Of Giant Mittens and Broom Jockeys: BoBo’s Flying Circus
For the men of Patrol Bombing Squadron SIX (CG) who spent their entire stint in WWII in Greenland, the care and maintenance of their PBY-5A Catalinas was a bit different from the experience had by “Catmen” serving in the South Pacific.
Original caption, 23 February 1944: “A bearded U.S. Coast Guardsman clears snow from the wings of a PBY patrol plane assigned to a Coast Guard-manned air base on the bleak coast of Greenland. The plane is kept in top running order for its sky sweeps against enemy craft daring to penetrate into the northern wastes.” NARA 26-G-02-23-44(6)
Original caption. February 23, 1944: Purr of a sewing machine gives a domestic touch to the life of this Coast Guardsman on duty at a U.S. Coast Guard airplane patrol base in Greenland. He is making wing covers to protect the plane against the winter storms that blow out of the Atlantic. NARA 26-G-02-23-44(2)
Established 5 October 1943 at NAS Argentia, Newfoundland, as a dedicated USCG-manned squadron under the Navy’s FAW-9 (NorthLant) operational control, they took over from the Navy’s VB-126 and immediately began operations out of Narsarssuak, Greenland (Bluie West 1). With ten aircraft (one designated as a spare), 22 officers, and 145 enlisted, including eight enlisted pilots, operational flights from Greenland began on 13 October after the first three PBYs arrived at BW-1.
As noted by the DANVS:
These aircraft and crews were rotated frequently to allow maintenance and repair work to be done on the other seven. At Narsarssuak all the squadron’s aircraft sat outside and all maintenance, refueling, and arming took place in the open regardless of weather conditions because it was found that moving aircraft from warm hangars to the cold outside resulted in condensation and subsequent freezing in fuel pumps, controls, and instruments. Herman Nelson F-1 portable heaters were needed to warm the engines and the aircraft interiors before starting. Crews were relieved every 12 months, with relief crews staggered every four months. The U.S. Army provided aerology support and daily weather briefings.
Maintenance was done outside – If a hangar was needed the aircraft was flown to Argentia.
Greenland Patrol USCG PBY Catalina crew refueling in the water, note the rubber suits on the fuel men. NARA 26-G-10-07-42(4)
The Squadron’s patch, a frozen cat on a depth charge. Their nickname was “BoBo’s Flying Circus”
By November 1944, in searching for German U-boats and weather teams, CG Bombing Six had flown 638,99 miles in 6,325 hours, covering over 3 million square miles of frozen ocean and ice.
One of their most important finds was the disabled British trawler HMT Strathella, which was floating disabled west of Cape Farewell with a damaged shaft and dead batteries. With the crew down to their last tin of bully beef after drifting for weeks, they were spotted in the nick of time, and the USCGC Modoc was vectored to their rescue.
USCG PBY Catalina of Bombing Six Bluie West-1, Greenland 1944
VBP-6 gave hard service, often sending planes on detached service throughout the region, and effected multiple air-sea rescues for bomber and fighter crews lost on trans-Atlantic ferry flights over Greenland’s unforgiving remote ice cap.
Original caption: May 19, 1944. “Over the barren expanse of the 2,000-foot-high Greenland Ice Cap speeds a Coast Guard PBY Flying Boat. Thousands of years old, the Ice Cap looms as a forbidding menace to fliers. One of the most daring plane rescues in history was recorded in the winter of 1942, when Coast Guard Lieutenant John A. Pritchard, Jr., of Burbank, Calif., landed his PBY on the treacherous surface of the Ice Cap and took off successfully to rescue two of three Army fliers, stranded there when their Flying Fortress crashed. The next day, attempting to rescue the third Army airman, Lieutenant Pritchard’s plan was wrecked. The pilot, his co-pilot, and the Army flier were killed.” NARA 26-G-05-19-44(2)
VPB-6 was transferred to the USCG on 10 July 1945 and was subsequently disbanded.
The service kept flying the type on SAR missions from U.S. bases through 1956.
