Carrier Night Actions in WW2 - What you can't see can still hurt you

[@Drachinifel]

Pinned post for Q&A :)

[@Frankenspank67]

First question, how are you able to be so awesome but yet still stay so humble? Also, how is the tooth doing?

[@sillysausage1311]

Hello Drach, A couple questions, I hope you dont mind: I've often heard that on the type 7 uboat the toilet opposite the galley was often used as a storeroom. Were there any attempts to convert this space into a proper storeroom, refridgeration unit or perhaps even a shower? Secondly, would it have been possible to improve the underwater speed and/or endurance of the type 7 if the rear torpedo tube was removed and replaced with more machinery/batteries? Many thanks!

[@questionmark05]

Should Admiral Crutchely have taken a launch, PT boat or boat instead of the kent class heavy HMAS Australia to the meeting with Admiral Turner during Savo Island? Would Australians presence have made a difference? Did Australia leaving compromise the defence? Would it mean that Bode wouldn't be in charge and would that make enough of a difference to result in a defeat of the Japanese force or atleast a withdrawal and losing less allied ships? I don't know if a smaller boat could be used in that area but using a heavy crusier as a transport for one individual (even if he is a high rank) certainly seems to a laymen to be a bit of a misuse. Thank you Mr Drach! I hope you enjoyed Australia while you were here, I'm glad you survived vegimite and managed to avoid drop bears and our summer.

[@adamalton2436]

Had the Royal Navy cut off the retreat of the Germans at Jutland, how do you see that portion of the battle going? Also, do you see this possibly ending the war earlier than historical, ie German accepting a negotiated peace in say 1917 or earlier in 1918?

[@ResultofFailedbirthcontrol]

Why did Saratoga and Lexington have turrets and mounts in gondolas

[@Big_E_Soul_Fragment]

I remember that one episode of Battle 360 where the pilots were telling the story of how the ships lit up the sky with their search lights to guide them to the carriers during the Battle of the Philippine Sea "Home is that way" Brings tears to my eyes

[@ph89787]

Same and those pilots were very much attached to their carriers.

[@wolftamer5463]

The passage on that event in James Hornfischer’s book “The Fleet at Flood Tide” is really good as well. Very emotional to bring so many pilots home safe after a long debate whether to launch, the whole battle, and a tedious flight back.

[@pauldietz1325]

The US had such a surplus of aircraft at that point that recovering the aircrew was the highest priority. So even if they ditched, if they were then recovered that was pretty good. One of the US aircraft carriers almost recovered a Japanese plane (!), but IIRC the landing signals were different so it didn't happen. If it had worked it would have been one of the most spectacular captures of the war.

[@ph89787]

@@pauldietz1325 That was Yorktown at the Battle of the Coral Sea

[@larrytischler570]

​@@pauldietz1325Japanese pilots tried to land on a US carrier at Coral Sea. Many of them were lost and did not recover. They were sent out late with squally weather.

[@charlesgoodrich821]

My father was a dive bomber pilot on the Essex and told me some of the problems in pre-dawn operations. They wore special goggles during the early morning briefings prior to getting in their planes before dawn, to prevent night blindness. He lost a friend when the brakes failed or weren't applied and his airplane just rolled off the bow of the ship. It was so dark no one, not even the doomed pilot, realized what was happening.

[@jonathanstrong4812]

NASTY

[@ph89787]

In addition to the late and great Butch O'Hare. Another Night Ops pioneer was William "Bill" I Martin. He was deployed with VS-10 at Guadalcanal, first as XO and later as CO of the squadron. Then he transferred to VT-10 as CO while Air Group 10 was requalifying back in the States. Where he began making the squadron night qualified. In fact, he was the mastermind for the night portion of Operation Hailstone. But could not lead it due to breaking his shoulder before the start of Operation Hailstone. He was also supposed to have led a dozen Avengers on a night attack against Ozawa's carriers at the Philippine Sea. But the mess from having to recover the afternoon strike had ended that plan. After returning to the States, Martin was assigned to Night Group 90 and brought many of VT-10's pilots with him. They would lead the Air Group on their 24 December 1944-14 May 1945 deployment on Enterprise. A big highlight was being able to maintain nonstop air ops over Iwo Jima for 174 Hours

[@garrettwood201]

Holy cow. Literally 24/7 air ops.

[@ph89787]

@@garrettwood201 yep. Powered through it with the power of coffee and hate.

[@garrettwood201]

@ph89787 that is an insane workload for what was probably the oldest Fleet Carrier in 3rd Fleet (depending on if Saratoga was present). But, then again, it was Enterprise. Just another week at the office for her.

[@ph89787]

@@garrettwood201 by that point in the war. Enterprise was the most experienced carrier in the fleet.

[@andrewtaylor940]

@@garrettwood201 By Iwo Jima the Navy had designated Enterprise and Saratoga as Night Operations Carriers. Their Strike Groups and CAP were sleeping during the day while the rest of the fleet pounded the targets, then they would launch at night to continue the assault. So Enterprises designation was CV(N)-6. Which is one of those fun little ironies of history.

[@Dave5843-d9m]

The British actually planned to operate Mosquitos from carriers. The Pacific War ended before detailed plans were developed. Eric Brown was the first to land a twin engine aircraft on a carrier. He brought his Mossie in at full power with full flaps literally hanging it on the props. First attempt failed when his arrester hook broke. Second attempt actually worked.

[@frankbodenschatz173]

That man was a machine!

[@pdunderhill]

First attempt was a success, Brown didn't really do failure. As an aside he also took a Motorbike on a Wall of Death, with a sidecar and with a Lion in the sidecar.

[@pdunderhill]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/mmqrm6GbZbR0atk

[@TomFynn]

If Eric Brown and James Doolittle had a child, it would probably first on the moon by simply ignoring such pesky things like the laws of physics.

[@dannycalley7777]

DE ...............E B was the MAN !!!!!!!!

[@ph89787]

First, thanks for using my idea drach. Second of all. Enterprise: I don’t sleep and you won’t either.

[@jessmarks2214]

"Hello darkness my old friend, I'm here to attack you again.." innovation, necessity and stealth. The need focuses on, the platform, technology and skill set of operators... results vary.. and costly.

[@salvationsplace]

"It was so dark you didn't know where the ship was until your wheels hit the deck" - my dad (Squadron VC-42 North Atlantic, unit citation for the development of night flying)

[@timgosling6189]

Night nav in those days was difficult, but actually it was pretty difficult in daylight as well. It's a big featureless ocean whether you can see it or not! At least at night there might be stars and the Moon; in daylight you've only got the Sun but you might see the carrier/target at some distance. Astro nav in a small aircraft is also not the most exact process! But mostly crews relied on 'air plot', where you apply the expected wind to your track to derive a heading, updating the wind when/if you get a fix to update that heading. I still have the 'whizzy-wheel' circular Dalton computer I once used for this purpose. The main problem was that you were highly dependent on the accuracy of the met forecast and for some reason it was hard to get data from the areas under enemy control. For this reason any met data passed back from recce aircraft shadowing a target was amost as valuable as knowing the target position.

[@18robsmith]

God created the Fairey Swordfish - and it was good. Then god created RADAR - and it was good. Then God mated the Swordfish with RADAR - and it was good Then God painted the Swordfish black - and the Italian navy thought "This is very bad".

[@mpetersen6]

The Swordfish. The worlds first prop driven swing wing aircraft 😊

[@waynesworldofsci-tech]

LOL. Yeah, the Swordfish, operated by some cousins, killled other cousins. I have English and Italian ancestry.

[@jonathanstrong4812]

NOTCHED HULLS AND BENT KEELS WAS THE ORDER OF THE DAY POOR REGIA MARINA

[@jlpeyret]

Daytime but didn’t those damn Swordfish flummox poor Bismarck’s AA cuz they were so sloooow?

[@internetzenmaster8952]

I believe so. Typical German overengeering issues.

[@JosipRadnik1]

20:00 - just take a few moments to observe the landing of a Swordfish bomber and it instantly becomes clear why this was such an invaluable workhorse under the circumstances given in the mediteranean as well as the atlantic and the north sea.

[@mikhailiagacesa3406]

One of a number of obsolete designs that perform well when uncontested.

[@JosipRadnik1]

@@mikhailiagacesa3406 question is: what is the contest? is it bomb load? is it max speed? Or is it the ability to get airborne and safely return to your carrier under the worst conditions? look at this Swordfish basically landing on a spot as big as a helicopter platform while not even stressing its airframe that much and tell me which plane you would prefer if you had to perform aircover for a convoy in the middle of the north atlantic or even en route of one of those arctic convoys from one of those merchant ships converted into escort carriers?

[@gregorywright4918]

@@JosipRadnik1 I think what he meant by "uncontested" was "no enemy fighters around"...

[@dabda8510]

Those crazy bush pilots competing in STOL competition got nothing on these Swordfish BOMBER pilots.

[@johnculver2519]

@@mikhailiagacesa3406 I didn't realise that Italys major deployment port Taranto had no air cover, or AA defences in time of war. The central mediterranean was one of the most dangerous naval and air environments of the war, and Taranto was attacked sucessfully during wartime using a suite of technologies that had been prepared for that type of operation. Next someone suggests that other technologically advanced systems like the F-117 can't be any good as they can only sneak past enemy air defenses, or the RAF's Bomber Command was rubbish because they used advanced technologies to bypass most of the Luftwaffes defences.

[@ThePrader]

I am a lucky man. I got to put my Mk 1 eyeball on night carrier "actions" aboard the USS Independence, CV 62, in the 1980's. As a "surface warfare officer" we did the ship driving while the aviators did the flying. The real heroes in night carrier operations are the enlisted deck aircraft handlers, the munitions guys, and the men, and now women fueling our air fleets. I was in my mid 20's. The average age of a sailor on a carrier deck was 19. My gawd they are brave.

[@frankbodenschatz173]

That Australian picture with the sailors silhouetted way below the carrier plowing thru the waves is awesome! ❤

[@fguocokgyloeu4817]

Much like with flight navigation pre-GPS, my brain has a hard time wrapping my head around night actions pre-nightvision and thermals. It just amazes me that people didn't get lost more often than they did.

[@neiloflongbeck5705]

The RAF's Bomber Command in the first year and a bit of the night bombing campaign were lucky if their bombs landed within 5 miles of the intended target.

[@Dave5843-d9m]

They were also lucky their aircraft could (1) get home and (2) find an airfield before fuel ran dry. Many were lost when they strayed over known flak hot spots.

[@mikhailiagacesa3406]

Pre-digital people got lost ALOT.

[@neiloflongbeck5705]

@@mikhailiagacesa3406 Christopher Columbus certainly did.

[@martijn9568]

Deathreckoning is an art form😅

[@whiskeytangosierra6]

Was fortunate to know a man who flew the night fighter version of the Corsair. He had three kills before being switched to the night version supposedly because he had superior navigation skills. He chased many phantoms through the night, but never fired his guns at night. He was not a fan of the whole exercise, only getting one other kill after insisting he be mounted with two extra fuel tanks and launched in the wee hours so he could be up at altitude as the day broke, with a full load of gas, so he could try to catch a recon bird. In daylight, of course...

[@rickymherbert2899]

In his book "We captured a U-Boat" Rear Admiral Daniel Vincent Gallery, a spiffying read by the way, details how he developed night flying operations on USS Guadalcanal (CVE-60). Something that played a part in his going on to capture the U 505.

[@ThePrader]

My 1st ship as a young ensign was the USS Guadalcanal (LPH-7). The story of U 505 was a legend on the old Guadalcanal I sailed on in 1979-1980.

[@jonathanstrong4812]

IT'S IN CHCAGO RADM GALLERY'S HOME TOWN AND HE HAD CAPTURED U 505 ON THE 4TH OF JUNE 1944 BUT ERNIE 'JESUS' KING WHICH WAS GIVING A COMPLETE RESUME OF WHAT HE THOUGHT OF WHAT GALLERY HAD DONE AND THE GERMANS WOULD CHANGED THEIR OPERATIONAL ENIGMA NAVAL CIPHER AND OLD ERNIE KING WAS PRAYING EVERY DAY AND TWICE ON SUNDAY THAT THEY WOULDN'T THEY DIDN'T THANKFULLY

[@ulrikschackmeyer848]

1 part broad, easily understandable overview, 3 parts fascinating detail, one part ordinary humour and and one part sardonic irony. Another perfect and delightful dish

[@pdunderhill]

Thank you for that practical explanation of the RN's 'Dustbin' transmitter, a wonderfully simple and graceful idea.

[@andrewtaylor940]

Philippine Sea was less an issue of night capable pilots, by 1944 most US Carrier Pilots were trained to land at night. Philippine Sea was more a case of all the holes in the swiss cheese lining up. The pilots were exhausted, highly stressed because their fuel margins to land at that point could be measured in feet, so far were they stretching their ranges, with a number of cases of engines stalling from fuel starvation just as the planes touched down, And an incredibly crowded airspace. While individual pilots had practiced night operations on and with their carrier, nobody (not even the British at this point) had really thought through full fleet carrier operations at night, where the pilots really could not tell one carrier from another. To add to this the well intentioned hail mary by Marc Mitcher of turning on all the lights, was a mixed blessing. They lit up the entire fleet. Destroyers, Battleships, Cruisers, Carriers, Oilers, everything. So the pilots were lining up on ships that weren't carriers. Waving off but burning precious fuel. Here they were looking for their fairly dim landing lights and the entire fleet was lit up like an amusement park stretching across the horizon. This really did not help the pilots stress levels. When interviewed later they said the searchlights on the forward deployed destroyers that were performing a straight sweep showing them the way to the carriers really helped and the carriers being lit up helped. Everything else just made things worse. After Philippine Sea they also started to change the deck and island markings to be better discernable when lit at night.

[@ph89787]

Air Group 10 had a slightly easier time than the other Air Groups because Enterprise had a unique silhouette. Whereas the Indepences and Essexes all look the same.

[@nualanet]

In 1943, U.S.S. Abbot DD 629, was in a collision with U.S.S. Cowpens CVL 25, during training for night carrier operations. Abbot’s bow was bent back at an angle. She remained sea worthy enough to sail back to P.H. , T.H. for extensive repairs. Cowpens escaped with a big dent.

[@jonathanstrong4812]

A-OOF I SAY!

[@nualanet]

I should add that Abbot has a webpage and official photos of the collision are available. I also had a relative aboard Abbot at the time, who related the events to me firsthand.

[@louisinjoliet8546]

If you ever go to Chicago for a U505 tour, also go to the Adler Planetarium. They have a steel ball planetarium used to train WW2 pilots how to navigate at night

[@brittgardner2923]

A blow-by-blow account of a night flight from a carrier sounds like a good collaboration for you and Rex.

[@thomaskositzki9424]

18:00 Am sitting here in awe at the "Dustbin" device - so simple, so effective! 😯🙂

[@tomhutchins7495]

Really interesting stories, and I loved the archive footage too.

[@toddwebb7521]

Last time I was this early the Wright Brothers still made bicycles

[@dennisynborg6004]

But you were still late for Whiteheads gliding.

[@godlugner5327]

That's alright, we're only up to the model 3 flyer and some general is already asking us if we can put guns in it

[@toddwebb7521]

@@godlugner5327 I'm sure at some point before a gun was mounted someone said "fly me closer, I want to hit them with my sword"

[@ravenoferin500]

​@@toddwebb7521Perish the thought. Terribly improbable. Although, flying lancers would be fantastic. Flying Winged Hussars!

[@mikeprimm4077]

​@@ravenoferin500why sir, I'd pay sixteen pence of someone else's coin to see that 😂

[@zachsmith1676]

With today’s topic, the intro imo was really fitting! Thanks for all your work in providing us with excellent content!

[@morganhale3434]

Back about ten years ago I read a book about a US naval aviator who fought in the early carrier Battles of the Eastern Solomons and Santa Cruz with a furthering posting by necessity at Henderson Field (I could be wrong about the specific carrier battles, so please forgive me,) but the interesting part and almost the entirety of the book was about his experience training and deployment for his second rotation as an F6F night fighter in 1944 and 1945 off of the Enterprise, which was the same ship he was on earlier as just an F4F jockey. Fascinating book and a good read. I can't remember what it was called but a thoroughly good record of what being a night flyer off of a Fleet Carrier at war was like.

[@ph89787]

Swede Vejtasa had to do a night landing on Enterprise before the Battle of Santa Cruz. But there's no record of him with VF(N)-90 during their deployment on Enterprise in 1945.

[@morganhale3434]

The pilot I am talking about was a trained night fighter pilot with a dedicated F6F night fighter with a radar intercept kit.@@ph89787

[@morganhale3434]

Also, I don't think he reached ace status until his second or third kill as a night fighter and I do think he got five kills by the end of the war to be a night fighter ace, but the USN just counted kills for being an ace whether night or day. I got the book from the King County Library in Washington State, and it does have an amazing American authored WWII Naval History section that I haven't found anywhere else. Books you never knew existed for free, as long as you return them on time.@@ph89787

[@timengineman2nd714]

Re: picture of a F6F-5N Hellcat, those long barrels are 20mm. Roy Grumman had designed the F6F-5 to be able to carry either six .50 caliber machineguns or four "50s" and a pair of "20s" (two .50s and a 20mm in each wing). The night fighter versions (-5N) were the only ones that carried the 20mm to my knowledge. This was for the Japanese night bombers mainly, since they wanted a single pass kill of the enemy bombers.....

[@HootOwl513]

Some of the Marine F6F-5N Hellcats had the outermost starboard .50 Cal removed to limit vibrations to the radome. They also tried 4 - 20mm guns on the Corsairs, too, but found with the exposure to tropical moisture, and then sub-zero temps at altitude, the guns froze and jammed.

[@steriskyline4470]

Some, not all had the 20mm's but all had the flash hider equipped barrel shrouds equipped.

[@Philistine47]

For my money, it's the raid on Ceylon where Nagumo really showed his unfitness for commanding carriers. If he'd had _any_ imagination or initiative _at all,_ the sudden appearance of FAA scout aircraft near his fleet would have resulted in Somerville's force having a Really Bad Day the next morning. Instead, amazingly, his reaction to the reports of CAP Zeroes downing British scout aircraft was... _nothing at all._ IJN intel going in to the operation said the RN was unlikely to put much in his way, and therefore he didn't even bother ordering out a search once he had clear and direct evidence that the initial assessment was wrong. (Not that Nagumo was any great shakes in any of the Pacific operations he commanded, but there he generally had the excuse that he was stuck trying to execute one of Yamamoto's harebrained schemes.) Operation C also highlights the weakness of the RN's night strike doctrine for its carriers. With 1940s technology, just finding a target at sea was a difficult enough task; the additional complication of the CV needing to scoot back out of range of potential return scouting (or strikes!) before dawn made it unfeasible in practice. Of course that the FAA didn't any choice but to try for _some_ kind of asymmetry, as they couldn't possibly hope to trade blows with a Japanese CV force; but night attacks weren't ever likely to be the answer - as evidenced by the fact that they couldn't even be made to work against an opponent as bizarrely cooperative as Nagumo.

[@jonathanstrong4812]

LIKE AT MIDWAY

[@gregorywright4918]

Hmmm... but for that damaged radio... The flip side is that if you can find them, they have no night CAP, no night training for AA, and their night cruising formation is a vulnerable box that does not consider the possibility of radar guided night air attack. And if you could put a torpedo or two into half or more of the carriers, you don't really need to worry about the morning.

[@Philistine47]

@@gregorywright4918 The key word there is "if" - it'd be great IF you could pull it off. The problem was, you couldn't - nobody could. As Somerville proved when Nagumo all but laid out the welcome mat for him and he STILL couldn't make it happen. Remember: if you're depending on night strikes to even give you a chance of holding on against a superior opponent, which was the RN situation off Ceylon in 1942, then it's not a (relatively) simple matter of _finding the enemy._ At sunset you still have to be out of range of enemy scout planes; then during the hours of darkness you have to close range, launch and conduct your search, launch and conduct your strike (which can't start until after you've found the enemy), recover your scout and strike aircraft, and get back out of range of enemy scouts (which, historically, would be taking off an hour or so before daybreak), all before dawn. (Also, not for nothing, but any one of Nagumo's five carriers had more than enough firepower to crush _Formidable_ like a itty bitty bug. You might well ask, "What did the IJN have that Fliegerkorps X didn't have?" The answer is, "Effective torpedo attack aircraft." So even in the fantasyland outcome where Somerville could sink four out of Nagumo's five CVs, the return strike would demolish Force A.)

[@ph89787]

@@Philistine47 What Drach left out. Was that Sommerville wasn't aiming to take out the entire Kido Butai. At the time the Albacore was shot down. Hiryu and Soryu were detached to widen Nagumo's search and were the closest to Force A. Essentially if a night attack was to launch from Formidable and Indomitable. The Albacores and the ASV equipped Swordfish only have 125 Miles to fly to Carrier Division 2. The Swordfish pilot will only need to look for the 2 large-ish blips on the radar. Which are most likely Hiryu and Soryu. At which point the Albacores make their runs. With no radar, no night fighters and a very questionable ability to direct their AA. Hiryu and Soryu can only evade. Which is harder as you can't even see where the torpedo is going. Plus if the Torpedo does hit. Hiryu and Soryu are more susceptible to that kind of damage than the Yorktowns. Which leaves them dead in the water at best or sunk outright at worst. By the time the Japanese figure out what happened, the strike would be on its way back to Force A and by sunrise and the first scouts are launched. He would be well on his way out of the area.

[@rem26439]

The archive footage was great! A very nice addition to the video. Watching this one makes me eager to see the future ones on Taranto and the Indian Ocean raid!

[@philipv4613]

Yes! More drachinifel battles at sea please!

[@morganhale3434]

This subject is much more extensive than I thought. Considering the lengths the RN and USN went towards night carrier operations it is a shame that the topic gets relegated to the curiosities and oddities drawer in the histories of WWII Naval Air Operations.

[@howie8582]

My father-in-law was a pilot in the RN during WW2. He said he always preferred landing on a ship at night because all you could see were the lights of the chap helping you to land and not the pitching deck.

[@davidlavigne207]

Well done Drach. It was a good talk about the early development of Naval Aviation Night Operations. Appreciated the great images that you always bring us.

[@danielcoulon6082]

Good Morning Everyone ! Here's a quite tasty slice, and even it took place later during corean war, the lesson stands anytime... After the tough squadron mission at dawn over Corea, the pilot escapes flying low until reaching the ocean. He is alone and a bit lost, but happy the worst of it is over. While climbing slowly to catch at least a homing signal from the carrier, or any signal from anywhere around, radio communications went out completely. Checks and re-checks plus check again, no way to understand where the problem was and what to do... Well, there's still some thinking one can do remembering roughly timings directions taken plotting them on the map, the emergency dim red ligth helping a bit. Well, this is until all lights and instruments panel power vanished, gone for good. Some serious sweating took place while thinking what to do next with not even a fuel gauge... With only the dim light of the small spare magnetic compass, the pilot then start a slow 360 turn over the horizon, in case something shows up... And yes, at a particular azimuth a beautiful trace of oil reflects moonlight, showing where the carrier went.... Stay calm in control......

[@scrubsrc4084]

Because landing on a rolling, pitching moving runway in the daytime wasn't hard enough.

[@mpetersen6]

At what sea state would carrier opps be suspended?

[@scrubsrc4084]

@mpetersen6 it's pretty severe.

[@JoshuaTootell]

I can't remember what the limits were, but we would do helo ops in some pretty bad weather on a 400' ship. VERTREP was an option if we went out of limits before the bird returned.

[@trooperdgb9722]

As a Supply Officer posted to an RAN FFG, my main ancillary duty was as "HCO" Helicopter Control Officer. Being IN that role I was taken for a ride in the ships helo (An AS350B Squirrel of all things... the RAN used them to learn to operate helos from small ships... and VERY succesfully indeed.. before getting Seahawks and other "proper" naval aircraft) We flew out from the ship... and got lower and lower, and slower and slower..until we were in a hover. Looking around it was just open ocean in every direction. With impeccable timing..the Observer waited the perfect interval before saying "Lonely, isn't it?" I can't imagine the feelings of a WW2 pilot/crew.. flying over that same featureless ocean... trying to get back to the carrier... they must have had trouble walking... with balls THAT big!

[@jamesa.7604]

This was a Very Informative video. I love your storytelling ability and quite impressed with your knowledge. Always an entertaining educational experience.👏👍

[@eliotsherman163]

Liked before I started watching because I know it’s going to be so good

[@antoninuspius1747]

What about the other side of the coin, the defenders? How easy or hard was it for AA batteries to target incoming planes at night? Did the attackers turn off running lights? Could the defenders see their exhaust flames, which are fairly common in rotary engines, especially when changing RPM? Or were both of those too small and far away to reveal the aircraft's position? Thanks.

[@alancranford3398]

Thanks for an entertaining and informative presentation. This reminds me of one of my sea stories during a WESPAC cruise in 1978 aboard USS Tripoli/LPH-10. The helicopter pilots were burning out the final power amplifiers of their UHF radios. I guessed that they were exceeding the duty cycle (five minutes transmitting followed by five minutes or receiving so that the radio could cool down) because their UHF radio had a direction-finding antenna. Intercepting a moving target is difficult because a fix will be wrong minutes later without a vector. There was also a problem with the radio direction being a coarse thing--a degree is a wide arc when the distance is 30 to 50 miles. Beyond visual range but in line of sight must have been frustrating when aircraft speeds were 120 knots in different directions. It was hard enough to home in on the Tripoli. Note that the current USS Tripoli is LHA-7, an America-class amphibious warfare ship.

[@jonathanstrong4812]

AND A CASABLANCA CVE

[@alancranford3398]

@@jonathanstrong4812 Thank you. I make it a point to learn something every day. You just taught me something I didn't know before. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Tripoli_(CVE-64)

[@scotteggert9820]

In the Atlantic, USS Guadalcanal (CVE-60) Did some night ops using the phases of the moon to hunt for U-boats that were using the night to recharge their batteries. Adm. D.V. Gallery (Then a Captain) had some decent success sinking more than a few U-boats with this tactic. U-515 and U-68 were confirmed kills

[@echo5delta]

Bombers moon/fighters moon

[@benrobertson7855]

Just a personal comment,but having listened to you since day one, I Do like your new opening theme …. I can only hear you after the day is gone , and I am in bed,without lights… Boy now 18 and just joining the nz navy,girl 16 and keen too….guess it didn’t help playing your vids each morning as I made breakfast…..and asking questions… Kind regards Ben.

[@jermasus]

Good timing, I just built a F4U-2 (first night fighter of USN)

[@andrewtaylor940]

Oh one more fun fact regarding Enterprises early experiments with Night Fighters using the primitive AWACS Avenger setup. They only actually sent the Avengers up with fighters a few times. They pretty quickly realized that the Avenger itself had enough firepower to deal with the enemy planes on its own. As all the other key traits of fighters, maneuverability, etc largely became moot when the enemy plane could not see you while you knew exactly where it was. The Hellcats had been fighting to avoid hitting each other by looking for the faint blue exhaust flames.

[@ph89787]

Speaking of Avengers dog fighting. VT(N)-90 operating off of Enterprise ended up with a score of 4 Aircraft shot down and 1 probable.

[@huddunlap3999]

I am surprised that you didn't at least mention the battle of the Coral Sea where the Japanese tried to land on American Carriers.

[@gregorywright4918]

Don't know if that qualifies - they took off before sunset, failed to find their target, and then failed to return to their carrier.

[@80b]

For a while now you are my favorite channel and the only one I watch every video from.

[@Moonman63]

It would be nice to see a piece on Edward Henry O'Hare. I read about him on a display in o’hare airport. He had an interesting story and his family have a colorful connection to Chicago.

[@johnshepherd9676]

US escort carriers started doing night operations in the Atlantic in 1944. U-Boats surfaced during the night so escort carriers started doing 24/7 operations. See "20 Million Tons Under the Sea" by VADM Dan Gallery.

[@crazypetec-130fe7]

Great book, highly recommended.

[@Titus-as-the-Roman]

As a life long amateur historian on the WW2 years my fantasy of choice is to be present at one of these late war night actions with shore bombardment from an entire Flotilla, complete with total air operations. did anyone else get the irony of the brand new centimeter radar, the top tier tech then, strapped to a String-bag.

[@TrickiVicBB71]

Great video to listen to while onto work. Amd it's 6:30am pitch black to. Also I like this intro music

[@timwerner7771]

I really like the look of the WW-2 British carriers. The "closed -bow" under the flight deck makes them look very modern.

[@Losingsince]

34:00 the F4U-2 was specifically a night fighter variant and produced in very small numbers. It was armed with 5 .50s instead of 6: one was removed to fit the radar in the wing

[@tedgalacci8428]

There's a technique for minimizing uncertainty when navigating towards a target along a linear feature such as a coastline. It's called "aiming off." If you aim directly at the target and it's not there when you hit the linear feature, you don't know which way to turn. So you deliberately aim not at the target but off to one side or the other. Then, when you hit the linear feature such as a coastline, you know which direction to turn towards your target.

[@IsaiahAmos017]

Love ol'drach always puts on a good show

[@geordiedog1749]

The navigator of the Fulmar recon. crew who survived the night action against Bismarck was John Hoare. He describes his ordeal in his autobiography’Tumult in the Clouds’. Has anyone else read this book? I’m asking as I thought a better title would have been ‘Tumult in the Bar’ as he really seems to have just been permanently pissed throughout the war as he chronicles his war pub by pub and bar by bar. Can’t say I blame him, mind!

[@Szmiber]

as always - great, fxtual and informative Keep up great work!

[@matthewschauenburg]

Been waiting for this one, thanks.

[@73Trident]

Good program Thanks Drach.

[@derweibhai]

My grandfather was a tailgunner in an SBD on Enterprise from 43-45.

[@trooperdgb9722]

Damn. 3 minutes in...and the Swordfish sequence. How SIMPLE was that wing locking/folding mechanism! And what efficiency of motion getting the aircraft folded/moved/into the hangar!

[@Yacovo]

Thanks for the video. Night carrier landing, where you ask your pilots if they graduated top of their class or believe in divine favor.

[@williamgreen7415]

Thanks!

[@string-bag]

Love the Stringbag.

[@kevintemple245]

Earliest I've ever been to a video. Keep upthe good work Drach!

[@chrisneale7453]

A belting video as always

[@JGCR59]

It was more than harrassment raids: in 1943 the IJNs land based attacker (Betty) squadrons switched almost exclusively to night operations due to extreme losses in daytime. Successes were few (like the torpedoing of USS Intrepid) but at least raids against US carrier forces didn't end with 90% losses as they had in daytime by that point.

[@marine76a]

Great work as always.

[@RCAvhstape]

34:10 There was an episode of the 1970s TV series "Baa Baa Blacksheep" which featured a radar-equipped Corsair. I don't remember the plot, but I remember a scene in which they were flying a night mission, and Pappy Boyington was in formation with the radar bird, and could see the pilot's face illuminated by the radar scope in his cockpit.

[@scottlife1697]

Ok. Loving this new intro music!

[@LeCharles07]

The intro music is really suspenseful.

[@Alex-cw3rz]

The plan by Somerville should be so much more well known, if it had been pulled off, it would have changed the pacific war completely from what happened and all that took was a broken radio and a wrong turn.

[@gregcollins7602]

There were other places the US carriers had night operations. The jeep carrier Guadalcanal development 24/7 air operations while operating as a hunter/killer group in the Atlantic Uboat war. I recommend reading "U-505" by Daniel Gallery. He skippered the Guadalcanal and captured the U-505. He spends a couple of chapters on his air operations. Once they put planes with radar in the skies at night it was game over for the UBoats.

[@colinmartin2921]

Navigation remained difficult even late in the war; reminds me of the US B24 that took off from N Africa to bomb Europe and on the way home never managed to identify the Med due to cloud, and so just carried on flying over the Sahara until the plane ran out of fuel.

[@rich7787]

That was a sad story, bad way to go

[@gbcb8853]

The story of Lady be Good?

[@kidhammer2567]

Thank you, sir.

[@MrGhendri]

Back in the good old days we found a way to climb up the hull under the business end of the waist cats just below the safety nets aboard CV59. Because we were Snipes we could only do this at night. Imagine an F-4 going over your head by about 20 feet in full afterburner in pitch black. Good times.

[@hourlardnsaver362]

Hell hath no fury like CV-6.

[@ph89787]

The Japanese took her sisters. So she took their navy.

[@jonathanstrong4812]

TAKE THEIR NAVY INDEED

[@BlindMansRevenge2002]

The naval aviators of that generation had nuts of steel! No other explanation for how those individuals landed those planes on those nearly blacked out carriers in the middle of the night.

[@johnshepherd9676]

It still requires nuts of steel to land on a carrier at night.

[@SkyWriter25]

A great combination of airplanes and ships! Love it! 😁

[@ThomasBaur2709]

Danke!

[@frostedbutts4340]

Chad.

[@ROBERTN-ut2il]

During the Okinawa Campaign Saratoga (CV3), Enterprise (CV6) and Independence (CV22) were formed into Task Group 38.5 for night operations

[@jonathanstrong4812]

OFF IWO JIMA OLD SARA TOOK SEVERAL SUICIDE BOMBERS AND LOST 123 OFFICERS AND MEN BECAUSE OF IT

[@SamAlley-l9j]

Thanks Drach.

[@chronus4421]

Great video, thank you!

[@thekidfromcleveland3944]

🎶Working on those Night Moves🎶

[@mpetersen6]

Nice Springsteen reference.

[@JoshuaTootell]

WUT ​@@mpetersen6

[@mpetersen6]

@@JoshuaTootell I was thinking Seeger and Springsteen popped out.

[@TomFynn]

You could say they really "waited on the thunder".

[@VersusARCH]

IJN had some night doctrine for scouts at least. At the first day at Coral Sea some Japanese carrier scout aircraft even tried to land on US carriers (and a few were downed by AAA in the process) because US radio traffic was by chance conducted at the frequency of the Japanese direction finders. Butch O Hare was downed and killed by a night fighting G4M bomber.

[@HootOwl513]

-I had heard LtCmdr O'Hare was killed by friendly fire from a TBF/TBM's green tail gunner during a night training op. But I wasn't there, so I wouldn't call you a liar.

[@VersusARCH]

@@HootOwl513 O'Hare was last seen at the 5 o'clock position of the TBF. About that time, the turret gunner of the TBF, Alvin Kernan (AOM1/c) noticed a Japanese G4M "Betty" bomber above and almost directly behind O'Hare's 6 o'clock position.[39] Kernan opened fire with the TBF's .50 cal. machine gun in the dorsal turret and a Japanese gunner fired back. O'Hare's F6F Hellcat apparently was caught in a crossfire. Seconds later O'Hare's F6F slid out of formation to port, pushing slightly ahead at about 160 knots (300 km/h; 180 mph) and then vanished in the dark. The Avenger pilot, Lieutenant Commander Phillips, called repeatedly to O'Hare, but received no reply. Ensign Skon responded:[40] "Mr Phillips, this is Skon. I saw Mr O'Hare's lights go out and, at the same instant, he seemed to veer off and slant down into darkness." Phillips later asserted, as the Hellcat dropped out of view, it seemed to release something that fell almost vertically at a speed too slow for anything but a parachute. Then something "whitish-gray" appeared below, perhaps the splash of the aircraft plunging into the sea. In Chapter 16, "What Happened to Butch", the authors write, "Butch fell to his old familiar adversary, a Betty. Most likely he died from or was immediately disabled by, a lucky shot from the forward observer crouched in the rikko's [Betty's] forward glassed-in nose ... the nose gunner's 7.7 mm slugs very likely penetrated Butch's cockpit from above on the port side and ahead of the F6F's armor plate."[42] In the index, Ewing and Lundstrom flatly state that Kernan is "wrongly accused of shooting down Butch."

[@HootOwl513]

@@VersusARCH OK. I stand corrected. Your information is much better than mine. I had figured it was friendly fire that was covered up. War is a tangled mess. Like I said, I wasn't there. Thanks for the education.

[@johnmoran8805]

Good content! Thank you.

[@HootOwl513]

''Washing Machine Charlie'' was one of the nicknames given to the IJN night harrassment aircraft over ''Cactus'' [Henderson Field]. Charlie was often a twin engine Mitsubishi G4M *BETTY* and ''Louie the Louse'' was a single-engined job.* [30:10] Some were floatplanes and some were biplanes. Cruiser-launched aircraft might have the additional duty of reporting fall of shot to their home ship. [*Since no one on the ground could see them, the terms were sometimes not specific.] USAAC P-38s made the first kill, assisted by searchlights. Later Marines in a radar-equipped PV-1 made the first air-to-air kill w/o ground assistance.

[@TDOBrandano]

I find it weird that the homing beacon would rely on synchronized watches to give a heading. Could it instead work by emitting also a pulse every single minute and letting the operator with the receiver measure the distance between the pulses? that would be close to how modern VOR works, albeit much slower. Also, I assume you would not really use true north as a reference, because it would give the enemy a perfect way to home on you once they catch up to the trick. - Edit: I found a bit more info, essentially the beacons would transmit single morse letters in 30 degree arcs aligned to true north, but the letters would be varied. The google keywords are "YE/YG beacon equipment"

[@mpetersen6]

Plus have the proper offset in your magnetic compass. My father had a German artillery compass he brought home from Italy. The cover had the offsets for various locations in Europe engraved on the cover. Plus it was in radians.

[@TDOBrandano]

I have to correct myself. The Royal Navy DID use then Type 72 beacon from 1936 until the YE/YG beacon became available later in the war. The Type 72 beacon would just send a pulse every second and the operator would listen for the loudest pulse. On some ground installations there would be an additional north pulse for reference, since you can't really hide the location of a ground base, but naval installations would rely on matched clocks. I guess a few seconds of drift were not a big deal.

[@gregorywright4918]

@@TDOBrandano The point of the tight beam vs an omnidirectional pulse is that it is much harder for an enemy snooper to track. I wonder if there was a range limitation as well, like you had to be within 20/40/?? miles of the carrier.

[@martijn9568]

@@gregorywright4918Certainly. Keep in mind that Earth is a sphere. Being below the horizon didn’t necessarily mean that you didn’t receive the signal, but magnetically charged clouds and other magnetic interference could block a signal. At the same time some high altitude atmospheric phenomena could extend the signal’s range, as it does with modern AM radio frequencies.

[@gregorywright4918]

@@martijn9568Again, though, the range extensions often come from reflection off the ionosphere, which might affect omni-directional signals but less so the directional beacons.

[@kyledean4512]

I would argue that the definition of a "night carrier action" should actually be if its night time during either the attack phase or landing phase (This also inherently means that it would also include the return phase). As started in the video the take off phase it pretty easy compared to the rest. As for the flight to the target phase navigationally wise, if this theoretical engagement is in open ocean, the amount of light outside doesn't matter. There are no landmarks to navigate off of in the middle of the ocean.

[@cliff8669]

Regarding the Royal Navy attack on Taranto ... the U.S. Navy Institute ran a article in the Dec 2016 edition (Christopher P. O'Connor) about a Taranto - Pearl Harbor connection. Interesting read. IJN to the RN ... Arigatou

[@ShahriarSharifi-Narani]

Excellent.

[@petesheppard1709]

It is my (likely seriously outdated) understanding that a major impetus for US Navy night operations came from the Battle of the Rennell Islands, where the Japanese went to night attacks on US ships to avoid fighter intercept. My recollection is that the battle became a matter of the Japanese stalking US ships in the dark, looking for wakes and flashes of gunfire. US ships, in fact were told to hold fire unless they were under direct attack. The Japanese would also drop strings of float lights to direct attacks toward US ships. Needless to say, the frustration and sense of helplessness for US sailors was rather acute.

[@crazypetec-130fe7]

I believe that the Doolittle Raid was originally planned to be a night action, but that plan did not survive the unexpected early contact with a Japanese picket ship.

[@mikejames4648]

Hi Drach, can you take the time to look at Bill Martin's VT-10 night strike on Truk Lagoon from USS Enterprise. Martin was a great evangelist for night operations.

[@KingAlanI]

TIL about night flying hazards in addition to the obvious of trying to land on target in the dark The IJN not having night carrier doctrine early is a major explanation for there not being a 3rd attack wave at Pearl Harbor Also, the Brits combining planes onto the working carrier for the Taranto raid was more flexible than IJN this specific carrier with these specific planes doctrine

[@plasmaburndeath]

Ty for finally giving some daylight to these events as they were never meant to have ;-) heh.

[@ethanmckinney203]

I read an account in a French aviation magazine by a French Navy search aircraft pilot who was involved in the search for the Graf Spee. His crew expected to be shot down by the Bf109s operating from the Graf Spee (presumably with catapult launch and ... floats?). It's *possible* that someone in the Royal Navy thought that the Bismarck carried some sort of fighters.

[@mikhailiagacesa3406]

Banger...but in the dark.

[@dovepond]

How about outlining MTB/PT boat operations in the Med, Channel, North Sea, and the Pacific?

[@williamolivadoti3867]

at 38:30 it`s called vectoring, speed and angle for intercept.

[@jameswebb4593]

Have to pull you up about landing bombers or taking off , veering off the runway is a walk away event . 7/8/44 in the Pacific , Marshall Islands . A B-24 flown by Lt Romaine Anderson loaded with 9* 500 lb bombs and 2900 gals of fuel , swerved off the runway whilst taking off for an armed patrol mission. Crashed into parked aircraft destroying 85 and seriously damaging a further 55 , No survivors from the crew , The USN waited until after the war before making it public.