ORIGINAL: Lemurs!
Tris,
If you look closer you will find that there is a Martlet II and a Wildcat V/VI in the database for the British.
Martlet II was the most commonly used version on British carriers in WW2.
The Wildcat is representing late war versions for escort carriers.
The Martlet I is NOT represented because it was not carrier optomized and was used by the RN only from land stations.
Mike
Mike, what I find in your CHS database is this. I find a listing for a "Martlet," not a Martlet II as you state. The implication of what you write above is that the "Martlet" you actually included was modeled by you to be a Martlet II even though it reads in the database as a "Martlet." Is that correct?
Then I also find in the CHS database a "Wildcat VI," not a "Wildcat V/VI." Do you also mean to say that your "Wildcat V/VI" was in actuality modeled to be a Wildcat VI or a Wildcat V or a kind of cooperative . . . both? If the latter, why don't we just take the "Zeros" and lump them together as well? That'd go over like a lead balloon. [8D]
And what do you mean to say by "late war"? What's "late" about 1942? That's when the F4F-4-inspired variants Martlet IV (Wright Cyclone engine) and Martlet V (Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp engine) were introduced. And the Martlet VI was the GM FM-2, again, a distinctly different airplane: it was a superior climber, had a higher ceiling (single-stage supercharger degraded performance way up there, though), was a bit more agile and had longer range than the FM-1. Also, the last 1400 were fitted for HVARs.
The point I'm trying to make is that a one-size-fits-all approach to the much-varied "Wildcat" series fails.
Re which mark Martlets were used for naval aviation: first of all, the fixed-wing F4F-3 (G36)/Martlet Mark I and Mark III was "carrier optimized" as far as the state of the art then could optimize it. It was specifically designed for carrier operations. As far as I know the 802 Squadron FAA on CVE HMS
Audacity operated Martlet Is from her deck in December of 1941 when she escorted convoy HG 76 from Gibraltar to Liverpool. That's from three different sources, including this site:
Fleet Air Arm Archive -- 802 Squadron. I also found a further source which listed her six-plane complement as being "Martlets," so I disregarded that one altogether as they obviously don't know what they're talking about, and one source (which I can't find anymore for some reason) as listing those planes to be Martlet IIs. It would seem to make sense that the Mark II would be used in preference to the Mark I due to the former model's folding wings, but the FAA Archive site clearly lists the 802 Squadron's Martlets
both as Mark I's and Mark IIIs (remember, the fixed-wing version eventually was called the Mark III
after the folding-wing F4F-3s (G-36Bs) were delivered, hence the Mark I became belatedly the Mark III).
That seems like conclusive proof to me. Not that it impacts the CHS project, because it does not, but just for whatever it's worth.
Look. I appreciate all of your work. It's great. You've gone to a lot of trouble. But as long as I'm now involved with the CHS project, to whatever minor degree, I intend to put in my two cents, and my suggestion at this juncture is that you and Don put your heads together some more and rethink this "Martlet" business.
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