ALLIED AIRCRAFT DEPLOYED IN ASW ROLES IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC AREA1
(BY TYPES AND SQUADRONS, SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 1942)
In the early fall of 1942 there were about seven hundred Allied aircraft assigned to frontline antisubmarine warfare (ASW) units based around the perimeter of the North Atlantic where Allied convoys sailed. This figure does not include U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) and U.S. Navy (USN) units in southern Florida assigned to the Gulf Sea Frontier nor those units assigned to the Caribbean and Panama Sea Frontiers. Nor does it include about 150 USN single-engine floatplanes (OS2U, etc.) or the thirty-nine blimps assigned to the Eastern Sea Frontier (ESF). If all of these aircraft were to be included, the total would easily exceed one thousand.
The nearly seven hundred aircraft of the frontline units listed here include about 275 capable of long-range and/or very-long-range missions:
| 138 | Catalinas/Cansos |
| 48 | Sunderlands |
| 42 | B-24 Liberators |
| 36 | B-17 Flying Fortresses |
| 12 | Halifaxes |
U.S. East Coast/Bermuda2
| VP31 | USN | 12PBY-5ACatalinas3 | |
| VP74 | USN | 12 PBM-1 Mariners4 | |
| VP82 | USN | 12PBO-lHudsons5 | |
| VP92 | USN | 12PBY-5ACataIinas6 | |
| VP93 | USN | 12PBY-5ACatalinas7 | |
| VP94 | USN | 12PBY-5ACatalinas8 | |
| PZ11 | USN | 8 Blimps | |
| PZ12 | USN | 8 Blimps | |
| PZ14 | USN | 8 Blimps | |
| PZ21 | USN | 15 Blimps9 | |
| 28 | USAAF10 | B-25s | Westover, Massachusetts |
| 7 | USAAF | B-18s | Long Island, New York |
| 11 | USAAF | B-25s. | Dover, Delaware |
| 12 | USAAF | B-17s | Langley, Virginia |
| 2 | USAAF | B-18s | Langley, Virginia |
| 15 | USAAF | B-34sn | Langley, Virginia |
| 10 | USAAF | A-29s | Cherry Point, North Carolina |
| 14 | USAAF | DB-7Bs | Jacksonville, Florida |
Newfoundland/Nova Scotia
| 5 | RCAF | 12 Cansos12 | |
| 10 | RCAF | 12 Digbys13 | |
| 11 | RCAF | 12 Hudsons | |
| 113 | RCAF | 12 Hudsons | |
| 116 | RCAF | 12 Catalinas | |
| 117 | RCAF | 12 Cansos | |
| 119 | RCAF | 12 Hudsons | |
| 145 | RCAF | 12 Hudsons | |
| 162 | RCAF | 12 Cansos | |
| VP 84 | USN | 12 PBY-5A Catalinas14 |
Iceland
| 330 | RAF | 6 Catalinas and 6 Northrop float planes (Norwegian-manned) |
| 269 | RAF | 20 Hudsons |
| 120 | USN | 6 B-24 Liberators |
| VP 73 | USN | 12 Catalinas 15 |
Hebrides
| 58 | RAF | 20 Whitleys (reequipping with Hlalifaxes) |
| 206 | RAP | 12 B-17s |
| 228 | RAF | 12 Sunderlands |
Northern Ireland
| 120 | RAF | 3 B-24s |
| 201 | RAF | 12 Sunderlands |
| 220 | RAF | 12 B-17s |
Faeroes
| 210 | RAF | 12 Catalinas |
Northwest Scotiand
| 48 | RAF | 20 Hudsons |
| 179 | RAF | 6 Wenlingtons |
| 162 | RAF | 8 Whitleys |
Southern England
| 51 | RAF | 20 WhitHeys |
| 77 | RAF | 20 Whitleys |
| 172 | RAF | 10 Wellingtons |
| 304 | RAF | 16 Wellingtons (Polish-manned) |
| 311 | RAF | 16 Wellingtons (Czech-manned) |
| 461 | RAAF | 12 Sunderlands |
| 500 | RAF | 20 Hudsons |
| 502 | RAF | 12 Halifaxes |
| 1016 | OTU | 8 Whitleys |
Gibraltar
| 224 | RAF | 12 B-24s179 |
| 202 | RAF | 12 Catalinas |
| 233 | RAF | 12 Hudsons |
| 48 | RAF | 12 Hudsons |
| EQUIPPINIGN SOUTHER ENGLAND: |
PREPARING TO LEAVE THE U.S. FOR MOROCCO(TORCH)BUT DIVERTED TO ENGLAND:
| USAAF | 9 B-24s | |
| ASW 2 | USAAF | 22 16-24s |
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1. Sources: War Diary, USN, ESF, September-December 1942; War Diary, USN Fleet Air Wing 7; War Diary, USN Fleet Air Wing 15; USN Administrative Histories No. 44 and No. 142; British Monthly Anti-Submarine Reports, September and October 1942; Craven and Cate, vols. 1 and 2; Douglas, vol. 2 (1986); Morison, vol. 1,
2. American ASW air units assigned to operational control of the Eastern Sea Frontier (ESF) completed training and/or reequipping with new aircraft and were held in place or transferred. Generally speaking, in September 1942, the ESF controlled about three hundred combat-ready ASW aircraft (186 Navy, 112 USAAF) and twenty-four blimps. The naval aircraft included twenty-four PBY-5A Catalinas or PBM-1 Mariners; the Army aircraft included about twenty-four B-17s and B-18s.
3. Activated 10/15/42; based in Rhode Island and North Carolina.
4. Reequipping with PBM-3C Mariners, a new but much-delayed and unsatisfactory aircraft. In spring 1943, the squadron was transferred to Brazil,
5. These Hudsons 3 had been diverted from an allotment for the RAF. Squadron reequipped with Catalinas, then PV-1 Venturas. Returned to Argentia with Catalinas when reequipped with PV-3s, redesignated VB 125 on 11/16/42.
6. Transferred to Morocco on 11/13/42 for Torch.
7. Reequipped with PV-1 Venturas and redesignated VB 126.
8. Based in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida.
9. Activated 11/1/42 in Florida.
10. The designation of Army Air Forces ASW groups and squadrons changed too frequently in the fall of 1942 to identify here. Generally speaking, the ESF exercised operational control of about one dozen squadrons of USAAF Bombardment Groups 2 and 13. The locations, numbers, and types of ASW aircraft units shown remained fairly constant.
11. The B-34 was the USAAF version of the USN PV-1 Ventura, an upgraded Hudson. However, it was not a satisfactory aircraft. The USAAF also based at Langley the ASW R&D Sea-Search Attack Development Unit (SADU), comprising the 1st Attack Group, 2nd Attack Squadron, and 3rd Attack Squadron.
12. Canadian version of the USN Catalina.
13. Canadian version of the USAAF B-18.
14. At Argentia. Transferred to Iceland 10/29/42. Replaced in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia by Catalina Squadrons VP 82 and VP 93.
15. Transferred to Northern Ireland 10/29/42, thence to Morocco on 11/13/42 for Torch. Replaced in Iceland by VP 84.
16. RAF Operational Training Unit, Bomber Command, at St. Eval.