Here we see the bow of the rare Type UE II ocean minelayer submarine, SM U-124, sometime in late 1918 after her surrender, likely in Harwich, England. Just below her net cutter is a shell hole (“sheel hole” as written on the period photo) which has been used as the focus of a shark’s mouth illustration applied sometime after.
National Museum of the U.S. Navy, Lot 9706-8
In all, some 176 surrendered German U-boats, many in poor material condition, were gathered under the watchful eyes of a combined Allied fleet at Harwich between November 1918 and March 1919.
Two other photos of U-124 exist, with official captions noted, likely taken at Harwich.
“German submarine, U 124, bow view, starboard side. Note, the sheel hole and net cutter. Lot 9706-12”
A German submarine, U 124, with her single 15 cm (5.9 in) SK L/45 deck gun on deck. Note, the somewhat famous American submarine USS AL2 (aka USS L-2 SS-41) in the background.
There were only 9 Type UE II submarines commissioned into the Kaiserliche Marine late in the war (1917-1918), with the tenth, SM U-121, never completed.
Our subject, U-124, was only commissioned on 12 July 1918 after construction by Blohm & Voss, Hamburg (as Werk 301), and never completed any war patrols. How U-124 earned her “sheel hole” or shark paint job was unknown.
Her only skipper, Kptlt. Rolf Hans Wilhelm Karl Carls, who had already earned two Iron Crosses on the cruiser SMS Breslau in the Black Sea, would go on to become a Ritterkreuz-adorned Generaladmiral in the Kriegsmarine and was killed during an air raid in 1945.
Carls was credited with the naval planning for Operation Weserübung, the invasion of Denmark and Norway in 1940, which worked but shattered the German fleet. When Raeder was cashiered, he recommended Carls as his replacement but the little mustache went with Donitz. Carls shifted to the retired list in 1943 at age 57 and perished in a basement in Schleswig-Holstein during an RAF air raid just two weeks before VE-Day.
More on the Type UE IIs
These minelayers were rather large in terms of Great War U-boats, at some 1,500 tons and 267 feet oal, they were very capable, fitted with a four-pack of bow-mounted 20-inch torpedo tubes with room for 14 fish, a stern with twin 39-inch mine chutes with room for 42 sea mines, and the 5.9 inch SK L/45 deck gun as seen above, with 494 shells.
As they could cruise for some 13,900 nm on an economical diesel-electric plant, they could cross the Atlantic, complete a decent war patrol in U.S. waters that included sowing over three dozen mines and return home.
However, due to their late timing, the UE IIs saw little service, with only three claiming victims. In the end, all nine survived the war and were allocated to the victorious allies post-Versallies.
SM U-117 was one of six Kaiserian subs handed over to the U.S. and, after being dragged across the Atlantic, was sunk as a target for aerial bombing tests conducted by the Navy and Army off the Virginia Capes.
SM U-118 was turned over to France but broke her tow and was washed ashore at Hastings where she was finally broken up in late 1919.
SM U-119 served as René Audry in the French Navy and was eventually broken up in October 1937, the last of the class afloat.
SM U-120 was transferred to Italy in November 1918 and broken up soon after.
During the Great War, one of the most often forgotten major battlefields were those high in the Alps and Dolomites between Austro-Hungarian Tyrolean Kaiserjäger backed up by mobilized Standschützen militia and Italian Alpini, over control of the region that both claimed.
Italian helmet excavated on the Isonzo front, with the head of a Hungarian soldier’s 1896M pickaxe inside.
The pitched battles were by no means decisive, and it was only the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian war effort that allowed the Italians to occupy the region in October 1918, then later awarded to Rome under the terms of the Treaty of Saint-Germain.
In a sort of reminder of this, but through a modern lens, three videos were just recently released.
The Alpini of the Taurinese Brigade recently sent 500 troopers through what is called the 220 Mila Passi (220 Thousand Steps) climbing eight peaks– all over 1300m in elevation– across 88 km.
In related news, the NATO Mountain Warfare Centre of Excellence in Slovenia, run by an Italian Alpini colonel on former Austro-Hungarian mountains, released an interesting sizzle reel highlighting their operations.
Not to be outdone, the Austrian Bundesheer at the same time released a video of a sergeant undergoing the country’s Heereshochgebirgsspezialisten (high mountain specialist) course in the Dolomites alongside fellow troopers from the Czech Republic, Germany, and Slovenia– all of which fought in the Tyrol in 1918!
Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Catalog #: 80-G-35726
Above we see the Gato-class fleet boat USS Wahoo (SS-238) at Pearl Harbor, soon after the end of her Third war patrol, circa 7 February 1943. Her skipper, LCDR Dudley W. Morton, who would count four Navy Crosses in the war, is on the open bridge, in right-center while the officer to the left could be XO, LT Richard H. O’Kane, who would go on to earn the MoH.
If you will observe, there is a broom lashed to the periscope head, indicating a “clean sweep” of enemy targets encountered as well as an aloft pennant bearing the slogan “Shoot the Sunza Bitches” and eight small flags, representing claimed sinkings of two Japanese warships and six merchant vessels. What is not in the picture is the forward radar mast, which has been brushed out by wartime censors.
Just six months after this image was snapped, Wahoo would be broken on the bottom of the La Pérouse Strait, lost exactly 80 years ago today.
The Gatos
The 77 Gatos were cranked out by four shipyards from 1940 to 1944 for the U.S. Navy, they were impressive 311-foot-long fleet boats, diesel-electric submarines capable of extended operations in the far reaches of the Pacific. Able to swim an impressive 11,000 nautical miles on their economical power plant while still having room for 24 (often cranky) torpedoes. A 3-inch deck gun served for surface action in poking holes in vessels deemed not worth a torpedo while a few .50 and .30-cal machine guns provided the illusion of an anti-aircraft armament.
Developed from the Tambor-class submarines, they were the first fleet boats able to plumb to 300 feet test depth, then the deepest that U.S. Navy submersibles were rated.
Meet Wahoo
Our subject is the first U.S. Navy warship– and probably the first in any fleet– named for the wahoo, a beautiful (and delicious) sport fish in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, known for putting up a fight.
Laid down a half-year prior to Pearl Harbor on 28 June 1941 by the Mare Island Navy Yard in Vallejo, California, Wahoo was launched on Valentine’s Day 1942– a sweetheart gift to the Japanese Navy.
Kennedy, who had served in a mix of both surface warfare and submarine billets, was XO of the huge “V-boat” USS Narwhal (SS-167) at the beginning of the war, aboard her when her gunners opened up at incoming Japanese planes over Pearl Harbor. Wahoo was his first command, and he would be at her attack periscope for her first two patrols.
The new boat and green crew spent the next three months fitting out and conducting initial training along the California coast then, after a post-shakedown repair at Mare Island, left headed for Hawaii on 12 August.
Wahoo off Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 10 August 1942. Note the barrage balloons over the yard and the City of Vallejo. 19-N-33836
USS Wahoo (SS-238) At the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 10 August 1942. Circles and associated text mark recent alterations to the submarine. The lighter YF-239 is alongside the submarines in the right background. Note the antenna for an SJ radar mounted on the light mast in front of Wahoo’s periscope shears. 19-N-33839
USS Wahoo (SS-238) View from astern, taken off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 10 August 1942. 19-N-33837
Her patrolling career began in August 1942 in the Carolines. On this patrol, Wahoo claimed the sinking of a freighter not confirmed by post-war review. Other attacks were spoiled by faulty torpedoes, a common refrain in the U.S. Submarine Force in the Pacific at this time.
Her second patrol was in the Solomons, where she sank a freighter, the Japanese collier Kamoi Maru (5355 GRT) off Buin, on 10 December. Following this patrol, Kennedy, who earned a Silver Star for sinking the enemy collier, left the boat and joined the staff of Commander Service Force, Southwest Pacific.
Replacing the 37-year-old Kennedy was an old classmate of his from Annapolis, Florida-born LCDR Dudley Walker Morton, better known by his Academy nickname of “Mushmouth” or, just the simpler “Mush.” Morton had previously commanded the smaller boats USS R-5 (SS-82) and USS Dolphin (SS-169), then sailed as XO under Kennedy on Wahoo’s Second War Patrol. The new XO would be LT Richard Hetherington “Dick” O’Kane (USNA 1934)
It seemed like, in Wahoo’s case, that the third time was the charm when it came to patrols.
Wahoo conducted her third patrol from Australia through New Guinea to the Palau area of the Japanese-annexed Caroline Islands. She steamed 6,454 miles and expanded all her torpedoes.
Prior to leaving Australia, Morton reportedly told the crew:
“Wahoo is expendable. We will take every reasonable precaution, but our mission is to sink enemy shipping. . . . Now, if anyone doesn’t want to go along under these conditions, just see the yeoman. I am giving him verbal authority now to transfer anyone who is not a volunteer. . . . Nothing will ever be said about you remaining in Brisbane.”
Periscope photograph, taken by USS Wahoo (SS-238) on 27 January 1943. The view shows a refinery and large warehouse adjacent to a phosphate works on Fais Island (near Ulithi Atoll, Caroline Islands). Wahoo had intended to shell the latter, but had to break off when an enemy ship came on the scene. Official U.S. Navy photograph now in the collections of the National Archives, 80-G-39745.
She sank the destroyer Harusame on 24 January off Wewak, New Guinea.
Harusame’s back is clearly broken. Wartime intelligence evaluated this photo as showing one of the Asashio-class (see Photographic Intelligence Report # 82, 17 March 1943). However, the ship’s bridge structure identifies her as a Shiratsuyu-class destroyer, with the # 2 (single) 5 gun mount removed. Official U.S. Navy photo 80-G-35738 from the U.S. Navy Naval History and Heritage Command
Two days later chased down a four-ship convoy included sinking the large Japanese army cargo ships Buyo Maru (5447 GRT) and Fukuei Maru No.2 (1901 GRT) along with damaging the tanker Pacific Maru (5872 GRT).
Periscope photograph, showing Japanese transport Buyo Maru sinking after she was torpedoed by USS Wahoo (SS-238) north of western New Guinea on 26 January 1943. Official U.S. Navy photograph now in the collections of the National Archives, 80-G-39746.
The scene in the control room during Wahoo’s 27 January 1943 action with a Japanese destroyer. When the photo was taken the submarine was at 300 feet, rigged for depth charges. Six charges had just gone off and the crew was awaiting more. Lieutenant Commander Dudley W. Morton, Wahoo’s Commanding Officer, reported this action as “Another running gun fight … destroyer gunning … Wahoo running. Shaved head on crewman at right is a product of an Equator crossing ceremony three days previously.” 80-G-38602
Two views of the same action. LT Richard H. O’Kane, XO, at the periscope, and LCDR Dudley W. Morton, skipper, with another officer, in Wahoo’s conning tower during the boat’s attack on a Japanese convoy north of New Guinea, 26 January 1943. Several ships, among them the transport Buyo Maru, were sunk in this action. 80-G-37034 &80-G-37033
USS Wahoo (SS-238) Provides food and water to the crew of a becalmed fishing boat, circa January 1943. The original caption, released with this photograph on 3 March 1943, reads: “Act of Mercy While on the war patrol during which she sank a Japanese destroyer and a convoy of four ships, the submarine Wahoo, commanded by LCdr. Dudley W. Morton, USN, of Miami, Fla., came across a small fishing boat, becalmed. Three of the crew of nine aboard the fishing vessel had died when the submarine found her. Three remaining crew members were without food and water. This picture shows members of the submarine’s crew handing water and food to the men in the fishing vessel. A few days later the Wahoo destroyed the Japanese destroyer and convoy. View looks forward from Wahoo’s machinegun platform.” NH 42275
USS Wahoo (SS-238) arrives at Pearl Harbor at the end of her third war patrol, circa 7 February 1943. The original caption, released with this photograph on 3 March 1943, reads: “Hero’s Welcome A Navy band is on hand to greet the submarine Wahoo on her return to Pearl Harbor following a patrol during which she sank a Japanese destroyer and an entire enemy convoy of four ships. The battle with the convoy lasted for a period of 14 hours. Note that Wahoo’s radar antennas have been crudely censored out of the image.” NH 42274
Lieutenant Commander Dudley W. Morton, commanding officer of USS Wahoo (SS-238), at right, with his executive officer, Lieutenant Richard H. O’Kane, on the submarines open bridge, at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, after her very successful third war patrol, circa 7 February 1943. Official U.S. Navy photograph now in the collections of the National Archives, 80-G-35725.
For her fourth patrol, Wahoo went to the Yellow Sea west of Korea and just ran amok, only returning after she expended all 24 of her torpedoes.
She sank the cargo ship Zogen Maru (1428 GRT) and damaged the freighter Kowa Maru (3217 GRT) east of Dairen on 19 March, sank the cargo ships Hozan Maru (2260 GRT) and Nittsu Maru (2183 GRT) on 21 March, on 23 March sent the cargo ships Teisho Maru (9849 GRT) and Takaosan Maru (2076 GRT) via torpedoes then finished up with the smaller Satsuki Maru (830 GRT) via gunfire.
Nittsu Maru (Japanese cargo ship) sinking in the Yellow Sea, off China on 23 March 1943. Periscope photograph taken from USS Wahoo (SS-238), which had torpedoed the ship. Official U.S. Navy photograph now in the collections of the National Archives, 80-G-60948.
She finished her run with the cable ship Yamabato Maru (2256 GRT) south of Kyushu, Japan, and two sampans.
Her claimed kills were a bit higher.
Fifth War Patrol (25 Apr 1943, Midway-21 May 1943, Pearl Harbor)
Going to the Kurile chain for her fifth patrol, Wahoo sank two confirmed freighters– Takao Maru (3204 GRT) and Jimmu Maru (1912 GRT) — off Kone Zaki, north-eastern Honshu on 9 May. She ended, again, with no torpedoes left, having steamed 6,828 nm.
Her 5th war patrol claims:
Following the end of the patrol, she was sent back to Mare Island for a much-needed overhaul, carrying almost 30,000 miles on her diesels and the effects of multiple depth charging runs from the Empire.
A series of photographs from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives remains to document her condition at this stage of her hard life.
USS Wahoo (SS-238) Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 14 July 1943. 19-N-48937
USS Wahoo (SS-238) At the Mare Island Navy Yard, California
USS Wahoo (SS-238) At the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 16 July 1943. Circles mark recent alterations to the submarine. The lighter YC-312 is alongside. YF-239 and YF-200 are in the left-center distance. 19-N-48941
USS Wahoo (SS-238) At the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 16 July 1943. White outlines mark recent alterations to the submarine. The lighter YC-312 is alongside. 19-N-48942
The sixth patrol of Wahoo, conducted in the target-rich Japan Sea, suffered from defective Mark 14 steam torpedoes. None of the 10 fish fired in nine attacks on enemy merchantmen resulted in a torpedo hit but she was able to sink a trio of sampans with surface gunfire.
The patrol reports of the failed attacks are crushing:
She made good in surface actions against fishing boats– at least her guns worked!
Across her first six patrols, she claimed 27 ships sunk, totaling 119,100 tons, and damaged two more, making 24,900 tons. Of these, most were on Mush Morton’s three patrols, in which Wahoo had sunk a claimed total of 93,281 tons of shipping in only 25 patrol days.
Leaving the boat was her talented XO, Dick O’Kane, who was called up to the big leagues and rewarded with a command of his own, the Balao-class boat USS Tang (SS-306).
Seventh (Last) War Patrol (9 Sep 1943, Pearl Harbor-lost on/about 11 October 1943, in La Perouse Strait)
Sent back to the Sea of Japan– armed with the new Mark 18 electric torpedo, instead of the hated Mark 14s– Wahoo was the only Allied warship active there when the fishing vessel Hokusei Maru (1394 GRT) was lost west of the Kuril Islands on 21 September, the gunboat Taiko Maru (2958 GRT) west of the Tsugaru Strait on 25 September, the freighter Masaki Maru No.2 (1238 GRT) in the Sea of Japan east of Hungnam on 29 September, the transport Konron Maru (7908 GRT) in Tsushima Straits on 5 October, the cargo ship Kanko Maru (1283 GRT) off Korea on 6 October, and the cargo ship Hankow Maru (2995 GRT) off the Oga Peninsula on 9 October. Good hunting!
However, the hunter became the hunted, and Wahoo never made it back to Pearl, with her war flags flying and crew beaming. Postwar, it was determined that Japanese E13A1 “Jake” floatplanes out of Wakkanai, supporting the submarine chasers Ch-15 and Ch-43, and minesweeper Wa-18, following up on the sighting of a strange submarine by the coast artillery battery on Soya Misaki, responded and chased Wahoo to the bottom of the in La Perouse Strait on the morning of 11 October 1943.
The wreck, found in 2004 resting 12 miles off the northeast coast of Hokkaido in the middle of the strait, confirms the place and cause of her destruction.
She was lost with all 80 hands. Declared officially dead in 1946, all are memorialized at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (Punchbowl) on the Court of the Missing.
“Going Home,” watercolor on paper by Georges Schreiber, 1943; accession # 88-159-JN as a gift of Abbott Laboratories.
Wahoo earned six battle stars for World War II service.
Wahoo is one of 64 American subs (52 from WWII alone) still listed as being on “Eternal Patrol,” remembered in markers across the country. Of note, Gato-class sisters USS Corvina (SS-226) and USS Dorado (SS-248) were both lost within days of Wahoo, with all hands. (Photo: Chris Eger)
For a deeper dive into USS Wahoo, please see Warfish.com.
In all, “Mush” Morton would be awarded four Navy Crosses, the final one posthumously.
Commander Dudley Walker Morton USN (USNA 1930) is remembered with a memorial stone at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington Virginia, Memorial Section MH, Plot 669.
Epilogue
The fighting spirit of Mush Morton and the Mighty Wahoo would endure long after they were gone.
A billboard at Mare Island in late 1943, highlighting the exploits of the Yard’s famed sub, albeit in a PG-rated format. 80-G-K-15091
Wahoo’s ship’s bell and commissioning pennant, which had been stored at Pearl Harbor while she was on her wartime service, are preserved at the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park along with a marker honoring her.
In 1995, the Wahoo Peace Memorial cenotaph was dedicated in Japan at Cape Soya near Wakkanai overlooking the La Perouse Strait where the submarine was lost.
The Forrest Sherman-class destroyer USS Morton (DD-948) was named in honor of Wahoo’s most famous skipper. Built at Ingalls and nicknamed “The Saltiest Ship in the Fleet!” due to the obvious Morton’s Salt reference, she served until 1982, chalking up several stints off Vietnam including close-in NGF support and Sea Dragon operations off North Vietnam.
Dick O’Kane, who according to the NHHC took part in more successful submarine attacks than any other American officer across five patrols with Wahoo and five more in command of Tang, earned the Medal of Honor, three Navy Crosses, three Silver Stars, and the Legion of Merit with Combat “V.” After Tang suffered a sinking via a runaway torpedo in the Formosa Sea, O’Kane and four of his surviving crewmen were “rescued” by the Japanese. After surviving the war at just 88 pounds and testifying as a witness at the Japanese War Crime trials, he returned to duty, retiring in 1957 as a rear admiral after having punched tickets as COMSUBDIV 32 and as the Officer in Charge of the Sub School at New London.
RADM Dick O’Kane passed in 1994 and both he and his wife are buried at Arlington National Cemetery and is on the list of Top Ten U.S. Navy Submarine Captains in World War II by the total number and tonnage of confirmed ships sunk during the conflict, just ahead of Morton.
O’Kane’s legacy lives on. The USS O’Kane (DDG-77), a Navy destroyer, was commissioned in Pearl Harbor in 1999 and continues to serve based out of San Diego.
The former rear admiral’s Medal of Honor is kept at the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum and Park in Honolulu.
Further, his cribbage board, which he presented to the second Tang (SS 563) in 1957, is handed down to each oldest fast-attack submarine in the Pacific Fleet. Since that boat retired, it has been handed down to USS Kamehameha (SSBN 642), USS Parche (SSN 683), USS Los Angeles (SSN 688), USS Bremerton (SSN 698), USS Olympia (SSN 717) and now USS Chicago (SSN 721).
191022-N-KB401-0021 JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM Oct. 22, 2019 — Cmdr. Benjamin J. Selph, commanding officer, USS Olympia (SSN 717), plays a game of cribbage on the O’Kane board against Cmdr. Chance Litton, commanding officer, USS Chicago (SSN 721).
Wahoo’s legacy lived on as well. Two different Tench class submarines (SS-516 and then SS-518) were to have carried the name but never made it into service. A Tang-class boat, SS-565, did, however, in 1952. She served until 1980, one of the final diesel boats on active duty with the U.S. Navy.
USS Wahoo (SS-565) underway in the Pacific, 24 July 1978. USN 1174147
The famed original Wahoo’s battle flag and fairweather featured a Native American with a war bonnet with feathers for each Japanese ship the boat had sunk. The second Wahoo continued the tradition via the Al Capp character “Lonesome Polecat,” armed with a torpedo-tipped arrow.
A planned Block 5 Virginia-class submarine, SSN-806, will be the third USS Wahoo commissioned. Likewise, her sister SSN-805 will be the third USS Tang.
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 company first announced the $120 million move to Tennessee from its long-time home in Springfield, Massachusetts in September 2021, and broke ground for its new 650,000 sq. ft. facility just two months later. On Saturday, the company held its grand opening celebration and cut the ribbon on the new plant.
Funded from cash on hand by the publicly traded company (and not by loans or state bonds), the new facility shifts employees from its former flagship location in Springfield, Massachusetts; its plastic injection molding facility in Deep River, Connecticut; and its distribution plant in Columbia, Missouri, with the last two locations closing to streamline operations. Tennessee will house the company’s headquarters, distribution facility, and assembly facility as well as a company museum and retail space.
I was there and got the tour. In addition to a planned 22 assembly lines, the campus includes a full-service employee gym, cafeteria, medical facilities, and a 23,000 sq. ft. indoor shooting range that is serviced by robots.
Yup. Robots.
Still, Smith is looking to employ over 600 at the plant.
U.S. Light Tank, M24 entered production in 1943 with Cadillac and Massey-Harris with the tractor firm making 1,139 at its Racine, Wisconsin facility (a former Nash-Kelvinator plant!) and another 3,592 hulls coming direct from Cadillac’s Detroit factory, with lots of sub-components supplied by Oldsmobile.
They were an excellent light tank for the era, hitting the scales at 20 tons (which was still much larger than a 15-ton circa 1941 M3 Stuart that it would doctrinally replace) while carrying an effective 75mm M6 main gun, up to 38mm of armor (which was actually lighter in spots than the Stuart but better than nothing) and could hit speeds of up to 35 mph on good roads and with good tracks/wheels.
Fort Hood, a good example in size between an M24 Chaffee light tank, M4A3E8 Easy Eight Sherman medium tank, and M26 Pershing heavy tank, all shown with deep wading equipment
It came rather late to WWII and only started reaching the ETO in November 1944, not making much of a difference. In U.S. service, however, it did see much more action in the first days of Korea, as we have covered in the past.
Where the M-24 really shined, in terms of military history, is in rebuilding Allied tank forces post-war, and it saw something like 28 different operators including Norway who used them until the end of the Cold War, only retiring their Cadillac-Massey light tanks in 1993!
NM-116: Norwegian M24 Chaffe repurposed as a tank destroyer
In fact, that is where the “Chaffee” designation comes from on the tank, issued by the British who were fond of naming Lend-Leased Yank tanks for generals.
However, while countries as wide-reaching as Ethiopia, Chile, and Denmark would use the humble little Chaffee, no one used as many as the French, who picked up no less than 1,250 M-24s in the late 1940s to early 1950s– a full one out of every four built.
These tanks saw lots of serious use in Indochina from 1947-54 in French hands, where the small (compared to a main battle tank) was ideal from primitive roads and bridges.
26 March 1951 Indochine française. French and Vietnamese soldiers catching a ride on the M24 Chaffee “Metz”. Réf. : TONK 51-37C R13 Guy Defives; Paul Corcuff/ECPAD/Defence
Ten were even flown, disassembled into components, into Dien Bien Phu where they served as mobile artillery for the embattled garrison, reportedly firing in excess of 15,000 shells during the siege.
French Foreign Legionnaires working on US-supplied M24 Chaffee tanks at Dien Bien Phu in Indochina. They would suffer repeated massed bazooka and recoilless rifle attacks and somehow endure.
Once the French left, the NVA and ARVN had so many third-hand Chaffees inherited that they continued to use them well into the 1960s, with the South Vietnamese replacing theirs with U.S.-supplied M-41A3 Walker Bulldogs and Uncle Ho’s tankers graduating to Soviet-supplied PT-76 light tanks with the latter first seeing combat against the Lang Vei Special Forces camp on 6/7 February 1968.
Two M24 Chaffee tanks of the People’s Army of Vietnam, which had been captured from French forces, at a military parade in Hanoi, 1955.
M24 Chaffee light tanks of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) prior to the commencement of operations in the Iron Triangle, Oct 1965. Binh Duong Province, Ben Cat. Tom Gosper photo via the AWM. P11006.017
The ARVN also transferred many semi-working M24s to the VNAF, the South Vietnamese airforce, for use in static roles by their local security police, which continued well into the 1970s.
M24 Chaffee of the VNAF (South Vietnamese Air Force) guards Tan Son Nhut in Saigon.
Some fought to the bitter end, pressed into service in a losing battle against impossible odds.
M41 Bulldog and M24 Chaffee light tanks of the ARVN after being destroyed by North Vietnamese T-54 on the outskirts of Saigon, during the 1975 Spring Offensive
As for the French, they kept a few M-24s in their inventory where some saw combat in Algeria as late as 1962, but by that time had moved to replace them with more than 3,500 domestically-produced air-portable AMX-13, which remained in service with the Republic into the 1980s and is still seen in many third world environments as another 3,500 were exported to French allies– a true successor for the M24.
Two recent USCG reports from the Far North have some great imagery associated with them. Like recruiting poster-level stuff, here.
First, the 270-foot Famous (Bear) class medium endurance cutter (basically a 1980s patrol frigate) USCGC Forward (WMEC 911) recently returned to her home port in Portsmouth following a 10,500-nm/78-day deployment in the high North Atlantic Ocean that had some very chilly vibes and an interesting UUV deployment in the region.
The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Forward (WMEC 911) steams near an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean, on Aug. 22, 2023. Forward deployed in support of Op Nanook, an annual Canadian-led exercise that offers an opportunity to work with partners to advance shared maritime objectives. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Mikaela McGee)
Throughout the deployment, Forward supported the U.S. Coast Guard’s Arctic Strategy and partnered with allied nations and agencies during Operation Nanook 2023, an annual Canadian-led military exercise to strengthen maritime objectives in the high northern latitudes.
Alongside Canadian and French forces navigating the waters of the North Atlantic Ocean, Forward’s crew performed training evolutions including towing and formation steaming, replenishment at sea, visual communications tactical signaling, and cross-deck exercises. In addition, an attached team from Coast Guard Tactical Law Enforcement Team Pacific conducted a boarding exercise with French Navy vessel BSAM Garonne to demonstrate at-sea capabilities and assist in enhancing partner training curriculums.
Forward collaborated with embarked U.S. Navy personnel from the Unmanned Undersea Vehicle Flotilla-1 team to launch their Razorback UUV. The undersea vehicle, equipped with mapping and sonar capabilities, deployed deeper than any U.S. Navy submersible and traveled to a depth of nearly 2,000 feet (600 meters).
Members from the U.S. Navy’s Afloat Training Group Atlantic were also embarked aboard Forward to help build their service’s Arctic Vision Initiative, which will serve to inform U.S. Navy training entities of seamanship, navigation, engineering, and medical considerations necessary for operating naval vessels in the polar regions.
Plus, how about this massed shot of 270s collected pierside at Portsmouth. Keep in mind just 13 of these vessels were completed.
Family and friends of U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Forward’s (WMEC 911) crew watch the cutter approach the pier, Sept. 26, in Portsmouth, Virginia. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Brandon Hillard)
Next, the one-of-a-kind medium (as in, it’s not going to clear a path to McMurdo) icebreaker USCGC Healy (WAGB 20) has been on a five-week-long NSF mission from Kodiak, Alaska to Norway over the top of the world supporting the Nansen and Amundsen Basins Observational System (NABOS). She just called at Tromso in Norway, and prior to that rendezvoused with the Norwegian Coast Guard Vessel Svalbard in the ice-covered waters northwest of the Svalbard archipelago.
The two ships transited together toward Tromsø while crew members participated in an exchange on each other’s vessel to foster a deeper understanding of the other service’s operations.
The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy (WAGB 20) transits the Tromsøysundet Strait alongside the Norwegian Coast Guard Vessel Svalbard near Tromsø, Norway, Oct. 1, 2023. The U.S. shares a decades-long stalwart partnership with Norway built upon shared values, experiences, and vision. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Senior Chief Petty Officer Charly Tautfest)
Speaking of Svalbard, aka Spitsbergen, the frozen archipelago that was once the stomping grounds of the Tirpitz and is the current home to the end-of-the-world seed bank, life has been getting tense due to the co-located Soviet err Russian mining outpost there as of late.
Stoeger has kept calm and carried on with a line of low-key defensive autoloading shotguns for a while and the M3000 Freedom Defense series feels – and performs – really well.
Follow me on the lineage here. Turkey’s Stoeger is owned by Beretta, which, in turn, also owns Benelli. Stoeger doesn’t advertise that, but it’s probably a big reason why the M3000 feels (and even looks) so much like the $1,400 Benelli M2 Tactical combat shotgun. Keep in mind the M3000 Freedom Defense is half as much, which is the mic-drop moment.
Speaking of lineage, Stoeger first introduced the M3000 series in 2013 as a field gun with full-length screw-in choked barrels. Then came the Defense version, with shorter (18.5-inch) cylinder bore barrels in 2017. Since then, Stoeger has made a series of quiet upgrades to the line to give us the M3000 Defender Freedom series that we have today.
Underappreciated for sure, I’ve about 500 shells downrange with the M3000 Freedom Defense with no issues to report so far other than the magazine knob spinning loose every now and then (keep an eye on that), and the “buttpad” just shouldn’t be called one.
This is probably the last time 18 F-18C/D models will be in the air in a single formation again:
U.S. Marines with Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron (VMFAT) 101, Marine Aircraft Group 11, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, conduct a mass formation launch known as “flying the barn,” to honor the squadron’s legacy on the day of its deactivation at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California, Sept. 29, 2023. For more than 50 years, instructor pilots of the VMFAT-101 “SharpShooters” have qualified combat aviators and sent them to operational squadrons worldwide. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Samantha Devine)
With the end of the line– at least in U.S. service– for the nimble but aging F-18C in favor of the mammothly larger F-18E “Rhino” Super Hornet, since October 2019, the “SharpShooters” of Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron (VMFAT) 101 has trained Navy and Marine Corps aviators as the only remaining F/A-18C Hornet Fleet Replacement Squadron in the Department of the Navy.
That ended on 29 September when the 3rd MAW deactivated the squadron aboard MCAS Miramar. As outlined in the 2022 Marine Corps Aviation Plan, the Hornet will continue to operate and provide combat capability until its complete transition to the F-35 Lighting II in 2030. Still, the dedicated training mission of new Hornet crews (if needed) will be curtailed and transferred as an ancillary mission to the “Death Rattlers” of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 323, a 3rd MAW operational F-18C squadron co-located at Miramar. Besides VMFA-323, the Marines still cling to six Hornet squadrons including those in the reserves.
VMFAT-101, commissioned at El Toro on 3 January 1969 as a Vietnam-era F-4 Phantom training unit,. Some 125,000 flight hours later, it flew its last 10 operational Phantoms to Davis-Monthan in 1987 then returned to El Toro to pick up the Hornet, ultimately feeding 11 active Marine fighter attack squadrons.
Now, capping 36 years with the bird, they once again put a classic type to bed in style and opted to “Fly the Barn” putting its 18 aircraft up in a single flight during the sundown ceremony.
As for a deeper dive, The Fighter Pilot Podcast sat down with the final VMFAT-101 Commander, LtCol Ryan “Yoshi” Franzen, and Operations Officer Maj Erik “Tucker” Rheinhart to share Sharpshooter history and legacy, and what’s next.
With the 1943 World Series some 80 years in the rearview this week, one famed offshoot of that 5-game near-blowout by the Yankees over the Cards comes to mind.
The aviators of the newly-formed Marine Fighter Squadron 214, better known to history as one-time Flying Tiger, Maj. Gregory “Pappy” Boyington’s “Black Sheep” Squadron (AKA “Boyington’s Bastards), based in sunny Vella Lavella in the recently liberated Solomon Islands, urgently wanted ball caps– which were in short supply in the remote outpost– to help keep the rays out of their eyes.
Boyington duly wrote to the League, the story goes as told by the Baseball Hall of Fame, “that the airmen agreed to shoot down one enemy plane in exchange for every ball cap they received from players in that year’s World Series. Sure enough, upon conclusion of the World Series, the St. Louis Cardinals sent 20 baseball caps along with a few bats and balls to the Black Sheep Squadron.”
This earned a few snapshots of the Black Sheep with their new swag, complete with Corsairs, and 20 corresponding Rising Sun stickers.
As VMF-214 accounted for 100 enemy aircraft while flying combat missions for just 83 days from September 1943 to January 1944, the return to Major League Baseball was actually closer to 5:1.
Major Greg “Pappy” Boyington’s Cardinals cap, complete with EGA, is in the NMMC collection, next to his wings
80 years ago today. The much-modified New Mexico-class super-dreadnought USS Mississippi (Battleship No. 41), port view, 45 degrees of centerline while off San Francisco, California, 8 October 1943
National Museum of the U.S. Navy photo 19-LCM-Box 196-2
Another shot, taken the same day, shows a great profile of BB-41.
Note that giant new SK radar. 19-LCM-Box 196-3
The third USS Mississippi was laid down on 5 April 1915 by Newport News Shipbuilding Co., Newport News, Va.; launched on 25 January 1917; and commissioned 18 December 1917– some eight months after the U.S. entered the Great War.
Her WWI service was limited largely to exercises and working up– plus the British wanted coal-fired battleships for service with the Home Fleet and Mississippi and her sisters had an advanced turbo-electric engineering suite of four Curtis turbines with steam provided by nine oil-fired Babcock & Wilcox boilers.
Modernized in the mid-1930s (changing to a more efficient 4 sets of Westinghouse geared steam turbines powered by 6 Bureau Express boilers in addition to a myriad of other, more minor, changes), Mississippi escaped the great battleship slaughter at Pearl Harbor as she was on the other side of the globe– keeping neutrality watch in Icelandic waters on December 7, 1941.
While she was rushed to the West Coast afterward, limited refueling abilities past Oahu left her there, only venturing out on the occasional convoy run to Fiji and heading north to participate in retaking the Aleutians from the Japanese in 1943. Finally, by October of that year, it was deemed there were enough oilers and Mississippi had enough new anti-aircraft barrels installed (20 Bofors 40mm in 4×4 & 2×2 mounts, as well as 21 Oerlikon 20mm guns) to head to the West Pac.
The above images were taken just before Mississippi sailed from San Pedro on 19 October to take part in the invasion of the Gilbert Islands.
She would end up with eight battle stars for World War II service then live on into the Atomic era as a guided missile anti-aircraft training ship and test ship (EAG‑128), remaining in service into 1956– the last American Great War era battlewagon on active duty. Of note, her two sisters were broken up in 1947.
SAMs and casemates! USS Mississippi (EAG-128) Fires a Terrier surface-to-air missile during at-sea tests, circa 1953-55. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-K-17878
