CAF Rocky Mountain Wing

It never fails, you start making fun of someone, and they suddenly appear, right? 🤣

Don't forget, you can ride either of these famous warbirds this weekend in Grand Junction. Grab your seat at https://www.rmwcaf.org/buy-a-ride.html

📸 GJT Jet Photos

On 8 June 1945, USS Makin Island (CVE-93) eased into the giant floating drydock ABSD-6 at Guam. The picture captures a side of the Pacific War that rarely receives as much attention as battles and carrier strikes.

The real star of the photo is the enormous drydock itself. ABSD-6 was not a fixed shipyard but a floating naval repair base assembled from nine giant sections built at Mare Island Naval Shipyard in California. Once joined together at Guam's Apra Harbor, the structure stretched more than 800 feet in length and could lift roughly 90,000 tons. It was essentially a portable navy yard, complete with cranes, machine shops, repair facilities, power generation equipment, and hundreds of sailors assigned to operate it. The dock's wartime complement was about 22 officers and 471 enlisted personnel. More than a typical destroyer in WWII!

The Pacific War posed a unique logistical problem. A damaged or worn-out ship operating near Japan might be thousands of miles from Pearl Harbor or the West Coast. Sending major warships back across the Pacific for repairs could remove them from combat for months. The solution was the Advance Base Sectional Drydock program. Massive floating docks such as ABSD-6 could be towed to forward bases like Guam and assembled near the fighting. There, they could lift carriers, battleships, cruisers, destroyers, and amphibious ships completely out of the water for hull work, painting, propeller repairs, and battle damage restoration.

By the time Makin Island arrived, Guam had become one of the busiest naval repair hubs in the world. Only weeks earlier, ABSD-6 had handled the battleship USS South Dakota (BB-57) after an accidental explosion damaged the ship while rearming. The dock worked continuously because nearly every vessel supporting the Okinawa campaign required maintenance after months of nonstop operations. Makin Island's visit was part of this enormous effort to keep the fleet at peak readiness as planners prepared for the proposed invasion of Japan.

The famous photograph shows Makin Island only partway inside the dock, illustrating the remarkable engineering involved. The drydock would first flood its ballast tanks and sink low enough for the ship to enter. Once properly positioned, operators pumped out water from the ballast compartments, causing the entire structure to rise and lift the vessel clear of the sea. What appears in the image as a routine maintenance stop was actually the product of one of the most sophisticated logistical systems of the war. Without floating docks like ABSD-6, the U.S. Navy's fast-moving Pacific offensive would have slowed dramatically.

One week from today, we'll be doing our next hometown ride day with BOTH the historic TBM 309 and our venerable Cub. Rides for all budgets are available at https://www.rmwcaf.org/buy-a-ride.html

On the morning of 4 June 1942, the fate of the Pacific War hung on confusion, split-second decisions, and extraordinary sacrifice. While the Battle of Midway is usually remembered for the destruction of four Japanese carriers, some of the most important events of that decisive day are often overshadowed by the dramatic dive bomber attacks that came later.

One of the least appreciated stories of June 4 is the sacrifice of the American torpedo squadrons. Before U.S. Navy dive bombers arrived overhead, three separate torpedo squadrons from USS Hornet (CV-8), USS Enterprise (CV-6), and USS Yorktown (CV-5) attacked the Japanese fleet at low altitude. Mostly due to a combination of poor coordination, communication failures, and the limitations of early-war carrier tactics, none of the torpedo squadrons arrived at the target with fighter cover.

Flying obsolete TBD Devastator torpedo bombers, they pressed home attacks directly into intense anti-aircraft fire and swarms of Japanese Zero fighters. Torpedo Squadron 8 from Hornet was virtually annihilated. Of the squadron’s 15 aircraft and crews, only Ensign George Gay survived. Torpedo Squadron 6 from Enterprise and Torpedo Squadron 3 from Yorktown suffered similarly devastating losses. None scored a confirmed torpedo hit. Yet their sacrifice forced Japanese fighters down to sea level, scattered the combat air patrol, and disrupted Japanese carrier operations at the exact moment American dive bombers were approaching arrived unseen from high altitude. Historians have long argued that without the torpedo squadrons’ devastating losses, the dive bombers might never have found the carriers so vulnerable.

This was also the combat debut of the TBF Avenger, with six aircraft joining the battle from Midway itself. The Avengers unfortunately suffered the same catastrophic fate as the Devastators. Five were shot down. The lone surviving aircraft, flown by Ensign Albert Earnest, returned riddled with damage, with one crewman dead and another wounded.

What makes the Avenger’s debut particularly tragic is that the aircraft itself was not the problem. The TBF was larger, faster, more durable, and far better armed than the TBD Devastator, but they arrived before the rest of the torpedo bombers, also without cover. Midway demonstrated that even a superior torpedo bomber was nearly helpless when forced to attack low and slow without adequate fighter cover against alert Japanese defenses.

On June 2, 1951, the former USS Langley (CVL-27) officially entered French service by being commissioned as the carrier La Fayette (R96).

The ship had originally served the United States Navy during World War II as an Independence-class light aircraft carrier before being placed in reserve in 1947. With Cold War tensions rising and France seeking to rebuild its naval aviation capability after the devastation of World War II, the United States transferred Langley to the French Navy under the Mutual Defense Assistance Program. During ceremonies at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, the French tricolor was raised aboard the carrier as she was formally commissioned into French service. Renamed La Fayette in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette, the French hero of the American Revolution, the ship symbolized the long military partnership between France and the United States.

Following her transfer, La Fayette sailed to Toulon and quickly became one of the most important carriers in the French fleet. She served extensively in the Mediterranean and Far East, particularly during the First Indochina War, where her aircraft flew combat missions over Vietnam in support of French forces. Later, she participated in the 1956 Suez Crisis alongside British and French naval units. The carrier also took part in humanitarian missions, including relief operations after the 1960 Agadir earthquake in Morocco. After more than a decade under the French flag, La Fayette was returned to the United States in 1963 and sold for scrap the following year.

Before becoming La Fayette, USS Langley (CVL-27) had already built an impressive wartime record with the U.S. Navy. Constructed in 1942 and commissioned in 1943, the carrier served throughout the Pacific Theater during World War II. Langley participated in major operations, including raids against the Marshall Islands, the Battle of the Philippine Sea, and strikes supporting the liberation of the Philippines and Okinawa. Like other Independence-class carriers, she provided fighter cover, anti-shipping strikes, and close air support for amphibious landings. Her air groups helped weaken Japanese naval and air power during the final years of the war. Following Japan’s surrender, Langley supported occupation duties before being decommissioned in 1947.

It is important to note that La Fayette was not the same vessel as the famous USS Langley (CV-1), America’s first aircraft carrier. CVL-27 inherited the Langley name from that pioneering ship, which had introduced the U.S. Navy to carrier aviation in the 1920s and laid the groundwork for modern naval air power.

We like to joke that our Cub was known in the Navy as the NE-1 because "anyone" could fly it. It was a widely popular trainer and liaison aircraft, and as a ride experience, one of the most joyful ways to connect to the thrill of flying. We highly recommend it! An affordable way to access the sky, we'll be offering flights on June 13 and 14, so reserve your seat now at https://www.rmwcaf.org/buy-a-ride.html

Two weeks from today will be our next hometown rides day, so take your pick: Avenger or Cub. Which one are you riding on?

https://www.rmwcaf.org/buy-a-ride.html

📸 Avenger pic: Larry Robinson/The Daily Sentinel

On 29 May 1944, the es**rt aircraft carrier USS Block Island (CVE-21) was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-549 near the Azores. She became the only United States Navy aircraft carrier lost in the Atlantic during the Second World War.

Block Island had been operating as part of an anti-submarine hunter-killer group, es**rting convoys and searching for German U-boats in the Atlantic. By 1944, Allied naval and air patrols had greatly reduced the U-boat threat, but German submarines still posed a serious danger to shipping and es**rt vessels.

After being struck by torpedoes, Block Island was abandoned and sank with the loss of six crewmen. Her es**rts counterattacked and sank U-549, though the destroyer es**rt USS Barr (DE-576) was also badly damaged.