Carrier operations.....

Much appreciated FLYBOJ!

Max –

The entire period of the neutrality patrols was a mix and match of squadrons, Navy and Marine Corps, deploying on available Atlantic Fleet carriers. Even from your noted entry in the chronology there are VF-41, VS-41, and VS-42 from Ranger and VT-5 from Yorktown. Cruise ranged from a week to three weeks, sometimes more, in length and squadrons rotated through.

VF-42 went aboard Yorktown upon its return from the cruise you noted and stayed aboard as Yorktown's VF squadron. This was due to VF-5 going ashore for transition from F3Fs to F4Fs.

I'd have to drag out my Yorktown deployment data to list all the squadrons that served aboard Yorktown from her return to from the Pacific to the end of June.

I was shooting for the final fixed arrangement which was in place by the end of June.

Rich

Thanks for all your work Rich! I love reading it! Hopefully it won't be too long before we see a USS Yorktown active in the USN again....preferably a carrier!

DerAdlerIstGelandet said:

As Mike64 stated up there you would not be punished for a "true" accident. More than likely rewarded if you were able to bring the bird down good eneogh for everyone to survive.

When I was crewing helos in the Army and a "true" accident would happen it there was accident board to investigate and find out what happened. All crew members would have to "piss and bleed" to make sure there was no alcohol or drugs in our system and then as soon as the board was completed and everything was found to have been a "real" accident everyone was returned to flight status as soon as possible.

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Good point, chief; in these days, urine and blood testing are a big part of any incident. Back in the AJ days, and really up to the Vietnam era, such testing wasn't even in existence, as best I recall.

Once MJ hit the scene, it was a real struggle until we got urine testing figured out and used for evidence against a smoker. Of course, lots of other stuff out there now, but testing is routine and a great thing, in my opinion.

The smartest thing I ever saw was the CO of USS SARATOGA (CV-60); we did not have piss tests, but Chiefs, Petty Officers - all supervisors - pretty much knew who was using MJ, but it was real hard to bring him up with hard evidence, plus proof of "possession and intent". So ,the skipper just turned to everyone and said "Look, these little shits are hiding when they are doing stuff; most likely it's out on a sponson, in a void, something like that. SOOOooo they are smoking in an unauthorized space - a Courts Martial Offense on a ship. Write them up for that" - It cleared up the problem in a real hurry!!

They also made us controllers do the same in any incident .....

Ah man those are great pics if you have any on the Lexington or the Yorktown to give me that would be nice.

Captain of TEAL Squad in UNFROGIVEN

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Whats a "unfrogiven"?

Everyone has asked him that.

Mike64 said:

Good point, chief; in these days, urine and blood testing are a big part of any incident. Back in the AJ days, and really up to the Vietnam era, such testing wasn't even in existence, as best I recall.

Once MJ hit the scene, it was a real struggle until we got urine testing figured out and used for evidence against a smoker. Of course, lots of other stuff out there now, but testing is routine and a great thing, in my opinion.

The smartest thing I ever saw was the CO of USS SARATOGA (CV-60); we did not have piss tests, but Chiefs, Petty Officers - all supervisors - pretty much knew who was using MJ, but it was real hard to bring him up with hard evidence, plus proof of "possession and intent". So ,the skipper just turned to everyone and said "Look, these little shits are hiding when they are doing stuff; most likely it's out on a sponson, in a void, something like that. SOOOooo they are smoking in an unauthorized space - a Courts Martial Offense on a ship. Write them up for that" - It cleared up the problem in a real hurry!!

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I fortunatly never had to piss and bleed. Fortunatly for obvious accidents such as when we lost both engines they did not make us do it.

R Leonard said:

Max –
VF-42 went aboard Yorktown upon its return from the cruise you noted and stayed aboard as Yorktown's VF squadron. This was due to VF-5 going ashore for transition from F3Fs to F4Fs.

I'd have to drag out my Yorktown deployment data to list all the squadrons that served aboard Yorktown from her return to from the Pacific to the end of June.

I was shooting for the final fixed arrangement which was in place by the end of June.

Rich

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Rich,
thank You! Great inoformations as usual!
Were squadrons VB-5 and VS-5 getting SBDs instead of BTs and SBCs at the same time?
Looking at the deployments for Neutrality patrols , it seems that they weren't at sea for a pretty long time.

Max

Since there are talks about Fw 190 as a carrier born aircraft and what needs to be done to an airframe to suitable for that kinda hard work, I was wondering what was made to the Spitfire airframe to become the Seafire?

Were squadrons VB-5 and VS-5 getting SBDs instead of BTs and SBCs at the same time?
Looking at the deployments for Neutrality patrols , it seems that they weren't at sea for a pretty long time.

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Max -

I really should avoid doing things from memory, it just isn't quite what it used to be . . .

Try this . . .

USS Yorktown Atlantic Fleet Activities 1941

Arrived in Bermuda from PacFlt on 12 May 1941.
Aboard were VB-5 (BT-1), VF-5 (F3F-3), VS-5 (SBC-3), and VT-5 (TBD-1)

Departed Bermuda 23 May 1941
Aboard were VF-41 (F4F-3), VS-41 (SB2U-2), and VT-5
(VB-5, VF-5, and VS-5 were transferred to Ranger for transport to Norfolk)
Patrolled east approaching the Cape Verde Islands cruising some 4550 miles.
Air Group logged 1200 flight hours.

Arrived Norfolk NOB on 14 June 1941

Departed Norfolk NOB on 29 June.
Aboard were VF-42 (F4F-3), VS-41, VMO-1 (SBC-4), and VMS-1 det. (SB2U-3)
(VT-5 ashore; VB-5, VS-5, and VF-5 beginning transitions to new aircraft)
Patrolled 5030 miles, 1190 flight hours.

Arrived Norfolk 13 July 1941

Departed Norfolk 30 July 1941
Aboard were VF-42, VS-41, VT-5
Patrolled 3998 miles, 842 flight hours

Arrived Bermuda 10 August 1941

Departed Bermuda 15 August 1941
Same air group
Patrolled 4064 miles 1188 flight hours

Arrived Bermuda 27 August 1941

Departed Bermuda 29 August 1941
Same air group
Patrolled south short of Trinidad in search of suspected German cruiser

Arrived Norfolk NOB 6 September 1941

- An aside . . . my parents were married in Norfolk on 13 September. Amongst those in attendance were Capt Buckmaster, Comdr Arnold, and the pilots of VF-42.

Departed Norfolk 16 September 1941
Aboard were VB-5 (SBD-2, -3), VF-42, and VT-5
(VS-5 detached service at Army war games)
Transited to Casco Bay, Newfoundland

Arrived Casco Bay 22 September 1941 and operated locally.

Departed Casco Bay on 25 October 1941
Same air group
(VS-5 now operating SBD-3s out of Quonset Point NAS, Rhode Island)
Convoy duty, escorted eastbound convoy code named "Cargo" to the MOMP and exchanged for westbound Convoy CT-5.

Arrived Casco Bay on 9 November 1941

Operated locally from 10 November to 29 November 1941

Departed Casco Bay on 30 November 1941
Transit to Norfolk

Arrived Norfolk NOB on 2 December 1941

Departed Norfolk NOB on 16 December 1941 for the Pacific
Aboard were VB-5 (18 SBD-3), VF-42 (18 F4F-3), VS-5 (19 SBD-3), and VT-5 (15 TBD-1)
Also aboard for transportation were a cargo of 1 SBD-1, 4 SBD-2, 4 SBD-3, 6 F4F-3A and 14 F4F-3.

Best I can do.

Rich

1328: VT 124, Bu #23539 [a General Motors TBM-3 Avenger], pilot, LT(JG) C.R. Dean, 298954, and crewmen F.J. Blake, ARM3c, and D.E. Zima, AOM2c, made a normal landing and taxied forward. As the plane reached a point abreast the island a violent explosion occurred, believed to have been caused by the detonation of two (2) 500 lb. bombs adrift in the plane's bomb bay.

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Hancock was the TF-38 flag at the time. If you look at the port side of the island you can see damage to the galleries overlooking the flight deck adjacent to flag plot. I'd have to look it up, but there were quite a few staff casualties, including deaths, from this accident.

Jimmy Thach, the TF-38 operations officer, had just ducked below the splinter shielding to light a cigarette as the TBM was taxiing forward. He was still below the shield when the plane went up. He was unhurt, but at least one of those standing next to him was killed.

My father, Thach's assistant, had just stepped into the flag plot head which placed an armored communications trunk between him and the gallery; he had just left Thach's side after showing him a dispatch. He told me that in all probability he would not have been in the gallery, anyway, as he did not make a practice of watching flight deck operations, but delivering the message could have been bad if he worked the sequence the other way.

Where the bombs went off was right above the staff offices and cabins located beneath the flight deck.

The damage to their working spaces and personnel losses necessitated the staff transferring off Hancock and they'd moved on within 24 hours.

Rich

Thank you very much Rich! Personally I'd say that William G. Roy's photos from USS Yorktown at the battle of Coral Sea and Midway are just famous the photo of the Marines raising the Stars and Stripes on Mount Suribachi...



Brazos (AO-4) refueling Yorktown (CV-5) mid-Pacific, July 1940.

I was told this was the first time two fleet carriers were together in Pearl Harbor since the attack!

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Pearl Harbor? You've been had by a fleet myth.

I've a photo around here somewhere taken from USS Enterprise on 6 February 1942 that shows Yorktown entering the harbor. In the background with her funnel showing over Yorktown's flight deck is Saratoga.



Rich

R Leonard said:

Pearl Harbor? You've been had by a fleet myth.

I've a photo around here somewhere taken from USS Enterprise on 6 February 1942 that shows Yorktown entering the harbor. In the background with her funnel showing over Yorktown's flight deck is Saratoga.



Rich

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Thanks for straightening me out Rich -

BTW when both boats were there the place was a zoo. 5,000 drunken sailors and marines running around the beach area. Saturday night looked like the old movie "1941."

R Leonard said:

- An aside . . . my parents were married in Norfolk on 13 September. Amongst those in attendance were Capt Buckmaster, Comdr Arnold, and the pilots of VF-42.

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Rich, Your family was really inside the history that is read on books.
I don't have the exact words in english to express myself, I hope you get the concept.

And ... Thanks for the answer.

Max

Carrier landing lights too! Might surprise you. But surely the toughest condiitions ever for carrier landings were in the Arctic on the run to Murmansk in December and January february of '44-45. Flying 500 miles north of the arctic circle in wildcats on a carrier 490 feet long and 68 feet wide! Junkers and U-boats and 70-100mile per hour winds!!!!!

A few more photos gents.....


Crash landing of F6F-3, Number 30 of Fighting Squadron Two (VF-2), into the carrier's port side 20mm gun gallery, 10 November 1943. Lieutenant Walter L. Chewning, Jr., USNR, the Catapult Officer, is climbing up the plane's side to assist the pilot from the burning aircraft. The pilot, Ensign Byron M. Johnson, escaped without significant injury. Enterprise was then en route to support the Gilberts Operation. Note the plane's ruptured belly fuel tank.



F6F Hellcat fighters taxiing forward on the flight deck, during training exercises, 2 July 1943. Another F6F is in flight overhead, with its landing gear and tail hook extended.


Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat fighters landing on USS Enterprise (CV-6) after strikes on the Japanese base at Truk, 17-18 February 1944. Flight deck crewmen are folding planes' wings and guiding them forward to the parking area. The original caption gives date as 16 February.


Guadalcanal Invasion, August 1942 ordnancemen of Scouting Squadron Six (VS-6) load a 500 pound demolition bomb on an SBD scout bomber on the flight deck of USS Enterprise (CV-6), during the first day of strikes on Guadalcanal and Tulagi, 7 August 1942.
Note aircraft's landing gear and bomb crutch; also bomb cart and hoist.

Lucky13 said:

Guadalcanal Invasion, August 1942 ordnancemen of Scouting Squadron Six (VS-6) load a 500 pound demolition bomb on an SBD scout bomber on the flight deck of USS Enterprise (CV-6), during the first day of strikes on Guadalcanal and Tulagi, 7 August 1942.
Note aircraft's landing gear and bomb crutch; also bomb cart and hoist.

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The top of the photo says 7 august 1944 ????

Max