How much you want to bet that 50 of these have been sold on the underground militaria market this week…
Hauptsturmführer Michael Wittmann, killed at age 30 between the towns of Cintheaux and St. Aignan de Cramesnil in France, was better known as “The Black Baron” for his skill with a Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger Ausf. E. He picked up the Knights Cross for his confirmed 138 tank kills in WWII but was himself smoked by a British-manned Sherman Firefly of the 1st Northamptonshire Yeomanry, (or maybe by a Canadian Firefly of the Sherbrooke Fusiliers) just after D-Day.
HMS M.33 coastal bombardment vessel from Gallipoli campaign. Credit National Museum of the Royal Navy NMRN. Click to big up
M33 Wheel with Victory and Mary Rose in view
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If you are in England and have a chance, swing by the HMS Victory and check out M33. This humble little monitor of 568 tons with a shallow draft allowing it to get close-in to shore and fire at targets on land, carried two powerful and oversize 6” guns, but was a basic metal box lacking in comforts. The 72 officers and men who sailed for the Gallipoli Campaign were crammed inside and away from home for over 3 years.
She then saw active service in Russia during the Allied Intervention in 1919, narrowly escaping staying there the rest of her life, then was brought back to England where she served the RN up until 1984 as a hulk and floating office space.
The National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN) and Hampshire County Council (HCC) have worked as partners to develop the £2.4m project to conserve, restore and interpret HMS M.33 With a grant of £1.8m from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) the ship will be made physically and intellectually open to all for the first time. The ship sits in No.1 Dock alongside HMS Victory in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, and uniquely visitors will start with a 20-foot descent into the bottom of the dock before stepping aboard.
Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121 (VMFA-121), based in Yuma, Arizona, is the first squadron in military history to become operational with an F-35 variant, following a five-day Operational Readiness Inspection, which concluded July 17.
“I am pleased to announce that VMFA-121 has achieved Initial Operational Capability in the F-35B, as defined by requirements outlined in the June 2014 Joint Report to Congressional Defense Committees,” said Gen. Joseph Dunford, Commandant of the Marine Corps. “VMFA-121 has ten aircraft in the Block 2B configuration with the requisite performance envelope and weapons clearances, to include the training, sustainment capabilities, and infrastructure to deploy to an austere site or a ship. It is capable of conducting Close Air Support, Offensive and Defensive Counter Air, Air Interdiction, Assault Support Escort and Armed Reconnaissance as part of a Marine Air Ground Task Force, or in support of the Joint Force.”
Dunford stated that he has his full confidence in the F-35B’s ability to support Marines in combat, predicated on years of concurrent developmental testing and operational flying.
“Prior to declaring IOC, we have conducted flight operations for seven weeks at sea aboard an L-Class carrier, participated in multiple large force exercises, and executed a recent operational evaluation which included multiple live ordnance sorties,” said Dunford. “The F-35B’s ability to conduct operations from expeditionary airstrips or sea-based carriers provides our Nation with its first 5th generation strike fighter, which will transform the way we fight and win.”
The U.S. Marine Corps has trained and qualified more than 50 Marine F-35B pilots and certified about 500 maintenance personnel to assume autonomous, organic-level maintenance support for the F-35B.
VMFA-121’s transition will be followed by Marine Attack Squadron 211 (VMA-211), an AV-8B squadron, which is scheduled to transition to the F-35B in fiscal year 2016. In 2018, VAM-311 will conduct its transition to the F-35B.
I just keep telling myself that when they introduced the F4U Corsair (which had its share of teething problems and was for several years considered unsafe for carrier operations), I’m sure there were some Navy and Marine pilots that would have preferred to keep their Brewster Buffaloes and F4F Wildcats.
Combat Gallery Sunday : The Martial Art of Richard Jack
Richard Jack, though born in Sunderland, England, in 1866, was Canada’s first official war artist.
In the late 19th Century he studied at a number of esteemed art schools including the York School of Art, the South Kensington Art School, the ARA, the Royal College of Art and the Académie Julian— almost all on academic scholarships for his submitted work.
Returning to London from the Julian, he became first a black and white illustrator for Cassells and other periodicals then switched to painting, winning silver medals for his work before the Great War.
The Passing of the Chieftain by Richard Jack, York Museums Trust. Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation
Pushing 50 when Word War I began and not having a military background, he still did his part and took to sketching soldiers passing through.
The Return to the Front Victoria Railway Station, by Richard Jack, 1916, via the York Museums, on display in Lincolnshire. Trust Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation
These were subsequently published and brought him the attention of the Canadian governor general’s office, who extended an offer in 1916 to commission Jack as the official war artist to cover Canadian exploits in the war to end all wars.
Heading to the Western Front as a Major, Canadian Forces, Jack took to his work in covering the heroic stand by the Canadians at Second Ypres for posterity. Unlike the British government commissions, which encouraged a modernist approach to war, the Canadians wanted Jack to produce recognizable ‘history’ paintings as realistic as possible– and he did, controversially including bodies of the broken and dying.
Though, naturally, not actually present at the fighting, Major Jack had carefully investigated and sketched the whole ground, and has spent some time with the units which took part in the engagement, collecting from officers and men all the details and facts needed for absolute accuracy. Some of the men who had been through the battle actually posed for the picture, whilst machine-guns and all manner of military accoutrements were temporarily placed at the artist’s disposal, whose studio assumed something of the appearance of a battlefield.
This time spent on the continent yielded two massive works, The 12-foot-by-20-foot canvases of The Second Battle of Ypres, 22 April to 25 May 1915, and The Taking of Vimy Ridge, Easter Monday, 1917.
The Second Battle of Ypres, 22 April to 25 May 1915
Official war artist Major Richard Jack poses by his painting. ‘The Second Battle of Ypres, 22 April to 25 May 1915’ depicting Canadian soldiers making a stand against a German assault He painted this enormous work of art, with the canvas measuring 371.5 x 589.0cm (12 x 20 foot), in his London studio, c.1917. Commissioned by the Canadian War Memorials Fund (CWMF), an organization established by Lord Beaverbrook to document Canada’s war effort. Sir Edmund Walker, who sat on the advisory board to the CWMF, felt that Jack captured the achievements of the Canadians during the battle, but felt the work would not resonate with Canadians, who, he felt, were “not likely to appreciate such realistic treatment of war.” He was wrong and Jack’s painting remains an iconic work from the First World War. (National Archives of Canada PA 4879)
The Taking of Vimy Ridge, Easter Monday 1917. The painting is a part of the Beaverbrook Collection of War Art at the Canadian War Art Museum in Ottawa, Ontario.
After the war, Jack, a civilian again, emigrated to Canada (why not, right?) and settled in the Montreal area. Jack became a renowned portrait artist, brushing depictions of royalty, statesmen and senior officers.
Lieutenant Colonel Lancelot Robson, CMG, DSO by Richard Jack, currently part of the collection of the Hartlepool Museums and Heritage Service. Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation. Robinson was commander of the Royal Artillery who responded to the raid on Hartlepool, commanding three BL 6 inch Mk VII naval guns mounted ashore against Hipper’s squadron
Muriel Elsie, née Hirst, (1895–1969), Lady Gamage painted 1950 by Richard Jack via St Johns Museum. Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation. Muriel Gamage was a prominent worker for public causes, and had served during WWI with the VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment), organizing the military hospitals during the war, and was appointed D.J.ST.J.(Dame of Justice of the Order of St John of Jerusalem), in recognition of her service, whose badge appears on her uniform
Jack was later inducted to Royal Society of British Artists and the Royal Institute of Painters before his death in 1952, aged 86.
He spent the latter part of his life paining landscapes in his adopted country.
Richard Jack landscape, from the York Trust. Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation
One of the most collectable Colt 38s around were produced during the Second World War on a special contract for the military and, true to their name, these guns often were used “somewhere behind enemy lines.”
Going back to the early 1900s, the Colt Police Positive and later the Official Police set the bar for medium-framed six-shot double-action revolvers with a swing out cylinder.
These guns, with barrels that ranged from 2 inches to 6 inches and in more than a half dozen calibers that ran from .22LR to .38 Special. As the name would imply, these guns were extremely popular with both uniformed police and security as well as G-men and T-men and the Coast Guard during Prohibition.
When World War II came, Colt garnered a contract for nearly 50,000 .38S&W caliber (.38/200) of their Official Police revolvers for the British military in 1940– while the U.S. was still on the sidelines.
Then came Pearl Harbor and the Colt wheelgun went to war for Uncle Sam.
Warship Wednesday, July 29, 2015, The saddest story of World War II
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Here we see the Portland-class heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis (CA-35) as she appeared before the war in New York. Tomorrow marks the 70th anniversary of her tragic passing, often cited as the worst disaster in U.S. Naval history. As she was torpedoed on the other side of the International Date Line, at the site of her wreck it is already that time.
We have covered this tragic vessel several times including the Svedi photo collection and a set of papers that we submitted to Navsource and the NHC on her 1936 Friendship cruise, so we’ll keep it short.
The two-ship class of “10,000-ton” heavy cruisers was sandwiched between the half-dozen 9,000-ton Northamptons built in the late 1920s and the seven more advanced New Orleans-class cruisers built in the late 1930s. As such, the twin Portlands were advanced for their time, carrying nearly a thousand tons more armor and 9x 8″/55 (20.3 cm) Mark 12 guns. They had weight and space available to accommodate a fleet admiral and staff if needed.
Indianapolis was laid down by New York Shipbuilding Corporation on 31 March 1930 and was the first warship to carry the name, commissioning 15 November 1932.
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Her prewar career was peaceful and she carried FDR on a trip to South America in 1936 and others.
Narrowly escaping Pearl Harbor by being at sea far to the southeast of Hawaii, she soon was earning battle stars the hard way in New Guinea, the Aleutians (where she pummeled the Japanese troopship Akagane Maru, sending her and her soldiers to the bottom of the cold North Pacific), Tarawa, Makin, Kwajalein, the Marianas, Palau, the Philippine Sea and onto the Home Islands.
View from off her starboard bow, at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, following overhaul, 1 May 1943. White outlines mark recent alterations to the ship. Note new forward superstructure, 8″/55 triple gun turrets, starboard anchor, anchor gear on the forecastle, and paravane downrigging chains at the extreme bow. USS Minneapolis (CA-36) is in the background, stripped for overhaul. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.
For a good bit of that time, she served as the 5th Fleet flagship of Vice Admiral Raymond A. Spruance.
Admirals Spruance, Mitscher, Nimitz, and Lee aboard USS Indianapolis, Feb 1945
LVTs moving in during the invasion of Saipan, 15 June 1944. Heavy cruiser firing in the background is USS Indianapolis
At Okinawa, she spent a week solid smacking around Japanese shore positions with her big 8 inchers while dodging kamikazes. On 31 March 1945, she was unlucky enough to be severely damaged by one of these flying meatballs and, losing 9 men, set course for Mare Island Naval Yard in California for repairs.
Once patched back together, it turned out the War Department had a mission for her.
In San Francisco, she took aboard parts and 141-pounds of enriched uranium (about half of the world’s supply at the time) for the inefficient Little Boy atomic bomb, which would later be dropped on Hiroshima, producing about 15 kilotons of sunlight when she vaporized in August.
Racing the 6,000 miles from San Fran to Tinian island in just ten days (with a short stop in Hawaii), she arrived unescorted and delivered her payload on 26 July, which would go on to a history of its own only 11 days later.
However, Indy would no longer be afloat by the time Hiroshima’s mushroom cloud peaked.
This photo was taken on 27 July 1945, the day before she sailed from Guam to her doom, as documented by the ship’s photographer of USS Pandemus (ARL 18), on the back of the photo. This is probably the last photo taken of her. Caption on back of photo: “USS Indianapolis (CA 35) taken: 1530 27, July 1945, Apra Harbor, Guam, from USS Pandemus RL 18 as it passed heading for the sea. The picture was taken by Gus Buono”. U.S. Navy photo from the Collection of David Buell.
At 12:14 a.m. on July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis was torpedoed by I-58, a Japanese B3 type cruiser submarine in the Philippine Sea and sank in 12 minutes after sending off a distress call. The sub’s commander took her to be an Idaho-class battlewagon and unloaded six torpedoes in her direction, of which 2-3 hit.
Indianapolis was not equipped with sonar or hydrophones, or provided with a destroyer escort despite her captain’s request– the only case in which a capital ship was left unescorted so late in the war.
Of 1,196 men on board the stricken cruiser, approximately 300 went down with the ship. The remainder, about 900 men, were left floating in shark-infested waters sans lifeboats and supplies for the most part. By the time the dwindling survivors were spotted (by accident) four days later only 317 men were still alive.
Survivors of the sinking of the Indianapolis are taken to a hospital on Guam after their rescue in August 1945.
After the war her skipper, Captain Charles B. McVay III, was sent to the mast in a travesty of justice– the only U.S. captain of more than 350 to face trial for having his ship sunk by the enemy in the war. At the trial, the skipper of I-58, which had been captured and scuttled by the Navy in 1946, even testified that McVay was not at fault.
Although cleared by history, McVay later committed suicide. The Navy later adjusted his record, posthumously.
Indianapolis‘s sister ship, USS Portland (CA–33), was decommissioned in 1946 and languished on red lead row until she was scrapped in 1962 although she earned 16 battle stars, making her one of the most decorated ships in the U.S. fleet.
There are several monuments to the Indianapolis and her wreck was located in 2001.
Her bell, removed from the ship at Mare Island in 1945 to save weight, is preserved at the Heslar Naval Armory in Indianapolis.
There is also a good bit of maritime art to commemorate her.
Indianapolis by Michel Guyot
She is remembered by a vibrant USS Indianapolis organization, many books, a completed made for TV movie (which was horrible), and a new film with Nick Cage that is currently shooting.
Thirty-two men are still alive from the crew of the USS Indianapolis, including Richard Stephens, 89, who eagerly awaits the Cage film.
“I think it’s going to be a good movie,” said Stephens, who was 18 when he and the others received the command to abandon ship.
He visited the set in Mobile, Ala., earlier this month where the film is being shot on location using Mobile Bay and the USS Alabama museum as a backdrop. “I told (Cage) I didn’t like fictional movies, and they should be trying to show more respect, they should be using the facts. He said it’s going to be pretty true to facts.”
Specs:
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Displacement: 9,800 long tons (10,000 t)
Length: 610 ft. (190 m)
Beam: 66 ft. (20 m)
Draft: 17 ft. 4 in (5.28 m)
Propulsion: 8 × White-Foster boilers, single reduction geared turbines, 107,000 shp (80,000 kW)
Speed: 32.7 kn (37.6 mph; 60.6 km/h)
Complement: 629 officers and enlisted (peace), 1,269 officers and men (wartime as flag)
Armament: 9 × 8 in (200 mm)/55 cal guns (3×3)
8 × 5 in (130 mm)/25 cal AA guns
8 × .50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns
Aircraft carried: 2-5 OS2U Kingfisher floatplanes
If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO)
The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.
Nearing their 50th Anniversary, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.
You may remember a few months back when the Swedish coastal artillery and naval forces went ape shit on a possible non-NATO (read= Russki) midget sub in their territorial waters– and reportedly dropped a good number of ASW weapons on active contacts. Well, it seems like they have found a 20m (66 foot) long 3m (10 foot) abeam submarine in their waters with Cyrillic letters on its hull.
Note the groovy Steampunk hatch
As reported by The Express, a Swedish newspaper, the submarine is just under two miles off the coast of Sweden, although Ocean X, the team that discovered it, are not disclosing its exact location.
It was discovered last week, and the Swedish armed forces confirmed to the paper that the images of the craft are currently being analyzed.
Electric Boat built the Fulton (renamed the Som/Catfish) in the U.S. then disassembled her in 1904 and shipped the craft to Russia
They feel it could be the old Tsarist Navy’s Som, the 66-foot long, 11-foot abeam craft built originally as the private submarine Fulton by the Electric Boat Company in 1901 and sold to the Tsar during the Russo-Japanese war.
Som at dock. Note the Cyrillic letters on her hull (big up)
Som ensnared in fishing nets, DOH! Note the Cyrillic on the hull (Click to big up)
The humble Som was lost in the Baltic in 1916 but her grave has been lost to history.
Either way, its going to be interesting to find out just which one it is.
A 3rd Marine Regiment color guard takes its place, July 25, 2015, during a repatriation ceremony in Tarawa, Kiribati. The ceremony honored the remains of approximately 36 Marines who fought and died during the Battle of Tarawa during World War II, and were loaded onto a C-130J Hercules aircraft to be transported back home to the United States. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Matthew J. Bragg)
The 3rd Marine Regiment took custody of 36 flag-draped caskets Saturday in Tarawa and flew them home to Hawaii via a Marine KC-130J where the remains will be identified (hopefully) and interred with full military honors.
Among the returned is believed to be the final earthly remains of 1st Lt. Alexander Bonnyman, Jr., who was one of four Medal of Honor recipients for his actions on Tarawa, and the only one whose remains have been unaccounted for.
Portrait of Soviet Guards Sgt. Alexey G. Frolchenko, late of the 325th “Dvina” Rifle Division, carrying his PPSh-41 submachine gun. I say late because the 325th, formed in August 1941, had been largely bled white by the Spring of 1943 and, merging with two similarly decimated brigades, was fleshed out to become the newly reformed 90th Guards Rifle Division just before Kursk (and survived until disbanded in 2001 as the 90th Guards Vitebsko-Novgorodskaya twice Red Banner Tank Division).
As for Frolchenko, he was awarded the Order of the Red Star for bravery at the Battle of Kursk while leading a scout detachment. Receiving a battlefield promotion to Lieutenant, Alexey finished the war as a Captain leading a company in East Prussia and died in his sleep at age 62 in 1967.
(Image taken by Anatoly Arkhipov near Belgorod, Belgorod Oblast, Russia, Soviet Union. August 1943.)
The Hunter Corps (Danish: Jægerkorpset) is an elite, special forces unit of the Royal Danish Army that has deployed extensively in teh past decade to support NATO’s war on terror missions. The below is an excerpt from Get Jaeger: At War with Denmark’s Elite Special Forces
I do not look like an Afghan—never have, never will. My heavy build, broad jaw, and Scandinavian facial features are far removed from the typical Afghan’s narrow face and long, crooked nose. But I’d dyed my beard and eyebrows almost black, and covered my face and hands in brown skin cream. I wore a lungee, a traditional Afghan turban, on my head and the equally traditional salwar kameez set, which consisted of a khaki tunic and a baggy pair of trousers.
Under the tunic, I was kitted out with a bulletproof vest, a belt carrying a holstered 9mm H&K USP pistol, two extra magazines, a Gerber jack knife, and a radio connected to a discreet, skin-colored, molded ear piece. The Lowa desert boots I wore were the only thing visible that could reveal me as a soldier. But if something went wrong, I needed to be able to stand firmly.
After a few years away, I was back in Afghanistan. This country just wouldn’t loosen its grip on me. I was in one of the larger cities in the central part of the country with five other Jaegers, and had found myself in the most anonymous and self-effacing role of my career. The assignment was top secret. We were operating undercover amongst the local population.
No uniform. No visible weapons. No military vehicles.
With me in the car on this trip was Mikkel, my old friend from the reconnaissance operation in the remote Afghan mountains. We were in disguise and working, as always, at night—while the city slept. In daylight, we would be exposed immediately. But at night, driving an old Toyota with dirty windows in poor street lighting, our chances of evading detection increased dramatically. We adorned the car’s interior with local gadgets and left it unwashed for months, making it merge seamlessly with the environment.
The car’s ramshackle appearance belied its perfect mechanical state. Engine, gearbox, shock absorbers, brakes, and tires were all relatively new. We also pumped fluid into the tires, enabling the car to continue for up to 13 miles with a puncture.
Our undercover status meant we could only use weapons if we were under extreme duress. Still, should the worst possible scenario eventuate, we would certainly put up a decent fight despite our sparse setup.
Our C8 carbines—close-quarter battle (CQB) versions with shortened barrels—were ready for use, hidden under a dark piece of cloth between the front seats of our car. I had a backup gun in a holster between the seats. Six magazines, each containing 28 cartridges, were attached to the door and discreetly covered by cloth. A number of hand and smoke grenades were hidden under the seats. Our snatch-packs, containing extra ammunition, NVGs, a satellite phone, batteries, $500 in cash, water, and an emergency food ration, were also hidden under the seat. Should we be forced to leave the car, it would be absolutely vital that we bring our supplies with us.
