With all the talk of the 40mm Bofors in naval applications during WWII in last week’s Warship Wednesday (The Dutch Avenger), this image came to mind of the gun in unsung use with a U.S. Army Air Defense Artillery unit in Northwestern France in 1944.
(U.S. Air Force Number 56270AC) National Archives Identifier 204889544
While the Navy used them to shoot down 742.5 enemy aircraft in WWII, the Army bought just an ungodly amount of stripped-down, single-barreled towed models (40mm Automatic Gun M1) with the first specimens delivered in April 1941, a full year before the USN got theirs.
Chrysler alone made 30,095 gun mechanisms and 51,684 gun tubes for the land-based 40mm M1. Keep in mind that the Army had 781 AAA battalions that stood up in WWII, many of which were 40mm units.
Talk about Detroit Muscle.
NOV 08, 1943 – Chrysler Corporation ~ Life Magazine “Boss a Bofors 40mm.”
The German Bundeswehr recently issued the first of at least 122,000 dirty mustard-toned HK416A8 rifles to army infantrymen– and more guns are on the way.
Heckler & Koch has had a lock on German infantry rifles going back to the 7.62 NATO Gewehr 3 (G3), which was adopted in 1959 and is still in limited service. The newly adopted System Sturmgewehr G95A1 in 5.56 NATO is replacing the futuristic-looking G36 in the same caliber, which in turn has been supplementing the G3 since 1996.
HK416A8, Germany’s new standard issue rifle, type classified as the G95. (Photo: Bundeswehr)
The first of the new rifles was issued at Grafe to troops of Panzergrenadier Battalion 122 (PzGrenBtl 122), a “tip of the spear” unit garrisoned in Oberviechtach, Bavaria, on the Czech border (cue the comic rimshot).
In Grafenwöhr, the Deputy Inspector of the Army, Lieutenant General Heico Hübner (left), together with Vice Admiral Carsten Stawitzki from the Ministry of Defense, presented the first new G95 rifles to the troops. (Photo: Bundeswehr)
It appears that all of the issued rifles recently shown off are the shorter G95KA1 variant, with the “K” being “kurz” or short, as it has a 14-inch barrel. (Photo: Bundeswehr) (Official caption: In Grafenwöhr wurde das neue Sturmgewehr der Bundeswehr, das G95 A1, an das Panzergrenadierbataillon 122 aus Oberviechtach feierlich übergeben am 4. Dezember 2025.)
The G95, adopted in 2021, will be fielded in both the standard 16-inch G95A1 and shorter G95KA1, both of which are lighter and shorter than the G36 they are replacing. The Elcan Specter DR 1-4x is the companion day optic of record. (Photo: Bundeswehr) (Official caption: In Grafenwöhr wurde das neue Sturmgewehr der Bundeswehr, das G95 A1 an das Panzergrenadierbatallion 122 aus Oberviechtach feierlich übergeben am 4. Dezember 2025.)
The G95, as with the HK416 in general, uses a robust, AR-18 style short-stroke gas piston system rather than the more traditional AR-15 direct gas impingement. (Photos: Bundeswehr)
It uses STANAG 4694 rails with M-LOK accessory slots and has an adjustable gas block. Note the full-length top Pic rail
Unlike the G36, the G95, in all Bundeswehr variants, will no longer be black, but greenish-brown, a colorway that has been described by some as “ekelhaftgelb” (disgusting yellow). The reason: black has a higher infrared signature and is therefore easier to detect. (Photo: Bundeswehr)
Das Senfgewehr! (Photo: Bundeswehr)
The Budget Committee of the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament, last week approved the purchase of more G95 series rifles, complete with optics and lights. The country, with an ever-more aggressive Russia to the East, is looking to up its military spending and is even flirting with the prospect of returning to peacetime conscription.
First selected by the Bundeswehr in 2014 in its A5 variant for use as the G28 designated marksman rifle, the country also fields the HK416A7 as the standard G95 (no A1), which has been in use with Germany’s special operations units since at least 2018.
The above shows a German KSK commando with a “50 Shades of FDE” HK416A7/G95 outfitted with an EoTech XPS HWS system and magnifier. (Photo: Bundeswehr)
The German-based Dexheimer channel earlier this year went on a visit to HK’s factory in Oberndorf to get the tour and a deep dive background on the G95. Even if you don’t speak German, you can auto-dub it in English, although you don’t really need to.
How about this great shot taken a decade ago from a rarely viewed angle on a Nimitz-class super carrier? Note the Screwtop (VAW-123) E-2C, as well as an F-18C and F-18D two-seater,
151212-N-RX777-246: ATLANTIC OCEAN (Dec. 12, 2015) Electronics Technician 3rd Class Timothy Stodden and Electronics Technician 3rd Class Cody Ray conduct maintenance on an STS-46 radar aboard the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69). Dwight D. Eisenhower and embarked Carrier Air Wing 3 are underway preparing for their upcoming deployment. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Cole Keller/Released
At the time, Ike had just wrapped up a 25-month Drydocking Selected Restricted Availability (DSRA) at Norfolk NSY and was working up with CVW-3 for a 5th Fleet Med deployment, her 21st.
Some 80 years ago today, 12 December 1945, a window into the future of naval maritime patrol and sea control debuted to the public just after it had been vetted in combat.
Official period captions: “The BAT radar pilotless aircraft under the wing of a Convair PB4Y-2 Privateer at the Philadelphia Ordnance District during development and testing. The Bat was a Mark 9 special weapons ordnance device.” Photographs released December 12, 1945.
BAT Air-to-Surface Guided Missile homes in on a target ship during tests. Photograph released 16 October 1946. National Archives photograph 80-G-703161. launched from PBM
What of the Bat, you ask? Well, some 2,500 of these primitive anti-shipping weapons were built, but very few actually dropped before the end of the war.
The Navy re-designated them the ASM-N-2 post-war and kept Bat in inventory until after Korea, when they were replaced by more efficient air-launched weapons (the ASM-N-7/AGM-12 Bullpup in the late 50s, AGM-45 Shrike in the 1960s, and AGM-65 Maverick in the 1970s before Harpoon came around), then used as AAA targets.
I know that, going back to the 688 class of the 1970s, hunter killers have been named after cities in the good old “fish don’t vote” adage of Big Nuke Navy Boss ADM Rickover, but I do miss those old classic fish names for subs.
One is set to return with the future Block V Virginia-class attack submarine USS Barb (SSN 804), which had her keel authenticated at Newport News on Dec. 9.
Fluckey was commanding officer of the storied Barb (SS 220) in World War II. Under Fluckey’s watch, USS Barb became one of the most highly decorated submarines in U.S. naval history, most known for sinking a record number of enemy ships and for a particularly daring mission that destroyed enemy shipping lines. Fluckey received the Medal of Honor for “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty.” The ship earned four Presidential Unit Citations, a Navy Unit Commendation, and eight Battle Stars for service in World War II and was decommissioned in 1954.
The second Barb, (SSN 596), a Permit-class boat, was active in the Cold War, including two tours off Vietnam, and helped vet sub-launched TLAMs.
The future and third Barb will be the 31st Virginia-class submarine when commissioned, and the third Block V boat.
Of note, when the 688 series USS Helena (SSN-725) was decommissioned in July, the Virginias became the most numerous active submarine class in the world, with 24 active and two (Massachusetts and Idaho) complete pending commissioning in early 2026. They will no doubt hold that title for the next 20+ years, at least for SSNs.
A total of 67 are planned, including a trio of boats (two Block IV second-hand, one new construction Block VII) for Australia.
The military’s nearly 40-year love affair with the Mossberg 590 pump-action 12 gauge has no end in sight.
The oldest family-owned firearms manufacturer in America announced last week that the Army has awarded it a contract valued at approximately $11.6 million for additional Mossberg 590A1 shotguns. It is unclear if the award is an extension of the $19 million maximum value contract for 17-inch M590s issued in September, but either way, the Army is getting a lot more 12-gauge Mossys.
The M590 is based on the company’s legendary M500 platform, but features a heavy-walled barrel, metal trigger guard and safety, a clean-out magazine tube, and a thick Parkerized or Marinecote finish. Numerous stock, forend, and barrel length options exist, as well as the always popular heat shield and bayonet lug.
The M590 series famously withstood the military’s grueling MIL-SPEC 3443E testing protocol for riot-type shotguns, which included running 3,000 shells with two or fewer malfunctions. As TFBTV’s James Reeves has extensively documented with his 500-round shotgun burndown series, that’s a heck of a standard, and few scattergatts can meet it.
A well-used 30-year-old Mossberg 590M that survived Hurricane Katrina and is still kicking. This thing can’t be killed. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)
The Army has used shotguns since before World War I. As noted by Canfield, the first Army contract for the M500 series was issued in 1979 for guns with oiled wood furniture, a standard which soon shifted to synthetic stocks.
The first contract for the updated 590s with a heatshield and bayonet lug was issued in 1987 and, since then, all branches of the U.S. military, as well as the Coast Guard, have ordered the gun at one time or another for tasks including security, EPW control, EOD use, and in door breeching with barrel lengths varying between 14 and 20 inches.
The guns have seen frontline service in Panama, Desert Storm, and during the GWOT era in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Trench Grenade, a GunTuber who is an active duty Army infantry instructor in his day job, last week did a 500-round burn down with the M590, further underlining it as the people’s champ.
It should be no surprise that Armasuisse, the Swiss Federal Office for Defence Procurement, has selected a new SIG Sauer pistol to replace the Pistole 75 (SIG P220), which has been in service for half a century. The P220 had replaced the Pistole 49 (SIG P210), which had been adopted in, well, 1949.
That should surprise no one, really.
What is a bit surprising, due to all the bad press, is that the SIG the Swiss selected for the new Pistole 25 will be the P320, and not a revamped P226 or P229– some of which are quite nice.
The P320 was downselected from five submitted designs and came out on top against the last two finalists, the Glock G45 Gen 5 and Heckler & Koch SFP9.
Importantly, SIG has agreed to local Swiss production of the P320s, with as many as 140,000 weapons to be made for the combined forces.
And the most interesting twist is the realization that, by the 2080s, if we are all still on this rock, surplus Swiss-issued P320s will be all the rage on the collector’s market.
The Pistole Modell 1949 in Swiss military service, one of the most collectible semi-auto pistols in the world.
A couple of interesting news-worthy (to you guys) videos just hit, both F-16 related.
First up, Boeing just announced that it has wrapped up its 10-year program taking old Gen Dyn F-16A/Bs and converting them into QF-16 remote-controlled target drones. The last of 127 Boeing-modded QF-16s recently made its final delivery to the U.S. Air Force and is expected to fly until at least 2030.
The video includes some cool unmanned cockpit clips.
Meanwhile, in Argentina…
The Royal Danish Air Force has uploaded a superb 360-degree view from the cockpit of the new (to) Argentina F-16s during the recent flyover of Buenos Aires.
Six of the ultimately 24 refirb’d circa-1980s Danish-operated F-16A/B MLU Block 10/15s have arrived in Argentina earlier this month, with the U.S. providing backing with training, maintenance, and long-term support. The latter is also probably insurance against their possible use against the
At a time when the USN’s big deck ‘phib force is perhaps at its smallest size in terms of number of hulls in the water since 1940, the Medium Landing Ship has officially been announced by the SECNAV.
As many as 35 are wanted by the Marines, although you can be sure that will likely be trimmed to 23-24 (the Marines have only two missile-slinging Marine Littoral Regiments stood up, rather than the three planned, the whole reason for the LSM to exist).
The winner is Damen’s Landing Ship Transport (LST) 100 design, with the “100” being its length in meters. A small ship, measuring 321 feet with a 1,400 dwt (4,000 tons full load) displacement, it is capable of 15 knots while carrying a 1,020 m² RoRo deck, featuring a helicopter pad and space for small boats. Crew size is just 18 men– which means 40 overseen by an O-5 in Big Navy parlance.
They can essentially land a vehicle-based company-sized force, which sets up the interesting scenario of, say, an LSM, LCS, and an older DDG, operating as a sort of “pocket MEU” for non-combat operations other than all-out war (evacs, humanitarian support, exercises, constabulary, etc) — freeing up regular MEUs for more muscular use.
“The U.S. Navy has selected the LST 100 design for the Medium Landing Ship (LSM) program, enabling rapid fielding of this urgently needed capability to our Navy and U.S. Marine Corps team. By leveraging a mature, non-developmental design and strategic engineering, we are shortening acquisition timelines and ensuring our forces have the littoral mobility they need when they need it.”
As Damen is a proven designer and its successive series of 110, 87, and 154-foot patrol boats, built by Bollinger in Louisiana, have been the background of the USCG since the 1980s, with more than 180 delivered. That puts Bollinger immediately in the hunt, and, as the LSM is a simple design, you can bet some commercial firms and also-runs will also try to get in on the build.
It is (almost) always more efficient and effective to buy an existing product off the shelf than to develop one to fit your exact needs. NAVSEA has found that out painfully with the LCS program and the Zumwalt-class Megadestroyers.
Even when buying an existing design, such as done ostensibly with the now-abandoned Constellation-class frigates, NAVSEA has learned that it cannot totally change every compartment of the design, add dozens of new ones, and start construction before this total redesign is even finished.
Off the shelf means little to no changes. Hopefully, NAVSEA has seen the light.
A return to LST normal?
USCG-manned USS LST 66 headed for a hot beach at Balikpapan. Commissioned on 12 April 1943, LST-66 was on her 12 series of landings after hitting the beach with Marines and soldiers at Cape Gloucester, Saidor, Hollandia, Toem-Wakde-Sarmi, Biak, Noemfoor, Cape Sansapor, Morotai, Leyte, Lingayen, and Mindanao, earning eight battle stars. NARA 26-G-4741
Going back to the days of the Overlord, Detachment, and Iceberg landings of 1944-45, the Navy relied on LSTs to get to the beach with an early generation of LSDs/APDs just offshore running small boats to and from troop-laden transports.
This formula continued well into the Carter era, even giving a nod to vertical envelopment as early as Operation Swift Winds in South Vietnam in 1965, using amphibious assault ships like the USS Iwo Jima (LPH-2) to rapidly insert Marines via helicopter. Meanwhile, starting in 1962 with the 14,000-ton USS Raleigh (LPD-1), assault transport docks began to appear, with the ability to carry both landing craft and helicopters.
In 1968, the Navy had 7 Iwo Jima-class 18,000-ton helicopter carriers built or on the schedule, 16 Raleigh and Cleveland class LPDs, 33 LSDs of the Anchorage, Cabildo, and Ashland class as well as the 27 Newport and Suffolk class LSTs plus 99 (!) older LST-1156 (Terribone Parish), LST-511 (Caddo Parish), and LST-1 (Blanco) series gators. This was also bolstered by 20 Attack Transports (APAs) and 23 Attack Cargo Ships (AKAs).
No matter how you slice it, that was well over 200 amphibious warfare ships.
The prospect of owning the beachhead was still very real at the time, with the Navy having lists of shallow draft DERs, DEs, PGs, and even 11 LSMRs– 1,100-ton landing ships that had been fitted to fire 240 5-inch rocket salvos at a time.
Then came the building of the big deck 40,000+ ton LHAs and LHDs, starting with USS Tarawa in 1976, and increasingly larger LPDs and LSDs, able to push the landing ships further over-the-horizon and out to sea– safely away from things like Silkworm missiles, fast attack craft hiding in the shallows, and 155mm howitzers on the beach.
Artist’s conception of a very preliminary design of the LHA, released by DoD, 15 February 1967. USN 1120262
This meant the end of the APAs and AKAs, as the bigger LHA/LHDs, LPDs, and LSDs could carry more men and cargo, and the outright termination of the LST, with still-useful Newport class vessels divested at the end of the Cold War (and quickly snapped up by Allied countries, with four of them still active in their 50s). Also gone were the “small boy” escorts that could get in close to the beach with 5-inch guns, as clearly they would not be needed.
By 2003, the Navy was down to just five LHAs, seven LHDs, 12 LSDs, and 12 LPDs (a 13th as a flagship), the mystical 36-ship package allowing 12 amphibious ready groups, each with a big deck LHA/LHD, an LPD, and an LSD, capable of toting around a reinforced Marine battalion with its integrated aviation and support elements (the MEU).
Current figures today are 9 LHD/LHAs, 10 LSDs, and 13 LPDs: 32 hulls, just one more than the Congress-mandated minimum of 31 ships. But that is subjective as the worn-out LSDs are retiring, and incoming LPD numbers are not sufficient to replace them on a hull-for-hull basis.
Worse, there is no, um, expendable, landing ship to put the Marine Littoral Regiment on the beach, which is the stated need for the LSM (we can’t call them full-fledged LSTs now, can we?).
We all know that the LSM will be pressed into other service outside of schlepping MLRs around the Chinese littoral, especially when viewed on their 20-30 year lifespan. Hopefully, it will not come at the expense of the big hull gators, or we will be right back to 1944-45 again, but at a time when the littoral has never been more dangerous, or when we have less control of it.
The Union-Castle Line Royal Mail Motor Vessel Carnarvon Castle was built in 1925-26 by Harland & Wolff, Belfast (Yard No. 595), and at 20,122 GRT and 656 feet overall, was a beautiful ship. With two squat funnels (the foremost being a dummy for looks) she had accommodations for 310 first class, 275 second class, and 266 third class passengers and could make 18 knots.
Coming off a rebuild at Harland & Wolff in 1938 that saw her profile change to a single funnel, 30 feet added to her hull, a new accommodation plan for 699 passengers and a faster speed of 20 knots, it was a no-brainer that the Royal Navy tapped her for service as an armed merchant cruiser in September 1939, carrying eight 6-inch guns left over from scrapped Great War battleships, a pair of 3-inch DP mounts, and some Lewis guns.
Between 25 November 1939 and 21 November 1943, HMS Carnarvon Castlewould ride shotgun on a dozen, mostly Sierra Leone-bound, convoys.
Carnarvon Castle, Armed Merchant Cruiser, WWII, By Artist Robert Lloyd
Some 85 years ago today, on 5 December 1940, she would encounter the German Hilfskreuzer Thor (AKA HSK 4, Schiff 10, and Raider E) which was arguably slower (17 knots) but better armed (6x Krupp 5.9″/45s, 4x37mm, 4x20mm Flak, 4x torpedo tubes, mines) and better prepared, having already sunk seven Allied ships and captured one already on her cruise.
The fight would last five hours.
As detailed in “Ocean Liners” by Philip J Fricker:
The Captain had learnt by an intercepted wireless message that the AMC was in the vicinity and hoped to avoid her. However, on 5 December, a large vessel loomed up out of the mist when the Thor was about 550 miles south of Rio and signaled the Thor to stop. (The latter at the time was disguised as a Yugoslav ship.) The British AMC then fired a warning shot, and, realizing he could no longer avoid an engagement, the German captain hoisted his battle ensign and opened fire at a range of about 14,000 yards.
According to the German account, the sun broke through spasmodically, and the British ship was silhouetted against the misty horizon, making a larger target. An enemy shell damaged her electrical control gear early in the action, and guns had to be fired independently by hand control. Nevertheless, the British ship kept up a good, slightly irregular, rate of fire. The Thor kept up a steady fire and also fired a couple of torpedoes, which missed.
By 0844 range had been reduced to about 8,000 yards, and the British AMC had been hit several times. There were several outbreaks of fire on board, and the internal communication had been badly disabled. Accordingly, the ship turned to port and sailed off in a northerly direction to try to control the fires. Having no wish to reopen the engagement, the Thor made off to the eastward. She had expended no fewer than 593 rounds of ammunition, about 70 per cent of her supply, and had escaped damage.
The British ship had not been so fortunate. Twenty-seven enemy shells had found a mark, and her casualties numbered four killed and 28 wounded. The fires were eventually put out, and the ship set a course for Montevideo, where she arrived on 7 December. Some plates salvaged from the wreck of the Graf Spee were used to patch her hull. The Carnarvon Castle later crossed to Cape Town for full repairs.
The skipper of the Thor, Captain Otto Kähler, reported no damage to his ship. It had been Thor’s second gunnery duel with a British Armed Merchant Cruiser, the first being on 28 July 1940 with HMS Alcantara, also a former Union Castle Liner.
On 4 April 1941, Thor engaged and sank HMS Voltaire, the third British Armed Merchant Cruiser she met, in a battle that left 99 British sailors dead and 197 as POWs, underlining just how well Carnarvon Castle had fought the year before, especially when you consider that Voltaire had the same armament as Carnarvon Castle.
Thor arrived in German-occupied France on 23 April 1941 after a 329-day and 57,532-mile war patrol, then seven months later, with new guns, an Arado scout plane, and radar, would venture out on a second one of 321 days that would end in Japan.
As for Carnarvon Castle, she would be converted to trooping duties in late 1943 and survive the war.
Returned to commercial use in 1947, she would be refitted for the emigrant trade and would continue to sail until 1963, when she was scrapped, having served a long and varied 37-year career.
