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| 1st Endorsement to | ||||||||||||||
| Conf. Report of Antisubmarine | ||||||||||||||
| Action by Aircraft, Form ASW-6, | ||||||||||||||
| dated 21 August 1943. | ||||||||||||||
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| 1. Forwarded concurring with the comment of the Squadron Commander. | ||||||||||||||
| 2. At the time of the submarine contact, there were four (4) pairs of Avengers and Wildcats making a sector search out eighty (80) miles within limiting bearings of 60° on both sides of base course. Two Avengers were maintaining AS Patrol Plan 15 around the task group. | ||||||||||||||
| 3. The first indication of a contact was a relay of "Tallyho" from one of the screening vessels at 1805 Z. Radio silence, broken immediately by teh carrier, with repeated requests for "Give us your Hayrake indication and distance" (Prearranged to give the Homing sector) went unanswered from the attacking planes. However, at 1828 Z was heard the plane repeating "Pig", but giving no reply to requests for position. At 1837 Z a coded message was received which reported the submarine as having submerged, and bearing 355° T. The plane made an error in encoding the message as it should have been "Submarine surfced bearing 355° T". The difficulty encountered in obtaining the position of contact was due to the plane's transmitter slipping 40 kilocycles off frequency. This is one unsatisfactory result of maintaining radio silence over a period of days. It may also result from catapulting. Just prior to recipt of "Tallyho", an H.F.D.F. bearing 317° T of a transmission estimated as emanating from approximately fifty (50) miles was received on board. An Avenger and a Wildcat were launched to search on this bearing. | ||||||||||||||
| 4. Fighters were returning from the evening search ahd had to be received for fueling and respotting before launching. While recovering the planes, two fighters had serious landing crashes which materially delayed the preparation of additional attack groups. On receipt of the position of the contact an Avenger and a Wildcat were launched for further attack. Nothing was seen. | ||||||||||||||
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| 1st Endorsement to | ||||||||
| Conf. Report of Antisubmarine | ||||||||
| Action by Aircraft, Form ASW-6, | ||||||||
| dated 21 August 1943. | ||||||||
| Subject: Report of antisubmarine Action by Aircraft. | ||||||||
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| After all planes were recovered it was definitely established that the submarine had submerged at 1910 Z. The carrier had approached to within thirty (30) miles of the contact by this time. The PAUL JONES was ordered to the position of contact to employ hold-down tactics during the night and to rendezvous with the task group at daylight. | ||||||||
| 5. At dawna search for the enemy was launched. It was planned to send four pairs of Avengers and Wildcats, but after the Avengers had been catapulted a catapult failure occurred during the launching of the first Wildcat. This completely disabled the catapult. Due to light winds it was impossible to launch by other than catapult which resulted in the search being made by Avengers only without fighter assistance. This search revealed no further trace of the submarine. | ||||||||
| 6. As long as the submarine ramins on the durface the Mark 47 Depth Charge seems to be relatively innefective unless placed very close to the target. Likewise the 50 calibre machine gun of the Wildcats does not seem to be damaging where personnel are below decks which probably are lightly armoured. It is understood that this is the first time that explosive shells fired from a submarine have been reported. | ||||||||
| 7. It is believed that failure to obtain a "kill" in this attack may be attributed to (1) poor marksmanship on the part of the pilot and (2) poor communications between plane and carrier which delayed the carrier in sending reinforcements to the scene of the contact. | ||||||||
| 8. It is recommended: | ||||||||
| (a) That 50% of the depth charges carried by an airplane be set for 10' during current enemy tactics of fighting on the surface. | ||||||||
| (b) That Wildcats accompanying the Avengers be equipped with two G.P. ANM 30 bombs with instantaneous fuses. | ||||||||
| (c) That at least one 20 m.m. gun be mounted on the underside of the Avenger's wing similar to methods employed by land planes against tanks | ||||||||
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| 1st Endorsement to | ||||||||
| Conf. Report of Antisubmarine | ||||||||
| Action by Aircraft, Form ASW-6, | ||||||||
| dated 21 August 1943. | ||||||||
| Subject: Report of antisubmarine Action by Aircraft. | ||||||||
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| (d) That the new carriers which are being built be equipped with two type H catapults. | ||||||||
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| J. B. LYON | ||||||||
| Advance Air Mail copies to: | ||||||||
| Cominch | ||||||||
| ASDEVLANT | ||||||||
| ComAirLant | ||||||||
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