Yankees medics show ‘Primum non nocere’ 100 years ago today

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A group of wounded German Army prisoners receiving medical attention at first aid station of U.S. 103rd and 104th Ambulance Companies (Field Hospital), attached to the 26th “Yankee” Division’s 101st Sanitary Train. These prisoners were taken from second line trenches during the opening attack of the Battle of Saint Mihiel on the 12th of September 1918, while the Yanks were “over there” as part of the American Expeditionary Force.

Formed largely from six New England National Guard units– half from Massachusetts– as noted by the Army’s CMOH, “During World War I, a press conference of Boston newspapermen was called by the Commanding General [ Maj. Gen. (Nat. Army) Clarence Ransom Edwards, USMA 1883] to determine a nickname for this division, which had just been inducted from New England National Guard units. The adopted suggestion was, ‘Call it the ‘Yankee Division’ as all New Englanders are Yankees’, and a dark blue monogrammed ‘YD’ on an olive drab background was officially designated as the division insignia.

The 26th still exists today, as the 26th Maneuver Enhancement “Yankee” Brigade, in Natick, Mass, primarily a unit of the Massachusetts Army National Guard. In addition to a host of streamers earned on its second trip to Europe in 1944-45, the Yankees earned streamers in 1917-18 for Champagne-Marne, Aisne-Marne, St. Mihiel, Meuse-Argonne, Ile de France and the Lorraine, suffering an amazing 100% casualty rate, some 18,000 soldiers.

The Mass Guard celebrated the 100th Anniversary of the division recently.

A ceremony for the 26th’s 100 birthday, with Doughboys standing with the colors in front of a mural showing the Decoration of regimental colors, U.S. 104th Regiment, U.S. 26th Division, at Boucq, France, April 28, 1918, by General Passaga, 32nd French Army Corps, the first American regiment cited for bravery under fire.

One enduring legacy of the 26th is Sgt. Stubby, an orphan pup the big-hearted Yankees adopted in 1917 and later became the mascot of the divisions’ 102nd Infantry Rgt. Postwar, he lived at Georgetown University and has been in the Smithsonian since then, still wearing his medals and 26th YD patch.

Give you three guesses as to what this gun is

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What do you think?

Donated to a museum north of the Arctic Circle in 1973, it is just 22.1-inches overall in length and chambered in .30-06, although of course, that is neither the original configuration nor caliber.

If you guessed that it was a Canadian-made Ross M-10 rifle originally chambered in .280 Ross, then you are correct.

For more info, head on over to my column at Guns.com.

 

Bring back the plywood (?)

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CAPT. Edmund Hernandez, current chair of the Joint Military Operations Department at the U.S. Naval War College, has an interesting take on upping Naval numbers and capability by way of rebooting an old idea: the Mosquito Fleet.

PT Boats and Zeros Painting, Oil on Canvas; by Griffith Baily Coale; 1942; Unframed Dimensions 10H X 20W Accession #: 88-188-AF On the brightly colored waters of the lagoon, the PT’s are skimming about, darting here dodging there, maneuvering between the rows of machine gun splashes, incessantly firing their twin pairs 50 caliber guns.

From his piece in Proceedings this month

Today’s PT boat should be outfitted with the traditional array of .50 caliber machine-guns, 40 mm cannons, rockets, mortars, smoke generator, and radar. But the torpedo would be replaced by the modern anti-ship missile, one simple to employ and able to “fire and forget.” Ultimately, as in World War II, experimentation is required to find the right mix of weapons systems to meet modern mission requirements.

Of course, the age of the small missile-armed fast attack craft (FAC) really peaked around the 1960s-70s but was quickly killed by the antidote that was small seagoing missile-armed helicopters such as the Lynx/Sea Skua, Panther/AS.15TT, and Seahawk/Penguin combinations. For reference, just ask Saddam how well his FACs did in Desert Storm against a handful of Royal Navy aircrews. Lynx from HMS Cardiff, HMS Gloucester, HMS London, and HMS Manchester, armed with Sea Skua missiles, sank or disabled 15 Iraqi patrol craft, from the relatively immune range of 5 miles.

Anyway, interesting take, if they could add some air defense, but then again if you do, these crafts start looking more like corvettes.

Never underestimate household materials

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From the collection of the U.S. Army Ordnance Training and Heritage Center, Ft. Lee:

This is a Vietnamese, homemade, floating water mine that was made circa 1970. It is constructed of a cardboard box wrapped in black plastic. There are nine aqua and white colored plastic flotation devices with wrapped charge simulated in between. It is held together with four wooden sticks that are tied together with rubber strips and cordage. Also, there is approximately 100 ft. of cord for directing purposes. During the Vietnam conflict, there were many of these types of devices employed in the rivers and canals of South Vietnam.

If it seems silly, keep in mind that a team of VC waterborne sappers were able to mine the WWII-era MSTS-manned jeep carrier USNS Card and put her on the bottom of Saigon harbor, although she was soon refloated and repaired.

From WWII tug to fish habitat

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Recently, BCT, CCA South Carolina and the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources completed the first of three projects aimed at expanding and enhancing offshore reef habitat in the Palmetto State. The decommissioned tugboat General Oglethorpe was deployed some 30 miles off the coast of Charleston in approximately 100 feet of water, “creating vital new fisheries habitat and establishing additional recreational angling opportunities for fishermen.”

Oglethorpe was a WWII vet, built in 1943, by Ira S. Bushey and Son Inc. of Brooklyn, New York (hull #529) as USCGC Ojibwa (WYT-97) for the U.S. Coast Guard, going on to serve on escort and search and rescue duty in the North Atlantic Area until the end of the war.

After 1954, she served in the 9th USCG District on the Great Lakes for most of her Coast Guard career, stationed in Buffalo.

As noted by CG-Tugs: “These were the Apalachee-class which added additional ice resistance and ice-breaking features (for their intended duty in the Greenland Theater) as well as firefighting monitors, to the earlier designs. Thus there were 17 of these hearty 110-footers, the last of which served until 1989, a span of half a century.”

Decommissioned in 1980 after 37 years in federal service, she worked commercially until the state of South Carolina inherited her last year.

According to the below from CCA, she is back on the job in a different sense.

Do you know the names of BB-59’s Turret Three’s guns?

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The 16-inch guns on the USS Massachusetts were used to plaster enemy ships and troops during World War II and her caretakers are looking for help uncovering their lost history.

Commissioned in 1942, “Big Mamie” earned an impressive 11 Battle Stars during the War the hard way. Her mighty 16-inch/45cal guns (that’s a bore 16-inches wide and a barrel tube 45 calibers, or 720-inches long) silenced the Vichy French battleship Jean Bart in Morocco, then bombarded  Kwajalein, Iwo Jima, the Philippines and even the Japanese Home Islands. In fact, she wore her guns down to the point that they had to be relined at least once during the war.

Decommissioned in 1947, she has been on display at Battleship Cove in Fall River, Massachusetts, since 1965, where museum officials are hard at work figuring out the lost names to three of her big guns. You see, the trio in Turret One, towards the bow of the ship, are named after women, (Clara, Jeannie, and Lydia) while the guns in Turret Two are named after historic U.S. Navy ships lost in the opening battles of the war (Arizona, Utah, and Vincennes). As for the guns in Turret Three, pointing over Big Mamie’s stern? That’s where the public comes in.

“Looking for some help on Turret Three’s gun names,” the museum posted on social media last week. “Maybe some photos or first-hand accounts of them from the former crewmembers.”

For example, inside Turret One:

“Clara,” one of the guns in Turret One, was recently inspected to make sure her protective coating was intact. As every gun owner knows, you have to keep them cleaned and lubricated.

A look inside the breech. Not bad considering she hasn’t fired a shell since Truman was in office

“Lydia,” another Turret One gun. Note the huge breechblock open to the bottom of the image

Currently, the museum knows that the T3 tubes were all made at the U.S. Naval Gun Factory in 1941 and have very close numbers (#301, 303, and 304) which likely meant they were all “born” at close to the same time. While the nicknames are likely still there, they have been long ago covered by generations of paint.

In the meantime, the busy work of keeping an aging floating steel warship in a harsh salt-water environment continues no stop.

What the museum knows about the ship’s main battery

 

Sig is doing well with their M17, and really wants the public in on the act

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Sig Sauer is making just 5,000 commemorative editions of the U.S. Army’s M17 official service pistol– winner of the landmark Modular Handgun System contract– for sale to the civilian market, serial numbered 1 to 5,000.

The gun ships in the same basic vanilla cardboard packaging used in the military’s contract and comes with two extended 21-round magazines and one flush-fit 17-round magazine. They come standard with a SIGLITE front night sight and removable Night Sight rear plate while the pistol uses a coyote-tan PVD coated stainless steel slide with coyote-tan colored controls.

Once the warranty is registered with Sig, the owner gets a commemorative challenge coin and certificate that matches their pistol’s serial number.

Although it ships in plan cardboard, just as Uncle get it, Sig also sells an optional cherry-wood M17 Collector’s Case for $199 that includes laser placement cuts for the pistol, coin, and certificate. (Photo: Sig)

More on the M17 (which they are also selling in a strictly commercial variant for about $750) in my column at Guns.com.

Last-ditch gun for a last-ditch force

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“The Volkssturm” Painting by Franz Kleinmayer, showing the typical makeup and arms of the doomed militia.

The Volkssturm, or “people’s storm” was the bottom of the barrel home guard mobilized in the final days of WWII Germany to fight off the rapidly approaching Allies. The force used the country’s seedcorn– boys as young as 16– mixed with those too old, infirm or crippled to have passed muster before, into a force armed largely with whatever could be found. Most units got nothing but obsolete rifles impounded in conquered lands mixed with quantities of the disposable Panzerfaust anti-tank weapon.

One gun, rarely seen and largely unsuccessful, was the 7.62x33mm Rheinmetall Volkssturm Carbine. Matt with The Armourer’s Bench covers the gun in the form of a remake of the prototype.

Then, of course, there was the VG-5, VG-2, and VG1-5, covered by Ian with Forgotten Weapons.

 

Hard luck Hamilton

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The flagship of the Philippine Navy since 2011, the frigate Gregorio Del Pilar (FF15), has spent part of the past week hard aground hear Half Moon Shoal (Hasa-Hasa Shoal) in the West Philippine Sea. An embarrassing dilemma for a fleet short of vessels and trying to flex in the area to keep the much larger Chinese fleet on their toes.

Del Pilar hit aground last Wednesday night while on a routine patrol. As you can tell, the shelf comes up fast there

Gratefully, she has reportedly remained intact and has been refloated off the shoal. Her props and/or shafts are probably hamburger, though, which is bad for a 40-year-old ship with an increasingly thinning hull. She is reportedly being escorted back to Subic for inspection.

Still, its a better fate that was suffered by the minehunter USS Guardian (MCM-5), which ran aground on Tubbataha Reef in the PI in 2013.

Guardian couldn’t be saved and was instead scrapped in place.

These things happen, especially in the huge archipelago that sometimes isn’t as well-charted as the rest of the world. Heck, the Chinese themselves had a frigate The (Dongguan) run aground on the same shoal in 2012.

If Del Pilar looks familiar, she is, of course, the former US Coast Guard cutter Hamilton (WHEC-715), class leader of the “378” or “Secretary” series high endurance cutters commissioned in 1967.

Two of her sisters, USCGC Boutwell (WHEC-719), and USCGC Dallas (WHEC-716), also serve in the Philippines. Perhaps they will get a fourth in coming months (Mellon and Midgett are still in operation with the USCG) and then be able to keep the old Hamilton as a spare parts/training ship if she can’t be made whole again.

Flying Tigers redux

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“Barksdale Air Force Base – A Colombian Air Force A-29B Super Tucano flies alongside two U.S. Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs from the 75th Fighter Squadron, Moody Air Force Base, Ga., during Exercise Green Flag East Aug. 21, 2016. Colombia and U.S. share a special relationship, and the joint training exercise provides a platform to strengthen those ties. Four Colombian A-29s and 45 Colombian Airmen are at Barksdale Air Force Base, La., through Aug. 29. (Photo courtesy Colombian Air Force)”

However, with the Air Force moving forward with the planned OA-X light-attack aircraft downselection (which laughably says is worth as many as 300 aircraft) Big Blue could actually get a handful of A-29s one day to augment their A-10s.

Maybe.

Probably not.

Of course, the Afghanistan Security Forces will be set with the announcement this week of a $1.8 billion contract by Colorado-based Sierra Nevada Corp. to supply potential “procurement, sustainment, modifications, ferry, and related equipment for the A-29” through 2024 in a contract run by the U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center. So there is that.

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