stands for Roues-Canon, or wheeled gun, Revalorisé, upgraded)
Why the light armor rather than Leopards, Leclerc’s, and Abrams? Well, several reasons. One, there are few roads and bridges anywhere in the world that support such heavy tracks. Two, the tracks themselves are much more fragile than you would think, and require massive tractor-trailers such as the Oshkosh M1070A0 Heavy Equipment Transporter and its 5-axle trailer, just to be able to move around the countryside to the battlefield. Third, a tank isn’t just a vehicle but a collection of advanced mechanical, mobile artillery, and electronic systems that all need their own dedicated training and support pipeline.
And it is the latter that is the biggest deal, by far.
It takes months for the U.S. Army to mint new armor MOS Soldiers and they still require extensive training once they reach their units to be able to operate their tracks at a platoon, company, and battalion level. Just training in basic vehicle operation takes a long time, and that isn’t even getting into gunnery or maneuvering.
You don’t just whistle up an armored brigade from nothing.
See, Desert Sheild Round Out Woes
For reference, in Desert Sheild, the Army called up three National Guard “Roundout brigades” (48th, 155th, and 256th Brigades from Georgia, Mississippi, and Louisiana, respectively) just in case they were needed to fight a North Africa 1941-style armored campaign against Saddam’s armored legions. The Roundout process was a holdover from the old REFORGER days when it was expected to rapidly activate units that were in supposed “enhanced readiness” and bolt them on to understrength active duty divisions to make them combat-ready should the Russkis cross the Fulda Gap. This saw National Guard units in the 1980s and 90s take possession of M1 Abrams, M1 Bradleys, and AH-64 Apaches at a time when a lot of active duty units still had M60s, M113s, and AH-1s.
Besides the dental and health issues of the reservists that would sideline as many as 2,400 troops in one brigade alone, almost a quarter of those called up hadn’t met basic training goals with more than 600 Soldiers still needing to go to A-school across 42 specialties, even though all units were required as part of their Round Out status to qualify 100 percent of its crews on their Abrams or Bradley during a gunnery cycle.
Check out this breakdown of the 12 mandatory events for minimum deployability requirements, just based upon the more realistic 86-day Desert Sheild post-mobilization training plan and how long it actually took the 155th to get validated (131 days). The 48th managed to pull this off in a more compressed 115 days (30 November 1990 to 28 February 1991, ironically the day the ground war ended in the Gulf War) while the 256th wasn’t ready until M+160. And remember, this was for National Guard brigades– which included a large percentage of prior active service personnel– that had been regularly training for this in monthly drills and yearly summer camps in peacetime long before they were called to pack their duffles for real.
So how long to get the Ukrainian tracks running?
The plan, at least for now, is to allocate the equipment at some future date, which is likely to be stripped from active duty units, and perform crew training somewhere in the safety of the West. I’d bet in a maneuver area in Poland’s Silesia region that has recently been expanding.
Then, picked Ukrainian crews would have to be taken from the lines or depots and sent West to undergo 4-5 months’ worth of training before they could be minimally capable of fighting their mixed bag of Bradleys, Marders, and AMX-10s. Even if they had been schooled on T-64s and BTRs/BMDs, those are nothing like the vehicles they are getting, so it would actually be better to train guys from scratch so they don’t have to “unlearn” things from their Warsaw Pact equipment.
The crews would probably not be trained on the actual vehicles they would use, which in the end would have to be shipped over the border by train under threat of Russian attack. Once the crews would be married up with their (surplus) tracks in a staging area in Ukraine, they would require additional weeks to make ready.
So even with today’s good news, it will probably be sometime in the summer before this second-hand ex-NATO armor arrives on the frontlines in Ukraine, if at all. At that point, it may very well be a moot point.
Ever thought the price on rare German-made Lugers has been over the moon for generations, making them impossible to acquire? Well, the good news for that is a huge shipment– we are talking cases and containers– is headed this way from Africa.
This includes P06 Navy Lugers, all-matching DWM Lugers, Persian contract Artillery Lugers, Kreighoff Lugers– the holy grail of Lugerdom!– and VoPo Lugers, some kept in German arsenal storage as late as the 1980s.
Krieghoff built a total of just 13,825 Luger pistols, with most of these going to the Luftwaffe between 1935 and 1937
Added to this are everything from S&W Model 28s and Colt Pythons, a Borchardt C93, Cz. 52s, wartime P-38s (the pistols, not the can openers or fighter aircraft), Italian revolvers and pistols of all sorts, Browning Hi-Powers, you name it!
Uwe from Royal Tiger Imports has the scoop on this haul, recently imported from Africa, in the below video from RTI.
We pause to remember a North Korean fighter pilot today, No Kum-sok.
Born in 1932 as Okamura Kyoshi in the Japanese-occupied Hermit Kingdom, he was the son of a baseball player. The teen considered becoming a kamikaze during the latter stages of WWII but was dissuaded from it and nonetheless later became an aviator for the Korean People’s Air Force.
Training in Manchuria under his new, more Korean name, he would complete no less than 100 combat sorties in the Korea War. Just after the truce was announced, and with his father dead and his mother in the West, he decided it was time to pull stumps for the South.
At the stick of his advanced MiG-15bis, he would famously streak from Sunan outside of Pyongyang to Kimpo Air Base in South Korea on 21 September 1953, a flight of just 17 minutes, and become probably the highest-profile defector of the day.
After being debriefed by the CIA, he was given $100K as authorized by Operation Moolah, although he was not aware of the reward for defectors who brought their MiGs over.
1.2 million of these pamphlets were dropped on North Korea in 1953. Operation Moolah promised a $100,000 reward to the first North Korean pilot to deliver a Soviet MiG-15 to UN forces, or just $50K for either a pilot or aircraft. The pamphlet carried the photo of LT Franciszek Jarecki, who had flown his Lim2 (license version of MiG 15bis) from Poland to political asylum in Denmark in March 1953.
No’s MiG, repainted in USAF markings and insignia, the under guard and awaiting flight testing at Okinawa. Note the M3 grease gun at the ready. (USAF image)
Taking the name Kenneth H. Rowe, he emigrated to the U.S.– where his mother had already escaped to– and, picking up several engineering degrees and a Korean-American bride, worked in the American aviation community and then as a professor at Embry-Riddle. Mr. Rowe, late of the DPRKAF, passed in Florida over the weekend, aged 90.
As for his MiG, following a career as a test aircraft in USAF custody, it was sent to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, where No visited it before his death. It has been restored to its original #2057 livery.
