Who Knew WWII Aircraft Carriers Could Do THIS?

[@toupac3195]

Dude, I have seen every WW2 historical films to exist. How have I never known about this? Well played.

[@anthonymaddison9588]

Know what you mean.

[@bigmal1690]

It's a 1st for me too, I've read and watched countless stuff about the war in the Pacific, and ur the 1st to mention it, I guess if more historians know about it, I would have known about it before now, because its like something someone would definitely say because its very interesting stuff

[@31terikennedy]

Not everyone. You missed "Wing and a Prayer" They do a hanger catapult launch with a TBF. Good flick.

[@jamesmaddison4546]

seriously dude! in all my years, seen them all, but NEVER heard about this

[@jamesmaddison4546]

​@@bigmal1690 but even the vet pilots of the carriers have never mentioned this in everything ive ever watched

[@chiphailstone589]

My grandfather Frank was aboard the USS Heavy Fast Cruiser Tuscaloosa from 19378 until Dec 1945. His battle station was as a gunners mate, #2 turret to an 8 inch rifle, while his duty station was working as the crane operator for the catapult launched spotter aircraft (Of various types over the course of the war) He was skillfull at plucking craft from the sea, and placing them upon the launch, underway and in rough seas, he was given a commendation for his safe work, with no accidents over 7 years.

[@no-won]

My great grandfather was a scout pilot during WWII. He was stationed at a U.S. Airforce Base in Cuba though but it'd be cool if our ancestors crossed paths.

[@Blackmoon9u9]

​@@no-won yours ancestors never had blood in the hands Easy lazy cozzy war,

[@mikemulligan5731]

@@Blackmoon9u9 That's right, both of those great old men had cold, hard prosthetics in place of the more regular blood-laden examples. Good call on that point, sir! As far as the war sentiments you put forth go, however, Adolf Hitlers dead, burned and mummified corpses' asshole would like to have a word with you..

[@billgeissler]

Our fathers served together on the USS Tuscaloosa- my father was a gunners’ mate who fed the 8 inch shells into the main turrets at Normandy.

[@chiphailstone589]

@@billgeissler Utah Beach and beyond.

[@timmccarthy982]

I've seen the picture of the Hellcat being launched from the hanger but never thought about a TBF Avenger doing it. That is a huge aircraft. My grandfather flew Avengers off the Saratoga CV-3. I have his Log Book. "Torpedo attack 1 Jap. DD and 1 Jap. CL in Nov. 1943" and got a commendation medal the certificate signed by Admiral Halsey. Later he crashed on take off and flew 2 days later new plane obviously but with same crew nice to see everyone got out. After WW2 he flew Grumman F7F Tigercats and In the 1950's he had a cold catapult shot in a A-1 Skyraider and crashed in the sea and came very close to drowning. He retired in 1968 a Captain and lived in San Diego with 6 children and 12 grandchildren and for the rest of his 30 years refused to go anywhere in the city where he could see even a tiny bit of the ocean. I think he had plenty of memories and enough of the Pacific.

[@MrSvenovitch]

Men like your grandpa overpopulated the planet at an ever increasing rate. I salute him and all unbridled breeders like him for their continued efforts to make the funeral industry the corporate behemoth it is today.

[@c4sualcycl0ps48]

Avenger is my favorite and Hellcat is my second favorite of all time. Grumman just made some of the best looking aircraft ever.

[@larrybaker5316]

great story, thanks for sharing

[@xmlthegreat]

​@@MrSvenovitch the fuck

[@geraldtrudeau3223]

Now, this is fascinating. I've been studying militaria for over 50 years, and this is the first time I've ever seen this. It just goes to show no matter how old you are or how much you've studied, each day can bring some new Wonder.

[@miles2378]

I never new that.

[@lordkreigs1978]

Exactly. I wrote and taught WWII & Korea history for several years, and have toured USS Hornet CV-12 four times. Never have I heard of this. I knew of scout launch/recovery from battleships and others but this is totally new.

[@kelvinh8327]

Wow! I never knew about this before. Well done Navel Architects.

[@KarlBeeThree]

Same here.

[@andrewtaylor940]

Another weird one is the unique midship deck edge elevator on USS Wasp CV-7. Once you see it you suddenly realize that they took what was essentially a carnival ride and bolted it to the side of the ship. The early Essex's had a lot of strange stuff that had been poured into their pre-war development that ended up not really being used. For example they had British type aircraft outriggers, where you could park planes along the edge of the flight deck with their tails hanging off, to warm up the engines. The Americans never used them as they could warm up the engines in the open hangers, plus the Essex's had twice the width and real estate of a British carrier. So they never bothered pushing the planes out onto the little parking stands.

[@ph89787]

The Yorktown-Class were fitted with hangar catapults. But weren’t used for the same reasons. Yorktown (CV-5) still had hers when she was lost at Midway. But Enterprise (CV-6) and Hornet (CV-8) had theirs removed after the Battle and before Guadalcanal.

[@Steven-p4j]

It is notable how little this is spoken of, and it comes a surprise to me, that it was widely used in so many familiar carriers of the era, with this detail somehow becoming lost over time.

[@jwenting]

it wasn't that widely used, and only for a few short years on a small number of carriers. One of the forgotten little details, swamped by the larger, more glorious things like massive airstrikes and landing operations.

[@williamfuller2389]

With the rapid advancement of naval radar, these catapult systems became a less efficient use of space and resources aboard ship.

[@johnhallett5846]

@@jwenting Very true. The same scenes and themes shown again and again over decades will drown out the occasional different one.

[@Steven-p4j]

@@jwenting I am a student of history, yet at 65, this was new to me. I appreciate that fact.

[@MonkPetite]

If your dig deeper you will see that the hanger can store aircraft on the roof. The sideways cat was quickly abandoned as the disadvantages you mentioned.

[@thomasellysonting3554]

*Raise Hand* I knew about them long before this video. This feature was illustrated in a 1990s educational book featuring cut outs of various ships throughout history. One of the ships featured was the Essex-class Lexington and has the hangar catapult not only clearly marked, but even has a plane just take off from it. It didn't have a blurb giving more details though - possibly because its so obscure - but then again this is supposed to be a children's book so they probably wanted to highlight more important portions of the ship. Not to go into a "good old days" rant, but it is a bit of a shame that small publishers like that essentially no longer exist, which largely killed off the cottage industry of researchers and illustrators who used to supply these books at this level of detail.

[@angelapolinar5343]

Yep I had that book too. Haven't seen it in a while, but if I remember correctly there was a huge timeline on the last pages. I always wondered what kind of conditions were necessary to do that.

[@hybridwolf66]

Came from your short on this. 56 years and I am just now learning about this after watching every WW2 docu I can find. You just earned a sub, GJ.

[@31terikennedy]

"Wing and a Prayer" (1944) has a hanger catapult launch with a TBF. Good flick I remember watching it as a kid and thought it was weird a plane was taking off from the side of the ship.

[@covertops19Z]

I've known about this method for years. But it's never been a subject that has been given the attention it deserves.. Thanks for the excellent brief on this subject.👍👍

[@mitchellminer9597]

Ships had been using catapults to launch float planes for some time before carriers were a big deal. I can't recall the types, but the catapults were up high and rather short.

[@williamfuller2389]

Yeah, Battleships and Cruisers used catapults to launch float spotter plains for years leading up and including WWII.

[@AaronCMounts]

@@williamfuller2389 The British King George V class battleships carried their catapults amidships and launched straight to the side. Same for the USN's Pensacola class cruisers and New York class battleships. Later American ships carried their cats on pivot mounts on the stern, so they could (partially) control the launch direction.

[@brian45auto]

the key, was up high...and irrc they used a gun powder charge rather then steam or compressed air.

[@marksingleton2739]

Planes were launched from Cruisers for scout/patrol purposes as well. There were catapult arms that pivoted out from the stern to launch float equipped planes. Recovery was done with a hoist and they were lifted back aboard. Helicopters replaced them later on.

[@KennethStone]

They were seaplanes that landed in the wake of the ship and were hoisted up.

[@steveb6103]

I would add that those were small 2 set planes meant for spotting for the big guns.

[@bostonrailfan2427]

every ship class larger than a destroyer had scout planes from the 1920s until the 1950s, including the needed hangers and elevators

[@Strike_Raid]

The Japanese did it; they even built some that had a flight deck extending directly out from the hanger deck, below the upper fight deck. They had at least one carrier that had three stacked flight decks (one was very short, but it was there). They pretty much abandoned the idea by the time of WW-II.

[@bostonrailfan2427]

the triple flight deck was an early ship, when planes became too powerful for the old design to work the lower flight decks were removed and converted into hangers while the top deck was extended. the ship was lost during the Battle of Midway

[@Sandmann2605]

​@@bostonrailfan2427 Akagi and Kaga

[@cjford2217]

A new one on me... and when it comes to WW2, that ain't easy. Well done!

[@sidefx996]

Fantastic! This is some Mark Felton level "I've never seen THAT before." Thanks for sharing. All the years studying and reading about this stuff and it's always awesome to learn something new.

[@johnmay6090]

I've been a fan of military technology for 50 years or more and l have never seen this. Great video!

[@kenharris5390]

Brilliant piece of research, an innovative way to maintain a CAP, Combat Air Patrol, whilst the upper deck is fouled.

[@kar4tube]

This I did not know! What an awesome and clever nugget of WWII history. Thanks for posting this!

[@larrybaker5316]

as a boomer i did not know that, dad was ww2 navy, and was on a carrier for a short time....thanks for sharing

[@davidransom4476]

Missed it by one. My first ship was CVA-19. I was in Hydraulics, and we ran the deck elevators and hangar bay doors.

[@jonathonhass4178]

My Dad’s ship was CVA-20, USS Bennington

[@jimschutz]

I'm just reading and enjoying the comments below. My dad was as rear gunner on a B-29 in 1944.

[@FirstDagger]

Awesome work ripping of "The Crazy Aircraft Carrier Hangar Catapults Of World War II" by Tyler Rogoway.

[@simonpayne1555]

Right? It's literally word for word.

[@eligebrown8998]

I didn't think there was enough room. That's the coolest idea ever

[@Nastyswimmer]

Early aircraft carriers had one (or even two) "flying off" decks below the main landing deck

[@ScoutSniper3124]

1944 film "Wing and a prayer, story of Carrier X" showed this very well.

[@plymouth5714]

The first ship to ever launch and recover an aircraft was HMS Furious during WW1. She started her life as a fast cruiser and was then converted to carry RNAS Sopwith Pups by removing her forward turret and building a launching deck from the main superstructure to the bow. She then underwent a series of re-modelling, first removing the rear turret and adding a landing deck on the stern (before then pilots had to fly alongside the superstructure and sideswipe across onto the take off deck - incredibly dangerous as the pilot who first managed to take off and land back on a moving ship at sea, Squadron Commander Edwin Harris Dunning was killed five days later attempting the same landing when an updraught from the superstructure lifted his Pup over the side of the bow, he was knocked unconscious and drowned in his cockpit). Furious then had a pair of side decks added allowing the biplanes to be rolled from the aft landing deck to the bow ramp and then finally did away with the last of the cruiser superstructure completely to build a through deck or 'flat top'. Her command bridge was situated in the centre of the flat deck at the bow and retracted down to allow flying to commence. Before the start of WW2 she had a new higher flightdeck constructed but still retained her original bow section which was level with the hanger deck so she could actually launch her aircraft from the lower deck and recover them on the upper one at the same time. Furious was the first ship to launch and recover an aircraft whilst at sea, the first in incorporate arrestor wires for landing (although they did tend to remove the undercarriage from light weight biplanes!). The first to launch a carrier attack against a land target (Zeppelin sheds, before that she was intercepting the Zeppelins themselves over the North Sea) She carried on into the second world war, taking part in the Norwegian campaign, ferrying aircraft to Gibraltar and Malta and her Swordfish took part in attacks against the Tirpitz. She survived the war, a German Heinkel bomber's bomb missing her by about 10 yards which threw her prop out of alignment and was finally scrapped in 1948.

[@NinjaBraap]

Nerd here but it's awesome seeing the real life influences on the Venator and CIS capitol ships from Star Wars.

[@xj900uk]

Actually the IJN came up with another innovation - on their two big early carriers of the 1920's, the Agaki and the Kaga, they had not only a flight deck which did not extend as far as the bow, but also an upper and a lower hanger deck. Simply open the big doors at the front of the hangers, and fly off a few planes that way when the ships were steaming in to wind. So, in theory you could launch planes from three differen tpositions - flight deck, upper hanger deck and lower hanger deck. I think the Akagi lost this ability to launch from more than one deck after a big 1930's refit, but the Kaga continued with it until she was lost at Midway in June '42

[@blacktronpavel]

I learned something new today. Reminds me of Battlestar Galactica's horizontal launch tubes.

[@veganconservative1109]

Short runway, water right THERE. Looks sketchy as hLL 😳

[@bobbyd6680]

Never knew this. 71 and I'm still learning something new.

[@HistoryX]

Thanks for the comment, Bobby D! I had never heard of it either until I read about it in a Facebook post a couple of weeks ago. Glad you watched this video!

[@Twister051]

Wow. I am farily familiar with WWII US aviation history, but I had no clue about this. Thx for sharing!

[@davef.2329]

You learn something every day!

[@A.G.798]

Bei den Flugzeugträgern der Essex Klasse mit den Namen Yorktown, Wasp,und Hornet sollte dem Namen noch eine römische "II." angefügt werden, da die Schiffe mit dem Ursprünglichen Namen Versenkt wurden, beziehungsweise so schwer Beschädigt waren das Sie von den eigenen Seestreitkräfte versenkt worden sind.

[@robertevans8126]

Yes, the USS YORKTOWN CV5 had a Hangerdeck launch system, and all of the other US Aircraft Carrirers followed

[@bigantplowright5711]

Learn something new every day!

[@parrotraiser6541]

A double-decker arrangement would make even more sense if the operation was longitudinal, rather than athwartships. Launch from the lower deck, and recover from the upper. That puts the weight of the catapults down low, still gets most of the headwind, makes a shorter trip from parked to launch, and leaves the upper deck clear for recovery and the usual excitements. Any idea why it was never tried? (Admittedly, the noise would have been appalling.)

[@kksmith244]

It was shown in a cutaway cross section book I had as a kid. Though the art had shown a Helldiver launching, so I didn't know if it could do that with a full ordnance load.

[@swathdiver489]

Learned this building models as a kid.

[@rioazzam]

You give me new knowledge, thankyou verymuch

[@andrewtaylor940]

The three Yorktowns also had this. Although Enterprises was ripped out during her late '42 major refit. Yeah there's not a lot of info on these, because they were dangerous kludges that were never really used. You'll notice 3 of those early Essex's still exist today as museum ships. Other than the big doors you would be hard pressed to find any trace of these. They mostly all got removed at the carriers first major refit. I've never been sure why the early Essex's had them? As they were already planning on yanking them out of the earlier ships. As you noted by 1943 US Carriers no longer operated alone. They were almost always in 3 Carrier task groups. So if one fouled the deck the other 2 would launch and recover for them. Also by 1943 all American Carriers had a single deck catapult. Which meant they could get any plane airborn using just the front 20% of the flight deck. This area was rarely fouled as most issues occured on landing and rarely extended past the bridge island. Anything that took the front of the flight deck offline typically also took the side shooting catapult below it offline.

[@ZebraActual]

Wow i was clueless about this even being a thing.. thanks for the knowledge!

[@skyedog24]

Thank you I've been a history buff my whole life. Wow

[@adamweaver1594]

Yeah, I can't believe I never knew about this. Bee building models for 20 years and still had no clue. Awesome video.

[@HistoryX]

Thanks, Adam. Definitely appreciate your comment!

[@amcds2867]

Very interesting. Thank you.

[@HistoryX]

So glad you liked it. Thanks for watching!

[@AdmiralBlackstar]

Cool, I've never actually seen footage of them in use before.

[@QuizmasterLaw]

Interwar they had the idea of maybe launching floatplane or other recon a/c from hanger decks with recovery later by cranes. basically the two deck model could work with lightly loaded planes by by 1940 a/c were already getting way too heavy for one short deck and another longer one. idk why all 2 deck carriers had one deck shorter tho.

[@shop99er]

This information is in a great number of the history books that have been written about Carriers. CV-13 was never named Ben Franklin. She was named Franklin.

[@neurofiedyamato8763]

Dang how is this the first time I heard of it? I do recall the Lexingtons having a catapult near the stern area in the lower decks at one point but iirc it was for floatplane but never really used

[@jacksons1010]

I would have assumed most people familiar with American carriers in WW2 were aware of this, but the comments tell me otherwise. There’s at least one WW2 Hollywood movie that showed a hangar deck catapult launch ( _Wing and a Prayer_ ).

[@SealofPerfection]

It's no different than a Battleship having a catapult in the middle of the superstructure and launching them from there. Many ships did it that way.

[@matthewcaughey8898]

Could this have been the inspiration for Battlestar Galactica’s side launched viper tubes ?

[@MGower4465]

Catapults were installed on earlier carriers, but only on Lexington and Saratoga (CV-2 and -3) because the Admirals still hadn't accepted a dedicated carrier, and Lady Lex and Sister Sara were bigger than the design-built carriers that followed. The same two carriers were also built with gun turrets on the flight deck mounted fore and aft of the superstructure, battleship-style. They were not exceptionally useful since firing them to port, across the deck, would rip up the deck, saving an enemy the trouble, so their firing arc was about 150 degrees. Both also had a seaplane catapult, again, battleship-style, forward of the fore turret on the flight deck. Since they were never used and very light (still made of cloth on wood,) the seaplanes themselves were lashed to the overhead of the hangars to save deck space for useful aircraft. Seaplanes, their catapult, and the turrets were removed during the first refit, pre-war, the turret magazines repurposed to hold ordnance for the smaller guns that still ringed the flight deck. The hangar catapults remained, but were never loved.

[@Kennykoo65]

Never heard of this….thanks.

[@timbrwolf1121]

They should bring this back for drones in the next carrier designs. Having a separate hangar area which is effectively another mini runway unto itself would be beneficial. Drones could be launched at the same time as their manned counterpart without taking up deck space for full sized manned aircraft. The drones could more easily deal with the adverse takeoff, all the variables can be easily given to the drone such as the crosswind and sea state. In fact with the advancement of drones there are several 1930s-60s concepts which should be revisited. Another addition could be the return of trapeze landing. Again to free up deck space and limit drones to a single area of the ship, while also utilizing the drones ability to repeat the same actions perfectly. This would also allow naval drones to be built without landing gear. Thus allowing greater range and payload.

[@frankbodenschatz173]

Fantastic info, Ken!

[@maryambintghassani2341]

Of course, the need to use scouts launched from the carriers was reduced by having the cruisers launch their own scout planes. This was actually Japanese doctrine (their carriers were meant to strike, not scout at all) but the Americans also made use of cruiser/battleship catapults. Another factor mitigating the use of the hangar catapult was the American attempt to consolidate aircraft types. When carriers did launch scouts, the Americans moved to using their torpedo bombers as scouts, and they could not easily take off using the short hangar catapult if they had a large fuel load (which they would certainly require for any plausible scouting mission). As they didn't want to carry a plane which would be useless in combat, this consolidation of aircraft type made the hangar catapult superfluous. And this is before the carriers started to operate in large numbers that made one or two extra scouts totally meaningless.

[@olegadodasguerras3795]

Amazing video

[@waiting4aliens]

Thank you.

[@Auggies1956]

Can't recall the name of the video, but it showed them launching one from the hanger deck during WW2.

[@badguy5554]

Wow! You're right....who knew?

[@i-a-g-r-e-e-----f-----jo--b]

Great military history! Thanks, I never knew of this.

[@HistoryX]

So glad you liked it. Thanks for watching!

[@mh53j]

I could swear I've seen scout floatplanes launched like this.

[@stinzz3]

Thank you! I just learned something.

[@dutchman7216]

That was interesting thank you.

[@Yuki_Ika7]

I thought this would be about the IJN Akagi before her refit

[@tomt373]

I have seen this footage used before and wondered what was going on. Now we know! 🙂

[@LeoH3L1]

I wonder if because it had a shorter stroke if it damaged aircraft when launching them, since they had to get up to speed in a much shorter run, and had no wind over deck to help them, the forces on them would be much higher than in normal carrier launches.

[@MrRugbylane]

I think ive just slipped into a parrallel dimension .... how else did I not know this?

[@ezrabrooks12]

Good Video/Info.

[@HistoryX]

Thanks for watching. Glad you found it interesting!

[@raymondyee2008]

Would this have been a great backup system for armored carrier decks and of course kamikaze attacks?

[@-Cece]

Nice video Ken

[@harveyh3696]

I've never heard of this before.

[@martinswiney2192]

Never heard of this. Cool. Go Navy!

[@bigmal1690]

I don't know what ur qualifications are, but this is why amateur historians are very important and can delve deeper and uncover things on certain parts of history because of their interests, that a qualified historian might not be able to, just because the history buff guys don't have the certificates on the wall doesn't make them any less valuable to contribute to our history

[@cliffnelson1174]

Are you kidding me??? How do people not know this? I knew this since I was a kid.

[@madmanmechanic8847]

Interesting I never knew this

[@xxxlonewolf49]

Huh, very cool & creative

[@kirgan1000]

Fun fact, early carriers was double decker, and did have a big opening in the "bow" and plane did take of forward insted of to the side.

[@steveb6103]

The British and Japanese navies both had double decked carriers. But the airplanes got too big for them to be used.

[@excellenceinanimation960]

Insane , never knew!

[@HistoryX]

Thanks for watching! Glad you liked it.

[@stansenter2660]

Well, why not? If they can launch A/C from the little escort carriers, it only makes sense to launch them from out of the hangar deck.

[@leifvejby8023]

I knew. The very reason for having two flight decks!

[@JinKee]

They should keep this battlestar galactica feature in new carriers. just for the sheer insanity of it.

[@starhunterterra9849]

How interesting, why did they not develop twin landing and launching decks one below and the other on top?.

[@josephnason8770]

Wow. Did not know this. Dad was a Helldiver pilot aboard CV 18 USS Wasp. Late 1944 till the end of the war. He never mentioned this. Maybe it was removed by then as the video mentioned.

[@michaelhill2844]

A good friend of mine was also a Helldiver pilot on the Ticonderoga and Hancock. I discovered this hangar deck catapult in a book of his and showed it to him. He had never seen it before and thought it was the craziest thing he'd ever seen. :)

[@josephnason8770]

Mr. Hill l will look at in my dads Air Group 86 cruise book to see if there are any photos showing the hangar deck catapult. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

[@freakyflow]

Japanese had a hanger launch on some subs........One type short of being used had 3 aircraft in a tube which above water unfolded the wings and locked them And catapulted them 1 by 1 ..The had floats And a crane would recover them

[@stephenmeier4658]

KZbin channel: Has WW2 content Every comment: My Grandfather

[@FREDOGISFUUN]

I heard of this. but never seen a video or photos.

[@bostonrailfan2427]

catapults were cheap, widely used on cruisers and battleships, and could do the job until the deck was clear…it just wasn’t liked and meant for emergencies only. it’s at least something that could be done to save the ship, even if it was a one-way flight for the plane

[@truecerium4924]

During the interwar period Japan had actually developed aircraft carriers with up to three flight decks! (IJN Kaga). These ships saw action during the Japanese Chinese war and the Japanese expansion into the Pacific

[@bostonrailfan2427]

it was sunk at Midway after the two lower flight decks were removed

[@singhjobim9719]

I did. Never seen film about it.

[@Demun1649]

I knew, but then, I did study history in a structured and directed format. WE did it properly in France.

[@JTA1961]

Regardless of the size of your "deck" ...

[@Itsjustme-Justme]

Another proof that not every idea that seems to be good actually is good.

[@SoloRenegade]

Battlestar Galactica did it too

[@PauloPereira-jj4jv]

I did. There are pictures. I know that for years.

[@marcusfranconium3392]

Here is a thought all ships ranging from destroyers to battleships had catapults to launch fighters ,recon aircraft all with pontoons . they could launch 2 or 4 at at a time . now why didnt they do the same with carriers . a few port and starboard sided catapults done . and have them return on the main flight deck .

[@kiwidiesel]

This gets a sub from me since i never knew this fact.

[@ellieprice3396]

Does anyone know if USS Hancock (CV-19) launched planes from a hanger deck. My brother in law, 97, was a radio operator on the Hancock from 1944 to war end.