the operational art of war iv default folder

Unlike rigid airships with a metal framework inside, such as Germany’s zeppelins, blimps consisted of little more than a gas-filled balloon, called an envelope, with a control car, or gondola, attached underneath. Most of the airships the Navy relied on for these purposes were blimps. Americans were on edge over possible Japanese attacks on the West Coast, so to watch for Japanese submarines, the Navy assembled a fleet of airships there, just as it did on the East Coast to patrol for German U-boats. had been at war for a little over eight months. The wreckage of the L-8 had barely been packed up and hauled away before newspapers gave the aircraft the nickname it carries to this day: the Ghost Blimp.Īt the time, the U.S. The L-8, photographed before its crew's mysterious disappearance Both pilots had somehow vanished from their ship. But they quickly discovered there was no one to save. Local fire crews left a blaze in the nearby hills to rush to the site, put out any flames and try to rescue the blimp’s crew. On board were two men: Lieutenant Ernest DeWitt Cody and Ensign Charles Ellis Adams.įive hours later, the L-8 crashed on a suburban street in nearby Daly City, California, scraping rooftops and dislodging power lines along the way. on August 16, 1942, the United States Navy blimp L-8 took off from a small airfield on Treasure Island, an artificial island built in San Francisco Bay for a recent world’s fair. It began as a routine surveillance mission in the early months of World War II and ended in a mystery that remains unsolved after eight decades.Īt about 6 a.m.

The operational art of war iv default folder