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Warship Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023: Of Shorts & Hard Charging Jeep Carriers

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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, Sept. 27, 2023: Of Shorts & Hard Charging Jeep Carriers

Admiralty Official Collection, IWM A 25686

Above we see, resplendent in their tropical shorts and whites, a three-man Fleet Air Arm Avenger Mk. I (TBF-1) crew of 851 Squadron— LT (A) S S Laurie, RNVR, observer; squadron leader LCDR (A) Anthony Montague “Steady” Tuke, DSC, RN, pilot; and CPO F R Brown, Telegraphist air gunner– by the aft flight deck elevator of the Ruler-class escort carrier HMS Shah (D 21) in August 1944, with four of the big torpedo bombers arrayed behind them. The place is likely Kilindini Harbor, in Mombasa, Kenya, where Shah was preparing to escort a convoy to Aden.

Commissioned 80 years ago today, she accounted for at least one U-boat, took the fight to the Pacific where she helped track down and kill the Japanese heavy cruiser Haguro, and served as a great snapshot for the end of the war—then went on to get really busy.

The Bouge/AmeerAttacker/Ruler/Smiter class

With both Great Britain and the U.S. running desperately short of flattops in the first half of World War II, and large, fast fleet carriers taking a while to crank out, a subspecies of light and “escort” carriers, the first created from the hulls of cruisers, the second from the hulls of merchant freighters, were produced in large numbers to put a few aircraft over every convoy and beach in the Atlantic and Pacific.

Of the more than 122 escort carriers produced in the U.S. for use by her and her Allies, some 45 were of the Bogue class. Based on the Maritime Commission’s Type C3-S-A1 cargo ship hull, these were built in short order at Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation, Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, and by the Western Pipe and Steel Company of San Francisco.

Some 496 feet overall with a 439-foot flight deck, these 16,200-ton ships could only steam at a pokey 16 ish knots sustained speed, which negated their use in fleet operations but allowed them to more than keep up with convoys of troop ships and war supplies. Capable of limited self-defense with four twin Bofors and up to 35 20mm Oerlikons for AAA as well as a pair of 5-inch guns for defense against small boats, they could carry as many as 28 operational aircraft in composite air wings. They were equipped with two elevators, Mk 4 arresting gear, and a hydraulic catapult.

The U.S. Navy kept 11 of the class for themselves (USS Block Island, Bogue, Card, Copahee, Core, Nassau, Altamaha, Barnes, Breton, Croatan, and Prince William), all entering service between September 1942 and June 1943.

This left most of the Bogues (34 of 45) to go immediately to the Royal Navy via Lend-Lease, where they were known as the Ameer, Attacker, Ruler, or Smiter class in turn, depending on their arrangement. 

Meet Shah

Laid down on 13 November 1942 as the planned USS Jamaica (ACV-43/CVE-43) — after the bay on Long Island– under Maritime Commission contract by Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corp., she was launched 21 April 1943 and then handed over to the Royal Navy on 27 September 1943.

Our subject, once delivered to the British, was christened as the second ship in the RN to carry the name HMS Shah, with the first being a 19th-century 26-gun iron-hulled frigate that was significant for being the first naval vessel to fire a locomotive torpedo in action, the latter during an 1877 scrap with the Peruvian ironclad Huáscar, and lives on today in HMS Victory, who has carried her iron masts as her own since 1895.

The engagement between the Huascar and HMS Shah off Ilo, May 29, 1877, Griffin & Co, 1880, via National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London

The “Shah” name also dovetailed well into the naming convention for the Ruler class (HMS Emperor, HMS Empress, HMS Queen, HMS Khedive, et al) which made sense.

After entering RN service, the King’s newest carrier shipped gently north to HM Canadian Dockyard at Esquimalt B.C. to receive her British equipment and sensors, which kept her pier side for the rest of the year.

She would also embark 851 Squadron, 14 Avengers that had been formed at Squantum NAS the previous October.

When 1944 arrived, ordered to head across the Pacific to join the RN’s Eastern Fleet’s 1st Aircraft Squadron, Shah first diverted to San Francisco to pick up a load of aircraft bound for points East.

Overhead view of HMS Shah (D21), formerly Jamaica (CVE-43), moored at San Francisco in January 1944. The ship is ready to ferry a deck load of 29 Wildcats, 12 Avengers (which may be hers of 851 Sqn), and 22 Curtiss Warhawks (P-40) to Melbourne, Australia; Cochin, India; and Colombo, Ceylon. The carrier painted in camouflage Measure 21, moored on the opposite side of the pier, is sometimes identified as USS Rudyard Bay (CVE-81), but this is highly questionable given the date of the photo. A more likely candidate is the USS Prince William (CVE-31). (Photo: Navsource)

And while underway.

This cross-Pacific voyage included crossing the equator, and the required ceremony involved which was conducted after the aircraft were unloaded.

“The Ancient Mariners” performing during a fancy-dress parade on the flight deck of HMS Shah. IWM A 27858

WITH A CARRIER OF BRITAIN’S EASTERN FLEET. FEBRUARY 1945, ON BOARD THE ESCORT CARRIER HMS SHAH IN EASTERN WATERS. (A 27857) A fancy dress parade on the flight deck with ‘Potentate and his harem’ and ‘the Ancient Mariners’. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205159282

Getting into the war, for real

Wrapping up her assorted aircraft ferry missions by May 1944, Shah traveled to Colombo to reembark 851 Squadron (which had been at RNAS Colombo Racecourse since February) as part of Force 66. To her Avengers were added a half-dozen Martlets (Wildcats) for some extra muscle.

She would spend the next six months in serious trade protection duties across the Indian Ocean, tasked with searching for Axis blockade runners, raiders, and subs. This would include chasing the long-range Type IXD2 U-boat U-198 (Oblt. Burkhard Heusinger von Waldegg) to ground near the Seychelles over three days in August 1943 with her aircraft attacking the boat and her escorting frigates HMS Findhorn, Hedgehog, and the sloop HMIS Godavari sinking the sub with all hands (66 men).

“Steady” Tuke, 851’s shorts-clad commander in the first image of this post and the man who dropped a torpedo into the side of the Italian battleship Vittorio Veneto during the Battle of Matapan in 1941 while flying an Albacore off HMS Formidable, would add a bar to his DSC for U-198.

A Mk XI aerial depth charge is being loaded onto a Grumman Avenger aircraft on board the escort carrier HMS Shah in Eastern waters. IWM A 27853

By early 1945, Shah was clustered with the fellow escort carriers HMS Begum, Empress, Emperor, Stalker, and Attacker, to form Commodore Geoffrey Oliver’s 21st Aircraft Carrier Squadron of the East Indies Fleet at Colombo then, along with Empress, Shah was switched to Force 63 in April for Operation Bishop— a carrier raid and surface bombardment of Car Nicobar and Port Blair to provide cover for Operation Dracula (the amphibious landings off Rangoon).

WITH A CARRIER OF BRITAIN’S EASTERN FLEET. FEBRUARY 1945, ON BOARD THE ESCORT CARRIER HMS SHAH IN EASTERN WATERS. (A 27855) The escort carrier HMS BEGUM is in company. Avengers with folded wings are on the flight deck. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205159280

WITH A CARRIER OF BRITAIN’S EASTERN FLEET. FEBRUARY 1945, ON BOARD THE ESCORT CARRIER HMS SHAH IN EASTERN WATERS. (A 27850) Deck crews fuelling Avengers. One is standing by on the catapult. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205159276

WITH A CARRIER OF BRITAIN’S EASTERN FLEET. FEBRUARY 1945, ON BOARD THE ESCORT CARRIER HMS SHAH IN EASTERN WATERS. (A 27851) The guns of a Wildcat being serviced. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205159277

For Operation Bishop, the two “jeep carriers” would provide air cover for the Free French battlewagon Richelieu, the old dreadnought HMS Queen Elizabeth (flying the flag of VADM H.C.T. Walker), four cruisers (including the Free Dutch HrMs Tromp) and five destroyers.

This raid, from 27 April to 7 May, soon morphed into Operation Dukedom, to interdict Japanese surface ships trying to evac troops from the Andaman Islands in mid-May.

That led to Shah’s aircraft spotting the Japanese heavy cruiser Haguro and the destroyer Kamikaze north-east of Sabang and three of her Avengers from 851 NAS, operating from sister HMS Emperor due to catapult issues with Shah, making the longest Fleet Air Arm round-trip carrier-borne attack (530 miles) of the war on 15 May.

Early the next morning, a force of five greyhounds from Captain (later Admiral Sir) Manley L. Power’s 26th Destroyer Flotilla caught up to Haguro and sent her to the bottom in a brilliant night torpedo attack that rivaled anything the Japanese pulled off in the bad old days of 1942 off Guadalcanal.

July brought the planned landings in Malaya (Operation Zipper) which was postponed.

Shah was at sea with Force 61 for Operation Carson, a planned attack on enemy shipping and airfields in Penang and Medan on Japanese-occupied Dutch Sumatra, when news of the Japanese surrender hit on 14 August.

She was reportedly the first RN ship to enter Trincomalee after the news broke and was there for the celebrations that came. Fleet photographer Sub. Lt G. Hale captured a great series of images that covered the event.

(A 30202) Looking aft over the twin Bofors guns of HMS SHAH. Two other escort carriers, HMS KHEDIVE (leading) are coming up off the starboard quarter. All three carriers were out at sea when the end of WWII came. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205161379

(A 30204) Part of the ship’s company of HMS SHAH fallen in for entering harbour on the flight deck. The cruiser HMS CEYLON is in the background. It was the first time HMS SHAH made a peace-time entry into Trincomalee Harbour. It was taken at about mid-day on 15 August 1945, about 7 hours after the Prime Minister had broadcast the news that Japan had capitulated. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205161381

(A 30197) Sub Lieut (A) Murray Gordon White, RNVR, a Fairey Swordfish pilot of the Royal Navy, now assistant batman in HMS SHAH, batting on Avenger bombers on 12 August 1945, off the Andaman Islands. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205161374

(A 30203) Leading Seaman Alfred Charles Dennis of Plymouth enjoys a Victory cigar. He is indicating his approval not only with the quality of the cigar but with the occasion the photograph was taken, on board HMS SHAH on the day the Japanese capitulated (15 August 1945) Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205161380

(A 30201) A peep at a game of hockey under an Avenger bomber on the flight deck of HMS SHAH, at sea in the Indian Ocean. One of the destroyer escorts can be seen on the port beam. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205161378

(A 30198) VJ Day celebration in Trincomalee Harbour. Taken from the flight deck of HMS SHAH shows how the British East Indies Fleet reacted to the end of the Japanese war. The flagship HMS NELSON was the centre of attraction, she is seen with her Spithead Fairy lights twinkling, being subjected to a friendly barrage of Pyrotechnics from the other ships in harbour. An Avenger bomber can be seen in the left h… Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205161375

A particularly poignant image captures the men who were on duty when the war started in 1939. Of her total of over 700 embarked souls, this counted just 66 men. 

(A 30200) The Royal Navy had been at war, non-stop for six years, illustrated here unmistakably. Taken on board HMS SHAH on 15 August 1945, the day the Prime Minister broadcast the news that the Japanese had surrendered. A “pipe’ was made for all officers and men who were at sea on operations on 3 September 1939 to muster for a photograph on the flight deck. This is the result; 14 Officers and 52 ratings, 66 in all. The group includes the Captain and the Commander (centre) and the Chief Engineer. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205161377

Her war over, Shah embarked the men of the soon-to-be-disbanded 851 NAS and 845 NAS– sans their well-worn aircraft which were left in Ceylon– and set sail for “home” for the first time, arriving at Gourock on the Clyde on 7 October 1945.

De-stored, stripped of her British gear, and manned by a skeleton crew, she crossed the Atlantic for the first time and was turned back over to the U.S. Navy at Norfolk on 6 December.

Laid up at Hampton Roads, ex-Jamaica/ex-Shah was disarmed and sold on 20 June 1947 for use as a merchant provided her flight deck and hangar deck were stripped at the nearby Newport News shipyard.

She earned two RN Battle Honours: East Indies (1945) and Burma (1945).

By 1946, with the Royal Navy able to count a massive 23 purpose-designed flattops either under construction or afloat, it had no need to petition the Americans to keep any of the loaned jeep carriers. Jane’s that year only listed the RN with just two– British built– CVEs. 

HMS Campania and HMS Vindex, 1946

Civil heroics

Purchased for $8 million along with two other war surplus C-3-S-A1 Class hulls by the Compañía Argentina de Navegación Fluvial— the Dodero Line– ex-Jamaica/ex-Shah along with her former jeep carrier sister ex-SS Mormacmail/ex-HMS Tracker (D 24) were converted to economical passenger steamers, capable of hauling 1,328 passengers (all Third Class) and 175 crew members each on immigration runs from war-torn Europe to Latin America.

Shah became Salta while Tracker became Corrientes, operating on the Buenos Aires to Amsterdam and Hamburg runs and back.

Shah post-conversion to Salta via Karsten-Kunibert Krueger-Kopiske. 

Postcard showing Argentine mercantile Corrientes, ex-Mormacmail, ex-BACV 6, ex-HMS Tracker (D24), from the Ministerio de Transportes de la Nación, Flota Argentina de Navegación de Ultramar, Compañía Argentina de Navegación.

This continued until 1955 when the Dodero Line became part of the government-owned FANU (Flota Argentina de Navegación de Ultramar) line, which became ELMA in 1962.

It was during this service that Salta (with 1,014 of her own passengers aboard) came to the rescue of the old Dutch liner MS Johan van Oldenbarnevelt (then sailing as the Greek-flagged TSMS Lakonia) in December 1963 when the latter caught fire 180 miles off Madeira.

Lakonia burning

Receiving the SOS call through the then-new AMVER system while some 50 miles away, Salta’s skipper pushed her engines to the maximum and arrived alongside the smoking Lakonia three hours later. The American-built freighter/carrier/liner was the first vessel on the scene and rescued no less than 490 of the 1,022 souls aboard, most of whom were British. Five other ships, coming later, managed to save 404 between them.

The rescue was the highlight of the aging ship’s career and, suffering from mechanical issues, she was sold to the breakers at Río Santiago in 1966 for $640,000.

A plaque, presented by the survivors to Salta’s crew, along with a 40,000-peso accolade, is preserved in Argentina.

Epilogue

USS Jamacia/HMS Shah’s builder’s plans are in the National Archives.

The Royal Navy has not commissioned a third HMS Shah, and, likely never will for obvious reasons.

As for 851 Squadron, Shah’s hammer, its lineage passed on to the Royal Australian Navy. Recommissioned at Naval Air Station (NAS) Nowra on 3 August 1954, it flew a variety of types including sub-busting S-2 Trackers from the carrier HMAS Melbourne— appropriate for its past history– and remained in service for another 30 years until decommissioned in 1984.

851 Squadron S-2 Trackers in flight over Uluru S-2. 

Anthony Montague “Steady” Tuke, 851 Sqn’s WWII commander, retired from the FAA in 1947 and went on to live a long life.

His 2010 obituary noted, “In retirement Tuke, who regularly supported squadron reunions and Fleet Air Arm dinners, was group secretary for West Essex of the National Farmers Union; a lay tax commissioner; and a governor of his old school. At an old boys’ dinner in 2003, to a standing ovation, Tuke accepted a bill (in euros) for the damage he had done to Vittorio Veneto in 1941.”

Steady Tuke

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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And the Navy List Keeps Shrinking by the minute…

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As covered in past posts, the Ticonderoga class guided-missile cruisers are not long for us, with Cold Warriors USS Lake Champlain (CG-57) and USS Mobile Bay (CG-53) already decommissioned in the past several weeks.

Add to that the USS Bunker Hill (CG-52), wrapping 37 years of naval service during a decommissioning ceremony at Naval Base San Diego on 22 September.

SAN DIEGO (Sept. 22, 2023) – The crew of the Ticonderoga class guided-missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill (CG 52) stands at attention during the ship’s decommissioning ceremony. Bunker Hill was decommissioned after more than 37 years of distinguished service. Commissioned Sept. 20, 1986, Bunker Hill served in the U.S. Pacific Fleet supported Operation Desert Shield, and Operation Desert Storm, and participated in the establishment of Operation Southern Watch. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Claire M. DuBois)

The third warship to carry the name of the famed Revolutionary War battle, important for naval history was the first built with a VLS system and had a very active career.

As noted by the Navy:

Bunker Hill operated in the North Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman, supporting 10 Earnest Will convoys in 1987. The ship arrived in its new homeport of Naval Base Yokosuka, Japan the following year. At the end of January 1991, the ship launched its first Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles (TLAMs), a total of 28, against targets in Iraq from its station in the North Arabian Gulf, in support of Operation Desert Storm. It also supported Operations Desert Shield. In 2008, it was one of the Coalition ships from the British-led Combined Task Force (CTF) 150 maintaining a presence off the east coast of Africa in response to the recent events in Somalia. The following year it was the first guided-missile cruiser to receive a complete set of upgrades as part of the Navy’s Cruiser Modernization program including a new Aegis Weapons System, the Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC), and SPQ-9B Radar. The guided missile cruiser made full speed from off the coast of Panama to reach Haiti, joining U.S. military efforts on the Caribbean island devastated by a massive earthquake in 2010.

A key moment in my life concerning Bunker Hill, her plankowner skipper, Captain F. Richard Whalen, to me was just “Coach Whalen” as I played on the same soccer team as his son in 6th grade. He hosted us on an unofficial tour of the ship and we attended her departure. The life of a 1980s Pascagoula kid, I guess.

With Bunker Hill gone, and sisters USS Vicksburg (CG-69) and USS San Jacinto (CG-56) slated to join her in mothballs before the end of the year, just 12 of the 27 members of the class will be active going into next year. The Navy plans to put the final Ticos in mothballs by the end of FY 27.

Adios, San Juan

USS San Juan (SSN 751), a late model 688i and the third warship to carry the name, was commissioned on 6 August 1988. Last week, she shifted homeports cross-country from Groton to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and will begin inactivation, decommissioning, and recycling soon, capping a 35-year career.

The Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS San Juan (SSN 751), transits the Puget Sound, on Sept. 20, 2023. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Commu

Taking her final ride to Bremerton was a group of sailors from the French Navy and Royal Canadian Navy on exchange.

Sailors from the French Navy and Royal Canadian Navy completed a joint exercise with the U.S. Navy’s Los Angeles-class attack submarine, USS San Juan (SSN 751), on Sept. 20, 2023. 

Importantly, in 1993 San Juan conducted the first through-ice surfacing for a 688i-class submarine in the Arctic, showing off a key ability of the type.

The once-mighty 62-boat Los Angeles class is currently down to just 26 hulls, counting San Juan, with only 15 of the class slated to still be operational by FY27.

San Juan follows in the footsteps of the more than 140 other U.S. nuclear-powered submarines sent to spend their last days at the nation’s largest public shipyard, her reactor compartment stored, her hull cut up and sold for scrap, with possibly her sail or diving planes retained ashore as a monument.

Grendel in its Cave, 80 Years Ago

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Here we see the Kriegsmarine battleship Tirpitz at Kåfjord in German-occupied Norway, in September 1943. Note the triple torpedo nets surrounding the beast and the flotilla of attending patrol and support craft.

The slightly improved sister to the infamous Bismarck, she would be attacked by an unlikely Beowulf in the form of a trio of British midget submarines while the monster was safe in its Kåfjord cave some 80 years ago today.

Termed Operation Source, after passing through the series of protective torpedo nets, one of the miniature subs, HMS X6, placed two mines of two tons each under the battleship’s keel, while X7 set a third.

Operation ‘Source’, 22 September 1943. Johne Makin (b.1947) via the Royal Navy Submarine Museum Collection.

While all three of the daring British X craft were lost in the resulting explosion and Tirpitz was severely damaged, she was back in service six months later and it would not be until November 1944 that the injured beast was finally slain.

FN 15 Guardian, after 500 rounds…

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Light, affordable, and ready for the range or field, the new FN 15 Guardian offers one of the iconic company’s most obtainable 5.56 caliber rifles.

Billed as a light, fast-handling carbine, the Guardian complements the rest of FN’s AR (FN 15) line of rifles in the respect that it is priced at a more entry-level (MSRP $999, more like $899 at retailers) rung on the ladder than some of the company’s other offerings, which have an ask of $1,350 (FN 15 Patrol Carbine) to $2,350 (FN 15 DMR3). Thus, according to the marketing materials, the new addition is “making FN quality accessible to all home defenders and sport shooters.”

The FN 15 Guardian has a retail price of $999, which is typically lower at the point of sale.

In a nutshell, the FN 15 Guardian is a carbine-sized (16-inch, 1:7 twist barrel) direct gas impingement action AR with a mid-length gas system that has a flattop, smooth-sided (no forward assist) upper, a 15-inch aluminum handguard with a couple dozen M-LOK slots, and a lot of mil-spec parts. This keeps it light, at just 6.6 pounds, and with a streamlined aesthetic.

The all-up weight of the Guardian as shown below, well outfitted with a Magpul PMAG loaded with 30 rounds of M855, an Aimpoint Patrol Rifle Optic red dot reflex sight on a QRP2 mount, a full-length direct-thread SilencerCo Omega 36M can, and a field expedient Israeli-style sling, is just a hair over 9 pounds.

You could shave off a bit of weight by going with a set of irons or a smaller red dot, or reducing the baffle stack on the suppressor, and still have a lot of capability.

So far, I have put it through a bit over 500 rounds, a quarter of that while suppressed, from across at least 15 different brass-cased loads I had around the house, including German, Malaysian, and South Korean military surplus, Federal XM855 Green Tip, Winchester NATO-marked overruns, Winchester black box BTHP Match, and bulk pack Wolf M193 NATO, all running the gamut from 55-grain to 77-grain in weight.

And have few complaints other than the funky furniture.

Full review over after the jump to Guns.com.

Brit Bent Wings over Brunswick

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80 Years Ago: Early Vought “Corsair Mk I” fighters, of the British Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm fly in formation, during training for their pilots in the United States, September 1943. Planes are operating out of Naval Air Station Brunswick, Maine.

Photograph by Lieutenant Charles Fenno Jacobs. National Archives Catalog #: 80-G-473440

Same as the above, 80-G-473438

While everyone remembers the Spitfire, Hurricane, Seafire, and Sea Fury, lots of people forget the FAA picked up a whopping 2,012 Corsairs for use in World War II, actually rushing them into use as carrier birds much faster than the U.S. Navy, as the latter was thought too unsafe for flattop operations. The RN pilots had a tough respect for the “wicked-looking bastard.”

The FAA used both the Vought F4U-1 and the F4U-1A/D, type classified as Corsair Mk I and Corsair Mk II, respectively, as well as the Brewster-made F3A-1D (Corsair Mk III) and the Goodyear-produced FG-1D (Corsair Mk IV), with the Goodyear bird making up almost half of the RN’s inventory.

The Brits proved their worth on carriers, using them both in Europe (they were in on attacks against Tirpitz!) and going on to see much action against the Japanese in 1944-45.

British Royal Navy Vought “Corsair Mk II” (F4U-1A/D) fighters at Naval Air Station (NAS) Squantum, Massachusetts in 1943. Note fleet air arm personnel standing by the planes, and temporary numbers crudely marked on their cowlings. 80-G-K-15126

Corsairs and Barracudas of the British carrier HMS Formidable in July 1944, on their way to attack the Germán battleship Tirpitz

British FAA Corsair MkI of 1830 NAS – Red 7C JT108 (BuNo 18130) with Red 7A in the background, 1943.

WITH THE BRITISH NAVY IN THE EAST. MARCH TO MAY 1945, AT ROYAL NAVAL AIR STATION COLOMBO, ON BOARD THE ESCORT CARRIER HMS EMPRESS, ETC. (A 29080) Looking down from a Naval aircraft on the Chance-Vought Corsair and Fairey Barracuda packed flight deck of the British Aircraft Carrier HMS INDOMITABLE. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205016199

Rabaul, Corsairs on the British carrier HMS Glory, 6 Oct 1945. AWM image

“No place to land” by Michael Turner. Royal Navy Corsairs return to their carrier HMS Illustrious to find a blazing flight deck following a Kamikaze attack in the South West Pacific, during the BPF deployment against the Japanese 1945. The print is widely available https://www.studio88.co.uk/acatalog/No_Place_to_Land.html

FAA Corsairs of 1834 and 1836 Squadrons aboard HMS Victorious spinning up to sortie in an attack against Sigli, Sumatra, in September 1944.

Perhaps one of the best books on FAA Corsair jocks is The Kamikaze Hunters: Fighting for the Pacific, 1945 by Will Iredale.

I reviewed Kamikaze Hunters back in 2015 and loved it!

Armoured Carriers has a great 20-minute take on the Corsair in British service, including interviews with a number of FAA pilots, below.

Beretta out-MCXs the SIG MCX?

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In London this week, Beretta took the curtain off its newest rifle design, which may look familiar.

Dubbed the NARP for “New Assault Rifle Platform” – keep in mind that “assault rifles” are real and “assault weapons” are made up here, guys – the latest Beretta debuted at the 2023 Defence & Security Equipment International show on Tuesday. Offered in three different barrel length configurations (11.5. 14.5, and 16-inch) at introduction, the 5.56 NATO platform has a layout similar to a number of popular modular short-stroke gas-piston platforms on the market, such as the CZ BREN M2, FN SCAR, HK 416, IWI Carmel, and SIG Sauer MCX and sports AR-style controls.

The new Beretta NARP has fully ambidextrous controls and can use a range of telescopic, foldable, and collapsible stocks as it is an adjustable piston gun and doesn’t have a standard AR-style recoil buffer and DI gas system. (Photos: Beretta)

Other standard features are common MIL-STD-1913, STANAG 4640, and M-LOK interfaces, meaning optics will mount, AR/M4 mags will work (it is shown with Lancer L5 AWM mags), and all those groovy accessories will fit. (Photos: Beretta)

Among the variants shown off, clad in assorted optics from Beretta-owned Steiner, are an 11.5-inch CQB-style carbine and a more standard model with a 14.5-inch barrel. Importantly, Beretta stresses that the NARP is meant to run suppressed full-time if needed and the company has also introduced the new Beretta-made B-Silent sound suppressor to use with it. (Photos: Beretta)

Beretta stresses the developmental process behind the NARP is rigorous, with the platform vetted under extreme conditions. (Photos: Beretta)

As for what this means for the company’s futuristic ARX short-stroke piston rifles and carbines, which were introduced in 2008 and later offered as semi-auto sporter variants to the commercial market, it is unclear. With so many countries opting for assorted M4-looking platforms and the ARX more or less stalled with adoption by only a handful of Mil/LE users outside of Italy, it could be that Beretta is opting to go a little more contemporary and see who bites.

Will the NARP ever appear in the U.S. as a commercial sporter variant? Our bet is probably, but probably not with that name.

If so, will fans of House Beretta buy one to go with their 92F, PX4, and 1301? That’s a sure thing.

Of the Tugs Navajo

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The name “Navajo,” referencing the Diné people, has been used by the U.S. Navy six times, five of these for hard-working and unsung tugs who, going beyond the title, typically served as rescue and salvage ships.

The first, the 800-ton USS Navajo (AT-52), was in commissioned service from 1908 to 1937 and in non-commissioned service as IX-56 (ex-Navajo) from 1942 to 1946. She spent her entire career in the Hawaiian Islands and was key in the salvage of Battleship Row, helping to return the sunken battleships USS California and West Virginia to service. 

Salvage of USS F-4 (SS-23), April-August 1915. Description: All salvage pontoons on the surface, off Honolulu, Hawaii, circa 29 August 1915, with preparations underway to tow the sunken submarine into Honolulu Harbor. The salvage equipment was devised by Naval Constructor Julius A. Furer. Halftone photograph, copied from Transactions of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, Volume 24, 1916, Figure 13. The tug in the center is probably USS Navajo (AT-52). NH 43499

The second USS Navajo (AT-64), was the lead ship of a new 1,300-ton class of seagoing tugs commissioned in 1940.

USS Navajo (AT-64), starboard bow view.

She was on duty on December 7, 1941, at Pearl Harbor and was one of the first on rescue duty after the attack.

USS Arizona (BB-39) sunk at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, after her fires were out, on 9 December 1941. She was destroyed during the Japanese raid of 7 December 1941. USS Navajo (AT-64) and USS Tern (AM-31) are alongside, spraying water to cool her burned-out forward superstructure and midship area. In the left center distance are the masts of USS West Virginia (BB-48) and USS Tennessee (BB-43). NH 83064

Navajo later went forward with the fleet to the New Hebrides and, in the words of DANFS, “supported operations there with repair and salvage work at Espíritu Santo in the New Hebrides, Nouméa at New Caledonia, Tongatabu, Tonga, and Suva in the Fiji Islands, as well as under battle conditions at Tulagi, Guadalcanal, and Rennell in the Solomons.”

She was influential in recovering the battle-damaged USS Saratoga (CV-3) after the precious carrier was hit by a torpedo from the Japanese submarine I-26 in September 1942, then helped rescue the bulk of the crew of the lost cruiser USS Chicago (CA-29) the following January in the aftermath of the Battle of Rennell Island.

Caricature drawing by AOM2c M.O. Martindale (on board USS Saratoga 11 September 1942) of tug Navajo pulling Saratoga (CV-3) with the caption, “rest easy Saratoga, we have you in tow!” Courtesy of Fleet Admiral Nimitz. NH 58336

Sadly, the heroic tug was lost at sea 80 years ago this week while towing the loaded 6,600-ton gasoline barge YOG-42 from Samoa to Espíritu Santo, when the barge suddenly exploded. It was estimated the whole tragedy was over within two minutes before both vessels sank, taking 17 of Navajo’s crew to the bottom. The culprit: a single torpedo from the Japanese submarine I-39.

The third USS Navajo (ATA-211) was an 800-ton Sotoyomo-class rescue tug in commission from 1945 to 1962. A hearty vessel, she worked in the Gulf oil field industry for decades afterward and is still around, currently operating from Flordia as the Honduran-flagged tug Hyperion.

USS Navajo (ATA-211), seen in the late 1940s in Key West. NH 83829

The fourth, USNS Navajo (T-ATF-169), was a Powhatan-class fleet ocean tug in service with Military Sealift Command from 1980 to 2016. She is still in Navy custody, mothballed in Pearl Harbor.

USNS Navajo (T-ATF-169) tows the decommissioned USS Belleau Wood (LHA-3) from the pier side in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, 10 July 2006, out to open waters for an upcoming sink exercise (SINKEX) as part of exercise Rim of the Pacific 2006. US Navy photo # 060710-N-9288T-048 by MC2 Brandon A. Teeples.

This brings us to the fifth tug, the future USNS Navajo (T-ATS-6), the lead ship of the 9-vessel Navajo class of rescue and salvage ships, currently under construction at Bollinger. She was christened at Houma, Louisiana late last month and has been in the water since May.

The Rockets Red Glare…

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On the morning of 14 September 1814, it became obvious to Admiral of the Blue, Sir Alexander Inglis Cochrane, Commander-in-Chief, North American Station, that the failed 25-hour bombardment of Fort McHenry would force the British to abandon their assault on the port city of Baltimore.

A view of the bombardment of Fort McHenry, during the War of 1812, near Baltimore, by the British fleet, taken from the observatory under the command of Admirals Cochrane & Cockburn on the morning of the 13th of Sepr. 1814 which lasted 25 hours, & thrown from 1,500 to 1,800 shells in the night attempted to land by forcing a passage up the ferry branch but were repulsed with great loss. Engraving by John Bower. LOC print. LC-DIG-ppmsca-35544

That morning, aboard an American truce sloop near the 80-gun ship of the line HMS Tonnant was lawyer, author, and amateur poet Francis Scott Key, aged 35, whose subsequent poem “Defence of Fort M’Henry” was the next day penned at the Indian Queen Tavern in Baltimore.

In honor of those rockets and mortars launched from the fireships HMS Erebus and HMS Meteor, along with four other British bomb vessels, against McHenry, here is an October 1981 montage of seven views showing parts of the test launching of a Trident I C-4 missile from the submerged Benjamin Franklin-class Fleet Ballistic Missile submarine USS Francis Scott Key (SSBN-657) and the Trident’s inert re-entry bodies as they plunge into the earth’s atmosphere and then into the Atlantic Ocean.

Via the National Museum of the U.S. Navy, 330-CFD-DN-SC-82-00005

Warship Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2023: Mud Hen Regulus Pitcher

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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, Sept. 13, 2023: Mud Hen Regulus Pitcher

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-433460

Above we see, through the swirling smoke, the Baltimore-class heavy cruiser USS Toledo (CA 133) as she lets rip an 8-inch gun salvo into enemy installations at Wonsan in September 1951 during the Korean War. Note her Star-Spangled Banner and hull number identifiers on her turret tops, needed in the age of onboard helicopter detachments and fast-moving jets operating in a combined United Nations fleet.

Laid down 80 years ago today, our cruiser was too late to get in licks in World War II but as you can see, earned her keep in later conflicts.

The Baltimores

When the early shitstorm of 1939 World War II broke out, the U.S. Navy, realized that in the likely coming involvement with Germany in said war– and that country’s huge new 18,000-ton, 8x8inch gunned, 4.1-inches of armor Hipper-class super cruisers– it was outclassed in the big assed heavy cruiser department. When you add to the fire the fact that the Japanese had left all of the Washington and London Naval treaties behind and were building giant Mogami-class vessels (15,000 tons, 3.9 inches of armor), the writing was on the wall.

That’s where the Baltimore class came in.

These 24 envisioned ships of the class looked like an Iowa-class battleship in miniature with three triple turrets, twin stacks, a high central bridge, and two masts– and they were (almost) as powerful. Sheathed in a hefty 6 inches of armor belt (and 3 inches of deck armor), they could take a beating if they had to. They were fast, capable of over 30 knots, which meant they could keep pace with the fast new battlewagons they looked so much like, as well as the new fleet carriers that were on the drawing board.

Baltimore class ONI2 listing

While they were more heavily armored than Hipper and Mogami, they also had an extra 8-inch tube, mounting nine new model 8-inch/55 caliber guns, whereas the German and Japanese only had 155mm guns (though the Mogamis later picked up 10×8-inchers). A larger suite of AAA guns that included a dozen 5-inch/38 caliber guns in twin mounts and 70+ 40mm and 20mm guns rounded this out.

In short, these ships were deadly to incoming aircraft, could close to the shore as long as there were at least 27 feet of seawater for them to float in and hammer coastal beaches and emplacements for amphibious landings, then take out any enemy surface combatant short of a modern battleship in a one-on-one fight. They were tough nuts to crack, and of the 14 hulls that took to the sea, none were lost in combat. 

Meet Toledo

Our subject was the first U.S. Navy ship named for “The Glass City” in Ohio, home off and on since 1896 to the famous Toledo Mud Hens.

Laid down on 13 September 1943 by the New York Shipbuilding Corp. at Camden, New Jersey, she was launched two days shy of VE-Day on 6 May 1945.

Bow view of the USS Toledo leaving drydock 6 May 1945. Temple University Libraries, Special Collections Research Center

Her “hometown” was so impressed by the warship that the Navy League of Toledo was able to raise $12,500 for a beautiful 204-piece silver service worthy of a battleship and commissioned through the Gorham Silver Company of Rhode Island and engraved with local landmarks that were presented to the ship.

With WWII over and no rush to get Toledo into the fight anymore, she wasn’t commissioned at the nearby Philadelphia Naval Shipyard across the river until 27 October 1946. Her first of 17 skippers– all Annapolis grads– was Capt. August Jackson Detzer, Jr. (USNA ’21), who started his career as a midshipman during the Great War on the old battleship USS Maine (BB-10).

1946 Jane’s for the Baltimore class heavy cruisers, including the new Toledo

While many members of her class had to fight for their lives shortly after being commissioned, Toledo was much luckier, and she spent 1947 enjoying the life of a peacetime heavy cruiser in the world’s largest Navy. She ranged across the West Indies on a shakedown cruise, then was sent to the Far East to assist in Japan/Korea Occupation duties via the Mediterranean and Suez Canal, remaining in the West Pac until November of that year when she made sunny California, calling at her homeport of Long Beach for the first time, just in time for Thanksgiving. A nice first year afloat!

Toledo made two more peacetime deployments to the West Pac in 1948-49, notably calling on newly independent India and Pakistan on a goodwill cruise and standing by during the evacuation of Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist KMT forces from mainland China to Taiwan.

It was during this period that Toledo saw her first of several major overhauls, done at Puget Sound NSY from 5 October 1948 to 18 February 1949, which included landing her 20mm Oerlikons and seaplane catapults/handling gear. 

Moving forward, she would carry helicopters as needed.

USS Helena (CA-75) and sister USS Toledo (CA-133) at Pier 15, Balboa, Canal Zone, July 1, 1949. National Archives Identifier 202801697

USS Toledo (CA-133) at anchor, circa 1949. Note her glad rags flying and the small WWII-style hull numbers.

War!

At rest in Long Beach on 25 June 1950, having just returned home from her third West Pac cruise only 13 days prior, news came that the North Korean military rushed across the 38th parallel, sparking an international response.

Recalling her crew and fixing what deficiencies they could, Toledo arrived off the Korean coast on 25 July, running her first of many, many naval gunfire bombardment missions just two days later, hitting Nork positions near Yongdok on 27 July.

USS Toledo’s forward 8-inch guns. They would get a lot of work off Korea. Kodachrome by Charles L Patterson, who served on her Marine Det in the 1950s

Perhaps one of the most beautiful images of a cruiser ever taken. USS Toledo (CA-133) Off the east coast of Korea while operating with Task Force 77. Photographed from a USS Essex (CV-9) aircraft. The original photo is dated 6 September 1951. NH 96901

USS Toledo (CA 133) blasts shore installations as her main battery sends a salvo into Communist transportation facilities in Korea. Operating with United Nations Forces, this was the first target upon reporting for duty, as a detached element of Task Force 77. Note the twin 5″/38 DP mounts in action at near max elevation, a depressed 8″/55 mount seen belching fire to the top right, and lifejacket/helmeted gun crews in the 40mm quad Bofors tub. 330-PS-2115 (USN 432090)

With Marine ANGLICO teams in short supply in this early stage of the war– busy operating in support of ROK and U.S. Army forces– the ship landed shore parties to provide direct naval gunfire support and correction of shot the old-fashioned way.

USS Toledo (CA-133) Shore fire control party from Toledo in an observation post overlooking the Han River, Korea, circa late April, or May 1951. They are ready to spot and correct the cruiser’s gunfire should the enemy appear. 80-G-432346

A shore fire control party from Toledo moves up past Korean tombs to man an observation post overlooking the Han River, circa late April, or May 1951. 80-G-432355

The smoke ring is formed by the escape gases and smoke as USS Toledo (CA 133) fires a 5” salvo at enemy installations in Wonsan, Korea. Photograph received September 23, 1951. 80-G-433428

USS Toledo (CA-133) Underway in Korean waters, with a battleship and a destroyer in the right distance. The original photo is dated 2 November 1952. NH 96902

USS Toledo (CA-133) The cruiser’s shells hit enemy installations in the Wonsan Harbor area, Korea, during a bombardment in early 1953. 80-G-478496

USS Toledo (CA-133) firing her forward 203 mm guns

She completed three wartime cruises off Korea during the conflict, in all conditions.

USS Toledo (CA-133). Official caption: “In Seas that Smoke with the wind and cold, the USS Toledo (CA-133) fights the elements as well as the enemy off the coast of North Korea. The heavy cruiser, now on her third tour of duty in the war zone, is due to return to the States for overhaul this coming spring.” Photograph and caption were released circa Winter 1952-53. The view was taken from Toledo’s icy forecastle, looking out over the cold Sea of Japan toward an aircraft carrier. The carrier is either the Essex-class Valley Forge (CVA-45) or the Philippine Sea (CVA-47). From the All-Hands collection at the Naval History and Heritage Command. NH 97171

In all, Toledo was authorized six (of a possible 10) Korean Service Medals, with the breaks in dates often due to leaving the gun line to get more shells:

  • K1 – North Korean Aggression: 26 Jul-12 Sep 50 and 18 Sep-23 Oct 50
  • K3 – Inchon Landing: 13-17 Sep 50
  • K5 – Communist China Spring Offensive: 26 Apr-30 May 51 and 12 Jun-8 Jul 51
  • K6 – UN Summer-Fall Offensive: 9-Jul-51, 25 Jul-7 Aug 51, 10-22 Aug 51, 5-9 Sep 51, 11-14 Sep 51, 17 Sep-4 Oct 51, 18-30 Oct 51, and 1-12 Nov 51
  • K8 – Korean Defense Summer-Fall 1952: 13-29 Sep 52, 9-18 Oct 52, and 30 Oct- 30 Nov 52
  • K9 – Third Korean Winter: 1-Dec-52, 17 Dec 52-16 Jan 53, and 28 Jan-24 Feb 53

Besides her Korean battle stars (five listed in DANFS, six authorized according to NHHC) Toledo earned a Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation for her service.

Needless to say, her gunners and deck division guys humped a lot of shells and charges during the war.

USS Toledo (CA-133) Crewmen bring eight-inch powder charges aboard from a barge alongside, at Sasebo, Japan, circa July-October 1950, while Toledo was engaged in Korean War combat operations. Note the ship’s after eight-inch triple gun turret trained on the starboard beam, and aircraft crane and hangar hatch cover at the stern. NH 96903

USS Toledo (CA-133) Eight-inch shells and powder charges on a barge alongside the starboard quarter, as Toledo replenished her ammunition supply in Sasebo Harbor, Japan, after combat operations off Korea, circa July-October 1950. Crewmen are carrying the powder cans into position to be hoisted aboard the cruiser. NH 96905

USS Toledo (CA-133) Crewmen loading ammunition from a barge in Inchon Harbor, Korea, before Toledo’s moving into position to support United Nations ground forces, as they attempt to stop the enemy’s spring offensive, circa late April 1951. The original photo is dated 14 April 1951, which is nearly two weeks before Toledo arrived in the combat zone to begin her second Korean War tour. Men in the center are carrying eight-inch powder cans, while those at right have hand trucks to move the heavy main battery projectiles. NH 96904

In return, on several occasions, she sorrowed through Chinese/Nork counterfire from the shore including some close calls where shells straddled our cruiser, but in the end, suffered no hits.

Toledo was also a lifesaver, with her helicopters and boats plucking several downed pilots from the water, including one, from the carrier USS Boxer (CV-21), twice.

Peace again

Arriving back in California from her third combat deployment on St. Patrick’s Day 1953, she was sidelined at Hunter’s Point NSY for a five-month overhaul when the truce was worked out on 27 July. So far, it has held.

Our recently refitted cruiser had a series of snapshots captured during this refit. Importantly, she shipped her 40mm guns ashore for 10 twin 3″/50 (7.62 cm) Mark 33 Mounts and new Mk 56 FC radar fits.

USS Toledo (CA 133), sometime after her 1953 refit. Note the forward port 5″/38 DP mount at maximum elevation, 3″/50 mounts, and the Commencement Bay-class escort carrier in the background. NH 67806

Following her refit and the outbreak of an uneasy peace on the Korean peninsula, Toledo completed her seventh and eighth West Pac deployments (November 1953- May 1954 and September 1954- March 1955), spending lots of time ranging from Japan to Korea and Taiwan where she once again supported a KMT evacuation, this time from the Tachen Islands in January 1955 where her guns rang out once again against the Red Chinese.

USS Toledo (CA-133) (left) and sister USS Helena (CA-75) (right) moored at Yokosuka, Japan, 1955

Missile days

Four Baltimores were refitted for the nuclear deterrent role, USS Helena, Los Angeles, Macon, and our own Toledo. This saw them pick up the ability to carry as many as three nuclear-capable SSM-N-8A Regulus I cruise missiles on the stern and a distinctive 8-foot diameter AN/SPQ-2 S-Band mesh symmetrical parabolic antenna’d missile guidance radar to control them. Of course, Regulus had an over-the-horizon operational range of some 500 nm while the SPQ-2 was limited to just 50 under ideal conditions, but hey.

The Regulus was a big boy, 32 feet long with a 21-foot wingspan and a launch weight of 13,685 pounds. Essentially the same size as an F-86 Sabre. Capable of using first the W5 (120 kT) then the W27 (1,900 kT) thermonuclear warheads.

Sailors aboard the USS Helena (CA 75) inspect a Regulus missile mounted on the stern of the ship. The Helena is moored at an unknown Far East port in early 1956. Note the old seaplane service hatch open. LIFE Magazine Archives, Hank Walker photographer.

To accommodate the installation, the aircraft catapults were removed as were any remaining 40mm guns and the stern 3″/50 mount.

October 1959, heavy cruiser Helena gets her Regulus I missiles maintenance done before she departs for Japan

It was a hell of a thing to see one launch from one of these cruisers.

Official caption: “Nuclear Assault A Regulus I boils white smoke from booster charges as it roars away from its launcher aboard the heavy cruiser USS Los Angeles off San Diego. The launch, a routine evaluation ‘shoot’, was conducted during the time that 600 members of the Institute of Aeronautical Science were embarked aboard the attack carrier USS Ticonderoga (CVA-14), right. The demonstration, which included a ‘Terrier’ guided missile interception of the Regulus, power exhibition, carrier operations, and a HUK exercise, was highlighted by the Regulus launching. The Terrier was fired at the Regulus from the USS Norton Sound (AVM-1), background, on August 7, 1957.” NH 97391

A U.S. Navy Regulus missile is launched from the USS Helena in February 1957. K-21731

Toledo received her missile fit during a four-month overhaul at the Puget Sound NSY in the summer of 1955.

C.1955. Starboard-bow view of the cruiser USS Toledo (CA-133) firing a Regulus I surface-to-surface guided missile. The missile is controlled by the SPQ-2 radar trained to starboard at the head of the mainmast. Other radars visible include the SPS-4 Zenith surface search at the head of the foremast and the SPS-6 air search below it. A Mark 25 fire control radar is fitted on the Mark 37 secondary armament director, which is trained to port and partially obscured by the Mark 13 fire control radar on the main armament director. Note the twin 3-inch/50 AA guns on the main deck forward and the raised platforms amidships abaft the twin 5-inch/38 gun turret. They are controlled by the Mark 56 directors mounted on either side of the forward superstructure and amidships.

Original Kodachrome of an SSM-N-8 Regulus cruise missile on USS Toledo (CA-133) in 1958. Note she still has her seaplane crane, a common feature. U.S. Navy photo from her 1958 cruise book available at Navysite.de

Between early 1956 and November 1959, Toledo remained very active when it came to keeping up appearances in the West Pac, making no less than four more deployments to the region in that period.

USS Toledo (CA 133) at Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on 4 August 1956. City of Vancouver archives.

USS Toledo (CA-133). Port bow view while underway in 1957. Note her extensive twin 3″/50 DP fits, including one forward and aft as well as three on each broadside, and multiple AN/SPG-35 (Mk56) GFCS AAA fire controls. A big-gun cruiser to the max!

USS Toledo (CA-133) seen turning away from USS Columbus (CA-74) after a highline transfer. Photo taken from USS Columbus during her 1956 WESTPAC cruise. Note the helicopter on deck. From the collection of Domenic S. Terranova, USS Columbus Fire Control Officer. Via Navsource.

USS Toledo underway Kodachrome by Charles L Patterson

On board the heavy cruiser Toledo during her visit to Sydney in May 1958 for the commemoration of the Battle of the Coral Sea.

Bluejackets hanging out with some local ladies during Toledo’s visit to Sydney in May 1958 for the commemoration of the Battle of the Coral Sea. Note the Regulus

USS Toledo (CA-133) anchoring in Tokyo Bay, in 1959.

End game

With the Navy converting five Baltimore and Oregon City-class heavy cruisers into guided missile cruisers, scraping off most of their guns in favor of batteries of Talos and Tartar missile launchers while the nuclear-powered USS Long Beach (CLGN-16) was slated to commission in 1961, keeping a bunch of (almost) all-gun cruisers in commission in the age of the atom seemed increasingly antiquated.

This led the Navy to mothball just about every unconverted heavy and light cruiser in the inventory, including the mighty 20,000-ton USS Des Moines (CA-134) and sister Salem (CA-139), only keeping the newest of that class, USS Newport News (CA-148) around to fill in as the last active all-gun heavy cruiser in the fleet, lingering until 1975.

Dovetailing into this retirement program, Toledo was placed out of commission at Long Beach on 21 May 1960, then moved to the reserve basin at San Diego and remained there for the next 14 years.

In 1973, the 7 remaining unconverted Baltimores, Toledo included, made their final appearance in Jane’s.

Long laid up, these were listed as “fire support ships.”

On 1 January 1974, Toledo’s name was struck from the Navy list, and then she was sold to the National Metal & Scrap Corp. on 30 October 1974. Her sisters had either already been disposed of or were soon to follow except for USS Chicago (CA-136/CG-11), which somehow was not decommissioned until 1980 and scrapped until 1991.

And of Regulus?

Besides the four Regulus-equipped cruisers, the Navy fielded the early cruise missile on two converted WWII diesel submarines and three purpose-built boats. Meanwhile, 10 Essex and Midway-class carriers were equipped to fire the missile as well.

By 1961, Regulus and its SPQ-2 control radar were replaced by the Polaris A1 SLBM carried by a new generation of Fleet Ballistic Missile submarines, largely ending the strategic nuke role by the U.S. Navy surface fleet. Tactical nukes, however, endured in the form of the 40-mile ranged RIM-2D Terrier BT-3A(N) with its W30/W45 1kT nuclear warhead, the TLAM-N (capable of carrying a W80 200 kT nuclear warhead 1,200nm), nuclear depth charges, and the Mk 23 “Katie” 16-inch nuclear shell used on the Iowas.

While the Army developed assorted nuclear shells (Mark 33/T317/M422/M454) designed for use in various 8-inch howitzers in land combat, first fielding them in 1957 and keeping them in the arsenal until 1992, I can’t find anything where the Navy did the same for its 8-inch gunned cruisers, which remained in service until

Epilogue

The National Museum of the Pacific War has a plaque, installed by her veterans’ association in 2000, in Toledo’s honor.

Speaking of her veteran’s association, I cannot find a listing for them any longer with what appears to be their website going offline in 2018. The archive is great.

Most of the cruiser’s ornate circa 1945 silver service is on display aboard the museum ship USS Midway (CV-41), having been returned to the city of Toledo briefly after USS Toledo was decommissioned, then, in 1961, being loaned to the USS Spiegel Grove (LSD-32) — named after an Ohio town near the city. From there, the service was then transferred (missing a martini pitcher) to the new supercarrier USS Kitty Hawk (CVA-63) in 1963 with the blessing of the Toledo City Council, due to the Ohio connection with the Wright Brothers. After the “Battle Cat” was decommissioned in 2009, the service was sent by the NHHC to live aboard Midway.

Toledo/Kitty Hawk silver service aboard USS Midway

As for the name, “Toledo” was recycled by the Navy for the 58th Los Angeles-class hunter-killer (SSN-769) a late VLS-equipped 688(i) variant commissioned in 1995. Among other claims to fame, she was observing the ill-fated Russian cruise missile submarine Kursk when the boat suffered its catastrophic incident then took part in the 2003 Iraq War where she launched TLAMs from a station in the eastern Mediterranean.

She is still on active duty, assigned to Portsmouth, Virginia and, since commissioning, has carried two of the old cruiser’s silver platters aboard for special occasions.

USS Toledo (SSN-769) aerial view of the nuclear-powered attack submarine USS Toledo (SSN-769) underway on the surface. Catalog #: L45-284.05.01

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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Two Great War U-boats Found, Still on Eternal Patrol

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A group of wreck hunters, working off the Belgian coast, have discovered a pair of German U-boats that have been lost since World War I. The wrecks include the Kriegsmarine’s German Type U 5 submarine class leader, SM U5 (Kptlt. Johannes Lemmer), and the Type UC I minelayer submarine SM UC-14 (Oblt. (R) Adolf Feddersen).

SM U-5 was an early pre-war boat, commissioned on 2 July 1910, and was small even for her era (500 tons, 181-foot overall) but she was still capable, carrying a single 37mm deck gun and four 17.7-inch tubes with six fish.

German Imperial Navy submarines at Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein (Germany), before the First World War. The boats are: U 13, U 5, U 11, U 3, and U 16 (first row, l-r); U 9, U 12, U 6, and U ? (second row, l-r). To the left of U 9 are the torpedo boat S 99 and the hulk Acheron. The Acheron had been the frigate SMS Moltke (I), commissioned in 1878. After decommissioning she was renamed on 28 October 1911 and used as a barracks ship for submarine crews at Kiel. She was finally scrapped in 1920. A battlecruiser or battleship is visible in the background.

SM U-5 was lost very early in the war– on 18 December 1914– with no recorded sinkings of enemy ships on her two patrols. She took all of her 29 crew members to the bottom.

As for SM UC-14, she was even smaller, displacing just 183 tons (submerged) and having an overall length of 111 feet.

Carrying no torpedoes or large caliber guns, her very successful class used six 39-inch top-loaded/bottom dropping tubes, each with two 710-pound Type II mines, each filled with 290 pounds of guncotton, to sow minefields.

Type II mine being loaded into a UC minelaying submarine. IWM photograph Q 20345.

SM UC-5, of the class UC-14 was in. This image after she was captured by the British.

SM UC-14, a war baby that was commissioned on 3 June 1915 just five months after she was laid down, conducted 38 short war patrols, and her minefields were credited with sinking 16 ships the Italian battleship Regina Margherita (13,215 tons) — one of the largest ships claimed by U-boats during the war.

Italian pre-dreadnought battleship Regina Margherita passing through the Canale Navigabile, Taranto, 1912

UC-14, a boat that lived by the mine, also died by the mine, sunk on 3 October 1917 by what appears to be a British minefield off Zeebrugbee, taking her 17-man crew to the cold dark below.

See the below video of the wreckage. The wreck of U 5 is reported to be in good shape while UC 14 was lost in a heavy explosion and in a bad shape.

 

And so we remember.

Auf einem Seemannsgrab, da blühen keine Rosen
Auf einem Seemannsgrab, da blüht kein Blümelein
Der einz’ge Schmuck für uns, das sind die weißen Möwen
Und heiße Tränen, die ein kleines Mädl weint
Der einz’ge Schmuck für uns, das sind die weißen Möwen
Und heiße Tränen, die ein kleines Mädl weint

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