What was the first seaplane carrier sunk in World War 1?

Answer 1

The most successful warships in terms of sinking the most "enemy" vessels in both World War One and Two were German submarines sinking unarmed or lightly armed and mostly privately-owned, non-military civilian-manned merchant ships and tankers, often at night without warning. Early in both wars anti-submarine threats were weak and many German subs acted chivalrously and allowed crews time to escape in their lifeboats, though successful rescue was far from certain. U-35 was most successful by far, and by a wide margin compared to the second most successful sub of either world war; near 200 ships sunk for a little over a half a million gross tons, in WWI, over a 3 year period, most under a single captain. The sub and captain survived the war. Almost all were merchant ships, and some were quite small, even sail powered, and many were sunk with the sub's 88mm deck gun or scuttling explosives. These were usually one-sided engagements where the ships had little chance once sighted by the sub. Only in rare instances did any single sub or warship in either WWI or WWII sank any significant number of enemy warships; or any surface warship sink a number of any warships. Some "armed merchant raiders" - disguised merchant ships with hidden guns and torpedo tubes - managed A few USN subs earned well-deserved reputations as deliberate Japanese Navy Destroyer killers, sometimes scoring with ill-advised if gustsy close-range "down the throat" shots at oncoming destroyers that likely would have pulverized the sub if one of the 4-6 or more torpedoes had not hit. But in general subs only sank anti-submarine warships in lucky encounters where the sub and its torpedoes were entirely undetected or only spotted at the very last moment, and rarely in desperate self-dense shots that were easily avoided by the alert warship.

The most successful surface warship of either war and almost certainly WWII, in terms of number of enemy "ships" sunk, if not tonnage, was the USS England. She was an American destroyer escort launched after the midpoint of the the war that, with little previous combat experience, sank an astonishing 6 of the relatively rare Japanese submarines late in World War II in the mid-Pacific with assistance from 2 other ships- in only a 2 week period. It should be noted that by this point, all subs were clearly obsolete, Japanese subs being particularly vulnerable, and once detected by a group of up-to date Allied warships, stood little chance of escaping or attacking against the sophisticated detection and anti-submarine weapons in use with the latest Allied anti-submarine warships. At the war's end, the Germans tried to regain some measure of effectiveness with the radically advanced German "XXI" subs that abandoned the surface-performance focus of subs with greatly increased underwater battery endurance and speed. The Japanese built roughly similar prototypes. These were introduced at the very end of WWII and were much more capable against surface ships including naval escorts, and reduced the effectiveness of the most deadly sub killers (aircraft with radar and homing torpedoes). These would have restored much the subs' effectiveness, had their design flaws been corrected and large numbers been available earlier. This type of sub set the standard for all "conventional" powered subs going forward to the present day.

Like German soldiers and aircraft and tanks and anti-tank guns - German subs had a lot more to shoot at, and their weapons, training, leadership and tactics were generally first class until late in both wars, while that of many of their adversaries varied early in both wars then steadily improved. There were some spectacular success against large warships but overall submarines proved to be ineffective and more at risk than vice versa. The exception was the record of American subs against the Japanese Navy. American subs were aided by code-breaking to be able to place subs in intercept positions. In addition, Japanese aircraft and ships had no effective radar until too late in the war, while American subs had very effective radar. The big killer in Word War II of ships and subs alike were aircraft, especially later in the war when radar equipment became widely used, especially in numerous Allied aircraft. Subs had far less success against aircraft, especially speedy small aircraft carrier aircraft or the speedy B-24 bombers converted for maritime patrol. German U-48, early in the WWII before effective anti-submarine technologies and numerous aircraft and ships employing them were deployed, sank about 300,000 tons of Allied merchant ships and a destroyer or two (50? ships total), mostly British, between 1939 and 1941, before the US or Russia were even in the war. U-48 had at least 3 different captains. See Uboat.net for exact info. A couple of dozen other German submarines also sank large numbers of ships, mostly during this time. Later in the war (until April 1943) German subs continued to sink large numbers of ships (rarely warships, mostly merchant ships), but it took far more submarines and many were lost, often having never sank anything. In the Pacific, the Japanese had poor anti-submarine technologies, and American submarines were very successful, though Japanese ships were fewer and smaller, and individual submarine scores were far lower than the top German subs, about 100,000 tons max (USS Tang). This was about the same as the top British subs (like HMS Upholder), which made their scores against poorly defended Italian merchant ships in the Mediterranean. The top Italian subs attacked independent Allied merchant ships in primarily the South Atlantic, and had little success against heavily defended Allied ships in the Mediterranean . Other than the various subs, the ever changing aircraft and pilots of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise probably sank the most ships, including the Japanese carriers Akagi, Kaga, and Hiryu at Midway, and contributing to many others including the battleships Hiei and Musashi, and many smaller ships. Lt. Best of the Enterprise is crediting with hitting both the Japanese carriers Akagi (morning of June 4) and in second mission of the same day the Hiryu, each with a 1,000 pound bomb with his navy dive-bomber, then taking medical sick leave shortly after for the rest of the war with a bad lung condition. Few if any pilots can match his record, in absolute terms, or in strategic importance. His initiative in making a last-moment decision to break away from his squadron's diving attack on the carrier Kaga and instead dive on - and hit - the Akagi likely prevented the Akagi from launching a devastating attack on the US Fleet. like the ones that led to the sinking of US carriers Lexington, Yorktown, and Hornet during the first year of the war. And more so than the ships or even their crews, you should consider the captains, as esp. on small vessels like submarines the captain is the dominant determining factor in success in all the cases above. Even successful subs usually stopped being successful if the captain left and was replaced by one less capable, as often occurred. On the other hand, successful captains who went to an existing but previously unsuccessful sub almost always continued their success and turned a loser sub into a winner.

Above is for WWII mostly. For WWI, the far and away most successful warship was one particular German submarine (U-35) and its longest serving of multiple captains, CaptainLothar von Arnauld de la Periere ("U-boat" or undersea boat as the Germans and the Allies called German subs). This sub served mostly in the Med Sea and sank about 3 times as many times the ships and over 1.5 times the tonnage than any ship in any war. Many of these were dispatched by deck gun or scuttling charges and many were sail powered and not deemed worth the expense of a torpedo when a few 88mm/3.5" deck gun shells were sufficient. In contrast, the world's 100+ expensive battleships that were built just prior or during the WWi sank relatively little, not even a single opposing battleship. Battleships sailed often and were greatly feared, but rarely engaged in combat with any other ships. They were simply too valuable to risk. The one chance the British Royal Navy had to close and crush the already damaged German battle line at the climax of the Battle of Jutland was thwarted when the British Admiral rightly judged that he must turn away in the face of a German torpedo boat attack launched to cover the German fleet's withdrawal. Although heavily criticized, the British High Command had previously considered this exact scenario and agreed exactly this caution was to be taken. Had the British admiral not turned away, his largely undamaged 28 modern battleships likely would have crippled numerous if not all of the German's 16 battleships, many already significantly damaged, with minor losses to his battle line from the German battleships. Crippled battleships are difficult to finish off with even battleship gunfire, but once crippled are easy prey for torpedo boats. The big unknown is how many British battleships would have been lost in that closing torpedo attack had the British admiral not turned away. WWI battleships were found to be be able to sustain a single torpedo hit and continue on, but two or three would be fatal, and a large portion of the crew could be expected to be lost in the rapid sinking. It is likely that the British would have suffered numerous losses, perhaps even heavy losses. Politically, that was not a acceptable price.

Answer 2

Combat aircraft were pioneered during WW1; no ships were lost to aircraft in WW1. Dutchman Oberleutnant Friedrich Christiansen, who earned a Blue Max medal, was credited with sinking a submarine while flying a Hansa-Brandenburg W12 that was a 2-seat biplane (or either the monoplane version). He attacked the submarine with his machine guns and ---I believe---he disabled it and forced it to surrender. Most bombers were not accurate enough to hit a ship. Billy Mitchell demonstrated that a group of bombers could sink a battleship in the 1920s. Maybe the airplane you are thinking about is the British biplane called the "Swordfish". This biplane was the primary torpedo attack plane of the British Navy and was responsible for crippling the German battleship Bismark and many other torpedo attacks such at Taranto, Italy(1 year before Pearl Harbor).

Answer 3

Hermes