Polar ops at both ends of the Globe

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Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf (WMSL 750) transits through Glacier Bay, Alaska, Oct. 24, 2024. During the patrol, Bertholf’s crew operated as far north as the Arctic Circle, patrolling along the maritime boundary line between the United States and Russia and supporting U.S. strategic interests in the North Pacific Ocean. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Troy Spence.)

The Legend-class national security cutter USCGC Bertholf (WMSL 750) and crew returned to Alameda recently after completing a 130-day deployment patrolling the Bering Sea, providing real-time presence along the maritime boundary line between Alaska and Siberia. They earned their Blue Nose certificates while providing SAR coverage of the Bering Sea– including responding to a disabled fishing vessel– conducting 24 boardings, and engaging in joint operations with medium icebreaker USCGC  Healy (WAGB 20) and MH-60s out of CGAS Kodiak.

Meanwhile, down south (all the way down…)

The country’s only heavy icebreaker, USCGC Polar Star (WAGB 10), departed the Antarctic region on 4 March after 65 days south of the Antarctic Circle in support of Operation Deep Freeze 2025, her crew picking up the rare Antarctica Service Medal. Commissioned in 1976, the 399-foot icebreaker is elderly but is still getting the job done. She doesn’t have a choice as she is the only polar bear in the stable.

As noted by USCG PAO: 

The crew has transited nearly 16,000 miles since departing its Seattle homeport in November with stops in Honolulu, Sydney, and McMurdo Station. Polar Star celebrated its 49th year of Service to the Nation and visited Cape Polar Star in the northern part of the Ross Sea. Cape Polar Star was named after Polar Star for the scientific support provided by the cutter in the area during Operation Deep Freeze 86.

 

The crew of U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star (WAGB 10) stand for a photo while the cutter is hove-to in McMurdo Sound during Operation Deep Freeze, Jan. 7, 2025. Polar Star is conducting ice-breaking operations in Antarctica in support of Operation Deep Freeze, a joint service, inter-agency support operation for the National Science Foundation, which manages the United States Antarctic Program.  (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Briana Carter)

Royal Regulator: The “Inglis” L9A1 clone

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Tennessee-based SDS Arms, whose umbrella of brands includes Military Armament Corporation (MAC), Tisas, Tokarev, and Spandau, is bringing back the Inglis name to the American market.

At SHOT Show ’24, the company announced the L9A1 clone to include a black Chromate finish and plastic grips as well as three more commercial models: a black Inglis P-35B with walnut grips, the satin nickel Inglis P-35N with black G10 grips, and a color-case hardened Inglis GP-35.

We caught up with Jahred Gamez at the time to check out these new guns, which were “coming soon.”

Now, the Inglis guns are shipping, and we made sure to get a production model to review.

The L9A1 feels like a well-built BHP from the 1980s and mimics what would be marketed at around that time by Browning/FN as the Mk. II series gun. It is close to the T-series guns used by the British Army from 1964 to 2013 but with the benefits of more understated markings and an ambidextrous manual safety lever.

I say toss some beans on toast, grow your mustache out over your top lip, and cue up “God Save the Queen.” The only true Dr. Who was Tom Baker, and I’m not apologizing for it.

More in my column at Guns.com. 

That’s going to buff out…

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80 years ago, the “long hulled” Essex-class fleet carrier USS Randolph (CV-15) is seen with damage to her aft flight deck as the result of a Japanese Yokosuka P1Y Ginga “Frances” kamikaze attack crashing into her at Ulithi Atoll, 11 March 1945, as photographed from a USS Miami (CL-89) floatplane. The vessel alongside is the “heavy-hulled” Vulcan class repair ship USS Jason (ARH-1), a remarkable class of vessel that kept the fleet in action.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Catalog #: 80-G-344531

USS Randolph (CV 15), damage to her after flight deck resulting from a kamikaze hit on 11 March 1945. Note, the burned aircraft. 80-G-274104

If you are curious how big that hole is, it measured 56 feet fore and aft and 58 feet athwartships.

From her 66-page report on the attack and damage, which beyond the structural damage, left 26 killed, 3 missing, and 105 wounded:

Incredibly, between the efforts of Jason’s and Randolph’s crew, the carrier was ready to resume combat operations just 16 days later and on 26 March became the flagship of CarDivFour and by 8 April was sending up combat air patrols from CVG-12 over Tokuna and Kikai Islands off Okinawa, where she would remain well into May before heading to plaster the Japanese Home Islands with CVG-16 for the rest of the war.

USS Randolph (CV-15), a Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat fighter of VF-12 parked on the port catapult, March 1945. Note the plane’s tail markings, unique to this ship. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Catalog #: 80-G-K-5339

Randolph earned three battle stars for World War II service and, after reclassifying as CVA-15 (1952), was given first a SCB-27A and then a SCB-125 modernization, then reclassified again as CVS-15 (1959), she served well into the Cold War, recovering Astronauts Virgil Grissom and John Glenn in 1962.

She was inactivated in 1969 to help pay for operations in Vietnam, stricken in 1973, and subsequently scrapped just after the fall of Saigon.

Spearhead

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A camouflaged M4 Sherman tank fitted with a T34 60-tube 4.5-inch Rocket Launcher (Calliope) from the 17th Armored Group attached to the 76th Infantry Division, LT Gen. George S. Patton’s Third Army, carefully crosses over a Treadway bridge circa early March 1945 near Biesdorf in the Rhineland-Palatinate region of Germany.

More on the Calliope via Mark Felton: 

Activated at Fort Knox, Kentucky on 20 March 1943 as the 1st Armored Group then redesignated as 17th on 20 November 1944– three months after they landed in France– the 17th AG was attached to MG Manton S. Eddy’s XII Corps headquarters and served as a tank fire brigade. The unit crossed into Luxembourg on 21 December 1944 during the Ardennes offensive and entered Germany on 3 March 1945, helped capture Frankfurt (and the stash of art treasures and gold in a salt mine at Merkers) then finished the war in Austria, linked up with Red Army units.

Following post-war occupation duties, they inactivated in Belgium on 30 April 1946.

Pirate Greyhound Hull Comparisons

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In something fairly unique in military history, two destroyers with the same name are out of the water in drydock at the same time– and both are authorized to fly Jolly Rogers.

Probably the best-preserved WWII-era Fletcher class destroyer USS Kidd (DD-661) which served from 1943 to 1964 and has been a museum ship in Baton Rouge since 1983, traveled last August to TMC shipyard in Houma for a once-in-a-generation overhaul. Earning eight battle stars for WWII and four in Korea, Kidd’s last dry dock overhaul was in 1962, so this is important for her.

Meanwhile, the Flight IIA Burke-class destroyer USS Kidd (DDG-100) just entered drydock at Vigor Marine in Seattle as part of her mid-life DDG MOD upgrade process, having commissioned at Ingalls in 2005.

Both are legends under black banners, the “Pirate of the Pacific.”

Transcom Asks Lawmakers for ‘up to’ 10 new (to MSC) vessels

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NORFOLK, Va. (Apr. 11, 2022) Military Sealift Command in March chartered tugboat Signet Warhorse I to tow Large, Medium-Speed, Roll-on/Roll-off (LSMR) ship USNS Shughart (T-AKR 295) from Newport News Marine Terminal to Maritime Administration Reserve Fleet in Beaumont, Texas, where the vessel will permanently join MARAD’s Ready Reserve Force (RRF).

To bolster America’s ancient and shrinking Ready Reserve Force merchant marine fleet, U.S. Transportation Command wants to buy as many as 10 second-hand shipping vessels from the commercial market.

The government-owned RRF fleet is made up of commercial vessels crewed by civilian mariners and it is ageing. The median age of the 46 roll-on/roll-off ships in the fleet is 47 years.

“We need to both build it here, and we actually need to buy used,” Air Force Gen. Randall Reed, Transcom’s commander, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday while testifying on Capitol Hill.

“These ships are really, really old,” Reed said. “The reliability of them [is] sometimes in question because of that. I take my hat off to the crews that are actually on them to keep them warm. But to give an idea of the state of the ships, some of these ships are still run by steam.”

More here.  

What a Difference 7 Years Makes

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While off the Virginia Capes on 7 March 1949, a twin-engine P2V-3C Neptune able to carry atomic ordnance lifted off from the brand new Midway-class supercarrier USS Coral Sea (CVB-43)— via an 8,000-pound thrust boost in the form of RATO tanks. With a mammoth 37-ton take-off weight, the aircraft was set for a 4,600-mile flight and reportedly lifted off with “room to spare.”

Piloted by the legendary Capt. (later VADM) John Tucker “Chick” Hayward (USNA ’25) of VC-5, the Coral Sea Neptune carried an 8,600-pound inert Little Boy “pumpkin” style A-bomb. Flying across the continent without refueling, the Neptune dropped its ordnance on the West Coast at Muroc, California (Edwards AFB), then returned nonstop to land at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, vetting the concept of long-range carrier-based atomic bomb attacks.

A later test from Coral Sea’s sister, USS Franklin D Roosevelt (CVB-42) saw another similarly outfitted P2V-3C fly across the Gulf of Mexico to the Panama Canal and finish at Moffet NAS in San Francisco, a distance of 5,156 miles– not bad when the published range of the type was 3,935 miles.

USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVB-42) launches a Lockheed P2V Neptune bomber with JATO assist, during a Task Force 21 cruise, 2 July 1951

Keep in mind that the heavily modified Army B-25B Mitchells launched from USS Hornet in April 1942 on the Doolittle Raid each carried just four 500-pound conventional bombs, with a trim 18-ton take-off weight, on an (expected) 2,400-mile one-way trip that was lengthened at the last minute.

Doolittle Raid on Japan, 18 April 1942 View looking aft and to port from the island of USS Hornet (CV-8), while en route to the mission’s launching point. USS Vincennes (CA-44) is in the distance. Several of the mission’s sixteen B-25B bombers are visible. That in the foreground is tail # 40-2261, which was mission plane # 7, piloted by 2nd Lieutenant Ted W. Lawson. The next plane is tail # 40-2242, mission plane # 8, piloted by Captain Edward J. York. Both aircraft attacked targets in the Tokyo area. Lt. Lawson later wrote the book Thirty Seconds over Tokyo. Note the searchlight at left. Catalog #: NH 53293

An Army Air Force B-25B bomber takes off from USS Hornet (CV-8) at the start of the raid, 18 April 1942. Note men watching from the signal lamp platform at right. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Catalog #: 80-G-41196

You’ve heard of the 1911 X Carry, yeah?

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SIG Sauer isn’t well-known for its 1911 line, but the company has invested enough time to create an excellent entry to the genre in the XCarry series.

SIG has been in the 1911 game for over 20 years, entering the market around 2004. They hit the ground running and were one of the first M1913 “railgun” pistol makers available then continued to enhance the century-old design and produced models with characteristic styling including the Granite, Super Target, and Spartan.

The SIG 1911 Fastback Nightmare– one of the best gun names ever– was always a favorite of ours. (All photos: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

Today, SIG catalogs five distinctive 1911 variants in .45 ACP, a more or less classic stainless 5-inch barreled government model for California markets, and four 1911-X models which balance classic engineering with modern features– namely a direct cut for Shield RMSc optics footprints, an excellent flat-faced trigger, and an accessory rail. Two of these 1911-X models are Emperor Scorpions and as such sports a Coyote PVD finish over a steel slide and frame, offered in both government and commander (SIG calls it Carry) sizes.

Then there is the all-black 1911-XFull (5-inch) and 1911-XCarry (4.25-inch), the latter of which we feature in this review. Like the rest of SIG’s 1911s, they use stainless steel frames and slides but carry the company’s traditional black Nitron finish just like the well-loved P226s, P229s, etc.

The SIG Sauer 1911-XCarry. This model was sent to us with an optional SIG Romeo-X Compact 3 MOA fully enclosed mailbox-style red dot optic installed, a package that is available to consumers.

The commander-length 1911-XCarry runs a 4.25-inch barrel which gives it an overall length of 8 inches.

I’ve been kicking one around since last November and have the full report in my column over at Guns.com.

 

Fortune Helps the Daring

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How about this amazing shot of a Fleet Air Arm Tarpon (Avenger) being spotted on the deck of armored carrier HMS Illustrious (87) in March 1945, some 80 years ago this month, while in operations with the British Pacific Fleet.

As noted by the Imperial War Museum, the Avenger’s war decorations include four bombing missions and one “unusual credit of a flying bomb shot down.”

IWM (A 29270)

The Avenger is likely JZ127 of 854 Naval Air Squadron, which was embarked on “Lusty” at the time.

Formed on 1 January 1944 at Squantum NAS in Massachusetts as U.S. Navy instructors were there to impart their knowledge of the quirks of the big TBM/F Avenger, 854 NAS saw its first combat under Coastal Command orders based ashore at RAF Hawkinge, running anti-shipping patrols above the Channel before, during and after the Overlord landings in Normandy.

During that time the squadron accounted for two unlikely air-to-air kills against V1 flying bombs including one by by Sub.Lt(A) David Pettit Davies, RNVR, on 10 July 1944, and a second by Lt(A) Allan Voak RNVR on 15 August 1944.

The Davies shoot-down, as chronicled in Osprey’s Aircraft of the Aces: V1 Flying Bomb Aces, by Andrew Thomas, page 33, should probably more so be referred to as the Shirmer shoot-down:

The early morning of 10 July also saw a claim credited to a more unusual type. Flying from Hawkinge on a ‘Channel Stop’ operation, a Royal Navy Avenger of 854 Naval Air Squadron, flown by Sub Lt D P Davies, was at the end of a long patrol when at 0510 hrs Telegraphist Air Gunner L/A Fred Shirmer spotted a V1 approaching from behind. The ‘Diver’ gradually overtook them, and as the flying bomb passed about 700 yards down the port side Shirmer fired on it with his turret-mounted 0.50-in machine gun. His aim was good, for although he only fired 20 rounds, the V1 went down. This was the first time a flying bomb had been destroyed by a Fleet Air Arm aircraft, and it resulted in Shirmer subsequently being Mentioned in Despatches.

Davies and Shirmer remained a team with 854 NAS, shipping out on Illustrious for service in Eastern waters with the pilot earning the DSC and the gunner receiving the DSM for actions over Palembang in May 1945.

Later becoming a noted Civil Aviation Authority test pilot post-war, logging 6,000 hours in 150 types of aircraft, Davies added an OBE to his blazer in 1957 and passed in 2003, aged 83.

Acting Temporary Petty Officer Airman Frederick Christian Shirmer, FAA/FX.115139, meanwhile, faded into history.

As for 854 NAS, they left their Avengers in the Pacific post-VJ Day and disbanded for 60 years until they were reestablished in 2006 to fly AEW Sea King ASACS Mk 7s until furling their flags once again in 2015.

The squadron’s motto is “Audentes Fortuna Juvat” (Fortune Helps the Daring).

Battleship Texas has new permanent-ish home, afloat at Galveston

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Three years after being uprooted from her long-time shallow berth under the San Jacinto Monument– where she rested for nearly 75 years– USS Texas (Battleship No. 35), the country’s only Great War-era Dreadnought, has a new home.

As released yesterday by the Battleship Texas Foundation:

Big news for Battleship Texas! After years of hard work and dedication, we’re thrilled to have the support of the Wharves Board to bring TEXAS to Pier 15 in Galveston- just a short walk from Pier 21 and the historic Galveston Strand. TEXAS, the last ship of its kind, will promote tourism, educate future generations, and create a visitor experience worthy of her crew and legacy.

It’s about time this was ironed out.

For a deeper dive, The Houston Chronicle details that the spot next door to the port’s newest cruise ship terminal nails down a heartburn-filled effort and secures the historic ship’s future at least for the near term. She just completed a $40 million drydock and extensive refit, raised through a mix of state funds and private donations.

There are more steps to the process including paperwork and building shoreside infrastructure as well as getting everyone from the USCG on down to give a final stamp of approval, but it looks like she could be back on public display by the end of the year and looking better than ever.

It would have been better for her 110-year-old hull to be in fresh rather than brackish water, but as long as the Foundation gets in touch with some serious cathodic protection on the hull and splash zones, coupled with a strict internal monitoring program and aggressive maintenance, she should still be good to go for another couple of decades.

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