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Warship Wednesday, April 3, 2024: The Bathtub of Sampson, Schley, and Sims

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Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday, April 3, 2024: The Bathtub of Sampson, Schley, and Sims

Naval Historical and Heritage Command Photo NH 85726

Above we see the “Propeller-class” brigantine-rigged cruising cutter Manning of the newly-formed U.S. Coast Guard as she steams in European service with the U.S. Navy during the Great War, circa 1917-18. Note her dazzle camouflage, rows of depth charges over her stern, and four 4″/50 cal open mounts, fore and aft, made all the more out of place due to her antiquated plow bow and downright stubby 205-foot overall length.

You wouldn’t know it to look at her, but Manning was in her second war and still had a lot of life left.

Turn of the Century Cutters

The Propeller class was emblematic of the Revenue Cutter Service– the forerunner of the USCG– at the cusp of the 20th Century. The USRCS decided in the 1890s to build five near-sisterships that would be classified in peacetime as cutters but would be capable modern naval auxiliary gunboats.

These vessels, to the same overall concept but each slightly different in design, were built to carry a bow-mounted torpedo tube for 15-inch Bliss-Whitehead type torpedoes (although they appeared to have not been fitted with the weapons) and as many as four modern quick-firing 3-inch guns (though they typically used just two 6-pounder, 57mm popguns in peacetime). They would be the first modern cutters equipped with electric generators, triple-expansion steam engines (with auxiliary sail rigs), steel (well, mostly steel) hulls with a navy-style plow bow, and able to cut the very fast (for the time) speed of 18-ish knots.

All were built 1896-98 at three different yards to speed up delivery.

These ships included:

–McCulloch, a barquentine-rigged, composite-hulled, 219-foot, 1,280-ton steamer ordered from William Cramp and Sons of Philadelphia for $196,000. She was the longest of the type as she was intended for Pacific service and so was designed with larger coal bunkers.

–Gresham, a brigantine-rigged 206-foot, 1,090-ton steel-hulled steamer built by the Globe Iron Works Company of Cleveland, OH for $147,800.

–Manning, a brigantine-rigged 205-foot, 1,150-ton steamer ordered from the Atlantic Works Company of East Boston, MA, for a cost of $159,951.

–Algonquin, brigantine-rigged 205.5-foot, 1,180-ton steel-hulled steamer ordered from the Globe Iron Works Company of Cleveland, OH for $193,000.

–Onondaga, brigantine-rigged 206-foot, 1,190-ton steel-hulled steamer ordered from the Globe Iron Works Company of Cleveland, OH for $193,800.

Meet Manning

As the USRSC (and the USCG until 1967) was part of the Treasury Department, our vessel was the only one named in honor of Grover Cleveland’s Treasury secretary, Daniel Manning, although she only carried the last name and not the full name while in service. Accepted by the Service, Manning was commissioned on 8 January 1898, and she would soon “see the elephant.”

War with Spain!

Unlike the coming World Wars where the entire Service would be placed under the control of the Navy, only those vessels deemed modern enough to hold their own in a fight were seconded to the larger sea-going branch for the conflict with the Empire of Spain.

On 24 March 1898, President McKinley instructed his T-Sec to place nine cutters– ours included– “under the direction of the Secretary of the Navy, and cooperate with the Navy, until further orders. This was five weeks after the mysterious and controversial sinking of the USS Maine in Havanna harbor and a full month before Congress declared war on Spain, a fateful vote tallied on 25 April.

In all, the RCS would place 13 revenue cutters– carrying 61 guns and crewed by 98 officers and 562 enlisted— under Navy control during the conflict. This would include four (Grant, Corwin, Perry, and Rush) used to patrol the Pacific coastline and one (Manning’s sister McCulloch) to Commodore Dewey’s Asiatic Squadron for the push on Manila.

This left the Manning, under the command of Captain Fred M. Munger, Morrill, Hamilton, Windom, Woodbury, Hudson, Calumet, and McLane, to join the North Atlantic Squadron under RADM William Thomas Sampson (USNA 1861).

Meanwhile, another seven smaller cutters (Dallas, Dexter, Winona, Smith, Galveston, Guthrie, and Penrose), with a total of 10 guns between them and crewed by 33 officers and 163 men, were placed under Army orders patrolling coastwise minefields off protected harbors from Boston to New Orleans.

Manning was up-armed with three 4-inch guns (2 forward, one aft) with a mix of 250 AP and Common shells. She was also given steel gun shields for her 6-pounders for which she took on 1,500 AP shells, and was fitted with a Maxim-Nordenfeldt 1-pounder 37mm “pom pom” with another 2,200 rounds for that eclectic gun.

A Maxim-Nordenfelt 37mm 1-pounder autocannon fitted on the yacht USS Vixen in 1898. Manning was fitted with one of these for her SpanAm War service. Basically a super-sized Maxim machine gun, it had a very respectable 300 rpm rate of fire, as long as the shells held out. LC-DIG-det-4a14810

Manning would head south to Key West, and eventually be folded into Commodore Winfield Scott Schley’s 2nd Squadron.

His little gunboat was listed by the Navy as having engaged in combat on 12 and 13 May at Cabanas and Mariel, Cuba, and 18 July at Naguerro. Munger noted some 71 rounds of 4-inch and 148 rounds of 6 pdr. ammunition expended in the earlier of the three.

May 12, 1898, USS Manning in engaged off Cabanas, Cuba By Lieut. G. L. Carden, R.C.S. This is the only known photo of a Revenue Cutter in action during the Spanish-American War.

Munger filed three detailed reports with the T-Sec’s office, detailing the cutter’s actions in the war, including a total of some 600 rounds fired across several more engagements than what the Navy detailed.

Returned from Navy service to the RCS on 17 August 1898, Manning put into Norfolk to remove the bulk of her wartime armament and settled into her “salad days.”

Interbellum

USRC Manning. Photograph by Hart, taken off New York City circa 1898-99. Note that she still has at least one 4-inch gun forward and her steel shields over her 6-pounders. NH 46627

On 2 January 1900, Manning was ordered to report to San Francisco via the Straits of Magellan for duties with the Bering Sea Patrol, where she would perform the hard work in the remote region for 13 of the next 16 summers, with occasional pivots to warmer climes in Hawaii.

As with other cutters sent to Alaska, this ranged from policing fishing and sealing grounds, responding to natural disasters, conducting hydrographic surveys, responding to wrecks and distress, and generally serving as the sole federal institution for hundreds of miles in many cases– a job that spanned from carrying supplies and medicine to isolated coastal villages to serving as constabulary force ashore, and even holding court with an embarked judge from time to time. Her Public Health Service physician was often the only medical professional to call at many of these areas with any regularity.

Boiler room of the USS Manning with four crew members, Washington State, between 1898 and 1906

the crew of the Revenue Cutter Manning while on a Bering Sea Patrol 1901 210604-G-G0000-1004

the crew of the Revenue Cutter Manning while on a Bering Sea Patrol 1910 210604-G-G0000-1005

the crew of the Revenue Cutter Manning while on a Bering Sea Patrol 1910 210604-G-G0000-1006

U.S. Revenue Cutter Manning, Unalaska, Aug. 1908. A great view of her torpedo tube. LOC LC-USZ62-130291

Equipped sometime during this period with a 2-KW DeForest spark transmitter/receiver, Mannng could also serve as a floating wireless station while her original coal-fired suite was replaced with oil-fired boilers during a refit at Mare Island Naval Shipyard.

At Sea – “USRC Manning’s race boat crew (1902-1904) which used the Corwin’s Gig. Left to right: Seaman ‘Frenchie’ Martinesen, Master-at-Arms Stranberg (Coxswain), Seaman Andreas Rynberg, Magnus Jensen, and Franze Rynberg.”

Japanese schooners caught poaching near the Pribilof Islands, Bering Sea, Alaska, 1907. “On verso of image: Schr. Nitto Maru is in the foreground. Schr. Kaiwo Tokiyo in the center. Both poachers on Pribloff Islands, Behring Sea, now under the guard of Rev. Cutter McCulloch at Unalaska. Manning is on the right. 63 Japanese in both crews.” John N. Cobb Photograph Collection, University of Washington UW14289. At the time, Capt. Fred Munger, Manning’s old SpanAm War skipper, was head of the Bearing Sea Fleet. 

Manning, 1912. Note this is before her refit that changed her to oil and reduced her masts, ditching her auxiliary sail rig. Note her torpedo tube, still with a hatch. 

In June 1912, while docked at Kodiak Island, Manning’s crew noted the rumbling and ash in the distance that was the historic eruption of Novarupta/Katmai— the largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century. She would spend the next several days harboring refugees from the surrounding communities– as many as 414 onboard the small gunboat at any one time– and, as every well was full of ash, run her then rare desalination plant to make fresh water.

Crew and deck of the US Revenue Cutter Manning covered in ash from June 6, 1912. Via Anchorage Museum

U.S. Revenue Service cutter Manning, crowded with Kodiak residents seeking safety during the 1912 eruption of Novarupta, which resulted in about a foot of ashfall on Kodiak over nearly three days. The photograph was published in Griggs, 1922, and was taken by J.F. Hahn, U.S.R.S.

While many of her crew became sick from the ash of Navarupta, and she had fought both malaria and the Spanish off Cuba for nearly four months during the war, Manning had been a lucky ship when it came to deaths. This streak ended on 10 October 1914 when she lost four crewmen and a Public Health Service physician after one of her small boats swamped in heavy surf off Sarichef, Unimak.

Then came trouble in Europe.

Great War

While in Astoria, Oregon on 26 January 1917, Manning received orders to report, via the Panama Canal, to the Coast Guard Depot at Curtis Bay, Maryland to prepare for possible Naval service.

Soon after she arrived there, on 6 April 1917, the day Congress declared war on Imperial Germany, U.S. Navy’s radio centers transmitted “Plan One, Acknowledge” to all Coast Guard cutters, units, and bases, the code words initiating the service’s transfer from the Treasury Department to the Navy and placing it on an immediate wartime footing. Manning became part of the Navy once again.

It was decided to use the little gunboat as part of the scrappy Squadron 2, Division 6 of the Atlantic Fleet Patrol Forces, and sent overseas to report to VADM(T) William Sowden Sims. Based at Gibraltar, this force consisted of six Coast Guard cutters (Tampa, Algonquin, Seneca, Manning, Ossipee, and Yamacraw). On a list compiled for the British Admiralty, the USCG cutters were described as “good sea boats, good crews, much better than old gunboats.”

With Royal Navy communications personnel aboard, they would escort convoys between Gibraltar and the British Isles and conduct antisubmarine patrols in the Mediterranean against very active German U-boats there.

For her role, Manning and her sister cutters headed to Gibraltar were given a dazzle camouflage scheme. She and sister Algonquin would be armed with four 4-inch guns with 1,500 shells stored in two magazines fore and aft, two racks capable of carrying 16 300-pound depth charges, and four 30.06 Colt “potato digger” machine guns. A small arms locker would be filled with a pair of .30-06 Lewis guns, 18 .45 caliber Colt pistols, and 15 Springfield rifles.

USCG Cutter Manning in her Great War dazzle 170807-G-0Y189-009

USCGC Manning in dry dock. Note the canvased deck guns. 170807-G-0Y189-010

Although Manning’s Gibraltar service is not well documented, the risk was no joke as fellow Squadron 2 cutter Tampa, after completing a convoy run from Gibraltar to England, was torpedoed by UB-91, killing all 131 (111 USCG, 16 RN and 4 USN) personnel aboard.

Returning to USCG service

Reverting back to the Treasury Department on 28 August 1919, Manning would remain on the East Coast, spending the next 11 years operating out of Norfolk with her traditional white hull. During this period, she would participate in the reestablished International Ice Patrol, and take part in the “Rum War” against bootleggers, and other traditional USCG taskings.

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Manning At Norfolk, Virginia, 30 December 1920. Note her armament has been landed but her torpedo tube remains although the hatch has been removed and the tube plated over. Panoramic photograph, taken by Crosby, Boston, Massachusetts. Donation of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum, 1970. NH 105313

Manning would be involved in the landmark human smuggling case of the schooner Sunbeam in December 1919 and race to the scene of the sinking British liner SS Vestris off the Virginia Capes in November 1928.

Manning, Norfolk, 1920s. Note the lattice masts of the battleship to the right and the tall gantry works of what looks to be a Proteus class collier to the right

Manning late in her career. Note her RF DF equipment. Also, her torpedo tube has been removed altogether. 

Manning Underway 1927

Past her prime and slated to be replaced by a new and much more modern 250-foot Lake class cutter, Manning was decommissioned at Norfolk on 22 May 1930. The following December, she was sold to one Charles L. Jording of Baltimore for just $2,200.02.

As for her classmates: Cleveland-built sisters Algonquin and Onondaga had been sold in 1930 and 1924 respectively and disposed of. Gresham, sold by the Coast Guard in 1935 for scrap was required by the service in WWII for coastal patrol, then became part of the Israeli Navy before disappearing again in the 1950s and was last semi-reliably seen in the Chesapeake Bay area as late as 1980. McCulloch was lost in 1917 northwest of Point Conception, California when she collided with the Pacific Steamship Company’s steamer Governor (5,474 tons) in dense fog and endures as a reef.

Epilogue

Some of her logs are digitized and online. Few other relics of the old girl exist, which is a shame.

While the Coast Guard has not commissioned a second USCGC Manning, it did, in 2020, commission a painting by Michael Daley, MBE, GAvA, of the old girl steaming out of Gibraltar at the head of a convoy during the Great War with another cutter on the horizon.

Artist Michael Daley, MBE, GAvA. CGC MANNING escorting a convoy out of Gibraltar during World War I. 210610-G-G0000-101

Ships are more than steel
and wood
And heart of burning coal,
For those who sail upon
them know
That some ships have a
soul.

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101st Airborne Starts Getting Its New Guns

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Part of the famed 101st Airborne Division recently became the first unit issued with the new Next Generation Squad Weapon system.

A March 28 social media post from the PEO Soldier office detailed that the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, a unit of the Fort Campbell-based 101st, received the NGSW, marking a key milestone for the program that intends to replace the 5.56 NATO M4 Carbine and M249 Squad Automatic Weapon with a new family of weapons chambered in 6.8mm.

The new guns will be used in an upcoming New Equipment Training, an in-depth, train-the-trainer course, set for this month. From there, the systems and training will fan out across the brigade.

Elements of the 101st had been previously involved in an extensive series of more than 100 tests spanning over 25,000 hours and 1.5 million rounds of ammo with the platform. 

An infantryman with the 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment (Strike Force), 2nd Brigade (Strike), 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), executes chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear defense (CBRN defense) day qualification with the Next Generation Squad Weapon-Rifle and Fire Control while operationally testing at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. (Photo Credit: Mark Scovell, Visual Information Specialist, U.S. Army Operational Test Command)

The program includes SIG Sauer’s XM-7 rifle, which will fill the role currently held by the M4 series, the SIG XM250 light machine gun slated to replace the M249, and the Vortex-produced M157 Fire Control optics system used on both platforms. SIG also supplies suppressors for the platforms. Of note, the XM-7 is based on SIG’s MCX Spear series.

Next up for NGSW is to equip a National Guard armored brigade in May.

More in my column at Guns.com.

Fleeting beauty

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Some 80 years ago today, the magnificence of the brand-new Fletcher-class destroyer USS Leutze (DD-481), seen off her birthplace– the Puget Sound Navy Yard– on 2 April 1944. She wears Camouflage Measure 31 Design 16D, which is reflected in the calm waters. 

National Archives photo 19-N-63358

Same as the above, 19-N-63359

The only ship named in honor of the Prussian-born RADM Eugene H. C. Leutze (USNA 1867, interrupted by Civil War service), USS Leutze (DD-481) was laid down on 3 June 1941 at Bremerton by Puget Sound Navy Yard, launched on 29 October 1942– christened by the granddaughter of the ship’s namesake– and commissioned on 4 March 1944. The above images were taken while on her shakedown period.

Shipping west in June to join the famed tin cans of DESRON 56, Leutze was active in the capture and occupation of South Palau Islands, made a daring nighttime torpedo attack against Nishimura’s battleships in the Surigao Straits, supported the Leyte landings, the Lingayen Gulf landings, and the capture of Iwo Jima.

It was off Okinawa in April 1945– just over a year after the above two images had been snapped– Leutze went to the rescue of a fellow destroyer, the burning USS Newcomb (DD-586).

After tying off to her sister and helping save that nearly destroyed warship, Leutze suffered her own brush with the Divine Wind.

As noted by DANFS:

Suddenly, through the fire and smoke, another Zeke appeared 2,500 yards off the port bow, flying 100 feet above the sea towards Newcomb’s bridge. With the other destroyer close aboard on her port side, Leutze’s shot was once again blocked, and her gunners could only watch as Newcomb’s two forward five-inch guns under local control fired at their nemesis. At 1815 with the plane now 1,000 yards from Newcomb, a five-inch shell exploded beneath the kamikaze’s left wing, knocking the aircraft off its course and causing it to skim across Newcomb’s deck and then strike Leutze at water level on her port quarter. A large explosion thought to be from a 500-pound bomb on the plane ripped her hull open to the sea, and water poured into the destroyer’s aft engine room and several other compartments astern. The blast also jammed the ship’s rudder full to the right, resulting in lost steering control, and also sparked a fire in the No. 4 handling room, which the sprinkler system extinguished quickly. While one repair crew continued to help fight Newcomb’s fires, the other two crews quickly went below decks to stem the flooding in their own ship.

Five minutes after the impact, Leutze’s crewmen began to jettison all extra topside weight. They also lowered the motor whaleboat to retrieve any men who had gone overboard and put two life rafts over the side to pick up survivors from Newcomb. Ten minutes later, at 1830, the destroyer’s fantail was already awash, indicative of serious flooding. Commanding officer Grabowsky informed CTF 54 at 1836 that his ship was in danger of sinking and requested help. With destroyer Beale (DD-471) now on the scene to aid Newcomb, Leutze discontinued assistance to her burning sister and gingerly moved ahead on a single engine, her stern section shuddering badly. Valiantly fighting to remain afloat, the crew jettisoned all depth charges and torpedoes on safe setting to save weight. With the destroyer’s after fuel and diesel tanks 100% full, the captain issued the order to pump the tanks at 1840. Meanwhile, the damage control parties continued to throw excess weight overboard and shored up the bulkheads of damaged compartments.

The emergency measures taken likely saved the ship. By 1900, the crew had stemmed the flooding and shortly thereafter regained steering control, and an hour later, the fantail had risen two feet above the waterline. Most fortunately, Leutze experienced no further air attacks as damage control efforts continued throughout the night. Lt. Grabowsky praised his crew for their resolve and fearlessness during the events of 6 April. “It is with the greatest pride that the Commanding Officer reports that under these extreme circumstances, the conduct of all hands was courageous in the highest sense of the word and could serve as an outstanding example of steadfastness under fire,” he wrote in his action report.

USS Leutze (DD 481) hit by a Japanese plane at Okinawa, Ryukyu Island, which was marred by anti-aircraft smoke at the instant the plane hit. Photograph released April 12, 1945. 80-G-322421

The famous DD-481 in Karamo Retto on 9 April 1945 following a kamikaze attack, at Okinawa. Courtesy of Turner collection. NH 69110

Towed to Kerama Retto anchorage and slowly repaired enough over three months to return under steam to California, she arrived at Hunters Point on 3 August 1945 but was deemed uneconomical to repair with the break out of peace and was scrapped in New Jersey in 1947.

Leutze earned all 5 of her battle stars.

Of Big Airfields on Tiny Islands and Alternate Logistics

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Two F-22 Raptors assigned to the 525th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, Kadena Air Base, Japan, prepare for launch during Exercise Agile Reaper 23-1 at Tinian International Airport, Northern Mariana Islands, March 2, 2023. Throughout the weeklong exercise, F-22 Raptors will fly sorties from locations within the Northern Mariana Islands in a first for the aircraft. AR 23-1 supports the Air Force’s requirement for expeditionary skills necessary to operate outside of military installations; Airmen must have diverse skills that enable them to operate in a contested, degraded, and operationally limited environment. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Hailey Staker)

Congress recently ponied up a big win for American contingency plans in the Pacific by providing $7.1 billion in support and aid, to be distributed over 20 years, to the Freely Associated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Palau. These island chains are the remnants of the old post-WWII U.S. Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, which were in most cases part of the Empire of Japan before that.

The compacts ensure that the United States can maintain a military presence in the Freely Associated States, and they enable the Compacts’ island citizens to serve in the U.S. military.

As detailed by Air & Space Forces Magazine:

Now, in its most fiscal 2025 budget request, the Air Force has laid out plans to upgrade facilities on the tiny island of Yap, which lies between Guam and Palau, some 1,000 miles southeast of China. Part of the Federated States of Micronesia, Yap comprises just 46 square miles, making it just two-thirds the size of Washington, D.C.

The Air Force wants to invest $400 million to extend its runway in both directions and expand facilities there, beginning with an initial investment of $96 million in 2025.

Meanwhile, Marine F-35s of VMX-1 have been getting the logistics worked out of how to operate the birds from an old 50-foot-wide highway in Southern California. With ordnance and support crews flown in via V-22s, it is a postage stamp-sized operation that could be repeated anywhere a good length of roadway is found– for instance small old airfields around the Pacific Rim.

Speaking of Marines thinking outside of the box when it comes to running operations in likely well-contested forward areas, the Corps is interested in the “autonomous low-profile vessel,” or ALPV, which Gen. Christopher Mahoney, the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, describes as an “extremely low-observable,” autonomous, ocean-going ship.

In short, a legit version of the old narco-sub, but with the advantage of being unmanned.

An autonomous low-profile vessel sails on the Del Mar Boat Basin to test its capabilities as part of Project Convergence Capstone 4 at Camp Pendleton, Calif., Feb. 23, 2024. The ALPV is a semi-submersible autonomous logistics delivery system that can be configured to deliver multiple variations of supplies and equipment throughout the littorals. Photo By: Kevin Ray J. Salvador, Marine Corps. VIRIN: 240223-M-AJ782-1510Y

Koruniat and Ndrilo Island April Fools

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USS Oyster Bay (AGP-6) late 1944 with PT boats alongside

At the end of March/first of April 1944, some 80 years ago, the fighting motor torpedo boat tender USS Oyster Bay (AGP-6), with the Elco-made 80-foot mosquito boats of MTBRon 18 and MTBRon 21 in tow, was pressed into service bombarding targets in the Admiralties with her 5-inch guns, softening the islands up for landings there by the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division (“First Team”). Likewise, her PT boats got into the act closer to “D” day, coming in close enough to run light mortars (81mm and 60mm) from their decks as well as 37mm and 20mm guns.

PT boats bombarding Pityilu Island, Seeadler Harbor, before landings there by the Army’s First Cavalry Division, on 30 March 1944. Note the large 37mm and 20mm guns on these boats. National Archives SC 189625

As detailed in At Close Quarters: PT Boats in the United States Navy, by Robert J. Bulkley, emphasis mine:

Pityilu Island had been bombed and strafed by aircraft and shelled by destroyers at intervals for more than 2 weeks before the landings on March 30. The Oyster Bay had been pressed into service on March 14 to knock out enemy positions on the island with 60 rounds from her 5-inch guns. On the morning of March 30, 10 PT’s got underway to support the landings. Joe Burk’s PT 320 dropped a marker buoy to guide the amphibious craft through a channel between two reefs. PT’s 324 and 326, patrolling the southeast tip of the island to prevent evacuation, quickly silenced light sniper fire with their guns. After the island had been shelled by destroyers and strafed by P-40’s and Spitfires, PT’s 320, 325, 328, 362, 363, 365, and 367 moved in ahead of the landing craft and mortared and strafed the beach. Machineguns fired inaccurately at the boats from shore. PT 331 (Lt. (jg.) Bernard A. Crimmins, USNR), with General Swift aboard, was used as an observation post for the high command in the immediate vicinity of the landing area. The troops met stiff resistance, but by nightfall had gained complete control of the island.

The following morning PT’s 362, 363, 365, 366, and 367 bombarded Koruniat Island with mortars, and Oyster Bay, with PT’s 320, 321, 325,

–230–

and 326, shelled and strafed Ndrilo Island. On April 1 an Army combat team went ashore on Koruniat and later moved to Ndrilo. Both islands were deserted.

White 35, in full Color

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Check out this original Kodachrome, taken some 80 years ago today, of LT(JG) George T. Glacken and his gunner, Aviation Radioman Second Class Leo W. Boulanger, in their Douglas SBD-5 Dauntless dive bomber, White 35, of VB-16 from the Essex-class aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CV-16) off of Palau, 30 March 1944.

(LIFE Magazine Archives – JR Eyerman Photographer)

You can make out the details of the bomb hashes, and Boulanger’s twin AN/M2s, capable of a blistering 1,200 rounds per minute as long as the belts hold out.

You can see the squadron’s distinctive eagle insignia on the side of White 35.

Bombing Sixteen would earn the Presidential Unit Citation “Received for action from the U.S.S. Lexington (CV-16) at Tarawa (September 18th, 1943), Wake (October 5-6th, 1943), Palau, Hollandia and Truk (March 18th – April 30th, 1944), Marianas (June 11th – July 5th, 1944), and Gilbert Islands (November 19th, – December 5th, 1945).”

Glacken is listed as a Navy Cross holder. Born in 1916 in Lorain, Ohio, he passed in 1990. Meanwhile, Boulanger would earn the DFC.

And, of course, the “Grey Ghost” that they flew from is preserved as a museum ship at Corpus Christie, Texas.

The Many Colors of…Celik?

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While wandering around the IWA Outdoor Classic Show in Germany recently, we came across a company making Hi-Power clones and had to find out more.

Celik Arms, located in Beyşehir, Turkey, has been in the gun business since 2005 and makes pistols, rifles, and shotguns, with most of its production headed to the U.S. under a variety of importer’s banners. Odds are, you have probably seen them already and may already have one or two in the gun safe.

One of the company’s newest lines is the FP-14, which is a decent-looking BHP clone in several variants.

They look to be fairly straight-up Mark III-style clones with ambi safety levers, external extractors, and ring-style hammers, but all the models we tested did not have that gun’s dreaded magazine safety.

Further, talking to the reps at the Celik booth, they have just signed a deal with a Nevada-based importer to start shipping the FP-14 to America, so you can be sure to see these in our neck of the woods starting in the next few months.

When FN/Browning closed the O.G. Hi-Power line in 2018, the pang of regret from the gun community was real enough for Springfield Armory, EAA, and SDS Imports to all start rolling their own or having them made in Turkey.

Have we reached max BHP cloneage? Only time will tell, but signs point to “no.”

RBFM: Never Underestimate Sailors Fighting Ashore

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In November 1942, the Brits had around 600 Vichy French Navy POWs in their custody at Grizedale Hall in England. These men had been captured in the assorted brushes around Africa and the Middle East in the awkward period between the British raid on the French fleet at Mers-el-Kébir in July 1940 and the Torch Landings that, in effect, ended the Vichy regime.

One of those men in the brig was Capitaine de corvette Raymond Emile Charles Maggiar, the former XO of the Vichy auxiliary cruiser Bougainville, which had been sunk in a one-sided battle with the Royal Navy off Diégo-Suarez, Madagascar in May 1942. A career officer who had entered the Naval Academy in 1922, Maggiar had previously served on the battleships Courbet and Bretagne, the torpedo boat Mistral, the destroyer Valmy, and the cruiser Suffren. Earlier in the war, while an officer on the merchant cruiser Ville d’Alger, he fought in the Narvik campaign, in the evacuation of Dunkirk, and in the spiriting away of the French national gold supply from Brest to Dakar.

With the Torch Landings and the general burying of the hatchet between those in the French military who were still hosed off at the British betrayal and the Western Allies, Maggiar, along with 44 other officers and 333 enlisted POWs, approached the Brits with an offer to volunteer to head to Algiers, place themselves under RADM Lemonnier, and create a battalion of Marine Fusiliers to capture and hold the coastal artillery batteries at Bizerte in Tunisia– emplacements of which many of the men were well acquainted.

With the offer accepted, the ad-hoc “Bataillon de Bizerte” was created and dispatched to Algeria on a British transport. There, they were armed from French stocks in North Africa with Great-War era Lebel rifles, 11 assorted machine guns of three different types, a single 81mm mortar, a 37mm M1916 popgun, and eight mules. Folded into the Corps Francs d’Afrique, they were involved in the push into Tunisia and, true to their mandate, were used to capture Bizerte.

Curiously, they never became part of the “official” Free French Naval forces (FNFL) and were an orphan unit.

Then, in September 1943, the Bataillon de Bizerte, its numbers swelled to over 900 (including no less than 106 naval officers) by escapees from occupied France, Corsicans, Pieds-Noirs, and Algerians, but not needed to man the few active ships in the Free French fleet, it was decided to make the unit a tank destroyer unit equipped with M10 Wolverines.

With that, the Régiment Blindé de Fusiliers-Marins was born.

Moved by train to Casablanca in December 1943 to receive training alongside the 11e régiment de chasseurs d’Afrique, the Marines of the RBFM inherited the “well-broken in” M10s, M3 scout cars, jeeps, motorcycles, and M2/M3 half-tracks of the 11 RCA when that latter unit, part of the “official” Free French (Forces Françaises Libres, or FFL) forces, was shipped to England to become a full-fledged M4 Sherman tank outfit.

The RBFM, as with the vehicles they drove, typically wore American uniforms with French insignia– note the fusiliers marins crossed anchors

The RBFM’s M10s were all, in naval parlance, fantastically named with monikers borrowed from cats, sea creatures, famous French Naval ships (Richelieu, Le Fantasque, Tourville, Milan, et. al), swashbuckling soldiers (Lansquenet, Corsaire) and types of storms (a traditional French naval vessel naming convention for destroyers). When a vehicle was destroyed, its replacement would pick up the same name but with a #2 (e.g. when Souffleur was destroyed on 29 Jan 1945, its replacement was named Souffleur 2).

1st Sqn
Flamme (Flame)
Foudre (Lightning)
Tonnerre (Thunder)
Eclair (Flash)
Tourville
Suffren
Narval (Narwal)

2nd Sqn
Lynx
Leopard
Lion
Jaguar
Morse (Walrus)
Phoque (Seal)
Marqouin (Porpoise)
Souffleur (Blower)
Milan
Epervier (Hawkward)
Albatross
Vautour (Vulture)

3rd Sqn
Le Terrible
Le Fantasque
Audacieux (Bold)
Le Malin
Flibustier
Corsaire
Mameluck
Lansquenet
Richelieu
Dunkerque
Jean Bart
Strasbourg

4th Sqn
Orage (Thunderstorm)
Bourrasque (Squall)
Tempete (Storm)
Ouragan (Hurricane)
Typhon
Tornade
Tramontane
Trombe
Siroco
Cyclone
Simoun
Mistral

The unit’s badge included an M10 tank destroyer, the Cross of Lorraine, and the traditional crossed anchors of the Fusiliers-Marins. Likewise, each vehicle flew a crossed anchor tricolor pennant.

They were an eclectic unit, to say the least, and its members included ensign Philippe de Gaulle, son of that De Gaulle, who would command the 1st platoon of the 1st squadron.

And French movie star Jean Gabin (Jean-Alexis Moncorgé), shown in the center, who, at 40, was the oldest M10 commander in the unit if not the French military as a whole. Gabin, who had served in the Marines in his 20s, at the time had an extensive cinema career and was Marlene Dietrich’s boyfriend.

Gabin is considered one of the greatest stars in French cinema but took time off from the silver screen to command Souffleur and Souffleur 2 in the RBFM during the war. Ever the sailor, when he died in 1976, he had requested that his ashes be scattered by a navy ship at sea.

Another oddity of the RBFM was its Marinettes, a group of female ambulance drivers that accompanied the unit across Europe. 

Puppy held by female medical personnel with the Free French Army 1944. Note the Adrian helmet with a naval anchor device. George Silk LIFE

Assigned to Général Leclerc’s 2e Division Blindée for the liberation of France, the RBFM loaded on three vessels for Britain in late April 1944 and by May were cooling their heels at Sledmere in Yorkshire, getting ready for the big push through Normandy.

Landing on Utah Beach on 2/3 August 1944, they saw their first combat north of the Ecouves Forest ten days later and would remain engaged for the rest of the war, taking part in the liberation of Alençon, Paris, Strasbourg, and Colmar; fighting in the Battle of Dompaire– where they were credited with zapping 13 Panthers in 48 hours of uninterrupted combat– and ending the conflict at Dolphy’s mountain hideaway, the Berchtesgaden.

Liberation of Paris – August 25, 1944, a jeep of the RBFM– note the bachi caps of the sailors and their M1 Carbines– passing in front of the M4 Sherman “Picardie” tank of the 12th RCA on rue de Tilsit, 8th arrondissement, Paris.

TD M10 “Corsaire” of the 3/RBFM of the 2nd DB on Boulevard Raspail, at the intersection with Rue de Vaugirard, Paris

Albatros in Versailles, 25 August 1944. The Tank Destroyer “Albatros” belonged to the 3rd combat platoon of the 2nd squadron of the Marine Rifle Regiment (2nd DB). Tank Commander: Second Master Combeau. Gunner: Sailor Robin. Driver: Quartermaster Rieutord. Radio: Sailor Feigne

Régiment blindé de fusiliers marins RBFM M10 MISTRAL et à sa droite l’Arc de Triomphe

Régiment Blindé de Fusiliers-Marins M10 TERRE-357-L8589

Régiment Blindé de Fusiliers Marins (RBFM) Paris. Le Terrible of the 3rd sqn in the foreground. 

M10 Terrible 2 advancing through the ruins of Royan. Note the French navy bachi caps of its crew.

RBFM was inspected in late in the war. Besides the traditional French navy bachi caps the crews over American kit, note the six “kill” rings on the barrel of Mistral and nine on Sirocco.

They were credited with taking 430 German prisoners, destroying 41 panzers, 16 artillery pieces, and 43 trucks while only losing 10 of their M10s in combat. Not a bad record for such a motley crew!

Soon disbanded after the war, the RBFM would be reformed for brief service in Indochina but has since faded into history.

Maggiar, who lost the sight in his right eye in the liberation of Paris, would retire as an admiral in 1955 and write a book about the RBFM, He passed in 1994

Their wartime banner is preserved, as is Sirocco— the highest-scoring M10 with 9 “kills.

A portrait of Maggiar hangs over the banner

Sirocco is now preserved in the Armored Vehicles Museum in Saumur

One of the last vets of the RBFM, Admiral Philippe de Gaulle, passed earlier this month at age 102.

He retired from the French Navy in 1982 and entered politics, serving as a senator from Paris until 2004.

He was honored in a state ceremony this last week

Mummy Garand?

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This Springfield Armory M1 is over at the CMP’s In-House Auctions page, where they put rares up for grabs:

As noted by CMP:

This rifle has not been test-fired or otherwise worked by CMP. This rifle has been wrapped and packed in grease for storage. When and where this rifle was prepped for storage is unknown. This rifle is sold AS IS and will require cleaning and assessment before being fired.

For what it’s worth, the serial number range, 563895, puts production in the darkest days of WWII for the U.S., March 1942, so the likelihood that this gun got wrapped and never issued in the next four years of war is slim. Odds are (and this is just my opinion) it was reworked sometime post-war and has been in storage ever since.

Still, it’s nice to see stuff like this is still out there. If you are curious, the current bid is over $3K. 

Contracts: You can walk on the Sonobuoys and Harriers Get Support to 2029

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A few interesting things in yesterday’s DOD contract announcements.

Emphasis mine:

Sparton De Leon Springs LLC, De Leon Springs, Florida, is awarded a $106,391,400 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the production and delivery of a maximum of 20,000 AN/SSQ-125 Modified High Duty Cycle Sonobuoys for the Navy in support of annual training, peacetime operations and testing expenditures, as well as, to maintain sufficient inventory to support the execution of major combat operations based on naval munitions requirements process. Work will be performed in De Leon Springs, Florida (54%); and Columbia City, Indiana (46%), and is expected to be completed in March 2026. No funds will be obligated at the time of award; funds will be obligated on individual orders as they are issued. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1). Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N0001924D0113).

The 36-pound SSQ-125 uses the standard LAU-126/A launcher, such as used on the P-8 Poseidon

Keep in mind that the use of sonobuoys by drones will be a real thing very soon, which could be a huge game changer in terms of ASW. 

This week from General Atomics: 

MQ-9B SeaGuardian Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) on the U.S. Navy’s W-291 test range in southern California.

GA-ASI’s SeaGuardian flew the full test flight event configured with the SDS pod and SeaVue multi-role radar from Raytheon, an RTX business. During the test, the SDS pod dropped eight AN/SSQ-53 and two AN/SSQ-62 sonobuoys. Upon dispensing, the sonobuoys were successfully monitored by the SeaGuardian’s onboard Sonobuoy Monitoring and Control System (SMCS).

Meanwhile, L3 Harris has been working on a modular launch tube sonobuoy for larger drones such as the Reaper

Harriers…

A U.S. Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier II assigned to Marine Attack Squadron 223, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, taxis on the runway at Bodø Air Station, Norway, March 3, 2022. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Adam Henke)

And in Harrier news, welcome to the last few USMC AV-8B units as well as the Italian and Spanish navies:

The Boeing Co., St. Louis, Missouri, is awarded a $13,674,435 cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-
delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to provide continued post-production support (PPS) for the T/AV-8B Harrier to include readiness improvements, upgrades, correction of deficiencies and issues related to structural fatigue. Outyear PPS is based on developed plans identifying optimum support options for sustaining engineering and integrated logistic support until the fleet is transitioned from T/AV-8B Harrier to the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter for the Marine Corps, and the governments of Italy and Spain requirements. Work will be performed in St. Louis, Missouri (80%); and Cherry Point, North Carolina (20%), and is expected to be completed in December 2028. No funds will be obligated at the time of award; funds will be obligated on individual orders as they are issued. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant with Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N0001924D0008).

Technology Security Associates, California, Maryland, is awarded a $13,661,338 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to provide program management, financial, engineering, logistics, administrative, security, and technical support services for the AV-8B Harrier Weapons System for the governments of Spain and Italy in support of the T/AV-8B Harrier Joint Program Office. Work will be performed in Patuxent River, Maryland (30%); Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (30%); Cherry Point, North Carolina (30%); and California, Maryland (10%), and is expected to be completed in April 2029. International Agreement (non-Foreign Military Sales) funds in the amount of $13,661,338 will be obligated at the time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-4(a)(2). Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N0001924C0039).

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