Miles Rutherford Browning (April 10, 1897 – September 29, 1954) was an officer in the United States Navy in the Atlantic during World War I and in the Pacific during World War II. An early test pilot in the development of carrier-based Navy aircraft and a pioneer in the development of aircraft carrier combat operations concepts, he is noted for his aggressive aerial warfare tactics as a Navy captain on the Admiral's staff aboard and at Nouméa during World War II. His citation for the Distinguished Service Medal states: "His judicious planning and brilliant execution was largely responsible for the rout of the enemy Japanese fleet in the Battle of Midway." Naval historian Craig Symonds disagrees, however, writing that "the citation claimed that Browning was 'largely responsible' for the American victory at Midway, an assertion that some historians have taken seriously but which is manifestly untrue."
Browning served as Admiral William Halsey's chief of staff aboard as it launched air attacks on Japanese-held islands across the Pacific in February and March 1942, helped plan and execute the Doolittle Raid that launched 16 Army twin-engine B-25 bombers from to bomb Tokyo in April 1942, served as Admiral Raymond Spruance's chief of staff aboard USS Enterprise during the Battle of Midway in June 1942, served as Admiral Halsey's chief of staff at Nouméa during the Guadalcanal campaign in October–November 1942, and commanded the recently built new aircraft carrier during the early weeks of the Western New Guinea campaign in April–May 1944. He was removed from command in May 1944, after a shipboard incident in which a Hornet sailor drowned. For the rest of the war, he taught aircraft carrier tactics at the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He retired in 1947.
Early life Miles Browning was born in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, the son of Sarah Louise (née Smith) and New York City stockbroker Oren Fogle Browning, Jr. He attended public schools before his appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, in 1914. His class graduated early; he was commissioned Ensign with the Class of 1918 on June 29, 1917, a few weeks after the U.S. entered World War I.Mountain Lakes Library. Rear Admiral Miles Rutherford Browning . Accessed 2006-08-09.
Career Following graduation, Browning briefly served on , a battleship of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet. From February 1918 he then had duty in connection with fitting out the battleship . In June 1918, he joined the French cruiser Lutetia, and was an observer aboard while she operated with Cruiser Force, Atlantic Fleet, through the end of the war.
After the end of World War I, Browning spent four consecutive years afloat, serving on the battleship (flagship of the Atlantic Fleet), on the destroyer , and as Engineer Officer of and later (destroyers operating with the U.S. Pacific Fleet). Lieutenant Browning joined the destroyer in 1920, serving as executive officer (XO) until he was transferred a year later to similar duty as XO of the destroyer . From 1922 to January 1924, Browning served as Senior Patrol Officer on the cruiser and the destroyer , operating out of Naval Station San Diego.
In January 1924, Browning reported to Naval Air Station Pensacola for flight training. He showed exceptional skill in the cockpit, but also exhibited a "wild streak" that struck his squadron mates as "potentially dangerous."Wildenberg, Thomas. Destined for glory: dive bombing, Midway, and the evolution of carrier airpower. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1998. . Designated Naval Aviator on September 29, 1924, he became one of America's earliest Navy combat pilots, joining , America's first aircraft carrier, which had been converted from the Navy collier . From January 1925 until May 1927, Browning was assigned to Observation Squadron 2, attached first to the minelayer , then later to the battleship . Advanced to Operations Officer, he served for two years at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia. He was assigned his first aviation command in July 1929: Scouting Squadron 5S, the aviation unit of the light cruiser . During that time he performed additional duty on the staff of the commander of Light Cruiser Division Two of the Scouting Fleet (USS Trenton, flagship).
As an aviator flying warplanes between the wars, Browning helped develop and implement fighter aircraft tactics and strategy; he also helped shape how Navy combat aircraft were designed and built. In July 1931, he reported to the Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics to serve in the Material Division (Design), and spent the next three years helping to design and test combat aircraft. As a test pilot, he crashed a plane in 1932 and was laid up in a San Diego naval hospital. The new monoplane fighters Browning and others piloted went through numerous upgrades in both structure and function, every design change hotly debated by men whose lives were at stake. Browning was part of the group of "progressives" who pushed for development of a fast high-performance fighter, with maneuverability secondary to speed. These men felt that a true fighter had to be fast enough to quickly overtake and shoot down enemy planes. Unfortunately for Browning and his like-minded colleagues, the Bureau of Aeronautics continued to emphasize maneuverability, climb rate, and flight ceiling at the expense of speed and other characteristics that the progressives argued were more important. If the bureau had been more receptive to an emphasis on speed, the United States Navy might have entered World War II with a more advanced high-performance fighter.
In June 1934, Browning was given command of Fighting Squadron 3B, based on USS Langley and later on , the first American warship built from the keel up as an aircraft carrier. He served in that capacity until June 1936, when he reported to the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, for postgraduate studies with additional duty at the Naval Torpedo Station there. Upon completion of his junior year in 1937, he became one of the first naval instructors at the Army Air Corps Tactical School at Maxwell Field in Montgomery, Alabama, training a new generation of fighter pilots while continuing his advanced studies in combat theory, national security policy, airborne command and control and joint military operations.
In 1936, the year that Nazi Germany allied with Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan, Browning laid out his tactical logic in a 13-page, single-spaced, typewritten memorandum on carrier warfare prepared at the Naval War College. Browning's essay briefly noted the vulnerability of carriers during the aircraft re-arming process, which was later demonstrated conclusively during the Battle of Midway.Wildenberg, Thomas. Midway: Sheer Luck or Better Doctrine? Naval College War Review, Winter 2005, Vol. 58, No. 1. Wildenberg quotes Browning's thesis: "Every carrier we have knows what it means to be 'bopped' with all planes on deck, because her hands were tied by uncertainty as to her next move..."
After completing his academic work, Browning was appointed to Admiral William F. Halsey's staff in the new billet of Air Tactical Officer. In June 1938, he joined the United States' second new aircraft carrier, , to serve as commander of Yorktowns carrier air wing. Browning organized the Fleet Aircraft Tactical Unit based on Yorktown, and commanded it for two additional years. When Halsey became the commander of Air Battle Forces two years later, Browning remained on his staff as Operations and War Plans Officer, and he became Halsey's chief of staff in June 1941. From the onset of U.S. involvement in World War II, Browning provided tactical recommendations to Admiral Halsey from the bridge of the carrier .
As war loomed on the horizon, Halsey had Browning prepare the Enterprise crew and her aircraft squadrons. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec 7, 1941, the Enterprise was en route to Hawaii after delivering a Marine Corps fighter squadron to Wake Island. USS Enterprise scout bombers arrived over Pearl during the attack, and immediately went into action in defense of the naval base. Six of them were shot down. The carrier reached the devastated harbor on the evening of 8 December, the day after the attack, refueled and resupplied through the night, and put to sea again early the next morning to patrol against any additional threats to the Hawaiian Islands. (Enterprise planes sank a Japanese submarine on December 10, 1941, three days into the war.)
With the United States Pacific Fleet nearly destroyed, USS Enterprise and her battle group took up forward defensive positions west of Hawaii. Eight of the fleet's nine battleships had been trapped in the harbor, four of them sunk and four heavily damaged, along with three of the fleet's eight cruisers that had also been in port during the dawn attack. With the battleship force crippled, defense against further Japanese attacks on the United States and its territories was left to the three aircraft carriers stationed in the Pacific: USS Enterprise and the converted battlecruisers and .
Designated flagship of the Pacific Fleet, Enterprise sailed in January 1942 to protect American convoys reinforcing Samoa. Soon after this, Enterprise went on the offensive. In February and March 1942, Enterprise launched numerous hit-and-run air raids on Japanese bases at Kwajalein, Wotje, and Maloelap in the Marshall Islands, as well as enemy installations in the Gilbert Islands, on Marcus Island, and on Wake Island. Halsey gave credit for much of this success to his chief of staff, and recommended Commander Browning for a spot promotion to the rank of captain. So dramatic were these air raids on Japanese island bases that Life magazine dubbed Browning "America's mastermind in aerial warfare."Costello, John. The Pacific War. New York: Rawson, Wade, 1981. .
CINCPAC approved Browning's promotion that April, following the "Doolittle Raid" he had helped plan and execute. Dubbed "Jimmy Doolittle's Raid" by the American press, the daring scheme launched 16 Army Air Forces long-range bombers, led by Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle, from the deck of the carrier , with Enterprise providing combat air support. Doolittle's B-25 squadron dropped bombs on Tokyo and other Japanese cities on April 18, 1942, completely surprising the Japanese and giving beleaguered American troops and the American public a much-needed boost in morale.
Midway
Admiral Halsey suffered a severe attack of dermatitis on the Enterprise on the way back from launch of the successful Doolittle bombing raid, and was hospitalized in Hawaii. Rear Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, Halsey's hand-picked successor, inherited Halsey's staff just prior to the Battle of Midway. Spruance, who had commanded a cruiser division since the beginning of the war, was concerned about leading a carrier group because he had no prior aviation or carrier experience. Halsey reassured him, telling Spruance to rely on his battle-tested staff, especially Browning.