Cadillac Radar IFF (Was CASF Essex)

[Werner]

TBM-3W would also be the APS 20 carrier of the "Hunter-Killer" ASW pair (3S & 3W) postwar.

There ought to be some in California at the Fleet Airborne Electronics Training Unit (FAETU).

USS Ranger (CV-4), recently returned from delivering aircraft to allied forces in Casablanca, entered Norfolk Naval Shipyard 17 May 1945 for a six-week overhaul, during which a CIC and the Cadillac equipment were installed (This is where to look for our Cadillac datalink antenna, in the final fit of Ranger). Underway again in July, she arrived at North Island on July 25th where she loaded aboard her airwing. This airwing was different from the conventional wing in that it included several developmental concepts; among these were the Cadillac configured TBM-3Ws and the Night Air Combat Training Unit from Barber�s Point. By August 1945 she was in Hawaiian waters conducting final CQ prior to leaving for Japanese waters when the war ended.

With the end of the war, Cadillac was almost, but not quite completed. While the carrier-based component did not have a chance to prove itself in combat, the utility of carrier-based AEW was so clear and its applications so far ranging in impact that further development and deployment would continue post-war, with deployments on Enterprise and Bunker Hill. In addition to the carrier-based component, a second development was begun under Cadillac II for a more robust airborne capability.

(I would love to read about the post-war deployments of Enterprise and Bunker Hill. Most accounts imply neither ship flew aircraft even though the photos of Enterprise in the Panama Canal show aircraft in the hangar and the winter 1945 photos of Bunker Hill show snow swirling among parked planes while she sits at either New York or Boston.)

[phil gollin]

Project Cadillac was a "joint" anglo-US (i.e. the US did most of it) for airborne early warning. There are various operations Research papers in the TNA:PRO showing some of the theoretical work (with trials info) that went into assessing the possible usefulness of the system and tactics (both defensive and attacking).

I didn't think it was actually used during WW2 (?)

It wasn't the first AEW.

Their were trials in 1942/43 of using H2S in various configurations (not very successfully) and then in late 1944 a Wellington was outfitted as what would be called an AWACS to be used over the North Sea with Mosquito nightfighters to counter air-dropped V-1s (Operation Vapour{?}). It wasn't operationally available until 1945 and its first operational sortie was the night after the last V-1 air-drop (!)

[ar]

Re the last two notes.
Have not the aircraft bods written up and published on this extremly vital aspect of Fleet Defence some where, surely? I mean, there are a million books on aircraft, so there must be something, somewhere?

[Werner]

Yes, the flyboys have, but they find such things as links to consoles aboard ship very boring. Look for some of the others, like DASH and LAMPS if you disbelieve me.

[Tracy White]

Have not the aircraft bods written up and published on this extremly vital aspect of Fleet Defence some where, surely? I mean, there are a million books on aircraft, so there must be something, somewhere?

It's like anything else, the "sexy" stuff gets more press. Auxiliaries were critical to the war effort but how many "Oiler Squadron Commander!" biographies do you see?

Pages on the Avenger just mention the -3W on the version list with no description as to its service, for them, it's as if the aircraft's history stopped in August of 1945.

There may be a $60 tome that goes more in-depth but it's less likely to be on someone's shelf. I've got the "in action," "Walkaround" and "Avenger Aces of the Pacific" type of books but nothing more than that.

[Guest]

It's like anything else, the "sexy" stuff gets more press. Auxiliaries were critical to the war effort but how many "Oiler Squadron Commander!" biographies do you see?

You see the biography of Captain Harry Hess of the troop transport USS Cape Johnson (APS-172) quite often. In fact I suspect his name would be remembered longer across more of the world most fighting admirals of WWII.

[Tracy White]

Yeah, for the thrilling action of plate tectonics...

[Guest]

Hey, if that battle of the ants called naval conflict absorbs you more than the grandeur and majesty of geology....

[Tracy White]

My attention span isn't millions of years long

[Werner]

My attention span isn't millions of years long

Mine is. In fact, I can barely notice a million years.

[Tracy White]

Yeah, I can tell by the number of posts you have