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 VPB-54 squadron's 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. Mantaray'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 came across, then 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, but could not because the full-on kamikaze assault was underway. Locke and his fellow gunner try shooting as many down as they can, but were running low on ammo fast. As they are about to force a take off, a trio of kamikaze Zeros flies at the Catalina head on at 12 o' clock. Right there Locke runs out of ammo, but in a deus ex machina, a trio of F4U Corsairs, callsign "Havok 26" flew overhead, shooting down the inbound Zeros, while the rest of the Corsairs squadron start clearing the sky of any remaining 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 would not 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.
 * It is recommended to take down the PT Boats before saving the sailors, as this will lead to the death of the survivor you're pulling out and your life.
 * Booth will call out which direction the Zeros are coming from. At the bow turret, he will say something like "12 O'clock!" or "3 o'clock!". He means the direction of the numbers of the clock. When he says 12 o'clock, he means the top side of the screen. When he says 3, he means the right. When he says 9, he means the left. He will only say "Six" when you have to get to the ventral turret, since that is the only turret that can attack that direction.
 * The 20mm cannons in the bow turret can be very useful for eliminating large groups of Japanese soldiers on the Merchant ships due to the large amount of splash damage. Targeting the fuel tanks and ammunition also has the same effect.
 * Holding down the buttons for the 20mm and nose turret guns helps getting easier kills, both while attacking the ships and the Zero Planes.

Xbox 360 and PS3 Trophies/Achievements

 * One Bad Gato is achieved when finishing the level on Veteran difficulty, worth 30Gamerscore.png 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 15Gamerscore.png 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 10Gamerscore.png on the Xbox 360 and a bronze trophy on the PlayStation 3.

Trivia
Locke's PBY seems to be undermanned as it has only two gunners to man four positions, and on the other PBY one can see both side turrets and the rear gun firing simultaniously, meaning it has at least three gunners. A possible explanation for this is that, like on the B-17, the radio operator would man a gun position in combat, though Landry never leaves the radio.
 * Waterwar.png is possible to be killed by a grenade landing inside the plane when playing on Veteran.
 * Originally in this mission there was radar and plane parts health indicators.
 * The model used on the survivor looks similar to Daniel Clarke
 * 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 just like Vendetta, instead it skips onto the next level, Blowtorch & Corkscrew.
 * 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 the player can rescue seven sailors, when this happens Landry will not say a thing when Booth asks how many the player 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 cannot 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 is not available for the Wii version of the game. This is because the Wii would not be able to render all the Polygons used in this level.
 * 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.
 * One of the rarest glitches 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 the player listens closely the F4U Corsair pilot sounds exactly like the radio operator from "Little Resistance" and "Breaking Point".
 * When the player is ordered to seal the back hatch, if you pay attention you can see holes which is interesting because when the PBY lands on the water the plane should be taking on water.
 * It is possible to complete this mission without saving any sailors.
 * The player can also still complete this mission without sinking all three merchant ships.
 * 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).
 * In Black Ops, On "Five" there is an image of Black Cats. The caption says "Battle Of Midway" This is odd, considering that the Battle Of Midway never involved PBY Black Cats and the mission takes part during the Battle of Okinawa, which occurred 3 years after Midway.
 * "One Bad Gato" could also possibly refer to the Gato-class submarine, notorious for excelling at hunting merchant ships during WWII.

It also seems like the guns are pack-a-punched due to the red bullets