Category Archives: weapons

The Lost Battleship of the Atlantic

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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.

The Yin-Yang of Pacific PBY Life

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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.”

It was a wild theatre, indeed.

1904-05 Imperial Japanese Army infantry uniforms

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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.

 

Civilize ’em with the…Hotchkiss

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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.

Note the loading via a 10-shell clip

They were most often seen in the P.I. with volunteer artillery units, in particular, the First Battalion of California Heavy Artillery, and the Utah Batteries.

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.

‘I weighed 125 lbs. and never would have survived the rations in a POW Camp…’

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What a couple of great period Kodachromes that really put you in the head of an 8th Air Force bombardier in 1944.

First, a window view inside the Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress bomber “Times A-Wastin'” (#42-102504) circa 1944-1945: 

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

 Bombardier, LT Paul Chryst, U.S. Army Air Forces, 13099534, in the Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress aircraft “Times A-Wastin’,” November 2, 1944. Other aircraft are visible through the window behind Chryst. 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.”

If you haven’t checked out The Museum of Flight’s Allen collection, you are missing out.

Fold-o-bike

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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.

Library and Archives Canada, MIKAN 3579997 

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.

Not your regular M1…

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80 years ago today, Anzio Beachhead, Italy – 8 March 1944: PFC Paul R. Umstead, of Eagle Grove Iowa, Company “D,” 39th Combat Engineers (Bullstrike), arming M1 anti-tank mines.

Time Life Archives image.

Note the combination of his M1936 suspenders web belt in classic 10-pouch configuration to support his M1903A3 Springfield slung over his back– a common weapon for engineer units. Also, note the VI Corps patch and muddy M1 helmet. There is a late-generation M1A1 Thompson SMG, with a 30-round stick mag rather than the more common 20-rounder, leaning up against the mine crate.

For reference, the M1 anti-tank mine weighed 10.56 pounds each but carried a 6-pound TNT charge.

They needed at least 264 pounds of pressure to set off, which, as the average American man in the 1940s weighed in the 150-pound range, most ground pounders would be safe to walk over one.

Despite his dangerous activities in a dangerous area, PFC Umstead would survive the war.

Biographical details by John Klear, courtesy of World War Pictures:

Paul Russell Umstead, born December 3, 1916 in Eagle Grove, Iowa. In 1937, he was listed as working for the Chicago & North Western Railroad as a snow shoveller. In the 1940 census, he was still listed as a ‘snow worker.’

Enlisted in the Army April 21, 1942 at Fort Des Moines, Iowa. Departed for overseas January 14, 1943. Returned from foreign service September 29, 1945, honorably discharged October 13, 1945

Married Maxine Sanders in 1948. Paul died and was buried in Eagle Grove in 2001, Maxine died two years later and was buried beside him.

The 39th Engineers would take part in a half-dozen World War II campaigns and earn a Meritorious Unit Commendation for its service in Italy. It is still on active duty with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, today.

Skull Island Tomahawk

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A 45th Fighter Squadron Curtiss P-40N Tomahawk, “Lackanocki,” is seen refueling from an F-2 type servicing truck pulled by a Cletrac M2 high-speed tractor while at Funafuti Airfield, Nanumea, Gilbert Islands.

63261A.C. NARA Local Identifier 342-FH-3A42939-63261AC

The 45th, formed at Wheeler Field, Hawaii Territory in December 1940, was decimated during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor a year later.

Reformed with newer P-40N “Sand” models, it deployed to the Gilbert Islands in November 1943, operating in turn from Funafuti, Abemama, and Makin Fields in the chain until it was recalled to Hawaii some 80 years ago this month in early March 1944– dating the above image nicely. Of note, the 45th FS during this period claimed the destruction of 11 enemy aircraft on 26 January 1944 near Aur Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

The 45th would remain in Hawaii for almost a year until February 1945, when, reequipped with late-model P-51 Mustangs to perform very-long-range bomber escort missions, it forward deployed to Iwo Jima in March 1945, where it finished the war escorting B-29s over Japan, a task that earned it a Distinguished Unit Citation.

The squadron lived on into the jet age, flying F-86s, F-100s, F-84s, F-4s, A-37s, and A-10s, the latter of which it has been pushing out of Davis–Monthan since 2009.

Of note, the 45th of the above Gilbert Islands period surfaced in the 2017 film, Skull Island, in which a 45th FS pilot, LT Hank Marlow (Will Brittain/John C. Reilly), parachutes in 1944 onto the uncharted island where a giant ape serves as the big banana and survives 29 years until an expedition arrives in 1973.

50 Years of German CH-53s

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While we are familiar with the mighty CH-53 Sea Stallion and Super Stallion in USMC (and lesser USN RH/MH Sea Dragon and USAF HH/MH Jolly Green Giant) service since Vietnam, the German Bundeswehr has also been operating the type for a half-century.

Ordering 110 CH-53G (modified CH-53D) models in 1969– license produced by VFW-Fokker in West Germany– going past the Cold War, the type has been flown by the Germans in Albania, Bosnia, Iraq (including their first overseas deployment in German service, Desert Storm, where they flew 805 sorties), Kosovo, Congo, Mali, Lebanon, and Afghanistan, often to the delight of forward-deployed U.S. Marines who seemingly always need a lift.

The Germans deployed the CH-53 in Afghanistan for 18 years. Around 22,500 flight hours were flown and around five million kilometers were covered. One was lost in Kabul in 2002, resulting in the loss of 7 aboard. Bundeswehr/Sandra Elbern

They are also heavily involved in humanitarian missions. Two CH-53s were sent to Pakistan in 2005 to help with earthquake relief and the big Stallions have been a welcome sight in Europe during wildfire season, dropping 5,000L of water at a time in their “Smokey” configuration. In 2018, they were credited with stopping a fire from enveloping the town of Klausdorf.

Die CH-53 kann etwas über fünf Tonnen transportieren. Bei Waldbränden kommt der Löschbehälter „Smokey“ zum Einsatz. Bundeswehr/Jane Schmidt

Re-engined and updated with an IFR-capability, the remaining German 66 CH-53GS variants operated in three squadrons assigned to Hubschraubergeschwader 64, are set to continue in service until they are phased out in the next decade by 60 new CH-47F Block II Chinooks in an $8.5B deal announced last May. Until then, with a little help from old USMC CH-53Ds in the boneyards in Arizona, the German CH-53 will endure.

‘They don’t like it up ’em’

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80 years ago this month, a great period Kodachrome of one Private Alfred Campin, 6th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry, while undergoing training in Britain, March 1944. Note his late model No. 4 Enfield, complete with wartime spike bayonet and what (may) be an early Mark III “Turtleshell” helmet (its hard to tell under the net). 

Photo by Tanner, A J (Lt), War Office official photographer, IWM TR 1596

The 6th Battalion DLI, was originally formed in 1908 from the old 2nd Volunteer Battalion DLI, as a Territorial Force battalion with headquarters in County Durham’s Bishop Auckland and eight companies in drill halls in Barnard Castle, Consett, Crook, Spennymoor, Stanhope, and Bishop Auckland. It marched off to war in 1914.

Reverting back to Territorial status interwar, the 6th DLI marched off again to France in 1940 and in North Africa (1941-43) before being shipped back to the Home Isles for reorganization and training for a return to France in June 1944. Pulled from the line in December 1944, the 6th was sent to Yorkshire to be used in training service corps soldiers as infantry then was placed in suspended animation in January 1946

Overall, the DLI continued in British Army service until 1968, when it was amalgamated into The Light Infantry, and then in 2007, when it was further amalgamated into The Rifles.

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