All The Factors of Victory by Thomas Wildenberg;

Author:Thomas Wildenberg;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lightning Source Inc. (Tier 3)
Published: 2018-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Langley shown at Pearl Harbor on 28 May 1928 with thirty-six planes on her crowded flight deck. National Archives

Arriving over Honolulu at daybreak, they made simulated attacks on Wheeler Field and the other Army installations, employing the strafing and light-bombing techniques they had perfected over the preceding months. Though the Army had been forewarned, the Navy pilots caught their Army contemporaries—in the words of Eugene Wilson—“flat on their backs in bed.”31

While the Langley was engaged in the exercises around Hawaii, the Lexington, which had arrived at San Diego three days before the Langley’s departure from North Island, remained on the West Coast for her acceptance trials. As soon as these had been completed, Reeves ordered the ship to Hawaii as quickly as possible so she could participate in the last part of the cruise. The ship made the 2,228-nautical-mile voyage from San Pedro, California, to Honolulu in seventy-two hours and thirty-four minutes, averaging a record-breaking 33.42 knots. Upon Lexington’s arrival, Reeves shifted his flag and the two squadrons of fighters that had been carried on Langley’s flight deck to the new carrier. This relieved the overcrowded accommodations on board the Langley and gave Reeves the opportunity to test out Lexington’s huge flight deck on the return voyage. Flight operations were conducted on a daily basis and included simulated dive-bombing attacks by Tomlinson’s VF-6 that simultaneously tested the effectiveness of the ship’s anti-aircraft guns along with the aerial tactics that could best be used to avoid them. At the end of the day, the squadron vied with VF-1 to see which could land on board in the shortest time. Continually pressing for more speed, Reeves was always ready to condemn a miscue or commend a smart action and was an inspiration to the pilots, who greatly admired their commander, whom they affectionately called the “old boy.”32

Before embarking on the Lexington, Reeves had worked out a detailed schedule for the summer concentration period set to begin on their return to San Diego. The Saratoga and the Lexington had brought three new squadrons with them when they arrived at San Diego, increasing the number of aircraft squadrons in operation on the West Coast to fourteen. One hundred and forty-four aircraft were expected to be stationed at North Island that summer. North Island, which the Navy begrudgingly shared with the Army’s Rockwell Field, would be so overcrowded that Reeves, in the interest of safety, found it necessary to transfer some of the squadrons’ tactical work to outlying fields.33

While VF-2 had been practicing in the fields around San Diego, VF-5, a newly constituted squadron of fighters on the East Coast, had been simultaneously experimenting with the same form of diving attack. In November 1927, the new squadron had taken part in the first light bombing exercise designed to test the accuracy of dive-bombing against a moving target. The excellent bombing scores obtained during this experimental practice showed the high degree of accuracy that could be obtained from the aerial maneuver then known as “the diving attack.

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