OPERATION “HAILSTORM”

Truk (now Chuuk) along with Yap, Pohnpei, and Korsae, comprise the Federated States of Micronesia in the South Pacific.  An encircling reef forms Chuuk’s outer perimeter, creating a large, sheltered lagoon 40 miles in diameter that is peppered with a dozen islands.  During WWII this ideal natural harbor was used by the Japanese as their main forward naval base, much as Pearl Harbor was to our Navy.  When the Allied island-hopping campaign gained momentum in 1943-44, Truk represented a key target.

Three carrier groups of RADM Marc A. Mitscher’s Task Force 58, and a group from Task Force 50, all part of ADM Raymond A. Spruance’s FIFTH FLEET, staged a surprise attack on the facility 82 years ago this week.  Torpedo planes, dive bombers, and fighters from nine fleet carriers and four light carries conducted a two-day “hailstorm” attack involving 1250 sorties.  Truk’s ship repair docks, supply depots, 265 aircraft, and four airfields were destroyed.  The attack caught many Japanese ships in the lagoon and over 30 supply ships (140,000 tons) and several destroyers were sunk.  None of the Japanese battleships were in port at the time, and in a curious parallel to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, neither were any enemy carriers.  The attack was so successful in isolating the base however, that surviving Japanese personnel became marooned on the island until the end of the war.

Losses sustained by US forces were limited to 30 aircraft and damage to USS INTREPID (CV-11).  A Nakajima B5N “Kate” torpedo-bomber from Truk’s Param airfield hit INTREPID with a single torpedo, striking her 15 feet below the waterline on the starboard quarter.  Though the crew was able to contain the damage, her rudder jammed hard aport.  CAPT Thomas L. Sprague turned back toward Hawaii and was able to make headway by racing the port engine and idling the starboard.  But two days later strong winds began buffeting the ship.  The breeze pushed her onto a westward heading, toward Tokyo.  Not wishing to go that direction, the crew jury-rigged a “sail” of sewn-together hatch covers and spare canvas.  Steerage was thus regained and on February 24^th, still “under sail,” INTREPID stood in to Pearl.

The Japanese stranded on Truk as a result of this raid forbade the locals from salvaging the sunken ships.  In an unparalleled stroke of good fortune, the ban on salvage activity continues to this day.  As a result, Chuuk today is a sport diver’s paradise.  Trucks, airplanes, tanks, and other military equipment can still be seen on the decks of these sunken ships, and the holds still contain munitions, spare parts, crew artifacts, and in some cases, even crew remains.  As such, the utmost respect is demanded of visitors.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  25 FEB 26

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 3 “G-K”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1977, pp. 446-47.

Morison, Samuel Eliot.  History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol 7  Aleutians, Gilberts and Marshalls.  Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1951, pp. 315-32.

Parzymieso, Michael.  “Truk Diary.”  Sea Classics, Vol 49 (7), July 2016, pp. 10-14, 56-58.

Rems, Alan P.  “Two Birds with One Hailstone.”  Naval History, Vol 28 (1), February 2014, pp. 16-21.

Site visit, Chuuk Lagoon, Federated States of Micronesia, November 1988.

Stewart, William H.  Ghost Fleet of the Truk Lagoon, Japanese Mandated Islands.  Missoula, MT: Pictorial Histories Pub Co., 1985, pp. 17-46.

The post Operation “Hailstorm” appeared first on Today in Naval History.

                                     SOMEONE HAD TO BE FIRST

The seaplane was essential to our Navy and Marine Corps in the earliest days of military aviation.  With the aircraft carrier years away from reality, planes operating from ships at sea needed to be hoisted overboard to take-off and land on the water.  It was not uncommon for the more popular land-based planes to be fitted with floats or skids for such duty.  But these floats added extra weight and drag and decreased performance.  So much so that a stall in a seaplane always resulted in an unrecoverable spin and the loss of both the pilot and plane.

The Curtiss N-9 (and a knock-off built by Burgess) was the seaplane version of the famous JN-4 “Jenny” in which so many early military pilots had learned to fly.  Fitted with a large midline float, and smaller wingtip floats for balance on the water, the N-9 was a familiar biplane trainer at the newly established Naval Aeronautic Station in Pensacola.  Here 1^st LT Francis T. Evans, USMC, had come to do his part to advance Marine Corps aviation.  He listened to the debates over whether a seaplane could perform the aerobatics necessary to dogfight in combat, and he bravely set out this day to prove it once and for all.

Out over Pensacola Bay at 3500 feet he pushed the nose over into a dive to gain enough speed to go “over the top” in a loop.  The 100 HP Curtiss OXX-6 engine strained as Evans pulled the stick back and the nose pitched up.  Slowly the biplane clawed its way to a vertical attitude.  But before it reached the top, the aircraft stalled, fell over backward, and plunged headlong, spiraling toward the water.  Resisting the temptation to counter-steer with the stick (which has no effect in a spin), Evans instead threw the stick forward and used the rudder to steady the biplane.  In doing so he converted a terminal spin to a dive and pulled out well above the surface–the first time in history a seaplane had recovered from a spin!  He then climbed back up and tried a loop again.  Several times he tried, stalling, spinning, and recovering each time until he had finally gauged the right dive length and speed that took the N-9 up and over the loop in controlled flight.  On his last attempt his boxy N-9 glided through the loop in a manner that would have been the envy of any barnstormer.  And just to make sure his new technique was witnessed, upon his return to the base he repeated the loop over the hangars.  Evans’ techniques were quickly incorporated into flight training at the station. 

By risking his own life, Evans had solved a major shortcoming of seaplanes.  However it was not until thirty years later in 1936 that Evans was recognized for his achievement, receiving then the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  18 FEB 26

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Condon, John P.  U.S. Marine Corps Aviation.  Washington, DC: GPO, p. 5.

“Curtiss N-9H.”  Smithsonian Air and Space Museum website.  www.nasm.si.edu/research/aero/aircraft/curtiss_n9H.htm, 19 March 2006.

Department of the Navy, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Air Warfare).  United States Naval Aviation 1910-1980.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1981, p. 24.

“History of Marine Corps Aviation, The Early Years.”  Ace Pilots website, www.acepilots.com/usmc/hist1.html, 19 March 2006.

Larkins, William T.  U.S. Navy Aircraft 1921-1941, U.S. Marine Corps Aircraft 1914-1959.  Atglen, PA: Schiffer Pub. Ltd., 1995, p. 2.

Mersky, Peter B.  U.S. Marine Corps Aviation:  1912 to the Present, 3rd ed.  Baltimore, MD: Nautical & Aviation Pub., 1997, pp. 5-6.

Taylor, Michael J.H.  Jane’s American Fighting Aircraft of the 20th Century.  New York, NY: Mallard Press, 1991, p. 115.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  A spin is a precipitous nose-down fall to the ground in which the aircraft spirals around one wingtip.  The natural reaction of many novice pilots is to counter-steer with the ailerons, though in a spin airflow across the wing is disorganized and ailerons are ineffective.  Evans reasoned that the rudder could be used to slow the spin, in a similar manner to that used by land-based pilots.  Though the extra drag created by the floats makes this maneuver less efficient, it is nevertheless effective.

To accommodate the weight of the floats the wingspan of the N-9 had to be increased 10 feet over that of the “Jenny.”  The fuselage had to be lengthened and larger tail surfaces added.  Used primarily as a trainer, the Navy purchased 560 N-9‘s starting in 1917, some of whom were fitted with stronger 150 HP Hispano-Suiza engines (the N-9H) for use as bombers during WWI.  The N-9 remained in service with the Navy until 1926.  Only one example of an N-9 survives today, restored by the Naval Air Engineering Laboratory in 1966 and transferred to the Smithsonian Institution.

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                                            THE BERLIN AIRLIFT

After the surrender of the Axis, the major Allied powers occupied Germany’s territory under a divided arrangement.  Then shortly, France, England, the US, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg began working to rebuild the tattered German economy and restore a benign German state.  Russia stood alone in opposition, demanding harsh reparations for her war losses and refusing to relinquish control of the German soil she held.  Frustrated at Soviet obstinacy, in 1948 the Western nations met in Brussels and voted to forge ahead without Stalin.  They united their individual holdings into a restored (West) German Republic and introduced a new, stable, non-inflated currency.

Berlin proved a vulnerability in this Western initiative, as the former German capitol lay entirely within the Soviet occupation zone.  The city itself was divided between British, US, French, and Soviet sectors.  The western sectors united under the Brussels Pact and stood as an island inside East Germany.  Stalin, who wished Germany to be entirely Communist, reacted predictably.  Citing “technical difficulties” he closed all rail, road, and river supply lines into West Berlin on 24 June 1948.  With the hard German winter approaching, Stalin then cut off all electric power under his control into West Berlin.

The Allies debated whether to forcibly re-open the supply routes or write off Berlin as a Cold War casualty.  Neither was deemed acceptable, and agreement was reached on an effort never before attempted at that scale, a massive airlift.  B-29s, C-47s, C-52s and C-54s leftover from WWII were quickly returned to service to carry food, clothing, coal, and other necessities to the 2.5 million isolated Free Berliners.  Perhaps because he thought the effort would fail, or perhaps because he hoped for resumption of talks, Stalin never denied use of the airspace over the Soviet zone.  But even with Berliners rationed to a few slices of bread, 2 oz. of Spam and 3 oz. of potatoes a day, there was a phenomenal payload requirement.  Around the clock for a year, cargo-laden planes thudded down at Gatow airfield in the British sector, Tegel in the French zone and crumbling Templehof in the American zone.  On this day, the first of two US Navy transport squadrons was recalled from the Pacific to assist.

“Operation Vittles” far exceeded all expectations and proved a propaganda embarrassment to Stalin, who quietly lowered the blockade early in 1949.  Though they played a small part overall, the 24 Navy R5Ds of VR-6 and VR-8 nevertheless set impressive records.  Between 7 November and 31 July 1949 they carried 129,989 tons of cargo, a payload record, and over the entire 8 months kept their aircraft operational an unequalled 10 hours/plane/day.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  3 NOV 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Collier, Richard.  Bridge Across the Sky:  The Berlin Blockade and Airlift, 1948-1949.  New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1978.

Department of the Navy, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Air Warfare).  United States Naval Aviation 1910-1980.  GPO, Washington, DC, pp. 172, 173, 1981.

Love, Robert W.  History of the US Navy, Vol 2  1942-1991. Stackpole Books, Harrisburg, PA, pp. 295, 1992.

“Naval Aviation’s Involvement in the Berlin Airlift.”  Navy Historical Center website.  www.history.navy.mil/ branches/org4-10.htm, 22 October 2001.

Parrish, Thomas.  Berlin in the Balance:  The Blockade-The Airlift_The First Major Battle of the Cold War.  Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1998.

Weisberger, Bernard A.  Cold War Cold Peace:  The United States and Russia since 1945.  American Heritage Pub., New York, NY, pp. 89-96, 1984.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  In order to promote payload efficiency, the airlift commanders instituted a 100-point rating scale designed to identify the best air crews.  In the critical period of December 1948-April 1949, VR-8 earned an efficiency rating off the scale at 120.2.  Second and third place ratings were recorded by two Air Force squadrons at 97.3 and 90.9, respectively.

          The R5D was the Navy version of the 4-engine Douglas C-54, known in the civilian world as the DC-4.  Its cargo capacity was 15,000 pounds.

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                                      STOCKDALE SHOOT-DOWN

The cockpit clock in his A-4 Skyhawk read 1210 as he pushed over toward a line of railroad cars at 400 knots.  Bad weather over Vinh, North Vietnam, had forced a diversion to this familiar secondary target, a rail siding near Tinh Gia, 60 miles further up the North Vietnamese coast.  CDR James B. Stockdale had visited here frequently–a secondary target considered by most pilots in the squadron to be a low-risk milk-run.  And after this last mission of ORISKANY’s (CV-31) busy 30-day line period at Yankee Station, Stockdale and his wingman, CDR Wynne Foster, could count on a well-deserved R&R in Hong Kong.

Stockdale pickled his “snake-eye” (retarded fall) bombs and watched the rail cars splinter in his rear-view mirror.  But now his ears became aware of an unexpected sound, the booming of a newly placed, well-positioned, 57 mm anti-aircraft gun firing at point blank range up his tail.  He felt his Skyhawk lurch with each impact and watched his cockpit indicators come alive.  Hydraulics out.  Fire aboard.  Then no response from the controls.  Though he could see the ocean just three miles distant, it was apparent his plane was fatally hit.  By now the G-forces in the tumbling plane prevented Stockdale from reaching the overhead ejection loop.  He grabbed instead for the lever between his legs and–WHAM!–the canopy was gone.  Stockdale pitched through the air, away from his disintegrating craft.

He landed in a tree bordering the north-south “Highway 1” and dangled momentarily while he worked free of the parachute harness.  On the ground he was immediately massed upon by several hundred locals who welcomed this opportunity to vent their pent-up frustrations over US bombings.  Stockdale was beaten and stripped of his clothing until an official-looking man in a pith hat calmed the crowd.  He was then loaded onto a flatbed truck for transport to Hanoi.  He now noticed his left arm hung limp at his side and his left lower leg was displaced 60^o outboard.

Thus began seven and a half years of torture and deprivation at the hands of the North Vietnamese.  As the senior officer among the POWs at the Hoa Lo prison, Stockdale quickly organized his fellow prisoners in resistance.  Incurring punishment for doing so, he promoted a “tap code” system of prisoner communication.  The scant correspondence he was permitted to his wife back home contained encoded information about fellow prisoners at the “Hanoi Hilton.”  On one occasion he self-inflicted facial wounds to avoid becoming the subject of TV propaganda.  Universally admired by his fellow POWs, for his unparalleled bravery during his detainment, Stockdale was awarded the Medal of Honor.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  14 SEP 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Stockdale, James and Sybil Stockdale.  In Love & War:  The Story of a Family’s Ordeal and Sacrifice During the Vietnam Years.  Harper & Row, New York, NY, 1984.

United States Congress.  United States of America’s Congressional Medal of Honor Recipients and their Official Citations.  Columbia Heights, MN: Highland House II, 1994, pp. 146-47.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  The tap code employed by the prisoners of the “Hanoi Hilton” was based on a five-by-five grid in which 25 letters of the alphabet were arrayed.  Correspondents would spell words one letter at a time by tapping first the row, then the column of each letter.  The letter “k” was dropped (substituted with “c”) to make 25 letters.

For example, the word “kite” would be communicated with the following series of taps:  1 (pause) 3; 2 (pause) 4; 4 (pause) 4; 1 (pause) 5.

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                                            KOELSCH AND NEAL

John K. Koelsch was English, born in London and educated at the Choate School.  In 1940 he joined the Royal Air Force and fought in the Blitz.  He came to the United States in 1942 and joined the US Naval Reserve as an aviation cadet.  He was commissioned an Ensign on 14 September 1942 and flew torpedo bombers through WWII.  Remaining in the US Navy after the war, he completing a Bachelors degree in 1949 at Princeton.

With the outbreak of the Korean conflict he joined Helicopter Squadron 1 (HU-1) at Miramar, California, and learned to fly the two-seater Sikorsky H-5.  Helicopters, unarmed in this day, were used for medevac, reconnaissance, and recovery of downed pilots.  Summer of 1951 found Koelsch flying with the Helicopter Utility Squadron HU-2 “Fleet Angels” from USS PRINCETON (CV-37) off the eastern coast of North Korea.

In the late afternoon this day, PRINCETON received a distress call from USMC CPT James V. Wilkins, whose F4U Corsair had gone down deep in North Korea about 35 miles southwest of Wonson.  Wilkins parachuted to safety but sustained serious leg burns.  Despite the approaching darkness, foul weather, low ceilings, and enemy fire, Koelsch choppered to the Anbyon Valley.  A pass over the valley yielded no sign of the flier, yet Koelsch persisted.  On a second pass in thickening fog, Aviation Machinist’s Mate 3^rd Class George M. Neal spotted a collapsed parachute.  Wilkins was quickly located, and as enemy small arms fire erupted, a hoist was lowered to the Marine.  But the enemy fire took its toll as he was being raised.  The helo sputtered, the engine smoked, and with Wilkins still dangling, Koelsch guided the H-5 to a crash landing on a mountainside.  Quickly Neal and Koelsch rounded up the Marine and ducked under cover.  For three days the trio hid in the North Korean countryside.  When no rescue choppers were seen, they decided to strike for the coast, which they reached six days later.  Here they were captured while hiding in a native hut.

The three were taken to a POW camp where they were barely fed and subjected to beatings and brainwashing almost daily.  Such prisoners were often coerced into making propaganda statements and false confessions.  Koelsch endured the beatings and resisted such demands.  But shortly his weakened condition became complicated with dysentery.  Koelsch died in enemy custody on 16 October 1951.  For his disregard of personal safety in recovering the downed aviator, and his conduct as a POW, LTJG Koelsch was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.  Wilkins and Neal survived to be exchanged after the armistice in 1953.  Neal was awarded the Navy Cross.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  10 JUL 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 3 “G-K”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1977. pp. 679-80.

Secretary of the Navy Public Affairs.  “SECNAV Names Destroyer in Honor of US Navy, Korean War Veteran.” 26 March 2019, AT: web.archive.org/web/20190326174417/https://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story.id=109029/ retrieved 9 August 2024.

United States Congress.  United States of America’s Congressional Medal of Honor Recipients and their Official Citations.  Columbia Heights, MN: Highland House II, 1994, p. 203.

USS Koelsch (DE-1049) Commissioning.  Program from Commissioning Ceremony.  10 June 1967.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Koelsch is interred in Arlington Cemetery.  Our Garcia-class Cold War destroyer escort DE-1049, later FF-1049, remembers LTJG Koelsch.  AD3 Neal passed away on 1 December 2016 and also rests in Arlington.  Our Arleigh Burke-class destroyer GEORGE M. NEAL (DDG-131), currently under construction, honors the Navy Cross recipient.

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                                 ADVENTURES OF A NAVY BLIMP

The years between the World Wars saw the development of lighter-than-air zeppelins and blimps, initially useful in the civilian common carrier industry by virtue of their sustained cruising capabilities.  These same cruising and loitering potentials made blimps ideal for anti-submarine patrols off our coasts during WWII, and our Navy employed several classes of blimps for that purpose.  But these blimps often found themselves handy for a variety of other tasks.

K-67 was one such blimp operating out of Moffett Field near San Francisco.  Japanese submarines rarely visited our west coast, and K-67’s patrols with Squadron ZP-31 were often boring.  Her crew welcomed the occasional odd mission, as happened after her arrival in July 1943.  A man suspected of dodging his draft board was thought to be working on a fishing boat, out of reach of shore authorities.  K-67 was sent to locate that fishing boat at sea, which she did.  Her crew dropped messages wrapped around oranges, and the gentleman in question was corralled!

Then on this date K-67 was tapped for a rescue mission.  A Navy F6F Hellcat had crashed at sea, and a PBY Catalina sent to rescue her pilot landed hard in the heavy swells and split her seams.  The PBY quickly flooded down enough to prevent her ever getting airborne again.  Working in concert with K-59, K-67 was sent to locate the downed flyers near San Nicholas Island off Southern California.  Once overhead the crew of the PBY could be seen clinging to their half-sunken Catalina, but the pilot of the F6F floated face-down in the waves, apparently swimming weakly.  K-67’s pilot, ENS John Hoag, vectored nearby ships to the scene, then dove dangerously low to only 20 feet off the waves.  He dropped an automatically inflating life raft that landed within 15 feet of the F6F pilot, who made no effort to gain the raft.  In a desperate attempt to save the drowning pilot, ARM1c J.A. Sosnowski suspended himself on a rope 10 feet below the blimp’s gondola.  He had nearly reached the victim when a large wave knocked him away.  Soaked, but still clinging to the line, Sosnowski was towed through the water by Hoag, who skillfully maneuvered the blimp to bring the First Class safely within reach of the PBY.  Before any further rescue attempts were made, the crew of the PBY determined the pilot had drowned.

USS McFARLAND (DD-237) arrived in the next 30 minutes.  She recovered all the personnel and sank the flooded PBY with gunfire.  McFARLAND, herself, had an interesting history.  Commissioned DD-237 after WWI, she was converted to seaplane tender AVD-14 in 1940.  She was re-converted to DD-237 on 1 December 1943 and operated out of San Diego in carrier pilot training duties.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  16 MAY 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 4 “L-M”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1969, pp. 299-300.

Shock, James R.  U.S. Navy Airships 1915-1962: A History by Individual Airship.  Edgewater, FL: Atlantis Pub., 2001, p. 119.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  McFARLAND remembers, Captain of the Forecastle John McFarland, a Union sailor in the Civil War.  McFarland was in sickbay on 5 August 1864 when his ship, USS HARTFORD, led RADM Farragut’s squadron into Mobile Bay.  McFarland left his sickbed to man the wheel of HARTFORD as Farragut “damned the torpedoes” and charged ahead.  McFarland was awarded the Medal of Honor.

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                                 ADMIRAL MOFFETT AND AKRON

RADM William A. Moffett was one of our most energetic and determined Naval aviators, whose particular interest was the rigid-framed lighter-than-air (LTA) ship.  Moffett faced an uphill battle however, as zeppelins were widely thought to be large, slow targets despite their value as long-range scouts.  No less, the zeppelin disasters of that era had convinced many of their fundamentally unsafe design.  But persistence was a Moffett virtue–persistence sufficient to sustain the LTA program through the 1920s.  In fact, his crowning achievements were our last two zeppelins, the 785-foot sister-ships AKRON (ZRS-4) and MACON (ZRS-5).  Construction of AKRON began in 1929; Moffett, himself drove the “golden rivet” into the ship’s main ring.  She was commissioned on Navy Day (October 27^th) 1931.

AKRON, like her predecessors, soon demonstrated the pitfalls inherent in the zeppelin design–her large rigid frame was unforgiving of sudden wind shears, making her tricky to handle in all but the lightest airs.  To be sure, wind-related damage sidelined the airship on several occasions.  But a more serious accident occurred on 11 May 1932, when AKRON was attempting to moor at US Army Camp Kearny, California (present day MCAS Miramar).  Here the hot California sun combined with nearly empty fuel tanks to make the ship too light.  When she threatened to swing vertically, her nose cable had to be cut suddenly, and three sailors were swept into the air gripping the line.  ACM3 Robert H. Edsall and SA Nigel M. Henton fell to their deaths, and the third, SA C.M. Cowart, hung on for an hour until he could be hauled aboard to safety.

The following year on the evening of 3 April 1933, AKRON departed NAS Lakehurst, NJ, to patrol the New England coast and calibrate signals from newly installed radio direction-finding stations.  According to his frequent custom RADM Moffett was aboard, as was CDR Fred T. Berry, the CO of Lakehurst.  Shortly they encountered heavy weather which worsened as they continued north.  Then sometime around 0030 AKRON was struck by a severe down draft that sent the airship on a tailspin into the Atlantic.  The German steamer Phoebus saw the lights of the craft as she fell, but a five-hour search saved only three, including AKRON’s XO, LCDR Henry V. Wiley.

AKRON’s toll was undoubtedly higher because dirigibles generally did not carry life-vests.  Indeed the 72 lost made this the worst air disaster of its day.  Moreover, the death of the dynamic Moffett signaled the end of the LTA program.  The airfield at NAS Sunnyvale (Onizuka Air Force Station) was named Moffett Field in his honor.  Two giant, hemi-tubular zeppelin hangars could be seen there until 2010.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  7 APR 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Archbold, Rick.  Hindenburg: An Illustrated History.  New York, NY: Warner Books, Inc., 1994, pp. 124-29.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 1 “A”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1991, pp. 103-05.

Love, Robert W.  History of the US Navy, Vol 1  1775-1941.  Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1992, pp. 548-52.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Zeppelins differ from blimps, balloons, and other dirigibles in that they have a rigid internal skeleton of wood or metal.  It was precisely this inflexible frame that made them so vulnerable to wind shear.  The name “zeppelin” derives, of course, from Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin (1838-1917), the German-born inventor of the rigid-framed airship.

AKRON and MACON were not the largest zeppelins ever built.  The infamous Hindenburg that crashed and burned at Lakehurst, New Jersey, was 804 feet long.  Navy LTAs were inflated with Helium, making them considerably safer than German zeppelins of the day that were borne aloft on bladders filled with highly flammable Hydrogen gas.

Onizuka Air Force Station closed on 30 September 2010, the structures thereon were razed, and the land was turned over to the Veterans Administration and the City of Sunnyvale.

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                                                     “TOP GUN”

During the Korean Conflict US warplanes dogfought MiG-15s, with the superior American jets and well-trained US pilots scoring kill ratios as high as 12:1.  But by the Vietnam War two decades later, Communist aircraft technology had improved.  The North Vietnamese employed more advanced MiG-17s and MiG-21s.  Over the same period, American air-to-air defenses grew dependent on the missile.  US planners envisioned the future of air combat to be one of long-range missile strikes against an unsuspecting target.  Pilots were not trained in close maneuver gunfighting, in fact some US fighter aircraft did not even mount machine guns.  The effectiveness of American pilots began to decline.

The issue of kill ratio came to a head for the Navy in 1968.  The heavy bombing offensive in Vietnam in 1967-68 brought frequent MiG encounters, and Air Force pilots enjoyed better success than their Navy counterparts.  During the first half of 1967 Air Force pilots accounted for 46 MiG downings.  This was particularly notable in view of the fact that Air Force F-4s and F-105 “Thunderchiefs” were only free to pursue MiGs after they had “pushed through” their bombing runs.  Air Force pilots were so successful at sweeping enemy fighters that LGEN William Momyer, in command of the 7th Air Force, was prompted to declare to a Senate committee that, “we have driven the MiGs out of the sky for all practical purposes.”  During the same period, Navy F-8 “Crusaders” (and an A-4) accounted for only 12 MiGs.  By the end of 1968 the Navy’s kill ratio had dropped to 2:1.

The reason for the disparity was multi-factorial, but the Naval command was sufficiently alarmed to demand action.  In 1968, CAPT Frank W. Ault, a former “air boss” aboard CORAL SEA (CVA-43), was directed to investigate the matter.  Honest without regard for his career, his study became famously known as the “Ault Report.”  It criticized reliance on stand-off missiles, stressing the need to train pilots in “old fashioned” visual-maneuver dogfighting.

Officially titled U.S. Navy Postgraduate Course in Fighter Weapons Tactics and Doctrine, “Top Gun” enrolled its first class on this day in 1969.  Initially formulated as part of the Pacific Fleet’s F-4 training squadron, VF-121, successful Vietnam air veterans were recruited to instruct.  They flew highly maneuverable A-4s and F-5s in simulated aggressor roles.  By 1972 “Top Gun” graduates had reached the Fleet in significant numbers.  And with President Nixon’s escalation of the air war that year, the Navy’s kill ratio climbed to 12:1.  Originally formulated at NAS Miramar in San Diego, “Top Gun” was relocated to NAS Fallon, Nevada, in 1997 as part of the Naval Aviation Warfighting Development Center.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  8 MAR 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Cunningham, Randy and Jeff Ethell.  Fox Two:  The Story of America’s First Ace in Vietnam.  Mesa, AZ:  Champlin Fighter Museum, 1984, pp. 133-36.

Mersky, Peter B. and Norman Polmar.  The Naval Air War in Vietnam.  Annapolis, MD: Nautical & Aviation Pub., 1981, pp. 105-06.

Site visit.  NAS Miramar, San Diego, CA, 12 January 1997.

Wilcox, Robert K.  Scream of Eagles: The Creation of Top Gun–and the U.S. Air Victory in Vietnam.  New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1990.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  The nickname “Top Gun” dates to 1959 when it was used in signage for the last annual USN/USMC Air Weapons competition at MCAAS Yuma.  What had been a yearly event was dropped in 1960 as a cost-cutting move.  “Top Gun” was fashioned after the Air Force DACT program.  “DACT” was an acronym for Dissimilar Air Combat Training, a reference to the use of aggressor aircraft that were dissimilar to the training aircraft.

The first “aces” of the Vietnam War were graduates of “Top Gun.”  LT Randall Cunningham and his RIO LTJG William Driscoll reached Vietnam after having flown over 200 simulated dogfights during their “Top Gun” training.  They scored their fifth kill in May 1972.

Throughout the Vietnam conflict Navy and Marine Corps aircraft flew 10% more missions than did the Air Force–55,000 in total. 

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                                          DAISY CHAIN RESCUE

In 1941, months before Pearl Harbor, American freighters crossing the North Atlantic were being torpedoed by German U-boats as Hitler tried to starve England into submission.  By May, President Franklin Roosevelt declared an “Unlimited National Emergency” and detailed US Navy escorts for these convoys.  In addition, Patrol Wing 7 was hastily established and sent to Reykjavik, Iceland.  On 6 August 1941, the PBY Catalinas of PatWing 7, squadrons VP-73 and VP-74, became operational.

Seventeen months later, on 27 January 1943, one of PatWing 7’s PBYs operating out of Narsarssuak, Greenland, was en route to Ivigut to begin sweeping ahead of convoys.  She would report weather and ice conditions, and more importantly, German U-boat activity.  But thick fog set in as the plane droned on, and the pilot had increasing difficulty distinguishing the water’s surface.  Neither could the PBY climb over the soup.  Reluctantly the plane turned back.  Her pilot eased lower and lower in the deteriorating visibility, hoping to gauge the water’s surface until–with a sudden lurch–the flying boat’s belly scraped against ice and ground to a halt!

A radio call to Narsarssuak brought an Army plane to drop food, clothing, and spare parts, and for several days the Navy crew worked to repair their Catalina.  But the longer the heavy aircraft sat, the more deeply it sank into the newly forming crust.  Before too many days it became evident the plane was not going to be easily dislodged.  Now the most pressing concern became extracting the crew from Greenland’s frozen and forbidding wastes.

A rescue party of eight Army soldiers and a local cryolite mining operator who knew the area, Mr. Sinclair Adams, embarked on the seaplane tender USS SANDPIPER (AVP-9).  By the last of January, the tender had reached Arsuk Fjord, the nearest point to effect a landing of the rescue party.  Here the singular small beach was walled from the island’s plateau by cliffs.  After unloading the equipment, which included two motorized toboggans and a mobile base camp, it became apparent the cliff would present a considerable problem.  They grunted and strained in an attempt to lift their equipment to prominent ledges, but without much success.  Observing their plight, SANDPIPER’s skipper, LT H.T.E. Anderson, hatched an inventive idea.  Thirty sailors were sent ashore to scramble up the nearly vertical face and form a human chain.  One at time the party’s bundles were hoisted up, hand over hand, until all were safely atop the precipice.  The rescue party then set to their task.  The remainder of the evolution went well, and the party returned with the Navy fliers on the 3^rd of February.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  6 FEB 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Air Warfare).  United States Naval Aviation 1910-1980.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1981, p. 109.

Morison, Samuel Eliot.  History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol 1 The Battle of the Atlantic.  Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1947, pp. 77, 334.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  A successful rescue was not accomplished in every case of a downed aircraft in Greenland.  In fact, air operations in Greenland were complicated by clandestine German radio outposts who often broadcast sham distress calls, luring American fliers deep into the frozen Arctic.  From whence they often never returned.

SANDPIPER had barely completed this mission when a second rescue tasking was received.  On the early morning of the 3^rd, the Army transport USAT DORCHESTER was torpedoed in the Davis Strait, and the seaplane tender was asked to assist in searching for survivors.  By the time she arrived at the scene however, the 34^o water and 36^o air had left only bodies buoyed by their lifebelts.

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                                             PROJECT VIGILANT

On 16 May 1960, in response to the Soviet shoot-down of Francis Gary Powers’ U-2 spyplane, Premier Nikita Khrushchev pounded his shoe on a United Nations lectern vowing, “We will bury you!”   The USSR was now the enemy, and long-range bombers regularly sortied on mock atomic raids.  Early airborne warning (AEW) was the buzzword of the day in the Air Force and Navy.  And for this purpose, our Navy launched “Project Vigilant”–a planned fleet of the largest non-rigid airships to date.

Blimps of this day could loiter ever watchful for days off our coast.  And the planned N-class was massive at 403 feet in length with envelopes that held four separate ballonets of 383,000 cubic-foot capacity each.  Powered by two Wright R-1820-88 Cyclone engines with variable pitch propellers, their top speed was 82 knots.  A crew of up to 25 could cruise for 69 hours without refueling.  A 40-foot early warning radar dish rotated inside the envelope.  Four such blimps were built by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company and entered service with the Navy in 1959-60 in the role of “all-weather AEW.”

ZPG-3W-1 (N-class lead airship) departed this day from NAS Lakehurst, NJ, on a mission to locate a missing yacht.  But upon crossing the coastline near Barnegat Bay around 1430, observers noted something wrong.  The envelope appeared to partially deflate, and for several minutes the blimp hung awkwardly in the air, sagging amidships.  A crewman attempting to correct a radar feed problem had accidentally opened the circuit breakers controlling the blimp’s gas pressure.  LT Joseph J. Saniuk, the pilot, unaware of the repair effort, had placed the controls on autopilot.  The combination of settings was causing Helium to automatically vent.  Saniuk, who had trained on fixed-wing planes, instinctively pulled the nose up and gunned the engines when he sensed a downward pitch.  Paradoxically, this completely buckled the envelope and sent ZPG-3W-1 spiraling into the sea.  The control car sank on impact, eighteen of the 21 crewmen aboard never regained the surface.

A large gash was discovered in the envelope of ZPG-3W-1’s wreckage prompting the Navy to sue Goodyear for $8 million on behalf of the families of 11 of the lost crewmen.  But the Navy’s claim of a defective seam was dismissed after expert analysis revealed the tear had occurred when the blimp struck the water’s surface.  The remaining three N-class airships were grounded on 30 November 1960.  In fact, this loss effectively sacked the Navy’s entire lighter-than-air program, which had been largely eclipsed in the early 1960s by advances in radar and fixed-wing aircraft technology.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  11 JUL 24

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Althoff, W.F.  Sky Ships: A History of the Airship in the United States Navy. Nampa, ID: Pacifica Press, 1991, Appendix E.

Shock, James R.  U.S. Navy Airships 1915-1962:  A History by Individual Airship.  Edgewater, FL: Atlantis Pub., 2001, pp. 193-194.

Site visit.  Naval Air Engineering Center, Lakehurst, New Jersey, 2 February 2012.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  LT Saniuk was lost in this crash, and his remains have never been recovered.  Saniuk Road aboard the former NAS Lakehurst (now Naval Air Engineering Center) remembers the pilot of ZPG-3W-1.

The Navy’s last lighter-than-air flight occurred on 31 August 1962.  Two N-class airship control cars have been preserved today at the Naval aviation museum in Pensacola.

Blimps differ from rigid airships in that they have no internal supporting skeleton.  As a size comparison each of the modern Goodyear Blimps is 192 feet long.  The name “blimp” is of somewhat curious origin.  It may have originated as a contraction of the Navy’s nomenclature for B-class non-rigid (limp) airships.  It has also been suggested “blimp” is an onomatopoeic word describing the sound made by a finger tapping the inflated envelopes.  Rigid framed airships could be built to larger dimensions.  The Hindenburg, for example, was 804 feet in length.

Khrushchev’s diatribe at the United Nations General Assembly may well have been misinterpreted by westerners.  “We will bury you” is a Russian saying meaning simply, “we will outlive you,” not necessarily a threat of annihilation.  It remains unclear today which meaning Khrushchev intended.

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