How to get an aircraft onto the Erebus class monitors?

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Admiral Beez

Major
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Oct 21, 2019
Toronto, Canada
The Erebus class are the ultimate in specialized NGFS.

03c12ad61a363b5ab20ecbfaf54c4a6c.jpg


I'd like to take it up a notch by adding integrated spotting aircraft capability. Can we fit a catapult back here, or a crane to drop a floatplane over the side? And what aircraft do you recommend?

Photo03monTerror.jpg


Maybe the Hawker Osprey? Seen here on a light cruiser. Though lack of folding wings may detract.

800px-HMS_Enterprise_1936_LOC_matpc_20251.jpg


Any thoughts on the Cierva C.30?
 
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Shouldn't be too difficult. The very first warship designed with aircraft carrying facilities incorporated into its design from the drawing board were the Abercrombie Class monitors of Great War vintage, built especially to support the Dardanelles Campaign and being outfitted with a range of aircraft during that campaign. They weren't fitted with a catapult, but derricks were fitted amidships and the aircraft was nominally stored on deck aft of the funnel. A beautiful photo of HMS Raglan, with lifeboats on the deck aft of the funnel where the aircraft nominally stored. The ships weren't issued with their own aircraft but received them from other ships in the region at the time.

https://i0.wp.com/www.destinationsj...05/4732d33ef776cae845d65c94944242d9.jpg?ssl=1

The wiki page for the Abercrombies states that the class stored its aircraft on its turret, but the only images I've seen of Abercrombies with aircraft, they are alongside the derricks amidships, not that far forward.

Abercrombie-class monitor - Wikipedia
 
Admiral Beez said:
The Erebus class are the ultimate in specialized NGFS.

View attachment 601573

I'd like to take it up a notch by adding integrated spotting aircraft capability. Can we fit a catapult back here, or a crane to drop a floatplane over the side? And what aircraft do you recommend?

View attachment 601574

Maybe the Hawker Osprey? Seen here on a light cruiser. Though lack of folding wings may detract.

View attachment 601577

Any thoughts on the Cierva C.30?
Click to expand...


I think the obvious choice would be the Supermarine Walrus; while larger than U.S. floatplanes, its folding wings reduce it to just over 17 feet wide.
The Fairey Seafox could be a candidate.
Another option could be to put floats on a Sea Hurricane or a Miles Master.
Or, they could just buy some Curtiss of Vought types.
 
That'd be great for artillery spotting. You wouldn't have to slow the ship down to recover the chopper. Then again, considering the ship we're talking about, that might not be an issue.
 
Okay, so I'm checking out the Erebus class on Wikipedia. I get to the armament and it lists several different calibers as "pounders". Any of you guys have a conversion chart from "pounder" to "inches" like 17 pounder to 3"(?) gun?
Edited for punctuation.
 
SaparotRob said:
Okay, so I'm checking out the Erebus class on Wikipedia. I get to the armament and it lists several different calibers as "pounders". Any of you guys have a conversion chart from "pounder" to "inches" like 17 pounder to 3"(?) gun?
Edited for punctuation.
Click to expand...
Naval Guns of the United Kingdom / Britain - NavWeaps is the place to go for all British naval-type guns... including those that made it into tanks or onto aircraft.
 
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nuuumannn said:
Shouldn't be too difficult. The very first warship designed with aircraft carrying facilities incorporated into its design from the drawing board were the Abercrombie Class monitors of Great War vintage, built especially to support the Dardanelles Campaign and being outfitted with a range of aircraft during that campaign. They weren't fitted with a catapult, but derricks were fitted amidships and the aircraft was nominally stored on deck aft of the funnel. A beautiful photo of HMS Raglan, with lifeboats on the deck aft of the funnel where the aircraft nominally stored. The ships weren't issued with their own aircraft but received them from other ships in the region at the time.

https://i0.wp.com/www.destinationsj...05/4732d33ef776cae845d65c94944242d9.jpg?ssl=1

The wiki page for the Abercrombies states that the class stored its aircraft on its turret, but the only images I've seen of Abercrombies with aircraft, they are alongside the derricks amidships, not that far forward.

Abercrombie-class monitor - Wikipedia
Click to expand...

The HMS Renown carried a Walrus on an athwartship catapult. The Renown was only 2 feet wider in the beam than the Erebus.
 
jmcalli2 said:
The HMS Renown carried a Walrus on an athwartship catapult. The Renown was only 2 feet wider in the beam than the Erebus.
Click to expand...

Almost every capital warship in the Royal Navy from light cruiser size upward carried aircraft during WW2. The reason behind the monitors not being fitted with aircraft was because the monitors, it was felt, did not need their own aircraft since the battleships or cruisers carrying out the firing could use their own aircraft for artillery spotting. The monitors would never have been operated on their own in any firing situation and would have been directed by other warships.

The Abercrombies of the Great War proved that aircraft could be carried by monitors, but it was decided in 1917 that all RN capital warships were to be able to carry aircraft and by the end of the Great War, they all had aircraft facilities, if not their own aircraft, including the battlecruiser Renown.

Just a wee note, when referring to the prefix 'HMS', it means His or Her Majesty's Ship, so you wouldn't say The His Majesty's Ship Renown, that doesn't make sense, you'd just say Aitch Emm Ess Renown (HMS), or the Renown. This is unlike the United States Ship Enterprise.
 
nuuumannn said:
The reason behind the monitors not being fitted with aircraft was because the monitors, it was felt, did not need their own aircraft since the battleships or cruisers carrying out the firing could use their own aircraft for artillery spotting. The monitors would never have been operated on their own in any firing situation and would have been directed by other warships.
Click to expand...
HMS Terror was the sole big gun warships at Singapore and post-Force Z would have been fighting the IJN solo in a NGFS role had she not been withdrawn before the Japanese invasion. Perhaps a FAA Walrus could have been jury-rigged aboard, one aircraft was flown off Repulse to Singapore before she sank. Imagine HMS Terror as sole defender of Penang. This would have been a story worthy of HMS Saracen.

9780099062608_p0_v1_s192x300.jpg


Here's HMS Terror at Singapore.

hms-terror-at-singapore-1939.jpg
 
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