Use of catapult-launched Hawker Hurricanes against "Scourge of Atlantic"

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Cantankerous
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Use of catapult-launched Hawker Hurricanes against "Scourge of Atlantic"

#1

Post by Cantankerous » 08 Jan 2020, 18:32

I was watching a History Channel documentary titled Secret Allied Aircraft of World War II, and the first part of it describes how rocket-powered catapult launched Hawker Hurricanes were used to thwart the "Scourge of the Atlantic" by shooting down Focke Wulf Condor patrol planes to save the British people from starvation, one of them flown by Robert Everett in 1941. Does anyone have info on how many Focke Wulf Fw 200s were destroyed by catapult-launched Hawker Hurricanes?

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Re: Use of catapult-launched Hawker Hurricanes against "Scourge of Atlantic"

#2

Post by Old_Fossil » 09 Jan 2020, 01:14

Four, according to Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAM_ship
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Re: Use of catapult-launched Hawker Hurricanes against "Scourge of Atlantic"

#3

Post by Carl Schwamberger » 10 Jan 2020, 15:33

IIRC the first Brit escort carrier nailed two before being torpedoed by a submarine.

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Re: Use of catapult-launched Hawker Hurricanes against "Scourge of Atlantic"

#4

Post by Rickshaw_665 » 14 Jan 2020, 09:18

Carl Schwamberger wrote:
10 Jan 2020, 15:33
IIRC the first Brit escort carrier nailed two before being torpedoed by a submarine.
One of which was shot down IIRC by Eric Brown.

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Re: Use of catapult-launched Hawker Hurricanes against "Scourge of Atlantic"

#5

Post by Carl Schwamberger » 15 Jan 2020, 13:27

I don't have number at hand but recall the bulk of the Condors and other bombers (most were not the FW200) lost 1940-41 were lost to antiaircraft guns on the ships. Initially Initially extreme low level attacks, the Swedish Turnip, were very effective but once the Brits figured out the correct AA tactics losses were unsustainable & the Condors were used mostly for reconnaissance & less effective higher altitude attacks.

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Re: Use of catapult-launched Hawker Hurricanes against "Scourge of Atlantic"

#6

Post by T. A. Gardner » 16 Jan 2020, 19:58

The "scourge" is grossly over rated. At most, the Luftwaffe had about a dozen FW 200 available and most of the time had less than half-a-dozen. Most were lost in accidents of various sorts not to British defensive activity. The reason they were so effective was the British had made little attempt to arm merchant ships with defensive weapons. Yes, in part this was because they simply didn't have enough, but it was also because they didn't bother to try and be proactive about doing so.
For the RAF Coastal Command was little more than an afterthought and nuisance distracting from their preferred Fighter and Bomber commands. Coastal Command got the leftovers and hand-me-downs, and defending merchant shipping near Britain wasn't on their "to do" list. So, when the Luftwaffe did get around to putting up even a few maritime bombers, the planes had a field day on shipping.

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