Submarine hunters

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Leigh Light equipped Wellingtons stopped nearly all night-time passage through the Bay of Biscay. The Leigh Light was a 16" naval searchlight that was switched on and aimed at the surface contact the aircraft had. This made it easy for the aircraft to fly down the beam of light and depth charge the U-Boat. Other planes were fitted with this later on but the Wellington pioneered this
 
I am still thinking that the Avenger might have been the dark horse here. It would have had numerous chances, several squadrons opperated them by the end of the war and since they traveled with the convoys there wasn't a spot in the Atlantic they couldn't cover. They also carried a more versatile weapons load that any of the other aircraft including bombs, depth charges, rockets, and the FIDO homing torps.
 
Right folks
Here's the Top 7 Allied Submarine Hunter aircraft of WW2
(figures supplied by U-boat net.com)

1) B-24 Liberator with 72 kills*

2) Catalina with 37 kills*

3) Avenger with 35 kills*

4) Wellington with 29 kills*

5) Sunderland with 27 kills*

6) Lockheed Hudson with 25 kills*

7) Swordfish with 21 kills*


* includes Submarines sunk in joint air/surface forces attacks


A total of 249 U-boats were sunk by aircraft alone and 37 more were sunk by aircraft and ships together.

43 additional U-boats were bombed while in port and another 12 were lost to aerial mine

Are there any stats out there on FW-200 kills on allied subs/ships?
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The Fw-200 Condor had no submarine kills credited to it.

In fact, just off memory, only one Allied submarine was lost to Luftwaffe attack in WW2, and that was shared with surface forces
 
I was pretty doubtful about the idea of a Fw-200 sinking any Allied subs. The Condor was used (exclusively?) in the Atlantic. What would an Allied sub be doing there? It's not as if there was any trans-oceanic German trade to interdict.
 
the Condor worked with U-boots in transmitting Allied surface ship movements besides bombing and strafing on these surface shipping. The Condor was to be replaced but only in part by the stealth unit FAGr 5 and it's Ju 290's...............quite an effective but unknown unit.

v/r

E ~
 
i was going to say that anti-shipping strike wasn't the -200's primary role, it was to guide u-boats onto convoys, perhaps with the odd attack thrown in................
 
mosquitoman said:
Did any Whitley's sink a U-Boat? I've read somewhere that it was the first plane to damage a U-Boat using ASV MkII
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According to the source I used for the list, the Whitley is credited with 5 U-boat kills.


ps, For all you Mosquito fans,
The Mosquito is credited with 8 U-boat kills

pps, Sorry P-38 fans. for some reason the P-38 isn't credited with any U-boat kills, I think the list must be incomplete


 
Lightning Guy said:
I was pretty doubtful about the idea of a Fw-200 sinking any Allied subs. The Condor was used (exclusively?) in the Atlantic. What would an Allied sub be doing there? It's not as if there was any trans-oceanic German trade to interdict.
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British Submarines operated in the Bay of Biscay, and off the Norwegian coast. Attacking German coastal convoys and U-boats in transit to the mid Atlantic. They were quite successful against the U-boats sinking a total of 16.

ps, British submarines had the 2nd highest kill to loss ratio of any submarine service in WW2 (after the US )
 
The P-38 shot down Yamamotto! That's something the Mossie didn't do!

Come on guys, this is getting a bit ridiculous.
 
How was the anti-sub bit ridiculous? The Mosquito sunk 8, P-38 sunk none. Score one, Mosquito.

redcoat, do you know which Mosquitos (Marks) did it? Were they all 'Tse-Tse' that sunk the U-Boats, or what?
 
plan_D said:
redcoat, do you know which Mosquitos (Marks) did it? Were they all 'Tse-Tse' that sunk the U-Boats, or what?
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Going off memory, I remember reading that the Tse-tse sank 1 U-boat, the rest were by rocket-armed Fighter Bomber Mk IV's.
 
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