Trouble for the final River

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The British completed 151 River-class frigates for a host of Commonwealth and Allied navies during WWII, and the vessels went to serve at least 19 different fleets around the globe. Of those, HMAS Diamantina, commissioned 27 April 1945, is the only one preserved as a museum ship, the rest of her sisters gone to scrap or reef.

Importantly during her 35 active years with the Royal Australian Navy– during which she had steamed 615,755 miles– she received the official surrender of Japanese forces in the Solomons.

The Ocean Island surrender is signed onboard HMAS Diamantina (Photo: RAN)

Handed over to the Queensland Maritime Museum as a self-touring museum, her fate is now up in the air as the QMM is closing for good at the end of the year, a victim of COVID closures and lockdowns.

Kiss the fish!

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Official caption: “As a part of Royal Canadian Naval tradition, Master Seaman Shaun Duguay kisses the fish as part of the initiation to become a new “Shellback” (members who have crossed the Arctic Circle by Order of the Blue Nose – Domain of the Polar Bear), onboard Task Group flagship HMCS VILLE DE QUÉBEC during the Crossing the Line Ceremony, on August 17, 2020, during Operation NANOOK 20.”

Photo: MCpl Manuela Berger, Canadian Armed Forces Photo

HMCS Ville de Québec (FFH 332) (commonly referred to as VDQ) is a 5,000-ton Halifax-class frigate that has served in the Royal Canadian Navy since 1993 and in the past 27 years has seen service on the NATO blockade force against Yugoslavia, escorted food ships off the pirate-infested waters off Somalia, performed disaster assistance in the Gulf of Mexico after Hurricane Katrina, and was one of the naval assets deployed to search for Swissair Flight 111 in 1998.

And of course, the Order of the Blue Nose is a time-honored U.S. tradition as well, reserved for the Crossing of the Arctic Circle (66-32 North latitude). 

Reference that of the USS Spruance (DD 936) in 1988, which looks…cold. 

 

The Saga of Russian Broomhandles

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Just $25 fully outfitted! Deal!

Designed by the Feederle brothers in conjunction with Paul Mauser, over a million DWM Construktion 96 autoloading pistols– in addition to their M712 Schnellfeuer machine pistol brothers as well as unlicenced Spanish Astra/Royal/Azul and Chinese boxcannon clones– were crafted between 1896 and 1945. While never fully adopted by their home country, “Broomhandle” Mausers circled the world and have been seen in nearly every conflict large and small since the days of the Boer War (where a young Winston Churchill carried his London-bought “ripper” of a pistol during his work as a correspondent) and the Boxer rebellion.

Available on the commercial market in Imperial Russia for almost 20 years before the Great War ended importation, the C96 was a favorite for Russian officers, who had to buy their own sidearms and sword.

During the Russian Civil War, this love grew rabid as high-ranking Bolsheviks loved the big, flashy German-made automatic.

Red Guards of the Vulkan factory in Petrograd dressed in their Sunday best. Note the officer in the second row with his C96

Soviet commissars with C96 Mausers

Hell, they were even present (along with Browning FN 1900s, Nagant revolvers, and M1911 pistols) at the Romanov extermination. 

One favored user of the C96 was a four-time knight of St. George, former Imperial Dragoons Sgt. Maj. Semyon Budyonny, the impressively bewhiskered Red commander of the Konarmiya, the Bolshevik’s feared 1st Cavalry Army during the Russian Civil War and Russo-Polish War.

This guy

Reds of “Budyonny’s Cavalry Army” (Konarmia) the key Bolshevik fire brigade of the Russo-Polish War. Note the mix of French Adrian helmets, Cossack shapskas, and Trotsky Budenovka caps for headgear. Also, note the Cossack at the left is wearing the 1909 pattern officer’s web gear to include a trench whistle near his left armpit. As pre-Civil War Cossack officers in the Konarmia were rare, this officer has likely had an interesting tale– though notably, he has ditched his shoulder boards.

“Proletarians, to Horse Russian!” Soviet Republic. c. 1919 recruiting poster for Budyonnys Red Cavalry Konarmia

Budyonny was presented an engraved C96 in honor of his wartime service in 1921, and it is maintained in the Russian Army Museum, where it was placed after his death in 1973.

Nonetheless, the gun remained popular with Soviet officers into WWII, showing up occasionally with those who undoubtedly remembered the status symbol of 1918-20.

Russian Soviet Cossacks watering their horses in the Elbe river 1945. Note the distinctive Mauser C96 Broomhandle pistol holster on the Cossack colonel’s belt, which has been bedazzled. As he looks to be in his 50s, it is possible he dated to the old Konarmia days, or at least inherited it from someone who did. 

In addition, Spetnaz was schooled in the use of the vintage C96 during the Cold War, as the Broomhandle was expected to be encountered on the ground locally in the course of their operations in Asia and Africa on hearts and minds missions to support those in international brotherhood. 

Soviet Spetsnaz Special Operations in training 1980s C96 Mauser Broomhandle

Slow That Fury Down

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A U.S. Navy Douglas AD-6 Skyraider (BuNo 134538) from Attack Squadron VA-105 “Mad Dogs” refueling a North American FJ-3M Fury (BuNo 139232) of Fighter Squadron VF-62 “Boomerangs,” overwater, circa 1958.

U.S. Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation photo No. 1996.253.7228.002

Note the early AIM-9B Sidewinder missile on the Fury– essentially a navalized F-86 Sabre with folding wings, a J65 engine, and 20mm cannons– and the extended landing gear, to be able to fly as slow as the Spad. While capable of high subsonic level flight, the Fury/Sabre had a low stall speed for a jet, down to the 120-knot range, which was well inside the AD-6’s envelope. The propeller of the refueling pack is also clearly visible.

Both the Mad Dogs and the Boomerangs were assigned to the short-lived Air Task Group 201 (ATG-201) for a nine-month Med to West Pac deployment aboard the converted WWII flattop USS Essex (CVA-9) from 2 February to 17 November 1958. The cruise ran so long due to the Lebanon Crisis which saw 1,700 Marines supported by not only Essex but also her sistership USS Wasp (CVA-18) and the new Forrestal-class supercarrier USS Saratoga (CVA-60).

Grrr, What’s the Deal with Import Marks on Guns?

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One phrase that pops up in conversations on collectible firearms of all stripes is that of “import marks,” or the lack thereof. Not strictly needed until 1968, they have evolved over the years from being somewhat subtle to loud and proud.

To clear the air on that, I wrote a piece on the subject over in my column at Guns.com.

Visiting with Boothroyd

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As I’ve covered in the past, Sean Connery’s on-screen main piece while holding down the Bond gig across seven installments was a Walther PP/PPK.

One of the most famous of these was the “origin gun” used in 1962’s Dr. No, where M, assisted by Major Boothroyd (in a nod by Fleming to a real British firearms guru), pulls Bond’s pipsqueak Beretta 418 in .25AC (“nice and light, for a lad’s handbag”) for the much more powerful .32ACP Walther (insert modern ballistic snobs having a heart attack right about here).

Of course, the movie kinda screwed it up and used a Beretta M1934 in 9mm Corto and a Walther in .380ACP to recreate the scene from the novel, but still…

Said pistola, SN19174A as confirmed by Bapty prop house– who provided weaponry for every Bond film from Dr. No through To Die Another Day— is up for auction at Julien’s next month.

The bid is already up to $37K.

It only took 240 years

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While the U.S. Army’s museum system (which let me poke around its “attic” in Anniston a few years ago) has 46 small outlets, typically run at the division and branch level and not necessarily open to those without a CAC card, there is no public National Museum of the Army.

Well, I should say that there was no National Museum of the Army, until yesterday.

The Old Guard kicked off the Museum’s Opening Ceremony at Fort Belvoir, VA, Nov. 11, 2020.

The National Museum of the United States Army celebrates over 240 years of Army history and honors our nation’s Soldiers—past, present, and future—the regular Army, the Army Reserve, and the Army National Guard, and I have to say it looks great. I can’t wait to check it out on my next trip to NoVa.

The 185,000-square-foot facility has 11 galleries and nearly 1,390 artifacts available for visitors to see. Those wishing to tour the museum can do so by first visiting the website and ordering a free ticket. 

In related news, “the Army Museum Enterprise is getting rid of duplicate artifacts among its 580,000-item collection over the next five years, leaving opportunities for other museums, veterans organizations, national parks, and state and local governments to ultimately claim the excess inventory.”

Looks like they got around to cleaning out the attic.

Brastil M1911

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In 1932, Colt ordered a small batch of modified M1911 pistols from Doehler Die Casting Co. of Toledo, Ohio– the largest producer of die-cast metal in the world. The thing about Doehler is that they were known at the time for a high tensile strength corrosion resistant bronze alloy called “Brastil.”

From the American Society for Metals’ “Woldman’s Engineering Alloys,” circa 1936.

As such, the experimental guns used standard M1911 internals, wooden grip panels, and a receiver and slide made of die-cast Brastil rather than forged steel.

They certainly were distinctive, almost fit for Christopher Lee.

In the end, only two Brastil M1911s were made and this one, SN#2, has been in the collection of the Springfield Armory since 16 August 1932.

Battleship No. 39: Grab the Cutlasses!

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From the 1924 overhaul plans of the Pennsylvania-class dreadnought USS Arizona (BB-39), listing her battery. Besides the traditional battlewagon muscle such as 14″/45, 5″/51, and 3″/50 guns, keep scrolling down passed the two submerged torpedo tubes, two 1-pounder boat guns, and quartet of four-pounder saluting guns, and you see her impressive small arms locker for fielding a light battalion-sized landing force of bluejackets armed with 350 M1903 Springfields, 100 GI .45s, an unspecified number of Krag 1898s (which may have been line throwers), two .30-cal machine guns, and a 3-inch field piece.

Oh yeah, and 10 cutlasses– arms that remained an ordnance allowance item until 1949.

For reference: Atlantic Fleet sailors in formation at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, landing force drill, circa 1909, complete with packs and rifles.

Collection of CQM John Harold. Catalog #: NH 101534

Remember to take a moment today

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The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs estimates there are about 20 million living American Veterans including 1.6 million over age 85. The largest group, some 7.7 million, are Gulf War-era vets followed by 6.2 million who served during the Vietnam-era. There are 1 million Korean War-era vets.

The smallest group are living World War II-era veterans, whose numbers have declined to about 325,000. Keep in mind over 16 million members of the Greatest Generation served during those trying years.

By the end of the decade, the VA expects the number of WWII vets to decline into the low four-digit numbers.

Remember to thank all Veterans for their sacrifices today.

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