User:L. B. Dorny/sandbox

= = for PBY Catalina = =

Early in WWII in the Pacific the PBY played a significant role in service with United States Navy,  Royal Netherlands Navy, and British Royal Air Force, units in the East Indies Campaign, December 1941 into early March 1942.[1]

USN: By presidential order the Navy established the Neutrality Patrol in September 1939 as a result of Germany’s invasion of Poland. Famous for its work in the Atlantic, the NP was extended that same month to the U. S. Territory of the Philippines in the Western Pacific. Commander Patrol Wing TWO at Ford Island, Hawaii, ordered Patrol Squadron Twenty-One (VP 21), newly equipped with fifteen brand new PBY-4s, to deploy later that month to work from seaplane tender Langley (AV3) at Cavite on Manila Bay. Operationally part of the U. S. Asiatic Fleet, NP operations expanded, VP 21 was joined by VP 26 and Commander in Chief Asiatic Fleet established Patrol Wing TEN at Cavite in December 1940 with the two squadrons, redesignated VP 101 and VP 102 each with fourteen PBY-4s. In early 1941 with war approaching the Wing repainted the PBYs using materials at hand in a unique, non-standard camouflage scheme undocumented save for a few photos and veterans’ journal entries. When war came the Asiatic Fleet withdrew southward as directed by Washington, but PATWING 10 lost 15 PBYs to enemy action before withdrawing to work with Dutch forces in the NEI. Offensive bombing and torpedo strikes failed in the face of fighter opposition and cost five planes; VP 22 from Ford Island reinforced in January with twelve PBY-5s and five ex-MLD Catalinas (PBY-5) were acquired; but intense patrolling from tenders, Ambon, Darwin, and Java proved too little in the face of overwhelming enemy pressure. The Wing’s #5, a PBY-4, patrolled over the Java Sea during the tragic sea battle 27-28 February 1942 sighting and reporting both Allied and Japanese forces in the night. By 6 March the Asiatic Fleet (by then U. S. Naval Forces, SW Pacific) and the Wing had evacuated Java for Perth / Fremantle, Western Australia, leaving behind altogether 42 of 45 PBYs worn out, wrecked, or mostly destroyed by enemy action strewn from Subic Bay to Broome, Makassar Strait to Ambon, the Tanimbars, and Darwin. VP 21 with twelve more PBY-5s joined in April 1942 to continue patrols, and two of the Wing’s PBYs made the perilous GRIDIRON Flight Perth to Corregidor and return late that same month.

Koninklijke Marine: The Marineluchtvaartdienst / Royal Netherlands Naval Air Service used Dornier Do 24K flying boats in patrolling their East Indies colony, and in 1940 ordered thirty-six flying boats directly from Consolidated when the USA released the Model 28-5 for export. Designated Y-38 through Y-73 in MLD service, twenty-five Catalinas had reached Java via trans-Pacific ferry flights by early December, and the remainder followed, but nearly all of them were expended in the defense campaign; 4 at Broome when Japanese Navy Zeros attacked on 3 March. Survivors: Y-45, Y-49, Y-55, Y-56, Y-57, Y-62, Y-64, Y-71 became part of the new RAF No. 321 (Dutch) Squadron in Ceylon.

Royal Air Force: The British Purchasing Commission’s 1940 order direct from Consolidated resulted in eight export Model 28-5s as Mk I Catalinas being ferried directly to No. 205 Flying Boat Squadron at Seletar, Singapore Island starting in March 1941. No. 205 received altogether sixteen Catalinas through December, but the East Indies Campaign left all but one, FV-R, casualties of enemy action at Seletar, Java, on patrol, and two at Broome by early March. FV-R was shot down in 5 April by Japanese carrier fighters near Ceylon.

[1] - L. B. Dorny. See Dorny, L. B., The Pacific Neutrality Patrol on the Naval Historical Center website; Dorny, L. B. USN PBY Catalina Units of the Pacific, Osprey #61, 2007; MLD/NOI-Verrichtingen van de M. L. D. in Nederlands Oost-Indie gedurende de Japanse Opmars from the Bureau Maritieme Historie, Marinestaf, The Hague, 1962; Bosscher, P. M., Koninklijke Marine, 1986; Caste, C., Lucky Alex, 2001; many other sources; pre-publication typescript L. B. Dorny, “Not Nearly Enough….” Contact: NPO@Dornys.com.