The USS Yorktown. CV-10. Currently moored at Patriots Point.
I've been to her many times and I still haven't seen the entire ship.
The USS Yorktown. CV-10. Currently moored at Patriots Point.
I have yet to take a full tour of Patriots Point as well.I've been to her many times and I still haven't seen the entire ship.
The proof that the Swordfish was the best plane of its generation is that ten years and a whole bunch of technological advances later it could still make use of its disadvantages such as a extremely slow speed, obsolete biplane wings and the use of canvas instead of metal to operate from tiny carriers in atmospheric conditions that no other plane could (they pioneered night landings at the start of the war), the low speed was excellent for antisubmarine patrols -specially when using an air surface radar- and the canvas was surprisingly good at surviving flak.No planes were shot down but most were shredded by shrapnel and written off when they returned home, Swordfish apparently were pretty hardy. A lot of planes were wrecked on landing, mostly crushing their landing gear trying to put down on the pitching ship with battle damage.
Never the less they did their job and came home in one piece. The most remarkable thing about the entire mission however was that the RN had by that point lost all of its experienced air crew, the men who flew this mission were all in their early twenties and fresh out of training. This was their first combat deployment and in such incredible and hostile conditions they still managed to carry out their mission and not lose a man either to the enemy or the storm. And in a bunch of biplanes held together by string and canvas
To be fair they were downed by Bf-109s while flying in the middle of the day with minimal fighter cover against a predictable target, even late war torpedo bombers would have suffered serious casualties under such circumstances. And to intercept the Swordfish flight their hunters had to lower their own landing gear just to avoid overshooting them, which with a proper escort watching overhead would have been suicidal.However during the Channel Dash it resulted in complete wipeout of the squadrons sent. Swordfish were deathtraps when used against warships even if they could claim success in specific cirumstances.
Yeah, although with only six Swordfishes available is no surprise they were blown out of the air. The americans and japanese would have hesitated about sending alone five times the number of far more modern torpedo bombers against a capital ship.As I recall as much as half were shot down by Scharnhorst and Gneisenau flak.
Particularly multiple capital ships, with their own ground based cap providing top cover.Yeah, although with only six Swordfishes available is no surprise they were blown out of the air. The americans and japanese would have hesitated about sending alone five times the number of far more modern torpedo bombers against a capital ship.
Yeah, the canvas is effective against shrapnel, altough I doubt that the fuzes were affected at all, the nature of heavy flak is that no one expects to score a direct hit with a 5'' gun against a mobile target so the fuzes were designed to detonate an a particular altitude, after a set time of the shell's flight time or in the case of allied VT ammunition to do so when close enough to the plane, but since most of the time Flak is shot from your own lines it is considered a bad idea to add an impact trigger since if the first fuze fails then there is a very real possibility that you may hit something yours and blow it to hell and back.Also light AA fuzes wouldn't detonate when hitting canvas covered Swordfish, unless they hit engine, fuel tank or crew.