flying boats

flying boats were employed by all the major combatants for long-range maritime patrols and air-sea rescue. Unlike float planes, flying boats land on the water on their fuselage as well as on their wing floats.

For short-range patrols the Italians used the single-engined Cant Z501 Gabbiano and the French the single-engined Lioré 130. For long-range reconnaissance the French employed the Breguet 521 Bizerte. The Luftwaffe operated the Blohm and Voss 138, easily distinguishable by its twin tail booms, and the Dornier Do24 as transports during the Norwegian campaign and later for air-sea rescue. Dornier Do24s were also built for and by the Dutch. The few that escaped to Australia after the Japanese invaded the Netherlands East Indies in early 1942 were acquired by the Royal Australian Air Force and designated A49s. The Germans also built the Blohm and Voss BV222 Wiking, the largest wartime flying boat. Intended originally for commercial purposes this six-engined aircraft could carry 92 fully-equipped troops and was used for ferrying men across the Mediterranean, and for long-range maritime reconnaissance.

The British operated several types of flying boat at the start of the war, including the Saro London and Lerwick, the Short Singapore, and the pusher-engined Supermarine Walrus Mk I. This last was catapult-launched from warships for reconnaissance and observation, or undertook land-based patrol duties. It proved highly reliable and versatile. 287 were manufactured by Supermarine and 453 of the Mk II by Saunders-Roe, but in 1944 it began to be superseded by the more powerful Sea Otter.

The most successful British flying boat of the war was the Short Sunderland; its operational prowess became legendary, especially after it was armed in May 1942 with depth charges (see anti-submarine weapons) filled with Torpex (see explosives). Five marks, totalling 741 Sunderlands, were produced and by 1945 the RAF had equipped 28 squadrons, including Australian and Canadian ones, with it. Predominantly employed for long-range maritime reconaissance in the battle of the Atlantic—28 U-boats were sunk by Sunderlands—it was operational just about everywhere over sea. Later versions were so well armed, and armoured, that the Luftwaffe called them Stachelschwein (porcupine), and when one was attacked by eight German aircraft in June 1943, it shot down three and damaged the other five.

Very successful, too, was the Japanese Kawanishi H8K1/4, codenamed EMILY by the Allies, which superseded the Kawanishi H6K1/5 long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft (MAVIS) in 1943. It was the fastest flying boat used by any combatant country and 167 were built; they proved to be exceptionally well armed and armoured, and were treated with the greatest respect by Allied pilots during the Pacific war.

Pride of place, however, must be given to the ubiquitous twin-engined Consolidated Catalina flying boats, or PBYs as the US Navy initially designated them. Uncomplicated to operate, simple to maintain, and above all dependable, they proved popular with the armed services of several countries including Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. Several hundred were manufactured under licence in the USSR, which also produced its own short-range Beriev and Chetverikov flying boats. The British ordered 50 PBYs in September 1939 and dubbed them Catalinas (after the island off the Californian coast), a name the US Navy, having ordered 200 for the Neutrality Patrol, also adopted in 1941. An amphibian version was manufactured in Canada, where it was called the Canso, and the Dutch employed them in the Netherlands East Indies against the Japanese. Several variations were introduced and altogether 3,290 were manufactured. One, piloted by an American, sighted the Bismarck during her last sortie, while others kept track of the Japanese fleet before the battle of Midway, hunted down Tokyo Express destroyers amongst the Solomon Islands, and played a variety of invaluable roles in just about every maritime operational theatre.

Other successful US flying boats included the Martin Mariner—more than 1,200 were produced—and the four-engined Consolidated Coronado. Intended to complement the Catalina, the Coronado had an impressive record against U-boats (ten were sunk between June 1942 and September 1943) but it was then superseded by the land-based Liberator. American civilian clipper flying boats were requisitioned as long-distance transports and were used by both Churchill and Roosevelt to fly to various Allied conferences (see Grand Alliance). The huge Hughes A4 eight-engined ‘Spruce Goose’, though designed for wartime use as a cargo carrier, did not fly until 1947.