Consolidated PBY Catalina

The PBY Catalina is I'd say the most under rated aircraft of the Pacific war, Its use in rescue and ability to mine enemy harbors deep behind there lines was unparallelled. A brief history of it and the service it provided to Australia..

3,732 built with 1,418 as amphibians, It was the world's most successful flying boat. Developed for the USN in the early 30's the aircraft became very wanted by several nations at the commencement of hostilities in WWII, With the UK ordering some 200. They where built in Canada by Boeing and Canadian Vicker's while a further 150 boats where built under license in Russia.

At the outbreak of WWII Australia found it's self in need of a large array of new aircraft to fill various roles and as such ordered 18 PBY-5 Catalina's which due to the US being neutral had to be flown out of the US by use of Qantas pilots. Qantas also went on to through out all of WWII to operate 5 Catalina's between Australia and England for mail and VIP transport.

All in all Australia recieved some 168 boats, consisting of:
2 PBY-4 flying boats transferred from the Dust East Indies
66 PBY-5 flying boats
46 PBY-5A Amphibians
54 PB2B Flying boats
29 of the PBY-5A amphibians where modified back to purely flying boat configuration at Lake Boga to reduce weight thus increasing range and/or payload.

Up to December 1944 they completed a number of mining operations including:
Mining Banga Straits
Mining Tiworo Straits
Mining Wowomi Straits
Mining Makassar Harbour
Mining Pare Pare Bay
Mining Balabac Straits
Mining Brunei Bay
Mining Sandakan

One of there most important missions they took part in was the Mining of Manila harbor, Which took a 9,000 mile 15 hour round trip carrying 4,000 lbs of mines in secret from Merville Bay in NT, Australia.

After that they also preceded with..
Mining Soerabaja
Mining Cape Seletam
Mining Hong Kong Harbour

If any one has any details on any of these missions of other missions they took part in for Australia or other nations please do post.

 

Wasn't it a Cat with a yank in the co pilot seat that found the Bismark...And a Cat that shadowed the Japanese into the Indian Ocean foray giving enough warning to the RN to move out of the way sharpish...Churchill I believe was actually quoted to be concerned for the Cat crew on that occasion.

 

I know you Aussies like to brag...But care to elaborate on the mining mission to Manila?
It's only some 2200 miles from Melville Bay to Manila(roughly 4400 mile/7000 kilometer round trip). Not to mention 9,000 miles in 15 hours means your going 600mph. Where did they sage out of/refuel, since the distance and a maximum payload would be well outside the range of the PBY.

Don't forget about the US "Black Cats".

The first aircraft shot down in the Pacific War was a RAF 205th Squadron PBY Catalina Mk I W8417 / FV-W piloted by Warrant Officer William E. Webb(pilot) & Flying Officer Patrick Bedell(copilot). They and their crew would be the first Allied casualties of the Pacific War.

US PBYs of Pat-Wing 10 were the first to detect and then monitor the Japanese shipping build up in Cam Ranh Bay prior to the Japanese launching their invasion, they were also the first to notice that the Japanese convoy had sailed, when they found Cam Rahn Bay empty on the morning of December 4th.

 

No problems refueling amphibious Catalina PBY's enroute to anywhere as long as there was a ship in the water along the way, I agree that this aircraft performed long and hard through many tasks during WWII and does not get the attention it deserves. I imagine it to be much like the Helicopters of Korea and Vietnam in the service role they played in WWII.

 

Aussies like to brag? Lets be fair, There are element's from all nations that love to brag, Yank, Aussie, Pom, Canadian etc etc so don't try and make it out to be purely an Aussie fault mate.

As for the range you assume that they flew in a straight line, I have yet to find a single instance in WWII where bomber formations flew from point A to point B with out making variations in there course. As for there ability to do it, The Australians Cat's where heavily modified, The spec's commonly found on the net for the Cat's range are based on them having all there armor and various other parts attached, The Aussies stripped away all armor, removed the undercarriage and removed the self sealing material from the fuel tanks increasing there capacity while also reducing weight. LT Ivon Collins US mining officer attached to the RAAF at the time mentioned that 'the Australian airmen got more out of the Catalina than our boys ever imagined possible'.I

In actual fact there where several missions where they flew for 20-24 hours though it is not known if they refueled on route or not.
Few
more details on the Mining of Manilla harbor, It was carried out by 25 Cat's, 24 Aussie and 1 Yank. The 24 Aussie cat's I believe where attached to the 76th Wing of the RAAF which comprised the 20th, 22nd and 43rd squadrons.

 

PBYs on anti-submarine patrol flew missions as long as 28 hours, but the point is they didn't fly 9000 miles while doing it; also their cruising speed was about 125mph. The numbers posted just don't add up; a review of the source data would be more useful than taking offense.

2200 miles, statute or nautical, isn't 7000 kilometers either, unless one is comparing one-way to round-trip. It might be helpful to do a "common sense check" before hitting the post button; I know it's caught a few silly mistakes in my own postings

 

My comment was not meant to be offensive, just that the numbers given at this site Australian National Aviation Museum - Catalina which is where, I am guessing that you got your information from, a way off the mark. The thought of a 600mph Catalina is just incomprehensible

Anyway, I did a little digging and found the answer in "PBY: The Catalina Flying Boat" by Roscoe Creed and in the Australian National Archives.

The Australian PBYs were drawn from 4 squadrons, the 11th, 20th, 42nd, and 43rd(the 11th were the ones who flew the 9,000 miles.) The mission went down thusly...The Cats flew out of Australia to San Pedro Bay, Leyte on December 7, 1944, with the USS Heron(AVP-2) supporting them there. The mining mission was not flown until days later, on the night of December 14th. Upon completion of the mission all Cats returned to Australia

For confirmation, the National Archives of Australia has digitized copies of the 11th, 20th, 42nd, and 43rd's "Operations Record Book" available online.
No. 11: http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/Imagine.asp?B=1358718
No. 20: http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/Imagine.asp?B=1358750
No. 42: http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/Imagine.asp?B=1358858
No. 43: http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/Imagine.asp?B=1358860

EDIT: The 9,000 miles is because the 11th Squadron was the based out of Rathmines, New South Wales. They detached 6 aircraft(w/crews) and maintenance personnel for special duty out of Darwin on 9 December, 1944. That fact alone adds almost 4,000 miles to their round trip distance.

 

On the Black Cats.....narrator pretty funny

Story Of The Black Cats - YouTube

 

Carronade,

Sorry, but I made the mistake of using the one-way distance in miles & the round trip distance in kilometers. I have edited my post to correct that.

 

Easy to do, wish I had a nickel for every time I've looked back at something I posted and thought "I wrote what?????"

 

Looking at the side and the spec's they give on the Cat's they state the top speed to be 117mph, Not your 600mph.

Anyway ignoring that, Up to the point of the 20th of May 1944 after some 1,000 sorties the Aussie Cat's (possibly American too?) had flown 1,000 sorties for mining which had resulted in the loss of just 5 air crew's (Likely means total aircraft loss, Im sure there was those that diead on aircraft that made it back), Going with those number's I'd have to say statistically the Cat's where the safest aircraft casualty wise of WWII to serve on though if other's could disprove the view or even give some similar stat's for other aircraft to compare them would be greatly appreciated.

I will concede that the Cat's could not make the whole trip in one shot as I have come across a few missions where they said they got refuelled by flying tenders though the range they had to fly did exceed that of what the standard USN PBY-5 could fly.

And thanks for the correction on the Manilla mission, It was flown by 3 aircraft from 11 squadron, Though it appears that the 76th wing laid mines elsewhere around the Philippines.

Another fact about the 11th squadron, Using an ex QANTAS flying boat the A18-10 Centaurus they rescued 25 men of the 27th bomb group along with 7 pilots of the 24th pursuit group.

 

The 600mph comes from their:

9000 mile round trip divided by 15 hours flight time equals 600 miles per hour.

WRT losses, according to USSBS #78 - The Offensive Mine Laying Campaign Against Japan, up to 20 May, 1944, 2 Cats were lost to enemy action and two were missing. For the rest of the Mining Campaign, a further 2 more were shot down and another 3 went missing. Total losses were 9(4 shot down & 5 missing) with 2 more were lost operationally - ditching enroute to target, but both crews rescued. Opposed to this were the B-29s losses of 6 shot down, 3 missing, but 6 were lost operationally(unknown if crews were rescued).

Mining missions were mostly, if not always, flown at night - both to protect the aircraft and conceal exactly where the mines were dropped. Also, little enemy resistance was encountered on these missions, so the mining missions will almost always show an artificially low loss rate as opposed to "more combat oriented" missions.

For your reading pleasure USSBS #78 - The Offensive Mine Laying Campaign Against Japan can be read online at scribd, but to download, you have to join. Here is the addy: USSBS Report 78, The Offensive Mine Laying Campaign Against Japan

 

Heaps of Cats here in Darwin during the war...two main stations...We have one still at the bottom of the harbour. Long story, but it had to drop its depth charges whilst on the surface...just remembered the depth fuse in time and jumped clear...took the bottom right out of the cat, and sank like a bastard! : ) Oh dear...

 

Used to be a few Cat's in the Murray river down in Vic/NSW, Not sure if they are still there though. Wouldn't mind finding one to restore. Be able to fly out to all the best fishing spots in the Pacific then

 

Greetings CAC,

According to pacificwrecks.com there are four: Pacific Wrecks - Darwin Harbor

Also have you been to Doctor's Gully? From ozatwar.com: Doctor's Gully - Darwin Flying Boat Base

 

Greetings Takao! Aways a special pleasure...
Hard not to go to Doctors Gully up here...its famous for fish feeding....giant wild fish you can hand feed...i was born here and used to do it...costs big bucks for the privileage these days (progress??). Theres a whole bunch of stuff still down there...USS Perie (SP?) the most famous and talked about...God luv em! Anti aircraft guns still chattering as she slipped down...

Oh and as a child...one would have to inch down the slide to feed the fish...the slide was whatthe cats used to get into and out of the water...didnt know it at the time!