Ducky Pot to Pearl Harbour and Beyond…..

The link between the Ducky Pot and Pearl Harbour may seem rather incredible but I will try to explain their connection. My father was an engineer, working for Fairey Aviation at Hayes Middlesex. He was employed there before the start of World War 2, until he passed away in 1966. He worked in the Swordfish Propeller Shop; he was involved in numerous aspects of engineering, including designing the mould for the Ducky Pot. I remember clearly, my farther coming home from work one day with the head of the duck that he had made, and from which the mould was taken.   He was very keen to show it to my sister and I, he was also involved in the manufacture of Fin-Cans, used for the storage of Uranium rods in Nuclear power Stations.

The Fairey Factory built the famous Swordfish Biplane, a torpedo bomber used by the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy. The primary weapon of the Swordfish was the torpedo, but the low speed of the Biplane and the need for a long straight approach made it difficult to deliver against well defended targets. However the Swordfish flying from H.M.S. “Illustrious” made a very significant strike, on November 11^th 1940, against the Italian Navy during the battle of Taranto, Italy sinking or disabling three Italian battleships and a cruiser. The repercussions of the successful Taranto attack were far reaching. On the other side of the world, Admiral Tamamoto was intrigued enough to send members of his staff to Taranto, to learn as mush as they could about this attack and why it succeeded. The results of his research are quite famous or should be infamous. This may have given inspiration to the Japanese, who would later attack Pearl Harbour.

          In May 1941, a Swordfish from H.M.S. Ark Royal was vital in damaging the German battleship Bismark, preventing it from escaping back to France. The low speed of the attacking aircraft may have acted in their favour, as the planes were too slow for the fire control predictors of the German gunners, whose shells exploded so far in front of the aircraft that the threat of shrapnel damage was greatly diminished

          The Swordfish also flew sufficiently low that most of the Bismark’s flak was unable to hit them. The Swordfish aircraft scored two hits, one which did little damage but another which disabled the Bismark was scuttled less than thirteen hours later.

          The problems with the aircraft were starkly demonstrated in February 1942, when a strike on German battle cruisers during the Channel Dash, resulted in the loss of all attacking aircraft.

          With the development of new torpedo attack aircraft, the Swordfish was soon redeployed successfully in an anti submarine role, harmed with depth charges or eight “60lb” RP-3 Rockets and flying from smaller escort carriers or even Merchant Aircraft Carriers, when equipped for rocket assisted take off ( RATO ).

          Its low stall speed and inherently tough design made it ideal for operation from the Mac carriers in often severe mid Atlantic weather. Swordfish equipped units accounted for fourteen U-Boats being destroyed. The Swordfish was meant to be replaced by the Fairey Albacore, also a biplane, but actually outlived its intended successor. It was however succeeded by the Fairey Barracuda monoplane torpedo bomber.

          The Swordfish received the Stringbag nickname, not because of its construction but because of the seemingly endless variety of stores and equipment that the aircraft was cleared to carry.

          Crews likened the aircraft to a housewife’s string shopping bag, which was common at the time and, which due to it having no fixed shape, could adjust to hold any shape or number of packages.

          Like the shopping bag, the crews thought the Swordfish could carry anything.

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto

Japan’s best Admiral in World War 2 who planned the attack on Pearl Harbour. An adopted child, Isoroku Yamamoto graduated from Japan’s Imperial Naval Academy on 1904 at the aged twenty.

          He was assigned to a cruiser, and in May 1905 participated in the big naval battle Tshshima Strait, where the new Japanese navy defeated the Russian Navy. Tamamoto was wounded in the left hand and leg and lost two fingers, but recovered and continues with his naval career.

In 1919, Yamamoto was sent to lean in the United States; he studied English in Havard University, and also learned about the United States, and became familiar with its strengths and weaknesses better than any other Japanese Officers, who never visited America.  After graduating from Harvard in 1921, he returned to Japan and specialised in the new field of military aviation, and particularly naval aviation.

Pearl Harbour

          The attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbour, Hawaii, took place on December 7^th 1941. The attack on Pearl Harbour was called a “Day of Infamy” by President F. D. Roosevelt. It was to bring the United States of America into World War 2. The air attack was led by Commander Mitsuo Fuchida. The first wave of planes consisted of 183 fighters, bombers and torpedo bombers. It started its attack at 07.55am. The second wave had 170 places in it and attacked Pearl Harbour at 08.54.am.

They took off from the aircraft carriers “Akaga”, “Kaga”, “Hiryu” “Zuikaku” and “Shokaku”. By the time the war ended all six had been sunk by the Americans .along with all the other Japanese Ships involved in the attack.

The pilots in the first attack used a radio station’s mast near Pearl Harbour to home in on. The first casualties were 35 American servicemen, who were having breakfast at the Army Air Force Hickam Field a 550 pound bomb hit their dining hall.

The most serious casually was the USS Arizona. One torpedo and eight bombs hit her, as she lay moored at Ford Island Naval Station.

One bomb is thought to have pierced the forward deck, setting off over one million pounds of gunpowder, 1177 men were killed on the Arizona alone.

Those who survived on the USS Nevada moored directly behind the Arizona were launched up to ten feet in the air as a result of the huge explosion that tore her apart and sunk within nine minutes.

Following the outcome of Pearl Harbour, the U.S.A. came into World War 2, fully and dropping of the Atom Bomb finally finished the war with the Japanese.

So this is how the Ducky Pot has a place in history, in that it was designed in the Swordfish Propeller Shop of Fairey Aviation Company Limited of Hayes, Middlesex.

FOOTNOTE

My own life is tied up with the Ducky Pot story, as I worked with my father for a short period at Faireys on the Gannet AEW. This was prior to my service in the Fleet Air Arm, where I also served on H.M.S. “Illustrious” I also observed the first aircraft to exceed a thousand miles per hour. The Fairey FD2 at Ford Naval Air Station.

Being stationed at Lee-On–Solent, I often saw the only flying Swordfish on demonstration flights

By Sailor Bill Woodhouse

www.ukhomefront.co.uk