Exercise Grand Slam was an early major naval exercise of the newly formed North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). This 1952[1][2] combined naval exercise took place in the Mediterranean Sea, and it included a naval force that was described as being "the largest armada to be assembled in that area since the end of World War II."[3] Exercise Grand Slam was an early test for NATO's Allied Forces Southern Europe. With Exercise Longstep, this exercise served as the prototype for future NATO maritime exercises in the Mediterranean Sea during the Cold War.[3]
The overall exercise commander for Grand Slam was Admiral Robert B. Carney USN, NATO's Commander-in-Chief Allied Forces Southern Europe (CINCSOUTH).[3] AFSOUTH component commanders during Grand Slam were:[7][8]
Allied Air Force South (AIRSOUTH) - Major General David M. Schlatter, USAF
Allied warships escorted three convoys of supply ships which were subjected to repeated simulated air and submarine attacks.[3] One convoy that departed Malta experienced air attacks every four hours and submarine attacks every five hours during its entire six days at sea. Opposition forces against this particular convoy included the French naval task force, land-based strike aircraft, and carrier-based aircraft from the Midway.[3] All three convoys arrived at their respective destinations although with numerous ships declared damaged or sunk by the simulated enemy attacks.[3]
Anti-submarine warfare (ASW) operations were also executed by the allied navies during Operation Grand Slam. However, a French submarine successfully penetrated the destroyer screen protecting the American-French carrier task force and successfully sank a target within that formation. That French submarine was subsequently declared to be heavily crippled by ASW forces.[3] Finally, a surface force consisting of eight cruisers and ten destroyers carried out a shore bombardment off the Sardinian coast.[3]
The overall exercise commander, Admiral Carney summarized the accomplishments of Exercise Grand Slam by stating: "We have demonstrated that the senior commanders of all four powers can successfully take charge of a mixed task force and handle it effectively as a working unit."[3] Exercise Grand Slam did receive comparatively little contemporary media coverage.[2] The U.S. Navy's All Hands magazine noted that Grand Slam was "an exercise which will probably prove typical of future NATO naval exercises."[3]
1 2 McAuliffe, Lt. Col. Jerome (Jerry) J. "The USAF In France 1950 - 1967". Friends Journal. 24 (4). Air Force Museum Foundation. It is published here with permission of the author
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