Primary Unpublished Sources
The early chapters have relied in large part upon Navy records held by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Prior research at the archives by Charles L. Keller and by Dr. Richard K. Smith was indispensable to this author’s own investigations and must be acknowledged. Most informative were the ZR files of Record Group 72, Bureau of Aeronautics General Correspondence, 1925–1942. Also helpful were materials in Record Group 80, Office of the Secretary of the Navy, 1926–1940. The operating logbooks of USS Los Angeles and USS Macon are in Record Group 24. Decades (1975–2008) of oral history research (audio interviews) provided salient, otherwise-unavailable information. The later chapters in particular are based on materials in the files of retired naval personnel. The papers of Capt. M. H. Eppes, USN (Ret.); Capt. Frederick N. Klein Jr., USN (Ret.); Lt. Eugene P. Moccia, USN (Ret.) (courtesy Mrs. Moccia); and Lt. Cdr. James M. Punderson, USN (Ret.), are the foundation for the latter part of the manuscript. Additional information from various personnel, augmented by one-to-one correspondence and one-on-one interviews, helped to round out the narrative.
The following individuals also shared personal files: Cdr. Walter D. Ashe, USN (Ret.); Mr. Clark L. Bunnell; Lt. Gordon M. Cousins, USN (Ret.); Dr. David C. Hazen; Mr. Douglas Leigh; Cdr. Charles A. Mills, USN (Ret.); Lt. Herbert R. Rowe, USN (Ret.); Lt. Cdr. Leonard E. Schellberg, USN (Ret.); Vice Adm. T. G. W. Settle, USN (Ret.); Cdr. Robert Shannon, USN (Ret.); Capt. Harold B. Van Gorder, USN (Ret.); Capt. Earl K. Van Swearingen, USN (Ret.), and Lt. Cdr. Richard W. Widdicombe, USN (Ret).
The private collection of Mr. James R. Shock was an important source. Materials from the matchless C. E. Rosendahl Collection at the University of Texas at Dallas and from the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library at Abilene, Kansas, were invaluable.
Letters and Statements
Rear Adm. Richard S. Andrews, USN (Ret.)
ADC William M. Bishop, USN (Ret.)
Rear Adm. Calvin M. Bolster, USN (Ret.) (statement; letters)
QM1C Theodore C. Brandes, USN (Ret.)
Capt. Alfred L. Cope, USN (Ret.)
Capt. Douglas L. Cordiner, USN (Ret.)
Capt. Howard N. Coulter, USN (Ret.)
Cdr. Richard E. Deal, USN (Ret.)
Capt. M. H. Eppes, USN (Ret.)
Mr. Winfield E. Fromm (statement)
Capt. Garland Fulton, USN (Ret.) (to Charles L. Keller)
Mr. Langdon H. Fulton
ADC Charles Gidrites, USN (Ret.)
Dr. David C. Hazen
Cdr. William J. Keim, (USN (Ret.)
Capt. Frederick N. Klein, Jr., USN (Ret.)
Cdr. Frank C. McCord, USN (to Mrs. McCord)
Cdr. Edward R. McMillan, USNR (Ret.)
Rear Adm. Harold B. Miller, USN (Ret.) (to Richard K. Smith)
Vice Adm. T. G. W. Settle, USN (Ret.)
Capt. Emmett J. Sullivan, USN (Ret.)
Capt. George F. Watson, USN (Ret.)
Reminiscences prepared for author
Rear Adm. Richard S. Andrews, USN (Ret.)
Cdr. Walter D. Ashe, USN (Ret.)
Rear Adm. Calvin M. Bolster, USN (Ret.)
AMCS Daniel E. Brady, USN (Ret.)
Mr. William W. Chapman
Capt. Howard N. Coulter, USN (Ret.)
Mr. Harold G. Dick
Mr. Walker C. Morrow
Cdr. John B. Rieker, USN (Ret.)
Cdr. Robert Shannon, USN (Ret.)
Capt. George F. Watson, USN (Ret.)
Taped (audio) interviews
Lt. Cdr. William A. Baker, USN (Ret.)
Capt. Ralph S. Barnaby, USN (Ret.)
Mr. Kurt F. Bauch
Capt. M. M. Bradley, USN (Ret.)
Mr. Clark L. Bunnell
Lt. Cdr. Wilmer H. Conover, USN (Ret.)
Mr. Melvin J. Cranmer
Capt. M. H. Eppes, USN (Ret.)
CPO Moody Erwin, USN (Ret.)
Mr. Thurman G. Hamilton
Mrs. Elsie C. Harwood
Cdr. Harry J. Huester, USN (Ret.)
Mr. Charles Kauffman
Capt. Frederick N. Klein, Jr., USN (Ret.)
Mr. Douglas Leigh
Lt. Cdr. William A. MacDonald, USN (Ret.)
CR Harley E. Manley, USN (Ret.)
Rear Adm. Harold B. Miller, USN (Ret.)
Cdr. Joseph P. Norfleet, USN (Ret.)
Lt. David F. Patzig, USN (Ret.)
Rear Adm. George E. Pierce, USN (Ret.)
Mr. Jack R. Poppele
Cdr. F. W. Reichelderfer, USN (Ret.)
ADC Erwin T. Reid, USN (Ret.)
Vice Adm. Charles E. Rosendahl, USN (Ret.) (interview notes)
Lt. Herbert R. Rowe, USN (Ret.)
Lt. Charles M. Ruth, USN (Ret.)
Lt. Cdr. Leonard E. Schellberg, USN (Ret.)
Rear Adm. Leroy C. Simpler, USN (Ret.)
Lt. Charles S. Solar, USN (Ret.)
Mr. Jerry Sprague
Lt. Cdr. Frederick J. Tobin, USN (Ret.)
Mr. Henry J. Tucker
Capt. Earl K. Van Swearingen, USN (Ret.)
Mr. F. W. von Meister
Mr. Frank Wainwright
Cdr. R. H. Ward, USN (Ret.)
Cdr. Richard W.Widdicombe, USN (Ret.)
Published Sources
Books
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———. The Story of the Airship. Akron, Ohio: Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., 1943.
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———. Forgotten Weapon: U.S. Navy Airships and the U-Boat War. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2009.
———. Arctic Mission: 90 North by Airship and Submarine. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2011.
Buchheim, Lothar-Günther. U-Boat War. Translated from the German by Gudie Lawaetz. Toronto, New York, and London: Bantam Books, 1979.
Danner, James F. The Zeppelin Dream. Privately published, 1979.
Dene, Shafto. Trail Blazing in the Skies. Akron, Ohio: Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., 1943.
Dick, Harold G., with Douglas H. Robinson. The Golden Age of the Great Passenger Airships: Graf Zeppelin & Hindenburg. Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1985.
Eckener, Hugo. My Zeppelins. Translated from the German by Douglas H. Robinson. London: Putnam & Co., Ltd., 1958.
Fries, Amos A., and Clarence J. West. Chemical Warfare. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1921.
Gallery, Rear Adm. Daniel V. Twenty Million Tons under the Sea. Chicago: Henry Regnery Co., 1956.
Gleason, Spencer. Moffett Field: From Lighter-Than-Air to Faster-Than-Sound. San Jose: Globe Printing Co., 1958.
Grossnick, Roy A., ed. Kite Balloons to Airships . . . The Navy’s Lighter-Than-Air Experience. Washington: Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Air Warfare) and the Commander, Naval Air Systems Command/U.S. Government Printing Office, 1987.
Keller, C. L. U.S.S. Shenandoah. West Roxbury, Mass.: World War I Aero Publishers, Inc., 1965.
King, Ernest J., and Walter Muir Whitehall. Fleet Admiral King: A Naval Record. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1952.
Kirschener, Edwin, J. The Zeppelin in the Atomic Age. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1957.
Knausel, Hans G. Zeppelin and the United States of America. Translated from the German by K. Elias. Friedrichshafen: Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH, 1976.
Litchfield, P. W., and Hugh Allen. Why? Why Has America No Rigid Airships? Cleveland: Corday & Gross Co., 1945.
Loewenheim, Francis L., Harold D. Langley, and Manfred Jonas, eds. Roosevelt and Churchill: Their Secret Wartime Correspondence. New York: Saturday Review Press/E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1975.
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Morrow, Walker C. The Metalclad Airship ZMC-2. Privately published, 1987.
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Robinson, Douglas H. The Zeppelin in Combat: A History of the German Naval Airship Division, 1912–1918. London: G. T. Foulis & Co., Ltd., 1962.
———. LZ 129 “Hindenburg.” New York: Area Publishing Co., Inc., 1964.
———. Giants in the Sky: A History of the Rigid Airship. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1973.
———, and Charles L. Keller. “Up Ship!”: U.S. Navy Rigid Airships, 1919–1935. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1982.
Rosendahl, Lt. Cdr. Charles E. Up Ship! New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1931.
———. What About the Airship? New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1938.
Seibel, Clifford W. Helium, Child of the Sun. Lawrence and London: University Press of Kansas, 1968.
Smith, Richard K. The Airships Akron and Macon, Flying Aircraft Carriers of the United States Navy. Annapolis: United States Naval Institute, 1965.
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Vaeth, J. Gordon. Graf Zeppelin: The Adventures of an Aerial Globetrotter. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1958.
———. Blimps and U-Boats: U.S. Navy Airships in the Battle of the Atlantic. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1992.
Van Fleet, Clarke, and William J. Armstrong, eds. United States Naval Aviation, 1910–1980. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1981.
Vissering, Harry. Zeppelin: The Story of a Great Achievement. Privately published, 1922.
Technical Publications and Other Documents
Anderson, Lt. J. B. “Air and Weather Conditions at Lakehurst on Thursday 25 August 1927.” Memorandum, Undated.
Bacon, Lt. Col. W. S. “Contributions from the Chemical Warfare Service, U.S.A.,” Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry 11, no. 6 (June 1919): 513–16.
Burgess, C. P. “Report on Visit to Naval Air Station, Sunnyvale, October 15–27, 1934,” Memorandum to Head of Airship Division, 1 November 1934. Garland Fulton Papers.
Fromm, Winfield E. “The Magnetic Airborne Detector,” Advances in Electronics 4 (1952): 257–99.
Fulton, Cdr. Garland, USN. Current Airship Problems. Daniel Guggenheim Airship Institute, Akron, Ohio, publication no. 1, 1933.
Goodyear Aircraft Corporation. United States Navy K-Type Airships Descriptive Specifications. Akron, March 1942; revised September 1942.
———. United States Navy K-Type Airships’ Pilot’s Manual. Akron, September 1942.
———. United States Navy L-Type Airships’ Pilot’s Manual. Akron, October 1943.
———. United States Navy G-Type Airships’ Descriptive Specifications. Akron, January 1944.
———. United States Navy M-Type Airships’ Pilot’s Manual. Akron, August 1944.
Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation. Operation Manual for USS Macon. 1933.
Hazen, Dr. David C. Recommendations for the Development of a ZPG-2 Airship as a Flying Wind Tunnel. Department of Aeronautical Engineering, Princeton University, March 1961.
———. Comments on the Meeting to Determine the Test Program for the Flying Wind Tunnel for the Fiscal Years 1961–62. Department of Aeronautical Engineering, Princeton University, 4 October 1961.
———. Comments on the First Six Months of Operation of the U.S. Navy Flying Wind Tunnel. Department of Aeronautical Engineering, Princeton University, 1 January 1962.
Klein, Capt. Frederick N., USN. “The Airship (Blimp) and Its Use in AEW.” Thesis (no. 1288) submitted to the faculty of the Air War College, March 1957.
Payne, Henry E., III, and Lt. Cdr. Frank R. Carter, USN. “The Navy’s Flying Wind Tunnel,” Aerospace Engineering 20, no. 3 (March 1961): 18–59.
Reichelderfer, Lt. F. W., USN. “Some Meteorological Encounters of the Shenandoah.” 4 December 1924 (author files).
Roland, Capt. Charles W., USN. Handling Rigid Airships on the Ground. Privately published, 1978.
Rosendahl, Vice Adm. C. E., USN. Report on the Lighter-Than-Air Situation. Made to the National Aeronautics Committee of the American Legion, New York City, 26 August 1947.
———. Statement by Vice Adm. C. E. Rosendahl, USN (Ret.), before Defense Subcommittee of House Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives, 24 May 1961.
Special Committee on Airships (Durand Committee). Report no. 2, Review and Analysis of Airship Design and Construction Past and Present, Appendix I. Stanford University Press, 1937.
Technological Capabilities Panel (Killian Panel). The Report to the President by the Technological Capabilities Panel of the Science Advisory Committee, Executive Office of the President, Office of Defense Mobilization, Washington, D.C. Vol. 1, Meeting the Threat of Surprise Attack. 14 February 1955. Dwight D. Eisenhower Library, Abilene, Kansas.
U.S. Department of the Navy. Notes on the Operation of Nonrigid Airships. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1920. Reproduced at NAS Lakehurst, New Jersey, 5 September 1939.
———. Flight Training Exercises. Fleet Airships Pacific Tactical Unit, NAAF Del Mar, California, August 1944.
———. Pilot’s Handbook for Navy Model ZP2K Airship. 15 June 1950.
———. Handbook, Maintenance Instructions for Navy Model ZPG-2W Airship. 1 December 1959.
———. Handbook, Airship Ground Handling Instructions. 15 November 1961.
U.S. Naval Air Station, Lakehurst, New Jersey. “Flights of USS Los Angeles.” 20 August 1934.
———. Report on Airship Rescue Operations, Fleet Airships Atlantic. Prepared by Fleet Airships Atlantic, September 1945.
———. “The History of U.S. Naval Air Station, Lakehurst, New Jersey.”
———. Statistical Summary of United States Fleet Airship Operations in World War II. Naval Airship Training and Experimental Command, 15 February 1946.
———. They Were Dependable: Airship Operation in World War II, 2nd. ed. Naval Airship Training and Experimental Command, July 1946.
———. “History of United States Naval Airships Since World War II.” Prepared by the Staff of Commander Fleet Airship Wing One, 1960.
———. “The Airborne Model Test Facility of the United States Navy: The Flying Wind Tunnel.” Airship Test and Development Department, August 1961.
Articles
Allen, Thomas B., and Norman Polmar. “The Silent Chase: Tracking Soviet Submarines.” New York Times Magazine, 1 January 1984, 13–17, 26–27.
Althoff, William F. “Nose-Stand of the USS Los Angeles,” American Aviation Historical Society Journal 2, no. 3 (fall 1977): 225–34.
———. “The Decommissioned USS Los Angeles, Part 1: 1932–1940,” American Aviation Historical Society Journal 23, no. 2 (summer 1978): 103–11.
———. “The Decommissioned USS Los Angeles Part II: Material Condition and Dismantling.” American Aviation Historical Society Journal 25, no. 1 (spring 1980): 29–41.
Althoff, William F., and Michael C. Miller, “The Lakehurst Naval Air Demonstration of 1924.” American Aviation Historical Society Journal 26, no. 1 (spring 1981): 34–52.
———. “NAS Lakehurst, 1921–1941 (A Photographic History),” American Aviation Historical Society Journal 27, no. 1 (spring 1982): 2–14.
———. “Balloon Training at NAS Lakehurst.” American Aviation Historical Society Journal 28, no. 1 (spring 1983): 2–18.
———. “NAS Lakehurst: The War Years (A Photographic History),” American Aviation Historical Society Journal 30, no. 2 (summer 1985): 140–51.
———. “Airships.” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, January 1988, 57–64.
———. “Eight Days over the Atlantic,” Naval History 18, no. 3 (June 2004): 54–57.
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Barnaby, Capt. R. S. “The Glider Flight from the Los Angeles.” U.S. Air Services 40, no. 3 (March 1955): 17–18.
Belke, Lt. (jg) T. J. “Roll of Drums.” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, April 1983, 58–64.
Burton, Walter E. “Who Said the Blimp Is All Through?” Popular Mechanics, November 1958, 98–101, 248–50.
Campbell, Lt. George W. “Five O’Clock, Off California.” Saturday Evening Post, 15 May 1937, 20–21, 122–27.
Cornelius, Cdr. George, USN. “Blimp on Radar Guard.” Flying 62, no. 3 (March 1958): 41, 67–69.
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Kreh, William. “Making of a Blimp Pilot.” Flying 62, no. 3 (March 1958): 40, 65–66.
Life. “The Hindenburg Makes Her Last Landing at Lakehurst.” 17 May 1937, 26–30.
———. “U.S. Government to Export Its First Helium for New German Zeppelin.” 31 January 1938, 23.
———. “Navy Blimps: They Can Spot and Sink Submarines.” 18 August 1941, 42–46.
———. “Probe in the Deep of Blimp Disaster.” 18 July 1960, 24–26.
Mackey, Capt. Donald M., USN. “An Overnight Free-Balloon Flight.” Buoyant Flight: The Bulletin of the Lighter-Than-Air Society 24, no. 3 (March–April 1977): 2–5.
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Pruett, John D. “Airplane Pilot Rides a Blimp.” Flying 59, no. 3 (September 1956): 52, 84–85.
Rogers, G. Sherburne. “Helium, the New Balloon Gas.” National Geographic 35, no. 5 (May 1919): 441–56.
Rosendahl, Vice Adm. Charles E., USN (Ret.). “The Role of the Airship in World War II.” Wingfoot Lighter-Than-Air Society Bulletin 14, no. 3 (January 1967): 2–6.
Settle, Lt. T. G. W., USN. “Winning a Balloon Race.” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, August 1929, 677–84.
———. “The Gordon Bennett Race, 1932.” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, April 1933, 521–25.
Sutherland, Mason. “Aboard a Blimp Hunting U-Boats.” National Geographic 84, no. 1 (July 1943): 79–96.
The Airship. “The World’s Largest Airship, USS Macon.” Vol. 1, no. 3 (Autumn 1934): 58–64.
———. “Advertising Airships: The Story of Douglas Leigh’s Advertising Airships.” Vol. 7, no. 3 (Spring 1948): 7–9.
Topping, A. D., ed., Wingfoot: Lighter-Than-Air Society Bulletin 13, no. 5 (March 1966): 5.
———. Buoyant Flight: The Bulletin of the Lighter-Than-Air Society 25, no. 3 (March–April 1978): 8.
Wood, Junius B. “Seeing America from the Shenandoah.” National Geographic 47, no. 1 (January 1925): 1–47.
Miscellaneous Publications and Documents
Baker, Lt. Cdr. William A., USN (Ret.). Personal notebook for the Airship Training School (Enlisted Men), Naval Air Station, Lakehurst, New Jersey, July–December 1931.
Eppes, Capt. M. H., USN (Ret.). Personal notebook for the Lighter-Than-Air Training Course (LTA Class XI), Naval Air Station, Lakehurst, New Jersey, September 1937–November 1938.
Goodyear Aircraft Corporation. “Sentinel for our Free World.” 1955.
———. “The ZPG-2W: A Long Range Airship for Airborne Early Warning.” 1955.
———. “Airships for Missile Transportation.” 1959.
Klein, Capt. Frederick N., Jr., USN (Ret.). Personal notebook for the Officers Ground School Course (Class L-19), Naval Air Station, Lakehurst, New Jersey, January–June 1942.
Lakehurst Naval Air Station Development Association. “Naval Air Station, Lakehurst, N.J.” April 1961.
Lust, John. Personal notebook for the Lighter-Than-Air Training School (Enlisted Men), Naval Air Station, Lakehurst, New Jersey, 1931.
Navy Relief Society, New Jersey Auxiliary, U.S. Naval Air Station, Lakehurst, New Jersey Souvenir Booklet, “Airships.” October 1928.
———. Souvenir Booklet, “Airships,” 2nd ed. Spring 1929.
———. Souvenir Booklet, “Airships-Transatlantic Transportation.” Summer 1936.
U.S. Naval Air Station, Lakehurst, New Jersey. Official Program, Naval Air Demonstration, 31 May 1924.
———. Yearbook, “NAS Lakehurst, 1953.”
———. Yearbook, “NAS Lakehurst, 1957.”
———. Yearbook, “NAS Lakehurst, 1960.”
———. Brochure, “Overhaul & Repair Department.” About 1960.
Newspapers
Akron Beacon Journal
Asbury Park Press
Elizabeth Daily Journal
Lakehurst Station Break
New Jersey Courier
New York American
New York Times
Philadelphia Inquirer
Philadelphia Record
Rochester Union & Advertiser
Sunday Mirror
Sunday News
Sunday Star-Ledger
The Airship
The Dirigible
The Ocean County Sun
The Sun News