CHAPTER III 

 DIVISION 6 ORGANIZATION 



The Navy's Problem in 1940 . 



In June 1940 „ when NDRC came formally Into existence. 

 Secretary of the Navy Knox, in a request directed to Dr, F. B„ 

 Jewett, President of the National Academy of Sciences, asked 

 that the Academy appoint a committee to advise him and his 

 technical aide. Rear Admiral Harold Co Bowen, then Director 

 of the Naval Research Laboratory,, on ways and means to defeat 

 the enemy's submarines. 



This was a request that was welcomed by Dr» Jewett and 

 by Dr D Vannevar Bush, Chairman of NDRC, both of whom believed 

 that the anti-submarine problem was as urgent as the problem 

 of meeting the air attack on Great Britain and one that pre- 

 sented even greater difficulties The problem of undersea 

 warfare -- as Dr c Bush was to express it later in a letter to 

 Dr Jewett«-was "absolutely the kind of thing on which NDRC 

 ought to take off its coat and get busy," 



In response to Secretary Knox's request, the National 

 Academy of Sciences named a committee of which Dr Jewett and 

 Dr„ Max Mason of the California Institute of Technology were 

 the most active members In October 1940 a subcommittee was 

 established, at Admiral Bowen's suggestion, "to study the 

 scientific aspects of protection against submarine warfare" 

 and to "ascertain the degree and adequacy of the present 

 effort o" For chairman of the subcommittee selection was made 

 of Dr D Eo Ho Colpitts, former vice-president of the Bell Tele- 

 phone Laboratories, who had been closely associated with Dr„ 

 Jewett in anti-submarine work during World War I, The other 

 members of the subcommittee were Wo Do Coolidge, H, Go Knox, 

 Vern o Knudsen, and Louis B Slichter 



The members of the subcommittee spent a good two months 

 visiting the Naval Research Laboratory, Navy shore establish- 

 ments, anti-submarine craft. Woods Hole Oceanographic Insti- 

 tution,, and the Submarine Signal Company Some of their 



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