Historic WWII PT Boat for Sale

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If you are around the New Orleans area and have some spare pocket change…

PT-8 underway, date and location unknown. Naval History & Heritage Command photo NH 100908

The aluminum hull PT-8 cruising at about 40 knots on the Delaware River near Philadelphia, PA, 29 June 1941. From U.S. Small Combatants: An Illustrated Design History by Norman Friedman, via Navsource.

Fast forward to today

*1939 PATROL TORPEDO BOAT P.T. 8/YF 110 WW2 HISTORY*

PT8 – YF110 – PATROL TORPEDO BOAT – 80 Foot Long 17 Foot Beam. All Aluminum Construction. 3 Axle Trailer included. Fitted with Twin Detroit Diesels 16cV71V’s (30 knots) Built at Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in 1939. A rare piece of history with Substantial Documentation and Records included in sale. According to historical experts, there are only 12 remaining PT Boats in the World. This boat was one of a few Navy Prototype boats. This boat was in service during WW2. This is the only known Aluminum hulled P.T. Boat in existence. Lengthy Documentation. Appraised at $3.75 Million in 2009 by 46 year Naval Expert. A variety of recent work has been completed on the boat. 110V power – New Gearbox. Shafts Heat Exchangers. Propellers. Hull is in excellent condition. Engines are started regularly and run strong.

Beautiful Helm. Looks Fantastic in the Water. Email me @ davoinnuevo@gmail.com for Videos or additional information on this Boat. All information provided in this add is subject to review of all documentation held by seller. Potential buyer can review and confirm accuracy of specifics provided at the time of viewing the vessel.

Asking $675,000 USD. Located in Louisiana USA.

Price does not include transportation or international customs/VAT etc. We can refer you to a shipper and or Import Professional.

BRIEF HISTORY: PT-7 Class Aluminum-hulled Motor Torpedo Boat (Prototype) – District Patrol Craft

  • Built by Philadelphia Navy Yard, Philadelphia, PA
  • Ordered, 23 June 1939 Laid down, 29 December 1939
  • Launched, 29 October 1940
  • Placed in service with Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 1 as PT-8, 25 February 1941
  • Transferred to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 2, 13 August 1941
  • Reclassified District Patrol Craft YP-110, 14 October 1941
  • Assigned to Inshore Patrol, Fourth Naval District, 1942

Just Ruger giving the folks what they want

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Bill Ruger, for all his faults, wasn’t stupid. He started his company from his garage in the late 1940s by making a simple and affordable .22LR pistol. Fast forward almost 75 years later, and the publicly-traded giant that has a $130 million cash reserve even after buying Marlin is still playing the classics.

In 2019, their simple and affordable .22LR single-action revolver, dubbed the Wrangler, was launched and, at a $269 entry point, has been extremely successful. Now for 2023, they have expanded it to include a “Sheriff” version which is chopped down from a 4.62-inch barrel to a 3.75-inch format, and have gone even longer with 6.5- and 7.5-inchers.

Overall length is 13 inches on the Ruger Wrangler with the 7.5-inch barrel, seen at the top, compared to 8.62 inches on 3.75-inch barreled “Birdshead” Wranglers, 10.25 inches on standard-sized models with 4.62-inch barrels, and 12 inches on 6.5-inch models. (Photo: Ruger)

The new long-format guns mimic the old Ruger Single-Six Buntlines, which have been in and out of production with 9.5-inch barrels, and the New Model Single-Six, which has a 6.5-inch barrel – but costs much more than any Wrangler.

The Ruger New Model Single-Six, with a 6.5-inch barreled offering, is a much nicer .22 but costs about twice as much as a Wrangler, when you can find them.

The price is still $269, asking, which translates to $199 at the gun counter.

Bill Ruger would recognize the game.

Warship Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2023: Diving the New World

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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, Jan. 4, 2023: Diving the New World

Via Peru’s Dirección de Intereses Marítimos which has a great collection of period images from the submarine’s construction digitized. Image 00631-15

Above we see the early French Creusot-built submarine BAP Teniente Ferré of the Peruvian Navy, nestled inside the transport dock ship Kanguroo in the summer of 1912. The first operational diesel-electric boat in Latin America, she was of an interesting design that just screams “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” and, while she never saw overt combat, ushered in a long tradition of submarine operations for Peru– one that has lots of ties to the U.S. Navy.

Peru arguably had one of the first attempts at submarine combat in Latin America. The country started off its involvement with subs back in the 1880s when one Federico Blume y Othon came up with a small hand-cranked Toro Submarino submersible equipped with a cable-laid torpedo (more of a mine) that was neat but not successful, although it was an interesting footnote to the War of the Pacific between Peru, Bolivia and Chile.

Fuente: Museo de la Marina de Guerra del Perú, sección de Submarinistas, via Superunda.

This circa 1981 model of Toro is in the Internationales Maritimes Museum Hamburg

Following the wholesale destruction of the Peruvian Navy in the War of the Pacific, the country went into a slow rebuilding process that, by 1904, brought in a French naval mission led by Commander Paul de Marguerye. The Peruvian Naval Academy was stood back up and new, modern warships were ordered from Europe including the scout cruisers BAP Almirante Grau and BAP Coronel Bolognesi (3,100 tons, 24 knots, 2×6″ guns) from Vickers in Britain, the old French armored cruiser Dupuy de Lome (6,300 tons, 20 knots, 2×7.6in, 6×6.4 in guns, launched 1890) which was intended to be brought into service as BAP Comandante Aguirre, and two submarines from Schneider & Cie Le Creusot.

This brings us to Teniente Ferré and her sister, BAP Teniente Palacios, both named for young naval officers killed heroically at the Battle of Angamos in 1879.

Ordered in early 1909, French naval engineer Maxime Laubeuf designed them—the man who had designed France’s first submarines (the Narval and the Aigrette) and was one of the first pioneers to realize that two different propulsion systems (for surfaced running and submerged) were needed for a submarine to be practical.

At 151 feet overall and with a submerged displacement of 440 tons, the Ferres could make 13 knots on the surface with a pair of Schneider-Carels diesels and eight submerged on two electric motors arranged on two shafts. While not huge craft by today’s standards, they were large compared to contemporaries such as the American Holland class (110 tons, 64 feet) and British A-class (200 tons, 105 feet). Further, no country in Latin America at the time had anything comparable.

BAP Teniente Ferré at builder’s yard in France, April 1909. DIM 00750

BAP Teniente Ferré at builder’s yard in France, Oct 1909. Note her bow and inner hull. DIM 00631-07

BAP Teniente Ferré close to launching, noting flags and her very ship-like bow/hull form. Of interest, the two stacks are a breather and exhaust for her diesels as well as each holding a periscope. The class could therefore snorkel while her decks were awash, albeit dangerously. DIM 00631-06-1

When it came to armament, rather than the confusing Drzewiecki drop collar external trapeze framework favored by the French and the Russians at the time, the Peruvian submarines would carry a brace of four forward 450mm torpedo tubes that, if loaded, could have a further four torpedoes stored for a reload inside the hull. There was no provision for a deck gun.

Capable of diving to 100 feet, they carried enough diesel oil to cruise on the surface for 2,000 nm at 10 knots.

BAP Ferre engine compartment, with César A. Valdivieso and David C. Maurer. DIM 00631-04-1

BAP Teniente Ferré test dives off Saint-Mandrier-Sur-Mer near Toulon, the summer of 1912. Note the French ensign. DIM 00631-10-scaled

BAP Teniente Ferré test dive off Saint-Mandrier-Sur-Mer, summer of 1912. DIM 00631-12-scaled

BAP Teniente Ferré test dive off Saint-Mandrier-Sur-Mer, summer of 1912. DIM 00631-11-scaled

The two submarines were completed by early 1911 and it had been decided that the best way to deliver them was via an innovative transport dock, dubbed the aptly named Kanguroo.

Built to another of Laubeuf’s designs, the curious 305-foot, 2,500-ton monster was a simple hermaphrodite steamship built around a central 120,000 cubic foot floodable well deck with watertight doors on its bow that allowed it to carry loads up to 185 feet in length and weighing as much as 3,700 tons– just perfect to carry a submarine on globe-trotting excursions.

Plan and drawing of Kanguroo. Via the 19 July 1912 issue of Engineering.

More on the details of Kanguroo. Via the 19 July 1912 issue of Engineering. “Besides serving for the transport of submarine boats, the main object for which she was built, the Kanguroo is to be utilized also for carrying heavy and bulky loads such as turbines, boilers, and so forth, which can be lowered into the hold amidships after lifting off the movable deck panels which cover it.

Kanguroo was launched by Forges et Chantiers de la Gironde on 12 April 1912 then began loading Ferre on 28 June at Saint-Mandrier-Sur-Mer and departed for Callao with the boat aboard on 30 July.

BAP Teniente Ferré in Kanguroo 19 July 1912 issue of Engineering a

BAP Teniente Ferré in Kanguroo 19 July 1912 issue of Engineering 

Note the cradle to hold Ferre inside Kanguroo. Via the Bibliotheque nationale de France (BnF)

The bow of Kanguroo had to be disassembled to load and unload floating cargo, a process that took the better part of a week and needed good weather in a sheltered harbor. Via the Bibliotheque nationale de France (BnF)

Ferre approaching Kanguroo. Via the Bibliotheque nationale de France (BnF)

Entering Kanguroo’s flooded well deck. Via the Bibliotheque nationale de France (BnF)

Via the Bibliotheque nationale de France (BnF)

A Johan and the whale moment. Via the Bibliotheque nationale de France (BnF)

Via the Bibliotheque nationale de France (BnF)

She arrived in Peru on 19 October, via São Vicente, Cape Verde, Buenos Aires, and Montevideo, and it took ten full days to disgorge the submarine, as Kanguroo’s bow had to be disassembled for the process.

Freed from her marsupial mothership, Ferre made her first dive in Peruvian waters on 5 November 1912.

BAP Teniente Ferré, including On deck, the engineer David C. Maurer, 2nd Lieutenant Daniel Caballero y Lastres, César A. Valdivieso, and J. Besnard. DIM 00631-03-1

Sobre cubierta el Teniente 2° Daniel Caballero y Lastres y Enrique Mazuré.

Kanguroo would go on to deliver Ferre’s sister ship, Palacios, in 1913, along with the Italian Fiat-built submarine F1 (300 tons, 150 feet oal, 2x450mm TT) to the Brazilian Navy. Ironically, the three Brazilian Fiats were ordered in direct response to the Peruvian boats, which were the first modern submarines operated by a Latin American fleet.

BAP Palacios DIM 00632-01

BAP Palacios DIM 00632-02

Peru BAP Ferre class, 1914 Janes. Note the image is from French trials off Toulon.

Palacios made her first dive in Peruvian waters on 5 November 1913, the first anniversary of Ferre’s inaugural plunge.

With both of Peru’s new subs delivered and operational in home waters, the Great War caught up to them and the French military mission was recalled to take part in the conflict. Likewise, this cut off the supply of spare parts, batteries, and specialized equipment to keep Ferre and her sister working, greatly reducing their time underway throughout the war.

In related news, the old cruiser Dupuy de Lome/BAP Comandante Aguirre would spend the war in French waters and would never actually make it to Peru. Her planned advance crew sailed home on a freighter. 

The most interesting footnote to Ferre’s service was an October 1915 collision with the interned German four-master cargo ship Omega (ex-Drumcliff). While the submarine would limp home with her scopes ripped nearly horizontal for extensive repairs, and Omega was later taken into service with the Peruvian Navy as a training ship, it was as close as Ferre would come to combat. 

Omega as Drumcliff, circa late 1880s. She would go on to be operated by Reederei Hamburger AG under a German flag until 1918 when the Peruvian Navy seized her to serve as a schoolship. Sold in 1926 to the Compañía Administradora del Guano in Callao, she would operate until 1958 when she was wrecked– at the time, the last tall ship in the guano trade. State Library of Victoria image SLV H99.220-2845

Ferre and Palacios would linger in their limited service until 1921 when they were ordered disarmed and subsequently disposed of. 

Epilogue

Ferre and Palacios would be remembered in a series of maritime art and postage stamps in their home country throughout the years. 

rescue ship submarine Kanguro in Palma de Mallorca

As for Kanguroo, the submarine-carrying dock ship, requisitioned by the French Navy at the outbreak of the Great War, she was torpedoed and sank at Madeira’s Funchal Roads on 3 December 1916 alongside the French gunboat Surprise (680 tons) and the elderly British cable layer SS Dacia (1,850 tons), by the famed U-boat ace Max Valentiner aboard U-38, who then leisurely bombarded the city’s submarine cable station and the electricity generators for two hours.

These exploits earned KptLt Valentiner the Blue Max, only the sixth U-boat commander awarded the Pour le Mérite.

Kanguroo (foreground) sinking, 3 December 1916, via the Museu de Fotografia da Maderia

Meanwhile, Ferre and Palacios would be far from the last Peruvian submarines.

To replace the two cranky French boats, the country ordered a quartet of gently larger U.S.-made vessels, sparking a long run of close U.S-Peruvian submarine partnerships. Those four 187-foot R-class submarines— BAP Islay (R-1), BAP Casma (R-2), BAP Pacocha (R-3), and BAP Arica (R-4)— were ordered from the Electric Boat Company in Connecticut, and delivered in the mid-1920s.

The four Peruvian R-class subs. Built during Prohibition in Connecticut, they remained with the fleet until 1960

Carrying four torpedo tubes, these diesel-electric subs were involved in both the Colombian-Peruvian War and Peruvian-Ecuadorian War before being upgraded back at Groton to extend their life after WWII, at which point they were probably the last 1920s-era diesel boats still in front-line service. 

The crew of the Peruvian submarine R-2 in Newport, Rhode Island on October 26, 1926.

Peruvian submarine R-1 in Newport, RI, United States, in 1926.

Peru R class submarines BAP R-4, BAP R-3, BAP R-2, and BAP R-1. The photograph was taken before 1950 at the Callao Naval Base

Of note, the U.S. Navy used some 27 R-class boats of their own.

R-1 Class (Peruvian Submarine) Caption: Two of four ships, R-1 to R-4, were built in the U.S. in 1926-28 and scrapped in 1960. Probably photographed in the 1950s. Description: Courtesy Dr. R. L. Scheina. Catalog #: NH 87842

To replace these were four more Electric Boat-produced modified U.S. Mackerel-class submarines ordered in 1953. Termed the Abtao-class in service, the quartet– BAP Lobo/Dos de Mayo (SS-41, BAP Tiburon/Abato (SS-42), BAP Atun/Angamos (SS-43), and BAP Merlin/Iquique (SS-44)— remained operational in one form or another into 1998.

Peru then picked up a pair of aging U.S. Balao-class diesel boats in 1974–  BAP Pabellón de Pica/La Pedrera (SS-49), ex-USS Sea Poacher (SS/AGSS-406) and BAP Pacocha (SS-48), ex- USS Atule (SS-403)— which they kept in service as late as 1995.

BAP Dos de Mayo, Peruvian submarine

Peru has since acquired six German-built Type 209 (1100 and 1200 series) boats, commissioned starting in 1974:

BAP Angamos (SS-31)
BAP Antofagasta (SS-32)
BAP Arica (SS-36)
BAP Chipana (SS-34)
BAP Islay (SS-35)
BAP Pisagua (SS-33)

The evolution looks like this, including the domestic design, two French boats, 10 American boats, and six German boats, spanning from 1880:

And have effectively been the U.S. Navy’s designated West Coast SSK OPFOR team for the past twenty years. 

Peruvian Type 209s have deployed to Naval Base Point Loma as part of the Diesel-Electric Submarine Initiative (DESI) program no less than 18 times since 2001, typically a 2-3 month deployment that sees the submarino both serve as a “target” for ASW forces and work alongside surface assets to better interoperate in multi-national task forces.

“Each year, Submarine Squadron 11 looks forward to DESI and we are thrilled this year to be working with our Peruvian counterpart,” said Capt. Patrick Friedman, CSS-11 in 2019. “By having an SSK operate and train with us, it allows us to practice on a platform that has a similar signature to our adversaries. Not to mention, there is a great deal of diplomatic goodwill that is fostered through these engagements.”

140923-N-ZF498-067 ATLANTIC OCEAN (Sep. 23, 2014) Peruvian submarine BAP Islay (SS-35) pulls alongside the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71). Islay participated in a maneuvering exercise with Theodore Roosevelt, the guided-missile cruiser USS Normandy (CG 60), and the guided-missile destroyers USS Winston Churchill (DDG 81), USS Forrest Sherman (DDG 98), and USS Farragut (DDG 99). Theodore Roosevelt is currently out to sea preparing for future deployments. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Seaman Anthony N. Hilkowski/Released)

PACIFIC OCEAN (Nov. 1, 2019) An MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter from the Magicians of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 35 conducts a hoist exercise with the Peruvian navy submarine BAP Angamos (SS-31) off the coast of San Clemente Island. HSM-35 is conducting antisubmarine warfare training to maintain readiness by utilizing a live submarine. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Patrick W. Menah Jr./Released)

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!

Pacific Outpost Citadels: Full Speed Ahead in 2023

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Interesting year-end contract announcements from DOD, emphasis mine:

Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems, Moorestown, New Jersey, is being awarded an undefinitized contract action (UCA), with a not-to-exceed value of $527,740,864, inclusive of all options. This UCA will be awarded for a sole-source, hybrid (cost-plus-incentive-fee and cost-plus-fixed-fee) modification (P00054) under contract HQ085121C0002. This UCA expands performance of the Aegis Weapon System to implement Integrated Air and Missile Defense capabilities into an Aegis Guam System. An initial obligation of $11,394,512 using fiscal 2023 research, development, test and evaluation funds will occur at the time of award. The work will be performed in Moorestown, New Jersey, with period of performance from time of award through Dec. 31, 2027. The value of the contract increases from $811,633,012 by $425,365,356 to $1,236,998,368. The Missile Defense Agency, Dahlgren, Virginia, is the contracting activity.

Gilbane Federal, Concord, California, is awarded an $118,368,220 firm-fixed-price contract for the construction of reinforced concrete pads and foundations in support of the installation of the Tactical Mobile Over-the-Horizon Radar equipment in the Republic of Palau. Work will be performed in the Republic of Palau, and is expected to be completed by June 2026. Fiscal 2019 military construction (Air Force) funds in the amount of $20,043,496 will be obligated at time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Fiscal 2020 military construction (Air Force) funds in the amount of $98,324,724 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the System for Award Management website, with three proposals received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Pacific, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, is the contracting activity (N62742-23-C-1311).

Atlantic Diving Supply Inc., Virginia Beach, Virginia, has been awarded a $150,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for airfield damage repair equipment. This contract provides updated capabilities to rapidly recover damaged airfield pavements. Work will be performed in Virginia Beach and is expected to be completed Dec. 28, 2027. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition and five offers were received. No funding is being obligated at the time of award. The 772nd Enterprise Sourcing Squadron, Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, is the contracting activity (FA8051-23-D-0001).

Battle for Angaur Island, Palau Islands, September 17-October 22, 1944. Amphtracs Smash Against the Beach of Angaur. Guns ready, grim-faced Army-Infantrymen sweep toward the beach of Angaur island in the Palaus. This sharp photo of amphibious invasion was made by a Coast Guard Combat Photographer heading toward the beachhead in the first waves. It shows at close range an LVT(A) churning through the surf. Its caterpillar treads enable the landing vehicle tanks armored to creep over the hidden reefs that sometimes block the LCVPs (LOC LC-USZ62-99393)

18 Months with a Mini Bull along for the ride

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I’ve been living with the Taurus GX4 micro compact 9mm for a year and a half on a daily basis and put well over a thousand rounds through it. It has surprised me, for sure.

Taurus introduced the GX4 to the world in May 2021, and I was able to get an early test model from the company slightly before. A good sequel to the company’s budget line of increasingly well-made and dependable G2 and G3 series pistols, the GX4 was more of the same, only smaller and with a better trigger.

When compared to more recently introduced double-stack micro 9s with similar magazine capacity, the GX4 was smaller than a lot of the big names, seen stacked side-by-side with the Springfield Armory Hellcat Pro, SIG Sauer P365 XMacro, and Kimber R7 Mako.

Designed for personal carry, the GX4 proved such an easy carry – just 24.8 ounces when fully loaded with 14 rounds of 124-grain Gold Dot– that it has become my go-to of late. Of note, that is the same magazine capacity as on the vaunted Browning Hi-Power, my first carry gun back in the late 1980s.

I’ve been carrying the GX4 in a DeSantis Gunhide Inside Heat, a bare-bones minimum IWB holster built from black saddle leather, and it just disappears. The pistol is, realistically, just slightly taller than a pocket gun but comes ready with 13+1 rounds.

More in my column at Guns.com.

Now THAT is how you do a Recognition Test

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I just love ship, aircraft, and vehicle recognition tests and flashcards, something I dug ever since I was a kid and saw the posters on the walls of Cary Grant’s cabin in the WWII Coastwatcher comedy Father Goose.

I can’t tell you how many different decks of these I have on the shelf! And don’t even get me started on how many dusty old volumes of Jane’s Fighting Ships I have.

However, as anyone can tell you from actual spotting work, those flat diagrams and silhouettes leave much to be desired when it comes to actually being able to tell things apart in real life.

Enter a recent NATO exercise in the Baltics as part of the Iron Spear armored gunnery competition saw 34 teams from 13 NATO countries deploy to Latvia to strut their stuff. With so much dissimilar equipment on hand, it seemed the perfect time to do some real-world up close and personal recognition training.  

How many can you identify?

Got $110K and want to be in a club?

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Pennsylvania’s Cabot Guns has released (most) of their picks for the upcoming 2023 Gun of the Month Club Collection. Now the company, which has done this for the past three years, is the one that makes all those far-out 1911s crafted out of meteors, so keep in mind that they make above-top-shelf stuff specifically for collectors with deep pockets.

A club member, if selected, has to pay $110K but they get a limited edition 1911 shipped to their FFL each month, all with a theme. While that is a bit high– over $9,000 per gun on average– some of these actually look kind of cool.

Of course, in the words of Groucho Marx, “I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.”

  • January – The Belligerent Rhone 9 mm – A loud yet elegantly functional bull barrel beauty
  • February – The Sandrin 1911 .45 ACP – The Fibonacci number sequence meets 1911
  • March – The Midnight Standard .45 ACP – A unique take on a favorite Commander pistol
  • April – Hunt Club .45 ACP – A collector-prized beauty with classic styling cues
  • May – The American Flair 1911 .45 ACP – An engraved collaboration with Master Engraver Otto Carter
  • June – The Bedside Demon 9 mm – An intense patterned stainless Damascus pistol
  • July – The Aristocrat .45 ACP – A class-ruling colossal 1911-style pistol.
  • August – Icon Royale .45 ACP.  Minimalism in 1911 in regal bold colors.
  • September – Apocalypse Deluxe 9 mm.  Mechanical innovation in our Vintage Classic finish.
  • October – La Arabesque .45 ACP – An engraved collaboration Master Engraver Lee Griffiths
  • November – The Hulk .45 ACP.  Hulk will smash expectations, two-tone, swooping serrations.
  • December – Top Secret.

January – Belligerent Rhone

February – Sandrin 1911

March – Midnight Standard

April – Hunt Club

May – The American Flair 1911

June – The Bedside Demon

July – The Aristocrat

August – Icon Royale

September – Apocalypse Deluxe

October – La Arabesque

Cabot November Hulk

Oh what a night!

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Here’s hoping your New Year’s is off to a better start!

Official caption: “New Years’ morning, 1945, found this Douglas C-47 cargo carrier of the 14th AF on a China Road after a moonlit landing.”

“U.S. Air force Number 3A00987. Print received 16 Feb 1945 from BPR (Air Forces Group) Stamped: Passed for pub., U.S. Army Press Censor.” NARA 342-FH_000382

Fighting the battle of “the Hump” just to get into the War, the Fourteenth Air Force’s work in the China Burma India Theater (CBI), from inheriting the Flying Tigers of Claire Chennault’s American Volunteer Group just after Pearl Harbor and morphing to the China Air Task Force (CATF) before becoming the full-fledged 14th AF in March 1943, then two years fighting the Japanese across the sub-continent are largely forgotten.

Nonetheless, as noted by the National Museum of the USAF:

Despite supply problems, the 14th Air Force grew from fewer than 200 aircraft to more than 700 planes by the end of the war. American airmen in China destroyed and damaged more than 4,000 Japanese aircraft during the war. They also sank more than a million tons of shipping and destroyed hundreds of locomotives, trucks, and bridges while helping to defeat the Japanese in China.

“… I judge the operations of the 14th Air Force to have constituted between 60 percent and 75 percent of our effective opposition in China. Without the (14th) air force we could have gone anywhere we wished.” – Lt. Gen. Takahashi, Japanese Chief of Staff in China.

Who’s That Sleeping in My Bed? (Singapore Edition)

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80 Years Ago Today: The Imperial Japanese Navy’s Myōkō-class heavy cruiser Ashigara pictured under refit in the King George VI (KG6) graving dock (drydock) at the occupied Royal Navy Base at Seletar, Singapore, on 31 December 1942, at the time run by the No.101 Naval Construction and Repair Department of the IJN.

The largest drydock in the world at the time, KG6 had only opened on 15 February 1938 after a decade of construction, and went 1,000 feet in length, was 130-feet wide and 35-feet deep, capable of accommodating any British battleship ever built.

The 80,000-ton, 1,004-foot (wl) ocean liner RMS Queen Mary in Singapore KG6 Graving Dock, Aug 1940. She, along with several other liners, was converted into a troopship to carry Australian and New Zealand soldiers to the United Kingdom (Australian War Memorial image 128444)

Just days after the fall of Singapore three years later, the dockyard was buzzing again with local Chinese, Malay and Indian workers, alongside impressed British POWs, all busy repairing sabotage carried out by the Royal Navy and before the year was out, the KG6 was accommodating key IJN units, with the Takao-class heavy cruiser Chokai repaired there in late February 1942– only two weeks after Singapore surrendered.

The dock soon became a target of Allied air forces as the war came back to Singapore and by February 1945 KG6 was put out of service via a 100-aircraft B-29 raid, with the IJN fleet oiler Shiretoko inside. However, like a phoenix, the dock was back in service once said tanker was cleared out within a year of VJ Day.

Today part of the Sembawang Shipyard, KG6 remains in use alongside the even larger 400,000 DWT capacity Premier Dock built in the 1970s, as well as three large floating docks.

As for Ashigara, the big Japanese cruiser shown in the top image, she was, somewhat appropriately, sunk by the British submarine HMS Trenchant in the Bangka Strait, 8 June 1945– while en route back to Singapore.

80 Years Ago: Essex, Arriving

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In perhaps the most welcomed addition to any fleet, ever, some 80 years ago today on New Year’s Eve 1942, the U.S. Navy changed the status of USS Essex (CV-9) to “in commission.”

The brand-new USS Essex (CV-9) underway at 1615 hrs. during May 1943, in position 37 05’N, 74 15’E, as photographed from a blimp from squadron ZP-14. Among the aircraft parked on her flight deck are 24 SBD scout bombers (parked aft), about 11 F6F fighters (parked in after part of the midships area) and about 18 TBF/TBM torpedo planes (parked amidships). 80-G-68097

The new 27,000-ton 872-foot fleet carrier, the first of a planned 32-ship class– the numerically largest envisioned in the history of full-sized flattops– had been rushed to be sure. Laid down on 28 April 1941 at Newport News while the country was in a cautious neutrality period in the Second World War, by the time she was commissioned 20 months later the Navy had seen its pre-war carrier force whittled down from seven to just three after the loss of USS Lexington (CV-2), USS Yorktown (CV-5), USS Hornet (CV-8) and USS Wasp (CV-7), sunk in just a five-month period between May and September 1942 in action against the Japanese.

While the Navy had rushed a new class of light carriers from converted cruiser hulls and escort carriers using first fleet oilers then merchant hulls into service and even borrowed the occasional armored-deck flattop from the British, Essex and her sisters were needed for fast fleet operations of the sort the CVLs and CVEs just weren’t suited.

And Essex would be very busy over the next 31 years, fighting in two hot and one cold wars, and undergoing a radical conversion to allow her to operate aircraft of types unimagined in 1942. 

USS Essex (CV 9) during Okinawa operations, 20 May 1945. 80-G-373816

USS Essex (CV 9) underway during her first Korean War deployment, circa August 1951-March 1952. Two F2H-2 Banshees of Fighter Squadron 172 (VF-172) are flying by in the foreground, preparing to land. The nearest plane is Bureau # 124954. The other is probably Bu # 124969. NH 97270

USS Essex takes spray over the bow while steaming in heavy seas, 12 January 1960. Note S2F type airplane at the rear of the flight deck, with its engines turning. Other planes visible, amidships, including AD and F4D types. NH 98517

Before she was stricken from the Navy List in 1973, Essex received the Presidential Unit Citation and 13 battle stars for World War II service then add 4 battle stars and the Navy Unit Commendation for Korean war service, in addition to helping hold the line throughout two decades of the Cold War against the Soviets.

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