Robert Bourne

Robert Bourne, who died on Oct. 13, at the age of 88, was the radioman on the Navy blimp, Airship K-74, on anti-submarine patrol off the southeast coast of Florida on the night of July 18, 1943.  The lookout spotted a German submarine heading for two merchant ships.  The blimp was intended to be observes and to generally avoid combat, but was equipped with 50 caliber machine guns and depth charges.  As the submarine was about to attack the two merchant ships, the blimps’ commander Lt. Nelson Grills decided to engage the submarine, U-134.  In the battle, the submarine was damaged but succeeded in the blimp down.  Radioman Bourne sent out several mayday warnings before all 10 crew members swam out of the flooded gondola. One sailor died after being attacked by a shark. The rest of the crew was rescued.   It was the only battle between a blimp and submarine in the Navy’s history. U-134 was sunk on August 24, 1943 near Vigo, Spain by six depth charges from a British Vickers Wellington aircraft.

Palm Harbor’s Robert Bourne survived historic battle between blimp, German sub