Harrier II at 40

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Prototype AV-8B Harrier II pictured in front of a hangar at McDonnell Douglas in St. Louis, Missouri. Offering double the payload and combat radius of its predecessor, the AV-8B made its maiden flight on 9 November 1978, some 40 years ago today.

The above model was one of two generations and six main variants of the “jump jet” produced between the prototype Hawker Siddeley P.1127 first flew in 1960 and the Harrier II ended production in 1997. With less than 900 of all types produced, a Harrier in any condition is a rare bird indeed.

early Harrier Kestrel

While Harriers once served with the Indian Navy, Italian Navy, Royal Air Force, Royal Navy, Royal Thai Navy, Royal Spanish Navy, and U.S. Marine Corps, just the Corps (124) and the Italians (30) still operate late-model aircraft refurbished in the 2000’s.

A U.S. Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier II aircraft assigned to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron (VMM) 166 sits on the flight deck of the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer (LHD 4) in the Arabian Sea Oct. 20, 2013. The Boxer was underway in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility supporting maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts. (DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class J. Michael Schwartz, U.S. Navy/Released)

They are expected to be replaced by the Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II within the next decade.

97 years ago today: Dewey’s flagship, bringing home the saddest casualty back from ‘Over There’

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A colorized image of the Unknown Soldier’s casket being carried off of OLYMPIA, which is featured in the background. Via Independence Seaport Museum. You can see Gen. Blackjack Pershing to the right, commander of the AEF, and an honor guard of Marines in blues.

On this date, November 9th, 1921, cruiser OLYMPIA arrived at the Washington Navy Yard carrying the Unknown Soldier of the first World War, having brought the casket across the stormy Atlantic Ocean from Le Havre, France. It was at this time that the casket was transferred from the hands of the U.S. Navy aboard OLYMPIA to the waiting Army contingent, who would then carry the body to Arlington National Cemetery for interment where he rests at the Tomb of the Unknowns today.

CMP got 8,000 M1911s. Guess how many order packets they received?

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The plan to transfer some of the Army’s stockpile of vintage M1911 pistols to the public via the Civilian Marksmanship Program has been met with a big response.

On Tuesday, the federally chartered non-profit corporation tasked with promoting firearms safety and practice announced that they had received and were processing 19,000 packets submitted for a chance to acquire one of the classic .45ACP handguns. That’s more than twice the number of guns in the CMP’s warehouse.

And they may not be getting any more.

More in my column at Guns.com

Bearing the Torch, 76 years ago today

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U.S. troops aboard a landing craft head for the beaches during Operation Torch of the North African Campaign Oran, Algeria. 8 November 1942.

Imperial War Museum photo. Hudson, F A (Lt), Royal Navy official photographer

Note the man wearing the old school “Brodie” helmet in the back of the boat, probably a Royal Navy man, as the group had spent 22 days aboard the converted ocean liner RMS Orbita on the voyage from Scotland to North Africa. The men aren’t wearing unit patches, but the cased gear to the front right look to be marked “1-19” which could be 1st Bn/19th INF Regt, which at the time was in the States and would later serve in the Pacific. In fact, they are men of the 1st coy, 19th Engineer Battalion, who did take part in the Torch landings.

Less than a year after Pearl Harbor, the Torch landings would be the U.S. Army’s first brush with war in the ETO. Other than a few officers and NCOs with Great War experience or service in the National Guard, most of these men were recent volunteers and draftees, living ordinary lives in George Bailey’s America and had only held a gun when going hunting or at a carnival shooting gallery. It’s a good thing the French didn’t really have the inclination to mix it up. The 19th Engineers went on to serve at the horrors of the Kasserine Pass (where they lost 3/4 of their active strength and it was reported that “the 19th Engineers no longer exist”) and the Rapido River, where the Germans were much more ready to fight.

As noted by the Army “During World War II, The battalion conducted five amphibious landings while accompanying the victorious allied armies through Africa, Italy, France, Germany, and Austria. The battalion had suffered 902 combat casualties including 144 killed in action. For their gallantry and service, the battalion was awarded 10 campaign streamers from World War II, and soldiers from the battalion were awarded 7 Silver Stars and 13 Bronze Stars”

Below is a great doc on the 19th, with several interviews with vets, and directly shows the above image as a reference.

The 19th is still on active duty, based at Fort Knox.

Cole’s bell ‘picked’ and recovered

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Here we see the original brass bell from the USS Cole (DD-155), a Wickes-class “four-piper” destroyer laid down in the last year of the Great War, named for Maj. Edward Ball Cole, a Marine killed at Belleau Wood, and commissioned in 1919.

The hard-charging vessel helped evacuate refugees from the Greco-Turkish War, looked for survivors of the wreck of the airship Akron, and served on FDR’s risky Neutrality Patrol in the early pre-Pearl Harbor days of the U.S. involvement in WWII.

The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Langley (CV-1) and the destroyer USS Cole (DD-155) underway in the South Pacific, probably in the mid-1930s.

Once the balloon went up took part in the Torch Landings– where Cole raced in with two other four-pipers and landed 175 raiders drawn from the Army’s 47th INF Rgt under Vichy French fire at Safi, Morocco.

Notably, this landing took place exactly 76 years ago today, on 8 November 1942.

USS Cole, photographed during the North African Invasion Campaign, in November 1942. Her mast was removed to facilitate her role in the landings at Safi, Morocco (NARA 80-G-31435)

Batterie Railieuse, on PointeDe La Tour, Safi Morocco, on 8 November 1942, after being bombarded by U.S. Navy ships. Guns have been spiked by occupying U.S.Troops (Army SC# 165757)

She also escorted 7 convoys across the North Atlantic and took part in the invasion of Sicily. For her wartime service, she picked up a Presidential Unit Citation (for the Safi action) and three battle stars.

Decommissioned 1 November 1945, Cole was sold for scrap in 1947 and her bell, seen above, placed in storage by the Navy.

Well, it was apparently loaned out and then fell off the map for 70 years.

Last year, the guys from American Pickers came across it at a location in New Hampshire and, after doing the research, have it back to the Navy.

The episode where they brought it to the National Museum of the United States Navy aired this week.

I met the guys from the show a couple years ago in Louisiana when I literally bumped into them while combing through an antique store for militaria. Great guys and good on em.

Warship Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2018: The first steamer-on-steamer scrap

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Here at LSOZI, we are going to take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all of their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2018: The first steamer-on-steamer scrap

“Battle of the steam-frigate Vladimir with the Turkish steam frigate Pervaz-i Bahri on November 5, 1853, by Alexey Petrovich Bogolyubov. 1850s Canvas, oil. via wiki commons.

Here we see the British-built steam frigate Vladimir of the Russian Imperial Navy who, 165 years ago this week, won the first naval battle between two steamships.

While steam-powered warships started to appear in numbers on all sides during the Crimean War and then became standard in the U.S. Civil War, they had an earlier start when the floating steam-powered battery Demologos was built in the U.S. during the War of 1812 to defend New York City. The Royal Navy commissioned the early paddle sloop HMS Medea in 1833. Not to be outdone, the Tsar ordered the 28-gun paddle frigate Bogatyr in 1836 (predating the U.S. Navy’s own inaugural paddle gunboat USS Fulton by a year) and over the next 20 years Russia picked up almost two dozen more of these early steamships before moving on to screw-driven vessels.

Steam frigate Bogatyr by Russian maritime artist Vladimir Emyshev

Paddle frigate Gremyashchy built in 1849-1851 by Russian shipbuilder Ivan Afanasyevich Amosov at the Okhta shipyard

One of these was Vladimir, ordered from the private shipyard of Ditchburn & Mare’s, Blackwall, after a design of Mr. Burry & Co, Liverpool.

Some 179-feet long at the waterline, she was an iron-hulled paddle frigate capable of making 10.5-knots on her Rennie of London 1,200 ihp steam engine by design. She made a trials voyage from Plymouth covering 154 miles in just 13 hours, at a sustained rate of 11.75-knots, belching smoke from her twin stacks. It was all pretty impressive for the era.

Paddle frigate Vladimir by naval artist A.N. Ivanov

In fact, she was handier than some of the British Admiralty-built vessels in the RN, and at a cheaper price– a fact not lost on the Mechanic’s Magazine of 1848.

The 758-ton vessel mounted a 9.65-inch shell gun as well as four 24-pounder gunnades, although this was later upped to 13 guns including two 10-inch shell guns, three 68-pounders, six 24-pounders and a pair of 18-pound chase guns.

Sailing for the Russian Black Sea Fleet in 1848, the Vladimir became the flagship of VADM Vladimir Kornilov and, by 1853, the country was at war with their traditional enemy in the area, Turkey.

With LCDR Grigory Butakov in command of the Russian paddle frigate, she met the 10-gun Turko-Egyptian armed steamer Pervaz-i Bahri (Lord of the Seas) on 5 November. Spotting her around 8 in the morning at a distance, Butakov laid on the coal and closed by 10 a.m.

Butakov soon assessed that the Turk had no stern-firing guns and, after delivering an initial salvo broadside, moved to that exposed quarter. With her shell guns firing over the bowsprit, Vladimir soon disabled the steering of the enemy steamer, destroyed her observation deck, knocked away her stack, and then, closing with the wounded ship, started to rake her decks with canister.

The slaughter was kept up for two hours.

Her skipper killed along with 58 of her crew, Pervaz-i Bahri struck her colors by 1 p.m. and was taken as a prize by a Russian boarding party who renamed her Kornilov in honor of their admiral.

Butakov lost just two men in the action and was quickly promoted to Captain 2nd Rank, and knighted in the Order of St. George.

As for Vladimir, the Crimean War was her downfall, being trapped in the harbor at the siege of Sevastopol. Butakov did, however, according to Russian sources, try out a new tactic then of taking on ballast to one side, increasing the elevation of his guns to extend the range to hit British and French infantry outside of the besieged city.

As the Allies moved in, the steamer was scuttled 30 August 1855.

The destruction of Vladimir

Adm. Kornilov had already been killed on Malakhov Hill the previous October during the first bombardment of the city by Anglo-French troops.

Vladimir‘s cannons were later salvaged by divers and she was raised after the war in 1860 by an American firm, though found to be too damaged to repair and turned into a floating workshop for the naval base. In the end, she was sunk as a target ship for good in 1891.

As for Butakov, he later rose to admiral in 1878.

Butakov

A number of flags from the ship as well as caps and epaulets from Butakov and Kornilov’s telescope are maintained in the Central Naval Museum in St. Petersburg. It seems the Communists couldn’t bring themselves to get rid of them post-1917.

The battle, vessel, and her skipper have been commemorated in a series of models, stamps, and paintings.

Specs:

Displacement: 758-tons
Length: 200 ft oal, 179 wl
Beam: 35.9 ft.
Draft: 14.5 ft.
Machinery: Rennie, London four-boiler steam plant, 1,200 ihp, twin paddlewheels
Speed: 10.5 kts, 2,000-mile range at 8
Crew: 150
Armament:
(Designed)
9.65-inch shell gun
4x 24-pounder gunnades,
(1853)
2x 10-inch shell guns,
3x 68-pounders,
6x 24-pounders
2×18-pound chase guns.

If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find. http://www.warship.org/membership.htm

The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.

With more than 50 years of scholarship, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

PRINT still has its place. If you LOVE warships you should belong.

I’m a member, so should you be!

Echoes of 1939

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Here we see a group of neutral Swedes and Finns joining forces in NATO-allied Norway for Trident Juncture 2018 last week, anti-armor weapons at the ready.

A joint Swede-Finnish mechanized unit has been working together to figure out commo and networking, specifically calling in indirect fire.

The above reminds me of an interesting story.

During Finland’s 1939-40 dustup with the neighboring Soviet Union, one of the greatest David and Goliath conflicts of modern military history, volunteers came from all over the world to help the Finns.

One of the largest was the roughly 8,000-10,000 men (sources vary) of the Swedish Volunteer Corps who formed several ancillary units, an aviation detachment, and a two-battalion strong infantry task group– Stridsgruppen Svenska Frivilligkåren (Ts.R SFK)– who got some hard contact in before the war settled down.

Swedes and Finns alike fought with whatever they could get.

Finnish soldiers use a slingshot to fire grenades at Soviet troops during the Winter War, c.1940

And they wrote Stalin a hefty butcher’s bill.

As noted by Al Nofi, during the 105-days of the conflict, “the Soviets suffered a daily average of 1,252 dead, 2,523 wounded, 1,259 frostbite cases, 52 captured, and about 114 missing, a rate of casualties nearly three times greater than those France suffered during the 302-day Battle of Verdun in 1916, while Finnish daily losses were about 213 dead, 412 wounded, and 8 captured.”

Everything old is walnut again

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Last week, everyone decided that Mossberg shotguns– which generally were sold with wood furniture throughout the 1960s, 70s, and early 80s but switched to synthetic stocks almost exclusively somewhere around the Clinton era– are better off in the original format.

First was the 590 Shockwave “Nightstick” model, priced at $539 MSRP, which is about twice what the standard Shockwave runs. Apparently wood isn’t cheap:

(Mossberg)

Then came Black Aces Tactical’s offering of birdseye maple and walnut furniture for the same gun as a $199 aftermarket option (on a $250~ firearm):

(Black Aces)

And Mossberg expanding the walnut versions to the 590A1 Tactical and 500 Persuader line of actual shotguns:

(Mossberg)

Vintage Skymaster

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While cruising around Gulfport, something caught my eye and I had to stop. After all, it is not often that you see a 50-year old Cessna mating with a building.

Yup, a very early production c1963 Cessna Model 336 Skymaster (SN #336-0035).

The plane and building (the latter an old Rooms To Go outlet now owned by the city) is set to be folded into the Mississippi Aviation Heritage Museum, a project that the Brown Condor Association and others have been trying to establish since 2016.

Incidentally, the association is named in honor of Mississippi pilot John Charles Robinson, known in the media of the 1930s as “The Brown Condor of Ethiopia.” Tom Simmons wrote a book about Robinson, and I spoke to him about it at a local event and picked up a copy a while back. Good stuff.

As far as the C-336 goes, just 195 of these models, with twin Continental IO-360-A engines, were produced.

When supped up with Continental IO-360-Cs (which made them C-337s), the model flew as the O-2 Skymaster throughout the 1960s and 70s, as well as Reims Cessna FTB337 used in Rhodesia and throughout African brush wars into the 1980s, in all being used by the militaries of more than 20 countries, some as late as just a few years ago.

Don’t let the Cessna pedigree fool you, the 337 could carry a lot of ordnance

It will be interesting to see what form this 336 will take when the museum opens, which is expected sometime next year.

Habit forming

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A couple weeks back I spent the day with John Parker of Ellisville and talked to him about his hobby. His addiction, you could say.

“You heard of that white powder people get addicted to? This black powder is way worse,” said Parker, who has shot his replica 3-inch Ordnance Rifle over 300 times since he picked it up last year.

It’s not a cheap hobby, as each salute charge is 8-ounces of Cannon grade or FFF black powder (which translates to about a $10 bill that goes up in smoke each time it goes “boom”) not to mention the cost of the gun ($15K), uniforms, transpo, oh, and a crew of guys willing to help you work it for free.

But it is a beautiful sight to behold.

More in my column at Guns.com.

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