The fifth (completed) U.S. Navy vessel named for the Bay State, the future USS Massachusetts (SSN 798), was delivered to the service from Newport News on 21 November. She is the 25th Virginia/774-class submarine, the 12th delivered by the yard, and the seventh of 10 planned Block IV configured boats. Her commissioning is set for 2026.
Future USS Massachusetts (SSN 798) on builder’s acceptance trials. 251008-N-MQ094-002
Future USS Massachusetts (SSN 798) on builder’s acceptance trials. 251008-N-MQ094-001
Future USS Massachusetts (SSN 798) on builder’s acceptance trials. 251008-N-MQ094-003
The first USS Massachusettswas a 4-gun screw steamer built in 1845 and fought during the Mexican-American War.
The second, a 6-gunned screw steamer, fought in the Civil War– the bane of the Confederates on the Mississippi Coast and still has a fort named after her on Ship Island– while the third, an Indiana-class battleship (BB-2), fought in the Spanish-American War.
The last and most famous USS Massachusetts (BB-59) was commissioned in 1942 as a South Dakota-class fast battleship, earning 11 battle stars for exceptional service in WWII from Casablanca to Okinawa before being decommissioned in 1947. She remained in the Reserve Fleet until stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in June 1962 and continues to serve as a floating museum.
USS Massachusetts underway somewhere in the Pacific (1943)
How about this great shot some 50 years ago today, showing a quartet of full-color Grumman A-6A Intruder aircraft (BuNo 155623, 155624, 155625, 157014) of U.S. Marine Corps All-Weather Medium Attack Squadron (VMA(AW)) 242 flying in echelon formation on 21 November 1975.
Photo by Sgt. C. Quinn, USMC, VIRIN: DM-SC-84-04345
Commissioned on 1 July 1943 at MCAS El Centro, California as Marine Torpedo Bombing Squadron (VMTB) 242 with an insignia that included Bugs Bunny riding a torpedo, the squadron flew TBM Avengers throughout the Westpac in the last 20 months of the war, operating from bases ranging from the Solomons to Iwo Jima.
Inactivated post-war and stood back up in 1960, they first flew Skyhawks and then Intruders, stacking up a tally of 16,783 combat sorties delivering 85,990 tons of ordnance in successive tours in Vietnam, where they switched to the “Bats” nickname. One of the last Marine A-6 squadrons, they only transitioned to the F/A-18D Hornet in 1990, which they used to great effect in air support missions in Iraq in 2005.
Today, the Bats of VMFA-242 operate F-35Bs tasked to MAG-12 (1st MAW) out of MCAS Iwakuni. Of note, while they started off looking for Japanese carriers to sink in 1944, the unit recently was the first F-35 squadron to conduct operational testing on the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force helicopter carrier JS Izumo, the country’s first “big deck” fixed-wing carrier since WWII.
The Habsburgs by the 1860s had at least five assorted life guard units in their Household Division, with probably the most elite of them– on regular watch anyway– being the Imperial-Royal Trabant Lifeguards (k.k. Trabantenleibgarde).
Composed of long-serving Army officers and career NCOs, the half-company-sized Trabantenleibgarde was responsible for mounting the interior guard at the imperial residences of Hofburg and Schönbrunn in Austria. A larger force of picked enlisted men, the Leibgarde Infanterie Kompanie, handled day-to-day exterior guard work. The castles and residences in Hungary were guarded by dedicated Hungarian units.
When the last Habsburg emperor, Charles (Kaiser Karl I of Austria/King Károly IV of Hungary), left Schönbrunn Palace for the final time in the quiet pre-dawn hours of 12 November 1918, he personally dismissed the men of the Trabantenleibgarde without relief, their watch concluded.
However, Charles forgot to change the non-commissioned officer on duty in the Hall of Mirrors. Legend has it that the guard remained at his post until overcome by fatigue and drowsiness; he fell asleep on he shiny floor. He was found the next morning lying next to his white-crested helmet.
Emperor Karl I of Austria-Hungary inspecting troops of the Polish Auxiliary Corps in Bukovina, 10 December 1917. The officer on horseback is probably Lieutenant Colonel Michał Żymierski (IWM)
While Charles beat feet to Schloss Eckartsau, east of Vienna, and issued a proclamation that was ultimately taken as an abdication-in-waiting with the hope that his people would recall him, the old Empire was shattered to pieces in the wake of the country’s Great War defeat and ruin.
Leaving Austria for good in March 1919 for Switzerland and finally Portugal, where he died in exile in 1922, the Austrian Parliament pulled the plug on the monarchy in April 1919 and barred Charles and his male descendants from ever returning unless they formally renounced their rights to the throne.
Long feared broken up, it turned out that Zita carried the cardboard box full of jewels away and locked the trove in a Canadian safe deposit box in the 1940s, where they remain today.
The family secret was kept on the condition that at least 100 years had passed since the last Austrian Kaiser’s death before it would be revealed.
The family wants to put the jewels on display in a Canadian institution, but the Austrian government is already making noise about getting the items, some of which have been in the personal collection of the Habsburgs since the 1700s, back.
You have to give it to Charles, Zita, and their offspring, though. The jewels could have easily been passed on in private sales at any point since 1919, but have been kept intact and safe. Worse, they could have abandoned them to history. Keep in mind that since they left Austria, the country descended into a spiral of Nazi and later Allied occupation that lasted 23 years, bracketed by cycles of oddball socialist governments. Had the jewels been left at Schönbrunn, they very well may have vanished.
Remember that the 12th-century Holy Crown of Hungary, also known as the Crown of Saint Stephen, which last rested on Charles’s head in 1916, was recovered in the remote mountain hamlet of Egglesberg, Austria, by the U.S. 86th Infantry Division in April 1945 and kept in Fort Knox until 1978, when it was handed over to the Hungarian government.
At least the secret was kept, clad in pasteboard, and the last post has finally been relieved.
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Warship Wednesday 19 November 2025: Pride of the Scouting Group
Photographed by A. Renard of Kiel, Germany, via the Naval History and Heritage Command, NH 45198
Above we see the Roon-class armored cruiser (panzerkreuzer) SMS Yorck of the Kaiserliche Marine, passing under the famous Levensauer Hochbrücke along the Kiel Canal prior to the Great War.
She was commissioned 120 years ago this week and, a beautiful ship, had a short but tragic peacetime career and even shorter and more tragic wartime service without ever firing a shot in anger.
The Roons
In the 1890s, the German Imperial Navy moved to field several armored cruisers, initially rebuilding old (circa 1870s) ironclads with newer and more modern guns and updated engineering plants.
Then came the majestic 11,500-ton SMS Fürst Bismarck, the country’s first purpose-built armored cruiser, laid down in 1896. Built for 18 million gold marks, Fürst Bismarck was capable of 18.7 knots and carrying a main battery of four 9.4″/40s and a secondary of 12 5.9″/40s, while clad in up to 7.9 inches of armor plate. Bismarck was followed in 1898 by the smaller (and cheaper, at 16 million marks) SMS Prinz Heinrich (9,800t, 2×9.4″/40, 10x5.9-inch SK L/40s, 20 knots, 5.9-inch armor).
Then came the twin SMS Prinz Adalbert in 1900 and Friedrich Carl in 1901, which were basically a three-funneled improvement of the preceding Prinz Heinrich, while carrying a different main armament (four 8.27-inch SK L/40 C/01s rather than 2×9.4″/40s) and thinner but better armor with the secondary armament (10×5.9″/40s) housed in a central armored citadel amidships and a 21 knot speed on a 18,500shp plant.
Jane’s 1914 entry for the armored cruisers SMS Prinz Adalbert and Friedrich Carl.
Continuing that vein, the 1902-03 Naval Program ordered a pair of essentially improved Prinz Adalbert-class cruisers, dubbed initially Ersatz (more or less “replacement”) Kaiser and Ersatz Deutschland as they were replacing the old ironclad/armored cruiser conversions on the German Navy List. The differences between the new cruisers and their Adalbert-class half-sisters came in the fact that they had four funnels rather than three, with 16 boilers rather than 14 on a more powerful 20,000 shp plant.
Armament was largely the same primary (four 8.27″40s with 380 rounds) and secondary batteries (ten 5.9″/40s with 1,600 rounds), while the tertiary battery was slightly larger (14 24-pounders with 2,100 rounds vs 12 24-pounders with 1,800 rounds). Four 17.7-inch torpedo tubes were fitted below the waterline– one each in the bow and stern, and one on each side approximately at the level of the forward twin turrets– with 11 torpedoes in the magazine.
The two new cruisers, Ersatz Kaiser and Ersatz Deutschland, entered the fleet as SMS Roon and SMS Yorck, constructed eight months apart at Kaiserliche Werft, Kiel, and Blohm & Voss, Hamburg, respectively.
Jane’s 1914 entry for the armored cruisers SMS Roon and Yorck.
Brassy’s line drawing on SMS Roon and Yorck.
A 1917 ONI publication on the armament and armor of Roon.
For reference, the Germans liked the design of Roon and Yorck so much that they ordered another pair of armored cruisers in 1904 to an improved design, the larger (and 25 percent more expensive, at 20-million marks each) Scharnhorst and Gneisenau of later Maximillian Von Spee fame.
Jane’s 1914 entry for the armored cruisers SMS Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. These were just bigger Roon-class cruisers with more speed and range but roughly the same armament and armor.
Following Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, the Germans in 1906 ordered their last armored cruiser, the huge 15,000-ton 12x 8.4″/45 gunned SMS Blücher (which cost 28.5 million marks), then shifted gears to battlecruisers with the 21,000-ton 11-inch gunned SMS Von der Tann (36.5 million marks) in 1907.
With that…
Meet Yorck
Our subject carries the name of Johann David Ludwig Graf Yorck von Wartenburg, a Prussian feldmarschall and statesman of the early 19th century.
An ardent patriot, Yorck resented Prussia’s subservience to Napoleon and, in 1812, defied the orders of Wilhelm Friedrich III by initially refusing to join the French emperor’s great invasion of Russia. With Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow, Yorck seized the opportunity for liberation and negotiated a separate peace treaty (the Convention of Tauroggen) for his Corps with Russian General Ivan Ivanovich Dibich-Zabalkansky over the Christmas holiday of 1812 without the consent of their respective monarchs. He went on to fight Napoleon for the next three years and retired from the Prussian Army in 1821, passing nine years later.
Yorck, a thorn in Napoleon’s side, later became a favorite icon of the newly unified Germany.
Laid down as Ersatz Deutschland (Baunummer 167) at the Blohm & Voss in Hamburg on 25 April 1903, the hull of the future SMS Yorck was launched into the water on a warm 14 May 1904, christened by Josephine Yorck von Wartenburg, the 45-year-old granddaughter of the famous field marshal. Speaking of field marshals, the 71-year-old Gen. Wilhelm Gustav Karl Bernhard von Hahnke, then the Oberkommando in den Marken over state functions, read the dedication to the new cruiser.
Yorck, launched. Note her ram bow
Yorck, despite being laid down eight months later, managed to be completed six months earlier than her sister Roon, commissioning on 21 November 1905, while the class leader entered service on 5 April 1906.
Yorck’s construction costs were 16,241,000 goldmarks, while Roon came in at a comparatively cheaper 15,345,000 goldmarks. Still, they both came in cheaper than the previous twins, the 16.4 million mark Prinz Adalbert and the 15.7 million mark Friedrich Carl. Roon is listed as costing £875,733 (£660,469 hull and machinery, £195,695 guns, £19,569 torpedo armament) in a British journal.
She and her sister joined the fleet’s reconnaissance force (Aufklärungsstreitkräfte), with Yorck taking over the task of flagship from Friedrich Carl. The flagship role would remain with Yorck until May 1908, then again from March 1909 to April 1910, and intermittently in 1912 and 1913. Whenever she wasn’t the direct flagship, she typically carried the recon force’s second or third commander and staff.
Yorck Mai 1910 Hansestadt Bremisches Amt Bremerhaven, Bild-Nr. S1 F 22-1
She spent the next several years in a series of fleet maneuvers and squadron cruises into the Atlantic, ranging as far as Spain and Norway.
Roon and Yorck with the Aufklärungsstreitkräfte in Puddefjorden, Bergen, Norway, between 1907 and 1911.
Roon and Yorck with the Aufklärungsstreitkräfte in Puddefjorden, Bergen, Norway, between 1907 and 1911.
Roon and Yorck with the Aufklärungsstreitkräfte in Puddefjorden, Bergen, Norway, between 1907 and 1911.
She not only looked good but could shoot as well. Yorck won the Emperor’s Shooting Prize (Kaiser Preis) for large cruisers in both 1908 and 1910.
Meanwhile, sister Roon, unburdened by flagship roles, even managed a sortie to escort ships to the far east and attend the 1907 Jamestown Exhibition naval parade in New York City along with the protected cruiser SMS Kaiserin Augusta.
SMS Roon 1907 Jamestown Exhibition, NYC. LOC ggbain 28287
S.178
While practicing counter-torpedo boat operations on the night of 4 March 1913, just northeast of Heligoland, Yorck inadvertently rammed the low-lying and fast-moving S.178, driving the 800-ton ship under the waves, and sending 69 men with her to the bottom. Just 15 survivors were saved through the combined efforts of fellow torpedo boat S.177, Yorck, and the battleship SMS Oldenburg.
The 242-foot S.138-class torpedoboot S.178 was cut in half by Yorck in March 1913 but was salvaged (during which one of the salvage vessels, Unterlebe, capsized in heavy seas, carrying another seven men to the bottom). Her two pieces reconstructed, she survived the Great War and was surrendered to the British, who scrapped her in Dordrecht in 1922.
Doldrums
As the Kaiser built out his shiny new High Seas Fleet and a fresh batch of battlecruisers joined it, the still young but smaller, weaker, and slower armored cruisers were put to pasture to free up their crews for reassignment. Prinz Heinrich was laid up from 1906 to 1908 and then put into limited service as a training ship. Likewise, in 1909, Friedrich Carl was withdrawn from front-line service and re-tasked as a torpedo training ship. Prinz Adalbert became a gunnery school and test ship in 1912.
Roon was laid up in September 1911 after just five years of service, while Yorck soon followed her sister and was laid up on 21 May 1913, having completed less than eight years of service. It probably didn’t help that the high-profile ramming of S.178 had occurred just ten weeks prior. Most of Yorck’s crew, including the skipper, transferred to the newly completed battlecruiser SMS Seydlitz.
Yup, that Seydlitz.
SMS-Seydlitz seeing what hell looks like at Jutland, by Carl Becker
Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were only on active service in 1914 due to their overseas assignment with the East Asian Squadron, while Blucher was, well, a proto if under-gunned battlecruiser. If you ask me, it’s likely that on a long enough timeline, the Germans would have replaced von Spee’s armored cruisers with battlecruisers in the same way that the Moltke-class BC SMS Goeben was stationed in the Mediterranean from 1912 onward.
Anyhow…
War!
Yorck, photographed in 1914. Courtesy of Master Sergeant Donald L.R. Shake, USAF, 1981. NH 92713
When the lights went out across Europe in August 1914, Yorck and Roon were pulled out of reserve and rushed back into service, both attached to the III. Aufklärungsgruppe, with Roon, made the group flag.
The squadron initially operated in the Baltic Sea, then later shifted to the North Sea.
On 2 November, the 3rd Scouting Group helped cover the first offensive operation of the High Seas Fleet– the bombardment by the battlecruisers of the 1st Scouting Group of Yarmouth, the first attack on British soil in 250 years. While no casualties were suffered on either side and the Germans retired in good order, Yorck would upend that empty victory.
While wrapped in fog in the inner Jade estuary on the morning of 4 November, Yorck’s skipper, KzS Waldemar Pieper– a skilled professional officer who had signed up in 1887 as a cadet and had commanded both the armored cruisers Prinz Adalbert and Blucher before the war– had reason to believe his ship’s water supply was contaminated and ordered her to weigh anchor and proceed to Wilhelmshaven without pilots. The pilot had refused to take over the conn due to the poor visibility and the considerable risk of German defensive minefields, which were known but subject to tidal drifting.
At 0410, Yorck struck a mine, then turned away to escape the field and hit a second one, soon capsizing and turning turtle, entombing fully half of her crew. If not for the efforts of the old Siegfried-class coastal defense ship (küstenpanzerschiffen) SMS Hagen rushing out to her rescue despite the mines, the other half (the chagrined Pieper among them) would surely have succumbed to hypothermia.
SMS Yorck mined near Wilhelmshaven, on return from Yarmouth, 4th November 1914. The ship is on her side. Reichs Marine Sammlung Collection, IWM (Q 48420)
The German armored cruiser SMS Friedrich Carl was sunk by a pair of Russian mines in the Baltic Sea almost a year to the day later, in November 1915
Yorck and Friedrich Carl were in the club of over a dozen cruisers claimed by mine warfare between 1904 and 1942, including the British cruisers HMS Cassandra, Amphion, Hampshire, and Neptune; the Japanese cruisers Miyako, Saien, and Takasago; the Italian cruisers Carlo Alberto Racchia, Carlo Mirabello, and Cesare Rossarol; the Russian cruisers Boyarin, Peresvet, and Ladgoda; USS San Diego (ACR-6), the French cruiser Kléber, and the Ottoman cruiser Mecidiye.
Yorck’s sister Roon was decommissioned in Kiel on 4 February 1916 and, after being disarmed and used as a training hulk for U-boat crews, was slated for conversion to a seaplane carrier.
Roon’s planned seaplane carrier conversion which never completed. Found at Kiel after the war in poor condition, she was scrapped by 1921. Drawing by Dr Dan Saranga, Blueprints.com
Epilogue
Lost in shallow water with some elements of her wrecked hull at the time just 10 feet below the surface, between 1926 and stretching to 1983, Yorck was slowly blasted and salvaged, then later broken up in place on the seabed as a navigational hazard, finally being dredged under to effectively bury what remained.
These days, about the only relics of Yorck that endure are period postcards.
The Germans may have tried to recycle the name of our cruiser in the lead ship of the nascent Ersatz (replacement) Yorck-class of battlecruisers, whose two sisters would have, at least initially, been named Ersatz Gneisenau and Ersatz Scharnhorst. Big 38,000-ton beasts with a planned 90,000shp on tap from a suite that included 32 boilers and four geared steam turbines, the Ersatz Yorcks were a sort of Super Mackensen type that would have made 27 knots while still carrying eight 15″/45 guns (as opposed to SMS Mackensen’s eight 13.8″/45s) and as much as 10 inches of armor plate. Ersatz Yorck had her keel laid at AG Vulcan in Hamburg in July 1916, but with production resources pivoting to U-boats, she never stood a chance and was eventually abandoned and broken up on the ways after the war. Her design did reportedly prove a starting point for the Kriegsmarine’s later Scharnhorst-class battleships, however.
Drawing of proposed Ersatz Yorck-class (1916), the German Imperial Navy’s final battlecruiser design, which never saw the water.
Our Yorck’s captain’s cabin was an important stepping stone for several future German admirals.
Her first skipper, KzS Leo Jacobson, by 1918 was a vice admiral and the fortress commander of Wilhelmshaven.
Her second commander, KzS Arthur Tapken, went on to head the Navy’s intelligence section, led a scouting squadron early in the Great War from the bridge of the battlecruiser SMS Von der Tann, and ended the war as a vice admiral and the fortress commander of Kiel.
Her fourth commander, KzS Ludwig von Reuter, went on to be the ignoble final commander of the High Seas Fleet, interned at Scapa Flow, and would order it to scuttle in June 1919.
KzS Max Köthner, Yorck’s fifth skipper, was director of the torpedo department at the shipyard in Wilhelmshaven, retiring in 1919 as a rear admiral.
Our cruiser’s sixth skipper, KzS Moritz von Egidy, famously commanded the Swiss-cheesed battlecruiser SMS Seydlitz at Jutland and ended the war as commandant of the Mürwik Naval Academy.
As for her seventh and final skipper, Waldemar Pieper was court-martialed in Wilhelmshaven for the sinking of the Yorck and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment in a fortress for disobeying orders and negligence. However, requested by name by Admiral Wilhelm Souchon as an artillery expert, he was paroled and seconded in February 1915 to Ottoman Turkey on probation, where he later distinguished himself to such an extent that Kaiser Willy commuted his sentence in December 1915. An Ottoman Pasha and major general, by 1916, he was the head inspector of the Turkish ordnance plants (Türk Silah Dairesi ve fabrikalari komutani) clustered around Constantinople, with 700 German experts supervising 14,000 local munitions workers. He returned to Germany in July 1917 to serve in the weapons bureau, and Pieper was later retired as a rear admiral (Konteradmiral) in 1919. He passed in early 1945, aged 73.
Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive
***
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Norwegian Oslo-class frigate Trondheim (F302), in 2004, back when she was having a much better day
Recently, during exercise Ægir 25 in September 2025, the Norwegian Ula (U-Boot-Klasse 210) class submarine KNM Uthaug (S304) fired one of its Atlas Elektronik DM2A3 Seehecht torpedoes at the decommissioned Oslo (Dealey) class frigate ex-KNM Trondheim (pennant number F302), intending to sink the battered target vessel off the coast of Andøy in Andfjorden.
The 2,100-ton Trondheim, decommissioned in 2007, had already been the target of Naval Strike Missiles launched by the frigates HMS Somerset and KNM Thor Heyerdahl as well as previous NSM tests in 2013.
As noted by NATO, “The purpose of the shot was to verify and demonstrate the striking power that the weapon and the submarine represent. A submarine has long endurance, operates covertly, and has a unique ability to dictate the battle.”
NATO Allied Joint Force Command released the video on 17 November 2025, and it really shows you why you don’t want to be on the receiving end of a 576-pound torpedo warhead.
This continued a legacy of Dutch involvement in the Boxer Rebellion in which 35 Marines (Korps Mariniers) helped defend the Peking Legation Quarter, and remained in attendance of the country’s embassy into the 1920s.
Commissioned 22 October 1929, Van Galen was soon dispatched to the Dutch East Indies, where all seven of her sisters would eventually serve (until destroyed while fighting the Japanese in 1942).
However, Van Galen would make China a specialty, and spent several deployments in the waters there over the 1930s, protecting Dutch interests during the turbulent era.
Torpedobootjager Hr.Ms. Van Galen (far right) in Shanghai, along assorted British and American cruisers. 2158_013844
On 22 February 1932, Van Galen was deployed to Shanghai during fighting between the Chinese and Japanese in the city, putting ashore a naval landing division (landingsdivisie) and Marine detachment on 1 March, to protect the international district there following the bombardment of the city by the Japanese navy.
The ship and her ashore detachment would remain in the city for two months.
Detachement mariniers van de torpedobootjager Hr.Ms. Van Galen te Shanghai, in tropentenue 2158_061491
Marines from the destroyer HNLMS Van Galen marching along Nanking Road in Shanghai. March 1932.
Bayonet exercise by marines from the destroyer HNLMS Van Galen on the training ground in Shanghai, 1932. NIMH 2158_061489
Dutch destroyer Van Galen mariniers marines, Shanghai 1932, 2158_061488
The detachment boarded the destroyer on 27 April 1933 and returned to her homeport at Soerabaja (Surabaya).
She would return in 1935 for a port call, though she did not land any troops.
The destroyer returned to Shanghai on 23 August 1937, during a period of heavy fighting between the opposing forces involved in the Second Sino-Japanese War. During this stay, in addition to her ship’s landing forces, the ship disembarked a contingent of 150 Dutch marines (talk about cramped on a 1,600-ton tin can!) to help protect and evacuate European citizens residing in Shanghai. The detachment was housed ashore at the British Union Jack Club during its 11-week deployment.
A detachment of Dutch marines from the destroyer HNLMS Van Galen at the jetty on the Bund in Shanghai, August 1937. “SMJRMARNS Hein Harfst reports the detachment to LT1MARNS H. Lieftinck.” Note the 6.5x53mm Geweer M. 95 Dutch Mannlicher carbines, M23/27 helmets, and traditional klewang cutlasses. NIMH 2158_061492
Detachement mariniers van de torpedobootjager Hr.Ms. Van Galen in Shanghai 1937 2158_061487
After the withdrawal of the defeated Chinese troops, the detachment embarked on 17 November, and Van Galen returned to the Dutch East Indies.
She would return to Chinese waters off and on until war came to Europe, and she alone was the only member of her class recalled to the metropolitan Netherlands in late 1939. There, while under refit in May 1940, she would attempt to come to the assistance of Rotterdam and was sunk by 30 successive Luftwaffe air attacks, presaging the fate of her seven Pacific sisters.
Het wrak van de Van Galen na de berging in de Merwehaven Oct 1941 2158_005609
As for the remaining Dutch in Shanghai, the Japanese ended the Foreign Concessions there in December 1941, and the Dutch consulate was taken over by Japanese troops.
By that time, the embassy at its Marine detachment had been moved to Chongqing, situated 500 miles further inland, in territory firmly under KMT control. Dutch consulate personnel captured in Beijing were detained at their homes for about eight months before being sent aboard the Italian liner SS Conte Verde to Lorenço Marques, Portuguese Mozambique, for an exchange.
Meanwhile, a later 2,400-ton destroyer of the same name but different pennant number (D 803)– formerly the British N-class destroyer HMS Noble (G84)— would serve twice in nearby waters during the Korean War, earning two ROK Presidential Unit Citations as well as numerous accolades from COMSEVENTHFLT.
But that is another article.
Torpedobootjager Hr.Ms. Van Galen (D 803) in Korean waters, circa 1951-52 NIMH 2158_005596
The brand-spanking-new Independence-variant littoral combat ship USS Pierre (LCS 38) was brought to life in a ceremony held in Panama City over the weekend in shorts and flip-flop weather, “Under the Bright Florida Sky.”
This came while the landlocked namesake city of Pierre, South Dakota, was basking at a high temperature of 45 degrees.
We’ve posted numerous images of Pierreover the past year during her fitting out at Austal in Mobile, where she was the last of 19 Indies built. Fincantieri is still building the last LCS, the 16th Freedom-class variant, USS Cleveland (LCS-31).
The fact that Pierre was commissioned at PC is telling, as the Indies are seemingly tasked as fast minesweepers, and NSWC Panama City is the Navy Research, Development, Test & Evaluation Laboratory dedicated to mine warfare. In fact, it was established in 1945 as the U.S. Navy Mine Countermeasures Station.
Three Indies– the USS Canberra (LCS 30), Santa Barbara (LCS 32), and Tulsa (LCS 16)— are currently forward-deployed to Bahrain with new MCM mission modules, replacing the legacy Avenger-class ships that have served in Task Force 55 for over 30 years
The current Pierre is the second warship to carry the name, after a 173-foot patrol boat, PC-1141, which served from 1943-58. Hopefully, the new one bests the previous namesake’s 15-year record of service.
U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. James Stanfield/Released 250703-M-BD822-1020
With the Marines’ 250th birthday last week, this amazing presentation by Sgt. James Stanfield, Headquarters Marine Corps, working in conjunction with Jonathan Bernstein, the Arms & Armor Curator at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, Virginia, is really outstanding.
The in-depth article covers each of the Corps’ rifles in turn, everything from the Sea Service Brown Bess carried by the “Tun Tavern” Continental Marines to the assorted Springfields, and then to the U.S. Model 1895 Winchester-Lee straight-pull rifle, before moving on to more modern arms like the M1903, M1 Garand, M14, M16A1/A2/A4, M4A1, and today’s HK M27.
On the 130th birthday of Hanoveran-born Prussian army reformer Gerhard von Scharnhorst, 12 November 1955, West German Defense Minister Theodor Blank inspected 101 men who, clad and armed with surplus U.S. GI gear and equipment, would be sworn in to become the first soldiers of the modern federal army, the Bundeswehr’s Heer.
Yesterday was the Bundeswehr’s 70th birthday and Scharnhorst’s 200th.
A bit of classic Cold War Bundeswehr time machine here:
Ein Soldat der ABC-Abwehrtruppe markiert den Fundort einer radioaktiven Strahlung im Gelände, Ort unbekannt im Jahr 1956. Altarchiv V-28. Gewher 1 rifle
Kradmelder fährt mit seinem Motorrad vom Typ DKW RT 175 VS bei der Ausbildung durch unwegsames Gelände im Juni 1960. Altarchiv V-9 412555 3283
Ein Soldat mit Funkgerät PRC-6/6 setzt eine Meldung ab im Herbst 1964. Altarchiv V-26 417929
Übernahme der Kampfpanzer M 41 auf Truppenübungsplatz.
West German panzergrenadier jumping off a M48 Patton during the Cold War, HK G3 in hand.
1991: Soldiers of Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion 2 from Hessisch-Lichtenau practice airborne surveillance of large areas in cooperation with Hueys der Heeresflieger in the Höxter area. (Photo: Jan-P. Weisswange/Soldat und Technik)
Our Bundeswehr is Hiring Volunteers, West Germany, circa 1955
At its peak in 1989, the Bundeswehr had 509,100 uniformed military personnel, another 130,000 civilians, and 1.3 million uniformed reservists– the capability to put nearly 2 million in the field out of a population of 78 million.
Today, even with absorbing its smaller East German neighbor and a population of 84 million, the Bundeswehr can only claim 182,496 active-duty military personnel and 80,770 civilians, along with 860,000 reserves (but of the latter, just 50,000 are drilling, the rest in an IRR type of situation). Moves are afoot to push that to 260,000 active and 200,000 drilling reserve with another 1 million IRR type reserves “on paper” by 2031.
Conscription is still authorized under the federal constitution, but hasn’t been turned on since 2011. That could change, with something like a short (3-6 months) active service training period, then transitioning to a six-year drilling reserve stint.
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Above we see the Dutch Admiralen-class torpedobootjager (destroyer) Hr. Ms. Banckert (BK)as she appeared sometime between 1931 and 1942. She was commissioned 90 years ago this week and is sadly almost forgotten, although she often came through in the clutch when the chips were down.
The Yarrow Admiralen 8-pack
In November 1923, the British Admiralty issued a request to the major shipyards specializing in escorts for designs of the first destroyers to be built for the Royal Navy since the end of the Great War. The tender was awarded jointly the next year for two prototype ships, one from Thornycroft to become the future HMS Amazon, and the second from competitor Yarrow for what would become the future HMS Ambuscade (D38). Ambuscade, a two-funneled greyhound of some 322 feet overall length, had a narrow 31-foot beam and, with a 1,600-ton displacement, could float in just nine feet of water.
Armed with four BL 4.7″/45 Mk I guns in single mounts with an armored shield, Ambuscade also carried six 21-inch torpedo tubes in two triple launcher turnstiles. Powered by a pair of geared turbines on triple Yarrow (who else?) 4-drum boilers, she had 35,000shp on tap and could make 37 knots.
HMS Ambuscade Yarrow ad, 1929 Janes
Profile plan of an Acasta (A class) destroyer, 1927, based on Ambuscade. NPA4551
While Ambuscade would serve through WWII and lead to the follow-on 20-ship A- and B-class destroyers for the Royal Navy, which were basically the same ship but a little slower and with a heavier armament, the design proved a hit for Yarrow when it came to export.
The Portuguese ordered five Douro-class destroyers to the Ambuscade design (two of which were resold to Colombia while still on the builder’s ways), and the Dutch would order another eight, each class with minor differences.
The eight Dutch ships would replace, on a one-for-one basis, the older Roofdier-class torpedobootjager, which were built on the eve of the Great War. Small, at just 500 tons/231-feet oal, the Roofdiers were cramped and poorly armed with just two 18-inch torpedo tubes and four low-angle 3″/52 guns. The new destroyers would be bound for the Dutch East Indies to bolster the defense of that far-off yet resource-rich colony.
Dubbed the Admiralen-class (Admiralenklasse) because they were all named after famous Dutch admirals, these Ambuscade clones had a similar layout to their British older sister but went a little lighter (1,337 tons) on the same-sized hull. A little slower due to a 31,000shp engineering plant, they could “only” make 34 knots, and they had about the same range (3,300nm @15 knots), but added a couple of tricks.
1929 Janes Dutch destroyers entry for the Yarrow type
Rather than the comparatively slower British BL 4.7s, the Dutch went with a four-pack of Swedish Bofors-made 4.7″/50 guns with only the most forward and most aft guns protected by shields.
Bofors 12 cm/50 (4.7″/50) Mark 4 guns on Dutch destroyer Kortenaer. Note the “A” mount has a shield, while the “B” mount does not. NIMH No. 2158_005426.
Firing Bofors 4.7-inch gun from Hr.Ms. Van Galen, Soerabaja, April 1936 2173-223-048
The unshielded Gun 2/Mount B of the destroyer Hr.Ms. Banckert, note the breechblock and gun clocks, 1933. 2173-223-002
For AAA (luchtdoelgeschut) use, the Admiralen carried one or two 3-inch guns (Bofors Mark 6 in early ships, a single HIH Siderius Mark 8 in latter ships) on a bandstand between the stacks and four .50 caliber Browning water-cooled mounts on deck. The second flight of four ships substituted four Vickers QF 2-pounder (40mm) guns instead of the second 3-incher.
A Bofors Mark 6 3″/55 AA Luchtafweer gun on Admiralen class torpedobootjager Hr.Ms. Kortenaer. Note what might be a fuze setter machine in the foreground. 2158_001019
Automatic 40mm Vickers Maxim QF 2-pounders on pedestal mounts in a Luchtdoelbatterij on the cruiser Java. Water-cooled and fed via 25-round cloth belts, the guns had been designed in 1915 as balloon-busters and could fire 50-75 rounds per minute. These are not to be confused with 40mm Bofors. Note the sunglasses of the operator closest to the camera.
Six torpedo tubes for Whitehead Type II/53 torpedoes, and mine handling gear (mechanical mine sweeping paravanes in the first four, mine laying tracks for 24 Vickers mines in the last four– the latter of which blocked the firing arc of the stern most 4.7-inch mount) rounded out the armament. Weight and space were reserved for depth charge racks and four throwers (with 12 “ash cans”,) although listening gear was only provided to two of the ships (Hr.Ms. Van Ghent and Witte de With) in 1941.
Admiralen-class torpedobootjager Hr.Ms. Van Nes (VN)Torpedolanceeroefeningen. The ships carried no torpedo reloads. 2158_005653
With a crew of about ~130 men, the Admiralens could land a light platoon size force of armed sailors and Marines (Korps Mariniers) for expeditionary landing division (landingsdivisie) service ashore, complete with cartridge belts, infantry uniforms with puttees, and 6.5x53mm Geweer M. 95 Dutch Mannlichers, as with these men of the class member Van Galen seen in Shanghai in 1932.
Despite their small size, the class was designed to carry and use a single embarked Fokker C.VII-W floatplane, although without a catapult. This means the Fokker had to be winched over the side for both takeoff and recovery, a time-consuming process.
The Marineluchtvaartdienst (Netherlands Naval Aviation Service) bought 30 pontoon-borne Fokker C.VII-W floatplanes in the late 1920s for use both ashore and from their warships in a reconnaissance/light strike role. Using a welded steel tube frame, the rest of the 32-foot aircraft was fleshed out in plywood and fabric. Powered by a 225hp Armstrong Siddeley Lynx 7-cylinder air-cooled radial piston engine, these were good for about 85 knots to a range of about 600nm and could carry two light bombs and an observer-mounted light machine gun. A baker’s dozen were sent to Morokrembangan in Java, operating alongside huge Dornier Do J Wal and later Dornier Do 24 flying boats, while the rest remained in Europe. 2158_061489
Fokker Hr.Ms. Witte de With at anchor at Kupang, September 1934 2173-223-014
The seaplane of the Admiralen-class destroyer Hr.Ms. Witte de With at anchor at Kupang, Timor, September 1934. 2173-223-014
Hr.Ms. Van Galen (1929-1940), een Fokker C-VII W lichte zeeverkenner July 1936 2173-223-057
Plane-carrying, torpedo-slinging, fast destroyers that doubled as minesweepers/layers. Not a bad concept.
Although to a British design and with a British powerplant and much equipment, all eight Admiralen were constructed in Holland, with the first flight of four (De Ruyter/Van Ghent,Evertsen, Kortenaer, and Piet Hein) all laid down in August 1925 from Koninklijke Maatschappij De Schelde (now Damen) and Burgerhout. The second flight of four (Van Galen, Witte de With, Banckert, and Van Nes) was ordered in 1927-28 from the same two yards as well as Wilton-Fijenoord.
All eight were delivered and in service by 1931.
Meet Banckert
Our subject carries the name of legendary 17th-century Dutch Luitenant-Admiraal Adriaan van Trappen Banckert, who played key roles during the victories of The Four Days’ Battle (Schoonebeld) in 1666, which pitted 84 Dutch ships vs 79 English, and the Two Days’ Battle (Kijkduin) in 1673, which saw 97 Dutch ships best a 130-strong Anglo-French force.
Admiral Banckert, born in 1615, was himself the son of an admiral, while his two brothers rose to the rank of captain (one posthumously), so it’s safe to say he came from a seagoing family. He shipped out as a lad with his pop, fighting Dunkirk pirates at sea before he was old enough to shave, became a ship’s master at the ripe old age of 24, and a commander two years later. He passed at age 68 while still holding a seat on the admiralty council, surpassing over a century of service.
She was laid down on 15 August 1928 at Burgerhout’s Machinefabriek en Scheepswerf NV near Rotterdam.
Launched 14 November 1929, she commissioned 11 November 1930.
Banckert was placed into service at Burgerhout’s, 11 November 1930. 2158_005115
As Banckert and Van Nes, also constructed side-by-side at Burgerhout, were the last flight, they had upgraded guns, including Mark 5 4.7″/50s rather than the Mark 4s in their sisters, in addition to the other above-mentioned changes.
Torpedobootjager Hr.Ms. Banckert 2158_005101
torpedobootjager Hr.Ms. Banckert 2000-372-015
Torpedobootjager Hr.Ms. Banckert 2158_000194
Torpedobootjager Hr.Ms. Banckert 2158_005104
Headed to the Far East by way of the Caribbean
All eight Admiralens spent the bulk of their career in the Far East, returning to Europe for refits and making the occasional call on Dutch colonies in the West Indies (e.g, Curacao) and South America (Guiana/Suriname) along the way back and forth to serve as a station ship when needed before the purpose-designed gunboat Hr.Ms. Johan Maurits van Nassau became the permanent station ship in the Dutch West Indies in 1933.
With that being said, Banckert left Nieuwediep on 12 January 1931, bound for Curacao, with stops at Lisbon, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, and Port of Spain before arriving at Willemstad on 7 February.
Departure of the destroyer Hr. Ms. Banckert from Den Helder, with many spectators on shore, headed to the Dutch West Indies, 12 January 1931. Regional Archief Alkmaar RAA003012918
She remained the station ship in the Dutch West Indies until November, when she sailed back to Nieuwediep. She remained in Dutch waters for the next 13 months, except for a summer training cruise to Scotland and a fortnight port call at Invergordon in July 1933.
On 14 December 1933, Banckert and her sister Van Nes waved goodbye to the crowds at Nieuwediep to begin their extended deployment to the Dutch East Indies, a trip of 9,900 miles.
Along the way, they made port calls at Tunis, Alexandria, Port Said, Perim (Yemen), and Colombo before arriving at Sabang on Sumatra on 25 January 1934, wrapping up the cruise in 42 days.
Banckert seen from the destroyer Van Nes in December 1933 in the Mediterranean Sea during the voyage to the Dutch East Indies. 2173-227-048
Participants at a lunch aboard the destroyer Hr.Ms. Banckert in Tunis at the end of 1933. 2173-227-024
Hr.Ms. Banckert in Alexandria, Egypt, where she and Van Nes spent the New Year, 30 December 1930 to 3 January 1934. 2173-227-027
The destroyers Hr.Ms. Van Nes and Hr.Ms. Banckert pass through the Suez Canal on 3 January 1934. 2173-227-052
Once in Indonesia, Banckert and most of her sisters formed a squadron around the light cruisers Hr.Ms Java and her twin Sumatra (the latter relieved after 1937 by the shiny new 7,900-ton Hr.Ms De Ruyter) then spent the next six years in a series of training maneuvers, naval parades, state visits, and sovereignty patrols.
January 1935, the Dutch East Indies squadron, including the cruiser Hr.Ms. Java and destroyer Hr.Ms. Banckert as seen from Hr.Ms. Van Nes. 2173-223-021
31 August 1935. The Dutch cruiser Java and destroyers Van Nes and Banckert moored on mooring buoys at Tandjoeng Priok. 2173-223-024
On 20 October 1936, Banckert became a lifeguard, rushing to the aid of the sinking Dutch KPM coastal liner Van der Wijck, which had capsized in calm weather while underway in the Java Sea. The destroyer joined with seven MLD Dornier Wal flying boats and three local vessels in helping to save 210 of the 268 people aboard.
KPM liner SS Van der Wijck (BRT: 2596), built in 1921. The vessel capsized a few hours after departure from Soerabaja for Semarang with the loss of 58 lives. Investigations later pointed to improper ballast water transfers by inexperienced crew, exacerbated by open lower deck portholes, as the cause of the accident.
The incident is infamous in the region, with Van der Wijck having something of a “Titanic of Indonesia” air about her, likely due to an enduringly popular Indonesian-language novel, “Tenggelamnya Kapal Van Der Wijck” (The Sinking of van der Wijck), written by Hamka in 1939, which was later turned into a movie, which was the highest-grossing Indonesian film of 2013.
War!
When the Germans marched into Poland in September 1939, the Netherlands remained a cautious, Allied-leaning neutral until invaded nine months later as the Wehrmacht swept through the Lowlands on the way to France. It was there that the Admiralen-class Hr.Ms. Van Galen, the only destroyer in Dutch European waters at the time, there for a refit, suffered a series of 30 air attacks while underway in the Nieuwe Waterweg and sank near Merwehaven on 10 May 1940.
On the other side of the globe in the Dutch East Indies, the remaining seven Admiralen-class sisters went on the warpath with the destroyers, in conjunction with local colonial troops, seizing 18 of 19 German merchant ships in Dutch territorial waters, long a haven in the Pacific from British and French patrols.
This came about due to a bit of cloak and dagger in which the PTT (Post, Telegraaf, en Telefoondienst) office in Soerabaja (Surabaya) withheld a coded German telegram, dated 9 May, directed to the respective captains of the interned German ships, ordering them to take flight on the eve of the invasion of the Netherlands. Passing it on to local intelligence instead, Dutch forces were able to swiftly capture 18 steamers with only the wily captain of the HAPAG freighter SS Sophie Rickmers (7,033 GRT) managing to scuttle his ship in harbor.
SS Sophie Rickmers.
Although declared a total loss at the time, Rickmers was raised, repaired, and put into Dutch service with KPM as SS Toendjoek. Rickmers/Toendjoek was later scuttled off the port of Tandjung Priok as a blockship during the Dutch evacuation of Java in March 1942 and raised a second time, then put under a meatball flag sailing for the Japanese as the Iino lines freighter Tango Maru. Tragically, the former German/Dutch freighter, packed with a mix of 3,500 local Javanese Romusha laborers and Allied (mostly Dutch Colonial) POWs, was torpedoed and sunk by USS Rasher (SS-269) 25 miles off Java on 25 February 1944, taking most of them to the bottom with her for her third and final time.
At the end of the day on 10 May 1940, the Dutch in the East Indies bagged 18 German merchant ships (19 once Rickmer was raised), and threw their crews and 2,400 German nationals over the age of 16 taken into custody across the islands into an internment camp where, besides their regular rations, they were issued “ten cigarettes a day and pocket money for refreshments.” Despite this easy treatment by the Dutch in Java, in July 1940, 231 members of the KNIL– the Dutch East Indies colonial army– who were on leave in the German-occupied Netherlands, were arrested by the Gestapo and thrown into concentration camps for the duration.
After that, the mobilized Dutch naval forces in the East Indies kept an eye peeled for German surface raiders and U-boats while on loose convoy duty and prepped to fight…
A whole new war
On 30 September 1940, Luitenant ter zee der 1e klasse (LTZ I) Lambert Johan Goslings, RNN, assumed command of Banckert, just days after Japanese troops entered French Indochina. The Sumatra-born Goslings was a career officer with 13 years of service behind him and had previously served on the Admiralen class destroyers Evertsen and Kortenaer, so he knew his trade.
Soon, with tensions building with the German-aligned Empire of Japan and the Western Allies, Banckert and the rest of the Dutch fleet in the Pacific began quietly exercising with the British forces in nearly Malaya and Australians to the south.
With a state of war existing between the Netherlands and Japan as of the morning of 8 December 1941, and with news of inbound Japanese troopship convoys sighted near Indochina, the Dutch fleet spent the next several weeks aggressively patrolling and…waiting.
In the meantime, Banckert and her sisters pitched in escorting British convoys from Africa and India, the final leg to Singapore, including Convoy BM 9A (1-2 January), Convoy BM 9B (4-6 January), Convoy DM 1 (11-13 January), and Convoy BM 10 (22-26 January).
By 1 February, Dutch RADM Karel Doorman’s joint ABDA Striking Force consisted of four cruisers, the De Ruyter (his flag), USS Houston, USS Marblehead, and Hr.Ms.Tromp, along with seven tin cans: U.S. Destroyer Division 58 led by CDR Binford on USS Stewart, with USS Edwards, USS Barker, and USS Bulmer; and a Dutch destroyer division commanded by LCDR Krips on Van Ghent, with the Piet Hein and Banckert.
While going after reported Japanese convoys in the Makassar Strait, Doorman’s cruiser-destroyer force was mauled by enemy land-based twin-engine bombers on 4 February, sending it back to port to lick its wounds. Although Banckert was so far unscathed, that would not continue.
On Valentine’s Day, Doorman’s Striking Force, augmented by two Australian cruisers, the Dutch cruiser Java, and three extra Dutch/U.S. destroyers, headed out to stop the Japanese Palembang invasion convoy. It was on this run that Van Ghent grounded on the Bamidjo reef between Banka and Billiton island while zipping through the Stolze Strait in the dark predawn of 15 February. Ordered to put down the wounded greyhound, Banckert closed with her stranded sister and took off her crew and sensitive materials, then pumped five broadsides into her bow, then retired to Surabaya with the extra crew.
Banckert was at Surabaya on 24 February when the port was attacked by Japanese bombers, with near misses cracking the destroyer’s hull in several places– knocking her out on the eve of the Battle of the Java Sea and the follow-on clash at Sunda Strait in which Doorman was killed and most of his ships were lost.
Put in the port’s 3,500-ton dry dock for emergency repairs, Banckert was again the subject of a very near miss on 28 February that damaged her stern. Meanwhile, the Japanese had landed on Java and were closing in on Surabaya.
With the call made to fire the port and evacuate what could be moved, the dock containing the evacuated Banckert was torpedoed by Hr.Ms. K XVII before the submarine submerged and made for Freemantle with the port’s commanding admiral aboard. Behind were left her damaged sister, Witte de With, similarly abandoned and scuttled, along with a mix of over 120 vessels either too old, small, or broken to make it to Australia.
Marine docks in Soerabaja. The photo was taken from the warehouse towards the East. Start of the destruction at 11:30 am. The 3,000-ton dry dock with the destroyer Hr.Ms. Banckert is seen sinking. On the right is the 227-ton tug/coastal minelayer Hr.Ms. Soemenep.
Surabaya, Java, Netherlands East Indies. 1942-02. Wrecked ships, including Banckert beside a wharf which is strewn with debris after bombardment during a Japanese air raid. Note the clouds of smoke behind the port facilities. (Navy Historical Collection) (Formerly Y043) AWM 306786
The crews of Banckert and Witte de With, their job as wreckers done, marched off to join Dutch Lt. Gen. Hein Ter Poorten’s land forces and continued to fight the Japanese until 8 March, when resistance collapsed. The Dutch radio station at Ciumbuluit signed off with “Wij sluiten nu. Vaarwel tot betere tijden. Leve de Koningin!” (We are closing now. Farewell till better times. Long live the Queen!)
With the port still ablaze, no less than 66,219 Dutch troops and sailors laid down their arms and marched off to begin more than four years of hard captivity.
All six of Banckert’s sisters in the Pacific– her entire class– were similarly lost in the first four months of the war against Japan.
Evertsen: Caught by the Japanese destroyers Murakumo and Shirakumo during her last sortie on the night of 27/28 February 1942 while trying to escape to falling Java for Colombo via the Sunda Strait, she was beached ablaze on the Seboekoe Besar reef. Nine men were killed, and others were captured and imprisoned for the duration of the war.
Wreck of Hr.Ms. Evertsen on the coastal reef of Seboekoe Besar Island, Sunda Strait, Dutch East Indies. The photo was taken in December 1945. 2158_005249
Piet Hein: Sunk in the February 19/20 night action while trying to intercept the Japanese invasion forces off Bali, she went down with the loss of 64 crew.
Van Ghent: As discussed above, she was accidentally reefed while on a sortie against the Japanese and abandoned.
Kortenaer: Took a torpedo from the Japanese heavy cruiser Haguro during the Battle of the Java Sea, which broke her back and sent her to the bottom with a third of her crew.
The sinking of the destroyer Hr.Ms. Kortenaer during the Battle of the Java Sea, 27 February 1942. Watercolor photo by JPM Wanders, one of the illustrations for the book “The Netherlands’ Naval Forces at War” by Lieutenant Commander A. Kroese, HMARVO, former commander of HNLMS Kortenaer. 2158_051000
Witte de With: Damaged at Java Sea and by a Japanese bomb to the fo’c’scle on 1 March, she was scuttled the next day.
Van Nes: Attacked and sunk by Japanese aircraft from the Japanese carrier Ryujo on 17 February 1942, with the loss of 68 crew.
Destroyer Hr.Ms.Van Nes (VN). Painting by Jos Wanders of the sinking south of Banka, during an escort voyage from Billiton to Java, 17 February 1942. 2158_005655
Under the Rising Sun
The water-logged Banckert was raised by the escort-poor Japanese in 1944, partially repaired, and put in service as the patrol craft PB-106.
On 23 October 1945, VADM Shibata Yaichiro, CINC, Second Southern Expeditionary Fleet, surrendered Java to Free Dutch Forces, and Banckert/PB-106 was returned to the Dutch, who eventually stripped the hulk and decommissioned the wreck from the Koninklijke Marine on 5 March 1947.
The almost unrecognizable ex-Banckert was sent to the bottom of the Madura Strait in September 1949, the last member of her class to take the plunge.
KITLV_MLD392_031
Ironically, she was sunk by the new (to the Dutch) British S-class destroyers Evertsen and Kortenaer.
KITLV MLD392 020, et. al
Epilogue
As for Banckert’s wartime skipper, LTZ I Goslings, he managed to escape Japanese custody and by September 1943, wearing a recently-awarded Bronzen Kruis, was once again on the bridge of a Dutch escort, commanding the Flower-class corvette Hr. Ms. Friso (K 00) on convoy duty in the Atlantic.
By late 1945, he was XO of the 14,000-ton escort carrier Hr. Ms. Karel Doorman (QH 1) (formerly the HMS Nairana D05) which operated with Hawker Sea Fury fighters against communist insurgents in the Dutch East Indies.
Neptune’s Day line crossing celebration aboard HNLMS Karel Doorman. Captain L.J. Goslings, first officer aboard HNLMS Karel Doorman, is in the middle with sunglasses, and is seen to the right with the crew. (NIMH 0018_101565)
In 1954-55, Kapitein-ter-zee Lambert Johan Goslings was skipper of the Dutch flagship, the Colossus-class light fleet carrier Hr. Ms. Karel Doorman (R81), ex-HMS Venerable, future ARA Veinticinco de Mayo.
The next year, RADM Gosling led the Dutch Navy’s 1,500-man Smaldeel 5 (Squadron 5), with his flag on the cruiser HNLMS De Zeven Provinciën, accompanied by the destroyers Friesland and Zeeland, on a tour of Europe, including a port call at Leningrad (St. Petersburg), laying a wreath at the city’s WWII memorial at Kronstadt. It was reportedly the first time Russian naval officers were welcomed aboard a Dutch warship since 1914.
RADM Goslings retired 1 on November 1956, capping 29 years of service, and passed in 1982, aged 77.
The Dutch remembered Banckert in a British-built Q-class destroyer, D801, previously HMS Quilliam, which was acquired in 1945 and scrapped in 1957. Notably, she served in the Dutch East Indies during the war with Indonesian separatists there.
Destroyer Hr.Ms. Banckert 1947 1957 2158_004000
The latest Banckert, (F810), a Kortenaer-class frigate, served with the Dutch fleet from 1980 through 2003 and continues to sail with the Greek Navy as the frigate Aigaion.
Dutch frigate HR MS BANCKERT (F-810) underway during Fleet Ex 1-90 Feb 1990 DN-ST-90-06944
Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive
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