Category Archives: military history

The pipedream joy of the S&W M76

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One of my favorite American subguns is the S&W M76.

I mean, just look at it:

Developed in 1966 for the U.S. Navy SEALs, the Smith & Wesson Model 76 Submachine Gun was built to replace the famous and much more prolific M/45 “Swedish K” after U.S. supply was cut off during the Vietnam War. Production of the M76 continued until 1974, with a total of roughly 6,000 units built.

Chambered in 9mm Parabellum, the Model 76 Submachine Gun featured a simple blowback operation and had a cyclic rate of around 600–700 rounds per minute. It fed from a 36-round box magazine and had an ambidextrous selector lever allowing either full or semi-auto fire, a folding stock, optional suppressor capability, and long rifling-like grooves to allow dirt and fouling to accumulate without impacting the gun’s reliability.

Jerry Miculek, probably the nicest guy in the gun industry, gets into the Smith & Wesson Vault and lays hands on an M76 for the win.

Warship Wednesday 5 November 2025: Celebrate the Ram!

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

If you enjoy my always ad-free Warship Wednesday content, you can support it by buying me a cup of joe at https://buymeacoffee.com/lsozi As Henk says: “Warship Coffee – no sugar, just a pinch of salt!”

Warship Wednesday 5 November 2025: Celebrate the Ram!

IWM (FL 22661)

Above we see the modified former Brazilian J-class (RN Havant-class) escort destroyer HMS Harvester (H 19) underway during World War II in coastal waters, complete with Western Approaches style disruptive camouflage scheme. True to her name, she was a harvester of men in peril, saving nearly 2,300 men directly from the beaches of Northwestern France and another 244 adrift the sea.

She was also a harvester of steel sharks.

Over the course of no less than 51 North Atlantic convoy runs, she bagged at least two Axis submarines, one of them notably some 85 years ago this week.

The Brazilian Hs

The British Royal Navy would order some 27 assorted “G”, “H” and “I” Class destroyers between 1934 and 1936 as part of the rearmament to safeguard against the growing German, Italian, and Japanese fleets in the uneasy peace leading up to WWII. They were slight ships, of just 1,800 tons and 323 feet overall length with a narrow 33-foot beam, giving them a dagger-like 1:10 length-to-beam ratio. With a speed of 35 knots and a 5,000 nm range at half that, they could keep up with the fleet or operate independently and had long enough legs for North Atlantic convoy work, should such a thing ever be needed in the future.

The differences between the three classes were primarily in engineering fit, minor superstructure changes, and armament. They were typically fitted with a quartet of QF 4.7-inch (120 mm) Mk IX guns, a few AAA mounts, between 8 and 10 anti-ship torpedo tubes, and depth charges for ASW work.

HMS Grenade (H86), a G-class destroyer. Note her layout, which was like all her sisters. Grenade would be sunk in May 1940 off Dunkirk by German Stukas.

The 27th and last of the type delivered to the RN from the ships the Admiralty ordered was HMS Ivanhoe (D16) on 24 August 1937, completing the classes built out in just four years, which is not bad for peacetime production.

The G/H/Is would prove so successful of a design that the British exported it, accepting prewar orders for 19 ships for overseas allies: Argentina (seven Buenos Aires class ships delivered in 1938), Greece (two Georgios class delivered in 1939), Turkey (four desperately needed Inconstant class delivered in 1942, largely to keep Istanbul friendly at a crucial time in the war) and a half-dozen Jurua-class tin cans for the Brazilian Navy.

The Brazilian Navy in early 1938 ordered six modified H-class destroyers, spread across the Vickers, White, and Thornycroft yards. They would be named Jurua, Javary, Jutahy, Juruena, Jaguaribe, and Japura after rivers and towns in Brazil. Construction proceeded along nicely, and all were christened with their intended names by visiting dignitaries from the Latin American country and afloat in the summer of 1939.

Then, with the war in Europe, London made a deal to purchase the six nearly complete Juruas from Rio while they were still fitting out in a deal that would include providing assistance and plans for Brazil to build another six H-class destroyers domestically at the government’s Ilha das Cobras shipyard.

Rather than a fit for four 4.7-inch guns, these six former Brazilian destroyers in British service would carry only three, with the extra deck space freed up to be used for more depth charges– capable of toting as many as 110 ash cans across three rails and eight throwers.

They would enter service between December 1939 and June 1940 as the Havant class (Havant, Handy/Harvester, Havelock, Hearty/Hesperus, Highlander, and Hurricane), keeping with the “H” class naming sequence.

Hesperus is underway at sea, resplendent in her war paint. IWM A 7101

Meet Harvester (aka Handy, aka Jurua)

Ordered from Vickers by the Brazilian government on 6 December 1937 as the future destroyer Jurua, our subject was laid down at the company’s Barrow yard on 3 June 1938 alongside her sister, the planned future Japura. Jurua and Japura were purchased by the British government on 5 September 1939 while still on the builder’s ways and were launched into the water of the Irish Sea 24 days later to complete fitting out for Royal Navy service.

Our Jurua would initially be referred to as the future HMS Handy, while Japura would become HMS Hurricane.

One thing led to another, and Jurua/Handy would be commissioned on 23 May 1940, at the height of the Battle for France, as HMS Harvester, while Hurricane would only break out the white duster and join the fleet on 21 June 1940, well into the Fall of France.

Harvester leaving Barrow, June 1940

Speaking of which…

Dunkirk, et al

Without even the benefit of a proper shakedown cruise, the brand new Harvester, under LCDR Mark Thornton, RN, who had previously commanded the older S-class destroyer HMS Scimitar (H 21) on convoy defense, was rushed to the English Channel to help pull the BEF and Allied soldiers from France.

Harvester took part not only in the famous Operation Dynamo, doing her part with so many others to evacuate 338,226 Allied troops from the beaches and surf line of Dunkirk, but also in the lesser-known Operations Cycle (evacuation of 3,400 Allied troops from Le Havre) and Aerial (191,870 from a range of French Atlantic ports in late June).

She did this in the face of fierce German air and submarine attack, with her sister HMS Havant crippled by Luftwaffe aircraft during the Dunkirk operation, and was scuttled to prevent capture.

One of the former Brazilian RN H-class destroyers at Dover during the Dunkirk evacuation, crowded with Tommies on her deck. This ship is either HMS Harvester or Havant, both of which were active in Dynamo, the latter lost in the process. IWM H1668

The details of Harvester’s evac runs:

  • 29 May, Dunkirk (Op Dynamo), 272 men saved
  • 31 May, Dunkirk (Op Dynamo), 1,341 men saved (two round trips)
  • 9 June, Le Harve (Op Cycle), no troops found
  • 11 June, Saint-Valery-en-Caux (Op Aerial), 78 men saved

She also escorted transports during Aerial, who were evacuating Saint-Nazaire and St. Jean de Luz further down the coastline, and rode shotgun with the cruiser HMS Cumberland on a mission to bombard German positions on the occupied French coast.

It was reported that Harvester suffered at least one strafing from German aircraft and successfully evaded at least two torpedoes. LCDR Thornton, who had cut his teeth as a mid in the 1920s on the Jutland veteran battlewagon HMS Emperor of India, was mentioned in dispatches for his efforts.

The U-boat war

Harvester’s first of many convoy runs was to sanitize the area south of Ireland to clear the way for Halifax-to-Liverpool-bound Convoy HX 054, along with the destroyers HMS Highlander (a sister) and Punjabi on 16 June.

Her next run began on 29 June 1940 at Liverpool, riding shotgun with the inaugural “Winston Special,” Convoy WS.1, which carried some 10,000 British troops aboard the fast liners turned troopships Queen Mary, Mauretania, and Aquitania, to the Middle East. She also made the follow-on WS.2 and WS. 3A.

Then came ASW clearing for outbound Liverpool to Halifax return Convoys OB 194 and OB 199 in August, Liverpool to Gibraltar Convoy OG.43, Liverpool to Suez Convoy AP.3/1, and Freetown to Liverpool SL/MKS.47 in September; escorting inbound Sydney to Liverpool SC.8 in October, and screening OB.252 in November. It was on the latter that Harvester and the Canadian destroyer HMCS Ottawa came across the Italian Marcello class submarine Comandante Faà di Bruno (FB, I.5) on the afternoon of 6 November and likely sank the same, with all hands.

LCDR Thornton received a DSO on 12 January 1941 for the destruction of the enemy submarine and would remain aboard until March 1942, when he shipped out for command of the destroyer HMS Petard. Thornton was replaced by CDR Harold Pitcairn Henderson, RN, and CDR Arthur Andre Tait, DSO, RN, in turn. Of note, Tait had earned his DSO in 1942 while skipper of HMS Hesperus for sinking German U-boat U-93.

As for Harvester, the convoy runs continued, including five further OB runs, another OG run, at least seven outbound Liverpool to NYC/Boston ON convoys, four more SCs, two additional SL/MKS convoys, four Halifax to Clyde TC convoys, and seven more HXs.

She even had a brush with history, escorting HMS Prince of Wales along with sisters Havelock and Hesperus in August 1941 during the battleship’s passage to Newfoundland with Winston Churchill aboard for the Atlantic Charter meeting.

Besides dropping ash cans on contacts, she also saved the lives of those cast to the mercy of the sea. This included 90 survivors from the lost armed merchant cruiser HMS Dunvegan Castle during SL-43, 19 survivors from the British freighter Silverpine on OB.252, and 131 survivors from the ocean boarding vessel HMS Crispin on OB-280.

It was hard, dirty, and unsung work.

The famed American photojournalist Robert Capa, while crossing the Atlantic to North Africa with an eastbound convoy in 1941, caught two striking Kodachrome images of Harvester zipping among her charges, a seagoing greyhound stalking Axis sharks.

On 11 March 1943, while escorting convoy HX-228 west of Ireland, Harvester with LCDR Taite in command and the Free French Flower-class corvette Aconit in support, came across the Type VIIC boat U-444 (Oblt. Albert Langfeld) of Wolfpack Westmark and gave the new boat a hard fight.

In the end, after forcing U-444 to the surface, Taite chose to ram the German at 27 knots and send her back down, leaving 41 dead and 4 survivors to be plucked from the water.

Tragically, with the now-damaged Harvester dead in the water with a snapped shaft, she was twice torpedoed and sunk by U-432 (Kptlt. Hermann Eckhardt), which was in turn brought to the surface by Aconit’s depth charges and finally destroyed by gunfire and ramming. The Admiralty later passed on an order to halt ramming as a tactic after this incident.

The damaged Aconit then picked up five survivors from U-444, 12 from U-432, 12 survivors from the lost American Liberty ship SS William C. Gorgas, and 60 men from Harvester. Among those claimed by the sea were all three skippers from the lost warships, Taite, Eckhardt, and Langfeld.

Three days later, Aconti sailed into Greenock and discharged her motley accumulation of waterlogged sailors from three countries.

“Fighting French corvette sinks two U-boats. 14 March 1943, Greenock, the Fighting French corvette Aconit sank two U-boats by gunfire and ramming while escorting an Atlantic convoy through a U-boat pack on 10 March 1943. The second submarine had just torpedoed the British destroyer HMS Harvester. The Aconit steamed to a British port with survivors from the Harvester and a merchantman, and prisoners from the two U-boats.” IWM (A 15075)

“Survivors of the British Destroyer HMS Harvester fraternizing with the crew of FFS Aconit after the French corvette had avenged them by sinking two U-boats. The survivors are wearing the Aconit’s badge, and the cat is one of the Aconit’s three mascots – two cats and a dog.” IWM (A 15084)

Epilogue

Little remains of Harvester. I cannot even find where her wreck has been located. She no doubt rests very near the shattered U-432 and U-444.

She is best remembered in scale models and box art.

As for her first skipper, Mark Thornton chalked up assists on two additional submarine kill assists while in command of Petard, picking up a DSC, and was on the Combined Operations staff for Overlord. He then returned to destroyer operations post-war and retired as a full commander in 1956. He passed in London in 1982, aged 75.

Only three of the Brazilian destroyers survived the war, sisters Havelock, Hesperus, and Highlander, and were scrapped by 1947.

While the British have not reused the name Harvester, three French warships have since been named Aconit, including the modern La Fayette-class stealth frigate Aconit (F 713). The fourth Aconit flies the Free French jack, and its crew wears twin fouragères as a salute to the old corvette.

Mardi 04 janvier 2022, le capitaine de vaisseau Guillaume Fontarensky, adjoint organique de l’amiral commandant la force d’action navale (ALFAN) de Toulon, fait reconnaître le capitaine de frégate Jean-Bertrand Guyon comme nouveau commandant de la frégate de type Lafayette (FLF) Aconit.

Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive

***

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100km a day Across the Desert and all the Rivets you can eat

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While traveling around New Orleans, I often come across old French Foreign Legion insignia in antique and curious goods shops. My guess is that Francophiles and Cajuns in the area often, at one point, would sign up for life in the old Legion Etrangere and then return home at the end of the contract.

Holding their old insignia as souvenirs of places long gone, these items would eventually ebb away from them when they passed on to the great barracks in the sky.

Echoes of history, I suppose.

This one is appropriate today, that of Compagnie Montée du 4e REI, qui devient Automobile (CMA/4), a unit that only existed between 1933 and 1940.

The badge, featuring a running ostrich inside of green cog with a grenade and horseshoe, was created in 1934 by the company commander, Captain Gaultier, and made by Arthus Bertrand, Paris Depose. There is also an example with a black Ostrich head.

The outfit was created as the horse-mounted scout company or Compagnie Montée (1ere CM) of the 1st Foreign Regiment (1er REI) in the early 1900s. In September 1920, it became the mounted company of the 4th Foreign Regiment (4 REI), then dubbed CM/4e REI.

In April 1933, they ditched their horses and became a motorized company (Compagnie Montée, Automobile) of the same regiment, or CMA/4 REI, and were based at Ighrem in Morocco.

The nearly battalion-strength company was composed of some 284 officers, NCOs, and legionnaires in a command platoon, service unit, and two armored platoons with AMC Panhard 165/175 armored cars, along with an outsized “platoon” of 120 legionnaires transported by truck (14 Panhard 179 armored trucks, including two with radios, and a dozen Laffly LC2 light Saharan trucks with Veil-Picard “thorn proof” tires).

The Panhard 165, just look at all those rivets

I am pretty sure there is a CMA/4 ostrich cog on the top of this desert-bound Berliet VUDB armored car, of which only 62 were made from 1929 to 1932. 50 of these were used by France in North Africa starting in 1934, with the Legion’s mobile units. 

Light platoon of CMA/4, at Forum el Hassan in the mid-1930s, equipped with camouflaged Panhard AMD 165/175s. (Via Osprey MAA 325)

In early 1934, CMA/4 participated in the Anti-Atlas campaign in the far south of Morocco– the first fully motorized operation of the French Army– led by Colonel Trinquet.

Under Captain Louis-Antoine Gaultier– a tough officer who had fought as an enlisted man in the 4th Zouaves in the Great War and would eventually retire in 1955 as a general and Commandeur de la Légion d’honneur with three Croix de guerre in his cabinet– they were very involved in the fighting in Morocco. Eventually, the unit was split into two; and half would build and occupy the post at remote Forum el Hassan, while the other half established the post of Fort Tindouf (Ain Ben Tili) on the westernmost tip of Algeria near the border with Mauritania, both very “Waiting for the Barbarians” kind of places.

From there, they would conduct long-range patrols to Bir Moghrein (Fort Trinquet), a distance of nearly 500 km as the crow flies– or ostrich runs!

The company was dissolved during the Petian era, post Armistice, on 15 November 1940– some 85 years ago this month– and was combined with other units to become a mixed mounted unit of the 2nd Foreign Regiment, 12e Cie. Mixte Montee/2e REI, which further drifted off into history by 1944.

All that is left of CMA/4 are badges such as this one, and the forts they built in the swirling desert, which were abandoned when the French left North Africa in 1962.

Fort Tindouf (Ain Ben Tili), in northeast Mauritania.

50 Years in the Rearview: Harrier deployment

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Still impressive and hard to believe it is a half-century ago.

A No. 1 (F) Squadron, RAF, Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR.1A, deployed to an ersatz field position at Ladyville in the Crown Colony of Belize, formerly British Honduras, in November 1975. The deployment was one of many that stretched through 1993 to dissuade neighboring Guatemala from moving in.

This real-world deployment was only six years after No. 1 became the world’s first operator of a V/STOL combat aircraft. (RAF photo).

Formed as No. 1 Balloon Company in 1878 and Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, No. 1 Squadron became a heavier-than-air outfit in May 1912 with the establishment of the Royal Flying Corps, the only veteran unit in the RFC.

Minting at least 31 flying aces in the Great War, flying no less than 10 types in the process, No. 1 started WWII in Hurricane Mk. 1s and finished it in Spitfire Mk.IXs while picking up another dozen aces. Graduating to jets with the Gloster Meteor in 1946 (and training Robin Olds while on an exchange tour), No. 1 became the first V/STOL fighter unit in the world in 1969 when they fielded the Harrier.

While they never saw combat in Belize, having deployed there with their innovative “jump jets” numerous times, 10 Harrier GR.3s of the squadron did make it to the Falklands, and flew 126 sorties, including the first RAF LGB combat mission, the unit’s first combat since the Suez Crisis in 1956.

Three camouflaged and aardvark-nosed Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR3s of No. 1 Squadron RAF are positioned in the foreground alongside seven gray-blue Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm British Aerospace Sea Harrier FRS.1s and a Sea King HAS.5 of 820 Naval Air Squadron on the flight deck of the light carrier HMS Hermes (R 12). This scene took place on the day No. 1 Squadron joined the ship in the South Atlantic on 19 May 1982. The first Harrier GR3 is armed with a 1,000lb laser-guided bomb (GBU-16 Paveway II) on its outer pylons. At the center of the deck is Sea Harrier FRS.1 (XZ499) of 800 Naval Air Squadron, the aircraft in which LCDR Smith downed an Argentine Skyhawk. RAF MOD 45163716

Switching post-Falklands to Harrier IIs (GR5, GR7, and GR9s), they only hung them up in 2011 when the type was retired in RAF service, logging 42 years as a Harrier unit, a record since surpassed by a few USMC squadrons.

Since then, they have flown Typhoon FGR4s, first out of RAF Leuchars and later RAF Lossiemouth.

Appropriately, the squadron’s motto is In omnibus princeps (Latin for ‘First in all things’).

The best preserved Fletcher heads back to the water

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The “Pirate of the Pacific,” the Fletcher-class destroyer USS Kidd (DD-661) was launched into the waters off Kearny, New Jersey, on a cold February morning in 1943, then, commissioned just two months later, received four battle stars for World War II service and four battle stars for Korean service.

Used as a Naval Reserve training ship during the Cold War, she saw her last drydocking for hull maintenance in 1962 and was shortly afterward decommissioned to spend nearly two decades on red lead row in Philadelphia.

Disposed of by museum donation in 1982, she has since then been a fixture in Baton Rouge on the Mississippi River, where the destroyer, still largely in her 1945 layout, served as a set for Greyhound and other films.

That was until April 2024, when she was removed from her cradle and then sent for her first full overhaul in drydock in 62 years.

A story in pictures, via the USS Kidd Veterans Museum:

As detailed by the Museum:

For the first time in over 60 years, the USS Kidd has received a full overhaul in drydock. She was removed from her berth in Baton Rouge in April 2024 and towed to the Thoma-Sea Marine Constructors (TMC) shipyard in Houma, LA, for this once-in-a-generation work. Over the past 14 months, the deteriorated steel in the ship was removed and replaced with new steel so that she can survive another 40-60 years as one of the State’s top attractions.  The shipyard’s work is now complete, and the ship is scheduled to be released from her drydock berth on November 11th. USS Kidd’s newly refurbished and repaired hull will therefore be entering the water for the first time on this year’s Veterans Day.

The forgotten Skysoldiers who fought the Fu-Go

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This week marks the 80th anniversary of the conclusion of the joint War Department/Forestry Service “Firefly Project,” which spanned 1 June to 30 October 1945.

Original Caption: Forest Fires – A trooper in full gear waits for the order to board the ship. Photograph taken at Pendleton Air Base, Pendleton, Oregon, by Edgar W. Weinberger, Army Air Forces Photographer. 22 August 1945 342-FH-3B-42508-29999AC

Made up of some 300 paratroopers of the segregated “Triple Nickels” of the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion and a few C-47s of the First Troop Carrier Command from the Fourth Air Force’s Ninth Service Command, these men held the line in the Pacific Northwest against a wave of 9,300 Japanese incendiary bombs carried across the ocean via high altitude “Fu-Go” balloons.

While there were “only” 285 reported incidents with these bombs– including six picnickers killed while enjoying the woods in Oregon– the Firefly crews, serving as the nation’s first smoke jumpers, quietly completed 1,200 counter-fire jumps into heavy timber and helped contain 36 fires.

Trained in EOD as well as wildfire suppression, they had to improvise their gear and hold the line sometimes for days until Forest Service mule trains arrived with conventional firefighters. Then, extraction was typically by foot, several miles back over broken ground to the nearest road, carrying as much as 125 pounds of gear each.

Check out these amazing period Kodachromes of the operation via NARA.

Original Caption: Operation Firefly – Lt. Clifford Allen of Chicago, Ill. He is one of the firefighters of the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion. He wears his complete outfit just before taking off for a jump. Note the 150 ft. rope descending from tall trees; the plastic helmet and catcher’s mask are protection against branches and brambles. 342-C-K3746

Original Caption: Operation Firefly – A C-47 of Troop Carrier Command carries these parachutists of the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion to the scene of a remote fire in Wallowa forest, Oregon. Men of this unit have made over 8000 jumps since the first of April 1945. 342-C-K3751

342-C-K3727

Original Caption: Operation Firefly – A paratrooper in a tree is a common sight near a fire. The troopers of the 555th Parachute Infantry prefer to land in the trees rather than on rough terrain. They carry 150 ft. ropes with them to aid them in reaching the ground. Umatilla National Forest, Oregon. 342-C-K3720

Original Caption: This is the emblem of the “Operation Firefly” painted on the nose of a C-47 (Douglas) piloted by Lt. MG Brewer. The Firefly project has four of these ships, operated by the Army Air Forces Troop Carrier Command. They cooperate with the US Forestry Service in transporting paratroopers of the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion to the site of the forest fires. This unit is effectively preserving the timberland and the watershed of the Pacific Northwest, spanning the states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and even Canada. Photographer: Edgar W. Weinberger (Pendleton, Oregon) 342-C-K3743

Original Caption: Operation Firefly – Insignia of Troop Carrier Command. The function of the Troop Carrier Command is tactical. It is responsible for transporting paratroopers of the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion to areas where forest fires are raging. 342-C-K3742

Original Caption: Operation Firefly – Firefighting Parachutists of the 55th Parachute Infantry don their heavy leather coveralls before boarding a C-47 of the First Troop Carrier Command. Soon they will be winging their way to another jump and another fire. Their equipment, including two chutes weighing between 75 and 125 lbs, lies before them. Pendleton Army Air Base, Pendleton, Oregon. 342-C-K3716

Original Caption: Operation Firefly – Paratroopers of the 555th Parachute Infantry climb into their parachute harness before boarding a plane of the First Troop Carrier Command. The C-47 will drop the airborne firefighters near an area where a forest fire is raging. Umatilla National Forest, Oregon. 342-C-K3711

Following Firefly, the 555th was withdrawn back to North Carolina and folded into the 82nd Airborne Division, eventually becoming part of the 505th PIR in 1947.

The few remaining members of the battalion are in their 90s.

Warship Wednesday (on a Thursday) 30 October 2025: End of the Line

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

If you enjoy my always ad-free Warship Wednesday content, you can support it by buying me a cup of joe at https://buymeacoffee.com/lsozi As Henk says: “Warship Coffee – no sugar, just a pinch of salt!”

Warship Wednesday (on a Thursday) 30 October 2025: End of the Line

IWM (Q 48273)

Above we see the Italian Conte di Cavour-class dreadnought Giulio Cesare, in a very clean state while at Taranto during the Great War, on 3 June 1917. Note her interesting original five-turret (A-B-Q-X-Y), 13-barrel (3-2-3-2-3) main battery of 12″/46 Model 1909 Elswick pattern guns. She also wears a bow eagle with the Caesarian motto, “Veni. Vis. Vita.”

Following her second world war, she would go on to be the final battleship lost while in active service, under very controversial circumstances, some 70 years ago this week.

The Cavour class

The three-pack of Conte di Cavour–class battleships was designed in 1908 by RADM Engineer Edoardo Masdea, Chief Constructor of the Regia Marina, in the immediate spell after HMS Dreadnought and the French Courbet-class battlewagons. They followed in the wake of Italy’s first dreadnought, Dante Alighieri (19,500t, 551 ft. oal, 22 knots, 12×12″ guns, 10 inch armor plate), but were much heavier, at 24,500 tons.

As built, they carried the previously mentioned 13 12″/46s as well as 18 casemated 4.7″/50s, three torpedo tubes, and assorted tertiary light guns. Their Parsons turbines on 20 Yarrow boilers allowed Cavour to hit 22 knots on trials, but Cesare, even with 21 Babcock boilers installed (later 24), was only able to hit 21.7 knots. Even this came by whittling down the armor belt to where it was only 9.8 inches at its thickest, tapering to as thin as 3 inches near the bow, while the front forward tower and front turret faces were only 11 inches. Still, they were triple bottomed and had 23 watertight sections. While Terni made the armor for Cavour, Cesare’s and Da Vinci’s was imported from Bethlehem in Pennsylvania.

Plan, via the 1914 Jane’s

The three sisters, Cavour, Cesare, and Leonardo da Vinci, were laid down within weeks of each other in the summer of 1910 at three different yards (La Spezia, Gio. Ansaldo, and Odero) to be finished in 1913, one that would slip slightly due to Italy’s war with the Ottoman Empire and a diversion of resources during that period.

Hail, Cesare!

Our subject was named after the legendary Roman general and statesman of Et Tu Brute fame. Laid down at Ansaldo in Genoa on 24 June 1910, she launched on 15 October 1911 to much fanfare, one day after Da Vinci slid down the ways at Odero.

15 October 1911, Sestri-Ponente & Launch of Giulio Cesare, Bain News Service, LC DIG ggbain-09800-09879u

Fitting out would take nearly three full years, but she entered service on 14 May 1914, just 10 weeks before the “lights went out across Europe.”

Placing a 305 mm/12″ gun within Turret 2 of the Italian battleship Giulio Cesare, Genoa, 1912

Battleship Giulio Cesare during sea trials, 9 January 1913.

She was the first of her class commissioned, three days before Da Vinci and a full 11 months ahead of Cavour, which had been delayed due to Terni developing their cemented armor, while Ceasare and Da Vinci benefited from American imports.

Cesare compared to her contemporaries. Imagerie d Epinal Les Flotte de Guerre 

Great War

While the potential of a clash with the British and French loomed at the beginning of WWI, as Italy was officially an ally of Germany and Austria, the country’s quick declaration of neutrality, migrating to a polar shift to join the fight against Berlin and Vienna by May 1915, changed the orientation of the Italian battle fleet.

The Cavours were assigned to RADM Corsi’s 1st Battleship Division and left on seemingly eternal alert, ready to weigh anchor and sortie out within three hours.

Italian battleships of the Cesare Class, showing triple gun turrets, Great War. NH 111474 and IWM Q 19095

With the German Mediterranean Squadron chased to the Black Sea and the Austrian fleet effectively bottled up in the Adriatic, the naval war in the region devolved into four years of small craft and submarine operations as the respective battleships lay in wait for a decisive Tsushima/Battle of Yalu River/Manila Bay/Santiago style sea clash.

This led to a boring war for the Italian battleships as the Austrians decided to ride out the war safely at anchor rather than tempt a Jutland.

Sadly, Da Vinci would be lost to an unexplained magazine explosion while moored at Taranto in August 1916, taking a full quarter of her crew with her.

Da Vinci turned turtle at Taranto, August 1916.

In all, Cesare only spent 418 hours at sea during Italy’s war, 31 hours on combat missions (supporting operations in the islands of the Ionian archipelago in May 1917), and 387 hours in training/exercises, without ever encountering an enemy during the conflict in which her country suffered over 650,000 dead.

Interwar

The remaining sisters saw more sea time in the months just after Versailles than during the entire war, with Cavour heading to the Americas for a flag-waving cruise while Cesare toured the Eastern Med and stood by the Greek-Turkish conflict.

Cesare photographed at Constantinople, Turkey, in August 1919. Note that the ship is flying a Greek National Flag at the mainmast top. NH 47786

Jane’s 1921, with Da Vinci missing.

Following this, she had her first modernization, landing some small guns and her bow crest, picking up some AAA pieces, and changing her mast arrangements.

She also engaged in a bit of battleship diplomacy, being used in the seizure of Corfu in August 1923.

Italian battleship Giulio Cesare in La Spezia, 1925

A 1925 upgrade saw her pick up a Macchi M.18 seaplane over the stern along with a catapult and crane to retrieve it, and, after two years in ordinary, by 1928, she was relegated to use as a gunnery training ship, with the country soon after moving to build four new 40,000-ton Littorio-class battleships.

Jane’s 1929.

Great Rebuild

It was decided by the Italian admiralty in the early 1930s to not only keep on with the construction of a planned quartet of new Littorio-class 30-knot fast battleships, with their impressive 15-inch guns, but also to extensively modernize the two Cavours and the two similar yet slightly younger Andrea Doria-class battleships, giving Mussolini eight battleships in a decade. At least that was the plan, anyway.

Following the design by Gen. Francesco Rotundi, the Cavours and Dorias were rearming with more capable 12.6″/44 Model 1934 guns on upgraded mounts, with the middle Q mount deleted, giving them 10 new guns in place of 13 older ones, with a modern fire control house atop the conning tower.

Naples during the great 5 May 1938 naval review, showing the modernized Cavour followed by the similarly modernized Cesare and a heavy cruiser. NH 86147

The modernization also added armor, replaced the boilers and machinery, and deleted the casemate guns for more modern  3.9″/47 M1928 twin AA guns in high-angle turrets.

Cesare carried 12 of these 100 mm/47 (3.9″) Model 1928 AA guns in six twin turrets. These art deco-looking mounts were also used on the Trento, Zara, and Condotteri class cruisers.

They also picked up an assortment of twin Breda 37mm and Breda M31 13.2mm guns, landed the circa 1914 torpedo tubes, and lengthened the hull for added stability. Powered by eight more efficient Yarrow boilers and with 75,000shp on tap compared to the old 30,000shp, the class could make 27 knots, making them, at age 20, the fastest they had ever been.

Cesare underwent modernization at the Cantieri del Tirreno shipyard in Genoa from 25 October 1933 to 1 October 1937. Tellingly, the rebuild was one month longer than her original construction.

The U.S. Navy’s ONI, with war on the horizon, made sure to get several nice images of her in the late 1930s, essentially a new ship built around the upcycled bones of a circa 1914 dreadnought.

Cesare photographed during the late 1930s after her 1933-37 reconstruction. NH 86124

Cesare was photographed in 1938 following her 1933-37 reconstruction. NH 86127

Cesare photographed before World War II. The photograph has been retouched. NH 86590

Cesare at sea, 1938, photographed before World War II. NH 86588

Many shots endure from the epic May 1938 Naples Naval Review.

Italian battleship, either Cavour or Cesare, probably photographed during the 5 May 1938 naval review off Naples. Cant Z.501 flying boats be seen overhead. NH 86141

Cesare, 5 May 1938, at the Naval review off Naples. The torpedo boats Spica and Aldebaran appear in the background, NH 86142

Italian battleships Cavour and Cesare seen in column at the May 1938 Naval review off Naples. NH 86153

Italian battleships Cavour and Cesare seen in column at the May 1938 Naval review off Naples, followed by two Zara class cruisers. NH 86154

Cavour and Cesare seen in column at the May 1938 Naval review off Naples. NH 86151

5 May 1938, battleships Cavour and Cesare as seen from the fantail of a destroyer-type ship. Two cruisers appear in the right background, and a paravane for minesweeping can be seen on the ship’s stern in the foreground. NH 86148

Late 1930s, two Italian battleships and about nine or ten torpedo boats, the Cavour and Cesare, appear in the foreground, and the torpedo boat Altair can be identified in the background by her hull letters “AT.” NH 86140

A Second War

Cavour-class battleships as rebuilt, circa 1939. Luce archives via NHHC NH 111400

Giulio Cesare – San Giorgio, NH 111420

ONI 202 sheet on Cavour and Cesare.

Soon after Italy joined Germany in World War II, Cavour and Cesare, as the 5th Battleship Division, were part of a 14-cruiser/16 destroyer covering force running a convoy from Taranto across the Med to the country’s Libyan colony under the overall command of ADM Ingio Pola.

On the return trip, they crashed into a trio of Royal Navy task groups, Force A (five cruisers), Force B (battleship HMS Warspite and six destroyers), and Force C (battleships HMS Malaya and Royal Sovereign, carrier Eagle, 10 destroyers) on 9 July 1940, and the Battle of Calabria/Battle of Punta Stilo ensued.

During that clash, in which no ships were ultimately sunk on either side, Cesare opened fire on Warspite at an impressive 29,000 yards and, while her shells fell long, damaged two of the British battlewagon’s escorting destroyers. In return, the closing Warspite fired at and eventually hit Cesare with a 15-inch shell from 26,000 yards, exploding one of the Italian ship’s funnels and damaging four boilers, causing her to fall out of the battle line and reduce speed as Cavour took over. Cesare made it to Messina safely and took a month to repair.

Italian battleships at the Battle of Punta Stilo, July 9, 1940. Cavour opens fire with her 12.6-inch main battery during the battle. Photograph taken from aboard her sister ship Cesare. NH 86586

Italian battleship Giulio Cesare, seen from her sister Conte di Cavour, firing at HMS Warspite with her 320 mm guns, waters off Punta Stilo (Calabria), around 1555 h, 9 July 1940

Warspite hit on Cesare

Warspite hit on Cesare

Warspite hit on Cesare

Italian battleship Giulio Cesare after a hit from the HMS Warspite during the Battle of Calabria, 9 July 1940. The 15-inch shell hit the Italian ship from around 13nm. IWM HU 52333.

Then came the dramatic pre-Pearl Harbor night attack by a handful of British Fleet Air Arm Swordfish torpedo bombers from the carrier HMS Illustrious on the Italian battleship anchorage of Taranto on 11 November 1940.

Cobb, Charles David; Taranto Harbour, Swordfish from ‘Illustrious’ Cripple the Italian Fleet, 11 November 1940; National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/taranto-harbour-swordfish-from-illustrious-cripple-the-italian-fleet-11-november-1940-116445

While Cesare was spared damage, one torpedo sank sister Conte di Cavour in shallow water and effectively took her out of the war.

Cesare would strike out against the British again at the Battle of Cape Spartivento/Cape Teulada in November, without giving or receiving much damage, and in convoy work, including what is remembered by the Brits as the First Battle of Sirte off Malta in December 1941.

With the Med becoming less and less friendly to Italian capital ships due to British submarines and land-based bombers, Cesare was largely port-bound by 1942 and was eventually withdrawn up the Adriatic to a safer anchorage at Pola (Pula) and reduced to training status. It would seem her war was effectively over.

During the 1940–1943 campaign, Cesare made 38 combat sorties, covering 16,947 miles in 912 sailing hours, and consumed 12,697 tons of oil in the process.

Russia-bound

Spared the indignity suffered by most other post-1942 Axis capital ships, which were sunk at their moorings by Allied bombers, when Italy switched sides on 8 September 1943, Cesare overcame a small mutiny by Mussolini-inclined crew and made it safely to Malta by the interned under British guns. She fought off German air attacks along the way and managed not to be sunk by her former allies, such as the Littorio-class battlewagon Roma, which was sunk by German Fritz X radio-controlled bombs launched by Do 217s on 9 September, taking over 1,300 of her crew to the bottom.

Cesare was the last Italian capital ship to arrive at Malta.

As the invasion of Italy pushed the Germans and the rump of the Italian socialist republic further and further up the country’s “boot,” Cesare and the two Dorias were released to return to Taranto in June 1944, where they languished in ordinary.

Post VE-Day, Cesare was one of a list of ex-Italian vessels held by an Allied commission to be handed out as trophies.

Cesare in the 1946 Jane’s.

This process dragged on for years as Stalin’s iron curtain descended across Eastern Europe and the Western Allies were in no hurry to keep giving his war machine new toys. It was only in December 1948 that she was moved to Sicily and finally removed from the Italian naval list, ending her 34 years of service to Rome.

Ex-Cesare was turned over to the very happy Soviets under ADM Gordey Ivanovich Levchenko on 6 February 1949.

While Stalin wanted the newer Littoros, Cesare was arguably the nicest battleship the Russians had at the time, despite her age and the fact that she had basically been in reserve for six years and had not been dry-docked in eight.

Soviet battleship Novorossiysk, formerly Italian Giulio Cesare, from Vlorë (Albania) to the Black Sea in late February 1949.

After Cesare departed for a Soviet port, the loaned Arkhangelsk (HMS Royal Sovereign) was returned to England for scrapping.

Dubbed originally Z11 and moved to Communist allied Albania for a quick two-week refit with an Italian adviser crew aboard, then departed for Sevastopol. By order of the Black Sea Fleet dated 5 March 1949, the Italian battleship was renamed Novorossiysk.

Reportedly in extremely poor condition, with inoperable diesel generators, leaking pipes, broken fittings, and suffering signs of purposeful Italian neglect and sabotage, the Russians spent the next several years trying to reshoe their gift horse.

Although the Italians had delivered a library of technical manuals and books on the ship’s systems, a handful of Russian Italian translators on hand lacked experience in the specialized terminology used in the tomes, particularly when it came to handwritten notes and abbreviations, and the books ultimately proved an alien language.

Soviet battleship Novorossiysk (the former Royal Italian Navy Giulio Cesare

After six weeks in dry dock at Sevastopol, Cesare/Novorossiysk sailed (briefly) as Black Sea Fleet flagship on maneuvers in July 1949. Over the next five years, she had five shipyard overhauls (July 1950, April-June 1951, June 1952, November 1954, and February-March 1955) in an attempt to bring old systems back online and add new ones.

Battleship Novorossiysk (Giulio Cesare) April 13, 1955

The Soviets added several new AAA batteries (24 twin 37mm V-11 guns, six 37mm 70-K automatic cannons) and a Zalp-M radar.

It was planned to put the elderly battlewagon into her second rebuild (first Russian), which would include new Soviet-made turbine engines and Russian Obukhovskii 12″/52 Pattern 1907 guns left over from the Tsarist Gangut, Imperatritsa Maria, and Imperator Nikolai I battleship classes.

She never made that grand overhaul.

Tragedy in Sevastopol

On the night of 28 October 1955, the 41-year-old Cesare/Novorossiysk returned from a cruise marking the 100th anniversary of the defense of Sevastopol and tied up at Buoy No. 3 near the Naval Hospital.

At 0131 on 29 October 29, a massive explosion under the ship’s starboard bow pierced the battleship’s hull, blew out part of the forecastle deck, and created a cavernous 1,600 sq. ft underwater hole.

Within a minute, a second explosion on the port side created what was later found to be a 2,000 sq. ft. hole in her hull.

The warship didn’t stand a chance and was settling on the harbor floor in minutes, and began to list, eventually turning turtle by the following evening.

At least 557 of the battleship’s crew were lost, along with some 60 men from the rest of the fleet who were lost in the attempt to save the ship and rescue trapped sailors.

We won’t get into the myriad of theories as to what killed Cesare/Novorossiysk, but suggestions have ranged from the far-fetched, such as Italian frogmen of the long-disbanded Xª MAS and long-dormant scuttling charges left aboard in 1948, to German bottom mines left over in the harbor’s silty bottom from their occupation of the port in WWII and assorted internal magazine explosions. Lingering mines seem the most likely cause, as extensive sweeps later found 32 mines on the bottom of Sevastopol’s harbor, some dating to the Great War.

In the end, with Stalin long gone and the Red Banner Fleet moving towards a more submarine and missile-borne strategy, the age of the Russian battleship came to an end as Cesare/Novorossiysk was raised over the course of the next 18 months and scrapped.

The final Soviet dreadnought, the circa 1911 Gangut/Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya, was stricken on 17 February 1956 and slowly scrapped over the next two years.

After that, the handful of Turkish, French, British, and American battleships still on naval lists in NATO were soon taken out of service, with the Iowas staging a return in the 1980s-90s.

But gratefully, Cesare/Novorossiysk was the last one to go down with her flags flying.

Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive

***

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Making Progress on the 84th Burke

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Ingalls last week authenticated the keel of the future Flight III Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Thad Cochran (DDG 135), named after a Cold War Navy veteran and former U.S. senator who represented Mississippi across four decades, from 1978 to 2018.

I generally loathe naming warships after politicians, but at least Ole Thad served underway.

After graduating from Ole Miss in 1959, Cochran was commissioned an ensign in the USNR and served aboard the USS Macon (CA-132), a WWII-era Baltimore-class heavy cruiser. He spent 18 months aboard Macon, eventually becoming the ship’s legal officer.

Upon the decommissioning of his cruiser, Cochran was transferred to New Orleans to complete the rest of his active tour assigned to the staff of the Commandant of the Eighth Naval District, then taught military law and naval orientation at OCS in Newport. Cochran completed his active service as a lieutenant in 1961.

While on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Cochran championed funding for critical Navy shipbuilding programs– which, of course, helped Ingalls in Pascagoula– and supported military bases and installations across Mississippi and the nation. He is surely a big reason why half of the Burkes were built in the Magnolia State.

Cochran during a 2014 visit to Ingalls. He was a regular at the yard, as was Pascagoula-local Trent Lott back in the day

In recognition of Cochran’s military and civil service, the Trump-era NAVSEC, Richard V. Spencer, posthumously named the future DDG-135 after him in 2019.

As far as the class goes, as noted by Ingalls:

To date, Ingalls has delivered 35 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, including the first Flight III, USS Jack H. Lucas (DDG 125), and is currently constructing Ted Stevens (DDG 128), which recently completed its first builder’s sea trials and is currently underway for its second trials, Jeremiah Denton (DDG 129), George M. Neal (DDG 131), Sam Nunn (DDG 133), and Thad Cochran (DDG 135).

Happy Navy Day! A Great Get Together

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90 years ago today. 28 October 1935. Official caption: “Huge crowds crammed the Navy Yard as the Navy went on show for the Navy Day celebration. This picture shows the U.S.S. Dale, the largest type destroyer in the service.”

Harris & Ewing, photographer LC-DIG-hec-39511 

The above image, likely at the Washington Navy Yard as Harris & Ewing Inc. was a photo studio in Washington, D.C. owned and run by George W. Harris and Martha Ewing, is just great due to its detailed crowd shot. You can zoom in and just drink in the clothes, the cars, the characters, and the slice of life frozen in time. You can even make out the license plate numbers.

As for the well-dressed and turned-out USS Dale (DD-353), she was a brand-new Farragut-class destroyer that had just been commissioned four months prior (17 June 1935) and was the third warship named for American Revolutionary War hero Richard Dale. She would soon transit to the West Coast where she would take part in one of the most stirring U.S. Navy interwar photo shoots on record.

Destroyers on Maneuvers with planes overhead. Ships from the left are USS Monaghan (DD-354), USS Dale (DD-353), USS Worden (DD-352), and USS Macdonough. Note that signal flags are repeated throughout the squadron. NH 60270.

DesRon20 Steam through a smokescreen laid by planes of Patrol Squadrons Seven, Nine, and Eleven, during an exhibition staged for Movietone News off San Diego, California, 14 September 1936. The ships are, from bottom to top: Farragut (DD-348), Dewey (DD-349), Hull (DD-350), Macdonough (DD-351), Worden (DD-352), Dale (DD-353), Monaghan (DD-354) and Aylwin (DD-355). Courtesy of Commander Robert L. Ghormley, Jr., USN, 1969. NH 67293

What a great picture! A P2Y right, of VP-7 with an early PBY-1, left, of VP-11 flying over USS DALE (DD-353) of DESRON-20, during an exhibition for Movietone News off San Diego on 14 September 1936. Description: Courtesy of Commander Robert L. Ghormley Jr., Washington DC, 1969 Catalog #: NH 67305

However, our destroyer went on to do more than just look pretty.

In the Pacific War from the first day, she was moored with Destroyer Division Two at Berth X-14 at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 and fired at incoming Japanese planes within minutes. Dale received 14 battle stars for her World War II service which included screening USS Lexington and Yorktown during the Coral Sea, doing the same for USS Washington and South Dakota during the Guadalcanal campaign, fighting in the push to liberate the Aleutians (which saw her exchange fire with Japanese cruisers at the Battle of the Komandorski Islands), then on to the Marianas, Philippines, and Japan.

Dale was decommissioned on 16 October 1945 and was sold for scrap on 20 December 1946. The name was recycled for a Leahy-class guided-missile destroyer leader (DLG-19, later CG-19) that served from 1963 through 1994, liquidated in the Great Cruiser Slaughter of the Clinton administration.

Just six months later…

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“They Scrambled up the Parapet”: Military professionals launched this bayonet attack on Redoubt 10 during the siege of Yorktown. Only an army with thorough training. sophisticated organization, esprit de corps. And courage could have attempted this assault. The Continental Army had become such an army. The hastily assembled group that gathered at Lexington in the spring of 1775 evolved by the fall of 1781 into the effective force shown here. Howard Pyle’s modern masterpiece captures this “spirit of victory.”

Following the twin battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775, and the impromptu siege of the King’s forces in Boston, the Provincial Congress met and voted to authorize an Army of 8,000 men to serve until the end of the year, where it was hoped the crisis would be resolved amicably.

Then came the Battle of Bunker Hill in June– still fought largely by New England village and county militia companies against British regulars– and the realization that the conflict had no clear end in sight, the then Continental Congress moved to have a much larger force, organized on a war footing by regiment, instead of the more ad hoc rifle company basis.

The battle of Bunker’s Hill, June 17th, 1775, painted by J. Trumbull circa 1840; on stone by A. Hoffy. Print shows British and American soldiers in hand-to-hand combat during the Battle of Bunker Hill, including early Colonial martial banners. LOC LC-DIG-pga-00085

Organized on a geographic basis, at first, 23 regiments of infantry and one of artillery were authorized. Before the end of the war, something on the order of 200 regiments of assorted names had been authorized and, eventually, disbanded.

The regimental organization adopted for the infantry at first called for 598 men: a colonel, a lieutenant colonel. a major, an adjutant, a quartermaster, a chaplain, a surgeon, 2 surgeon’s mates, and 10 companies (nine organized and one Artificer). Each organized company was to have a captain, 2 lieutenants, an ensign, and 55 enlisted men. The Artificer company, a support unit, would have a master carpenter as Overseer, a master blacksmith, a master wheelwright, and 47 tradesmen, while an ordnance storekeeper, two clerks, and four conductors would serve on the regimental staff.

Newell Convers Wyeth (American, 1882-1945) – Washington Salutes the Flag as He Takes Command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, 3 July 1775

By the end of July, with Washington in charge for only seven weeks, he had three divisions, organized into six brigades and 36 assorted regiments, in the field around Boston. An impressive mobilization considering the Army had only been authorized on 14 June, a date itself just three months after the “Shot heard ’round the world” at Lexington Green.

Come October, some six months after Lexington and 250 years ago this month, those regiments were being fleshed out nicely, as noted by the CMH: 

By mid-October 1775, Washington had made great progress in organizing, staffing, and disciplining his army, although his correspondence indicates that he still was not satisfied. The Main Army actually exceeded the 22,000 men Congress had agreed to support. In addition to the artillery, the riflemen, and a handful of separate companies, it included 27 infantry regiments from Massachusetts, 5 from Connecticut, and 3 each from New Hampshire and Rhode Island. Although each colony’s units had different authorized strengths, all the regiments were at least 90 percent full on paper except for 11 from Massachusetts. Of the latter, 8 were between 80 and 90 percent complete, and 3 were below 80 percent. The individual regiments in the army averaged 474 rank and file total, ranging between 364 and 816. The total infantry rank and file strength of the Main Army was 19,497. There were also 690 drummers and fifers, 1,298 sergeants, 934 company officers, 163 regimental staff officers, and 94 field officers. Of the total rank and file strength, nearly 2,500 were sick, 750 were on furlough, and 2,400 were detached on various duties.

Four of the six brigades each contained approximately 2,400 men in combat strength. Sullivan’s Brigade was slightly larger with 2,700 men. The largest brigade was Spencer’s (3,200) because it contained two of the large Connecticut regiments and several separate companies. The relative strengths of the divisions reflected their defensive responsibilities. Ward’s had the most men (5,600), and Lee’s was only 400 smaller. The reserve division under Putnam was the smallest (4,800), while the 700 riflemen remained outside the divisional alignment. This total force was substantial. Equipped with a staff organization and a disciplinary system, it was grouped in a tactical arrangement that suited its location and mission. On the other hand, the British had not tested it in battle. Washington finished 1775 unsure of the combat potential of his army and eager to resolve some of the remaining issues relating to its internal organization.

This from the National Infantry Museum at Fort Benning:

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