chatwin the museum director and tonight. we're going to be talking about billy mitchell and his atlantic tests with our with our special guests joining us from wisconsin. so with that said, i'd like to go ahead and introduce our speakers tonight. chris kohakowski has been a guest speaker here at the museum previously. he did used to live here in the hampton roads area. he specifically spoke at a couple of different summer of flight presentations that were really well received. during his time as the director of the macarthur memorial in norfolk. he's a reviewer and contributor to the air force journal of

indo-pacific studies and he recently moved to wisconsin. he assumed the position as as director up at the wisconsin veterans museum about the same time that i arrived here at the museum in virginia beach. so chris and i have never actually met in person, but he did great work with my predecessor jared through the world war ii heritage alliance that exists here in virginia, which is a really great program. and so he's pretty much been up there since just before christmas of 2019. so i hope you all join me in welcoming virtually chris who's going to take a look back at a really important event here in our region about a hundred years ago. that has some really interesting wisconsin connections. so chris if you can hear us we're ready for you to take it away. thank you very much. and it's it's great to be working once again with the military aviation museum. i really was always been impressed with the operation that you have there keegan, and it's it actually went jared and i had talked about doing this before he left for california

before i left for wisconsin doing something for the centennial of the billy mitchell tests and the bombing tests. and so it's it's great to actually be able to do that. i'll be at a little different format and from a different place than was expected, but it's it's great to see the turnout tonight and looking forward to a great discussion for those of you who may not be familiar with the veterans museum and we can talk a little bit more about this in the q&a. we are the state military museum of the great state of wisconsin. we're located in madison, and we're a an educational component of the educational component for the wisconsin department of veterans affairs and one of the things that we talk about we showcase the stories of wisconsin veterans from 1861 to the present. and we believe that every veteran is a story and wisconsin was there this still matters and so it's with those kind of themes in mind that we're gonna talk about one of one of the more famous wisconsin veterans in history billy mitchell and what he did a hundred years ago this summer and it tests in the

atlantic and june july 1921. i've got a formal presentation and we're gonna do and then afterwards i look forward to a great discussion and knowing some of the folks that are probably in the crowd tonight. i'm looking forward to a really really good really good discussion once we get done. so without further ado we'll go ahead and and get going and and go from there. if you get nothing else out of this presentation tonight, i want you to think about these three points. the atlantic bomb tests in june and july of 1921. the bombing tests are off cape henry about 50 miles east of cape henry were a major aviation milestone. much went into the tests and from the tests much flowed as well and in some ways you can still see their indirect effects even today both in the naval aviation, but also in the air force aviation communities as well. so this is a major milestone. it's not just the publicity stunt. it's a major aviation milestone. it should be regarded as such.

it also proved the big reason. it's an aviation milestone, but for many other reasons it proved that the airplanes alone could sink ships solely from the air. this is the first time this had been done. it was also a personal triumph for wisconsin's billy mitchell. and that should that personal aspect particularly from for from our perspective up here in wisconsin is something that that should be noted. and then the other thing is is that it foreshadowed the future. an impacted the development of american military aviation. so if you get nothing else out of this program tonight, those are the three kind of essential points of why this happened why what happened a hundred years ago this summer matters a great deal. so before we actually talk about the test, so before we talk about how they were conducted and what actually happened off the coast of virginia in summer of 1921. let's let's set some stage. let's set some background here for the tests. 1921 is at the end of world war. i was just after world war one

world war one having ended in november of 1918. powered flight has only been around for less than 20 years. it's been around for 18 years since the wright brothers flew the first airplane in december of 1903. the royal air force is three years old in 1921. the air force does not exist. it is the army air service. it's just one part and one branch of the us army at this point and it really aviation particularly powered flight is still very much as its infancy for those of you familiar with the collection of the aviation museum you get a sense of that when you go to the world war i hanger out there and you can see the technology is very much. that's that's the cutting edge of aviation technology in many ways even in 1921 when these tests take take off. one of the big other components to all of this is after world war i there's a there's a sense of retrenchments is the term

that they use we would we would call it today budget reductions or budget, you know, a budget constraints if you will. and the 1920 defense act sets a new structure for the post-war us army, but also sets a new a new structure for the post-war us navy it basically what it does is it shrinks the defense pie from what it was even before world war one into what they expect will be what we would call after the cold war. you probably have heard the term peace dividend. well, this is even though they didn't use the term. that's what basically it is the war to end all wars has been fought in one in 1918 and world war one. so the idea of needing a a massive military establishment in the future. it's just not something that the national united states national mood is willing to support. now this matters a great deal. because with the defense pie shrinking it affects plans for all the services.

the army is having debates over the future of technology that had been revealed in world war one things like the airplane the tank the internal combustion engine trucks mechanized warfare things like that. this is about the time that the tank corps. basically goes into hibernation for a while because of budget cuts and people like george patton go back to the cavalry. billy mitchell who is the deputy director of the air service is advocating very strongly for increased. in fact, he's advocating for an independent air force just like with the british have and realizes in his advocating that the airplane and future wars is going to be a decisive if not the decisive tool the decisive weapon in future warfare. so it's a big strategic debate within the army over. what what is how to structure itself and how to prepare for whatever the future may be in the next 10 15 20 years. on top of all that the united

states navy is undergoing a major naval expansion partly fueled by the 1916 naval bill, which had started really modernizing and expanding the navy and was really had it gone through would have made the united states navy the most powerful in terms of number of holes. in the world at the time, excuse me. so you got naval expansion on one hand the navy's trying to expand on the other hand. you've got the army trying to figure out what it's going to be in the future both from an air ground perspective and you've got all of these plans colliding together in the defense. if in the constrained of the 1920 defense act the navy realizes that mitchell's arguments and the arguments of the army for air and there are naval. there are naval aviators as well that are pushing this pushing. these arguments might be a threat to the expansion of the surface fleet. so they very quietly in the summer late summer of 1920 off a

tangier island and chesapeake bay. anchor an old battleship uss, iowa. and they run a few bombing tests on the iowa to see what the airplane really is and and try to do some some experiments. like i said, they do it very quietly. they involve some marine and some naval aviators just doing some tests just to see what's there. and then at the end wisconsin actually wisconsin native william leahy, we grew up here will conclude he'll summarize in the report. he'll say it is impossible for airplanes to sink ships. well that report gets leaked to the press and gets leaked to congress and very quickly it becomes clear. that it wasn't a real test. what the navy had been using was they've been using low slow biplanes. more importantly they had been dropping real bombs. they've been dropping either concrete bombs or sand sands sand basically big sandbags with the weight of bombs on to the

iowa and the idea was was to hit the targets more they were measuring more precise bombing than anything else, but it wasn't it didn't really prove anything. in fact, the only damage it would did to the iowa was a few dents here and there in the deck. they couldn't have done anything more. and so there are a lot of people and of course mitchell sees on this a lot of the air power advocates sees on this and say this isn't real you can't you can't say that without using live ordinance. congress gets involved and in this in the early months of 1921 is a harding administration takes over from the wilson administration passes a resolution basically basically demanding the navy. provide do a real test use live ordinance use modern ships and you surplus ships and let's see what this really is. what really is possible. let's put this to the test. these tests are going to be planned for the summer of 1921

with some follow-ups later, which will will discuss in brief, but the main focus of this presentation tonight is what happened in the summer of 1921. so that's how we get to the tests. that's how we get. this setup for the summer of 1921. now having explained the background, let's talk about what the navy because it's the navy will run the test. let's talk about what the navy is going to do and how they're going to structure this. and then we'll look at who's involved and a little bit more some of the details as we set the stage if you will for what's going to happen. it's later in the summer. the plan is this. they're going to anchor several capture german ships 50 miles east of cape henry and cape charles in other words 50 miles east of the mouth of the chesapeake bay. they're gonna run a series of tests over a series of days that are going to to involve attacks on the ship. they're going to involve strafing attacks bombing with various sizes of bombs. i'll show you some of that here in a few minutes.

um the navy views this and this is important the navy surface. fleet and most of the navy establishment views this as much or more as an ordinance test. to test what modern bombs are capable of against ship designs. air people want to sink the ships? so almost immediately. you have a bit of a conflict of objectives. but everybody realizes there's value in determining testing strafing and bombing and doing a methodical operation against these ships to see what's really possible. nobody really people still really don't understand or don't have a concept yet of what's really possible. so they're going to do that. they're gonna start with lighter ships. i'll show you the ships here in a minute. so you'll see what i mean. and then they're gonna go progressively heavier and basically have one of each major type of ship that are available in fleet at the time. after each major attack they are going to do this methodically as i mentioned after each major

attack naval observers will go aboard assess the damage see what happens and try and get some sort of sense as to what might have happened had this been an actual wartime condition. and so the navy's planting a very methodical sort of. scientific experiment if you will in some ways to see what would happen. the german ships that are going out are going out on a one-way ticket in fact, the entire atlantic fleet is going to be out there to both observe. but also in case something doesn't work in place in case the planes can't get the job done. the atlantic fleet battleships are there and some of the battleship gunners are preparing and are itching at the prospect of getting some gunnery practice in and last but not least this test has a lot of visibility to it the press covers it mitchell has cameraman with him. he's got he's got video. there's video on the ships maybe didn't really want that. but the army most definitely did. there's also vips senior officers of the army and the

navy the secretaries of the navy secretary secretary war the secretary of the navy various other politicians senior admirals senior generals lot of people are going to be here for this. this is this is a visibility. this is a major. there's a major test and everybody is interested. there's a lot that is everybody realizes is going to flow from whatever the results may be. and so there's a tremendous tremendous amount of interest. now let's talk about the targets. let's talk about who's involved here. you can see that the four ships that are involved as i mentioned us. you won one seven submarine, which actually done a lot of damage to american commerce off the east coast during the during the first world war and then surrendered after the war destroyer g102 armor cruiser frankfurts and the battleship ostrichland the last two being armored the other two being unarmed all of them are combat veterans and all of them had been surrendered by germany in

1918. and this this next bullet is important. there's a lot of misconceptions about these ships a lot of people say oh billy mitchell sank old battleships the targets that were here were old ships. they were worn out they were useless. quite the contrary all of these ships are 10 years old or less. they are extremely well built. they have all statistics survived combat as i mentioned several of them, particularly frankfurt and ulsterland at the battle of jutland in 1916 had sustained damage. most recently have been holding the whole by a mine still made it back safe and sound. um anybody that studies the german navy and world war one as i do actually i have a great grandfather who was being shot at by the german navy at jutland aboard hms caroline if you study naval war in world war ii you realize that german ships were some of the best designed and some of the best built of of the combatant worships.

these are thoroughly modern ships. they stack up very well against american ships of light type the last point that i would make as well about this, is that these ships even unmanned even just just what anchored offshore. are still extremely well designed the german design philosophy particularly for their battleships was to stay afloat. you can have all the guns in the world you want. was the ran the thinking but the primary objective of a battleship and to a lesser extent an armored cruiser and other types of ships was to stay afloat if you don't stay afloat, you can't accomplish any mission. so the german designs actually were some of the best in terms of creating watertight compartments being able to control flooding even innately within the design and so from a naval architecture standpoint. these are some revolutionary ships. these are not old ships. these are not worn out ships by any means these are worthy

targets and worthy. worthy measures for the flyers to take themselves against and so that's something that that i want to make sure is clear when you consider these tests consider the targets a lot of misconceptions, but there's more to it than what people think. so who's gonna be involved in the tests? well, most prominently most people are probably familiar with you know, they're familiar with these tests, you know, mitchell was involved from the united states army. they create the first provisional air brigade and they basically grabbed most of the available air service forces and bring them to langley air force base 125 planes. i'll show you pictures of a couple of them here in a minute. and a thousand personnel under the command of mitchell who is still the deputy director of the air service. not so well known is that navy and marine flyers were also involved and we're not under mitchell, but they would be acting in concert and in coordination with mitchell you can see they're dropping a variety of different bombs.

i kind of averaged out the types. there's some of the some bombs would be a hundred pounds. some would be 600 pounds, but this is basically you can see and they're gonna go from small all the way up to large as they go it based at at langley field as i mentioned. one of the things that mitchell realizes as he's starting to train and he's starting to he assembles his crew by may of 1921 and as they train as they go out of the chesapeake bay and they begin to bomb battleship silhouettes painted on the beach, for example, they go out and bomb islands. they go and bomb sunken rex off of tangier that have been sunk in gunnery exercises and things like that one of the things that mitchell realizes is what he terms the water hammer effect. so you can strike the ship directly and that can work. but you cannot do as much damage sometimes even more damage if you strike right next to the ship.

and and the force the explosion kind of like a depth charge against the submarine in world war ii creates what mitchell calls a water hammer you explode next to and slightly below the ship and the explosion blows up into the hull which tends to be more more less armored than the top part which is designed to repel shell fire. and so that's something he trains his people on as well is is if you even if you can't hit the deck a near miss is as good as a hit because of the water hammer effect as he calls it. so that's something to keep in mind the other thing that that they realize is because the bomb sites are very primitive. so level flight. her level attacks on these on these ships is not it's not really an effective tactic. so they perfect dive bombing at 60 degrees dive in at 60 degrees drop the bomb pull out over the top again very familiar for students of aviation in world

war ii, but this is one of the first of demonstrations that they will put on a dive bombing and they train this attacking these dummy targets throughout the chesapeake bay in the weeks before the tests begin. everybody understands the importance of the test mitchell works himself basically to the bone and at the end has infused everybody in the provisional air brigade with the importance of this and the importance of this to the future of aviation and the future of a potential us air force air corps, whatever whatever it may be. so that's who's involved in the test. that's the forces. let me show you a little real quick some of the planes. these will be the main bombers that are used the martin mb2, which is the most modern bomber in the inventory at the time. you can see they're loading ordinance there at langley before one of the test missions. this actually is us air force photograph, but that gives you an idea twin engine bomber there carries one bomb underneath and

then they'll also fly dh4s which will take care of the strafing runs more of a biplane fighter. um, very similar again to what was flown over france. these planes are starting to become borderline obsolescent by 1921, but those are the two the dh4 the mb2 or the main types of aircraft that mitchell will use over the over the ships and the same is true by the way of the navy and the marine corps flyers, although they'll also use some print seed plants early versions of seaplanes as well. so but there's some dh4s and just to give you an idea. this is over langley strip and in the lower left hand corner, you can see some of the hangers and get an idea of some of the base infrastructure. hopefully, my cursor is showing up and you can see there in the lower left. this gives you kind of an idea of what langley looked like sure looks a lot different today. of course. let me run so we've talked a lot about people and things. let me talk real quick about or excuse me about thing machines ships things like that. let me talk a little bit about

people of course the the leader in this. and probably the name that comes up first in these tests more than ever and more than anybody else and i've used it tonight. of course is wisconsin's billy mitchell's born in milwaukee father was a civil war civil war veteran had served in spanish-american war very briefly in wisconsin infantry unit that was commissioned in the regular army it flew experienced air commander in world war. i had led the largest air offensive in history up to that time in support of ground defenses that sonda hill and are gone after the war is the most experienced american aviator leading light for aviation still today. inspiration and some ways godfather to the united states air force um, it's impossible to overstate his stature in the development of aviation and his importance in the aviation. his mouth can get him since his his sometimes his own worst enemy. that's one of the reasons why after the war he's never

actually chief of the air service. there's always somebody over him to kind of keep a thumb on him. and of course it will get him trouble in 1925. that's a hole in the talkigan for perhaps for a hold of the time but here in 1921 billy mitchell. there's one person in the army air service that's going to lead these tests. there's really only one series candidate for that and it's william mitchell. and so here he is guys in 1936 buried in milwaukee the milwaukee airport for those who have ever flown through here is named mitchell international airport for billy mitchell. so he's still a very big name up here in a great state of wisconsin. there are some other people that are here some people you may have heard of and i want to run through some of those right now because again mitchell tends to is a very important name, but he's not the only name involved in these tests that will later be prominent as well. one of the pilots is half arnold. henry h arnold who later of course will become chief of the army air corps and then the army

air forces and lead them through world war two. he'll later become five star general of the army and then course joined the air force when it comes independent is the only gen 5 star general in air force history general of the air force. if mitchell is the godfather of the air force in many ways half arnold is the father of the of the independent air force. and so these two very important figures in the development of an independent air force. are right here at the tests. another one is clayton bissell. a lot of people may not really know clayton bissell. he command a 10th air force 1942 to 43. he was one of the flight leaders one of the prominent officers involved in the tests on the army side as well if you know anything about the china burma india theater and anything about the flying tigers, they have the run-ins with clayton bissell and bissell. it's bissell's tent air force that helps support them and work with them to the best of their ability, but he's a major player in the war in asia in world war ii.

sinclair street is mitchell's rear seat observer. and later as you can see commands 13th air force in the pacific 1944 to 45. after the war he is one of the key players in developing strategic air command. and it's through street that you can draw a direct line from mitchell. through him so the b-52 force that still is on duty today as part of strategic air command successors. and so this again is another tie to the modern air force. back to the tests of 1921 so but he'll be mitchell's rear seat observer through the entire through all the process of the tests. senior marine involved in the test. is this man here who happens to be one of the marine generals. i have i have great deal of admiration for roy geiger. is one of the marine aviation pioneers and later is probably best known for his time in world

war ii when he commanded the cactus air force on guava canal and then later the third amphibious corps in the capture of the marianas the capture of pelu and then the battle of okinawa and after the death of simon bolivar buckner jr. in action in june of 1945. he's the only marine to ever command a number of field army tenth army for five days, and then he's replaced by general joe still. on it. he'll be the marine observer for the surrender of japan in 1945 fascinating character and like i said senior green aviator the tests his deputy is this man francis mulcahy. who was the second ranking marine aviator in the tests later command second marine aircraft wing and the 10th army tactical air force in okinawa later on in the war and be a key air commander the battle of okinawa. so these are the two senior marine aviators. and then among the naval aviators. there's this guy feel like stump many of you probably have never heard of he's kind of a forgotten. a forgotten light if you will in

the different in the development of naval aviation, he's a carrier commander during world war ii. he's a task force commander 1944 to 45 if any of you are familiar with the battle of leyte gulf. the battle off of samara on the morning of the 25th of october when three groups of jeep carriers are surprised by japanese battleships the overall commander on the american side of those three groups of light-skinned escort carriers or jeep carriers as they're called is admiral stump. taffy one taffy two and taffy three is the group was what the groups are known for and taffy three did did most of the fighting. but the overall american commander that got other other airplanes and helped try and and coordinate a defense was admiral stump and he the navy cross for it. he'll later command second fleet at norfolk as you can see in the early 50s and after that become sync pack later on before retiring in the late 1950s, but he'll be a flyer in these in this these tests as well.

so those are some names you may recognize for other reasons. they're all so here a years ago this summer. let's get to the test themselves round one is june 22nd. there's you 117. i'm taken from the air. just that that morning just before she is going to be bombed the navy draws the first round and actually what they will do is they'll send out a group of seaplanes three seaplanes and they will fly level bomb right over the right over the the submarine drop three, very small spotting bombs, basically to gauge win turn around come back. and then they will each drop three bombs in succession that land right around the submarine. and within 15 minutes, you won one seven is gone. the speed of that shocked everyone mitchell was watching it from a top from above as well. he knew what was happening but for everybody on the observing ships.

it was amazing it amazed of how fast the submarine went down. it's not that big a surprise to us when you consider world war two and what happened with eric allied air attacks against you you votes or what happened with japanese attacks against american submarines uss wahoo, being one of the more famous ones. when in 1921 that is unknown nobody's ever been able to sink a submarine from the air even in non-combat conditions and when the sub went down fast it's shocked everyone. after a few days a few weeks they decide to go after g102 now mitchell has been given a free hand and how he to attack the destroyer and he decides he's going to use the demtry and demonstrate and trying experiment with the full capability of the provisional air brigade and so he sends out a two-way attack. the first wave will be basically the dh4 is the fighters whole point strafe the deck drop light bombs on the deck and try and

and see what see what machine guns will do to ships. in other words, sometimes that what the modern term we'd use is mission kill you're trying to get a mission kill if you can kill the captain and shoot up the bridge you might knock a ship out of action before just as easily as if you were to sink it. so it's make a two wave attack on the on the g102 in the morning outcome of squadron of dh4s. they bomb and strafe the g102 and basically make a mess. and in the early afternoon outcome the mb2s with five and 600 pound bombs and they launched several dive bombing attacks. they usually will bomb and they'll do this throughout the tests. they'll send two or three in on a bomb run wait a minute or two. see what the what the results of the previous run become apparent and then send in the next wave and that's what happens here at a g102 they attack her very quickly the water hammer has its effect. they actually drop a bomb down or stack she blows up in half

and after about an hour's worth of that attack is sent sinking and you can see this is a picture of her sinking here. yes. she's on fire. that should tell you something even with no fuel oil with no munitions still managed to set her on fire and there she goes. those have been unarmored ships. a few days later the navy the marines and the army go after their first armored shift, that's frankfurt and you can see her right here with a bomb impacting here as well. this time the navy in the marines are given the role of what the dh4s had played against g102 and that morning they bomb and strafe her quite a bit. and actually i believe although i'm not sure i believe this photograph if you study that ship very closely. it looks like the marines and the navy have done their work and they've made a mess of her superstructure, but you'll notice she's still floating. she's still there. so in the afternoon with a thousand pound bombs.

the army the provisional air brigade go after frankfort. and the navy had been has been afloat or been aboard her and had seen what the damage was and it assessed. mitchell flies out as the buzz a little bit while the navy finishes their assessments and then in the afternoon launches his attacks frankfurt lasts less than an hour. and she is sent to the bottom as well. so three ships three targets. three sinkings but that still leaves the biggest prize of all those trees lots the destroy of the battleship ostrichland. here she is on the eve of the final test and you can see they painted targets and aiming points various places on the deck both on the bow and on the aft turret here on the stern. and then there's also aiming points as well on the mast and this is also to help try and and

evaluate the trim of ship from a farm. but that is all streets on there. that is the prize. again, one of the more modern battleships only 10 years old. and a battleship that stacks up extremely well. against what's in the american fleet today? everybody understands this litmus test. mitchell put it best this was our real test. if we could not sync this great ship. the efforts against the other smaller vessels would be minimized. and the development of air power against shipping might be arrested. at least for the time being everybody understands what the stakes are. both in the air and on the sea. first round is july 20th, maybe in the marines also get the first shots. this is part of their attacks here. they go in with a hundred pound and 200 pound bombs strafe the deck bomb the deck you can see this is from some of their

strikes airstrikes here. this is what they do that morning. this is what it looks like that afternoon when the inspection team goes back ashore. you can see they've made quite a mess of the deck. they've also damaged the aft turret. they damaged some of the starboard side turrets. she's got a bit of a list supports. you'll know if you look real carefully along the water line here. this is pretty much a mission kill us free salon is taking water. when mitchell and his in his bombers will go in a little bit later after the first inspection. they will do some damage as well. the water hammer will do its work. although many people for observers will say see the battleship still afloat, but the observers will notice that there are a lot of seams that are broken a lot of the welds a lot of the rivets have been have been broken and and also free is taking on water. and you can see it even here. the trim is happening the battleships a mess.

this is effectively a mission kill, although she can get home they freely admit with good damage control loss-free slot would make it back to port so but this is the situation and this is what the ship looks like on the evening of the 20th. you'll notice by the way not just the turrets the deck a lot of this is deck plate that has been pushed up or bent up by bomb strikes either from the navy of the marines or also from mitchell's flyers as well. so this is this battleship has been has been seriously wounded. and it's been wounded and she's been wounded in particularly below the water line as well. so, you know the water hammers working. the next day mitchell and his crew come back with big bombs first a thousand pound bombs for the first strike, and then you see a little bit later the hitter again with 2,000 pound box. this is the first strike of the day two two mb2s have gone in and you can see the effects one bomb strike off the port one bomb strike off the starboard

side both near misses one actually bounced off us free slender self. the water hammer underneath is hitting that hole from both sides, and it's really pushing on it and starting to crumple the whole like you would a soda can. today this is what else threesome looks like late in the morning and the ship to the left is the flagship for the tests uss. shamas here. which steams over in the intervals between between strikes and puts the observers aboard and now the observers have come off and they're getting back and shaman is steaming away back to a safe distance, but you'll notice here. i was free salons. you'll notice her trim. her bow is a little bit more out of water than the stern is. start the port side. she's listening to port and you'll also notice how dark back section is. that's scorching. that's damage. that is that's a lot of serious

serious working over by the planes. in fact the observers when they went ashore or when they went aboard when they came back they reported it if this was wartime first of all, she's out of action second of all, there's very little chance she would get back to port. she's that badly wounded at this point. so not only do you have a mission kill you've effectively mortally wounded the battleship already. early afternoon mitchell and his second flight of mbt and another flight of mb2 is 12 of them this time carrying 2,000 bombs 2,000 pound bombs each will arrive and will launch another strike on australind and with mitchell observing will make their attacks and you can see here again the water hammer at work. you can see here again direct hits on the battleship as a matter of fact mitchell will call off the second half of the strike only six bombs are necessary. he said when the 6-1 went in he

said when a and as he would write later when his ship is dealt her death blow. it is immediately apparent. that he saw after the sixth bomb had gone in. let us free salons was done for. she begins to so it's a list of port she begins sink by the stern. and everybody with everybody watching. she begins to roll. she goes from level listening to port. over on her side and then over on her back. stern drops the bow claws at the sky. and then she's gone. as this happens street unbuckles himself from the back seat of mitchell's plane stands up and waves his arms starts cheering and yelling and yells. she's gone. she's gone. as those free slant disappears below the waves. billy mitchell and his flyers

have done it. they have done something that nobody said. that many people have maintained. was not possible. but they had done it. mitchell realizes the gravity of what he has just done. he actually admitted later being kind of emotional at the moment. he said we wanted to destroy her from the air. but when it was actually accomplished. it was a very serious and awesome site. he knows what he has just done. to celebrate he buzzes the vips aboard the transport henderson and this is a photograph of mitchell buzzing the the vips and you'll notice some atlantic fleet ships visible here in the distance off here to the right, but here's mitchell buzzing them and if you look real carefully on the deck, you'll notice a variety of reactions many people are cheering. some people are waving their hats. there were several admirals

particularly surface fleet admirals who were openly weeping. and had openly wet at the death. of us free slots because they knew. they knew the impact they felt the impact of what had had the power of what had just happened. that's where the title comes from. the admiral's wept. is this documented moment here where admirals are weeping aboard the henderson? billy mitchell has done it. his flyers have done it their theories have been validated their techniques have been successful and that night. they throw one heck of a party at langley to celebrate. this is a incredible moment and has been called. i think correctly the high watermark the high point of billy mitchell's career. as an air power advocate i think that's absolutely true. i mentioned some later tests. these will occur in september 1921 in the chesapeake bay with

uss, alabama. that's a photograph here and then in 1923 with uss, new jersey and uss, virginia off cape hatteras in both cases. they will test gas bombs white phosphorus bombs. that's actually a one of mitchell's planes dropping a white phosphorus bomb on the mass to the alabama there to test the effects of incendi aries to test the effects of gas on american ships older american ships, but nonetheless american ships and then mitchell will sink them and we'll send them all to the bottom replicating what he had done in the summer of excuse me in the summer of 1921 with those free the other german ships. what are the impacts of what he has done? what are the impacts of these four sinkings off of virginia in the summer of 1921? let's look at that because this really is. this is where you draw the line. this is where you can see still see the impacts of the tests

even today. the impacts the immediate impacts for the from the air perspective are very clear. it's a shot in the arm for the development of both air power and air forces air units in the army. but also in the navy. aviator steel validate army aviators use these arguments and use this momentum to get the army army air service created the army air corps. in 1925, which will later of course transform into the us army air forces in 1941 and then become the independent us air force in 1947. so it's a tremendous shot in the arm for the development of army aviation. over time it also spurs development on the navy side as well. marine aviators begin to realize the potential of ground support to ground troops. naval aviators in particular realize that in the future mitchell has proven that air

will be a part of naval warfare question is to what degree? but they also realized that land-based air will be a part of naval warfare when they're close to the coast, but when they're out in the middle of say the pacific or the atlantic they're going to need air power with them as well. and so that spurs the development of aircraft carriers and also spurs the development of naval aviation spurs the devote the first real aircraft carrier development uss langley uss, lexington uss, saratoga and so on. all begin in the late 20s and all are get a shot in the arm. from what happened off the virginia coast and actually mitchell has his own part of this as well because the naval the naval aviators successfully argue. the navy better develop aircraft carriers because if they don't billy mitchell in the army air corps are going to develop aircraft carriers and the navy doesn't want that. they don't want that army involved in. which i get. but it's a tremendous shot in the arm for naval aviation.

with would affects that we'll see is i talked about at the beginning much went into these tests much is flowing from these tests as well. and these are two things two major things that flow from the tests. and just to put put a fine point on everything. i just discussed admiral william fulham who had retired and would but was on the assessment board for the tests. well later write and we'll say the fleet with superior air forces. will no doubt when the next naval battle will write that shortly after the tests the the navy board that assessed the tests the day after the sinking of us free salon will say it is clear that the airplane quote is a powerful offensive weapon and more unquote. when you take those two statements and you look forward 20 years. to battles like coral sea midway philippine sea leyte gulf you realize they're absolutely right. the airplane is here to stay

it's gonna be important element for warfare. not just at sea, but warfare in general i would argue right up to the present day. there are people that disagree. any admirals particularly surface fleet admirals push back on the results validity? they argue the ships aren't maneuvering. they weren't defending themselves. they weren't conducting damage control. had they been doing all that they either a would have been able to just got dodge the bombs b. they would have been able to survive any damage or see they would have been able to shoot down all of the attacking aircraft with their ni aircraft weapons. now when you consider the technology the air technology of 1921. those are probably legitimate questions and legitimate points to be brought up. but they become particularly the aviators mind they become less valid. as the decades go on.

and by the time you get to world war i 1939 1940 1941. airplane technology surface ship technology has changed too, but air technology has changed those of you go to the aviation museum. just compare within the world war one hanger with what's compared with what's what's in the world war ii hanger and you'll get an idea of the dramatic change in airplane technology just over the 20-year period between the sinking of us free salons and us entry in the world war ii. planes are faster. they're more maneuverable. they can deliver bombs more effectively faster. it's it's a whole new ballgame. and so these this assumption continues until it will no longer be true, which will see here in a second. but this assumption continues and there are many people i would argue even today. there are some people that when i talked about doing this talk some people some of my

colleagues said all the 1921 tests were just a publicity stunt. you know had no real impact. i argue the opposite. and some of that some of this is this lingering at it is lingering attitude here the ships weren't maneuvering or defending themselves. it doesn't really prove anything. but the fact remains the incontrovertible fact remained and remains those ships were sunk solely from the air. something that had not been done before. and that's the last thing i would point out on the slide. is that the tests foreshadow? what happens in world war ii? mitchell's feet will be replicated in the future. and i want to walk through the time i have remaining before we open it for questions. i want a very quickly walk through those and demonstrate. the evidence to the contrary that airplanes can in fact kill battleships. the first evidence some of the

probably the better ones actually because this was done by biplanes swordfish was the attack on the italian naval base of toronto on the 11th of november 1940 by british british planes. they knock out a significant part of the italian fleet in an anchorage that was and was defending itself. you can see the the approach routes and then the torpedo drops here do a real do a real number on italian battleships. um, so that's the rate on toronto there in november of 1940 again against ships that are anchor granted. but they are defending themselves. they are conducting damage control and they knock out a significant part of the italian fleet. you can see damage to several battleships. you can see indicated here on the map. and then of course we come to pearl harbor december 7th, 1941 the japanese who had studied the taranto attack by the way, and had gotten some gotten some inspiration for the attack on the united states specific fleet of pearl harbor. this is a photograph from a japanese.

there's probably a famous photograph many of you have seen from a japanese attacker. this is battleship row here uss, nevada. here's uss, arizona, which has just minutes to live. and here's uss, oklahoma, which has already taken torpedo hits and is beginning to list support for she'll roll over very shortly. as a matter of fact, they just as a side note, they've been identifying unknowns including several, wisconsin unknowns from the oklahoma remains that have been recovered after the ship had been raised and buried his unknowns in the punch bowl. they've been able to finally bring those guys home and bring them back fully identified. again harbor that granted is caught by surprise. but those fight back. and does you know is can is conducting damage control as best. it can't granted. it is a surprise attack, but still. meet some of the some of the objections of the admirals that you know owes just the tests don't matter. well in this case you're getting

similar results different circumstances. and then we come to this just three days later. the first ships ever sunk wallet see open sea maneuvering and actively defending themselves force said because it's a royal navy. it's not forces e because it's a royal navy formation forces ed hms repulse. over here to the left and hms prince of wales over here to the right most modern battleship and a british fleet at the time is prince of wales part of the king george bif class battle crews are repulses 25 years old but a very modern ship you can see she's just taken level a level bombing attack by japanese bombers the two and a half hours japanese bombers and torpedo planes. sink first repulse and then sync prince of wales. and so now you have what mitchell foreshadowed has come to pass. airplanes can knock out modern capital ships battles battleships battle cruisers.

they've able to knock out destroyers and cruisers that have been proven in the mediterranean in 1941 many times. but battleships had always been in violent while defending themselves and at the in the open sea now they are no longer. that's no longer true. so the airplane begins its descendancy over the battleship by now. and if anybody had any doubts as to the days of the battleship are numbers. i was simply cite the three cases of the three most powerful axis battleships afloat in the last year year and a half of world war ii all three sunk solely by air power. first you saw she one of those powerful battleships ever built yamato class the japanese sunk by a mary it took a lot of strikes took a lot of a lot of bomb hits and torpedo hits to do it, but they did it. you saw she never fired on an opposing ship. with her main armament it was only american air power that sunk her in the central

philippines during the battle of leyte gulf on the 24th of october 1944. that is her in the foreground there and you can see the ferocity of the american attack on her, but she will sink that evening as a result of the wounds from the bonds and the torpedo hits from american airport. a few weeks later the german battleship terpits sister to the bismarck, which had been sunk in 1941 crippled by air power, but ultimately sunk by the royal navy battleship terpits raf lancaster's with big tallboy 12,000 pounds tall boy bombs dropping in and around her again the water hammer effect, but also some direct hits on the deck. she rolls over and and sinks in trondheim fjord in norway, and this is one of the fatal hits on her on the 12th of november 1944 taken from one of the british lancasters. and last but not least in many ways the ultimate kamikaze on a one-way trip to okinawa is the most powerful one of the most powerful battleships along with esau. she ever built the japanese

yamato on the 7th of april 1945 there have been some question as to whether or not the battleship fleet of the us fifth fleet should take her or whether the air power should take her and admiral raymond spruance who had spent his career until 1942 in surface ships told the battleship admirals to stand down and told the air admiral mark misher, who was wisconsin born by the way, you take them? and in a couple of hours yamato was sent to the bottom her magazines exploding on the way solely by american air power. and so these events from 1940 to 1945 demonstrate that what mitchell had proven in 1921. is true it's possible. and it marks the end of the battleship. after centuries as the primary arbiter of naval power it marks the eclipse of the battleship. an event foreshadowed in 1921

has now come to pass. and that is a tremendous prophecy and a tremendous legacy of what happens off the virginia capes in the summer of 1921. let me give you the last word. the sinking of osprey's life mark the beginning of what would be a slow end for battleships. we've just seen that over the last few slides. and then the air force official history of world war ii when they talk about the inner award period said disputes arose as to the matter, which the experiment had been conducted. and the joint boards report from the navy tended to be deprecate the effectiveness of aerial bombing. but the fact of the sinkings was indisputable. then when you think about that last sentence you realize arguably one of the most important shipwrecks. in the last hundred years is australia because of what she

symbolized what she prophecied the first battleship ever sunk solely by air power. it proved. that air was an important element of warfare going forward. it proved and prophecied that naval warfare would look a lot different. in the next conflict that it had in the last. and it gave a shot in the arm to the development of aviation. both from a us air force us army us air force perspective but also from a navy perspective as well. and in some ways you can trace the legacy the seeds that were planted in direct response to the 1921 tests. have flowered have borne fruit that are still with us today. and so when you think about what happened a hundred years ago, it seems like a long time ago. it's really not. and certainly when you start to trace the impacts trace what it

inspired what it guided and what it continues to influence today. that makes what happened a hundred years ago worthy of notice and worthy of reflection. and it was a wisconsin aviator. i just have to mention that sorry. it's a wisconsin aviator. who played an important role? in making it happen. if you'd like to know more, here's a couple of things that i highly recommend douglas waller's book question of loyalty is primarily about the billy mitchell court marshall, but it's also a very good basic biography of general mitchell. mitchell's book himself in 1925 wing defense includes an extensive his extensive account of the sinkings the navy history and heritage command on their website has outstanding pictures some accounts some official reports from the from the bombing some contemporary counts as well and assessments and then if you want to see what happens yourself the test footage is actually on youtube. the i viewed it as part of

preparation for this talk actually was the you could see you can see us free slots sync for yourself. and some of the other bombing runs against some of the other ships involved in the various tests as well. so i encourage you to take a look at those. at this point i am gonna open it for questions. i'd just like to thank everybody for being here. i really appreciate you taking time to learn this important history and i would just say if you haven't been down to virginia beach go see the aviation museum and certainly i would invite everybody next time you're up in madison. please come by and see us here at the veterans museum. but again, thank you all for your attention, and i'm looking forward to a great discussion. so keegan. thanks a lot and i'll throw it over to you you mentioned on one of your last slides that the end of the battleship was relatively slow in coming it would take, you know, another 20 years for the battleship to really be truly out of it. was that because of the navy's conservative approach to preparations for future war or

because airplanes had to get better to truly finish off the battleship. honestly, i think it's both. i think it's both. their militaries in general, you know, it's an old. cliche that military's tried fight the last war. that speaks to an inherent conservatism and an inherent inertia particularly if you have weapon systems that are working fine at the time. you don't necessarily aren't out in a hurry to replace them or upgrade them. that applies to a great extent to the battleship fleet. it applies to other things as well. i can think of other examples plus the airplane had to had to really mitchell demonstrated the potential of new technology. but it needed to catch up. it needs still needed development to truly. get to where it needed to be to take the role that it would ultimately take. i would argue the same thing is

true in submarine, you know the css hunley in charleston. you know when it sinks the these the housatonic in 1864. it's an interesting story. it's it's a daring attack. but it's another thing like that too where it demonstrates the potential of the new technology, but you still need another 50 years of technological development for the submarine really to start to come into its own as a weapon. and so that's that's what 1921 is. is it it foreshadows? it shows what the potential is. it shows what the likely future is or what a likely factor will be in the future. but the technology is not there yet. it is by 1941 and it definitely is my 1945. i think that's a great analogy to make is to connect it to the hunley. i think that's a story where we're all kind of familiar with that. they just were pushing just a

little past the what could be accomplished with the technology of the era. so chris. thank you again for spinning your time with us this evening. thank you everyone out there who joined us. it was our great pleasure to host everyone for this interesting look at at a critical piece of history that sort of changed the way worse were fought 100 years ago. so chris, thank you so much for being with us and have a great rest of your egood afternoon.