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Introduction
- University Press of Florida
- Chapter
- Additional Information
Introduction With twin Rolls-Royce motors roaring just above his head, Ens. Ashton “Tex” Hawkins from Carlsbad, New Mexico, wrestled his aging H-12 flying boat higher and higher through the impenetrable rain, mist, and fog, clawing his way to a patrol altitude of 10,000 feet. Hawkins, copilot Lt.(jg) George Lawrence from New York City, and the remainder of the flight crew of four departed NAS Killingholme on the banks of the Humber estuary in northeastern England at 10:30 in the evening of August 5, 1918, in search of marauding German zeppelins. About midnight, after a cold, wet climb, they rose above the dense clouds into clear air, somewhere over the North Sea. Completely alone in the dark sky, they cruised for hours, sometimes mistaking distant, winking stars for engine exhausts and small, scudding clouds for enemy airships . On and on they flew in the darkness, the powerful motors thundering in the silent heavens, but without any accurate idea of their position. Primitive navigational aids offered little help. Eventually, the rising sun illuminated an unbroken expanse of brilliant white clouds stretching everywhere to the horizon. By now running low on fuel, Hawkins began a blind descent toward the North Sea, emerging from the clouds only 200 feet above the forbidding gray water. Still hampered by fog, he headed west until the stone breakwater at Tynemouth loomed out of the mist. The young pilot quickly set the flying boat down with its tanks almost dry, 150 miles from his home station, after an all-night patrol covering over 400 miles. All things considered, it had been a successful mission. Though they failed to find any zeppelins, Hawkins and his crew suffered no mechanical breakdowns, avoided a forced landing at sea, and returned safely home, wet, cold, and tired. Not all of their compatriots would be so lucky.1 Patrols like this, and hundreds more, formed the heart of a military innovation destined to remake the face of warfare. Conceived in home waters as far back as 1910, modern naval aviation endured its protracted birth “Over There.” In the cold, foggy expanse of the North Sea, English Channel, and Bay of Biscay, aeronautic pioneers built a new branch of the Navy one patrol, 2 Stalking the U-Boat one adventure, one mishap at a time. Between the declaration of war in April 1917 and the Armistice just 19 months later, naval aviation literally invented itself, despite initial headquarters apathy, virtually nonexistent planning, technological backwardness, and crippling equipment and manpower shortages . Reluctantly shifting course as the war progressed, the U.S. Navy Department marshaled resources for the emerging combat arm by initiating massive training and building programs in the United States; negotiating contracts for thousands of aircraft, engines, and necessary equipment; and ultimately dispatching hundreds of pilots, nearly 20,000 bluejackets, and 500 warplanes to Europe. Long before training and construction programs yielded tangible results, Navy flyers jumped into a fight for which they were completely unprepared. In fact, when Congress declared war, naval aviation scarcely existed. Looking back from the early 1920s, W. Atlee Edwards, who served during the war as aide for aviation under Adm. William S. Sims, the commander of United States Naval Forces Operating in European Waters, recalled, “An inventory of our efforts . . . showed that we had practically nothing in the way of material and very little in personnel.” He added, “We were not only unprepared, but we had very little idea how to prepare for aerial warfare.” The entire “force,” if it could be so termed, consisted of a few dozen pilots, 54 obsolescent aircraft, a single dirigible that couldn’t fly, and 200 aviation ratings, more or less, generally concentrated at a single training station in Pensacola, Florida.2 Three years of forced-draft growth and exponential technological advances in the war zone had left the United States standing at the starting line. In some ways the Navy attempted to do the virtually unthinkable, create a revolutionary new combat arm thousands of miles from home under daunting conditions while in the midst of war. Despite the country’s massive industrial base, its manufacturing sector seemed incapable of providing modern aircraft, motors, or equipment. Virtually everything would have to be done from scratch, and immediately. And the need was desperate. Germany’s unrestricted submarine campaign brought America into the conflict and it would be the Navy’s task to defeat it. Nearly 3,000,000 tons of shipping losses between February and June 1917 harshly...