r ' THE EYES AND EARS OF THE CONVOY: Development of the helicopter as an anti... submarine weapon By Robert M. Browning Jr. 1 ~FIRST cOAst GOARD HELICOPTER DE IACHMI SIKORSKY HEL.ICOPTER AIRPORT BRIDGEPOR. L. TO R. - 1. E. H. FRAUENBERGER AOS. 2. J .A. BOONE A. M.M.1C. 3. L. BRZYCKI A.C.M.M . .__. ...................____ 4. A.N.flSHER LT. T --­ - CONN. JULY-7-1943 I The Eyes and Ears of the Convoy: Develop­ ment of the Helicopter as an Anti-submarine Weapon is a publication of the Coast Guard Historian's office and a Commandant's Bulletin insert for September 1993. A sim'lar version was publishea by the Air Force Historical Foun­ dation in the summer 1993 issue of Air Power History. For information about the Coast Guarc visit your oca, 'ibrary or write to the Coast Guard Historian's office at: Commandant (G­ CP-4), 2100 2nd St .. S.W., Washington, DC 20593. Text by Dr. Robert Browning. Editing, design and layout by PA3 Petey Milnes. Photos courtesy of the Coast Guard Historian·s office Front Cover: An HOS-1 helicopter (fore­ ground) and an accompanying HNS-1 are the only two helicopters that were flown by the Coast Guard during developmental stages in the 1940s. Inside Front Cover: The first Coast Guard helicopter detachment at Sikorsky Helicopter Airport in Bridgeport, Conn. ci. A • E R ( CK SQ N LT. CQ t. ~ OR Above: The first helicopter operations off the r. • IYI • • CGC Cobb in June 1944 . Back Cover: A Coast Guardsman tries out 0 • M • H ELG R E N LT . an early helicopter-training simulator at Coast t. ~ Guard Air Station Floyd Bennett Field in Brook- • 0 • F • B E R Ry A • C a M • LVI • lyn, N.Y. , during the early 1940s. I \N_1 VJ_._______ __..._.~~ --.LC---"'""'--~'-"""!LL-~4~r------~~~~~~~-=====-=-- When most people think of helicopters, they envision sleek, powerful, modern craft that race through the sky performing diverse and extremely important jobs. Fifty years ago however, most people had not heard of helicopters much less ever seen one. he development of the helicopter World War I. But it was not until World War Above : An HNS-1 can be attributed to a few vision­ II that its offensive capabilities were truly helicopter prepares ary men who foresaw the great realized. to land aboard the British SS Dahgestan potential of this aircraft. During In what has been termed the Battle of the during early sea trials World War II, due to the insis­ Atlantic, the Germans developed the subma­ in the 1940s. Ttence of several Coast Guard officers, this rine's use so effectively that their success revolutionary aircraft was developed for reached grim proportions. Two years be­ war and peacetime uses. Their efforts fore America's entry into the war, the Allies helped the helicopter to evolve into the ma­ began protecting their merchant fleets with chine that is known today. convoys and scoured the coast with fixed­ The capability of the submarine to inter­ wing aircraft and blimps in an effort to spot dict trade effectively and to serve as a the elusive U-boats. weapon of war was first revealed during By mid-1 942, half of the merchant ships in 2 • T HE EYES AND EARS OF THE COl'\'OY the Atlantic Ocean were being given escort Floyd Bennett Field, Brooklyn, N.Y ., and CDR protection, which stretched the resources William J. Kossler, chief of the Aviation Engi­ of both the American and British navies to neering Division at Coast Guard Headquar­ the limit. Despite the efforts of naval and ters in Washington, traveled to Stratford, Coast Guard vessels to combat the U-boat Conn., to witness a helicopter test. menace, in May 1942, 604,000 gross tons On a cold, gusty Monday, April 20, 1942, were sunk in the U.S. Strategic Area while Kossler and Burton watched a helicopter world-wide losses to U-boats reached their hover 25 feet from the ground while a man highest point the very next month when 141 ascended a suspended rope ladder. Im­ ships of 707,000 gross tons were sunk. pressed by this test, both Coast Guardsmen Aircraft assumed a role in anti-submarine agreed that the helicopter would meet many warfare early in the war. Out of the New of the service's requirements. York area alone, they patrolled a zone of 10,000 square miles. Aircraft flying hours in­ UNLIMITED USE OF HELICOPTERS creased as Army and Navy aircraft attempt­ In Burton's report on the test, he noted ed to locate submarines off the American that the helicopter had many advantages coast. The limited range of aircraft favored over the blimp and few disadvantages. The the submarines, which could move further helicopter could hover and maneuver with out into the ocean to attack shipping. This more ease in rough air and it could land air-gap would became a weak spot for the and take off in less space. Furthermore, it Allies in the Battle of the Atlantic. did not require as large of a ground handling Due to the tremendous successes of the crew as a blimp. Burton also thought U-boats, American military leaders searched it could be used for harbor patrols t o for solutions to this problem. Willing to try detect saboteurs and investigate suspicious anything that might help curtail merchant activities while also detecting oil-pollution vessel losses, the Navy, due primarily to the violations. He also envisioned that it might insistence of several Coast Guard officers, be useful for hailing smallboats or vessels looked to the helicopter as a possible an­ in the harbor. Burton and Kossler recom­ swer to this dilemma. mended that the Coast Guard buy three heli­ One of the first helicopters to be success­ copters. To these men, the uses of the heli­ fully developed and tested was the Sikorsky copter seemed almost unlimited. YS-300 (HNS-1) in mid-January 1941. A year The aviation operations officer at head­ later, two Coast Guard officers, CDR Watson quarters, CDR Frank Le amy, e ndorse d A. Burton, commanding officer of Air Station the purchase of a few helicopters for Left: CDR Frank Erick­ son, one of the pio­ neers of the adoption of helicopters for practical purposes, stands beside an HNS- 7 helicopter with ENS W. C. Bolton at the controls. T HE EYES AND EARS OF THE C0:-1\'0Y • 3 ......_ . rr training and development. helicopter demonstration. Erickson had But both RADM Harvey Johnson, chief en­ been a proponent of helicopters after read­ gineer, and RADM Lloyd Chalker, the assis­ ing an article in Aero Digest, nine months tant commandant, thought that the price tag before. He was so impressed after the of a quarter million dollars for three flying flight that he wrote a memorandum to the machines was too high. And considering commandant. the moment's wartime priorities, it's under­ In it, he noted that while the lifesaving standable that one reportedly said to and law-enforcement potentials of the heli­ Kossler, "Hell, Bill, the Navy is not interest­ copter had been stressed by others, he be­ ed in lifesaving, they just want to get on with lieved that it could fulfill an even more im­ the business of killing the enemy." portant role. Erickson pointed out that the Thus neither Johnson nor Chalker would helicopter could provide protection for con­ readily endorse the project due to the high voys against submarine attacks and that any cost and, more importantly, because it was vessel which could mount a 30-square-foot not considered essential to the war effort. platform could be used as a potential carrier Just when the project looked as if it for helicopters. This could give an un­ would die, LCDR Frank A. Erickson entered escorted freighter a means to detect sub­ the picture. marines. And helicopters operating with Up to this point, the commandant, VADM convoys would give them additional meth­ Below: An HNS- 7 Russell R. Waesche, had made no decision ods of detecting submarines. begins to land regarding the helicopter. Erickson, attached Thus, larger convoys could cope with aboard the Dahges­ tan. The ship was one to AirSta Floyd Bennett Field, was larger numbers of enemy submarines of the first to engage invited to lunch by his close friend Kossler using fewer escorts. in shipboard heli­ in June 1942. Kossler's real purpose, The lack of suitable escorts had been one copter testing. however, was to get Erickson to watch a of the United States' greatest shortcomings 4 • T HE EYES AND EARS OF THE CONVOY in the Battle of the Atlantic. rotary-wing aircraft. Helicopters also had several other at­ Congress had appropriated $2 million in tributes that airplanes did not have. 1938 to conduct research on rotary-wing air­ They could be refueled by lowering a craft. At that time, the potential use of the hose to the smallest type of patrol boat and helicopter for anti-submarine warfare was did not have the limitations of planes - pointed out to the Navy, but they consid­ which circled and maneuvered to maintain ered it a minor application and considered their position. Helicopters could hover and that a project to develop it would hardly jus­ stay over a submarine and thus bomb the tify an expenditure of funds. enemy with greater accuracy. Furthermore, the helicopters could rescue personnel from HELICOPTERS LOANED TO CG torpedoed vessels by lowering a rubber After initially receiving a cool reception boat to the water and then hoisting it clear within the Coast Guard, a few other officers of the surface.