Delayed twice due to technical issues and COVID shutdowns (and a dash of corruption), the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) of China’s first Type 003 carrier was christened Fujian (CV 18) at the Jiangnan shipyard in Shanghai on Friday.
Though China’s third aircraft carrier, she is the largest and the first in the world–other than the Ford-class supercarriers in the U.S.– to be equipped with electromagnetic (EMALS) catapult technology (give you three guesses where the tech packages came from for that), allowing her to operate larger and more capable aircraft.
In short, she is the SMS Nassau to HMS Dreadnought. or HMS Warrior to the French ironclad Gloire in terms of naval history.
Fujian could be commissioned as early as 2024, although, with her new and untried EMALS system, it may be a decade or more before she is practically deemed combat-ready. For reference, Ford was delivered to the U.S. Navy on 31 May 2017 and is only slated to go for her first limited deployment– a “service-retained early employment”– later this fall.
Named after mainland China’s southeastern coastal province, Fujian has been under construction since 2015. Using an integrated electric propulsion (IEP) powerplant rather than a nuclear plant like the USN, she is estimated to have an overall length of 1,050 feet at the flight deck, putting her only about 50 feet shorter than Ford/Nimitz-class aircraft carriers.
She is also thought to be as much as 30,000 tons heavier than China’s existing 1,000-foot Type 001/002 (modified Russian Kuznetsov-class) STOBAR ski-jump carriers Shandong (CV 17) and Liaoning (CV 16) that they have tinkering around with for the past 25 years.
Chinese carrier family. Note the difference between Fujian (CV18) at the bottom in terms of beam and flight deck size/angle, compared to the slimmer bow-on shots of the existing ski-jump Shandong (CV 17) and Liaoning (CV 16)
When completed in the next few years, Fujian will put the PLAN in the same elite club of CATOBAR operators as the Americans and French, with the latter using a modified U.S. Navy C-13 steam catapult system on their sole 45,000-ton carrier Charles de Gaulle (also the only other nuclear-powered carrier in service outside of the USN). However, another new member of the club is just over the horizon– the Indian Navy’s 65,000-ton Vikrant-class INS Vishal is slated to use a modified American-supplied EMALS system in a CATOBAR format when (if) she becomes operational in the 2030s.
Captain John Everitt “Jack” Frost, age 22, climbs into a Hawker Hurricane Mk. II of No. 3 Squadron South African Air Force at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 9 June 1941 after rejoining his unit as “A” Flight commander following an attack of appendicitis. By the time this image was captured, he already had four Fiat CR.42 fighters of the Regia Aeronautica Italiana to his credit, for which he earned the Distinguished Flying Cross. Note the “Semper Pugnans” (Always Fighting) boxing wasp insignia on the cowling of his fighter, and its closely arranged port wing quartet of .303 Brownings.
Frost was the most successful fighter pilot in the SAAF. Having joined up in 1936, after a stint as an instructor he was posted to No. 1 Squadron SAAF in 1939 before making his way to the newly formed No. 3 Squadron the next year for combat in East Africa.
Soon after this image was snapped, he was given command of No. 5 Squadron SAAF, flying P-40 Kittyhawks. Earning at least 16 confirmed victories in his short career, he was killed 80 years ago today while escorting bombers over the El Adem area on 16 June 1942.
On 16 June, whilst escorting Douglas Bostons, Frost and other P-40 pilots encountered Bf 109s from Jagdgeschwader 27 near Bir Hakeim, Egypt. Rod Hojem, one of the South African pilots involved in this combat commented:
“There was one hell of a dogfight, and after it was over I can clearly remember Jack calling up the squadron on the R/T, he said “Form up chaps I am heading North”, and that was the last we heard of him.”
Frost’s aircraft and remains have never been found, and his fate remains unclear. Some sources suggest that Frost fell victim to one of the most prominent German aces, Hans-Joachim Marseille scored six of his 158 victories that same day.
Ideal Conceal hit the scenes early in 2016 with its two-round capacity .380 pistol that folded up to look like a smartphone and a tagline that read, “From soccer moms to professionals of every type, this gun allows you the option of not being a victim.”
Drawing flak from anti-gun types including Chuck Schumer in record time – even before the guns were shipping– Ideal Conceal’s founder, Kirk Kjellberg, kept plugging away and by 2018 the little gun was in low-rate production.
I caught up with the Ideal Conceal crew at the 2018 SHOT Show in Las Vegas – their first time exhibiting at the industry trade show – where they had some mock-ups on hand to give a feel for the gun, then with an MSRP of $500.
Since then, the guns have increasingly filtered out to the market.
However, in recent days, all the items on the company’s site have been listed as “out of stock” and Kjellberg confirmed to me that a mix of component issues and cash flow problems has spelled the end of the road for the company, leading him to refund orders and close shop.
Always sad when an innovative product in the industry runs out of gas.
See: The Hudson Firearms Company’s H9.
For the record, this was not a factory option from Hudson (Photos: Chris Eger)
Above we see a tow line to the British Town-class light cruiser HMS Liverpool (C11) during Operation Harpoon, one of the Allied convoys desperately raced in a pincer movement to supply besieged Malta in the Axis-dominated central Mediterranean, now some 80 years ago this week. While the damage to Liverpool, a cruiser that is shown listing and billowing black smoke, looks bad, she had already toughed out worse during the war and would come back to serve again.
In the mid-1930s, the British didn’t have a shortage of cruisers, as for generations they had kept large numbers of the type around to police their global Empire and sea lanes in the event of war. The thing is, in a “modern problems require modern solutions” situation was the appearance of very large “light” cruisers (under 10,000 tons, guns smaller than 8-inch bore) such as the four Japanese Mogami class (“8,500” declared tons, 15×6-inch guns, 5 inches of armor) and their American echo, the nine Brooklyn-class (9,500 tons, 15×6-inch guns, 5.5 inches of armor) cruisers, the Admiralty decided they needed something like Mogami/Brooklyn of their own.
As Richard Worth put it, “Aware of Japanese and American decisions to build large light cruisers, the British reluctantly admitted their ships had begun to look puny. Arethusa [the best Royal Navy light cruiser of the day, at some 5,200-tons and carrying just a half dozen 6-inch guns] had a broadside of 672 pounds while Brookly had one of 1,950 pounds.”
This led to the eight original Southampton or “Town” class light cruisers, all named after large cities (Southampton, Glasgow, Sheffield, Birmingham, Newcastle, Gloucester, Liverpool, and Manchester) in the UK. Designed at 9,100 tons– a figure that would balloon over 12,000 during WWII– and 591-feet long overall, the class was intended to carry a full dozen 6″/50 (15.2 cm) BL Mark XXIII guns in four triple turrets, allowing a 1,344-pound broadside. To this were added eight 4-inch guns and two triple torpedo tube launchers.
The class’s circa 1939 layout via the 1946 ed of Janes. The class had a 3-to-4-inch side belt, about half that thickness on the turrets, and 4 inches on the CT so, while an answer to the Mogami/Brooklyn, they didn’t have quite as many guns or as much hull structure and steel plate.
Stern Mark XXII turrets on classmate HMS Sheffield after she had sunk the German tanker Friederich Breme in the North Atlantic on 12 June 1941. The cylinders are empty propellant canisters. As noted by Navweaps, Tony DiGiulian describes the 6″/50 Mark XXIII as, “A reliable weapon, although somewhat obsolescent in its use of bag ammunition, manual ramming, and manually-operated breech mechanism.” IWM photograph A 4401.
The latter three of the class– Gloucester, Liverpool, and Manchester— were modified slightly while under construction, adding improved armor protection and fire control systems. Two further half-sisters, Edinburgh, and Belfast, ordered in 1939, continued with the up-armoring trend, adding steel plate to the point that it made up some 18 percent of their displacement, the best British light cruisers in terms of armor. They would need them as the British would use the Towns in much the same role as they did their beefier County-class heavy cruisers which went about 40 feet longer and 2,000 tons heavier.
As with the contemporary light cruisers of the day, the Towns were fitted with extensive aviation facilities and could carry a trio of Supermarine Walrus flying boats.
Supermarine Walrus floatplane being catapulted from a Town Class Light Cruiser, HMS Edinburgh, during a Mediterranean Convoy. Aug 1941
Liverpool, the eighth such ship in the RN to carry the name since 1741, was ordered in March 1935 from Fairfield SB at Govan, Glasgow as part of the 1935 Estimates and laid down on 17 February 1936. The Liverpool immediately prior was a 4,800-ton Great War light cruiser that served off West Africa and in the Adriatic and Aegean during WWI before heading to the breakers in 1921.
NH 59874 HMS LIVERPOOL (British Cruiser, 1909)
Commissioned 2 November 1938, the 9th Liverpool visited her namesake town and shipped out for the East Indies and China stations, joining the 5th Cruiser Squadron at the latter just before WWII broke out.
Her initial taskings included working out of Aden on the hunt for German raiders and blockade runners in the Arabian Gulf, Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean before moving to Hong Kong just before Christmas 1939 to continue interception duty.
On 21 January 1940, Liverpool intercepted the Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) (Japan Mail Steam Ship Co. Ltd) liner Asama Maruoff Japan just 35 miles off Tokyo Bay’s Nozaki Lighthouse, during the liner’s final leg of a scheduled run from San Francisco for Yokohama. Although she would later be requisitioned by the IJN in 1941 and converted to a troopship, at the time Liverpool boarded her, Asama Maru was still a commercial ship under a neutral flag operating in her home waters.
As noted by Combined Fleet:
At 1315, Captain Read sends a boarding party armed with pistols. The British officer in charge explains to Captain Watabe that it will be necessary to take 21 German passengers as prisoners of war. At 1435, the boarding party leaves the ship with the Germans, all former officers or technicians discharged from Standard Oil tankers. At 1440, HMS LIVERPOOL signals “Proceed”. Shortly after nightfall ASAMA MARU arrives at Yokohama. LIVERPOOL takes the Germans to Hong Kong.
The resulting public indignation felt in Japan over the high-handed incident further strained relations between London and Tokyo, which of course would erupt in open warfare the next year.
Transferred to the Red Sea Force by April, Liverpool would work alongside HMAS Hobart and support operations around the Horn of Africa.
The Med!
By June 1940, Liverpool would enter the Med, where things, since the Italians had entered the war, had really gotten interesting. Attached to the 7th Cruiser Squadron, before the month was out she had bombarded the Italians at Tobruk, where she scrapped with shore batteries and sank the minesweeper, Giovanni Berta, then fought a surface action off Zante on the 27th where she sent the Italian Turbine-class destroyer Espero (1,700 tons) to the bottom and damaged two others, catching a 4.7-inch shell hit during the latter fight.
The Italian minesweeper Triglia was later reclassified gunboat and rechristened Giovanni Berta, at La Spezia in 1933; she was the first Italian warship to be sunk in action during WWII at Tobruk, on 12 June 1940, shattered by 6-inch shells from HMS Liverpool.
July 1940 also proved hectic, with Liverpool covering British convoys between Alexandria and Greek Aegean ports, suffering through repeated air attacks from land-based bombers (coming away with damage twice), escaping further damage during the confusing Battle of Calabria, and ending the month assigned to 3rd Cruiser Squadron, under much-needed repair.
Emerging from the dockyard at Alexandria at the end of August, Liverpool was soon back in the thick of it, accompanying the battleships HMS Valiant, Malaya, Ramillies, and Warspite as well as the carriers HMS Illustrious and Eagle in operations ranging from the Dodecanese Rhodes to Malta throughout September and into October.
Who needs a bow?
It was on 14 October, while retiring from screening Illustrious and Eagle during air attacks on the Greek island of Leros (a place Alistair MacLean would use as the loose basis of “The Guns of Navarone”), Liverpool was the subject of an attack by land-based Italian Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 three-engine torpedo bombers.
The Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 Sparviero wasn’t much to look at– their crews called them il Gobbo maledetto (“damned hunchback”), but they were maneuverable and effective when modified into torpedo bomber roles, sinking or damaging over 270,000 tons of Allied ships in the Med in 1940-43.
The hit caused a leak of aviation fuel which later ignited after the fumes spread. The resulting detonation caused so much damage in her forward frames that it wrecked the cruiser’s “A” turret and caused her bow to fall off while under tow to Alexandria. In all, the cruiser suffered 65 casualties in the incident.
View of ship’s wrecked forecastle, after the cruiser, was taken under tow. Note wreckage of #1 6″ turret. NH 60360
View of ship’s wrecked forecastle, after the cruiser, was taken under tow. Note wreckage of #1 6″ turret. NH 60361
View of ship’s wrecked taken while under tow. NH 60363
Bow breaking off, after the cruiser had been under tow for Alexandria. NH 60368
Ship’s bow breakage off. NH 60369
Ship’s bow sank after breaking off just forward of “A” turret. NH 60370
Stopped in the Med, with crew members inspecting the damage after the ship’s bow had broken off on 15 October. NH 60371
Ship underway again, after the loss of bow. NH 60372
HMS Liverpool arrives at Alexandria, Egypt, on 16 October for emergency repairs, after being torpedoed by Italian aircraft two days prior. NH 60374
Ship at Alexandria, Egypt, after the action. Description: NH 60373
HMS Liverpool at Alexandria, Egypt, after being torpedoed by Italian Aircraft in October 1940. Note wreckage around #1 6″ turret. NH 60378
HMS Liverpool in dry dock at Alexandria, Egypt, for repairs, of damage inflicted by Italian Torpedo Bombers in October 1940. Most wreckage has been removed before the installation of the temporary bow. NH 60376
Liverpool would remain under repair in Egypt for five months until it was arranged for her to steam, under her own plant, and with her abbreviated temporary bow, on a two-month trip through the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and across the Pacific to California. There, in a country still in an uneasy peace, she would be patched up by U.S. Navy workers at the Mare Island Navy Yard with stops at Manila and Pearl Harbor on the way.
She would arrive on 16 June 1941.
HMS Liverpool In dry dock at the Mare Island Navy Yard, 26 June 1941, for the repair of damage received in the Mediterranean Sea the previous October. The false bow had been fitted at Alexandria, Egypt, shortly after the cruiser was torpedoed. NH 60379
Back in the fight
With a new bow and extra batteries of 20mm AAA guns, Liverpool would leave Mare Island on 20 November, arriving back in the UK via the Panama Canal by 5 December– just two days before Pearl Harbor. As for Mare Island, they would have a chance to do lots of repair work in the coming days for “the home team.”
HMS Liverpool Underway 28 February 1942 IWM FL 004984
HMS Liverpool wearing camouflage, likely in early 1942
After further outfitting with radar (Type 273 surface warning, Type 281 aircraft warning, Types 284/285 fire control), Liverpool would sail for Scapa Flow on 6 February 1942 for work-ups. By the next month, she would be patrolling the Barents Sea on the lookout for German surface raiders (Tirpitz, anyone) in conjunction with Convoy PQ12 to Murmansk. She would also help screen returning Convoys QP10 and QP12 from Russia and help provide cover for outbound PQ16 into May.
Then, in early June, she was sent back to the Med for a second tour.
SM.79, Part II
In a plan to split German/Italian efforts to interdict British convoys to Malta, the Admiralty in June 1942 hit on the idea to send two at once– from different vectors. This included the Harpoon convoy which would sail West from Gibraltar and the Vigorous convoy which would make the run from Alexandria in the East.
Liverpool would be part of the Force W distant cover group for Harpoon, which had a lot of muscle including the Great War battleship HMS Malaya and the equally old carriers HMS Eagle and Argus, the latter with few aircraft. Rounding out Force W was the cruisers HMS Kenya and Charybdis as well as eight destroyers. Meanwhile, the close escort group, Force X, was made up of the cruiser HMS Cairo and 18 small combatants of which almost half were motor launches.
Departing the Clyde for Gibraltar on 6 June, Harpoon left “The Rock” for Malta on the morning of the 12th, headed eastward at a stately 12 knots in two loose columns, with Liverpool leading the starboard and Kenya the port.
Shadowed immediately by German and Italian aircraft, the pucker factor for the route would be the Skerki Channel in the Sicily-Tunis Narrows, and the first attacks started at 1030 on the 14th. Shortly after, Liverpool would have a chance to do more damage control.
Italian photograph of Town-class cruiser LIVERPOOL falling victim to a torpedo from an SM.79, roughly amidships
A much more serious attack followed half an hour later when 28 132º Gruppo SM.79 Savoia torpedo aircraft escorted by 20 Macchi fighters conducted a combined attack with 10 Cant. high level bombers. The Savoia approached from the northward in two waves of equal strength. The first wave came in at 1110 hours and the second soon afterwards. The first wave passed through the destroyer screen at 500 feet above the water, rounded the rear of the convoy, and attacked from the starboard side, splitting into groups before firing. They dropped their torpedoes from a height of 100 feet at a range of 2000 yards. They hit HMS Liverpool, which was leading the starboard column, when she was turning to meet the attack. Also, the Dutch merchant Tanimbar was hit in the rear, and she sank within a few minutes in position 36°58’N, 07°30’E.
HMS Liverpool was hit in the engine room and severely damaged. She could only make 3 to 4 knots on one shaft. She was ordered to return to Gibraltar being towed by the A-class destroyer HMS Antelope (H36) and screened by the destroyer HMS Westcott (D47). A long voyage during which the first 24 hours she was attacked from the air.
At 1640 hours, five CR. 42 fighter-bombers attacked from astern out of the sun, luckily without hitting, though one or two bombs fell close enough to increase the ships list. At 1800 hours, the tow having parted, there was a harmless attempt by eleven high-level bombers followed by an equally harmless attempt by seven torpedo aircraft which were heavily escorted by fighters. The Liverpool and Westcott each claimed to have destroyed a torpedo plane.
At 2015 hours, now once more in tow, fife high-level bombers attacked but their bombs fell wide.
At 2230 hours, six torpedo bombers made a twilight attack from very long range only to lose one of their number to the barrage HMS Liverpool put up.
At 1420 hours on 15 June, three torpedo aircraft made a final unsuccessful attempt to attack HMS Liverpool after which she, HMS Antelope and HMS Westcott were not again molested. That afternoon the tug HMRT Salvonia arrived from Gibraltar, and they took over the tow. Antelope then joined Westcott as A/S screen. With Salvonia also came the A/S trawler HMS Lady Hogarth. HMS Liverpool and her escorts safely arrived at Gibraltar late in the afternoon of the 17th.
Liverpool in dry dock at Gibraltar showing the point of impact of the Italian torpedo
Seriously damaged, Liverpool managed to mount a fighting retreat– by tow– while her crew saved the ship. It proved an example of damage control for the rest of the fleet, one that would come in handy later in the war such as in the Pacific in 1945.
Sidelines
Speaking of the war, Liverpool was so badly smashed up and repair assets so limited that, after temporary patches at Gibraltar, she was sent to HM Dockyard, Rosyth in early August 1942 and would languish there for the next two years as she was slowly rebuilt, a modernization that saw her radars upgraded and her stern “X” turret removed to accommodate more AAA batteries.
The County-class heavy cruiser HMS Berwick, forward, and HMS Liverpool, in dock Liverpool, 1943.
Although she probably could have been sent back to the lines in time to take part in the Normandy or Dragoon landings in France, the Royal Navy was short-staffed, and Liverpool remained in ordinary essentially for the rest of the war in Europe. She was used briefly as a cruise ship, with a skeleton crew, to take the Allied Tripartite Commission to occupied Germany in June 1945 and would only be brought back to full service in October 1945, a month after VJ Day.
She earned four battle honors for WWII service: Mediterranean 1940, Calabria 1940, Arctic 1942, and Malta Convoys 1942.
Post-War Victory Lap
Liverpool’s swan song in 1945 was assigned to the restructured 15th Cruiser Squadron, as part of the rapidly shrinking Mediterranean Fleet. There she would remain, usually in flagship roles with an admiral or commodore aboard, for the next seven years.
Liverpool, post-war, at Malta. Note her aircraft handling gear has been deleted.
This included a lot of tense early Cold War moments, especially in Greek and Egyptian waters, but these never came to blows.
Liverpool remained in commission until 1952 when she was reduced to Reserve status before her name appeared on the Disposal List in 1957. She was sold to BISCO for demolition by P&W MacLellan at Bo’ness, arriving at the breakers on 2 July 1958.
Epilogue
Few remnants of Liverpool exist today, but her bell is on display at Tobruk, where she fired her guns in anger in June 1940.
She is also remembered in maritime art.
Of Liverpool’s sisters, HMS Gloucester, Manchester, Southampton, and Edinburgh were all lost during the war, three of the four in the Med. Five other sisters, like Liverpool, saw limited Cold War service with HMS Birmingham, Belfast, and Newcastle seeing action again against North Korean gun batteries in the 1950s– and the latter sister even pounding Malayan Communist targets in 1955 and again in 1957.
HMS Newcastle firing at Korean enemy batteries, Chuinnapo Estuary, 1953. IWM A 32585
Belfast was the last of the Town-class cruisers afloat, serving as an accommodation ship into 1970 when she was marked for disposal and saved as a museum ship on the Queen’s Walk in London, a task she has performed admirably since Trafalgar Day 1971.
Please visit HMS Belfast if ever in London, it is well worth it.
Meanwhile, the 9th Liverpool, a Type 42 Batch 2 destroyer, has come and gone, ordered in 1977 and scrapped in 2014 after spending a solid 30 years in active service that spanned stints on Falkland patrol, Persian Gulf operations, time in the naval blockade of Libya that included 200 rounds of 4.5-inch delivered in NGFS in 2011, and your general Cold War/Post-Cold War sea ops.
The British destroyer HMS Liverpool (D-92) pulls alongside the battleship USS IOWA (BB-61) for an underway replenishment during NATO exercise Northern Wedding ’86. DN-ST-87-09368 via NARA
It is time for a 10th Liverpool.
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On 14 June 1982, the two-brigade-sized British Army and Marine force secured the final defeat of a reinforced division-sized Argentine military element in the Falkland Islands.
Original telex message from Major-General Sir Jeremy Moore to London announcing the recapture of the Falkland Islands, 14 June 1982. The signal, marking the end of the Falklands War (1982), is based in part on a similar surrender signal sent to Winston Churchill by Field Marshal Montgomery from North West Europe in May 1945. NAM. 2013-11-17-1
As the Argentines were quickly repatriated, sans equipment and arms (except for being able to march off with their unit flags while the officers, in an ode to chivalry, kept their sidearms), the invaders left behind a lot of gear that became the property of the Crown.
A rubber-booted SAS man, armed with an M16, inspects captured Argentine weapons in the Falklands. In his hands is an American-made M3 Grease Gun SMG. The pile includes a 90mm M20 “Super bazooka,” assorted FN FAL rifles, and other items, now all “property of the Queen.”
Captured Argentinian firearms following their surrender. Note the FALs and FN MAG 58s
A Royal Marine Commando is very happy with his second-hand Argentine M20 3.5-inch Super Bazooka, of U.S. origin
The haul included:
100 Mercedes-Benz MB 1112/13/14 trucks (Which the Argentines bought on credit and did not pay West Germany for)
20 Unimogs
20 Mercedes-Benz G-Class jeeps
12 French Panhard ERV 90mm armored cars
1 SAM Roland launcher
4 SAM Tigercat launchers
1 Improvised shore-based Exocet ASM launcher with four missiles
3 CITER 155mm L33 Guns
10 Oto Melara Mod 56 105mm pack guns, along with 11,000 shells
15 120mm RCLs with rockets
15 Oerlikon twin 35mm GDF and Rheinmetall twin 20mm air defense cannons
1 AN/TPS-43 3D mobile air search radar
10 Skyguard, Super Fledermaus, ELTA, and RASIT AAA fire control radars
Over 90 (British-made!) Blowpipe MANPAD SAMs
Assorted Soviet-made SA-7 MANPADs (120 supplied to Buenos Aires in late May by Gaddafi’s Libya)
11 FMA IA 58 Pucará COIN aircraft, formerly of the Argentine Air Force, many destroyed on the ground by SAS
2 Army Agusta A109
7 Army Bell UH-1H Iroquois
1 Army CH-47C Chinook
1 Aérospatiale Puma SA330L in Argentine Coast Guard markings
3 Argentine Navy Aermacchi MB.339A trainers
11,000 small arms, mostly FN FAL variants, as well as assorted M1911 and Browning Hi-Power clones
Over 500 assorted machine guns, usually FN MAG 58 variants, but also some M2 .50 cals
4 million 7.62 NATO rounds
The Argentine Coast Guard Z-28-class patrol boat Islas Malvinas (GC82)
Plus lots of interesting night vision goggles, thermal imagers, portable radars, EW, and commo equipment
As the FALs were select-fire metric variants rather than UK-standard L1A1 inch-pattern semi-autos, they did not mesh with the British supply train and were mostly discarded– dumped at sea in the deepwater offshore.
The horror…
Some rumors persist that at least a few container loads were clandestinely given away to needy anti-communist guerrillas in Third World stomping grounds, but, of course, those are just rumors until such action is declassified. What is known is that at least some were transferred to the Sierra Leone government as military aid for their security forces.
Plus, the MOD was totally against any trophies being brought back home, as had occurred in the World Wars and Korea.
Warning from Captain Seymour, RFA Resource, regarding Argentinian equipment
But what of the larger stuff?
Some 90 Blowpipes were discovered among the Argentine equipment
Argentia’s occupation force included 12 of these Panhard AML-90 armored cars. Due to the terrain on the islands, they were restricted to the roads around Port Stanley and saw very little fighting. They were all captured more or less intact, and the two best examples were brought to the UK. One is at the Household Cavalry barracks in Bulford, and one is in the Tank Museum collection.
AML 90 Argentine Panhard circa 1966 production captured in the Falklands 1982 on display at Bovington
AML-90s in Port Stanley
One of the two CITER 155s brought back to the UK is currently at the Marine Museum in Norfolk
Paratroopers from 3PARA with a captured Oto Melara 105mm gun of GA3. These guns actually belonged to 7 Para RHA but were sold by UK MOD to Argentina in 1976/7. Irony
The ammunition and Blowpipes, however, were absorbed and fired off by the MOD in training. No word on what happened to the SA-7s, but if you told me they made it to the muj in Afghanistan who were then fighting the Soviets, as often hinted at, I would not scoff.
Libyan-supplied SA-7s recovered in the Falklands
Likewise, the vehicles were kept in the Falklands and used by the follow-on garrison, with some of the Unimogs surviving into the 1990s.
One of the captured Argentine Panhards has long been on display at the Bovington Tank Museum, while most ended up as hard targets for the British Falklands garrison.
RAF Harrier GR3 at RAF Stanley with several Pucara wrecks in the background. Notice the matting on the ground.
22 SAS D squadron commander Cedric Delves, Pebble Island Pucara, after the surrender in June 1982, looking at their work handiwork. Note the M-16s, which the SAS and SBS used almost exclusively
A Boeing Chinook (k Bravo Juliet off Atlantic Contender) hauls the wreck of an Argentinian Pucara away. The Pucara is a ground attack aircraft, but had little impact on the battle. A captured Pucara is in storage at the RAF Museum.
A Pucara wreck. Some were brought to Britain for tests, but most wrecks stayed on the islands for several months, proving popular with incoming garrisons looking for a photo op
As for the 90-foot patrol boat Islas Malvinas, she was renamed HMS Tiger Bay and used until 1986 when she was sold for scrap, which is a pity as she would have made an interesting little museum ship that would have required little in the way of maintenance.
One of the best medium tanks of WWII that made it to the frontlines– and thought by many to be the best German tank of the conflict– the Sd.Kfz. 171/PzKpfw V was better known on both sides simply as the Panther.
Panther tank on display after its capture by the French Resistance. The French captured enough intact Panthers in 1944-45 that at least one post-war unit, 6eme Regiment de Cuirassier, was equipped with them.
Larger and better in just about every metric than the Soviet T-34 or American M4 Sherman (although with a much more complicated suspension system), nearly 3,700 Panthers were produced. Carrying a 75mm KwK 42 L/70 main gun and swathed in 80mm of armor plate at its thickest, it weighed 44 tons but could still make 55kph on its big V12 Maybach diesel.
More on the (original) Panther, courtesy of The Tank Museum, who has one in their inventory, built post-war under British supervision:
Meet the new Panther
With that being said, German defense contractor extraordinaire, Rheinmetall AG, at the Eurosatory 2022 Defense Show on Monday, ended the 57-year sole reign of the Leopard tank by announcing the new KF51 Panther (KF is short for “Kettenfahrzeug“, i.e., tracked vehicle).
The nutshell of the design is that it uses the suspension, powerplant, and chassis of the Leopard 2A7V but comes in lighter, at “just” 59 tons compared to the biggest Leopard’s almost 70-ton mark. Let’s face it, everyone remembers the Maus.
Above the hull and, especially when it comes to the gun system and electronics, the KF51 Panther is all-new, utilizing a 3-man crew with a 20-round autoloader (configurable to four men without), a 130mm smoothbore gun, countermeasures against top-attack, and an all-glass control/surveillance system emphasizing networking (the tank can technically be operated by one, very busy, crewman, as all tasks can be done from each seat).
Some key illustrations:
The blurb from Rheinmental’s presser for your digestion:
All weapon systems are connected to the commander’s and gunner’s optics and the fire control computer via the fully digitalized NGVA architecture. This enables both a hunter-killer and a killer-killer function and thus instantaneous target engagement – in the future also supported by artificial intelligence (AI).
Lethality: With its main armament, the 130mm Rheinmetall Future Gun System, the KF51 Panther offers superior firepower against all current and foreseeable mechanized targets. In addition, further armament options are available to provide concentrated firepower for long-range strikes and against multiple targets.
The Rheinmetall Future Gun System (FGS) consists of a 130 mm smoothbore gun and a fully automatic ammunition handling system. The autoloader holds 20 ready rounds. Compared to current 120 mm systems, the FGS delivers over fifty percent greater effectiveness at significantly longer ranges of engagement. The FGS can fire kinetic energy (KE) rounds as well as programmable airburst ammunition and corresponding practice rounds.
A 12.7 mm coaxial machine gun complements the main weapon. Several options for the integration of remotely controlled weapon stations (RCWS) offer flexibility for proximity and drone defense. The KF51 Panther presented at Eurosatory 2022 is equipped with Rheinmetall’s new “Natter” (adder) RCWS in the 7.62 variant.
Integrating a launcher for HERO 120 loitering munition from Rheinmetall’s partner UVision into the turret is equally possible. This enhances the KF51’s ability to strike targets beyond the direct line of sight.
Survivability and force protection: The Panther has a fully integrated, comprehensive, weight-optimized protection concept, incorporating active, reactive, and passive protection technologies. Without a doubt, the concept’s most compelling feature is its active protection against KE threats. It increases the level of protection without compromising the weight of the system.
Rheinmetall’s Top Attack Protection System (TAPS) wards off threats from above, while the fast-acting ROSY smoke/obscurant systems conceals the KF51 from enemy observation. Moreover, its digital NGVA architecture enables the integration of additional sensors for detecting launch signatures. Thanks to its pre-shot detection capability, the KF51 Panther can recognize and neutralize threats at an early stage. Designed to operate in a contested electromagnetic environment, the KF51 is fully hardened against cyber threats.
Controllability and networking: The KF51 Panther features an innovative operating concept. It is basically designed for a three-person crew: the commander and gunner in the turret and the driver in the chassis, where an additional operator station is available for a weapons and subsystems specialist or for command personnel such as the company commander or battalion commander.
Designed in accordance with NGVA standards, the tank’s fully digital architecture enables seamless integration of sensors and effectors both within the platform as well as into a networked “system of systems”. The operation of sensors and weapons can be transferred instantly between crew members. Each operator station can take over the tasks and roles from others, while retaining full functionality. Since the turret and weapons can also be controlled from the operator stations in the chassis, variants of the KF51 Panther with unmanned turrets or completely remote-controlled vehicles are also planned in the future.
Reconnaissance and situational awareness: Thanks to the panoramic SEOSS optical sensor and EMES main combat aiming device, the commander and gunner are both able to observe and engage targets independently of each other, both day and night, while a stabilized daylight and IR optic with integrated laser rangefinder is available to both. In addition, via a display in the fighting compartment, the crew has a 360°, round-the-clock view of the vehicle’s surroundings. Integrated, unmanned aerial reconnaissance systems enhance the crew’s situational awareness in built-up areas and in the immediate vicinity of the vehicle. With these, the crew can also conduct reconnaissance under armor protection and share the results with other actors in a networked manner.
Mobility: The KF51 Panther builds on the mobility concept of the Leopard 2. With an operational weight of just 59 tons, it delivers far greater mobility than current systems and has a maximum operating range of around 500 kilometers. Without prior preparation, it fits into the AMovP-4L profile, something no other current main battle tank upgrade can do. Consequently, the KF51’s tactical and strategic mobility set it apart.
Logistics: Thanks to Rheinmetall’s innovative development approach, users, maintenance specialists, logisticians, and procurement experts from all current and future user nations can play an active role in shaping the vehicle’s future. Rheinmetall has longstanding experience in establishing global supply chains in order, in cooperation with user nations, to make sure that a large share of production is carried out in-country, thus helping to create and/or preserve sovereign capabilities and capacities.
Future viability: In developing the KF51, Rheinmetall not only set out to modernize existing main battle tank concepts. Starting from scratch, it completely reconceived the platform. The KF51 Panther can be easily updated and equipped with the latest capabilities and functions. Its advanced, modular, open NGVA system architecture enables iterative development, which can then be updated in harmony with innovation cycles. The KF51 is the first representative of a new generation of combat vehicles. Soon, future innovations will enable environmentally friendly peacetime operations and further optimization regarding automation and combat effectiveness.
Of note, 6,565 Leopard Is were produced from 1965 to 1984, and at least another 3,600 Leopard 2s since then. With the current use of armed drones– which cost a lot less than expensive German-made main battle tanks and have proved very good at their job in Armenia, Syria, and Ukraine– it remains a question of if the new Panther will ever see the same sort of popularity.
FN America on Monday announced a long-anticipated update to its Five-seveN pistol, one that brings improved ergonomics and an optics-ready slide to the party.
Originally introduced in 1998 after a decade of development during the Cold War, the 5.7 NATO chambered FN Five-seveN, while interesting, feels very dated these days, especially now that the cartridge it fires is seeing a rebirth of sorts in a lot of new guns. Besides lots of tactile changes– enhanced slide serrations and extended cocking ridges at the rear of the slide, an enlarged/reshaped magazine release, and new stippled texturing on the grip frame– the new FN Five-seveN Mk3 MRD is miniature red dot-ready.
About time for a round that is laser-accurate to 100 yards.
The plate system is compatible with sights from Leupold (DeltaPoint Pro), Trijicon (RMR), Vortex, Burris (FastFire series), Docter, and more. In addition, it ships with three-dot photoluminescent sights that are adjustable for elevation and windage and co-witness with certain MRDs.
The Navy’s PAO network has really done a good job of putting out great images in the past week. Check these out, taken in three different parts of the world across just three days.
From the ancient waters of the Adriatic:
220606-N-AO868-1147 ADRIATIC SEA (June 6, 2022) Ensign Stephen Hess uses a telescopic alidade in the pilot house of the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS San Jacinto (CG 56), as it transits behind the Nimitz class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) in the Adriatic Sea, June 6, 2022. Truman is on a scheduled deployment in the U.S. Naval Forces Europe area of operations, employed by the U.S. Sixth Fleet to defend U.S., Allied, and Partner interests. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Conner Foy/Released)
220606-N-AO868-1167 ADRIATIC SEA (June 6, 2022) The Nimitz class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) transits the Adriatic Sea on June 6, 2022. Truman is on a scheduled deployment in the U.S. Naval Forces Europe area of operations, employed by the U.S. Sixth Fleet to defend U.S., Allied, and Partner interests. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Conner Foy/Released)
To the Atlantic
220605-N-YD731-1271 ATLANTIC OCEAN (June 5, 2022) Sailors assigned to the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Leyte Gulf (CG 55) prepare to shoot line during a replenishment-at-sea with the Military Sealift Command fleet replenishment oiler USNS Leroy Grumman (T-AO 195), June 5, 2022. The George H.W. Bush Carrier Strike Group (CSG) is underway completing a certification exercise to increase the U.S. and allied interoperability and warfighting capability before a future deployment. The George H.W. Bush CSG is an integrated combat weapons system that delivers superior combat capability to deter, and if necessary, defeat America’s adversaries in support of national security. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Novalee Manzella)
USS Leyte Gulf CG-55 conducts a replenishment-at-sea with USNS Leroy Grumman (TAO-195), on June 5, 2022. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Novalee Manzella)
USS Leyte Gulf CG-55 conducts a replenishment-at-sea with USNS Leroy Grumman (TAO-195), on June 5 2022. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Novalee Manzella)
And to the Pacific
PACIFIC OCEAN (June 7, 2022) An F/A-18F assigned to the “Fighting Redcocks” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 22 makes an arrested gear landing on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68). Nimitz is underway in the U.S. 3rd fleet area of operations. (U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Lorenzo Fekieta-Martinez)
PACIFIC OCEAN (June 7, 2022) An aircraft makes an arrested gear landing on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68). Nimitz is underway in the U.S. 3rd fleet area of operations. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Lorenzo Fekieta-Martinez)
Between stuff like this, and Maverick, the recruiters just have to sit back and show where to sign.
Of course, a lot of the platforms shown are high-mileage, with Nimitz– the oldest operational aircraft carrier in the world– laid down in 1968 and is planned to be removed from the battle force in fiscal year (FY) 2025, when the ship’s Terminal Off-load Program begins. Meanwhile, Leyte Gulf, the Navy’s 9th Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser and one of its most veteran of the type still in service, had her first steel cut at Pascagoula in 1985 and has a planned decommissioning in 2024 alongside sister San Jacinto, from whom’s bridge the top two images were captured. The oiler Grumman was laid down in 1987 while Nimitz’s sister Truman was ordered the year after. In short, most of the rank and file working on these ships are younger than the compartments they work, eat, and sleep in.
To them, they are serving in the “Old Navy” of which they will one day regale these new recruits.
One of the toughest sells of the new Top Gun movie is to digest the mere possibility that a 1986-era F-14 jock would still be in uniform and on flying status in 2022– as an O-6.
But wait, the British have a Sea King pilot who went down to the Falklands in 1982 on the “Harrier carrier” HMS Invincible who is still clocking in for work.
Then LT Phil Thornton, baby-faced and headed for war. Note the Sea Harrier behind him.
Complete with “war beard” in the Falklands. His aircraft is a Westland Sea King HAS.5 XZ920. Decommissioned in 2016, XZ920 is now in private service with HeliOperations in the North Sea. The ship behind him is the Round Table-class LST RFA Sir Tristram (L3505)
Sailing with No. 820 Squadron, Thornton spent the war on a mix of anti-submarine sorties, logistics missions, scouting for surface contacts, and acting as a decoy when needed for possible incoming Argentine missiles.
One C-SAR mission, to look for a missing Sea Harrier pilot with no top cover, brought him just off-shore of the area where said Harrier had just been knocked down. Acting in conjunction with another ‘King, his job was to draw off SAMs.
He said: “I climbed to 4,000 feet and started to release my eight flares in a line about three miles apart, all the time looking towards land for the tell-tale indications of a missile launch. It was very nerve-wracking.
“On reflection, after the war, I realized that we had been called forward early for this mission because we were all young, single men with little or no commitments.”
Of the deaths, 255 British military personnel killed in the Falklands across ten weeks of 1982, 86 were sailors.
Thornton continues to serve the Royal Navy, working in the Flight Safety Centre at RNAS Yeovilton.
From the first shots to the last, the Royal Marines were involved in ground combat in the Falklands in 1982.
To open the conflict, it was the platoon-sized Naval Party 8901 that fired 6,450 rounds of 7.62 (along with five 84mm and seven 66mm rockets) in defense of the initial Argentine landings on 2 April, suffering three casualties. One section of RMs, led by Corporal York was even able to displace and hide out in the sparse countryside for three days.
Providing the muscle for most of 3 Commando Brigade in Operation Corporate, the RMs sent all three Commando battalions at the time (40, 42, and 45) along with most of the crack SBS frogmen and even the Mountain and Arctic Warfare training school cadre down to liberate the islands. The men of NP 8901, repatriated by the Argentines, clocked back in to get some payback, forming J Company of 42 Commando.
Royal Marines lined up for weapons check-in the hanger of HMS Hermes in the South Atlantic on their way to the Falklands in 1982
A Westland “Junglee” conducting fast rope training with RM Commandos on the way to the Falklands. It was an 8,000 mile trip from the UK to the “front”
The first ground combat of the liberation came with the recapture on 26 April of the windswept island of South Georgia in Operation Paraquet, conducted by 42 Commando and assorted SAS/SBS operators.
Members of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines hoisting the Union Jack and White Ensign over Grytviken, capital of South Georgia, April 1982. Before the Falkland Islands could be recaptured the island of South Georgia had to be taken. On 26 April 1982, after a short naval bombardment, a force of Royal Marines, Special Air Service (SAS) and Special Boat Service (SBS) went ashore and the Argentine garrison surrendered. NAM. 1988-09-13-22
Then came the landings on East Falkland, kicking off the 25-day land campaign to liberate the island, ending with the Argentine surrender of Port Stanley.
40 Commando Royal Marines. Note the L1A1 Sterling sub machine guns .Falklands 1982
Royal Marine Snipers and a GPMG Gunner prior to the Assault on Mount Kent. Falkland’s War, May 1982. Note the L42 sniper rifle and early starlight scope
British Royal Marine armed with a Lee Enfield L42a1 during the 1982 Falklands war. AN PVS starlight scope sniper
Lacking transpo, 45 Commando famously “yomped” 56 miles in three days from their beach landing at San Carlos harbor to engage the Argentines, carrying everything they had on their backs.
“They faced bleak conditions – horrendous boggy terrain, wind, rain, sleet, low temperatures – not to mention a series of battles on hills outside the islands’ capital Stanley before reaching their objective,” notes the RN. “The Plymouth [based] unit then skilfully ousted Argentine defenders from the slopes of Mount Harriet in one of the final set-piece actions of the war before marching down into Stanley after the surrender.”
A column of 45 Royal Marine Commandos yomp towards Port Stanley. Royal Marine Peter Robinson, carrying the Union Jack flag on his backpack as identification, brings up the rear. This photograph, taken in black and white and color, became one of the iconic images of the Falklands Conflict. IWM FKD 2028
Retracing the Yomp in 2012:
42 Cdo attack Mount Harriet
14 June, Royal Marines raised the Jack at liberated Government House, some 10 weeks after they saw it come down.
June 14 1982 Royal Marines prepare to raise the Falklands flag outside Government House
Royal Marine Commandos hoisting the original Union Jack at Government House, Port Stanley, 14 June 1982 NAM. 1988-09-13-24
The RN recently had three Falklands Royal Marines veterans; Russel Craig (then a 23-year-old RM), Stephen Griffin (also 23 at the time), and Marty Wilkin (then 26) talk to current recruits about their experiences in an incredible series, below:
Of 255 British personnel killed in the conflict, the Royal Marines lost 27; two officers 14 NCOs, and 11 Marines, in addition to about three times that many wounded. While official battle honors fell on the Royal Navy (“Falkland Islands 1982”), RAF (“South Atlantic 1982”), and the British Army (“Falkland Islands 1982” with unit honors earned for “Goose Green,” “Mount Longdon,” “Tumbledown Mountain” and “Wireless Ridge”) for the campaign, as noted by Parliament:
“In accordance with a long-standing tradition which dates back more than 150 years, the Royal Marines do not receive battle honours for any individual operation or campaign in which they have been engaged. Instead, the corps motif of the globe surrounded by laurel is the symbol of their outstanding service throughout the world.”
The beret badge of the Royal Marines. The badge of the Royal Marines is designed to commemorate the history of the Corps. The Lion and Crown denote a Royal regiment. King George III conferred this honor in 1802 “in consideration of the very meritorious services of the Marines in the late war”. The “Great Globe”, itself surrounded by laurels, was chosen by King George IV as a symbol of the Marines’ successes in every quarter of the world. The laurels are believed to honor the gallantry they displayed during the investment and capture of Belle Isle, off Lorient, in April-June 1761.
