French meeting with Avenger, Corsair, Mustang, Catalina and more...

Very nice, thanks for posting. Are they privately owned, museum collections, or ???

 

Were Corsairs and Avengers active in the European Theater? I identified them more as Pacific operators......faulty memory?

 

I'm interested in the answer to this too. I never thought that the Corsair or the Avenger ever did anything in Europe. That said, cool show!

 

Did the Catalina or Skyraider ever go to war there either? Just curious and not implying they shouldn't be shown in Europe. Everyone needs to see these warbirds...

 

I think that some Avengers served in the Atlantic campaign against the U-boats. The RAF had both Avengers and Corsairs on their carriers, though I don't recall how many of those served in the Atlantic.

The British certainly used the Catalina in the Atlantic - one of them found the Bismarck after it had disappeared for a few days.

 

The French operated a lot of Corsairs in Indo China/Viet Nam along with Bearcats.


Wouldn't be surprised if we gave them some Spads too.


Ought to see a Spad parked next to a Mustang some time. It is a very big airplane but all by itself there is no sense of scale.

Just read up on it. French Air Force bought 20 to replace P47s in Algeria used them as COIN aircraft and operated them until 1970.

 

Skyraiders went to war in Algeria.

 

Nice to see flying Catalina, their my favourite war"birds"

 

Man, you guys know so much! I actually wondered if these were used during their original war in WWII's European theatre. So it seems Avengers, yes. Catalinas, yes. Corsairs, maybe. And Skyraiders, though actaully a post war fighter, went to North Africa with the French.

Pretty much everything imaginable went to the pacific at some point for WWII, Korea, and Indochina/VN.

 

Nice stuff great love the Cat

 

VMF-511 trained with Corsairs to take out V-1 launch sites. The mission was scrapped.

 

I think that I have mentioned it before in my blurbs. We were dispatched to try to retrieve two crew members who bailed out of a B-17 over the York River in a night storm. At 2400 a Catalina showed up and cruised up and down the river dropping flares all night. They went off station at 1200 the next day after flying through a raging thunder storm all night. Impressive display of airplane and crew.

 

The F-4U Corsair was flown by the British Fleet Air Arm, from carriers, off Norway during World War Two, so yes it did operate in Europe, for instance for "operation Tungsten", among others.

As for the french "Corsairs":
The french "Aeronavale" had a long tradition of buying Vought aeroplanes, beginning before the second World War with the V-156.

The french F-4U were of two different subtypes: refurbished AU-1 from the US Marine Corps, and a purpose build variant for the french only, the F-4U7. It served until 1964, notably in the Algerian operations, this with the "Flottilles" (squadrons) 12F, 14F, 15F.
The french "Corsairs" operated from the carriers "Lafayette" (ex CVL27, USS Langley) and "Bois Belleau" (ex CVL24, USS Belleau Wood) (I still have got some pictures from "Corsairs" aboard the first one 'cause my Dad served on that ship...) and also from the carrier "Arromanches" (ex HMS "Colossus")

The story of Vought fighters in the "Aeronavale" then continued with a plane that has become an icon here in its own right, the F-8U "Crusader" of which France bought forty-two examples in 1964 of the F-8U2NE subtype, modified to suit the carriers "Clemenceau" and "Foch" in the F-8U2NE(FN), FN meaning "French Navy". It served until 1999.

Rgds

 

Nice pics, and great to see Moonbeam McSwine back in the air.

I saw this plane in the US when she was being disassembled for her trip to France.

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/aviatorchat-com/393176-p-51d-moonbeam-mcswine-bidding-adieu-usa.html

 

Thank you! Love the Catalina. My favorite plane.