During the 16 weeks in the late summer and early fall of 1940, the RAF took on the so-far undefeated Luftwaffe over the skies of the British Isles and inflicted the first true defeat suffered by the Germans in WWII. Those scrappy handfuls of Commonwealth (and a few American, Polish, Czech and French) pilots and accompanying ground artillery were able to down some 1887 German aircraft and forestall an invasion of the UK.

These pilots included over 100 Canadians of the RCAF’s No. 1 Squadron (later renamed 401 Squadron) and the Royal Air Force’s 242 “All Canadian” Squadron, of whom 23 lost their lives.

In honoring these airmen, the CF-18 Demonstration Hornet of the RCAF this year is a 1940 throwback:

“The top side paint scheme is patterned after the early 1940s earth tone and dark green camouflage used on Royal Air Force and Commonwealth Hawker Hurricane Mark IIs and Supermarine Spitfires during the Battle of Britain.”

This year’s CF-18 Hornet Demonstration Aircraft, seen here at 3 Wing Bagotville on March 30th, 2015, commemorates the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. Image: LS Alex Roy, Atelier d’imagerie Bagotville. BN01-2015-0189-002 CLICK TO BIG UP

This year’s CF-18 Hornet Demonstration Aircraft gets towed out to the flight line after it’s unveiling at CFB Bagotville in Saguenay, Qué. on March 27th, 2015. Click to big up

The 2015 CF-18 Hornet Demonstration Aircraft is unveiled at a ceremony held at 3 Wing Bagotville in Saguenay, Québec on 27 March 2015. Image: LS Alex Roy, Atelier d’imagerie Bagotville.a BN01-2015-0186-005 CLICK TO BIG UP

The CF-18 is from 425 Tactical Fighter Squadron “Skylarks” (425e Escadron d’appui tactique, “Alouette”) who flew Wellingtons during WWII

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 their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places. – Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday April 15, 2015: Big Jean

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Here we see the Richelieu-class battleship of the French Republic’s Marine Nationale Jean Bart racing forward on speed trials in 1949. Her distinctive all-forward main battery of eight 15-inch guns in twin quad turrets is very apparent.

France rather tried to distance themselves from the modern dreadnought game after the end of World War 1, figuring that with the destruction of the Austrian battleships in the Med, and the Kaiser’s battleships at Scapa Flow in 1920; all was well in the world. Then came Hitler and his rebuilding of the German Navy to include the Deutschland class pocket battleships while Mussolini came to power in Italy and the new fascist government there building their very modern 40,000-ton Littorio-class battleships. As an answer to the first, the Republic ordered two 25,000-ton Dunkerque-class battleships in the early 1930s and as an answer to the latter (as well as the pair of German 38,000-ton Scharnhorst-class battleships laid down in 1935), the French ordered a quartet of massive new warships– the Richelieu‘s.

Class leader Richelieu in a beautiful color portrait. Click to big up

With a standard displacement of 35,000-tons to comply with the Washington and London Naval treaties (although this would balloon to nearly 50,000 when fully loaded), these 813-foot long beasts were among the largest battleships ever built and remain the largest French warships ever to put to sea. Even today, the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle (R91), flagship of the French Navy and largest European warship afloat, only maxes out at 42,000-tons.

Unlike many battlewagons before them, these were fast battleships, capable of breaking 30-knots if needed due to a quartet of Parsons geared turbines that generated more than 150,000 shp. With long legs, these ships were capable of a 10,000-mile cruise at 16-knots, enabling them to travel to far off Pacific territories such as Indochina if needed (more on this later).

Designed to be able to take German 28 cm/54.5 (11 inch) SK C/34 fire as well as that from Italian 381 mm (15.0 in) L/50 guns, these leviathans were girded in as much as 17-inches of armor plate and mounted eight 15-inch 380mm/45 Modèle 1935 guns, the largest caliber naval gun ever fielded in French service. They could fire a 1950-pound diving shell to a range of 45,600 yds. A secondary armament of 9x152mm guns in three triple turrets over the stern could handle light work.

Those are pretty impressive turrets

Laid down at Chantiers de Penhoët, Saint-Nazaire on 12 December 1936, the second ship of the Richelieu-class was named Jean Bart after a notorious pirate privateer and naval commander.

This Flemish swashbuckler from Dunkirk, who spelled his name “Jan Baert,” was much man, at over 6 ft. 8″ and topping some 400-pounds. This size didn’t stop big Jan/Jean, who cut his teeth in the Dutch Navy, from capturing an amazing 386 ships as a privateer during the late 17th Century and rising to the rank of full Admiral in the French Navy. A rather incorrect svelte statue stands to him in Dunkirk today and no less than 27 ships of the French Navy have carried his moniker, including their last completed battleship.

The French corsair

When World War II came, class leader Richelieu was nearing completion at Brest while Jean Bart was still a bit further way. Only 75 percent complete and mounting just half of her big guns, she took to the sea on June 19, 1940 as Metropolitan France was surrendering to the Germans, and made a break for the French North African port of Casablanca.

The third and fourth members of the class, Clemenceau and Gascogne were not far enough along in their construction to even be considered ships (and were never completed).

How she looked in 1940 via shipbucket click to very much big up

Jean sat at Casablanca during the awkward Vichy French years, spending the next 29 months of the war languishing as there were no construction facilities to complete her and most of her smaller caliber guns were landed ashore to set up coast defense and AAA batteries in the city and harbor.

The French battleship Jean Bart, photographed by USN Photographers Mate Third Class Bill Wade from an airplane of the USS Ranger, Nov 8 1942

Then, on Nov 8, 1942, the Allied Torch landings occurred and Jean Bart defended her colonial harbor from dockside from the 16-inch guns of the new SoDak-class battleship USS Massachusetts (BB-59) and the Dauntless dive bombers and Avenger torpedo planes of the carrier USS Ranger (CV-4) over the next three days she fired 25 shells from her one operational 15-inch turret which narrowly missed the Mass and the cruiser Augusta.

Nevertheless, with the Bart stationary, incomplete and by far outnumbered, the battle was a forgone conclusion. At least seven 16-inch shells (fired from Massachusetts from a range of over 24,000 yards) and a number of bombs hit her, sinking in with her decks awash.

A cartoon from the BB-59’s cruise book recounting how close the Jean Bart’s shells came to wrecking her day. USN photo courtesy of James E. Hesson, plank-owner of the Massachusetts (BB-59). Photo submitted in his memory by his son, Joe Hesson. Via Navsource

It was the only time that U.S. and French battleships fought in the steel era and she gave a good account of herself for all of her handicaps.

She spent the rest of the war as a hulk in Casablanca and her four 380 mm guns were salvaged and sent to New York where they were emplaced on Richelieu who had went over to the Free French Navy and was being refitted there.

re floated at Casablanca

That sistership put Bart’s guns to good use in both the European and Pacific Theaters of operation as well as in French Indochina.

French battleship Richelieu at sea, September 1943 after her refit in New York. Half her main guns in this image came from Jean Bart and had fired at Casablanca. Click to big up

Finally, four months after Hitler ate a bullet, big Jean was sent back to France and work began to complete her at Cherbourg.

How she looked in 1945 with wartime repairs and no armament fitted via Ship Bucket  click to very much big up

Commissioned on 16 January 1949, she made 32-knots on her speed trials and was finally ready for sea duty– and for the first time was fully armed.

Getting her new 380mm Model 35s installed, 1948. As far as I can tell, these were the last battleship guns ever installed in a new battleship (barring the 1950s re-barreling of the Iowa class in the U.S.)

1948 off St. Nazaire, France

In the early 1950s, she sailed on a number of good will trips around Europe and to New York but was never fully manned; only carrying half-crews due to postwar funding shortfalls. She was more of a heavily armed and armored cruise ship and flag-waver than an active ship of the line.

Jean Bart alongside cruisers Suffren and Montcalm, 1950s

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In the Suez Crisis of 1956, she sailed with the joint Anglo-French fleet with an augmented near-full sized crew and provided some brief naval gunfire support, firing her big 15-inchers in anger once more. As a sad note, on the afternoon of 30 January 1956, she was briefly reunited with her old classmate Richelieu while at sea, the one and only time the two French ships maneuvered together underway.

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Battleship Jean Bart in Harbor of Toulon 1968

Placed in reserve in 1957 after just an eight-year career, she was decommissioned soon afterwards. Cantieri Navali Santa Maria of Genoa scrapped Richelieu in September 1968 while Jean Bart, the last European battleship afloat, was scrapped 24 June 1970 at Brégaillon near Toulon.

Today, at least six of Richelieu/Jean Bart‘s guns are maintained as museum pieces around France. However, you can visit the USS Massachusetts, the winner of the Great Casablanca Battlewagon Duel, at Falls River where she has been on display since the 1965.

Battleship_Massachusetts,_2012 (Photo via Wiki)

Specs

Jean Bart in her final form 1955 via Shipbucket click to very much big up

Displacement: 35,000 tons standard as designed, 48,950 t at full load, in 1949
Length: 813 feet
Beam: 114 feet
Draught: 33 feet
Propulsion: four Parsons geared turbines, six Indret boilers. 150,000 hp (112 MW)
Speed: 32 knots at trials, 20 designed
Range: 9800 nautical miles at 16 knots, 7671 nautical miles at 20 knots; 3181 nautical miles at 30 knots
Complement: 1620 designed, 911 men in 1950 (incomplete), 1,280 men during the Suez affair
Armament:
As Designed:
8 × 380mm (15 inch)/45 Modèle 1935 guns in quadruple mounts at bow
9 × 152 mm (6 inch) secondary (3 × 3 mounted aft)
12 × 100 mm (3.9 inch) Anti-Aircraft guns (6 × 2)
As completed 1949
8 × 380mm/45 Modèle 1935 guns in quadruple mounts at bow
9 × 152 mm AA in 3 triple turrets at the aft till 1952–53
8 × 40 mm AA
20 × 20 mm AA
From 1953–54
Two 15-inch turrets fitted, only one operational
24 × 100 mm in 12 twin mountings CAD Model 1945
28 × 57 mm in 14 twin mountings ACAD Model 1950
Armor: Belt: 330 mm
Upper armored deck: 150–170 mm
Lower armored deck: 40 mm
Aircraft: Designed for four seaplanes, never fitted.

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!

I’ve long been a fan of the cruiser-hulled light carrier USS Independence (CVL-22) and her class on the blog. She was rushed into service when the Pacific Fleet was whittled down to almost a single operational flattop in 1943 then cast out after a pair of A-bomb tests left her wrecked after the War. Scuttled off California in 1951, her estimated position has long been known.

Light aircraft carrier USS Independence, after the Bikini Atoll nuclear bomb test.

Well NOAA in conjunction with private industry partners, has confirmed the location and condition of the USS Independence. Resting upright in 2,600 feet of water off California’s Farallon Islands, the aircraft carrier’s hull and flight deck are clearly visible in sonar images, with what appears to be a plane in the carrier’s hangar bay.

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More here

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 April 22, 2015:  The Music City wingman

Here we see a famous still taken from a 16mm film of a group U.S. Army Air Force B-25 Mitchell bombers loaded on the deck of the carrier USS Hornet (CV-8), April 18, 1942– roughly about 73 years ago this week. The ship in the background? The unsung but always there wingman that is the Brooklyn-class light cruiser USS Nashville (CL-43), the hero of our story.

An answer to the Japanese Mogami-class cruisers of the 1930s that carried an impressive 15 6-inch guns, the seven cruisers of the Brooklyn-class were an excellent design that proved more than capable in service. Although a “light” cruiser, these 606-foot long 12,200-ton vessels were among the largest ever built to be called such and took everything the Germans and Japanese could throw at them in WWII.

Overhead of class-leader USS Brooklyn CL-40 in June 1943. Note the turret configuration

Carrying an armored belt that ran from 2-inches over the deck to 6.5 on their turrets, they were reasonably well sheathed to take on anything but a heavy cruiser or battleship in a surface action. Eight boilers feeding a quartet of Parsons steam turbines gave these ships an impressive 100,000 shp, which allowed them to touch 33-knots– fast enough to keep up with even the speedy destroyers. Capable of covering 10,000 miles on a single load of fuel oil, they could range the Pacific or escort Atlantic convoys without having to top off every five minutes. Four floatplanes allowed these ships to scout ahead and tell the fleet just what was over the horizon.

Finally, an impressive main battery of 15 6″/47DP (15.2 cm) Mark 16 guns in a distinctive five triple turret scheme introduced with the class, gave them teeth. These guns with their 130-pound super heavy shell had almost double the penetration performance when compared against the older 6″/53 (15.2 cm) AP projectiles used for the Omaha class (CL-4) light cruisers. Further, they could fire them fast. One Brooklyn, USS Savannah (CL-42) during gunnery trials in March 1939 fired 138 6-inch rounds in just 60-seconds.

USS Nashville (CL–43) was laid down 24 January 1935 by New York Shipbuilding Corp., Camden, NJ, and commissioned 6 June 1938. A quick shakedown in Europe on the brink of WWII saw her bring some $25 million in gold bars back from the UK, which was deposited in US banks.

When the war broke out, she found herself on neutrality patrols in the Northern Atlantic, often popping up in German U-boat periscopes. She escorted Marines to occupy Iceland in 1941 and after Pearl Harbor received orders to link up with the nation’s newest carrier, Hornet, and escort her to the Pacific.

A view of her just 18 days before the Doolittle Raid. Click to big up

Arriving at Naval Air Station Alameda on 20 March 1942, Nashville stood by while Hornet had part of her Naval airwing offloaded and 16 Army B-25s, 64 modified 500-pound bombs, and 201 USAAF aviators and ground crew transferred aboard.

Putting to sea on April 2, the task force commanded by Vice Adm. Halsey consisted of the Hornet with her escort Nashville, the carrier Enterprise with her three companion heavy cruisers Salt Lake City, Northampton, and Vincennes, as well as a group of destroyers and tankers headed West for points unknown and under great secrecy.

View looking aft from the island of USS Hornet (CV 8), while en route to the mission’s launching point. USS Gwin (DD-433) is coming alongside, as USS Nashville (CL-43) steams in the distance. Eight of the mission’s sixteen B-25B bombers are parked within view, as are two of the ship’s SBD scout bombers. Note midships elevator, torpedo elevator, arresting gear and flight deck barriers in the lower portion of the photo, and 1.1″ quad anti-aircraft machine gun mount at left. Naval History & Heritage Command photo (# NH 53289).

After refueling from the tankers on April 17, the four cruisers and two carriers raced towards Japan. The plan was to launch the first raid on the Home Islands to score a propaganda victory following a string of defeats across the Pacific in the first four months of the war.

However, the group was sighted while still far out to sea. The quick-shooting Nashville rapidly engaged the Japanese ship, Gunboat No. 23 Nittō Maru, and sank her with 6-inch shells, but the little 70-ton boat got off a warning via radio on her way down.

Nito Maru Sunk by Nashville

The 16 bombers lead by Jimmy Doolittle quickly launched into history and the six ships of the task force turned back for safer waters.

Nashville however, still had a long war ahead of her.

As the flagship of the pitifully outgunned Task Force 8, she defended Alaska during the Japanese feint there during the Battle of Midway, and soaked the frozen invaders on Attu and Kiska with 6-inch shells before sailing back and joining the main fleet.

Nashville firing on Kiska, August 8th 1942; the bombardment was run in a racetrack pattern, and Nashville is just turning. Click to big up

She visited the same naval gunfire across the South Pacific and socked Japanese bases at Munda, Kolombangara and New Georgia, covered the landings at Bougainville and the Bismarck Archipelago and just generally popped up everywhere the action was thickest. She covered the raids on the Marcus Islands and Wake; served as McArthur’s flagship for the Hollandia Operations, covered Toem, Wakde, Sarmi Ares, Biak, Mortai, Leyte, Mindoro, et; al.

Broadside view of the USS Nashville (CL 43) off Mare Island on 4 August 1943. She was in overhaul at the shipyard from 4 June until 7 August 1943. U.S. Navy Photo #5624-43.

Leyte Invasion, October 1944 – General Douglas MacArthur (right, seen in profile) on the bridge of USS Nashville (CL 43), off Leyte during the landings there in late October 1944. Standing in the center (also seen in profile) is Lieutenant General George C. Kenney. Photograph from the Army Signal Corps Collection in the U.S. National Archives – USA C-259

Her Marine detachment had a very active service history which is chronicled here.

On 13 December 1944, she took a kamikaze hit on her portside while in the PI that caused over 300 casualties- a third of her crew– but she remained afloat and operational, a testament to both the ship and her sailors.

The ships of her class were known to take a licking and keep on ticking.

Sister USS Honolulu (CL-48) was torpedoed at the Battle of Kolombangara on July 12–13, 1943, and again at Leyte in October 1944 but in each case remained afloat and operational. Classmate USS Boise (CL-47) took a number of hard hits at close range during the Battle of Cape Esperance in 1943. Two 7.9-inch shells from the heavy cruiser Kinugasa exploded in Boise‍ ’​s main ammunition magazine between turrets one and two. The resulting explosion killed almost 100 men and threatened to blow the ship apart– but she finished the battle under her own steam and survived the war.

Another sister, USS Savannah (CL-42), was clobbered by a massive 3,000-pound German Fritz-X bomb while operating in the Med in 1943. Hitting Savannah amidships, it blew the bottom out of the cruiser but she remained afloat and later returned to operations after a rebuild.

USS Savannah (CL-42) is hit by a German radio-controlled glide bomb, while supporting Allied forces ashore during the Salerno operation, 11 September 1943. The bomb hit the top of the ship’s number three 6″/47 gun turret and penetrated deep into her hull before exploding. The photograph shows the explosion venting through the top of the turret and also through Savannah’s hull below the waterline. A motor torpedo boat (PT) is passing by in the foreground. When you think that a pair of Fritz-X’s completely destroyed the 45,000-ton Vittorio Veneto-class battleship Roma, its impressive that a 12,000-ton light cruiser survived such a hit.

One lucky young Radioman 3rd Class aboard Nashville that day who survived the kamikaze hit, Jason Robards, went on to an acting career and an Oscar. Robards had earlier in the war just missed Pearl Harbor by two days then had his cruiser, fellow Doolittle raid vet Northampton, sunk from under him at the Battle of Tassafaronga. It was while on Nashville that Robards emceed for a Navy band in Pearl Harbor, got a few laughs and decided he liked being in front of an audience.

Following repairs, Nashville was back in the front lines, covering the Balikpapan and Brunei Bay operations in June and July 1945. In the months after the war, she was flag of TF73, made an extensive visit to war torn China, conducted two Magic Carpet rides home (one of which saw her take a foundering troopship with 1200 soldiers aboard under tow in heavy seas) and was decommissioned 24 June 1946, after a very hectic 8-year active duty career.

Nashville in Sydney 1944. Note measure 32/21d camo scheme. Click to big up

In all she won 10 battlestars for her active 41-month long Pacific War.

The Navy, flush with more modern cruisers, soon divested themselves of the seven lucky Brooklyn’s.

Two, Honolulu and Savannah, were scrapped, while the other five were part of a large post-war cruiser acquisition by the “ABC Navies” of South America.

USS Boise (CL-47) and Phoenix (CL-46) went to Argentina.

USS Philadelphia (CL-41) went to Brazil.

Class leader Brooklyn along with her wingman Nashville went to Chile in 1951.

While in South America, Nashville served as the Capitán Prat (CL-03) and later as the Chacabuco with the same pennant number. She remained on active duty until 1984 and was scrapped the next year at age 46, one of the last unmodified WWII-era big gun ships afloat at the time.

The cruisers Almirante Latorre  (ex-Swedish Gota Lejon), Prat (formerly USS Nashville), and O’Higgins (formerly USS Brooklyn) underway in Chilean service. Click to big up

The 1970s Chilean battle fleet at play. Possibly the best collection of WWII ships then afloat. Prat/Nashville is to the left. The cruisers Almirante Latorre (ex-Swedish Gota Lejon), is center with her distinctive superstructure, and and O’Higgins (formerly USS Brooklyn) to the image’s right. Click to big up

In all she was one of the most decorated of her class and outlived most of her classmates. She survived her Argentine sisters Boise/ Nueve de Julio (scrapped 1978) and Phoenix/ General Belgrano (sunk in the Falklands May 1982). She also survived her Brazilian partner Philadelphia/Barroso (scrapped in 1973).

Only Brooklyn/O’Higgins, who was finally retired in 1994, outlasted her, although many of Nashville‘s parts were cannibalized to keep that ship afloat for its final decade.

In Chile, her ship’s bell is on display as are two of her main guns.

Ship’s Bell, Museum in Chile

In the states, Nashville is remembered by a veterans group who maintain an excellent website in her honor and relics from her are on display at the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville about a mile from Music City Center.

A book, Humble Heroes has been written about her that is an excellent read.

Specs

Nashville, 1944 in her measure 32/21d camo scheme by Ship Bucket. Click to big up

Displacement: 9,475 tons (8,596 tons)
Length:     608 ft. 4 in (185.42 m)
Beam:     61 ft. 8 in (18.80 m)
Draft:     19 ft. 2 in (5,840 mm)
Propulsion:
Geared Turbines
Four screws
100,000 hp (75,000 kW)
Speed:     32.5 kn (37.4 mph; 60.2 km/h)
Complement:     868 officers and enlisted
Armament:     15 × 6 in (150 mm)/47 cal guns,
8 × 5 in (130 mm)/25 cal guns,
20 × Bofors 40 mm guns,
10 × Oerlikon 20 mm cannons
Armor:
Belt:5 in (130 mm)
Turrets:6.5 in (170 mm)
Deck:2 in (51 mm)
Conning Tower:5 in (130 mm)
Aircraft carried: 4 × floatplanes
Aviation facilities: 2 × catapults

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!

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Ford B-24H-30-FO B-24 H Liberator, s/n 42-95379, ‘Extra Joker’ in the last photo taken of her on August 23, 1944.

She belonged to the 725th Bombardment Squadron, 451st Bombardment Group. 15th US Air Force. (USAF Photo/Colorized by Royston Leonard)

Joker was attacked by German Fw-190s over Turnitz, Austria while on a daylight raid.

All 10 crew members, consisting of the regular crew of THUNDER MUG (42-7475), were KIA.

The lost crew members spanned from coast to coast and ten different states:

1st Lt. Kenneth A. Whiting – pilot Salt Lake City, Utah
1st Lt. Alvin W. Moore – copilot McMinnville, Oregon
2nd Lt. Francis J. Bednarek – navigator Ashley, Pennsylvania
2nd Lt. Edward S. Waneski – bombardier Brooklyn, New York
Sgt. Peter Breda – top turret gunner Lima, Ohio
Sgt. Harry V. Bates – ball turret gunner Reinholds, Pennsylvania
Sgt. Joseph Garbacz – right waist gunner Detroit, Michigan
S/Sgt. Milton R. Nitsch – left waist gunner Sheboygan, Wisconsin
Sgt. Elmer J. Anderson – nose turret gunner Los Angeles, California
Sgt. Oscar W. Bateman – tail turret gunner Baton Rouge, Louisiana

After the war the 725th was inactivated for 15 years before being stood up as the 725th Strategic Missile Squadron, manning HGM-25A Titan I ICBM missile silos. Once Titan was withdrawn, the 725th was shuttered for a final time on 25 June 1965.

Much as once a week I like to take time off to cover warships (Wednesdays), on Sunday, I like to cover military art and the painters, illustrators, sculptors, and the like that produced them.

Combat Gallery Sunday: The Martial Art of Frank Frazetta

Born February 9, 1928, Frank Alfonso Frazzetta (he later dropped one of the Z‘s and worked professionally as Fritz and later Frank Frazetta) was perhaps the best sci-fi and fantasy artist of the 1970s, 80s and 90s.

He was always with a pencil in his hand as a kid and earned a spot at the Brooklyn Academy of Fine Arts at the age of 8. By age 15, he worked for professional graphic artist John Giunta at the Bernard Baily Publications Studio who did outsource work for a number of comic to include DC.

By 1947 at age 19, he was working for Standard Comics and did everything from Westerns to War stories then moved on to work for EC, National and others.

Frazetta’s Flash Gordon send up from Famous Funnies III while he was working at the Bailey Studio

By the 1960s he hit his own stride and his work began to gain increasing notice, branching out into a series of excellent oil on canvas paintings, movie posters, album covers, and other commercial work all in a style that was increasingly his own.

Madame Derringer by Frank Frazetta

Sea Monster, 1966, by Frank Frazetta

Frazetta art used on Eerie#81-1977 2

Eerie #82 cover by Frank Frazetta

The Brave by Frank Frazetta

The Executioner by Frank Frazetta

The Indian Brave by Frank Frazetta

Cover art by Frank Frazetta for Orca the Killer Whale novel

Circle of Terror by Frank Frazetta

Bucking Bronco by Frank Frazetta

Return of the Mucker, 1973 by Frank Frazetta

Movie poster for the Clint Eastwood flick, “The Gauntlet” by Frank Frazetta. In all Frank did over a dozen film sheets

Battlestar Gallactica 1976 artwork by Frank Frazetta

Oh yeah, and he became the pencil behind all of the iconic Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzan and John Carter covers as well as of course the Robert E. Howard’ Conan book covers that changed sci-fi and fantasy art forever…

Conan covers by Frank Frazetta

Conan the Buccaneer cover art by Frank Frazetta

His martial work really stands out,

Combat, 1969 by Frank Frazetta. The French MAT-49 is great.

The Lieutenant by Frank Frazetta. Great post-apoc stuff here. Love the Mini-14

Blazing Combat 4 cover by Frank Frazetta

Blazing Combat comic cover by Frank Frazetta

Blazing Combat comic cover by Frank Frazetta

Frazetta did a series of covers for George MacDonald Fraser “Flashman” series that covers the swashbuckling adventures of Sir Harry Paget Flashman VC KCB KCIE, a fictional Victorian cavalryman who survives from the Charge of the Light Brigade to the Boer Wars, always coming out the better despite his attempts to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Flashman on the Charge novel cover art by Frank Frazetta

Flash for Freedom cover art by Frank Frazetta.

His Death Dealer painting, which was first used on Molly Hatchet’s first album cover in 1978, went on to take a life of its own and has been used far and wide since then.

The Death Dealer, 1973. Frazetta’s single most iconic work

Since 1985 it has been the official mascot symbol of the Fort Hood based III Armored Corps who has both an immense outdoor statue and two smaller indoor depictions of the Death Dealer (which they term the Phantom Warrior) at their headquarters.

One of the smaller examples deployed with III Corps units to Iraq.

Phantom Warrior being installed at Fort Hood

One of the smaller Phantom Warriors

The Knight Riders of HMMT-164 also use Death Dealer as their squadron logo

Sadly Frazetta passed away on May 10, 2010 at age 82.

He was a inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame, the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame, and others as well as earned the attention and admiration of legions of men and boys over the course of his amazing career.

Self portrait. All he is missing is a sword…

The artist, complete with his 1911

His family maintains the Frazaetta Art Museum while a number of unofficial galleries showcase his work in great detail and in a number of ways. He also has a pretty serious group of fans.

Thank you for your work, sir.

“Cases of T.N.T. gunpowder shipped from the United States under lend-lease are stacked in the dump in a tunnel 100 feet underground dug out of solid rock, in western England.  The staff here work 24 hours a day handling lend-lease materials arriving from the U.S.”

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 April 29, 2015: The Red Taxi of the Black Sea

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Here we see the Svetlana-class light cruiser Krasnyi Kavkaz (Red Caucasus), pride of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet steaming on a summer day in 1940 on the eve of the Soviet Union entering World War II.

In 1906, the Imperial Russian Navy had the luxury that many fleets never do: the chance to start from scratch building their naval list with the benefit of real-world modern combat lessons under their belt. This of course was because they had lost more than 2/3 of their Navy in combat with the Imperial Japanese Navy during the late war with that country.

The Tsar’s naval planners envisioned a fleet of nine top-notch all-big-gun dreadnoughts of the Gangut, Imperatritsa Maria, and Imperator Nikolai I-class. These 25,000-ton+ bruisers needed a screen of fast destroyers to prevent torpedo boats from getting close (as the Japanese had pulled off at Port Arthur) as well as speedy light cruisers to scout over the horizon.

That is where the Svetlana’s came in. These modern cruisers went 7,400-tons when fully loaded and were 519-feet overall. They were built in Russia with extensive British help. Powered by 16 Yarrow oil boilers pushing a quartet of Parsons turbines, these ladies were fast– capable of 30-knots when needed. A battery of 15 rapid fire 130 mm/55 B7 Obukhov (Vickers) Pattern 1913 naval guns could fire a 81.26 lbs. shell out to ranges that topped 24,000-yards. With these cruisers carrying an impressive 2200 of these shells in their magazines, they could fire all of these (theoretically) in just under 19 minutes. For protection against threats smaller than they were, the Svetlana’s were sheathed in up to 120 mm of good British armor plate.

The subject of our study, Krasnyi Kavkaz, was laid down at the Russud Dockyard, Nikolayev (currently Mykolaiv, Ukraine) on 31 October 1913, just ten months before the beginning of World War I. Her name at the time for the Tsarist Navy was to be Admiral Lazarev after Russian 19th Century explorer and fleet commander Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev. With wartime shortages in the Empire, she was only launched in the summer of 1916 and, when the Revolution came, was still fitting out.

She was captured in turn by the Germans, the Reds, the Ukrainians, the French, the Whites, and then the Reds again during the tail end of WWI and the madness of the Russian Civil War. Of course, since she was only 2/3rds complete and incapable of either sailing or fighting, all of the flag exchanges meant nothing.

Finally, the Soviets completed her on 25 January 1932 (just 19 years after she was laid down), with the brand new name of Krasnyi Kavkaz, to celebrate the geographic region added gloriously back to the worker’s paradise in 1921 after post-Tsarist secession and brief independence.

However, since her original British-designed 130mm guns were not available, Krasnyi Kavkaz was completed instead with a set of unique 180 mm/60 (7.1″) B-1-K Pattern 1931 that were relined from old 1905-era 8-inchers with the help of Italian gunnery experts (the Russians never throw anything away).

Note her forward 7.1-inch guns

Equipped with just four of these larger guns in single mounts, our oddball cruiser could only get off about 16 rounds per minute, but these rounds were 215 lbs. each in weight and could reach out to 40,000 yards, making her a light cruiser with nearly heavy cruiser armament.

As completed. She traded 15 casemated 130mm guns for 4 180mm singles.

She was also given a quartet of twin 100 mm DP guns, a dozen 21-inch torpedo tubes (original design was for fewer 17.7-inch tubes), Brown-Boveri turbines as no fine British Parsons were available, a catapult for two KOR-1 seaplanes, and the capability to lay up to 120 M-08 naval mines.

A happy vessel during the 1930s in a Navy that was short on capital ships (out of the legion of Svetlana-class cruisers planned, the Soviets only had one other, class leader Krasnyi Krym –Red Crimea– afloat), the Krasnyi Kavkaz was extensively photographed and showboated to show off the modern Red Banner Fleet of the happy People’s Republic. She made a well-publicized 6-month Mediterranean cruise in 1933 in which she traveled over 2600 miles and made extensive stops in ports throughout the region– a rarity for a Soviet naval vessel of the era.

Sailors of the Soviet cruiser “Red Caucasus” with the ship’s pet bear

On her Med Tour, 1933

Sailor on a cruiser of the Black Sea the “Red Caucasus” in front of his 100mm flak piece

In 1933 on her Med cruise, with selected sailors going ashore at Istanbul under close watch of comrade commisars.

A junior Red Caucasus cadet sailor

From 1936-37 she came face to face with German and Italian naval vessels in the Bay of Biscay patrolling the Spanish coastline during the Civil War in that country.

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By the time World War II came to the Black Sea in June 1941, the Krasnyi Kavkaz spent a hard 28 months shuttling around the coasts of Rumania, the Crimea, Kerch, and Novorossiysk. In that time she sewed minefields under darkness, covered the evacuation of Odessa just ahead of the Germans, landed battalions of Naval Infantry and Red Army troops in amphibious operations under heavy Luftwaffe air attack, and provided naval gunfire support during the epic 9-month Siege of Sevastopol.

Loading troops. She shuttled thousands to and from some of the most contentious fighting on the Eastern Front

The light cruiser often carried as many as 1,800 troops on her runs across the Black Sea

In the latter, she and her sister was a vital lifeline to the port, bringing in ammunition and reinforcements and taking away the wounded and the city’s valuables.

The Red Caucasus was used extensively on shoe-string amphib landings

Notably, on January 4, 1942, she survived a close in bombing run by Ju-87 Stukas that left her holed, nearly dead in the water, and full of over 1700-tons of seawater, pushing her to a 12,000-ton displacement. However, after a quick patch-up, she was back in action. This translated into more evacuations, amphibious landings, mine laying, and duels with Stukas and gunfire support. Continuing limited operations from Batumi and Poti in the Caucus in 1943, she was one of the last remaining operational Black Sea Fleet vessels to survive the war.

She saw lots of unsung action during the war

Post war surveys found the ship, which had been repaired during the war in many cases with concrete, was in poor condition.

It was planned at one point to turn her and her sister into hybrid aircraft carriers in 1946 with 370 foot flight decks, but they were too badly damaged from hard wartime service

Decommissioned from fleet duty on May 12, 1947, she was retained as a dockside training ship and berthing barge.

Red Caucasus on payoff 1947

She was disarmed in 1952, her 180mm guns being transformed into railway mounts. Finally, on November 21, 1952 Krasnyi Kavkaz was sunk near Feodosia by a regiment of Tu-4 bombers testing their new SS-N-1 missiles. Her name was stricken from the Soviet Naval list in 1953.

Her only completed sister, Svetlana/Krasnyi Krym, was scrapped in 1959.

She was remembered by a series of Soviet stamps

Specs

Image by Ship Bucket  Click to big up

Displacement: 7,560 metric tons (7,440 long tons; 8,330 short tons) (standard)
9,030 metric tons (8,890 long tons; 9,950 short tons) (full load)
Length: 159.5 m (523 ft. 4 in)
Beam: 15.7 m (51 ft. 6 in)
Draught: 6.6 m (21 ft. 8 in)
Propulsion: Four shafts, Brown-Boveri geared turbines
16 Yarrow oil-fired boilers
55,000 shp (41,000 kW)
Speed: 29 knots (33 mph; 54 km/h)
Complement: 878
Armament: (as completed)
4 × 1 – 180 mm cal 57 guns
4 × 2 – 100 mm cal 56 AA guns
2 × 1 – 76 mm AA guns
4 × 1 – 45 mm AA guns
4 × 1 – 12.7 mm (0.50 in) AA machine guns
4 × 3 – 533 mm (21.0 in) torpedo tubes
60–120 mines
Armor: Upper and lower armored decks: 20 mm (0.79 in) each
Turrets: 76 mm (3.0 in)
Lower armor belt: 76 mm (3.0 in)
Upper armor belt: 25 mm (0.98 in)
Conning tower: 76 mm (3.0 in)
Aircraft carried 2 × KOR-1 seaplanes
Aviation facilities: 1 catapult

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 tiny central European country of Switzerland was renowned for centuries for the quality of their fighting men and was one of the few countries on that continent that was never attacked in either of the great World Wars. One reason may be the grueling armed marathon that they call the Waffenlauf.

Swiss martial tradition

Long a country known for their belief in freedom, the Swiss have kept that notion alive through force of arms. During the Renaissance, citizen sportsmen such as the legendary William Tell kept his crossbow skills sharp– just in case. At a small mountain valley named Sempach in 1386, an Austrian army of professional soldiers attempted to invade Switzerland.

A small militia force of a few farmers led by a man named Arnold Winkelreid met them in battle.  The farmers were outnumbered 6:1 and trapped. The only sane thing to do was for them to surrender and submit to the invader.

But they didn’t.

Arnold ran forward alone and yelled, “Make way for liberty.” The farmers followed him and the stunned professional solders of the Austrian army broke and retreated, with the farmers harassing them all the way back to the border.

19th-century painting of Winkelried’s deed by Konrad Grob.

That 1386 battle was the last time Switzerland was invaded.

Sometime after this, Swiss mercenaries (Reisläufer) became the toast of military service for over four centuries. To this day, the Pontifical Swiss Guards– all highly trained veterans of the Swiss Army– ensure that the Vatican is secure from invasion.

Speaking of which, the “Swiss model,” that of requiring all fit males of military age to serve in the armed forces or civil defense, even going so far as to keep all of their arms and equipment at home, ready to go when needed, has been largely cited as a reason that Hitler never came across the Alps during WWII. The prospect of fighting 850,000 Winkelreids on their own turf Wolverines-style likely kept it that way.

Enter the Waffenlauf

In 1916, with Europe at war on all sides of Switzerland’s borders during the First World War, an event called the “Gun Barrel” (Waffenlauf) was run to help showcase military skills and provide a bit of sport. This run, a marathon run in military uniform with marching shoes, full pack, and rifle at distances up to 43 kilometers (26 miles), sounds about as fun as slip and slide made out of cactus, but hey, it’s Switzerland!

Read the rest in my column at Firearms Talk

Japanese night raiders are greeted with a lacework of anti-aircraft fire by the Marine defenders of Yontan airfield, on Okinawa. In the foreground are Marine F4U Corsair fighter planes of the “Hell’s Belles’ squadron. 1945. (Photo: Colorized by Paul Reynolds)

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 May 6, 2015: The unsinkable battleship of Manila Bay

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Here we see the concrete battleship Fort Drum as she appeared before 1941. While yes, this is not a ship but a U.S. Army coastal defense fortification, it has all the aspects of a ship above the waterline!

When Dewey swept into Manila Bay in 1898, the battle that his Asiatic Squadron gave the outgunned Spanish fleet was brief and historic– leaving the U.S. with defacto control of the island chain (or at least the Bay) that was made official after the war ended. After the Japanese defeat of the Russian Pacific Fleets (both of them) in 1905– during which a number of the Tsar’s ships took refuge in Manila Bay under the watchful eye of the USN, it became a priority to beef up the defenses around the harbor to keep the Navy there from turning into another Port Arthur.

The island, before 1909. If you prefer, you can refer to this as the ‘keel’ of Fort Drum

In the mouth of the Bay was El Fraile Island, a small slip of rock that the Army, in charge of Coastal Defense, decided to place a mine-control battery atop. However, this plan soon changed and the Army, with the Navy’s blessing, went about building their own static battleship.

Under the plan of Lt. John Kingman of the Army Corps of Engineers, the military leveled off El Fraile starting in 1909 and encased the entire island in steel-reinforced concrete with an average depth of 36-feet thick along the walls.

Several stories deep, a fort was constructed that included water cisterns, fuel tanks to run electrical generators, barracks for artillerymen, dining facilities, and storage for enough food to last the defenders months if needed.

Topside Plan

Engine tank section. Click to big up

Powder magazines and “navy-type” electrical passing scuttles. Drum could stock 440 shells for its main batteries. Click to big up

Atop the roof of the structure, which itself was 20-feet thick, were mounted a pair of M1909 turrets that each houses a pair of 14-inch (360mm) guns. Although a Navy-style mount, it was all-Army and contained unique wire-wound guns modified from the standard M1907 big guns mounted in coastal defense forts stateside.

While the standard CONUS 14-inchers were “disappearing” mounts, these larger 40-caliber tubes, with their 46-foot length, allowed the 1,209-pound AP shells to fire out to some 22,705-yards. To protect these turrets (named Batteries Marshall and Wilson), they had 16-inches of steel armor on their face, 14 on the sides and rear, and 6 on the roof. Of course, these giant turrets, with their outsized guns, tipped the scales at 1,160-tons or about the weight of a standard destroyer of the era, but hey, it’s not like they were going to sink the island or anything.

For comparison, the huge 16-inch/50 cal Mk.7 mounts on the Iowa-class battleships– commissioned decades after the Army’s concrete fort was built, weighed 1,701-tons but had three larger guns rather than the two the boys in green staffed.

The M1909 mount being tested at Sandy Hook Proving Ground, New Jersey before shipment to the PI. Only two of these mounts were ever constructed and, to the credit of the Army, are both still in existence despite an epic trial by combat.Click to big up

As befitting a battleship, the fort had a secondary armament of four casemated 6-inch coastal defense guns (dubbed Batteries Roberts and McCrea) as well as an anti-aircraft/small boat defense scheme (Batteries Hoyle and Exeter) of smaller 3-inch guns.

To direct all this a 60-foot high lattice mount (just like those on the latest U.S. battleships) was fitted to the ‘stern’ of the fort that contained fire control spotters (that fed to plotting rooms protected deep inside the facility), as well as 60-inch searchlights, radio and signal facilities to keep in contact with the rest of the harbor defenses.

Finally commissioned in 1913– just in time for World War One, the concrete battleship was named Fort Drum after former Adjutant General of the Army Richard Coulter Drum, who had died in 1909– the year construction, began.

The man…

The fort was a happy post until December 8, 1941 when, just hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese struck at the Philippines. Largely relegated to providing some far-off gunfire support and exchanging pot shots with Japanese planes until Manila fell, this soon changed.

In December two water-cooled .50 caliber machine guns manned by a 13-man platoon of 3/4 Marines (withdrawn only days before from China), was sent to the concrete battleship to beef up her dated AAA defenses. They joined the 200~ soldiers, officers, Philippine Scouts and civilian ordnance-men of the 59th and 60th U.S. Army Coastal Artillery Regiments, commanded by Lt. Col. Lewis S. Kirkpatrick. Later, when Bataan fell, about 20 tank-less soldiers from an armored unit– Company D, 192nd Tank Battalion (formerly Harrodsburg’s 38th Tank Company of the Kentucky National Guard)- managed to escape to Drum and lent their shoulders to the wheel for the last month of the campaign.

As the Japanese had did at Port Arthur in 1904 where they brought in 10-ton Krupp L/10 280mm howitzers from the Home Islands to churn the Russian fortifications to gruel, the Imperial Army shipped new 40-ton Type 45 240 mm howitzers just to batter Fort Drum in March.

Although they peppered the fort’s concrete and knocked out some small guns, Drum kept firing and after April, along with Corregidor and the other harbor forts, became the last piece of real estate owned by the U.S. When the Empire tried to take Corregidor in the end, Drum’s 14-inchers made Swiss cheese of a number of their thin-skinned landing barges, sending many of the Emperor’s best troops to the bottom of the Bay.

On May 6, 1942, some 73 years ago today, when General Wainwright surrendered Corregidor, he included the harbor forts in his order. Although still capable of fighting, the defenders of the fort obeyed orders, smashed their generators, burned their codebooks, spiked their weapons, turned the fire-hoses loose in the interior– paying special attention to the powder rooms, and raised a white flag at noon.

Although the 240~ soldiers and Marines of the garrison did not suffer any deaths in direct combat, their time in Japanese prison camps was by no means easy. A number of their unit, to include Kirkpatrick, did not live to see the end of the war. Only one officer, battery commander Capt. Ben E. King, survived. Casualties among the enlisted were likewise horrific.

In the end, they were awarded the Presidential Unit Citation and that of the Philippine Presidential Unit Citation, which the 59th carries to this day (as the 59th Air Defense Artillery Regiment)

While the Japanese occupied the concrete battleship and used it as a coastal defense position for the rest of the war, they never did get the M1909s operable again.

US Army landing on Drum

Following bombardment by the USS Phoenix (CL-46), on April 13, 1945 the U.S. Army landed on the roof of the once-great fort. They found the Japanese defenders, shut inside its concrete warren under their feet, unwilling to surrender. Therefore, with McArthur’s blessing, a detachment of B Company/13th Engineers, poured 3,000 gallons of gallons of diesel/oil slurry down the ventilation shafts and set it off with timed charges as they withdrew.

The fort burned for two weeks and no Japanese prisoners were taken, only 68 body remnants recovered. These men were sailors and survivors from the ill-fated super battleship Musashi, sent to the bottom just six months prior. So in the end, her final crew were battleshipmen.

According to an Augus1945 Yank magazine article:

First there was a cloud of smoke rising and seconds later the main explosion came.  Blast after blast ripped the concrete battleship.  Debris was showered into the water throwing up hundred of small geysers.  A large flat object, later identified as the 6-inch concrete slab protecting the powder magazine was blown several hundred feet into the air to fall back on top of the fort, miraculously still unbroken.  Now the GIs and sailors could cheer.  And they did.  As the LSM moved toward Corregidor there were continued explosions.  More smoke and debris.

Two days later, on Sunday, a party went back to try to get into the fort through the lower levels.  Wisps of smoke were still curling through the ventilators and it was obvious that oil was still burning inside.  The visit was called off for that day. On Monday the troops returned again.  this time they were able to make their way down as far as the second level, but again smoke forced them to withdraw.  Eight Japs-dead of suffocation- were found on the first two levels.

Another two days later another landing party returned and explored the whole island.  The bodies of 60 Japs-burned to death-were found in the boiler room on the third level.   The inside of the fort was in shambles.  The walls were blackened with smoke and what installations there were had been blown to pieces or burned.

In actual time of pumping oil and setting fuses, it had taken just over 15 minutes to settle the fate of the “impregnable” concrete fortress.  It had been a successful operation in every way but one:  The souvenir hunting wasn’t very good.

Starboard beam view of the battleship USS NEW JERSEY (BB-62) passing between CORREGIDOR (background) and FORT DRUM as she enters Manila Bay. Date: 3 Jul 1983 Camera Operator: PH2 PAUL SOUTAR ID: DN-SN-83-09891 Click to big up

Now, abandoned, the unsinkable battleship with its charred interior spaces lies moldering away in Manila Bay.

Over the years, it has become a tourist attraction and target for scrap hunters who have carried off every piece of metal smaller than they are.

For more information on Fort Drum, please visit Concrete Battleship.org

As for Gen. Drum himself, he is buried at Arlington Section 3, Site 1776.

Specs:

Image by Ship Bucket. Click to big up

Image by Ship Bucket. Click to big up

Displacement: It is an island
Length: 350 feet
Beam: 144 feet
Draught: nil, but the fort stood 40-feet high and the lattice tower over 100
Propulsion: None, although the fort had numerous generators
Speed: In time with the rotation of the earth
Complement: 200 men of Company E, 59th Coastal Artillery Regiment, commanded by Lt. Col. Lewis S. Kirkpatrick (1941-42)
Armament: (as completed)
4xM1909 14-inch guns
4xM1908 6-inch guns
Armor: Up to 36 feet of concrete, with up to 16-inches of plate on turrets

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 Mauser brothers and their company, the famous Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken A.G. (DWM) concern, was perhaps the world’s premier bolt-action rifle makers for decades and armed the military of their own country and dozens of others with their rifles. They also made millions of pistols, the best know of these being the Luger series and the C96 “Broomhandle” Mauser. Then there was the much smaller and often forgotten “other” pistols.

Why were they made?

DWM had come out strong in the full-sized military pistol market by 1908, with their 7.63x25mm, 7.62x21mm (.30 caliber Luger) and 9mm C96 and P08 offerings. These guns were even sold with extended magazines, extra length barrels, and buttstocks, which in effect could turn them into carbines for cavalry and artillery use. However, they were lacking a smaller pocket and vest style gun that could be carried by gentlemen who desired such additional protection of their person and by staff officers who likely only needed a pistol as a badge of honor– not for a firefight.

That’s where the Mauser M1910/14/34 pistols came in.

Read the rest in my column at Firearms Talk

We’ve talked about the I-400 and her sister the 401, Japan’s underwater aircraft carriers in past Warship Wednesdays. These lurking submarine sneak attack leviathans could tote a few seaplanes and, it was planned, for them to attack such strategic targets as the Panama Canal. Well, the funny thing about super weapons is that they often aren’t given a chance to be that super.

In the end, the 400 and 401 were captured by the Navy and, to prevent the Soviets from getting a look at these tasty treats, were scuttled in very deep water off Barber’s Point. In 2013 one was found, but was missing its famous hangar.

Well it looks like researchers from the University of Hawaii and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration got the funding for one more dive and it proved worthwhile

LaSalle County Sheriff Tom Templeton and Jane Sullivan-DePaoli pose with the Japanese Type 99 light machine gun recovered by her father from a pillbox on Iwo Jima. (Photo: Livingston County War Museum)

An Illinois military museum has managed to save a historic machine gun, captured by an area Marine during World War II– but only after a local sheriff rescued it from the ATF first.

The Livingston County War Museum in Pontiac last week placed their newly-acquired Type 99 light machine gun on public display, surrounded by photos and memorabilia that once belonged to the man who brought it home from Iwo Jima.

That Marine, John Sullivan, helped silence the weapon in 1945– attested by the damage visible on the bipod and carrying handle of the 23-pound 7.7mm machine gun. And its a pretty interesting tale of how the gun got from the sands of Iwo to the museum.

Read the rest in my column at Guns.com

In honor of the 70th Anniversary of VE-Day today, there will be a 50-plane flyover of the Nation’s capitol by WWII-era military aircraft that range from B17s to P-40E War Hawks to TBF Avengers and C-53 transports.

The flyover – scheduled to begin at 12:10 p.m. ET – is open to anyone who can get to a viewing spot as the planes head down the Potomac River, turn inland at the Lincoln Memorial, and fly past the WWII Memorial (where 500 World War vets will be on hand), Washington Monument, White House and Jefferson Memorial. Planes will fly to the U.S. Capitol before heading back toward the river.

So if you are in DC today, look up at lunch time, it will be a sight you unlikely to ever see again.

Much as once a week I like to take time off to cover warships (Wednesdays), on Sunday, I like to cover military art and the painters, illustrators, sculptors, and the like that produced them.

Combat Gallery Sunday : And we have yet more Mort!

As you are probably aware, I am a huge pulp art and military art fan. One of the best there ever was in the business is the famous Mort Kunstler (official site) — America’s Artist.

In the past I’ve posted several of the Master’s works in the pulp art category from the 1950-60s and have found enough (new to me) ones to make a fifth extensive post. As always with this blog, “click to big up” and feel free to save for posterity.

Without further “adoo”…bring on the Mort!

Mort Kunstler. Not sure the cover, but this looks like the best possible outcome for this lost British paratrooper

Mort Kunstler, Strange Suicide Crate, Male cover, September, 1961, Via Heritage Auctions The image is one excellent depiction of a German Ju-88 “mistle” (mistletoe) bomber slaved to a Me-109 fighter, likely seen attacking the Oder bridges in 1945

Mort Kunstler

Mort Kunstler, Saigon Sally’s Sin Barracks, For Men Only magazine cover, May 1965. Via Heritage Auctions. Mort did very little Vietnam work, so this one is rare– and you have to love the AKMS by the bed, although the use of the Tommy gun is largely an anachronism. 

Mort Kunstler, another Vietnam installment

Mort Kunstler, The Stubborn Leatherneck Who Took China Wall, Men cover, March, 1960. Via Heritage Auctions. A great depiction of the Boxer Rebellion relief expedition in 1900 that saw unlikely allies of the U.S., Japan, France, Germany, Imperial Russia (note the Tsarist dragoon being helped out by the Marine) and Austria unite for a common purpose– screwing China. 

Mort Kunstler

Mort Kunstler. Art for the movie poster of  “The Bedford Incident,” later used for Male cover, September, 1964. The funny thing was that a British destroyer, HMS Troubridge, actually filled in for the fictional USS Bedford in the movie

Mort Kunstler

Mort Kunstler, The G. I. s Who Took Over Germany’s Castle, Stag cover, January, 1968. Via Heritage Auction

Mort Kunstler showing U.S. Army Air Force B-25 Mitchell gunships coming in low and slow over a Japanese port in WWII. The B-25H, with as many as 18 x .50 caliber machine guns as well as a 75mm cannon were the premier ship-busters of the Pacific.

Mort Kunstler, Only 17 Survived the Atrocity Sub, Stag cover, October, 1963. Via Heritage Auctions.

Mort Kunstler aka Emmett Kaye. Cold War art showing a SH-3 Sea King overhead of the Polaris ‘Boomer” USS Ethan Allen (SSBN-608) and an undisclosed Soviet sub

Mort Kunstler, America’s Worst Naval Defeat, Stag cover, May, 1963. Via Heritage Auctions. Depicting what is likely the 1942 Battle of Salvo Island– although the central ship, the Gearing-class destroyer USS William Rush (DD-714) wasn’t actually commissioned until 1946 and, with the exception of some brief naval gunfire support in Korea, led a charmed and peaceful  life.

Mort Kunstler. Showing USAF HH-3 Jolly Greens fighting it out with persons unknown on the Empire State building

Mort Kunstler. Men in Combat cover. Via Heritage Auctions

Mort Kunstler. More Cold War art showing a RAF Avro Vulcan in 1960s scheme coming in low over Moscow, with the Kremlin just ahead.

Mort Kunstler, 1,000 to 1 Shot of Guy Gibson’s Dam Busters,, February 1962. Via Heritage Auctions

Mort Kunstler. Navy Skyraiders and a great flare gun.

Mort Kunstler. Hey be careful with that hand buddy…

Mort Kunstler

Mort Kunstler. Reckless Commando Raid, Male cover, c. 1958. This is a much more correct use of the Thompson submachine gun as the British Commandos loved the controllable but effective room broom for up-close work Winston’s ungentlemanly fighters relished.  Via Heritage Auctions.

Mort Kunstler. Who really stops at Soviet border crossings anyway? Bunch of crybabys is who.

Mort Kunstler. Prisoner, Stag cover, June 1960– note the great BAR although I don’t think those hot-pants are official Imperial issue, also, how is the BAR gunner suspended in mid-air?. Via Heritage Auctions A

Mort Kunstler

Mort Kunstler. The Marine Who Hid the Pacific’s 12 Most Wanted Women, Men Only cover, April 1961. Via Heritage Auction. He really did like Tommy guns and titties didn’t he? I guess that’s the magic pulp formula.

Mort Kunstler. Wipe Out the 11th Panzer Division, Stag magazine, True Books Bonus story illustration. Via Heritage Auction The 11th, who saw heavy action on the Eastern Front, had been sent West around the D-Day period and, up until Ramagen Bridge, was perhaps the strongest Wehrmacht tank unit in Western Europe.

Thank you for your work, sir.

When compared to the large U.S. fleet boats used in the Pacific in WWII, the Royal Navy’s 49 U-class submarines were downright tiny. At just 700-tons submerged and 191-feet oal, these boats were originally designed as coastal training subs. However, with the Italians and Germans giving the UK a run for their money in the Med, the Brits started churning these craft out in numbers.

Armed with a half dozen 21-inch tubes, they could carry 8 warshot torpedoes and a 3-inch pop gun on deck. They gave a good account of themselves, sinking a large number of Axis transports and freighters carrying much-needed supplies to Rommel and his Italian compatriots in North Africa– although they suffered severe losses of their own, with 19 U-class sisters going down during the war.

Photograph FL 3433 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums (collection no. 8308-29)

This brings us to HMS Urge. Commissioned 12 December 1940 at Vickers, she lasted 17 action-packed months during which she managed to torpedo the Italian battleship Vittorio Veneto, damaging her in the First Battle of Sirte. She had better luck on 1 April, 1942 when she torpedoed and sank the 6844-ton Italian Giussano-class light cruiser Giovanni delle Bande Nere.

The Regia Marina’s Giovanni delle Bande Nere, some 10-times HMS Urge’s size, was bushwacked by the hearty British submarine with two torpedos and sent to the bottom on April Fools Day, 1942, breaking in half and taking 381 Italian sailors with her.

However, Urge went missing at the end of that month and was never heard from again.

— That is until 76-year old Belgian diver Jean-Pierre Misson, poking around off Tobruk, Libya, came across something very submarine-like. It now appears that Italian dive bombers reaped retribution for their lost cruiser.

The rest here

The company that we know and love today as Sturm, Ruger got its start in a way from a certain Kijiro Nambu, who, in a twist of fate, was a Lieutenant General in the Imperial Japanese Army. Would you like to know more?

Who was Nambu?

He seems really fun at parties

Kijiro Nambu, born September 22, 1869 in Saga prefecture to a former samurai retainer of the Nabeshima clan, went off to the Imperial Army Academy at a young age. By 1897 Nambu was an Artillery Lieutenant assigned to the Tokyo Arsenal where he worked under a cat by the name of Nariakira Arisaka on a rifle that later became the standard for the Imperial Army.

In 1902 the 33-year old Nambu’s first solo project, his Type 4 (aka Type A) pistol, was finished and in the prototype stage. This recoil-spring single-action pistol with a thin fixed, low bore axis 4.61-inch barrel was very simple. It did however incorporate an automated grip safety under the very snug trigger guard and a range adjustable rear sight to maximize its accuracy.

In grip angle, it mimicked the Swiss-German Luger pistol although its caliber, the downright anemic 8x22mm Nambu round (yes, he invented that, too) with its 102-grain lead bullet, was underpowered. Still, the cartridge and the Type A pistol was adopted by 1903 and remained in service with the Japanese military through World War II.

Type 14

By 1906 the design had been changed to use a newer, more modern magazine (the original 8-shot magazine incorporated a wooded floor plate!), a widened trigger guard and other minor differences to include deleting the Also adjustable sights and grip safety. A final version in 1925, the Type 14 went into mass production and more than 400,000 were made, becoming the most common Japanese semi-auto pistol of all time.

This led to American collectors in later years to dub the original Type 4/Type A as the “Grandpa Nambu” while the modified improved Type 14 version was the “Papa Nambu.” This of course leads one to wonder, what about the Baby?

Enter the cute little Type B:

Read the rest in my column at Ruger Talk

Today is the birthday of the country’s oldest living WWII vet, Richard Arvine Overton (born May 11, 1906). A veteran of the 188th Aviation Engineer Battalion, U.S. Army, he volunteered for duty and served in the Pacific Theathre of Operations from Pearl Harbor to Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

My friend Ben Phillipi over at Guns.com caught up with Richard in Austin and asked him about his firearms, and what he wanted for his birthday.

Thank you for your service, sir.

An add-on to the upcoming National Defense Authorization Act that passed committee includes a plan to transfer the U.S. Army’s remaining stock of .45 ACP 1911A1 pistols to the Civilian Marksmanship Program.

Added as an amendment by Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Alabama, while the NDAA was in debate in the House Armed Service Committee, it could see potentially the largest remaining stock of military surplus World War II-era handguns in government hands sold to the public.

The lawmaker disclosed that the military currently spends about $2 per year to store 100,000 Model 1911s that are surplus to the Army’s needs. While 8,300 have been sold or disposed of in recent years – largely through the controversial Department of Defense’s 1033 Program, which offers eligible law enforcement agencies up to one pistol per full-time officer – the guns still on hand have in many cases been stored since the 1980s when they were withdrawn from service in favor of the then-new Beretta 92F (M9).

More in my column at Guns.com