Official wartime caption, 85 years ago today: “Men of the 1st Royal Welsh Fusiliers practice firing their .55 caliber Boys anti-tank rifles on the beach near Etaples, 6 February 1940.” At the time the unit of regulars was part of the 6th Infantry Brigade, assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division, of the British Expeditionary Force in France.
Kessell (Lt), War Office official photographer, IWM F 2441
An infantry unit formed in 1689, raised by Henry Herbert, 4th Baron Herbert of Chirbury, and primarily recruited in North Wales, the regiment was designated a fusilier regiment in 1702 and earned its “Royal” prefix in 1713 after honors at Blenheim (1704), Ramillies (1706) and Malplaquet (1709).
The Royal Welsh kept appearing on campaigns from Culloden to Minden, Bunker Hill to Yorktown (where it was the only British regiment not to surrender its colors, instead smuggled them out, tied around an ensign’s waist).
They fought the French in Haiti, Egypt, Martinique, the Peninsula, and Waterloo. They then fought alongside the French in the Crimea, Manchuria, and on the Western Front as well as in 1940, as seen above above.
The 1st Royal Welsh evacuated at Dunkirk– leaving their heavy Boys behind– then, after defending the British Isles from Mr. Hitler, moved to India and Burma to fight the Japanese, taking part in the defence of Kohima in 1944 with Bill Slim’s “Forgotten Fourteenth” Army.
1st Royal Welsh Fusiliers move forward on a jungle path near Pinbaw, Burma, December 1944. Note the mix of M1928 Thompson SMGs and No. 1 Mk III Enfields. Photo by No 9 Army Film & Photographic Unit, IWM SE2889
Postwar, the unit saw service in England, Germany, and Cyprus, combat in the Malayan Emergency, along with 13 tours in Northern Ireland, and continued service in Bosnia and Iraq.
On St David’s Day (1 March) 2006, the regiment amalgamated with The Royal Regiment of Wales to form The Royal Welsh and are known as the “Nanny Goats” after their mascot, a Persian goat enrolled as a lance corporal.
They are based at Hightown Barracks, Wrexham, serving in an armored infantry role.
Their motto is “Gwell angau na Chywilydd” (Welsh) (“Better Death than Dishonour”)
230913-N-N3764-1004 NAVAL STATION KEY WEST, Fl. – (Sept. 13, 2023) — Commercial operators deploy Saildrone Voyager Unmanned Surface Vessels (USVs) out to sea in the initial steps of U.S. 4th Fleet’s Operation Windward Stack during a launch from Naval Air Station Key West’s Mole Pier and Truman Harbor, Sept. 13, 2023. Operation Windward Stack is part of 4th Fleet’s unmanned integration campaign, which provides the Navy a region to experiment with and operate unmanned systems in a permissive environment, develop Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs) against near-peer competitors, and refine manned and unmanned Command and Control (C2) infrastructure, all designed to move the Navy to the hybrid fleet. (U.S. Navy photo by Danette Baso Silvers/Released)
U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet doesn’t have a lot of afloat assets.
Typically, they just get to task Coast Guard cutters/craft via the Key West-based Joint Interagency Task Force South, Freedom-variant littoral combat ships out of Mayport’s LCSRON2, small MSC-operated auxiliaries on hearts-and-minds missions, and the occasional passing phib group being sent down for an exercise or destroyer pulling an interdiction mission with an embarked USCG LEDET.
That’s what makes USVs such a game changer for the command.
They are cheap to acquire and deploy, ideal for ISR– making other assets much more effective– and have a small footprint.
Plus, using them in our “front yard” allows the Navy to iron out tactics and techniques in permissive environments before they are needed in higher-stakes operations in, say, the South China Sea or the Persian Gulf.
Operation Southern Spear, which is filling my local skies with F-35s and HH-60s of all sorts, will see more Robotic and Autonomous Systems (RAS) assets incorporated.
Specifically, Operation Southern Spear will deploy long-dwell robotic surface vessels, small robotic interceptor boats, and vertical take-off and landing robotic air vessels to the USSOUTHCOM AOR. 4th Fleet will operationalize these unmanned systems through integration with U.S. Coast Guard cutters at sea and operations centers at 4th Fleet and Joint Interagency Task Force South. Southern Spear’s results will help determine combinations of unmanned vehicles and manned forces needed to provide coordinated maritime domain awareness and conduct counternarcotics operations.
Ten 33-foot Saildrone Voyager USVs are used by the 4th Fleet and the company says that figure is set to rise to 20 such drones, tasked in support of Operation Southern Spear “to detect and stem the flow of illegal drugs traveling through known maritime corridors into the United States.”
The 33-foot Saildrone Voyager is designed for near-shore bathymetry and maritime security missions.
10 Voyager uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs) from Naval Air Station (NAS) Key West’s Mole Pier, Sept. 2023.
In recent 2023-24 operations (Windward Stack), Saildrone disclosed that the 10 4th Fleet Voyagers sailed more than 130,000 nautical miles over 2,700 cumulative mission days. They detected 116,000 unique contacts, an average of 43 contacts per USV per day. Of the total contacts, 98,000 were not broadcasting AIS. Saildrones covered an area of 12,500 sq nm for $4.25 per nm per day, as calculated by the Center for Naval Analysis. This included shadowing three Russian ships as they approached Cuba in 2024.
Those figures should roughly double now with 20 Voyagers on hand.
A record number of 20 high-endurance Saildrone Voyager USVs equipped with a newly upgraded sensor suite will monitor illegal activity along the United States’ southern maritime approaches, operating in support of Joint Interagency Task Force South (JIATF-S) and US Naval Forces Southern Command/US Navy Fourth Fleet (NAVSOUTH/FOURTHFLT).
“It’s an honor to support the US Navy and Joint Interagency Task Force South in this critical border security mission,” said Richard Jenkins, Saildrone Founder and CEO. “As we increase the security on our southern land border, criminal activity will naturally get pushed to our maritime borders. Saildrone is proud to serve, providing a persistent, unblinking eye in maritime areas too vast and remote to previously monitor.”
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Warship Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025: Gallant Gussi
U.S. Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation photo No. 1996.253.7161.010
Above we see a Vought F4U-1D Corsair of Marine Fighting Squadron (Carrier Squadron) (VMF(CVS)) 512 as it prepares to catapult on deck qualifications from the brand new Commencement Bay-class escort carrier USS Gilbert Islands (CVE-107)during the flattop’s shakedown cruise off San Diego, on or about 6 March 1945.
Commissioned 80 years ago today, she was one of just six carriers earmarked to carry embarked dedicated all-Marine air groups during WWII, then would go on to continue to serve in a much different role into the Vietnam era.
The Commencement Bays
Of the 130 U.S./RN escort carriers– merchant ships hulls given a hangar, magazine, and flight deck– built during WWII, the late-war Commencement Bay class was by far the Cadillac of the design slope. Using lessons learned from the earlier Long Island, Avenger, Sangamon, Bogue, and Casablanca-class ships.
Like the hard-hitting Sangamon class, they were based on Maritime Commission T3 class tanker hulls (which they shared with the roomy replenishment oilers of the Chiwawa, Cimarron, and Ashtabula classes). From the keel up, these were made into flattops.
Pushing some 25,000 tons at full load, they could make 19 knots, which was faster than a lot of submarines looking to plug them. A decent suite of about 60 AAA guns spread across 5-inch, 40mm, and 20mm fittings could put as much flying lead in the air as a light cruiser of the day when enemy aircraft came calling.
Finally, they could carry a 30-40 aircraft airwing of single-engine fighter bombers and torpedo planes ready for a fight, or about twice that many planes if being used as a delivery ship.
Sounds good, right?
Of course, had the war run into 1946-47, the 33 planned vessels of the Commencement Bay class would have no doubt fought kamikazes, midget subs, and suicide boats tooth and nail just off the coast of the Japanese Home Islands.
However, the war ended in Sept. 1945 with only nine of the class barely in commission– most of those still on shake-down cruises. Just two, Block Island and Gilbert Islands, saw significant combat at Okinawa and Balikpapan, winning two and three battle stars, respectively. Kula Gulf and Cape Gloucester picked up a single battle star.
With the war over, some of the class, such as USS Rabaul and USS Tinian, though complete, were never commissioned and simply laid up in mothballs, never being brought to life. Four other ships were canceled before launching, just after the bomb on Nagasaki was dropped. In all, just 19 of the planned 33 were commissioned.
But we are getting ahead of ourselves.
Meet Gilbert Islands
Our subject is the only American warship named for the sprawling August 1942-December 1943 Gilbert Islands campaign– Operations Galvanic and Kourbash– that included the seizures of Tarawa and Makin and the hard-fought Battle of Tarawa.
The Battle of Tarawa (US code name Operation Galvanic) was one of the bloodiest of the Pacific T/O during WWII. Nearly 6,400 Japanese, Koreans, and Americans died in the fighting, mostly on and around the small island of Betio. Many have never been recovered.
Laid down on 29 November 1943 at Tacoma, by Todd-Pacific Shipyards, CVE-107 was initially to be named USS St. Andrews Bay-– for a bay on the Gulf Coast of Florida and a sound on the southern coast of Georgia– but this changed when she was set to be renamed Gilbert Islands on 26 April 1944. She launched on 20 July 1944 under the latter name, sponsored by Mrs. Edwin D. McCorries, wife of a surgeon captain at Puget Sound Navy Hospital. The carrier was the 57th Navy ship launched at Todd, and the third of her class of carriers christened there.
She was commissioned on 5 February 1945, her company numbering 66 officers and 755 enlisted, about half of which (27 officers, 350 men) had sailed for two weeks on USS Casablanca (CVE-55) in the Puget Sound area as part of a CVE Pre-Commissioning School, with the command and senior petty officers spent another five days at sea on sister USS Block Island.
USS Gilbert Islands from her commissioning booklet Feb 1945. Via Navsource
Her first skipper was Capt. Lester Kimme Rice, a regular Navy aviator (USNA ’24) with 20 years under his belt that included operations officer of PATWING7 (1941-42) and commanding the Barnegat-class seaplane tender USS Matagorda (AVP 22) during the worst days (1942-43) of the Battle of the Atlantic.
After commissioning, our new carrier spent a week in Tacoma fitting out, then another week steaming around assorted Naval bases in the Puget Sound area, taking on supplies, ammunition, aviation ordnance, and getting depermed and degaussed. Setting out of San Diego on 20 February– with a stop at San Francisco– she arrived there on the 27th.
Now we need an air group.
WWII Marine Carrier Groups
Without getting too far into the weeds here, Gen. Alexander Vandegrift, Commandant of the Marine Corps, successfully campaigned during discussions with the CNO during an August 1944 conference at Pearl Harbor, to get Marine aircraft squadrons on carriers– ideally on ships dedicated to air support over Marine beachheads.
On 21 October 1944, under Order No. 89-44, Marine Carrier Groups, Aircraft, Fleet Marine Force, Pacific (FMFPac) was established as a tactical command at MCAS Santa Barbara under Col. Albert D. Cooley.
Originally formed as Marine Base Defense Aircraft Group 48 (MBDAG-48) at Santa Barbara and Marine Aircraft Group 51 (MAG-51) at Mojave, by early November, they had 406 officers and 2,743 enlisted assigned, along with a motley collection of 63 aircraft in nine types.
Of note, the four new Corsair squadrons of MAG-51 (VMF-511, 512, 513, and 514) had previously been training on the East Coast as part of Project Danny for Crossbow strikes on German V-1/V-2 rocket launching sites in Europe using massive underwing 10.5-foot “Tiny Tim” rockets, a mission scrubbed before the Devils got a chance to clock in.
While about 15 percent of the Marine aviators in the command had combat experience in the Pacific, few had ever landed on a carrier, so the ramp-up had to be fast.
This led to four initial Marine Air Groups (eight planned), each ideally with an 18-plane fighter squadron and a 12-aircraft torpedo bomber squadron, designed for operation from escort carriers:
By the end of December– just 75 days after founding– the Marine Carrier Groups had tallied 17,218 hours across 13,257 flights in the desert, rising and landing in approximated carrier flight deck outlines, and the number of aircraft on hand rose over 150, concentrating on Corsairs and Avengers while personnel climbed over 3,700.
The first flattop to pick up a Marine Air Group (MCVG-1) was Block Island on 3 February 1945, which shipped out with a mix of 12 TBMs, 10 F4Us, 8 F6F Hellcat night fighters, and 2 F6F planes.
The second group would go tothe Gilbert Islands. Accordingly, Lt.Col. William R. Campbell’s MCVG-2 — made up of VMF(CVS)-512 with 13 FG-1Ds and five F4U-1Ds, VMTB(CVS)-143 with 10 TBM-3s and two TBM-3Es, and CASD-2 with two F6F-5P photo recon Hellcats– would embark on our carrier on 6 March at San Diego. The group would remain aboard through the end of the war except for brief periods ashore while the carrier was in shipyard maintenance.
The Rocket Raiders of VMTB(CVS)-143, had been formed in September 1942 and logged five major combat tours, primarily from Henderson Field on Guadalcanal, before stateside carrier conversion training. VMF(CVS)-512, meanwhile, was newer, only formed in February 1944, and had never been overseas.
Four other “Marine” carriers that made it into service would be:
USS Vella Gulf (CVE-111), MCVG-3: VMF(CVS)-513, VMTB(CVS)-234, and CASD-3
USS Cape Gloucester (CVE-109), MCVG-4: VMF(CVS)-351, VMTB(CVS)-132, and CASD-4
USS Salerno Bay (CVE-110) MCVG-5: VMF(CVS)-514, VMTB(CVS)-144, and CASD-5
USS Puget Sound (CVE-113), MCVG-6: VMF(CVS)-321, VMTB(CVS)-454, and CASD-6
Compare this to the 16 Navy Escort Carrier Air Groups (CVEGs) and 90 Escort Scouting Squadrons (VGS)/Composite Squadrons (VCs) that served on the Navy’s 70 other “baby flat-tops.”
War!
Following workups off California and Hawaii, on 25 May, the Gilbert Islands arrived off Okinawa as part of the Fifth Fleet and, joining Task Unit (TU) 52.1.1, sent up her first CAP and close air support strikes against Japanese targets.
Take a look at this hectic one-day air report, with MCVG-2 just going ham on targets of opportunity:
It was during these operations that VMF-512’s Capt. Thomas Liggett bagged a twin-engine Mitsubishi Ki. 46 Dinah reconnaissance plane– the only aerial victory for MAG Two and Gilbert Islands during the war.
The carrier also lost her first pilot around this time.
On 1 June, Gilbert Islands joined her sister Marine carrier Block Island in TU 32.1.3 under Third Fleet control, then got busy neutralizing enemy installations in the Sakishima Gunto area via liberal application of rockets, bombs, and .50 caliber rounds.
Goodyear FG 1D Corsair VMF-512 TBM Avengers FM Wildcats aboard 2nd Jun 1945
As detailed by her War History, just take a look at this 10-day period (including a three-day gap to run to Kerama Retto for more ordnance), keeping in mind that this was carried out by a group of just ~30 aircraft:
Sent to San Pedro Bay, Leyte, on 16 June for 10 days of rest, replenishment, and repairs, Gilbert Islands was then dispatched south as part of TG 78.4 along with Block Island to cover the landings of Australian and Free Dutch forces during Operation Oboe II at Balikpapan.
With the path cleared by UDT-18, 7th Division Australian troops come ashore from landing craft during a landing near Balikpapan oil fields in Borneo. Some 33,000-strong combined Australian and Royal Netherlands Indies amphibious forces (the largest ever amphibious assault by Australian forces)
It ended up being somewhat anti-climactic, although she did lose one of her F6F drivers, 1LT James Benjamin Crawford, to Japanese AAA fire.
Sent back to San Pedro Bay after the 4th of July– making sure to dip her pollywogs along the way– she spent the rest of the month there, briefly serving as the flag of Carrier Division 27.
During operations in the PI, her plane guard, the “Green Dragon” USS Lee Fox (APD-45),suffered a bow bender while transferring the ditched Capt. Leggett was back aboard on the morning of 25 July 1945.
Fox on Gilbert Islands. The crack-up carried away the carrier’s starboard boat boom and caused superficial damage, with no injuries on either ship.
Sailing to Ulithi Atoll at the end of July in company with the escort carrier USS Chenango, she attached to TG. 30.8, a third fleet service squadron, to provide them with air cover. It is with this group that on 10-15 August, Capt. Rice, as senior officer afloat, was given command of half the group, TU 30.8.2– the oilers USS Kankakee, Cahaba, Neosho, and Cache; the destroyer USS Wilkes and the escorts USS Willmart, Leray Wilson, Lyman, and William C. Miller; and four tugs, to get on the run from an approaching typhoon.
F4U-1D Corsair VMF-512 White 24 behind typhoon barrier, USS Gilbert Islands
USS Gilbert Islands (CVE-107) in rough seas, circa 1945 NNAM 1996.488.253.1578
Vectoring in a big box, heading north at first, then southeasterly, then south and west, “The maneuver was successful, no heavy weather was encountered, and no damage was sustained by any of the vessels.”
By the time the storm was gone, the war was over, and the message that Japan had surrendered unconditionally was received at 0850 on 15 August 1945.
She then performed occupational duty. Sent to Okinawa with Carrier Division 27, she once again had to go to sea to dodge an incoming typhoon.
Carrier Division 27 successfully weathering China Sea Typhoon. Taken by USS Salerno Bay (CVE 110). Ships shown are: USS Block Island (CVE 106); USS Siboney (CVE 112) and USS Gilbert Island (CVE 107). 80-G-354604
Carrier Division 27 successfully weathering China Sea Typhoon. Taken by USS Salerno Bay (CVE 110). The ships shown are: the USS Block Island (CVE 106) and USS Gilbert Island (CVE 107). Photographed October 1945. 80-G-354600
CarDiv27, Gilbert Islands included, then appeared off Japanese-occupied Formosa on 15 October to have their planes as a “show of force” over the island and covering the landings of the Chinese KMT 70th Army at Kiirun on 16-17 October. “Observation over Formosa indicated enemy activity was non-existent.” She nonetheless spent a week off the island until the 20th, firing over 18,000 rounds of 20mm and 40mm ammunition in AAA drills while her planes expended 16 bombs and 32 5-inch rockets.
Dispatched to Saipan, she arrived there on the 23rd, then, with stops at Pearl Harbor and San Diego along the way, arrived at Norfolk on 7 February 1946. Her war was over, and the Marine Carrier Groups disbanded. She would decommission on 21 May and then would be mothballed, first in Norfolk and then in Philadelphia.
Of her sisters, all survived the war, and 15 of 18 (excepting Block Island, Sicily, and Mindoro) were all laid up following the conflict.
In the course of her career during World War II, Gilbert Islands received three battle stars.
Cold War recall
With the Korean War kicking off in June 1950, following a round of inspection among the mothballed CVEs, Gilbert Islands were selected and recommissioned on 7 September 1951 at Philadelphia. She was not alone, as nine of her sisters were also reactivated.
Following six months of overhaul at Boston Naval Yard while her new crew was pieced together, her first assignment was to head back to the Pacific and, carrying a jam-packed load of USAF F-86E Sabre fighters to Yokoyama from 8 August to 22 October 1952, she arrived back with the Atlantic Fleet, based at NS Quonset Point, and would operate the big AF-2 Guardian ASW aircraft.
AF Guardian on the deck of USS Gilbert Island (CVE-107) during ASW near Rhode Island, 1953-1954
Tasked with ASW carrier training duties, she carried VS-24’s AF-2Ws and AF-2Ss along with a flight of HRS-3s from HS-3 in January 1953, followed by four other short cruises with VS-31 (April-May 1953), VS-22 (June-July 1953), VS-39 (August 1953), and VS-36 (October-November 1953).
USS Gilbert Islands (CVE-107) moored off New York City on 10 November 1953, NH 106714
She would then get operational with VS-36 on orders for a short (10-week) Sixth Fleet deployment to the Med that ran from 5 January to 12 March 1954.
USS Gilbert Islands (CVE-107) and USS Hailey (DD-556) were underway at sea in 1954, likely during Sixth Fleet operations
USS Gilbert Islands (CVE-107) is underway at sea. Gilbert Islands, with assigned Air Anti-Submarine Squadron 36 (VS-36) and Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron 3 (HS-3), was deployed to the Mediterranean Sea from 5 January to 11 March 1954.
Then, as noted by DANFS, “She became the first of her class to have jets make touch-and-go landings on the flight deck while she had no way on, a dangerous experiment successfully conducted on 9 June 1954.”
Her service as a carrier was completed after two wars. Gilbert Islands left Rhode Island on 25 June for Boston and decommissioned there on 15 January 1955. At the time, just five of her sisters were still on active duty, and all would join her in mothballs by May 1957.
While laid up a second time, she was reclassified as Cargo Ship and Aircraft Ferry (AKV)-39 on 7 May 1959, and her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register in June 1961. She would surely have been scrapped, the fate all 18 of her sisters met between 1960 and 1971.
But the Navy had one more mission for the old girl.
Conversion
Ex-Gibert Islands was towed to Brooklyn Navy Yard in August 1962 down the river from her berth with Reserve Group Bayonne for conversion, reclassified as a Major Communications Relay Ship (AGMR-1) on 1 June 1963.
This saw all her old aircraft handling gear removed, as was the rest of her WWII-era armament, replaced by four 3″/50 twin Mk 33s on sponsons. Her flight deck saw a hurricane bow added.
Then came the real changes– turning her topside into a floating antenna farm.
The flight deck was converted to an antenna array with two directional and two omnidirectional antennas. The aircraft hangar bay was converted into communication spaces although one aircraft elevator was retained to allow servicing of equipment and boat storage. In the communication spaces were installed 24 radio transmitters with low through ultra-high frequencies. To provide the necessary cooling of equipment in the communications spaces, three 120-ton air conditioning units were installed with 130 tons dedicated for the communications spaces. The remaining air conditioning tonnage was routed to the other interior spaces of the ship.
She was renamed USS Annapolis, the third warship on the NVR to carry the name after a SpanAm-era gunboat (PG-10) that remained in service until 1940 and a Tacoma-class frigate (PF-15) that remained in service until 1946. Fittingly, her new motto became “Vox Maris” (Voice of the Sea).
Commissioned at Brooklyn Navy Yard on 7 March 1964– capping 19 months of conversion– her skipper would be Capt. John Joseph Rowan (USNA 1942).
Annapolis commissioning, March 7, 1964, Brooklyn Navy Yard from her cruise book
Those attending the commissioning service included RADM Bernard Roeder, Director of Naval Communications, and the Mayor of Annapolis, Maryland, Joseph H. Griscom. The latter presented the ship with an ornate silver service.
AGMR-1 Annapolis Inclining Experiment. Note she has four twin 3″/50 radar-guided rapid-fire mounts installed in place of her old 40mm/20mm fittings. NARA 19nn-b1543-0004
USS Annapolis (AGMR-1) Underway at slow speed in New York Harbor, 12 June 1964, soon after completing conversion from USS Gilbert Islands (AKV-39, originally CVE-107). Staten Island ferryboats are in the left and center backgrounds. NH 106715
Following Operation Steel Pike, an 80-ship U.S.-Spanish exercise held in October 1964, Annapolis soon transferred to (officially) Long Beach the long way, via the Suez Canal and the Indian Ocean, and by September 1965 was off Vietnam.
She would spend the lion’s share of the next 48 months there, conducting relay operations on 19 communications patrols, averaging 270 days at sea per year. By December 1968, she had sent more than 1.5 million messages and steamed 150,000 miles as Annapolis.
She would typically intersperse her ~55-day patrols with short port calls around the West Pac, with individual crewmembers rotating out for home every 12-14 months.
As described by AGMR-1.com:
Annapolis, while on station off the coast of Vietnam did drop anchor every 10–15 days for a few hours outside Cam Ranh Bay to receive mail and transfer priority crew. During those brief stops, Navy swift boats would come alongside to receive much appreciated ice cream in 3-gallon containers that were prepared by the ships cooks the night before.
In a key event in Naval history, on 18 August 1966, while in Subic Bay, she used Syncom 3, the first geostationary communication satellite, to transmit the first documented ship-to-shore satellite radio message, a dispatch from Yankee Station off Vietnam back to Pacific Fleet Headquarters at Pearl.
The USS Annapolis
The USS Annapolis at Subic Bay, September 5, 1967, the former Gilbert Islands
Returning to Philadelphia on 1 October 1969 via Portuguese Angola, the Cape of Good Hope, Dakar, and Lisbon– including two months of operations with Sixth Fleet out of Naples, Annapolis decommissioned for a third and final time on 20 December 1969.
She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 15 October 1976 and sold for scrap to the Union Minerals & Alloys Corp. on 19 December 1979.
Annapolis received a Meritorious Unit Commendation and eight battle stars for her service in the Vietnam War.
She was the last of her class in operation, and her relay role was key in the development of the Blue Ridge class LCC command ships (which entered service in 1970-71, effectively replacing her) and the later big deck LHA and LHD phibs.
Epilogue
Little remains of our subject. I cannot find where her bell endures, or a monument or marker exists to her.
The jeep carrier’s only WWII skipper, Les Rice, would continue to serve into the 1950s– earning the Legion of Merit as commander of the Essex-class fleet carrier USS Valley Forge (CV-45) during Korea– and lecture on the role of aircraft in ASW warfare, retiring from the Navy in 1958 as a rear admiral in the post of Commander Naval Air Bases First Naval District.
Rice as skipper of the Gilbert Islands, 1944. His first tour of duty was on the battleship USS Idaho in 1924. He capped a 34-year career following Korea.
Meanwhile, Gilbert Islands has Adam’s Planes, which have been dedicated to the ship and hersquadrons.
The Navy hasn’t reused the name “Gilbert Islands” for a second warship, although two USS Tarawas (CV-40 and LHA-1) and a USS Makin Island (LHD-8) were named after battles that occurred during the Gilberts campaign.
However, there has been a fourth USS Annapolis (SSN-760), a Los Angeles-class submarine commissioned in 1992 and currently part of the Guam-based SubRon15, although she is slated to decommission in FY27.
Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive
Ships are more than steel and wood And heart of burning coal, For those who sail upon them know That some ships have a soul.
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It’s said that the rank of lance corporal in a British Army infantry unit, denoted by a single inverted chevron, is the hardest one to earn and the easiest to lose.
Whereas the U.S. Marines run a two-week corporal’s course for what is a step higher rank (E-4), the British Army puts the screws to privates looking to earn their stripe.
For reference, the British Army’s lance corporal’s course, run by 1 Rifles on Cyprus, takes seven weeks.
In a recent course that saw 68 privates start and 47 complete, they conducted:
As any sailor will vouch, there is always that hollow feeling that comes over you at least once while over the deep blue, far from shore, where you realize that it is never a certain thing that the ocean will not choose to simply rise up and swallow your little bit of floating atmosphere and take it swiftly to the bottom.
The view from the sea bridge of the 11,000-ton Royal Navy Town (Southampton)-class cruiser HMS Sheffield (C24) as she battled heavy seas while escorting convoy JW 53 to Northern Russia, in February 1943. The ship suffered severe structural damage– with a third of the roof of A turret peeled away– during three days of storms and had to return to port for repairs.
Going past that, two guns that I thought were just great are the new Special Edition Undercover sries shrouded hammer snub-nosed revolvers, designed to honor the Army’s MAC-V-SOG group of Vietnam fame.
Lightweight & performance-focused, these defensive revolvers feature OD Green G10 grips, brass bead front sight, and the iconic Special Operations logo. A portion of proceeds supports the Special Operations Association (SOA).
They are offered in .38 (Model 442-UC SOA) and soft recoiling .32 (Model 432-UC SOA)
Further, I think these are very appropriate as my grandfather, who did three tours in Vietnam and had to often go to remote firebases to fix commo gear, said he always carried his personal all-stainless steel S&W Model 60 with him everywhere he went.
And, as told by Major John Plaster, who spent time as an operator in SOG during the conflict, all the Recon Team (RT) and Hatchet Force men typically carried handguns as backups to their primary rifle system:
SOG’s most used handgun certainly was the Browning 9mm Hi-Power. Many recon men packed the 45 U.S. Government model. although just about any handgun might be encountered, from a Walther P-38 to Colt Commando airweight or hammerless Smith & Wesson snub nose.
The South Korean Navy, which started in 1946 with a few second-hand Japanese ships left over in their local waters at the end of WWII and a surplus 173-foot subchaser bought cheaply from the U.S., now feels they have enough large warships to found the Mobile Fleet Command, a blue water task force some 36 years in the making.
First recommended by Admiral Ahn Byung-tae, in 1995, the force will primarily be tasked to intercept North Korean missiles and consist (initially) of 10 advanced destroyers and four logistics support ships, while a poster for the group shows it built around a helicopter-equipped 19,000-ton Dokdo-class LPH and augmented with SSKs, UAVs, and MPAs.
The moto video includes some of the first publicly released footage of the brand new Aegis destroyer King Jeongjo the Great (DDG 995), the 8,200-ton lead ship of the KDX-III class Batch II vessels:
The video description, mechanically translated.
The backbone of the ocean-going navy, the Mobile Fleet Command, was established on February 1, 2025. The Mobile Fleet Command is the core force for executing the maritime-based Korean three-axis system operations and will perform various open-sea operations such as supporting national policies through the protection of maritime traffic lanes and overseas dispatch, along with the ability to rapidly deploy to the forward seas. Towards a wider sea, towards the future! The Republic of Korea Navy will vigorously advance towards the Blue Ocean Navy. The power of the Navy! The future of the Republic of Korea!
The second HMAS Sydney was a modified Leander class light cruiser that began life as the Royal Navy’s HMS Phaeton on 8 July 1933. Relegated to local patrols in the Pacific in 1939, she only headed West to the Mediterranean in April 1940.
This amazing series of images in the New South Wales State Library Collection captures the warship some 85 years ago this week on 5 February 1940 while under maneuvers.
She carried eight 6″/50 breech-loading Mk XXIII guns in four twin turrets
Her primary high-altitude AAA armament: four 4″/50 high-angle guns in single open mounts. Everything else was .50 cal and .303
Reloading the 4″/50s with gas gear
Still a world of hammocks.
Her torpedo battery included Two QR Mk VII quadruple mountings, carrying Mk 9 torpedoes
At the time, she had been in her namesake city over the Christmas/New Year’s holidays. She was conducting training before departing for Fremantle, Western Australia, where she arrived on 8 February 1940. From there, she would sail as part of the escort for a large Middle East-bound convoy two months later.
The sinking of the light cruiser HMAS Sydney off the Western Australian coast on 19 November 1941 stands alone in the annals of Australian naval history. Not only did the close-quarters exchange with the German armed raider HSK Kormoran claim 645 lives, making it the nation’s greatest naval loss, but also no other event has been so shrouded in mystery and surrounded in controversy. As the Sydney was sunk with all hands and disappeared, what could be reliably established about the ship’s final engagement and subsequent sinking was frustratingly limited.
However, a relic of her has remained on the desk of every Royal Australian Navy CNO since 1940, a Marlin-spiked spyglass from the cruiser’s navigation department handed over to ADM Sir John Collins, KBE, CB, RAN by the officers of HMAS Sydney before leaving for the war in Europe.
It is traditionally passed from CNO to CNO as a ceremonial baton of office.
Living just an hour from New Orleans, the wife and I tend to day trip it frequently and have a list of haunts we stop in at.
Last weekend, being great weather (60-70 degrees, unlimited visibility), in need of some R&R time after a week in Vegas for SHOT, and a week before New Orleans is slammed by the Superbowl and the start of the larger Mardi Gras parades, seemed good timing.
The city was the cleanest I’ve seen in a long time, with seemingly every other building in the high-traffic touristy areas catching a new coat of paint. Also lots of new barricades and bollards, and a larger LE presence, specifically Orleans Parish S.O., for obvious reasons.
Plus, I was able to check in at a few of my favorite antique stores in the area and pick up several WWII-Cold War vintage French Foreign Legion badges, a familiar site in the city, and a couple of 54mm Wheat’s Tiger Rifles (1st Louisiana Special Battalion Zouaves), the latter from the Black Butterfly on Royal Street.
I don’t collect lead soldiers, but I do like the Tigers as I haven’t seen them anywhere else (they are made by a local hobbyist for the Black Butterfly) and Wheat’s motley crew of Zouaves certainly had one of the more colorful backstories.
80 years ago today: 1st February 1945 – Fifth Army, Poretta Area, Italy. A Fifth Army M4 Sherman medium tank of the U.S. 751st Tank Battalion is inclined to use as an ersatz artillery piece. It is wearing camouflage consisting of white paint and spun glass to simulate snow, The spun glass was obtained from a local factory and applied by Army combat engineers.
(U.S. Army Signal Corps photo – 196th Signal Photo Co.) – MM-45-30308 – 111-SC-233067. Credit: NARA.
The 751st was activated at Fort Benning, Georgia, on 1 June 1941 and participated in seven major campaigns during the war, spanning across North Africa (Tunisian campaign) and Italy (Naples-Foggia, Rome-Arno, North Apennines, and Po Valley) racking up 581 days of combat time.
Individuals in the battalion had earned the following awards: · 3 Distinguished Service Crosses · 7 Legions of Merit · 37 Silver Stars · 1 Oak Leaf Cluster to the Silver Star · 63 Bronze Stars · 3 Oak Leaf Clusters to the Bronze Star · 4 Brazilian War Medals · 4 Soldier’s Medals
