Category Archives: weapons

Le Char Chaffee

Posted on by One comment

U.S. Light Tank, M24 entered production in 1943 with Cadillac and Massey-Harris with the tractor firm making 1,139 at its Racine, Wisconsin facility (a former Nash-Kelvinator plant!) and another 3,592 hulls coming direct from Cadillac’s Detroit factory, with lots of sub-components supplied by Oldsmobile.

They were an excellent light tank for the era, hitting the scales at 20 tons (which was still much larger than a 15-ton circa 1941 M3 Stuart that it would doctrinally replace) while carrying an effective 75mm M6 main gun, up to 38mm of armor (which was actually lighter in spots than the Stuart but better than nothing) and could hit speeds of up to 35 mph on good roads and with good tracks/wheels.

Fort Hood, a good example in size between an M24 Chaffee light tank, M4A3E8 Easy Eight Sherman medium tank, and M26 Pershing heavy tank, all shown with deep wading equipment

It came rather late to WWII and only started reaching the ETO in November 1944, not making much of a difference. In U.S. service, however, it did see much more action in the first days of Korea, as we have covered in the past.

Where the M-24 really shined, in terms of military history, is in rebuilding Allied tank forces post-war, and it saw something like 28 different operators including Norway who used them until the end of the Cold War, only retiring their Cadillac-Massey light tanks in 1993!

NM-116: Norwegian M24 Chaffe repurposed as a tank destroyer

In fact, that is where the “Chaffee” designation comes from on the tank, issued by the British who were fond of naming Lend-Leased Yank tanks for generals.

However, while countries as wide-reaching as Ethiopia, Chile, and Denmark would use the humble little Chaffee, no one used as many as the French, who picked up no less than 1,250 M-24s in the late 1940s to early 1950s– a full one out of every four built.

These tanks saw lots of serious use in Indochina from 1947-54 in French hands, where the small (compared to a main battle tank) was ideal from primitive roads and bridges.

26 March 1951 Indochine française. French and Vietnamese soldiers catching a ride on the M24 Chaffee “Metz”. Réf. : TONK 51-37C R13 Guy Defives; Paul Corcuff/ECPAD/Defence

Ten were even flown, disassembled into components, into Dien Bien Phu where they served as mobile artillery for the embattled garrison, reportedly firing in excess of 15,000 shells during the siege.

French Foreign Legionnaires working on US-supplied M24 Chaffee tanks at Dien Bien Phu in Indochina. They would suffer repeated massed bazooka and recoilless rifle attacks and somehow endure. 

Once the French left, the NVA and ARVN had so many third-hand Chaffees inherited that they continued to use them well into the 1960s, with the South Vietnamese replacing theirs with U.S.-supplied M-41A3 Walker Bulldogs and Uncle Ho’s tankers graduating to Soviet-supplied PT-76 light tanks with the latter first seeing combat against the Lang Vei Special Forces camp on 6/7 February 1968.

Two M24 Chaffee tanks of the People’s Army of Vietnam, which had been captured from French forces, at a military parade in Hanoi, 1955.

M24 Chaffee light tanks of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) prior to the commencement of operations in the Iron Triangle, Oct 1965. Binh Duong Province, Ben Cat. Tom Gosper photo via the AWM. P11006.017

The ARVN also transferred many semi-working M24s to the VNAF, the South Vietnamese airforce, for use in static roles by their local security police, which continued well into the 1970s. 

M24 Chaffee of the VNAF (South Vietnamese Air Force) guards Tan Son Nhut in Saigon.

Some fought to the bitter end, pressed into service in a losing battle against impossible odds.

M41 Bulldog and M24 Chaffee light tanks of the ARVN after being destroyed by North Vietnamese T-54 on the outskirts of Saigon, during the 1975 Spring Offensive

As for the French, they kept a few M-24s in their inventory where some saw combat in Algeria as late as 1962, but by that time had moved to replace them with more than 3,500 domestically-produced air-portable AMX-13, which remained in service with the Republic into the 1980s and is still seen in many third world environments as another 3,500 were exported to French allies– a true successor for the M24. 

Not all Turknellis are garbage, apparently

Posted on by Leave a comment

Stoeger has kept calm and carried on with a line of low-key defensive autoloading shotguns for a while and the M3000 Freedom Defense series feels – and performs – really well.

Follow me on the lineage here. Turkey’s Stoeger is owned by Beretta, which, in turn, also owns Benelli. Stoeger doesn’t advertise that, but it’s probably a big reason why the M3000 feels (and even looks) so much like the $1,400 Benelli M2 Tactical combat shotgun. Keep in mind the M3000 Freedom Defense is half as much, which is the mic-drop moment.

Speaking of lineage, Stoeger first introduced the M3000 series in 2013 as a field gun with full-length screw-in choked barrels. Then came the Defense version, with shorter (18.5-inch) cylinder bore barrels in 2017. Since then, Stoeger has made a series of quiet upgrades to the line to give us the M3000 Defender Freedom series that we have today.

Underappreciated for sure, I’ve about 500 shells downrange with the M3000 Freedom Defense with no issues to report so far other than the magazine knob spinning loose every now and then (keep an eye on that), and the “buttpad” just shouldn’t be called one.

More in my column at Guns.com.

So long, SharpSHooters (for now)

Posted on by Leave a comment

This is probably the last time 18 F-18C/D models will be in the air in a single formation again:

U.S. Marines with Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron (VMFAT) 101, Marine Aircraft Group 11, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, conduct a mass formation launch known as “flying the barn,” to honor the squadron’s legacy on the day of its deactivation at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California, Sept. 29, 2023. For more than 50 years, instructor pilots of the VMFAT-101 “SharpShooters” have qualified combat aviators and sent them to operational squadrons worldwide. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Samantha Devine)

With the end of the line– at least in U.S. service– for the nimble but aging F-18C in favor of the mammothly larger F-18E “Rhino” Super Hornet, since October 2019, the “SharpShooters” of Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron (VMFAT) 101 has trained Navy and Marine Corps aviators as the only remaining F/A-18C Hornet Fleet Replacement Squadron in the Department of the Navy.

That ended on 29 September when the 3rd MAW deactivated the squadron aboard MCAS Miramar. As outlined in the 2022 Marine Corps Aviation Plan, the Hornet will continue to operate and provide combat capability until its complete transition to the F-35 Lighting II in 2030. Still, the dedicated training mission of new Hornet crews (if needed) will be curtailed and transferred as an ancillary mission to the “Death Rattlers” of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 323, a 3rd MAW operational F-18C squadron co-located at Miramar. Besides VMFA-323, the Marines still cling to six Hornet squadrons including those in the reserves. 

VMFAT-101, commissioned at El Toro on 3 January 1969 as a Vietnam-era F-4 Phantom training unit,. Some 125,000 flight hours later, it flew its last 10 operational Phantoms to Davis-Monthan in 1987 then returned to El Toro to pick up the Hornet, ultimately feeding 11 active Marine fighter attack squadrons.

Now, capping 36 years with the bird, they once again put a classic type to bed in style and opted to “Fly the Barn” putting its 18 aircraft up in a single flight during the sundown ceremony.

As for a deeper dive, The Fighter Pilot Podcast sat down with the final VMFAT-101 Commander, LtCol Ryan “Yoshi” Franzen, and Operations Officer Maj Erik “Tucker” Rheinhart to share Sharpshooter history and legacy, and what’s next.

The Mighty Miss headed West

Posted on by Leave a comment

80 years ago today. The much-modified New Mexico-class super-dreadnought USS Mississippi (Battleship No. 41), port view, 45 degrees of centerline while off San Francisco, California, 8 October 1943

National Museum of the U.S. Navy photo 19-LCM-Box 196-2

Another shot, taken the same day, shows a great profile of BB-41.

Note that giant new SK radar. 19-LCM-Box 196-3

The third USS Mississippi was laid down on 5 April 1915 by Newport News Shipbuilding Co., Newport News, Va.; launched on 25 January 1917; and commissioned 18 December 1917– some eight months after the U.S. entered the Great War.

Her WWI service was limited largely to exercises and working up– plus the British wanted coal-fired battleships for service with the Home Fleet and Mississippi and her sisters had an advanced turbo-electric engineering suite of four Curtis turbines with steam provided by nine oil-fired Babcock & Wilcox boilers.

Modernized in the mid-1930s (changing to a more efficient 4 sets of Westinghouse geared steam turbines powered by 6 Bureau Express boilers in addition to a myriad of other, more minor, changes), Mississippi escaped the great battleship slaughter at Pearl Harbor as she was on the other side of the globe– keeping neutrality watch in Icelandic waters on December 7, 1941.

While she was rushed to the West Coast afterward, limited refueling abilities past Oahu left her there, only venturing out on the occasional convoy run to Fiji and heading north to participate in retaking the Aleutians from the Japanese in 1943. Finally, by October of that year, it was deemed there were enough oilers and Mississippi had enough new anti-aircraft barrels installed (20 Bofors 40mm in 4×4 & 2×2 mounts, as well as 21 Oerlikon 20mm guns) to head to the West Pac.

The above images were taken just before Mississippi sailed from San Pedro on 19 October to take part in the invasion of the Gilbert Islands.

She would end up with eight battle stars for World War II service then live on into the Atomic era as a guided missile anti-aircraft training ship and test ship (EAG‑128), remaining in service into 1956– the last American Great War era battlewagon on active duty. Of note, her two sisters were broken up in 1947.

SAMs and casemates! USS Mississippi (EAG-128) Fires a Terrier surface-to-air missile during at-sea tests, circa 1953-55. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-K-17878

70 Year Throwback: Operation Seagull

Posted on by Leave a comment

October 1953, French Indochina. A locally recruited paratrooper of 2e Bataillon du 1e Régiment de Chasseurs Parachutistes (2/1er RCP) posted in observation and firing position, on the edge of Phu Nho Quan (Nho-Quan district) during Operation Mouette (Seagull). As a sign of being in an elite unit, he is armed with a new 10-shot 7.5mm MAS 49 rifle outfitted with an APX L806 scope– a decent setup for the time– and clad in a combination of TAP 47 uniform and American “Beo Gam” duck hunter camo. Also, note the American bino case and canteen. 

Ref: TONK 53-112 R83 ©Pierre.Ferrari/ECPAD/Defense

Mouette, which ran throughout October and into December, would see a 24,000-man French force attempt to encircle and defeat a Viet Minh divisional-sized element around the Phu Nho Quan area, south of the Red River Delta. In the end, the French withdrew, claiming a tactical victory, and the area “pacified,” citing that the Viet Minh had suffered “at least 10 times the casualties” they had inflicted in return (~750) on the men of the Republic.

As for the 1er RCP, it was formed 80 years ago this month in Oujda, Morocco on 7 October 1943, 11 months after the Torch Landings, made up of 10 companies and an HHC group, with a cadre from the old 1re Compagnie parachutiste, which had been formed in 1941 from remnants of two earlier French air force paratrooper companies (601e GIA, 602e GIA) that had shifted to Oued Smar aerodrome outside of Algiers post-Fall of France.

The original pre-WWII 601e and 602e GIA (Groupe d’infanterie de l’Air) companies were part of the Air Force but some cadre were folded into the 1er RCP

They had already been bloodied in service to the Allies, with volunteers accompanying the U.S. 2/509th Parachute Infantry Regiment during the raid to destroy a bridge in El Djem, Tunisia on Christmas Eve 1942.

The French paras trained side-by-side at Oujda with the U.S. 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment (82nd Airborne Div) and, by D-Day, sent several sticks over Normandy in 15 small jumps on June 6, 1944, to help establish bases in the German rear in association with SOE and BCRA.

Their first company-size operation was on 5 August, when 84 men of 2nd Coy and 83 of 3rd Coy, as part of the French 3rd battalion of Special Air Service, jumped in Operation Derry 1, 2, 3, to protect bridges around Ploudaniel, Saint-Jean du Doigt, and Finistère, France. Later jumps were made in the enemy’s rear to harass the German withdrawal from Southern France while more men were detached for service and embedded with Allied paratroopers for the Dragoon Landings.

Trained and typically operating with American sky soldiers, the men of the 1er RCP used GI arms and equipment in WWII, with the 1937-established French paratrooper insignia

Then came lots of use as traditional infantry in the Vosges and Colmar regions.

Later in the war, they would make small jumps into Holland as late as April 1945.

When it came to Indochina, the RCP would send two companies in late 1946, making their first (of 21) combat jumps in the region there at Sam Neva, Laos on 23 March 1947 before the whole unit was eventually deployed, even turning to local recruitment and an in-theatre parachute school to keep it flush.

Some of the biggest Indochina missions for the regiment included dropping 450 men in Operation Papillon 1, to capture Hoa Binh in April 1947, a 532-man airborne inserted search and destroy operation between Cu Van and La Hien dropped on 26 November 1947, Operation Pingouin, where 283 men were dropped to neutralize a Vietminh unit at Hoang Xa in September 1948; seizing Son Tay with a full 734-man airdropped battalion in November 1948, a 1,000-man raid on Day in December (revisited the next year in Operation Pegase with a similar force), 331 men recapturing Nam Dinh in 1949’s Operation Anthracite, and their Indochine swan song– setting down among 2,650 massed paratroopers to establish a base at a remote place known as Dien Bien Phu on 20 November 1954.

Then came Algeria, Lebanon, Chad, the Central African Republic, Bosnia, Afghanistan, the Ivory Coast, Haiti, Mali, etc.

Today, the regiment is part of the 11th Parachute Brigade (11e BP) and their motto is “Vaincre ou mouri“– Victory or Death.

And they very much remember their past. 

They maintain the French parachutist badge first established in 1937, and their regimental flag has honors for Vosage (1944) Colmar (1945) Indochine (1947-50, 53-54), and AFN (Algeria) 1952-62. Besides the traditional amaranth (red) airborne beret, they also wear a blue Air Force cap on occasion, to mark the old 601e/602e GIA linage.

Avengers Inbound

Posted on by Leave a comment

80 years ago today: Formation of at least 17 early Grumman TBF-1 Avenger aircraft in flight over Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides, and Aoba Island, Tuesday, 5 October 1943. Note that one plane, White 124, still wears the old “wingless” national insignia roundel, which was discontinued in June 1943.

National Archives photo 80-G-54790

As noted in the official caption about the above torpedo bombers, “They had a cover of 24 F4Us during this training maneuver, and were “attacked” by P-40s of the New Zealand air force. Maneuvers ended with an “attack” on the “enemy” fighter strip.”

Sorry guys, no squadron markings, tail codes, or BuNos visible to dig deeper.

However, there was a series of combined fleet exercises for Task Force 38 off Espiritu Santo in early October with Carrier Air Group 12 aboard the recently-repaired USS Saratoga (CV-3) along with Carrier Air Group 23 aboard the newly-commissioned light carrier USS Princeton (CVL-23) in preparation for Operation Shoestring 2. Therefore, these Avengers could be from VC-23 or Torpedo (VT) 12, sans tail codes yet.  

Like 1911s? Two Legacy Companies Just Announced They Are Now Making Them

Posted on by Leave a comment

Colt had a lock on John Browning’s Model of 1911 design for just two years, being forced to allow the Army’s Springfield in 1914 to begin production of the pistol.

Before the Great War was out, the War Department leaned on Colt to allow Remington Arms-UMC and Winchester to also get in on the game with contracts for 500,000 guns each at a price of $15 (U.S.) per pistol delivered (of which Remington only managed to make 22,000 and Winchester none.) Added to this were late 1918 War Department contracts for another 1.7 million M1911s divided among the North American Arms Co. (Quebec), A. J. Savage Munitions Co. (San Diego), National Cash Register Co. (Dayton, OH), Lanston Monotype Co. (Philadelphia), Caron Brothers Manufacturing Co. (Montreal), Savage Arms Co. (Utica, NY), and the Burroughs Adding Machine Co. (Detroit), of which only NAA was able to make about 100 toolroom samples before the Armistice.

Colt was able to claw back production after the lights came back on in Europe, licensing small runs to military arsenals in Argentina and Norway in the 1920s and kept the gun back under its control– especially after the M1911A1 standard was adopted in 1924– until the drums of world war sounded once again.

WWII production included components and guns made by H&R, Ithaca, Union Switch, Remington Rand (the typewriter folks), and the Singer Sewing Machine Co., with these makers combined dwarfing Colt’s wartime 1911 run.

Then, once again, when peace broke out, Colt was able to consolidate itself as The 1911 Maker and kept introducing new models (and patents/trademarks) such as the Commander, Delta, Gold Cup, MK IV, Defender, New Agent, 80 Series internals, etc, to keep it that way legally.

However, by the late 1970s, this game started losing ground as folks like Essex, Detonics, Randall, Auto-Ordnance, AMT, LAR, and Viking entered the marketplace with incrementally improved clones and stole share from the “Prancing Pony.”

That paved the way for Springfield Armory Inc, Kimber, Les Baer, Magnum Research, Ed Brown, and others to follow by the early 1990s. Then the huge guys like S&W, SIG Sauer, FN-owned Browning, and Ruger to launch their own lines a few years later.

Heck, even Stevens makes a 1911 now.

Speaking of which, a pair of firearm manufacturers typically known for their black rifles and affordable polymer-framed pistols just announced they are working in the 1911 space– Diamondback and Bear Creek.

And the beat goes on…

The new Diamondback Limited Edition DB1911

Old School LST…Maybe Cool Again?

Posted on by Leave a comment

Check out this short (1 minute) moto reel of a Greek Jason-class tank landing ship HS Samos (L174) hitting the beach during exercise “Parmenion-23” on the Island of Chios and disgorging a series of vehicles including M113s, M48A5 MBTs, Humvees, and M109 SPGs in a very dated “right on the beach through scissor doors” kind of way.

You know, ala D-Day and Iwo Jima kinda stuff.

The U.S. got out of the LST biz almost a quarter century ago when we retired the excellent Newport-class tank landing ships.

The Newports went big, the 1960s designed vessels pushing some 8,500 tons or so, but could carry a light battalion of troops (430~) and almost 30 vehicles in as close to 17 feet of water as they could and, using a causeway, get them feet dry on the beach.

U.S. Navy crewmen stand at the end of a causeway as the Newport-class tank landing ship USS San Bernardino (LST-1189), with bow open, prepares to lower its ramp off Coronado, August 1979.

However, the Greek LST above is, as you can see, pretty handy. At just 4,500 tons, they can float with their back end in 11 feet of seawater and carry 350 troops and two dozen vehicles. They also have a helicopter pad for S-70-sized birds and four 36-foot LCVPs in davits.

They have a modest self-defense suite including an OTO Melara 76/62 gun, 2 twin BOFORS 40L/70 anti-aircraft guns, and 2 Rheinmetall 20 mm anti-aircraft guns.

Something like the Jason class, which was built in the 1990s and only has a 120-man crew, could be the off-the-shelf answer to the U.S. Navy’s Medium Landing Ship (LSM) program, previously called the Light Amphibious Warship (LAW) program, which aims to land small Marine Littoral AShM detachments on isolated Pacific atolls.

The Navy wants 18-36 LSMs about this size and capability, so it seems a good fit. 

Swap out the OTO for a 57mm MK110, the 40mm guns for a C-RAM launcher, and mount a couple of 25mm or 30mm Bushmasters for small work– all equipment that can be taken from decommissioned LCSs!

Food for thought rather than trying to reinvent the wheel. Just look at somebody else’s wheel. Plus, the Greeks have been in the littoral biz for more than a couple of millennia so they may know a thing or two.

First All-ASEAN Naval Ex Wraps up

Posted on by Leave a comment

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations recently concluded its first joint naval exercises that, importantly, did not include a big outside power.

Crew Singapore’s RSS Vigour (92), a Victory-class corvette, waving their ballcaps during the sailpast to the Royal Brunei Navy’s KDB Darulehsan (left, background) and the  Sudirohusodo-class hospital ship KRI dr. Radjiman Wedyodiningrat of the Indonesian Navy. (Singapore Navy Photo)

The drills, focused on disaster response, took place near waters China claims as its own and are seen by some as a dress rehearsal for a Noncombatant Evacuation Operation (NEO) if things ever got too tense in Taiwan, where 730,000 ASEAN nationals are working.

The exercise included ships from Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, while the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and East Timor sent observers.

While ASEAN is not a military alliance per se, the group has held joint AUMX exercises with U.S. forces in the past.

The ASEAN naval ex included Singapore transferring a refurbished 500-ton Fearless-class patrol vessel, ex- RSS Dauntless (99) to Brunei as Al Faruq. (Singapore Navy Photo)

Simultaneously, the 30th edition of the Singapore-India Maritime Bilateral Exercise (SIMBEX) was successfully completed over the weekend. 

RSS Stalwart, RSS Tenacious, and RSS Valour participated in a series of exercises in the southern reaches of the South China Sea within international waters alongside Indian Navy frigates INS Ranvijay and INS Kavaratti. (Singapore Navy Photo)

Also, of note, the white hull U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Munro (WMSL 755) has been in the region at the same time, playing well in the South China Sea with the rebooted British Pacific naval force in the area, as part of CARAT 2023 with ASEAN member Brunei.

Royal Navy vessel HMS Spey (P234) (foreground) conducts coordinated ship maneuvers with U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Munro (WMSL 755) on Sept. 17, 2023, in the South China Sea. Munro is deployed to the Indo-Pacific to advance relationships with ally and partner nations to build a more stable, free, open, and resilient region with unrestricted, lawful access to the maritime commons. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Petty Officer Brett Cote)

Geissele Wins $29 Million SOCOM Sniper Rifle Contract

Posted on by Leave a comment

Pennsylvania’s Geissele Automatics last week picked up a fat contract from the U.S. Special Operations Command. 

The 10-year award has a maximum ceiling of $29,263,029 for what SOCOM describes as “a new sniper support weapon, designated marksman, rifle taking advantage of advances in ammunition and weapons technology to improve the intermediate range sniper rifle lethality, reliability and performance when suppressed during 50-1,500-meter engagements.”

The background on the award is part of the MRGG-S, or Mid-Range Gas Gun (Sniper) program (“Margie-Es”), which would be used primarily by the Naval Special Warfare community. The fortune cookie version of the MRGG-S requirements was a full-time suppressed 6.5 Creedmoor rifle with a 20-inch barrel, MOA accuracy, fully adjustable stock, and strict weight/dimensional requirements. Other requirements included a low-backpressure suppressor and the ability for the user to quickly swap out the 6.5CM barrel to one chambered in .7.62 NATO in under five minutes.

First kicked off in 2019, MRGG-S has seen most of the big names in precision military rifles submit variants for consideration, including FN and LMT. 

At the end of the day, however, it seems Geissele has gotten the nod for the new frogman sniper rifle. 

This thing, seen largely as the replacement for the FN SCAR 20 in use by SOCOM

More in my column at Guns.com.

« Older Entries Recent Entries »