If you’ve ever watched the news, you’ve undoubtedly noticed that human beings are uniformly horrible. As I sit typing these words, I have just wrapped up my daily news dump.
The highlights include a horrible terrorist attack in Moscow by ISIS, a horrible story about a sex cult, another horrible story about a school shooter, and then a story about the Iranians making cheap explosive drones to export all over the world and murder innocent people, which is also obviously horrible. Just what is wrong with us?
I’ll answer that for you. Nothing is wrong with us. We just live on Planet Earth alongside every other horrible thing God saw fit to put here. For the dispassionate observer, we human beings are just not all that special in the horrible department.
Wet and Wild
I have a little lake for a backyard. Many years ago, when I finally finished medical school, we took the last of the savings my wife had scraped up from my time in the Army and used it to build a dam across a small creek that runs through the secluded stand of Mississippi timber we call home. The resulting modest body of water helped raise my kids.
We were some of those homeschool freaks. Most days, when it was pretty and warm, my kids would go swimming in the lake. They turned the canoe over and used it like a submarine, strategically placed a water hose on a hillside to create a mudslide, and just generally had a good time being miniature unwashed redneck lunatics. I joined them for a while but called it a day when the fish wouldn’t stop nipping at my leg hair.
The lake has been a nexus for some of the most fascinating creatures. My kids would wade out into the water with lunch meat and feed the bass by hand.
The water moccasins reproduced like bunnies, spawning an existential battle for extermination that persists to this very day. Over the years, we’ve had beavers, otters, kingfishers, salamanders, ospreys and bald eagles. And then there were the Canadian geese.
Backyard Bedlam
I’ve always wanted to own my own island. Ideally, it would be around 1,100 acres with ample fresh water and an airstrip somewhere off the coast of Belize. However, as I will never be able to afford that, I settled for building my own in the lake behind the house.
Our private island sports a diameter of maybe fifteen feet and is dominated by a single willow tree. We call it Australia (the island, not the tree. A willow tree called Australia would be stupid.) Our island is also apparently some seriously prime real estate for migrating Canadian geese.
Come springtime every year the Canadian geese invade the place like it is Dieppe in 1942. They are attractive enough creatures. However, they make for simply ghastly B&B guests.
Rare is the day during goose season that those blasted monsters don’t ring in the morning at 0500 with their cacophonous honking. It’s not a lack of resources that drives that train. They just can’t seem to share.
The lake is plenty big to support a dozen or more of these big feathery monsters. However, there precipitates every year this massive battle for supremacy to see which mating pair earns the title to the island. It’s like the epic movie “The Highlander.” Apparently, there can be only one.
One morning, instead of just quietly hating them, I dragged my laptop out onto the back porch to watch. I had never done that before. Wow. Roman arena blood sports have got nothing on these guys.
The momma geese sit off to the side and wisely just spectate. The dads fight literally to the death, honking madly throughout. They smack into each other, flap their wings to pummel their opponents, and then go in for the kill.
The kill shot is to grab the opponent by the neck and then hold their heads underwater until they drown. Over the years we have awakened to find dead geese floating in the lake a couple of times.
Animals would have nuclear bombs, too, if only they had opposable thumbs.
Embrace the Darkness
And that brings me to my point. Everything is horrible. All these stupid geese need to do is get along. There’s plenty of room and likely strength in numbers, but they just can’t bring themselves to do so. And it turns out that absolutely everything in the world is like that.
That adorable little puppy who is gleefully gnawing on his high-pitched squeaky toy? In his precious little mind, he is actually ripping the very life out of some helpless creature.
The fluffy little kitten pouncing on the laser spot? In his imagination, he’s killing stuff, too. Leave two painfully cute human babies together for a couple of minutes, and one of them will invariably hit the other in the head with a big plastic toy telephone. Koala bears, field mice, frogs, lizards and amoebas — everything is frankly horrible. We just live in a fallen world. To imagine otherwise is simply magical thinking.
So, enjoy your life. There’s plenty of good, safe fun to be found amidst all that bedlam. However, face it with your eyes open. In the immortal words of Ronald Reagan, trust but verify.
That’s why I carry a gun whenever I’m not asleep or in the shower. Whether it is wilderness survival, business, interpersonal relationships or politics, never forget that absolutely everything is horrible.
Two young Marine F4U Corsair pilots entered a savage Pacific dogfight and somehow survived the impossible. One met a Japanese Zero’s propeller. The other fell 2,000 feet without a working parachute.
The F4U Corsair was one of the most graceful flying machines ever produced. The Japanese called it the “Whistling Death” due to the distinctive sound it made when the wind was roaring through the oil coolers in the wing roots. Wikipedia photo by Gary Wetzler.
The summer of 1943 was a busy time in the azure blue skies above the Pacific. Allied pilots battled their Japanese counterparts to the death over control of tiny spits of sandy jungle jutting up out of the ocean. If war had ever truly been chivalrous and gentlemanly, any pretense of that was gone some 18 months after the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor.
7 June 1943 saw brutal aerial combat over the Russell Islands in the Solomons. Marine F4U Corsairs and Army Air Corps P40 Warhawks mixed it up with Japanese Zeroes until the sky was dirty with smoke and death. One particular engagement produced two comparably extraordinary tales.
Why the Japanese Zero Ruled Early Pacific Skies
The Japanese A6M Zero was a scourge early in World War 2, but American designs soon eclipsed its performance. 10,939 examples were produced. Only one remains flyable today with its original engine. Wikipedia photo by Kogo.
At the onset of the war in the Pacific, the Japanese Zero and the men who flew it seemed unstoppable. Japanese naval aviators in particular were some of the most well-trained pilots in the world. However, their bench was shallow. While the United States tooled up to produce combat aircraft and pilots at a rate not seen before or since, Japanese aviators killed in combat could not readily be replaced. This attrition was beginning to be felt over the battlefield by mid-1943.
The Zero was considered invincible because of an intentional mechanical compromise. Where American fighters were fat with armor, self-sealing fuel tanks, and .50-caliber heavy machine guns, the A6M5 Zero was a stripped-down, lightweight thoroughbred. The Zero’s lack of armor and amenities made it nimble and fast but vulnerable.
This is the cockpit of an A6M2 Zero downed during the attack on Pearl Harbor. Many Japanese pilots had little use for their radios and removed them from their planes. Public domain.
The Zero’s radios were rubbish. Unreliable, heavy, and quirky, Japanese radios of the day often pummeled Zero pilots with mind-numbing static. As a result, a great many Japanese pilots pulled the heavy radio gear out of their machines to improve their performance. This left tactical control up to such primitive stuff as hand signals and wing waggling. American tech would soon play a huge part in our coming overwhelming tactical superiority.
As a result, Japanese combat aircraft often flew in huge mixed formations. On 7 June, some 50 Japanese Zero fighters and single-engine bombers were droning along above the Russell Islands. Army P40’s bounced this huge gaggle of Japanese warplanes. The resulting frenetic dogfight devolved into a swirling maelstrom of aerial violence.
A Long Way Down: Samuel Logan Bails Out
The F4U Corsair was fast and powerful. However, it also made for a big target. Wikipedia photo by Oren Rosen.
22-year-old Marine aviator LT Samuel S. Logan was flying an F4U Corsair when he came upon a solitary Zero hot on the tail of an Army Warhawk. Logan unleashed his half-dozen .50-caliber machine guns on the Japanese plane only to have another Zero get the jump on him.
He felt his heavy gull-winged machine shudder and realized that the control surfaces in his tail were shredded. With the big Marine fighter now beginning to come apart, Logan slid his canopy back, unfastened it, and crawled out of the cockpit.
One of the biggest threats to a successful egress from a crippled WW2-era fighter was being struck by one’s own plane during the jump. As a result, Sam Logan worked his way hand-over-hand down the length of his stricken machine and leapt clear from the damaged empennage. In moments, he was falling free. Once away from his airplane, Logan pulled the ripcord and found himself suspended underneath his parachute.
Cold-Blooded Code: A Zero Circles Back
Japanese pilots in WW2 more often than not gave no quarter in combat. American flyers fed that right back to them. Public domain.
The Zero pilot who had shot him down was not satisfied simply to have destroyed Logan’s airplane. He torqued his nimble little fighter around in a tight circle and lined up for a firing pass on the helpless Marine aviator. LT Logan knew what was coming.
Killing pilots while under canopy was illegal per the laws of war, but there wasn’t anybody around to enforce those laws. American pilots machine-gunned their helpless opponents on rare occasions, usually in response to barbarity such as this, but the Japanese did it quite a lot. This practice stemmed from the weird Bushido code that drove the Japanese war machine.
Japanese troops were indoctrinated to sacrifice everything for their Emperor. Surrender was a disgrace worse than death. As a result, enemy troops who had willingly saved themselves under such circumstances were not considered worthy of basic human protections.
Fish in a Barrel: A Zero Hunts Logan Under Canopy
Paratroopers under canopy are considered hostile combatants. Downed aviators are not. This is an important distinction. Public domain.
It is actually tougher to engage an essentially stationary aerial target from a fast-moving fighter plane than you might think. The Japanese pilot lined up on LT Logan and fired a long burst but missed. Logan lifted his legs as the enemy plane passed mere feet below him. The Zero then circled around for another try.
The second effort ended about the same as the first. Logan again had to lift his feet in an effort to avoid the attacking fighter. Miraculously, the Japanese pilot failed to connect a second time.
By the third pass, Logan was pulling madly at his risers in an effort to make himself a tougher target. Now focused entirely on killing the American flyer, the Japanese pilot loosed another burst at close range.
Misjudging the distance, the Zero pilot actually struck the dangling Marine with his propeller. The Zero removed most of Logan’s right foot as well as his left heel. As the Japanese fighter wheeled around for a fourth pass, a nearby American P40 noticed the carnage, engaged the enemy plane, and drove it away.
A Fine Mess: Wounded in the Pacific
The B2 pararaft issued to American aviators during WW2 wasn’t much of a boat. Public domain.
LT Logan was now in a bit of a spot. The murderous Japanese pilot was no longer actively trying to kill him, which was great. However, he had just had his legs run through an airplane propeller. It was in this sordid state that he touched down in the warm waters of the Pacific.
Logan somehow got his life raft inflated and pulled himself out of the water. Clawing through his survival gear, he managed to get a tourniquet around his mangled right foot and liberally covered the wound in sulfa powder. He then injected himself with a morphine syrette to dull the pain.
Despite his injuries, Logan retrieved his signal mirror and successfully attracted the attention of an American floatplane. The friendly aircraft landed nearby and successfully effected a rescue. Logan was medevac’d to a Naval hospital where his right stump was dressed.
One Wild Ride: J.G. Percy Falls 2,000 Feet
LT Percy’s Corsair met the same fate as that of LT Logan. Public domain.
During this same engagement, one of Sam Logan’s fellow Corsair pilots, a Marine aviator named J.G. Percy from San Francisco, downed one Zero and damaged another. In the melee, Percy’s Corsair was also riddled with bullets and cannon shells. At 2,000 feet, the 21-year-old Marine aviator dove out of his dying plane.
The parachutes used by military aviators of that era were last-ditch survival tools. They were designed to be lightweight and portable. There were no reserves. When LT Percy yanked his ripcord, the white nylon chute malfunctioned into a worthless ribbon. He had no other options except simply to fall.
From nearly half a mile up, Percy accelerated to a ridiculous speed. Once he neared the water, he oriented himself feet-first and twisted his head skyward. In this configuration, he hit the water like a rocket.
Why a 2,000-Foot Fall Turns Water Into Concrete
Gases can be compressed to do stuff for us. Liquids cannot. Public domain.
Liquids are incompressible. Gases are not. What that means is that you can compress a volume of air or similar gas into a tank to be used at your convenience. By contrast, no matter how much pressure you put on a liquid like water, that volume will not get appreciably smaller.
What that practically means in this case is that the Pacific Ocean had no give to it. Jumping into the water from a diving board allows the human body to slip into the water such that this potential energy is dissipated gradually and safely. At LT Percy’s speed, however, the water acted almost like concrete.
The fastest a human body can typical strike water without injury is between 35 and 40 mph. That equates out to a jump height of around 40 to 50 feet. Terminal velocity for a human being dropped from 2,000 feet is closer to 120 mph when falling belly-first. Percy was more like a pencil. Something had to give.
Brace for Impact: Percy Hits the Pacific
The Mae West life vest, so named after the buxom actress, saved many a life during World War 2. Public domain.
Percy later said that he “Landed in the water feet-first and felt something break.” That something was his pelvis, but he was, against all odds, still alive. The young Marine got his Mae West life jacket inflated, and that kept his head above water.
Despite his grievous injuries, LT Percy swam for three hours until he reached a jagged reef. Pulling himself over the coral, he made his way with difficulty to the nearby beach. Percy remained on the beach throughout the night, unable to stand or walk. The following day, he attracted the attention of four passing natives who summoned aid and got him to safety. Once stabilized in an American military hospital, Percy recovered.
Two Marine Pilots Who Simply Refused to Die
Sam Logan miraculously survived his trip through the spinning propeller of a Japanese Zero. Public domain.
World War 2 was the most expansive conflict in human history. Between 70 and 85 million people lost their lives. 16 million Americans served. One in every 39 perished. Those are the raw numbers. However, the real drama of WW2 was not found in these cold statistics. It was embedded within the individual stories.
Sam Logan and JG Percy were two young Americans who answered the call to go and fight in defense of democracy. When faced with the prospect of violent, gory death, these two brass-balled jarheads simply said not today.
One man ran through an airplane propeller, while the other fell from a burning fighter plane without a parachute. Both Marines survived the war and miraculously lived to build lives and families back home. Our great nation is built upon such amazing stuff as this.
We now know the name of the educator who tackled the Silver Rail Elementary School shooter and fought to take away his shotgun.
Cassidy Schutz, a certified learning specialist at the Bend, Oregon, school, was identified by Bend-La Pine Schools nearly two weeks after the Oct. 15 attack.
Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz previously told reporters that Schutz threw her cellphone at the 16-year-old attacker, tackled him and wrestled for control of his firearm.
“She was not injured in that incident, but she almost certainly helped prevent more bloodshed,” Krantz said.
The teenager had reportedly shot through the windows of the school’s locked entrance before entering a special-needs classroom and firing as many as 15 rounds from a 12-gauge shotgun.
Three children and 25-year-old teacher Megan Lambert were killed. Another student and teacher Becky Drury were wounded.
As Schutz fought the gunman, 36-year-old Kaylub Giamanco followed him into the school. Giamanco, whose two daughters attended Silver Rail, retrieved his legally secured .40-caliber pistol and fatally shot the attacker inside the classroom.
Giamanco later credited the still-unidentified educator with creating the opportunity that allowed him to stop the attack.
Schutz has now released her first public statement through the school district.
“This is not a story,” she said. “This is a horrific and heartbreaking tragedy, and it is our real lives.”
Schutz said her thoughts remain with those who were killed, their families, the wounded and everyone who experienced the attack.
“It all happened so fast, and I wish with everything in me that we had more time,” she added. “The pain of this loss I will carry with me forever.”
Before becoming an educator, Schutz played four seasons of college basketball at Linfield University and later served as an assistant coach. She was a starting point guard, team captain and graduated with a degree in education.
Schutz has asked for privacy and said she does not plan to make additional public statements.
What happened inside that classroom was a team effort under unimaginable pressure. Schutz attacked the gunman with nothing more than a cellphone and her bare hands. Giamanco entered with a firearm and ended the threat.
Both moved toward danger when lives depended on it. And their actions almost certainly prevented an already horrific attack from becoming even worse.
From trench maces to knuckle dusters, the truly medieval weapons employed by trench raiders in World War I were employed in some of the most brutal combat seen in the 20th century. In today’s article, Tom Laemlein looks at these trench weapons.
Bats, batons and maces: A British collection of trench maces and clubs made in field workshops, circa 1917. Image: NARA
Almost any time World War I is mentioned, the term “trench warfare” inevitably comes up. Most of those trench warfare references are about the overall condition of the Western Front, particularly the massive battles of 1916-1917, when thousands of men lost their lives in pointless assaults that achieved little more than mass slaughter.
With its powerful blade (10.25″ blade, 15″ long overall), the U.S. M1910 Bolo Knife was useful for clearing away brush and foliage. It was also a fearsome weapon for trench raiders. Image: NARA
By the spring of 1918, American troops were arriving in France at a rate of more than 5,000 per day. The Doughboys had to learn the difficult and very specific lessons of trench fighting. Even though the French and British provided experienced instructors and training manuals to the newest Allied nation, American troops still brought their own special weapons and unique fighting spirit to the brutal business of trench raids.
“Boys, I’m Dying”
Private Dyer J. Bird of the US 42nd Division, 166th Infantry Regiment, was recently deployed to France in 1918 and was stationed at a listening post. He saw a large German raiding party emerge from nearby shell holes and rush toward the American trenches with weapons in hand. The young Doughboy hurled two hand grenades into their midst and when he turned to call out and warn his comrades he was shot through the chest.
This Austrian mace-club was captured in 1918. Nothing fancy, just a cruel instrument of WWI hand-to-hand fighting. Image: NARA
“The Germans are coming in the form of a wedge. Boys, I’m dying.” Dyer’s warning gave his unit enough time to turn back the German raiders. It was part of the hellish introduction to trench warfare that fresh American troops received in early 1918.
Originally intended as a tool for engineers and pioneer troops, the German “Butcher Blade” drew so much ire from Allied troops that it was withdrawn from service in 1917. Image: NARA
In “The Doughboys” (Harper & Row, 1963), Laurence Stallings described the style of training that the young Americans received from their French allies, the Poilus worn down physically and emotionally from 3½ years of bitter fighting.
A Doughboy had to learn the formal trench warfare of the French, with emphasis upon Chauchat and Hotchkiss guns, bayonet and grenade, barbed wire, and the shovel—and little attention to the rifle. Frenchmen pursued Germans in a clash of patrols by throwing grenades at them, as if the Lebel rifle possessed no trigger assembly.
If Intelligence desired a raid, with a prisoner brought back for interrogation, it was understandable but deplorable. Some friend might be killed by grenade or bayonet, and a wounded enemy dragged back through the gaps in the barbed wire.
The Doughboys (Harper & Row, 1963)
What the Doughboys lacked in experience in the conduct of trench warfare, they made up for in aggressiveness. The British and French commanders craved the American zeal for combat, while the Germans massed on the other side of the lines, first mocked it, and later feared it.
An American trench raider, smiling with a blackened face, standing next to some of the previous night’s haul of German prisoners. He holds a simple trench club. France, March 1918 Image: NARA
Some of the first prisoners taken by the Americans said things like: “If only we could have met you in 1915 when we too were young!” Stallings recounts the Doughboys’ eagerness to fight: “Each man in the 1st Division wanted to go on a patrol, and then a raid, each wanted to kill a German, to capture one, to be the first.”
A tough-looking Doughboy in the Ardennes during October 1918. In addition to an M1911 pistol, he also carries a captured Mauser C96 “Broom Handle”. Image: NARA
The trench raid was a nasty, brutal business, conducted almost exclusively at night. Raiders reduced their equipment to the essentials of rapid movement and close-quarter killing power, often with specialized trench weapons. Trench raids were tactical reconnaissance in their most aggressive form — quick strikes designed to assess enemy strengths and activity, to cause as much mayhem as possible within enemy lines, and to grab a handful of prisoners and drag them back for interrogation.
Men of the 166th Regiment returning from a trench raid pause for a photo in May 1918. In addition to wire cutters, these Doughboys are carrying the M1911 pistol. Image: NARA
The following description of an American trench raid is from a cable sent by General Pershing’s AEF headquarters to the War Office in Washington DC on June 13, 1918.
Our raiding party consisted of five groups, each under the command of an officer. The raid was executed in the Bois Allonge, the raiding party entering from the west and penetrating to the eastern edge. The first party moving in a northwesterly direction located a lighted and occupied dugout.
On the occupants’ refusal to come out, it was destroyed by the use of phosphorus and other grenades. The second party encountered fire from an automatic rifle as they entered the woods. The gun was rushed, three of the gun crew killed, and the gun captured.
The party then moved to the eastern edge of the wood where three men were found in a light shelter. One was killed and the others taken prisoner. The third party was also fired on by a machine gun. This gun was rushed and its crew killed but as the gun was chained to a tree it could not be brought back. The fourth party encountered a group of the enemy and opened fire with rifles. Four of the enemy were seen to fall.
The fifth party reached the eastern edge of the woods and then moved along the edge in a southerly direction. Several shelters and dugouts were located and destroyed by incendiary bombs. It withdrew on the signal of the raid commander who ordered the retirement as soon as he assured himself that prisoners had been captured.
As a result of the raid much information was gained concerning the enemy’s defensive works, which include quarries and connected shell holes in addition to the trenches.
Cable from Gen. Pershing to the U.S. War Department, June 13 1918
This American 1st sergeant wears a handmade sweater, balaclava, scarf, and gloves to go along with his rifle and bayonet. Image: NARA
An earlier cable from Pershing’s HQ gave a description of a typical German raiding party: “Their objective was to capture prisoners and gain information concerning our forces. Arrangements for the raid were shown in orders found on the body of a German officer in command of the raiding party. The attacking party consisted of the commissioned officer, three noncommissioned officers, and five squads taken from troops specially trained for such work. They moved in three sections. Support was furnished by artillery fire, four light trench mortars, four heavy machine guns, and three light machine guns. Of the latter, one MG furnished special protection for each section of the attacking party. Equipment of the attacking troops included eight stick grenades and four egg grenades on average per man. Double rations were carried.”
Laurence Stallings describes the preparations of a German raiding party in “The Doughboys”: “The Assault Company, swaggering among the holding troops, awaited its hour. Some among them took out pocket whetstones and sharpened trench knives, others looked to their Bangalore torpedoes for blasting barbed wire or blew sand from the stringed triggers of potato-masher grenades. Luger pistols were repeatedly cleaned and oiled, bayonet studs looked to.”
This Austrian mace and a companion war-pick were captured in 1918. These could just as easily have come from the 14th century. Image: Author’s collection
The Doughboys quickly learned the deadly game on the Western Front. From the city slickers to the country boys, Uncle Sam’s troops proved themselves to be fearsome fighters. American daytime patrols grew more frequent through the summer of 1918, and the nighttime trench raids more effective. By September, the great Allied offensive was ready to begin.
Weapons of the Trench Raiders
World War I saw the introduction of most of the modern weapons of war we have now become accustomed to, or horrified by — the armored vehicle, the submarine, the aircraft, the machine gun, the flamethrower and poison gas all saw their first significant use in World War I.
Hand-to-hand combat training with Mike Gibbons (right), the middleweight boxing champ. His opponent uses the M1917 trench knife. Gibbons wears an experimental helmet, issued in small numbers during 1918. Image: NARA
But just as war seemed at its most futuristic, the battles fought by the night patrols and the trench raiders reduced combat to its most primitive. Men hacked and slashed at each other with trench maces, clubs and sharpened entrenching shovels, deadly tools that seemed better suited for a medieval battlefield. Melee weapons included bayonets, fighting knives and daggers that were lightweight and silent killers. American forces had two specialized trench knives available to them.
M1917 Trench Knife
Designed to pierce heavy coats and jackets, the M1917 trench knife is less a blade and more of a nasty pick with a knuckle duster handguard. Image: NARA
The M1917 was more of a pick than a true knife — using a triangular stiletto blade with a knuckleduster hand grip. The M1917 was designed to penetrate thick woolen uniforms and while the Doughboys often put it to good use, its stabbing-only blade was a bit of a liability.
Mark I Trench Knife
The American “knuckleduster knife” is a formidable-looking weapon that is a somewhat misunderstood design. The brass knuckle hand guard was meant more to help the soldier keep his grip on the knife in furious close combat. Even so, the opportunity to deliver a devastating punch to the face could make all the difference in a knife fight. The metal stub at the base of the pommel was called a “skull crusher”, adding yet another level of primeval violence to the weapon.
The ominous M1918 trench knife with a 6.75″ double-edged dagger blade, a knuckle duster grip, and a “skull crusher” on the pommel. Image: NARA
Few of the Mark I knives were finished in time to see action in WWI, but many were provided to American troops (particularly paratroops) during WWII.
Small Arms
In addition to the bladed weapons and impact weapons, U.S. troops also had access to some fearsomely capable small arms designed for close-range combat.
M1911 Pistol
The M1911 was the American trench raider’s ace in the hole. The incredible stopping power of the .45 ACP round made the M1911 indispensable equipment for raiders and patrols. Image: NARA
As most pistol shooters know, the .45 ACP M1911 is a handful of handgun. The .45 automatic was greatly favored by American trench raiders for its man-stopping firepower. (Read more about the M1911 in World War I here.)
The .45 caliber M1917 revolver was introduced as a stopgap measure for the lack of M1911 pistols. It soon became a favorite among Doughboy trench raiders. Image: NARA
Alongside the M1911, the .45 ACP M1917 revolver was also popular, and it packed just as deadly a punch. As cops carrying backup guns know, one pistol is good, two is better, and many Doughboys carried a second pistol during a trench raid — often using a captured German Luger, Mauser pistol, or one of the many smaller caliber German semi-auto handguns.
Trench Gun
There has been a fair amount of controversy surrounding the Doughboys’ use of the M1897 12-gauge shotgun, or trench gun. The Germans complained it was a violation of the law of war (specifically Article 23 of the 1907 Hague Convention) and claimed that it showed that American troops were not only inept marksmen but also barbarous.
The Germans further claimed that any American captured with a shotgun (or shotgun ammunition) could be subject to summary execution. The U.S. government responded quickly: “Inasmuch as the weapon is lawful and may be rightfully used, its use will not be abandoned by the American Army…”
The famous M1897 12-gauge trench shotgun, equipped with the M1917 bayonet (17″ blade). Image: NARA
U.S. officials also responded that they knew exactly what to do in the way of reprisals should any American soldier taken prisoner be harmed, stating, “If the German Government shall carry out its threat in a single instance, it will be the right and duty of the United States to make such reprisals as will best protect the American forces, and notice is hereby given of the intention of the United States to make such reprisals.” Uncle Sam wasn’t messing around, and the Germans quickly backed down. Given the fact that the Germans introduced poison gas and flamethrowers to the battlefield in WWI, shotguns seemed a curious objection for the Kaiser’s men to have.
Doughboys armed with M1903 rifles learn trench assaulting skills at the French training center at Gondrecourt in the spring of 1918. Image: NARA
For its part, the trench gun was a fearsome close-range weapon. Fitted with a perforated heat shield above the barrel, and a lug to accept the M1917 bayonet, the trench gun has an intimidating profile. Hold the M1897’s trigger back, and you can slam-fire five rounds of 00-buckshot (with nine .32 caliber pellets in each shell) in an exceptionally short time — perfect for clearing a trench or providing suppressing fire to cover a withdrawal. Most of the 00 buckshot shells issued during World War I used a paper casing, and these could cause jamming issues if the shells were allowed to get wet. Some all-brass shotgun shells were issued but ordnance officers generally burst into tears over the cost of all-brass shotgun shells.
This German trench, taken by U.S. troops in 1918, was the battleground of trench raiders carrying medieval melee weapons. Image: NARA
Laurence Stallings recounts in “The Doughboys”, that the trench shotgun was the weapon of choice for some: “One of the 33rd’s Medal of Honor performers was First Sergeant Johannes S. Anderson. First Sergeants were armed with the Army’s brutal .45 automatic, which left an exit hole in a man’s back the size of a derby hat; but the Chicago sergeant, undergoing much hostile fire to reach a concrete pillbox, made his entrance through the stage door of the pestiferous machine gun nest bearing a sawed-off shotgun.
Two buckshot blasts and the twenty-three performers left on their feet surrendered. Like Sergeant Gregory, a mile to his right, Anderson was scornful of conventional weapons, and there were others who felt the same.”
Conclusion
Combat in the trenches of World War was simultaneously modern and medieval, but always brutal. And these capable — yet terrifying — close-range weapons made it even more so.
Striking enemy ships with airborne munitions became a priority after World War I. While the challenges were monumental at the time, the rewards for success were too great to pass up. However, bombs and torpedoes dropped by early naval strike aircraft stood little chance against armored warships bristling with AA guns. Faced with this, the United States Navy sought a solution based in some of the most advanced technology of the era.
ASM-N-2 Bat glide bombs are carried on the wings of a Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer — one on each wing. Image: U.S. Navy
At the beginning of World War II, radar was coming into service with British armed forces. England shared that technology with the United States, and in 1940 the US Navy coined the term “radar” as an acronym for “radio detection and ranging”. At the same time, television technology was being refined and incorporated into military applications.
The desperate arms race drove technology farther and faster than ever before, and by April 1945, the US Navy deployed the ASM-N-2 Bat radar-guided glide bomb, the first automated anti-ship weapon to be used in combat.
Enter the Dragon
The concept of a TV-guided weapon arrived even before America was at war, as the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) proposed an anti-ship weapon in January 1941 that leveraged RCA’s television technology. Nicknamed the Dragon, the weapon used a nose-mounted TV camera to allow its operator to guide the glide-bomb to its target. The system worked well from a mechanical standpoint, but the early TV guidance technology was wonky, and the Dragon proved inaccurate.
Shown here is an ASM-N-2 Bat air-to-surface guided missile during development and testing. Image: U.S. Navy
In 1942, the US Navy struggled to counter the U-boats operating off the Atlantic seaboard, and a radar-guided bomb seemed a good solution for America’s thinly stretched defenses. In June 1942, the Navy began testing the Pelican, which used new “semi-active” radar homing technology. A year later, Western Electric upgraded the Pelican design with its “active radar” homing system.
Coupled with a 2,000-pound warhead, the upgraded Pelican achieved a 50% hit rate during tests at NAS New York. Additional tests and modifications followed, and the warhead was reduced to 1,000 pounds as the smaller explosive was shown to be sufficient for the expected types of targets. For a time, it seemed the Pelican would be the Navy’s production missile, but as the target types changed to surface vessels, the Pelican gave way to the Bat.
U.S. Navy technicians perform pre-flight checks on a ASM-N-2 Bat. Image: U.S. Navy
The ASM-N-2 Batwas a self-contained weapon system. While the Pelican required its mothership to continuously paint the target with a radar beam, the Bat’s onboard homing allowed much more flexibility with the launch aircraft. This early “fire and forget” system was considered a significant advantage in the face of enemy interceptors and AA fire.
Becoming the Bat
The Bat was a product of many fathers, with contributions by the National Bureau of Standards, assisted by the Navy’s Bureau of Ordnance, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Bell Telephone Laboratories. While the Bureau of Standards developed the Bat’s aerodynamic and gyroscopic stabilizing systems, Bell Labs worked with MIT on the guidance mechanism.
A close up photograph of a Bat glide bomb attached to the wing of a PB4Y-2 Privateer. Image: U.S. Navy
The Navy’s Bureau of Ordnance said in its final review of the system:
“Bat was the product of many hands and minds. Of the groups working, Division 5 sponsored the Bureau of Standards organization, which built and tested the airframes and servomechanisms, the MIT Servomechanisms Laboratory, and the MIT Field Experimental Station. The results obtained can amply sustain credit for all concerned.”
Throughout the development process, radar systems were continually upgraded, and this demanded ongoing modifications to the Bat’s operating system. Advancing technology “moved the goal posts” several times, and the necessary modifications needed to make the Bat a workable weapon system, often seemed more of a setback than an enhancement. Plans were established to produce nearly 500 Bat bombs per month in the late summer of 1945—but at the end of 1944, the development team feared the war would be over before their brainchild could see service.
Consequently, development was refined enough to build 72 Bat glide bombs by the end of March 1945. Along with a cadre of experts, these were sent to the Naval Air Station at Kaneohe, Hawaii for training. The ASM-N-2 Bat (or SWOD, “Special Weapons Ordnance Device”,Mark 9 Modification 0) using an NBS airframe carrying a 1,000-pound AN-M65 GP bomb was readied for combat.
There were two different tail types used during the Bat program. Both are shown here. Image: NARA
The Navy designated Number Two Wing, comprising squadrons VPB-109, VPB-123 and VPB-124, flying Consolidated PB4Y Privateer patrol bombers (the naval version of the B-24 bomber) as the initial Bat carriers. Other Navy aircraft were modified to carry the Bat, including the including the Vought F4U Corsair, the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver, and the Grumman TBF Avenger, but the PB4Y-2B Privateer was considered the best launch platform. The Privateer could carry one Bat under each wing in combat.
VPB-109 was sent to Hawaii to train with the new bombs, but only 10 days were provided to train the radar operators and ordnance teams. A few of the development team’s scientists accompanied the Privateer squadron to the PTO, helping to train the Bat operators and consult with the ordnance teams on assembly and maintenance.
The Bat Defined
The US Navy defined its radar-guided Bat in the following terms in its “Explosive Ordnance Manual”:
S.W.O.D. (Special Weapons Ordnance Device) Mk 9, or “Bat”, is a glide bomb. equipped with a radar homing set mounted in the nose. It is designed primarily for attacking. marine targets and is effective for night or day attacks upon shipping in any weather in which the parent plane can fly. The launching planes need not stay in the vicinity of the target and may release as many as four of these missiles in salvo.
The airframe consists of plywood sections which are fitted around the Bomb AN-M65. Control surfaces consist of an elevon on each wing which can be moved to control pitch or bank. There are no control surfaces on the tail.
Shown here is an engineering drawing of a later variant of the Bat glide bomb. Image: NARA
In order to ensure destruction of the intelligence system the Demolition System Mk 122 is used.
Installation of the Fuses Mk 235 and Mk 236, with their outside windmills and flexible arming stems, is standard.
Control: This missile has its own radar transmitter and receiver. When the target is located on the scope of the monitor unit in the plane, it is put into the range step of the missile’s scope and is automatically kept there. At the correct instant, determined by a glide ratio scale, the missile is released and is guided to its target by the radar signal in its own scope. The guiding. radar supplies corrections to the servo system, which is also controlled by a gyro pilot, the device which maintains flight attitude
I am certainly not a rocket scientist, so found portions of the wartime Bat operator’s manual to be helpful in describing some of the more technical aspects of weapon system.
A TBM Avenger, which was a TBF Avenger manufactured by General Motors, carries Bat glide bomb in flight. Image: U.S. Navy
Theory of Operation:
In SWOD Mk 9 Mod 0 the basic flight control of the air stabilizer is accomplished by two rate gyros (a pitch gyro and a turn gyro) which close and open contacts, operating the clutches of the servo. These air-driven gyros are powered by a Venturi tube projecting into the air stream.
A third gyro, designated “bias gyro”, sensitive to yaw motion only, is included in the gyro panel for the purpose of effecting a damping of yaw oscillations or hunting. A self-contained S-band radar transmitter and receiver is used to illuminate the selected target and to receive the returning echoes from it. The transmitter radar pulses from the antenna are directed by the rotating parabolic reflector so that the beam scans a cone-shaped area directly ahead of the missile. The returning target echoes are received by the same antenna, and the amplitude of the returning echoes varies with the directional pointing of the antenna beam. The returning target echoes are distributed by a commutator, mechanically coupled to the parabolic reflector, to four channels so that as the antenna beam is pointed down, right, up, or left, the returning echoes are segregated by quadrants. The echoes in each quadrant are converted by the directional control circuit of the radar into a direct current voltage which is proportional to the amplitude of the echoes of that quadrant.
The complete missile is suspended from the parent plane by means of a special bomb frame equipped with a standard bomb release unit such as Bomb Rack Mk 51 Mod 7. Sway braces are provided to keep the missile in a fixed position on the plane until release. The bomb fuses are mechanically armed after release by air vanes attached to the fuselage of the air stabilizer. Arming wires attached to the bomb rack release the air vanes at the time of drop-away in the conventional manner.
The Bat operator’s position in the PB4Y-2B Privateer bomber. Image: NARA
The Bat was considered breakthrough technology at the time, but even so it was fragile, sensitive, and sometimes downright wonky. The operator’s manual offers several “easier-said-than-done” tips for successful use:
“The parent plane should be straight and level for the last five seconds of the time that the SWOD Mk 9 is being readied for release. This permits the BAT to drop away normally on its glide path. The dropping aircraft should also be heading directly toward the target. Preferable air speed at the time of release is between 180 and 200 knots, with 140 knots as the minimum and 210 knots maximum.”
Land attacks were particularly tricky, given that ground clutter easily confused the radar guidance system:
“Isolated target which gives a strong signal from 10 miles distance and is at least 2 miles from any equal or stronger signal.”
Meanwhile, overwater attacks were little easier, enemy ships rarely cooperated with adequate spacing.
“Target over water must be isolated by ½ mile from targets of equal or greater strength.”
Finally, the care and maintenance of the Bat demanded gentle handling and preferably a clean, dry, and temperate environment.
“It cannot be too strongly stressed that the SWOD Mk 6 Mod 1 (Gyroscopic assembly) contains gyro units which must be handled with as much care as normally would be given to a precision electrical meter. While units can withstand the mild shocks they will receive in transportation and normal use, they cannot be dropped or otherwise mistreated.”
The Bat in Action
As VPB-109 began operations on Palawan atoll during April 1945, the squadron soon found their greatest enemy wasn’t the Japanese, but rather the extreme environment of their Pacific island base. The sensitive mechanics of the new technology did not operate well within the extreme heat and high humidity.
Loaded onto the Privateers on the hot and sweaty Palawan runway, condensation soon formed inside the Bat’s radar brain when carried to their operational altitude (15,000 to 25,000 feet). Mechanical problems were common, and several Bats simply failed completely. Ground crews worked tirelessly to learn, adapt, and correct the problems.
TBM Avenger launches a Bat glide bomb Image: U.S. Navy
The Bat’s first combat launch came on April 23, 1945, during VPB-109’s attack on Balikpapan harbor. Eight of the missiles were launched at a large Japanese freighter—and immediately half fell out as inoperable. The remaining four did not strike the designated target, their radar confused by the land mass clutter behind the target.
Even so, a small freighter was struck at the pier, a picket boat was hit while patrolling the harbor, and two Bats slammed into a nearby oil refinery. The first Bat strike was not a resounding success, but the crews and their new weapon had drawn blood, and the radar-guided missile concept was being proven.
The Navy Bureau of Ordnance commented on the early Bat missions:
“It was evident, even to the Japanese, that something was brewing when the squadron arrived on Palawan. The Bats had to be slung outside the carrying plane, one hung under each wing, and that was a tip-off. What was afoot turned out to be the first use of a completely automatic homing aerial bomb in combat.
At intervals from May until August 1945, a number of Bats were released experimentally against the enemy. As Japanese shipping was disorganized by that time, the only available targets were small ships, usually in or near harbors. In spite of the increased difficulty this situation presented to the operators, good hits were obtained. From distances of several miles, well beyond effective anti-aircraft fire, the Bats followed moving targets relentlessly until destruction was accomplished. The most spectacular of the hits occurred when an ammunition-laden picket boat vanished in one terrific blast and when a hapless destroyer had its bow blown off.”
An ASM-N-2 Bat air-to-surface glide bomb caught in this photo just a moment before it struck a target ship. Image: U.S. Navy
By mid-May, VPB-109 moved to Okinawa. The conditions on Yontan Field were particularly soggy, and heavy rain greatly interrupted Bat operations. Also, the special tools, test instruments, and spare parts were lost when the squadron transport aircraft ditched in bad weather on the flight to Okinawa. Meanwhile, Japanese shipping was moving almost exclusively by night, and Privateers were forbidden to fly after dark to prevent being mistaken for Japanese night raiders.
Even so, VPB-109 made 13 Bat launches during its month on Okinawa—and three of these were hits. Privateer squadrons VPB 123 and VPB 124 joined the fight in July, and conducted several strikes on Japanese destroyers—with one direct hit recorded on a destroyer escort. VPB-109 launched the last Bat in combat on August 10, 1945, a near miss on a tanker off the coast of Korea.
These geese look pretty placid. However, they are
From trench maces to knuckle dusters, the truly medieval weapons employed by trench raiders in World War I were employed in some of the most brutal combat seen in the 20th century. In today’s article, Tom Laemlein looks at these trench weapons.
