Category Archives: World War Two

Vale, Lou Conter

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Born in September 1921 in Ojibwa, Wisconsin, Louis Anthony Conter enlisted in the Navy in November 1939 and, after training at RS San Diego, boarded his first ship– the mighty Pennsylvania-class dreadnought USS Arizona (Battleship No. 39)— in January 1940.

Then QM3/c Conter was aboard Arizona, moored on Battleship Row, during the attack on Pearl Harbor, on 7 December 1941.

As noted by USSArizona.org:

Louis Conter’s most vivid memory of December 7, 1941, came at 8:05am when a bomb hit the ammunition magazine located between Turrets I & II. The blast knocked him to the deck. Other sailors were blown off the side of the ship and into the water.

“Guys started coming out of the fire and we would lay them down on the deck because we didn’t want them jumping over the sides… When the Captain said ‘Abandon ship!’ we went into the lifeboats and started picking men out of the water and fire… When the second attack hit, we fought from the water.”

He spent the next few weeks helping to put out fires and recovering the bodies of his shipmates.

Conter would go on to flight school post-Arizona, and fly with the famed “Black Cats” of Patrol Squadron (VP) Eleven during which he was shot down twice and punched a shark to survive in the water until rescued and earning the DFC. He continued his Navy career, flying with CVG-102 from the USS Bon Homme Richard (CV 31), helping found the Navy’s SERE school in 1954, and retired in 1967 as an LCDR.

He was the last of 335 known survivors of the Arizona and passed on Monday, aged 102.

Fair Winds & Following Seas, LCDR Conter.

Fleeting beauty

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Some 80 years ago today, the magnificence of the brand-new Fletcher-class destroyer USS Leutze (DD-481), seen off her birthplace– the Puget Sound Navy Yard– on 2 April 1944. She wears Camouflage Measure 31 Design 16D, which is reflected in the calm waters. 

National Archives photo 19-N-63358

Same as the above, 19-N-63359

The only ship named in honor of the Prussian-born RADM Eugene H. C. Leutze (USNA 1867, interrupted by Civil War service), USS Leutze (DD-481) was laid down on 3 June 1941 at Bremerton by Puget Sound Navy Yard, launched on 29 October 1942– christened by the granddaughter of the ship’s namesake– and commissioned on 4 March 1944. The above images were taken while on her shakedown period.

Shipping west in June to join the famed tin cans of DESRON 56, Leutze was active in the capture and occupation of South Palau Islands, made a daring nighttime torpedo attack against Nishimura’s battleships in the Surigao Straits, supported the Leyte landings, the Lingayen Gulf landings, and the capture of Iwo Jima.

It was off Okinawa in April 1945– just over a year after the above two images had been snapped– Leutze went to the rescue of a fellow destroyer, the burning USS Newcomb (DD-586).

After tying off to her sister and helping save that nearly destroyed warship, Leutze suffered her own brush with the Divine Wind.

As noted by DANFS:

Suddenly, through the fire and smoke, another Zeke appeared 2,500 yards off the port bow, flying 100 feet above the sea towards Newcomb’s bridge. With the other destroyer close aboard on her port side, Leutze’s shot was once again blocked, and her gunners could only watch as Newcomb’s two forward five-inch guns under local control fired at their nemesis. At 1815 with the plane now 1,000 yards from Newcomb, a five-inch shell exploded beneath the kamikaze’s left wing, knocking the aircraft off its course and causing it to skim across Newcomb’s deck and then strike Leutze at water level on her port quarter. A large explosion thought to be from a 500-pound bomb on the plane ripped her hull open to the sea, and water poured into the destroyer’s aft engine room and several other compartments astern. The blast also jammed the ship’s rudder full to the right, resulting in lost steering control, and also sparked a fire in the No. 4 handling room, which the sprinkler system extinguished quickly. While one repair crew continued to help fight Newcomb’s fires, the other two crews quickly went below decks to stem the flooding in their own ship.

Five minutes after the impact, Leutze’s crewmen began to jettison all extra topside weight. They also lowered the motor whaleboat to retrieve any men who had gone overboard and put two life rafts over the side to pick up survivors from Newcomb. Ten minutes later, at 1830, the destroyer’s fantail was already awash, indicative of serious flooding. Commanding officer Grabowsky informed CTF 54 at 1836 that his ship was in danger of sinking and requested help. With destroyer Beale (DD-471) now on the scene to aid Newcomb, Leutze discontinued assistance to her burning sister and gingerly moved ahead on a single engine, her stern section shuddering badly. Valiantly fighting to remain afloat, the crew jettisoned all depth charges and torpedoes on safe setting to save weight. With the destroyer’s after fuel and diesel tanks 100% full, the captain issued the order to pump the tanks at 1840. Meanwhile, the damage control parties continued to throw excess weight overboard and shored up the bulkheads of damaged compartments.

The emergency measures taken likely saved the ship. By 1900, the crew had stemmed the flooding and shortly thereafter regained steering control, and an hour later, the fantail had risen two feet above the waterline. Most fortunately, Leutze experienced no further air attacks as damage control efforts continued throughout the night. Lt. Grabowsky praised his crew for their resolve and fearlessness during the events of 6 April. “It is with the greatest pride that the Commanding Officer reports that under these extreme circumstances, the conduct of all hands was courageous in the highest sense of the word and could serve as an outstanding example of steadfastness under fire,” he wrote in his action report.

USS Leutze (DD 481) hit by a Japanese plane at Okinawa, Ryukyu Island, which was marred by anti-aircraft smoke at the instant the plane hit. Photograph released April 12, 1945. 80-G-322421

The famous DD-481 in Karamo Retto on 9 April 1945 following a kamikaze attack, at Okinawa. Courtesy of Turner collection. NH 69110

Towed to Kerama Retto anchorage and slowly repaired enough over three months to return under steam to California, she arrived at Hunters Point on 3 August 1945 but was deemed uneconomical to repair with the break out of peace and was scrapped in New Jersey in 1947.

Leutze earned all 5 of her battle stars.

Koruniat and Ndrilo Island April Fools

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USS Oyster Bay (AGP-6) late 1944 with PT boats alongside

At the end of March/first of April 1944, some 80 years ago, the fighting motor torpedo boat tender USS Oyster Bay (AGP-6), with the Elco-made 80-foot mosquito boats of MTBRon 18 and MTBRon 21 in tow, was pressed into service bombarding targets in the Admiralties with her 5-inch guns, softening the islands up for landings there by the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division (“First Team”). Likewise, her PT boats got into the act closer to “D” day, coming in close enough to run light mortars (81mm and 60mm) from their decks as well as 37mm and 20mm guns.

PT boats bombarding Pityilu Island, Seeadler Harbor, before landings there by the Army’s First Cavalry Division, on 30 March 1944. Note the large 37mm and 20mm guns on these boats. National Archives SC 189625

As detailed in At Close Quarters: PT Boats in the United States Navy, by Robert J. Bulkley, emphasis mine:

Pityilu Island had been bombed and strafed by aircraft and shelled by destroyers at intervals for more than 2 weeks before the landings on March 30. The Oyster Bay had been pressed into service on March 14 to knock out enemy positions on the island with 60 rounds from her 5-inch guns. On the morning of March 30, 10 PT’s got underway to support the landings. Joe Burk’s PT 320 dropped a marker buoy to guide the amphibious craft through a channel between two reefs. PT’s 324 and 326, patrolling the southeast tip of the island to prevent evacuation, quickly silenced light sniper fire with their guns. After the island had been shelled by destroyers and strafed by P-40’s and Spitfires, PT’s 320, 325, 328, 362, 363, 365, and 367 moved in ahead of the landing craft and mortared and strafed the beach. Machineguns fired inaccurately at the boats from shore. PT 331 (Lt. (jg.) Bernard A. Crimmins, USNR), with General Swift aboard, was used as an observation post for the high command in the immediate vicinity of the landing area. The troops met stiff resistance, but by nightfall had gained complete control of the island.

The following morning PT’s 362, 363, 365, 366, and 367 bombarded Koruniat Island with mortars, and Oyster Bay, with PT’s 320, 321, 325,

–230–

and 326, shelled and strafed Ndrilo Island. On April 1 an Army combat team went ashore on Koruniat and later moved to Ndrilo. Both islands were deserted.

White 35, in full Color

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Check out this original Kodachrome, taken some 80 years ago today, of LT(JG) George T. Glacken and his gunner, Aviation Radioman Second Class Leo W. Boulanger, in their Douglas SBD-5 Dauntless dive bomber, White 35, of VB-16 from the Essex-class aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CV-16) off of Palau, 30 March 1944.

(LIFE Magazine Archives – JR Eyerman Photographer)

You can make out the details of the bomb hashes, and Boulanger’s twin AN/M2s, capable of a blistering 1,200 rounds per minute as long as the belts hold out.

You can see the squadron’s distinctive eagle insignia on the side of White 35.

Bombing Sixteen would earn the Presidential Unit Citation “Received for action from the U.S.S. Lexington (CV-16) at Tarawa (September 18th, 1943), Wake (October 5-6th, 1943), Palau, Hollandia and Truk (March 18th – April 30th, 1944), Marianas (June 11th – July 5th, 1944), and Gilbert Islands (November 19th, – December 5th, 1945).”

Glacken is listed as a Navy Cross holder. Born in 1916 in Lorain, Ohio, he passed in 1990. Meanwhile, Boulanger would earn the DFC.

And, of course, the “Grey Ghost” that they flew from is preserved as a museum ship at Corpus Christie, Texas.

Polish Procession

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Good Friday blessings.

Roughly 80 years ago. Good Friday procession of Free Polish troops and auxiliaries, likely in Italy, taken April 7th, 1944. All images via the Matson (G. Eric and Edith) Photograph Collection, U.S. Library of Congress.

Note the helmeted honor guard carrying the crucifix and British uniforms/kit.

The Free Poles were heavily involved in the push up the Italian “boot” at this point in the war, and it should be remembered that, just a few weeks after these images were taken, it was the Polish II Corps under LT. Gen. Władysław Anders finally made it to the top at Monte Cassino, opening up the route to Rome.

RBFM: Never Underestimate Sailors Fighting Ashore

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In November 1942, the Brits had around 600 Vichy French Navy POWs in their custody at Grizedale Hall in England. These men had been captured in the assorted brushes around Africa and the Middle East in the awkward period between the British raid on the French fleet at Mers-el-Kébir in July 1940 and the Torch Landings that, in effect, ended the Vichy regime.

One of those men in the brig was Capitaine de corvette Raymond Emile Charles Maggiar, the former XO of the Vichy auxiliary cruiser Bougainville, which had been sunk in a one-sided battle with the Royal Navy off Diégo-Suarez, Madagascar in May 1942. A career officer who had entered the Naval Academy in 1922, Maggiar had previously served on the battleships Courbet and Bretagne, the torpedo boat Mistral, the destroyer Valmy, and the cruiser Suffren. Earlier in the war, while an officer on the merchant cruiser Ville d’Alger, he fought in the Narvik campaign, in the evacuation of Dunkirk, and in the spiriting away of the French national gold supply from Brest to Dakar.

With the Torch Landings and the general burying of the hatchet between those in the French military who were still hosed off at the British betrayal and the Western Allies, Maggiar, along with 44 other officers and 333 enlisted POWs, approached the Brits with an offer to volunteer to head to Algiers, place themselves under RADM Lemonnier, and create a battalion of Marine Fusiliers to capture and hold the coastal artillery batteries at Bizerte in Tunisia– emplacements of which many of the men were well acquainted.

With the offer accepted, the ad-hoc “Bataillon de Bizerte” was created and dispatched to Algeria on a British transport. There, they were armed from French stocks in North Africa with Great-War era Lebel rifles, 11 assorted machine guns of three different types, a single 81mm mortar, a 37mm M1916 popgun, and eight mules. Folded into the Corps Francs d’Afrique, they were involved in the push into Tunisia and, true to their mandate, were used to capture Bizerte.

Curiously, they never became part of the “official” Free French Naval forces (FNFL) and were an orphan unit.

Then, in September 1943, the Bataillon de Bizerte, its numbers swelled to over 900 (including no less than 106 naval officers) by escapees from occupied France, Corsicans, Pieds-Noirs, and Algerians, but not needed to man the few active ships in the Free French fleet, it was decided to make the unit a tank destroyer unit equipped with M10 Wolverines.

With that, the Régiment Blindé de Fusiliers-Marins was born.

Moved by train to Casablanca in December 1943 to receive training alongside the 11e régiment de chasseurs d’Afrique, the Marines of the RBFM inherited the “well-broken in” M10s, M3 scout cars, jeeps, motorcycles, and M2/M3 half-tracks of the 11 RCA when that latter unit, part of the “official” Free French (Forces Françaises Libres, or FFL) forces, was shipped to England to become a full-fledged M4 Sherman tank outfit.

The RBFM, as with the vehicles they drove, typically wore American uniforms with French insignia– note the fusiliers marins crossed anchors

The RBFM’s M10s were all, in naval parlance, fantastically named with monikers borrowed from cats, sea creatures, famous French Naval ships (Richelieu, Le Fantasque, Tourville, Milan, et. al), swashbuckling soldiers (Lansquenet, Corsaire) and types of storms (a traditional French naval vessel naming convention for destroyers). When a vehicle was destroyed, its replacement would pick up the same name but with a #2 (e.g. when Souffleur was destroyed on 29 Jan 1945, its replacement was named Souffleur 2).

1st Sqn
Flamme (Flame)
Foudre (Lightning)
Tonnerre (Thunder)
Eclair (Flash)
Tourville
Suffren
Narval (Narwal)

2nd Sqn
Lynx
Leopard
Lion
Jaguar
Morse (Walrus)
Phoque (Seal)
Marqouin (Porpoise)
Souffleur (Blower)
Milan
Epervier (Hawkward)
Albatross
Vautour (Vulture)

3rd Sqn
Le Terrible
Le Fantasque
Audacieux (Bold)
Le Malin
Flibustier
Corsaire
Mameluck
Lansquenet
Richelieu
Dunkerque
Jean Bart
Strasbourg

4th Sqn
Orage (Thunderstorm)
Bourrasque (Squall)
Tempete (Storm)
Ouragan (Hurricane)
Typhon
Tornade
Tramontane
Trombe
Siroco
Cyclone
Simoun
Mistral

The unit’s badge included an M10 tank destroyer, the Cross of Lorraine, and the traditional crossed anchors of the Fusiliers-Marins. Likewise, each vehicle flew a crossed anchor tricolor pennant.

They were an eclectic unit, to say the least, and its members included ensign Philippe de Gaulle, son of that De Gaulle, who would command the 1st platoon of the 1st squadron.

And French movie star Jean Gabin (Jean-Alexis Moncorgé), shown in the center, who, at 40, was the oldest M10 commander in the unit if not the French military as a whole. Gabin, who had served in the Marines in his 20s, at the time had an extensive cinema career and was Marlene Dietrich’s boyfriend.

Gabin is considered one of the greatest stars in French cinema but took time off from the silver screen to command Souffleur and Souffleur 2 in the RBFM during the war. Ever the sailor, when he died in 1976, he had requested that his ashes be scattered by a navy ship at sea.

Another oddity of the RBFM was its Marinettes, a group of female ambulance drivers that accompanied the unit across Europe. 

Puppy held by female medical personnel with the Free French Army 1944. Note the Adrian helmet with a naval anchor device. George Silk LIFE

Assigned to Général Leclerc’s 2e Division Blindée for the liberation of France, the RBFM loaded on three vessels for Britain in late April 1944 and by May were cooling their heels at Sledmere in Yorkshire, getting ready for the big push through Normandy.

Landing on Utah Beach on 2/3 August 1944, they saw their first combat north of the Ecouves Forest ten days later and would remain engaged for the rest of the war, taking part in the liberation of Alençon, Paris, Strasbourg, and Colmar; fighting in the Battle of Dompaire– where they were credited with zapping 13 Panthers in 48 hours of uninterrupted combat– and ending the conflict at Dolphy’s mountain hideaway, the Berchtesgaden.

Liberation of Paris – August 25, 1944, a jeep of the RBFM– note the bachi caps of the sailors and their M1 Carbines– passing in front of the M4 Sherman “Picardie” tank of the 12th RCA on rue de Tilsit, 8th arrondissement, Paris.

TD M10 “Corsaire” of the 3/RBFM of the 2nd DB on Boulevard Raspail, at the intersection with Rue de Vaugirard, Paris

Albatros in Versailles, 25 August 1944. The Tank Destroyer “Albatros” belonged to the 3rd combat platoon of the 2nd squadron of the Marine Rifle Regiment (2nd DB). Tank Commander: Second Master Combeau. Gunner: Sailor Robin. Driver: Quartermaster Rieutord. Radio: Sailor Feigne

Régiment blindé de fusiliers marins RBFM M10 MISTRAL et à sa droite l’Arc de Triomphe

Régiment Blindé de Fusiliers-Marins M10 TERRE-357-L8589

Régiment Blindé de Fusiliers Marins (RBFM) Paris. Le Terrible of the 3rd sqn in the foreground. 

M10 Terrible 2 advancing through the ruins of Royan. Note the French navy bachi caps of its crew.

RBFM was inspected in late in the war. Besides the traditional French navy bachi caps the crews over American kit, note the six “kill” rings on the barrel of Mistral and nine on Sirocco.

They were credited with taking 430 German prisoners, destroying 41 panzers, 16 artillery pieces, and 43 trucks while only losing 10 of their M10s in combat. Not a bad record for such a motley crew!

Soon disbanded after the war, the RBFM would be reformed for brief service in Indochina but has since faded into history.

Maggiar, who lost the sight in his right eye in the liberation of Paris, would retire as an admiral in 1955 and write a book about the RBFM, He passed in 1994

Their wartime banner is preserved, as is Sirocco— the highest-scoring M10 with 9 “kills.

A portrait of Maggiar hangs over the banner

Sirocco is now preserved in the Armored Vehicles Museum in Saumur

One of the last vets of the RBFM, Admiral Philippe de Gaulle, passed earlier this month at age 102.

He retired from the French Navy in 1982 and entered politics, serving as a senator from Paris until 2004.

He was honored in a state ceremony this last week

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.”

 

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