Black Cats

"Okay people. The fleet still needs our help. Anyone wanna back out...? ...didn't think so."

- Booth

Black Cats is a level in Call of Duty: World at War. It is the 11th level of the campaign. This is the most unique level in the game, as the player is the gunner of a PBY Catalina, or a Black Cat. The player will start off fighting enemy merchant ships resupplying the enemy on Okinawa until the radio operator gets a distress call that the fleet has been hit by a massive kamikaze attack.

Walkthrough
The mission starts as two PBY Catalina planes - callsigns "Hammerhead" and "Manta Ray" - discover a Japanese merchant fleet, and receive orders to open fire. Once within range, Petty Officer Locke fires upon the merchant fleet, causing explosions that reveal the fleet to be carrying weapons. After several passes, the fleet sinks. Manta Ray's radio officer, Landry, informs the crew that the nearby US Fleet has been attacked en route to Okinawa. The two planes start towards the reported location of the fleet, but are ambushed by Japanese Zeros, and Hammerhead is shot down. From here Manta Ray continues towards the fleet and lands in the water. Fighting against both PT Boats and Zeros, Locke also must rescue the sailors floating in the water. Once the PT Boats are destroyed and a number of sailors have been rescued, the Catalina prepares for takeoff, although it is under heavy fire from Zeros. Locke and his fellow gunner try shooting as many down as they can, but are running low on ammo. As they are about to take off, a trio of kamikaze Zeros flies at the Catalina head on at 12 o' clock. Locke runs out of ammo, but mere moments later, a trio of F4U Corsairs fly overhead, shooting down the inbound Zeros. From here the battered Catalina takes off, and the mission ends.

Tips

 * When fighting with the fleet, destroy the PT Boats before shooting at the Zeros, as the Zeros do not pay attention to the player usually, as they will focus on the American ship fleet.
 * On harder difficulties, it wouldn't be beneficial to rescue the survivors when under attack, as PT Boats may appear while Locke is pulling someone in, and can cause disorientation to their location, and eventually death.
 * Booth will call out which direction the Zeros are coming from.

Xbox 360 and PS3 Trophies/Achievements

 * One Bad Gato is achieved when finishing the level on Veteran difficulty, worth 30G on the Xbox 360 and a bronze trophy on the Playstation 3.
 * The Sum of All Zeros is achieved when downing 45 Japanese Zeros in 'Black Cats', worth 15G on the Xbox 360 and a silver trophy on the Playstation 3.
 * Lights Out! is achieved when destroying all the spotlights in the Japanese merchant fleet, worth 10G on the Xbox 360 and a bronze trophy on the Playstation 3.
 * Savior is achieved by rescuing all survivors.

Trivia

 * It is odd how the level takes place on April 3, 1945 but the invasion of Okinawa took place on April 1, 1945 and they say they are defending the invasion fleet.
 * When moving from one gun to the other inside the PBY Catalina a few real American World War II propaganda posters on the walls can be seen.
 * This mission is not available on co-op.
 * The Japanese "merchant vessels" are flagged as warships, flying the IJN ensign from their stern instead of the merchant ensign.
 * When the player is on the right turret, looking at the far right, Laughlin on the back turret can be seen. But when changing to left turret he suddenly pops to the left turret area.
 * "Gato" is the Spanish and Portuguese word for "cat" in reference to the Catalinas being known as "Cats".
 * If the player shoots at one of the merchant ships when it's going up, it will go down after the player shoots at it.
 * Realistically. The PBY Catalina would not be able to withstand a Zero attack of that magitude. They were used only as rescue craft and realistically the Catalina would have been bursting into flames within 1 minute of the merchant ship attack.
 * This level is also historically innacurate by the fact the player is flying in a PBY at all. By this point they had all been replaced by the PB4Y a Navy version of the U.S. Army Air Core's B-24 Bomber.
 * There is a rare glitch when the player rescues a sailor, the view changes to looking down the doorways to the cockpit. The player will still rescue the sailor but can't see him or anything else interesting.
 * Another rare glitch is when saving a sailor, the player would pick up a M1 Garand as per the action button. However it cannot be used in anyway or affects the game.
 * This level isn't available for the Wii version of the game, and neither is Nacht der Untoten.
 * Even though this level is not available in the Wii version, the audio for this level can be heard in the credits.
 * Even before the player's plane goes into battle, there are already bullet holes in the cockpit's glass.
 * This level is one of the easiest to beat on Veteran difficulty, as the player does not face much direct fire, checkpoints are close together, and it is very short, making this easy to beat.
 * In the side turret, when looking at the tail wing, there should be a blinking white light.
 * Many players consider this level to be an equivalent of the Call of duty 4 mission Death From Above.