Saturday 18 June 2011

Biplanes Of The Second World War




The Defense And Freedom blog has an interesting article on the Henschel HS123 biplane which served in the Second World War.


There were a number of other biplanes which saw service during that war,including Gloster Gladiator N5579 which is seen here after being captured in Norway some time after she shot down a Heinkel 111 on April the 25th 1940. 


The Gloster Gladiators "Faith","Hope" and "Charity" are famous for their defence of Malta but Gladiators saw combat in many different air arms of many different countries,including the Luftwaffe,a carrier capable variant was used by the Royal Air Force's greatest adversary the Fleet Air Arm.


The Fairey Swordfish,known as the Stringbag,served throughout the war,even outliving aircraft which were meant to replace it,again operating on land and sea it was used by The Royal Navy,Royal Air Force as well as Canada,New Zealand,Australia and even Italy and Spain and was still in production in 1944.



The Italian Fiat CR.42 Falco served with Italian,Hungarian,German,Iraqi and Belgian air forces in many theatres.




Thousands of Polikarpov I 153s served with Soviet forces as well as with the Chinese and Finns.




The Japanese Kawasaki Ki 10 also served during the Second World War.




Czech,Slovak and Bulgarian forces used the Avia B534 until 1944.




The Grumman J2F-5 Duck served throughout the war with the United States Army,Navy,Marines and of course the Coast Guard.




Thousands of American and allied pilots learnt to fly on the Boeing-Stearman Model 75.




The Curtis SOC Seagull also served throughout the war even being reintroduced to front line service to replace the aircraft which was meant to replace it.




The Hall PH 3 was used by the United States Coast Guard until 1944.




The Vickers Vildebeest (and the closely related Vincent) saw considerable action including attacking Japanese Warships,they served with both British and New Zealand forces being finally withdrawn in 1944.




The Fairey Albacore was one of the last military biplanes to enter service,serving with the Royal Navy,Royal Air Force  and Canadians from 1940 to 1944,it is interesting to note that the Swordfish,which the Albacore was intended to replace,was still in production in the year the Albacore was withdrawn from service.




The Gloster Gauntlet saw service with British,Finnish,Danish and South African forces,mostly seeing combat with the latter in the Middle East theatre.




In Finnish hands the Bristol Bulldog shot down 6 Soviet aircraft for only 1 loss.




The Japanese made extensive use of the fast Mitsubishi F1M2 Type 0 "Pete" seaplane.




The Nakajima E8N "Dave" seaplane saw limited service during the war.


There are many more biplanes which served in the Second World War,we will try to add them all to this post when time permits.

3 comments:

Chuck Hill said...

A few additions: Grumman J2F/JF-2 Duck amphib, Stearman trainer of course, Curtiss SOC-4 Seagull, Hall PH2/3 seaplanes

GrandLogistics said...

Hello Chuck Hill,

thankyou,I will add those.
When I first read Sven's post half a dozen biplanes sprang to mind,it turns out there are many more than that.


GrandLogistics.

Chuck Hill said...

There is also the Japanese F1M2 Type Zero Observation Seaplane model 11 ("Pete") which was produce in quantity and enjoyed some success as a float plane fighter.