Hawker Sea Fury-Hitler's Secret Weapons | World War II Fighters

the fury really started life as a as a landplane design it was the next progression from the typhoon tempest generation and the air force didn't want fury as a land-based fighter they were looking ahead to the Jets and quite rightly so to the Fleet Air Arm was still interested in having a propeller driven aircraft and so its design got adapted from what we learnt from things like Corsair so you got a widely-spaced undercarriage with a with really good technology for putting an aircraft part onto a deck we're trying to clamors much power out of a piston engine into a smaller fighter as you could manage plus fuel naval fighters need long legs and so this thing had plenty of range this must have been the ultimate piston engine challenge to put it on an aircraft carrier we had all sorts of problems with some aircraft like the sea fire and I've talked to guys who flew this onto the deck and it was challenging it was difficult you can see the landing attitude here the nose stuff that right up in the air and although the visible as the out of the cockpit is beautiful when it's flying with the tail down you can just see yards of heavy metal frankly so it was a curved approach and although the undercarriage was very forgiving the speed regime was very close to the stall and if they got low they pushed power on they ended up with a thing called talk stall where the aircraft just rolled over and hit the island or went into the sea so they had their work cut out putting this thing on the deck they certainly did as an airplane to fly it's a complete joy you're sitting in the middle of it you feel as though you put the thing on like a glove and although I've got very very few hours on it at the moment I feel very comfortable in the cockpit I don't mean by that that I feel that I know everything about the airplane far from it I'm on a very steep learning curve but it is a complete joy to fly and that difficult visibility when you're approaching the deck transforms itself into something that actually makes the aircraft very easy to fly once you're up and running because you've got a very good attitude definition with the cowling out in front of it's tremendously responsive in all planes and it's got whoodles of power Eagles of the feat was made in 1950 just before hostilities started in Korea when the forces of the Royal Navy take the ocean they are accompanied by naval aircraft to command the sky above to observe to defend to attack cat home let's enter the gates of a typical Naval Air Station where the flying sailors learn their trade tomorrow they'll thrust the planes forward fighting fit into the first line they're hiding closed doors pilots and observers keep track of secret electronic weapons and there's dirty work at hand and smiling faces - I remember the end of the war very very vividly because it's then we were chose to go in the Navy and the the period of call-up was when you were 16 you had to go and register and I registered for the Navy and indeed I preempted that because I've been volunteering i 17 and a half I went up to Charing Cross and I volunteered to go into the Navy and I wanted particularly to go into the Fleet Air Arm and not the Navy itself because I wanted to mess about with carriers and aeroplanes work over this time to play a pint of beer the snack before turnin you freshen up in the barber's chair if his permission to grow well then a trim or two around the chin on parade there's a reward each month of the smartest turnout and for the most shipshape mystic the commanding officer offices congratulations hence the winner a shield of honor and triumph of the galley 24 pounds of sugar plums and marzipan well we did then about a hundred dummy deck landings ashore where you've got used to all of us from signals and yeah and also to coming all the way around the corner in a turn and picking a wing up at the end and so on all those were short based ones were very useful you then went to the training carrier where you did normal free takeoff as they were called you went off the catapult the first time you did rocket assisted takeoff the first time and all the things that you might have to do when you've got your first squadron side by side men and women of naval aviation march forward fully-fledged now prepared to take their places with the squadrons on land and on board the carriers all over the world the Rock of Gibraltar beneath the shadow of the rock the home fleet prepares for see if you go to an aircraft carrier when the carrier itself has got a new ship's company when the squadrons on you you wouldn't believe the shambles that there is on the flight deck of it and then you couldn't believe that anybody could possibly operate this thing we had very young inexperienced pilots of deck landings we had very young inexperienced sailors or naval Airmen working together in squadron life never been to sea before none of their been see before we mostly worked in training up until that period our work up then had to be Co jointly work together we learned very very quickly where the things were on the ships that we could get them very quickly and easily we had very very good mentors we had very good chiefs and petty officers who worked very closely with us after a 3 workups each one being a fortnight that you couldn't recognize the slick operations that were going on that simply bore no relation to the shambles that that there was at the beginning now the naval aviators will test out their skill under battle conditions leading the fleet the carrier sail out into the glittering Mediterranean the destroyer escorts hasten to take station alongside zoom Gibraltar fades aster and the hid somewhere beyond the horizon lurks an enemy force to be destroyed onboard the aircraft carrier the Admiral charts out his tactics reconnaissance planes have spotted an enemy Cruiser a strike force were hounded out it first and hit hard upon the flight deck the planes are made ready spotty for takeoff zero are approaching the air crews spin out the remaining minutes the sea fury of course was really the fighter mechanism geographically the fast fighter the Firefly was the heavy slow lumbering torpedo attack aircraft carried a much heavier load than the sea fury with its rockets and its bomb know that it could carry as well and and of course its cannons but the sea fury was mainly concerned with rockets under its wings and its cannon fire standby start up the other most dangerous occasions if you had were when you had to lay on your chocks so you have to leave fore-and-aft on the top and then watch the dlc down to thee when they kept on the deck if he swept his arms away you knew you had to roll out from the aircraft and go and this you had to do dragging your chocks with you so you fell into the catwalks at the side of the ship on one occasion we had a youngster that unfortunately didn't roll out he got up and walked forward nobody ever knew why he walked forward but he walked forward and was straight into the problem was killed twenty thousand horsepower set the minute deck of quiver as the great ship alters course and turns into the mediterranean win it's a big team effort in an aircraft carrier the flight decks a dangerous place and you're you their propellers going around and the got a window no packed and all these different little things that were going on are done by different departments different teams and by the time the ship was partly worked out they were all working very very well together and you you can't imagine it makes it look easy another catapult 20:25 for the 700 ribs in battle formation the strike force set out seeking their quarry animate Cruiser to port 3 400 degrees ninety miles away the carrier steams ahead the aircraft handlers enjoy a short spell of Sun soon the planes will be heading home combing the skies the men below business can their radar screens steering the planes safely back to base here comes the first one now easy around the bend she approaches her tiny floating runway deck landing is the trickiest and the toughest test of all one after another planes into the circuit eyes glued on the batsman leveling wings poised for the touchdown watch that hook catch the arrest a while unhooked the planes taxi forward now the aircraft directors Tegel passing the planes from one to another right up to the MIDI edge of the bars safely part in a copy the wind forward switch on the only difficulty with the C theory was the undercarriage was quite hard American airplanes have a very long stroke undercarriage and if you touched main wheels first it in the American Arab India undercoated would absorb that and it wouldn't bounce in a/c theory it actually is stalled before you got to the three point attitude so you had to develop a technique to get it into the three ball at issue before you hit the ground you could only see out that way and that way which is why when you were doing a deck landing you had to come around in a constant term in order to keep sight of the deck landing control off so the batsman is it was no so you can only see a bit of him and the left-hand side of the shed and it wasn't until you've got the last two signals for one was typically winged up and the other was to country the engine that you've got your first glimpse of a deck as a whole and it was in a matter of judgment as to when you whip the stick back in order to get it into the three point attitude so it wouldn't bounce you were doing a lot of new things all at once fires the damn time the firefighters - in hoses of the ready incoming claims was fly around again hooks down until the deck is clear presentation of life and limb that's the motto on deck last stragglers return yesterday it was the wooden walls of Nelson now the naval aviators carry the enduring traditions of the waves up into the sky evils of the fleet at the end of the war hawkers were still trying to get more over the tempest design the plan would be let's build another aeroplane smaller and lighter and even faster than the tempest but still able to carry the same sort of weapons load this rebuild would require the center section be cut down in spam and mounted to a reworked fuselage but would retain similar motor wing panels as fitted to the tempest this new aeroplane will become known as a fury and it would actually be but at the time the fastest piston fighter ever built the problem of course was that the Royal Air Force has loads of new tab lists they didn't need another fighter therefore there was no real requirement for the fury for the air the Royal Air Force and the Fleet Air Arm did need this need a fighter the were versions of the Spitfire available from the sea fire the problem the sea fire was to prove that ends up cake collectors narrow undercarriage meant it was a pig to get onto a carrier deck but even so it it was continuing in service but purely as a point defence fighter for the fleet the Fleet Air Arm needed a heavyweight fighter and so the fury or as it would eventually become the sea fury would it be the ideal answer the early batch of sea furies or Furies as they were um weren't uh naval eyes at all in fact they first handful would be basically engine tests bets I mean it's obvious from the outset that the Centaurus was the engine that the Navy wanted if they're going to have a fighter it's going to have a radio big radial engine in the front but they did try try it with the Griffon the same one that powered the sea fire and the later mark Spitfires but the Griffon idea was purely a fallback a fallback position should this interest reduction line I'm a slow down which would be the main problem or there would be a major problem of the engine which never every crowd naval counterpart of the RAF fury the CPRA plays her part as a carrier-based fighter a product of the famous Hawker group the Sea Fury has a maximum speed of 450 miles per hour and a range of 760 miles he had good range because unlike many British fighters I shared a reasonable selection of fuel tanks aboard little modified from the fury apart from the addition of carrier operating gear and power wing folding the development of this type of aircraft has put the fleet fighter at par with shore based fighter cover the use of folding wings as for the fleet Arab therefore Navy aeroplanes us is an excellent idea partly repaid on the deck fold its wings but instantly means that the hangar access below the lift can be made smaller you can get more aeroplanes on on your ship the sea fury folding wing actually was there were very few problems with it it was one of these things that worked straight from the outset in fact the British have always been good at folding wings the original ones for the sea fury 10 the first production version were like the early prototypes they were manual fold we would make sure the locks were in we'd had to that manually put the locks in there is no little quick switch for the pilot he would be told that the wings were locked by the toggle in the wing going down which he could visibly see either side he looked out his cockpit and that would tell him that the wings were in fact locked down if the toggle stood up he wished the wave and the aircraft be taken side to see what had gone wrong but it was the it was the fitters job to make sure that the locks were into the aircraft however on the production aeroplane the fighter bomber 11 they were hydraulically folded which made life whole easy you just move the lever up down and that wings either fold it up or they fold it down and the locks which were also hydraulically driven were pushed into place whereas you're always relying on your ground crew on the mark 10 to push the locking pins into place manually the large cowling of the radial engine is made almost to look inline by the extra-large spinner from the cowling the fuselage rises to the cockpit and then tapers evenly to the fin and rudder the fin is slightly fed to the fuselage in contrast to the larger dorsal fairing of the tempest a close relation of the Sea Fury the tail unit is also designed without the heel beneath the fuselage so prominent a feature of The Tempest the Sea Fury is powered by our 2400 horsepower Bristol Centaurus 18 note how its radial cowling gives the fuselage a circular appearance with the cockpit mounted on top the center section of the main plane has no dihedral on the outer panels however dihedral is quite marked in plan similar to the tempest series the wing shape is almost elliptical with square cut tips the coolant radiators built into the leading edge of the main plane projects lightly and unevenly on either side of the fuselage the tail plane of typical hawker design is easy to remember equal straight taper to rounded tips with the small cutaway in the trailing edge to allow rudder movement note the hump of the blister type cockpit said slightly forward of the main plane trailing edge this view also shows two advantage the rounded tail unit and the large spinner when employed as a strike aircraft the Sea Fury may display a variety of under the wing armament it could carry a variety of weapons bombs rockets various even de palma although it weren't often used in service leaflet dispensers and on one occasion a reconnaissance pod the projection beneath the tail unit houses the retraction gear of the arrestor hook the hook itself can just be seen beneath the rudder but the fury had to go through a process called novelization the Navy always requires certain things in its aeroplanes they have to be structurally very strong you're coming down at so many feet per minute and you're going to smack into a metal deck and then you're going to stop all of a sudden all in one go so requires an airframe of exceptional strength but also you also have to have strong undercarriage because the same thing is happening you've got you're trying to stop your aeroplanes it's instantaneously I've done it lying on the carrier deck you need assistance is the landing speed is so high and you've got so little distance to stop in you need an aid and that aid was arrested oak which also required a structurally strengthened airframe the three-quarter rear view shows well the high tail plane and the clean lines of the CP re as a whole the CPOE is armed with four 20 millimeter cannon mounted in the wings the first production version of the Sea Fury the mark 10 was purely intended as an interim aircraft to that end it was just fitted with its bog-standard range of cannon that's all it carried however when the fighter bomber version came into existence it retained the cannon but a lead to that was the ability to carry general purpose bombs up to a weight of a thousand pounds per pylon or it could carry under wing rockets which I remember correctly were four beside although they were guided I didn't always hit the target the mere launching of these weapons normally was enough to frighten the opposition away from the area they'll be defending the radiators could be seen quite clearly in this view and note the five bladed rattle ah screw the Centaurus engine designed by Bristol um I had already made a success of itself being bolted in front of a tempest therefore that was the chosen engine but for the sea fury it was powerful gave us sea fury excellent performance at all altitudes of course the one problem was that this mass of metal and the fundament of the airframe if the pilot brakes too heavily on touchdown or just after touchdown there was every chance that this large number metal would just keep going into the ground very embarrassing outside of that though they landed it properly idle airplane excellent engine and not given to film to beasts here are some points to help remember the CPR a radial engine and large spinner with front fuselage rising to the copied well rounded fin and rudder with tail plane set high and don't forget those almost elliptical wings it's surprising that the Admiralty didn't decide to buy a trailer version the first examples of the trailer version we're actually created for of all people the Iraqi Air Force they had two turbo cockpits which except the canopies on them the problem was they were so well sealed that the fact that the rear canopy kept collapsing it was give us cavitation caused by impacted by a vacuum of all things it's the pressures weren't equalized which is why on the production versions especially for the Fleet Air Arm and other foreign buyers it actually have this big glass house canopy fitted the fourth Iraqi trailer was commandeered by the Admiralty refitted to apple tea standards which was basically the same as it was then but just a few extra sort of British bits added you know sort of navigation and to them instrumentation and these were then issued to the training squadrons and also issued to all the land-based squadrons many of which were actually reserve units it had a contraption above the canopy where the instructor in the backseat can actually see what the young light of the front seat was up to and chastising mightily it was about through something exceptionally stupid it could be used for weapons training the only thing it couldn't be used for was carrier landing although the airframe was the same it had no hook and it also retained manual folding of the wings there was no real requirement for the wings to be folded while it was on the ground Korea had been a Japanese territory but in 1945 it was divided into two zones with the Soviet backed government north of the 38th parallel and an American one to the south in 1950 the North Koreans invaded the south but were pushed back by United Nations forces by 1951 the Korean War was at a stalemate immediately after world war two brawl nearly commenced a program of real gripping naval aviation with jet aircraft new types meant new techniques for both pilots and flight deck crews but no great problem was met in operating in 1950 however well before naval jets were in print will supply warp regarding forever the night key carriers operating there from the very beginning of hostilities were still equipped with a snob at well-tested piston-engined aircraft however the firefly on the CTA will plant beam is suitable as fighter bombers supporting the on a key ship's triumph pieces Gloria Nisshin and her masters Australian carrier the Sydney our light be carriers that have operated naval aircraft for sustained pairs of the Korean kiss misty day done in 1943 with a displacement of 13 a half thousand tons they were completed too late to take an active part in world war ii this carrier like her sister ships will soon be in action for the first time the 21c garrison 12 part lies she is starting a long passage from Malta to career where she will relieve another carrier that has already flown over 3,000 sorties against the enemy this passage will also be a busy bank as both the air crews and the fight tech parties have to be worked up to the standard of proficiency and timber required in these operations after the heat of the Red Sea and refueling a Dayton comes their long run across the Singapore here there is a Naval Air Station HMS sim bang which is responsible for supplying the Far Eastern carriers which we faced and aircraft the latter aircraft will be ferried to the operating zone by the maintenance carrier HMS unicorn parts of the peep train the next stop will be Hong Kong where the pilots will exercise power to grant support to the army they will fly over the type of country to committing career lastly there is cezzah Bell a large net for father in the Japanese islands that is used by United Nations natives as a reef finished in face here the ship will refuel restore and be finally briefed by the Task Force Commander for her forthcoming operations now let us take a typical day on this passage out bag box is posted and the ship turns into wind to fly off the first aircraft in the day's program they are briefed carry out thick landing practice I joined glory in the Mediterranean when she was working out to go back to drill this was in 1952 you see the carrier takeoff is a comparatively simple thing it is the deck landing that must be practiced continuously because however successful a bonding trip mayadeen the crash on return is available to the enemy as being shot down a perfect touchdown handlers rush out to disengage the hook from the arrest of our and the aircraft is purported to make way for the next nation the other problem was that he had a very powerful engine you had a five baited propeller if you got slow on the approach and thought my god I'm too slow and opened the throttle too quickly then the propeller would hold on to the air and turn the aeroplane right upside down and straight in and that was a factor with the sea fury that made it people a little bit wary of it if you if you open the throttle in conjunction with contouring the thrust then that was alright but if you forgot to then that airplane would turn you over slick teamwork by the Naval ermine including the hookman and this marshalling director are as important in flight deck work as a pilot skill in flying at exactly the right attitude the right speed and the right height right we get them parked and there was always part Ford the barrier the level of two barriers and the bun on the for most part of the ship all the aircraft were part behind that that would be part two snitch you could again in the herringbone style in order to get the most aircraft in that one space after all the aircraft has landed on your jobs then where the airframe fit on the engine fit would go quickly to the aircraft and start the routine checks make sure there were no oil leaks make sure nothing else does that have no bits for hanging off there'd be no damage the aircraft handlers would start moving aircraft about the safety equipment boys would go in them retrieval the pilot shoots and the various apparatus fingers and that sort of thing in taking away the air cut the engine people and the airframe people that's the two air mechanics would be responsible for refueling the aircraft and that you would get when you have told to the aircraft in the fuelling state you'll fuel the aircraft you didn't do it haphazardly it was always done under very very strict control being a zap gas is a very difficult term volatile fuel to use so we have to be very careful the next important drill is the catapulting of aircraft heavy bomb loads in Korea necessitate this form of takeoff every time then we had the occasion when the catapult refused to work one day and we had to have fit the radar to the Furious we couldn't fit them to the fireflies but we fitted them to the Furies and the pilots had not had any chance to learn to take off with these and beam boost the Rockets they were there to boost the aircraft off and when the pilot dunces the switch in the cockpit all the Rockets should have fired and shot him off the deck fleet air armor has always been interested in getting its aeroplanes off its carrier decks the quickest way possible now obviously there carry as a physical steam catapults but just occasionally when they're not working another method had to be used and this was rocket assisted takeoff gear these were fitted underneath the aeroplane tubular in clusters of two or three depending on the aircraft size and weight this would deliver a short burst of high-powered thrust sniff the aeroplane into the sky credit where credit is due most of the time it worked unfortunately we had an occasion with young PDR payer pilot three lines with his rockets on the starboard side fired the rockets on the port side didn't fire and so it tended to ten turn him over fortunately he gained control in the aircraft woods back down on the deck and there was the catastrophe was then solved the briefing would be you line up on the ship when you open the throttle and when the green flag goes down you let the brakes off and off you go it's a little man further up the deck he will have a red flag and he will drop the red flag and you will fire the Ray tog if the Rito does not fire then you will have time to stop oh that's good so my turn came I opened up the throttle green flag dropped off I went got to the little red man with a red flag I dropped the soft he dropped his flag I pushed the button and stuff all happened absolutely so I put the brakes on hard and the aircraft sort of went went straight towards the ballast jar that it'll stop what they didn't I mean over the bars of the ship and uh approximately to Mars now now see fury no matter how hard you pull and this thick will not fly at that stage so I shut my eyes and the next time I opened them after a long pause I was just in time to see the propeller disc hit the water so I shut my eyes again received the wise thing to do the hood would be open it was open and so when I opened I was in the water and the aircraft was thinking fast and going down so I then had to disconnect myself from the aircraft I got out of the cockpit the airplane was sinking down upside down beside me and I thought what do I have to wait down here you until that ship passes because I hadn't seen the ship I thought the ship would have hit me but it didn't and I said then a little voice said don't be a bloody Eddy hit me he you'll drown if you stay down here so I thought right I better go up which way is up I wasn't too sure so I pulled my Mae West and that set me in the right direction so I shot off what to what I thought was out from the ship and I came to the surface but ten yards out from the starboard after prop the starboard prop I took a great big breath of air which turned out to be water because my oxygen sure was still dangling in the in the sea tore the mask off in time to see a little sail or out the quarterdeck who was busy scrubbing the quarterdeck look at me and obviously dig all these aviators they're at it again and went back to his coming as I drifted off behind the ship the destroyer sent its lifeboat to get me when they destroy that window when it came alongside the destroy I got so frightened ideally tried to climb out again but I got in and they said right you better come have a top I said better not I said because I'm on the flying program for this afternoon you see and I think it must have been shocked that made me turn the hand the thing but it proved that we couldn't use the right ox efficiently and so they were discarded until a later date but in fact then after that we didn't use them at all gradually the number of deck landings mounts up and since practice makes perfect it is easy to see how these Korean carriers have several times completed over a thousand consecutive landings without a deck accident well we had quite a few accidents on the debt mainly mishaps by not catching the writer rest a while if you caught a restaurant n the returned arrest wise the report we're still number 10 you knew that the aircraft was going to go into the barrier it would go into the first barrier and if you were very very fortunate it only shattered the prop or bend the prop if however you miss the wires and you went into the barriers at full pelt then of course you nearly wrecked the aircraft we had several occasions where hooks would break off when the aircraft was coming in to land the hooks could actually pull off the a-frame and of course the air cotton had nothing to stop it go straight into the barriers we had one occasion when enough turn of Bailey he came in with a Firefly he missed all the wires he boosted to go off again but unfortunately his hook still being in the down position and in those days you couldn't retract the hook so it's hanging down four or five foot from the aeroplane you couldn't he couldn't retract it once when he was in the air and the hook as he was boosting to go off in the surge caught the barrier as it was on the way down this pulled him back portal the arrestor arrangement off the aircraft and the aircraft's went straight into the forint park for the fireflies it knocked over the boughs and the sea furies it knocked into the site sponsons we had sent like seven aircraft actually written off in that one little accident notwithstanding the the story about the pilot who landed after his first start in sent for the man who lewd after his radio and said the radios not working chief this is it's faulty and the chief said alright I'll check it so before its next detail pilot was off again on its next detail both aircrew and the airplane having sat in the deck while the next loitering law pilot went off again came back chief he said that the aeronaut working he said well I'll check it again so at the end of the third sort he came back and he said no it's not working and the chief said I think the problem must be doing it must be between your ear foots so that's an apocryphal story but it was a Firefly pilot not a fury bunny where as far as delivering weapons were concerned you were very well prepared because you've done a lot of that back in the UK obviously for training purposes using full-blown 1000 pound or general purpose bombs it's expensive it also leaves big holes in the ground what was known as the smoke and flash bomb was invented this small bomb wearing mobile around like the 28 pound mark was used by trainee pilots to understand how their aircraft delivered weaponry a similar idea would be used with the rockets again you've got all the problems associated with a live weapon a live warhead so instead of having a warhead on a rocket they put a 60 pound lump of concrete not only would this give the pilots the feel of flying an aeroplane with this particular weapon fitted ayiva heaviness of the controls etc etc they can also if they need to use these weapons as training weapons and fire them at targets without destroying the targets which obviously wouldn't want to be used again and again the next aircraft our breed to carry out rocket and bomb attacks against the target toward astern of the fifth an attendant destroyer has a seabirds crew standing by for any miss landings this duty can now be carried out by a helicopter the end of the day and a clear day in the hangar mechanics notices work on the aircraft in preparation for the next phase flying program their work goes on well after flying especially during Korean operations the general maintenance would go on in the hangars you had the stripped down to change of adrian's change of flaps change of undercarriage at sometimes again you had to be very very careful due to the fact that the aircraft of its shipping at sea had the role in motion at the pitching motion and you have to have these aircraft on Jack's very very securely latch down so they couldn't move not a job we like doing whilst at sea these jobs are normally done we were engine harbor up top pilots and flight deck party have enough energy left for a game of their coffee everybody must keep fit down below in the galley the cooks are ready to feed the ship's company during operational periods pilots and air crewmen will require treated odd times of the day as the buying program permits eventually the ship will arrive in career and her aircraft will find many jobs waiting for them firstly the care preventing the enemy from supplying his frontline troops by see perhaps a coastal vessel or a fleet of junks will be sunk by the early morning portrayal second layer carefully briefed and heavily armed strikes on the main North Korean vessel such as Pyongyang Incheon impaired third layer interdiction the disruption of enemy supply routes behind his front fly constant on reconnaissance catches all troops and transport moving by their fourth layer Clair's air support working with forward observation posts and spotter planes targets can be attacked a few hundred yards ahead of be on a fifth live combat air patrols and anti-submarine patrols around the feet when you were trained and you got your wings you is be sent to operational fire school one then operational flying school - will you learn how to give your weapons and then it was said Korea was operational flying school sweet little switch now to the carrier already Korea for the last two days flying she is taking on oil fuel and aviation spirit from effete Island while health screening destroyers also need refueling high intensity flying during the past six months has not only men treatment auditing operations like this but also periodical visits to says better to replace the 600 tons of bombs and rockets and over a half a million rounds of cannon ammunition expended by the aircraft the provision of weapons was slick the bombs arrived and sort of cannon fodder arrived everything out of that the destroyers in a task group have had long periods of escort duty in sometimes very unkind weather conditions never mind the fact that it was appalling weather sometimes there was very cool all the time we were there as the oiling operation comes to an end the flight deck party fall in and prepare to range aircraft for the next detail of strikes the aircraft have had black and white stripes painted on their wings because they resemble some enemy types such as the il-2 in the la-5 we would fly two or three sorties a day each pilot and then after four days you are quite ready for the the day off and then the next four days you'd be back on operations again up for it the squadron ordnance mechanics have fitted the high-explosive heads for the rocket motors and together with ship's Gunners and members of the rom Rhian band at their action stations on the aircraft not even the cold air steam sweeping down from Siberia were allowed to interfere with these preparations the weather was our worst enemy none of us realized how cold it could be and we were inadequately clothed for this sort of weather we had to wear two or three uniforms under oil skins and things you want to try and keep warm and in when we think about that today we realize how short the services are in places like Iraq where they haven't got the right equipment we didn't have the right equipment then you had severe - temperatures you had blizzard you had snow but the operations still have to continue on a slippy slightly carrier deck your aircraft that you're working on or on a launch is covered in snow so you've got to get the snow off you've got to get the ice off you have to make sure that everything works you have to find a way of covering the engines possibly to keep them warm many of us took our all skins out that kit bags where we've been in the tropics there are skins all the tired melted together and so we couldn't even wear them it was hard on the carriers as hard everywhere in a Korean winter trying to keep operational flying going but they did it somehow - mainly through hard graft - I think off Korea there was a friendly Island called chotto another one called pan yonder in January and 1953 the weather got so cold that the sea froze and it froze all the way out through the island of Trudeau to the extent that the North Koreans started to drive their trucks on the ice because it's so thick and and it was therefore indication that they were getting to a position where they could invade these islands which we were using so we were switched from boning row airlines in bridges and things like that to bombing the ice to break it up so that they couldn't do that and that we did that for about two or three days and then the weather change slightly as hands are cold applying stations the next detail of pilots observers in air crewmen are briefed on their various objectives positions of the targets and our own troops the weapons to be used and the fact to be expected the photographs required and the escape routes available for crew shot done are rarely a few points carefully gone into it during the last few minutes and observer chicks is navigation in the Red Room and his pilot helps by taking the camera to the air front before leading others check their escape gear such as food revolvers and ammunition in case there falls down behind enemy lines then comes men ever climbed onto the flight deck and you couldn't see it across the flight deck for fog I know we're not gonna and we're not gonna fly in this for goodness you get to the met briefing the madman would say right well Rose this this this and this and this is midwinter don't forget in Korea will see would freeze over and sin I know it should be quite clear what about the fog what fog there's no fog oh my god so Louis it was on this particular occasion my number three was the first one on the catapult and he was up there was fog streaming past him and they were still setting everything up and he thought this is ridiculous and he's a little man ran across and jumped on the wing and he saw all launches canceled great you see and he pulled his helmet across to here with this step was saying above the noise of his engine can you said if you don't come back can I have your radio listen [ __ ] the play was round off and then watched and we offer when he didn't come back and please to say well pilots man aircraft could have had previous bombing sorties reported on their colleagues by the mechanics an air crewmen in the two-seater part live waves araguaia to the photographer and at the same time the air sea rescue helicopter is man in the flying control position of the bridge the order is given standby to start up and the pilots wait with their fingers on the starter buttons start up and the engines of the closely packed range person's life any aircraft participative refusing to start means a tricky journey through propeller slips regions for the repair party meanwhile the helicopter is airborne ready for the first takeoff in a continuous stream the heavily armed aircraft are detached from the main range and directed up to the catapult the average number of daily sorters is 65 to 70 while the record stands at over 120 when an all-out offensive is fought for pilots have to fly fees for time were there the maximum number of sorties that were carried out in one day from likely care was a hundred and twenty three operational sorties now that meant that everybody and some of us flew five sorties in the day the previous carrier HMS ocean had set that record and we set ourselves to do that record and complete by D time so that so we could have gone on but we said well we've done it we don't know the starting War II and we just set the record and we had 123 armed sorties carried out from glory on that day by now such things was expert teamwork between these pilots the directors the handlers and the flight deck engineers in getting launching times down to a minimum are taken for granted the air crews have even got so used to the constant squirts of the catapult that the excessive g-force no longer has much effect on their senses the stickers have hooked the aircraft on the stoker Department looked after all the catapults and they looked after the arrests of wires the pilot of the throttle to full power the engine room art-tips awaits for the fight takeoff so signal down green [ __ ] way we go as the last aircraft gets away the police eating stripes join circuit and land on the landing signals officer or bats guides them in returning aircraft off mark close-up forward to make a clear deck for those landing and will immediately be refueled and rearmed for the next sorted meanwhile the rains just flown off takes departure tours the objectives almost before they are away an unidentified aircraft is picked up by the ship's radar action stations more fighters are scrambled whatever it was disappears off the screen but if it had been an enemy the ships guns were ready man might be carriers and here called army x5 much as you can see our aircraft our meanwhile approaching the enemy kiss and will soon be splitting up into separate flies for their various duties one flight is due to support a Marine Commando landing to raid an enemy outpost they are acting on intelligence supplied by air reconnaissance as the Marines go ashore the Canadian destroyer waits to give a covering barrage the call for help of tongue as the hidden enemy Hawks the advance of the Marines but laughter checks the fall a shot remove the target and gives corrections over the Artie on target now will be the time for the Fuehrer's and power fliers to come in with their bombs rockets in camp under this cutter of ship and aircraft bombardment the advance and the objective is gain a patrol would last ten days four days operations one day's refuelling and rearming and four days operations and then we will go back to Japan for 10 days and the Americans would send the BONHOMME RICHARD with courses to do its bit and we would swap over between well we're webbings up at Kai Tak the all the aircraft are all the sea fairies and the fireflies and the sea fury on the particular time is being taken off by left-hand delaney and unfortunately the starboard wing hadn't been fully locked and as he got lift on the aircraft the wing lifted higher and folded that caused him to swerve and go into the sea Fortin it was right at the end of the runway and so he didn't have a lot of water he had to go in but he went into the sea he climbed out and came we waded ashore that was a very very bad start to the flying at Kai Tak the operations were they're quite intense as far as we were concerned the tension was very high force we were limited to a particular area where we would attack we attack bridges railways roads tunnels where we tunnels and troops which were reported to be in villages the seafarers also had to fly combat air patrol over the ship and case there in the intruders other aircraft go further inland for other beef targets they hit an oil pan another vital objectives while some are off to a tampa coastal bissell that has been reported earlier in the day option impaired yet another five thigh is reporting former shot for the American battleship the mighty met a battleship could reach targets 14 miles in them they're in the ship's Direction room of course home for the returning pilots has been checked and hands are called to prepare the next range for file this happens at least six times a day and there is little respite for the maintenance and the handling products overall we managed a 95% service ability to write for the aircraft all the time was in Korea which then I enabled us to receive the void trophy which is a very high award we got very proficient at knocking down bridges not as proficient as the careers of rebuilding the damn things they would knock a bridge down Big Horn gone the bridge would be gone come back the next day the bridge would be back again we've yet another detail of 16 to 20 aircraft airborne on the ship's goes to landing on station but some of the aircraft have been hit no one is hurt however and jumbo the cranes who clears the deck meanwhile there is a quick debriefing by the squadron commanders to find any last-minute targets importance for the departing strike half of these aircraft are going to work with armies for the plans and United States Air Force jets in giving the ground forces closer support while the remainder will give more indirect help by harrying the enemy's lines of communication catching the enemy's transport on the register front blowing up his bridges tearing up his railway lines forming and striking groups dug in on hilltops Paul finds naval aircraft flying alongside those of the various United Nations for then Bay's air forces they are part of a massive weapon on the Army's side now although the seafarers amongst the fastest piston engine aircraft in the world they are yet too slow to be sent up to Manchurian border to hunt the enemy jet fighter the mig-15 their speed did not stop them however from shooting down one of these 600 not aircraft encrypting two more when a problem were met over chin impaired if you stayed within your designated area we didn't have in my time any trouble with names also you could stretch it a little bit if the f-86s were keeping the MiG's embroiled but as we found out if you stretched it a little bit and they weren't being broiled by the revving sixes and that couple MiG's would be after you like a trash you were very conscious that they were about when particularly afraid of them being because as long as we could see it we did not think he could catch us we were so much more maneuverable their fuel consumption at low level was very high and so they tended to stay high and then come to try to get behind you and then come diving down and make one pass and think that the MIG was coming was not a problem you kept an astonishingly good lookout and you flew in a tiger formation where each one of you could look after the tail of one of the others if you were high enough then the American radar which was on one of the offshore islands could give you assistance and if they saw bandits coming out in your direction they would tell you and what we had to do then was like as fast as we could to get over the sea because the MiGs did not want to come over the sea and mess about I think in the HMS ocean in a earlier encounter where they did shoot down on me that's when the Midwood pilot was silly enough to try to mix it we have to remember that it was a sea fury flown by left-handed commander Hoagy Carmichael then in fact shot a MIG down over Korea in our case we hadn't reached the scene we were advanced by to mix four of us we broke to port as I got ran and looked at them the jab which was coming straight at with a series of millimeter gun going above for boom for boom underneath it luckily it was pointing at me and I was going at right angle so I thought he's going to miss me a fury would turn tighter than me so if he tried to follow you around if they were silly enough to try and mix it they would find that the slowly giving the advantage to the sea furies started to reverse my turn he shot past and was off in a way like a rocket and he didn't come back neither of them made their pass they missed and they weren't going to try again that was their little job because they knew anyway that we were going to be over the sea the next time right and they just did not like that so we would if we could would ease out over the scene and they wouldn't pull us and then we'd go back in again I've got a feeling that that's because the MiG's were not all floatin on Chinese or North Koreans I think there are a few Russian pilots in there that might be a reason that they didn't want to see because the an ID group had total control of the sea and if one of theirs had gone in the sea they'd find that very embarrassing especially of a promotion party the enemy's speed advantage was nullified by the maneuverability of a naval aircraft and the quality of the pilots we lost one one master on the carrier accident and one because we had a problem and ditched us alongside the shipment didn't get out of there out of the aircraft nor did the aircraft always get away scot-free but thanks the initiative and courage of the helicopter risk of pilots in picking up downed aircrew under fire and well behind enemy lines many products are brought back to their parent carrier and live to fight another day there was one occasion when we lost somebody and in searching for this done pilot in bad weather we lost two pilots almost at the end we lost male young pilot it was a first-class boy when he was attacking a target and that was it this aircraft brought back yet another pilot who was shot down but rescued under fire by helicopter and taken to a rear base hospital for temporary patching up now he returns to continue his flying operations the third rule of thumb was that when you've done about 90 to 100 operational sorties over North Korea that's when they're sent to home and somebody else cannot by the time they survive Korea in you how to use your weapons and fly airplanes the time I went home I've done about a hundred hundred one operation shortage over North Korea one ship however the thesis was in the home fleet when she was hurriedly sail for the Far East and she continues her passage back to Portsmouth here with family Ziegler awaiting her arrival she experiences the kind of welcome that many ships have come him too in the past after the USA threatened nuclear war the Korean conflict finally ended in 1953 her L squadrons have been awarded the Boyd trophy during worship t absence proudest moment as well like all of us I think was forgetting the boy trophy this is an award made every year for the finest feat of naval aviation and opportunity has now been taken by a mobile fleet Lord Fraser who officially welcomed the ship there to present the trophy to the 70th carrier group because that show that somebody appreciated what we had done and the mere fact that when we came home we had numerous Admirals and First Sea Lord secondly Lord 30 Lord 50 Lord all down to come and see us all visited us when we came into Portsmouth and then the proud day of course then was coming from Spithead where nobody had ever want to line the ship going into harbors it was his jaw but that particular morning when we got offs with head we all wanted to be on the deck there was enough room on the deck for all of us but we want to be on the deck to come in that was a very proud moment after the Korean War the besi fury really will begin to fade away from the front lines of the Fleet Air Arm jet airplanes were on the horizon and they were going to be the big thing the next big thing there was no need anymore for a high-speed fighter aircraft no war were being built in fact most of those that had been built was slowly but surely going to other air forces such as Canadians and picked up a few the Australians would pick up a few a few extras too both of which nations were already operating this engineering the Pakistan Air Force would have some others we go to Morocco Egypt and to Iraq after Sea Fury had left the Fleet Air Arm or even as it was leaving the fleet Airmen other people were interested in I mean in this race it was a good airplane did what you're supposed to it the German government through one of his agencies became very interested in the sea fury not as an attack aircraft was the target tower they bought mainly the two-seat trainers they did have one single suitor and they painted them all bright red good color makes it a lot easy if it goes to shoot up them apparently a quarter to one every one of their pilots but they did their job they have tow targets the targets are shot up by Navy Air Force Army Gunners and that would they kept going until they were eventually in fact provided a good reservoir of machines for the Americans the Americans loved sea fury they love it because it is really strong well the center section is really strong I love it because they can fly torino now the real OC fuels are some are so modified that you would have problems recognizing it as a savior the only things it away the wing center section they've added a few last chopped down in height some micro canopy fitted they found the wings clipped and at the tail planes clip fin and rudder have been redone and they've also started putting problem with the engines on the front and when these are fitted onto the front of a sea fury they're known as corncobs he feels mainly because of a slightly different way the radio radio pots are laid out we're talking in the in the region of 500 550 miles I'll she's not by going bear in mind that's c4 itself straight level flight flat-out could probably get to 400 hundred 50 knots right I'm breaking a sweat a sea fury the bearing in mind the circumstances that face the Fleet Air Arm was the right aeroplane in the right place at the right time it gave them a give the Fleet Air Arm a stable strike a tight platform a good fighter with long legs that was more than capable of holding its own in combat against anything that came towards it including the big 15 it had even more power than the sea fire and it had a more roomy cockpit it also was a very beautiful airplane to fly it was at the control harmonization on the theory was very good all in all a good aircraft they were very easy airplanes to maintain and service they were very very good at their jobs and the pilots that flew them knew their jobs absolutely 100 sim so they were very very likeable aeroplanes they were the last of the piston type aircraft we had because just after we came back from Korea we started then using the jet aircraft the attacker and the seat books and all that started coming it gave them well maybe a competent fighter for combat in Korea at the right time

Channel: HistoryRepeatsTwice

Views: 264,872

Keywords: Hawker, Sea, Fury, Hawker Sea Fury, Hawker Sea Fury (Aircraft Model), Fighter Aircraft (Aircraft Type), World War II Fighters, Hawker Aircraft (Organization), World War II (Event), Hitler, Weapons, Secret

Id: VkODOyX6hDw

Length: 70min 57sec (4257 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 13 2013