Category Archives: World War Two

Mummy Garand?

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This Springfield Armory M1 is over at the CMP’s In-House Auctions page, where they put rares up for grabs:

As noted by CMP:

This rifle has not been test-fired or otherwise worked by CMP. This rifle has been wrapped and packed in grease for storage. When and where this rifle was prepped for storage is unknown. This rifle is sold AS IS and will require cleaning and assessment before being fired.

For what it’s worth, the serial number range, 563895, puts production in the darkest days of WWII for the U.S., March 1942, so the likelihood that this gun got wrapped and never issued in the next four years of war is slim. Odds are (and this is just my opinion) it was reworked sometime post-war and has been in storage ever since.

Still, it’s nice to see stuff like this is still out there. If you are curious, the current bid is over $3K. 

Warship Wednesday, March 27, 2024: That Time a Jeep Carrier Airshipped an Indian Army Brigade

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

Warship Wednesday, March 27, 2024: That Time a Jeep Carrier Airshipped an Indian Army Brigade

U.S. Defense Imagery VIRIN: 111-C-9093 by Van Scoyk (US Army), via the U.S. National Archives 111-C-9093

Above we see, on the center-line forward elevator of the Commencement Bay-class escort carrier USS Point Cruz (CVE-119), a great original Kodachrome showing a 25-man stick of Enfield-armed Indian Army troops ready to be airlifted ashore by five waiting H-19s to Panmunjom, Korea during Operation Platform on 7 September 1953. It was a remarkable achievement: vertically inserting 6,061 combat-ready Indian troops some 30 miles inshore in 1,261 helicopter sorties without losing a single man or bird.

You’ve never heard of Operation Platform? Well, stand by for the rundown.

The Commencement Bays

Of the 130 U.S./RN escort carriers– merchant ships hulls given a hangar, magazine, and flight deck– built during WWII, the late-war Commencement Bay class was by far the Cadillac of the design slope. Using lessons learned from the earlier Long Island, Avenger, Sangamon, Bogue, and Casablanca-class ships. Like the hard-hitting Sangamon class, they were based on Maritime Commission T3 class tanker hulls (which they shared with the roomy replenishment oilers of the Chiwawa, Cimarron, and Ashtabula-classes), from the keel-up, these were made into flattops.

Pushing some 25,000 tons at full load, they could make 19 knots which was faster than a lot of submarines looking to plug them. A decent suite of about 60 AAA guns spread across 5-inch, 40mm, and 20mm fittings could put as much flying lead in the air as a light cruiser of the day when enemy aircraft came calling. Finally, they could carry a 30-40 aircraft airwing of single-engine fighter bombers and torpedo planes ready for a fight or about twice that many planes if being used as a delivery ship.

Sounds good, right? Of course, had the war run into 1946-47, the 33 planned vessels of the Commencement Bay class would have no doubt fought kamikazes, midget subs, and suicide boats tooth and nail just off the coast of the Japanese Home Islands.

However, the war ended in Sept. 1945 with only nine of the class barely in commission– most of those still on shake-down cruises. Just two, Block Island and Gilbert Islands, saw significant combat, at Okinawa and Balikpapan, winning two and three battle stars, respectively. Kula Gulf and Cape Gloucester picked up a single battle star.

With the war over, some of the class, such as USS Rabaul and USS Tinian, though complete were never commissioned and simply laid up in mothballs, never being brought to life. Four other ships were canceled before launching just after the bomb on Nagasaki was dropped. In all, just 19 of the planned 33 were commissioned.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves.

Meet Point Cruz

Our boat was initially named Trocadero Bay— for a strait in the eastern part of Bucareli Bay in the Prince of Wales archipelago of Alaska– in line with the “Bay” naming convention at the time for escort carriers. Laid down at Todd Pacific Shipyards in Tacoma on 4 December 1944, she was subsequently renamed Point Cruz to honor the decisive three-day battle in November 1942 on Guadalcanal.

Point Cruz (CVE-119) was launched on Friday, 18 May 1945, NARA 80-G-345301.

Launched a week after VE Day, her construction ended just after VJ Day and she was commissioned on 16 October 1945, a war baby completed too late for her war.

Flight deck of the USS Point Cruz with Avengers and Corsairs, off of San Diego, November 1945

Following trials and shakedowns off the West Coast, Point Cruz spent about a year shuttling aircraft to forward bases around the Western Pacific before reporting to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in March 1947 for inactivation. Decommissioned three months later, she was laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet at Bremerton without firing a shot in WWII.

Bremerton, Washington, aerial view of the reserve fleet berthing area at Puget Sound. 25 October 1951. Ships present include USS Indiana (BB-58); USS Alabama (BB-60); USS Maryland (BB-46); USS Colorado (BB-47); and USS West Virginia (BB-48). Four Essex (CV-9) class CVs one Commencement Bay (CVE-105) class CVE in the foreground– possibly Point Cruz– one Independence (CVL-22) class CVL, as well as numerous CA, CL, DD, DE, and auxiliary-type ships are also visible. 80-G-435494

Headed to Korea

With the sleepy early Cold War peace shattered when the Norks crossed the 38th Parallel in 1950, the Navy was soon reactivating gently used ships from mothballs to sustain the high tempo carrier, fire support, and amphibious warfare operations off the Korean coast. Point Cruz was dusted off and recommissioned on paper on 26 July 1951 but would spend the next 18 months in an extensive overhaul modifying her for use as an ASW Hunter-Killer Group carrier.

Our girl only got underway for Sasebo in January 1953. There, on 11 April, she would embark the scratch air group consisting of F4U-4B Corsairs of VMF-332 and TBM-3W/3E Avengers of VS-23, along with a HO3S-1 helicopter det from HU-1 for C-SAR, and would go on to patrol the Korean coast for the last four months of the conflict.

Vought F4U-4 Corsair fighters assigned to U.S. Marine Corps attack squadron VMA-332 Polka-dots aboard the escort carrier USS Point Cruz (CVE-119) on 27 July 1953 during a deployment to Korea. “Replacing the VMF-312 Checkerboards, which had a red and white checkerboard painted around the engine cowlings, VMA-332, somewhat mockingly, adopted the red polka dots on white background. The design was reminiscent of Captain Eddie Rickenbacker’s ‘Hat in the Ring’ Squadron of World War I. The addition of the hat and cane was derived from the squadron tail letters (MR), being the abbreviation of ‘mister’, and feeling they were gentlemen in every regard, the hat and cane were adopted as accouterments every gentleman has. It was then that the squadron picked up the nickname VMA-332 Polkadots.” Photo by Cpl. G.R. Corseri, USMC

USS Point Cruz (CVE 119) at sea, east of Japan, 23 July 1953. She has anti-submarine aircraft on her flight deck including seven TBM-3S and TBM-3W Avengers and one HO4S helicopter. 80-G-630786

Op Platform

When the Korean War Armistice came about, our little flattop was tasked with her role in Operation Platform (Operation Byway by the U.S. Army and Operation Patang/Kite by the Indian Army), airlifting Indian troops to the Panmunjom neutral buffer zone– without touching South Korea– to supervise the neutral repatriation of some 22,959 North Korean and Chinese POWs, many of which didn’t want to return to their home countries. It would take nine months for these men to either be sent back to their homeland or a neutral country under the agreement that halted the war.

The “hop, skip, and a jump” logistics of Platform/Byway/Patang began with the “hop” of six Allied transports (two Indian, two American, and two British) carrying 6,061 men of the hand-picked five-battalion 190th Indian Brigade from Japan under Brigadier Rajinder Singh Paintal, a formation that would become the post-war Custodian Force India (CFI).

Consisting of some of the most storied units of the Indian Army, many of these men had seen combat in WWII and were professional soldiers. The force was under the overall command of Maj. Gen. Shankarrao Pandurang Patil Thorat, KC, DSO, a long-serving Sandhust-educated gentleman officer who had picked up his well-deserved DSO as c/o of 2/2 Punjab in the hell of Kangaw on the Arakan coast of Burma, against the Japanese in 1945, and subsequently earned his brigadier’s straps while under British service. Singh, the brigade commander, had likewise been through Sandhurst and, as a captain with the 4/19 Hyderabad Regiment, was captured at Singapore in 1942 and endured four years as a POW in Japanese camps.

Most had to be brought to Korea via a USAF airbridge from India to Japan via Calcutta and Saigon.

315th Air Division, Far East–One hundred paratroopers of the Indian Paratroop Battalion board a U.S. Air Force 374th Troop Carrier Wing C-124 “Globemaster” at Dum Dum Airport, Calcutta, en route to Korea to serve with other Indian Custodial Forces in the demilitarized zone. Five hundred and seventy-five Indian troops were airlifted from Calcutta to southern Japan in the three-decked planes in 20 flying hours, with only two stops for refueling. It was the first Globemaster landing at either Calcutta or Saigon, Indo-China, where a refueling stop was made. The Indian paratroopers were brought to southern Japan, where they were scheduled to transfer to a surface vessel. NARA – 542320

The “skip” would see the troops transferred from their troopships to an anchored Point Cruz without landing in South Korea proper– as Rhee thought they were basically co-opted by the Communists– via U.S. Navy LCUs from Inchon.

Then came the final “jump” which was the movement ashore to Panmunjom from Point Cruz’s flight deck via Sikorsky S-55 Chickasaw H-19/HRS-2 helicopters, five aircraft at a time, each carrying five man sticks (each stick limited to 2,000 pounds including men and gear). The choppers came from the Army’s 1st Transportation Army Aviation Battalion (Provisional), which consisted of the 6th and the 13th Helicopter Companies; and the “Greyhawks” of Marine Helicopter Transport Squadron 161 (HMR-161), with an Army colonel as the overall “air boss.”

August 27 saw Point Cruz arrive at Inchon and fly off her fixed-wing aircraft that afternoon. The 28th and 29th saw the Army and Marine helicopter pilots come aboard for orientation.

It was decided that the five-helicopter blocks would form up, land, and take off as a unit for safety, then deliver their charges ashore. Lifejackets would be issued to the troops from a pool just before loading, then collected at the landing zone ashore for reissue to the next group.

The airlift started on 1 September with the first Indian troops shipped over to Point Cruz from the British troopship HMT Empire Pride. Some 437 men were airlifted that afternoon in 89 sorties. The next day 907 men in 186 flights– including deputy brigade commander Brig Gen. Gurbuksh Lingh and the entire 6th Bn Jat Regiment– followed by 73 sorties on 3 September carrying 360 men for a composite total of 1,704 troops carried ashore in 348 flights.

Indian troops Korea Inchon, Sept 1953

Point Cruz: Indian troops loading up during Operation Platform Sept 1953 LIFE

The British steamer HMT Dilwara arrived off Inchon on 6 September from Japan and started transferring men via LCU to Point Cruz, with the airlift starting up again on the 7th with 979 Indian troops, primarily of the 3rd Bn Dogra Regiment, carried inshore in 196 flights.

When the Indian ship Jaladurga steamed into Inchon a few days later, followed by the American MSTS troopship USNS General Edgar T. Collins (T-AP-147), 1,555 Indian troops were transferred aboard Point Cruz and then carried into the DMZ in 328 flights. These were primarily from the 5th Bn Rajputana Rifles and of the brigade’s HHC.

The final phase saw the Indian ship Jalagopal and the transport USS Menifee (APA-202) transfer 1,823 Indian troops to Point Cruz via boat, which were then carried into the DMZ in 389 sorties between the 28th and the 30th. These troops included the whole of the 3rd Bn Garhwal Rifles and the 2nd Bn Parachute Regiment (Maratha), along with support personnel.

Platform was a tremendous success in terms of moving the 190th ashore, especially considering the military use of the helicopter was in its infancy and the first U.S. military rotary wing shipboard trials had only been conducted a decade prior.

Twilight

Wrapping up her involvement in moving the Indians to the Panmunjom buffer zone, Point Cruz reembarked her Corsairs and Avengers and resumed patrols in the tense waters around Korea. Headed back to San Diego, she landed her aircraft on 18 December 1953 and began an overhaul there that would last until April 1954.

A West Pac cruise from 27 April to 23 November saw her embark the short-lived 11-ton Grumman AF-2W/2S Guardians of VS-21– the first purpose-built ASW aircraft system to enter service in the U.S. Navy aircraft, along with a HO4S-3 helicopter det of HS-2.

A follow-on West Pac cruise (24 August 1955- February 1956), as the flagship of Carrier Division 15, would see Point Cruz with another new ASW platform, the twin-engined 12-ton S2F-1 Tracker, the largest Navy aircraft to operate from CVEs. This cruise would also see one of the final carrier deployments of Corsairs, with a det of radar-equipped F4U-5N night fighters of Composite Squadron 3 (VC-3) “Blue Nemesis” embarked to give the flattop some limited air-to-air capability.

USS Point Cruz (CVE-119) underway with a Sikorsky HO4S-3S of Helicopter Antisubmarine Squadron HS-4 and Grumman S2F-1 Trackers of Antisubmarine Squadron VS-25 on board, 1955. U.S. Navy photo USN 688159

USS Point Cruz (CVE-119) is underway with a Sikorsky HO4S-3S of HS-4 and four S2F-1 Trackers of VS-25 aboard, 1955. Note she still has her 40mm twin Bofors installed including at least one that is radar-guided. U.S. Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation photo No. 1996.488.035.048

Point Cruz departed Yokosuka on 31 January 1956 and arrived in Long Beach in early February for inactivation at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. Decommissioned on 31 August 1956, CVE-119 was placed in the Bremerton Group of the Pacific Reserve Fleet.

Vietnam

While in a reserve status, Point Cruz was redesignated as an Aircraft Ferry (AKV-19), on 17 May 1957.

With the massive build-up of forces in Southeast Asia, Point Cruz was taken out of mothballs, reactivated, on 23 August 1965, and placed under the operational control of the Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS) as T-AKV 19 in September of that year. By the end of that year, MSTS had over 300 freighters and tankers supplying Vietnam, with an average of 75 ships and over 3,000 merchant mariners in Vietnamese ports at any time.

Crewed by civilian mariners, USNS Point Cruz spent the next four years in regular aircraft ferry service from the West Coast to the Republic of Vietnam and other points Far East, typically loaded with Army helicopters– something she was quite familiar with. In this tasking, she joined at least five fellow CVEs taken out of mothballs– USNS Kula Gulf, Core, Card, Croatan, and Breton.

Men of the 271st Aviation Company, 13th Battalion, 164th Group, 1st Aviation Brigade, remove the protective cocoon from the first of the 16 CH 47B Chinook helicopters sitting on the deck of the USS Point Cruz 23 February 1968 NARA photo 111-CCV-105-CC47174 by SP4 Richard Durrance

A CH-47B of the 271st, Point Cruz, same date and place as above. NARA photo 111-CCV-638-CC47180 by SP4 Richard Durrance.

She also carried a number of jets that she could never have operated.

USNS Point Cruz delivered aircraft to Yokosuka, Japan in the mid-1960s. Types onboard appear to be A-1 Skyraiders, a T-33 Tweet, an F-104 Starfighter, and F-4 Phantom IIs. The F-104 and F-4s were possibly bound for the JASDF, the other aircraft for use in Vietnam.

Tug Smohalla (YTM-371) alongside the Aircraft Transport USNS Point Cruz (T-AKV 19) at Yokosuka, Japan, 11 June 1966. Via Navsource

Placed out of service on 6 October 1969, the ex-Point Cruz was advertised in a scrap auction in February 1971 that was secured by the Southern Scrap Material Co. New Orleans for a high bid of $108,888.88.

Removed from Naval custody on 18 June 1971, her scrapping was completed sometime in 1972.

Epilogue

The plans and some images for Point Cruz are in the National Archives.

Of the rest of the Commencement Bay class, most saw a mixed bag of post-WWII service as Helicopter Carriers (CVHE) or Cargo Ships and Aircraft Ferries (AKV). Most were sold for scrap by the early 1970s with the last of the class, Gilbert Islands, converted to a communication relay ship, AGMR-1, enduring on active service until 1969 and going to the breakers in 1979. Their more than 30 “sisters below the waist” the other T3 tankers were used by the Navy through the Cold War with the last of the breed, USS Mispillion (AO-105), headed to the breakers in 2011.

As for Operation Platform, one of the Army H-19C Hogs involved (51-14272/MSN 55225), one of the four known surviving aircraft of the type in the world, is preserved at the U.S. Army Aviation Museum in Alabama. Likewise, a Marine HRS-2, marked as 127834, is in the main atrium of the National Museum of the Marine Corps, portrayed disembarking a machine gun unit onto a Korean War position.

The CFI, on completion of their mission in May 1954, returned to India by sea and all five battalions of the 190th Brigade are still in existence in today’s Indian Army. As a testament to their success in safeguarding the controversial Chinese and North Korean POWs, some 86 of the latter as well as two South Koreans elected to immigrate to India with their protectors when the latter sailed for home.

The Marine unit that took them ashore, HMR-161, still exists as VMM-161.

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 Great Escape at 50

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Today marks the 80th anniversary of “The Great Escape,” the largest Western Allied prisoner-of-war breakout of the Second World War (only surpassed by the mass escape of 300 Jews– spearheaded by a force of 100 Soviet POWs from the extermination camp at Sobibor in 1943).

The Escape, from Stalag Luft III in the German Silesian town of Sagan (now Zagan, Poland), was carefully planned for a full year and required the effort of hundreds of the camp’s captured pilots and aircrews to allow 76 men (of the planned 220) to escape the stalag via tunnel system on the night of 24/25 March 1944.

“British prisoners of war tend their garden at Stalag Luft III” German propaganda image

It was a Pyrrhic victory, with 73 of 76 soon recaptured. The three who escaped, two Norwegians and a Dutch pilot, spoke passible German. Some 50 of the 76 including 20 Brits, 6 Canadians, 6 Polish, 5 Australian, 3 South African, 2 Kiwis, 2 Norwegians, and a single Argentine, Belgian, Czech, French, Greek, and Lithuanian, were executed.

Military personnel from allied nations, with a 50-strong RAF contingent led by Air Commodore Andrew Dickens, convened at the Old Garrison Cemetery in Poznan, Poland to commemorate those lost in the days after the escape. Wreaths were also laid by ambassadors from Australia, New Zealand, and Norway, alongside defense attachés from the Netherlands, Lithuania, and Germany.

‘Ghost Army’ Gets its Due

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The Ghost Army Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony, Via the U.S. House of Representatives:

Three surviving members of the Ghost Army, the top-secret WWII units that used creative deception to fool the enemy, will join House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and other Congressional leaders at a special ceremony on March 21 at the Capitol to honor the Ghost Army with the Congressional Gold Medal.

Speaker Johnson and Senate Republican Leader McConnell will be joined at the ceremony by House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, along with the original sponsors of the legislation that passed in 2022 authorizing the award, Congress’s highest expression of national appreciation for distinguished achievements by individuals or institutions. They are Sen. Edward Markey (D-MA), Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), Rep. Ann Kuster (D-NH), and former Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT).

There are just seven surviving members of the Ghost Army, three of whom will attend the ceremony: ·

Bernard Bluestein, Hoffman Estates, IL. Bernie is a 100-year-old veteran of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops. He served in the visual deception unit, the 603rd Camouflage Engineers. He joined the unit from the Cleveland Institute of Art and returned after the war for a long and successful career in industrial design. He has been a sculptor for the last 30 years.

John Christman, Leesburg, NJ. John served as a demolition specialist for the 406th. After the war, he worked in a lumber mill and the NJ Department of Corrections. He is an active baker who, at age 99, still bakes bread for his family holiday and birthday celebrations.

Seymour Nussenbaum, Monroe Township, NJ. Also 100, Seymore came to the Ghost Army from Pratt Institute and served in the 603rd, where he was friends with Bernie. Seymour helped to make the counterfeit patches used by the unit in Special Effects. He graduated from Pratt and went on to a long career in package design. He has been an avid stamp collector his entire life.

Other surviving members include James “Tom” Anderson (Dover, DE); George Dramis (Raleigh, NC); William Nall (Dunnellon, FL); and John Smith (Woodland, MI).

Many family members and relatives of the Ghost Army veterans, living and deceased, will also attend the ceremony, along with officers from the U.S. Army PSYOP forces. It will culminate a nearly 10-year effort by members and volunteers of the Ghost Army Legacy Project to win recognition for the little-known Army units that played a unique but unheralded part in the Allied victory of WWII and included such notable members as Bill Blass, Art Kane, and Ellsworth Kelly.

The ceremony will also be the first time the Gold Medal, designed and produced by the U.S. Treasury Department, will be unveiled. The ceremony is part of a two-day celebration for the veterans and their families that includes an awards dinner with featured speaker Maj. Gen. Paul Stanton, Commanding General, U.S. Army Cyber Center of Excellence and Fort Eisenhower, and a screening of a 2013 documentary that recounts the daring exploits of the units during World War II.

Ghost Army Insignia circa 1944.

The existence of the Ghost Army was top secret for more than 50 years until it was declassified in 1996. That’s when the public first learned of the creative, daring techniques the Ghost Army employed to fool and distract the enemy about the strength and location of American troops, including the use of inflatable tanks, sound effects, radio trickery, and impersonation. The 23rd Headquarters Special Troops staged more than 20 deception operations, often dangerously close to the front, in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany.

This “traveling road show of deception,” of only 1,100 troops appearing to be more than 20,000, is credited with saving an estimated 30,000 American lives.

U.S. Army analyst Mark Kronman stated, “Rarely, if ever, has there been a group of such a few men which had so great an influence on the outcome of a major military campaign.”​

A sister unit, the 3133rd Signal Company Special, carried out two deceptions along the Gothic Line in Italy in April 1945. The unit was joined by a platoon from the 101st Royal Engineers, a British unit equipped with dummy rubber tanks.

“What made the Ghost Army special was not just their extraordinary courage, but their creativity,” said Rep. Ann Kuster (D-NH), the House sponsor of the bill authorizing the Gold Medal. “Their story reminds us that listening to unconventional ideas, like using visual and sound deception, can help us solve existential challenges like defeating tyranny.”

 

And in Submarine News…

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Lots of stuff for those interested in periscopes lately.

New Dutch Boats

The Dutch, eschewing a domestic(ish) submarine-making initiative between Sweden’s Saab Kockums and Damen, and opting not to go German, have instead turned south and tapped France’s Naval Group to build four new SSKs to replace their aging Walrus-class boats which have been in service since the late 1980s.

The $6 billion project will see the Dutch go with conventional Shortfin Barracuda models similar to the ones proposed to Australia a couple of years ago, capping a 10-year initiative to replace the RDM-built Walruses.

A Naval Group mockup showing a Shortfin Barracuda with the current Walrus class sailing off into the sunset

The class will be known as the Orka class and will carry traditional Dutch submarine names (Orka, Zwaardvis, Barracuda, and Tijgerhaai). The first two will be delivered within a decade after the contract has been signed.

The Dutch have been in the sub business for the past 118 years, commissioning the Damen-built Onderzeeboot Hr. Ms. O-1, a Holland 7P type boat, in 1906. (NIMH 2158_012475)

During WWII, Free Dutch subs gave a good account of themselves, with 10 successful subs credited with sinking 168,813 tons of shipping across 69 Axis vessels.

Welcome USS Idaho

Over the weekend, the Navy christened its newest Virginia-class hunter killer, the future USS Idaho (SSN 799), during a ceremony at EB in Groton.

The submarine, which began construction in 2017, will be the 26th Virginia and the fifth U.S. Navy ship to be christened with the name Idaho. She will be one of ten advanced Block IV boats of her class.

The last Navy warship named Idaho was the historic battleship BB 42, commissioned in 1919. That Idaho received seven battle stars for her World War II service and witnessed the signing of the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay before she was sold for scrap in 1947.

Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation. Collection of Vice Admiral Alexander Sharp, USN. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph NH 83900 

USS Idaho (BB-42). Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation. Collection of Vice Admiral Alexander Sharp, USN. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph NH 83900

More SSNs Appearing Down Under

And finally, the “improved” Los Angeles-class boat, USS Annapolis (SSN 760), recently arrived in HMAS Stirling in Perth.

ROCKINGHAM, Western Australia (March 10, 2024) – U.S. Navy Sailors assigned to the Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine USS Annapolis (SSN 760) and HMAS Stirling Port Services crewmembers prepare the submarine to moor alongside Diamantina Pier at Fleet Base West in Rockingham, Western Australia, March 10, 2024.

Why is this important?

Via DOD: 

This marks the second visit by a U.S. fast-attack submarine to HMAS Stirling since the announcement of the AUKUS [Australia, United Kingdom, United States] Optimal Pathway in March 2023. The Optimal Pathway is designed to deliver a conventionally armed, nuclear-powered attack submarine capability to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).

“Historically, we’ve had allied SSNs visit Australian ports for many decades totaling more than 1,800 days,” said Rear Adm. Matt Buckley, Head of Nuclear Submarine Capability at the Australian Submarine Agency. “Starting with USS North Carolina (SSN 777) last August, these visits are taking on a more important meaning for the Royal Australian Navy and the Australian Submarine Agency as we build the infrastructure, knowledge, and stewardship needed to establish SRF-West in 2027.”

Great SSN Memorial Concept

Speaking of 688s, the planned USS Cincinnati Cold War Memorial & Peace Pavilion was formally unveiled last week by the Cincinnati Navy League. It’s slated to open in spring 2025. USS Cincinnati (SSN-693) was commissioned in 1978 and, decommissioned in 1996, was fully recycled by 2014 with her reactor stored at Hanford.
 
Unlike some SSN memorials that are just sails or diving planes, the innovative Cinncinatti memorial will be full length, 360 feet long, and include about 100 tons of material from the former submarine including much of the fairweather, the 17-foot tall rudder, and a back-up diesel engine, which was painted red and referred to as the “Big Red Machine” in homage to the Reds’ baseball team lineup in the ’70s.
 
Which I think is very cool and would be a great way to better salute the memory of all these SSNs and SSBNs that have sailed since Nautilus. Add a small building for additional relics, photos, and keepsakes, and you are in business
 

Catching up on the paper with the lads

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St. Patrick’s Day in a dugout, 80 years ago today, the official caption: “Men of the 2nd Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers read ‘Ireland’s Saturday Night’, a Belfast newspaper, in their foxhole in the Anzio bridgehead, 17 March 1944.” 

Loughlin (Sgt), No 2 Army Film & Photographic Unit. Note SMLE MkIIIs IWM NA 13062

A patrol from the 2nd Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers at Anzio, Italy, March 1944. Note the No. 4 Enfields. IWM NA13224

St Patrick’s Day in the Anzio bridgehead, 5th Army. While L/CPL Niland is playing the bagpipes, RSM Kilduf issues a special rum ration to Fusiler Rogers of Drunsteeple. The unit is an Irish battalion: the 2nd Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, 17 March 1944. Photo by LT G. Loughlin, No. 2 Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit. IWM NA 13057

With a lineage dating back through the old 27th (Inniskilling) Regiment of Foot to 1689, 2 Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers was formed in 1881 and, like the 1st battalion, was recruited from four Irish counties: Donegal, Londonderry, Tyrone, and Fermanagh, with the first three being in Ulster.

The 2nd saw garrison duties across the British Empire, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Ireland, South Africa, and India– where it fought in the Tirah Expedition (1897) on the North West Frontier of India. Then came service in the Boer War and further pre-Great War postings to Egypt, Crete, Malta, China, and India. The 2nd then landed with the British Expeditionary Force’s 4th Division in France in August 1914, and remained there for the duration, finishing Armistice Day as part of the 36th (Ulster) Division.

NAM. 1983-11-114-1

Disbanded in 1922, as part of most of the British Army’s Irish units folded their colors— County Fermanagh, one of the regiment’s recruiting counties was in the new Irish Free State– 2 RIF was stood back up in 1937 as the Army once again expanded with trouble on the horizon.

THE BRITISH ARMY IN FRANCE 1939 (O 3) Men of the 2nd Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers disembarking at Cherbourg from the steamer ‘Royal Sovereign’, 16 September 1939. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205204991

Deploying to France with the BEF again in 1939, the battalion managed to escape being bagged as POWs at Dunkirk. It assisted in the capture of Madagascar in 1942, before joining the Sicilian and Italian campaigns (as seen in the top two images) from 1943 to 1945.

Disbanded a second time from 1948 to 1952 on being reformed, 2 RIF went on to serve in the Suez and Cyprus, where it engaged EOKA insurgents in 1954-55 before permanently disbanded the following year.

The legacy of the battalion was transferred in 1968 when the regiment was amalgamated with The Royal Ulster Rifles and The Royal Irish Fusiliers (Princess Victoria’s), to form The Royal Irish Rangers (27th (Inniskilling), 83rd and 87th), which was then further merged in 1992 when it was folded into The Royal Irish Regiment, which still exists.

Besides the Inniskilling Museum at Enniskillen Castle and the regimental association, they are remembered by the Combined Irish Regiments Association.

Likewise, the old Ireland’s Saturday Night ceased publication in 2008 after 114 years, although most of its archives are online.

The Lost Battleship of the Atlantic

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80 years ago this month: Here we see the Great War-vintage Brazilian dreadnought São Paulo in Recife, in March 1944, with the old battlewagon at this point in her career reduced to a role as a harbor defense ship.

Laid down by Vickers, Barrow-in-Furness, on 30 April 1907 just 13 days after her sister, Minas Geraes, was laid down at Armstrong in Elswick, the 20,000-ton beast carried a full dozen EOC 12″/45 guns, which were also used on a dozen battlewagons for the Emperor of Japan.

Protected by a 9-inch armor belt with as much as 12 inches of armor on the CT and turrets and capable of 21 knots, these two Brazilian battleships were the opening salvo in a Latin American dreadnought race that saw Argentina and Chile order a pair of even larger and more heavily armed ships from U.S. yards (the Rivadavia-class) and Armstrong (Almirante Latorre-class), respectively.

By WWII, the race had petered out and the once-mighty floating war engines were vestigial sea monsters of another era. Tame dragons kept around to impress the neighbors in the next kingdom. 

Chile had only received one of her battlewagons, Latorre, after it had served in the RN as HMS Canada during the Great War, seeing action at Jutland. After 1933, the old vet was in mothballs although she was brought back out for neutrality patrols during WWII.

As for Argentina, her two battleships, Rivadavia and Moreno, last refit in 1924, were also in and out of mothballs and only occasionally used for the occasional state visit and retained, much like Latorre, to enforce a sense of armed neutrality in WWII.

With that, only the two Brazilian ships saw WWII service with the Allies, although of the sort of limited flavor depicted in the above image. Two days after Brazil declared war on German on 21 August 1942, São Paulo was moved to Recife while Minas Geraes was sent to Salvador, with both fulfilling a harbor defense role.

Battleship São Paulo a Brazilian naval base circa 1942.

When it comes to their fates, Minas Geraes was scrapped in Italy in 1954, Moreno in Japan in 1957, Rivadavia in Italy in 1959, and Latorre in Japan into 1961– with elements of her used in the restoration of Togo’s Vickers-built flagship, Mikasa.

But what of São Paulo? The mighty Brazilian battleship vanished at sea in November 1951 with an eight-man caretaker crew aboard her while being towed to the breakers in Europe.

After a six week search, she was declared lost and has never been found.

I’d like to believe that she is an armored Flying Dutchman of sorts, still roaming the waves of the Atlantic, an everlasting crew of steel ship sailors lost in those waters from the Falklands to the Barents Sea running gunnery drills and holding court for Poseidon.

The Yin-Yang of Pacific PBY Life

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Two shots captured two very different moments in time some 80 years ago this month.

First, I give you the typical image when someone says, “PBY Catalina ‘Somewhere in the Pacific.”

U.S. Navy mechanics checked a Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina patrol bomber before it leaves the airstrip at Majuro Island, Majuro Atoll, Marshall Islands, in March 1944. Note the Grumman F6F Hellcat fighters in the background, with many warships anchored beyond. U.S. Navy photo 80-G-401015

Next, follow that up with this:

“A PBY coming in for a landing in the Aleutians, March 1944.”

It was a wild theatre, indeed.

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

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

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

Several contrails from other B-17s are visible through the window. Note the empty bombsight stabilizer, missing its top-secret and closely controlled Norden bombsight, which means the bombardier in this case may be acting as a “toggler,” dropping on the lead ship seen out front. Image Credit: The John W. Allen World War II Collection/The Museum of Flight

 Bombardier, LT Paul Chryst, U.S. Army Air Forces, 13099534, in the Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress aircraft “Times A-Wastin’,” November 2, 1944. Other aircraft are visible through the window behind Chryst. Image Credit: The John W. Allen World War II Collection/The Museum of Flight

LTC Paul Chryst (Ret.) wrote on 2 November 2002 in an e-mail posted online. 

“We flew our first mission on 3 August 1944 and the last one on 15 Dec 44. I counted 38 missions total; but the Orderly Room said “only 35 completed”. My Pilot Class was 43K; but the PT-17 Stearman (training plane) washed me out. Went on to Aerial Gunnery School and graduated to become the FIRST class of Cadets to wear Gunner’s wings then on to Bombardier School. We graduated after 12 weeks bombing and another 6 weeks of DR Navigation. My biggest fear while flying was “bail-out” the small hatch next to the Navigator and being killed by hitting the leading edge of the left elevator. If I made it to the ground, my next worry was being killed by some German civilian. At 6′-2″ I weighed 125 lbs. and never would have survived the small rations in POW Camp.”

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

Fold-o-bike

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Private Tom J. Phelan, 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, rides his folding BSA Airborne Bicycle at the battalion’s reinforcement camp, in England, in early 1944. His kit includes a Denison smock and late model “deluxe” STEN Mk V SMG.

Library and Archives Canada, MIKAN 3579997 

Of note, over 60,000 Airborne Folding Paratrooper Bicycles were made by the Birmingham Small Arms company between 1942 and 1945, and, despite the name, they were used by light infantry and support units far and wide.

Phelan, who was wounded on 16 June 1944 at Le Mesnil, would survive the war.

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