Warbird Information Exchange

Was this antisubmarine patrol?

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S.

That is the AAF's so called "Sea Search" camo from WWII. B-24s from the 479th BG were also painted in this fashion.

See page 35 of Osprey Publishing Production Line to the Front Line:

Consolidated B-24 Liberator

by Michael O'Leary.

There are two photos of B-24s painted this way.

TonyM.

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"Welcome back Mr. Lasky."

Reminds me of this one (from the National Aviation Museum of Canada in Ottawa) that was on Coastal Patrol...

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Michel C
Thousands of a/c pics at Passion-Aviation

Not to be a smart-a**, but I took one look at the picture and it made sense to be.

Look at how the vertical stab blends in with the clouds in the background..looks quite effective to me

oh, it all makes sense to all of us.

I have just never seen a paint-job like this on a B-25 prior to this.

Presumed it was shipping interception etc.

Any idea what unit would have performed this operation(s)? Who she belonged to?

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S.

Many B-25s painted in this fashion were based in the homefront, mostly on the east coast.

I think some were based at Langley Field, Hampton, Virginia.

I'll get back to you on units. Don't have the info at my fingertips.

TonyM.

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"Welcome back Mr. Lasky."

North American B-25D-15 Mitchell "Lady Jane" (#41-30409)
Belongs to 23rd Antisubmarine Squadron, 26th Antisubmarine Wing. Originally armed with Lockheed A-29 Hudsons, the 76th Bombardment Squadron operated on patrol from Batista Field, Cuba on February 28, 1943 as part of the 25th Antisubmarine Wing under an agreement between the United States and Cuba signed June 12, 1942. Formally designated the 23rd Antisubmarine Squadron on March 3, 1943, the unit was assigned to the 26th Antisubmarine Wing on March 9.

Several other USAAF antisubmarine squadrons flew out of Cuba during the war. Returning to Drew Field, Tampa, Florida, on April 24, 1943, the squadron re-equipped with the B-25 at Langley Field, Hampton, Virginia on July 9, returning to Florida on July 23. On August 5, the 23rd began flying patrols out of Edinburgh Field, Trinidad, until October 15, 1943, when the squadron was transferred to I Bomber Command. The ground echelon of the 23rd was disbanded at Smoky Hill Army Air Field, Kansas, on the same day; other squadrons' ground crews serviced the aircraft on deployment. A detachment of the 23rd's B-25s flew out of Zandery Field, Surinam, until December 1943. From October 1943 until December 1943 three crews from the 23rd Antisubmarine Squadron, flying 75-mm (3-inch) cannon-armed B-25Gs patrolled in conjunction with the United States Navy's VP-210, which flew the Martin PBM Mariner flying boat. The Mariners would use radar to locate surfaced U-boats, and then illuminate the target for the B-25s. However, no targets of opportunity were located, and the manual loading and low velocity of the 75mm cannon prevented an adequate test of this arrangement. The 23rd Antisubmarine Squadron left Trinidad on December 24, 1943, returning to Drew Field, Florida and was disbanded on February 6, 1944 at Clovis Army Airfield, New Mexico. With the U-boat threat reduced and adequate resources available, the Navy took over all antisubmarine operations.

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S.

Here's a B-24 with the "standard" AAF antisubmarine scheme parked on the south Sub-Depot apron at McCook during the winter of '43-'44. There were at least three different applications of the white camouflage tried, but this is the most commonly seen. Fort Worth built a goodly number of B-24Ds with this scheme.


2AF used a fair number of Libs in this paint scheme as trainers at the Phase Training stations.

Scott

Some of the 6th AF B-18Bs were painted this way too.

this camo would break the lines of the ship if the enemy was above the bomber, and the enemy looking down. the camo would appear to make the partol bomber virtually invisible against disturbed surf. the glisting off the glass would howver get immediate attention i believe

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Kind Regards,
Gary Lewis
J.A.F.O.

The military went a step further in their attempt to camouflage aircraft against U-boats and enemy surface vessels with Project Yehudi (found info at http://jmrc.tripod.com/fa/stealth/stealth2.htm

SN


TODAY'S EXPERIMENTS with visual stealth have their roots in a 1943 U.S. Navy project code-named Yehudi. The intent of the program, which was highly secret at the time and came to light only in the1980s, was to give Navy patrol aircraft a better chance of sinking enemy submarines. During 1942, German U-boats took a heavy toll on merchant marine shipping off the East Coast of the United States. Aircraft scrambled to attack the U-boats, but submarine captains called for crash dives whenever they spotted approaching planes. By the time an aircraft got close enough to fire upon a sub, it had disappeared beneath the surface of the ocean.

Yehudi's inventors needed a way to make the antisubmarine aircraft harder to see, and they realized that camouflage paint wouldn't do the job: Regardless of its color, the airplane would stand out as a black dot against the sky. The only way to make the plane less visible was to light it up like a Christmas tree.

The engineers fitted a portly TBM-3D Avenger torpedo-bomber with 10 sealed-beam lights installed along the wing's leading edges and the rim of the engine cowling. When the intensity of the lights was adjusted to match the sky, the Avenger blended into the background. Tests proved that the Yehudi system lowered the visual acquisition range from 12 miles to two miles, allowing the Avenger to get within striking distance of its targets before they submerged. A B-24 Liberator bomber was also modified, with similar results.

Yehudi was not put into production, because better radar had already enabled Navy airplanes to regain the tactical advantage