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Leonard B. "Tuck" Smith (October 29, 1915 in Mayview, Missouri – May 16, 2006 in Friday Harbor, Washington) was an American pilot who spotted the German battleship Bismarck prior to its being sunk by British naval and air forces.
British armed forces rallied every resource to avenge the loss, resources that included Ensign Leonard B. “Tuck” Smith of the U.S. Navy, who would have a pivotal role in the sinking of the Bismarck. If Congress discovered he had also sent pilots to Britain, Roosevelt said, “I will be impeached.”
Eagle Profile. Smith, Leonard B. Imagine going to war while your country is at peace and having to keep it a secret. That was the situation for Missouri native “Tuck” Smith when he was awakened at 0300 on 28 March 1941, while aboard a seaplane tender in beautiful Acapulco Bay, Mexico.
- It Entered Service Before WW2
- It Was Big and Slow, But Had Amazing Endurance
- It Was A True Multitasker
- Although Lightly Armed, It Carried The Latest Technology
- PBY Crews Worked Round The Clock
- Catalinas Flew For Many Allied Nations
- The Pby’S Greatest Hits
- Post-War Cats
The PBY line of flying boats was conceived in 1933 in Buffalo, New York. It was originally designed as a long-range patrol bomber, intended for use to sink shipping and disrupt enemy sea lines of communication. The prototype first flew from Lake Erie in 1935 and by 1936 the aircraft was in service with the U.S. Navy. “PB” stands for Patrol Bomber, ...
She was 63 feet (20 metres) long, 19 feet (six metres) high, with a 104-foot (31 metre) wingspan. The PBY’s two Pratt & Whitney1,200 horse power radial engines were maximized for range and endurance, and could cruise a distance of over 2,500 miles (4,000 km) at 125 m.p.h. (200 km/h), with a maximum speed of 180 m.p.h. (288 km/h). The airplane had a...
The PBY was a jack-of-all-trades. A critical asset in the Pacific, Caribbean, Atlantic, Mediterranean and Arctic theatres of operation, the aircraft’s mission set included dropping anti-shipping mines, aerial reconnaissance, intelligence gathering, search and rescue, anti-submarine patrol, bombing, transport and even troop insertion.
A polyvalent warrior, the PBY could be armed with four 1,000-pound bombs, eight depth charges, or two torpedoes attached at drop points beneath the wings. For defence against enemy aircraft, PBYs carried four machine guns: two .50 calibre Brownings on either side of the fuselage at the waist; one .30 calibre in the nose. A second .30 calibre was si...
A typical PBY crew included nine officers and men. Typically, the plane commander, co-pilot, third pilot and navigator were all commissioned. Any of these could act as bombardier when not flying the plane. The enlisted men were mechanics and signalmen. These crew-members normally rotated through manning the guns when not engaged in their primary du...
The PBY was the most numerous aircraft of its kind. More than 3,300 were built before production ended in 1945. Catalinas served in the armed forces of the U.S., Great Britain, the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, the Soviet Union and Brazil. A Canadian-made version of the Consolidated PBY Catalina was dubbed the Canso. Cansos were built in Van...
The PBY was an essential component of some of the most dramatic moments of the Second World War. This brief collection of wartime narratives illustrates the PBY’s wide range of diverse roles. During the May, 1941 Battle of the Denmark Strait, the German battleship Bismarck sunk HMS Hood, and damaged HMS Prince of Wales. Amid the subsequent hunt for...
Catalinas would continue to serve in a number of nations’ navies and air forces for decades after the Second World War; Brazil, for example, continued to operate the PBY until 1982. Surplus models would later be put to work in North America as forest fire water bombers. As many as 80 Catalinas remain as museum pieces in more than a dozen countries;...
May 16, 2006 · CPT Leonard B “Tuck” Smith. A number of US pilots, who had ferried Catalinas across to the UK and were supposed to familiarize the RAF crews with the plane, were unofficially used as copilots on operations (unofficially because the USA was not at war with Germany at that time).
May 16, 2006 · Leonard B. “Tuck” Smith, the Navy pilot who found and led the attack on the German battleship Bismarck, has died. He died May 16, 2006 after a period of declining health. He was 90.
Leonard B. "Tuck" Smith (October 29, 1915 in Mayview, Missouri – May 16, 2006 in Friday Harbor, Washington) was an American pilot who spotted the German battleship Bismarck prior to its being sunk by British naval and air forces.
