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Mr King

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On 8/25/2020 at 10:29 AM, MiloMorai said:

British carriers HMS Victorious, HMS Formidable, HMS Unicorn, HMS Indefatigable, and HMS Indomitable, comprising the carrier component of Task Force 57, at anchor in Leyte Gulf, Philippines, Apr 1945.

2A2z5GP.jpg

Executioners' Queue...not to be confused with Murderers' Row. ;)

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On 4/21/2018 at 10:07 AM, shep854 said:

Iron ships and iron men:

 

There is at least one inaccuracy in this video: at about 26:12 the HMCS Sackville is claimed to be the only Second World War Corvette left in the world.  It is true that it is the only Flower Class Corvette, but in Australia are two Bathurst Class Corvettes, one afloat and one on land.  The Bathurst Class was roughly the equivalent of Australian built Flowers, a little smaller than the Flowers but they served as far away from Australia as the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathurst-class_corvette

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Early Canadian Flowers were also equipped as minesweepers, but lost the gear, thankfully, so that they could do their proper job. 

The Bathurst Class was based on a minesweeper rather than a whale catcher, but the end result was similar in function and form.  The Bathursts had quite a war, from sinking Japanese submarines, to assisting in the destruction of a U-Boot, convoy escort, shore bombardment and even taking part in amphibious landings in the Med.  Quite a career for a class of 60 small ships from the antipodes. 

One of the most notable being, quoting Wiki: 

In November 1942, an Indian Bathurst, HMIS Bengal, along with the Dutch tanker Ondina she was escorting, engaged and sank the Japanese commerce raider Hōkoku Maru, and drove off her sister ship Aikoku Maru

S0 a bit more than just a minesweeper.

Edited by DougRichards
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The Flowers initially had minesweeping gear, but were never classed as and seldom if ever used in that role.  They always had corvette penant numbers.  Bathursts were officially classed as minesweepers and had minesweeper penant numbers even after the War.  I already acknowledged that they were used as corvettes. 

They weren't just based on minesweepers, they were minesweepers just like the RCN coastal escorts.

Edited by R011
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2 hours ago, R011 said:

The Flowers initially had minesweeping gear, but were never classed as and seldom if ever used in that role.  They always had corvette penant numbers.  Bathursts were officially classed as minesweepers and had minesweeper penant numbers even after the War.  I already acknowledged that they were used as corvettes. 

They weren't just based on minesweepers, they were minesweepers just like the RCN coastal escorts.

The Mediterranean was not coastal to Australia. 😁

Perhaps they were used there so as to not have to draw Flowers from their vital duties in the Atlantic?   Bathursts were a bit smaller than Flowers, so would have been even less suitable for that ocean.

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Or you could be a U boat mine layer, and you get the worst of both!

 

My favourite RN Submarine, HMS Rorqual, the most successful minelaying submarine of WW2. Although as she was the last survivor of a class of 6, most lost with all hands, she was also unusually lucky.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Rorqual_(N74)

Edited by Stuart Galbraith
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6 hours ago, Adam Peter said:

 

I suspect that this was of RAAF rather than RAF aircraft.  There are indications that no RAF Beauforts served, except very briefly, in the Pacific.  Australia built 700 Beauforts.  Britain about 1,100.  Australian Beauforts used PW Wasp engines, that were also used on some British built 'Forts.

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24 minutes ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

Yeah, they are Blenheims. The propellers are a give away as well, the Beaufort has a spinner.

 

Does anyone know where this was filmed? I cant think of anywhere that would fit, other than perhaps Ceylon.

 

I was wrong before......  but perhaps Burma? 

Quoting wiki.....

Nonetheless, the Blenheim played a role in preventing India from falling and in recapturing Burma, destroying over 60 aircraft on the ground in raids on Bangkok early in the campaign.[48]

One Blenheim pilot, Squadron Leader Arthur Scarf, was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for an attack on Singora, Thailand, on 9 December 1941. Another bomber of No. 60 Squadron RAF was credited with shooting down Lt Col Tateo Katō's Nakajima Ki-43 fighter and badly damaging two others in a single engagement on 22 May 1942, over the Bay of Bengal. Katō's death was a severe blow to the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force.

 

Or perhaps Malta with the Japanese flag simply as a prop.

Edited by DougRichards
alternative,,,
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