Weather vs. Combat

From: Mike Marron mjma

did weather also account for more losses than combat
in previous wars (e.g: WW2, Korea, etc?)
I would bet that, depending on how you define a "weather" loss, it did. (I
would classify a weather loss as including weather related navigation errors
that lead to collision with terrain or fuel exhaustion.)
I had a friend who flew P-51 escort missions to Japan. He never completed
one successfully and only twice reached Japan (going into the drink each of
these two times). Weather aborts were common. He described his missions to me
some years ago. Weather figures heavily.
for example, a mission escorting B-29s to bomb Kanoya, Kyushu. Briefing
advises might encounter "weather" as they approach Kyushu. P-51s and B-29s to
rendevous 100 miles from coast. At rendevous is where encounter weather front,
multiple dense cloud layers from 1,000 feet to over 24,000 feet. Below 1,000
feet fog and rain with only occasional glimpses of sea or land. B-29s were
stacked from 8,000 to 14,000 feet. Attempting to find them and maintain station
on them led to a series of near misses as a bomber suddenly emerged from the
opaque white void. He lost contact with all other P-51s and finally climbed to
24,000 feet in an attempt to keep clear of B-29s. A that altitude his oxygen
system failed--fortunately he noticed the problem before falling
unconscious--and he dove back into the murk and as luck would have it nearly
collided with four P-51s in a tight formation being led by the squadron CO. He
attached himself to them as they descended to below 1,000 feet and made a run
for Iwo Jima. His total flight time on this aborted mission was 7.5 hours.
Four planes and pilots from his squadron never returned, presumed lost due to
inclement weather.
Another mission to escort B-29s bombing Tachikawa, encounter similar front
looming over Honshu. Rendevous point with bombers is beyond front. Attempt to
penetrate, squadron flying tight formation on lead so no one will become lost.
Very rough air makes it impossible to maintain formation without risk of
collision. realize no possibility of effectively escorting bombers and the
mission is aborted. On return to Iwo, the island is blanketed in thick fog.
Orbit until clears enough to land. Total time six hours.
Next mission almost a repeat, on instruments from take-off through 16,000 feet,
then into clear air only to see a wall of clouds extending above 30,000 feet
looming ahead. Mission is aborted, flgith time at return four hours.
No official mission credit for any of these aborted missions, on each of which
some pilots failed to return.
As to how they navigated, they had "navigator" B-29s to follow, which worked in
good weather. And they kept a ded reckoning plot. There were a series of
volcanic islands on the way to the Tokyo area that helped them check their ded
reckoning. Later they had Uncle Dog VHF.
He noted that the heavily loaded P-51s could only climb very gradually and
would scarcely climb at all above 20,000 feet until they burned off a fair
amount of fuel. on strafing missions they carried rockets, which made the
airplane almost unmanageable for about the first hour of flight, due to the
extra weight and drag. In order to have sufficient fuel to carry out the
mission, they needed to burn 40gph on the run to and from Japan. To do that
they cruised at, iirc, 205mph at 29 inches and 2350 rpm, auto lean.
Of the two mission he actually made it to Japan he ran out of fuel on the
return from the first one, ditching near a picket boat, and was shot down by an
enemy fighter on the second one, parachuting into Tokyo Bay, where he was
rescued by a submarine.
He returned home without ever completing another mission and as a result didn't
even earn an Air Medal, althopugh he had plenty of terrifying tales to tell of
aborted missions, once you got him talking, which usually was on the second or
third evening of a packhorse trip and required a good ration of fresh-caught,
pan-fried trout, campfire biscuits, a pipe filled with his favorite Three Nuns
tobacco and copious libations of Jack Daniels. A good sunset afterglow in crisp
air, crackling campfire, nickering horses, dog lolling by your knee, good
friends, good food, good drink and good stories. What more could you want?


Chris Mark