Page Four
CLOUDBUSTER
Saturday, September 4, 1943
ANNIVERSARY
(Continued from page two)
tined to remain Chief BuAer for
nearly 12 years, until his death
in the crash of the dirigible, USS
Akron, April 4, 1933. Because of
his many years’ association with
development of naval aircraft,
bdth heavier-than-air and lighter-
than-air, Admiral Moffett was fit
tingly called the “Father of Naval
Aviation.”
Establishment of BuAer in ef
fect was part of the reorganiza
tion period which followed the
close of the World War, It vir
tually placed all aviation activities
of the Navy under the jurisdiction
of a single Bureau, to which were
assigned officers expert in many
fields of aeronautics.
The Bureau came into being a
decade after the potential value of
aviation to the Navy had been
dramatically demonstrated by Eu
gene Ely, a pilot for Glenn H. Cur
tiss, during the winter of 1910-11
with flights from a platform on the
deck of the USS Birmingham at
Hampton Hoads, Va., and flights
to and from the USS Pennsylvania^
in San Francisco harbor.
During the last war training
facilities were expanded to com
prise 21 schools, and by Nov. 11,
J918, a total of 2,835 officers and
30,683 enlisted men were attached
to naval aviation. Submarine pa
trol, convoy and reconnaisance
operations largely marked the
work of naval aviation in the last
war.
Experience gained by naval avi
ation during the World War was
followed up by amazing develop
ments through the 1920’s under
the Bureau’s guidance.
The Collier Jupiter was decked
over from stem to stern with a
special superstructure and recom
missioned as the USS Langley—
our first aircraft carrier, from
which the first take-offs were made
Oct. 26, 1922, the eve of the first
Navy Day in the year following
establishment of BuAer.
Under the Bureau’s direction,
modern torpedo plane and dive
bomber designs and techniques
were evolved, which today are the
envy of our allies and a terror to
our enemies.
During the last 1920’s plans
were made to convert two heavy
cruisers scheduled for scrapping
under the Washington Arms Lim
itation Treaty into aircraft car
riers—and they became the USS
Saratoga and USS Lexington.
They were commissioned in 19^27.
One of these, the Lexington, was
DC,
‘‘One is of the light
is of tl
Reprinted
a victim of the Coral Sea battle.
In the early thirties, a new
series of carriers, designed as such
from scratch, was started, includ
ing the USS Ranger, USS E'nter-
prise, USS Yorktown, USS Wasp
and USS Hornet.
It was also largely due to the
insistence of BuAer that radial
air-cooled engines became stand
ard for the Navy. Anothernotable
contribution of BuAer to aero
nautics through these years was
the substitution of metal for wood
and fabric construction in air
craft, and extensive studies to pre
vent or minimize salt water cor
rosion.
Today’s overocean air transport
triumphs also stem from BuAer’s
development of large flying patrol
boats, whose mass flights from
California to Hawaii and our more
remote possessions in the Pacific
were dramatic sagas of the late
twenties and early and middle
thirties.
As the war in Europe ushered
in a new decade, dubbed the “flying
forties” by the aviation industry,
so-called “normal” expansion pro
grams projected by the Navy were
scrapped in favor of plane produc
tion and pilot training on a scale
hitherto undreamed of. Estimates
jumped into the thousands and lit
cruiser type and the other
heavy class’*
<S) ESQUIRE INC.. 1943
)m the September issue of Esquire
erally billions of dollars were al
located to naval aviation.
The long, patient labors of
BuAer began to bear fruit. The
designs were ready—the training
techniques had long been drawn
up. Naval aviation attained its
majority almost simultaneously
with the disaster at Pearl Harbor.
Man-grown, it was prepared to
slug. Today’s day-to-day commu
niques tell the story. Reserves
and regular Navy men together
are writing history in blood and
glory.
BuAer today is under the ca
pable direction of Rear Admiral
Dewitt Clinton Ramsey, USN, a
former Executive Officer of the
USS Saratoga and a former As
sistant Chief of BuAer.
BERLIN
(Continued from page one)
for the trans-shipment of Swed
ish iron ore, and the center of much
coast-wise shipping, has been
knocked out. Estimates of the ci
vilian casualties run as high as
200,000 persons but these are per
haps exaggerated.
In the Ruhr at least half of the
metallurgical plants and mines
have been destroyed. Aircraft pro
duction has been dislocated by
smashing blows at the Blohm and
Voss plants in Bremen and Ham
burg, and at two of the largest
Messerschmitt factories in Reg
ensburg and Wiener - Neustadt.
The great Heinkel works at Oran-
ienburg near Berlin was certainly
included in the briefing for last
week’s raid on the German capital.
Berlin which is a center of elec
trical and machine tool produc
tion is a prime target. Flexibility
of the heavy bomber made possible
the raid by 175 Liberators on
Ploesti in Rumania, the Axis’ only
important natural petroleum re
fining city. About half of the re
fineries’ capacity was believed de
stroyed.
In addition to these achieve
ments strategic bombing has
helped to stretch the Luftwaffe
thin. No substantial German air
strength has appeared in the Med
iterranean theater this year. The
air fleet stationed in Norway is
believed to be without its full com
plement of fighter planes.
Each bomber raid in force over
Germany costs the enemy from
thirty to fifty of his best fighters.
High scores have been run up by
the Fortress’ .50 caliber machine
guns with their compensating
sights against even the redoubt
able Fock-Wulf 190. In night
fighting great numbers of JU 88’s
equipped with cannon have been
thrown at our planes. While this
aircraft is versatile its use for
night fighting indicates a definite
strain on Luftwaffe materiel.
Our losses in all this activity
have not been light. At least ten
percent of the bombers have been
shot down on each flight, while op
erational losses, not included in
published statistics, have been al
most as high. In six major raids
during July the U, S. Eighth Air
Force (based in Great Britain)
lost 108 heavy bombers in com
bat. Notwithstanding this sacri
fice even Rickenbacker was forced
to admit that the German air force
has a “slight edge” over the Soviet
air arm. Yet without our aerial
efforts might the Luftwaffe not
overwhelm its opponent in the
east?
MASS
(Continued from page one)
of Chapel Hill is assisting in the
arrangements.
Bishop McGuinness, who will
offer the Mass, is the second Bishop
of Raleigh. He received his train
ing at St. Charles Seminary, Over
brook, ^a., and was ordained on
May 22, 1915,