Aircraft/Loadouts British Royal Navy FAA Corsair I and II

[__Animal__ 136]

 The Fleet Air Arm used over 600 Corsairs in The Pacific From 1943 until the end of the war, and it was used to replace  the aging P-40s for RZNAF and RAAF.  The Royal Navy Corsairs engaged Kamikaze attacks while acting in support of the Invasion of Okinawa, and in several air campaigns to liberate Commonwealth holdings from Japanese forces 

 

Taken from wikipedia article on the F4U Corsair series

 

[spoiler]Royal Navy[edit]
Enhancement for carrier suitability[edit]

FAA Corsair Is at NAS Quonset Point, 1943.
In the early days of the World War II, Royal Navy fighter requirements had been based on cumbersome two-seat designs, such as the Blackburn Skua (and its turreted derivative the Blackburn Roc) and the Fairey Fulmar, since they were expected to encounter only long range bombers or flying boats and that navigation over featureless seas required the assistance of a radio operator/navigator. The Royal Navy hurriedly adopted higher performance single seater aircraft such as the Hawker Sea Hurricane and the less robust Supermarine Seafire but neither of these aircraft had sufficient range to operate at a distance from a carrier task force. The Corsair was welcomed as a much more robust and versatile alternative.[58]

In November 1943, the Royal Navy received the first batch of 95 Vought F4U-1s, which were given the designation of "Corsair I". The first squadrons were assembled and trained on the U.S. East coast and then shipped across the Atlantic. The Royal Navy put the Corsair into carrier operations immediately. They found its landing characteristics dangerous, suffering a number of fatal crashes, but considered it as the best option they had.

In Royal Navy service, because of the limited hangar deck height in several classes of British carrier, many Corsairs had their outer wings "clipped" by 8 in (200 mm) to clear the deckhead.[59] The change in span brought about the added benefit of improving the sink rate, reducing the F4U's propensity of "floating" in the final stages of landing.[59] Despite the clipped wings and the shorter decks of British carriers, Royal Navy aviators found landing accidents less of a problem than they had been to U.S. Navy aviators due to the curved approach used. British units solved the landing visibility problem by approaching the carrier in a medium left-hand turn, which allowed the pilot to keep the carrier's deck in view over the dip in the port wing, allowing safe carrier operations, and would later be adopted by U.S. Navy and Marines fliers for carrier use of the Corsair.[60]

The Royal Navy developed a number of modifications to the Corsair that made carrier landings more practical. Among these are a bulged canopy (similar to the Malcolm Hood), raising the pilot's seat 7 in (180 mm)[61] and wiring shut the cowl flaps across the top of the engine compartment, diverting the oil and hydraulic fluid around the sides of the fuselage".[22]

Deployment[edit]
The Royal Navy received 95 Corsair Mk Is and 510 Mk IIs, these being equivalent to the F4U-1 and -1A. Brewster-built aircraft were known as Mk IIIs (equivalent to F3A-1D), and Goodyear-built aircraft were known as Mk IVs (equivalent to FG-1D). The Mk IIs and Mk IVs were the only versions to be used in combat.[62]

The Royal Navy cleared the F4U for carrier operations well before the U.S. Navy and showed that the Corsair Mk II could be operated with reasonable success even from escort carriers. It was not without problems, one being excessive wear of the arrester wires due to the weight of the Corsair and the understandable tendency of the pilots to stay well above the stalling speed. A total of 2,012 Corsairs were supplied to the United Kingdom.[37]

Fleet Air Arm (FAA) units were created and equipped in the United States, at Quonset Point or Brunswick and then shipped to war theaters aboard escort carriers. The first FAA Corsair unit was 1830 NAS, created on the first of June 1943, and soon operating from HMS Illustrious. At the end of the war, 18 FAA squadrons were operating the Corsair. British Corsairs served both in Europe and in the Pacific. The first, and also most important, European operations were the series of attacks (Operation Tungsten) in April, July and August 1944 on the German battleship Tirpitz, for which Corsairs from HMS Victorious and HMS Formidable provided fighter cover.[63] It appears the Corsairs did not encounter aerial opposition on these raids.

From April 1944, Corsairs from the British Pacific Fleet took part in a several major air raids in South East Asia beginning with Operation Cockpit, an attack on Japanese targets at Sabang island, in the Dutch East Indies.

In July and August 1945, Corsair naval squadrons 1834, 1836, 1841 and 1842 took part in a series of strikes on the Japanese mainland, near Tokyo. These squadrons operated from Victorious and Formidable.[64] On 9 August 1945, days before the end of the war, Corsairs from Formidable attacked Shiogama harbor on the northeast coast of Japan. Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve pilot, Lieutenant Robert Hampton Gray, of 1841 Squadron was hit by flak but pressed home his attack on a Japanese destroyer, sinking it with a 1,000 lb (450 kg) bomb but crashing into the sea. He was posthumously awarded Canada's last Victoria Cross, becoming the second fighter pilot of the war to earn a Victoria Cross as well as the final Canadian casualty of World War II.[65] [N 3]


1831 NAS Corsair aboard HMS Glory, off Rabaul, 1945.
FAA Corsairs originally fought in a camouflage scheme with a Dark Slate Grey/Extra Dark Sea Grey disruptive pattern on top and Sky undersides, but were later painted overall dark blue. Those operating in the Pacific theater acquired a specialized British insignia — a modified blue-white roundel with white "bars" to make it look more like a U.S. than a Japanese Hinomaru insignia to prevent friendly fire incidents.

In all, out of 18 carrier-based squadrons, eight saw combat, flying intensive ground attack/interdiction operations and claiming 47.5 aircraft shot down.[66]

At the end of World War II, under the terms of the Lend-Lease agreement, the aircraft had either to be paid for or to be returned to the U.S. As the UK did not have the means to pay for them, the Royal Navy Corsairs were pushed overboard into the sea in Moreton Bay off Brisbane, Australia.[67][better source needed]

Royal New Zealand Air Force[edit]
Equipped with obsolete Curtiss P-40s, Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) squadrons in the South Pacific performed impressively compared to the American units they operated alongside, in particular in the air-to-air role. The American government accordingly decided to give New Zealand early access to the Corsair, especially as it was not initially being used from carriers. Some 424 Corsairs equipped 13 RNZAF squadrons, including No. 14 Squadron RNZAF and No. 15 Squadron RNZAF, replacing SBD Dauntless as well as P-40s.[68] Most of the F4U-1s[N 4] were assembled by Unit 60 with a further batch were assembled and flown at RNZAF Hobsonville. In total there were 237 F4U-1s and 127 F4U-1Ds used by the RNZAF during the Second World War. 60 FG-1Ds which arrived post war were given serial numbers prefixed NZ5600 to NZ5660.[69]


RNZAF Corsairs with an RAAF Boomerang on Bougainville, 1945.
The first deliveries of lend-lease Corsairs began in March 1944 with the arrival of 30 F4U-1s at the RNZAF Base Depot Workshops (Unit 60) at Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides. From April, these workshops became responsible for assembling all Corsairs for the RNZAF units operating the aircraft in the South West Pacific and a Test and Despatch flight was set up to test the aircraft after assembly. By June 1944, 100 Corsairs had been assembled and test flown.[68] The first squadrons to use the Corsair were 20 and 21 Squadrons on Espiritu Santo island, operational in May 1944. The organization of the RNZAF in the Pacific and New Zealand meant that only the pilots and a small staff belonged to the Squadron (the maximum strength on a squadron was 27 pilots): Squadrons were assigned to several Servicing Units (SUs five-six officers, 57 NCOs, 212 airmen) which carried out aircraft maintenance and operated from fixed locations:[70] hence F4U-1 NZ5313 was first used by 20 Squadron/1 SU on Guadalcanal in May 1944; 20 Squadron was then relocated to 2 SU on Bougainville in November.[71] In all there were 10 front line SUs plus another three based in New Zealand. Because each of the SUs painted its aircraft with distinctive markings[72] and the aircraft themselves could be repainted in several different colour schemes the RNZAF Corsairs were far less uniform in appearance compared with their American and FAA contemporaries.[73] By late 1944, the F4U had equipped all 10 Pacific-based fighter squadrons of the RNZAF.[69]

By the time the Corsairs arrived, there were virtually no Japanese aircraft left in New Zealand's allocated sectors of the Southern Pacific, and despite the RNZAF Squadrons extending their operations to more northern islands, they were primarily used for close support of American, Australian and New Zealand soldiers fighting the Japanese. New Zealand pilots were aware of the Corsair's poor forward view and tendency to ground loop, but found these drawbacks could be solved by pilot training in curved approaches before use from rough forward airbases.[citation needed] At the end of 1945, all Corsair squadrons but one (No. 14) were disbanded. That last squadron was based in Japan, until the Corsair was retired from service in 1947.[74]

No. 14 Squadron was given new FG-1Ds and, in March 1946 transferred to Iwakuni, Japan as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force. Only one airworthy example of the 424 aircraft procured survives: NZ5648/ZK-COR, owned by the Old Stick and Rudder Company at Masterton, NZ. One other mostly complete aircraft and the remains of two others were known to be held by a private collector at Ardmore, NZ, in 1996. Their current whereabouts are unknown.[/spoiler]

 

Corsair onboard HMS Glory off Rabaul, 1945

 

FAA Corsairs at Quonset Point, 1943, awaiting delivery.

 

Corsair II in FAA markings 738 Squadron.

Edited September 29, 2015 by __Animal__

[CokeSpray 7,274]

Open for discussion. :Salute:

[MercedesBenzW123 8,535]

More seabirds?
Hell yes!
1000GE a pop or more?

[__Animal__ 136]

Apparently the poll didn't take upon original posting, added it.

[MercedesBenzW123 8,535]

You want to make it part of the tech tree?
Is that even possible! HELL YEAH, I WANT THAT!
And soon well get a Martlet and Gannet! YAY!

[jorelo 1,458]

it would be nice brits used it alot and were the brits that teached the murican how to land it on a carrier

[__Animal__ 136]

Apparently FAA Corsairs saw action in The ETO as well, on one occasion participating in an assault on the German battleship Tirpitz

 

[spoiler]Taken from http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/aviation/f4u-corsairs-raf-faa-3370.html
 
FAA Corsairs performed their first combat action on 3 April 1944, with Number 1834 Squadron flying from the HMS VICTORIOUS to help provide cover for a strike on the German super-battleship TIRPITZ in a Norwegian fjord. This was apparently the first combat operation of the Corsair off of an aircraft carrier. Further attacks on the TIRPITZ were performed in July and August 1944, with Corsairs from the HMS FORMIDABLE participating. It appears the Corsairs did not encounter aerial opposition on these raids. A confrontation between a Corsair and the tough German Focke-Wulf FW-190 would have made for an interesting fight.[/spoiler]

[Z3r0_ 4,128]

it would be nice brits used it alot and were the brits that teached the murican how to land it on a carrier

Well they also had to modify the aircraft in order to make it work properly for carrier landings.

[__Animal__ 136]

Blind bump, because this would be fairly easy to implement, as the most widely used version already exists in game under a different designation in the US Tree, They'd just need a Royal Navy Skin.

Edited October 3, 2015 by __Animal__

[fdsdh1 1,290]

yes it would be nice to have the very first Corsairs with the birdcage canopy, and some of the British fixes (just to distinguish it from the US onces)

 

and then also have the Corsair II

 

there are minor differences between FAA and USN Corsairs, FAA Corsairs have a slightly but noticeably shorter wing span (and therefore flight characteristics)

 

the FAA line is lacking decent fighter aircraft atm, the Fireflies aren't really cut out for air to air combat

 

the Corsair was quite widely used by the FAA after all, they were certainly operated off carriers for much longer (in US service there was a gap where they tried to sort all the kinks out)

 

The Corsair I in its natural position...

note the clipped wings (compared to US Corsaits), birdcage canopy and the cowl flaps around the whole engine, on later models the cowl flaps along the top were removed and a new canopy similar in design to the malcolm canopy was fitted

Edited December 9, 2015 by fdsdh1

[MundaneMan 14]

As much as I would like it to be in the tech tree, it'd never make it, so +1 prem. 

[LM002 987]

I support, but only as a premium, Britain is going to be getting a lot of lend lease premiums soon, so why not one more?

[anto_shturmovik 185]

The RN used quite a lot of corsairs... Why not having at least one variant in the main tree ?

Edited December 16, 2015 by anto_shturmovik

[CokeSpray 7,274]

Thread moved to Implemented suggestions as this vehicle was added in update 1.75 "La Resistance".