Osprey Publishing

US Navy PBY Catalina Units of the Pacific War Osprey Combat Aircraft Series - #62

by  Louis B Dorny

Reviewed By  Fred Horky, IPMS# 6390

MSRP: $20.95 ISBN: 9781841769110 Web Site: www.ospreypublishing.com Your reviewer must confess to a special attachment to the famed Consolidated Catalina flying boat of WWII. While I was at the tender age of only eight years, I recall with stark clarity that cold, clear December Sunday lunchtime in Illinois, when the radio announcer suddenly broke into programming with the news that some place called "Pearl Harbor" had been attacked by somebody called "the Japanese". One look at my father's face confirmed that yes, something very bad had happened and that the announcer was indeed talking about the very same place that Dad's youngest brother, my favorite uncle Otto, was a "plane captain" on something called a "PBY". It was weeks but seemed forever before we learned that Otto had survived the attack (although "his" airplane and personal auto didn't) and later we received brief, censored letters (no "emails" or telephone calls then!) from him only intermittently as his unit was soon re-equipped and continuously deployed and redeployed in the southwest Pacific. With the heavy-weight sluggers of the Pacific fleet mostly destroyed in the attack, the Navy had to begin their fight with what they had. Thus, starting at Guadalcanal, Otto participated in the long, agonizing, island by island fight toward Japan. We didn't see him until late 1944 .over five years since he had last been home. He had left the 'states in 1939 a peacetime E-3 aviation machinist mate, and returned a Chief Petty Officer. The PBY has been described in many books, but this title fills a niche with detailed descriptions of Catalina unit and individual actions throughout the Pacific War. When first flown in the mid-1930's, the airplane was the best long-range maritime patrol airplane in the world, but aeronautical technology of the era was galloping at such a pace that by Pearl Harbor the airplane was obsolescent. But it was available, and the new designs weren't. The hard crucible of war (and heavy daytime losses) soon proved it unable to survive in daylight aerial warfare, so in areas were supremacy was contested it was shifted to night patrol and interdiction missions, thus becoming the shadowy "Black Cats of WWII". (I recall Otto mentioning on his return that those early black finishes were not the satiny, smooth paint jobs we modelers like to assume. He said that at first, they sometimes had to apply their ersatz lampblack-darkened varnish with mops, brooms, or anything else that would work ) The book starts with a chapter outlining PBY development, and deployment of the first Pacific squadrons. For the modeler it includes a section on early colors and markings. From there it goes into the war, the next chapter describing with many photos the disaster of all the PBY squadrons at both Pearl Harbor and NAS Kaneohe (on the windward side of Oahu), and Midway Island. However, it was not all one-sided: a PBY made the first offensive action (BEFORE the Japanese bombs fell) by sighting, attacking, sinking, AND REPORTING (together with the destroyer USS Ward) a midget submarine attempting to enter the harbor. Unfortunately, reports from both the PBY and Ward were not acted upon, thus completing the Greek Tragedy drama that was Pearl Harbor. The confirmation that headquarters demanded has been only recently made when that midget submarine was found in deep water off the entrance to Pearl Harbor. But the disaster continued across to the far west Pacific, with further heavy losses in the Philippines. From this beginning, following chapters describe fascinating PBY action all over the Pacific in an orderly fashion. As mentioned, the first steps back against the enemy were in the Solomon Islands, with Guadalcanal the focal point. Readers will note pictured in the book where a PBY, the administrative "personal" aircraft of the air theater commander, was the first U.S. aircraft to land on the newly captured airfield. That commander one Admiral John S McCain Sr. was the GRANDFATHER of the present presidential candidate. Besides an excellent selection of black and white photos throughout, the book includes thirty-two excellent color profiles, each keyed to a text at the back of the book describing the actions of that each particular aircraft. This 7-1/4" X 9-3/4" soft-cover book is of ninety-six pages, plus covers. It is available at the usual book sellers, with Amazon.com listing "first price" at $20.95, discounted to $15.71; numerous others are available used. A companion "US PBY Catalina Units of the Atlantic War" was released in 2006. This book is recommended to any WWII Naval Aviation enthusiast, especially the fans of the famous Catalina.

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