Hattori Han has an in-depth impression of the Imperial Japanese Army infantry during the 1904-05 war with the Tsar in Manchuria, a conflict now some 120 years in the rearview. He includes the blue field training uniform, white summer dress, and winter sentry and front-line service with wartime theatre modifications.
Like an Osprey book come to life. Really well done.
Big Blue, the U.S. Navy, has two carrier strike groups (TR and Reagan) in the Pacific as well as an amphibious ready group (America), with the latter two currently forward deployed in Japan at Sasebo and Yokosuka while the San Diego-based Teddy Roosevelt group (with CVW-11 embarked) is flexing off Luzon in the vital South China Sea.
However, south of Manila, except for an LCS that has been on a rotational deployment to the region, the only armed American maritime assets currently underway are owned by the Coast Guard.
The four big frigate-sized National Security Cutters based at Alameda, California continue their regular WestPac deployments with class-leader USCGC Bertholf (WMSL 750) recently steaming over 8,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean to take part in planned engagements with regional partners.
She had previously made Westpac tours in 2019 and 2022.
U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf (WMSL 750) transits near the Singapore Straits, on Feb. 29, 2024. The Bertholf is a 418-foot National Security Cutter currently deployed to the Indo-Pacific region under the tactical control of the U.S. 7th Fleet. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer Steve Strohmaier)
The Bertholf crew recently conducted a refueling at sea evolution with the U.S. Naval Ship John Ericsson (T-AO 194). Alongside connected replenishment is a standard method of transferring liquids such as fuel and water and allows the cutter to stay out at sea for extended periods. (U.S. Coast Guard photo)
She recently joined the rotationally-deployed USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS 10) and called in Singapore.
U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf (WMSL 750) arrives at Changi Naval Base in Singapore, on Feb. 25, 2024. The Bertholf moored next to USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS 10), a U.S. Navy Littoral Combat Ship, also in the region to support an open Indo-Pacific region. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Cmdr. Trevor Parra)
Bertholf is operating as part of Commander, Task Force (CTF) 71, the U.S. 7th Fleet’s principal surface force, promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific, strengthening partner networks, and enhancing maritime safety and security.
Meanwhile, the 40-year-old 270-foot Bear class USCGC Harriet Lane (WMEC-903), the only member of her type in the Pacific, is getting her feet wet from her new homeport in Pearl Harbor and is currently deployed on her inaugural Blue Pacific mission, calling in Samoa and Fiji among other Pacific Rim allies.
A tour aboard the new dedicated “Indo-Pacific Cutter” while in Fiji.
The USCGC Oliver Henry (WPC 1140) crew and Kiribati Police Maritime Unit officers and recruits stand for a photo in Tarawa, Kiribati, on Feb. 16, 2024. For the first time since 2015, the patrol incorporated ship riders from the PMU, executing the maritime bilateral agreement signed with Kiribati in 2008. These engagements under Operation Blue Pacific emphasize the United States’ commitment to strengthening ties and ensuring maritime security within the Pacific community. (U.S Coast Guard photo by Lt. j.g. Nicholas Haas)
Aerial resupply at sea via the airborne system saves approximately $1.3 million for each operation. AMO P-3 aircrews have conducted 16 airborne resupply missions with U.S. Coast Guard crews and task force teams since March 2022. These resupply missions have also allowed Coast Guard crews that would normally be required to travel to and from port to complete logistical supply runs to stay on station for approximately 75 additional days.
Finally, going even further south in the Pacific, the Coast Guard’s only serious icebreaker, the 48-year-old USCGC Polar Star (WAGB 10) has been busy breaking ice into McMurdo during Operation Deep Freeze 2023/2024, operating for 51 days below the Antarctic Circle, and is now retiring north, back across the Pacific.
Official caption: “A bullet-marked Hotchkiss gun of the American Army, at Malolos, Philippians, circa 1899.”
New York, N.Y. : Strohmeyer & Wyman, Publishers, 1899. LOC LC-DIG-stereo-1s48423 (digital file from original) LC-USZ62-80482 (b&w film copy neg.) https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/stereo.1s48423
Note the blue-uniformed U.S. Volunteers in the background.
The photo should be taken into account with this one, “Malolos, Philippines: Advancing on Malols – taking a Hotchkiss gun over a bridge destroyed by insurgents,” 1899. https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/stereo.1s48355
The light 5-barreled 37mm Gatling style gun weighed only 1,045 pounds and could fire an 18.51-ounce shell out to 4,700 yards when at a 30-degree maximum elevation. All up, in its heavy configuration with an armored shield with carriage and limber, 300 shells, and all needed accessories, the weight was 4,510 pounds.
Note the loading via a 10-shell clip
They were most often seen in the P.I. with volunteer artillery units, in particular, the First Battalion of California Heavy Artillery, and the Utah Batteries.
Hotchkiss 37mm Revolving Cannon, 1st Battalion California Heavy Artillery, P.I.
Hotchkiss 37mm Revolving Cannon, 1st Battalion California Heavy Artillery, P.I.
As noted by the U.S. Army Artillery Museum at Fort Sill, which has one on display:
In 1879, Captain Edmund Rice took a Hotchkiss Cannon on the campaign on the Western Frontier; the first time a revolving cannon was taken into the field. The Army Hotchkiss Revolving Cannons were little used until the Philippine Insurrection (1899 – 1902) where they served admirably, mounted on field carriages, trains, and riverboats, and in fixed positions. The Hotchkiss would prove to be excessive in the waste of ammunition. By 1908, it was replaced by a conventional single-barreled cannon.
Sorry about the slight disruption in programming lately, especially when it comes to Warship Wednesdays. I’ve been traveling for the past couple of weeks in Europe for work. One of the cooler things I did for a few days was attend the IWA Outdoor Classics in Nuremberg.
Like Europe’s version of SHOT Show, the Internationale Waffen Ausstellung (International Weapons Exhibition), is an annual trade fair held since 1974, making this year the event’s 50th anniversary. In that half-century, over 1 million have attended an IWA show. This year’s event saw more than 40,000 visitors from 120 countries trekking through halls filled with 1,072 exhibitors.
My favorite thing about IWA: I got to catch up with Dan Shea for an hour or so which felt like a minute or so.
I had an extended visit with Czech firearms designer Jan Lysak and got the details and history behind his Creapeiron company, which has spent the past eight years developing the Elysium and System pistols.
Some of the cooler things I saw, including more on the Elysium, after the jump.
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.
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.
80 years ago today, Anzio Beachhead, Italy – 8 March 1944: PFC Paul R. Umstead, of Eagle Grove Iowa, Company “D,” 39th Combat Engineers (Bullstrike), arming M1 anti-tank mines.
Time Life Archives image.
Note the combination of his M1936 suspenders web belt in classic 10-pouch configuration to support his M1903A3 Springfield slung over his back– a common weapon for engineer units. Also, note the VI Corps patch and muddy M1 helmet. There is a late-generation M1A1 Thompson SMG, with a 30-round stick mag rather than the more common 20-rounder, leaning up against the mine crate.
For reference, the M1 anti-tank mine weighed 10.56 pounds each but carried a 6-pound TNT charge.
They needed at least 264 pounds of pressure to set off, which, as the average American man in the 1940s weighed in the 150-pound range, most ground pounders would be safe to walk over one.
Despite his dangerous activities in a dangerous area, PFC Umstead would survive the war.
Biographical details by John Klear, courtesy of World War Pictures:
Paul Russell Umstead, born December 3, 1916 in Eagle Grove, Iowa. In 1937, he was listed as working for the Chicago & North Western Railroad as a snow shoveller. In the 1940 census, he was still listed as a ‘snow worker.’
Enlisted in the Army April 21, 1942 at Fort Des Moines, Iowa. Departed for overseas January 14, 1943. Returned from foreign service September 29, 1945, honorably discharged October 13, 1945
Married Maxine Sanders in 1948. Paul died and was buried in Eagle Grove in 2001, Maxine died two years later and was buried beside him.
The 39th Engineers would take part in a half-dozen World War II campaigns and earn a Meritorious Unit Commendation for its service in Italy. It is still on active duty with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, today.
Check out this great image of what looks like circa 1910s U.S. Marines in landing party marching order including packs, leggings, web gear, and M1903 Springfields complete with long M1905 bayonets.
Only, they aren’t Marines, or even Blue Jackets, but, rather, U.S. Coast Guardsmen– you can even make out the surfman’s badge on the collar of the man to the left. The location? Manhattan’s Battery Park, circa 1918.
USCG Photo 210210-G-G0000-1007
The above are from the battalion-sized light infantry force under the command of the NYC Captain of the Port, a USCG unit under Temp. Capt. Godfrey Lynet Carden, which became a familiar sight as it drilled and patrolled along the city’s docks and parks during the Great War.
As detailed by the USCG Historian’s Office:
During WWI, the Coast Guard continued to enforce rules and regulations that governed the anchorage and movements of vessels in American harbors. The Espionage Act, passed in June 1917, gave the Coast Guard further power to protect merchant shipping from sabotage. This act included the safeguarding of waterfront property, supervision of vessel movements, establishment of anchorages and restricted areas, and the right to control and remove people aboard ships. The tremendous increase in munitions shipments, particularly in New York, required an increase in personnel to oversee this activity.
The term “captain of the port” (COTP) was first used in New York, and Captain Godfrey L. Carden was the first to hold that title. As COTP, he was charged with supervising the safe loading of explosives. During the war, a similar post was established in other U.S. ports. However, the majority of the nation’s munitions shipments abroad left through New York. For a period of 1-1/2 years, more than 1,600 vessels, carrying more than 345 million tons of explosives, sailed from this port. In 1918, Carden’s division was the largest single command in the Coast Guard. It consisted of more than 1,400 officers and men, four Corps of Engineers tugboats, and five harbor cutters.
The Coast Guard augmented the Navy with its 223 commissioned officers, more than 4,500 enlisted men, 47 vessels of all types, and 279 stations scattered along the entire U.S. coastline.
As for Carden, he was born in Siam in 1866, the son of a Presbyterian missionary, and attended Annapolis with the class of ’84, although did not graduate.
Rather, on 4 June 1886, he was appointed a cadet in the U.S. Revenue Marine Service and, following two years as a mid in that service, including serval cruises aboard the Revenue Cutter Chase, Mr. Carden was commissioned a 3rd lieutenant in the service.
Over the next decade, he would serve on the cutters Bibb, Manhattan, McLane, Morrill, and Grant.
2nd LT Godfrey L. Carden instructing a 6-pounder gun crew aboard the Revenue Cutter Morill in South Carolina waters, circa 1892. Note the rarely-seen USRSC officer’s sword. USCGH Photo 210210-G-G0000-1002
After combat aboard Manning during the Spanish-American War– during which Carden was in charge of the cutter’s two 4-inch and two 6-pounder guns– he became a go-to ordnance officer for the service and spent much of the next several years on detached duty touring manufacturers, hosting gunnery exhibits on large public events (St. Louis World’s Fair, etc) and would go on to return to Manning in 1910 as her skipper.
He then commanded the cutters Seminole and Mohawk in turn before his assignment as the COTP in New York.
Captain Godfrey L. Carden, as COTP NYC 1917-19
Following the close of hostilities, on 20 December 1918, Carden mustered the remaining men under his command– at the time still over 900– and marched from Washington Square through Fifth Avenue to the 9th Regimental Armory where they were inspected by the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury (Leo Rowe), USCG Commandant Ellsworth Bertholf, and Byron Newton, the Collector of Customs.
Note Carden at the front. USCG Photo 210210-G-G0000-1006
The COTP position endured until August 1919, when the Coast Guard transferred back to the Treasury Department, and Carden, who had reverted to his peacetime rank of LCDR, was relieved that October.
After service with the U.S. Shipping Board, Carden requested to retire in August 1921, capping a 35-year career when he moved to the retired list that same December.
He passed in 1965, aged 98, and is buried at Arlington.
Meanwhile, the COTP concept has become standard since then.
Official caption: “Tommy Gun Motor Cyclists. Grenadier Guards, famous the world over, are now, as part of their mechanization, equipped with motorcycles on which Tommy guns are mounted. A guardsman on his Tommy-gun-equipped motorcycle. A guardsman of 1st Battalion, Grenadier Guards, 7th Guards Brigade, 3rd Division, 5th Corps, Swanage, 9 April 1941.”
Taken by LT. E G. Malindine IWM H 8827
My first “real” job, one that wasn’t working for family or friends of the family for a little bit of cash, was as a “library page” for the local county library system. It wasn’t much. Age 13-14. Limited to under 20 hours a week. The minimum wage back when that was $3.85/hr. I was lucky to be able to put in 10-15 hours a week during school and only “maxed out” on hours in the summer when the regular staff took vacations. The pay was so paltry that I could cash my paper check downstairs out of the circulation desk’s cash register and pocket, after taxes, my typical weekly $30-$40, which was still big money to me.
The job was mostly grunt work. Shelving books. Emptying the night book return. Putting magazines in binders. Updating the card catalog– yes, with a manual typewriter and index cards.
Still, I loved it and was in awe of the library. It had been my home away from home after all, as I had often spent much of my free time there as a kid. You could even say I walked on at the tender age of 14 as a trained junior book tender, as I had pitched in before school each day in grades 3-6 at the school library and have the certificates of appreciation to prove it!
The thing is, the libraries of the 1980s are not the libraries of the 2020s.
As today’s readers are more inclined to use the facility for its free internet access or public computer bank, the institutions have slaughtered their increasingly unused book catalogs, emptying the shelves and selling them off for cheap.
Like 50 cents for paperbacks and $1 for hardbacks cheap. Further, as many of the books that end up at these sales are donated by the public who incorrectly think the library will turn around and add them to the collection, there are a lot of old books from private libraries that have seen little use over the years.
And the selection can get pretty niche…in my kind of niche
With no shame in my game, I have been frequenting my local area public libraries for sales and I can report that it is not a waste of time. It feeds my inner tsundoku, you could say.
When they come to take me away to the home, it will be from behind stacks of books.
As Kipling said, “A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition.”