One Hundred Years of U.S. Navy Air Power (29 page)

  
29
.
  
Los Angeles
' role in locating Black on the 18th appears to have been one of only two occasions during any of the fleet maneuvers that an airship did anything useful, the other being during FP XV (1934), when
Macon
(ZRS 5) had a very similar experience. Paolo E. Coletta, “Dirigibles in the U.S. Navy,”
New Interpretations in Naval History: Selected Papers from the Tenth Naval History Symposium
, ed. Jack Sweetman et al. (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1993), pp. 213–29, is a concise overview of the use of airships by the fleet.

  
30
.
  
“227 Planes to Fight in Caribbean ‘War',”
New York Times
, 22 March 1931; “Navy Fliers Aloft this Week in Test over Caribbean Sea,”
Washington Post
, 22 March 1931; “Says Navy Must Get Small Plane Carriers,”
New York Times
, 28 March 1931; “Naval Planes Show Power in War Game,”
New York Times
, 29 March 1931; “A Lesson of the War Game,”
New York Times
, 30 March 1931.

  
31
.
  
“Says Navy Must Get Small Plane Carriers,”
New York Times
, 28 March 1931. On “flying deck cruiser” see Norman Friedman,
U.S. Aircraft Carriers: An Illustrated Design History
(Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1983), pp. 89ff.

  
32
.
  
Thomas Fleming, “February 7, 1932—A Date that Would Live in Amnesia,”
Kazine
No. 27; Clark G. Reynolds,
On the Warpath in the Pacific: Admiral Jocko Clark and the Fast Carriers
(Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2005), pp. 96–99; Wadle, “United States Navy Fleet Problems,” pp. 78–84; “Grand Joint Exercise No. 4,”
Time
, 15 February 1932; Charles M. Austin, “Victory for ‘Blues',”
New York Times
, 15 February 1932; “Blue Forces Seize Hawaii in Darkness,”
Washington Post
, 14 February 1932; “Manoeuvers Close with ‘Blue' Ahead,”
New York Times
, 14 February 1932; “Joint Exercise Highly Successful,”
Washington Post
, 21 February 1932.

  
33
.
  
In an interesting experiment, acting on a suggestion made after FP X (1930), the carriers swapped aircraft, forming two specialized air groups.
Saratoga
ended up with ninety-seven aircraft, mostly fighters, while
Lexington
had only fifty-eight aircraft, mostly bombers and scouts, in the hope that a higher operational tempo might be attained. The experiment was repeated during FP XX (1939), when Ernest J. King swapped
Lexington
's
scout bomber squadron for
Enterprise
's fighter squadron, but the results were not impressive. In spring 1943, the two Allied carriers in the Pacific,
Saratoga
and HMS
Victorious
, pooled their air groups, both of which consisted of American-built aircraft, the former ending up with seventy-two TBF bombers, but only twelve fighters, and the latter thirty-six fighters but only twelve bombers, which seems to have yielded no useful advantage.

  
34
.
  
M964-14, 1, “U.S. Fleet Problem XIII, Report of the Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Frederick H. Schofield”; Keith, “United States Navy Task Force Evolution,” pp. 58–118; Grimes,
Aviation in the Fleet Exercises
, pp. 97–107. Some newspaper accounts are of interest: Charles M. Austin, “Action Off California in March,”
New York Times
, 16 February 1932; Hanson W. Baldwin, “The Admirals Play Their Game of War,”
New York Times
, 13 March 1932; Hanson W. Baldwin, “Fleets, Far at Sea, Play Hide-and-Seek,”
New York Times
, 13 March 1932; Hanson W. Baldwin, “Black Planes ‘Sink' Carrier Saratoga,”
New York Times
, 18 March 1932; Hanson W. Baldwin, “Aviation Triumphant in Naval War Games,”
New York Times
, 27 March 1932.

  
35
.
  
Cited in Coletta, “Dirigibles,” p. 224.

  
36
.
  
Campbell, “The Influence of Air Power,” pp. 133–36, has an excellent analysis of the debate over the revision of the air attack rules.

  
37
.
  
NWCA, Carton 56, L. McNamee, U.S. Fleet Umpire Instructions, 1932: Suggested Changes, and Carton 56, William A. Moffett, Chief, BuAir, p. 2; Naval Historical Collection Box 270, Change # 3, USF 10, 5 October 1934, and Box 270, CINCUS to Holders of USF 10, Change #12, USF 10, 24 January 1938. For
Utah
see R. S. S. Howman-Meedk, Harold Johnson, K. D. McBride, and Christopher C. Wright, “Target Ships,”
Warship International
, 2002, No. 1, pp. 24–36.

  
38
.
  
“Honolulu Awaits ‘Attack' from Sea,”
Washington Post
, 30 January 1933; “Hawaii Guns Await ‘Foe' in War Games,”
New York Times
, 30 January 1933; “Air Assault Opens Hawaii War Game,”
Washington Post
, 1 February 1933.

  
39
.
  
M964-15, 1, United States Fleet, Problem XIV, Report of the Commander-in-Chief, United States Fleet, Admiral R. H. Leigh, 20 April 1933; NWCA, Carton 62, U.S. Fleet Problem XIV, Report of the CINCUS, Adm. R. H. Leigh, 20 May 1933; Keith, “United States Navy Task Force Evolution,” pp. 119–86, provides some excellent analysis.

  
40
.
  
NWCA, Carton 62, U.S. Fleet Problem XIV, Report of the CINCUS, Adm. R. H. Leigh, 20 May 1933, Section 4, p. 2.

  
41
.
  
Clark G. Reynolds,
John H. Towers: The Struggle for Naval Air Supremacy
(Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1991), pp. 245–47, 268.

  
42
.
  
M964-16, 1, “Report of Fleet Problem XV, CINCUS, 1 June 1934.” There is a good analysis in Keith, “United States Navy Task Force Evolution,” pp. 187–276, and Grimes,
Aviation in the Fleet Exercises
, pp. 120–42; Harris Laning,
An Admiral
's
Yarn
, ed. Mark Russell Shulman et al. (Newport, RI: Naval War College Press, 1999), pp. 362–69; Wildenberg,
All the Factors
, pp. 231–35. Press coverage was extensive; e.g., “102 Navy Vessels Open ‘30-Day War',”
New York Times
, 11 April 1934; “Submarines Aid in Fleet ‘Battle',”
New York Times
, 12 April 1934; “Fleet Begins Trip Through Panama Canal,”
Washington Post
, 22 April 1934; Hanson W. Baldwin, “4 Caribbean Bases Await Fleet War,”
New York Times
, 5 May 1934; Hanson W. Baldwin, “Gray Fleet Seizes Culebra Island,”
New York Times
, 11 May 1934; Hanson W. Baldwin, “Final ‘Battle' Ends Fleet Manoeuvres,”
New York Times
, 18 May 1934.

  
43
.
  
“Canal Defenses Trained on Fleet,”
New York Times
, 20 April 1934; “Submarines Give Test,”
New York Times
, 20 April 1934; “Great Fleet Heads for Canal Attack,”
New York Times
, 21 April 1934; “Warships Mass in Pacific,”
New York Times
, 21 April 1934; “Battle for Canal results in a Draw,”
New York Times
, 20 April 1934.

  
44
.
  
M964-16, 1, Report of Fleet Problem XV, CINCUS, 1 June 1934, pp. 71ff.

  
45
.
  
Ibid., p. 36.

  
46
.
  
Trent Hone, “The Evolution of Fleet Tactical Doctrine in the U.S. Navy, 1922–1941,”
The Journal of Military History
67 (October 2003), pp. 1139–41, has a short analysis of these tactics. Arguably, the most notable occasion on which the U.S. Navy used such tactics was in the desperate Battle off Samar, 25 October 1944.

  
47
.
  
M964-16, 1, Report of Fleet Problem XV, CINCUS, 1 June 1934, p. 54; Grimes,
Aviation in the Fleet Exercises
, pp. 127–28; “Macon Fails in Fleet Test,”
Washington Post
, 10 May 1934, p. 1; “Airship Building Will Come to Halt,”
New York Times
, 14 February 1935.

  
48
.
  
M964-16, 1, Report of Fleet Problem XV, CINCUS, 1 June 1934, p. 36.

  
49
.
  
Campbell, “The Influence of Air Power,” p. 183ff, summarizes the evolving view of the role of the carrier in the fleet.

  
50
.
  
M964-18, 1, Fleet Problem XVI, Report of the Commander-in-Chief, United States Fleet [15 September 1935]; NWCA, Carton 63, Operations of the U.S. Fleet, Fleet Problem Sixteen, Enclosure “V”; U.S. Fleet OpPlan 1–35, Task Organization, 1 March 1935. See also, Grimes,
Aviation in the Fleet Exercises
, pp. 143–50. Harris Laning, then ComBatFor, included some interesting commentary on the problem in his memoirs,
An Admiral's Yarn
, pp. 372ff. The problem was heavily covered by the press, the
New York Times
alone carrying dozens of stories.

  
51
.
  
In addition to the flying boat and its crew of six, lost with all hands, four other aircraft were lost to accidents during the problem, though there was only one additional fatality; Grimes,
Aviation in the Fleet Exercises
, p. 145.

  
52
.
  
Hone, “Evolution of Fleet Tactical Doctrine,” pp. 1135–37. Laning does not mention this incident in his memoirs.

  
53
.
  
M964-18, 1, Fleet Problem XVI, Report of the Commander-in-Chief, United States Fleet [15 September 1935], p. 32.

  
54
.
  
Despite extensive surviving documents for this problem, this writer was unable to find either a detailed narrative or anecdotal chronology. See, however, M964-21, 2, CINCUS to CNO, 26 November 1935, “Fleet Problem XVII,” with Enclosures; M964-21, 2, CNO to CINCUS, 23 December 1935, “Fleet Problem XVII, Concept of”; M964-21, 6, United States Fleet, Operation Plan No. 3-36, 20 January 1936, “Task Organization”; NWCA, Carton 64, “Fleet Problem Seventeen, Report of CINCUS,” 6 June 1936; NWCA, Carton 64, “Critique, Phase II, Fleet Problem Seventeen, United States Fleet,” 15 May 1936. Grimes,
Aviation in the Fleet Exercises
, pp. 151–56, has some useful observations. This was the first Fleet Problem for a virtual complete ban was imposed on the press, so tight that even honors to Neptunus Rex were not reported until months later; see Hanson W. Baldwin, “Navy Sails Far South in Secret War Games,”
New York Times
, 24 May 1936; Windsor Booth, “Roosevelt's Crossing of Equator Recalls Mass Polliwog Initiation at Fleet Maneuvers,”
Washington Post
, 29 November 1936.

  
55
.
  
M964-21, 6, Black Fleet Operation Order No. 5-36, 13 May 1936; M964-21, 6, Black Fleet Carrier Group OpOrd 236 (14 May 1936). Unfortunately, no similar document was found for Brown. See also Paolo E. Coletta,
Patrick N. L. Bellinger and U.S. Naval Aviation
(Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1987), pp. 189–93.

  
56
.
  
M964-21, 6, Black Fleet Operation Order No. 5-36, 13 May 1936, p. 2. Although lack of documentation makes it difficult to determine Brown's organization and plans, these appear to have been quite similar to those adopted by Black based on occasional comments in NWCA, Carton 64, Fleet Problem Seventeen, Report of CINCUS, 6 June 1936.

  
57
.
  
Shortly after Fleet Problem XVII,
Langley
was taken in hand for conversion to an aircraft tender, to free tonnage for the construction of newer carriers, leaving the fleet with only three carriers until
Yorktown
(CV-5) entered service in late 1937.

  
58
.
  
NWCA, Carton 64, CINCUS to Fleet, U.S. Fleet OpOrd No. 7-37 (1 May 1937); M964-22, 3, Commander Battle Force (Commander Black Fleet) to CINCUS, 11 May 1937, “FPXVIII—Narrative of Events and Track Chart”; M964-23, 1, Commander Scouting Force (Commander White Fleet) to CINCUS, 10 May 1937, “Fleet Problem XVIII, Narrative of Events”; M964-23, 1, Commander Aircraft, Battle Force, to CINCUS, 4 June 1937, “Comments and Recommendations–Fleet Problem XVIII.” See also, Reynolds,
On the Warpath
, pp. 121ff. Press coverage was restricted, but some useful stories did appear: “Air and Sea Drive Besets Honolulu,”
New York Times
, 25 April 1937; “Fleet Attacking Oahu In Pacific War Game,”
Washington Post
, 26 April 1937; “Fleet ‘Attack' Ends, Ships at Honolulu,
New York Times
, 26 April 1937. For the problem, the entire geography of the Pacific was notionally rearranged; White's homeland was in the Aleutians, the Alaska Peninsula, and Kodiak Island, while Black lay somewhere in the southwestern Pacific, and Hawaii and Johnston Island were stand-ins for Micronesia.

  
59
.
  
M964-23, 1, Commander Aircraft, Battle Force, to CINCUS, 4 June 1937, “Comments and Recommendations—Fleet Problem XVIII,” p. 7.