The Neutrality

22

Patrol:

NAVAL AVIATION

NEWS

May-June

1990

ral Aviation

in WW II

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contact if a sighting was made, and to

send contact reports in plain language
on the International Emergency CW
frequency, 500 kc. After join-up the
four PBYs climbed on top of the cloud
deck, proceeded to the assigned area,
and let down to about 700 feet for the
search.
Visibility was limited but a scouting
line was formed (then standard
procedure) and search of the area in
the rapidly dwindling daylight began.
When darkness and limited visibility
made further effort fruitless, the flight
leader ordered an individual return to
base. During the climb, icing and
turbulence were encountered but all
planes found clear areas between
layers and proceeded toward Argentia.
As the planes continued on course,
the cloud tops built up and eventually
the PBYs were at 20,000 feet to stay
clear of the clouds to avoid icing. The
extreme cold and lack of oxygen
contributed to navigation problems
resulting from numerous course
changes to avoid build-ups and, at
dawn, as the planes approached
Argentia, only one flier - legendary
Navy P-boat pilot Chief Boatswain Pat
Byrne - was sure of his position.
Radio contacts with Albemarle (AV-5)
brought word of worsening weather
and orders to proceed to the
southwest to find an alternate landing
site, if fuel levels permitted, or to hold
over the ship and make an instrument
approach when the weather improved.
Of the planes in the first group only
52-P-5, flown by Byrne, made an
instrument letdown and landed outside

56-P-9 taxies in Willoughby

Bay, off the
Breezy Point seaplane ramps at NAS
Norfolk, Va., Spring 1941.

24

Argentia harbor in Placentia Bay,

about 15 miles from Albemarle. Too
short of fuel to taxi in and with a
favorable 40-plus-knot wind, Pat cut
the engines and sailed the PBY into
the harbor! Of the other three planes
in the group, Number 9, flown by
Ensign Dexter Rumsey and the writer,
found a hole and let down for a safe
landing at Jamestown on Trinity Bay
on the east side of Newfoundland.
When weather at Argentia improved,
Number 9 was able to get in, with a
total of some 22 hours in the air and
fewer than 100 gallons of fuel
remaining. Number 10 heeded the
ships radioed advice and headed
southwest, breaking into clear weather
over Nova Scotia and continuing for a
landing at Newport, R.I., with about 20
hours flight time logged.
The last plane of the first group,
52-P-l 1, was trapped above the
overcast with fuel nearly exhausted
and the crew preparing to bail out
when a hole in the clouds suddenly
appeared. After a tight spiral letdown
into a narrow valley, which led them to
the sea and Forteau Bay, Labrador, a
safe landing was made after some 20
hours in the air. The crew anchored off
a beach near a cluster of houses and
after confirming their location by
talking to men who rowed out to the
plane, contacted Albemarle for
instructions. Advised to remain where
they were for the night, they were
assured fuel would be flown in as
soon as possible.
Unfortunately, winds increased
during the night and changed
direction, forcing the crew to seek
better holding ground for the anchor
and shelter from ice floes being driven
by the wind. During the move, Naval
Aviation Pilot Bob Weber, who was
handling the anchor, was swept off the
bow by a wave which broke over the
PBY. Ice floes driven by the wind had
cracked the bombers window and
punctured the hull below the water
line, resulting in leaks which flooded
the bow compartment to the
floorboards. The loss of buoyancy
resulted in seas breaking continuously
over the bow and the plane taking on
more water. The plane commander
then decided to beach the PBY to
avoid further damage, and to seek
help for a search for Weber. A sand
beach about half a mile away was
selected as the best site available and

the plane was beached there with no

additional damage.
Local fishermen, alerted by the
sound of engines, had seen Weber
swept off the bow and launched a boat
to search for him. Continuing the string
of near-miracles, the two men rowing
the boat found semiconscious Weber
and rowed back to the beach, towing
him with his arms over the stern of the
boat, one of the rescuers holding onto
them to keep Webers head above the
water. Uninjured, though his
fleece-lined flight suit had been
slashed by a propeller as he was
swept under the wing, Weber was
taken to a house and after being
stripped and rubbed down was put to
bed. Later in the day he was moved to
a mission clinic in the settlement and
remained there under the care of a
resident nurse until he was returned to
Albemarle by plane.

Peninsula at left center is site of future

NAS Argentia, Nfld., in September 1940
photo. Seaplane mooring area was in
small bay opposite anchored ship. Two
small, conical islands at right center
were known to all P-boat pilots as the
Mae West hills. Usual takeoff from the
seadrome started at lower end of the
harbor and extended past the famous
hills!

With the help of the local people,

the plane crew rigged a block and
tackle to haul Number 11 clear of the
breakers, to prevent further damage
and to make the damaged areas
accessible. The crew turned to with
materials and tools aboard the plane
and prepared the hole in the hull and
the cracked bombers window for
repair. Later that day, May 26, a PBY
arrived from Argentia with a repair
party and fuel. After completing
repairs, sand was dug from beneath
Number 11 and it was refloated with
the help, again, of the fishermen. The
relief plane then returned to Albemarle
with Bob Weber. At the suggestion of
the local people, the PBY took off and
flew to a better anchorage for the night
in nearby Red Bay. The next morning,
after an uneventful night, 52-P-11

NAVAL AVIATION

NEWS

May-June

1990

finally took off for Argentia, with a fuel

stop en route at the Royal Canadian
Air Force base at Botwood.
The other seven PBYs flying the
search mission - 52-P-1, -2, -3, -4, -7,
-8, and -12 - were launched near
sunset at 1720 on the 24th
proceeding independently to reach the
search area south of Cape Farewell at
sunrise. Weather en route was like
that experienced by the first group poor with ceiling and visibility near
zero below the clouds with icing and
heavy turbulence in the clouds. With
unknown winds and no opportunity for
star sights, aircraft positions were
uncertain, at best, but the flight
continued toward the search area until
it was ordered by the flight leader to
return to base, weather conditions
obviously making visual search
impossible.
Most of the return flight was on
instruments, in icing and increasingly
severe turbulence. On approaching
Argentia, the aircraft were advised by
radio, as the first search group had
been, that conditions were below
minimums and not expected to
improve. Planes with sufficient fuel
were directed to continue to Halifax,
where weather was forecast to be
suitable for landing. Those with low
fuel states were advised to hold and to
attempt instrument approaches when
the weather improved.
Numbers 1, 7, and 8 found holes in
the overcast and landed in Shoal
Harbor on Random Island,
Newfoundland. Numbers 3 and 4 were
able to let down and landed in Fortune
Bay, west of Placentia Bay. Number 2,
nearly out of fuel, landed off St. Marys
Island, Quebec. Last of the group,
Number 12, reported on the water
safely, out of fuel, on the north side of
Anticosti Island in the Gulf of St.
Lawrence.

USS Albemarle at anchor

Dress Ship unknown.

in Argentia

NAVAL AVIATION

May-June

NEWS

As weather improved on the 25th,

six of the PBYs were able to fly back
to Argentia during the afternoon, all of
them logging 20 to 22 hours in the air
for the mission. On the 26th, the
squadron flew fuel to Numbers 2 and
12 and both were back in Argentia
later that day. Number 12 had
provoked a minor international incident
at Anticosti Island when some of the
crew went ashore in a raft to check on
their location and were unable to
communicate with the
French-speaking natives. The natives
assumed the fliers were German and
the advance guard of a Nazi invasion
force! Their report to Canadian
authorities generated a precautionary
air defense alert as the Canadians had
not been advised (as they normally
were) that the search mission had been
launched on the 24th.
Although this extension of the
Neutrality Patrol mission had been
unsuccessful, it had demonstrated that
the pilots and flight crewmen were
resourceful and that the rugged PBY
then, as it did repeatedly during WW
II, could be depended upon to bring
her crews home. The exercise had
also demonstrated that
communications equipment and its
operators needed improvement and
that accurate weather forecasts were
essential if North Atlantic seaplane
operations were to be successful.
On July 1, 1941, as part of a
general reorganization of fleet patrol
squadrons, Patrol Wing (PatWing),
Support Force was redesignated
Patrol Wing-7, continuing as a unit of
Support Force. Wing PBY squadrons
51, 52, 53, and 55 were redesignated
71, 72, 73, and 74. The last, after
receiving 3 PBM-1 s from VP-56, was
equipped with 12 PBM-1s. VP-56 and
its remaining PBMs became a
transitional training unit under

harbor, June 1941. Reason for

1990

Naval

Aviation

in WW II

Commander, Patrol Wings, Atlantic

Fleet. A new patrol wing - 8 - was
established, with several old
redesignated squadrons and some
newly established ones assigned.
Although a part of Support Force,
PatWing- provided little more than
training service for the remainder of
1941 and was transferred to the West
Coast after the start of the war.
Summer 1941 proved an active
time for the squadrons, both in
Newfoundland and at home in the
States. Patrols and convoy escort
were major tasks but there were also
surveys of Iceland, Greenland, and
Labrador, and search and rescue
missions. On the heels of the
Bismarck search, on May 29, VP-52
deployed 4 PBYs to Iceland. Based on
Be/hap (AVD-8) at Reykjavik, the
planes surveyed the east coast of
Greenland where Danish weather
stations were suspected of being in
German hands. Flights on May 31 and
June 5 located the stations, with no
indication that they were in use and,
on June 8, the detachment returned to
Argentia.
Later in the month the squadron
ferried old planes to Norfolk, Va.,
turning them over to newly
commissioned VP-43. New PBY-5s in
blue-gray over light-gray camouflage,
with self-sealing fuel cells, armor, and
revised waist gun stations, were
picked up and flown back to Quonset
Point and Argentia. Increased weight
and the rough nonspecular
camouflage reduced speed,
decreased rate-of-climb, and extended
takeoff time and distance significantly
in comparison to the earlier PBY-5s.
Squadron markings were in black and
the Neutrality Patrol star on the bow,
authorized on March 19, 1940, was
continued in use. (The star was also
authorized for Ranger (CV-4) and
Wasp. (CV-7) air group aircraft and
was moved to the aft fuselage when a
December 1940 directive changed
ship-based aircraft color to overall light
ww.)
On July 3, four of the new planes,
with auxiliary hull tanks to compensate
for the fuel capacity lost to the
self-sealing tanks, departed Argentia
for Reykjavik. One of the group,

25

VP-52 searched coast of Greenland in

June 1941 for suspected German-occupied Danish weather stations but
found no evidence of occupants.

72-P-12, failed to arrive in Iceland and

was presumed lost to the weather or
to an explosion while transferring fuel
from the hull tanks. Extensive search
of the route and the Greenland coast
failed to find any trace of the plane,
VP-72s first-ever loss of a crew.
This VP-72 detachment provided
escort cover for a task force which
landed a U.S. Marine Corps force in
Iceland on July 7. On the 13th the
task force departed to return to the
States and was escorted out of the
harbor and for the remainder of the
day by the PBYs.
During the summer, the Argentia
detachments of VPs 71, 72, and 73
began a rotation program, later
including VP-74, which regularly
exchanged deployed planes and
personnel at the advance base with
those at the home ports, Quonset
Point and Norfolk. Crew training and
major maintenance were conducted in
the States while operational flights
received priority at Argentia.
On July 19, VP-74 deployed a
three-plane PBM-1 detachment to
Argentia. The addition of the PBMs,
with new demands for structural and
engine maintenance, stretched
Albemarles resources and support

VP-51 PBY-1s at San Juan, P.R.,

1940. Crew lived in tents at edge
on San Juan airport and PANAM
Building at right center was sick

26

March
of field
base.
bay.

capability to their limits. By early

August, a detachment of VP-74 PBMs
and VP-73 PBYs, based on
Go/&borough (AVD-5)) were
providing routine convoy escort in the
North Atlantic shipping lanes from
Skerja Fjord, near Reykjavik. Convoys
were covered up to 500 miles from
base and a regular antisubmarine
warfare patrol of Denmark Strait
between Iceland and Greenland was
flown. From August 6 through 20,
VP-71 conducted a three-plane survey
of Greenland, based on Lapwing
(AVD-1), in Tungdliafik Fjord on the
west coast of Iceland. This was a joint
U.S. Army/Navy project.
During this period both the PBYs
and the PBMs began receiving early
model British radar, the ASV with
antenna arrays on hull-mounted posts.
The transmitting antenna posts on the
sides of the forward hull were
vulnerable to damage by boats
tending planes at the buoys and there
was little success in keeping the gear
operational.
In August, Roosevelt and Churchill
held the historic six-day conference in
Argentia aboard Augusta (CA-31 )
which produced the Atlantic Charter,
released to the public on August 14.
During preparations and for the
duration of the conference, PatWing-

squadrons flew a heavy schedule of

offshore and harbor patrol, guarding
the site.
Seaplane operations from Iceland,
severely hampered by a lack of any
facilities ashore, were by far the most
difficult yet experienced by the
Neutrality Patrol forces. Crew messing
and berthing aboard the converted
WW I destroyer seaplane tenders were
so limited that most of the crews
preferred to stay aboard the planes at
the buoys. That was so until the
Iceland weather began to display its
true character later in the year, with
winds of 50 to 60 knots and high sea
states the norm. Temperatures were
rarely far above freezing and living
aboard the uninsulated, unheated
PBYs became an ordeal. The PBMs
were better but still far from
comfortable. Servicing aircraft at the
buoys was a brutal test of skills,
perseverance, and dedication.
As the countdown toward WW II
continued during the final months of
1941, the Neutrality Patrol operations
moved ever farther from neutrality
toward active support of the Allies.
Convoy escort and ASW patrol planes
began carrying general-purpose and
depth bombs during the summer
months. Orders for attacks on hostile
forces threatening U.S. and non-Axis

foreign flag shipping were in force and

were amplified and extended by
Argentia Air Detachment OpOrders in
September and October, based on
Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet
(CinCLantFlt) orders. These directives
were explicit regarding the protection
of shipping: Escorting . . . convoys . . .
and destroying German and Italian
naval, land, and air forces
encountered.
VP-71 established an advance base
operation on Gannet (AVP-8) at
Kungnait Bay, Greenland, on October
1, but was forced to recall it on the
18th due to the violence and
uncertainties of the Greenland
weather. Weather at Argentia was little
better but operations continued, with
convoy escort in the shipping lanes
the major effort.
The full impact of the orders
regarding protection of shipping was
dramatically emphasized by a series
of events in the North Atlantic in
September and October. On
September 4, 1941, Greer (DD-145), a
destroyer en route to Iceland, was
notified by a British patrol plane that a
German U-boat was in her area. When
asked if she would attack the
submarine, Greer answered in the
negative, having no orders at that time
to initiate such action. The British
David W. Lucabaugh

Collection

Naval

Aviation

in WW II
R. W. Weber

plane then attacked the U-boat with

depth bombs, with no apparent result,
and left the area. The submarine, not
knowing the source of the attack,
maneuvered into position and fired two
torpedos at Greer, both missing the
target. The ship, acting in
self-defense, delivered a depth charge
attack on the submarine, again with no
effect, and resumed course for
Iceland. This event resulted in the
Neutrality Patrol mission becoming
search and destroy, as in the
CinCLantFlt orders referred to above.
Another, even closer indication of
the proximity of a shooting war
occurred on October 17, when the
destroyer Kearney (DD-432) was
torpedoed with the loss of 11 lives
while defending a British convoy off
Iceland. The ship limped into port,
severely damaged. Later in October,
the tanker Salinas (AO-19) was
torpedoed, with no loss of life but with
a huge hole blasted through both
sides of the ship. Ensign Bill Hardaker
and his crew in 72-P-l 1 found her on
October 30, and escorted her toward
St. Johns, Newfoundland. On October
31, while providing convoy escort off
Halifax, the old four-stack destroyer
Reuben James (DD-245) was
torpedoed and sank with the loss of
115 lives. These losses brought
Congressional action to relax the
restrictions of the Neutrality Act by
allowing U.S. ships to escort convoys
into combat zones and U.S. merchant
ships to be armed.
Just five weeks after these final
events in the history of the Neutrality
Patrol, the attack on Pearl Harbor
plunged the United States into WW II.
The Neutrality Patrol had served a
purpose -though not the one intended
by the directives of September 1939,
which established the patrol as
insurance against U.S. involvement in
the war in Europe. What had been
accomplished had an immediate and
profound effect on the war and,
ultimately, on our readiness for war.
As it began, the patrol safeguarded
our neutrality and the sanctuary our
home waters provided for ourselves
and for our future allies. Later, it
assured the delivery of war material
which kept our allies fighting in spite of

VP-51 aircraft parking area adjacent to

PANAM operations
base and hangar on
San Juan airport, late 1939. USMC
security patrol was on station at all
times.

overwhelming odds. And, it created

requirements for more and better
equipment and the personnel to man it,
Naval Aviation, especially the patrol
wings and squadrons, would have
been ill-prepared for war had it not
been for the demands placed on it by
the Neutrality Patrol and the resulting
stimulation and training, which
produced the high level of operational
readiness achieved by the time war
came. n
Note: The writer served in VP-52 (later
VP-72) from 1939 to 1943. This account is
based on personal recollection, his diary,
letters, review of VP-52 flight logs,
correspondence and interviews with
personnel of VP-52 and other squadrons
that flew the Neutrality Patrol, squadron
histories, and other historical sources.
Next in the WW II Series: Training
Aviators

Naval

June 14: The Naval Expansion Act

included authorization for an increase
in aircraft carrier tonnage of 79,500
tons over the limits set 17 May 1938,
and a revision of authorized aircraft
strength to 4,500 useful airplanes.
June 15: Congress revised its
previous action and set the aircraft
ceiling at 10,000 useful airplanes,
including 850 for the Naval Reserve,
and not more than 48 useful airships.
June 25: The Chief of Naval
Operations promulgated plans for an
expanded flight training program
calling for the assignment of 150
students per month beginning 1 July,
and a regular increase to an entry rate
of 300 per month within a year.

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