Palmer Luckey’s California-based Anduril Industries has developed its Ghost Shark XLAUV (Extra-Large Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) autonomous submarine from rough draft to finished product in three years.
Scalable, it can be anywhere from 20 feet to 98 feet oal with the sweet spot being the 39-ish foot variant, with a square cross-section that can carry and deploy “dozens” of Copperhead-100 class UUVs (or Copperhead-100M loitering munitions) and “multiple” Copperhead-500 class UUVs (or Copperhead-500M loitering munitions), also developed by Anduril.
The Australian government spent A$140M on the program in 2022, and Anduril has invested another $60M in a “sophisticated, robotic XL-AUV manufacturing facility in Australia, where employees are at work to produce entirely sovereign autonomous maritime platforms.”
Now, the Australian MoD has announced an A$1.7B (US$1.12B) Program of Record to deliver a fleet of Ghost Sharks, with production already underway. The five-year contract will support around 120 existing jobs and create more than 150 new jobs at Anduril Australia.
As noted by the company:
The reason for the magnitude of risk-taking in this enterprise is clear: the Ghost Shark’s entry into full-rate production marks the start of a new era of seapower through maritime autonomy. For years, Australia has faced the persistent and threatening presence of Chinese naval assets in its home waters. Ghost Shark is the instantiation of a Program of Record for AUVs that can directly address this challenge through coastal defense patrols and area-wide domain awareness powered by artificial intelligence at scale. Success in this effort would be a landmark opportunity to demonstrate the potential of autonomous seapower to address clear and urgent national security problems.
Ghost Shark can fit inside a 40-foot shipping container, which in turn can fly out on a C-17 or similar. The RAAF flew a prototype to Hawaii for last year’s RIMPAC.
The following is from Anduril on how the Copperhead/Ghost Shark combo can draw a “line in the sea,” so to speak.
Five 125-foot cutters at Charleston Navy Yard, Boston, late 1920s. Boston Public Library Leslie Jones Collection.
Five 125-foot cutters at the Charleston Navy Yard, Boston, in the late 1920s, including, from the outside, the USCGC Fredrick Lee, General Green, and Jackson. Boston Public Library Leslie Jones Collection.
Painted haze grey and with her armament significantly stepped up, she served on the Bering Sea Patrol during WWII.
Heavily occupied with convoy escort work, anti-submarine patrols, screening duties, and rescuing both vessels and aircraft in distress, the McLane and her crew are often credited with sinking the Japanese submarine Ro-32 (or possibly the Soviet sub Shch-138!) in July 1942 and a multiple-person rescue of a downed Lockheed Electra in February 1943, among several other notable actions.
Original caption: Coast Guard Lieut. Ralph Burns (right) of Ketchikan, Alaska, is presented the Legion of Merit Medal by Coast Guard Capt. F.A. Zeusler (left), commanding officer of the Alaskan Coast Guard District, in ceremonies at Ketchikan. Coast Guard Commander G.F. Hicks (center), Ketchikan base commander, witnessed the presentation. The award was made by Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox on behalf of the President. The medal was awarded for “exceptionally meritorious conduct” during an action in North Pacific waters in which the U.S. Coast Guard cutter McLane, with Lieutenant Burns in command, eliminated a Japanese submarine with depth charges. It was the first Japanese sub sunk in Alaskan waters.” National Archives Identifier 205588237
McLane was awarded one Battle Star for her World War II service.
125 ft. Active-class “Buck and a Quarters,” via 1946 Janes
Switching back to her white and buff scheme post-war, she was based in California until decommissioned in December 1968, capping 41 years in the service.
125-foot “buck and a quarter” USCGC McLane (W146) in her post-WWII scheme. Note her 40mm Bofors, circa 1962
Mothballed at the US Coast Guard Yard for less than a year, the McLane was sold to the Marine Navigation and Training Association of Chicago in November 1969, who operated her as a school and instruction ship for Sea Scouts on the waters of Lake Michigan into the early 1990s. She was then acquired by the Great Lakes Naval Memorial and Museum in 1993 (now known as the USS Silversides Submarine Museum) and began her third career as a museum ship in Muskegon.
That final chapter has now closed, and with her 98-year-old hull increasingly unstable, the museum has “de-assessed” McLane, towing her off to the breakers last week.
As noted by the museum:
The vessel, which had been closed to the public since spring 2025 due to ongoing maintenance concerns, was towed away with the support of dedicated community partners. After nearly a century of service in both salt and fresh water, the McLane’s condition had deteriorated to the point of being inaccessible for public touring and beyond the scope of feasible preservation.
Despite efforts to explore alternative preservation options, the museum ultimately determined that continued stewardship of the McLane was no longer sustainable. With the cold season approaching, the combination of time, weather, and structural decline made timely action necessary to ensure the safety of the vessel and the surrounding environment.
One of 33 Active-class cutters, McLane’s only remaining sister afloat, the former USCGC Morris (WPC-147/WSC-147/WMEC-147), was saved from the scrappers by the Vietnam War Flight Museum in Galveston, Texas, in 2021 and is being restored to sailing condition.
The Prague-based Colt CZ Group announced this week it had signed a new agreement with the Czech Ministry of Defense running through 2031.
The 4.26 billion kroner ($205 million) contract covers BREN 2 rifles, P-10 C pistols, GL 40mm grenade launchers, and a wide range of accessories, including optics, spare parts, armorer kits, holsters, and cases. It expands on a relationship that goes back to 2011, when the Czech Army began replacing its Cold War-classic vz. 58 rifle with the original CZ 805 BREN.
CZ is supplying the Czech military with the bulk of its small arms needs, from 9mm P-10 pistols to 40mm grenade launchers. (Photos: Czech Army)
“Our firearms have long proven their reliability and quality in real combat conditions,” said Jan Zajíc, CEO of CZ. “We utilize this experience to make continuous improvements and develop new generations of our products.”
As noted by the Czech defense minister’s office, the news of the CZ contract comes amid a multi-year 510 billion kroner modernization effort that includes not only small arms but also 24 F-35A Lightning fighters from the U.S., 77 Leopard 2A8 tanks from Germany, 250 Pandur EVO 8x8s from Finland, and 246 Swedish CV90 infantry fighting vehicles.
A member of NATO since 1999, joining the same year as former Warsaw Pact allies Poland and Hungary, the country is nervously boosting defense spending amid concerns of an aggressive Russia to the East.
Members of the 3rd Co., Coast Artillery Reserve Corps, firing a 12-inch M1888MII gun at Fort Worden’s Battery Ash, overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca, during summer camp, 1914. The round being fired is likely a rarely shot service round as opposed to a practice round, so more powder is involved.
Photo from Puget Sound Coast Artillery Museum collection
Constructed during the Endicott Period of coastal defenses sparked by the Spanish-American War, Battery Ash was constructed between 1899 and 1902. At the time of operation, it was outfitted with five 10-inch and two 12-inch guns in barbette carriages, the latter of which had a range of 10 miles when firing a 1,070-pound armor-piercing shell. These were aimed towards the West, the expected entry point of the enemy.
The last of the big guns at Fort Worden were deactivated in late 1942, hopelessly obsolete, and were removed in 1944, cut up to be used as scrap iron for the war effort. None of the guns or mortars at the Harbor Defenses of Puget Sound ever fired a shot in anger – only for practice.
During their four-decade career, each of the big 12-inchers at Worden only fired about 70 rounds in practice, an average of less than two shots per year.
The Coast Guard’s 2004 Program of Record for its planned Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutter (FRC) program was “24 to 36 hulls.”
That was then.
Envisioned to replace 49 aging 110-foot 1980-90s vintage Island class patrol cutters (WPBs), 12 of which had been ruined in a botched lengthening modification, the new ships would be 30 percent longer, at 154-feet, and nearly twice the tonnage.
110-foot Island class cutters compared to the new 154-foot Sentinel (Webber) class FRCs
Powered by two 5,800 shp MTU diesels (double the plant of the 110s), the FRCs also had 50 percent greater unrefueled range (2,900nm vs 1,882nm), a much better cutter boat (a stern dock launched jet drive 26-footer vs a davit deployed 18-footer with an outboard), better habitability, sensors, commo, and better guns (a gyro-stabilized remote fired Mk 38 Mod 2/3 25mm with an EO/IR sensor system and 4-6 M2s/Mk19s vs an unstabilized eyeball-trained Mk 38 Mod 0 and two M2s).
Plus, they had larger crews, at 4 officers, 4 POs, and 16 ratings, vs 2/2/12, which meant more hands could be sent away on landing details.
This meant they would be rated as WPCs instead of WPBs, akin to the Navy’s similar 170-foot Cyclone-class PCs.
MIAMI — The Coast Guard Cutter Webber, the Coast Guard’s first Sentinel Class patrol boat, arrives at Coast Guard Sector Miami Feb. 9, 2012. The 154-foot Webber is a Fast Response Cutter capable of independently deploying to conduct missions such as ports, waterways, and coastal security, fishery patrols, drug and illegal migrant law enforcement, search and rescue, and national defense along the Gulf of Mexico and throughout the Caribbean. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Sabrina Elgammal.
The lead FRC delivered, USCGC Bernard C. Webber (WPC-1101), commissioned in April 2012, while the last 110s to leave Coast Guard service did so this summer, at which point the FRCs, which have proven extremely handy, even on long-ranging blue water cruises in the Pacific, had 58 hulls in service with another nine under contract.
A big jump from 24-36!
The truth is, the USCG is pressing these new 154-footers into the gap left by their aging 210-270-foot blue-water medium-endurance cutter fleet. Mission whackamole.
Classmember USCGC Oliver Berry (WPC-1124) completed a nearly 9,300-nautical-mile, 45-day round-trip patrol from Hawaii to Guam in 2020 and followed it up with a 46-day patrol in 2024. At the same time, several of these hulls are self-deploying 7,700 miles from Key West to new home ports in Alaska.
There have been repeated calls for the Navy to purchase members of the class for use in littoral operations, as the cutter has sufficient weight and space to mount a Naval Strike Missile box launcher with four tubes at the stern.
“Since its introduction to the fleet in 2012 as the successor to the 110-foot Island class patrol boat, the Fast Response Cutter has consistently proven its capabilities, adaptability, and effectiveness in a wide range of maritime environments and Coast Guard missions,” said RADM Mike Campbell, the Coast Guard’s Director of Systems Integration and Chief Acquisition Officer.
PSU Boat Raiders!
As part of Arctic Edge 2025, an element of 3rd Bn, 4th Marines, 1st MARDIV teamed up with Long Beach, California-based USCGR Port Security Unit 311 to use their 32-foot Transportable Port Security Boats to conduct a boat raid on a “simulated enemy port” at Port Mackenzie, Alaska.
A sort of budget SWCC/SEAL kind of arrangement.
The SWCC we have at home, if you will.
U.S. Coast Guardsmen with Port Security Unit 311, and U.S. Marines with Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, depart after conducting an amphibious raid on a simulated enemy port during ARCTIC EDGE 2025 (AE25) at Port Mackenzie, Alaska, Aug. 13, 2025. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Earik Barton)
U.S. Coast Guardsmen with Port Security Unit 311, and U.S. Marines with Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, conduct an amphibious raid on a simulated enemy port during ARCTIC EDGE 2025 (AE25) at Port Mackenzie, Alaska, Aug. 13, 2025. The raid was conducted to demonstrate joint-service interoperability in an austere environment. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Earik Barton)
U.S. Coast Guardsmen with Port Security Unit 311, and U.S. Marines with Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, conduct an amphibious raid on a simulated enemy port during ARCTIC EDGE 2025 (AE25) at Port Mackenzie, Alaska, Aug. 13, 2025. The raid was conducted to demonstrate joint-service interoperability in an austere environment. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Earik Barton)
U.S. Coast Guardsmen with Port Security Unit 311, and U.S. Marines with Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, conduct an amphibious raid on a simulated enemy port during ARCTIC EDGE 2025 (AE25) at Port Mackenzie, Alaska, Aug. 13, 2025. The raid was conducted to demonstrate joint-service interoperability in an austere environment. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Earik Barton)
Keep in mind that something like this could be in the toolbox in a future conflict.
Capable of 45 knots on a pair of inboard diesels, the TPSBs carry two .50 cals and two M240B GPMGs. Girded with ballistic panels, they have shock-mitigating seats and can carry as many as eight passengers in addition to a four-man crew. It looks like each carried a half-squad or so of Marines. Each PSU has six TPSBs, allowing a theoretical raid force of 72, exclusive of crews.
The boats have an over-the-horizon capability and range of 238nm, meaning they can be used as an easily deployable blocking/interdiction force in a littoral if needed.
HITRON hits 1K
Finally, the U.S. Coast Guard’s Jacksonville-based Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron (HITRON) achieved a significant milestone in its counter-drug mission, completing its 1,000th interdiction of suspected narco-trafficking vessels on 25 August.
Since its founding in 1999, HITRON has interdicted $33.2 billion in illicit drugs during operations in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, and over the past 26 years, it has averaged one interdiction every nine days.
Not bad numbers for less than 200 Coasties, including reservists and auxiliaries, and a dozen MH-65E Dolphins, whose base airframes are 40 years old!
Coast Guard crews from the Coast Guard Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron, Coast Guard Tactical Law Enforcement Team – South, Coast Guard Cutter Midgett (WMSL 757), helicopter tie-down members, and unmanned aerial vehicle personnel pose for a group photo aboard Midgett from behind three bullet-damaged outboard engine cowlings while underway in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, Aug. 28, 2025. On Aug. 25, HITRON used airborne use of force to stop the non-compliant vessel, marking the unit’s 1,000th drug interdiction since the unit’s inception in 1999, which resulted in Midgett crew members seizing approximately 3,606 pounds of suspected cocaine worth an estimated $46 million and apprehending six suspected narco-traffickers. (U.S. Coast Guard photo)
We weren’t sure what to expect when the Rost Martin RM1C was first announced at SHOT ’24. Was it going to be a made-in-Turkey import with someone else’s name on it? A “game-changing” G19 Gen 3 clone but without its muse’s reliability? A vaporware gun that ever left the drawing board?
No, after 18 months and 1,500 rounds, we found it to be a solid American-made (from the land of Whataburger and Buc-ee’s, no less) double-stack 9 with lots of backend support and a lineage drawn from a proven design. Affordable, we found it dependable, accurate, and intuitive in use.
Plus, it is optics-ready.
That big ole Trijicon RCR actually costs about twice what the gun does, but both work.
About the only rocks we could toss its way were in the safety tab in the trigger shoe, which we have talked about and is easily overcome with a bit of training, and the very stout recoil spring, which is common in a lot of striker-fired pistols of its size.
19 October 1984: The Twin Towers dot the Gotham skyline as crackerjack-wearing gunners mates stand at attention on USS Iowa’s (BB 61) No. 1 16″/50 gun turret as the battleship approaches the southern end of Manhattan during a scheduled port visit to New York City shortly after the dreadnought was recommissioned for the third (and final) time. Note the full-color recognition flag on the roof of the gun house.
U.S. Navy photo DNST8505245 by PH1 Jeff Hilton, NARA 330-CFD-DN-ST-85-05245
Two other views from the same photographer that day, including a cameo by the Staten Island Ferry.
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Warship Wednesday, September 10, 2025: Scots, East!
Imperial War Museum photo GOV 2739
Above we see, almost exactly 75 years ago, a Balmoral capped and STEN-gun toting CPL John MacDonald of the 1st Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, waiting to embark on the modified Fiji (Uganda)-class light cruiser HMS Ceylon (C 30) in Hong Kong on 25 August 1950 for an emergency sealift to help defend the embattled enclave of Pusan, South Korea.
MacDonald’s war chariot made sense. Despite her name, Ceylon was built in Scotland and “paid for” by its residents. Korea was her second major Pacific war.
The Ugandas
A borderline “treaty” cruiser of interwar design, the Fijis amounted to a class that was one short of a dozen with an 8,500-ton standard displacement. In WWII service, this would balloon to a very top-heavy weight of over 11,000. Some 15 percent of the standard displacement was armor.
As described by Richard Worth in his Fleets of World War II, the design was much better off than the previous Leander-class cruisers, and essentially “the Admiralty resolved to squeeze a Town [the immediately preceding 9,100-ton light cruiser class] into 8,000 tons.”
With a fine transom stern, they were able to achieve over 32 knots on a plant that included four Admiralty 3-drum boilers driving four Parsons steam turbines, their main armament amounted to nine 6″/50 (15.2 cm) BL Mark XXIII guns in three triple Mark XXI mountings in the case of our cruiser and her two immediate full sisters (HMS Uganda and HMS Newfoundland).
A strong secondary battery of eight QF HA 4″/45 Mark XVIs in four twin mountings gave excellent DP capabilities.
The standard Fiji/Colony-class cruiser had four Mark XXI turrets, as shown in the top layout, while the “Improved Fijis/Ceylon-variants of the class mounted three, as in the bottom layout. Not originally designed to carry torpedo tubes, two triple sets were quickly added, along with more AAA guns, once the treaty gloves came off. (Jane’s 1946)
Meet Ceylon
Our vessel is at least the fourth (and surely the last) Royal Navy warship to carry the name of the British colony of Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, which was under Crown rule from 1796 to 1948.
The first was an ex-East Indiaman that served as a 38-gun fifth rate and then as a 40-gun frigate from 1793 through 1857. She is perhaps best known for her stirring overnight action off the island of Bourbon in 1810 against two French ships.
“Naval Combat Between The Frigate La Venus And The British Frigate HMS Ceylon” by Pierre-Julien Gilbert. On the night of September 16/17, 1810, the 40-gun Junon-class frigate Vénus, along with the 20-gun privateer corvette Victor, encountered and captured Ceylon off the coast of the island of Bourbon, now the island of Réunion, losing her fore-mast and her topgallant masts in the process. The next day, a British squadron composed of HMS Boadicea, HMS Otter, and the brig HMS Staunch in turn captured Vénus and recaptured Ceylon and her surviving crew. Victor managed to escape.
The second and third were private craft taken up from service in the Great War (ex-Seaton, 149grt, and ex-Lady Ina, 311grt). The latter, serving as a group leader in the special yacht squadrons in the Mediterranean, earned a battle honor for the Dardanelles from June 1915 to May 1916.
Our subject cruiser was built by Stephen and Sons, Ltd., Govan, in Scotland, under the Admiralty’s 1938 Build Programme. Laid down four months before WWII on 27 April 1939 as Job No. 1469, the same yard had previously built her sister, HMS Kenya (C14), as Job No. 566.
Ceylon was launched on 30 July 1942, christened by Lady Dorothy Macmillan, and, after 11 months of fitting out, commissioned on 29 June 1943, with Capt. Guy Beresford Amery-Parkes, RN, in command.
Left to right: July 1943. Capt. Guy Beresford Amery-Parkes, Commanding Officer of HMS Ceylon, and his XO, CDR Frank Reginald Woodbine Parish, DSO. Parish earned his DSO in 1940 as skipper of the destroyer HMS Vivacious. Photo by Beadell, S J (Lt), IWM (A 17715)
A regular with 32 years’ service on his jacket, Amery-Parks had entered the RN as a cadet at Dartmouth at age 13, shipped out for his first war as a 16-year-old midshipman in August 1914 on the cruiser HMS Amphitrite, and saw service at Jutland on the Bellerophon-class dreadnought HMS Superb as an acting sub-lieutenant. During the 1930s, he had served as XO on two cruisers, HMS Delhi and Frobisher, before a stint as gunnery officer on the battleship Warspite. Fast forward to WWII, he had almost gone down with the minesweeping sloop HMS Sphinx (J69) when she was sunk in 1940 and had previously commanded the net layer HMS Guardian (T 89) during the invasion of Vichy-held Madagascar in 1942.
After an amazingly successful “Warship Week” National Savings campaign in February 1942, the future HMS Ceylon was adopted by the civil corporation of the city of Dundee in Scotland, with a population of 164,000. The city had raised a whopping £3,782,775 in loans to the Exchequer between 31 January and 7 February 1942, about twice as much as the cost of HMS Ceylon, so the Admiralty got a good deal on that one.
City representatives swapped out plaques and other items on the stern of “their” cruiser on 2 July, before an assembled crew under the watchful bores of Ceylon’s big guns.
The Lord Provost (center) addressing the ship’s company at the presentation ceremony. Photo by Beadell, S J (Lt), IWM (A 17712)
Dundee’s plaque for the cruiser Ceylon, 2 July 1943, Glasgow. The Lord Provost of Dundee, Lord Provost Garnet Wilson, accompanied by Bailie Colin Baird, Bailie Caldwell, and other members of the Corporation, presented a plaque to the British Cruiser HMS Ceylon to commemorate her adoption by the citizens of Dundee. The Captain of the Ceylon made a return presentation to the citizens; a plaque replica of the crest of the Ceylon, which was handed over on behalf of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. Photo by Beadell, S J (Lt), IWM A 17713.
The Lord Provost of Dundee and members of the Corporation inspect the ship. Photo by Beadell, S J (Lt), IWM (A 17714)
HMS Ceylon at anchor in the Clyde, July 1943. IWM (FL 7789)
HMS Ceylon at anchor in the Clyde. IWM (FL 7788)
Ceylon was girded and ready for war, spending most of August in large-scale tactical exercises off Scapa Flow.
It Ain’t Half Hot Mum
Nominated for service with the British Eastern Fleet based in Ceylon, her namesake colony, our cruiser was given extra 20mm Oerlikon mounts for added AAA defense against Japanese aircraft.
On 30 October 1943, she shoved off for parts East via the Bay of Biscay, Gibraltar, Port Said, and Aden, arriving in Bombay on 27 November. She was assigned to RADM A.D. Read’s 4th Cruiser Squadron at Trincomalee, joining the Town-class light cruiser HMS Newcastle and sister HMS Kenya.
She was feted upon arrival in Colombo, the hometown ship sorts, at least by name.
“A” Turret of HMS Ceylon fires a broadside while at sea off Colombo, 5 January 1944. Photo by Trusler, C (Lt), IWM (A 21901)
Royal Naval gunners on board HMS Ceylon explain the workings of a twin Oerlikon gun to Mr. A. Mamujee. On the right are Mr. J.A. Martensz and the Editor of the Ceylon Observer. Photo by Trusler, C (Lt), IWM (A 21891).
Pith helmets all-round! Admiral Sir Geoffrey Layton and a group of Ceylon personalities watch the gunnery practice on board HMS Ceylon during her visit to Colombo. Note the beret-clad RM officer in the distance and the slouch hat in the foreground. Photo by Trusler, C (Lt), IWM (A 21900)
The Bishop of Colombo preaching at Morning Service on board HMS Ceylon as she swings at anchor in the colony, 5 January 1944. Note the flags of Allies KMT China, Belgium, and France behind the pulpit. Photo by Trusler, C (Lt), IWM (A 21907)
After morning service on board HMS Ceylon. Left to right: The Bishop’s Curate; HMS Ceylon’s Chaplain; The Bishop of Colombo, Right Revd Cecil D Horsley; Commanding Officer of HMS Ceylon, Captain G B Amery-Parkes, RN. Photo by Trusler, C (Lt), IWM (A 21906)
Ceylon spent the first part of 1944 on a series of exercises with her squadron, culminating with a sweep into the Bay of Bengal, Operation Initial, in March, centered around the battlecruiser HMS Renown, battleship HMS Valiant, and aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious.
April 1944 saw our cruiser as part of Task Force 69, built around the battleships HMS Queen Elizabeth (flying the flag of Admiral J.F. Somerville, KCB, KBE, DSO, RN, C-in-C Eastern Fleet), Valiant, and the Free French Richelieu.
The force was an over-the-horizon screen during Operation Cockpit, a carrier raid by the Eastern Fleet (TF 70 and the carriers Illustrious and USS Saratoga) against Sabang in the Japanese-held Dutch East Indies.
Operation Transom in May 1944 was a near repeat, swapping out Sabang for occupied Surabaya, with Ceylon this time screening the carriers themselves.
Richelieu, HMS Valiant, and HMS Renown Cruising About the Indian Ocean On 12 May 1944, Operation Transom
The next month would see Operation Councillor, another carrier raid on Sabang (June 10-13), followed by Operation Pedal, a series of strikes in the Andaman Islands.
July 1944 would see another run at Sabang (Operation Crimson), this time screening the battlewagons Queen Elizabeth, Valiant, and Richelieu, along with the battlecruiser HMS Renown, and the carriers Illustrious and HMS Victorious. Our cruiser fired in anger for the first time, hitting enemy positions in shore bombardment during the operation, her 6-inch guns accompanied by Queen Elizabeth’s 15s. In all, the light cruiser sisters HMS Nigeria, Kenya, Ceylon, and HMNZS Gambia fired 324 6-inch shells during the raid, along with a similar number of 4-inchers.
More of the same came in August with Operation Banquet, striking Padang with the battlewagon Howe now riding shotgun with the flattops HMS Indomitable and Victorious. Following the end of a very hectic five months of operations and a year deployed, Ceylon made for Durban, South Africa, in September, where she spent the rest of the year in refit.
January 1945 saw Ceylon back with the armored carriers Illustrious, Indomitable, and Victorious for strikes against oil refineries in Sumatra at Pangkalan-Brandan (Operation Lentil) and Palembang (Operation Meridian).
April 1945 saw Ceylon again bring her big guns into action with Operation Bishop, a surface bombardment of Burma’s Car Nicobar to provide cover for Operation Dracula– the amphibious landings off Rangoon. Ceylon and the cruiser HMS Suffolk of Bismarck fame were tasked to soak enemy AA positions just before sunrise on 30 April, clearing the way for later air strikes. HMS Cumberland of GrafSpee fame and Ceylon shifted to ruining Japanese airstrips with 8-inch and 6-inch shells the next morning.
This capped the run of Capt. Amery-Parkes, who was relieved by the incoming Capt. Kenneth Lanyon Harkness, DSC, RN, on 12 May.
August 1945 saw Ceylon steaming as part of Force 11, centered on the battleship HMS Nelson and four escort carriers, under Operation Beecham, the occupying amphibious landings at Penang. For this, her RM detachment was paired with those from three other cruisers and Nelson to form a light battalion (400 men), dubbed Force Roma, which was going to take the surrender of 3,000 emplaced Japanese defenders.
In the end, Force Roma was kept on their ships as, on 28 August, Japanese VADM Sueto Hirose arrived aboard Nelson to negotiate the formal surrender of the Japanese forces in Penang. The Indian 26th Division would instead arrive for occupation duty in mid-October, with the Japanese tasked informally with keeping order until then.
Penang conference on board HMS Nelson. 28 August to 2 September 1945, on board the British battleship HMS Nelson, flagship of Vice Admiral H T C Walker. During the Penang surrender and re-occupation negotiations. Rear Admiral Uzuni and the Japanese governor of Penang signed for the Japanese, after which the documents of agreement were signed by Vice Admiral H T C Walker at 2115 hours on 1 September 1945. Royal Marines of the British East Indies fleet formally took over the island on 3 September 1945. Photo by Hales, G (Lt), IWM (A 30472)
By 9 September, Ceylon was covering the planned Operation Zipper landings of Allied troops on the Malayan coast, which were a whole lot less bloody than originally envisioned.
During the Japanese surrender ceremony at Singapore on 12 September, selected members of her ship’s company formed part of the guard of honor for the ceremony.
The Union Jack being hoisted over Singapore after the signing ceremony, 12 September 1945. The honor guard was provided by Force W, including HMS Ceylon, and the Indian 5th Division. Photo by Trusler, C (Lt), IWM (A 30489)
Following the liberation of Malaya and Singapore, Ceylon was ordered home, which meant she *had* to stop off at Colombo on the way for a week-long port call.
“Men of HMS Ceylon. 30 September 1945, Colombo, on board HMS Ceylon, the day before she sailed for home at the end of her commission with the British East Indies fleet. The men are grouped by area: Dundee interest. Front to back: Able Seaman J Ramsay, Dundee; Able Seaman D Dallas, Kirkadly, Fife; Able Seaman E Mollison, Dundee; Engine Room Mechanic G Mekkinson, Cupar, Fife.” Photo by Cochrane, R W (Sub Lt), IWM (A 30708)
Ceylon arrived at Portsmouth on 25 October 1945, having steamed 115,000 nm during the war, and was promptly paid off into the Reserve fleet. She had earned the battle honors Sabang (1944) and Burma (1945) during her service.
Uganda class cruisers Ceylon, Newfoundland, Jane’s 1946
Korea!
After four years of slumber, Ceylon was brought out of mothballs in Portsmouth in early 1950 to relieve the cruiser HMS Birmingham with the 4th Cruiser Squadron of the East Indies Fleet. Her skipper would be Capt. Cromwell Felix Justin Lloyd-Davies DSC, RN, who had commanded the light cruiser HMS Glasgow (21) in the latter months of WWII.
While the old Birmingham was slated for an in-depth two-year refit, Ceylon was given a much more modest refresh and left for the Far East on 15 April 1950, with the intention of her crew to “work up” along the way. She arrived at Trincomalee on 22 June.
In a desperate response to the invasion of South Korea on 25 June 1950 and the subsequent United Nations Security Council Resolutions (UNSCRs) 82, 83, 84, and 85, Great Britain became one of 22 countries contributing either combat forces or medical assistance to support South Korea under the UN flag. That muscle, besides the British Far East Fleet, required some boots on the ground. In response, Ceylon was dispatched to the Far East on a “temporary secondment of about three months”
With that, 27 Brigade, which had garrisoned Hong Kong since 1949, would dispatch its Brigade Headquarters and two battalions– 1st Bn, Argyll and Sutherland and 1st Bn, Middlesex Regiment– to the desperately holding Pusan Perimeter immediately. Rather than schlep them there in slow troopships, it was decided that Ceylon– transferred to the Far East Fleet– would carry the Argylls while the carrier HMS Unicorn would tote the “Die Hards” of the Middlesex.
Severely under strength (as was every other UN battalion sent to Korea in 1950), the Argylls rapidly absorbed 17 men from the Royal Leicesters, 25 from the King’s Own Scottish Borderers, 38 from the South Staffordshire Regiment, and 53 from the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, all volunteers, to bring the Battalion up to its 600-strong Korean war establishment.
General Sir John Harding, the Commander-in-Chief of the Far East Forces, and Mr. Malcolm MacDonald, the High Commissioner for South East Asia, came down to the docks to see the two battalions off to war while the band of the Scottish Borderers played them out while the Argylls own band, augmented by Ceylon’s RM band, matched them from the cruiser’s quarterdeck.
From the deck of HMS Ceylon, Mr. Malcolm MacDonald, the High Commissioner for Southeast Asia, addresses men of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders paraded on the dock below, before they board the cruiser for the journey to Pusan, South Korea. IWM (GOV 2741)
Men of the 1st Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, boarding the cruiser HMS Ceylon for the journey to Pusan, South Korea. In the background, the band of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers plays on. IWM (GOV 2738)
As detailed in Lt.Col. G I Malcolm’s “The Argylls in Korea,” the “Jocks” were crammed in every space the cruiser would allow for the short yet almost enjoyable 1,200 nm sprint to Pusan, one that involved not only running through notorious late summer China Sea rain squalls but the also a darkened ship run past Formosa (Taiwan) at night, just in case the Red Chinese were on alert in those waters.
Almost as soon as the Battalion had reached Holt’s Wharf, officers and men found themselves stowed away in the ship’s interior, allotted to wardroom, gunroom, petty officers’ mess, and mess decks, and made to feel they were the welcome guests of the ship’s company. Thus, laid the foundation of a very happy comradeship. The ordinary sailors, knowing from their experience on the China station that a feeling of insecurity is engendered in ‘Pongos’ who find themselves with neither land nor whitewash in sight, made all the necessary allowances for their passengers. Certainly, no soldiers had better hosts, and once they understood (‘hauled in’) the basic English of naval vocabulary and timekeeping, they all felt that a life on the ocean wave, at any rate in decent weather, had much to commend it.
They shoved off at 1830 on 25 August and docked at Pusan at noon on the 29th, an elapsed time of about 90 hours, with a Korean Army band welcoming them to a hastily learned “God Save the King.”
A well mustachioed Sergeant of the 1st Battalion, The Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders supervises the disembarkation of British troops for HMS Ceylon at Pusan. IWM (MH 32736)
Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders line the decks of HMS Ceylon as she comes alongside at Pusan, Korea, Aug 29 1950 LIFE Carl Maydans
Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders line the decks of HMS Ceylon as she comes alongside at Pusan, Korea, Aug 29 1950 LIFE Carl Maydans
The kilt-clad Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders band from HMS Ceylon, Pusan, Korea, Aug 29 1950 LIFE Carl Maydans
Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders land from HMS Ceylon as she comes alongside at Pusan, Korea, Aug 29 1950 LIFE Carl Maydans
By the evening of 30 August, the Argylls would be on the move to the front and would suffer their first of 171 casualties in their first eight-month tour of Korea while deployed along the Naktong river south-west of Taegu on 6 September.
With her Jocks landed, Ceylon was soon made part of the Inchon landing force (Operation Chromite), taking part in diversionary shore bombardment. Ceylon put a landing party ashore on the island of Taechong Do, where they reported that a previously observed North Korean troop concentration had departed.
“We were off the North Korean coast, not a light anywhere. We felt the malevolent force of the Chinese ashore there. Morale was rock bottom,” recalled 18-year-old Midshipman (later RADM) Ian Mclean Crawford, AO, AM.
As she had sailed from Portsmouth in April with a “peacetime” complement, it wasn’t until October 1950 that augmentees from Europe arrived to bring her crew to strength. As noted by her reunion association, “Her first two patrols had been carried out with a much reduced company, which made the duty of Defence Stations hard going, as it had meant that the close-range guns crews were closed up from dawn to dusk each day.”
She continued her Korean service until she was relieved by HMS Belfast in February 1951.
While in Kure for a quick hull scraping, she hosted a family reunion between a subaltern with The Duke of Wellington’s Regiment (West Riding)– a unit soon to be famous for holding off 6,000 Chinese at the Battle of the Hook– and his brother-in-law, an RM on Ceylon. The pair captured some great images of the vessel.
Kure, 10 July 1951. An unidentified petty officer ringing the bell of the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Ceylon as an RM bugler sounds a call over the ship’s tannoy (intercom) system. Photo by Harold Vaughan Dunkley AWM DUKJ4559
Kure, 10 July 1951. “Pointing out the opened breech of a gun aboard HMS Ceylon, is Marine F N Barker (far right) to his brother-in-law Lt P Dooks (Duke of Wellington Regiment), both of Bridlington, Yorkshire, England, who chanced to meet 11,000 miles from home, when Ceylon was in dry dock after a spell of duty off Korea.” Photo by Harold Vaughan Dunkley AWM DUKJ4557
Kure, 10 July 1951. “Dwarfed by one of the props of HMS Ceylon are brothers-in-law Marine F N Barker (right) and Lt P Dooks (Duke of Wellington Regiment), both of Bridlington, Yorkshire, England, who chanced to meet 11,000 miles from home, when Ceylon was in dry dock after a spell of duty off Korea.” Photo by Harold Vaughan Dunkley AWM DUKJ4558
On 26 August 1951, a seven-man raiding party made up of sailors from HMNZS Rotoiti and Royal Marine Commandos from Ceylon departed from Rotoiti and landed at Sogon-ni in North Korea to take prisoners for intelligence purposes. They were joined on the mission by a fire support team and US observers who would stay by the boats to provide cover if necessary. The party made contact with a Nork gun emplacement, and Able Seaman Robert Marchioni, RNZN, was killed in the exchange; body not recovered. Marchioni was the last New Zealand sailor to die in combat.
Sent to refit in Singapore, she arrived back off Korea in May and continued to serve regular stints on the gun line until July 1952, when HMS Newcastle arrived in theatre to relieve her.
On 4 February 1952, Ceylon and the destroyer HMS Cockade covered the landings by South Korean raiders on the Mudo Islands from LST-516 and 692.
On 26 June 1952, Ceylon was only narrowly missed by enemy coastal batteries near Popkyo-ri, in which two shells came within 1,000 yards of the cruiser. She responded with 24 rounds of 6-inch, smothering the observed gun flash positions and received no return fire.
On 29 June 1952, Ceylon supported a raid on Yongmae-do with the destroyer HMS Comus and frigate HMS Amethyst, in which the raiders returned at daylight with two prisoners.
During her Korean deployments (August ’50 – July ’52), Ceylon spent 458 days at sea, steaming some 77,800 miles, discharging 6,877 rounds of 6-inch, as well as 1,965 of 4-inch, plus large quantities of 20mm and 40mm close-range ammunition.
Capt. Lloyd-Davies would add a DSO to his WWII-era DSC for his command of Ceylon during the “police action.”
Salad Days
Following six months in ordinary in Singapore, Ceylon returned to service with a new crew (her old one returning to England on HMS Vengeance) and managed a series of peacetime ceremonial engagements over the next few years including being present at the birth of the Maldive Islands Republic in January 1953, the 150th anniversary of the first settlement in Tasmania in February 1954 (she would later also be on hand for Ghana’s Independence), and escorting the steamer SS Gothic during the Royal Tour of Australasia in April 1954, which included a visit to the ship by the Queen.
HMS Ceylon, dressed in Freemantle for the 1954 Queen’s visit
Modified Crown Colony-class light cruiser HMS Ceylon (C30), deliberately listing for an exercise. 14 August 1953. IWM (HU 129765)
HMS Ceylon escorts the Royal yacht SS Gothic along with HMAS Bataan (I91), HMAS Anzac (D59), and HMS Vengeance (R71), April 1954
9 April 1954. Her Majesty the Queen and His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh with the Captain, Officers and Ship’s Company of HMS Ceylon. Seated on the Fo`c’sle, left to right: Midshipman Grassby, RNVR, Tunbridge Wells; Midshipman A Khan, RPN, Pakistan; Midshipman Chitham, London; Midshipman Malek, RPN, Pakistan; Midshipman Z Khan, RPN, Pakistan; Midshipman Allen, Wimborne; Midshipman Day, Lydney, Glas; Midshipman Snow, S Africa; Midshipman Broomfield, Catterwick; Midshipman Steil, Uganda; Midshipman Suanders, Uganda. Seated front row: Lieut Bannister, Reigate; Lieut (S) North, Doncaster; Inst Lieut Cottam, London; Lieut Cdr Stewart, Ceylon; Lieut Cdr Cheetham. Hatch End, Middx; Captain R M Harris, Bickley, Kent; Commander (S) Mellor, Withington; Commander (E) Grill, Blechingly, Surrey; Captain Foster Brown, Liss; HM The Queen; HRH The Duke of Edinburgh; Cdr Steiner, London; Surg Cdr Hovendon, London; Cdr (L) Webber, Henfield; Lieut Cdr Haley, Bexhill on Sea; Lieut Cdr Leak, Liverpool. IWM (A 32922)
She was then ordered back to England, arriving at Portsmouth on 1 October 1954.
As tradition has it, she again stopped off in Ceylon for a port call on the way back to Europe.
“Homecoming” of HMS Ceylon. September 1954, Trincomalee, Ceylon, as HMS Ceylon left Ceylon for Britain after serving in the Far East Station for four years. Note her homeward-bound pennant flying as she steams out of Trincomalee. IWM (A 33009)
Given an extended 22-month refit at Portsmouth, she emerged much more modern, landing her torpedo tubes and dated sensors for a newer Type 960 long-range air warning radar and picking up American Mark 63 radar FCS for her 4-inch guns. Emerging in July 1956, she was rushed to the Eastern Mediterranean to participate in the Suez operations (Operation Musketeer Revise), where she once again provided NGFS ashore.
She made another trip to Ceylon, visiting Trincomalee in October 1957 on the occasion of the base being handed over to the newly independent Ceylon Navy.
In Toulon
Her 1956-58 deployment
HMS Ceylon with HMS Royalist to her port side MOD 45140251
In 1958, she was once again pressed into service as a troop transport, carrying Jocks– 1st Battalion, The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles)– out of Jordan.
The last British soldiers, members of the Cameronians, to leave Jordan, 3 November 1958, where they had been since August to defend against a possible Iraqi invasion. NAM. 2008-07-34-19
After one last trip to Ceylon, as part of Exercise Jet in September 1959 as the flagship of RADM Sir Varyl Cargill Begg, HMS Ceylon returned to Portsmouth, where she was paid off on 1 January 1960, capping a hectic 14-year career that saw the sun set on much of the British Empire.
HMS Ceylon C30, refueling from an RFA, 1959
South America Bound
Just five weeks after she was stricken from the Royal Navy, ex-Ceylon was sold to the government of Peru and handed over on 9 February 1960.
Renamed BAP Coronel Bolognesi (CL-82) in honor of the heroic Peruvian Coronel Francisco Bolognesi, she would serve alongside her old sister ex-Newfoundland (BAP Almirante Grau, later Capitan Quinones), which had been transferred two months prior.
Ceylon/Bolognesi arrived at her new home port of Callao on 19 March 1960, fully dressed in her glad rags.
These are via the Peruvian Naval archives:
HMS Ceylon, Newfoundland, Peru, Janes 1960 Almirante Grau Coronel Bolognesi
She provided sterling work in humanitarian assistance during the 1970 Ancash earthquake, served in regular UNITAS exercises, and was later modified to operate a Bell 47G (H-13 Sioux) from her stern.
Sister Newfoundland/Almirante Grau/Capitan Quinones was reduced to a pier-side training hulk in 1979 and subsequently scrapped, leaving Ceylon/Bolognesi as the next to last of her class (other than ex-HMS Nigeria, which continued to serve with the Indian Navy until 1985 as INS Mysore) in service.
Ceylon/Bolognesi was decommissioned in May 1982 and then towed to Taiwan to be scrapped in 1985. She had made it 42 years.
Epilogue
Little remains of our subject.
I suspect her 1943 plaque presented to the City of Dundee may still be in a place of honor there. If anyone has seen it, please drop an image.
She is remembered in maritime art.
Watercolour HMS Ceylon by Jim Rae
British cruiser HMS Ceylon seen from Royal Australian Navy destroyer HMAS Warramunga (I). The ship is off Sok-To island in the Yellow Sea, Korea, weighing anchor, to facilitate the return of the ship’s Captain from Ceylon. From 29th June to 9th July, HMAS Warramunga (I) joined the Chodo-Sokto Unit (TU 95.12.1) code-named CIGARRET (patrol area from Sokto to Choppeki Point) in the defence of the islands of Sokto and Chodo. Official war artist Frank Norton described the operations in a letter to the Memorial’s Director ‘”Warramunga’s patrol was very quiet as far as action – the group of ships were anti invasion force – protecting some islands off the North Korean Coast – patrolling between islands and mainland (a matter of a few miles) at night – firing star shells and checking any junks that might attempt to pass from one to the other…During the day, the groups of ships, British, American, Australian, and Korean, lay at anchor just off the coast.’ AWM ART40019
One of her 6-inch guns tampions, adorned with her elephant crest, recently surfaced on a Trinity Marine auction, which probably means the other eight are floating around the UK as well, perhaps saved before the cruiser went to Peru under a different name.
Ceylon’s first skipper, Capt. Guy Beresford Amery-Parkes, who had commanded her throughout WWII, post-war moves ashore as the Deputy Superintendent, Captain of the Dockyard & King’s Harbour Master, at HM Dockyard Portsmouth aboard HMS Victory. He left the service due to ill health in 1947, capping a 36-year career. He passed in October 1955 in Hurstpierpoint, Sussex.
Capt. Cromwell Felix Justin Lloyd-Davies, her impeccably named Korean War skipper, would retire in 1955 and pass in 1998 in Buckinghamshire, at a ripe old age of 95.
The last flag officer to fly his flag from her mast, Sir Varyl Begg– who was in charge of Warspite’s guns at Cape Matapan– went on to become a full admiral and talked the RN into the “through deck cruiser” concept that led to the Invincible class Harrier carriers, arguably Britain’s final cruisers.
As for the Jocks that Ceylon carried, the Argylls served with the British Army until 2006, when the historic regiment was amalgamated into The Royal Regiment of Scotland and today make up its Balaklava Company.
The Cameronians served with the British Army until 1968, when the regiment made the rare yet respectable choice to disband rather than be amalgamated.
Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive
***
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Austria-based Steyr last week debuted a NEW (!) series of pistols designed for both competition (ATc) and defense (ATd) with a familiar feel to them.
As reported by the European gun sites All 4 Shooters andMilitaerAktuell, Steyr made the public debut of the new all-metal, optics-ready, hammer-fired pistols at a media event in Slovenia at the beginning of the month.
As such, these are the first hammer-fired pistols branded by Steyr since the old Gasbremse (GB) gas guns of the 1970s and 80s.
You remember the old Steyr GB, ja?
And the first all-metal pistols since the M.12 went out of production in 1945.
And who can forget the Steyr 1912?
The all-stainless ATc is pitched to competition users and features tuned 3-pound SAO triggers and heavy match barrels with options for 5- and 6-inch lengths.
Meanwhile, the three ATd model 6-pound DA/SA guns, geared more for defensive use, will have alloy frames in three barrel sizes (4, 5, and 6 inches). These use 18-shot double-stack 9mm magazines, with extended magazines available up to 25 rounds. The guns will have modular recoil spring and hammer spring options to allow easy user-level tuning.
The competition-oriented Steyr ATc. (Photos: Steyr via Militaer Aktuell)
The more defensive-minded Steyr ATd. (Photos: Steyr via Militaer Aktuell)
The new guns appear to be rebranded and upgraded Arex Rex Alphas, a pistol teased in 2017 and delivered to the market in small numbers since 2018. These have typically been imported to the States by the FIME Group.
The Arex Rex Alpha is a more competition-oriented version of the company’s Zero 1 and Zero 2 series pistols, which were essentially updated SIG P226 clones. (Photos: Arex)
Arex, based in Slovenia, has been owned by the Czech Republic-based RSBC Investment Group since 2017. RSBC purchased Steyr last year, making it all make sense. It will be interesting to see whether the guns’ production line will be in Austria or Slovenia.
Price is reported to start at €999, which translates to about $1,170, not counting tariffs. As for the likelihood of these guns making it to America, Steyr has a much more robust in-house Alabama-based importing ability over Arex, so the logic on the branding would seem to point towards the U.S. market.
On this side of the pond, the ATc could be a good competitor against SIG’s P226 X5, while the ATd could take on assorted DA/SA P226 SKUs, if the price were right.
80 years ago this week, Gen. Jonathan “Skinny” Mayhew Wainwright IV (USMA 1906) is seen enjoying a cup of Joe in House Speaker Sam Rayburn’s Office, 10 September 1945, after addressing the House and before picking up his MoH. If anyone ever deserved a good cup of coffee at the time, it was Wainwright.
National Archives Identifier, 350297855
Note Wainwright’s simplified salad bar and four-starred epaulets on his “Sun tans.”
A veteran of the Moro Rebellion with the old 1st Cavalry before they gave up their horses and the Great War– where he fought in the Meuse-Argonne with the 82nd Infantry Division back when they were “legs”– Wainwright was a one-star regular left holding the bag in the Philippines in April 1942 as a newly promoted lieutenant general (temporary) when “Dug Out” Doug was ordered to evac to Australia.
This meant a very hard 1202 days as the highest-ranking American POW in Japanese custody, and, while most of the PI had been liberated before the end of the war, Wainwright, who had been held in Manchuria/Manchukuo, was only freed by the Soviet Red Army on 20 August 1945, a week after the Japanese had signaled they would surrender.
He was soon plucked out of China by a USAAF C-47 and rushed to recently occupied Japan.
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur and Lt. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright greet each other at the New Grand Hotel, Yokohama, Japan on August 31, 1945, in their first meeting since they parted on Corregidor more than three years before. (US Army HD-SN-99-02411)
Wainwright was present at the Japanese surrender on Missouri in Tokyo Bay on 2 September, then accompanied the documents to Washington via air.
He was quickly given a MoH and a fourth star (which was not temporary).
Following a short post-war stint as commander of the Eastern Defense Command in New York and later the Fourth Army at Fort Sam Houston, he was moved to the retired list in August 1947 upon reaching the age 64 mandatory top out.
He passed of a stroke in 1953– on September 2nd no less– aged 70, and is buried in Arlington, Section 1, Grave 358-B.
