Early in World War II, PBY Catalinas and PBM Mariners the PBM being a newer flying boat built to complement the PBY were sent to Iceland, Newfoundland, Bermuda, and other bases as part of the Neutrality Patrol searching for German U-Boats. In May 1941, Lieutenant Leonard Smith was helping train Royal Air Force pilots in PBY operations, when he took part in a mission that led to the sinking of the German battleship
Bismarck. The seaplanes escorted the Marine contingent to Iceland in July of the same year.
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Seaplanes were also in the Pacific when hostilities commenced. Part of the reason for the Japanese fleet’s northern approach to Pearl Harbor was the threat of being spotted by PBYs out of Midway and Hawaii.
Here s What You Need to Remember: The destruction of
Yamato was inevitable even as far back as the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was clear that the age of the aircraft carrier had already superseded the battleship, but the insistence of battleship-minded general officers to cling to obsolete military technology undermined Japan’s conduct of the war and sent thousands of Japanese sailors needlessly to their deaths.
In early 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy made a difficult decision: it would sacrifice the largest, most powerful battleships ever built to protect Okinawa, the gateway to Japan’s Home Islands. The decision sealed the fate of the battleship