Just in case you missed it, the museum ship USS New Jersey (BB-62) this week left her pier at Camden, where she has sat for the past 30 years, headed down the Delaware River on her way to dry docking and maintenance.
The Navy Yard caught her in movement, complete with her glad rags flying on a beautiful spring day. If it wasn’t for the fact that her radar mast has been removed to allow her to pass under bridges, and the lack of bluejackets manning her rails, you would think she was headed out for a deployment.
The Ghost Army Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony, Via the U.S. House of Representatives:
Three surviving members of the Ghost Army, the top-secret WWII units that used creative deception to fool the enemy, will join House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and other Congressional leaders at a special ceremony on March 21 at the Capitol to honor the Ghost Army with the Congressional Gold Medal.
Speaker Johnson and Senate Republican Leader McConnell will be joined at the ceremony by House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, along with the original sponsors of the legislation that passed in 2022 authorizing the award, Congress’s highest expression of national appreciation for distinguished achievements by individuals or institutions. They are Sen. Edward Markey (D-MA), Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), Rep. Ann Kuster (D-NH), and former Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT).
There are just seven surviving members of the Ghost Army, three of whom will attend the ceremony: ·
Bernard Bluestein, Hoffman Estates, IL. Bernie is a 100-year-old veteran of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops. He served in the visual deception unit, the 603rd Camouflage Engineers. He joined the unit from the Cleveland Institute of Art and returned after the war for a long and successful career in industrial design. He has been a sculptor for the last 30 years.
John Christman, Leesburg, NJ. John served as a demolition specialist for the 406th. After the war, he worked in a lumber mill and the NJ Department of Corrections. He is an active baker who, at age 99, still bakes bread for his family holiday and birthday celebrations.
Seymour Nussenbaum, Monroe Township, NJ. Also 100, Seymore came to the Ghost Army from Pratt Institute and served in the 603rd, where he was friends with Bernie. Seymour helped to make the counterfeit patches used by the unit in Special Effects. He graduated from Pratt and went on to a long career in package design. He has been an avid stamp collector his entire life.
Other surviving members include James “Tom” Anderson (Dover, DE); George Dramis (Raleigh, NC); William Nall (Dunnellon, FL); and John Smith (Woodland, MI).
Many family members and relatives of the Ghost Army veterans, living and deceased, will also attend the ceremony, along with officers from the U.S. Army PSYOP forces. It will culminate a nearly 10-year effort by members and volunteers of the Ghost Army Legacy Project to win recognition for the little-known Army units that played a unique but unheralded part in the Allied victory of WWII and included such notable members as Bill Blass, Art Kane, and Ellsworth Kelly.
The ceremony will also be the first time the Gold Medal, designed and produced by the U.S. Treasury Department, will be unveiled. The ceremony is part of a two-day celebration for the veterans and their families that includes an awards dinner with featured speaker Maj. Gen. Paul Stanton, Commanding General, U.S. Army Cyber Center of Excellence and Fort Eisenhower, and a screening of a 2013 documentary that recounts the daring exploits of the units during World War II.
Ghost Army Insignia circa 1944.
The existence of the Ghost Army was top secret for more than 50 years until it was declassified in 1996. That’s when the public first learned of the creative, daring techniques the Ghost Army employed to fool and distract the enemy about the strength and location of American troops, including the use of inflatable tanks, sound effects, radio trickery, and impersonation. The 23rd Headquarters Special Troops staged more than 20 deception operations, often dangerously close to the front, in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany.
This “traveling road show of deception,” of only 1,100 troops appearing to be more than 20,000, is credited with saving an estimated 30,000 American lives.
U.S. Army analyst Mark Kronman stated, “Rarely, if ever, has there been a group of such a few men which had so great an influence on the outcome of a major military campaign.”
A sister unit, the 3133rd Signal Company Special, carried out two deceptions along the Gothic Line in Italy in April 1945. The unit was joined by a platoon from the 101st Royal Engineers, a British unit equipped with dummy rubber tanks.
“What made the Ghost Army special was not just their extraordinary courage, but their creativity,” said Rep. Ann Kuster (D-NH), the House sponsor of the bill authorizing the Gold Medal. “Their story reminds us that listening to unconventional ideas, like using visual and sound deception, can help us solve existential challenges like defeating tyranny.”
Lots of stuff for those interested in periscopes lately.
New Dutch Boats
The Dutch, eschewing a domestic(ish) submarine-making initiative between Sweden’s Saab Kockums and Damen, and opting not to go German, have instead turned south and tapped France’s Naval Group to build four new SSKs to replace their aging Walrus-class boats which have been in service since the late 1980s.
The $6 billion project will see the Dutch go with conventional Shortfin Barracuda models similar to the ones proposed to Australia a couple of years ago, capping a 10-year initiative to replace the RDM-built Walruses.
A Naval Group mockup showing a Shortfin Barracuda with the current Walrus class sailing off into the sunset
The class will be known as the Orka class and will carry traditional Dutch submarine names (Orka, Zwaardvis, Barracuda, and Tijgerhaai). The first two will be delivered within a decade after the contract has been signed.
The Dutch have been in the sub business for the past 118 years, commissioning the Damen-built Onderzeeboot Hr. Ms. O-1, a Holland 7P type boat, in 1906. (NIMH 2158_012475)
Over the weekend, the Navy christened its newest Virginia-class hunter killer, the future USS Idaho (SSN 799), during a ceremony at EB in Groton.
The submarine, which began construction in 2017, will be the 26th Virginia and the fifth U.S. Navy ship to be christened with the name Idaho. She will be one of ten advanced Block IV boats of her class.
The last Navy warship named Idaho was the historic battleship BB 42, commissioned in 1919. That Idaho received seven battle stars for her World War II service and witnessed the signing of the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay before she was sold for scrap in 1947.
USS Idaho (BB-42). Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation. Collection of Vice Admiral Alexander Sharp, USN. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph NH 83900
More SSNs Appearing Down Under
And finally, the “improved” Los Angeles-class boat, USS Annapolis (SSN 760), recently arrived in HMAS Stirling in Perth.
ROCKINGHAM, Western Australia (March 10, 2024) – U.S. Navy Sailors assigned to the Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine USS Annapolis (SSN 760) and HMAS Stirling Port Services crewmembers prepare the submarine to moor alongside Diamantina Pier at Fleet Base West in Rockingham, Western Australia, March 10, 2024.
This marks the second visit by a U.S. fast-attack submarine to HMAS Stirling since the announcement of the AUKUS [Australia, United Kingdom, United States] Optimal Pathway in March 2023. The Optimal Pathway is designed to deliver a conventionally armed, nuclear-powered attack submarine capability to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
“Historically, we’ve had allied SSNs visit Australian ports for many decades totaling more than 1,800 days,” said Rear Adm. Matt Buckley, Head of Nuclear Submarine Capability at the Australian Submarine Agency. “Starting with USS North Carolina (SSN 777) last August, these visits are taking on a more important meaning for the Royal Australian Navy and the Australian Submarine Agency as we build the infrastructure, knowledge, and stewardship needed to establish SRF-West in 2027.”
Great SSN Memorial Concept
Speaking of 688s, the planned USS Cincinnati Cold War Memorial & Peace Pavilion was formally unveiled last week by the Cincinnati Navy League. It’s slated to open in spring 2025. USS Cincinnati (SSN-693) was commissioned in 1978 and, decommissioned in 1996, was fully recycled by 2014 with her reactor stored at Hanford.
Unlike some SSN memorials that are just sails or diving planes, the innovative Cinncinatti memorial will be full length, 360 feet long, and include about 100 tons of material from the former submarine including much of the fairweather, the 17-foot tall rudder, and a back-up diesel engine, which was painted red and referred to as the “Big Red Machine” in homage to the Reds’ baseball team lineup in the ’70s.
Which I think is very cool and would be a great way to better salute the memory of all these SSNs and SSBNs that have sailed since Nautilus. Add a small building for additional relics, photos, and keepsakes, and you are in business
St. Patrick’s Day in a dugout, 80 years ago today, the official caption: “Men of the 2nd Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers read ‘Ireland’s Saturday Night’, a Belfast newspaper, in their foxhole in the Anzio bridgehead, 17 March 1944.”
Loughlin (Sgt), No 2 Army Film & Photographic Unit. Note SMLE MkIIIs IWM NA 13062
A patrol from the 2nd Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers at Anzio, Italy, March 1944. Note the No. 4 Enfields. IWM NA13224
St Patrick’s Day in the Anzio bridgehead, 5th Army. While L/CPL Niland is playing the bagpipes, RSM Kilduf issues a special rum ration to Fusiler Rogers of Drunsteeple. The unit is an Irish battalion: the 2nd Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, 17 March 1944. Photo by LT G. Loughlin, No. 2 Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit. IWM NA 13057
The 2nd saw garrison duties across the British Empire, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Ireland, South Africa, and India– where it fought in the Tirah Expedition (1897) on the North West Frontier of India. Then came service in the Boer War and further pre-Great War postings to Egypt, Crete, Malta, China, and India. The 2nd then landed with the British Expeditionary Force’s 4th Division in France in August 1914, and remained there for the duration, finishing Armistice Day as part of the 36th (Ulster) Division.
Disbanded a second time from 1948 to 1952 on being reformed, 2 RIF went on to serve in the Suez and Cyprus, where it engaged EOKA insurgents in 1954-55 before permanently disbanded the following year.
The legacy of the battalion was transferred in 1968 when the regiment was amalgamated with The Royal Ulster Rifles and The Royal Irish Fusiliers (Princess Victoria’s), to form The Royal Irish Rangers (27th (Inniskilling), 83rd and 87th), which was then further merged in 1992 when it was folded into The Royal Irish Regiment, which still exists.
80 years ago this month: Here we see the Great War-vintage Brazilian dreadnought São Paulo in Recife, in March 1944, with the old battlewagon at this point in her career reduced to a role as a harbor defense ship.
Laid down by Vickers, Barrow-in-Furness, on 30 April 1907 just 13 days after her sister, Minas Geraes, was laid down at Armstrong in Elswick, the 20,000-ton beast carried a full dozen EOC 12″/45 guns, which were also used on a dozen battlewagons for the Emperor of Japan.
Protected by a 9-inch armor belt with as much as 12 inches of armor on the CT and turrets and capable of 21 knots, these two Brazilian battleships were the opening salvo in a Latin American dreadnought race that saw Argentina and Chile order a pair of even larger and more heavily armed ships from U.S. yards (the Rivadavia-class) and Armstrong (Almirante Latorre-class), respectively.
By WWII, the race had petered out and the once-mighty floating war engines were vestigial sea monsters of another era. Tame dragons kept around to impress the neighbors in the next kingdom.
Chile had only received one of her battlewagons, Latorre, after it had served in the RN as HMS Canada during the Great War, seeing action at Jutland. After 1933, the old vet was in mothballs although she was brought back out for neutrality patrols during WWII.
As for Argentina, her two battleships, Rivadavia and Moreno, last refit in 1924, were also in and out of mothballs and only occasionally used for the occasional state visit and retained, much like Latorre, to enforce a sense of armed neutrality in WWII.
With that, only the two Brazilian ships saw WWII service with the Allies, although of the sort of limited flavor depicted in the above image. Two days after Brazil declared war on German on 21 August 1942, São Paulo was moved to Recife while Minas Geraes was sent to Salvador, with both fulfilling a harbor defense role.
Battleship São Paulo a Brazilian naval base circa 1942.
When it comes to their fates, Minas Geraes was scrapped in Italy in 1954, Moreno in Japan in 1957, Rivadavia in Italy in 1959, and Latorre in Japan into 1961– with elements of her used in the restoration of Togo’s Vickers-built flagship, Mikasa.
But what of São Paulo? The mighty Brazilian battleship vanished at sea in November 1951 with an eight-man caretaker crew aboard her while being towed to the breakers in Europe.
After a six week search, she was declared lost and has never been found.
I’d like to believe that she is an armored Flying Dutchman of sorts, still roaming the waves of the Atlantic, an everlasting crew of steel ship sailors lost in those waters from the Falklands to the Barents Sea running gunnery drills and holding court for Poseidon.
Two shots captured two very different moments in time some 80 years ago this month.
First, I give you the typical image when someone says, “PBY Catalina ‘Somewhere in the Pacific.”
U.S. Navy mechanics checked a Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina patrol bomber before it leaves the airstrip at Majuro Island, Majuro Atoll, Marshall Islands, in March 1944. Note the Grumman F6F Hellcat fighters in the background, with many warships anchored beyond. U.S. Navy photo 80-G-401015
Next, follow that up with this:
“A PBY coming in for a landing in the Aleutians, March 1944.”
Hattori Han has an in-depth impression of the Imperial Japanese Army infantry during the 1904-05 war with the Tsar in Manchuria, a conflict now some 120 years in the rearview. He includes the blue field training uniform, white summer dress, and winter sentry and front-line service with wartime theatre modifications.
Like an Osprey book come to life. Really well done.
Official caption: “A bullet-marked Hotchkiss gun of the American Army, at Malolos, Philippians, circa 1899.”
New York, N.Y. : Strohmeyer & Wyman, Publishers, 1899. LOC LC-DIG-stereo-1s48423 (digital file from original) LC-USZ62-80482 (b&w film copy neg.) https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/stereo.1s48423
Note the blue-uniformed U.S. Volunteers in the background.
The photo should be taken into account with this one, “Malolos, Philippines: Advancing on Malols – taking a Hotchkiss gun over a bridge destroyed by insurgents,” 1899. https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/stereo.1s48355
The light 5-barreled 37mm Gatling style gun weighed only 1,045 pounds and could fire an 18.51-ounce shell out to 4,700 yards when at a 30-degree maximum elevation. All up, in its heavy configuration with an armored shield with carriage and limber, 300 shells, and all needed accessories, the weight was 4,510 pounds.
Hotchkiss 37mm Revolving Cannon, 1st Battalion California Heavy Artillery, P.I.
Hotchkiss 37mm Revolving Cannon, 1st Battalion California Heavy Artillery, P.I.
As noted by the U.S. Army Artillery Museum at Fort Sill, which has one on display:
In 1879, Captain Edmund Rice took a Hotchkiss Cannon on the campaign on the Western Frontier; the first time a revolving cannon was taken into the field. The Army Hotchkiss Revolving Cannons were little used until the Philippine Insurrection (1899 – 1902) where they served admirably, mounted on field carriages, trains, and riverboats, and in fixed positions. The Hotchkiss would prove to be excessive in the waste of ammunition. By 1908, it was replaced by a conventional single-barreled cannon.
Several contrails from other B-17s are visible through the window. Note the empty bombsight stabilizer, missing its top-secret and closely controlled Norden bombsight, which means the bombardier in this case may be acting as a “toggler,” dropping on the lead ship seen out front. Image Credit: The John W. Allen World War II Collection/The Museum of Flight
LTC Paul Chryst (Ret.) wrote on 2 November 2002 in an e-mail posted online.
“We flew our first mission on 3 August 1944 and the last one on 15 Dec 44. I counted 38 missions total; but the Orderly Room said “only 35 completed”. My Pilot Class was 43K; but the PT-17 Stearman (training plane) washed me out. Went on to Aerial Gunnery School and graduated to become the FIRST class of Cadets to wear Gunner’s wings then on to Bombardier School. We graduated after 12 weeks bombing and another 6 weeks of DR Navigation. My biggest fear while flying was “bail-out” the small hatch next to the Navigator and being killed by hitting the leading edge of the left elevator. If I made it to the ground, my next worry was being killed by some German civilian. At 6′-2″ I weighed 125 lbs. and never would have survived the small rations in POW Camp.”
Private Tom J. Phelan, 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, rides his folding BSA Airborne Bicycle at the battalion’s reinforcement camp, in England, in early 1944. His kit includes a Denison smock and late model “deluxe” STEN Mk V SMG.
Of note, over 60,000 Airborne Folding Paratrooper Bicycles were made by the Birmingham Small Arms company between 1942 and 1945, and, despite the name, they were used by light infantry and support units far and wide.
Phelan, who was wounded on 16 June 1944 at Le Mesnil, would survive the war.
