Editing Airship (section)

===World War II===
While Germany determined that airships were obsolete for military purposes in the coming war and concentrated on the development of aeroplanes, the United States pursued a program of military airship construction even though it had not developed a clear [[military doctrine]] for airship use. When the Japanese [[attack on Pearl Harbor|attacked Pearl Harbor]] on 7 December 1941, bringing the United States into [[World War II]], the U.S. Navy had 10 nonrigid airships:
*4 ''K''-class: ''K-2'', ''K-3'', ''K-4'' and ''K-5'' designed as patrol ships, all built in 1938.
*3 ''L''-class: ''L-1'', ''L-2'' and ''L-3'' as small training ships, produced in 1938.
*1 ''G''-class, built in 1936 for training.
*2 ''TC''-class that were older patrol airships designed for land forces, built in 1933. The U.S. Navy acquired both from the United States Army in 1938.
[[File:Goodyear ZNPK (K-28) Puritan (2834542477).jpg|thumb|Control car (gondola) of the Goodyear ZNPK (K-28) later operated by Goodyear as Puritan VI]]

Only ''K''- and ''TC''-class airships were suitable for combat and they were quickly pressed into service against Japanese and German [[submarine]]s, which were then sinking American shipping within visual range of the American coast. U.S. Navy command, remembering airship's anti-submarine success in World War I, immediately requested new modern antisubmarine airships and on 2 January 1942 formed the ZP-12 patrol unit based in [[Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst|Lakehurst]] from the four ''K'' airships. The ZP-32 patrol unit was formed from two ''TC'' and two ''L'' airships a month later, based at [[Moffett Federal Airfield|NAS Moffett Field]] in [[Sunnyvale, California]]. An airship training base was created there as well. The status of submarine-hunting Goodyear airships in the early days of [[World War II]] has created significant confusion. Although various accounts refer to airships ''Resolute'' and ''Volunteer'' as operating as "privateers" under a [[Letter of Marque]], Congress never authorized a commission, nor did the President sign one.<ref>Theodore Richard, Reconsidering the [[Letter of Marque]]: Utilizing Private Security Providers Against Piracy (April 1, 2010). Public Contract Law Journal, Vol. 39, No. 3, pp. 411–464 at 429 n. 121, Spring 2010. Available at [http://ssrn.com/abstract=1591039 SSRN]</ref>

[[File:mcastustin1.jpg|thumb|left|A view of six helium-filled blimps being stored in one of the two massive [[hangar]]s located at [[Marine Corps Air Station Tustin|NAS Santa Ana]], during World War II]]

In the years 1942–44, approximately 1,400 airship pilots and 3,000 support crew members were trained in the military airship crew training program and the airship military personnel grew from 430 to 12,400. The U.S. airships were produced by the [[Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company|Goodyear]] factory in [[Akron, Ohio]]. From 1942 till 1945, 154 airships were built for the U.S. Navy (133 ''K''-class, 10 ''L''-class, seven ''G''-class, four ''M''-class) and five ''L''-class for civilian customers (serial numbers ''L-4'' to ''L-8'').

The primary airship tasks were patrol and [[convoy]] escort near the American coastline. They also served as an organization centre for the convoys to direct ship movements, and were used in naval search and rescue operations. Rarer duties of the airships included aerophoto reconnaissance, naval mine-laying and mine-sweeping, parachute unit transport and deployment, cargo and personnel transportation. They were deemed quite successful in their duties with the highest combat readiness factor in the entire U.S. air force (87%).

During the war, some 532 ships without airship escort were sunk near the U.S. coast by enemy submarines. Only one ship, the tanker ''Persephone'', of the 89,000 or so in convoys escorted by blimps was sunk by the enemy.{{sfnp|Vaeth|1992|pp=20–21}} Airships engaged submarines with [[depth charge]]s and, less frequently, with other on-board weapons. They were excellent at driving submarines down, where their limited speed and range prevented them from attacking convoys. The weapons available to airships were so limited that until the advent of the [[homing torpedo]] they had little chance of sinking a submarine.<ref name="Vaeth 1992">{{cite book|last=Vaeth |first=J. Gordon |title=Blimps & U-Boats |location=Annapolis, Maryland |publisher=U.S. Naval Institute Press |year=1992 |isbn=1-55750-876-3}}</ref>

Only one airship was ever destroyed by [[U-boat]]: on the night of 18/19 July 1943, the ''K-74'' from ZP-21 division was patrolling the coastline near Florida. Using [[radar]], the airship located a surfaced German submarine. The ''K-74'' made her attack run but the U-boat opened fire first. ''K-74''{{'}}s [[depth charge]]s did not release as she crossed the U-boat and the ''K-74'' received serious damage, losing gas pressure and an engine but landing in the water without loss of life. The crew was rescued by patrol boats in the morning, but one crewman, Aviation Machinist's Mate Second Class Isadore Stessel, died from a [[shark]] attack. The U-boat, {{Ship|German|submarine U-134|1941|2}}, was slightly damaged and the next day or so was attacked by aircraft, sustaining damage that forced it to return to base. It was finally sunk on 24 August 1943 by a British [[Vickers Wellington]] near [[Vigo, Spain]].<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20010612154236/http://www.history.navy.mil/download/lta-08.pdf U.S. Navy LTA history]}}.</ref><ref>[http://uboat.net/boats/u134.htm U-134 history], ''Uboat.net''.</ref>

Fleet Airship Wing One operated from Lakehurst, New Jersey, Glynco, Georgia, Weeksville, North Carolina, [[South Weymouth NAS]] Massachusetts, [[Brunswick NAS]] and Bar Harbor Maine, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, and Argentia, Newfoundland.

[[File:USN ZP-14 Blimp at RAF Gibraltar 1944.jpg|thumb|K-class blimps of USN Blimp Squadron ZP-14 conducted antisubmarine warfare operations at the Strait of Gibraltar in 1944–45.]]

Some Navy blimps saw action in the European war theater. In 1944–45, the U.S. Navy moved an entire squadron of eight Goodyear [[K class blimp]]s (K-89, K-101, K-109, K-112, K-114, K-123, K-130, & K-134) with flight and maintenance crews from [[Weeksville Dirigible Hangar|Weeksville Naval Air Station]] in North Carolina to [[Naval Air Station Port Lyautey]], [[French Morocco]].<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Kaiser |first=Don |date=2011 |title=K-Ships Across the Atlantic |url=http://www.naval-airships.org/resources/documents/NAN_vol93_no2_KShips_feature.pdf |url-status=dead |magazine=Naval Aviation News |volume=93 |issue=2 |pages=20–23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150217071129/http://naval-airships.org/resources/documents/NAN_vol93_no2_KShips_feature.pdf |archive-date=2015-02-17 |access-date=2013-06-19}}</ref> Their mission was to locate and destroy German U-boats in the relatively shallow waters around the [[Strait of Gibraltar]] where [[magnetic anomaly detection]] (MAD) was viable. PBY aircraft had been searching these waters but MAD required low altitude flying that was dangerous at night for these aircraft. The blimps were considered a perfect solution to establish a [[24/7]] MAD barrier (fence) at the Straits of Gibraltar with the PBYs flying the day shift and the blimps flying the night shift. The first two blimps (K-123 & K-130) left [[Naval Air Station South Weymouth|South Weymouth NAS]] on 28 May 1944 and flew to [[Naval Station Argentia|Argentia, Newfoundland]], the [[Lajes Field|Azores]], and finally to [[Kenitra Airport|Port Lyautey]] where they completed the first transatlantic crossing by nonrigid airships on 1 June 1944. The blimps of USN Blimp Squadron ZP-14 (Blimpron 14, aka ''The Africa Squadron'') also conducted mine-spotting and mine-sweeping operations in key Mediterranean ports and various escorts including the convoy carrying United States President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] and British Prime Minister [[Winston Churchill]] to the [[Yalta Conference]] in 1945. Airships from the ZP-12 unit took part in the sinking of the last U-boat before German capitulation, sinking the ''U-881'' on 6 May 1945 together with destroyers [[USS Atherton]] and [[USS Moberly (PF-63)|USS Moberly]].

Other airships patrolled the [[Caribbean]], Fleet Airship Wing Two, Headquartered at [[Naval Air Station Richmond]], covered the [[Gulf of Mexico]] from Richmond and [[Key West, Florida]], [[Houma, Louisiana]], as well as [[Hitchcock, Texas|Hitchcock]] and [[Brownsville, Texas]]. FAW 2 also patrolled the northern Caribbean from San Julian,{{Clarify|date=March 2010|reason=where is this San Julian located, there are several, and cite would be helpful}} the Isle of Pines (now called [[Isla de la Juventud]]) and [[Guantánamo Bay]], Cuba as well as [[Vernam Field]], Jamaica.

[[File:Completed interiour view of 80th CB's LTA.jpg|thumb|Interior view of [[Carlsen Air Force Base|Carlsen Field's]] LTA hangar built by African American [[Seabee]]s of the 80th Naval Construction in 1943]]

Navy blimps of Fleet Airship Wing Five, (ZP-51) operated from bases in [[Trinidad]], [[British Guiana]] and [[Paramaribo]], [[Suriname (Dutch colony)|Suriname]]. Fleet Airship Wing Four operated along the coast of [[Brazil]]. Two squadrons, VP-41 and VP-42 flew from bases at [[Amapá]], [[Igarapé-Açu]], [[São Luís, Maranhão|São Luís]] [[Fortaleza]], [[Fernando de Noronha]], [[Recife]], [[Maceió]], [[Ipitanga]] (near [[Salvador, Bahia]]), [[Caravelas]], [[Vitória, Espírito Santo|Vitória]] and the hangar built for the ''Graf Zeppelin'' at [[Santa Cruz, Rio de Janeiro]].

Fleet Airship Wing Three operated squadrons, ZP-32 from Moffett Field, ZP-31 at NAS Santa Ana, and ZP-33 at [[Naval Air Station Tillamook|NAS Tillamook, Oregon]]. Auxiliary fields were at [[Del Mar, California|Del Mar]], [[Lompoc, California|Lompoc]], [[Watsonville, California|Watsonville]] and [[Eureka, California|Eureka]], California, [[North Bend, Oregon|North Bend]] and [[Astoria, Oregon]], as well as [[Shelton, Washington|Shelton]] and [[Quillayute Airport|Quillayute]] in Washington.

From 2 January 1942 until the end of war airship operations in the Atlantic, the blimps of the Atlantic fleet made 37,554 flights and flew 378,237 hours. Of the over 70,000 ships in convoys protected by blimps, only one was sunk by a submarine while under blimp escort.<ref name="Vaeth 1992" />

The [[Soviet Union]] flew a single airship during the war. The ''USSR-V1'' (also known as the SSSR-V1 or the CCCP-B1), originally built in 1932.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Journal of the Airship Heritage Trust - Dirigible|url=https://www.airshipsonline.com/dirigible/pdf_copies/No.%2065%20-%20Spring%202012/No.%2065%20-%20Spring%202012.pdf|publisher=Airship Heritage Trust|page=15}}</ref> and rebuilt in 1942 as the ''USSR-V12''.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Journal of the Airship Heritage Trust - Dirigible|url=https://www.airshipsonline.com/dirigible/pdf_copies/No.%2065%20-%20Spring%202012/No.%2065%20-%20Spring%202012.pdf|publisher=Airship Heritage Trust|page=17}}</ref>. The V12 entered service in 1942 for hydrogen delivery, paratrooper training, and equipment transport. It made 1432 flights with 300&nbsp;[[tonne|metric tons]] of cargo until 1945{{Citation needed|date=April 2025}}. In 1947, the V12 crashed into shed doors and caught fire. It was re-built and re-commissioned, as the ''USSR-V12bis'' ''Patriot'', in the same year.

On 1 February 1945, the Soviets commissioned a second airship, ''Pobyeda'' (''Victory''). The Pobyeda was used for mine-sweeping and wreckage clearing in the Black Sea, crashing on 29 January 1947.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Journal of the Airship Heritage Trust - Dirigible|url=https://www.airshipsonline.com/dirigible/pdf_copies/No.%2065%20-%20Spring%202012/No.%2065%20-%20Spring%202012.pdf|publisher=Airship Heritage Trust|page=17}}</ref>.