A brilliant strategy or despair?

[Guest ericthered1975]

During WW2 many air forces tested the concept of motherships carrying combat aircraft. I share with you a spectacular collection of images showing some of the most important projects involving this kind of concept. Agreeing with the title of this post, what do you think? Strategy or Despair? The article and the photos can be viewed by visiting the link below:

 

http://aviacaoemfloripa.blogspot.com.br/2011/01/avioes-parasitas.html

 

Best Regards!

 

 

[Hargraves]

If you apply the posts title to encompass all arms and services in all conflicks you would have to augment "dispare" to include "no choice" as well because in many cases throughout history that has been the case.

 

Australian CMF forces in new guinea during the japanese push to port morseby stopped their advance and were the first troops to do so up till that time, I believe because they veiwed it as "no choice but too" because the next target was going to be home.

 

In a similar way our combined intervention in the vietnamese civil war was unsucsessfull due to Gaip,s whatever it takes and however long it takes "no choice" determination to be a soverin country not a colony again. So I think the more spectacular examples of this attitude in the form of one way attack aircraft and vessels largely overshadow and cover up by their nature what in actual fact has been going on all through history.. cheers Hargraves

 

 

[Bruce Tuncks]

How were they going to "push" from Port Moresby onwards to Australia with no ships left afloat?

 

 

[DGL Fox]

During WW2 many air forces tested the concept of motherships carrying combat aircraft. I share with you a spectacular collection of images showing some of the most important projects involving this kind of concept. Agreeing with the title of this post, what do you think? Strategy or Despair?

I think Russia must have been one of the first if not the first to come up with the mothership idea, here are a couple of videos of the USSR's heavy bomber the TB3 , it carried everything from aircraft to tanks and even paratroopers...

 

 

 

 

[geoffreywh]

Didn't I see a Sopwith Something dropped from an airship?

 

 

[DGL Fox]

Didn't I see a Sopwith Something dropped from an airship?

Is an airship an actual aircraft or a fancy balloon?

David

 

 

[Hargraves]

When the Imperial Japanese Army was "pushing" to Port Moresby they still had plenty of ships and many of their warship classes were superior vessels compaired to the allied ones, most naval engagments with IJN units, except for their carriers, and especially at night, resulted in a japanese victory including after the coral sea battle, until radar was available to the allies. Their destroyers in particular were standouts with enclosed and protected bridges for one thing, while all else were still chewing salt water on weather bridges. That their immediate intension was to neutralise our unsinkable aircraft carrier and not to follow up with an invasion straight after that, has much merit which is vastly due to post campain intelligence that was not available to anyone actually on the front line at the time. So yes, our CMF and AIF soldiers believed they had "no choice but too" fight as hard and tenaciously to the death as they did in many clashes during the kokoda track fighting. Cheers Hargraves

 

 

[Bruce Tuncks]

Thanks Hargraves, I agree our soldiers fully believed they were fighting to protect Australia. An uncle of mine was at Milne Bay and they did a wonderful job in terrible conditions against an enemy who literally fought to the death. They even had a use for their dying ones. They left them up in trees where they could get one of ours by surprise, and one of these nearly killed my uncle.

 

Of course as soon as you knew which tree they were in they were dead meat.

 

But I have read that the Japanese in New Guinea were never resupplied by sea... that 11 Japanese ships tried to do this, and every one of them was sunk.

 

Now that does not sound like they had the ability to load up an invasion fleet at Port Moresby and sail it on to Darwin.

 

And anyway why would you wear out your invasion troops by making them trek across New Guinea first?

 

 

[poteroo]

But I have read that the Japanese in New Guinea were never resupplied by sea... that 11 Japanese ships tried to do this, and every one of them was sunk.

The Japs were able to resupply Milne Bay campaign by sea - almost every night they had ships into Milne Bay. Their troops were actually 'beaten' on the ground by continuous daylight aerial strafing by 75 & 77 Sq Kittyhawks operating off Gurney strip initially. Gurney was still sheeted with steel 'Marsden' matting in 1965 when I did my 1st PNG charter flight into there, and the place was still littered with battle debris.

 

The Japanese were also able to maintain reasonable re-supply of their Kokoda campaign but the distance/time it took to move this stuff up a very poor track was the killer. Their shipping stood off the PNG coast until late afternoon, then entered and unloaded at Buna/Gona at night - because the weather and the 13500 ft Owen Stanley Range put a halt to Allied night ops.

 

They also kept up a supply to Salamaua when their army landed there and set off over the range to attack Wau. Their mistake in this case was to believe a line on a map represented a passable track. It didn't - the Black Cat track was worse than Kokoda.

 

They fared better at Lae, which had a poor harbour and wharf facility, but they had fighter protection off Lae and were able to protect their resupply ships.

 

The knockout blow for all the Japanese resupply ops was when a 16 ship convoy from Rabaul to Lae was caught in fine weather between Finschafen and Lae. The Battle of the Bismarck Sea 3-4/3/1942, (actually fought in the Solomon Sea!), involved only Allied aircraft, and was the 1st time in history that air forces defeated a large naval force. The images taken by Damien Parer from the front of a low strafing Beaufighter were widely hailed as the real thing. Low flying Bostons,Mitchells and Beaufighters strafed the convoy end-to-end and ignited the avgas carried on deck of many ships. 6000 Jap troops took a swimming lesson, and their losses were decisive. 8 transports and 4 destroyers were sunk, the others limped back to Rabaul. They also lost 60 Zeros from Lae. It was their last surface convoy in PNG and from then on, the Japanese troops were only spasmodically supplied by submarine.

 

A good read of the Bismarck Sea air battle is contained in Wings of Destiny by Charles Page.

 

 

[facthunter]

Material I've read gives supply difficulties for the Japs as one of the significant factors in their defeat. This is not to diminish the efforts of the Australians at all. because they did stop them. To a Japanese to be taken prisoner is the greatest shame so they fought tenaciously. That attitude also explains a lot why they treated prisoners of war in a bad way . They had little respect for them as they should have died in battle according to their beliefs. Nev

 

 

[Hargraves]

Spot on little roo thanks for the book info i just ordered it cheers Hargraves