"The Chance Vought F4U Corsair in the ETO?" Topic

A kinda dumb question…but…

Did the Chance Vought F4U Corsair ever fight/fly in the European Theater? It's a question that a few of us were discussing last night….

Thanks!

Well, the Royal Navy operated their versions of the Corsair in the ETO. They attacked the Tirpitz in Operation Tungsten.

One even fell into German hands.

Exactly as EMCkinney states. The Brits actually solved some of the issues with the corsair. The US navy had come close to giving up on the Corsair due to problems with the pilot's view when landing, the landing gear, and a problem with persistently having leaking oil spray the cockpit. The brits solved all of these problems and made the corsair operationally viable on the carrier deck.

There's a sumary of FAA corsair history at link – not a lot on operation detail – it mentions Tirpitz and a final combat use in 1945, but over 2000 delivered to the Brits and served in over 40 sqn's.

the Brits had perfected a curved approach to carriers with the Seafire, which also ahd a long nose that made direct forward visibility impossible with a nose-up low speed attitude.

Other then the fact that the F4U was used operationally first off a carrier by a US Navy strike on Rabaul on November 11, 1943 this is very accurate.

"CORSAIR IN BRITISH & NEW ZEALAND SERVICE
* The British Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm (FAA) warmed to the Corsair much faster than the US Navy. In November 1943, the FAA received under Lend-Lease the first of 95 Vought F4U-1s, which were given the designation of "Corsair I". The first squadrons were assembled and trained in the US, either at Brunswick, Maine, or Quonset, Rhode Island, and then shipped across the Atlantic. The Royal Navy put the Corsair into carrier operations immediately, well ahead of the US Navy, but wasn't like the British worked miracles with the F4U: they found its landing characteristics just as beastly, suffering a number of fatal crashes, but bit the bullet and did it anyway.

This initial British batch was followed by 510 Vought F4U-1As under the designation of "Corsair II"; 430 Brewster F3A-1Ds under the designation of "Corsair III"; and finally 977 Goodyear FG-1Ds under the designation of "Corsair IV". It is unclear if the stateside squadron training scheme was retained for all British Corsair squadrons.

All but initial deliveries of FAA Corsairs had 20 centimeters (8 inches) clipped from the wingtips to permit storage in British carrier hangar decks, with the clipped wings also apparently improving the roll rate. Some sources suggest that at least some of the clipped-wing Corsairs supplied to Britain had the US designation of "F4U-1B". Many FAA Corsairs were fitted with rails for launching British 7.62 centimeter (3 inch) unguided "Rocket Projectiles (RPs)". At its peak, the Corsair equipped 19 FAA squadrons.

CORSAIR IN FAA SERVICE SUMMARY:
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variant number comments
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Corsair I 95 Vought F4U-1s.
Corsair II 510 Vought F4U-1As.
Corsair III 430 Brewster F3A-1Ds.
Corsair IV 977 Goodyear FG-1Ds.

2,012 FAA CORSAIRS
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FAA Corsairs originally fought in a camouflage scheme, with a light-green / dark-green disruptive pattern on top and a white belly, but were later painted overall blue. Those operating in the Pacific theater acquired a specialized British insignia -- a modified blue-white roundel with white "bars" to make it look more like a US than a Japanese insignia to prevent friendly-fire incidents.
FAA Corsairs performed their first combat action on 3 April 1944, with Number 1834 Squadron flying from the HMS VICTORIOUS to help provide cover for a strike on the German super-battleship TIRPITZ in a Norwegian fjord. This was apparently the first combat operation of the Corsair off of an aircraft carrier. Further attacks on the TIRPITZ were performed in July and August 1944, with Corsairs from the HMS FORMIDABLE participating. The Corsairs did not encounter aerial opposition on these raids, and in fact the F4U would never have it out with German Luftwaffe aircraft. A confrontation between a Corsair and the tough German Focke-Wulf Fw-190 would have made for an interesting fight.

After the Norwegian operations, British Corsairs switched operations to the Indian Ocean to fight the Japanese, with the first operational sorties on 19 April 1945. Royal Navy carriers would be participants in the final battle for the Japanese home islands. On 9 August 1945, days before the end of the war, Corsairs from HMS FORMIDABLE were attacking Shiogama harbor on the northeast coast of Japan. A Canadian pilot, Lieutenant Robert H. Gray, was hit by flak but pressed home his attack on a Japanese destroyer, sinking it with a 450 kilogram (1,000 pound) bomb but crashing into the sea. He was posthumously awarded the last Victoria Cross of World War II.

At least 424 Corsairs were also provided to the Royal New Zealand Air Force, beginning in late 1943, with a little more than half of them F4U-1As and the rest F4U-1Ds / FG-1Ds. By the time the New Zealanders had worked up to operational Corsair squadrons in 1944 there was little for them to shoot at in the air and they scored no kills, but they kept busy in the attack role, with a fair number of them shot down or lost in accidents. Most of the New Zealander Corsairs were scrapped after the war, as were the British Corsairs."

vectorsite.net/avf4u.html#m5

Robert

WOW! Thanks for the info.

I owe Ev a … I was the looser on this one…

A good deal of the British carrier aircraft in the Pacific (including the Corsairs) were never actually scrapped. They were just shoved over the side to make room for the POWs being shipped back to blighty on the carriers.

They were mostly shoved over the side to avoid having to pay the US for them under the conditions of lend lease – the equipment had to be returned to the US or paid for – if the US didn't want it back then they had to dispose of it.

Even with the US only asking for 10 cents in the $ for stuff retained at the end of the war, and loaning that balance at 2%, unwanted stuff was easier to dump over the side!

Chiming in a bit late on this, but I just saw 2 photos of FAA Corsairs operating off of Norway in 1944:

link

And

link