Official caption: “Royal Marine J Crompton of Wigan, Lancashire, attached to the British East Indies Fleet, with Puncho, the Alsatian mascot of the Marine camp, attempt to camouflage themselves.”
Photo by Hales, G (Sub Lt), Admiralty Collection, IWM A 30104
The image was taken in Ceylon in early August 1945, at HMS Rajaliya, the Royal Navy air station located at the Puttalam airfield.
Note the Marine’s late-war Enfield No. 4 with its distinctive spike bayonet and the possibly locally-acquired slouch hat worn at a jaunty angle and fitted with a braided leather band rather than the traditional pugaree linen wrap.
The base was kind of unorthodox, with lots of local flavor.
Rajaliya, set up 60 miles south of Colombo as a dispersal field in case of Japanese air raids that allowed easy overflow from visiting RN carriers, was home to the much loved “Puttalam Elephants” as depicted by a painting by Robert Taylor in the collection of the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton.
The below shows an FAA crew at Puttalam employing their elephant “Fiffi’ to drag an F4U Corsair from No.1 Corsair squadron of the Naval Operational Training Unit, South East Asia Command (SEAC), back onto the Marston mat metal runway after it slid off a slippery surface and landed in the mud.
Warship Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023: Of Shorts & Hard Charging Jeep Carriers
Admiralty Official Collection, IWM A 25686
Above we see, resplendent in their tropical shorts and whites, a three-man Fleet Air Arm Avenger Mk. I (TBF-1) crew of 851 Squadron— LT (A) S S Laurie, RNVR, observer; squadron leader LCDR (A) Anthony Montague “Steady” Tuke, DSC, RN, pilot; and CPO F R Brown, Telegraphist air gunner– by the aft flight deck elevator of the Ruler-class escort carrier HMS Shah (D 21) in August 1944, with four of the big torpedo bombers arrayed behind them. The place is likely Kilindini Harbor, in Mombasa, Kenya, where Shah was preparing to escort a convoy to Aden.
Commissioned 80 years ago today, she accounted for at least one U-boat, took the fight to the Pacific where she helped track down and kill the Japanese heavy cruiser Haguro, and served as a great snapshot for the end of the war—then went on to get really busy.
The Bouge/AmeerAttacker/Ruler/Smiter class
With both Great Britain and the U.S. running desperately short of flattops in the first half of World War II, and large, fast fleet carriers taking a while to crank out, a subspecies of light and “escort” carriers, the first created from the hulls of cruisers, the second from the hulls of merchant freighters, were produced in large numbers to put a few aircraft over every convoy and beach in the Atlantic and Pacific.
Of the more than 122 escort carriers produced in the U.S. for use by her and her Allies, some 45 were of the Bogue class. Based on the Maritime Commission’s Type C3-S-A1 cargo ship hull, these were built in short order at Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation, Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, and by the Western Pipe and Steel Company of San Francisco.
Some 496 feet overall with a 439-foot flight deck, these 16,200-ton ships could only steam at a pokey 16 ish knots sustained speed, which negated their use in fleet operations but allowed them to more than keep up with convoys of troop ships and war supplies. Capable of limited self-defense with four twin Bofors and up to 35 20mm Oerlikons for AAA as well as a pair of 5-inch guns for defense against small boats, they could carry as many as 28 operational aircraft in composite air wings. They were equipped with two elevators, Mk 4 arresting gear, and a hydraulic catapult.
The U.S. Navy kept 11 of the class for themselves (USS Block Island, Bogue, Card, Copahee, Core, Nassau, Altamaha, Barnes, Breton, Croatan, and Prince William), all entering service between September 1942 and June 1943.
Laid down on 13 November 1942 as the planned USS Jamaica (ACV-43/CVE-43) — after the bay on Long Island– under Maritime Commission contract by Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corp., she was launched 21 April 1943 and then handed over to the Royal Navy on 27 September 1943.
Our subject, once delivered to the British, was christened as the second ship in the RN to carry the name HMS Shah, with the first being a 19th-century 26-gun iron-hulled frigate that was significant for being the first naval vessel to fire a locomotive torpedo in action, the latter during an 1877 scrap with the Peruvian ironclad Huáscar, and lives on today in HMS Victory, who has carried her iron masts as her own since 1895.
The engagement between the Huascar and HMS Shah off Ilo, May 29, 1877, Griffin & Co, 1880, via National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
The “Shah” name also dovetailed well into the naming convention for the Ruler class (HMS Emperor, HMS Empress, HMS Queen, HMS Khedive, et al) which made sense.
After entering RN service, the King’s newest carrier shipped gently north to HM Canadian Dockyard at Esquimalt B.C. to receive her British equipment and sensors, which kept her pier side for the rest of the year.
She would also embark 851 Squadron, 14 Avengers that had been formed at Squantum NAS the previous October.
When 1944 arrived, ordered to head across the Pacific to join the RN’s Eastern Fleet’s 1st Aircraft Squadron, Shah first diverted to San Francisco to pick up a load of aircraft bound for points East.
Overhead view of HMS Shah (D21), formerly Jamaica (CVE-43), moored at San Francisco in January 1944. The ship is ready to ferry a deck load of 29 Wildcats, 12 Avengers (which may be hers of 851 Sqn), and 22 Curtiss Warhawks (P-40) to Melbourne, Australia; Cochin, India; and Colombo, Ceylon. The carrier painted in camouflage Measure 21, moored on the opposite side of the pier, is sometimes identified as USS Rudyard Bay (CVE-81), but this is highly questionable given the date of the photo. A more likely candidate is the USS Prince William (CVE-31). (Photo: Navsource)
And while underway.
This cross-Pacific voyage included crossing the equator, and the required ceremony involved which was conducted after the aircraft were unloaded.
“The Ancient Mariners” performing during a fancy-dress parade on the flight deck of HMS Shah. IWM A 27858
Wrapping up her assorted aircraft ferry missions by May 1944, Shah traveled to Colombo to reembark 851 Squadron (which had been at RNAS Colombo Racecourse since February) as part of Force 66. To her Avengers were added a half-dozen Martlets (Wildcats) for some extra muscle.
She would spend the next six months in serious trade protection duties across the Indian Ocean, tasked with searching for Axis blockade runners, raiders, and subs. This would include chasing the long-range Type IXD2 U-boat U-198(Oblt. Burkhard Heusinger von Waldegg) to ground near the Seychelles over three days in August 1943 with her aircraft attacking the boat and her escorting frigates HMS Findhorn, Hedgehog, and the sloop HMIS Godavari sinking the sub with all hands (66 men).
“Steady” Tuke, 851’s shorts-clad commander in the first image of this post and the man who dropped a torpedo into the side of the Italian battleship Vittorio Veneto during the Battle of Matapan in 1941 while flying an Albacore off HMS Formidable, would add a bar to his DSC for U-198.
A Mk XI aerial depth charge is being loaded onto a Grumman Avenger aircraft on board the escort carrier HMS Shah in Eastern waters. IWM A 27853
By early 1945, Shah was clustered with the fellow escort carriers HMS Begum, Empress, Emperor, Stalker, and Attacker, to form Commodore Geoffrey Oliver’s 21st Aircraft Carrier Squadron of the East Indies Fleet at Colombo then, along with Empress, Shah was switched to Force 63 in April for Operation Bishop— a carrier raid and surface bombardment of Car Nicobar and Port Blair to provide cover for Operation Dracula (the amphibious landings off Rangoon).
For Operation Bishop, the two “jeep carriers” would provide air cover for the Free French battlewagon Richelieu, the old dreadnought HMS Queen Elizabeth (flying the flag of VADM H.C.T. Walker), four cruisers (including the Free Dutch HrMs Tromp) and five destroyers.
This raid, from 27 April to 7 May, soon morphed into Operation Dukedom, to interdict Japanese surface ships trying to evac troops from the Andaman Islands in mid-May.
That led to Shah’s aircraft spotting the Japanese heavy cruiser Haguro and the destroyer Kamikaze north-east of Sabang and three of her Avengers from 851 NAS, operating from sister HMS Emperor due to catapult issues with Shah, making the longest Fleet Air Arm round-trip carrier-borne attack (530 miles) of the war on 15 May.
Early the next morning, a force of five greyhounds from Captain (later Admiral Sir) Manley L. Power’s 26th Destroyer Flotilla caught up to Haguro and sent her to the bottom in a brilliant night torpedo attack that rivaled anything the Japanese pulled off in the bad old days of 1942 off Guadalcanal.
July brought the planned landings in Malaya (Operation Zipper) which was postponed.
Shah was at sea with Force 61 for Operation Carson, a planned attack on enemy shipping and airfields in Penang and Medan on Japanese-occupied Dutch Sumatra, when news of the Japanese surrender hit on 14 August.
She was reportedly the first RN ship to enter Trincomalee after the news broke and was there for the celebrations that came. Fleet photographer Sub. Lt G. Hale captured a great series of images that covered the event.
A particularly poignant image captures the men who were on duty when the war started in 1939. Of her total of over 700 embarked souls, this counted just 66 men.
Her war over, Shah embarked the men of the soon-to-be-disbanded 851 NAS and 845 NAS– sans their well-worn aircraft which were left in Ceylon– and set sail for “home” for the first time, arriving at Gourock on the Clyde on 7 October 1945.
De-stored, stripped of her British gear, and manned by a skeleton crew, she crossed the Atlantic for the first time and was turned back over to the U.S. Navy at Norfolk on 6 December.
Laid up at Hampton Roads, ex-Jamaica/ex-Shah was disarmed and sold on 20 June 1947 for use as a merchant provided her flight deck and hangar deck were stripped at the nearby Newport News shipyard.
She earned two RN Battle Honours: East Indies (1945) and Burma (1945).
By 1946, with the Royal Navy able to count a massive 23 purpose-designed flattops either under construction or afloat, it had no need to petition the Americans to keep any of the loaned jeep carriers. Jane’s that year only listed the RN with just two– British built– CVEs.
HMS Campania and HMS Vindex, 1946
Civil heroics
Purchased for $8 million along with two other war surplus C-3-S-A1 Class hulls by the Compañía Argentina de Navegación Fluvial— the Dodero Line– ex-Jamaica/ex-Shah along with her former jeep carrier sister ex-SS Mormacmail/ex-HMS Tracker (D 24) were converted to economical passenger steamers, capable of hauling 1,328 passengers (all Third Class) and 175 crew members each on immigration runs from war-torn Europe to Latin America.
Shah became Salta while Tracker became Corrientes, operating on the Buenos Aires to Amsterdam and Hamburg runs and back.
Postcard showing Argentine mercantile Corrientes, ex-Mormacmail, ex-BACV 6, ex-HMS Tracker (D24), from the Ministerio de Transportes de la Nación, Flota Argentina de Navegación de Ultramar, Compañía Argentina de Navegación.
This continued until 1955 when the Dodero Line became part of the government-owned FANU (Flota Argentina de Navegación de Ultramar) line, which became ELMA in 1962.
It was during this service that Salta (with 1,014 of her own passengers aboard) came to the rescue of the old Dutch liner MS Johan van Oldenbarnevelt (then sailing as the Greek-flagged TSMS Lakonia) in December 1963 when the latter caught fire 180 miles off Madeira.
Lakonia burning
Receiving the SOS call through the then-new AMVER system while some 50 miles away, Salta’s skipper pushed her engines to the maximum and arrived alongside the smoking Lakonia three hours later. The American-built freighter/carrier/liner was the first vessel on the scene and rescued no less than 490 of the 1,022 souls aboard, most of whom were British. Five other ships, coming later, managed to save 404 between them.
The rescue was the highlight of the aging ship’s career and, suffering from mechanical issues, she was sold to the breakers at Río Santiago in 1966 for $640,000.
A plaque, presented by the survivors to Salta’s crew, along with a 40,000-peso accolade, is preserved in Argentina.
Epilogue
USS Jamacia/HMS Shah’s builder’s plans are in the National Archives.
The Royal Navy has not commissioned a third HMS Shah, and, likely never will for obvious reasons.
As for 851 Squadron, Shah’s hammer, its lineage passed on to the Royal Australian Navy. Recommissioned at Naval Air Station (NAS) Nowra on 3 August 1954, it flew a variety of types including sub-busting S-2 Trackers from the carrier HMAS Melbourne— appropriate for its past history– and remained in service for another 30 years until decommissioned in 1984.
851 Squadron S-2 Trackers in flight over Uluru S-2.
Anthony Montague “Steady” Tuke, 851 Sqn’s WWII commander, retired from the FAA in 1947 and went on to live a long life.
His 2010 obituary noted, “In retirement Tuke, who regularly supported squadron reunions and Fleet Air Arm dinners, was group secretary for West Essex of the National Farmers Union; a lay tax commissioner; and a governor of his old school. At an old boys’ dinner in 2003, to a standing ovation, Tuke accepted a bill (in euros) for the damage he had done to Vittorio Veneto in 1941.”
Steady Tuke
Ships are more than steel and wood And heart of burning coal, For those who sail upon them know That some ships have a soul.
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With the Autumnal equinox falling on the 23rd rather than the 22nd this year, you are already a day behind, gents.
Time to make sure the batteries in your smoke detectors/ NODs/red dots are changed out, your deer rifle is zeroed, you’ve got the last of the summer canning done, and you’re getting ready to plant those winter root veggies and kale.
Speaking of which, how about these scarecrows of the Emperor’s army, encountered on the push to Tokyo:
Japanese Scarecrow, Saipan, 29 June 1944. “Advancing Marine units on Saipan found many dummy positions left by the enemy similar to this wooden searchlight platform with a scarecrow manning it.” From the Photograph Collection (COLL/3948), Marine Corps Archives & Special Collections.
Dummy Japanese gun crew. “To make Marines think the enemy was strong in one section on Cape Gloucester, the Japanese rigged up this scarecrow gun and crew.” Photographed by Howard, 15 January 1944. National Museum of the U.S. Navy. 127-GW-971-71518
Here we see the Kriegsmarine battleship Tirpitz at Kåfjord in German-occupied Norway, in September 1943. Note the triple torpedo nets surrounding the beast and the flotilla of attending patrol and support craft.
The slightly improved sister to the infamous Bismarck, she would be attacked by an unlikely Beowulf in the form of a trio of British midget submarines while the monster was safe in its Kåfjord cave some 80 years ago today.
Termed Operation Source, after passing through the series of protective torpedo nets, one of the miniature subs, HMS X6, placed two mines of two tons each under the battleship’s keel, while X7 set a third.
Operation ‘Source’, 22 September 1943. Johne Makin (b.1947) via the Royal Navy Submarine Museum Collection.
While all three of the daring British X craft were lost in the resulting explosion and Tirpitz was severely damaged, she was back in service six months later and it would not be until November 1944 that the injured beast was finally slain.
Warship Wednesday (on a Thursday), Sept. 20, 2023: The Ajaccio Express
Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 88998
Above we see the French Redoubtable (Pascal)-class submarine of the M6 series (Agosta type), Casabianca (Q183), on the surface in the late 1930s. She is responsible for landing the first Allied troops on Axis-occupied Metropolitan France, some 80 years ago this week, and has a fascinating story that sort of dispels a lot of smack talk about the Marine nationale in WWII.
The Redoubtables
In the 1930s, the French Navy put a lot of faith in submarines, with upwards of 80 boats on the rolls during the decade. While a lot of those were old “2nd class” submarines or former German boats, there was also a formidable force of 31 modern “Classe 1,500 tonnes” boats that formed the backbone of the fleet. Large ocean-going “sous-marins de grande croisière” (high cruise submarines, i.e., 1st class subs), these boats were decent by any measure of their day.
Hitting the scales at just over 2,000 tons (submerged), they ran 302 feet long and were capable of (at least) 17 knots while surfaced and had long enough legs for 30-day cruises. Armed with a single 4-inch (100/45 M1925) deck gun, a twin 13.2mm Hotchkiss AA mount, and 11 torpedo tubes (9 fat bow and stern 21.65-inch tubes and a pair of smaller trainable 15.75-inch tubes), they could easily be compared to the prewar 307-foot Tambor-class “fleet boats” of the U.S. Navy and thoroughly outclassed the Kriegsmarine’s smaller and slower Type VII U-boats. When stacked against the most numerous pre-war Royal Navy boats, the T class (or Triton class) subs, these French Redoutables also ran a good bit larger and faster.
1931 Jane’s covering the Redoutables, at which point some 25 were in service. 31 would be built by 1939.
The first two boats of the class, Redoubtable (Q136) and Vengeur (Q137) were considered the initial M5 series, powered by a 4,000 hp suite– capable of 17 knots on the surface. The second flight, or M6 series, starting with Pascal (Q138), had more powerful 7,200 hp engines– pushing them to 19 knots– while the last six of the class, starting with Agosta (Q178), count on 8,000 hp and a speed of over 20 knots. This latter variant is often sometimes referred to as the Agosta-class.
They were fast diving, capable of getting submerged in 30-40 seconds, and had superb periscopes, although their listening gear and habitability were reportedly problematic– the latter no doubt due to their large 71-man (5 officers, 14 petty officers, 52 enlisted) crew. Their operating depth was listed as 250 feet– which would have meant easy death in the Pacific but was acceptable in the Med.
Double-hulled and able to partially use ballast tanks for diesel storage, they could make 14,000 nm at 7 knots on the surface before needing to refuel. This allowed the class to roam extensively overseas, including to French colonies in the Pacific, where one member, Phénix (Q157), was lost in an accident off Indochina in 1939. Another, Prométhée (Q153), was lost in 1932 while on sea trials in home waters.
Meet Casabianca
Our subject, a fast third-flight M6 Redoubtable, was ordered as part of the 1930 Programme/Naval Program No. 153 and as such was laid down at Saint Nazaire on 7 March 1937. She was commissioned on New Year’s Day 1937, the last of the class by pennant number (Q183) although five other boats would join the fleet after her, with the final Redoutables, Ouessant (Q180) and Sidi-Ferruch (Q181) not entering service until early 1939.
French submarine Casabianca 2 February 1935 at launch at the Nantes Shipyard of Ateliers Et Chantiers De La Loire NH 88999
Casabianca was originally named for the 1907 landings at the Moroccan city of Casablanca but instead was renamed in 1934 before launch for the Corsican-born French naval hero Luc-Julien-Joseph Casabianca, the skipper of the 118-gunned ship of the line L’ Orient which took Napoleon on his expedition to Egypt in 1798. He would go down with his ship at the Battle of the Nile at the hands of Nelson but died with all the appropriate honor and elan.
Bust of Capt. Casabianca and the painting, “The destruction of the Orient during the Battle of the Nile, August 1, 1798, by George Arnald, National Maritime Museum, London.
War!
When the French Republic went to war with Germany on 1 September 1939 as part of its pact with Poland, which was then under attack, Casabianca was at Brest as part of the 2ème DSM. She was soon ordered to Spanish waters along with sisters Agosta (Q178), Ouessant (Q180), and Achille (Q147) to watch for German blockade runners, U-boats, and raiders, a mission that would be maintained into November, with the squadron beefed up by the addition of Redoubtable sisters Sfax (Q182) and Pasteur (Q139).
With the war heating up, the boats of 2ème DSM, Casabianca included, were attached to the Royal Navy for a series of operations including convoy escort (!) from Halifax to Ireland in the winter of 1939/40, and a May 1940 patrol off Norway that saw the boats poking their periscopes up off occupied Bergen, Stavanger and Egersund but not coming away with any “kills” largely because of the handicap of following very strict “cruiser rules” for taking enemy ships. The only success the class saw in 1939 was when squadron member Poncelet (Q141) captured the German freighter Chemnitz (5522 GRT) off the Azores on 29 September and a prize crew sailed her home.
French submarine Casabianca oversee the departure from Brest to Harwich, on April 17th, 1940. IWM
June 1940 brought the Fall of France and 2ème DSM was ordered to leave their home port at Brest for the perceived safety of Casablanca, escaping capture by the oncoming Germans. The force, including our Casabianca, Sfax, Poncelet, Bévéziers, and Sidi-Ferruch, would arrive there just escaping the armistice, redubbing 2ème DSM (Maroc).
Sisters Pasteur, Agosta, Ouessant, and Achille, left behind at Brest, were duly scuttled by their crews.
Vichy sideshow
Casabianca and her squadron would remain at Casablanca, making short day trips and coastal sorties into November, when Casabianca and Sfax were ordered south to Dakar in French Senegal to increase the Vichy force there against an Allied effort to flip the colony for DeGaulle’s Free French movement. She would remain there, with the occasional trip back to Morrocco, until August 1941 when she was ordered to Toulon to be disarmed and de-fueled in compliance with German demands.
By this point in the war, of the 31 Redoubtables completed, 13 had already been lost (two in pre-war accidents, four scuttled at Brest in June 1940, Persée and Ajax sunk off Dakar by the British in September 1940, Poncelet sunk off Gabon by HMS Milford in November 1940, Sfax lost by mistake to U-37 in December 1940, while Bévéziers, Le Héros, and Monge were sunk off Madagascar in May 1942 by the British).
In late October 1942, with the war in North Africa going bad for the Axis, the French admiralty, with the blessing of the German Armistice Commission, ordered eight subs to rearm, including Casabianca, with the plan to deploy them as reinforcement against a possible Allied push into French North Africa.
Escape from Toulon
With the Germans effectively canceling the Vichy regime following the Allied Torch landings in North Africa– in which the Redoubtable-class boats Le Conquérant (Q171), Le Tonnant (Q172), Actéon (Q149), and Sidi-Ferruch were sunk in combat with the Allies and sisters Archimède, Argo, Protée and Le Centaure captured– the great Sabordé occurred at Toulon in which the bulk of the French navy fell on its sword on orders to prevent their ships from falling into German hands.
Among the 77 vessels sent to the bottom by their crews were another 20 French submarines including the Redoubtable herself and her sisters Vengeur, Pascal, Henri Poincaré, Fresnel, Achéron, and L’Espoir.
27 Novembre 1942 ,Toulon. the crew of a Panzer IV of the 2nd SS Division, Das Reich, watch a burning French warship, cruiser Colbert via Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-027-1451-10 Vennemann, Wolfgang CC-BY-SA Libre de droits
However, five French subs got underway from the Mourillon docks at Toulon on the early pe-dawn of 27 November: our Casabianca, her sister Le Glorieux (Q168), the small (600 ton) Minerve-class boats Iris (Q188) and Vénus (Q187), and the aging 1,100-ton Requin-class submarine Marsouin (Q119).
With only seven of her 40-man crew aboard and damaged by harbor defenses, Vénus was scuttled in deep water once clearing the channel but blazed the way for the other four. The small Iris, with her fuel tanks nearly empty, was forced to stopover in Spain where she was seized and interned until the end of the war.
This left Casabianca, Le Glorieux, and Marsouin who, dodging German bombers and minefields, arrived unannounced off Allied-occupied Algiers on the early morning of the 30 November, with Casabianca’s skipper, 40-year-old Capitaine de Corvette Jean L’Herminier, to report to the American port captain that his boat was “fit for any mission.”
Brave considering the Allies had been sinking French subs off that very port just a few weeks prior.
Indeed, L’Herminier had made it away from Toulon with all but two of his crew who missed the boat, even managing to bring along the ship’s mascot, a small gray dog named “Moussy.”
French Submarine Casabianca arrives Algiers after fleeing Toulon December 11 1942 IWM A 13154
Casabianca at Algiers after escape from Toulon. Note her trainable external sub-deck torpedo tube is out to port
French submarine Casabianca officers in Algiers after escaping Toulon with their boat. L’Herminier in center with cigarette
presentation of the Croix de Guerre to Frigate Captain L’Herminier December 1942 at Algiers by Admiral Darlan
Casabianca soon was detailed to the operational control of Capt. (future RADM) George Barney Hamley Fawkes’s 8th Submarine Flotilla of the Royal Navy, which had just moved its headquarters from Gibraltar to Algiers.
Cloak and Dagger work for the Allies.
While the bulk of behind-the-lines supply and liaison drops in occupied Europe came via airdropped parachute-delivered loads and small STOL planes such as the Lysander, Corsica proved almost immune to such deliveries due to its geography. The island’s built-up areas were so heavily garrisoned by the recently arrived Italian forces (80,000 troops overwatching a local population of 200,000) and the rural areas mountainous that airdrops were considered far-fetched.
This defaulted the effort to seaborne infiltration via small boats and submarines, the latter referred to as the so-called “Algerian Group” heavily involved in running “Le Tube” north to the Riveria and Corsica with the occasional side trip to land agents in ostensibly neutral Spain.
Sir Brooks Richards’s seminal two-volume work on clandestine Allied Sea transport operations in the Med during WWII, Secret Flotillas, spends about 50 pages detailing the 10-month groundwork for the ultimate liberation of Corsica (Operation Vesuvius) in 1943 and the role that the British and Free French submarine forces spent in making that happen. The name “Casabianca” appears in that section on almost every page.
While Casabianca wasn’t the only Free French boat running covert missions in the Med for Vesuvius– past Warship Wednesday alum the Saphir-class minelaying submarine La Perle (Q-184) was there as was Marsouin, Protée, Orphee, Sultane, Archimède, and Arethuse-– none matched CC L’Herminier’s workhorse who accomplished both the first mission and the chalked up the most trips to the island.
As detailed by Sir Brooks:
Casabianca’s displacement was more than twice that of the British S-class and larger than that of the T-class British submarines of the 8th Flotilla, so she offered great advantages in terms of carrying capacity for landing agents and supplies. This and the inspiring personality of her commanding officer [L’Herminier]…made her an obvious choice when a vessel was needed to carry a five-man mission, code-named Pearl Harbor, to Corsica in early December.
Elaborating on L’Herminier, Sir Brooks said:
He was in his early forties while British submarine captains were in their mid-twenties. The fact that Casabianca was not equipped with ASDIC and her torpedoes proved erratic meant that her offensive potential was not rated highly by the Royal Navy and Captain (S)8 was more than ready for her to be used for “cloak and dagger” missions.
Thus, Casabianca’s tasking came from the OSS/SOE’s “conspicuously successful” Massingham Mission and the Free French’s own Deuxième Bureau military intelligence organization under Colonel Paul Paillole.
To assist with the landings and beach recons needed for such operations, the French boat sent eight volunteers from the crew through an abbreviated Commando course conducted by Massingham at the Club des Pins while the boat herself would be fitted with American-supplied rubber rafts, quickly inflated on deck via a lead from the sub’s compressed air system. Later, a pair of lightweight plywood dories made at Helford specifically for such use as they were equipped with large removable kingstons to allow the dories to flood and drain as the submarine dived or surfaced when stowed topside. The Helfords would fit neatly when carried upside down atop Casabianca’s pressure hull, under the forward deck casing.
Finally, L’Herminier was all-in on risking his boat to get close to shore, typically grounding inshore close to the beach when conducting often all-night unloadings, then pulling off just before dawn to submerge on the bottom just offshore to surface again the following evening to do it all again. This was vital as the “delivery boats” were human powered and the crew was burdened by moving 70-pound packages chain gang style from every nook and cranny of the submarine where they were stowed, up to the deck via small hatches, and into the boats then over the beach and into the cache– all in the dark by feel with no lamps allowed.
A brief rundown on her Corsica operations, via Brooks, in which, in addition to her agent shuttling service, Casabianca landed no less than 61 tons of supplies across the beach in such a manner to the local resistance groups throughout seven sorties to the island:
Casabianca I/Pearl Harbor: Landing Commandant Roger de Saule (French intelligence officer), three Corsicans: wireless operator Pierre Griffi, Sgt. Maj Toussaint Griffi, and trade unionist resistance member Laurent Preziosi. Tagging along was mysterious Eastern European OSS agent “Frederick Brown.” Casabianca had been in Algiers less than two weeks when she left on Pearl Harbor on 11 December. After a two-night close recon to find the ideal beach at Anse-de Topiti on Corsica’s west coast, the group was landed with the submarine departing for Algiers again on 16 December– sans three of her crew that had been left behind to join the Pearl Harbor team when their dingy swamped.
Casabianca II/Auburn: February 1943. Landed three Deuxième Bureau, one OSS, and two SIS agents (Capt. Caillot, Lt. Guillaume, Fred Brown, Adj. Bozzi, and SGT Chopitel) on two different beaches (Bon Porte Bay and Baie d’Arone). Then landed 450 STEN guns and 60,000 rounds of 9mm ammo for local Resistance members while two more Casabianca sailors were left ashore.
Casabianca III/Pearl Harbor II: March 1943.A complicated multipart mission to pick up Casabianca’s five castaways who had been working with the local maquis, land three Deuxième Bureau agents, and pick up two French agents that had been landed in other operations. L’Herminier capped off the mission with an unsuccessful four-torpedo attack against the Italian steamers Francesco Crispi and Tagliamento off Bastia.
Casabianca IV: May 1943: Landed four unidentified Deuxième Bureau agents, and conducted a war patrol in the area.
Casabianca V/Scalp. July 1943. With an embarked four-man SOE conducting party (including the future Sir Brooks), landed 13 tons of stores and two agents across two nights at Curza Point– mostly Axis small arms salvaged from the huge stocks of the Afrika Korps recently surrendered in Tunisia. As noted by Brooks: “In one short summer’s night, L’Herminier and his crew had succeeded in landing and hiding eight tons of arms and explosives in hostile territory without any outside help. No British submarine captain would have been allowed to take his submarine inshore to the point to where she grounded, as a preliminary to sending the boats away.” On her way back, she fired three torpedoes at the freighter Champagne near Giraglia, which missed.
Casabianca VI/Scalp II: July-August 1943. Another 20 tons of stores landed at Curza Point for the maquis, with an embarked SOE conducting party assisting.
Casabianca VII/Scalp III: Early September 1943. Landed two agents and another 5 tons of arms and ammunition at Golfe de Lava. Extracted a Corsican resistance leader, Arthur Giovoni, bound for Algiers to consult with Allied leadership about the upcoming landings. Giovoni, alias “Luc,” had a detailed copy of the Italian defense plan for the island, which had been recently acquired.
Her seven Corsican missions. She circled the island.
In all, the Massingham SOE mission was able to filter 250 tons of arms and stores into Corsicaoverf almost eight months, of which Casabianca alone delivered nearly a quarter.
Vesuvius D-Day
By the time Operation Vesuvius kicked off, the Corsican resistance could count 20,000 armed members in the field– a force double the size of the 10,000-man light corps (1er Corps d’Armée) under Free French Lt. Gen. Henry Martin that would begin landing on 13 September to liberate the island.
Speaking of which, the very first landings of combat troops would be at Ajaccio, with Casabianca making her 8th trip to the island, delivering 109 members of 1er Bataillon de Choc, Gen. Martin’s door kickers, while two crack Moroccan goumier divisions (4e DMM and 2e GTM) were inbound on an array of French surface ships. The operation was allocated to be an (almost) entirely Free French affair.
Free French soldiers from the Bataillon de Choc, a commando unit created in Algeria in early 1943. The Bataillon was decisive in the liberation of Corsica and Elba. This picture, with a recently repurposed camouflaged German 7.5cm Pak 40, was taken after they landed in Provence during Operation Dragoon, during the fight to free Toulon, in August 1944. Note the mix of gear including British watch caps, American M1903 rifles, boots and gaiters, and Italian Beretta MAB 38sub guns. Also, note the open 75mm shell crate with two rounds ready.
French Troops training for the invasion of Southern France in North Africa, likely of the Bataillon de Choc. One holding an M1 Thompson sub gun and the others wielding M1903A3 rifles with bayonets attached, the three slash into barbed wire barricades set up on a beach. Photograph received on 27 September 1944. 80-G-59465
Bataillon de Choc in late WWII with the Marlin UDM42 SMG during the liberation of Grenoble 22 August 1944
In addition to the commandos, Casabianca’s 8th sortie landed a joint SOE-Deuxième Bureau team of senior officers to liaise directly with the local resistance forces and help tie the whole operation together, with the twine of previously landed wireless teams helping to sew the strange quilt together.
The sub was mobbed when she arrived.
The fight was short, as the Italian garrison had (mostly) laid down their arms with the Armistice of Cassibile on 3 September, but there were still 10,000 Germans on the island as well as 32,000 Germans on nearby Sardinia that were evacuating through Corsica back to the Italian mainland.
French destroyers Tempête and L’Alcyon landing troops Ajaccio, Operation Vésuve Sept 17 1943 Corsica
The fighting didn’t conclude until the first week of October which ultimately saw some Italian troops cross over to the Allies and lend a hand to help speed up the operation.
The STEN gun, both in the hands of Free French troops and Resistance forces, was key in the fighting for Corsica, and thousands of them were landed by Casabianca
Goumiers marocains, Libération de la Corse. Note the French cadre in more traditional dress.
September 21, 1943 first goumiers landed at Ajaccio, Corsica. Note these are still carrying French weapons and don’t have Brodie helmets yet.
Back to work
Casabianca would go on to conduct at least two further Deuxième Bureau covert missions– one, in November 1943, to embark agents from remote Cap-Camarat near Ramatuelle on the Riveria, and the second, in May 1944, to drop off and pick up agents in Spain.
Casabianca returns to port from a mission in the Mediterranean, on 23 June 1944. NARA 80-G-253640
RADM Andre Lemonnier, French Navy salutes from shore as the French submarine Casabianca returns to port from a mission in the Mediterranean, 23 June 1944. NARA 80-G-253638
She would also conduct several short combat patrols and managed to sink two German submarine chasers (UJ-6076, ex-Volontaire, on 22 December 1943 off Toulon and UJ-6079 off Provence on 8/9 June 1944). In addition, she pumped a torpedo into the freighter Chisone (6168 GRT, built 1922) off Cap-Camarat on 28 December, seriously damaging but not sinking the Italian merchant vessel.
By August 1944, with the Dragoon Landings moving inshore from the Rivera towards the French interior, Casabianca along with surviving sisters Archimède, Le Glorieux, and Le Centaure, were tapped for modernization in the U.S., leaving for Philadelphia NSY soon after. The refit saw HF/DF gear, radar (SD/SJ), and sonar (WDA, JP) sets installed while the twin 13.2mm Hotchkiss machine gun mount was replaced by a twin 20/70 Oerlikon.
Casabianca was not returned to service until the end of March 1945, when her war was officially over.
For the next six years, she participated in a series of Med cruises and experiments– to include launching a captured German Focke-Achgelis Fa 330 Bachstelze (Wagtail) rotor kite.
The 1946 Jane’s entry for what was left of the Redoubtable class, now dubbed the Archimède-class after the seniormost member.
Casabianca was decommissioned in February 1952 and sold for scrap in 1956.
Casabianca’s crew was cited seven times (l’ordre de l’armée de mer) and the submarine was decorated with the Croix de Guerre and the red fourragère of the Legion of Honor, for her wartime service.
Her British-style Jolly Roger marked her seven covert missions to Corsica, along with her surface and subsurface actions.
Note the Corsican flag, with the red dot for Ajaccio. The boat’s final Jolly Roger is proudly held in the French Navy Museum.
Epilogue
Casabianca’s fairwater was salvaged from her during disassembly and paraded through Paris.
It was eventually installed at Bastia in Corsica, where it remains today.
Similarly, a marker was emplaced at Ajaccio, celebrating the September 1943 landing there of Casabianca and the 109 commandos of the Bataillon de Choc.
Sadly, L’Herminier, suffering from thrombosis, left for the U.S. for medical treatment in August 1944, which led to the amputation of both of his legs. Nonetheless, the fearless submariner remained on the rolls in administrative functions until his death, writing two books and serving as an adviser to the film, “Casabianca, Pirate Ship,” about his sub’s Corsican exploits.
L’Herminier was portrayed by French actor Jean Vilar and was filmed aboard Casabianca’s sister, Le Glorieux.
Decorated with the Grand Cross of the Légion d’honneur, Capitaine de vaisseau Jean L’Herminier passed in 1953 in Paris, at age 51, and several streets across the country were subsequently renamed in his honor.
The D’Estienne d’Orves-class aviso Commandant L’Herminier (F791) was commissioned in 1986 and was the only ship in the French Navy authorized to fly “le pavillon de pirate,” a replica of Casabianca’s Jolly Roger.
The flag was proudly a part of her crew’s patch. She was decommissioned on 7 March 2018.
As for the name Casabianca, it was reissued to a destroyer (D 631) of all things in 1954, then, more fittingly, to a Rubis-class nuclear attack submarine, Casabianca (S603), launched in 1984.
Casabianca (S603), which was just paid off in August, carried Casabianca’s Jolly Roger on her fairwater and her crew maintained a replica as well.
The sixth new Suffern-class SSN will become the next Casabianca (S640) when she commissions in 2029.
Ships are more than steel and wood And heart of burning coal, For those who sail upon them know some ships have a soul.
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E/V Nautilus, in a 27-day expedition funded by NOAA Ocean Exploration via the Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute, in conjunction with a whole alphabet soup of other agencies and institutes (U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command, International Midway Memorial Foundation, Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the State of Hawaiʻi, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, University of Maryland, University of Rhode Island, University of Hawaiʻi, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Air/Sea Heritage Foundation, and Japanese archaeological colleagues from Teikyo University, Tokai University, and Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology) has been surveying the deep sea bed related to the Battle of Midway.
With that, they have released an extensive 27-minute survey of the lost carrier USS Yorktown (CV 5), conducted on 9 September.
Via EV Nautilus:
Ocean Exploration Trust’s survey of USS Yorktown during our Ala ʻAumoana Kai Uli expedition was the first time the world could witness this Battle of Midway wreck in real-time. The site was discovered 25 years ago, located during a joint U.S. Navy and National Geographic Society expedition led by Dr. Robert Ballard, president and founder of Ocean Exploration Trust. All dives in the Battle of Midway battlefield were launched and closed with protocol ceremonies to honor this place and all who lost their lives in ways that reflected their significance to Kānaka ʻOiwi (Native Hawaiian), Japanese, and U.S. military families and communities.
This historic, noninvasive, visual survey dive was conducted during a 27-day NOAA-funded mission to explore never-before-seen deep-water habitats to collect baseline data needed to support management in the most remote and northwestern section of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (PMNM). PMNM is a UNESCO World Heritage site distinguished for both its cultural and natural significance, the only site with this special distinction in the U.S. It is currently being considered for national marine sanctuary designation to safeguard further its diverse natural, cultural, and maritime heritage resources for generations to come.
The day after they visited Yorktown, the expedition made the first visual survey of the lost IJN Akagi, the Queen of Japanese flattops, on 10 September.
Via EV Nautilus:
Ocean Exploration Trust’s visual survey of the Japanese aircraft carrier Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) Akagi 赤城 is the first time anyone has laid eyes on the vessel since sinking during June 1942’s Battle of Midway. Akagi was initially located during a mapping survey conducted by Vulcan, Inc. in 2019 that involved U.S. Navy participation. On September 10, 2023, E/V Nautilus team spent 14 hours surveying Akagi, examining battle and seafloor collision damage in the ship’s structure. The dive was launched and closed with protocol ceremonies to honor this place and all who lost their lives in ways that reflected their significance to Kānaka ʻOiwi (Native Hawaiian), Japanese, and U.S. military families and communities.
The Royal Danish Navy recently changed out the flag at remote Isbjørneø in Baffin Bay, some 60 miles from Thule AB in Greenland. Uninhabited except for seabirds for at least the past 170 years, the windswept rock is part of the desolate Carey Islands. Importantly for the sake of geography, it is the westernmost point of Greenland and, by extension, the Realm of Denmark. The distance in a straight line from Copenhagen is 2,448 miles, roughly.
The annual mission involved heading ashore through the iceberg-filled waters from the OPV by survey launch, climbing a nearly 500-foot cliff, shimmying up the flagpoles, and swapping out the old weather-beaten Dannebrog and Kalaallit erfalasuat for new.
To render honors, the eight-member detachment, led by Captain Per Skov Madsen, changed into the parade uniforms they brought and delivered a proper salute, observed by arctic puffins and seagulls– and the ship’s UAV.
Invasion stripes on C-47 SN 43-30652, circa September 1944, of the 36th Troop Carrier Squadron during Operation Market Garden
First off: Happy 76th Birthday, USAF.
Now, the news.
A half-dozen advanced C-130J Super Hercules aircraft of the “Blue Tail Flies” of the historic 37th Airlift Squadron, based at Germany’s Ramstein Air Base recently received a special paint job and decals that the unit plans to show off over the beaches of Normandy, France, on the 80th anniversary of the Operation Overlord D-Day landings next June.
Maintainers of the 86th Maintenance Squadron painted black-and-white “Invasion stripes” on the C-130s as a throwback to those sported by Allied aircraft during the landings.
Importantly, the first Allied aircraft to cross the line on D-Day, carrying personnel of the 82nd Airborne Division’s 3rd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment and the 456th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion to a drop zone near Sainte-Mère-Église in occupied France, was Douglas C-47 Skytrain 43-30652, dubbed “Whiskey Seven” (W7), of the 37th Troop Carrier Squadron, now the 37th Airlift, so the historical tie is solid.
U.S. Air Force Airman Quinten Cooper, 86th Maintenance Squadron Aircraft Structural Maintenance apprentice, paints a C-130J Super Hercules aircraft at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, Aug. 1, 2023. The 86th MXS ASM flight painted stripes on six of the 37th Airlift Squadrons C-130s as a way to pay homage to the C-47 Skytrain aircraft that flew over Normandy during the Invasion of Europe on June 6, 1944. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Thomas Karol)
A stirring depiction of the Royal Navy aircraft carrier, HMS Courageous (50), after being torpedoed by German submarine KMS U-29 under Kptlt. Otto Schuhart, on 17 September 1939, some 84 years ago today. Schuhart had stalked the carrier for hours before gaining the right range and angle to launch his fish.
Artwork by Adolf Bock, published by Verlag Erich Klinghammer, Berlin, Germany, 1949. LOC LC-DIG-PPMSCA-18356
Launched on 4th February 1916 Courageous was completed in January 1917 as a 22,500-ton battlecruiser with BL 15-inch guns and served in the Great War, only converting to a flattop in 1924 as a result of the London Naval Treaty. She was the first major Royal Navy warship lost in WWII.
Some 518 lives were lost including many Reservists and Pensioners. Some survivors were rescued by HM Destroyer Echo.
As a consequence of this loss and an unsuccessful U-boat torpedo attack on HM Aircraft Carrier Ark Royal on 14th September, the policy of using aircraft carriers for ASW search and destroy patrols was abandoned by the Royal Navy until new American-made escort carriers became available after late 1942.
Meanwhile, in Germany, the Courageous was the first high-value sinking credited to the U-boat arm, and the whole crew of U-29 received the EK II (Iron Cross) while as commander, Schuhart received both the EK I and the EK II then, in May 1940 after growing his record, the Ritterkreuz.
As for U-29, the Type VIIA U-boat became a training submarine in 1941 and was scuttled in May 1945 at Kupfermuhle Bay, near the Danish-German border.
Her skipper, the lucky Kptlt. Schuhart, would leave U-29 after 7 patrols in January 1941 and with some 90,000 tons of shipping on his tally sheet to ride a desk for the rest of the war as an instructor in the 1st ULD (Unterseeboots-Lehr-Division) then later as commander of the 21st Training Flotilla. He joined the reformed West German Bundesmarine in 1955, retiring in 1967 with the rank of Kapitän zur See. He passed in 1990, aged 80.
80 Years Ago: Early Vought “Corsair Mk I” fighters, of the British Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm fly in formation, during training for their pilots in the United States, September 1943. Planes are operating out of Naval Air Station Brunswick, Maine.
Photograph by Lieutenant Charles Fenno Jacobs. National Archives Catalog #: 80-G-473440
Same as the above, 80-G-473438
While everyone remembers the Spitfire, Hurricane, Seafire, and Sea Fury, lots of people forget the FAA picked up a whopping 2,012 Corsairs for use in World War II, actually rushing them into use as carrier birds much faster than the U.S. Navy, as the latter was thought too unsafe for flattop operations. The RN pilots had a tough respect for the “wicked-looking bastard.”
The FAA used both the Vought F4U-1 and the F4U-1A/D, type classified as Corsair Mk I and Corsair Mk II, respectively, as well as the Brewster-made F3A-1D (Corsair Mk III) and the Goodyear-produced FG-1D (Corsair Mk IV), with the Goodyear bird making up almost half of the RN’s inventory.
The Brits proved their worth on carriers, using them both in Europe (they were in on attacks against Tirpitz!) and going on to see much action against the Japanese in 1944-45.
British Royal Navy Vought “Corsair Mk II” (F4U-1A/D) fighters at Naval Air Station (NAS) Squantum, Massachusetts in 1943. Note fleet air arm personnel standing by the planes, and temporary numbers crudely marked on their cowlings. 80-G-K-15126
Corsairs and Barracudas of the British carrier HMS Formidable in July 1944, on their way to attack the Germán battleship Tirpitz
British FAA Corsair MkI of 1830 NAS – Red 7C JT108 (BuNo 18130) with Red 7A in the background, 1943.
Rabaul, Corsairs on the British carrier HMS Glory, 6 Oct 1945. AWM image
“No place to land” by Michael Turner. Royal Navy Corsairs return to their carrier HMS Illustrious to find a blazing flight deck following a Kamikaze attack in the South West Pacific, during the BPF deployment against the Japanese 1945. The print is widely available https://www.studio88.co.uk/acatalog/No_Place_to_Land.html
FAA Corsairs of 1834 and 1836 Squadrons aboard HMS Victorious spinning up to sortie in an attack against Sigli, Sumatra, in September 1944.
Perhaps one of the best books on FAA Corsair jocks is The Kamikaze Hunters: Fighting for the Pacific, 1945 by Will Iredale.
I reviewed Kamikaze Hunters back in 2015 and loved it!
Armoured Carriers has a great 20-minute take on the Corsair in British service, including interviews with a number of FAA pilots, below.
