Flight Line

摘要

For want of a horseshoe nail... The most obvious shortcoming of the Supermarine Seafire, the naval adaptation of the Spitfire, was its delicate undercarriage. No surprise, then, that a high proportion of operational Seafire losses were the result of undercarriage failures. Even in the light of this, it may seem a stretch to attribute to one Seafire undercarriage failure severe damage to an aircraft carrier's entire complement of aeroplanes, plus the carrier itself - especially when the Seafire in question had not even taken off, nor even left the hangar. Yet this was the situation that faced the new escort carrier HMS Hunter on the night of 4-5 August 1943.