War Planes of the Second World War 5.- Flying Boats [antikvár]

i !'( INTRODUCTION When the first shots of the Second World War were fired twenty-three years ago, the future of the military flying boat appeared assured. Large water-borne aircraft were considered to be indispensable by every major combatant, yet within a few short years the death knell of the flying boat as a first-line operational aircraft could be heard. In recent years only one major air power, the Soviet Union, has persisted with the development of large military flying boats, and, thus, the Second World War saw written what was destined to be virtually the last chapter in the long history of these aircraft. Largely confined to the monotonous but vital tasks çf long-range maritime reconnaissance, shipping protection, convoy escort and anti-submarine duties the routine nature of which tended to envelop the flying boat in an aura of anonymity, these slow and generally cumbersome machines have been seriously neglected by aviation historians in the postwar years, and little detailed reference is readily available concerning any but the best-known and most successful water-borne air-craft. Perhaps the lengthy vigils over the oceans of the world undertaken by the flying boat lacked something of the glamour and drama that accompanied the operations of land-based combat aircraft. Yet these machines participated m some of the most stirring sagas of the WM years, and more than fifty distinctly ditterent types of flying boat were used operationally by or were under development by the combatants between 1939 and 1945, including aircraft whose conception dated back to the twenties and a number of commercial machines hurriedly fitted with defensive and offensive armament during the opening stages of the conflict. In this fifth volume of War Planes of the Second World War I have endeavoured to gather together all flying boats and amphibians employed for military tasks during the war years, and those, such as the Saro A.37, which played a part in military flying boat development. One aircraft, the Short Scion Senior FB, should, strictly speaking, be included in the sixth volume which is devoted to float seaplanes. I have decided to include it in this volume, however, as, although a floatplane, it was concerned solely with flying boat development. The flying boats described and illustrated in the pages that follow vary tremendously in size, configuration and function, and much of the material contained in this volume has remained unpublished hitherto. The pattern of the volume follows that set by its predecessors, the flying boats of each of the combatants being dealt with in alphabetical order of manufacturers, and I should like to record my indebtedness to M. Akimoto, Richard Bueschel, Peter M. Bowers, Warren M. Bodie, Toshio Fukui, Pierre Leyvastre, Gert W. Heumann, Tullio Marcon, Eiichiro Sekigawa, Jacques Tiziou, Gordon S. Williams, the Historical Section of the French Navy, and the photographic department of the Imperial War Museum, all of whom have supplied information or photographs for inclusion in this volume. London, May 1962 William Green