Overview

The consolidated PBY Catalina was probably the most versatile and successful flying boat/amphibian ever built, serving not just with the US Army, Navy and Coast Guard during the Second World War, but also with the air forces of Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, with the Danes, Free French and Norwegians as well as in Brazil, Chile, Indonesia and elsewhere. With a remarkable lifting capacity and endurance, this long-range twin-engine aircraft could absorb a great deal of punishment and still return home after flights lasting an entire day and covering thousands of miles. It was employed as a maritime reconnaissance aircraft, as a bomber and torpedo-bomber, as an anti-submarine weapon, as a mine layer, as a special operations machine and as a search-and-rescue craft by day and night. It ferried stores, mail and people - many of them sick and injured - across the world's oceans. In this book Andrew Hendrie tells the story of the Flying Cats , of their achievements and exploits, of the heroism of many of the crews and the problems they had to endure. SELLING POINTS: . A definitive guide to the consolidated PBY Catalina aircraft in the Second World War . Over 100 original integrated black and white images . Explains this iconic plane's famous achievements and exploits, as well as the heroism of the crews who flew them . An ideal purchase for any aviation fan ILLUSTRATIONS: 100 b/w integrated images

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9781848847804

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Painfully slow and highly vulnerable, the Catalina was nevertheless one of the most important aircraft of the Second World War. Hendrie's book was first published in 1988 but this is a reprint in a new format. He himself served in Hudsons, Sunderlands, and Wellingtons. He describes the amazing service rendered by Catalinas in theatres all over the world, lists the dozens of U-boat kills, and traces the fate of individual Catalinas in RAF and RAAF service. There are plenty of pictures, maps and diagrams. As it was a home-from-home complete with cooking facilities, personally I would have liked a tour of the interior of the aircraft, and an idea of what people actually did during those long, long patrols. Presumably there was rotation of pilots. Did the off-duty pilot have a bunk? - Shropshire Star.

Author Information

After completing a tour of operations on Lockheed Hudsons during the Second World War, ANDREW HENDRIE logged flights on over seventy Sunderlands, largely air tests of machines delivered by the Short's factories at Belfast and Windermere. He then began a second tour on Vickers Wellingtons. Post-war, Andrew joined the RAFVR. After 1980 he began researching and writing books about maritime flying operations. His first title, Seek and Strike: The Lockheed Hudson in World War II, was published in 1983. Andrew passed away in 2004.

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