In the history of World War II at sea, the actions of seaplane aviation are a topic that has been somewhat ignored. At least in comparison with base or deck aircraft. Who, for example, remembers what the Soviet MBR-2s did? And even if some topic is considered "uncovered" - for example, the actions of the Sunderlands and Catalin over the Atlantic, then in fact even there will be a lot of blank spots. As for aviation, which was unable to make a significant contribution to the outcome of the war, there is one continuous blank spot. Even with the opportunity to draw interesting conclusions.
The actions of heavy multi-engine flying boats of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II is one such topic. It is partly saved by the fact that the Japanese had, without exaggeration, magnificent multi-engine seaplanes, the same Kawanishi H8K (aka “Emily”) the Americans themselves consider the best car in the class from everything that participated in that war. This "saves" the situation a little, attracting a number of researchers, and gives us the opportunity to learn at least something on the topic.
And this "at least something" can lead us to very interesting conclusions for the future - even if this future is not ours.
In the peaceful sky of Oceania
Japan occupied the islands now united as Micronesia as early as 1914, with the outbreak of World War I. The archipelago belonged to Germany, and as an ally of Britain, Japan did not miss the opportunity to take her own.
In the future, its presence on the islands - both military and civilian, grew. But in order to provide it, communications were needed, and more than one steamer in three months.
The way out, allowing to increase the connectivity of the Japanese possessions, was the organization of air communications between the Japanese metropolis and the islands. This was all the more profitable, as it allowed, a little later, to establish regular air communications with Australia, or rather, to begin with, with its territories in Papua.
In the thirties of the twentieth century, passenger seaplane aviation, especially American, received rapid development. The reason for this was the undemandingness of flying boats to airfields - any calm harbor was an airfield. Taking into account the need to include a mass of island territories in a single political and economic space, flights of flying boats were often an uncontested solution. In addition to the absence of problems with basing, the flight range, which was huge for those times, also worked in their favor - the massive hull of the boat usually made it possible to place a large supply of fuel on board.
In 1934-1935, the Japanese undertook several irregular test flights on various types of flying boats to Micronesia, the islands of which were by that time a Japanese mandate. And in 1936, a flying boat made its first successful flight Kawanishi h6k … In its military version, it bore the index "Type 97", and the pilots of the US Navy and the Allies knew this aircraft by the "nickname" Mavis (Mavis).
Since the advent of the crews of flying boats began to train in ultra-long-range flights and reconnaissance. The aircraft were used to invade British airspace, and, according to the Japanese, to put pressure on the USSR.
However, the huge range "Type 97" was in demand for peaceful purposes.
The first operator of the Type 97 was the Japanese airline "Greater Japan Airlines" - "Dai Nippon Koku Kaisa". Formally, civilian vehicles belonged, however, to the Imperial Navy, and a significant part of the flight crew were naval reserve pilots or simply career military personnel.
The Type 97 and the atolls of Micronesia were literally made for each other. The aircraft, which was huge at that time, had an equally huge flight range - up to 6600 kilometers, and at a cruising speed that was quite decent for the 30s - 220 km / h. The atolls themselves, thanks to their circular shape with a lagoon in the center, provided for flying boats a storm-protected water area, convenient for landings and take-offs - almost everywhere.
From the end of 1938, a pair of converted aircraft from the fleet aviation (the cars were rented) began flying on the Yokohama-Saipan route. In the spring of 1939, a line was added to Palau (Caroline Islands). In 1940, the airline ordered ten more units, now not for lease, but for its own use. By that time, the "geography" of civil flights included Saipan, Palau, Truk, Ponepe, Jaluit, and even East Timor. It was planned that the flights will continue to Port Moresby. But the war did not allow these plans to come true. But the lines Yokohama-Saipan-Palau-Timor, Yokohama-Saipan-Truk-Ponape-Jaluit and Saigon-Bangkok existed throughout the war and were "closed" only with the loss of territories.
But the main work of the Type 97 was not done in civil aviation.
Boats at war
There were fundamental differences in how flying boats were used by the Anglo-Saxons and the Japanese. For the first, the main task of the aircraft was to detect submarines operating on sea communications. For this, the aircraft were equipped with radars, and there were a lot of them.
In Japan, the situation was different - they never created a reliable and effective radar, they created an unreliable and ineffective radar during the war, but they did not have enough resources to replicate, and there were not enough resources for a mass series of flying boats - the total number of built multi-engine boats of all types in Japan it didn't even get to 500 units. Against the background of the scale of production of Katalin alone (3305 cars), these figures did not look at all. As a result, Japanese aircraft were notoriously useless against American submarines, which launched unrestricted Admiral Dönitz-style submarine warfare in the Pacific. During the entire war, Japanese heavy flying boats sank only seven submarines - ridiculous numbers. But they did something different.
From the first day of the war, the Japanese used their large seaplanes for the following purposes:
- patrolling and reconnaissance. The planes were supposed to detect the surface ships of the Americans and open the defense system of their bases to be captured.
- application of ultra-long-range bomb strikes.
- military transport.
- destruction of single ships and submarines.
- targeting strike aircraft (at the end of the war).
It would seem - well, how can low-speed flying boats attack airbases protected by fighters and numerous anti-aircraft guns?
But … they could!
There are allegations that the Type 97 was ready to attack the American island bases on the same day that Kido Butai attacked Pearl Harbor, but the attack fell through due to the impossibility for the Japanese command to contact the aircraft and confirm the start of the war, which was required the original plan. However, they flew to the islands of Holland and Canton (as in American sources). And on December 12, 1941, an air regiment (actually - Kokutai, but closest to the meaning - an air regiment), based on Vautier Atoll, carried out aerial reconnaissance of Wake Island - one of the first places where American troops fell under the Japanese blitzkrieg. On December 14, from the same place, from Vautier, float fighters started, which carried out a successful raid. Presumably, their pilots could receive information from the Type 97 reconnaissance.
On December 15, the flying boats themselves bombed Wake and also successfully.
In the future, the practice of using flying boats as long-range bombers continued.
From the end of December 1941, flying boats conducted reconnaissance around Rabaul, without loss.
In early January 1942, nine Type 97 aircraft attacked Wunakanau airfield near Rabaul, destroying several Australian Air Force aircraft on the ground and damaging the driveway and runway. One of the fighters, the Australian Wirraway, was able to take off and tried to catch up with the Japanese, but failed.
On January 16, flying boats again attacked the airfield with fragmentation bombs and again left without loss.
In January 1942, the Type 97 dropped a number of bombs on Port Moresby, with no significant effect. Later, flying boat raids were mainly of reconnaissance nature.
However, the main task of flying boats was reconnaissance. So, it was the "Type 97" that was discovered by the aircraft carrier "Lexington" on February 20, 1942. In general, flying boat flights for aerial reconnaissance gave the Japanese more than bombing raids, which rarely caused significant damage to the enemy.
Nevertheless, the raids continued.
At the end of 1941, the Japanese had a better flying boat than the Kawanishi H6K / Tip97.
It was an aircraft manufactured by the same company, Kawanishi, model H8K. The allies gave the car the codename "Emily". In Japanese documents, it was designated as "Type 2". (More - "The best four-engine seaplane of the Second World War").
These aircraft, like the previous model, were used for bombing raids and reconnaissance. In addition, 36 vehicles were built as transport "Seiku" and were originally intended for the delivery of troops.
The first operation of the new amphibians was a repeat raid on Pearl Harbor, the famous Operation K, carried out on March 4-5, 1942.
The raid due to weather conditions was unsuccessful, but the plan of the operation was still impressive - the flying boats had to fly 1,900 nautical miles from Vautier atoll in Japanese Micronesia to French Frigate Sholes atoll, which belongs to the Hawaiian Islands. There they were supposed to be refueled by submarines, after which they were supposed to attack the dock in Pearl Harbor, significantly complicating the repair of warships for the Americans. As a result, the Japanese did not succeed - out of five planes, only two were able to take off, both of them, due to bad weather, dropped bombs anywhere.
The Americans, whose intelligence had warned of the raid, dispatched a battleship to the French Frigate Shoals - the Ballard flying boat tender. The latter, being an outdated converted destroyer, nevertheless posed a serious danger to seaplanes, and flights through the atoll ceased.
Several months later, one of the flying boats attempted to attack Midway. But by that time, the Americans had learned how to use their radars. The plane was shot down.
The new aircraft, like the previous model, were actively used in Oceania for reconnaissance of island territories and bomb strikes over a long distance.
Separately, it is worth mentioning the participation of "Emily" in the operation on the Aleutian Islands. The Japanese widely used both flying boats and float fighters there, and when the evacuation of the Japanese troops began ("Emily" in the transport version provided it, taking out soldiers by air), even tender ships, which ensured the actions of flying boats.
As the war approached the end, the operations of flying boats as bombers were continuously reduced, but the role of aerial reconnaissance grew. In this capacity, the aircraft suffered significant losses - the Americans increasingly used radars, the exact performance characteristics of which were not known to the Japanese, and huge multi-engine aircraft increasingly met with large forces of fighters. The huge machines were distinguished by serious survivability and could stand up for themselves, especially the N8K of various modifications, equipped with 20-mm cannons, but the forces turned out to be unequal more and more often.
The last combat operations of flying boats were target designation missions for suicidal one-way attacks carried out by the crews of ground-based bombers.
As for the transport options, they were intensively used until the very end of the war.
Organization and conduct of military operations
Flying boats were distributed among aviation units called "Kokutai" by the Japanese. The number of aircraft in the ground-based Kokutai was very different and changed over time. There are known examples with the number from 24 to 100 cars.
As a rule, the entire administrative and command structure of the "Kokutai" was tied to its flight units and aircraft and was transferred together with them.
The main operators of the four-engined flying boats of both types were:
- 801 Kokutai. Mainly armed with Type 97;
- 802 Kokutai. Until November 1942 14th Kokutai. It was a mixed formation of heavy seaplanes and float fighters A-6M2-N, in fact - float Zero. For a long time he fought mainly with fighters, but on October 15, 1943, the fighter units were disbanded;
- 851 Kokutai (formerly Toko Kokutai). Formed in Taiwan as Toko Kokutai, renamed 851 on November 1, 1942. He took part in the Battle of Midway and one of the squadrons in operations on the Aleuts.
Transport aircraft have also been assigned to various naval ground bases.
Typically, aircraft were based in lagoons and calm backwaters on the islands. In the case of 802-m Kokutai, it was about joint basing with float fighters. At the same time, the Japanese did not build any permanent structures, crews and technicians lived in tents on the shore, all facilities for storing material and technical means were temporary. This organization allowed the Japanese to very quickly transfer air units from island to island.
A separate method of supporting the actions of flying boats was the use of a tender ship. In the case of the multi-engine Kavanishi, it was ship "Akitsushima", the technical capabilities of which made it possible not only to supply aircraft with fuel, lubricants and ammunition, but also to lift them to the deck from the water with a crane and carry out repairs, including complex ones, for example, replacing engines.
The capabilities of "Akitsushima" made it possible to provide high-intensity combat use of eight aircraft. In this capacity, the ship was used during the export of Japanese troops to the Aleutian Islands, in which flying boats took an active part.
Active flights of seaplanes for reconnaissance from the Marshall Islands and other islands in the Pacific Ocean ended in 1944, when the Americans literally "broke through the doors" of Japanese island bases. How long flying boats were able to work against the Americans literally from under their noses cannot but command respect.
Very few Japanese flying boats survived the war. Only four of them were used by the Americans to study Japanese technology, all other trophies that fell into their hands were destroyed.
Of all the aircraft that fell into the hands of the Americans, only one survived to this day, the N8K2 from the 802th Kokutai. The car was preserved miraculously, and even many decades after the end of the war, the Americans did not want to give it to the Japanese, just as they did not want to restore it. But in the end, the plane was saved and after many years of restoration is in the Museum of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Forces.
Lessons from the past
Mentally, our people do not consider the war in the Pacific Ocean as "their own", although, firstly, it was the Red Army that finally persuaded the Japanese to surrender, and secondly, we destroyed almost a third of its troops and conducted strategically important operations to seize the Kuriles and South Sakhalin. It is hard to imagine what would have happened if the fleet had not been able to land troops in these territories, and the Americans had entered there. In fact, in terms of territorial acquisitions, these are our most important acquisitions in World War II, more important than even Kaliningrad.
Moreover, it is worth discarding the psychological alienation in relation to the events in the Pacific region, which is characteristic of many Russians, and carefully studying the experience of Japanese seaplane aviation.
War in regions with a low density of communications, such as mountains, archipelagos, large wetlands, deserts with few oases, etc. has its distinctive feature that control over individual, small items means de facto control over huge spaces. If, for example, the Japanese had to take Midway, and any landing operations for the Americans would have been much more difficult.
This implies the need to capture such points as quickly as possible, faster than a stronger enemy at sea can send a fleet or aircraft to capture them himself. The fastest troop delivery vehicle is aviation. She is also the most dangerous enemy of submarines and with her help aerial reconnaissance over the sea is carried out. And you shouldn't be too afraid of the ship's air defense systems. Even old Soviet aircraft, such as, for example, the Tu-95K-22, could detect the included ship radar from a distance of about 1,300 kilometers. Now the capabilities of aviation are even higher.
But when waging a war somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, or other regions, with archipelagos and small islands, any belligerent will face a lack of airfields. The fact that after the Second World War they were built in dozens of them in the same Oceania does not change anything - airstrikes and cruise missiles will not quickly leave anything from these airfields, and the delivery of building materials and equipment to the islands in the case of the Pacific Ocean does not seem to be an easy task. and you can't take builders from Severodvinsk to the Caribbean.
At this point, the side that has the ability to use seaplanes will suddenly get a head start. The atolls have not changed since the forties of the last century. And the calm lagoon in the reef ring is still not uncommon. And this means that all the problems with landing on water, which are inevitable satellites of sea seaplanes, "suddenly" disappear - and waves that can break the glider or force the aircraft to be held in place by the thrust of the engines, and logs or barrels brought to the landing site that can pierce the fuselage of even the strongest "amphibian" - all this becomes small and solvable problems.
But the enemy has problems - no air reconnaissance, no satellite reconnaissance will be able to simultaneously provide information about the presence or absence of aircraft on each of the hundreds and thousands of islands scattered by a dense network of thousands of kilometers in all directions. Especially if this aircraft is constantly moving, transferring soldiers, equipment, supplies, taking out trophies and the wounded. Stocks of expensive, complex and high-tech weapons in a large non-nuclear war (and, for example, the United States and China are planning to wage a non-nuclear war in the future) will quickly be used up, and completely different things will start to matter.
For example, the ability for one side to move troops anywhere and quickly - and the lack of such an opportunity for the other side.
And the opportunity to start producing in large quantities transport, anti-submarine and other amphibious aircraft can mean a lot for a third party - for the one that wants to stand aside while the first two sort things out, and show up for a disassembly at the end of the day - or just make money on military supplies.
After all, ground planes outperform flying boats in everything absolutely - but only when there are airfields. In a war where they do not exist, the logic will be different.
And this is the lesson that the Japanese experience of war on seaplanes gives us, a lesson that is relevant even today.
Naturally, all this is true for warm latitudes, where there is no ice and less rough seas.
The hypothetical use of seaplanes for strikes against the United States is also of theoretical interest. Theoretically, Japan, using tender aircraft, could deliver flying boats close enough to US territory so that they could attack American territory itself from an unexpected direction, and (let's use afterthought) not with bombs, but with naval mines.
Such operations could have a very interesting effect. After all, no matter how clumsy and large the Japanese flying boats were, their attacks on ground targets mostly took place without losses, and their effect was blurred only by the inability of the Japanese to correctly identify targets. But in general, the boats flew in suddenly and flew away without loss, and that was for quite a long time. The island territories, which can be attacked from any direction and where it is banal there is nowhere to deploy deeply echeloned air defense, turned out to be quite vulnerable to attack by any aircraft, even flying boats. This is also worth considering. As well as a similar never-realized strategy "for the Americans".
In general, Japanese flying boats could not have the same effect on the outcome of the war as similar Allied aircraft. But the experience of their combat use, of course, deserves study in our time.
