Author Topic: Carrier Operations during WWII  (Read 3008 times)

Offline Rooster Cruiser

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Carrier Operations during WWII
« on: August 08, 2008, 01:03:37 AM »
This was sent to me via email.  I should note that the US Navy did not use the Chance Vought Corsair onboard aircraft carriers during the war against Japan, but did use them onboard carriers after the war and during the Korean War.  The British Royal Navy did use Corsairs onboard their Carriers during WWII however.

Read the background before viewing the video...

Point of interest...about 3 minutes 20 seconds into the clip, you will see an F-6F Hellcat, it's hydraulics shot away during a strafing run, pancake onto the carrier deck and slew into the island. A deckhand was crushed between the aircraft and the superstructure and killed. The number on the plane is 30.

The lanky pilot sitting dazed in the cockpit is a gentleman named Andy Cowan. He is hale and hearty at 87 and lives just north of Salinas, Ca. To this day he cannot recall this accident without a tear coming to his eye. The swabby who was killed was his crew chief.

Andy is a marvel. He has absolute total recall of those bygone days. He is regularly invited back to the Naval War College to give a power point demonstration to the young fighter jocks of today's Navy. They hang on his every word. A living link to the past... to the days when you got up close and personal to kill the enemy. No over-the-horizon missile kills...

Andy was the longest serving Navy fighter pilot in WWII. He was on his shakedown cruise off Gitmo on December 7th, 1941. The carrier Ranger made flank speed to Norfolk and the pilots were transhipped to San Francisco by train, then sped to Hawaii by ship. He saw Pearl not long after the sneak attack, and again is unable to speak of it... a horrible disaster. He immediately went aboard the Lexington and in the course of the war had 4 carriers shot out from under him as he fought in every major Pacific battle. Coral Sea, Midway, Battle of Santa Cruz, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima ... you name it. Credited with 4.5 kills. Flew with Butch O'Hare, Cmdr Thatch (inventor of the "Thatch Weave"), flew with high scoring ace David McCampbell... served under Admirals Chester Nimitz and Bull Halsey...

He has studied the Japanese side of the Pacific War and is a recognized expert on their side of it. He can reel off the names of all their capital ships and admirals and battles from memory. Remarkable man... and still alive to tell the tale...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7166330178234459087
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Offline Oddball

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Re: Carrier Operations during WWII
« Reply #1 on: August 08, 2008, 07:06:36 AM »
aye the USMC did try carrier ops with the corsair but was not a great success due to landing accidents during ww2. (am I right on this?) this was first posted before watching the video but i have to say trust us brits to show you yanks how to land on a carrier  ::whistle:: ::whistle::
« Last Edit: August 08, 2008, 07:14:30 AM by Oddball »
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Offline Rooster Cruiser

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Re: Carrier Operations during WWII
« Reply #2 on: August 09, 2008, 07:45:37 AM »
Ian, I have read that the US Navy did not like the lack of forward visibility on final approach during carrier ops trials, so they relegated the Corsair to land based airstrips for the USMC close support of assault troops in such back-woods areas as Guadalcanal, etc.   ::unbelieveable::  Later on, the US Navy reversed its position regarding the Corsair's carrier suitability for carrier ops after the British had used it for several years.  I do not know why they decided to change their mind, but they did.  Perhaps someone else on this forum who knows more about US Navy history could clue us in?

RC
« Last Edit: August 09, 2008, 07:47:44 AM by Rooster Cruiser »
"Me 'n Earl was haulin' chickens / On a flatbed outta Wiggins..."

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Offline BrianGMFS

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Re: Carrier Operations during WWII
« Reply #3 on: August 09, 2008, 11:32:51 AM »
What I can remember reading is that the standard carrier approach in a regular fighter/bomber etc. was a high slow approach straight in. this worked fine with the shorter nosed Wildcats and Hellcats. The Corsair was another ball of wax. it didn't have enough visibility over the nose for that approach so many were lost in landing accidents.

The Brit's figured out that in a Corsair you have to fly a stabilized curving approach. The pilot could keep the deck in sight all though the approach until just before touchdown. As soon as the Navy and Marines flew their Corsair's the same way, they could fly corsairs from the US carriers.

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