Below is the cover page of the 457-page 4th Edition of "Joining the War at Sea 1939-1945"
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While serving as Gunnery Officer on the USS Edison, Dailey was confronted with the aviation technology used by German bombers attacking his ship and others. After transitioning to naval aviation, he experienced first hand many of the innovations in instrument flight that led to the book below.
Now, for illustrated readings, see linked pages:
Aircraft of World War II-"friendlies"
USS West Point AP23 War Cruise-part 1
USS West Point AP23 War Cruise-part 2
Ships and Aircraft of World War II
HMT Rohna Sunk in Convoy; USS Savannah Survives Turret Hit
Copyright 2009
This is the Do-217 aircraft manufactured by Dornier for the German Luftwaffe in WW II. Under the right wing, on the left side in this picture, is a radio controlled glide bomb. This is the weapon that sank HMT Rohna in a Mediterranean convoy with the loss of over 1,000 U.S. soldiers enroute to the CBI theatre in World War II. Under the other (left) wing is an external fuel tank.
This rocket-engine-propelled glide bomb under the right wing of the Do-217 aircraft was controllable in level flight, in descent, and in banking left or right. It could be considered a relative of the longer range V-1 buzz bomb that the Germans employed in the Battle of Britain. U.S. fighter pilots flying out of the UK reported that by getting above the V-1 they could dive and keep up with it long enough to give it some prop wash to knock it off course. No such defense was available in dusk attacks on convoys in the Mediterranean. At Salerno, I watched in awe as one of the glide bombs flew just above sea level toward a combat-loaded LST. The control operator in the mother plane gave his weapon a "down elevator" signal just a moment too late and it exploded in the water just yards beyond the targeted LST.
This is a close-in photo of the radio controlled bomb that hit the USS Savannah at Salerno. (Each of the radio-controlled Luftwaffe standoff weapons was equipped with a bright colored flare so that the control operator in the mother plane could correct the trajectory.) Called the Fritz-X 1400, or FX-1400, and controlled from a high altitude 'mother' plane, this weapon hit turret three of the USS Savannah off Salerno during Operation AVALANCHE and exploded in the magazine. This weapon had no propulsion except gravity but her tail fins were controllable from the mother plane to correct her trajectory toward the target. The damage from this perfect hit was grievous. Savannah's Commanding Officer was asked if he wanted assisting ships to come near so that he could abandon ship. Captain Cary responded that the surviving crew would keep her afloat and Savannah made it to drydock in Malta. When my ship made port in Malta for Christmas 1943, some of us went over to look at Savannah and her damage. We marveled that she had not sunk right near the spot off Salerno where she was hit.
Facing no defensive night fighters, and night fighters were in their infancy in 1943, a mother plane with the rocket powered, guided, glide bomb would hide in the dark side of sunset and use the flares to illuminate their prey. Launch might be from an altitude like 4000 feet toward a ship in convoy.
The Allies only defense against the German aircraft carrying the radio-controlled FX-1400 weapon at high altitude at Salerno was the British Spitfire aircraft. These wonderful aircraft provided the only high altitude cover at Salerno. Coming from the newly acquired airfields in Sicily, the "spits" had limited time on station so British and U.S. ships at Salerno did not have continuous air cover.
Above, the famed Spitfire with her prominent elliptical wing. Below, is another version, known as the "clipped wing" Spitfire.
As the Allies moved toward the heartland of Europe, we in the surface Navy began to see more and more aircraft. And, more and more of them were "friendlies." In the next installment, we take a pause in war to examine a few of these.