Best anti-shipping aircraft?

[carpenoctem1689]

The USAAF did have a 37mm cannon, the one used on the P-39. I mistyped on my previous entry. The weapon was used for ground strafing, but didnt have too great a punch, but using HE rounds, the sovites didnt have for it, it could do some good damage to a ship.

[carpenoctem1689]

My visionary B-25, armed with weapons i have mentioned, would operate in groups of five, two defensivly armed, radar equipped aircraft guiding the three others offensivly equipped, over the vast blue expanses to theyre targets.

[FLYBOYJ]

B-25, Beau, and A-20 - it don't get any deadlier unless you add an A(B) - 26

[plan_D]

The Mosquito has to be in there. It was a remarkable machine and was able to deal with almost any vessel it came across. The FB.XVIII 'Tse-tse' was equipped with the Molins 6pdr (57mm) cannon in the nose. And the wooden construction of the Mosquito could survive the SW-Pacific. How do I know that? Because it did serve in the SW-Pacific!

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

For anti shipping I would go with this:

Allies - B-25, Mossie, Dauntless, and Avenger. Out of historical reasons I would go with the Swordfish also. Only because of the Bismark and the attack on the Italian Fleet in Toronto (I probably spelled that wrong).

Axis - Fw-200 Condor and He-177 or Do-217 fitted with Henschel Hs 293 A-1 Anti-Shipping Missle. This missle was devestating.

Henschel Hs 293 A-1 Anti-Shipping Missle

Over-All Length: 381.9cm
Span Of Wing: 310.0cm
Span Of Horizontal Stabilizer: 113.6 cm
Span Of Vertical Stabilizer: 98.0 cm
Diameter Of Fuselage: 47.0 cm
Diameter Of Power Unit: 33.0 cm
Over-All Height (Approx.): 109.0 cm
Average Chord (Approx.): 79.3 cm
Wing Area (Total): 2.4 Sq. Meters
Wing Loading (Launch): 441.0 kg/sq. m.
Wing Loading (Target): 390.0 kg/sq. m.
Maximum Velocity: 260 m/sec
Average Velocity: 230 m/sec
Maximum Range At:
2.2 km alt.: 4.0 km
4.0 km alt.: 5.5 km
5.0 km alt.: 8.5 km
Radius Of Turn: 800.0 meters
Max. "G" Load: 3.0 g
Weight Of Warhead: 500.0 kg.
Weight Of Launching: 1045.0 kg.
Weight At Target: 967.0 kg.
Weight Of Fuel: 78.0 kg.

Description: The Hs 293 A-1 has principally an aluminum, stressed skin, spot welded structure. The forward portion of the fuselage is structurally the bomb casing with an aluminum covering or fairing. Fastened to the rear of the bomb is a vertical plastic beam (about 3/8 inch thick) which runs to, and is fastened to, the after portion of the fuselage. The radio, and the associated gear for the controlling of the bomb are mounted on either side of this plastic beam. On the after corner of this beam is mounted a roller. The after portion of the fuselage is a stressed-skin, semimonoque structure with a rail (for the aforementioned roller on the plastic beam) mounted on the top inside of the structure. Quick disconnection fasteners are mounted at the connection between the rear of the bomb fairing and the forward end of the rear fuselage to be quickly detached and rolled off the bomb and plastic beam, giving quick and complete access to all the control gear. The wing and tail are aluminum and of the usual built-up type.

Aerodynamic Characteristics: The missile is controlled in roll by normal type of ailerons on the trailing edge of the outer portion of the wing. The ailerons also control the yaw effect. It is controlled in pitch by the normal type of control surfaces on the trailing edge of the horizontal tail surface.

Control System: The control system consists of the following parts:
A. Receiving set E-230. This unit could use any one of the 18 channels, each of which were 100 kc apart in the band
between 48 and 49.7 mc/s and could be changed easily in the field to satisfy the operation requirements for frequencies.
B. "Aufschalgerate" for damping and smoothing the receiver signals.
C. Three-phase AC gyro for stabilization in roll and yaw. It has a precission rate of 2 degrees per minute.
D. High resistance double potentiometer for proportioning the data.
E. 210-volt D.C. generator for the receiver.
F. A transformer with built-in relays to activate the aileron surface magnets.
G. Elevator mechanism with an "Oemiz" motor and potentiometer for returning the elevator to it's normal position.
H. An iron nickel plate battery of 24 volts with approximately 14 amp/hours.
This missile, because of the type of intelligence used, is limited to use in good, clear weather and with air superiority. It is subject to jamming, and this, therefore, may limit the use to targets where jamming equipment is not installed.
A joystick type of control was used in the parent aircraft. This control box made use of a very clever cam arrangement which gave proportional control.

Warhead: The warhead was constructed of in one section of drawn steel. The base plate was welded in position. The nose filling plug was threaded and held in place by two set screws. A kopfring was welded to the nose just behind the nose plug. One transverse fuze pocket was located aft of the suspension lug. A central exploder tube was used in the explosive cavity to insure high order detonation of the warhead on impact with the target.

Operation: Upon locating the target, the carrier aircraft makes its approach to the trajectory distance, and in the last part of its dive, sets a course such that the target can be seen 30 degrees to 60 degrees to the right of the course. Shortly before release time and particularly at the moment of release, the carrier aircraft must be in a horizontal position. At the time of release the aircraft must have a minimum speed of 334 km/hr if the He 111 is used, and 400 km/hr if the He 177 or the Do 217 are used.
The missile is released and directed to the target by the bombadier. Immediately after release, the speed of the aircraft may be reduced, but the release altitude and direction should be maintained for a period of approximately 10 seconds. After this interval of time, it is not essential to maintain release altitude and course direction. It is important that any change in flight course be done slowly and carefully so that the target remains on the side of the bombadier during the entire flying time of the missile. The field of view of the operator and the freedom of the carrier plane in approach vary according to type of aircraft. In all carrier planes, there should be a field of view of approximately 110 degrees to the right. The flying time of the Hs 293 A-1 should not be greater than approximately 100 seconds.

Remarks: The Hs 293 is the outgrowth of the "Gustav Schwartz Propellerwerke" glide bomb which was first designed in 1939. The further development of the glide bomb by Henschel represents their first attempt at a radio controlled missle.
The original Schwartz design was a pure glide bomb guided on a straight course by means of an automatic pilot. The method of attack entailed high altitudes for the carrier aircraft in order that sufficient range could be attained and still be out of antiaircraft fire.
Henschel took over the work of further developing this missile in early 1940, and it was decided to use some form of propulsion for the missile so that attacks at low altitude and increased range could be made. The Hs 293 A-1 was the first model to be used operationally with the new motor.
The Hs 293 was first used in the Bay of Biscay. Launched by Do 217E-5s of II/KG 100 against destroyers.

Further Developments:
Hs 293B: This was a wire-controlled version of the original radio-controlled series, designed to be used in the event of a jamming of the radio control mechanism of the original series of bombs. The Luftwaffe considered that up to 70 percent disturbance was permissible before a change-over to the wire-controlled series would be necessary. Since these conditions were never attained, the Hs 293B was never put into production.
Hs 293C: This missle was a modified version of the Hs 294 and had a detatchable warhead, etc., in the same manner as the Hs 294, but a conventionally shaped body. The fuzes include an impact fuze with a short delay to allow for penetration in cases where the missile struck a ship above it's waterline, an impact fuze which detonated immediately on impact after it entered the water, and a fuze operated by a spinner which detonated the missile after a passage of 45 meters through the water. This subtype was designated the Hs 293C during it's development stage, but when large scale production was to start, it was changed to the Hs 293 A-2, and was to replace the original radio-controlled series for general purpose against shipping targets.
Hs 293D: This was a projected type of missile to be fitted with a television camera in the nose. The camera was designed to repeat data back to the missile controller. The camera was designed to swing vertically and was aimed in the line of flight by a small wind vane on the outside of the projectile. As the projectile was rudderless, and in theory should not yaw in flight, there was no need to allow for any traverse in the camera mounting. About 20 of these missiles were built and test flown, but the television gear proved to be unreliable, and the project was abandoned.
Hs 293E: This was purely an experimental model built to try out a system of spoiler controls to replace the conventional aileron mechanism. These controls were incorporated in the final model of the Hs 293 A-2, but were never employed operationally, since by the time the bomb was brought into large scalle production, the Luftwaffe had no aircraft available for antishipping purposes.
Hs 293F: This was a tailless missile which was never developed beyond the design phase.
Hs 293H: This missile was intended to be released and controlled in flight by one aircraft and detonated by a second observing aircraft, which would be flying in position where it would be easy to bserve the impact of the missile against the target. The project was abandoned because it was felt that the detonating aircraft would be unable to remain directly over the target long enough to carry out its function.
Hs 293 V6: This subtype was developed for launching from jet-propelled aircraft at launching speeds up to 200 meters/second. This involved modification of the wing span of the missile so that it could be carried within the undercarraige of the aircraft. The Ar 234 aircraft was to be used as the parent plane, however, these aircraft were not available in sufficient numbers by wars end and the missile never progressed beyond the design stage.
http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/LRG/hs293.html

[Jabberwocky]

The Hs-293 was countered by Allied developments in jamming and spoofing

"The Allies also introduced electronic countermeasures against the Kehl-Strassburg control system. One system was a broadband jamming transmitter that simply disrupted the control transmission with radio noise. Another system was more subtle, "spoofing" the bomb by sending false control signals to the Strassburg controller that slammed the weapon's control surfaces to an extreme position, causing it to stall and tumble, or descend in an aimless spiral. When the Luftwaffe attempted to attack the Allied fleet during the Normandy landings in June 1944, they were unable to overcome Allied fighter defenses. What few glide bombs they dropped were ineffective due to jamming and spoofing. The Hs-293A and Fritz-X were no longer useful weapons."

That said, they did hit and sink a number of Allied (and Italian) ship during the war.

The Allies also developed standoff and precision guided weaponry. The ASM-2 BAT comes to mind, it was a S-band active radar guided glide bomb.

[Gnomey]

Nice info DerAlder.
It was Taranto and not Toronto though.

[quayhog]

The USN's unsung hero of the PTO. The Lockheed PV-1 Ventura. With the turret locked forward they had up to 8 fwd firing .50 caliber BMGs. Squadrons perfected glide bombing techniques and if good they could place a 500lb HE at the waterline on axis shipping. Good at ASW too.

[KraziKanuK]

Originally Posted by NAVAIR

Mosquito, Beaufighter, B-25 Mitchell and A-20G Havoc. For the Axis, the Focke Wulf 200 Condor devastated shipping in the north Atlantic.

Got any data on the number of ships the Fw200 sunk? Ju88s and He111s were more successful.

........

The Mosquito has to be in there. It was a remarkable machine and was able to deal with almost any vessel it came across. The FB.XVIII 'Tse-tse' was equipped with the Molins 6pdr (57mm) cannon in the nose. And the wooden construction of the Mosquito could survive the SW-Pacific. How do I know that? Because it did serve in the SW-Pacific!

Just barely did the Mossie survive in the SWP.

Only a reletive few Tse-tse were made. Not worth the effort as cannons and rockets proved more successful.

[syscom3]

Can someone briefly explain to me why the US didnt adapt the 20mm Oerlikon cannons to the medium bombers? The B25/A20 had an airframe stout enough to handle it.

This cannon worked wonderfully for shipboard air defense, and it could have been a great addition to the strafer planes

[evangilder]

When they did the initial testing for the 75mm on the B-25, the first test was done with a 20mm. Which 20mm, I am not sure. I once heard that when they tested the 20mm versus the .50 caliber on the P-47, they found the damage differential was slight. I don't have all the details on the test nor what the targets tested were.

[SM79Sparviero]

Got any data on the number of ships the Fw200 sunk? Ju88s and He111s were more successful

I think another aircraft was still more successful, much more successful in particular if we remember that it was born as passenger and mail carrier, that it attacked merchant or warships in small groups of no more than 2-3 aircrafts by day or by night it didn't matter, that it had no fighter protection in most of its war actions.

As example, Captain Carlo Emanuele Buscaglia flying this ugly wooden-made bomber made 29 war actions up to November 11 1942 ( when he launched his last torpedo from his burning bomber), with 24 torpedos at target!
He sunk two cruisers, two auxiliary merchant cruisers, one net support ship, 5 merchant carriers ; he severely damaged two battleships, one aircraft carrier, 6 cruisers, two destroyers, three merchant carriers.

I would give a comparable tribute, for the same reasons, to another ugly wooden-made aircraft: Fairey Swordfish.
They had both exceptional results with poor roots , without 12.7 mm machine gun battery or 75 mm or 57 mm guns, without rockets.
It means that those roots were not so poor, maybe.

[syscom3]

Interesting you chose this aircraft. A sentimental favorite?

I dont think either of this aircraft would have survived for long if it was in on the missions in the PTO that the B25/A20/Beaufighters had to contend with.

One thing that made these aircraft superior to yours is they not only performed well sinking ships, but on the days when there were no shipping to attack, they could attack Japanese airfields and other targets.

I say the "standard" for what made an effective anti-shipping aircraft was whether it could perform a low level attack on Rabaul and have a good chance getting out in one piece.

[Glider]

SM79. I assume that your talking about the SM79 against the RN in the Med.
If this is the case can I ask which ships Captain Buscaglia sank. As the list you mention doesn't match with the records that I have by such a margin that I must have the wrong end of the stick somewhere.
Generally Italian air attack was very ineffective. Scary and bravely undertaken but with a lack of results, The Italians were well known for carrying out very accurate attacks on shipping from high level and a number of ships were damaged by near misses but few if any vessels were sunk in this way.

[elmilitaro]

The PBY Catalina "CAT" was a preety good anti-shipping aircraft to, but not the best.