Recent content by fcorsair

Thanks all, I've seen all of those sources and videos, plus I have a copy of Hellions of the Deep - but none of them explains the origin of the box tails at all. I guess the answer lies in some archive somewhere.

Hi all, I'm trying to do some research into the Mark 13 and one thing I'm struggling to pin down is exactly when the plywood 'box tail' stabilizers on the torpedo were first used, and indeed any detail as to why they were introduced. So far I have the fragmentary facts laid out: A photo of...

Update: I found the recording online, it's very interesting. You can hear I-52's propeller beat and the explosion of the Mark 24 later on, plus some of the radio traffic between the Avengers that sank her. Files are here, down at the bottom below the more general training audio files: Sonobuoy2...

I'm pretty sure the radio operator had a feed of the microphones on the sonobuoys, it's not like he was stuck watching a needle move on the radio set. I believe there are a few recordings of these attacks in the National Archives, including one of the sinking of the Japanese submarine I-52 in...

A standard attack on a U-boat was supposed to go something like this: An Avenger out on patrol would spot a U-boat either visually or on radar. If possible the pilot would work his way round to try and make his initial attack out of the sun, using rockets to try and damage the sub to the point...

The Mark 24 was designed to have roughly the same dimensions as a 1,000lb bomb and was usually carried in the forward part of the TBF/TBM's bomb bay. Typical loadout for late 1943 and 1944 was a pair of depth bombs at the rear of the bay, six AN/CRT-1 sonobuoys, three on each side at the front...

Ah, that's very good - thank you! Google translate comes up with some odd results, it seems to be translating some of them literally. But I'm sure I can work around that.

Does anyone have a definitive list of all the Japanese pilots and crewmen who flew during the attack on Pearl Harbor? I'm interested in gathering a list and then tracking what happened to them during the course of the war, to see how the attrition of Midway and the other battles of 1942 played...

Would you mind posting the USN/USMC list you have, please? I've been putting together my own version from the primary mission reports but there are some big gaps - if you could fill some of them in that would really help me out. I'm happy to give you my work so far in return if that would be of...