Skyscrapers" The Newsletter of US Naval Air Station, Bennett Field, Brooklyn, NY; Three Issues: June 1 1945; August 9 1945; August 16 1945
- New York: By and For The Personnel
New York: By and For The Personnel. Three issues, newsletter format on glossy paper. 30cm. 6pp per issue, with the central leaf laid in rather than stapled or bound. Some light toning or soiling to margins, otherwise all issues very good.
Produced in house at Bennett Field, but also publishing syndicated Camp Newspaper Service material circulated by the War Department, published throughout the US involvment in the war. June 1 issue commemorates the fourth anniversary of the commission of USNAS Floyd Bennett field, named for the Navy Machinist who co-piloted Byrd's mission over the Pole, who had envisioned an airfield being built on Barren Island to serve New York. Bennett Field's position as a vital military hub during WW2 was a natural extension of the field's interwar prominence in aviation history, with a slew of records being broken from the field by fliers like Amelia Earhart, Howard Hughes, and James Doolittle. The editorial for this issue mentions that 20,000 planes had been staged and delivered from Bennett in the four years since its commission, and memorialises its use as an anti-submarine Coastguard Base. Other news covered includes the standard base news involving glee clubs, inter service baseball games, jokes, cartoons, and the revealing of a new "electrical rocket cannon" capable of delivering "61,200 pounds of explosive in less than 12 seconds", which is stated as going into operation immediately and being "mighty bad news for the Japs."
The August 9th issue leads with the appointment of a new Commanding Officer after the retirement of Captain Newton H. White, and the headline "OWI Says Jap Air Force No Longer Capable Of Sustained Operations." The August 16th issue records the appointment of Captain Carlos Wieber as CO, noting his status as the prior Commander of the USS Essex, and his role in the destruction of the Japanese fleet in the Pacific.
"Skyscrapers", mostly due to its status as a 'home base' newsletter rather than on board ship or 'in theatre', is a rather more glossy and professional piece of military journalism. Printed on glossy paper, and with professional black and white photography, it is an example of established military publication in contrast to its typewritten and mimeo'd counterparts produced on ships or remote bases.
Produced in house at Bennett Field, but also publishing syndicated Camp Newspaper Service material circulated by the War Department, published throughout the US involvment in the war. June 1 issue commemorates the fourth anniversary of the commission of USNAS Floyd Bennett field, named for the Navy Machinist who co-piloted Byrd's mission over the Pole, who had envisioned an airfield being built on Barren Island to serve New York. Bennett Field's position as a vital military hub during WW2 was a natural extension of the field's interwar prominence in aviation history, with a slew of records being broken from the field by fliers like Amelia Earhart, Howard Hughes, and James Doolittle. The editorial for this issue mentions that 20,000 planes had been staged and delivered from Bennett in the four years since its commission, and memorialises its use as an anti-submarine Coastguard Base. Other news covered includes the standard base news involving glee clubs, inter service baseball games, jokes, cartoons, and the revealing of a new "electrical rocket cannon" capable of delivering "61,200 pounds of explosive in less than 12 seconds", which is stated as going into operation immediately and being "mighty bad news for the Japs."
The August 9th issue leads with the appointment of a new Commanding Officer after the retirement of Captain Newton H. White, and the headline "OWI Says Jap Air Force No Longer Capable Of Sustained Operations." The August 16th issue records the appointment of Captain Carlos Wieber as CO, noting his status as the prior Commander of the USS Essex, and his role in the destruction of the Japanese fleet in the Pacific.
"Skyscrapers", mostly due to its status as a 'home base' newsletter rather than on board ship or 'in theatre', is a rather more glossy and professional piece of military journalism. Printed on glossy paper, and with professional black and white photography, it is an example of established military publication in contrast to its typewritten and mimeo'd counterparts produced on ships or remote bases.