Was Whispering Death the best maritime strike platform in the Pacific Theatre of WW2?

Email Me When A New Comment Is Made
Show Only Poster Name and Title Newest to Oldest

Pages: PREV 1 2 3

AlbanyRifles RE:Was Whispering Death the best maritime strike platform in the Pacific Theatre of WW2? 1/27/2006 1:33:44 PM

Let me add a caveat to that.... Was it the best Land Based maritime strike platform of the war? Because the best maritime strike aircraft of the war based on ships sunk had to be the TBF/TBM Avenger. Whether in fleet strikes, antishipping strikes or antisubmarine attacks, it was the king. But when taking off from a jungle strip I would give the nod to the Beau with a second to the A-20.

Quote Reply

Weasel stability 1/27/2006 1:34:17 PM

Wasn't the"Beau" notoriously unstable at lower speeds? So much so that it had a tendency to swing on take off and landing, not unlike the old Post WW2 Israeli BF109s with Jumo engines? cheers

Quote Reply

Librarian RE:stability 1/27/2006 4:13:11 PM

If I remember correctly, the Beaufighter did have a tendency to swing on take-off, which was latter partially remedied by having it's tailplane made dihedral. I hadn't read anything about it being particularly bad at low speed. I would not read too much into such handling issues as most aircraft of the era had some sort of fault or other (narrow Me 109 undercarriage, P-51's tail heavy when after tank fully loaded, etc.) After all, development and testing times were almost insanely short by modern standards. The Beaufighter's was fairly short as well. It is important to try to see the qualities of WWII aircraft by the standards of the time. I once saw a BBC feature where a modern RAF pilot was asked to evaluate the pits of the Me 109 and the Spitfire. He said neither would be acceptable to's RAF. Given this, I would argue that the Beaufighter's stability issues were merely seen as quirks rather than real problems. Actually that reminds me, how would the B-26 Marauder (another aircraft with handling issues) compare with the Beaufighter for maritime strike?

Quote Reply

adf Beaufighter Website 1/27/2006 6:06:34 PM

link

Quote Reply

larryjcr RE:stability 1/28/2006 11:46:15 AM

The Beaufighter had a very great advantage in it's massive frontal armament. When the 'skip bombing' method began to dominate anti-shipping attack, and brought with it the need to suppress anti-aircraft fire on the way in, the A20s and B25s got massed HMG batteries in the nose. The Beau was already there. The B25 would have the advantage of a heavier bomb load. Note that well before the end of WW2 rockets had replaced the torpedo as the preferred anti-ship weapon for the Beaufighter. Getting hits was easier, and the a/c was much less vulnerable during the attack run. The B26s handling problems were solved with the larger wing on the 'B' model. It was originally designed for operation with turbosupercharged engines at much higher levels and speeds. When the SCs were not avialable, the small wing became an instant problem. A B26 successfully bombed a Japanese a/c carrier in the Aelution Is (probably mis spelled) during the Battle of Midway. Unfortunately he was using a torpedo, which he didn't know how to hit with, so dropped it like a bomb. Went right thru the flight deck without going off. The Japanese didn't like the B26 at all. It was very fast at low level and generally a much tougher opponant than the B25. A Zero needed to be going pretty much flat out on the deck to keep up with one.

Quote Reply

MustangFlyer (Joke) Was Whispering Death the best maritime strike platform in the Pacific Theatre of WW2? 2/1/2006 5:45:35 AM

Of course it was better it was B*oo*dy British old chap (sorry I couldn't resist that). Now about P38's and .......

Quote Reply

MustangFlyer RE:Was Whispering Death the best maritime strike platform in the Pacific Theatre of WW2? 2/1/2006 8:47:24 AM

Seriously though,it would have to be a major contender.

Quote Reply

Heorot RE:(Joke) Was Whispering Death the best maritime strike platform in the Pacific Theatre of WW 2/1/2006 6:39:37 PM

How about this super-duper P-38 on steroids. link

Quote Reply

larryjcr RE:Was Whispering Death the best maritime strike platform in the Pacific Theatre of WW2? 2/2/2006 3:27:50 AM

No, it was a Blemhiem on steroids.

Quote Reply

PREV 1 2 3