8 May 1945. Caballero Mountains, Luzon. While peace of a sort had come to Europe, WWII continued to roar in the Pacific.
Here we see a M15 Combination Gun Motor Carriage “Special” that, in lieu of the standard M1 37mm gun/. 50 cal combination normally seen, was modified with a 40mm Bofors. It is also shown with an M16 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage, which is essentially an M3 half-track chassis carrying an M45 Maxon “Meat Chopper” quad .50 cal.
A closer look at the M15. During Korea, this modification was solidified in the M34 with 102 M15s converted in Japan in 1951. The M34 mounted a single 40 mm Bofors gun in place of the M15’s combination gun mount. This was due primarily to a shortage of 37 mm ammunition, which was no longer manufactured. M34s served with at least two AAA (automatic weapons) battalions (the 26th and 140th) in the Korean War.
And a close-up of the M16/50 Quad.
M16 firing on Japanese position on the Villa Verde Trail in the Caballero Mountains, Luzon, PI, May 8, 1945
A few interesting stories that help add color to what warfare is in 2025.
In Poland, Soldiers of the 15th Giżycko “Zawiszy Czarnego” Mechanized Brigade have been “testing new technologies for MEDEVAC procedures, notification systems, and modern teleinformation tools for planning and managing medical evacuations during both operations and emergencies.”
Drone troops are the future of the Polish army, the future of all types of armed forces. They will have hundreds of thousands of drones: flying, ground, surface, and underwater – said Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of National Defence Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz on Wednesday during the annual task and settlement briefing of the management of the Ministry of National Defence and the command staff of the Polish Army.
Now, flash to the Sinai along the Israeli-Egyptian border, where the IDF recently intercepted and captured a UAV entering Israeli airspace. After downing the drone (which still looks intact, so it was probably via a soft kill ECM device) 10 M-16 style rifles and ammunition were recovered, no doubt being smuggled to Palestinian militant groups.
The rifles appear to be ChiCom Norinco CQs, which have been widely used and are available for sale in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, and Libya. The Iranians even make a variant of the CQ domestically (as the Sayyad 5.56) for the Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
And from the wastes of the Mojave Desert, where the 11th “Blackhorse” Armored Cavalry Regiment has been routinely beating the tracks off folks as the OPFOR at the National Training Center in Fort Irwin for the past 30 years, drones are well in hand to shake things up.
According to the Blackhorse’s social media team, they have been integrating FPV drones of the type often seen in use as simple munitions droppers and unmanned kamikazes in Ukraine and Syria, drone-deployed minefields, and their own legacy systems to lay waste to visiting units and making it look easy.
The 700 British regulars under Lt. Col (later MG) Francis Smith that sortied out of Boston to Lexington and Concord some 250 years ago this month did so in a bewildering array of units. Smith’s force included the Grenadier and Light Infantry Companies of the 4th (King’s Own), 5th, 10th, 23rd (Royal Welch Fusiliers), 38th, 43rd, 47th, 52nd and 59th Regiments of Foot, Grenadier and Light Infantry companies of the 1st Battalion of Marines, and also the Grenadier company of the 18th (Royal Irish) Regiment of Foot.
For those keeping up at home, that’s at least 21 companies for what would today be viewed as a light battalion-sized force.
Why?
Robust and agile Grenadiers and “Light Bobs” from various regiments and Marines made up the British force that marched on Lexington and Charleston. They were typically drilled and trained to skirmish with the enemy from behind cover, provide reconnaissance, and protect the army’s flanks, whereas more traditional line infantry companies from the same regiment were of the “stand and deliver” style force that would provide massed musketry in a set-piece battle (NPS photos)
The reason for the variety was that Smith, looking to move fast, had the cream of the Britsh regiments in Boston, the elite Grenadiers and the skirmishers of the Light companies, with each of His Majesty’s regiments of foot organized into 10 companies: eight line, and two flank (Grenadier and Light). The picked men of each regiment. Smith’s main striking force would be the Grenadiers, screened and supported with the assorted Light companies.
It was a good choice, as his exhausted force would have to cover 18 miles from Boston to Concord and back, with the way back under a fierce fighting retreat, in 22 hours.
Each British infantry regiment of the time numbered 477 men in 10 companies, with each of the latter typically containing no more than 49 men: a Captain, two Lieutenants, two Sergeants, three Corporals, a Drummer, two Fifers, and 38 Privates. As basic math would have given Smith a force of well over 1,000 on paper, the discrepancy (700 marching out of Boston), shows how understrength through illness, death, and discharges the Brits were.
King George III only had a 48,647-strong Army- deployed around the globe- in 1775, organized in 46 regiments of infantry and 16 of cavalry as well as an array of independent companies and support units. Of those 46 regiments of foot, an impressive 18 were deployed to America. At the start of the war, the only regular cavalry in the Americas was the 17th Dragoons, numbering just 288 sabres in four squadrons.
In all, only 8,580 British regulars were in America at the start of the Revolution.
Facing 4,000 alerted Massachusetts militia who began surrounding Boston on the morning of 20 April- an 11-month siege that would eventually lead to the evacuation of the city by the British in March 1776- you can see how thin the King’s hold on the colony really was.
80 years ago. Awaiting removal of a roadblock on the road to Eisfeld, Germany, a 90mm GMC M36 tank destroyer crew whiles away the time shooting craps. 28th Infantry Division (“Keystone”), U.S. Third Army, 12 April 1945.
Signal Corps Photo 111-SC-204555, National Archives Identifier 6927819
The men are likely “Cossacks” of the 630th TD Battalion, Battle of the Bulge vets who passed from temporary XVIII Airborne Corps control back to the 28th near Wolfstein around this time.
Among the camp gear accumulated on the back of the M36 is a case of “10-in-1” rations, Menu 3, which would include bulk-packed K rations in two 5-serving packs, the first in packages and the second in cans. Of key importance, a 10-in-1 also held ten packages of cigarettes– each holding 10 Chesterfields, Luckies, or Pall Malls– along with ten GI matchbooks and 250 sheets of GI toilet paper. Tough but fair.
Hawkins’ Zouaves At Hatteras Inlet, August 28, 1861
Elements of the 9th New York Infantry, also known as Hawkins’ Zouaves [or the New York Zouaves, Little Zouaves, and Zoo-Zoos], land via surfboats on Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina, on August 28, 1861. The first major amphibious landing of the Civil War was disrupted by gale-force winds and high surf that stove many of the boats and caused the landings to be called off, leaving 323 troops stranded on the beach overnight. Re-forming at the point where they had struggled ashore, these men spent a miserable night ashore in a driving rain. Although vulnerable to attack from the Confederate garrison at Forts Hatteras and Clark, Colonel William F. Martin, commanding the Confederate defenses in the forts, overestimated their numbers and lost the initiative, surrendering to Flag Officer Silas H. Stringham, USN, the next day.
45 years ago this week. 22 February 1980. Opération Tacaud. Chad. “Batha,” a M101A1 (M2) 105mm howitzer in action during a live-fire exercise by 2ème batterie, 11e régiment d’artillerie de marine (RAMa). The location is likely Camp Dubut north of N’Djamena, the country’s capital.
Note the cannon is likely named for the Batha prefecture of Chad. Marc-André Desanges/ECPAD/Défense. F 80-115 L256
The handy 4,900-pound U.S. M2/M101A1 howitzer entered French service in 1943 as the HM2 10,5cm gun and it remained a standard in operations against the Viet Minh in Indochina, in Algeria, and in other places– such as Chad against the Libyans– until finally withdrawn from service in 1997.
While the gunners of 11e RAMa– a unit that dates back to 1622— are still in French Army service, based at Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier and equipped with Caesar 155mm guns, 120mm mortars, Mistral missiles, and VOA Griffons, the French have officially departed Chad after 70 years of post-colonial security assistance (and 60 years of colonial rule).
It would seem the Chadians are pivoting towards Moscow.
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Warship Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025: Gallant Gussi
U.S. Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation photo No. 1996.253.7161.010
Above we see a Vought F4U-1D Corsair of Marine Fighting Squadron (Carrier Squadron) (VMF(CVS)) 512 as it prepares to catapult on deck qualifications from the brand new Commencement Bay-class escort carrier USS Gilbert Islands (CVE-107)during the flattop’s shakedown cruise off San Diego, on or about 6 March 1945.
Commissioned 80 years ago today, she was one of just six carriers earmarked to carry embarked dedicated all-Marine air groups during WWII, then would go on to continue to serve in a much different role into the Vietnam era.
The Commencement Bays
Of the 130 U.S./RN escort carriers– merchant ships hulls given a hangar, magazine, and flight deck– built during WWII, the late-war Commencement Bay class was by far the Cadillac of the design slope. Using lessons learned from the earlier Long Island, Avenger, Sangamon, Bogue, and Casablanca-class ships.
Like the hard-hitting Sangamon class, they were based on Maritime Commission T3 class tanker hulls (which they shared with the roomy replenishment oilers of the Chiwawa, Cimarron, and Ashtabula classes). From the keel up, these were made into flattops.
Pushing some 25,000 tons at full load, they could make 19 knots, which was faster than a lot of submarines looking to plug them. A decent suite of about 60 AAA guns spread across 5-inch, 40mm, and 20mm fittings could put as much flying lead in the air as a light cruiser of the day when enemy aircraft came calling.
Finally, they could carry a 30-40 aircraft airwing of single-engine fighter bombers and torpedo planes ready for a fight, or about twice that many planes if being used as a delivery ship.
Sounds good, right?
Of course, had the war run into 1946-47, the 33 planned vessels of the Commencement Bay class would have no doubt fought kamikazes, midget subs, and suicide boats tooth and nail just off the coast of the Japanese Home Islands.
However, the war ended in Sept. 1945 with only nine of the class barely in commission– most of those still on shake-down cruises. Just two, Block Island and Gilbert Islands, saw significant combat at Okinawa and Balikpapan, winning two and three battle stars, respectively. Kula Gulf and Cape Gloucester picked up a single battle star.
With the war over, some of the class, such as USS Rabaul and USS Tinian, though complete, were never commissioned and simply laid up in mothballs, never being brought to life. Four other ships were canceled before launching, just after the bomb on Nagasaki was dropped. In all, just 19 of the planned 33 were commissioned.
But we are getting ahead of ourselves.
Meet Gilbert Islands
Our subject is the only American warship named for the sprawling August 1942-December 1943 Gilbert Islands campaign– Operations Galvanic and Kourbash– that included the seizures of Tarawa and Makin and the hard-fought Battle of Tarawa.
The Battle of Tarawa (US code name Operation Galvanic) was one of the bloodiest of the Pacific T/O during WWII. Nearly 6,400 Japanese, Koreans, and Americans died in the fighting, mostly on and around the small island of Betio. Many have never been recovered.
Laid down on 29 November 1943 at Tacoma, by Todd-Pacific Shipyards, CVE-107 was initially to be named USS St. Andrews Bay-– for a bay on the Gulf Coast of Florida and a sound on the southern coast of Georgia– but this changed when she was set to be renamed Gilbert Islands on 26 April 1944. She launched on 20 July 1944 under the latter name, sponsored by Mrs. Edwin D. McCorries, wife of a surgeon captain at Puget Sound Navy Hospital. The carrier was the 57th Navy ship launched at Todd, and the third of her class of carriers christened there.
She was commissioned on 5 February 1945, her company numbering 66 officers and 755 enlisted, about half of which (27 officers, 350 men) had sailed for two weeks on USS Casablanca (CVE-55) in the Puget Sound area as part of a CVE Pre-Commissioning School, with the command and senior petty officers spent another five days at sea on sister USS Block Island.
USS Gilbert Islands from her commissioning booklet Feb 1945. Via Navsource
Her first skipper was Capt. Lester Kimme Rice, a regular Navy aviator (USNA ’24) with 20 years under his belt that included operations officer of PATWING7 (1941-42) and commanding the Barnegat-class seaplane tender USS Matagorda (AVP 22) during the worst days (1942-43) of the Battle of the Atlantic.
After commissioning, our new carrier spent a week in Tacoma fitting out, then another week steaming around assorted Naval bases in the Puget Sound area, taking on supplies, ammunition, aviation ordnance, and getting depermed and degaussed. Setting out of San Diego on 20 February– with a stop at San Francisco– she arrived there on the 27th.
Now we need an air group.
WWII Marine Carrier Groups
Without getting too far into the weeds here, Gen. Alexander Vandegrift, Commandant of the Marine Corps, successfully campaigned during discussions with the CNO during an August 1944 conference at Pearl Harbor, to get Marine aircraft squadrons on carriers– ideally on ships dedicated to air support over Marine beachheads.
On 21 October 1944, under Order No. 89-44, Marine Carrier Groups, Aircraft, Fleet Marine Force, Pacific (FMFPac) was established as a tactical command at MCAS Santa Barbara under Col. Albert D. Cooley.
Originally formed as Marine Base Defense Aircraft Group 48 (MBDAG-48) at Santa Barbara and Marine Aircraft Group 51 (MAG-51) at Mojave, by early November, they had 406 officers and 2,743 enlisted assigned, along with a motley collection of 63 aircraft in nine types.
Of note, the four new Corsair squadrons of MAG-51 (VMF-511, 512, 513, and 514) had previously been training on the East Coast as part of Project Danny for Crossbow strikes on German V-1/V-2 rocket launching sites in Europe using massive underwing 10.5-foot “Tiny Tim” rockets, a mission scrubbed before the Devils got a chance to clock in.
While about 15 percent of the Marine aviators in the command had combat experience in the Pacific, few had ever landed on a carrier, so the ramp-up had to be fast.
This led to four initial Marine Air Groups (eight planned), each ideally with an 18-plane fighter squadron and a 12-aircraft torpedo bomber squadron, designed for operation from escort carriers:
By the end of December– just 75 days after founding– the Marine Carrier Groups had tallied 17,218 hours across 13,257 flights in the desert, rising and landing in approximated carrier flight deck outlines, and the number of aircraft on hand rose over 150, concentrating on Corsairs and Avengers while personnel climbed over 3,700.
The first flattop to pick up a Marine Air Group (MCVG-1) was Block Island on 3 February 1945, which shipped out with a mix of 12 TBMs, 10 F4Us, 8 F6F Hellcat night fighters, and 2 F6F planes.
The second group would go tothe Gilbert Islands. Accordingly, Lt.Col. William R. Campbell’s MCVG-2 — made up of VMF(CVS)-512 with 13 FG-1Ds and five F4U-1Ds, VMTB(CVS)-143 with 10 TBM-3s and two TBM-3Es, and CASD-2 with two F6F-5P photo recon Hellcats– would embark on our carrier on 6 March at San Diego. The group would remain aboard through the end of the war except for brief periods ashore while the carrier was in shipyard maintenance.
The Rocket Raiders of VMTB(CVS)-143, had been formed in September 1942 and logged five major combat tours, primarily from Henderson Field on Guadalcanal, before stateside carrier conversion training. VMF(CVS)-512, meanwhile, was newer, only formed in February 1944, and had never been overseas.
Four other “Marine” carriers that made it into service would be:
USS Vella Gulf (CVE-111), MCVG-3: VMF(CVS)-513, VMTB(CVS)-234, and CASD-3
USS Cape Gloucester (CVE-109), MCVG-4: VMF(CVS)-351, VMTB(CVS)-132, and CASD-4
USS Salerno Bay (CVE-110) MCVG-5: VMF(CVS)-514, VMTB(CVS)-144, and CASD-5
USS Puget Sound (CVE-113), MCVG-6: VMF(CVS)-321, VMTB(CVS)-454, and CASD-6
Compare this to the 16 Navy Escort Carrier Air Groups (CVEGs) and 90 Escort Scouting Squadrons (VGS)/Composite Squadrons (VCs) that served on the Navy’s 70 other “baby flat-tops.”
War!
Following workups off California and Hawaii, on 25 May, the Gilbert Islands arrived off Okinawa as part of the Fifth Fleet and, joining Task Unit (TU) 52.1.1, sent up her first CAP and close air support strikes against Japanese targets.
Take a look at this hectic one-day air report, with MCVG-2 just going ham on targets of opportunity:
It was during these operations that VMF-512’s Capt. Thomas Liggett bagged a twin-engine Mitsubishi Ki. 46 Dinah reconnaissance plane– the only aerial victory for MAG Two and Gilbert Islands during the war.
The carrier also lost her first pilot around this time.
On 1 June, Gilbert Islands joined her sister Marine carrier Block Island in TU 32.1.3 under Third Fleet control, then got busy neutralizing enemy installations in the Sakishima Gunto area via liberal application of rockets, bombs, and .50 caliber rounds.
Goodyear FG 1D Corsair VMF-512 TBM Avengers FM Wildcats aboard 2nd Jun 1945
As detailed by her War History, just take a look at this 10-day period (including a three-day gap to run to Kerama Retto for more ordnance), keeping in mind that this was carried out by a group of just ~30 aircraft:
Sent to San Pedro Bay, Leyte, on 16 June for 10 days of rest, replenishment, and repairs, Gilbert Islands was then dispatched south as part of TG 78.4 along with Block Island to cover the landings of Australian and Free Dutch forces during Operation Oboe II at Balikpapan.
With the path cleared by UDT-18, 7th Division Australian troops come ashore from landing craft during a landing near Balikpapan oil fields in Borneo. Some 33,000-strong combined Australian and Royal Netherlands Indies amphibious forces (the largest ever amphibious assault by Australian forces)
It ended up being somewhat anti-climactic, although she did lose one of her F6F drivers, 1LT James Benjamin Crawford, to Japanese AAA fire.
Sent back to San Pedro Bay after the 4th of July– making sure to dip her pollywogs along the way– she spent the rest of the month there, briefly serving as the flag of Carrier Division 27.
During operations in the PI, her plane guard, the “Green Dragon” USS Lee Fox (APD-45),suffered a bow bender while transferring the ditched Capt. Leggett was back aboard on the morning of 25 July 1945.
Fox on Gilbert Islands. The crack-up carried away the carrier’s starboard boat boom and caused superficial damage, with no injuries on either ship.
Sailing to Ulithi Atoll at the end of July in company with the escort carrier USS Chenango, she attached to TG. 30.8, a third fleet service squadron, to provide them with air cover. It is with this group that on 10-15 August, Capt. Rice, as senior officer afloat, was given command of half the group, TU 30.8.2– the oilers USS Kankakee, Cahaba, Neosho, and Cache; the destroyer USS Wilkes and the escorts USS Willmart, Leray Wilson, Lyman, and William C. Miller; and four tugs, to get on the run from an approaching typhoon.
F4U-1D Corsair VMF-512 White 24 behind typhoon barrier, USS Gilbert Islands
USS Gilbert Islands (CVE-107) in rough seas, circa 1945 NNAM 1996.488.253.1578
Vectoring in a big box, heading north at first, then southeasterly, then south and west, “The maneuver was successful, no heavy weather was encountered, and no damage was sustained by any of the vessels.”
By the time the storm was gone, the war was over, and the message that Japan had surrendered unconditionally was received at 0850 on 15 August 1945.
She then performed occupational duty. Sent to Okinawa with Carrier Division 27, she once again had to go to sea to dodge an incoming typhoon.
Carrier Division 27 successfully weathering China Sea Typhoon. Taken by USS Salerno Bay (CVE 110). Ships shown are: USS Block Island (CVE 106); USS Siboney (CVE 112) and USS Gilbert Island (CVE 107). 80-G-354604
Carrier Division 27 successfully weathering China Sea Typhoon. Taken by USS Salerno Bay (CVE 110). The ships shown are: the USS Block Island (CVE 106) and USS Gilbert Island (CVE 107). Photographed October 1945. 80-G-354600
CarDiv27, Gilbert Islands included, then appeared off Japanese-occupied Formosa on 15 October to have their planes as a “show of force” over the island and covering the landings of the Chinese KMT 70th Army at Kiirun on 16-17 October. “Observation over Formosa indicated enemy activity was non-existent.” She nonetheless spent a week off the island until the 20th, firing over 18,000 rounds of 20mm and 40mm ammunition in AAA drills while her planes expended 16 bombs and 32 5-inch rockets.
Dispatched to Saipan, she arrived there on the 23rd, then, with stops at Pearl Harbor and San Diego along the way, arrived at Norfolk on 7 February 1946. Her war was over, and the Marine Carrier Groups disbanded. She would decommission on 21 May and then would be mothballed, first in Norfolk and then in Philadelphia.
Of her sisters, all survived the war, and 15 of 18 (excepting Block Island, Sicily, and Mindoro) were all laid up following the conflict.
In the course of her career during World War II, Gilbert Islands received three battle stars.
Cold War recall
With the Korean War kicking off in June 1950, following a round of inspection among the mothballed CVEs, Gilbert Islands were selected and recommissioned on 7 September 1951 at Philadelphia. She was not alone, as nine of her sisters were also reactivated.
Following six months of overhaul at Boston Naval Yard while her new crew was pieced together, her first assignment was to head back to the Pacific and, carrying a jam-packed load of USAF F-86E Sabre fighters to Yokoyama from 8 August to 22 October 1952, she arrived back with the Atlantic Fleet, based at NS Quonset Point, and would operate the big AF-2 Guardian ASW aircraft.
AF Guardian on the deck of USS Gilbert Island (CVE-107) during ASW near Rhode Island, 1953-1954
Tasked with ASW carrier training duties, she carried VS-24’s AF-2Ws and AF-2Ss along with a flight of HRS-3s from HS-3 in January 1953, followed by four other short cruises with VS-31 (April-May 1953), VS-22 (June-July 1953), VS-39 (August 1953), and VS-36 (October-November 1953).
USS Gilbert Islands (CVE-107) moored off New York City on 10 November 1953, NH 106714
She would then get operational with VS-36 on orders for a short (10-week) Sixth Fleet deployment to the Med that ran from 5 January to 12 March 1954.
USS Gilbert Islands (CVE-107) and USS Hailey (DD-556) were underway at sea in 1954, likely during Sixth Fleet operations
USS Gilbert Islands (CVE-107) is underway at sea. Gilbert Islands, with assigned Air Anti-Submarine Squadron 36 (VS-36) and Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron 3 (HS-3), was deployed to the Mediterranean Sea from 5 January to 11 March 1954.
Then, as noted by DANFS, “She became the first of her class to have jets make touch-and-go landings on the flight deck while she had no way on, a dangerous experiment successfully conducted on 9 June 1954.”
Her service as a carrier was completed after two wars. Gilbert Islands left Rhode Island on 25 June for Boston and decommissioned there on 15 January 1955. At the time, just five of her sisters were still on active duty, and all would join her in mothballs by May 1957.
While laid up a second time, she was reclassified as Cargo Ship and Aircraft Ferry (AKV)-39 on 7 May 1959, and her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register in June 1961. She would surely have been scrapped, the fate all 18 of her sisters met between 1960 and 1971.
But the Navy had one more mission for the old girl.
Conversion
Ex-Gibert Islands was towed to Brooklyn Navy Yard in August 1962 down the river from her berth with Reserve Group Bayonne for conversion, reclassified as a Major Communications Relay Ship (AGMR-1) on 1 June 1963.
This saw all her old aircraft handling gear removed, as was the rest of her WWII-era armament, replaced by four 3″/50 twin Mk 33s on sponsons. Her flight deck saw a hurricane bow added.
Then came the real changes– turning her topside into a floating antenna farm.
The flight deck was converted to an antenna array with two directional and two omnidirectional antennas. The aircraft hangar bay was converted into communication spaces although one aircraft elevator was retained to allow servicing of equipment and boat storage. In the communication spaces were installed 24 radio transmitters with low through ultra-high frequencies. To provide the necessary cooling of equipment in the communications spaces, three 120-ton air conditioning units were installed with 130 tons dedicated for the communications spaces. The remaining air conditioning tonnage was routed to the other interior spaces of the ship.
She was renamed USS Annapolis, the third warship on the NVR to carry the name after a SpanAm-era gunboat (PG-10) that remained in service until 1940 and a Tacoma-class frigate (PF-15) that remained in service until 1946. Fittingly, her new motto became “Vox Maris” (Voice of the Sea).
Commissioned at Brooklyn Navy Yard on 7 March 1964– capping 19 months of conversion– her skipper would be Capt. John Joseph Rowan (USNA 1942).
Annapolis commissioning, March 7, 1964, Brooklyn Navy Yard from her cruise book
Those attending the commissioning service included RADM Bernard Roeder, Director of Naval Communications, and the Mayor of Annapolis, Maryland, Joseph H. Griscom. The latter presented the ship with an ornate silver service.
AGMR-1 Annapolis Inclining Experiment. Note she has four twin 3″/50 radar-guided rapid-fire mounts installed in place of her old 40mm/20mm fittings. NARA 19nn-b1543-0004
USS Annapolis (AGMR-1) Underway at slow speed in New York Harbor, 12 June 1964, soon after completing conversion from USS Gilbert Islands (AKV-39, originally CVE-107). Staten Island ferryboats are in the left and center backgrounds. NH 106715
Following Operation Steel Pike, an 80-ship U.S.-Spanish exercise held in October 1964, Annapolis soon transferred to (officially) Long Beach the long way, via the Suez Canal and the Indian Ocean, and by September 1965 was off Vietnam.
She would spend the lion’s share of the next 48 months there, conducting relay operations on 19 communications patrols, averaging 270 days at sea per year. By December 1968, she had sent more than 1.5 million messages and steamed 150,000 miles as Annapolis.
She would typically intersperse her ~55-day patrols with short port calls around the West Pac, with individual crewmembers rotating out for home every 12-14 months.
As described by AGMR-1.com:
Annapolis, while on station off the coast of Vietnam did drop anchor every 10–15 days for a few hours outside Cam Ranh Bay to receive mail and transfer priority crew. During those brief stops, Navy swift boats would come alongside to receive much appreciated ice cream in 3-gallon containers that were prepared by the ships cooks the night before.
In a key event in Naval history, on 18 August 1966, while in Subic Bay, she used Syncom 3, the first geostationary communication satellite, to transmit the first documented ship-to-shore satellite radio message, a dispatch from Yankee Station off Vietnam back to Pacific Fleet Headquarters at Pearl.
The USS Annapolis
The USS Annapolis at Subic Bay, September 5, 1967, the former Gilbert Islands
Returning to Philadelphia on 1 October 1969 via Portuguese Angola, the Cape of Good Hope, Dakar, and Lisbon– including two months of operations with Sixth Fleet out of Naples, Annapolis decommissioned for a third and final time on 20 December 1969.
She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 15 October 1976 and sold for scrap to the Union Minerals & Alloys Corp. on 19 December 1979.
Annapolis received a Meritorious Unit Commendation and eight battle stars for her service in the Vietnam War.
She was the last of her class in operation, and her relay role was key in the development of the Blue Ridge class LCC command ships (which entered service in 1970-71, effectively replacing her) and the later big deck LHA and LHD phibs.
Epilogue
Little remains of our subject. I cannot find where her bell endures, or a monument or marker exists to her.
The jeep carrier’s only WWII skipper, Les Rice, would continue to serve into the 1950s– earning the Legion of Merit as commander of the Essex-class fleet carrier USS Valley Forge (CV-45) during Korea– and lecture on the role of aircraft in ASW warfare, retiring from the Navy in 1958 as a rear admiral in the post of Commander Naval Air Bases First Naval District.
Rice as skipper of the Gilbert Islands, 1944. His first tour of duty was on the battleship USS Idaho in 1924. He capped a 34-year career following Korea.
Meanwhile, Gilbert Islands has Adam’s Planes, which have been dedicated to the ship and hersquadrons.
The Navy hasn’t reused the name “Gilbert Islands” for a second warship, although two USS Tarawas (CV-40 and LHA-1) and a USS Makin Island (LHD-8) were named after battles that occurred during the Gilberts campaign.
However, there has been a fourth USS Annapolis (SSN-760), a Los Angeles-class submarine commissioned in 1992 and currently part of the Guam-based SubRon15, although she is slated to decommission in FY27.
Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive
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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Official wartime caption: “Japanese balloon, Fu-Go [Fugu, 河豚; 鰒; フグ]. A completed Japanese balloon is inflated for laboratory tests at a California base. It was recovered at Alturas, California, January 10, 1945. Ineffective as it is, however, the Japanese balloon is an ingenious device. The balloon itself at a maximum altitude is a true sphere, 100 feet in circumference. It is made of five layers of mulberry paper, each about as thick as cigarette paper, but strong and water-repellant when cemented together. It is filled with hydrogen. Suspended like a chandelier below the envelope by 19 shroud lines, each 45 feet long, is a device for automatic control of altitude. The bomb load is attached to the ‘chandelier’ with an automatic release mechanism. The balloon is further equipped with automatic demolition blocks which are supposed to destroy it in the air. On many of the balloons recovered the self-destroying device failed to function.”
Print received August 1945 from Publications Sec., AC/AS, Intelligence. Used in the August 1945 issue of “Impact.” Copied August 27, 1945. U.S. Army Air Corps (Air Force) photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 342-FH-3B23422
It is estimated that an amazing 9,300 Fu-Go balloons were launched from Japan against the U.S. and Canada from Coastal Honshu Island between November 1944 and April 1945.
While only 285 were documented as reaching North America, as many as 1,000 may have made it this far, meaning their wreckage is likely sprinkled over remote forests and lakes, waiting.
Surely this is something China would never consider doing again, right?
Some 81 years ago this month, January 1954, Dien Bien Phu, French Indochina, members of the newly-formed 5e BPVN (5e bataillon de parachutistes vietnamiens) of Groupe d’Opération Nord-Ouest (GONO), operate their American-made M2 60mm mortar.
You have to love the mix of TAP 47/52 lizard camo jackets and American M1 helmets as well. Réf. : NVN 54-9 R61, Daniel Camus/ECPAD/Défense
Based, ironically, on the French Brandt 60mm Mortier Modèle 1935 and licensed by that company for production in America, the U.S. M2 mortar was a hit with light infantry of all strokes for the last half of the 20th Century. Weighing just 42 pounds all-up (which is light for a mortar), a five-man crew (two in a pinch) could land 3-pound shells out to a mile away for as long as the ammo held out, even topping 30 rounds per minute if the rounds are staged and ready.
The French paras loved it in Vietnam.
Légionnaire du 2e bataillon étranger parachutiste (2e BEP) Roger Chapel, working a 60mm M2 mortar in Indochina, 10 May 1952. Note the crowd-pleasing belt of M49A2/3 HE mortar bombs around his waist– some 18 pounds of shells– and the M4 Collimator sight on the left of the mortar. Réf. TONK 52-123 R12, Jean Péraud/ECPAD/Défense
The French developed a light mortar shell vest with segmented front and back canvas pockets to carry 8 rounds of 60mm mortar ammunition (24 pounds of shells) for use in Indochina and later Algeria. These could be used to carry extra machine gun magazines too like 16 Bren .303/MAC 24 7.5mm magazines, a cool 16 Ba mươi ba “333” beer cans, or 8 magnum-sized ‘Foster’s lager’ beers!
The M2 was replaced in U.S. service by the new and improved (47 pounds!) M224 60mm company mortar after 1978, but you can be sure that thousands old the old “Yankee Brandts” still linger on in arsenals across the Third World.
Saved from a planned gutting by the Falklands operation, the capability was preserved– and even enhanced– for a 35-year run that included very successful over-the-beach operations in 2000’s Operation Palliser in Sierra Leone and then during Operation Telic during the 2003 Iraq War– where the latter saw a full brigade-sized amphibious assault on the strategically key Al-Faw peninsula in south-east Iraq.
Royal Marine Commandoes from 42 Commando hit MAMYOKO BEACH from Sea King helicopters of 846 Naval Air Squadron, in a demonstration of amphibious power during Operation Silkman in Freetown, Sierra Leone 13 Nov 2000. MOD image by Royal Navy PO Jim Gibson (Click to big up)
By the late 1990s, the RNs phibs included 13 dedicated new vessels: a 21,000-ton LPH (HMS Ocean), two 20,000-ton LPDs– HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark, four 16,000-ton Bay-class landing ships of the civilian-manned Royal Fleet Auxiliary, and six 23,000-ton Point-class roll-on/roll-off merchant sealift ships permanently contracted to the MoD for use as needed. Basic math puts this at 263,000 tons of vessels dedicated to the ‘phib role, with about a quarter of that being RN manned and controlled.
However, this had been whittled away with the still-young HMS Ocean sold to Brazil– where she serves as that fleet’s proud flagship– and one of the four Bays (RFA Largs Bay) sold to Australia. Two of the Point-class RO/ROs have all been released from contract (while gratefully the other four have recently been retained on a new contract running until 2031).
Now, Maria Eagle, Minister of State for Defence, recently stated:
“All of the remaining crew from HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark have been reassigned: either to other platforms, to training courses, or into other positions supporting the Royal Navy’s highest priority outputs.”
Britain’s flagship HMS Albion (L-14), seen in the Java Sea, 2018. With a well deck capable of holding four LCU MK10s and another four LCVP MK5s can be held in davits, she can land 620 Marines on the beach in a single lift. Meanwhile, she can also accommodate three CH-47 Chinooks on her heli deck.
For reference, Albion and Bulwark only entered the RN in 2003 and 2004, respectively and the latter has been in an extended major refit to add 15 years of life to her! Both ships have been effectively in reserve since 2011, swapping places in reserve/high readiness conditions over that time, meaning both are low-milage vessels. The plan had been to retain them until at least the mid-2030s, but the Labor government has scrapped that idea.
The official disposal of Albion and Bulwark cuts the two most capable British “gators” from the fleet inventory, slashing 40,000 tons of sealift in the process. Coupled with the sale of HMS Ocean and RFA Largs Bay, and the release of MV Longstone and Beachy Head from the contract, the Royal Navy only has three Bays (two of which are laid up!) and four Points left on tap, representing 140,000 tons of shipping.
If the red button gets mashed in 2025, it looks like only one dedicated amphibious warship, the humble RFA Lyme Bay (L3007), would be able to take the call. Meanwhile, the Royal Marines have been reduced to just two deployable six-company battalion-sized units: 40 Cdo and 42 Cdo.
RFA Lyme Bay in the Mediterranean as she makes her way back to the UK after training with the Italian Navy, in November 2020. LPhot Barry Swainsbury MOD 45167525
Designed for 356 embarked Royal Marines, she can double that for short, uncomfortable, stints. Her tiny well deck can hold either a single LCU or two LCVPs while her heli deck (without hangar) can only support a limited amount of vertical lift. Her self-defense armament is limited to a pair of 20mm CIWS and a few light guns.
Besides the light battalion landed on the beach in five or six (hopefully unopposed) lifts by Lyme Bay’s sole LCU, anything else would have to be flown in by fixed-wing RAF assets to marry up with equipment brought in sometime later by the Point class RO/ROs to a seized local port. This can be alleviated a bit by the use of Mexifloat connectors– provided of course that the beach can handle the load and the deep water curve is close enough to the surfline to accommodate Lyme Bay’s 19-foot draft without grounding.
Churchill wept.
Since you came this far, enjoy this recent interview with retired MG Julian Thompson, CB, OBE, who got the call to take 3 Commando to the Falklands in 1982– back when the RN had a proper amphibious force.
