From: Everette (194cbteng@bellsouth.net)
Date: Mon Jan 02 2006 - 11:15:23 PST
January 2
1942 Navy opens a blimp base in New Jersey
On this day, the Navy Airship Patrol Group 1 and Air Ship Squadron 12 are
established at Lakehurst, N.J. The U.S. Navy was the only military service
in the world to use airships--also known as blimps--during the war.
The U.S. Navy was actually behind the times in the use of blimps; it didn't
get around to ordering its first until 1915, at which time even the U.S.
Army was using them. By the close of World War I, the Navy had recognized
their value and was using several blimps for patrolling coastlines for enemy
submarines. They proved extremely effective; in fact, no convoy supported by
blimp surveillance ever lost a ship.
Between the wars, it was agreed that the Army would use nonrigid airships to
patrol the coasts of the United States, while the Navy would use rigid
airships (which were aluminum-hulled and kept their shape whether or not
they were filled with gas) for long-range scouting and fleet support. The
Navy ended its construction and employment of the rigid airships in the
1930s after two, the Akron and the Macon, crashed at sea. In 1937, the Army
transferred all its remaining nonrigid blimps to the Navy.
Meanwhile, in the civilian world, the Hindenburg, a commercial dirigible,
burst into flames over Lakehurst on May 6, 1937. Thirty-six of the 97
passengers aboard were killed. The explosion was caused by an electric
discharge that ignited a hydrogen gas leak; the tragedy effectively ended
the use of airships for commercial travel, but they were still used to great
advantage in the U.S. military.
At the outbreak of World War II, the Navy had 10 blimps in service; that
number expanded to 167 by the end of the war. The only U.S. blimp lost was
the K-74, which, on July 18, 1943, spotted a German U-boat. The blimp opened
fire on the submarine and damaged it, but only one of its two depth charges
released. The submarine fired back and sent the blimp into the sea, but the
crew was rescued. The only German blimp involved in the war was a passenger
craft, Graf Zeppelin, which was used for electronic surveillance just before
the outbreak of the war.
And as a note to this it is my understanding the only balloon training base
during WW II was at Paris Tennessee, some of the original building are still
standing and in use by an industry that supplies clay used in the
manufacture of ceramic toilet fixtures.
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