Deck The P-Ways!

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Naval Base San Diego just held their annual Christmas decoration contest and the ships, as always, look great. Surely some of these images will be celebrated by generations not yet born as icons of the “Old Navy” pre-whatever war comes in future decades.

NAVAL BASE SAN DIEGO (December 15, 2022) The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Princeton (CG 59), displays lights for holiday festivity. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Erica K. R. Higa)

USS Sterett DDG-104

USS Zumwalt DDG-1000

USS Princeton CG-59

USS Boxer LHD-4

USS Paul Hamilton DDG-60

USS Cowpens

USS Tripoli

For the record, the “People’s Choice” from online votes was Boxer, which is important to me personally as I was a constructor plankowner, working on her both pre and post-christening at Ingalls many, many years ago, and sailed on her during her pre-commissioning tiger cruise.

Kilts & Pipes

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These two images of Scottish regiments on deployment, some 105 years apart, seemed very appropriate in a “the more things change” kinda way.

Circa Christmas 1917 card, depicting kilt-clad Highlanders in the trench with the modern accouterments of war to include SMLE 303 rifles, a Vickers gun, and tin plate helmets. The green color of the tartan and the thistle would suggest they are of the London Scottish or perhaps a reserve battalion of the Gordon Highlanders.

Pipers, deployed to the trenches with the anti-tank company from 1st Battalion, Scots Guards, as part of NATO Battle Group Estonia, mixing old with new, December 2022.

Modern Day Greenland Patrol

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When talking over the weekend in reference to the 80th anniversary of the lost USCGC Natsek (WYP-170) during WWII’s massively unsung Greenland Patrol, these images from the Danish Arktisk Kommando— their all-services joint Arctic command that interfaces both with NATO and the U.S., Icelandic, Canadian and UK forces in the region stretching across the Faeroes and Greenland– seems timely.

The below shows the new Rasmussen-class patrol vessels HDMS Knud Rasmussen (P570), HDMS Ejnar Mikkelsen (P571), and HDMS Lauge Koch (P572) of 1. Eskadre working the Greenland coastline for the last couple of weeks.

The Danes throughout the Cold War kept a trio of purpose-designed ice-strengthened arctic offshore patrol craft in the region and continue to do so, rotating Royal Danish Navy vessels deployed to Greenland to perform coast-guard duties, while an intrepid 14-man Siriuspatruljen (sled patrol) polices the interior, with the benefit of air-dropped supplies.

The Rasmussens replaced the trio of much smaller (300-ton, 11 knots, 2x.50 cal HMGs) Agdlek-class patrol boats that walked the beat from the 1970s through 2017.

The old Agdlek-class OPVs, exemplified by the HDMS Tulugaq (Y388) seen here, were essentially modified steel-hulled trawler/whaler types, mounting just a pair of .50 cal Brownings

The new 1,700-ton 235-foot vessels are much more capable– not to mention downright naval-looking– with a 76mm M/85 OTO Melera main battery, embarked helicopter/UAV support, and space/weight available for both ASW torpedo tubes and Sea Sparrow missiles.

While low-speed (just 17 knots maximum speed) they are meant to poke around and, with their two large RIBs, send VBSS inspection teams out to check on things both ashore and afloat. Speaking to the latter, they are manned by just an 18-person crew but have accommodations for an embarked helicopter det and a small (16-man) platoon of commando types, of which Denmark has a proficient group.

And, of course, there are some other benefits of walking the Greenland beat, such as plenty of ice for your New Year’s drinks!

Germany Goes HK, Again

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Keeping a tradition established in 1959 alive, the German military will continue to call on HK to deliver its primary infantry rifle.

German Army’s new Basiswaffe System Sturmgewehr will be the HK416 A8. Adopted in two different lengths as the G95A1 and G95KA1, for the Bundeswehr the new guns will replace the HK-made 5.56 NATO-caliber G36, which had been adopted in 1997.

While the HK416 family may look like any old AR15, they are piston guns rather than the more traditional gas impingement system familiar to the Stoner design. Ironically, the proprietary short-stroke gas piston system is derived from the G36 family, which, in turn, owes a lot of groundwork to Stoner’s AR-18 design. The 416 has proven popular enough to be selected as the main infantry weapon for the French and Norwegian militaries as well as to be fielded by the U.S. Marines as the M27. (Photo: Bundeswehr)

HK has produced the futuristic-looking G36 in several variants, including the standard model, the shorter G36K carbine, and the G36C compact, over the past 25 years, and the type is in service with over 40 countries although its primary user has always been the German military, who has used in combat in Afghanistan and Mali.

Prior to the G36, the West German military’s standard battle rifle was the HK-made G3 in 7.62 NATO, which had won a federal government tender in the late 1950s. 

West German panzer grenadier jumping off an M48 Patton during the Cold War, HK G3 in hand.

Of course, the G3 owed its lineage to the Spanish CETME 58, which was basically the final version of Ludwig Vorgrimler’s experimental StG 45(M) developed by Mauser for the Wehrmacht at the end of WWII, using the then-innovative roller-delayed blowback operating system that went on to make HK famous.

But that’s another story…

Maritime Mystery: Death of a Wooden Shoe

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Some 80 years ago today, a warship and her entire crew vanished from the waves and not a single confirmed piece of her has ever been seen since.

Constructed in 1941 at Snow Shipyards in Rockland, Maine, the 225-ton, 116-foot wooden-hulled longline trawler F/V Belmont was acquired for $2,122 on 19 June 1942 by the U.S. Coast Guard for use on the newly-formed Greenland Patrol, watching over the Danish possession and fighting the “Weather War,” keeping German radio and meteorological stations out of the frozen land.

Commissioned as USCGC Natsek (WYP-170), named in honor of a geographical feature on Greenland, her armament was slight– an old 6-pounder 57mm gun taken from prewar cutter stocks that was deemed still deadly enough to haul over German weather trawlers in spotted, two 20mm Oerlikons should she encounter a German Condor patrol plane, and two short depth charge racks should she see a U-boat.

Assigned to CINCLANT control out of Boston with the rest of the Greenland Patrol, Natsek could make a stately 11 knots and cruise at 9.5. Her and her Snow-built half-sisters USCGC Nanok (ex-F/V St. George) and USCGC Nogak (ex-F/V North Star), earned the nickname of “wooden shoes” as they looked, well, like large wooden shoes and had about the same characteristics.

Other vessels of the Greenland Patrol converted at the time included seven larger and sturdier steel-hulled trawlers (F/V Helka, Lark, Weymouth, Atlantic, Arlington, Winchester, and Triton) that likewise received similar armament and Greenland geographical monikers but starting with an “A” to set them apart as a class (USCGC Alatok, Amarok, Aklak, Arluk, Aivik, Atak, and Arvek, respectively).

Besides keeping the Germans out of Greenland, the Patrol’s primary task was to establish and supply a series of 14 “Bluie” met and HF/DF stations around the coastline. Airfields would soon be added to these isolated stations to allow them to serve as way stations for the North Atlantic ferry route, running planes from bases in Labrador to Scotland with stops in Greenland and Iceland. 

The fact that these converted trawlers could carry 90 tons of cargo below decks and draw but 11 feet of seawater when doing so helped greatly. While it would seem folly to us today to task 10 small vessels (the largest of these, Winchester/Aivik, was only 590 tons and 128 feet overall) with such a mission, keep in mind that the locations chosen for the Bluie stations were often only reachable by snaking through dense fields of icebergs and narrow fjords, so chosen to remain hidden from German surface raiders.

Natsek’s first patrol, began just ten days after she was commissioned, with newly-minted Lt. (jg) Thomas La Farge, USCGR, skipper. La Farge, who had no prior military experience, received his temporary commission as he was “a yachtsman and lover of ships” and noteworthy as a grandson of the late, great, muralist, John La Farge.

She set sail for Greenland waters in company with the minesweeper USS Bluebird (AM-72), and fellow USCG-manned armed trawlers Atak and Aivik, as part of CTG 24.8 on 29 June. Arriving at Bluie West #1 (Narsarssuak) on 20 July, Natsek plied Greenland waters, supplying Bluie stations through the month of August. Beginning on 28 September, she set sail from Narsarssuak to transport supplies, equipment, and personnel to Skoldungen to establish and build a weather station. She arrived there on 12 October. She continued on to help establish another weather station, this time at Torgilsbu and later that month another one at Skjoldungen.

On 9 November she was ordered to assist in looking for a downed plane along the southeast coast of Greenland.

On 15 November she then received orders to escort the Army cargo ship Belle Isle to Torgilsbu from Skjoldungen. She accomplished the escort without incident and arrived at Torgilsbu on 16 November. She departed Torgilsbu on 23 November and arrived at Narsarssuak on 30 November.

On 14 December 1942 Natsek departed Narsarssuak in a convoy with Bluebird and fellow “wooden shoe” USCGC Nanok, to return to Boston via Belle Isle Strait.

Natsek never arrived.

In January, the Navy made it official after she was several weeks overdue.

From the 1/24/43 issue of the NYT:

The detailed story of her disappearance, via the 1947 report, “The Coast Guard at War: Lost Cutters”

Click to make bigger

This, from “Death of a Wooden Shoe :A Sailor’s Diary of Life and Death on the Greenland Patrol, 1942” by Thaddeus D. Nowakowski, a journal kept by a Coast Guardsman during his six crucial months as a seaman on board Natsek’s sister, USCGC Nanok, and digitized by the Coast Guard Historian’s Office in 1994:

Besides LaFarge, Natsek vanished with a crew of 23 including 10 Coast Guard regulars (counting both her chiefs) a Navy radioman, and 12 wartime-era recruits. Considered lost at sea, their names are inscribed on the World War II East Coast Memorial in Manhattan’s Battery Park as well as a marker at Arlington that notes of the Natsek:

The entire crew of 23 men and one commissioned officer are considered to have met death in the line of duty on or after 17 December 1942, as a result of drowning.”

Natsek at the time was the fourth Coast Guard ship to be lost in WWII and 107th American vessel overall. Ultimately, the USCG would lose no less than 40 vessels in the conflict.

As for the Weather War, the Allies won and today, Bluie West Six is Thule Air Base, still an important enough asset that the Pentagon on Friday awarded a $4 billion civil engineering and maintenance contract to a local firm in Greenland, Inuksuk A/S, running through 2034.

Field Gun No. 9168

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Closing a chapter on 700 years of occupation, the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 would see most of Ireland carved away from the British Empire and a new Irish National Army formed to defend this new “Free State.”

The newly formed army first debuted at Beggars Bush Barracks when the base was turned over to the Irish by the British Army on 31 January 1922, capping what had been an escalating 70-year struggle by assorted Republican forces from the Fenians, to the Irish Volunteers, Irish Brotherhood, and IRA.

This meant putting on uniforms and forming actual military units with field manuals, tables of equipment, and standardization.

Dublin, 1922, Irish Free State National Army forces arriving at Viceregal Lodge.

Dublin, 1922, Irish Free State soldiers in as British troops leaving

The takeover of Richmond Barracks in Dublin,  Irish Free State soldiers marching in on the right, and British forces marching out on the left.

As part of the Treaty, the brand new Irish National Army, under Michael Collins, was largely equipped with transferred, leftover, or signed-for British equipment and staffed in roughly equal amounts by former IRA and Republican men, career soldiers from the six disbanded Irish regiments of the British Army, and new recruits without prior service.

Among the kit “loaned” to the fledging Free Staters were nine Ordnance QF Mk I and Mk II 18-pounder field guns, sufficient to arm a battery of light artillery, although they came without any training to use them or support after the transfer.

Nonetheless, there was a cadre of Irish Great War vets familiar with the guns who could get them going– after all, some of the first shots of the British Army on the Western Front were fired on 22 August 1914 outside of Mons, Belgium by 18 pounders attached to the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards.

The QF 18-pounder was the only artillery weapon in Irish service between 1922 and the mid-1930s when newer 25-pounders were ordered to augment them. This one is in the collection of the National Museum of Ireland.

Two of these new (to them) 18-pounders were soon used by the National Army to bombard the Four Courts in Dublin in June 1922, firing on anti-Treaty IRA holdouts in the Irish Civil War. Of note, these first two 18-pounders in the Free State service were collected from the British at McKee Barracks on the night of 27 June and were firing at the Four Courts by 4:07am on the 28th, possibly the shortest turn-around by a newly-formed artillery branch from stand-up to combat in history.

Irish National Army using British QF 18 pounders loaned from the British Garrison against the Four Courts, June 1922

Corner of Bridge Street & Merchant’s Quay, Dublin City, Ireland. This photograph shows Irish Free State troops operating an 18-pounder Field Gun on the streets of Dublin during the Irish Civil War. It is believed they were engaged in shelling the Four Courts when this photo was taken.

The Irish Army eventually inherited or purchased 37 QF 18s of various marks by WWII, retrofitting older horse-drawn models with a Martin Perry conversion kit that included steel wheels and pneumatic tires to allow them to be towed at higher speeds by lorries, then kept them cleaned and in reserve post-war.

The Irish ultimately sold these old guns off in small batches to overseas scrap dealers until they were all gone from the Army’s inventory by the 1970s, with a few of the last guns preserved.

Among those sold in 1959 was William Beardmore & Company-produced Field Gun No. 9168, part of a huge batch of arms that was bought by Sam Cummings and George Numrich’s International Armaments Corporation (also known as “Interarms” or “Interarmco”) in the U.S. along with a treasure trove of 500 Lewis guns and Thompson submachine guns.

Here in the states, No. 9168 eventually ended up outside behind the Lazy Susan Dinner Theatre in Alexandria, Virginia. 

After the theater closed in 2013, the ivy took over. Stored in rough weather for over 50 years, it became known as the “Ivy Patch Gun.”

However, its tell-tale Irish Army “FF” stamp surrounded by a sunburst on its breech ring, and traces of distinctive Irish grey livery over original Royal Artillery green paint sparked the interest of artillery nerds.

Eventually, the old gun was repatriated back home. It turns out, no. 9168 was probably one of those first six guns turned over in 1922 and could have even been one that fired on the Four Courts.

With the (gently) welded breech block washed open it was found that much of the gun was still in excellent shape– for instance, the gearboxes on the road gear were still covered in grease and in workable condition.

Now, following years of restoration work by technicians at the Defence Forces’ Ordnance Base Workshops (OBWs), No. 9168 is back in its 1922 condition including wooden road wheels and timbers, and is back on the Army’s inventory.

It is set to go on public display at Dublin’s Collins Barracks in the coming days.

Further, in recognition of the force’s 100th anniversary, the Irish Defence Forces (Óglaigh na hÉireann) has released the below 30-minute video of its history, which makes for interesting viewing.

Why the ‘Bulge’

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A graphic view of why the desperate German Ardennes offensive (Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein) is known more popularly, at least in the U.S., as the “Battle of the Bulge.” The map shows the limit of the German offensive, Dec. 1944, illustrating at least 28 identified German Wehrmacht (Heer) and Waffen-SS divisions as well as two separate brigade groups trying to wedge the line between the U.S. Ninth and First Army, and the British 30 Corps and U.S. Third Army.

Via War Department. The Adjutant General’s Office. 3/4/1907-9/18/1947, National Archives Identifier: 100384371

Full-size 7360×5830 map, here.

Scoring a 10: SIG’s XTen

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SIG Sauer recently announced a new caliber option for its hugely successful P320 platform of pistols– the 15+1 capacity 10mm XTen.

It’s a serious handgun that provides a great option for sportsmen in the field or even in home defense. It really feels and shoots like a big 9mm, something that a lot of 10s can’t say. However, while lighter than a 1911 by a good bit, it is still every inch as long, wide, and tall, meaning that the XTen isn’t really an option for those seeking a compact concealed carry piece– but that isn’t what the gun was designed to accomplish.

I’ve been evaluating this big thumper for the past several weeks and have all the details in my column at Guns.com.

71st West Pac Christmas Drop

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We’ve talked about the long-running Operation Christmas Drop exercise several times in the past.

Besides its obvious humanitarian “hearts and minds” goodwill in stretches of the Western Pacific that often don’t get a lot of attention, it also provides a chance for C-130 units around the Rim to get some real-world training should they be needed to, say, handle low-key resupply for isolated company-sized Marine rocket batteries dropped off on random atolls with little infrastructure but within range of Chinese maritime assets.

Anyway, the 71st OCD just concluded, seeing a few interesting things including seven Herky birds from the U.S. Air Force, Royal Australian Air Force (No.37 Sqn), Japan Air Self-Defense Force (401st Tactical Airlift Squadron), Republic of Korea Air Force (251st Tactical Air Support Squadron), and Royal New Zealand Air Force (No. 40 Sqn) taxi in formation during a multinational “elephant walk” at Andersen Air Force Base, in Guam.

“Operation Christmas Drop 2022” graphic placed onto a C-130J Super Hercules assigned to the 36th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron at Yokota Air Base, Japan, Nov. 16, 2022. The artwork celebrates the 71st annual Operation Christmas Drop which is the longest-running Department of Defense humanitarian and disaster relief mission. Each year, the USAF partners with countries in the Pacific Air Forces area of responsibility to deliver supplies to remote islands in the South-Eastern Pacific. (U.S. Air Force photo by Yasuo Osakabe)

U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Jeffrey Furnary, 36th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron director of operations, uses a radio to communicate with C-130 pilots at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, Dec. 10, 2022, during Operation Christmas Drop 2022. 

(Right to Left) A Japan Air Self-Defense Force C-130H Hercules assigned to the 401st Tactical Airlift Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force C-130J Super Hercules assigned to the 37 Squadron, Republic of Korea Air Force C-130H Hercules assigned to the 251st Tactical Air Support Squadron, Royal New Zealand Air Force C-130H Hercules assigned to 40 Squadron, and U.S. Air Force C-130J Super Hercules assigned to the 36th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron sit on the flightline at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam

Seven C-130 Aircraft from the U.S. Air Force, Republic of Korea Air Force, Japan Air Self-Defense Force, Royal Australian Air Force, and Royal New Zealand Air Force take part in an elephant walk to signify the end of Operation Christmas Drop 2022, Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, Dec. 10, 2022. 

U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Jeffrey Furnary, 36th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron director of operations, salutes to an Air Force C-130J Super Hercules’ crewmembers at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, Dec. 10, 2022, during Operation Christmas Drop 2022. 

In all, the C-130 crewmembers delivered 209 bundles with humanitarian aid totaling more than 71,000 pounds of cargo to more than 22,000 remote Micronesian islanders on 56 islands throughout the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of Palau.

This broke last year’s record of 185 bundles.

These included snorkels, flippers and fishing equipment; rice, eskies, containers and cookware; and gifts including colouring pencils, books, sporting equipment and toys.

The box-build process gets a lot of involvement on base from the community, cumulating in a “Bundle Build Day” at Andersen.

After rigging, Andersen’s 734th Air Mobility Squadron and the 44th Aerial Port Squadron (Reserve Component) Port Dawgs partnered to load the 450-pound chute-rigged bundles and service the C-130s for continued sorties.

“It remains the longest-running U.S. Department of Defense humanitarian and disaster relief mission that is supported by multiple Herc fleets from across the region.”

Red Arrow at War

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80 Years Ago: Papua, New Guinea, December 1942:

“Red Arrow at War by Michael Gnatek” via the U.S. Army National Guard Heritage Painting Program.

The 32nd Infantry Division, known as the “Red Arrow” Division. made up of units from the Michigan and Wisconsin National Guards (126th Infantry Regiment, 127th Infantry Regiment, and the 128th Infantry Regiment), was mobilized on 15 October 1940.

Slated to depart for Northern Ireland after World War II began, the division was diverted to the Pacific at the last minute, arriving in Australia in May 1942. Elements moved to Port Moresby, New Guinea in September 1942, in order to halt the Japanese invasion which threatened Australia. The Red Arrow’s 126th Infantry Regiment went by ship; the 128th Infantry was airlifted in the first mass troop movement by air in World War II. Joining the Australians, the 32d entered combat on 16 November 1942.

Soldiers from the 32nd “Red Arrow” Division’s 2nd Battalion, 127th Infantry Regiment adjust their clothing and equipment after disembarking a transport plane that brought them from Port Moresby to the Dubadura air strip eight miles south of Buna, Papua New Guinea Dec. 15, 1942. Note the boonie hats–M1941 Herring Bone Twill (HBT) sun hats– M1905 bayonets, and serious love of multiple Thompson pouches per user. U.S. Army Signal Corps photo

32nd “Red Arrow” Division Soldiers position themselves behind a captured Japanese breastwork near Cape Endaiadere, New Guinea, Dec. 21, 1942. Note the M1928 and boonie hats. U.S. Army Signal Corps photo

The Allied forces were to take heavily-fortified Japanese positions at Buna, on New Guinea’s southeast coast. It proved to be one of the most difficult campaigns of the war. Fighting in the hot, steamy jungles, the 32d was desperately short of basic equipment, weapons, medicine, and even food. In the terrible heat and drenching rain the men of the 32d, many of them burning with fever, had to reduce Japanese positions one at a time, usually by rushing them with grenades. Most of the Japanese fought to the death, but finally, on 2 January 1943, Buna fell.

It was the Japanese Army’s first defeat in modern history, but for the 32d Division the cost was high: 1,954 were either killed or wounded, with 2,952 hospitalized due to disease.

After Buna, the 32d participated in the long campaign to drive the Japanese from the rest of New Guinea and went on to see heavy fighting in the Philippines.

Across 654 Days of Combat– twice the average amount seen by most divisions in the European Theatre of Operations– the 32nd would suffer 7,268 casualties.

Today, the 32d Infantry Brigade, Wisconsin Army National Guard, continues to maintain the Red Arrow heritage.

The WARNG maintains an excellent photo depository of the Red Arrow in WWII.

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