"This book recognizes the Martin PBM Mariner not only for its contributions to World War II but also the postwar years, when it was involved in the Korean War and with the exploration of the Arctic and Antarctic. Hoffman offers details of PBM fights with Chinese MiGs and patrol and reconnaissance missions. The author also highlights the seaplane's hazardous rescue missions with the Coast Guard and its service with foreign armed forces. Photos of Mariners in action accompany the narrative, and a list of all PBM casualties is appended."--BOOK JACKET.
For a time, the flying boat was seen as the way of the future. These aircraft, so strange and foreign to the modern mind, once criss-crossed the world and fulfilled essential military roles. In his latest book for Fonthill, Charles Bain looks at the golden age of the flying boat, when these sometimes strange and often beautiful vessels spanned the globe. These vessels-a combination of ship and airplane-found themselves working as patrol aircraft, passenger aircraft, transports, and even as combat aircraft. This volume contains their stories, from memorable aircraft such as the Short Sunderland and Boeing 314 Clipper, to the craft that roamed the Pacific Theatre of the Second World War, to forgotten giants from Saunders-Roe and even strange jet fighters that once landed like ducks. It even includes the flying boat that has not let time get in the way of doing its job-the Martin Mars. Each of these aircraft has a story worthy of the telling, and often a memorable role to play in the history of aviation. `High Hulls' delves deeply into a long-vanished part of aviation's golden age.
Two volumes that describe and illustrate the development of the America and Felixstowe flying of WWI with text, 745 photos and drawings, color profiles, and aircraft production and technical specifications. An overview of their operational use is included. These volumes are of interest to aviation historians, enthusiasts, and modelers alike.
Two volumes that describe and illustrate the development of the America and Felixstowe flying of WWI with text, 745 photos and drawings, color profiles, and aircraft production and technical specifications. An overview of their operational use is included. These volumes are of interest to aviation historians, enthusiasts, and modelers alike.
Excerpt from The Spider Web: The Romance of a Flying-Boat War Flight There is a tang of salt in the adventures of the men who boomed out in them over the narrow waters, for they had to do with submarines and ships, and all that that implies. In their job 0' work of bombing U-boats, attacking Zeppelins, fighting enemy seaplanes, and carrying out re connaissance and convoy duties, there is as much romance as in any particular effort in the war. In the future, grown great in Size, the boats will form the winged Navy, and will carry mails and passengers over the water-routes of all the world. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
Contents:ethods of tending seaplanes:1941 Comment on British and American operational practices Notes on German flying boats and seaplane operations Aircraft and operational procedures Operational experience.
"The Spider Web" by T. D. Hallam is a story of the flying boats that were created to demolish German submarines during World War I. "During the war nothing was published about the flying-boats, partly because they worked with the Silent Navy, and partly because they were produced in the service. They were created to harry and destroy the German submarines, and were a manifestation of the genius of the English-speaking peoples for all things connected with the sea. There is a tang of salt in the adventures of the men who boomed out in them over the narrow waters, for they had to do with submarines and ships, and all that that implies. In their job o' work of bombing U-boats, attacking Zeppelins, fighting enemy seaplanes, and carrying out reconnaissance and convoy duties, there is as much romance as in any particular effort in the war. In the future, grown great in size, the boats will form the winged Navy, and will carry mails and passengers over the water-routes of all the world."
Wing Commander Vic Hodgkinson DFC served throughout the Second World War as a pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force. His war began in 1939 when he traveled to the UK to become one of the founding members of 10 Squadron RAAF. With its training complete, the squadron took delivery of its first Short Sunderland flying boats. In early 1940, the squadron was loaned to the RAF by the Australian Government. Flying from Mount Batten (Plymouth), Pembroke Dock (Wales) and Oban (Scotland), Vic Hodgkinson, along with the rest of the squadron, played a vital part in the early stages of the Battle of the Atlantic as part of the RAF’s Coastal Command. During that time, he was involved in numerous air-sea rescues. This included picking up twenty-one survivors of a U-boat attack, and of returning the compliment with depth charge attacks on German submarines. Vic himself became a survivor when, returning from a fifteen-hour patrol in fog, his Sunderland crashed into the Irish Sea near Bardsey Island, off the North Wales coast, while returning to Pembroke Dock. Six of his eleven crew were killed; it was a gruelling twelve hours before the survivors were finally rescued. In May 1941, Vic and his crew were dispatched to the Mediterranean, but became stranded in Egypt after their Sunderland was damaged. while awaiting spare parts, Vic volunteered to serve with a RAF flying boat squadron based in Alexandria. He found himself flying through heavy enemy fire to make contact with Allied troops fighting for their lives in Crete. After this, they were once again back in the Atlantic, flying patrols across the Bay of Biscay. During one such sortie, Vic’s crew became embroiled in a battle of the giants with a Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor. It was an engagement that ended badly for the faster and heavily armed enemy aircraft. In 1942, Hodgkinson was sent back to Australia, going on to serve with both 20 Squadron RAAF and 40 Squadron RAAF. It was in this period that he also flew the Consolidated Catalina, Martin Mariner and other flying boats – including Dornier Do 24s that had been impressed into RAAF service after the fall of the Dutch East Indies. His missions included dropping supplies to remote areas, minelaying, reporting on Japanese ship movements, and engaging in the bombing of enemy positions. This is Vic’s remarkable story, told here in his own words for the first time.
