Category Archives: weapons

Of canvas, ramps, and brass balls

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Following in the heels of yesterday’s Warship Wednesday of the hardworking 9th HMS Aurora during WWII (“We were in action a Tremendous Amount of Times”), how about this great circa 1915 photo essay on the 8th HMS Aurora, a light cruiser (C1), complete with a Deperdussin Monoplane (No.1378) on her deck during early flight trials from a 38-foot (!) ramp.

Her aircraft trials came when she was the leader of the 10th Destroyer Flotilla of the Harwich Force, with the thought that the aeros could be used to ward off German naval Zeppelins that were harassing the tin cans.

HMS Aurora, Deperdussin Monoplane at the ready. Note the platform is on her No. 1 BL 6″/45 Mk XII gunhouse. Naval History and Heritage Command, NH 112869

Same as above, NH 112871

As noted by the RMG, “The Deperdussin was successfully flown from Aurora on 4 November 1915 by Flight Lieutenant R J J Hope-Vere. According to her ship’s log, Aurora carried out aeroplane experiments in the morning of 4 November 1915.”

Flight Sub. Lieut. Ralph James Hope-Vere, R.N.A.S

However, it was found the aircraft were too underpowered to be of use against the roaming Teutonic dirigibles and the flying platform was removed.

Commissioned in September 1914, Aurora was a “war baby” and was the leader of the 1st Destroyer Flotilla at the Dogger Bank in early 1915, earning a battle honor for the engagement that left the cruiser SMS Blücher on the bottom. She later helped catch the German commerce raider SMS Meteor, captured two of the Kaiser’s naval trawlers, and sowed nearly 300 mines in Jerry’s waters. She was on hand at the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet in November 1918.

The 3,600-ton German Hilfskreuzer SMS Meteor on fire, shortly before she sank on her second raiding voyage, 9 August 1915, by Surgeon Oscar Parkes, IWM SP 1087

Paid off by the RN in 1920, Aurora was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy and was eventually scrapped in 1927.

HMCS Aurora, Courtesy of the CFB Esquimalt Naval and Military Museum CTB043473

As for the aviator who flew that tiny plane off that ridiculously small platform, Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph Jean James Hope-Vere, O.B.E., A.F.C., Royal Air Force, late Royal Naval Air Service, Royal Aero Pilot Certificate No. 900, ended the war flying seaplanes in No. 66 Wing, Adriatic Group, against the Austrians, then moved to the retired list in the RAF in 1934. After Home Guard service in WWII, as one would expect, he passed in 1959, aged 71.

Sad final note for a 110-foot subchaser

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On 23 May 1942, the 110-foot SC-497-class wooden-hulled submarine chaser PC-772 was laid down at the Peyton Co., Newport Beach, California, and commissioned on 15 April 1943 as USS SC-772, likely spending her wartime career in coastal patrol not far from the yard that built her.

At the end of WWII, SC-772 was transferred to the USCG briefly along with 69 sisters to serve as an unarmed Air-class air-sea rescue cutter, commissioned as the USCGC Air Mallard (WAVR 437) in December 1945 and stationed at Newport Beach with her sister, USCGC Air Martin (WAVR 438/ex-SC-775).

USCGC Air Mallard (WAVR-437). c. 1946. Off San Diego

A short-lived program for the cash-strapped agency, the Airs were soon disposed of and sold on the commercial market for use as fishing trawlers, offshore supply boats, and yachts.

So, the former subchaser meandered, headed to the Vancouver area as M/V Lady Goodiver in 1948, then serving as a barge, a salvage boat, a dive tender, and any number of houseboats and yachts, carrying assorted names over the years, including Joan Lindsay and Maplewood.

By 2010, she was undergoing conversion to become a floating bed and breakfast near Scappoose, Oregon, carrying her original Subchaser SC-772 name.

Then, in 2020, she was sunk at her moorage by a floating log that holed her under the waterline. Resting on the bottom under 16 feet of water, she was recently salvaged, an end to an era.

Pour one out to the old SC-772, boys.

A sip of fuel sometimes means more than a sip of fuel

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A boat with no crew recently pulled in behind a Navy ship off Virginia and filled its tank, repeating the evolution over 100 times, ultimately transferring about 400 gallons of fuel.

NAWCWD’s Blue Water Instrumentation team ran Sealartec’s robotic refueling rig– dubbed the Towable Capture and Connection Device (TCCD)– a refueling sled/cradle towed behind the training support vessel USNS Vindicator (TSV 5).

An operator steered the MARTAC’s 38-foot T38 Devil Ray unmanned surface vessel into it. Fuel flowed, and the boat pulled away.

The T38 unmanned surface vessel, left, approaches a towable capture and connection device, center, towed by USNS Vindicator (TSV 5), right, during an Aug. 11 refueling demonstration off Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, Virginia. Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division’s Blue Water Instrumentation program led the demonstration, part of an effort to keep unmanned vessels on station longer during long-range weapons testing. (Courtesy photo)

The T38 unmanned surface vessel, right, closes on a towable capture and connection device, left, under tow during an Aug. 11 refueling demonstration off Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, Virginia. Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division’s Blue Water Instrumentation program led the demonstration, part of an effort to keep unmanned vessels on station longer during long-range weapons testing. (Courtesy photo)

A refueling probe on the T38 unmanned surface vessel, left, prepares to mate with a towable capture and connection device, right, during an Aug. 11 refueling demonstration off Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, Virginia. Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division’s Blue Water Instrumentation program led the demonstration, part of an effort to keep unmanned vessels on station longer during long-range weapons testing. (Courtesy photo)

If you did something like this 25 years ago, it would seem like magic.

Today, it is almost anticlimactic.

The next step will be drones refueling drones, keeping autonomous fleets quietly underway for years at a time. No headlines about ships at sea for 250 days…because there won’t be a crew to complain.

You can expect more of the same on a much larger scale moving forward. Everywhere.

Unlikely Oasis Skyraider Reunion

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We’ve covered the legacy of the Toyota Wars and the saga of French Jaguar Diplomacy in blunting Gaddafi’s Libyan legions in Chad in the 1980s, but another, even more shoestring, story often goes untold.

Between 1973 and 1978, a group of a half-dozen Korean War-era ex-USN A-1N/NA Skyraiders known to history as the Sky Tchadiens were being flown for the Chadian forces by a collection of French mercenary pilots and two Gabonese Air Force president’s squadron (Groupement Aérien Présidentiel) lieutenants on loan, Jacques Borne (nicknamed “Sarcife”) and René Gras, who, of course, were all just sheep-dipped French Air Force officers.

In the below, Borne is seen in a red scarf, while Gras is seen in a green.

From left to right: Pierre Grosjean, René Gras, Fayolle, and Jacques Borne (Coll. F. Borne)

Underwing are French-designed and produced 60-pound SERAM T-10 100mm rockets, typically carried by Dassault  Ouragan or Mystère aircraft in strike roles. Combined with light GP bombs and the Raiders’ 20mm cannon, they proved strong medicine on attack runs.

Operating as a “light aviation support squadron” (Escadrille Légère d’Aviation d’Appui 1/22 “Ain”), they were officially stationed at Fort-Lamy (now N’Djamena, Chad) but forward-deployed in pairs to Faya-Largeau, an oasis in the north of the country.

At the Faya-Largeau oasis strip, the desert was so deep and loose that planes often sank to the wheel hubs and aircraft patrols took off near-simultaneously as visibility after the first plane went to full power was nil for several minutes after.

From there, they flew dune-height strafing, bombing, and rocketry runs over Libyan-backed insurgent camps and columns and lived to (not) tell the tale.

An average of 35 operational recon, strike, and support sorties were logged every month, which is impressive for two forward-deployed aircraft and just six in the whole country.

The French dubbed the 12,000-pound (empty) Skyraider “La Bête” (The Beast), and they flew them throughout the 1960s and 70s not only in Chad but also in Algeria, Djibouti, and Madagascar.

In all, they acquired 20 ex-USN AD-4s, 88 ex-USN AD-4Ns, and 5 ex-USN AD-4NAs in the early 1960s, some of which were later passed on third-hand to Cambodia, as well as the aforementioned Gabonese and Chadian planes.

At least a dozen ex-Navy Skyraiders flew with ELAA 1/22 in Chad at one time or another in the 1970s (BuNos 126882, 126912, 126935, 126959, 126969, 126970, 126979, 126994, 126996, 126997, 127888, and 127894).

Retired by the French Air Force in 1979, at least one Beast is preserved in Djibouti at Base Aérienne 188 “Colonel Massart” while another, AD-4NA BuNo 126979, which flew with EC 2/20 Ouarsenis in Algeria, is on display at the Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace.

First flown by the Navy on 24 September 1952, BuNo 126979 left NAS Norfolk in April 1960, flew with EC 2/20 in Algeria as 20-QA, then with EAA 601 at Châteaudun, and later with ELAA 1/22 in Chad from 1971 through 1975 as 22-DD before she was struck off in 1976.

She reportedly still has a base coat of Navy blue under her French livery.

U.S. Navy Douglas AD-4/-4L Skyraider aircraft from Attack Squadron VA-175 Devil’s Diplomats on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVB-42). VA-175 was assigned to Carrier Air Group 17 (CVG-17) aboard the FDR for two deployments to the Mediterranean Sea in 1951-52. U.S. Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation photo No. 1996.253.2860

The French Brown Water Geese of Indochina

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Following up on Tuesday’s post on USCG Grumman (G-38) JRF-5G Goose amphibians, what’s the rest of the story of the type’s journey in Indochina?

Twelve ex-USN JRF-5s were sold to France in 1952 and delivered to Escadrille 8.S, based at Cat-Lai (later a major Brown Water Navy base) near Saigon (Indochina).

Viet Minh War, 1954, a French Grumman Goose (JRF-5) aids the gunboats patrolling the inland waters of Indo-China. NH 79370

They were mainly used for medevac, transport, and liaison, but in a pinch were equipped with bombs and gun pods to operate in coastal and riverine interdiction.

Five additional ex-USN JRF-5s were delivered in 1954 and fielded at Tan Son Nhut, still under E 8.S.

JRF-5 Goose French Navy Aéronautique navale l’Escadrille 8.S Indochina

Once the French withdrew, four still-flyable JRF-5s were sent to the South Pacific colony of New Caledonia, while the rest were shipped to African colonies.

Goose dets endured at Alger-Maison Blanche (Algeria), where E 8.S was relocated, as well as with 27F in Senegal, flying from Ouakam and Dakar Bel-Air until 1961, when they were finally withdrawn after a Goose making a connection between Dakar and Simti crashed on take-off and caught fire at Tambacounda, Senegal, where it had stopped over, killing six, including two crew, VADM Pierre Ponchardier and his wife, and another married couple. Ponchardier was the famed founder of the French SAS B Commando in 1945 and Dinassaut 8, both of which went on to lots of sneaky para and frogmen things in Indochina.

JRF-5 Goose, French Navy 27 Flotte, F-12, in Dakar, late 1950s. This is USN BuNo 34078, which flew with Escadrille 8S as 8S-7, and was lost with Ponchardier and five others on 27 Jan 1961.

JRF-5 Goose French Navy Aéronavale l’Escadrille 8.S in Algeria late 1950s

JRF-5 Goose, French Navy, Aéronautique navale Dakar 1960

These 12 ex-USN aircraft are confirmed to Aéronautique Navale Escadrille 8S, Indochina:
  • BuNo 04349 (French 8S-3, w/o Sep 24, 1953. SOC Spr 21, 1954)
  • BuNo 04358 (8S-1, WFU Dec 5, 1961)
  • BuNo 34078 (8S-7, later 27F-12 out of Dakar, lost 27 Jan 1961)
  • BuNo 37784 (8S-2, WFU May 24, 1960 at St Mandrier, France
  • BuNo 37791 (8S-4, later N75333, crashed Oct 9, 1974, after takeoff from Wichita, Kansas
  • BuNo 37831 (the second 8S-8; w/o Oct 4, 1956 at Cape Tenes, Algeria)
  • BuNo 84799 (8S-5, WFU Dec 5, 1961)
  • BuNo 84818 (8S-11, w/o Apr 25, 1953 at Cat Lai)
  • BuNo 87727 (8S-8, w/o Apr 3, 1952 at Nha Trang)
  • BuNo 87738 (the second 8S-11, w/o Nov 7, 1958 at St Mandrier
  • BuNo 87741 (8S-9, WFU Aug 25, 1959)
  • BuNo 87742 (8S-10, WFU Dec 5, 1961)

Siempre Presente

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Dig those M1903s with long M1905 bayonets, M1917 Brodie helmets, Great War style leggings, and M2 gas masks, seen some 85 years ago this month on the eve of the U.S. entrance to WWII.

NARA Local Identifier 126-PG-5G-7

Official period caption:

Members of the Puerto Rican National Guard During Maneuvers. September 1941. San Juan, Puerto Rico. San Juan, Puerto Rico. Gas masks and bayonets are the order of the day in Puerto Rico as Europe is plunged into a new war, and plans for the completion of this U.S. Territory as a “Gibraltar” are rushed. Above, members of the Puerto Rican National Guard are pictured during recent maneuvers in the island. More than $30,000,000 is being spent here for the establishment of air bases and other defenses. Because of its strategic position with respect to Europe and the Panama Canal, Puerto Rico today is considered the No. 1 defensive outpost for the U.S. on the Atlantic side. The island is the nearest to Europe of any spot under the American flag. Steve Hannagan. Puerto Rican News Bureau. San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Well before the U.S. entered the war, in October 1940, the PRNG was mobilized, called into federal service, and prepared for conflict, eventually activating its 295th and 296th Infantry Regiments, totaling over 2,700 personnel. While those units did not go any further overseas than the Canal Zone, the Commonwealth did stand up the 65th U.S. Infantry Regiment (“The Borinqueneers”), which saw extensive action in North Africa and the European theater (Naples-Foggia, Rome-Arno), and the PRNG certainly fed into the 65th.

By the end of the war, some 65,034 Puerto Ricans served in the U.S. military, with over 2,500 becoming casualties.

Clydebank Beauty

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Some 110 years ago this month, a great view of the conning tower and forward turrets, complete with newly-installed 15″/42 Mark I guns, of the future Renown-class battlecruiser HMS Repulse, seen whilst fitting out at John Brown & Co’s Clydebank yard, Scotland.

August 1916 National Records of Scotland, UCS1-118-443-295

The 10th RN ship to carry the name, Repulse commissioned 18 August 1916, just over two months too late for Jutland. The month prior, she hit 31.73 knots on her speed trials, making her the world’s second fastest capital ship upon completion, only bested by her sister Renown, which hit 32.58.

However, the two sisters, Renown and Repulse, spent so much time in modification and maintenance over their careers that the wags in the fleet collectively knew them as HMS Refit and HMS Repair.

This included, for Repulse, 27 months (December 1918 – March 1921) at Portsmouth Dockyard to install torpedo bulges and improved armor to fix the shortcomings exposed in British battlecruisers at Jutland, and a 37-month (April 1933 – May 1936) modernization on the eve of WWII. Add to that numerous minor maintenance and refit periods, and she spent nearly a fourth of her 25-year career in the yard.

Portsmouth Dockyard blueprint for Renown-class battlecruiser HMS Repulse dated 1936.

Repulse nonetheless earned three battle honors (Norway 1940, Atlantic 1940, and Bismarck Action 1941) before she gave her last full measure, escorting the HMS Prince of Wales on 10 December 1941

File under ‘No Suprise’ : Navy Shore Based Harpoon System Successful

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It shouldn’t be that much of a surprise, as Harpoon entered service in 1977– yes, almost 50 years ago– but the new Harpoon Coastal Defense System (HCDS) was validated at its Developmental Test (DT-1) at Point Mugu Sea Range (PMSR) in July 2026, “validating the system’s ability to engage and neutralize maritime threats.”

Boeing Photo via DVIDS 260721-O-HP119-5272

During the event, the Harpoon missile successfully launched from land and engaged the target vessel in near-shore/littoral waters.

It is planned to ship these to Taiwan, which has a $2.3B program to field 100 HCDS launchers and 400 missiles– a pretty good way to keep the local littoral their local littoral.

It should also be noted that the background concept has been extensively validated over the years, with the Royal Danish Navy fielding two 8-missile batteries of Scania 113M/320 truck-mounted quad-packed Harpoons from 1988 to 2003.

The Danish Harpoon setup. Marinens Biblioteks digitale arkiv MAB-16884

Plus, Ukraine received 20 Harpoons in 2022 from donations by Denmark, the Netherlands, the U.S., UK, and Spain for use in ground-based launchers, though little has been seen of them. Like, literally. The Ukrainians conceal them inside cargo containers to avoid the drone ka-boom.

The Danes also loved to heavily camouflage their Harpoons, so you can be sure the Taiwanese will be sure to do the same.

But, why?

So why bother with a land-based trailerable Harpoon when the Marines already have the smaller Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction Systems (NMESIS) ground-based system which carries two Kongsberg Naval Strike Missiles?

A Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System launcher deploys into position aboard Pacific Missile Range Facility Barking Sands, Hawaii, Aug. 16, 2021.  (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Maj. Nick Mannweiler, released)

Well, throw weight for one. While the 13-foot/800-pound NSM is a newer and more streamlined missile, it only has a 264-pound warhead, while the 15-foot/1,500-pound Harpoon totes 500 pounds of boom and delivers it with more kinetic energy by virtue of mass and speed.

Yes, NSM has a longer published range of 100nm while the RGM-84L-4 Harpoon Block II has a published range of 75nm, but keep in mind those are public figures.

Of course, the 8-ton NMESIS with its two missiles is CH-53E/K (hoist) or C-130 (internal) aircraft compatible and built to operate in much more austere environments, ready to pop off an LCU, LSM, or LCAC onto a beach while the HCDS, based on the same HEMTT trailer as the Army’s THAAD, is more of a C-17/industrial-grade roadway kinda thing, as its weight is likely closer to 35 tons.

While HCDS is set to deliver to Taiwan to complement indigenous HF-2 and HF-3 anti-ship launchers, it might not be a bad idea for the USN to invest in a few batteries of these, for a just-in-case type of scenario. Put them in the reserves with two Marine Reserve Artillery Battalions, one staged on the East Coast, the other on the West.

Speaking of Marines and Harpoons, since you came this far, how about these great very recent shots of VMFA-232 “Red Devils” F-18C/Ds out of MCAS Iwakuni conducting an anti-ship exercise, complete with two AGM-84s under the wings along with a pair each of Sidewinders and AMRAAMS for emergency use.

Nice to see the classics.

A U.S. Marine Corps F/A-18D Hornet aircraft assigned to Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 232, Marine Aircraft Group 12, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, lands on Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Yamaguchi, Japan, during a harpoon exercise, Aug. 19, 2026. VMFA-232 stands ready to integrate and seize the strategic advantage to ensure stability in the region. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Alejandra Vega)

A U.S. Marine Corps F/A-18C Hornet aircraft with Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 232, Marine Aircraft Group 12, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, flies off the coast of Japan, Aug, 19, 2026. U.S. Marines with Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 152 conduct aerial refueling operations in support of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 232, demonstrating the Marine Corps’ ability to sustain and generate combat airpower. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. David Getz)

Well versed in MG

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Some 110 years ago this month.

Imperial Russian Army pilots and observers training in Kiev, Ukraine, August 1916, with American-made Colt 1895 pattern “potato digger” machine guns, likely made by Marlin-Rockwell.

Contrary to the common trope of being underarmed, the Tsar’s purchasing agents were fond of all things machine gun, with Cossack cavalry carrying Madsen guns in Manchuria in 1904 and the Tula Arsenal putting the Russian version of the water-cooled light Vickers (Maxim) in mass production by 1910– a model that is still in active service today around the world.

As best recalled from “Quiet Flows the Don” by Mikhail Sholokhov, when a young Cossack came to the unit’s attention in 1920:

“I’d like to ask to be transferred to the machine gun team.”

“Are you familiar with a machine gun?”

“I know the systems of Shosha, Bertier, Madsen, Maxim, Gochkis, Bergman, Vickers, Lewis, and Schwarzloze.”

A Last look at the old Sultan, 60 Years Ago

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On the road in Idaho at an industry event, so instead of our regular Warship Wednesday programming, please accept this glimpse of the past.

Every warship fan knows of the (in)famous Great War-era Moltke-class battlecruiser SMS Goeben, which had been used by the Ottomans as Yavuz Sultan Selim and then by the Turkish Navy simply as TCG Yavuz.

Decommissioned in 1950 and used as a pier-side naval headquarters until 1960, she was put up for sale when efforts by the Turkish government to have West Germany buy her back as a museum ship for a nominal fee failed.

By August 1966, the old girl was sitting idle at Gölcük Naval Base, Turkey, nearing the final chapter of her historic existence, being recycled for her value in pre-Atomic steel.

A series of amazing, if somewhat forlorn, images was captured by British gentleman photographer Aubrey Houston Bowden in August 1966, now in the Imperial War Museum, which chronicled the world’s last remaining battle cruiser and the final capital ship of both the Kaiserliche Marine, the Donanma-yı Humayun, and the Türk Deniz Kuvvetleri.

Below is a sample:

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