Nine Keys to Atlantic Defense

The huge convoy—the individual ships loaded with troops, military equipment, and supplies—put out from its rendezvous at Halifax on the 16th of September. Sub-chaser blimps and patrol bombers soared overhead and circled the convoy’s perimeters. The convoy ploughed steadily ahead over the placid sea, carrying its vital cargo to the active war zone in Europe. For the next two days the convoy would be out of range of effective air protection from Newfoundland, Iceland, or the United Kingdom. Ships’ captains glanced nervously about the vast reaches of the sea, then gave a sigh of relief as they saw the three task groups, made up of six escort carriers and their destroyer guardians, approaching from the south. The formation of planes nearing the escort carriers from the southeast caused the convoy commander to grin.

“At least,” he relievedly prophesied to an aide, “we’ll have some kind of air protection for the next two days even if we are out of range of our land airbases. Those enemy airbases in the Azores give me an uncomfortable feeling every voyage when we reach this longitude.”

The words died on his lips. He was staring towards the three task groups, surprise and horror suddenly freezing his features. There in the distance bombs were dropping from the planes which had been approaching the carriers a few moments before. Distant explosions echoed across the sea; flames leaped high from two of the carriers. Planes swirled over the task groups as fighter planes came diving in to protect their floating nests; the little destroyers began darting about crazily, filling the air with anti-aircraft fire. Off to the east specks in the sky became larger, and bomber formations could be seen winging directly for the convoy.

“Enemy bombers!” shouted the convoy commander. He quickly seized a nearby hand mike. “Battle formation for air attack!” he roared, the emergency nature of the situation making the use of code names unnecessary.

The ships were still sharply maneuvering when the planes droned overhead; bombs fell, pocking the sea when they exploded. Anti-aircraft fire covered the sky. Explosions rent the air; fires from burning ships and falling planes formed a red glow over the ocean’s surface. Then torpedoes from an enemy submarine pack, which had stalked the convoy waiting for this moment, plowed into the sides of limping stragglers.

Fortunately, this battle has never taken place—but it could! Not only possibly but probably such a battle would be the order of the day if an enemy power should seize the nine Azorean islands during a time of war. For the key to North-Atlantic defense, or offense, depending on the point of view, is the Archipelago of the Azores.

The very essence of Azorean history has been the strategic location of the archipelago in respect to the world’s shipping lanes. Even the colonization of the islands in the 15th century was necessitated by their strategic importance. Furthermore, the archipelago has played an important, and sometimes essential, part in practically every European or world war since that time. Today, instead of decreasing in importance because of the development of long-range air and naval warfare, Azorean bases are vital to any power who would control the Atlantic.

Now just where, you might ask, are these islands, and why are they so strategically important? Flores, the most westerly of the nine islands, is fixed almost exactly in the center of the North Atlantic, being approximately 1,000 miles from Lisbon, 1,100 miles from Newfoundland, 1,200 miles from Land’s End, England, and 1,100 miles from the African coast. The remainder of the Archipelago stretches in a southeasterly direction, roughly filling a rectangular area of 350 miles by 150 miles. The volcanic Azorean islands are the highest peaks of the longest mountain system of the world, a submarine chain which extends nearly 10,000 miles from Iceland to the Antarctic Circle. Since they are the only islands created by this mountain chain in the North Atlantic and the only islands located near the center of the North Atlantic, these nine island bastions of the Portuguese Republic are of enormous strategic significance to the NATO defense effort.

Ensconced directly in the sea and air lanes between the Americas and Europe, the Azores do not find their present strategic importance at all a new role. In fact, the struggle for control of the North Atlantic by various European nations has centered on and around the Azores since their discovery in 1432. The early history of the islands, for example, is entwined inseparably with the geographical expansion of Europe and the conquest of the New World. Prince Henry of Portugal, that energetic conqueror of Mohammedan cities of Africa and tireless protagonist of Atlantic discovery, sent his ships south along the African coasts to and beyond the limits of the then known world. His newly-developed caravels flew southward easily, carried by northerly winds and the south-flowing Canaries Current. By the time they had reached the jutting Cape Bojador fear had seized his mariners’ hearts, however, for they realized that with their little sailing ships they could not return the way they had come. The steady wind and current drove them southward and forced them still farther from their beloved shores of Portugal. They had only one alternative, and that was to push their ships westward out into the unknown, uncharted Atlantic Ocean, the Mare Tenebroso of the ancients. Beating to windward as much as possible once they had escaped the Canaries Current, these early Portuguese adventurers swung in a wide arc westward and northward, until at approximately 30° N. latitude favorable westerlies filled their lateen, sails. Blessing themselves and saying a “Salve, Rainha,” they thankfully urged their little ships with all possible speed back into Lagos or Lisbon.

During one of these wide arcs into the Atlantic in 1432, Prince Henry’s navigators discovered the uninhabited Azorean Archipelago. Many hawk-like birds, called Agores by the Portuguese, supplied the islands with a name which stubbornly resisted all changes despite numerous efforts to tag on other names throughout the course of five centuries. The islands were heavily wooded, were blessed with fresh water, and soon became havens for the Portuguese African fleets. Cattle and sheep were loosed on the archipelago to afford supplies for the ships, allowing the Portuguese to proceed greater distances along the African coasts in their voyages of discovery.

It was not long until the strategic military importance of the archipelago came to the fore. Castilians, Galicians, French, and Genoans saw the ivory, gold, wheat, pepper, and slaves which the Portuguese were bringing back from their new African empire. Greed sent pirate ships and semi-official sea raiders into the waters frequented by Portuguese merchant ships on their return to Portugal. Prince Henry in his village on Cape São Vicente, angered at this flagrant violation of his overseas domains, smashed his fist down on his chart table, sent warnings to the offending countries, appealed to the Pope to bring the “blackness of Hell down on the heads of these pirates and thieves,” and ordered the Azores to be colonized and fortified. He dispatched armed ships into the Atlantic, says a chronicler, presumably based at Madeira and the Azores, and prayed to an “Omnipotent God to deliver into his hands the thieving rascals” who were getting rich on his hard-won treasures. Thus in the very beginning the Archipelago of the Azores became baptised in naval gunfire,* and the Azorean colonists became extremely conscious of the strategic importance of their mid-Atlantic homeland.

Soon afterwards the Spanish entered seriously into the contest for world domination. Columbus, who lived for some years on the Portuguese island of Madeira and whose brother-in-law was the first governor of the Azorean island of Graciosa, discovered the New World for Spain. Seven years later the Portuguese nobleman-warrior Vasco da Gama reached India by the African sea route, and the great struggle between Portugal and Spain was on. Unfortunately for the Spanish, the Azores islands lay directly astride the best sailing route not only from the Orient to Europe but also from the New World to Europe. Thus, whereas the Portuguese treasure ships from their overseas colonies found safe havens, provisions, and hospitals for the sick and wounded in the Azores, the Spanish treasure ships from the New World found only an unfriendly people.

The climax to this competition arrived in 1577 when the Portuguese king, Dorn Sebastiao, died on an African battlefield. King Philip II of Castile put forward his claims to the Portuguese throne and in 1580 sent his armies driving upon Lisbon. Portugal fell to the Spanish might. Then, at long last, Philip pictured the Azorean bases safely in his hands as well as the Portuguese Oriental and Brazilian trade. But he hadn’t reckoned on the stubbornness of the Azoreans, who refused to submit to the rule of “that Castilian dog.” When his governor was not allowed to set foot in Terceira, militarily the most important of the islands, Philip ordered out a fleet with nearly a thousand troops aboard “to place that island in obedience to me.” But the “great inconvenience” which Philip says the Azoreans caused him was destined to continue for some time, for “that devilish governor of Terceira,” whom Philip bitterly assailed, organized an excellent defense and smashed the Spanish fleet.

For three years the Azoreans sank or repelled ship after ship, and fleet after fleet, until in 1583 a desperate Philip gathered a fleet of 122 ships, put 16,000 troops aboard, and placed them in charge of Spain’s outstanding naval genius, Don Alvaro Bacan, the famous Marquis of Santa Cruz. After a furious naval engagement in which nearly a hundred ships went to the bottom, the Marquis of Santa Cruz landed his troops at the least protected point on Terciera, and after a day and night of hand-to-hand combat the Terceirans were defeated. There remained only the mopping up process, and the islands were finally controlled by Spain.

Philip hurriedly rebuilt the forts which had been destroyed, and built more, making a virtual fortress out of the island of Terceira. He finished just in time, for the Azorean waters were soon filled with English ships which were attempting to intercept and capture the Spanish treasure fleets coming from America and the Far East. The islanders saw the sails of the command ships of Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Francis Drake, the Earls of Essex and Cumberland, and many other famous English sea commanders of that period. Battles raged in the Azorean seas. Some Spanish ships struck their colors; some were sunk; a few English ships went to the bottom. One of the most historic of these battles took place between the Revenge, one of the largest of Queen Elizabeth’s warships, and a Spanish fleet of some fifty ships including both merchant ships and escorts. Trapped near the island of Flores, the Revenge fought bravely and furiously for fourteen hours, at which time, ripped and razed, she gave up the fight and shortly after sank.

This sea warfare raged around the Azorean islands for many years with no great victories for either combatant. Although the Spanish lost some ships, the bulk of their treasure fleets came through safely year after year, running the gauntlet of English spotter vessels and seeking refuge in Terceiran harbors when a large English fleet moved in. The Terceiran forts were too dangerous for the enemy to attack, although the English often raided the other islands for plunder or -provisions. It will suffice to say that during the long years of warfare between Spain and the other European countries not one Spanish ship was taken from the harbors of Terceira once she was anchored under the protecting forts. Without control of this mid-Atlantic fortress the Spanish kings would certainly have lost a great deal more of their colonial treasure than they actually did, and without their American and Far Eastern treasure to pay their armies, Spain’s rulers would have certainly followed a much different path.

The Spanish kept a firm grasp on the Azores until 1640. Then, with a weak, confused king sitting on the Spanish throne and political intrigues proceeding badly for him in Europe, the Azoreans threw off their chains and claimed themselves independent. All Spanish troops and officials who surrendered to the Azoreans were put aboard ships and sent home. However, on Terceira the Spanish garrison manned the many excellent forts and put up stiff resistance to this revolt.

The Terceirans stormed one fort after another until only the impregnable Monte Brasil remained in Spanish hands. This Corregidor of Terceira, washed on three sides by water and connected to the main part of the the island by only a narrow neck of land, was strongly fortified on all sides. The islanders attacked the fort vigorously but were driven back with great losses. Finally the battle for Monte Brasil, the last remaining Spanish garrison in the Azores, settled down into a siege. With cannon mounted on surrounding heights the Azoreans warded off Spanish supply ships which sporadically approached Monte Brasil from the seaward side in attempts to give succor to the Spanish defenders. After a year and a half of this watchful waiting, the Spaniards surrendered and were shipped home. The Azores were once more free from foreign domination.

During the following years the islanders aided in freeing the rest of the Portuguese empire from Spanish and Dutch masters and finally by 1650 all the Empire had been released from its “Babylonian captivity.”

The Azores were important to the United States almost from the very beginning of the new American republic. During the Revolutionary War United States privateers watered and provisioned in the Azores, on one occasion exchanging shots with the inhabitants of Flores during a moment of misunderstanding. In the War of 1812 the American privateer, General Armstrong, being surprised at anchor in the harbor of Faial by two British men-of-war, fought gallantly and then was scuttled by her captain in order to avoid capture by the British.

Twenty years later the archipelago once more appeared in the world headlines. In 1832 the great Civil War of Portugal began, and Dom Pedro, first Emperor of Brazil, accepted Azorean support in his attempt to oust his tyrannic brother from the Portuguese throne and replace the absolutist monarchy with a more liberal constitutional monarchy. Pedro organized his fleets and armies in the Azores and in 1833 successfully invaded Portugal, forcing his brother to flee.

Once more, during our own Civil War, Americans were looking on their maps to find those nine dots in mid-Atlantic. This time it was the great controversy between the Union and England which aroused the new interest. The Confederacy had succeeded in having shipbuilders in Liverpool build some sea raiders for the South. Although the Union tried desperately through diplomatic means to prevent these ships from leaving England, the first, the famous Alabama which wreaked so much havoc on Union shipping, slipped out of port at night and sped to the Azores where she was fitted out and equipped for battle. This international headache was finally resolved through diplomatic negotiations, and the Azores were once more forgotten.

The role of the archipelago during World War I was not so easy to forget, however. The Germans developed and launched their now historic U-boat campaign against Allied vessels, sinking millions of tons of shipping. After America began supplying munitions and equipment to the Allied powers, the Atlantic sea war became intense. The Germans felt that by employing a forceful U-boat war they could effectively keep America out of the European war. But they needed Atlantic bases to mount and support a sustained U-boat campaign, for the long voyage to mid-Atlantic from Germany was time and fuel consuming and prevented them from employing their large submarine fleet to best advantage. Azorean bases would be ideal, they felt, for refueling and re-supply.

President Wilson became aware of this German interest in the Azores at least by February, 1918, for he expressed his concern to Secretary of State Lansing.

“This looks very serious,” he wrote, “I hope that we shall have sufficient information to follow [German activity in the Azores] very carefully and make the most definite protest, should the facts justify it, to the Portuguese government. What do you make of it all? Is it possible, in your judgment, that there may be a plot afoot to supply Germany with a submarine base on the route of American ships to the Mediterranean?”

Fortunately for the Allies, Germany’s highhanded dealings with the Portuguese Government forced Portugal into war against Germany. The United States was soon allowed to establish a naval base in the Azores. But the danger had momentarily been great, for after the war German intentions and negotiations were revealed. The famous German strategist, General von Reuter, even went so far as to tardily predict, “If Germany had had possession of the Azores, she would have won the war.”

However great a part the Azores had played in Atlantic wars during the last five centuries, it was not until World War II rolled around that the strategic importance of the islands was strongly felt in American military circles. Portugal, the Azorean mother-country, found herself in a difficult position by 1942. The Wehrmacht had gulped up France, Holland, and Belgium, forcing Portugal into a very uncomfortable corner. The strongly pro-Axis attitude of Franco’s Spain, Portugal’s only immediate neighbor, caused the Portuguese further distress. They well remembered the terrible results when they were in a similar position only a century before. That time it had been Napoleon’s troops, not Hitler’s, who had swept over the Pyrenees, across northern Spain, and into Portugal, devastating the Portuguese cities and driving the government into exile in Brazil. During World War II Portugal clung desperately to her precarious position of neutrality despite the pressure which was applied on all sides. Germany eyed the Azores as potential air and submarine bases from which Allied supply lines could be cut. Great Britain attempted to invoke several clauses of an old defense agreement but was successful only in having German residents of the Azores sent to the mainland. President Roosevelt, who as Assistant Secretary of the Navy had inspected the United States naval base in Sao Miguel during World War I, knew the strategic value of these mid-Atlantic islands and put pressure on the Portuguese to relinquish Azorean bases to the Allies.

In the summer of 1941 German military activity increased tremendously, and the readying of German Panzer divisions for immediate combat caused the Allies to fear for the fate of Portugal. The Portuguese Government prepared to move to the Azores on instant’s notice in case of the invasion of continental Portugal by these German armored divisions. With the moral support of Great Britain, the United States prepared a Marine landing force under Brigadier General Holland Smith which was to debark in the Azores to bolster the weak Portuguese units which were stationed there. At all costs the Germans were to be prevented from seizing the Azorean islands for mid-Atlantic naval and air bases. It was with great relief that the Allies received news that the German Panzer divisions had been thrown against Russia in the German invasion of that country. The U. S. Marine force, which was already under way, was diverted to Iceland where it served to protect the flank of convoys which were soon moving to Murmansk.

But the respite in Portugal was brief. In 1942 the Portuguese neutrality was thrown into greater jeopardy when the Japanese occupied the Portuguese island of Timor in the South Pacific. Thus, when Atlantic naval strategists were breathing freely once more, a blow from around the world caught many napping and caught them on their strategic solar plexi.

The crucial and climactic year of the great Battle of the Atlantic was 1943. In March, 1943, the ring of Allied land airbases surrounding the Atlantic was completed. Patrol aircraft flew out into the Atlantic from the east coast of the United States, from Newfoundland, Iceland, Great Britain, French Morocco, and the Caribbean islands. But during the same month in which this ring of anti-submarine airbases was completed, the sinking of Allied shipping in the Atlantic reached a total of nearly 600,000 tons—the third highest monthly figure of the war up to that time!

The Germans, taking advantage of the “blind spot” or area in which convoys were out of range of the protection of land-based planes, organized their “wolf pack” submarine tactics. While these huge wolf packs in mid-Atlantic struck savagely at convoys carrying troops and supplies to Britain, American aircraft in Iceland, French Morocco, Newfoundland, and the West Indies flew hundreds of futile patrol hours. In April and May the Germans made a desperate effort to sever the supply lines between the United States and Great Britain. In June the enemy’s subs withdrew to the southwest of the Azores, and with the aid of snooper aircraft and bombers which appeared between the Azores and Portugal, the supply lines to the Mediterranean were disrupted. In view of the fact that the Allies had no mid-Atlantic land airbases, the U. S. took the next best step. The Navy dispatched small aircraft carriers of the con- verted-type (CVE’s) to anti-submarine duty in mid-Atlantic. In August these escort carrier task groups sank ten submarines just west of the Azores. The escort carriers were proving themselves, but they were few in number and the Atlantic wide. In September, 1943, a battle between German U-boats and two Allied convoys resulted in a victory for the Nazi U-boats which converged on convoys ONS-18 and ON-202 and for six days hammered away at them. Although the Allies supplied land-based air protection from Iceland and Newfoundland, for four days holding the subs at bay, the convoys went without this support for forty- eight hours. Three Allied escorts and six merchant ships went down, and others were damaged before the battle was over.

After this battle the Allies exerted extreme pressure on the Portuguese Government for use of Azorean bases. With the liberation of Timor from Japanese occupation in mind, Portugal’s favorable decision was made in October, 1943, and German hopes for severing the Atlantic supply lines were shattered. Portugal allowed the Allies to use Lagens Field on Terceira and Santa Ana Field on Sao Miguel as anti-submarine airbases. Flying Fortresses, Liberators, and British aircraft almost immediately began smashing at U-boat concentrations north, west, and south of the Azores. Now air coverage from the Azores could be given the convoys, and the Atlantic “blind spot” which German strategists had so successfully used in their U-boat war was eliminated. Almost immediately the tonnage of Allied shipping lost in the North Atlantic dropped to unbelievably low figures, and the numbers of submarines sunk increased by leaps and bounds. The Battle of the Atlantic was not over but no longer was there any doubt as to the outcome.

At present another potential world war, which could become violently active whenever the Kremlin wishes to throw the switch, threatens to disrupt an already shaky world. If such a war should break out, the Atlantic inevitably would once more become an ocean of decision. But this time the Allied military strategists have realized the importance of the nine Azorean islands as mid-Atlantic air and naval bases in time. On September 6, 1951, eight years after that gloomy September of World War II when the outcome of the Battle of the Atlantic looked blackest for the Allies, Portugal announced to the world that, “The North Atlantic Treaty Organization having indicated that the Governments of Portugal and the United States of America should enter into an agreement defining the facilities in the Azores . . . the two Governments have concluded a defense agreement defining these facilities, integrating them into the framework of NATO defense plans, and fixing respective obligations.” Furthermore, the announcement continued, the facilities granted to the United States may eventually be extended to other members of the NATO. Thus the Lagens Airfield on Terceira, which has been constantly used by the United States Air Forces since the end of World War II, and other Azorean bases would be available to the Allies from the very beginning.

More important still, possession of these strategic bases by the NATO nations at the present play no small part in the prevention of the outbreak of a third world war. And as General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who led the Allied powers to victory in Europe in World War II, has stated, the only way to win World War III is to prevent it.