FOUND!!! USS Lexington (CV-2)

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buffnut453

Captain
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Jul 25, 2007
Cambridgeshire, England
This may be old news to folks but the video and image are just too good not to share:




Note the VF-3 "Felix the Cat" emblem and the 4 kill markings on the F4F-3. Also the pre-May 1942 red centres to the national markings and the white 'F-5' airframe code. The video also has a nice clip, albeit a bit distant of a TBD Devastator in similar markings.

The following came from Wikipedia:
On 5 March 2018, the research vessel RV Petrel, in a search led by billionaire Paul Allen, discovered the wreck of Lexington during an expedition to the Coral Sea. The ship lies nearly 2 miles (3,200 m) below the surface and 500 miles off the coast of Eastern Australia. An ROV confirmed the identity of the wreck by finding the nameplate on the stern. The ship lies in three sections. The main section lies upright. A mile to the west, the bow and stern sections lie across from each other, with the bridge lying by itself between the three sections. Further to the west, a concentration of aircraft comprising seven Devastators, three Dauntlesses, and a single Wildcat was also located.
 
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Clearly F-5 is wearing VF-3 markings but Lexington had VF-2 embarked at the time of the battle. At least one source indicates that a number of VF-3 Wildcats were transferred to VF-2 immediately prior to the battle. Perhaps F-5 was one of those and was never went through a markings change to VF-2 standard...which might imply that the kill markings pre-dates Coral Sea? 'Fraid my knowledge of USN aerial combats isn't great so this speculation could be way off the mark.
 
Mine's a bit sketchy as well, where's Mr. Leonard when you need him?
 
When I get some free time tonight, I intend to dig out my reference material and records regarding the F4F-3. A couple of points that I recall off the top of my head.
VF-3 had taken VF-2's spot aboard Lex from mid-January until mid-April as VF-2 rid itself of the Brewster F2A-3s it started the war with. The navy had stripped the three USMC squadrons that were operating F4F-3s of aircraft in order to supplement the carrier based VF and also re-equip VF-2 with the better platform. VF-2 originally received a large number of F4F-3As and trained with them while Lex was in the South Pacific. But the navy recognized that the standard F4F-3 was better suited than the F4F-3A (equipped with a P&W R-1830-96 and single stage supercharger) and decided to make sure VF-2 had the better version before sailing in mid-April. This caused a major re-shuffling of assets at the last moment. VMF-212 had started taking VF-3's aircraft as that squadron started receiving F4F-4s, but had to turn right around and swap them for VF-2's F4F-3As. So VF-2 sailed with F4F-3s that had been with VF-3 and then VMF-212 for a few days and it appears that F-5 did not have the VF-3 insignia removed, not to mention the kill markings that had been applied.

As for the kill markings, they may have been applied for the photo shoots that VF-3 did for public relations purposes. Whether F-5 was actually credited with being the mount in which 4 aerial victories were credited to is possible. But we also know that F-15 was the aircraft O'Hare flew on his historic mission but the public relations photo shoot has him in F-3, so proceed with caution. It also appears that F-5 has been renumbered at some point as the paint under the number 5 appears darker, but that is only an unscientific observation on my part. I know that it has been posted elsewhere that F-5 was BuNo 4009 and it very well may be, hopefully they took some close-up photos of the rudder and vertical stab and we will know for sure.

Looking forward to more.

BW
 
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I've been doing some research on the Coral Sea battle. There's not nearly as much on it as there on Midway. I have two books as yet unread, "The First Team" about USN fighter combat in early 1942 and "No Greater Honor" about the USS Yorktown.

At Midway the TBD's were all but wiped out and did no real damage to the IJN. But at Coral Sea no TBD's were lost and they got some hits. The difference was that at Coral Sea they sent four F4F's in close with the TBD's. They lost all the F4F's but no TBD's. At Midway some genius decided to keep all the F4F's up high rather than sending any down low to cover the TBD's. The result was the majority of F4F's never engaged the enemy. The Hornet F4F's stayed with the SBD's, never made it to the combat area over the IJN and a number ran out of fuel and ditched. When VT-8 broke off from the course they had been ordered to fly and flew what Lt Cmdr John Waldron thought was the correct one to find the IJN fleet, they did so without fighter cover and were spotted and reported on by an IJN floatplane on the way. The Yorktown F4F's stayed up high, waiting for a radio call to come down and help, never heard a call, did not aid the TBD's or SBD's, and ended up recovering at Midway.

The Lady Lex was lost at Coral Sea when they turned off the nitrogen inerting blanket, unaware that fumes from broken avgas tanks were leaking into a generator room. The result was a FAE deep in the bowels of the ship. She was in pretty good shape, the damage being controlled, but when that went off, it was all over.
 
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BiffF15 said:
I think the depth has something to do with it, or to be more precise there might be less oxygen at that depth to encourage oxidation / degradation.
Click to expand...
Agreed, that and the temp being rather low, you should see some of the stuff on the bottom of the Great Lakes ( fresh water ), some shipwrecks are remarkably well preserved. A friend of mine dove on a wooden propeller steamer that sank around 1900 and the wiring for the electric lights was still intact. Amazing... creepy, but still pretty amazing.
 
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