Category Archives: World War Two

Marines watch the tracks fade away

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Men of the 7th Infantry Division head for the beaches of Okinawa in LVTs. 1 April, 1945. SC 205191

Marine LVTP-5 in Vietnam. From the Kenneth W. Koldys Collection (COLL/5791) at the Marine Corps History Division

The legacy AAVP7. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Jacqueline C. Arre)

The AAV, or assault amphibious vehicle, Model 7, has served with the U.S. Marine Corps since 1972, replacing the mammoth LVTP-5, adopted just after Korea and used in Vietnam. And, naturally, it continued the legacy of the 18,000 WWII-era Amtrac LVT “gators” that began entering service in July 1941.

Now the age of the amtracker has ended, as the AAV7 made its final operational employment during Exercise Sea Breeze 26 in the Black Sea.

Check out this somber requiem as the age of the tracked vehicle comes to an end in the Marines, with their tanks disbanded along with the assorted M1150 Assault Breacher Vehicle (ABV), M9 Armored Combat Earthmovers, and Armored Vehicle Launched Bridges of the Marines’ engineer battalions. The  AAV7 has been replaced by just over 600 of the 8×8 Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV), which will have several roles in addition to toting Marines over the beach.

CMP: Yes milsurp shotguns and M14s are inbound

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A demo of the then-new M14 at Fort Dix in June 1959. Similar in size to the M1 Garand, with 29 of 116 parts interchangeable with that .30-06 semi-automatic rifle, the M14 was select-fire and had a larger, 20-round magazine. (Photo: Springfield Armory National Historic Site)

Gerald O’Keefe, who has served as Chairman and CEO of the Civilian Marksmanship Program since 2022, has just transitioned to Executive Chair.

He has been replaced by Fabian Loberia, but Jerry disclosed on his way out that the M14 program is on track (although the gun control hacks are publicly conspiring against it), and the Army has identified 2,027 surplus shotguns for transfer to the CMP, mostly Mossberg 500s but with at least some Winchester ’97s in the mix.

From the presser, via the CMP, emphasis mine:

M14 Update:

As previously announced, the CMP will soon be selling converted, semi-automatic M14s. The schedule for this project is on track. We’ll begin the conversion process over the next three months and plan to initiate sales in Jan ’27. Sales will occur initially via mail order, but we’ll bring the M14s to all our physical stores in AL, OH, and eventually WY as soon as possible thereafter. More details will be forthcoming later this Fall.

Stay connected to the latest updates as they come through our website at https://thecmp.org/l/m14-announcement/.

Shotgun Update:

The Civilian Marksmanship Program achieved an important legislative milestone via the Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which expanded CMP’s statutory authority to receive and sell certain surplus military pump-action shotguns. This change authorizes a one-time transfer of eligible surplus shotguns from the U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force to the CMP, preserving an important part of American military history while creating a new opportunity for collectors, competitors, and firearms enthusiasts. The legislation specifically added pump-action shotguns to the list of firearms eligible for transfer and sale through the CMP, continuing Congress’s longstanding support of the CMP’s mission of marksmanship, firearms safety and youth development.

As implementation moves forward, the U.S. Army has identified 2,027 surplus shotguns for transfer to the CMP: 1,589 Mossberg 500 shotguns and 438 Winchester Model 1897 shotguns. These historic firearms represent more than a century of military service, spanning from the iconic trench-gun era of the early 20th century through modern military and security applications. We are working closely with Army officials to complete transfer requirements and develop restoration, inspection, and sales plans. We look forward to making these firearms available to eligible U.S. customers while ensuring future generations of Americans preserve and appreciate them. Expectation management: The NDAA allows for just this one-time surplus shotgun transfer, and 438 Winchester Model 1897 shotguns are a small quantity, given the likely demand.

These Tanks use a Great Deal of Gasoline!

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Some 85 years ago this month.

Original Caption: “1st Army Maneuvers in the Carolinas. An M2A2 light tank of the 191st Tank Battalion. These tanks use a great deal of gasoline. South Carolina. October 16, 1941.”

The M2A2 light tank ran a 668 cubic-inch (11.0 L) Continental 7-cylinder radial gasoline engine and carried 50 gallons of mogas. Photographer: 161st Signal Photo Co., Signal Corps Photo 111-SC-130131

Note the above shows some of the first use of U.S.-made 5-gallon “Jerry” or “Blitz” cans, which were hauled back to the U.S. across 10 international borders from Germany (where it was used as the Wehrmacht-Einheitskanister) in 1939 by an American engineer, Major Paul Pleiss, and ordered into low-rate domestic production in in the fall of 1940 after redesign by the Holabird Quartermaster Motor Base, with the can type classed later as the DHC-42.

By the end of the war, the Allies would make 21,000,000 of them to replace the infamous square GC100 “flimsy” can.

Another view of the above, same day, same place, showing off the 11-ton M2A2, which saw no combat service with the U.S. military, although 36 updated M2A4s did land with the Marine 1st Tank Bn at Guadalcanal. 111-SC-130069

In October 1918, the U.S. Army, gearing up to beat the Kaiser, had peaked at 2,395,742 active men in uniform with a few million more on the schedule.

Just 15 years later, the story was much different.

During the Depression, the Army was gutted to the point that in 1933 it could count only 135,015 officers, men, Philippine Scouts, and USMA cadets on active service.

Most battalion-sized units were so understrength they could not field 200 men for exercises. Keep in mind this included the Air Corps, which totaled under 20,000 men. On paper, the active Army had nine permanent infantry divisions and three cavalry divisions, but all save for four (1st Infantry, Fort Hamilton, NY; 2nd Infantry, Fort Sam Houston, Texas; 3rd Infantry, Fort Lewis, Washington; and 1st Cavalry, Fort Bliss, Texas) were cadre headquarters units. Empty shells in a hollow force.

Then there were the 138,513 men in the Organized Reserve (OR), almost all of whom (133,485) were officers accumulated over the years through a mix of former ROTC cadets, regular Army officers passed to the reserve list, and Citizens Military Training Camp graduates passed to the OR after receiving their commissions. Most of these were older men, as 1933 saw only 270 CMTC and 5,082 ROTC commissions granted. The small number of enlisted in the OR were largely organized into 30 company-strength MP battalions assigned to paper corps and army headquarters. By comparison, the Regular Army had only four active MP battalions, and the National Guard 11.

While the National Guard numbered 185,925 in June 1933, most were in units that rarely assembled other than for brief meetings at the armory one night a week (and not necessarily every week) for about 75 cents each pocket change (about $20 today), followed by a two-week summer camp (Annual Field Encampment) although attendance at the latter was often skipped, as many enlisted “cannot afford to let his family suffer while he is away at the field camps and consequently he elects to remain at work rather than go to camp.”

This was at a time when the National Defense Act of 1920 assumed a Regular Army of 280,000 men and a National Guard of 450,000, rapidly mobilizing to over a million in time of war, when new recruits would be quickly added, and the OR called back to the colors. Actual figures, if war had been declared in 1933, would have likely been half that.

This would markedly increase with FDR’s “Tree Army,” the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which took unemployed and underemployed young men aged 17 to 28 into regimented public works programs run by the Army. Enticed by a promise of $30 pay per month (which is only like $775 today) plus free room (tent) and board (chow) and 8 a.m.- 5 p.m. workdays, the program peaked at 500,000 men organized in over 2,500 camps in 1935, many later transitioning to the military or National Guard. It was estimated that 75 percent of the 3 million who cycled through CCC camps in the 1930s later served in the military in WWII.

Slowly, the Army and Guard beefed up as tensions rose overseas.

By August 1939, the Regular Army had grown to 187,893. The brand-new Regular Army Reserve (RAR) had been established for prior-service enlisted men and had 24,972 of them on its rolls. The Organized Reserve, primarily of officers, stood at 119,773. The National Guard had 199,491 effectives. Some 97,549 young men were in ROTC programs and another 36,783 in the CMTC. Around 240,000 were still kicking around the dwindling 1,500 CCC camps. All told, the country was approaching 900,000 men in Army fatigues when Hitler sent his legions into Poland.

In the summer of 1940, with Japan and China locked in a grinding military stalemate after three years of war while Poland, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France had all fallen to the Germans in a matter of months– the last with help from Italy– the U.S. Army started to have division- and corps-sized maneuvers, including reservists and the National Guard.

However, size wasn’t everything. Equipment of every sort was lacking.

What looked formidable on paper looked much different in the field.

From the CMH:

The summer maneuvers of 1940 came too soon to permit any marked improvement in training techniques, but by bringing together a total of 90,000 troops of the First Army, including Regular and National Guard components, and by offering a natural if unfortunate comparison with current battlefield operations as reported from Europe, they evoked far more public attention than had any previous maneuvers, as indicated by the extended accounts in the daily press of that period.

It was a public disturbed by discovery that National Guard divisions (the old “square” type), whose wartime strength was listed at 22,000 men each, reported as present an average of 10,414 enlisted men each; that in one of these were 3,000 recruits who never previously had attended field training; that a typical division had none of the new light or heavy mortars, none of the new antitank guns, and only one-fourth its quota of new rifles; that another was drilling still in armory-drill fundamentals; that some of the “cannon” used in the maneuver were merely iron pipes; that many of the “tanks” were actually commercial trucks used in simulation for purposes of the exercise; and that “bomber” planes similarly engaged were light observation planes serving an imagined role. As simulations for maneuver, they served well enough. They also served as demonstrations of the Army’s critical needs and gave eloquent support to the Chief of Staff’s recent arguments for better armament.

Then came the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, adopted in September, which by New Year’s Day 1941 had placed 18,933 draftees into active training, originally just for one year. Before Pearl Harbor, 922,000 American men had been conscripted, with a rough 2.4:1 ratio of men going to the Army (650,000) vs. the Navy (272,000).

Also over the next year, the now 241,612-strong National Guard was federalized in waves, adding 18 thin infantry divisions, 80 separate regiments, and 29 Army Air Corps squadrons to active service.

All eligible RAR soldiers were mobilized for active service on 15 February 1941.

In July 1941, the Army, swollen by conscripts, activated reservists, new volunteers (often with tree sap under their nails) and federalized Guardsmen, could count 1,462,315 officers and men.

In September 1941, the great maneuvers in the Louisiana-Texas area, employing 400,000 men of the Second and Third Field Armies, were by far the largest the Army had ever held and spanned 30,000 sq. miles from Shreveport south to Lake Charles and from Jasper, Texas, to the Mississippi River.

The next maneuvers, the last before America entered the war, were in the Carolina area. Conducted in a more compact area (9,375 sq. miles straddling the North Carolin and South Carolina border), they employed fewer troops but used armor more intensively and, for this reason, were of lively interest to Washington.

The forces involved would include the newly-motorized 4th Infantry Division, the brand new 1st and 2nd Armored Divisions, the more leg-borne 1st, 8th, and 9th Infantry divisions; seven NG infantry divisions (26th, 28th, 29th, 30th, 31st, 43rd, and 44th), six horse and hybrid “horse-mechanized” cavalry regiments (active 3rd and 6th, NG 101st, 102nd, 104th, and 107th), as well as such novel organizations as the 502nd Parachute Battalion (which had only been activated three months prior).

They fought across two major Blue vs. Red campaigns, the Battle of the Pee Dee River and the Battle of Camden, with troops beginning to stage in the first week of October and the exercises wrapping up on 30 November.

The photos from the event show a force in transition, and it is amazing to think that the same Army would take on the Afrika Korps in Tunisia just over a year later– with almost totally different equipment.

1941- U.S. 27th Field Artillery troops in T12 75mm GMC M1897A4 M3 during Carolina maneuvers.

1941- Townspeople watch as an M2 light tank makes its way through a street in Rock Hill during U.S. First Army maneuvers in South Carolina.

1941- Unit of Fort Myer, Virginia’s 3rd U.S. Cavalry is forced to retreat during maneuvers in North Carolina, horse-mounted

M2 light tanks, Carolinas Maneuvers, 16 October 1941

Carolina Maneuvers as seen in Stanly County

Carolina Maneuvers 101st Cavalry (New York City NG), 6th Corps, let their horses enjoy a refreshing drink from the Pee Dee River near Albemarle

Carolina Maneuvers Stanly County, half-track M1

M1 37mm AT gun Mass NG Carolina Maneuvers

Carolina Maneuvers 1941-1942. The horse-mechanized 102nd Cavalry from New Jersey with a Scout Car and GPW

US Army, October 1941 Carolina Maneuvers, with a GPW and a 37mm ATG

US Army, October 1941, the Carolina Maneuvers

128th Field Artillery doing live-fire exercises during the 1941 Carolina Maneuvers at Ft. Jackson, with M1897A2 75mm guns

Blue Force Curtiss P-40 Warhawks from the 20th Pursuit Group lined up on the ground during the 1941 Carolina Maneuvers

Red Force Curtiss P-38s, 1941 Carolina Maneuvers. The P-38 first flew on 27 January 1939, was the first U.S. aircraft to make extensive use of stainless steel and smooth, flush-riveted, butt-jointed aluminum skin panels, and was the first to break 400mph in level flight. By September 1941, the USAAF had 13 YP-38 prototypes and 65 production P-38s delivered, with the 1st Pursuit Group fielding them in its 94th, 27th and 71st Pursuit Squadrons. 

1st Pursuit Group P-38s assigned to the Blue Force during the Carolina Maneuvers, 1941.

After the Carolina Maneuvers ended, the Secretary of War summoned a conference in his office “to familiarize the officers present with the lessons which had been learned from the maneuvers and to exchange views.”

The after-action conference held by the War Department on 3 December 1941– just four days before Pearl Harbor- concluded the following:

(1) There was still dissatisfaction with the training of small units, and this training was to be stressed in coming months

(2) The outstanding question was the struggle between tank and antitank, fairly well tested in Carolina by the use of 865 tanks and armored cars, against 764 mobile antitank guns and 3,557 other pieces of artillery;155 the tactical employment of antitank weapons called for restudy, armored units likewise had not been sufficiently massed for field operation, and there was a demonstrated need for a higher ratio of medium tanks.

(3) The horse units had not proved their value.

(4) Tactical air forces were poorly coordinated with the ground units they were to support.

(5) Motor transport was used without a realistic sense of limitations that actual field maintenance would impose.

(6) Larger and earlier use of mines was called for.

(7) Radio communications from ground to air were “awful,” in General Arnold’s judgment.

(8) Communications generally were too slow.

In the main, the maneuvers were declared better than earlier maneuvers, which was to be hoped for at this late date, and there was a difference in the judgments of air and ground officers as to responsibility for the admittedly poor co-ordination of those elements. One hopeful situation was pointed out: the ammunition plants were beginning to function more fully, and during the winter a far better supply of small arms cartridges would come to hand for training the troops.

They would need them.

Things would change dramatically after Pearl Harbor, and in one month alone, just a year after the Carolina Maneuvers, 514,345 enlisted men would be added to the Army’s rolls in the single month of October 1942.

Warship Wednesday 30 September 2026: What Friends Are For

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Here at LSOZI, we take a break every Wednesday to explore the old steam/diesel navies from 1833 to 1954, profiling 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 

If you enjoy my always ad-free Warship Wednesday content, you can support it by buying me a cup of joe at https://buymeacoffee.com/lsozi As Henk says: “Warship Coffee – no sugar, just a pinch of salt!”

Warship Wednesday 30 September 2026: What Friends Are For

NIMH photo, via the Fotoafdrukken Koninklijke Marine, No. 2158_002974

Above, we see the Free Dutch Gerard Callenburgh-class destroyer (torpedobootjager) Hr.Ms. Isaac Sweers (G 83) steaming into the Grand Harbor of Malta circa late 1942, wearing British Atlantic camo.

Some 85 years ago this week, Sweers was part of the epic Operation Halberd, a resupply operation to keep besieged Malta fed, and lent her advanced AAA guns to help swat down Axis torpedo bombers.

All in a day’s work.

Dutch destroyer primer

A fleet based on cruisers, gunboats, and torpedo boats, the Netherlands dipped their first toe in the water of destroyerdom in 1909 with a group of eight Roofdier (Wolf)-class tin cans, the first serial-built Dutch turbine-engine ships, built for service in the East Indies. Small, 510-ton, 229-foot ships with four 3-inch guns and two torpedo tubes, they could make 30 knots on their combination of Krupp-Germania steam turbines and English Yarrow boilers.

The Torpedobootjager Hr. Ms. Fret (Ferret), of the first Dutch destroyer class, was in commission from 1911 to 1922, then used as a target ship until 1930. All of her sisters were named after predators (Roofdiers). Note the canvas sea bridge and knifelike 21-foot beam. NIMH 2158_002538

With the eight obsolete Roofdiers stricken by the 1920s, they were replaced hull-for-hull with a batch of eight 30-knot Admiralen-type tin cans built on a Yarrow design starting in 1925, based on the British destroyer Ambuscade. Built in two batches, the Van Ghents and the Van Galens, they were the same general size (1,640 tons/322-feet) and batteries (4×4.7-inch guns, 6 torpedo tubes); they differed in range. Interestingly, they also had the weight and space for a seaplane.

The Dutch Admiralen types, via the 1938 Jane’s:

Then, by the mid-1930s, with both the Germans beating the war drums in Europe and the Japanese doing the same in the Pacific with an eye towards the Dutch East Indies, it was decided to replace the fleet’s 12 mis-matched and aging T-class (Thornycroft), Z-class (Schelde), and G-class (Fljenoord) torpedo boats– most dating to the Great War, armed with just a deck gun or two and a few 17.7-inch tubes and struggling to make 25 knots– with a dozen much larger and more capable destroyers, outclassing even the Admiralens.

Dutch Callenburg-class destroyers, Janes 1938

This expansion came as part of Vlootplan Deckers, the Deckers Fleet Plan, named after Minister of the Navy, Dr. L.N. Deckers. The plan was to replace aging assets with modern ones and envisioned three light cruisers, another pair of “torpedokruisers” (torpedo/scout cruisers) to serve as flotilla leaders for the 20 modern destroyers (eight Admiralen and 12 Callenburghs), and at least 26 submarines (eight in Europe and 18 in the Dutch East Indies) augmented by 90 land-based Dornier Do 24K three-engine patrol bombers of the Marine-Luchtvaartdienst (MLD). They also added new gunnery training ships and gunboats to serve ancillary wartime duties. By 1938, this ambitious plan was augmented by a new push (Project 1047) to build a trio of hulking 25,000-ton Scharnhorst-style “cruiser killers” with 11-inch guns and swathed in 9 inches of armor, envisioned to join the fleet in 1944.

Moving past the Deckers Plan, let’s just focus on the Callenburghs.

With an overall length of 349 feet and a 35-foot beam, they had a natural 1:10 ratio and could float in just over 10 feet of seawater. Light displacement was 1,628 tons, full 2,240. This made them roughly the same size as the British Tribal-class destroyers.

The Dutch machine factory Werkspoor obtained licenses for Parsons geared steam turbines and Yarrow 3-drum boilers intended to equip the newest fleet of destroyers. Using a powerplant of three oil-fired boilers and twin turbines on twin screws, they could generate 45,000 shp at 475rpm for a designed speed of 36 knots. Of note, the class leader hit 50,100 shp on speed trials at full load by superheating the boilers to 350 °C, reaching 515 rpm and 42 knots. Twin in-line fire rooms and stacks provided redundancy against damage. Range on 560 tons of oil was 5,400nm at 19 knots, which was superior to the 5,700nm @ 15 kts of Tribals.

The intended armament was to be a main battery of five 4.7″/45 Bofors-derived Wilton-Fijenoord guns in two No. 8 twin mounts (one fore, one aft) and one single No. 6 mount amidships between the two stacks.

Built under license from Bofors by the ordnance office of the Wilton-Feijenoord Dockyard in Rotterdam, the Dutch before the war produced 17 4.7″/45s for the ships in armored turrets, and another 22 to equip six coastal batteries along the coast of the Netherlands. Capable of firing 10-12 rounds per minute at 19,500m, the electrically powered turrets were armored to 60mm.

Gerard Callenburgh-class destroyer initial 1937 general plan and longitudinal section, showing the original planned stern Fokker platform. Note the gun and torpedo arrangement. Nationaal Archief

Her secondary battery included two twin 40mm/56 Bofors No. 3 AAA guns (one over each twin 4.7″/45 mount) with Hazemayer fire control systems (more on this later) and two twin water-cooled .50 cal Colt (Browning) export Model 1924 mounts (on each side of the bridge wings), the latter platform also used on Dutch Flores-class sloops, minesweepers, and the minelayer Bloemendaal. The Dutch also trialed the twin air-cooled, Swiss-made Solothurn S-14-200 .50 cals with Zeiss sights, which were installed on the one-off frigate Johan Maurits van Nassau.

Twin Colt Model 1924 water-cooled. 50 cal Browning on a Dutch minesweeper, 1940s 2158_015801

They had eight 21-inch torpedo tubes (lancerbuizen) in two quad turnstiles serviced by a torpedo davit on each side of the deck. Two spare torps could be carried in a magazine behind the first turnstile, giving the destroyers a total capacity of 10 fish.

Maintenance on the torpedoes aboard the destroyer Hr. Ms. Isaac Sweers, circa 1941-42. NIMH 2158_002975

Anti-submarine weapons consisted of four depth charge throwers (dieptebombenwerpers) with space for a dozen cans.

They also had space for 24 sea mines on deck in place of stern depth charge rails and mechanical minesweeping gear in the form of two paravanes and chains, stored by the ship’s boats, which included a 23-foot motor launch and a 26-foot eight-oared rowing sloop with an auxiliary motor (Sloep B IV met hulpmotor).

Like the Admiralen-class, these new destroyers could carry a crane-launched and recovered single-engine seaplane, typically a Dutch-made Fokker C.VII-W.

The plane was initially going to be stowed aft with its tail hanging over the stern 40mm mount when stowed, but this shifted amidships with the single 4.7″/45 No. 6 single mount shifted aft instead, overlooking the stern 4.7″/45 twin No. 8, in the position of the stern 40mm twin mount, which instead was moved to a bandstand between the two torpedo tube turnstiles. The two twin .50-cal water-cooled Colt-Brownings were likewise moved from the bridge wing to flank the second funnel, abeam, port and starboard.

Gerard Callenburgh-class destroyer plan, showing the planned amidships Fokker platform and the reallocated guns. Nationaal Archief NL 4.MST_1921

Gerard Callenburgh-class destroyer finalized rigging plan, showing the planned amidships Fokker platform and the reallocated guns. Nationaal Archief

A Fokker C.VII-W seaplane on the Admiralen-class destroyer Hr.Ms. Witte de With at anchor, Koepang, Timor, Dutch East Indies, September 1934.  NIMH 2173-223-014

The Dutch were the only users of the Fokker C.VII-W, buying 30 of them for the MLD. Capable of a 70 kt cruising speed and 600nm range, these open-cockpit canvas beauties could carry two light bombs and a twin observer-manned Vickers gun on a ring mount.

They were designed for a peacetime complement of 158: 11 officers, 19 NCOs, and 128 enlisted, growing to over 200 in wartime.

Built for service in the Dutch East Indies, it is likely that as much as a quarter of their enlisted would be drawn from Indonesian volunteers. In 1933, the Dutch Navy had about 12,000 officers and men, including around 2,500 indigenous sailors drawn from the DEI, with efforts to train local officer candidates underway in 1940.

The first two members of the class, Callenburgh (Yard No. 208) and Tjerk Hiddes (Yard 207), were laid down six weeks apart at RDM in Rotterdam and constructed side by side.

Construction of -right- the Tjerk Hiddes and -left- the Gerard Callenburgh at the Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij, 9 June 1939. Note the RDM yard numbers on each hull. NIMH 2158_012320

Construction of -right- the Tjerk Hiddes and -left- the Gerard Callenburgh at the Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij, 13 September 1939. Note the RDM yard numbers on each hull.  NIMH 2158_031833

Mrs. G. A. J. Dijxhoorn-Ybes, the wife of the Minister of Defense, christened both.

The next two of the class, our Isaac Sweers and sister Philips van Almonde, were ordered from Koninklijke Mij De Schelde, Flushing.

In Dutch fashion, all were to have name initials as pennant numbers (Gerard Callenburgh was GC, Tjerk Hiddes TH, Isaac Sweers IS, Philips van Almonde PA)

This all brings us to…

Meet Sweers

Our subject is named in honor of Isaak Sweers (also seen as Ysaack Sweerts), Vice-Admiraal van Holland en West-Friesland, a 17th-century naval hero of the Anglo-Dutch wars. Sweers was a swashbuckler who first saw combat in his 20s under Jan van Galen against the Barbary Pirates, then sailed on Michiel de Ruyter’s expedition to West Africa and America. He was killed in a North Sea naval battle by a direct hit from a British 24-pounder cannonball that saved only his torso for the coffin– but left the Dutch with a victory.

Sweers and the painting by Willem van de Velde the Younger, “Night Battle between Tromp and Spragge at Kijkduin,” August 21, 1673; the 227-ship naval battle in which Sweers was mortally wounded, at age 51. Both via the Nationaal Archief

Laid down on 26 November 1938 at Koninklijke Mij. De Schelde, Vlissingen, Zeeland, she was Yard No. 212, while her sister, the planned Philips van Almonde, was laid down four months later as Yard No. 213.

March 1939. The future Isaac Sweers on the builder’s ways on Kon. Mij. De Schelde te Vlissingen. NIMH 2158_002965

The future Isaac Sweers was christened by sponsor (doopster) Mrs. Johanna van den Arend-Keers, wife of LtZ Henry van den Arend, supervisor of the destroyers under construction at the yard. 16 March 1940

The future Torpedobootjager Hr. Ms. Isaac Sweers was launched at Vlissingen, 16 March 1940. NIMH 2158_028945

Torpedobootjager Hr.Ms. Isaac Sweers gereed voor de tewaterlating bij de Kon. Mij. De Schelde te Vlissingen, 16 March 1940. NIMH

Sliding down the ways, 16 March 1940. NIMH 2158_002967

Hr.Ms. Isaac Sweers in Schelde te Vlissingen being fitted out, between April and May 1940. NIMH 2158_028947

Same as the above. NIMH 2158_028946

30 April 1940, the submarine Hr.Ms. O 22 (K XXII) comes back home to Vlissingen following sea trials, passing the fitting out Isaac Sweers. For reference, O 22 escaped incomplete to England when the Germans occupied Holland the next month and went missing off Norway on her fifth war patrol. NIMH 2158_015482

War!

During the first eight and a half months of WWII, although the country was neutral, the Dutch merchant marine was very much at war, with 43 merchant ships lost or severely damaged due to acts of war– and that isn’t even counting the fishing fleet, which also suffered heavy losses.

When the Germans swept into the neutral Netherlands as part of their sweep through the Lowlands on 10 May 1940, the Dutch had no hope of stopping the 29 battle-hardened enemy divisions of Von Bock’s Armee Group B with their nine much lighter divisions– especially with an army that had not seen combat in Europe since 1831. Plus, the Germans had something like a 7:1 local advantage in tactical aircraft, allowing the Luftwaffe to largely control the skies on Day 1.

Most of the Dutch fleet was deployed to the Far East to oppose an increasingly warlike Japan. This included the cruisers De Ruyter, Java, and Tromp; all active Admiralen-class destroyers; 15 submarines; and a myriad of smaller craft, as well as the bulk of the MLD’s combat aircraft —including 37 new Dornier Do 24 K-1 flying boats, soon augmented by 36 PBY Catalinas. Their inferno along the Java Sea would come at the hands of the Emperor’s Combined Fleet in 1942.

Left in Europe was the old 8,000-ton cruiser Hr.Ms. Sumatra, awaiting her mid-life refit in Vlissingen; the new cruiser Jacob van Heemskerck, still fitting out; the four building Gerard Callenburgh-class destroyers; assorted auxiliaries; and 13 submarines, most of which were either under construction or in dry dock for refit. The commander of the Royal Dutch Navy, VADM Johannes Furstner, soon left the country with Queen Wilhelmina and family on Sumatra for England to continue the fight, and issued orders for the rest of the fleet to do the same.

The Admiralen-class destroyer Van Galen, in refit at Rotterdam, was bombed and damaged by Heinkel He 111 aircraft of Kampfgeschwader 4 on 10 May and sank in the Merwedehaven. The same day, the tug De Oceaan, too slow to make a getaway, was scuttled as a block ship.

The 11th saw the old gunboat Braga scuttled in the Waal, while the Luftwaffe sank the Dutch liners Statendam and Veendam, along with the steamer Stella.

The 12th saw the gunboats Bulgia and Friso and the hospital ship Luctor et Emergo sunk by German bombs, joined by the steamers Prinses Juliana and Van Rensselaer.

On the 13th, the torpedo boat Christiaan Cornelis was scuttled by her crew after sustaining crippling battle damage, while the minesweeper M 2 was sunk while doing her job.

The 14th was a day of reckoning for the Dutch Navy. Destroyed by the Germans or scuttled by their crew were the ancient and immobile 5,000-ton coastal battleship Batterijschip IJmuiden, the brave sloop/frigate Johan Maurits van Nassau, the yard-bound submarines O 8, O 11, O 12, O 25, O 26, and O 27; the minesweepers Abraham van der Hulst, M 1, M 3, M 4, and Pieter Florisz, the minelayer Hydra, the gunboats Brinio, Freyr, Hefring, and Tyr; the torpedo boats Jan Danielzoon van de Rijn, G 16, and Z 3; the tug Noordzee II, and the merchant steamers Jan Pieterszoon Coen and Naaldwijk.

Picture postcard with drawings of some of the Dutch warships lost during the May days of 1940. Top left: the gunboat Hr.Ms. Johan Maurits van Nassau (1933-1940), which was sunk by aerial bombs on May 14, 1940, between Petten and Callantsoog. Top right: the torpedo boat Hr.Ms. Z 3 (1920-1940), which was sunk by its own crew near Enkhuizen on May 14, 1940. Below that: the destroyer Hr.Ms. Van Galen (1929-1940), which was sunk by aerial bombs near Rotterdam on May 10, 1940. Below that, on the left: the minelayer Hr.Ms. Hydra (1912-1940), which was heavily damaged by German anti-tank fire in the Zijpe near St. Philipsstad on May 15, 1940, and grounded in shallow water. Next to it on the right are the minesweepers Hr. Ms. Pieter Florisz (1937-1940) and Hr. Ms. Abraham van der Hulst (1937-1940), which was sunk by its own crew near Medemblik and Enkhuizen on May 14. Below that on the left is the accommodation ship in Vlissingen, Hr.Ms. Noordbrabant (1925-1940) was set on fire by its own crew on May 17, 1940. Next to it is the gunboat Hr. Ms. Friso (1915-1940), which was heavily damaged by aircraft bombs on the IJsselmeer on May 12, 1940, and subsequently by gunfire from Hr. Ms. Pieter Florisz (1937-194) was sunk after the crew had abandoned the ship. Additionally, the gunboat Hr. Ms. Brinio (1914-1940), which was sunk by its own crew on Lake IJssel near Enkhuizen on May 14, 1940. Additionally, the minelayer Zr./Hr.Ms. Bulgia (1894-1940), which was sunk during an air raid on Vlissingen on May 12. NIMH 2061-006-001

Looking to fight another day, the cruisers Sumatra and Jacob van Heemskerck, the gunboat Gruno, the minelayers Jan van Gelder and Willem van der Zaan, and seven Dutch submarines (O 9, O 10, O 13, O 21, O 22, O 23, and O 24) escaped from the European mainland to Great Britain, most under strafing attacks by German fighters and a hail of German bombs. Heemskerck had to be towed, and the O 20-series subs were still incomplete.

They were joined by an armada of coasters and merchant vessels that also ran the gauntlet. No less than 39 Dutch coasters took part in the “Miracle from Dunkirk” and the Channel harbors of France over the next month, lifting at least 1,900 Dutch troops away from the maelstrom. In all, more than 1,200 Dutch merchant ships would serve with the Allies during WWII, with estimates hovering at about 525 of those lost.

The Dutch army units, which had not yet linked up with the Allies, laid down their arms on the morning of 15 May.

Dutch RADM Hoyte Jolles, commanding nearly 10,000 stranded sailors, marines, shipyard workers, and recalled reservists at Den Helder, which included several fortified coastal defense sites, wanted to keep fighting until the bitter end and was only narrowly convinced by CiC Gen. Henri Winkelman not to waste his men’s lives.

But what of our four building destroyers?

On the Issac Sweers, MLD LtZ Baron Hugo Anne Victor Raoul van Lawick gathered 10 naval personnel and six shipyard workers, all volunteers, and, with the blessing of KMDS personnel, cast off the incomplete destroyer on the late evening of 10 May 1940.

Using the requisitioned 850-ton L. Smit & Co tugboat Zwarte Zee (Black Sea), the shoestring operation towed the hull 80 miles from Vlissingen to The Downs in England–dodging four German magnetic mines dropped in the tug’s path– arriving late morning on the 11th. Safe, they moved to Spithead the following day.

There, Sweers was tied up, safe from the German advance. Zwarte Zee remained in English waters, joining 12 other Dutch ocean-going tugs, and, despite being sunk at least once, entered the service of the British Admiralty as a salvage vessel and tow boat. Zwarte Zee’s master throughout the war, Teun Vet, was honored with the Dutch Bronze Lion (Bronzen Leeuw).

As for the building, Tjerk Hiddes and Gerard Callenburgh, still being fitted out in Rotterdam, were both scuttled on the Nieuwe Waterweg by naval and RDM personnel, putting them out of the Germans’ hands for at least the time being.

The fourth ship of the class, the building Philips van Almonde, still in the stocks as she was just laid down in March 1939, was blown up at the shipyard in Vlissingen and scrapped by the Germans.

Completion abroad

In June, Isaac Sweers was towed to Thornycroft shipyard at Southampton, where she would be completed, a process that took nearly a year.

Torpedobootjager Hr.Ms. Isaac Sweers in drydock at John I. Thornycroft & Co. Ltd., Southampton, October 1940. Note that her screws haven’t been installed yet. NIMH 2158_002969

Isaac Sweers in drydock at John I. Thornycroft. Note that her 40mm mount is covered, and the radar and fire-control system antennas have been marked out by the censor. Nationaal Archief 934-9828

Although she had most of her intended equipment installed, including her propulsion plant, she lacked her main guns. This left her with three twin British 4″/45 QF Mk XVI mounts rather than the five 4.7″/45 Dutch guns she had planned. The incomplete cruiser Jacob van Heemskerck, likewise without guns, received five of the same mounts.

At Alexandria on the Free Dutch destroyer Issac Sweers (G 83). Dutch sailors off duty, enjoying a yarn beside depth-charges. Note the 4″/45 QF Mk XVI twin mount, 24 December 1941. By LT E.A. Zimmerman, RN. IWM (A 7263)

She also got two Vickers quad .50 cal mounts instead of the planned Colt-Browning twin .50s and British torpedo tubes, but never did get that seaplane fitted. Instead of the Dutch listening gear she had planned, she got a British Type 124 sonar.

Quad .50 cal Vickers mount on Isaac Sweers, at Alexandria, Egypt, 24 December 1941. By LT EA Zimmerman, IWM (A 7264)

Issac Sweers as completed, 1941, with British guns and radar. Dutch Nationaal Archief. 4.MST

Drawing by AD Baker III via British Destroyers from Earliest days to the Second World War by Friedman (Seaforth 2009).

Torpedobootjager Hr. Ms. Isaac Sweers, 1941, Bestanddeelnr 934-9830

The Brits were very interested in her 40mm Bofors mounts, as was her Hazemayer local fire control system, classified as the Range & Direction Finding system 289, or simply called “The Dutch Device” by ASE Plymouth. Sea trials with the primitive radar showed that a Swordfish had a continuously trackable echo out to 4,400 yards, while barrage balloons could be pinged out to 6,600.

Hr.Ms. torpedobootjager Isaac Sweers at Vosper Tornycraft soon after completion. Note the barrage balloons overhead. NIMH 2158_005293

The electric listening device (RDF 289) transmitter-receiver on Isaac Sweers with the J-scope and headphones, shown next to an image of the RDF 289 transmitter section. Sweers had one of these sets in shacks behind each of her two 40mm Bofors mounts. 

The Brits elected to simplify the system for their own use and augment the Dutch ship with a range-only British UHF-band Type 282 fire control radar as well.

As noted by Friedman:

The Royal Navy was most impressed by the twin stabilized Bofors guns aboard Isaac Sweers and other Dutch warships. Both it and the U.S. Navy saw them demonstrated on board a Dutch gunboat in the West Indies. The U.S. reaction was to adopt a simplified (unstabilized) twin-powered Bofors in place of its quadruple 1.1-in anti-aircraft gun; this weapon entered widespread service from 1942 onwards. The Royal Navy was more interested in the mount, which it called a Hazemeyer, after the Dutch manufacturer (which later became Signaal), as a self-contained unit, carrying its own fire-control computer and its own range-only (Type 282) radar. A ship armed with multiple Hazemeyers could engage multiple air targets; a U.S. ship could engage only as many targets as she had off-mount directors (Mk 51 or radar-equipped successors such as Mk 57).

However, the complex mount turned out to be a manufacturing and maintenance nightmare, and the A through to I class destroyers could never be fitted with it. The promise of the Hazemeyer led the Royal Navy to develop the much heavier STAAG, with a next-generation radar (Type 262), and to project an even more elaborate Buster mounting, which would have weighed twenty tons (and was canceled).

The early 40mm Bofors Hazemeyer mount shown is aboard the destroyer Isaac Sweers, probably in mid-1941. The antennas are for the range-only British UHF-band Type 282 fire control radar. In effect, a Hazemeyer combined gun and fire control system, NIMH 2158_053881

A closer look at that Type 282. NIMH 2158_028955

With a 194-man crew drawn from across the assembled Free Dutch naval personnel in the West, Hr.Ms. Isaac Sweers, complete with the British pennant G 83 rather than her Dutch IS, entered service on 29 May 1941. Her first skipper was KtZ Jacques Houtsmuller, RNN, a regular who obtained his commission in 1916.

Hr.Ms. torpedobootjager Isaac Sweers (G 83) after completion in England. IWM (A 30815)

Finally, in the fight!

In June 1941, Sweers took part in a series of trials off Portsmouth and Plymouth, during which she achieved a top speed of 36.7 knots over a measured mile. She continued her workups and exercises at Scapa Flow through July and, on 1 August, arrived at Greenock to join the Western Approaches Command for escort duties.

She soon joined the escort for Convoy WS 10, a slow “Winston Special” headed to Africa from the Clyde.

Then came WS 11, which she took as far as Gibraltar.

Our little Dutch destroyer, sailing with the 4th Destroyer Flotilla, became part of Admiral Somerville’s Operation Halberd at “The Rock,” bound for Malta. Running two convoys totaling 12 freighters packed with supplies for the island, Sweers fell in with 18 other destroyers (including two Poles), five cruisers, the battleships HMS Nelson, Rodney, and Prince of Wales, and the carrier Ark Royal. A force of nine Allied submarines (including the Dutch O 21) patrolled ahead of the Italian fleet.

Speaking of which, the Italian RADM Angelo Iachino sortied out with two battlewagons, five cruisers, and 14 destroyers of his own, while the Italian air force had 500 assorted tactical aircraft based in Sardinia and Sicily that the Halberd force had to sail through.

When the smoke cleared, the Allied escorts and Ark Royal’s Fulmars shot down 21 attacking SM.79 and BR.20 torpedo bombers while only one Allied steamer (MV Imperial Star) was lost along the way. The Allied tin cans of Sweers‘ 4th DF, specifically HMS Gurkha and Legion, sank the Italian sub Adua. Gurkha and Sweers also unsuccessfully chased the Italian submarine Diaspro.

Sweers had at least three “narrow misses” from Italian torpedoes in as many days, two sub-launched torps traveling too deep, and an air-dropped fish missing her bow by 30 meters. She also suffered two men injured from friendly fire splinters.

Arriving back in Gibraltar on 1 October, Sweers ventured out to help escort Convoy OS 9 to Freetown, then came back north as an escort for Convoy SL 90

Back in Gibraltar for Operation Perpetual, one of the Club Run aircraft delivery missions to Malta, Sweers fell in with Force H– the carriers Argus and Ark Royal (the latter packed with Hurricane fighters and Blenheim bombers), battleship Malaya, cruiser Hermione, and six destroyers on 10 November.

Cape Bon

Ordered from Gibraltar to Alexandria via Malta with fellow destroyers HMS Sikh, Legion, and Maori to reinforce the Mediterranean Fleet in December, the four greyhounds sighted the outlines of two medium-sized ships steaming south on the early morning of 13 December near Cape Bon, Tunisia. With the force commodore on Sikh (CDR Graham Stokes) warned about two Italian cruisers (Alberico da Barbiano and Alberto di Giussano) proceeding from Palermo to Tripoli thanks to Ultra intercepts, he immediately presumed them to be these ships, and soon the surface action was afoot.

Sikh, leading the column, went in first, torpedoes and guns opening up at 1,000 yards, followed by Legion and Maori, with 12 torps wrecking the Italian cruisers. Sweers, the last in the column, got off 4-inch rounds at one of the burning cruisers (Alberto di Giussano), then switched fire to an Italian torpedo boat (Cigno) running in close, scoring several hits as the two traded missed torpedoes at close range in the dark.

At the end of the scrap, the Allies suffered no casualties or damage, while both Italian cruisers were on the bottom, with 817 men from their crews. The damaged Cigno returned after dawn to pick up 500 waterlogged survivors.

The four Allied destroyers sailed into Alexandria with a hell of an after-action report on 19 December.

Changing skippers, loss of Gurkha

On Christmas Eve 1941, RN Photographer Lt. E.A. Zimmerman came aboard the Dutch man-of-war at Alexandria and captured her crew at work, then accompanied them for a Christmas ASW patrol.

Zimmerman’s photo essay:

CDR Houtsmuller, captain of the Isaac Sweers (left by one of the ship’s torpedo turnstiles) with RADM Irvine Gordon Glennie, Rear Admiral (Destroyers, Mediterranean Fleet). Glennie, who started the war commanding HMS Hood but had been kicked upstairs before she met Bismarck, retired as a full admiral in 1947, capping 42 years in uniform. By Zimmerman. IWM (A 7258)

At Alexandria on Issac Sweers. Dutch sailors pulling out torpedoes for cleaning, oiling, varnishing, and revision, 24 December 1941. By Zimmerman. IWM (A 7259)

At Alexandria on Issac Sweers. Dutch sailors pulling out torpedoes for cleaning, oiling, varnishing, and revision, 24 December 1941. By Zimmerman. IWM (A 7261)

At Alexandria on Issac Sweers. Members of the gun crew overhauling their pom-poms while in harbor. 24 December 1941. By Zimmerman. IWM (A 7264)

25 December 1941. ASW Patrol. Sending and receiving messages on the Dutch destroyer Isaac Sweers, while the look-out below scans the horizon. By Zimmerman IWM (A 8056)

25 December 1941. ASW Patrol, eastern Med. HMS Napier and HMS Nizam are almost hidden by bow waves from Isaac Sweers in heavy seas.  By Zimmerman IWM (A 8053)

In early 1942, at a ceremony at Admiralty House, a DSO (Houtsmuller), 2 DSCs, and 3 DSMs were presented by Admiral of the Fleet and First Sea Lord, Sir Dudley Pound, to officers of Isaac Sweers, “who participated in the night action in the Mediterranean on 13 December 1941 when two Italian cruisers and an E-boat were sunk and an Italian torpedo boat was heavily damaged.”

By this time, Houtsmuller had been replaced by KltZ Willem Harmsen, RNN, who had commanded the British-loaned destroyer HNMS Campbeltown (I 42) throughout 1941. A regular, Harmsen had earned his first stripe in July 1915.

The new year saw Sweers on cross-Med Convoy ME 8, AT 12, and MW 8A/B. It was on the latter that U-133 (Kptlt Hesse) torpedoed Gurkha off Sidi Barrani on 17 January 1942. Sweers and Maori rushed to her aid and, after towing her out of a burning oil slick, Sweers picked up 240 survivors while Maori screened the rescue and hunted the attacker. Gurkha suffered nine losses.

Royal Navy L-class destroyer HMS Gurkha (G 65), one hour after being torpedoed by U-133 off Sidi Barrani on 17 January 1942. She would be on the bottom just 30 minutes later, with Sweers saving the majority of her crew. The photo was taken by D.J.Hoefsloot, the ship’s barber on Isaac Sweers.

Spared at Java, lost at Torch

On 29 January 1942, with a brand-new war being fought in the Pacific, Sweers was released from the Mediterranean Fleet and ordered to proceed to the Dutch East Indies to reinforce the Free Dutch forces there under pressure from the Japanese.

However, upon arriving in Colombo via Port Said and Aden in late February, the situation in the Java Sea had come to a head, and there was no longer a Dutch fleet for Sweers to join in the Far East.

Falling in with the British Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean, she spent most of March and April escorting the battleship HMS Royal Sovereign, reacting to Operation C, the strong 5-carrier/4-battleship Japanese raid into the region.

Isaac Sweers in the Indian Ocean under British RN orders. Nationaal Archief NL 934-9831

Sweers, likely in a British port in 1942, looking worn. NIMH 2158 028954

After the Japanese retired back to the Pacific, Sweers was released to make her way to England via Durban, Simonstown, Freetown, and Gibraltar.

On 22 June 1942, she arrived at Thornycroft shipyard in Portsmouth for a much-needed refit after a solid year of high-tempo operations. She would remain there for three months. During the refit, Sweers landed her quad Vickers .50s in exchange for four Oerlikon singles and picked up a British Western Approaches-style camo scheme.

Hr.Ms. torpedobootjager Isaac Sweers’ post-camo scheme late in her career. NIMH 2158_005303

After working up and exercises in Scapa Flow, Sweers was attached to the escort for troop Convoy KMF 1 for the Torch Landings in North Africa, and headed back to the Med in October. There, she was detached on 5 November to join Force H, supporting the Eastern (Algiers) and Center (Oran) Task Forces.

On 11 November, Sweers and the British destroyer HMS Porcupine rescued 238 survivors from the Dutch troop transport Nieuw Zeeland, which had been torpedoed and sunk by U-380 about 80 miles east of Gibraltar.

The next day, our subject’s long streak of luck finally ran out.

At 0615  on 13 November, while northwest of Algiers, Sweers was hit by two torpedoes from U-431 (Kptlt Wilhelm Dommes) on the starboard side. One torpedo struck an oil tank, which had just been topped off by the fleet oiler HMS Dingledale, spreading burning oil over the ship and the water. The second torpedo hit the logroom and O quarters, killing all 13 officers sleeping there, with the butcher’s bill topping 108.

The British armed trawler HMS Loch Oskaig picked up the 86 survivors.

A snapshot of Hr. Ms. Isaac Sweers was found on the body of one of her crew after she was lost. The discolored spots are due to fuel oil, with which this survivor was also soaked. NIMH 2158_001537

For what it is worth, U-431 was chased to the ground the following October by RAF Wellingtons off Cartagena and sent to the bottom with all hands. Kptlt Dommes had, however, left the boat by then, sailing to the Pacific to become the Monsun Group commander at Penang, surviving the war with 11 patrols and 40,103 GRT to his credit.

Epilogue

Sweers‘ 1941 skipper of Cape Bon fame, KtZ Jacques Houtsmuller, RNN, survived the war and retired from the Navy in December 1946, capping a 30-year career, and was made an Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau. He passed away in 1974, aged 80.

Kapitein ter zee Jacques Houtsmuller, DSO, et, al

Her final skipper, KltZ Willem Harmsen, would go on to command the completed Jacob van Heemskerck in the Indian Ocean in 1943 and 44. He retired in 1946 as Commanding Officer, Naval Forces Rotterdam. He passed away in 1970, aged 77.

The Dutch naval aviator who managed to save the incomplete Isaac Sweers, Baron von Lawick, was killed in a plane crash in the Dutch East Indies in 1941, aged just 31. His only son, naturalist Baron Hugo van Lawick, married Jane Goodall and won eight Emmy Awards for his documentary films.

As for Zwarte Zee, the little tug that saved Isaac Sweers from the Germans in 1940, sailing as W 163, she and 11 other Dutch tugs would take part in Operation Pluto, the breakwater for Normandy, in 1944, when her sister Roode Zee was struck by a German torpedo and sunk with her entire crew. After returning home, Zwarte Zee had a long career, chugging along for 33 years on her original pair of good old Werkspoor crosshead diesels.

On her last voyage to the scrappers in 1966, the old tug sailed slowly along the Nieuwe Maas through the port of Rotterdam, with many on the riverbank to bid farewell to the vessel.

Sleepboot Zwarte Zee waarschijnlijk in het Noordzeekanaal 1933

As for Issac Sweers’ sisters, the scuttled Gerard Callenburgh was salvaged and seized by the Germans in July 1940, then completed and served in the Kriegsmarine with a mixture of her Dutch main guns and German 20mm C/38 (16) and 37mm C/30 (4) flak guns and torpedo tubes, and as ZH1 (Zerstörer Holland 1), commissioned 11 October 1942.

Ex-Gerard Callenburgh, German ZH1, was sunk on 9 June 1944 by Allied destroyers (British HMS Tartar, Ashanti, Eskimo, and Javelin, the Canadian Haida and Huron, and the Polish Blyskawica) in the English Channel 10 miles NW of Ile de Bas by gunfire and torpedoes. NIMH 2158_035728

The scuttled Tjerk Hiddes, raised in June 1942, was planned to become ZH 2 but was never completed as such and was eventually scrapped at Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht.

An illustration of ZH 1 and 2 destroyers Source: “Die deutschen Kriegsschiffe 1815 – 1945, Band 2” book, by Erich Gröner

In a passive resistance kind of thing, the good patriotic employees of Werkspoor, under chief engineer Gerard Jan Lugt, duly disassembled and hid from the Germans eight Werkspoor-Parsons turbines meant for the Gerard Callenburgh class destroyers, along with plans and machinery for their production, through a variety of subterfuges including offsite storage (including at the company’s vast railcar plant at Utrecht), disassembly, and burying them under scrap and rubbish piles until 1945.

Post-liberation, they were coupled with new Babcock boilers and recycled into the power plants of four new, albeit smaller and more modern, Type 47A (Holland) class submarine hunter (onderzeebootjager) ASW destroyers built in the early 1950s, sailing into the mid-1970s in Dutch service, with one later serving in Peru well into the 1980s.

The Type 47A Onderzeebootjager Hr.Ms. Holland, complete with a pair of quad Bofors 375mm ASW mortars forward of the bridge. She served from 1954 to 1977 with the Dutch, then until 1986 with Peru as BAP Garcia y Garcia (DD75)– and did it all with pre-WWII engines ordered for the Gerard Callenburgh class– and Holland broke 40 knots on builder’s sea trials! NIMH 2158_002863

Speaking of carrying a legacy forward, the Dutch reused the name of VADM Sweers for an NDSM-built Van Speijk (Dutch Leander)- class frigate (F 814), commissioned in 1968. She served the Koninklijke Marine until 1990, when she was decommissioned as part of a post-Cold War drawdown. Still young and in good condition, she was sold to Indonesia, where she remains in service as the Ahmad Yani-class frigate KRI Karel Satsuitubun (F 356), now 58 years old.

HNLMS Isaac Sweers (F814) during her Cold War service in the Royal Netherlands Navy. She continues to ply the Pacific under an Indonesian flag, serving alongside four of her sisters.

Thanks for reading!

Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive

***

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Grab the Joe pot, boys (but never wash the cup)

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A kapok-clad crewman on the Sims-class destroyer USS Wainwright (DD 419) brings coffee to the open bridge during the escort for the ill-fated Arctic Convoy PQ-17, July 1942.

LIFE Magazine Archives – Frank Scherschel Photographer.

LIFE Magazine Archives – Frank Scherschel Photographer.

Various events have been held, called Coffee Day or National Coffee Day, with many of these on or around September 29.

Cups up, gents.

The Brodie helmet was surprisingly bullet resistant

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Mike B recently did a ballistic test on a historic WWII-era Brodie-style British Mark II steel helmet, and it is fairly surprising.

Don’t freak out too much about destroying a collectible, as the helmet is a high-use specimen that had gone to Pakistan and been reimported for sale to reenactors. Plus, the Allies made something like 12 million of these helmets between 1938 and 1944, so they aren’t that rare (you can find them for like $50).

Still, it surprised me how resistant it was to pistol rounds.

Bo Bo is Back Baby!

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The new and more permanent (the old 1951 pact was only in effect as long as NATO existed) three-way military agreement between Greenland, Denmark, and the U.S. has a couple of big takeaways.

One is the green light for the U.S. to modernize and expand its activities in Pituffik Space Base (the old Thule AB from 1951-2023, formerly Bluie West-6 Air Field from 1943-1946), as well as “to be allowed to establish an additional Defense Area at Narsarsuaq and Mestersvig in accordance with modalities and technical details to be mutually agreed by the Parties.”

The thing is, we’ve been there before.

Bluie West One Memories

Starting with 14 U.S. Coast Guardsmen recently “discharged” from the service who took up newly established positions as uniformed security guards on the staff of the Invigtut cryolite mine, delivered by the USCGC Comanche in May 1940– just a month after Germany occupied Denmark– the U.S. military established no less than 26 bases dotted around the Greenlandic coastline by 1945.

One of the larger bases was Bluie West One (BW-1) on the island’s southern tip. With construction that started in June 1941, before the end of the war, the base housed 4,000 personnel and was the key waypoint along with Bluie West Eight (Sondre Stromfjord / Kangerlussuaq) in the “Blue Spruce” northern ferry route, which saw aircraft leave from RCAF Gander/Goose Bay in Newfoundland/Labrador and make it to Scotland using Greenland and Iceland as refueling stops. More than 10,000 Allied aircraft crossed the Atlantic that way during the war.

The HQ of the Greenland Command, BW-1 was just 776 miles from Gander to the southwest and 748 miles from Meeks Field (later Keflavik AB) in Iceland to the southeast, the perfect midway point, making it possible for even P-38 and P-39 fighters to self-deploy across the Atlantic.

Of course, there were challenges, as the base was located essentially in a bowl.

Circular infrared photo from weather station at Narsarssuak, Greenland, shows entire airfield, 1943. Note the B-24 on deck. Sloping hills at left and right are actually parts of the same mountain. (U.S. Air Corps Number 27837AC)

Panorama of West Bluie One, Army Airfield, Greenland August 1942 80-G-0061961

As noted dryly by DANS-VP:

“Operational conditions from the field were primitive, with 4,000-foot mountains on either side of the runway and the Narasarssuak Fjord at the far end. Flying conditions were frequently IFR, with the installation of radar sets on the aircraft in 1943 a welcome addition.”

VPB-6 (CG)

Further, it proved ideal to base a PBY unit there to help cover convoys across the North Atlantic; only the Navy was cool with somebody else doing it.

On 6 August 1943, Patrol Bombing Squadron (VPB) 6, manned entirely by Coast Guardsmen, began operating from BW-1.

Bombing 6, commanded by USCG CDR Donald B. “Bo Bo” McDiarmid, was to earn a reputation as one of the busiest and most effective in Coast Guard aviation history.

VPB-6 at BW-1. The unit arrived at Narsarsuaq with ten aircraft (one designated as a spare), 22 officers and 145 enlisted, including eight enlisted pilots.

Like every other Coast Guard unit in Greenland, “Bo Bo’s Flying Circus” had to “do a little of everything.” Its PBY-5A Catalinas searched for U-boats and German weather stations, escorted convoys, delivered mail, reported on the movements of the ice, and, on several dozen occasions, guided rescue parties to crashed Army and Navy aircraft.

By November 1944, Bombing 6 had flown 638,998 miles in 6,325 flying hours, searching more than 3 million square miles of ice cap and ocean, and BW-1 had become known as NAF Narsarsuak.

Original caption: May 19, 1944. “Over the barren expanse of the 2,000-foot-high Greenland Ice Cap speeds a Coast Guard PBY Flying Boat. Thousands of years old, the Ice Cap looms as a forbidding menace to fliers. One of the most daring plane rescues in history was recorded in the winter of 1942, when Coast Guard Lieutenant John A. Pritchard, Jr., of Burbank, Calif., landed his PBY on the treacherous surface of the Ice Cap and took off successfully to rescue two of three Army fliers, stranded there when their Flying Fortress crashed. The next day, attempting to rescue the third Army airman, Lieutenant Pritchard’s plan was wrecked. The pilot, his co-pilot, and the Army flier were killed.” NARA 26-G-05-19-44(2)

“Eyes of the Arctic,” 9.26.1944 Coast Guard PBY Greenland 026-g-024-006-001

Original caption, 23 February 1944: “A bearded U.S. Coast Guardsman clears snow from the wings of a PBY patrol plane assigned to a Coast Guard-manned air base on the bleak coast of Greenland. The plane is kept in top running order for its sky sweeps against enemy craft daring to penetrate into the northern wastes.” NARA 26-G-02-23-44(6)

VPB-6 (CG) was ordered back home on 10 July 1945, and the much-reduced NAF was disestablished on 5 February 1951, transferring it to the USAF to operate as Narsarssuak Air Base until November 1958, when it was turned over to the Royal Danish Navy who in 1988 turned it over to the Greenlandic government.

USAF C-123s at Narsarssuak Air Base Greenland 1956

The old 6,000-foot airstrip is still there as the Narsarsuaq Airport. However, with Air Greenland moving its hub to the new strip 30 miles away at Qaqortoq earlier this year, Narsarsuaq is largely empty now– making it ideal for use as a military base once again!

So, logically, let’s base a rotational P-8 (or USCG HC-130J) detachment out of there and bring in occasional rotations of USAF and NATO F-16s, F-18s, and F-35s.

Um,

Kinda like what NORAD and NATO are doing right now with Operation Arctic Vanguard.

Check out this flightline last week at Kangerlussuaq, Greenland (formerly Bluie West-8 during WWII and Sondrestrom Air Base from 1952-92):

United States F-16s, Danish F-35s, and Canadian F-18s sit parked on the flight line during Operation ARCTIC VANGUARD at Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, Sept. 16, 2026. OAV demonstrates the Nordic Bridge concept, enhancing cooperation between United States Northern Command, United States European Command, North American Aerospace Defense Command, and NATO in order to expand domain awareness, strengthen deterrence, and improve interoperability. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Colin Perkins)

As for Mestersvig, the Royal Danish Navy established a Sirius dog sled patrol outpost there in 1988 at the old Blyklippen zinc mine, which was active from 1956-62, and SF teams have exercised there in the past. You could definitely see it expanded to house a rotational company from the 10th Mountain or 11th Airborne a few months a year to give the island subcontinent a bit of a “fire brigade.”

U.S. Special Operations Mountain Warfare Green Berets and Danish Special Operations Forces pose for a group photograph in Mestersvig, Greenland, March 2, 2024. During Arctic Edge 24, more than 400 joint and allied Special Operators trained in extreme cold conditions to sharpen SOF readiness across unique specialties like long-range fires and movements, special reconnaissance, rapid resupply, personnel recovery, and medical care in the austere Arctic environment. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Andrew Estrada)

Warship Wednesday 23 September 2026: With a Soaring Spirit

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Here at LSOZI, we take a break every Wednesday to explore the old steam/diesel navies from 1833 to 1954, profiling 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 

If you enjoy my always ad-free Warship Wednesday content, you can support it by buying me a cup of joe at https://buymeacoffee.com/lsozi As Henk says: “Warship Coffee – no sugar, just a pinch of salt!”

Warship Wednesday 23 September 2026:

Photo by Phillip Oliver Hobson, AWM HOBJ0796

Above we see the aircraft repair ship and light aircraft carrier HMS Unicorn ( I72), or more specifically one of her four twin 4″/45 Mark XVI guns in a sponson Mark XIX mounting.

A child of WWII, it was Unicorn’s aircraft that made the Germans howl off Salerno, but in September 1951, some 75 years ago this week, her guns made naval history off the coast of Korea.

A Replenishment Carrier?

In 1938, England knew she was stumbling headlong into a war with a revitalized Germany, likely to be allied to Mussolini’s Italy, which the West had been fighting by proxy in Spain for years, while Japan, which walked out of the League of Nations in 1933 and withdrew from the London Naval Treaty the next year, was beating war drums of her own.

While the battle line, with its 15 active and five building battleships and battlecruisers, was the stuff of legends, the Royal Navy had been in the aircraft carrier business for a solid 20 years– the first fleet to field a true flattop in the form of HMS Argus in September 1918.

Going into the Czech Sudeten crisis, the Brits had four active fleet carriers (the 26,000-ton/48-aircraft HMS Courageous and Glorious, the 23,000-ton/33-aircraft Furious, and the 26,000-ton/21-aircraft Eagle), while the brand-new 27,000-ton/60-aircraft Ark Royal would commission in November 1938.

On the builders’ ways at three different yards were the 28,000-ton/33-aircraft “Lusty” sisters (Illustrious, Formidable, and Victorious) of soon-to-be-famous class armored deck carriers, followed closely by near sisters Indomitable, Indefatigable, and Implacable, although none of these six would join the fleet until well into the war (the latter two not until 1944).

With 11 large flattops built or on the schedule, the Admiralty hit on an idea for a “replenishment carrier” which could be a floating workshop capable of receiving “flying duds” in need of repair or patchwork from these other carriers, then sending a fresh model over to replace it while said dud was cycled down to the hangars for refurbishment.

Plus, as the carrier was actually a sort of “depot ship,” its tonnage didn’t count against naval treaty limits.

The need for a decent-length flight deck capable of takeoffs and landings, complete with six arresting wires, a crash barrier, and a BHIII hydraulic catapult, resulted in a 600 x 90-foot “roof” over a 640-foot hull on a steamer that displaced 16,794 tons (standard, 20,625 full). Under said roof was a 324 x 65-foot upper hangar and a 360 x 62-foot lower hangar, both standing 16.5 feet tall.

Fleet Air Arm Corsair and Firefly aircraft in the hangar of the maintenance carrier HMS Unicorn, circa 1945. Besides these types, Unicorn would, in the course of her career,r tote Fulmar, Seafire, Hellcat, and Martlet (Wildcat) fighters along with Swordfish, Albacore, Barracuda, and Tarpon attack aircraft– plus Dragonfly helicopters and a range of RAF types to include Gloster Meteors. Photo via Royal Navy Research Archive.

Transit between the hangar and flight deck was via a pair of 10-ton elevators aligned to starboard, fore (46 x 33 feet) and aft (46 x 24 feet) of the island. In this manner, 20 single-engine aircraft could be easily stored in the below-deck workshops and, should the flight deck be used, this could bump up to 35ish.

Further, her shops had storage for 50 aircraft engines, and she carried a self-propelled lighter for moving aircraft between herself and other carriers. Avgas storage allowed for 36,500 imp gallons, enough to fill a Swordfish from empty something like 218 times, not enough for extended operations (by comparison, Ark Royal could carry over 100,000 imp gallons) but enough to get some sorties in for sure.

She also had a large crane for both handling seaplanes and amphibians and moving aircraft to and from lighters.

Cutaway of aircraft repair ship and light aircraft carrier HMS Unicorn Illustrious class

Powered by a pair of Parsons geared steam turbines delivering 40,000 shp when all four Admiralty 3-drum boilers were lit and pushing, this floating aviation repair depot would be able to steam at a respectable 24 knots maximum, with 3,157 tons of fuel oil bunkerage giving her a worldwide deployable endurance of 7,500nm at 20 knots, or 11,000nm at a 13.5-knot pace. While not as fast as the 30-knot fleet carriers, this depot ship could still keep up with the fleet in all but racing speeds.

HMS Unicorn via Armored Carriers

She had a decent armament, easily the equivalent of a destroyer leader if not a scout cruiser. This included a main battery of eight high-angle dual-purpose 4″/45 QF Mk XVIs in four twin mounts located on sponsons, four quadruple 40mm 2pdr QF Mk VIII pom-pom AA guns sited immediately before and abaft the island, and 16 (five twin, six single) 20mm Oerlikons in sponsons below the flight deck towards the bow and stern. She also has four single 3-pounder saluting guns. Her magazines allowed for 3,816 4-inch and 19,000 40mm.

If you think this is a lot of guns, remember that the preceding RN fleet and light carriers– HMS Argus (6 x 4″/45s), Hermes (6 x 5.5″/50s), Eagle (9 x 6″/50s), Courageous/Glorious (16 x 4.7/40s), Ark Royal, Indomitable, and Illustrious/Formidable/Victorious (16 x 4.5″/45s)– all had significant batteries of medium guns while not being that much larger than Unicorn. It should also be noted that the 10 follow-on 18,000-ton Colossus-class light carriers commissioned after Unicorn never mounted anything larger than 40mm AAA guns.

The AA armament was controlled by two AR Type 285 RDF fitted HA/DCT’s and three AR Type 282-fitted barrage directors. A Type 290 radar was carried at the masthead, as was a Type 72 homing beacon.

In British fashion, Unicorn had an armored flight deck with two inches of box-shaped protection stretching to three inches over the engineering and magazine spaces, along with a 1.5-inch anti-torpedo bulkhead below decks. It should be pointed out that the similarly-sized late-war Colossuses were all but unarmored, only carrying a 10mm plate over their aviation magazines.

Able to switch hit between carrier and depot ship, Unicorn’s motto was very appropriate: In utrumque excelso animo (Ready for either duty with a soaring spirit).

Unicorn also had extensive medical facilities, including aid stations, fore and aft, and a central sick bay complete with a fully equipped surgical theatre and dental clinic.

At that, Unicorn was meant for RN use, shipping and supporting FAA aircraft and carriers either directly or in the fleet train. The vessel would be the equivalent of a deployable destroyer tender to destroyers, or a submarine tender to subs, yet also capable of performing as a carrier when needed– and sometimes she was needed.

As discussed on Unicorn at Armoured Carriers, it was thought that one such Unicorn type would deploy to support three fleet carriers, making the need for three such depot carriers to replenish the expected nine deployable fleet carriers. However, just one Unicorn would be completed, with no sisters or follow-on depot carriers ordered.

For shipping RAF aircraft in a “knocked down” condition with the wings removed, the RN in 1940 converted a pair of 10,700 ton Cameron-class twin-screw steamers, HMS Engadine (ex-Clan Buchanan) and HMS Athene (Clan Brodie), originally planned to be seaplane depot ships, for the task. Capable of 17.5 knots, they were thought too fast to be U-boat bait, especially when running with an escort. For air and surface defense, they had Type 286 radars, two QF 4-inchers, four quad 40mm pom poms, 10 Oerlikons, and two inches of armor plate on deck. They could carry up to 40 planes with the wings removed, and had bunkerage for 34,000 gallons of avgas. Planes were lifted on and off as cargo via two large cranes, fore and aft.

The air transport HMS Engadine (ex-Clan Buchanan) at anchor during WWII. IWM (FL 6024)

This all brings us to…

Meet Unicorn

Our subject is the 10th such vessel to carry the name of the mythical horned horse, going back to 1544.

The eighth was a 32-gun fifth-rate that served throughout the Napoleonic Wars, capturing over 30 vessels at sea, each including the French 44-gun frigate Tribune, the latter after a brutal ten-hour-long running fight.

Capture of the French Frigate La Tribune by the Unicorn, 8th June 1796, by Nicholas Popcock. In the collection of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. PAI5714

The ninth Unicorn was a 46-gun Leda-class frigate that entered service in 1824, then lingered as a powder hulk and later Royal Naval Reserve drill ship until she was handed over to a preservation society in 1968 and is preserved in Dundee as a museum ship— noted to be the sixth oldest warship in the world.

The old frigate Unicorn has been around for over 200 years, including pier-side service during both World Wars. In WWII, used as a training ground for WRNS; she even accepted the surrender of the advanced German Type XXIII submarine U-2326 a week after VE-Day. Note her distinctive figurehead.

This left our Unicorn with a full dozen battle honors to inherit (Armada 1588, Cadiz 1596, Porto Farina 1655, Santa Cruz 1657, Lowestoft 1665, Orfordness 1666, Solebay 1672, Schooneveld 1673, Texel 1673, Vestale 1761, Tribune 1796, and Basque Roads 1809).

Our subject, the 10th Unicorn, was part of the 1938 Estimates and ordered from the Titanic-famous yard of Harland & Wolff at Belfast on 14 April 1939. She was laid down as Yard No. 1031 on 29th June that year, by which time Czechoslovakia had been erased from the map of Europe and tensions were at an all-time high.

Her launch on 20 November 1941, sponsored by Lady Mabel MacNaughton, was delayed as the yard was ordered to suspend work on several occasions so that workers could be diverted to complete smaller warships urgently required for convoy defense. Harland and Wolff completed no less than 20 Flower-class corvettes at Belfast between HMS Arabis, laid down in October 1939, and HMS Pimpernel, commissioned in November 1940.

Incidentally, to keep from having two Unicorns on the Admiralty’s Naval List, the old frigate HMS Unicorn in Dundee was renamed HMS Cressy in 1941, to free up the name. We’ll revisit that later.

Our carrier’s first skipper was Capt. Quintin Dick Graham, RN, a seasoned regular who had commanded the light cruiser HMS Arethusa (26) earlier in the war and had joined up in 1908 as a cadet.

Unicorn was delivered by the yard to the Admiralty on 12 March 1943, commissioned for service with the Home Fleet, and commenced acceptance trials in the Clyde area.

War!

Carrying an Admiralty standard camouflage scheme of Grey (G45) with a Blue (B20) panel, Unicorn spent April and May 1943 on a series of landing trials, aircrew training, and work-ups for operational service out of Scapa Flow.

Rather than serve her intended depot carrier role, she was needed as a training carrier, conducting operations with the Sea Hurricane IIcs of 800 Squadron, Swordfish of 818 and 824 Squadrons, and Seafire L.IIs of 887 Squadron.

HMS Unicorn (I72), seen here 24 June 1943 at Greenock, Scotland, LT S.J. Beadell IWM (A 17523)

HMS Unicorn Underway. Photograph taken by Catalina Flying Boat B120J GIB/NC/01. Map reference of photograph location: 35 degrees 40 minutes north, 12 degrees 0 minutes west. Speed 18 knots. IWM (FL 6449)

On 19 May 1943, sailing from the Clyde with Algiers-bound Convoy KMF.15, Unicorn, escorted by the cruiser HMS Suffolk, made for the Mediterranean with 18 crated RAF Beaufighters and aircraft spares bound for Gibraltars belowdecks while her Swords from 818 NAS and Seafires from 887 remained aboard to provide the convoy with a combat air patrol– one that came in handy on 24 and 25 May in chasing off big German Fw200 Condors, one of which reportedly dropped ordnance near our carrier.

After arriving at “The Rock” and unloading her Beaus, Unicorn returned to England with Convoy MKF 015, reaching Greenock on the early evening of 4 June.

She returned to training duties and suffered her first loss: Ty/Sub Lieutenant (A) James A F Lawrance, RNVR, FAA, an 818 Squadron observer who fell from his Swordfish in rough weather near Ailsa Craig on 15 July and was never heard from again. She suffered her second loss, Ty/Sub Lieutenant (A) Joseph Brooks Pilling, RNVR, FAA, also of 818 Squadron, killed in an air crash at age 20.

By this time, Unicorn was deployed with elements of the Home Fleet in a feint towards German-occupied Norway as part of Operation Governor, in an effort to entice the Tirpitz out to be destroyed– and to divert German attention from the Mediterranean where the Husky Landings were being made on Sicily.

For Governor, Unicorn carried  887, 818 and 824 NAS and sailed with Force B from Scapa, with ADM Fraiser running his flag from the battleship HMS Duke of York while the new 16-inch battlewagon USS South Dakota joined the effort. The rest of Force A was balanced by the cruiser HMS Bermuda and nine destroyers. Meanwhile, Force A, from Iceland, with the carrier HMS Illustrious, battleships HMS Anson and USS Alabama, and eight destroyers worked as a pincer while Forces C, D, and E were nimble cruiser-destroyer greyhound packs.

Late July 1943. Battleship HMS Duke of York, HMS Unicorn and battlewagon USS South Dakota steaming in line, during Operation Governor. Photo from HMS Bermuda by Harold William John Tomlin,  IWM (A 18352)

Operation Governor, Unicorn from HMS Bermuda. IWM (A 18348)

Same as above; note the Swordfish on deck. IWM (A 18349)

Operation Governor. The aircraft repair ship Unicorn dwarfs the destroyer HMS Saumarez when leaving on the reconnaissance. Photo by Lt FA Davies, IWM (A 18336)

Governor proved fruitless, with Martlets from Illustrious downing two German BV.138 seaplanes and RAF Beaus out of Scotland jumping another two as the only contact.

Unicorn was then given orders to sail for the Med to take part in the Avalanche landings at Salerno in Italy proper. For this task, she would lend her air group (30 Seafires of 809, 887, and 897 Squadrons and nine Swords of 818 Squadron) as part of Force V to cover the beachheads.

Force V was balanced by four British escort carriers (HMS Attacker, Battler, Hunter and Stalker), three cruisers and 10 destroyers, the latter including two Poles. The four CVEs were packed with two Seafire squadrons each, lending some 76 aircraft to Unicorn’s 39. Two larger fleet carriers, Illustrious and Formidable, were assigned to nearby Force H with six further squadrons aboard.

A total of 265 sorties were flown by Force V over Salerno on the first day, 9 September. Unicorn lost two aviators that day, Ty/Sub Lieutenant (A) Malcolm A. McKenzie, RNVR, FAA of 809 Sqn, and Ty/Sub Lieutenant (A) Joseph J Urlich, RNZNVR of 887 Sqn.

Another 232 sorties were flown by Force V on 10 September. Unicorn lost Sub Lieutenant (A) Brian Razzall, RNVR, of 897 Sqn that day, who bailed out of his Seafire but was never found. Also, Unicorn’s Swords carried “spare” pilots in their observers’ seats to Castelvetrano, Sicily, where more Seafires were staged to fly those aircraft out to the action, while also receiving “flying duds” from Force V’s escort carriers.

While it had been planned for Montecorvino airfield to be used ashore by D+2, that fell through, and Force V made another 160 carrier-borne sorties on the 11th. Ultimately, an ersatz strip was set up ashore at Paestrum on the 12th, allowing Force V to withdraw, its Seafires flown ashore, to Tunisia on the 13th.

All in all, for Salerno, Unicorn’s Seafires flew 198 combat sorties, which was certainly near exhaustion for her limited avgas storage.

Pilots from 809 NAS onboard HMS Unicorn after the Salerno landings in 1943. The FAA Museum notes, “The 17 Fleet Air Arm squadrons involved flew 713 sorties during 42 hrs of daylight. During the battle, the Seafire experienced a high attrition rate in large part due to deck landing accidents.” Photo via FAA Museum

Sent back to Scapa to rejoin the Home Fleet, Unicorn arrived at Gibraltar on 23 September and, in company with the carriers Illustrious and Formidable and the battleship Valiant along with a cruiser-destroyer screen, made Greenock on 10 October. Flying off her Swords, Unicorn arrived back at Harland & Wolff for repairs and alterations, remaining in the yard for a month. She would spend the rest of the year in a series of gunnery and flying exercises, celebrating Christmas at home.

Headed to fight the Emperor

On 30 December 1943, Unicorn and Illustrious departed Scapa with the battleships HMS Queen Elizabeth and Valiant, the battlecruiser HMS Renown, and a force of cruisers and destroyers bound for Trincomalee, Ceylon, to join the Eastern Fleet for service against the Japanese. During the cruise, Unicorn was packed with spares and aviation material, bound for points East, which meant she could only carry four Swords of 818 Squadron– later augmented for a few weeks by 8 Barracudas of 847 Squadron.

Arriving at the Suez on 13 January 1944, on the 19th Unicorn called at Aden for fuel, made Cochin on the 27th, and Trincomalee on 2 February, wrapping up more than 8,000nm.

Spending the year shuttling between Colombo, Bombay, and Trincomalee, Unicorn’s final assigned air group was made up of Barracuda IIs of 817 Squadron, which shipped aboard in November 1944 and continued operations over the new year into January 1945. She also had regular flights of Grumman Martlets, Corsairs, and Hellcats conduct flight training from her deck from RAF China Bay outside of Trincomalee.

Battlecruiser HMS Renown, aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious, and aircraft repair ship HMS Unicorn, January 1944, Trincomalee, Sri Lanka

The Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Unicorn (I72, left) and HMS Illustrious (87), probably pictured at Trincomalee, Ceylon, in 1944. NNAM photo No. 1996.488.037.044

Crossing into 1945, Unicorn was ordered to join the British Pacific Fleet, which was soon to field the largest RN carrier force ever seen before or since. When she left for Australia, she carried 82 aircraft and 120 engines with her.

2 February 1945, Unicorn was seen steaming with her deck filled with FAA Corsairs, Hellcats, and Avengers. AWM 302495

Back when Britannia had a proper fleet: Six British Pacific Fleet carriers, circa early 1945, HMS Indomitable (R92), HMS Indefatigable (R10), HMS Unicorn (I72), HMS Illustrious (R87), HMS Victorious (R38) and HMS Formidable (R67) at anchor, with other shipping. IWM MH 5309

Unicorn would serve with TF 112/113, then TF 37/57 for the rest of the Pacific campaign, arriving at Manus on 7 March and running back and forth to Sydney for replacement aircraft, engines, and parts to keep the British 1st Aircraft Carrier Squadron in combat, making a huge effort during the Iceberg landings on Okinawa.

As detailed by the Royal Navy Research Archives,

Since Unicorn left the UK in December 1943, a total of 626 aircraft passed through the hands of the Air Repair Division; these included Albacore, Avenger, Barracuda, Corsair, Firefly, Fulmar, Hellcat, Martinet, Sea Hurricane, Seafire, Swordfish, Vengeance, and Walrus aircraft. Additionally, the Department also handled 283 engines and power plants. 63 engines were installed in aircraft or power plants.

Unicorn seen with the Hecla destroyer tender HMS Tyne (F 24), circa 1945. Tyne was deployed with the BPF from January to October 1945. You get a great view of her armament scheme with four twin 4″/45s on sponsons, two quad pom-poms bracketing the island, and smaller Oerlikon sponsons and tubs.

Post VJ Day, Unicorn assisted in the evacuation of units in the Admiralty Islands and Manus, landing withdrawn personnel, cargo, and aircraft at Brisbane in at least three round-trip 3,000-mile runs by Halloween. Leaving Fremantle in late November, she arrived back home in Devonport on 16 January 1946.

By the end of January, Unicorn was paid off and de-stored before reduction to Reserve status; her war was finished.

Unicorn, in her WWII service, added two battle honors (Salerno 1943, Okinawa 1945) to the dozen she inherited.

She had proven the replenishment carrier concept so thoroughly that two similar support ships, the Colossus-class light carriers HMS Perseus (ex-Edgar) and Pioneer (ex-Mars), were converted into aircraft maintenance ships while still under construction, although they arrived too late to be of use during the war.

Cold War

In mid-1949, with the newer replenishment carrier Perseus designated the trials ship for steam catapult development, and Pioneer laid up while at the same time Red China was growling, the RN decided it was cheaper to reactivate Unicorn for use as a maintenance and ferry carrier, backing up the forward-deployed light carrier HMS Triumph out of Hong Kong, which was carrying the 13th Carrier Air Group (Seafires of 800 Squadron and Fireflies of 827 Squadron).

British carrier silhouettes, 1954 Jane’s: battleships include Vanguard, Anson, Duke of York, King George V, plus th the monitors Abercrombie and Roberts, while carriers include Perseus, Glory, and Unicorn.

Unicorn sailed from Devonport on 22 September 1949, packed with a cargo of 27 Seafires, 38 Fireflies, 6 Sea Furys, and two Sea Otters bound for the Med and Far East, arriving in late November after numerous flag-showing colonial port calls, dropping off planes at RNAS along the way.

In May 1950, while calling in Kure, Japan, Unicorn and the Australian River-class frigate HMAS Shoalhaven pulled out their glad rags and fired simultaneous 21-gun salutes to mark George VI’s 13th Coronation.

HMS Unicorn and the frigate HMAS Shoalhaven, lying alongside at Kure, Japan, dressed their ships and fired simultaneous salutes of 21 guns to mark the 13th anniversary of King George VI’s Coronation. Photo by Phillip Oliver Hobson. AWM HOBJ0791.

A view of the mast area of HMS Unicorn docked at Kure harbor, dressed, May 1950. Photo by Phillip Oliver Hobson. AWM HOBJ0793

A view of the deck of HMS Unicorn dressed with flags to mark the 13th anniversary of the King’s Coronation. Note the carrier aircraft on deck with folded wings. Photo by Phillip Oliver Hobson. AWM HOBJ0800

Same as the above, Unicorn dressed with flags to mark the 13th anniversary of the King’s Coronation at Kure in May 1950. Note the Rotol contra-rotating propellers of the Supermarine Seafire FR Mk 47, the type used operationally in Korea by the FAA’s 800 Squadron from the carrier HMS Triumph. The Mk47s were the last of the 22,000 aircraft built under the Spitfire/Seafire program, ending the 13-year production line in 1949. Photo by Phillip Oliver Hobson. AWM HOBJ0801

Korea

In drydock at Singapore when the North Koreans crossed the 38th Parallel in June 1950, before a planned voyage back to England, Unicorn hurriedly refloated and rearmed, headed north to back up Triumph with spare Seafires and Fireflys.

Pulling into Sasebo, Japan, she unloaded her good planes in exchange for worn-out duds from Triumph.

August 1950. The aircraft maintenance carrier HMS Unicorn is seen entering Kure Harbor, Japan. IWM (A 31695)

The destroyer HMS Comus ships a heavy sea when oiling from HMS Unicorn in Korean waters. August 1950. IWM (A 31698)

Unicorn would continue the cycle for the next three years, jogging the 2,500nm from Sasebo to Singapore, via Hong Kong, carrying good aircraft and stores to the theatre and unserviceable airframes back.

Besides supporting Triumph, she did the same for HMS Theseus, which took Triumph’s place in September; HMS Glory, which replaced Theseus; HMS Ocean, which replaced Glory; and the Australian HMAS Sydney.

Between December 1950 and January 1951, off Korea. Air Mechanics servicing planes on board HMS Unicorn, ready for flying off to HMS Theseus. IWM (A 31804)

Between December 1950 and January 1951, off Korea. Servicing an FAA Sea Fury on board HMS Unicorn IWM (A 31806)

Between December 1950 and January 1951, off Korea. An FAA Sea Fury flying off HMS Unicorn. IWM (A 31809)

HMS Unicorn. Between December 1950 and January 1951, off Korea. Petty Officer Pilot Peter Lines of London, left, and Petty Officer Pilot Raymond Grant of Eastry, Kent, in flying kit, already to fly off their aircraft.  IWM (A 31798)

United Nations ships assigned to support military operations in Korea pictured at anchor in Sasebo, Japan. Pictured from front to back: HMS Unicorn (I72), the 9,000-ton anti-aircraft cruiser USS Juneau (CLAA-119), the Essex-class carriers USS Valley Forge (CV-45) and USS Leyte (CV-32), and the repair ships USS Hector (AR-7) and USS Jason (ARH-1). The photo was taken between 8 October 1950 and 7 January 1951, as this was the only time that Leyte operated off Korea. NNAM photo No. 1999.272.030

HMS Unicorn moored in a southern Japanese port, probably Sasebo) after a tour of duty in Korean waters. Photo is dated 15 March 1951. Note the Carley floats. 80-G-427411

Besides shuttle trips, Unicorn would often clock in close to the line, supporting her front-line carrier in real-time, providing a base for loaned CAP aircraft, and serving as a lily pad for U.S. Navy SAR helicopters.

The whirlybird is a Sikorsky HO3S-1 Dragonfly (S-51) UP28 of the “Fleet Angels” of Navy Helicopter Utility Squadron One (HU-1). Assigned to support the RN and Royal Australian Navy, this aircraft was nicknamed “Uncle Peter.” September 1951. IWM (A 31984)

In July 1951, an unidentified shutterbug on Unicorn captured an incoming Sea Fury in such distress that it had to ditch alongside the carrier, with its pilot being scooped out by a whirlybird and delivered on deck just 2.5 minutes after hitting the drink.

Thus:

The Sea Fury, still airborne astern of the Unicorn, is giving off black smoke, an indication of engine failure. The pilot, aware of his difficulties, is already getting his wheels up in preparation for “ditching” alongside the carrier. IWM (A 31925)

With his engine stopped, hood open and wheels up, the Sea Fury pilot brings his aircraft down to the water alongside the repair and replenishment carrier Unicorn. IWM (A 31926)

Just 2 1/2 minutes after his Sea Fury ditched, the pilot is back on the Unicorn’s flight deck, being helped out of his flying kit by the carrier’s crew. IWM (A 31930)

Unicorn also served as an intermediate hospital ship as needed and would carry troops intra-theater to Korea as well.

One of her first such missions was to carry the “Die-hards” of 1st Bn, Middlesex Regiment, from their restful and exotic garrison in Hong Kong to active combat at Pusan.

“D” Company, 1st Battalion, The Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge’s Own) joins HMS ‘Unicorn’ at Hong Kong, 25 August 1950. Photo by Lieutenant (later Major) Geoffrey Norton. NAM. 1992-08-62-1

Unicorn pulling off. Photograph by 2Lt John Mortimer Lock, 1st Battalion Middlesex Regiment, Korea, 1950. Lock (397965) was killed in action on 29 November 1950. NAM. 1992-08-61-17

August 1950. Dusk falls over Hong Kong harbor as the aircraft carrier HMS Unicorn, helped by tugs, swings round, heading northwards for Pusan, South Korea, carrying men of the Middlesex Regiment. IWM GOV 2742

Troops from 1st Battalion, The Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge’s Own), on the march in Korea, late 1950. From August 1950 to April 1951, the battalion saw action as part of the 27th British Commonwealth Brigade, being one of the first British units to be deployed there. Seeing combat along the Naktong River and Hill 282, the battalion suffered 136 casualties in its nine months in Korea and received seven honors during its campaign of assault, withdrawal, and defensive operations in support of the ROK forces. Photo by Lieutenant (later Major) Geoffrey Norton. NAM. 1992-08-61-85

On 21 September 1951, Unicorn became the first aircraft carrier to conduct a shore bombardment when she used her eight 4-inch guns to shell North Korean coast watchers at Chopekki Point. As noted by the  Royal Navy Research Archive, “out of sixteen salvos, three were known to have found the target.”

HMS Unicorn, the day after her NGFS, at Sasebo, 22 September 1951.

She also provided yeoman service delivering land-based Commonwealth tactical aircraft to the front.

At least 18 new Gloster Meteor jets for the Korean theatre lined up on the flight deck of Unicorn at Singapore. The aircraft were flown from England. At least 58 Meteor F.8s were flown by No. 77 Squadron, RAAF, during the war, with no less than 35 lost. (RAAF 393, AWM 042801)

Iwakuni, Japan. 1952. Gloster Meteor jets for No. 77 Squadron, RAAF  in Korea are unloaded from the flight deck of HMS Unicorn to lighters in Southern Japan. By the end of the conflict, 77 Squadron had flown 4,836 missions, destroying six MiG-15s, over 3,500 structures and some 1,500 vehicles. AWM JK0388

Unicorn’s work involved supporting evolving aircraft types, and she took on board SMEs to help accomplish that.

For instance, in October 1950, when Theseus relieved Triumph, the new carrier’s wing was made up of 807 Sqn’s Hawker Sea Fury FB.11s and newly-built Firefly FR.5s of 810 Squadron. The changeover between the two flattops resulted in Triumph’s 827 Squadron paying off its older Fairey Firefly Mk.1s and the unit’s skipper, LCDR (A) Bernard Campbell “Ben” Lyons, cross-decking over to Unicorn to help provide the crucial support to keep the Fireflies serviceable for Theseus’s tour.

Of note, Lyons had flown the Fleet Air Arm’s very first strike in the Korean War, leading his 827 Sqn Fireflies on a rocket attack from Triumph against the hangars of Haeju airfield in North Korea on the morning of 3 July 1950. Lyons had also flown some of the last RN sorties against Japan in 1945, at the controls of a 1771 Sqn Firefly from HMS Implacable.

Briefly, in October 1952, Unicorn served as flag for the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Roderick McGrigor, joined by ADM Sir Guy Russell, head of the Far East Fleet, for their visit to Japan.

Vice Admiral Sohn, CinC Republic of Korea Navy, inspecting a pith-helmeted Royal Marine Guard of Honour during a visit to HMS Unicorn, Pusan, 26-29 November 1952. IWM (A 32445).

With the outbreak of the ceasefire, Unicorn was released on 15 October 1953 and sailed home from Singapore, arriving at Devonport on 17 November.

Her decorations list for her four Korean War tours:

  • Clifford Frank Dubber, RAN, Mention in Despatches
  • Chief Petty Officer, Eugene Elderfield Fernandez, RAN, Mention in Despatches
  • Chief Airman, William Daniel Gardner, RAN, Mention in Despatches
  • Chief Electrical Artificer, James Patrick Whelan, RAN, Mention in Despatches
  • Chief Air Fitter (E) Arthur Winstanley, RAN, Mention in Despatches

HMS Unicorn (I72) Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong 1953

During her four years’ service in the Far East, Unicorn steamed 130,000 miles and spent over 500 days at sea, carrying over 6,000 troops intra-theatre, and handled some 600 FAA, RAF, RAAF, and RAN aircraft.

During the war, British carrier aircraft dropped 15,200 bombs of various sizes, fired 57,600 rockets, and 3,300,000 rounds of 20mm cannon ammunition in around 23,000 operational sorties.

Redesignated as a ferry carrier (pennant A195) with a skeleton crew, Unicorn remained in reserve until March 1957.

Unicorn, 1954 Janes

Unicorn, post-war

HMS Unicorn seen with a King George V-class battleship behind her, likely post-Korea mothballs

Battleships HMS Vanguard and HMS Howe lying in reserve at Devonport, 1956. HMS Unicorn and Euryalus behind

Placed on the disposal list in 1958, ex-Unicorn was sold for scrap in June 1959 and arrived at Dalmuir on 15 June 1959 for breaking.

Epilogue

The old frigate HMS Unicorn, still in Dundee, has our carrier’s 1942-marked bell on display. She had her original name restored from HMS Cressy in 1959 during a ceremony by Mrs. Keay, widow of the late Captain William Foggie Keay, RNVR, who had commanded the frigate throughout the war.

Ship bell from aircraft carrier HMS Unicorn (1942) on HMS Unicorn, which is on display in Dundee, Scotland, by Hynek Moravec via Wiki Commons.

She is remembered in maritime art.

HMS Aircraft carrier Unicorn from destroyer HMAS Nepal (G25/D14) in Sydney Harbour, 1945, by John Goodchild, AWM ART25541

Further, several aircraft tied to her are preserved in museums, including Hawker Sea Fury FB.11 WJ231/O-115 at the Fleet Air Arm Museum, RNAS Yeovilton, and Gloster Meteor F.3 A77-867 – NZ6001 at the Ashburton Aviation Museum in New Zealand. The first, preserved in Korean War “invasion stripes,” was shifted from Unicorn to Ocean during Korea, while the second shipped aboard Unicorn to Korea in August 1952, where it served with 77 Squadron, RAAF, based out of Kimpo.

Unicorn’s plank owner skipper, Capt. Quintin Dick Graham DSO with Bar, RN, remained aboard through Op Governor and the Salerno Landings, then commanded the big deck carrier HMS Indefatigable during the Pacific. Passing to the reserve list in July 1946 after 38 years of service, he passed the bar in 1968, aged 73. His replacement, Henry Lockhart St. John Fancourt DSO, RN, who commanded Unicorn in the Pacific in 1945, retired in 1950 and passed in 2004, aged a distinguished 103.

As for the RN, the Admiralty commissioned an 11th Unicorn, S 43, an Upholder-class SSK, in 1993 after the name became available when the 9th Unicorn, the old frigate, finally passed out of naval service in 1968.

HMS Unicorn (S 43) was one of the RN’s last “smoke boats” and was sold to Canada in 2001, where she continues to serve as HMCS Windsor.

Finally, perhaps the last naval gunfire support via an aircraft carrier was also done by the British. It occurred during the Aden Emergency when 145 Battery, 29 Commando Regiment, Royal Artillery, fired 105mm pack howitzers directly from the flight deck of the Centaur-class commando carrier HMS Albion off the coast of Aden in November 1967.

But that’s another story.

Thanks for reading!

Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive

***

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Auto Ordnance Keeps up the Nose Art 1911s

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I’ve dug what Pennsylvania-based Auto-Ordnance has done in the past with their WWII-themed M1911A1s, for instance, with their Black Sheep Squadron salute back in 2024.

A functional work of art, underneath the custom Cerakote finish, the Black Sheep 1911 is still an Auto-Ordnance Stainless 1911 in .45 ACP. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

Also, note the “belly” of the gun is left in “the white” to emulate the aluminum body of an F4U Corsair. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

Well, the company is back with two additions to its “Winged Warriors” series: the “Memphis Belle 1911” and the “Red Tails 1911”.  Artwork in Cerakote is hand-done by the artisans at Altered Arsenal.

Price is $1,500, making these limited editions something more for an aviation buff’s man cave or gift to grandpa kinda thing, but it is nice to see them around.

Tinnitus with a universal adapter

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Some 85 years ago, during the epic eight-month siege of Sevastopol.

Wehrmacht soldiers of II/Artillerie-Regiment 814, 11th Army, Army Group Sud, cover their ears as a Czech-made Skoda 9.45-inch Howitzer Model 39 (24 cm Haubitze vz.39) fires at Red Army positions, probably during the siege of Perekop, on or about 24 September 1941.

The two-battalion/four-battery AR 814 was the only German unit to use the rare gun, of which only 16 were made for the Wehrmacht after two early tubes had been sent to the gun’s original customer, the Turkish Army, in early 1939.

Firing a 366-pound anti-concrete shell to 11 miles when all five bags were loaded behind them, these 35-ton beasts were only ever meant to be siege howitzers– making it likely the Turks planned to use them if needed against the Soviets in the Caucasus, as their other traditional enemy, the Greeks, had few such fortified positions worthy of such heavy ordnance.

The Germans used them at Sevastopol and at Leningrad.

A 24 cm Haubitze 39 of AR 814 in 1942 during the Siege of Leningrad.

They were withdrawn in 1944, and the guns were lost to history, although part of one may have been captured by the U.S. 79th Infantry Division in the Rhine in March 1945.

I/814 melted away near Königsberg in Wehrkreis I in early 1945, while II/814 was bagged by the Soviets as part of the 18th Army in Courland.

If anyone knows about the history of the two guns delivered to Turkey in 1939, please pass it on.

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