<text id=00he0405><title>The Air Service Strikes the Navy</title>
<history>US Air Force: Events History</history>
<article><hdr>The Air Service Strikes the Navy</hdr><body>
<p>The official test program began on 21 June with an attack by three Naval Air Service flying-boats that sank a German submarine, the U-117. The Navy bombed again on 29 June, dropping 80 dummy bombs of various sizes on the moving, remotely controlled battleship USS <hi format=ital>Iowa</hi>. The Navy airmen scored two hits, and the <hi format=ital>Iowa</hi> stayed afloat.
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<p>The Air Service had its first turn on 13 July against a German destroyer adrift 100 miles (160 km) offshore. Bomb size was limited by Navy rules to a maximum of 300 lb (136 kg). A dozen SE-5 pursuits strafed the ship and dropped 25-lb (11-kg) bombs in simulation of an anti-personnel attack to clear the decks and the defensive gun positions. The second wave was scheduled to be 14 DH-4s with 100-pounders, but Mitchell signalled them away and sent in his heavies, 16 MB-2s each carrying six of the 300-lb (136-kg) bombs. One by one they dropped, and by the 44th explosion the destroyer was sinking, 20 minutes after the start of the attack.
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<p>Ten strikes were scheduled against the next target, the German light cruiser <hi format=ital>Frankfurt</hi>, alternating Navy and Army aircraft. The first six strikes dropped the stipulated bombs of either 250-lb or 300-lb (90-kg or 136-kg) size, and did no damage to the hull, although they did smash some of the superstructure. The seventh wave was the Navy's, three planes with 520-lb (236-kg) bombs. They dropped seven and scored three hits before being waved off for an inspection by the umpires. The eighth strike was made by the MB-2s, and six of them, armed with 600-lb (272-kg) bombs, began their attack at 4:15 pm. At 4:50 pm the <hi format=ital>Frankfurt</hi> sank.
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<p>The toughest target was next: the German heavy battleship <hi format=ital>Ostfriesland</hi>, whose true tonnage had been concealed and never reported accurately, a strategem used later in the case of the German 'pocket battleships' of World War II. On 20 July, both Navy and Army aircraft dropped 52 bombs with very little effect even though the largest weighed 1,000 lb (454 kg).
