Airplanes mounted on WW2 Battleships?

fkh SG · 2006-07-06T16:16:30+00:00

Ok ok, anyway lucky their aircraft cruisers n aircraft battleships dun carry M6 serien bombers

fkh SG

I noticed that there are 1 or 2 airplanes mounted on large WW2 German or British battleships..

After taking off from battleships , I know it is not easy to land on battleships..

So where do these aircrafts land after completing ASW / Anti Ship missions?

In the case of amphidious planes, I can deducted that the planes would land on the surface of the sea near the battleship and battleship would use crane to pick up the aircraft..

Some aircrafts don't have amphidious capacities, did that mean pilots have to ditch the planes near the ship and the ship would pick up the pilots and ignore the plane?

If it is so, then it is waste of money..

CenturionMBT SG

,ost of the planes on battleships are sea planes. The only exception i can think of, where a land based aircraft is launched from a ship us from the Doolittle raid where it was a one way ticket.

ditzy SG

Where winning the war is of main concern, money is not an issue. Laughing

Shotgun SG

Those sea planes were not really for anti-ship or ASW missions. They were mainly reconnaissance planes. The first type OTH capability

Meia Gisborn SG

During the early part of WW2, a number of transatlantic merchantmen were equipped with catapults that could launch a single land-based Hawker Hurricane fighter. This was in response to the growing threat from German long-range bombers (particularly the FW Condor) that could attack the convoys in the mid-Atlantic, beyond the range of air cover that could be provided by allied fighters from England and eastern seaboard of the US. The pilot of the Hurricane would bail out and be retrieved after fending off the bombers, since there was no way of landing the fighter.

This was a stop-gap measure until enough escort carriers were available to accompany the convoys on their tranatlantic crossings.

http://www.royal-navy.org/mnavy/content/view/5/4/

tankee1981 SG

I think currently those naval helicopters are a good enough for naval operations. They can be used as anti-ship and anti-submarine platform, conduct recce, SAR and even attack land targets if armed with the right missiles.

The future will be UAVs. Very Happy

Si Geena SG

Those are Float Planes. They are recoverable.

Most Battleships as well as Heavy Cruisers would have 1-2 of them.

The British used the Walrus and the Germans had the Arado-196.

See this link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaplane

Their main mission profile would be recon, as well as spotting for gunnery.

Walrus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermarine_Walrus

Arado-196

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arado_196

fkh SG

Thanks all of you for infos..

insouciant SG

the americans did too. They had the Kingfisher floatplane I believe.. correct me if I am wrong.

spartan6 SG

Something intersting is tat e japanese ‘jake’ , their standard spotter plane can carry 3 deptcharges or 250kg bombs

Viper52 SG

Thats nothing, try this:

http://www.combinedfleet.com/sen_toku.htm

Submarine launched bomber floatplanes designed to bomb the CONUS!

tankee1981 SG

Now that is really a remarkable technical feat even by today's standards! I think this is the 1st of its kind of submarine aircraft carriers! Very Happy

spartan6 SG

Apart from a 800kg bomb it can also carry a 53.3cm torp

spencer99 SG

the planes are sea-planes or equiped with floats.

They are typically launched by catapults.

After their mission, typically scouting/recon, they will land in the sea alongside the ship and they ship will use a crane to carry the seaplane back on board.

For the US and British ships, they slowly do away the seaplanes as the war progresses becos of the need to put in additional light AA to deal with the air threat.

And for the US, there are large numbers of fleet and escort carriers to prvide airborne capability.

datafuser SG

Ar-196s on the Tirpitz were used as sort of interceptors against British Albacore carrierborne torpedo bombers in 1942. It was discussed in rec.aviation.military last year.

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.aviation.military/browse_frm/thread/4a12405aca0ad315/3d79130514433354?lnk=st&q=ar-196+albacore&rnum=1&hl=en#3d79130514433354

Dutch light cruisers also carried Fokker C11W floatplanes for over-the-horizon scouting. But in the Battle of Java Sea on the 27th February 1942 they left the floatplanes behind, relying entirely on Surabaya-based Catalina seaplanes for reconnaissance.

At 1830 the combined ABDA fleet was only 30 miles away from Japanese transports crammed with troops but they didn't know it. At that precise moment Rear Admiral Karel Doorman, commander at sea, actually asked Vice Admiral Helfrich in Surabaya where the Japanese were by radio. Helfrich didn't know where they were either.

Cheers,
Sunho

BillyBong SG

Submarine-launched seaplanes was a concept the Japanese were studying towards the later end of the war. When the tide turned in the pacific, they indulged in biological agents and tossed up the idea of attacking the western coastal cities of USA via submarine-launched float planes.

It was rumoured that the Japanese would use a now-primitive kind of mustard gas to shower the population from the sky and inflict maximum damage against a civilian population in the hopes they could use that to barter and sue for peace.

Not sure whether there is any proof of these theories by the USN though.

Viper52 SG

Another interesting concept regarding ship-launched seaplanes was also by the Japanese. They converted 2 battleships Ise, Hyuga and the heavy cruiser Mogami into hybrid carriers capable of carrying floatplane/naval dive bombers due to a chronic shortage of carriers after the fiasco at Midway. Both were ready by 1944 but saw little or no action as carriers due to the shortage of planes, pilots and fuel. Few pictures of their hybrid arrangement exist, but here are some line drawings

Ise/Hyuga

Mogami (painting from Tamiya models)

Some info about the hybrids
http://smmlonline.com/articles/ise/ise.html

http://www.combinedfleet.com/mogami_c.htm

fkh SG

This concept was later copied by Americans in 1990s where they mounted Harriers on their battleship..

Viper52 SG

I believe all Japanese air-launched torpedoes are 17.7" or 45cm (450mm). 533mm and 610mm (the famous Long Lance) torpedos were exclusively ship or submarine-launched weapons.

http://www.combinedfleet.com/torps.htm

spartan6 SG

Believe me