Introduced earlier this year, the Glock G43X and G48 were originally released with a two-tone stainless slide over a black polymer frame.
Chambered in 9x19mm, both handguns feature what Glock terms as a compact Slimline frame with a built-in beavertail and short trigger reset and 10-round magazine capacity. But they were only in the Tommy Two-Tone edition. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)
However, starting today, the slides on the new models will feature a black nDLC finish.
Back in my slimmer days, I used to crawl around at Ingalls in Pascagoula as part of the long-running effort to put flesh against steel to produce warships. One of the hulls that I worked on during that period was USS Boxer, to include getting underway on her during builder’s trials. With that being said, LHD-4 carved herself an interesting footnote in the annals of modern asymmetric warfare last week.
The ship, with the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) embarked, has had Marines positioned topside with their light vehicles arrayed on her flight deck so they could bear crew-served weapons on low-key targets if needed. It was apparently one of the lightest of these, a Polaris MRZR 4×4, that was used to pop the drone.
A what?
The little brown thing on Boxer’s deck in the below image.
190718-M-EC058-1558 STRAIT OF HORMUZ (July 18, 2019) A UH-1Y Venom helicopter assigned to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron (VMM) 163 (Reinforced), 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), takes off from the flight deck of the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer (LHD 4) during a strait transit. The Boxer Amphibious Ready Group and the 11th MEU are deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations in support of naval operations to ensure maritime stability and security in the Central Region, connecting the Mediterranean and the Pacific through the western Indian Ocean and three strategic choke points. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Dalton Swanbeck/Released)
Outfitted with a Light Marine Air Defense Integrated System (LMADIS) system, the go-cart-sized vehicle killed the Iranian UAV via aggressive freq interference.
An LMADIS operated by the 22nd MEU on the flight deck of the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge (LHD-3) in May. The system was developed specifically to combat the weaponized commercial drone development. It is equipped with state-of-the-art sensors, optics to track and monitor targets at extensive ranges, and capabilities to physically disable a UAS on approach.
1st Lt. Taylor Barefoot, a low altitude air defense officer with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 163 (Reinforced), 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, programs a counter-unmanned aircraft system on a Light Marine Air Defense Integrated System (LMADIS) during a pre-deployment training exercise at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, Calif., Nov. 13, 2018. The LMADIS is a maneuverable, ground-based system, mounted to a Polaris MRZR that can detect, identify and defeat drones with an electronic attack. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Dalton S. Swanbeck)
The same day, CENTCOM announced the start of Operation Sentinel:
U.S. Central Command is developing a multinational maritime effort, Operation Sentinel, to increase surveillance of and security in key waterways in the Middle East to ensure freedom of navigation in light of recent events in the Arabian Gulf region.
The goal of Operation Sentinel is to promote maritime stability, ensure safe passage, and de-escalate tensions in international waters throughout the Arabian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait (BAM) and the Gulf of Oman.
This maritime security framework will enable nations to provide escort to their flagged vessels while taking advantage of the cooperation of participating nations for coordination and enhanced maritime domain awareness and surveillance.
Meanwhile, off Venezuela
Maduro can’t afford much, but he can still flex some Flankers from time to time apparently.
U.S. Southern Command released a series of short (20 sec) videos of a Venezuelan SU-30 Flanker as it “aggressively shadowed” a U.S. Navy EP-3 Aries II reportedly at an unsafe distance in international airspace over the Caribbean Sea July 19, jeopardizing the crew and aircraft.
“The EP-3 aircraft, flying a mission in approved international airspace, was approached in an unprofessional manner by the SU-30 that took off from an airfield 200 miles east of Caracas.”
Vietnam, Marines of Company H, 2nd Battalion, 4th Regiment, walk through a punji-staked gully; 28 January 1966. Note the M14 battle rifle, Marlboro (they were issued in packs of 5 in C-rats) and bare M1 helmet.
General Photograph File of the U.S. Marine Corps, 1927 – 1981; Records of the U.S. Marine Corps, Record Group 127; National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD. Photograph 127-N-A186578
Punji sticks are ancient anti-personnel devices, with the British reportedly encountering them in Burma as far back as the 19th Century and, as noted in our post on the frogmen of Balikpapan, the Japanese used them extensively in WWII. Today they are banned from use in warfare under Protocol II of the UN’s 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons.
Of course, those who are most likely to use them never had much use for what Geneva had to say, anyway.
Here we see Pearl Harbor veteran, USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) firing her 14″/45cal and 5″/38cal guns while bombarding Guam, south of the Orote Peninsula, on the first day of landings, 21 July 1944. On that day, the 3rd Marine Division launched an amphibious assault to liberate and recapture Guam after over two years of Japanese occupation.
Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command. Catalog #: NH 67584
Laid down eight months before Archduke Franz Ferdinand caught a Browning to the chest and the lights started going out over Europe, “Pennsy” commissioned on 12 June 1916, just in time to serve uneventfully in WWI. Her second world war was much more action-packed. Coming out of her meeting with Infamy in 1941 relatively lightly damaged– largely due to her location in drydock in the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard– she patrolled off California’s coast in 1942 and was back in active combat starting with the Aleutian Campaign.
In all, Pennsylvania picked up eight hard-won battle stars over the course of 146,052 steaming miles in WWII and ended her proud 31-year career sunk off Kwajalein Atoll after atomic bomb testing on 10 February 1948.
Her only sister, Arizona, had a much more tragic involvement in the conflict.
Above we see a Kittyhawk fighter plane of the British RAF No. 112 “Sharknose” Squadron grounded during a Libyan Sandstorm – April 2, 1942, running with a mechanic on the wing directing the pilot. This was required because the view ahead is hindered by the aircraft’s nose angle when all three wheels are on the ground.
During July 1941, the British squadron was one of the first in the world to become operational with the Curtiss P-40 Tomahawk (the lend-lease version of the equivalent to the P-40B and P-40C variants of the US Army Air Corps Warhawks) which was used in both the fighter and ground attack role.
Inspired by the unusually large air inlet on the P-40, the squadron began to emulate the “shark mouth” logo used on some German Messerschmitt Bf 110s of Zerstörergeschwader 76 (ZG 76) earlier in the war, which they had seen in various magazines.
Thus:
Zerstörergeschwader 76 (ZG 76) Messerschmitt Bf 110C with shark mouth, May 1940, Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-382-0211-011
This toothy practice was later followed by P-40 units in other parts of the world, including the famous Flying Tigers, American volunteers serving with the Chinese Air Force in late 1941 and early 1942.
Capt. Forrest F “Pappy” Parham in front of the shark teeth of Little Jeep, a P-40 Warhawk, when a member of “Chennault’s Sharks” the 23rd Fighter Group in the China-Burma-India theater of WWII in late 1942. He went on to make ace with the 75th Fighter Squadron flying P-51s.
Which brings me to this USAF Recruiting Service Hyundai I came across this week:
Just wondering if RAF and Luftwaffe recruiters are also rocking sharks on their own rides.
Here we see the USS Ohio, Battleship # 12, drydocked at Hunter’s Point, San Francisco, California, on 19 July 1904. Note her bow scroll.
Photographed by Turrill & Miller, San Francisco. Donation of the Society of California Pioneers. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 60224
A Maine-class pre-dreadnought laid down at San Francisco’s Union Iron Works on 22 April 1899, the above picture was taken just 10 weeks before her official commissioning on 4 October 1904 and is likely a final hull inspection before she is accepted by the Navy.
The third U.S. warship to be named for the Buckeye State, she was preceded in service by a schooner on Lake Erie during the War of 1812 and an Eckford-designed 64-gun ship of the line that served under no less a naval hero as Commodore Isaac Hull.
BB-12, once she joined the fleet, served on the Asiatic Squadron during the tense period that was the Russo-Japanese War– which it should be pointed out was brokered to a peace treaty by President Theodore Roosevelt– before joining Teddy’s Great White Fleet to sail around the world. By the time the GWF made Hampton Roads in 1909, it and all the ships of the Squadron had been made obsolete by the introduction of HMS Dreadnought and the ensuing all-big-gun battleship rush that ended in the Great War.
USS Ohio (BB-12) (Battleship # 12) Passing the Cucaracha Slide, while transiting the Panama Canal on 16 July 1915, almost 11 years to the day after the above image. Note how much her scheme has changed since joining the fleet, with her haze grey scheme, and lattice masts. Gone is her beautiful white and buff scheme as well as her ornate bow scroll. Collection of Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid, USN, 1973. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 82269
With that being said, Ohio served stateside as a training vessel during World War I and, to comply with Washington Naval Treaty requirements, was sold for scrap in 1923, with but 19 years on her hull.
Her name was to have been carried by a Montana-class super battleship (BB-68) but was canceled before she was even laid down. Nonetheless, “Ohio” went on to grace the lead ship of the Navy’s current strategic ace in the hole boomers, SSBN-726, who has been in service since 1981 and is still going strong as a Tomahawk & SEAL van.
D-Day On Tarawa. Drawing, Charcoal on Paper; by Kerr Eby; 1944; Framed Dimensions 39H X 51W. NHHC
From the DOD:
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today the remains of at least 22 servicemen, killed during the 1943 Battle of Tarawa in World War II, are being returned to the United States in an Honorable Carry Ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, July 17, 2019.
The Battle for Tarawa was part of a larger U.S. invasion (Operation GALVANIC) to capture Japanese-held territory within the Gilbert Islands. The operation commenced on November 20, 1943, with simultaneous attacks at Betio Island (within the Tarawa Atoll) and Makin Island (more than 100 miles north of Tarawa Atoll). While lighter Japanese defenses at Makin Island meant fewer losses for U.S. forces, firmly entrenched Japanese defenders on Betio Island turned the fight for Tarawa Atoll into a costly 76-hour battle.
Over several days of intense fighting at Tarawa, approximately 1,000 Marines and Sailors were killed and more than 2,000 were wounded, while the Japanese were virtually annihilated. Servicemen killed in action were buried where they fell or placed in large trench burials constructed during and after the battle. These graves were typically marked with improvised markers, such as crosses made from sticks, or an up-turned rifle. Grave sites ranged in size from single isolated burials to large trench burials of more than 100 individuals.
Postwar Graves Registration recovery efforts were complicated by incomplete record-keeping and by the alterations to the cemeteries shortly after the battle. The locations of multiple cemeteries were lost. The alternations to other cemeteries resulted in the relocation of grave markers without relocating the remains beneath. These sites became known as memorial graves. As a result, many of the Tarawa dead were not recovered.
“Today we welcome home more than 20 American servicemen still unaccounted for from the battle of Tarawa during World War II,” said Acting Secretary of Defense Richard V. Spencer. “We do not forget those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, and it is our duty and obligation to return our missing home to their families and the nation.”
190717-M-PO745-2033 PEARL HARBOR (July 17, 2019) U.S. service members from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Pacific (MARFORPAC), and guests stand as “Taps” is played during an honorable carry for the possible remains of unidentified service members lost in the Battle of Tarawa during WWII conducted by DPAA and MARFORPAC at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, July 17, 2019. The remains were recently recovered from the Republic of Kiribati by History Flight, a DPAA partner organization, and will be accessioned into DPAA’s laboratory facility in Hawaii to begin the identification process in support of DPAA’s mission to provide the fullest possible accounting for our missing personnel to their families and the nation. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Jacqueline Clifford/Released)
“14-inch guns of the USS New Mexico (BB-40) opening fire on Guam, 18 July 1944, during the pre-invasion bombardment.”
(NHHC: 80-G-239965)
The lead ship of her class of Yankee dreadnoughts, she was laid down at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1915 and commissioned in the waning days of the Great War. Modernized in 1931, she was in the Atlantic on neutrality patrol duty during Pearl Harbor but rushed to the Pacific where she was one of the few operational battlewagons available to Nimitz in early 1942. She earned six battlestars the hard way, supporting the island hopping campaign from the Aleutians to Okinawa, plastering suicide boats, shore positions and kamikazes.
Scrapped in 1948, two of her bells are preserved in her namesake state, for which she was the first ship to be named.
This view inside the boxcar quarters of troops of the American Expeditionary Forces, North Russia, who are fighting the Reds along the line of the Vologda railway in early 1919, shows something interesting in the center– a Mosin-Nagant M91 complete with dog collar-style sling.
LOC: 111-SC-50646
Why is a Russian rifle in Russia interesting? Because the troops are of the 85th Infantry Division, likely of the 339th Infantry Regiment involved in the “Polar Bear Expedition,” and the Mosin shown was probably brought with them from the U.S.
Guard at the doorway of this warehouse of food supplies for the Allied troops campaigning south of Archangel in 1919 is an American of the 339th, note his distinctive M91, with its lengthy spike bayonet affixed. 111-SC-50607
Like the American Intervention forces that landed in Vladivostok in late 1918, the men of the 85th carried new U.S.-made Remington and Westinghouse Mosins with them from the States.
American sailors equipped with rifles and helmets in Vladivostok, Russia, 1918, largely citied to be from the old cruiser, USS Olympia. Note the third sailor from the right has the Mosin’s bayonet inverted for storage as no bayonet scabbards were issued, a typical Russian practice. 111-SC-50100
Tsar Nicky’s government, short on Mosins (and everything else needed for both war and peace) had ordered over 2 million M91s from the U.S. in 1915, although most were not delivered before the country dropped out of the war after the Bolsheviks came to power. The companies passed them on to Uncle Sam in 1918 on the cheap to recoup their losses and, other than the Russian vacation, the War Department continued to utilize them for training (Google= Cummings Dot Rifle) and ROTC use through the 1940s.
I recently had a chance to fool with a bunch of Mosins in the Guns.com Vault, ranging from a nice 1922 Izzy to 91/30s, M38s, M44s, PU snipers, and 91/59s as well as the occasional Chinese Type 53.
As for the boat itself, currently dubbed Noctiluca, it is the old British-built U.S. Submarines S-101, a 32-foot, two-person diesel-electric mini-submersible with a decent performance (range of 200 miles when surfaced, can dive for 72 hrs, 300+ foot operating depth/1250 ft. crush depth due to its 10 mm thick A43 steel pressure hull) built back in 1987.
If she looks familiar, she was used on a contract for the Royal Swedish Navy through the 1990s to serve as an OPFOR of sorts for that country’s coastal forces, mimicking Russian frogmen boats.
Then, in 1998, the Sea Shepherds (Whale Wars) guys picked it up cheap ($225K) from a Norwegian seller and, given a killer whale-style scheme, was intended to harass various fishing enterprises.
