Existing comment:
World War I:
A Battleship Navy:
For almost a half century, the United States emphasized battleships, the largest and most powerful ships in the fleets of the day. Majestic and imposing, they were symbols of national pride and power. Although American battleships found little use in World War I, they remained the backbone of the fleet until the attack on Pearl Harbor.
1914-1918
The Great White Fleet:
Japanese victory in a 1905 conflict with Russia provided President Theodore Roosevelt with opportunity to demonstrate the might of the US battle fleet. He authorized a worldwide tour of sixteen ships, known as the Great White Fleet. He hoped the voyage would show that the Navy could operate effectively at long ranges and impress both American people and Japan, now seen as a potential rival.
The Cruise of the Great White Fleet -- December 1906 - February 1909:
On December 16, 1907, sixteen battleships of the United States Atlantic Fleet sortied from Hampton Roads, Virginia, on a fourteen month, 43,000 miles [sic] voyage around the world. At each stop along the way, including Japan which was not on the original itinerary, the ships and sailors received enthusiastic welcomes. The fleet arrived back at the United States in February 1909 without major problems. Roosevelt's expectations were met.
"... ready at the drop of a hat for a feast, a frolic, or a fight."
-- Rear Adm Robley Evans
Rise of a New Naval Power:
Disagreement between Russia and Japan over control of the Asian territory known as Manchuria led to war in 1904. The last battle of this conflict took place on May 1905, when the two navies met in the Tsushima straits between Korea and Japan. The Russian fleet was soundly defeated, ushering in a new era of Japanese dominance in the Pacific.
It took Russia's Baltic Squadron seven and a half months to reach Tsushima where, exhausted and in disrepair, it met disaster. Eight of the 12 armored ships were sunk, and only three of the 53 ships that set out from the Baltic arrived at a Russian port.
Hugh Rodman (1859-1940):
Rodman graduated from the Naval Academy in 1880. Shipboard duty and tours at the Hydrographic Office and the Naval Observatory preceded four years surveying the coasts of Alaska and British Columbia. During the Spanish-American War, he served in Raleigh in the Battle of Manila Bay. From 1907 to 1909, he attended the Naval War College. In 1917, Admiral Rodman served as Commander, Battleship Division 9, Atlantic Fleet, in his flagship, New York. Ordered to European waters late in the year, his division joined the British Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow. After World War I, he was appointed minister to Peru.
World War I:
A rationale for building battleships was anticipation of a naval war with Great Britain or Germany. When war came, the United States found itself allied with England, but the expensive battleships found little use. By early 1917, three years into the war, the British, desperate for supplies, needed American naval forces to keep shipping lines open; a job for destroyers.
Small and agile destroyers, equipped with weapons and sensors specifically intended for their mission, were [the] most efficient ships to combat the lethal German U-boats.
Convoys for the Allies - May 1917:
As soon as it officially declared war on Germany in April 1917, the United States dispatched every destroyer it could spare to European waters. The first six arrived in 1917. Within three months, 31 additional destroyers and two tenders arrived to lend a hand.
The first experimental convoys, assembled at Gibraltar and Hampton Roads, steamed to British ports with the loss of only one straggler.
Marines on the Western Front -- 1917-1918:
The Western Front, the border between German occupied land and Allied territory, stretched from the North Sea south to the Swiss border. The two armies fought from an elaborate system of trenches that ran the entire length of the Front.
When the United States joined the war, some 25,000 Marines joined Allied forces in the trenches. At Chateau-Thierry, Aisne-Marne, Saint-Mihiel, and Meuse-Argonne, they suffered some 2,500 casualties and built their reputation as America's preeminent fighting force.
German Surrender -- November 1918:
By the end of 1918, Germany was badly battered. Allied convoys had defeated her submarines. Her armies had been pushed back on German soil. Her High Seas Fleet was in mutiny, and her population reduced to near starvation level. With revolution imminent, Germany could see no other solution but surrender. Kaiser Wilhelm II, the German emperor, abdicated on November 8. Two days later, German representatives signed the armistice document.
Defining the Marine Corps Doctrine:
After World War I, the Marine Corps more clearly defined its critical role in the seizure and defense of advanced bases. In 1921, Maj Gen John A Lejeune, then Commandant of the Marine Corps, commissioned a study on potential amphibious targets in the Pacific. This groundbreaking analysis was followed by additional studies in 1931 and 1938 that became the foundation for the successful Allied amphibious campaigns of World War II.
Naval Disarmament:
In 1922, following the carnage of World War I, the United States, Great Britain, Japan, France, and Italy signed the Five Power Naval Treaty, which set limits on capital ship tonnage. As an immediate result, thirty obsolete American ships went to the scrap yards.
A few exceptions to the tonnage limits were allowed: England kept the Hood, Japan the Mutsu, and the United States converted Lexington and Saratoga from battle cruisers to aircraft carriers.
Aircraft:
In 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright made the first successful heavier-than-air flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. At first, the Navy and Army thought the most promising missions for this new invention would be limited to scouting and fire control. In 1912, the first naval aviation unit was established in Annapolis, Maryland. Two years later, Navy aircraft were employed in their first operations -- scouting and spotting enemy forces -- during actions in Vera Cruz, Mexico. By 1930, it was clear that flight offered even more strategically important possibilities.
Aviation came to Annapolis in 1911 when an aerodrome was established at Greenbury Point. The first pilot to arrive was Lt John Rodgers, Naval Aviator No 2. His airpalne, a Wright-build B-1, arrived in a box. On September 7, Rodgers demonstrated his flying skill to an audience of midshipmen.
Aircraft Carriers:
The idea of using aircraft carriers for more sophisticated roles was successfully tested during fleet war games. In 1929, the carrier Saratoga "bombed" the Panama Canal. A few years later, US carriers "attacked" Pearl Harbor.
Flight:
On November 14, 1910, Lt Eugene B Ely took off from an improvised flight deck on the cruiser Birmingham in Hampton Roads, Virginia. Two months later, he landed a plane on board the USS Pennsylvania in San Francisco Bay. The two flights demonstrated the feasibility of the aircraft carrier.
Bradley A Fiske (1854-1942)
Fiske's greatest contributions to the Navy were technical: inventing a number of important electrical and ordnance devices. He was one of the first officers to comprehend the revolutionary possibilities of naval aviation. His many books helped give the public a better understanding of the role of the modern Navy.
Although airplanes and torpedoes were a natural marriage, the chief problem was how to get the torpedo consistently to drop on time. Bradley Fiske developed the first workable torpedo release, making the torpedo bomber a feasible weapon.
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Theodore G Ellyson (1885-1928)
Ellyson was the first naval officer to be designated an aviator. In 1912, he flew a plan from a compressed air catapult mounted on a barge in Potomac River. He used his aeronautical skills during World War I to develop successful tactics for submarine chasers. He was awarded the Navy Cross for his efforts.
Sadly, Ellyson died in a plane crash while on a night flight traveling from Norfolk, Virginia to Annapolis.
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