An interesting question James.

The take-off deck is always into wind and I wonder how much difficulty a WWII era prop aircraft would have making a cross wind deck landing, especially when the torque effect would make an overshoot more entertaining.

As for battles – Midway springs to mind as one where cluttered flight decks got in the way for the Japanese. OK, admittedly it was changing the armament of the second attack wave while the first one was arriving back that caused trouble – and then the American dive bombers found them at that crucial moment. But the Japanese fighter cover had been drawn off by the US torpedo bombers and, busy retrieving attack aircraft, there was little chance of getting much else airborne, let alone mounting the counter attack they had planned. Might not have saved the Japanese carriers, but the Japanese might have got that second attack off.

But then, once you change a carrier design, the tacticians would, one assumes, have changed their approach as well and the what ifs become quite wide ranging.

AllanK

EDIT: cross posted with CD. Great minds again!

Without prolonging the Island debate – the Japanese Akagi and Hiryu were the odd ones with a port side island.

Akagi was also originally built with three flight decks – a proper multi-storey aircraft carrier, although the middle deck was so short as to be of very limited use for launching.

The early development of the carrier by converting cruisers is neatly shown in this series of images of HMS Furious – Link to Maritime Quest. You can see the take-off ramp added to the bow, then a landing deck to the rear, extending the landing-on deck over the lower flying-off deck, and eventual evolution into a WWII flat top with a starboard island.

AllanK

It seems the lifeboat crew at Calshot have snagged a propeller with their anchor. See report in the Southern Daily Echo

AllanK

It is likely to be from a Short Sunderland, but just not the aircraft that was thought which had different engines and propellers to this recovered example.

That prop is a de Havilland type as fitted to the Bristol Pegasus engines from the Mk I, II or III Sunderlands. The MkV (of which PP118 is an example) had Pratt and Whitney engines with different props. So that is not from PP118.

The significance is that there three preserved military Sunderlands around the world are all MkVs. So anything recovered from this wreck would be more historically significant. The Sunderland Trust at Pembroke Dock have found a Sunderland MkI, and are working towards recovery.

So, in short, if this prop came off the sonar target, then the aircraft is not PP118. And the mystery deepens.

AllanK

Quite right Pagen – I think this might be a merge of two stories.

Gordon Singleton’s Sunderland T9114 landed at Angle Airfield on 29th May 1943 after being damaged on take off in the open sea, carrying rescued passengers from a downed Whitley and Sunderland.

Then there is the well recorded battle involving a Sunderland EJ134 piloted by Ft/Lt C Walker of 461 squadron on 2 June 1943 which fought off eight Ju88s over the Bay of Biscay and was beached at Praa Sands near Penzance.

HTH

AllanK

🙂 bypassed me – sorry.

Actually it wasn’t that far off. Singleton pulled off such a gentle landing that even the eggs in the galley were reported to be not cracked. Apart from the original hull damage forcing the landing, only the port float was lost in the touch down. I know damaged Sunderland hulls were repaired with concrete to get them back to the factory for permanent repairs. But taking off on a trolley, yeah OK, that was the clue :p

Don’t know – I haven’t seen it. I would start with a phone call to Doris (Dept of Research and Information Services). It might be good enough condition to let people simply view it at the Hendon reading rooms. I sometimes, wistfully, wonder what putting it on a DVD would cost. And then I wake up.

AllanK

Hi,

Civil aircraft which were camouflaged would carry their civil registrations above and below the wings, coloured “night” (black) outlined in “Aluminium” (silver) – although it would often be mistaken for white on B&W photos. Registrations would typically be spread over both wings. The registrations were underlined in red, white and blue.

This is dated about 1942 when schemes were more formalised.

This is from 1944 – the scheme had changed a little.

It is a complex subject if you want the details spot on but I hope this helps with general guidance.

AllanK