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 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 "Mantaray" - 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 is destroyed. Manta Ray's radio officer, Landry, informs the crew that the nearby US Fleet has been attacked on 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.

Trivia

 * Originally in this mission there was radar and plane parts health indicators.
 * 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. A likely explanation for this is that the IJN may have requisitioned the ships for military use.
 * 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.
 * Although VERY rare you can rescue seven sailors, when this happens Landry will not say a thing when Booth asks how many you rescued.
 * When on the .30 cal rear gun, fellow plane "Hammerhead" will come into view and will tell the player to "watch your fire". He will say this every time, even if the player does not use the rear gun at all.
 * "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.
 * 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 outside of the plane.
 * Another rare glitch is when saving a sailor, the player picks up a M1 Garand with the action button. However, it cannot be used and has no effect on the game.
 * No matter how much ammo one wastes or saves in the end of the mission, the gun will always run out of ammo at the same time.
 * This level isn't available for the Wii version of the game.
 * It is also not available in Call of Duty: World at War: Final Fronts.
 * 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.
 * The rarest glitch in the game is a Banzai charger in the water swimming around, and yelling "Banzai" at the same time. A Japanese PT boat will crush him when it comes by. If the player destroys the boat before it can kill him, he will simply sink.
 * When Hammerhead is destroyed one can notice that the starboard wing flies past narrowly missing the plane, but if the player watches Hammerhead as the plane falls out of the sky, at the last second it's starboard wing magically reappears.
 * In the ending if you listen closely the F4U Corsair pilot sounds exactly like the radio operator from "Little Resistance" and "Breaking Point".
 * It is possible to complete this mission without saving any sailors.


 * Many players consider the "Sum of all Zeroes" to be the most difficult trophy/achievement to achieve in World at War, this is ironic considering this level is overall very easy (even on Veteran mode).