#USS Crane Ship No. 1

[lonestarbattleship]

USS KEARSARGE (BB-5) during her conversion to CRANE SHIP NO. 1 at Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania.

Photographed on January 13, 1921.

source

[lonestarflight]

A pair of "Vought OS2U Kingfisher floatplanes, of Observation Squadron One (VO-1), taxiis alongside USS ARIZONA (BB-39), after a flight in the Hawaiian Operating area. Pilot is Lieutenant-Commander Welton D. Rowley, Commanding Officer of VO-1. Rear-seat man, Radioman 2nd Class E.L. Higley, is preparing to go out on the plane's wing to hook up the aircraft to the battleship's crane for recovery. The plane is numbered 1-O-1."

This "plane flown by Ensign Lawrence A. Williams. Rear-seat man was Radioman 3rd Class G.H. Lane, who is preparing to hook up the aircraft to the ship's crane for recovery.

Note: the plane's side number 1-O-3, with the ship's name below it."

Date: September 6, 1941

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command: 80-G-66111, 80-G-66109, 80-G-66108

[usafphantom2]

SR-71 #974 sleeps below the fish’s in the deepest part of the ocean the Mariana Trench there will not be any communist spying in that area.

Since the end of the Cold War, more information has come to light, with many official documents declassified. My friend Paul Crickmore sent me the following email last year with some interesting information.

I just read the piece you wrote about the loss of #974 a couple of days ago and thought you’d like a ‘sneaky-peek’ at part of the piece that’ll appear in the new book covering the subject…

“Side‑scanning sonar imaging of the crash site took place on 29 and 30 April, and it was not long before the debris field of ’974 was located. The 280ft‑long salvage vessel USS Beaufort was dispatched to lift the wreckage with its 10‑ and 15‑ton cranes, fitted on the bow and stern, respectively, and to find the sensors and defensive systems (Coincidently, the ship was built by Brooke Marine, in the author’s home town of Lowestoft, Suffolk).

Due to the proximity of the communist New People’s Army, a number of Navy SEALs were on board to provide protection to the divers and crew.

One morning during the search, an order for General Quarters was sounded at 0400 hours. Crew members rushed to their action stations in readiness for an immediate confrontation. They saw a large number of small vessels (which had been detected on the Beaufort’s radar) making for the ship.

Tension mounted until it was discovered that the would‑be attackers were fishing boats that had come towards the bright lights of the naval vessel because a very large shoal of fish had congregated around it. 🐠

When ’974 impacted the water inverted both engines, the main undercarriage and the aircraft’s sensors smashed through its upper surfaces.

They were scattered on the ocean floor at varying distances away from the main wreckage field. On the evening of 1 May, wire hawsers were attached to one of the J58 engines. The late evening movements dislodged the TEB tank and caused a small leak, which released tiny amounts of the chemical throughout the night.

TEB CAUSED GREEN PUFFS

As the volatile chemical bubbled to the surface, it mixed with ambient air and exploded in small green puffs. The ‘magic’ of the ‘Yankee’ engineers caused quite a stir among the native fishermen who saw the eerie ‘TEB‑bubble show’. The next day both engines were lifted and brought aboard the Beaufort’s fantail, and two days later, many of the sensors were also recovered. When the ship’s crew attempted to lift the main section of the aircraft, the crane operator found that the large delta‑shaped wing planform greatly exceeded the lifting capacity of his crane, and the wreckage refused to budge an inch. A yard derrick was sent from Subic Bay, and the forward fuselage section was recovered on 7 May, while the main structure was lifted aboard the Beaufort’s fantail the following day. The black wreckage was a sad end for a once‑proud airplane, despite Dan’s skillful ( Dan House, the Pilot) and valiant efforts to save it.”

This post is by Linda Sheffield

With Paul Crickmore

@Habubrats71 via X

[skyfire85]

-A U-2R after landing on the USS America. | Photo: NRO/CIA

FLIGHTLINE: 147 - U-2/C-130 CARRIER OPERATIONS

Two of the most important aircraft of the 1950s and beyond, the U-2 and C-130, both saw trial runs as carrier aircraft.

CV-66 USS AMERICA, NOVEMBER 1969

In the late 1950s, the CIA began to look into options for extending the range of its U-2 spyplanes. The early model Dragon Ladies had a range of only 3000 miles or so, and required bases in Turkey or Pakistan to fly over the USSR, then land at Bodø Air Station in Norway with fuel tanks nearly dry. Given the performance of the U-2, it was beloved that one could land on and take-off from a Forrestal-class supercarrier with only minor modifications. The CIA approached the NRO, and Operation (sometimes Project) WHALE TAIL was born. Late one night in August of 1963, a U-2A was craned aboard the USS Kitty Hawk, which then sailed out of San Diego Harbor. Safely out to sea (and out of sight), the U-2 launched from the deck, managing a 300-foot takeoff roll without the ship’s catapult. Test pilot Bob Shumacher performed several landing approaches, which proved that a U-2 could manage a approach (including a possible wave-off) and arrested landing without issue.

-The U-2A, with false N number and Office of Naval Research markings on the Kitty Hawk. | Photo: NRO/CIA

As a result of the test, Lockheed modified three (possibly four) U-2As, reinforcing the landing gear and adding an arresting hook and spoilers. In March of 1964, Bob Shumacher began trials of the newly christened U-2G, this time landing on the USS Ranger. This time the trials were less successful, and the aircraft pitched down into the deck when the hook grabbed the arresting cable, breaking off the pitot tube. The damage was repaired on the carrier, and the plane successfully took off again.

-One of the U-2Gs, this one with false registration N808X on the tail, snags an arresting cable. | Photo: NRO/CIA

Another accident occurred on the next trial, this time with pilot Jim Barnes, who approached the deck too slowly and stalled just over the Ranger’s fantail. Barnes firewalled the throttle, avoiding a crash but striking the arresting gear with a wingtip, tearing off the skid in the process. Barnes was able to fly to Edwards AFB, where the U-2 was repaired. The U-2Gs were further modified after the accident, adding reinforcing plates and springs to the wingtip skids.

There was only one recorded mission from an aircraft carrier: Operation FISH HAWK in May of 1964. USS Ranger sailed to the South Pacific with the mission of spying on an expected French nuclear test. A CIA NPIC interpreter was added to the ship’s crew, and the Navy set up a lab for rapid development and analysis of whatever film the Dragon Lady captured. A U-2G, modified with “sniffers” for atomic particles, flew to the Ranger from California via Hawaii. Two sorties were flown between May 19th and May 23rd, and after initial results were obtained on the Ranger, the film was flown to New York for further processing by Eastman Kodak.

-Illustration: Kirstin Hill

Even with the success of FISH HAWK, rapid evolution of technology meant that the need for U-2 carrier ops was limited. Improvements in engines allowed the planes to fly further, even without in-flight refueling. Advances in satellite technology granted the ability to survey wide swathes of land without having to risk aircraft. New camera technology provided lighter modules that also could transmit data in real-time. Still, “You never know...” as the saying goes, so the CIA retained carrier capabilities in newer makes of the U-2, with the U-2R being flown onto the USS America in 1969 to prove the concept still worked. The U-2R, being larger than its predecessors, also featured folding wings, and as a part of the test “N812X” was lowered on the carrier’s elevator and was maneuvered without issue into the hangar deck. CIA pilots kept up with carrier qualifications in T-2 Buckeyes into the Eighties, though no further use of an U-2 on a carrier has been acknowledged.

-U-2R catches the three wire on the USS America . | Photo: NRO/CIA

CVA-59 USS FORRESTAL, OCTOBER 1963

Transporting cargo onto a carrier in the middle of the ocean is difficult even today. In the late 1950s and 1960s, the idea of Carrier Onboard Deliver was born, with the C-1 Trader flying needed material to the Navy's carriers, The Trader, being piston engined, had limited range and capacity however, and the USN sought a Super COD to carry heavy loads or to reach carriers far from shore. A line was painted on the deck of the carrier for the Hercules crew to follow to maintain clearance from the island. A USMC KC-130F (BuNo 149798) was tapped for the demonstration, with the only modifications being an improved anti-skid braking system and removal of the underwing refueling pods. Trials began on 30 October 1963, with -9798 completing 29 touch-and-goes, 21 landings (all unarrested) and 21 takeoffs (unassisted), at weights from 85,000lbs to 121,000lbs. On one landing, the KC-130 touched approximately 150' from the fantail, stopped rolling after 270', and then took off again from that position.

-KC-130F 9798 taking off from the carrier Forrestal. | Photo: USN

-The Herc on the deck of the Forrestal. The dashed line was used to center the plane and to keep the wingtip from striking the ship's island. | Photo: USN

-KC-130 9798 with a special message on the nose during testing. | Photo: USN

The tests aboard Forrestal proved that a C-130 could comfortably carry a 25,000lb cargo 2,500 miles to a carrier, but the Super COD idea was judged to be too risky and disruptive to other carrier operations, and the Navy sought another COD aircraft, resulting in the C-2 Greyhound.

[judgemark45]

Carrier aircraft do not always come aboard ship via arrested landing.   In this photo a Fighter Squadron (VF) 2 F-14A Tomcat is craned aboard USS Enterprise (CVAN 65) at NAS Alameda, California, #OTD in 1974.  Between September 1974 and May 1975, VF-1 and VF-2 made the first deployment with F-14s on board the “Big E

[bluesakura007]

Undeniable - Chapter 1: Zin’s Dilemma - Khan Noonien Singh x OC

Summary: During the court trial of Khan after the events of Into Darkness, Enterprise security chief Zinalya begins to develop a realisation relating to him, causing her to come up against a hefty dilemma.  

"By the power vested in the body by the constitution of the United Federation of Planets, we call this trial to order."

It was a week after the USS Enterprise crew’s ordeal against the man previously known as John Harrison; a week after he had revealed his real name to be Khan Singh, successfully exacted his revenge upon Admiral Alexander Marcus for the suffering he’d been through because of the latter and been pursued through the city of San Francisco by a then-enraged Spock. 

Soft, cold white morning light gently shone through the tall glass windows around the room and into the court where the senior officers of this aforementioned ship were gathered, sitting in the seating stands at the back with dozens of other people in attendance while currently wearing their dress uniforms.

"Guards, bring forth the defendant."

In stepped the man of the moment himself from the doors at the very back of the courtroom, his forearms shackled together by a pair of metallic manacles and being accompanied on all sides by a group of security guards, clutching their rifles fiercely.

"The defendant will remain restrained and under guard for the duration of the trial." Said the judge. Khan was now the centre of everyone’s attention behind him, especially the Enterprise group, and even more especially captain Kirk, commander Spock, Dr. Marcus and lieutenant-commander Zinalya Hamilton, the ship’s security chief who was a half-and-half hybrid between a human and a Trill. 

She had long, dark burgundy hair stretching down behind her shoulders, hazel-green eyes and, due to this half Trill lineage, some of this race’s spots on either side of her body, from the top of her forehead down to her neck; in addition, her human parent was from Manitoba, making Zinalya herself a Canadian on this half. "Please state your full name for the record."

"My name is Khan Noonien Singh." He replied, as always in his baritone voice which felt to those around him as if it was reverberating through the floor itself. Some of these others sitting behind him in the audience felt themselves subconsciously shiver at the sound of it.

The Enterprise officers who had been around Khan the most during the previous week spent the following minutes of the trial, after his charges had been covered and discussed, being called on to give testimony as witnesses. Three of these included Spock, Carol and Jim, and then came Zinalya’s turn. "And you were the main officer in charge of overseeing and guarding the defendant, Miss Hamilton?"

"Yes, your honour." She nodded her head. "As the ship’s chief of security I kept watch over him myself some of the time and also arranged where and when he’d be guarded by the other security officers onboard."

"It says here in your report which you submitted to Starfleet command that you spent the two days during his detainment on the Enterprise visiting and conversing with him. Is this true?"

"It is, yes." Ignoring the slight but rising nervousness in the back of her throat, she answered the query truthfully while turning her head to the left to briefly look at the Augment, who was gazing back without any clear outward emotion but with recognition towards her after this time they'd spent talking, him in his clinically white brig cell and her on the other side of the glass. "I was talking to him about his motivations and reasons for his charges." 

She knew that she hadn't committed any actual crimes, but she knew that any indication of her getting friendly with Khan would be dangerous to her career and to some of her friendships amongst the other senior officers. Her social standing was one of the things she valued, and friendships could sometimes be a fragile thing indeed.

"Did he tell you anything that he revealed to Mr. Kirk and Mr. Spock later on?"

"Only that he was genetically engineered and that he’d come from very far away, but nothing that was any more specific than that." She subconsciously felt another growing lump in her throat at the memory of when he later revealed his true identity to Spock and their captain; when he told them about what Admiral Marcus had done to incur his wrath and started crying, right there and then. Zinalya would have been downright lying if she said that the sight of the tear on his cheek when he turned back around and the desperation in his voice at that time didn’t tug at her own heartstrings, even if it was just a little bit. "He was very brief during those moments when I was talking to him alone."

"So he didn’t make any clear indication to you individually that he had come from three centuries ago or indicate what he was planning on doing?

"No your honour." If she was being honest with herself, she actually felt like most of what Khan did after his prison cell revelation consisted of on-the-spot decisions: she wasn’t present to see it taking place, but from the way she understood it, he only attacked Kirk, Scotty and Carol on the bridge of the Vengeance after the former ordered Khan to be stunned, making himself, too, come across as untrustworthy in the latter’s eyes, and the following incident where he fought against Spock in the city was him taking out his rage and anguish due to being led to believe that his crew had all died when the seventy-two torpedoes were detonated, so she also couldn’t help but feel like Khan had been through quite the emotional rollercoaster.

"Very well then. Thank you lieutenant-commander, that will be all." The judge concluded his series of questions directed at her, to which she gave a nod and, after giving another brief look at the man with the smooth black hair and snakelike pale turquoise eyes, walked back towards where she’d been sitting, which was in between Scotty and Chekov, her two closest friends. "Dr. Leonard Herman McCoy, step forward please."

As this chief medical officer stood up and made his own way down through the seating area towards the witness stand, Scotty smiled jokingly at Zinalya and Pavel, who were on his left. "I didn’t know his middle name was Herman - obviously something we can conveniently tease the laddie about later." He whispered to them with a chuckle, to which they both nodded and the latter smiled. 

The female one of the trio, however, tried to smile along with them and join in but found it to be difficult, because her head was full of various thoughts and ponderings relating to the defendant to the point where it was now taking up a large majority of her consciousness itself. He briefly craned his head around and looked around the room, like a cornered animal surveying its surroundings, before his eyes came to rest on her.

"Zinalya?" Pavel’s voice caught her attention to her own left hand side, seeming to notice her expression of deep thought. "Are you alright?"

"What? Oh, yeah, yeah I'm okay, I was just miles away for a second there." She answered, temporarily bringing herself back to what was going on around her at that second as opposed to all the hypotheticals and questions racing through her mind. Khan had now turned his head back into the forward-facing position, occasionally looking at Bones as the latter gave his own testimony.

Generally subdued rock music played as the ambience of the club that Zinalya was sitting in later that evening. She had a glass of Scotch whisky gripped absentmindedly in her right hand, both of which currently resting on the bar whilst her other hand held her head, which was somewhat tilted to one side, and she was repeating the same thing she was in the middle of earlier in the courtroom: thinking and pondering endlessly on the mental predicament she found herself in.

She was torn between two viewpoints, not entirely certain which one to take and therefore keeping herself stressed as it was an unresolved issue. On the one hand, she knew full well as much as anyone else what Khan had done and the kind of things he'd gotten up to - causing the deaths of numerous people, including Admiral Pike and even the obviously now-revived Kirk - but on the other, she wondered whether he truly deserved the extent of Spock's aggression that he was subjected to during the city chase. 

It was as if she had split herself into two totally different people altogether, one telling her that there was more to Khan underneath his chilling exterior, and that she didn't properly know what he was like in actuality, and the other constantly reminding her of the people he had killed and the acts he had committed.

"Hey." She turned her head around upon hearing the voice of her captain himself speak out. Jim appeared to be accompanied by Carol and lieutenant Uhura, all three of them dressed in casual clothes like the burgundy-haired hybrid herself was. "D'you mind if we join you?"

"No, go ahead."

Captain Kirk and the other two female officers with him all sat down adjacent to her at the bar, him and Carol on her right and Nyota on her left. "I used to come here a few times too. I actually still remember a fight I got into in this place a few years back - admiral Pike called it an ‘epic beating’." He chuckled fondly at these memories, although behind his smile Zinalya could also tell that it was simultaneously a slightly poignant expression and she, too, was affected by it.

Great, she thought. I’m trying to make sense of all this, to decide what I really think, and Pike is getting brought up again. Just when I thought I was making some kind of progress in thinking it over...

"Mr. Chekov told us that you seemed distant earlier today. Is something wrong?" Carol asked, noticing her own small change of expression.

"Well..." The half Trill-half human was up against a case of trying to work out how exactly to word what she was going to say. "To be honest I’m kind of in the middle of a dilemma."

"What is it?" Said Nyota.

She paused, taking another of these moments where she formed the words in her head. "I’ve got a decision I need to make soon, and it might be one that takes me off the Enterprise and to someplace else."

"You mean like a transfer?" Said Jim.

The real reason for Zinalya possibly having to leave her posting in the near future wasn’t this and was instead something very, very different, but she could neither bring herself to tell the three the truth nor lie to them, so she simply nodded her head without giving a verbal response. "I don’t want to leave, because I still have friends onboard, and because my parents and brothers are here on Earth and where I’ll be going to is pretty far away. But it’s also a chance that means a lot to me and that I don’t want to pass up, so I feel like I’m being pulled in two different directions... and I basically have no idea which choice to make."

The trio around her thought for a second, before Carol enquired, "Have you weighed up the good and bad sides of them both?"

"At least somewhere around a thousand times, yeah."

"Then I think you should go with what your instincts are telling you - if accepting this chance is what you want to do, then you should do it." The woman with the chin length blonde hair nodded encouragingly.

"She’s right: do what makes you happy." Concurred lieutenant Uhura.

"So... you guys will be okay with it if I do choose to leave? Things’ll still be alright between us?"

"Of course."

"You’re a good friend to us and the others." Added Jim with a reassuring smile. "We’ll be a little sad to see you go, but you deserve to make that choice if you’re sure you wanna do it. We’ll be rooting for you the whole way, Zin."

This supportive demeanour that he, Nyota and Carol were making use of towards her made her wish even more that she could tell them what the true reason for her leaving was, and what she was really planning to do.

[lex-for-lexington]

“USS California (BB-44) at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard, 18 July 1942, during re-installation of her 14"/50 main battery guns. A large floating crane is alongside her starboard bow, placing a gun in Turret # 1. Guns are also visible in Turret # 3, whose top has not yet been put in place. Note anti-torpedo nets protecting the ship.”

(Source)

[imaginesbymk]

fandom list.

categories:

Films

TV Shows

YouTube ASMR Voice Audios (misc.)

* Italics = a character I will only write platonically.

—films

The Maze Runner

Thomas / Teresa Agnes / Newt / Minho / Frypan / Gally / Brenda / Aris / Sonya / Harriet

Janson / Ava Paige

The Hunger Games

Katniss Everdeen / Primrose Everdeen / Peeta Mellark / Gale Hawthorne / Finnick Odair / Haymitch Abernathy / Cato / Clove / Glimmer / Foxface / Enobaria / Johanna Mason / Effie Trinket

Rue / President Snow / President Alma Coin / Cinna

Titanic (1997)

Jack Dawson / Rose DeWitt Bukater / Fabrizio / Cal Hockley / and maybe the ship officers

Triple Frontier

Tom “Redfly” Davis / Santiago “Pope” Garcia / Francisco “Catfish” Morales / William “Ironhead” Miller / Ben Miller / Yovanna

Reservoir Dogs

Mr. Orange / Mr. Pink / Mr. Brown / Mr. Blonde / Mr. White / Nice Guy Eddie

Pulp Fiction

Vincent Vega / Jules Winnfield / Mia Wallace / Butch / Ringo "Pumpkin

Inglourious Basterds

Aldo Raine / Donny Dorowitz / Shosanna Dreyfus “Emmanuelle Mimieux” / Marcel / Archie Hicox / Bridget Von Hammersmark / Hugo Stiglitz

Hans Landa, Major Dieter Hellstrom, Fredrick Zoller (in some cases, I can write implied topics but nothing of my writing condones Landa, Hellstrom or Zoller’s actions as N*zis - in no way am I tangentially condoning their actions in this film - so they are written platonically - preferably as enemies of the reader)

Dunkirk

Tommy / Peter / George / Gibson / Alex / Collins / Farrier / Soldier (Cillian Murphy)

Midsommar

Dani Ardor / Christian Hughes / Josh / Mark / Pelle

Heathers (1989)

The Heathers / Veronica Sawyer / Jason “J.D” Dean

Scream franchise

(1996) Sidney Prescott / Billy Loomis / Stu Macher / Randy Meeks / Tatum Riley / Dewey Riley / Gale Weathers

(2000) Roman Bridger

(2022) Tara / Sam / Amber / Richie / Chad

—tv shows

Gotham

Bruce Wayne / Selina Kyle / Edward Nygma / Oswald Cobblepot / Jim Gordon / Jerome Valeska / Jeremiah Valeska / Ecco / Barbara Kean / Tabitha Galavan / Jervis Tetch / Lee Thompkins / Ivy Pepper (older), Fish Mooney, Eduardo Dorrance “Bane” / Ra’s Al-Gul / Victor Zsasz, Jonathan Crane “Scarecrow”

Harvey Bullock, Alfred Pennyworth, Butch Gilzean

Squid Game

Gi-Hun / Sang-Woo / Kang Sae-byeok / Hwang Jun-ho / Ali Abdul / Ji-yeong

Arcane (League of Legends)

Vi / Jinx / Caitlyn Kiramman / Sevika / Silco / Vander / Ekko / Jayce Talis / Viktor / Mel Medarda / Deckard 

Powder (younger) 

Euphoria

Rue Bennett / Jules Vaughn / Maddy Perez / Cassie Howard / Lexi Howard / Kat Hernandez / McKay / Fezco / Elliot

Gia Bennett / Ashtray

***will not write for Nate, Cal or Aaron Jacobs***

Skins (UK)

Generation 1: Tony Stonem / Sid Jenkins / Cassie Ainsworth /  Michelle Richardson / Jal Fazer / Chris Miles / Anwar Kharral / Maxxie Oliver (no female pairing unless platonic/familial)

Generation 2: Effy Stonem / Pandora Moon / James Cook / Freddy McClair / JJ Jones / Thomas Tomone / Katie & Emily Fitch / Naomi Campbell

Generation 3: Franky Fitzgerald / Mini McGuiness / Alo Creevey / Rich Hardbeck / Liv Malone / Grace Blood

The Haunting of Hill House

Steven Crain / Shirley Crain / Theo Crain / Nell Crain / Luke Crain

Young!Crain siblings, Hugh Crain, Olivia Crain

The Haunting of Bly Manor

Dani Clayton / Jamie / Peter Quint / Rebecca Jessel / Owen / Hannah Grose

Henry Wingrave / Flora Wingrave / Miles Wingrave

Black Mirror

Bandersnatch: Stefan Butler / Colin Ritman

Fifteen Million Merits: Bingham Madsen / Abi Khan

Be Right Back: Ash Starmer

White Christmas: Matt

San Junipero: Kelly / Yorkie

Hated in the Nation: Karin Parke / Blue Colson

USS Callister: Nanette Cole, Walton, Elena Tulaska, Shania

Hang the DJ: Frank / Amy

Kenny (Shut Up & Dance) / Robert Daly (USS Callister)

*I do not write for all Black Mirror episodes*

The Pacific

Bob Leckie / John Basilone / Manny Rodriguez / Lew “Chuckler” Juergens / Wilbur “Runner” / Conley Andrew “Ack Ack” Haldane / Eddie “Hillbilly” Jones / Bill “Hoosier” Smith / Eugene Sledge / Merriell “Snafu” Shelton / Sid Phillips / Jay D’Leau / Bill Leyden / R.V Burgin / Vera Keller / Lena Riggi

Superstore

Jonah / Amy / Dina / Garrett / Cheyenne / Mateo / Marcus / Bo

Glenn Sturgis

The Queen’s Gambit

Beth Harmon / Jolene / Benny Watts / D.L Townes / Harry Beltik

The Good Place

Michael / Eleanor Shellstrop / Chidi Anagonye / Tahani Al-Jamil / Jason Mendoza / Janet

The Walking Dead (S1-11)

Rick Grimes / Shane Walsh / Daryl Dixon / Carl Grimes / Glenn Rhee / Maggie Rhee / Beth Greene / Michonne Hawthorne / Negan / Simon / Enid / Rosita Espinosa / Yumiko / Magna / Connie / Kelly / Jesus / Siddiq / Noah / Cyndie / Tara Chambler / Dwight / Sherry / Sasha Williams / Eugene Porter / Jerry / King Ezekiel / Abraham Ford

Aaron, Lydia, Judith Grimes, Henry Peletier, Sophia Peletier

Dracula (BBC/2020 Netflix original)

Count Dracula / Agatha Van Helsing / Zoe Van Helsing / Jonathan Harker / Jack

Peaky Blinders (S1-S6)

Tommy Shelby / Arthur Shelby / Ada Thorne / John Shelby / Finn Shelby / Polly Gray / Michael Gray / Grace Burgess / Lizzie Starke / May Carleton / Alfie Solomons / Luca Changretta / Tatiana Petrovna / Gina Gray / Aberama Gold / Bonnie Gold

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Jake Peralta / Amy Santiago / Rosa Diaz / Charles Boyle, Gina Linetti

Raymond Holt / Kevin Cozner

Shadowhunters

Clary Fray / Jace Wayland / Alec Lightwood / Isabelle Lightwood / Magnus Bane / Simon Lewis / Maia Roberts / Luke Garroway / Raphael / Jordan Kyle / Seelie Queen / Meliorn / Hodge Starkweather / Helen Blackthorn / Aline Penhallow

Jonathan Morgenstern / Sebastian Verlac (as disguise) / Valentine Morgenstern / Jocelyn Fray / Maryse Lightwood / Max Lightwood / Camille Belcourt

Stranger Things

Steve Harrington / Jonathan Byers / Nancy Wheeler / Robin Buckley /  Eddie Munson / Chrissy Cunningham / Dmitri Antonov / 001/Henry Creel/”Peter” (not writing him as Vecna) / Jim Hopper / Joyce Byers

Eleven / Mike Wheeler / Will Byers / Lucas Sinclair / Dustin Henderson / Max Mayfield

***no longer writing for Billy Hargrove***

—youtube asmr voice audios (misc)

ZSakuVA 

Professor Andrew Marston (Strict Professor series)

CardlinAudio

[lonestarbattleship]

USS KEARSARGE (AB-1, ex-BB-5) passing through the Gaillard Cut.

Photographed sometime between the 1920s and the 1930s.

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command: NH 52037

[uss-edsall]

Transcript:

Today, a ruined airplane -- and what might've been. The University of Houston presents this series about the machines that make our civilization run and the people whose ingenuity created them.

The Royal Australian Air Force lost a plane at 11:00 PM, February 28, 1942. Australia and America lost a lot more that night. One antediluvian biplane was a tiny fragment in a terrible battle. It was the Supermarine Walrus, an amphibious seaplane serving the Australian light cruiser, Perth. It did sea rescue, liaison - and reconnaissance. Lt. Jock McDonough was its pilot.

This was three months after Pearl Harbor, and we were losing the Pacific. The Japanese now held the Philippines, Wake Island, much of Southeast Asia, and they were closing in on Java. Two cruisers, our USS Houston and the Perth, had sailed toward Sunda Strait on the western end of Java, and found themselves surrounded by Japanese in the dark. Both ships went down in the furious battle that followed. Much of the enemy's point-blank fire passed through them, and sunk or damaged several of their own troopships.

Fewer than 700 (fewer than half) the Australian and American sailors survived. Most ended up doing forced labor on the Hellish Thai-Burma Railway project. One of was not a sailor, but that Australian airman, Jock McDonough.

Warships once carried those useful little airplanes. They catapulted them into flight, then used a ship's crane to pick them out of the water. But the Houston was without its four little float planes. The smaller Perth carried a single amphibious seaplane, the Walrus. It was bigger than the American planes, but they all looked ancient beside most military planes. The Supermarine Company that built the Walrus also built the famed Spitfire - both went into production in the mid '30s; but there's no hint of kinship between the plodding Walrus and the sleek Spitfire.

This particular Walrus first served on another ship. It made a forced landing at sea, underwent repairs, was put on the Perth just after Pearl Harbor, was damaged again, repaired, and returned to the Perth just before Christmas. Then an accident damaged its wing on New Year's Day. Enemy fire finally destroyed that tattered plane before the Perth went down. McDonough was the only Walrus crew member to survive. He ended up on the Thai-Burma Railway after passing through prison camps in Serang and Bhatavia.

Navies phased out most of those old biplanes a year or so later. Their purposes changed when warships got the new Radar systems. Warfare was morphing even as the Battle of Sunda Strait ended. And that Thai-Burma Railway? It lasted only 'til 1947. Only some sixty percent of 300,000 slave laborers who'd built it, survived.

So waves closed over the ships and men of Sunda Strait. Jock McDonough lived 'til 2005; now he's gone too. And we're left saying: if only that Walrus had been in good repair, if onlyit'd flown out in daylight. But it wasn't, and it didn't. It went down with the rest, and the waves closed over one more terrible debacle of war.

I'm John Lienhard at the University of Houston, where we’re interested in the way inventive minds work.

[usafphantom2]

Tap pictures to enlarge

☝️ if you so desire, this will be his last book. He received recently declassified documents, six years ago. Paul felt that he just had to write one more book.

I just I read the piece you wrote about the loss of #974 a couple of days ago and thought you’d like a ‘sneaky-peek’ at part of the piece that’ll appear in the new book covering the subject…

“Side‑scanning sonar imaging of the crash site took place on 29 and 30 April, and it was not long before the debris field of ’974 was located. The 280ft‑long salvage vessel USS Beaufort was dispatched to lift the wreckage with its 10‑ and 15‑ton cranes, fitted on the bow and stern, respectively, and to find the sensors and defensive systems (Coincidently the ship was built by Brooke Marine, in the author’s home town of Lowestoft, Suffolk). Due to the proximity of the communist New People’s Army, a number of Navy SEALs were on board to provide protection to the divers and crew. One morning during the search an order for General Quarters was sounded at 0400��hours. Crewmen rushed to their action stations in readiness for an immediate confrontation. They saw a large number of small vessels (which had been detected on the Beaufort’s radar) making for the ship. Tension mounted until it was discovered that the would‑be attackers were fishing boats that had come towards the bright lights of the naval vessel because a very large shoal of fish had congregated around it. When ’974 impacted the water inverted both engines, the main undercarriage and the aircraft’s sensors smashed through its upper surfaces. They were scattered on the ocean floor at varying distances away from the main wreckage field. On the evening of 1 May, wire hawsers were attached to one of the J58 engines. The late evening movements dislodged the TEB tank and caused a small leak, which released tiny amounts of the chemical throughout the night. As the volatile chemical bubbled to the surface, it mixed with ambient air and exploded in small green puffs. The ‘magic’ of the ‘Yankee’ engineers caused quite a stir among the native fishermen who saw the eerie ‘TEB‑bubble show’. The next day both engines were lifted and brought aboard the Beaufort’s fantail, and two days later many of the sensors were also recovered. When the ship’s crew attempted to lift the main section of the aircraft, the crane operator found that the large delta‑shaped wing planform greatly exceeded the lifting capacity of his crane, and the wreckage refused to budge an inch. A yard derrick was sent from Subic Bay and the forward fuselage section was recovered on 7 May, while the main structure was lifted aboard the Beaufort’s fantail the following day. The black wreckage was a sad end for a once‑proud aeroplane, despite Dan’s skilful ( Dan House the Pilot) and valiant efforts to save it.” The first two photos were taken by Tony Landis. This post is by Linda Sheffield Miller.

[gametrendshirts]

Less than 1% of Americans have ever seen the sunset from a US Navy ship shirt

This is the official Less than 1% of Americans have ever seen the sunset from a US Navy ship shirt, hoodie, tank top and sweater. Designed by uglyxmastshirts.

BUY IT: Less than 1% of Americans have ever seen the sunset from a US Navy ship shirt

All US Navy ships start as USS which is short for United States Ship. Less than 1% of Americans have ever seen the sunset from a US Navy ship shirt. Then you have designators that depend on the class of ship. In my case, the LPD-11 Coronado stood for United States Ship Landing Platform Dock number 11. DDG= destroyer guided missile, CV=carrier, CVN= carrier nuclear powered, GCN = cruiser guided missile. This should give an idea of how ships are designated in the US Navy.  You have welders, mechanics, pilots for planes and helicopters, crane operators, electricians, cops, dentists, doctors, cooks, janitors, telecommunications technicians, air traffic controllers, nuclear power plant operators, small boat drivers, lawyers, secretaries, mailmen, barbers, dry cleaners, and on and on.

Source: uglyxmastshirts.com

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http://gametrendshirts.blogspot.com/2019/04/less-than-1-of-americans-have-ever-seen.html

[galacticbugman]

My Winter Vacation PT. 1

Hello nature geeks this is Galactic Bug Man and last year during Christmas time I had a fun trip down at the coast. Yes I just had get a photo like this, and no this was on my own terms and not my parents doing I am just that crazy to do silly things like this. I love sharks and thought this would be kind of fun to hang up during Shark Week this year. Anyway I took a trip down around Chorpus and boy what a time I had. I don’t get to go to the beach too often but in the last few years I have made three trips out there to see what I could find and do. We had a blast. We did so much and I thought it was time that you guys had an update of what I did over my winter break last year. I know it is spring now but c’mon I had a lot of stuff happen in my life recently so cut me some slack please. 

Ah Corpus Christi one of the many places along the coast of Texas where you can enjoy the water, birds, and of course get a nice cheese burger in paradise (yes I listen to Jimmy Buffet and I do like a good cheeseburger when I go down to Corpus). I took this shot the last night we stayed there. Ah the wind was cool and the sky was a deep purple red. The moon was full and the birds calls were just music to my ears. I have had a rough time with my grandmother’s passing that I needed to get a away from the chaos. I had a rough semester last year that I needed some time to reflect, relax, and to contemplate my thoughts and make some new memories and get used to things without her. What better way to get your mind eased then to go to the beach. The beach is my preferred place to go or to look at when I am feeling down or depressed. It was a lovely trip full of wildlife and fun things to do. We wound up doing more than we bargained for which only added to the adventure. 

 On our way to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge we made a quick stop at a place called Indian Point Park which was not on the list of places to go but it was really neat. They had a nice area out there full of birds. My aunt stopped for she saw some Roseate Spoonbills as you see here feeding in the shallow water of this salt marsh. Some of you may not know this but I am an avid birder and bird watcher when I am not looking for insects. Winter time is the perfect time to go down to the coast to get birds you don’t often see in the summertime. Beach time is not just for summer. 

Some American Avocets were also in the feeding group. These guys stayed mostly too themselves and didn’t get too close to the Spoonbills. The Black-necked Stilts which were also out there early that morning stayed to themselves in a tighter group totally isolated form the other birds. There were also a few Tri-colored Herons around in the tall grasses too but I was not able to get any great photos of them. They were further out in the tall grass and even though I got a new camera I was having a hard time with the shadows. I got a new camera because my Nikon was getting all messed up. I got a pretty good deal for it on Black Friday and I love it. It takes some pretty nice photos of birds I normally can’t get that are way out away from the humans. So on this trip I was able to get several shots of many different birds that I wouldn’t have been able to get with my old Nikon Coolpix L830. I now have a Canon EOS Rebel T6 which was a very nice upgrade from my Nikon. Sorry I am getting off topic here. So the feeding group had a lot too it. We got up really early and ate our breakfast and got on the road around 10:00 and made it to this park pretty quickly because it wasn’t that far from our hotel. We went down the road that weaved around this park and did some more exploring.  We made our way to a little parking lot with a dock near it. We all piled out of the car and did some further exploring. I went near some rocks where I found this guy. 

This Long-billed Curlew was just beyond the rocks I was watching him from. He was in the shallows of the shore looking around for something to snack on. I love watching shore birds feed as they dip their bills in and out of the sand looking for tasty morsels to eat. It is fun to watch as some birds do it in groups and it is like an all you can eat buffet. This guy seemed to be all alone on the shore and I soon finished my observation of him and went on to see what I could find elsewhere at the park. 

We went along the to the fishing pier where a bunch of people were currently fishing at. Along the beach the water was very clear and in the water I was able to get a few shots of our state shell which is none other than the Texas Lighting Whelk. The shore was just dotted in these shells. You would see one then as you looked around every few feet of beach you could see them all spread out. There was about sixteen or so I kind of had to fudge on the estimate just to make a round about estimation. There were a lot of these. I had never noticed the patterns very closely before but they were very beautiful indeed. The creamy white color with the darker maroon stripes was just very interesting to note. This was not all that we would see on our little adventure it was only just beginning. 

  In the deeper waters as we went further out past the sandy shores I looked over the edge and spotted this Sea Nettle Jellyfish. This was the second Jellyfish that I have seen alive and have on my iNaturalist account. I never seem to do anything without out in nature without documenting stuff to the iNaturalist database/ social media/ wildlife site. It is one of the best tools to learn about the wildlife around you. The jellyfish was just floating in place. He would often ungulate that huge dome up and down which was very entertaining to watch. The last time I was down there was during the time of the Padre Island National Seashore Turtle Release and Scout Days. We went to the U.S.S. Lexington Museum by the Bay and when we left the museum I saw my first Moon Jelly bobbing up and down in the water next to the mighty ship. This just gave me a small boost to my aquatic life forms list. I don’t know about some people but I always like to keep a life list of all that I see and hear. Some people only keep check lists of birds but for me I like to keep a spreadsheet of all the wildlife I encounter using the data mainly from again my iNaturalist account. I am a firm believer in making a difference with citizen science and iNaturalist is a very helpful tool to learn about all about the wildlife that you encounter. I have been using it for a long while and I officially have 5,771 observations in total but I have seen 1,370 species at last count and that is using it over a four year period. This year will be my fourth year using it. I am so glad I use it; it is fun to use it and learn the names of all the wildlife that see. In most cases people grow up knowing something in nature but don’t know what it is name wise. with the iNaturalist app it can give you that information because a team of scientists or avid nature fans will tell you exactly what said creature is. That is how I know most of this stuff. The birds I am able to use guides on to figure out their names but when I am unsure like in most of my insect and spider cases I use iNaturalist to help me better understand an organism. 

Sorry I went off topic again but it just comes to show that I am really passionate about such things when I am on the go and on an new adventure. 

What is Corpus Christi without the USS Lexington CV-16 standing watch over the coastline at the JFK Causeway Bridge. I been to that museum as I mentioned it may not be nature but it is history and nature and history go hand in hand I find. The museum is a fantastic place and it is basically the whole ship. You go from deck to deck and explore nearly the whole ship’s interior. I find a lot of that kind of stuff interesting because I am kind of a history nut. I like to read about boats and things since I am a Trekkie and Star Trek is literally based off the Navy but more of a science navy. I love to read about airplanes too and among other places. I also like to visit state and national historical sites too like the Alamo and the old mission at Goliad State Historical Site. There is a lot of cool things to do and see as some of those places. Even if they don’t seem like they have wildlife you’ll be what you can find that is wild around those kinds of places. My great grandfather drove a Half-track in World War II and I guess that is why my family have always been history freaks. I love it though you get to learn about the most intriguing things when you study nature, history and any kind of science.  

One of the last things I would expect to find at the coast so late in the season would be a Monarch Butterfly. This guy should have already made its journey down to the Fir Forests of Mexico but this guy was a little late getting there. We found this guy at Indian Point park in the mess of vegetation that was growing out there. This guy was also with a nearby Queen Butterfly so that was kind of odd but of course first to come last to leave I guess. Still that was an interesting observation but he didn’t have a tag so I couldn't report it or call it in. Still it was a nice observation for the trip and a very unexpected one. 

When we finally arrived at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge I had to complete a mission; a mission I have been trying to fulfill since my first trip out there. I wanted to by a patch to put on my naturalist vest that I have been working on for the last few years since I got it back in 2015 or so. I was kind of nervous because the last couple of times we went out there I was unable to purchase it but I lucked out and was able to buy it on this last trip boy was I happy. This is the place where the rare and endangered Whooping Crane nest over winter. A few Whoopers have been found nesting in Louisiana but most flock here and take refuge in the tall grasses of the prairies that are there. I made a donation to the park by giving a little bit of what I had out of my bank for the restoration after the recent Hurricane Harvey which destroyed their lovely visitor center which was a pity they had so many wonderful exhibits there and a whole wildlife guide collection among other things. So I felt I need to make a contributions to the restoration of their visitors center and their ongoing efforts to protect one of my favorite birds. I have been a big Whooping Crane fan since I was a small boy. I went to this Zoo once I think it was the San Antonio Zoo and I bought a VHS tape on Whooping Cranes called Flight of the Whooping Crane and it talked about the flock on the eastern seaboard that is not a natural migration route and the people who take the ultralight aircraft path with the whoopers each year called Operation Migration. It was a video of mainly home videos showing their route and how they take care of the chicks and the adult birds. I really enjoyed that video. Back in the early 1941 there was only 21 individuals but now there are 383 birds. So they are slowly regaining numbers and regaining their territory lowly but surely. They are a crane so they are not prolific at all they have maybe one or two chicks a year so survival of these birds still hangs in the balance. 

While on the trail I spotted this guy high up in the trees. This guy is called an Anhinga. Don’t let it fool you it may look like a Cormorant but actually it is a little different than a cormorant and acts differently. This is what you call a Darter. I am not sure what makes it so different form the Cormorants. A friend I have from the Fort Worth Audubon Society didn’t even know but there is a difference. I might have to go back and resort to my field guides for more details. I am not an expert I am only an amateur so bear with me okay. Now where was I... oh yes; 

We like to go out to the observation tower that was surprisingly not destroyed by the hurricane that had made a mess out of the coastline. There was a whole flock of Turkey Vultures sitting in the trees when we arrived. You know your pretty high up when you can see the backside of a vultures sitting on its perch. This guy had a real Batman stance as he sat up in the tree. My guess is that they all had a recent meal and were drying their feathers and resting. Some people just don’t like vultures. I tend to appreciate them for their good service to the planet. Without vultures the world would be a much messier place. Some one has to clean up the carcasses after something dies and the vultures may seem like an unlikely character but they play an important part as nature’s trash cleanup crew. They may have ways that are odd and kind of grotesque to us but yet it is just the way nature wanted them to be. They are pretty neat birds if you think about it. I go to a place called River Legacy in Arlington Texas a lot and I some shots of vulture’s coming in pretty close over the trees. They maybe a strange bird but man do they have power when they are flying. It is amazing to look at these wonderful birds up close. 

After we ate lunch we headed over to the Oso Bay wetland’s center which was a place I had never been too before. This place is really cool and they have a fun little area called Pelican Porch which overlooks the Oso Bay area. This was a marvilous place. It is like a little nature center with a community garden for like kids camps and things. There was a lot of stuff to see here on the day we went and there was few things I didn’t expect to see since I am from North Texas and I keep forgetting that it is warmer down south and that there are more arthropods down there in the winter time that our out to play. Let us meet a couple of them that caught my eye shall we. 

Here is one of the few spiders I saw on the trip. I bet you have never seen one of these guys before! Meet the Spiny-backed Orbweaver. These guys come in an assortment of different colors. They can be white and red, black and white, orange and black, or in this guys case yellow and back. These little guys are so cool and this female was just hanging out when I found her. I had to climb under stuff to get her backside because where my mother’s hand is she was sitting opposite and there was not a snowball’s chance in heck I would be able to ID that from that side. So I had to get on my hands and knees and crawl under her web making sure I didn’t disturb it and was able to get this shot. It was kind of tricky but the web was just high enough that I didn’t disturb her. Remember don’t do anything to disrupt the balance of nature. Messing with spiderwebs is not very smart. for one thing spiders can’t produce more silk. When they have to move to a new location they will eat that silk and move on. If you muck with it then they may not be able to restore the majority of that silk. 

Here is another one; not the Spiny-backed but another species of spiny spider known as the Spined  Micrathena. This one has an much more elongated back than the other one and has more of a starburst color pattern. This guy may not come in a whole range of colors but I am not sure I have been so busy with other observations I have not looked this one up to the fullest. Anyway still a really neat one that I liked that I thought was pretty unusual. It was my first one and a new lifer for me. 

Soon the sun began to sink slowly in the west and we went to one last stop before turning in that night before going to Padre Island National Seashore before heading back home. Let me share with you a couple of that night’s observations before I close the gate on part one of my most recent major excursion at the coast. 

So this is where we came in. A peaceful serene look over the bay with A&M Corpus Christi in the back with the full moon above. Talk about a shot! I am going to hang this up in my room when I get a chance to put it in a frame. This is one of my favorite shots from the trip but being there in person was really memorable. I loved being there at Hans & Suter Wildlife Refuge. Not a bad little spot to end the day of hiking and wildlife watching and wildlife photography. 

A lovely shot of a Brown Pelican passing by the covered end of the boardwalk under a red sky. My what a shot. Some of the best photos from my new camera were taken on this trip and this was one of them. Frankly I would have liked to have stayed a little bit longer but I am being told that we will most likely go to Colorado this Summer so that will be a fun trip to get some observations from the mountains and go to some of the old favorite places and some places I have never been before and revisit some of the old memories up there. My I love traveling to get photos and to spend time with those I love the most. I needed this vacation. It was a good trip where I just lost myself completely in the personal discovery of new places and new species to add to my life list. This is what I live for. Just to let loose and hang out among wildlife and explore culture, history, and science all in one swing. 

When we wrapped up our second day which was the day we had the full day to explore we said goodbye to Hans & Suter Wildlife Refuge but not before this little Loggerhead Shrike landed on this info board and posed for me. I was not expecting this little bird to make a surprise entrance as we were making our exit. It was pretty dark and I had a little trouble getting the shot but the end result was absolutely incredible. I sure enjoyed my time at this place and all the other places I explored. Up next is part 2. of my Coastal trip where I will tell more of the unexpected trip turns we took during our Whirlwind trip across the Lonestar State. 

[fapangel]

Re: Submarines with floatplanes | Well the funny thing about this is that you're flat out wrong on quite a few factors. You're blinded by your hatred of the Japanese and unwilling to consider the objective truths, let alone that there might be some possible positives of it. This response is slightly larger than I can type out here, so here's a link to the full writeup (just add your own period): pastebin com/EJFafyeZ

Oh, EvilTwinn. You're a thousand years to young to be fucking with me. I'm going to quote from your response in italics as we go along so those reading can follow along. _Size:__They range from equal in size with their contemporary fleet boats of equal range to up to 10 meters longer. Take for example the Type B1s of 108.7 meters long and a beam of 9.3 meters with the Kaiten VIs, such as that which killed the Yorktown, of 104.7 m and 8.2 m. So as we can see, not really all that much larger. Type B submarines are also of equivalent size. Type Cs actually are longer (by a single meter, so jack shit, but give me the rhetorical point) than the Bs and B1s despite lacking the hangar entirely, while maintaining the same width. "But EvilTwinn," you ask, "how can they be the same size and yet have a hangar?" The hangar actually fits right into an extension of the conning tower and the hull itself. Sure, it makes the submarine marginally less maneuverable when submerged, but that's not a massive concern for the advantage you gain with a floatplane. See, the important thing to remember is that for the most part, these floatplane-carrying submarines were not massive monstrosities like the I-400s, but rather normal sized fleet boats with just one (or rarely two) aircraft carried.__The following are pictures of a Type B1. As you can see, the hangar actually isn't very large, and it does in fact have a crane, for obvious reasons.__https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/I-26_Japanese_submarine.jpg__http://orhistory.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/i-25-Submarine.jpg_The Kaidai-class boat I-168 (which sank the Yorktown) displaced 1,400 tons surfaced. The Type B1 cruiser submarines displaced 2,631 tons. They were _literally_ twice the displacement. _Not really all that much larger?_ Do you know what the [square cube law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square-cube_law) is? You don't know what the fuck you're talking about, kid. Get used to that phrase, because you're gonna hear it a lot. Secondly, none of these aircraft-carrying boats were “fleet submarines.” They were cruiser submarines. Bear with me for a bit, I'm gonna do some History to entertain the peanut gallery (and myself:) During the interwar years, every major naval power experimented with various submarine concepts, trying to discover the best design balance to utilize this promising new weapon that'd wreaked such havoc in the Great War despite being a crude early effort. There were a few ways to go with it. One option was to stick to relatively small, nimble boats; an attractive option for navies expecting to fight in waters close to home (i.e. the German navy,) with torpedoes as the primary weapon. Combat experience in WWI had revealed the great difficulties and unreliability of torpedoes, however, which were very expensive weapons to begin with - and the limited ammo count. Some of the most successful U-boats of the war (including the leading U-boat ace, the excellently named Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière in _U-35_,) simply operated like surface raiders utilizing centuries-old “prize rules,” popping up near a merchant, training their 6-inch deck gun on them, and ordering their crew into lifeboats before shelling scuttling, or (rarely) taking the ship as a prize. Naturally the Entente powers got tired of this shit and started putting guns on their merchants, going so far as to bait U-boats to destruction (Q-ships,) and the rest is history. The concept was still sound, but submarines would have to upgun to deal with armed merchants. Attempts varied widely. The British tried the interesting [M-class submarines](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_M-class_submarine) which used a single fixed 12-inch gun in the conning tower; the idea being to surface, fire into the target, and quickly submerge again - basically a torpedo style attack, but much more likely to hit and without the many pitfalls of expensive, finicky torpedoes. Most nations, however, planned on using their gun-armed submarines more conventionally. The _Surcouf_ was the ultimate expression of this: a 3,250 ton sub with twin, _turreted_ 8-inch guns, periscopes designed to double as rangefinders and directors, a fucking motor launch _and_ a hangar for a spotter plane. It was basically an underwater cruiser (*absolute fucking madmen,*) because that's what they were for - cruiser-style long-range commerce raiding. Hence, “cruiser submarines.” America also experimented with cruiser submarines in the interwar years; witness the [V-class boats,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-boat) the most famous of which was the _USS Nautilus,_ who probably changed history at Midway. They were effectively a series of experimental boats as the US Navy (as with their foreign contemporaries) were trying to determine the right development course with these new weapons. The first three boats reached for a new concept; a submarine meant to fight submerged with torpedoes, but with the surface speed (and range) to keep up with the 21-knot Standard Battleships in any Pacific war. Technology in the early 20s wasn't up to the challenge, however. Next they embraced the “cruiser” submarine concept in earnest, (as other nations had in response to the same technical limitations,) producing the ill-fated V-4 Argonaut, a minelayer, and V-5/V-6, the _Narwhal_ and _Nautilus,_ true “cruiser” subs with their two six-inch guns (same concept as _Surcouf_, just not taken to the insane extreme.) V-7, V-8 and V-9 were laid down in the 30s, and by this time technology had caught up and allowed the US Navy to finally reach the design goals of the first three V-boats. What they arrived at was neither the small, nimble 700-900 ton submarine (like the Type VII U-boats Germany fought the Battle of the Atlantic with,) nor the hulking 2,500ish ton “cruiser submarines” (like the _Narwhal_-class.) These boats, which were more maneuverable and faster submerged than the cruisers, but had the surface speed and long range endurance to operate across the Pacific, weighed in around 1,500 tons, and were called “fleet submarines.” I didn't relate all that _entirely_ to amuse all six people who follow this blog, nor to be pedantic - the distinction is important because the Japanese, uniquely, built and used the _full range_ of submarine sizes and concepts throughout the war. By displacement; midget submarines, (many kinds,) small defensive coastal submarines (Ko class, 600ish tons,) medium-sized attack subs, (Type L subs; literally license-built British Type Ls, 893 tons, Kaichu-class subs at 720 tons,) fleet submarines (Kaidai types, 1500ish tons,) and of course their cruiser subs; (Junsen type, 2000ish tons, Type A, 2,500ish tons, Type B, 2,100ish tons, Type C, 2,100ish tons,) and a full range of tanker/transport subs to boot. And they _actively pursued_ this breadth of classes during the war, too; [upgraded Kaidai-type designs were being built through the 40s,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaidai-type_submarine), the [Kaichu VII class](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaich%C5%AB_type_submarine#Kaich.C5.AB_VII_.28Sen-Ch.C5.AB.2C_Ro-35_class.29) were built from 1942-1944, etc. America found uses for their V-class prototypes (the _Narwhals_ were especially good as Marine raider transports, with built-in fire support,) but had abandoned the concept well before the war - once they hit on the fleet submarine concept with the last three V-boats, they never looked back: the pre-war _Porpoise, Salmon, Sargo and Tambor_ classes were incremental refinements on a concept that'd eventually be perfected with the _Gato_ class. For all intents and purposes there was only one class of submarine in the US Navy, the fleet submarine, with a few leftover prototypes used for whatever special missions suited them. The Japanese, however, actively developed and built a much more varied force. If the IJN primarily operated cruiser submarines to the exclusion of all else, you'd have a point in that floatplanes nonwithstanding, their boats were going to be big anyways - but they _didn't._This begs the question of where the floatplanes come in; did the Japanese commit to big cruiser subs in such numbers for other reasons, and throw the planes in as an extra on some classes, or did they go big because only those subs could support the planes? Well, I'm not an actual naval historian like **uss-edsall,** but I'm leaning towards the latter. Let's go over all the IJN's cruiser subs in rough order of progression, and note which ones carried floatplanes: [Junsen-types:](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junsen_type_submarine#Characteristics) Junsen I, (I-1, I-2, I-3 and I-4,) no plane. Junsen I Mod (the I-5,) carried a plane. Junsen II (I-6,) had a plane. Junsen III (I-7) had a plane. [Type-A boats:](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_A_submarine#Characteristics) All marks carried a floatplane. [Type-B boats:](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_B_submarine#Characteristics) All marks carried a floatplane. [Type-C boats:](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_C_submarine#Characteristics) None of these carried a floatplane. They apparently traded the displacement for two more torpedo tubes (for a total of 8) and two more stowed Long Lances. So. The first four boats of the Junsen-class (considered obsolete by war's start and regulated to transport missions from the start,) and the Type Cs (11 of them) were without planes. Actually, subtract the three built Type C Mod (I-52) boats, since they were intended as transports. Eight Type Cs, four Junsen-class boats. 12 cruisers without aircraft. Compare this to the three plane-carrying Junsens, the whole A-class (six boats) and the numerous B-class (29 boats.) That's 12 cruisers without aircraft, compared to 38 _with_ aircraft - and the four Junsens were the first boats of their class, laid down in the mid-twenties and already regulated to transport. We can safely subtract those as not representative of Japan's late-thirties/early forties planning priorities, so that gives us eight cruisers without planes to 39 with. Gee, do you think those floatplanes were a priority to them? No? Then consider two of the A-boats, the [A-mods,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_AM_submarine) which were fucking massive boats equipped with hangar space for _two_ planes - [purpose-built bombers, in fact-](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aichi_M6A) which were contemporary efforts to the I-400 (the AMs were laid down at Kobe late '42 thru mid '43, and the I-400s were planned in '42 and laid down January 1943 at Kure.) In other words, these were not late-war V-project Hail Mary's. Considering how consistently the Japanese equipped their cruiser subs with floatplanes, the A-mods and the I-400s together indicate a serious devotion to sub-based floatplanes. Considering how extensively Japanese doctrine offloaded scouting duties onto cruiser-based floatplanes, I'd say I'm on safe ground when I say that increasing the number of scouting floatplanes was something of a doctrinal priority for the IJN. (Using subs for this was moronic, but more on that later.) For the peanut gallery, this is where the mildly interesting historical retrospective ends and the educating begins. It's time to talk about this “doesn't make the boat bigger” bullshit. For starters, if you think the conning tower's size doesn't matter, you should read [this,](http://navsource.org/archives/08/pdf/0829294.pdf) a nice run-down of the evolution of US fleet boat's conning towers throughout the war. You'll note how the large, generous bridge structures - so comfortable for standing surface watches in peacetime - were ruthlessly and consistently cut down as much as possible through the war. This was primarily to reduce the visual silhouette but had consequences for underwater maneuverability as well. When a submerged submarine is trying to turn left or right, the more flat side surface it has, the more effective drag it suffers, and thus the slower it turns. The overall size of the boat is the biggest factor affecting this, but a large conning tower sure doesn't help. Remember that the main application for a fast underwater turn at flank speed was to move sideways out of the path of a charging destroyer, who would lose sonar contact as he hit flank to sprint over you and drop depth charges. How significant was the extra drag of the floatplane hangar, which significantly increased the sub's superstructure? I've got my opinion (not nearly as significant as the silhouette issue) but Japanese sub skippers watching DDs bearing down on them probably had a different one. Nonetheless, the main issue's the sheer size of boat required to fit a hangar on it at all; that 2,500 ton displacement is what _really_ made them slow-turning and slow-diving. The C class shows what the trade-off was - ditching the 2,467 pound E14Y floatplane (and god knows how many tons of aviation fuel, the flight crew/support crew and supplies for them, spare everything for the engine, and the catapult equipment) allowed for a boat 45 tons lighter to mount two more torpedo tubes (and thus, two more Long Lances.) Whether or not the plane was worth more depends on how useful you think the plane was._Having to stay surfaced to recover aircraft:1. As you yourself mentioned, most submarines stayed surfaced for most of the time, regardless of whether or not they had floatplanes. Thus, having to stay surfaced at most times is not in fact an argument against it. And let's say that the submarine somehow was caught while recovering the aircraft. This is an incredibly unlikely proposition, and to my knowledge never occurred, but I'll humor you nonetheless. If it were to happen you'd probably say "fuck you" to the aircraft in question, shut the interior hangar doors, and if you for some reason couldn't close the exterior doors too, you'd just leave the aircraft behind or still in the hangar, which is now flooded full of water and the airplane ruined, but I think you would agree that the submarine is slightly more valuable than a single aircraft. These things are essentially as a slightly bloated fleet boat._You don't know what the fuck you're talking about. For starters, submarines did _not_ under any circumstances run on the surface, in daylight, when in range of land-based airpower. Everyone - the Germans, the Japanese and the Americans - would stay submerged during daylight hours and cover distance on the surface at night. Air power was absolutely _lethal_ to submarines. To illustrate just how much, staying at periscope depth didn't mean you were safe - a sub's shadow could be spotted from above down to 100 feet (and further, if there was a shallow, sandy bottom,) to say nothing of [magnetic anomaly detectors](http://www.subsowespac.org/the-patrol-zone/japanese-airborne-magnetic-detector.shtml). You could expect to be bombed/depth charged by a plane; you just had the advantage of being able to dive immediately instead of thirty-five seconds from now. This wasn't as crippling on boats ability to patrol as you might think; mainly because the best hunting grounds are usually around geographic chokepoints that dictate shipping lanes. Looking at the Pacific, there's all the Javan straits, the Makassar Strait, the Celebes sea (and the many small straits between the island chain linking Indonesia and Mindanao,) the area between Sumatra and Indonesia, etc. Generally speaking, that gave better results than fucking off to the middle of the Pacific and sailing circles around nothing, so that's where subs hunted. And while submerged and slow you had your hydrophones, which could often pick up a merchant convoy in the surface duct from further away than your aloft spotters could see anyway.The bitch about choke points is that the enemy can read a map too, so those areas were the most heavily patrolled, as well, making it nigh fucking suicidal to stay on the surface during daylight hours. It was twice as suicidal if your air search radar was poor or nonexistent (viz. Japanese.) [Mush Morton found that out the hard way,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Wahoo_(SS-238)#The_search_for_and_discovery_of_Wahoo) but you could still get whacked a damn good distance from your patrol zone while making best time on the surface by long-range multi-engine MPA planes. Just getting to your patrol zone was dangerous enough _without_ advertising your position. To say _nothing_ of surfacing for a while to recover a floatplane. And you _would_ be surfacing to recover that sumbitch, because if you think the pilot could dead-reckon his way through his search leg, then return and land only for his sub to surface within visual range, you don't know jack shit about aircraft navigation in the 1940s. Once his wristwatch and kneeboard math said he should be in the general area, he'd start eyeballing for his ship. It was hard enough for carrier planes, and they had a formation of eyeballs with looking for their stonking big ship surrounded by other stonking big ships. And even _they_ needed radio navigation aids to stand a good chance of not going into the drink. Looking for a much smaller, low-profile submarine with only two pairs of eyes, one of them busy with the instruments? Yeah, their skipper'd be watching his own wristwatch, ready to surface at the designated appointment time, because glassing for them with the attack periscope doesn't hold a candle to a conning tower full of lookouts and by the time you surface and wave flags at 'em they'd be well out of sight anyway. How long would you have to wait, exposed on the surface? Depends on how long it takes the plane to show up. You could speed it up by broadcasting a signal for them to home on with their D/F loop - if you want to bring every other motherfucker with a D/F loop running your way with depth charges and bombs. There's one way to minimize the danger - launch your plane in the afternoon, so they'll be coming back for landing around dusk. This makes it easier for them to find you quickly, as spotting ships by their silhouette against the horizon was the best way to do it, and you'd have the sun setting behind you (and even if they fucked up and came home on the wrong side, the long shadow of your conning tower would make you more visible anyways.) It also means you'd soon have the cover of night during recovery and stowage operations. The disadvantage is that your hangar-enhanced silhouette would also be more visible to _enemy_ aircraft as you waited for your own, making for a situation where the every aspect of that fucking floatplane would be working in synergy to get you killed. I did a brief Google search to see if there was any actual information on Japanese submarine floatplane operations and doctrine, and found nothing. The fact that combatreform.com is on the first page of Google results hints to me that there's little online to be found. I _did_ stumble across combinedfleet's record for I-31, which mentions [one Glen lost on landing in rough seas, and one near sighting by a hostile aircraft while they had their dicks out trying to winch a Glen on board,](http://www.combinedfleet.com/I-31.htm) so there's a nice illustrative anecdote of why you're being pretty fucking glib about the dangers - especially considering that I-31 was eventually killed by a sharp-eyed PBY pilot. Oh hell, why not skim through a few of these pages real quick - oh, look, I-19 [was caught fucking about with her floatplane](http://www.combinedfleet.com/I-19.htm) _thrice_ during the war, with two planes lost as a result. Top notch. [I-36](http://www.combinedfleet.com/I-36.htm) is a fine example of the problems I describe - one floatplane never found the sub at all in the dark, despite it running great risks by flashing running lights and using radio, and another couldn't find it till sunrise - and they promptly scuttled it rather than spend a single hour in daylight recovering it, due to the danger of detection. Oh, before I forget - being spotted on the surface during flight ops entails more than just losing the aircraft after crash-diving. Your problems aren't over just because you dove. The enemy's not going to just shrug, say “ho-hum” and piss off. They're going to start looking for you with active sonar while radioing for every escort and aircraft available to converge on your location and do the same. **A detected sub is a sub with problems.** This was as true in 1942 as it is today._Problems recovering aircraft:I can't speak of any difficulties they encountered, other than that they clearly somehow managed to figure out how to do it, and even if it was slightly more difficult than a 10,000 ton cruiser would have it, they're still launching and recovering a floatplane. That's a pretty big advantage._“Slightly more difficult?” Motherfucker, you don't know what you're talking about. I suggest you read this [ugly but very informative page](http://www.pacificwar.org.au/Midway/RalphWilhelm/SeagullIndex.html) full of first-hand information from a SOC Seagull pilot on how difficult seaplane operations were on a cruiser - where you had a _much_ larger crane, mounted on a much bigger and stable vessel to work with. There is _nothing_ easy about naval aviation even with the best facilities and conditions you could ask for. With the meager equipment and crew available on a submarine? Compare [these](https://thearmoredpatrol.com/2016/08/01/eyes-of-the-fleet-ww2-american-seaplane-operations/) pictures of hoisting operations to the size of the crane in the illustration you linked - I'd bet my bottom dollar they had to take the floats off before swinging the plane over the deck, and with such limited reach there was _no_ room for error; the slightest swell was liable to smack the plane into the hull._Slightly_ more difficult? Wew, lad.I'm on page six and I still haven't gotten to the worst parts yet. Fuck you for making me do this. _Aircraft Performance Concerns, otherwise known as "muh 70 nmi":1. First of all, the aircraft in question could do it more out to 200 nmi per leg. Now, that'd put them fairly low on fuel for the return flight home, but the most numerous airplane, the E14Y "Glen", could go out 200 nmi, cut left for 30 nmi, then fly the 200 nmi back home, and still have 45 nmi worth of reserve fuel. That seems pretty good, by my reckoning. Of course, even if he's only flying 150 nmi legs, that's still fantastic. Reasoning provided more later._There's “I don't know what I'm talking about” and then there's flat-out failing to _think._ Here's the [Yokosuka E14Y “Glen,”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yokosuka_E14Y) the most commonly used floatplane by IJN submarines. And here's the earlier [“Slim.”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watanabe_E9W) They have something in common with the Mitsubishi F1M “Pete” and of course the SOC Seagull - **they were not great scout planes.** The SOC Seagull and Pete were contemporaries and similar in many respects; they were meant for short-range recon, anti-submarine patrol, and, of course, gunnery spotting. This is reflected in both their performance and range - they all manage around 400-500 nautical miles. Compare that to a dedicated scout floatplane like the [Aichi E13A “Jake”,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aichi_E13A) and its range of 1,100 nautical miles. Given the weight and volume restrictions of a fucking submarine hangar, I didn't even bother looking up those floatplanes before guesstimating their range, and I was right - they were Pete/Seagull tier. The Glen made 475nm (better than the Pete, worse than the Seagull) and the Slim barely managed 400.So about those “200 mile legs.” You can make that “200 mile leg,” singular - they could fly 200 miles out, and then fly 200 miles home. _Nominal_ eyeball range for a scout plane flying around 1,500-2,000 feet was about 25nm. That's not exactly a covering much of the horizon. Assuming you actually want to search an area _around_ your fucking submarine, looking for prey, you're going to be flying search patterns:[How the fuck do I embed an externally hosted image god I fucking hate tumblr](http://i.imgur.com/z8zTXtM.jpg)70nm is probably generous. **Simply put, the ocean is a lot fucking bigger than what one plane can visually recon.** They had decent enough reach to recon important facilities, like a harbor or anchorage, but as volume search for supporting the efforts of the submarine and/or other warships they were decidedly lacking, just as the cruiser-carried Pete was. Which brings me to this: _Now, on to the issue of planes being visible. Yes, yes they are visible. That's the tradeoff. You can sneak in to get eyes on without anyone noticing, but let's be realistic here, the submarine can't see very far, especially not without a good surface search radar. Contrast that with a floatplane. They quite inarguably give you much better reconnaissance capabilities, being able to spot both enemy fleet assets as part of a wider search effort as well as enabling a submarine's primary mission: destruction of enemy shipping._One plane simply isn't going to be searching very much ocean area. The Petes and Seagulls on cruisers were mainly used for ASW patrol to catch subs making a surface approach, not for area search at significant distance from the fleet. Worse, if it _does_ find enemy shipping it's likely to be spotted, thus advertising its presence and prompting said ships - merchant or otherwise - to pile on the coal at flank, which makes it immensely more difficult to catch up and move into position for a submerged approach and attack. If they weren't zig-zagging, they sure are now, and their lookouts are awake, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. To say nothing of how subs are typically running offensive operations in _hostile waters,_ which is what they're built for - that's also hostile airspace. If they have air search radars on nearby islands that plane will attract more attention to your presence, and faster, than you might've bargained for. _But yes, the enemy MIGHT notice the plane. It's not guaranteed. But let's assume they do._Yeah, naw, it's fairly fuckin easy, dingleberry. Here, lets flip through combinedfleet's tabular movement records and just ctrl-F “floatplane:” [I-21](http://www.combinedfleet.com/I-21.htm) launches a plane to recon a harbor prior to a midget sub attack, at night. Said plane is caught by spotlights and spotted conspicuously circling near the USS Chicago before it's run off. The follow-up midget sub attack totals a Dutch (i.e. useless) submarine and a harbor ferry, missing the CA completely. It's almost like they knew they were coming, or something. [I-29](http://www.combinedfleet.com/I-29.htm) launched a reece mission on Sydney harbor but was detected on radar _and_ had its transmission decoded. [I-30's](http://www.combinedfleet.com/I-30.htm) floatplane tries to reconnoiter Djibouti but finds it _extremely_ fucking shooty and is sent packing by naval AA. A follow-up scouting mission goes better and the following midget-sub attack manages to hit HMS Ramillies and a 6,000 ton tanker. (The Wikipedia article notes the plane was spotted, prompting the old British battleship to change berths.)[I-36](http://www.combinedfleet.com/I-36.htm), as already mentioned, lost her floatplane when it couldn't find the submarine again in the dark, but here note that despite a night visit the plane was promptly illuminated by searchlights and sent packing. This ain't an exhaustive survey, or anything, just the first several links I clicked. _All they know from that spotting is that there's somewhere that it's flying off of within 200 nmi of there. They might even know the rough direction it's going, though that's not guaranteed. As I'm sure you're aware if you've played CMANO, a circle with a radius 200 nmi is a ludicrously large area to search. By my math, roughly 125,000 nmi^2. To say this makes the prospect of locating the submarine in that amount of ocean is difficult would be a massive understatement. Now sure, there are areas where the submarine is more likely to be than others, but it's STILL an insane amount of area to cover. No, this argument makes no sense, especially to someone who presumably realizes the ability of a CSG to remain undetected through clever maneuvering, and they're a fleet of massive surface ships._The sheer number of subs sunk by airpower during WWII put the lie to this claim; _especially_ when you take into account the introduction of radar to aircraft around mid-war. [The krauts were particularly roughly handled;](http://uboat.net/fates/losses/cause.htm) note that the “Aircraft” column is strictly boats killed _directly_ by airpower. The Brits sure found them in the Bay of Biscay pretty fucking often. There's a map, and it's [a lot of fucking boats.](http://uboat.net/maps/biscay.htm) 69, to be precise. As the page puts it, “This body of water was known as the Valley of Death among U-boat men from 1943 onwards.” Yeah. But how big is the Bay of Biscay, again...? [Seriously why can't I switch between Ritch Text and Markdown without it fucking up all the goddamned syntax](http://i.imgur.com/ySdIEgn.jpg)Gee, by my math, at _least_ 125,000 nmi^2. What are the fucking chances, huh? I'll be blunt; you clearly don't understand the sheer density of airpower that the Allies were able to bring to bear - a capacity that any Japanese war planner would have known about well ahead of time. Especially considering their entire fleet was built around a strategy to _counter_ US manufacturing superiority. When a floatplane - a _small_ floatplane - is spotted over a harbor, it's basically ringing a dinner bell and telling every ASW aircraft the enemy has that there's subs nearby to be found. It changes a literal ocean of possibility into a small box of certainty. 125,000 square nautical miles isn't _shit_ compared to the size of the entire Pacific ocean, and the Allies had plenty of goddamn planes. The “Valley of Death” is a good testament to what can be done with a 125,000 square nautical mile search box. It was so effective they literally started [sailing around the fucking thing.](http://uboat.net/maps/piening-route.htm) If you think 200nm by 200nm is a big area to search, you should look at a map of the Pacific for some perspective. _Crash Diving, sonar, etc. :1. We've already established that they're effectively the same size and nearly the same shape as normal fleet boats. They aren't going to be much different from them in a crash dive. They aren't going to have a much larger sonar return._As we've already established, the aircraft-carrying subs were all cruiser boats of around 2,500 tons displacement, so they would all crash-dive and maneuver like pregnant whales, and were probably louder than said whales in labor on active sonar. I guess if you're hell-bent on building a big, fat-assed, shallow-diving, slow-turning, easily-detected deathtrap of a boat _anyways_ then sticking a floatplane on it is just the cherry on the suicide cake, but as I said earlier I rather suspect the Japanese built cruisers for the sake of having a flight platform as much as anything else. _And good fucking luck with that hunter killer group, crossing hundreds of nautical miles of ocean looking for a fucking submarine, because they ain't going to find JACK SHIT. Even if the hunter killer group only had to cover 70 nmi, the submarine will have cleared datum long before it gets to the last spotted location. It will be long fucking gone._Twinn, I want to take it easy because you're usually cool on IRC and all, but you're a fucking idiot sometimes. “Hundreds of nautical miles?” Do you think ASW vessels just sit in port with their thumbs up their fucking asses waiting for an MPA to radio a report? No, they spread out over the area and search on their own (if it's someplace important, like, say, a major fleet anchorage, or near a chokepoint/strait/shipping lane,) or they're guarding a convoy, in which case they can rely on the sub coming to _them_. For just one example, the demise of [I-18](http://www.combinedfleet.com/I-18.htm). Spotted only nine miles from the task force by an OS2U Kingfisher based off a cruiser. The Kingfisher marked her with a smoke float and whistled up the USS Fletcher, name ship of her class, to come rub her out of existence, which she promptly does. And what the _actual_ fuck do you mean “cleared datum?” Are you retarded? If the spotted submarine stays on the surface, the aircraft will soon become two aircraft will become four will become six eight ten as everyone rushes over to have a go. At the very _least_ the sub will be shadowed. Perhaps forever, if the aircraft's a [blimp,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-class_blimp#Operational_history), which was used specifically for its ability to squat atop a sub and vector in additional air and surface assets. But I guess you could dive and “clear datum” at **three fucking knots submerged.** Spoilers, you ain't clearing **shit**, motherfucker. In fact, you're not surfacing again until nightfall, which means you're not going very far. Lets say you're spotted at noon in high summer, so there's eight whole hours of daylight ahead of you. MPAs will be squatting on your head the whole time, and you'll be making your best sustained speed (any faster and the batteries drain faster than an Osprey mechanic's will to live) so that's 3 knots, for these IJN cruiser boats. If the closest enemy destroyers are 100nm away, then you're 100nm away from anything worth attacking, and thus you've just been inconvenienced during your ingress (assuming you dodged the initial air attack and were not permanently indisposed.) If they're 50nm away, on the other hand, in about ninety minutes you'll have the destroyers on your ass. You'll have managed to move about 4.2 nautical miles, yielding a circular area of 55.42 square nautical miles to search. A destroyer squadron (five ships) will have 11 square nautical miles each to search. Against a huge-ass cruiser sub I'd expect them to get solid active returns anywhere under 3,000 yards, for sure - enough to know they've roughly located you, at least. (Incidentally, that's almost the exact range Fletcher got solid contact on I-18 at, so I guess Aces of the Deep and Silent Hunter IV got their math right.) That's about 1.5nm. I think five destroyers can manage. And this is assuming the aircraft can't maintain contact at all with MAD or sonobouys (invented in 1942.) Not everything's a destroyer, of course; but anything you'd want to get close to for hunting - for instance, the Eastern Coast of the US, if you were a kraut beating the drum - will be well patrolled by slower sub-chasers that know you'll be coming to them (such as convoys, along well-traveled coastlines, etc.) “Clear datum,” my dying ass. Only in your private fantasy world where navies don't patrol contested waters in wartime. We built 343 PC-461 class and 438 SC-497 class sub chasers alone, to say nothing of destroyers and destroyer escorts. If you were within fifty miles of something worth attacking, scouting, or shadowing, you'd have escorts on your ass fast if you were spotted. _Let's go back to the floatplane and discuss what it provides._This is what everything hinges on, and the thing I've been waiting to rip your head off over, but I'm on page nine at 3AM, so my usual unholy glee has soured into something fell and terrible. You brought this upon yourself. _If I wished to make use of my submarines to support my fleet actions in any way, you'd bet your ass I'd want them to have floatplanes. I'd want every fucking vessel in my navy to have floatplanes. However, submarines can actually work like the pickets of old, ranging far and wide away from the main fleet, and still having a decent chance at detecting the enemy, especially when used en masse.__En masse,_ he says. _En_ fucking _masse._ With their _one_ plane apiece. _Create a screen with a few dozen submarines carrying floatplanes, alternating flying days. You get all the benefits of having normal submarines doing the job, which are already sizeable, with the added benefit of having a dozen floatplanes ranging far and wide in search of the enemy, preventing him from getting the jump on you or letting you find him so you can get the jump on him. And remember, you're still a submarine. You're still more stealthy than any other vessel, particularly at night. Yes, even when surfaced._A beautiful description of the submarine picket line that never happened at Midway, followed shortly by the annihilation of 2/3rds of Japan's fleet carriers. _Sloooow claaaaap._ Speaking of Midway, it really put things into perspective vis a vis “picket lines,” so I'm going to summarize from Parshall and Tully's book _Shattered Sword._ They summarize Genda's scouting plan for the Japanese fleet thusly, on page 110: “Put simply, seven planes could not reconnoiter an area the size of Sweden. By way of comparison, the U.S. Navy was not only planning on devoting the thirty-one PBYs based at Midway for scouting duties, but could call on three squadrons of armed Dauntless dive-bombers (fifty-six aircraft in all,) from their carriers in an armed scout role as well. The PBYs by themselves would outnumber the Japanese scout aircraft by more than four to one.” To re-iterate, the sum total of _every_ floatplane-carrying cruiser sub Japan had built by war's end was 38 boats, mustering a total of 40 aircraft (counting the two per A-mod boat.) This was a search area of 176,000 square miles, incidentally. So if you somehow assembled _every fucking cruiser sub_ the Japanese ever built in one place, for one battle, the number of scout planes they could assemble would be adequate, at _best._ Meanwhile, in reality, that was never, ever going to happen. But what about supporting fleet ops with extra planes, you say? The limited range of those Glens was a problem (at Midway one of Haruna's Petes flew search line #7, flying a 150nm leg and a 40nm dogleg before homing, whereas the Jakes from the cruisers flew 300 mile legs and 60nm doglegs. SBD Dauntless's practical combat radius? 250nm.) But you can position the submarines forward a bit to make up that range difference. So, how much would they help? Well, at Midway, _Tone_ and _Chikuma_ (cruisers designed specifically to carry lots of scouting floatplanes) could've ditched their two Petes to carry two more Jakes into battle - four more scouts right there. And CruDiv7, instead of holding their limp dicks hundreds of miles away shepherding the invasion force, could've been attached to the carriers, yielding plenty more AA fire _and_ a dozen additional floatplanes. Then there was the simple expedient of launching a handful of the carrier's complement - _Kaga's_ extra B5N _chutai_ of nine planes would've done nicely. With a little more thinking, Japan could've mustered 25 additional aircraft...... or, _or_ they could've taken [this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_seaplane_carrier_Nisshin#Operational_history) ship out of the fucking Main Body and attached it to the strike force. Yes, this ship was “present” at Midway and carried a whopping _twenty-five_ floatplanes on its own.So you tell me what makes more sense - using _one_ seaplane carrier to augment the main fleet's scouting power, or devoting _twenty-five_ submarines to the same task, to muster the same amount of aircraft? Oh, remember, the subs have far less fuel, spare parts, repair facilities, etc; so don't expect nearly as many sorties, and more casualties from accidents. And you know what those twenty-five subs are _not_ doing while they're fucking around with the planes? *ATTACKING THE FUCKING ENEMY.* Compare this to the performance of I-168, a Kaidai-class “fleet boat” of 1400 tons displacement. At Midway she observed the island day _and_ night, providing 24/7 intelligence on US air activity. Then she was able to relocate to find and attack the _Yorktown,_ achieving in one blow what _Kido Butai_ could not before enduring a prolonged depth-charging from her vengeful escorts - and surviving to fight again. What was she _not_ doing? Fucking around with floatplanes. BECAUSE SHE DIDN'T HAVE ONE. It's pants-on-head retarded to use cruiser subs and their ONE PLANE APIECE as a distant screen, because even a large number of boats would have insufficient aircraft to conduct a volume search, and with their limited flight facilities, they'd be launching a limited number of sorties anyway - and would be far enough forward to be endangered by hostile air patrols themselves. And operating closer, in support of a fleet, they're not far forward enough to actually attack directly (you know, the point of a fucking submarine,) and they're a very expensive way to contribute airpower that surface ships can carry much more of, much more cost-effectively. _If I were to think about how I might integrate floatplane carrying submarines with a larger fleet I would have several options. First, they might be my normal fleet boats, just with a bonus. Second, they could be used as a command vessel in charge of a wolfpack of submarines, finding targets and providing space for the requisite command facilities, so that the SUBRON might gangbang its enemies. Third, have them as an independent unit for fleet support and reconnaissance. You know how US subs would often take a peak at islands and their bases? You can do the same thing from air, with arguably greater results. A single aircraft can likely get in and out. Certainly happened enough._Incidentally, just from the tabular movement records I linked from combinedfleet.com to go on, it seems the floatplanes were most often used neither for fleet support searching, nor volume search to direct the sub's own attack, but as high-value recon over valuable installations difficult to reach otherwise (witness the visits to Pearl Harbor,) and several times as the reconnoiter prelude to a follow-up attack by midget subs carried by accompanying boats, which was even successful in the case of the HMS Ramillies at Diego Suarez. “Getting in and out” was ideal for those kinds of missions. And speaking of command vessels, apparently the [Type A](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_A_submarine) subs were equipped for just that, suggesting you're right about the expected usage doctrine. (I'm saying that said doctrine was _fucking stupid._) The I-168's recon of Midway illustrates the real power of submarines as intel assets, which remains relevant today - the ability to keep eyes on a port, harbor or airbase _without the enemy knowing you're watching._ It's persistent, and stealthy. If you telegraph your knowledge, the enemy can take action and alter their plans accordingly. A sneak-peek is valuable at a major rear-area fleet base like Pearl, where ships go for rest and refit. Even if they put to sea the next day, you know they're out of the combat theater for a few weeks at _least._ Even if the enemy knows you know, they can't do much about it, either. A sneak peek at a forward anchorage? Not so much. The 24/7 intel a submerged sub watching quietly from offshore can deliver is far more valuable, there, because the data's more tactical and time-sensitive (setting up an ambush on a convoy leaving port, for instance,) and is far less useful if the enemy knows they've been compromised (convoy zigzags aggressively and keeps flank speed till they're out of the area, etc.) _So with that in mind, what have we learned? Well, what I hope we've learned is not to make assumptions based on prejudice and to give ideas a fair and evenhanded evaluation before deciding your opinions on them, but I'll accept the acceptance that floatplanes on submarines are not necessarily a bad idea._\_-EvilTwinn_And I hope you've learned that you don't know what the fuck you're talking about, and that you should probably do a little more research before lecturing me on how I'm “blinded by my hatred of the Japanese and unwilling to consider the objective truths.”

[lex-for-lexington]

“"Battle Wagon" - an etching of USS Alabama fitting out at the Norfolk navy yard in 1942. The crane ship USS Kearsarge (AB-1) is alongside. Etching by John Taylor Arms.”

(NHHC: NH 57758)

[judgemark45]

USS Los Angeles (CA-135) fires off a SSM-N-8 Regulus I missile, on 7 August 1957. USS Ticonderoga (CVA-14) is visible on the right, and the missile test ship USS Norton Sound (AVM-1) is also visible, but obscured by the crane.