"Royal Navy’s aircraft inventory May 1940" Topic
8 Posts
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4th Cuirassier | 21 Jan 2020 8:18 a.m. PST |
I am trying to establish what the Royal Navy's aircraft inventory looked like in April or May 1940 – types of aircraft, what squadron they were in, and where the squadrons were, i.e. embarked on a carrier, at a shore station, etc. Does anyone know of a source for this? |
HMS Exeter | 21 Jan 2020 11:27 a.m. PST |
J.D. Brown, Carrier Operations in WWII, Vol. I, The Royal Navy. I have 2 Ed's, one from 1968, and another from 1974. There info on air complements differ. The 1974 Ed lists: Furious: April: 816 sqdn – 9 Swordfish 818 sqdn – 9 Swordfish May (ferrying) 804 sqdn – 6 Sea Gladiators 816 sqdn – 9 Swordfish Glorious: 802 sqdn – 9 Sea Gladiators 803 sqdn – 11 Skuas 804 sqdn – 9 Sea Gladiators According to the '68 Ed. 803 and 804 flew off 4/28) In early June she gained 823 sqdn – 9 Swordfish Ark Royal: April: 800 sqdn – 9 Skuas and 2 Rocs 801 sqdn – 9 Skuas and 3 Rocs 810 sqdn – 12 Swordfish 820 sqdn – 9 Swordfish May: 800 sqdn – 12 Skuas 803 sqdn – 11 Skuas 810/820 sqdns – 21 Swordfish Plus, in June: 701 sqdn – 5 Walrus Hermes 814 sqdn – 12 Swordfish Argus: (Training ship) 812/825 sqdns – 11 Swordfish Eagle: 813 sqdn – 9 Swordfish 824 sqdn – 9 Swordfish I'm not sure how authoritative this is, but it's a start. Sorry, can't help you on land based or seaplane/flying boat assets. |
Pontius | 21 Jan 2020 2:58 p.m. PST |
I have a copy of "Fleet Air Arm Handbook 1939-1945" by Davis Wragg. This gives information on all FAA squadrons, but on a squadron by squadron basis so it would take some time to trawl through it all to build up a picture at a specific date. |
4th Cuirassier | 22 Jan 2020 3:23 a.m. PST |
Thanks chaps. Really useful to know. What I am doing, incidentally, is creating a scenario in an old (2008) PC game, Carriers At War, for a German invasion of Iceland in May 1940. In the baseline scenario, the Germans get Graf Zeppelin and as far as possible I'd like the opposing RN to be accurate. Of course, in a world where Germany commissions aircraft carriers by 1940, the RN would have looked different too. But if it was just one German CV, maybe the RN wouldn't have looked that different. One interesting point in my research that I hadn't previously absorbed is the FAA's acute shortage of fighters at this point. Not only do they seem not to have had many, but even the carrier-embarked types of 1940 were mainly Skuas and Rocs, with a Fulmar squadron if the carrier was really lucky. If it wasn't, it might have no fighters at all, at which point Graf Zeppelin with 12 Stukas and 30 Bf109Ts on board starts to look like a significant threat. The advantage of CAW is you can randomise what variant you play, so if you're playing as the RN you don't know until you make contact with the enemy if you're playing one where he has one carrier, none, or several. If you are in the version where Germany has 11 carriers then you sort of know, because the RN looks different as well… |
Blutarski | 24 Jan 2020 7:43 p.m. PST |
IIRC, apart from the Gloster Gladiator, the RN really did not possess a dedicated fighter aircraft in 1940. The Skua, Roc and even the Fulmar were "multi-purpose" designs. FWIW. B |
4th Cuirassier | 25 Jan 2020 4:53 a.m. PST |
@ Blutarski Yes, it was a dismal story. Even the Gladiator was a navalised version of a land aircraft. The Skua was a dual-role type and the Roc was a Skua with a turret in it apparently because the Defiant existed and turret fighters were thought to be the new Bristol Fighters. Of course the Bristol could fire forwards as well, and was quite fast and agile, unlike the Roc. The Fulmar was kinda purpose built but was kinda based on the Fairey Battle IIRC and had the standard FAA crew of two, making it longer, heavier, and slower than it should have been. The second crewman wasn't even armed, unless a tommy gun could be found for him. When the Sea Hurricane came along they were never built as such, they were rebuilt second-hand standard Hurricane airframes, some with the early fixed-pitch wooden propeller. The Seafire was similar, I think, and the Firefly was a warmed-over Fulmar. So arguably it wasn't until they got Wildcats, Hellcats and Corsairs that they got purpose designed carrier fighters and the first locally made one was the Sea Fury of 1947ish. A number of local efforts such as the Blackburn Firebrand flopped. I am mulling over whether my hypothetical May 1940 carrier force should have a few Brewster Buffaloes. In the alt-history in which Germany has five or six carriers Britain would not have the same navy either. The only aircraft available to equip additional flight carriers could have been naval Buffaloes. I don't think there was ever a carrier based P40 unfortunately. |
HMS Exeter | 25 Jan 2020 9:29 a.m. PST |
No, no carrier version of the P 40. The refugee F4Fs that became Martlets didnt enter service until 8/40. The refugee P36 mostly went to India, and they weren't CV capable anyway. FWIW, the Italians had a fairly healthy respect for the Fulmar. |
4th Cuirassier | 31 Jan 2020 4:17 a.m. PST |
@ Pontius I've now acquired the book you mentioned and it gives pretty well what I need so thanks for that. |
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