Kimber’s Shark in the Micro 9 Pool

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Since the Sig Sauer P365 came out in 2017, which gave the booming concealed carry market a 10+1 capacity 9mm that wasn’t much bigger than a 6+1 .380 blowback, seemingly everyone else is trying to catch up. You’ve seen the Taurus GX4, Ruger MAX, S&W Shield Plus, and Springfield Armory Hellcat all hit the shelves, which were basically the same thing only with different branding.

Now there is the Kimber R7 Mako, which allows a 13+1 capacity, has an optics cut and TruGlo Tritium night sights standard, and excellent– for a striker-fired gun– trigger and ergos.

Plus, rather than a brutal utilitarian look familiar to the rest of the competition, the smooth lines and laser-cut texturing of the Mako just seems, well, kinda pretty.

My thoughts after spending the past few weeks with the R7 Mako after the jump over to Guns.com. 

Scout Car Wandering Around SC

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80 Years Ago Today:

Established in 1913 and associated with the New Jersey Army National Guard (unofficially carrying the lineage of the Civil War-era 1st New Jersey Volunteer Cavalry) after the Dick Act replaced state militia units, the 102nd Cavalry Regiment was taken into federal service for the Punitive Expedition against Villa in 1916 then shipped over to France where it served (sans horses, broken up into MP, field artillery, and train headquarters troops for the 29th Infantry Division) in the Meuse-Argonne/Alsace in 1918.

Interbellum, the 102nd was reformed in 1921 and assigned to the 21st (National Guard) Cavalry Division along will all the other horse cav in the Northeast. This association ended in 1937 with the general disbanding of most of the Army’s and Guard’s mounted units and, in 1940, the 102nd became gently mechanized.

Inducted into federal service on 6 January 1941, the unit was broken up into a couple of different cavalry reconnaissance squadrons (mechanized) and shipped out for England where they landed at Normandy and fought across Northwest Europe under Major General Leonard Gerow’s Fifth Corps.

Today, the 102nd is still mechanized, as a recon unit for the 50th IBCT, 42nd “Rainbow” Infantry Division, and is still part of the NJANG, although they don’t roll in WMC Scout Cars anymore.

Happy 495, Beretta

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As noted by Beretta:

“In 1526, Mastro Bartolomeo Beretta (1490-1565/68) of Gardone Val Trompia, Brescia, Italy, received 296 ducats as payment for 185 arquebus barrels sold to the Arsenal of Venice. Although there is a history of Beretta products’ production in the 1500s, this particular moment in our history is the first documented sale of Beretta products in the known world, and it is the foundational point from which our company began its commanding presence in the firearms manufacturing industry.”

Now close to the 500-year mark, Beretta is known for more than just their barrels.

Operation Barkhane, France’s Afghanistan in Africa, just got weirder

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The French have had thousands of troops deployed to the desert Sahel region of Mali and Chad (and to a lesser extent Burkina Faso, Mauritania, and Niger) since Islamic extremists linked to al-Qaeda took control of the region in early 2012, going hand-in-hand with a Tuareg separatist uprising which gave the whole thing the aura of a civil war with jihadi undercurrents.

Who wouldn’t want to get involved with that, right?

While Paris has always had a smattering of European allies there (British, Canadians, Danes, and Swedes, mainly) they never contribute anything larger than a company-sized element, leaving the French to carry the fight largely alone. 

With that, France, as French-speaking Africa’s gendarmerie despite their pull back from the Continent in the 1960s following the end of the brutal war in Algeria, have seen lots of successes. For instance, Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi, the leader of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara was “neutralized by French forces,” President Emmanuel Macron tweeted two weeks ago.

Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi was on everyone’s list, and the French zapped him in the Sahel this month, reportedly droning him off his motorbike somewhere in Mali’s northern desert. A “tactical success.”

Meanwhile, France has spilled lots of blood there for those gains.

Army Chief Corporal Maxime Blasco, a veteran commando, killed 24 September, was the 52d Frenchman to die on Operation Barkane since 2013.

So now, the French are slowly leaving Mali.

The plan is to cut the force from 5,000 today to between 2,500 and 3,000 by 2023. Most will be leaving from the northern Mali bases at Kidal, Timbuctu, and Tessalit, which may or may not be consolidated– reports vary. 

However, the Mail government, which has an Etch-A-Sketch quality to it due to a recent coup, followed by a counter-coup with “plans for an election next year,” has denounced the French redeployment (let’s just call it a withdrawal) saying that the for-now regime in Bamako would seek other allies.

From Russia.

The plan by the Mali government is to bring in Wagner Group private military contractors to fill the gap. The Wagners aren’t afraid of getting their hands dirty. They have a rough reputation for their work elsewhere in Africa– with allegations of field executions and assorted war crimes in blood diamond areas– and have seen lots of action in Syria, even famously coming up short against American artillery and close-air-support, which the Russians lacked.

In short, things are primed to get really interesting in the region.

And the beat goes on…

S&W Waves Goodbye to Massachusetts After 169 Years

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Citing “the changing business climate for firearms manufacturing in Massachusetts,” Smith & Wesson said they are relocating their historic headquarters to a more pro-gun climate.

The move, announced Thursday, would see S&W’s headquarters and “significant elements of its operations” including 750 jobs move from Springfield, Massachusetts, to Maryville, Tennessee, by 2023. While the famed American gun maker has been based in Springfield since 1852, company officials say it is time for a change.

“This has been an extremely difficult and emotional decision for us, but after an exhaustive and thorough analysis, for the continued health and strength of our iconic company, we feel that we have been left with no other alternative,” said Mark Smith, the company’s President and Chief Executive Officer.

More in my column at Guns.com. 

‘I do not expect I shall want to drink coffee after I leave the Army’

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Happy National Coffee Day!

Via the National Museum of Civil War Medicine, in his war-time diary, Charles A. Wetherbee of the 34th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment describes how men in his unit consumed coffee and how important “strong black coffee” came to be in the U.S. Army.

“We draw more coffee, bread, and pork than we can use… We make very strong black coffee and drink about a quart apiece without sugar or cream.

We have gotten accustomed to it and like it that way. I do not expect I shall want to drink coffee after I leave the army, as I will not be able to get it strong enough.”

“Campaign sketches. The coffee call.” Print by Homer Winslow shows Army of the Potomac soldiers waiting for coffee at a campfire in an encampment. LOC https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2013650297/

I Dig Oddball European Semi-Autos

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As you know, I go all giggly for curious European autoloaders. For example, I give you this fine spaghetti pistola of Mr. Giuseppe Nicola Galesi that I recently came across at GDC:

Based in Brescia, Italy, Galesi was in operation from about the mid-1920s to about the mid-1960s, where the GCA of 1968 likely cut off their exports to the U.S. and forced it out of the market.

The above specimen is a Model 9, a little 8/7/6+1 shot pocket gun based on Browning’s Model 1910 that was made in .22 LR, .32 ACP, and .380 ACP cal. Using synthetic grips, they were offered in blued and chromed models with a 3.25-inch barrel, a frame-mounted manual safety, and basic fixed sights.

More on the Galesi firm, here.

Kulbir Thapa Magar, VC

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A new memorial, dedicated to the first Gurkha to win the Victoria Cross, Kulbir Thapa Magar, has been unveiled in Princes Gardens, Aldershot.

“The statue will serve as a lasting memorial as well as a symbol of their long history and friendship with the (British) Army.”

Kulbir was born in Nepal in 1889 and enlisted as a Rifleman (Rfn) in 1907 in the 1st Battalion, 3rd Queen’s Alexandra’s Own Gurkha Rifles, transferring to the 2nd Battalion at the outbreak of World War One. On 25 September 1915 at Mauquissart in France Rfn Thapa, having been wounded himself, found a badly injured soldier from the Leicestershire Regiment behind the first line German trench and stayed with him throughout the night.

Early the next day, he carried the soldier through German wire, taking him to a place of comparative safety and then returned to bring in two wounded Gurkhas. Eventually, he went back in broad daylight to retrieve the British soldier and complete the rescue under enemy fire.

He later achieved the rank of Havildar (equivalent to sergeant, a rank still maintained in Indian, Pakistani and Nepalese armies today) and retired after 30 years of service. He died in 1956, aged 67.

His Victoria Cross and other medals are displayed at The Gurkha Museum in Winchester, Hampshire, England.

Forager Pontoon Bees

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A motley but proud 302nd Naval Construction Battalion (Seabee) barge crew pose with captured Japanese yosegaki hinomaru “good luck” flag and Arisaka rifles aboard a beached 3×7-foot pontoon barge on Saipan, Mariana Islands, June 1944.

(l to r) S2c Charles, W. Barrett, BM1c Wally Jalloway, S2c Robert Fisher, CCM(AA) Ragnar Farnum, MM3c Paul Rhoades, and SF3c Carl Jones. Via U.S. Navy Seabee Museum

The 302nd NCB hit the beaches during Operation Forager supporting Lt. Gen. Holland M. “Howlin’ Mad” Smith’s V Amphibious Corps (2nd MarDiv, 4th MarDiv, Army 27th “New York” Inf Div) and was “one of the most unique Seabee groups that fought in the Pacific in WWII.”

302nd NCB pontoon barge, “Somewhere in the South Pacific” circa 1944

Formed in 1944 from five scattered company-sized CB Pontoon Detachments (1035, 1038, 1039, 1043, and 1054), which had already learned their trade “on the job” in a variety of landings, the Bees of the 302nd went on to operate pontoon structures for the assaults on Peleliu, Angaur, Luzon, and other points towards Tokyo.

Check out this snapshot of how 1944 went for the 302nd.

On orders of CINCPOA, the 302nd NCB was inactivated on 10 December 1945 at Intrepid Point and its men were transferred for leave, reassignment, or discharge.

Warship Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021: A Minesweeper Dressed as a Frigate for Halloween

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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, Sept. 29, 2021: A Minesweeper Dressed as a Frigate for Halloween

Photo via Secretaría de Marina (SEMAR)

Here we see the Valle-class patrulla oceánica ARM Valentín Gómez Farías (PO-110) of the Armada de México stirring the bottom as she gets underway for a regular offshore patrol circa 2020. In the background, far more modern Durango-class OPVs remain at the dock, content for the old lady to take the watch. Now in her 79th year afloat, the former Auk-class minesweeper is still on the job.

The Auks were a prolific series (95 hulls) of oceangoing escort minesweepers that were essentially slight upgrades of the preceding USS Raven (AM-55) and USS Osprey (AM-56), the latter of which was the first ship sunk off Normandy on D-Day. Some 1,250 tons, these 221-footers could make 18 knots on their diesel-electric plant and carried a 3-inch gun forward as well as a couple of 40mm Bofors AAA mounts amidships, their sterns clear for sweeping gear. Added to this were 20mm Oerlikons and depth charges, giving these ships an armament roughly equivalent to the larger 2,500-ton Tacoma-class patrol frigates or 1,800-ton Buckley-class destroyer escorts of the day, which is impressive.

While class leader USS Auk (AM-57) was built at the Norfolk Navy Yard, the other 94 were farmed out to at least nine small commercial yards around the country. Easy to construct, they were turned out rapidly.

USS Auk (AM-57) Off the Norfolk Navy Yard circa May 1942. NH 84027

Long before she was Farías, the subject of our tale was launched as USS Starling (AM-64) by the General Engineering and Drydock Co., Alameda, on 11 April 1942; and commissioned on 21 December 1942 after a 17 month construction period. As with all American minesweepers of the era, she carried the name of a bird and was the second such vessel on the Naval List to do so, with the previous USS Starling being a 141-foot fishing boat converted during the Great War for use as a coastal minecraft.

The only known WWII-era photo of Starling:

NH 89203 USS Starling AM-64

As a well-armed minesweeper built on the West Coast in 1942, it was obvious Starling would soon be deployed to the meatgrinder along the front lines of the War in the South Pacific.

Joining a convoy to Pearl Harbor in January 1943, she was soon in heavy use throughout the Solomons, and Guadalcanal was involved in patrol work, coastal escort duty, and, of course, clearing mines when found. Working with sisterships USS Dash (AM-88) and Constant (AM-86), she swept Ferguson Passage off Kolombangara in late October, destroying at least 135 Japanese mines. The group then cleared the minefield in Kula Gulf and swept Vella Gulf into November.

Then came more convoy duty well into mid-1944 when Starling transitioned to the Southern Attack Force for Operation Forager, the amphibious assault against Japanese-occupied Guam, and the follow-on Mariana and Palau Islands campaign through mid-October.

Off Guam in June as part of the anti-submarine screen for Task Group 53.3, she spent much of her time on alert against Japanese airstrikes.

This brought comment by her skipper in the report for the landings of:

After a refit on at Mare Island– that included a radar installation– Starling sailed for the Marshall Islands in February 1945 to join Minesweeper Group I, TG 52.4, for the invasion of the Ryukyus and was off Okinawa by early April. Next came a full month of aggressive zigzagging, patrolling station, constant underwater sound search (she dodged a torpedo track on 8 April), night radar search, and fighting at every opportunity, with the crew never far from their stations. There, besides supporting the landings with Mine Squadron Five, she was engaged in no less than three documented anti-aircraft actions.

The first, at sunrise on 6 April, saw her 40mm, 20mm, and .50 caliber batteries open on a Japanese A6M5 (Zeke) that dived on the ship from 5,000 feet and caught fire as it plunged to her deck, ultimately crashing 3,000 feet behind the steaming minesweeper. The sweeper recovered the body of a Japanese Navy petty officer and transferred the papers collected from the body to an intelligence group on the nearby command ship USS Eldorado (AGC-11) then buried the man at sea with full military honors.

The second attack, by three Japanese Yokosuka P1Y Ginga (Frances) bombers who approached on the night of 22 April at an altitude of 1,000 feet, saw Starling open up with everything she had, expending three 3-inch, 18 40mm, 250 20mm, and 40 .50 cal rounds inside of eight seconds. The results, one Frances splashed down 25 yards dead ahead of our minesweeper, which suffered no damage herself.

The third attack, a morning rush by a sole Japanese Nakajima B5N (Kate) bomber approaching just 300 feet off the deck on 4 May saw the plane “disintegrated and splashed” in a hail of 3-inch and 40mm fire. The Kate had initially approached a nearby troopship off Kerama Retto, but Starling’s fire seemingly caused it to divert and go after the minesweeper.

Whereas several destroyers survived hits from kamikazes, some even after multiple strikes, such damage would be fatal for a 221-foot minesweeper. Case in point, one of Starling’s sister ship, USS Swallow (AM-65), was sunk by a kamikaze near Okinawa, 22 April 1945– the same day Starling fought off the three Frances– sent to the bottom just three minutes after the Japanese plane impacted. Another sister, USS Sentinel (AM-113), was lost due to German Messerschmitt Me-210 bombers off Anzio.

USS Sentinel (AM-113) sinking off Sicily, on the morning of 10 July 1943. NH 89208

Starling also came to the rescue while off Okinawa. When the transport USS Pinkney (APH-2) was rocked by an explosion on her stern from a low-flying kamikaze on 28 April, our minesweeper moved in to assist in firefighting, recover casualties, provide AAA screen for future attacks, and cover the whole scene in a smokescreen cover.

After her time in the barrel, Starling then sailed for the Philippines. From Leyte, the ship moved to Iwo Jima and back to Okinawa which she reached on 18 August, three days after hostilities ended. She then switched to post-war clean-up, sweeping Japanese sea mines off the China coast, from 7 September to 30 October before switching operations to Japan’s home waters for similar duties throughout the rest of the year.

Mothballs and a new life

No less than 11 Auks were lost during the war to a variety of causes including mines and submarines. The butcher’s bill carried USS Skill (AM-115), torpedoed by U-593 off the North African coast in 1943, and three sweepers in British service lost to German midget subs off Normandy.

Auk-class minesweeper USS Tide (AM-125) sinking off Utah Beach after striking a mine during the Normandy invasion, 7 June 1944. Note the Elco 80-foot PT boat coming to her aid. 80-G-651677

With 21 other sisters transferred to overseas allies for good, the Navy was left with 63 remaining Auks in 1946. One of these, ex-USS Toucan (AM-387), sailing with the Republic of China Navy as ROCS Chien Men (PCE-45), was lost in an engagement with Chicom naval assets in 1965.

The entry from Jane’s 1946.

Starling received three battle stars for World War II service and was placed “in reserve, out of commission,” on 15 May 1946 in San Diego. Towed to Long Beach in 1948, she lingered in mothballs where she was, along with the rest of her class, administratively reclassified a Fleet Minesweeper (Steel Hull) and received hull number MSF-64 in 1955.

Struck from the Naval Register 1 July 1972, ex-USS Starling (MSF-64) was sold to the Republic of Mexico on 16 February 1973 along with nine of her sisters. The Mexicans apparently really liked the class as they had already bought 10 laid-up Auks on 19 September 1972. Together, the 19 WWII-era escort minesweepers, their armament reduced to just the forward 3-inch gun and two 40mm Bofors, would be more patrol craft than mine warfare ships.

Jane’s entry on the class in Mexican service, 1973.

While under a Mexican flag, the Auks were first designated as corbetas (corvettes) with “C” pennant numbers, then as a Guardacostas Cañonero, a coastal gunboat, with IG pennant numbers. Starling, therefore, became ARM Valentín Gómez Farías (IG-11) and has served in the Mexican Pacific fleet ever since, spending her entire life in that body of water.

The class:

  • USS Starling (AM-64) transferred as ARM Valentín Gómez Farías (C79/IG11/P110)
  • USS Herald (AM-101) as ARM Mariano Matamoros (C??/IG17/P1??)
  • USS Pilot (AM-104) as ARM Juan Aldama (C85/IG18/P116)
  • USS Pioneer (AM-105/MSF-105) as ARM Leandro Valle (C70/IG01/P101)
  • USS Sage (AM-111) as ARM Hermenegildo Galeana (C86/IG19/P117)
  • USS Sway (AM-120) as ARM Ignacio Altamirano (C80/IG12/P111)
  • USS Symbol (AM-123) as ARM Guillermo Prieto (C71/IG02/P102)
  • USS Threat (AM-124) as ARM Francisco Zarco (C81/IG13/P112)
  • USS Velocity (AM-128/MSF-128) as ARM Ignacio L. Vallarta (C82/IG14/P113)
  • USS Champion (AM-314/MSF-314) as ARM Mariano Escobedo (C72/G03/P103)
  • USS Chief (AM-315/MSF-315) as ARM Jesús González Ortega (C83)
  • USS Competent (AM-316) as ARM Ponciano Arriaga (C??/IG04/P1??)
  • USS Defense (AM-317) as ARM Manuel Doblado (C73/IG05/P104)
  • USS Devastator (AM-318) as ARM Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada (C74/IG06/P105)
  • USS Gladiator (AM-319/MSF-319) as ARM Santos Degollado (C75/IG07/P106)
  • USS Spear (AM-322) as ARM Ignacio de la Llave (C76/IG08/P107)
  • USS Roselle (AM-379/MSF-379) as ARM Melchor Ocampo (C78)/Melchor Ocampo (IG10)/Manuel Gutiérrez Zamora (P109)
  • USS Scoter (AM-381) as ARM Gutiérrez Zamora (C84)/ARM Melchor Ocampo IG16/ Felipe Xicoténcatl (P115)

 

ARM Manuel Gutiérrez Zamora (IG-10)/USS Scoter (AM-381) in Mexican service, 1980s wearing her glad rags. The other 18 of the class would have a similar profile into the 1990s

In 1994, Starling/Farías was updated to pennant GC-79 after the ship received a modernization that included two new Caterpillar 3516B diesel engines, commercial navigation radars, marine GPS and electronics; and an elevated stern deck to support a light helicopter. The platforms were for the dozen 12 Bo105-CBS helicopters the Mexican Navy acquired from MBB in West Germany in the late 1980s.

They can carry rockets and machine gun pods and have a surface search radar in the nose

(April 29, 2009) A Mexican BO-105 Bolkow helicopter fires 2.75-inch high-explosive rockets in a sinking exercise that took place during UNITAS Gold. This year marks the 50th iteration of UNITAS, a multi-national exercise that provides opportunities for participating nations to increase their collective ability to counter illicit maritime activities that threaten regional stability. Participating countries are Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Germany, Mexico, Peru, U.S., and Uruguay. USCG Photo 090429-G-6464J-330

Farías later changed in 2001 with the redesignation of a Patrulla Oceánica, pennant PO-110.

Farías, in new format

Farías

Today, at least eight of the 19 Auks in Mexican service have long since been retired, their components used to keep their re-engined sisters in operation.

However, 11 of these hardy mine boats are still in service, known as the Valle class although Valle herself was hulked in 2008. Those still around have had a similar upgrade to the same helicopter deck/Catapiller diesel format as Farías.

Former Auk class minesweeper USS Champion (AM-314 / MSF-314) transferred as ARM Mariano Escobedo (C72 / G03 / P103)

Former Auk class minesweeper USS Defense (AM-317) transferred as ARM Manuel Doblado (C73/IG05/P104)

ARM Valentín Gómez Farías and two other Auks/Valles. Note the cased 40mm Bofors. Mexico at this point is one of perhaps just two or three navies that still operate the WWII 3″/50 and 40mm platforms

Mexico is the last country to operate the Auks in any form, with the Philippines retiring the last of their two examples in 2020. They remain hard at work in trying to root out smugglers crossing Mexican waters and engage in multinational exercises such as RIMPAC and UNITAS frequently.

ARM Valentín Gómez Farías (PO-110) keeping up with the Royal Canadian Navy Halifax-class frigate HMCS Winnipeg FFH-338, and an unidentified Reliance-class U.S. Coast Guard Cutter, 2015

The Krogen 42 trawler liveaboard MY Dauntless, during its circumnavigation of the globe in 2018, was the recipient of a literal “shot across the bow” from the old minesweeper turned OPV that “splashed a hundred feet off our bow. Thick black smoke poured from the funnel of the WWII vintage ship as she pushed thru the seas at her full speed of 18 knots.”

Kinda nice to know the old girl is still out there.

As far as her echoes in the U.S., I can find no veterans group, as there are likely few if any of her WWII crew still around on this side of Poseidon. The only ghost of her in the country is her engineering drawings and war diaries in the National Archives. 

Specs:

Displacement 890 t.
Length 221′ 2″
Beam 32′ 2″
Draft 10′ 9″
Propulsion: Two 1,559shp ALCO 539 diesel-electric engines, Westinghouse single reduction gear, two shafts.
Speed 18.1 kts
Complement 105
Armament:
(1943)
One 3″/50 Mark 20 dual-purpose gun mount
2 x 40mm gun mounts, single
8 x 20mm guns, single
2 x depth charge tracks
5 x depth charge projectors

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