The Ship Model Forum

By now, a lot of people already know that I'm in the process of building one of the most unusual WWII ideas ever conceived: HMS Habakkuk, a aircraft carrier out of ice, or rather "pykrete".
As originally conceived, Habakkuk was to be a floating "island" so to speak where planes could take off/land while searching for u-boat threats in the North Atlantic. Habakkuk was never built due to the sheer amount of materials needed, the costs, and the fact that planes were being developed with longer ranges.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Habakkuk

But if the war had gone differently, and the u-boat threat was increasing and more formidable, then do you think Habakkuk could've been built?
1. How do you think Habakkuk could've been designed/developed?
2. What roles and missions do you think a ship like that could've had?
3. If Habakkuk had been built and deployed, Do you think it would've had any impact on the war at all, if any?
4. What planes, armament, radar systems, etc. could that ship have had?
5. If a real Habakkuk had been built, then at what time do you think it could've entered the war: Late '44 or '45, or maybe not until '46?

Also, I heard on another forum that another modeler (Name unknown.) has built a Habakkuk model for a 1946 theme club contest. What do you think of his model design?
http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc25 ... G_1342.jpg
http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc25 ... G_1309.jpg

I can't believe I'm saying this, but for duties in the North Atlantic, well, this is a perfect single-ship escort!!! Here is a picture I've found of an artist's conception of the Habakkuk: http://www.mondolithic.com/wp-content/u ... 8/hab4.jpg
Had the ship looked like what is in the picture, it would have been able to carry every plane in the Allied Arsenal!! My thoughts though, are PBY-5A Catalinas, B-24 Liberators, B-17 Flying Fortresses, TBF Avengers, and the F4U Corsair. The bombers for ASW, the Corsairs for ariel cover. As a last thought, the carrier would be pretty hard to sink. It's surprising what little damage a torpedo could do to a million ton block of ice!!! No matter what, the carrier would always be afloat, thanks to the physics of water - ice floats better than metal.

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Current builds:
Hobby Boss 1/700 Type VIIC U-Boat for my AH

Planned builds:
3 more 1/700 AH submarines

Maybe scratch the Liberator. If there were any enemy fighters, most people would love something as durable as a Flying Fortress. Instead of the B-24, why not put out some Mosquitoes? They were used by Coastal Command as shipping raiders, so why couldn't they work on submarines? Right?

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Current builds:
Hobby Boss 1/700 Type VIIC U-Boat for my AH

Planned builds:
3 more 1/700 AH submarines

I've always liked the B-25 in the anti-shipping role. Fill the nose full of .50cals/20mms, add a few FIDO torpedoes/AP bombs, a cool USN paint job and you have a really awesome ASW platform IMO.

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Drawing Board:
1/700 Whiff USS Leyte and escorts 1984
1/700 Whiff USN Modernized CAs 1984
1/700 Whiff ASW Showdown - FFs vs SSGN 1984

Slipway:
1/700 Whiff USN ASW Hunter Killer Group Dio 1984

Some aircraft like B-25's or Mosquitos could take off/land on the Habakkuk, but anything larger than that would not be able to be stored in the hangars and/or might need a longer runway for taking off/landing. Depends on the type of aircraft though.

If the aircraft are seaworthy (Catalina), the Habbakuk would need a huge crane. Or it could operate some carrier-based Kingfishers or Seahawks.

_________________
Current builds:
Hobby Boss 1/700 Type VIIC U-Boat for my AH

Planned builds:
3 more 1/700 AH submarines

Ok, I found a US version of the Habbakuk - not ice though - here ya go:
http://www.wolfsshipyard.mystarship.com ... merica.jpg

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Current builds:
Hobby Boss 1/700 Type VIIC U-Boat for my AH

Planned builds:
3 more 1/700 AH submarines

Ok, I'm sorry for the constant posting everyone. I just had a thought. While we were on the idea that the US would have made/run the ship, doesn't it make sense for it to be used in the Northern Pacific? Make it a kind of semi-stationary airfield? Stick close enough for some longe range aircraft - P-51/A-36 (Dive Bomber Mustang) - to do pre-emptive strikes early against the sortieing Japanese vessels. The downside of this idea though is that it has to be close Japan, maybe about the same distance Hornet launched Doolittle's bombers; where they are extremely vulnerable. Escorts would probably include DEs, as the Habbakuk would be a pretty slow beast!!!!! Another Escort would probably have to be a BB or two (pre-Pearl Harbor), because no doubt the Japanese would want revenge on whatever is sunk. Just to add onto it, maybe the B-25 (strafing model) would be stationed aboard the USS Habbakuk.

PS, I still think the B-17 would be a good idea, considering how apparently short a runway a B-25 actually needed.

_________________
Current builds:
Hobby Boss 1/700 Type VIIC U-Boat for my AH

Planned builds:
3 more 1/700 AH submarines

In this opinion, the B-17 would have been the "only" logical heavy to operate from Habakuk, due to its more docile takeoff and landing characteristics than other contenders.

Thick, persistent Atlantic fog would have been a real operational bugaboo when the ship had a bunch of aircraft aloft.

And irony; it might not have been available until after the U-Boots were pulled out of the North Atlantic in '43.

Hi I think that:

HMS Habakkuk would have been desigined in Great Britain and built in a big county like canada which has the advancage of rocky and uneven terrain from invastions from the axis countries. The country also has the advancage for misleading air attacks becasue of the vast country.

The designer wanted the ship to be part of the U-boat defence in the atlantic put I think other wise an aircraft carrier that size would of taken part in invastions of Italy. But it would of also taken part in other invastions becasue the ship was going to be built because Hitler was winning the war no because he was losing the war that't why it wasen't built in the first place. It would taken part in the operation D-day landings, or invastion landing maybe in Norway, Denmark and Greece throught the balkens to Germany. and Operation Downfall if the Amercains decided not to use atomic weapons on Japan.

Yes I do think that it would have a impact on the war becasue of it's operational size and distance but on the other hand making the ship work for example fuel, escorts example a least up to 50 to 100 escorts... maybe more!

I think the british would have put everything they had on there, but if you design somthing that is revolutionising to anything other designers will follow so more fighters, light, medium, and heavy bombers would have been designed... That goses for everthing else as well rader, armanents.

Constructing somthing that big would need a lot of work and I think when the british want to build somthing they build it what ever the costs so they would put millions of workers into this life saving war machine.