The hulking 46,000-ton Audacious-class aircraft carrier HMS Eagle (R05) and her escort, the aging County-class heavy cruiser HMS Cumberland (57) of Graf Spee near-miss fame, visit Naples, 5 August 1955. The warships called at the Italian port city for a week’s operational visit in line with NATO.
HMS Eagle, seen from her helicopter, shows the ship’s company fallen in on her flight deck as she steams into Naples Bay. Her wing shows 12 Seahawks of No. 804 squadron, the Wyverns likely of No. 830 Squadron, a few AEW Skyraiders of 849 Squadron, and at least one Westland WS-51 Dragonfly. She carries a recently-modified 5.5-degree angled flight deck, later changed to 8.5 degrees in 1964. Also note the 8×2 QF 4.5-inch Mk III guns in BD ‘RP10’ Mk II mounts. IWM (A 33319A)
“Twelve Sea Hawks of 804 Squadron form an avenue demonstrating British Naval Air Power in the Mediterranean.” IWM (A 33321)
HMS Eagle, HMS Cumberland in Naples, August 1955. One of the last three-funneled heavy cruisers, Cumberland would pay off just three years after this photo. IWM A 33318A
A period Kodachrome of Eagle’s airwing circa 1955, including Skyraiders, Seahawks, and Wyverns.
Laid down in 1942, Eagle only entered service in March 1952 (the 15th Royal Navy ship to carry the name) and was primarily known for her service in the Suez Crisis four years later and later the Aden Emergency.
HMS Eagle at Fremantle, Western Australi,a around 1968, with her late 8.5-degree deck and Buccaneers
She was paid off in 1972 to allow her hulk to be stripped of parts to keep her sister, HMS Ark Royal, in service for a few more years.
The fifth American warship to carry the name, she was commissioned in 1943 and took the name of CV-2, which had been lost just nine months prior– like a phoenix of old. Lexington went on to collect the Presidential Unit Citation and 11 battle stars for her World War II Pacific service.
After receiving her angled deck and new catapults in 1953, she continued to serve with the fleet through the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Then, in January 1962, she transitioned to the Atlantic to relieve her younger sister, USS Antietam (CVS-36), as the dedicated aviation training carrier in the Gulf of Mexico– a mission she held down for almost 30 years.
USS Lexington (CVS-16) underway on 15 July 1963, with twenty-six T-28 training planes parked forward and amidships. At this time, Naval Academy midshipmen were riding the ship to observe carrier qualifications. Official U.S. Navy Photograph. USN 1086588
After steaming some 209,000 nm in her 48-year career and logging 493,248 arrested landings, she retired in 1991 and has since become a floating museum in Corpus Christi.
Aerial starboard bow view of the training aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CVT-16) underway. Although the photo is dated 1985, it must have been taken before 1970, as the ship is still fitted with Mk.24 Mod. 11 5-inch 38-cal open gun mounts. DN-ST-86-02002.
Lex unofficially added to her statistics on 30 July, and came to Flight Quarters when a Navy TH-57C Sea Ranger training helicopter arrived on deck and landed to end the type’s service with a Transfer Ceremony. The TH-57C was then decommissioned and moved into the museum’s collection, and her escort, a TH-73A Thrasher, the next-generation training helicopter poised to advance the future of rotary-wing aviation, lifted off to return to its duties with HT-28.
A TH-57C Sea Ranger and a TH-73A Thrasher attached to Helicopter Training Squadron (HT) 28 land on the flight deck of decommissioned aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CV 16), Museum on the Bay, in Corpus Christi, Texas, July 30, 2025. This landing commemorates the legacy of the TH-57 training helicopter while showcasing the future of naval aviation with the TH-73. (U.S. Navy photo by Morgan Galvin) 250730-N-KC201-1016
The TH-57C, BuNo 162684 (Bell 206 SN 03779), joined the fleet in 1984, served a decade with HT-8 at NAS Whiting Field (while Lex was in Pensacola), was transferred to Customs in 1994 for use as a Blue Lightning asset (N62646), then returned to the Navy in 2007 and has been flown out of Whiting Field ever since.
While in service over the past 52 years, the TH-57 platform has trained more than 30,000 naval aviators.
Today is the 235th anniversary of the circa 1790 founding of Alexander Hamilton’s old Revenue Cutter Service/Revenue Marine, which became today’s U.S. Coast Guard.
It is also the rough 35th anniversary of the beginning of the USCG’s continuing service in the Arabian and Persian Gulfs, which is about 6,700 miles as the crow flies from the continental U.S.
When Saddam crossed the line into Kuwait on 2 August 1990, the resulting Operation Desert Storm build-up in Saudi Arabia soon saw Coast Guard Marine Safety Offices (MSOs) activate personnel to inspect the nearly 80 Ready Reserve Fleet (RRF) vessels preparing for sea duty.
Soon after, four 10-man USCG LEDETs and a 7-man staff liaison team deployed to the Gulf to work from U.S. and allied vessels to inspect shipping.
USCG LEDET on a Turkish ship during Desert Shield
The first Iraqi ship impounded, Zanoobia, was on 4 September by a LEDET team from USS Goldsborough (DDG 20). Once the shooting started as Desert Shield became Desert Storm, LEDET personnel helped clear Iraqi oil platforms, securing 11 such platforms and aiding in the capture of 23 Iraqi prisoners, with one of the busiest being on the OHP-class frigate USS Nicholas (FFG-47).
Something like 60 percent of the 600 boardings carried out by U.S. forces were either led by or supported with the USCG LEDETs– which shows how busy those 40 guys were!
Further, 950 USCGR personnel were activated to support Desert Storm, with over half of those being in Port Security Units.
As noted by the USCG Historian’s Office:
On September 14th, PSU 303 (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) became the first Port Security Unit deployed overseas when it was assigned to Al Damman, Saudi Arabia.
On September 22nd, PSU 301 (Buffalo, New York) deployed to Al Jubayl, Saudi Arabia, and on November 14th, PSU 302 (Port Clinton, Ohio) deployed to Bahrain.
These PSUs featured the first Coast Guard women to serve in combat roles, including female machine gunners assigned to “Raider” tactical Port Security Unit boats.
The first allied craft into Kuwait’s Mina Ash Shuwaikh Harbor on 21 April 1991 was a Coast Guard Raider tactical port security boat from PSU 301, which gingerly led a procession of multinational vessels into the harbor.
Members of the U.S. Coast Guard Port Security Unit 302 patrol the harbor aboard a Navy harbor patrol boat during Operation Desert Shield.
Finally, to address the ecological nightmare that occurred once Saddam ordered scorched earth on the Kuwait oilfields during the liberation, on 13 February 1991, two USCG HU-25A Falcon jets, equipped with AIREYE side airborne looking radar (SILAR) and oil detection equipment, flew from Air Station Cape Cod to Saudi Arabia, supported by two Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules cargo aircraft from Air Station Clearwater packed with ground crew, spare aviation parts and support packages.
The Falcons were deployed for 84 days and mapped over 40,000 square miles of the Persian Gulf. They logged 427 flight hours in the region and maintained an aircraft readiness rate of over 96 percent. These flights provided daily updates on the size and direction of the spill.
Post Desert Storm, with LEDETs continuing work with the 5th Fleet Maritime Interception Force adjacent to Operation Southern Watch from 1992 onward, in November 2002, the all-USCG Patrol Forces Southwest Asia (PATFORSWA) was stood up with what would eventually become six 110-foot Island class cutters (USCGC Adak, Aquidneck, Baranof, Maui, Monomoy, and Wrangell).
Persian Gulf (April 27, 2005) – Coast Guardsmen aboard U.S Coast Guard Cutter Monomoy (WPB 1326) wave goodbye to the guided missile cruiser USS Antietam (CG 74) after the first underway fuel replenishment (UNREP) between a U.S. Navy cruiser and a U.S. Coast Guard Cutter. Antietam completed fuel replenishment with the Monomoy in about two hours and saved the 110-foot patrol boat a four-hour trip to the nearest refueling station. Antietam and Monomoy are conducting maritime security operations (MSO) in the Persian Gulf as part of Commander, Task Force Five Eight CTF-58). U.S. Navy photo by Journalist Seaman Joseph Ebalo (RELEASED)
7/25/2007. NORTH ARABIAN GULF-Petty Officer 3rd Class William J. Burke performs a security sweep aboard a tanker ship in the North Arabian Gulf. Burke, a machinery technician, is part of Law Enforcement Detachment 106, which is deployed in the NAG to help train Iraqi Navy and Marine personnel in boarding procedures and tactics. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Public Affairs Specialist 2nd Class Nathan Henise.
As it had in Operation Desert Storm, the Coast Guard deployed port security units, law enforcement detachments, and patrol boats to the Middle East to support Operation Iraqi Freedom and the Global War on Terrorism. Adak captured the first Iraqi maritime prisoners of the war, whose patrol boat had been destroyed upstream by an AC-130 gunship.
USCG small boat team conducting operations in the Gulf – 31 August 2022
In OIF, LEDETs deployed on Coast Guard and Navy patrol craft continued to board and inspect vessels in the Northern Arabian Gulf. As a member of one of these LEDETs, DC3 Nathan B. “Nate” Bruckenthal died when boarding an explosives-laden dhow that detonated near USS Firebolt (PC-10).
Today, PATFORSWA is still very much in business with six new 154-foot Fast Response Cutters (USCGC Charles Moulthrope, Robert Goldman, Glen Harris, Emlen Tunnell, John Scheuerman, and Clarence Sutphin Jr) replacing the old 110s in 2021-22.
220822-A-KS490-1182 STRAIT OF HORMUZ (Aug. 22, 2022) From the left, U.S. Coast Guard fast response cutters USCGC Glen Harris (WPC 1144), USCGC John Scheuerman (WPC 1146), USCGC Emlen Tunnell (WPC 1145) and USCGC Clarence Sutphin Jr. (WPC 1147) transit the Strait of Hormuz, Aug. 22. The cutters are forward-deployed to U.S. 5th Fleet to help ensure maritime security and stability across the Middle East. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Noah Martin)
With some 300 personnel assigned, it is the largest Coast Guard command outside of the U.S.
Some 125 years ago this month, this guy was the biggest hero in Russia, having recently picked up not only the St. George Cross but also five foreign orders “in recognition of exemplary bravery and selflessness.’
I give you 37-year-old Lieutenant Baron Ferdinand (Vladimirovich) Arthur Lionel Gotthard von Rahden, of the Tsar’s Navy, who commanded the Russian naval infantry unit drawn from the crews of the battleships Navarin and Sisoy the Great during the defense of the Peking Legation Quarter during its 55-day siege in the Boxer Rebellion.
Hailing from a family of hereditary Baltic barons (he inherited the title from his late father, Vladimir, the former vice-governor of Estonia, in 1881), Ferdinand graduated from the Naval Cadet Corps in 1886 and from 1889 onward held down spots on Russian warships drifting further and further East. From the Black Sea Fleet to the Caspian Flotilla and the cruiser Admiral Kornilov in the Indian Ocean. By 1891, he was a navigator on the cruiser Vladimir Monomakh in Vladivostok. By the time of the Boxer Rebellion, he was head of the 01 Division on Navarin and was selected to lead the 71-member company to Peking.
Of the 445 foreign soldiers, sailors, and Marines holding the Legation wall, the Russians had the third-largest force, just behind the only slightly larger British (79 Marines) and the French (75 sailors) contingents.
Russian sailors on a barricade before the Peking Legation Boxer Uprising, Niva magazine, No. 43, 1900
During the siege of Pekin, Baron von Rahden received several wounds, including a contusion of the cranial bone, but, importantly, his force captured four guns from the besieging Boxers, which were of great use to the defenders.
“Peking, China. 1900. A Russian officer, Baron Randen [sic], and four armed soldiers behind a barricade, probably at the Russian Legation, during the Boxer Rebellion.” Note he appears armed with a Steyr M.95, which may have been borrowed from Austrian Marines in the Legation, while his men have Mosin M.91s (AWM A05909)
Baron von Rahden, as portrayed in 55 Days at Peking, albeit in a much nicer costume, complete with sword belt sash, than the uniform he actually wore
After the Boxer Rebellion, Von Rahden, promoted to Captain (2nd rank), rode a wave of good assignments, including XO of the gunboat Koreets and command of the destroyer Ryany, which operated out of Vladivostok during the Russo-Japanese War. A scouting mission with his greyhound along the Korean peninsula during the conflict earned him an Order of St. Stanislav and a promotion to Captain (1st rank).
Then came a position as port captain of Vladivostok, followed by what would be the pinnacle of his naval career, that of skipper of the cruiser Askold in 1910.
Russian cruiser Askold in Vladivostok
At that point, Von Rahden’s star burned out.
Dismissed from his post on embezzlement charges, the Vladivostok Naval Court handed down a sentence of 3.5 years in the brig and the removal of all ranks, orders, and privileges. After serving 22 months, the Tsar commuted his sentence in light of his past record, and he was dismissed from the Navy, ending his 26 years in the fleet with a squish.
When Russia marched to war again in 1914, Von Rahden repeatedly, and unsuccessfully, applied to return to service.
It was only after the twin seismic military disasters of 1914 and 1915 that, on Valentine’s Day 1916, Von Rahden was appointed from ignoble retirement to become a colonel and second in command of the 205th (Shemakha) Infantry Regiment, then part of the 52nd Division on the mud of the Austrian front. In January 1917, he was made commander of the 82nd Infantry (Dagestan) Regiment, on the Romanian front. In April 1917, he was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir, 3rd degree with swords, one of the last issuances of that decoration.
Von Rahden, somewhat redeemed, was the 85th’s final colonel, and on 23 November 1917, he was promoted to major general, setting him up for command of a division. It was a position he held only briefly, being cashiered at the end of the year, following directives from the new Bolshevik military commissars who were eager to separate from the service any nobles still in uniform.
Returning home to Estonia in 1918, Von Raden soon fell in with the German-allied Baltic Landeswehr, a proto-Freikorps-style force led by his fellow Couronian and Livonian nobility. Leading a company in that force, he fought with the Landeswehr against the Reds at Windau, Tukkum, and Mitau.
Once Riga was captured, with the Landeswehr being strongly disfavored by the recently arrived British and French military missions to the Baltic, he and his company moved over to General Yudenich’s White Russian Northwestern Army during what had become the full-blown Russian Civil War.
Leading the battalion-sized 17th Libau Regiment of the 5th Division during Yudenich’s failed push on Petrograd, Baron Von Rahden, formerly of the Tsar’s Navy, was killed in action in the village of Russkoye Koporye on 25 October 1919, aged 56 hard years.
Reports from Europe point to CZ as being the winner of a huge contract to provide as many as 180,000 new pistols to the German military.
The German federal army, or Bundeswehr, has been conducting trials since last year to replace its polymer-framed hammer-fired 9mm P8A1 pistol, a variant of the HK USP, which has been in service since 1994. Current contenders to become the future P13 handgun in Bundeswehr service have been narrowed down to the Arex Delta, the Glock Gen 5 G17, and the CZ P-10 F.
German defense media site Hartpunkt reported earlier this month that the BAAINBw, the Bundeswehr’s acquisition agency, is finalizing a €25 million award to CZ for the new P13. The award will be for 62,000 pistols first, with an option for as many as 186,000 guns.
The striker-fired P-10 F, introduced by CZ in late 2018, is the largest of the company’s well-liked P-10 series, with a 4.5-inch barrel and a 19+1 capacity. While available in both optics-ready and suppressor-ready variants, it is not known which model the Bundeswehr has under consideration. (Photo: CZ)
CZ’s P-10 series is already in use with the militaries of the Czech Republic and Romania, both NATO allies of Germany. (Photos: Czech Army)
In addition to the P13 program, German KSK special operations and KSM frogman units recently adopted Walther PDP 4.5 and 4-inch variants as the P14/P14K series of pistols.
Before the adoption of the HK P8, the Bundeswehr issued the Walther P-38 and its postwar alloy-framed offspring, the P-1, going back to the service’s birth in 1955.
The German DW network has just released (in English) a sobering and fairly honest look at the massive 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union by the Axis, an event now 84 years past.
It is two hours long in two parts and uses first-person accounts from both sides as well as extensive period color footage.
Men of the 304th Army Cavalry Group perform night firing exercises with the 3.5-inch M20 “Super Bazooka,” 31 July 1952. A Boston-based Reserve unit, the image was likely taken at Pine Camp (Fort Drum) during summer training before the unit became the short-lived 57th Tank Battalion.
Signal Corps photo SC 405194-S
Designed after learning from the captured German 8.8 cm RPzB 43 and RPzB 54 Panzerschrecks during WWII, the Super Bazooka was slow walked into service but rushed to Korea in July 1950 when the smaller M9 2.36-inch ‘zook proved ineffective against North Korean T-34s.
By August 1950, some 900 Super Bazookas were holding the line during the Battle of Pusan Perimeter, and ROK forces used them to knock out enemy tanks the same month.
The Superbazooka even appeared in Army recruiting posters during the Korean War
The Polish military in the first half of the 20th Century cultivated a rich armored train (Pociag Pancerny) tradition that started in early 1918 with Polish units formerly serving in the Russian Army and newly independent.
This early train, Związek Broni (Arms Association), was created at the Bobruisk (Babrujsk) fortress using captured Russian rolling stock and armed with a combination of Pulitov 76.2mm M1902 field guns and Maxim machine guns. At the same time, a flatcar carried a damaged Austin armored car.
Zwiazek-Broni’s Austen armored car flatcar
Polish armored train near Arkhangelsk – 1918 during the Russian civil war. Note the Polish national eagles on their helmets. Signal Corps image via NARA
With 90 armored locomotives constructed by the Poles, this was later expanded to over 40 named war trains in the 1919-21 period of combat against the Reds, Balts, and Ukrainians in the East and German Freikorps types in the West.
During the Third Silesian Uprising, Polish insurgents used no less than 16 armored trains, such as “Kabicz,” seen here, against the German irregulars. The train consists of a T37 armored steam locomotive and two 2-axle iron coal wagons. NAC PIC_1-H-446-2
Once the wars were over, the better trains were retained and, eventually, modernized.
Just in case.
Polish armored train (Pociąg pancerny) Danuta in July 1935. Note the flatcar with motorcycles. NAC PIC_107-738-67
Polish armored train, 1939
By September 1939, the Poles had at least a baker’s dozen war trains in their arsenal, each typically supported by a dedicated supply train that included sleeping and coal cars, repair workshops, and flatbeds carrying light tanks. The allowance for a full crew of an armored train (with its support train) in 1939 consisted of 8 officers, 59 non-commissioned officers, and 124 riflemen, with most cross-trained in repair and maintenance tasks.
The Polish armored train PP 11 Danuta from 1939. From the left: artillery wagon, infantry assault wagon, armored Ti3 steam locomotive, artillery wagon. The train carried two 100mm wz. 1914/19 howitzers and 75mm wz.1902/26 field guns mounted on rotating turrets as their primary armament, while secondary armament was composed of nine 7.92 mm wz. 08 machine guns. She fought against the Germans for two weeks until trapped and scuttled by her crew.
Then, in Britain…
With this tradition behind them, it was logical for the Free Poles evacuated to Britain from France and elsewhere post-Dunkirk to man some armored trains. After all, there was a cadre of men among them familiar with their operation.
Starting in July 1940, troops of the 1st Polish Corps soon manned a series of 12 armored trains, organized into four dedicated battalions. The idea was that these trains could race up and down the coastline and form a mobile reserve in the event of German amphibious landings, or shuttle inland to tackle paratrooper insertions.
Produced in the Derby Carriage and Wagon Works and by the LNER works at Stratford in London, the trains were dubbed A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, J, K, L, and M. While these varied in length, construction, and armament, they were usually much shorter than the type the Poles had operated 1918-1939, typically of just 4-5 cars with an engine in the middle.
A few images exist in the IWM with good detail.
Troops pictured manning an armored train on a line at North Berwick in Scotland, 4 February 1941. The train was armed with a QF 6-pounder 6 cwt Hotchkiss gun recycled from a Great War-era Mk IV “Male” tank, two Boys anti-tank rifles, and six Bren machine guns. Photo by Walter Thomas Lockeyear IWM H 7033
Official caption: “Polish troops are manning an armored train in Scotland. They are used for patrolling lines along the coast, reinforcing any threatened point, and dealing with tank attacks where the railway offers the best means of reaching them. Each of two engines with one 6-pounder, six Brens, and 2 AT rifles. A speed of 50 mph, range of 30 miles without refueling.” Photo by Walter Thomas Lockeyear IWM H 7034
Armoured train K, powered by a single locomotive, No 7573, was armed with two 6-pounder guns, as well as six Bren machine guns, two Vickers machine guns, four Thompson sub-machine guns (Tommy guns) and numerous rifles carried by the crew. Initially, the train carried some 14,000 rounds of ammunition, which was later increased to some 38,000 rounds of varying calibers.
Polish Armored Train K
By 1942, with the chance of invasion of the British Isles slipping away and the Poles better used in North Africa, they left their trains behind for Home Guard use and pulled stumps for warmer, and more German-rich, climes.
In their Home Guard role, the trains were each initially armed with two Hotchkiss 6-pounder cannon, a Vickers machine-gun, and four Bren guns. They were manned by 16 Home Guardsmen under a captain, with a lieutenant as weapons training officer, two signalers, and a train crew of four. In addition, there was a mobile base consisting of a passenger coach and brake van to provide crew transport and catering. This came under the charge of the second in command, along with a company sergeant major, a train crew of three, and a fighting crew of six deploying two Bren guns and a Boys anti-tank rifle – an armorer and a further three men, making a total in the mobile base of 14. Thus, each armored train had a total complement of 38 officers and men. The mobile base would be detached from the train when going into action.
However, after the war, the Poles continued to use armored trains into 1952 when the Dywizjon Artylerii Kolejowej (Railway Artillery Division) was finally disbanded and its inherited German and Soviet trains placed in reserve, capping a winding 34-year run.
Polish Dywizjon Artylerii Kolejowej armored train, in the late 1940s, a recycled Wermacht Panzerzug with French M1890 194mm naval guns
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Warship Wednesday, July 30, 2025: Ocean Station Savior
Above we see the 255-foot Owasco-class gunboat, U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Pontchartrain (WPG-70) during rough weather while slogging along in the Pacific, 8 January 1950.
Commissioned during the last days of WWII, some 80 years ago this week, “Ponch” had a lengthy career that included lots of dreary service on Ocean Stations (13 of those shifts during Korea), a Vietnam Market Time deployment, and numerous rescues at sea– including one that was spectacular.
The 255s
The Coast Guard got seriously ripped off by the White House in early 1941 when 10 of its best (and newest) blue water cutters, the entire 250-foot Lake (Chelan) class, were transferred to the Royal Navy as part of FDR’s “Bases for Destroyers” deal. These hardy 2,000-ton turbine-powered low-mileage cutters became Banff-class sloops in RN service and saw lots of service, with three lost during the war and a fourth damaged so badly she was scrapped in the Philippines.
A splendid example of the 250-foot Lake class cutters, USCGC Pontchartrain (WPG-46) and USCGC Chelan (WPG-45), seen on 30 September 1937. Under the canvas awnings are a 5″/51 forward, a 3″/50 aft, and two 6-pounders.
By 1942, with it apparent that the old Lakes would likely never return from overseas (at least not for years) and the U.S. firmly in the war, the USCG moved to build a replacement class of ten ships. To this number was added another three hulls, to finally replace the ancient cutters Ossipee(165 ft, circa 1915), Tallapoosa(165 ft, circa 1915), and Unalaga(190 ft, circa 1912).
Originally a 312-foot design that was a simplified follow-on to the service’s seven well-liked turbine-powered 327-foot Treasury (Campbell) class cutters, which had a provision to carry a JF-2/SOC-4 floatplane as well as two 5″/51s and ASW gear, this soon morphed into a much more compact 255-foot hull with an even heavier armament. The 255-foot oal guideline (245 at the waterline) conceivably allowed them to pass through the then 251-foot third lock of the Welland Canal in Ontario if needed, so they could operate on the Great Lakes at some future date.
The 1945 outfit for the class was twin 5″/38 DP mounts fore and aft, backed up by two quad 40mm Bofors, a Hedgehog ASWRL, two depth charge racks, and six K-guns. Overloaded already in such an arrangement, there was never a floatplane fitted, although the superstructure was divided into two islands to allow a midship location on deck for such a contraption.
While most carried SR and SU radar sets, Mendota and Pontchartrain carried more updated SC-4 and SF-1 radar sets. They all carried a QJA sonar set and Mk 26 FCS.
255 class leader CGC Owasco (WPG-39) off San Pedro, California. 18 July 1945. Note the short hull, packed with twin 5″/38s fore and aft as well as ASW gear and Bofors mounts.
Powered by twin Foster-Wheeler 2 drum top-fired Express boilers and a 3,200 kVa Westinghouse electric motor driven by a turbine, these cutters were good for 19 knots but could sail 10,000nm at 10 knots economically on 141,755 gallons of fuel oil, giving them extremely long legs. Able to navigate in three fathoms of sea water, they could get into tight spaces.
As detailed by the USCG Historian’s Office:
The 255-foot class was an ice-going design. Ice operations had been assigned to the Coast Guard early in the war, and almost all new construction was either ice-going or icebreaking.
The hull was designed with constant flare at the waterline for ice-going. The structure was longitudinally framed with heavy web frames and an ice belt of heavy plating, and it had extra transverse framing above and below the design water line. Enormous amounts of weight were removed using electric welding. The 250-foot cutters’ weights were used for estimating purposes. Tapered bulkhead stiffeners cut from 12” I-beams went from the main deck (4’ depth of web) to the bottom (8” depth of web). As weight was cut out of the hull structure, electronics and ordnance were increased, but at much greater heights. This top weight required ballasting the fuel tanks with seawater to maintain stability both for wind and damaged conditions.
Eleven of the class were to be built on the West Coast at the Western Pipe and Steel Company in San Pedro, California, with the first, Sebago, laid down on 7 June 1943.
Cost per hull was $4,239,702 in 1945 dollars.
Meet “Raunchy Paunchy”
Our subject is the second USCGC Pontchartrain, following in the footsteps of a circa 1928 Lake-class cutter which, transferred to Royal Navy 30 April 1941 as part of the Bases for Destroyers deal, entered service as HMS Hartland (Y00) and, 17 convoys later, was sunk by the French during Operation Reservist, the effort to seize the port of Oran as part of the Torch landings 19 months later.
While there was one CSS Pontchartrain on the Mississippi (for obvious reasons) during the Civil War, the U.S. Navy has never used the name.
One of only two 255s built on the East Coast at the USCG Yard in Curtis Bay, Maryland (alongside sister USCGC Mendota, WPG-69), WPG-70 was the final Owasco-class cutter laid down by hull number, but far from the last completed. They were part of the initial six ships laid down in 1943, while the other eight all had their keels laid down in 1944. Both WPG-69 and WPG-70 were laid down on 5 July 1943.
Launched as Okeechobee on 29 February 1944, our subject was commissioned as USCGC Pontchartrain on 28 July 1945. Had the war not ended six weeks later, she surely would have made for the Panama Canal by Halloween and seen service in the Pacific with her sisters.
Eight of her 12 sisters were completed after VJ Day.
USCGC Pontchartrain (WHEC-70) Aug 1945
USCGC Pontchartrain (WHEC-70) Sep 1945. Note the split superstructure
Not destined to join Halsey for the push on Tokyo, Pontchartrain instead clocked in on a series of more than a dozen Ocean Stations, mid-way navigation, weather, and SAR points set up post-war to help trans-oceanic flights stay on path. Usually a three-week deployment, it was thankless and, on the very beamy 255s, sometimes one heck of a ride punctuated by regular twice-daily weather balloon launches, 450-foot bathythermograph drops every four hours, and an unceasing radio check.
The cutters steamed an average of 4,000 miles per patrol, and, with transit time included, staffed the station for an average of 700 non-stop hours.
One crew member noted: “After twenty-one days of being slammed around by rough, cold sea swells 20 to 50 feet high, and wild winds hitting gale force at times, within an ocean grid the size of a postage stamp, you can stand any kind of duty.”
Pontchartrain sister, the 255-ft. U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Escanaba, based in New Bedford, Massachusetts, takes a salty shower bath in rough North Atlantic weather on ocean station ‘Delta’, 650 miles southeast of Newfoundland and east of Nova Scotia
For the record, as noted by Scheina, Pontchartrain stood the lonely guard on 61 occasions:
Atlantic, while stationed at Boston and Norfolk:
20 Oct-10 Nov 46 served on OS C
6-11 Nov 48 served on OS Easy
23 Jan-12 Feb 49 served on OS B
18 Mar-8 Apr 49 served on OS Fox
17 May-7 Jun 49 served on OS Easy
17 Jul-6 Aug 49 served on OS Dog
Pacific, while stationed at Long Beach:
*During the Korean War:
Feb-13 Mar 50 served on OS Oboe
14 May-5 Jun 50 served on OS Peter
4-27 Aug 50 served on OS Nan*
6-26 Mar 51 served on OS Sugar*
13 Apr-5 May 51 served on OS Nan*
8-29 Jul 51 served on OS Nan*
21-29 Oct 51 served on OS Nan*
Nov-2 Dec 51 served on OS Nan*
23 Dec 51-13 Jan 52 served on OS Uncle*
23 Feb-16 Mar 52 served on OS Sugar*
5-25 Apr 52 served on OS Sugar*
29 Jun-20 Jul 52 served on OS Nan*
22 Sep-12 Oct 52 served on OS Nan*
28 Jan-18 Feb 53 served on OS Victor*
30 Mar-20 Apr 53 served on OS Sugar*
2-23 Jul 53 served on OS Uncle*
25 Oct-15 Nov 53 served on OS Uncle
28 Feb-10 Mar 54 served on OS Nan
25 Jul-15 Aug 54 served on OS Nan
17 Oct-7 Nov 54 served on OS Nan
19 Dec 54-10 Jan 55 served on OS Nan
15 May-5 Jun 55 served on OS Nan
18 Sep-8 Oct 55 served on OS Nan
12 Feb-4 Mar 5 served on OS November
8-28 Jul 56 served on OS November
30 Sep-16 Oct 56 served on OS November
21 Dec 56-13 Jan 57 served on OS November
13 May-9 Jun 57 served on OS November
22 Sep-13 Oct 57 served on OS November
17 Feb-8 Mar 58 served on OS November
13 Jul-3 Aug 58 served on OS November
14 Oct-4 Nov 58 served on OS Romeo
7-28 Dec 58 served on OS November
18 Jan-7 Feb 59 served on OS November
27 Sep-17 Oct 59 served on OS November
20 Feb-12 Mar 60 served on OS November
1 16 Jul-6 Aug 60 served on OS November
11-31 Dec 60 served on OS November
7-27 May 61 served on OS November
10-31 Mar 68 served on OS November
12 May-2 Jun 68 served on OS November
14 Jul-4 Aug 68 served on OS November
25 Aug-15 Sep 68 served on OS November
19 Jan-9 Feb 69 served on OS Victor
2-23 Mar 69 served on OS Victor
25 May-14 Jun 69 served on OS November
17 Aug-7 Sep 69 served on OS November
30 Nov- 18 Dec 69 served on OS November
22 Aug-12 Sep 71 served on OS Victor
3-24 Oct 71 served on OS Victor
8-28 Jun 72 served on OS Charlie
15 Aug-8 Sep 72 served on OS Delta
29 Jan-23 Feb 73 served on OS Echo
24 Apr-17 May 73 served on OS Delta
6-26 Sep 73 served on OS Charlie
During this service, her appearance changed significantly.
Laid up from 17 October 1947 to 5 September 1948 as the service ran into post-war budget cuts, she emerged from Curtis Bay with most of her armament removed. Gone were the twin 5-inchers, replaced by a single mount forward. Also deleted were her aft Bofors and all her ASW weapons save for Hedgehog. This nearly halved her complement from over 250 to 130.
USCGC Pontchartrain circa 1958. Note her single 5″/38 DP, with her open Hedgehog and last 40mm Bofors quad mount behind
The clipper, under the command of Pan Am Capt. Richard N. Ogg, with 31 souls aboard, was quickly running out of fuel with a windmilling No. 1 prop and a shutdown No. 4 engine, while still some 250nm out from the California coast.
Nearing OS November, Ogg radioed Pontchartrain, under CDR William K. Earle (USCGA 1940), who provided sea state and weather data to bring the clipper down easily.
The cutter then made ready for SAR and laid a trail of foam to mark the best course, a wet “runway” on the Pacific.
Coast Guard sailors aboard the United States Coast Guard Cutter (USCGC) Pontchartrain use foam from firehoses to lay down a “runway” for Flight 6
The clipper ditched less than 2,000 yards away, just after sunrise.
At 6:15 a.m., at approximately 90 knots air speed, the Boeing 377 landed on the water. A wing hit a swell, spinning the airplane to the left. The tail broke off, and the airplane began to settle.
Injuries were minor, and all passengers and crew evacuated the airliner. They were immediately picked up by Pontchartrain.
Captain Ogg and Purser Reynolds were the last to leave the airplane.
Twenty minutes after touching down, at 6:35 a.m., Sovereign of the Skies sank beneath the ocean’s surface.
A USCG film about the incident, including original footage.
Besides Pan Am Flight 6, Pontchartrain escorted the disabled American M/V John C (1950), assisted the disabled F/V Nina Ann (1955), assisted USS LSM-455 aground on San Clemente Island, the disabled yacht Gosling, and the disabled F/V Modeoday (1957), aided the disabled yacht Intrepid (1958), the F/V Carolyn Dee (1959), went to the assistance of M/V Mamie and rescued three from the ketch Alpha (1960), medevaced a patient from USNS Richfield (1961), and assisted the disabled F/V Gaga (1963).
She was a lifesaver.
She was also a fighter.
War!
A quarter-century after joining the fleet, Pontchartrain was finally sent to combat.
USCGC Pontchartrain (WHEC-70) Jan 1970. Note she has her “racing stripe.”
She was assigned to Coast Guard Squadron Three, working in the Vietnam littoral, from 31 March to 31 July 1970. While her 13 stints on wartime Ocean Stations during the Korean War allowed her crew to earn Korean Service Medals, Vietnam was going to be a deployment of naval gunfire support in the littoral, rather than one of quiet radio and weather watches.
USCGC Wachusett (WHEC-44), a 255-foot Owasco-class cutter, providing some blistering NGFS off Vietnam
By this time, the 255s sported SPS-29 and SPS-51 radars, and some had provision for ASW torpedo tubes abeam of the superstructures, the latter aided by SQS-1 sonars. As such, they had been changed from gunboats to the more friendly “high endurance cutters,” or WHECs.
Jane’s 1965 entry for the 255s
Joining CGRON3’s fifth deployment to Southeast Asia, Pontchartrain was the “old man” teamed up with four brand-new 378-foot gas turbine-powered cutters, USCGC Hamilton, Chase, Dallas, and Mellon. Whereas nine of her sisters had been sent to Vietnam previously, Pontchartrain was the last Owasco to pull the duty.
Pontchartrain NGFS Vietnam 1970 Photo by LeRoy Reinburg
While the individual figures for Pontchartrain aren’t available, the large cutters of CGRON3 conducted no less than 1,368 combined NGFS missions during Vietnam, firing a staggering 77,036 5-inch shells ashore. Keep in mind that most of these cutters only carried about 300 rounds in their magazines, so you can look at that amount of ordnance expended as being something like 250 shiploads.
Check out this deck log for one day in July 1970, with Pontchartrain firing 175 rounds by early afternoon against a mix of targets.
Powder and shell consumption was so high that some cutters would have to underway replenish or VERTREP 2-3 times a week while doing gun ops.
At sea off Vietnam. Australian destroyer HMAS Hobart approaching a Mispillion class replenishment oiler USS Passumpsic (AO-107) as it is tanking a Coast Guard 311-foot HEC, likely CGC Pontchartrain. AWM Photo P01904.005 by Peter Michael Oleson.
Returning to Long Beach, Pontchartrain settled back into her normal routine and continued Ocean Station, LE, and SAR work, along with the occasional reservist cruise.
In April 1973, the Coast Guard announced that, in conjunction with the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam and the increased use of satellites, the OS program would be discontinued and 10 aging cutters retired– nine of them 255s. Sisters Sebago and Iroquois had already been put out to pasture.
Pontchartrain decommissioned on 19 October 1973, and by the following May, all her sisters had joined her. They would be sold for scrap before the end of 1974.
As for her skipper during the Pan Am Flight 6 rescue, CDR William K. Earle would go on to command the tall ship Eagle during Operation Sail—staged in concert with the 1964 World’s Fair—when 23 such ships assembled in New York Harbor. Retiring as a captain, he penned several articles for Proceedings, was executive director of the USGCA Alumni Association, and editor of the group’s journal. The Association maintains the annual Captain Bill Earle Creative Writing Contest in his honor. Captain Earle passed away in March of 2006.
Sadly, there has not been a third USCGC Pontchartrain.
Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive
***
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“Two North Koreans captured by men of F Co., 19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division, south of Chinju, Korea, are being searched and interrogated by a South Korean G-2 officer. 29 July 1950.”
Note the M1 Carbine-armed ROK officer’s rather unorthodox uniform capped by what could be a second-hand Australian bush (slouch) hat. Also, the Joe to the left has a muzzle cover on his carbine while the Soldier to the right is missing his canteen, which may have been loaned to the new EPOWs. Photographer: Butler. Signal Corps Archive SC 348779
After the armistice was signed in 1953, UN Command repatriated 70,183 North Korean prisoners of war as part of Operation Big Switch, which also included the return of 12,773 UN POWs to their respective countries; the latter figure contained just 7,862 South Korean POWs.
Another 22,959 Chinese/North Korean POWs elected to be sent anywhere else than home (mainly Chinese to Taiwan), with an Indian custodial force set to guard those defectors until they could be transferred abroad into 1954.
Some 7,614 Chinese and North Korean POWs died in UN custody during the war, mostly from tuberculosis and dysentery/diarrhea.
The ledger that recounts the number of Allied POWs that died in Chinese/Nork camps during the war has been forever lost to history.
