Catapult Ships Royal Navy Instructional Film (1940)
 

A fascinating film. I had no idea that so many sailors were required to launch and recover aircraft! I also learned a plethora of nautical terms related to the lines and crane operations.

Mostly showing Walruses, but some interesting shots at the end of a wheeled Hawker Nimrod ditching, a Hawker Osprey (?) launching, where the occupant of the rear cockpit fell out and pictures of Sea Otters landing.

Bloody Youtube! Amidst all the dross are some absolute gems, which often lead to more gems and, and ... we need a sticky Youtube thread!

What a super vid - voice over sounds a bit like Harry Enfield!

Excellent :ok:

No, it's a Fairey IIIF Mk.III.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....305e838ad8.jpg

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/i...ject/205090603

Go to this page and you cab see the lot.

https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...trucional+film

Thanks Dave. I wondered if it was a Fairey, but I was put off by what I thought was a radiator under the fuselage. In retrospect, the slats should have told me! Uncle Roger would slap my wrist!

Britch when I would have expected breech?

"breech" and "tackle" are obviously non-U! :)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U_and_non-U_English

The "Hooker on" was either brave or lacking in imagination....sitting on a slippery wing just in front of a spinning propellor.

Not strange at all to the Royal Navy, since both then and now "tackle" pronounced with a long "a" - with the possible exception of "wedding tackle".....

VMT for the good find, India Four Two.

Jack

Can also buy the DVDs:


There are a lot of other IWN DVDs available too.

Tay-kle I'm familiar with,though britch is new to me.
The other RN pronunciation that always sounded odd from day one was tur-bin (ie turbine)

It surprised me, and then I remembered "britches."

That's very true! Mind you I only ever wear trousers... ;)

U is so not me! :p

Never heard "turbine" pronounced any other way from day one, just as "ensign" is pronounced as "en-sin". Just to stir the pot further, "lieutenant", in any of its other forms in the Royal Navy, such as sub lieutenant, lieutenant commander, flag lieutenant, and first lieutenant, should not be pronounced as "lef-tenant", or even "loo-tenant", but "le-tenant".....👍🏻😁

Jack

.....
Jack .....

Tell them scurvy landlubbers how to spell 'breaker' 'gunnel' and 'hussif'

LFH

...........

I hope everybody spotted the Sea Otter at the end of the film, hoping furiously to be mistaken for its older brother! Also what about the very strange fin flash on Walrus K5773, never seen anything like it. Remember that the finflash was removed from all RAF (and RN) aircraft in 1934, and were only reinstated during the fall of France. And it is pretty obvious why accidents during launching of these aircraft with catapults did occasionally go very wrong because somebody forgot to do something at the exact right moment - what a nightmare of a procedure. Makes operating contemporary landplanes look like a stroll in the park.
David D

U and I would get on well, I think!

Like you, I was familiar with tayckle. However.
My father joined the R.N. in 1925 as a Boy Artificer, retired in 1960 as a Lt Cmdr. He spent all that time in the Ordnance branch, who maintained the guns. Never once heard him refer to it as a britch.