Anti-Aircraft Defenses of German U-Boats

In the early years of World War II, Germany’s U-Bootwaffes roamed, almost with impunity, the sea trade routes of the Western Allies, engaging and sinking their extremely vital ships at an alarming rate. It wasn’t until the Allies began to implement a sophisticated system of long rage, air patrols over the Atlantic that the tide of the submarine war finally began to turn in their favor.

Because most of Germany’s U-boat force was incapable of prolonged, submerged patrol times, they became easy targets for praying allied medium and heavy bombers covering the North Atlantic.

Engaging and hitting allied patrol airplanes became the sub’s main objective from late 1943 to the end of the war in May ‘45. In an attempt to achieve this task, each boat was fitted with a vast array of defensive weapon systems.

The submarine’s main anti-aircraft weapon was the 2CM Flak Gun. Two basic designs of this uninspired looking but tremendously effective flak system were employed. The first operating 2CM was the No. 30. The thirty was a single barrel weapon with a 360 degree traverse and capable of a two degree depression and 90 degree elevation. It fired a 0.32kg shell capable of reaching distances of up to 12,350 meters. What made this weapon so effective was it impressive cycle rate of 480 rounds per minute.

The second improved version of the 2CM was Flak 38. Similar to the 30 but capable of reaching a cycle rate of 960 rounds per minute, the 38 was arguably the best German, light attack weapon of World War II.

Another light weapon used by U-Boats to fend-off attackers was the 3.7CM M/42 Flak Gun. In the bottom half of the war, most German submarines were fitted with the 42nd platform. It fired a .73Kg shell up to a distance of 15,350m. Maximum firing cycle was 50 rounds per minute.

Those two weapon systems accounted for almost 85 percentage of all hit allied aircraft. Official numbers regarding hit aircraft varies from source to source, but the most reliable figure (coming from British-generated documents released in the mid 1950s) puts the amount at 247 from the spring of 1944 to April 1945.

Although it was not intended as a primary anit-aircraft weapon, the vaunted 8.8CM Schiffskanone Deck Gun was also used in that role, especially towards the end of the war. This remarkable 8.8 gun employed by the German navy was not directly related to the more famous, 8.8 Acht-Acht flack gun utilized by the army as an anti-tank weapon. The CM was purely a naval gun developed in the waning days of World War One.

The gun was mounted on a low box, forward of the conning tower. It could traverse through a field of 360 degrees. Its -4 degrees depressed parameter and 30 degree elevation capacity were two of the most impressive features of this remarkable weapon. The gun fired a 13.7kg high explosive shell at a 700m/sec muzzle velocity. It had a solid impact range of up to 12,350m.

Manned by a three man crew, the CM was a powerful, horizontal weapon that when used against sea-based platforms, it caused heavy damage. As the U-Boats began to sustain alarming losses to Allied preying bombers, German crews commenced utilizing their main armament on incoming enemy aircraft. Although their use on that type of environment wasn’t tested before the war, the gun performed well.

Data on the numbers of downed allied aircraft hit by the 8.8CM is not reliable. But unofficial accounts put the numbers in the low 50s. Much of that amount was accounted for between the autumn of 1944 and the spring of 1945.

Aside from those three defensive weapons, German submarines carried a limited amount of small caliber fire arms including 9mm and 7.62mm hand guns. Nine mm machine guns and some 7.92mm rapid fire rifles. No data on hit aircraft by these weapons are available.

Of course, no weapon can be effective if the enemy isn’t spotted. For long range detection, the U-boats employed the Funkmessorungsgerat (Fu) MO-29 Radar. The MO-29 was used primarily on Type IV boats as well as some Type VIIs. The 29 was simple to utilize thanks to its twin horizontal rows of eight dipoles on the upper front part of the conning tower.

On the top row laid the transmitters and in the lower one, the receivers. An improved version of the 29 was introduced in the summer of 1942. In that version, known as No. 30, the diploes were replaced by a retractable antenna which was housed in a slot in the tower. Although relative powerful for the time, this system barely was able to detect surface vessels because of the low position of it’s mounting in respect to the horizon.

A more complex system, FuMB1 or the ‘Metox’ was introduced in the fall of 1942. This system was utilized in conjunction with a raw, wooden cross antenna strung with copper wire know as the ‘Biscay Cross’. But as with the early Fus platforms, this unit wasn’t that reliable. In fact, a case could be made that their use was highly detrimental to the sub’s survival thanks to the Metox’s volatile emissions which were easily detectable by Allied radars.

By November 1943, the Germans had finally developed what would become the world’s first true, all around naval radar. Born out of desperation, FuMB7 combined Metox and Naxos emissions to give U-boat commanders a first rate, long range detection system. Further enhancements were performed (the FuMB24 and 25) to the base MB7 giving it an extended operational radius.

Aside from the radar, maybe the most ingenious defensive measure used by German submarines was the Focke-Achgelis. The ‘Focke’ was basically a manned rotary glider with a triple blade rotor. It was as simple to operate as it was to assemble. Housed in a storage cylinder on the afterdeck, the Focke was quickly armed and launched. It remained connected to the U-boat by an umbilical cord. From its advantageous position high above the sub (10-12,000 feet), the pilot could spot any target approaching the boat. Unfortunately for the Focke, if the U-boat came under direct attack, there was no time to reel it in, thus the sub cut the cord and left the pilot to defend himself until all was cleared to surface back again.

More effective than the Focke-Achgelis was the Aphrodite. It was a basic devise consisting of a large (one meter diameter) hydrogen-filled balloon from which dangled small strips of metal foil. It was attached to the sub by way of an anchor weight. Its main purpose was to confuse allied aircraft utilizing radar navigational systems.

Air Attack on the German Oil Industry

The swift focus of the Allied bomber campaign against the German’s oil industry had immediate and far-reaching effects, compared with the 175,000 tons of aviation fuel it produced in April 1944. In June of that same year, German oil production fell to just over 55,000 tons, less than a third of the previous years output. Unless something was done, and done very soon, the Luftwaffe could find itself with insufficient aviation fuel to continue to sustain air operations. As an initial move to change the situation, large numbers of anti-aircraft batteries were transferred from other areas inside Germany, to protect the oil industry refineries. The 14th Flak division was assigned responsibility for the defense of the industry district at Leipzig, which included the most vaunted oil production plants at Leuna-Merseburg, Bohlen, Troglitz, Espenhain and Mucheln. All would receive the bulk of the anti aircraft pieces, a move made in order to strengthen the Division. By the beginning of May, the Division had in its possession 374 heavy caliber guns, 342 of the 8.8cm caliber, 24 of 10.5cm and 8 of 12.8cm caliber. Immediately after the combined allied offensive against the oil industry commenced, the energetic General Adolf Gerlach was appointed to the command of the Division. He received a visit from Riechsminiter Albert Speer, who made it clear that unless the sector refineries were kept working, the war was as good as lost. When Gerlach assumed command of the Division, there had been 104 heavy guns protecting the large Leuna-Merserburg production complex, he demanded, and received, sufficient weapons to bring about a six fold strengthening of the flack defenses ringing that particular target.

Having secured as much of the larger guns he needed, Gerlach set about to increase its tactical effectiveness. During the attack at the plant, US heavy bombers dropped huge quantities of “chaff” and radiated a cacophony of noise jamming that effectively neutralized the German Wuzburg flack control radar system. As a result of this tactic, during day bombing, the gunners were forced to abandon the use of radar-laid fire and resorted to optical predicted fire. If the clouds and enemy countermeasures prevented accurate predicted fire, the gunners would put up a box barrage. All guns fire at the same point in the sky just short of where it was calculated that the bombers would release the bombs, by disrupting the bombing run in this way, the accuracy of the attack could be greatly reduced. This method was highly extravagant in the use of ammunitions, however, and it was permitted to be used only in the direct defense of high priority targets such as oil refineries. US bomber crews rated the oil refineries and chemical plants around Leipzig as the most heavily defended areas against air attack. In addition to these active defense measures, passive measures were also introduced to lessen the effects of the constant bombing. Concrete reinforced blast walls were built around items of vulnerable machinery, and a warren of deep shelters under the plants enable its workers to remain near at hand during the bombing attacks and emerge afterwards to extinguish the fires before they took hold. Although by this time the German Army was short of skilled manpower, they shifted seven thousand engineers for employment in rapid repair brigades at the refineries and a large number of slave workers, primarily Russian prisoners of war, were drafted in to assist with this work. Finally, to ensure that morale at these facilities did not flag under the intense Allied bombardment, the work force came under “special supervision” from Heinrich Himmler’s feared Security Service.

As a further measure to safeguard German’s precious oil production, Edmund Geilenberg was appointed head of a far reaching program to build a network of new refineries that would be far less vulnerable to air bombardment. For the indispensable production of aviation fuel, he and his staff laid plans for the construction of seven underground hydro generation plants. Lower grade motor fuel was to be produced in 41 much smaller facilities situated above ground but widely dispersed in woods and quarries, each carefully camouflaged and individually too small to make an attractive target to the bombers. Geilenberg made full use of the authority given to him to tale labor and materials from other industries, and his labor force was built up rapidly to more than a third of a million workers. He was planning to have several of the motor fuel producing plants ready to enter service by the autumn of 1944, but despite great efforts by Geilenberg and his staff, the first underground plant was not due to produce aviation fuel until well into the spring of 1945. In fact, no aviation fuel came from this source as the war ended on April 1945. During this period, German rocket fighters went into action several times in defense of refineries in the Leipzig area. On the 16th of August, the US Eighth Air Force, known as the Mighty Eight, put up a thousand bombers to attack a spread of targets in central Germany, including the oil refineries at Bohlen. Five Me 163s were scrambled, and two were promptly shot down without inflicting any damage to the raiding force.

The Messerschmitt 163 achieved its first aerial victory just one week after the event, on August 24th. Eight of the smaller fighters took off from fields on Brandis to engage a bomber force of some 185 B-17s running into attack the refinery at Marseburg. Feldwebel Siegfried Schubert carried out a successful interception of the force and shot down two Flying Fortresses, other pilots from the same unit shot down two more units. Two Me 163s were damaged, one by return fire from a B-17 gunner and the other by a landing accident. It had been a successful day for this new jet fighter and seemed to be important for its future as a bomber-destroyer airplane. But in the end, when the Me163s scored four bombers destroyed that day, were to be the high mark point of its operational career. On September 24, Squadron 400 reported that it had nineteen Messerschmitt Me 163s in operation, of which just eleven were serviceable. By that time over a hundred of these jet fighters had been delivered to the Luftwaffe, and it is clear that the factor limiting operational employment was not aircraft but trained pilots. Now it was clear that the hope for salvation for the German Fighter Force was not going to come from this quarter. During September, Squadron 400 operated on five different occasions, the 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th and the 28th. The largest of these operations was the last one, when nine of the diminutive planes were committed.

The relative short range of the Me 163 meant that accurate ground control was essential if the fighters were to be used effectively. Such controled operations was not always forthcoming, however, and only a small proportion of the fighters reached firing positions. During September 1944, the Me 163 program suffered a disaster from which it would never recover fully. In bombings attacks on the towns of Leverkusen and Ludwigshaven that month, two of the main sources of hydrazine and hydrate suffered serious damage and production was greatly reduced by it. For the remainder of the war, shortages of this chemical fuel would dog the 163. A major competitor for this limited chemical fuel was the Fi 103 flying bomb, which used it to power the catapult system that fires them into the air. The Fi 103 enjoyed a higher priority for supplies than the Me 163 programs. At the same time, the piston engine fighter units continued to mount defensive attacks against bomber formations, and from time to time they were able to pick their way past the American fighter screens and deliver their special brand of saturation attacks on an unexpected bomber. On September 27th, Squadron 4 delivered a sharp attack on the 445th Bomber group and in three furious minutes, it shot down 28 Liberator bombers out of a total of 37 dispatched. It would be the heaviest loss ever suffered by the US Bomber Group on a single mission. On the following day, the Squadron No. 3 assailed the 41st Combat Wing and shot down eighteen Flying Fortresses before the arrival of strong forces of escorts, preventing the slaughter to continue. Just over a week later, October 6th, a Squadron drawn from the 4th and 300th fought a similarly brisk battle with the 4th combat Bomber Wing and shot down fourteen B-17s.

Despite that such actions brought disaster upon the individual bomber units involved, their effect on the US bombing offensive as a whole was not. During the three days mentioned before, heavy bombers of the US Eight Army Air Forces flew a grand total of 3,275 successful sorties for a loss of some 81 units, less than 2.5 percent of the total. And that, it must be stressed, was on three days when the German defenders were relatively successful. Each passing day, when the weather permitted, the US Eighth and Thirteen Air Forces would send more than a thousand heavy bombers to attack targets across Germany and the occupied territories and on most days, losses were less than 1 percent of the total force involved. The German night fighter force had not recovered from the neutralization of its early warning radar system when it suffered a further calamity. The loss of French territory to the Allies had torn a gapping hole on Germany’s early tracking radar chain, which the Royal Air Force now exploited by routing bombers from that direction during attack on the south and western parts of Germany. Even as signals personnel struggled to reposition radar dishes to plug this breach there came a further blow; the fuel famine started to take effect and forced a curtailment of night fighter activities.

Then, to add to the worsening situation, No 100 Group of the RAF began to make its present felt during the night air battles. The Group operated five squadrons of heavy bombers modified into special jamming aircrafts, B-17 Fortresses, B-24 Liberators, Halifaxes and Stirlings. These aircraft were able to carry a large quantity of “windows” of all types, as well as noise-jamming equipment to counter the German’s Wurzburg fire control system and the Freya, Mammut, Wassermann and Jagdschloss radars that made up the German early warning chains. In addition, some of the aircraft carried “Jostle”, a high power jammer to blot out the night fighter’s radio communication channels. No 100 comprised of six squadrons of Mosquito night fighters carrying special systems to enable them to operate against their Luftwaffe counterparts deep inside the Third Reich. Homing on to radar emissions was a game that two could play, and in addition to AI radar some of the Mosquitos carried “Serrate”, which enabled them to home in on emissions from the German night fighter’s SN-2 radars. Other Mosquitos carried “Perfectos”, which transmitted interrogating pulses to trigger the identification friend or foe (IFF) sets of German aircraft in the area. When Germans IFF sets replied, their signals betrayed the range and bearing of the aircraft and identified it to the Mosquito crews as hostile. Several German aircrafts were shot down following “Perfectos” contacts, and many others were lost when German crews, having heard of the system, flew with IFF switched off and were shot down by their own flak.

But despite the presence of the Mosquito in the night battles, the German night fighter force suffered a far lower rate of attrition than its day fighter counterparts. But No. 100 group’s operation imposed considerable pressure on the German defenses, which in combination with the other factors, allowed the RAF night bombers to operate at will over the German sky with minimal losses. Throughout this period, the German oil industry was hit hard and repeatly. An example of the fate of the German oil industry, in the hands of the Allied bombing offensive happened in the spring of 1944, when one of the largest producers of synthetic oil, the Amoniakwerk Merseburg plant at Leuna, who produced about one sixth of the total German production. The huge plant sprawled over an area of 757 acres, and in addition to liquid fuels it produced ammonia, methanol and various types of industrial alcohol from coke and brown coal. The first large scale attack that happened at the plant was from 224 Flying Fortresses of the Eighth Air Force, which took place on May 12th, even before the Allied main offensive against the German oil industry began. That initial attack brought a halt to fuel production. During the next six months, the plant was attacked twelve more times. Time after time the plant was hit hard and production halted, as if one of the prize-fighters had been knocked to the ground. But each time it picked itself up and production resumed. At first the recovery was quickly and almost complete, but as the accumulation of punishment began to tell, the recovery became progressively slower and less complete.

Compared with 175,000 tons of aviation fuel produced in April, in August there were only 16,000 tons and in September a mere 7,000 tons. Throughout that summer, the Luftwaffe kept going on its fat, the reserves of over half a million tons of aviation fuel it had accumulated previously. With consumption running far in excess of production, by the beginning of September more than half this reserve had been consumed; from a high point of about 580,000 tons at the beginning of May, stocks were only about 180,000 tons at the end of September. Now the harsh reality of the shortfall of fuel production could not be avoided. Operation by the Luftwaffes medium and heavy bombers were sharply curtailed, the use of aerial reconnaissance was limited, air operations in support of the Army were permitted only in decisive situations, and the number of night fighter sorties was cut back. Only day fighter operations in defense of the Fatherland were allowed to continue at their previous level. Meanwhile, in Germany the production of combat aircrafts, and in particular fighter types, had risen to unprecedented levels. The Luftwaffe was about to stage a remarkable recovery in fighting strength.

An article by Raul Colon: rcolonfrias@yahoo.com

The Blackburn Baffin

The Blackburn Baffin’s design was directly influenced by the early versions of the Ripon torpedo/bomber platform. But unlike the underpowered Ripon, the Baffin B-5, as the aircraft was marked, was sufficiently equipped for its proposing operational role.

Inspired by alterations performed on Ripons in Finland, Major FA Bumpus, the chief designer of the B-5; decided to incorporate into the new aircraft a full radial engine. In those early days of aviation, the water cooled inline plants were the power plant of choice.

Bumpus’ effort resulted in a frontline, two-seat single bay biplane torpedo-bomber of mixed metal and wood construction. The British aviation pioneer began working on his blue print in the summer of 1931. By August 1932, he developed his first prototype which made its first flight on the afternoon of September 30th. After a brief series of successful tests, the Royal Navy issued Order No. 168, calling for the delivery of 25 Baffins within one year.

Full production of the plane was achieved in February 1933, with the first batch, twenty nine aircraft, delivered between the summer and winter. Beside the brand new Baffin, sixty Ripons were converted to the new standard. The British Navy began assimilating the B-5 into its force from early 1934.

The first unit to be reequipped with the Baffin was No. 812 Squadron operating out of HMS Glorious. HMS Courageous (No. 820 Squadron), Eagle (812) and Furious (811) also fitted their air arms with the B-5.

Although the aircraft entered World War II in an active mode, it never saw combat operations. In fact, the Navy was deeply submerged in the process of removing it from service when the Germans invaded Poland.

In 1937, the New Zealand commonwealth pursed 29 B-5s from England in order to bolster their Territorial Air Force stationed at Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

The New Zealand air force employed the type as a reconnaissance platform at the outset of the war. But due to its lack of power and low survivability ratio, the plane was removed from frontline service in 1941.

No sample of this remarkable aircraft remains today.

Power plant: One Bristol 565hp Pegasus IM3 radial engine
Length: 11.68m
Height: 3.91m
Wingspan: 13.88m
Total wing area: 63.45m (square)
Maximum takeoff weight: 3,452kg
Top speed: 219kph
Service ceiling: 4,570m
Climb rate: 146m per minute
Operational range: 869 nautical miles
Armament: One fixed .303″ forward firing Vickers machine gun. One .303 Lewis machine gun in the rear cockpit. Total bomb load was 907kg.

An article by Raul Colon: rcolonfrias@yahoo.com

The Forgotten Saunders Roe A-27 ‘London’

Only thirty one units of the Saunders Roe A.27 ‘London’ biplane flying boat were built for the Royal Air Force Costal Command. The RAFCC,operated the type from 1936 to the fall of 1941. The ‘London’ is another sample of an aircraft which was obsolete before it reached front line units.

The Saro A.27 was conceived in response of Great Britain’s Air Ministry Specification order R-24/31 that called for “a general purpose open sea patrol flying boat”. Based on Saunders’ questionable Severn A.7 model, the London was destined to become one of England’s last operational flying boat platforms.

The first flight of an A.27 took place in 1934. The unit was fitted with two powerful Bristol Pegasus II radial engines mounted on the center upper top part of the wing structure.

The first ten units delivered to the RAF were designated Mk Is and were powered by a larger set of engines, the Bristol Pegasus III. They were easy to recognize by their polygonal cowlings and two-bladed propellers. The next generation of the ‘London’, the Mk II, carried the Pegasus X engines which had a circular cowling look with a four blade configuration. The Mk II would become the aircraft’s most produced (20 units) model. Construction of the II ran until the summer of 1938. The remaining I’s were converted to model II specifications from May of that same year.

The first operational A.27s were assigned to the No. 201 Squadron at Calshot where they replaced the venerable Supermarine Southampton. No. 204 squadron at Mount Batten also received deployments of the London. In 1937, five A.27s of the No. 201’s were selected to represent the RAF on the 150th anniversary of the founding of the State of New South Wales.

Between the spring of 1937 and the autumn of 1938, the 204 Squadron utilized five, specially modified Londons for long distance training missions. The converted A.27, carrying external auxiliary fuel tanks, flew from the British capital to Australia demonstrating the type’s long range operational capability. The round trip covered 48,280km in distance.

The London was still on active, frontline service when World War II broke in 1939.
All A.27s were primarily used as maritime reconnassaince platforms. Operating mainly on the North Sea and in the western Mediterranean Sea, they scanned the vast sea lanes in search for signs of the dreaded U-boats.

Aircrafts based at Gibraltar served until April 1941, when they were replaced by the more modern Consolidated Catalina flying boats.
Beside the RAF, the Royal Canadian Air Force utilized the aircraft during the mid stages of the Second World War.

Powerplant: Two Bristol 1,055ho Pegasus X radial piston engine
Armament: Three 0.303in heavy machine guns located on the bow and an amidships. Total bomb load was up to 907kg.
Length: 17.31m
Height: 5.72m
Wingspan: 24.38m
Total wing area: 132.38m square
Maximum takeoff weight: 8,346kg
Top operational speed: 249kph
Service ceiling: 6,065m
Operational range: 2,800km
Climb rate: 360m per minute
Crew complement: Five

An article by Raul Colon: rcolonfrias@yahoo.com

The L33 Raid

During the afternoon hours of September 23rd 1916, one of the ‘next generation’ super-Zeppelins, the L33, took to the air for its first operational mission: the bombing of downtown London. Just a few months before, the L33 was on the ground, getting its final fittings and adjustments. It was truly a remarkable piece of engineering. She was 649′ long, with a 78 feet diameter and with a total gas capacity of 1,949,000 cubic feet. Six powerful Maybach 240hp Hslu engines gave the lumbering giant a top speed of 59 mph at a maximum operational ceiling of 13,500 feet. Besides the sheer size, what separated the L33 from its predecessor was its bomb load capacity. An impressive five tonnes of ordinance could be stored.

That fateful afternoon, L33 was accompanied by ten additional super-Zeppelins of the Imperial German Navy. The mission called for the eleven to reach the British coastline at the same time. After which, each craft will take off to its pre-designed target area. Eight Zeppelins were assigned to strike targets around Wash. The remaining three units were to hit the British capital. Taking part of the London raid was L31, under the command of Heinrich Mathy. The L32 was lead by the enigmatic Werner Peterson and the L33, controlled by Alois Bocker.

The L33, which departed Nordholz, was fitted with almost three tons of free fall bombs. At approximately ten o’clock GMT, L33 flew over Britain’s coast. The huge dirigible was spotted by some local boys near Thames Estuary. From the Estuary, it moved on towards the north east in order to avoid the heavy saturated British defenses on the east. At the same time, L31 and L32 were crossing the coast headed towards Dungeness, a path seldom explored by German and British planners.

At 11:48 pm, Bocker ordered L33’s bombs to be dropped. Six high explosive bombs landed on Hornchurch. Twenty minutes later, the L33 craft was seen passing West Ham by a couple of street policemen. They promptly alerted the authorities. Searchlights blanketed the pass between Ham and London. After five intensive minutes of search, no Zeppelin was devised, thus, the search was called off, at least for the time being.
A little over 12:05 in the morning, London’s powerful searchlights were turned on. The spotters must have seen the undisputed sight of the German slow moving dirigible as an intense ground attack commenced shortly thereafter. Bocker’s airship was cruising at 12,000 feet following the Ham’s banks when fire erupted. Despite it all, he and his crew kept L33’s attack direction all the way up to Bromley-by-Bow, where the gas giant dropped its main ordinance. One 100kg bomb and five small incendiary bomblets, which landed on St. Leonard’s and Empress Streets.
Four urban houses were damaged and six people were killed in the early stages of the raid. L33 went on to deliver several more bombs in and around Bow. But by this time, the airship was shadowed by British defenses. Low trajectory shells began to find its mark. Several fragments of high detonation shells exploded only a few feet away from the ship’s skin, puncturing one gas cell. Now the big air platform was in trouble. It began losing altitude fast. At 12:20 am, L33 was seen crossing Buckhurts Hill, leaking gas. Besieged by heavy ground fire and declining altitude, Bocker decided to dump water from the ship’s ballast tanks, which caused the L33 to regain some of the height it had loss. But the damage was done.

Near Kelvedon Common, a new and more ominous treat arrived: a British pursuit airplane. Second Lieutenant Alfred de Bathe Brandon was ready for the opportunity to engage the German ship. He had gained valuable experience in March 1916 when he almost singlehanded severely damaged L15. Brandon met L33 head on, emptying its Lewis gun, fifty explosive incendiary bullets, into the airship’s stern section. He swung around a hit the stern again but his gun jammed forcing him to call off the engagement. L33 escaped, at least for the moment.

It was now 12:45 and the dirigible was passing by Chelmsford, still losing precious altitude. In an attempt to steam the decline, all non-essential materials aboard were jettisoned. Twenty five minutes after, at 1:10, Bocker’s ship passed over the Essex coastal area near Mersea Island. Its destination was the security of the Belgium skies. Unfortunately for Bocker and his crew, L33 was doomed. The Zeppelin was almost out of gas, losing altitude fast and its structure was compromised. It would go down, the only question for Bocker was where.

A crash landing at sea, at that hour, was deemed too risky. Better off, the commander thought, make a semi-controlled decent in British territory, then deal with the imprisonment issue. Immediately the ship began to turnaround, now heading back to Essex. She managed to enter the coast. Two and a half miles inland, at 1:20am, L33 went down on a deserted field near Peldon and Little Wigboroug church. The crew managed to escape before the gas giant was engulfed in a fire storm.

Soon after the fire died down, and with the metal frame still standing, Bocker ordered his men to climb back into what was left of the super-Zeppelin to destroy any classified material. Despite their best efforts, the British still were able to gather many essential documents and systems out of the wreck. Data that would be later incorporated on the R33 platform.

When the crew saw the first police cars arriving on the field, they promptly left the area. But the trip back to the coast was short lived. Specialist, Edgar Nicholas, apprehended the entire crew without even taking a shot.

The crew of L33 was questioned extensively by British military and scientific personnel. Even psychologists were brought in to exanimate the mens mental profile. Such was the depth of the debriefing phase. As for the dirigible’s debris, they were studied by engineers for days. After authorities were satisfied that every drop of information was collected, the ship’s frame was burn to the ground.

In the final analysis, the end of L33 did not alter the rate of Zeppelin attacks, but what it did was to enforce a view held by many German commanders, Zeppelins alone would not defeat Great Britain. A new weapon was needed. One year later, that weapon would make its presence felt.

World War I, HP Willmott, Covent Gardens Books 2003
The First World War, Hew Strachan, Penguin Books 2003
The Encyclopedia of Military Aircraft, Robert Jackson, Parragon Publishing Book 2002

The Ejercito Del Aire - The Spanish Air Force

I. Early History

The Spanish Air Force has been around since the first operational balloons began to appear over the Iberian Peninsula back in 1895. But it was not until April 10th, 1910, that the country formally introduced the nascent military air service as part of its overall armed forces structure. On the afternoon of November 5th, 1913, a rudimentary fitted Spanish squadron had the distinction of being the first true organized force to stage an offensive operation. On that tragic day, Spanish airplanes dropped a few simple shrapnel-type bombs on a number of rebellious Moroccan villages.

After almost two decades of mitigating action, Spain’s military air force was completely unprepared when the country’s Civil War erupted on July 18th 1936. During the war, two distinct air arms existed within the integrated structure of the force. The Spanish Republic Air Force was developed by the Republican forces fighting with the established government. At the beginning, the Republican AF was understaffed and more importantly, poorly equipped to influence events on the ground. They were fitted with obsolete Nieuport-Delage NiD-52 fighters, Breguet 19 reconnaissance bombers, a small fleet of Vickers Vildebeest torpedo-bombers and other old foreign aircraft.

The other air force unit derived from the base force was the National Aviation Force. The ‘Aviacion Nacional’ was created by the Army formations that revolted against what they believed was a repressive government The Nationalist, as this group was called, were lead by the charismatic, albeit, ruthless general Francisco Franco. If the Republican AF was undermanned, then the Nationalist’s was a hallow shell.
Nazi Germany promptly figured out a theater of war where they can test their new equipment and tactics: the Spanish skies. By late July, scores of German-built Junkers Ju-52/3m bomber -transport planes were ferrying Nationalist troops from Spanish Morocco to the mainland. By mid August, Italian-made Savoia Marchetti SM-81, Fiat CR-32 and German Heinkel He-51 were filling the Iberian sky.

The Republican AF also got a boost from foreign countries. Sixty French Dewoitine (D.372, 372, 501 and 510) as well as twenty Potez 54s and a squadron of Bleriot-Spad S.510s; joined the force.

Before the war ended on March 28th 1939, Dorniers, Messerschmitt and other top of the line aircraft tilted the balance of power in favor of the rebels. Franco himself secured the victory when his forces entered Madrid on March 27th.

II. World War II

After the war ended, Franco and his staff, clearly impressed by the role air power played in their ascension to power, established the modern Spanish air force; the ‘Ejercito del Aire’ (EDA). Formed on October 7th, 1939, the ‘Ejercito’ would play a relatively small but significant part in World War II.

When news of the German invasion of Red Russia reached the Spanish government, the new Fascist government’s Foreign Ministry, Ramon Serrano Suñer; offered military assistance to the Nazis by way of the German Ambassador, Eberhard von Stohrer. Adolph Hitler wanted a full pledge declaration of war against the Allies, but Franco and Serrano were kindly aware that any such move will place the country’s struggling economy at the mercy of Great Britain’s oil embargo.

If they could not assist Germany directly, then Franco, though an all volunteer force, similar to the German-deployed Condor Legion during the Civil War, could be mustered. On July 1941, 18,000 men from all walks of life joined in what would be called the Blue Division; a ground force unit that would see heavy action in the Eastern Front. Attached to the division was a limited air expeditionary force known as the Blue Squadron or ‘Escuadrilla Azul’.

The Blue Squadron was part of the overall Army Group Center assets from 1941 until 1944. A total of five Spanish Squadrons flying BF-109 and later FW-190, flew a total of 1,918 sorties as part of Jagdgeschwader 51, also known as “Molders”. The squadrons worked in succession beginning with the first arriving on early June 1941 until the last official one on February of 1944. They had the distinction of being the only Spanish unit to have fought in the Battle of Kursk. Its combat record consisted of 277 air kills and 74 aircraft destroyed, with a total combined loss of seven Spanish pilots.

III. Post War Organization

Following the end of the War, the Spanish government allied themselves with the Western countries in their struggles against the Soviet Union. On March 18th 1946, Spain’s first dedicated paratroop unit was formed. The establishment of a mobile force and key changes in the Ejercito mid level structure made it possible for the country to receive, on a continuing base, top flight aircraft from the United States.

Between the fall of 1950 and the spring of 1959, the Ejercito incorporated its first jet powered platforms; US-built F-86 Saber fighters, Lockheed T-33 trainers and DC-3s and 4s transports were delivered to the Spanish government. Most of those first generation jet systems were replaced in the mid-to-late1960s. It was in the spring of 1968 that the Spanish government initiated an aggressive re-armament effort that culminated with the incorporation of top shelf F-4Cs Phantoms and F-5s Freedom Fighters.

The 1970s brought in another refurbishing phase with the assimilation into the Ejercito of French-developed Mirage III and F-1s. Dassault’s deltas, as the III was commonly refer to, formed the backbone of the Spanish AF for much of the 1970s and early 80s. The Mirage III was one of the biggest success stories in the field of post-WW II combat aircraft design. The vaunted Mirage III first flew on November 17th, 1956 which made the system more than a decade old when it joined the Ejercito.

The other major platform utilized by the AF was the Mirage F-1. The F-1 is a single seat strike fighter which made its maiden flight on December 23rd, 1966. It became operational with the French Air Force in the spring of 1974. The F-1 was one of Dassault’s biggest export success stories.

In the middle of the 80s, the Ejercito received its most advanced air weapon up to date, the US-supplied F/A-18 Hornet. Since its operational deployment in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Hornet became the cornerstone of Spain’s air deterrence and offensive strike capability. A fact that became apparent during NATO’s air war over Kosovo.

Spain made its movement into full pledge membership to NATO in 1982.

IV. Current Structure and base location

The Ejercito del Aire is divided into five operational commands. The first is the Battle Air Command (BAC) based at Torrejon Air Base, Madrid. General Air Command (GAC) has its headquarters in Madrid. Personnel (PC) and Logistic Commands (LC) are also located in the Spanish capital. The only other active command posted outside the Madrid region is the Canary Island Air Command, which reside at Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands.

The Ejercito utilized 15 operational Air Bases.

1. Alcanatarilla

2. Armilla

3. Four Winds

4. Gando

5. Getafe (built in 1911 and widely consider the cradle of Spanish aviation)

6. Los Llanos

7. Matacan

8. Moron Air Base is located in southern Spain, roughly 35 miles southeast of the city of Seville. Negotiations for US bases in Spain were conducted between June 1951 and September 1953 under the direction of a Joint United States Military Group, commanded by Major General A. W. Kissner.


In 1957, the Sixteenth Air Force was realigned under the Strategic Air Command. Main operating bases in Spain were used for SAC B-47 rotational alert aircraft until April 1965. 16th AF also operated SAC bases in Morocco from 1958 through 1963. In 1966, a year after SAC withdrew its B-47 alert force from Spain, 16th AF was reassigned to US Air Forces in Europe. On 13 May 1958, the first flight of B-47s were assigned to Morón Air Base to conduct Reflex operations and 6 weeks later the first rotational fighter squadron, F-100s from George AFB CA, arrived for temporary duty to conduct air defense alert.


In April 1960, Morón was placed under the command of Colonel Henry C. Godman. Morón kept operating primarily as a “Reflex” base until 29 April 1962, when the first Chrome Dome KC-135 aircraft arrived.


On November 1971, Morón was relegated to a “modified caretaker status. Torrejon Air Base was designated as the Primary Support Base (PSB) with support services to start in April 1972. Military personnel were reduced to a staff of approximately 100 members of the 7473 CSS. All flying activity was halted except for occasional exercises.


On May 14th 1983 US Spanish bilateral Agreement of Friendship, Defense and Cooperation authorized the United States to station up to 15 tanker aircraft at Morón Air Base. A manpower change request was developed to increase blue-suit manning, based on the tanker task force and the increased War Reserve Materiel (WRM) requirements. The Morón Air Base work force, including all military, civilian, contractor and tenant personnel, was approximately 300 personnel.


In 1984, Morón became NASA’s Space Shuttle Transoceanic Abort Landing Site. Since that time, Morón and NASA have developed a lasting partnership in service to Shuttle ventures. In March 1984, Morón Air Base was selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as a Transoceanic Abort Landing (TAL) site for the space shuttle program. Special navigation and landing aids are in place, and personnel are highly trained to recover landing of the orbiter vehicle. Major enhancements were completed in 1986, and included the permanent installation of a Microwave Landing System. Morón Air Base is the only TAL site in the world situated to support high, mid, and low inclination launches. For this reason, Morón Air Base activates for almost all space shuttle launches.


In August 1990, SAC deployed 22 KC-135 and KC-10 tankers to support Operation DESERT SHIELD. In January 1991, SAC changed Morón Air Base from refueling to bomber operations for DESERT STORM. The 801st Bomb Wing (Provisional) at Morón Air Base consisted of 24 B-52s, 3 KC-135s and over 2,800 personnel. This was the largest deployed bomber wing during the war.


Since January 2000, Morón is a critical link in supporting the rotation of Aerospace Expeditionary Forces (AEF) — deployed in EUCOM and CENTCOM Areas of Responsibilities. Tanker Task Forces (KC-135 and KC-10), Fighter Units from the Air Force and Marine Corps, and airlifters (C-141, C-17 and C-5s) use Morón as a staging base for AEF operations. The base also frequently welcomes rotating US Army personnel.


Moron currently housed F-18 Hornet fighters and P-3 Orion surveillance aircraft - was once one of three bases the US used in Spain and home to about 2,000 active-duty people and their families. The Defense Department closed Torrejon and Zaragoza Air Bases, and trimmed Moron to little more than a handful of people keeping an eye on the runway and buildings in case the Air Force needed to return to the Iberian Peninsula.

9. San Javier

10. Santiago

11. Son San Joan
12. Talavera

13. Torrejon Air Base was a major military airport in Spain. During the hey days of the Cold War, Torrejon was headquarters of the United States Air Forces in Europe Sixteenth Air Force as well as the 401st Tactical Fighter Wing. Aircrafts stationed at Torrejon were usually rotated to other USAFE airbases located in Italy and Turkey.
The Air Base was originally the home of the Spanish National Institute of Aeronautics, but after the U.S.-Spanish Defense Agreement of 1953, the US funded the construction at Torrejon of a brand new 13,400′ concrete runway in order to replace the 4,266-ft grass airstrip. A massive concrete apron and other necessary maintenance and shelter facilities were erected to accommodate the biggest of the United States Air Force Strategic Air Command’s bombers which mainly supported the Command’s strategic Reflex missions.
Today, among other things, the base housed the Torrejon-Madrid Airport.

14. Villanubla
15. Zaragoza

V. Operational Activity

The main Spanish air formation is the Wing or ‘Ala’. Each Wing is composed of up to three squadrons (escuadrones). Between 19 and 24 aircrafts are housed in an escuadron or air unit. The Ejercito also operates a number of Groups and special operation squadrons.

Total aircraft inventory is estimated to be around 660 operational airframes. Here’s a list of current air activity platforms and base units.
a. Fighter Attack Planes
” Dassault Mirage F-1M (36 units) Wing 14th
” Dassault Mirage F-1BM (3) Wing 14th
” McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18 Hornet F-18M (68) Wing 12th & 15th
” McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18 Hornet F-18A (17) Wing 46th
” Eurofighter Typhoon EF2000 (36) Wing 11th
” Eurofighter Typhoon EF2000T (14) Wing 11th

b. Maritime Reconnaissance Systems
” Fokker F-27 (3) 802nd Squadron
” Lockheed Orion P-3A (2) Wing 11th
” Lockheed Orion P-3B (2) Wing 11th
” Lockheed Orion P-3M (3) Wing 11th

c. Transport Aircraft
” Airbus A310 (2) 45th Group
” Beechcraft C-90 (4) 42nd Group
” CASA C-212 T.12 (74) Distributed on various commands such as Wing 37th, 801st Group, 47th Group, Wing 48th, and 721st Squadron.
” CASA C-212 T.12B (10)
” CASA C-212 T.12B modified (6)
” CASA CN-235 (20) Wing 25th
” CASA C-295M (13) Wing 35th
” Dassault Falcon 900 (2) 45th Group
” Dassault Falcon 900B (3) 45th Group
” Lockheed C-130H (6) Wing 31st
” Lockheed C-130H-30 (1) Wing 31st
” Lockheed KC-130H (5) Wing 31st

d. Aerial Refueling Airplanes
” Boeing 707-300KC (3) 47th Group

e. Trainers
” Beechcraft Bonanza F-33C (23) 42nd Group
” CASA C-101EB-01 (73) General Air Academy
” Northrop F-5BM (20) Wing 23rd
” LET L.13 (5) Wing 79th
” PZL Bielsko SZD-30 (4) Wing 79th
” Schiebe SF-28A (1) Wing 79th
” ENAER T-35C (37) General Air Academy

f. Helicopters
” Aerospatiale SA 330J (4) 801st Squadron
” Eurocopter EC 120B (15) Wing 78th
” Eurocopter AS 532UL (2) Wing 46th & 48th
” Eurocopter Super Puma AS 332 (9) Wing 46th & 48th
” Sikorsky S-076C (8) Wing 78th

Other aircrafts included (6) CASA 127 VIP transports, (2) Cessna Citation V C-560 recon platforms, (4) Dassault Falcons 20D and E naval survey aircrafts, (12) Canadair CL-215 fire attack planes. Ten additional Canadair, version CL-415 acts as firefighting systems. The Ejercito operates one IAI B-707 351C Intelligence gathering aircraft.

On standby orders, the Spanish AF have 71 single-seat Typhoon fighter/attack aircrafts. Sixteen two-seat dedicated attack Typhoons are also expected to join the Ejercito within a ten year radius. Between 25 and 28 Airbus A400Ms are also ordered.

VI. Current Deployments and Future Operational Profile

The Ejercito del Aire has been very active since the end of the Kosovo War. Spain’s F-1s has been employed in the skies over Iraq and more recently, Afghanistan. It’s believed that some of Spain’s powerful Typhoon aircraft will soon see action in the Afghan theater of operations. Based on Herat Air Force Base, Ejercito’s F/A-18s and transport airplanes had been operating since the early 2005.

Spain also has a small detachment in the former Soviet republic of Kirgizstan. Elements of the 35th Wing are stationed there for logistic and medevac support operations.

As for the immediate future, the Spanish Air Force is fast becoming one of the better equipped units in the European Continent. It ranks 9th in total combat power, just below Poland and on top of countries such as the Ukraine and Finland. The country’s rank will likely remain the same as other European nations incorporate new types of air platforms to its active inventory.

References
How to Make War: A Comprehensive Guide to Modern Warfare in the 21st Century, James F. Dunnigan, HarperCollins Books 2003
Air Power: The men, machines and ideas that revolutionized war, from Kitty Hawk to Gulf War II; Stephene Budiansky, Penguin Books 2004
Modern Military Aircraft in Combat, Editor Robert Jackson, Amber Books 2008
www.globalsecurity.org
www.ejercitodelaire.mde.es

The Supermarine Sea Otter

The Supermarine Sea Otter was a British designed anphibian biplane intended to replace the once venerable Supermarine Warlus in the Royal Air Force reconnaissance and search and rescue missions. It had the distinctions of being the last biplane flying boat to achieve front line service in Great Britain’s armed force.

The Otter was a result of an Air Ministry’s specification request codenamed S.7-38 (Stingray). There was a considerable effort placed on the development of Project Stingray’s power plant. The original S.78-38 called for a Bristol Perseus XI engine configuration with a two bladed propeller arrangement. The Bristol Perseus configuration did not give the platform the necessary thrust. A new arrangement was developed with a four blade propeller mechanism set at an angle of 35 degrees. A sharp departure from the frequently used 90 degree sets.

The first prototype, unit K8854, took to the air for its maiden flight on the morning of September 23rd 1938. Designed to take the place of the 1933-designed Warlus, the Otter differed from its predecessor in many characteristics. Most noticeable was its engine tractor configuration. The Warlus utilized a pusher system. The new aircraft was also faster, could fly farther and handled better in the water than its predecessor.
Production was carried out by the front runner of British flying boat designs, Saunders Roe who acted as the only subcontractor to the Otter project. By the spring of 1939, the Royal Air Force (RAF) and much of the British air industry was geared up to produce badly needed fighters and bombers, so the production of the Otter was delayed by almost three full years.

The first production Otter was delivered to the RAY on January 1943. The original Air Ministry order was for 592 aircrafts, but due to the tardiness of production and the end of World War II, only 290 were ever built. Production ran well into 1946 (July) before the halt order arrived.

The first operational Sea Otters were assigned to the RAF No. 277 Squadron. The Royal Navy (RN) also got into the act and acquired a number of Otters for costal recon operations. During WW II, Otters fielded nine RAF squadrons: No. 277, 278, 279, 281, 282, 292, No. 1350 Flight, 1351 and 1352. Other countries also operated the Otter. The Royal Australian Navy utilized the type to patrol the vastness of the Coral Sea. The Royal Danish Air Force, the Duct Naval Aviation Services and the French Colonial Service on Indochina; also employed the biplane.

After the Second World War was over, the RAF and RV promptly retired the Otter from front line service. This did not mean that the plane was useless. The RN Fleet Air Arm units remained in service until the spring of 1952.
Two versions of the Otter were produced, the Mk I and II. The amphibious Mk I carried bombs and depth charges while the Mk II was employed only as an air rescue platform. Of the 290 Otters built, only 40 were of the Mk II variety.

Today, only a nose section of a Royal Australian Navy Otter remains. Currently the section sits on permanent display at an Australian Naval Museum.

Power Plant One Bristol Mercury 855hp XXX radial piston engine
Wingspan 14.02m
Length 11.94m
Height 4.93m
Total wing area 56.67m square
Maximum Takeoff weight 4,912kg
Top Ceiling 4,877m
Operational Range 1,167m
Climb Rate 265m per minute

An article by Raul Colon: rcolonfrias@yahoo.com

The Tempest: Finland’s Myrsky II 26

During the Second World War, many countries in Europe designed and produced combat aircraft. Chief among them was Nazi Germany, but there were also a number of small, industrial-based countries, such as Romania, Poland and others; that developed and eventually fielded military airplanes. One of them was the Nordic country of Finland. As relationships with the Soviet Union commenced to deteriorate in the early part of 1941, Finland launched a crash program to develop a fighter aircraft capable of defending the country vast airspace in the spring of that year. Spearheading the effort was E. Wageluis of the Valtion Lentokonetehdas, a state-owned aeronautical industry established in the autumn of 1928. The program produced immediate results when in 1942 it rolled-out the prototype of what would become the Myrsky fighter airplane. The original version was a low wing, single seated monoplane design. It was built out of wood and metal sections and was fitted with a tricycle, re-tractable landing gear. A Swedish licensed version of the popular Pratt & Whitney SCg-3 Twin Wasp, 14-cylinder, radial cooled engine capable of generating 1,650hp powered the Myrsky (Tempest). The aircraft possessed four heavy machine guns installed on the frontend of the fuselage and synchronized to fire through the engine propeller disc. An in depth testing of the new fighter commenced immediately. Although the aircraft incorporated many modern features, its handling performance was sluggish at best. Three improved prototypes followed the original model. These units were designed Tempest I. As with the first unit, these prototypes were submitted to rigorous testing which showed many structural and technical problems associated with the design. The most problematic situation expose by the extensive testing was that the wing composite covering tended to detach from the wing skeleton under high pressure. Adding to this was the relative easy of which the landing gear tended to collapse. In fact, the four original aircrafts were destroyed during the test phase of the program by these same conditions, thus delaying the deployment of the aircraft. The next version of the Tempest incorporated all of its predecessors systems plus the added modifications to the coverings and the landing gear structure. What came out of this integration would be the last operational-ready variant of the Tempest, the II.

SPECIFICATIONS

Wingspan 36′-4″
Length 27′-5″
Height 9′-10″
Maximum Take off Weight 7,088lb
Top Speed 328 mph
Service Ceiling 29,572′
Operational Range 579 miles

Forty six units of the Tempest II were eventually produced. There were plans to mass produce the next Myrsky version, the number III. Developed during the early part of 1944, the III would had incorporated the same fuselage of the II, but would had have an improve engine and a more sophisticated defensive arm mechanism. Ten aircraft were produced of this version, none of them were completed. The whole Tempest program was halted when hostilities with the Soviet Union was over. The operational Tempest saw limited action at the beginning of 1944, but by this time the outcome of the war against the Soviet was already determinate. Finland was forced to sign a peace treaty with the Soviets in September 1944, and shortly after, the Finnish turned what remained of its military against their formed allies, Germany and Italy. The aircraft performed poorly against the best German fighters and was removed from front line service in December. What remained of the Tempest II fighter force was relegated to ground support and reconnaissance duties, which they were nearly, shoot out of the air by the Axis. After the war, the few remained Myrsky were transferred by Finland to France where they served as target tugs until they were decommissioned on 1947.

References:
1 Air Power, Stephen Budiansky, Penguin Books 2004
2 The Myth of The Great War: A New Military History of WW I, John Mosier, Perennial 2001
4 The Encyclopedia of Military Aircraft, Edt Paul Eden, Amber Books 2007

An article by Raul Colon: rcolonfrias@yahoo.com

Fairey’s Strike Fighter Concept: 1944

In late August 1944, the Fairey Corporation was asked to asses the feasibility of adapting its original tandem, twin engine research studies to a new naval strike platform. The British Royal Navy issued a verbal requirement statement in October asking for a twin tandem aircraft fitted with a Tandem Merlin power plant, codenamed Project A, and alternative Twin Griffon platform, known as Project B. Either design was intended to be a single seated fighter, although there was the possibility of adding a rear compartment for a navigator.

The initial single seated platform design was very similar in form to the Fairey’s O-21-44 Torpedo Bomber. The main difference was a contra-rotating propeller system. Two heavy caliber cannons were fitted underneath each wing nacelles, the structure that also housed the main undercarriage. One torpedo or a 2,000lb bomb load could be carried on the plane’s centerline. The wings can also carry up to one thousand pound bomb load under each inner wing. Project A was designed to carry a 300 gal fuel load internally and additional 520 gal on drop fuel tanks.

The plane projected top speed at a 20,000′ operational ceiling was estimated at 460 mph. Top service ceiling was 36,000′, but with a torpedo load it felt to 29,600′. With drop fuel tanks, the aircraft was able to operate at a distance of 820 miles. Project B or Griffon carry a similar profile. Top speed was determinate at 397 mph with a top ceiling of 38,000′. Bomb load capacity was the same as the A program. The only other variant visa-vise the Merlin centered project was that the Griffon projected an 860-870 miles operational range, between forty to fifty miles longer than the Merlin. Nevertheless, it was the Merlin in which the company pitted their hopes for a new, huge production contract. But the fact of the matter was that Project A did not measured up to the concurrent Westland N-11-44 design.

During the first weeks of March 1945, Fairey redesigned the “A”’s overall specifications. The plane would still employ the Merlin RM-17sm power plant, but the new version was streamlined and compacted. The new concept was a welcome sight to many inside the Ministry of Aircraft Production (MAP) who were unease about the path the whole program was directed to. The new version of Project A had a better climb rate than the Westland and a more robust undercarriage, a most ion naval operations. Still, the Westland was considerable faster than the “A”. One factor will change the dynamics of the “A”. By the middle of 1945, engineers at Fairey and other British aircraft manufacturing companies were in the adapting to a new kind of engine, the gas turbine. The Merlin has achieved its peak of aerodynamic design and now it was time to replace it with a more flexible unit.

Fairey was quickly to adapt to the new realities and promptly began to design the “A” with a turbine propeller alignment. With MAP consent, Fairley field officials commences informal discussion with Rolls-Royce engineers regarding the availability of the Clyde engine as well as other jet propeller gas turbine power plants under development. Rolls-Royce gave the company advance data research information for three top secret turboprop engines, RB-52 (an improved Clyde), RB-52-30 and RB-52-50. After redesigning the “A” program with each of the three prototypes, Fairey determined that the twin Merlin configuration gave a better overall performance, thus prompting the company to conclude that the expected high cruising fuel consumption of the single turbine power plant running in a throttle environment was the main culprit of the “A” poor showing in contrast to the Westland. The project managing team at Fairey decided to implement a small twin turbine configuration which would drive a contra-rotating propeller in a similar manner to the tandem piston system. It was envisioned that this alignment would give the “A” a better overall profile that a single turbine of equal aggregate power.

Soon after the engine configuration decision was achieved, the company commenced work on two new strike fighters. The first would utilize a single RB-52-50 turboprop with a contra-rotating propeller. The other sample was fitted with two B-52-30 arranged in tandem with a separated contra-propeller gearbox with each propeller driven by its own turbine system. A specification and profile paper was submitted to the MAP in June 30th 1945 featuring three planes. Each had a 52 feet wing span, four 20mm heavy caliber cannons and a torpedo arrangement. The piston configuration (RB-52-30) offered a total weight of 23,900lb, with a maximum speed of 410 mph at a 10,000′ ceiling. The RB-52-50 weighted at 24,400lb with a top speed of 395 mph and the same armament arrangement. The Clyde’s profile was similar to the other two, only its airspeed (413 mph) and total weight (23,300lb) was different.

Following Fairey’s paper the MAP concluded that a single Clyde system was inferior to the twin Merlin arrangement on almost all areas. But the higher achieved power gave the Project A an overall systematic quality that exceeded, albeit not by much, the one profiled on the Westland (now known as the N-11-44 project). The Admiralty gave the company the official ‘go ahead’ to start pre-production development on the strike fighter in September 1945. The Royal Navy made it official on June 20th 1946 when it issued Specification N-16-46.

With the end of the war in May 1945, the MAP began to review all incomplete aircraft programs. All Rolls-Royce engines designs were also reviewed. The company was asked to issue its views regarding the standing of their twin-tandem piston engine in regards to the new turboprops. In October, Rolls-Royce stated that it was in favor of utilizing the Fairey’s twin turboprop arrangement for navalized version of the strike fighter project. At the same meeting, Rolls executives told the Ministry members and Fairey senior staff that eventually the company will shift its engine developmental resources towards an axial flow jet engine. Fairey got the message and abandoned its tandem system altogether. Now, the company’s main military project will be fitted with a side-by-side engine system housed behind the main gearbox. Rolls accepted the idea and a new engine system was born, call sign AP-25.

The changes on the engine system caused the alteration of the original overall plane layout. The aircraft that emerged after the redesign program was a much cleaner unit. It had a completely clean trailing edge without hinge brackets, which was a mainstay of Fairey’s recent designs. The wing structure was laminated to allow an even air flow. The main armament, the torpedo, was still housed on the airframe’s centerline but now bombs, depth charges, rockets or any supplemental weapon system would be carried under the wing outboard of the main undercarriage between and below the heavy cannon. The two side-by-side engine configuration drove its own propeller through an independent mechanism train carried by a central gearbox. The two jet pipes exhausted through the bottom of the fuselage just behind the wing area. Internal fuel capacity, with a torpedo profile, was now 545gal. Top operational ceiling was estimated at 49,000′. There were plans to convert the Program A and B into a single entity with a two-seated arrangement.

A complete aircraft layout was submitted to NE Rowe, the MAP’s new Deputy of Development and Production on November 13th. Rowe accepted Fairey’s statement that Rolls would have the new AP-25 engine ready for operational testing by December 1946. On the morning of November 21st, Rowe advised Fairey of a MAP amendment to the original specification profile. The new order called for a true dedicated dive bombing platform, instead of the strike fighter boxed role first envisioned. On January 2nd 1946, the Admiralty issued a new set of pre-production order for the aircraft with a target date of January 1948. Immediately Fairey ran into pre-developmental problems. First, the now dive bomber proved to be too heavy for naval operations forcing the engineering team to shed almost 1,000lb of weight, most of them from the reinforced steel main fuselage. More importantly to Fairey than the weight issue was the development delays confronting Rolls Royce.

On October 17th, Royce executives advised their Fairey’s counterparts on the delays facing the engine, now known as Coupled Tweed, but still expected the power plant to be ready by the following January. By early 1947, the Admiralty was increasingly skeptic of the whole dive bomber/strike fighter concept. Their top leaders could not cover the high amount of monetary resources the Fairey platform was ‘eating’ yearly. For them, the time of the dive bomber has log passed and on March 12th, it made it official with the cancelation of the entire program.

For Royce, the termination of the project marked a shift in the company’s priorities and investments. As for Fairey, the company enjoyed a few success stories afterward. In the months following the cancelation, the engineers that worked on the strike program, as well as all the data collected on it, was used on the Gannet Program.

Fairey Aircraft Since 1915, HA Taylor, Putnam 1974
RAF Bomber Command and its Aircraft 1936-1940, James Goulding and Philip Moyes, Ian Allan 1975
Planemakers II, David Monday, Janes 1982

Story By: Raul Colon e-mail:rcolonfrias@yahoo.com

Vultee A-35B - Codenamed Vengeance

The Vultee A-35B, codenamed Vengeance by the Americans, was specifically designed and produce to meet a British’s Royal Air Force (RAF) 1940 requirement of a dedicated dive-bombing platform in the same mold of the highly successful, at least during the early days of World War II; Stuka dive bomber. Even before the German invasion of Poland, the RAF’s Bomber Command was very interested in the concept of a dive platform. The interest was most likely developed during the Spanish Civil War when the German Luftwaffe utilized Stuka dive bombers as air mobile artillery batteries against Generalissimo Franco’s opponents. To the surprise of many in and outside the air industry, the slow moving Stuka proved to be efficient killing machines. So much so, that it’s perceived success paved the way for a completely new line of aircraft design.

The design and development phase of the Vengeance ran smoothly and in record time. By the early spring 1941, the A-35A was ready for taxi trials. Two months later, on July, the aircraft took to the air for the first time. But, as was the case with many “off the shelf” airplane concepts, the Vengeance was obsolete before it became fully operational. The main culprit for the A-35’s demise was the RAF’s concern regarding the vulnerability of the new platform. Nevertheless, the Vengeance went into full production mode in the autumn of 1941. And although history does not refer kindly to the A-35 service record, the aircraft did prove its worth over the course of the war.

The RAF and the Indian Air Force utilized the dive bomber, most of the time operating out of the range of fighter escorts, in operations against the Japanese. In Burma, the A-35 played a pivotal, albeit, unrecognized role in the air campaigns over Kohima and Imphal where they were employed as regular bombing systems in a precision ground interaction.

Beside the RAF, the Royal Navy employed the most A-35Bs (serving with the British) during the war. Up to 88 A-35Bs were delivered to the Navy before hostilities ceased in 1945. An additional 25 units were received in the early part of 1946. The smallness of the number of available Navy Vengeance meant that the plane’s profile would change from a dedicated bombing aircraft to a practice one. Some A-35Bs were even use as target tug in the later stages of the conflict.

The aircraft found its way into many air forces’ arsenals. The Australian Royal Air Force (RAAF) operated several squadrons of Vengeance (a total of 342 serviceable airframes) since the mid part of 1942. RAAF’s A-35s were routinely using in the New Guinea campaigns. The plane remained in front line service with the RAAF until the summer of 1946, when they were officially retired.

The Free French Air Force operated the plane in French North Africa during the Allied invasion of the continent. The aircraft even saw action with the Brazilian air force from 1944 onward. In all, 1528 Vengeance were produced between 1941 and 1944.

Power Plant One Wright 1700hp Double Row Cyclone R2600 radial piston engine
Wingspan 14.63m
Length 12.12m
Height 4.67m
Total Wing Area 30.84sq m
Maximum Takeoff Weight 7445kg
Top Speed 449kph
Service Ceiling 6800m
Operational Range 1931km
Climb Rate 366m per minute
Armament Six 7.7mm heavy machine guns in wings and rear cockpit
Total Bomb Load 908kg

Story By: Raul Colon e-mail:rcolonfrias@yahoo.com

Tags: History, Military, Planes, World War II

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