L8: The Ghost Blimp

Eastern Sea Frontier War Diary - The Submarine Situation June 1942

2013-10-29T10:32:00.002-04:00

I found this Eastern Sea Frontier report recently that discussed the state of submarine attacks and counter measures needed. The office worked out of 90 Church Street in Manhattan just around the corner from the picture below.

The light brown building on the left side in this picture was the Western Electric building where the NDRC/OSRD Division 15, Radar Countermeasures worked. It was also the first building to have a microwave communication transmitter/receiver, the other half sitting in an airfield in Mount Neshanic, New Jersey.
This building sits across from the new Freedom Tower. I was working in the building on the right until recently for about a year until my research uncovered that so much of my story was so close at hand.
The Tizzard Mission starts two blocks up and one down on Broadway not far from here.
The path between the Tower and work is blocked with construction and there is an over pass that allowed me to get up close to the Art Deco stone work in the NDRC building ( Verizon today ). It's been a year and a day since Sandy hit. When I was first able to get back into the City, the debris mark was chest high - I'm six feet two inches tall.

This was taken from the Irish Hunger Memorial, a small sloping park rising next to the Hudson River with transplanted grass, plants, stone, and a stone house - sans roof, from Ireland , commentating the migration of the Irish to America during the Famine, their rough road, and their contribution to the American story.

I wanted to send best wishes to those impacted by the weather in Europe, friends, family and strangers alike. Hold on, together, and you'll be get through it. Good luck and I'll keep you in my prayers.

Dark days will pass. They have before and they will again.

This report outlines the state of the submarine war in the Atlantic and the need to use any and all air craft - including lighter than air aircraft to patrol against enemy submarines. It was this need to detect enemy submarines that drove the NDRC scientists work. Ingenuity is driven by necessity to overcome adversity... but not always without cost. That is part of the story of the L-8 and L2/G1 that I've been trying to get across.

Mad, Radar and Blimps

2013-10-18T18:23:00.002-04:00

I've been going through my records refreshing my memory as I write. This project is so much bigger than I thought when I started it. It started as a simple little mystery to solve and maybe write an article outlining the mystery.

I found myself mesmerized by the few facts I could find, the lack of information, and annoyed by the here-say, flights of fancy, and the puzzle that lay in front of me to figure out.

By now you know I have suggested that I believe radar had some part in the story of the Ghostblimp.
I'd like to explain how I came and do it in traditional Otto fashion - with facts, not just because I say so and I'm emphatic or passionate about my theory or the topic.No name calling either to bully your argument to the masses either. Just the facts we have at hand, a logical review, and may the best argument win.

So let's get started.

Even before I found the L-8 folder I was looking for hints using the list of names I'd gathered. That would include the people involved as well as the places involved. I happened to be working at my day job running the computer infrastructure group for finance department a large insurance company at the time. I was going through the microfilm index for the Navy along withn the rest of the name list. The Navy records I scanned included the Fixed Asset records ( something you own that is not consumed, but is reused - a stove or frig, for example, as opposed to food stuffs, if we were using your house as an example ).
In the records I found that lots of equipment was sent to both the Farralones and Point Reyes. The Farralones I could understand and this did not bother me. I made note to explain what Point Reyes had that required electronics. Bookmark until later.

Then I started to find other brought up the idea. I had ordered the DOD record for Cody and Adams. It's a long story but the records for Adams came through first after a long and Herculean effort. Thinking about getting Cody's records still can cause a nervous twitch. His record is long and impressive but one bit I couldn't understand was that he had transferred from a group called the "rangefinders". Anyone into photography would have the image of a split prism view finder pop into their head. What's a rangefinder in the Navy and how does it fit into light-than-air. Range finders find the direction and location of things. Sometimes it a place you go to, sometime it's something you want to blow up. Bookmark that.

I found the L-8 folder and had some more facts and I could shed some light on the sequence of events that day. But with that I could eliminate the idea that the L-8 crew was taken by a Japanese sub crew since there were two sets of witnesses watching the investigation of the oil slick. The inquest also eliminated the idea that the crew "landed" in water since the recovery crew handling the refurbishment of the L-8 noted there was no water in the L-8, that the metal would have etched had it been sprayed with salt water, and that had it filed with water it was unlikely to have lifted that much weight, and that the secret document bag was intact ( the paper would have smudged and been wet, the bag filled with water, etc ).

Then I started to figure out who was involved in the Love 8 flight and the fact that they all came from Lakehurst, NJ. What are the chances that this was random? Unlikely.
So I set out to figure out what they did at Lakehurst and found connections to LORAN, and radar, and the NDRC.

I also found things like this:

This wasn't the first thing I found but it was one of the most impressive things I found. By that point I'd had some introduction into ASG and further investigation verified that the weight of the units ( as posted in the NDRC records ) matched the weight of one extra man and took about an hour to install.
The purpose of the device in the document above was to combine MAD and Radar to fine tune figuring out where potential targets were. Radar was good at finding things far away, but blimps were slow. MAD was fair at finding a local massive metal object underneath a blimp. The idea was to combine the two. In my mind I liken it to figuring out range and bearing in targeting. In the early 90's I worked on SOSUS at AT&T Federal Systems as a contractor.

I recently found some records before the goverment shutdown at NARA 2 that describe the situation and the need to develop the means to detect and effectively bomb U boats. One thing wasn't so apparent was how blimps targeted and bombed submarines versus how submarines but fundementaly this seems to have been an early attempt attempt at the same thing.

Pilots spotting an oil slick or some other sign of a submerged target dropped one or more flares to mark the spot. Then would then go and drop bombs ... on the spot. The idea that the sub has moved on seems to have been lost more often than not. Human nature saw something concrete to bomb and that became the target. Finding ways of calculating where to release the bomb through estimate or detection becomes a topic throughout the NDRC. Radar has also become a panacea for addressing so many issues. Range finding, detection, IFF, LORAN and so much more.

But there are problems also.

This is one of them. I bookmarked it. It would matter later when I would find another note in August saying that the coupling they developed used a plastic that was too soft. It sounds like it was a urethane or styrofoam foam consistency and the with bouncing the antenna didn't align any longer.
It was just after that that I started to see medical papers and questions in the NDRC/OSRC papers asking the question about the effects of radar of people.

There was also a lot of research into the reflective and non-reflective properties of radar materials, for a number of uses. Scientific papers included topics suggesting how much reflected energy might be thrown back from surfaces for example. Others were for how transparent some materials were, plastics used in domes for example, and how much or little energy reflected back.

I would also like to point out something that I think some people may be confused over. The difference between standard Navy SOP ( Standard Operating Procedure) and NDRC/OSRD test flights. The NDRC would use blimp as laboratory space and schedule time. Some flights might be part patrol, part testing, some solely missions.
Here's something I found recently from April 14, 1942:

The NDRC Lab mentioned is Fort Trumbull in New London, CT. Dr Gilbert, who died aboard the L-2 worked out that office. Anyone wanting to write about the war should read War Diaries. When I get a chance I will go back and read the War Diaries at random. The imagery is jaw dropping and anyone who wants to write a realistic WW2 scene of a sub attack should read the War Diaries.

For anyone still wondering about Radar and MAD on blimps here's something from South Weymouth, June 1942:

To understand the L-8 you'll need to make sure you understand that the NDRC was in charge of the development of war weapons. They were tactful ( usually ), but while funded by the Naval Research Lab, they reported directly to the President. It was to aswage feelings and make sure that the whole process worked that the NDRC was transformed into the OSRD, with the military taking a more visable role.Civian scientists versus soldiers. Men in charge don't like nerdy scientists dictating to them. and it was this "us" versus "them" attitude that I suspect leads to the mystery of what really happened.

Some questions I still have regarding the L-8 mystery I would have thought could have, should have, would have been answered in the Navy testimony.

The Army had a SCR radar unit at Fort Funston that would have tracked the L-8 flight and stored the path on radix. The testimony mentions it, yet the radix is never entered into the testimony.

A G-2 man is on-site at the crash site in Daly City and no one knows his name and it is never questioned or brought up further. If it was to secure the secret briefcase aboard the L-8 it would have bveen a non-sequitur to hide his name, etc. since they brought everyone else involved into the courtroom.

The point I'm making is that the story is not as simple as we imagine. The story will only be told when we gather as much information as we can and reflect on it logically. No self-confirming bias. No ego filled filtering. After all it's history, not Agatha Christie.

Have a great day. I'll be away again the beginning of next week but I may post a document I found that I found interesting. A special thank you to those who have written.

Otto

I Found the L2 G1 Jag Inquest Folder

2013-10-04T11:52:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to share that after many years of searching for the Judge Advocate Generals investigation into the collision of L-2 into the G-1 on the night of June 8th, 1942 off the coast of New Jersey. The crash as readers of this blog will recall involved testing a photoflash device that would be dropped into the water to illuminate enemy submarines.

The folder was mislaid all these and finding it has probably opened as many questions as it answered. But as I always say, "In God we trust, all others provide data", so fcats are a good thing.

The file was not in the index under anything sensible. I found it by giving a new research my elevator speech on the mystery I was trying to solve and the folder I was trying to locate. Impressing on her that I'd been bouncing back between NARA 1 and 2 for years, doing this search part-time, I'd found one other L-ship accident folder at NARA 1. I then gave her the names of the people involved in the L2-G1 accident and off she went.
An hour later she came back saying she'd located a folder referencing Frank Trotter, the commander of the G-1 and asked whether I'd like to have it submitted for the 3:30 pull.
Naturally I did as any item related to the L-8/L-2/G-1 are treasure for me.

I got the box just before 4:00pm and had until 4:30 to skim through the folders contained in the box and found the folder among the dozen in the box in a few minutes. It was misfiled under 1940 instead of 1942 and under one name instead as a case file.

Eureka! It did refer to Frank Trotter but it was actually the L-2/G-1 Inquest transcript folder!
I quickly photographed the contents oft he folder knowing I had to head back home to New Jersey. Later that evening at home I found that I didn't do that great a job and most of the photos were blurry, but I did have the numbers for the box. I went back this past Monday and in the few hours before the government shutdown I finished photographing the contents - twice - and read the contents a several times, mouth a gap.

I out the real story of what happened that night and somethings I'd found in other sources were right, others incorrect. I'll make sure the truth gets out there.

One thing I found is that Dr Wyse was on the L-2 with Cmdr. Clinton Rounds, burned and dies of helium anioxia, not Dr. Hoover. Dr. Hoover was on the G-1.
The G-1's gondola was entangled with the L-2 at the time of the collision and both fell into the water together. It was only after the Coast Guard Cutter 4344 attempted to move the blimps towards shore did the G-1 gondola detach. The gas bags were covering the gondolas and men attempted to dive and wade over the cover searching for the crash victims. The CG Cutter attached and attempted the move as a way of possibly uncovering the gondola and uncovering anyone underneath. They acted quickly and bravely, and that included two civilian scientists aboard the 4344. Ensign Fahey was in the water for a short period of time and not the hours that other sources reported. It appears that the crash was not the result of a premature explosion of Dr. Hoovers device but a collision in the dark, the L-2 running into the side of the G-1.

The inquest has also opened up one mystery I'll share. The L-2 apparently did not have any of Dr. Hoover's photoflash devices aboard it and was there to photograph the experiment with still and movie cameras pointed at the 4344 acting as the "enemy sub". After the crash, sitting it the water, the crew observed that there was a flash from the L-2. I'll need to figure out how Clinton Rounds and Dr. Wyse received burns over the back of their bodies. The inquest discusses whether gasoline fumes could have burned the men but the conclusion was that it would have caused more damage - cloths, hair, equipment, etc - would have showed signs of gasoline fumes blowing up.

I'm in mystery detectives heaven!

I'll trying to figure a way of posting the L-8 and L-2/G-1 Inquest online. Out of space. I also found some other things this last trip that make my case that my theory is correct.
More to come.

Otto

Drawing of Ensign Fahey's testimony about flight pattern of L-2 and G-1

MAD and Radar

2013-09-19T11:22:00.001-04:00

I'd like to share something that helped me see that I wasn't crazy once I started to gather bits and pieces that suggested there was more tothe L-8 story than the two men fell out of the blimp during a routine patrol.

I came across this letter in the records of the OSRD at the National Archives site at Waltham, Mass.
This letter from Division 14 was not the only suggestion looking to test the combination of MAD and radar.

The problem they were trying to solve early in the war was trying to find ways of locating submarines at a distance, coming in and dropping bombs. The problem was that visually sighting from aircraft was happenstance, radar was new and too big for airplanes, blimps were slow, and the military and the NDRC were desperate for any solutions they could find.
Engineering under pressure.

Here's one bit, but they suggested the same for blimps also.

The date is a few days before the L-8 accident but just a coincidence. They started putting radar on blimps earlier in 1942. It would have been 1941 but circumstances delayed that.

I'm posting this for a number of reasons. First, I think it's about time to give people an idea that I didn't just pull my theory out of the blue and it's based on documents. As I tell people my theory I get a number of looks - some bewildered, some "so sad Otto's gone over the edge..." , some "Otto's just plain missed the mark". I always hold that that I may have missed the mark. Arrogance is the researchers worst enemy.
But I have always treated this honestly and with hope.

As most of the people who read this blog , I've seen (and love ) the shows like "Band of Brothers", "The Pacific", and all the hundreds of movies and shows, and the soldiers, sailors, and flyers winning the war.
The role of the scientist in the war movie is the addled brain genius working on the atom bomb or the breaking Ultra. There are so many more stories and people that were forgotten. Guns, bombs, planes, ships, etc just don't invent themselves and show up on the battlefront.

We knew what would happen should we fail to defend ourselves.

This started out with some guy from Jersey trying to solve a mystery but it's turned into something bigger.

I'm not sure where it's headed just yet. Maybe it's just a distraction, maybe it's getting the word out that weapons don't engineer themselves, maybe it's making people realize that as a nation we're stronger when we work towards a goal and not let our differences tear at the foundation of the nation. When I read the letters, lab books, and telegrams of the NDRC/OSRD, I see a country at risk and a people determined to work the problem together. The people involved were from many disciplines - from brilliant scientists to people who painted -artists developing cammo - to those who did nothing more than have some trade valuable to teach something at the front.

I know this is a little preachy. Sorry. I was supposed to go to the National Archives and the Navy Yard last Monday. I wasn't up to it and decided to stay home the night before. My thoughts and prayers are with the workers at the Navy Yard who helped defend this nation, those who died and their families. The Navy Yard is one of those special places on the planet for me. It took me back in time when another set of people working behind the scenes, giving their lives, and using their brains and ingenuity, helped defend this nation.

Otto

To Serve Man

2013-08-10T16:31:00.001-04:00

If we bumped into each other on the street and told you about two guys who get on a blimp for a four hour flight only to disappear without a trace you'd think I was either nuts or telling you the plot to something I saw on TV. Well, at any rate the only the only thing I can guarantee is that I didn't see this on TV! There are days throughout this that I feel like some dime novel detective. Jim Hutton in the 1970's "Ellery Queen" television show most of the time, pacing around absentmindedly trying to piece all the bits of facts together into the timeline. The facts are all that matter

The L8 story was a mystery not because anyone was hiding anything but because of all the events that occurred during that period in history paled in comparison.

I've come to understand it's many stories. It's about how people act during dark times.It's about ingenuity. It's about courage under fire. It's a story of people who know about the value in self-sacrifice, inner strength, character and intelligence. Strength through unity while still allowing a broad diverse set of minds to explore and the discipline to know what was going turn the tide of the war. This was the real purpose of the NDRC and it's evolution into the OSRD. It was this self sacrifice that accounted to connections failing to be made. The civilian scientists in involved quickly realized that for the whole setup to work and be productive and show results, they knew they'd have take the ego of their military partners into consideration while developing and that they would need to appear to take a back seat to the men used to leading the charge.

It's so much more than just a freak accident. It's not just an unfathomable mystery. It's both strange and heroic. No dark government conspiracy theory. Nothing paranormal. Just a different spin on Shakespeare's As You Like It, "All the World's a Stage" monologue, but I think that the ages of man are more about good times and dark days. Humanity has had both and will continue to have both in varying degrees and all we can do is control how we react.

I was in Baltimore, Maryland last weekend working an angle on the L-8 research and came across a new picture of the L-8 just before it crashed at Daly City. Every time you think you think you have all that there is to know life has a way of reminding you it's all so much more complex than we all like to imagine.As far as I know no one has seen it widely since it was first published in the papers in 1942, and I've never seen this photo anywhere else. The quality isn't great but it's a sign of that there are always more to be found and life and mysteries are never that cut and dry. I was actually looking following another lead involving the British, the pre-war years and the involvement of the British Security Commission in the Tizzard Mission bring the 3 cm magnetron to America.


Baltimore Sun June 12, 1942 - taken from up the hill from it's final resting place.

About my theory of the events surrounding the disappearance of the L-8 crew. I think you can subscribe to two logical theories. The first is that one fell while trying to make some repair on the ship, falling to his death. The sudden loss of weight of the first man caused the blimp to suddenly upend causing the second to fall out the door. If you have been following this blog you'll have caught on to the connection between the L-8 mystery and the development of radar and other inventions by the NDRC/OSRD. The accidental death of the two men aboard occurred through a curious and random set of circumstances, some direct, some not.
Without getting into a bigger discussion on fate and God, I'll just say that there was no malice in any of what happened but that as with each of lives we live is the intersection of the set of events driven by random events circumstances, fate, man and God. It's an imperfect world we live in and the best we can hope for is that we find ways of getting through bad times intact and make our part of the puzzle better.

No one had any ill will in any of this. No one knows what will happen but much of what will happen is driven by the past and interactions of events we do not have any control over. The story is about the set of circumstances that lead to the accident. Perfection is not possible, but how we react to adversity is all we can control. The men aboard the L-8 did what they were supposed to do and through no direct fault they fell from the gondola that day due to side effects from experimental equipment aboard.

How did I come to that conclusion? It's the only way the facts fit and still have the events make sense.

The story told by the people familiar with the mystery tell bits and pieces. A lot of the story is wrong or missing important facts in different sources. Rift with confirmation bias, people see what details they need to make their personal theory work - and only what fits. From the start I made myself a promise that I would not fall into that mindset. Question everything honestly and openly even if it means your own disappointment.

Option One: They fell out into the water and their bodies were missed. The L-8, lightened by the weight of two men raised above the limit of the built-in safety value, opening it, and slowing releasing the helium and leaving the L-8 to the prevailing winds and it's final resting place.

Simple solution. Occam's Razor fans will go with that one, but it leaves too many unanswered details.

Solution Two.

At the inquest so many of the first people who took the stand were asked if they had seen any one aboard the L-8 or talking with the two pilots before the take-off. One after one they all said "No" until one man responded that he had seen indeed seen two civilians had been aboard the gondola with the pilots in the hour or so before the take-off of Love Eight. Who were they and what took an hour to discuss?

Realizing that the L-8 was intact and all the bits were working in the post crash check-out confused me. Reading the radio log I kept reading that the radio operator kept trying to raise the crew and commented that it sounded like someone was trying to respond. But the radio was working in the post checkout. Even the Baltimore Sun article that contained the picture above discusses that the radio was blaring when the first people arrived on the crash scene. What changed so that one minute the crew couldn't communicate but then the radio is just fine?

The L-8 normally had a crew of three aboard but that morning the mechanic who was on her was ordered off at the last minute because it was too heavy. Speculation suggested that maybe the fog and rain added extra weight, yet it only rained less than a tenth of an inch the whole month of August 1942. The fog that rolled in the day before was no heavier than that day so I had to explain why the L-8 was one person too heavy.

Lots of these types of points pop up when we replay the events of that day. They left me unsatisfied by the Solution One and so I kept digging looking to fill in the blanks until I had details and a story that fit together.

The fact that everyone important to the story of this accident on the other side of the country is from New Jersey - as understandable and flattering it is to a Jersey native - was statistically troubling. So why the disproportionate Jersey representation?

After I found the inquest records and eliminated that there was a surprise attack from a submarine or a rogue wave that washed the crew away, but that two sets of witnesses saw the L-8 heads back towards San Francisco under control, and one person reporting that they saw the L-8 approaching the Golden Gate Bridge yet the search was out in open ocean?
Was there any reason to think that they were out there?

As I was sat at the National Archives on Pennsylvania Ave in Washington one weekend going through the indexes for the Navy finance records during WW2, I came across another another important "hmmm.." moment. I should mention that as I start researching I keep a list of important names and locations handy. So as I was winding through the index records I was scanning for my names and places. The names that stood out were Reyes Point and the Farralone Islands. They both show up as having had electronic equipment deliveries. The Farralone entries were not a surprise but Reyes Point was a puzzle at that point I didn't find any reference to anything more than a geographic point used as part of the L-8 patrol route. What was at Reyes Point?

Well one thing lead to another and I discovered that Reyes Point was a Bell Labs site, that the Farralones, besides being a radio listening post, had a radar site on it. The connection between all the involvement of the men from New Jersey was an easy guess since blimps were involved.

As I started investigating the work that was done at Lakehurst and the surrounding area military sites I started with a number of trips to the National Archives as well as searching New Jersey newspapers looking for clues about what might have been going on at Lakehurst. I also started trying to get the DOD records for anyone involved I could find records for. I soon came across the L2/G-1 accident and it stood out enough to make it worth investigating for a connection. I quickly foun dthat the connection was that the L-8 was the replacement for the destroyed L-2.

I have been looking for the the L2/G-1 JAG inquest records, still as yet unsuccessfully, and I'm sure they would have helped get me where I am sooner, I found that the records of the NDRC/OSRD at NARA and NARA2 held bits and pieces of a story most people - even those very familiar with WW2 - ever knew.So much of what I read was familiar on the surface but I'd sit for days and read records, everything from technical works to personal letters, that filled in so much more detail to the stories. The word that comes to mind is "honesty". I don't mean that the stories we're told are lies but that they are often distillation of very complex stories. In an effort to make them digestible for the readership or maybe the limitation of the writer, the story is simplified.

A reader of this blog reminded me of just how far I travelled to unravel this story.

The last blog about Dumbo was from a source I don't recall, but it came from some where in my travels. Most likely NARA2, but I started going through notes trying to see if I could track down any written references to DUMBO 1 or 2 when I was still uncertain about radars role in the L-8 incident. I've been refreshing my memory lately.

Box 52B at Waltham, Mass. contains the photos of the equipment used in DUMBO 1 and 2 but it contained an important clue to reinforce the idea that radar was at fault. The mounting for the dish that transmitted-received the microwave energy of the radar unit contained a soft plastic material in the early models and it was too soft to hold up to bouncing around and the dishes quickly became misaligned and pointed askew when the radar operator thought they were pointed in the right direction.

Other boxes contained complaints about the mica windows in the TR tubes, the component that allows the radar antenna to both "send" and "listen". The windows would leak and let EMF energy through.

More boxes, different problems. Complaints from air fields from Ohio to Florida complaining about the problems radar caused with radio on planes with radar. Pilots were unable to use both at the same time and before they realized it many pilots were flying in without contacting the tower, low on fuel unable to wait and not realizing what the problem was.

The first units produced were hand crafted. Eventually they were manufactured in a more typical fashion but never quite so since radar was so secret, they never let any one set of people really see the whole thing. Radar was treated much the same way the atomic bomb was. The magnetrons built a few miles from my home in New Jersey. I was fortunate enough to have worked at Bell Labs in Whippany, NJ. In fact I spent the 80's and 90's working at Bell Labs throughout New Jersey as a contractor. Not a day goes by that I don't mourn it's passing.

In nearby Newark and Harrison, electronic sub-components were manufactured primarily at Westinghouse before they were sent to the primary contractor, Philco, for final assembly.

When radar was first developed blimps were chosen as the first choice for deployment since blimps could stay up for long periods of time, carry many people and become flying laboratories.

I was looking through records of the OSRD kept at Waltham; letters, telegrams, lab books. Anything that lead me to who might have been in California in August 1942 and why.

The super-klystron was developed at the University of California and arrangements were made to made for two scientists to fly out and test it. One was a scientist by the name of Bainbridge. I spent a week at waltham last year at Waltham reading through Bainbridge's lab books.At that point I didn't know who he was but I quickly saw the brilliance in the the works and drawings. Well almost. It turns out everyone has seen his work. Years later at Alamogordo, NM it was his finger that set off the first atomic blast on the trigger switch he designed.

In August of 1942 radar was in it's infancy and problematic. Lots of engineering and solutions to be figured out before it was ready for prime time but as the saying goes "time and tide wait for no man". The world is imperfect and we just do the best do with what we have.Airborne radar units took about an hour to install and the weight of one man. Hmmm.

Radar helped explain the radar interference problem. The weight issue. The batteries being drained between the time the engines stopped turning the generators and the final crash.

Roosevelt had made reference to the Japanese being a problem when he signed the creation of Treasure Island for use as the site of an upcoming Worlds Fair. The first thing you would note looking at the five versions of the speech is the evolution involving the spin involving the impending need to prepare for war.
Reviewing the blueprints for "world fair grounds" the first impression I had was that it looked like runways with building placed on top that could later be removed. It seemed well thought out and dual purpose.
The speech dedicating Treasure Island was given in 1938.

After all, everyone knew there was a storm coming.

Radar operates in the microwave range and we're all familiar with when happens when direct microwaves at matter with water in it. Like people. It heats things up.

The book "Radio-Frequency and ELF Electromagnetic Energies: A Handbook for Health Professionals" by R. Timothy Hitchcock and Robert M. Patterson from Wiley was very useful in helping figuring out what would happen if a radar unit was aboard the L-8. The book help me figure out what could happen to a man when exposed to levels of energy produced in early radar units. In this case, the unit could heat someone up to about 103 degrees Fahrenheit ( 40 degrees Celsius ), producing a fever high enough to make you pass out, or maybe do something reckless and dangerous enough to fall to your death. Thermal heating via radio waves was and is still in common use.

Microwave energy development was originally attempted in order to create a death ray. It proved impractical for reasons I won't go into here. Germany abandoned radar development because what they really wanted was a death ray capable of killing fields of troops at a distance and nothing so mundane as a way of detecting remote objects. Other countries dropped the idea of a death ray quickly but continued development of microwave energy based tools.

I have two working examples from the period. One was from St. Louis Worlds Fair exhibit that used microwaves beamed across a crowd at some ears of corn which would pop to the amazement of the crowd.
The other, not at all amusing, comes from Japan. The Japanese developed a prototype of the death ray, testing it on small animals and "dogs". This is not a political forum but I'll suggest anyone interested in this topic watch the History Channel episode on "Weird Axis Weapons" and research what the use of that word may mean. That suggestion comes with a big red warning label if you're squeamish as does reading the Hitchcock/Patterson book. It's not for everyone and I think most of you will understand that there is a suggestion that the Japanese tested their prototype on people.

Should the dish become misaligned and the energy from the antenna directed into the gondola towards the pilots, they would have started to feel strange but would not have been able to get word back via radio.
Switch off the unit, but the switch isn't working. Head home but you feel feverish and may even pass out.
Make bad fevered decisions. Fall out.
You can't understand what is happening and just like a burning building, jump out.

One man falls and the blimp, suddenly lighter, bounces up dramaticly at an odd angle throwing the second man out the now open door. The blimp rises to the height the emergency release value opens dropping down, the wind blowing the L-8 inland and into the headlines.

The hand of God or fate, you live, you die.

Otto

Dumbo - Radar tested on the front lines

2013-05-09T12:01:00.000-04:00

While I was working on writing the next installment of the L-8 I've been reviewing documents I found related to radar as part of the L-8 research. I'm working on the hardest part of the story to explain to people and I need to step away for it for a little while. A bus mans holiday.

I thought I'd take a break from writing the book to post something that I thought a lot of people might find interesting. It's not really related to the L-8 story other than it involved radar. In the beginning I wasn't sure where the trail would lead me so I used to photograph as much as I could. Over the years some of it suddenly jumped into place while other bits, though interesting, never connected to any part of the L-8 story.

The story of Dumbo. Not the Disney cartoon elephant though.

There were two missions that tested radar in planes on the front lines under the designated names of Dumbo 1 and Dumbo 2. The MIT Rad Lab assembled ten pre-production ASV radar units in early 1942 that were installed on B18's commanded by Colonel William C. Dolan. The missions would test the new radar units on the front lines. The benefit was as obvious as it was necessary.
The risk was that if a plane was hit the latest, greatest technology the Allies had would fall into the hands of the enemy. Worse yet would be if the plane were hit and crashed. The latest greatest technology the Allies had would be in the hands of the Axis. Worse still would be if the crew including Colonel Dolan, who knew everything about radar. Colonel Dolan had orders to pull a pin on an explosive device should he feel that the plane and it's secret cargo were in danger. The bomb would disintegrate the ASV unit as well as the plane and it's crew. The Colonel had an aide who was his driver and handled the mundane things the Colonel needed done. What the Colonel didn't realize was that the Sargent who acted as his aide was in reality a G-2 Major. His task was that if his mission was in danger of either the plane being shot down, he was to shoot the Colonel in head and pull the pin on the charge if the Colonel couldn't or wouldn't.

Dumbo was a success in May of 1942 and the rest is history.

Here are some of the documents that I found while going through the records of the Office of Scientific Research and Development at the National Archives at College Park, Maryland and Waltham, Massachusetts.

Preparation for Dumbo planes in Ireland

A telegram discussing the tresting and results of radar onboard British Liberators.

Meeting notes for the Microwave Committee November 1942 mentioning Colonel Dolan

Notes for a meeting of the Microwave Committee Nov 1942

..and then on the next page I see one of the bits that started me down the road of questioning the hazards that pilots were exposed to during the development of early radar. Microwaves, EMF, high voltage hazards.


Xray hazard

Well I'm reminded of why I do this. I really enjoy the research behind trying to understand what happened.
Hope you find this as interesting as I do.

and back to work....

Stop by soon for more on radar and it's role in WW2 and the story of the L-8
Comments are always welcome.

Otto

otto(at)ghostblimp.com

LORAN

2013-04-19T21:49:00.001-04:00

As I was saying, Radio Detection And Ranging or radar became the main focus of the war effort.

The story of radar development was done at MIT in Boston. Besides the detection of military aircraft and ships the other important use that was developed for radar was navigation. That's part of the "ranging" part of the acronym. Targeting distance as well as navigation using electronic signals.

The navigation system, LORAN, or Long Range Navigation, used timing of signals from known sources to determine the position of the the craft. This allowed a navigator to plot their course using a radar scope and prepared signal maps.

I found an article with a good description of LORAN in the Popular Science February 1946 issue.

http://books.google.com/books?id=2yADAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA78&dq=Popular+Science+magazine+LORAN&hl=en&sa=X&ei=O2xxUdrkNIO-9QTjvYCwBQ&ved=0CEAQ6AEwAQ#v=twopage&q&f=false

I have a sample plotting chart but because these records were mounted in book form at NARA, photographing some documents was not easy or fruitful. If I can find a clear copy of the plot using one of the charts I'll post an update. The magazine article has a useful sample though.

The work surrounding the development of LORAN was done at Lakehurst. The blimps K-1 and K-2 were initially used to develop and test the equipment. Test flights were taken down the coast to Maryland and up and over to Montauk, Long Island. Trips were made to Bermuda.

The K-1 or K-2 would have its windows painted black so no one could get a visual on where they were flying. To it's credit the first tests to Montauk from Lakehurst were never more than a quarter mile off target, verified by observers stationed along the route.

K-2 in the air

The significance of this would escape me for a while until another bit of the puzzle dropped into place. Most of the people who transferred from Lakehurst to the airfields around San Francisco for Lighter-Than-Air aircraft patrols were attached to the Rangefinders group at Lakehurst. When I had gotten copies the L-8's co-pilot, Charles Adams, Department of Defense records it while looking through his wide career and noticing a simple reference to the rangefinder group. Not knowing what they were it was this research that lead to radar.

From there I started noticing statements like this in documents:


Discomfort reported on aircraft with radar

A pattern started to form as I poured over boxes of documents.

Other descriptions made note of problems with the TR-box, on/off switches, and the mounting of radar componenets so they did not break, crack, separate or point in the wrong direction.
I also found similar letters complaining not only about the physical problems caused by being in proximity to radar but the effects that radar had on the radio units within the aircraft.

The electromagnetic energy generated are in the microwave range.

Next... "To Serve Man"...Twilight Zone fans will have a clue....

Otto

Commments and questions are always welcome: otto<at>ghostblimp.com

If you haven't visited http://ghostblimp.com please be sure and check it out.

05/10/2013 - update

I found these two pages reporting on LORAN testing while going through my research.
I thought I'd share it. It is located in the OSRD records at the National Archives at College Park, MD. Unfortunately it was bound in such a way that made it difficult to photograph but I think you'll get the gist.

Otto

Radar!

2013-04-11T16:54:00.001-04:00

Popular Science ad Oct 1945

I've been thinking how to introduce a very important aspect of the L8 mystery.

Radar.

Everyone is familiar with it. We all understand it's used to detect remote objects, bouncing an electronic signal off an object, the reflection showing up form and distance of the object in a scope of some sort.

That's just scratching the surface though. It was used for so much more.

Radar has been claimed as the invention of many people and many groups. I won't dispute any claims, but I will suggest that there is a difference between theoretical work and the invention and ingenuity. There are many great sources on the history of radar available in books and on-line articles. Names like Watson-Wyatt and Lord Beaverbrook will be part of the common histories. I'll leave the credit and timeline of events for the creation of radar to historians to argue over.

More important to the story of the L-8 are related to the evolution of radar into weapons of war.
The story surrounding the fate of the L8 crew involves radar I believe. More proof later but first an introduction into radar and some of the problems early units had.

Among the names you may recognize -but probably not - is Sir Henry Tizzard. You may want to Google or Wikipedia "Tizzard Mission". As with all parts of the story, there's a public view made up of smoke and mirrors to cover the back-story.

The war is raging in Europe and Britain is teetering on the brink of falling. They need American help if they are to stay alive.The Tizzard Mission was created by the Brits to try and negotiate an exchange of technology, weapons and supplies. In exchange they offered the Americans the best technology advancement they had... the 3 cm. Magnetron!

For those who may not understand the role of the magnetron and how radar works I'll attempt to give a short and hopefully lucid explanation for those who might not understand how it works and the range of its uses. The basic concept is that by producing high-frequency electromagnetic energy in the microwave range you can use that energy to do things like detect objects at great distances, navigation, or identification.
One of the point of contention I come across with the story of who developed radar is who first noticed the phenomena that electronic equipment was effected by signals bouncing off nearby ships. Scieitists from many nations make claim that they noticed the effect on some such piece of equiptment when a ship or airplane reflected back an energy beam. Like yelling in a canyon prodcues an echo, or thunder claps, one can measure distance by timing the sound that returns after bouncing off the canyon wall. If we have a louder signal like a whistle we can measure distance to farther objects reflecting the sound. I won't suggest any prize-winners here as it doesn't really matter.

What I will say is that at the heart of radar hardware is the device that generates the microwave energy that we bounce and time. That device is a magnetron. As a whistle is to sound, a magnetron is to microwaves.
The energy is used to paint a picture by "illuminating" a picture of reflected energy.
Many electronic devices for generating microwaves existed but they had the shortcoming of producing a frequency of 10cm. This impacts the granularity of the image. Think of the old days of dot-matrix pictures and the images you could print versus modern printers with fine granularity of pixels. The width of the energy that could bounce off a large object was too wide to be effective in painting a small object with energy. A wide brush that is fine for painting a Mark Rothko painting would be useless in painting a Manet painting. The "brush" determines the level of detail possible and so it is with the wavelength of the microwaves produced by the magnetron.

This makes early warning systems possible. Targeting systems. Other uses for that energy would also be used for navigation. If you have a receiver that can detect synchronized signals from three known locations and utilizing timing to determine distance you can locate your position on the planet.

A coded signal containing data could identify "friends and foes" in a sky full of aircraft buzzing about.
This and much more were now possible.

What we can say is that the British were responsible for the revolutionary 3 centimeter magnetron.
The fine brush needed to detect and draw aircraft sized objects, but they needed help in turning into a weapon of war before it was too late.

A car pulled up to the AT&T building on Broadway in lower Manhattan, New York City, June of 1940, and a group of men got out and the world would never be the same again. In that car was Sir Henry Tizzard and his entourage. They carried one of the most tightly guarded secrets with them - a 3 cm magnetron.

The group of men discussed setting up an exchange of information, the Norden bomb sight, hoping to trade their secret for our best invention and supplies. The bomb sight was the latest and greatest technology and the British thought this was the key to salvation. I don't think that anyone realized that salvation started with this meeting. The supplies they were after - food and critical goods - would allow them to survive and fight another day.

The result of those initial meetings was to create a group of scientists from Britain and America working in partnership.

Radar was developed by the NDRC, later known as the OSRD, or Office of Scientific Research and Development. MIT's Rad Lab in Boston was the center of that activity. Karl Compton was the head of Division 14 that dealt with radar development. Interesting tid-bit. Donald Trump's uncle John was the secretary ( what would now be called a Chief of Staff ). He must have been a remarkable person since his job would have been like herding a group of cats - and the cats all have an I.Q. of 175!

Radar components were built throughout the US. The magnetron that the British brought with them was first manufactured at Bell labs in Whippany, NJ. The circuits and cabinets were built in Newark at the old Westinghouse building. The building was torn down a few years back and now sits next to the Broad St train station in Newark, a pile of rubble. Radar sets were tested at Atlantic Highlands New Jersey. A house was rented there and the scientists tested using the nearby Staten Island Ferry which moved on a predictable schedule between Staten Island New York and lower Manhattan. The Staten Island Ferry was the first "enemy" target of the new improved radar. Philco in Pittsburgh, PA was the primary vendor for the OSRD contract and became the final assembly point once radar started regular manufacture. The first units that went into blimps starting in 1941 weighed about 250 pounds but by 1942 weighted about 150 pounds. About the weight of one man...

The units were hand made and problematic. On-off switches when on, but failed to turn off. The Transmit-Receive Tube responsible for energy transmission leaked through cracks in the mica windows. The TR tubes ( conduit really ) were rigid and gaps formed when the blimps were thrown to and fro during the regular flights.

Division 15 dealt with the Radar countermeasures. Jamming and tracking radar sources. They met around the corner at West St. The building still exists and is next to the new World Trade Center building one. For those who might visit New York the building is located at the PATH station at the base of the building. The old AT&T building is a right out of the entrance and one block over to Broadway next to the church.
The first informal meeting of Division 15 happened to be on December 7, 1941!

An interesting bit of trivia from Division 15 dealt with the design of the first radar jamming antenna. It went on ships since the equipment to produce the power was bigger than could be handled by blimps and saving ships was such a high priority. The head of NBC was a member and when the group started discussing the most likely design for the antenna they all thought would work best, he mentioned that NBC had just the right antenna. The men of Division 15 scrambled down to West St and loaded into two cars, driving uptown to the Empire State Building. The antenna mentioned was at the top of the Empire State Building transmitting radio for NBC. A copy of this became the first antenna used on ships to jam radar.

We're not done with this part of the story just yet... more than science came with the Tizzard Mission...

Otto

otto@ghostblimp.com

Gas Bags on Patrol

2013-02-26T18:25:00.000-05:00

No, no, no...it's not what you think.
It's the title of an article I found in the June 1943 Popular Mechanics on-line at Google books.

http://books.google.com/books?id=bNYDAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=twopage&q&f=false

The article "Gas Bags on Patrol" is primarily about the use of air ships for anti-submarine patroling. It does happen to end with the Ghostblimp mystery without mentioning too many details.
Not earth shattering but it was new.

The article describes the use of K ships is about the flying blimps and anti-submarine patrol activities.
I love the photographs and find the perspective of people at that time. I'm constantly amzed at how much information Popular Science and Popular Mechanics gave. I've read the 40's decade of Popular Science and I'm in 1943 in Popular Mechanics looking for new things like this.

It's easy for history and memory to change facts over time. Things get lost, memories romanticized. We are all susceptible to it, but articles like this can bring us back to reality.

I hope everyone enjoys the mystery and finds this information valuable.

As always I look forward to any comments about the L8.

   Otto

Science Goes to War

2013-01-17T20:41:00.000-05:00

Science Goes to War

The L-8 story pivots around the work of the National Defense Research Committee

(NDRC) and the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD).

The names will not be familiar to most, or if you do know you'll think they just

developed the A-bomb. They were so much more. A mixture of scientists and soldiers

 working together new technology they made the difference between victory and

defeat. The NDRC changed into OSRD when it became apparent that the way the

reporting structure worked originally was impractical.  Managed like a scientific

research group, military men might report to a civilian within the NDRC hierarchy.

Radar, in Division D, Section D-1 in the NDRC, later Division 14 in the OSRD,

had the nations experts working on developing practical radar starting in

June 1940. Radar development was relatively new so the average age of a senior

man might be in his 20's. The youngest was just 19. Military men within the

NDRC might be anyone up to and including Generals and Admirals.  The combination

of a 19 year old giving orders to an old soldier just didn't work well.

You can read about the origin of the NDRC/OSRD online at Wikipedia. I'll have

more to say about the NDRC/OSRD but my focus will remain mainly with devices

like MAD and radar. For anyone doing there own investigation the NDRC and OSRD are

 used interchangeably at times. The NDRC was rolled into the OSRD, and after

 it was dissolved in 1947, records were moved under the Office of Emergency

 Management. The new organizational structure addressed the problems of civilians

 managing military personnel by turning things around and giving balanced control

 to the military. The level of cooperation I've seen in the records and books I've

 read makes me so proud to be an American. It was our finest hour and it makes me

 more than a little sad that people don't know the stories of the OSRD.

Below is the  NDRC hierarchy as of June 1, I941, shortly before the reorganization

 of the Committee into the Office of Scientific Research and  Development from the

 book, “Organizing Scientific Research For War; The Administrative History of the

 Office of Scientific Research and Development” by Irvin Stewart. This is one

volume in the series, “Science in World War 2” from Little, Brown and Co.

originally printed  in 1948.

You'll see the the scientist, Charles Hoover, mentioned in my last posting

on the G-1 and L-2 collision is in charge of NDRC division titled Physical

 Chemical Problems, Oxygen Storage, section L-7.  Testing for oxygen storage

 using  live rounds occurred  in Boonton Township, New Jersey. The testing of

the flare occurred at Mountain Lakes, New Jersey.  For me a right or left out

of my driveway and a mile or so away from where I live. The location is not as

 random as just co-location of the two projects. Boonton Township was also home

 for Radio Frequency Labs and Air Radio Corp. ARC and the airfield developed the

 blind flying equipment for Jimmy Doolittle's groundbreaking flight by

 instrumentation only . Our town hall has a bust of General Doolittle and a

 plaque  commemorating one of the towns more famous residents. The airfield is

 where my kids learned to play soccer. Small world.

Other work performed nearby occurred in Boonton, New Jersey.

Unrelated the story per se, something called the Q-meter – a field meter used

in a number of devices to track radar signals back to their source. All within

a couple of miles from each other but the threads of NDRC/OSRD projects spans

the United States. One other Boonton related turn to the L-8 story is that the

wife of the co-pilot of the L-8, Charles Adams, married a woman from Boonton

while he was stationed at Lakehurst.  She passed away about eighteen months

after the  L-8 incident in Mountain View,CA.

The mix of skills gave me pause for the longest time. On the G-1 / L-2 the

scientists aboard were chemists, astronomers, a botanist, and  a sound expert

from Hollywood. What experimental device could have those disciplines in common? 
Dr Hoover dealing with oxygen storage and developing flares. Seemed like an odd

combination also.

I thought I had made some errors in research. 

It was only when I read broadly about the scope of the work the group was

involved in and the character of the people selected to work in the group

brought together by  Vannevar Bush. What they have in common is that they

are highly intelligent, lateral thinkers, with a focus on advancing technology

for the common cause. The same is true for the schools and businesses involved.

So much self sacrifice that occurred for the common good. The sense of hope

against all odds. Strength by pulling together. Victory at all costs, personal

and professional.

Companies did much of the work recovering costs. Civilians were paid at the rate

of pay at the company or school they worked for normally, even when they went into

combat areas. Many had their salaries paid by the same schools and companies,

donating the money to the war effort. The management team members drew  no

salary and were required to have sufficient means to assure they wouldn't be

influenced by financial gain.

The work of the OSRD spans the United States and the other nations including

Britain and Canada most notably. 
Well cover the work at MIT's RAD Lab at Boston, Massachusetts in subsequent

postings.

For now here is the OSRD organizational structure:


Division A (Armor and Ordnance) 
R. C. Tolman, Chairman 
Charles C. Lauritsen, Vice-Chairman (physicist, California Institute of Technology) 

    Section B (Structural Defense) 
      John E. Burchard, Chairman (architectural engineer, Massachusetts

                                    Institute of Technology) 

    Section H (Investigations on Propulsion) 
      C. N. Hickman, Chairman (physicist, Bell Telephone Laboratories)

    Section S (Terminal Ballistics) 
      H. D. Smyth, Chairman (physicist, Princeton University)
    
    Section T (Proximity Fuzes for Shells) 
                 M.A. Tuve, Chairman (physicist, Carnegie Institution of Washington)
     
    Section E (Fuzes and Guided Projectiles) 
      Alexander Ellett, Chairman (physicist, University of Iowa)
 
Division B (Bombs, Fuels, Gases, Chemical Problems) 
J. B Conant, Chairman 
   Roger Adams, Vice-Chairman (chemist, University of Illinois] 
   W K. Lewis, Vice-chairman (chemical engineer, M.LT.) 

Synthetic Problems 
   Roger Adams, Division Vice-Chairman
   
   Section A-I (Explosives) 
      G B Kisnakowsky, Vice-Chairman (chemist, Harvard University) 
                        
   Section A-2 (Synthetic Organics) 
      Roger Adams, Chairman 

   Section A-3 (Detection of Persistent Agents) 
      W. C. Johnson, Chairman (chemist, University of Chicago) 
   
   Section A-4 (Toxicity) 
      Roger Adams, Acting Chairman 

Physical Chemical Problems 
   W. K. Lewis, Division Vice-chairman 

   Section L-I (Aerosols) 
       W. H. Rodebush, Chairman (chemist, University of Illinois) 
   
   Section L-2 (Protective Coatings) 
       G. O. Curme, Jr, ., Chairman (chemist, Carbide and Carbon Chemicals Corp.) 
 
   Section L-3 (Special Inorganic Problems)                                                                      
      W. K. Lewis, Chairman 

   Section L-4 (Nitrocellulose) 
      W K Lewis, Chairman 

   Section L-5 (Paint Removers) 
       J. C. Elgm, Chairman (chemical engineer, Princeton University) 

   Section L-6 (Higher Oxides)
       W. K. Lewis, Chairman 

   Section L-7 (Oxygen Storage) 
       C. R.. Hoover, Chairman (chemist, Wesleyan University)

   Section L-8 (Gas Drying) 
       O. A. Hougen, Chairman (chemical engineer, University of Wisconsin) 

   Section L-9 (Metallurgical Problems) 
       A. E. White, Chairman (metallurgist, University of Michigan)

   Section L-10 (Exhaust Disposal) 
       W H MacAdams, Chairman (chemical engineer, M.I.T.)

   Section L-11 (Absorbents) 
       W. A Noyes, [r., Chairman (chemist, University of Rochester)

   Section L-12 (Oxygen for Airplanes) 
       E. F. DuBOIS, Chairman (physiologist, Cornell University)

   Section L-13 (Hydraulic Fluids) 
       G H. B DavIs, Chairman (chemical engineer, Standard Oil Development Co.) 

Miscellaneous Chemical Problems 
   Section C-I (Automotive Fuels; Special Problems) 
       T. Midgley, Chairman (chemist, Ethyl Gasoline Corp.)

   Section C-2 (Pyrotechnics) 
      G. B. Kistiakowsky, Vice-Chairman
 
   Section C-3 (Special Problems) 
      G. A Richter, Chairman (chemist) 

Division C (Communication and Transportation)
F. B. Jewett, Chairman 
C. B Jolliffie, Vice-Chairman (radio engineer, Radio Corporation of America) 
Hartley Rowe, Vice-Chairman (chief engineer, United Fruit Company)
R D. Booth, Vice-Chairman (electrical engineer, Jackson and Moreland) 
J.T. Tate, Vice-Chairman (physicist, University of Minnesota)

   Section C-I (Communications) 
      C.B. Jolliffe, Chairman

   Section C-2 (Transportation) 
      Hartley Rowe, Chairman 
                    
   Section C-3 (Mechanical and Electrical Equipment)
      R. D. Booth, Chairman 

   Section C-4 (Submarine Studies] 
      J. T. Tate, Chairman 

   Section C-5 (Sound Sources) 
      Harvey Fletcher, Chairman (physicist, Bell Telephone Laboratories) 

Division D (Detection, Controls, Instruments)
K T. Compton, Chairman 
A. L. Loomis, Vice-Chairman (physicist, Loomis Laboratories)

   Section D-I (Detection) 
      A. L. Loomis, Chairman 

   Section D-2 (Controls) 
      Warren Weaver, Chairman (mathematician, Rockefeller Foundation) 

   Section D-3 (Instruments) 
      G. R Hamson, Chairman (physicist, M.LT.)

   Section D-4 (Heat Radiation) 
      A. C. Bemis, Chairman (physicist, M.I.T.) 

Division E (Patents and Invention) 
        C. P. Coe, Chairman 

The Committee on Uranium, with L. J. Briggs, Director of the National 
Bureau of Standards, as Chairman, reported directly to the Chairman of NDRC. 


More on the OSRD, radar and the events surrounding the L-8 to come and a trip

across the Hudson.


                         Otto

Turning Point: Collision of the G1 and L-2

2012-12-31T19:44:00.000-05:00

Parachute jump practice from the G-1

Before the story turns to the L-8 it takes an interesting and critical turn at Lakehurst, New Jersey that was to lead to the L-8 mystery.

On the evening of June 8, 1942 the blimps L-2 and G-1 lift off from Lakehurst on an experimental mission. The blimps circled over a Coast Guard Cutter while dropping flash bombs into the water. They were testing photo flash bombs developed by Dr. Charles R. Hoover to be used to illuminate enemy submarines under the water so they would be visible from the air. The surface ship stood in as an enemy sub, the flash bombs dropped into the water would illuminate the outline for the observers. Different chemical combinations produced different colors of light and some were more effective than others.

The G-1 was commanded by veteran balloonist Frank Trotter. The L-2 was commanded by Clinton Rounds. Frank Trotter won many awards in ballooning before joining the Navy. One of his previous jobs was delivering mail to the Empire State Building by airship, dropping mail bundles while holding the ship steady over the upper deck.

Rounds invented a number of devices in his naval career.

Among the crew was the flash bombs inventor, Dr. Charles R. Hoover, NDRC/OSRD scientist from Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut. There are other scientists aboard but it is Dr. Hoovers invention that matters in the part of the story.

Both radar and sonar are developed at Bell Labs, Whippany NJ. The Mountain Lakes Testing Station ( Mountain Lakes, New Jersey ) was used to test the flash bomb before the sea trial that led to the accident.

Here is a picture of acoustical testing with a model submarine. Dr. Hoover is wearing the white hat.

Dr. Hoover at Mountain Lakes (NJ) Testing Station

The two blimps containing 13 passengers collided five miles off the New Jersey coast near Manasquan. They fell from about 500 feet into the ocean, killing all but one person. He survived by quickly jumping through a window in the gondola he was riding in, breaking his arm, and swimming until picked up by the Coast Guard some eight hours later.

Witnesses say that the L-2 suddenly veered from it's circular path crashing into the side of the G-1. The gondola of the G-1 detached and was sent crashing to the ocean where it quickly sank with all hands aboard. The balloonets of the L-2 were punctured and it sank quickly into the water. A flash was seen under the water. I have yet to locate the JAG investigation file so I'm taking this as hearsay just now although some secondary reports tend to corroborate the story.

The L-2 balloon bag kept it afloat and it washed up on the shore at Point Pleasant. The gondola of the G-1 settled on the bottom of the ocean.

Among the dead were four civilian scientists, including Dr Hoover.

June 8^th is the birthday of the Clinton Rounds wife. She celebrated with their six year old daughter, Camilla, because she wasn't sure when her husband would be home. Around the time he was dying she blew out the candles on her cake and went to bed not knowing she'd never see her husband alive again.

Rounds had been a survivor of the crash of the airship, Macon, which crashed in California in 1935.

Both these men actually survived the fall. But the gondola settled into the water, half submerged, while the air bag covered the gondola filling the the gondola with helium. The autopsy report for Cmdr Rounds shows that he died along with Dr Hoover from anoxia, suffocating when the air was displaced by the Helium. It also lists that he suffered third degree burns most likely by an accidental explosion of one of the flash bomb flares.

The newspaper account from the Asbury Park Press (New Jersey)

One G-1 L-2 newspaper account

The loss of the crews, Scientists, blimps and experiments aboard the L-2 and G-1 was a set back to the development of radar. Worse yet, it's publicly visible. Newspaper accounts mention the secret mission and potentially hazardous nature of the experimental mission the blimps were. Given the list of the dead, including the civilian scientists, it would be easy for spies to work out what was being done at Lakehurst and infiltrate.

The loss is quickly overshadowed by the war news about the Battle of Midway.

Staff is quickly shipped from Lakehurst to Moffett Field at San Francisco being developed as the West Coast NAS. This included the members of the Rangefinder group including Adams and Cody. Both were given promotions that allowed them to fly. Ensign A. Ulrich, who piloted the L-8 the day before the disappearance, had only been at Moffet for 3 days also coming from Lakehurst. He was the flight director for the mission and one of the first on the scene with the recovery crew.

Charles Adams had been awarded metals for bravery, saving people on the Hindenburg – Herman Goering sent a letter of thanks. He was also present at the loss of the Los Angeles and Macon. He served aboard the USS Henley during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

In Lt Cody's military records folder there is a copy of a telegram dated April 12^th, with the following line;” Request he be ordered to duty NAS Sunnyvale Moffett field services urgently needed.” A note in the file from June 5^th states “the Secretary of the Navy has determined that this employment on shore duty is required by the public interests.” The significance of who and what the rangefinders group was and what they did would be another clue to the solution of the mystery.

The L2 and G1 blimps were part of the fleet used as testing platforms for experiments conducted by the group of scientists who developed the weaponry for the war effort. Solving practical problems and developing advanced weapons. New techniques and efficient use of resources. The technology we take for granted today.

While most people will have images of bombers and atomic bombs as the most valuable weapons, they were really things like radar, sonar, proximity fuses, advances in air craft design, explosives and bombs.

Radar is one of the most guarded secrets rivaling that of the work surrounding the Manhattan Project and had to be guarded at all costs.

The Office of Scientific Research and Development; originally known as the National Defense Research Committee, under Vannevar Bush, was the heart of why the good guys won the war.

With the crash of the L2 and G-1, the newspapers headlines pointed out to every spy in America the secret work being performed at Lakehurst and with that the OSRD had to find a new home for the work.

Moffett Field San Francisco was that place. The replacement for the L-2 – the L-8 was assembled and shipped off. Instructors and equipment shifted westward from Lakehurst to California. Not all but enough to make sure any spies had to work to figure out what was being done where.

While the news had public stories about a western air training site being opened up, the real story was that development was shifting to the west coast. Moffet Field and Treasure Island would be used to continue the vital work of the OSRD.

This is from the cover of the OSRD year book detailing all the work the OSRD was responsible for during it's existance. Of all the things they could have put on the cover this is what they chose.


Graphic from OSRD report cover

Happy New Year.
More details in 2013!

Otto

All Roads Lead Home

2012-12-19T12:22:00.000-05:00

The next break in figuring out what happened came after I had found the L8 Judge Advocate Generals inquest documents at the National Archives in Washington DC. The boxes were cataloged as part of the collection on Pennsylvania Ave but they couldn’t locate them and insisted for the longest time that, by the nature of the contents, the boxes should have moved to the NARA 2 location in College Park, Maryland. College Park did not have them either but kept pointing back to the DC NARA location.

I spent many days and weekends searching catalogs and talking to the research assistants looking for some way of finding the boxes. I became a regular and was probably engaging enough, or maybe “enraging” is the right word, that the staff huddled to hear about the L8 mystery.

Finally an older gentleman remembered a couple of boxes no one knew anything about sitting in a remote corner. The clouds parted and I had the L-8 inquest records!

From that I had the blueprints for the Enterprise ( sorry Star Trek fans that's the L-5 ), used during the inquest as well as photos and transcripts of the testimony of events. weather maps, radio log transcripts, evidence of what happened.

Not hearsay. Not vague assumptions. Sequence of events and times.

Facts!
Names!
Places!

Names became the crib for the next breakthrough.
I’d gotten the public records for Cody and Adams from the Department of Defense. Another challenge involved getting the people handling the request to find records for the two men. Each time I sent a request with the birth place and date of death and explained the story of how these two men disappeared and were declared dead, I received a polite note saying these two men did not exist.

It was only after I tipped the scales and my persistence was more annoying than looking that I got word that they had found the records for Dewitt Cody. Cody's record came in the form of a two sheet letter listing his date of birth and a synopsis of his military record. Adam’s records were still MIA but after I gave them the service record number for Cody they were able to find Adams since the formers folder mentioned the latter’s. His record came after a long time in a thick envelope.

It contained paper treasure!

Armed with his information I re-requested Cody's record and this time was pleasantly surprised to get the whole set of contents of his public records.
Interesting tidbits came flowing out. Where they were born. Where they served.
Many interesting things about the two men. There careers and and an insight into who they were.
Adams was present at a number of air disasters. He was part of the ground crew present at the crash of the Hindenburg. He was at Pearl harbor on Dec 7th 1941. He was born in Pennsylvania, but married a woman from Boonton, NJ. I’d lived in Boonton for years and now live nearby. So the road for the story brings me close to home and includes a turning point in the story.

I tried to absorb as much of their lives as possible since I couldn’t tell what was important or not.
I ran off looking for more clues, a whirlwind of research, hunting for clues and evidence of what really happened to the crew of the L-8.

One important thing I did was start ordering the DOD records for all of the key people in the testimony.
Imagine my surprise when I find that one by one, everyone involved has come from New Jersey. Some months before but most within a few weeks or days.

It is at this point I realize that there’s more to the story than “they fell out” and it takes me home - quite literally, but more on that later - to New Jersey and Lakehurst..and another accident!

The incident of the L8 is the third and final act in a three act play. It lead me to understand a part of WW2 I never really knew existed.

The story behind the story is about brilliant people and heroes. It's about the tools used to win the war and how those tools were developed and changed the world. It's about the people from all over the planet who made that happen. And accidents happened - the L8 wasn’t the first and it wouldn’t be the last - and still the people who developed the technology to help win the war kept their hearts and minds on what mattered, in silence, thinking of the greater good.

The story isn’t really about an accident it’s about those noble and brilliant people all over the planet who saw or suffered the evil in the world and did something about without regard for gain, accolades, or stopping when death was staring them in the face. It showed me the good and noble in a world gone mad.Somewhere in there, there's a story that is relevant in these troubling times and what's really important.

I believe that you can judge a persons real character when it's dark, cold, wet, alone, under tension. Peoples true spirit will come out under those conditions and real character will show.

The story also involves "smoke and mirrors" that comes from the need to keep things secret. There are the things you can see and the things that are really going on. Everything has a public and secret side. Things are not necessarily what they seem taken at face value.

I’ll leave you with a something to look into before the next post. OSRD - Office of Scientific Research and Development.

Stay tuned and if you came to this blog through a web search engine, be sure to check out www.ghostblimp.com for documents and photos related to the L-8!

Otto

ps: I’d like to wish everyone a...

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Wesołych Świąt i Szczęśliwego Nowego Roku
Frohe Weihnachten und ein glückliches Neues Jahr
Joyeux Noël et une Bonne Année
메리 크리스마스와 새해 복 많이
Веселого Рождества и Счастливого Нового Года
Prettige Kerstdagen en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar
Feliz Nadal e un Feliz ano
クリスマスと新年のお喜びを申し上げます。
Buon Natale e un Felice Anno Nuovo
לעבעדיק ניטל און אַ מזל ניו יאָר
Feliz Navidad y un Feliz Año Nuevo
Срећан Божић и Срећна Нова Година
圣诞之际，祝你心中有首快乐的圣诞和新年快乐
عيد ميلاد سعيد وسنة جديدة سعيدة

Eureka!

2012-12-14T16:15:00.000-05:00

The mystery behind the L-8 is what was going on aboard the ship that lead to the crash and the mysterious disappearance of the two men inside the gondola of the L-8 suspended high above the Pacific.

I was able to make a breakthrough when I looked outside of the box.

The first breakthrough I made was when I started trying to understand the blimp program. Why travel from San Francisco Bay to the Farralones and up to Reyes Point and back again.
Protecting the Bay and the shipping would seem critical so that made sense but I went to the National Archives to figure out if the program records were there. I was still looking for the L-8 inquest records which were not where they should be. Unfortunately this scenario is all too common. Unable to locate those records I looked for clues to start with that might help figure out why Cody and Adams disappeared.

I spent months going through indexes looking for anything related to lighter than air aircraft, Navy programs, names involved in the story, and any of the locations.I kept lists of names handy just for the purpose of searches.

Lots of searches and little to no progress.
That is until I started looking at the account payable records for the Navy.
I was working for the finance department of a large insurance company at the time, running their computer technology group. I'm a computer geek by profession and the finance work was new and interesting to me so it just more or less popped into my head that finance records could offer up a clue. As Deep Throat of Woodward and Bernstein fame said, "Follow the money."

Then one day I came across the AP records for the Navy for equipment that was shipped to the Farralones. That seemed reasonable but with so few leads I stored it away in my notes. Then I came across records for shipments to Reyes Point.

I have a brother who lived in the area around San Francisco and I was remotely familiar with Reyes Point but only as a scenic area. What was Reyes Point that made it worth protecting via blimp patrol and who/what/where in Reyes Point would be getting a shipment of electronic goods?

The answer? Bell Labs!

I'd worked for Bell Labs as a consultant for many years here in New Jersey so I understood the scope of the work they did was broader than just phones. In fact I worked at AT&T Bel Labs Federal Systems on a Navy contract developing new sonar systems for submarines in the early 90's. Bell Labs was the best place to work and there isn't a day that goes by that I don't mourn its passing.

What could they be doing at Bell Labs and the Farralone Islands?
Curiouser and curiouser...

Please subscribe and leave some feedback.
Be sure and check out http://www.ghostblimp.com

Did Lt Cody Survive?

2012-12-09T10:38:00.000-05:00

Ernest Dewitt Cody and Charles Adams vanished without a trace on August 16, 1942.

It's a fundamental "fact" of the mystery surrounding the L8.Two men enter and viola, they disappear without a trace.

That is unless you read their DOD files and then you will have to reconsider whether that really was the case.

Ernest Dewitt Cody's wife, Helen, wrote the Bureau of Naval Personnel on August 22, 1947 to report that her mother had seen Lt. Cody, alive, but dazed and confused.

Gentlemen:

I am the widow ( now remarried ) of the above Naval Officer who was reported missing by your department on 17 August 1942, and officially reported deceased on 17 August 1943.

Lt. Cody was on a routine patrol flight in a lighter-than-air craft off the coast of San Francisco at the time he disappeared. The ship was based at Moffett Field, California, and crashed in Daly City, California, on 16 August 1942 with everything in flying order and intact, but no one aboard. As your department knows, no trace was found of Lt. Cody nor his co-pilot.

I wish to report that my mother says she saw Lt. Cody in Phoenix, Arizona, this past Spring, and that his eyes looked peculiar, as though he were suffering from shock, or a mental illness. To me it is possible that he might be alive, and be suffering from amnesia, or that a head injury may have caused loss of memory.

My mother did nothing to stop him due to the fact that I am remarried and have a child by this marriage, and she didn't want to "stir up" old memories. At the time I was living in New York City, but have since moved to Phoenix. That is her reason for telling me at this time and not at an earlier date. She was afraid I might see him and that it would be too great a shock. (She, herself, suffered a bad case of shock and was ill for a week afterward).

Merely to emphasize my belief in my mother -- she knew Lt. Cody well, loved him, and would not make a mistake any more than I, should I see him. Also, I have never hoped for his return because the Captain of the station told me not to -- that it would be better for me to face facts and start a new life. For that reason, I am asking your help in checking this clue, not for any whim of mine, but because I would like to see Lt. Cody reunited with his family if he is living.

Will you please check this matter?

Thank you very much.

Very truly yours,

Helen H. C. Delamater

If you have read or seen accounts of the L8 mystery, by now you might have a favorite theory about what went on surrounding the disappearance of the men aboard the gondola that morning, and theory in hand, might wonder if this fits the mold.

Did one fall out into the water, the other exiting safely at some other time?

Did both fall and was it possible that a person could survive a fall from the height of between 600 and 900 feet?

Does this mean that the men made land and this was why no bodies were found?

I had considered the idea that either one caused the other to fall to his death, intentionally or accidentally, and then walked off the L-8 when it first rolled into the beach near the Grand Highway, it's first contact with solid earth.

There were multiple witnesses that make this impossible. In fact, two witnesses were seen by another passerby who reported that the L-8 pilots were safe but had fallen into the water. It turns out that a passing librarian saw two men struggling with the deflating L-8 in the ocean surf. She assumed that the two men were the Navy officers trying to wrangle the L-8. She was the mysterious caller who said that the L-8 had crashed but the pilots were safe. A short time later a second call reported that the pilots were not present at the crash scene.

Had one or more people been aboard the L-8 at landfall these two men would have seen them.

So we can only conclude that the two men "left" before rolling over the beach and into the golf course where it would temporally sit.

So we come to the next question to consider. Can someone falling from a height of 600 to 900 feet survive the fall?

One established fact is that both parachutes were still aboard the L-8.

I found documents from that period that were used for training soldiers to jump. The minimum height to land was determined by the amount of time it took to open the parachute fully and decelerate to a rate where the person would survive. The minimum was roughly 575 feet. German soldiers were told that the minimum was about 100 feet lower.

My first thought was about human psychology. People will grasp at straws in the odd hope they'll survive even if the numbers don't add up. People will jump from a high building to get away from a fire. So I can't imagine if the blimp were going down or in distress that these two men -if they had time to think - would decide to jump without parachutes even if they were obviously too low. They were most likely high enough. So why not use the parachutes.

The obvious solution is that they didn't have time or they didn't chose to leave of their own accord.

They left too quickly or were unconscious to step into a parachute no matter how futile if they were that low.

That made me start wondering what height a person could fall from and survive. I found a fantastic paper on just that subject that described real instances of people who fell from planes, had parachutes that didn't open and other falls from heights that I would have assumed meant an automatic death sentence.

To my surprise people have fallen from planes flying at tens of thousands of feet and lived!

I'm not being flip when I say it's not the fall but the sudden stop that kills you!

It's the rate of deceleration that determines whether a person lives or dies.

It all comes down to physics and fate but it is possible that someone could fall from a blimp into the water and live. You'll recall that the two parachutes were still on board the L-8 when it was recovered. So if they fell it was sans parachute they could have survived.

I found a paper on incidents involving survivors of falls from great heights and one thing that they had in common was brain damage similar to what Cody's mother-in-law reported as his state of mind. Survivors suffered from similar symptoms.

This new piece of evidence gives us new avenues of speculation on what happened and the fate of the pilots.

This started out as such a simple mystery but I keep finding the trail leads in the most interesting directions.

Otto

L-8 blueprints - actually the Enterprise...

2012-07-08T12:08:00.000-04:00

I realized I hadn't posted the L-8 blueprints I found at the national Archives.
With the 70th anniversary coming up I thought it a nice memento. I had a digital copy made by the NARA staff. The original is too big to unfold and showing its age.

Be aware that the file is big.

https://14023b33-a-62cb3a1a-s-sites.googlegroups.com/site/ottolandproject/Home/21174_20.JPG?attachauth=ANoY7crznqGa2Onkh7yGDrNuI5MfExsDzT1xS_kO0FIAx7ueB8bX0Ha-LbSInD1-3Ak6PTRNh8U5QKEBSYMrGHH0SMWg-K8Hjt1B4killZL6p0NkV1LS3GZ6sJNngsm0GE1ik-hMye2CWCsO41lOEr4cXxG6GO_uUU2iO1-GYLvOYt2ryGH5iOa7g0mj_dWW-59RBKTxZul8dwRrhszsutp94etvd6fnz-aAx-bW6g1k_QGLuJzbQWw%3D&attredirects=0

See NARA site for rules surrounding proper citation. Otherwise gratis.

As far as the story goes, I'm working on it and it never fails to add twists and turns.
There are two solutions possible, one simple - one man fell out of the bouncing balloon when the door was left unsecured when the mechanic, Riley Hill, was ordered off. His testimony says he did not secure the door. A simple mistake.
The second man fell when, suddenly one person lighter, the balloon jutted at and odd angle and springing up tossed the second man out of the open door.

But let me just say that Occam's Razor aside, the simple surface story often covers deeper secrets.
The L-8 is one of those stories. Nothing is quite what it seems.

I was hoping to hear from the many lurkers out there. Any responses would be greatly appreciated.

One update. I just was looking at the blueprints and saw that they used the Enterprise blueprints for the inquest. A copy of this sits on the wall of my writing desk and I can't tell you how many times I've sat and stared at them and never noticed.

The lightened blimp without the weight of the crew had a valve that automatically opened at 2500 feet to prevent a fatal failure of the balloonets. This is what caused the air bag to defalte and finally fall into Daly City.

Otto

Parachutes

2012-01-01T13:20:00.000-05:00

Two men leave a blimp gondola hundreds of feet in the air. There are two parachutes on board.

Why are they still there on board the L-8 after the wreck is investigated? Why not use them if you find it necessary to leave the gondola?

Blimps were used for a number of scientific and military uses before and during the war. They made excellent platforms for working since they could stay up for long periods and hard room for small groups of workers. Blimps During the war, blimps were used for patrolling and heavy lifting. The K-series blimps, K-1 through 4 offered more room and lift than the L-series.

They were platforms used in the years leading up to the year, used by the military and organizations like the NDRC (National Defense research Committee), as a safe and reliable workspace.

But there were accidents even though precautions were taken. An inflatable raft and parachutes were provided on- board. Life-preserver vests, colloquially known as 'Mae West’s', named for the actress with a similar physical attribute that was produced by wearing the vest.

There are a few logic problems I think need to be reviewed if we're to come to a real conclusion to the mystery. Some of these involve the parachutes that were found untouched, on board the L-8 gondola after crews were sent to the crash site.

Parachute jumps from blimps were part of the standard training that crews went through. Should the crew need to leave the gondola in an emergency in the air, they would have been able to do so if the blimp was above 600 feet. Jumping at a lower height would not necessarily give the parachute enough time to deploy and have the envelope fill with air, slowing the jumpers descendent enough to survive the fall. German paratroopers were trained to jump at even lower altitudes – though I no statistics as to how the survival rates of the two groups compared!

My problem starts with the fact the parachutes are left untouched inside the ship.

If the crew were forced to leave the gondola lower than the minimum height that would assure a successful parachute jump, I think that human psychology would kick in and the crew would have donned the parachutes, even if for nothing other than comfort.

If the emergency was not going to cause an immediate crash of the blimp, the crew was trained to free balloon inside the gondola, dropping weight or releasing helium to control descent. They were a special breed of men who didn’t panic even under the most extreme circumstances. Quick, sure, independent thinkers, they were used to handling problems on their own. Each had gone through years of schooling. In the case of the co-pilot, Charles Adams, he had logged a huge amount of time aboard airships over the years. Both men were comfortable in stress-filled, life threatening situations. Adams was present at the attack on Pearl Harbor firing a deck gun at Japanese Zero fighter planes. He was also at the crash of the Hindenburg as part of the ground crew seen running towards the burning wreckage even before it completely settled on the air field.

With that type of hands on, combat proven experience, I find it hard to believe they died as a result of a panicky decision. Having read about their lives and the service records of the blimp pilots, it’s just not a likely scenario.

If the emergency required a man to go outside of the gondola, say for example, something became entangled in an engine mount or cowl that could become a bigger problem. While there were no harnesses, it would even be possible that they might put on the parachutes as a safety precaution. It may have been over-confidence on their part that they could handle the situation, working without a net. But these two men were heading home, nearing Treasure Island and help. Surely the radio calls would bring help.

It would also seem unlikely both men would leave the gondola to fix a problem outside of the gondola, and one falling accidently, taking the other to their death.

But let us consider physics and what may have happened. If one were outside, the other in with an open door, the sudden loss of weight would cause a bounce that may have dislodged the second man through the open door. A reasonable point I think.

But I would still be left with wondering what circumstances would not mean an immediate jump using the parachutes while they attempted to fix the problem.

I’m left with two possibilities. First, that they either were in a situation that left them unable to put on the parachutes and while doing so, one fell, causing the other to dislodge. The other possibility is that they jumped unable to help themselves, the autonomic response similar to people who jump from a burning building.

Curiouser and curiouser.

Otto

L-8: 70 Years of mystery

2011-12-31T21:24:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year!

2012 is the 70th anniversary of the disappearance of Cody and Adams aboard the L8. There is more to the story than just the L8 incident. There's a story underneath the story involving the war effort.

There are more people who died making sure we won the war and their story has never been told.

Stay tuned.

Hope all of you have a Happy New Year!

Otto

Why did the L-8 deflate?

2011-09-11T14:10:00.000-04:00

There are some questions that became apparent while I started researching the mystery of the L8 that became significant later on.

The first was why the blimp was deflating as in drifted towards the beach off the Great Highway.
Obviously, the loss of helium in the balloonets, but what caused the loss?

The possibilities include things like bullet holes, tears and punctures of the bag. This would be a reasonable first guess. Given the lack of evidence in the common understanding of the story details, it's also a likely one.

When I first started hunting for details, this was my working theory. After I found the L-8 inquest folder and digested the testimony, the premise quickly faded away. I had thought that the L-8, which should have had three people on-board, might have been over-weight due an already existing person being inside. In flight, the intruder surprised the crew and shot them, in the process puncturing the balloon. This theory actually seemed good when I read that in the weeks prior to the incident, a man was spotted breaking into hangers, leading to a running gun battle through the streets. Spies had a definite interest in what was happening at Moffett Field and Treasure Island, and so I thought a spy might have attempted to see what secrets could be gained by getting on the L-8 flight. That is it seemed possible until I visited the L-8 in Pensacola. There is no hiding space that would make this a practical consideration.

The L-8 was deflating when it came rolling across the beach, dropping onto the gold course south of San Francisco. This means whatever happened occurred at sea. This lead to another popular theory that the L-8, while investigating the oil-slick that may have been a possible submarine contact, and that the L-8 crew were attacked and over come by the crew of the enemy submarine. Also a valid working theory, until we read the testimony. The crews of the Albert Gallatin and Daisy Grey were watching the whole time as the L-8 circled the spot, up until it turned about-face and started to head back to Treasure Island, under control and normal operating condition. The only notable facts about this are that they would normally have continued onto the Farralone Islands during a normal trip. The second fact is that they dropped ballast when they turned back. They never came close to the surface of the ocean according to any of the witnesses -dispelling another theory that the crew may have been too close to the water and were sweep away by a wave. The metal used in the gondola would have showed etching if it came in contact with seawater and the repair crews reported there was no sign of seawater in or on the gondola.

The L-8 would pop up and return to air when one of he two 350 pound bombs attached tothe gondola was knocked off at the golf course. Still venting gas, it would come to it's final resting place in Daly City.

The answer of why helium was lost in the first place comes from the blueprints of the L-8 I found with the inquest testimony.

The L-8 and other blimps, were equipped with an automatic valve that opened when the blimp went to high and, since the bag would expand with the lower outside pressures the higher it went up, could potentially burst the balloon unless gas was vented. The L-8 was set to automatically vent at 2500 feet. This prevented a catastrophic failure of the balloon. The crews would be able to drift down slowly if the controls or crew were disabled.

You can see the vent in the picture of the L-8 as it floated above Daly City just before it's final crash.

So why did the balloon go higher than 2500 feet? The L-8 suddenly lost it's two crewman, and lightened by the weight of two men, suddenly popped higher into the sky. Rising above the 2500 feet limit, the valve opened as designed and started to cause the decent of the, now crew-less, L-8! The winds pushed the L-8 towards the beach and the more public part of the story.

Thanks for reading the blog, L-8 fans! More to come in the future. Stay tuned!

Otto

Board of Inquiry formed to investigate the L-8 crash

2011-06-11T01:06:00.000-04:00

The Board of Investigation is formed two days later day under

Commander Francis Connell, along with Commander Karl L. Lange, Lt.

Cmdr Volney C. Finch, and Lt J.G. Cuthbert B Currie as recorder.

George Finley Phillips Jr., Yeoman second class was the court

reporter.

Day One, Tuesday August 18, 1942

The Proceeding began at 10am. The recorder swore in the board members

and the senior member of the board swore I the reporter. The board

worked out how the proceedings work and decided on a closed hearing.

No one connected with the investigation was present. The board then

adjoined and assembled at the hangar, inspecting the salvaged parts

and equipment until they took recess at 11:25.

Reconvening at 1:30 in the Moffett Field board room, the board called

Lt. Cmdr George F. Watson, commanding officer of Airship Patrol

squadron ZP-32.

He gave a brief history of the history of the L-8.

“The L-8 was originally erected at Moffett Field on February 23,

1942, and was test flown by representatives of the Goodyear Aircraft

Company and was accepted by me for the Navy on March 5, 1942. The L-

8 had 1092.5 hours in flight up until the time of the accident. The

L-8 has been used principally on expeditionary bases at Treasure

Island, Watsonville, and Los Angeles. The greater part of her time

she had been at Treasure Island operating from an expeditionary mast

and being returned to Moffett Field only for inspection, maintenance

and overhaul work. The L-8 returned from Los Angeles to Moffett

Field August

A. & R. Department of the Naval Air Station, Moffett Field,

California, on August 12,1942, and was sent to Treasure Island to

operate from that point on August 13,1942, With Lieutenant Ernest

Cody as senior aviator in the squadron unit. We have experienced no

trouble with the L-8 beyond the minor upkeep requirements of an

airship operating from an expeditionary base. The ship has always

flown well and has a good reputation for flying well. On March 13,

1942, the L-8 underwent

successfully weathered te storm with only minor damage. The airship

was returned to Moffett Field under it’s own power, inspected and

such repairs as required were made. The principal damage to the ship

at that time was to the two propellers which struck the ground

during the storm, repair of which propellers was attempted but they

have yet not been since used. They are not the propellers used on

the ship now. Other than that, there was no damage of any

consequence to the ship. The L-8 was a new ship and unused at the

time of its original erection at Moffett Field, California. It was a

standard non-rigid type designated in the Navy as ZNN, commonly used

11, 1942 and was given it’s monthly inspection by the

a very severe storm while at the mast and

for training purposes but assigned to the squadron for observation

and short patrol purposes due to the lack of the larger patrol types

for assignment. The L-8 has a cubic gas content of 123,000 cubic

feet. It is powered by two Warner Super Scarab type 50 engines of

145 h.p. each. It carried two Mark 17 Aircraft depth bombs, it had

fuel capacity of 150 gallons, the fuel load depending upon the

mission and the current lift of the ship. The crew consisted of a

minimum of two people, one the command pilot. The ship frequently

carried an additional person during the middle-of-the-day flights

when it had super-heat. The ship was approximately 150 feet long and

approximately 47 at maximum diameter and was of a streamline shape.

It carried a 30-calibre aircraft machine gun which could be mounted

at the pilot’s discretion. Under normal conditions of loading, the

ship was required to make a statically heavy take-off. This was the

case on the take-off for the flight on the morning of August 16. The

normal consumption of fuel at cruising speeds was twelve (12)

gallons per hour and air speed of forty-three (43) knots.”

Lt. Currie then asked Lt Commander Watson to give a statement about

any information concerning the take-off and subsequent deflation and

landing.

“The airship L-8 departed from Treasure Island at 0603, Pacific War

Time, with Lieutenant Ernest D. Cody, U.S.N, command pilot and Ensign

(T) Charles E. Adams, U.S.N, attached to the Naval Air Station,

Moffett Field, California, as passenger for the normal patrol flight

101. The ship proceeded over the Golden Gate and headed Southwesterly

in the normal course for the assigned patrol. At 0738 (all times are

Pacific War Time ), the L-8, by radio, sent to the Wing Control, a

message “Position four (4) miles East of the Farallones—stand by”.

War Time was instituted by President Franklin in February 1942, and

equivalent to Daylight Savings Time, was meant to make better use of

daylight hours.

This message was received by the Wing Control. At 0742,the L-8 sent

a second message, “Am investigating suspicious oil slick—stand by”.

This message was received by the Wing Control. At approximately 0817,

Wing Control attempted to contact the L-8 by radio unsuccessfully.

From that time until 1120, when the ship was reported down, repeated

attempts by te Wing Control radio, by other aircraft on the same

circuit, and by the Treasure Island airship radio unit, were

unsuccessfully made to raise the L-8 by radio. These attempts were

intercepted by the squadron radio watch and I was informed of the

fact that the L-8 was out of radio communication at about 0820. This

caused me no particular concern or apprehension as to the safety

of the ship since weather conditions were satisfactory and I had

complete confidence in Lieutenant Cody’s being able to take care of

the situation. However, from this time on until about 1120, I was

in frequent telephone conversation with the Wing Control Officer,

Lieutenant Commander Dyson and the Wing Control Officer, Lieutenant

Commander Dartsch. None of us was apprehensive regarding the safety

of the crew or ship at this time since it was not far removed from

shore and was in a well-populated sea area. However, as a matter

of precaution, the Wing Control Officer directed any aircraft in

the same area who sighted the L-8, to report its position. This

message was sent out, I believe, some time between 0930 and 1000. At

approximately 1105, the Wing Control Officer called me and told me

that an Army P-38 had sighted the L-8 near Mile Rock.”

Mile Rock is a lighthouse/fog horn located one mile south of the main

shipping channel, and only about a half a mile from the closest land,

in the South Bay leading to the Golden Gate and San Francisco Bay,

and most importantly, home to Treasure Island.

Lieutenant Commander Watson’s testimony continued,” To digress for

a moment, the L-8, under normal conditions, would have landed at

Treasure Island at 1030, but since he was known to be inspecting

suspicious conditions and with plenty of fuel, we felt no concern

about his being slightly overdue. When I received the information he

was near Mile Rock I assumed he was proceeding to return to Treasure

Island. At this time we were preparing the TC-14 for a take-off to

search the area for the L-8. I ‘phoned the officer of the Deck of our

Treasure Island unit, Ensign Ulrich, and informed him that we had

received word

lookout and inform me when the ship crossed the Gate and that I would

hold the TC-14 for a few minutes, pending that word. At this time,

Ensign Ulrich informed me he had received word telephone from some

enlisted man that the L-8 was seen over land south of the City of San

Francisco in a misshapen condition.”

that the L-8 was near Mile Rock, and to keep a sharp

Lieutenant Currie, court reporter asked the time the enlisted mans

call came.

“It was about 1115, sir. This was the first report I had had that the

ship had actually been sighted over land and I immediately terminated

my conversation with Ensign Ulrich and received a call from the

Wing Control, informing me that they had a report that the ship had

landed at Fort Funston and that the two persons in the ship had

disembarked”.

Fort Funston is roughly five miles south of Mile Rock along the

coast, stationed with troops and gun placements during the World

Wars.

“I directed my Executive Officer to organize a salvage party under

the charge of Lieutenant R.J. Blair, U.S.N.R., to proceed to Fort

Funston to salvage the ship. Before the salvage party or I, myself,

could leave the station, we received a further report from Wing

Control that the ship had landed and deflated at 444 Belleview

Avenue, Daly City, California. I proceeded immediately for that

location as did Lieutenant Blair and the salvage party, leaving with

the impression that the men in the ship were at Fort Funston. I was

therefore somewhat surprised and disconcerted upon arrival at the

scene of the deflation not to find Lieutenant Cody and Ensign Adams

there. However, I was still under the impression they had disembarked

at Fort Funston and would arrive shortly. Lieutenant Blair and the

salvage party arrived at 1215. Upon arrival at the scene of the

deflation I found that Ensign Ulrich and Ensign Sprague had arrived

a few minutes earlier from Treasure Island.

gone into the car of the ship and as far as we know he was the first

person in the car after the final landing. Sprague tells me he found

both ignition switches on, the fuel valves to two of the fuel tanks

open to the engines, and the radio motor-generator still running.

Sprague turned the ignition switches off and turned off the radio

generator. We made no immediate attempt to ascertain the damage to

the ship although it was obvious that there was only minor damage

to the structural part of the ship and it was expected that the

Sprague had immediately bag would be severely torn as is the normal situation in a forced

landing of that nature. I then proceeded to call both my Executive

Officer at Moffett Field and Wing Control, to ascertain if there was

further information regarding the crew of the ship. Neither had any

information regarding the crew of the ship other than the rumor that

they were at Fort Funston and that no verification or denial had been

obtained up to that time. There were also present at the scene of

the accident an officer from Public Relations, Lieutenant Commander

Redlick, an officer from the District Intelligence Office whose name

I failed to obtain, and an Ensign from the Coast Guard from South San

Francisco Coast Guard Station.”

The TC-14 was assembled at Lakehurst in 1938 after the Army Air Corp

discontinued lighter than air support and the only two serviceable

airships, the TC-13 and TC-14, were transferred to the Navy. The TC-

13 went into service in 1940 at Moffett Field when a new balloon bag

became available. They were large, containing 350,000 cubic feet of

helium and at one time the largest blimps flying.

“I asked the Public Relation and Intelligence officers to please

keep me informed on any information they might obtain regarding the

location of the crew or the movements of the ship. Shortly thereafter

word was received from several sources that the ship had touched

in the vicinity of the Lakeside Country Club near the beach. The

starboard depth charge was missing from the ship, obviously having

been dislodged by a blow so that a search instituted to locae the

depth charge. This search was made under the direction of lieutenant

St. Claire, U.S.N., an Assistant Patrol Officer from San Francisco.

Lieutenant St. Claire had at his disposal approximately 40 men,

which force was supplemented by 40 men from the Naval Air Station,

Moffett Field, and about 50 men from the U.S. Army Post nearby. The

bomb was located at about 1500, near the spot where the ship had

first hit the ground. The bomb was taken into custody by an Army

Bomb Demolition Group and is still in their custody. I can get that

back anytime we want it. At this time several reports had come in

through various sources to indicate that the ship had definitely

hit on a beach near the Lakehurst Country Club, dislodging the bomb

and again taken to the air, making its only other contact with the

ground at the point of final descent. The most reliable information

(and since substantiated by several witnesses) was convincing that

no one was in the ship at the time it first touched the shore. I

immediately contacted Wing Control to find what steps were being

taken to institute a search at sea. I was informed that the airships

TC-13 and TC-14 were both in the area searching, and four OS2U planes

had been dispatched for special search in addition to all other

aircraft in that area directed to be alert and that the Commander

Patrol Force and Coast Guard were dispatching a number of surface

craft to join the search. Up until this time I had been convinced

tha the crew stayed with the ship until its first contact with shore

as this would be the expected procedure even though the engines had

failed previously. The salvage of the ship being about completed

about 1600, I proceeded to the Wing Control center at the Naval Air

Station, Alameda, as a central location to keep myself informed of

the progress of the searc and to be available to the Wing Commodore

if he desired me. I found that all steps possible were being taken to

make a thorough search both ashore and afloat and form the air with

all available craft and personnel. This search continued by aircraft

until darkness set in and the visibility and ceiling lowered to the

point where the aircraft could no longer assist. The surface search

was continued and augmented and is still continuing. The aircraft

search has been resumed during all periods when light, ceiling and

visibility permitted. A complete and thorough search was made over

all territory where there was any faint possibility that personnel

might be ashore. It was agreed that this search had been adequate

and complete and could be discontinued as an organized search at

sunset on August 17, 1942. Up until the present time we have had no

indication of when, where or why the personnel abandoned the ship.”

The recorder then asked,”Pehaps I overlooked it, but did we have

anything covering the orders for this flight? Are those issued by

you?

A. “The procedure followed in making flights from the outlying

bases, Treasure Island specifically, was that the senior aviator

would consult the local weather authorities at Treasure Island

and would obtain clearance there for the flight directly from

Wing Control. At the same time the squadron officer of the deck

at Moffett Field was directed to consult the local Aerological

Forecast Officer one-half hour prior to such flight and if,

for any reason, the flight was not considered advisable, to

notify me and to hold the airship on the ground. Otherwise, the

question of when to take off and the advisability of taking off

was left to the discretion of the senior aviator at Treasure

Island, as regulated by clearance of the Wing Control. The

weather conditions vary so much locally within the area that

it is frequently impracticable for us to tell at Moffett Field

whether it was advisable for him to fly to Treasure Island. He

had adequate means to obtain all weather information. We would

check him from here if necessary. He called to receive proper

clearance for the flight. The operational orders for the L-8 are

assigned by Wing Control daily, usually by phone, supplemented

by sufficient written information as is required for special

missions.”

Q. “What is the usual course of patrol of the L-8?”

A. “The L-8 was restricted to an area 50 miles in radius from

the Golden Gate. Its ordinary patrol was to proceed from the

Gate to the Farallones, to Reyes Point, to Montara, to the Gate

and repeat as often as practicable.”

Q. “What is the usual altitude of flight by the L-8?”

A. “The altitude was generally regulated by the ceiling. The

ship at the time had a pressure height altitude of approximately

2100 feet in order that it might climb on top of normal

overcast. The pressure height altitude of an airship is that

altitude to which the airship may rise without necessity of

valving helium. This is generally the regulating altitude for

operations, since it is not ordinarily desirable to valve helium

in flight.”

Q.“What would be the normal procedure if the engines of

comparable to the L-8 fail?”

A.”The accepted practice in any airship whose engines fail and

over which you lose dynamic control is to resort to static

a ship control or free ballooning. If the ship is statically light,

you must valve helium and regain static equilibrium and attain

constant altitude as quickly as possible. If the ship is

statically heavy, this means you must drop weight. Another

consideration is that it is necessary to keep pressure in the

ship in order that it may retain its shape and proper load

distribution. It may, therefore, be necessary to increase your

altitude in order to build up pressure from time to time.”

Q.”Was there any evidence when you saw the ship that the ship

was statically controlled at all?”

A.”No, nothing positive and nothing even convincing. The only

weight on the ship which might have been dropped was fuel from

the dump tank. We cannot be sure whether or not this was dumped

since the fuel from this tank was accidently valved during

the salvage operations. There, however, remained considerable

disposable weight in the ship which was not used. There was

additional fuel that could have been dropped and the depth

charges could have been dropped in an unarmed condition. The

various loose weights on the car could have been disposed of.”

Q.” In your opinion would the L-8 have been manageable as a free

balloon after the stoppage of both engines?”

A. Yes, sir. I consider this is definitely so and proved by

the fact that the L-8, even without a pilot, made a landing

which would not have killed its personnel had they remained with

the ship. Further, the fact there was considerable disposable

weight remaining in the ship would make it possible and even

desirable to continue the operation of the airship as free

ballooning, even though the engines had failed and this would

be the normal procedure. The fact that the ship had lost its

shape is due to the loss of pressure in the ship as in a non-

rigid ship of this type, the pressure is regulated in order

to keep its shape, there being no structure contained inside

the bag for that purpose and while the loss of shape created a

somewhat dangerous situation in that it throws the load of the

car and its equipment into concentrated points rather than the

proper distribution through the top of the bag when the ship

is in its normal shape, it is usually considered possible to

fly the non-rigid airships as free balloons, for considerable

periods of time, even though it be at atmospheric pressure and

the bag considerably misshapen. The indications are that the

airship had not lost a considerable amount of helium during this

flight although it is my opinion that at some times it went over

pressure height and some helium was valved causing its first

known descent at the beach.”

Q.”In your opinion would the release of the two depth bombs have

adequately compensated for the presumed loss of helium and have

permitted continued free ballooning with the two crew members

aboard?”

A.”Yes, sir. It is my opinion that the ship have been near

equilibrium at 0730—its last reported position—due to the

expenditure of fuel and the heating caused by the rising sun

and that any remaining heaviness could have been compensated

for easily by valving fuel from the dump tank. This would have

have been a better and more reasonable method since this fuel

could be dropped in regulated amounts. The dropping of a 325-

pound weight from a ship this size would have likely caused the

ship to rise rapidly and would have complicated the problem of

getting the ship into static equilibrium.”

Q.”Did inspection following salvage indicate whether or not the

depth charges could have been released in flight?”

A. “The starboard depth charge rack, as previously described,

had been distorted and the depth charge torn away forceably on

the first contact with the beach. The port depth charge was in

place and was removed by operation of the bomb release which

functioned in normal fashion.”

Q. “Who has custody of the radio and ship logs of te L-8?”

A. “I have these documents in my custody. Here they are. These

logs were found in the L-8 after its final landing and wre

delivered to me intact as I now present them.”

Photostatic copies of cover of the L-8’s ship log and pages for

flight 112 and flight of August 16, 1942, are attached hereto

and marked “Exhibit 1”. Photostatic copies of cover of the L-

8’s radio log and two pages from this log for flight 112 are

attached hereto and marked “Exhibit 2”.

Q. “From the reports you have received, could you express an

opinion as to the course of the ship during any period of time

from departure until it deflated and lande in Daly City?”

A. “Yes, we have reports indicating that the ship proceeded

directly from the Golden Gate to the point four miles East

of the Farallones as its reported position at 0738. The ship

was next sighted by Pan American Clipper pilot Richards, who

reported sighting the L-8 at 1049. The clipper reported “Over

the Golden Gate Bridge. The pilot reported henotced nothng

obviously wrong with the ship at that time.

I have previously stated tat the Army P-38 airplane reported

this ship near Mile Rock at 1053. It appears that this position

was only quite approximate. At about 1100, Navy OS2U airplane

reported the L-8 at a position three miles West of Salada Beach.

This was only an approximate position. The pilot of the Navy

plane stated he saw the ship rise through the overcast at about

2000 feet and then shortly thereafter descend and nothing in

the ship’s actions at that time indicated to him that the ship

was not in controlled flight. These are the only additional

reports that we have which have any flavor of authenticity and

the position of the ship between 0743 and 1049 has not been

established. We have inquired to obtain any records made by the

Army radex station which might give further indication of the

ship’s movements during the intervening period. Those records

have not yet been received. Further requests have been made

to the Port Director, Coast Guard authorities at the Harbor

Entrance Control Post, asking that they make inquiry from all

surface craft who might have been in that area during this time.

No reports have been received from these sources up to the

present.”

16. Q. Do you know the static condition of the ship on the

particular morning in question?

A. It was reported to me by Ensign Ulrich, who was in charge

of the ground party, that the ship was 200 pounds statically

heavy at the take-off on the morning of August 16. This is well

within the limits which we have established for the L-type ship

as a static heaviness of 600 pounds is allowed when conditions

require.

Two hundred pounds too heavy, though up to six hundred was

acceptable. The mechanic, James Hill, was ordered off at the

last moment because the blimp was too heavy. A misunderstanding

seems odd given the experience of the men flying the L-8. What

accounts for the extra two hundred pounds? Is has been proposed

that rain or fog saturated the fabric accounting for the extra

weight. Looking at the weather data for August 1942, it only

rained about 1/10th of an inch that entire month, and there

was no rain that week. While San Francisco morning fog may add

weight, I would be puzzled why it would differ from day to day?

Ensign Ulrich’s flights the prior day were exposed to the same

elements, heated by the afternoon sun, and carried three men.

This puzzled me? Who or what accounted for the extra two hundred

pounds?

I had not visited the L-8 at Pensacola yet, and started to

consider possible answers to this question that might also

answer what transpired onboard to make two men vanish.

The most obvious thing to consider was that someone was hiding

aboard already, and this intruder then sprang out, shot the

pilots, dumped their bodies overboard and randevous with

a submarine and escaping. I had read of an article in the

Oakland Bee about an incident at Treasure Island a couple of

weeks before. The guard heard the sound of breaking glass and

investigating, found a man dressed in black attempting to get

into the hangars at Treasure Island. Shots were exchanged

between the two men while running down the street. The man got

away, but it was clear that someone thought there was something

worth the risk in the buildings at Treasure Island. Obviously

enemy spies were around military sites, and Treasure Island was

the take-off point for the patrol flights as well as a military

base for Navy personnel. Moffett field was the west coast

training center for lighter than air crews, including Treasure

Island, so I wasn’t sure what was worth risking a forced entry.

I spent a lot of time investigating which countries spies,

Japan or Germany, might have had enough reason to break into a

training center that they couldn’t trick or steal to satisfy,

other than sabotage. The man was carrying anything and didn’t

drop anything, so I would have to assume he was there to take

something, since sabotage would require some type of tools and I

doubt that someone would assume they could find tools along the

way. I entertained the idea that the man was attempting to sneak

on board a flight in order to kill the crew and capture any code

books or cryptographic devices carried on missions.

After visiting the gondola at Pensacola, I realized how small

the cabin was and while there was a machine “room” ( really a

small closet ), there is no real way of hiding on or above the

gondola without being seen. So I having learned about the break-

in , I was still left with the question about where the extra

two hundred pounds came from.

The inquest testimony then investigated what was on the L-8.

17. Q. What armament was aboard the L-8 on the morning of August

16, 1942?

A. The ship was loaded with two Mark 17 MCD. 1 aircraft depth

charges, weight 325 pounds each, one 30-calibre free aircraft

machine gun, weight 31 pounds and 300 rounds

weight 25 ½ pounds.

18. Q. What disposable ballast was aboard the L-8 when she took

off on August 16?

A. The most readily disposable ballast was the 50 gallons of

gas in the dump tank representing a weight of 300 pounds, and

this was the normal method of lightening ship when required.

The next most readily disposable weight was the depth charges,

each weighing 325 pounds and which could be safely dropped in

the unarmed condition. Other weights—the machine gun could be

used for ballast, also the battery, particularly after becoming

exhausted, is considered ready ballast—chairs, radio equipment

and even parachutes may be used when circumstances dictate.

19. Q. What emergency equipment was aboard the ship at the time

of the take-off?

A. The ship was equipped with three QAC parachutes. The ship

was also equipped with three standard parachute harnesses

for these parachutes. The ship also was equipped with three

standard inflatable life belts which were usually donned by the

crew—one for each—before leaving the shore line. The ship was

equipped with a four-man inflatable rubber boat. The ship also

of ammunition,

carried a Very pistol with ammunition, a signal light, a loud-

speaking horn, in addition to its radio equipment, and a reserve

lubricating oil supply. The emergency rations were not normally

carried in these small ships since they wee usually operating

over congested areas. A small tool kit and a standard Navy

first-aid box were carried.

20. Q. What, if any, of this equipment you just listed was

missing at the time the ship landed at Daly City on Sunday

August 16?

A. The only items which did not remain in the ship were two of

the life preserves which were assumed to be worn by the two

officers in the ship. The parachutes and harnesses, life boats

and other items of equipment were found intact and unused in

their normal locations in the ship.

21. Q. Were all the tools in the tool kit?

A. I am not positive. This information, I believe, can be more

positively given by Ensign Sprague, who is Squadron Assistant

Engineer and who made the first inspection of the car and I

am sure will know what tools were carried and what what tools

remained.

Lighter than air crews were trained to jump from as low as 500

feet in the United States military. German aircrews at about

375 feet, but I have not found out the survival statistics, to

say the differences were worth the attempt. I wondered why the

crew, during an in-flight emergency, would have attempted to

jump without parachutes. Even if under the 500 (or 375 feet)

height that would have been required for a successful attempt, I

think that anyone would have a parachute on even if the numbers

didn’t guareentee success.

getting the parachutes on and jumping? I wondered why, even if

to low to guarantee a successful jump, human psychology would

grasp at straws that might be at hand. The same goes for an

attempt to escape into the ocean in the boat if the gondola was

within an easy height over the water to make it into the boat.

If parachutes or boats were available why not use them if you

can.

The only conclusion that can be drawn is that they were not in

any condition to use those devices.

The inquest questioning then turned to the condition of the L-8

when Naval personnel and rescue teams arrived on the scene.

What would prevent the pilots from

27. Q. What was the condition of the L-8 at the time you arrived

at the scene of the ship where it landed in the street?

A. The gas bag was completely deflated. The car was resting

on its stern end approxiamately 60 degrees inclined up. The

starboard engine had struck the ground at some point and there

was a considerable amount of dirt and leaves stuck inside of the

cowling and between the cylinders. The starboard depth charge

was missing with the starboard depth charge rack dished inand

the handling rail in the way of the starboard depth charge

considerably dished in. A small deflection in the longeron

opposite this point. The starboard propeller seemed to be

completely undamaged. The port engine was undamaged as far as

could be seen by visual inspection. The port propeller had one

tip slightly bent , apparently due to the scraping along the

roadway. The port depth charge remained in place on its rack.

The car showed evidence of contact with high-tension wires which

were known to have been knocked down on its final descent. The

fins had obviously suffered only minor damage and were still

attached to the bag. The ship was removed in its entirety to

Moffett Field where a more thorough inspection has been made.

23. Q. Who was in charge of the salvage operations?

A. Lieutenant Rowland J. Blair was in charge of salvaging the

ship at Daly City and as Flight Maintenance Officer of the

squadron is now in charge of inspecting, reconditioning and

erecting the ship for further service. Lieutenant Blair will, in

this process, make a complete and detailed record of the damage

suffered by the aircraft and the time and approximate cost of

returning it to service.

24. Q. Did the condition of the propellers indicate definitely

whether the engines were running or stopped at the time of final

landing?

A. I am convinced tha the engines were stopped at the time the

ship made its final landing, although the switches were on and

there was fuel connected to the engines. The total time-the port

engine had 4125 hours and the starboard engine 890.4 hours. The

time since the last major overhaul—port engine, 488.7 hours,

starboard engine, 240.9 hours. The engines were normally run 700

hours between major overhauls.

25. Q. Have you experienced any engine failures since last

overhaul?

A. We have had no engine stoppage since last overhaul. The

only casualty suffered was the breaking of the starter housing

on the starter engine but the reasons for this were found and

corrected. This trouble was minor and would not stop the engine.

26. Q. Since the ship was salvaged, has any check been made with

reference to fuel in the ship as to whether or not any foreign

substance was present?

A. The main fuel strainer was examined by the Engineering

Officer and also the two carburetor fuel strainers. Only a

slight trace of water was found and by no means enough to

indicate that this might b the cause of an engine stoppage. This

inspection was made under the direction of Lieutenant (j.g.) L.

E. Stillwell, U.S.N.R.

27. Q. Since the salvage of the ship has been returned to

Moffett Field, has any test or check been made to the equipment

on board?

A. The radio equipment was checked immediately upon return

to Moffett Field for frequencies and the transmitters and

receivers were found properly set on the assigned frequencies

for this flight. A fresh battery was placed in the ship and both

transmitters and receivers were tested for operation and were

found to operate satisfactorily and in normal fashion. As part

of the test, after return to Moffett Field, the ship’s battery

having been found in a near-exhausted condition, a fresh battery

was placed in the ship and the radio transmitter and the two

receivers were turned on and tested for correct operation. All

parts of the radio equipment, except antennas (which had been

torn away during the deflation), were found to be operating

normally.

28. Q. Can you explain the electrical system of the L-8?

A. The electrical system of the L-8 consisted of one 15-

volt direct current, 25 amperes capacity main engine-driven

generator mounted on the port engine. A 34-ampere hour 12-volt

battery floated on the generator. The electrical load consisted

principally of the radio and the loud-speaking system, plus the

engine starters when used, and the running light load at night.

I may add, the problem of electrical supply has always been one

of considerable concern in the operation of these small ships.

Whenever practicable, the engines were started on the ground

wit shore batteries in order that the ship’s battery might be

fresh after take-off. In ordinary flight, and with normal radio

loud-speaking equipment, the generator was adequate to carry the

load. However, any cranking of the engine immediately presented

a problem and a critical problem, because of the fact that these

engines were not equipped with any type of hand starter. If an

engine failed in the air it had to be started electrically or

else it could not be started at all. It was standard doctrine in

operating the L-type ship that should the engines fail, a radio

transmission of position and circumstances should be made before

the battery might become exhausted due to repeated attempts to

start the engine. The loud-speaker system consisted essentially

of a standard Bogen type audio amplifier with a vibrator source

of supply actuating a small four-inch loud-speaking horn. This

equipment was used to communicate with surface craft who would

not be contacted by radio. The electrical requirements of this

system were approximately 12 amperes which, as can be seen, is

a rather heavy load for the electrical system. The system was

found turned on but only in the “stand-by” condition. With only

the stand-by switch on, the amplifier draws two (2) amperes.

Normally the loud speaking equipment remains turned completely

off except when its use is required. However, due to location of

the amplifier and its switches, accidental turning on of this

equipment was caused by movements of the pilot’s and co-pilot’s

feet. It is therefore impossible to say that the amplifier had

been deliberately placed in the stand-by condition.

29. Q. What was the condition of the battery?

A. The battery was found to be in a near-exhausted condition,

though not to the point of being sulphated. We have no means

of determining whether there was sufficient energy remaining

to crank an engine but it is considered doubtful whether the

battery had enough energy to either crank the engine or to

operate the radio transmitter for normal or even partially

normal output. The battery alone would remain at least (10) ten

short transmissions of messages by radio without difficulty—that

is, without the generator.

This means that even if the battery had not been charging due

to a charging system problem, the battery would have had enough

energy to use the radio. Had the battery been charged up until

the engines stopped charging the battery, the drain from the

radio in standby mode would have not accounted for the battery

being exhausted from the time the L-8 was last seen running

under control and the final crash. Thirty four amp-hours, at

a draw of two amps, the radio along would have meant that the

battery should have about seventeen hours of capacity before

going dead, without any other load. The flight lasted roughly

five hours, and from take-off until just before 11am the flight

was under powered control with the engines running. The post-

mortem investigation of the battery and charging system show

that each component was working after the crash. So what drained

the battery in under one hour?

The questioning resumes on the physical condition of the L-8,

including the catenary system, the rigging that joined gondola

and gas balloon.

30. Q. What was the the condition of the internal and external

catenary system?

A. The entire catenary system was found undamaged and will be

immediately used again. The gas valves and air valves were found

undamaged and suitable for immediate use. The only part of the

bag that was known to be torn before contact at final landing

was the ceiling or fairing strip around the stern of the car in

between the bag and the car and then glued to the bag and we are

positive that the fairing strip had pulled away from the bag and

it still remained on the car. I think that is to be expected.

That has no structural function and is placed principally for

the sake of appearance. The gas dump valve was found in normal

operating condition and was inadvertently operated, during the

salvage of the ship. Further tests have indicated it was in its

normal condition.

31. Q. What was the condition of the instruments?

A. The instruments were given only visual inspection and all

were undamaged. The clock was still operating and keeping

correct time. We also ran continuity test on magneto switches

and the fuel circuits were complete.

32. Q. Has any check or examination been made of the engines of

the L-8 or is it anticipated?

A. Only visual inspection is possible at the present time at

Moffett Field. The engines have been sent today, August 18, to

Pacific Air Motors for inspection and disassembly. Lieutenant

(j.g.) Stillwell, the Squadron Junior Engineering Officer, will

be present during the disassembly of these engines and will

attempt to determine what, if any, part of the engines were in

improper condition or did not function properly.

33.Q. What disposition of salvaged parts of the L-8 is

contemplated?

A. All parts of the airship, with the exception of the gas

envelope, are being inspected and overhauled where found

necessary and will be used with a spare envelope now available

here, to assemble and erect the L-8 for continued service. It

is expected that the ship will be returned to service about

September 1, 1942. The gas envelope is being turned over to the

Naval Air Station, Moffett Field, California, for inspection and

recommendation as to disposition.

34. Q. From your examination of the ship after landing at Daly

City, or any other subsequent examination, did you find any

evidence that the car or any portion of the ship had touched the

water?

A. No. I personally inspected the car and lower fin very

carefully for evidence of salt water. I am positive that the

bottom of the car was at no time in contact with the sea. The

lower fin showed some salt deposit but it is my opinion that

this may have been caused from the being moored at Treasure

Island where the constant beat of spray very likely caused

considerable salt deposits around the ship. On the port side of

the car there was definite indication of salt water having been

splashed at a point just above the depth charge. The bilges of

the car were dry and still contained dust which could not have

existed had the car touched the water. Further, had thelowr fin

dipped, there would have been a sufficient collection of salt

water in the bottom of the fin to clearly show proof. No salt

water was found there.

35. Q. Have you received any reports indicating voice contact

with surface craft?

A. No, in fact we have received no reports from surface craft

of either visual, voice or radio contact. The vision was

sufficiently good on that morning that it should have been seen

by craft normally operating in that vincinity.

36. Q.With reference to the personnel in the L-8 on this

particular morning, about how long have you known Lieutenant

Cody?

A. I have been acquainted with Lieutenant Cody for a period of

about one year. Lieutenant has been under my command for the

last six months.

37. Q. From your observation and controls with Lieutenant Cody,

what is your opinion concerning his ability as a pilot?

A. I definitely consider Lieutenant Cody to be one of the

most capable pilots and one of the most able officers under

my command. He has served as senior aviator of the Treasure

Island unit for considerable periods of time during the last six

months. He has always displayed keen intelligence, unusually

sound judgment and has my complete confidence. He was of a

quiet, taciturn nature, in no way inclined to be excitable or

to lose his head under pressure. I have witnessed his actions

during hazardous operations and know that he reacts calmly,

quickly and efficiently. My lack of concern for the safety

of the ship during the period which it was unreported on the

morning of August 16, was based entirely on my complete and

utmost confidence in Lieutenant Cody’s ability as a pilot to

safety and correctly handle his ship. Lieutenant Cody was

qualified as Naval Aviator (Airship) and designated on December

31, 1941. He has 758.3 hours of time as a pilot of non-rigid

airships. He is particularly qualified in the L-type of ship

and was particularly familiar with the L-8, since that is the

ship which he normally had in his charge at Treasure Island. His

flight log shows 393.7 hours in the L-type airship. Lieutenant

Cody was completely familiar with the territory over which he

was operating as he has been operating continuously on patrol

over the area for the last six months.

38. Q. How long have you known Ensign Adams and what is your

opinion concerning his experience and knowledge concerning the

operation and maintenance of airships?

A. I have known Ensign C. E. Adams for approximately ten years

during his service as an enlisted man and more recently as a

warrant and commissioned officer. Ensign Adams was an able and

competent man in his rate and most thoroughly experienced in

airship maintenance and operation. As an enlisted man it was

not possible for Adams to be a pilot.

a great many other of our airship enlisted men, he had wide

experience in the control of non-rigid airships in flight.

However, in company with.

After receiving his commission, Adams expressed a desire to

continue his associations with airships and eventually to be

designated a Naval Aviator (Airship). I considered this most

desirable considering him a splendid man for a N.A. He was

flying as a passenger with Lieutenant Cody for the purpose of

familiarizing himself with the various types of airships and

operations, having just previously made several flights in the

larger type of airships at Moffett Field. His flight log shows

he has 2,281.5 hours of flying time in airships of all kinds.

39. Q. Have you any opinion as to the cause of this accident?

A. No, sir. Nothing that I have been able to discover has given

me any grounds to form a reasonable opinion as to the sequence

of events, why the airship was abandoned, or what happened to

the personnel. I can only reiterate my confidence in Lieutenant

Cody that his actions were well considered ones at the time.

The board informed the witness that he was privileged to make

any further statement covering anything related to the subject

matter of the investigation which he thought should be a matter

of record in connection therewith, which had not been fully

brought out by the previous questioning. The witness stated that

he had nothing further to say. The witness was duly warned and

withdrew. The board then, at 4:25 p.m., adjourned until 10 a.m.

August 19, 1942.

The story ends and the mystery begins...

2011-03-20T18:57:00.000-04:00

The police and fire department follow the floating derelict until it finally comes to rest on Belleview Ave in Daly City. The bag entangled in the lines running down the street poles. The gondola comes to rest on it's back end, one 300 pound still attached. Rescuers find no sign of either pilot. One of the two doors is latched fully open.

Navy personnel arrive on the scene shortly thereafter and find that the engine switch is on with plenty of gas in the tanks. The secret code books on-board are intact, the parachutes, raft, guns undisturbed, and the radio and Bogen Hailer all function.

Navy trucks arrive with sailors and the blimp is trucked off hours later after photos are taken, armed guards surrounding the blimp.

The Board of Investigation is formed two days later day under Commander Francis Connell.

The board calls witnesses and Navy personal involved in the maintenance of the blimp. The board of inquiry probes for a reasonable explanation, none is available. The engines start and operate normally when tested. The radio is working normally.

In the case of an emergency, the first thing the crew would do was use the radio. The Bogen Hailer would allow the pilots to send word to any surface ships should the radio not work. Should the engines stop, free ballooning back to land is an option, dropping weight to adjust height. Should the gas envelope develop a leak, parachutes are provided. A raft is on board should the raft land in water. None of these options were taken.

Is it possible a stowaway was aboard, overpowering the crew and disposing of the bodies? Given the incident of the spies breaking into the aerodrome, the extra weight forcing the mechanic off the flight, this is a possible solution to this 'who done it'.

There is a closet size back room in the gondola and rack space over head. Did a stray bullet put a hole in the blimp gas bag, causing the deflation?

Weather was shown to not be a factor.

Witnesses from the fishing ship, Daisy Gray, and the Liberty ship, the Albert Galatin, are interviewed and give evidence that the crew was aboard, engines running, until the blimp headed back towards San Francisco. Did the blimp engage a sub crew that captured the crew?

Did the blimp dip into the water, washing the crew out to sea? Evidence shows that didn't occur.

One by one, the responses to questions bring no resolution to the mystery.

Both pilots have sterling records. Both are married. They come from the Lakehurst Naval Air Station program. Both have very recently been promoted. The co-pilot, Charles Adams had been on the USS Los Angles and was awarded a commendation for helping put out a fire on board. He received an award from Herman Goering for his rescue efforts at the the crash of the Hindenburg. He also served on the Akron,later lost. Most notable, he served on the USS Macon at the time of her crash. Adams also served on the USS Henley and was present at the attack by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor.

The testimony considers that the crew may have fallen accidentally through the open door. This not thought possible given the locking mechanism on the doors.

Did they have a fight, one killing the other, dumping the body and then leaving? Was one a spy rendezvousing with the sub they detected? Could they have flown to investigate and been captured?

The condition of the batteries is discussed. They are drained. They are recharged and test perfectly fine. The reason for the drain is unknown but a note-worthy clue.

At the end of the inquest, the conclusion of the board is that the fate of the pilots is unknown, and that while it is speculation that they fell, there is no evidence to draw that conclusion. They are put on the missing in action rolls and in one year's time, they will be declared dead.

Decent

2011-02-22T15:45:00.001-05:00

About 10:50 the L8 is sighted along the coast highway. An off duty seaman driving along the highway, heading for a day at the beach, takes a picture of the L-8. The blimp is partially deflated and the seaman can tell the L-8 is behaving strangely. He and his photogragh would end up in the inquest later on.

The lettering along the center of the ballonnet, " N A V Y", starts to form a V-shape, merging the A V...

The L-8 comes in just above the sand. Two men swimming in the water attempt to control the blimp, grabbing at it's guide ropes. The blimp, too massive and being driven by the wind, rolls along the beach, unstoppable. After making it over the dunes and onto the golf course, still venting drags along the grass. The bomb on the right side of the gondola gets dislodged and drops onto the ground.

At this point, the Navy receives an anonymous call saying that the blimp has crashed onto the golf course but that they have the crew.

As trucks are dispatched from Moffet Field to the golf course for a recovery, a second anonymous call comes in saying that the airman are not aboard!
This is to become one of the oddest bits of the mystery to solve.

Why would anyone call the air field and say they have the crew and then contradict themselves. I spent a long time wondering who would have been at the crash site and what motive they might have for saying the pilots were not there after-all....
The answer to this was uncovered at the library at the Pensacola Naval Air Station where the restored L-8 gondola now resides.

If you have a chance to go to Pensacola, the air museum is worth the trip alone! For L-8 officinadoes it's the gold ring. See http://NavalAviationMuseum.org. I loved the museum, but being able to touch the L-8 was the thrill of a lifetime. I only knew 90% of the story at that point a couple of years ago. I've spent the intervening years getting together bits of the story that are the first and second acts in this play..... San Francisco was the last act. I've spent several years piecing this together, traveled a lot of miles around the country, and at the end of the trip found that the story took me home again....

But back to the story in 1942....

Having been lightened by 350 lbs, a gust of wind lifts the partially deflated blimp into the air once more and on it's way to Daly City for the final bits of this chapter of the story...

Eyewitnesses

2011-02-20T12:41:00.000-05:00

The L-8 circled over the spot for about an hour with the crews of two ships as witnesses.

The crew of the fishing boat, the Daisy Grey, and a Liberty ship, the Albert Gallatin. Both crews gave testimony during the inquest that was to follow...

The L-8 dropped one flare and circled over he spot attempting to use the MAD, Magnetic Anomoly Detector, trying to detect if there was a large metal mass under the oil slick. Other than visual sightings, MAD was used to detect submarines, but had a very low rate of success. Less than a 4% success rate, MAD is a metal detector mounted in the gondola of the blimp.

Circling the spot, coming down towards the surface, the L-8 continued to circle until just after 9am. At tat point, it dropped ballast, and rising, headed back to towards San Francisco instead of continuing to the Farralone Islands, site of a radio listening post, or heading north to Reyes Point.

Having not heard back from the crew of the L8 and unable to make contact, Moffett Field sent aircraft out to search and broadcast that all aircraft in the area should be on the lookout for the L8.

A Pan Am flight heading towards San Francisco spotted the L-8 at 10:20 , heading towards the Golden Gate Bridge. It was under control...

At about 10:30 witnesses saw the blimp suddenly rose dramaticly at a sharp angle and go up into the clouds...

L-8: The mytsery begins...

2011-02-18T22:40:00.000-05:00

Hi.Most people have not heard about the L8, so let me introduce you to a fascinating mystery from World War 2 that has gone unsolved so far...

Blimps were used in the war to patrol for enemy submarines. There were a number of bases throughout the United States. Two notable bases were Lakehurst, New Jersey and Moffett Field, California. Lakehurst was made famous by the crash of the Hindenburg in 1937. Lakehurst was the center of blimp activity on the east coast. Moffett Field, also know as Sunnyvale N.A.S - Naval Air Station - included an air field on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay. It was from this air field that the blimps took off and patrolled the seas looking for Japanese submarines that hunted along the Pacific coastline.

One of these blimps was the L8. Purchased from Good Year, it was a new addition to the Lighter Than Air ships used by the Navy for anything from patrols to delivering goods. It was part of squadron 32.The L8 was the blimp that delivered supplies to the USS Hornet in April of 1942 for the Doolittle Raid on Japan. It flew missions from Treasure Island to the Farralone Islands and up to Reyes Point with a crew of three men attempting to site submarines.
It was equipped with two 350 pound bombs it could drop on the enemy.

On the morning of August 16th, 1942, the L-8 took off on it's morning mission. On board were Lieutenant Ernest Dewitt Cody and Ensign Charles Ellis Adams. The mechanic assigned to the flight, J Riley Hill, prepared the L-8 for it's flight,

As it was about to take-off, Hill was told that the ship was too heavy and ordered to say behind.

The L-8 took off at six a.m. At 7:50 a.m., about five miles east of the Farralone Island, they radioed that they were investigating an oil slick. "Standby..." was the last anyone heard of the crew of the L-8.....