Anyone who has ever seen a group
of blimps will, I believe, remember the occasion.
For me it was during World War II when
our family went from Leavenworth, Washington, where we lived, to
Shelton because my cousin was home on leave from the Coast
Guard. He took me to see the blimps at the Naval Auxiliary Air
Station at Shelton and told me how they were being used. I don't
remember anything he said but I never forgot the sight of those
lighter than air airships. The main operating base of squadron
ZP-33 was Tillamook, Oregon, but I am sure at least six of the
squadron's eight airships were at Shelton that day.
That memory stayed with me and one
regret of my Navy career is the fact that I only had a token contact
experience with blimps. When I served as Beachmaster at NAS
Pensacola, bringing in PBM's that stopped by, my collateral duty was
Petty Officer-in-charge of mooring blimps (at the "old"
Chevalier Field) that came down from Lakehurst, New Jersey.
Recently, blimp pilot, LT C. Donald Lee, USNR (Ret.) gave me access to
an NAS Lakehurst information booklet from 1946. This material
was invaluable in our effort to revive the lighter than air (LTA)
story.
The need for a fleet of airships was
recognized before our entry into World War II. Four successive
chiefs of the Bureau of Aeronautics had called for such a non-rigid
airship program. Their names are remembered but their
"requests" were ignored. They were RADM's Moffett,
King, Cook and Towers.
Finally, in June 1940 the 76th
Congress passed Public Law 635 for a 10,000 plane program which
included a provision for 48 non-rigid airships. When Japan
bombed Pearl Harbor six months later the only airships in service were
training airships.
That total included four K-type patrol
airships built between 1938-41, three small L-type trainers built in
the same time frame, a single G-type trainer built in 1936 and two old
TC-type Army trainers built in 1933. Only six (the K and TC
types) were large enough for sea service, but the L ship would be used
for coastal patrol. The only operational base was at Lakehurst,
New Jersey.
Even people who lived through those
early war years have forgotten the toll taken by enemy
submarines. The merchant ships sunk numbered in the thousands
with 454 sunk by German U-boats in 1942 in our Atlantic coastal
area. Many of these sinkings were within sight of land,
sometimes during daylight hours while swimmers on the beach watched in
disbelief. By 1943 the number of sinkings was reduced to 65,
eight in 1944 and only three in 1945.
The reduction was in direct ratio to
the development of LTA operations. No ship escorted by a blimp
was ever sunk. We hasten to add that this antisubmarine program
was a partnership operation that developed using blimps the small CVE
"jeep carriers," PBY Catalina squadrons and other patrol
squadrons. The aircraft however, could not be watching over
these merchant fleets all the time, as the blimps could. The
blimps often could do the job themselves with their limited fire power
and depth charges. When needed they could call for aircraft from
the CVE assigned the area. The system worked very well.
The account of one German U-boat well
illustrates how critical was the need for a rapid development of a
large airship program.
German U-123 was commanded by a 28
year old named Reinhard Hardegen. He led a group of five U-boats to
the eastern seaboard to begin their attacks 13 January 1942.
Each sub carried 15 torpedoes and 180 rounds of artillery for their
gun mount. When he returned to occupied France he had sunk nine
ships. He began another cruise 10 April 1942 and by the time he
returned to France again, he had sunk a total of 19 ships on the two
cruises. More than 400 ships were thus sunk in the first six
months of 1942.
The initial operation of which U-123
was part was named Operation Drumbeat. Michael Gannon, author of
the book "Operation Drumbeat," is extremely critical of the
Navy and particularly ADM King. Our purpose here is not to
respond to Mr. Gannon in defense of ADM King. However, a message
sent to the Secretary of the Navy, 12 February 1940, from RADM Ernest
J. King would seem to refute charges that RADM King had no
understanding nor appreciation for the threat of submarines.
"The restatement of Naval Policy
recommended by the General Board in February 1937 reaffirmed in
October 1939 is considered sound, viz: to build and maintain non-rigid
airships in numbers and classes adequate for coastal patrol and other
essential Naval purposes."
The execution of this recommendation
began 12 December 1941 by order of the President. The losses of
1942 were a result of unrealistic down sizing of the military, not
poor leadership after the war began.
The Pacific Coast was not immune from
the submarine menace. The SS Medio* was the first merchant ship
sunk by a Japanese sub on 20 December 1942 off the coast near Eureka,
California. A Japanese sub actually shelled oil derricks north
of Santa Barbara, California on 23 February 1942. Early in the
evening, 15-25 rounds struck the United States.
When the war began there were only 100
LTA pilots, including retired, reserves and students. There were
also only 100 qualified enlisted air crewmen. by 1944 this
number reached 1,500 pilots and 3,000 air crewmen. The number of
administrative support personnel grew from 30 officers and 200 enlist
in 1941 to 706 officers and 7,200 enlisted in 1945.
Airship operations first expanded from
Lakehurst to Moffett Field, California when ZP-32 was established 31
January 1942, with two TC's and two L's. ZP-12 was established
at Lakehurst 2 January 1942, also with four ships. This was the
beginning of fleet airship service in defense against submarines.
Fleet Airship Wings were steadily
added up and down both coasts with squadrons ultimately
stationed in Jamaica, Brazil, Trinidad, then across the Atlantic to
Port Lyautey, French Morocco and Gibraltar. These latter two
operating bases not only protected the Strait but the entire
Mediterranean Sea.
World War II Fleet Airship Wings
and Squadrons
|
Wing
|
Squadron
|
NAS Main Base
|
# Airships
|
|
One
|
ZP-11
|
South Weymouth, MA
|
8
|
|
"
|
ZP-12
|
Lakehurst, NJ
|
8
|
|
"
|
ZP-24
|
Weeksville, NC
|
8
|
|
"
|
ZP-15
|
Glynco, GA
|
8
|
|
Two
|
ZP-21
|
Richmond, FL
|
15
|
|
"
|
ZP-22
|
Houma, LA
|
4
|
|
"
|
ZP-23
|
Vernam Field, Jamaica, BWI
|
4
|
|
Three
|
ZP-31
|
Santa Ana, CA
|
12
|
|
"
|
ZP-32
|
Moffett Field, CA
|
12
|
|
"
|
ZP-33
|
Tillamook, OR
|
8
|
|
Four
|
ZP-41
|
Sao Luiz, Brazil
|
8
|
|
"
|
ZP-42
|
Macelo, Brazil
|
8
|
|
Five
|
ZP-51
|
Trinidad, BWI
|
8
|
|
|
SQD-14
|
Port Lyautey, French Morocco
|
6
|
|
|
Util SQD-1
|
Headquarters, Key West, FL
|
8
|
People who served in LTA rightfully
boast of their aircraft's dependability. Airships assigned to
fleet units were 87 percent available "on line" at all
times. 35,6000 operational flights were made in the Atlantic and
20,300 in the Pacific, for a total of 5550,000 hours in the air
escorting 89,000 ships loads with troops, equipment and
supplies. Additional hours were flown by utility squadrons using
K-ships and G-ships providing photographic calibration and torpedo
recovery services.
LTA records reflect only one airship
lost through enemy action. This loss was the night of 18 July
1943 when K-74 was advised that no enemy sub was in her assigned
patrol area. However, K-74 detected a sub by radar and engaged
it on the surface in the Caribbean. A gun duel briefly silenced
the German fire, but the airship's bombs failed to release while over
the U-boat, where upon she was brought down by the submarine's
gunfire. K-74 floated for hours and all the crew but one were
picked up the next day.
Perhaps the loss of L-8 should be a
part of this "short list." The strange account was
once featured on the TV series "Unsolved Mysteries" because
the ship returned but not the crew. L-8 was a part of
ZP-32. On 16 August 1942, the ship took off from Treasure
Island, California with ENS Charles Ellis Adams as pilot and LTJG
Ernest Dewitt Cody, a qualified dirigible pilot, making his first
flight in a blimp. An aviation mechanic Riley Hill was to make
the flight but just prior to takeoff was told he didn't need to
go. In retrospect he believes heavy moisture which had saturated
the blimp's covering gave cause for concern in having three men
aboard.
The flight was to proceed over
Treasure Island, go west about 25 miles to Farallon Island, then north
to Point Reyes, then to Moffett Field. After one and one half
hours into the flight, at 0730, L-8 radioed they had spotted a
suspicious oil slick and were going to investigate.
That message was the the last heard
from L-8. At about 1120, San Francisco shore patrol called
Moffett and reported a blimp had come down near a gold course bounced
off a hill losing a depth charge. She then bounced back into the
air and came down in downtown Daly City. No one was on board the
airship.
The Navy assumed that due to a problem
one of the two men had crawled outside and gotten into trouble
whereupon the other officer tried to help and both fell to their
death. That explanation, however, ignores the last radio
transmission that they were investigating a "suspicious" oil
slick. It does not explain the microphone that was for the
external loud speaker dangling out the open door. The flight of
L-8 remain a mystery to this day.
Rescue was another area in which
blimps distinguished themselves. Captain F.B. Baldwin,
USMCR, an ace with five Japanese aircraft to his credit, was one of
the first people to be picked up and lifted directly into an airship
car. He had crashed off the coast of California on a training
flight. Many a survivor of sunken ships gratefully remembered
the rations and medical supplies lowered to them from K-ships which
then called for surface craft to pick them up. Since the
airships had a galley this often meant hot food, which was welcome in
the North Atlantic.
When World War II ended there were 15
blimp squadrons in operation, patrolling about three million square
miles of water. Since blimps had played such a significant role,
it was appropriate that airships of SP-12 participated in the sinking
of the last U-boat destroyed in World War II. The pressure
maintained by airships against German U-boats forced the introduction
of the Snorkel, which is when some would say the German U-boats became
a true submarine.
LTA blimp squadrons continued in the
U.S. Navy after World War II at an ever decreasing level until the
1960's when they faded from the scene. The Goodyear blimp at
sporting events is the main reminder we have of the glory days of LTA.
Current plans by Germany's Zeppelin may revive rigid airships for
luxury air transportation. But it appears doubtful non-rigid
blimps will make a comeback, unless it would be for the famine relief
programs, which appears will be with us for some time to come.
No I haven't heard anyone suggest it but I keep hoping there's a good
reason to bring back the blimps.
Originally published in Foundation
Magazine, Spring 1995, a publication of The Naval Aviation Museum
Foundation. Used by permission of the author and NAMF.
