On the 130th birthday of Hanoveran-born Prussian army reformer Gerhard von Scharnhorst, 12 November 1955, West German Defense Minister Theodor Blank inspected 101 men who, clad and armed with surplus U.S. GI gear and equipment, would be sworn in to become the first soldiers of the modern federal army, the Bundeswehr’s Heer.
Yesterday was the Bundeswehr’s 70th birthday and Scharnhorst’s 200th.
A bit of classic Cold War Bundeswehr time machine here:
Ein Soldat der ABC-Abwehrtruppe markiert den Fundort einer radioaktiven Strahlung im Gelände, Ort unbekannt im Jahr 1956. Altarchiv V-28. Gewher 1 rifle
Kradmelder fährt mit seinem Motorrad vom Typ DKW RT 175 VS bei der Ausbildung durch unwegsames Gelände im Juni 1960. Altarchiv V-9 412555 3283
Ein Soldat mit Funkgerät PRC-6/6 setzt eine Meldung ab im Herbst 1964. Altarchiv V-26 417929
Übernahme der Kampfpanzer M 41 auf Truppenübungsplatz.
West German panzergrenadier jumping off a M48 Patton during the Cold War, HK G3 in hand.
1991: Soldiers of Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion 2 from Hessisch-Lichtenau practice airborne surveillance of large areas in cooperation with Hueys der Heeresflieger in the Höxter area. (Photo: Jan-P. Weisswange/Soldat und Technik)
Our Bundeswehr is Hiring Volunteers, West Germany, circa 1955
At its peak in 1989, the Bundeswehr had 509,100 uniformed military personnel, another 130,000 civilians, and 1.3 million uniformed reservists– the capability to put nearly 2 million in the field out of a population of 78 million.
Today, even with absorbing its smaller East German neighbor and a population of 84 million, the Bundeswehr can only claim 182,496 active-duty military personnel and 80,770 civilians, along with 860,000 reserves (but of the latter, just 50,000 are drilling, the rest in an IRR type of situation). Moves are afoot to push that to 260,000 active and 200,000 drilling reserve with another 1 million IRR type reserves “on paper” by 2031.
Conscription is still authorized under the federal constitution, but hasn’t been turned on since 2011. That could change, with something like a short (3-6 months) active service training period, then transitioning to a six-year drilling reserve stint.
The crew of USCGC Resolute (WMEC 620) poses for a group photo during a drug offload at Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg, July 17, 2025. Resolute deployed in support of Joint Interagency Task Force-South (JIATF-South), an interagency and international task force that conducts counter-illicit trafficking and security cooperation operations in the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Riley Perkofski)
The Coast Guard announced last week that it exceeded its fiscal year 2025 (FY25) recruiting goals, achieving the highest accession numbers since 1991.
The Coast Guard accessed 5,204 active-duty enlisted service members in FY25, which was 121% of its FY25 target of 4,300. This success was the second year in a row that the Coast Guard met its active-duty enlisted recruiting goals after the Service brought in 4,422 new service members last year.
In addition to the success of the active-duty enlisted recruiting efforts, the Service commissioned 371 new officers to achieve 101% of the overall goal. This represents the largest officer target achieved in recorded history.
In the reserve component, the Coast Guard accessed 777 reservists, which was 104% of the official target of 750. This was the third year in a row that the Coast Guard met its recruiting goals for the Coast Guard Reserve.
The Coast Guard opened 7 new recruiting offices in FY25 and has been expanding its CGJROTC program, which is now at 14 units, with program-wide enrollment of over 1,200 cadets.
In conjunction with those numbers, the service, a few days ago, announced an RFI to identify prospective locations for an additional training center “that can be used to support projected service growth of up to 15,000 personnel.”
The authorized strength of the USCG is 44,500 active-duty members, and approximately 7,000 reservists, with another 8,577 civilian employees, and 21,000 volunteers in the Coast Guard Auxiliary.
The center would need to have:
Lodging for 1,200 recruits
A dining facility capable of seating 400 personnel
A medical facility to support 1,000 personnel (minimum 200 medical encounters and 200 dental encounters per day)
14 classrooms sized to accommodate 30-60 students
An auditorium with a capacity of 500+ students
A pool with 6 lanes, 25 yards in length, and a minimum depth of 4 feet
A multipurpose gymnasium/athletic/sports facility suitable for sitting 1,200 personnel
Office space for 400 staff members
A land area of 150-250 acres
Proximity to a small commercial service or larger airport within 30 miles.
If you enjoy my always ad-free Warship Wednesday content, you can support it by buying me a cup of joe at https://buymeacoffee.com/lsozi As Henk says: “Warship Coffee – no sugar, just a pinch of salt!”
Above we see the Dutch Admiralen-class torpedobootjager (destroyer) Hr. Ms. Banckert (BK)as she appeared sometime between 1931 and 1942. She was commissioned 90 years ago this week and is sadly almost forgotten, although she often came through in the clutch when the chips were down.
The Yarrow Admiralen 8-pack
In November 1923, the British Admiralty issued a request to the major shipyards specializing in escorts for designs of the first destroyers to be built for the Royal Navy since the end of the Great War. The tender was awarded jointly the next year for two prototype ships, one from Thornycroft to become the future HMS Amazon, and the second from competitor Yarrow for what would become the future HMS Ambuscade (D38). Ambuscade, a two-funneled greyhound of some 322 feet overall length, had a narrow 31-foot beam and, with a 1,600-ton displacement, could float in just nine feet of water.
Armed with four BL 4.7″/45 Mk I guns in single mounts with an armored shield, Ambuscade also carried six 21-inch torpedo tubes in two triple launcher turnstiles. Powered by a pair of geared turbines on triple Yarrow (who else?) 4-drum boilers, she had 35,000shp on tap and could make 37 knots.
HMS Ambuscade Yarrow ad, 1929 Janes
Profile plan of an Acasta (A class) destroyer, 1927, based on Ambuscade. NPA4551
While Ambuscade would serve through WWII and lead to the follow-on 20-ship A- and B-class destroyers for the Royal Navy, which were basically the same ship but a little slower and with a heavier armament, the design proved a hit for Yarrow when it came to export.
The Portuguese ordered five Douro-class destroyers to the Ambuscade design (two of which were resold to Colombia while still on the builder’s ways), and the Dutch would order another eight, each class with minor differences.
The eight Dutch ships would replace, on a one-for-one basis, the older Roofdier-class torpedobootjager, which were built on the eve of the Great War. Small, at just 500 tons/231-feet oal, the Roofdiers were cramped and poorly armed with just two 18-inch torpedo tubes and four low-angle 3″/52 guns. The new destroyers would be bound for the Dutch East Indies to bolster the defense of that far-off yet resource-rich colony.
Dubbed the Admiralen-class (Admiralenklasse) because they were all named after famous Dutch admirals, these Ambuscade clones had a similar layout to their British older sister but went a little lighter (1,337 tons) on the same-sized hull. A little slower due to a 31,000shp engineering plant, they could “only” make 34 knots, and they had about the same range (3,300nm @15 knots), but added a couple of tricks.
1929 Janes Dutch destroyers entry for the Yarrow type
Rather than the comparatively slower British BL 4.7s, the Dutch went with a four-pack of Swedish Bofors-made 4.7″/50 guns with only the most forward and most aft guns protected by shields.
Bofors 12 cm/50 (4.7″/50) Mark 4 guns on Dutch destroyer Kortenaer. Note the “A” mount has a shield, while the “B” mount does not. NIMH No. 2158_005426.
Firing Bofors 4.7-inch gun from Hr.Ms. Van Galen, Soerabaja, April 1936 2173-223-048
The unshielded Gun 2/Mount B of the destroyer Hr.Ms. Banckert, note the breechblock and gun clocks, 1933. 2173-223-002
For AAA (luchtdoelgeschut) use, the Admiralen carried one or two 3-inch guns (Bofors Mark 6 in early ships, a single HIH Siderius Mark 8 in latter ships) on a bandstand between the stacks and four .50 caliber Browning water-cooled mounts on deck. The second flight of four ships substituted four Vickers QF 2-pounder (40mm) guns instead of the second 3-incher.
A Bofors Mark 6 3″/55 AA Luchtafweer gun on Admiralen class torpedobootjager Hr.Ms. Kortenaer. Note what might be a fuze setter machine in the foreground. 2158_001019
Automatic 40mm Vickers Maxim QF 2-pounders on pedestal mounts in a Luchtdoelbatterij on the cruiser Java. Water-cooled and fed via 25-round cloth belts, the guns had been designed in 1915 as balloon-busters and could fire 50-75 rounds per minute. These are not to be confused with 40mm Bofors. Note the sunglasses of the operator closest to the camera.
Six torpedo tubes for Whitehead Type II/53 torpedoes, and mine handling gear (mechanical mine sweeping paravanes in the first four, mine laying tracks for 24 Vickers mines in the last four– the latter of which blocked the firing arc of the stern most 4.7-inch mount) rounded out the armament. Weight and space were reserved for depth charge racks and four throwers (with 12 “ash cans”,) although listening gear was only provided to two of the ships (Hr.Ms. Van Ghent and Witte de With) in 1941.
Admiralen-class torpedobootjager Hr.Ms. Van Nes (VN)Torpedolanceeroefeningen. The ships carried no torpedo reloads. 2158_005653
With a crew of about ~130 men, the Admiralens could land a light platoon size force of armed sailors and Marines (Korps Mariniers) for expeditionary landing division (landingsdivisie) service ashore, complete with cartridge belts, infantry uniforms with puttees, and 6.5x53mm Geweer M. 95 Dutch Mannlichers, as with these men of the class member Van Galen seen in Shanghai in 1932.
Despite their small size, the class was designed to carry and use a single embarked Fokker C.VII-W floatplane, although without a catapult. This means the Fokker had to be winched over the side for both takeoff and recovery, a time-consuming process.
The Marineluchtvaartdienst (Netherlands Naval Aviation Service) bought 30 pontoon-borne Fokker C.VII-W floatplanes in the late 1920s for use both ashore and from their warships in a reconnaissance/light strike role. Using a welded steel tube frame, the rest of the 32-foot aircraft was fleshed out in plywood and fabric. Powered by a 225hp Armstrong Siddeley Lynx 7-cylinder air-cooled radial piston engine, these were good for about 85 knots to a range of about 600nm and could carry two light bombs and an observer-mounted light machine gun. A baker’s dozen were sent to Morokrembangan in Java, operating alongside huge Dornier Do J Wal and later Dornier Do 24 flying boats, while the rest remained in Europe. 2158_061489
Fokker Hr.Ms. Witte de With at anchor at Kupang, September 1934 2173-223-014
The seaplane of the Admiralen-class destroyer Hr.Ms. Witte de With at anchor at Kupang, Timor, September 1934. 2173-223-014
Hr.Ms. Van Galen (1929-1940), een Fokker C-VII W lichte zeeverkenner July 1936 2173-223-057
Plane-carrying, torpedo-slinging, fast destroyers that doubled as minesweepers/layers. Not a bad concept.
Although to a British design and with a British powerplant and much equipment, all eight Admiralen were constructed in Holland, with the first flight of four (De Ruyter/Van Ghent,Evertsen, Kortenaer, and Piet Hein) all laid down in August 1925 from Koninklijke Maatschappij De Schelde (now Damen) and Burgerhout. The second flight of four (Van Galen, Witte de With, Banckert, and Van Nes) was ordered in 1927-28 from the same two yards as well as Wilton-Fijenoord.
All eight were delivered and in service by 1931.
Meet Banckert
Our subject carries the name of legendary 17th-century Dutch Luitenant-Admiraal Adriaan van Trappen Banckert, who played key roles during the victories of The Four Days’ Battle (Schoonebeld) in 1666, which pitted 84 Dutch ships vs 79 English, and the Two Days’ Battle (Kijkduin) in 1673, which saw 97 Dutch ships best a 130-strong Anglo-French force.
Admiral Banckert, born in 1615, was himself the son of an admiral, while his two brothers rose to the rank of captain (one posthumously), so it’s safe to say he came from a seagoing family. He shipped out as a lad with his pop, fighting Dunkirk pirates at sea before he was old enough to shave, became a ship’s master at the ripe old age of 24, and a commander two years later. He passed at age 68 while still holding a seat on the admiralty council, surpassing over a century of service.
She was laid down on 15 August 1928 at Burgerhout’s Machinefabriek en Scheepswerf NV near Rotterdam.
Launched 14 November 1929, she commissioned 11 November 1930.
Banckert was placed into service at Burgerhout’s, 11 November 1930. 2158_005115
As Banckert and Van Nes, also constructed side-by-side at Burgerhout, were the last flight, they had upgraded guns, including Mark 5 4.7″/50s rather than the Mark 4s in their sisters, in addition to the other above-mentioned changes.
Torpedobootjager Hr.Ms. Banckert 2158_005101
torpedobootjager Hr.Ms. Banckert 2000-372-015
Torpedobootjager Hr.Ms. Banckert 2158_000194
Torpedobootjager Hr.Ms. Banckert 2158_005104
Headed to the Far East by way of the Caribbean
All eight Admiralens spent the bulk of their career in the Far East, returning to Europe for refits and making the occasional call on Dutch colonies in the West Indies (e.g, Curacao) and South America (Guiana/Suriname) along the way back and forth to serve as a station ship when needed before the purpose-designed gunboat Hr.Ms. Johan Maurits van Nassau became the permanent station ship in the Dutch West Indies in 1933.
With that being said, Banckert left Nieuwediep on 12 January 1931, bound for Curacao, with stops at Lisbon, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, and Port of Spain before arriving at Willemstad on 7 February.
Departure of the destroyer Hr. Ms. Banckert from Den Helder, with many spectators on shore, headed to the Dutch West Indies, 12 January 1931. Regional Archief Alkmaar RAA003012918
She remained the station ship in the Dutch West Indies until November, when she sailed back to Nieuwediep. She remained in Dutch waters for the next 13 months, except for a summer training cruise to Scotland and a fortnight port call at Invergordon in July 1933.
On 14 December 1933, Banckert and her sister Van Nes waved goodbye to the crowds at Nieuwediep to begin their extended deployment to the Dutch East Indies, a trip of 9,900 miles.
Along the way, they made port calls at Tunis, Alexandria, Port Said, Perim (Yemen), and Colombo before arriving at Sabang on Sumatra on 25 January 1934, wrapping up the cruise in 42 days.
Banckert seen from the destroyer Van Nes in December 1933 in the Mediterranean Sea during the voyage to the Dutch East Indies. 2173-227-048
Participants at a lunch aboard the destroyer Hr.Ms. Banckert in Tunis at the end of 1933. 2173-227-024
Hr.Ms. Banckert in Alexandria, Egypt, where she and Van Nes spent the New Year, 30 December 1930 to 3 January 1934. 2173-227-027
The destroyers Hr.Ms. Van Nes and Hr.Ms. Banckert pass through the Suez Canal on 3 January 1934. 2173-227-052
Once in Indonesia, Banckert and most of her sisters formed a squadron around the light cruisers Hr.Ms Java and her twin Sumatra (the latter relieved after 1937 by the shiny new 7,900-ton Hr.Ms De Ruyter) then spent the next six years in a series of training maneuvers, naval parades, state visits, and sovereignty patrols.
January 1935, the Dutch East Indies squadron, including the cruiser Hr.Ms. Java and destroyer Hr.Ms. Banckert as seen from Hr.Ms. Van Nes. 2173-223-021
31 August 1935. The Dutch cruiser Java and destroyers Van Nes and Banckert moored on mooring buoys at Tandjoeng Priok. 2173-223-024
On 20 October 1936, Banckert became a lifeguard, rushing to the aid of the sinking Dutch KPM coastal liner Van der Wijck, which had capsized in calm weather while underway in the Java Sea. The destroyer joined with seven MLD Dornier Wal flying boats and three local vessels in helping to save 210 of the 268 people aboard.
KPM liner SS Van der Wijck (BRT: 2596), built in 1921. The vessel capsized a few hours after departure from Soerabaja for Semarang with the loss of 58 lives. Investigations later pointed to improper ballast water transfers by inexperienced crew, exacerbated by open lower deck portholes, as the cause of the accident.
The incident is infamous in the region, with Van der Wijck having something of a “Titanic of Indonesia” air about her, likely due to an enduringly popular Indonesian-language novel, “Tenggelamnya Kapal Van Der Wijck” (The Sinking of van der Wijck), written by Hamka in 1939, which was later turned into a movie, which was the highest-grossing Indonesian film of 2013.
War!
When the Germans marched into Poland in September 1939, the Netherlands remained a cautious, Allied-leaning neutral until invaded nine months later as the Wehrmacht swept through the Lowlands on the way to France. It was there that the Admiralen-class Hr.Ms. Van Galen, the only destroyer in Dutch European waters at the time, there for a refit, suffered a series of 30 air attacks while underway in the Nieuwe Waterweg and sank near Merwehaven on 10 May 1940.
On the other side of the globe in the Dutch East Indies, the remaining seven Admiralen-class sisters went on the warpath with the destroyers, in conjunction with local colonial troops, seizing 18 of 19 German merchant ships in Dutch territorial waters, long a haven in the Pacific from British and French patrols.
This came about due to a bit of cloak and dagger in which the PTT (Post, Telegraaf, en Telefoondienst) office in Soerabaja (Surabaya) withheld a coded German telegram, dated 9 May, directed to the respective captains of the interned German ships, ordering them to take flight on the eve of the invasion of the Netherlands. Passing it on to local intelligence instead, Dutch forces were able to swiftly capture 18 steamers with only the wily captain of the HAPAG freighter SS Sophie Rickmers (7,033 GRT) managing to scuttle his ship in harbor.
SS Sophie Rickmers.
Although declared a total loss at the time, Rickmers was raised, repaired, and put into Dutch service with KPM as SS Toendjoek. Rickmers/Toendjoek was later scuttled off the port of Tandjung Priok as a blockship during the Dutch evacuation of Java in March 1942 and raised a second time, then put under a meatball flag sailing for the Japanese as the Iino lines freighter Tango Maru. Tragically, the former German/Dutch freighter, packed with a mix of 3,500 local Javanese Romusha laborers and Allied (mostly Dutch Colonial) POWs, was torpedoed and sunk by USS Rasher (SS-269) 25 miles off Java on 25 February 1944, taking most of them to the bottom with her for her third and final time.
At the end of the day on 10 May 1940, the Dutch in the East Indies bagged 18 German merchant ships (19 once Rickmer was raised), and threw their crews and 2,400 German nationals over the age of 16 taken into custody across the islands into an internment camp where, besides their regular rations, they were issued “ten cigarettes a day and pocket money for refreshments.” Despite this easy treatment by the Dutch in Java, in July 1940, 231 members of the KNIL– the Dutch East Indies colonial army– who were on leave in the German-occupied Netherlands, were arrested by the Gestapo and thrown into concentration camps for the duration.
After that, the mobilized Dutch naval forces in the East Indies kept an eye peeled for German surface raiders and U-boats while on loose convoy duty and prepped to fight…
A whole new war
On 30 September 1940, Luitenant ter zee der 1e klasse (LTZ I) Lambert Johan Goslings, RNN, assumed command of Banckert, just days after Japanese troops entered French Indochina. The Sumatra-born Goslings was a career officer with 13 years of service behind him and had previously served on the Admiralen class destroyers Evertsen and Kortenaer, so he knew his trade.
Soon, with tensions building with the German-aligned Empire of Japan and the Western Allies, Banckert and the rest of the Dutch fleet in the Pacific began quietly exercising with the British forces in nearly Malaya and Australians to the south.
With a state of war existing between the Netherlands and Japan as of the morning of 8 December 1941, and with news of inbound Japanese troopship convoys sighted near Indochina, the Dutch fleet spent the next several weeks aggressively patrolling and…waiting.
In the meantime, Banckert and her sisters pitched in escorting British convoys from Africa and India, the final leg to Singapore, including Convoy BM 9A (1-2 January), Convoy BM 9B (4-6 January), Convoy DM 1 (11-13 January), and Convoy BM 10 (22-26 January).
By 1 February, Dutch RADM Karel Doorman’s joint ABDA Striking Force consisted of four cruisers, the De Ruyter (his flag), USS Houston, USS Marblehead, and Hr.Ms.Tromp, along with seven tin cans: U.S. Destroyer Division 58 led by CDR Binford on USS Stewart, with USS Edwards, USS Barker, and USS Bulmer; and a Dutch destroyer division commanded by LCDR Krips on Van Ghent, with the Piet Hein and Banckert.
While going after reported Japanese convoys in the Makassar Strait, Doorman’s cruiser-destroyer force was mauled by enemy land-based twin-engine bombers on 4 February, sending it back to port to lick its wounds. Although Banckert was so far unscathed, that would not continue.
On Valentine’s Day, Doorman’s Striking Force, augmented by two Australian cruisers, the Dutch cruiser Java, and three extra Dutch/U.S. destroyers, headed out to stop the Japanese Palembang invasion convoy. It was on this run that Van Ghent grounded on the Bamidjo reef between Banka and Billiton island while zipping through the Stolze Strait in the dark predawn of 15 February. Ordered to put down the wounded greyhound, Banckert closed with her stranded sister and took off her crew and sensitive materials, then pumped five broadsides into her bow, then retired to Surabaya with the extra crew.
Banckert was at Surabaya on 24 February when the port was attacked by Japanese bombers, with near misses cracking the destroyer’s hull in several places– knocking her out on the eve of the Battle of the Java Sea and the follow-on clash at Sunda Strait in which Doorman was killed and most of his ships were lost.
Put in the port’s 3,500-ton dry dock for emergency repairs, Banckert was again the subject of a very near miss on 28 February that damaged her stern. Meanwhile, the Japanese had landed on Java and were closing in on Surabaya.
With the call made to fire the port and evacuate what could be moved, the dock containing the evacuated Banckert was torpedoed by Hr.Ms. K XVII before the submarine submerged and made for Freemantle with the port’s commanding admiral aboard. Behind were left her damaged sister, Witte de With, similarly abandoned and scuttled, along with a mix of over 120 vessels either too old, small, or broken to make it to Australia.
Marine docks in Soerabaja. The photo was taken from the warehouse towards the East. Start of the destruction at 11:30 am. The 3,000-ton dry dock with the destroyer Hr.Ms. Banckert is seen sinking. On the right is the 227-ton tug/coastal minelayer Hr.Ms. Soemenep.
Surabaya, Java, Netherlands East Indies. 1942-02. Wrecked ships, including Banckert beside a wharf which is strewn with debris after bombardment during a Japanese air raid. Note the clouds of smoke behind the port facilities. (Navy Historical Collection) (Formerly Y043) AWM 306786
The crews of Banckert and Witte de With, their job as wreckers done, marched off to join Dutch Lt. Gen. Hein Ter Poorten’s land forces and continued to fight the Japanese until 8 March, when resistance collapsed. The Dutch radio station at Ciumbuluit signed off with “Wij sluiten nu. Vaarwel tot betere tijden. Leve de Koningin!” (We are closing now. Farewell till better times. Long live the Queen!)
With the port still ablaze, no less than 66,219 Dutch troops and sailors laid down their arms and marched off to begin more than four years of hard captivity.
All six of Banckert’s sisters in the Pacific– her entire class– were similarly lost in the first four months of the war against Japan.
Evertsen: Caught by the Japanese destroyers Murakumo and Shirakumo during her last sortie on the night of 27/28 February 1942 while trying to escape to falling Java for Colombo via the Sunda Strait, she was beached ablaze on the Seboekoe Besar reef. Nine men were killed, and others were captured and imprisoned for the duration of the war.
Wreck of Hr.Ms. Evertsen on the coastal reef of Seboekoe Besar Island, Sunda Strait, Dutch East Indies. The photo was taken in December 1945. 2158_005249
Piet Hein: Sunk in the February 19/20 night action while trying to intercept the Japanese invasion forces off Bali, she went down with the loss of 64 crew.
Van Ghent: As discussed above, she was accidentally reefed while on a sortie against the Japanese and abandoned.
Kortenaer: Took a torpedo from the Japanese heavy cruiser Haguro during the Battle of the Java Sea, which broke her back and sent her to the bottom with a third of her crew.
The sinking of the destroyer Hr.Ms. Kortenaer during the Battle of the Java Sea, 27 February 1942. Watercolor photo by JPM Wanders, one of the illustrations for the book “The Netherlands’ Naval Forces at War” by Lieutenant Commander A. Kroese, HMARVO, former commander of HNLMS Kortenaer. 2158_051000
Witte de With: Damaged at Java Sea and by a Japanese bomb to the fo’c’scle on 1 March, she was scuttled the next day.
Van Nes: Attacked and sunk by Japanese aircraft from the Japanese carrier Ryujo on 17 February 1942, with the loss of 68 crew.
Destroyer Hr.Ms.Van Nes (VN). Painting by Jos Wanders of the sinking south of Banka, during an escort voyage from Billiton to Java, 17 February 1942. 2158_005655
Under the Rising Sun
The water-logged Banckert was raised by the escort-poor Japanese in 1944, partially repaired, and put in service as the patrol craft PB-106.
On 23 October 1945, VADM Shibata Yaichiro, CINC, Second Southern Expeditionary Fleet, surrendered Java to Free Dutch Forces, and Banckert/PB-106 was returned to the Dutch, who eventually stripped the hulk and decommissioned the wreck from the Koninklijke Marine on 5 March 1947.
The almost unrecognizable ex-Banckert was sent to the bottom of the Madura Strait in September 1949, the last member of her class to take the plunge.
KITLV_MLD392_031
Ironically, she was sunk by the new (to the Dutch) British S-class destroyers Evertsen and Kortenaer.
KITLV MLD392 020, et. al
Epilogue
As for Banckert’s wartime skipper, LTZ I Goslings, he managed to escape Japanese custody and by September 1943, wearing a recently-awarded Bronzen Kruis, was once again on the bridge of a Dutch escort, commanding the Flower-class corvette Hr. Ms. Friso (K 00) on convoy duty in the Atlantic.
By late 1945, he was XO of the 14,000-ton escort carrier Hr. Ms. Karel Doorman (QH 1) (formerly the HMS Nairana D05) which operated with Hawker Sea Fury fighters against communist insurgents in the Dutch East Indies.
Neptune’s Day line crossing celebration aboard HNLMS Karel Doorman. Captain L.J. Goslings, first officer aboard HNLMS Karel Doorman, is in the middle with sunglasses, and is seen to the right with the crew. (NIMH 0018_101565)
In 1954-55, Kapitein-ter-zee Lambert Johan Goslings was skipper of the Dutch flagship, the Colossus-class light fleet carrier Hr. Ms. Karel Doorman (R81), ex-HMS Venerable, future ARA Veinticinco de Mayo.
The next year, RADM Gosling led the Dutch Navy’s 1,500-man Smaldeel 5 (Squadron 5), with his flag on the cruiser HNLMS De Zeven Provinciën, accompanied by the destroyers Friesland and Zeeland, on a tour of Europe, including a port call at Leningrad (St. Petersburg), laying a wreath at the city’s WWII memorial at Kronstadt. It was reportedly the first time Russian naval officers were welcomed aboard a Dutch warship since 1914.
RADM Goslings retired 1 on November 1956, capping 29 years of service, and passed in 1982, aged 77.
The Dutch remembered Banckert in a British-built Q-class destroyer, D801, previously HMS Quilliam, which was acquired in 1945 and scrapped in 1957. Notably, she served in the Dutch East Indies during the war with Indonesian separatists there.
Destroyer Hr.Ms. Banckert 1947 1957 2158_004000
The latest Banckert, (F810), a Kortenaer-class frigate, served with the Dutch fleet from 1980 through 2003 and continues to sail with the Greek Navy as the frigate Aigaion.
Dutch frigate HR MS BANCKERT (F-810) underway during Fleet Ex 1-90 Feb 1990 DN-ST-90-06944
Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive
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Even with the longest U.S. federal government shutdown in modern history and the cancellation of myriad Veterans Day parades, observations, and related airshows, some watches are still maintained.
At Arlington, the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, known as “The Old Guard,” continues to stand watch at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier 24/7 as it is considered a sacred, unquestionable duty. This perpetual watch is maintained regardless of weather or national events, and has been standing continuously since 1948.
An interview with Tomb Guards on what goes into the honor.
On a smaller level…
In Hattiesburg, for at least the past 35 years, the University of Southern Mississippi’s ROTC programs have performed a 24-hour vigil around the four granite pillars of Hattiesburg’s Veterans Memorial Park from 1100 on 10 November until the City’s Veterans Day ceremony begins the next day at 1100. The cadets take shifts in standing watch over the pillars bearing the names of the 173 individuals from the Hattiesburg area who died at war, from 1917 to the present day.
Although the “official” vigil was canceled due to the shutdown, volunteer cadets from USM’s Army and Air Force ROTC units, many not under scholarship, have begun the watch and held it overnight, with temperatures dropping into a hard freeze.
Beachcombers along Wharton Beach, southeast of Perth, came across an old bottle. Sealed, it contained two yellowed and deteriorating pencil-written letters.
Carefully retrieved, they were addressed from “somewhere at sea” and detailed an outward-bound leg on the troopship HMAT Ballarat, which departed Adelaide in August 1916, bound for the Great War in Europe.
Sadly, Neville would be killed months later in France and remains there with a white cross over his grave. Harley survived and returned home, but passed having never seen his letter again.
The families have been found and are finally set to receive their long-lost sea mail.
Weapons on hand for the 5th Marines, 9 November 1942, at Guadalcanal, including an interesting collection of H&R Reising submachine guns, M1928 Tommy guns, M1903 Springfields, M1911s, and Mr. Browning’s assorted .30-06 machine gun designs in M1917, M1918, and M1919 variants. Also noted are 28 beefy .50 cals, eight Lewis guns, and a whopping six Garands.
Beyond the above arsenal, of course, today is the 250th anniversary of the Corps.
Birthday message, narrated by the current Punisher, follows:
We came across the OMSsc while doing a review on a pistol and thought enough about it to do a separate review of the optic. Naturally, one would only do this to either be the town crier to shame the optic for poor performance, or to point out how original or pioneering it came across while in use. This review is the latter.
Springfield Armory sent us a Hellcat .380 for review purposes in August 2025 with a Shield OMSsc 4-MOA red dot installed– which has the same form factor and proven performance of the RMSc, but with a panoramic see-through top hood.
Since we spent three months running that pistol with this interesting new sight mounted, we felt a separate review of the sight was in order.
Candidly – and stay with me here – I am just not a fan of micro red dots on carry guns, despite having extensive use with both. Don’t get me wrong, I own probably 10 rifles right now with electro-optic red dots (Aimpoint PRO, Eotech XPS3, Vortex Spitfire, SIG Romeo 5) on them as well as several full-sized pistols with large mailbox-sized enclosed red dots (think ACRO, Steiner MPS, Burris Fast Fire E, etc) but have just always struggled to “find the dot” in a fast enough time on a open emitter MRD to justify losing a half-second on my draw.
I find myself faster on target when drawing a small gun from concealment when using iron sights. This may be because I’ve been shooting handguns for 40 years, with a lot of that being on guns with very poor sights (looking at you, J-frames). Micro carry red dots only came into play in the past decade, so I default to what I am comfortable using. On larger, more full-sized pistols, I can get a better grip and don’t suffer the same “bounce and adjust” when coming up on target, especially when using a big honking, almost competition-sized enclosed dot.
However, with the Shield OMSsc, I felt the time shift in bringing the dot to my eyes, a feeling more akin to using a larger sight. Cutting back on the hood without cutting back on the hood helped me to very rapidly “hook into” the dot, if you can follow.
TL;DR: I liked it and shot well with it, without having to search for the dot as much as I usually do with other open emitter red dots.
The Blue Ensign-flying Tide-class Royal Fleet Auxiliary fast fleet tanker Tidespring (A136)is a modern ship, commissioned in 2017.
At some 37,000 tons, the AEGIR-26 designed double-hulled auxiliary has three RAS stations, a hangar and flight deck for a Chinook-sized helicopter, and can tote 6.3 million gallons of deliverable avgas/fuel/POL while her efficient CODELOD engineering suite allows for sustained 20 knot speeds for 18,200 nm. She can carry 20 20-foot containers on deck.
Self-defense armament includes allowance for two CIWS and two 30 mm cannons, as well as additional GPMGs sprinkled around as needed.
Although manned by 63 civilians much like the MSC (although far worse paid) she can also carry 46 embarked personnel and is currently deployed 75 RFAs and 33 MoD personeel with the latter made up of an ASW-capable Merlin Mk 2 detachment from 814 (Swordfish) NAS, drone operator/maintainers and Puma UAVs from 700X NAS, and a ship’s protection detail of Royal Marines from 42 Commando.
Tidespring as seen from a Merlin Mk 2 from 814 NAS
700X NAS Puma UAV
42 Commando Royal Marines = guys you do not want to meet in the passageway
Since leaving England in April, Tidespring has sailed 36,358nm, most of that in support of the HMS Prince of Wales carrier group’s Op Highmast deployment to the Pacific, and has thus far delivered 79 replenishments while underway.
Besides PoW and her CSG25 group, Tidespring provided services to and sailed with four other allied flattop TFs– the USS America ARG, the USS George Washington CSG, the Japanese Kaga CSG, and the Indian INS Vikrant CSG.
Now, rounding the Cape of Good Hope alone on her way to the Caribbean as PoW is proceeding through Suez to the Med and home without her, Tidespring has a fourth equator crossing (no pollywogs there!) and another planned 13,457nm to go before spending Christmas deployed and a 2026 homecoming.
New York City. Some 80 years ago this week, 9 November 1945, from left to right, we see the troopship USS Europa (AP-177), the Iowa-class battlewagon USS Missouri (BB-63), and the famed ocean liner RMS Queen Mary at Pier 90. The ancient three-stack Tennessee-class cruiser-turned-receiving ship, USS Seattle (IX-39) [former USS Washington, ACR-11, disarmed in 1931], is to the far right.
Mary had just delivered 11,209 troops back to the States from Southampton, who were taken directly across the river to New Jersey for demobilization.
The Europa, formerly a German Norddeutscher Lloyd liner taken in May 1945 as a war prize, had just disembarked nearly 10,000 troops herself.
I spent the week at the Guns.com Vault in Minnesota filming podcasts with guests and friends, so you know I had to go poring through the thousands of firearms in “the stacks” of the warehouse.
I give you a 1916-marked lP08 “Lange” Luger made by DWM (Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken). The 8-inch barreled lP08 was adopted in 1913 to replace the thoroughly obsolete Reichsrevolver in use by the German field artillery.
Widely thought of as rare, they aren’t really that hard to find, as something approaching 200,000 examples were made during the Great War (~175,000 by DWM, 23,000 by the Royal Arsenal at Erfurt).
A prized trophy that was often retrieved at the last minute from piles of munitions headed to the scrap yard, I wouldn’t doubt most are still floating around out there, somewhere.
The guys in the warehouse say they see three or four a year pass through there.
And if you wish hard enough and your heart is pure, one will surely find you.
