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war and social upheaval: World War II -- technology naval aircraft
World War II: Naval Aircraft
Figure 1.--The out-gunned U.S. Pacific Fleet, even before new advanced aircraft types arrived, managed to tear the heart out of the Imperial Japanese First Air Fleet only 6 months after Pearl Harbor, sinking four of the six first-line carriers of the Kidō Butai (Mobile Force) at Midway (June 1942). (The other two had been put out of action a month earlier in the Coral Sea.) These are the Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers thant sank the Japanese carriers at Midway. We are not sure which carrier air group this was. Notice the important air brakes in the lower right hand corner. VB-2 was the bombing squadron aboard Lexington that destroyed 'Sōryū', while 'Entrrprise's' VB-6 was destroying 'Akagi' and 'Kaga'. The '2' here, hoswever, may be the plane number rather than the squadron number.
For the first time in naval warfare, aircraft played an important role. A major aspect of the War was that the carrier replaced the battleships as the key capital ship. And the carrier was nothing more than a floating airfield capable of moving aircraft in range of enemy fleet formations and land targets. Only three countries (America, Britain, and Japan) built and deployed carriers. The Germans had plans to do so, but military reverses precented them from doing so. The Japanese began the War with the most effective carrier aircraft, especially the elegant, but lightly armored A6M Mitsubishi Zero (1941). The Japanese did not design aircraft specifically for carrier use, but rather adapted aircraft for multiple uses. The Japanese because of their limited industrial capacity did not introduce new advance aircraft types. Their pilots were still using the Zero when the climatic naval battles were fought (1944). Britain began the War still using the venerable Fairey Swordfish biplane. It was the United States which created a remarkable series of aircraft specifically designed for carriers. These planes combined with new fast carriers suceeded within only 3 years swept the Japanese from the skies over the Pacific. The Pacific Fleet began the War with the rugged, but slow F4F Wildcat fighter. It was vulnerable to the faster Zero, but tactics were developed which reduced the Japanese advantage. It was the F6F Hellcat that transformed the Pacific War. American aviators in Hellcats destoyed over 5,000 Japanese planes. The Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers ravaged the Japanese carriers at Midway. The Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bomber played a major role in the crucial Battle of the Philippine Sea. [Sears] The fork-winged Chance Vought F4U-4 Corsair was another powerful fighter, but took time to develop carrier usage.
New Capital Ship
For the first time in naval warfare, aircraft played an important role. Since the time of the Spnish Main, ships of the line/battleshios dominated the seas (16th century). A major aspect of World War II was that the aircrafyt carrier replaced the battleships as the key capital ship. This took sometime for the big-gun admirals tonaccept. Even after Pearl Harbor the British sent battleships without air cover to fight the Japanese (Repulse and Prince of Wales) in the South China Sea(December 1941). Their sinkling by Japanese aircraft forever settled the argument. The carrier was nothing more than a floating airfield capable of moving aircraft in range of enemy fleet formations and land targets. The Oacuific war was largely the seizure of what islnd after another to extend the reach of aircraft. And carriers were vital in these island campaign as well as the control of the vital sea labs supplying those islands
National Profile
The planes that naval aviators flew tell you a great deal about the countries involved. The Britis Fairy Swordfish showed that the Comservative Governmnent before the War did not fully recoignize the danger and was not willing to fully fund the military. Rather the effort was on appeasing aggresor nation, especially the NAZIs. The Japanese in contrast were pouring funds into their military, nearly bankrupting the nation. Civilian politicans who dared complain were assasinated by the military. The aircraft designs speak eloquentky about the Japanese mindset. They inmvested heavily in training the most skilled naval aviators in the world. Yet they did not armor their planes to protect those pilots on whom so much depended. Despite the huge investment, the pilots were seen as expendable. Of course if thgey armored the Zero, it would have lost much of its superior performjance. The Americans provided armored protection for their pilots. Although the Americans did not select and train train their pilots to the same skill level as the Japanes, still the polot was more important than the plane. A plane could be easily built by the Americans, a replacement pilot would take more than a year to train and the experience gained would be lost.
Countries
Only three countries (America, Britain, and Japan) built and deployed significant carrier forces. The Japanese began the War with the most effective carrier aircraft, especially the elegant, but lightly armored A6M Mitsubishi Zero (1941). The Japanese did not design aircraft specifically for carrier use, but rather adapted aircraft for multiple uses. The Japanese because of their limited industrial capacity did not introduce new advance aircraft types as thewarv progressed, in sharp contrast to the Americans. Their pilots were still using the Zero when the climatic naval battles were fought (1944). This was areflectiion oif their limited iundustrial capability. Britain began the War still using the venerable Fairey Swordfish biplane. This was areflection of limited defense spending and Admiralty priorities. It was the United States which created a remarkable series of aircraft specifically designed for carriers. The F2A Brewster Bufalo was a disaster, but it was followed by increasingly capable aircraft in extrodinary numbers. The Germans had plans to do so, but military reverses prevented them from completing their carrier, the Graf Zeppelin. Disputes between the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe delayed the development of an air group. The French had a carrier, but it played no role in the War.
Campaign
The American carrier aircraft combined with new fast Essex-class carriers suceeded within only 3 years of sweeping the Japanese from the skies over the Pacific. The American Pacific Fleet began the War with the rugged, but slow F4F Wildcat fighter. It was vulnerable to the faster Zero, but American aviators like John S. Thach and James H. Flately developed tactics which reduced the Japanese advantage. And the Wildcat expeienced some success (1942). It was, hoever, the F6F Hellcat that transformed the Pacific War. American aviators in Hellcats destoyed over 5,000 Japanese planes. The Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers ravaged the Japanese carriers at Midway. The Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bomber played a major role in the crucial Battle of the Philippine Sea. [Sears] The fork-winged Chance Vought F4U-4 Corsair was developed as the Navy's premier fighter, but the Navy embarasingly couldn't figure out how to land it on their carriers. It was the Royal Navy, badly in need of a powerful carrier fighter, that figured it out.
Radial Engines
One obvious feature of carrier aircraft is that they are not as sleek and aerodynamic as land-based air craft. This is because they have radial rather than in-line engines. Almost all of the great ground-based fiughters of World War II had in-line engines. This permitted the sleek configuration of the aircraft airframes. This included the Me-109, P-51 Mustang and the Spitfire. The major exception was the FW-190. In contrast the great carrier figters had radial engines, including the F4U Corsair, the F6F Hellcat, and the A6M Zero. Now radials and inlines has various advantages and disadvantages. A reader points out that, "Radial engines are more reliable in that two or three cylinders can be damaged and the engine will continue to work. Also NO vulnerable radiators under the engine." The enanced performance from a sleek airframe is the principal reason that most World War II air forces selected inline engines for their fighters, including the Me-190, the Spitfire, and the P-51 Mustang. Fighters were all aboiut performance. The Gerrmams turned to radials for the FW-190 because of German industrial production constraints. So why did World Wat II navies go with radial engines? The primary factor seenm to be maintenance issues. Radial engines could be serviced by removing the front cowling--a very simple matter. Inline engines in contrast often had to be renoved from the plane to be serviced. This was less of a probem in ground facilities. But in the more limited soarial coinfines of a carrir and on the less than stable sea conditions (swaying decks), this created anlor mainteanance issues.
Carrier Aircraft
Only two contries developed effective carrier aircraft, Jaoan and the United States. Jaoan began the Pacufuic War with the most effective aircraft, including a fighter (the Mitsubishi A6M Zero), dive bomber (Aichi D3A), and (Nakajima B5N) torpedo planes. The Nakkajima torpedo plane was aging, but in hnds of the skilled Jaoanese aircrews with their Long Lnnce toropedi still deadly. The U.S. aircraft was more varied. The fighter (F4A Wildczat) was less capable, but could take on the Japanese Zero. The resulting combat has been described as a fight between a race car and a flying tank. The American dive bomber (The SPD Dauntless) was comparable. The Dauntless can be seen here at about the time of the Midway battle (figure 1). The American torpedo plane (TBD Devestaor) was obsolete resulting in enormous losses at Midway. It was retired after Midway and replaced with the TBF Avernger. This had already begun by the time of Midway (June 1942). The Avenger vwas a more capable torpedo plane, but the Navy had noy yer corrected cthe bugs with theur toroedoes. It wasnit until well into 1943 that the U.S. Navy began dekivering tioropedoes that rekaiablky bworked. The Navy also began delivering high performance fighters much more capable than the Zero (1943). Britain was the other country deploying carriers. Btitish carriers had much smaller flight squadeoins than the Americans and Japanese carriers and their aircraft were badly outdated, World War IIbiplanes like the Albacore and Swordish. The British then obtained American carrier aircraft through Lend Lease.
Air Crews
On this page we are primrily talking abouut aitcraft. This discussion would be lacking without touuching on aircrews. The Japanese Navy before the War had perhaps the best pilot training program in the world, at least in terms of turning out highly skilled airmen, but not large numbers of these airmen. The Yokaren Naval Preparatory Flight Training Program was begun in 1930. It was a highly selective, rigorous, intensive training program. The program identified youbng peopole in their early teens and subjected them to the mkost rigorous training oprigram in the world. This meant at ythe time of Pearl Harbor yhey had the most proficient aviators of the War whichbthey demonstrated during 1942. But it also meant that there was only a small number of highly trained pilots. That was no problem for a shoort war, but totally insufficient for a bruising war of attrition with the United Strates. The Japabnese training program could not be easily expnded. And by 1943, most of the original core of highly skilled pilots were gone in the carrier battles and Solomons campaign. The American flight traimning program was just the oppodsite. Pilots were not selected as children. They were selected after testing, but with metrics that included the large number needed. The training was intensive, but within a year produced comopetent airmen thst with the new advanced aur craft decimated the new generation of poorly trained Japannese airmen. The result was the Great Marianas Tuirkey Shoot duting the Battle of the Philippines Sea (June 1944).
Land-based Aircraft
It was the carrier attack planes that made the headlines in World War II. There were also important land-based aircraft involved in naval war. This included both reconnaissance aircraft and bombers. The most famous reconnaissance aircraft was the American PBY Catalina. This remarable plane not only located Bismarck in the North Atlantic (1941), but the Japanese fleets approaching Midway in the Pacific (1942). Catalinas also picked up countless downed airmen in the vast Pacific. The vast search and sea lkanding capability gave them the pootential that no other aurcraft could fill. To fight the Battle of the Atlantic, long ranmge airctaft was needed. Here it was the American B-24 Liberator that finalkly closed the mid-Atlantic air gap (1942). Two other imprtant planes were the Britidh Short Sunderlamd, a seaplane the U-boat crews called the flying porucpine because of all its weaponry. Also important early in the War was the FW-200 Condor.
Blimps
The Germans introduced lighter than air craft (the Zephlin) into warfare during World War I. They were most famously used to bomb London as well as other Allied cities. Bombing at alditude it was impssible to hit actual gargets--only cities. And they carried small bomb loads. As advances were made in fixed-wing aircraft, the rigid concstructin Zephlins became death traps and the Germans abandoned their used. The U.S. Navu in the inter-war period experimented with inflatable non-rigid construction blimps, but some weather incidents caused serious losses and the Navy cut back the project. A serious incident caused the RAF give up on blimps. The R-101 went up in flames on a flight to France on her maiden flight (1930). The secretary of state for air was aboard and she went down off Beauvais. The British would use barage baloons during the Battle of Britain.
As far as we know, the U.S. Navy was the only military service to use blimps during World War II. This was largely because the United States was the only country that had access to helium, a byproduct og natural gas drilling, which unlike the hydrogen used on 'Hindenburg' was inert, rendering in inflamable. As time of Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Navy only had six blimps (December 1941). They were immediately put to use used to spot submarines, patrolling the east and west coasts. The Navy was desperate for convoy escorts and ordered more from a tire manufacturer--Goodyear. The blimps used by the Navy were K-class blimps. They were mostly generally 250 feet long supportuing a control car (gondola) underneath and powered by two engines attached to the gondola. The crew might consist of up to 10 crew me-mbers to fly the blimp and operate the ASW equipment. The top speed was nearly 80 miles per hour and could cruise at nearly 60 mph -- ideal for conmvoy duty. [Vaeth] They were armed, but as far as we know never sunk a U-boat. The armament was just encough to prevent U-boats from surfacing--redering them virtually useless. The primary ASW equioment was radar and magnetic anomaly detection equipment which could cover a huge area beyond eyesight. The blimps had various uses, but by far the most important was convoy escort duty. The blimps flew 37,000 operational sorties in the North and South Atlantic, the Caribbean, and over the Strait of Gibraltar. [Vaeth] We do not know to what extent they were used in the North Atlantic convoys which were primarily escorted by the British and Canadians. We know they were not used in 1941. And the Navy only began to expand the the blimp wings in early-1942. Some were available in the second half of 1942, but how many were used in the climatic pahse of the battle (mid-1942 through May 1943), we do not know. The blimps had a range of nearly 2,000 miles and could stay aloft for nearly 40 hours. The primary limitation was the inability to operaate in adverse weather conditions, especially high winds. The blimps could, however, operate in foggy and cloudy conditions that grounded fixed wing aircraft. The U.S. Navy operated 167 blimps (primarily K-class) which were deployed in five airship wings. They had made 56,000 operational flights and logged 550,000 flight hours. [Paone] Unfortunately, most of the information we have found is slanted to compensate for the lack of attention to blimops. The 550,000 flight hours is impressive as is the small number of vessels lost in blimp escorted convoys. Unmentiioned is the fact that bthe great majority of those flightb hours were logges after the U-boats were largely defeated and Adm Dönitz wuthdrew from the north Atlantic (May 1943). Nor or we sure how the U.S. Navy blimpos worked with the Royal Navy.
Sources
Paone, Tom. "K-Ships vs. U-Boats," Smithsonian Voices National Air and Space Museum (July 13, 2020).
Sears, David. Pacific Air: How fearless Flyboys, Peeerless Aircraft, and Fast Flattops Conquered the Skies in the War with Japan.
Vaeth, J. Gordon. Blimps and U-boats: U.S. Navy Airships in the Battle of the Atlantic.
