Getting Greasy

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Just 40 years ago this week.

Official caption: “Private First Class (PFC) Jose Ledoux-Garcia of Company C, 5th Battalion, 77th Armor, guards his M60A3 main battle tank during Central Guardian, a phase of Exercise REFORGER ’85. He is armed with an M3A1 .45-caliber submarine gun. Base: Giessen, West Germany (FRG), 22 January 1985.”

How about that open bolt on the M3! Note the short receiver M85/T175 (M19) .50 caliber machine gun in the tank commander’s copula, as identified by its crimped flash hider. It was distinctive for being one of the most unreliable machine guns ever adopted by the U.S. DF-ST-85-13234

It is hard to believe that only 40 short years ago, M60 Pattons and M3 Grease Guns were still on the front lines of the Fulda Gap. Both would linger on through Desert Storm.

As for the “Steel Tigers” of the 77th Armor, formed originally as the 753rd Medium Tank Battalion on 25 April 1941, they trained at three different bases in the south that have all been renamed since then and, receiving their first M4A1 Shermans in early 1943, shipped out for North Africa attached to the 45th Infantry (“Thunderbird”) Division.

Just missing the end of the Afrika Corps in Tunisia, they were soon fighting in Sicily (Operation Husky) under Patton’s command and their tanks spearheaded the first Allied unit into Messina, losing six tanks to 28 enemy tracks claimed. They fought for Naples and Rome, earned a French Croix de Guerre for the liberation of the Vosage in 1944, and continued on into Germany through the Ardennes and the Rhineland for VE-Day.

The Sherman-equipped 753rd fought in Sicily, Naples-Foggia, Rome-Arno, Southern France, Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, and Central Europe, typically in platoon and company-sized elements spread out through the 45th ID. 

Post-war, they were redesignated as the Japan-based 77th Heavy Tank Battalion, equipped with M-26s and M4A4E8s, and saw much service in Korea, earning six campaign streamers with the 7th ID.

Then came eight campaigns in Vietnam with M48s in 1969-70, equipped with M60s, continued Cold War service first with the 5th ID and then with the 4th ID, including deployments back to Germany.

Eventually upgrading to the M1 Abrams, they deployed to Bosnia and Kosovo, then moved heavily from Schweinfurt, Germany in 2004, 2006, 2009, 2011, and 2012 to the sandbox in support of the 1st Infantry Division and then the 1st Armored Division.

They are one of the few Army armor units to carry a Navy Unit Commendation, on the recommendation of the Marine Corps Commandant, earned during Operation Iraqi Freedom VI-VIII in support of I MEF.

Today, the Steel Tigers remain as part of the 1st ID’s 3rd BCT at sunny Fort Bliss, Texas, but, in true globetrotter fashion, they are currently on a rotational deployment to Poland, getting some snow time in.

Their official unit motto is Insiste Firmiter (To Stand Firm) and their battle cry is “Blood on the Axe” for obvious reasons.

5-inchers got a Lot more use than you’d expect in the Red Sea (and an LCS got in on it)

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As detailed by the head of Naval Surface Forces, VADM Brendan McLane, during the annual Surface Navy Association conference this week, warships expended some 400 pieces of ordnance in defense against incoming threats from Iranian/Houthi rebels over the past 15 months.

  • 120 SM-2 missiles.
  • 80 SM-6 missiles.
  • 20 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles (ESSM) and SM-3 missiles.
  • 160 rounds from destroyers and cruisers’ five-inch main guns.

The last one is great news, as the anti-air capability of the MK 45 5″/54 and 5″/62— especially when using proximity (VTF and IR) rounds– has been often overlooked. I mean they have a published effective AA range of 23,000 feet and can fire 20 rounds in the first minute of going hot.

Datasheets inbound: 

LCS Combat!

One interesting tidbit not included in the above table is that an LCS has been bloodied in battle as well, with the USS Indianapolis (LCS 17) recently earning a Combat Action Ribbon and Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, the first for her type, “after shooting down Houthi drones and missiles in the Red Sea.”

Indy, a Freedom-variant littoral combat ship, just completed an 18-month deployment, which included two exchanges of command between LCS Crew 112 and LCS Crew 118.

While traveling as a Surface Action Group with the destroyers USS Spruance and USS Stockdale through the Red Sea, the ships “successfully detected and defeated a combined 23 Ballistic and Anti-Ship Cruise missiles and one-way attack drones fired from Houthi Rebels in Yemen” across three days from 23-25 September.

Now, unclear is if Indy got in shots on said incoming vampires, and if so was it from her 57mm gun, her Sea-Ram, or her embarked MH-60 from HSC 28. It was also recently detailed that a Seahawk downed a Houthi drone via its 7.62mm door gun last month, so that’s a possibility.

“What this team of amazing Americans achieved over the course of this deployment will pay dividends in the maintenance planning and tactics development arenas for years to come,” said Cmdr. Matthew Arndt, USS Indianapolis’ Commanding Officer. “As the workhorse of the Arabian Gulf, Indy executed the lower tier missions necessary to maintaining good diplomatic relations in the Middle East which allowed Standard Missile shooters to reposition to deal with bad actors in the Red Sea. I think it’s pretty special that we were able to provide the 5th Fleet commander with more tools and options to aid in the free flow of commerce through a contested waterway.”

Et par Saint Antoine,

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On this January 17, we wish a good “Saint Antoine Day” to all legionnaires, wherever they are.

And by St. Antoine…

Seen as a Patron of ailments, illness, and dangers who spent much time suffering in the Sahara desert– he is often referred to as “Anthony of the Desert”, the Legion has a particular affinity for the Egyptian Coptic saint.

French Foreign Legion 2e REI legionnaires during Operation Promethee in Algeria, 1960, note the “lizard” camo pattern

 

The Magpul Folding Gun is Real, and it’s Coming

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It has been teased for decades but it looks like the Magpul and ZEV FDP, in both carbine and pistol format, will be headed to market in 2025. It’s real, and we’ve shot it.

If ever a gun was wish-cast into existence, it is this one.

This strange path, of producing an innocuous-looking box that could transform as if by magic into a PCC, started with Francis Warin’s boxy ARES project in the 1970s – which used a German MP28 magazine, of all things – then quickly moved on to Utah Connor’s “boom box” (complete with collapsing antenna) style Undercover 9 or UC-9, and James Boatman’s companion DEB M-21.

The latter gained everlasting fame in the 1990’s “Robocop 2.”

Connor called his one-of-a-kind weapon the “Undercover 9” or UC-9 back in the day and people have been chasing it for 50 years.

In 2008, Magpul reimagined the UC-9/M-21 in a concept gun that dropped the dated portable boom box disguise and updated the look to that of an extra laptop battery (which was a thing at the time).

Dubbed the FMG-9, it remained vaporware until Magpul succumbed to public demand in 2021 and announced what was then termed the Folding Defensive Pistol-9 and a Folding Defensive Carbine-9, using a ZEV OZ9 operating system inside a Magpul chassis.

While Magpul brought prototypes to the last three SHOT Shows since then, the FDP and FDC have yet to appear, which is something of a bummer.

But 2025 is set to be a year of sweet, sweet fulfillment as the now FDP-C carbine and FDP-P pistol are headed to market.

The full update in my column at Guns.com.

The Littlest Wren

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Some 82 years ago this week, the official caption: “WREN Nancy Jackson asking the sentry’s permission to go onboard a destroyer to deliver a message in Harwich, Essex, England – January 15, 1943. At 4 ft 7 inches tall, Nancy Jackson was the shortest WREN (Women’s Royal Naval Service) in the Royal Navy during WW2

Davies, F A (Lt) Photographer, Admiralty collection, IWM A 13976
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205147218

The gangplank sentry is armed with the classic Great War era “Smelly” (SMLE Rifle #1 Mark III*).

As for the WRENS, formed originally in 1917— at about the same time as the sentry’s rifle was made, by the end of the war they counted 5,500 members. However, they really came into their own in WWII, with some 74,000 women– all volunteers– involved in over 200 different jobs within the Royal Navy, concentrating on clerical, workshop, and communications taskings.

WOMEN ON THE HOME FRONT 1939 – 1945 (A 13209) The Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS): Wren Armourers, whose jobs included the overhaul, maintenance and serving of guns, pictured testing a Lewis gun at Lee-on-Solent Naval Air Station. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205193235

WOMEN’S ROYAL NAVAL SERVICE. MAINTENANCE WRENS MAINTAIN SMALL ARMS UP TO 3 POUNDER HOTCHKISS FOR ALL TYPES OF SMALL CRAFT – MTB, MGB, ML, MOS AND MASB. THESE GIRLS KNOWN AS QO (QUICK-FIRING ORDNANCE) WRENS BOARD THE BOATS AS SOON AS THEY COME IN AFTER AN OPERATION, TO STRIP AND CLEAN THE LEWIS AND 0.5 VICKERS MACHINE GUNS. (A 12187) A QO Wren removing a 0.5 Vickers machine gun turret for servicing. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205145632

WOMEN’S ROYAL NAVAL SERVICE. MAINTENANCE WRENS MAINTAIN SMALL ARMS UP TO 3 POUNDER HOTCHKISS FOR ALL TYPES OF SMALL CRAFT – MTB, MGB, ML, MOS AND MASB. THESE GIRLS KNOWN AS QO (QUICK-FIRING ORDNANCE) WRENS BOARD THE BOATS AS SOON AS THEY COME IN AFTER AN OPERATION, TO STRIP AND CLEAN THE LEWIS AND 0.5 VICKERS MACHINE GUNS. (A 12193) A QO Wren stripping and cleaning a Lewis Gun on board a coastal craft. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205145638

WOMEN’S ROYAL NAVAL SERVICE. MAINTENANCE WRENS MAINTAIN SMALL ARMS UP TO 3 POUNDER HOTCHKISS FOR ALL TYPES OF SMALL CRAFT – MTB, MGB, ML, MOS AND MASB. THESE GIRLS KNOWN AS QO (QUICK-FIRING ORDNANCE) WRENS BOARD THE BOATS AS SOON AS THEY COME IN AFTER AN OPERATION, TO STRIP AND CLEAN THE LEWIS AND 0.5 VICKERS MACHINE GUNS. (A 12198) Installing the 0.5 Vickers machine gun into the gun turret after servicing it. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205145643

WOMEN’S ROYAL NAVAL SERVICE. MAINTENANCE WRENS MAINTAIN SMALL ARMS UP TO 3 POUNDER HOTCHKISS FOR ALL TYPES OF SMALL CRAFT – MTB, MGB, ML, MOS AND MASB. THESE GIRLS KNOWN AS QO (QUICK-FIRING ORDNANCE) WRENS BOARD THE BOATS AS SOON AS THEY COME IN AFTER AN OPERATION, TO STRIP AND CLEAN THE LEWIS AND 0.5 VICKERS MACHINE GUNS. (A 12189) A QO Wren stripping and cleaning Lewis Guns on board a coastal craft. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205145634

WRENS working a pom-pom, and not the cheerleading kind

A WREN serving on a harbor launch in Portsmouth during World War II. Photo by Cecil Beaton, via the Imperial War Museum. (click to big up)

Sadly, 102 lost their life during the conflict.

Curiously, the WRENS remained a separate corps of the RN until 1993 while comparative U.S. Navy (WAVES), USCG (SPAR), and Army (WAC) all-female units were integrated into the main force much earlier (1948, 1946, and 1978, respectively).

Of note, however, both the WAVES and SPARS had a minimum height requirement in 1943 of 5 feet (without shoes). The WACs, meanwhile, let ’em run a couple inches shorter, with the requirement of “standing at least fifty-eight inches tall, weighing at least 100 pounds, and possessing good vision.”

When is the last time that you saw a new top-fed pistol?

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One of the biggest engineering problems of early semi-automatic “self-loading” handguns was the magazine and how to load it rapidly.

While the detachable box magazine today is a staple, in the 1890s it was commonly only seen in rifles such as the Lee-Metford. Hugo Borchardt’s C93 was one of the first commercial detachable magazine-fed pistols and, while Georg Luger picked up Borchardt’s design for his own Parabellum pistol series a few years later, another take on semi-auto pistol loading and reloading was the Feederle brothers’ wildly popular Mauser C96 which used a 10-round internal magazine fed through the top of the action via a stripper clip, much like the Mauser bolt-action rifles of the age.

With Luger’s and Browning’s turn-of-the-century designs taking over the market after 1900, the way forward was clear and the C96 eventually faded into history.

Well, KelTec announced Wednesday it is blending tradition with innovation in its newest carry pistol, the top-fed internal magazine PR57.

The KelTec PR57 is fed via 10-round stripper clips or one round at a time in a pinch. The internal magazine holds 20 rounds. The company argues the minimalistic approach reduces room for error while deleting the detachable magazine trims parts and streamlines the design.

Chambered in 5.7 NATO, the “R” in the PR57 comes from its use of a rotary barrel design. Ditching a detachable box magazine in favor of a clip-fed top-loading design similar to the old C96 Broomhandle Mauser and KelTec founder George Kellgren’s circa 1988 Grendel P10, the company says the PR57 is the lightest pistol in its caliber on the market, with the full-sized handgun hitting the scales at just 13.86 ounces, unloaded.

More in my column at Guns.com.

CMP Raises Gun Limits

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Official caption: “Group of men surround the last M1 .30-caliber rifles off the production line. Col. Hurlbut stands on the left. Lt. Col. Septfonds stands second from left. John C. Garand stands second from right and he holds the last rifle.” (Springfield Armory National Historic Site Photo 12808-SA.1)

Apparently, the CMP is either (A) not getting the same sort of demand for M1 Garands as they have been in the past or (B) is super flush with guns that fewer people want and is running out of space because they have just all but abandoned the rationing of rifles to its members.

I’m betting they are getting a lot of old Garands (along with smaller lots of Krags, M1917s, and M1903s) turned in by local VFW and similar units that are closing their doors. Today’s vets just don’t join those groups as their dads and granddads did in the 20th Century. Plus, in this economy, not a lot of folks have even the modest $1,150 for re-barreled Expert Grade and $900 for Navy 7.62 NATO M1s to spare.

Of note, the previous limit was 8 Garands per year– but that was back when Field and Service grade rifles were available for $650-$750 just a few years back.

Via CMP:

  • Effective January 7, 2025, customers are allowed to purchase up to twelve (12) surplus rifles (any type) per year. This limit excludes .22 rifles.
  • Surplus Ammo Limit: 2,000 rounds per caliber per year.
  • Commercial Ammo Limit: None
  • Please note: The CMP strictly enforces the limits referenced above. The CMP, at its discretion, reserves the right to ban from all future sales any attempts made by customers to circumvent these limits

Warship Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025: Go Long

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Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger

If you enjoy my always ad-free Warship Wednesday content, you can support it by buying me a cup of joe at https://buymeacoffee.com/lsozi

Warship Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025: Go Long

Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 51351

Above we see the Clemson-class “flush decker” USS Long (Destroyer No. 209), taking water over the bow, during her squadron’s experimental Alaska cruise, in 1937.

Don’t let her Great War-era good looks fool you, Long would go on to earn nine battle stars in the Pacific in WWII and be lost some 80 years ago this month.

The Clemsons

One of the massive fleets of 156 Clemson-class flush-decker destroyers, like most of her sisters, Long came too late to help lick the Kaiser. An expansion of the almost identical Wickes-class destroyers with a third more fuel capacity to enable them to escort a convoy across the Atlantic without refueling, the Clemsons were sorely needed to combat the pressing German submarine threat of the Great War.

At 1,200 tons and with a top speed of 35 knots, they were brisk vessels ready for the task.

Inboard and outboard profiles for a U.S. Navy Clemson-class destroyer, in this case, USS Doyen (DD-280)

Meet Long

Our subject is the only warship named for the Secretary of the Navy during the Spanish-American War, John Davis Long, one of the fathers of the “New American Navy.”

Laid down by William Cramp & Sons at Philadelphia on 23 September 1918– just Pershing’s Doughboys came out on top in the Battle of Saint-Mihiel– Long was just too late for the Great War. Launched on 26 April 1919, she was commissioned on 20 October 1919.

Of note, Long was a bit different from the rest of her Clemson-class sisters. While they were mostly completed with four single 4″/50s as a main battery, Long and her sister USS Hovey (DD 208) were completed with four twin 4″/50 mounts, doubling their guns.

Besides Long and Hovey, only the old (Caldwell-class) destroyer USS Stockton (DD 73) carried this Mk 14 mount, and she only did as a single experimental model mounted forward.

Stockton with her twin 4″/50 Mk 14

Hovey and Long carried four of these mounts, one forward and aft and two amidships.

USS Hovey (DD-208) view looking down from the foremast, showing the twin 4/50 gun mounts atop her midships deckhouse, along with a loading practice machine (in the lower left), ready service ammunition stowage, and three of the ship’s smokestacks. Taken during the mid-1930s. Collection of Rear Admiral Elmer E. Duval, Sr., who was Hovey’s Commanding Officer at the time. NH 99573

Postbellum service and a decade-long nap

While she didn’t get a chance to fire her guns in anger during the war itself, Long was nonetheless sent “Over There” following her East Coast shakedown cruise, assigned to DesDiv 26, she was assigned to the war-torn Adriatic and Mediterranean in the tense post-war era and served in the region as a station ship.

USS Long (DD-209) dressed in her glad rags next to one of her sisters in the Mediterranean, and two other dressed warships to the rear, circa 1919-1920. Courtesy of Jack Howland, 1982. NH 93979

Remaining overseas, she was sent to the exotic climes of the Asiatic Fleet in late 1920, based at Cavite.

USS Long (DD-209) and another destroyer of the Asiatic Fleet, c 1920s. Note the local vessel traffic– junks etc.– and extensive awning fits, common in the Pacific inter-war. Courtesy of Capt. G. F. Swainson, USN, 1969 NH 67244

Ordered back home after her globetrotting overseas service, Long was mothballed due to peacetime budget cuts– the Navy shrank from 752 ships in 1919 to just 379 by the end of 1922.

With that, Long decommissioned at San Diego on 30 December 1922, but she was kept on emergency standby if needed.

The 62 mothballed Clemsons at San Diego in the 1920s were, under Special Plan Orange (a Pacific war against the Empire of Japan), considered able to reactivate within 30 days as Category B assets after receiving an officer and 13 men from as a “nucleus” crew from an active duty sister– Long would get hers from USS Henshaw (DD 278) while Hovey would get her baker’s dozen from USS Moody (DD 277).
 
Another 21 rates would come from the Fleet Reserve pool. The balance of the recommissioning crew, 3 officers and 80 men, would be recalled reservists in the Third Naval District (New York). In all, this would give these tin cans an authorized 4 officers and 114 men, a force that could be fleshed out by a truckload of new recruits right from the depot if it fell short. 
The rates drawn for the nucleus crew and Fleet Reserve:

Thirty-four mothballed destroyers of the U.S. Navy decommissioned in 1921 and tied up at the San Diego Naval Base, being hauled from their berths by tugs to replace ships of the 11th and 12th squadrons that were being laid up. USS Long (DD-209) can be seen as tugs prepare to move her out, on 21 September 1929. Courtesy of the San Francisco Maritime Museum, San Francisco, California, 1969. NH 69123

Salad days

Between 1930-31, 60 Navy high mileage active duty flush-deckers with worn-out Yarrow boilers were decommissioned and disposed of– it was cheaper to scrap them than rebuild them. This required a dip into the reserve fleet to reactivate 60 of the low-mileage tin cans that had been growing algae on their hulls to take their place.

That meant Long, which recommissioned at San Diego on 29 March 1930, had her hull cleaned and was brought back to life, this time assigned to the Pacific Fleet.

A circa 1930s photo of USS Long, note her giant hull numbers, which were typical of the period. NARA 80-G-1025957

She maintained the standard peacetime operational tempo common to the fleet in the 1930s, alternating between training cruises and large fleet problems.

Battleship USS Maryland (BB-46) and escorting destroyers USS Hovey (DD-208), and USS Long (DD-209) (ships listed left to right) In the Miraflores Locks, while transiting the Panama Canal during the annual inter-ocean movement of the U.S. Fleet, 24 April 1931. Note the distinctive twin 4″/50 Mk 14 gun mountings carried by Hovey and Long. 80-G-455918

Part of the combined U.S. fleet moored in Balboa harbor on 25 October 1934. Ships present include two battleships at dock, three cruisers, while the leviathan destroyer tenders USS Whitney (AD-4) and Dobbin (AD-3) nurse more than 40 destroyers. Among the latter are McFarland (DD-237), Goff (DD-247), and Long (DD-209). 80-G-455966

In the summers of 1936 and 1937, the Navy sent destroyer squadrons (along with the carrier USS Ranger) into Alaskan waters to get a feel for fleet operations in that increasingly valuable territory. As Alaska was far removed from the CONUS, and its Aleutians chain rather close to Northern Japan– with Attu island just 1,300 miles from Hokkaido while some 2,800 miles from Seattle– the writing was on the wall that the territory could find itself a difficult battleground should war come between the U.S. and the Empire.

Following these deployments, at the urging of a report by RADM Arthur J. Hepburn’s board, the Navy in 1938 recommended the construction of a naval base on sprawling Amaknak Island, at Dutch Harbor, with the first troops arriving there in June 1941.

Long and her direct sister Hovey, accompanied by half-sisters USS Dallas (DD-199), Wasmuth (DD-338), Zane (DD-337), and Trever (DD-339), made the 1937 sortie.

The photos from the cruise show an idyllic window into what would be an interbellum period.

Talk about a recruiting poster! USS Long (DD-209) underway during an Alaskan cruise, circa 1937. Note her twin 4/50 gun mountings. She was one of two ships of her class to carry these weapons and would trade them in during WWII for a quartet of 3″/50s. NH 63243

Destroyers USS Long (DD-209) and USS Wasmuth (DD-338) in Chelkate Inlet with the Kakuhau Range Mountains in the background during an Alaska cruise, 1937. NH 109579

USS Long (DD-209) leading USS Wasmuth (DD338), during the Alaskan cruise of 1937. NH 51845

Clemson class destroyers maneuvering at sea during an Alaska cruise. Left to right: USS Wasmuth (DD-338), Long (DD-209), USS Zane (DD-337), and USS Trever (DD-339), 1937. NH 109560

Destroyers in Wrangell Narrows, after view of USS Dallas (DD-199), USS Wasmuth (DD-338), and USS Long (DD-209) following North Flat South end lights in Wrangell Narrows during an Alaska cruise, 1937. NH 109578

Destroyers USS Long (DD-209) in front with USS Trever (DD339) and USS Zane (DD-337) in the rear during an Alaska cruise, 1937. NH 109581

Destroyers USS Wasmuth (DD-338) and USS Long (DD-209) maneuvering while flying their flag signals during an Alaska cruise, 1937. NH 109582

During the 1937 Alaska cruise, destroyer USS Dallas (DD-199) noses her bow toward the city of Juneau, the capital of the Alaska Territory, situated on the Gastineau Channel with a population of about 4,500 people. USS Long (DD-209) and USS Wasmuth (DD-338) are already docked in the foreground, with a 250-foot Lake class Coast Guard cutter of the Bering Sea Patrol to the right. NH 109568

Now that is MWR! Sailors from USS Dallas, Long, and Wasmuth fishing in Auan Creep Hump Back Bay, Alaska NH 118928

Destroyers docked at Skagway, Alaska: USS Dallas (DD-199), USS Long (DD-209), and USS Wasmuth (DD-338) as they dock side by side at Skagway, Alaska, with snow-covered mountains in the background, 1937. NH 109565

The cruise would also see some dramatic images captured, with Long leading the pack of greyhounds.

USS Long (DD-209) leading other destroyers in a change of course, during the Alaska cruise, in 1937. NH 51353

USS Long (DD-209) leading sister USS Wasmuth (DD 338) through Fitzhugh Sound, British Columbia, during the Alaskan cruise of 1937. NH 51847

Long rolling, during the Alaska cruise, in 1937. NH 51350

Destroyer tender USS Dixie (AD-14), was photographed in early 1940 with USS Long (DD-209) alongside. NH 89401

DMS Conversion

With the class having so many hulls, and the Navy steadily building more advanced classes of destroyers, the Clemsons saw many of these aging greyhounds converted to other uses including as “green dragon” fast troop transports (ADP) able to put a battalion ashore via davit-carried LCVPs, fast minelayers (DMs) carrying 80 mines, small seaplane tenders (AVD) capable of supporting a squadron of flying boats such as PBYs, and fast minesweepers (DMS).

In late 1940, nine of the class– Chandler, Southard, Hovey, Hopkins, Zane, Wasmuth, Trever, Perry, and Long, became ersatz minesweepers. Long became DMS-12 on 19 November 1940.

The DMS conversion meant the installation of mechanical sweep gear, primarily a pair of paravane cranes on the stern (port and starboard), along with large deck-mounted cable winches, and space for four vanes and kites.

They still had their depth charge racks (repositioned forward and angled outboard), guns (which were downgraded), and two Y-gun depth charge throwers to continue to work as escorts, as well as (eventually) an SC radar. Gone were the torpedo tubes and, as they didn’t need to be too fast, they landed the No.4 boiler and had their exhaust vented into three shortened funnels, with the fourth removed. Generator sets were upgraded to provide 120kw vs the original 75kw. This still allowed a 25-knot speed.

From Long’s 29 October 1943 plans at Mare Island, detailing her crew at the time as well as her battery (four 3″50 Mk 20 DPs, five 20mm Oerlikons) and powerplant:

Her profile, 29 October 1943, as DMS-12, note the shadow of her original four tall stacks now replaced by three smaller ones:

Compare the difference between her 1930s four-piper profile and the one seen during WWII:

NH 67630 compared to NH 81358

It was in this configuration that Long found herself when Pearl Harbor was attacked.

War!

Based at Pearl Harbor with several of her sisters as part of Mine Squadron 2, Long escaped the Japanese attack on 7 December 1941 due to the fact she and four DMS sisters were at sea as escort for the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis (CA‑35) at the time some 800 miles southwest conducting a simulated naval bombardment of remote Johnson Island.

From Indy’s War Diary:

Returning to Pearl with the cruiser-DMS force on 9 December, Long steamed into the still-smoking harbor, then soon after began a series of antisubmarine patrols around the islands.

Long alternated this duty over the past six months with running coastal escorts among the Hawaiian Islands and with runs to Midway, Palmyra, and far-off Canton, where the Navy was building an airstrip.

Then came a stint in Alaskan waters following the Japanese attack on Dutch Harbor and the occupation of Attu and Kiska. Serving in the familiar old territory for the next 15 months, she narrowly avoided destruction in a collision with the destroyer USS Monaghan (DD‑354) in heavy fog, and fired her first shots in anger, on 31 January 1943 against Japanese air attacks on Amchitka’s Constantine Harbor with three fellow Clemsons.

In May 1943, she was assigned to TG 51.3 of RADM Francis Rockwell’s TF 51, the Attu Assault Force. Standing out of Cold Harbor as part of the screen for Rockwell’s flag on the battlewagon USS Pennsylvania on 4 May, seven days later she and the fellow fast minesweepers USS Elliot (DMS-4) and USS Chandler (DMS 9) broke off from the main force and swept the lanes to the landing beaches on Japanese-held Attu.

The 12th saw a repeat, this time in Massacre Bay.

The rest of the month saw Long revert back to her destroyer DNA and provide escort and ASW patrol around the island, including the spirited pursuit of a sonar contact on the 15th.

While there were known Japanese midget submarines based in the Aleutians, and larger subs passing through, post-war records didn’t support a “kill” claim for this incident.

Then came the Kiska and Adak operations until, finally, Long was dispatched back to Pearl Harbor in September 1943 for some warmer service.

USS Long (DMS-12) photographed during World War II. Courtesy of D. M. McPherson, 1974. NH 81358

Following a refit and escort and patrol operations in Hawaiian waters, Long was dispatched to the Southwest Pacific to join in the New Guinea operations in February 1944. Operating as part of TF 76, she supported the landings there and in the Admiralties and Hollandia, (Operations Reckless and Persecution) both sweeping mines and escorting.

It was at Humboldt Bay on 22 April 1944 that she was able to both run her paravanes and get hits on shore targets, firing 253 rounds of 3″/50 and 660 of 20mm on the landing beaches of Cape Tjeweri, Cape Djar, and Cape Kassoe, just prior to the LVTs and LSTs carrying the 162nd and 186th Regiments of the 41st “Jungleers” Division hitting the beach.

Switching gears and sailing north to the Marianas, Long was on hand for the occupation of Saipan in June and the liberation of Guam in July, in each cases conducting preinvasion mine sweeps to clear lanes, then providing radar picket and guard ship duties, followed by convoy work.

Similar operations in the Palaus in September and October included a very hectic week during the landings during which Long, Hovey, and fellow DMS vessels were zapping mines left and right. In all, Long destroyed at least 45 Japanese mines during the Palau operation, all via 3-inch gunfire– some as close as 100 yards– following sweeping.

A sample day: 

This brought Long into the drive to liberate the Philippines after nearly three years of Japanese occupation.

Sailing under orders with Minesweeping Unit 1 in early October, she spearheaded the invasion of the PI at Leyte Gulf, successfully clearing Japanese mines off Dinagat and Hibuson, as well as in the Dulag‑Tacloban approach channel and the soon-to-be-infamous Surigao Strait, all while fighting off Japanese air attacks.

A sample of these operations, that of 19 October 1944:

She spent the Battle of the Surigao Strait guarding empty transports bound in convoy for Manus, narrowly avoiding contact with the Japanese surface.

Late December saw her return to the PI to sweep for the landings at Lingayen Gulf. Just after the New Year, while in the Mindanao Sea, she survived a series of furious Japanese air attacks, continuing her yeoman job of sweeping.

Long’s luck ran out on 6 January.

Two Japanese Zeke 52s approached from low over the beach, dropping down to just 25 feet of the deck, with one strafing and crashing into (DD-232/APD-10) and the other coming fast at Long broadside on her port side. Although LT Stanley David Caplan, Long’s 16th and final skipper, rang up 25 knots and ordered everything on board to fire on the incoming planes. Despite three 3″/50s and three 20mm Oerlikons opening up and hits being observed, it was already over.

As detailed in an 11-page report by Caplan, who survived the maelstrom:

Her old twin, Hovey, was on hand and immediately stood by to help, as did her sister Chandler, and the fleet tug USS Apache (AT-67).

Caplan observed a five-foot hole in Long’s side, penetrating to the officer’s wardroom and the forward living compartment, with fire observed just over the No. 1. magazine. Nonetheless, 26 men responded to Caplan’s call for volunteers to attempt to reboard and save their faithful old tin can.

While organizing the return from Apache’s deck, disaster struck.

Waiting overnight, by the next morning, Long’s main deck, just after the forecastle about midships, was underwater, while her screws were showing on the stern. Her back was broken. There was nothing left to save. Landing on the sinking ship with 12 volunteers to make sure the ship’s sensitive gear was wrecked, Caplan and party soon departed after just five minutes, leaving just “30 seconds to a minute to the good” before the destroyer capsized then went down in two pieces at 1115 on 7 January.

Six men were killed in the attack on Long, with two others later passing from their injuries.

Sadly, Hovey would perish a few hours before her sister took her final dive, hit by a Japanese Kate torpedo bomber, carrying a fish, around 0455 on the 7th. By dawn, she was lost, and the men she had taken off Long, some 120 survivors, went back into the water. The Chandler and Apache moved in to make their second extended rescue in 24 hours.

Some 35 bluejackets injured in Long’s initial kamikaze strike and another 28 from her that picked up wounds while on Hovey were transferred to the large sick bay on the battleships USS California and USS West Virginia. Two dozen men from Brooks and Long who were aboard Hovey when she sank were never found.

Both Hovey and Long earned Navy Unit Commendations for their service, both for action at Palau.

Besides the NUC, Long earned at least night battle stars during her WWII service including:

  • 11 May 43 – 31 May 43 Attu occupation
  • 2 Feb 44 – 8 Feb 44 Western New Guinea operations
  • 29 Feb 44 – 4 Mar 44 and 7 Mar 44 – 11 Mar 44 Admiralty Island landings
  • 18 Apr 44 – 25 Apr 44 and 2 May 44 Hollandia operation (Aitape Humbolt Bay-Tanahmerah Bay)
  • 13 Jun 44 – 18 Jul 44 Capture and Occupation of Saipan
  • 12 Jul 44 – 25 Jul 44 Capture and Occupation of Guam
  • 6 Sep 44 – 14 Oct 44 Capture and occupation of southern Palau Islands
  • 12 Oct 44 – 20 Oct 44 Leyte landings (as well as 4 Jan 45 – 18 Jan 45), and Battle of Surigao Strait

Epilogue

Long’s war diaries are in the National Archives along with her circa 1943 plans. 

The Navy never saw fit to recycle the name, despite her nine battlestars and NUC. The same goes for Hovey.

The twins rest somewhere in the Lingayen Gulf, very close to each other, near position 16º12’N, 120º11’E.

LT Caplan, born in 1915 in Elmira, New York, and commissioned via ROTC in 1940, had already survived Pearl Harbor with a commendation for his actions that day. He likewise survived the war and passed in 1999 on dry land in Florida, aged 84.

There are no Clemsons preserved. No less than 16 sisters in addition to Long and Hovey were lost during WWII.

For more information on the Clemsons and their like, read CDR John Alden’s book, “Flush Decks and Four Pipes” and/or check out the Destroyer History Foundation’s section on Flushdeckers. 

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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Can the next SECNAV please just get the names right?

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Just going to drop this little gem from DOD here:
 
The Department of Defense is honored by the Navy’s naming of two future Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers as the future USS William J. Clinton (CVN 82) and the future USS George W. Bush (CVN 83), as announced today by President Biden.
 
Can we please stop naming carriers after professional politicians and presidents?
 
Especially living presidents.
 
Especially these two guys.
 
Clinton all but destroyed the military while W carries the responsibility for taking the “war on terror” way too far in terms of conventional forces vs insurgents for pitifully little return except a lot of empty chairs around the table at Christmas and a National Guard left gutted. I mean at least if they would have used Jimmy Carter, that would be marginally understandable as at least he was a WWII USNA mid and early Nuclear Navy whiz kid in the Rickover days. But wait, we already have a submarine named after him…
 
Let’s just go back to the 1920s-70s practice of naming carriers via recycling historic warship names (Lexington, Yorktown, Saratoga, Ranger, Wasp, Hornet, Hancock, Oriskany, Essex, Kearsarge, Boxer, Ticonderoga, Kitty Hawk, etc.) with a long history and naval tradition to draw from. Wouldn’t it be great to tell the tale of these past ships and their battles at a commissioning ceremony rather than relate a canned anecdote on a former resident of the White House that is still controversial enough in modern memory that half the crowd is going to groan?
 
Sure, sure, the Navy made the obvious choice of naming CV-42 after FDR just after he died in office during wartime, and CV-67 after JFK under the same circumstances. But the rest probably shouldn’t have a carrier with the possible exception of the Mt. Rushmore presidents.
 
I mean, I like Ike as much as the next guy, but he was a Soldier. Name an Army Fort after him (which they only just did). Truman? Same story. Reagan? Come on. Stennis and Vinson? Are you kidding? George H.W. Bush at least was a naval aviator in WWII (and honorary submariner) but I’d wager he probably could have gotten a NAS or Field named after him with the same reverence. Plus now you will have TWO flattops named Bush, a tactical snafu waiting to happen that will linger for the next half-century. 
 
If a carrier has to be named for a person, why is there no USS Richard Halsey Best, whose dive bomber squadron sank two Japanese flattops on the same day during Midway? Best had to be medically retired that same year due to damage to his lungs caused by breathing bad O2 during the battle. His lungs never recovered entirely from that day. The smack talk and moto speeches of crewmembers of the USS Best writes itself. 
 
Or how about a flattop named for the Cajun “Lucky Pierre” Bordelon, the only U.S. Navy ace in the Korean War– who accomplished this feat in a piston-engine Corsair! He is also the only Navy “night ace,” earning all of his victories in darkness. A career Naval Aviator with 15,000 hours on his books and a former Eagle Scout with two Silver Stars and a Navy Cross to his credit, he is an all-American hero who has been forgotten by the Navy. 
 

The only U.S. Navy Korean fighter ace, Lt. Guy Bordelon, smiles at the nameplate on “Annie-Mo”, his Vought F4U-5N Corsair fighter in which he shot down five enemy aircraft during the Korean War. Bordelon was assigned to composite squadron VC-3 Blue Nemesis, which was deployed to Korea on the aircraft carrier USS Princeton (CVA-37) from 24 January to 21 September to Korea as part of Carrier Air Group 15 (CVG-15). 80-G-653594

 
And with that,

Let’s drag out the Navy Naming Convention Soapbox

Current Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro is on his way out with the change in administrations in Washington and, with all due respect to the office, it can’t come soon enough when it comes to naming conventions.

He has been grossly off-key from the typical conventions over the past four years.

Del Toro made the distinction that the upcoming first Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine, USS Columbia (SSBN 826), will not honor the previous 10 Columbias in current and past naval service but will specifically the first-named “District of Columbia,” which some have pointed out that is as another step in the plan to turn DC into the 51st state, but, hey…

In other submarine missteps– departing from 77th SECNAV Kenneth J. Braithwaite returned to traditional “fish” names for fleet submarines (or hunter killers in modern parlance), something the Navy did from 1931 through 1973. Hence, we will soon have USS Barb (SSN 804), Tang (SSN 805), Wahoo (SSN 806), and Silversides (SSN 807), all after the numerous esteemed fleet boats that previously carried those marine creatures’ names, and the country’s next frigate will take the name of one of the country’s original six frigates, USS Constellation— Del Toro named the future Virginia-class nuclear-powered attack submarine SSN-808 USS John H. Dalton, after Clinton’s hatchetman SECNAV. You know, the guy who snuffed out the Sprucans decades before their time, slaughtered the Navy’s cruiser and frigate force, and canceled the scheduled Service Life Extension Program on USS America (CV-66), forcing the mighty carrier to be decommissioned in 1996 and ultimately scuttled at sea rather than keeping her in the line through 2010 as previously planned.

Another Clinton SECNAV hatchet man will see his name on USS Richard J. Danzig (DDG-143), courtesy of Del Toro. Danzig’s only tie to the Navy was as its politically-appointed boss, and he was not a good one at that.

Dalton and Danzig, who were SECNAVs from July 22, 1993, to January 20, 2001, oversaw the destruction of the “600 Ship Navy” (which peaked at 594 warships in September 1987) managing the force’s constriction to just 316 vessels by the end of the Clinton era, a blow that the USN has been struggling to bounce back from for the past quarter century. There is zero reason for a new submarine and destroyer, built through billions of dollars in public treasure with the purpose of speeding into harm’s way, to be named for these guys.

Del Toro also ordered the Soviet-style, almost Orwellian memory holing, of the cruiser USS Chancellorsville— in the last few months of the ship’s life– to USS Robert Smalls (CG 62), which doesn’t do the latter naval hero any favors. In my opinion, as the Ticos are all named after battles, the cruiser should have gotten a more politically acceptable Virginia battle name such as USS The Wilderness or USS Fort Henry, and Smalls should have gotten a new destroyer to keep his name on the Navy List for more than just the self-serving span of Del Toro’s tour.

This month, in an effort to clear his desk while packing up the office, Del Toro has had a few hits and misses:

The future Bethesda-class expeditionary medical ship USNS Portsmouth (EMS 3) was announced during a ship naming ceremony at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth on Jan. 8. (Win)

The newest Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, the future USS Robert Kerrey (DDG 146), was named after the MoH recipient– the first Navy SEAL to be so honored– former Senator and former Nebraska governor. (Win)

The first two T-AGOS ocean surveillance ships of the Explorer class, the future USNS Don Walsh (T-AGOS 25) and the future USNS Victor Vescovo (T-AGOS 26), were named after esteemed Challenger Deep mariners. (Win)

Curiously, Del Toro also named the future San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock (LPD 33) USS Travis Manion after a Marine 1stLT who earned the Silver Star, posthumously, in Iraq. He announced this at an event with the Travis Manion Foundation. Yes, of course, Manion was a hero, but destroyers are and always have been named after heroes. LPDs, meanwhile, are all over the place with most named after cities while two– USS Richard M. McCool Jr. (LPD-29) and USS John P. Murtha (LPD-26), were named after heroes by Obama’s SECNAV, Ray Mabus.

In another break from the logic of a naming convention, Del Toro ordered that the future Constellation class frigate FFG-69 be named for Joy Bright Hancock, a director of WAVES. Yes, Hancock should have a ship named after her. Perhaps a destroyer in the same class as WWII nursing hero Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee (DDG 123) and computer pioneer RADM Grace Hopper (DDG 70). Especially when you consider all of the other Constellations are named for Revolutionary War heroes and vessels (Constellation, Congress, Chesapeake, Lafayette, Hamilton, and Galvez).

Further flipping the convention, Del Toro recently named the future DDG-145 as the fifth USS Intrepid! Surely the name would be better suited to a future LHD or carrier as the most famous “Big I” was the Essex class warrior flattop that served in WWII and Vietnam as well as provided service during the Space Race and has been a massive recruiting tool for the Navy in New York harbor for the past 50 years.

And I’m not getting into the rampant progressive politics of the John Lewis–class replenishment oilers, whose namesakes in almost all cases never served in the military and would probably be better remembered on postal stamps and the names of federal buildings. Oilers should be named for rivers, as they were for generations. These ships will be manned by overworked and underappreciated civilian mariners (CIVMARs) of which the MSC is in short supply, not budding law clerks and doe-eyed social activists. Heck, John Lewis got out of the peacetime (1961) draft claiming conscientious objector status!

And, hopefully, that’s the last time I will have to drag out this soapbox.

Touring Germany with a Chopped Down M1 Carbine

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With personal space at a premium inside the tracked metal monsters of a World War II tank battalion, guns sometimes got unofficially smaller.

Check out this great image, snapped some 80 years ago this month, of two members of the 784th Tank Battalion at a railway marshaling yard in recently occupied Eschweiler, Germany on 23 January 1945, just after the Battle of the Bulge.

(Photo: W.C. Sanderson/ Signal Corps No. 111-SC-259409/ NARA NAID 276537211)

According to the official released wartime caption, the above shows Pfc. Floyd McMurthry (in the foreground) of Canton, Ohio, test-firing an M-3 Grease gun, while Pvt. Willie R. Gibbs (in the background) of Birmingham, Alabama, test-fires a sawed-off M-1 Carbine “which he shortened with his light tank to make it easier to handle.”

Let’s zoom in on that M1 a bit.

Judging by the size of the 8.5-inch handguard on the M1 Carbine, Pvt. Gibbs seems to have whittled this gun down to about 24 inches overall, with most of the 17.75-inch barrel abbreviated. The standard M1 Carbine went 35.6 inches overall.

No word on how the performance of the short-stroke piston action Carbine was affected in the above instance, although it is known that, some 20 years after the above image was captured, American advisors in Vietnam were often chopping down their M1s to more pistol length versions. Meanwhile, “Enforcer” pistols from Iver Johnson and Universal were marketed in the 1970s-90s with barrel lengths in the 9.5 to 10.25-inch range.

But that’s a different article.

For reference, the 784th Tank Battalion, a segregated unit equipped with a mix of M4 Sherman medium Tanks and M5A1 Stuart light tanks, entered combat in Europe in December 1944 and fought its way into Germany with the 104th “Timberwolf” Infantry Division.

Company B, 784th Tank Battalion at Sevelen, Germany on March 5, 1945. The two tanks to the left and right are M5 Stuarts while the vehicle in the center of the image is an M3 half-track. Note the extensive use of M3 Grease Guns, which remained prized by American armored vehicle crews through the 1990s. (U.S. Army Photo: SC 336785)

The 784th later linked up with advancing Soviet troops on the Elbe River and spent several months on occupation duty in Germany after the war. The 700-member battalion suffered nearly 200 casualties during its WWII service.

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