My Musings of the Day — December 5: Transforming Naval Warfare

Dec 5

Written by Gerald Boerner

Commentary:

Back to my regular schedule again — woke up at about 5:30. It felt good to sleep in on a cold Monday morning. when I checked the temp outside, it was up to 41 degrees! It got down to almost freezing during the night, but is warming up already; the Weather Channel had projected a low of 34, so we "beat" that!

But today is supposed to be sunny and a chance of some wind. The high is predicted to be in the upper-50s. Tonight it’s going to be cold again — about 34! While we may not have the freezing weather, black ice, or snow like some of my family experiences in Indiana, we have our Santa Ana winds. Here in River City they are predicted to be between 15-20 mph, with gusts up to about 30 mph. That forecast could go out the window if the Low Pressure area comes closer to the LA area, so we will see. 15 to 20 mph is manageable and doesn’t cause the damage of higher winds.
Well anyway, we have the sun out showing its bright face. My heart goes out to those families who live in Temple City (in LA County). They had wind damage about as bad as Pasadena, but while Pasadena has power restored to most homes, most families in Temple city are still without power and have been for days. Their food had spoiled and must be discarded, they lived by lantern and candlelight, and wrapped blankets around themselves to try to stay warm. I think it says something about equity when a wealthy city like Pasadena with its Old Town, Rose Parade, and Rose Bowl game gets Edison’s priority treatment while a regular, working class city like Temple City freezes! What has happened to equal treatment? GLB

These Introductory Comments are copyrighted:
Copyright©2011 — Gerald Boerner — All Rights Reserved

[ 1403 Words ]

Quotations Related to Warfare:

“I feel impelled to speak today in a language that in a sense is new-one which I, who have spent so much of my life in the military profession, would have preferred never to use. That new language is the language of atomic warfare.”
— Dwight D. Eisenhower

“History has been the history of warfare.”
— Godfrey Reggio

“For a time during the early settlement of this country peace and goodwill prevailed, only to be followed later by violent and relentless warfare.”
— Nelson A. Miles

“But we must not, if we are loyal, disperse our energies in a partisan warfare that is waged without regard to its consequences to the well being, security, or honor of the country.”
— Bainbridge Colby

My Musings of the Day: Transforming Naval Warfare during World War II…

Yesterday we started our examination of American isolationism and shunning of the world community. The war with the Nazis was viewed as someone else’s war, and we had no business getting into it. After all, we were separated from Europe by the Atlantic Ocean. But President Franklin D. Roosevelt knew better. He knew that if Hitler managed to invade the English Islands, we would soon be the target of Nazi aggression. What’s more, he knew that the Japanese were mobilizing for war and that the United States would probably be one of its primary targets, especially our protectorates in Asia.

So, FDR managed to get the Lend-Lease Act to aid our future allies, the British and the Soviets. This act provided war ships, munitions and other materiel, and food and fuel to these allies in the years before we were brought into the war by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. But this was not an altruistic act on our part. Providing those supplies and the liberty ships that carried much of the payload put people back to work in this country. It was a extensive job creation program from which our economy benefitted. It also geared up our industry for the war production that would be needed after the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor! Oh, and it also helped get FDR re-elected to a third term as President of the United States…

But something even more consequential came out of our struggles at this time in history, 1941-1942. What was that, you ask? Naval operations were morphed from the dependence on huge Battleships like the Bismarck (Germany), the Hood (England), the Yamato (Japan) and the the Missouri (United States). These dreadnoughts were "a type of battleship armed with heavy-caliber guns in turrets" named after the 1906 British battleship the HMS Dreadnought. These "ships of the line" were the crown ships of most navies for the first forty years of the 20th century.

The battle between the Bismarck and the Hood captured the imagination during the early years of World War II. But the time of the battleship as the jewel of a navy’s crown were slipping by. They were easily detectable, costly, and not useful in most land battles like the war in Europe. Also, the submarine came into prominence as exemplified by the Battle of the Atlantic during the first years of World War II. But the real change came about through the increasing importance of aircraft — both heavy bombers and maneuverable fighter planes. In the European Theater, these were mostly land-based, but in the Pacific Theater the aircraft carrier became the launching platform for fighter planes.

The first real example of the power of these "flat tops" was demonstrated at Pearl Harbor, where hundreds of fighters (for air cover), torpedo planes (for attack on ships), and dive bombers (for both naval and ground targets) were launched on that fateful Sunday morning in December. These planes appeared over the hills surrounding the harbor and delivered a fateful blow to our U.S. Pacific fleet. Battleships were sunk off of Ford Island, planes were destroyed at Hickham Field, and much other destruction was delivered. This was an awesome display of air power on an enemy far from any home bases; the aircraft carrier, if you will, became the home base!

This changed the nature of World War II, not only in the Pacific Theater, but where ever they were deployed. Just imagine for a minute what the Battle of the Atlantic might have been if our Atlantic Fleet or the British Fleet had included several aircraft carriers and their complement of planes. The German submarine "Wolfpacks" would no longer have a "dead zone" in the middle of the North Atlantic in which to attack convoys with seeming immunity from detection and neutralization! The lives of so many men would have been saved. The cargo on those ships sunk in the North Atlantic would have gotten through to our allies in England and the Soviet Union. The German subs would have been effectively neutralized and, who knows, the War against the Nazis on the European continent might have been shortened.

But that did not happen. What did happen was that the nature of naval warfare was changed forever. Those aircraft carriers became the pre-eminent naval vessel with all others in the task forces built around the aircraft carriers, including the battleships, were support vessels. No longer were those monsters, the "ships of the line", the top dog. This has become even more obvious today where aircraft carriers can be positioned into any war zone and bring their air power to bear upon the current enemy.

I hope that you have had your eyes opened by these musings. Think about it. Read about it. It will give you an enhanced understanding of the world in which we live…

Photo of the Day:

I want to leave you with a photo that I hope will be as pleasing to you as it is to me. We have several Lily plants growing in our garden in the backyard and I found one with these three blooms standing alone. It was a bloom that gave me great serenity and the three flowers almost merging as one yields the symbolism of the Trinity and the Peace of God. That is a refreshing contrast to all the musings of war and naval forces in hostile action. Let’s take the time to meditate upon this day…