Naval operations, regardless of their scope or extent, always require complementary services and missions of a utilitarian nature. During the war, utility services in great variety were routinely performed by U. S. Navy blimps with subsequent ship and air personnel and material savings. Today many of these same tasks, accomplished expeditiously by airships in wartime, are being otherwise performed—in most cases for reasons connected with current disposition of forces. However, following every war there is a period of general forgetfulness during which routine wartime assignments, particularly those of a non-spectacular nature, are overlooked. For this reason, the possibility exists that some units or activities are currently burdened with utility work which might more efficaciously and economically be carried out by existing and available airships. The story of wartime airship utility missions has not previously appeared in these pages. It is hoped that the recounting herein of these missions and uses will (1) be informative to naval personnel who, by being stationed in non-airship operating areas during hostilities, are thereby not familiar with the airship’s capabilities and demonstrated performance, and (2) contribute to that most efficient use of personnel and material so emphasized by the size, strength, and budgetary limitations of the postwar Navy.
Although originally developed as an anti-submarine weapon, the airship rapidly proved itself to be one of the most versatile of all World War II naval aircraft for the performance of utility missions. Escort, patrol, and other anti-submarine operations were the primary functions of naval lighter-than-air craft. But as the U-boat situation fluctuated and operational demands changed, it was soon discovered that the same flight characteristics which accounted for the blimp’s worth in submarine detection were also valuable in the fulfillment of certain general utility missions.
Torpedo recovery, aerial photography, rescue work, aerial observation, mine spotting operations, assistance to vessels and persons, and other tasks requiring a variable speed, even-hovering aircraft capable of slow speed, low altitude operations for extended periods of time, were assigned to airships in increasing numbers by their operational commanders. Indeed, it was found necessary in 1944 to commission a special airship utility squadron with a complement of eight blimps on the East Coast to meet requests from ships and shore stations for miscellaneous blimp services. Even the creation of this squadron was not sufficient to accommodate all such requests, and it was frequently necessary to divert training flights of the operational blimp squadrons to utility work.
G-type airships were those most frequently used by the utility squadron for the fulfillment of its missions. G-ships, former training craft, were 192 feet long and 196,700 cubic feet in volume. They possessed a maximum air speed of 53 knots and cruised at 40 knots. Utility missions by the blimp squadrons were invariably carried out by K-type patrol airships, the standard operational airships of the Fleet. K-ships measured about 250 feet in length, and their 425,000 cubic feet volume was more than double that of the G-ships. Maximum air speed for the K-ships was 67 knots, cruising speed 50 knots. Average endurance for K-ships at cruising speed was 26 hours, for G-ships 17 hours. G and K type airships are in active service today, together with larger M-class airships of 647,500 cubic feet. A modified M-ship, the XM-1, of 725,000 cubic feet, in November, 1946, proved its ability to fly 170 hours of continuous unrefueled flight.
Airship utility work—and let us consider as utility anything not anti-submarine in nature—included many types of missions, from the rescue of persons from the jungle to the making of wild life surveys for the U. S. Department of the Interior. Some tasks, such as the recovery of torpedoes, were assigned as primary missions; others, the relaying of communications, for example, were performed as incidental or secondary duties.
Torpedo recovery was a frequent assignment for the operational blimp squadrons and a daily mission for the special utility squadron which maintained detachments near Atlantic Coast submarine sanctuaries or torpedo test stations so that day and night torpedo recovery might be more easily effected. The low flying, slow speed airship easily detected the torpedo, followed it, and when the “fish” reached the end of its run, marked it for retrieving by surface vessels. The chasing and recovery of practice torpedoes fired by submarines and surface craft has long been an important operation, the execution of which was considerably facilitated by the use of airships.
Great was the wartime emphasis upon training in recognition. Special slides, photographic manuals, and sets of pictures were used throughout the naval service to train officers and enlisted personnel in the recognition of ship and aircraft types. Many of the warship and merchant vessel photographs used in this training were taken by airships. Low altitude and slow speed make for good aerial photography. The blimp, with its stable platform-like characteristics, is peculiarly adapted for photographic missions, and some of the war’s outstanding aerial views of surface vessels were snapped from a blimp’s gondola.
Lighter-than-air photographic efforts, however, were not limited to identification pictures of merchant vessels and men-of-war. Airships photographed landfalls to train new pilots in areas offering few identifiable characteristics; by means of these pictures more familiarity could be gained with an area in a few hours than in days or possibly weeks of flying. Photographs of wrecks proved valuable in salvage operations. Pictures of gunnery and amphibious exercises, airplane maneuvers, surface craft trials, and storm damage were taken by blimps, as were numerous confidential and training films requiring stable and unobstructed aerial views.
For joint operations with “tame” submarines, blimps were employed with considerable success. They were used to check submerged submarines for the presence of oil and air leaks. They conducted tests to determine the limits of visibility under which a submarine could be observed when cruising at various stages of submergence. Possessing the advantages which low altitude aerial observation affords, and capable of maintaining position over a slowly moving object, airships have long proved their value for joint training and tactical exercises with friendly submarines.
Even target practice offered opportunities for the use of airships. Prior to the war, a blimp maintained position over a sharply maneuvering destroyer to demonstrate facility and ability in handling target photography. Liaison with Army coastal defenses was an important aspect of wartime airship utility operations. A K-ship was used near New York to clear shipping from a coast artillery firing area, then to inform the firing units when all was clear, and finally to observe and report the fall of the shells below the battery’s horizon. In this particular instance, the Army reported that had it not been for the services of the blimp, the low visibility prevalent at the time would have precluded all firing operations.
In addition to observing target practice and miscellaneous Bureau of Ordnance tests, airships observed Army and Navy maneuvers, speed and other trials of surface craft, effectiveness of city and coastal black-outs, and engaged in aerial inspection of military and naval installations.
Blimps proved valuable for supervising wartime salvage operations at sea. Wreckage and bodies lying underwater, although invisible to persons on the surface, can often be distinguished from a blimp hovering overhead. In one salvage case in 1942, an airship flew close aboard and examined a torpedoed merchant vessel which had been abandoned by its crew. Advising the surface support commander that it judged salvage of the ship to be possible, the blimp, upon receiving orders to do so, rounded up the life boats and directed the crew to reboard the vessel. This was successfully accomplished, and the merchantman later arrived in port. Airship salvage operations were not limited to the sea, however, for blimps landed in the dense jungles and desolate beaches of South America to assist in the salvage of wrecked planes.
A typical salvage operation was that performed by Brazilian-based U. S. Navy blimps after the interception early in 1944 of two German blockade runners in the South Atlantic. Following the sinking of the enemy ships, numerous bales of rubber were sighted floating in the area. Blimps were used to locate the rubber and to lead surface craft to it. Airships thereby directed the recovery of 32 bales of rubber, each averaging 300 pounds in weight. Rescue of part of the German crew was brought about by a blimp which located a boatload of them and homed surface craft to the scene.
Probably the most difficult blimp salvage operation of the war was performed by the K-101, operating from Rome in March, 1945. Its assignment was to locate a sunken minesweeper off Anzio, and then to plot from aerial observation a mine-free channel to the wreck to enable surface vessels to approach and begin salvage operations. This mission was accomplished by the airship in five days.
Operations involving the use of blimps for mine spotting became routine in the Mediterranean late in 1944 and continued until the withdrawal of airships from that area at the end of 1945. Airships based in France, Tunisia, Sardinia, and Italy for mine spotting work rapidly proved their value for such operations. With their slow speed, hovering, and good observation characteristics, they were able to detect mines (many moored underwater)' and direct surface vessels in sweeping them.
The rescue accomplishments of airships became widely known during the war. On numerous occasions airships searched for and found boats and rafts filled with survivors of torpedoings, marine disasters, and aircraft crashes. To these persons in distress they lowered provisions and first aid supplies, while homing surface craft to the scene. Landings in inaccessible jungle areas were made by blimps to evacuate personnel and equipment from wrecked planes. To prevent a stranded crash boat from drifting ashore in a neutral country, a blimp successfully undertook to tow the craft to safety. Persons were hauled out of the ocean into airships by parachute harnesses and specially devised rescue gear. In one instance a doctor was flown to sea to attend an emergency case aboard a surface vessel. He was lowered into the sea from the blimp and was picked up by the ship. Dropping of urgently needed medical supplies to merchant ships under way and to isolated bases and locations was another errand of mercy performed by airships. They similarly flew rescue patrols in areas of intense air training activity and covered carrier operations to spot and mark the location of ditched planes.
Assisting vessels in distress, guiding and supplying navigational data and instructions to lost ships, and averting collisions between surface craft were routine accomplishments for wartime blimp pilots, who additionally performed the valuable service of relaying messages and communications from merchant ships. Message drops were made and routing instructions delivered to surface craft, saving as much as twelve hours per convoy in rendezvous operations.
Searching coves along deserted coasts for evidences of smuggling, calibration of ship and shore radio equipment, delivery and evacuation of personnel in inaccessible areas, patrol of large expanses of government property to prevent theft, the pick up and delivery of mail at isolated bases—these and many more comprised the utility tasks performed by airships. Lighter-than-air utility operations were steadily increasing in variety, extent, and importance when the war ended; they promise to become a fertile field of postwar airship employment. Capable of low altitude, variable speed, and long endurance operations, blimps are ideally suited for many peacetime missions.
Commissioned in 1942, Lieutenant Vaeth for four and one-half years was on active duty, including assignment to the Staff of Commander Fleet Airships, Atlantic. In 1946 he was sent overseas on a research mission to collect information on European airship and balloon construction and operating techniques. Released from active duty, he assumed administration of Project Helios, a Navy stratosphere balloon project under the Office of Naval Research. At present he is Scientific Research Administrator for the Flight Section of the Special Devices Center (Office of Naval Research). He is the author of the articles on airships and airship sheds in the Encyclopaedia Britannica.