DONE: F4F-4 Wildcat "13", VF-3, W. N. Leonard, USS Yorktown, Battle of Midway, GB

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Suffer from the same condition as me then Rich? Yorktownitus Obsessioniticus I think that it was called anyway, from that she was built until that she was sunk in '42. Have the same problem with Yorktown CV-10 and Coral Sea CV-43....

Am I right to believe that "Swede" Vejtasa's Dauntless should have "meatball" national markings while your dads Wildcat lacked the red dots in the star?
Thanks for your help, very appreciated it is!
 

Yorktownitus Obsessioniticus, yeah, the official name of the dreaded malady. And there is no cure.

Around my house, growing up, when one said "Yorktown" that meant CV-5. If you wanted to talk about the Essex class carrier of the same name, you said "CV-10". And no one ever, ever mentioned the later CG by the same name except for " . . . a cruiser, for God's sake, what have we come to."

Swede Vejtasa left Yorktown and VS-5 while all were at Tongatabu sorting things out and effecting interim repairs after the Battle of the Coral Sea. He, along with Jim Flatley (VF-42) and Fritz Faulkner (VS-5) rode back to the west coast with the Lexington survivors. His SBD would have, indeed, had the national insignia with red disks during the period of the actual Coral Sea battle, and don't forget the 13 alternating red white stripes on the rudders. All those red disks and stripe tails though went away in mid-May.

Here's trivia. When Lexington went back to Pearl Harbor after the Lae-Salamaua raid, Jimmie Thach's VF-3 "sold" three or four (I'm not bothering to look it up) of its F4F-3's to VF-42 to replace their losses from ditches due engine failures caused by clogged fuel lines. My father was one of the VF-42 pilots who went over to Lexington to ferry the planes back to Yorktown. His suffered a balky engine on the way back to Yorktown and, though he landed safely aboard, all wondered if these contributions were really such a good deal. Anyway, the F4Fs they got from Lexington served in the squadron through Coral Sea and the trip back to Pearl. They could always be readily identified because the original VF-42 F4F-3s had the regulation 13 alternating rudder stripes. The F4F-3s from Lexington had nine alternating stripes. Once the stripes went away in mid-May, they were all plain vanilla and you could no longer tell original complement from Lexington add-ons without a scorecard.

The only period photo I have of a VF-42 F4F-3 was taken in mid-February 1942 and shows only the front of the airplane as the subject of the photo was the squadron's pilots - all gaggled together in front of said F4F-3 - not the airplane.

Glad I contribute a bit.

Regards,

Rich
 
Thanks Rich, I know nothing about the PTO and what was on the site seemed to match the sparse info I had for the SBD units. But as the mantra goes about the net...be wary!
 
Great background info Rich. It's a real education for me, as I haven't really studied anything about the PTO, so thanks a lot for the introduction to the subject!
 
Believe me Rich, your contribution is more than welcome and tremendously appreciated, to say the least!

Thank You!

Edit: I'll have to start reffering to Yorktown CV-5 as Yorktown, the CV-10 as CV-10 etc then....
 
Been looking at the Yellow Wings decals for this one and Eduards "Zoom" set for the cockpit, just slowly and gently get into the etch "scene"...
 
Right, back in Glasgow and my to crates has been washed and both are now drying....
Don't have the interior colour, but Vallejo have in their Air series, so I'll order that and an few other things, I'll do the engine etc....
 
Hey Jan, I was just thinking, you may have to do a second wild cat. Im not 100% but I thought I read some where that Butch O Hara also flew a wild cat with the number 13 on the side. Might be worth looking into.
 
Wouldnt you know it. Same book reveiled these. From Osprey F4F wildcat aces. Maybe a wild cat fleet Jan!!!!
 

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