[ApS]

Originally Posted by Dave R

I have always loved those planes. Thanks!

I had no choice: My dad flew a PBY in the Pacific during WWII!

I waited for the anniversary of Pearl Harbor (today, Dec 7th) to post a picture of a PBY in the black color of the PBY he flew out of Hawaii, Australia, and New Guinea. (Wingtip floats extended in this photo). He and other crew members were selected for their excellent night vision, and formed the "Black Cat" squadron, VP-11.

While mostly assigned to night reconnaissance and surface-rescue missions of downed pilots and sailors, PBYs were also equipped with quad 50's in the nose, and torpedoes or bombs under the wings.

It was a PBY that sighted the Bismarck, the greatest battleship the War had seen up to that time. (Later, the Japanese had a few bigger -- immense -- battleships in the war, like the Yamoto).

The PBY was built as an amphibian (Having an "A" after its designator, e.g. PBY-5A), or as a "flying boat". (No "A" -- no wheels).

During the Pearl Harbor attack, many PBYs were sunk, anchored at mooring fields. Some entire amphibious PBY squadrons went unscathed at some airfields on Oahu! (Or O'ahu, as they spell it now). One hundred reconnaissance PBYs were requested by Army General Kinnick (sp) prior to the Pearl Harbor attack, but not delivered.

My dad recently posted his WWII logbook on the Internet. I found it by searching "VP-11", the only reference he ever made to WWII!

I learned that upon returning from one reconnaissance mission he was fired upon. The co-pilot next to him was shot dead. (By P-40s -- "friendly fire"). I never heard this, nor did I know he'd even kept a logbook! The appearance of this logbook has made a devoted WWII student out of me -- with some help from WWII History magazine, and some Veterans around Winnipesaukee. I'll never understand how we actually won WWII. (And neither do most of the Veterans I've spoken with).

The logbook also reported -- several times -- that one #3 engine had an oil leak. As pilots were rotated through several PBYs, it took a month for him to get that same plane again. During which flight, the #3 finally caught fire, and the plane had to be crash-landed. (And lost -- so many were lost).

I've seen pictures of PBYs picking up rescued sailors. They couldn't take off due to overloading, needed "unloading" themselves, and the Pacific waterline was up to the cockpit windows!

Another PBY pilot was roundly "dissed" publicly by an Admiral for damaging a PBY while strafing (at night) a Japanese destroyer with his quad-50s -- four machine guns with the ½-diameter/50-caliber bullet. (The pilot had carried off the destroyer's radio antenna with his wingtip, damaging it). The Admiral then pinned a medal on the pilot's uniform!

A book on Pacific PBYs has a photograph of my dad standing on his flat-black, and thoroughly beaten-up PBY refueling at Sepic River, New Guinea. While we have a personal copy of the same photo, ours was cropped to remove the dozen headhunting-native men standing around totally naked!

Hmmm. Time to check in on the "Nude Beaches" thread again!

Well, Don, I've rambled. But "IF it floats...you can discuss it here!"