ideas for mixing aviation with the Iowa class battleships

November 23, 2025November 23, 2025 jwh19759 Comments

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)

salute to USS Hemminger / HTMS Pin Klao: WWII to 2025

October 11, 2025 jwh197515 Comments

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.)

Sherman’s last ride

September 14, 2025 jwh19755 Comments

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.)

selected WWII warships in NATO-era Turkey’s fleet

August 10, 2025August 11, 2025 jwh19754 Comments

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.)

transplanting South Vietnam’s WWII warships to the Philippines 1975

June 2, 2025June 2, 2025 jwh19754 Comments

Fifty years ago this May, ships of the South Vietnamese navy fled to the Philippines as Saigon was overrun.

Recently media outlets have covered this story, often as “…how America stole a whole navy in 1975!” which is not correct. Meanwhile many naval observers worldwide are aware that the Philippines later received these WWII-era warships, but not really aware of the steps to make that happen.

This will be less technical data and more a look at the behind-the-scenes hoops that the USA jumped through to transplant a fallen ally’s WWII-era warships into another ally’s fleet.

(The escape: Overloaded with refugees, HQVN Lam Giang arrives at Côn Son as Saigon falls in 1975. It had been LSM-226 during WWII.)

(The wait: former South Vietnamese warships rust away at Subic Bay during the summer of 1975, awaiting politicians to determine their fate.)

(The payoff: BRP Miguel Malvar, formerly South Vietnam’s HQVN Ngoc Hoi and the WWII US Navy’s USS Brattleboro, serving the Philippines in the 21st century.)

the Walam 48, “GSM Mauser Oberaudorf”, and postwar Walther PP / PPKs

March 1, 2025March 7, 2025 jwh197516 Comments

Some years ago I wrote on the Tokagypt, Hungary’s postwar version of the WWII Soviet TT-33 originally for an Egyptian order, but later as the Firebird notorious within European law enforcement as “the terrorist’s delight”. In passing I mentioned the Tokagypt’s forgotten brother, the Walam.

Below is a look at the Walam, and information about postwar PPs / PPKs in general including odd meetups of a WWII firearm and modern trademark infringement.

(A Walam 48 captured by Israel in Lebanon.)

(Not a typo.)

USS Forster: four flags, three nations, five conflicts

February 17, 2025February 17, 2025 jwh197511 Comments

Many of the US Navy’s destroyer-escorts (DEs) of WWII had varied lives after the war, but perhaps none more than USS Forster (DE-334).

(USS Forster during WWII.)

(The Vietnamese navy’s Dai Ky, formerly the South Vietnamese navy’s HQVN Trân Khánh Du, formerly the US Navy’s USS Forster, during the 1979 invasion of Cambodia.)

the M8 Greyhound in Mexico after WWII

November 9, 2024 jwh19757 Comments

The WWII American M8 Greyhound armored car has had an incredibly long run in Mexico, still being upgraded in the 21st century. Beyond these vehicles themselves, it is a chance to look at Mexico during and after WWII. At least in English-language sources, Mexico – considering its size and population – is often given scant attention.

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(US Army M8 Greyhound during WWII.)

(The Mexican army’s M8 Modificado II, still in service almost 80 years after WWII ended.)

Denmark’s long-serving “Faxe”s / salute to WWII Yard & District Craft

October 20, 2024 jwh19758 Comments

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.

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(A 174′ YO-65 class lighter of the Yard & District Craft program running trials on Lake Michigan during WWII.) (photo via navsource website)

top2 (Rimfaxe and Skinfaxe after decommissioning from the Danish navy in 2000.) (photo via Søværnet)

last of the Fletchers

April 21, 2024April 22, 2024 jwh19756 Comments

Some years ago I wrote on ARM Netzahualcoyotl, the last WWII Gearing class in service worldwide. Mexico also was the very last user of the WWII Fletcher class, however unlike Mexico’s FRAM-modernized Gearing, in 2001 ARM Cuitláhuac remained “frozen in time” to a WWII technology level.

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(USS John Rodgers (DD-574) during WWII.)

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(ARM Cuitláhuac, the former USS John Rodgers, in 2000. It was the last Fletcher still in service anywhere in the world.)

wwiiafterwwii

wwii equipment used after the war

Tag: 1980s