During the early 1970s the US Navy tried out a unique experimental new method of preserving warships in reserve, aboard the decommissioned USS Betelgeuse (AK-260).
(photo from May 1972 issue of The Naval Reservist magazine)
Merry Christmas 2025
I wish a Merry Christmas to all wwiiafterwwii readers, a few days early. Below is a Christmas card of the British XII Army of 1945, the first peacetime Christmas which Great Britain had since 1938.
WWII armor in Cambodia 1953 – 1975
This is a look at Cambodia’s use of WWII tanks and armored vehicles before the coming of the Khmer Rouge in 1975.
ideas for mixing aviation with the Iowa class battleships
Over the years I considered writing on this, but did not as there are other commentaries on the topic already. However some of them “mix things up” as to when and why these proposals were created, especially regarding Martin Marietta’s “Phase II” and the actual 1980s reactivations of the WWII Iowa class.
I hope that this may be of some value to show all the ideas in chronological order.
(USS New Jersey during WWII.) (photo via navsource website)
(USS New Jersey as the Interdiction Assault Ship proposal with ski jump flight decks and VLS.) (photo via US Naval Institute)
how Interarms brought WWII Soviet weapons into “red scare era” America
This is a look at how Mosin-Nagant rifles, the USSR’s main longarm of WWII, came commercially into the United States at the height of anti-communist sentiment.
(Soviet soldiers with Mosin-Nagant rifles during WWII.)
(A “sign of the times”; a typical 1950s disclaimer for Mosin-Nagants being sold commercially in the United States)
salute to USS Hemminger / HTMS Pin Klao: WWII to 2025
On 1 October 2025 the Royal Thai Navy decommissioned HTMS Pin Klao, the former USS Hemminger (DE-746). It was the last Cannon class in service, the final WWII DE (destroyer-escort) of any type still in service, and one of a small number of WWII warships of any type or nation still in use during the 2020s.
(USS Hemminger (DE-746) during WWII.)
(The final crew of HTMS Pin Klao, the ex-USS Hemminger, during 2025.)
WWII US Navy minesweepers as postwar Soviet whalers
The Admirable class was one of the US Navy’s two main fleet minesweeper classes during WWII. Some were Lend-Leased to the USSR during the war and ten of those would end up converted into a quite unexpected civilian role.
(USS Measure (AM-263) during WWII.)
(The Soviet whaler Buran, the former USS Measure, during the 1950s.)
Sherman’s last ride
The USA’s M4 Sherman tank of WWII had a long career after that war, seeing service with numerous armies in several conflicts around the world after WWII. The last active user was the South American nation of Paraguay.
(Sherman Repotenciado of Paraguay’s Regimiento Escolta Presidencial; by 2018 the final active-duty unit anywhere on Earth still using WWII Shermans.)
wwiiafterwwii 10th anniversary / bric-a-brac post
I wish to thank all readers over the past ten years. This is a mixture of topics I have had in my head probably not big enough for study on their own.
To start, I have never explained the image I used as the cover photo for wwiiafterwwii.
The cover photo and the color photo above were taken at Elizabeth City, NC on 17 February 1960. It shows the last PB-1G (USCG nomenclature for the B-17 Flying Fortress) still in US Coast Guard service; also the very last Flying Fortress of any version left in any of the five armed forces; alongside the USCG’s first SC-130B Hercules.
This particular Flying Fortress, serial #77254, had been a stock B-17 during WWII. It was one of eighteen bombers transferred to the US Coast Guard from the US Army after WWII for conversion into unarmed lifeboat-droppers. After two years in that role, this particular plane was modified again for a Coast & Geodetic Survey project, with a panoramic high-detail camera.
(The camera cost $1.5 million ($19.99 million in 2025 dollars) and was for aerial mapping. It was worth more than the Flying Fortress itself.) (official US Coast Guard photo)
This plane had all WWII guns deleted, and was fitted with a radar and LORAN receiver. The WWII Norden bombsight in the nose was retained as it was helpful to line up camera runs.
Besides the mapping project this PB-1G also did International Ice Patrol flights. It ceased active use in October 1959 and was discarded in 1960, on the same day as the photo.
selected WWII warships in NATO-era Turkey’s fleet
As a loose theme, these are somehow unique WWII warships which served in the Cold War-era Turkish navy. That in itself is not particularly odd, as there was a stretch during the 1970s when practically the entire Turkish fleet was surplus WWII warships. However I selected these as I feel there is some unique trait: either what they were; or; how Turkey (neutral during WWII) ended up getting them.
(The netlayer TCG Kaldiray started WWII as Sansin, a warship of the French navy. It was part of the Vichy Levantine squadron’s interned flotilla along with TCG Akar described below. It served Turkey until 1975.)
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