To kill a Convoy

HOMO-03 was the designation of a Japanese convoy that departed from Hong Kong at 1700 on the 4th of April, 1945. Setting out was risky, however remaining was just as dangerous. On the 3rd an air raid of USAAF B-24's had sunk two transports and badly damaged a third. The convoy consisted of two transport ships, the 839 ton Tokai Maru No 2 (The first ship to bear that name was sunk in 1943 at Guam by a US submarine) and the 2193 ton, steam powered Kine Maru. The two transports were given a very heavy escort of five ships. In the lead was the destroyer Amatsukaze, and five corvette sized ships, these were the coastal defence ships CD-1 and CD-134, and the anti-submarine vessels CH-9 and CH-20. The convoy would proceed at about 12 knots towards Shanghai, and then onwards to Moji, a distance of only about 350 miles.
Such a heavy escort was normal, because by this stage in the war the Allied air forces were dominating the area.

The next morning the convoy was steaming along when the first of the US planes appeared. US intelligence had found the convoy overnight and had directed planes to attack. A flight of PBM-5 Mariner flying boats approached and began to make their attacks. I've not yet been able to find the squadron responsible, or an account of the attack however I did find this site which details the life of a PBM-5 crewman in the Pacific. It includes the following about a level bombing attack against shipping:

"VPB-27 and VPB-208 attacked a Japanese transport convoy at the mouth of the Yangtze River. We encountered heavy flak. VPB-208 went in ahead of us, which woke the Japs up, so they were ready for us when we got there. I prayed to be well—and I was well, just like that. But a hit by a 5-inch shell cut our aileron cables, so we couldn’t bank. Our flight engineer, Aviation Chief Machinist’s Mate Julius J. Jaskot was sitting on the back of his seat, with his feet up on the seat, to see what was going on, when a shell came in one side of the hull and out the other—where his legs would normally have been. It missed our gas line by just six inches. That same shell went through our propeller blades without striking them, as if it was synchronized—then it exploded. We must have been flying too low for the shell to arm."

The eyewitness also talks about torpedo attacks against Japanese shipping, which is well worth a read.

The result of this unknown squadron's attack on HOMO-03 was that the Tokai Maru No 2 was sunk.

Later in the day the USAAF took their first attempt at the convoy. B-24's and B-26's attacked and had cover from P-38 Lightnings. This attack sunk the Kine Maru. With no transports left to escort the convoy split into two groups. CH-9 and CH-20 returned to Hong Kong. They got back just in time to receive a large air raid from B-24's, the two escorts were damaged, along with two more coastal defence ships and a fleet oiler.

This left the two coastal defence ships, CD-1 and CD-134 along with the Amatsukaze. The later was not at full capability though. In January 1944 the ship had been torpedoed, which detonated her magazine, severing the ship in half just in behind the forward smoke stack. the US claimed her as destroyed however she drifted for six days before being recovered and towed to Hong Kong, where she had a makeshift bow fitted, along with several more AA guns.

The next morning at 1130 twenty-four B-25's appeared over the three escorts. The planes had come from Luzon, and after the long flight had found their targets. They consisted of planes from the 345th Bombing Group. The planes dove on CD-1 and CD-134. They were using skip bombing attacks. This is where the bombers make a high speed run at an enemy ship, when short of the target between two and four bombs are released with long fuses. These impact on the water and literally skip along the surface to strike the target ship in the side. Attacks are normally done in pairs with one of the B-25's hosing the target vessel down with its machine guns to suppress the ships AA defences.

The fate of CD-134. The B-25 in the picture is often identified as Ruthless Ruth, flown by Cpt Mikell.

CD-1 was hit by two bombs, one bounced off the water and exploded on the ships deck. The other hit CD-1 in the side and she began to sink. CD-134 was attacked by two aircraft, and suffered a single hit to the waterline, and rolled over and sunk. The exact credit as to whom got the kill is unknown as different sources give different pilots names. Lt. Lester Morton and Cpt Louie Avery Mikell are the two named. Lt Morton's fate I don't know, but Cpt Mikell survived the war, and in 1948 was taking part in the film "Fighter Squadron" when his plane went into a tail spin. Cpt Mikell bailed out, however he landed in Lake Oscoda, and was lost. His body was recovered a month later.

Amatsukaze before the torpedo hit.

Some ten minutes later six of the B-25's came across the Amatsukaze. The destroyer was alert and began firing on the B-25's as soon as they approached. The wall of flak scored a hit on one B-25 with a single 40mm round, the plane pitched in and hit the sea inverted, killing all on board. The other planes bombed the destroyer setting it alight, before retreating. The final group of six B-25's that had been at the location of the attack on CD-1 and CD134 had not dropped their ordnance. When they saw the pillar of smoke they set course and found the burning Amatsukaze, which was still steaming at full speed with all guns manned, despite being very obviously on fire.

Amatsukaze under attack, it is suggested that the large splash in the background is the inverted B-25 hitting the water.

This flight of planes was led by Captain Albin V. Johnson, who had only recently been made up to flight leader. The Amatsukaze put up a barrage of fire against Cpt Albin's plane, but despite being the target of the destroyers wrath he pushed forward with his attack. His plane riddled with gunfire Cpt Albin released his bombs, scoring a direct hit on the stern of the ship. Cpt Albin's plane roared over the sinking destroyer but couldn't gain height due to the damage sustained and ditched. He was later awarded a posthumous Silver Star.

A direct hit is scored on the Amatsukaze, starting the fire.

Despite the massive amount of damage she'd sustained Amatsukaze was still not dead. She limped on for another mile, where the crew found a reef. They beached her on it. For the next two days the destroyers crew attempted to stop the flooding, however on the 8th the weight of water was too much, and she slipped off the reef stern first and sank.

Further reading:
The most detailed account of the action can be found here:
https://airwarworldwar2.wordpress.com/2016/01/22/the-last-voyage-of-the-amatsukaze/
However that version differs from the more common version found here:
http://worldwar2database.com/gallery/wwii1331

Killer of Everything

This week I start with a warning, a lot of the material in this article is drawn from sources that seem to be distinctly biased one way or another. Yet the results of the battles point to the likelihood that these reports hold, if not the total truth, then at least some degree of accuracy. With that in mind let us look at an African mass killer.

In 1965 Nigeria held an election, however the election was widely corrupt and shortly afterwards a coup was held by a group of military officers. This coup didn't seem to have many aims other than "get rid of the corrupt politicians", and the plotters quickly stood down. This left the presidency in the hands of the senior surviving member of the government, whom was also the senior army officer. By coincidence or design all the senior members of the coup and the new president were from a single tribe, the Igbo. This led to a counter coup within a few months and the persecution of the Igbos, as it was seen that they were striving to control the country.

This persecution led to most of the Igbo's retreating to their native home lands in the east of the country and caused a serious political upheaval and crisis. On the 6th of July 1967 the eastern region split from Nigera, declaring itself as the independent state of Biafra.

Flag of Biafra

The Biafra army wasn't the best equipped. A battalion had about ten to fifteen Second World War vintage Tommy guns, a couple of LMG's, HMG's and mortars of varying calibres. Later on, a platoons worth of assault rifles which had been captured from the Nigerian troops might be added for a shock platoon, if the unit was lucky. Otherwise the normal soldiers were armed with antique bolt action rifles, typically K98 Mausers.

The air force was in an equally bad state, having a single B-26, with this the Biafraian air force quickly started to launch air attacks on Nigerian targets, and actually could claim air superiority. The B-26 was based at Enugu air field and protected by a single Bofors AA gun. At about 0630 one morning in August or September 1967 the B-26 was being prepared for its days mission, when a Russian advisor flying a MIG-17 streaked across the airfield and strafed the bomber, damaging it.

The Biafraian B-26

It was clear from this moment that the AA gun used as the airfields defence would be insufficient, and a new defence was needed. This task was handed to the Science and Technology group based at the airfield. These were students and scientists from the University of Biafra (now University of Nigeria Nsukka). There was a second Science and Technology group based at Port Harcourt formed around the core of engineers from a Shell-BP facility. Later on both S&T groups would join together to for the Research and Production (RAP) organisation.

The answer to the MIG's was drawn up by the Enugu S&T group. Their solution was similar to anti-helicopter mines or somewhat similar to the British parachute and cable system used, briefly, during the Battle of Britain. This mine would be triggered to throw dust and debris up in front of the jet. Hopefully the jet would be hit, however as a consolation the dust might be ingested by the engine and wreck it. A metal bucket like device was constructed and several loads of debris were loaded and test fired. These gave ranges for the heaviest materials of about thirty feet, and the lightest up to 1000ft. This device was named a Dust Mine.

The "Dust mine"... I think. One massive problem with identifying items involved with this subject is pretty much every piece of ordnance is called an "Ogbunigwe" (see later for why). There is no clear distinct designation system, and invariably the device listed as an Ogbunigwe is just a simple metal tube. So this has partly clouded the subject matter.

Due to the shape and design several people have claimed the weapon used the Munroe effect, others reading this have suggested it was a HEAT warhead. A key point to the Munroe effect is that the cavity of the warhead is clear, the dust mines were filled. However, the shape of the weapon would indicate that a Munroe like effect is possible. Until someone dissects a dust mine then there is no way to say if it would act as a HEAT warhead.

By late September the Nigerian Army had gotten itself organised and was pushing on Enugu, causing the S&T group to flee and join up with its sister unit. By the 4th of October Enugu had fallen, and the exhausted Biafraian troops were retreating pursued by the Federal Army. At Ugwuoba Bridge a Biafraian officer attempted to rally a delaying force. Seeing a group of soldiers carrying some Dust Mines he ordered them to emplace the mines facing towards the other side of the bridge, he promised the troops that they could flee after the mines were detonated, just to see what their effect was. As well as hammering the advancing troops with blast waves and debris there is a report that a wave in the river was thrown onto the advancing government troops when the mines were detonated. Described by another account as "A tornado of dust, stones, fire and water" causing massive loss of life and destruction. The next morning a local man viewing the devastation called the dust mine 'Ogbunigwe', which is most often translated as 'Mass Killer' although there are other translations in a similar vein (such as the one used in the title to this page).

Meanwhile the RAP had been busy, they had decided to build a rocket. At first they attempted to build several full sized rockets, but they all failed. Then starting on small models of about six inches they built larger and larger rockets that worked. But the range was limited to some 200 yards. One of the scientists involved on the project said a man with a degree in economics gave them a tip that enabled them to reach a range of some two miles, although he fails to state what this tip was.

Whatever the result of the research, crude rockets which were simply tubes were soon being deployed. They were possibly tipped with Ogbunigwe. These crude rockets with no streamlining or thrust control were horribly inaccurate and unpredictable. The flight path was so erratic that sometimes the launchers found the rockets coming back towards them.

One of the rockets in its launch cradle, with room for a second rocket.

One such incident was in mid-October 1967 when a rocket was fired towards a pair patrol boats. A thick heavy smoke trail was drawn though the air, about halfway to the target the rocket veered to the right twice and was heading back. Then without warning it turned again, through 180 degrees and arced towards the second boat, which was 200m away from the boat that the rocket had been aimed at. The rocket hit the boat setting it on fire, and after a short time the fire reached the ships ammunition with deadly effect.

The famous author Frederick Forsyth was a war correspondent during the Biafra war, and witnessed a rocket attack when it was fitted with an Ogbunigwe. His account read "It spread death and destruction over a large area, and as usual the first division (...) were advancing in solid phalanxes of packed soldiery. An American who examined the scene afterwards estimated that, out of 6000 men who took part in the attack, 4000 failed to return."

Google suggests this is an Ogbunigwe barrage. I can't prove it one way or another.

The most famous use of these rockets was at an ambush at Abagana. The Nigerians were mounted in about 100 vehicles. One source says there were only 500 government troops, more claim there were some 6,000. The Biafraian troops set up their kill zone and saw the first of the Nigerian troops enter it, the young troops wanted to open fire immediately and were panicking from nerves. The Biafraian commander kept his troops calm and let the forward elements pass awaiting the main body of the column. His troops looked at him like he was committing treachery allowing the enemy to penetrate their lines. Whilst issuing the rocket operator with instructions, the soldier in his nervous mental state pressed the launch button. The rocket wobbled through the air and then impacted as luck would have it, on fuel tanker, filled with petrol for the convoy. The resulting explosion caused massive amounts of damage, and the rest of the battalion then opened fire. Accounts of the ambush often list Nigerian casualties around the 5800-5900 mark.

The aftermath of the Abagana ambush. A lot of accounts as shown above talk of single rockets being used. However from the wreckage shown, it appears that salvo's of rockets are normally fired, and the 'remarkable', or rather very lucky hits of single rockets described are down to volume of fire.

All the luck and homemade weapons couldn't save the Biafraian state and in 1970 the last pocket of resistance surrendered. It is to the last Biafraian commanders credit he refused to move to a guerrilla war and plunge the area into decades of conflict like so often has happened elsewhere in the world.

Image credits:
napoleon130.tripod.com and www.thescoopng.com

Medium Mirage

For the last three weeks I have been looking at the Vickers Medium tanks of the inter war period, and I think I might have discovered some bits and pieces. Now I posted some of this on my Facebook page a couple of weeks ago, but I'm going to repeat it here so it’s in a more permanent location, and because the subject has been about as easy to nail down as a mirage is. This why I've been wrestling with it for so many weeks. It didn't help that when I thought I had all my facts lined up I did one last search and bang, new information appeared that tipped everything on its head.

First off, the Vickers Medium is often stated as appearing mysteriously (see Mechanised Force by David Fletcher, for an example) in 1923 with none of the usual development reports having survived. Equally its often stated that the Dragon Gun Tractors (named, as the story goes, for a pun on Drag-Gun) are developments of the Vickers Medium, as they both share a striking similarity in their running gear. As well as the Dragon there was an 18-pounder gun carrier which would carry a field piece portee style and could be dismounted from ramps.

Both these projects are dated from 1922, the year before the Vickers Medium appeared. Therefore, it's likely the other way around and the Medium is a development of the Dragon. You would just need to stick an armoured body on it with a turret on the chassis.

Some websites claim these are prototype Vickers Mediums, they're not. But you can see Seal in the background.

Two Dragons were so converted in the mid-1930's and served at RAF Habbaniya. These had the body of a Rolls Royce Armoured Car fitted and served the RAF's No 1 Armoured Car Company. In the company Rolls Royce had a name with a prefix before it, which read HMAC. This stood for His Majesties Armoured Car. The two converted Dragons were named HMAT Walrus and HMAT Seal. The "T" being for Tank. HMAT Seal went through several modifications during its life, eventually in 1941 she was fitted with a large box body as an APC. Both served in combat against besieging Iraqi troops in 1941, helping to defend the main gate with long range machine gun fire.

Seal, Walrus and a Carden-Loyd carrier of some sort. These are the versions which both saw action

Walrus once had another name...

A hot dusty climate is where the Vickers Medium may have seen combat, this time in Egypt against the Axis, and this is where things become difficult. Google will provide all sorts of stories about where and how the Vickers Mediums were used. The first big difficulty is to lock down exactly how many Mediums were in service. Only the Mk.IIA and Mk.IIA* were built for use in Egypt, and the exact number is unknown, although many sources say there were ten Mk.IIA's built. Other documents point to about twenty four in service with 6th Royal Tank Regiment. Critically the war diary for three months in 1940 are missing and I suspect these might shed some light on what exactly happened to the Mediums. What follows is the data points I do have.

In August 1939 A Squadron of 6th RTR converts from Mediums to Cruiser tanks, leaving B and C squadrons still operating eight Mediums. By October B Squadron had converted as well. In January 1940 C Squadron followed suit bringing 6th RTR up to its full complement of Cruiser tanks. After the Squadrons converted to Cruisers their Mediums were to be handed over to the RAOC. However, when C squadron converted the 6th RTR retained their Mediums. On paper they had twelve, so presumably when B squadron converted they passed over four vehicles.

This collection of twelve vehicles was further reinforced by six Mediums drawn from the RAOC depots, and together the eighteen tanks formed a demonstration squadron used for teaching the use of infantry tank tactics. This squadron put on demonstrations on 18th of January and 18th of February 1940. What happened to the demonstration squadron after that is unknown as that period is within the missing three months I mentioned earlier.

At the same time, we are missing some six or so Mediums. A clue might be found from Egyptian sources. Some sources state that the Egyptians were using the missing Mediums. This is partially backed up by two Egyptian officers being attached to the 6th RTR for two weeks in February to observe how a tank unit functions. In June these Mediums were requisitioned by the British for the fight against Italy. In August four tanks, crewed by non-Egyptian soldiers were at Siwa oasis. Some sources state that is the location where they saw combat as the Allies withdrew from Siwa, but as the Germans occupied it by an air lift it is unlikely they saw combat at this location.

One of the dug in Mediums. It is suggested that the soldiers are Australians, as the European nations tended to keep their shirts on in Africa. but past that there is no clue who owns this tank.

The next data points we have is in January 1941, when preparations were made for the twelve Mediums dug in at Mersa Matruh as part of the defensive line were to be exhumed. This work included surveys to see which could be mobilised, what spare parts and personnel could be arranged and the like. The party tasked with this left on the 6th of February 1941. From that point on the paper trail dries up.

We do have several pictures which show two different Vickers Mediums, all of which have been captured by the Axis forces.

Tank #1: It's named 'Crusader'. She seems to have suffered a fire centred around the crew compartment.

Tank #2: this one has a curious fitting just behind the gun barrel, and different markings to Crusader. Including the number 45. It's often said she suffered a fire caused by mechanical break down, bu as you can see there's no sign of fire. Maybe Crusader is a better candidate for this break down? Also of interest is the broken track on the right hand side.

As a final data point we have a photograph of US soldiers posing next to two Vickers Mediums, one of which could be one which had been pictured earlier, and another one that is brand new. It is rumoured that one of these tanks was seized by the Americans and shipped to the US. 

The US soldiers in front of the tanks. The left hand tank has the number 46. While the right hand one has features similar to No45.

This means we have at least three Mediums which fell into enemy hands. It appears they could not have been from the positions dug in at Mersa Matruh, as those were presumably excavated, and several of the pictures show tanks that were at least in some way mobile.

This would mean there is an armoured unit operating in the area which is not British, as all the tank units belonging to the British have records which show no signs of the Mediums. It can't be Egyptian, as Egypt didn't declare war on the Axis powers until 1945.

A possible contender might be Australian. These Australian armoured units were equipped with all sorts of non-standard equipment, most famously the captured Italian tanks, which sported a giant white Kangaroo emblem. Equally they were equipped with some very old, worn out and obsolete Vickers Light Tanks Mk.III. Australia at that time did have four Vickers Mediums of her own which would have been used for training at least some of the crews up.

I must stress this last idea is nothing more than a theory, as there appears to be not a scrap of evidence to support it apart form a few coincidences. But it defiantly appears that someone was using these Vickers Mediums in the North African desert, and documentation is scarce. I suspect time may well tell on this one as more research is done into the formations.

Gun of the Century?

A couple of weeks ago while writing the piece on armoured trains it suddenly occurred to me that one of the most ubiquitous weapons ever hardly gets a mention. It racked up a service period of over 100 years and has been found shooting at aircraft, tanks and ships. Just about the only place it’s not fought is in space or under water. The only weapons that come close to its longevity that come to my mind as I write this, would be the SMLE and the .50 Browning heavy machine gun. It was so common often both sides would be using the same weapon. Yet in many articles it's nothing more than a footnote. So let’s review the gun of the 20th century, the Hotchkiss 6-pounder.

For such a common gun there is very little on its design or history. One can presume that the weapon was developed in France by the manufacturer, and 1885 is given as the date it was introduced into service. The reason for developing the weapon is given as a defence against smaller faster torpedo boats that were beginning to appear. These boats were capable of moving at 20-30 knots and launching Whitehead torpedoes that were quite deadly even to the largest battleship. In return the slow rate of fire and laying speed of a battleships main armament meant that the weapons had no chance of hitting such a target. Equally using small arms to ward off was impractical as a Whitehead torpedo was effective at about 800 yards. Added to that torpedo boats could easily add protection by placing their coal bunkers on the outside of the hull preventing the rounds causing significant damage.
Therefore, Hotchkiss came up with the 6-pounder, which was a quick firing design and able to deliver an effective weight of shell at ranges far superior to that of the Whitehead torpedo. Due to its QF design it could accurately fire around 25 rounds per minute.

The gun was used around the world by the following naval countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Cuba, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Empire of Japan, Mexico, Peru, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Thailand, United Kingdom, Uruguay, United States and Venezuela, as well as a couple of others, which we'll come to later.

The first test for the gun came in 1894 in the First Sino-Japanese war, where the gun was used on both sides. Two Chinese protected cruisers (Zhiyuen and Jingyuen) were paired together. Both had been manufactured by Armstrong Whitworth in the UK, and thus were at the forefront of the naval design. The same could not be said about the ironclad warship that was the Chinese forces flagship, which had been manufactured by AG Vulcan Stettin in Germany. It had one tiny flaw in its design, if the main guns were fired it would destroy its own flying bridge. When this occurred in the battle of the Yalu River it incapacitated most of the commander’s staff, and the commanding officer, Admiral Ding Ruchang as well. This opening volley also destroyed the signal mast on the ship utterly cutting off any hope of command and control for the battle.

The Jingyuen

In the swirling chaos that followed the two Chinese cruisers  exchanged fire with the Japanese forces, and the action became so close and fierce that the Zhiyuen attempted to ram the enemy cruiser Yoshino. The Japanese cruiser was accompanied by the Takachiho, and Naniwa, both of which were armed with Hotchkiss 6-pounders as well. The ram failed when the Zhiyuen was destroyed by point blank enemy fire. Jingyuen survived and was forced to withdraw with the rest of the defeated Chinese fleet. Later after sustaining damage in a battle she was scuttled by her own side.

The Takachiho

The Hotchkiss 6-pounder fought through several wars in the late 1800's and the early 1900's as a naval gun, until the big one happened, the First World War. Here she began to spread out, being used as an AA gun, and most importantly a tank gun. First placed in the MK.I tank the gun barrels were seen as too long and were cut back, in this sawn off configuration she scored the first ever tank vs tank kill at Villers-Bretonneux.

After this The Hotchkiss 6-pounder continued to serve through many conflicts until the Second World War, in need of guns at least one WWI era tank was reactivated by the British in 1940. One Home Guard unit went a step further and mounted the gun on an improvised armoured car they nicknamed 'Tubby Tankbuster'.

The following year, in 1941 the Soviets may have used a Mk.V armed with 6-pounders against the German invasion.
At sea the 6-pounder was widely issued to British small craft, including the early Fairmile gun boats, before being replaced by naval versions of the 6-pounder anti-tank gun.

It was at sea the Hotchkiss saw its last in-service war. On the 4th of September 1958 the Icelandic patrol vessel Ægir, armed with 6-pounders, attempted to capture a British trawler. When the Blackwood class frigate HMS Russell intervened it officially started the first Cod War. Shots were fired by Icelandic 6-pounders on the 6 October and 12 November. Another salvo of fire was directed at British trawlers in 1974, causing some damage to the British ship.

The final shot fired by a Hotchkiss 6-pounder in anger was during the second Cod War on 11th of December 1975. There are two versions of events, one from the Icelandic side and one from the British side. Both differ widely, but the ending is the same. At a range of some 100 yards the Icelandic vessel Þór fired a live fully functioning Hotchkiss 6-pounder shell into the bows of the unarmed British ship Star Aquarius.

HMS Scylla rammed by the Odin. Odin was armed with Hotchkiss guns like the other vessels. Not a hammer as I had previously been lead to believe.

It looked like the boot was going to be on the other foot when 6 May 1976 the Icelandic cost guard vessel Týr had a run in against HMS Falmouth, however on this occasion although both sides manned their guns no shots were exchanged.

The Icelandic coast guard only retired their Hotchkiss 6-pounders in 1990, bringing to a close 105 years of continuous service around the world.

Image Credits:
 www.fiddlersgreen.net

Toilet Bomb, part II

Last weeks article was posted on its normal day, which was also Aprils fools day. It was a bit of an odd tale about a pilot strapping a broken toilet to his plane and bombing the Vietnamese with it.

Last year I did an Aprils fools day post inventing a steam tank for the British Home Guard. Did I do the same this year, is this a confession about inventing some odd story about ap ilot risking life and limb to drop a toilet on the enemy?

Nope, it was all true. The poorly faked pictures were there to throw you off the scent and make you believe it was a fake. There are a number of pictures surrounding this incident, but all are on the carrier's deck before the mission was flown. There is even some video footage.

And the video:

As was said in the article there was footage recorded during the mission as well. However to date no one has been able to locate a copy, so it is likely destroyed.

Also I did a guest article for another website, over at Tanks-Encyclopedia they needed an Aprils fools joke, which I wrote.

We're back to normal next week with a proper article.

Image credits:
www.midwaysailor.com and www.theaviationgeekclub.com

Toilet Bomb

In 1952 Lieutenant Commander M. K. Dennis was serving as the executive officer for the US Navy's  They were based upon the USS Princeton flying A-1 Skyraiders against the communist forces. During an interview with the press Lt.Cmdr Dennis was to make a comment about how much of a pounding the squadron had been giving the communists. He said, "We dropped everything on them but a kitchen sink."
Upon hearing this comment two of the personnel on the carrier thought why not? Thus, they manufactured a 1000 lb bomb with a sink attached. The press of course loved this and news stories about the weapon circulated in the US. The top brass of the carrier however were less than happy, and refused to allow the ordnance to be deployed.

The 1000lbr kitchen sink bomb

The press coverage however soon caused the weapon to be approved as a PR stunt, and so in August Lt Austin carried the bomb under the fuselage of his Skyraider towards Pyongyang, and the sink was duly dropped on a target.

There is a common fault in peace time armies. Throughout history in the opening months of a conflict you can see armies running short of ammunition as the peace time assumptions on use of ammunition are found to be lacking. The opening years of the Vietnam War were no different.

Often the pilots of VA-25 would be catapulted down the carrier deck with half the pylons on their Skyraiders empty. This was under pressure from the continental US to keep the sortie rate up. The pilots were still going into an intense AA defence network and were suffering losses. Despite this restriction by October 1965 the squadron had dropped six million pounds of explosive on the communist forces.

To celebrate this moment the one of the pilots from the squadron spotted a cracked toilet that had been replaced and was due to be dumped over the side. He retrieved it and enlisted the help of several of the hangar crew. They fitted it with a tail and mounting points. On the final mission of the tour which took place in October 1965 a Skyraider was fitted with this improvised bomb. The Skyraider (number 572) was also gifted the name of "Paper Tiger II"

The mission was termed a "Dixie Strike". At the time, control of US Air Force strike missions was with the US government, planning missions weeks, sometimes months ahead. These were flown from Yankee Station, an imaginary point off the east Vietnam coast.
The laborious planning for these missions, and government approval, meant that the system was impossible to use for flying close support missions for US troops. So Dixie Station was established further to the south. From there Dixie Strikes could be launched.

As Paper Tiger was arranged on deck several of the ground crew, who were in on the idea stayed close to the aircraft to mask the object sitting on the empty outer starboard pylon. Seconds after the aircraft had been catapulted down the deck the message came from the control room "What the hell was that on 572's wing?"

But the sharp-eyed officer was too late, by now Paper Tiger II, and its pilot Commander Clarence W. Stoddard Jr. were airborne and heading Down Town. His wingman was Lt.Cdr Bacon, and was his Skyraider had a video camera fitted.
Arriving over Vietnam Cmdr. Stoddard contacted the FAC to request targets. The FAC asked for a list of ordnance he was carrying. After relaying how many M64 and M57 bombs he had Cmdr. Stoddard added "...and one code name Sani-Flush."

The toilet going down town

 The FAC was amazed by this and brought his plane over to observe. It didn't take long for targets to appear and Paper Tiger II was vectored in for a strike. The two Skyraiders dived on their target and Cmdr Stoddard released his special bomb. The thing about toilets is they have roughly the same aerodynamic properties as a brick, and the fins fitted were wholly unsuited to the job of keeping it straight. The toilet bomb flipped backwards and nearly collided with Lt.Cmdr Bacon's aircraft and then fell somewhere in South Vietnam. The footage of the bomb drop was viewed back on the carrier to much merriment.

The toilet just after its release, pictured from the cabin on Lt. Cmder's plane

On 14th of September 1966 on a second cruise Cmdr. Stoddard was flying his Skyraider on a sweep for enemy truck convoys. When he was near the village of Nghi Thiet his radar warning receiver went off. Cmdr. Stoddard immediately took evasive action and headed out to sea. However his plane was still struck by a communist SAM, and Stoddard was listed as Missing in Action, until 1973 when the verdict was changed to KIA.

Image credits:
www.boeing.com

War Train

Today, armoured trains in the Second World War are seen as mostly an Eastern Front vehicle, with both the Germans and Russians using them. But in the Second World War the British did build their own collection of armoured locomotives. These were generally manned by Home Guard. These seem to have been normal tenders with one or two armoured wagons with firing slits for small arms, some even mounted large calibre guns. These were used to patrol railway lines, which at the time criss-crossed Britain, looking for saboteurs and if Operation Sealion happened would have been used as strong points in the fighting. 

The gun at the front is a 6-pounder, identical to the guns used on WWI tanks.

Equally to protect normal trains a number of wagons with Oerlikon or Polsten 20mm cannons were made. These would provide AA defense to the normal trains.

There is, however, one iconic armoured train in the British arsenal. Its existence started in the early 1920's when two miniature train enthusiasts, who were also racing drivers, collaborated to create a miniature railway line. These two individuals were Captain John Edwards Presgrave Howey and Count Louis Vorow Zborowski. The latter was a millionaire and had his own miniature railway already. He offered to donate the rolling stock and support elements to the proposed railway. Count Zborowski's cars were nicknamed 'Chitty Bang Bang’ and inspired the later book. However, before the railway dream could be established Count Zborowski was killed in a crash during a race.

Cpt Howey decided to continue and after viewing several locations he selected an area between Romney and Hythe for his 15" gauge railway, opening in 1927 with eight miles of track. Later it was expanded to Dymchurch and the track length reached the present 13.5 miles.

Choochoo! Out of my way Jerry!

During the Second World War, if the Germans had launched their invasion Romney Marsh would have been the front line. One infantry unit stationed in the area was the 6th Somerset Light Infantry. As chance would have it the Battalion Adjutant was a miniature train enthusiast. He proposed three modified hopper cars each with two Lewis guns and a Boys Rifle, pulled by a 12 cylinder diesel engine. The latter would be fitted with an armoured cab scratch built by the engineers.

Work began on this scheme, but the engine was insufficiently powerful. In the end two modified cars were created and were moved by one of the railways steam engines named Hercules, which had been fitted with some armour plate.

The crew of the machine was seven in number, two AA gunners two normal gunners, a commander, engine driver and spare man. It also carried rations and small arms for the crew. In normal operation the train would be camouflaged up by 0800 and be ready to open fire on any low level German aircraft that came within range. Often it would spend the night at one end of the track making a return journey the following day.

It is claimed that on one occasion the train was underway when they saw a Dornier 17 heading towards them. The crew brought their weapons to bear and began to fire. Onboard the Dornier the bomb aimer was yelling at the pilot that they were too high, having utterly mistaken the size of the train thinking he was attacking a normal sized set of rolling stock. The area the train operated in has some very featureless and bleak terrain, so it is certainly possible.

You can see from this picture how deceptive the scale can be, at first glance it looks like a full sized train.

As the German bomber roared overhead, the pilot suddenly found himself a lot lower than expected and slammed into the ground. Or at least this is the story. I've tracked down the location of the unit’s war diary, and next time I'm at that archive I will find out for sure!

Despite the potential victory the fate of the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway was an inglorious one. When the men of the 160th Railway Construction Company R.E inspected the railway in January 1941 they found most of the signals and engines broken, the buildings smashed and looted, but the rolling stock and tracks in a fair condition. From then on, the railway's only service to the war effort was the use of the route as an access point to the PLUTO project for Operation Overlord, which likely did a lot of damage to the surviving tracks.

There is another story of British trains fighting back. On the 27th of November 1942 a D3 class locomotive, with the number 2365, and the name Victoria, departed from the station at Lydd Town. After a short time the crew and passengers spotted a pair of FW190's. The German planes turned towards the puffing locomotive and began to dive in for their strafing attack. Victoria was completely unarmed and had no defense. The FW190's opened fire, hitting the engine.

Not Victoria, but one of hte same class, you can see the number (2380) on the rear of the cab.

 One of the bursts shot the dome off the middle of the engine, rupturing the boiler, and causing it to vent steam and debris straight upwards directly into the face of one of the FW190's. The pilot lost control and slammed into the ground. Victoria is rumoured to have received a kill mark for that action.

Fire Fight

The anti-hero is a common enough tale in fiction, but even in real life they exist. Maynard Harrison Smith was born to wealthy parents in May 1911, and after his father died he lived off his inheritance. Throughout his life he had been described as troubled and difficult. He first married in 1929 and had a child. In 1932 the couple divorced. Smith remarried in 1941. In 1942 at the age of 31, he failed to pay his child support to his first wife and was taken to court. The judge gave him an option, jail or the military. Not a clear-cut choice with a country that had just become involved in the Second World War. Smith chose the military, and when a group of thirty odd recruits assembled outside the courthouse in Caro, Smith was lead to join the group while in handcuffs.

During training Smith found it hard to accept younger men telling him what to do and had a difficult time. However, he volunteered for aerial gunnery training as he saw it as the fastest route to promotion. He carried out his specialisation training in Texas, upon completion Smith was promoted to Staff Sergeant, and then transferred to the UK. Upon arriving, around mid March 1943, he was assigned to the 306th Bomb Group flying out of Turleigh Airfield. Sgt Smith was disliked and no one wanted him on his crew. This kept him out of action for six weeks. However, on the 1st of May 1943 Sgt Smith was picked to fill in a blank spot in a bomber crew. He had to man the ball turret.

The target, the U-boat pens are the large square building, just to the right of centre. Normandy dock is the angled water feature above the centre.

The mission was to hit the U-boat pens at St Nazaire. Seventy-eight B-17's were meant to go on this mission, however bad weather caused thirty-eight to abort, and another eleven turned back with mechanical problems. The remaining twenty-nine carried onto the target. Luck was on the bombers side this time as they reached their target having encountered no enemy action. They bombed and turned out to sea then flew into dense cloud. The lead navigator made a mistake with his timings, and when they emerged from the cloud bank and saw themselves over the sea, but with a landmass to their north, the navigator declared this was England. The bomber formation began to descend.

In reality this was Brittany, and the bombers were heading towards one of the more heavily defended areas, Brest. By now the Germans had gotten organised and had managed to vector about twenty fighters onto the B-17's. Suddenly the air was filled with planes and gunfire. The fighters savaged Smiths B-17, there was a loud explosion, and the intercom went dead. The pilot of Smiths aircraft ordered his bombardier to check on the rest of the crew, while he struggled to hold the B-17 steady. The Sergeant opened the door to the radio room only to find it engulfed in flames, trapping the crew in the forward section.

In the rear of the plane Sgt Smith’s turret had lost electrical power. He hand cranked it round to allow him to escape. As he emerged the radio man raced past him with a parachute, and jumped, the two waist gunners followed suit. Smith however stood his ground. He realised that the plane was holding steady in the formation, so at least someone was at the controls. Smith started to attack the fire with a handheld fire extinguisher. Then he saw the tail gunner crawl out of his burning position. As Smith rushed to him to drag him to safety he saw that the tail gunner had been hit in the back. Smith gave first aid, before returning to firefighting.

Smith manning a waits gun in a posed photograph.

Through one of the holes torn in the fuselage he saw German fighters barrelling in for another attack. Single handily Smith drove the attacking fighter away with the .50 cal guns. As he returned to fighting the fire he saw that ammunition boxes were beginning to catch alight, so he began to throw them out the large hole torn in the fuselage. Several of these exploded seconds after they cleared the aircraft.

The reason for the fire being so bad was the oxygen system had been hit and this was powering the flames. Again, Smith attacked it with the fire extinguishers, however he saw another fighter closing and raced back to the waist gun to drive it off. By now the fire extinguishers were empty, and Smith was forced to improvise using water bottles, and some accounts even say he urinated on the fire to try and keep it under control. For the next thirty minutes Smith alternated between giving first aid, fighting off German fighters and attacking the fire with his hands trying to beat the flames out.

The Damage to Smith's plane.

Eventually the fires were out, and the German fighters stopped coming. Smith worried that the plane would be melted in half by the heat so he began to throw everything he could over the side to lighten the tail section. Eventually the plane set down at Predennack in Cornwall. Some 3500 holes were counted in the fuselage. About ten minutes after setting down the plane did break in half. The three crew who jumped were lost at sea. Smith was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honour for his actions. A large ceremony was laid on, with the US Secretary of War presenting the medal. However, at the ceremony Smith was nowhere to be found, and everyone involved had to stand and wait while he was tracked down. Smith was on punishment duties, cleaning up in the kitchen after getting drunk and missing another mission. Smith was only to fly another four missions before being diagnosed with combat stress. He remained in England, demoted to private and doing clerical work, until 26th of May 1945. While on these duties Smith married for the third time to an English woman, and they had four children.

Smith getting his medal.

After the war Smith worked for the Department of the Treasury and died in May 1984 in Florida.


Image credits:
www.combinedops.com and thisdayinaviation.com

Vietnam Stuka's

On 13th of April 1972 the darkness of the early morning was lit up by the flashes of a huge number of artillery pieces. For the next 15 hours they fired at their target. The focus of this concentration of fire power was the city of An Loc in Vietnam, and shells would be landing at a rate of one every eight seconds for the rest of the day. This barrage helped to sap the ARVN defender’s morale even further. Whilst the city had been bolstered by forces, these were the survivors of further positions that had been over run in the preceding eight days by a brand new communist offensive. The offensive had been launched out of Cambodia and after two days of bitter fighting had crushed the Quần Lợi Base Camp. As it fell one of the US advisors was last heard of calling down air strikes on his own position.

OH-6

The following days involved the surrounding of two smaller bases, and their eventual defeat. A portion of the soldiers involved had managed to break out and retreat to An Loc, without any heavy equipment.  A small force of ARVN and US advisers from these positions were surrounded and nearly annihilated. Eventually two OH-6’s managed to land and carry the entire platoon to safety. In the lead OH-6, six of the twelve people lifted out were carried out clinging to the landing skids.

An Loc itself.

The communists surrounded An Loc with some 35,000 men, along with a vast array of artillery and anti-aircraft weapons. But these were not all the communist forces had, they also had some forty T-54 tanks. To support their attack they launched these at the beleaguered ARVN forces. This was the first time the ARVN soldiers would face armour.
Unsurprisingly this debut caused an outbreak of tank terror, and the ARVN lines began to break. Things looked bleak as the tanks rolled steadily down the main roads, one column of which was heading directly for the defending division's HQ.

At this point two things happened.

Firstly, a private named Binh Doan Quang stood up in his foxhole, and levelled his M72 LAW, which weighed only 5.5lbs, against the gigantic thundering behemoth heading right towards him, and pressed the button. The rocket streaked out and slammed into the tank, destroying it. The rest of the ARVN soldiers in his position saw this and realised that they had the answer to the tanks. The ARVN's efforts were helped by the Soviet trained NVA tankers. Due to the unique way the forces were deployed the tanks were part of the NVA force, while the majority of the infantry were part of a Vietcong division. This meant there was little coordination between the two. In addition, the NVA tankers would often just drive at a steady pace down roads instead of using their mobility to go cross country. Equally this steady pace would leave what little infantry support they had behind. The story of tanks in a bombed-out city with no infantry support is one we all know the results of.

At the ARVN HQ about to be overrun by tanks a US advisor, Colonel Miller, grabbed his radio, on a US band, and said "Send me some Stuka's!". Somewhat to his shock he got a reply.

Serpent Six identified himself as being overhead, with two Cobra gunships. These are not the twin engine tow laden gunships armed with a 20mm cannon we know today, but much more primitive machines. They were armed with a rifle calibre mini-gun and rockets, which were normally fitted with HE warheads. However, these rockets had been fitted with the brand new HEAT warhead.

Overhead in Serpent Six, a Major by the name of Larry McKay, was positioning himself for an attack run. Col Miller tried to wave him off as the air around An Loc was covered by hundreds of AA weapons. Nevertheless, Maj McKay positioned himself above the town. Just before he was about to start his attack he saw a rising column of smoke as a heat seeking missile streaked towards him. He threw the AH-1 into a tight ninety degree turn and managed to get the missile to go after the hot gas that was his exhaust trail, not his helicopter. Banking back, Maj McKay put his Cobra into a steep dive directly towards the column of tanks. He chose such a risky approach for added accuracy against the targets, which were in friendly lines. On his first pass he knocked out three tanks in the attacking column, one at both the front and rear of the line, and one in the middle. The two Cobra's then set about the T-55's, being credited with destroying some twenty vehicles. By now US air power was responding and the number of planes stacked up above the battlefield was so many that the air space was becoming dangerously overcrowded.

One by one the aircraft rolled in, some making attack runs at only 20m separation from friendly forces. This firepower, along with the rallied ARVN soldiers knocking out tanks forced the battle to move into a prolonged siege.

Resupply of An Loc became more and more difficult due to the huge amount of AA firepower deployed. On April the 14th three USAF C-130's tried to make a resupply drop to the city. The first plane managed to get in and out having dropped its load. A second plane approached and was met with a hail of AA fire. The flak killed one man and wounded two others, as well as setting a fire in the cargo bay. The fire was located on the 27,000 pounds of ammunition which burned fiercely. The load-master fought past the flames and dumped the cargo. Two of the pallets exploded seconds after leaving the plane, causing severe burns to his face, neck and hands.

On their way back to base it was found that the landing gear would not lower. The load-master with the burnt hand furiously hand cranked the landing gear down, and the pilot managed to bring the C-130 in on just one engine. For their actions both the pilot, Colonel William R. Caldwell, and the load-master, Staff Sergeant Charles Shaub received the Air Force Cross.

The battle of An Loc would grind on until the 20th of July, when the communist forces withdrew unable to break the defenders.

Image Credits:
www.history-of-american-wars.com and vnafmamn.com (be warned the last site seems to hold a lot of errors.)