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Ron Saueracker -> I'll give this a go.... (1/18/2003 2:10:23 PM)
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afonzie. Hi!
I've helped a little with some of the database modifications. With regards to the Walrus, only a few ships in UV (RAN and RNZN) operated them.
These ships, the County class Australia and Canberra and the Apollo/Leander class Hobart, Leander, and Achillies. These ships also had a number of refits during the period of UV, all different. What had to be done, then, was choose a weapons fit which most illustrated that which existed during UV. The ones I settled on were those to Australia and Hobart which occurred by the end of 1943. Both ended up losing their capability to operate aircraft.
This decicion was made easier for two reasons. First, there was no provision in UV for these ships to operate aircraft from the beginning. Doing so would mean adding another aircraft and squadrons to the existing database. Second, and more importantly, is the fact that these ships did not have adequate facilities to operate these aircraft so their operational use was severely limited historically. To quote Vice Admiral William W. Smith, who commanded US forces operating with these Australian units prior to Coral Sea
"On the first morning, she (Australia, which carried but one Walrus) launched her sole aircraft along with ours. As our cruisers recovered their planes after the search, steaming at 10 kts, towing a SLED resembling a cargo net, and whipping the planes on board as they caught their hooks in the netting, Australia stopped dead in the water for more than half an hour. Since we were in enemy submarine waters, we were horrified! However, our consternation was even greater when Australia finally succeeded in grappling the plane for hoisting in, and the aircraft simply fell apart. From then on, American planes did all the searching".
Hope this has been helpful...:)
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