Category Archives: US Army

Skull Island Tomahawk

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A 45th Fighter Squadron Curtiss P-40N Tomahawk, “Lackanocki,” is seen refueling from an F-2 type servicing truck pulled by a Cletrac M2 high-speed tractor while at Funafuti Airfield, Nanumea, Gilbert Islands.

63261A.C. NARA Local Identifier 342-FH-3A42939-63261AC

The 45th, formed at Wheeler Field, Hawaii Territory in December 1940, was decimated during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor a year later.

Reformed with newer P-40N “Sand” models, it deployed to the Gilbert Islands in November 1943, operating in turn from Funafuti, Abemama, and Makin Fields in the chain until it was recalled to Hawaii some 80 years ago this month in early March 1944– dating the above image nicely. Of note, the 45th FS during this period claimed the destruction of 11 enemy aircraft on 26 January 1944 near Aur Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

The 45th would remain in Hawaii for almost a year until February 1945, when, reequipped with late-model P-51 Mustangs to perform very-long-range bomber escort missions, it forward deployed to Iwo Jima in March 1945, where it finished the war escorting B-29s over Japan, a task that earned it a Distinguished Unit Citation.

The squadron lived on into the jet age, flying F-86s, F-100s, F-84s, F-4s, A-37s, and A-10s, the latter of which it has been pushing out of Davis–Monthan since 2009.

Of note, the 45th of the above Gilbert Islands period surfaced in the 2017 film, Skull Island, in which a 45th FS pilot, LT Hank Marlow (Will Brittain/John C. Reilly), parachutes in 1944 onto the uncharted island where a giant ape serves as the big banana and survives 29 years until an expedition arrives in 1973.

New Small Unit Infantry bible availible

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ATP 3-21.8, Infantry Rifle Platoon and Squad, is the “doctrinal guide that addresses the tactical application of techniques associated with the offense and defense for the Infantry rifle platoon and squad against a peer threat.”

The latest 596-page version of the publication was just released and is available for download here.

Denali Paratroopers Test New Next-Gen Weapons at 25 Below

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The only Arctic, Airborne, Recon cavalry squadron in the U.S. Army has been busy trying out the service’s new Next Generation Squad Weapon systems in some of the worst weather Alaska can offer.

The 1st Squadron (Airborne) of the 40th Cavalry Regiment, working with Fort Greely’s Cold Regions Test Center in one of the coldest parts of Alaska, has been putting the NGSW platform through its paces. The program includes SIG Sauer’s XM-7 rifle, which will fill the role currently held by the M4 Carbine series, the SIG XM250 light machine gun slated to replace the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, and the Vortex-produced M157 Fire Control optics system used on both platforms.

“Extreme environmental testing is critical to ensuring reliable systems,” noted Col. Jason Bohannon, the Army’s Project Manager Soldier Lethality on Feb. 9.

Meanwhile, a social media page for the 1st Squadron-40th Cav noted that they have been experiencing “sub-Arctic conditions in the vicinity of Ft Greely where temperatures haven’t topped above -25 degrees.”

If your range gear includes “Mickey Mouse” Boots, you may be testing an NGSW in Alaska in winter. (Photo: PEO Soldier)

That just seems…really cold. (Photo: PEO Soldier)

The 40th has a long military history of making it work under terrible conditions. Based in its current form in Alaska since 2005– from where they deployed to Iraq (Southern Baghdad) once and Afghanistan twice (Paktya and Khost Provinces)– it draws its lineage from the old 40th Tank Battalion which entered combat on August 15 1944 fighting across northern France into Belgium where it made a significant contribution to the defeat of German forces at St. Vith during the Battle of the Bulge then drove into Germany linking up with the Soviets on the Baltic coast.

M4 Shermans in temporary position near St. Vith, Belgium, fire on enemy positions beyond the city. 40th Tank Battalion. 7th Armored Division.” Date: 24 January 1945. Salis, U.S. Army Signal Corps photo 111-SC-199467

Do you have an SCR-300 you can Loan to a Museum Exhibit for a bit?

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Come on guys, I know lots of you have a bunch of old gear on the shelf. You radio nerds take note, there is an exhibit that needs to borrow an SCR-300 for a little while.

The meat and potatoes of it, from a curator friend of mine:

Our big project is a traveling exhibit on Edwin Howard Armstrong, radio pioneer extraordinaire with a side interest in radar. He’s best known for inventing and innovating the wideband FM technique of wireless transmission, most notably in broadcasting, but he also supported the succession of AM walkie-talkies (notably the SCR-536) by an FM version that resisted interference from AM electrical noise sources like engine motors. Incredibly, despite the Galvin Corporation (later Motorola) producing 50,000 of the SCR-300, they’re as rare as hen’s teeth here and abroad; even the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at WPAFB is looking for one.

Our exhibit on Armstrong will spend the next two years at the San Antonio Museum of Science and Technology and the Pavek Museum in Minneapolis, with potential follow-ons tbd. Do you or anyone you know in your substantial milhist networks have an SCR-300 that we could borrow for exhibition? It would be professionally displayed in a case, insured, and credited as desired.

If you have an SCR-300 (it doesn’t need to be functional), reach out to me at egerwriter@gmail.com and I’ll put you in touch.

Thanks

PS Magazine, killed by bean counters

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The U.S. Army’s long-running comic-based PS Magazine is being snuffed out after a 72-year run. Its first issue was released in June 1951, during the Korean War in which the format was judged perfect to help young (and often newly drafted) GIs keep their gear and vehicles working.

The official announcement:

Due to Headquarters Department of the Army (HQDA)-directed reductions of DA Civilian authorizations, PS Magazine will cease operations effective Sep 30, 2024. These reductions, among others across the Army, are necessary to right-size the total force, as well as support modernization.
 
PS Magazine’s transition to end of mission has already begun, and mission execution is reducing as its writing staff is reassigned or retires. Any residual support will cease operations no later than Sep 30. In the near term, this will affect the magazine’s ability to respond to Reader Inquiries, depending on the commodity or end item being inquired about. It will also mean a reduction in new content being posted to the website, with new articles all but ending this spring.
 
Efforts are being made to ensure the website remains available for reference for up to three years past end-of-mission. Once this website is fully retired, readers can continue to access the PS Magazine archive on the publicly available Radio Nerds website HERE.
 
On behalf of Connie, Bonnie, SFC Blade, Cloe and the other staff now retired, it’s been our distinct honor to serve Warfighters across all services for going on 73 years. You never know; perhaps someday we’ll be recalled to service. We’ll stand ready just in case.
 
For now, be safe, follow your TMs and always treat your vehicles and equipment as if your life depends on them. For surely, it will.

PS had some classic covers, many drawn by famed cartoonist and illustrator Will Eisner. He did Vol. 1, Issue 1. 

PS June1951, vol 1, issue 1, cover by Wil Einser

Will Eisner Army Ordnance M3 sheet Grease gun smg

Joes Dope sheet tanks Army PM cartoon Will Eisner

PS 158, January1966. Cover art by Will Eisner.

Back cover from PS #198, May 1969. Art by Will Eisner

Flintstones war Front cover from PS #153, August 1965. Art by Will Eisner

Front cover from PS 120, November 1962. Art by Will Eisner

Jack Frost Biting More Than Your Nose

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The recently reformed (and very understrength, with only six combat battalions/squadrons compared to 12 in the 82nd ABN) 11th Airborne Divison, now nicknamed the “Arctic Angels” due to their location in Alaska, recently got some snow on their wings with a little help from the Marines.

Official caption: “Soldiers assigned to the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 11th Airborne Division conducted jumps from a Marine Corps KC-130J Super Hercules during airborne operations at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. The training was designed to ensure mission readiness in an Arctic environment.” Photos by Air Force Airman Raina Dale, and Senior Airman Julia Lebens.

Meanwhile, the COLA for Alaska is being reduced, because F the troops, especially the ones in pricy Alaska, particularly when the Army is tanking its recruitment and retention numbers, right?

This brings us to this, very valid, article:

U.S. Military Can’t Sustain Arctic Operations, ‘Let Alone Dominate,’ Experts Say

This over at The Warhorse:

“We don’t have the capability to sustain forces up there,” says Ryan Burke, an affiliate professor at University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Center for Arctic Security and Resilience. “We don’t have the infrastructure, we don’t have the know-how, we don’t have the institutional knowledge. We don’t have any of what we need to be present, let alone to actually dominate the damn thing.”

As interest in the region grows, the military has begun to make some changes. In 2022, Eielson Air Force Base, just over 100 miles south of the Arctic Circle, stood up a full complement of F-35s. Marine units now rotate through cold-weather training with their Norwegian counterparts, and during the past several years, U.S. forces have participated in trainings like Arctic Edge or Arctic Challenge, a Nordic-led joint military exercise. The military points to efforts like this as evidence of its commitment to Arctic operations.

But much of the necessary communication systems, general infrastructure, and sustained presence and training needed to understand and operate in such a complex environment has yet to materialize. The lofty visions promised in recent strategies don’t always match the realities on the ground.

“The Army has a strategy, the Navy has a strategy, the Air Force has a strategy,” Burke says. “Congratulations. We can’t do any of it.”

More here.

What a difference 21 years makes

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How about this great shot of an Italy-based 173rd Airborne paratrooper during Op Joint Guardian II at the Heritage Drop Zone in Kosovo, in January 2003.

Scene Camera Operator: SPC Ryan C. Creel, USA. Release Status: Released to Public. National Archives Identifier 6625420

He’s got an early flat-topped M4 (which only started issuing around 1997) with a detachable carry handle, the almost universally hated vert grip, and a PEQ-2 held on with a liberal amount of field expedient tape.

The Sky Soldier is clad in what seems to be ECWS pants and a standard M81 BDU blouse in bright four-color woodland camo– which continued in service until 2008– and has a set of Ranger beads on the suspenders of his ALICE Load Carrying gear. A bulky M9 bayonet is at the ready next to the compass pouch.

Not going to lie, I always thought M81 was the best camo. 

Putting the ‘Fortress’ into the B-17: A Look at the Guns

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It is no understatement to say that the B-17 bomber is one of the most famous airplanes to fly a mission. Today we look at the hardware that lived up to its well-deserved “Flying Fortress” name.

When it first flew in 1935, the original B-17 wasn’t very well equipped with defensive gun armament; after all, its main armament was its massive 5,000-pound bomb load.

The YB-17 prototypes had a single gun up front, two in side nacelles, one for the radio operator, and one below – just five all told, all with limited fields of fire. (National Museum of the Air Force)

Boeing YB-17 nose turret via National Museum of USAF 

Boeing YB-17 flex gun turret via National Museum of USAF

Wartime experience soon changed this, and by the time the B-17G model took to the air, it carried 13 .50-caliber air-cooled machine guns and almost 7,500 rounds of ammunition to keep them firing. While a few of the bomber’s crew were dedicated gunners, everyone save for the pilot and co-pilot had a gun at their disposal and were expected to use it if needed.

B-17G Flying Fortresses Drop Bombs On Berlin, Germany 26 February 1945. [91St Bg] 59348AC 342-FH_000123

For a closer look, head over to my piece at Guns.com that includes a walk around we did out at Pima. 

Those wacky Army sea mines

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The beautiful and brand new 188-foot 1,300-ton U.S. Army Mine Planter No. 16, Col. George W. Ricker, at New Orleans’s Pauline Street Wharf, 14 May 1943. She arrived at the New Orleans Port of Embarkation from Point Pleasant, West Virginia, on 11 May 1943 from her builder, Marietta Manufacturing Co. She only served the Army for a year before the Navy picked her up and commissioned her as the Minesweep Gear and Repair Ship, USS Planter (ACM 2), in April 1944. Struck from the Naval Register on 23 December 1947, she was sold to commercial interests and was still in use as a fishing trawler into the 1970s. Official U.S. Army Photograph 298-1-43 via the WWII Museum.

Lost in the sauce when it comes to U.S. mine warfare in World War II is the Army’s sea mine planting efforts during the conflict.

Brainstormed by the Army as early as 1866 from experience gained against Confederate “torpedoes” in the Civil War, by 1876 an experimental defensive minefield was sown at Fort Mifflin in Pennsylvania. This led to an explosion (pun intended) in floating Army minefields during the Endicott Period of coastal defense.

By the Spanish-American War, at least 28 harbors and coastal chokepoints had Army-controlled electric submarine mines installed.

Mine 1919 Fort Pickens, outside of Pensacola. Typically 45 mines in seven groups were planted there between 1917-18

This only continued to grow and, after Army sea mines were transferred from the Corps of Engineers to the Artillery Corps, leading to the dedicated Coast Artillery Corps in 1907, the branch even kicked off an Army Mine Planter Service in 1918. At least 37 large planters, typically named after colonels and generals, were used by the AMPS during this period as well as twice as many “junior mine planters”, or “pup planters.”

Army-controlled submarine nets, mines, and shore batteries protected the entrance to San Francisco Bay May 1942 Ft. Cronkite. Of note, Fort Funston with its modern 16-inch guns, is not listed

By the time WWII came, the Coastal Artillery controlled 27 Harbor Defense Commands with minefields, at least five of them overseas in Hawaii, the Canal Zone, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. Speaking of which, USAMP Col. George F.E. Harrison and USAJMP Neptune sowed Army minefields at Manila Harbor in 1941 to help block the Japanese advance. Both planters were sunk during the Luzon campaign, with Harrison earning a Navy battle star.

The 704-ton, 172-foot USAMP Col. George F.E. Harrison moored pierside at Ilollo, Panay, Philippine Islands, 2 February 1933. Sunk by Japanese dive bombers in May 1942, she was later raised and would serve as the Japanese Imperial Navy cable ship IJN Harushima, only to be sent to the bottom again, this time by American dive bombers, in 1945. U.S. Army Signal Corps photo # 331549, U.S. National Archives 111-SCA-Album-2986.

On 7 December 1941, the Army had approximately 5,000 controlled mines on hand for harbor defense and during the war would sow 7,320 (3,569 contact and 3,751 magnetic) domestically along with 1,847 mines ex-CONUS.

That doesn’t even count the no less than 12,000 air-dropped offensive mines laid by the USAAF in the Pacific during the war, which is a whole different story.

Operation Starvation. Loading aerial mines on a B-29 of the 468th Bomb Group, 24 January 1945. (NARA)

Via Navweaps: 

By 1945, the Army Air Force was devoting considerable resources to the mining role, with 80 to 100 B-29s based at Tinian being used to mine the home waters around Japan. These B-29s could carry seven 2,000 lbs. (907 kg). or twelve 1,000 lbs. (454 kg) mines. “Operation Starvation” started in March 1945 and continued until early August with 4,900 magnetic, 3,500 acoustic, 2,900 pressure, and 700 low-frequency mines being laid. These mines sank 294 ships outright, damaged another 137 beyond repair, and damaged a further 239 that could be repaired. In cargo tonnage, the total was 1.4 million tons lost or damaged which was about 75% of the shipping available in March 1945.

With the Army’s airborne minedropping capability going in 1947 to the newly established USAAF (which still maintains the little talked about skillset), and the disbandment of the Coastal Artillery branch soon after, when the defunct AMPS was fully zeroed out on paper on 22 January 1954– 70 years ago today– it closed the Big Green’s 88-year run with sea mines.

Jan 1944: Two millionth SA M1 Garand is Born

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With World War II far from over, the 2 millionth M1 Garand Rifle manufactured at the U.S. Army’s Springfield Armory was crafted some eight decades ago this month. 

The below image, from January 1944, shows U.S. Army Col. George A. Woody observing Mr. Norbert R. Bonneville, who is inspecting U.S. Rifle M1 .30 caliber, Springfield Armory SN# 2000000. On the table is a framed portrait of Jean Cantius Garand, better known as John C. Garand, the designer of the rifle whose action he patented in 1932 after a decade of development. 

(Springfield Armory National Historic Site Photo 4326-SA.A.1)

At this point in the war, Eisenhower of course was busy planning the liberation of German-occupied France by landing Allied troops along the Normandy Coast when the weather broke in June, while in the Pacific the liberation of the Japanese-occupied Philippines was being planned by MacArthur along a similar timeline. 

For a deeper dive into the above photo, Col. Woody was the superintendent of Springfield Armory from Aug. 1943 to Aug. 1944, and his sought-after “G.A.W.” inspector stamp appears on correct M1 Garands made at the armory during that period. Sadly, the photo is one of the last of the colonel. Woody, a career Army Ordnance officer, and Aggie (Class of ’17), became ill in the summer of 1944 and was relieved at the armory by Brig. Gen. Norman F. Ramsey in October. Woody, suffering from a rare liver disease, spent his remaining days in Walter Reed Hospital where he passed away in November. He is buried at Arlington.

As for the younger man in the photo, Norbert Bonneville, who at the time lived in South Hadley, Massachusetts, was working the overnight “MacArthur” shift at the armory when the 2 millionth Springfield M1 receiver came down the line and the operator of an automatic numbering machine had the honor of stamping the serial at 2 a.m. “to the cheers of assembled workers who gathered to witness a historic event,” as chronicled by the New England Minute Man. 

As further described by the Minute Man: 

Final assembly into a completed weapon came later. In the stocking shop selection was made of a piece of walnut with a particularly fine grain. In finishing the stock, master craftsman at the armory lavished upon it all their skill. When the rifle was assembled, they put on a polish with the luster of an opal. A walnut mount was made for the gun and it was placed in the office of the commanding officer, later to be removed to the Springfield Armory museum to take its honored place with other historic arms that have been manufactured through the years.

Presented to Maj. Gen. Thomas J. Hayes after the war in 1946, it eventually made its way back to the Springfield Armory Museum where it remains today as catalog # SPAR 913. The Armory’s collection also contains several other key serial numbered guns, including SN# 1 manufactured in 1937, and SN# 100000, completed in December 1940 at a cost of $67.09.

But what about Springfield SN# 1000000? That one, completed in November 1942, was put back in storage until Mr. Garand retired in 1953 and was presented to him as a gift. It made it back to the museum on loan in 1994 and was later sold by its owner at auction in 2018 for $287,000.  

Mr. Garand, seen with an M1 on the Springfield assembly line in 1940, and sometime later with what looks to be the millionth rifle.

In all, Springfield Armory manufactured over 3 million Garands through 1945 when WWII ended, and, as noted by firearms historian Scott Duff, its production peaked in January 1944 – the period the 2 millionth gun was made – “with 122,001 M1s produced that month. This translated to 3,936 rifles per day or 164 rifles per hour.”

Springfield was the last government armory in the Garand-making business, and their final M1 .30-caliber rifles came off the line in May 1957, at which point it had been replaced in front-line service by the M14 rifle. By then, the serial number range was in the region of 6,099,905.

A graying and smiling Mr. Garand, then several years in retirement, was on hand for that moment as well. 

Official caption: “Group of men surround the last M1 .30-caliber rifles off the production line. Col. Hurlbut stands on the left. Lt. Col. Septfonds stands second from left. John C. Garand stands second from right and he holds the last rifle.” (Springfield Armory National Historic Site Photo 12808-SA.1)

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