Corsairs in the ETO?

[mjanovec]

This might be a silly question that has an easy answer, but why were some of the birds used by the Navy never really considered for use in the ETO? Or if they were considered, why did they never serve in the ETO (or serve in any numbers worth mentioning)?

For example, the Cosair eventually proved to be both an effective land based and carrier based aircraft.

What prevented the Corsair from serving in numbers in the ETO? Did it lack the range? Did the Army Air Force only stick with certain aircraft manufacturers (or aircraft types) while the Navy and Marines stuck with other aircraft manufacturers/types? Was the Corsair designed specifically for the Navy and therefore was not a design the Army Air Force considered worth trying? Were there design limitations of the Grumman birds or the Corsair that would've kept them out of the ETO? Or were the available numbers of aircraft prohibitive to allowing it to serve in both the PTO and ETO?

I've never really seen this covered in aircraft publications, but I'm sure there's an easy explanation behind why certain types only remained in certain theaters of operation.

Mark

[John Ceglarek]

I think there are several answers to your question. The most obvious, to me, is that the Corsair was designed for the US Navy, and the Navy didn't have near the presence in the ETO as it did in the PTO. Could the Corsair have competed in the ETO...I'm certain it could have. It had, after all, many of the same attributes as the P-47. But back then, the Navy bought what it wanted, and the Army bought what it wanted...and Corsairs weren't designed for the Army. It wasn't until after the war (a few decades, I'd say), that defense budgets forced the issue of "multi-service" aircraft, that is aircraft designed from the outset to serve both the Air Force and the Navy.

Add to that fact that Chance-Vought (and Goodyear) were having enough trouble building Corsairs for the Navy and the Marines, let alone the USAAF, during the critical days of the war, and I think you have the answers to your question.

Anybody else got anything to add?

John

[O.P.]

There were Hellcats Wildcats and I think Corsairs serving with the USN and the FAA in the Atlantic and in the North African campaign. I think that was the biggest presence there. John is right about the Army and the available production. The only exceptions I can think of were eval units traded between services, Hellcat for a Mustang, stuff like that. When they were done having fun, they were traded right back in most cases. Although,,,I think I've read on an old thread here about a lost, administratively wise, Mustang or P-38 that the Navy lost track of..........

[Michel Lemieux]

Funny.....

I was reading a good book the other day.

In the ETO the fleet Air Arm used:
- Corsair's
- F4F's
- F6F's
- TBM's ???

All US Navy birds

And the RAF used or considered using:
P39's
P51's
P38's
A20's

All USAF birds.

When buying abroad, it seems that land or sea; they keep their purchases in line with others that had experiences ( good and/or bad ) with the same birds.

[TimAPNY]

If I recall right, there was a plan to use Corsairs with the Tiny Tim Rockets(?) to attack V-1 and or V-2 sites. But was canned with those sites being over run by allied forces.

[O.P.]

- TBM's ???

The FAA had TBM's too. What was the book?

[tom d. friedman]

an additional wrinkle...... while not discussing navy planes in europe during "dubya dubya 2 the big 1" (quoting archie bunker) there were a few army air force b-29 superfortresses in england near the end of the war for evaluation, but they did not participate in any bombing missions. regards, tom

[HELLDIVERS]

HI ONE A/C THAT BOTH SEVICES UTILIZED IN WW2 IS OF COURSE THE SB2C/A-25! THE A-25 WAS NEVER USED IN COMBAT,BUT THE ARMY AIR FORCE ORDERED OVER 3,000 ONLY 900 WERE COMPLETED OF THAT 410 WENT INTO AIR FORCE SEVICE THE REST WERE GIVEN TO THE NAVY THEN SENT TO THE MARINES AS TRAINING A/C.THANKS MIKE

[RMAllnutt]

The Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm did use the corsair in Combat on a number of occaisions in the ETO early in their use of the aircraft. Not in North Africa, but as CAP for some of the raids on the Tirpitz. I do not believe that any combat ensued between Luftwaffe aircraft and FAA corsairs, but several corsairs were lost in these raids. You can look up which ones were lost in Ray Sturtivant's book on FAA aircraft 39-45. Pretty fascinating stuff.

Cheers,
Richard

[Michel Lemieux]

OP,

They called them Tarpon's

http://www.fleetairarmarchive.net/Aircraft/Tarpon_Avenger.html