Best ship buster.....

Liberator for convoy protection, Beaus or Mossies for strikes

Yeah, I second that.....

guys we probably should of made this into an Allied, Axis best ship buster.

gotta say besides the Fw 200, Ju 290 the Ju 88A was also quite outstanding granted with no Allied protective fighters on duty.

E ~

LOL - it has to be the TBF/M Avenger hands down. It probably sunk more shipping than any other aircraft type.

=S=

Lunatic

How about B-25's 'skip-bombing' attacks in the PTO? I remember reading an interview with Japanese sailors after the war where they were wondering how we got our air launched torpedoes to jump out of the water before striking their ships.

F4Uftw said:

How about B-25's 'skip-bombing' attacks in the PTO? I remember reading an interview with Japanese sailors after the war where they were wondering how we got our air launched torpedoes to jump out of the water before striking their ships.

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Unexpected also to have a B-25 appear skimming the waves coming straight at you.

If the metric is number of ships sunk, I suspect you have to give the nod to the TBF.

virtually all the others mentioned above were designed for something else and pressed into sea strike duty 'just because' they were versatile enough to do it.

If you separate the concept land based vs carrier based you have another dimension to consider including range and payloads.

Sentimental favorite goes to the Dauntless.

My most feared would be the Condor (it would suck being on the deck of a straggling liberty ship and watching a FW200 swoop in)
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuF4wGkHA5g

Coolest B-25H

I've seen it written that the helldiver sunk the most tonnage but this is probably due to the Yamamoto and Musashi which the Avenger could claim too.

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I just read a good book about Torpedo squadron 8; a fairly new written book. A mix of Avengers, Dauntless's and Wildcats was the recipe for killing ships of the line. The Japanese Type 91 Torpedo was very good though. Too bad the U.S. could not issue a fish as effective for the Avenger.

I believe that Heinkel He-111 was also used against the ships as a torpedo bomber,most notably with KG 26 both against the Arctic konvoys and in the Mediterranian. KG 40 also operated the type in the Atlantic for a while.

The Fw200 was the bane of Atlantic shipping until the CVEs became commonplace in the later stages of the war. Serious bombload, huge range and skies almost devoid of defensive fighters allowed Kondors to rack up a huge number of merchantmen sunk.

Of course, if the Germans had managed to get their anti-ship missiles into more general service, the results for the allies could have been disastrous. Can you imagine the carnage on D-Day if even a few bombers had broken loose as they did during the Italian landings the previous year?

Another Axis type which deserves mention is the SM.79 Sparviero. This type inflicted grievous casualties on the RN in the Med, crippling or sinking a number of destroyers, cruisers and merchantmen. While the SM.79s eventually succumbed to superior Allied fighters, in the early stages of the Mediterranean war, they actually outperformed the Skuas and Gladiators of the FAA, as well as contemporary Axis aircraft!

Some people would disagree that Sparviero could outperform the fighters of the FAA in 1939-41 era, at least in the latest FAA thread here*


*but not me

Of course, if the Germans had managed to get their anti-ship missiles into more general service, the results for the allies could have been disastrous. Can you imagine the carnage on D-Day if even a few bombers had broken loose as they did during the Italian landings the previous year?

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It's my understanding that some Allied ships were sunk off Normandy by radio guided weapons. The History Channel had an episode about an American destroyer that sank after being attacked by such a weapon.

But generally speaking I agree with your argument. Attacks by a handful of aircraft, even if successful, were just pin pricks vs the thousands of Allied ships. The German navy in France needed a full strength KG equipped with the Hs293 guided glide bomb and escorted by a full strength JG.

davebender said:

It's my understanding that some Allied ships were sunk off Normandy by radio guided weapons. .....

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I think that was off of Italy. Anzio maybe?

Even so, The B25 was still the premier shipbuster of the war.

Yeap Italy not Normandy. I do not believe that any ships were sunk by missiles off of Normandy. It was during Operation Avalanche during the landings at Solerno. They were also used throughout the mediterranean and Italy campains including Anzio.

During the Normandy Invasion, the Hs 293 was used to destroy bridges however.

Here is a list of confirmed ships sunk or damaged by the Hs 293 during the war:

* Banff class sloop HMS Landguard (slightly damaged with Bideford in Bay of Biscay 25 August 1943)
* HMS Bideford (damaged 25 August 1943 in Bay of Biscay)
* HMCS Athabaskan (heavily damaged by confirmed hit with Egret in Bay of Biscay 27 August 1943)
* HMS Egre (sunk 27 August 1943 in Bay of Biscay)
* HMHS Newfoundland (heavily damaged and later sunk by Allied gunfire)
* SS Bushrod Washington (sunk 14 September 1943 during Operation Avalanche (World War II))[3]
* SS James W. Marshall (damaged 15 September 1943 during Operation Avalanche (World War II) and used for Mulberry harbour -- possibly due to a "Fritz X")[3]
* HMS LST-79 (sunk)
* SS Samite (damaged)
* SS Hiram S. Maxim (damaged)
* SS Selvik (damaged)
* USS Tillman (possibly slightly damaged 6 November 1943 while escorting Mediterranean convoy KMF-25A)[3] though more likely a torpedo was the cause[4])
* HMS Rockwood (damaged slightly, later written off)
* HMS Dulverton (heavily damaged and scuttled)
* MV Marsa (sunk)
* SS Delius (damaged)
* HMT Rohna (sunk north of Algeria on 26 November 1943)
* HMS Jervis (damaged off Anzio during Operation Shingle 23 January 1944)[3]
* HMS Janus (damaged -- possibly from Hs 293, or a torpedo)
* USS Prevail (damaged -- possibly from Hs 293)
* USS Mayo (damaged -- possibly from Hs 293 or a mine)
* SS John Banvard (damaged)
* SS Samuel Huntington (sunk off Anzio during Operation Shingle 29 January 1944)[3]
* HMS Spartan (sunk off Anzio during Operation Shingle 29 January 1944)[3]
* USS Herbert C. Jones (damaged off Anzio during Operation Shingle 15 February 1944)[3]
* SS Elihu Yale (sunk off Anzio during Operation Shingle 16 February 1944 -- LCT 35 alongside is also destroyed)[3]
* HMS Inglefield
* HMS Lawford (sunk -- probably from Hs 293, official report states "aerial torpedo")
* USS Meredith (sunk -- possibly from Hs 293 or other causes)
* HMCS Matane (damaged)
* USS LST-282 (sunk)

syscom3 said:

Even so, The B25 was still the premier shipbuster of the war.

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with the 75mm?

It was certainly impressive and a beautifully fearsome thing but I've read a few items that say the B-25s with the 75mm weren't very effective. (I'm too lazy to find them now but there are more detractors than accolades)

Great for destroying Japanese resupply barges between islands but that's not my definition of "ship busting"... barge busting.. YES

I love the b-25 but I believe a lot more aircraft were more effective.

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tomo pauk said:

Some people would disagree that Sparviero could outperform the fighters of the FAA in 1939-41 era, at least in the latest FAA thread here*


*but not me

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If we're talking Sea Gladiators and Skuas, the Sparviero had an edge - in it's earliest days with the Condor Legion, the SM.79 even outran it's own escorts (specifically CR.32s). There is no doubt that later in the war Allied air superiority made it impossible for the Axis powers to mount effective anti-shipping strikes, but things were quite different in the early days of the war...

The B25's even without the 75mm cannon were more than capable of sinking Japanese merchantmen, frigates and destroyers.

A B-25 with 10-12 forward firing .50's would give anyone a bad hairday!

Lucky13 said:

A B-25 with 10-12 forward firing .50's would give anyone a bad hairday!

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Awesome but unfortunately, I dont believe it was as effective as it looks.

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