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| David asking Hap a question |
This story was written on Hap's 91st birthday by David Wagner from Hap's stories the evening before.
When I heard Hap's reminisce of his flying days, I thought it worth recording a bit of what I heard. After sharing a draft with Hap, I corrected some errors, and no doubt made a few more. But here goes:
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| USN PBY-5A |
During WW2, Hap was a young USN PBY-5A aircraft commander, serving in both the S. Atlantic and the Pacific. His two engine Catalina PBY was perhaps the most successful flying boat ever. It was used for fleet scouting, pilot rescue and anti-submarine defense. They continued flying from oceans around the world for decades after the war, such as the one piloted by Pillip Costeau, used for Jacques' documentaries. Haps -5A model was an amphibian, with retractable landing gear, like the one Costeau flew. Even if a hard strip wasn't available, the wheels allowed it to roll up a ramp, for servicing. At least some of the Catalinas, perhaps even the ones Hap flew, were built here in San Diego, where the Navy Space Warfare command is today.
The Catalina was designated PBY by the Navy, as a patrol bomber. More often it's incredible range and visibility led to reconnaissance successes such as locating the Bismarck, and spotting the Japanese fleet approaching Midway. In 1943 Hap's squadron was flying 12 hour missions out of Belem, Brazil, at the mouth of the Amazon. They were protecting convoys crossing the South Atlantic, to England and in support of the North Africa battles against Rommel. Even the southern convoy route was plagued by U-boat attacks
When he recounted this story on his 91st birthday, Hap recalled the roar of the two big radial engines, the 10-ft props spinning just behind the cockpit, at a deafening 105 decibels. Hap and his crew would be stone deaf for a day after each long mission. (I didn't find out if Hap was stone deaf on the day he met Pres. Franklin Delano Roosevelt; the presidential party spent a night in Belem, before crossing over to meet Churchill at Casablanca. Hap's crew helped themselves to a few bottles of executive wine rations.)
A PBY's range and water landing capability meant relatively slow speed, which came with the long missions. The other thing that came with the slow speed, paradoxically, was an attack mission; the PBY 'patrol bomber' was supposed to drop depth charges on enemy submarines, when they could be found. All well and good, if the U-boat submerged; drop the two depth bombs and loiter to mark the spot until a destroyer could come along and prosecute a sustained attack. But what if the sub didn't submerge? The Kriegs marine gun crews sometimes fought it out with a slow-flying PBY attempting a low altitude attack. Then the hunter become hunted, an easy target for crack German gunners, aiming a deck gun capable of anti-air or surface warfare.
The PBY's lack of offensive arms wasn't lost on young Hap, as he lumbered along at 105 mph with only a pair of 30 cal machine guns to shoot at a surfaced sub. And so he hatched a plan. He managed to upgrade his nose gun with a 50 cal., giving it improved range and hitting power. But still not enough. Somehow he scrounged a rapid fire 37mm anti-air auto canon from the Army Air Force. He engineered a way to mount the heavy steel pom-pom canon in the nose blister of his PBY. Hap's idea was to attack with the coaxial 50 cal machine gun blazing, and when the tracers swung onto target, he would let loose with the big gun, before the enemy got him. The German captain certainly wouldn't be expecting 50 cal and an exploding 37mm shell from a lumbering PBY. If nothing else Hap's heavy arms fire would tend to spoil the aim of the U-boat gunners.
A PBY had never been armed with a cannon before. Hap encountered resistance in his own command, predictions the heavy gun could damage an airframe that wasn't designed for it. But when word of his innovation reached the States, Hap was called back to the Norfolk Virginia shipyard, to explain his invention to the naval engineering bureaucracy. 'What was an Army gun doing on a Navy plane?' While Hap was detached, en route to the States, another pilot was assigned to his plane. The PBY and crew kept flying war patrols.
At this particular moment in the Battle of the Atlantic, German U-boat admirals had figured out that under-armed American PBY's were spoiling their convoy attacks. The Krieg's marine decided to target PBY squadrons, engage in a war of attrition, thin their ranks. As Hap was in Norfolk explaining his theory of offense, the German's commanded their U-boats to stay surfaced and fight it out with PBY's, knock them out of the sky. In his absence, Hap's crew spotted a surfaced U-boat, and went in for the attack. But Hap's gun mounting system had been removed for study, the drawings and photos traveling with him to America. The U-boat scored a hit on the cockpit, in exactly the kind of uneven contest Hap's invention would have equalized. Hap's friend and copilot was killed. The wounded PBY was able to recover back to base with the rest of the crew.
The Germans quickly discovered that a victory against a medium patrol bomber was not worth the risk of staying surfaced, risking a U-boat. They rescinded the 'stand and fight' order the very next week. The U-boat threat began to decline, and Hap's invention was never implemented, before the war ended. We'll never know how it might have gone if Hap had been been there, loaded for bear, on the day his copilot was killed. However, he retains the distinction of inventing and flying the most heavily armed PBY in the USN, the only one armed with a 37mm canon. Who knows, perhaps his drawings and photos of the installation are still gathering dust at Norfolk, evidence of a forgotten story.
Rest in peace Hap.
