The above Colt Single Action Army revolver was ordered as a gift for President Theodore Roosevelt’s 54th birthday. Factory engraved and silver-plated, it was shipped four days before his birthday, just over a week prior to the election of 1912 where he ran on the Bull Moose ticket, and 10 days prior to his famous assassination attempt in Milwaukee. It was lost to history for years.
Complete with Colt factory engraving by master Cuno Helfricht, this M1873 “Peacemaker” now ranks (at time of the auction) as the third-highest firearm ever offered by Rock Island Auction Company– and last week picked up $1.3 million smackers before the gavel ended a wild bidding war.
Sadly, I am sure it will disappear for a few years into a private collection, then resurface only to be sold for a higher bid, and this will be the closest that the public will ever get to it.
Original Caption July 1953: “Fifth Air Force, Korea; As a bright mid-day sun beams its warm rays upon a forward UN airstrip in Korea, two sleek U.S. Air Force F-86 ‘Sabre’ jets of the 4th Fighter Interceptor Wing become airborne, landing gear going up, fuel tanks filled to capacity and gun chambers filly loaded, bound for MIG-Alley in search of more Russian-built MIG-15s. Protecting Fifth Air Force fighter bomber operation from enemy swept-wing aircraft, MIG-killing ‘Sabre’ pilots daily patrol the skies over North Korea. Since shooting down their first MIG in December 1950, ‘Sabre’ jet pilots have destroyed 765 of the enemy interceptors.”
The first Air Force F-86 MiG “kill” over Korea occurred 70 years ago today, 17 December 1950, when Lt. Col. Bruce Hinton, “commander of the 336th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, 4th Fighter Interceptor Wing, led a flight of four F-86s over northwestern North Korea. To trick the communists, the Sabre pilots flew at the same altitude and speed as F-80s typically did on missions, and they used F-80 call signs. Hinton spotted four MiGs at a lower altitude, and he led his flight in an attack. After pouring a burst of machine gun fire into one of the MiGs, it went down in flames.”
DAYTON, Ohio – Lt. Col. Bruce Hinton stands beside the North American F-86A Sabre in the Modern Flight Gallery at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. The museum’s F-86 is marked as the 4th Fighter Group F-86A flown by Lt. Col. Bruce Hinton on Dec. 17, 1950, when he became the first F-86 pilot to shoot down a MiG. (U.S. Air Force photo)
To be fair, however, it should be noted that Navy LCDR William T. Amen, in a VF-111 “Sun Downers” F9F-2B Panther from the deck of USS Philippine Sea (CV-47),splashed a MiG-15 piloted by Soviet Air Force KPT. Mikhail F. Grachev (139th GIAP, 28th IAD) over the Yalu River on 9 November 1950, to claim the first jet-on-jet Navy “kill” in the conflict.
Introduced first with the square-butt Security Six in 1972 and soon followed by the Police Service Six and rounded-butt Speed Six, these guns were born from what the Connecticut-based firearms maker described in their marketing ads of the day as the product of “Ruger engineers who started with a fresh sheet of paper and an unlimited budget!” in a move to ditch what was characterized as outmoded and obsolete designs and manufacturing methods.
By 1985, more than a million had been produced, making the company’s first commercially-available double-action revolver a success.
Here we see former Marshal of the WWII Yugoslav Red Partisan forces, Josip “Tito” Broz, reviewing his naval honor guard aboard the converted minelayer/training vessel Galeb (M11), likely during the mid-1950s. Note the Mausers with fixed bayonets and AAA mount at the top of the image. You have to wonder if Tito could faintly smell bananas.
About that…
The Regia Azienda Monopolio Banane, or Royal Banana Monopoly Company, was formed in 1935. Headquartered in Mogadiscio (Mogadishu), Italian Somaliland, its sole (peacetime) purpose was to ship its namesake elongated yellow berries from Africa to Europe, having secured the sole concession for the practice from the Ministero delle Colonie.
RAMB was busy shipping bananas from Somali ports as far south as Chisimaio (Kismayo) to a half-dozen Italian markets via the Suez Canal and returning passengers and freight to the Continent on the return trip.
At its peak, the company operated seven vessels. These included three small Swedish-built freighters—Capitano Bottego, Capitano Antonio Cecchi, and Duca degli Abruzzi—and four larger Italian-crafted purpose-built refrigerated fruit carriers, the latter all imaginatively named after the company in sequential order.
Built by Ansaldo and CRDA Monfalcone, the four Rambs could carry 2,418 tons of cargo in refrigerated holds and had accommodations for up to 30 or so passengers in 12 air-conditioned cabins.
Ramb I as launched
La motonave bananiera RAMB III alle prove in mare Oct 1938
The fun thing about RAMB was that, in line with Italian naval practice to keep their Royal concession, all of their ships were to be transformed into auxiliary cruisers in case of war, with weight and space reserved from guns and shells. The smaller freighters were each to pick up four 102/45mm pieces and a smattering of 13.2mm Breda AAA guns. The bigger Ramb-class banana haulers would get an equal number of larger 120/40mm guns along with their Bredas. The guns, in peacetime, would be crated in RAMB’s dockside warehouses in Massawa and Naples in equal numbers to allow for a rapid issue.
In 1939, the last year of commercial operations, RAMB shipped nearly 50,000 tons of Somali bananas to Europe, the company’s best season, ever.
Then came war
When Mussolini took the plunge to enter the war against the British and French in June 1940, as the latter was on the ropes and dizzy, Ramb III was the only one of her class that was in the Med, the rest being in the Red Sea. Quickly requisitioned in Genoa by the Regia Marina and renamed the uninspiring D6, she soon found herself protecting convoys to support Italian forces in Libya before the end of the month– in tandem with the smaller company ship Cecchi.
Eventually, she tangled with the British.
On the night of 11/12 November, a few hours after the British raid on Taranto, Ramb III/D6 was escorting four freighters with the old Giuseppe La Masa-class torpedo boat Fabrizi when they stumbled across an RN squadron consisting of the cruisers Orion, Ajax, and Sydney, along with the destroyers Nubian and Mohawk. It was no contest, with the Brits cued to the darkened Italians by Ajax’s Type 279 radar.
HMS Dido, Ajax, and Orion in action off Crete, 21 May 1941, by Rowland John Robb Langmaid, via the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. The November 11/12 night action surely looked much like this.
While Fabrizi turned toward the three cruisers, and although hit repeatedly, she fired torpedoes, one of which just missed Sydney astern, Ramb III/D6 attempted to draw the darkened warships off into a nearby minefield.
Within 30 minutes all four of the merchantmen were ablaze and Ramb, after firing some 80~ shells against the vastly stronger Brits, withdrew through the mines, and arrived alone at Bari the next morning.
More convoy actions followed and Ramb III/D6‘s luck ran out on the night of 30 May 1941 when a pair of torps from the T-class submarine HMS Triumph (N18) blew her bow off as she swayed at anchor at Benghazi. Quick damage control kept her from sinking and in August she was towed in reverse some 500 miles across the Med and up the Adriatic to Trieste for repairs.
The auxiliary cruiser D6 (banana boat RAMB III) towed aft by a tug back to Italy after a British torpedo from HMS Triumph removed her bow.
Reconstructed, she returned to service and was almost sunk again by a British sub when HMS Turbulent (N98) — Triumph’s sistership– fired a torpedo at her off Palermo on 1 February 1943 while D6 was saving survivors from the sunken freighter Pozzuoli. That fish missed.
Bananiera ‘Ramb III’ – incrociatore ausiliario in Mar Rosso
Her service to the Italian fleet ended on 8 September 1943, but we are getting ahead of ourselves.
As for the rest of the RAMB fleet, most were blocked in Italian East Africa and were lost following the fall of the colony in 1941.
Italian ship Ramb I sinking in 1941, after being dispatched by Leander.
Ramb IIdid make it to Japan and was scuttled by her crew in Kobe after Italy threw in the towel on the war. Later refloated by the Japanese and returned to service as the transport Ikutagawa Maru, she was sent to the bottom off Indochina by carrier strikes from Task Force 38 in January 1945.
Ramb IV had been captured by the British in Massawa, where she was serving as a hospital ship, but was sent to the bottom of the Med 13 months later to the day by German bombers.
As for RAMB the monopoly, the war ended its operations and the concern was formally dissolved in 1945, although Italy continued to grant then-independent Somali exporters licenses to ship their produce to Europe into the 1960s. Somali bananas vanished from the market with the harvest collapsing during the 1980s famine and cycles of ensuing civil war but are starting to make a comeback.
But we are getting ahead of ourselves.
German service
At anchor in Trieste when the Italians backed out of the war, Ramb III/D6 was swiftly taken into service by the Germans, who were in occupation of the port, after a sharp skirmish that left her crew prisoner. Renamed Kiebitz in November, she was up-armed with some extra 37mm Bredas, and turned into a minelayer, sowing some 5,000 of the infernal devices along the Dalmatian coasts and the northern Adriatic over the next year.
Kiebitz
On 13 July, while doing such minenwerk, she lost power and drifted into two of her own eggs, damaging her. After limping back to port– running astern with her bow blown off– she was patched up and was back at it a couple months later.
Her third career wrapped up on 5 November when RAF Baltimores plastered Fiume, sending the minelayer Kuckuck, subchaser G104, and our banana boat to the bottom of the harbor, where she would rest in 66 feet of muddy water.
“Rijeka under aerial bombardment by Royal Air Force planes, 1944. Fiume (Rijeka), Yugoslavia. c. 1944. One of the RAF Baltimore aircraft over the harbor during the air attack. Bombs can be seen exploding on the port rail facilities and in the water nearby. South African Air Force and RAAF Baltimore aircraft of the Desert Air Force attacked shipping in the Adriatic harbor, scoring hits on a 3,000-ton ship, another vessel and demolishing warehouses.” AWM C355608
As Galeb, she became a favorite of Tito’s, being pressed into service as a de facto presidential yacht. She carried the fearless leader to London, Egypt, India, and elsewhere, appearing often in newsreels of the day.
Meeting of President Tito with the Yugoslav Ambassador to Greece Radoš Jovanović, during his visit to Greece, June 2, 1954, aboard Galeb. Note the 40mm Bofors in the background. Museum of Yugoslavia Inventory number: 1954_029_030
While carrying Tito over the course of three decades, Galeb would have the head of the Yugoslav state on board for 318 days, covering 86,062 nautical miles.
Eventually, she would be disarmed and assume a full-time emissary duty, a ship of state as Yugoslavia navigated the murky waters between East and West, entertaining everyone from Gaddafi to Elizabeth Taylor. In all, she hosted more than 102 kings, presidents, and prime ministers.
Her 1976 Jane’s entry, literally on the last page of the book.
This beautiful period shot shows the immaculate Galeb late in her career passing Castello Aragonese in Taranto– a port she used to be awfully familiar with.
In 1976, a documentary, Peace Ship Galeb (Brod Mira Galeb), was filmed aboard her.
After Tito died in 1980, Galeb was used less and less, with Montenegro getting the old girl in the breakup of the former Yugoslavia.
Now, after a $9.6 million effort, she is ready to be a showboat once again.
“I expect the ship to be completed for its new purpose in the first half of 2021,” Rijeka Mayor Vojko Obersnel told Reuters. “Its command deck, the premises used by Tito, and the engine room will become a museum. The other parts of the ship will serve as a hotel with bars and a restaurant,” he said.
Specs:
(1940) Displacement: 3,667 GRT, 2,179 NRT Length: 383 ft 2 in Beam: 49 ft 7 in Depth: 24 ft 8 in Propulsion: 2 × 9-cylinder FIAT marine diesel engines, 7200 hp, twin screws, 1250 tons fuel oil Speed: 19.5 knots (maximum) 17.0 knots (cruising) Capacity: 2418 GRT (refrigerated, four holds), 12 air-conditioned cabins (two luxury, 10 twin steerage, 32~ passengers) Complement: 120 Wartime Armament: 4 x 120 mm (4.7 in) guns 2 x 13.2 mm anti-aircraft guns 3 x Breda 37mm guns (added 1944)
(1952) Displacement: 5,182 standard, 5,700 full Length: 384.8 ft Beam: 51.2 ft Depth: 148.f ft Propulsion: 2 × Burmeister & Wain diesel engines, 7200 hp, twin screws, Speed: 17 kts Armament: 4 x 1 – 88/45 SK C/32 4 x 1 – 40/60 Mk 3 Bofors 6 x 4 – 20/65 Oerlikon Mines
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Official caption: Seventh Army soldiers wait at the entrance and in the pit of a Maginot Line fort near Climbach, France. 2nd Platoon, Co. F., 2nd Battalion [no mention of battalion or regiment]. 12/15/44.
The Austrian Air Force, long fond of flying unusual Swedish types to stay as neutral as possible during the Cold War, is saying a hard goodbye to the Saab 105ÖE after 50 years of long and hard use.
The Saab 105ÖE in Austrian service. Easy to maintain and operate, it was also less likely to ruffle Soviet feathers
Evolved from a turbofan business jet concept by the Swedish firm, the 105 first flew in 1963, and in all less than 200 were produced over the course of a decade.
Featuring side-by-side seating for its two-man crew, in many ways, it was similar to the Cessna T-37 Tweet/A-37 Dragonfly as it could serve as either a training or light attack aircraft, although it was nowhere near as popular. In fact, outside of Sweden, Vienna was the only buyer of the type, ordering 40 in 1970 to replace aging second-hand Saab 29 Tunnan “flying barrels.”
Don’t be fooled, these Saabs could be deadly
The Austrians had a wide array of options for their SB 105s, across rockets, gun pods, and light bombs. They added Sidewinders in the early 1990s.
In regular service with the Austrians ever since, the 105ÖE (ÖE= for Österreichische Luftstreitkräfte) not only served a dual-hatted peacetime training/combat ground attack role, it was used by both of the country’s demonstration teams and in surveillance and air sovereignty missions until it was replaced in the latter by reconditioned Saab 35 Drakens in the late 1980s. (The Drakens proved useful, chasing down errant Yugoslav MiG-21s on more than one occasion.)
Plus, as with most of Saab’s aircraft, it could operate from unimproved sites and roadways
The Austrians currently run two understrength squadrons of Tranche 1 Typhoons, with Pilatus PC-7s providing training, although that is subject to change. Nonetheless, the SB 105’s time will cease at the end of the year.
The Austrian Air Force currently has two of their 18 remaining SB 105s painted in amazing livery and a terrific photo dump is online.
Washington-based ZEV Technologies and New Hampshire’s Sig Sauer this week lifted the curtain on an exciting mod for the latter’s P365 micro-carry 9mm, the new Octane Z365.
As you would expect, the Z365 is packed with semi-custom offerings from ZEV’s catalog including a PRO Barrel, Combat Sights, and the optics-ready Octane slide.
After a 63-year break, the Royal Navy is set to have another HMS Anson on the list as S-123, the fifth Astute-class submarine, currently under construction, was announced last week. She will be the eighth to carry the historic name which dates back to a 60-gun warship in 1747, in honor of the 1st Lord of the Admiralty, George Anson.
The seventh Anson was a King George V-class battleship, which commissioned on 14 April 1942. Cutting her teeth chasing KMS Lutzow and Hipper around the Arctic while escorting convoys to Russia, she later assisted with a diversionary effort to support the Husky landings in the Med and screened the carrier groups that attempted to sink Tirpitz.
Refitted for service with British Pacific Fleet in 1945, Anson was on hand for the liberation of Hong Kong and served as a guard ship in Tokyo for the occupation there.
KGV-class battleship HMS Anson (79) dressed in Sydney Harbor for the Australia Day sailing regatta, 1946.
The mighty battlewagon was sent for breaking in 1957.
In honor of the 81st anniversary of the Battle of the River Plate, which saw three British cruisers chase down the German pocket battleship KMS Admiral Graf Spee on 13 December 1939, below is the original White Ensign flown by one of those heroic warships, the Leander-class light cruiser HMS Achilles (70) on that day.
NHHC Catalog #: NH 85979-KN
The Flag was loaned to the Navy Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C., by the New Zealand Navy for the 1976 Bicentennial and was photographed there in early 1977.
HMS Achilles (HMNZS from 1941) painting by Frank Norton is part of the National Collection of War Art held by Archives New Zealand Archives reference: AAAC 898 584/ NCWA Q223
A the time of the battle, some 60 percent of her crew was from New Zealand. Transferred outright in September 1941 to New Zealand and recommissioned HMNZS Achilles, she later went on to serve India as INS Delhi until 1978.
Not counting French and Spanish colonial militias, the first muster of what later evolved into the U.S. Army National Guard occurred 13 December 1636, when the Massachusetts Bay Colony’s General Court ordered the colony’s unorganized militia, consisting of all males between the ages of 16 and 60, organized into three permanent units– the North, South and East Regiments– to better provide for the common defense.
“The First Muster” by Don Troiani, via the U.S. National Guard Bureau. The early colonial militia drilled once a week and provided guard details each evening to sound the alarm in case of attack.
The Guard has evolved much since then, especially in the wake of the Total Force concept after Vietnam. My son-in-law, long a member of the 155th ABCT, has deployed to the sandbox many more times than his family would like to talk about.
