Category Archives: World War Two

Dad’s Army: Swiss Edition

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Some 85 years ago this week, on 7 May 1940, the Swiss Federal Council authorized General Guisan to set up Local Guards (Ortswehren, gardes locales, guardie locali), a home guard organization outside the regular Swiss Army and reserves.

Whereas regular service with the Army ran to age 60, with most active requirements stopping at age 50, the Local Guard was able to enlist those young men who were not old enough to be conscripted yet, and those who had aged out at age 70. Finally, those medically unfit for service or, for one reason or another, can not serve in the Army were rolled into the Local Guard.

They typically wore civilian clothes, mixed with old uniforms from prior service, and used personal or donated rifles, with a few old Eidgenössische Waffenfabrik Modell 1889/96 rifles eventually taken from storage for the force.

As with the British Home Guard (Dad’s Army), there was a dedicated partisan in waiting vibe to the Ortswehr, especially in bicycle-equipped units.

The role of the Local Guards during the last mobilization was mentioned in the Final Report of the Chief of the General Staff of the Army as follows:

“The Local Guards contribute by their presence to reassure the population of the hinterland that no longer feels completely at the mercy of saboteurs, the 5th column, paratroopers or motorized detachments that would have pierced the front.”

The force reached 127,563 men in 2,835 units by January 1941 and then stabilized at around 155,000 for the rest of the war. Keep in mind that at the time, the country only had a population of about 4 million, of which 850,000 were on the rolls of the Swiss Army, albeit only about half of those were on active orders. Between the Army and the Ortswehr, you are looking at a full quarter of the Swiss population under arms.

A Schweizer Réduit indeed.

The Swiss thought the Ortswehr important enough to keep around until 1967, and the word is still in use in the cantons today for local fire fighter organizations.

Bachi caps and light armor

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It happened 80 years ago.

May 1945, the Alpes-Maritimes region of France near the German-occupied Italian border. A U.S.-built Lend-Leased M5A1 light tank, White 135, of the 1er Regiment de Fusiliers Marins (1er RFM), pushes from Peira-Cava towards the 6,800-foot Authion massif, where one of the last Axis hold-outs in the region had fought hard until withdrawing into Austria. During that fight, the regiment’s 1st squadron lost five of its six officers and half of its men. Wehrmacht Generalleutnant Theobald Lieb, leading the rump of the German-Italian XXXXII. Armeekorps, had expressed surprise at seeing tanks at such altitudes– before ceding the battlefield.

Note the bachi caps, M1 Carbine, tanker’s helmet on the front running light, and mounted M1919 LMG. Ref. : MARINE 433-9488 ECPAD/Defense

The Marine tankers had been organized as a scratch battalion from some 400 French navy volunteers in England in the summer of 1940, who cast their lot with De Gaulle. Organized as an AAA unit and sent to Eritrea, they were soon fighting in Syria with the British (against their countrymen) and in North Africa, where they served with particular distinction at Bir Hakeim.

In September 1943, following a surge in recruits from the French fleet in Algeria, the battalion was expanded to a full regiment and organized as a mechanized force with Stuarts, M8 Scott 75mm self-propelled howitzers, M3 scout cars, M5 halftracks, and Willys MB jeeps.

A sister unit of tank-bound Free French sailors in exile, the Régiment Blindé de Fusilier Marins, helped liberate Paris, including the old Admiralty headquarters. It was equipped as a tank destroyer unit with M10 Wolverines. In the case of both regiments, the conversion from manning battleships and cruisers to operating armored vehicles was surprisingly simple, as the men involved included high proportions of engineering, gunnery, and radio ratings.

After fighting up the Italian “boot,” 1er RFM was pulled out of the 5th Army’s organization and joined the Dragoon Landings in Southern France in August 1944. They were on hand for the liberation of Toulon and Hyères, then went up the Rhone valley, entered Lyon, and moved into the Vosges before ending their war in the Alps.

Des chars Stuart du 1er RFM (Régiment de fusiliers-marins) de la 1re DMI (Division de marche d’infanterie) ex 1re DFL, sont stationnés sur la place Bellecour à Lyon.

1er RFM lost no less than 195 personnel, including two commanders, in combat, with another 600 men wounded. In return, they earned over 200 croix de guerre, 70 médailles militaires, 32 Légion d’honneur, and 31 croix de la Libération, with roughly a third of those decorations being issued posthumously. In total, it was enough for the regiment to earn the rare Ordre de la Libération designation.

The regiment was disbanded in August 1945, but its lineage is preserved in the training battalion at the École des fusiliers marins de Lorient.

One of the regiment’s knocked-out Stuarts remains near the crest of Mt. Authion, on eternal vigil.

This Glorious Pilgrimage

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Hamburg, Germany, at the Großer Burstah corner to Rödingsmarkt with the Hindenburghaus in the background, 4 May 1945. Official wartime caption: A “Firefly” 17-pounder Sherman tank on guard at the corner of Adolph Hitler Plasse.”

Mapham J (Sgt), No 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit, IWM BU 5255

The Firefly belongs to the British 7th Armoured Division, the famed “Desert Rats” who went a long way to chase Rommel out of North Africa before taking part in the Italian campaign and the drive across Northwest Europe. Hamburg would be the “Rats'” final combat of the war.

THE BRITISH ARMY IN NORTH-WEST EUROPE 1944-45 (BU 5284) A Sherman Firefly of 7th Armoured Division in Hamburg, 4 May 1945. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205203358

Summoned to Berlin in July 1945 to take part in the great Victory Parade through the ruined city, Winston Churchill addressed the division, saying:

Now I have only a word more to say about the Desert Rats. They were the first to begin. The 11th Hussars were in action in the desert in 1940 and ever since you have kept marching steadily forward on the long road to victory. Through so many countries and changing scenes you have fought your way. It is not without emotion that I can express to you what I feel about the Desert Rats.

Dear Desert Rats! May your glory ever shine! May your laurels never fade! May the memory of this glorious pilgrimage of war which you have made from Alamein, via the Baltic to Berlin never die!

It is a march unsurpassed through all the story of war so as my reading of history leads to believe. May the fathers long tell the children about this tale. May you all feel that in following your great ancestors you have accomplished something which has done good to the whole world; which has raised the honour of your country and which every man has the right to feel proud of

Today, they are remembered in the 7th Light Mechanised Brigade Combat Team, garrisoned at Kendrew Barracks, Cottesmore. And they still wear “The Rat” proudly.

 

Bataan Cyclone

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It happened 80 years ago this month.

Philippines. Soldiers from the 38th Infantry “Cyclone” Division’s 152nd Infantry Regiment use a 57mm M1 anti-tank gun against Japanese positions on Luzon near “Woodpecker Ridge” in Marikina, 11 May 1945. Note the shell cases piled in the foreground.

US Army Photo 173-12

Raised in Indiana, the 38th was a National Guard division that was ordered into federal service on 17 January 1941, nearly a full year before Pearl Harbor. Finally sent overseas on 3 January 1944 after much reorganization and retraining, they warmed up in New Guinea and then hit the beaches at Leyte, landing in the Philippines in December 1944, only to respond to one of the last Axis parachute assaults of the war.

They remained in close contact with the Japanese for the next eight months and continued taking prisoners well into October 1945, ultimately collecting 13,000 of the Emperor’s troops.

Pfc. Elmer S. Pitlik, Air Sect., 139th F.A. Bn, lights a cigarette for one of the Japanese guards. 22 August 1945. On a mountain top in the Sierre Madres, Northern Luzon, eight Japanese officers and five American officers met to discuss surrender arrangements. The American officers, accompanied by twenty enlisted men, made a two-hour march over difficult terrain to the area marked by a Japanese flag on a bamboo pole. The ranking American officer was Maj. Richard F. Jaffers, Artillery Liaison Group, 38th Inf. Div. The ranking Japanese officer was Lt. Col. Shizume Sushimi. SC 211603

The 38th suffered 3,464 battle casualties in the PI, earning the Philippine Presidential Unit Citation and the nickname “Avengers of Bataan,” for obvious reasons.

There are 35 soldiers of the 38th Infantry Division from World War II still listed as missing in action.

The 38th remains the principal combat unit of the Indiana guard, with its members drawn from across the Midwest, and is headquartered in Indianapolis.

Warship Wednesday, April 30, 2025: Pride of Puget Sound

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

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, April 30, 2025: Pride of Puget Sound

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the Naval History and Heritage Command collections. Catalog: L45-35.04.01

Above we see the Baltimore-class heavy cruiser USS Bremerton (CA-130) all aglow in Sydney, in town to celebrate the 17th anniversary of the historic Battle of the Coral Sea in December 1959. While she didn’t get any licks during WWII, Bremerton was nonetheless a “war baby,” commissioned some 80 years ago this week. And she did manage to get some serious combat time during another conflict.

The Baltimores

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

These 24 envisioned ships of the class looked like an Iowa-class battleship in miniature with three triple turrets, twin stacks, a high central bridge, and two masts– and they were (almost) as powerful. Sheathed in a hefty 6 inches of armor belt (and 3 inches of deck armor), they could take a beating if they had to.

They were fast, capable of over 30 knots, which meant they could keep pace with the fast new battlewagons they looked so much like, as well as the new fleet carriers that were on the drawing board.

Baltimore class ONI2 listing

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

In short, these ships were deadly to incoming aircraft, could close to the shore as long as there were at least 27 feet of seawater for them to float in and hammer coastal beaches and emplacements for amphibious landings, then take out any enemy surface combatant short of a modern battleship in a one-on-one fight.

They were tough nuts to crack, and of the 14 hulls that took to the sea, none were lost in combat.

Meet Bremerton

Our subject is the first warship named for the Washington city home to Puget Sound Navy Yard, which dates back to 1891. As explained by the Puget Sound Navy Museum, the Navy held a war bond competition in 1943 between the workers at Puget and those at California’s Mare Island NSY with the winner earning the naming rights to a new heavy cruiser whose keel had been laid on 1 February (as Yard No. 449) at New York Shipbuilding Corps. in Camden, New Jersey.

Puget won the competition– with the yard’s workers pledging an amazing 15 percent of their wages for six months– and earned the right to send a delegate to the East Coast to sponsor the vessel. The worker sent had been with the yard since 1917. As detailed by the museum:

Betty McGowan, representing the Rigger and Shipwright Shop, was chosen to christen the cruiser in New Jersey on July 2, 1944. She broke the ceremonial bottle of champagne across the ship’s bow with a single swing. In Bremerton, residents marked the occasion with a baseball game, a flag raising ceremony, and the sale of more than $11,000 in war bonds.

Bremerton was commissioned on 29 April 1945, with her first of 15 skippers being Capt. (later RADM) John Boyd Mallard (USNA 1920) of Savannah, Georgia. Mallard had seen the elephant previously as skipper of the oiler USS Rapidan (AO 18), dodging U-boats in the Atlantic, and earned the Legion of Merit as commander of a task group of LSTs during the assaults on Lae and Finschhafen in September 1943.

USS Bremerton (CA-130) off Portland, Maine, 6 August 1945, just nine days before the Empire of Japan would signal that they were quitting the war. 80-G-332946

Bremerton’s WWII service was brief, with her Official War History encompassing a half-dozen short paragraphs. The new cruiser left Norfolk for her shakedown cruise in the waters off  Cuba on 29 May 1945.

Three weeks later, having wrapped up gunnery trials off Culebra Island, she sailed for Rio de Janeiro to serve as flagship for Admiral Jonas Ingram, Commander-in-Chief of the Atlantic Fleet, during his South American inspection tour. Bremerton returned to the States and engaged in early July, arriving at Boston Navy Yard on 18 July, then became part of TF 69 for experimental work at Casco Bay, Maine, until 2 October.

Spending the next five weeks in post-shakedown overhauls at Philadelphia, she cleared that port on 7 November for Guantanamo and, after passing inspection, sailed through the Panama Canal to join the Pacific Fleet on 29 November 1945 with orders to report to Shanghai via Pearl Harbor under the 7th Fleet for occupation duties.

Arriving at Inchon, Korea on 4 January 1946, she would spend the next 11 months in the Far East– earning an Occupation Medal and China Service Medal– before making for San Pedro, California.

Homeported there, Bremerton managed to get in a training cruise along the West Coast in 1947 before her discharge papers hit.

13 February 1948. “USS Bremerton (CA-130) (foreground) and USS Los Angeles (CA-135) are towed from the Nation’s largest drydock, at San Francisco Naval Shipyard, while being prepared for inactivation and addition to the Pacific Reserve Fleet. Constructed during the war, the 1100-foot drydock is capable of handling the largest ships afloat. Besides handling these two cruisers at one time, the huge dock has accommodated four attack transports in one operation. World’s largest crane at right.” Note that many other laid-up ships are in the area. Among them, on the right, are USS Rockwall (APA-230) and USS Bottineau (APA-235). NH 97453

Bremerton was placed out of commission, in reserve, at San Francisco on 9 April 1948, capping just under three years of service.

No less than nine of 14 Baltimore-class heavy cruisers were mothballed after WWII as the Navy’s budget nosedived. With each needing a 1,100+ member crew (not counting the Marine det), they had an almost prohibitive cost to keep them in service even if they were pierside. A deployment, requiring 2,250 tons of fuel oil and a trainload of provisions just to get started, could be better spent on a half-squadron of 3-4 destroyers that could make triple the port calls– and in more diverse locations.

The Baltimores were seen as quaint in the new Atomic Age, and, with a couple of battlewagons and newer heavy cruisers (of the Oregon City and Des Moines class) on tap for fire support missions should they ever be needed (and nobody thought they would), the six remaining class members on active service were mostly used as flagships and high-profile training vessels for midshipmen’s and reservist cruises.

War!

With the Soviet-backed North Korean Army rushing over the 38th Parallel to invade their neighbors to the south on 25 June 1950, the Navy rushed units from Japan to the embattled peninsula and things soon got very old school in a conflict heavy with minefields, amphibious landings and raids, and an active naval gunline just off shore.

This, naturally, led to a call for more naval fire support. Ultimately, 10 of 14 Baltimores (all except USS Boston, Canberra, Chicago, and Fall River) were in commission or reactivated for the Korean War.

Bremerton was pulled from mothballs at San Francisco and, after a short overhaul at Hunters Point and giving her crew some refresher training, she was bound for the gunline, arriving in theatre under 7th Fleet command on 7 May 1952.

USS Bremerton (CA-130) at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, San Francisco, California, on 21 November 1951. She was recommissioned for Korean War service on 23 November after having been in reserve since April 1948. 80-G-436084

USS Bremerton (CA-130) underway on 14 February 1952. 80-G-439986

Same as the above, 80-G-439985

Her first tour off Korea, which wrapped up in September 1952, and she let her 8-inchers sing at Wonsan, Kojo, Chongjin, and Changjon Hang.

USS Bremerton (CA-130) loading ammunition at Mare Island Ammunition Depot. October 1952

USS Bremerton (CA-130) in San Diego harbor, California, circa 1951-52, with her crew manning the rails. NH 97454

After an overhaul, she returned to Korea in April 1953, remaining through November.

Forecastle of the heavy cruiser USS Bremerton (CA-130) in heavy seas, in 1953, likely during her second Korean tour. Note the awash gun tub forward.

On this second tour, she repeatedly dueled with Nork/ChiCom coastal artillery batteries.

From Korean War: Chronology of U.S. Pacific Fleet Operations: 

  • 5 May 1953: During a heavy gun strike in the Wonsan Harbor area, USS Bremerton (CA 130) was fired upon by 18 rounds of 76 to 105 mm shells. One near miss caused two minor personnel casualties and superficial top-side damage.
  • 24 May 1953: During a heavy gun strike in Wonsan Harbor, USS Bremerton (CA 130) received 10 rounds of well-directed enemy artillery fire. Although all shells landed close aboard, Bremerton escaped unscathed.
  • 14 June 1953: USS Bremerton (CA 130) received four rounds of 90 mm counterbattery fire while blasting the enemy shore gun positions on the Wonsan perimeter. The enemy fire was ineffective.
  • 19 June 1953: In Wonsan Harbor, USS Bremerton (CA 130) was the target for four rounds of 90 mm shore fire but was not hit.

USS Bremerton (CA-130) under fire from North Korean shore batteries, in 1953

Besides Bremerton, the Navy deployed no less than six Baltimores for escort missions and coastal bombardment in Korea.

Heavy cruisers USS Saint Paul (CA-73) and USS Bremerton (CA-130) and the light cruiser USS Manchester (CL-83) are underway off Korea. Saint Paul and Bremerton were deployed to Korea and the Western Pacific between April and September 1953.

While I cannot find how many shells our girl let fly off Korea, all told, the Navy expended over 414,000 rounds and 24,000 missions against shore targets between just May 1951 and March 1952. While most of those rounds (381,750) were from 5-inch guns, at least 22,538 came from 8-inch pipes on heavy cruisers, so distill from that what you will.

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

  • K8 – Korean Defense Summer-Fall 1952: 12-28 May 52, 11-26 Jun 52, 9 Jul-6 Aug 52, and 20 Aug-6 Sep 52.
  • K10 – Korea, Summer-Fall 1953: 1-30 May 53, 13 Jun-8 Jul 53, 23-27 Jul 53.

She also served in Korean waters post-cease fire on two stints, 26 Sep-8 Nov 53 and 8 Jun-27 Jul 54, the latter on a May-October West Pac cruise. On top of her two battle stars, she also earned a Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation, the United Nations Korea Service Medal, and the Republic of Korea War Service Medal.

USS Bremerton (CA-130) In Drydock Number 5 at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, in July 1954 during a West Pac deployment. Note her side armor, and men painting her hull. 80-G-644556

Cold War swan song

She would spend the first half of 1955 at Mare Island undergoing an overhaul and modernization. Her armament and fire control were updated. Importantly, she shipped her 40mm guns ashore for 10 twin 3″/50 (7.62 cm) Mark 33 Mounts and new Mk 56 FC radar fits.

April 1955. San Francisco. Port bow view of the heavy cruiser USS Bremerton (CA 130). Her original close-range armament of 20 mm and 40 mm guns has been replaced by twin 3-inch/50 Mark 26 guns controlled by Mark 56 directors, two of which may be seen abreast the forward superstructure. Her catapults have been removed, although the crane for handling aircraft remains for use with the boats now stowed in the former aircraft hangar under the quarterdeck. Note the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. Period caption: “The USS Bremerton, heavy cruiser, which will be berthed at Pier 46-B Saturday, April 21 and 22, will be open for public inspection from 1 to 4 p. m. each day, as a part of the civic observance of the 50th anniversary of the 1906 fire. The U. S. Navy played a vitally important role in bringing aid to the stricken city.” (Naval Historical Collection)

Then came a second post-Korea West Pac cruise, from July 1955 to February 1956, during which she earned a second China Service Medal for operations off Chinese-threatened Formosa/Taiwan.

Great period Kodachrome by of USS Bremerton by Charles W. Cushman showing the cruiser steaming into San Francisco Bay under the Golden Gate Bridge, 8 May 1956. Bloomington – University Archives P08766

Her third post-Korea West Pac deployment, from November 1956 to May 1957, saw her make port calls from Vancouver to Yokosuka to Manila, Hong Kong, and Melbourne, where her crew was on hand to support the XVI Olympiad.

USS Bremerton (CA-130) photographed on 4 November 1957 while at Puget Sound before heading to Bangor. 80-G-1027859

Same as the above 80-G-1027857

Same as the above 80-G-1027858

USS Bremerton (CA-130) at Pearl Harbor while en route to Asia, circa 1957. The original photograph bears the rubber-stamp date 3 December 1957. NH 97455

Around this time, the Navy decided to reconstruct Bremerton into an Albany-class guided missile cruiser.

This extensive (three-to-four year) SCB 172 conversion involved removing almost everything topside including all armament and superstructure, then installing a huge SPS-48 3D air search radar, a twin Mk 12 Talos launcher (with its magazine, Mk 77 missile fire-control system, and SPG-49 fire control radars), a twin Mk 11 Tartar launcher (along with its magazine, Mk 74 missile fire-control system, and SPG-51 fire control radars), a huge CIC and tall navigation bridge, a bow mounted sonar, a helicopter deck, etc. et. al.

Only three CAs (USS Albany, Chicago, and Columbus) completed the conversion, and it left them unrecognizable from their original form.

Two views of the U.S. Navy cruiser USS Chicago, as built and after her conversion to a guided missile cruiser. Upper view: USS Chicago (CA-136) as a Baltimore-class heavy cruiser off the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Pennsylvania (USA), on 7 May 1945. Between 1959 and 1964, Chicago was rebuilt at the San Francisco Naval Shipyard, California (USA), leaving virtually only the hull. The complete superstructure and armament were replaced. Lower view: USS Chicago (CG-11) as an Albany-class guided missile cruiser underway in the Pacific Ocean during exercise “Valiant Heritage” on 2 February 1976. NH 95867 and K-112891

However, as the Albany class conversion still required a massive nearly 1,300 man crew to run the 17,000 ton CG with 180 assorted missiles aboard, and the bean counters realized the new 8,000-ton Leahy-class DLGs (later re-rated as cruisers in 1975) could carry 80 missiles on a hull optimized to run with a 400-man crew, the choice was clear.

With that, Bremerton never did get that conversion, instead being used increasingly to hold the line in the Far East for the next couple of years.

She started 1958 at anchor in Long Beach, preparing for yet another Westpac deployment (from March to August) under TF 77 orders that would take her to the Philippines, Singapore, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and the like.

From her log:

She repeated another Westpac cruise from January to May 1959 and yet another abbreviated sortie from November 1959 to February 1960. It was on New Year’s Day 1960, while deployed, that her mournful log entry told her looming fate– that of an early (second) decommissioning at the ripe old age of 15, bound once again for mothballs.

Assigned to the Pacific Reserve Fleet, while moored at Naval Station Long Beach’s Pier 15, at 0900 on 29 July 1960, USS Bremerton was decommissioned and then towed to the reserve basin first at Mare Island and then, fittingly, at Puget Sound.

1960 Jane’s entry for the Baltimore class.

USS Bremerton (CA-130) and USS Baltimore (CA-68) lay up at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, early 1970s. Photograph by Melvin Fredeen of Seattle. This picture was likely taken shortly before the two cruisers were sold for scrap in 1973. At the right of the picture, one will note several civilians on the pier, next to the gangplank leading to USS Missouri (BB-63), which is moored just outside the frame. During the three decades the battleship spent laid up at Bremerton before her 1980s reactivation, she would often be opened to the public for walking tours of her weather decks, particularly of the spot where the surrender of Japan took place. Several other decommissioned ships are visible, including a destroyer, a carrier, and in the far background, a third Baltimore-class heavy cruiser out in Sinclair Inlet. NH89317

Bremerton languished for 13 years in mothballs, and, once the war in Vietnam had drawn down, was stricken from the Naval List on 1 October 1973. She was subsequently sold for scrap to the Zidell Explorations Corporation of Portland, Oregon, and broken up.

Epilogue

Several relics of the cruiser remain in the Kitsap area.

Her bell, presented to the city of Bremerton in 1974, is on display at the Norm Dicks Government Center building downtown.

Her anchor and part of her mast are also preserved in the region, with the hook at Hal’s Corner (guarded by 40mm guns from the old battlewagon USS West Virginia) and the yardarm at Miller-Woodlawn Memorial Park.

Both are often visited by Navy working parties to keep them in good shape.

The Navy recycled the name for an early Los Angeles-class hunter-killer, SSN-698, which was in commission from 1981 to 2021.

Los Angeles-class hunter-killer USS Bremerton (SSN-698) underway 1 February 1991. DN-ST-91-05712

A veterans’ group for the latter Bremerton, which also keeps CA-130’s memory alive, is active. 

x

Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive

***

 

Ships are more than steel

and wood

And heart of burning coal,

For those who sail upon

them know

That some ships have a

soul.

 

***

 

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The Everlasting Jiggs

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It happened 95 years ago today.

Rockwell Field, near Coronado, California, 29 April 1930. Hollywood actresses Winnie Lightner, 31, and Irene Delroy, 29, clown for the camera as Lt. (later Maj. Gen.) William C. Kingsbury of the U.S. Army Air Corps’ 11th Bombardment Squadron looks down from the forward navigator/bombadier position of a rare Keystone LB-7 light bomber.

Of note, Winnie Lightner was known as Broadway’s “Song a Minute Girl” at the time because she could belt out a song in less than 60 seconds.

A sample of her work:

The Keystone LB-6/LB-7, dubbed the “Panther” by its maker, was never made in great numbers, with just 35 production models delivered to the Army for use by its six bomber squadrons in the late 1920s.

Armed with five light machine guns in assorted mounts, it could carry up to a ton of bombs out to 600 miles, lumbering along with its open crew compartments at a canvas-flapping 95 mph. They were replaced by monoplane bombers by 1934.

Keystone LB-7 aircraft at Patterson Field, Ohio, in September 1929. (U.S. Air Force photo)

They were also stars of the silver screen, appearing in Howard Hughes’ 1927 aviation epic, Wings, filling in as German Gotha bombers.

The insignia seen on the side of the LB-7 at the top is “Jiggs” of Sunday newspaper comics fame. Drawn by George McManus, Jiggs is a wealthy top-hatted rogue who attempts repeatedly to escape his dish-hurling and bread-pin-wielding wife, Maggie.

The unit adopted a bomb-toting Jiggs as the 11th Aero Squadron when it was flying DH-4s over the Western Front out of Maulan Aerodrome in France in 1918.

The 11th is still active today and flies B-52Hs out of Barksdale.

And Jiggs is still on their insignia, spats and all. .

Aitape Triple Canopy

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80 years ago this week: 26-year-old Australian Army Private Rosslyn Frederick Gaudry (Service Number: NX94822) of 2/3rd Infantry Battalion, 16th Brigade, 6th Division “watches his sector with his Owen submachine gun in a forward observation pit at Kalimboa Village” in Aitape, Wewak, New Guinea, 26 April 1945.

Australian War Memorial AWM 091259

Raised for WWII at Victoria Barracks, Sydney on 24 October 1939, 2/3 Aust. Inf. Battalion A.I.F. sailed from Sydney just 11 weeks later for North Africa and disembarked in Egypt on 14 February 1940. Fighting first against the Italians in Libya in early 1941, they were sent to the fiasco in Greece then evacuated to Palestine where they fought the French in July 1941 then remained here until March 1942 as a garrison force. Returned to Australia, they were soon fighting along the Kokoda Trail and would remain in and around the green hell of New Guinea until the end of the war. The battalion left 207 of its men on the Roll of Honour, earned boxes of decorations (4 DSO; 16 MC; 12 DCM; 30 MM; 2 BEM; 73 MID), and 16 battle honours stretching from Tobruk to Mount Olympus to Damascus and Kokoda.

As for the very haggard Pte. Gaudry shown above, he was born in Gulgong, New South Wales in 1918 the son of George Henry Gaudry and Maude Gaudry (nee: Lyons). He enlisted in the Australian Army on 10 April 1942 in Paddington, Kandos, NSW and served in 2/3 Bn across New Guinea from the Owen Stanley Mountain Range along the Kokoda Track to the Aitape-Wewak Campaign.

Discharged from service on 4 October 1946, he returned to NSW and became a salesman. Married to Joan May Gloede in 1953, Gaudry passed at age 61 on New Year’s Eve 1979 in Homebush, Australia.

He is buried in the New South Wales Garden of Remembrance in Rookwood.

Mindanao Doughboys

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It happened 80 years ago today.

Infantry troops of Company B, 19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry “Victory” Division, marching towards the Mindanao River in pursuit of Japanese forces retreating near the Fort Pikit Ferry, Mindanao Island, Philippines. 22 April 1945. During the PI campaign, the 19th carried the radio call sign “Doughboy.”

Photographer: Pfc. Mack Gould. Signal Corps SC 270579

A closer look at the above image shows that every third or fourth man in the columns are local Philippine guerrilla force, often barefoot and very ill-clad, serving apparently as porters. Make no mistake, though, the Filipino forces got plenty of action in 1945 and were increasingly better outfitted.

As for the 19th Infantry (Regulars who earned the title “Rock of Chickamauga” during the Civil War), they had fought at Hollandia for months before landing at Leyte with as part of  X Corps of the Sixth Army in October 1944, with the regiment’s 2nd battalion the unsung “Lost Battalion” of WWII.

As the rest of their division moved up the Leyte valley, the 19th was carved off and assigned to the Western Visayan Task Force, landing at San Jose on Mindoro on 15 December 1944. They then assaulted Romblon Island and Simara Island in March 1945 before moving onto Mindanao in April.

Following a half-decade of garrison duty in the PI, in 1950, they would see much service in Korea during that war, keeping their “Doughboy” call sign.

19 September 1950. L-R: M/Sgt. Albert R. Charleton, Salem, Ill., and 1st Lt. Harry J. Lumani, Cumberland, Md., both of the 19th Inf. Regt., 24th Div., put up welcome sign for the newly-arrived Philippines combat troops at Pusan, Korea. SC 348885

Part of TRADOC today at Fort Benning, the colors of the 19th Infantry are decorated with the streamers of 30 campaigns, and the regiment has participated with distinction in 86 battles and engagements. Eight of those streamers are for Korea, while nine are from the Philippines including three for WWII (Leyte, Luzon, Southern Philippines) and six for the 1899-1901 Insurrection.

So long, Ernie

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Indiana-born Ernest Taylor “Ernie” Pyle in 1945 was one of the best-known and most well-liked American war correspondents. His syndicated column was published in 400 daily and 300 weekly newspapers nationwide. Along the way, he had earned a Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for his first-person coverage of “dogface” grunts in the mud and the blood.

He had such a universal appeal that crews named their guns after him. Try to get that kind of love for a modern reporter.

Sailors aboard USS LST 392, discussing D-Day, when Ernie Pyle was their passenger and left his signature on their guns. Shown, left to right: SM3 Chas T. Repik, USNR; SC2c James F. Reardon, USNR; S1c Edward T. Wholley. (Bottom) BM2c Martin A. Reilly, USNR, and RM2C Gint Middleton, USNR. Photograph released December 4, 1944. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-289953

Born in 1900, he wore a Navy uniform in the Great War, although only briefly. After covering WWII in England before the U.S. entered the war, then on the ground in North Africa, Italy and France, he shipped out for the Pacific in January 1945 aboard the light carrier USS Cabot (CVL-28) and landed on Ie Shima with the Army’s 77th “Liberty” Division on 17 April to cover the Okinawa campaign.

Pyle, right, on the bridge of Cabot with the skipper –CAPT (later RADM) Walton Wiley Smith (USNA 1920)–during strikes in the North Pacific against Tokyo, February 1945. 80-G-262854-001

Ernie Pyle watches the invasion of Okinawa from a Navy warship, little realizing the death lay in wait in a gully on Ie Shima. 80-G-49872

The next day, Pyle was hit by a Japanese machine-gun bullet to the left temple just under his helmet, killing him instantly. He was one of 69 War Correspondents killed during the conflict.

His remains were later moved to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu in 1949. A memorial to him endures on Iejima.

It reads, “At this spot the 77th Infantry Division lost a buddy, Ernie Pyle, 18 April 1945.”

Suribachi Good Friday

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80 years ago.

A sobering service following a five-week campaign that had left 6,800 Marines and Sailors dead or missing and another 20,000 wounded. All this with the prospect that the fight was only just getting into the outskirts of the Japanese Home Islands and probably wouldn’t be this “easy” again.

Caption: “U.S. servicemen attended Good Friday services on Iwo Jima, March 1945. Men attended Good Friday services in the only ‘Chapel’ Iwo Jima offers. Their camp is situated at the foot of Mount Suribachi.”

National Archives 80-G-412530

80-G-412519

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