[ARC5] PBY Radios

[Phillip Carpenter]

My father was a flight engineer (Aviation Machinist Mate, Petty Officer) on a PBY-5A during WWII. His squadron was VP-81. The first two years of the war they were assigned to the Atlantic fleet based in Guantanamo Bay and flew missions to spot and sink German subs and enemy shipping. They escorted the battleship South Dakota thru the Panama Canal Zone. During the last two years they were reassigned to the Pacific fleet based at Henderson Field in the Solomon Islands. They often flew missions in "The Slot" to look for and sink Japanese shipping and subs.

Dad was awarded a citation signed by Admiral Nimitz for helping to sink a Jap submarine and after the War he received a very well written letter from Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal thanking him for his service in the only Navy in the history of the world that fought and won naval wars in two oceans simultaneously.

My Dad got me started in amateur radio and collecting surplus military radios mainly due to his service on the PBY-5A patrol bomber.

Phillip W4RTX 

Sent from my iPhone

> On May 19, 2017, at 11:09 AM, Kenneth G. Gordon <kgordon2006 at frontier.com> wrote:
> 
>> On 19 May 2017 at 10:56, Robert  Eleazer wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> Just read in a history of the PBY Catalina that in 1939 the British bought one so they could 
>> evaluate it.  Consolidated flew one over to England, flying nonstop from Newfoundland.  The 
>> British response when it landed was that it could not possibly have flown all that way, for one thing 
>> the engines were not leaking enough oil.
>>  
>> They then asked about the radios.  The American response was that they had the 
>> standard Bendix radios and they had been working San Diego while the airplane was on final 
>> approach to landing in England.  The Brits again were astounded.  So the next day they took them 
>> up and once again worked San Diego to prove it.  The Sunderland flying boat had no where near 
>> that kind of range with its radios.     
>>  
>> Wayne
>> WB5WSV
> 
> I have always thought that the PBY was an excellent airplane, not properly appreciated by 
> most WWII airplane buffs.
> 
> The history of the "Black Cats" is particularly interesting.
> 
> I remember one incident when a PBY found a Japanese fleet. Zeros were sent up to 
> intercept it and shoot it down. It flew into a big cloud bank, and "wouldn't come out", so it got 
> away clean.
> 
> Ken W7EKB
> 
> 
> 
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