The fuel lighters Rimfaxe and Skinfaxe, formerly WWII American 174′ YOs, had a long and successful career in the Danish fleet. Looking at these two ships is also an opportunity to examine the US Navy’s remarkable Yard & District Craft program of WWII, which now eight decades after the war has been all but forgotten by the general public.
(A 174′ YO-65 class lighter of the Yard & District Craft program running trials on Lake Michigan during WWII.) (photo via navsource website)
Since starting wwiiafterwwii, I have wanted to do something on this topic but was unsure how to approach it. I am interested in how WWII weapons performed in battle against Cold War replacements. But also, it is fascinating to consider how they ended up where they did after WWII……how did a Garand built to fight Imperial Japan end up in the Somali desert in the 1970s, or how did a Waffen-SS sturmgewehr end up in 21st century Damascus?
(An ex-Wehrmacht NbW 42 Nebelwerfer with Interarms markings in the 1960s.)
The last active-duty military unit in the world still using the M1917 rifle is the Sirius Sled Patrol (Slædepatruljen Sirius) of the Danish possession of Greenland. The M1917 is designated Gevær M/53-17 by the Sirius Sled Patrol.
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