Peter Gourd, age 13, of West Warwick, Rhode Island, for his question:

Were dirigibles used in World War II?

Dirigibles are steerable airships and during World War II, squadrons of the U.S. Navy dirigibles wrote a glamorous page of American history. The monstrous and medium sized balloons were silent and maneuverable and, at night, almost invisible. Their mission was to patrol the seas and their most important contribution was the saving of lives and ships. During World War II, the U.S. Blimp Squadron operating from five Atlantic coast bases escorted 89,000 Allied ships though the infested ocean without losing a single one of them. Those life saving dirigibles made 55,900 flights and 87 per cent of them were ready to take off at a moment's notice.

An airship is in a perfect position to survey the land and sea below, to spot mines and mine fields, submarines and other enemy ships. Our navy airships of World War II performed these tasks along the shores of America and Squadron 14 crossed the Atlantic for service in the Mediterranean. They also relayed weather reports and took aerial photos of coastlines and menacing icebergs. They relayed their blimp's eye warnings of mines, impending collisions and other hazards and proved themselves to be just about the best craft for search and rescue work. Future historians may well wonder whether we could have beaten the Germans without our World War II dirigibles.