Skull Island Tomahawk

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A 45th Fighter Squadron Curtiss P-40N Tomahawk, “Lackanocki,” is seen refueling from an F-2 type servicing truck pulled by a Cletrac M2 high-speed tractor while at Funafuti Airfield, Nanumea, Gilbert Islands.

63261A.C. NARA Local Identifier 342-FH-3A42939-63261AC

The 45th, formed at Wheeler Field, Hawaii Territory in December 1940, was decimated during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor a year later.

Reformed with newer P-40N “Sand” models, it deployed to the Gilbert Islands in November 1943, operating in turn from Funafuti, Abemama, and Makin Fields in the chain until it was recalled to Hawaii some 80 years ago this month in early March 1944– dating the above image nicely. Of note, the 45th FS during this period claimed the destruction of 11 enemy aircraft on 26 January 1944 near Aur Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

The 45th would remain in Hawaii for almost a year until February 1945, when, reequipped with late-model P-51 Mustangs to perform very-long-range bomber escort missions, it forward deployed to Iwo Jima in March 1945, where it finished the war escorting B-29s over Japan, a task that earned it a Distinguished Unit Citation.

The squadron lived on into the jet age, flying F-86s, F-100s, F-84s, F-4s, A-37s, and A-10s, the latter of which it has been pushing out of Davis–Monthan since 2009.

Of note, the 45th of the above Gilbert Islands period surfaced in the 2017 film, Skull Island, in which a 45th FS pilot, LT Hank Marlow (Will Brittain/John C. Reilly), parachutes in 1944 onto the uncharted island where a giant ape serves as the big banana and survives 29 years until an expedition arrives in 1973.

50 Years of German CH-53s

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While we are familiar with the mighty CH-53 Sea Stallion and Super Stallion in USMC (and lesser USN RH/MH Sea Dragon and USAF HH/MH Jolly Green Giant) service since Vietnam, the German Bundeswehr has also been operating the type for a half-century.

Ordering 110 CH-53G (modified CH-53D) models in 1969– license produced by VFW-Fokker in West Germany– going past the Cold War, the type has been flown by the Germans in Albania, Bosnia, Iraq (including their first overseas deployment in German service, Desert Storm, where they flew 805 sorties), Kosovo, Congo, Mali, Lebanon, and Afghanistan, often to the delight of forward-deployed U.S. Marines who seemingly always need a lift.

The Germans deployed the CH-53 in Afghanistan for 18 years. Around 22,500 flight hours were flown and around five million kilometers were covered. One was lost in Kabul in 2002, resulting in the loss of 7 aboard. Bundeswehr/Sandra Elbern

They are also heavily involved in humanitarian missions. Two CH-53s were sent to Pakistan in 2005 to help with earthquake relief and the big Stallions have been a welcome sight in Europe during wildfire season, dropping 5,000L of water at a time in their “Smokey” configuration. In 2018, they were credited with stopping a fire from enveloping the town of Klausdorf.

Die CH-53 kann etwas über fünf Tonnen transportieren. Bei Waldbränden kommt der Löschbehälter „Smokey“ zum Einsatz. Bundeswehr/Jane Schmidt

Re-engined and updated with an IFR-capability, the remaining German 66 CH-53GS variants operated in three squadrons assigned to Hubschraubergeschwader 64, are set to continue in service until they are phased out in the next decade by 60 new CH-47F Block II Chinooks in an $8.5B deal announced last May. Until then, with a little help from old USMC CH-53Ds in the boneyards in Arizona, the German CH-53 will endure.

‘They don’t like it up ’em’

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80 years ago this month, a great period Kodachrome of one Private Alfred Campin, 6th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry, while undergoing training in Britain, March 1944. Note his late model No. 4 Enfield, complete with wartime spike bayonet and what (may) be an early Mark III “Turtleshell” helmet (its hard to tell under the net). 

Photo by Tanner, A J (Lt), War Office official photographer, IWM TR 1596

The 6th Battalion DLI, was originally formed in 1908 from the old 2nd Volunteer Battalion DLI, as a Territorial Force battalion with headquarters in County Durham’s Bishop Auckland and eight companies in drill halls in Barnard Castle, Consett, Crook, Spennymoor, Stanhope, and Bishop Auckland. It marched off to war in 1914.

Reverting back to Territorial status interwar, the 6th DLI marched off again to France in 1940 and in North Africa (1941-43) before being shipped back to the Home Isles for reorganization and training for a return to France in June 1944. Pulled from the line in December 1944, the 6th was sent to Yorkshire to be used in training service corps soldiers as infantry then was placed in suspended animation in January 1946

Overall, the DLI continued in British Army service until 1968, when it was amalgamated into The Light Infantry, and then in 2007, when it was further amalgamated into The Rifles.

What a Dazzling Balao

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How about this great series of photos of the brand new Balao-class diesel-electric fleet submarine USS Tilefish (SS-307) off Mare Island Navy Yard on 2 March 1944, USN photos # 1434-44 through 1436-44. Commissioned just nine weeks prior, she is pictured here just after her post-shakedown maintenance before departing for points West to get in the war.

Broadside view of the Tilefish (SS-307) off Mare Island on 2 March 1944. USN photos # 1434-44 through1436-44, courtesy of Darryl L. Baker. Via Navsource

A past Warship Wednesday alum, Tilefish gave hard service under the U.S. flag, earning five battle stars across six war patrols during WWII and another star for her Korean service. Given a Fleet Snorkel upgrade post-war, she was decommissioned and transferred to then-U.S. ally Venuzela in 1960 with 16 years on her hull. Her second career, as ARV Carite (S-11), would ironically stretch out another 16 years.

Of interest, Tilefish was a bit of a movie star, appearing in Glen Ford’s Torpedo Run as well as James Gardner’s Up Periscope while in the USN and, in Venuzlan service, as a curiously dazzle-camo’d German U-boat in 1971’s Murphy’s War, which starred Peter O’Toole as the eponymous Murphy.

Stirring Cold Fighting Images

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How about this great shot of the Whidbey Island-class dock landing ship USS Gunston Hall (LSD 44) arriving in Harstad, Norway, for a port visit in support of Steadfast Defender 24? Note her patriotic RAM launcher.

(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Danielle Serocki)

On the landside of things from the region, Nordic Response is a Norwegian national exercise that is part of NATO’s Steadfast Defender 24 exercise series. This is the biggest in NATO’s history since the Cold War thawed, with up to 90,000 soldiers taking part this year. The aim is to exercise reinforcement of Northern Europe via the transatlantic link (think: REFORGER, but Scandinavia) and contribute to deterrence.

Of note, some 3,000 Swedish troops, including Södra skånska regementet P 7, are taking part in the exercise this year. That brings some great images of Swedish snow camo over suits, AK5 rifles (Carl Gustav-made FN FNCs) and Ksp 58 (CG-made FN MAG 58s) in white-out scheme, and Stridsfordon 90s, Terrängbil 16s, and Pansarterrängbil 360 in their natural habitat.

From the Swedish MOD:

60 Years of Getting it Done

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The 71-member crew of 210-foot U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Reliance (WMEC 615) returned to their homeport at Pensacola– where the aging class is being collected– on Saturday following a 57-day counterdrug patrol that ranged into the Eastern Pacific Ocean under 4th Fleet/JIATF-South control.

And the 59-year-old (not a misprint) cutter bagged a narco sub, which continues to be a thing in those waters.

The crew of U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Reliance (WMEC 615) interdicts a low-profile vessel carrying more than $5 million in illicit narcotics in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, on Feb. 15, 2024. Patrolling in support of Joint Interagency Task Force-South, the Reliance crew stopped two drug trafficking ventures, detaining six suspected traffickers and preventing nearly 4,000 pounds of cocaine and 5,400 pounds of marijuana, worth more than $57 million, from entering the United States. (U.S. Coast Guard photo courtesy of Reliance)

Commissioned in Galveston in 1964 Reliance is the leader of her 16-ship class, of which four have been retired in recent years– only to see those old hulls transferred to overseas allies.

This black and white photo shows newly the commissioned Reliance (WMEC-615) in the mid-1960s with an HH-52 Sea Guard helicopter landing on its pad and davits down with one of its small boats deployed. Notice the lack of smokestack and paint scheme pre-dating the Racing Stripe or “U.S. Coast Guard” paint schemes. She has a 3″/50 forward as well as 20mm cannons for AAA work and weight and space for ASW Mousetraps, a towed sonar, and Mk.32 ASW tubes, although they were never fitted. U.S. Coast Guard photo.

As noted by the USCG:

In addition, the cutter made port calls in Ecuador, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Panama for the first time in the ship’s 59-year history. The cutter also crossed into the Southern Hemisphere, prompting a time-honored equatorial crossing tradition for the Reliance crew. Before returning to Pensacola, the crew conducted aviation training with aircraft from Coast Guard Aviation Training Center Mobile and steamed in formation with Coast Guard Cutter Diligence (WMEC 616) to commemorate the cutters’ upcoming 60th anniversaries this summer.

That’s One Smoking Jeep Carrier

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80 years ago today.

The war diary for the Bogue-class escort carrier USS Altamaha (CVE-18), 1 March 1944:

F6F-3 Hellcat getting ready for a jet-assisted take-off from the escort carrier USS Altamaha (CVE-18), on 1 March 1944 NASM Photo No. 1996.253.7193.009.

F4U Corsair conducts a jet-assisted take-off aboard USS Altamaha (CVE-18), 1 March 1944 Photo NS0301812

I even found this great color film of the event in the NARA and uploaded it: 

USS Altamaha (CVE-18) was laid down under a Maritime Commission contract (M.C. Hull 235) on 19 December 1941 at Tacoma, Wash., by the Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corp and commissioned on 15 September 1942, Capt. J. R. Tate in command.

Following brief sea trials, she spent the last two months of 1942 and all of 1943 shuttling aircraft around to various bases in the Pacific, including Marine units, replacement aircraft for the flattops of the Pacific Fleet, and USAAF squadrons, carrying the latter as far as Karachi, Pakistan.

USS Altamaha (CVE-18) transporting Army P-51 Mustang fighters off San Francisco, California on 16 July 1943. NH 106575

Then, from 21 December 1943 through the above video, she was based in San Diego and used for experiments and carrier quals.

Finally, her time as a flattop taxi and school boat was done, at the end of March she embarked VC-66, and made her way West once again, this time with her teeth in.

Altamaha won one battle star for her World War II service, was placed out of commission, in reserve, on 27 September 1946, and spent the next 15 years in mothballs. Ironically, she was scrapped in Japan, her Bethlehem steel no doubt recycled into Toyotas and Datsuns.

Bellissimo

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Check out this great image of the Italian Navy’s Mar Grande Naval Station, Taranto, taken on 23 June 2018.

The above includes closest to the camera, two Bergamini-class FREMM frigates–Alpino (F 594) and Luigi Rizzo Martinengo (F 592)— a Lupo-class frigate and an Andrea Doria-class destroyer to the left, both of Italy’s flattops (Cavour and Garibaldi) in the center, a Durand de la Penne-class destroyer being towed out, and an aging Maestrale-class frigate, in addition to a few misciloanius tugs, lighters, and yard craft.

Vivr Libre du Mouris

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From mid-January to late March 1944, some 460 French maquis guerrillas of the Battalion des Glières occupied the Glières plateau, making it a besieged Free “French” territory where they hoisted the tricolor flag every day.

The motley assortment included not only paroled French soldiers and sailors but also 56 exiled Spanish Republicans who had escaped to the area in 1939 when Franco took over.

The remote alpine pasture only held about 20 year-round inhabitants but it made a great parachute drop zone to receive weapons intended for the maquis of Haute-Savoie, and the first RAF weapons drop, of 54 containers, was made on the night of 13/14 February. Guns and explosives were then spirited out through the nearby trails and paths to other parts of the region. 

RAF parachute container drop to Resistance French 1944

Under the command first of LT Théodosius Morel (formerly of the Blue Devils of the 27e bataillon de chasseurs alpins) known as Tom Morel, then Capt. Maurice Anjot, the pocket held out against increasingly strong Wehrmacht attacks until 26 March 1944 when Anjot ordered those who could to break out and melt back into the countryside.

Maquis members of the Allobroges section during its breakout on Esserts on March 27, 1944 Plateau des Glières

In all, at least 129 maquisards died there, were killed in combat, executed on capture, or– along with the 20 inhabitants– were deported to concentration camps.

They are remembered in the National Necropolis of Glières, and a memorial stands on the plateau where the battalion mustered.

Lost the battle, but not the war…

The battle along the Glières plateau was perhaps the biggest set-piece battle by the Resistance in the lead-up to the twin Overlord and Dragoon Landings in the summer of 1944 that would spark the overt liberation of the Republic. The Allies had gone far to build up the shadow army for “the day.”

Allied Military Missions in Occupied France, 1944

As noted by Plan Sussex:

From 1941 to 1945, SOE organized about 3,733 parachute landings and 81 pick-up operations (Lysander, Hudson, or Dakota) into France:

About 470 SOE agents, including 39 women, were sent out into France. Among Section F, 104 of whom were killed in action or executed (13 women), 30 escaped and 12 were released. They were “closely harnessed to the military effort” and “played a very considerable part in our complete and final victory.”

About 100 Jedburgh teams were dropped into France, Belgium, and Holland between June and December 1944.

Jed Nationalies dispatched into France :

  • British: 91 Jed
  • French: 108 Jed
  • USA: 77 Jed
  • Canadian: 2 Jed

The Jedburgh Teams had in Europe:

  • 14 members were killed in action.
  • 5 members died from injuries and were shot when prisoners or by accident.
  • 3 members were killed due to bad dropping or parachute failure.
  • 11 members were severely injured during the fighting.
  • 4 members were injured due to bad dropping.
  • 4 prisoners who escaped.

The Carpetbagger operation dropped some 10 million pounds of equipment to the French Resistance including 104,536 STEN submachine guns, 409,224 grenades, and 307,023 kg of explosives.

French Bernard maquisards 1944 with PIAT and STEN. Note the blend of civilian clothes with Adrian helmets

Of Rafale and Gripen in Central Europe

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The Croatian MOD last week announced they have taken official ownership of the first six Rafales (of a total order of 12) purchased from France to replace their MiG-21s, which is a big deal for an air force that didn’t even exist before 1991. The Ministry published a photo featuring the six Rafales on hand.

For those keeping up at home, the French have been very successful in marketing Rafale outside of the country, with seven nations including UAE and India operating the type. They are also courting some very unlikely customers including Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, so there’s that.

Meanwhile, Saab just announced they have received an order from Hungary for an additional four Gripens to augment the 14 Gripen C/D models the country already operates, in addition to a contract for support for the 18 fighters through at least 2035.

Saab Gripens in Hungarian service

With that being said, check out this recent video concerning the Gripen when it comes to dispersed operations, something the Swedish Air Force has prized going back to the Great War.

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