During 1942 and 1943, as German U-Boats lurked off the east coast of the United States, the Florida Straits proved a particularly fertile hunting ground for Nazi submarines.
War artist Fritz Freidel created this amazing illustration depicting the fight between K-74 and U-134. Image: NARA
As America was unprepared when war arrived in December 1941, there were few resources available to defend America’s eastern seaboard and the valuable merchant shipping that hugged the coast. In those dangerous early days of the war at sea, one of America’s prime defenders was the normally docile “blimp”.
The Solution?
In 1939, the U.S. Navy developed the K-Craft airship, or blimp, which would become a workhorse during WWII used to patrol for Nazi U-boats and provide important cover for Allied convoys. The blimps were equipped with the ASG-type radar, featuring a detection range of 90 miles and magnetic anomaly detection (MAD) equipment.
This U.S. Navy airship is on an anti-submarine patrol over the essential convoys during July 1942. Image: Author’s collection
The K-ships carried four Mk-47 depth bombs (with two in a bomb bay and two on external pylons), as well as a .50 cal Browning M2 machine gun in the front of the control car. A crew of 10 was standard on K-ships, made up of a commander/pilot, a navigator/pilot, two co-pilots, an airship rigger, an ordnance chief, two aircraft mechanics, and two radio operators.
One of the smaller U.S. Navy “L-ships” shepherding a tanker in US coastal waters. Image: NARA
The K-Ships could remain aloft for about 24 hours, making them ideal for anti-submarine warfare as well as search and rescue missions. Blimp patrols were generally long and uneventful, but one remarkable incident involving a Navy blimp made for one of the most amazing stories of World War II.
The Duel
On the night of July 18, 1943, the U.S. Navy blimp K-74 (from Blimp Squadron ZP-21 based at NAS Richmond, Florida) was engaged in convoy escort duties over the Florida Straits.
During this flight, K-74’s onboard radar located a German submarine running on the surface. As no American units were available to engage the enemy and as the U-Boat was proceeding directly towards the convoy, K-74’s commander decided to attack with everything they had.
K-ship blimps at the U.S. Navy airship hangar in Lakehurst, New Jersey. Image: NARA
There is some confusion if K-74’s depth bombs failed to release during the attack, but damage below the sub’s waterline would indicate that at least one depth bomb did explode nearby. K-74’s crew engaged the sub with the .50-caliber MG mounted in the nose of the gondola, as well as their personal weapons — including a Thompson SMG and M1911 pistols.
Return fire from the U-Boat’s 20mm AA guns knocked out one of K-74’s engines, punctured the gasbag in several places and wounded one crewman.
In return, K-74’s fire damaged the submarine, the hammering from the big .50-caliber rounds damaged the sub’s hull, rendering it unable to submerge. U-134 left the area, limping back to its base in France on the surface. She never made it home. U-134 was sunk with all hands aboard on August 27, 1943, in the Bay of Biscay, by the British frigate HMS Rother.
A triumphant U.S. Navy blimp covers a surrendered German U-boat off the coast of Cape May at the end of WWII. Image: NARA
As for K-74, the damaged blimp crashed into the sea. While the crew was in the water waiting to be rescued by the U.S. Navy destroyer Dahlgren, tragedy struck when the wounded crewman was attacked by sharks and disappeared.
The rest of the crew was rescued. Thus ended the only known gun battle involving a U.S. Navy blimp, and the only loss of an airship crewman due to enemy action.
An experimental addition of an M1918 A2 BAR in a socket mount on a U.S. Navy blimp gondola during October 1943. Image: NARA
Before withdrawing from the area, crewmen from U-134 boarded K-74’s floating gondola and photographed parts of the wreck. These images were passed to another U-boat along with the description of the battle with K-74. The U.S. Navy did not know of their existence until they were discovered in West Germany in 1957.
Additional Firepower
About 15 years ago, I found a handful of photos in the U.S. Navy collection at the U.S. National Archives — the images showed an experimental mounting of a Browning Automatic Rifle in the gondola of a Navy K-ship blimp.
Although the photos were dated “October 1943”, there is no way to know for sure if the experimental BAR mount was initially conceived before or after K-74’s gunfight with U-134, but testing of additional armament for the K-Ships was accelerated after the blimp’s combat with the sub.
Another view of the surrendered U-boat and its blimp captor off the coast of Cape May during May 1945. Image: NARA
No doubt that the accurate and hard-hitting BAR would have been a tremendous help to the K-74 crew in their gunfight with U-134. As far as is known, no BARs were ever mounted on K-ships on active duty.
Conclusion
So there you have it — what must be one of the most bizarre battles of World War II, fought off the coast of the United States by two extremely unlikely opponents. One was a blimp never truly intended for battle, but one that did in fact manage to wound its deadly opponent and seal its ultimate fate.
This is just my humble opinion, but I think the biggest problem we have in this country today is that people – from every age group and social status – think other people give a shit about what their opinion is on any subject.
A Japanese sword took LT George Cairns’ arm on a Burmese hilltop. He seized that same blade, kept fighting, and earned a place among Britain’s most savage Victoria Cross legends.
George Cairns might not look like much in this moldy old period photograph, but he was a wild man in a fight.
Mankind has been consumed with war since our very beginnings. Ever since Cain knocked his brother Abel’s brains out with a rock, we have been a species of scrappers. We venerate warriors and celebrate their wars. Along the way, we have somehow lost touch with just how ghastly real war actually is.
Everybody dies. That’s obviously a given. However, that war takes young people in their prime is what makes it so utterly repugnant. Were that not so, I’m sure we would be doing even more of it.
War Never Changes: How George Cairns Reached Burma
Who doesn’t like using a microwave to make popcorn or whip up a quick hot dog? We have the military-industrial complex to thank for that.
The development of weapons brought us such stuff as GPS, microwave ovens, and the Internet. Jet engines, digital cameras, synthetic materials, and EpiPens all had their origins in military technologies as well. However, at the end of the day, whether it is a HIMARS rocket, a ship-mounted laser, or a 16th-century Scottish Claymore broadsword, the ultimate objective is still simply to tear the very life out of our enemies. No matter how much seems to change, the unfortunate end goal nonetheless remains the same.
Modern battlefields are truly horrible things. JDAM smart bombs, shaped charges, thermobaric weapons, and depleted uranium projectiles all conspire to make a proper mess of human flesh. However, war in eras past was hardly all unicorns and butterflies. Hacking some poor schmuck limb from limb was also fairly untidy. It turns out that this propensity toward vivisection extends up into the last century as well.
George Cairns Before the Victoria Cross: Banker, Husband, Soldier
By all accounts, George and Ena Cairns were crazy about each other.
George Albert Cairns was born in December 1913 in London. He attended the Sir Henry Compton School in Fulham from 1923 through 1930. He subsequently took a job in a bank in Kent, where he met his future wife, Ena. The two were married in 1940. The following year, George answered his nation’s call and went off to war.
Cairns was a dedicated natural leader. He earned a commission and was appointed to the Somerset Light Infantry (Prince Albert’s). He was subsequently attached to the South Staffordshire Regiment and deployed to Burma. The South Staffordshire was a Chindit battalion subordinate to the 77th Indian Infantry Brigade commanded by the legendary Brigadier Michael Calvert.
Just sitting here smoking a pipe, George Cairns seems like a pretty placid-looking bloke. However, looks can be deceiving.
By March of 1944, Cairns was 30 years old. That seems pretty young to me. However, in soldier years, he was veritably ancient.
Soldiering is a young man’s game. I look back with fondness on my time in uniform. However, I do recall being tired and sore a lot. Deprivation, hunger, and misery are integral parts of the life of any proper combat soldier in the field. Cairns and his mates found that in abundance in the fetid jungles of Burma.
Pagoda Hill Explodes: The Chindits Meet the Japanese
The British and the Japanese quite literally fought to the death over a tiny craptastic spit of dirt.
On 16 March 1944, Cairns and the South Staffords dug in near a place called the White City. The Japanese were rabid to stop the British advance. The Brits, for their part, were disinclined to comply. The end result was a most ferocious fight.
Near the South Staffords’ fighting positions was a pagoda on a prominent hilltop. As near as anyone could tell, neither force had bothered to take that place just yet. Both sides had actually dug formidable fighting positions within earshot of the other, apparently without either unit being the wiser. That all changed when an unsuspecting Japanese patrol wandered across the abandoned pagoda in search of something or other. At around 11 am, everything came unglued.
“Mad Mike” Calvert (left) was a soldier’s general who led from the front.
Brigadier Calvert led the attack himself. He later wrote, “On the top of Pagoda Hill, not much bigger than two tennis courts, an amazing scene developed. The small white Pagoda was in the centre of the hill. Between that and the slopes which came up was a mêlée of South Staffords and Japanese bayonetting, fighting with each other, with some Japanese just throwing grenades from the flanks…There, at the top of the hill, about fifty yards square, an extraordinary mêlée took place, everyone shooting, bayoneting, kicking at everyone else, rather like an officers’ guest night.”
Amidst all of that mayhem, LT Cairns strived mightily to hold the defensive line intact. While coordinating this vigorous defense, Cairns looked up just in time to spot a Japanese officer charging toward him at a dead run, waving a sword. There was no time to react properly. In the face of imminent death, Albert Cairns did what any normal person might do–he reflexively raised his left arm. The maniacal Japanese officer slashed with his weapon and all but took LT Cairns’ left arm off.
One Arm Gone, Sword in Hand: Cairns Refuses to Die Quietly
At this point, LT Cairns had a decision to make. If some screaming nutjob hacked my arm off with a big honking sword, I’m fairly certain I would just take my toys and go home. Not so, LT Cairns. Cairns shot and killed the Japanese officer who had taken his arm before snatching up the dead soldier’s blade and going to town on the rest of his maniacal buddies.
The Japanese made widespread use of swords during World War 2. Sometimes that didn’t turn out terribly well.
LT Norman Durant was a machine gun platoon leader assigned to the same unit. His vantage with his support weapons afforded him a fairly decent view of the battlefield. This is what he had to say about LT Cairns: “The first thing I saw on reaching the path was a horrible hand-to-hand struggle going on further up the hill. George Cairns and a Jap were struggling and choking on the ground, and as I picked up a Jap rifle and climbed up towards them, I saw George break free and, picking up a rifle bayonet, stab the Jap again and again like a madman. It was only when I got near that I saw he himself had already been bayoneted twice through the side and that his left arm was hanging on by a few strips of muscle. How he had found the strength to fight was a miracle, but the effort had been too much and he died the next morning.”
So, this brass-balled young British infantry officer had been ventilated twice with bayonets before having his left arm quite literally chopped off. Despite these extraordinary wounds, Cairns unleashed his inner monster on the attacking Japanese.
Using the dead Japanese officer’s sword, this one-armed lunatic launched himself into the remaining Japanese troops like a Dervish. When the dust settled, survivors counted 42 Japanese dead in and around the hilltop that housed the pagoda. Nobody knew who got whom. However, Cairns did most of his serious killing with the same sword that had been used to, moments before, lop off his own left arm.
The Victoria Cross Fight That Nearly Vanished With Wingate
Orde Wingate had no shortage of personality. He once attempted suicide by stabbing himself in the neck with a knife.
Once the dust settled, LT Cairns understandably ran out of gas. His words were, “’Have we won sir? Was it all right? Did we do our stuff? Don’t worry about me.” The following day, this remarkable young man died.
Stripping a sword from an adversary and then using it to obliterate an attacking unit after having your own arm chopped off seemed like Victoria Cross material, no matter how you sliced it. The VC is Great Britain’s highest award for gallantry in action. It is the Limey equivalent of our Medal of Honor.
General Orde Wingate was an unconventional leader, to say the least. However, he was a pioneer in the nascent field of special operations.
One of Cairns’ officers duly put in the work, and the award recommendation made its way up to General Orde Wingate, the commanding general of the Chindits. Wingate was a weird duck. A committed Christian Zionist, Wingate cut his teeth fighting the Arabs in British-occupied Palestine. He once attempted suicide by stabbing himself in the neck while under the depressing effects of atabrine for his malaria.
By the time he commanded the Chindits, Wingate was habitually munching on raw onions to help ward off disease and made a habit of greeting visitors in the nude. On 24 March 1944, Wingate climbed aboard an American B25 Mitchell bomber along with two British war correspondents. The pilot objected that the airplane was grossly overloaded, but Wingate insisted. The plane subsequently crashed into the jungle in India, killing all aboard. LT Cairns’ VC recommendation was on Wingate’s person at the time.
The Victoria Cross is Great Britain’s highest award for valor in combat. The medal itself is struck from material harvested from enemy cannon captured in battle.
George Cairns’ Victoria Cross Citation: Valor Beyond Belief
A 1949 article in The Times revived the process. By then, two of the three required witnesses had been killed in action. Eventually, thanks to the tireless efforts of his widow Ena Cairns, George’s Victoria Cross was approved. This is the citation:
“On 12 March 1944, columns from the South Staffordshire Regiment and 3/6 Gurkha Rifles established a road and rail block across the Japanese lines of communication at Henu Block.
The Japanese counter-attacked this position heavily in the early morning of 13 March 1944, and the South Staffordshire Regiment was ordered to attack a hill-top which formed the basis of the Japanese attack.
During this action, in which Lieutenant CAIRNS took a foremost part, he was attacked by a Japanese officer, who, with his sword, hacked off Lieutenant CAIRNS’s left arm. Lieutenant CAIRNS killed this Officer; picked up the sword and continued to lead his men in the attack, and, slashing left and right with the captured sword, killed and wounded several Japanese before he himself fell to the ground.
Lieutenant CAIRNS subsequently died from his wounds. His action so inspired all his comrades that, later, the Japanese were completely routed, a very rare occurrence at that time.”
LT George Cairns went down fighting. His actions at the bitter end made him a legend.
LT George Cairns Went Down Fighting and Became a Legend
We have explored a great many remarkable tales of daring and elan in this space in the past. I can’t recall ever writing about some lunatic guy who kept on fighting with the sword his attacker had only recently used to relieve him of his arm. LT George Cairns was indeed a hero of the highest order.
Will is still trying to figure out what he really wants to be when he grows up. However, shooting guns and claiming it was work seemed like a pretty sweet hustle. As a result, Will serendipitously transformed an avocation into a vocation.
Raised in the Mississippi Delta, Will flew UH1H, OH58A/C, CH47D and AH1S helicopters operationally as an Army Aviator. He is SCUBA-qualified and has parachuted out of perfectly good airplanes at 3 o’clock in the morning. Will has summited Mount McKinley, Alaska, six times…always at the controls of an Army helicopter, which is the only way sensible folk climb mountains.
Will has delivered sixty babies and occasionally wrung human blood out of his socks. He is married to his high school sweetheart and has three awesome adult children. Turn-ons include vintage German machineguns, flying his sexy-cool RV6A airplane, Count Chocula cereal and the movie “Aliens.”
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In late May Chinese leaders travelled to the Zhoushan National Oil Reserve and discovered the nation’s strategic oil reserves weren’t there. For over a year, the disruption of oil supplies from Venezuela and Iran had left Chinese oil reserves reduced. Despite that, government documents indicated that China still had 1.2 billion tons of oil reserves. That’s equivalent to 8,756,117,022 barrels.
China’s strategic oil reserve, to the surprise of the government officials who went to verify the reserves in May, was instead composed of water, sludge, various debris and overflow from nearby sewer lines.
Because the Americans dominated global energy supplies, the Chinese oil reserve served as a major cushion to any disruptions to Chinese oil imports from the Persian Gulf, especially Iran whose main customer was China. Under America’s global energy stranglehold, Chinese crude oil stockpiles have reached the verge of collapse at the slightest exposure.
The current Chinese vulnerability stems from the American disruption of Venezuelan oil exports to China and more recently a similar situation with Iranian oil exports to China.
China’s strategic oil reserve was insurance against disruptions in Venezuelan and Iranian imports. With its oil reserves revealed as a sham, China finds itself in a desperate situation.
What happened to Chinese oil? It was soon discovered that corrupt government officials and oil reserve personnel had sold the oil and pocketed the proceeds. The local buyers were often operators of small, locally owned refineries that turned the oil into commercial products that were sold throughout China.
Most of these oil criminals then fled, often leaving China for sanctuary states that would welcome any affluent Chinese and their new wealth. The only winners were a few conniving Chinese and the Americans, who continued to dominate the global energy system.
In China corruption is not just an economic issue. For thousands of years there was corruption in the military as well. China has had a corruption problem in its military for a long time. Think thousands of years. One reason the communists won the civil war against the Nationalists in the 1940s was because the Nationalists were much more corrupt.
For about a generation, the communists kept corruption under control. But for the last four decades, corruption has been a growing problem. This despite several major efforts to stop it.
The theft of China’s strategic oil reserves is only the latest of several recent awful discoveries of massive corruption impeding the ambition of its leader, President Xi, to conquer Taiwan.
The last one concerned military corruption in building equipment to invade Taiwan, and was discovered in 2023. Missile fuel tanks were found to be filled with water, missile silo lids could not be opened, and the protective concrete missile silos themselves were so defective they might as well have been made of wood.
The air force and navy lacked sufficient spare parts for even a week of operations against Taiwan and many aircraft and naval vessels were outright inoperable. This postponed the earliest possible date for the invasion of Taiwan from 2025 to 2027.
The non-existence of China’s strategic oil reserve will probably have the same effect. The on-going closure of the Strait of Hormuz due to the war with Iran means China cannot begin to refill its oil reserve until several months after that war ends, due to the need to clear the Strait of anti-ship mines.
Then it will take at least another 18 months for China to rebuild, at exorbitant expense to its hard currency reserves, the 1.2 billion ton oil reserve it thought it had. China’s natural gas reserves, to the extent those were believed to exist, were quite inadequate to its needs in the event of a US blockade in a war with Taiwan. Closure of the Strait of Hormuz has made that clear. It will take still longer and cost more to build a strategic natural gas reserve.
There are at least major possibilities that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan has been postponed for another two years, to 2029, and perhaps indefinitely due to further discoveries of calamitous-scale corruption.
So now the Chinese are really getting serious. They are installing cost control systems, with regular audits, to monitor their military spending. In the past, budgeting was pretty primitive, mainly because cost accounting was expensive to implement.
In the past, detailed spending data was collected after the fact, if at all. This made it easier for corrupt officers to steal. Noting how effectively Western, Japanese and Taiwanese companies dealt with corruption using detailed budgets and frequent audits, China installed similar systems throughout its armed forces.
This caused some morale problems among senior officers, but this was not believed to be serious. Meanwhile, the program cut costs an average of ten percent in units where it had been installed.
