The Best Biplane Fighter of WW2

Best Biplane Fighter of WW2?

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I would go with the Hs-123 or the Swordfish. For historical purposes alone I would go with the Swordfish though. She took part in some of the most important battles of the war.
 
One of the major uses of the Swordfish which never gets mentioned was as a night bomber in the N.African desert campaign.
It was successful in this role, due in large measure to the highly skilled RN navigators. The featureless desert required the same type of navigational skill as flying over vast spaces of water.
 
They certainly did. Out of every four supply ships sent to Rommel in N.Africa, only one got through!
 
plan_D said:
They certainly did. Out of every four supply ships sent to Rommel in N.Africa, only one got through!
Click to expand...
Not quite, the loss rate of the Axis convoy run to N.Africa was approximately 15%
 
I've been informed by World at War that it was one out of every four got through. Sounds more believable to me because Rommel wouldn't have been so desperate for supplies if it was a mere 15% kill rate for the Royal Navy.
 
I just got back from the Fleet air arm museum in Yeoville and so far as best as I can find out for the Med the gross tonnage of supply shipping
sunk by Swordfish operating mainly out of Malta and North Africa is around 600,000 tons there was some where in the region of 200,000-300,000 tons damaged these are merchant vessels only and does'nt include naval (and as you say Mossie) Beaus or other aircraft that also took a big chunk out of Rommels supply line as well
 
One of the best plane during WW2 was probably the or were the; Gloster Gladiator, for the defence of Yalta, The Fairey Swordfish, for patrol bombing and anti-shipping activities, the Fiat CR. 42 Falco, for The Italian's.
 
In the begining the four Sea Gladiators that arrived (as you say Elmo) where all that was on the Island although navel aircraft where at work out at sea. Your right Lanc it was a bit later when the hurries arrived the the real difference was felt.
Also the Fulmars of 806 flight from the crippled Illustrious that ended up on Malta working alongside the Hurricanes had a fair share of success as well .
 

And where do you get this from? Every thing that I have read and watched has stated 1 out of 4 got though and that is basically what did Rommel in. I have read books about Rommel and met with his son Manfred (his son was mayor of the city where I lived) and they have all confirmed this.
 
I sure you're right Adler I have just finished a book by Dave Wragg and he says the same the Desert campaign was always about supplys even for the allies, thats why it went too an fro several times over such a large distance in the end only the allies could keep resupplying and the Afrika Corp ran out of Fuel, food,ammo, spares. In fact just about everything.
Rommel had to withdraw or loose his army.
 
Yes supplies were a problem for the British also. The thing is the British controlled Tobruk and with the port city and control of the Med they were able to bring more supplies in then the Afrika Korps were able to do. That is what defeated Rommel.
 
Check out this web-site on the Italian Merchant Marine in WW2
http://www.regiamarina.net/merchant/intro_us.htm#Introduction

It shows that only 10% of material was lost, due to enemy action against the N.African convoys in total.

Rommels major problem in truth was his habit of outrunning his supply lines.

The myth of the 1 out of 4 comes from the times when Rommel over extended his supply lines, and started to run out of fuel, so in an effort to rectify the situation instead of the fuel supplies travelling across the well defended 'narrows' between Sicily and N.Africa, and then along the coast road by truck they would sail direct to Tobruk, which left them very exposed to the RN and RAF, and their losses were well over 30%


ps, While an average of 15% losses in shipping doesn't sound a lot, you have to remember that the loss rate for the Arctic convoys, which had the highest loss rate of any Allied convoy route, was only approximately 5%
 
elm said:
Well if it wasn't for them who would have defended Yalta then.
Click to expand...

i'll assume you mean Malta

the galdiators defended the island as just the three of tehm for a small number of weeks, if not dyas, they were relived by 4 hurricanes (although the gladiators were still used), the gladiators fought off few raids, and their role was hugely exaggerated as a moral booster when all was not going to plan, although i'm not trying to take anything away from the feat of the few pilots..........
 

Yes he did out run his supply lines pretty much the whole time, however if you look at the big picture, he needed to take Tobruk. With Tobruk, Malta, and help from the Italians he could have gotten his supply lines in closer and quicker. The problem without Tobruk is the fact that the ships had to bring his supplies far behind the lines and it would take longer to get them up to the front.
 
Rommel didn't out-run his supplies that often. When he did, he would stop. The Royal Navy were stopping his supplies even reaching North Africa.

In the latter half of 1942 Rommel had two supply points, Tripoli and Tobruk. The British forces only had Alexandria but they were on the defensive and closer to their point of supply.

Also, the theory of desert warfare was always open to the idea of their being an open flank. El Alamein didn't have one, a perfect place to stop for a defence.
 
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