Weather Is A Killer

[Jim Oxley]

Weather conditions had an enormous impact on aerial operations the Pacific. Far more so than Europe. And no where more so than over New Guinea.

Of the losses on 'combat missions' in the 5th Air Force over New Guinea roughly 60% were caused by enemy action (1,488 out of 2,494), the balance attributed to foul weather.

By comparison, even with the notoriously bad weather over Europe, the majority of the losses on combat missions in that theatre were due to enemy action (9,654 out of 11,687 ie 82.6%).

[Above info obtained from the Army Air Force Stastical Digest]

[JACK COOK]

Jim,
Your Exactly Right.
My Cousin, Capt Don Owen Was Lost In May 1945 When He Was Lauched In Zero-zer0 Weather From The Uss Bennington To Try And Intercept A Radar Blip. He Was Flying Corsairs In Vmf-112 Under Maj. Hap Hansen And Had Scored His 5th Kill Days Earlier. He, Like Most Pilots Of That Era Had Little If Any Instrument Training. I Don't Think He Had A Prayer Of Making It Back When They Launched Him.

[Franek Grabowski]

Blind flying was a standard training in the RAF, so I am certain it was in USN as well. Nonetheless it was (and is) still a tricky thing.

[robert_schulte]

Take-off in zero zero is quite easy with blind flying training, even more with a catapult. The tricky thing is the landing, when you have to find the airport or even worse, the carrier, even if you are guided by radar or radio waves. If you ever should get the opportunity to drive in a car with 100 mph in a fog with 100 meters visibility or less, on an unknown road, you will know what I mean :D

Even today with much better standards and instruments you need special equipped planes and special trained pilots with hundreds of hours flying experience to land in a visibility of 200 meters or less.