Battle Rifle Recce

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Phuoc Tuy Province, Republic of Vietnam, 1970. Sergeant John (Jack) Gebhardt of 1 Sqn Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) of Mount Yokine, Western Australia, points to direct while on patrol. “The Special Air Services (SAS) men creep through the jungle to spy on the enemy to provide raw intelligence for the Australian Task Force Commander to act upon.”

Photo by John Geoffrey Fairley, AWM FAI/70/0312/VN

SGT Gebhardt is armed with a well-camouflaged L1A1 SLR, a semi-auto-only “inch pattern” development of the Belgian FN FAL, which was the standard rifle of the Australian (and British) Army from 1960 to 1992, sandwiched in Ozzie service between the No. 1 Mk III Enfield and the F88 AuSteyr.

The new L1A1 Self-Loading Rifle is being examined by “Pig Iron Bob,” Prime Minster Robert Menzies, 1962. Made at Lithgow, the SLR replaced not only the Enfield bolt guns in .303 but also stocks of Owen and STEN 9mm SMGs left over from WWII and American M1/M2 .30 caliber carbines left over from Korea. Some 175,000 were made.

One particularly curious use of the L1A1 by Australian SAS in Vietnam to break contact while on a recce was the “Slaughtermatic” (AKA, “Beast” or “Bitch”) a field mod SLR tweaked to run full-auto with L2A1 parts and shortened via the removal of handguards and given a chopped barrel. To keep it running, 30-round L2A1 mags were likewise acquired. 

Such a modded L1A1 is seen in the two circa 1971 2SASR images, below left, along with M16s equipped with experimental Colt CGL-4/XM148 40mm grenade launchers and lots of grenades.

Nui Dat, SAS Hill, South Vietnam. 1971-04-08. Members of No.25 patrol, ‘F’ troop, 2 Squadron, Special Air Service (SAS), at Nadzab LZ (landing zone) after returning from their second patrol. The patrol of nine days was from 1971-03-30 to 1971-04-08. Left to right, back row: Corporal Ian Rasmussen, second-in-command; trooper (tpr) Don Barnby, signaller; Tpr Dennis Bird, scout; Second Lieutenant Brian Russell, patrol commander. Front row: TPR Bill Nisbett, rifleman; John Deakin, United States Navy (USN-SEAL). AWM P00966.084

“Special Air Service” by Kevin Lyles • (Patrol member, 3 Sqn SASR, 1969 • Patrol member, 2 Sqn SASR, 1971 • Corporal, 2 Sqn SASR, 1971 • Patrol member, 2 Sqn SASR, 1971)-

Sadly, while most of the Australian Enfields were sold on the commercial market in the 1990s when the L1A1 passed into reserve use and are popular with collectors, with a reputation for being meticulously maintained, it was later decided by the disarmament-minded Ozzie government post-1996 to dispose of almost all of their inventory of SLRs and parts via outright destruction (“110,000 rifles melted down at BHP, Australia’s largest steel producer”) or being tossed into the sea.

Goodbye Foamed Hangers

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One of the big hangars (No. 2) at the USCG Aviation Training Center in Mobile recently accidentally discharged its AFFF FSS (foam-o-matic) and filled the building with 400 gallons of suds. It sidelined three EADS HC-144 Ocean Sentry maritime patrol aircraft (of which the Coaties only have 18), and four Sikorsky MH-60T Jayhawks (of which the service has only 48).

The incident got a lot of attention.

Following up, the USCG sent out a memo on Friday announcing a sundown of the systems, for better or worse, in line with a November 2021 plan by the Air Force and an August 2024 plan by the Navy.

As noted in the memo, the systems are more trouble than they are worth:

In 2021, the Air Force led a joint DoD effort including the Defense Logistics Agency to assess the risks associated with replacing Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF) fire suppression systems (FSS) in DoD facilities. The effort reviewed 32 years of historical data and found no hangar fuel-related fires resulting in the loss of life or an aircraft. A review of 15 years of safety mishap data uncovered 84 inadvertent activations of foam systems resulting in $24.5 million of damage, one death, 21 injuries, and 120 damaged aircraft.

Citing the 2021 Air Force Study, COMDT (CG-43) signed a charter in June 2024 establishing the Aviation Hangar Fire Suppression Integrated Project Team (IPT), REF (A). The IPT reviewed 35 years of Coast Guard mishap data and found no documented Class Bravo fires in any hangar and 26 accidental discharges, including three in the last 12 months. In reference to those three incidents, preliminary reports include damage to 12 aircraft with final damage estimates still to be determined.

Bootneck Ferret

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60 years ago this month.

Official caption: “September 1964, Sabah, the northeast Borneo territory of Malaysia. Royal Marines in action with the security forces repelling the infiltrating Indonesians from across the vast jungle border. A Royal Marines Daimler Ferret Scout car of 40 Commando patrols a jungle-fringed forward area of the Kalabankan River. The vehicle commander is Corporal B. Skinley.”

IWM (A 34858)

As anyone will tell you, the Royal Marines are light infantry, and typically don’t bring armor with them. Even in the Falklands, the four Scimitars and Scorpions that went along with 3 Commando were operated by a troop of the Household Cavalry. 

While the Royal Marines Armoured Support Group dates back to 1944– when it was founded to help give the Commandos some armor support for the Normandy landings in the form of a few Centaur and Sherman tanks — it had been disbanded by 1948 and only stood back up, under the 539 Assault Squadron, to operate Hägglunds Viking BvS 10s in 2005.

So where did the Ferret come from?

Note the Ferret’s name (“Sharquat”) recalls a 1918 battle between the British and the Ottomans during the Mesopotamian Campaign in the Great War, and several units present there (1/10 Gurkhas, Queen’s Royal Hussars, 114th Mahrattas, et. al ) still celebrate “Sharqat Day” in honor of the historic victory. The hull number, 38 BA 39 (62), would lead one to believe that the armored car is owned by the British Army.

For comparison, see this image of a Ferret Scout Car in use by the 1st King’s Dragoon Guards overlooking the Mantin Pass between Kuala Lumpur and Seremban during the Malayan Emergency (1948-1960):

IWM (D 88417)

As the 10th (Princess Mary’s Own) Gurkha Rifles– a Sharqat unit– had two battalions in Malaysia at the time, along with the Ferret-equipped QRIH, this leads to the likely conclusion that the Marines in the first image were just borrowing the wheels from the Army.

A favorite on the surplus military vehicle market, the FV 701 Ferret is simple to learn to drive and support and is forgiving in operation, which is no doubt a reason that it is still in service with like a dozen different countries around the world even though it has been out of production since 1971.

The BA-50 is back, apparently

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While Barrett has by far the most name recognition when it comes to portable .50-caliber rifles, there has been another option on (and off) the market for the past 20 years.

Bushmaster recently announced the BA50 is back, baby, and reportedly better than ever.

“Re-engineered to be even more reliable, more durable, and even longer lasting than the original,” says Bushmaster. “New improvements to the bolt design bring effortless bolt operation, with improved extraction and cartridge feeding,” are among the updates.

Standard features include a 29-inch 1:15 twist rate barrel capped with a beefy three-port muzzle brake, a 10-shot detachable magazine, and a Magpul PRS Gen3 adjustable stock. Using a left-hand operated, right-side-eject bolt action that allows the user to keep their right hand on the grip while cycling, the platform has long been known as exceptionally accurate.

Further, the updated rifles will be offered in both black and FDE.

More in my column at Guns.com.

Revenge for the parrots

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What a tranquil scene, some 110 years ago today: The 3,700-ton Bremen-class light cruiser SMS Leipzig, part of KAdm Maximilian von Spee’s exiled German East Asia Squadron, is seen coaling in Guaymas on Mexico’s Gulf of California/Sea of Cortez, on 8 September 1914. Of note, she is only about 240 miles south of the Arizona border. 

You’d almost think there wasn’t a war on. 

Leipzig. She had an all-up armament of 10 4.1-inch SK L/40 guns as well as a battery of smaller 37mm guns and two torpedo tubes.

Leipzig would prove fast on the trigger just seven weeks later at the Battles of Coronel in November, firing 407 4.1-inch shells– four times what fellow German light cruisers Dresden (102) and three times what Nurnberg (135) managed.

Engaged with the larger (5,300 ton) British Bristol-class light cruiser HMS Glasgow, the latter was only lightly damaged by five hits, leaving four lightly wounded ratings and, sadly, killing some parrots that the men had purchased while on a South American port call– an act of Teutonic barbarity that shocked the crew.

Leipzig, meanwhile, came away undamaged.

The Bristol class light cruiser HMS Glasgow. She carried two 6-inch guns, one aft and one forward, as well as 10 4-inch guns, arranged five on each side. IWM (Q 21286)

On 8 December, Glasgow would have a rematch at the Battle of the Falkland Islands where, assisted by the Monmouth-class armored cruiser HMS Cornwall (9,800t, 4×10-inch), her parrot-mourning crew would watch Leipzig battered below the waves. Leipzig in return had hit Glasgow twice, killing a single man and wounding four, and hit Cornwall 18 times, causing a slight list on that bruiser but no casualties.

Only 18 of Leipzig’s nearly 300-member crew were pulled from the freezing water of the South Atlantic.

SMS Leipzig sinking in a painting by William Lionel Wyllie as HMS Cornwall and HMS Glasgow look on

Miami: Off the Beach

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How about this great action shot, 80 years ago today. A smoke ring is left by 6″/47 (15.2 cm) Mark 16 Turret #1 as the brand new Cleveland class light cruiser USS Miami (CL-89) pounds the Palau islands on 7 September 1944. 

Note that a wartime censor has obliterated her SK and Mk 37s Mk 4 radar. NHHC 80-G-284070

She would fire a very exact 900 6-inch (her magazines only had space for 2,400) and a matching 900 5-inch shells that day in just over four hours across two runs just offshore, targeting Japanese airfields, with shots corrected by her floatplanes.

Commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 28 December 1943, by June 1944 Miami was supporting fast carrier task forces and found herself in the above image as part of TG 34.6 in support of carrier strikes against Peleliu, Ngesebus, and Angaur in the Palau Islands.

She alternated her bombardment with her accompanying sisters USS Vincennes (CL-64) and Houston (CL-81).

From her 10-page report on the gun action:

Miami received six battle stars for her service in World War II and immediately after operated on the California coast training naval reservists until her decommissioning on 30 June 1947, whereupon she entered the Pacific Reserve Fleet. 

Miami’s name was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 September 1961 and her hulk was sold for scrapping the next year.

Her name was recycled for a Los Angeles-class nuclear attack submarine (SSN-755) commissioned in 1990 and decommissioned in 2014. The fourth USS Miami (SSN-811) will be a future Block V Virginia-class nuclear attack submarine that was ordered in 2021.

Did the SIG Fuse fizzle?

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The Fuse, SIG Sauer’s newest P365 gets its name, says the company, as it is the “fusion of capability and concealment.” This is due to still being carry-sized while featuring all the goodies one could want, including a removable magwell, nickel-plated flat-faced trigger, LXG grip module with interchangeable backstraps, optics-ready (RMSc footprint) slide, easily co-witnessing iron sights, and extended 21-round magazines.

All this for well under $800.

I put 1,000 rounds through one in the past couple of months.

Full review in my column at Guns.com.

Welcome back, Pickering

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The U.S. Revenue Cutter Pickering–– named for Washington’s wartime Quartermaster General and later Secretary of War– has one of the most stirring sea tales seldom told.

The 77-foot Jackass Brig, built in 1798 at Newburyport, Massachusetts, was one of six large cutters constructed as a sort of insurance plan that year as war with France loomed.

She not only looked rakish but she proved fast and maneuverable. That, coupled with the fact she could still glide along in only nine feet of water when fully loaded, meant she could hide from proper warships in coves and shallows.

NHHC NH 85146 via Naval Documents (of) the Quasi-War. . ., vol. 1, p. 328.

While most early cutters only mounted a single light swivel gun or two, Pickering had her broadside pierced with 10 gun ports on each side of her gundeck and, when the Quasi-War began, was packed with 14 guns, albeit puny Gribeauval four-pounders with a range of 700 yards (half that if using canister). Shipping out with but a 70-man crew, and seeing that each piece needed eight gunners (but could get it done in a pinch with six), Pickering was forced to have her gun crews run back and forth from port to starboard as needed.

During the Quasi-War, eight Revenue Cutters (a sloop, five schooners, and two brigs) haunted the Caribbean, and made their mark against the French by capturing 18 of the 22 prizes collected by the U.S. between 1798 and 1799– and assisted in the capture of two others!

Of these 18, Pickering alone accounted for 10 prizes.

The toughest of these was the big (250 men) and well-armed (28 guns, all of at least 6 pounds) L’Egypte Conquise after a grueling nine-hour sea battle that is the stuff of Jack Aubrey and Horatio Hornblower. Her skipper at the time? LT (later Commodore) Edward Preble.

Pickering was later permanently transferred to the Navy and disappeared at sea in the summer of 1800 while traveling from Newcastle, Delaware to join the squadron of Commodore Thomas Truxton on the Guadeloupe Station.

The USCG, who retains the lineage of the old USRCS, recycled Pickering’s name only once: for a fast picket boat mothership stationed off Atlantic City during Prohibition to allow the little cutters to interdict rum runners headed from shore to booze-laden “blacks” floating on “Rum Row” out past the three-mile limit.

The third Pickering (WSMM 919), the Coast Guard’s fifth new Heritage-class 360-foot Offshore Patrol Cutter, has begun construction.

A plasma cutter at Austal USA’s shipyard in Mobile, Ala. cuts steel plates to be used to produce the Coast Guard’s fifth offshore patrol cutter, Pickering. Photo courtesy of Austal USA.

Pickering is the first of up to 11 cutters that will be delivered to the Coast Guard through the $3.3 billion Stage 2 contract with Austal USA in Mobile, where the company is transitioning from building Indy class LCSs (the final hull, the future USS Pierre, launched last month).

The newest Pickering will be delivered to the Coast Guard in late 2027.

The OPCs are set to replace the service’s circa 1980s 270-foot Bear-class and even older 210-foot Reliance-class medium endurance cutters.

As detailed by Austal:

OPC will provide the majority of the Coast Guard’s offshore presence conducting a variety of missions including law enforcement, drug and migrant interdiction, and search and rescue. With a range of 10,200 nautical miles at 14 knots and a 60-day endurance period, each OPC will be capable of deploying independently or as part of task groups, serving as a mobile command and control platform for surge operations such as hurricane response, mass migration incidents and other events. The cutters will also support Arctic objectives by helping regulate and protect emerging commerce and energy exploration in Alaska.

The ceremony:

Radial Engine Glory

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How about this great shot of two aircraft rarely seen operating side-by-side on a flattop, showing Navy and Marine F4U-4 Corsairs of VF-43 (F-3xx) and VMF-211 (AF-144) spinning up behind a big Douglas AD-4 Skyraider (SS-807) of composite squadron VC-33 aboard the supercarrier USS Coral Sea (CVB-43) circa 1952.

While both the Corsair and Skyraider used 18-cylinder radials, the Pratt & Whitney R-2800-18W on the F4U “only” coughed up 2,380 hp while the Wright R-3350-26WA Duplex-Cyclone of the AD-4 went at least 2,700 hp.

Cora was on deployment to the Mediterranean Sea with Carrier Air Group Four (CVG-4) from 19 Apr 1952 to 12 Oct 1952. The mixed jet-prop group at the time included the “Gladiators” of VF-62 (F2H-2 Banshees), the Corsair-equipped “Hornets” of VF-44, “Wake Island Avengers” of VMF-211, and “Challengers” of VF-43; the Skyraider-flying “Blackbirds” of VF-45 and dets of AD-4W, AD-4N, F2H-2Ps, and HUP-1s.

While on service with the 6th Fleet, she visited Yugoslavia and carried Marshall Tito on a one-day cruise to observe carrier operations. On her next Med deployment, she would host Generalissimo Franco on a stop in Spain.

VMF-211 was redesignated VMA-211 during that cruise, while Cora herself morphed on paper from CVB-43 to CVA-43.

Meet the Gewehr 210

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The Bundeswehr, or German federal military, has tapped the home team at Heckler & Koch to supply it with a new model of sniper rifle based on the company’s MR308.

The recently teased A6 Designated Marksman Rifle variant was shown off by HK at trade shows in Nuremberg earlier this year–we saw it at EnforceTac– and was formally announced (German) by the company as the Bundeswehr’s new G210 rifle on Aug. 27.

HK officials stated the semi-auto 7.62 NATO-chambered MR308A6, with a 16.75-inch barrel, abbreviated M-LOK handguard, and full-length top Picatinny rail, was developed specifically for the G210 tender.

Some 500 rifles will be delivered beginning in 2025.

The company is also supplying the Bundeswehr with the HK416A8 in 5.56 NATO as the G36 – the country’s standard infantry rifle – as well as the HK437 in .300 BLK as the G39 SD.

More in my column at Guns.com.

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