WWII Aircraft

These are the military aircraft used in the North Pacific theaters—the Aleutian and Kuril Islands—during World War II. Mention of these were made in the book The Flying, Fighting Weathermen of Patrol Wing Four by Paul E. Carrigan.

Click the photos for a larger image. Click on the captions for more information; typically a Wikipedia page.

Amphibian Patrol aircraft

The harsh weather in the North Pacific made flying treacherous. Airfields were often shrouded in fog or thick snowstorms. Another factor was navigation. At the start of the war, there were few navigational aids beyond visual aids. Navigators had to use dead-reckoning, which sometimes put them off couse by substantial amounts. The book has numerous stories about planes and their crews perishing because of this.

Aircraft that had the ability to operate from sea, such as the PBY, had the advantage in this environment. They could put down at sea and wait out a storm or taxi until they found a sheltered cove. Here's a table of American and Japanese amphibians showing their characteristics.

Land-based aircraft

This section deals with planes used in the Aleutian and Kuril Islands that take off and land either on land or carriers. Note that there were variants of these planes that had different performance characteristics. Click the links below the photos for details.

Note that the Army variant of the Navy SBD Dauntless was called the A-24 Banshee and was used in the Aleutian Islands. The PV-2 Harpoon is a modified version of the PV-1 Ventura.

Bombers

These are the heavy bombers that were used during the war in the Aleutian and Kuril Islands. The B-29 had a limited role but is included here for comparison with Japanese bombers. The bomb load for the U.S. bombers is for long-distance missions. They were capable of heavier loads on shorter missions. Also, bomb loads depended on altitude—higher altitudes required lighter loads.

Interestingly, many lists of Japanese WWII bombers you can find on the Internet do not include the Kawanishi H8K Emily and H6K Mavis. These were patrol/bombers just like the PBY. If you think it's odd to think of these three flying boats as bombers, consider that their bomb loads are equal to some land-based bombers, such as the B-25 and B-26, and close to the B-17.

Cargo planes