Navigating Home: How WWII Pilots Found Their Way Back to the Carriers
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- čas přidán 5. 09. 2024
- Hello aviation fans
I would like to introduce you to the principles of the YZ-RB system, which helped American pilots find their way back to their home aircraft carrier. As always, I used 3D visuals to explain. I hope you will enjoy the video. I wish you an enjoyable viewing experience and would appreciate your comments and subscriptions
All models and animations done in Blender 3.0 / Autodesk Maya
My father was an SBD pilot and flew missions from the USS Hornet (CV8) and the USS Lexington (CV16) during WWII. The YZ-RB system served him well on his scouting patrols, raids on Japanese installations as well as during the battles of Midway, Santa Cruz and the Philippine Sea which got him back to his carrier. The only time he got "lost" and had to ditch off the shores of a remote island was when the USS Wasp was sunk in September of 1942. His carrier, the USS Hornet, was alerted when the Wasp was torpedoed. They asked for their pilots to volunteer to fly their planes to Navy's base at Espiritu Santo to make room for Wasp's planes to land. He and the other volunteers were given faulty coordinates. (No YZ-RB was available to guide them to Espiritu Santo.) He and his gunner spent two week on the remote island with a French planter and his family before being rescued by a PBY.
Now that’s a story. Thanks for sharing
My father also flew the SBD with VS-67 and spent time on Esperitu Santo as well. His squadron deployed in mid43 from CA and returned in late 44 in order train on the F6F in prep for the invasion of the home islands. He said that a night landing on a carrier was terrifying! He came home to my Mom but never flew again. Earning his Navy Wings of Gold (which I still have) was one of the most important things he ever did.
@@williamcanfield2889 What carrier(s) was he on?
He was carrier qualified but his squadron, VS-67 was always land-based, initially at NAS Nandi (Suva, Fiji in 43) and then island hopping north up the Solomon Islands chain. They initially flew the OS2U (Kingfisher) and then the SBD-5 in anti submarine and anti troop transport interdictions as the Japs were trying to maintain their presence in the Solomons.
I bet they became sick of bananas for the rest of their lifes! 😄
Many have wondered how pilots found their way back without the enemy knowing, too. Great video.
Its not as hard as this video makes it seem. They had an area the ship was expected to be in and once in range they could find it pretty easily with radios.
IT does not explain why the japs could not use a radio direction finder to find the source of the transmissions.
It only explains how the USN planes did not rely on RDF antennas not why the japs did not try to use RDF.
@@stijnvandamme76The Japs were NOT known for their wartime innovation. That would have required a lot of time testing and funds to implement that they didn’t have as the war went on.
@@kingfisher7960 The easy method with radios is extremely dangerous. This video unfortunately does not explain why the Navy developed this system. (which suggest the person making the video does not know).
You do not want to broadcast your position to prevent enemies from determining where you are. So a continuous signal for which you can detect the source of the transmission is out of the question. It might not just lead your own planes back to your carrier, but also enemy planes. And broadcast your position to submarines etc.
This system was made so that your own planes can determine roughly where you are, but the enemy cannot. The signal is too short to determine the source of the transmission. The enemy would hear it, but not know what the signal meant and thus not be able to determine the source. Even if they figured out how it worked, you could easily change the characters, so they would be pointed the wrong way.
@@marcdevries9027 That's what I was thinking also.
The Japanese pilots wondered how the American pilots got back to their carriers. How did the Japanese get back to theirs?
I was going to ask the same thing
Many of them didn't.... After the PH attack, a line of dye markers were dropped on the ocean surface at the post-attack gathering spot indicating the compass heading the pilots were supposed to follow to their carriers.
They didn't. Their carriers were sank
Kamakazi didn’t care
@@119jleThat's Cold Man.
I have always wondered how pilots found their way back over the ocean. Very clever and simple to follow. Thank you for this great video.
Well, that is clever, however, being a former US Army communications specialist, I know that you wouldn't have needed to break the Navy's simple random Morse code shuffling system to determine the direction of the carrier. That's the weakness of continual transmitting on a single frequency. One need only have a direction finding receiver and a signal to tune in to... You would have needed a lot more than changing the code daily in order to keep the carriers safe. If one sweep of the transmitter took 30 seconds, and the radius were divided into 12 sectors, then a DF receiver would only have the signal for 2.5 seconds every 30 seconds. But loitering for just a couple of minutes would give you enough information to get an azimuth on the carrier. And...a smart enemy having multiple planes in the air at different points on the compass would get different azimuth bearings on the same signal, thus TRIANGULATING your carrier with great precision. So, I'm sure there was a lot more to this system than explained, and you'd probably in fact want to randomize the frequency as well, and they probably even shut it off entirely if enemy planes were expected within 200 miles radius. This isn't what I would call a secure system, though they didn't have the ability to frequency hop or digital encryption at the time.
You are correct.
Each of those aircraft would have to be fitted with RDF gear..... was that at all common in the IJN in WW2?
@@trooperdgb9722 Jesus Christ, you're dumb.
@trooperdgb9722 Jesus that's dumb 🙄
Radio direction finders were common technology before the war even started. 🙄That's what the LOOP antennas are on aircraft of the time, which included just about EVERY amphibious recon and patrol plane and bomber.
My dad flew a TBF Avenger during the war and survived three crashes. I loved hearing him talk of his experiences. I don’t recall if he told me about the navigation, so thank you for posting!
You’re welcome. I’d love to hear Your dad’s stories too
My dad was a turret gunner on a Avenger and he would not say much about his experiences in the war. You should be proud your father was a pilot. The best generation by far.
@@charlie1571. Yes. They were the best!
@@charlie1571there will be never be a better one. And the Avenger was a great aircraft, far better than the Helldiver that everyone loathed.
@@duartesimoes508 How true. My father used to say that the Helldiver wasn't worth a sh** and he knew from former pilots of the aircraft. I might add that my father was assigned on escort (jeep carriers) from the Atlantic theater to the Pacific I miss him dearly.
I was read many WWII books but this info is a totally new for me. Thx.
Me too, it's something no books mention.
It's quite normal - system was probably highly classified - even 50 years after a war :-)
"I HAVE read..." Good luck with your English lessons ( which you need ).
The way those pilots then could find the carrier on their way back in the vast open sea was a mistery to me. Thanks for solving it.
You’re welcome😉
So THAT'S how they did it! I'd assumed it was some kind of aerial direction finding system but had no idea of the particulars.
I'll tell you something I learned a long time ago, NEVER underestimate the sophistication of our forbears, I guarantee they'll surprise you every time!
Thanks for posting!
Agree, have said for yers if our ancestors had been dummies...we wouldn't be here.
@@philgiglio7922 You said it!
Now convince the kids that older people aren't universally computer illterate....heh. Yeah, our ancestors were sometimes more intelligent than we are. For that matter, people look at stone blades/arrowheads/spear points and think "that's so crude"...but when you look at the details, you realize that it took a great deal of sophisticated design work, not to mention extreme skill...and people are still being surprised that stone blades can be sharper than a razor. Thinking that our immediate ancestors were less intelligent than us is the height of folly.
I preferred the British wristwatch system. They had a single narrow beam sweep at 1 rpm, pilots synchronized their watch to the beacon, so if you heard the beacon, you just looked at your watch and you knew the carrier was in the opposite direction to the seconds hand, ie if you heard the beep when the second hand pointed to 3, you knew you were East of the carrier
That’s very elegant. Synchronising the second hand must have been a top pre flight priority.
Now imagine if your watch stopped. 😰
Why did the Admiralty insist on a second crewman/navigator in all their carrier aircraft designs?
Personally i think the Anerican system is better. Battle damage may have killed your watch or even taken it off your wrist.
@@mothmagic1Unfortunately the American radio receiver may get battle damaged as well🤷🏻♂️
I have wondered how they did it way back then, having used INS myself. After hours it may drift but never so much that it would leave you lost. Thanks for posting this. Today I learned something new.
I once had a very interesting chat with a former TAP Air Portugal Navigator, which actually took place in the very nose of a Boeing 707, in the Air Force Museum. (It was the former President Mobutu aircraft; its nose and cockpit were fully restored, the rest was scrapped as there was no room nor money for more)
He told me that they crossed the Atlantic based on the INS and the system did deviate a bit, but that wasn't a real issue as when approaching the American East Coast they had plenty of time to pick an NDB or VOR and correct the course very much in time. 😀
Nowadays we have the laser operated IRS, which no longer uses gyroscopes, lines up much faster and basically does not deviates, I was told. Both are fully autonomous and impossible to jam.
@@duartesimoes508 I retired a couple of decades ago. I'm sure systems are MUCH better than when I flew.
The forerunner to VORs which give bearings in degrees using two radio signals with a phase shift between them.
This one basicly was verry cleverly encrypted
It's a more advance version of the airmail A/N range used in the 1930s.
@@fazole Yes, and that is still used in a very much modified way in the ILS and glideslope signals, but as two frequencies, not two Morse letters.
@@fazole. I remember the A/N airways back in 1964. It would drive you crazy trying to listen to it all the time. VOR was a great relief but the GA radios were cheaply engineered and built. The vhf com was all crystal and limited to the radio freq you could effort to buy. Wow! 180 freq Loaded radio. I few with maybe 10 freq.
I now love flying with ForeFlight but do my IFR by VOR/ILS.
My brother-in-law was a radio operator on the USS Hancock from early 1944 until the end of the war. The Hancock was hit many times by Kamikazes, especially during the battle for Okinawa. After the worst battles many fighters were low on fuel and needed to find the carrier and land at night. The situation was so desperate the Hancock turned its full landing lights on, (strictly forbidden in wartime) to help them land. Many didn't make it and ditched in the ocean. If a damaged fighter couldn't be moved off the deck it was pushed overboard to allow room for others to land. Desperate times require desperate measures.
The aircrews were forever grateful for the admiral who made that decision.
A WWII P-38 pilot stationed in Italy told me how he found his way back to his home airfield. He would transmit on a specific frequency giving the regularly change code for his field. Directional finders would locate his position and give him the heading to return to his base. Neither the location of his plane or the field was revealed in the transmission.
Unless the base used a remote repeater, wouldn't transmitting to the pilot also reveal the base location to direction finding?
Both stations could still be DF'd, but keeping the transmissions short would minimize the chance of being located accurately.
I vaguely remember reading in a book that aircraft had a transmitter to being them back to the carriers in my early 20s.
But this 4 1/2 minute video really added a lot of detail. Thank you.
Thank you, great video! Playing Il-2 1946 series for a years I always use Hayrake system to find my carrier, and this system is never failed! It is really simple and easy to use 👍
Thanks Mate. Hope U subscribed😉
I've Read A-lot About Naval Aviation During World War Two, But Did Not Know About This. Thank You.
Thanks for Your comment🙏
It was often that planes landed on any allied carrier. Today it is reason for laughter, but in 1940s finding any friend ship when you running low on fuel was important.
Forgive me if I get the names wrong but during the battle of Midway, towards the end actually, when Yorktown's pilots were informed they had to land on other carriers as Yorktown was critically damaged the following exchange took place on (I think) Enterprise between the Landing Signals Officer (LSO) and one of his assistants:
"How many have we landed?"
"I don't know, we've already taken on more than we launched!"
"HOLY CHRIST! Have somebody check those airplanes for meatballs!" 🤣
The had no idea Yorktowns airplanes were advised to divert!
@@wayneantoniazzi2706 I never heard about that. Nice :)
@@hvnterblack Thanks! I read it in a book published in 1967 called "The G.I. War" by Ralph G. Martin. One of the best books on WW2 I've ever read and told from the viewpoints of the guys who fought it. Split in two parts, the war in Europe and the war in the Pacific it's an incredible read. It also carries into the immediate post-war era as well. All didn't get back to normal as quickly as you might suppose.
If you ever see a copy for sale grab it! You won't be sorry!
@@wayneantoniazzi2706 And you brought source, book read years ago. Ummm, mad respect.
@@hvnterblack Thanks! I've got a copy and trust me, it's not going anywhere!
Amazing video. Awesome information given.
Thanks Mate. Hope U subscribed😉
Amazingly simple and brilliant given the tech of the day.
Simple and effective.....usually the best option.
This is fascinating! Thank you, I had always wondered how pilots found their way back to a moving airfield.
Thanks Mate. Appreciate it. Hope U subscribed😉
Great factual video, liked it a lot and answered the question I've had for a couple of years. Japanese and British please.
Did a lot of reading and research for my WW II Book; FATAL FLAWS BOOK 1 1914-1945. Never came across this info before. Thanks.
Fantastic. I have always wondered how they found their way home. As a pilot who easily get lost, I fin their skills amazing!
very cool - Simplicity at work.
Very interesting. I never read that before.
Thanks Mate. Hope U subscribed😉
I read about one case where the ship's commander had the search lights turned on to direct a flight back to the ship, despite the protocol to leave the lights off.
@@duartesimoes508You are correct.
My CFI’s father was a TBM aviator on that operation. He was one of the fortunate ones who made it back to his ship. IIRC Halsey made the call to light the carriers.
I had asked him about navigating back to the carrier years ago as I was curious about it as well. He said they used a beacon “like an NDB” and they “had a localizer they would turn off and on for a few seconds long enough to get a fix, and hopefully keep the Japanese from homing on the signal.”
He was up in age when I asked about it, so details may have gotten a little fuzzy by then.
USS Hancock did that.
My gramps was a navigator on B17s in the pacific. They would need to locate tiny remote islands for landing using using his hand calculations alone. Using a "computer" which was something like a very specially designed slide rule.
Dalton E-6B flight computer invented by USN Lt Philip Dalton and introduced into USAAC service in 1940.
Be very proud of your "gramps". A very skilled role. Very difficult to navigate by dead reckoning over the ocean, with no possibility of getting a fix, often at night and/or in bad weather while maybe being fired on. He undoubtedly saved the lives of the crew many times over by getting them home safely.
That was very good. Makes you think of the Navajo Indians of ww2. Out smart the enemy love it😊😊
In all my reading about the PTO, Navy parts, I've never heard about this system. Incredible. I've always wondered how they did it. Thank-you !
Thanks for that very clear explanation.
You’re welcome😉
Just learned something new and fascinating. Never thought about it prior to this vid. Absolutely simple, yet brilliant, solution. Mega-cool. 😎
I've always wondered about this, so glad to find this video. But two questions:
- How did Japanese naval aviators find their carriers?
- Wasn't there a risk that the Japanese could use radio direction finding equipment to get a bearing on the carrier emitting the YZ-RB signal?
I’ll cover that in next video. Stay tuned 😉
@@x-planed - As the son of a USAAC veteran, and a student of WWII history, I'm curious to know where you found this information, as it's fascinating!
Learn something new every day.
Brilliant!
My father was a turret gunner on a Grumman TBF. One night on their way back to the carrier a F6F night fighter approached them and asked for a call sign. The pilot would not answer and my dad said answer him or we will be shot down. After the 3rd request from the fighter the pilot responded and the fighter took a hard left and disappeared. My father said that was the most scared situation he was ever in.
I love such stories. Your father must have been a brave man
And the Bozo in the Hellcat couldn't recognise an Avenger?! Maybe he was just having fun scaring him.
@@duartesimoes508 Could be but my dad said it was at a moonless night. I guess we will never know and at the time (Okinawa) everybody with the Kakamazies was on edge.
This I agree! 😬
Excellent! Looks like the fore runner of the VOR which gives a signal every single degree.
thanks v much - often wondered how
Thank😉 Hope U subscribed
@@x-planed done
Looking forward to this since last vids because im very curious about this topic. Hope you find another good yet obscure topics!
Man having to memorize the letters and heading that changes everyday must be a nightmare, though I think nobody would stop you from taping a note onto the cockpit to remind you what the day’s codes are.
Thank you from a new subscriber! Two questions: 1. Did not the British have a similar system based on timed intervals and synchronization between the plane and carrier before take off? 2. How was enemy direction finding / RDF thwarted? Thanks again!
I learned something new. Thank you.
You’re welcome. Hope U subscribed😉
Now that’s something i never knew. Thank-you!
Thks. I now know something I didn't know before I saw your video.
Amazing!! great presentation! just a small error on the 360 degree beam sweep angles! at 3:05 H should be between 210-240! :D
Thanks. Yes I’ve noticed it after I published the video😉
A perfect video
Id wondered for years how they got back, and at night. Thanks for the info, really intreresting.
An outstanding presentation, thanks.
Great story and thanks for posting! I’ve always wondered how carrier pilots found their way home! Now I know! 👍
Very similar to the British system that also used a rotating beam. When the beam passed the aircraft, it would give the pilot and navigator a beep, and they would look at their watch to determine the azimuth they had to turn to return to their carrier. Great mines think alikie.
I have, as Navy pilot, navigated, at sea, without the aid of any radar, either by the ship, land or onboard electrical aid of any kind. I used an all aluminum (no battery) air navigation computer called the Mb- 2 and the Mb-4. Yes , I am old.
What is Mb-2 and Mb-4? I’m a commercial pilot myself and never heard of it. Could U elaborate pls?
Go to Google type in "MB-4 Dead Reckoning Air Navigation Computer" tens of thousands, maybe more, were made. Some before America went to war. And production continued till at least the 1980's. Several versions were made. I retired a long time ago. Fun fact. I am the first person to have navigated on a combat mission using the GPS system, long before it interred military service and that was before it was approved for Civilian use. Only two satellites were up. And then there was Navstar, that's another story.
Also, look up Rodger L. Easton and the NS1 and NS2 satellites . The NS2 was the first satlite to carry a true GPS, that would have been in about 1977.
Go to Google. Type in MB-4 Dead Reckoning Air Navigation Computer. Thousands were made. I believe the first one used was in 1938. But they were used by the US military through the war and even until the 80's. Several versions were made. At one time they were common in Civilian use. Fun fact: I am the first Aviator to use the GPS system to navigate on a combat mission. That was Before it entered (approved) military service. And years before it was first used for civilian use. Only two GPS satellites were up.
@@raywhitehead730 - Oh - was that what we called "SatNav" ?
My father was a gunner PBM Y. He told me they were given a new code every day which they had to memorize. As they flew in to the landing strip marine machine gunners on the ground trained their guns on plane which had to fly a predetermined landing pattern. if you got the pattern wrong or radio code the marines were instructed to blow you out of the air.
He said the radio code usually contained the word Parallelogram within the radio call given the Japanese could not pronounce Parallelogram. He also was the flight engineer when not manning a machine gun turret. His first duty before he died was to activate a red switch that blow up the radar system which very top secret at the time. If you see a picture of a PBW with a large dome on top that was the radar. I have his flight logs books noting night radar bombing and mine laying runs. .
I almost split my sides laughing over that reason for using the word "parallelogram" in the radio code. Of course, nowadays, the woke community would probably condemn it as racist but hey, all's fair in love and war.
Thanks for answering a burning question I had!!
Clever but simple at the same time.
Very Interesting. I'm an old WW2 buff and never knew this!
Couldn't the Japanese have triangulated the carrier location with two separated ships?
Yes of course...I would guess that they sent the signal in critical situations (bad weather, carrier group changed course) only.
Thank you. This was very information. I think the animation with the aircraft on the 30 degree slices of the compass was a bid misleading because the nose of the aircraft is pointed to the ship when it purportedly receives the signal. In fact, when the aircraft received the signal, the aircraft was likely pointed in some random direction; after receiving the signal, the pilot would then know which direction to point the aircraft in.
Very good. I always wondered how they got back.
I was always wondering how they did it. Thanks for this great explanation!
Simple but BRILLIANT..
Great video and not too long, subscribed and binging!
Very interesting. First time hearing about this system.
I have always wondered about this exact thing. Now I know and for that I thank you.
This is good stuff - concise and informative. One question that arises in the end is how Japanese pilots handled the same difficulty? Japanese major ace navy fighter pilot Saburo Sakai lived until 2000 and I suppose has left some memoirs or books.
Very interesting how we can come up with genius solutions for problems from technological limitations of the time
Very interesting description of the radio guidance system of the time. I just noticed a small error in your diagram of the sectorisation of the degrees on the rosette. It should read "240°" and not 230°. This system was replaced by the DME (or radio compass).
That answers an old question Ive had. Thanks!
Good video! Nice and short. Glad you didn't waste ten minutes at the start talking about what they did before the system.
They used "Dead Reckoning" - so called because if you reckoned wrong - you were dead....
Very interesting!!! Thank for sharing!!!!
Thanks Mate😉
Great video. How did the Japanese fighters find their way back to the carriers?
Very clever because it was so simple.
The planes often flew beyond radio signal range on their missions, so pilots had to be really good at dead reckoning as well.
That, to an old 'Carrier Sailor' was Very interesting.
The system you desccribe looks very like a more general nav aid of the late 1950s, called the Voice Rotating Beacon, (VRB) which eventually gave way to the familiar Visual Omni range, which in turn seems to be being replaced b GPS.
VERY interesting!! Thank you. Since the Japanese never figured out before WW-II ended how our pilots always located their carrier, can you do a video detailing how the Japanese aircraft carrier pilots solve the same problem?
Great video. I often wondered how they did this.
Thanks. Hope U subscribed😉
Great video. Please make more. Do you know the maximum range the ship's signal could be picked up at?
Thanks. I think I’ve mentioned it in the video😉
That's actually really smart.
Quite clever while being elegant. I wonder what system the enemy used. Edit to add: Oh, I see the link. I'll watch that one.
Wow! I always wondered about this. thank you so much.
Ever since the TV show, Baa Baa Black Sheep in the 70s, I've wondered how they found their way around. Now I have to ask, how did the Japanese airplanes find their way back to the ships? Apparently not the same system, but it seems to have been effective, too.
I subbed, please keep up the good work.
I've always wondered about that! Very cool video!
I imagine that one of the ingredients missing from the YZ-RB system was the lack of an indication of the range of the aircraft from its carrier. Given the extreme range over which the US Navy operated, this would have been the bigger problem, and is testament to the extraordinary courage of the crews involved.
British pilot ex- RAF
In 61 we learned in Ground school to work out
the Nav on our 'knee Pad' if Tacan or other didn't work.
excellent
X-planed with another goated video I'm sure.
Wow thank You Mate. Appreciate it🙏
I've always wondered about this thanks😊
I'd never considered the issue before, but this was a nice clear explanation of it and the solution.
BTW, it would be called "Hay rake", not "hirack".
(:-))) "Hirack" is the way the English would pronounce "Hay Rack"
Never thought of it. Good to know.
Very nice, I enjoyed always wondered about that
I have often wondered how they did it. Thanks for the video. Makes me wonder, however, how the Japanese pilots did it.
New vid? HELL YEAH !
Thanks😉
In the recent film MIDWAY we see the pilots carrying a clipboard of some sort when they entered the cockpit...a piece on what that was and how it was used would be appreciated.
I assume it was some sort of plating board where the would write in headings and time of flight to assist in finding their boat.
Thanks for sharing. That was very interesting.
It also raises the question: how did they get home BEFORE the advent of the YZ_RB?
Wow, thank you. I did not know this.
I never knew that and always wondered.
The British had a system that could find the direction of enemy transmissions in several seconds. Less than it takes to establish contact with U boat command. It was called Huf Duf.
Awesome video! Thank you
Very interesting video! Thanks!