Comments: 12
wardude69 [2013-06-17 10:10:12 +0000 UTC]
given the diffference in tech-level this would be pretty one-sided
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Shabazik In reply to wardude69 [2013-06-17 11:47:52 +0000 UTC]
I wasn't thinking it was so much: in WW2 still many naval airplanes where a bit obsolete airplanes with two wings, but they demostrate in the mediterranean fleet to still be useful!
-or ask the Italians how things went against the torpedo ones of the brits! in WWII!-
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kanyiko [2013-06-14 11:56:39 +0000 UTC]
That's actually not bad at all!! ^_^
The action very much resembles the description of the heroics of the pilots of CAM-ship launched Hurricanes during the Second World War. The British discovered early on in the War that their convoys were vulnerable from airborne attacks from Luftwaffe Focke-Wulf Fw-200 "Condor" bombers. Given the shortage of carrier ships, the British initially solved this by equipping a number of cargo ships with a catapult, on which a Hawker Hurricane fighter was mounted. When the ships came under attack, the fighter was launched and expected to defend the convoy. However, these early CAM-ships did not have a flight-deck, so the pilot was expected - if he survived the encounter with the enemy - to either head for the closest shores, or to ditch his aircraft close to the convoy ships, so he could be recovered.
35 merchant ships were converted to CAM-ships, of which 12 were lost to enemy action. CAM-Hurricanes had 9 combat encounters with enemy aircraft, resulting 8 kills and 3 enemies chased off, for the loss of 8 aircraft and 1 pilot.
Later on, the CAM ships were replaced by Escort Carriers and Merchant Aircraft Carriers, smaller and lighter versions of the main aircraft carriers, especially designed to escort convoys.
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Shabazik In reply to kanyiko [2013-06-15 15:05:54 +0000 UTC]
AH! I had forget a bit of the CAM-ship fighters, but when writing this I remembered from somewhere about something similar... and now I remember why! My brother had a model of it, and I readed many, many years ago, the leaflet that came with it! X3
-thanks for the info!-
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kanyiko In reply to Shabazik [2013-06-15 15:23:35 +0000 UTC]
You're welcome!! ^_^
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IxisNyx [2013-06-14 03:19:52 +0000 UTC]
*BANG!!* XD
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Shabazik In reply to IxisNyx [2013-06-15 15:06:03 +0000 UTC]
BANG BANG!
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IxisNyx In reply to Shabazik [2013-06-15 23:07:58 +0000 UTC]
KABOOM!
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larqven [2013-06-14 03:05:33 +0000 UTC]
Despite the problems, you cover so much! (even if these craft could not be in such close proximity!) Burning wreckage, floating ditched planes, bombers trying to hit their targets, great stuff! Biplanes shouldn't have had a chance, but they did well for six of ten to survive!
Hitting ships with bombs from the air is not a task for the untrained! It isn't too surprising that all the ships survived, especially with some air cover. Still, dive bombers and torpedoes rendered big ships very vulnerable in WWII, battleships descending into obsolescence.
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Shabazik In reply to larqven [2013-06-15 15:08:57 +0000 UTC]
Thanks!
Indeed, hitting ships with bombs isn't easy! In one of the first aeronaval battles of story -the rebellion of the Navy, Chile, 1931- the air force tried to bomb the navy: only damages was on a cruiser, as a bomb falled near in the water. Two government planes where ligthly damaged by AA fire:
In that case, the pilots had no previous experience in bombing ships -and in general, none in the world had much experience in that field-, and neither the crews of the ships knew well how to use the AA guns, as the ships where refited not long ago in England, adding the AA guns! XD
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larqven In reply to Shabazik [2013-06-15 18:17:39 +0000 UTC]
I was reminded of the Battle of Midway, where despite preknowledge and massive preparations, the large number of American ground based bombers sent out to attack Japanese ships couldn't hit hardly anything despite dropping massive amounts of bombs!
Or the torpedo bombers who died heroically but utterly failed due to obsolete equipment!
Yet the disproportionate power of bombs from the air was well proven when a squadron of dive bombers luckily found their targets and effectively destroyed three carriers in under a minute!
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OldSarge In reply to larqven [2013-11-08 03:06:42 +0000 UTC]
15 B-17s is not a large number for attacking a freely maneuvering naval force.Β Β The ideal attacking force would be simultaneous dive bomber and torpedo strikes,Β Β hopefully with torpedo bombers not quite as obsolete as the TDB-1, the ideal torpedo strike isΒ from a semicircle around the front ot the target so that no mater which way it turns there will be a torpedo approaching.
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