From dropping anchor on the 6th until mid-day a week later, Majuro Lagoon was a bustling hive of activity as a non-stop parade of supply and repair vessels churned to and from every ship of Task Groups 58.1, 58.2 and 58.3. Provisioning and maintenance, some of which had been delayed due to the pace of operations, was the obvious priority and despite being off the front line there is not a single mention of any liberty for any of the crew. No swim call. No beach R&R. No movies in the hangar bay. There was a war on, after all.
From the afternoon of the 7th, when USS Neosho transferred 374,182 gallons of fuel oil and 46,000 gallons of aviation gasoline up until 2352 on the 11th, the resupply effort was virtually non-stop and Princeton's holds, voids and ammunition storage spaces were filled with food, fuel and firepower delivered to her from an even dozen separate support vessels.
In a country unified by an existential threat, there is little appetite for arguing about the relative primacy of guns or butter.
On the 10th, Commander, Fifth Fleet Admiral Spruance has shifted his flag from USS NEW JERSEY to USS INDIANAPOLIS — both ships with storied histories, the latter's end a particularly tragic one — and had gotten underway for seas unknown to the writers of the War Diary.
On the 12th, working parties, which haven't changed much over the decades...
USS Iowa, October 26, 1944: Loading the Larder--- Human chain of enlisted men parade on the decks of a battleship of the Iowa class as they load her with provisions for a cruise. The amount of supplies needed by a warship of this size for a sea mission is staggering. . . and the end of a day of loading operations, the work crews are staggering, too.' 26 October 1944
Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Erica Tapia participates in a 50-man working party during a replenishment with the USNS Charles Drew in the South China Sea, April 26, 2016. Tapia is assigned to the embarked 7th Fleet staff on the USS Blue Ridge. Navy photo by Seaman Timothy Hale
...continued to stow and store provisions while Captain Buracker and members of his staff left the ship "to attend an official conference aboard the USS ENTERPRISE, which is to be the flagship of Task Group 58.3 in place of USS YORKTOWN for the next operation."
Where the men of Princeton were headed next remained, as usual, unremarked upon. One thing could be counted on however: wherever they were going next would involve zig-zagging and, because the Pacific Ocean covers 63,000,000 square miles, lots of it.
As an island, Engla ...err... Great Brita ...uhh... the United Kingdom imported two thirds of its food, most of the metals and chemicals for its defense industry, and all of its oil.
It was not a surprise therefore, that shortly after the commencement of hostilities in 1914, German U-boats began to target Great Britain's lifeline: the merchant ships that were delivering all those guns and all that butter.
In January of 1914, First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill remarked on his belief that Germany attacking merchant ships without warning was not something that "would ever be done by a civilized power." The Germans, being Germans, adopted a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare without a second thought. It was a valuable lesson for the young Churchill, and one he would not forget.
By 1917 Allied navies adopted a "convoy system," (which would remain a viable tactic for Teutonic conflagration part two) gathering merchant vessels in a group and stationing warships around its perimeter to protect them as they plodded their way across the Atlantic, the slowest merchantman dictating the speed of the convoy.
Added to the protection provided by the convoy itself was the implementation of altering course randomly — "zig-zagging" — in order to make the targeting solution of enemy U-boats more difficult to achieve. Initially, the zig-zag was performed only by the armed escorts...
...but eventually, the maneuver was adopted by the entire convoy.
At the risk of making perhaps too deep a dive into the finer points of the zig-zag, I offer what I think is a rather compelling description of what performing the maneuver entailed, and the potential disaster were it not executed to perfection:
On one trip when the George Washington was flagship of the convoy, there were thirteen vessels with over thirty-five thousand men on board to be landed in France. There were vessels representing six different nationalities—there were "native-born" American vessels, "naturalized" ex-Germans, both merchant ships and a former raider, a Hollander, all under the Stars and Stripes, and there was a British vessel, a Russian manned by the British, and an Italian,—the last three chartered to help carry our men over. The British and Italian were under their own flags and officers, and with two American naval officers and a signal force and perhaps guns' crews furnished by Uncle Sam, so that there was always a naval representative to see the convoy orders carried out.
When passing through dangerous waters, or even when approaching possibly dangerous waters the zig-zag was continuous so long as there was light to see a certain distance, for even a darkened ship looms up a long distance, on a night that is not cloudy and overcast.
Imagine five ships in line and 800 yards apart, also a ship 800 yards astern of each of the first line, and then three more ships astern of the middle of the second line similarly spaced. Imagine these three lines of ships with about forty-two thousand souls in all on board going through submarine waters, and each ship zig-zagging. The changes of course must be made simultaneously. A special clock known as the "zig-zag clock" on each ship had to agree to the second with the zig-zag clock on every other ship. Each ship must put the rudder over on time to the second;—each ship must make her turn of twenty or thirty or forty degrees at and in the same time interval or a collision may result. The zig-zag must be begun as dawn breaks or the moon rises, and must continue until darkness is established. It is not dark on a cloudless night. The "Northern Lights" may be, and on some occasions were, as bright as moonlight. The glow of a cigarette may be seen half a mile at night at sea.
Incredible, what humans can accomplish. And the little machines they can create to make extraordinary things happen:
I mentioned earlier that where zig-zagging was concerned, math was involved. And math makes my head hurt. This was apparently not the case for the folks at Navy Department's Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) who in May 1918 published the Analysis of the Advantage of Speed and Changes of Course in Avoiding Attack by Submarine.
They also discussed zig-zag specifics:
Let us now return to 1944 and attempt to summarize the War Diary's seemingly endless documentation of zigs and zags.
After reading a few of the seemingly endless volumes of analyses and reports regarding how best to avoid being on the receiving end of an enemy torpedo, and comparing that early guidance with what actually takes place in the War Diary, it seems to me that the defensive tactics created by ONI in 1918, focused on the Battle in the Atlantic, were largely still in use twenty some years later in an ocean on the other side of the globe:
(a) Changes of course at intervals varying from 10 to 20 minutes. (b) Changes of course varying from 10° to 40°; when changes of course are small, they must be made at frequent intervals. (c) Course should not be the same as the base course at the end or beginning of an hour.
The U.S. Fleet War Instructions of 1944 include the following, broader guidance:
701. When practicable, known submarine waters are avoided. Also effort is made to avoid passing through, or in close proximity to the same waters traversed in the preceding twenty-four hours. 702. When cruising, the officer in tactical command normally orders his command to zigzag in accordance with a prescribed plan, whenever there is a probability of encountering enemy submarines. Various types of zigzag plans are promulgated but the commander is not restricted thereby from preparing his own plan if he so desires. In the preparation and selection of zigzag plans consideration is given to the size and type of the formation and disposition, the availability of vessels for the antisubmarine screen, the speed that can be maintained, the time and fuel available, whether or not submarines are definitely known to be in the area and the maneuvering characteristics of the ships, particularly non-combatant ships. 703. Generally speaking, all vessels, even though adequately screened, zigzag in submarine waters. 704. During thick weather and at night, except on very clear nights or during bright moonlight, vessels normally cease zigzagging.
To me, the moral of the story is not necessarily the reason for the maneuver but rather the utterly professional, to the point of making the exceptional appear routine, execution of it. As Task Force 58 and her almost 60 men-of-war prepared to depart Majuro Lagoon, it was arguably the most powerful and impressive naval force to ply the waters of any ocean in history.
Post-script: The advent of advanced undersea weapons that no longer require a human to estimate speed, range, course in order to calculate lead angles and firing positions, have made the zig-zag a quaint historical afterthought. In the 21st century however, the oceans remain utterly and completely vital to America's survival. I would argue that as a nation, dare I say as a Navy, we have forgotten that fact and let our focus drift to peacetime priorities which have little to do with fighting and even less to do with countering those with hostile intent.
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