Top 10+ Best Submarine-Killing Aircraft of All Time
Submarines mauled shipping and threatened the survival of many nations in the second world war.
One way to fight back was with anti-submarine warfare aircraft. Attacking a submarine from the air was a dangerous game, as surfaced submarines fired back at their attackers with machine guns and cannon. Converted bombers would roar a few hundred feet above the sea dropping depth charges and firing rockets; with over 120 Allied aircraft shot down while attacking submarines this was in no way a one-sided affair. Intriguingly, despite significant advances in technology the only submarine sinking post-World War Two was distinctly ‘old fashioned’.
This list is skewed towards Allied aircraft, as the German Navy (the Kreigsmarine), managed to lose 287 U-Boats to aircraft, more than the total number of submarines lost by the Britain’s Royal Navy, US Navy, and Imperial Japanese Navy combined. The following aircraft are the most potent submarine killers of all time:
10: Westland Wessex, Lynx, and Wasp
Only one submarine has been sunk by aircraft since the end of the second world war. This unfortunate vessel was the ARA Santa Fe, whose origin as the USS Catfish in 1944 means no post-war submarine has been sunk by enemy action. On the morning of 25 April 1982, Santa Fe was departing Grytviken in South Georgia, having landed supplies for the Argentinian forces occupying the island. She was detected on radar by the Westland Wessex HAS3 from HMS Antrim before she was in an area where she could submerge.
Approaching from the stern the Wessex was almost overhead before the crew saw it, moments later two depth charges fell towards the submarine. The damage from this first strike prevented the Santa Fe diving, if only because she would never surface again if she did.
A running battle now ensued as the Argentinians attempted to return to Grytviken while HMS Brilliant’s Westland Lynx (pictured) strafed the submarine and Westland Wasps from HMS Endurance and Plymouth fired multiple AS.12 missiles. Although Santa Fe managed to return to the dock her war was over, and she remained there until scuttled in 1985.
This halved the number of submarines available to the Argentinian forces attempting to hold the Falklands Islands. This left the depths of the south Atlantic open to much more modern British submarines - six of them - one of which sank the Argentinian cruiser General Belgrano – another former US Navy vessel, which had survived the Pearl Harbour attack – a week later.
9: Lohner L
Although now two land-locked countries, in 1914 the Austro-Hungarian Empire had an extensive Adriatic coast. As such they had a substantial navy with 13 battleships, 18 destroyers, 6 submarines, and an Air Service.
On 15 September 1916 the French Navy submarine Foucault was patrolling near the entrance to the naval base at Cattaro, now Kotor in Montenegro. Two Lohner L flying boats of the Austro-Hungarian Naval Air Service were also in the area and although the Foucault was submerged the clear waters of the Adriatic allowed the crews to easily spot her.
Although relatively flimsy and with a top speed of only 66mph the Lohners could carry a few hundred kilograms of bombs. Four of these were dropped at least one hitting the submarine causing it to lose power and start sinking. With a fire adding to their woes the French somehow managed to get to the surface. Facing an untenable situation the ship’s commander ordered the powerless submarine scuttled. The crew were then rescued by their attackers who landed on the water to look after them until a torpedo boat could come to take them into captivity.
Almost definitely the slowest aircraft on this list the Lohner L has the distinction of proving aircraft could have a part to play in sinking submarines.
8: Potez-CAMS 141
Although a relatively obscure type the Potez-CAMS 141 has the highest ratio of submarines sunk per airframes built of all time. Admittedly this is because only one of them was built, but it did at least manage to sink U-105 on 2 June 1943. The Potez-CAMS 141, also known as the Antarès, was designed and built to a 1935 French Admiralty specification for a long-range maritime reconnaissance flying boat. The prototype flew in 1938 with orders for an additional 19 airframes being placed by September 1939, however, with the fall of France in 1940 these were never built.
The sole example led a somewhat nomadic existence initially operating out of Morocco, by September 1940 it was patrolling from Senegal as part of the Vichy French forces. With the Allied landings in North Africa in late 1942 the Antares again changed sides, paving the way for its successful prosecution of the U-105 just south of Dakar seven months later.
Alas being from a production batch of one and with few spares available by the beginning of 1944 she was nearing the end of her operational life, having flown around 1800 hours. Disappointingly the airframe appears to have been scrapped in Africa meaning there are few if any remains of what by at least one measure was the most successful anti-submarine aircraft of all time.
7: Curtiss H-12
The Curtiss H-12 was a modified version of a US flying boat with Rolls-Royce Eagle engines and was one of the Royal Navy’s first anti-submarine aircraft. On 27 May 1917 an H-12 operating from the Isles of Scilly sighted UC-66 on the surface to the north of the archipelago. The pilot dropped the payload of 50kg bombs two of which seemed to have hit the U-Boat as it soon sank by the stern not to be seen again until 2009.
Hit by machine gun fire from the sinking U-boat the aircraft then flew back to its base on Tresco with the Mechanic holding rags over a bullet hole in the starboard radiator.
At the other end of the English Channel on 22 Sep 1917 another H-12, escorted by two Sopwith Camel fighters, attacked a surfaced submarine in the vicinity of West Hinder Light Vessel, about 20 miles off Ostend. After also being hit by two bombs it heeled over and sank, leaving wreckage and oil on the surface, it’s now thought the stricken submarine was UB-32.
On top of probably being responsible for 66% of submarines sunk by aircraft in the First World War, Curtiss H-12s also shot down several Zeppelins. Which, given its top speed of 100mph, must have made for some of the slowest dogfights in history.
6: Grumman Wildcat
Although the Grumman Wildcat doesn’t appear to be solely responsible for the sinking of any submarines it was involved in the destruction of 27 of them. It kicked this streak off while operating with 802 NAS from HMS Audacity, aircraft on patrol spotting U-131 on the surface near Madeira. The Wildcats carried out strafing runs while a group of destroyers and sloops closed to finish it off with gunfire and depth charges.
More typically they were paired with either a Swordfish or Avenger. The vast majority of the Wildcat’s assisted kills being while operating from the decks of a US Navy escort carrier alongside its Grumman stable mate.
The fighter carried out strafing runs while the Avenger was positioned for a depth charge or torpedo attack. The torpedoes in question were code-named Fido and were the first homing torpedoes seeking out the noise from the submarine’s propellers. Although a technical marvel it suffered from having a top speed of 17 mph, slightly slower than the surface-speed of most U-boats.
The continual harassment from the Wildcat playing no small part in slowing them down or causing them to dive at which point they struggled to make 9mph and became easy prey for Fido.
5: Fairey Swordfish
The main aim of anti-submarine warfare isn’t necessarily sinking submarines - it’s generally to stop the submarine sinking your ships. This is especially true if your ships are carrying supplies that are keeping the country alive. So, during the Battle of the Atlantic escorts that managed to sink five U-boats while their convoy was decimated could be viewed less favourably than ones who managed to bring their charges across without loss to either side.
With this in mind, Fairey’s most famous contribution to the art of naval warfare deserves a special place on this list.
In total, the Swordfish is credited with 25 submarine kills, which places it 9th on numbers alone. However, its ability to operate from escort carriers and the even smaller flight decks on Merchant Aircraft Carriers (MACs) enabled them to provide a continuous aerial escort across the Atlantic. MACs were as the name suggests merchant ships with a wooden flight deck a modest 410 feet by 62 feet, they had a limited top speed of around 14mph, and carried at most four Swordfish.
Despite this limited capability their presence forced the opposition underwater preventing them closing on the convoy. Perhaps this explains why that in the 207 convoys escorted by Swordfish operating MACs, only nine ships were lost to U-boats despite none having been sunk by the embarked aircraft.
4: Consolidated Catalina
A number of flying boats were used during the Second World War, for ASW the best of these was undoubtedly the Consolidated Catalina. Able to carry out a two-hour patrol 800 miles from base it could take the fight far out into the Atlantic. Despite only having half the engines of the Sunderland the Catalina could carry almost the same weapons load and had the advantage of also being able to use torpedoes, something it deployed in anger around Guadalcanal.
The first submarine sunk by a Catalina was U-452 which was attacked south of Iceland by the trawler HMS Vascama and an aircraft of the RAF’s 209 squadron in August 1941. In a twist of fate, the next U-boat sunk by a Catalina was in a similar location a year later by a US Navy aircraft.
As patrol aircraft, Catalinas were also responsible for sighting the German battleship Bismarck prior to her final battle, Japanese landings in Malaya, and the Japanese fleet prior to the battles of Ceylon and Midway.
In terms of anti-submarine activity, the Catalina sank a total of 40 submarines, 14 more than the Sunderland and equal second overall with the Avenger. It also had the first air-to-air victory by a US Navy aircraft in the Second World War, the bow gunner of an aircraft evacuating from the Philippines shooting down a Mitsubishi Zero on 10 December 1941.
What about the Short Sunderland?
The Sunderland was indeed excellent. From our notes the Sunderland had 26 kills to the Catalina's 40. The Sunderland likely has more kills per aircraft (because of the much smaller production run). It was really 50/50 which aircraft from this class we included, with the Catalina edging it.
For anti-submarine warfare, the best of these was undoubtedly the Consolidated Catalina. Able to carry out a two-hour patrol at 800 miles from base, two hundred more than the Short Sunderland, taking the fight far out into the Atlantic. Despite only having half the engines of the Sunderland, the Catalina could carry almost the same weapons load and had the advantage of also being able to use torpedoes, something it used in anger against Japanese shipping around Guadalcanal.
3: Vickers Wellington
Coastal Command received a handful of Vickers Wellington Mk1Cs in 1941 and the better equipped GR Mk VIII in 1942. As well as the ASV II radar that some Mk1s had used for detecting surfaced submarines the latter also featured the Leigh Light, a powerful spotlight, and a radar altimeter to allow safe descent over the sea at night.
After detecting a U-Boat using radar the Wellington would descend to 250 feet, as the contact disappeared off the bottom of the radar display the Leigh Light would be turned on illuminating the target and allowing the attack to be completed visually. Four U-boats were damaged in June, while July would see the first U-boat sunk by a Wellington.
From sinking no submarines in the first half of 1942 Coastal Command found itself responsible for 13 and a half in the period from August to December. At a time when RAF chief Arthur Harris was telling Churchill that Coastal Command was ‘merely an obstacle to victory’ this was fortunate indeed.
Although the Wellington couldn’t protect convoys in the mid-Atlantic gap, generally managing only around five hundred miles from base, it made the waters around the U-boats’ French bases far more dangerous and pioneered tactics that would be used by Coastal Command to turn the tide in the Battle of the Atlantic.
2: Grumman Avenger
While the Swordfish was a good carrier borne ASW aircraft it suffered in a few areas, mainly speed, crew comfort, and ruggedness. If you really wanted to kill submarines while operating off a ship the Grumman Avenger suffered none of these issues. The extra speed allowed it to search a greater area in a given time and meant that during an attack it would be exposed to the U-boats gunfire for a shorter period.
Additionally, it allowed other Avengers to make follow up attacks as they were able to get to the scene of the action before the submarine could make its escape. U-boats generally being sunk due to a continued attack rather than a single killer blow. U-118 for instance was attacked with depth charges from eight Avengers before submerging for the final time.
The Avenger also suffered far less damage during carrier operations. Analysis by the Royal Navy not only showed the American aircraft suffered 1/7th the rate of damage the Swordfish did, but that the lower risk of damage meant carriers were more likely to fly them. Having done the analysis, the Fleet Air Arm prioritised its Avengers for anti-submarine warfare.
These advantages place the Avenger at number two on the all-time list of submarine killing aircraft, with 35 U-boats and at least 5 Japanese submarines falling to it.
1: Consolidated Liberator
During the second world war, 25% of the 287 U-Boats lost by the German navy to aircraft, were sunk by the Liberator. RAF Coastal Command first received 20 ex-USAAF B-24As in 1941, and these then gained a radar, four 20mm cannon, and the ability to carry depth charges and rockets. This was followed by the Consolidated Liberator GR Mk III, essentially a modified B-24D. The self-sealing liners to the fuel tanks and most of the armour were removed.
The turbo-superchargers for the engines to maintain performance at high altitude were deleted. The ventral gun turret also went eventually providing a location for a more advanced radar. This allowed over two thousand gallons of fuel and a payload of eight depth charges to be carried.
