KINGFISHER Goes to War

Air Classics, Jun 2004 by Wainwright, Marshall

The Kingfisher, the Navy's first monoplane catapult plane, saw service during WWII in numerous Allied forces, including the Royal Navy and Royal Australian Air Force. The Coast Guard got 40 of the planes for inshore anti-sub patrols and for rescues. England received 100 Kingfishers under LendLease, Chile got 15, Urugay six, Argentina nine, Mexico six, Dominican Republic three. The Netherlands East Indies was supposed to get 24 hut therein lies a tale little-known until after WWII had keen over 20 years.

The Kingfishers were en route to the Indian Ocean in 1942 when the Japs captured the Dutch Islands. The ships were rerouted to Australia and there the Aussies took over 18 of them, three going to the USAAF whose use of them never has been revealed, although some believed they were turned over to the US Navy. Fate of the remaining three also is a mystery at this time.

Jap submarines were sinking Australian and US ships off the island's east coast at an alarming rate and No. 107 Squadron was formed and trained in antisubmarine patrols using the 18 OS2Us.

They were based at Rathmines coastal air station, a former holiday health resort. Although salt water corrosion is an ever-present problem for Navy planes, the Australians later removed paint and camouflage, achieving faster speed and surprisingly little corrosion to exposed metal parts.

The RAAF's Kingfisher squadron perfornied many patrols and had its problems with "friendly" antiaircraft crews on shore, who fired on its planes frequently, mistaking them for Japanese Rufe float planes.

The RAAF reported that one Kingfisher recorded a "probable damage" against a German U-boat, the U-862. What a German sub was doing in those waters was not explained. Although they sank no Japanese submarines - four of them were operating off the Australian coast, it was learned later - the Kingfisher pilots or gunners eventually learned to identify and refrain from bombing whales, sharks and other large denizens of the ocean. One pilot, Flt. Lt. Alan Bradshaw, had the misfortune of having a round explode in the gun breach during gunnery practice. It set fire to the cartridge bag and eventually scorched the pilot's pants. In attempting an open sea landing the Kingfisher turned over. The crew was rescued. The OS2U floated for two days and finally sank while being towed to base.

The Aussies removed armor plate and nonsealing wing tanks and used the weight savings to substitute 250-lb depth charges for the standard 100-lb bomhs carried on two wing pylons. At war's end the Australians still had nine of their original 18 Kingfishers. These met varying fates, although hasically complete A48-2 is being offered for sale (see "Warbird Report" in the May issue).

Probably the last OS2U Kingfisher to fly anywhere in the world was A48-13, resplendent in high visibility yellow paint. It participated in the RAAF's postwar Australian Antarctic expedition in 1948. It scouted ice fields and pack ice for its mother ship, the Wyatt Earp. Because of the ship's small 120-ft length, the Kingfisher had to be partially disassembled and stowed crosswise on deck. For flight in the polar regions it had to be put together, hoisted over the side with a crane since there was no catapult, and retrieved the same way.