Chapter V

Operational Organization

 

The operational history of both the Seventh and Eighth Naval Districts is recorded at length in the History of the Gulf Sea Frontier. The statistics presented in that document tell an appalling tale of the disasters suffered by Allied shipping in Gulf Sea Frontier waters during the early months of the war, before adequate defensive forces were available. A few of those statistics indicate the extent of the enemy's success.

After sinking a total of nine merchant ships in Gulf Sea Frontier waters during February, March, and April 1942, the German submarines torpedoed forty-nine ships in May, twenty-five in June, and twenty in July. (Fifteen of these vessels were salvaged.) In August most of the shipping was under convoy, with air and surface protection; the snail amount of independent shipping was limited to fast vessels, which were routed so as to take advantage of coastal patrol by aircraft and surface craft. As a result, in that month only three ships were torpedoed, and in September one; then for five months no ships were torpedoed. During the remainder of the war only four more ships were sunk by enemy action in Gulf Sea Frontier waters.

Of the ships torpedoed in 1942, forty-one were torpedoed in Eighth Naval District waters - waters of the Gulf of Mexico west of a line from Ambergris Cay, Latitude 18° 05' N., Longitude 87° 45' W., to and excluding West Pass of Apalachicola Bay. Twenty-five of these

--82--


were torpedoed relatively close to the shores of Louisiana, and twenty of the twenty-five to the south or west of the Delta. In 1943 there was only one torpedoing in Eighth Naval District waters, and that was barely within the boundaries, at 25° 15' N., 86° 15' W. So far as is known, the enemy did not lay any mines in Eighth Naval District waters and did not shell any installations ashore. On 12 May 1942, however, there was an explosion at the mouth of the Southwest Pass of the Mississippi River at 0610, when the DD-343 was in the vicinity, and an investigation revealed that a torpedo had hit a jetty at the end of the river.

Besides presenting an account of the depredations of U-boats in the Gulf Sea Frontier waters, the History of the Gulf Sea Frontier presents the far more important account of the development and operations of the forces that caused the enemy to terminate his campaign in those waters. Though some of the facts given in that history necessarily appear here, the purpose of this chapter is not to repeat the account given there, but to present complementary information about the operational organization of the Eighth Naval District.

When the war began, the Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Naval Districts constituted the Southern Naval Coastal Frontier, the headquarters of which were at Charleston, South Carolina. On 4 February 1942 the Sixth Navel District was transferred to the Northern Naval Coastal Frontier, and the headquarters of the Southern Naval Coastal Frontier were transferred to Key West, Florida, with the Commandant, Seventh Naval District, musing additional duty as the Commander, Southern Naval Coastal Frontier.

--83--


On 6 February this command became the Gulf Sea Frontier. On 15 June 1942 the headquarters were moved to Miami. The Commander, Gulf Sea Frontier, commanded two forces: the Gulf Sea Frontier Forces, comprising ships and aircraft duly allocated by the Commander in Chief, U. S. Fleet; and the Local Defense Forces of the Seventh and Eighth Naval Districts, comprising ships and aircraft duly allocated to the districts by the Chief of Naval Operations.1

The Commander; Gulf Sea Frontier, retained direct control of certain forces in the Eighth Naval District, among them the air forces allocated to his command and stationed at Naval, Coast Guard, and Army Air Stations in the district. He assigned certain forces to the Commandant, Eighth Naval District, who served under him as a task force Commander. As stated in General Order No. 174, which was the basic directive on Sea Frontier Forces and Local Defense Forces during the two end a half years after 2 June 1942: "When Commandants of Naval Districts are assigned as Task Force Commanders by a Sea Frontier Commander, their duty as such shall be their primary duty."

Joint Operations Center

As the Commander, Eighth Naval District Forces, the Commandant coordinated and directed operations under his military control through the District Operations Officer, who performed this function through the Joint Army and Navy Operations Center.

The Joint Operations Center was established at Eighth Naval District

--84--


Headquarters on 22 December 1941 in accordance with a directive of the Chief of Naval Operations.2 As supervisor of the Joint Operations Center, the District Operations Officer maintained liaison with the Commander, Gulf Sea Frontier, and the Commanding General, Gulf Sector, Southern Coastal Frontier, Southern Defense Command. Active liaison had already been in effect between Army and Navy activities within the Naval District and the Army Corps Area through meetings of the Local Joint Planning Committee, which was composed of officers of each service in accordance with the doctrines set forth in FTP-155, Joint Action of the Army and the Navy.

At the inception of the Joint Operations Center, the Operations Officer was the only Naval officer assigned to it. By June 1942 the number has increased to seven, and by September to ten. At its peak the number was twenty-six, exclusive of officers in Operational Intelligence.

Shortly after the Operations Center was organized, a twenty-four hour watch was established with at least one Army and one Navy watch officer on duty at all tines. These officers were capable of and responsible for taking action for the Commanding General, Gulf Sector, Southern Defense Command, and for the Commandant, Eighth Naval District, on all routine and emergency matters. The Operational Intelligence section had kept a twenty-four hour watch since its establishment by the Commandant's order in December 1941; besides performing

--85--


various other duties,3 it kept a plot of enemy submarine movements is waters of the Gulf Sea Frontier. The Operations Watch Officer, later called Controller, was added to the Center in April 1942.

The Operations Center maintained records of characteristics, logistics, location, material and personnel readiness, and other factors affecting availability of operating forces assigned to the district. It kept records of the location and tasks of operating forces and the location and movement of all United States, Allied, and neutral shipping in the Gulf Sea Frontier.

It maintained a record of all vessels building in this and other districts which were to be fitted out and ordered to sea from the Eighth Naval District. In doing so, it maintained close liaison with the Industrial Manager, the Port Director, the Commissioning Details, and other activities within the district in order to expedite the onward routing of these vessels from the district. In the summer of 1943 a system was devised through which, by a glance at a card, one could discover the exact location and status of the vessel, and whether any action was pending. Dates and estimates reported by the Bureau of Ships, the Supervisor of Shipbuilding, and the Commissioning Details were kept on cards and incorporated in the semi-monthly report issued from the New Construction section to higher commands and to interested activities in the district. Shortly before the war ended, the Chief of Naval Operations advised

--86--


District Commandant, that they were to decide in all cases whether or not yard craft being built or placed in service in their respective districts were in all respects ready for sea.4 As a result, an officer from the Operations Office was assigned to maintain closer liaison with the fitting-out activities, his duty being to expedite the readiness of Y-craft for sea in matters of material and personnel. It was estimated that under this system as much as two or three weeks was saved for some vessels.

Beginning on 4 June 1942, the Army maintained Aircraft Warning Service Centers at New Orleans, Mobile, Houston, and San Antonio, in the same month the Commandant requested the Bureau of Personnel to assign a total of twelve Naval Liaison Officers to stand watches at these four centers. In October the requested officers reported for duty, thereby establishing closer liaison between the Joint Operations Center and the Interceptor Command. in November liaison with the Auxiliary Coastal Patrol was made more effective by the addition to the Operations Center of three Coast Guard watch officers who worked with the Controllers in matters pertaining to the Coast Guard, and particularly to the Auxiliary Coastal Patrol.

The importance of the Controller section in the centralized control of district operations is indicated by the scope of the services it performed. It was responsible for the following:

--87--


  1. Receiving, logging, and taking initial board action on all incoming dispatches, routing them immediately to the interested desk.
  2. Clearing all outgoing dispatches.
  3. Arranging for original berthing of New Construction vessels when Estimated Time of Arrival from upstream or downstream was known (including request for tugs from Port Director).
  4. Informing interested parties and Salvage Officer (Industrial Manager) of Marine Salvage, groundings, and collisions at sea; and arranging for surface and air assistance and screening.
  5. Taking initial action on advice of pollution of the Mississippi River, by informing proper authorities and requesting reports.
  6. Keeping informed of movements of all surface craft in Eighth Naval District, maintaining the permanent records of their movements, and handling incidents not of routine nature arising in conjunction with such craft.
  7. Alerting necessary activities on positions of foreign or friendly planes flying from, into, or through the Eighth Naval District (beginning November 1942, dissemination of air raid warnings was a responsibility of Controller).
  8. Handling operational natters pertaining to:
    1. Hazards to Navigation (other than mines, aerial bombs, and unexploded depth charges).
    2. Opening and closing of ports in Eighth Naval District.
    3. Small craft warning dissemination.
    4. Survivors of merchant vessels sunk, abandoned, or damaged.
    5. Medical cases at sea.
    6. Fire on board vessels at sea and in port.
    7. Execution of the Rescue Plan.
  9. Keeping informed on operational matters in Eighth Naval District, including the following matters (being ready to give information to authorized personnel upon request):
    1. Charts, recognition signals, Q-messages, and the like.
    2. Firing of guns at sea.

--88--


    1. Dropping of depth charges at sea.
    2. Compass adjustment and calibration.
    3. Channels for messages to men in service.

Section Bases and Frontier Bases

Since operating bases for the forces afloat were a prerequisite in the defense plans, the establishment of Section Bases was one of the major items on the program of expansion when the Eighth Naval District was reactivated. In the same month that the Joint Operations Center was established, December 1941, Section Bases were commissioned at the following district ports:

The Section Base at Panama City, Florida, was commissioned on 22 April 1943, after the worst of the submarine warfare was over. The Section Base at New Orleans, commissioned on 22 March 1942, was a Section Base in name only. Located over a hundred miles up the Mississippi River, it never functioned as a Section Base. Its primary function was to outfit, inspect, and make ready for sea small craft arriving from building yards; on 1 September 1944 it became the Industrial Command of the U. S. Naval Repair Base, New Orleans.

Except for the Section Base at New Orleans, which is not included in the following discussion, the Commander Inshore Patrol was charged with the inspection, supervision, and coordination of the Section Bases, the commanding officers of which were under his command. The commanding

--89--


officers of the bases were responsible for the operation, administration, and maintenance of the Inshore Patrol vessels assigned to the bases by the Commander Inshore Patrol; for making the facilities of the bases available to the other operating forces; and for carrying out the training program for personnel assigned to the bases for instruction.

The Section Bases provided fuel, ice, fresh provisions, and general stores for U. S. Navy ships and for British ships under the Lend-Lease Act. They maintained disbursing offices for vessels assigned to the bases and for visiting ships on Certified Money Lists, in addition to handling the administrative and operational traffic of the bases, the communications offices handled all the incoming and outgoing traffic for visiting vessels, the cryptography being performed by the local coding boards. The branch libraries of the bases furnished vessels with any registered publications needed and information concerning these publications. The medical departments served visiting ships as well as nearby activities without doctors and dentists, performing major surgery when necessary and giving hospitalization. The engineering departments kept up the vessels attached to the bases and did repair work for other vessels; the engineering force at Burrwood serviced about thirty ships a month for major repairs. The gunnery departments handled the storage and distribution of ammunition for various craft, and provided crews when necessary for the test firing of guns. A Mine Disposal Unit was located at the Sabine Pass Section Base.

The training program for officers assigned to the Section Bases on

--90--


temporary duty by the Bureau of Personnel was an inherent part of the operational organization. There was generally a total of about 125 officers on such duty. These officers were instructed in such subjects as blinker, semaphore, marlinspike seamanship, ship handling, first aid, and air and surface-craft identification. In addition to the instructional work, they were at first given regular duties on the base; then they were assigned to vessels attached to the activity. The officer complement of such vessels was composed of officers on temporary duty orders who, as they progressed in experience, assumed more responsible positions and in most eases became officers-in-charge.

There were Harbor Entrance Control Posts at Galveston and Pensacola under joint Army and Navy control, and there were Harbor Entrance Control Posts (Modified) at Corpus Christi, Sabine Pass, Southwest Pass, (just below Burrwood), South Pass, and Mobile (Port Morgan). The vessels attached to these units performed the military function of checking the identification of all vessels going in and out.

On 7 September 1943 the Vice Chief of Naval Operations directed all Naval District Commandants to consider the desirability of consolidating certain Navy and Coast Guard activities of the Naval local Defense Forces.5 Among the task groups listed for consideration, the Navy Department had not deemed it advisable to provide the Eighth Naval District with the following:

  1. Fixed listening Posts (underwater detection devices and radar backing up loops).
  2. Net and Gate Tenders.

--91--


  1. Fixed Naval Defenses.
  2. Minefield Patrols.
  3. Guardships.

The following task groups were already manned entirely by the Coast Guard:

  1. Harbor Patrol Boats.
  2. Examination Vessels.
  3. Coastal Lookout System, including lightships and lighthouses.
  4. Coast Guard Stations.

The Navy manned the following groups:

  1. Harbor Entrance Control Posts.
  2. Mine sweeping.

As to Section Bases, the Vice Chief of Naval Operations directed that a distinction be made between the smaller Section Bases, which supported Inshore Patrol and were, therefore, primarily district activities, and the larger Section Bases, which supported Sea Frontier Forces and escort vessels. The latter were to be redesignated "Frontier Bases." Both types of bases were to remain under the direct administration of the District Commandant. Where appropriate, Inshore Patrol organizations and Section Bases were to be manned by Coast Guard personnel.

The recommendations of the Commandant were reflected in the changes made in the Eighth Naval District when the Navy Department effected its reorganization of coastal facilities in all the districts.6 Because of their importance as units in Sea Frontier activities, the Section Bases at Burrwood and Galveston wore redesignated Frontier Bases. (Until December 1944 the Commander Inshore Patrol also had additional duty as Commander Frontier Bases, Eighth Naval District.) The Section Bases at Corpus Christi and Mobile (Fort Morgan) retained their designations

--92--


and status as units ashore of the Local Defense Force. The Section Base at Mobile (Choctaw Point) was transferred to the Coast Guard for operation as a part of the Inshore Patrol organization under the Commandant, and its designation as a Section Base was cancelled. On 4 February 1944 the Section Bass at Panama City was consolidated with and redesignated the U. S. Naval Amphibious Training Base, Saint Andrew Bay, Panama City, Florida - an activity under the Commander Fleet Operational Training Command, U. S. Atlantic Fleet. The Section Base at Sabine Pass was decommissioned on 1 March 1944.

Forces Afloat

The operating forces of the Eighth Naval District consisted of the following:

The Coast Guard operating forces and bases not normally assigned to other Naval commands were under the military control of the Commandant to reinforce other Naval facilities against combatant enemy action in an emergency. In this respect they were a part of the operating forces; their operations were under the immediate direction of the District Coast Guard Officer.

The Local Defense Forces were composed of the Inshore Patrol, the Auxiliary Coastal Patrol (Coast Guard), the Coastal Lookout System and

--93--


Beach Patrol (Coast Guard), and the Local Defense Forces Shipping Control Group.

The Gulf Sea Frontier Special Task Group and the Gulf Sea Frontier Shipping Control Group were part of the Gulf Sea Frontier Forces. The Commandant, Eighth Naval District, had operational control over the Gulf Sea Frontier Special Task Group; he had administrative supervision over the Gulf Sea Frontier Shipping Control Group, which was composed of the District Routing Officer (District Port Director) and the Convoy Control Officers at Galveston and Pilottown.

When the war began, the forces afloat under the Commandant were extremely small. On 13 December 1941 the only vessels available for Inshore Patrol were three AMc's, three YP's, one PC, and four Coast Guard 125-foot craft. There were no Offshore Patrol vessels. As to aircraft, there were six old Coast Guard unarmed observation planes. No aircraft bombs were available, and no depth charges except a few on five of the vessels mentioned. Bombs and depth charges, like vessels and aircraft, had been urgently requested.

Because of the shortage of vessels and the higher priorities elsewhere, however, the forces afloat in the Gulf could not be strengthened immediately. On 6 February 1942 only four vessels had been assigned to Commander, Gulf Sea Frontier, and two of those were en route to the Gulf area7. When the anti-submarine defenses on the East Coast began to be effective, the German submarines slipped through the Florida Straits and the Yucatan Channel and began their campaign against the unprotected

--94--


shipping in the Gulf. From May 1942 on, increasingly larger combatant forces were brought against the submarines in the Gulf, but it was not until August that the forces became adequate to make the enemy look elsewhere for easier prey.

The Commander, Gulf Sea Frontier, then had a Naval Air Task Group of seven planes at the Coast Guard Air Base, Biloxi, and an Army Air Task Group of seventeen planes stationed at Army Air Bases in New Orleans and Houston. He had an Emergency Naval Air Striking Group of twelve planes stationed in Pensacola and Corpus Christi, and an Emergency Army Air Striking Group of four planes at Shreveport. Almost all of these planes were armed with depth bombs. In addition there were forty-one civilian planes, about half of which could carry demolition bombs, in the Civil Air Patrol units in Pascagoula, New Orleans, and Beaumont.

In August 1942 there were thirty vessels under control of the Commandant, Eighth Naval District. Of the eighteen of these which had been assigned by the Commander, Gulf Sea Frontier, eight were on local convoy duty between Burrwood and Galveston, functioning as a part of the Gulf Sea Frontier Convoy system which had been set up the month before and ten were on patrol duty.

The pattern of disposition of forces under the Commander Inshore Patrol is indicated in the assignment of the forty-two vessels (including four crash boats) under his command in Way 1943:

Panama City, Fla. 3
Pensacola, Fla. 3
Mobile, Ala. 5
Burrwood, La. 11
Sabine Pass, Tex. 5
Galveston, Tex. 6

--95--


Freeport, Tex. 1
Corpus Christi, Tex. 6
Port Isabel, Tex. 1
Unassigned 1

Seven of these vessels were used for minesweeping, the others for patrol. Channels and entrances to Pensacola, Mobile, Corpus Christi, and Port Arthur were swept by Inshore Patrol vessels. Areas south, southeast, and southwest of Southwest Pass, Mississippi River, and shipping lanes between Galveston and the Mississippi Passes and between Galveston and Aransas Pass (Corpus Christi) were swept by vessels in the Gulf Sea Frontier Special Task Group.

The mission of the Inshore Patrol was to:

  1. Search for, report, and destroy enemy forces.
  2. Patrol shipping lanes in the most probable areas used by the enemy submarines for operations, or as ordered by the Commander, Gulf Sea Frontier.
  3. Enforce routing instructions, when directed by proper authority.
  4. Insure safe entrance to, and exit from, harbors, by sweeping channels and by providing escorts and patrols when circumstances warrant.
  5. Patrol Defense Sea Areas, and Defensive Coastal Areas, extending Patrols to seaward to cover swept channels and coastal shipping lanes and such other areas as were prescribed.
  6. Install, maintain, and patrol obstacles as necessary, especially during thick weather or darkness, to protect the obstacles and to prevent their being damaged by surface vessels.
  7. Provide Army Coastal and aircraft warning services with timely information of all enemy activity noted, and of the movement of friendly aircraft.
  8. Provide patrols for Convoy Anchorages; assist escort groups in covering sortie and entrance of convoys, as necessary.
  9. Assist in rescue and salvage operations, offshore, as required, within the sea-keeping qualities of forces available.

--96--


According to the records of the Operations Office, Eighth Naval District, the number of vessels under control of the Commandant in August 1943, excluding crash boats, totaled 144.8 Of these, 72 were Coast Guard vessels in the Coastal Auxiliary Patrol.

Auxiliary Coastal Patrol

In compliance with orders of the Commander in Chief, U. S. Fleet, dated 17 June 1942,9 the Auxiliary Coastal Patrol was established in the Eighth Naval District as a part of the Naval Local Defense Forces. Its functions were to patrol the coastal waters of the district on restricted patrol stations (pickets) in order to obtain information of the presence and activities of hostile submarines and floating mines, to give assistance to vessels in distress, and to rescue survivors of such vessels.

It was composed of Coast Guard Reserve boats and approved civilian offshore fishing boats. Commanded by the Coast Guard, it was under the immediate direction of the Commandant, Eighth Naval District (Operations). The fishing ("T-") boats were available one week per month for regular patrol with the Coast Guard Reserve boats, the approved "civilian reserve" personnel being paid at the regular rate for the Coast Guard. At its peak the organization consisted of 326 vessels. It was operated

--97--


by a separate Auxiliary Coastal Patrol headquarters through five group operational points or bases, in Panama City, Florida; Gulf port, Mississippi; Morgan City, Louisiana; Galveston, Texas; and Corpus Christi, Texas.

The need for the fishing vessels having passed, on 26 February 1943, pursuant to orders from the Vice Chief of Naval Operations, all such vessels in the Auxiliary Coastal Patrol were returned to their owners.10 In September of the same year the Commandant, Eighth Naval District, recommended to the Vice Chief of Naval Operations that the Auxiliary Coastal Patrol be dissolved.11 Ten of the Coast Guard craft had already been transferred to duty under the Captain of the Port, and ten others had been disposed of as otherwise authorized. The remaining sixty would be available for duty under the Commander Inshore Patrol or the Captain of the Port; twenty of them were armed and capable of staying at sea in good weather for forty-eight hours. As of 10 November 1943, the Auxiliary Coastal Patrol, having served its purpose, was discontinued as a part of the Naval Local Defense Force.12

Beach Patrol and Coastal Lookout System

A Coast Guard Beach Patrol consisting of a nightly patrol by motor vehicle where beach conditions permitted was instituted before 7 December 1941. Subsequent to that date and shortly after German personnel were discovered to have been landed from submarines on the coasts of

--98--


Long Island and Florida, the Coast Guard Beach Patrol was increased to the maximum possible with available men and equipment. Within a short while it was found that much of the beach in the Gulf area and in some cases territory lying inshore of exposed beaches was being patrolled by several agencies: Coast Guard, Army, Department of Justice (Border Patrolmen), Civilian Defense Forces, County Sheriffs, State Highway Patrolmen, and in some instances City Police. By way of rectifying matters, it was jointly agreed by the Army and Navy in July 1942 that the Beach Patrol was essentially a Navy function, and arrangements were made for placing the entire Beach Patrol program under the Coast Guard. The primary purposes of the Beach Patrol were as follows:

  1. To prevent the landing of enemy subversive agents from hostile submarines, or any other contact between enemy in submarines and the shore line of the district.
  2. To sight enemy submarines, or enemy submarine activity, and transmit the information quickly, in order that immediate attack might be made upon such submarines.
  3. To observe enemy attack upon merchant ships and transmit the information so that prompt rescue could be made.13

In accordance with a directive of the Commandant, U. S. Coast Guard, dated 25 July 1942,14 a survey of the Eighth Naval District coastline was made by Coast Guard officers together with U. S. Army officers of the Cavalry and Quartermaster Corps, and a plan of organization was drawn up which proposed the erection of 105 units and 25 watch towers and the assignment of 5,540 enlisted men; sections were to be set up in conformity

--99--


with Captain of the Port sections.15 The plan was approved, but the complement was reduced to 4,000 enlisted men and 100 officers, to be distributed as follows among the sections: Panama City - 606, Mobile - 476, Pascagoula - 211, New Orleans - 181, Port Arthur - 360, Galveston - 742, Corpus Christi - 760, and Brownsville - 666. The authorized complement was never reached. However, in September 1943 the Beach Patrol personnel totaled 23 officers and 2,350 enlisted personnel. About this time the complement was revised and reduced to 3,035 enlisted men. The full quota of dogs, 241, and the full quota of horses, 699, had been received and the patrols were in full operation. The horses and dogs were assigned as follows:

Section  Horses   Dogs 
Panama City 201 8

Mobile

162 24
New Orleans 0 6
Port Arthur 187 0
Galveston 71 46
Corpus Christi 48 47
Brownsville 20 108

One difficulty encountered by the Beach Patrol arose from its lack of legal authority to question and require identification of persons found on the beaches and to exercise other such controls. At the direction of the Vice Chief of Naval Operations,16 the Commandant, Eighth Naval District, requested the Commanding General, Southern Defense Command, to promulgate appropriate regulations establishing certain beach areas as restricted. The Commanding General, Southern Defense Command,

--100--


deemed it inadvisable, however, "to impose on the civil populace the suggested restrictions" in view of the diminishing possibility that the enemy would be able to land saboteurs or agents from a submarine along the coast.17

On 29 October 1943, when the submarine menace had all but vanished front the Gulf, and when manpower was badly needed for various other purposes, the District Coast Guard Officer recommended to the Commandant, U. S. Coast Guard, via the Commandant, Eighth Naval District, that the Beach Patrol, as such, be abandoned, and that, in lieu thereof, the Coastal Lookout System be expanded to embrace certain Beach Patrol units which could be converted into Coastal Lookout Stations.18 The proposed complement for the consolidated activities was 684, which was 2,463 less than the complement of the Beach Patrol. The proposal being approved, the consolidation was effected in November 1943. All dogs were returned to the Quartermaster Corps of the Army, and the horses were sold at auction. The Beach Patrol then Operated as a part of the Coastal Lookout System, under a plan that made use of various Coast Guard Light Stations and Lifeboat Stations. On 15 September 1944 the Beach Patrol and Coastal Lookout System ceased to function, with the exception of the Grand Cheniere, Louisiana, area, which assumed the functions of an Air/Sea Rescue Station.

So far as is known, no enemy agents were sent ashore along the Eighth Naval District coastline. In addition to maintaining their

--101--


watch, the personnel of the Beach Patrol and Coastal Lookout System effected the rescue at various times of Army aviators whose planes had crashed in the swamps on training flights; and the men attached to station 412, at Grand Cheniere, Louisiana, made a number of rescues that brought the Coast Guard considerable publicity.

Air/Sea Rescue

Prepared in accordance with orders from the Commander, Gulf Sea Frontier, the West Gulf Rescue Plan No, 1-42, 11 August 1942, brought together the Eighth Naval District rescue forces under the District Commandant as Commander, West Gulf Rescue Group. The components of the Group were the Inshore Patrol Sections and Bases, District Coast Guard craft, Auxiliary Coastal Patrol Sections and Bases, and Coastal Lookouts and Beach Patrols. The Commander, Gulf Sea Frontier, exercised general supervision over the rescue activities and ordered frontier vessels and aircraft as necessary and available to participate in rescue operations. Suitable civilian vessels, a list of which was kept by the District Port Director, could be used in the event an emergency warranted additional equipment. The Commander, West Gulf Rescue Group, coordinated and directed the units of the West Gulf Rescue Group through the Joint Operations Center, Eighth Naval District.

The West Gulf Rescue Plan was superseded on 20 January 1945 by the Eighth Naval District Rescue Plan No. 1-45, which set forth in detail the Air/Sea Rescue organization of the district. The organization was built up so that control of it could easily be transferred to the Coast Guard when hostilities ceased; a Coast Guard officer, under the

--102--


supervision of the District Operations Officer, served as Air/Sea Rescue Officer. From October 1944, when this officer took up his duties, until 1 January 1945, when the Gulf See Frontier Air/Sea Rescue Plan went into effect, the district organization was developed in detail and the necessary facilities were acquired.

The structure of the old rescue organization served as a foundation for the new. The Joint Operations Center remained the seat of centralized control in the Eighth Naval District, the district was divided into three main sectors - New Orleans, Pensacola, and Corpus Christi - each of which embraced many bases; the Rescue Plan listed fifty-one units with the facilities at each. The forces of the Sea Frontier, the District, the Coast Guard, the Naval Air Training Commands, and the Army were incorporated in the system. Though not under the Commander, Gulf Sea Frontier, the Air Commands activities at Corpus Christi and Pensacola accepted the responsibility in their local areas as parts of the coordinated larger plan covering the Gulf Sea Frontier.

Salvage

Shortly after the war began, on 20 February 1942, the Commandant, Eighth Naval District, issued an order to district staff duty officers informing them of the waterfront fire-fighting and salvage operations equipment in New Orleans, Mobile, Galveston, Corpus Christi, Port Arthur, and Beaumont, which was available in emergencies.19 Privately owned derricks and tugs, municipal fire-fighting vessels, and Navy

--103--


and Coast Guard equipment were listed together with the activities and agencies at which they were located. The salvage station at Key West, Florida, operated by the Merritt-Chapman and Scott Company, with which the Navy had signed a contract, could be called on to handle emergencies for which local facilities were inadequate.20

The Chief of Naval Operations on 28 February 1942 delegated to the Commanders of Sea Frontiers the responsibility for initiating rescue operations in the case of vessels less than 500 miles from the land of sea frontiers;21 and the Commander, Gulf Sea Frontier, directed the Commandants, Seventh and Eighth Naval Districts, to organize rescue and salvage services.22 The Eighth Naval District Operation Plan No, 1-42, which became effective on 17 April 1942, contained plans and instructions in regard to both types of services.

In a detailed letter of 15 August 1942 the Bureau of Ships, which had general cognizance over ship salvage and had control over funds appropriated for it, specified that the district organizations were responsible for salvage operations in Navy Yards and on Navy vessels in inland waters of the districts.23 It also stipulated that, in general, salvage of other than government vessels should not be undertaken by the district organizations. As the result of a recommendation made by the Bureau in September 1942, a Shore Salvage Station for the Gulf area was established at New Orleans, the salvage gear stocked being the

--104--


equivalent of gear carried by one salvage vessel. This station was under the Industrial Manager, who had charge of district salvage operations.

The Eighth Naval District Marine Salvage Plan No. 1-43 which was put into effect on 12 May 1943, gave in detail the responsibilities and duties of the Industrial Manager, the Section Bases, the Coast Guard, and other such activities and forces as were concerned in salvage operations. In 1943 facilities available to the Salvage Officer, a member of the Industrial Manager's staff, consisted of commercial, municipal, and Navy tugs and fire-fighting vessels at various ports as follows:

New Orleans 5
Mobile 5
Galveston and Houston 8
Corpus Christi 1
Port Arthur 12
Beaumont 4

The Salvage Officer kept current records on all available gear. He coordinated material facilities, and saw that key men had the training necessary for carrying out their duties. Several enlisted men were sent to the Navy Salvage School in New York City to qualify as salvage divers.

The Salvage Officer worked in conjunction with the Coast Guard in locating and removing obstructions dangerous to navigation. The principal emergency demands on his office resulted in the performance of salvage work aboard the LST 75, which became partly submerged near Panama City, and in rendering assistance on several occasions in refloating grounded vessels. One important salvage operation was the refloating in May 1944 of the merchant ship Pan Crescent; the grounding

--105--


of this vessel caused the South Pass of the Mississippi River to be closed to traffic for eleven days.

Weather

The potential damage that could be done by hurricanes in the Gulf area made it expedient to maintain an efficient system for ascertaining and disseminating information on the weather. Wartime restrictions on plain language weather reports having ruled out the routine peacetime sources, the reporting of weather at first was done largely by aircraft, with sporadic reports from surface craft, as they broke silence in accordance with Communications Standing Order No, 4. Beginning 2 December 1942 it was determined that special weather warnings should be cleared through the District Operations Office and reported by the Operations Center to Commander, Gulf Sea Frontier.

In April 1943 the BLANCO, a vessel with long sea-keeping endurance, was assigned by the Commander, Gulf Sea Frontier, to the Commandant, Eighth Naval District, for anti-submarine patrol in Zone 7 (mid-Gulf area). In this duty she was available for rescue, and was ordered to make weather reports daily at four appointed times.24 The weather reports made by the BLANCO during the hurricane season of 1943 proved so satisfactory that the Commander, Gulf Sea Frontier, assigned a two-ship patrol for 1944.25

In June 1943 the Commander in Chief, U. S. Fleet, set up a plan

--106--


for promulgation of hurricane advisories and warnings for the general public and for military installations within the district.26 The Commander, Gulf Sea Frontier, was responsible for seeing that timely advisories and warnings were issued to all Army, Navy, Coast Guard, and other interested agencies within the frontier; the Commandant, Eighth Naval District, relayed adequate warnings to the activities for which he was responsible. On notification of a hurricane in the Gulf area, the Sea Frontier Forces provided all available information to the Weather Bureau.

During the same month the Commander in Chief, U. S. Fleet, ordered the formulation of Joint Hurricane Evacuation Plans and the appointment of a Joint Hurricane Evacuation Board (Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard) in view of the approach of the hurricane season beginning in July and continuing through November. It was during the following month that a hurricane struck Galveston. Considerable damage was done but the Naval vessels involved were salvaged.

In April 1944 the Gulf Sea Frontier Blimp Squadron-22, based at Houma, Louisiana, suffered temporary dissolution as a result of damage caused by storms. One of the four K-ships crashed at sea on 19 April. An intensive search of the area where the disaster occurred was made by a task group under the Commandant, Eighth Naval District, but only one survivor was found. On 22 April the remaining three K-ships were destroyed at their base by tornado winds.

--107--


The hurricane that struck Corpus Christi in August 1945 did a minimum of damage, as there were ample warnings concerning it and the Hurricane Plans were carefully followed.

--108--


FOOTNOTES

1. SecNav Exec. Order No. 8984, dtd. 18 Dec. 1941.
2. OpNav 182010 Dec. 1941.
3. For further information on its duties, see Chapter VII, District Intelligence Officer.
4. CNO Ser. 0688623. dtd. 18 Dec. 1944.
5. VCNO Ser. 0695030 Conf., dtd. 7 Sep, 1943.
6. ComEight to VCNO Conf. Ser. 01347, dtd. 29 Sep. 1943, and Conf, Op13c-Jc, Ser. 013813, (SC)A4-2/NB, dtd. 15 Mar. 1944.
7. History of Gulf Sea Frontier, "Introduction."
8. For monthly statistics on vessels assigned to the Eighth Naval District, see Appendix G.
9. CominCh Ser. 00506, dtd. 17 Jun. 1942.
10. VCNO Ser. 068923, dtd. 26 Feb, 1943.
11. ComEight Conf. ltr. to VCNO, Ser. 01347, dtd. 29 Sep. 1943.
12. ComEight Ser. 02059, dtd. 10 Nov. 1943.
13. CGComdt to CESF, CG-CO-602, dtd. 23 Jul. 1942.
14. CGComdt to DCGO 8ND, CG-OP-602, dtd. 25 Jul. 1942.
15. DCGO 8ND to CGComdt, file 602, dtd. 22 Aug. 1942.
16. VCNO ltr., CG-L-602, dtd. 6 Mar. 1943.
17. CG SDC 2nd Ind. on ComEight Ser. 5803, dtd. 10 Apr. 1943.
18. DCGO 8ND to CGComdt, (o)-602-631, dtd. 29 Oct. 1943, and see ComEight Conf. ltr. to VCNO, Ser. 01347, dtd. 29 Sep. 1943.
19. Staff Duty Officers' Order No. 14-42, dtd. 20 Feb. 1942.
20. CNO ltr., Ser. 7338, dtd. 14 Jan. 1942.
21. CNO ltr., Ser. 344, dtd. 28 Feb. 1942.
22. CGSF ltr. A4-3/S94, dtd. 3 Apr. 1942.
23. Chief of BuShips ltr., FS/Lll-l(880)/EN28/A2-ll, dtd. 15 Aug. 1942.
24. CGSF Ser. 0512, dtd. 19 Apr. 1943.
25. CGSF Ser. 0643, dtd. 12 Jun. 1944.
26. CominCh Ser. 02057, dtd. 22 Jun. 1943.

Table of Contents
Previous Chapter (IV) * Next Chapter (VI)


Transcribed and formatted for HTML by Rick Pitz for the HyperWar Foundation