[ARC5] CarrierAircraft Navigation

[Michael A. Bittner]

I agree 100% with points 1,2 and 3 at the end of your email, Wayne.  I didn't know squat about radios and wasn't taught anything about them during my Navy preflight training.  Also, Gordon did cover the whole ZB and ARR-2 situation well.  We did receive substantial instruction on dead-reckoning navigation, and especially with the use of a plotting board.  These plastic plotting boards were about 15-inches square with a large, translucent, rotatable plastic disc upon which you could pencil-plot your own position and the expected position of the carrier at any given time.  A small circular slide rule in one corner of the board helped in calculating ground speed, distances, true airspeed corrections, etc. Pilot's can be seen carrying these plotting boards to their aircraft in numerous WWII movies and in some still pictures available on the web.  In the Hellcat, the plotting board slid into a slot below the instrument panel and above the pilot's knees.  I recall seeing this slot in a cockpit view of a Hellcat being salvaged from a lake in a photo that was referenced on this list. 

After graduation, I never used this plotting board again but relied heavily on radio aids to navigation and the trusty, batteryless E6B computer (like the plotting board but could fit in the leg pocket of your flight suit).  Mike W6MAB
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  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Wayne Eleazer 
  To: arc5 at mailman.qth.net 
  Sent: Friday, July 01, 2011 10:05 AM
  Subject: [ARC5] CarrierAircraft Navigation


  I have found out that how to use the YG and ZB was a standard part of Navy fighter training.  A friend of mine worked on those systems in WWII at Jacksonville, where they were training fighter pilots.

  Navy pilots were trained to find the carrier without radio aids.  I just read about the experiences of one F6F pilot, who went to war in 1944, the book is "Sinking the Rising Sun".  On one mission at Leyte Gulf he was sent out in the company of an SB2C to look for the Japanese fleet.  The SB2C had to abort shortly after takeoff and he went on alone.  Finding nothing he flew back to the US fleet, to find that it had moved.  He eventually found it and landed on fumes, but the fact that he flew back to the spot where he expected the ships to be indicates to me that he was not using ZB at that time.

  Of course, the SB2C that would have been with him had a much more capable radio fit, including a trained radio operator with an ART-13, and probably if the ZB had been required that is who would have taken the navigational readings. 

  As it turned out, on that mission the SB2C that found the Japanese fleet had to go on alone because its Hellcat escort had aborted.  They got off a sighting report and heard no reply from the US fleet.  They then sent a corrected sighting report and still got no reply.  They then went in and dropped their bomb on one of the Japanese ships despite the Zeros that were trying to attack him, and headed home.  Arriving back at the carrier, Adm Halsey asked the pilot if he had received their replies to their sighting reports.  He said he had not. Halsey asked him if he was sure he had not heard the responses.  The pilot replied that he was sure he had not. Halsey then told him that if he had got confirmation of the US fleet receiving the sighting reports and then went in and dropped his bomb along he would get the MOH.  If he had not got confirmation that his primary mission, to find the enemy fleet, was done before he attacked he would only get the Navy Cross.

  Like they say, if you can't hear them you can't work them.  And if you can't hear them you can't get the MOH.

  As for why you never heard about it before:

  1.  In WWII it was SECRET.
  2.  Pilots don't know squat about radios and don't write about them in their books.
  3.  And most importantly of all you did not read Gordon's articles in the 60's issues of CQ.

  Wayne
  WB5WSV



                  
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