Carrier operations
Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2015 3:18 pm
Gentlemen,
I have an interest in the detail of carrier operations, especially in the details of fuelling, arming and spotting planes. As far as I know, the subject is not widely researched and the information I could get come from books and articles written by Pr. D. Isom ("Why the Japane Lost" in NWCR 2000, Midway Inquest) and by J. Parshall & A. Tully ("Doctrine Matters" NWCR 2001, "Shattered Sword") about the Battlle of Midway.
Unfortunately these sources, while well written and researched, have from my point of view 3 shortcomings :
* they don't deal with US and British procedures ;
* they don't tell much about fuelling ;
* they disagree on some subjects.
Do you know :
* how many planes could be fuelled at once (how many hozes on deck / on hangars) ?
* how long it takes to fuel a plane ?
* how long it takes to arm a dive bomber ?
* how many dive bombers could be armed at once ?
(Parshall & Tully say that arming a DB took 6-7 mn and that there were enough bomb carts to arm 1/3 of a squadron. Isom says in his article that there were enough bomb carts to arm the whole dquadron at once but writes otherwise in his book : there were enough carts to arme half the unit at once and arming took 15 mn)
* how many torpedo carts were aboard US and British carriers ? (Isom, Tully & Parshall agree on the fact that aboard Japanese fleet carriers, there were enough charts to arm 1/3 of the torpedo bombers at once, ie 6 for Akagi, Hiryu and Soryu, 9 for the Kaga).
Thanks for any precision,
Francis Marliere
I have an interest in the detail of carrier operations, especially in the details of fuelling, arming and spotting planes. As far as I know, the subject is not widely researched and the information I could get come from books and articles written by Pr. D. Isom ("Why the Japane Lost" in NWCR 2000, Midway Inquest) and by J. Parshall & A. Tully ("Doctrine Matters" NWCR 2001, "Shattered Sword") about the Battlle of Midway.
Unfortunately these sources, while well written and researched, have from my point of view 3 shortcomings :
* they don't deal with US and British procedures ;
* they don't tell much about fuelling ;
* they disagree on some subjects.
Do you know :
* how many planes could be fuelled at once (how many hozes on deck / on hangars) ?
* how long it takes to fuel a plane ?
* how long it takes to arm a dive bomber ?
* how many dive bombers could be armed at once ?
(Parshall & Tully say that arming a DB took 6-7 mn and that there were enough bomb carts to arm 1/3 of a squadron. Isom says in his article that there were enough bomb carts to arm the whole dquadron at once but writes otherwise in his book : there were enough carts to arme half the unit at once and arming took 15 mn)
* how many torpedo carts were aboard US and British carriers ? (Isom, Tully & Parshall agree on the fact that aboard Japanese fleet carriers, there were enough charts to arm 1/3 of the torpedo bombers at once, ie 6 for Akagi, Hiryu and Soryu, 9 for the Kaga).
Thanks for any precision,
Francis Marliere