float planes

float planes, known generically to the British as seaplanes. More than 70 types of this maritime aircraft—often specially designed, but sometimes just land aircraft with wing floats attached—were flown by 11 combatant countries for short-range reconnaissance, air-sea rescue operations, gunnery observation, and attacking shipping with torpedoes. The Japanese even had a fighter float plane, the Kawanishi Shiden, from which a successful land version was developed.

France produced sixteen types, the USA twelve, while Germany had eleven, the best of which was the German Heinkel He115. More than 400 of these were built for reconnaissance, laying mines, and attacking shipping. The smaller, catapult-launched, single-engined Arado was operated from German warships, and from some German auxiliary cruisers, for spotting and observation. Other German types included the Dornier Do22 (also supplied to Greece and Yugoslavia), the Heinkel He59, used for air-sea rescue operations, and the Blohm and Voss Ha139. Japan also produced eleven types, including the single-engined Aichi E13AI, codenamed JAKE, three of which were catapulted from cruisers to reconnoitre Pearl Harbor before the attack on it on 7 December 1941.

The most famous British type was the seaplane version of the Fairey Swordfish (for details see carriers), affectionately known as the ‘stringbag’. Virtually obsolescent when the war began, it proved so reliable that it continued to serve throughout it, and outlived the Albacore designed to replace it. Warspite's Swordfish observed her gunfire during the Second Narvik battle and a less well-known type, the Fairey Seafox, observed the fire of the cruiser Ajax during the battle of the River Plate. The Norwegian campaign spurred the British into fitting floats to their successful Spitfire fighter. From this evolved the Supermarine Spitfire IX which had a top speed of 606 km/h (377 mph), the fastest seaplane of the war.See also flying boats.