Operation Deep Water was a 1957

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

naval exercise held in the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

that simulated protecting the

Dardanelles The Dardanelles ( ; ; ), also known as the Strait of Gallipoli (after the Gallipoli peninsula) and in classical antiquity as the Hellespont ( ; ), is a narrow, natural strait and internationally significant waterway in northwestern Turkey th ...

from a Soviet invasion. By controlling this bottleneck in a war situation, the Soviet

Black Sea Fleet The Black Sea Fleet () is the Naval fleet, fleet of the Russian Navy in the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov and the Mediterranean Sea. The Black Sea Fleet, along with other Russian ground and air forces on the Crimea, Crimean Peninsula, are subordin ...

would be prevented from entering the Mediterranean. Operation Deep Water was part of a series of NATO military exercises that took place in Fall 1957. This exercise featured a simulated nuclear air strike in the

Gallipoli The Gallipoli Peninsula (; ; ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles strait to the east. Gallipoli is the Italian form of the Greek name (), meaning ' ...

area, reflecting NATO's nuclear umbrella policy to offset the Soviet Union's numerical superiority of ground forces in Europe. Operation Deep Water also involved the first units of the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionar ...

to participate in a helicopter-borne vertical envelopment/

air assault Air assault is the movement of ground-based military forces by vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft, such as helicopters, to seize and hold key terrain that has not been fully secured, and to directly engage enemy forces behind enemy l ...

operation during an overseas deployment.

Operational history

The exercise took place within the Allied Forces Southern Europe

area of responsibility Area of responsibility (AOR) is a pre-defined geographic region assigned to Combatant commanders of the Unified Command Plan (UCP), that are used to define an area with specific geographic boundaries where they have the authority to plan and c ...

, and was conducted by one of AFSOUTH's subordinate commands, Naval Striking and Support Forces Southern Europe (STRIKFORSOUTH), commanded by

Vice Admiral Vice admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, usually equivalent to lieutenant general and air marshal. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral. Australia In the Royal Australian Navy, the rank of Vice ...

Charles R. Brown, USN, who also commanded the

United States Sixth Fleet The Sixth Fleet is a numbered fleet of the United States Navy operating as part of United States Naval Forces Europe and Africa. The Sixth Fleet is headquartered at Naval Support Activity Naples, Italy. The officially stated mission of the Sixt ...

. A total of 96 warships participated in Operation Deep Water. The scenario for Operation Deep Water was that NATO forces would protect the

from a Soviet invasion in order to prevent the Soviet

from gaining access to the Mediterranean Sea. Given the overwhelming numerical superiority of

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and

Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP), formally the Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance (TFCMA), was a Collective security#Collective defense, collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Polish People's Republic, Poland, between the Sovi ...

military forces, NATO embraced the concept of the nuclear umbrella to protect

Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's extent varies depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the Western half of the ancient Mediterranean ...

from a Soviet ground invasion. Consequently, Operation Deep Water opened with a simulated atomic air strike in the

area on 25 September 1957. Operation Deep Water culminated with the

landing Landing is the last part of a flight, where a flying animal, aircraft, or spacecraft returns to the ground. When the flying object returns to water, the process is called alighting, although it is commonly called "landing", "touchdown" or " spl ...

of 8,000 U.S. Marines at Saros Gulf near Gallipoli,

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, from a 38-ship amphibious task force led by flagship , on 29 September 1957. The principal U.S. Marine unit was the 6th Marines (Reinforced), commanded by Colonel Austin Shofner, USMC. Operation Deep Water saw the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, become the first unit of the

United States Marines Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the Marines, maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expedi ...

to participate in a helicopter-borne

operation ('vertical envelopment') during an overseas deployment. It was also the first time that a U.S. Marine joint air-sea-ground task force had been used in a NATO exercise. Air support was provided by aircraft carriers from the U.S. Sixth Fleet throughout all phases of Operation Deep Water. During the exercise, the NATO amphibious task force was repeatedly over-flown by an unidentified

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

n-based Tupolev Tu-16 twin-engine jet bomber over a three-day period, prompting Admiral Brown to order two FJ-3 jet fighters to intercept it. The Tu-16 may have come from 199th Guards or 290th ODRAPs of 46th Air Army, Long Range Aviation.

U.S. units involved in the exercise

USS Lake Champlain CVS-39 with VMA-324 1957

U.S. Marine Corps units

The following United States Marine Corps units participated * Regimental Landing Team 6 (RLT-6) ** 3rd Battalion 6th Marines ** 2nd Amphibious Reconnaissance Company * U.S. Marine aviation units embarked on board ** Marine Fighter Squadron 312 (VMF-312) — North American FJ-3/3M Fury ** Marine Attack Squadron 324 (VMA-324) — Douglas AD-4B Skyraider ** Marine Attack Squadron 533 (VMA-533) — Grumman F9F-8 Cougar **

Marine Aircraft Group 26 Marine Aircraft Group 26 (MAG-26) is a United States Marine Corps aviation unit based at Marine Corps Air Station New River composed of seven MV-22 Osprey squadrons, one of which is the Fleet Replacement Squadron, an aviation logistics squadro ...

(MAG-26) *** Marine Helicopter Transport Squadron (Medium) 461 (HMR(M)-461) — Sikorsky HRS-3 *** Marine Light Helicopter Squadron 262 (HMR(L)-262) — Sikorsky HR2S-1

U.S. Navy carrier aviation units

Carrier Air Group 17 (CVG-17) embarked on board : Carrier Air Group 4 (CVG-4) embarked on board (''pictured''):

Outcome

Vice Admiral Brown summarized the results from Operation Deep Water by noting: "If I were the Russians, I'd get the hell out of there (Dardanelles) if a war started. With what we've got, we could make monkey meat out of them." Operation Deep Water took place as part of a series of concurrent NATO exercises held during the fall of 1957 which were the most ambitious military undertaking for NATO to date, involving more than 250,000 men, 300 ships, and 1,500 aircraft operating from Norway to Turkey. These other 1957 exercises were Operation Strikeback, which concentrated on NATO's eastern Atlantic/northern European flank; Operation Counter Punch involving

Allied Forces Central Europe Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum (JFCBS) is a NATO command with its headquarters at Brunssum, the Netherlands. It was established in 2004, as part of a reorganisation that reduced the number of NATO Military Command Structure headquarters. ...

on the European mainland; Operation Stand Firm in the

English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...

; Operation Sea Watch, a convoy escort exercise in the North Atlantic Ocean; and Operation Fend Off/Operation Fishplay, an anti-submarine exercise in the Greenland-Iceland-UK gap ("GIUK gap").

References