Some 75 years ago this week, on 7 Febuary 1951, the well-mustachioed Captain Lewis L. “Red” Millett and the “Wolfhound” Infantrymen of Company E, 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division, conducted the last full-unit bayonet charge in U.S. Army history when they took Hill 180, later just known as “Bayonet Hill,” near the smoke-blackened village of Soam-ni, just to the west and south of Osan, South Korea.
From Millett’s official Medal of Honor citation:
While personally leading his company in an attack against a strongly held position, he noted that the 1st Platoon was pinned down by small-arms, automatic, and antitank fire. Capt. Millett ordered the 3d Platoon forward, placed himself at the head of the two platoons, and, with fixed bayonet, led the assault up the fire-swept hill. In the fierce charge, Capt. Millett bayoneted two enemy soldiers and boldly continued, throwing grenades, clubbing, and bayoneting the enemy, while urging his men forward by shouting encouragement. Despite vicious opposing fire, the whirlwind hand-to-hand assault carried to the crest of the hill. His dauntless leadership and personal courage so inspired his men that they stormed into the hostile position and used their bayonets with such lethal effect that the enemy fled in wild disorder.”
Millett was a bit of a fire-eater, having enlisted in the Massachusetts National Guard in 1938 at age 18, then deserted in mid-1941 to cross over into Canada, where he wound up in the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery in an AAA battery during the Blitz on London.
Transferring to the U.S. Army in 1942, he earned a Silver Star as a gunner with the 1st Armored Division in Tunisia and, after fighting at Salerno and Anzio, came clean about his 1941 desertion. Then, following a $52 fine, received a battlefield commission as Second Lieutenant. Following Korea, he attended Ranger School, served in the 101st Airborne, and clocked in on the Phoenix Program in Vietnam. He retired as a colonel in 1973, capping a wild service history.
Colonel Lewis Lee Millett, Sr. died of congestive heart failure on 14 November 2009, one month short of his 89th birthday, and was buried on 5 December 2009 at Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside, CA. His grave can be found in Section 2, Site 1910.
With a story that runs nearly the entire length of the 20th Century, the iconic top-break British Webley in .455 Caliber Eley is a beast.
My personal interest in the Webley, specifically the bonkers-large Mark VI, which entered service with a 6-inch barrel standard, dates to watching old war movies and TV shows as a kid in the 1970s and 80s, and there were plenty to choose from.
According to IMFDB, they appeared in the hands of Gary Cooper, Peter Lorre, Peter O’ Toole (several times, including “Lawrence of Arabia”), Clark Gable, Richard Burton, Gregory Peck, Bob Hoskins (anachronistically in “Zulu Dawn” of all things!), Burt Lancaster, James Keach, Edward Woodward, Michael Crawford, Christopher Lee, and so on.
It was just a commanding piece.
I mean, look at it:
The Mark VI Webley .455 (All photos unless noted: Chris Eger/Guns.com)
The Mark VI runs almost a foot long, taping out at 11.25 inches. It weighs 2.5 pounds, unloaded.
Plus, the beautiful rimmed .455 rounds are short and almost comically fat. Stout like a British bulldog. A sumo wrestler compared to the more puny contemporaries such as the 8mm French used in that country’s M1892 revolver, the Russian 7.65×38 used in the Tsarist-era Nagant, and the rimmed 9mm round used by the Japanese Type 26 revolver (the latter of which only generated a velocity of about 500 fps!).
The .455 Webley (right), in this case a 262-grain lead round-nosed Mk.II bullet, compared to a 230-grain .45 ACP FMJ, a bullet familiar to readers this side of the pond. The .455 was introduced in 1891, whereas Browning’s .45 ACP dated to about two decades later.
When loaded with .455, the unmodified Webley Mark VI has a decent cylinder lock-up with minimal gap.
I recall reading a book on guerrilla warfare weapons, published in 1990, that noted the Webley was still often encountered in the hands of insurgents as flotsam from the old British colonial empire and was “a prestigious man stopper.”
Only it wasn’t really.
Sure, any time you get hit by a 218-265 grain bullet, it is going to smart, but, seeing as the projectile typically only traveled at about 600 to 750 fps, the energy imparted on impact was only in the 220-300 ft./lb. range, which is about on average to what you get out of .38 Special (and that’s not even +P loads, either). This was compounded by at least five different generations of service bullets and loads for the .455, all attempting to make it more effective, though they never came close to modern self-defense designs.
But, when used at bad-breath range against the Kaiser’s skinny Landsers on the Western Front in 1915, or poorly clad indigenous warriors and bandits in far-off lands who are probably already fighting parasites and poor diets, it likely worked just fine.
Still, the large 2.5-pound square-butt revolver could prove a useful club when needed.
Fairburn and Sykes, who knew a thing or ten about the Webley in service, had the following passage in their 1942 “Shooting to Live” Commando primer in the chapter on “Stopping Power.”
We shall choose for our first instance one relating to the big lead bullet driven at a moderate velocity. On this occasion, a Sikh constable fired six shots with his .455 Webley at an armed criminal of whom he was in pursuit, registering five hits. The criminal continued to run, and so did the Sikh, the latter clinching the matter finally by battering in the back of the criminal’s head with the butt of his revolver. Subsequent investigations showed that one bullet only, and that barely deformed, remained in the body, the other four having passed clean through.
“Stopping Power!” as debated in 1942.
A closer look at the gun
The Webley top-break revolver itself dates to the company’s original Mark I service revolver, which was adopted by the British military in 1887, starting around £3 each, and a host of generational changes until the wheel gun seen in this piece, the Mark VI, arrived on the scene in May 1915.
A top-break six-shooter, it replaced the shorter Mark V, which had a rounded bird’s head style grip, with a much larger gun using a squared butt, 6-inch barrel, and a somewhat adjustable front sight. Best yet for His Majesty’s bean counters, the wartime finish Mark VI only cost some 51 shillings per gun, or about £2.5.
More gun for less money has always been popular.
The Webley Mark VI was the end-result of nearly 30-years of Webley top-break revolvers and shared much DNA with its predecessors.
It is akin in size to the big 5.5-inch barreled S&W DA 45, which was adopted as the M1917 by the U.S. military about the same time the Webley Mark VI entered service. The DA 45 was one of Smith’s first N-frames.
The double-action/single-action Webley Mark VI has a stout double-action trigger pull (we couldn’t gauge it; it kept maxing out), cutting to a truly short and crisp 8-pound single-action pull that is all-wall.
The hammer is very old-school. No transfer bar safety here.
The large lever, under the hammer and over the rear sight, frees up the top strap of the revolver.
The star extractor positively ejects all spent brass and live rounds when the action is opened.
Approximately 280,000 Mark VI Service models were produced during the war, starting around serial number 135,000. Our example, featured in this article, is serial number 245,288, bearing a 1917 Webley roll mark on the frame, along with corresponding Birmingham proof marks and British military broad arrow and GR acceptance marks. These weapons were not only issued to officers and sergeants but also to artillery, machine gun, and tank crews. They saw further hard use in trench raids and tunnel warfare under said trenches.
Better-grade models of the same gun, based on the old W&S Target, but with a higher fit and finish, were available for personal purchase through the Army & Navy Co-operative store. Many gentlemen officers chose to acquire their Webley in such a fashion, while others simply went with the issued revolver. Aftermarket accessories included the early Prideaux and Watson pattern speed loaders, and the Greener-produced Pritchett bayonet, although none were made in quantity.
The large lanyard ring on the bottom of the butt came in handy not only in the trenches but in mounted service. You didn’t want your Webley to bounce out of the holster while on the trot.
Second Lieutenant JRR Tolkien, the future author of “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings,” shipped off for France a year after graduating from Oxford. As a young officer with the 11th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, in June 1916, he saw service at the grueling military charnel house that was the Battle of the Somme, where some 57,000 casualties were suffered in the first day alone– making it the bloodiest day in British military history. Both at the Somme and a later trench raid near Thiepval, Tolkien had with him an early first-year Mark VI Service, serial number 169,710. It is now in the Imperial War Museum, complete with its lanyard.
The Mark VI also saw service in the sky and on the sea.
A British Royal Flying Corps field armory in France, circa 1918. Note the assorted Webley Mark VIs for use by pilots and observers who were frequently left walking back across No Man’s Land after their flying machines were shot down or broke down.
The Webley also saw service afloat with the Royal Navy for use in boarding parties and landing parties ashore. (Photos: Imperial War Museum)
As the RN saw extensive service against pirates, smugglers, revolutionaries, and bandits in the 1920s and 30s, you can bet the old Webley was there on the sharp end of things. Some think that the coup de grace delivered to Rasputin in December 1916 came from Oswald Rayner, a British MI6 agent in Petrograd, who used a Webley, possibly obtained from the small arms locker of a British submarine working with the Russian fleet in the Baltic.
The Webley Mark VI was officially augmented and then replaced in service with the remarkably similar but .38 caliber Enfield No. 2 in 1932 (left). Before that, the Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield Lock built around 30,000 Webley Mark VI pattern revolvers between 1921 and 1926.
While officially replaced, the big .455 Webley remained in secondary service and was even preferred by many as their go-to sidearm.
By the 1930s, the leather Sam Browne style holsters had been replaced by simpler canvas holsters, typically worn butt-forward.
The old Webley saw extensive service in World War II, as well as in Korea, and anecdotally with Australian troops in Vietnam, and Rhodesian and South African troops in the Bush Wars of the 1970s.
Further, the Webley was seen with “Dad’s Army” in the Home Guard, an initially almost unarmed force that peaked at some 1.7 million volunteers ready to take on Mr. Hitler should he send his legions across the Channel. As the Home Guard often used long-retired Great War-era officers in senior positions, they brought their personally owned Army & Navy store pedigree Mark VIs back to service with them. In early units, they were often the only firearms available, save for some fowling pieces.
Ultimately, the Browning Hi-Power L9A1 would replace all top-break revolvers in British service starting in 1954.
An Irish tale
The Webley Mark VI entered Irish service in several ways, both via IRA-looted police, British Army, and auxiliary barracks during the 1919 to 1921 Irish War of Independence, and as guns handed over to the new Provisional pro-treaty government in 1922 and subsequently used against the anti-treaty IRA during the follow-on Irish Civil War. The Oglaigh na hÉireann (IRA) circulated printed training memos on the Mark VIas early as November 1921.
The new Irish Free State government received at least 7,000 Webley Mark VIs in 1922, which were used extensively to fight the IRA, who were often armed with Mark VIs themselves.
Our specimen has had its serial number on its barrel assembly and frame aggressively crossed out and replaced with a simple “N.125,” which, per Webley experts Chamberlain and Taylerson, is common for Webleys taken up by Irish forces in the 1920s.
A circa 1917 Mark VI was recovered from the late General Michael Collins after he was killed in an anti-Treaty ambush in West Cork in 1922. The same year, another circa 1917 Mark VI was used in the assassination of anti-Irish British Field-Marshal Sir Henry Wilson in London.
Second-hand Shaved Webleys
With the adoption of the Browning Hi-Power in British —and later Commonwealth —service in the 1950s, the final stocks of Webley Mark VIs began to move into the commercial market.
Surplus Irish guns met a similar fate when Sam Cummings of Alexandria, Virginia-based Interarmco (Interarms) made a sweet deal with the Dublin government in 1959 for almost all of the old Republic’s unneeded hardware at scrap-per-ton cash-and-carry prices including a couple hundred Model 1921 Thompsons, 801 Lewis guns, 9 water-cooled Vickers machine guns, 17 Mark I and Mark II 18-pounder field guns, 22 4.5-inch howitzers, four 3-inch anti-artillery guns, 51 Browning aircraft machine guns, pallets of Enfield .303 rifles, and crates of Webley revolvers.
The Webleys were soon sold off through mail order outlets, Hunters’ Lodge, Potomac Arms, and others, for the bargain basement price of $14.50 in NRA Good condition and $19.95 in NRA Very Good Condition with .455 milsurp rounds at a pricy $1.50 per 24 (two, 12-round paper packets). Adjusted for inflation, that’s $165-$225 per revolver, and $17 for 24 rounds of ammo.
Eventually, the stock of Webleys outlasted the stock of surplus .455 and British ammo makers such as Kynoch and Eley trimmed back on production of new cartridges, further driving up the price of the increasingly hard-to-find rounds. To sate the demand, distributors by the 1960s hit on the concept of shaving the rear of the Webley’s six-shot cylinder to allow the rimless .45 ACP round to work* in a pinch, if used in company with half-moon clips as used with the old M1917 DA .45 revolvers. The .45 Auto Rim, made for use with the M1917 sans clips, would work as well.
The .45 ACP shaved cylinder job needed half-moon three-round clips to work. A “full-moon” six-shot clip will sometimes work, depending on the clip.
Comparing a shaved Webley cylinder (left) and an intact .455 cylinder (right) with the old GR acceptance marks and proofs giving the latter away.
Note the difference in cylinder length, with the intact cylinder on top having more “beef” around the serial number, while the shaved .45 ACP cylinder on the bottom has less room around its serial.
The lever that secures the cylinder to the barrel assembly uses a coin-slotted screw designed to use the rim of a .303 cartridge or a “bob” (British shilling/5-pence coin). We found a 1976 Bicentennial quarter to work fine.
*A word of strong warning should be imparted when talking about using .45 ACP in a .455 Webley. It is inadvisable to run full-power commercial .45 ACP in any top-break revolver, including one of those beefy, seemingly indestructible Webley Mark VIs. Special low-power loads (under 13,200 psi vs the standard pressure of 21,000 psi seen in regular loads) are now on the market, made by Steinel specifically for use in shaved cylinder Mark VIs.
Speaking of ammo, Bannerman (Graf), Fiocchi, and Steinel all make new runs of .455 Eley/Webley loads as well, running about $60-$70 for a box of 50. Other than that, running this old revolver is more in the realm of handloaders who dig heavy bullets over small loads, but it is better than just having a “wall hanger.”
No matter what the backstory on this gun, it remains a “Cool Revolver.”
Spent a down weekend unwinding from SHOT Show, taking the old lady to the Pensacola art fair, etc. In this, I was able to score a $30 box loaded with second-hand volumes at Open Books that must have formerly belonged to a NAS Pensacola instructor, judging from the eclectic subject matter (U.S. Navy aviation circa 1920s and 30s) and small Aero Club and USNI Press print runs. Well worth it!
I also visited for the first time the old Pensacola City Jail, which served from 1906 until 1954, when it was converted into an art center (the PMA) under the aegis of the University of West Florida. Of note, the two-story 12,000-square-foot Spanish Revival building just off the docks and near old downtown was the hub for not only city and county cops but also Navy/Marine Shore Patrol during both world wars, so you can almost smell the salt and beer.
Heading back to Pascagoula, we cruised by the MARS dock and saw the progress on the formerSS United States.
The old mega-liner, being prepped for reefing in a few weeks off Destin, has been stripped of her iconic funnels as well as her masts and most other topside snag points for divers. Likewise, her portholes have been torched out, and just about everything that can be removed from her thousands of compartments has been.
Still, you can read her once proud name on the bow, like a ghost from yesteryear.
With all of these polar vortices and bombs recently (I mean, we just had like 11 days in a row that hit below freezing on the Mississippi Gulf Coast), these images from roughly 107 years ago seemed appropriate.
Take a look at this photo, know it is in Northern Russia, February 1919, and ask yourself the nationality of the snow-camo-ed troopers masking themselves among the birch, pines, spruces, and larches of the region.
As the 339th, who unenthusiastically used American-made Mosins in combat against Russians, who unenthusiastically sometimes used lever-action Winchesters against the “Interventy” (Interventionists), I always thought the campaign bordered on the absurd.
The official caption for the above image:
American Soldiers on patrol wear white capes to reduce the chances of discovery while operating in the snow-blanketed forests, which line the Vologda railroad line on each side. Left to right: Bugler Charles Metcalf, Company I; Private Harold Holliday, Company M; and Sgt. Major Ernest Reed, 3rd Battalion, 339th Infantry, 85th Division, February 21, 1919. 111-SC-161113
And these others from the same period:
Blockhouse at Verst 455 on the Vologada Railway, surrounded by the forest, white with a new covering of snow. Photo taken on one of the coldest days of the year, when the temperature reached a point 50 degrees below zero. The American soldier in the foreground is Corporal Hearn of Company I, 339th Infantry, 85th. Division Verst 455, Vologda Railroad front, Northern Russia. 17 February 1919. 111-SC-161081
339th Inf in Russia Verst 455, Vologda Railway Front Feb 1919, with Mosins and Lewis guns. The Lewis was also probably chambered in 7.62x54R (30 cal Russian), drawn from U.S. Savage-made stockpiles originally contracted by the Tsar. 111-SC-161112
339th Inf in Russia Verst 455 Volgada Railway front Feb 1919 Mosins 111-SC-161090.
The 339th served in Russia from September 1918 to June 1919, rather involuntarily clocking in during the Russian Civil War with their more supportable Mosins, then shipped back to a much more agreeable service in post-Great War springtime France, where they were all too happy to get their M1917 Enfields back before shipping home, arriving back in the Midwest in July, wrapping their confusing, and bitter, war.
If you got to enjoy the opening ceremonies for the Winter Olympics over the weekend, you were sure to catch some uniforms familiar to military history buffs and American personnel who have been stationed in Italy at any time in the past 80 years.
Task Force Olimpica, organized to support the games across eight different complexes, includes 1,928 active duty Italian military personnel– mainly from the elite “Black feathers” of the 6° Reggimento Alpini- 170 vehicles, and numerous operational assets on the ground, including radars and air defense aircraft both on QRA and over the airspace.
Add to this another 2,000 legendary Carabinieri military police (with the entire Beretta catalog in hand).
You can bet that the Carabinieri’s Gruppo di Intervento Speciale (GIS) hostage rescue team and Tuscania Regiment’s CT team, as well as the national Police’s Nucleo Operativo Centrale di Sicurezza (NOCS) team, are on-site and well-rested should there be a Munich-kinda situation.
This is all complemented by the invaluable contribution of 1,500 volunteers, aged 18-65, from the National Alpini Association (Associazione Nazionale Alpini, or ANA), the veterans group for the Alpini Corps mountain troops. These guys are doing all the support stuff, such as driving vehicles, ushering competitors, and keeping trails and slopes clear and safe.
Lots of feathers and funny hats, but don’t let the smiles fool you, these outfits are among the best in the world at what they do.
Besides being seen and unseen on the periphery, they were there at the flag raisings, with Alpini raising the Olympic flag and Carabinieri the Italian flag.
Further, one of the flagbearers for the Italian team marching into the stadium was Carabinieri MarescialloFederica Brignone. She well earned her place on the team, as the skier won the 2025 World Cup, the gold medal in the Giant Slalom, and the silver medal in the Super-G at the 2025 World Championships in Saalbach, as well as the 2025 World Cups in Giant Slalom and Downhill.
Led by its regimental band, the 11th U.S. Cavalry is shown passing in review on the parade ground of Fort Des Moines, in the summer of 1904. The unit is three years old in this image and had just returned from fighting overseas in the Philippines. Via Mike Brubaker. http://temposenzatempo.blogspot.com/2010/05/11th-us-cavalry-band.html
Founded on 2 February 1901 as a horse-mounted cavalry unit, the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment has served the nation for over a century across nearly every major era of conflict.
Blackhorse troopers first saw action during the Philippine-American War and the 1916 Mexican Expedition.
11th Cavalry Regiment in garrison at the Presidio of Monterey, 1932. They retired their horses for armor shortly after, inactivating as a mounted unit in July 1942.
Later, charging into history in World War II during the Normandy invasion and the liberation of Europe, picking up five battle honors as the 11th Cavalry Group, Mechanized.
M-4 Sherman tanks of the 11th Cavalry Group (Mechanized) in Europe during WWII. (US Army 11th ACR Museum)
The Regiment continued its legacy through Vietnam, stood watch at the Fulda Gap against aggression during the Cold War, and answered the call again in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Members of the 11th ACR talk with West German border police during the Cold War, 1986 DA-ST-86-06121
In every generation, Blackhorse has adapted to meet the demands of modern warfare while preserving its proud cavalry heritage.
Today, the Regiment carries that legacy forward as the Army’s premier Opposing Force at the National Training Center, forging combat-ready formations and sharpening the force for future conflict as, through the years, the 32nd Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment, or the Krasnovian local forces in the Mojave Desert of Fort Irwin.
This started life as an M113
OPFOR.. the NTC Fort Irwin, CA.. It’s an M113 dressed as a Warsaw Pact BMP-2
Sadly, the 11th ACR’s Horse Detachment is scheduled for retirement this year, making this week one of its final unit rides.
The poster from the 11th ACR’s 100th birthday, now a quarter century in the rearview and lacking the most recent honors from the Sandbox. DA-SD-03-07553
Japan’s ruling coalition– the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the Japan Innovation Party (Ishin)– is considering reviving 19th/20th century military rank titles from the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy for the Self-Defense Forces, causing concern within the Defense Ministry, according to a February 3, 2026, report by The Asahi Shimbun.
This is naturally going over well in China, with the South China Morning Post and others picking up the story, using it as a drum to beat out the tune of remilitarization from Tokyo.
The proposed changes replace the current very generic descriptive titles adopted in 1954 with much more historical Meiji era (circa 1868 onward) period names, which in turn were based on British and French ranks of that day, and used through 1945. These arguably make more sense to Western partners anyway:
Ittohei (Private First Class) and Nitohei (Private)
Additionally, service branch names may revert to traditional terms, such as Hoheika for Infantry (currently Futsuka) and Hohyoka for Artillery (currently Tokka), etc.
A real blast from the past.
I’m not really sure this is a bad thing, as every military should embrace its history and martial tradition, so long as they don’t embrace the war crimes that occurred under the same watch.
After all, the JMSDF has been flying the old Imperial Rising Sun ensign for decades, and has fully embraced it, although it is a bone of contention with folks like South Korea.
JMSDF Kusu (Tree)-class frigates, former Tacoma-class patrol frigates, complete with rebooted IJN Rising Sun Flag, in the early 1950s. Notably, footage of them in JMSDF service appeared in 1954’s original Godzilla. While loaned to the Japanese military for initially five years, they were all eventually transferred outright and continued to serve into the 1970s.
Japanese submarine Hakugei SS-514 launched in October 2021, with some liberal Rising Sun decorations
Plus, both the Cold War era East and West German and now the unified German Bundeswehr (as well as the Austrian Bundesheer) have all practised very stirring torch-set Zapfenstreich tattoo ceremonies (which go back to at least the 19th-century Prussian Guard Corps, if not further) that would probably have old Sepp Dietrich himself getting all misty-eyed.
The Cold War carrier aircraft that wasn’t a carrier aircraft, the Rockwell OV-10 Bronco, served in Navy (Black Pony) and Marine use, and often popped up on flight decks during its career. Although, to be sure, it seems that when they did ship aboard CVs and LHs, it was loaded as deck cargo and then flown off to shore, not operationally carried.
“28 August 1968: Family Portrait: The Bronco (OV-10A), the newest addition to the Marine air arm, poses with 12 Leathernecks directly connected with its flight over South Vietnam. In addition to the pilot and aerial observer, standing next to the cockpit, the Bronco is supported and serviced by crash crewmen, factory technical representative, hydraulics men, mechanics, flight equipment personnel, metalsmiths, ordnancemen, avionics technicians, and air controllers. Based at the Marble Mountain Air Facility, near Da Nang, the new aircraft’s primary mission is observation (official USMC photo by Private First Class W. C. Schobel).”
Capable of carrying 1,200 pounds of ordnance (including Sidewinders) as well as four forward-firing M60 machine guns, the Bronco was a capable little gem of an aircraft.
In a pinch, it could even carry cargo or a couple of passengers, including parachutists.
USS Nassau (LHA-4) flight deck crewmen use an MD-3A tow tractor to position a North American Rockwell OV-10A Bronco (BuNo 155447) of U.S. Marine Corps Observation Squadron (VMO-1) on the port elevator of the ship in 1983. After its retirement, this aircraft was leased by the U.S. Department of State to the Colombian national police. Defense Imagery photo # DN-SN-88-007789, a US Navy photo by PHAN Dougherty, now in the collections of Defenseimagery.mil
A North American Rockwell OV-10A Bronco of U.S. Marine Corps Observation Squadron (VMO-1) parked on the flight deck of USS Nassau (LHA-4) in 1983. US National Archives and Records Administration Identifier (NAID 6430453) NAID: 6430453, Local ID: 330-CFD-DN-SN-88-00787.jpeg by PHAN Dougherty
A U.S. Marine Corps North American Rockwell OV-10D+ Bronco observation aircraft as it taxis clear of the landing area onboard aircraft carrier USS Saratoga (CV-60) during testing flight qualifications off the coast of North Carolina (USA) on 10 September 1985. It was flown by CAPT George Webb, USN, a Navy test pilot flying from the Naval Air Test Center, Patuxent River, MD. He did landing and take-off tests with the OV-10D+ aboard both USS Saratoga and USS Nassau (LHA-4). USS Saratoga Photo Lab – U.S. Defense Imagery photo VIRIN: DN-ST-00-03628
A North American Rockwell OV-10A Bronco of U.S. Marine Corps Observation Squadron (VMO-1) prepares to take off from the flight deck of USS Nassau (LHA-4) in 1983. US Navy photo # DN-SN-88-00788 by PHAN Dougherty
A flight deck crewman stands by as a North American Rockwell OV-10A Bronco of U.S. Marine Corps Observation Squadron (VMO-1) prepares to take off from the flight deck of USS Nassau (LHA-4) in 1983. US Navy photo # DN-SN-88-00791 by PHAN Dougherty
The launch of a North American Rockwell OV-10A Bronco of U.S. Marine Corps Observation Squadron VMO-1 from the flight deck of USS Nassau (LHA-4) in 1983. DN-SN-88-00790
Four US Marine Corps OV-10 Bronco aircraft are parked on the flight deck of the amphibious assault ship USS Saipan (LHA 2), January 1987. 330-CFD-DN-ST-87-07341
Marine Broncos from both VMO-1 and VMO-2 served in Desert Shield/Storm. These were carried to the theater by the phib USS Iwo Jima (LPH-2) as well as the carriers USS America and USS Theodore Roosevelt.
The large harbor tugs Wapakoneta (YTB-766), left, and Wathena (YTB-825) push on the bow of the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima (LPH-2) as the ship departs for the Persian Gulf region to support Operation Desert Shield. Two Marine Corps OV-10 Bronco aircraft are on the IWO JIMA’s flight deck, August 1990. 330-CFD-DN-ST-91-03867
A Marine Observation Squadron 1 (VMO-1) OV-10 Bronco aircraft takes off from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS America (CV 66) as the ship passes Rota, Spain, while en route to the Persian Gulf region for Operation Desert Shield. The six VMO-1 aircraft that were carried across the Atlantic Ocean aboard the America will stop in Rota before continuing to Saudi Arabia. January 1991. 330-CFD-DN-SC-92-02746
Some even self-deployed from CONUS!
In August 1990, VMO-2 made aviation news by launching six OV-10s on an unprecedented 10,000-mile journey to Saudi Arabia in support of Operation Desert Shield.
Beginning in January 1991, the squadron flew a total of 286 combat missions totaling 900 flight hours during Operation Desert Storm. Missions were flown around the clock for the duration of the conflict, focusing primarily on controlling U.S. and Allied artillery, numerous attack aircraft, and naval gunfire, including spotting for the USS Wisconsin’s first combat firing since the Korean War.
The squadron performed these demanding and crucial missions despite being targeted by Iraqi surface-to-air missile gunners over 94 times and while trying to avoid large concentrations of anti-aircraft artillery.
In December 1990, VMO-1 embarked its OV-10s aboard USS America and USS Theodore Roosevelt to deploy to Kuwait in support of Operation Desert Shield/Storm. The squadron flew over 1,000 combat sorties, losing one crew to enemy action (1 KIA, 1 POW).
The Marine Broncos remained in the region until May 1991, when they were loaded onto USS Juneau (LPD 10), bound for San Diego, where they arrived in June.
Several Marine Corps OV-10 Bronco aircraft sit on the flight deck of the amphibious transport dock USS Juneau (LPD-10) as it arrives for a visit to the naval station. The Juneau is stopping at Pearl Harbor while en route to its home port of Naval Station, San Diego, Calif., after serving in the Persian Gulf region during Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. 330-CFD-DN-SC-92-03563
The type was retired in 1995, with both VMO-1 and 2 disestablished, and hasn’t been replaced.
Why not today?
Still, it begs the question of, if the Bronc was capable of carrier ops, why not utilize its modern equivalents, the converted crop duster L3Harris OA-1K Skyraider II, or the MQ-9B STOL UAV family, in the same roles in certain circumstances?
Even when it comes to just adding a ramp to an old container ship or tanker taken up from the surplus ship market to make an instant carrier akin to the old MAC ships of WWII?
TBD-1 Devastator of VT-5 pictured in flight over Southern California 5-T-& Bu 0031 Yorktown Nov 1939. The TBD-1 Devastator ranks among the most significant aircraft in U.S. naval aviation history. It was the Navy’s first all-metal, low-wing, semi-monocoque plane and played a critical role during the opening months of the Pacific campaign.. Photo/description from the Naval Aviation Museum
Most military and naval history buffs remember the much-maligned Douglas TBD-1 Devastator “torpecker” for its Ride of the Valkyries style use against the Japanese carriers at Midway, in which 41 Devastators launched, carrying their unreliable Bliss-Leavitt Mark 13 aerial torpedoes, and only six returned to their carriers, without making a single effective torpedo hit.
Torpedo Squadron 2 (VT-2) in the “old days” before WWII, back when they flew Douglas TBD Devastators, and were the first squadron in the Navy to start doing so, in Oct. 1937
Insignia: Torpedo Squadron Five (VT-5) Emblem adopted during the later 1930s, when VT-5 served on board USS Yorktown (CV-5). This reproduction features a stylized representation of a TBD Devastator torpedo plane and an explanation of the insignia’s design. Courtesy of John S. Howland, 1975. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.color Catalog #: NH 82628-KN
Those 41 were almost fully a third of the type that existed, with just 129 production airframes delivered to the Navy between 1937 and 1939.
Forgotten is their more effective performance in raids on the Marshall and Gilbert Islands, Wake and Marcus Islands, just after Pearl Harbor, and in sinking the Japanese Zuiho-class light carrier Shoho during the Battle of the Coral Sea.
A lone Devastator over Wake Island in late Feb 1942
Torpecker success! Japanese aircraft carrier Shoho under attack by U.S. Navy carrier aircraft in the late morning of 7 May 1942. Photographed from a USS Yorktown (CV 5) torpedo plane. Official U.S. Navy photograph 80-G-17027.
Withdrawn from the Pacific after Midway and replaced with the TBM Avenger, the surviving Devastators in VT-4 and VT-7 remained in service briefly in the Atlantic and in training squadrons until 1944, when they were all scrapped by the end of the year.
That left those scattered around the bottom of the Pacific as the sole remaining TBDs in existence.
The project brings together the Air/Sea Heritage Foundation, Texas A&M University’s Center for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation, the Republic of the Marshall Islands Cultural and Historic Preservation Office, Jaluit Atoll local government officials and traditional leaders, and the Naval History and Heritage Command. The team aims to recover Bureau Number 1515, a TBD-1 Devastator (5-T-7 of VT-5) that has remained submerged off Jaluit Atoll for more than 80 years.
BuNo 1515 launched from USS Yorktown (CV-5) and ditched in the Jaluit lagoon on Feb. 1, 1942, during the U.S. Navy’s first offensive operation in the Pacific. All three naval aviators ( Ens Herbert R Hein, Jr, AOM 3c Joseph D. Strahl, and S1c Marshall E. “Windy” Windham) survived the emergency landing and later endured captivity as Japanese prisoners of war until their liberation in 1945.
Bureau Number 1515, a Douglas TBD-1 Devastator submerged off Jaluit Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The aircraft went down Feb. 1, 1942. Air and Sea Heritage Foundation photo
The project seeks to recover the Jaluit Devastator and preserve it as-is.
Some 75 years ago this week, in February 1951, the 600-man, all-volunteer Belgian-Luxembourgish battalion landed in Pusan, South Korea, and, after marrying up with their equipment, held their first formation before joining the British Commonwealth 29th Infantry Brigade, fleshed out with a company-sized formation of South Korean augmentees.
The flags of Belgium and Luxembourg fly for the first time in Korea.
On 13 September 1950, the Belgian Government offered a battalion as a contribution to the United Nations effort to fight aggression in Korea.
As the country’s standing forces– which all included conscripts– could not deploy overseas in line with government policy, a call went out for volunteers, of which more than 2,000 regulars submitted packets. Following a selection process and a special training period of three months, the unit shipped out for the Pacific from Antwerp via Singapore, bolstered by 43 officers and men from Luxembourg who formed 1st Platoon, A Company.
Luxembourgish soldier in Korea
This picture shows the Luxembourg Army flag.
The unit was originally formed along British lines, complete with DPM camo smocks and No.4 Enfield .303 rifles. They shipped out to Korea with a new design dark brown beret and a new cap badge, which would be a hallmark of their battalion.
Belgian Battalion Korea soldier cleaning No 4 Enfield rifle 1951 UN 191459
Luxembourg soldiers, Belgian B,n Korea Feb 1951 UN7668158
The Belgian Battalion commander was Colonel Albert Crahay, 48, a regular who graduated from the Royal Military Academy (the École Militaire) in 1923 and, having been captured during the German invasion of his country in 1940, spent five long years as a POW. Crahay left his position at the academy to command the battalion, while his XO, Major Henri Moreau de Melen, resigned as Minister of War for the chance to go to Korea.
Here, at a parade, the commandant, Lt. Colonel Albert Crahay, of Brussels, receives a report from a company commander. The white-haired officer at left is Major Moreau de Melen, who resigned as Minister of War to come to Korea. 1 February 1951, UN7668160
The battalion experienced its first casualties on 18 March 1951 when Lt. Pierre Beauprez, at the time leading a patrol with American soldiers on the southern bank of the Han River, was killed by a Chinese land mine. In WWII, he had served in 4 Belgian troop of No 10 (Inter Allied) Commando.
Hungry for combat, they fought alongside the 1st Gloucestershire Regiment at the Battle of the Imjin River in April 1951. For their actions, the Belgians were awarded a U.S. Presidential Unit Citation. Lt. Col. Crahay, seriously wounded in the battle, picked up a DSC, while de Melen earned a Legion of Honor.
From Crahay’s citation:
Upon receiving orders to withdraw on the night of 23 April 1951, Colonel Crahay, realizing that all planned routes of withdrawal were unfeasible, daringly seized upon a momentary lull in the battle and organized, regrouped, and effected a spectacular lateral withdrawal across the Imjin River. After an arduous, circuitous march, his command rejoined the brigade the following day and was committed to cover the displacement of two battalions along the enemy-infested main supply route. He was seriously wounded while directing and coordinating this stubbornly contested action, but his incredible courage under fire and his intrepid actions inspired his officers and men to fight with unwavering persistency, which contributed significantly to stemming the relentless advance of the numerically superior foe.
Henry Huss, commander of C Company, 8th King’s Royal Irish Hussars, during the Battle of the Imjin River. Lt. Col. Crahay and Major de Melen are seen with their Lion-badged brown berets.
Chopped to the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division’s 7th Infantry Regiment and later the 15th Regiment, post-Imjin, the Belgians received several citations for their actions at Haktang-Ni in October 1951, and along the “Iron Triangle,” and in the Battle of Chatkol in April 1953, including both U.S. and South Korean citations.
This saw them slowly morph into more supportable U.S. gear, including uniforms, M1 helmets, M1 Garands/Carbines, and .30-06 caliber machine guns.
Belgian Battalion Korea
Belgian Battalion Korea
Belgian Battalion Korea during its period with the 15th Infantry Regiment, whose motto was “Can do.”
A Belgian Battalion jeep, complete with KATUSA, circa 1952. Note the combination of Belgian lion berets and 3rd Infantry Division “broken television” patches.
Post 1953, they were one of the first Belgian line units to receive the new SAFN 49 rifles.
The last Belgian troops remained in Korea until June 1955, with the battalion rotating out several times. A total of 3,172 Belgians participated in the Korean War. Some 700 pulled two tours, and 19 very hardy souls elected to draw a third.
The Belgian Battalion lost 106 troops killed in action, along with two Luxembourgers, and 9 assigned South Korean soldiers. Another 478 of its members and 17 Luxembourgers were wounded during the war. Five Belgians are still listed as MIA, while one was captured by the Chinese and repatriated post-armistice.
As for Lt. Col. Crahay, he later went on to command the Belgian 16th Armored Division and, by 1960, was commander of all Belgian Forces in Germany. He retired in 1964 as a Lieutenant-General and was made a Baron in 1983. He passed away in 1991, aged 88.
Today, the Belgian Para-Commando Brigade and the 3rd Parachute Bn (3 Bataljon Parachutisten), retain a dark brown Parachute Qualification Brevet in a salute to the brown berets made iconic in Korea, paid for with the blood of lions.
