Carrier operations.....

[renrich]

When I knew Swope would have been in about 85-86 and I remember that he had been trying to get this venture going for some time. I don't think he ever got it off the ground. The homebuilding business was beginning to go tits up during that time period(which was what I had been doing for many years) and it is amazing what a discussion about mining for gold will do to one's imagination. There is no question that a quantity of microscopic gold exists in the Mancos Shale but the question is the process to extract it and whether it is economic. This would have been a strip mining proposition.

 

[renrich]

Would VF11 still be operating Wildcats in April 43 or would they have switched to Corsairs(assuming they were operating from land bases)? I did ask Swope whether the carrier landing was more difficult in a Wildcat than in a modern jet of the 80s. He said it was much more difficult in the 40s.

 

[R Leonard]

VF-11 was one of the last VF's to take the F4F into action. The other was VF-21. Both operated out of Cactus I. The word was that they had plenty of airplanes because no one else was using them. VF-11 had 45 F4Fs at one point and, towards the end of its tour, VF-21 had something like 54. Not sure how many pilots VF-21 had, but VF-11 had as many as 40.

VF-11 had so many airplanes that its pilots generally flew their assigned airplanes rather than simply what was available, a rarity in naval aviation. For example, between 26 April and 12 July 43 my father flew 46 of 49 missions in b/n 11895, the other three were in b/n 12080. Of the three in 12080, one was on 10 May and two were on 19 June. 140.5 hours total combat flying, 132 of them in the same plane.

Again, I can't tell what was going on in VF-21, but in VF-11 they were well aware that the Marines were much better off in their F4U-1s. And, from all sources, they did not want to share. The VF-11 types were exposed to the F6F when they staged back through Espiritu Santo on their way home and ran into VF-33 on its way out. At least some of them got some time in with the Hellcats. The first F6F in my father's log appears during this time. The first F4U does not show up until 3 November 1943 when he takes up b/n 17551 while assigned as Fighter Training Officer at ComFAirWest out of North Island.

VF-11 rotated back state-side in mid-July 43, VF-21 in late August. They were the last F4F VF squadrons to face enemy aircraft.

Other F4Fs went out in VC squadrons aboard CVEs in the Tarawa operation, but that was their last combat fling and they had no air-to-air action. By the end October 43, even on the CVEs, F4Fs had been replaced as an active service aircraft by FM-1s which, in turn would be gradually replaced by the FM-2.

Regards.

Rich

 

[Lucky13]

Thanks a bunch Rich....

 

[Udet]

Sea Control Ships = Lots of small Aircraft Carriers

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

That whole website is just crap in my opinion.

 

[spadguy]

In Japan all the taxi drivers needed to hear was "43 boat". It worked

 

[pbfoot]

Found these pics and was curious if there are other pics of a wet launch which is new word to me it was taken on the HMCS Bonaventure time and date unknown sorry about quality . The aircraft is a Grumman Tracker and note the crew scrambling