November 21, 2017: Thirteen years since the last update! Added an alternate logo for VP-52 to the squadron logos page.
February 5, 2004: Added sixty pages of the "War History of VP-71", and linked it to the squadron Logbooks page.
January 19, 2004: Added VP-53 to the Squadron History section, and a new logo for VP-101 on the Logos page. More changes to come soon.....
May 14, 2003: Updated the book list on the Resources page, and added a painting to the bottom of the Paintings page.
June 20, 2002: THIS WEBSITE IS MOVING! I am going to a dedicated server under my domain name of "daveswarbirds.com", so the new address will be http://www.daveswarbirds.com/blackcat. Please update your bookmarks. The old address will hopefully still work, but a re-direction will take the visitor to the new server. My aviation websites have become a victim of their own success, as I was getting so many visitors that my ISP was complaining about bandwidth useage, and I was forced to move to a commercial-grade server. This means that my costs for keeping my aviation websites online has suddenly increased 150%, and I was struggling to pay for them as it was. If you enjoy this site (or any of my other sites), please consider becoming a sponsor (ie. - make a donation) so that I can stay on-line. Email me for further information if you are interested.
June 19, 2002: Added two photos to photo page #12.
June 5, 2002: Added photos to photo pages #4, 5, 6, 11, and 13.
January 28, 2002: Added a painting to the bottom of the Paintings page.
August 9, 2001: Revised the Resources page so that you can get more info on the books I used, and even order them (most at 20-30% off) at Amazon.com. Also added a donations page to allow visitors to donate money to help pay my ISP costs so that this website can stay online.
June 27, 2001: Added a painting to the Paintings page, and a new section containing cruise books for the various squadrons. First up is the cruise book for VP-81, sent to me by Rick Baker, whose dad served with VP-81.
June 13, 2001: Added a magazine article to the Articles page telling of rescue missions by Black Cats.
May 3, 2001: Added a section on the Veterans page where the public can post questions or trade info on individual Black Cat members.
February 26, 2001: Added a page covering computer flight simulations involving Black Cat PBYs.
February 11, 2001: Added another Black Cat PBY painting to the Paintings page.
October 18, 2000: Added the final squadron history (for VP-23) to the Squadron History section.
October 6, 2000: Added a WWII magazine article to the Articles page telling of Black Cats working with U.S. PT boats.
September 28, 2000: Added a note to the Commonwealth Black Cat page (Photo page #13) regarding limited availability of two PBY/Black Cat books.
September 25, 2000: Added a whole new section containing squadron histories of the Black Cat squadrons, including data on actions, aircraft, commanding officers, areas of deployment, etc. Also, added logos for VP-81, VP-101, and VP-12 to the Logos page.
September 3, 2000: Added a new logo (VP-33) to the squadron Logos page. Added a half dozen new photos, and added a page for Commonwealth (British, Australian, etc.) Black Cat photos. I need submissions for that page, so if you have or know of any Allied PBY Black Cat photos please contact me.
May 23, 2000: Added a painting to the top of the Painting page. In other news, I acquired a videotape of WWII-vintage newsreel footage subsisting solely of Black Cat material, though it was only 21 minutes long. I think this is probably the same footage contained in the video titled "Our Fighting Navy", sold on THIS PAGE. I recommend this over any other Black Cat video that's available.... the video they sell also contains several other wartime videos and is 90 minutes long, and they throw in a free copy of Richard C. Knott's book, "Black Cat Raiders of World War II"! All for only $24.95.
March 30, 2000: Identified the new "mystery patch" as belonging to VPB-52 (see the Logos page). Also: added a VP-44 Black Cat patch and crew photo on March 21.
March 14, 2000: Added a story to the History section called "One Hung Up", about a bomb that wouldn't let go.
January 19, 2000: Added a page showing details about a video (and where to get it) that contains some Black Cat footage. It is accessible on my Videos page.
January 8, 2000: Added three more photo pages, and a whole batch of
photos (thanks to three days spent in the library of the San Diego Aerospace Museum),
and three logos to the site. Most of the new photos that did not come from books are
available as photo reprints from their library (for a small fee). If you are in San Diego,
make sure you stop by their museum and see their PBY Catalina on display.
December 29, 1999: Restructured the Photo pages, adding one page and about six
photos in the process. Added two paintings to the Painting page. Added three books to the
Resource page.
December 26, 1999: Added a page for where to find contacts for Black Cat
veterans.
November 28, 1999: Added the VP-12 logo to my Logos page, and two
viewer-contributed photos to Photo page #8.
October 1, 1999: Check out my weblinks page for a new link to a
website that has cut-away detailed photos of a PBY being restored at Pensacola. Very
nice! Also, there's a link to my new website about B-17s. Finally, I've added some
new visitor-contributed photos to Photo Page #8.
June 14, 1999: Another Black Cat veteran has joined the sponsor page. Thanks!
June 5, 1999: Posted three photos sent to me by VP-23 family member
Leslie La Brie.
June 1, 1999: I began looking for sponsors to help me pay my server bill. Two
Black Cat veterans have stepped forward so far, and I have listed them on a separate page
on this website. If you would like to join them in keeping this site online, please contact me.
May 20, 1999: Replaced the black and white VPB-34 squadron logo with a nice color version.
February 7, 1999: Added a photo page with my first color Black Cat photos; added the logo for VPB-23 to the Logo page.
February 1, 1999: added the logo for VPB-91 to the Logo page.
1998: website goes on-line.