They Kept Coming: D+1 and Beyond

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More than 150,000 Allied troops from the U.S., Britain, Canada, Free France, and Norway made it ashore on D-Day– suffering some 12,000 casualties.

However, with the beachheads firmly secured, they kept coming.

The build-up of Omaha Beach. Reinforcements of men and equipment moving inland, D+2, 8 June 1944. Original caption: “Roadways appear as if by magic as long lines of men and materiel stream ashore at a beach in northern France. With the beach situation well under control, there is an increasing flow of troops and supplies to reinforce the units now in combat. 8 June 1944.” Note the heavy guns, mobile cranes, DUKWs, and other vehicles on the beach roads; the former German pillbox in the lower left; LCTs unloading at low tide; and shipping offshore. USS LCT-572 is at left, broached at the high tide line. Signal Corps Photo SC 193082

By the end of D+5, 11 June, more than 326,000 Allied troops had crossed the Channel, along with 50,000 vehicles and more than 100,000 tons of equipment.

Speaking to this immediate buildup, which would lead to the liberation of Paris by August, Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Atkinson has the excellent below program from the National WWII Museum (formerly the D-Day Museum). If you have a spare hour, it makes a good listen.

A Print Icon Returns…

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Growing up in the 1970s and 80s, my grandfather had lasting subscriptions to three preeminent periodicals that every southern gentleman of the day was familiar with: National Geographic, Playboy, and Field & Steam— and I dearly attempted (and usually failed in the case of Mr. Hefner’s publication) to get my hot little hands on both the current issue and stacks of back issues haunting the ponderosa.

However, print is all but dead. Hefner passed in 2017 (long after he lost control of his magazine), in 2020 Field & Stream (and sister Outdoor Life) ceased publication of its print edition, and Nat Geo followed suit in halting the sale of its print magazine earlier this year.

Well, it looks like F&S at least may be trying to make a comeback.

Hitting the streets this month is a glossy 10×12 160-page print edition of Field & Stream, with a very familiar feel to it.

From the presser:

The inaugural 2024 Field & Stream Journal, officially out on June 5th, features a rich mix of stories, including a horse-packing adventure in British Columbia; personal essays of fathers and sons and their mutual love for wild places; a ranking of the best top-water lures ever; and trout-fishing tips for this summer’s cicada invasion. Eric Church also shares a tale of his own in the first installment of his brand-new F&S column, “Church Country.” His story, titled “Seed Ticks,” recounts the first time he visited the property where he would eventually build a fishing cabin. The humorous—and, at times, nail-biting—yarn takes readers on an outdoor adventure with his wife and father-in-law, complete with a car chase, jungle survival, and a full-fledged war on microscopic bloodsuckers.

For those interested, subscriptions will be a hefty $45 for two issues on a biannual publication schedule (Spring and Fall) or single copies for $25 plus shipping. Digital will be $15.

The Short-Lived (Shorter Than You’d Think) Browning Classic Hi-Power

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John Browning’s swan song handgun design, the Hi-Power, had reached its zenith by the mid-1980s, and a special run from that heyday is breathtaking. 

Mr. Browning filed patents in 1923 for what would become the Hi-Power just three years before he died in Liege, Belgium, his workshop at FN left empty. This final concept pistol, finished by Belgian firearms designer Dieudonné Saive– the man from whose mind later sprung the FN FAL– entered production in 1935 and would remain a staple of the company until 2018 when it was discontinued. 

Across that 83-year run, the Hi-Power, like any firearm platform, evolved through several generations with the Belgian-made T and C-series pistols of the 1960s and 70s often regarded as the high water mark of the design. By the late 1980s, the Belgian-made/Portuguese-assembled guns shipped with a magazine safety which typically meant a gritty trigger, a much plainer finish, and plastic grips.

To celebrate the Hi-Power, which was coming up on its 50th year of production in 1985, FN produced the Browning Classic series which included engraved “1 of 5,000” pistols and gold-inlayed “1 of 500” pistols, with some set aside for sale in limited three-gun sets with similarly engraved Auto-5 and a Superposed Superlights. However, actual production numbers fell short of the monikers, with less than 2,850 engraved Browning Classic Hi-Powers of all types constructed between 1984 and 1986.   

The standard “1 of 5,000” Classic Hi-Powers featured multiple engraved scenes and fine leaf, floral pattern scroll with black background along both the slide and frame, a special silver-gray “French” finish, presentation walnut grips, a gold trigger, and a matching walnut presentation box. The engraving, which included a portrait of Mr. Browning, was signed by the in-house engraver on the bottom right of each slide.

Check out this one that recently came through the Guns.com warehouse. 

Omaha Dog White

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The hand-drawn map shows the exit path of the first troops, 0855 hrs, on Omaha Beach, 6 June 1944. This sketch is illustration 19a from the 29th Infantry Division‘s combat narrative by 1Lt. John T. “Jack” Shea.

National Archives Identifier 6922052

The Massachusetts-born Shea, attached to the HHC of the 29th ID, earned a Silver Star on D-Day, hitting a still scorching hot beach with a part of the 116th Infantry Regiment in the second wave, approximately one hour after H-Hour. He was far from alone. In all, the men of the 29th would earn no less than 854 Silver Stars during the war, in addition to a pair of MoHs and 6,308 Bronze Stars. 

The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to First Lieutenant (Infantry) John T. Shea (ASN: 0-445928), United States Army, for gallantry in action while serving with the 29th Infantry Division. On 6 June 1944, during the initial assault on the beaches of Northern France, First Lieutenant Shea voluntarily joined a reconnaissance party which entered, from the rear, the heavily defended beach exit at Vierville-sur-Mer to determine the enemy dispositions at that place. Although exposed to enemy observation and fire from fortified positions in the hills overlooking the beach exit, and to friendly naval gunfire which was being directed against the enemy positions at or near this beach exit, this patrol accomplished its mission, obtained much valuable information, and captured prisoners. In his active participation in this successful and hazardous reconnaissance, without regard for his own safety, First Lieutenant Shea demonstrated a high degree of courage which reflects great credit on himself and the military service.

D-Day Dress, Platoon Leader. This item is illustration 20a from the 29th Infantry Combat Narrative by Lieutenant Jack Shea.

National Archives Identifier 18558249

Shea was the aide de camp to Maj. Gen. Norman Daniel “Dutch” Cota (the 29th’s assistant division commander) from November 1943 until 22 July 1944 when he was wounded at St. Lo. Cota, never one to shrug off personal combat, is often credited with inadvertently creating the Rangers’ motto, when, bumping into Col. Max Schneider, commander of the 5th Ranger Battalion, on the beach at D-Day, Cota asked, “What outfit is this?” Someone yelled, “5th Rangers!” Cota replied, “Well, God damn it, if you are Rangers, then get up there and lead the way!”

Shea, who had a background was journalism before the war and filed perhaps the most detailed first-hand account of combat from Omaha Beach with the 29th ID, was later attached to the Army’s Historical Division until he left the military in 1947.

He survived the war and passed in 1984.

Of note, the 29th ID suffered 28,776 casualties during 242 days of combat in WWII.

Normandy at 80

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The Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France, contains the graves of 9,388 war dead, and nearly another 1,557 names on the Walls of the Missing, most of whom lost their lives in the D-Day landings and ensuing operations– keep in mind that American forces suffered over 4,000 casualties on Omaha Beach alone, the bloodiest of five landing sites on 6 June 1944. The first graves were installed before the D+1 by the Army’s 607th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company.

Forty-five sets of brothers, most side by side, along with a father and his son and uncle and his nephew all rest in that hallowed ground. 

The ceremony marking the 80th D-Day commemorative begins at 6:30 EDT and will be livestreamed at the link below.

Warship Wednesday, June 5, 2024: Three Princes

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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, June 5, 2024: Three Princes

 

Library & Archives Canada Photo CT214, MIKAN No. 4950871

Above we see a great original Kodachrome showing a naval rating, bosun pipe and boat whistle in the belt, checking the wicked edge of a Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife held by a soldier from the Canadian 1e Régiment de la Chaudière aboard the landing ship infantry (medium) HMCS Prince David (F59), June 1944, with one of the ship’s landing craft from No. 529 Flotilla, LCA No. 1059, providing background. The CRs would go in on Juno Beach on D-Day as part of the 8th Canadian Brigade and continued to fight in North West Europe until the end of the war. Meanwhile, seven out of No. 529’s eight landing craft would be sunk that day.

As for Prince David, she had already seen lots of campaigning in WWII from the Aleutians to Martinique and had lots more to come.

The Three Princes

In 1930, Canadian National Steamships company, which had started a decade prior as an offshoot of the Canadian National Railway Co, ordered a trio of new three-funneled from Cammell Laird of Birkenhead, England, for use on Canada’s West Coast. These ships, augmenting the cramped older CNSS Prince George (3,372 GRT, circa 1910) and CNSS Prince Rupert (3,380 GRT, circa 1909), would be fine coastwise liners, at some 6,893 GRT and some 385 feet overall.

Powered by 6 Yarrow water-tube five-drum boilers powering twin Parsons geared turbines, these new liners could make an impressive 22.5 knots (23 on trials at 19,000 shp) and carry a mix of 400 passengers (334 first class in above deck cabins and 70 in belowdecks steerage) as well as light cargo and mail. They would be named Prince David, Prince Henry, and Prince Robert.

A watercolor retouched photo of CNSS Prince Robert in her original CN livery. CFB Esquimalt Naval & Military Museum accession No. VR1991.320.1.

North Star, ex-Prince Henry

The three new vessels, completed for $2 million each, were delivered in the “Dirty ’30s” while the Great Depression was at its peak and soon suffered from a doldrums of low bookings and hazardous operations, sending them into a series of longer cruises to the West Indies and Alaska, with Prince Henry suffering from a six-month grounding off Bermuda that saw her sold to the rival Clarke Steamship Company of Montreal in 1937 and renamed under that house line as SS North Star.

Meet Prince David

Our subject was named, not for royalty, but after Mr. David E. Galloway, a vice president of Canadian National Steamships.

With the downturn in cruise ship bookings in the late 1930s, Prince David was laid up in Halifax in 1937 in fairly bad shape– then allowed to get worse. The below notes after an inspection by RCN surveyors on the liner as well as her two sisters in 1939 as the beat of war came to the world.

War!

Finally purchased for a song (the repaired North Star/Prince Henry for $638,223; Prince Robert for $738,310; and Prince David for $739,663) in late 1939, they were sent to be overhauled and refitted for service as armed merchant cruisers. Additions included stiffened deck sections for six deck guns (four Vickers 6″/45 BL Mark VIIs and two 12-pdr 3″/50 18cwt QF Mark Is) as well as magazines, searchlights, and a battery of assorted light machine guns left over from the Great War.

The main guns allowed a 2,000-pound broadside per minute gauged at five salvos.

A quartet of 6-inch/45 cal Mk VII guns awaiting Installation on HMCS Prince David, 19 August 1940. The ship on the right is a Canadian Navy Basset-class Trawler and the ship in the center background is “M.V. M.F. Therese. Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3394502

Chief Petty Officer placing a shell in the magazine rack on HMCS Prince David. Courtesy of Kyle Daun via For Posterity’s Sake

6-inch gun HMCS Prince David 1941 via Wikicommons

Prince David 50 cal Colt M1917 twins via Wikicommons

Petty Officer Williams instructing ratings in the operation of a Lewis machine gun aboard HMCS Prince David, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, January 1941. LAC 3567142

A few depth charges (but not listening gear) were installed for counter-submarine work.

Prince David and her two sisters were the largest ships in the RCN for most of World War II, a distinction only eclipsed when Canada acquired the brand-new light cruiser HMS Minotaur (53), transferred to Royal Canadian Navy in July 1944, which dutifully became HMCS Ontario (C53), soon joined by Uganda, who kept her name when she was recommissioned 21 October 1944– Trafalgar Day– but replaced HMS with HMCS.

The specs as AMCs: 

Prince David would be commissioned on 28 December 1940, three weeks after Prince Henry which broke out her duster on 4 December, while Prince Robert, who was in better material shape than her sisters, joined the RCN on 31 July 1940.

Prince David, assigned to the Royal Navy’s America and West Indies Station would conduct workups and escort a few Halifax-to-Bermuda convoys (BHX 109, BHX 113, and BHX 135) in 1941 between searching for Axis blockade runners as far away as Trinidad and Martinique. This included a brush with the Vichy-French tanker Scheherazade (13467 GRT, built 1935) and chasing a possible German warship– thought to be a Hipper-class cruiser but later believed to be either the auxiliary cruiser Thor (HSK 4) or a U-boat supply ship. Her sisters Prince Robert-– who bagged the zinc-laden 9,200-ton German steamer Weser off the coast of Mexico– and Prince Henry who haunted Callao for German ghost ships, were on similar missions at the time.

Prince David also helped convoy the fast troopship HMT Durban Castle, carrying among other passengers the exiled Greek royal family, including King George II, who was being spirited from Alexandria to England via Durban and the Cape of Good Hope– earning Prince David’s skipper a Greek War Cross in a gesture of Hellenic gratitude.

Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Prince David was transferred with her sisters to British Columbia in early 1942 where the “Esquimalt Force” was to provide some defense of the Canadian Pacific Coastline from the marauding Japanese that were making moves into the Aleutians and taking pot-shots via submarines of the California and Oregon coast. I-26 shelled the lighthouse at Estevan Point on Vancouver Island and I-25 torpedoed and shelled the 7,000-ton British-chartered freighter SS Fort Camosun off Cape Flattery, with 31 survivors rescued by the Flower-class corvette HMCS Edmundston. Hence, Japanese subs were definitely in the area.

The trio of Princes would spend the next 18 months patrolling a line covering Vancouver-Victoria-Prince Rupert and making a show of it for the local populace. To give them some more teeth, they picked up ASDIC sets and additional depth charges.

In August 1942, with the Americans, assisted by the Canadians, moving to kick the Japanese out of the Aleutians, badly needed convoy escorts to free tin cans for front-line service. To answer the call, Force D was formed at Esquimalt from the three Princes along with the two Flower-class corvettes HMCS Dawson and HMCS Vancouver.

Sailing for Kodiak on 19 August and beginning their first convoy escort to Dutch Harbor two days later, over the next two months the Princes, augmented by a couple old American four-piper destroyers as the smaller Flowers were relegated to ASW patrol off Adak, would shepherd over two dozen small (under 12 ships) unnamed convoys back and forth between the two ports as close to the coast as possible for the 350-mile run, hugging the fog-covered narrow passengers and channels of the Alaskan peninsula and the Fox and Iliasik islands. The convoys were typically made up of a Prince paired with a four-piper.

By the time the force was released on Halloween 1942, Prince Henry made 11 convoy runs, Prince Robert 13, and Prince David 10. A few submarine contacts resulted in depth charge runs, but no losses were incurred.

Sent back to Esquimalt, the Princes were soon back on patrol off Vancouver, continuing into March 1943.

LSI Days

With their role as blockade runner/surface raider hunters aged out by the first part of 1943, and more effective new destroyers coming on line for use as escorts, by this stage of the war, the Admiralty had decided to equip each Prince for more worthwhile service with five twin Mark XVI 4-inch high angle guns, two quad 2 pounder pom-poms, six 20mm Oerlikons, and extra pair of twin .50 cals, and four depth charge throwers. It was even put forth that the Mark XVI’s could instead be new 4.7-inch DP guns as a 4.7-inch suite would allow a broadside of 3,600 pounds per minute judged at five salvos per gun, plus her high-angle enough that they could be used in an AAA role.

However, as the retrofit would have cost some $7 million for the class, and funds were scarce, it was decided to rearm Prince Robert alone for $2 million for a fit that included the above guns (with twice the number of 20mm mounts as well as Type 291 radar and Type 242 IFF).

HMCS Prince Robert (F56), 4-inch Mk. XVI anti-aircraft guns and crew, during convoy escort in March 1944. She would spend the rest of the war on convoy duties, riding shotgun 19 times on runs to and from England and North Africa between October 1943 and September 1944. She was then sent to the Pacific. MIKAN No. 4950890

Prince Robert at Vancouver, B.C., 1943. CFB Esquimalt Naval & Military Museum accession No. VR1993.57a.2

Prince Robert, mid-WW2. CFB Esquimalt Naval & Military Museum accession No. VR1992.28.7.

Then, the Admiralty would simply convert Prince David and Prince Henry to landing ships for a more paltry $450,000 each.

The LSI conversion meant keeping the ASW weaponry, landing their 6 and 3-inch guns in favor of two twin 4-inch high-angle mounts, 10 single-barreled 20mm Oerlikons, and two 40mm Bofors. Radars, Types 272, 253, 285, and 291, were also added. Signals, cipher, and surgical suites were greatly expanded.

Prince David as LSI, not her davits and interesting false bow camo scheme. LAC 4821078

Prince David as LSI. Courtesy of Kyle Daun via For Posterity’s Sake

HMCS Prince David (F89) as LSI. Note maple leaf on the stack and “PD” identifier on her hull

Side davits for eight landing craft– manned by a dedicated 5 officer/50 rating detachment– were installed. The craft would be a mix of typically six Canadian-made unarmed 58-foot LCAs and two British-made machine-gun fitted 41-foot LCS(M)s. Each of these embarked forces as a semi-independent RN Flotilla, No. 528 (Lt R.G. Buckingham, RCNVR) in Prince Henry and No. 529 (Lt J.C. Davie, RCNVR) on Prince David, a mix of forces that would sometimes prove…rowdy.

Prince Henry and Prince David, after receiving their conversions in Vancouver, would go through the Panama Canal and, after a stop in New York, cross the Atlantic as convoy escorts for UT7 in January 1944– with David full of 437 American soldiers. They would then spend the next five months prepping for Overlord.

HMS Prince David, LSI(M). 6 February 1944, Greenock by LT SJ Beadell. Note her new camouflage, twin 4-inch mount, and davits. IWM A 21735

Invasion craft rehearsal. 24 to 28 April 1944, off The Isle Of Wight. Various crafts during an Invasion rehearsal. HMCS Prince David is shown (note her PD identifier on her hull) with davits loaded with LCAs. By LT EE Allen IWM A 23743

HMCS Prince David (F89). At anchor, 9 May 1944. Note the “PD” identifier on her amidships. LAC 3520344

Prince David’s LCA 1375 landing troops. Photo believed to be taken at Bracklesham Bay during Exercise Fabius (Normandy rehearsal) Landings in May 1944.

Prince David’s No. 529 Flotilla’s LCA 1375 and 1059 landing troops in May 1944 during Fabius. Royal Canadian Naval Photograph, negative No. A679

Royal Navy Beach Commandos aboard a Prince David embarked on a Landing Craft Assault boat of the 529th Flotilla, Royal Navy, during a training exercise off the coast of England, 9 May 1944. Note the “hawk, hook, and rifle” Combined Operations insignia on their sleeves. Prince David would send two boats of these men ashore on Juno Beach on D-Day. Photo by Lt Richard G. Arless. LAC PA-13628

Able Seaman Murray Kennedy splicing cable aboard HMCS Prince David, Cowes, England, 10 May 1944. Note the ship’s bell. LAC 3512521

On 2 June at Southampton, Prince Henry loaded 326 troops (including 227 of the Canadian Scottish Regiment) while Prince David embarked 418 (a mix of Régiment de la Chaudière and 5th Bn Royal Berkshire Regiment along with some RM/RN beach control party/clearance members) and set out for their staging areas that night, played out to sea by the Canadian Scott’s pipe band.

By 0500 on D-Day, as part of Group J-1, a bugle call stood the troops going ashore on deck and the first landing craft were lowered by 0620, with David’s boats making for their beach at Bernieres-sur-Mer (Nan White) and Henry’s headed for Courseulles sur Mer (Mike Red) for H-Hour which on the Juno area was 0755.

Lookout on the flagdeck of HMCS Prince David watching assault craft heading ashore to the Normandy beachhead, France, 6 June 1944. LAC 3202146

An unidentified infantryman of Le Régiment de la Chaudière, 8th Infantry Brigade, 3rd Canadian Infantry Division, preparing to disembark from HMCS Prince David off the Normandy beachhead, France, 6 June 1944. Note that his Enfield is in a protective plastic bag. Starting with D-Day, the would earn 19 battle honors for WWII, fighting its way across Northwest Europe for the next 10 months. PD-360. LAC 3202207

Private Jack Roy of Le Régiment de la Chaudière preparing to disembark from HMCS Prince David off Bernières-sur-Mer, France, 6 June 1944. Note the No. 38 field wireless set across his chest, E-tool slung over his shoulder, helmet skrim, and wrapped Enfield. PD-371 LAC 3396561

Royal Marines who will be removing mines and obstructions from the D-Day landing beaches, preparing to disembark from HMCS Prince David off the Normandy beachhead, France, 6 June 1944. PD-361 LAC 3202145

Men of the 5th Bn Royal Berkshire Regiment (British Army) including three sergeants, disembarking from HMCS Prince David on D-Day, France, 6 June 1944. Credited with a big part in liberating Bernieres-sur-Mer by the locals, the main drag in that French village today carries the name “Rue Royal Berkshire Regiment.” LAC 3525863

Landing craft depart from their LSI mother ship, HMCS Prince Henry (note the “PH” identifier on her amidships), headed for Juno Beach on June 6, 1944.

Landing craft with infantrymen preparing to go ashore from HMCS Prince David off Bernières-sur-Mer, France, 6 June 1944 aboard alongside LCIs after her LCAs took their loads to the beach and never returned. Library and Archives Canada Photo, PA-131501 MIKAN 3396559

Of No. 529 Flotilla’s eight landing craft, LCA 985, 1059, 1137, 1138, 1150, 1151, and 1375; and LCS (M) 101, all except 1375 would be sunk off Normandy.

With their troops landed by mid-morning, Prince Henry and David were dispatched back to England to embark on a second wave, each laden with casualties recovered from the fighting ashore. Prince David, the first LSI from Overlord to make Southampton on D-Day, carried 40 wounded and three dead, and arrived at the dock at 2230, received by waiting ambulances. The ships, however, had arrived back with their davits empty and at least three boat crews missing.

Prince David and Prince Henry would make another eight cross-channel sorties in support of Overlord, in all, landing 5,566 men between them.

Prince David carried 1,862 men to Normandy in four trips between D-Day and 10 July 1944, including members of the U.S., Canadian, and British forces.

Able Seaman Freddy Derkach (right) with personnel of the 65th Chemical Company, U.S. Army, including a mascot, aboard HMCS Prince David off Omaha Beach, France, 5 July 1944. LAC 3525871

Prince David with American officers on bridge LAC 3963986

Outfitted with the recovered LCA 1375, her only original landing craft, and her davits filled with other recovered LCAs and LCS(M)s, Prince David, along with her sister Prince Henry, would be transferred to the sunny climes of the Mediterranean where they would get ready to repeat Overlord along the French Rivera in the form of Operation Dragoon.

Gun crew sunbathing on “Y” gun of the infantry landing ship HMCS Prince David, Italy, July 1944. LAC 3202227

Loading Senegalese troops in Ajaccio Corsica for South France invasion late July 44

Prince Henry and Prince David in Adjacco prior to Dragoon. LAC PA211359

Prince David and Henry would become part of the Sitka Force, which would put ashore assorted special operations troops during Dragoon.

French 1e Groupe de Commandos aboard HMCS Prince David en route to take part in Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France, 10 August 1944. Note the mix of American and British kit and the prevalence of M1928 Thompsons. LAC 3525866

Prince David would carry over 1,400 Free French troops home during Dragoon in three waves, similar numbers repeated by Prince Henry.

Then came operations in Greek waters. Between September 1944 and January 1945, she made no less than 11 runs back and forth to Aegean ports, landing no less than 1,400 British Army, and 1,000 Free Greek troops (along with the Greek prime minister) while repatriating 400 Italian POWs.

Able Seaman Joe Nantais manning an Oerlikon 20mm anti-aircraft gun aboard HMCS Prince David off Kithera, Greece, 16 September 1944. PD-656, LAC 3394410

Georgios Papandreou, Prime Minister of Greece, speaking to the Ship’s Company of HMCS Prince David before disembarking from the ship which had returned him and his ministers to Greece. LAC 3191571

HMCS Prince David LCA-1375 liberation of Greece, Oct. 1944

British-kitted Free Greek troops disembarking from the landing craft of HMCS Prince David, Syros, Greece, 13 November 1944. Note the mix of BREN guns and M1 Carbines. LAC 3378808

Damaged by a mine on 10 December 1944, off Aegina Island, Greece, she continued her mission and landed her troops despite a 17-foot hole in her hull.

12 December 1944. Paratroopers of 2 Independent Para Bde Group receive last-minute orders before disembarking from Prince David in Greece. During the sea voyage, the ship struck a mine, which exploded below the forward magazine. The magazine was flooded and sealed off, and the ship sailed ahead on an even keel. Lieut. Powell-Davies, No. 2 Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit. IWM NA 20769

HMCS PRINCE DAVID in dry dock at Ferryville, North Africa for repairs after striking a mine – LAC PA142894

In all, between Overlord, Dragoon, and Greece, Prince David carried no less than 7,043 officers and men in 19 journeys.

Repaired at Bizerte, North Africa, she left in March 1945 to refit at Esquimalt, from where she would join the British Pacific Fleet for the final push on Tokyo. However, the war ended while she was still pier-side in British Columbia.

Taking off the warpaint

Prince David would be paid off on 11 June 1945 and laid up at Vancouver. Sold to Charlton, she would be refitted for the migrant-run trade as Charlton Monarch, she soon suffered an engineering casualty off Brazil in 1948 and was subsequently scrapped.

As for her sisters, both survived the war, with Prince Robert assisting in the liberation of Hong Kong in 1945 after service with the British Pacific Fleet, and was paid off in December 1945. Sold to Charlton two years later, she began cut-rate migrant voyages as SS Charlton Sovereign, packed with as many as 800 European refugees headed to Australia and South America, later being sold to an Italian shipper and operated as SS Lucania. She was broken up in Italy in 1962.

Prince Henry, loaned to the Royal Navy in April 1945, would continue to serve under Admiralty orders until July 1946. Henry was bought by HMs Ministry of War Transport for $500,000 and, renamed Empire Parkeston, would carry British troops between Harwich and the Continent for another decade, taking a break for use in the Suez in 1956, carrying elements of 16 Parachute Brigade. Withdrawn in September 1961 after an airbridge was put in place for replacements to the British Army of the Rhine, she was broken up at La Spezia the next year.

As for Canadian National Steamships, they got out of the boat business altogether in 1975.

For more detail into the “Three Princes” during RCN service, a circa 1986 236-page volume is online at a Canadian Forces website.

Epilogue

The best memorial to HMCS Prince David is her For Posterity’s Sake webpage.

While in Esquimalt in July 1942, Prince David was used to film several extensive scenes for the 1942 Paul Muni and Anna Lee war romance “Commandos Strike At Dawn” which appears in the third act. These included not only troops loading on deck and the vessel shoving off but also underway.

HMCS Prince David with a bone in her teeth from “Commandos Strike At Dawn.” Note the splinter mats around her bridge and troops on deck.

Two of Canada’s three official war artists embarked on Prince David during the war to observe ops, and their works survive.

“Embarking Casualties on D-Day, HMCS Prince David” was painted by Harold Beament in 1944. As part of the invasion fleet, Canadian ships carried troops and equipment to Normandy and brought casualties back to England. HMCS Prince David, seen here, carried more than 400 troops to Normandy, including members of the Quebec-based Le Régiment de la Chaudière. One of three Canadian National Steamships liners converted for wartime use, Prince David later supported several assault landings in the Mediterranean and carried Greece’s government-in-exile back to Athens in late 1944. Beaverbrook Collection of War Art CWM 19710261-1012

Famed Canadian painter and war artist, Alex Coleville, was aboard Prince David for Dragoon and produced at least two from this period which are now in the Canadian War Museum.

HMCS Prince David in Corsica as LSI Alex Coleville CWM Photo, 19710261-1685

“On the Bridge” Alex Colville painted this view of the bridge of HMCS Prince David, a Canadian infantry landing ship serving in the Mediterranean. An officer (right) keeps watch with binoculars, while another member of the crew, wearing a Prince David sweatshirt, sunglasses, and headphones, operates equipment, possibly a radar set (bottom left). Following their involvement in the successful landings in the south of France early on 15 August 1944, Prince David and HMCS Prince Henry, another Canadian infantry landing ship, continued to transport reinforcements to the invasion area until the 24th. CWM 19820303-252.

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 Strangest Combat Tug in Seattle

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The Sotoyomo-class fleet tug moored at 6716 East Side Dr NE #1-526, with a view of Seattle’s Space Needle, has had an identity conflict over the years.

Built at Gulfport Boiler and Welding Works, Port Arthur, Texas in the last four months of 1944, this 143-foot “war baby” commissioned and served in WWII (earning a battle star in the Pacific for support in the Okinawa campaign) as USS ATA-202, then picked up the name USS Wampanoag on 16 July 1948.

Then, loaned to the Coast Guard as USCGC Comanche (WATA-202) in 1959, she was struck from the Navy List a decade later and began her second life as a full-fledged white-hulled medium endurance cutter (WMEC-202) off the California coast until she was laid up in 1980, capping 36 years service.

Following a third career as a commercial tug in the PacNorthWest, she has been used as a running (she still gets underway from time to time) museum ship by a series of foundations since 2007 and has been in Seattle since 2021.

Saluting her blue-side WWII service, and then her years as a proud USCG cutter, she wears a split livery.

The P320-M17 Ceremonial

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As we’ve previously reported, SIG’s Modular Handgun System program with the Army led to a short run of ceremonial handguns for the Sentinels over the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery. While the elite Sentinels carry an Army-issue M14, the NCO of the guard carries a sidearm to allow them to properly inspect the Sentinel’s rifle, a post that has been manned for over a century.

M17 MHS Tomb SIG (Photo: Sig)

SIG is now marketing a more toned-down salute to that gun, the P320-M17 Ceremonial. It uses a distinctive high-polish AXG all-metal grip module fitted with custom Hogue walnut grip panels. With a matching high-polish optics-ready (DPP footprint) slide that includes front and rear day/night sights, it is chambered in 9mm and uses a 4.7-inch carbon steel barrel.

Other features include an M1913 accessory rail, and both a 17+1 round flush-fit magazine and a 21+1 extended magazine. (Photo: SIG)

Of note, the model is night and day different from the General Officer’s model M18 as supplied to the Army, although I would expect that the new $2K Ceremonial M17 will be a hit for retirement ceremonies among the top brass.

Just Another Campaign

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80 years ago this week: An M4 Sherman Duplex Drive medium tank of the 13th/18th Royal Hussars (Queen Mary’s Own), 27th Armoured Brigade, reverses aboard an LST (Landing Ship Tank) at the Hardway, Gosport, 1 June 1944, in preparation for the big Channel Jump that would be Overlord, where the 13th/18th’s Shermans would be the first British tanks to operate in France since 1940.

Taken by Capt. Knight, War Office official photographer, IWM H 38977

Raised in Ireland in 1715 as Richard Munden’s Regiment of Dragoons and in combat within three months against Jacobites at Preston, the regiment earned its lucky “13” number in 1751 and, after earning a shako full of honors against Napolean– Jamaica (1795) and San Domingo (1796), Campo Maior (1811), Albuera (1811), Badajoz (1812), Vitoria (1813), Nive (1813), Toulouse (1814) and Waterloo (1815)– then taking part of the doomed in the Charge of the Light Brigade in the Crimea (earning honors for Alma, Balaklava, Inkerman, and Sevastopol) as a light dragoons regiment, in 1861 they earned the tight breeches and dolmans of hussars.

A Private of the 13th Light Dragoons, 1812 Aquatint by J C Stadler after Charles Hamilton Smith, 1812. NAM. 1950-11-33-15

Shipping to Canada for the Fenian Raids, then to Afghanistan for the trek to Kandahar, by 1899 they were in the Boer Wars, trading in their bright breeches for khaki and pith helmets.

British 13th Hussars during the relief of Ladysmith, 1899

The Great War saw the 13th Hussars as part of the 2nd (Indian) Cavalry Division on the Western Front until they shipped to Mesopotamia in July 1916, fighting at Kut and Baghdad in 1917, then Sharqat in 1918, notably capturing Ottoman guns in a mounted charge.

Following the loss of most of the Irish regiments in 1922, the 13th merged with the 18th Royal Hussars to form the 13th/18th Hussars, earning its “Royal” and “Queen Mary’s Own” titles in 1935 while on garrison duties after the wife of George V was made their colonel in chief.

Part of the Royal Armoured Corps just before WWII, they served as a recon unit in the Phony War and Battle of France, leaving their vehicles behind at Dunkirk, then reformed with Shermans to hit the beach at Normandy, fighting up to the Rhine Crossings, which were accomplished with Duplex Drive Sherman tanks.

A long-barreled Sherman Firefly named “Carole” shown clustered with other Shermans of C Squadron, 13th/18th Royal Hussars, waiting to be loaded aboard vessels in Gosport England for the Normandy D-Day Landings – June 3, 1944. The crew in the left foreground are Fred Shaw, Doug Kay, Sgt. Fred Scamp, and Bill Humphries. The British Firefly models carried a 76.2mm/55 QF 17-pounder rather than the stubbier American 75mm/40 cal T8/M3 gun, with a much larger shell that carried 5 pounds more power, making it a much more effective anti-tank gun. Sgt James Mapham, Photographer. IWM H 38995

Operation Overlord (the Normandy landings): D-day 6 June 1944. Sherman DD tanks of ‘B’ Squadron, 13th/18th Royal Hussars support commandos of No. 4 Commando, 1st Special Service Brigade, as they advance into Ouistreham, Sword area, 6 June 1944. Laws, G (Sgt), Army Film and Photographic Unit IWM MH 2011

British Sherman duplex M4 tank of 13th/18th Royal Hussars cruises past a crashed Horsa glider near Ranville, Normandy 10 June 1944

Post-war duties saw the 13th/18th convert to an armored car regiment (Ferrets) in Libya (1948), Egypt (1950), Malaya (1950-53 then again in 1958-61), and Aden (1957-58 and 1967) along with several deployments to Northern Ireland during ’The Troubles’ and with peacekeepers on Cyprus.

In 1992, the 13/18th was merged with the already amalgamated 15th/19th The King’s Royal Hussars to form Catterick Garrison-based The Light Dragoons, which have since been in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Iraq, Mali, and, as of late, Poland, with the regiment’s current (honorary) colonel-in-chief being King Abdullah II of Jordan, although they generally refrain from being termed “King Abdullah’s Own.”

Armed today with Jackals, they are a light recon cavalry unit.

Just in case: Aircrew Bail Out Handguns

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One peculiar thing that has endured from the ages of the Red Baron through today is the custom of pilots and aircrews carrying so-called “bail-out guns” to be used on the ground should they lose their main ride. 

The first instance of opposing aircraft encountering each other while over the battlefield is thought to have occurred when high-flying American soldiers of fortune Dean Ivan Lamb and Phil Rader, each at the controls of early fabric-covered biplanes, fired pistols at each other in the first “dogfight.” The action while flying for rival sides during the Mexican Revolution in November 1913 was bloodless, but the habit of Yankee flying birdmen carrying hog legs with them aloft persisted.

During the Great War, while Americans flew more advanced British- and French-made fighters against the Germans, the pilots often carried their M1917 Colt and S&W .45 ACP revolvers and M1911 pistols with them, even while Vickers and Lewis machine guns were their primary weapons. 

Not just a preux chevalier throwback, the handguns became mandatory to a degree, part of the survival kit with the plane – often for good reason. 

In 1924, during the famed “First Around the World Flight,” Army pilot Maj. Frederick Martin and his mechanic, Sgt. Alva Harvey, were forced to walk for 10 days across Alaska to civilization after their plane crashed into the side of a mountain in the fog. 

Note the pistol belt on Harvey’s hip, complete with a revolver. (Photo: National Archives 342-FH-3B-7971-11517AS)

More in my column at Guns.com.

 

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