But in the forenoon of the 24th, a Black PBY, one of defunct Sandpiper’s brood, located the White carrier task force as it approached Puerto Rico from the north. In the afternoon, patrol bombers from San Juan and Samana Bay made three uncoordinated attacks on Admiral King’s task force. The planes attacked out of the sun at too high altitudes, about 13,500 feet, and the bombing was poor, a total of 76 bombs being dropped to no avail; the White ships monitored the radio frequencies used by the planes and maneuvered accordingly to avoid the bombs.
Then two other squadrons of patrol bombers, having left their base at 1300, reached the scene and began to cruise in the bright sky about twenty-five miles from the ships, waiting until a fuzzy mass of clouds drifted between the planes and the ships. At nearly 1700, with the sun behind them and the clouds masking the vision of the ships, the PBYs swept in in a horizontal attack from 13,500 feet. The lead squadron was supposed to attack the Lexington and the trailing squadron the Enterprise, but the planes became confused in the assault and more struck at “Lady Lex” than at the “Big E.”
The 30 planes dropped 116 500-pound bombs; the fliers believed that about 41 percent would have hit the carriers in actual combat, which was, of course, wildly optimistic. The umpires ruled both carriers moderately damaged, and Admiral King detached the worse-hurt Lexington. Although antiaircraft fire shot down a dozen attacking bombers during the day, essentially the carriers lacked sufficient fighters to maintain an effective combat air patrol over the task force, and this was the major reason why the lumbering PBYs were able to inflict crucial damage. It would be necessary in future to increase the strength of carrier fighter contingents.
At 0630 on the 25th, just south of 20N, about one hundred and twenty miles north of San Juan, the Enterprise launched her white, shiny planes into the brightening tropical sky; the buzzing planes climbed into squadron clusters and swarmed south toward Culebra, Samana Bay, Rincon Bay, and San Juan.
En route to Samana Bay, six Devastators of Torpedo Squadron 6 sighted the Black fleet for the first time. Admiral King ordered the planes to quit their assigned mission and try to find the Ranger, which he hoped might be in the vicinity of the Black main body. But the Ranger was 100 miles north of the main Black fleet in a separate task force for greater mobility and concealment, waiting to learn where the Enterprise was.
Scouting Squadron 3 off the Enterprise attacked a large tender and tanker in San Juan harbor and strafed ships, moored planes, and the airfield. Scouting 6, finding nothing at Culebra or Rincon Bay, finished the job at San Juan, sinking the tender Wright and tanker Neches. Then the planes strafed the moored seaplanes. Bombing Squadron 6 struck at Samana Bay, sinking the tender Langley and tanker Kanawha with steep, whistling dives; then the dive bombers strafed three small tenders and destroyed five planes on the sparkling, blue-green water. Out at sea, Torpedo 6 continued to search for the Ranger.
But the Ranger hit first. One of her scout bombers found the Enterprise at 0710, and between 0845 and 1040, the “Big E” was attacked by large formations of green-tailed Ranger planes. After a long fight, the fighter-poor Enterprise went down.
At 0915, the Torpedo 6 planes discovered Black carrier bombers on a northerly course, obviously returning from a strike. The TBDs trailed the scout bombers and at last found the Ranger. But it was too late. The Enterprise would launch no more planes, and the Lexington was far away and crippled.
King’s carrier raid had cost the Black forces two large tenders, two tankers, and 14 patrol bombers. Damage to facilities made it difficult to repair the 47 remaining bombers, and quantities of gas and bombs had been destroyed, severely curtailing the offensive potential of the surviving planes.
On their way home, the Enterprise’s plane-guard destroyers, Conyngham and Reid, ran into two White heavy cruisers, but saved themselves with a desperate torpedo attack, and although heavily damaged, escaped. The cruisers had not been alert, then made the mistake of closing too near the badly outgunned destroyers instead of smashing them with long-range fire.
Hoping that the Enterprise had done her job, Admiral Kalbfus for the first time ordered his fleet into range of Black air power; he had decided to close for the decisive surface action. The White fleet moved west; Admiral Andrews’ fleet steamed eastward to meet it.
White fleet had better battleships and two carriers, one still undamaged; Andrews had the PBYs for distant reconnaissance, which meant that he might find his foe first and gain the initiative with strikes by the undiscovered Ranger. It had the look of an even fight.
On the afternoon of the 25th, a PBY sighted the White fleet northeast of Puerto Rico. At 1527, a patrol bomber damaged the San Francisco in a high-altitude attack. At 1605, three seaplanes tried to bomb the Lexington from 12,000 feet, but all were shot down by the combat air patrol and AA fire. A minute later, three more planes attacked the carrier while the fighters were busy with the first group of attackers, but the shrewd ploy was wasted because the bombing was inaccurate and no damage was done to “Lady Lex.”
On the morning of the 26th, the high-flying PBYs kept the White force under steady scrutiny, mostly watching, sometimes attacking separately and ineffectively. The combat air patrol shot down seven of the snoopers during their long vigil. In the afternoon, the last bombs were loaded onto 22 PBYs at San Juan for the seaplanes’ final strike; it was only possible because the tender Williamson had sped to Trinidad and returned with 21,000 gallons of aviation gasoline swishing in her belly.
Meanwhile, White submarines formed an advance patrol line for Admiral Kalbfus’ force. The submarine Seal found the Ranger, but her skipper unwisely delayed sending off a contact report for an hour and a quarter while he stalked the carrier. At 1030, the Seal fired three torpedoes in a submerged attack from 2,500 yards, inflicting minor damage. Destroyer Patterson located the submarine and sank her with depth charges. Then at 1235, while the Salmon was cruising on the surface, her lookouts sighted against the horizon the dark, oblong bulk of Ranger; the submarine submerged for an approach, but her underwater speed was too slow, and the Ranger pulled away. Salmon fired four torpedoes at long range, but all missed.
But then, before the White carrier planes could hunt down the Ranger, before the Black seaplanes could try a final strike at the Lexington and Yorktown, the Problem abruptly and anticlimactically ended. It had run on long, and only one day remained in which to stage the battleship action which traditionally concluded Fleet Problems. It was time to fight the Battle of Jutland.
The battle commenced at 0600 on the 27th, the two forces stationed 120 miles apart on an axis running southeast-northwest, off the north shore of the Greater Antilles; no attacks were permitted for four hours to prevent the planes from inflicting damage while the battle fleets closed. The two sides used similar formations: heavy cruisers and destroyers in the van, then the battleships, with light cruisers and destroyers bringing up the rear. Planes from each fleet tracked the other, but because the fliers had much to learn of the nuances of over-water navigation and ship identification, the copious reports were sometimes confused or contradictory. White submarines scouted to the southwest, trying to stay on the surface to add range to the search; sometimes approaching Black planes forced them to dive, but they usually found that they could sight the aircraft long before they themselves were sighted and so could submerge to safety in ample time.
When the submarines found the Black ships, they essayed submerged attacks. However, the high-speed warships were difficult targets, and the submarines were able to do very little damage. The Snapper made an utterly impractical attack, using sound bearings alone. The battle line was hardly aware that it had been attacked. The destroyers screening the heavy ships were ineffective in discovering the submarines due to the high-speed operations