A series of at least 84 cruisers of all sorts served first the Kaiserliche Marine, then the interbellum Reichsmarine, and finally, the WWII-era Kaiserliche Marine, starting with the protected cruiser SMS Irene’s circa 1886 keel laying to the handover of the famed but worn-out heavy cruiser KMS Prinz Eugen in May 1945.
And you would think that the book of Teutonic cruisers closed with the sinking of Prinz Eugen in December 1946 off Kwajalein Atoll, and the scrapping of the Soviet light cruiser Admiral Makarov (ex-KMS Nurnberg) in 1960.
Soviet light cruiser Admiral Makarov, formerly Nurnberg of Germany’s Kriegsmarine, in Tallinn for Navy Day, 1946 – Rahvusarhiiv
But then again, there was one more.
The schulschiff, or schoolship, Deutschland (A59) was commonly referred to by West Germany’s Bundesmarine as a “training cruiser” throughout her 24-year career.
15th Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery returns a 21-gun salute from FGS Deutschland, then the West German Navy’s largest ship, as she enters Vancouver. This is the closest thing the ship came to receiving fire in her career.
Just 5,700 tons at the max, she wasn’t much of a “cruiser” when compared to contemporary Atomic-era designs (she was ordered in 1958). The 453-foot vessel had no armor, was capable of just 22 knots at maximum speed, and her main battery consisted of four 4″/55-cal guns, making her more of a very slow gun-armed destroyer.
To be fair, the French at the same time fielded a lightly armed “training cruiser,” Jeanne d’Arc. She served from 1964 to 2010
Nonetheless, FGS Deutschland was the fifth “Deutschland” in 80 years of German naval history, following in the footsteps of an ironclad, a pre-dreadnought-era battlewagon, and a well-known “pocket battleship.”
Unlike her forerunners, FGS Deutschland was a happy ship, carrying out three-month training cruises each summer for up to 250 naval cadets and chief petty officers, never seeing combat.
Check out this great 10-minute Cold War German film, covering the 2.5-month “School at Sea” during her 1984 cruise.
Lithuanian resistance fighters (left to right) Klemensas Širvys-Sakalas, Juozas Lukša-Skirmantas, and Benediktas Trumpys-Rytis stand in the forest circa 1949. Note their civilian attire, augmented by American pineapple grenades and pistol belts, likely Lend-Lease supplied to Soviet troops, as well as a Czech Sa vz. 23/CZ 25 sub-gun of more recent vintage. (Photo courtesy of the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania)
Smoke billows from the decommissioned guided-missile frigate ex-USS Ingraham during a sinking exercise in the Pacific, Aug. 15. (U.S. Navy/MC1 David Mora Jr.)
Same, (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Danny Kelley)
VADM Steve Koehler, C3F, on a SINKEX in the Pacific as part of Large Scale Exercise (LSE) 2021, where U.S. joint forces — the USS Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group, Submarine Forces Pacific, I Marine Expeditionary Force, 3rd Marine Air Wing, III Marine Expeditionary Force, 3rd Marine Division, and U.S. Army Multi-Domain Task Force– conducted coordinated “multi-domain, multi-axis, long-range maritime strikes” on the decommissioned frigate ex-USS Ingraham (FFG-61):
“Lethal combat power was effectively applied to a variety of maritime threats over the last two weeks in a simulated environment as part of the U.S. Navy’s Large-Scale Exercise and expertly demonstrated Sunday with live ordnance. The precise and coordinated strikes from the Navy and our joint teammates resulted in the rapid destruction and sinking of the target ship and exemplify our ability to decisively apply force in the maritime battlespace.”
Ingraham was the final Perry (FFG-7)-class guided missile frigate commissioned in 1989 and was decommissioned in 2015 after 26 years of hard service and could surely have been transferred for FMS as have many of her younger sisters. Notably, 34 of her sisters are still on active duty with overseas allies.
The ship was named for Captian Duncan Nathaniel Ingraham, who entered the Navy during the War of 1812 at the age of 10 (!) and earned a Gold Medal from Congress for gunboat diplomacy in the 1850s while on a Med cruise. Ending his career dual-hatted as Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrographer of the Navy in 1860 to cast his lot with the Confederacy, he commanded the Charleston (SC) naval station while wearing a grey uniform in the Civil War.
FFG-61 is the fourth Navy ship with the namesake. It is the second of its name to be used in a sinking exercise; ex-USS Ingraham (DD 694), which was decommissioned in 1971 and sold to the Greek Navy, was sunk in 2001.
Importantly, the Marines got to confirm their brand new Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) anti-ship missile truck in the sinking, firing a Norwegian Naval Strike Missile from a position onshore some 100 miles away.
A Naval Strike Missile is launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility Barking Sands during the sinking exercise. (U.S. Marine Corps/MC2 Lance Cpl. Dillon Buck)
A Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System launcher deploys into position aboard Pacific Missile Range Facility Barking Sands, Hawaii, Aug. 16, 2021. The NMESIS and its Naval Strike Missiles participated in a live-fire exercise, here, part of Large Scale Exercise 2021. During the training, a Marine Corps fires expeditionary advanced base sensed, located, identified, and struck a target ship at sea, which required more than 100 nautical miles of missile flight. The fires EAB Marines developed a targeting solution for a joint force of seapower and airpower which struck the ship as the Marines displaced to a new firing position. The Marine Corps EABO concept is a core component of the Force Design 2030 modernization effort. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Maj. Nick Mannweiler, released)
Used as a training vessel for naval reservists on the Great Lakes during the Cold War, she was never given the common GUPPY modernizations that the rest of her class survivors got, and as such is the only World War II Fleet submarine that is still intact, with no stairways and doors cut into her pressure hull for public access.
That means she is still able to float and, although her screws and propulsion plant are quiet, she can be towed in open water, as proved by a recent trip to Donjon Shipbuilding and Repair in Erie, Pennsylvania, where she was in hull maintenance drydocking.
While she has been in fresh water for most of her life, she still needed a lot of TLC, and this shot is after 40 years of marine growth has been removed.
With the torpedo shutters off
What a difference two months in dry dock makes!
She returned to her traditional Cleveland berth yesterday, aided in a 13-hour by the tug Manitou.
Warship Wednesday, August 18, 2021: The Last Sub Killer
National Archives photo 80-G-442833
Here we see a starboard bow view of the Balao-class fleet boat USS Spikefish (SS-404)underway on the surface on 5 June 1952 when she operated from New London making training cruises along the east coast from Bermuda to Nova Scotia. Commissioned in the twilight of the conflict, she is notable in naval history for sinking the final submarine lost by the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II, some 76 years ago this week.
The Balao Class
A member of the 180+-ship Balao class, she was one of the most mature U.S. Navy diesel designs of the World War Two era, constructed with knowledge gained from the earlier Gato-class. U.S. subs, unlike those of many navies of the day, were “fleet” boats, capable of unsupported operations in deep water far from home. The Balao class was deeper diving (400 ft. test depth) than the Gato class (300 foot) due to the use of high yield strength steel in the pressure hull.
Able to range 11,000 nautical miles on their reliable diesel engines, they could undertake 75-day patrols that could span the immensity of the Pacific. Carrying 24 (often unreliable) Mk14 Torpedoes, these subs often sank anything short of a 5,000-ton Maru or warship by surfacing and using their deck guns. They also served as the firetrucks of the fleet, rescuing downed naval aviators from right under the noses of Japanese warships.
Some 311-feet long overall, they were all-welded construction to facilitate rapid building. Best yet, they could be made for the bargain price of about $7 million in 1944 dollars (just $100 million when adjusted for today’s inflation) and completed from keel laying to commissioning in about nine months.
An amazing 121 Balaos were completed through five yards at the same time, with the following pennant numbers completed by each:
Cramp: SS-292, 293, 295-303, 425, 426 (12 boats)
Electric Boat: 308-313, 315, 317-331, 332-352 (42)
Manitowoc on the Great Lakes: 362-368, 370, 372-378 (15)
Mare Island on the West Coast: 304, 305, 307, 411-416 (9)
Portsmouth Navy Yard: 285-288, 291, 381-410, 417-424 (43)
We have covered a number of this class before, such as the sub-killing USS Greenfish, rocket mail slinger USS Barbero, the carrier-slaying USS Archerfish, the long-serving USS Catfish, the U-boat scuttling USS Atule, and the frogman Cadillac USS Perch —but don’t complain, they have lots of great stories.
Spikefish!
The first (and only) U.S. warship named for the common label for the striped Pacific marlin, Spikefish was laid down on 29 January 1944 at Portsmouth; launched on 6 March 1944, and commissioned on 30 June 1944.
Her christening sponsor was a true “Rosie” with a compelling backstory, Mrs. Harvey W. Moore. The widow of LT Harvey Wilson Moore, Jr., a submariner lost with USS Pickerel (SS-177)off Honshu the previous April, she was a welder at PNY and affixed Spikefish’s christening plate to the boat’s bow before ditching her leathers for the champaign ceremony.
Mrs. Moore. NARA 12563144, 12563137, and 12563134.
Commissioning day, 30 June 1944, finds the Spikefish (SS-404) off Portsmouth (N.H.) Navy Yard. Note her single 5″/25 over the stern and her 40mm single on the sail. National Archives photo # 80G-453355
After workups, Spikefish arrived in Pearl Harbor the week before Halloween 1944 to prepare for her 1st War Patrol.
Setting out in mid-November with 24 Mark 18-2 torpedoes to conduct an anti-shipping sweep through the Kuril Islands and the Sea of Okhotsk, she didn’t have much luck as Japanese Maru traffic by this stage of the war had been halted as most of it was on the bottom of the Pacific by then. The highlight of her time in the area was being socked in a six-day gale and stalking two merchant vessels on Christmas Eve into Christmas that turned out to be Russian. She ended her 48-day, 9,976-mile fruitless patrol at Midway on New Year’s Day 1945. As noted by Submarine Force Pacific, even though “Spikefish on this patrol underwent the rigors of cold, rough weather in the Kurile Island areas at this time of year without the satisfaction of contact with the enemy…the award of the Submarine Combat Insignia for this patrol is not authorized.”
Setting out on her 2nd War Patrol on 26 January, Spikefish was ordered to patrol off the Ryukyu Islands.
On 24 February, Spikefish encountered a mixed convoy of six cargo ships protected by four escorts and conducted a submerged attack, firing all six forward tubes at two of the freighters, three of which were heard to hit. While it is not known if she sank anything, she did have to dive deep to withstand an 80-depth charge attack over the span of four hours.
Spikefish sighted another convoy on the morning of 5 March while working in tandem with her sister ship USS Tilefish (SS-307), fired another six torpedoes with no confirmed results, and took another pounding. Meanwhile, Tilefish bagged a Japanese minesweeper.
Spikefish ended her patrol at Pearl Harbor on the 19th and was credited at the time with damaging a 5,000-ton Sinsei Maru-type cargo ship in her first attack. She had traveled 11,810 miles in 54 days. With space limited in barracks, her crew was put up at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, which surely was horrible.
On 3 May 1945, Spikefish departed from Guam for her 3rd War Patrol and was ordered to patrol east of Formosa where she was assigned lifeguard station duties as the Fleet’s big carrier task forces were at the time hammering the Japanese province. U.S. submarines rescued 504 downed airmen– to include future President George Bush– during WWII lifeguard duty.
Spikefish managed to pull a downed pilot (Ensign H.O. Cullen, USNR 390961, an FM-2 Wildcat pilot off the escort carrier USS Sargent Bay (CVE-83)) from the drink on 7 June. On the same patrol, our submarine conducted a fruitless attack on a passing cargo ship and rained 29 5-inch shells on the Miyara airstrip on Ishigaki Jima from a range of 10,000 yards.
USS Spikefish (SS-404) rescues Ens. Cullen (in the raft, lower right), VC-83, five miles off Ishigaki Jima, 7 June 1945. NS0308306. Via Navsource
Spikefish ended her 3rd patrol after 55 days and 13,709 miles in Guam on 13 June 1945.
Besides dodging random Japanese aircraft and at least 19 floating mines (marksmen firing rifles from her cigarette deck detonated/sank at least six and hit four others that failed to explode), combat opportunities were slim, with most surface contacts proving to be Chinese junks which the sub sent on their way with the gift of a carton of cigarettes. She surfaced off Surveyor Island in the Yellow Sea on the night of 24 July and bombarded random points with 39 5-inch and 60 40mm shells from a range of about 4,500 yards, with the intent of hitting a supposed Japanese radar site.
On the pre-dawn of 11 August, Spikefish came across a 250-ton sea truck dead in the water. Closing to within 1,500 yards and ascertaining it was an awash Japanese Sugar Dog (SD) type wooden-hulled coaster, the sub opened with 5-inch (15 rounds, 5 hits), 40mm (28 rounds), and 20mm (20 rounds) on the vessel at close range. The craft was quickly sent to the bottom and Spikefish recovered three survivors, including the skipper who said the vessel was homeported in Korea.
Then, tipped off by Ultra intelligence provided by the FRUMEL team at Melbourne, came a two-day stalk of Japan’s only completed Type D-2 Modified “Tei-gata Kai” (Project Number S51C) transport submarine, I-373while on her inaugural tanker run to Takao, Formosa.
I-370 Type D1 submarine by Takeshi Yuki via Combined Fleet. The 18 planned Type D submarines, 241-foot/2,200-ton boats could carry five Kaiten manned torpedoes of the Shinchō Tokubetsu Kōgekitai topside and carry 85-100 tons of freight or gasoline to blockaded far-flung outposts. Only 13 were completed 1944-45 and nine of those subsequently lost during the war. I-373 was the only one completed as a tanker.
Foreshadowing EW of today, Spikefish was able to track the zigzagging and doubling back I-373 some 200 miles SE of Shanghai in part due to the impulses of the Japanese submarine’s Type 13 air-search radar picked up on her primitive APR warning gear. The end game was played at 0424 on 14 August when the American sub let lose a full salvo of four Mk. 14-3A and two Mk. 23 torpedoes at 1,500 yards, with at least two hits.
After surfacing and passing through a debris field just after dawn, a single survivor, coated with oil, was taken aboard, the remaining 84 Japanese submariners were lost. The recovered Japanese sailor identified the lost sub as the non-existent I-382.
Later that day, having penetrated the heavily mined Tsushima Strait, Torsk torpedoed and sank Japanese escort ship CD-47 and then did the same to CD-13, using new acoustic homing torpedoes and passive acoustic torpedoes. CD-13 was the last Imperial Japanese Navy ship sunk by the United States before the surrender, going down with 28 crewmen. (Other Japanese ships would be sunk by U.S. mines in the weeks after the surrender.)
At 0800 on 15 August, just over 27 hours after I-373 was sent to the bottom, Spikefish was notified by COMSUBPAC to cease hostilities. She put into Saipan on 21 August to turn over her two prisoners after a 44-day patrol, her war over. Spikefish received three battle stars for World War II service.
Besides claiming the last Axis/Japanese submarine sent to the bottom in WWII, Spikefish can arguably tote the title of the last warship to have sunk an enemy submarine in combat with the narrow exception of the Korean submarine infiltration stranding incidents in 1998 and 1996. While one day there may be an unlikely bombshell about one of the five Cold War-era submarines still on Eternal Patrol (K-129, Thresher, Dakar, Scorpion, and Minerve; four of which were all lost in 1968), Spikefish still holds the trophy.
When it comes to Spikefish’s sisters, of the schools of Balaos which were commissioned, 10 were lost in the war during operations while another 62 were canceled on the builders’ ways as the conflict ended. In 1946, the Navy was left with 120 units.
Jane’s entry on the Balao class, 1946
Postwar
Transferring to the East Coast, she was given a short refit at Portsmouth then in February 1946 was assigned to Submarine Squadron 2 at New London where she trained new personnel at the sub school, making regular training cruises along the east coast from Bermuda to Nova Scotia for the next 17 years, alternating with runs down to Key West to perform service for the Fleet Sonar School.
Portside view of the Spikefish (SS-404), 1950s. Note that her topside armament has all been removed and she has large sonar domes installed on her deck.
This streak as a school ship was only broken by two short refits/yard periods and a five-month deployment to the Med under the 6th Fleet in 1955, possibly the last such active overseas service for a non-GUPPY Balao. She earned the Navy Occupation Service Medal (Europe) for this cruise, which included exercising with the British submarine HMS Trenchant (P-331), being an OPFOR for the Greek Navy’s ASW forces off Crete, and port calls at Malta, Cartagena, Monaco, and Gibraltar.
Photograph of Spikefish undated. NHHC Photograph Collection, L-File, Ships.
Spikefish, as she looked in the late 50s with a large bubble trunk entrance on her foredeck.
Spikefish diving, photos by Larry Thivierge, Royal Canadian Navy, taken from HMCS Lanark off the coast of Newfoundland/Labrador, via RCN History.
“US Navy submarine USS Spikefish on display at Port of Tampa on McKay St. near 13th St banana docks, circa the late 1950s.” Original Kodachrome by photographer Hector Colado courtesy of Tampa native Yvonne Colado Garren via Tampapix. https://www.tampapix.com/tampa50s.htm
“A good view of the Peoples Gas tanks at 5th Ave. and 13th Street, Ybor City. The smaller tank was built in 1912 for the Tampa Gas Co. and at the time, its 212-foot height made it the tallest structure in Tampa. The tanks were disassembled in 1982 because they were no longer needed for storage and their upkeep was costly.” Original Kodachrome by photographer Hector Colado courtesy of Tampa native Yvonne Colado Garren via Tampapix. https://www.tampapix.com/tampa50s.htm
With so much time spent educating new bubbleheads, on 18 March 1960, Spikefish became the first United States submarine to record 10,000 dives, an impressive safety record that earned her the title of “The divingest Submarine in the World.” As she was the repeated target for scores of destroyers and ASW aircraft, she was probably the “Most depth charged Submarine in the World” as well, albeit they were simulator charges rather than the real thing as she had rained on her back in 1945.
It seems Mrs. Moore and her fellow tradespeople were good at their welding.
Spikefish (SS-404) at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, circa the early 1960s, Courtesy of Jay Jones EM3, Roberts (DE-749). via Navsource.
Bill Bone, a Spikefish vet of that period, speaks of his experience on the aging diesel boat in Key West in 1960-61, during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He confirms that Spikefish didn’t even have a snorkel conversion in place at the time but did carry warshot torpedos just in case:
Spikefish was redesignated an Auxiliary Research Submarine and renumbered AGSS-404 (auxiliary, submarine) in 1962, was decommissioned on 2 April 1963 at Key West, and was struck from the Navy list on 1 May 1963.
Epilogue
Spikefish was subsequently sunk as a target off Long Island, New York, SSE of Montauk point in about 255 feet of water on 4 August 1964, just past her 20th birthday. Ironically, she was sent to the bottom by another submarine.
Due to residual buoyancy from air trapped in her hull, USS Spikefish moved on the bottom in the weeks after it sunk, making it difficult for Navy divers to locate the wreck and inspect the damage caused by the experimental torpedo that sunk her, a MK 37-1. Damage from this torpedo is still visible in these scans on the starboard side just aft of amidships. Also, note the shadows and faint reflections of nets that drape the wreck.
Note torpedo damage on the starboard side, just aft of amidships Via Eastern Search Survey
Eight Balao-class submarines are preserved (for now) as museum ships across the country.
Please visit one of these fine ships and keep the legacy alive:
-USS Batfish (SS-310) at War Memorial Park in Muskogee, Oklahoma. –USS Becuna (SS-319) at Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. –USS Bowfin (SS-287) at USS Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park in Honolulu, Hawaii. –USS Clamagore (SS-343) at Patriot’s Point in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. (Which will not be there much longer) –USS Ling (SS-297) at New Jersey Naval Museum in Hackensack, New Jersey. (Which is hopefully in the process of being saved and moved to Kentucky) –USS Lionfish (SS-298) at Battleship Cove in Fall River, Massachusetts. -USS Pampanito (SS-383) at San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park in San Francisco, California, (which played the part of the fictional USS Stingray in the movie Down Periscope). –USS Razorback (SS-394) at Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum in North Little Rock, Arkansas.
Specs: (1944) Displacement: 1,570 tons (std); 1,980 (normal); 2,415 tons submerged Length: 311 ft. 8 inches Beam: 27 ft. 3 inches Operating depth: 400 feet Propulsion: diesel-electric reduction gear with four Fairbanks Morse main generator engines, 5,400HP, two Elliot Motor Co. main motors with 2,740HP, two 126-cell main storage batteries, two propellers. Speed: 20 surfaced, 10 submerged Fuel Capacity: 113,510 gal. Range: 11,000nm @ 10 knots surfaced, 48 hours at 2 knots submerged, 75-day patrol endurance Complement 7 officers 69 enlisted (planned), actual manning 10 officers, 76 men Radar: SV. APR and SPR-2 receivers, TN tuning units, AS-125 antenna, SPA Pulse Analyzer, F-19 and F-20 Wave Traps, VD-2 PPI Repeater (1946 fit), Mark III Torpedo Data Computer Sonar: WFA projector, JP-1 hydrophone (1946 fit) Armament: (1944) 10 x 21-inch torpedo tubes, six forward, four aft, 28 torpedoes max, or up to 40 mines 1 x 5″/25 deck guns (wet mount) 1 x 40mm guns (wet mount) 1 x 20mm gun (wet mount) 2 x .50 cal. machine guns (detachable on six mounting points)
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Betcha didn’t know that New Zealand deployed a full baker’s dozen squadrons of F4Us to combat the Japanese in 1944-45. In all, the RNZAF flew 424 Corsairs, with the first arriving in March 1944 and deployed to Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides shortly after. This amount included some 237 F4U-1s, 127 F4U-1D, and 60 Goodyear FG-1D Corsairs, the latter delivered after the war.
Three Vought F4U-1 Corsair aircraft (s/n NZ5307, 5315, 5326) of No. 26 Squadron, Royal New Zealand Air Force in formation flight. No. 26 Squadron was reformed in March 1945 at RNZAF Station Ardmore, equipped with Chance-Vought F4U-1 Corsair fighter bombers. The squadron served at airfields in Guadalcanal and Bougainville before being disbanded in June 1945. U.S. Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation photo No. 1996.253.7139.016
The first fighter RNZAF squadron to go into action in the Pacific was 15 Squadron who became operational on Guadalcanal in April 1943 during the heavy fighting during this period, flying advanced P-40Ks and Ms before switching, as shown above, to Corsairs.
As detailed by the NZ Remembrance Army:
At its peak, in the Pacific, the RNZAF had 34 squadrons – 25 of which were based outside New Zealand and in action against Japanese forces. Thirteen of these squadrons were equipped with Corsairs, six with Venturas, two with Catalinas, two with Avengers and two with Douglas Dakota transport aircraft. The RNZAF also had a squadron of Dauntless dive bombers, several mixed transport and communications squadrons, a flight of Short Sunderlands and almost 1,000 training machines.
To administer units in the South Pacific, No. 1 (Islands) Group RNZAF was formed on 10 March 1943. In addition to this, several hundred RNZAF personnel saw action with RAF squadrons or the FAA in Burma, Singapore and the South Pacific.
The following squadrons all served at some time or other in the Pacific:
Bomber or general reconnaissance: Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, and 9. (Flying Hudsons then PV-1 Venturas) Light bomber: Nos. 25, 30, and 31 (TBM Avengers and Dauntless dive bombers) Recon: Nos. 5 and 6. (PBY-5 Catalina Flying boat) Fighter: Nos. 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, and 26. (P-40s then F4U’s) Transport: Nos. 40 and 41. (C-47’s and Lockheed C-61 Loadstars)
Casualties of the RNZAF in the Pacific were 338 dead, 58 seriously wounded, and four prisoners.
Well, this press conference didn’t age well at all, and in record time.
25 June 2021: “President Biden Welcomes His Excellency Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, and His Excellency Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, Chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, to the White House”
Don’t get me wrong, I am not gloating.
This is a terrible situation, quite accurately the Fall of Saigon of our generation. A total kick in the nuts.
U.S. Embassy evacs: Saigon, April 1975, and Kabul, August 2021, respectively
I have friends and family that were part of the one million Americans who served– often several deployments– in uniform in the (now-old) Afghan Republic over the past two decades and I did contractor work. One of those friends I visit every year in the Biloxi Veteran’s Cemetery and would much rather he still be here to see his daughter grow up.
This week stings quite a bit and I really felt like everyone saw it coming for the past several years.
The following is the text of a joint statement released by the Department of State and Department of Defense on Afghanistan, 15 August:
Begin text:
At present we are completing a series of steps to secure the Hamid Karzai International Airport to enable the safe departure of U.S. and allied personnel from Afghanistan via civilian and military flights. Over the next 48 hours, we will have expanded our security presence to nearly 6,000 troops, with a mission focused solely on facilitating these efforts and will be taking over air traffic control. Tomorrow and over the coming days, we will be transferring out of the country thousands of American citizens who have been resident in Afghanistan, as well as locally employed staff of the U.S. mission in Kabul and their families and other particularly vulnerable Afghan nationals. And we will accelerate the evacuation of thousands of Afghans eligible for U.S. Special Immigrant Visas, nearly 2,000 of whom have already arrived in the United States over the past two weeks. For all categories, Afghans who have cleared security screening will continue to be transferred directly to the United States. And we will find additional locations for those yet to be screened.
August 15th is widely recognized as the anniversary of the end of World War II in Japan. The day also coincides with what is known as Obon or simply just Bon, season, the Buddhist–Confucian period when the spirits of Japanese ancestors return home.
Happy Friday the 13th! Of note, 2021 only has one of these on the current calendar.
Below we see a cat on patrol on the Dorval (Quebec) tarmac. Cats were used to destroy rodents that could damage the canvas-covered airframes. Consolidated B-24 Liberator and a Hudson Mk.V aircraft of RAF Ferry Command en route to Britain, wait in the background. 13 May 1942.
Photograph by Nicholas Morant. Department of National Defence / National Archives of Canada, PA-114767. MIKAN no: 3523587. (If you have this in a bigger resolution, let me know!)
A Vought F-8 Crusader lines up for landing on the French aircraft carrier Foch (R99). Date and location unknown
The German daily Bild recently reported that entrepreneur Udo Stern, a former member of the Lufthansa board, is passing around the idea that the retired French aircraft carrier Foch be brought back to Europe and turned into a luxury hotel resort.
Some details provided would be to turn the hangar deck into a series of concert halls, cinemas, a casino, and restaurants. Meanwhile, the 55 former staterooms in officer country would be remodeled into themed hotel rooms. On her flight deck, a golf course in summer and a ski slope in winter are also on the program.
Completed in the 1960s as the second of the Clemenceau-class light carriers by the French, the 869-foot/32,000-ton Foch remained in nominal NATO service until 2000, with an airwing of F8 Crusaders, Super Étendard, pregnant-looking Br.1050 Alizé sub-busters, and Dauphin Pedro/ Super Frelon helicopters. Her combat record included the Bosnian conflict and mixing it up with Yemeni MiGs off Djibouti in 1977.
Sold to Brazil for $12 million to replace their aging British light carrier Minas Gerais (ex-HMS Vengence), she served there as NAe São Paulo with an airwing of A-4 Skyhawks until a fire sidelined her in 2017. At the time, she was the last CATOBAR carrier operated by a country other than France or the U.S.
Navio Aeródromo São Paulo (A12) carrier, ex-Foch via Marinha do Brasil
Put up for sale since 2019, she was finally sold for scrap earlier this year at a $1.2 million price tag, but the breaker has apparently not come through with a check yet.
Of course, to U.S. readers, Foch is probably remembered most from its brief mention in Tom Clancy’s Red Storm Rising— where she was sunk by Soviet Backfires– and the two-minute opening scene of the 1995 submarine film Crimson Tide where veteran newsman Richard Valeriani portrayed himself as a reporter for CNN from the deck of the French carrier, complete with Super Etendards catapulting from her deck.
Ironically, should Foch somehow make it Hamburg, she’ll finally be Germany’s first aircraft carrier, of sorts, as KMS Graf Zeppelin never got operational.
