Tag Archives: PBY Catalina

The Yin-Yang of Pacific PBY Life

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Two shots captured two very different moments in time some 80 years ago this month.

First, I give you the typical image when someone says, “PBY Catalina ‘Somewhere in the Pacific.”

U.S. Navy mechanics checked a Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina patrol bomber before it leaves the airstrip at Majuro Island, Majuro Atoll, Marshall Islands, in March 1944. Note the Grumman F6F Hellcat fighters in the background, with many warships anchored beyond. U.S. Navy photo 80-G-401015

Next, follow that up with this:

“A PBY coming in for a landing in the Aleutians, March 1944.”

It was a wild theatre, indeed.

PBY Catalina making a comback?

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The Consolidated PBY-5 Catalina first flew in 1935 and, in a short decade, over 3,300 were built at four factories in the U.S., Canada, and the Soviet Union.

Onto the Ramp PBY seaplane Catalina Joseph Hirsch. Lot 3124-3: Paintings of Naval Aviation during World War II: Abbott Collection. #47.

The big flying boat was a classic of naval air power and provided the backbone of maritime search and rescue, reconnaissance, commando/stay behind support, and anti-shipping/ASW missions for the Allies in WWII, with the type only fully retired in military service (by the Brazilians) in 1982.

Not a bad run.

Well, a Florida-based Catalina Aircraft has been supporting civil PBY-5 fleets for the past two decades and just unveiled a new Next Generation Amphibious Catalina II variant of the classic flying boat at the AirVenture Oshkosh air show in Wisconsin this week.

They plan both a civilian variant with a maximum take-off weight (MTOW) of 32,000 pounds and a capacity for 34 passengers or six tons of cargo. The military version will have an expanded MTOW of 40,000 pounds. Deliveries are planned to begin in 2029.

Somewhere under a camo net in the Bay area…

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80 years ago, July 1943: Riveter at work on an aircraft, possibly a PB2Y-3 Coronado patrol bomber hull, at Consolidated-Vultee (Convair) Aircraft Plant, San Diego, California.

Original color photo by Jacobs via the National Archives. 80-G-K-15117

The female war worker is “dressed right for safety.”

Of the Consolidated plant, Mr. Jacobs captured several great Kodachromes during the same visit that are so crisp and clear they look like they were taken yesterday.

PB2Y and PB4Y Construction at Consolidated Vultee Plant in San Diego, California. 80-GK-15708

Women workers rivet wing section of PB2Y at Consolidated-Vultee Plant, San Diego, Calif. 80-GK-15704

Original Caption: “Women workers sort electrical wiring for PB2Y’s at Consolidated Vultee Plant, Downey, Calif. 80-GK-15702

Construction of PB2Y-3s shown at Consolidated-Vultee plant, San Diego, Calif. Lunchtime under camouflage netting at the plant. 80-GK-15144

Construction of PB2Y-3 is shown at Consolidated Vultee plant, San Diego, Calif. Interior of the plane is checked under camouflage netting. Note the Arco gun turret. 80-GK-15122

Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Factory, San Diego, California. Caption: Women workers lunching under the plant’s camouflage netting, July 1943. Planes in the background are PB2Ys. Photo by Jacobs. 80-G-K-15143

Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Plant, San Diego, California. Caption: Parts stockyard under the camouflage netting at the Consolidated Aircraft Factory, July 1943. Assemblies in the foreground are waist gun turrets for PBY patrol bombers. Note the “Work to Win” sign on the loading dock in the distance. Photograph by Jacobs. 80-G-K-15146

The commercial camouflage industry in the 1942-45 era was on point!

In all, Consolidated would produce no less than 739 PB4Y-2 Privateers (navalised B-25s), 977 PB4Y-1s, and 217 PB2Y Coronados during the war, as well as 1,871 PBY Catalinas, providing the backbone of the WWII Allied patrol bomber force.

By 1945, the company employed 45,000 around the Bay Area– under cover.

Just DesRon 20 Showing Off

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A stack of brand-new Farragut-class destroyers of Destroyer Squadron Twenty (DesRon20) executing a turn on a bright summer day. Leading the column is USS Farragut (DD-348), followed by USS Dewey (DD-349), USS Hull (DD-350), USS MacDonough (DD-351), USS Worden (DD-352), and USS Aylwin (DD-355) during an exhibition for Movietone News, off San Diego on 14 September 1936.

Courtesy of Commander Robert L. Ghormley Jr., Washington DC, 1969. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 67297

DesRon20 Steam through a smokescreen laid by planes of Patrol Squadrons Seven, Nine and Eleven, during an exhibition staged for Movietone News off San Diego, California, 14 September 1936. The ships are, from bottom to top: Farragut (DD-348), Dewey (DD-349), Hull (DD-350), Macdonough (DD-351), Worden (DD-352), Dale (DD-353), Monaghan (DD-354) and Aylwin (DD-355). Courtesy of Commander Robert L. Ghormley, Jr., USN, 1969. NH 67293

Patrol planes fly over DesRon20 destroyers, during an exhibition staged for Movietone News off San Diego, California, 14 September 1936. Planes include one PBY-1 of Patrol Squadron 11 (upper right), flying in formation with four P2Ys of Patrol Squadron 7. In the distance are four PM-1s of Patrol Squadron 9. Ships are steaming in line abreast, shortly after passing through a smokescreen. The three nearest the camera are (from right to left): Dewey (DD-349), Hull (DD-350) and Macdonough (DD-351). Courtesy of Commander Robert L. Ghormley, Jr., USN, 1969. NH 67286

Destroyers on Maneuvers with planes overhead. Ships from the left are USS Monaghan (DD-354), USS Dale (DD-353), USS Worden (DD-352), and USS Macdonough. Note signal flags repeated throughout the squadron. NH 60270.

Within three years, these ships would be clearing for war during tense neutrality, and within another two would be involved in some of the heaviest naval combat ever seen.

Commissioned within a 12-month period from June 1934 to June 1935, the eight new-fangled 1,365-ton Farraguts were twin pipers, ending the long Navy tradition of four-pipe tin cans the service had for about 20 years. Mounting five 5″/38s and eight torpedo tubes, they had all the offensive power of the later Fletcher-class in a much smaller hull. The class earned an impressive 93 battle stars– Farragut and Dale received 14 stars each– for their World War II service, an average of 11.625 per hull.
 
Remarkably, none were lost in combat although three– Hull, Monaghan, and Worden— were all lost to more traditional enemies: typhoons and uncharted rocks.  

Catalinas of Rio

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Drink in this great original Kodachrome of U.S. Navy and Brazilian Air Force (Força Aerea Brasileira – FAB) officers inspect a flight line of depth-charge equipped Brazilian Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina flying boats during graduation exercises of a Brazilian Air Force patrol squadron trained by the U.S. Navy, circa early 1945.

National Archives and Records Administration, 80-G-K-5258

Note Brazilian markings on the plane, whose wing shows signs of a party painted-out U.S. markings and that the Catalina closest to the camera still carries the name “Bettye Jayne” above its Brazilian star roundel.

From June 1942 onward, the U.S. Navy was busy running anti-submarine sweeps off the South Atlantic from Brazil during the war. Catalinas and later PB2Y Coronados of VP-74 flew from the Naval Air Station at Natal, Brazil while VPB-145 and VP-94 had PBY5A dets from both Belem and Wideawake Field on Ascension Island until discontinued in April 1945, losing one plane and crew in an accident.

PBYs in flight over Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 80-G-59581

During this period, the Navy turned Catalinas to the Brazilians, who trained alongside the American naval aviators and ground crew.

A Brazilian Air Force PBY Squadron’s officers sit on the wing of one of the IR PBY CATALINA Aircraft, circa 1945. They are being trained by U. S. Navy pilots. (National Archives)

One, Arará, was credited with sinking a German Type IXD2 U-Boat, U-199.

U-199 under attack by Brazilian Air Force PBY Catalina, notice the “short” conning tower of an early type IX D2. Brazillian Air Force – Diretoria do Patrimônio Histórico e Documentação da Marinha (DPHDM) and Instituto Histórico-Cultural da Aeronáutica (INCAER)

Brazilian Catalina PBY-5 Arará attacking the U-199 off Rio de Janeiro Reproduction painting by Álvaro Martins.

Post-war, the Brazilians would keep some, flying them in the Amazon basin, and sell others to domestic airlines Panair do Brasil and Cruzeiro for use as sea-air taxis.

Augmented by retired Canadian models, Brazil was the last country to keep the type operational, with the FAB only retiring the Catalina in 1982– more than 25 years after the USN moved on. Today, two (ex-USN BuNo 46643 and ex RCAF Canadian Canso A 9752) are preserved in Brazilian museums.

B-25 and PBY on the USS Essex…in 2020

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A series of three upcoming Legacy of Peace Aerial Parade around Oahu, part of the 75th Commemoration of the End of WWII that will culminate with the official ceremony aboard the museum ship USS Missouri (BB 63) on 2 September, will have more than a dozen vintage warbirds take part including a B-25 bomber, some T-6 Texans and a former Navy PBY Catalina flying boat. The rare aviation classics came from the mainland and arrived at Pearl Harbor via the “aircraft carrier” USS Essex on Monday.

(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Kenneth Rodriguez Santiago)

Of course, the Essex involved is LHD-2, the 5th U.S. Navy ship to carry the name, and calls back to the famous 4th, the WWII fleet carrier CV-9 which remained in service until 1969.

That beautiful B-25 being lifted from Essex’s deck. Too bad they didn’t try to fly it off– it’s been done before! (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Kenneth Rodriguez Santiago)

Of note, today’s Essex actually has a longer flight deck than 1942’s USS Hornet, which carried Doolittle’s B-25s on their famous “30 Seconds Over Tokyo” raid.

PEARL HARBOR (Aug. 10, 2020) North American T-6 Texans, part of a group known as the “Warbirds,” sit on the pier at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam after being offloaded from the amphibious assault ship USS Essex (LHD 2) for the 75th Commemoration of the End of WWII. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jessica O. Blackwell)

Flyovers of the Warbirds will include: Around Oahu (Aug. 29), Connecting the Military Bases (Aug. 30), and over the Battleship Missouri Memorial, Pearl Harbor to Waikiki (Sept. 2).