Picture of the day

I would imagine they dropped the idea, because it's much more effective to use the ships themselves to create smoke screens - spray oil onto the exhausts and away you go.

KAHftcm.jpg


A look at the capsized German Battleship Tirpitz, after Operation Catechism finally sunk her in Norway on 12 November, 1944. "She lived an invalids life, and died a cripples death..."
 
Smoke screens proved less effective once the main offensive weapon was loitering aircraft further away than any gun could fire, rather than heavy gunfire directed by line of sight at under 20± miles..
 
8cJW5M4.jpg


A Century ago (alright, it was the 14th and 15th of June) in 1919, John Alcock and Arthur Brown became the first men to fly non-stop across the Atlantic in a Vickers Vimy. It was anything but a smooth flight over, but all things considered it was an immense accomplishment - although largely forgotten today with many thinking Charles Lindbergh to be the first to cross the pond.

The landing in Ireland was a bit of a bugger, nevertheless it made the pair £10,000.

X0xnz0H.jpg


To read more about the flight: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/bM5diyl48K/alcock
 
grelmar said:
Apparently, air deployed smoke screens were all the rage with the US Navy for a time in the early to late 30's. The TBD-1 Devastator (called by some the worst naval airplane of WWII), had smoke canisters as a part of the design requirements. Not sure what aircraft was being used here in these tests for the smoke deploy, but it looks reasonably effective.

View attachment 281870

It was an interesting concept, and the Navy put a lot of effort into it. But for reasons I can't find, it was dropped several years before the outbreak of the war. Which I find kind of odd.... Smoke screens were an important defensive measure during the war, being able to rapidly deploy one from an aircraft seems like a "non-terrible" idea.
Click to expand...

 
diopter said:
Click to expand...

Watching that video the other night during a bout of insomnia was what got me poking around for pictures of air deployed smoke.

Still strikes me as an interesting concept, that could have had potential.

Makes you wonder if maybe a few North Atlantic merchant mariners might have had longer careers, if the capability had been utilized against U-Boat attacks by aircraft from escort carriers. Or if a few more Americans in the first wave on D-Day might have at least lived long enough to fire their rifles.
 
watch same TBD1 video - wasn't so much the aircraft but the torpedo, plus some crappy tactics, especially if you compare it to a swordfish (which had a good torpedo).
 
grelmar said:
apparently, air deployed smoke screens were all the rage with the us navy for a time in the early to late 30's. The tbd-1 devastator (called by some the worst naval airplane of wwii), had smoke canisters as a part of the design requirements. Not sure what aircraft was being used here in these tests for the smoke deploy, but it looks reasonably effective.

View attachment 281870

but for reasons i can't find, it was dropped several years before the outbreak of the war.
Click to expand...

radar
 
CV32 said:
Type 2 Mark 2 Mod 1, or 21-GO, from May 1942 aboard the battleship Ise.
Click to expand...

1 ship, in a very big ocean, and that's mid '42.

Smoke screens were still viable defensive measures for most of the war. Even the ships that had radar, the co-ordination with the gunnery crews was limited. The Japanese navy still depended heavily on visual ranging and correction. In fact, all WWII navy's did. The US had the most advanced, by far, radar assisted gunnery practices, and even they backed it up with visual ranging and correction. For one thing, while the RADAR of the day might be able to pick up enemy ships and aircraft, it was absolutely useless at detecting the fall of the shot.

RADAR would get your guns pointed in the right direction, and landing at roughly the right distance, but everyone still needed to visually walk the shots in.

This was RADAR's early days, and it wasn't as reliable or accurate as the radar today.
 
Battle of Surigao Strait (25 October 1944)

The Surigao Strait was defended by Admiral Oldendorf's fire support group of six 'old' battleships. The Tennessee, California and West Virginia were the most effective of these ships, having been largely rebuilt and given gun radar. Maryland, Pennsylvania and Mississippi hadn't undergone such extensive modifications and played a less significant part in the fighting.

Performance of US Battleships at Surigao Strait

http://www.navweaps.com/index_tech/tech-079.php
 
grelmar said:
1 ship, in a very big ocean, and that's mid '42.
Click to expand...

Yes, that was the point. The first Japanese capital ship receiving the first radar. Radar, and moreover, its effective use, remained very much in an evolutionary phase during the course of the war and much more so for the IJN than for the USN.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom