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Inside New York City’s Most Secret Basement

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Built in 1913, 10-stories below New York’s Grand Central Terminal, lies perhaps the most strategically important room in the United States for during the World Wars. The video is a pretty neat way to spend 4-minutes



Stuart v Roadblock

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At a Roadblock on the Road to Bataan” by Don Millsap

 

At a Roadblock on the Road to Bataan by Don Millsap

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This painting depicts Staff Sergeant Emil Morello of Company C, 194th Tank Battalion (CA Army National Guard) smashing through a Japanese roadblock with his M3 Stuart tank. After destroying the roadblock, Morello fired upon several Japanese positions before finally being disabled. Morello was awarded the Silver Star in 1983 for his actions.

More in SSGT Morello here.


Singlaub still kicking, still sharp

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Maj. Gen. John Singlaub, (U.S. Army, retired), has quite the resume. Born in 1921, he graduated from UCLA in the ROTC program during WWII and chose infantry as a young 2nd LT, but soon found himself as part of a 3-man Jedburgh Team of the OSS, dropping behind Nazi lines in occupied France where he worked with local Resistance groups and waited for the Allies to land. From there he found himself in Manchuria, Korea, Vietnam, and so forth. In 1977, while Chief of Staff of the U.S. forces in the ROK, he was relieved by Jimmy Carter after he publicly criticized the Commander-in-Chief.

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In the 1980s, retired from the Army and not-officially a member of the Intelligence Community anymore, he was the fixer and organizer that helped funnel training, money and equipment to the Contras in Nicaragua (this included recruiting non-agency assets like Robert K Brown and his Soldier of Fortune magazine crew as trainers, as detailed in Brown’s excellent memoir).

Well, at 93-years young, the General is still making public appearances to veterans groups and others and he is still pretty sharp

“You can’t fly a satellite or a drone over the enemy position and find out what’s in their minds, what they are planning,” Singlaub said. “It’s just impossible. You have to have human intelligence, and the way you have human intelligence is to seduce some of the enemy to give their secrets to us. We need to have a clandestine service.”


Warship Wednesday July 23, Jules Verne, Meet the U.S. Navy

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Here at LSOZI, we are going to take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all of their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.

- Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday July 23, Jules Verne, Meet the U.S. Navy

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Here we see the magnificent V-type submarine USS Nautilus (SS-168) in an oil on board by the artist I.L. Lloyd depicting the submarine engaging a Japanese merchant ship at close quarters.

Between the two world wars, the U.S. Navy built a collection of nine more of less experimental “V-boat” submarines. These boats took lessons from British and German submarines learned after WWI, and incorporated these into a more Yankee design. Each of these subs were very different as the design bureau experimented as they went. One of the ships, V-6, a very close pattern of V-5, which came before her, was built to a submarine-cruiser design.

This concept was a huge sub, meant to have very long legs, and capable of taking the war to the enemy wherever they may be. For this they were fitted with large, cruiser-caliber guns, and an impressive torpedo battery. Laid down at Mare Island Naval Yard on 2 August 1927, this V-boat (designated V-6/SC-2) was commissioned in June 1930. Following sea trails, V-6 was renamed USS Nautilus (SS-168) on Feb 19, 1931.

Steaming into New York City, 1931. Photo credit: Navsource

Steaming into New York City, 1931. Photo credit: Navsource

The sub was fitted with a pair of massive 6-inch/53 guns in special Mark 17 wet mountings. This gun was designed as a secondary battery of the Lexington-class battle cruisers and South Dakota-class battleships but were only installed in Omaha-class cruisers. Capable of firing a 105-lb shell to a maximum range was 23,300 yd (21,310 m), at the maximum elevation of 25 degrees, they were a hoss of a battery for a boat meant to operate underwater. With the exception of near-sisters (and fellow V-boats) USS Argonaut (SM-1) and USS Narwhal (SS-167, ex-V-5), the guns carried by the Nautilus were the largest fitted to an American submarine.

To get a feel for how big these guns were, here we see the Nautilus (SS-168) photographed from her sister ship, the Narwhal (SS-167).  Photo credit; Navsource.

To get a feel for how big these guns were, here we see the Nautilus (SS-168) photographed from her sister ship, the Narwhal (SS-167). Photo credit; Navsource.

Capable of traveling an amazing 25,000 nm as long as she kept it slow and filled her ballast tanks with fuel, Nautilus could cross the Atlantic six times without refueling if needed. However, she was meant to operate in the Pacific against a growing Japanese naval threat, and she soon found herself there as flagship os SubDiv12 at Pearl Harbor. Although her near-sister Narwhal was present there on Dec. 7, 1941 (shooting down two torpedo bombers of the Japanese Combined Fleet), Nautilus was laid up undergoing maintenance back in California.

However she soon got underway and conducted an amazing 14 war patrols. Nautilus found herself in the middle of the Japanese fleet at the Battle of Midway, firing 5 torpedoes at the battleship Kirishima and the carrier Kaga (with little success due to faulty torpedoes) while surviving 42 enemy depth charges. However, just a few weeks after the battle, she ran across the Japanese Shiratsuyu-class destroyer Yamakaze  and sent that ship to Davy Jones approximately 60 nautical miles (110 km) southeast of Yokosuka on 30 June 1945. The photo taken of the Yamakaze sinking after being torpedoed became an instant hit and was used for war bond art.

Yamakaze sinking by Nautilus

 

Yamakaze sinking by Nautilus used in 1943 Electric Boat ad

Yamakaze sinking by Nautilus used in 1943 Electric Boat ad

In August, 1942, along with the fellow V-Boat USS Argonaut, the two subs carried elements of the Marine Second Raider Battalion under Lieutenant Colonel Evans F. Carlson to raid the isolated Japanese garrison at Makin Atoll. Carrying 90 men of Bravo Company, the raid annihilated the small force on the atoll, and was a huge propaganda victory for the nation at the time.

U.S. Marine Raiders exercise on the deck of USS Nautilus while en route to the raid on Makin Island on August 11 1942

U.S. Marine Raiders exercise on the deck of USS Nautilus while en route to the raid on Makin Island on August 11 1942. And yes, thats what a 6″/53 Mk17 looks like up close.

Nautilus went back to her life as a fleet submarine, but was also pressed back into duty carrying raiders behind enemy lines.

In 1943 she carried 109 Eskimo Scouts to land on the Japanese-occupied Aleutian island of Attu just before the main assault. Then at Tarawa, she put ashore a 77-man group of the 5th Amphibious Reconnaissance Company. Towards the end of the war she helped carry supplies and recon teams around the Philippines, helping to resupply and tie in local guerrilla groups led since 1942 in many cases by stay-behind (left-behind?) U.S. military members to the effort to liberate the islands.

However, with the war winding down, so did the Navy’s interest in the old and reliable Nautilus. Decommed before the war even ended on 30 June 1945, she was stricken and sold for scrap that fall after a very hard 15-year life. Her war patrol reports are public record.

Specs:

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Displacement, Surfaced: 2,730 t., Submerged: 3,960 t.;
Length 371′ ;
Beam 33′ 3″;
Draft 15′ 9″;
Propulsion, diesel electric, Maschinfabrik – Augusburg- Nurnburg, New York Navy Yard diesel engines, hp 3175,
Fuel Capacity, 182,778 gal., Westinghouse Electric Co., electric motors, hp 2500, Battery Cells 240, twin propellers.
Speed, Surfaced 17 kts, Submerged 8 kts;
Depth Limit 300′;
Complement 8 officers 80 enlisted;
Armament, four 21″ torpedo tubes forward, two 21″ torpedo tubes aft, four 21″ torpedo tubes topside, 24 torpedoes; two single 6″/53 deck gun, two 30 cal. mgs.;

If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International.

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find http://www.warship.org/

The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.

Nearing their 50th Anniversary, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

I’m a member, so should you be!


“Gunfight Over Rabaul”

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click to big up

click to big up

“Gunfight Over Rabaul “ showing U.S. Marine Corps F4U-1 Corsairs of VMA-214 (The Blacksheep) engage Japanese Zeros in combat high over Rabaul, in the Solomon Islands, as they provide top cover for a B24 raid on the enemy stronghold below, December 1943. The closest corsair is ” 740″ (F4U-1,BuAer 17740) while it appears that “883”, Pappy Boyington’s plane, is ahead. By renowned aviation artist Nicolas Trudgin


Wrecks, Rats, and Roaches in the South China Sea

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The loneliest warship in the world isn’t going away any time soon. Yup, you know I’m a sucker for the tales of the BRP Sierra Madre (Ex-USS Harnett County LST-821, in Philippines service as LT-57). You know, the poor old WWII landing ship hard aground (on purpose) in the South China Sea serving as a forward base for a group of PI Marines and a Navy radioman.

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Well it looks like a CNN reporter paid em a visit and the place looks like 2000-tons of tetanus shots. Not just any reporter but Tomas Etzler– a journalist and filmmaker who has covered everything from the war in Afghanistan to the 2011 Japanese tsunami during a career that has spanned nearly three decades. Great videos on the page, go there now and be ready to cry.


Help save the USS Indianapolis photo collection

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The United States Naval Institute (been a member for over twenty years, and so should you!), has a Kickstarter project to try to save the rare photos from the USS Indianapolis and WWII: Preserving the collection of Alfred Joseph Sedivi, the ship’s photographer.

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In the closing days of WWII, torpedoes from a Japanese submarine slammed into the side of U.S.S. Indianapolis, dooming the heavy cruiser. The sailors who did not go down with the ship were left adrift on the open ocean for more than 3 days during which they battled the elements, starvation, and shark attacks. Of the 1,196 crew members who had deployed with the ship, fewer than 320 survived the ordeal. The captain of the ship was forced to bear the burden of the blame for the loss of ship and life, which drove him to commit suicide. He would be posthumously exonerated fifty years later following a campaign helped by the efforts of a boy working on a school project about the incident.

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Among those lost when the Indianapolis sank was Alfred Joseph Sedivi, the ship’s photographer. Sedivi documented the lives of the sailors who served, played, prayed and fought on the ship they affectionately called “the Indy Maru.” Sedivi’s cameras also captured the aftermath of the battles on Tinian, Saipan, Guam, Tarawa and Iwo Jima. His photos survived the war because he secretly sent 1650 of them home to his family until the days before his ship’s fatal mission.

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Example of damage on some of the photos in the collection.

Now the USNI is attempting to save them but needs your help

Go give em a few dollars, come on guys.


MARSOC are now Marine Raiders

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On the 6th of August, 2014, with the proclamation of Commandant of the Marine Corps General James Amos, MARSOC was officially re-flagged as the Marine Raiders. According to the Commandant ,who announced at a MARSOC change of command ceremony that all units within the parent command would undergo a name change. For example, the 1st Marine Special Operations Battalion would now be known as the 1st Marine Raider Battalion et al.

The Marine Raiders were elite units established by the United States Marine Corps during World War II to conduct amphibious light infantry warfare, particularly in landing in rubber boats and operating behind the lines.

“Edson’s” Raiders of 1st Marine Raiders Battalion and “Carlson’s” Raiders of 2nd Marine Raiders Battalion are said to be the first United States special operations forces to form and see combat in World War II.

The Marine Raiders and Navy Corpsmen of WWII earned 7 Medals of Honor, 136 Navy Crosses, 21 Distinguished Service Crosses, 330 Silver Stars, 18 Legions of Merit, 6 Navy & Marine Corps medals, 3 Soldier Medals, 223 Bronze Stars, and 37 Letters of Commendation in their brief service.



Warship Wednesday Aug 13, 2014 A Sad Story of Fish, Genius, Sightseeing and Neglect

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Here at LSOZI, we are going to take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all of their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.

- Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday Aug 13, 2014 A Sad Story of Fish, Genius, Sightseeing and Neglect

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Here we see the majestic yacht Celt. Built by Pusey and Jones Co., Wilmington, Delaware (hull number 306), the 170-foot long steel hulled vessel with fine lines was built to the specs of one Mr. J. Rogers Maxwell, a long-time member of the Atlantic Yacht Club who had owned a number of famous racing yachts including the Peerless, Emerald and Yankee. Designed by Mr. Wintringham, Celt was 138-feet at the waterline and 170 oal. Intended for New York Bay and Long Island Sound, she was to be a tender and flagship to Maxwell’s racing fleet. Outfitted with a number of mahogany adorned cabins on two berthing decks, she was a a magnificent vessel. Two Almy boilers fed by some 42 tons of bunkered coal pushed a  four-cylinder triple expansion Sullivan that generated 1200 shp. Completed in 1902, she was the toast of the New York coastline for a decade.

Maxwell’s racing team won the King’s Cup in 1907 in the Queen, but by 1914, the whole trans-Atlantic sprint had fallen into a slump due to the start of World War One. With this, Celt was laid up and at sometime during this time was renamed Sachem upon her sale to one Manton B. Metcalf. When the U.S. entered the war in April 1917, Metcalf offered the craft up for use by the Navy. As such, in July 1917 she rightfully became the USS Sachem (SP-192), an anti-submarine patrol craft.  Her armament was an unimpressive 6-pounder 57mm deck gun, a pair of 3-pounder 37mm guns, and two Colt potato digger light machine-guns.

Then something odd happened.

According to Thomas A. Edison: Unorthodox Submarine Hunter by E. David Cronon archived over at the WWI.com website, Thomas Edison had a queer fascination with producing any number of novel ideas to sink the Kaiser’s U-boats. But he needed a ship as a floating laboratory. Keep reading:

“Edison would not rest, however, until he had acquired a boat for his anti-submarine experiments. In the spring of 1917 he obtained Secretary Daniels’ permission to charter a yacht for this purpose, but had great difficulty finding a suitable one at a cost he thought reasonable. He suspected this was because the owners hoped the government would commandeer their boats so they would “then get a good price for them.” “Many of them are old and the engines defective, approaching the character of junk,” he cautioned Daniels. “I think Roosevelt should be warned not to fall into this trap and be saddled with a lot of junk.”(31). This last was a reference to F.D.R.’s well-publicized enthusiasm for solving the U-boat problem with a fleet of small anti-submarine boats. After a number of false starts, Daniels finally arranged for Edison to have use of a Navy submarine patrol boat, the S.P. 192, and the Edisons moved to New London, Connecticut, to conduct experiments on Long Island Sound. Always protective, Mrs. Edison insisted on sharing the small cabin aboard ship with the inventor, much to the dismay of the Navy crew. “I detest it on the boat and long to be home, ” she wrote one of their sons. “I wish I knew just how much and what Papa wants me out here for. . . . The more cluttered the place the better contented father seems to be. I could kill Hutchinson for ever getting him into this mess.”(32). Mrs. Edison worried about her husband’s susceptibility to seasickness and his unwillingness to conclude his experiments or ever concede defeat. “It looks like a winter’s job as far as father is concerned, as you know father,” she lamented in another letter. “He constantly gets new ideas that leads [sic] to more experimenting and halfway never counts with him.”(33).

The use of a suitable Navy boat enabled Edison to conduct experiments on a number of projects requiring tests simulating conditions at sea. One of these was a water brake or sea anchor, which he called a “kite rudder,” and which when used in conjunction with a ship’s engines and regular rudder might enable it to turn quickly enough to avoid an oncoming torpedo. “On a merchant ship I propose to use 2 or 3 fastened to rail of ship.” Edison reported. “On signal, they are dropped and instantly act to turn the ship.”(34). In one experiment, a fully loaded cargo ship was able to turn 90 degrees in only 200 feet using four sea anchors, whereas it advanced 1,000 feet while executing the same turn with no sea anchors in use (35).

Two of the inventor’s other schemes might have come from Rube Goldberg. Noting that 75% of torpedoed ships took more than fifteen minutes to sink, Edison experimented with what he called “collision mats” rolled up at the rail on both sides of a ship for its full length. When torpedoed, these-large mats would be released to cover the hole, and water pressure would hold them against the cargo, slowing the influx of water. “I think 50% of all the torpedoed boats can be saved and got to port,” Edison reported to Daniels in a handwritten note from Key West; “officers here think so.”(36). An even more fantastic Edison contraption was a 25-foot long tube of rolled up wire mesh made of quarter-inch cable. “It resembles a large window curtain,” he explained, which would be fired from the ship in the path of an oncoming torpedo.

In add Edison worked on some 45 inventions to fight submarines during the war, and none were put into production

The hardy Sachem never saw active combat and was returned to Mr. Metcalf in Feb. 1919 who sold it to a Philadelphia banker for use as a yacht (and rumored as a rum runner mother-ship during Prohibition) before selling it again to Sheepshead Bay New York charter fisherman Jake Martin in 1932. Martin soon put the now-30 year old craft into use each summer as a junket ship for tourists along the Jersey and New York coast.

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Martin had the old steam engines replaced with a more modern 7-cylinder Fairbanks-Morse 805hp diesel during the winter of 1935-36 and continued her in service chasing tuna and sharks for day passengers. Then came another war.

On on 17 February 1942, just ten weeks after Pearl Harbor, the Navy bought the now-40 year old ex-yacht turned fishing boat for $65,000. Giving her a haze gray paint scheme, an obsolete 3″/23 cal gun recycled from a Coast Guard cutter who had traded it in for something bigger, four M2 water-cooled Brownings and some depth charge racks, she was commissioned USS Phenakite (PYc-25), 1 July 1942.

During the war the old girl plied the Eastern seaboard from Key West to New York doing patrol work but, like in her first war service, found no combat. By November 1944 she was laid up again and a year later Martin reclaimed her.  He promptly sold her in poor shape to the Circle Line group of tour boats in New York City who spiffed her up and renamed her Sightseeker.

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Moored at the popular Pier 83, the craft was very distinctive with its sleek turn of the century clipper lines (and welded over deck gun mounts). Even when the Circle Line divested themselves of most of their oldest vessels in the 1950s, they kept the Sightseer around as she was a crowd favorite. Captained by an experienced Norwegian master by the name of Harold Log, she was the flagship of the line well into the 1970s (being renamed the apt Circle Line V) until the Circle Line finally sold her for her value in scrap metal. Apparently, while derelict in New York harbor, she made it into Madonna’s “Papa Dont Preach” video.

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The rest of her life is a mystery until she was picked up by one Robert Miller in 1986, nearly a decade after she was sold for scrap. Miller repaired her a bit, crewed her and sailed her to his property near Lawrenceburg, Indiana on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River

Unfortunately, she is still there as a ghost ship along the river frequented by kayakers and would-be treasure hunters searching for reasons to get a tetanus shot.

Now, some 112 years old, she rests in the mud.

Specs:
Displacement 317 t.
1942 – 360 t.
Length 186′ 3″
1942 – 183′
Beam 22′ 6″
Draft 8′
1942 – 9′ 7″
Speed 15 kts.
1942 – 13.5 kts.
Complement 49 (1917)
1942 – 40
Armament: One 6-pounder, two 3-pounders and two machine guns (1917)
1942 – One 3″/23 mount, four .50 cal. machine guns and two depth charge tracks
Propulsion: One 1,200ihp vertical triple-expansion steam engine, one shaft
1936 – One 805hp 7-cylinder Fairbanks-Morse 37D 14 diesel engine.

If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find http://www.warship.org/

The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.

Nearing their 50th Anniversary, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

I’m a member, so should you be!


That’s an impressive bird you got there, bluejacket.

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US Navy men pose with an eagle they rescued in the North Pacific, 1944

US Navy men pose with an eagle they rescued in the North Pacific, 1944


Any info on stocked M1911s?

I’ve been working on the railroad…all the live-long tag.

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The German army had an almost perverse love of railroads. During the lead-up to WWI, it was said that the German General Staff spent every waking moment working out the shortest route to move mobilized troops across the excellent Imperial rail network and into France, or Russia, or Denmark or wherever as needed. By shaving ten minutes off a troop train here, or thirty seconds off an artillery convoy there, a war could be won.

In the end, the legend has it, that when the balloon went up in 1914, German trains only narrowly missed colliding with each other at rail crossings by scant seconds– so tight was the schedule to make the trains run on time.

With that the Germans understood how important the rails were to their enemies as well. Afterall the first “modern war,” the U.S. Civil War, made extensive use of railways to move men and supplies from place to place at speeds that would have made Napoleon squee with joy.

German Schienenwolf railroad track destroyer in action, Itri Italy 1944

The Germans therefore obsessed about tearing up the enemy’s rail system if they themselves couldn’t use it, or they retreated tactically withdrew. That’s where the Schienenwolf (‘rail wolf’) or Schwellenpflug (‘rail plow’) came in at.

Pulled behind a locomotive, the German army could detail a team of railway engineers to rip up rail lines at a rate of several miles per hour as long as the coal and steel held out.

A railroad plough (also known as a Schienenwolf (‘rail wolf’) or Schwellenpflug (‘sleepers plough)

A railroad plough (also known as a Schienenwolf (‘rail wolf’) or Schwellenpflug (‘sleepers plough)

They proved so successful in the tail end of WWI for the Kaiser that old Adolph revamped them for use in Europe when falling back from the Allied advance 1943-45. If it wasn’t for these rail chompers, Berlin likely would have fallen more rapidly. Afterall, while the soldiers could march on their feet, and the vehicles could keep up, both needed large amounts of food/fuel to keep rolling forward which meant who owned the (working) railroad lines won the war.

One of these beasts in action

 


The martial art of Norem

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Born in April 1924, a young man by the name of Earl Norem found himself as part of the first unit in the U.S. military trained to fight modern warfare in the mountains. This group, the famed 10th Mountain Division, became Earl’s home once he joined the U.S. Army in World War Two.

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The 10th Mountain saw hard combat up and down the Italian boot at places like the North Apennine Mountains, where their training came in handy. In those craggy peaks men fought hand-to-hand, waist deep in snow at times. The 10th participated in some of the last bayonet charges of that war, clearing the mountains one inch at a time. Norem was a 20-year old squad leader. His war ended with a wound picked up in the madness that was the Po Valley.

Coming home after the conflict, he became an illustrator. Using acrylics, he crafted work for Marvel on the early Silver Surfer (Kirby’s, you know, the only real Silver Surfer) and on books in the He-Man, Tales of the Zombie and Planet of the Apes.

If it wasnt for Norem, the Damned Dirty Apes may not have ever made it to the big screen

If it wasnt for Norem, the Damned Dirty Apes may not have ever made it to the big screen

white tiger earl norem

Nice British Lanchester SMG

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Well old Norem also gave pulps a try and did a great job,

Perhaps the widest submarine ever, but hey, Norem is a mountain troop, not a bubblehead.

Perhaps the widest submarine ever, but hey, Norem is a mountain trooper, not a bubblehead. More importantly, what is going on in that forward torpedo room?

earl norem

Why yes those are zombies…in a hurricane…in a life raft…what else could it be?

Pesky Nazis hiding out in South America was a reoccurring theme in 1960s pulp

Pesky Nazis hiding out in South America was a reoccurring theme in 1960s pulp. You also have to love the fact that the SS oberts still has his boots on but no pants.

Seems possible

Seems possible

Norem had first hand knowledge of all the small arms seen on this cover from Action For Men

Norem had first hand knowledge of all the small arms seen on this cover from Action For Men

 

Courtsey Comicfans

Courtesy Comicfans

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Vietnam era Norem

Vietnam era Norem. Get some M60 love

 

Union Bank Robbery. Great depiction of the Tommy guns.

Union Bank Robbery. Great depiction of the Tommy guns.

You can really tell that the artist knew his way around some firearms by the way they are depicted in his work.

Then of course there are the Mars Attacks series that he illustrated for Topps back in the 1960s

Ack Ack! And yes, these were sold to kids in the 1960s. Back when the gum actually tasted good.

Ack Ack! And yes, these were sold to kids in the 1960s. Back when the gum actually tasted good.

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Norem is retired now but is still around at 90 years young. A living legend.

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Note the 10th Mountain distinctive unit insignia on Mr. Norem’s ski cap in 2012. A true hero.


When Marlin 30-30s held the line against a Japanese invasion of Canada

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In a little known piece of military history, a number of Marlin lever action 1936 rifles played an unsung role in the defense of Canada’s west coast during World War Two– possibly even staving off a Japanese invasion.

War comes to Vancouver

On the night of June 20, 1942, just off the west coast of Vancouver Island, Canada, Japanese submarine I-26 surfaced. Just six months before, Canada had been drawn into World War 2 in the Pacific as a British and American ally. Already the country had paid dearly against the Japanese, with nearly 2,000 Canadian regulars of ‘C Force‘ killed or captured in the defense of Hong Kong as part of the Commonwealth garrison in that British colony.

Now, the war had crossed the world’s largest ocean and come to Canada’s doorstep. In just under six minutes, I-26 had fired some 30 84-pound, 5.5-inch artillery shells at the Estevan Point lighthouse. The lighthouse was undamaged and the shells landed harmlessly around the Hesquiat Peninsula of Vancouver Island, but the point had been made.

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Canadian Naval staff inspect a Japanese shell from Estevan Point, B.C. Photo: Gerald Thomas Richardson.

The very next day another Japanese sub would surface and bombard Fort Stevens on the Oregon coast. Just a few months earlier, the same thing could be said for Ellwood, California. Already the Japanese were seizing islands in the Aleutians off the coast of Alaska from the Americans. Up and down the West Coast of North America in 1942, there was a real scare of a Japanese invasion.

The country was seen as vulnerable.

What was the PCMR?

On August 12, 1942, just over three weeks after the Vancouver Island attack, the Canadian Army established the Pacific Coast Militia Rangers. The PCMR, as it became known, was formed of local part-time soldiers recruited from along the country’s western frontier. Scattered from Washington State to what was then the Alaska Territory, these men were in large part either too old or too young to be in the regular military. This led to those under 18 and over 45 making up the ranks. However, then as now, the Canadian Pacific coast was made up of rugged outdoorsmen, logger, miners, hunters, and anglers who were skilled with a rifle and well-heeled in taking care of themselves in the wild.

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The PCMR were a hardy bunch. Photo: CFB Esquimalt Naval & Military Museum

Over the next three years the PCMR would form some 134 companies and grow to more than 15,000 volunteer soldiers, watching out for Japanese landing parties, saboteurs, and submarines. If things got real, they were expected to pursue small bands of invaders and if confronted with large enemy forces, to head for the hills Wolverines-style and mount a guerrilla campaign until the cavalry could come to the rescue. However, to do any of the above, they needed guns.

Thats where Marlin came in at.

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Read the rest in my column at Marlin Forum


Fest FMP-1, the remote weapons mount circa 1944

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Here’s an odd one from Nazi Germany – a remotely-controlled submachine gun based on the Schmeisser MP-28/II. No-one is certain exactly what the Fest submachine gun was designed for but it was probably deployed in small numbers on the fortified Siegfried Line, or “Western Wall”. It is marked with FMP-1, or “Fest Maschinenpistole”, but there are no markings indicating the place of manufacture. It is a curious weapon that probably saw very little, if any, usage in battle.

H/T Firearms Curiosa

fest fmp1 reomote controlled machinegun



Warship Wednesday August 27, the plucky Perch, hardy frogman steed

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Here at LSOZI, we are going to take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all of their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.

- Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday August 27, the plucky Perch

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Here we see the Balao-class submarine USS Perch (SS-313) as she appeared in the late 1960s off Pearl Harbor with her crew in summer whites. This hardy vessel made seven war patrols during WWII then remained one of the last operational smoke boats in the U.S. Navy, seeing hot service in both Korea and Vietnam.

The 128-ship Balao class were classic 311-foot, 2500-ton ‘fleet boats’ designed to roam the Pacific on patrols that could last some 75-days due to their 11,000-nm range. Capable of making over 20-knots in a surface attack, they carried a staggering 10 torpedo tubes for which they stocked two dozen steel fish, as well as a reasonably well-armed battery of deck and AAA guns to sink smaller vessels like sampans and defend themselves against aircraft. We have covered ships of this class in the past here at LSOZI but don’t complain, they have lots of great stories.

Laid down 5 January 1943 at Electric Boat in Groton, she was commissioned 367 days later and departed for Key West for training. Needed for service in the Pacific, she arrived in Pearl Harbor at the beginning of April 1944. Just three weeks later she left on her first war patrol. For the next year she conducted a total of 7 patrols in enemy waters, often working as part of a small U.S. submarine wolf-pack, chasing down the few Japanese merchant and warships that remained afloat. She lurked in the South China sea, trading an attack on an oilier for a counter attack by a Japanese sub buster. Perch managed to send a few small trawlers and coasters to the bottom in surface gunfire actions while plucking Navy Corsair pilots and USAAF B-29 crews from the Pacific.

In a sign of things to come, she was used to land an 12-man Australian commando force of the famous Z Special Unit on a reconnaissance mission to Balikpapan Bay, Borneo, Indonesia (then in the Japanese-occupied Dutch East Indies). The ill-fated force under the renowned Aussie commando leader Major John Stott was lost through no fault of the Perch.

Ending the war off the coast of Imperial Japan, Perch was decommed and placed in reserve in 1947. However, unlike many of her class she was soon dusted off and in May 1948 she was converted to a Submarine, Transport (SSP-313, later ASSP-313, then APSS-313, then LPSS–313, all with basically the same meaning) then recommissioned.

Aft view of the Perch (SS-313) off Mare Island after completion of conversion to a troop transport. Note the large dry deck shelter for equipment and small boats. US Navy photo

Aft view of the Perch (SS-313) off Mare Island after completion of conversion to a troop transport. Note the large dry deck shelter for equipment and small boats. US Navy photo

Soon after the balloon went up on the Korean peninsula, Perch was used for landing British Commandos on raids behind North Korean lines. These were so successful not to mention hazardous, that Perch’s CO was made the recipient of a Bronze Star, the only such sub commander to win one in action during the Korean conflict.  The sub herself was added a fifth battle star to her record to go with the four she earned during WWII.

Broadside view of Perch (ASSP-313) off Mare Island on 6 May 1954. She was under going repairs at Mare Island from 8 December 1953 to 13 May 1954.     US Navy photo # 21035-5-54, courtesy of Darryl L. Baker.

Broadside view of Perch (ASSP-313) off Mare Island on 6 May 1954. She was under going repairs at Mare Island from 8 December 1953 to 13 May 1954. US Navy photo # 21035-5-54, courtesy of Darryl L. Baker.

Except for a 20-month period when she was laid up (1960-61), Perch spent the next 15 years shuttling around the Pacific from the Aleutians to the Gulf of Siam landing groups of Navy UDT teams, Army Green Berets, and Allied troops upto company-sized on exercise beaches under all conditions. While equipment was stored in an external dry deck shelter bolted to the outside of the hull aft of the conning tower, the embarked commandos had to hot bunk with the crew. Since there were some 70 enlisted berths, this meant an additional 70 foot soldiers could be taken aboard, if uncomfortably.

Perch (ASSP-313),during exercises with reconnaissance troops from the 1st Marine Division off the coast of California. In addition to many internal changes, the Perch's conning tower structure had been extended and additional masts and shears added by January 1957, when this photo was taken.USN photo and text from The American Submarine by Norman Polmar, courtesy of Robert Hurst via Navsource

Perch (ASSP-313),during exercises with reconnaissance troops from the 1st Marine Division off the coast of California. In addition to many internal changes, the Perch’s conning tower structure had been extended and additional masts and shears added by January 1957, when this photo was taken.USN photo and text from The American Submarine by Norman Polmar, courtesy of Robert Hurst via Navsource

Yes, this IS a submarine with an Amtrac aboard. Perch (ASSP-313) preparing to launch an LVT amphibious tractor during a 1949 exercise. The vehicle could be carried in the cargo hangar and launched by flooding down the submarine. USN photo and text from The American Submarine by Norman Polmar, courtesy of Robert Hurst.

Yes, this IS a submarine with an Amtrac aboard. Perch (ASSP-313) preparing to launch an LVT amphibious tractor during a 1949 exercise. The vehicle could be carried in the cargo hangar and launched by flooding down the submarine. USN photo and text from The American Submarine by Norman Polmar, courtesy of Robert Hurst.

While many of her class had been upgraded or decommissioned, Perch remained largely in her WWII configuration, even retaining some of her deck guns in an era when most submarines in the fleet had removed theirs.

Then came Vietnam. From August 1965-October 1966 she landed UDT troops as well as South Vietnamese commandos up and down the coastline, performing classified “Deck House” beach reconnaissance missions and “Dagger Thrust” amphibious landings. You see these old smokers could come much closer to shore than many other warships, capable of floating in 17 feet of seawater when surfaced. This made them popular for these littoral missions conducted in the dark of night, especially in areas without much enemy ASW capability.

 

Perch was more or less a dedicated frogman ride from 1948-1967.

Perch was more or less a dedicated frogman ride from 1948-1967.

It was during this Indochina service that Perch became the last U.S. submarine to conduct a surface gunfire action.

The last gun-armed US Submarine in commission was USS Perch APSS-313. She was armed with a wet mount 40MM cannon on a sponson forward of the bridge and a 40MM cannon on the cigarette deck. Her last battle stations gun-action took place on August 20, 21, 1966 near Qui Nhon viet Nam. Perch opened fire with both 40MM’s and .50 Cal machine guns to assist extraction of a UDT team that was receiving Viet Cong fire from the beach. On the night of August 21, 1966 lying to on the surface 500 yards from shore she again opened fire with her deck guns and machine guns on enemy troops moving into position around a small ARVN force on the beach. Several secondary explosions of VC ordnance was observed. The ARVN force was extracted. USS Perch was relieved by USS Tunny APSS-282 the following month. Perch returned stateside for decommissioning. Tunny had several members of her crew trained for rigging topside to allow UDT teams to concentrate on the mission, and a portion of the crew trained as a “reaction force” to assist UDT extraction, or repel an enemy vessel. Tunny carried .50 Cal Machine Guns as did many smoke boats that operated in that area. Source–SEALS, UDT/SEAL Ops in Viet Nam, T.L. Bosiljevac, Ivy books New York, 1990.

Her third war over, Perch was sent back home and used as a training and auxiliary vessel, rarely getting underway after 1968. On 1 December 1971 she was decommissioned and, at age 27, stricken. She was sold for scrap in 1973.

The Homecoming, original painting of a Balao class sub by artist John Meeks

The Homecoming, original painting of a Balao class sub by artist John Meeks

While Perch no longer exists, of her 121 other Balao-class sisters, one (Tusk) is still in some sort of service with the Taiwanese Navy while at least eight are preserved in the U.S.

Please visit one near you if you can and remember the old Perch.

USS Batfish (SS-310) at War Memorial Park in Muskogee, Oklahoma.
USS Becuna (SS-319) at Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
USS Bowfin (SS-287) at USS Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park in Honolulu, Hawaii
USS Clamagore (SS-343) at Patriot’s Point in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.
USS Ling (SS-297) at New Jersey Naval Museum in Hackensack, New Jersey.
USS Lionfish (SS-298) at Battleship Cove in Fall River, Massachusetts.
USS Pampanito (SS-383) at San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park.
USS Razorback (SS-394) at Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum in North Little Rock, Arkansas.

Specs:

Balao Class Submarine
(As built)
Displacement: 1,526 tons (1,550 t) surfaced
2,424 tons (2,463 t) submerged
Length:     311 ft 9 in (95.02 m)
Beam:     27 ft 3 in (8.31 m)
Draft:     16 ft 10 in (5.13 m) maximum
Propulsion:
4 × General Motors Model 16-278A V16 diesel engines driving electrical generators
2 × 126-cell Sargo batteries
4 × high-speed General Electric electric motors with reduction gears
two propellers
5,400 shp (4.0 MW) surfaced
2,740 shp (2.0 MW) submerged
Speed:     20.25 knots (38 km/h) surfaced
8.75 knots (16 km/h) submerged
Range:     11,000 nautical miles (20,000 km) surfaced at 10 knots (19 km/h)
Endurance:     48 hours at 2 knots (3.7 km/h) submerged
75 days on patrol
Test depth:     400 ft (120 m)
Complement: 10 officers, 70–71 enlisted. After 1948, 75 commandos for short periods.
Armament:     10 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes
(six forward, four aft) 24 torpedoes
1 × 5-inch (127 mm) / 25 caliber deck gun, Oerlikon 20 mm cannon (Removed 1948)
Bofors 40 mm

If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find http://www.warship.org/

The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.

Nearing their 50th Anniversary, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

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WASP Special Delivery by Gil Cohen

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The time: Late Autumn, 1944.
The place: The tarmac of the Lockheed Aircraft Plant in Burbank, CA

A group of four Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) are gathered around their flight leader. She is kneeling and pointing to a significant rendezvous point on an aerial map, reinforcing the path of the WASP flight plan. Their mission is to ferry five P-38 Lightning fighters to a port of embarkation where the planes will be shipped to bases overseas.

(click to big up)

(click to big up)

During WWII the WASP organization was largely made up of the Women’s Flying Training Detachment (WFTD) and the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAF). It was formed to free male pilots for combat duty overseas. Of the 25,000 women who applied, fewer than 1,900 were accepted. In addition to ferrying aircraft from factories, their duties included towing targets for anti-aircraft practice, simulated strafing and transporting cargo. During this time they flew nearly every type of military aircraft. In the course of performing their duties, 38 women lost their lives.
More here


Warship Wednesday Sept 3: Four Italian sisters in Argentine service

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Here at LSOZI, we are going to take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all of their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.

- Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday Sept 3: Four Italian sisters in Argentine service.

click to bigup

click to bigup

Here we see the Giuseppe Garibaldi-class armored cruiser Armada de la República Argentina (ARA) General Giuseppe Garibaldi of the Argentine Navy as she appeared around the turn of the century in her gleaming white and buff scheme. She was a ship representative of her time, and her class outlived most of their contemporaries.

Ordered from Gio. Ansaldo & C shipbuilders, Genoa, Italy, in 1894 the General Giuseppe Garibaldi was designed by Italian naval architect Edoardo Masdea to provide a ship, smaller than a 1st-rate battleship, yet larger and stronger than any cruiser that could oppose it.

One large 10-inch gun fore and another aft gave these ships some punch.

One large 10-inch gun fore and another aft gave these ships some punch.

The concept predated battle cruisers by a decade or two and had its apex at the Battle of Tsushima, where so-called ‘armored cruisers’ gave a poor showing of themselves. The final nail in the coffin of the armored cruiser design was the Battle of the Falklands in 1914 in which a German force of armored and light cruisers under Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee was annihilated by a group of larger and faster RN battle cruisers of Vice-Admiral Doveton Sturdee.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves…

The Garibaldi class was innovative for 1894, with a 344-foot long, 7200-ton hull capable of making 20-knots and sustaining a range of more than 7,000 nm at 12. Although made in Italy, she was almost all-British from her Armstrong batteries to her Bellville boilers to her Whitehead torpedoes and Harvey armor.

Armored with a belt that ran up-to 5.9-inches thick, she could take hits from faster cruisers and gunboats while being able to dish out punishment from a pair of Armstrong 10-inch guns that no ship smaller than her could absorb. Capable of outrunning larger ships, she also had a quartet of torpedo tubes and extensive rapid fire secondary batteries to make life hard on the enemy’s small ships and merchantmen.

ARA San Martin
She was designed for power projection on a budget and the Argentine Navy, facing a quiet arms race between Brazil and Chile on each side, needed modern ships.

They therefore scooped up not only the Garibaldi (commissioned in 1895) but also the follow-on sister-ships General Belgrano and General San Martín ( built by Orlando of Livorno in 1896) and Genoa-made Pueyrredón (1898) to make a quartet of powerful cruisers. These ships, coupled with the Rivadavia-class battleships ordered later in the U.S., helped make the Argentine navy for a period of about two decades the eighth most powerful in the world (after the big five European powers, Japan, and the United States), and the largest in Latin America.

Belgrao making steam with a bone in her mouth. These chunky cruisers could make 20-knots, which was fast for 1894 when they were designed

Belgrano making steam with a bone in her mouth. These chunky cruisers could make 20-knots, which was fast for 1894 when they were designed

The gunboat diplomacy of these ships soon paid off, with Belgrano being used as the signing platform for the 1899 peace treaty between Argentina and Chile to settle the Puna de Atacama dispute.

These ships proved so popular when built, in fact, that Spain quickly ordered a pair (one of which, Cristóbal Colón, was soon sunk in the Spanish-American War), Italy picked up three more (including confusingly enough, one also named Giuseppe Garibaldi-- he was an Italian hero after all!) and Japan acquired two of their own in the 1900s.

ARA Pueyrredon. Note deck awnings in use.

ARA Pueyrredon. Note deck awnings in use and extensive view of broadside secondary casemated guns

The four Argentine ships long outlived their foreign sisters.

Although the country had built a huge naval armada, they remained on the sidelines during a number of crisis in their time. The country remained more or less (some would contend less) neutral in both World Wars as well as in regional conflicts. They did, however, often sail the world and show the flag. Garibaldi for instance, was often seen in Caribbean ports while Belgrano made an extensive European tour in 1927, spending most of that year overseas.

One of the more popular assignments for theses ships over their lifetimes were yearly midshipmen cruises. Typically from August to December, they would alternate between circumnavigating the continent to trips to Europe and Africa.

El ARA Pueyrredónn

For example, in 1941, with the world at war, ARA Pueyrredon still had time to travel some 14,964 miles from Puerto Belgrano to New Orleans and back, stopping for lengthy port stays at such popular destinations as Havana, Rio, and Aruba.

San Martin warping into harbor

San Martin warping into harbor. Photo by City of Art

By 1920 Garibaldi– the Argentine one– was in poor condition and relegated to duty as a training ship while her three sisters were modernized, disarmed a good bit, and overhauled. By 20 March 1934, with the world in a global recession, Garibaldi was stricken, cannibalized so that her classmates could live longer lives, and sold for scrap at the end of 1936.

ara_belgrano_chococard

ARA San Martin was stricken 8 December 1935 but retained for twelve years as a dockside depot ship and scrapped in 1947.

ARA Gen. Belgrano, who was used after 1933 as a submarine tender, was stricken May 8, 1947 and sold in 1953.

ARA Pueyrredon in Dublin in 1951. At this point this pre-SpanAm War vet was pushing her sixth decade at sea.

ARA Pueyrredon in Dublin in 1951. At this point this pre-SpanAm War vet was pushing her sixth decade at sea. Her white and buff scheme long since replaced by haze gray with black caps. Note, she still has her 10-inch Armstrong guns, although by the 1950s 254mm blackpowder bagged naval shells were very out of style to say the least. Photo by Historymar

Finally, ARA Pueyrredon, as far as I can tell, was the last ‘operational’ armored cruiser in naval service in the world. As late as 1951 the veteran was making cruises to Europe to show the blue and white banner of the Argentine navy while training naval officers. That summer she moved more than 20,000 miles underway on a round trip from Buenos Aires, Pernambuco, Liverpool, Dublin, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Le Havre, Naples, Genoa, Villefranche, Barcelona, ​​Casa-blanca, Dakar, Santos, back to Buenos Aires.

She was stricken on 2 August 1954 after nearly six decades in commission, spending half of that as a training ship assigned to the Naval Academy, and towed in 1954 to Japan to be scrapped.

ex-Pueyrredon being towed, 1954

ex-Pueyrredon being towed, 1954. Photo by Historymar

Thus she outlived by two years what is considered by many to be the last armored cruiser afloat, the Greek Navy’s Georgios Averof (c.1911) which was decommissioned in 1952.

Sadly, the only monument to these beautiful and hard-serving Argentine ships is the bow coat of arms from ARA Pueyrredon, preserved on the grounds of Argentine Naval Academy.

The Argentine Sun of May (Spanish: Sol de Mayo) national emblem on the bowcrest of ARA Pueyrredon

The Argentine Sun of May (Spanish: Sol de Mayo) national emblem on the bowcrest of ARA Pueyrredon

Specs:

Planta-GiuseppeGaribaldi

Displacement: 7,069 long tons (7,182 t)
Length:     344 ft 2 in (104.9 m)
Beam:     50 ft 8 in (15.4 m)
Draught:     23 ft 4 in (7.1 m)
Installed power:     13,000 ihp (9,700 kW)
Propulsion:     2 shafts, vertical triple-expansion steam engines
8 cylindrical Bellville boilers (replaced 1920s)
Speed:     20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph) as designed. Later 15-knots after 1925.
Range: 7000 nm at 12 knots on 1,000 tons coal. Later 4200 nm at 9kts after 1925 refits.
Complement: 520 as designed (typical Argentine service, 25 officers, 300 crew or 28 officers; 60-95 cadets; 275 crew)

Armament:     (As commissioned, greatly reduced after 1925)
2×1 – Armstrong 10-inch (254 mm) guns
10×1 – 152mm Armstrong rapid fire (120mm in Garibaldi)
10×1 – 57mm 6-pounder Nordenfeldt guns
8×1 37mm Hotchkiss guns
2×1 8mm Maxim water cooled machine guns
4×1 – 18-inch (457 mm) torpedo tubes with Whitehead fish (Five tubes in ARA Pueyrredon)
+ 2×1 – 3-inch (75 mm) guns landing guns (cañones de desembarcode)

Armour:  (All Harvey-type armor)
Belt: 3.1–5.9 in (79–150 mm)
Barbettes: 5.9 in (150 mm)
Gun turrets: 5.9 in (150 mm)
Conning tower: 5.9 in (150 mm)

If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find http://www.warship.org/

The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.

Nearing their 50th Anniversary, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

I’m a member, so should you be!


The Grants go into action

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The Grants go into action - El Alamein

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“The Grants go into action – El Alamein,” circa November 1942, by Peter McIntyre, OBE, (1910-1995)  a soldier and official war artist serving New Zealand during the Second World War. McIntyre served as an anti-tank gunner with the 2NZEF in Egypt, from April 1940 and you can feel how well he knew the subject matter in the piece.

This image depicts the use of ‘Grant’ tanks at El Alamein. The ‘Grant’ tank was a derivative of the American-built M3 medium tank, known by the British as the ‘General Lee’ (after General Robert E. Lee). The ‘Grant’ M3 medium tank was a modified version built to British specifications (named after General Ulysses S. Grant). Allied forces used the ‘Grant’ during the North African Campaign (Archives New Zealand)

 


The exiled White Russian officers, an 80 year odyssey

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When the Tsar of Holy Russia was kicked from the throne by his own act of abdication in March 1917, he set in motion a chain of events that led to a short-lived democratic government swept away by the later Red October revolution. This, in turn, sparked an almost immediate civil war and famine that left the country fractured and largely turned to ash. You know, the last half of Dr. Zhivago.

Tsarist Imperial Navy Admiral Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak, who led the White Russian volunteer army in Siberia against the Bolshevik Reds. Things didnt work out too well for The Admiral, who before the war was a noted polar explorer. When turned over to the Reds by his own troops, he was interrogated, led to a hole in the ice of the frozen Agara River, and told he was to be executed. The Admiral asked the commander of the firing squad, "Would you be so good as to get a message sent to my wife in Paris to say that I bless my son?" as his last words, then was shot and stuffed through the ice as depicted in this painting by FA Moskvitin.

Tsarist Imperial Navy Admiral Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak, who led the White Russian volunteer army in Siberia against the Bolshevik Reds. Things didnt work out too well for The Admiral, who before the war was a noted polar explorer. When turned over to the Reds by his own troops, he was interrogated, led to a hole in the ice of the frozen Agara River, and told he was to be executed. The Admiral asked the commander of the firing squad, “Would you be so good as to get a message sent to my wife in Paris to say that I bless my son?” as his last words, then was shot and stuffed through the ice as depicted in this painting by FA Moskvitin.

After the anti-communist Whites lost the Civil War (1917-22), some two million Russians fled to all points of the globe. If they didn’t leave, certain death was sure to follow. In short, they lost their Russian privileges when they lost the war.

Nearly a quarter of these were military men who quite naturally formed veterans groups such as the Society of Gallipoli and the Russian Common Military Union (ROVS). This latter organization, founded in 1924 and led by former General Grand Duke Nicholas, then Lt-Gen Baron Wrangel, numbered some 100,000 members spread around the world within just a couple years. These organizations were officer-heavy, as many of the rank and file of the White volunteer armies were either professional military officers under the Tsar, or were officer cadets at one of more than 100 military schools spread across the country. These officers in exile tended to band together.

Lieutenant General PN Pyotr Wrangel (bottom row, second from left), next to Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky) and other Russian émigrés in Yugoslavia 1927. Although this group had left Russia more than seven years prior to this picture, they still have immaculate uniforms. Soviet agents would soon poison Wrangel within a year of this image.

Lieutenant General PN Pyotr Wrangel (bottom row, second from left), next to Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky) and other Russian émigrés in Yugoslavia 1927. Although this group had left Russia more than seven years prior to this picture, they still have immaculate uniforms. Soviet agents would soon poison Wrangel within a year of this image.

For a generation in the 1920s and 30s, ROVS formed an exile Army in waiting and held large training camps and schools in which battalion and even regimental size units participated. The old generals had troops to salute. The young children born overseas who had never seen Russia were given an idealized account of life in the good old days under the father Tsar. Most of all, the exiles maintained some sort of legitimate military cohesion.

Indeed, in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, a nearly division-sized force of Whites patrolled the borders of that country looking for smugglers. The 2nd Cavalry Regiment of the French Foreign Legion (2REC), a unit that still survives today, was formed in Northern Africa in the 1920s from former cossacks and guards cavalry of the Tsar. The foreign legation in Shanghai was patrolled by a White Russian regiment employed by the Shanghai police until 1942.

These veterans groups also formed underground units to send sabotage and intelligence gathering teams into the Soviet Union. Under the auspices of such names as the Brotherhood of Russian Truth and the Fighting Organization General Kutepov, (which in Cyrillic has the unenviable abbreviation BORK), they gave the Reds a series of bloody noses.  This got the attention of the Soviets and the OGPU/NKVD soon started rubbing out influential White Russian officers in the West, including Gen. Kutepov himself, bundled out of France in a trunk by three OGPU agents back to Moscow, his ultimate fate still unknown for sure.  Kutepov’s replacement, Lt-Gen. EK Miller, was likewise liquidated.

Kutepov

Kutepov

Other Russian officers became soldiers of fortune. They appeared in Mexico during the government oppression of the Cristeros and as well as in the Chaco Wars in Latin America in the 1930s where Maj-Generals NF Erna and IT Belyaev helped keep the Paraguayans in the fight against, ironically, German-led Bolivians.

Whites then showed up in the Spanish Civil War carrying the torch for Franco, with some 34 émigrés, including former Maj. Gen Fok, killed in action. Many a Chinese warlord of the period owed their military might to the assistance of a former Tsarist commander.

In 1934 one infamous Boris Skossyreff, a self-styled former White Russian officer, once adviser to the Japanese Army, and full-time con man seized power in the tiny nation of Andorra (pop 20,000), calling himself “Boris I, Prince of the Valleys of Andorra, Count of Orange and Baron of Skossyreff, sovereign of Andorra and defender of the faith.” Spain, it would seem, who is jointly in charge along with France of Andorra’s defense in times of war, two weeks later sent a group of military police into the country to politely show Boris I the fastest way over the Pyreness. This did not stop him from serving later in the German Army in World War II.

The image of a scarred White Russian officer, wandering the globe from conflict to conflict like a Ronin of Old Japan, or a Mandalorian of a galaxy far, far, away became familiar trope between the World Wars.

When WWII came, many of these now elderly officers dusted off their spurs and helped to form the 30,000-strong XV Cossack Cavalry Corps in the German Army (who began the war often in the uniform of the Russian Imperial Army!). Leaders, in spirit if not in deed, included Kuban Cossack Maj-Gen. Pytor Kransov, the swashbuckling White bandit Andrei Shkuro, Sultan Kelech Ghirey, and Timofey Domanov among others. While the corps mostly fought against Yugoslav red partisans and was able to withdraw in good order to Austria at the end of the war to surrender to the British, they were handed over to the Soviets for execution and exile in Siberia.

Cossack Maj. Gen Vyacheslav Naumenko (tall)  and Lt. Gen Andrei Shkuro (short) seen insepecting Hitler's cossacks during World War II. These elderly White generals did not lead troops during the war, but helped with support, morale and recruiting among captured Soviet army personnel. Naumenko survived the war, escaping to the U.S. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=82187251 while Shkuro was turned over by the British to the Soviets and hung in 1947.

Cossack Maj.-Gen. Vyacheslav Naumenko (tall) and Lt.-Gen Andrei Shkuro (short) seen inspecting Hitler’s cossacks during World War II. These elderly White generals did not lead troops during the war, but helped with support, morale and recruiting among captured Soviet army personnel. Naumenko survived the war, escaping to the U.S. while Shkuro was turned over by the British to the Soviets and hung in 1947. Note the decorations for the old Emperor Nicholas Military Academy on Naumenko’s lower left tunic along with the Cross of St Ann. The medal on the upper left tunic, is the Ice March award, showing a sword piercing a crown of thorns, awarded to White volunteers who survived the 1st Kuban Campaign in 1918.

A smaller unit of Whites, operating under the protection of the Imperial Japanese Army in Manchuria, was likewise dismantled in 1945 by the Soviets first-hand once they occupied that region.

Don’t get the idea that the Whites just worked for the Germans or Japanese. They also carried water for the Allies as well. It should be noted that most professional European armies, especially countries in the east such as Yugoslavia, Poland, and Greece, prior to 1939 contained cadres of field-grade officers who cut their teeth in the service to the Tsar.

One former Imperial Russian naval officer, George Ermolaevich Chaplin, fled to England to exile and became a major in the British Army, even leading a group of engineers ashore at Normandy on D-Day. He later retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel as the head of the Royal Pioneers. Moreover, of course you cannot forget exiled Georgian Prince Dimitri Zedguinidze-Amilakhvari, who died as a Lt. Col in the French Foreign Legion during the Second Battle of El Alamein against the Germans.

Heck even Finland’s Field Marshal Carl Mannerheim had learned his military service in the Imperial Guards– and was such a fierce monarchist, he was forced to leave Russia at the onset of the Revolution for Finland under penalty of prison.

Immediately following the war, the CIA made careful efforts to revitalize the vehemently anti-communist White officer groups by using them as a backdoor into the old country. However, this was only marginally successful as whatever contacts they had that Stalin had missed, time soon claimed.

By the 1960s, with even the youngest of these exiled, stateless officers in their seniors, the veterans groups became smaller and smaller. The battalion sized gatherings were no more. Typically, meetings would be held with only a handful of veterans from the First World War/Russian Civil War at the head, with the bulk of attendees instead being sons and grandsons of such men. With this, the group lost its last semblance of a military force in exile and became more of a historical and genealogical association.

Lampe

Lampe

The final Imperial Army general in exile, Alexei von Lampe, who had served in the Russo-Japanese War, was a member of the Tsar’s General Staff at Stavka during WWI, and had led ROVS for the last ten years of his life died in Paris in 1967 at age 81. Old von Lampe had served as an intelligence organizer during the Russian Civil War and the Nazi’s thought him such a threat that they threw him in prison in Germany in the 1930s. Odds are he likely remembered where a lot of bodies were buried. Indeed, the Nazis let him go and he continued to live in Berlin until 1945 when he beat feet.

Harzhevsky

Harzhevsky

The last of the White Russian generals, Vladimir G. Harzhevsky, had started World War I as a reserve ensign in the 47th Infantry Regiment. Advancing through the ranks, he was a captain by the time the Tsar fell and later rose meteorically through the officer list of the Southern White Russian army under Denikin and later Wrangel, making Maj. Gen in Sept 1920 at the age of 28. However just three months later, he was exiled when the shattered remnants of Wrangel’s forces were evacuated from the Crimea. Bouncing around Europe for decades, he settled finally in New Jersey. Picking up the helm of ROVS on von Lampe’s death, being the senior most officer left, he died in 1981 at age 89.

Smyslovskiy as a cadet

Smyslovskiy as a cadet

The last of the old guard who wore the epaulettes of an officer in the Tsar’s military was one Boris Smyslovskiy. Born in 1897, Boris was a military academy cadet (junkers) in the 1st Moscow Cadet Corps (Mikhailovsky academy) when the First World War erupted. As a young Lieutenant, he was wounded in the Russian Revolution, fighting against the Reds in Moscow in October 1917. He went on to serve in the White Army under Denikin, as a captain then a major, before exile in Germany. Taking up with various underground groups there, he found himself working for the Abwehr (German army intelligence), helping to run agents in Poland and the Ukraine. During World War Two, Smyslovskiy took a commission in the German army as a Major in the Wehrmacht, and was leading a battalion of Russian troops on the Eastern Front by the end of the war. In March 1945, he led some 500 Russian veterans of the German army into exile once again, crossing over into tiny but neutral Liechtenstein where he surrendered to the principality’s 33-man army. While the Soviets steadfastly petitioned the Liechtenstein government to hand over Smyslovskiy on war crimes, they did not. He then wandered to Argentina in 1947 and became an adviser to Peron’s army before returning to Liechtenstein in 1966. Smyslovskiy died in 1988, just before the Berlin Wall came down.

The ROVS organization continued in the West for another decade, its commanders being chosen from men who were officers in White Russian units in World War Two, as all of the Tsar’s few good men were gone. The last commander of ROVS in the West was Cadet Vladimir Vishnevsky. Born in 1917 and leaving the country of his birth for the last time in 1922, he had served in the Yugoslav Royal Army before joining the German/White Russian Corps during World War Two, rising to the rank of an officer cadet in the organization.

Finally in 2000, after 76 years, RVOS  dissolved (after Vishnevsk’s death) as even this pool of veterans dwindled. However, with the recent resurgence of Tsarist love in the new Russia, a Moscow-based version has taken its place.

In a final gesture of homecoming, the remains of General Anton Ivanovich Denikin and his wife, who were buried in the Orthodox Cossack St. Vladimir’s Cemetery in New Jersey, were repatriated to Russia in 2005.

deniken funeral

He was buried with military honors and is now seen as something of a patriot there, bringing the saga to a full circle.

 


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