Warship Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2023: Mud Hen Regulus Pitcher

Posted on by Leave a comment

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, Sept. 13, 2023: Mud Hen Regulus Pitcher

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-433460

Above we see, through the swirling smoke, the Baltimore-class heavy cruiser USS Toledo (CA 133) as she lets rip an 8-inch gun salvo into enemy installations at Wonsan in September 1951 during the Korean War. Note her Star-Spangled Banner and hull number identifiers on her turret tops, needed in the age of onboard helicopter detachments and fast-moving jets operating in a combined United Nations fleet.

Laid down 80 years ago today, our cruiser was too late to get in licks in World War II but as you can see, earned her keep in later conflicts.

The Baltimores

When the early shitstorm of 1939 World War II broke out, the U.S. Navy, realized that in the likely coming involvement with Germany in said war– and that country’s huge new 18,000-ton, 8x8inch gunned, 4.1-inches of armor Hipper-class super cruisers– it was outclassed in the big assed heavy cruiser department. When you add to the fire the fact that the Japanese had left all of the Washington and London Naval treaties behind and were building giant Mogami-class vessels (15,000 tons, 3.9 inches of armor), the writing was on the wall.

That’s where the Baltimore class came in.

These 24 envisioned ships of the class looked like an Iowa-class battleship in miniature with three triple turrets, twin stacks, a high central bridge, and two masts– and they were (almost) as powerful. Sheathed in a hefty 6 inches of armor belt (and 3 inches of deck armor), they could take a beating if they had to. They were fast, capable of over 30 knots, which meant they could keep pace with the fast new battlewagons they looked so much like, as well as the new fleet carriers that were on the drawing board.

Baltimore class ONI2 listing

While they were more heavily armored than Hipper and Mogami, they also had an extra 8-inch tube, mounting nine new model 8-inch/55 caliber guns, whereas the German and Japanese only had 155mm guns (though the Mogamis later picked up 10×8-inchers). A larger suite of AAA guns that included a dozen 5-inch/38 caliber guns in twin mounts and 70+ 40mm and 20mm guns rounded this out.

In short, these ships were deadly to incoming aircraft, could close to the shore as long as there were at least 27 feet of seawater for them to float in and hammer coastal beaches and emplacements for amphibious landings, then take out any enemy surface combatant short of a modern battleship in a one-on-one fight. They were tough nuts to crack, and of the 14 hulls that took to the sea, none were lost in combat. 

Meet Toledo

Our subject was the first U.S. Navy ship named for “The Glass City” in Ohio, home off and on since 1896 to the famous Toledo Mud Hens.

Laid down on 13 September 1943 by the New York Shipbuilding Corp. at Camden, New Jersey, she was launched two days shy of VE-Day on 6 May 1945.

Bow view of the USS Toledo leaving drydock 6 May 1945. Temple University Libraries, Special Collections Research Center

Her “hometown” was so impressed by the warship that the Navy League of Toledo was able to raise $12,500 for a beautiful 204-piece silver service worthy of a battleship and commissioned through the Gorham Silver Company of Rhode Island and engraved with local landmarks that were presented to the ship.

With WWII over and no rush to get Toledo into the fight anymore, she wasn’t commissioned at the nearby Philadelphia Naval Shipyard across the river until 27 October 1946. Her first of 17 skippers– all Annapolis grads– was Capt. August Jackson Detzer, Jr. (USNA ’21), who started his career as a midshipman during the Great War on the old battleship USS Maine (BB-10).

1946 Jane’s for the Baltimore class heavy cruisers, including the new Toledo

While many members of her class had to fight for their lives shortly after being commissioned, Toledo was much luckier, and she spent 1947 enjoying the life of a peacetime heavy cruiser in the world’s largest Navy. She ranged across the West Indies on a shakedown cruise, then was sent to the Far East to assist in Japan/Korea Occupation duties via the Mediterranean and Suez Canal, remaining in the West Pac until November of that year when she made sunny California, calling at her homeport of Long Beach for the first time, just in time for Thanksgiving. A nice first year afloat!

Toledo made two more peacetime deployments to the West Pac in 1948-49, notably calling on newly independent India and Pakistan on a goodwill cruise and standing by during the evacuation of Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist KMT forces from mainland China to Taiwan.

It was during this period that Toledo saw her first of several major overhauls, done at Puget Sound NSY from 5 October 1948 to 18 February 1949, which included landing her 20mm Oerlikons and seaplane catapults/handling gear. 

Moving forward, she would carry helicopters as needed.

USS Helena (CA-75) and sister USS Toledo (CA-133) at Pier 15, Balboa, Canal Zone, July 1, 1949. National Archives Identifier 202801697

USS Toledo (CA-133) at anchor, circa 1949. Note her glad rags flying and the small WWII-style hull numbers.

War!

At rest in Long Beach on 25 June 1950, having just returned home from her third West Pac cruise only 13 days prior, news came that the North Korean military rushed across the 38th parallel, sparking an international response.

Recalling her crew and fixing what deficiencies they could, Toledo arrived off the Korean coast on 25 July, running her first of many, many naval gunfire bombardment missions just two days later, hitting Nork positions near Yongdok on 27 July.

USS Toledo’s forward 8-inch guns. They would get a lot of work off Korea. Kodachrome by Charles L Patterson, who served on her Marine Det in the 1950s

Perhaps one of the most beautiful images of a cruiser ever taken. USS Toledo (CA-133) Off the east coast of Korea while operating with Task Force 77. Photographed from a USS Essex (CV-9) aircraft. The original photo is dated 6 September 1951. NH 96901

USS Toledo (CA 133) blasts shore installations as her main battery sends a salvo into Communist transportation facilities in Korea. Operating with United Nations Forces, this was the first target upon reporting for duty, as a detached element of Task Force 77. Note the twin 5″/38 DP mounts in action at near max elevation, a depressed 8″/55 mount seen belching fire to the top right, and lifejacket/helmeted gun crews in the 40mm quad Bofors tub. 330-PS-2115 (USN 432090)

With Marine ANGLICO teams in short supply in this early stage of the war– busy operating in support of ROK and U.S. Army forces– the ship landed shore parties to provide direct naval gunfire support and correction of shot the old-fashioned way.

USS Toledo (CA-133) Shore fire control party from Toledo in an observation post overlooking the Han River, Korea, circa late April, or May 1951. They are ready to spot and correct the cruiser’s gunfire should the enemy appear. 80-G-432346

A shore fire control party from Toledo moves up past Korean tombs to man an observation post overlooking the Han River, circa late April, or May 1951. 80-G-432355

The smoke ring is formed by the escape gases and smoke as USS Toledo (CA 133) fires a 5” salvo at enemy installations in Wonsan, Korea. Photograph received September 23, 1951. 80-G-433428

USS Toledo (CA-133) Underway in Korean waters, with a battleship and a destroyer in the right distance. The original photo is dated 2 November 1952. NH 96902

USS Toledo (CA-133) The cruiser’s shells hit enemy installations in the Wonsan Harbor area, Korea, during a bombardment in early 1953. 80-G-478496

USS Toledo (CA-133) firing her forward 203 mm guns

She completed three wartime cruises off Korea during the conflict, in all conditions.

USS Toledo (CA-133). Official caption: “In Seas that Smoke with the wind and cold, the USS Toledo (CA-133) fights the elements as well as the enemy off the coast of North Korea. The heavy cruiser, now on her third tour of duty in the war zone, is due to return to the States for overhaul this coming spring.” Photograph and caption were released circa Winter 1952-53. The view was taken from Toledo’s icy forecastle, looking out over the cold Sea of Japan toward an aircraft carrier. The carrier is either the Essex-class Valley Forge (CVA-45) or the Philippine Sea (CVA-47). From the All-Hands collection at the Naval History and Heritage Command. NH 97171

In all, Toledo was authorized six (of a possible 10) Korean Service Medals, with the breaks in dates often due to leaving the gun line to get more shells:

  • K1 – North Korean Aggression: 26 Jul-12 Sep 50 and 18 Sep-23 Oct 50
  • K3 – Inchon Landing: 13-17 Sep 50
  • K5 – Communist China Spring Offensive: 26 Apr-30 May 51 and 12 Jun-8 Jul 51
  • K6 – UN Summer-Fall Offensive: 9-Jul-51, 25 Jul-7 Aug 51, 10-22 Aug 51, 5-9 Sep 51, 11-14 Sep 51, 17 Sep-4 Oct 51, 18-30 Oct 51, and 1-12 Nov 51
  • K8 – Korean Defense Summer-Fall 1952: 13-29 Sep 52, 9-18 Oct 52, and 30 Oct- 30 Nov 52
  • K9 – Third Korean Winter: 1-Dec-52, 17 Dec 52-16 Jan 53, and 28 Jan-24 Feb 53

Besides her Korean battle stars (five listed in DANFS, six authorized according to NHHC) Toledo earned a Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation for her service.

Needless to say, her gunners and deck division guys humped a lot of shells and charges during the war.

USS Toledo (CA-133) Crewmen bring eight-inch powder charges aboard from a barge alongside, at Sasebo, Japan, circa July-October 1950, while Toledo was engaged in Korean War combat operations. Note the ship’s after eight-inch triple gun turret trained on the starboard beam, and aircraft crane and hangar hatch cover at the stern. NH 96903

USS Toledo (CA-133) Eight-inch shells and powder charges on a barge alongside the starboard quarter, as Toledo replenished her ammunition supply in Sasebo Harbor, Japan, after combat operations off Korea, circa July-October 1950. Crewmen are carrying the powder cans into position to be hoisted aboard the cruiser. NH 96905

USS Toledo (CA-133) Crewmen loading ammunition from a barge in Inchon Harbor, Korea, before Toledo’s moving into position to support United Nations ground forces, as they attempt to stop the enemy’s spring offensive, circa late April 1951. The original photo is dated 14 April 1951, which is nearly two weeks before Toledo arrived in the combat zone to begin her second Korean War tour. Men in the center are carrying eight-inch powder cans, while those at right have hand trucks to move the heavy main battery projectiles. NH 96904

In return, on several occasions, she sorrowed through Chinese/Nork counterfire from the shore including some close calls where shells straddled our cruiser, but in the end, suffered no hits.

Toledo was also a lifesaver, with her helicopters and boats plucking several downed pilots from the water, including one, from the carrier USS Boxer (CV-21), twice.

Peace again

Arriving back in California from her third combat deployment on St. Patrick’s Day 1953, she was sidelined at Hunter’s Point NSY for a five-month overhaul when the truce was worked out on 27 July. So far, it has held.

Our recently refitted cruiser had a series of snapshots captured during this refit. Importantly, she shipped her 40mm guns ashore for 10 twin 3″/50 (7.62 cm) Mark 33 Mounts and new Mk 56 FC radar fits.

USS Toledo (CA 133), sometime after her 1953 refit. Note the forward port 5″/38 DP mount at maximum elevation, 3″/50 mounts, and the Commencement Bay-class escort carrier in the background. NH 67806

Following her refit and the outbreak of an uneasy peace on the Korean peninsula, Toledo completed her seventh and eighth West Pac deployments (November 1953- May 1954 and September 1954- March 1955), spending lots of time ranging from Japan to Korea and Taiwan where she once again supported a KMT evacuation, this time from the Tachen Islands in January 1955 where her guns rang out once again against the Red Chinese.

USS Toledo (CA-133) (left) and sister USS Helena (CA-75) (right) moored at Yokosuka, Japan, 1955

Missile days

Four Baltimores were refitted for the nuclear deterrent role, USS Helena, Los Angeles, Macon, and our own Toledo. This saw them pick up the ability to carry as many as three nuclear-capable SSM-N-8A Regulus I cruise missiles on the stern and a distinctive 8-foot diameter AN/SPQ-2 S-Band mesh symmetrical parabolic antenna’d missile guidance radar to control them. Of course, Regulus had an over-the-horizon operational range of some 500 nm while the SPQ-2 was limited to just 50 under ideal conditions, but hey.

The Regulus was a big boy, 32 feet long with a 21-foot wingspan and a launch weight of 13,685 pounds. Essentially the same size as an F-86 Sabre. Capable of using first the W5 (120 kT) then the W27 (1,900 kT) thermonuclear warheads.

Sailors aboard the USS Helena (CA 75) inspect a Regulus missile mounted on the stern of the ship. The Helena is moored at an unknown Far East port in early 1956. Note the old seaplane service hatch open. LIFE Magazine Archives, Hank Walker photographer.

To accommodate the installation, the aircraft catapults were removed as were any remaining 40mm guns and the stern 3″/50 mount.

October 1959, heavy cruiser Helena gets her Regulus I missiles maintenance done before she departs for Japan

It was a hell of a thing to see one launch from one of these cruisers.

Official caption: “Nuclear Assault A Regulus I boils white smoke from booster charges as it roars away from its launcher aboard the heavy cruiser USS Los Angeles off San Diego. The launch, a routine evaluation ‘shoot’, was conducted during the time that 600 members of the Institute of Aeronautical Science were embarked aboard the attack carrier USS Ticonderoga (CVA-14), right. The demonstration, which included a ‘Terrier’ guided missile interception of the Regulus, power exhibition, carrier operations, and a HUK exercise, was highlighted by the Regulus launching. The Terrier was fired at the Regulus from the USS Norton Sound (AVM-1), background, on August 7, 1957.” NH 97391

A U.S. Navy Regulus missile is launched from the USS Helena in February 1957. K-21731

Toledo received her missile fit during a four-month overhaul at the Puget Sound NSY in the summer of 1955.

C.1955. Starboard-bow view of the cruiser USS Toledo (CA-133) firing a Regulus I surface-to-surface guided missile. The missile is controlled by the SPQ-2 radar trained to starboard at the head of the mainmast. Other radars visible include the SPS-4 Zenith surface search at the head of the foremast and the SPS-6 air search below it. A Mark 25 fire control radar is fitted on the Mark 37 secondary armament director, which is trained to port and partially obscured by the Mark 13 fire control radar on the main armament director. Note the twin 3-inch/50 AA guns on the main deck forward and the raised platforms amidships abaft the twin 5-inch/38 gun turret. They are controlled by the Mark 56 directors mounted on either side of the forward superstructure and amidships.

Original Kodachrome of an SSM-N-8 Regulus cruise missile on USS Toledo (CA-133) in 1958. Note she still has her seaplane crane, a common feature. U.S. Navy photo from her 1958 cruise book available at Navysite.de

Between early 1956 and November 1959, Toledo remained very active when it came to keeping up appearances in the West Pac, making no less than four more deployments to the region in that period.

USS Toledo (CA 133) at Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on 4 August 1956. City of Vancouver archives.

USS Toledo (CA-133). Port bow view while underway in 1957. Note her extensive twin 3″/50 DP fits, including one forward and aft as well as three on each broadside, and multiple AN/SPG-35 (Mk56) GFCS AAA fire controls. A big-gun cruiser to the max!

USS Toledo (CA-133) seen turning away from USS Columbus (CA-74) after a highline transfer. Photo taken from USS Columbus during her 1956 WESTPAC cruise. Note the helicopter on deck. From the collection of Domenic S. Terranova, USS Columbus Fire Control Officer. Via Navsource.

USS Toledo underway Kodachrome by Charles L Patterson

On board the heavy cruiser Toledo during her visit to Sydney in May 1958 for the commemoration of the Battle of the Coral Sea.

Bluejackets hanging out with some local ladies during Toledo’s visit to Sydney in May 1958 for the commemoration of the Battle of the Coral Sea. Note the Regulus

USS Toledo (CA-133) anchoring in Tokyo Bay, in 1959.

End game

With the Navy converting five Baltimore and Oregon City-class heavy cruisers into guided missile cruisers, scraping off most of their guns in favor of batteries of Talos and Tartar missile launchers while the nuclear-powered USS Long Beach (CLGN-16) was slated to commission in 1961, keeping a bunch of (almost) all-gun cruisers in commission in the age of the atom seemed increasingly antiquated.

This led the Navy to mothball just about every unconverted heavy and light cruiser in the inventory, including the mighty 20,000-ton USS Des Moines (CA-134) and sister Salem (CA-139), only keeping the newest of that class, USS Newport News (CA-148) around to fill in as the last active all-gun heavy cruiser in the fleet, lingering until 1975.

Dovetailing into this retirement program, Toledo was placed out of commission at Long Beach on 21 May 1960, then moved to the reserve basin at San Diego and remained there for the next 14 years.

In 1973, the 7 remaining unconverted Baltimores, Toledo included, made their final appearance in Jane’s.

Long laid up, these were listed as “fire support ships.”

On 1 January 1974, Toledo’s name was struck from the Navy list, and then she was sold to the National Metal & Scrap Corp. on 30 October 1974. Her sisters had either already been disposed of or were soon to follow except for USS Chicago (CA-136/CG-11), which somehow was not decommissioned until 1980 and scrapped until 1991.

And of Regulus?

Besides the four Regulus-equipped cruisers, the Navy fielded the early cruise missile on two converted WWII diesel submarines and three purpose-built boats. Meanwhile, 10 Essex and Midway-class carriers were equipped to fire the missile as well.

By 1961, Regulus and its SPQ-2 control radar were replaced by the Polaris A1 SLBM carried by a new generation of Fleet Ballistic Missile submarines, largely ending the strategic nuke role by the U.S. Navy surface fleet. Tactical nukes, however, endured in the form of the 40-mile ranged RIM-2D Terrier BT-3A(N) with its W30/W45 1kT nuclear warhead, the TLAM-N (capable of carrying a W80 200 kT nuclear warhead 1,200nm), nuclear depth charges, and the Mk 23 “Katie” 16-inch nuclear shell used on the Iowas.

While the Army developed assorted nuclear shells (Mark 33/T317/M422/M454) designed for use in various 8-inch howitzers in land combat, first fielding them in 1957 and keeping them in the arsenal until 1992, I can’t find anything where the Navy did the same for its 8-inch gunned cruisers, which remained in service until

Epilogue

The National Museum of the Pacific War has a plaque, installed by her veterans’ association in 2000, in Toledo’s honor.

Speaking of her veteran’s association, I cannot find a listing for them any longer with what appears to be their website going offline in 2018. The archive is great.

Most of the cruiser’s ornate circa 1945 silver service is on display aboard the museum ship USS Midway (CV-41), having been returned to the city of Toledo briefly after USS Toledo was decommissioned, then, in 1961, being loaned to the USS Spiegel Grove (LSD-32) — named after an Ohio town near the city. From there, the service was then transferred (missing a martini pitcher) to the new supercarrier USS Kitty Hawk (CVA-63) in 1963 with the blessing of the Toledo City Council, due to the Ohio connection with the Wright Brothers. After the “Battle Cat” was decommissioned in 2009, the service was sent by the NHHC to live aboard Midway.

Toledo/Kitty Hawk silver service aboard USS Midway

As for the name, “Toledo” was recycled by the Navy for the 58th Los Angeles-class hunter-killer (SSN-769) a late VLS-equipped 688(i) variant commissioned in 1995. Among other claims to fame, she was observing the ill-fated Russian cruise missile submarine Kursk when the boat suffered its catastrophic incident then took part in the 2003 Iraq War where she launched TLAMs from a station in the eastern Mediterranean.

She is still on active duty, assigned to Portsmouth, Virginia and, since commissioning, has carried two of the old cruiser’s silver platters aboard for special occasions.

USS Toledo (SSN-769) aerial view of the nuclear-powered attack submarine USS Toledo (SSN-769) underway on the surface. Catalog #: L45-284.05.01

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.

If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International.

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find. http://www.warship.org/membership.htm

The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.

With more than 50 years of scholarship, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO, has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

PRINT still has its place. If you LOVE warships, you should belong.

I’m a member, so should you be!

Everlasting Wondernine

Posted on by One comment

In production for 15 years and out of production for more than 20, the all-stainless-steel Smith & Wesson Model 5906 is an enduring classic that remains hard to beat. This is especially true in the case of “often carried but seldom used” police trade-in guns.

I grabbed this particular example from a stack of Police Trade-ins that came through GDC recently.

This bad boy looked a little rough on the outside but, when broken down and inspected, seemed in excellent condition on the inside.

Smith confirmed the “born on” date was August 18, 1993.

I ran 100 rounds of mixed ball and JHP from the original “pre-ban” mag with zero problems.

A typical run: 

Still supportable

Although S&W stopped production on the standard 5906 in 1999 (and the railed TSW variant in 2004), replacing the line with the polymer-framed striker-fired S&W M&P9 series, these old Wondernines are still supportable. While many LE trade-ins typically just come with a single mag, the 5900 series magazine is easy to source and Mec Gar makes an excellent flush-fit 17+1 round model that is an easily unlockable upgrade. Further, lots of new and recycled parts are out there. Replacement grips are also out there as well and, as far as holsters go, odds are you can find one without too much of an issue, although they may not be of the latest styles. 

I plan on giving this one a full disassembly and deep clean, replacing all the springs, and grabbing a couple of new Mec-Gars. 

The 5906 was the peak of S&W’s “Wondernine” evolution, benefiting from over 75 years of development of the platform as well as the feedback (and warranty returns) from thousands of users going back to the old Model 39 and the Army’s circa 1948-1954 X100 pistol program. In other words, it was about as perfect as Smith could make it for a duty-grade all-stainless DA/SA double stack 9mm. They are balanced, reliable, and shoot well, making them a good companion to similar all-metal hammer-fired guns of the era such as the CZ 75, Beretta 92, and SIG P226– but all American.

As for being a police trade-in gun, while LE customers may have used them for a decade or three, and lots of them are floating around as surplus, these guns are typically a long way away from being worn out, with most damage being of the cosmetic type.

For someone looking for a used 9mm pistol with a decent capacity and good performance that will likely still be working for generations to come, the 5906 stands tall.

Two Great War U-boats Found, Still on Eternal Patrol

Posted on by Leave a comment

A group of wreck hunters, working off the Belgian coast, have discovered a pair of German U-boats that have been lost since World War I. The wrecks include the Kriegsmarine’s German Type U 5 submarine class leader, SM U5 (Kptlt. Johannes Lemmer), and the Type UC I minelayer submarine SM UC-14 (Oblt. (R) Adolf Feddersen).

SM U-5 was an early pre-war boat, commissioned on 2 July 1910, and was small even for her era (500 tons, 181-foot overall) but she was still capable, carrying a single 37mm deck gun and four 17.7-inch tubes with six fish.

German Imperial Navy submarines at Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein (Germany), before the First World War. The boats are: U 13, U 5, U 11, U 3, and U 16 (first row, l-r); U 9, U 12, U 6, and U ? (second row, l-r). To the left of U 9 are the torpedo boat S 99 and the hulk Acheron. The Acheron had been the frigate SMS Moltke (I), commissioned in 1878. After decommissioning she was renamed on 28 October 1911 and used as a barracks ship for submarine crews at Kiel. She was finally scrapped in 1920. A battlecruiser or battleship is visible in the background.

SM U-5 was lost very early in the war– on 18 December 1914– with no recorded sinkings of enemy ships on her two patrols. She took all of her 29 crew members to the bottom.

As for SM UC-14, she was even smaller, displacing just 183 tons (submerged) and having an overall length of 111 feet.

Carrying no torpedoes or large caliber guns, her very successful class used six 39-inch top-loaded/bottom dropping tubes, each with two 710-pound Type II mines, each filled with 290 pounds of guncotton, to sow minefields.

Type II mine being loaded into a UC minelaying submarine. IWM photograph Q 20345.

SM UC-5, of the class UC-14 was in. This image after she was captured by the British.

SM UC-14, a war baby that was commissioned on 3 June 1915 just five months after she was laid down, conducted 38 short war patrols, and her minefields were credited with sinking 16 ships the Italian battleship Regina Margherita (13,215 tons) — one of the largest ships claimed by U-boats during the war.

Italian pre-dreadnought battleship Regina Margherita passing through the Canale Navigabile, Taranto, 1912

UC-14, a boat that lived by the mine, also died by the mine, sunk on 3 October 1917 by what appears to be a British minefield off Zeebrugbee, taking her 17-man crew to the cold dark below.

See the below video of the wreckage. The wreck of U 5 is reported to be in good shape while UC 14 was lost in a heavy explosion and in a bad shape.

 

And so we remember.

Auf einem Seemannsgrab, da blühen keine Rosen
Auf einem Seemannsgrab, da blüht kein Blümelein
Der einz’ge Schmuck für uns, das sind die weißen Möwen
Und heiße Tränen, die ein kleines Mädl weint
Der einz’ge Schmuck für uns, das sind die weißen Möwen
Und heiße Tränen, die ein kleines Mädl weint

Slo-mo Cruiser Slaughter Continues

Posted on by One comment

The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruisers have passed an important threshold in their story: as of this month, they have hit nearly 50 percent strength in numbers with only 15 still active (soon to be just 12) of the 27 completed.

So far in 2023, USS Lake Champlain (CG-57) and USS Mobile Bay (CG-53) have been decommissioned.

USS Lake Champlain (CG-57) was decommissioned on 1 September, capping a 35-year career. Here, she is being towed off. She earned 11 Battle E Awards, 3 Navy Unit Commendations, and 2 Meritorious Unit Commendations.

SAN DIEGO (Aug.10, 2023) – The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Mobile Bay (CG 53) sits pier side during a decommissioning ceremony. The Mobile Bay was decommissioned after more than 36 years of distinguished service. Commissioned Feb. 21, 1987, Mobile Bay served in the U.S. Atlantic, Seventh, and U.S. Pacific Fleet and supported Operation Desert Storm. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Stevin C. Atkins)

Likely to still be retired this year from the class are USS Vicksburg (CG-69), USS Bunker Hill (CG-52), and USS San Jacinto (CG-56).

Sayonara, Shiloh

Meanwhile, one of the last in the fleet, USS Shiloh (CG 67), departed Yokosuka, Japan, on Sept. 5 to transit to her new homeport of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, “as part of a planned rotation of forces in the Pacific.”

Shiloh has been forward deployed in Japan for 17 years and is slated to be retired next year.

U.S. Navy Sailors and members of Ship Repair Facility (SRF) Yokosuka bow to the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Shiloh (CG 67) in Yokosuka, Japan, Sept. 5, 2023. Shiloh departed Yokosuka on Sept. 5 to transit to its new homeport of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, as part of a planned rotation of forces in the Pacific. Shiloh is attached to Commander, Carrier Strike Group 5 forward-deployed to the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Askia Collins)

The Flight IIA Burke, USS John Finn (DDG 113), which left Naval Base San Diego and arrived in Yokosuka back in March, is Shiloh’s official replacement. Notably, Finn was the first ship to intercept an ICBM using an SM-3 Block IIA missile, done in a test at Kwaj in 2020.

The Navy plans to put the final Ticos in mothballs by the end of FY 27.

Introducing Captain Patton

Posted on by Leave a comment

This notable oath, via the 1,572-page Official Military Personnel File for George S. Patton Jr., digitized in the National Archives, was signed some years 106 ago today.

When his promotion was announced officially on 17 May, Patton, who had only a few months before had been on detached duty from the 5th U.S. Cavalry Regiment to serve as an aide to Brig. Gen. John J. Pershing for the Punitive Expedition against Villa in the Northern Mexican desert regions, was, much to his dismay, detailed to Front Royal, Virginia, to oversee horse procurement for the Army. After all, for a noted horseman that had represented his country in the 1912 Olympics and had designed the final U.S. martial cavalry saber (the M1913) after becoming a Master of the Sword at the French cavalry school at Namur, it seemed like a good fit. 

However, as old “Black Jack” had recently been promoted himself to major general and named Commander of the nascent American Expeditionary Force upon the unexpected death of General “Fighting Fred” Funston, Capt. Patton would soon be leaving his horses behind for the steel cavalry in France.

Operation Alamo at 80

Posted on by One comment

Markham Valley, Nadzab Airfield, near Lae, New Guinea: An Australian Digger and a U.S. Army Paratrooper link up on 6 September 1943. The day before, the paratroops had taken the valley in a surprise assault by air in conjunction with Allied landings at Lae, about a dozen miles to the East.

U.S. Army Signal Corps image SC 185994 via NARA

Note the Digger’s distinctive Owen submachine gun, which may denote him as a member of 2/6th Independent Company commandos, which was part of the small overland force that set out to rendevous at Nadzab from Tsili Tsili on 2 September. Also of interest is the apparently field-made assault vest worn by the Paratrooper of the 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment, who had just carried out their first combat jump.

Besides the commandoes, the Australian overland group, primarily engineers and pioneers, consisted of B Company/Papuan Infantry Battalion, 2/2nd Pioneer Battalion, 2/6th Field Company, and detachments from the 7th Division Signals, 2/5th Field Ambulance and ANGAU, along with 760 native porters.

The day after the landing, the Australians and Americans went to work on the airstrip with hand tools. Trees were felled, potholes filled in, and a windsock erected while the waist-high Kunai grass was burned away.

(U.S. Air Force Number 67091AC)

Some 27 miles northwest of strategically important Lae by road and half that by air, it was as if Nadzab was placed in the middle of nowhere for a reason. A godsend to Allied strategists.

Founded in 1910 as a German colonial Lutheran mission station, by 1943, the grassland at Nadzab, at one time cleared from the jungle perhaps for experiments in farming, was some 900 yards long but it was thought it was easily clearable to 2,000 yards with a little work– making it an ideal location for an airfield in the Japanese’s back yard.

The strip to be captured at Nadzab is shown before the landing of the 503rd Parachute Infantry. (U.S. Air Force Number A25418AC)

After much planning, it was hit by 1,700 men of the 503 PIR in a full-scale regimental jump, with 31 Australian gunners of the 2/4th Field Regiment tagging along on what was only their second time leaving an aircraft via parachute. 

The 255-aircraft initial assault on 5 September was dramatic in the extreme, being led by 48 low-level B-25 bombers who blitzed the unoccupied valley with 2,800 20-pound frag bombs and their on-board .50 cals, followed by 7 A-20s laying smoke for the 79 C-47s that carried the paratroopers. Five B-17s brought up the rear, dropping supplies. Fighter cover was provided by a mix of 108 P-38s, P-39s, and P-47s. Another three B-17s filled with command observers– including MacArthur himself who received an Air Medal for the act– along with five more B-17s carrying weather and nav teams, kept everyone in line.

The 31 Ozzies of 54 Battery, 2/4th Field Regt, with only one practice jump under their belt, parachuted into Nadzab later that day with two dismantled 25-pounder-Short guns and 192 boxes of ammunition to provide the Americans some more support than their organic 60mm mortars, dropped by a mix of five C-47s and two B-17s.

This picture shows the attack on Nadzab at its height, with one battalion of paratroops descending from Douglas C-47s in the foreground, while in the distance (left) another battalion descends against a smokescreen. Coming in at 400-500 feet at 100 knots, each aircraft dropped its stick in just 10 seconds. The whole regiment was unloaded in 4.5 minutes (U.S. Air Force Number 25418AC)

“From one of the lowest altitudes ever attempted in battle, paratroopers jump among the trees and 12-ft. high kunai grass of the Markham valley.” (U.S. Air Force Number D25418AC)

While smoke screens build up, paratroopers drop from low-flying Douglas C-47 airplanes on each side, along the column of C-47s and about 1,000 ft. above them, come close-cover fighter support. (U.S. Air Force Number C25418AC)

Jumping unopposed, the 503rd lost three men killed and 33 injured in hard hits while one member of the Australian 2/4th Field Regt was likewise injured. Nonetheless, the results were so good that a follow-on glider force assault was canceled and the first transport aircraft landed at the improvised airstrip the next morning, with more than 40 planes cycling in on D+1 alone.

The next day, air-portable bulldozers and graders began arriving and within a month the airfield was fully functional with four strips. This enabled the Australian 7th and 9th Infantry Divisions to close with the Japanese. 

Natives of New Guinea crowd around supply-laden Douglas C-47’s which have landed at Nadzab Airstrip, New Guinea. In the distance, another plane comes in for a landing. 11 September 1943. (U.S. Air Force Number 67083AC)

Natives, supervised by men of the Australian 7th Division, unload supplies from a Douglas C-47 at Nadzab Airstrip in New Guinea. 11 September 1943. (U.S. Air Force Number 67085AC)

The landing forced the Japanese evacuation of Lae to take a route that proved to be disastrous for them and 3rd Bn/503d had a major skirmish with the rear guard of this exodus.

As noted by the Army, “The successful employment of Parachute troops, in the Markham Valley, has been credited with saving the concept of vertical envelopment from being abandoned following several less than successful engagements in Europe.”

Interior of Douglas C-47 showing Biak wounded, litter and walking cases, to be evacuated to Lae and Nadzab New Guinea. (U.S. Air Force Number D52993AC)

The field, besides being a logistical hub for the Australian-American forces pushing the Japanese out of New Guinea, Nadzab served as a base for assorted 5th Air Force units including the F-7 Dumbos of the 20th Combat Mapping Squadron (20th CMS), the B-25s of the “Air Apaches” of the 345th Bombardment Group, and the 43rd Bombardment Group (Heavy), with “Ken’s Men” flying their big B-24 Liberators from the growing base in 1944. Likewise, Navy units of the FAW-17, including the lumbering PB4Y-1 patrol bombers of VB-106, were stationed there as well.

The crew of the 64th Bomb Squadron, 43rd Bomb Group, pose beside their plane, the Consolidated B-24J-150-CO Liberator “Shining Example” at Nadzab, New Guinea. 25 May 1944. The aircraft, SN 44-40184, got her name as she was the first natural finish B-24 in SW Pacific. (U.S. Air Force Number 68882AC)

Post-war, Nadzab was abandoned by the Allies, almost as quickly as it was occupied.

Aerial View Of Nadzab Airstrip – Nadzab, New Guinea, July 1946. (U.S. Air Force Number 116758AC)

It eventually became a commercial airport, with, ironically, a redevelopment project spearheaded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

As for the 503rd, they jumped again in July 1944 at Noemfoor Island in New Guinea as an airborne reinforcement, helping to defend the Kamiri airstrip against Japanese counterattacks. After that operation, the 503rd shifted to the Philippine Islands where, on 16 February 1945, the regiment made its celebrated jump onto Corregidor Island in Manilla Bay, earning its nickname “The Rock.”

Today its first battalion (1–503rd IR) is still on active duty, assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team in Vicenza, Italy.

Plastering Charleston, 160 years ago

Posted on by Leave a comment

Reportedly the oldest naval combat photos that can be definitively dated.

Taken from Fort Sumter by George Cook on 8 September 1863, it shows the 18-gunned steam-powered wooden-hulled broadside ironclad USS New Ironsides and two Ericsson-designed single turret monitors, USS Montauk, and USS Passaic, firing on Conferate-held Fort Moultrie in Charleston Harbor.

The photo is credited to George S. Cook and is attributed as “taken by a Confederate photographer.” (Source: Field, Ron. Silent Witness, 2017, page 264) in combat, firing on Fort Sumter. LOC LC-USZ62-49549

The photo shows tents and soldiers on the beach of Morris Island. In the distance, ironclads, including USS New Ironsides and five monitor-class warships are in action against Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie in Charleston harbor. (Source: 99 Historic Images of Civil War Charleston, ed. by Garry Adelman, John Richter, and Bob Zeller, Center for Civil War Photography, 2009, p. 18). LOC LC-DIG-cwpb-04748 (digital file from original neg.)

At this stage in Dupont’s efforts to reduce the rebel defenses at Charleston, Fort Wagner was bombarded daily until it was evacuated by the Confederates on 6 September when his ships then turned their attention to Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie, operating for the rest of the year against these fortifications which guarded the “Cradle of the Rebellion.”

The event was reported in The Illustrated London News, as “Iron clad frigate New Ironsides and two Ericsson batteries going into action at Charleston,” complete with a much more romantic depiction. 

Hant-tinted copy of a line engraving by Smyth, depicting USS New Ironsides and two monitors in action at Charleston, South Carolina, circa 1863. Courtesy of the Navy Art Collection, Washington, D.C. U.S. NH 85573-KN

Patrick O’Brien has done a more contemporary work.

The last of the Class of ’40…

Posted on by Leave a comment

Two great republics lost their final cadets from the “Class of 1940” in the past few days.

BG Paul D. Phillips

Born on March 9, 1918, Brigadier General Paul Phillips (USMA 1940), a red stripe from almost the moment he put on his butter bar, was recognized as the oldest living West Point Graduate earlier this year and was awarded the Ancient Order of Saint Barbara by the United States Field Artillery Association at 105 years old.

His WWII survival story was epic, having been part of the Philippine Defense Force during the Japanese invasion of those islands in 1941 and then enduring 39 grueling months of captivity in multiple camps of which he later said, “I expected the worst and that’s what I got”:

He fought in the Battle of the Philippines on Mindanao and was taken prisoner in 1942 after the Japanese invaded Cebu and General Sharp surrendered. As a POW, General Phillips traveled from Mindanao to Luzon, then to Japan in January 1945, to Pusan, Korea in April, finally ending up in a prison camp near Mukden in Manchuria. During one move he and his fellow POWs were loaded onto two different ships that were bombed by the U.S. forces, unaware that they contained their fellow servicemembers. The prisoners were rescued mid-August of 1945 in Manchuria by a 5-person team that included one of Phillips’ classmates, James Hennessy. After WWII, BG Phillips served as a gunnery instructor at the Field Artillery School and graduated from Command and General Staff College in 1951.

In March 2009 BG Phillips completed a Veterans History Project oral history interview and earlier this year conducted a second, longer, and more candid interview.

The last living graduate for the USMA Class of 1940, BG Paul D. Phillips (USA, Retired) passed away on August 27, 2023.

In 2010, BG Phillips donated his POW-worn West Point class ring to the Class Ring Memorial Program, its steel mingling with those of future members of the Long Gray Line.

Dernier cadet de Saumur

Also remembered this week is Chef d’Escadron (cavalry major) Yves Raynaud, who passed at age 104. He was the final member of the old École de cavalerie Saumur, the famed French cavalry officer’s school that dated to 1763 and once counted a young George S. Patton in attendance.

Raynaud was among an expanded class of 560 young reservists called up to train as officers (Elèves aspirants de reserve) and, during the hectic final days of the Fall of France in June 1940, took to the field to fight the oncoming Germans.

The Saumur cadets, ordered to retreat to the south on June 15th, instead joined a scratch force composed of a similar battalion of cadets from the infantry school at Saint-Maixent, some colonial troops of the 13ᵉ Regiment of Algerian Tirailleurs (13ᵉ RTA), the remnants of the 6ᵉ Regiment engineers, and a reconnaissance squadron of the 19ᵉ Regiment of Dragoons, totaling between 2,000 and 2,500 depending on whose accounts you read.

Their armament was laughable, consisting of just a handful of Panhard armored cars and Hotchkiss light tanks, five old 75mm guns left over from the Great War, and 10 light mortars as well as similarly scarce small arms– the Saumur cadets often had to share rifles as there wasn’t enough to go around and their only organic support weapons were a few St. Étienne Mle 1907 machine guns that the school had for training purposes.

Defying orders to fall back or at least stack their arms, the force of cadets and stragglers instead stood strong for two days –June 19 and 20– in a delaying action for a series of Loire River bridges between Montsoreau and Gennes now known as the Battle of Saumur or the Battle of the Loire.

Forming what was termed La Haie Sainte (The Sacred Line), and no doubt girded by the fact that the action was fought on the 125th anniversary of Waterloo, the French cadets prevented a much stronger German force (which ultimately grew to 40,000) from crossing the Loire and allowed other units to withdraw through them to the south, escaping to fight again another day.

Their commander, Saumur superintendent Colonel Charles Michon, said of their stand when the bulk of the defeated and demoralized French force was retreating and surrendering:

“There was hope in them. Their sacrifice, among others equally pure, will have maintained the soul of the country (aura maintenu l’âme de la patrie). They, dying, ordered France to rebuild itself, on their tombs, to the height of its immortal destinies”.

Of the 560 students from Saumur Cavalry School, 79 were killed and 47 wounded in the fighting.

Post-war, Saumur, no longer a horse cavalry school, reformed as the current armor school.

Raynaud, who later fought with the Resistance and retired from the Army in the 1960s, died in Toulouse on August 29.

His funeral, with full military honors, was conducted on Sept. 5 at the Saint-Hilaire church in Toulouse.

His was saluted by a guard drawn from the 14e Régiment d’infanterie et de soutien logistique parachutiste, the 1er Régiment du train parachutiste, and the 503e Régiment du train.

Gen. Pierre Schill, Chief of Staff of the French Army, closed the events with, “Sleep in peace my commander, the army pays homage to you.” (Dormez en paix mon commandant, l’armée de Terre vous rend hommage)

Two Destroyers Lost in 1916 Found

Posted on by Leave a comment

These haunting images of two Royal Navy warships – the Parker-class flotilla leader HMS Hoste and the M-class destroyer HMS Negro – have just been released.

The wreck of HMS Hoste

The wrecks have been discovered between Orkney and Fair Isle by divers from Lost in Waters Deep who conducted extensive archival research before heading to the area and confirming their studies. The two ships were lost following a collision on 21 December 1916 during the Great War.

As detailed by the RN:

Both Hoste and Negro lie around 100 metres (330ft) down. Hoste had been in service a month – and Negro was not much older – when the two ships sailed from Scapa Flow, the Royal Navy’s key base in both world wars, for exercises just six days before Christmas in 1916.

In the small hours of December 20, HMS Hoste suffered steering problems and was ordered to return to base, escorted by Negro. The two ships collided when Hoste was unable to manoeuvre, due to a steering gear defect, and Negro unable to avoid her.

Not only did HMS Negro smash into Hoste’s stern, but the collision also caused the release of depth charges which detonated and crippled Negro and she sank fairly rapidly. Hoste was initially able to slowly proceed under her own steam, but a few hours later the worsening sea state caused the ship to break in two and she was also lost.

All but four of the 138 sailors aboard Hoste were rescued, but Negro lost 51 officers and men.

The divers also found the wreck of merchant vessel SS Express, sliced in two by HMS Grenville in the dead of night in early 1918.

And so we remember. 

There are no roses on sailors’ graves,
Nor wreaths upon the storm-tossed waves,
No last post from the King’s band,
So far away from their native land,
No heartbroken words carved on stone,
Just shipmates’ bodies there alone,
The only tributes are the seagulls sweep,
And the teardrop when a loved one weeps.

Coming in Hot (and Quiet)

Posted on by 2 comments

Talk about a recruiting poster.

Official caption: “A U.S. Marine assigned to Reconnaissance Company, 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, rides an MMX motorcycle enroute to a raid site during the ground interoperability exercise at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, July 25, 2023. The ground interoperability training integrates the Reconnaissance Company and supporting elements into a raid force to conduct land-based specialized limited-scale raids in preparation for more complex amphibious and maritime operations.”

U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl Joseph Helms. Released 230725-M-YF186-1095

Note the Nods, M4, Salomon X Ultra Pioneers, and M18.

More on the Zero MMX Military Series e-bike, if interested.

Sure, an e-bike is not as long-term survivable (or even usable) ashore on extended missions, but if it is a short-term raid or recon event, it offers some very interesting advantages over a legacy (loud as hell) offroad dirt bike. 

Via the manufacturer:

No exhaust and exceptionally stealthy, the Zero MMX holds unique tactical advantages over traditional internal combustion alternatives. The 100% electric powertrain offers personnel the ability to rapidly move over technical terrain while making virtually no noise and emitting no smell. Perhaps the most covert form of two-wheeled transportation, the motorcycle is completely silent when stopped and can accelerate instantly from 0 rpm.

 

« Older Entries Recent Entries »