A Look at the New Guns, Suppressors, and Optics from SIG Sauer

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We recently attended the SIG Sauer Next Event in New Hampshire and got the scoop on the company’s new hardware for 2025.

The new guns included SIG’s first entry into the double-stack 1911 pistol category, a soft recoiling .380, a “Fluxed” P365, modernized P226s, the return of the vaunted 516 rifle, a Cross Sawtooth in 6.5 PRC, an AR-10 platform in the spicy .277 Fury, at least three new suppressors, and a ton of new optics.

Below is a quick rundown, and you can expect much more on all these platforms in the coming days and weeks.

P211-GTO Series

Don’t let the name fool you into thinking this is SIG’s evolution of the P210. The new P211-GTO instead builds on the company’s 20 years of experience with the 1911 platform (exemplified by the new X-Carry series) but in a double-stack format.

Built with lots of buy-in from Team SIG’s pro shooters, the P211 runs P320 mags, has a Delta Point Pro footprint, a usable ambi slide catch, and sports a 3D printed muzzle compensator/brake at the end of the 4.4-inch bull barrel.

New SIG Sauer P211
Plus, it’s an 80-series, which means it’s drop safe (rare in double-stack 1911s), but somehow still has a good 3.5-pound trigger.
New SIG Sauer P211
Ready for USPSA Open competition divisions (or Limited Optics with the comp removed from the non-threaded barrel), it ships with one 23-rounder and two 21-rounders.
New SIG Sauer P211
Unlike some guns in the same space, it has a steel frame with an aluminum rather than a polymer grip. 

MSRP is $2,300, which is on par with a base model OA 2311. Just saying.

P365-Luxe Series

Probably the easiest-handling P365 on the market, the new P365 Luxe is a 12-shot .380 ACP with an X-length grip frame and an integral expansion chamber style comp. The result is a double-stack micro compact that runs smoothly and just hangs on target.

New SIG Sauer P365 Luxe
This one feels more like a .22 when it comes to recoil than a .380, a round that is notoriously snappy in small pistols. 

P365-FLUX

SIG released a Legion-series P320 Flux Raider last year, just as the P365 Flux hit the market, so it’s a no-brainer for the company to debut a Legion-series P365 Flux this year. Billed by Ben with Flux as a “rifle in your pants,” it will be available in both braced pistol and stocked SBR formats, with the ability to carry 50 rounds on the gun when stored.

New SIG Sauer P365 Flux
We were quickly and easily able to hit reduced plates at 50 yards from behind cover with one. 
New SIG Sauer P365 flux
It sports a 6-inch slide (a first for the P365), but when the Flux is folded, it is still just roughly the length of a WML-clad Glock 17. 

P226X Legion

Everyone who loves modern combat pistols has a soft spot for the P226, but the platform is a bit dated, pushing 50 years in service. However, the updated new P226X Legion (4.4-inch barrel) and P226X Legion Carry (3.8-inch barrel) include X5 compatibility, optics-ready slides, XRAY3 day/night sights, and bull barrels with 35/35-degree reverse target crowns. You also have the Legion treatment complete with Gray Cerakote and enhanced ergos.

Plus, SIG plans a dozen different SKUs of these guns with options for user-adjustable AX1 single-action-only or AX2 DA/SA trigger systems.

New SIG Sauer P226 X Legion
The new SIG P226X Legion models will come in both 3.8-inch and 4.4-inch lengths as well as DA/SA and SAO triggers. 

516 Mohawk

The original SIG 516 was an AR-15-style rifle that utilized a short-stroke gas piston system that sprang from the minds of the same guys who invented the HK 416. Renowned for its reliability, the 516 nonetheless was put out to pasture in 2019 while its 7.62 NATO-chambered big brother, the 716, endured and won huge (like India big) military contracts around the globe.

Now, the 516 is back in the Mohawk variant, which now includes a non-reciprocating side charging handle– ideal for use in prone or compressed positions– along with fully-ambi surface controls.

New SIG Sauer 516 Mohawk
Still a piston gun with an adjustable gas system, it carries a 16-inch cold hammer forged barrel with a 1:7-inch twist rate, a free-floating M-LOK handguard, a 6-position Magpul DT stock, and a Matchlite Duo trigger. 

6.8 Hyp rifle

SIG made headlines a couple of years ago with the MCX Spear and its GI brother, the M7 NGSW rifle. Giving the market a direct impingement AR-10 platform that is purpose-built for .277 SIG Fury– the commercial 6.8x51mm cartridge as used in the Spear/NGSW– the Hyp (Hy Pressure) is beefed up to be able to handle the massive 80,000 psi SAAMI spec maximum average chamber pressure of the round.

New SIG Sauer 6.8 Hyp
The cost is about $2K, which sounds high but is still a good bit cheaper than the MCX Spear. 

Cross Sawtooth in 6.5 PRC

SIG debuted the sub-7-pound Cross Sawtooth last year, complete with a Proof Research carbon fiber barrel, 2-stage match trigger, AICS magwell, and a fully adjustable stock. New for 2025 is the gun in 6.5 PRC, a popular hard-hitting round that takes the performance of the 6.5 Creedmoor and turns it up to 11.

New SIG Sauer Cross Sawtooth 6.5
The new SIG Cross Sawtooth in 6.5 PRC ships with a 22-inch 1:8 twist barrel and weighs 6.9 pounds. 

Endure, Hexium, and TiN Can suppressors

SIG debuted three new suppressors last week, including the low back-pressure Hexium as well as the .30 caliber 6-inch Endure, and 9-inch TiN Can titanium bolt gun suppressors. All are made with additive manufacturing techniques (3d printed) and have modular endcaps.

New SIG Sauer Hexium suppressor
Available in both Inconel and titanium in 5.56. 300BLK, and 7.62 NATO, the new SIG Hexium series has a 3D printed core and a Hub taper direct thread mount. Note the external hexagonal pattern with black Cerakote. 
New SIG Sauer Endure suppressor
The Endure features a compact length of 6 inches and a weight of just 11 ounces for enhanced portability in the field. Note the distinctive external topographic pattern with a black Cerakote finish. 
New SIG Sauer TiN can suppressor
The SIG TiN Can suppressor features an overall length of 9 inches while still hitting the scales at just 18 ounces. Like the Endure and Hexium, it runs a Hub taper direct thread mount.

Optics

SIG had a whole table full of advanced optics to debut at the event, including the Bravo6T BDX riflescope, Kilo Warp weapon-mounted rangefinder/ballistic calculator, Oscar6 HDX Pro spotting scope, and the paired Romeo8T-AMR red dot and Juliet3T-AMR magnifier.

New SIG Sauer Bravo6t
The new SIG Bravo6T is a first focal plane riflescope with eTRAK elevation dial and onboard environmental sensors for pressure, temperature, and humidity. The company will be offering it in both a 3-18x44mm and 5-30x56mm format with easy-to-adjust turrets and a 35mm tube. Reticles include MRAD DEV-L 2.0 and Milling 2.0. Note the ALPHA5 mount with an LRF diving board. The ask is $2,399-$2,499, depending on the variant. 
New SIG Sauer kilo warp
The Kilo Warp is SIG’s first on-gun rangefinder, able to sister to traditional glass via a diving board on the tube. After about 30 seconds of instruction, we were able to easily measure unknown distances and get an automatic dope that matched the glass to ballistics and atmospherics via Bluetooth to parent Bravo6Ts, then make no-problem hits at 100 and 650 yards from a Sawtooth. The ask is $1,999, which makes a Bravo6T/Kilo Warp combo a $4,500 piece of glass. 
New SIG Sauer oscar 6
The Oscar 6 uses optical image stabilization to allow use offhand, which means in a pinch, you can leave the tripod at home. We were easily glassing to 1,000 yards with it and calling shots at 650. The cost is $1,999. 
New SIG Sauer Romeo 8t juliet 3t AMR
The Romeo8T-/Juliet3T-AMR combo runs right at $1K ($100 more if bought separately) and gives the user a red dot and magnifier system using SIG’s new Automatic Modified Reticle, which incorporates magnets to automatically transition the reticle when the magnifier is flipped into and out of view. It has a big 40mm lens while being billed as 30 percent smaller than similar sights. Sealed, they are IPX8 waterproof and fog proof and have a 50,000-hour battery life on a common CR123. 

Stay tuned as we bring you more on all the above.

SGT Stout gets big nod

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Originally dubbed the Interim Maneuver Short-Range Air Defense, or IM-SHORAD, system when the Army issued an initial $1.219 billion contract to Gen Dyn in September 2020 after three years of prototyping tests– the system became known officially as SGT Stout, in honor of Vietnam War ADA-unit Medal of Honor recipient Sgt. Mitchell W. Stout, in June 2024.

Integrating four to eight updated Stinger short-range SAMs, a Northrop Grumman XM914 30mm chain gun, an onboard radar system, and optional Hellfire missiles onto an 8×8 Stryker A1 light armored vehicle, SGT Stout is reportedly able to provide local defense against drones and other threats on the modern battlefield, with enough mobility to support all Army formations. An M240 GPMG is also fitted coaxil.

The platform recently completed an overseas deployment and live fire exercise in Norway and was shown off for the crowds at the 250th Army birthday festival in Washington, D.C.

Stinger missiles are mounted on an SGT Stout during Formidable Shield 25, May 8, 2025, in Andøya, Norway. Formidable Shield 25 is a U.S. Sixth Fleet-led, multinational exercise focused on integrated air and missile defense. The live-fire training brings together naval, air, and ground forces from 10 NATO allies and partners. The 5th Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment is supporting the exercise with short-range air defense capabilities. (U.S. Army photo by Capt. Alexander Watkins)

A SGT STOUT Manuever-Short Range Air Defense (M-SHORAD) Stryker is on display during the U.S. Army 250th Birthday Festival on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., June 14, 2025. The name “SGT STOUT” honors a fallen soldier, continuing the Army tradition of memorializing heroes through vehicle dedications. (U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Jose Rolando Garcia)

With that in mind, the below contract announcement on Monday should come as no surprise.

General Dynamics Land Systems Inc., Sterling Heights, Michigan, was awarded a $621,058,065 modification (P00056) to contract W31P4Q-20-D-0039 for SGT Stout systems, parts, services, and support. Bids were solicited via the internet, with one received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 29, 2028. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity.

The Army originally planned to field 144 air defense systems to four battalions by fiscal year 2025, with an additional 18 systems for training, operational spares, and testing. This expansion would bring the total number of systems to over 300 vehicles, enough for as many as eight battalions.

Grounded eagles

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It happened 80 years ago today. Red Square, Moscow.

More than 200 captured German military colors– some dating back to before the Kaiser– were ceremoniously trooped and defied some five weeks after VE-Day. Sadly, and in true Stalinist irony, they weren’t carried by Heroes of the Soviet Union or elite guards unit members from the Red Army, but by NKVD Dzerzhinsky Division troops.

Official period caption: “Soviet Activities. Translated German, half-tone photographs show: Captured flags of the fascist Wehrmacht in the Victory Parade in Moscow on 24 June 1945. The natives thanked the Soviet soldiers who smashed fascism and had defended the independence of the Soviet Union.”

Of note, the Soviets ranked the captured banners in their order of precedence, with the staff of the 1st SS Panzer Division “Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler” (LSSAH) shown first. From the publication, “Die Sowjetarmee Unser Waffenbruder” Courtesy of the Library of Congress. Lot-8066-1

They included not only standards captured on the battlefield but also those from garrisons and museums encountered while on the march across Eastern Europe. They included the circa 1813 colors of the old Prussian 4th Hussar Regiment, which had been carried at Waterloo, but also Luftwaffe, SS, and Army flags of all stripes, including regimental, battalion, and company (Abteilung) level ensigns.

Most standards are now housed in the Central Armed Forces Museum in Moscow.

Famous Fleet boat Easter Egg VLS tribute

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Spotted on submarine reddit: Los Angeles-class Flight II hunter-killer USS Pittsburgh (SSN-720) with her VLS hatches open, showing badges of some famous WWII USN submarines. I don’t know the author, photos taken possibly during SSN-720’s inactivation in dry dock at PSNS & IMF, 2019-2020:

Gato-class USS Wahoo (SS-238) – she gained fame as an aggressive & highly successful submarine after Lieutenant Commander Dudley Walker “Mush” Morton became her skipper. She was sunk by Japanese aircraft in October 1943 while returning home from a patrol in the Sea of Japan.

Gato-class USS Grunion (SS-216) – she sank off Kiska around 30 July 1942, due to accidents caused/related to the circular run of her torpedo.

Gato-class USS Harder (SS-257) – her Commanding Officer, Commander Samuel D. Dealey (1906–1944), “a submariner’s submariner”, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, as well as four Navy Crosses during his lifetime

Gato-class USS Darter (SS-227) – she sank a total of 19,429 tons of Japanese shipping and received the Naval Unit Commendation and four battle stars.

Tambor-class USS Triton (SS-201) – she is credited with the sinking of over 20,000 tons of Japanese shipping & warships and was lost with all hands on or around 15 March 1943. Porpoise-class USS Perch (SS-176) – she was scuttled on March 3, 1942, after a heroic battle against Japanese destroyers.

Salmon-class USS Salmon (SS-182) – she was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for extraordinary heroism against enemy surface vessels. Tambor-class USS Trout (SS-202) – she sank 12 ships and was lost with all hands on her eleventh war patrol in 1944.

S-class “Sugar boat” USS S-28 (SS-133) – she sank one Japanese ship and was lost at sea with all hands in July 1944. Her wreck was discovered in 2017 at a depth of 8,500 feet (2,600 m) off the coast of Oahu.

Gato-class USS Trigger (SS-237) – she sank 18 ships and received 11 battle stars for World War II service and the Presidential Unit Citation for her fifth, sixth, and seventh war patrols.

Tang-class USS Tang (SS-306) – she sank 33 ships and was sunk during the last engagement by a circular run of her torpedo.

Compare the crests with the list of boats on Eternal Patrol:

(Photo: Chris Eger)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gull Winged Angels

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It happened 80 years ago this month.

June 1945. A Marine F4U Corsair firing a salvo of eight five-inch forward-firing aircraft rockets, or FFARs, into an enemy crest of the mountain at Okinawa. Each 80-pound solid-fuel rocket, which preceded the famed Zuni, had a 45-pound HE warhead and a range of about a mile. “The terrific intensity is evident in the explosion of the rocket,” notes the original period caption of the photograph.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, by Lieutenant David Douglas Duncan, USMCR, now in the collections of the National Archives 127-GW-520-126420

While the Corsair was a fierce dogfighter, earning an 11:1 kill ratio in the hands of U.S. Navy, Fleet Air Arm, RNZAF, and USMC aviators, their heavy use in troop support over the island earned them the nickname of the “Angels of Okinawa.”

A Vought F4U Corsair, of a U.S. Marine Corps fighter squadron, fires a salvo of eight five-inch rockets at a Japanese position in southern Okinawa, circa early June 1945. Photographed from the observer pod of a P-38 Lightning by Marine Corps combat photographer Lieutenant David Douglas Duncan, USMCR. The photo plane, only about 40-50 feet behind the F4U, was knocked out of control by the rocket blast and nearly crashed. U.S. Marine Corps Photograph. Catalog #: USMC 129356

FG-1D Corsair fighters of US Marine Corps squadron VMF-323 in flight over Okinawa, Japan, 10 June 1945 NARA

Although “obsolete” with the introduction of jet fighters, the rocket-carrying Corsair returned to the ground-support role with relish over the skies of Korea and Indochina in the 1950s.

Loading 5-inch rockets on F4U-4 Corsairs of VMF-323 aboard USS Badoeng Strait (CVE-116), off Korea, September 1950. USMC Photo A413601 National Archives Identifier 74237271

Black Sheep Squadron (VMF-214) – Korea. 1st MAW– The First Marine F4U Corsair fighter-bomber pilot to land at newly captured Kimpo Airfield was First Lieutenant John V. Banes, 18 September 1950. While flying off a carrier in close support of Marine infantrymen. Banes, hit while bombing the Communists, thanked his lucky stars and the ground troops for the ready, friendly airfield. The feeling was mutual with the troops on the ground. Marine Corps Photo A3725 by Cpl. R. J. Laitinen. National Archives Identifier 74242918, Local Identifier 127-GR-77-A3725

USS Philippine Sea (CV-47) ordnancemen loading rockets beneath the port wing of a Fighter Squadron 64 (VF-64) F4U-4B Corsair, during operations off the Korean coast, 21 May 1951. Note the different types of rocket warheads and details of carts used to transport the rockets. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Catalog #: 80-G-439903

A sobering milestone in Ukraine

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One of the biggest shifts in combat in Ukraine for the past 18 months has been tethered fiber-optic-equipped FPV drones. The cable supplies continuous power from the ground, allowing the drone can fly for hours or even days (some spools carry as much as 50km of cable); allows the transfer of real-time high-speed data, such as live video feeds via fiber optics, and, most importantly, is far more jam-resistant than previous generations of radio-controlled UAVs.

Priced as low as $1,200 and used by both sides, with upwards of 10,000 drones lost each month across the battlefront, this has left the countryside bathed in discarded fiber optic cable.

The unnatural spiderwebs of the modern battlefield.

Even the birds are using it

Ukraine now claims that they have dispatched 1 million enemy troops by their own records, a figure that can be taken with a pallet of salt.

Still, even if overestimated by 300 percent, that is a lot of empty chairs at tables in Russia.

And it is estimated that drones accounted for 70 percent of those. 

 

They Call this Man a Frogman

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Original caption: 3 Aug. 1952, Officers and men of U.S. Pacific fleet and Fleet Marine Force, Pacific, staged the largest fresh water amphibious assault training operation in Navy and Marine Corps history on the shores of Lake Washington, Seattle. Frogmen of UDT #1 prepare to drop over the side of the rubber boat being towed by the master pick-up boat. Frogmen swam ashore to blast obstructions impeding the progress of the assault location. NARA 80-G-449678

The AP Archive continues to deliver, with this great circa mid-1950s Cold War-era 30-minute UDT team recruiting film, “The Navy Frogmen.”

It includes footage of the 110-foot New London submarine escape tower, UDT shorts, classic beach delivery and recovery techniques, early double and triple-tank (!) Aqualung open-circuit SCUBA gear, Pirelli Lung rebreathers, beach clearing demo against obstacles, submerged submarine lock-in/lock-out ops, and the like.

Enjoy!

Seegaara? Zigarette?

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It happened 80 years ago this week, 14 June 1945, Stuttgart, Germany.

Official period caption: “Goumiers from a Moroccan tabor trade tobacco with a local resident. No tobacco supplies arrive in the town.” The men are from the 3rd GTM. Note the slung M1903A3 Springfields and GI webgear and boots.

Réf. : TERRE 10622-L39 by Vincent Verdu/ECPAD/Défense

France’s tough local reliables, the Goumiers were a Berber gendarmerie force intended to carry out patrols or reconnaissance missions on Moroccan territory. With some 121 company-sized Goums on hand in 1940, they were distinctive in their brightly colored wool djellaba cloaks with a hood (koub) to protect the soldier in harsh weather, loose gandoura blouses, naala ox skin sandals attached with palm cords, short séroual pants that ended in the mid-leg, a wool head covering, and leather choukara satchels in place of the more traditional French musette bag.

One of the most famous photos of a Moroccan goumier, from Yank magazine, shows one sharpening an M1905 bayonet for his M1903A3 Springfield rifle while wearing a French Adrian-style helmet

Fighting early on in support of the Free French, a regiment of Goumiers (1er GSM) was created in May 1940, while, post-Torch, four brigade-sized GTMs, or Grouping of Moroccan tabors, were stood up as light infantry with American-supplied equipment (hence the M1903s). Landing in Sicily, Italy, and France, they took the war all the way to VE-Day.

Collectively, the Goumiers racked up 26 unit citations for their WWII service. In all, they suffered more than 8,000 casualties fighting in Europe, about one-third of their strength.

Xenophon, ala Poland

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Contrary to popular belief, the destroyer HMS Shikari’s departure just before dawn on 3 June, the last day of the “Miracle of Dunkirk” during Operation Dynamo, was not the end of the evacuation from France in 1940.

Neither was the near-catastrophic (especially if you were a Highlander) Operation Cycle, which pulled another 14,000 Allied troops from Le Havre and St. Valery-en-Caux between June 10 and 13, 1940.

What followed was the desperate Operation Ariel (Aerial).

This saw the French Atlantic ports at Cherbourg (30,630 Brits of the 52nd Lowland Division, 1st Armoured Division, Beauman Division, and Norman Force), Saint-Malo (21,474 men, mostly of the 1st Canadian Division), Brest (28,145 British and 4,439 Allied personnel), Saint Nazaire/Nantes (57,235 troops, of whom 54,411 were British), La Pallice/La Rochelle (10,000 British and more than 4,000 Polish), as well as smaller contingents from Le Verdon, Bordeaux, Bayonne, and Saint Jean-de-Luz, continue near round-the-clock withdrawals as late as 25 June to Africa and the Caribbean in the case of the French, and to England in the case of British and other allies. Meanwhile, low-key departures continued from French Mediterranean ports, especially of colonial troops (and those newly designated as such) retrograding back to North Africa, until 14 August, a full three weeks past the effective date of the Second Armistice at Compiègne.

One almost forgotten chapter in Ariel was story of the exiled Free Polish soldiers evacuated from France aboard the humble British Pool Shipping Co merchant steamer SS Alderpool (4,313 tons), which left the port of La Pallice (which incidentally was the pierside backdrop for films Das Boot and Raiders of the Lost Ark) 85 years ago today on 19 June 1940 with more 4,000 exiled Poles in French uniform aboard.

These men, of the nascent 4th (Free) Polish Infantry Division (4. Dywizja Piechoty) under Maj. Gen. Stanisław Franciszek Sosabowski, had beat feet from their training camp at Parthenay, in western France, toward Saint Nazaire but only made it to Ancenis by 16 June before finding out that the port was closed. Rather than stack arms, they pushed 110 miles down the coast to La Rochelle by any available means– coal train, lorry, and forced march– to catch the last British ship leaving from there. Sosabowski had already escaped one German POW camp the year before and wasn’t keen on having to do it again.

Once aboard Alderpool, the slow steam to Plymouth took four long days, bracing for U-boats at night and Messerschmitt by day.

Lance Sergeant Władysław Jacek Prytyś, a Polish Army photographer, was able to chronicle the withdrawal to La Rochelle and on Alderpool, in a collection of images now in the Imperial War Museum.

Polish troops of the 4th Infantry Division standing in an assembly point in Ancenis, before their evacuation. The evacuation of that particular unit began on 16 June 1940 in Ancenis till 19 June 1940 when they reached La Rochelle to be evacuated on the British steam merchant ship SS Alderpool. Note their uniforms of the French mountain infantry, the famed “Blue Devils” of the Chasseurs Alpins. The French had already equipped a similar outfit, the newly formed Polish Independent Podhalan Rifles Brigade (Samodzielna Brygada Strzelców Podhalańskich) under Brig. Gen Zygmunt Szyszko-Bohusz, which fought in Norway. IWM (HU 109715)

Retreating Polish units on board a train on the way to an evacuation point in the port of La Rochelle after the collapse of French defenses during the German invasion of France. IWM (HU 109739)

Long line of lorries, crammed full of Polish soldiers, standing room only, on the way to an evacuation point in the port of La Rochelle after the collapse of French defenses during the German invasion of France.  IWM (HU 109741)

Same as the above, displaying the desperation on the faces of men who had already fought the Germans in their homeland and were looking at being on the losing side of the Fall of France, yet still hopeful to make it to England to continue fighting. IWM (HU 109740)

Lance Sergeant Władysław Prytyś is looking out for German ships while one of his colleagues is scanning the sky with a French FM 24/29 light machine gun for enemy planes. Photograph taken on board the British steam merchant ship SS Alderpool on the way to Plymouth. IWM (HU 109750)

Mass of soldiers of various allied armies and civilians being evacuated on board the British steam merchant ship SS Alderpool on the way to Plymouth. IWM (HU 109744)

A Polish Officer, still in a prewar uniform, and a Polish Air Force pilot standing by a 3-inch deck gun and .303 Vickers MG on board the British steam merchant ship SS Alderpool on the way to Plymouth.  IWM (HU 109745)

Polish soldiers with national eagles on their French uniform berets checking a map while being evacuated on board the British steam merchant ship SS Alderpool on the way to Plymouth. SS Alderpool left the French port of La Pallice in La Rochelle on 19 June 1940 to reach Plymouth on 22 June 1940. IWM (HU 109743)

A cigarette-smoking Polish soldier loading a French MAS-36 rifle on board the British steam merchant ship SS Alderpool on the way to Plymouth. An old 3-inch deck gun is visible in the background, and a French FM 24/29 light machine gun on the right, mounted as an anti-aircraft weapon. IWM (HU 109748)

Once ashore in Plymouth, the Poles were rushed to Scotland to rest up and change uniforms, again, this time into British kit. The 4th Infantry, after contributing to the defense of the British Isles, should Operation Sea Dragon occur, never did make it to full strength.

Many of its men wound up in the 1st (Polish) Independent Parachute Brigade (1. Samodzielna Brygada Spadochronowa) in September 1941, originally with the idea that they would be dropped into German-occupied Poland at some point.

Paratroopers of the 1st Independent Polish Parachute Brigade adjusting their parachutes before taking off. IWM (MH 1965)

Instead, Sosoboski, as a British brigadier, led them back to the continent in September 1944 for the “Bridge too far” that was Operation Market Garden, suffering 25 percent casualties.

Sosoboski, portrayed by the great Gene Hackman (albeit with the worst Polish accent imaginable) in 1977’s A Bridge Too Far, passed a decade before the film’s release. He died in London, exiled from his homeland, having spent his last years as an assembly line worker in an automobile factory. However, his remains were installed in a military cemetery in Warsaw with honor.

As for Alderpool, she was lost on 3 April 1941, southwest of Reykjavik, while part of convoy SC-26, torpedoed by U-73 (Helmut Rosenbaum) and sent to the bottom slowly via a pair of G7es. Gratefully, instead of 4,000 Allied troops aboard, all that was lost was a cargo of grain. Her full crew and gunners were picked up by another steamer in the convoy and landed in Scotland.

Her master, Tom Valentine Frank, had earned an OBE and the Polish Cross of Valour (Krzyz Walecznych) for his work in helping save the Poles. Sadly, Capt. Frank would not be as lucky on his final command, the steamer SS Ashby, which was sunk in November 1941 by U-43 (Wolfgang Luth).

Lest we forget.

Mortars and Sandals

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Between February 22 and 28 1951, Haiduong (French Indochina, now Vietnam).

Elements of the locally recruited Bataillon de Marche Indochinois (BMI) advance through rice paddies during Operation Marécages. During this operation, the search of villages (Le Thon, Hong Tien, Phung Do, and Phung Xa) allowed the capture of Viet Minh partisans who had hidden in underground hiding places and shelters.

Note the mix of French and British kit, the nonchalantly carried 43-pound 60mm Brandt Mle 1935 light mortar (including very local footwear), and MAS-36 7.5mm rifle.

Ref.: TONK 51-28 R31, Guy Defives/ECPAD/Defense

The BMI was formed in January 1948 as the Annamite Bataillon, largely from the remnants of the five assorted Tirailleurs Indochinois regiments that dated to the 1880s and had fought against the Germans in WWI then the Japanese and Thais in WWII.

The five regiments of Tirailleurs Indochinois fought in numerous campaigns across Southeast Asia between 1880 and 1947 including forming 27 rifle battalions during the Great War, several of which fought in Europe.

With the lineage of the old Tirailleurs Indochinois– indeed carrying the flag and honors of the old 1er régiment de tirailleurs tonkinois (1er RTT)—  the Annamite Bataillon was redesignated the BMI in 1950 and was something of an elite unit over the tail-end of the French war against the Viet Minh.

Note the black beret, a standard headgear for the unit, complete with its distinctive dragon and anchor badge. (Bataillon de Marche Indochinois (BMI) advance through rice paddies during Operation Marécages. )

Based south of the Tonkin Delta, theirs was a war of sharp actions among the rice fields and brown water.
Once the Geneva Accords went through in 1954, the BMI was disbanded and many of its members– who had elected to remain in the French Army rather than join the ARVN– joined the 1st battalion of the 43e Régiment dInfanterie de Coloniale (43e RIC), bound for service in Algeria.
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