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!