American PBY-5 Catalina's

[kateenaboy]

Does anyone know of any PBY-5 Catalina's use by the American's during ww2 operating out of the UK? if so do you know what anything about these aircrafts markings/colours?

Thanks for the help.

 

[mjfur]

5th Emergency Rescue Squadron

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[CATCH 22]

Does anyone know of any PBY-5 Catalina's use by the American's during ww2 operating out of the UK? if so do you know what anything about these aircrafts markings/colours?

Thanks for the help.

One of my favourite PBY-units during WWII is VP/VPB-63 "Mad cats". The squadron moved to UK in July 1943 and operated from Pembroke Dock, being the first US Navy unit in Great Britain. This was the only "Catalina"-squadron to use the MAD (Magnetic Anomaly Detector)-gear and retro-rockets against the German submarines. Note the interesting alpha-numeric markings: this a/c is #15 (US-Navy designation), but also carries the letter "O" (RAF-style code letter). BTW O is the 15-th letter in the alphabet.

The "Mad cats" had both, blue and white camouflage, PBY-5 flying boats and PBY-5A amphibians so you can choose any of them. Below a photo from "US Navy PBY Catalina Units of the Atlantic War"; 2 blue and one white PBY-5 at Pembroke Dock.

The unit moved to French Morocco during December 1943, but for five months in GB there have been losses, air battles and submarine spotting.
Interestingly enough in January 1945 4 'Cats" from VPB-63 have been detached to the US Navy base at Dunkeswell and participated in MAD-patrols over the English Channel. From this time is the photo below, a PBY-5A amphibian, BuNo 34047 with the distinctive ASW-camouflage and alpha-numeric markings (U and 21; again U is the 21-st letter in the alphabet):

Attached find a movie (no sound) with several nice shots of MAD-cats from VP-63 in UK. I believe you'll find it on YouTube as well, but AFAIR the formatting was wrong.
Cheers!

 

[SaparotRob]

That was very interesting. This is the first time I've heard of "retro rockets" on PBYs (or any where). Would the plane overfly the U-boat and then fire?

 

[CATCH 22]

That was very interesting. This is the first time I've heard of "retro rockets" on PBYs (or any where). Would the plane overfly the U-boat and then fire?

Yes - the "retro rockets" had to be fired backwards - see here.
The finding and attacking a U-boat is a bit more complicated. The speed of the airplane and the speed of the rocket were balanced in such way that after firing the rockets they will fly back the same distance which the Catalina has flown from the point of spotting/detecting the submarine. Then the bombs will fall vertically and eventually hit the submarine.
Check this article for some detailed information.
This was the only PBY-unit using MAD and retro rockets so it's probably not very well known.
Cheers!

 

[SaparotRob]

Great article. The things one learns here.

 

[Escuadrilla Azul]

That was very interesting. This is the first time I've heard of "retro rockets" on PBYs (or any where). Would the plane overfly the U-boat and then fire?

Germans tried to develop a vertical antitank launcher but it wasn't very succesful

 

[CATCH 22]

When I was reading the War Diaries of VPB-63 (on Fold3 but one can find them in other archives too) I found a whole "Doctrine" describing how to use the MAD-gear and how to bomb the target. Below is the part about the bombing run only - I think it's quite interesting:

Cheers!

 

[SaparotRob]

It was interesting.

 

[WATU]

Did retro bombs claim any sole sinkings? Many accounts state that U-1107 was lost to them but I see Niestle gives the credit to a FIDO. I know they had several hits but the victims had to be finished off usually by surface escorts. The contact warhead was quite small at 35-37lb. Possibly same warhead as for Mousetrap. Typically fired in volleys of 8 0.5 secs apart so three volleys max.