In 1933 the British Air Ministry were looking for a long-range, general-purpose flying boat for the Royal Air Force. The aircraft manufacturers, Short Brothers, had demonstrated success in the 1920s and 1930s with a number of flying boats, and were awarded contracts to produce the S.25 Sunderland for the British Air Ministry. They were also to produce the S.23 C Class Empire for Imperial Airways who were also after a similar flying boat.
The S.23 Empire was the first to be developed and the S.25 subsequently adopted much of the Empire’s configuration. The Empire first flew in July 1936, while the prototype Sunderland first flew on 16 October 1937. Production Sunderlands were in the air by August 1938, with 39 of them being delivered to the RAF by the time war was declared on September 3rd, 1939.
At this same time, on the 25th of September, 1939, two Qantas Empire Airways Empires, Centaurus and Calypso, entered into RAAF service in Australia as the initial strength of number 11 Squadron.
Just prior to the war, on June 23rd, 1939, the Australian Government announced the purchase of nine Sunderlands, any by the end of July, six aircrew of 10 Squadron were undergoing pre-conversion training at the RAF Flying Boat Training School.
When the war broke out in September, the United Kingdom Government Dominion Office requested that the Australian crews remain in the UK with their Sunderlands, at the disposal of the RAF. The RAAF then formed up a complete No 10 Squadron in the UK, under RAF Coastal Command, to operate their new Sunderlands.
By the end of December, 10 Squadron had nine Sunderland Mk.ls stationed at RAF Mount Batten, although they remained in their RAF colours and serial numbers.
10 Squadron’s first foray into the field was on the 10th of October, 1939, when Flight Lieutenant WH ‘Bull’ Garing and crew delivered an engine for an RAF Sunderland stranded in Tunisia. This mission was the first for a RAAF and British Commonwealth squadron to see active service in the war.
10 Squadron, was formally incorporated into No 15 Group Coastal Command and tasked with protecting Allied shipping from the German U-boat threat south-west of Britain. Declared operational on 1 February 1940, 10 Squadron flew its first operational mission on 6 February. Missions undertaken in 1940, particularly during the fall of France and Dunkirk evacuation, saw the squadron operating as far afield as Gibraltar and Morocco while transporting the Allied Commander in Chief, Lord Gort, and British Minister of Information, Mr Duff Cooper, to Rabat, Morocco for what would prove to be unsuccessful talks with French colonial officials and the French Fleet to continue the fight against Germany.
From 1941, operations focused on the Bay of Biscay hunting for U-boats operating from bases in occupied France along with search and rescue duties.
In 1941, forty-four aircraft designated Sunderland Mk.II were fitted with the two-speed supercharger Pegasus XVIII engines and air-surface vessel Mk.II radar, greatly improving surveillance capability. A two-gun mid-upper turret replaced the two open beam guns. The Sunderland Mk.lll soon followed, (the first of 462 production aircraft) and it flew in December. It boasted a smoother hull step, designed to better ‘unstick’ the hull from the water on take-off.
Two pairs of twin fixed Browning 0.303 machine guns were mounted either side of the nose to improve offensive firepower against ships and surfaced U-boats, and some were fitted with twin half-inch guns mounted in the two aft hull hatches. 10 Squadron also fitted a single Vickers in each galley hatch as a field modification. They also trialled fixed nose guns, arming the Sunderland with up to twelve guns, earning the nickname ‘Flying Porcupines’.
Vic Hodgkinson, recounts a story of piloting a 10 Squadron Mark-1 Short Sunderland on a routine anti-sub patrols 100 miles off Brest, on the 12th of August, 1941.
It was a Ship Reconnaissance sortie in the southern area of the Bay of Biscay. Visibility was excellent with a calm sea. About mid-day, 100 miles north of the north-western tip of Spain, the tail gunner reported an aircraft to the west heading towards them. Action stations were sounded as the aircraft was identified as a Focke Wulf 200 ‘Condor’. An aircraft about the same wingspan as the Sunderland, but faster, with 4 engines, and armed with a 20mm and 15mm forward firing cannons. It had a longer shooting range and outgunned the Sunderland.
Vic flew his Sunderland 50 feet above the surface, to prevent the enemy from attacking the vulnerable underside of the aircraft.
The enemy aircraft was lining up rear to starboard, yet still out of range of the Sunderland’s guns. The navigator manned the ‘Astro Dome’ position, as normal during air attack, to carry out Fire Control and give a running commentary. His duty was to take control of the aircraft, indicating to the gunners the target, range and when to fire, while advising the Skipper which way to turn, and so on.
Enemy shells started hitting the starboard mainplane and Vic sees others exploding on the surface of the water just outside his window. The Navigator suggests Vic close the throttles, perform a flat turn to port, and bring the enemy closer to upset his deflection shooting. The Sunderland lurches to port and seems to stop in its tracks. The Focke Wulf pilot is taken by surprise and finds himself a wing length off the Sunderland’s starboard. Suddenly the command to “Let fly!” released a volley of 2000 rounds of .303 ammunition from the tail gun and the starboard midships gun. The enemy broke off starboard, trailing smoke. The Navigator told Vic to turn starboard to see the FW-200 heading back to France, trailing dense smoke and obviously in trouble. The Sunderland followed, but the much faster enemy soon disappeared over the horizon still trailing thick smoke.
On the 25th of April, 1942, No 461 Squadron was formed from a nucleus of No 10 Squadron as an Australian RAF Article XV squadron and dubbed the ‘Anzac Squadron’. It was declared operational on 1 July 1942.
The RAAF’s requirement for a long-range transport able to operate in the south-west Pacific saw six Sunderland IIIs being ordered in October 1943. After modification for their transport role and installation of a new radar and Identification Friend or Foe system, the six aircraft were allocated to No 40 Squadron, recently raised at Townsville, Queensland.
Flown predominantly by Nos 10 and 461 Squadron veterans, No 40 Squadron’s Sunderlands flew regular transport services based initially in Townsville and later Port Moresby, operating a routine shuttle between Port Moresby, Cairns, Milne Bay, Madang and Townsville, with later regular runs between Port Moresby, Darwin, Kurumba and Cairns. They would also provide domestic search and rescue services.
As the war drew on, 10 Squadron needed to improve the performance of the Sunderland. In March, 1944, they modified a Sunderland III by installing four Pratt & Whitney R-1830-90 Twin Wasp 14-cylinder radial engines with two speed superchargers, rated at 1200hp for takeoff. An upgraded radar system was also fitted. One hundred and fifty-four production Sunderland Vs were soon produced along with thirty-three Mk.llls converted to Twin Wasp engines.
During one notable mission on 20 March 1945, a crew in A26-5 located the survivors of a ditched C-47. Unable to land due to rough seas, the crew remained in the area until relieved by a Liberator which unfortunately lost contact during the night. Nevertheless, the Sunderland crew relocated the survivors the next day and were successfully picked up by a naval trawler.
By the time it disbanded on 4 June 1945, No 461 Squadron had been credited with six confirmed U-boat kills. In one of the more remarkable coincidences of the war, on 30 July 43, Sunderland ‘U’ of No 461 Squadron sank the German U-boat, U-461. No 10 Squadron had ceased operations by the 1st of June 1945, having also sunk six U-boats during their Coastal Command service. The squadron was then going to redeploy to the Pacific theatre, however the Japanese surrender saw No 10 Squadron disbanded on 26 October 1945.
The RAAF squadrons had operated over 150 Sunderlands in the Atlantic, European and Pacific theatres and sank a dozen U-boats.
After the war the Sunderlands would go on to serve with commercial operators as well as twenty-five squadrons of the air forces of Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal and South Africa. New Zealand were the last to retire their military Sunderlands in 1967.
