Walrus and Swordfish

[Enrico Cernuschi]

Hello Gentlemen,
a curious question, but it could become an interesting thread, indeed.
May anyone tell me ANYTHING about mixed flights formed by Supermarine Walrus and Fairey Swordfish on HMS ships in 1940?

Greetings

EC

[phylo_roadking]

Enrico, what have you got on that? Any "Mixed flight" would be rather a mixed sortie, not "flight" in the sense of an operational unit.

[Enrico Cernuschi]

Hi Phylo,

"The Walrus ...servig aboard battleships and cruisers, sometimes in mixed flights with the Swordfish and, later, Seafox floatplanes..." H.R. Palmer, The Seaplanes, Dallas, 1965.

EC

PS Is available a full story of the Walrus with the fate of all the machines, like th excellent The Swordfish Story by Ray Sturtivant, ed. Arms and Armour Press, 2001?

[phylo_roadking]

Enrico, re Walrus story - not that I've ever seen or heard of. After all, it wasn't a combat aircraft. Going by that quote its more like he's talking about a mixed sortie indeed. A "Flight" otherwise would be an organisational unit in the Fleet Air Arm, and would never be split across more than one ship.

[Mark E Horan]

The answer to this question depends greatly on what the person that made it really means.

Contrary to the statement made immediately above, Royal Navy Catapult Flights/Squadrons were almost always composed of different aircraft types. From the "reclaiming" of the FAA to become the RN Air Branch in May 1939, the fleet's catapult squadrons/flights varied in strength and composition based on the specific Battleship/Cruiser Squadrons/Divisions the units aircraft were assignred to. At the start of the war, three shipboard aircraft were in use - the Walrus, the Seafox, and the Swordfish. No indivdual ship carried multiple types, but ships in the same squadron/division certainly could.

By the end of 1939, the need of the fleet had seen the prewar ship Squadrons/Divisions become heavily strained as the ships were diverse missions and others were in for repair/refit. Further, the rapidly expanding requirements of the wartime FAA was simply unable to provide adequate spares and servicing for this many types. Taken with the need to improve the AA armament of many of their ships, especially the small cruisers, stopped carrying aircraft and ultimately landed their catapults. All of this had entirely fragmented the tiny Catapult Squdron organization so, in response, ALL of the fleets catapult aircraft were assigned to ONE squadron, 700, which was still handling all three aircraft types, though the numbers of Seaxfox and Swordfish had decreased dramatically.

However, if the term catapult "flight", was meant to identify the air component of a single ship, no RN vessel operated a mixture of different aircraft types with the sole exception of transporting a spare aircraft from one base to another.

By the way, it is possible to identify the type of aircraft carried by each RN aircraft equipped vessel for any period in the war.

Hope this helps. If you have specific questions, feel free to e-mail me.

Mark E. Horan
[email protected]

[phylo_roadking]

However, if the term catapult "flight", was meant to identify the air component of a single ship, no RN vessel operated a mixture of different aircraft types

Mark, thats what I meant, from a single vessel.

Apart from exercising, would therefore a mixed flight of observation aircraft flying from more than onevessel have occured? Surely the point is to cover sea miles, not bunch up...

However, although Enrico's quopte doesn't mention it, i'd guess that if Palmer meant anywhere operational he meant off Norway?

[Mark E Horan]

Gents;

The only ship to carry a mixed catapult flight on board was HMS Neptune, and only briefly in September 1939. The ship was the only one assigned aircraft from 716 Flight when the war began, and was nominally assigned two Seafox float-planes. She was on South Atlantic station when the war began, and embarked a spare Walrus for delivery to Freetown as a station reserve. She carried this extra plane until her arrival there later in the month. The ship carried only two pilots and observers for her own Seafox aircraft, and thus the Walrius was not used during her time aboard.

Prior to the Fleet's reorganization of the various catapult squadrons on into a single unit (700 Squadron), on 24.01.40, the fleet's catapult squadrons were:

701 - 5 Swordfish [Malaya (2) , Warspite (2), Barham (1)]
702 - 2 Swordfish [Rodney (1), Resolution (1)]
702 (October) add 2 Seafox [Enterprise (1), Emerald (1), Effingham (0)]
705 - 2 Swordfish [Repulse (1), Renown (refitting), ashore (1)]
710 - 6 Walrus [Albatross (6)]
711 - 3 Walrus [Devonshire (1), Sussex (1), Shropshire (1)]
712 - 18 Swordfish [Belfast, Newcastle, Norfolk (all 0), Sheffield, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Southampton (all 1), Cumberland, Suffolk (both 2), ashore (10)]
713 - 3 Seafox [Arethusa (1), Penelope (1), Galatea (0), ashore (1)]
714 - 6 Walrus [Manchester, Liverpool, Gloucester (all 2)]
715 - 7Walrus [Cornwall, Birmingham (both 2), Dorsetshire, Kent, Terror (all 1)]
716 - 2 Seafox [Neptune (2)]
718 - 5 Walrus, 5 Seafox [ York (1 W), Berwick, Exeter (both 2 W), Orion, Ajax (both 2 S, Perth (1 S)]
720 - 2 Walrus (Achillies, Leander (both 1)]
RAN - 4 Seagull (Walrus) [Hobart (1), Sydney (1), Australia (0), Canberra (0), ashore (2)]

Hope this is of interest.

Mark