Deck Landing | Royal Navy Flight Deck Operations (1942)

This 1942 Royal Navy instructional film explains flight deck operations aboard British aircraft carriers after three years of experience in the Atlantic and Mediterranean theatres.
The cycle of flight operations includes ranging on deck, preparation for takeoff, procedures for launch, attaching aircraft to catapults, and how arrestor hooks and crash barriers work. It emphasises the role of the Flight Deck Officer (more commonly known as the "batsman") in maintaining a high tempo of operations.
Aircraft featured include the Grumman Martlet (Wildcat), Fairey Fulmar, Fairey Swordfish and Fairey Albacore.

[@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684]

Where's my stringbag??? I've an appointment with a heavily pitching and rolling flight deck. I'm coming in..... fire crews to the flight deck !!!! What a GREAT vid.... team of well drilled men working like an oiled machine. I could watch these training gems all day. Thanks for putting them on !!! (Remember kids !!! Don't type "videos of well oiled men being drilled" into google !!!)

[@skyedog24]

I'm astounded that they can take off within 10 to 12 seconds that's amazing

[@hisdadjames4876]

Quick, somebody wake up Drach. This video will make his weekend. 😍

[@zhaoyuanlow8154]

Who is drach?

[@peterregan8691]

@@zhaoyuanlow8154 A very popular naval historian. youtube.com/@Drachinifel?si=CHjn6iSEVDSF6ODh

[@IntrospectorGeneral]

​@@zhaoyuanlow8154 Drachinifel. You Tube channel naval engineering and ships plus some naval battles history.

[@crazypetec-130fe7]

@@zhaoyuanlow8154 Drachinifel has the best naval history channel on youtube.

[@fr.joeobrien3678]

Drach would have rolled and pitched with gales of laughter.

[@ArcticNatureExperiences]

17:00 Let's send him back and make another approach😅 This movie is a gem and gives us a grand view of British carrier operations early in the war. Here are a lot of fun details for the history buffs and worth the view❤

[@geordiedog1749]

Quality video as always. Thanks for doing what you do!

[@andrewharrington7706]

Thanks!

[@ArmouredCarriers]

Thanks again. It's very generous of you.

[@MrRugbylane]

Oh man this is sooooo good.

[@raywhitehead730]

Excellent!!

[@Oliverdobbins]

Just amazing how everything was done with flags! FLAGS!! 🤯

[@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684]

Why use tuppenny flags when you can pay several billions to the US MIC to have a state of the art, cutting edge digital system that does exactly the same thing !!!!

[@raywhitehead730]

Today, flashlights or hand signals.

[@TheGixernutter]

Pure Class

[@grathian]

Noting the ASV antennas on all of the Swordfish,,

[@raywhitehead730]

1942. At this Time British flight deck operations second to None.

[@marioborbadatrindade6372]

Loved it

[@kevanquinn9559]

Is it known what ships this was filmed on? My uncle's ship, the Hermes carried 'stringbags'. He was killed when she was sunk on 8 April 1942 by the same Japanese force that had attacked Pearl Harbour. I'm guessing it wouldn't be her though, as she would have been out east in the months before she was sunk.

[@ArmouredCarriers]

It looks to be HMS Illustrious and HMS Victorious. The Hermes is mentioned in one of my "memories of war" veterans' videos: Operation C kzbin.info/www/bejne/l4upmoVpfbhqn6c

[@kevanquinn9559]

@@ArmouredCarriers Thank you. Great footage and stills of Hermes when my uncle was on her. It's a shame that my father isn't around to see that, as he died while on a trip back to England in 2014.

[@ArmouredCarriers]

@@kevanquinn9559 We can't afford to lose these memories. They reflect realities new generations often forget - and end up re-learning the hard way.

[@mikewinston8709]

I keep expecting Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse to hove into view……😂

[@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684]

Grayson, I say, you've missed the trickle wire and have created an unseemly bally-hoo Forw'd. I'll put myself on a charge immediately, and be scrubbling the galley scuppers before you can say "shiver me arrestor hook" Mr Cholmondley-Warner.

[@raywhitehead730]

Also, note, this is in good weather!

[@GypsyPirate]

16:55 "Very poor display, and not one to be emulated." 🔥

[@KLOSTER777]

is this the Ark Royal or the Victorious ?

[@ArmouredCarriers]

The opening component was HMS Illustrious. After that it is mostly HMS Victorious by the looks of it. It is clearly intercut (one of the deck batsman that appears repeatedly, for example, is something of an iconic character from Illustrious)

[@onceamoth]

How the hell did he 'lose his undercarriage'???

[@ArmouredCarriers]

So that looks like a test launch of a US Wildcat (Martlet in RN service) from a RN "trolley" accelerator unit. These were built to handle both aircraft and floatplanes (like the Walrus). They were very different to USN style tail-down "strap" catapults. I suspect it was experiments like this that led to a rather simple "switch out" unit that allowed the RN accelerators to do both.

[@raphael7552]

The same way that Boeing loose parts in 2024...

[@petesheppard1709]

After videos of later aircraft coming aboard, those Stringbags seem to be drifting down like snowflakes. 😉

[@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684]

The product of a large wing area. Thats what made the Stringbag the heavy lift, short take off and landing, all weather naval strike aircraft par excellence that it was!!!

[@petesheppard1709]

@@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684 Yep!

[@thhseeking]

@@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684 Not like some torpedo bombers that feed on hamburgers and chips :P

[@podunkman2709]

1942 and they force these poor people to fly 0 speed, paper planes. Omg. Zero responsibility.

[@raywhitehead730]

Note no radio communication necessary!

[@cameronalexander359]

I doubt those pilots were really watching the batsman

[@MarsFKA]

Those pilots utterly relied on the batsman - there is no doubt that they never took their eyes off him. I doubt that you know what you are talking about. Try looking up exactly what the batsman's job was.

[@ArmouredCarriers]

There's a bunch of good books from FAA pilots that describe the varying attitudes. "With Naval Wings", "On and Off the Flight Deck", "They Gave Me a Seafire", "Carrier Pilot", "War in a Stringbag", "Sea Flight", and "Carrier Fighters" offer a diverse taste.

[@stoobydootoo4098]

Don't be silly.

[@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684]

Where would he have been looking? If you'd been the pilot of a single engine aircraft, just above stalling speed in a nose up position with a 1 ton engine completely blocking you forward view of the flight deck for the last 500 yards, then you'd realise that absolute faith and trust in the batsman positioned to the side would be to ONLY chance you had of making a safe landing !!!

[@martinwest8374]

@@ArmouredCarriers "Carrier Pilot" by Norman Hanson is a bloody good read. He flew the Corsair in the South Pacific and putting one of those down on a carrier was no mean feat.