Big blue blanket
The big blue blanket was an
air defense system devised by John Thach during World War II for protecting American warships from attack by Japanese kamikazes
.
History and tactics
As the American island hopping campaign got closer to Japan, the Japanese military began to employ suicide operations more extensively. As Allied losses mounted, a system for countering incoming suicide aircraft was developed.
Thach, serving on
delayed action fuses on bombs dropped on runways to make repairs more difficult, [1]
The system left the picket ships extremely vulnerable to kamikaze attacks, but it gave more protection to aircraft carriers and troopships.
The system had an immediate effect. During its use in the
Liberation of the Philippines, "Despite an unopposed dry landing, 'suicide boats' and two hundred kamikazes made Mindoro's D-plus days as costly as Anzio's. Only saturation flights (called the "Big Blue Blanket") over Luzon airfields by Halsey's Task Force Thirty-Eight secured Mindoro."[2]