* war and social upheaval: World War II -- technology naval aircraft








World War II: Naval Aircraft

World War II American dive bombers
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 that 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 'Enterprise's' VB-6 was destroying 'Akagi' and 'Kaga'. The '2' here, however, 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 prevented 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 succeeded 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 destroyed 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 Spanish Main, ships of the line/battleships dominated the seas (16th century). A major aspect of World War II was that the aircraft carrier replaced the battleships as the key capital ship. This took sometime for the big-gun admirals to accept. 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 sinking 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 Pacific war was largely the seizure of one island 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 British Fairy Swordfish showed that the Conservative Government before the War did not fully recognize the danger and was not willing to fully fund the military. Rather the effort was on appeasing aggressor nation, especially the NAZIs. The Japanese in contrast were pouring funds into their military, nearly bankrupting the nation. Civilian politicians who dared complain were assassinated by the military. The aircraft designs speak eloquently about the Japanese mindset. They invested 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 they armored the Zero, it would have lost much of its superior performance. 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 Japanese, still the pilot 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 the War progressed, in sharp contrast to the Americans. Their pilots were still using the Zero when the climatic naval battles were fought (1944). This was a reflection of their limited industrial capability. Britain began the War still using the venerable Fairey Swordfish biplane. This was also a reflection 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 Buffalo was a disaster, but it was followed by increasingly capable aircraft in extraordinary 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 succeeded 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 experienced some success (1942). It was, however, the F6F Hellcat that transformed the Pacific War. American aviators in Hellcats destroyed 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 embarrassingly 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 fighters of World War II had in-line engines. This permitted the sleek configuration of the aircraft air frames. This included the Me-109, P-51 Mustang and the Spitfire. The major exception was the FW-190. In contrast the great carrier fighters 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 enhanced performance from a sleek air frame 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 about performance. The Germans 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 seems 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 removed from the plane to be serviced. This was less of a problem in ground facilities. But in the more limited spatial confines of a carrier and on the less than stable sea conditions (swaying decks), this created major maintenance issues.

Carrier Aircraft

Only two countries developed effective carrier aircraft during World War II, Japan and the United States. This is why the Royal Navy wisely did not engage the Japanese Kido Butai in carrier battles. The great carrier battles of the Pacific War were all American-Japanese engagements. Not forcing a carrier battle with the Americans for 6 months was a huge mistake on the part of the Imperial Navy. Despite their initial superiority in aircraft and operations, the Japanese Kido Butai did not score any major victories in the carrier battles. Japan began the Pacific War with the most effective aircraft, including a storied fighter (the Mitsubishi A6M Zero), dive bomber (Aichi D3A Val), and torpedo plane (Nakajima B5N Kate). The Nakajima torpedo plane was aging, but in the hands of the skilled Japanese aircrews and the Type 91 Toropedo still proved deadly. (Unlike the American torpedo, the Japanese had worked out most of the bugs in their torpedoes before the War.) The U.S. aircraft had more varied capabilities. The American fighter (F4A Wildcat) was less agile, but heavily armored and could take on the Japanese Zero in capable hands, especially when the pilots developed new tactics. The resulting combat has been described as a fight between a highly responsive race car and a flying tank. The American dive bomber (The SPD Dauntless) was comparable and highly effective as it carried a heavier bomb than the Val. The Dauntless can be seen here at about the time of the Midway battle (figure 1). The American torpedo plane (TBD Devastator) was, however, obsolete resulting in enormous losses at Midway. It was retired after Midway and replaced with the TBF Avenger. This change had already begun by the time of Midway but had not yet reached the fleet (June 1942). There were a few on Midway, but the crews were not yet well trained. The Avenger was a more capable torpedo plane, but the Navy had not yet corrected the bugs with their torpedoes. It wasn't until well into 1943 that the U.S. Navy began delivering torpedoes that reliably detonated upon impact. The U.S. Navy also began delivering high performance fighters much more capable than the Zero (1943), both the potent F6F Hellcat and the F4U Corsair. Embarrassingly, the Navy could not at first land the Corsair on carriers. Which is why Marine squadrons got the highly advanced Corsair first--a rare occurrence. The Japanese failed to match the U.S. Navy with advanced new aircraft types of their own. Britain was the other country deploying carriers during the War, quite a number of them. British carriers had much smaller flight complements than the Americans and Japanese carriers and their aircraft were badly outdated -- World War I biplanes like the Albacore and Swordfish. The British obtained advanced American carrier aircraft through Lend Lease. The British adapted the Spitfire for carrier operations--the Seafire. It was excellent once airborne although with a limited range. A major problem was that since it was not designed as a carrier plane, the undercarriage lacked the strength needed for the greater beating involved with carrier landings. The British introduced the Fairey Firefly (1943). It was designed for carrier operations, but after considerable delay, it was no longer competitive as a fighter. It was, however, used in other roles into the 1950s. The British work with the Seafire is why it was the British who solved the problem of landing the powerful American Corsair on carriers.

Air Crews

On this page we are primarily talking about aircraft. This discussion would be lacking without touching 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 young people in their early teens and subjected them to the most rigorous training program in the world. This meant at the time of Pearl Harbor they had the most proficient aviators of the War which they demonstrated during 1942. But it also meant that there was only a small number of highly trained pilots. That was no problem for a short war, but totally insufficient for a bruising war of attrition with the United States. The Japanese training program could not be easily expended. And by 1943, most of the original core of highly skilled pilots were gone in the carrier battles and Solomons campaign. The American flight training program was just the opposite. 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 competent airmen that with the new advanced air craft decimated the new generation of poorly trained Japanese airmen. The result was the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot during 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 remarkable 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 landing capability gave them the potential that no other aircraft could fill. To fight the Battle of the Atlantic, long range aircraft was needed. Here it was the American B-24 Liberator that finally closed the mid-Atlantic air gap (1942). Two other important planes were the British Short Sunderland, a seaplane the U-boat crews called the flying porcupine 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 Zeppelin) into warfare during World War I. They were most famously used to bomb London as well as other Allied cities. Bombing at altitude it was impassible to hit actual garnets--only cities. And they carried small bomb loads. As advances were made in fixed-wing aircraft, the rigid construction Zeppelins became death traps and the Germans abandoned their used. The U.S. Navy 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 barrage balloons 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 of natural gas drilling, which unlike the hydrogen used on 'Hindenburg' was inert, rendering in inflammable. 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 supporting a control car (gondola) underneath and powered by two engines attached to the gondola. The crew might consist of up to 10 crew members 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 convoy duty. [Vaeth] They were armed, but as far as we know never sunk a U-boat. The armament was just enough to prevent U-boats from surfacing--rendering them virtually useless. The primary ASW equipment 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 phase 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 operate 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 blimps. The 550,000 flight hours is impressive as is the small number of vessels lost in blimp escorted convoys. Unmentioned is the fact that the great majority of those flight hours were logged after the U-boats were largely defeated and Adm Dönitz withdrew from the north Atlantic (May 1943). Nor or we sure how the U.S. Navy blimps 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.







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Created: 7:53 AM 8/5/2011
Spell checked: 10:59 PM 12/23/2020
Last updated: 11:00 PM 12/23/2020