US Navy Aircraft verses Luftwaffe Aircraft During WW 2

[GrauGeist]

Out of curiousity, was airgodiva asking about US Navy aircraft flown by American aviators, or American naval aircraft used by Allied nations?

 

[JoeB]

During Operation Torch (November 1942), 15 Vichy French fighters were shot down by US Navy Wildcats. They also encountered Luftwaffe aircraft, but I'm not aware of any victories.

Also, flying from the USS Ranger (CV-4) in October 1943, USN Wildcats intercepted and shot down a Ju88 and a He115 during support of a British operation near Bodo, Norway.

And the only opportunity for an encounter between the USN Hellcat and the Luftwaffe that I'm aware of, would have been during the invasion of southern France in August 1944. However, the Hellcat conducted ground attack missions and didn't get a chance to tangle with any enemy aircraft.

It doesn't look like there was much action between the US Navy and Luftwaffe fighters in the ETO or MTO.

I agree mainly. The USN a/c in Torch downed around that many Vichy a/c total, most of which were fighters; anyway the total is not entirely clear from French accounts, so not to quibble. They did not encounter any Luftwaffe a/c. They thought they did, unfortunately the lone fighter they downed id'ed as Bf-109 was a recon Spitfire from Gibraltar, and an un-id'ed twin they downed was a British Hudson. Although aviators in question were relatively inexperienced neither they nor anyone on Ranger had been briefed that British a/c might be operating in the area, silly costly coordination mistake.

I agree on the two victories of VF-4 off Norway, both confirmed in German records, but that was a strike by Ranger itself which was quite successful sinking German ships, in area where German fighters were not permanently based, and the Germans were surprised so none were deployed to the area in time.

USN F6F's in invasion of Southern France claimed 8 Luftwaffe a/c, 3 He-111's, 3 Ju-52's, a Ju-88 and a Do217; at least some of which are reflected in LW records which are incomplete. They sighted German fighters once in the distance but the Germans declined combat.

There was one case of a CVE F4F/FM sighting a German recon plane in the whole of CVE ops in Atlantic, couldn't catch it.

That's it for USN fighters v Luftwaffe. USN PBY's and PB4Y's flying from UK on ASW missions in Bay of Biscay claimed 4 Ju-88C long range fighters, a Do-217 and a He-177, mainly confirmed in German records, and suffered losses to Ju-88C's.

German fighters also engaged USN cruiser float planes in the invasions of Sicily and Salerno. At Sicily at least 4 SOC's were downed by enemy fighters, but as only one LW claim is known, some may have been by Italian units.

Joe