Torpedo Boats, Gunboats, and the Like

Joe jr. was also in the navy. He was flying navy version of B-24 on ASW missions from UK.
Joe jr. was killed in B-24 Liberator. Army used war weary B-17's in their project Aphrodite, but given up. Then Navy took over. Navy used new B-24's. Plane needed pilot for take off only. After take off and test of radio controles pilot and copilot would bail out, and plane would be from that point on controled by radio from PV-1 Ventura. Something went wrong. Going off button was not pushed, but it was considered possible that some other radio transmission interfered. One has to consider that tests with this equipment were originaly done in US where radio traffic was negliable and mission took place in UK where radio traffic was realy heavy.
I think that it was juniors idea to get involved, as his kid brother (JFK) already got a medal ( for destroying his own boat). I have an article about it, but i have to find it first ( it's been a looooong time since i went thrue that closet full of magazines).

 

This is totaly off topic

Joe jr. was also in the navy. He was flying navy version of B-24 on ASW missions from UK.
Joe jr. was killed in B-24 Liberator in south England. Army used war weary B-17's in their project Aphrodite, but given up. Then Navy took over. Navy used new B-24's. Plane needed pilot for take off only. After take off and test of radio controles pilot and copilot would bail out, and plane would be from that point on controled by radio from PV-1 Ventura. Something went wrong. Radio controles check was succesfull but somehow plane exploded killing both pilots before they bailed out. Going off button was not pushed, but it was considered possible that some other radio transmission interfered. One has to consider that tests with this equipment were originaly done in US where radio traffic was negliable and mission took place in UK where radio traffic was realy heavy. Enemy action was dismissed as there were a large amount of US planes involved ( 2x PV-1, few P-38 - escort, a P-51 (Doolitle snooping around) etc.) all concentarting on B-24. Possibility of friendly fire was considered at the beggining but ruled out as no plane used any ammo and flak was not present in the area.
I think that it was juniors idea to get involved, as his kid brother (JFK) already got a medal ( for destroying his own boat). I have an article about it, but i have to find it first ( it's been a looooong time since i went thrue that closet full of magazines).


P.S.

Would moderator please delete previous post. That happens when one doesn't look what he does.

 

This might be of interest: I've put together a group photo of the ammo used by WW2 FPBs, MTGs, MGBs, S-boote etc. Can anyone identify all of the weapons which used this ammo?

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and discussion forum

 

Gak! Automatic weapons are all the same to me. I'd guess the 57mm is the British 6pdr. Maybe the two 40mm are the Bofors and the 2pdr. Then what? Oy, I'm in trouble. The Germans had a 37mm cannon, as did the Soviets, and the Americans used that army gun as mentioned previously. The most common 20mm were the Soviet, German, and Oerlikon. The British and Soviets and Americans made extensive use of 50cal machine guns.

 

I agree with Tiornu about those 40mm and 57mm ammunition, 40x158R was used in british 2pdr pompom, longer 40x311R was used in Bofors 40 mm/60 Model 1936 (or whatever the official naming was) and 57x441R was used in British 6pdr.
Smaller ammunitions then:
12.7x81 was used by Vickers .50"
12.7x99 was and is still used by Browning .50"
20x110RB was used by various Oerlikon 20mm guns from 30's. (S, F)
20x138B was used for instance Lahti M/39 AT-rifle and also in german AA-guns and early panzerguns (PzKpfw II ?)
37x145R sounds like M4/M10 (P39 Airacobra's main gun)
37x223SR was used by US M1 AA-gun.
37x263B was used by various german AA-guns and some AT-guns too, even airborne AT-guns.

There are many other guns too which used these same ammunitions.
And Tony, try my casequiz:
http://www.forum.fun-online.sk/viewtopic.php?p=22558

 

Very good! Just a couple of minor amendments: the 40x158R was used in the 2 pdr naval, but also in the Rolls-Royce BD manually-loaded gun (little known, but it saw a lot of use in PBs). The 37x223SR was actually used in the M9 gun in a few PBs - it was a version of the M1A1 developed for aircraft (but not used in them) and it had belt feed.

TW

 

Thank you, althought I couldn't remember them right away, I had to "cheat" a bit and check from a book and webpages. And author for that book and one of those webpages was a certain Anthony G...

 

There is no moderator for the War At Sea section at this time. I have applied for the position, but there is something wrong with the site that has prevented me from becoming moderator. Roel and Skua have both assured me that the job is mine whenever they can get the problem fixed.

 

Does anone have any photos and information on combat use of Soviet torpedo boats of G-5 class? I just downloaded M-K magazine article on this boat.
Article is on the following site:
http://mkmagazin.almanacwhf.ru/ships/g_5.htm

 

There aren't a lot of books out there on the Soviet Navy in WW2 that I'm aware of. Most accounts of their service tend to be found in books about battles like Stalingrad or Leningrad or Sevastopol.