Nuclear Strike, Tanker, Reconnaissance, and Electronic Warfare Aircraft

Figure 1: Our Skywarrior (S/N 144867) in its Original Form

CH-53s at a Forward Aerial Refueling Point (FARP)

Pacific Aviation Museum’s newest aircraft is a Sikorsky CH-53D Sea Stallion, S/N 157173. The CH-53 has been the Marines’ heavy lift helicopter since the days of the Vietnam War. Our aircraft was commissioned in December 1969 and quickly went to Vietnam. It crashed on October 10, 1970 but was retrieved and placed back in service. Since then, this bird has served in most major conflicts, most recently in Afghanistan. Until its recent retirement, it belonged to Heavy Marine Helicopter Squadron HMH-363 at Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay. The squadron’s nickname, the “Ugly Angels,” is a comment on the CH-53’s boxy Bulldog appearance. Today, the Marines have transitioned out of most of their CH-53Ds and are trying to extend the lives of the CH-53Es to stay in service until the CH-53Ks arrive sometime around 2018. The CH-53 is the largest helicopter outside Russia, yet Marines have shown that it can be rolled and even looped.

The USAF has also used the CH-53 widely. In Vietnam, the HH-53B and HH-53C were the “Super Jolly Green Giants” that rescued downed air crews deep in enemy territory. After Vietnam, MH-53H, MH-53J, and MH-53M Pave Low helicopters inserted and extracted special operations forces and led the first attack in Desert Storm.

At the beginning of the Vietnam War, the Marines needed a heavy lift helicopter to supplement their new Boeing Vertol CH-46 medium lift helicopters. They chose the two-engine Sikorsky CH-53A Sea Stallion. After producing 139 CH-53As, Sikorsky began producing 126 CH-53D Sea Stallions. The Delta model was muscular helicopter with two 3,925 shp engines. This allowed it to carry heavy loads yet still be one of the fastest helicopters in the war.

CH-53Ds in Hawaii

Rather than give maximums for performance parameters, Table 1 shows performance in two of the mission profiles the CH-53D was designed to fly. The first is an ordinary assault mission carrying 8,000 pounds of inbound cargo internally and taking back 4,000 pounds. The second is an overload assault mission, in which the outbound load was a 12,742 pound external slung load. Note that even with an external load adding drag, the CH-53D was still a fast helicopter. Its two 3,925 shp GE turboshaft engines gave it exceptional performance for its time.

Table 1: CH-53D Performance Characteristics on Assault Missions

Today, only a few heavy Marine helicopter squadrons still fly the CH-53D, and they are transitioning to the newer Echo model. This should have happened several years earlier, but delays in the production of the CH-53K model discussed below extended service longer than desired.

CH-53D Super Stallion

Loaded CH-53E Refueling

After Vietnam, the equipment that helicopters needed to carry grew larger and heavier. The Marines determined that they needed a helicopter with 80% more lift. This would allow it to sling the 16,000 pound M198 howitzer and the 26,000 Light Armored Vehicle. It is often said that the new aircraft was required to lift 16 tons, but this was only for missions with very small radiuses. Overall, it seems best to call the required aircraft a 10-ton hauler.

Sikorsky responded to these requirements by developing a version of the Sea Stallion with higher engine power of 4,380 shp and adding a third engine. This required a more powerful rotor system, the use of titanium-fiberglass composite, and the addition of a seventh blade. To give the helicopter more cargo space, Sikorsky lengthened the fuselage by six feet. With a maximum takeoff weight of over 73,000 pounds (almost twice the maximum weight of the Delta model), the CH-53E Super Stallion is the heaviest helicopter outside of Russia. The CH-53E finally entered service in 1981. The Marines and the Navy eventually purchased 177 Super Stallions through 1994, when production ended. The Echo model remains in widespread use by the Marines today. It has served the Corps well in all wars since its creation. Today, the Marines are trying to stretch its useful life until the CH-53K is ready.

Today, the Marines are planning to move to the even more powerful CH-53K. This is a thoroughly redesigned aircraft. It will use composites heavily, will have blades with downward aerodynamic tips, and will have a glass cockpit. It will be about 12% wider than the Echo model, in order to carry wider cargo like the HMMWV. Although the Kilo will be more complex than earlier models, it should have about 40% lower maintenance requirements. The CH-53K will be powered by three GE-38-1B engines, each rated in the “7,500 shp class”. The Kilo will be 20 mph faster than the Super Stallion yet will be able to carry a load of 27,000 pounds with a radius 126 miles, even in hot and high conditions. This is more than double the carrying capacity of the CH-53E under these conditions.

CH-53K

CH-53K Mock-up

2010

December 2, 2011

Both Tora, Tora, Tora and Pearl Harbor prominently featured the tall red and white control tower on Ford Island. This article looks at the history of the control tower and its recent stabilization.

This is the second in a series of articles on Ford Island as it existed on December 7, 1941. Jumping right to the control tower is taking things a bit out of order. However, with the unveiling of the renovated control tower scheduled for December 7, 2011, it is the right time to look at this historic building.

The control tower is part of the Operations Building (S84). This was a multipurpose structure built just to the north of the seaplane base hangars. Like many buildings on Ford Island, it

was a brand new building when the attack occurred. In fact, it was not quite finished.

Figure 1 shows the building right after the attack. It is obvious from the figure is that the control tower was not painted red and white. In fact, it wasn’t painted yet. In addition, there is no control tower at the top. In fact, only two of its three rings are in place around the water tank. Although the control tower at the top of the big water tower was scheduled for construction, it was not in existence at the time of the attack. Aircraft had to be controlled from the building at the base of the water tank.

Figure 1: Building S84 around December 8, 1941. Source: National Archives 80-G-32482.

The figure shows a lower control tower on the roof of Building S84. This structure was created as an aerological tower (for wind direction and weather forecasting). However, until the upper control tower was built, it doubled as an interim control tower for wheeled aircraft using the runway. Figure 2 shows this structure in 1993, during the Historic American Buildings Survey project to survey building S84 [Hatani, 1993]. Figure 3 shows an aerological center, although not the one on Ford Island.

Figure 2: Aerological Tower and Interim Control Tower. Source: Historic American Building Survey, 1993. 048213PR.

Source: National Archives and Records Administration: NH-52831

Building S84 was called the Operations Building. It was actually a multi-purpose building that was designed to serve a number of functions. According to the Historic Buildings Survey assessment of the building [Hatani, 1993], it consisted of “a garage, operations/administrative offices, barracks, aerological tower, water tank, and aircraft control tower” on December 7, 1941.

The upper control tower was finished on May 1, 1942, five months after the attack [U.S. Navy, 1945]. Figure 2 shows the building and control tower shortly afterward, on May 8, 1942. Note that although the building was finished, it was not painted. By the way, the small truck in front of the building in the middle was a wrecker/fire truck designed to work on crashed airplanes.

Figure 5: The Upper Control Tower on May 8, 1942

We do not know exactly when the control tower was finally painted, but we do have a picture of it in August 1942. This is Figure 3. It is not a very good picture, but the control tower is visible in the lower right part of the picture. The tower is painted in sinuous camouflage. We do not know what the camouflage colors were, but red and white would not make for very good camouflage.

Figure 6: The Control Tower Painted in Camouflage August 1942

Figure 6 gives a better image of the camouflaged tower on December 10, 1942. This picture is taken from the north, which is unusual. In the foreground on the left are revetments for aircraft to protect them from attack. These revetments were built after the attack. They were later torn down.

Figure 7: Camouflaged Tower on November 10, 1942. Source: National Archives.

When Did the Tower Become Red and White?

We are even more uncertain when the tower was painted red and white. Figure 4 shows the control tower in 1944. It is still in camouflage. Presumably, it remained this way through the war.

Figure 8: The Tower in June 1944

We also know that when Tora, Tora, Tora was filmed in 1969, the tower was red and white. Unfortunately, we have no idea when between 1944 and 1969 the tower was painted red and white. We are currently looking for pictures of the tower between 1944 and 1969 to get a better understanding of when the color was changed to red and white. If you have any pictures of the tower, please contact our Curatorial Department 808-441-1016.

Although S84 looked different on the day of the attack than it did in its finished red-and-white form, it played an important role on the day of the attack. Aviator Harvey Waldron [Quazilbash 2010] recalled that oil-soaked survivors of the battleships were wandering around in a state of shock. Waldron and others took them to S84, where they tried to remove the oil from the victims with their t-shirts and anything else on hand, although Waldron said that it was “hopeless.”

During the attack, operators in the lower control deck guided the Enterprise SBD Dauntless scout planes that arrived in the middle of the attack. Although five SBDs were lost to Japanese and American fire, most were able to land on the Ford Island runway. Two are visible in a photograph taken from S84 of Hangar 37, which is Pacific Aviation Museum’s first hangar. After servicing and arming with bombs, the SBDs later went back up, despite continuing danger from “friendly fire,” in an attempt to find the Japanese fleet.

Later that night, the commander of the Enterprise air group, who had arrived that morning in one of the surviving SBDs, tried to use the radio in the tower to warn six arriving Enterprise F4F Wildcat fighters to land directly instead of making a customary pass around the island [Erickson, undated]. The Enterprise aircraft either ignored him or could not hear him. When they made a pass over the airfield, nearly all the guns in the harbor opened up on them, with fatal results.

In 1993, the Historic American Buildings Survey conducted a study of Building S-84 [Hatani, 1993]. Referring to two 1970 architectural drawings, the report said that the first floor was converted into a fire station that year. The first floor continued to be a fire station when the survey was done.

The second floor was divided in half. At some point, the southern half (the half closes to Hangar 37) was converted into a chapel, but that use ceased about 1988. The southern half then became a storage area.

When the study was done, the northern half of the second floor was used as a training facility and offices for the Naval Station Police Department.

At the time of the study, the aerological tower had been converted into a control deck for civilian touch-and-go practice. The control deck was operated by Hawaii State Department of Transportation. Civilian operations started in 1970 and lasted till 1999. They ended when Barbers Point was closed as a naval air station and a civilian airport opened in its place.

Finally, the report noted that the steel water tank and upper control tower were in a state of disrepair and had been abandoned. Although there were plans to renovate the two-story building, there were no plans at the time to renovate the water tower or upper control tower.

Was It Ever a Dive Tower

At the beginning of the museum in 2006, things were a bit rushed, and several historically inaccurate things were said to visitors. The biggest gaffe was frequently saying that the tower, which is a large water tank, was a navy submarine diving tower for training submariners in how to evacuate sunken submarines. This was completely wrong. The water tank was never a dive tower. The confusion probably occurred because Pearl Harbor did have a navy dive tower. It was, as you would suspect, on the submarine base. Figure 5 shows the submarine base. The dive tower is small but clearly visible.

Source: National Archives. Submarine Base on October 13, 1941. 80-G-451125.

References

Hatani, Dennis and Hatanki, Dennis K. Hatani, Inc., Historic American Buildings Survey, U. S. Naval Base, Pearl Harbor, Operations Building (Building No. S84), HABS No. HI-145, October 1993.

Quazilbash, Homa, Local Veteran Looks Back at Pearl Harbor, KTVZ.com, December 7, 2010. http://www.ktvz.com/news/26054286/detail.html.

U.S. Navy, History of U.S. Naval Air Station, Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, 1945.

Erickson, F. A., Lt., U.S.C.G, Incident of Enterprise airplanes, Attempt Landing, 10 December 1941. Undated.

Prepared By

Ray@Panko.com

Introduction

Ford Island was the epicenter of the attack on December 7, 1941. Its seaplane base had dozens of long-range PBY patrol bombers capable of locating the Japanese fleet after the attack. Along her coast were moored seven of the Pearl Harbor fleet’s nine battleships. Ford Island is also where the Pacific Fleet’s three carriers would have moored had they been in port that day. The attack destroyed nearly all of the patrol planes. It also disabled the Pacific Fleet’s battleship force, making it impossible for the U.S. to carry the fight to Japan to spoil the Japanese expansion in the Pacific.

Today, Ford Island is still an active military base. However, it is now possible for tourists to visit parts of this historic battlefield. Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor gives visitors access to historic Hangar 37 and Hangar 79 and is in the process of renovating the famous control tower. The museum will eventually expand to include Hangar 54. This is the first in a series of articles on Ford Island as it existed on December 7, 1941.

The Surrounding Area

Figure 1 shows Pearl Harbor and the surrounding area. Ford Island is in the middle of the harbor.

Figure 1: Pearl Harbor and Hickam Field, October 30, 1941 80-G-182874

On the eastern shore is the Navy Yard, where heavy repairs were done. The USS Pennsylvania (BB-28), the flagship of the battle fleet was in dry dock for overhaul. In the second wave of the attack, dive bombers damaged the Pennsylvania heavily damaged the destroyers USS Cassin (DD-372), USS Shaw (DD-373), and USS Downes (DD-375). On the 1010 Dock closest to Ford Island, the light cruiser USS Helena (CL-50) and the minelayer USS Oglala (CM-4) were moored during the attack. Both were sunk by a Japanese torpedo but were later restored. The Helena was lost at the Battle of Kula Gulf in 1943.

Many Japanese torpedo planes flew along the East Loch to get the longest possible straight runs for dropping their torpedoes. This put the battleships USS Oklahoma and USS West Virginia in an almost direct line. Of the 40 torpedoes dropped by Japanese aircraft, approximately 14 hit these two ships.

Note that Hickam Field, which was the U.S. Army Air Forces bomber field in Hawaii, is adjacent to Pearl Harbor. Today, the two bases are combined into Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam.

The figure also shows the narrow sea channel between the Pacific Ocean and Pearl Harbor. If a major ship had been sunk in the harbor while escaping, other ships could not leave or enter the harbor.

Finally, the figure shows oil storage near the submarine base. Admiral Nagano has been criticized for not launching a third wave to destroy the oil storage tanks throughout Pearl Harbor and ship repair facilities in the Navy Yard.

Ford Island

Figure 2 takes a closer look at Ford Island. This picture was taken on October 10, 1941. If it looks familiar to visitors to Pacific Aviation Museum, this is because the photograph was the basis for the Dru Blair mural that visitors see when they enter the main floor of Hangar 37.

Figure 2: Ford Island, October 10, 1941. 80-G-279375

The label Battleship Row lies at the bottom of a set of quays used by the bulk of Pearl Harbor’s battleships. On the day of the attack, the battleships Oklahoma (BB-37), Maryland (BB-46), West Virginia (BB-48), Tennessee (BB-43), Arizona (BB-39), and Nevada (BB-36) were moored there. The USS California (BB-44) was moored farther down at Quay F-3, just behind where the USS Enterprise is in the October, 1941 picture (at Quay F-2) [1]. These battleships bore the brunt of the torpedo, high-level bombing, and dive bombing attacks on Pearl Harbor that day. The USS Pennsylvania (BB-38), the other battleship in port that day, was in the Navy Yard undergoing overhaul. The other battleship in the Pearl Harbor force was the USS Colorado (BB-45). She was in undergoing overhaul on the West Coast.

No aircraft carriers were in port that day. The USS Enterprise (CV-6) was scheduled to have returned from dropping off 12 F4F fighters at Wake Island, but it was delayed by heavy seas. As noted in an earlier blog article, the Enterprise was normally moored where it was in Figure 2. The USS Lexington (CV-2) and the USS Saratoga (CV-3) normally moored on the other side of the island, where the USS Utah (AG-16) was moored on the day of the attack. On the day of the attack, Lexington was on its way to delivery dive bombers to Midway Island. Saratoga had just finished a refit and was entering San Diego’s harbor to pick up its air wing. The survival of these carriers was critical for the first year of the war.

The lower right corner of Pearl Harbor is the seaplane base. This base had four squadrons of Consolidated PBY Catalina patrol bombers. These aircraft had an operational radius of operation of 700 miles, so they could have found the Japanese fleet long after its attack. The seaplane base also was the servicing area for catapult-launched aircraft on cruisers and battleships when these ships were in port. Due to a communication mix-up, Japanese dive bombers hit the seaplane base at 7:55, almost five minutes before their torpedo bombers arrived to attack the battleships. The seaplane base is now home to Pacific Aviation Museum and active Navy facilities. Its landmark feature was the control tower in the airfield Operations Building. The photo shows that the tower was unfinished in October, 1941, just as it was on the day of the attack.

At the opposite side of the island was the servicing area for carrier aircraft when the carriers were in port. This area had been a U.S. Army Air Corps base, Luke Field, until 1939. It was often still referred to as “Luke Field” despite the fact that it was then a Navy facility. The runway, by the way, was never called Luke Field. “Field” was the U.S. Army Air Corps and U.S. Army Air Forces name for an air base, not for the base runway.

The 1930s were the romantic years of flight. At the beginning of the decade, flying across oceans was a life-risking experience. However, beginning in 1936, Pan Am began to fly across the Pacific. Their aircraft were the beautiful, luxurious, and enormous Clippers. Built by Martin and Boeing, these amazing aircraft flew the rich and famous in style to exotic locations throughout the Pacific. Although Clippers only flew passengers for five years before America was dragged into the war, it is difficult to think of pre-war Hawaii without a Pan Am Clipper flying above the islands.

In 1927, Pan Am began to fly in Central and South America. By the early 1930s, Juan Trippe wanted to create regular mail, cargo, and passenger service to Hawaii and locations deeper in the Pacific. His initial goal was to carry people, cargo, and mail all the way from San Francisco to China. In 1935, the first survey flights gained the company experience for operating the route. October 1935 saw the beginning of mail and cargo service. October 21, 1936 saw the first passenger flight. Pan Am provided weekly service along recently impossible routes. Although the first services stopped at Manila for political reasons, service continued to expand and eventually reached Hong Kong and Singapore.

Pan Am was also eyeing the more lucrative market for service between America and Europe, but poor weather conditions made year-round Atlantic service extremely risky. In addition, the required stepping stones along the Pacific route to Manila were U.S. possessions, while trans-Atlantic flights would have to stop at possessions owned by other countries. Only in 1939 did Pan Am begin service to Europe, and that year weather problems cancelled 40% of the flights, and many that did complete the route were delayed for several days.

Before Clipper service began, Pan Am operations in Central and South America became a laboratory for how to extend air service to regions where distances were long, airports few, and facilities largely non-existent. Although Pan Am used airports when it could, there were many more bays than airports, and they used flying boats and float planes heavily. The Americas operations forced Pan Am to develop long-distance navigation, radio communication, and the creation of fully functional air support and hotel facilities where none existed. Although the Pacific would bring even greater challenges, Pan Am already had oversea flying capabilities that no other company could approach.

To cross the Pacific, Pan Am would need far larger flying boats to achieve economic payloads. Although aircraft companies were ready to create large four-engine aircraft, few airports could to accommodate. Four-engine flying boats would not have these problems. The first Pan Am Clipper, the Sikorsky S-42, was really designed for the Americas, although S-42s surveyed some Pacific routes and flew the short hop between Manila and Hong Kong. Next came three larger Martin M-130s provided the first regular service.

Then came the definitive Boeing 314s and 314As. With a payload five times that of the Martins, the twelve B314s and B-314As finally brought the Pacific service to maturity when they arrived in early 1939. These enormous aircraft had a stunning maximum gross weight of 84,000 pounds. Their wide boat hulls have enormous room for passengers and cargo. Their wings were so thick that the flight engineer could crawl out to the engines and service them in flight. They would be the widest passenger aircraft until the Boeing 747 many years later.

The Boeings were enormous. By way of comparison, the dominant passenger airliner at the time was the twin-engine Douglas DC-2, which carried 14 passengers over routes nearing 1,000 miles and cost about $80,000. In contrast, the Boeings cost $620,000 apiece—just under ten million of today’s dollars. They could carry 74 passengers, cargo, and mail over 3,500-mile hops. Boeing had previously built the XB-15, which was heavier than the later B-17. Engines strong enough to give the XB-15 good performance had not been available, so that project died. Boeing responded to Pan Am’s needs by adapting the 150 foot wing of the XB-15 and the engine nacelles to an enormous flying boat body. Using new Wright 1,500 hp and later 1,600 hp Twin Cyclone engines, the 314A was able to carry this enormous bulk at cruising speeds of 188 mph.

The only class was first class. Passenger compartments had heavy sound deadening. The aircraft had couches instead of just seats. On overnight flights, they could convert into beds. The passenger space was divided into five compartments. In addition, there was a spacious main lounge, separate men’s and women’s restrooms and changing rooms, and even a bridal suite in the tail. Food was served on China plates, and the level of cuisine was high. In addition, on most part of the journey, passengers only flew during the day and slept at comfortable hotels at night. Pan Am loved to use nautical terminology, so it called its cabin attendants stewards and later stewardesses. For this level of service, prices were beyond the reach of anyone but the super wealthy. In 1939, a one-way ticket from San Francisco to Honolulu cost $278, and a one-way ticket to Hong Kong cost $1,368. In 2010 dollars, these were $4,317 and $11,803.

The flight from San Francisco to Manila took six hops. The big jump was the flight between San Francisco and Honolulu. This 2,400-mile flight was roughly a thousand miles longer than other routes. Even with Boeing Clippers, overnight flying was unavoidable. Due to the long distance of this flight, even the Boeing Clippers only carried about 25 passengers and limited their speeds to between 135 and 144 mph. On other legs, as noted earlier, the Boeing Clipper could carry 74 passengers with cruising speeds as high as 188 mph. Night flying was hazardous because aircraft could fly into unseen storms. Consequently, only the Honolulu–San Francisco leg used overnight flying.

Beyond Hawaii, Midway Island was 1,400 miles away, Wake Island was 1,300 miles further, and Guam was an additional 1,600 miles. The flight from San Francisco to Manila covered 8,200 miles. It took six days and involved about 60 hours of flying time. On Midway and Wake, Pan Am had to create two facilities on barren islands. For these stops, Pan Am built service facilities and comfortable hotels. These were only used once or twice a week, so operating costs were enormous. This was far from today’s pace of travel, but it was only about a third of the time required to travel these distances by ship. Later, Pan Am introduced Clipper service to New Zealand and other southern points.

When we think of Clipper service, we usually focus on passengers. However, Pan Am made half of its annual revenues from the carriage of mail. Mail was also critical on the Pacific routes. In fact, the first Pacific Clippers flew for almost a year delivering cargo and mail before they began to carry passengers.

When the Japanese attacked on December 7, one Pan Am Clipper was about an hour away from landing in the harbor. Fortunately, it was warned and was able to divert to Hilo. A few hours later, a Martin M-130 Clipper was called back to Wake Island to make a patrol flight toward Midway to try to locate the Japanese fleet. As it was refueling for the mission, the Japanese bombed the island by air. The Clipper received 97 bullet holes, but it could fly well enough to evacuate 56 Pan Am employees.

Nine others had died in the attack, and one more failed to make the flight. At Hong Kong, a Sikorsky S-42 Clipper was caught in a Japanese attack shortly afterward it was heavily strafed and burned to the water line. Other Clippers were in the air and managed to evade destruction, although one had to return by flying West over 30,000 miles to La Guardia Airport—all under radio silence. After the start of the war, U.S. military took over Pan Am’s eleven Martin M-130s and Boeing B-314s. Due to the enormous experience of Pan Am in long-distance flying over water, the military asked the company to operate some of the Clippers using its own crew and staff.

Throughout the war, Pan Am flew across the Atlantic carrying high-priority passengers and critical cargo. For example, shortly after the Pearl Harbor attack, three Boeing 314s flew from New York to India. They were carrying vital spare parts and ammunition for the American Volunteer Group in China. On one trip, the Dixie Clipper took President Roosevelt to the Casablanca Conference and brought him home again. President Roosevelt, who thus became the first president of fly, celebrated his birthday in the Clipper’s dining room. Heavily overloaded, these wartime flights had some crashes. In one of these crashes, the aircraft was carrying a Pan Am Clipper pilot named Gene Roddenberry.

In 1945, the Honolulu Clipper lost two engines and had to land on the ocean 650 miles east of Hawaii. The passengers and crew were evacuated by ships in the area. The seaplane tender San Pablo attempted to take the Clipper in tow, but it accidentally ran into the Clipper, damaging it beyond repair. The San Pablo sunk the Clipper with 20 mm cannon fire, but it took 1,200 rounds and 30 minutes of fire to finally sink the aircraft.

After the war, the government offered to sell the Clippers back to Pan Am, but the company declined. The war had brought many more airports around the world, and four-engine landplanes could fly faster than the fat Clipper flying boats. DC-4s and Boeing 307s had begun to appear even before the war. Shortly after the war, Pan Am Lockheed Constellations, DC-5s, and Boeing 377s took over the routes that the Clippers had pioneered. Other companies bought the remaining Clippers from the military, but in 1951, the last of the huge Boeing Clippers reached the end of its career. None of these beautiful and historic aircraft remain except in old travel posters and cherished photographs.

Post by Ray Panko

Figure 1: USS Utah AG-16

In the first wave of the Pearl Harbor attack, 16 Japanese B5N2 Kate torpedo bombers approached Ford Island from the northwest. The western side of Ford Island is where the Lexington and Saratoga usually moored when they were in port. Although the Japanese knew that these carriers had been out of port, it made sense to send some of their torpedo planes to that side of the island first. If the Kates did not find a carrier or battleship, they could fly past Ford Island, turn around, and attack the battleships that moored on the northeast side of the island. Most did precisely that.

When the Kates reached the western side of the island, however, two crews used their torpedoes to attack the Utah, sinking her and killing 64 of her crewmen, 58 of whom were entombed in the ship when she capsized. This made little sense from a military point of view because the Utah was no longer an active battleship. The Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 resulted in ship limitations that required the Navy to turn the old Utah (commissioned in 1911) into an auxiliary ship. When that finally happened in 1931, her designation changed from BB-31 to AG-16. Her ten 12-inch guns were removed, and aircraft practiced dropping bombs on the Utah. For safety, the Utah was turned into a remote control ship for bomb practice exercises. Operators in another ship could control her movements so that there was no danger of falling bombs harming the crew. In 1941, she was given modern anti-aircraft guns and became an AA training ship as well as a target ship. To protect her guns during practice bomb drops, sensitive parts of her top-side structure were covered with long six-by-twelve inch timbers. However, when the ship began to roll after being hit, these timbers rolled loose; they impeded crew damage control and escape.

The seamen on Pearl Harbor tried to make sense of Utah sinking by speculating that the timbers over her most sensitive parts made the Japanese believe that she was an aircraft carrier. Obviously, this speculation was not based on any real knowledge of Japanese thinking. In addition, this explanation never made much sense. The two figures in this article show that the Utah did not look anything like an aircraft carrier. She had a high superstructure and typical battleship masts. There was no way for aircraft to take off from or land on such a ship.

After the war, interviews with Japanese participants in the Pearl Harbor raid cleared up the mystery. The Japanese fleet knew very well that the Utah was no longer a Battleship. Genda and Fuchida, who respectively planned and led the attack, ordered their men not to attack the Utah. However, one of the young pilots still mistook the Utah for an active battleship (not for an aircraft carrier) and attacked it, as did his wingman. Matsumura, who led the group of 16, was furious because the attacking Kates only had 40 torpedoes. The waste of even two was a serious matter.

Sources:

Delgado, James P., National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: USS Utah (BB-31 and AG-16), National Parks Service, 1998. This was the source of most information about the Utah, including its role as an auxiliary ship. This information is available elsewhere, but this is an exceptionally good source.

Prange, Gordon W., Goldstein, Donald M., and Dillon, Katherine V., At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1981. This was the source of Japanese information about the sinking of the Utah. Prange and his team conducted many interviews with Japanese principals in the war.

Post by Ray Panko

Bell Helicopter delivered our Bell AH-1G Cobra to the Army on October 1967. Its serial number is 66-15298, indicating that it was ordered in 1966. In February 1966, the 298 arrived in Vietnam. Instead of being assigned to a division, it was assigned to a nondivisional company unit, the 235th Aviation Weapons Company, known as the “Delta Devils.” This was the first gunship company in Vietnam to be completely converted to AH-1G Cobras, which quickly became known as “snakes.” There were many similar nondivisional company units. They were attached temporarily to battalions or divisions as needed. For administrative purposes, these companies were “homed” in Aviation Groups. The 235th was homed in the 166th Aviation Group.

Our snake’s time with the 235th was stressful. During her first month in Vietnam, the 298’s base came under mortar fire. As its crew’s rushed to get into the air from a revetment, one of her pilots over-revved the engine. This caused the tail to swing around into the revetment wall.

Fortunately, she could be repaired in theater. On March 11, our snake was attacking from 1,000 feet at 180 kts when she took her first hit. Her armament system was damaged, but she was able to complete her mission. The next day, on an armed reconnaissance mission, she was flying at 200 feet and 120 kts when she took her second hit. She was repaired and sent back to work. On June 6, she ran into heavier fire and took five hits to the transmission, main tail rotor, and oil system. This time, she was forced to land. She was repaired sufficiently to take off and divert to another base.

In January 1969, Viet Cong sappers damaged her with a satchel charge while she was parked. In February, she was again downed by fire but was recovered. She took more hits in February and March but continued the mission both times. On May 26, she took another three hits during a close air support mission. Although her cockpit and fuel system were damaged, she continued her mission. However, she was then moved to a maintenance unit to repair her damage and to be completely overhauled.

In June 1970, she reentered the fight with another nondivisional unit, the 3/5 Cavalry squadron. Cavalry units call their companies “troops” and their battalions “squadrons.” The 3/5 (pronounced third of the fifth) was the third squadron of the 5th Cavalry Regiment. Regiments were no longer active units in the Army hierarchy, but the 5th was nevertheless the titular home of the 3d.

The 3/5 was officially the Black Knights, but they called themselves the “Bastard Cav” because of their nondivisional status. Our snake was assigned to the D troop, known as the Crusaders. At the time, the Black Knights were under the 1st Cavalry Division’s 3d Brigade. After only 7 hours with the 3/5, however, our snake suffered an undocumented accident and went back into maintenance.

Photo credit: Vaughn Banting

After she returned to service, she first flew briefly with the famous 1/9 cavalry squadron of the famous 1st Cavalry Division. This was the “Air Cav’s” cavalry reconnaissance unit, and it called itself the “Real Cav.” The 1st of the 9th typically flew “pink” missions with a low-flying “white” observation helicopter seeking out the enemy and a higher-flying “red” Cobra providing protection and firing on enemy their partner identified.

However, our snake was quickly moved to the Air Cav’s 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion, known as the “Stacked Deck.” The 229th was tasked with moving assault troops into and out of landing zones and resupplying them during combat.

The 229th had three companies of assault Huey troop ships, each with about 20 helicopters. It also had one company (D) of about a dozen gunships, one of which was our snake. This company was known as the “Smiling Tigers.” There is no record of any damage during our snake’s time in the 229th until the accident that ended her service in Vietnam on 28 November, 1971. A warrant officer instructor pilot was giving a Captain a 90-day check ride.

The ride required the Captain to do several maneuvers simulating aircraft failure conditions. In one maneuver, the Captain overcorrected a nose-down condition caused by a simulated failure. The snake reared back, losing RPMs. She landed hard, damaging her right-side landing skid, then jumped back into the air. The instructor pilot immediately took over, but the aircraft landed hard, ending up on her left side, her blades having shattered as the hit the ground. Her long tour of duty was over.
Our snake spent most of her Army time after the war at Fort Knox, with the 1st and 5th Divisions. In 1974, she moved to Hawaii, where she was stationed at Schofield Barracks. The next year, she retired from active duty and moved to the Hawaii Army National Guard. Below is a picture of her doing a fly-by in 1999. This was the final flight of the Cobras in Hawaii.

October 25, 1944, 0200 hours. It is the final major day of the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Six America battleships slowly steam back and forth across the mouth of the Surigao Strait. Five are survivors of the Pearl Harbor attack—West Virginia, Pennsylvania, California, Tennessee, and Maryland. Two forces of Japanese battleships, cruisers, and destroyers are steaming north in the strait. The American battleships will “cross their T,” pouring full broadsides into each arriving Japanese ship. The Pearl Harbor battleships are about to have their revenge.

At Pearl Harbor, the “newest” battleship was the West Virginia (BB-48). Built in 1921, she had the advantages of lessons learned in World War II. In addition, she was heavily updated before World War II. After she was built, a moratorium was placed on battleship construction a result of the Washington Naval conference. The U.S. would not begin to build more battleships until the eve of World War II.

West Virginia, 1926. National Archives, Photo # NH 46415

During the attack, the West Virginia took more hits than any other ship, including the Arizona and Oklahoma. She was hit by six or seven torpedoes (there was too much damage to be certain) and two heavy high-level bombs. Although alert counter-flooding kept her from capsizing like the Oklahoma moored in front of her, she sunk 40 feet into the harbor mud, continuing to burn for another day.

West Virginia sunk in 40 feet of water. Note the two funnels. Also note the “birdcage” masts, which were characteristics of U.S. battleships built after World War I. Robert F. Walden Collection - Hawaii War Records Depository - University of Hawaii Archives

Fortunately, Pearl Harbor’s shipyard was still operational. The yard put patches over her torpedo holes and floated her to dry dock. In May, 1942, fixed up enough to sail, the West Virginia left for a major overhaul on the West Coast.

West Virginia leaving Pearl Harbor for reconstruction. Robert F. Walden Collection - Hawaii War Records Depository - University of Hawaii Archives

It was not until July 1944 that she finally rejoined the fleet, just in time for the Battle of Leyte Gulf. When the West Virginia returned, she was a much better ship. She had no visible funnels, a sleeker superstructure, and bristled with heavy antiaircraft guns. Most importantly for the coming battle, the long delay in upgrading her meant that she had the Navy’s newest Mark 8 fire control radar system plus additional radar to spot aircraft. She would be able to fire on the advancing Japanese forces long before they could see her. Her only real limitation was that she was still slow, limited to about 20 knots. She would not be able to keep up with carrier task forces, but for bombarding beach heads or sitting in ambush, this was no hindrance at all.

West Virginia after Reconstruction, 1944. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph # 19-N-68376 Note the radar installations at the top.

The first Japanese force to enter the strait was Adm. Nishimura Shoji’s two battleships, one cruiser, and four destroyers. Even in a traditional battle, the Americans would have had a strong advantage with their six battleships and several cruisers. By this time in the war, the U.S. fleet was far larger than the Japanese fleet. Crossing the Japanese T would merely add to the slaughter.

Long before the Japanese came into range of the battleships, 39 Patrol Torpedo boats harassed them with torpedo runs. They did no damage, but they gave Adm. Jessie Oldendorf a constant picture of the Japanese advance. As Nishimura got closer to the mouth of the strait, Oldendorf unleashed 28 destroyers to attack with torpedoes. The destroyers launched up to ten torpedoes apiece into the approaching Japanese force. In contrast to the PT boat attacks, the destroyer attacks were deadly. Torpedoes from the little tin cans blew the battleship Fusō in half, sunk two destroyers, and left the destroyer Asagumo behind with damage. Almost half of Nishimura’s force was gone before he neared the mouth of the strait and the Pearl Harbor greeters waiting to welcome them.

Although the U.S. welcoming committee was extremely potent, it had one limitation. The navy had provisioned the battleships for shore bombardment to support MacArthur’s landings at Leyte. Consequently, 75 percent of their shells were high capacity shells useless against battleships. The big battle wagons would only fire a limited number of broadsides to conserve their armor piercing (AP) shells.

Finally, the surviving Japanese ships neared the mouth of the straight. The battleships held their fire, waiting for the Japanese ships to steam closer. The West Virginia recorded the fatal minutes of the bombardment in her log.

• At 0208, the West Virginia could see shell fire from the approaching Japanese fleet.
• At 0304, the enemy appeared on the ship’s long-range SG-1 radar systems designed to track aircraft.
• At 0332, admiral Oldendorf cleared the battleships to fire.
• At 0333, the West Virginia got a firing solution with her Mark 8 fire control radar at 30,000 yards. (She had actually seen the approaching fleet at 44,000 yards.) Her target throughout the bombardment would be the Japanese battleship Yamashiro.
• Her radar could pick out individual ships of both the first Japanese force and the second force steaming far behind it. She could also see individual U.S. destroyers attacking the Japanese forces.
• She waited until 0352, with the Japanese 22,800 yards away. The delay had been necessary to ensure that she would not be firing on U.S. ships. Finally, the “Wee Vee” fired her first eight-gun broadside of 16 inch armor piercing shells. She scored immediate hits with this first salvo of 2,400 pound shells.
• At 0354, she saw the battleship illuminated by fire during the sixth salvo.
• Overall, she sent 16 broadsides. The first 13 took place at an average of every 41 seconds. In all, she fired 89 AP shells and 4 high capacity shells. The HC rounds were used because of an inability to get AP shells to guns a few times.
• During the second or third broadside, California and Tennessee, which also had the Mark 8 radar, begin to add their 14 inch guns to the carnage, firing a total of 139 shells.
• The Maryland, with an older Mark 4 radar fire control system, fired at the water spouts kicked up by the shells of other ships. California and Mississippi decided to conserve their shells. Pennsylvania did not fire at all, and Mississippi only fired a single salvo.
• Cruisers with 6 inch and 8 inch guns positioned to the south of the battleships added their fire.
• At 0402, the West Virginia and other heavies ceased fire to conserve their AP shells. At this point, the West Virginia only had 110 AP shells left.
• At 4:11, the radar blip that had been the Yamashiro bloomed and then faded.
• At 4:12, the radar blip vanished.

The visual effect was astounding, Captain Smoot, commanding the destroyer Newcomb, said that the arcs of fire looked like the tail lights of cars crossing the Brooklyn Bridge.

Their barrages quickly sunk the remaining Japanese battleship, Yamashiro, and devastated the heavy cruiser Mogami. The only Japanese ship to avoid serious damage was the destroyer Shigure, which had immediately reversed course and steamed away while the big guns focused on the battleship and cruiser. The Mogami, although massively damaged, was able to limp slowly to the south. When the second Japanese force began to approach the mouth of the strait with two heavy cruisers, one light cruiser, and four destroyers, its admiral witnessed the burning destruction in the water and immediately turned around to avoid the guns of the American fleet. The threat from Japan through the Surigao Strait was ended. The next day, aircraft sunk the Mogami, and destroyers and cruisers finished off the destroyer Asagumo. Only the Shigure survived the passage through the strait.

Although the Pearl Harbor battleships had taken their revenge, they did relatively little of the total damage. The destroyers had heavily reduced the first Japanese force before the battleships ever fired a shot. When the behemoths finally ended their barrages, they only sunk one Japanese battleship and fatally wounded one Japanese cruiser. However, the goal of the battleships had been to keep the Japanese from advancing through the strait to attack MacArthur’s landing force, and even if the destroyers had not reduce the Japanese force, the battleships would still have stopped it. The battleships had decisively done their job.

Although no one knew it at the time, this was the last time in history that battleships would face one another in combat. Even by this time, battleships were mostly used for land bombardment if they were too slow to keep up with the carrier fleet. More modern and faster battleships were mostly used to provide antiaircraft fire to protect the flat tops. Still, the massive wall of cannon shells shot at the enemy during this final battle was a dramatic way to mark the passing of the battleship as the fleet’s capital ship.

One other battleship survived the Pearl Harbor attack. During the Japanese attack, the Nevada made a run for the open sea but was ordered to beach herself when she was attacked by a hornet’s nest of dive bombers and began to sink. She was also repaired and returned to combat. However, she was sent to the Atlantic. In June 1944, her long 14 inch guns supported the Normandy invasion by savaging German troop formations as much as 17 miles behind the invasion force.

Sources

Wiley, H. V., Commanding Officer, West Virginia, Action in Battle of Surigao Straits 25 October 1944 U.S. West Virginia—Report of, 1 November 1944. Available at http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ships/logs/BB/bb48-Surigao.html. (Last visited February 2, 2011). Transcribed and formatted in HTML by Patrick Clancey, HyperWar Foundation.

Cutler, Thomas J., The Battle of Leyte Gulf 23-26 October 1944, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis Maryland, 1994.

When visitors at Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor look at the Japanese bomb replicas on our attack wall, they sometimes ask about the little propellers on the bombs. Obviously, these are too small to make the bomb change directions. Some even notice that one of the bombs has two propellers—one on its tip and one at the tail end of the bomb’s body. The answer to the first question is that the propellers are attached to the fuzes that detonate the bomb. The answer to the second is a bit more complicated.

Figure 1: Bombs with Propeller Fuzes

Fuzes have two purposes. The obvious one is to cause the bomb to explode. When the bomb makes impact, the fuze has a spike or electrical circuit that detonates the bomb. If the fuze has a spike, that spike is driven into a small detonation charge that sets off the main bomb charge. An electrical fuze uses a spark to set off the detonation charge. Earlier bombs used pyrotechnic detonation—a flame raced down a detonation line into the detonation charge. Pyrotechnic fuzes were not used in World War II aircraft bombs because of their uncertain detonation time. (In case you were wondering about spelling, pyrotechnic fuses are fuses (with an s), while mechanical or electrical detonators are fuzes (with a z).

Fuzes can have various timers built into them to make the blast more effective. Some go off at a given time after arming, but these are hard to time properly when dropped from aircraft. More common are delay timers to delay the detonation for a few fractions of a second. If an aircraft is dropping a bomb on a runway full of aircraft, there should be no delay. However, if the bomb is dropped on an aircraft hangar, there should be a small delay so that it does not detonate as soon as it hits the roof. Armor piercing bombs, which are designed to penetrate armored ship decks, will have fuzes with even longer delays. Proximity fuzes use radio signals to tell when they are near their targets. They then explode even before hitting the target. This allows a greater radius of destruction.

While making a bomb explode is important, fuzes have an even more important function: to prevent the bomb from detonating before it has left the aircraft. Once a fuze is armed, any hard jolt can set it off. Consequently, fuzes are not armed on a bomber with internal bombs until just before the bombs are dropped. For bombs carried outside an aircraft, the bomb fuze must not go live until a safe time after the bomb has left the aircraft.

This is where the little propellers come in. When a bomb carried externally on an aircraft is loaded aboard, a safety pin is placed through the propeller on the fuze so that the propeller cannot spin.

Figure 2: Fuze with Safety Pin

This pin attaches to a line connected to the aircraft. When the bomb is dropped, the line stays with the aircraft. Almost as soon as the bomb falls away, the pin attached to the line is yanked out of the fuze. Now the propeller is free to turn. As the bomb falls, the propeller begins to spin slowly. This spinning drives a screw which pushes the detonator spike or electrical connection into the detonator charge. The bomb is now armed and will explode at the proper time.

Figure 3: Wire Attached to Safety Pin

The two propellers on one of the bombs? These allow the bomb to have two fuzes. One might be set to go off on impact, while the other might have a small delay. The former would be right for ground targets, while the other would be best for bombs falling through hangars.

Both fuzes will have pins attached to the aircraft by wires. The pilot or bombardier holds or releases these wires. If the front fuze is to be used, the pilot keeps the wire for that fuze attached to the aircraft but releases the wire for the aft fuze. Now when the bomb falls away from the aircraft, the safety pin will be yanked out of the front fuze. The timer built into the front fuze will detonate the bomb. On the rear fuze, the wire will fall with the bomb and so will not yank out the safety hook.

To give an example, suppose that the pilot has a front fuze for immediate impact and a rear fuze for delayed impact. To hit aircraft on the ground, the pilot would hold the front wire and release the rear wire. This would arm the front fuze. However, if the pilot wishes to bomb a hangar, he will hold the rear wire and release the front wire. Now only the rear fuze will be armed, allowing the bomb to pause to reach the bottom of the hangar.

From the pictures in this article, you can see that fuzes are rather simple devices. This allows them to be rugged. However, while using a safety pin attached to a wire might seem crude, it usually worked well.

Post by Ray Panko

The F-14

From the 1970s through 2006, the Grumman F-14 Tomcat was the defender of the fleet. These huge, fast, swept-wing fighters could take on anything in close-in dog fights and could shoot down enemy aircraft 50 miles away. Toward the end of the Tomcat’s life, F-14s became Bombcats, capable of delivering precision bombs against distant land targets. F-14s starred the movie Top Gun, which also featured co-star Tom Cruise.

Preparing an F-14 Tomcat for launch. (U.S Navy photograph 050222-N-4308O-075, Feb. 22, 2005, by Photographer’s Mate Airman Ryan O'Connor)

Our Tomcat (S/N 163904) "Felix 102"

By the beginning of 2006, there were only two F-14 squadrons left in the Navy. Both were flying combat missions in the Middle East. VF-213 was the “Black Lions.” VF-31 was the “Tomcatters.” The tail insignia of VF-31, created in 1948, was a black Felix the Cat carrying a lit bomb.[1]

Insignia of the VF-31 Tomcatters. (U.S. Navy photograph, http://www.history.navy.mil/insignia/vf/vf31.jpg)

Not surprisingly, the squadron’s call sign was “Felix.” Our F-14D, Serial Number 163904, was Felix 102.